♥
Saturday, December 30, 2006
today is the last day of 2006.
it has been an eventful and busy year.
i became more attached to guides. i still remember in sec 1 i really hate going for cca. i also don't know why. hahah. :D though guides camp wasn't like very successful and campfire was like in a mess, i have learnt quite a lot. just need to be more stern, loud and learn how to control the juniors. ok, that's quite a lot. hahaha. :P
305 has been a great class! :D i guess everyone identifies us by "the class who watches videos during watever free time they have". HAHAHAH.
another year has gone in nanyang. why does holidays always end before i knew it. actually i don't look forward to 2007. i have a feeling it's going to be a scary year. ok. i'm
very optimistic. hahaha. a lot of things is going to happen.
should i take pga? i feel like taking. but i'm scared leh. so many challenges. and i'm afraid that i cannot cope and i'll be stressed and i will anyhow lose my temper and cause everyone around me to be unhappy. and i feel that i'm not up to it. ok so maybe i'll not take. hahaha. talk so much the conclusion is still the same. ok. nevermind. shall see first.
oh. yesterday was YA carnival. we saw ms ng! hahah. because she is the ya commisioner. we took part in the fusion dance competition. actually we were forced to participate. oh please, the worst thing u tell me to do is to dance lah. so not coordinated one.
ok anyway, we were supposed to fuse 2 or more ethnic dance together. so we chose sun yanzi's shen qi and we fuse chinese, indian and western together. basically, the whole dance is choreograph by eileen! HAHAHA. cos we just koped from our sec 2 chinese dance and this years tr's day dance and add some other steps. ohoh. and the coolest part is we pur nan zhong quan inside! HAHHAHAH. plus a little breakdance, learn from gaomin. wah. that breakdance cause me to have 2 bruises on my knees. but it was quite fun actually. :)
YAY! i fnally finished my homework! hahah. :D but i havent started on my chi sia. :/ hai. i realised i have nothing else to say except my cca and schoolwork. so boring. but i had a nice christmas party! at my cousin's chalet! the chalet is a very cute and small wooden house on stilts. she booked 2 of them since its her company's. and it was her baby's birthday. he's a christmas baby. so cool right! we had buffet and bbq for dinner! i ate a lot. hahah. and i love the birthday cake! it's a tigger! as in it's 3D and it's in a shape of a baby tigger. hahah. so cute! my cousin had a hard time trying to figure out how to cut it. i ate the ear. hahah. :P but its expensive too. :O $186. earnest is so lucky to have such a big birthday party.
i want to watch death note 2! anyone wants to go with me? hahaha. most probably i'll go on tuesday. :D
so happy new year everyone! 2007 is going to be a tough year. but we'll brave through it! :D jiayou!
p.s. must go watch silence 深情密码! it's a nice show! though a bit sad. i like park eun hye and zaizai. hahah. :D
♥
Saturday, December 23, 2006
ahhhhhhhhh.
i need a break. :/
♥
Friday, December 15, 2006
hellO! I'm back from guides camp! :D Though it was tiring and i think i did a lot of things that i shouldn't, it was fun! I enjoyed the process of preparation and the camp. time just zooomed past.
i'm going to blog about my bangalore trip! wow. i'm so fast. HAHAHAH. :P
ok. its purely for recounting purposes, so that i won't forget the wonderful things we did there! :D
SET OFF and LANDING!
it was a night flight. so we met at the airport in the evening. my whole family accompany me to the airport. yuanyuan went too. :) waited a while, took the photo with the banner, said out goodbyes, then we went in. my mum and yuanyuan kept waving at me and i kept looking back. hahah. maybe i knew that i'll miss home. :)
lucky me got the window seat! i was sitting with gaomin and zhiying. zhiying is like so familiar with all the things on the plane and so used to it. gaomin and i haven't taken a plane for a long time already. and gaomin was so excited! hahaha. she kept asking "Is it moving?", "are we off? are we off?" HAHAHA. i was like "you can feel it moving one gaomin". so zhiying was patiently telling and updating what is happening to the plane.
krissworld was down for the whole flight! so sad right! so we couldn't watch any movies or tv shows. i just read my death note! hahhah. so smart of me to bring 2 books there to read on the plane. :P then have my dinner. i took the indian meal. could not get used to the indian spices. just feel a bit weird eating them. but the rice and curry veg was nice! :D then rested and slept a while. the flight was like 4 hrs. quite fast.
when we were reaching bangalore, i look out of the window. it was so beautiful! you can see all the coloured lights. white, yellow, red. i could even see the cars moving along the roads! hahah. it's cool to see all the things so small.
i was quite excited when i reach bangalore airport. i didn't expect it to be so different from changi airport. you can say that one is like "heaven" and one is like "hell". so we went to take our luggages, each with one trolley. hahah. we have like around 20+ bags of donated items, then plus our own luggages, it's like a mountain lah. i think we look like a train pushing a trolley full of bags each out of the airport. mrs tan and ms teng were outside waiting for us. :)
when we were waiting outside, a woman came carrying a baby and beg for money. i didn't dare to look at her. she just kept pointing to her baby and said something. i felt really bad and sorry for her. :( i dont't know how to describe the feeling. you just feel very sad for her but you cannot do anything to help. we were told not to give any money. if not more will come. so we just looked away and ignored her.
then we took a bus to bishop cotton girls. on the way i was looking out of the window. everything looked so new and i said to my self that i must really take away something from the trip and this place and learn something. hahha. :)
we rested at bcgs hostel. it was a bit strange sleeping in a totally different environment. but i knew that i'll get use to all these soon. :)
[the room that zhiying, gaomin, jas and i shared. my bed is the one on the top left. (:]
GANGASANDRA!
when we woke up, we took a stroll around the hostel and school. i must say that bcgs is a very pretty school. it has this very western and european feeling. and the students there do not look very indian, some of them look like chinese. i love the weather there too! so cooling! and it's not humid at all. so you don't feel so sticky and dirty.
