Happiness is a choice! :)

Roulette

2012-01-30T13:56:00.000+08:00

Another trip to the city of casinos in the east coast - atlantic city. This time with shinq cuz she's finally 21! Armed with a strategy, we headed to the hilton roulette table and got a pleasant surprise because the minimum bet was only $2. We were all in to lose $300 each for the day based on our strategy. So yeah we lost money, but we lost only a fraction of that. And somehow I felt a sense of accomplishment despite the outcome cuz we've finally proven to ourselves that no matter how we strategized, there's still that element of luck that we can't go against. We could only improve our odds of winning, but the expected outcome according to stats is zero and the probability of us winning the next turn is always slightly less than 0.5.

I doubt I'll be heading to AC again anytime soon without an even more impressive strategy. The only reason why I went back this time was cuz I just needed to test my new strategy out. But hitting 11 numbers of the same kind on the table is purely bad luck heh. And so I lived to tell a story of probability to my future math students haha. :)

We're all back!

2012-01-26T04:01:00.000+08:00

Lunch with shinq and sandy, dinner with shinq and guanghao yesterday. Adjusting back to student life seems pretty okay with these meet-ups. And... it's a cause for celebration because all my sg friends in nyu are back on the nyc campus this sem after 1.5 years of people taking turns to go for study abroad! Time to show the freshies our real cohort size muahahaha. :)

And I wish I wasn't back yet...

2012-01-24T20:22:00.000+08:00

My news feed is FLOODED with happy family pics posted by my friends and my relatives. How to not be envious right? :S Oh wells... vic says that ssa will have a cny party on feb 2nd, so that should be a good enough compensation!

It still feels so unreal that I am back. I'm still holidaying around so I hope teachers today are holidaying around too. And according to vic, seems like quite a number of chinese people didn't turn up for her french class. I guess that might be the same for my classes too haha. Considering that NYU has loads of ABCs and has the largest international intake from China, maybe they should have considered extending their holiday a wee bit this year. Then everyone will be happy yay!

Nvm 18 days and 14 hours left till happiness! :) I'm glad that there are things to look forward to each month (other than deadlines hurhur).

ASW hits Timbre!

2012-01-22T17:45:00.000+08:00

Like what vanessa named her album, 'we eat, we drink, we spam photos..." We drink (alcoholic ones) doesn't apply to all of us though haha. I like choco choco = bailey's with a whole lot of choccie fudge and mixtures. Barely any alcohol taste, and considering that my face didn't turn red, there really isn't much alcohol in it.

Glad I got to meet up with them Thurs night for the last time before I flew off! We're a cool bunch of warriors hahaha. Hope a few of our quarter life crises will be resolved soon... meanwhile mieo and I can relieve our sorrows with our rendition of The Wicked songs haha. :)

Lo hei 2!

2012-01-22T17:40:00.000+08:00

Hmm I think I seriously need to make a blog book or something. I think blogger offers that service. My life's perpetually digitally recorded haha. Even though I'm missing the fun part of CNY this year, at least I get to eat a reunion lunch and I get to count a portion of my ang pows earlier! I could have flown back next weekend, but my choice was right to shift the flight till tonight cuz fortunately or unfortunately, I got randomly selected (along with another girl) to do a presentation in class on Tuesday. And I only knew that a few days ago. CNY, we'll meet again in 2014!

Lo hei!

2012-01-21T21:34:00.000+08:00

过年怎么能少得了“捞起”呢？这星马的传统实在是太独特，太好玩了吧。以前不怎么爱吃鱼生的我不知从何时懂得欣赏这道地美食。XD

莫名其妙

2012-01-21T17:18:00.000+08:00

为什么有人偏是敬酒不吃吃罚酒呢？人家不要的，硬要塞给他干嘛？人家问了，有人又不讲明那是什么，装神秘干嘛？人家给了那么多暗示，难道有人还没被点醒？拜托啦，成熟一点，精明一点吧。看了都快气死了！

通往幸福之路

2012-01-18T20:13:00.000+08:00

Met soph for lunch today at j8! Then we retraced our rj steps by going to the s11 bubble tea shop, sitting around s11 before getting chased away because we were not supposed to drink bubble tea there, then slacking for literally hours at the top of the 8. Interact ygh days heh. 蛮震撼的日子吧。We were looking at the juniors, and other sec skl students, and thinking about how old we are. 人一旦过了二十岁，就会觉得时间过得特别快。As 21 year old 过来人, we were trying to point out who were the couples hanging around the area. One couple even got checked by the police cuz I think they were trying to pda in school uniform. Then the other couple in plain clothes got a shock. Haha sitting at the corner made us a very good target for truth-or-dare forfeits too.

Hmm we talked about a lot of things. Was telling her how da felt that our 'part of the og' is bonded because we are just friends, and we don't consider ourselves an og anymore. So we were trying to test the hypothesis by naming people in our og, which was when we realised we simply couldn't name everyone. Fail haha. Then I began updating her about other people's statuses based on fb thanks to the fb-less china. Going through the proxy is pretty troublesome. I guess the high of the day was she told me this romantic story that will 即将挂上美丽的句点. 拭目以待！

Hahahaha

2012-01-16T23:01:00.001+08:00

Wow and 40 minutes later... "under consideration by the department" changed to "conditional offer". I guess my online rambles worked! Should have rambled earlier hehe.

F5

2012-01-16T22:19:00.000+08:00

Hello uni! It's been a while. It's time for you to make a decision and not forever be 'under consideration by the department'. Gosh refreshing the admissions portal page multiple times every day is just killing me. o.o

MI

2012-01-15T17:15:00.000+08:00

Met hazel for pepper lunch yesterday afternoon. Yay satisfy my craving for pepper lunch finally! But dang I don't think I have time to satisfy my list of cravings before I leave sg, simply because I think I'm quite lazy to go out haha. And also because I got a scare on Friday when 400 plus pages of reading for my env studs capstone seminar came through my email. Why like that? Sighhhh. 1 class only then like that le. Dies.

Becoming friends with hazel is one of the randomest friendships I've had I think. She was asking me stuff through my geog website and I've been happily replying her cuz I was free then. Then I met her once and did a pro bono consultation session with her last summer, and somehow decided to lend her my precious notes even though I've never met her before. I just thought that for the effort she put in to do better in geog, she should get whatever help she can. And so we became friends XD

Watched MI with my mum and bro last night. My bro and I happened to use the exact same adjective to describe the show - EXCITING! Watching a night show after some super full dinner isn't the best thing to do, but wow it's so packed with action! My high expectations of the show was met! Hmm... thinking of watching the great magician next week. Must watch chi shows here la!! So sad that the cny shows only start showing after cny boo.

Some crazy web

2012-01-13T11:28:00.000+08:00

Went out for dinner at tampines mall with jo, marlon and man hin last night. It's quite amazing how we're all connected to each other, I guess mainly through ycamp. XD The group was kinda funny cuz it almost seemed like a double date oops. Mh and I let the couple go while we carried on catching up, on school, on life and on canto shows woots! Lucky guy actually watched the laughing gor movie in canto in msia!

Hmm with the circle line, I suppose I should be visiting the east more often haha as I have been over the past week or so. I realised it's still a relatively unexplored territory, but the west is probably even more unexplored to me. Tampines has far too many more people than when I last when there. So Singapore is officially getting crowded heh!

The Sec1/2 Clique

2012-01-12T13:12:00.000+08:00

We used to do all our projects together, play PE games together, have recess/lunch together...

9 years later, we still meet up together. Though we may not be the most updated about one another's lives anymore, it's still amazing how we can still maintain a conversation for that long. Maybe it's cuz we have too much to catch up about haha.

Cheers to us! :)

Bye Yijie

2012-01-11T15:31:00.000+08:00

Sent yijie off last night with mieo. Ate popeyes and had a great chat with mieo in a really long time! :)

Slack!!

2012-01-09T16:18:00.000+08:00

My first completely free day since I came back from the states! Home for all 24 hours. That's an achievement! But that also means sighhh I didn't get called up for relief teaching. I guess they realised that a geogger can't exactly relief a history class. Bleh. 刷了人情卡 also no use.

And it's also a pretty bad day to stay at home cuz I woke up and got a shock cuz the internet wasn't working! Starhub's servicing their cable service. No internet, no cable tv. Omg it was like back to the days when I just moved into my nyc apartment. Tragic. o.o So I decided to start reading 那些年 the book in 繁体 somemore just to see how supposedly good it is. I'm a third through the book and it doesn't seem that captivating yet. Seems like some 爱情小说 with those beautiful phrases I can copy for the 描写文 I used to love writing.

Had a decent lunch yesterday to celebrate my aunt's birthday. Everyone's getting older it's so scary. I still remember when she used to play loads of word games with me when I was in primary school (that's why I love word games now haha). Then went for teo heng with my bro and my cuzzies! First time I sang so many english songs k cuz my cuzzies don't really listen to chi songs. The states has made me lose touch with my chinese-ness. There's 933, but I realise I only listen to it when exams are nearing. :p

Spent the night skyping for a really really long time. Part of the time I was listening to how my mum skyped my dad despite the sucky internet connection. Was totally amusing. XD The other part of the time was even more amusing hahaha. :))))

Impulse

2012-01-07T22:50:00.001+08:00

I did something crazy today, but I'm happy I did it.

新的开始，新的未来。希望一切是值得的。

路还是辛苦的，但我们该记得上学期所学到的，不要重蹈复辙，因为这一次可能真的输不起了。

So your dreams came true. :)))

Fantasy

2012-01-06T00:07:00.000+08:00

Today is one of those days when I wish time could come to a standstill, or that maybe time could fast forward till the day when obstacles no longer exist.

I want, but I can't, can I? Should I?

:SSSSS

An unlikely gathering

2012-01-04T19:38:00.000+08:00

That's what marcus named our meet-up last night. Before we left for our overseas unis last fall, none of us planned to come back home. Weizhong was probably gonna stay in boston, marcus was probably gonna be anywhere but singapore considering his love-hate relationship here haha, eug couldn't decide whether or not to come back, and I was supposed to go to abu dhabi for an nyu winter session so that I can be with my dad. But somehow or rather, we all came back! XD Now if ah ye were also back, that would make the hk-macau travel buddy group complete. Too bad he's somewhere in astonia. More happening than us haha.

Headed for makansutra for singapore food!! What could be better right since we're all overseas. Finally had my hokkien mee after sorta craving it since I came back. Then we went to the lv store and probably looked completely out of place haha. And we sat at the mbs 24-hour food court and just chatted till midnight, or I guess until I realised oh yah I didn't have my house keys so I had to go home 'earlier'.

Great that wz and marcus are coming over to nyc in march! Yay my spring break is gonna be slightly happening haha. Now I just have to plan what I shall do for the first part of spring break. :)

Aviva strikes again

2012-01-04T19:30:00.000+08:00

So the aviva gang was the first gang of friends I met after I came back from the states + taiwan. It's cuz our dear yijie is going for an exchange in sweden! Lucky girl. :)) But if she can go a sem later, then I'll have another friend in europe to hang around with. XD 玩个痛快吧！

Taiwan!

2012-01-04T19:27:00.000+08:00

I LOVE TAIWAN. And that love might just surpass that of hong kong. More food in the 夜市, greater likelihood of meeting stars in their 餐厅 or 专卖店 or at 录影, cheaper K, nicer clothing. Wow. If I want my dim sum, I can still find decent ones in taipei. And if anything, taipei's pretty close to hk too. It's just that their politics is messy and their education system probably isn't as good as hk's. But since I'm politically apathetic, and I won't be studying there, Taiwan makes for a great place to live in for a month I guess. And then I probably will miss Singapore more haha.

Travelling with my dad, my mum, my uncle and my aunt was great! I guess if only my bro could be there too, that would make it 100x better. He and my dad are the jokers of my family haha.

