God Answers Prayers

I went to Netanya this evening and met up with the Christian friends I have made there for a fellowship dinner. I have spent much time there chatting with them, and therefore left the apartment rather late in the night, around 10:30pm. I managed to catch a sherut (shared taxi) which was heading to Herzliya and Tel Aviv. However, as there were only 2 passengers in the 10-seater sherut (me and another girl whom I’ve never met before), the driver suddenly decided that he didn’t want to drive us to our destinations, probably because it was not profitable to do so, and dropped us at a bus stop which was still in the area of Netanya! It was almost 11pm when we got off the sherut, and it was really cold waiting at the bus stop and hoping for another sherut that will head to Herzliya. (Israel at night is really, really cold, especially in the Winter.) A special taxi (which is the normal type of taxis) approached us and offered the ride at NIS 100! The driver is crazy! (A sherut ride from Netanya to Herzliya costs between NIS 9-11 only.) We waited and waited, and the clock continued to tick…

I was watching an episode of Rev Dr Ulf Ekman’s 'Another Day of Victory' podcast when I was on my way to Netanya, and the programme was on 'God Wants To Answer Your Prayer'. When I was waiting at the bus stop and saw the girl shaking her legs like crazy in the cold, I recalled what I have learnt in the programme, and began to call upon the Lord in prayer and asked Him to provide us an affordable transport which could take us back to Herzliya and keep us sheltered for a while from the cold. As I activated my faith and pray, a sherut came to the bus stop and picked us up! Yeah!!! =D

God not only answered my prayer that night just by bringing that sherut to us. He went beyond that! When I was praying in Netanya, I told Him that the transport had to come soon as I didn’t want to see that girl staying in the cold for too long. I think He knew that I was also feeling really cold then. When we got off at Herzliya, the girl asked me if I wanted a ride back to my apartment by her boyfriend, whose car was waiting for her near where we got off the sherut. At first I didn’t know if it would be convenient for both of them. However, as they were checking on the direction to my apartment, it was actually on the way as they were heading to Ra’ananna, a city next to Herzliya. I accepted the offer and got on the car, and realised it was pretty warm inside the car. Her boyfriend switched on the heater! The ride offered me not only the convenience but also kept me warm throughout the journey. At the end of the ride, he gave me his mobile phone number and asked me to give him a call should I need any help in any way! The ride back tonight might be longer and slightly costlier than usual, but it was a ride that really demonstrated the Israelis’ warm hospitality which is very common across the country. Most important of all, the ride testified His goodness and showed that He answers prayers! Amen! =)

Another Lesson on Asia!

I had another opportunity today in achieving a high level of class participation in a lesson, and this time round, it was during my ‘Role of the States and Non-State Actors in the Combat Against Terrorism’ class this afternoon. The lesson today was on terrorism in the Southeast Asia and the regional counter-terrorism efforts. It touched on the various terrorist groups operating actively in the region and some recent trends, the challenges some of the countries are facing, and the steps these countries and ASEAN have taken to fight against terrorism in the Southeast Asia. After studying in Singapore for more than 9 years and being exposed to the developments in the region, I was able to participate actively by offering what I knew about the region, particularly in the areas of political development and terrorist threats. (I knew some of you will probably wonder: hmmm… when did the business student Elvis become a political science student? =P)

Just two sidenotes, the class lecturer Dr. Issac Kfir described the Southeast Asia as ‘the sexiest region in the world’, and he encouraged the class to travel there and to enjoy the beautiful beaches within this region. I should thank him for promoting tourism in Asia on the Asians’ behalf! He also emphasised and re-emphasised to the class the importance of Singapore to the region and the world in many areas, and his amazement of Singapore becoming one of the wealthiest countries in the world with little land and no natural resources. I think he has helped me quite a bit in promoting Singapore (and therefore, SMU) as the destination for international exchange by his repeated emphases indirectly. Hahahahaha! =D

Going to IKEA here in Israel!

