Dear friends,

I write to you in the middle of the journey from Dover, England back to The Netherlands (though you'll only receive it when I manage to find internet connection). I must say, the decision to take the overnight bus & ferry trips has been a poor one – cramped coach, the occasionally unruly passenger, and an immensely tedious 11-hour ride with nary a wink in between – but nevertheless it gives me a good opportunity to draft a long-overdue email. It’s been 2 weeks since I left Singapore, although it often seemed longer. I would've liked to update sooner, but I've been shorn of time in the first week, and internet connection in the second. In the interest of brevity and lucidity I will try to keep my points succinct, but as this is my first update, I have much to say; and ask that you indulge me.

I spent the first week in Delft, attempting to orientate myself and seek accommodation for the next 6 months. Delft is indeed tiny – perhaps the size of Jurong, but strip away the outlying districts and it’s even smaller – and not particularly vibrant in any way. The locals can be surprisingly dour and unhelpful despite an immaculately polite facade (which isn’t to say there haven’t been some friendly and obliging people). Some people have told me how beautiful Delft is, and I suppose this unfairly tempered my expectations, but I was somewhat underwhelmed. It does have an austere charm of a little town unsullied by intense industrialization, but, flanked by The Hague and Rotterdam, it can hardly be described as rustic; and it boasts no particularly breathtaking scenery of its own. Granted, there’s a genuine vibe of quaint, idyllic settlement nestled between densely-populated cities, but the flip side is that there’s not too much to actually do in town.

London was an enjoyable if somewhat lonely experience. I won’t bore you with the details; suffice to say that I spent much of my time purposefully getting lost and catching a glimpse of the city’s less common sights and sounds. Without a doubt, the highlight of the week was catching Shugo Tokumaru, live in a cosy acoustic venue – a pub cellar, to be precise, complete with (relatively) cheap beer and bad pick-up lines. His virtuoso performance both inspired me and cast a disparaging light on my utter lack of talent. I’ll be uploading some videos and photos in the next few days.

Thus far, this exchange is turning out to be quite the opportunity for growth. I’ve had to grapple with several difficult decisions – and bad mistakes – chief of these being my accommodation arrangements. As many of you know, I arrived in Delft without having firmed up any sort of housing agreement. This brings me to my single major gripe – my two would-be flatmates. In my highly judgemental opinion, they are difficult, irresponsible, self-centred, and generally clueless; I find it difficult not to blame them for at least some of my accommodation woes. We are supposed to share an apartment by virtue of the fact that we are all on the “free mover” exchange independent from NTU. Yet, I could, and probably should, have applied for a no-frills, single-room student hostel when the opportunity was presented to me, yet there must’ve been some brain-dead part of me which thought that constituted a breach of fellowship and trust – in our local vernacular, “pang seh” – and I foolishly stuck with them. I know this sounds harsh, and it's rather immature for me to be complaining, but this whole matter has been a considerable source of stress and anxiety which has threatened to derail my exchange before it even began in earnest.

By God’s grace, I managed to find a nice flat, albeit only for March to end June. But for the whole of February, I’ll be staying in a miniscule apartment with no bedrooms, bare furnishings, and probably dreadfully-inadequate heating. May this month pass swiftly, and may I learn to accept and make friends with my flatmates. I have plenty of flaws myself, so this will be an interesting exercise in adaptation and diplomacy.

The circumstances have been difficult at times, but I thank God for seeing to so many of my needs, even those I was not aware of. Whether it was holding back the weather or opening new doors for me, His provision has kept me hopeful that this may be more than simply an escape from the tedium of studying in Singapore, but a genuinely life-transforming experience. I eagerly anticipate worshipping at Levend Water church this coming Sunday, and joining up with an international cell group soon.

Speaking of escape, I fear my expectations of an easy semester were grossly inaccurate. It has been said that students go on exchange primarily to “play” – explore a foreign land and immerse oneself in a different culture, with exams a mere formality. Yet here I am, facing a timetable twice as packed as my regular ones (out of the 8 or 9 modules I plan to take, there are regular schedule clashes for 4 of them), and the foreboding hear-say that two of the modules have a sub-40% pass rate. After about 9 months away from school I’m more than a little rusty; hopefully I’ll be able to work hard and smart and do enough to pass all my modules.

Anyway, school has already begun, although Orientation Day is on Tuesday and Registration Day on Thursday. I have this nagging concern that my circle of friends will end up being the NTU group and a “United Nations” bunch consisting of international students, without really ever getting to know the locals. I pray this will not be the case, though I no doubt have to work on my apparent disposition of detached disinterest.

