Suffering Love

Rampant sorrow sprouted from love
Blossomed to hurt and depress
Empty hearts with nothing to serve
But everything to make life a mess

Love begins with all romance
Absent tears and sad moments
Perceiving myself in paradise
Unconcious that it will make me cry

Fickle minds, my heart do fear
I stray away when they come near
What is it that my heart is sure
Is that love is no longer here

Giving up should not occur
For in love, I am mature
But in vain, fickle minds deter
Leaving me to end in tears

Las Ramblas - Most famous street in Spain

The next best thing besides watching Barcelona in Nou Camp

Architectures like castles and churches all around

Lonely Planet’s Spain at a glance

Once away from the holiday costas, you could only be in Spain. In the cities, narrow twisting old streets suddenly open out to views of daring modern architecture, while spit-and-sawdust bars serving wine from the barrel rub shoulders with blaring, glaring discos.

Travel is easy, accommodation plentiful, the climate benign, the people relaxed, the beaches long and sandy, the food and drink easy to come by and full of regional variety. More than 50 million foreigners a year visit Spain, yet you can also travel for days and hear nothing but Spanish.

When To Go

Spain can be enjoyable any time of year. The ideal months to visit are May, June and September (plus April and October in the south). At these times you can rely on good-to-excellent weather, yet avoid the extreme heat - and the main crush of Spanish and foreign tourists - of July and August. But there’s decent weather in some parts of Spain virtually year round. Winter along the southern and southeastern Mediterranean coasts is mild, while in the height of summer you can retreat to the northwest, to beaches or high mountains anywhere to escape excessive heat. The best festivals are mostly concentrated between Semana Santa (the week leading up to Easter Sunday) and September to October.

In My Own Opinion

Truthfully, I was indifferent towards the choice Spain or Mexico for my exchange programme. Spain has its Gaudi architecture, food and festivals while Mexico has its Aztec pyramids, crazy culture, food and festivals too. What’s more important is the time we spend there and how we make full use of it. If it’s Mexico, I’ll probably be slacking and relaxing my time away. Now that it’s Spain, a business city in Europe, I might think about a career there in the future. Hmm, how about it Stelly? Want to eat paella and work till 5pm for the rest of our lives? =)

The picture above shows Brad Little as Phantom, and what a great singer he is. On May 13, Stelly and I went to enjoy the Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Phantom of the Opera and it was fantastic! Not knowing the story (I did not want to watch a movie or home video version), I was drawn into the music and voices of the artistes, especially Brad Little. He was impossibly powerful and emotion-wrenching…

Stelly knew the story but she said it was still as wonderful. Personally, I lost hold on the story at some point when the words were intentionally accented and I couldn’t catch it. Also, I thought Act 1 was better than Act 2. Some thought the ending was incredible but I loved the first half instead. Why is that so, I cannot say it in words. It has to be experienced yourself.

This was $300 well spent, no regrets.

The Shadow of the Wind

I pride myself as a reader; I am really proud of the hundreds of novels that I’ve read in my lifetime, discounting magazines, comics and newspapers and some of those novels have really impacted me. Titles like the Wheel of Time series, Time Traveller’s Wife, The Hummingbird’s Daughter and other idiosyncratic ones like Life of Pi and Kafka on the Shore have significantly impressed me with their heart-tugging emotion-twisting words. However, none has done it as greatly and deeply as The Shadow of the Wind. Please trust me when I say this book is incredible; It truly is.

A personal try at a sypnosis

This book is about a boy, Daniel, who grew up around books and was given one by his father as a rite of passage; a tradition passed down for generations. He chose it among a secret labyrinth of other important books (only known to a few, including his father) and the particular book he chose brings with it a heart-wrenching story of its author, Julian Carax. The book was titled Shadow of the Wind. I won’t give away the events that befell Julian but I will say this. It’s probably the most thrilling, romantic, erotic and emotional story you’ll ever read; almost as beautiful as the impossibly unmatchable Romeo & Juliet by Shakespeare himself.

Now that I’ve praised the book to such heights, I would like to give a disclaimer. Please do not fault me if you bought the book and hated it. I have only had positive comments from readers of the book but I do know the meat and poison theory. All I ask is that you try out something that could make you believe in a love that is so powerful, it’ll change your life.

On the 13th of May, Stelly and I will be enjoying the Phantom of the Opera at the Esplanade Theatre and we’ll be sitting right in the stalls! It’s our first time being so up close to the stage and I hope that it’ll be a wonderful experience. In addition, I chose the last day of the show (hopefully they don’t extend it further); hopefully there’ll be some incredible appreciation ceremony or something. *keeping fingers crossed*

This year, the applications for Spain has surpassed Stella and my expectations. Now that we’ve gotten different locations for our exchange programmes, it’s a challenge to make things right. Both of us really want to go to Spain next term, and it’s up to Ying, Sudha and Isabelle to decide on our future. I pray for a miracle; this dream that could be fulfilled will be incredible!