[blurry bcgs pictures]
[we like to write our journal ooutside under the big tree. (:]
we attended their morning assembly and had our breakfast. then we set off for gangasandra, a rural school where we will be doing our cip. the bus ride was 2.5 hrs. i love the bus rides there! though it has no air-cons, the wind was very nice! :D i slept a lot on the bus. hahah.
[random scenery pictures]
[see the sunflowers? :D my cam is too slow so can only catch a small part of it]
when i first reached gangasandra, i didn't really like the place.i don't know why. maybe of the conditions there? or that i'm just worried. but after that i'm so used to the place that i didn't want to go back to the city. the place is very natural and beautiful. the sky, white fluffy clouds and the pastures with lots of cows, goats. and i have never seen such a huge peice of land full of sunflowers all facing the sun. the scenery is awesome!
i especially like the bathing and washing area. the washing are has 3 blocks of rocks for us to wash and hit our clothes. then when we were waiting to go back to bcgs, jieying, rachel, davina and i were sitting on the blocks and talking at looking out. there was this white fence surrounding us, but i could still see the tall grass and maize outside. then we keep hearing the cows moo-ing. hahaha. :D then rachel and jieying still told me that they were lying down on the blocks of rocks and chatting then after a while they saw michael the photographer on the building and taking photos of them! hahahah! but i think that photo will be very prettty! :D
ok we stayed at gangasandra for 1 week. basically the things we did there can be divided into 2. one will be manual work and the other will be teaching! :D
on the first 3 days, we did the stage-building work. actually, the stage is almost done already. because the whole process will take quite some time so we could only help in the final stage of building. we just keep pounding and pounding, using those thick and big spars so that the sand will be compact together and be steady! mr chia say we will all have nice muscles after this. hahah. and the supervisor keep telling him that he's not doing correctly. his expression was so funny! hahha. so for that few hours, we just keep pounding, but you cannot really tell the difference. so we were all feeling quite down because we don't feel that we had done anything to help. in fact we feel that the workers there can do a better job than us in a shorter time. why waste their time and resources? just like what lifern says, they are helping us help them. but ms teng told us that what we see is only a small part of the whole process. and i realised that actually we are helping them be exposed to the outside world. because perhaps the people in the village have never step oit of their village before and there will not always be visitors coming. so we learn from each other. :D then ms teng said something that i could still remember "you see that this hostel is sponsored by bcbs but they may not have visited this place before. the people here are staring at us may be because they think that we are crazy, why donate money and still come here to suffer?" these words left a deep impression on me. we do not help by just wanting to put our name up there, we help because we have the heart to and really want to help. it doesn't matter in what form your help is, or how much you have donated. i think the people on the receiving end can feel your sincerity. :)
on the last day of stage building, my group was supposed to do meal prep so we didnt help out. but they put on the cement and the tiles to complete the stage! yay! :D so sad i couldn't really complete it. but nevermind! meal prep was nice too! we went to their market in an auto! autos are like taxis over there. it's not a car though, can sit around 3 people. i like the bumby ride! hahaha.
[that yellow vehicle is an auto!]
then their market was quite special. most of them were selling vegetables and fruits. actually we didn't eat any meat the whole week, just perhaps 2 meals. then there was this little boy following us the whole trip at the market. someone (couldn't rmb who. :P) said that he was staring at ms chang's money and chai's camera. so we were quite scared. the things are very cheap over there. the cheapest are veg, followed by chicken, then fruits, and fish are the most expensive. i think it's because they need to import fish from other places. by the way, we didn't cook the meals, we just did the preparation. it was ms chang and the chefs there! hahaha. the food are very nice! and ms chang talks in this indian accent and shake her head whenever she speaks to the indians. hahahah. we kept imitating her, even mr chia and ms teng also imitate her! hahahah! so cute. :D ilove ms chang's mushroom and cabbage rice! :D oh oh/ and i love the kuality's glucose biscuits! it's so delicious. hahaha! :D and the milo!
then the next 2 days, we did some random work. we were just trying to changkul soil from one area and move them to another area which is waterlogged so as to level the ground. so we formed a human chain and use those metal plates to carry sand, soil and bricks. it was really tiring. but i felt satisfied when we leveled the ground! heheh. :D
ok. then we teach for 3 days at the school. i love teaching! :D my group was at the form 2 class, which is like the pri. 1 in spore. they are so so cute!!! they have very pretty and big eyes! and they keep wanting to shake your hands! so we taught them simple songs like row row row your boat, itsy bitsy spider, if you are happy and you now it, etc. though they didnt really understand, i could see that they are trying very hard to absorb what we were saying. we did colouring on the first day too! and there was this very cute boy who coloured his whole bear and bg pink! i showed him some other colours and told him to choose and guess what he picked? he still chose the pink one! HAHHAH. he really like pink so i just called him the little pink boy! :D 
then there was this girl who kept touching my hand lah! hahahah. and chai took a few pictures and saw that in the pics, the girl was touching me! hahah. so funny. :P
i think we look very new to them. they like to follow us wherever we go. and treat us like some stars and vips. sometimes i feel quite bad. are we there to help or are they helping us? :/
we also had a game session with the students there. we learnt how to play the indian traditional games like kho kho! i played with them. it's a kind of tag game. the rules are quite comnplicated. so at first, i just anyhow play and anyhow run. hahahha. but not bad i touch the person 2 times. :D
