Saturday, August 30, 2008
nurse it or nullify it
i wish you'd unclench your fist.Friday, August 29, 2008
the day of the 'moulders'
one of the perks of having a school teacher in your family is having the chance to actually SEE the gifts received during teachers' day every year. and this is only less than half the stack, according to sis. i gotta say that, as mean as it may be, i had a good laugh over the cards that some of the kids wrote for her. some called her "MRS chong" cos they don't know the difference between a Mrs and a Miss; some wrote "happy day teacher" (at this point my sis lamented that i should forgive them cos they're only primary 1 and their english standard is still..ohwell), and another - ohman this one really made me double over - simply penned down "i'm so sorry". HAHAHA GUILTY CONSCIENCE, i call it. oh boy aren't they hilarious!it's my usual ultra busy friday, with lessons from 10-5 and then rushed down to tim's gig, kinda felt bad about not being able to visit any of my ex-teachers. but well, i do and always will remember the significant ones who made a huge positive difference in life in one way or another. so, happy teachers' day in advance (:
Monday, August 25, 2008
welcome back to school
supposedly having tons of work to do (yea i havent even finished the tutorial due tmr at 10am) but i have to blog about the most unforgettable tutorial thus far today. okay vital stats first- in my SSA class we've 19 people, out of which there're 7 singaporeans, 1 malaysian, 11 indian exchange students from, well, india. imagine the trepidation and anxiety that gripped me even before class started. i've witnessed how patriotic, vocal, knowledgable and emphatic our foreign friends are during lecture (even the lecturer has to be extremely cautious with everything he says), and i couldn't help feeling a little initimidated, especially as we settled down into our smaller discussion groups. Just for the record, i believe i still remember their names, shortened versions nonetheless: ash, bharah, nidi, ramees, aki, eileen. excuse the spelling though, cos i still have no idea (x anyway, discovered a few amazing facts:1. They are still relatively younger! mostly 17, 18. ohgosh, more reasons to feel old.
2. MOE offers scholarships to the engineering students for 4 years and in return they have to work here for 3 years thereafter. Talk about tapping on highly skilled professionals in the region!
3. My name is actually french. Alright i don't know how true that is but i grew up thinking that my name is an indian name, and apparently my newfound friends proved me wrong.
4. Indian scholars believe that, unlike themselves, the chinese and vietnamese scholars are die-hard muggers. And we always thought scholars are all the same.
Boisterous chatter. Emotionally charged remarks. Hands raised up high. Tremendously enthusiastic responses. Suddenly i didn't feel like i was in a singapore classroom anymore. My tutor was spot-on in one of his final comments of the day: the answers are often not in the books.
Friday, August 22, 2008
emo nemo
lunch with mel today, albeit a quick one, triggered many thoughts. we talked about school, majors, people around us, people who came and went- suddenly i realised a lot has changed in the past yr or so that we've known each other. had a mental picture of us standing still, and the rest of the world moving along, ahead, away. i thought to myself, oh God, everything's moving so quickly i don't really know where i stand. mel spoke about how some people seem to have built "walls" around themselves, and i kinda agree. then at lecture, made a new friend dhan who's a freshie. he told me how he ended up in fass cos he failed to get into biz sch, despite having an additional advanced diploma which he studied part-time for during his NS days. "So i guess it's really too competitive," he said with a tinge of poignancy. my hat's off to him, though, for all that effort. there's nothing to lose from self-enrichment anyway.we make choices and decisions every day, and each comes with its pros and cons, opportunity cost, sacrifices. one of my favourite statements is that what's meant to be will be. but i also understand that before you actually find out what IS meant to be, there's the painstaking process of making up your mind, the countless mental pictures of what-ifs, and sometimes even the inevitable tears and heartaches along the way. i made choices. i did mental calculations of the trade-offs. i knew what was in stall. i told mel, things change, and people change. for better or for worse, i don't think i ever have the right to judge. but for now, i also know i want more. inherently insatiably greedy, aren't we all. i don't know what i'd have to give up, or how much more to give in (usually i hate using this phrasal verb but well.)
i just wish i know what to do.
p.s: bumping into michy in sch (yes in KENT RIDGE CAMPUS) today was a superlicious surprise too!