Made friends with our meal buddies too. One of them's 21 too, so 比较能谈得来. Our whole tour group was made up of people from Malaysia and Singapore, and most of us were female heh. What happened to the guys?? Maybe they're stuck in the army camps around taiwan hurhur. Our meal buddies are from Singapore too!

Met up with ian and song guan too. Laoda was such an excellent host. Must 誇他 and thank him loads for bringing us around despite chionging reports!! Had such a fun time catching up with the two of them in their 地盘.

Next taiwan trip this summer maybe? Any takers? XD Hopefully I can squeeze in some time after my masters interview + contract signing + visa + passport renewal. Sounds like so much admin stuff to handle from July. It's like pre-departure all over again. Hmm but I think next year will be great! New environment, new discoveries... with linda hopefully! :)

The Deliberating Citizen

2011-12-16T12:45:00.001+08:00

Four more days till my last final.

A few hours following that till my singapore airlines flight home.

AWESOMENESS!

:)))))))))))))

First time my finals end on the first official day of finals week. Only shows how profs believe that we should end school a week earlier like in other unis. Oh imagine the pain for those who end two days before christmas. I feel you... but I guess seniors possess greater rights to earlier enjoyment. XD

Oops and I forgot. I actually need to pack. o.o

学不会

2011-12-13T11:02:00.001+08:00

Totally in love with this song now and I can't quite figure out why I love it so much!

學不會

曲Composer：林俊傑

詞Lyricist：姚若龍

你的痛苦我都心疼想為你解決

擋開流言緊握你手想飛奔往前

我相信愛能證明一切

夠真心會超越時間

多付出也多了喜悅讓幸福蔓延

總是學不會再聰明一點

記得自我保護必要時候講些善意謊言

總是學不會真愛也有現實面

不是誰情願就能夠解決

一次爭吵一個心結累積著改變

內心疏遠足夠秒殺外表多濃烈

才發現愛不代表一切

再真心也會被阻絕

這世界天天有詭雷隨時會爆裂

還是學不會少浪漫一點

拼命著想的事未必帶來感動或被感謝

還是學不會解釋我最傷最累

痛死都不願怪誰

把每段癡情苦戀在此刻排列面前

也感覺不埋怨只懷念

總是學不會再聰明一點

記得自我保護必要時候講些善意謊言

不是學不會只是覺得愛太美

值得去沉醉流淚

巨离

2011-12-11T16:02:00.001+08:00

《巨离》

光阴残如箭，刺穿心底情。

沉默酷如冰，冻死爱之萍。

曾海枯石烂，都能闻鸟鸣。

现春风洋溢，却无生现形。

问君何能尔？地远心自停。

唯与酒相伴，迷中辩出明。

彻恨辗转夜，孤枕愿梦醒。

眸框含滴泪，坠地误落井。

天晓车马喧，淡化怨哀请。

窗中现虹影，雨后盼天晴。

My first attempt at trying to write something 'poetic' for my chinese poetry class. Hopefully it's good enough for extra credit! Words heavily borrowed from the poems I learnt. I particularly like the last line actually. XD

PS: With contributions made by royce!

Dedication

2011-12-11T12:01:00.000+08:00

Wow my boss dedicated a note to me on the weekly newsletter! XD

Dear GAA Newsletter Reader,

Last week we said farewell to Stacy Wong from Singapore who did double duty at GAA, researching and writing article summaries drawn from both Chinese and English language materials. When she completes her graduate studies at NYU, she will return home and eventually teach geography. A patient, caring and thoughtful person, we know that Stacy will become a fine teacher, beloved by her future students.

Have a great week,

Susanne Paul for Global Action on Aging

Awww... so sweet!

Beer and culture

2011-12-11T10:55:00.000+08:00

I feel so cultured after watching Phantom last night and Rent on thurs night. Rent wasn't that great but Phantom was! The songs are super nice, but the plot isn't as entertaining as Wicked, so I'd say Wicked is still better for me! :) Caught a glimpse of hugh jackman after royce and I caught phantom too. We were camping outside hugh jackman's broadway theatre along with others. We weren't that interested in the actor, but we just wanted to join the fun. XD Of course, if it's a hk actor/actress there, I'd be a lot crazier I think heehee.

Had drinks with mel, royce and mohandass too after Rent on thurs night. K I'm officially scared of drinking beer and shots after that shouting episode. Vic/shinq/mel make me sound so bad! o.o But I guess a glass of beer is still within my tolerance level. The guiness was horrible though. Where's my moscato and ice wine? I need sugar with my alcohol!

Weds night was horrible with the rain + wind = cold. Met up with long chuan, mel, tim, monhandass and royce for dinner at boka. Stayed there for pretty long until we were the last people there. The restaurant was supposed to close much later than when we left, but it's just kinda awkward with wait staff staring at your table only I think. The walk back from st marks felt horribly long even though it was only 15-20 minutes. Stupid weather. o.o

Last day of work yesterday and it's quite funny how I only managed to hold a conversation with one of the interns there on this day. He comes in every friday for a few hours only, that's why we never had a proper lunch break to talk about stuff. A bit late to realise that he's actually such a nice person to talk to, maybe cuz haha he's actually from guangdong and he's most fluent in canto. XD We talk in english though. So my sup held a little farewell party for me and got me a nice choc cake! :) I already have too much choc at home from thanksgiving + royce's hersheys and reeses + the cake now. Total overload! I hope choc makes me smarter for finals!

I just cannot emphasize how great the people at work are. My boss is too encouarging that she literally tells people how godly a teacher I'll become in future just because I taught her how to save and retrieve files from her usb. My sup's easily excitable about a lot of things. My fellow french intern has that classy french air and cool french accent. She's gonna be some big shot in France next time definitely. My fellow chinese intern is the person I talk to the most because we just babble on in chinese. And then there are the others whom I occassionally see only, but they each have their cool stories to tell because of their highly international background. I hope for the best for them then! :)

Seminar: Celebrations!

2011-12-08T05:39:00.000+08:00

2nd last day at work! I find that I've somehow grown a bit more open to conversation. The older people who come by are just so cute, lovable and encouraging that it's hard not to talk to them. And yes so finally I made it clear that Singapore is NOT part of China, though I'm not sure how long that thought will stay with them.

Good food today thanks to the union! And today I realised the gambling addiction the group has. I've only previously heard stories from my colleagues that these union members know exactly what bus to take and what deals are on at the atlantic city casinos. So today they were analysing AC casinos and the new electronic one that opened in queens. One member's son is even working at that casino! And while I thought Spending half my day at the roulette table was bad enough, the stayed at the table for THIRTEEN HOURS straight? Omg. Yes this is the western version of playing mahjong, with a very heavy price too if they bet high.

Hmm I think I need to learn how to be a positive person from these seniors. They feel a lot more alive mentally than I am. XD

Donor Party

2011-12-07T06:13:00.000+08:00

Third last day at work and I got to celebrate that with a donor party. Met enthusiasts and UN people in the cosy environment of our office. Trained my under-study too hahaha though it was all really rushed cuz I wanted to get back home to write my paper. o.o

I guess no matter even though I've been feeling too sian to go to work for these past few weeks, this week seems entirely different. Probably cuz we have events today and tomorrow to spice up our lives. And also cuz I'm starting to have this 舍不得，一切都要结束了 feeling. The positive thing is that my office is only 20 mins from my house so I can pop by anytime I want next sem! I have to say the people there are seriously too nice for their own good. And I suppose working with old people is great in the sense that they fuss over us like their 'little' grandchildren.

Heard so many stories today that these donors shared. Some stories are really tragic that it could literally get people tearing. But I'm not open with my emotions of course. Sometimes I just wonder if people understand where Singapore is when I talk about stuff we do in our country. No matter how many times I emphasize that Singapore is not part of China, somehow it doesn't really settle in unless that person has been to Singapore before. Haha I guess I'm proud of the fact that today one person said that Singapore's really clean and another said it has the world's best airport. Well done!

Can't wait for tomorrow's event. It's gonna be full of happiness! :))

THIRTEEN DAYS THREE HOURS TILL THE PLANE HOME!

Oh and another thing to be happy about: mr yap comes to visit tomorrow!

SHIOK!

2011-12-04T07:32:00.000+08:00

First ever large scale event that the NYU SSA organised for the school ie. non-Singaporeans were welcomed too! Heh actually non-Singaporeans are always welcomed, but it's just that we never really publicised that fact I guess.

It was a super good event! Turn out was great. Bubble tea went out too fast. I bet the free bubble tea was the main attraction of course. Kung fu cha milk tea is super nice! :) All people had to do was to play the three games there and they can get the bubble tea. They don't even have to win the game. So I was in charge of the dai di booth, shinq was in charge of the trivia booth and kai jun was manning the chapteh booth. Trivia questions were damn hard la. When shinq was testing vic and I the previous day, we were like o.o for some questions. How many islands does Singapore have? How many reservoirs does Singapore have? How many shopping malls are on Orchard Road? And then there was a whole bunch of econs questions that uses specific econs terms that I guess only biz kids will understand. Funnily enough, the best trivia guesser of the day was someone studying in UWC. Phail... Apparently some true-blue Singaporeans didn't even know who our new president was. I mean the question was what's the FULL name of our new pres? I couldn't give the full name la. But some answered the prev pres' name. I blame this on our non-existent right to vote yet.

Also had lots of food - malay, chi and indian which went out damn fast. Oh and all volunteers were supposed to get free food and bubble tea. But no... some of us didn't even get the food, and I believe most of us never got to get the bubble tea. Boo... luckily joelle was there and she let me have a sip of the bubble tea!

Vic was the emcee of the day, and with her american accent, of course she pulled it off! XD Played 'home' at the start, showed a ppt of singapore food like chicken rice, had stage games, lucky draw, mambo, and showed the movie army daze. I didn't really pay much attention to everything that was going on stage though, cuz I was busy manning my booth or just chilling out with friends haha.

After that, went for drinks and supper with kai jun, vic, peixin, shinq, mel and mariel. Just headed around the greenwich village area. And heh after last time, I'm officially scared to drink until vic/shinq said that they were only exaggerating my actions because it was too entertaining. XD K so I drank a little sangria. Went to this music pub place and the band was actually not bad! Mariel suggested that we should have a band, which totally reminded me of that same thought we had when we were freshies/sophomores I think. Oh wells... it's probably just a dream!

Was a really great night when we show nyu that SINGAPOREANS own! Yay thanks. Had good feedback from my non-singaporean friends after the event too. :))) Well done to the cool 2011-2012 e-board! :)

Skiing for Thanksgiving!

2011-11-29T10:26:00.000+08:00

The hills are alive... with the sound of music... Okay it's not quite switzerland but there's still snow-capped mountains in salt lake city, utah! :) There was a bit of inertia to leave the confines of my wonderful house to hop on a plane to utah, but it was all worthwhile!

What's thanksgiving without stuffing yourself with food? I think I ate double lunches in the day. And I seriously thought thanksgiving dinner is supposed to take place during dinner time. It started at like 3pm cuz there's just too much to eat? And when I thought we were done with food... *ding ding* there's dessert! Pumpkin pie and some crumble thing. I thought I wouldn't like the pumpkin pie cuz I'm not a pumpkin fan, but it turned out pretty nice!

Half the time at matt and lisa's (yifen's cousin and her husband) house, we were playing with the dog with the pitiful eyes, Noni. She keeps coming over to get pats from us and she's so drawn to food. The funny thing is that she likes grabbing the weirdest of things. Once she grabbed shinq's umbrella when we were out and we didn't close the room door. Another time she grabbed a bra and gave it to a male in the house. And another time she grabbed a pair of boxers and gave it to a female in the house.

So it was off to skiing the next day! And yes!! I officially love skiing. The climbing up part is just so tiresome for my weak arms, but the zooming down part is just so fun!!!

