This is the 2nd time I fell sick this term and for the same thing - sore throat and its accompanying ailments.
One more time and I shall conclude that the condition is reproducible with my niece and nephew as the causes.
But was on MC yesterday but went to school still to conduct the practical because I meant it to be a follow-up from the lesson the day before and I promised the kids I would close it with all the questions I left hanging.
I was glad that lesson was in the morning because by noon, my head felt like it was stuffed with cotton wool and I validated my mc and went home to sleep off the daze (after informing the h3 class that I cmi and would have to push the lesson to next wk).
A lot of sleep and water did the trick and I felt immensely better today altho the head is still in a drugged state.
Went for lesson just now and today we got a new teacher and she spoke so fast that I could not string my thoughts together. Blamed it on the mist-filled mind but I knew better that for a strong visual but weak audio learner, it will never be easy. I saw words dance erratically in the air and images collide as she went into high gear and verbosity reigned. Does anyone else experience the same thing? I will have to work harder to rewire my neurons so that I can be a more adequate audio learner. sighz..my classmates are so much better at it.
--------
Feb is almost over and I felt a sense of loss with my class(es). I barely knew them and I floundered with my decisions. Perhaps I was a little impatient with them because it was a great year last year, with everything so familiar and comfortable that I forgot the initial tentativeness and worry. Or maybe my expectations have grown which I should never have because every class will never be the same. still, I missed the happiness of every morning and my very own laughter. Perhaps it is the one-intake syndrome and it will pass and I will find my CG again, especially with so many changes occurring in school.
With the amended testimonial on my desk it is one more time and a final signature to seal the memories.
Before they come in...
Orientation will end next week and the whole cycle will start again. Just like that, a click of the finger and we are back at ground zero to do battle for another two years.
What will my new year's resolutions for my classes this year?... Will have to think about that.
You know age is catching up when you picked up a bat and do some swings, only to have an aching back for the next 3 days that almost incapacitated you, made you walk with a funny gait and applied yoko yoko for the first time ever. The only good thing that came out of it was a firmer trunk with less volume at the love handles. I probably imagined the latter but I really have to take care of this back of mine and start stretching before I become too brittle.
The last time I stopped at the softball trip to Chiang Mai. It was a nice trip - restful I dared say because I was finally able to sleep through the night since the start of the holidays. Perhaps there was just too much tension at the start, be it to meet the looming deadline of testimonials or to prepare my own Uni apps or to prepare the trip itself. So the trip was a good one and I enjoyed making the side trip for CIP recce, away from the kids and away from routine. The first day was spent surveying the potential new site, visiting the village where we constructed a water filtration system under CIP and to buy a computer and printer for my translator, Chala with the money collected.
It was at the village when I felt the impact of progress. Instead of straw houses, some houses are now made of concrete. There are now two churches and the village head had his own provision store too. Surveying the whole area from the top of the hill, I realised that our work had brought benefits. At the same time, as more and more help arrived and more and more villagers willing to buy concrete buildings from Habitat for the Humanity, the rustic charm of the 'village' which I once lived in will disappear.
2nd day was a 8-hour journey to Chala's orphanage to bring them the books and electronics. We traveled from 9am to 4pm, one-way because the driver decided to take a 'short-cut' that turned up to be a longer way because we had to go up and down a mountain. I could feel my stomach swimming with discomfort at the end of the ride down the mountain and was glad to stop for lunch to rest out the swirling motion.
The ride back was faster and I got back at 9pm. It was an entire day of traveling but it ended on a high note as I lied down on the bed and watched the fireworks went off outside my windows as the Thais celebrated the New Year with fanfare. It was a beautiful sight.
The next few days were a blur because we played games every day and it was a routine. But mango sticky rice saved the day! :)
-------
Speech in English had never been my forte because I had difficulty catching with the nuances of words and I believed that my hearing was awful --> so pardon my expression. After so many years, I realised why - because it was just so different from Chinese where a single word can hold a profound meaning on its own. But in English, you need to string words to express yourself. Why is it that I never see it that way? As a simple tool for communication.
For the same reason, I struggled when I took elementary French, trying to seek out non-existent depth in each word.
So I decided to work hard on my listening capacity and change the neuronal circuitry in my head. I started my Spanish lessons. I may not be good at this but I am definitely going to make an effort in it. I had already seen how readily my younger counterparts picked up the new language and their verbal verbosity in English. But I will get there.
__________
moral stand.
feathers were ruffled recently with the clashes of the titans in the world. I applauded at the showdown.
There are people who liked to bully their way through things, eliciting demands and not ready to compromise.
We all need the moral courage to now stand up and say 'no more!' - not with stubborn defiance but with compassion. Be courageous to earn less but be responsible for your fellow man in this world. Be courageous to have less so that you can give more.
