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Saturday, July 28, 2007
Failed GP but still Proud of it!Yay, I'm going to be a writing assistant for the University Scholars Programme Writing Centre for next academic year! So, I'll be tutoring students on how to write their term papers... Haha. I'm so proud of myself. It's just a paid job though but getting it means a lot to me simply because I'm probably the only writing assistant (maybe the first) to have failed my general paper... Ha, ok, maybe I got it not because I can write well (I obviously can't judging from the way I blog (but then again, that's why my blog's titled "ILLOGICAL" geddit?) but because I can teach people how to write well.. ahhhhh, that's the difference, see? Haha.. When I start on my first job, I guess I can proudly say that I have tutored students from the full spectrum of educational levels (not counting pre-school la) - primary school, secondary school, polytechnic, junior college, university (scholars some more!) haha.. oops, better watch my English from now..
Gosh, is it a curse or what? First, I lost my wallet on the day after my birthday. Then, Huizhen had her phone ran over by a car on the eve of her birthday. WTH. What's wrong with... erm, us man? It really sucked to have such losses just before our exchange.. That means less money to spend on shopping=( Argh..
*praying that I'll get the SEP award worth S$3,500 now*
That also means no photos for Huizhen's birthday celebration cos the pics were all in her handphone. Well, at least I blogged about it for memory sakes.. I'm "uncle" ma.. Memory's always failing me=( Probably need some memory booster or smthg... hee.. any sponsors? haha
I think i'm getting lazier day by day... always procrastinating and doing inconsequential stuff when I have loads of really really important things to settle before I leave for California...
Well, I have to...
[1] settle NUS psychology society's accounts before the Annual General Meeting in September
[2] apply for US visa
[3] get vaccinations/ medical check-up
[4] research paper for the trip to stanford
[5] USP writing assistant training (2 days)
[6] conduct conflict management training to a group of troubled youths as part of my group project for my conflict resolution module
[7] start planning what I have to bring to the states
[8] collect my latest study plan
[9] help karen out in finding accommodation in Irvine (which was supposed to be my job, by the way)
[10] celebrate/ get presents for the upcoming birthdays: Karen, Serene, Melissa & Mark (did I miss anyone out?
[11] call up schools near my place to check if they wanna hire me for relief teaching till sept=p
[12] erm.. there should be more but... sucks.. my memory is failing me again...)
[13] oh ok, I remember now.. prep camp for those interested in running for the 2nd executive committee of NUSPsyche
[14] ?????
I went to get my IC replaced today at the ICA building at Lavender. The building was bursting with people. People making passports. People extending passports. People registering for IC (the young kids). People replacing IC (like me..). The queue was damn long la.. And I even had to queue for 5-10 mins just to get a queue number! It's a freaking MONDAY afternoon la. WTH is everybody doing there? Not working meh?!
To ease our minds, they even had this board which indicates the waiting times... it read 15 mins (12.. 13.. 15 again.. 12.. ok, u get the idea..) for replacing IC but I waited for a total of freaking 45 mins! argh.. sucks. Dunno if it's the waiting time inclusive of all those in the queue ahead of me or what.. more like 15 mins for each person. so misleading. frustrated with the inefficiency=(
A day around Chinatown
Yesterday, Eunice and I celebrated Huizhen's 21st birthday in advance. It was damn fun cos we all got to make each other, or rather ourselves, do extremely ridiculous forfeits while playing our own version of the Jacky Wu's variety show, 十字路口 with a $10 budget per pax。On top of the basic rule of looking for a dish that begins with the last word of the previous dish, each of us got to ask the other two a question about ourselves.
We met quite late for lunch at Maxwell Food Centre cos Eunice had relief teaching while I was held up by my dog who pooed and left marks all over the house just as I was about to leave home. Felt really bad for having kept the birthday girl waiting for half an hour.Anyway, after a not-so-filling lunch (at least for me...), we began with the first question asked by the birthday girl. She asked us how old her *ahem*friend is and Eunice got it wrong, and that was how we got started with the first forfeit which was EITHER to go up to a 3 people at the food centre and ask them where they bought their food OR to go up to someone who was eating 汤圆 and the person where to buy 汤圆. We couldn't find anyone eating 汤圆, so Eunice had to do the former instead. In the end, she procrastinated for quite some time before summoning the courage to ask a table of working professionals just one type of food. Closing one eye, we both let that pass=p
Then it was Eunice's turn to ask Huizhen and I a question. She asked us when did she get her first pet and sadly, both of us got it wrong=( We each came up with forfeits for ourselves. Huizhen had to go up to the people working in the Buddha tooth relic temple and ask where the tooth relic temple is. duh. Ok, in retrospect, that wasn't too hard. Mine was worse la. I stupidly suggested to kneel down at the front steps of the temple! As I gamely knelt down, the girls whom Huizhen asked where the temple was were staring at me and giggling amongst themselves. Argh, so malu-ating!