Visited one of the neighbour's houses. That neighbour is just crazy with xmas decor he even had to get additional electricity to make sure everything lights up. Ehh but some of his balloons are deflating!!

The next day, we were off to Park City where we saw the winter olympics site. Unfortunately, the pro skiers already ended their training when we were there so we didn't see them do the ski jump. :( Did some outlet shopping after.

Spent time at home playing wii too. Wii tennis is so fun! Yifen was the pro at first cuz she plays real tennis, but then shinq out-pro-ed the pro eventually! Only I so noob la hahaha. But somehow I can ace a lot.

This trip was super relaxing and fun!! I guess it's cuz we weren't really rushing from place to place. It's own time own target. Hmm and we got to watch 色戒 and Chungking Express too. Wahh SLC is such a nice place to be in! Being surrounded by the mountains is such a naturally beautiful site! I guess I'll really have to live in this kind of suburban place one day to figure out if I truly like it. But I doubt I'll ever get the chance. I just know rural's out for sure!

Living without your parents 101

2011-11-21T10:26:00.000+08:00

That entails becoming an expert at unclogging the toilet with this cool device called a plunger.

Yes our toilet's been clogged xxxx number of times already. o.o

Congrats!

2011-11-21T03:39:00.000+08:00

So my brother received unconditional offers from southampton, bristol and bath. Which means that whether or not he gets into imperial, my parents are going to send him to UK to study! :)))) Hopefully he gets past imperial's second round!

Aziatix

2011-11-16T12:27:00.000+08:00

Went to watch the aziatix concert with peixin and shinq on Mon night. My main reason was to catch 李玖哲！A very impulsive decision la haha. But decided not to queue up to get their autograph and poster in the end. I mean I appreciate his singing talent and humour, but it's not enough for me to wait so long to see him in person. The distance from my seat was enough. :) And he's not as big-sized as the tv makes him appear to be lor. XD

Broadway

2011-11-11T13:13:00.000+08:00

A really really nice broadway show. My first time seeing daniel radcliffe in person from the mezzanine. Ok still not that close la but I'm just curious to look at the person who acted in a movie that dominated half my life. Even though we paid $85 for it, it was a very good break from the books and a very comical show indeed! So radcliffe was speaking in an american accent throughout the show, until the end when they were auctioning his blue bow tie (with autographs of the cast + a picture with him and this other actor) for charity. Then the brit accent just came through.

The bow tie actually sold for USD$2800! Crazy!!! That's more than my round trip ticket home. The auction was actually more 刺激 than some parts of the show though, cuz it's just that anticipation to see who's more siao than the other to quote a higher price. Some girls behind us shouted $2000 at first, then they were like no just kidding. But WE LOVE YOU! Then the actor replied, don't play with our hearts like that! Impromptu humour very good!

Time to catch more broadway comedies I think. There's one called Chinglish which sounds pretty appealing just by looking at the name. :))

Flurry

2011-11-11T13:06:00.000+08:00

So every year, NYU organises this event called "Flurry". Basically the school books the whole ice skating rink at central park so that students can ice skate there for free! Did this when I was a freshie, and again when I am a senior. The difference this time was that we managed to get on the free double decker tour bus there! Totally felt like a tourist. :) Went there with yifen and shinq. Girl's night out on the rink in preparation for some wintry adventure in salt lake city for thanksgiving! XD

鲁迅之言

2011-11-06T14:01:00.000+08:00

人生得一知己足矣。

Nostalgy

2011-11-05T11:19:00.000+08:00

I'm learning Nostalgy by Richard Clayderman now and my piano teacher asked me to picture something that I feel nostalgic about or imagine what Clayderman must be thinking when he wrote the piece. Haha I can't believe that I just said no I have nothing to feel nostalgic about straight away. That's not true of course. I mean you need something to remind you of the past, something like the pics my aunt posted on my fb. We were only sec 1/2 then. Wow that's almost a decade ago.

It's hard to slow things down in the academic world I believe. When I'm studying, I look forward to the next holiday. The holiday comes, then goes, and the cycle repeats itself so that before you know it, x number of years have passed. We grow in these years, though I wouldn't add an "of course" behind that statement cuz some people just backtrack in life. I still remember this horrid email I to my team wrote out of exasperation because I wanted them to put my effort in the project. I can't even remember who I forwarded it to. But I'm just thankful that that has come to pass and I'm glad my team members didn't hate me for it. So now I've learnt to manage team dynamics a little better, or maybe I just don't give much of a damn about teamwork anymore to lead and slog for the freeloaders.

I just cannot believe I'm legally an adult, about to graduate and about to earn my own income. Am I even ready to face reality? I'm so much happier in my delusional world. My boss was just asking us how old we are today and my, we're just nearing the age when we won't be considered "youths" according to whatever organisation she's dealing with. Working for an organisation on aging doesn't help much to make me feel youthful. Day in, day out, I read about depressing articles about how the world just cannot cope with the elderly. Day in, day out, I see old people visiting the office. I guess my distinction between youth and the old kind of implies I'm stigmatising the old? Maybe subconsciously. But their presence just constantly reminds me of how I should cherish my luxury of energy (whatever's left of it haha) to pursue what I want within my means.

I respect these old people though, cuz at their age, they're still actively fighting for what they believe in. They have some sort of passion and goal in life that they continuously work towards, even though they may not be able to enjoy the fruits of their labour. In this regard, they are so much younger than I am. I guess it's just a different perspective in life, or that I just haven't found that very aim that I should strive for.

Mono deal!!

2011-11-04T07:26:00.000+08:00

Good idea, bad day to execute it cuz there was a halloween parade that day! But I mean being a junior/senior I had no intention of going to the parade anyway, so it was time to make or break a deal to win amazon vouchers so our house can have more rice/ramen! It was a really really long competition cuz I think we were all kinda strategizing and freaking out unnecessarily. Got through to the finals but didn't win in the end. Earned $20 for the house though! :)

SSA should have a scrabble competition next. Then maybe I can win more money hehe. Can't wait for the next event cuz it's probably gonna be the best of the sem! SINGAPORE NIGHT WOOTS! :)

Gambling at the Hilton

2011-10-30T11:50:00.001+08:00

So I've been drinking, and now I'm gambling hmm. Decided to take my chances at the Hilton in Atlantic City today. Not too good a day considering the snowy weather of course. My only free weekend to head out though, so might as well make the best use of it!

Decided to try various strategies out at the table after finding out that it's a min bet of $5 and a max of $5000. That means can double a lot. But of course, the 怕输不起 me (or more to cut my losses) didn't really dare to bet till that high anyway. Might as well lose a little and earn everything back again. Earned $57 dollars ($11 from lottery, $46 from roulette) due to my cautious betting, meaning I effectively only earned about $10 after food and transport from nyc. o.o But I'd rather this than lose damn a lot. This time is try only, and I refused to draw more money anw. Max cash I exchanged was only $160. If not heart attack sia.

Was pretty interesting going to the casino myself. People were doubting my age and had to check my driver's license quite a few times, other players were teaching me how to bet on seeing that I'm so noob at it winning literally a dollar at a time (my modified gambling method haha to prevent excessive losses), the dealer was even teaching me how to gamble too cuz he kinda pitied my one dollar method, the security person taught me the odds of various bets in roulette, and another angmoh player was so interested in learning about my life. I really believe that 人生百态 can be seen on the gambling table. Hmm so it was an extremely interesting day watching how people behave, and especially in reaction to me haha. They addressed me in pretty endearing manners, like "little girl", "dear", "honey". I'm not that young lor!!! I guess compared to the others on the time I am la. Oh and at one point, it was only the dealer and me at the table. That must have been hilarious for him cuz he was trying to understand my method and just didn't know why I wouldn't bet higher.

Conclusion: THE METHOD WORKS if you have the 胆量 to keep doubling, and if the same colour/parity doesn't come up 13 times in a row. But must have slight modifications la that shinq and I shall know. Don't want to lose too much also what! Hehe so my experiment today is kinda encouraging shinq to try it out next sem, and she says maybe she'll do it in sg too. But dunno what's sg's limits yet and it kinda sucks to go in $100 down. So I made myself a promise that whatever I earn through this means, I'll donate 10% to GAA just cuz I really believe in the meaningfulness of the org and they need money! So $5 to them today, meaning I effectively earned only $5. XD

Tipsy tsk...

2011-10-28T11:27:00.000+08:00

Attend the p p c promotional tour in nyc last night. When yi fen and stepped in the main room in the mission, we were so shocked to see so few people there. There were the two organisers, the contact singapore officers and 6 students apart from the 2 of us. 7 of us were from nyu heh. I liked the cosy environment though. :)

So I've decided I'm not gonna join the challenge cuz it's just too time-consuming considering a pretty critical sem ahead. But I've decided to help out anyway. At least I don't need to stay overnight in some hotel room for 24 hours, and then sleep more to get back on the sleep debt. It's a vicious cycle hmm. I admit it's a good experience, but not good for a senior year experience heh. Was completely honest with them and said I couldn't think of a good reason to go.

After that, most of us decided to go for drinks with them in ktown. Heh bad move I think, maybe I shouldn't have gone. Or I should have gone but shouldn't have drank. Was playing this game called titanic. So what happens is that someone fills up a mug of beer and floats a shot glass on it. Then people around the table will take turns to pour at least one drop of pure soju in the shot glass. The one who sinks the shot glass will have to drink the soju bomb = the whole mug of beer + the soju shot. And I kena-ed twice. Downed the first mug all by myself, then the second mug I could only do half. That's after 4 shots of soju cocktail all in the span of about 1 hour I believe. So I turned out super floaty and found a reason for myself to go home cuz I couldn't drink anymore. First time I actually felt like puking and I was just so sleepy. Bathed and immediately conked out till this morning. And yes I woke up with a headache damn. So lousy right?

So I came back home today and shinq and vic were telling me that I was speaking super loudly to them last night. Oops I didn't realise haha. And yi fen had to sms shinq last night to ask if I was okay or not. So now I know I shouldn't be downing beer like water in a short period of time, and that I speak loudly (I guess like a lot of people do) when I'm tipsy. Yikes but totally disliked that feeling last night and this morning. Thanks to panadol the headache was gone by the time I went for class. Funnily enough, my body clock still managed to wake me up at 6.15 even though my alarm's set for 6.30am. I guess I wasn't too gone heh hahaha.

Friends :)

2011-10-25T09:04:00.000+08:00

So kav popped by over the weekend and I got to meet up with her! Had some good brunch at Cafe Orlin (guang hao's recommendation haha and I shall boost his ego here). Nice poached eggs with hollandaise sauce. K first time I figured out what hollandaise sauce is heh. Too bad good times were rather short cuz she had a plane to catch and I had a midterm to study for.

Sat night went to boka to celebrate huan's birthday. Yummy chicken wings/drumsticks! Beats kfc x 100 or more. So huan finally turns into an adult! And he better start acting like one hahaha. Had nice bubble tea after that - mango green tea with jelly! And had a good catch-up chat with winston and ian.

Did my midterm today and I'm just so glad it's over. No big paper due till 3 weeks later! Hell yeah! :))

Slack!

2011-10-16T11:34:00.000+08:00

Intended to study today but then it turned it to be an extremely lazy day. Woke up at 1+pm after having a late night convo with deivanai who visited our house! It was just like the shanghai nights when we'll just slack in someone's room for the night and talk crap.

Had lunch with guang hao at sushi garden, then went for some kung fu cha. :) Yummy bubble tea! My cravings for bubble tea were revived in shanghai and it hasn't died since! Then visited his crib and played hearts and mahjong. Mahjong so fun la! Haven't played it in such a long while. And I made my best win of the day, ripping $4095 each from their pockets. Unfortunately... it was VIRTUAL DOLLARS. I won with a 海底捞月 that was super amazing! XD And so I've used up all my mahjong luck in a while heh.