We say we want to earn as much as possible. But what can we take away when we leave this world? We say we want to leave something for our descendant but don't they care? A father went to seek financial help to keep his 5-rm flat during the financial meltdown when he could be financially comfortable with a smaller flat. Why? Because he wanted to leave the flat to his kids. But how many kids live with their parents these days with some many ready to make their own nests?
There was a philanthropist cum businessman who told his children right from the start that he was not going to leave any inheritance to them. They had to earn their footing in this world. But what he did provide was good education, opportunities to learn and a good environment. All his children did well on their own merits and when he died, all his money went to the charities.
--------
And for the last entry today...
someone write a note to me recently and halfway through it, my eyes were already moist.
Sometimes it took us a long time to realise what we enjoy or what we are capable of. I am glad she found out the she did enjoy Biology at the end of her JC journey. What I was glad about was how she chose to pick herself up towards the end and persevered all the way instead of throwing in the towel.
Life is a journey and through it, we learnt more about ourselves and our abilities. No one can define it for us.
Off to Chiangmai
Before the year ends, it is to the airport again - soon that is - to Chiangmai , making this the 6th trip to the same place for work in 3 years.
This time however I will be there mainly for the softball trip even though I will be taking two days off to recce for a suitable CIP expedition. I am looking forward to meeting Chala again (my translator) and also hopefully the drivers, johnny and yut who were with us the last few rounds. I kind of missed them even though we couldnt converse much in English.
This trip I will be bringing this huge box of books for Chala's orphans (which was collected by JH and I packed them today) and I am preparing for my Santa Claus' role of buying a computer for them, buying mattresses for them so that they don;t have to sleep on cold floor, buying food for the new year and some additional cash to tide them for a year hopefully. The money for this venture was kindly contributed by myself and 2 students+teacher from the last Chiang Mai trip. It will be a good way to start a new year after all.
_______
This time however I will be there mainly for the softball trip even though I will be taking two days off to recce for a suitable CIP expedition. I am looking forward to meeting Chala again (my translator) and also hopefully the drivers, johnny and yut who were with us the last few rounds. I kind of missed them even though we couldnt converse much in English.
This trip I will be bringing this huge box of books for Chala's orphans (which was collected by JH and I packed them today) and I am preparing for my Santa Claus' role of buying a computer for them, buying mattresses for them so that they don;t have to sleep on cold floor, buying food for the new year and some additional cash to tide them for a year hopefully. The money for this venture was kindly contributed by myself and 2 students+teacher from the last Chiang Mai trip. It will be a good way to start a new year after all.
_______
Soft Shell Crabs
Sometimes, we just eat whatever we know without thinking.
Went to Swensen the other day on my own to have a meal. They have the Disney menu! Haa just when I though I would like to stay in Disneyland resort for a day. =)
Anyway I had a chili crab soup with soft shell crabs. Something like that.
While biting into one of the crabs, it struck me: if it has a soft shell, how is it going to defend itself against predators? What is it defense mechanism?
The ignorant me found the answer here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft-shell_crab
soft-shell crab are crabs in the process of molting.
Tidbits for the month. Feel free to share!
Went to Swensen the other day on my own to have a meal. They have the Disney menu! Haa just when I though I would like to stay in Disneyland resort for a day. =)
Anyway I had a chili crab soup with soft shell crabs. Something like that.
While biting into one of the crabs, it struck me: if it has a soft shell, how is it going to defend itself against predators? What is it defense mechanism?
The ignorant me found the answer here : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soft-shell_crab
soft-shell crab are crabs in the process of molting.
Tidbits for the month. Feel free to share!
As we come to the end of the year
Bunny said that I don't update my blog very often or was it how come I don't update my blog?
It was intentional but I was busy working on other sites and because this round, I tried to disseminate the info I had gathered to the whole school population through R.Discovery. Plus I was a bit lazy to log on. haha This is supposed to be a biology but it had served as my own ramblings at times I realised. Thoughtful ramblings I hoped =)
It was almost the end of the year already and just when I finally was able to feel rested, I realised I am going to start school all over again. I think I was quite tensed past few weeks (so I bought an oto eye massager=P).
1) writing testimonials. It was a fight against datelines, trying to find time to type after/before invigilation periods. Each piece was a work that I kind of relished in, masochistically speaking. Poring over written thoughts of others (which brought me some laughs), their own very reflections and my own insights, I assembled each piece with a better understanding of my student. I would like to say that every one is done with sincerity and hope for a new future, and every one is really for each single individual. At least until the amendments come in :).
Typing of testimonials ceased on 1 Dec and in between that and prom night, I churned out my own personal statement (after uploading everything else for UCAS and Naviance) for my own overseas application. For 3000 characters, they wanted several inclusions and because even this personal statement is graded on a scale of 1-6, it was quite daunting. It got worse when I realised that there are only openings for 20 students worldwide.