Finally, some notes on my general well-being. I’ve adjusted fairly well to the weather although I still like my room nice and warm. Unfortunately my skin still dries up easily and itches and peels... I’ve experienced snow (well, hail) and it’s really not as pleasant as Christmas movies would have you believe. Food-wise, I’ve yet to cook anything other than convenience food, and I’ve been subsisting on mainly sandwiches, plus the occasional kebab, Chinese takeaway, and pasta. I’m rarely full, but I try to sleep early before I get too hungry.

Well, this is about three times too long already, so that’s it for now. That and I'm feeling very sleepy. I’ll upload stuff onto Facebook when I have the time. Hope all is well, and I appreciate your little messages and prayers. Stay in touch!

Peace,
HL

Hi friends,

Just a quick update as I've gotta do some shopping for groceries before the supermarket closes. It's amazing how fast food runs out (yes I don't usually buy the groceries back home heh)! The past 2 weeks have gone by in a flash, largely thanks to school. This is good, as it means I'm 2 weeks closer to moving into a nice flat with my own room; and bad, as it means I'm 2 weeks closer to exams. There are only 7 weeks of lectures, thus it's a sobering realization that even as I'm still rousing myself from my academic indolence (and the lassitude of a 9-month break from studying), almost 30% of the course content has already been taught!

My bank account has yet to be set up - a problem I attribute directly to ABN’s glaring inaptitude. In fact, one of the most noticeable things here is that the way things are done here is rather inefficient. I suppose it is only a glaring contrast in light of Singapore’s intense focus on productivity and efficiency, but more than a few times I found myself thinking, “this would be going so much faster in Singapore”. In any case, finance is not a problem; in fact, I’m carrying too much cash with me, which is why I wish to deposit the money asap. I might have to ask a friend to help me break up my large notes soon.

TUDelft is impressive. A quick tour of the Aerospace Faculty showcased their extensive laboratories which include 5 wind tunnels (including a supersonic one), a zero-gravity simulator, and the SIMONA flight simulator. It is easy to see why the school is so involved in research, including military projects. Some of the set-ups that are left lying around would be put on prominent display as the pride of NTU MAE. Whereas NTU has a donated, obsolete A4 which is nothing but a display piece (and inadvertent obstacle course for 1^st and 2^nd year glider projects), TUDelft has an F16 which is often tested on.

Of course, that’s not to say everything’s perfect. The school has its share of lecturers who can’t teach and/or put you to sleep. Sometimes it’s not prof’s fault, as with some math-courses-in-disguise such as flight dynamics. There’s one really effective prof – a young one, no wonder – who’s teaching two dynamics courses; and he’s reinvigorated my interest in aerospace dynamics (and dynamic systems in general) – I feel I’m really learning much more in his lectures than I did in NTU (I’ve also come to realize the static systems taught from sec school through JC really are useless). But the best course has to be Sustainable Development for Engineers. This doesn’t seem to have caught on in Singapore or Asia in general, but there’s significant interest in sustainable development here, and it seems poised to be the current modus operandi for the aerospace industry. The prof’s an astronaut! Really interesting person with many innovative ideas and propositions, although one can figure out that some of his statistics and numbers are biased. He’s also highly critical of the government, particularly their budget allocation...Singapore needs lecturers like him. Next week, the course will have a guest lecturer: Michael Braungart! Some of you may have heard of his book, Cradle to Cradle.

Finally, I visited Levend Water church. It’s a little smaller than I imagined – services are held in a small warehouse with a congregation of about 150 – but I’m thankful I managed to find an evangelical church so quickly. I still feel a little unfamiliar as some of the worship is in Dutch, and the sermon is translated concurrently to English, but I feel comfortable worshipping there, and I’ve joined an international cell group. We meet weekly for Bible study, although we don’t have the privilege of easy access to study guides here in Delft. Something interesting on the calendar – Heidi Baker is coming to preach in Amsterdam on Monday evening. You can view some of her sermons here : http://www.fathersglory.com/insp/Roland_&_Heidi_Baker.htm. I am thinking of attending, but I doubt I’ll be able to reach on time after school; and it’ll surely be a packed conference so I don’t wish to be late.

Alright, Happy CNY and Valentines’ to everyone back home! More updates in a few weeks, or when interesting things happen. I’ve decided to post my updates on my defunct blog (http://loldeadairspace.blogspot.com/) instead of emailing, so that those of you who can’t stand seeing these mails in your inbox don’t have to haha. Till next time!

Regards,
HL