Had dinner at bao's noodles. Pho and durian ice cream packed with durian taste! Then did groceries at morton williams before heading back and slacking some more, apart from finishing my french homework cuz it's the easiest to do hehe.

Ahh have some serious mahjong craving now thanks to vic who suggested to play mahjong.I think I'll play viwawa and slack some more!

Dinner with Kelly

2011-10-14T13:28:00.001+08:00

After not having met up since Dec 2009, finally met up with Kelly again, my hk friend from my freshman year when she was a senior. It's funny how fb kinda kept us together for so long, as though we didn't need catching up at all. And we talked for 3.5 hours non-stop. Wow amazing. With any luck, she'll be in sg in jan!

Favourite dish of the day from yakitori taisho - sushi with unagi and avocado with mayo. Ok should cancel out the mayo but the rest is yumz! Followed by my all time favourite 16 handles fro yo. :)

All Natural Monday

2011-10-12T10:29:00.000+08:00

Yesterday we headed out for apple-picking. I drove all the way there *claps for myself*, and hopefully it was a little better. Arrived at barton orchards, but I failed task #1 there which was to park my car. Oops I was driving the sg test car actually - honda civic, but then no pole still cannot park. Hmm but even if you put a pole now I still might not be able to park haha.

Super huge farm but I don't suppose it's the hugest I've seen. Had lots of fun plucking apples and munching on yummy apple pie and drinking apple cider. They even had a band to entertain us, but I didn't exactly know how to appreciate that kind of country music.

Then we went to saugerties lighthouse. That was one sweet location where we just sat near the sea and slacked. Nice weather made the experience really great.

And then it was up the catskill mountain where we chanced upon the Kaaterskill falls.

Nice day of driving upstate ended with a trip to ktown where we met yifen for korean bbq, followed by red mango. I still love 16 handles though and I might just decide to indulge in it tomorrow haha if not for the fact that 1) it's out of the way home and 2) i'm trying to save $$ on food to travel.

Jersey Shore

2011-10-10T10:55:00.000+08:00

So the nice sun rise signified that the day ahead would be awesome! Well, and after some wandering about with the somewhat useless gps system we had... we managed to cover the places we wanted to go to! Except hmm poor stephen had to miss church. o.o

There's stephen our driver! I drove first, but obviously I'm the lousiest driver ever among the singaporeans haha. After not having driven a car for more than a year, I suddenly had to drive it again today. Tsk. Stephen drove next and then vic drove us back!

Visited the place that they filmed the mtv reality tv show Jersey Shore. The place really wasn't that great at all. The show just made everything too happening. The place itself was actually pretty boring. o.o No wonder the characters in the show have nothing better to do other than to sleep with each other and live on booze.

At least we got to see the beach! It was freaking hot. But I'd rather this over the cold. XD 30 deg! Singapore weather. :) I think we all got tanner today haha. Played arcade basketball with shinq and my skills deteriorated like mad. Boo. Time to practise at the singapore arcade again!

Then we went to jersey gardens to shop! Got myself covered heels that can last through winter, and a work jacket! Yay shopping for the rest of the year is done. Except that if I wasn't so tired today, I might have gotten more f21 clothes off the rack.

A new adventure begins tomorrow! May we survive! :)

My UN Pass

2011-10-09T06:37:00.000+08:00

Hehe long wanted to upload this since I got it! :) Unexpected flattering compliments at work on Fri too! Yay! :)

Celebrated wang shuang's bday spontaneously last night. Went to this korea/chi restaurant to eat 炸酱面. It's really good, but the portion is GINORMOUS. It's literally 2 pounds of meat and maybe another pound of noodles. I might be exaggerating but after we were done eating, we could mix our leftovers together to form another BIG bowl of noodles. Had coco again too. Bubble tea. :)))

It's only been 3 weeks at work but I dunno why wang shuang and I just hit it off so well. And it's not like she's at work on the days I'm at work too. I guess it's just an asian thing haha. And we have too many things in common like how she studied in Shanghai and doesn't like nyc too. I think our convos can become pretty anti-美国人 sometimes oops.

My boss is such a nice person to talk to as well. I must say she herself is anti-美国人 even though she is a 美国人. So I found that quite funny. Like she was saying cuz of the screwed up education system in the states, she'd rather hire international interns than local interns. True enough, the entire office of interns and perm staff only has ONE 美国人, which is herself cuz she founded the org. My sup's a turkish, another full-time intern's a french and the rest they are either off-site or they come so infrequently that I didn't know they existed till I bumped into them yesterday. We're definitely one of the most internationalised ngos around. XD

Nice week so far

2011-10-06T10:51:00.000+08:00

Before all hell breaks loose cuz I have to start my africa paper...

Got my UN pass on tuesday and actually got to attend a UN meeting between the some president and NGO representatives. So fun and interesting! :)) The newly-appointed pres was kinda stressed out though cuz the reps posed him questions they've been asking all along for dunno how many years. Indeed probs that are just that hard to resolve.

Met echo today for dinner with shinq. First time I've been to boka. So fail haha. But now I understand why the people here say that boka wings is GOOD. Cuz they are GOOD. Crispy skin and yummy meat. :) Hmm being able to schedule meet-ups is a sign that my life is really back! Yay!

Okay time to waka waka away.

Frontpage

2011-10-01T07:00:00.000+08:00

So Wang Shuang and I got to revamp the front page of the GAA website today! :) Yay I actually like doing it even though the process of scouring for pics is so super tedious. It's like the culmination of a whole week's worth of research. And then the next week, the whole cycle repeats itself again.

I like my one hour +++ long lunches haha cuz I'm just too productive for my own good, so I end up finishing most of my work super early. Although hmm research technically never really ends... but we kinda have a max number of articles to post up each week, and I doubled the quota. Oops. That means I'm actually doubling the work of the editor, and the site manager too. Oh wells we'll see how it goes. XD

Cannoli

2011-09-30T12:03:00.000+08:00

Grabbed dessert with Veni this evening at apparently this really good italian cafe. But heh it was pretty okay only for me, maybe cuz I'm not really a cannoli person to begin with. Had a really great time catching up with her, and feeling the whole recruiting thing. I guess I really wouldn't know what I'll be like if not for the stability I enjoy now. Maybe I'll be taking a double major in econs, and maybe I'll end up in ibanking and totally shunning geog. Hmm...

Singapore Mission

2011-09-28T10:50:00.000+08:00

La nuit derniere, j'ai attendu une reception de la mission de Singapour parce que le ministre des affaires etrangers est a New York pour attender l'assemblee generale des Nations. En fait, je suis allee manger seulement. XD La cuisine est mieux que ma cuisine certainement.

Okay give up. I needed google translate haha. Now if my elementary french 1 teacher ever sees this, I guess I'm dead. Yeah I probably should be in elementary 2 or intermediate 1 instead of elementary 1 if not for the fact that I remember only bits and pieces of stuff everywhere. Selective memory heh. So I want to learn everything properly again AND GO TO SCIENCES PO! :)

So my impracticality sets in again. But think about it, if I learn French, Chi and English, I'll have learnt 3 of the 6 official UN languages. And then maybe next time I can really work at the UN instead of just stare at it from the window. Can't wait till I get my UN pass next Tues! :)

Sciences Po maybe?

2011-09-26T10:33:00.000+08:00

Masters in Environmental Policy at Sciences Po.
Taught in English, based in Paris.
2-year programme.
Cool!

Housewarming!

2011-09-25T14:17:00.000+08:00

SSA dim sum gathering at jing fong (third consecutive week I've been there), bubble tea, and a little grocery shopping thereafter.

At night was the BIG thing ie. HOUSEWARMING! I think there were probably around 20 people in our house? Great turnout!! Our neighbour eventually called the doorman to call us to quieten down at 12.25am but we thought that was rather weird cuz we were making a whole load more noise earlier, and cuz only 7 or 8 of us were left by that time and we were just talking. o.o We weren't even screaming our shouting or giggling. Literally just talking. Oh wells... Don't wanna step on that neighbors' toes cuz he apparently SUED away the 2 guys who previously lived in the house.

Made our own choc cornflakes! And hmm it tasted like fudge. The major screwed up versions of it actually turned out chunkily better than the non-screwed up version. I guess cuz we didn't mean for the choc to be slightly chewy. We just wanted hard choc with bits of cornflakes in it. And only 4 were left by the end of the day out of a batch of 30 plus I think. Yayness. :))

Next up is to try frying goreng pisang. Ingredients already in the fridge! Just too lazy to start haha. XD I think desserts are really nice to make cuz there's no slimy raw stuff to touch. Bought too much choc for the choc cornflakes too so time to mess around with it a little.

YAYNESS!

2011-09-24T13:10:00.001+08:00

Je suis heureux parce que je vais etudier le francais! C'est mon plaisir!

And my internship still rocks, probably even more cuz I think I actually like what I'm doing. It's kinda similar to maintaining that geog webbie I have, except that heh I'm kinda erratic with that site now.

Say goodbye to my horrible sleep cycle! :))) But next week's still hiong cuz I needa do all the homework I missed for the past 9 lessons. Should be fun frenching around though. And shinq's taking french too, yay for a french study buddy!

We just 'mastered' the jay chou secret duet. He's seriously siao lor how to play so fast. I play until my hands damn sore le. K we'll make it some day haha. XD And I forgot to mention, yeah we bought a nice piano for our home to fill up the empty space. And we bought mahjong tiles. :p Money all flying away but hmm for worthy cause I guess?

Stressed sia

2011-09-22T00:13:00.000+08:00

My determination failed me. Bye cultural politics, and fingers-crossed, hello french! If I'm joyous on Friday, that means part of my life will have been returned to me.

Seriously if I don't change my life now, I'll be sleeping past 1am and waking up at 8am everyday just to mug. Shinq says she's impressed that I can consistently wake up earlier than her even though she has the earlier class. I am impressed with myself too, but it didn't come as a matter of choice anyway.

Damn Cool Internship

2011-09-21T05:51:00.000+08:00

Ok the job itself may not be that wonderful, but the perks of the job are definitely GREAT.

So I'm interning with Global Action on Aging this fall, an NGO that has consultative status with the UN. THE UN! :))))) They have really strict rules for interns, and I kinda flouted two of them today. Must come in formal wear (and I came in jeans thinking that heh a research intern just sits in front of the com all day right?), and must come in on time (but the General Assembly at the UN is happening now = roads are block = I had to get off the bus and walk = I was 15 min late) o.o Late on the first day of work blearghh, but I'm thankful my supervisor understands cuz she just went through the same thing as me yesterday haha.

Then I got my nice internship package. Gonna get a UN pass, which means I'll get to go to all those restricted access places like all the UN buildings, UN meetings and a free UN tour!!! XDDD I haven't been on a UN tour before, and the one I tried to go to in Vienna totally failed cuz I had a flight to catch. :( And... they actually printed a name card for me as well, and gave me a working email. Wow impressed. I think that's cuz both moe and HANNYS didn't give me those stuff when I interned.

I think the most challenging task I have there now is to read Chi articles and actually write an abstract in Chi. Oh my 天. o.o I was reading the other Chi intern's abstracts and seriously I'm never gonna be able to write that way. As for the Chi article that I chanced upon today, I didn't even understand the technical terms it mentioned. Only know it's something about pension but dunno what about it. Damn fail. Worse still, no one's gonna edit my Chi abstracts so it's just gonna go up online prob in an ungrammatical manner. Oops. Or in a Singlish manner. Time to engage some Chi teachers to help out!

20 hours of work a week means I'm dead on homework. Like now. o.o K so I'll run off now!!

Out There

2011-09-20T13:22:00.000+08:00

It's never easy steering a ship in the middle of a vast ocean when your radar fails you - you can go anywhere, but any path you take seems to lead to nowhere. You wish you could back track to where you departed, or at least stay where you are, but if you don't steer the ship, the waves will. You've been wandering aimlessly, but what can you do?

