My travel essentials

Hi Everyone! Just a short post about the essential items that I like to travel with.

1) Laptop
2) iPad - I read my magazine subscriptions digitally loaded onto my iPad
3) Ziplock bag of medicines
4) Travel pillow - I always bring my own because it smells like me and its comforting :-)
5) Sample size beauty products and I also fill small bottles with my regular facial products, hair care, and body products.
6) Wet tissue and portable tissue packets - I prefer wet wipes over hand sanitiser because my hands don't feel any cleaner if I just spritz some sanitiser on my hands. At least with wet wipes, I wipe it then toss the used wipe away.
7) Lots of underwear - I like to change my underwear a lot so I bring lots of underwear with me wherever I go.
8) Sunglasses - I am never without my sunglasses under the sun. My eyes feel very sensitive to light and I've gotten used to always having sunglasses on me to prevent this sensitivity from hurting my eyes.
9) iPhone and camera - I like to take pictures as mementos and to post on my blog, instagram, Facebook, etc.
10) Passport - this is obvious.

The big blue luggage is mine :-)

Beautiful Prague

Summer is here!

At the first sign of temperatures rising we know that summer is coming. That means for students all around the world, that long summer nights and lazy days are coming. For working people, it means leaving the coat at home and letting loose in the evenings because the weather is beautiful with the sun shining for longer hours.

For me, summer means my brain gets to relax a little bit and I get to be my hyper-creative self. Up until last year, summer also meant I get to perform in festivals and theaters. I spent most of my summers performing and teaching in different locations and environments. Some of my memories are spending more time in the studio rehearsing then changing and going to dinner at one of the various amazing restaurants in New York. A lot of administrative work was done before the festivals. With every festival tour I arranged, I became more efficient at working on what needs to get done. Press releases, fundraising campaigns, marketing material, personal invitations to presenters in the area, costumes, hiring lighting designers/technical directors, planning technical and dress rehearsals, videography, grant writing, and then the logistics as a tour manager as well. Some of these included: booking and reserving transportation, housing, and scheduling of all the rehearsals and performances.

Some pictures from Edinburgh Fringe Festival 2013:

Summer brings back nostalgic moments but it is also a time to create new memories. Last summer, I went traveling to Milan, Barcelona, Valencia, Granada, Seville, Lisbon, Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Stockholm, Malmö. It was an epic summer of travel for about a month with friends and also part of it was solo travel as well. When I returned, my friend and mentor from New York came to visit Singapore so I showed her around town and even got to take her dance classes. It felt like an extended vacation and taking her class was like a homecoming to my previous life in New York. As I look at how different my life is now from a couple years ago, I probably could write a book!

Lisbon, Portugal

Milan, Italy

A year later and I'm living in a different continent. Living a different life as a postgraduate student. Many new friends. I'm spending this summer with a little bit of travel and going back to Singapore to visit my family and friends as well as teach my students a bit of dance as well.

Swiss campus grounds

Always flying

This bird flies to places unknown
Every flight builds excitement
The return: a sense of dread.
She spreads her wings to faraway places
Its her meditation.
Her freedom from the monotony and greed of daily life.
New smells, food, friends, experiences.
This bird doesn't have a nest.
She finds comfort wherever she goes.
She feels incredible sense of calm wandering.
Not lost.
Her love is to share what she knows with others
This bird is different
She doesn't care what the flock tells her she should be
She longs for the simplicity of her life to just be herself
Complete and whole.
To live a life full of love, laughter, passion, adventure, comfort.

En route on the train to Edinburgh, July 2013

Planning for summer adventures in Milan, Spain, Lisbon, and Sweden! Travel is my inspiration to life and this trip will be filled with lots of love, laughter, passion, comfort, and wonderful memories. Memories create home for me and to create good memories is sacred ground. Hope all of you have a good summer!!! 

Saying goodbyes

I want to begin this post by pasting and email that my student sent to me before the end of the school year:

Throughout this year of dance, I have learned so many things from you. You have taught me and many others different types of dances and how to choreograph them. Since you have been teaching us, you have been inspiring us to dance one person at a time. All in all, I think that you have been an outstanding teacher, that has taught us a lot about dance.

This email was so touching and it makes it so worthwhile as a dance educator to learn that I've inspired students to love dance and movement as much as I do. I had a blast teaching over a hundred students every day from my alma mater school here in Singapore. Every year that I've been teaching dance, I miss my students when the end of the term, residency, year is over and we're enjoying a bit of time off for the summer. But over the years, I've grown a bit more hardened to saying goodbye to my students and try not to get so attached. I've grown used to saying goodbye.

Goodbyes aren't easy, but I've become accustomed to saying them. I don't know if its just age, because I remember goodbyes being extremely difficult growing up.

As an Adult TCK, are we hardened to saying goodbye to everyone we encounter in this lifetime?

I actually psych myself out by not really saying goodbye but saying "see you soon!" because thats easier to say. The world is a small place, I always run into people from my past. Its so common for TCKs!

A friend from high school passed away last week. I feel quite a bit of remorse for never been able to get a hold of her the first few months I moved back and then just gave up trying to contact her. Gone too soon. Though we drifted apart over the years, I still have fond memories of running track with her, dance rehearsals, theater, and a few other random memories that have popped up this week from high school. Rest in peace Leslie, you are loved by many. I'm glad I got to see you a few years ago when I came to visit Singapore and you showed us around Clarke Quay.

The last day of school at SAS was a couple days ago. The students were crying and hugging each other to say their goodbyes. Some were leaving so they were distraught. My advice to them: Goodbyes are hard. They don't get easy. But as we get older, we get used to saying them.
What's worse than goodbyes? Never having the time to say goodbye or rushing through them. ALWAYS MAKE TIME.

TICKETS ARE ON SALE!

Photography by Di Zhang

Chameleon is a multi-disciplinary presentation about global citizens who have been exposed to several cultures in their developmental years. Exploring the notions of home, cultural identity and relationships through film, spoken word, theater, photography and dance. Approx. 75 minutes

Venue: The Apothecary

• Jul 8th 6 pm
• Jul 10th 11 am
• Jul 23rd 6 pm
• Jul 24th 3:45 pm
• Jul 25th 2:15 pm

Emily's Solo and Shayna's monologue w/ Emily @ Chameleon; University Settlement from Alaine Handa on Vimeo.