Yesterday evening, David (from Netanya) and Hilla and I (from Herzliya) went to the only IKEA in Israel located at Netanya (click here for the map). I didn’t have specific things I wanted to buy there (as I’m watching my expenses pretty closely here in Israel), but I missed the Swedish meatballs very much, the trademark dish in the IKEA restaurant everywhere. I couldn’t remember when it was the last time I had the Swedish meatballs in IKEA Singapore, so I was really looking forward to the (kosher) Swedish meatballs when we were on our way to IKEA and met David there. (I think by now you should have realised how much I missed the meatballs… I have already mentioned it more than 3 times in a sentence!!!) As for Hilla, she was so thrilled during the journey (IKEA is from Sweden, the neighbouring country of Finland), and she even started heaping and dancing once we got off the sherut and walked towards IKEA! Haha!

Stepping into IKEA really brought memories of Singapore to my mind. Besides the standard IKEA products, the way IKEA laid out its shopping route here in Netanya was more or less the same as that in Singapore, and I supposed it would be the same in other parts of the world as well. We spent more than 3 hours in IKEA, including a really sumptuous meal in the IKEA restaurant. =) It was really rare that I walked out of IKEA without any product purchases. For Hilla, she only managed to fulfill half of what she intended to buy on her ‘To-Buy’ list, and added many other purchases outside the list! Haha! I certainly remembered how I shopped in the past in IKEA Singapore: walking out of IKEA with many extra purchases which I didn’t even need them (although I wanted them… =P)!

Elvis’ Cooking Skills – Progress Report #2

Yes, it’s time again for the release of a progress report on Elvis’ cooking skills. If you have been staying tuned and read the various teasers last month (here, here and here), you would have realised that Elvis’ cooking has improved quite significantly since the Progress Report #1 was released slightly more than a month ago!

Okay, enough of the third-person voice. Haha! =D

I went to the supermarket today to buy quite a variety of items for cooking, including garlic (yes, and this time it’s indeed garlic, not onions!). I decided to cook a bigger dinner tonight for Tal and me, and spent quite some time to prepare the various dishes I wanted to prepare. The menu for tonight’s dinner includes (1) rice with sliced onions (which I’ve tried once before and wanted to increase the onion taste this time round), (2) fried eggs (specifically, it was a plate with 4 eggs being fried together. This is a dish which I have known how to cook since I was young, because it is so easy to fry eggs!), (3) Chinese-style stir-fry vegetables with ginger, onions and garlic (which I’ve tried several times and it’s becoming one of my favourite dishes due to its nutrition value), and (4) cooked chicken meat with garlic and onions and little soy sauce (the highlight for tonight’s dinner, as I have been trying to determine how long I should keep the meat on the frying pan without overcooking it). I know these weren’t sophisticated dishes, but nonetheless, I felt so satisfied when I was able to prepare this meal without having anything on the menu ‘instant’! Also, they tasted real good. Haha! I think I’m really becoming more enthusiastic and daring in learning to prepare more and better dishes in the remaining time I have here in Israel. Stay tuned for the next progress report! ;)


The various dishes I have cooked for tonight's dinner. Yummy!!! =)


Chinese-style stir-fry vegetables, my favourite dish. ;)

Imagine having a 4-member project group with all coming from 4 different countries…

Yes! This is what I’m having right now in my ‘Tourism and Hotel Management’ class for the group project. There are four of us. One is my flatmate Issac, a Jewish immigrant from Uruguay (mother tongue: Spanish). One is a Jewish immigrant from Brazil, and she’s already married (mother tongue: Portuguese). One is a Jewish student from Switzerland (mother tongue: French). The remainder is ''yours truly'', i.e. me (mother tongue: Cantonese). Four different origins, four different mother tongues, and certainly there are also four different levels of proficiency in the English language. At the very start I believed that our diversity would allow us to have the best mix of ideas for the group project. However, I never realised what could possibly happen along this journey. We might be all speaking English when we came together to discuss our project, but the way each one of us understand one another’s English could be really different. Thanks to my 9 1/2 years of English-based education in Singapore, my proficiency happened to be the highest within the group, and I must say that I’m actively learning how to be more patient and forgiving when listening to the others’ English. Although we never quarrelled, we argued almost all the time during the project meetings because we couldn’t understand one another’s English properly. I took the course ‘Intercultural Communication’ during Term 3B earlier in SMU before I came here, but theories could never be compared to real-life situations! This is really intercultural communication at work in an extreme, and what a great example to emphasise the reality that communication is indeed an art which we should learn to improve and master.