I'll let the waves take me on and brace my fear of the unknown. Let nature triumph rationality, because rationality occasionally loses its bearings.

Foodie weekend

2011-09-20T01:12:00.000+08:00

On a happier note, this weekend has been all about food! No yummy pics though.

Fri: Stephen, vic, shinq and I headed to queen's picnic garden for korean bbq buffet! Followed by mochi. And then kung fu tea. Ordered in at night and indulged myself in some eggy happiness.

Sat: Vic, shinq and I went to Bao's noodles to eat pho. And we chanced upon their awesome desserts. Durian ice cream was the best! Haha but when we asked the waiter if he could sell it to us by the tub, he was like err lemme go check, came back saying that the restaurant doesn't do that, but he was very willing to make it for us if we want it that badly. It was really good!! Can taste the real durian even though there aren't durian bits inside. Domesticated ourselves at night by cooking pasta + swedish meatballs (from ikea) + fried egg.

Sun: Vic, shinq and I went to Jing Fong to devour some dim sums, and of course our favourite durian pastry. :))) More grocery shopping and then again at night, we attempted to cook. This time it was black pepper beef with mushrooms, a failed attempt at making a black pepper beef patty, and fried egg tofu. All with rice! Cooked absolutely too much rice that can probably last us for a week, all because we thought the we needed to follow the min level indicated on the rice cooker, which was erm 4 cups of rice. o.o And we don't even eat 1 cup each.

But of course I'm not the one frying stuff oops. I really highly doubt my cooking skills, which is kinda odd because I watch too many cooking shows for my own good as shinq hinted at. The only thing I've made out of the shows I watched so far is chocolate wontons, simply because it's super easy to make, and it's yummy choc! No raw meat or veggie to handle so you don't have to estimate when the food's cooked.

It's really cheap to cook though. Each meal is less than $5 a person, compared to $15 plus tax plus tips if we dine outside? Crazy!!! Since I've spent so much money on the apt, I guess I'll really have to learn to cook to save up!

Goodbye world!

2011-09-20T01:02:00.000+08:00

So I guess as of this week, with all my already intense classes and the start of my internship... there goes my life! At least unless I'm super disciplined and mug everyday, which I obviously don't do.

Boo just did damn shitty work for a precis, which goes in the grade but I didn't even know how to write. Eh I still don't know if I really know how to write it till I submit it another stack and get it graded again. Starting to rethink my choice of classes this sem, but it's all too late to change anw. Unless I improve somehow, my summa (which I still don't have now :() is never gonna come. It's like some asymptote really. ><

Now I just hope that somehow I get into a good uni which gives me an easy conditional offer. Or better still, an UNCONDITIONAL one. PLEASE? :))))

No more hiatus

2011-09-18T12:40:00.000+08:00

So with the internet intact (I hope it really really stays that way), I'm back to my blogging norms. Lots to catch up on in the 3 weeks that has passed, but I might tire my fingers to death typing and reliving all of those recent memories.

Tropical Storm Irene struck. By the time it reached us, it was like a typical Singapore thunderstorm. And the best part is cuz shinq and I were so jetlagged, we slept through the crux of the storm. Nothing happened to us, or to the area directly surrounding us. That was pretty good I guess!

Apartment hunting, lease-signing and what-not was seriously some tedious and desperate process for us. With the Irene, we couldn't go get our debit cards or do up our phone lines. So between the two of us we had no phone and no card, and we were on the brink of having almost no cash to buy furniture because of the 4 month security deposit and broker's fee. Epic really.

But luck got the better of us, cuz we got a really really nice apartment. And I must emphasize that it is REALLY REALLY nice for the rent we pay for the apartment itself. Of course the broker's fee screws things up but oh well we were too desperate and we didn't even know we could negotiate the fee.

Absolutely love my spacious room that's too big to fit my camera. And mind you, that room is already divided between me and shinq. And we still have so much leftover space we're gonna put a small upright piano there. I guess we can also fit in a hopscotch mat, a mahjong table... hmm... expenditures haha.

Celebrated my 21st with justine, ian, shinq, vic and peixin. Met guang and mel at night too and gave them a bit of the cake. The cake is really damn nice!!!! Black hound. Good find, peixin. Hehe it was a choc cake for a choc lover like me!

School's pretty harsh. The bulk of my classes now are reading and writing intensive. So the reading load just piles up. o.o And thanks to my excellent scheduling, all of those classes meet on the same day of the week, meaning a last minute person like me will always have to die the day before. Time to be more disciplined!

Got an internship too, which officially starts next week. 20 hours of work yikes. But it's for a pretty legit organisation that has consultative status with the UN! Since I can't work at the UN itself cuz I'm not a grad student, this is as close as I can get to the UN. So there's no way I'm giving this up! This means bye to the world this semester cuz I'll either be holed up at work or at home. Better enjoy this last week!

惊喜！

2011-08-28T04:39:00.000+08:00

我最想看到，同时也是我最不想看到，的人昨晚竟然“偷跑”出来送机！

香港电视剧的情节又发生在我身上了。

我当时其实是蛮开心的，但也很痛心。

糟糕！

Goodbye Singapore

2011-08-26T17:17:00.001+08:00

With luck and on impulse, I just might be coming back home in Jan and skip the add/drop week of school to spend CNY with family. And that is some major incentive for me! Like my mum said, some money is worth spending. Just that the flight back to ny will be such a torturous 22 hours again. Gah someone like weizhong should invent a teleporter for me, thanks in advance hor! XD

I know why it's especially hard to leave this time compared to last time.
1) There might not be a prospect of me coming home anytime soon, unless the above happens.
2) I haven't really left home since this Jan. Shanghai's still in the same time zone and continent, comparatively very reachable and affordable for my family to come over for hols.

Not to mention I'll have some heavy downpours welcoming me back to nyc thanks to the hurricane. Screws apartment hunting plans big time. I just hope that Irene will somehow find some warmer waters or meet some nice winds out there and change its path.

6.5h left in this country. I've been totally throwing gre aside today and soaking in my hk drama. I think I just might finish the 2nd last ep today. SO EXCITING NOW!

ASWs. besties. ycampers. OG. moe peeps. class gang. family.
malacca. internship. tanjung pinang. macau/hk/shenzhen. dpps. teo heng. movies. bbq.
summer <3

飞吧！

2011-08-26T03:03:00.000+08:00

谢谢你终于给了我个答案。

就像某人说的，这两种选择都并不差，算是幸福中得作出更幸福的选择吧。

至少现在我懂得怎么面对来临的一年。

但泼出去的只能一滴一滴这么收回。过程可能是漫长的，可能是艰难的。

一切已是预料之中的。我们这期间只不过没毅力去面对，更没毅力去克服。

每一次飞都是抱着不同的心态的。还以为会变得越来越懂得放下。

会的，我会放下。

但我也不会放弃。

到时再说吧。

Lasts of this bittersweet summer

2011-08-24T21:55:00.000+08:00

Met Jo for dinner last night and we talked about our lives again as usual. As I'll say time and again, friends like these are hard to come by, and I truly appreciate such friends. :)

Met weiren, marcus and eug today for lunch before we headed back to rj. Without much effort, we managed to meet mr kamel, mr kamal, miss tan and mr neo. They just happened to be there for us. Excellent timing. Apparently out of the 4 of us, marcus was the one least recognised thanks to his dyed longer hair (or what I would call a brit hairstyle). 入乡随俗了haha! Rj has indeed changed a lot. It's like some garden now, and lots of places are sheltered so that's good. Just can't believe how we're already J5s and our teachers are already teaching the 2nd batch after us. For them to remember us is already surprising, especially me I think haha. I'm never quite the one to be remembered cuz I don't speak a lot in class anyway. Hmm... just might be colleagues with them next time, like how weiren was for the past two terms. So near my house too hehe.

And so that marks the last of my outings with friends. The next two days are mug pack mug pack and more family time. o.o This summer has been happening, maybe cuz it was longer than last summer and I actually travelled and did an internship. Sigh... like mel said. Emo mood now.

未放下的可能真的要放下了，各走各路。

But I guess many more people I know are flying off too so technically more of my friends are more accessible now. :) That doesn't make it too bad!

21st at Dozo

2011-08-21T18:44:00.000+08:00

So after my cousin's 21st big bday bash this july, my relatives were thinking of celebrating my bday before I disappear to the concrete jungle of nyc for 10 months. And we ended up coming back to dozo to eat loads and drink loads in a semi-private room.

And that's the 2kg intercontinental cake my parents specially ordered. My dad was insistent that the original cake (that was square) had to be round because it signifies 团圆, that's why the cake had to be "specially made". He was also insistent that a 2kg cake would look nicer than a 1kg cake, although the 17 of us effectively only finished half the cake. Meaning... lucky people in the week to come shall get to have a taste of this awesome cake! I believe there will be FOUR of them, or FIVE. Not to mention these lucky people will dine for free if they choose to come to j8, thanks to the vouchers my mum just received haha. Birthday treats await!

This 21st celebration didn't end off easy when my youngest aunt decided to ask everyone to ask me a total of 21 questions about my life. Of course kind and drunk people (we brought too much alcohol haha) asked me questions about HK and TVB, my teacher aunt asked me about oral exams??, my mum asked me what the fruit on the cake was... But then the more evil people started poking me with more embarrassing questions that made me wanna bury myself. I mean in the first place, I don't like to be in the centre of attention. And on top of them, asking me these kinds of questions? Thank gosh I answered everything in a very guarded manner. My dad decided to ask when I will get married (recently my parents keep talking about that topic for I dunno what reason) and how many kids I want, then the rest of them decided to poke me at you-know-who questions. Heh... life is still a ball of uncertainty. Gotta bask in my singlehood (aka unmarried status)!

Anyway, watched overheard 2 with my family last night. My bro LOVES watching movies nowadays. Practically every week must watch a movie. I'm getting kinda sian of it la but oh wells I only get to see him for 36 hours a week so I shall pander to his demands. :) The show's nice!!! Daniel wu is 帅的 lor! Though I still like my boy-boy sammul chan hehe. :)

DPPS

2011-08-19T23:26:00.000+08:00

I really dreaded going for it, cuz otherwise my week would have been pleasantly free for GRE prep/masters app prep. The thought of having to write 6 more uni essays for 8 different courses doesn't sound too appealing. To what extent can I be different from other applicants hmm? I guess my GPA may even allow me to cross the first mark for my reach schools, which bleh kinda sucks but hmm that's why it called REACH right haha?

I can't say I liked all of dpps, but it was really nice meeting on the moe peeps and getting to know non-moe ones, however few there were heh. Visited the scdf and was given a personal tour of the equipment they use there. Also had speakers from various ministries (except moe tsk). I loved the PS at the end though. He really knows how to engage the audience and even though his dialogue lasted 1h20min, it totally didn't feel that long at all. I guess I liked him loads cuz he's PS of MOT. :))) And he was talking quite a bit about transport stuff in the beginning, which I could totally understand. Unsurprisingly, the fare hike thing came up, but I think he handled it pretty well.

Met meiyi for dinner at night at holland v. Haven't met this girl in such a long time and yeah she's changed quite a bit. Hope all's well! :)))

Happy Birthday Thing^2!

2011-08-17T02:50:00.000+08:00

So another glorious year of celebrations has passed. Jiaying and I were still recounting how last year we got thing^2 a watch and treated her to a cake at bakerzinn at vivo. And this year, we're back to vivo again haha.

