20090129
Happy CNY!!!!!!
It's only the 4th day of CNY and yet I am no longer in the fe4stive mood. It's back to school again...sian. When I went to school today, everything was just as per normal, you won't even realize that CNY has actually just started a few days ago. It seems like CNY happened eons ago.
Anyway, I had an one-hour break today before a tutorial and I was stuck in library busy trying to squeeze 500 words out of my mind. My tutor has actually uploaded a journal entry for us to do but we did not check and only knew about it yesterday.
It was a crazy time. Denise and I were rushing to finish it up on time and it's no easy job. I was particularly worried as I had not started at all and didn't even have an idea of what I was going to write about. Luckily, an idea about politics in Singapore struck me and I just wrote all the way, without any time to edit. Haha halfway through, I was thinking whether the topic was too sensitive but I just didn't have the time to bother about it. I should stop doing assignments in a rush.
Feathers
10:26 PM
20090123
Today I started working at the graduate office in school. I heard about this job from Pris and PK quite some time ago and PK helped me to get the job. Thanks PK!
My main job scope is to sort out the application forms sent in by students who want to enrol in postgraduate programmes. There are really alot of applications to be sorted out! I was quite surprised initially that so many people are signing up for postgraduate programmes, especially in my school.
Anyway, I found out that the office has an interesting working culture. On Fridays, they are allowed to knock off at 5.15pm but guess what...we were out of the office at 5.10pm!
At 5pm, the staff were still at their desks. As I was new there, I was still trying to master the sorting of application forms with PK at that time. Our supervisor came into our room and told us to pack up.
10minutes later, we were all out of the office already with lights switched off. Amazing right? Everyone and I really mean everyone packed up and left the office in lightening speed! Moreover, when I was told to pack up, I was rushing through already but when I was out of my room, the place was empty.
PK and another temp staff advised me to look out at 5pm and once the first person leaves, we should hurry up leave as the rest would be gone in no time.
Wow, their packing speed earns my admiration!
Feathers
10:40 PM
20090122
This afternoon I went back to YJ with Pei Kiat. She is flying off real soon to Beijing and hence wanted to ask our former chinese teacher for some advice.
The place has changed quite abit. There is a new canteen now but we didn't really have a look there.
Our chinese teacher was still as enthusiastic as before when she saw us. She still remembers us! Haha I tried testing her to see if she can recall my name and interestingly she identified me as Vanessa very quickly but took some time to recall my chinese name. I even had to prompt her with my first chinese character. Haha as a chinese teacher, shouldn't she identify me using my chinese name?
Anyway, we chatted for more than 2 hours. She is still as approachable as ever! By the time we were done chatting with her, it was too late for us to find our chemistry teacher. It has been a very long time since we last saw her as well.
Here are some photos taken during Zhuo Wen Xuan concert in school sometime last week I think. I wasn't really interested about going to her concert since I don't listen to her songs except for one. But since it was my first time to a school concert, I just went. The committee of AFTH was given a free ticket each and hence some of us went together.
I think Zhuo Wen Xuan was quite cute. She is not the fake kind of cute that makes people dislike. Rather, it was very natural and was able to captivate the audience quite well.
This was taken before the concert started. The place was really packed with people even sitting on the stairs.
We had to queue up to get into the place about 1 hour before and luckily a friend brought poker cards along to kill time.
Haha we were playing Donkey and...
I got this. Ching and I were the only unlucky ones.
A group photo after the concert!
Hopefully there are more concerts coming this year whereby I can still get free ticket without queuing and preferably by artists such as Jay Chou, Wang Lee Hom, Stefanie Sun...
Feathers
11:36 PM
20090120
It's only the third week of school and I am so tired already!!!!
I totally dread 9.30am lectures. It's too early! Ironically, 3 days week is making me more tired than before. This sem's timetable is not that good afterall.
Just now I had a presentation for one of my soci modules and I was super stressed before it. I only managed to finish reading the article last night and I was still doing the handout for the class just one hour before the presentation. It was horrible.
In the midst of the frenzy, I overwrote my notes. The notes that I had prepared for my presentation were gone! What I was left with was just the handout and I had to think on the spot what to say.
Luckily, the presentation went quite alright and the tutor didn't question me much. phew!
Hope this kind of thing won't happen again. It's so nerve-wrecking!
Feathers
6:16 PM
20090115
Alright here to blog for awhile since I am still waiting for my friends.
What shall I blog about?
Okie, I shall share some random thoughts that I had the other day when I came across this article in the papers.
There was a photo of a man in his late 50s doing some stretching exercises with 3 young girls. The headline read something like this "school with 3 students".
That headline caught my attention immediately. 3 students only? Is that even considered as a school?
The school is in a village in China. Apparently, most villagers have moved out of the village in search of greener pastures over at the cities. Hence, there are only a handful of children left behind in the village and the old man is the ONLY teacher left behind there. He was determined to give every child an education.
What has migration done to such a poor village?!
Indeed, migration holds the promise of a better-paying job in the city but with it comes the adverse effect. Many people are lured to migrate to cities, leaving behind their farmlands and so on. As a result, not only will the rural areas become ghost towns, cities will also face the problem of population outburst and in turn, housing shortage and poor living conditions.
Why don't people think of ways to make their rural areas into economic hubs? Wouldn't that save them the hassle of migration and help their villages to prosper? It will quel the economic motivation behind their migration too right?
That may sound impractical but I am sure there are some solutions to it!
Feathers
4:58 PM
20090109
Oh no I am getting lazy to blog again. Haha anyway a new sem has started and its the third last sem for me! That's so fast!
Okie, let me cut short and make this an update of photos.
Above are brownies given by sponsors for the elders at the home. It looks and tastes good!
This was taken on new year eve. The place was crowded was tourists and it was my first time so near to the merlion.
Fireworks!! We had a splendid view on top of one of the commercial buildings.
Welcoming Seet back to Singapore!
Above are photos taken while we were waiting for our ice-cream at JP. Andy was late and hence no photos of him.
Took the above photos during a trip to city hall with Seet. Haha it's all in black and white because I forgot to switch it back to normal mode but it gives the buildings a more historic feel.
Feathers
10:58 AM