From 汤圆 (tang yuan), we followed up with, let's see... er, 鸳鸯 (yuan yang)，which is basically kopi + teh=p I decided to bring them to Qun Zhong to try Mel's fav 汤圆 but it was closed till 5pm, so we skipped that, returned to Maxwell for our 鸳鸯.Having embarrassed myself, it was finally my turn to ask them a question. I asked them about my CCA back in primary school but both of them got it wrong. YES! Haha.. cheap thrill.. We made Eunice flag down a cab and ask the cab driver if he could send us to Pulau Ubin DIRECTLY. Yes, you read it correctly. She further asked if there was a bridge that connects Singapore directly to Pulau Ubin and the cab driver was trying damn hard to suppress his laughter, trying to explain to us that we had to go to Changi V and take a ferry... OMG! That was damn funny! Should have captured the cab driver's expression la. Classic, I must say...
Huizhen's forfeit was equally farnie! I made her imitate the green "walking man" of the traffic light at maxwell food centre and she had to march on the spot when everyone else were crossing the road.. Though I didn't capture the essence of the action, it was damn hilarious man. I kept laughing that I didn't observe the expressions of the people crossing the road. damn.
Next up, we wanted to link 鸳鸯 with 羊肉串 (yang rou chuan/ mutton satay) but the satay stall at the food street was just starting up. We cracked our brains and couldn't think of one... Huizhen who was craving for some dessert, asked if we could try to get something from an ice cream stall. We looked at all the flavours but there was nothing that starts with "yang". There wasn't any 杨桃 (star fruit) even=( So we decided to ask the ice cream stall owner who asked if we're local. (hmm, dun we look local?) after having a hard time cracking her brain as well, she came up with an ingenious answer - "洋水" - "洋人的水" (western drink - ice cream float?!) WTH! But that was as good as it can get... just had to make do with it=p
Back to Huizhen's turn to pose the question. She asked her dad's age and darn, we both got it wrong again! sigh. but that was the fun bit la. Can't complain. she's the birthday girl after all=p We had to do a shared forfeit. Eunice had to walk up to a Caucasian to ask him for his number, and when he asked why she wants his number, she would point at me and tell him that it was me who wanted his number! That's so... er.. gay? But for the fun of it, I dun mind. Better than going up to a gay club and ask if they're hiring and if i'm qualified to work there=p
In the end, Eunice managed to stop a guy but he couldn't understand what she was saying, which means that I had to do a separate forfeit since she did hers though unsuccessful. Argh! The "evil" girls made me put on a PINK crystal flowery hairclip on my fringe and ask the person in the store if the hairclip suits me! argh! Argh! argh! That was ultimately humiliating man! WTH.
By the time I finished that stance, it was about 5pm so we made our way back to Qun Zhong to have our 汤圆 and the next item - 水饺. We had wanted to order the dessert only but they wanted us to order a main dish as well cos they're NOT a dessert shop. Ok, fair enuf, we wanted 水饺 anyway but it was rather steeply priced - $7 for 10. The food was so-so only la. Not as good as when I first went there though. We played 终极密码 there: I had to drink up tea that was mixed with chilli, vinegar, ginger and the filling of the 水饺. Yucks! The chilli was damn overpowering. Eunice, on the other hand, had to eat 汤圆 dipped in chilli, vinegar and ginger. It wasn't too bad for her. She said it tasted like "soon kway"... erm, ok, not fun one.