on the second last day, we went for the village tour. it was very interesting. the people there are all so friendly and treated us with great hospitality. they all showed us around their houses and offeredus biscuits and tea and gave us flowers. but their houses are all very small. only the landlord house is big. you can see the vast difference. i learnt a lot from the villagers. they do not waste anything. they don't use plastic bags, they create very little rubbish and just burn them away. they don't use stove to cook they just use fire they create. and they even make use of cow dung and spread them on the ground in front of their house. it is said that cow dung can absorb the uv rays. and they practise a lot of common sense. because their houses are very small, they hang things on the ceiling like food. then on the other hand, animals like cats cannot reach. so smart right! we visited 2 girls too. they are like going for the teacher training course. and they have to walk 1 hr everyday to get to their school! and they dont complain! must learn from them! :)
oh. before that we had a cultural performance! we performed sang nila utama for them and sang heal the world plus we are the world. they performed a lot more for us! there's different kind of dance, plus a kit and like some kind of wushu! hahah. very nice and cute. :D
at night, we had an interaction with the hostel boys. hey are actually those who lived in the hostel but moved out to let us sleep in the hostel. so nice right! we sang sings and dance the square dance! very fun! :D then they dance and sing for us too! we taught them the chicken dance. they can dance very well! hahah. like hip hop. cool man! hahaha. then we gave them souvenirs, a notepad and a pen. so they came and ask for our signatures! hahaha. :D
the last day was just purely waiting. we were supposed to set off in the afternoon. and the bus went to bombay instead! you know how far is it from bangalore! wah. so we taught them zero point and 5 stones. and we chat. oh and we called back home! i miss home very much! when my mum kept asking me "会辛苦吗？", i nearly cried. i don't know why but these 4 words keep swirling in my mind the whole trip. i know my parents are very worried about me, especially my mum. and i came back safe and healthy! :D melanie cried when she called home. i think she misses her family. :) so the bus came only at 6. late by 4 hrs! the villagers all send us off. the children were all waving at us and saying bye be. and they all want to shake our hands and they did the itsy bitsy spider actions and say all the animals we have taught them! i was so touched! :D so sweet and nice of them! i will remember and miss them all! ithink we were tired so we all slept on the bus. we only reach bcgs at 9 plus then we rushed to have our dinner. we even had ice cream lah. so it was a big change for us. in singapore, the difference is not that big. but in india, it really is. the girls there waste a lot of food and they don't think that it's a problem. it's quite sad. just like what ms koh say before hand, it's going to be an emotional roller coaster. you've got to face the fact that the people in the city and the people in the rural areas are very different.
*sorry. no pics at ganga cos my camerea battery went flat and michael was using his aptop so i couldnt charge ):
BISHOP COTTON GIRLS SCHOOL!
on first day at bcgs, we had an exchange programme with the students. we attended their lessons. i made some new friends, like piyanka, vish and kris. they could rmember our names so fast and i took so long to remember their names lah! hahaha. but they are really nice and fun! hahaha. we keep laughing during the lessons. and i realised that bcgs is like nanyang. they were all busy copying and doing homework before lessons. they complained about their teachers too. they were like saying that their teacher was so nice when we go over. normally she just nag. hahah. reminds me of someone. :P then they are so fast learners! we did trigo in like dunno how many weeks. and they did it in 45 min!!! i think its because they revise on their own before they come for lessons.
we attended their art lessons too! we did batik! :D not the wax one but the string tying one! so cute! and its so much easier. u just take a string and tir in the variuos methods, and put the whole thing in the dye and you get your pattern! hahaha. and the art teacher is so nice! she pasted all the pieces of batik on a book booklet and gave it to us! so sweet of her! :D
in the afternoon, we went to the botanical gardens. its huge! compared to our botanical gardens. though it's not as "developed" as ours, its more natural. we just stroll around and sit around to chat. we saw a lot of squirrels. :D so cute! and there was the cnow white and 7 dwarfs structures! i like that one!
the next day was india's childrens day!! :D it's a really big day in india. so they had a celebration! the younger children were all dressed in nice and colourful costumes. so cute. i took some photos. then they had a concert too! we attended the junior school one. they were all very excited when the teachers performed for them. i heard that the teachers dance to justin timberlake's sexyback! so cool! hahaha. we performed for them too, the skit again and then bunga sayang! i love that song! hahah. :D
[what we do in our room! hahah!]
[one of our breakfast! maggie plus masala tea!]
[dinner!]
[dining hall]
INFOSYS! later that day, we went to infosys. as bangalore is an it hub, we went to visit this very big it company. i tell you it's really really huge and luxurious!!! it has a lot of companies over india and other countries. the bangalore one is the hq. so we toured around. they showed us a plot of land with trees planted by the vips. i saw bill gates tree! hahaha. :P then the prime minister of new zealand, australia, india, etc etc. really a lot of 大牌。then they have a lot of facilities, like pool, billards, swimming pool. they even have a man made lake for them to row boats lah! a bit 不习惯。 because we have been seeing the poor parts of bangalore. so its a big contrast. a lot of people are getting a bit irritated by this fact. but i feel that it isn't really a bad thing. at least the country is progressing. they can create more jobs for the other poorer people. and the objective of our exchange prog was also to try to influence the students here to help their own people. because ultimately they are the ones who can really help, not us. we are only going there for 2 weeks.