It was different this time though. Cuz we headed to the movies at first to watch My Patisserie. It was a really sweet peaceful Jap show that lasted for 2 hours. Ok that made me quite sleepy cuz I've been out practically the whole day by then. The show really enticed me to dig into some yummy cakes afterwards heh, and so we did. Yijie was up on the roof already preparing thing's cake when we came after the movie. 3 cakes from fruit paradise, lined up side by side so that thing can savour different tastes all in one. Continued our card and gift presentation at superdog, where 3 workmen were staring at us cuz they couldn't fix the lights or something with us sitting there. Oops. o.o

I guess the difference this time was that we managed to catch thing off-guard when vanessa and yijie were just writing her card under her nose! Yay for the successful surprise! :))) Or thing is just blur AS USUAL hahaha. XD

The Fortune Buddies!

2011-08-17T02:44:00.000+08:00

Yay for a funny HK movie. Would have been so much better if this country decides to show it in canto. If not some of the jokes don't come out right!

No prizes for guessing which HK maniac watched the show with me. It's definitely LINDA-SAN! Ate pepper lunch at amk hub and then headed for the cinema to have a blast. Ok maybe the show isn't that great for a commoner, I don't really know. But a biased HK person like me of course liked the show! :))

MUST WATCH!

I'm starting to like 福禄寿. So impressed that they can all sing. Too bad I could only watch one episode of their show in HK on the online tv. Other than that, I just cannot find any service provider that doesn't require you to be in HK that airs the show. :(((

Brotzeit

2011-08-17T02:40:00.000+08:00

I think my pig face has increasingly become my trademark tsk. XD I actually kinda like it haha. Maybe it's cuz I'm looking more and more like a pig, especially after all the FOOD in HK. And then back to the states it's all the grime, grease and whatever again. Not to forget FRO-YO 16 handles!

My family hasn't been to brotzeit in ages. Chanced about it quite a while ago during CNY (yes we escape packed chinese restaurants and go for angmoh ones during that period). Since then, I guess our appetites have grown bigger judging by the amount of food on the table. Hehe the army boy can always do the deed of being the rubbish bin. XD So I gobbled down the sausages as usual. And I think pork sausages taste great, with mustard! They also had this emperor's pancake thing with plum sauce for dessert and that was delicious. But of course, at brotzeit you gotta get beer right? Nahh not for me nor my mum. Dislike taste of beer. I'd do better with my ice wine and moscato. Exquisite taste right haha.

Teo Heng Numbah 2

2011-08-17T02:35:00.000+08:00

The day I landed was the day I went to teo heng. Second time I went to karaoke since I've been back. Too few times eh. But I think the more I don't k, that urge kinda dies out too. Hmm or maybe this summer hols people have been too busy with internships to meet up on a weekday afternoon when prices are cheaper. o.o

It was like deja vu. Lunch at old airport road and then off to katong shopping centre. Just that after that, everyone sorta had their own dinner plans so we split up again. Out of the group that came, everyone except jo and waisum are flying off within the next month. Sigh so sad. No more little island to congregate in. But hmm meeting up overseas could be cool too, just that logistics is more of a hassle.

Hello HONG KONG!

2011-08-17T02:32:00.000+08:00

Macau - Hong Kong - Shenzhen! But my favourite of course is 香港! <33333

So this time it was with the 5B gang, only short of miss chan meiyi because she has no money to go. o.o This 4 guy 1 girl combination wasn't too pleasing to my parents, but I'm glad it all worked out somehow with other females coming into the picture at different points in the trip. :)

Yummy food. The sight of a TVB van (with curtain so I couldn't see who was inside DANG). Canto spam. What more can I seriously ask for?

Please some HK organisation give me an internship next summer! How come only can find ONE miserable one so far? Blehh. And going through overseas internship organisations are kinda ex so I don't know if it's that worth it to satisfy my HK craving. Maybe I should attempt to grow rich in nyc. Teach tuition, do paid surveys. Yeah I need USD$6000 to go on those programmes. Someone give me the moolah!

Family BBQ!

2011-08-07T18:06:00.000+08:00

It's been years since we had a family bbq. I think the last time we had it was at the end of 2007, when meiyi and eug came over haha. But things haven't changed much since then. The adults still took the helm, with us kids enjoying one another's company and in other words, slack. XD

And once again, it's proven that my favourite bbq food is SAUSAGES. My dad even bought yummy cheesy sausages. :)) And the second most favourite is probably MARSHMALLOWS. Both are easy to eat (ie. don't need to dirty your hands) and require not a lot of cooking time.

Yay love family gatherings! And the next one is in 2 weeks!

Sweet

2011-08-05T23:11:00.000+08:00

Being appreciated for helping someone without asking for anything in return is really sweet. :)

Today, that person made me aware of how much more capable I am than what I believed myself to be. It's surely a touching form of recognition I would say, and it makes me rethink yet again which path I should take in future. It seems like I'm more suited to help those who truly need help, than those who are already close to flying.

I'm still not that great a person though, but I'll strive to be the best I can be.

For the love of geog. :)
For the love of kids who deserve much more than they are getting. :)

21st with ASWs

2011-08-05T21:26:00.001+08:00

Thanks to the ASWs who celebrated my bday way way way in advance! Haha great 'compensation' for the times that I'm not in singapore for my bday. :)

Ate at manhattan fish market at ps with them yesterday, and then had more half-priced desserts at cafe cartel after that. To top the night off, mieo and I decided to go watch captain america at 11pm at amk hub! Midnight movie hehe. Quite awesome to be spontaneous at times right? :)

Tanjung Pinang Bintan

2011-08-03T23:35:00.000+08:00

Decided to try out one of those groupon travel deals. Was actually deciding between batam and bintan when my dad said that bintan will be more fun than batam. Being noob enough not to know or find out that tanjung pinang bintan is not the main part of bintan, I took the deal. Checked out the hotel online and thought it wasn't that bad either.

It was a 2D1N thing. Went yesterday and am back today. Scam la seriously. The stuff at tanjung pinang's so much cheaper than bintan resort itself! Dang I really wanna go to the real bintan itself. The hotel was dingy and at first, I was offered a room that greeted me with 2 dead cockroaches. Ahh horrors.

Day 1 started off with a city tour: visited a cuttlefish factory which sold yummy cuttlefish, the biggest guan yin miao in indonesia which I honestly didn't care much about, some mall place that wasn't too interesting. Had seafood lunch which thankfully had legit seafood (fish, prawns, flower crab, sotong). Also had some traditional massage. The masseuse was crazy I believe cuz she'll just twist and turn your limbs in weird positions. o.o At some points I thought she might actually dislocate parts of me. But other than that, it was actually pretty good! Visited this big open-air hawker centre too and the food there was the kind of food I was looking for when travelling. Local delights. :)

Day 2 it was just super hot to walk around so I walked for about 1h+ and gave up. Sweat like shit already, after I bathed somemore cuz I sweated over the night. The room's aircon sucked, mosquitoes everywhere that kept biting me so that I couldn't sleep. One of the bites landed on my eyes making it swollen. o.o That happened to me in shanghai too haha. On the same eye somemore. Don't know why mosquitoes like my left eye so much. XD

So my 收获 for the trip: 4 new friends (a group of NUS students who also got scammed) and 15 mosquito bites. Cool enough haha.

变

2011-07-30T22:41:00.000+08:00

人能够在两个月之内变得那么透彻吗？相信有志者，事竟成。虽然说变是能变，但是否是心甘情愿的变又是另一回事。人啊，有时就是那么难捉摸的。

The Little Prince

2011-07-30T00:03:00.001+08:00

Met up with da to watch the little prince. It's one of matt's creations, so must support fellow teacher! :) One of the guys was super funny to watch, and I think he's pretty good cuz he can pull off acts as different characters. The snake lady was good too when she was a snake cuz she really slithers around with grace.

The downside of the play was that it was too cold sitting at the back! Da and I were literally freezing cuz the aircon was blasting right as us. And then there was this weird person beside me who kept making funny MOANING noises. And I mean like every few minutes, especially towards the end of the show. Seriously why would anyone go HMM HMM HMM in the middle of a play? So disruptive grr.

Oh I finally satisfied my craving for yoshinoya today. Cuz china's yoshi was so nice I had to try it in sg. And heh I think china's one is more value for money. So I have a new love... tamago beef = beef with raw egg that will eventually get cooked due to the heat of the food. Yummy. :)))

Wah lao and something that keeps bothering me. Can my oil glands not be so active and keep exploding on my face? 见不得人了。><

HP7 PII

2011-07-28T00:57:00.000+08:00

As bingqian said, HP dominated literally half of our lives. And finally it has come to an end. I thought the movie was great, but maybe that's cuz I didn't read the book yet. So it's time for me to flip through it hehe. :)

Caught the movie with eug and he was being quite irritating/funny during the movie however you interpret it, making really random comments at the scene like wahhhh... cooll.... etc. Like when ron was turning that door to the chamber of secrets, eug was super amazed at the door even though it already featured last time. Had to shush him just in case other ppl stare at us haha.

Tried frolick for the first time after the movie and I thought it was pretty good! But I'm still waiting for 16 handles! I think that's still the most awesome fro-yo ever that I've tasted. :))

Tockies teo heng again!

2011-07-27T00:05:00.000+08:00

Had lunch at the biopolis with matt, lorr, charmaine, lisa, cheryl, sophia, laoda, mike and liu zhen. Tockies still have the largest number of people who meet up! Proud of us! But that's probably also because 5 of us come from the same school, and we so happen to just click with the rest as well. :)

Then visited PLACE the art exhibition. So proud of the art students. :))))) The passion they have for art, and the action they take to take their passion to the next level, is just amazing. The art works are really cool too! I think one reason why I don't appreciate art is cuz I don't understand it. But lorr was a great tour guide (even though it's only her first time) by telling us exactly what each art piece meant. And then suddenly, the piece becomes a lot more full of purpose.

Went to teo heng after that, where wen jing joined us. My eng song database levelled up again! Probably cuz of clubbing for class in shanghai. Then at least can recognise the songs. Other than that, I don't actively source out new music, so actually I've no idea how come I recognise quite a number of songs. Even chi songs for that matter. But I don't think we played super new songs anw.

Ate at this nyonya restaurant at night. Company was great! And we sat at the table for more than 2h chatting our way through the night. Lots of suaning and laughter! :)

Seriously you gotta love this bunch of teachers-to-be!

The Feedback

2011-07-26T23:58:00.000+08:00

Attended the feedback session in the morning. I think one major message I got out of it is this, as I was telling mic chai:

I think most of us, if not all of us teachers-to-be, are guilty of being too idealistic about being an educator. And I must admit that I'm guilty of that too. Sure, we hold the believe that we can make impacts on students, that we want to impart values to them other than content. But how much can we actually do when we teach? Of course we can do a lot of things, but the point is that we can't do everything. And that's what the speaker reminded us about, that we have to manage these tensions. But to manage these tensions, I guess we have to acknowledge that we're being idealistic, and that we need to sync ourselves to reality.

This attachment alone attempts to give us a peek at how a school is run, but it gives us the picture that the school wants to portray to us. We don't really know how true it is, nor have we been in school long enough to gain a complete understanding of it. So essentially our judgements and comments based on the attachment alone holds little weight in the grander scheme of things. I just think that sometimes when we feel so strongly for our stand, we forget that there's a need to look at things as a system and we forget that there's a reason behind why things are done a certain way. I'm glad that we question, but more importantly, we must also understand the other point of view and then make an informed decision from there.

Somehow today's session reminded me of students' congress. I joined that precisely because I couldn't understand why congress seems to speak for the school administration. But it's only over time that I realised why the school has certain policies in place. It's just that these reasons aren't communicated to us, just like how the ministry doesn't communicate whatever reasons they have to us. If anything, there's a lack in transparency that leads to dissatisfaction or a very subjective view.

But hmm I guess young adults will be young adults. Our gung-ho ness needs to be admired at times. :)

To all those who commented

2011-07-26T00:03:00.001+08:00

I don't normally check comments, so it was not until I scrolled down today that I realised I have one comment on my previous post. So I decided to look back at all the other comments that I have thus far and I discovered that while I've read some (my friends' mostly), I have never read the rest cuz I've been thinking everything else is spam!

