Once again, I woke up from a long deep nap at a sudden, lifted my heavy eye lids and slowly adjusted to the dim light in the room, having no clue to tell whether it was at dawn or at dusk. My three roommates were laughing, saying that they were ready to go to school. Until then I could vaguely recalled me lying on the bed, listening to their increasingly fading chats and laughters, and all the sound were muted in the end. Silence fell.

I felt so defeated. The digits on the screen of my hand phone said 7pm. The fact was that for the third time, I indulged myself to live in the Canadian time, happily slept through my afternoon and my evening, then became super energetic and awake in the mid night, had no desire for sleep until the wee hours came.

God. Save me. Give me the power and strength to endure the long lasting sleepiness in the day, to keep myself awake before midnight. Or should I be thankful for this rare moment of living in the time zone of the other side of the globe? Should I treasure the feeling of being here and at the same time missing there, ending up being nowhere? I just realized that I was losing my sense again. I shall thus end my note here with Kouros’ saying, “Why do we sleep so early? There are always lectures!”

I am seriously too narrow minded.
For all those so-called “thoughtful” years of my life, what I could think of is my own future living conditions, about the materialistic enjoyament and how to earn a decent income.
Yet I know that things will be different. These great people I meet here in ISSYP are going to change my life.
I would like to just talk about two guys who impressed me today. Giovanni has started earning money since ten years old. He moved out from his house last year and is now living on his own. He works during school days and all the summer vocations to pay his schools fees, his apartment rental fee, his clothes, his camera, and well, basically, everything. There are five children in his family and three of them are independent.
I was really shocked when I heard this. I felt so ashamed of myself. Well, I earned money before, but that is way too little to support myself. Apart from not contributing to my family financially, I am adding weight to my parents’ burden. I asked them for money to live in Singapore, to shop, to travel, to buy unnecessary things.
Giovanni has every right to spend his money at will because he earns every single cent of it. But I do not have the right to demand a higher life standard because I am still dependent on my parents and they are not my servents. They need not even to give me any money because I am already eighteen years old. I am supposed be independent and earn my own living. Goodness. What have I done to my dear parents? I shall really reflect on this seriously.
Leo is a guy who impressed me with his ideas profoundly. I have never thought about our learning process so holistically. He migrated from Taiwan to Canada, Vancouver when he was in Grade 6. At a first glance, I would think he is a superficial person who only cares about the looks and making fun of others. Yet I was totally wrong. From his behaviours in lessons, I could tell that he is super intelligent. Maybe genius would be a more appropriate word. He asks good questions every lesson. He has endlessly interesting anecdotes to tell. He does not bring any writing materials to class because he says that he could not listen when he writes. Talking about Physics, he says that this subject is just elegant. Any object has mass, energy, momentum, etc. Physics is about to find the interrelationship between these properties of any object so as to derive a common law that governs the universe. It is essentially the understanding the reality, the truth. He even views it as another form of art, just like music, drawing, etc. They are all pointing to the same thing. The common question out of human nature, what is the truth of life?
When I asked him how he studies? He said, he thinks. He will try to find out the reason of why we are studying all the concepts and thus deduce the real intention of all the scientists in the field. He uses his brain a lot. I guess that’s why he is so smart and efficient.
I see the beauty of knowledge. It’s certainly not about money, achievement or honours. It is just simply about answering the questions rising from our hearts.

　　在清晨薄暮中抵达伊斯坦布尔，天色灰蒙，下着小雨。

　　开始与同座的旅人交谈。同是转机。她与朋友去马来西亚游玩，回程经此地，将再飞柏林。说很可惜今日下雨，伊斯坦堡多是晴天。说这是个非常美丽的城市，曾读着Other Colours携伴穿梭其中，是很美好的记忆。

　　下机后，查护照，登记。转机大厅较空旷，排椅上是睡着游人，时差不知是在世界的哪个角落。飞机一路平稳，在睡梦中飞过印度和巴基斯坦。醒来便在伊朗上空。只喝清水与茶，食欲欠佳。

　　在机场书店里逛了逛，不卖明信片。还有一间装潢像窑洞的餔子，叫OLD BAZZAR。很多工艺品，获取许可后举起相机猛拍。碰到一个中国同胞，比我大的独身女子，从匈牙利飞过来，去多伦多出差，此刻正坐在我的身边，一个一台笔记本，自顾自事。

　　就这些。无它。

　　荣幸地跟新加坡外交部部长握手合影，与外交官员聊天，当面跟好多个PSC奖学金生取经，看一部讲述印度尼西亚孩子追梦的电影，听常青藤学姐学长介绍他们的大学，还有听新加坡女登山队员亲口诉说她们攀上珠穆朗玛峰的苦与乐。

　　最近的经历可以写成小说了。

　　扬帆，你要很努力很努力地活出精彩来。

　　今晚，带着你的小箱子大梦想，昂扬着启程吧！