on the way back, we took their public bus. they even have seat belts for people standing you know! very cute right! :D we said a lot of lame jokes and played stupid guessing games. like the open open open close open game, and the green glass door, and the bang bang bang game. HAHAHHA. i had a lot of fun! :D
CAMPFIRE! on the night of children's day, the boarding school organised a campfire. we sang, danced and had a lot of fun! hahah. the songs they play are the songs that we listened too. and they waste quite a lot of food too. :/ so they are like a reflection of us. and we hate to see that reflection. because after the week at gangasandra, we have changed. and we don't like what we used to be and yet the people at bcgs are just like what we are before. the feeling is very contadictory. they reminds us of how we treated the exchange people who came to nanyang. mostly we just dao-ed them. the people at bcgs are much better than us already. now i will not dao the exchange ppl le, i'll try to smile! :D
so some of us cried. i think they just missed ganga a lot. and they can't take this change. after this, i can say that we have grown. :)
DINNER! on one of the nights, the parents of indian students who will be coming over to spore hosted us to dinner at this posh restaurant. :O we didn't really understand why must go to such a posh place. maybe they just want us to feel welcomed? anway, dinner was good. we talked and played games with them. it was a good interaction. hope to see them in jan in nanyang! :D
GOODWILL GIRLS SCHOOL on the third day of the 2nd week, we were splited into 2 groups to go to 2 schools for exchange. i went to goodwill. bcgs is like the upper class and ganga the lower class. so goodwill is the middle class. ms teng said that we must interact with all of them to understand the situation. all in all, i can only say that they are all very NICE, TOO NICE! the whole school came back just for us!! it was actually a holiday one, because of children's day. if this happened in ny, i'll be super angry and bu shuang. hahaha. and they did a lot of things for us. they prepared dance for us, JUST FOR US. the 10 of us were the only audience. though their exams were coming. i feel very bad. they organised a lot of competitions like drawing, sketching, floral arrangement, painting etc and the principal told us to be the judge. so we decided everything. :/ then the principal took us to every class to observe lessons. we were like disturbing them. :x
the lunch was the best! the food was so nice!! they had 2 tables in the hall, and lay all the glass cups, drinks on the table. and they even have people serving us. they made us feel so guilty. the people there are all very friendly, not like us sometimes. :/ anyway, i had a good time there. :)
CSI Billingual! in the afternoon, the 2 groups met at csi for teaching! csi isa school for children from the slum areas. their houses are like those tents that are 10 ft by 10 ft. so the whole family just live in that small area. but you don't feel sad for them because they are always smiling and so happy. they are so positive! :D and you feel so comfortable and happy with them. :D as they do not know english, we taught them very simple terms like the various body oarts with actions. hahah. they learnt quite fast. it's a great satisfaction when you know that they had learnt something from you! :)
BORNFREE ART SCHOOL! before we set off for bornfree, ms teng told us there are really a lot of sad cases in bornfree. bornfree is a school for street children and those freed from bonded labour. the believe in teaching through entertainment and knowledge sharing. they have different art classes like dance, sculptures, music, photography etc.
and they do not have a permanent school compound. they have to move from place to place. when we reach there, we listened to their stories. i cried. because i was touched by their perserverance and strength. even though she had been tortured by her owner who burned plastic and put it on her feet, even though he had to work in a silk company, using machines so much taller than him, even though he had to work in a deafening environment which cause a lot of other children to be deaf, they were strong and positive. i really admire them. :)
we did sculptures that day, each of us had to make 4 leaves with our names on it. the sculptors there then made 4 trees so we all had to paste our leaves on the various trees. and each of the school will take one tree! :D it's very pretty! hahah.
we also played games and did some role play. it was fun! :D i learnt a lot from this day. the in-charge there all come from different countries, the lady is from japan, the juggler is a westerner. i think it's very cool. people gathering together with the same goal to get something done. i admire their spirit! :D and they had this expedition, where they all cycled 40km and took a lot of photos of child labour along the way so as to increase awareness. we must STOP CHILD LABOUR! everything which we are using now may come from the hands of a child. when we drink tea and coffee, it's the children who picked the leave and coffee bean. the cotton and silk clothing we are wearing, it's the children who plucked the cotton and collect the silk from the silkworms. the roses we give to our loved ones, it's the children who had pricked themselves when plucking them. because bangalore is a big producer of rosees to the european countries.
COFFEE PLANTATION! on the third last day, we went to visit at a coffee plantation! but it's very faraway. the bus ride took around 8hrs!!! hahaha. so i keep sleeping.
[sipei on the bus! hahahah.]
along the way, we went to a 9 century temple. the sculpturing on the temple is just amazing! so exquisite! and the tour guide took a stick and insert through the eyes and nose and ears and the stick just come out through the other eye and ear! as in it's hollw inside! so cool right! they must have taken a very very long time to complete such a master work!
and we finally reach the coffee plantation in the evening. it's actually a student of bcgs's father's coffee plantation. he is one of the main producer of coffee in india. the house in huge! and the scenery is beautiful! because it's like on a hill. 
so we took a stroll round we learnt about the process of producing the brown coffee beans we see. the fruit is actually red. then when u squeeze it, theres 2 sticky greenish white coffee bean. so you have to go through the machine to squeeze the fruit thing and wash off the sticky thing. hahah. then dry them. i also know that the rounder ones are those of better quality! hahaha.
[a field of coffee beans out drying!]
then we had dinner. they have a lot of servants. and they are all very cute! hehehe. reminds me of mr tan chik leng. and their toilets is so so big! bigger than my room lah! and there's more than one! ok so yo can imagine how big their house is. then they have to boil the water using firewood in the morning so as to get the hot water for bath. so cool right! and they have cows to provide milk, hens to provde eggs! everythign is so natural and fresh there! :D
the next morning, we climb up the coffee hill! hahahah. where all the coffee plants are. it was quite tiring. but it's worth it because the scenery up there is WOW! hahahah. :D we just stand there and feel the wind and see the green fields and trees! oh oh. and it was up there where i got a leech bite! wow the leech is so powerful! it bit through my sock. hahahh. at first i didnt feel anything. then i saw a brown round thing on my sock. at first i though it was a ladybird so i took a rock and sweep it off. and it just clinged onto my sock. then i realised its slimy and is a leech! and i didnt know i should not sweep it off. so my wound just keep bleeding and wouldnt stop. soon my sock was stained with my blood. and there was nthing i could do si i just stuff a tissue there. hahaha. only me, gao, lifern and peixuan got bitten. hahah. but it was an experience. at least i know that i should let it bite and let it grow fatter and bigger and drop off when it has sucked enough blood. hahah. but i guess it's human instinct to sweep it away.
so later in the afternoon, we went back! THANK YOU UNCLES AND AUNTIES at the coffee plantation! they are so cute and nice! i'll remember them! :D
SHOPPING!
we went shopping on the last day. i love shopping there! hahaha. i bought a lot of things! i brought 100 sing dollars which is 2700 rupees. we were supposed to shop in groups. and my shopping group has sipei, minx, gaomin, chai and me. and we call ourselves simbananagaochailili. minx is simba and sipei is banana! OH. and my name in kannada (the language there) means sun! surya! (shuli ah) so cool right! hahaha. 我跟太阳很有缘！
i bought a lot of things. let me see. here's my 战利品！
-10 cards for friends
-1 coffeebean notebook
-2 mini books for my teachers
-bookmarks for 305!
