6 July 2014
I’m back to Singapore again. This time, to start another year of being a student at NTU.
The previous month has been a tiring one of traveling, studying, and suffering.
I and my family went to Toronto, Canada to visit my brother, who is currently doing PhD there, and we all went for a vacation around there. The routes are: Toronto, Washington DC, Baltimore, New York City, Boston, Portland (Maine), Albany (NY), Montreal, Ottawa, and finally Toronto. We visited landmarks, museums, a library, universities, markets, and shopping centers; including University of Toronto, Niagara Falls, CN Tower, the White House, Lincoln Memorial, Smithsonian Institution Natural History Museum, Smithsonian Institution Air and Space Museum, Enoch Pratt Free Library, Lexington Market, Central Park, Liberty Statue, Greenwich Village, United Nations Headquarter, Harvard, MIT, churches of Montreal, McGill University, and Canadian Parliament.
That’s it for the traveling part, I studied because of me joining Awaken Challenge 2014, representing NTU Buddhist Society, alongside with Yan Xiang, Aryani, and Stephen. In my travel, well I spent every night reading the book titled “The Buddha and His Teachings” by Ven. Narada and the book is deep about Buddhism especially Theravada Buddhism. Back to Singapore, where we had some meetings and preparations, I then focused on passing the preliminary round by revising on the book “Buddhism for Beginners”, since we were required to answer the questions individually. Luckily I did not messed up and we went to the semi-finals and then finals, where we won thanks to Yan Xiang, Aryani, and Stephen, also the coaches: Andy, Benny, Chun Wah, Dhika, and Raymond; and the supporters: Si Hui, Ivan, Xin Wen, and Ze Yong.
And for the suffering part, the CNS Logistics things were not settled yet. The uncertainties and waiting and unavailability to act makes everything more complex. Now I’m back here in Singapore to start and try settling the things. May CNS be well run and not be messed up by me.
Well, I’m back in Singapore. Let’s hope I can survive another year at NTU.