I feel nostalgic. But then I realize I have to study.

With only one and a half weeks left of lectures before exams, it's crunch time now. Projects and labs are overlapping as everyone strives to get everything done on time and properly.

For myself, on the purely academic side of things, I have an image processing project and lab, digital control lab, 4th year design project and of course final exam prep to contend with.

Here we go... second last push of its kind till the end.

Calendars are such useful tools for keeping your life organized. But only if you remember to enter every little thing you need to do...

I just missed my ANTH 102 midterm because I didn't enter it into my calendar.

So it's been nearly two weeks since returning from Singapore. Adjusting back in terms of culture and what not hasn't been too big of an issue considering that as far as Asian countries go, Singapore is pretty modernized. I mean, it's cleaner than Toronto.

Things are of course different now. New house, and new faces. Heck even Oakville Transit is changed their bus routes last week.

I had been busying myself with unpacking and cleaning my room last week, and should have been working on my work report over the past week. On top of the work report, however, the next few days will also find me busied with gathering whatever provisions I need for returning to Waterloo. I will be moving in this Saturday.

4A is a bit of a surreal feeling in a way. I'm almost done. UW's Daily Bulletin is the default page opening in my email client, and today's top story is of arrival of all the new frosh. The headline photo depicts a mother carrying a box with presumably her son behind her returning to the car to fish out another load. The location of the photo is clearly V1, judging from the reddish-brown bricks with narrow windows visible at the fringe of the photo.

It is a photo of an event that is familiar to nearly every Waterloo student who otherwise lives in southern Ontario. A lot of me can't believe that it had been exactly four years ago since I was in the exact same situation.

And now looking at myself, I am nearing the end of my career at Waterloo. And having completed my exchange to Singapore is even more significant since it was just over four years to the date that I first ever envisioned going away for exchange while sitting at a general engineering info session somewhere inside RCH.

Now it's all over. Those four years of anticipation for the date that I'd fly off to study in a foreign country are now something of the past. The hope and fear of whether or not I'd be able to hold an average to be accepted into the exchange. The question of whether or not I'd be able to be selected given Singapore's popularity. The uncertainty of the application process. Using up a weeks worth of lunch breaks at Raytheon in order to gather all the required approval signatures required for the application. With respect to my application to NUS, the last minute fear of my renunciation of Singapore citizenship. All these were seemingly major steps in my eventual departurIt has been two weeks since I returned from Singapore. Eight months since I arrived in Singapore. One year since I received confirmation of my exchange. Nearly two years since I ran for UWCCF committee. Three years since I first stepped foot into UWCCF. Four years ago since I met my current housemates. Five years ago since I received my acceptance offer into UW. Six years ago since I submitted my OUAC application online to the University of Waterloo, the University of Toronto, and Wilfrid Laurier University. e for Singapore. But perhaps lingering in my mind a bit stronger however, is the actual time that I spent in Singapore. Never at the beginning of my career in Waterloo could I have imagined studying in Singapore, let alone working in Singapore. And yet it all came to pass as I was blessed with such an opportunity. I still remember sitting on the ground after a KEVII IHG volleyball practice suddenly realizing, that I had made it.

So here I am, back in Canada, left currently with primarily photos and Facebook contacts. Perhaps still quite naive about life. Yet probably not as naive as before. Hopefully not cynical.

Waterloo has pretty much been a blur.

A lot of pride has been shaken out of me. And perhaps I'm still trying to piece different thoughts and aspects of my life, both secular and spiritual, together.

It has been two weeks since I returned from Singapore. Eight months since I arrived in Singapore. One year since I received confirmation of my exchange. Nearly two years since I ran for UWCCF committee. Two years since I applied for exchange. Three years since I first stepped foot into UWCCF. Four years ago since I met my current housemates. Four years since I first planned to go on exchange. Five years ago since I received my acceptance offer into UW. Six years ago since I submitted my OUAC application online to the University of Waterloo, the University of Toronto, and Wilfrid Laurier University.

I cannot even begin to imagine how different things would be had I accepted U of T's offer for Engineering Science, as opposed to UW's offer for Systems Design.

And it's strange to see that my sister is about to embark on her own journey soon. OUAC and college applications are always due before the end of the year.

At roughly 11:30 AM, I walked out of my final exam. Perhaps not as elated as I might have thought myself to be. There wasn't as much fanfare surrounding the completion of my 3B term here in Singapore, when compared to previous terms back in Waterloo. I believe that a part of the reason for this could be that the completion of exams back home usually meant that I would soon be heading back to Toronto, where I would spend a week or two relaxing at home before starting work.

This time, however, I'm not going home, and I will be starting work in a matter of days (May 11, to be exact).

What's more, while I may not be going home, all those around me are. In fact, Yushi is leaving for the airport within the next hour.

So while Singapore is the same environment as it has been for the past four months, I can't help but feel that it will be somewhat of a different experience due to the fact that I will no longer be living on NUS campus, nor will I see the familiar faces around me that I've become accustomed to.

So with that, stage one of my exchange in Singapore is complete, and I will be embarking on the second phase, which is the co-op term at RoviSys Asia. The formalities surrounding the internship are starting to firm up. NUS has finally received all approvals and documentation required from UW, and I have just sent off the final letter that UW needs to continue with the approval process on their end. CECS should be contacting my employer soon, and hopefully within a couple weeks time, my JobMine profile will be updated to reflect that I have arranged my own work term, and that I am employed.

As you may have gathered (or not) from my last post, I've been finding it increasingly difficult to bring myself to develop my Mandarin skills for rather silly, yet annoying issues. And with myself off campus and working in an exclusively English working environment (most of my colleagues will be Americans), I don't foresee as many friendly opportunities to speak Mandarin as my time at NUS had presented me with (namely my EE2001 project group, and Yushi).

Nevertheless, I suppose it's not a critical thing, and I should have more confidence to speak English anyway.

But I digress. It's sad that friends are leaving, and I'll still be here. But it's exciting that I'll finally be getting my wish of seeing what it's like to work in Asia. We'll see.