-lots of bangles for friends!
-5 pairs of earrings for myself and cousins!
-3 scarfs for mums and aunts
-1 skirt for myself! :D
-1 bag for myself too!
-3 t-shirts for brothers and me
-1 wallet for my dad
-1 hankerchief for my mum!
-1 letter holder for my family!
i think that's all! hahaha. i cannot bargain! so have to ask sipei to help. but there's a price to pay for bargaining. hai. nevermind! :D
YAYY! i finally finshed recounting! it's such a long and boring post. :O i salute you if you ever finsh reading the whole post. hahaha. :D
♥
Saturday, December 30, 2006
today is the last day of 2006.
it has been an eventful and busy year.
i became more attached to guides. i still remember in sec 1 i really hate going for cca. i also don't know why. hahah. :D though guides camp wasn't like very successful and campfire was like in a mess, i have learnt quite a lot. just need to be more stern, loud and learn how to control the juniors. ok, that's quite a lot. hahaha. :P
305 has been a great class! :D i guess everyone identifies us by "the class who watches videos during watever free time they have". HAHAHAH.
another year has gone in nanyang. why does holidays always end before i knew it. actually i don't look forward to 2007. i have a feeling it's going to be a scary year. ok. i'm
very optimistic. hahaha. a lot of things is going to happen.
should i take pga? i feel like taking. but i'm scared leh. so many challenges. and i'm afraid that i cannot cope and i'll be stressed and i will anyhow lose my temper and cause everyone around me to be unhappy. and i feel that i'm not up to it. ok so maybe i'll not take. hahaha. talk so much the conclusion is still the same. ok. nevermind. shall see first.
oh. yesterday was YA carnival. we saw ms ng! hahah. because she is the ya commisioner. we took part in the fusion dance competition. actually we were forced to participate. oh please, the worst thing u tell me to do is to dance lah. so not coordinated one.
ok anyway, we were supposed to fuse 2 or more ethnic dance together. so we chose sun yanzi's shen qi and we fuse chinese, indian and western together. basically, the whole dance is choreograph by eileen! HAHAHA. cos we just koped from our sec 2 chinese dance and this years tr's day dance and add some other steps. ohoh. and the coolest part is we pur nan zhong quan inside! HAHHAHAH. plus a little breakdance, learn from gaomin. wah. that breakdance cause me to have 2 bruises on my knees. but it was quite fun actually. :)
YAY! i fnally finished my homework! hahah. :D but i havent started on my chi sia. :/ hai. i realised i have nothing else to say except my cca and schoolwork. so boring. but i had a nice christmas party! at my cousin's chalet! the chalet is a very cute and small wooden house on stilts. she booked 2 of them since its her company's. and it was her baby's birthday. he's a christmas baby. so cool right! we had buffet and bbq for dinner! i ate a lot. hahah. and i love the birthday cake! it's a tigger! as in it's 3D and it's in a shape of a baby tigger. hahah. so cute! my cousin had a hard time trying to figure out how to cut it. i ate the ear. hahah. :P but its expensive too. :O $186. earnest is so lucky to have such a big birthday party.
i want to watch death note 2! anyone wants to go with me? hahaha. most probably i'll go on tuesday. :D
so happy new year everyone! 2007 is going to be a tough year. but we'll brave through it! :D jiayou!
p.s. must go watch silence 深情密码! it's a nice show! though a bit sad. i like park eun hye and zaizai. hahah. :D
♥
Saturday, December 23, 2006
ahhhhhhhhh.
i need a break. :/
♥
Friday, December 15, 2006
hellO! I'm back from guides camp! :D Though it was tiring and i think i did a lot of things that i shouldn't, it was fun! I enjoyed the process of preparation and the camp. time just zooomed past.
i'm going to blog about my bangalore trip! wow. i'm so fast. HAHAHAH. :P
ok. its purely for recounting purposes, so that i won't forget the wonderful things we did there! :D
SET OFF and LANDING!
it was a night flight. so we met at the airport in the evening. my whole family accompany me to the airport. yuanyuan went too. :) waited a while, took the photo with the banner, said out goodbyes, then we went in. my mum and yuanyuan kept waving at me and i kept looking back. hahah. maybe i knew that i'll miss home. :)
lucky me got the window seat! i was sitting with gaomin and zhiying. zhiying is like so familiar with all the things on the plane and so used to it. gaomin and i haven't taken a plane for a long time already. and gaomin was so excited! hahaha. she kept asking "Is it moving?", "are we off? are we off?" HAHAHA. i was like "you can feel it moving one gaomin". so zhiying was patiently telling and updating what is happening to the plane.
krissworld was down for the whole flight! so sad right! so we couldn't watch any movies or tv shows. i just read my death note! hahhah. so smart of me to bring 2 books there to read on the plane. :P then have my dinner. i took the indian meal. could not get used to the indian spices. just feel a bit weird eating them. but the rice and curry veg was nice! :D then rested and slept a while. the flight was like 4 hrs. quite fast.
when we were reaching bangalore, i look out of the window. it was so beautiful! you can see all the coloured lights. white, yellow, red. i could even see the cars moving along the roads! hahah. it's cool to see all the things so small.
i was quite excited when i reach bangalore airport. i didn't expect it to be so different from changi airport. you can say that one is like "heaven" and one is like "hell". so we went to take our luggages, each with one trolley. hahah. we have like around 20+ bags of donated items, then plus our own luggages, it's like a mountain lah. i think we look like a train pushing a trolley full of bags each out of the airport. mrs tan and ms teng were outside waiting for us. :)
when we were waiting outside, a woman came carrying a baby and beg for money. i didn't dare to look at her. she just kept pointing to her baby and said something. i felt really bad and sorry for her. :( i dont't know how to describe the feeling. you just feel very sad for her but you cannot do anything to help. we were told not to give any money. if not more will come. so we just looked away and ignored her.