Then it was prom night. I cannot remember how mine went, probably as camwhoring as 5 sept even though there was no digital camera then. It was my first official time wearing my ever first pair of contact lenses then and like many others, I wore a suit. fast forward many years ahead, things don't really change much =) (the girls always looked very different that fateful night) except I felt older because I am and I had less friends ahah
Then all of a sudden, I was on my way to Bali with my friend on a short trip on Mon afternoon (I had to go back to school to settle paperwork for softball trip..arrgh). I remembered dumping my clothes and electronics into my backpack and left for the airport because my friend paid for an extra 20kg for checkin with jetstar so there was no reason to strategise my packing since I knew that I would never hit 20 kg.
Bali was not bad but I thought I suffer from the incessant working for the past one month to be able to reach a a peaceful mental state. In other words, my mind was still rather fidgety. But a break was still a break. It was still good to be able to not think of any work even if it was only for 5 days. =)
Back to Singapore, I had to do up part two of my application. This was the stressful part and took me a week to formulate a research theme when I had not done any for so long, totally unfamiliar with social research, no in tune with current educational landscape but had so many ideas, some practical to do while others are idealistic. I would pace up and down the house to find my muse until I decided not to worry too much but just write what I believed in, thought was feasible and put them down in black and white. I trusted in my scientific basis of judgement and because I only knew so much (I don't have time to do enough research). A neat piece of work (at least my fren told me) and so I hoped the people reading it will be as excited as my friend was. Like my students, I took a day to get my certificates endorsed (NIE and NUS), weighed my envelope and finally sent the envelope out to meet the dateline. And that was only this week. hahaha
--------
BREAK BREAK!
Christmas Eve. I went out to run some errands (like cutting my locks and rejuvenated with short hair) and had a starbuck coffee at the cityhall link. I liked sitting down with a drink and listening to cheesy xmasy songs (at the appropriate year only pls). It always bring a smile to my face with its festivity. I always think about Love Actually! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m2T5yfgsZ0
I read this newspaper article and it picked out pple wearing supposedly nice stuff and interviewed them. Other than the fact that I thought the clothes were not that outstanding by themselves (shirt and tie - isnt it norm? but perhaps they are less common among young pple in orchard) but to print about a 19 yr old wearing more than a $1000 on himself, arent we sending out a wrong msg? for one thing, it is NOT normal bcos a typical 19 yr old cannot afford it and it is also not true that only branded stuff are tasteful or value for money. These days, the branded goods are more inferior in quality so it takes a discerning shopper to get the best deals actually. Anyway , I just hoped that the young generation were not misled ...mmm i shall keep an eye out for that column next time.
Watched AVATAR (3D) today with my friends. J's treat because he passed his IPPT with me with a silver as his PTI for the past 2 weeks! AVATAR was awesome and my friend thought I fell asleep because I did not move at all. Nope. I was running through the forest! :)
James Cameron had really brought it home with this alien species although typical themes were explored. Still I enjoyed. I loved the bio stuff! - Signal transduction! nervous-like system in the roots! the part where the Na'vi plunged into the animals? I thought it was a simile to how pple plug into comp/virtual reality in sci fic actually but they changed the perspectives. There were parts that reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki's earlier works (the raccoon guy) like the floating mountains - Castle in the Sky and feeler-like sensor - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
But more importantly, I hope pple are not just blown away by the concepts or animations but think about how it really mirror real life. In our determination to get resources for our own needs, for our personal interest we often disregard others. Species went extinct, indigenous tribes slowly phased out (the only untouched ones are in papau new guinea i think) - and thus their knowledge of nature, and isn't that the reason why japan started WWII? We also see it in deforestation, pollution and how the bigger companies/some countries are operating in their drives to maximise economic returns. without a care, without a heart - and that is actually the thing we should work on and is working on - care and respect for others because life is not all about us.
I envy the Na'Vi and their connection with nature because they understood symbiosis, mutualism and the interdependancy of all living things.
The good thing is many pple are starting to appreciate nature again, to feel the live pulsating from underneath and start to care for Mother Earth.
------------
RANDOM
my students who do not know that these songs came from somewhere: :)
It was intentional but I was busy working on other sites and because this round, I tried to disseminate the info I had gathered to the whole school population through R.Discovery. Plus I was a bit lazy to log on. haha This is supposed to be a biology but it had served as my own ramblings at times I realised. Thoughtful ramblings I hoped =)
It was almost the end of the year already and just when I finally was able to feel rested, I realised I am going to start school all over again. I think I was quite tensed past few weeks (so I bought an oto eye massager=P).