And I don't get comments that often anyway... that's why I hardly check it.

Sorry to those who have been waiting for a reply, literally since YEARS AGO. Eh but I guess for those, my reply is kinda irrelevant already.

Wow I'm still kinda astounded by the fact that my blog shows up when ppl google acad-related stuff. I previously only knew that it'll come up if the nyu peeps type in nyu + their names. XD

Yummy lunch!

2011-07-25T23:44:00.000+08:00

Decided to try out the set lunch at ma maison (bugis) with eug today. It's a jap fusion restaurant that's recommended by ladyironchef. I think I've become kinda reliant on that website for yummy food! But as always, eug will be the one who searches up all these cool restaurants to try out so that 我们有口福了! And then I'll tell my family about it, so that it'll add on to the list of 好去处 that's still considered affordable based on our parent's budget.

It's really very 划算. 12.90++ for soup + bread + drink + salad + main course.I chose the beef steak and it was good considering how much I paid for it. Of course I like the hot plate kinda steak better, but that one more ex ma.

Thumbs up! :)

To the gang!

2011-07-24T23:13:00.000+08:00

Sometimes, it takes a friend to remind you of the little snippets in life back then that make you treasure what you have now.

Intentionally, or unintentionally, marcus tan did that. And I'm glad he did so.

Of course, nothing would have been complete without the help of ah ye and meiyi at that time. So I'm glad they did what they did too.

I still remember that very day when ah ye asked us to go into one of the seminar rooms (the one we took our geog As in) to help him choose photos for his art project. That's what we did. But then after that, the surprise came. And I remember that they snapped a shot of how we reacted too.

Awesome friends. :)

If things do really end off well, I'd totally wanna feature this gift you all made. :)

Thanks gang! :))))

Tweeties again

2011-07-24T00:33:00.000+08:00

Met tom, min, man hin, wee tiong, jo and marlon today at ecp. Haven't been there in a really long time. All we did was sit and chat, listening to tom's view on life. I guess I'm still pretty much a listener as I've been since pri school, though rg changed me quite a bit. I enjoy listening to other people more than sharing stories with them. And this listener-speaker thing definitely differs from person to person, or from group to group.

Glad that it went pretty well in the end I feel, with us eating chicken rice (YUMMY!) and playing bluff at this hk dessert shop. Bluff was seriously the highlight because we got to see the playing styles that each of us has. XD

Last day of school

2011-07-24T00:29:00.000+08:00

Last day is a mixture of nostalgia and happiness. I'm happy cuz I'm finally done with the project and presentation and report, and I thought it went pretty well. Also happy cuz that means I don't have to go back to school to waste time. But then I really wanna relief teach now that I have taught, and I really wanna explore my project further cuz I find it extremely useful.

Now that the internship has ended, I feel that I kinda aimless for the rest of the summer. As in nothing else that I do is as meaningful or maybe impactful as what I did. And I guess nothing can be as rewarding as well. Hmm I'm glad I had a good enough experience to feel this way though. Makes me look forward to the 6 years of my life that I've given away.

But beyond those years... who really knows? XD

Reflections

2011-07-19T17:55:00.000+08:00

Writing reflections is mundane yet insightful at the same time. If we don't reflect consciously or subconsciously, how are we going to improve as a person?

A short talk with my mentor this morning really made my day. I used to think that there's a generation gap or just a dissimilar frequency between us even though we're only 9 years apart. But today, I finally saw the side of him that made me open up more, albeit a bit late in this internship. I guess deep conversations bring us both on the same page. We talked about life, the life beyond teaching. We talked about attributes that make a person successful. He is a really admirable teacher, and an admirable person, and he has my respect.

So yes my internship has been uninteresting for the most part, the interesting bits are enough to make me like the internship as a whole. If only the relief teaching online app wasn't terminated till national day, I'd have it filled and sent in so that I can go back to school next week to teach for real. And get paid haha. XD

Enclosed

2011-07-18T21:06:00.000+08:00

So I think teachers may not really have a life too unless we actively find one. As we move up the ladder, our working hours get extended past a normal civil servant's working hours. But hmm at least we get the holidays. Just that our lifestyles are so super different from a normal person that we may end up mingling in our own teacher circle. Like jelvin said, who wants to hear more about school after they're out of school?

Lesson today failed big time because the very technology I had to use to teach refused to work. Imagine sometime in future when everything's digitized... it'll only take a blackout to call a day off school. :)

Clubbing with the teachers-to-be

2011-07-17T17:56:00.000+08:00

The day started off with me meeting eug at city hall for lunch. Considering the night ahead, we decided against spending extravagantly for lunch. So we headed to the foodcourt where I indulged in my 炸鱼片米粉汤! Trying to be 'healthy' heh. The amoy one where I used to eat with the aviva peeps is so much nicer though. Gong cha after that! Recently I have an obsession with gong cha after my cuzzie introduced it to me. And all I've been wanting to drink since then is gong cha's alisan tea cuz that's what my cuzzie got me. :))

Then we went to visit the Artscience museum at marina bay sands. Was super disappointed that the sciencey permanent exhibition is so small cuz that's why I agreed to go there in the first place. Not interested in dali, van gogh or some tang dynasty exhibition. But to make our money worth, we just visited every exhibit. Hmm maybe if the museum has cooler exhibits, then it'll be worth another visit!

After that we decided to walk around outside the shoppes, and sit down at some steps area where we could watch the ndp preview. It was more of my decision la haha cuz I haven't watched ndp for real since 2001 where we went for the NE show. Even though we couldn't see the main action of it, at least we got to see the parachutes, boats and helicopters. That was enough to make me happy and singaporean! That's my compensation for missing the real ndp this year cuz I'll be in HK! So unpatriotic right tsk! But I can't say how much I've grown to like singapore after living overseas. :p

Met the tockies grace, laoda, cheryl, matt and his friend later at night at st james power house. We were there pretty early so nothing was really happening. Cheryl and grace were the experienced girls dancing on the stage, laoda's the retired clubber and the rest of us were just like others I think. Haha and I wasn't that siao a clubber as people think I would be. China hasn't changed me that much heh. It only changed my perception of it, not my liking of or craziness for it. XD It was tiring but fun, quite screwy on the sleep cycle as usual. Like laoda/cheryl said, seriously we're the last group of people we'd think of asking to go clubbing with. But heh future teachers are humans too, even though we operate on a sleep cycle that's different from a normal working person! I'm really glad that I'm gonna work with these cool people in future, unless... tsk. :))

3 weeks gone!

2011-07-15T17:47:00.000+08:00

First time teaching a 44-student class in school yesterday. Was supposed to teach an introduction of the chapter on rivers. I was damn nervous la, but heh apparently I managed to pull it off. Hopefully things will be better when I do the lesson again for another class next mon! It's actually really encouraging to know that the students like the class (more for the technology than my teaching hurhur) and I guess that's what motivates teachers in some way? K I shouldn't be making judgements too early.

I don't know whether to be glad or not that 3 weeks of my internship has flown by. I guess on the whole I do like the internship. But ask me to stay a week longer doing the same thing I've been doing, then I might reconsider. I mean there must be an optimal time in completing something, and then moving on to something else.

Anyway, the interns decided to head to old school delights for lunch today. :) I like the concept of the place cuz they feature old games like the rubber game, kuti kuti, snap... then the menu is an exercise book... the order is written on a whiteboard etc. Oh and the cake smells super super nice when it was freshly baked. Other than that, the food wasn't that amazing I thought. But it's a great place for people to reminisce I suppose, not that we teachers need it hahaha.

Girls' night out!

2011-07-15T17:40:00.001+08:00

Had dinner at itacho ps with jo and da last night. :) Da and I wanted to try to restaurant cuz this is actually the restaurant featured in the canto show 鱼跃在花见. The rice of the sushi tasted special in a good way to me and the food's not bad! 值得一去. But that could also be because I'm just biased towards hk stuff. Like today michelle got me damn excited when she was talking about how her friend wants a hk bf, and how her friend applied to hku for exchange. And since da wants to go to hk to visit her hk friends next year, I just might be going there again! :) This time I know I'll have an awesome time tracing tvb places.

By some fate, met eug later on cuz he just happened to come back from his meeting and was gonna pass by ps. It was a really short meeting, and lasted a walk from ps to wisma. Hmm I've been walking a lot with him lately haha. Very good exercise heh.

I felt really happy last night, partly because I feel very appreciative of da and jo. Da has always been able to pick up signals from the people around her, and that's how she managed to guess lots of things about me before I officially tell her. She's really the 'dad' amongst us haha in the sense that because she's able to pre-empt and see through lots of stuff, she warns me about things to happen. As for jo, she's really the 'mum' partially also because we share certain common experiences and thinking. So when it comes to matters of the heart, she's much easier to talk to. But in all, I like how both of them are supportive of what I do, and they show their concern when necessary too. :) We all want the best for one another! :))

Contact time

2011-07-13T18:49:00.000+08:00

2 hours of playing random youtube videos: listening to the australian twins sing, watching highlights of this canto variety show 奖门人, watching bits of clicknetwork... 1.5 hours of playing monopoly deal hong kong version... 45 mins of playing scrabble...

And the day ended off with 3 hours of staff meeting, where we were served old chang kee curry puffs which I ate for the first time in half a year or longer.

What an exciting day!

Another catch-up session!

2011-07-12T18:28:00.000+08:00

This time it's with man hin. Met him at nex (somehow we just always meet there) last night for dinner, and again we talked for hours till the restaurant was kinda about to close. Really appreciate how he takes the initiative to keep in contact with me for the past few years. Cheers to a wonderful friend! :)

Awesome weekend!

2011-07-10T23:14:00.000+08:00

One of the best weekends I've had since I'm back!

Fri night met up with the nyu people for the freshmen mixer! :)))) Haven't seen a good number of this people in seven months, so it's a great time for everyone to collectively assemble and be good counsellors to the freshies haha. Recognise some rj guys, which is pretty cool. Great reminder that 2 years have passed and that now rj guys of our batch have finally made it into uni. After dinner, a group of us decided to stay on and catch up but that didn't last very long too cuz some people had to catch the last train home. :( Nvm can't wait for out next gathering! I think I look forward to these gatherings more when I don't have to be involved in the planning of it, and don't have to actively try to engage all the freshies. Very hard to make small talk with everyone leh. But at least can rmb their faces and their names thanks to fb.

Sat morn met felicia so that we could go for peirce family day. Haha it was more because she had to print her chem game in school. I think family day's pretty fun cuz the fun lies in seeing the teachers bringing their family over and dressed so informally. It's the other side of them la. And all their cute children. :)))

Then met eug to watch larry crowne. I just wanted to watch some comedy la cuz the previous two shows have been about sci-fi which is just not exactly that appealing to me. Good sweet popcorn at the cathay! Something I didn't realise heh. I rmb last time that bugis has nice popcorn too. But yah like what eug said, garett's popcorn probably better la. Caramel popcorn yummsss if you can tahan the sugar level. Got gong cha after the movie too! Their 鲜奶 is yummy! Wonderful introduction by my cousin la. Finally this year I get to try koi and gong cha for the first time. Damn lag. But gong cha > koi cuz of the 鲜奶. Then followed eug as he went to search for his ipad accessories. Guys will be guys la heh, so techie that I got bored and decided to jalan jalan myself while he hunted for his stuff. Then dinner at shaw macs while we worked out hk/macau itinerary, which I guess was the main highlight of the day. Twister fries is out yay! I think this is the 3rd or 4th time I've had it since it was ever out? Again damn lag. And also cuz they normally have it during cny when I'm not around boo. :(

Today's officially my family day. Went out for breakfast and dinner as a family. Gahhh my bro kena stay in army duty so I guess part of the weekends will still have to be reserved for family makans. Oh nosss I think I've double booking myself on weekends le. That's bad ahh.

