start of apu life..

hey everyone..
Think i've been lacking in the posts department for a while.. havent exactly been very busy.. but somehow i've not been able to sit down to type in a decent post..
School's finally starting for me tmr.. guess this whole experience is starting to feel less surreal now.. really missing home pretty badly now..
my parents came over to Beppu last week and it was great! didnt realise how much i'd miss them till i saw them and starting running to my mum .. and my Papa hugged me and i starting crying .. haha . quite drama now looking back.. but i was really so happy to see them.. :) it was great.. the whole 4 days or so with them.. went to catch the sakuras in full bloom.. tried an onsen overlooking almost the entire beppu city.. even caught a full sunrise from the hotel room! like literally saw the sky change colour.. and then see a full orange circle of light emerge from within the mountains.. it was a spectacular sight.. sth we could never see in Singapore i think..
Somehow the fact that they came.. makes me miss them even more now.. real pity my sis and bro couldnt come as well.. miss them terribly too..

The past ten days or so at APU flew by pretty quickly.. everyday I find myself meeting new people ard campus.. though i must admit i havent gotten to know anyone well yet.. haha. mostly his and byes for now.. its really interesting how APU is made up of so many different nationalities.. walking past the corridors of one dorm level i an hear mandarin, japanese, thai, indonesian, korean, english, vietnamese.. .. おもしろいね！(interesting!) ..
They're all so young too! Most of them being 18 or 19.. with a couple only 17!! makes me feel like an oldie over here.. hah . good thing is they all thought i was their age!! woohoo!! "forever young...i wanna be.. forever young.." hahaha ok ok .. enough of that now. but im really impressed by how independent they all are.. cooking (not just cup noodles) real meals that look like japan hour worthy dishes sometimes.. hee. makes me feel a little embarrassed man.. but im trying!! cooked a couple of dishes already so far.. black pepper beef (with the ready made seasoning packets ..no less.. haha) stir fried veggies.. potatoes with garlic, parsley, butter.. ;) pretty yummy.. hahaha . Guess what i've experienced so far has made me realised how sheltered a life i've had.. ive been really blessed .. and now its also the best opportunity for me to find out more about myself.. my direction in life from now.. and to truly learn to be more independent and be able to handle being alone.. w/o my loved ones by my side..
4 more months !!
Despite the internation environment.. one thing really clear is how the jap students still tend to stick together even if most can speak english pretty well..guess they're more prone to group together.. pretty much the same across most other nationalities too.. hopefully gradually we'll all be able to truly mix around.. that's the whole point of the exchange! haha.
Facing some probs with courses now..due to the lack of english courses.. guess thats been the only glitch so far.. will be having jap classes 4 times a week.. and classes split into 2 quarters for hte semester.. taking tea ceremony too!! but its the official courses i need for credits that's giving me probs now.. still hoping that sth can be done.. :P
Oh oh, porb gonna join a few circles (ccas) over here if possible.. japanese traditional dance perhaps? hee.. will update u guys on that next time..
Will be posting up my pics asap.. prob later tonight or tmr.. :) ..
for now.. jya ne! i miss you all!!