Saturday, August 30, 2008

Am i - 30/08/08

Am i overly too independent? Too much that i try to do, handle, solve everything on my own and on top of that... trying too much to help/listen to others that it might one day just be too much for me to tahan?

something to im pondering about..
The modules i have taken... have made me think a bit different in some ways... and think how/what/why should i improve on...

Monday, August 25, 2008

3rd Working experience with students - 25//08/08

Today was my 3rd time working for AHA in the outdoor camp work.
Well, today wasn't an overnight camp. Rather, it was more of a half day "Amazing Race" for students. This amazing race touches on historical locations, which forms the main objective of the whole tour.

I was a bit lucky to have gotten a group of just 12 students unlike most others who have about 21-23 students. Thus, i was able to handle my group easier. Surprisingly, this group is very enthusiastic. Almost from the first min, they were running around here and there... It was good that they are so "on", but it kinda give me a few scares, afraid that any falls might occur during the race.

Anyway, good experience again overall. For this job, everytime i have initial fears before the work... worry how will the students be, worry how will it turn out, worry bit of this and that... But everytime, it turned out good...

Sunday, August 24, 2008

Counselling & Intro to Psy - 24/08/08

So far so good... My choice of taking counselling and Intro to Psy to me has been a good one.

The first class for each module was good... I dont really know how to explain it, but it certainly beats the feeling of going classes like Biz Law or FA.

Though much reading and thinking process would be needed for this kind of modules, i feel i rather go through this than other kind of modules...

For counselling, one take away from the first class was definitely a strong sentence that Prof Tim spoke.. .that is a good counsellor do not give advice to his client...
the main key phrase is "DO NOT GIVE ADVICE"... this is certainly something i have never heard of... but it really keeps me thinking of a few incidents here and there.. .trying to link his words to my own experience.

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Sch Sch Sch!!! - 21/08/08

Sch has started this week. well, so far so good. The feeling of going back to Seminar rooms... of organising my time and apppointments, balancing work, study, and Floorball....

Though its manageable so far, lets hope nothing is being squeezed too much that i would fall sick in the term again. So far, my record is to fall sick once per term. Must try to break this trend.

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Cut hair + Colour - 16/08/08



Went to cut my hair today.. and coloured my hair too..
yes, i know... Where's the colour???
Its not obvious, i didn't want it to...
But its dark mahagony...

Thursday, August 07, 2008

Pictures of Bondue Camp - 07/08/08








Bondue Camp - 07/08/08

Straight after my Cambodian trip, it was Bondue Camp straight away. With not much rest, i was heading back to school at night when i just touched down Singapore a few hours ago.

Being a faci this time round, it was a different experience as I and amanda had to initiate and bring the freshies through the camp. First up was the usual ice breaker games... then it was to Lunch at Raffles Place shopping centre. There ,we ate at Thai Express and we had the chance to sit, eat and chat a bit which i think was good for a group as whole to try to get to know each other.

Right after lunch was a series of station games awaiting the freshies. It was gonna be wet and dirty and indeed it didn't disappointed. Though my team wasn't the super on type, i could still see them enjoying the whole process as a whole. For me and Amanda, being faci does not mean we could escape. I was being dunked by peanut butter, ketchup and flour all over my face! So too was Amanda...

At night was Geylang Jalan Jalan, where all gourps had to walk along Geylang to "complete" certain tasks and stations. Our group simply slacked along the way and settled at a tau huay store. There, each of us leaked some secrets of our past and current relationships.... and ahem... as promised, it is kept within us...

Back in SR, we did not went to sleep straight away, as the guys tried to talk some spooky ghost which did not frighten all of us except for Samantha who just can't stand hearing such things. Melvyn had to cut in halfway talking some lame jokes and from horror story telling, to lame questions and answers... haha...

2nd day was a whole day in Sentosa. Our team was already stalled by the waiting time as we had to wait almost 40 mins before we could even start our first station! Our progress wasn't that fast i must say and we are Slackers! However, our performance at the stations itself wasn't too bad. Anyway, we didn't complete the race and they settled by heading to Vivo for ice-cream. Now, up next, is probably one of the highlights of the camp. There at vivo, there is this Dove ShowerOK promotion going on, where the public could sing KTV in a "shower room" and they get a chance to win...