then we took a bus to bishop cotton girls. on the way i was looking out of the window. everything looked so new and i said to my self that i must really take away something from the trip and this place and learn something. hahha. :)
we rested at bcgs hostel. it was a bit strange sleeping in a totally different environment. but i knew that i'll get use to all these soon. :)
[the room that zhiying, gaomin, jas and i shared. my bed is the one on the top left. (:]
GANGASANDRA!
when we woke up, we took a stroll around the hostel and school. i must say that bcgs is a very pretty school. it has this very western and european feeling. and the students there do not look very indian, some of them look like chinese. i love the weather there too! so cooling! and it's not humid at all. so you don't feel so sticky and dirty.
[blurry bcgs pictures]
[we like to write our journal ooutside under the big tree. (:]
we attended their morning assembly and had our breakfast. then we set off for gangasandra, a rural school where we will be doing our cip. the bus ride was 2.5 hrs. i love the bus rides there! though it has no air-cons, the wind was very nice! :D i slept a lot on the bus. hahah.
[random scenery pictures]
[see the sunflowers? :D my cam is too slow so can only catch a small part of it]
when i first reached gangasandra, i didn't really like the place.i don't know why. maybe of the conditions there? or that i'm just worried. but after that i'm so used to the place that i didn't want to go back to the city. the place is very natural and beautiful. the sky, white fluffy clouds and the pastures with lots of cows, goats. and i have never seen such a huge peice of land full of sunflowers all facing the sun. the scenery is awesome!
i especially like the bathing and washing area. the washing are has 3 blocks of rocks for us to wash and hit our clothes. then when we were waiting to go back to bcgs, jieying, rachel, davina and i were sitting on the blocks and talking at looking out. there was this white fence surrounding us, but i could still see the tall grass and maize outside. then we keep hearing the cows moo-ing. hahaha. :D then rachel and jieying still told me that they were lying down on the blocks of rocks and chatting then after a while they saw michael the photographer on the building and taking photos of them! hahahah! but i think that photo will be very prettty! :D
ok we stayed at gangasandra for 1 week. basically the things we did there can be divided into 2. one will be manual work and the other will be teaching! :D
on the first 3 days, we did the stage-building work. actually, the stage is almost done already. because the whole process will take quite some time so we could only help in the final stage of building. we just keep pounding and pounding, using those thick and big spars so that the sand will be compact together and be steady! mr chia say we will all have nice muscles after this. hahah. and the supervisor keep telling him that he's not doing correctly. his expression was so funny! hahha. so for that few hours, we just keep pounding, but you cannot really tell the difference. so we were all feeling quite down because we don't feel that we had done anything to help. in fact we feel that the workers there can do a better job than us in a shorter time. why waste their time and resources? just like what lifern says, they are helping us help them. but ms teng told us that what we see is only a small part of the whole process. and i realised that actually we are helping them be exposed to the outside world. because perhaps the people in the village have never step oit of their village before and there will not always be visitors coming. so we learn from each other. :D then ms teng said something that i could still remember "you see that this hostel is sponsored by bcbs but they may not have visited this place before. the people here are staring at us may be because they think that we are crazy, why donate money and still come here to suffer?" these words left a deep impression on me. we do not help by just wanting to put our name up there, we help because we have the heart to and really want to help. it doesn't matter in what form your help is, or how much you have donated. i think the people on the receiving end can feel your sincerity. :)
on the last day of stage building, my group was supposed to do meal prep so we didnt help out. but they put on the cement and the tiles to complete the stage! yay! :D so sad i couldn't really complete it. but nevermind! meal prep was nice too! we went to their market in an auto! autos are like taxis over there. it's not a car though, can sit around 3 people. i like the bumby ride! hahaha.
[that yellow vehicle is an auto!]
then their market was quite special. most of them were selling vegetables and fruits. actually we didn't eat any meat the whole week, just perhaps 2 meals. then there was this little boy following us the whole trip at the market. someone (couldn't rmb who. :P) said that he was staring at ms chang's money and chai's camera. so we were quite scared. the things are very cheap over there. the cheapest are veg, followed by chicken, then fruits, and fish are the most expensive. i think it's because they need to import fish from other places. by the way, we didn't cook the meals, we just did the preparation. it was ms chang and the chefs there! hahaha. the food are very nice! and ms chang talks in this indian accent and shake her head whenever she speaks to the indians. hahahah. we kept imitating her, even mr chia and ms teng also imitate her! hahahah! so cute. :D ilove ms chang's mushroom and cabbage rice! :D oh oh/ and i love the kuality's glucose biscuits! it's so delicious. hahaha! :D and the milo!