Monday, August 18, 2008
random
secured my tutorial slots! pleasantly surprised to see all first choice slots (: WHEEE. thanks for prayers, dearest.Friday, August 15, 2008
breakthroughs
A medal for S'pore finally!
this IS the year of the empty hand! (ref entry dated 24 May 2008.) who cares we've been 'empty' for 48 years - our little red dot just re-wrote its history :D
and i hope i made my own.
Thursday, August 14, 2008
watch the bitterness burn
just ain't my day.Wednesday, August 13, 2008
lala
there hasn't been much excitement back in school the past 2 days, except that it feels great to get together with the fellow econs buds for lunch and (lots of) random gossip haha. kais came to crash my bio lecture and we (yes, we, not she) ended up poring over her law readings. says alot huh. on a positive note, im actually looking forward to more interesting bio sessions given that we've gotten past the introductory what is life? and what is science? lecture (x BUT i'm still worried about tutorial balloting! RAHS. anyway, came across the following when i was browsing through one of the documents in my s'pore studies module ivle folder:The Following Excuses for Not Submitting (term paper) Will Not Be Entertained:
...
6. The dog / cat ate my paper -- Send the dog / cat for treatment and do another print of your work.
I certainly didn't know my former south asian tutor has such a huge sense of humour :D
Finally i'm able to catch michael phelps in live action - on tv nonethless - thanks to afternoon lecture today! and women's artistic gym too. caught snippets of the men's team event and omg those chinese gymnasts executed their moves to near perfection! suddenly the absence of the US Hamms bros didn't matter that much anymore haha.
P.S: someone please convince tim that eating at jap marche 3 times in 4 days is insane :D
Sunday, August 10, 2008
back to school!
i've never been so jittery choosing tutorial slots! im left with few options for each module as i began to realise that several slots clash with other modules' lectures themselves. there goes my 4-day week i think. actually 5-day ain't that bad. JUST GIVE ME MY TUTS. AHHH. i feel the stress in my fingers and my toes. hopefully i'd make some wise choices before friday's balloting.holidays are officially over real soon but i can't seem to shake off the mood. it must be the olympics! (x to think that i'll be stuck in lecture tmr when susilo takes on lee chong wei and tao li makes a splash towards hopes of singapore's first olympic medal in 48 years (foreign talent issues aside)... ohgosh who needs any more reasons to be exasperated?!
look what you've done
fireworks before my eyes. and a a joyous post-ndp night to remember (:Thursday, August 07, 2008
it's not over tonight
Lecture slots confirmed, praying very hard that i'd get preferred tutorial slots too so that i can have my 4-day week!Macroeconomics II
Econometrics I
Public Finance
General Biology (haha!)
Singapore & India: Emerging Relations
gona watch nat day fireworks from mandarin oriental! (:
Sunday, August 03, 2008
take the wheel
besides pulling my hair out over biddings, i'm recently fretting over driving, driving, and more driving. according to my instructor, usually people are scared of upslopes and narrow roads, but im supposedly - i quote - "fearless of any kind of slopes", and instead im terrified of simple things like changing gears, moving off and braking. yea, even after 7 lessons =/ i feel like such a weirdo. on the bright side, i've had several shots at U-turns and reverse parking and i can't wait to move on to the teckwhye route. also, somehow it feels like 'school' started early for me cos i've to study for the FTT that's coming up in about a month. gotta make full use of the 500++ sample questions i spent 7 bucks on! reminds me of oh-so-familiar TYS :Dbeen thinking quite abit about activities for next sem (or rather, academic year) that's starting reeeeal soon. technically i'd have:
tuition twice/thrice weekly
driving twice weekly
netball once weekly
badminton once weekly
muaythai once weekly,
which is apparently insane. i can so picture my grades plummetting, or me crashing at the end of each day, or both! tim remarked that making certain sacrifices would be a necessary evil, and i know it's true =/
still, i have my reason(s) to be happy.