Hmmm. Minnesota weather is actually treating me and the rest of us on campus very well these days. Blazing sunlight and tranquil blue skies each and every morning - and I hope that I'm not jinxing this. Soon Spring will roll around, meaning mass thawing of the mounds and mounds of snow piled up. And thus campus will become a lake.

This trimester simply darted by faster than the previous. In two weeks a relieving ten day Spring Break will begin, officially signally that more than half of my first year at College has already passed. Then in even less time one fourth of my total time will have elapsed. Most certainly these days there is an emphasis on living within the moment and not to think too far into the future, and then there are the occasions where failing to plan ahead inevitably results in planning to fail. Life seems to be about finding that delicate balance, though it is most certainly much more difficult than I had initially envisioned. This most likely would be a lesson in life that takes the longest to learn. I wouldn't be surprised if it was.

Back again. Six weeks earlier, I looked forward into the remaining few weeks of 2009 and saw a large expanse of time before me. I had an informal agenda; catch up with old friends and tune into their experiences in university and college; read more books and enlarge the number of classic literature pieces that I had under my belt; and practice lots and lots of creative writing. It was somewhat successful, but as always when we stand here on the other side and look back at the previous weeks...and time has slipped from our fingers the way water slips away as we desperately try keep it in place. We feel it flow away, watch it disappear, know it's gone forever. And so I've been away from college - and in a flash I'm back again.

Welcome to a wintry Minnesota! Today's weather forecast is obviously cold: maximum temperature around zero degrees Fahrenheit (approx. -17 C) which to me is an ungodly figure and one that I've never experienced before during my eighteen years of life. The walls of snow on the sidewalks, rooftops, and fields will probably be the same white snow that we see melting four to five months down the line. Again, the time will undoubtedly slip from our fingers just like the melting fresh water from the snow.

Welcome home to Carleton College. Welcome back to the 2nd Trimester of my freshmen year. I have to say that I'm very thrilled to be back.

And to top it all, I'm still severely jetlagged.

College classes began 10 weeks earlier. And they just finished this afternoon at 4:30, when the sun was just dipping below the mountains.

Behold, the trimester system. Three per academic year, each ten weeks long. Final examinations take place this weekend, where all hell will break loose, and then I'll be on the plane back to Hong Kong when I've just gotten settled here at Carleton College, Northfield Minnesota.

Feels like I've gone quite a long way. Certainly this academic term has been extremely intense, and as always with time I never saw or noticed it slip by so quickly. Before I knew it Daylight Savings came into play about three weeks earlier, and it was getting darker outside by mid-afternoon, and I started eating dinner at a much sooner time. Grades are very much a concern - very much a priority, but at the same time very much a consuming notion. It's college.

Home soon. But I've very much made myself quite at home here at college, and it will be another six weeks before I return and see my close floormates, my newly made friends and acquaintances, and the college environment. It's that moment when you realize you'll feel quite strange sleeping alone in your own bedroom back at home because you've been so used to having a roommate for the previous three months.

The beloved trimester. Love it or hate it.

Today was my fourth day at the International Orientation Program at Carleton College, which in total lasts for a full week. Being in the company of around forty other international students from around fifteen different countries has really been an enriching and eye-opening experience, particularly to someone such as me who has pretty much tasted the wholesome aspects of both a Western and Eastern lifestyle, but hasn't had too much time nor experience for the events and cultures in between.

We had one particularly very interesting and insightful group topic this afternoon, which involved around 12 different international students, all of whom hold U.S. passports or citizenships but have had international cultural experiences from various different places around the world. White people, Black people, Asian people, Latino people, and European people all sitting there in the same group, but connected by just one document: their passports granting them entry back into the country.

We thought about this very interesting aspect that brought us together. There is a term called "TCK" or Third Culture Kids, which is defined as someone who has been born or raised during childhood in one country, but has since then been brought to another separate country, and they are somewhat unable to completely integrate themselves into either of those traditions and cultures wholesomely, and therefore must make do with some middle-ground. There we had students share their experiences within different locations: how either strong nationalism had forced one's educational stay in Russia to cease and instead continue in Boston, or one's face in a foreign country to render them invalid to even everyday conversations in the mother tongue of that country, where ordinary citizens would feel very awkward at conversing in their own language with someone who was clearly of another continent in the physical.

One student in particular shared his view upon the matter; that upon 'returning' to the United States ourselves from our stay in other places around the world, we still exist in such a bubble, due to the fact we all have some form of connections with the local cultures and ways of life here in America, and yet by retaining aspects of our culture from other destinations around the world that we refer to and call 'home', cannot fully be called 'American', despite that very important document that permits us to stay within the country. It was a very thoughtful conversation that circulated between us, how we have had multiple experiences with others who have exclaimed "Your English is perfect!" after we have told them what ethnicity our blood us, and where our parents and ancestors have been born. Yet in a society where our culture experiences abroad define us and add depth to our characters, doesn't this bubble-effect - in a sense both including all of us together with our identities, and yet trapping us within so that we cannot integrate properly with those around us - seem like a pedantic and over-protective safety net? One that is more counter-productive than actually necessary?

Just began thinking about it, that's about it. Can't wait to get back to it though! College is going great so far, and I'm finally beginning to not get lost on campus any longer!

I left for college in the USA yesterday. Flew out onto a long plane flight journey totaling 18 hours. The first flight was straight from HK to San Francisco, which took about 12 hours in total. The last time that I have been to the United States was 11 years earlier, and I certainly did not recall that it was such an exhausting flight. Now I never even want to sit on a seat again and try to fall asleep. The fact that the jetlag was so intimidating to start with wasn't alleviated by the fact that my levels of sleep were so low and of such bad quality too. Guess I'd better get used to it; flights back and forth during Christmas holidays and in the summer are absolutely inevitable.

The state of Minnesota has truly been an eye-opener for me. I was born here 18 years earlier, and left at the age of two, and haven't ever been back since. The half a day that I have spent so far here have involved simply driving around with my eleven-year-old cousin and his family around the town of Minneapolis and checking out places, from shopping malls to the local Chinese buffet restaurant. Things here are great; one of the more comical aspects regards the weather. In Hong Kong - which is situated in a very tropical climate - the winter temperatures are almost laughable by people here, who regard the 60 degrees F here very comfortable, when it can almost be considered as winter climate for people back in Hong Kong! I felt a very intimate sense of belonging as we drove along the hugely spacious roads and explored the comfortable neighborhoods and woodlands nearby on bicycles. It was thoroughly a comforting experience. And I'm greatly looking forward to moving into Carleton College in three days on the 2nd of September.