In Sincere Introspection.: of New Year's and Well Wishes

2013 is a done deal. And as always, I feel very much incomplete without thinking about how the year has made it's impact on me. With a couple of milestones this year, I must say that 2013 has been a rather fulfilling one. However I'm lying if I said it feels right. It somehow doesn't. I suppose it's a combination of a few things. For one, the year didn't leave me time to pause and think and I followed along, not doing much that made a difference to anything. And I can feel a different side of me emerging. I guess you could say that it's probably normal.

Since the last post, much has happened. I ORDed - finally after what seemed like eternity. Travelled to Gold Coast with a couple of mates from my unit. Travelled to the US West Coast for 3 weeks over the New Year, and more importantly, I completed my US college applications (a dreadful 3 months it has been). so glad to finally get it off my chest. I can finally do stuff and not be flummoxed by the idea of having essays to edit, proofread and entertaining the idea that "hey, that sentence could be rephrased in a better way" or "you could totally express this idea better" but as always, the results are always elusive no matter.

I applied to 8 schools in total: 1. U of Washington (safety), 2. UC Berkeley (choice) 3. UCLA 4. Cornell (on par with UC Berkeley but hey, it's Ivy League) 5. U of Illinois 6. U of Michigan 7. NYU 8. Georgia Institute of Technology (not sure about the location, in Atlanta, Georgia)

If Cornell accepted me, I think I will burst out in like a rainbow of happiness and joy and sprinkle rainbow stardust onto the entire world. It's that bad. Fingers crossed as results of decisions will be made known between Mid Feb to Mid March. Much questions, much uncertainty.

As for now, I'm probably going to start work in Feb. Travel to Frankfurt, with my parents on business in April. Have no idea what I'm going to be doing as of now. A little excited. Since most of my friends who have ORDed have already started working. I'm such a bum.

Last Saturday was one of the better Saturdays I've had in awhile. Started the day at 9am at the Macpherson Tuition Project. But we weren't doing any teaching. Instead, we would be packing CNY goodie bags - containing basic food stuff like noodles, canned food, some essentials like tooth brushes etc. for the residents in the nearby Circuit Road area. Pretty much all rental flats there, which entails small 1-room flats. Some of our students are from the area as well. We gave out flyers door to door and gave out the CNY goodie bags to many of the residents. The lot of us split up into small groups of two and went door to door, from the 16th floor down. It was tiring, but it was really satisfying and fruitful. To see the conditions that many of these residents were living in, you think twice again when you say "Singapore has hardly any poor people". It's a sad fact indeed. The success of our government's public housing initiative with the HDB has tucked many of these families away from sight. I've heard of small 1 room flats with up to 10 inhabitants every once in a while. But to see at least 3 or 4 of these families living in such abysmal conditions really saddens me. I wish I could do more to help. It's rather unsettling at times. As pardoxical as it sounds, i felt a sense of pride that at least I could help in some way - encouraging the children of these families to come for our tuition program on Saturdays would help in some way.

Right before we set of on our distribution!

Ended it off when we gave out all the goodie bags and flyers and I rushed off to catch Laneway 2014. First time at the Gardens By the Bay. Weather was unusually and exceptionally good. Cool though slightly hot (but still cooler than most days) in the afternoon. Josiah and I had an idea to put an ice box in my car and dump cans of beer into it so we could save up on the expensive Stella that was going for 8 bucks. It worked wonders for us as we managed to sneak in our cans rather easily. The atmosphere was really really chill. Live music, chilling on the lawn, relaxing on our picnic mats, beer in hand. Once in a while we would head down to the crown nearer to the stage to actively listen to the performance. We did for Frightened Rabbit and Jezabels whom we kinda knew but werent really into. Then came the highlight of Laneway for me and Josiah, SP and Ben. Daughter followed by Chvrches. Daughter was kinda off, though they were good and they played Candles!! I felt their music was more suited for the Esplanade. Sit and listen kind of sound. But nonetheless a good performance. Haim was surprisingly good live and I totally enjoyed their set even though I was jostling to get a better position for Chvrches that was to come on next.

When Chvrches came out, I went nuts. They started with We Sink, definitely one of my favourite songs and went on to play 80% of their album. Love Lauren, she's so cute and tiny and her voice is, so innocently pure. I definitely recommend Chvrches as one of the bands to watch out for. Go Listen!! Definitely following them.

Chvrches performing at Laneway 2014 at Gardens by the Bay

Speaking about music, 2013 was a rather significant year for me in terms of Music. Tastes evolved quite a fair bit, and I went on to experiment with some new music. I must say it paid off handsomely and I loved what I found. So i'm just going to list down the top few new bands for 2013: 1. Phoenix 2. Chvrches 3. The Royal Concept 4. Alt-J 5. Daughter 6. Vampire Weekend.