Date: 22 November 2008

I have exactly one more month in Montreal before the awesomeamericanos head to Vermont/New York. These days, I've been feeling sad that my exchange life in Montreal is coming to an end cos my everyday life kept smacking these little reminders in my face.

• Nowadays when my housemates go grocery shopping together, we keep reminding one another that our days here are numbered. For example: "Should we buy the big or small bottle of sesame oil?" "Get the small one lah. Since we only have one month left." After a while it gets a bit depressing. Grocery shopping will always remind me that time is running out.
• When I was flipping through my organiser to see when I can visit the Kingston brothers in their little town, I ended up with just one good weekend through elimination. Its definitely due to my own procrastination but its scary to realise that.
• Its the same thing when it comes to planning for parties/gatherings with friends here. The elimination of dates process.
• One of my upstairs neighbour is leaving soon and is currently having his farewell party.
• We had this Gala dinner yesterday, which kinda marks the end of all the exchange activities in HEC cos people should be getting busy with projects, assignments and exams. And you know how such galas/prom always make you feel emo and sad about leaving your friends. Eventhough its not exactly "the end", being in an activity which signifies "the end" totally made me feel like its the end.
• Starting to work on projects. (haha!)
• Profs start talking about final exams.
• Starting a countdown to count down to the date of arrival in Singapore when I was looking forward to meet Chan again. Okay, the countdown works both ways. Sometimes it makes me happy, sometimes it makes me sad.

The other day we (the ppl in my house) were looking at all the early emails we sent to one another and laughing at how polite we were back then compared to now and it is really amazing how things have changed. So I went to look at all the early emails between us too. All the doing our online worksheets, confirming one another's choices, talks on banks, currency, flights and of course in between a lot of other nonsense. It all feels so surreal now.

I can't say that this exchange has been extremely fruitful but it sure has been rewarding in its own way. Sometimes I will think that I am not doing enough and not making full use of my time here and wonder if I am staying at home too much, not partying hard enough and not making more friends etc. But then I guess we'll never know what is enough and it is not possible to strike a good balance.

One major takeaway from this exchange is definitely learning how to stay under one roof with 5 other people and try not to kill one another. Indefinitely, there will be certain traits of each person which you totally cannot stand and certain things about him/her which you like. I can go on for hours on this topic on living in a house of 6 and all the stories we have but to cut the long story short, I have learned to be very tolerant, to read people's mood very well and know when you can go nua on their bed and when you should stay out of their way, to not be so "gei gao" with little things, say "Good Morning" even though you are damn grumpy in the morning, to resolve conflicts and to stay out of them. And of course, the "List of edible food Pegs can make" has expanded from hanging out in the kitchen.

Even though sometimes they piss me off big time, nothing beats the 6 of us sitting around the dinner table having dinner together, chatting and laughing (of course, when the sea is calm), chatting till the wee hours in the morning on each other's beds/over beers in the kitchen, trying on each other's new clothes, crowding around a small pot of instant noodles, the very efficient dish washing chain we have developed etc. Its like having the sisters and elder brothers I always wished I had.

And of course all the great friends from all over the world I've made here. Not a lot, but more of quality over quantity. Its sad knowing that in a month's time, we are going to be miles apart, living in different time zones and wouldn't be able to go for brunch, organize parties, cook ethnic food for each other. Even when we all meet up in future, it will never be the same again. Although there are a lot of people I will miss after this month, I am glad our paths crossed and I am thankful that they made this exchange a great experience for me!

Of course, I am also looking forward to spending time with awesomeamericanos and I can't wait to bring you guys around Montreal. Can't wait to give Serene the tightest huggalicious ever, take revenge on Jason the evil piece of shit, eat lunch cooked by Zhicheng and dinner by Bobbs and learn a thing or two at the same time. I miss my family, all my friends, kway chap, orh jian, nas lems, chai tau kway, char kway tiao, fish soup, bar chor mee, tau hway a lot too so I am kinda looking forward to going home as well.

Oh well, we can't have the best of both worlds. C'est la vie. 44days - I just got to make the best out of my remaining time before I am back in the embrace of the people waiting for me back home. :)

Je t'aime,
pegs