then the next 2 days, we did some random work. we were just trying to changkul soil from one area and move them to another area which is waterlogged so as to level the ground. so we formed a human chain and use those metal plates to carry sand, soil and bricks. it was really tiring. but i felt satisfied when we leveled the ground! heheh. :D
ok. then we teach for 3 days at the school. i love teaching! :D my group was at the form 2 class, which is like the pri. 1 in spore. they are so so cute!!! they have very pretty and big eyes! and they keep wanting to shake your hands! so we taught them simple songs like row row row your boat, itsy bitsy spider, if you are happy and you now it, etc. though they didnt really understand, i could see that they are trying very hard to absorb what we were saying. we did colouring on the first day too! and there was this very cute boy who coloured his whole bear and bg pink! i showed him some other colours and told him to choose and guess what he picked? he still chose the pink one! HAHHAH. he really like pink so i just called him the little pink boy! :D
then there was this girl who kept touching my hand lah! hahahah. and chai took a few pictures and saw that in the pics, the girl was touching me! hahah. so funny. :P
i think we look very new to them. they like to follow us wherever we go. and treat us like some stars and vips. sometimes i feel quite bad. are we there to help or are they helping us? :/
we also had a game session with the students there. we learnt how to play the indian traditional games like kho kho! i played with them. it's a kind of tag game. the rules are quite comnplicated. so at first, i just anyhow play and anyhow run. hahahha. but not bad i touch the person 2 times. :D
on the second last day, we went for the village tour. it was very interesting. the people there are all so friendly and treated us with great hospitality. they all showed us around their houses and offeredus biscuits and tea and gave us flowers. but their houses are all very small. only the landlord house is big. you can see the vast difference. i learnt a lot from the villagers. they do not waste anything. they don't use plastic bags, they create very little rubbish and just burn them away. they don't use stove to cook they just use fire they create. and they even make use of cow dung and spread them on the ground in front of their house. it is said that cow dung can absorb the uv rays. and they practise a lot of common sense. because their houses are very small, they hang things on the ceiling like food. then on the other hand, animals like cats cannot reach. so smart right! we visited 2 girls too. they are like going for the teacher training course. and they have to walk 1 hr everyday to get to their school! and they dont complain! must learn from them! :)
oh. before that we had a cultural performance! we performed sang nila utama for them and sang heal the world plus we are the world. they performed a lot more for us! there's different kind of dance, plus a kit and like some kind of wushu! hahah. very nice and cute. :D
at night, we had an interaction with the hostel boys. hey are actually those who lived in the hostel but moved out to let us sleep in the hostel. so nice right! we sang sings and dance the square dance! very fun! :D then they dance and sing for us too! we taught them the chicken dance. they can dance very well! hahah. like hip hop. cool man! hahaha. then we gave them souvenirs, a notepad and a pen. so they came and ask for our signatures! hahaha. :D
the last day was just purely waiting. we were supposed to set off in the afternoon. and the bus went to bombay instead! you know how far is it from bangalore! wah. so we taught them zero point and 5 stones. and we chat. oh and we called back home! i miss home very much! when my mum kept asking me "会辛苦吗？", i nearly cried. i don't know why but these 4 words keep swirling in my mind the whole trip. i know my parents are very worried about me, especially my mum. and i came back safe and healthy! :D melanie cried when she called home. i think she misses her family. :) so the bus came only at 6. late by 4 hrs! the villagers all send us off. the children were all waving at us and saying bye be. and they all want to shake our hands and they did the itsy bitsy spider actions and say all the animals we have taught them! i was so touched! :D so sweet and nice of them! i will remember and miss them all! ithink we were tired so we all slept on the bus. we only reach bcgs at 9 plus then we rushed to have our dinner. we even had ice cream lah. so it was a big change for us. in singapore, the difference is not that big. but in india, it really is. the girls there waste a lot of food and they don't think that it's a problem. it's quite sad. just like what ms koh say before hand, it's going to be an emotional roller coaster. you've got to face the fact that the people in the city and the people in the rural areas are very different.
*sorry. no pics at ganga cos my camerea battery went flat and michael was using his aptop so i couldnt charge ):
BISHOP COTTON GIRLS SCHOOL!
on first day at bcgs, we had an exchange programme with the students. we attended their lessons. i made some new friends, like piyanka, vish and kris. they could rmember our names so fast and i took so long to remember their names lah! hahaha. but they are really nice and fun! hahaha. we keep laughing during the lessons. and i realised that bcgs is like nanyang. they were all busy copying and doing homework before lessons. they complained about their teachers too. they were like saying that their teacher was so nice when we go over. normally she just nag. hahah. reminds me of someone. :P then they are so fast learners! we did trigo in like dunno how many weeks. and they did it in 45 min!!! i think its because they revise on their own before they come for lessons.
we attended their art lessons too! we did batik! :D not the wax one but the string tying one! so cute! and its so much easier. u just take a string and tir in the variuos methods, and put the whole thing in the dye and you get your pattern! hahaha. and the art teacher is so nice! she pasted all the pieces of batik on a book booklet and gave it to us! so sweet of her! :D
in the afternoon, we went to the botanical gardens. its huge! compared to our botanical gardens. though it's not as "developed" as ours, its more natural. we just stroll around and sit around to chat. we saw a lot of squirrels. :D so cute! and there was the cnow white and 7 dwarfs structures! i like that one!
the next day was india's childrens day!! :D it's a really big day in india. so they had a celebration! the younger children were all dressed in nice and colourful costumes. so cute. i took some photos. then they had a concert too! we attended the junior school one. they were all very excited when the teachers performed for them. i heard that the teachers dance to justin timberlake's sexyback! so cool! hahaha. we performed for them too, the skit again and then bunga sayang! i love that song! hahah. :D
[what we do in our room! hahah!]
[one of our breakfast! maggie plus masala tea!]
[dinner!]
[dining hall]
INFOSYS! later that day, we went to infosys. as bangalore is an it hub, we went to visit this very big it company. i tell you it's really really huge and luxurious!!! it has a lot of companies over india and other countries. the bangalore one is the hq. so we toured around. they showed us a plot of land with trees planted by the vips. i saw bill gates tree! hahaha. :P then the prime minister of new zealand, australia, india, etc etc. really a lot of 大牌。then they have a lot of facilities, like pool, billards, swimming pool. they even have a man made lake for them to row boats lah! a bit 不习惯。 because we have been seeing the poor parts of bangalore. so its a big contrast. a lot of people are getting a bit irritated by this fact. but i feel that it isn't really a bad thing. at least the country is progressing. they can create more jobs for the other poorer people. and the objective of our exchange prog was also to try to influence the students here to help their own people. because ultimately they are the ones who can really help, not us. we are only going there for 2 weeks.