Despite some inital unwillingness to go in, i took the chance to persaude 7 others to go in with me. In the end, we sang "Larger than Life" and create quite a crowd around us. Being the faci of the group, i had to initiate the craziness. I just let hell loose i must say... and first time my freshies seen me gone crazy inside. anyway, if anyone happen to see this... you can vote for me at
http://www.doveshowerok.com/video.php?vid=57

There you could see how crazy my group was... and do some voting for me too ya.. keke

At night was chill out night. Dinner wasn't too bad as we ate buffet style! First time stage games was held at the atrium too. Activities ended around 11pm while each group head back for their own programs for the night. The 2nd night was fun , memorable, yet a bit angry and irritated... I would just say that i had loads of fun playing with my freshies !

we got to sleep only 4 hours with me having to wake up a few times in between to ensure Amanda was sound sleeping. The last day activities was "sports day"

As camp was over by 3plus, most of us still went for a bite after that. We left about 6pm for home as all of us were tired from the 3 day camp.

My feelings overall: Happy to have them as my freshies! Nice bunch of people... Though not as competitive as i would like them to be, but their bonding was excellent and that's more important. If I have made any certain positive impact to anyone of them during this 3 days, then i say my time as a faci for them was worth it.

Pictures of Cambodia - 07/08/08












Cambodia Trip - 07/08/08

I pen down the happenings during my trip to Cambodia. Was away from 29th July to 31 July. Take a look what i did...

29th July
The day started when mum woke me up early. Having steamed a few buns for me, i set off for airport at 555am. Everything went smoothly. Checking in early, we had the time to walk around the transit area, ate some breakfast, played PS3 and Xbox360 and even tried out an OSIM machine before we boarded the plane.

Problem started for me when we were in teh plane. As usual since young, i had motion sickness. I did not eat the "giddy" medicine that my mum gave me. Though the the flight was a mere 2 hours, it was a torrid time for me. Within it, i vommiteed twice!

So the holiday didn't start off that smoothly after all. Luckily, i got better once we touched ground. Heading straight to hotel, we rejected the tour guide's services for the day as we opt to explore the place ourselves. By foot, we set off to our planned route. Along the way, Aaron, being his first time in a third world country, he could feel the bulk difference and lifestlyle there. For me, i noticed a difference in the road conditions. One, there are much more motorists than drivers. A chance upon a Nissan Camry was a quite a rare sight. Motorists could agred as young as 13-15 years old and they ride without helmets. Traffic lights were present but it served little purpose. If there are no predestrians walking across the road, vehicles would still moved ahead. One example, we were at a T-junction with no traffic light then, thus we had to look all 360 direction for cars/motorists in order to cross "safely" One good thing is the speed limit is 30km/h. Or else i do not know how many accidents would have occured per day. Drivers also do give in to each other as neccessary... More better road courtesy as some of those in Singapore.

Lunch was good as we settled at a restaurant allocated beside a hotel. We ordered catfish with sliced green mango, Amok chicken and pork soup with seaweed. Along with a huge serving of rice, I must say our first meal in Cambodia ain't too bad at all.

The next thing we felt was the dusty and sandy road. Thoughout the day, we bought probably more than 5 bottles of water to quench our thirst and clear our throat. Aaron kept complaining sand particles entering his eyes, while my throat began to sore.

Taking tuk tuk for the 1st time, we reached to Angkor Museum. The price for foreigners to enter inside was US12. We didn't want to spend money on it thus we didnt go in. Next, was Central Market. Along the way, we asked quite a few massage stores for price quotes. We had planned all along to go for at least one session for this trip.

