Just turned 21 yesterday. haha... :)
Wanted to thank all those who threw a surprise birthday party for me on Tuesday night. It was really a surprise, and it really made my birthday. And you are: Jason, Jonathan, Raymond, Esther, Glenna, Katie, Judy, Edmen, Rachel, Steve, Joshua Tan, Joshua Sim, Kevin, Keith, Deborah, You Yan, Jason Chew.
Haha... the cake was lovely, and the presents were just what I'd have use for too. A pair of shoes (Nike I must add) and a new bag to bring to school - which I did today. :)
And also a big thank you to my family, xueying and jianwei who sent birthday cards from singapore / malaysia. Really appreciated it... and those who remembered of course. I thank God for you all. daryl, trish (hey i read your blog!), jeremy, priscilla... still got quite a few more. My apologies if I can't remember :)
And a even bigger birthday present (by God no doubt) on my birthday 18th October. I got an e-mail from ANU (Australian National University) in Canberra that I was successful in my application for a summer scholarship / fellowship!!! Haha... I thought I would never get it, and I still did... it's a 6-weeks fellowship in the summer to do a research project which I thought of... full accommodation, food, spending money, and return flights from Perth all paid for... woo hoo... and of course, I get to work with academics in what is one of Australia's top two universities (the other one I think being Melbourne).... Might we also add that it's the first scholarship I ever clinched? :)
www.anu.edu.au (ANU website)
www.bugbog.com/images/maps/australia_map.jpg (Map of Australia for my friends who might not know where Canberra is. Canberra is the national capital of this country, located mid-way (well nearer to Sydney) between Sydney and Melbourne... it's on the south-eastern bottom corner of the map... about 4hrs flight from Perth.
I'll be getting the formal letter of offer next week by post... you don't know how happy I am... haha went to thank my referees Dr Roderic Pitty and Dr Jie Chen yesterday... told one of my Pol Science tutors about it also.. and I think I told so many people... I think people are getting sick of me already... lol.
I think I'll spare you the part about what my research topic is about... probably no one wants to hear it haha... it's briefly, about democratisation in Indonesia post-1998, and doing a comparative study of that with Malaysia and Singapore....