School Life Week 2

2011-07-08T17:41:00.000+08:00

I think the good thing about school life is that every day is different, if you are teaching la that is. Everyday there seems to be different stories to tell, different issues to deal with, different jokes to laugh about etc. I kinda like that constant novelty, but I don't know for sure if that's the case in the long run. Anyway this could be one of my idealistic views considering that I'm mostly stuck in the resource room in school 95% of the time.

Had pre-dpps yesterday and met most of the tockies again! :) Yay had dinner at thai express after, and we discussed all our cool outings, which we all planned out so efficiently. Of course the more bonded group has sorta decreased in size, but I mean we still enjoy one another's company one way or another. It helps that some of us have built up our friendship outside of just moe so it brings the group together. I still think they're a really awesome bunch of people.

I was kinda falling asleep (ok I did fall asleep at some point) during the seminar even though 2 of the speakers were actually good! Cannot help it la. Tired. o.o And cuz of that, laoda says I'm not gonna be some bigshot conducting some dialogue session next time, which I kinda agree with cuz I not enough analytical power to do so la tsk. But he kinda took it back when he thought that wah maybe next time I really am some perm sec hahaha.

Today's a really happy day! Mainly cuz it's FRIDAY and cuz my proj is finally SETTLED. So many hiccups along the way it's not even fun. And I also think I make my mentor damn sian cuz he has to settle this and that for me. But I still like my mentor heh. :) And today the interns decided to be rebellious! Cuz we all finished our stuff (or at least finished the stuff we could do at the point), we didn't wanna just stay in the office and stone or sleep. So we decided to get out of school for awhile, and we went to thomson plaza. And we came up with different half-believable reasons for ourselves just in case we get asked. So I'm supposed to buy chocs as prizes for next week's lesson, felicia's supposed to buy milo drink packets as prizes too for her lesson, bingqian came along to help felicia carry the milo drinks cuz it's heavy, and michelle came because she wanted to go popular to browse at some chi books. WONDERFUL reason right? XD And we didn't really care when we bumped into some of the students we've met before in school. Hmm... so we were talking about next time we should venture out further. Go J8, then maybe orchard, and then changi! ROCKS! Hahaha.

That's the life of an intern teacher who's not qualified or experienced enough to teach yet. Oh wells. o.o

Botanic Gardens

2011-07-06T17:14:00.000+08:00

First field trip as a teacher today! Brought students to the botanic gardens so that they can take pics of nature and people's interaction with it. Haha but the funny thing was there were 4 teachers (1 real teacher + 3 trainees including me) and 2 students. XD It's cuz only these two students are involved in this thing called IPW (Interdisciplinary Project Work), and they're supposed to do something on conservation. PW on a sec school level haha.

Yay what a great way to spend my whole afternoon today. At least don't need to stay in the office and stare at the computer screen heh. :p

Summer Collage!

2011-07-05T18:22:00.001+08:00

AVIVA SAIGANG WARRIORS! :)

Heh I think thing^2 and I look quite similar here. XD

Chopping up my cousin's awfully chocolate cake! I still miss my venetian cake. Hehe maybe should go eat it in macau instead of gamble. :)

No motivational speeches please

2011-07-05T18:11:00.002+08:00

I've totally ignored the rule not to blog about work. But the rule was about not MINDLESSLY blogging I believe tsk. Freedom of expression yo!

So today I had a challenge in school - to speak about what motivates me. Was supposed to do this after the class set their targets for their O's.

Gahhh... and of course, being me, that means not really being that idealistic guai student that I used to be maybe up till sec 1, it's really hard to think of what to say that's politically teacher correct. I can't tell the students to be last minute chiongers because they have dunno how many subjects to chiong for. So whatever I said in class, it had to be qualified by their teacher in the end.

Bleh I basically went slightly off the beaten track in the school sense and told them that at the end of the day, even if they get all A1s, it doesn't mean that you're the smartest person in the nation. That's not what you need in life. [But I didn't say that it means C5s and C6s are okay too. o.o] Then I said that fb and youtube is fine, as long as you know how to control yourself. These are forms of destress, because caging yourself and studying doesn't necessarily work too. [But I didn't say how much destress is fine, and how to control.] Then I said that the system does allow for students to chance on opportunities to jump to a better school, and that the O's is precisely that chance. And I said to the girls particularly that we don't have 2 years in NS to think and rethink and then realise that studying is important (because bingqian was talking about how his ITE NS friend realised that in army). We just move on from one challenge to another in a very short amount of time. And it's precisely because we don't have that luxury of time that we must all the more make use of the chance to do whatever we can before it's too late. [And I guess this part is probably the most PC haha.]

But it's still difficult to talk about what motivates me. Because I'm more of a self-motivated person, although I've increasing grown out of it. o.o I see my grades so bad, then I work hard lor. I see my grades good, then I slack hehe. So when they asked me what exactly motivates me, I can't exactly give them an answer. Each person is different. Even though the form teacher told the class that bingqian and I have been 'tried and tested' since we're scholars, motivation is a very personal thing.

I guess before I present such a 'motivational speech' next time... I needa write down exactly what I want to say and skew it to a more teacher-friendly mode. XD Or more like to a mode that fits the student audience I'm talking to, because what I said is probably more catered to people who are already doing well in the system.

Finally observed a proper geog class today. And it was about POPULATION <3333. :) The teacher's a freshie just posted to the school from nie. So he basically entered the school the same time as I did, and he doesn't know the names of the students yet. I think I'll enjoy observing him because I'll probably be like him in future when I'm a NIE freshie. Kinda a little scared, don't really dare to exert authority, don't know how to punish... But for him, it's worse cuz geog is actually his CS2. His main subject is art, but they ask him to teach geog? So diff leh, HOW CAN? The other scholar interns were saying my combi aka geog and math is already funny enough cuz it's in two separate faculties. But it never hit me that my combi is kinda weird cuz in nyu, they lump math and geog in the same faculty called college of arts and sciences. XD K la, but I seriously cannot imagine teaching math instead of geog. Like what I told bingqian today, I'll be TOTALLY SAD if I have to teach math over geog. But then... singapore's lacking a lot more geog teachers than math teachers hehe.

Oh oh but the main thing about that new teacher I observed. Haha felicia and I were saying that at least he's nice to look at. Probably the best looking one in school. HAHAHA. Although the first impression he gave me was niang, and not shuai. And I would say nice from far (ie from the back of the classroom) la. XDDD

Torn

2011-07-04T18:06:00.000+08:00

Had lunch with my bro and my two cousins today. And my cousin made me try gong cha today. So it's actually the first time I'm drinking an entire gong cha by myself. I remember the last time I had a taste of it was when jiaying bought it at raffles city during the hols. XD But wah the alishan green tea + milk + ai yu something is really nice leh. I love the milk! Just that after a while you really feel full from it heh.

Anyway vic just told me not long ago that our apartment isn't settled. So I'm sad. Cuz that means I'll have to fly back to the dreaded place on 22 aug instead of 2 sept. 11 days difference is still a lot of difference to me. It's almost 2 weeks! But bo bian la. It's been 7 months since I left the city, and I'm pretty happy like this. A year before I leave the city for good, another year before I get to stay in singapore for good. I'm just feeling more 舍不得 than ever to leave this time even though I know it's gonna be my last year there and I should probably treasure it before it slips away. Maybe it's cuz I've just gotten used to my new teaching life here and I don't wanna have to re-adapt myself to nyc and the land of angmohs so soon. Hai... I"ll get over this feeling la. Suck thumb lor. ><

21st!

2011-07-03T20:50:00.000+08:00

So my cousin had a pre-bday celebration last night, where he invited his jc classmates and all other family members to witness this momentous time in his life. :)

As for me, I don't think I want to make my 21st big. I mean I won't be in Singapore anyway, and I don't want to have to worry about not taking care of a group of people while entertaining another group of people. Like my mum said, I'd much rather have multiple celebrations and enjoy each one of them than have some major one and have so much attention on myself. Heh I shy la. XD Anyway, 21st bday or not, it's really just a bday. A simple cake, some well wishes. Yup that's all I need. Heh but this year if casey wants to celebrate it with me, then we can just invite our common friends and have a good time. Treat it as a NYU-SH reunion! :) At least the attention is spread out too haha.

Went out for dinner with my family and relatives today, and it felt super heartwarming somehow. :) Super enjoyable and it made me really happy. And parents are really worry warts at times... starts off with grades, then in school worry about whether got gf/bf, then suddenly worry how come don't have gf/bf, then worry cannot get married, then probably worry how come no grandchildren etc. These kinda things 随缘啦... rather take your time choosing than to 嫁错郎 right? According to my mum, I ideally have 6-8 years left to choose hahaha.

Night out after class

2011-07-02T10:46:00.000+08:00

Wasn't the best decision to go out at night right after four days of waking up at 6am cuz I just ended up meeting eug in this super tired mode. Thankfully he decided to 牵就我 and come to j8. This time was kinda like last time, in the sense that we decided to take a long walk again, from j8 all the way back to my house, without walking through any shortcuts. Don't know what to make out of the walk but by the end of it, I was glad to say that 我战胜了我自己. :) I guess more battles will arise in future, and I'll just have to deal with it one at a time.

About school... I really wanna make meaning out of it, but I'm not sure if I'll come out of it making any impression at all. I don't wanna just sit in the 4 weeks and zuo bo. o.o Or even just do the minimal they ask for cuz that's really like nothing at all. Yesterday, we were just having some chit-chat session with my group mentor and heh my bluntness kinda came through again. I just dunno how to construct criticisms in a very nice fashion I believe. But that's another reason why I appreciate the vp and the mentor again because they acted on the matter really quickly despite having loads of other things to do. Like bingqian said, this vp is really hands-on and that's how staff welfare is taken care of. :)

Finally it gets interesting

2011-06-29T22:55:00.000+08:00

So after two days of staring at one another (with the other scholar interns)... things have sorta started to kick in. First classroom observation today, first committee meeting today. Interesting looking at things from the teacher end! :) And... teachers are human after all, so the meeting wasn't as serious as I expected it to be. In fact, it was pretty relaxed! Don't think it'll be the same for some stat board or ministry meeting though heh, especially since the agenda for discussion will be different.

But... I think I'm still intimidated by the fact that I just MIGHT have to teach to test out the resource package I'm supposed to create. Not that I know how to create that resource package in the first place cuz people are just too busy to attend to me. Sad. Even the vp says she's concerned about me cuz she knows that I just dunno what I'm supposed to do but she can't help it too cuz the humans dept is just that shorthanded and busy. :S Looks like my appraisal is going down the drain! But maybe then they'll be more lenient with me hehe.

Hmm it's sad though that I don't even get to sit in on geog classes, and my mentor's not a geog teacher even though he's a great history teacher. But somehow I may just find my way into some geog class, hopefully. It'll be quite funny if I'm supposed to teach geog and math next time but then I'm geogless and mathless this whole internship. o.o

The school's given me a pretty good impression so far, apart from particular students I suppose. XD I mean, like the vp said, they're mostly pretty nice students to speak to when they're alone. It's just that when you put everyone together, they feed on each other's antics and there goes the class. :S Haha and today when the few of us were walking out of the office to the parade square, it felt pretty funny to have an entire group of students (whom I believe are prefects) greet specifically the few of us. Well-trained really.

I actually look forward to school now! I think the novelty just began, and let's hope it lasts for four weeks now! :)

Work started!

2011-06-27T17:03:00.000+08:00

Not that I can blog anything about it here haha. Except for the fact that I'm still not a morning person. Waking up early makes me sleepy at such an odd time ie. now. But if I sleep now, I'll not be able to sleep early tonight. That means I'll have less sleep. And that means the cycle will repeat itself. o.o

Hmm... I think peircians are pretty nice though! :))