One massage store name caught our attention. It was named "7 girls massage"
Nothing sleezy or dirty, when we reached there, at the price of $6, we carried out our full body massage! For that hour, it was damn good. The girls was professional as each stoke was with strength and precision. Being my first time, i was kinda awkward initially, but overall, the session was good. In fact, i was quite disappointed when after the session, we had to get up and go. How i wished i was given 1/2 hour or an hour to lie down and sleep.

We did most shopping at Central and Old Market, buying some tee and souveniors. For dinner, we ate at a Mexican restaurant and desert at a cafe called Blue Pumpkin. Another observation i made, in general, Chicken is nice to eat. other than that, try not to eat beef/pork... it is usually quite hard to chew.

Shopping experience wasn't that fantastic. Most or in fact ALL shops sell the same stuff. Exactly the same bags, same tee, same scarfs... However, one incident was interesting at a store. We were looking at some tee when we were served by this 12 year old girl. She was very enthusiatic, had a nice smile. When we said we may want to buy a tee, she practically took all the tees in front of us, and start taking out each shirt for us to see and try. Usually when we were served in Singapore, the sales girl/boy would open up reluctantly, knowing they have to put it back afterwards, but the cambodian girls showed me a different perspective and attitude towards customers. In the end, we got 2 tees and a coin pouch from her. After we left, i kinda regretted not having to take a picture with her as a momentum.


30th July
We woke up 1 hour earlier in the morning cos of the time difference. I used my handphone to set the alarm, forgetting that Cambodia was 1 hour earlier than Singapore... haha... Later when we finally woke up at the right time, breakfast at the hotel was good. I had my favourite bacon, along with sausages and bread.

the itenary for the day was to visit Angkor Wat. It is one of the 7 wonders of the world. Almost all tourists came here for this. The tour guide describes that it is 12km in diameter all round the area, which is almost about half of Singapore size. That's explains why there are 1-day pass, 3-day pass and 7-day pass to be purchased.

At there, minus the renovation, stolen artifact pieces, the trip to the temples presented me with a different view, a view i will not see in Singapore. What was exciting was that we had to climb at some temples. Being vertically narrow, there is always the risks of falling off. Thank god nothing happened.

It rained in the afternoon, and it kinda spoilt the mood a bit. We could not see the sunset as planned, thus for the last part of the day, we climbed up a hill to another temple. This was where we climbed the highest. at the top, we could see the whole stretch of greens. That reminded me of Brunei, where the mist covered across the area. Aaron thought of the SMU jump and we did it twice. Some other tourist even copied us... hahah...

Lunch and dinner were planned by the agency. It was good for both meals. for both, we ate a lot and had our fill. From Cambodian dishes like curry, Amok fish, there was also some thai, vietnamese, chinese food too. I even got to eat coconut ice-cream, and i ate 3 sticks!

Before the night ended, we went for another round of massage. Twice the price though, it wasn't as shiok as the previous day. Probably because we ain't as tired, probably the massage girls wasn't as good.


31 July
We headed straight to airport right after breakfast. The driver who drove us around for our stay was probably ard 17-18 years old. Always carrying a nice, smiling face with him, Aaron and I couldn't help but to tip him once more before we left. We finally reached Singapore at 330pm.

Looking back, the trip was worth it despite my flight unhappiness. This trip helped me to "escape" Singapore for the time being, allowing me to experience a new culture and environment.

It is quite sad to see those young kids selling hard to earn a living. On the other hand, we could do envy them, being that they could live simple, happily without facing the stress we have in Singapore. Given a choice, I would not exchange my life here in Singapore for a Cambodian life, but given the chance or ability, I do want to possibly help in a way or another.

Overall,
Great Experience, Great time!
But now, its back to reality...

Monday, August 04, 2008

Back to Floorball - 04/08/08

Its good to be back to Floorball after a week disappearing to Cambodia and Bondue Camp. In the evening, went for a run with a few of us. After out for so long, running for 1 hour is supposed to be damn shack. But surprisingly, it turned out to be ok for me.

Running to Esplanade, then towards concourse, to Arab street then to Bugis and back to school.

Oh well, this week is quite busy too. With tml having gym work, and helping out at Bondue Camp, and match over the weekend....

School's Starting!!!!