Looking at the last two weeks I have in Mexico before I'm on the plane bound for New York, I believe it's time I've had enough enjoyment and fun. I'm starting to yearn for the taste of rice on my lips again (yeah me, the rice lover, hasn't had proper Chinese rice in 18 weeks) and the mere thought of soya bean drink gets me excited. I really can't wait to see Kibbs respond to my voice and to drive in a familiar environment again. I can't wait to go on family dinners to eat our favorite stingray at Bukit Timah and to sleep in Joel's car after a long day-long date while he drives me home. Damn, I don't even iron my clothes here with a proper ironing board so I actually look forward to helping mom iron our clothes with the proper ironing board we have at home. I even miss the strange things my sister creates for us to drink during afternoon tea. Yeah she always makes weird but yummy drinks like 3 layer tea or ice-cream/orea/milk blends. I also miss playing Assassin's Creed multiplayer with my brother on our sofa in the afternoons and now that he has the new AC3 that I'm so gonna play it! I actually really miss seeing trains again (hi here's a rural chick who hasn't seen trains in 4 months kthxbai) and omg, ezlink card readers! I really miss outing with friends again!

Gone are the initial adjusting pains, where every morning greets me with the startlingly new and strange environment, where the common tongue here is fast and elaborated, and where only 2 other people in my radius of 300000000km can understand me when I talk like I normally do. It's time to give up the anxiety I always held when my electronic cables decide to die on me, one by one. (I seriously don't know how unlucky I get but oh wells)

But I've had my fair share of pure fun, seeing things that I never had and possibly never will see again. "Just do it! It's the first and last time you're getting to do this!" is a phrase I've heard from myself countless times in these months. Like the time I forced myself to swim in an icy cenote and was so glad I did it, where I took the plunge on a creaky old swing that threatens to launch me into the deep depths of the forest (I screamed like a mad woman), where I climbed more natural formations ever in my life (underground caves, mountains, underground mines, opal hills, pyramids, deserted towns atop a hill...), and when I walked to the nearby Plaza Boulevares as easily as I walked to Lot 1 Shopping Centre.

The days when I received kindess from people whom I can never repay (when I was charged 40 pesos for a cab fare but I only had a 200 peso note and driver didn't have change, he accepted whatever coins I had in my wallet which was like 16 pesos or something; I was so guilty and thankful that I kept thanking him) to the days I met with danger face-to-face (some dude tried to pry my macbook out of my hands but I clung on to it and managed to escape with it) are things I will never forget.

The initial isolation when I just arrived brought me up to the me today. I can finally wash, dry, iron, fold my clothes and make my bed daily. I know its embarrassing but all these things are what my dear mom does for me everyday and I've always took it for granted and initially couldn't do it myself.

When I learnt to live without the things I've always had (broadband internet, contacting my loved ones on a whim, and so many other handicaps I have here) and learnt to actually live a local's life here, I'm called upon to return to my dear sunny home again.

I've enjoyed much, learnt much, suffered much. But if you ask me if I will do this again, without doubt I will. It's really not all fun and happy all the time, but to every single thing that happens, I count my blessings and be thankful to be able to experience it.

And if the world really ends in 2012, I'm glad to be able to have visited the country where the prophecy first surfaced. Hahah but don't worry the world isn't ending just yet. XD
new past