first and foremost

It's been exactly a week since i touched down montreal, but it seems that so much has happened! Well, this's the very first time im gonna be away for home for so long, and i guess i'll never be able to forget this experience. (:

I used to see loads of ppl walking arnd in the airport alone when i worked in dfs. Finally got my chance to understand how they feel, when i first stepped into the terminal after my sendoff, alone. To me, it was kinda like a sign of independence. At that point of time, i thought to myself "okay this is it!" I never had problems with taking planes, cuz i was always with my family or friends. But this was my first ever time i boarded it by myself. That also marked the start of my exchange program. From all the researching and crazy mapping of modules, to the submission of application, the interview and then the approval.. Til now, im still really glad and thankful that im given a chance for this exchange. One week into my stay here, i truly understood the feeling of being all alone in a faraway land. Okay, maybe i wasnt all alone, cuz thanks alot to my housemates for the company, but the feeling sucks when the night falls and u realised that ur really just so faraway from your friends and loved ones. Now i truly understand the meaning of "stepping out of your comfort zone" (:



Seattle was a nice place. Busy port and hectic downtown, just like any other city. But it also has it's greenery and the suburb area. My stay was made wonderful thanks to yixuan's aunt and her family who made me feel really at home. Their neighbourhood was so quiet and peaceful. Visited places like downtown seattle, Leavenworth, their community library and their annual state park. Shopped quite a bit here and there too. Nordstrom rack rocks! (: Haha had lotsa fun in all the places there and i guess the pictures would tell them all. Spent alot of my time there with yx's young cousins, Nathan and Nicole and hanging out with them allowed me to have a taste of life as an ang-moh kid. (: their family's quite cool! Parents are singaporeans but spent their undergrad years in US and thus decided to settle down in US. The way they chose to bring up their children is also pretty much the angmoh way and thus the children totally speak and think like the Caucasians, though they totally look chinese! oh and they dislike tofu and steamed fish, but love spore's roti prata and hainanese chicken rice! (: cute huh.



Montreal is an awesome place!! (: super happening downtown but peaceful suburb too. Had been out every single day since i reached. Fell in love with this place.. Spent one whole day walking around with yixuan. They say that the best way to tour Montreal is by foot. True indeed. Loved that random day. We took a train down and randomly stopped at Peel, one of the stations downtown, randomly took a bus which happened to bring us to Old Montreal. Beautiful placee! Nice old architecture and interesting stalls along the streets. Heard it's even better at night. Looks like i've got more places to go when im bored after school! (: After some leisure walk and a quick bite at my fav Tim Hortons, we walked down and saw the road that led us to Chinatown! Had my long craved bubble tea which tasted SUPER GOOD! think that guy ice blended the milk and the tea. can try that when i get back! there were some sightings of durian too! muahahah. but were fex. :(





Oh have i mentioned that Montreal is famous for their strip clubs? haha not sure how true it is, but definitely worth checking them out one of these days! :P (shh dun tell mummy) LOL.

Some friends from toronto came up to Montreal, so brought them arnd and explored Mcgill campus. It's one of the top twenty colleges around the world and the best college in Canada! Worth taking a tour round the campus and taking pictures! heh. Oh, and we tried the Montreal's famous smoked meat and poutine. Super nice! (: *slurps!






AND I WENT SIXFLAGSS!! (: there's only one sixflags branch in canada and thank goodness it happened to be in Montreal! haha spent the entire day in there and totally enjoyed myself! have always wanted to go one since young when my dad told me bout it. tried the legendary ride that takes us through consecutive plunges. wasnt as scary as described, but the few-seconds-view was spectacular and the entire ride was simply awesome. the other few rides worth mentioning are Boomerang and Vampire! (: None of us threw up at the end of the day, and it was definitely an unforgettable experience! (:







haha Canada's labour day was spent jetboating. Was actually planned to do whitewater rafting but we went late! So had to made do with jetboating on a later timing. Were initially quite disappointed cuz we thought that rafting would be so much more fun, and that i've tried it in NZ alr. Turned out that jetboating on the rapids along St Lawrence River was super good! We encountered Class 5 (the highest class!) rapids. The water level went up so high and plunged down on us, and left us all totally soaked to the skin. The adventure we had with the longtail boat at Krabi to Ao Nang during the storm was nth compared to this man. Im so glad the jetboat or any of us didnt capsize. The faraway view of downtown Montreal from the river was splendid too. Clouds were super nice high up in the sky, and the sun casted flashes of rainbow on the splashes of water from the sides of the jetboat. That day felt so good, and we'll never ever get that back in spore. A pity couldnt bring camera up. There were many kayakers, jetboaters and surfers trying out the rapids too. I guess there's other side of the world that we've never seen before (:





wow okay i think i've written long enough. that should briefly sum up my adventures for the first week in this faraway land. shall keep more updates in the next post!