1) writing testimonials. It was a fight against datelines, trying to find time to type after/before invigilation periods. Each piece was a work that I kind of relished in, masochistically speaking. Poring over written thoughts of others (which brought me some laughs), their own very reflections and my own insights, I assembled each piece with a better understanding of my student. I would like to say that every one is done with sincerity and hope for a new future, and every one is really for each single individual. At least until the amendments come in :).
Typing of testimonials ceased on 1 Dec and in between that and prom night, I churned out my own personal statement (after uploading everything else for UCAS and Naviance) for my own overseas application. For 3000 characters, they wanted several inclusions and because even this personal statement is graded on a scale of 1-6, it was quite daunting. It got worse when I realised that there are only openings for 20 students worldwide.
Then it was prom night. I cannot remember how mine went, probably as camwhoring as 5 sept even though there was no digital camera then. It was my first official time wearing my ever first pair of contact lenses then and like many others, I wore a suit. fast forward many years ahead, things don't really change much =) (the girls always looked very different that fateful night) except I felt older because I am and I had less friends ahah
Then all of a sudden, I was on my way to Bali with my friend on a short trip on Mon afternoon (I had to go back to school to settle paperwork for softball trip..arrgh). I remembered dumping my clothes and electronics into my backpack and left for the airport because my friend paid for an extra 20kg for checkin with jetstar so there was no reason to strategise my packing since I knew that I would never hit 20 kg.
Bali was not bad but I thought I suffer from the incessant working for the past one month to be able to reach a a peaceful mental state. In other words, my mind was still rather fidgety. But a break was still a break. It was still good to be able to not think of any work even if it was only for 5 days. =)
Back to Singapore, I had to do up part two of my application. This was the stressful part and took me a week to formulate a research theme when I had not done any for so long, totally unfamiliar with social research, no in tune with current educational landscape but had so many ideas, some practical to do while others are idealistic. I would pace up and down the house to find my muse until I decided not to worry too much but just write what I believed in, thought was feasible and put them down in black and white. I trusted in my scientific basis of judgement and because I only knew so much (I don't have time to do enough research). A neat piece of work (at least my fren told me) and so I hoped the people reading it will be as excited as my friend was. Like my students, I took a day to get my certificates endorsed (NIE and NUS), weighed my envelope and finally sent the envelope out to meet the dateline. And that was only this week. hahaha
--------
BREAK BREAK!
Christmas Eve. I went out to run some errands (like cutting my locks and rejuvenated with short hair) and had a starbuck coffee at the cityhall link. I liked sitting down with a drink and listening to cheesy xmasy songs (at the appropriate year only pls). It always bring a smile to my face with its festivity. I always think about Love Actually! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5m2T5yfgsZ0
I read this newspaper article and it picked out pple wearing supposedly nice stuff and interviewed them. Other than the fact that I thought the clothes were not that outstanding by themselves (shirt and tie - isnt it norm? but perhaps they are less common among young pple in orchard) but to print about a 19 yr old wearing more than a $1000 on himself, arent we sending out a wrong msg? for one thing, it is NOT normal bcos a typical 19 yr old cannot afford it and it is also not true that only branded stuff are tasteful or value for money. These days, the branded goods are more inferior in quality so it takes a discerning shopper to get the best deals actually. Anyway , I just hoped that the young generation were not misled ...mmm i shall keep an eye out for that column next time.
Watched AVATAR (3D) today with my friends. J's treat because he passed his IPPT with me with a silver as his PTI for the past 2 weeks! AVATAR was awesome and my friend thought I fell asleep because I did not move at all. Nope. I was running through the forest! :)
James Cameron had really brought it home with this alien species although typical themes were explored. Still I enjoyed. I loved the bio stuff! - Signal transduction! nervous-like system in the roots! the part where the Na'vi plunged into the animals? I thought it was a simile to how pple plug into comp/virtual reality in sci fic actually but they changed the perspectives. There were parts that reminded me of Hayao Miyazaki's earlier works (the raccoon guy) like the floating mountains - Castle in the Sky and feeler-like sensor - Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind.
But more importantly, I hope pple are not just blown away by the concepts or animations but think about how it really mirror real life. In our determination to get resources for our own needs, for our personal interest we often disregard others. Species went extinct, indigenous tribes slowly phased out (the only untouched ones are in papau new guinea i think) - and thus their knowledge of nature, and isn't that the reason why japan started WWII? We also see it in deforestation, pollution and how the bigger companies/some countries are operating in their drives to maximise economic returns. without a care, without a heart - and that is actually the thing we should work on and is working on - care and respect for others because life is not all about us.
I envy the Na'Vi and their connection with nature because they understood symbiosis, mutualism and the interdependancy of all living things.
The good thing is many pple are starting to appreciate nature again, to feel the live pulsating from underneath and start to care for Mother Earth.
------------
RANDOM
my students who do not know that these songs came from somewhere: :)
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