the novemberists 

london longing 

"I know you'll come carry me out to the palace of winds.
That's what I've wanted: to walk in such a place with you.
With friends, on an earth without maps."
-from The English Patient


YT, they served up a shortbread cookie on my flight back, wish i could have broken it into half and given you the bigger piece, as usual. eternal summer seems so far away =(

PC, i owe you too much ren qing for being my lifesaver from the first day right down to the very last hour, beer and wine and g&t and lots and lots of alcohol on me next time.

HC, sunday might have been our last match together, perhaps in a long time, possibly ever, it meant a great deal to me.

JT, GB, KM, potluck with you guys and the ones above was yumyum, felt like home.

MK, TT, SL, DP, don't know when i will see each of you again, but i believe that the someday will come. thank you for finding space for me on your packed schedules, good times.

and then we went to old trafford one last time, and then we cheered and cursed from our seats up close, and then we agonized that we were bad luck to the red devils but ronaldo gave us the winning goal in the 90th minute, and then we got our dream farewell to the theatre of dreams, and then i left my debit card at the megastore, and then it was a race against time to get me to gatwick, and then it was hard to say goodbye to my second home. coming back to the city that never sleeps only made me feel like bursting into tears at every turn. the suitcase generation, that's what we are, i guess i'm already a little tired.

feels like home 

day one and i am wondering whether new york happened because i was brave enough to say yes or because i was not brave enough to say no.

i woke up today in london as the plane was touching down
and all i could think about was monday when maybe i'd be back around
if this keeps me away much longer i don't know what i would do
you got to understand it's a hard life that i'm going through
l.a. is getting kind of crazy and new york is getting kind of cold
i keep my head from getting lazy i just can't wait to get back home

and all these days i spend away i'll make up for this i swear
i need your love to hold me up when it's all to much to bear
and when the night falls in around me and i don't think i'll make it through
i'll use your light to guide the way cause all i think about is you
*landing in london by 3 doors down

hanging on every word you say 

two days between boston and the longing, doing nothing but running myself headless attending classes, collecting results, submitting forms, borrowing books, printing readings, and CRUNCHING DATA. i woke up yesterday and spent 10 hours straight working on the regression data for my research paper so that YT can help me do something about it. w-t-h, i am a political scientist not a flipping statistician. give me a break from these ugly numbers! well i guess these days, happiness is in the unintended, happiness is a white chocolate peanut butter truffle cheesecake, happiness is cold air on my face as i step out of the gym, happiness is running into eye candies at the gym (hahaha), happiness is God's grace taking me to such great heights, happiness is unexpected, happiness is still rare, but happiness is possible, happiness is delta airlines here i comeeee...

i'm finding my way back to sanity again
though i don't really know what
i am gonna do when i get there
take a breath and hold on tight
spin around one more time
and gracefully fall back in the arms of grace

i am hanging on every word you say
and even if you don't want to speak tonight
that's alright alright with me
cause i want nothing more than to sit
outside heaven's door and listen to you breathing
is where i want to be where i want to be
*breathing by lifehouse

boston break 

bee heart beef 

this is how we do it 

it's friday night and i feel all right, the party is here on the west side
so i reach for my forty and i turn it up, designated driver take the keys to my truck
hit the shore cause i'm faded, honeys in the street say monty yo we made it
it feels so good in my hood tonight, the summertime skirts and the guys in kani
all the gang bangers forgot about the drive by, get your groove on before you get paid
so tip up your cup and throw your hands up, and let me hear the party say

im kinda buzzed and it's all because (this is how we do it)
south central does it like nobody does (this is how we do it)
to all my neighbours you got much flavour (this is how we do it)
let's flip the track bring the old school back (this is how we do it)
*this is how we do it by montell jordan

bee plus 

midterms are over! i celebrated by going for our last rugby practice, dizzied from the cold but can't wait for spring season =) feeling worried about my grades though, today's paper was nottoobad as averyboy and myself prepared well for it together but last wednesday's was disastrous; so bad that at least 30 grad students walked out since it wasn't mandatory for us to submit the exam. need to ace the final exam for war, peace, and strategy class, produce an interesting essay for japanese politics class, deliver a brilliant research presentation and paper for inequality, poverty, and politics class, bluff my way through a chinese placement test, and find classes for next semester that can help me meet my degree requirements. impossible impossible impossible. oh gosh, i'm stressing myself now.
* * *
never imagined i would have one of those wish-you-were-here moments, but i am.

a lonely road crossed another cold state line
miles away from those i love purpose hard to find
while i recall all the words you spoke to me
can't help but wish that i was there
back where i'd love to be oh yeah
*dear god by avenge sevenfold

dear justin 

it was a feat going through all the photos to find a good one, i couldn't help but make a note of the strangeydangey adventures that happened to us in strange places and stranger times that randomly started to fill my mind...paris where i berated you for misplacing your wallet, germany where we had the six bed dorm to the two of us to do our math past year papers in peace even though we did find the place eerie, munich where you got yelled at by the train inspector for trying to jump on when the train was moving off, paris again where we spent a night taking turns to keep awake at the cafe with the chain smoking woman, madrid where we kept calling ongy's name on the plane so that we could take candid shots of her when she popped her head up from a few seats behind us, val d'isere where we almost got guillotined by g's flying ski lift, vienna where we tried to take photos of each other jumping out of the snow capped bush, florence where we miscalculated the daylight saving time change and thought we had missed our flight only to find out that our flight had been cancelled, malaga where i got mad at you for going into the shower before letting me go first, seville where i saved you from the pickpocket at the metro station by shouting at him so loudly it made me embarrassed, lisbon where bowwow was rescued from the land of stupid people, amsterdam where we had to miss our flight back and ended up waiting overnight at the airport because you-know-what, paris yet again where we got separated from you while getting into the train and thought you were going to get pickpocketed, dubai where you spent all your free time writing your macroeconomics notes, nice where you made me drag my trolley bag across cobbled stones to get to the confectionery factory only to be told when we got there that it did not open on weekends. remember those days?

i wish you still more strangeydangey days ahead, you can't escape them, it's in ze blood =P don't forget to take bossey and sotongball and domokundude along with you!

one and only 

climb every mountain, search high and low,
follow every byway, every path you know.



a dream that will need, all the love you can give,
every day of your life, for as long as you live.

dear meiling 

special photo for a special day! may your 22nd be a super-duper-pink-POODLE-power year, i can't wait for the screaming good times awaiting us =)

an amerikan saturday 

a chilly day spent at a college football game, then making a somewhat-perilous-but-not-harold-and-kumar-style-perilous journey to get our first bite of white castle!!! pretty close to my version of the amerikan dream =) in a time where being let down is the rule of the day, you guys put the fuzzy feeling back into the word friendship.

can you imagine when the race is won, sang alphaville. when the race is won, it would be time to say goodbye to you both; and another city, another year, another collection of faces will have to be added to the empty spaces in my heart all over again.

.

♥
JESUS BE THE CENTRE, BE MY SOURCE, BE MY LIGHT JESUS
JESUS BE MY VISION, BE MY PATH, BE MY GUIDE JESUS
BE THE FIRE IN MY HEART, BE THE WIND IN THESE SAILS
BE THE REASON THAT I LIVE, JESUS JESUS