Ok, my memory is failing me now.. Can't remember the order exactly but Eunice asked the last question which was when she had her first ear piercing. Guess what? It was when she was 5 yrs old! I can't believe it man! So young... Huizhen and I, of course... got it wrong la=( So we were toying with the idea of going to the Speakers' Corner @ Hong Lim Park to either (1) "declare my love" to one of them.. ahem.. and one of them will act touched while the other will slap me... ahem again.. or (2) sing at the speakers' corner. Of course, I'll choose the latter la! So Huizhen and I ended up singing Jay Chou's 安静 to this father whose kids were playing badminton and couldn't be bothered to listen to us... Yay, and I got praised by the uncle=) *smiling smugly* haha...The game ended with 搅汁 and "zhi shi" (cheese) 蛋糕, both from Hans.
Eventually, with the money we had left, we shared one Carbonara pie, one chicken pie and a Heaven and Earth cake (double choc cake.. not cheese though but we let that go=p) The rest of the night was bridge and "tai de" time! hee.. wat a fun day=) Never had so much fun in a looooooooong time...
Till we meet up again peepz! =)
*photos will be uploaded later*
Wednesday, July 25, 2007
Where's my new wallet ah?!Damn sad... It feels weird not having a wallet around=(For those who have messaged me when u heard abt the loss of my wallet, thanks for ur concern=) I couldn't have felt better without the comfort all of you gave me...Anway, here's why it's such an expensive lesson for me... bwahhhhhhh!!!Total damages incurred from the loss of my wallet on the day after my birthday:1) Braun Baffel wallet - 100 plus + sentiment value... it was a gift from my sec sch friends2) ~ $170 cash... I was going to deposit it..3) IC - replacement for 1st timers costs $100 ($300 for 2nd timers! Never going to lose it again... it's staying at home from now on!)4) Matric card - $15 replacement5) EZ Link Card - $20 stored value + $ 21 replacement6) Loss of direction - I lost it because I was rushing for tuition, and I gave tuition for money, so that means I lost money because I needed more money! damn sad la..
The Last of FSPS...
After three-and-a-half weeks of attachment at Fengshan Primary School (Bedok North), we bade farewell to the school...
Was a little sad though. The school's rather new and nice. The Principal, Vice-Principal, HODs, Subject Heads, teachers, staff, and librarians were all very amiable toward us. And of course, not to forget the little terrors. I truly miss those boys who faithfully go to the library to see us, and would wave and call out to us from wherever they could spot us.. Hui Zhen calls them my fans=p
Just before we shared our learning experiences to all the teachers during the staff contact time, we, or rather I, managed to snap a few pics with the little kids=)
I wish I could magnify these pictures but they would be pixelated.. all thanks to Hui zhen's phone camera settings... but they're better than nothing=p (Thanks Hui Zhen, if you're reading this!)
First up is Aloysius - Primary 1. He's the 'leader' of his class boys, is extremely articulated and has immense leadership potential... I can see the "prefect" in him already=) He and Zhi Hao came to the library during recess to play the computer... As we didn't know that the Primary Ones are not allowed to use the computers during recess, Hui Zhen allowed them to use on one condition - that they hug me. So, both of them, unwillingly ran towards me and hug, or rather, clung onto me.. That was how we got to know them. Ever since that day, even after we disallowed them from using the computers anymore, Aloysius had been coming to the library every single day=) Haven't seen Zhi Hao in the library since that first day and we speculated that he was busy with his girlfriend.. haha.. Anyway, Aloysius was pretty sad when I told him that it's our last day and that we won't be in the library to play with him anymore.. So I brought him up to see Hui Zhen and Eunice, and we took these photos=) 
Next up, Wai Kang (left) and Jing Hao (right) - Primary 3.
We met in the library too, where they were doing their Chinese homework while waiting for their mothers to pick them up after school.. I started chatting with them cos I was damn bored typing my stuff. We talked about the games they play (maplestory) and upon knowing that I'm studying in NUS, they started discussing about which secondary schools to go to.. Primary 3 only leh! My goodness... Jing Hao said he wants to go to RI. Smart boy! Hope he can really do work hard towards that goal=) Then we exchanged MSN addresses... From that day onwards, they had been coming to the library everyday after school to chat with us, and occasionally to eavesdrop on our conversations, and running after me down the stairs....jpg)
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I never knew I can be so attached to kids until this attachment came along... Never really had that with my tuition kids when I stopped giving them tuition... I suppose that it could be that they have been the ones who brighten up my day and whom I am always looking forward to after a long and tiring day of reading, typing and formatting for my project..
I'm still deciding if I should go back for relief teaching soon... next year perhaps.. Hopefully they'll remember me=)
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