Life is good.

Oh boy oh boy oh boy!  So many things are happening right now that I have no time to catch my breath.  Just the way I like it...

Thursday afternoon five friends and I boarded a ferry for Bintan Island, Indonesia one and a half hours from Singapore.  We stayed in a hostel called the Ocean Bay Resort on the western, less inhabited part of the island.  Ocean Bay was held up by stilts over the water, very similar to a place I stayed at in Bocas Del Toro, Panama during my last study abroad trip.  It was a very laid back place with a restaurant, some pool tables and games, a television, and some small huts to stay in.  On Friday morning we took a boat taxi with three other hostel guests to a neighboring island with nothing more than a small shack, white sand beaches, and crystal clear water.  It was exactly what I had been looking for.  Saturday, we rented scooters and sped across the island until monsoon rains ended our plans early.  We decided to check out of the hostel and spend the remainder of our day in Tanjong Pinang, a medium sized city on the island. We met plenty of local university students who wanted to interview us tourists and practice their English.  They were thrilled to hear about our home countries and what we thought of Indonesia.  The students even joined us at the local bowling alley for awhile.  Great fun was Bintan Island!

In the next three days I have two mid-terms and a big presentation.  However, I am visiting my friend Derek in Cambodia on Thursday for recess week!  I will be in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap for a total of 9 days for my last big traveling trip until the end of the semester.  I am extremely excited to see how God has blessed the ministry where Derek works.  Many people are enslaved in the sex trade in Cambodia, and Derek, along with many others and the power of the Holy Spirit, are trying to put an end to it.  Cambodia will be very different from the first world, westernized culture of Singapore.  I hope that my eagerness for the trip will speed my academic week to its finish.  I'm feeling so blessed to have experienced so much in my short time in SE Asia.

Love to all my readers!