on the way back, we took their public bus. they even have seat belts for people standing you know! very cute right! :D we said a lot of lame jokes and played stupid guessing games. like the open open open close open game, and the green glass door, and the bang bang bang game. HAHAHHA. i had a lot of fun! :D
CAMPFIRE! on the night of children's day, the boarding school organised a campfire. we sang, danced and had a lot of fun! hahah. the songs they play are the songs that we listened too. and they waste quite a lot of food too. :/ so they are like a reflection of us. and we hate to see that reflection. because after the week at gangasandra, we have changed. and we don't like what we used to be and yet the people at bcgs are just like what we are before. the feeling is very contadictory. they reminds us of how we treated the exchange people who came to nanyang. mostly we just dao-ed them. the people at bcgs are much better than us already. now i will not dao the exchange ppl le, i'll try to smile! :D
so some of us cried. i think they just missed ganga a lot. and they can't take this change. after this, i can say that we have grown. :)
DINNER! on one of the nights, the parents of indian students who will be coming over to spore hosted us to dinner at this posh restaurant. :O we didn't really understand why must go to such a posh place. maybe they just want us to feel welcomed? anway, dinner was good. we talked and played games with them. it was a good interaction. hope to see them in jan in nanyang! :D
GOODWILL GIRLS SCHOOL on the third day of the 2nd week, we were splited into 2 groups to go to 2 schools for exchange. i went to goodwill. bcgs is like the upper class and ganga the lower class. so goodwill is the middle class. ms teng said that we must interact with all of them to understand the situation. all in all, i can only say that they are all very NICE, TOO NICE! the whole school came back just for us!! it was actually a holiday one, because of children's day. if this happened in ny, i'll be super angry and bu shuang. hahaha. and they did a lot of things for us. they prepared dance for us, JUST FOR US. the 10 of us were the only audience. though their exams were coming. i feel very bad. they organised a lot of competitions like drawing, sketching, floral arrangement, painting etc and the principal told us to be the judge. so we decided everything. :/ then the principal took us to every class to observe lessons. we were like disturbing them. :x
the lunch was the best! the food was so nice!! they had 2 tables in the hall, and lay all the glass cups, drinks on the table. and they even have people serving us. they made us feel so guilty. the people there are all very friendly, not like us sometimes. :/ anyway, i had a good time there. :)
CSI Billingual! in the afternoon, the 2 groups met at csi for teaching! csi isa school for children from the slum areas. their houses are like those tents that are 10 ft by 10 ft. so the whole family just live in that small area. but you don't feel sad for them because they are always smiling and so happy. they are so positive! :D and you feel so comfortable and happy with them. :D as they do not know english, we taught them very simple terms like the various body oarts with actions. hahah. they learnt quite fast. it's a great satisfaction when you know that they had learnt something from you! :)
BORNFREE ART SCHOOL! before we set off for bornfree, ms teng told us there are really a lot of sad cases in bornfree. bornfree is a school for street children and those freed from bonded labour. the believe in teaching through entertainment and knowledge sharing. they have different art classes like dance, sculptures, music, photography etc.
and they do not have a permanent school compound. they have to move from place to place. when we reach there, we listened to their stories. i cried. because i was touched by their perserverance and strength. even though she had been tortured by her owner who burned plastic and put it on her feet, even though he had to work in a silk company, using machines so much taller than him, even though he had to work in a deafening environment which cause a lot of other children to be deaf, they were strong and positive. i really admire them. :)
we did sculptures that day, each of us had to make 4 leaves with our names on it. the sculptors there then made 4 trees so we all had to paste our leaves on the various trees. and each of the school will take one tree! :D it's very pretty! hahah.
we also played games and did some role play. it was fun! :D i learnt a lot from this day. the in-charge there all come from different countries, the lady is from japan, the juggler is a westerner. i think it's very cool. people gathering together with the same goal to get something done. i admire their spirit! :D and they had this expedition, where they all cycled 40km and took a lot of photos of child labour along the way so as to increase awareness. we must STOP CHILD LABOUR! everything which we are using now may come from the hands of a child. when we drink tea and coffee, it's the children who picked the leave and coffee bean. the cotton and silk clothing we are wearing, it's the children who plucked the cotton and collect the silk from the silkworms. the roses we give to our loved ones, it's the children who had pricked themselves when plucking them. because bangalore is a big producer of rosees to the european countries.
COFFEE PLANTATION! on the third last day, we went to visit at a coffee plantation! but it's very faraway. the bus ride took around 8hrs!!! hahaha. so i keep sleeping.
[sipei on the bus! hahahah.]
along the way, we went to a 9 century temple. the sculpturing on the temple is just amazing! so exquisite! and the tour guide took a stick and insert through the eyes and nose and ears and the stick just come out through the other eye and ear! as in it's hollw inside! so cool right! they must have taken a very very long time to complete such a master work!
and we finally reach the coffee plantation in the evening. it's actually a student of bcgs's father's coffee plantation. he is one of the main producer of coffee in india. the house in huge! and the scenery is beautiful! because it's like on a hill. so we took a stroll round we learnt about the process of producing the brown coffee beans we see. the fruit is actually red. then when u squeeze it, theres 2 sticky greenish white coffee bean. so you have to go through the machine to squeeze the fruit thing and wash off the sticky thing. hahah. then dry them. i also know that the rounder ones are those of better quality! hahaha.
[a field of coffee beans out drying!]
then we had dinner. they have a lot of servants. and they are all very cute! hehehe. reminds me of mr tan chik leng. and their toilets is so so big! bigger than my room lah! and there's more than one! ok so yo can imagine how big their house is. then they have to boil the water using firewood in the morning so as to get the hot water for bath. so cool right! and they have cows to provide milk, hens to provde eggs! everythign is so natural and fresh there! :D
the next morning, we climb up the coffee hill! hahahah. where all the coffee plants are. it was quite tiring. but it's worth it because the scenery up there is WOW! hahahah. :D we just stand there and feel the wind and see the green fields and trees! oh oh. and it was up there where i got a leech bite! wow the leech is so powerful! it bit through my sock. hahahh. at first i didnt feel anything. then i saw a brown round thing on my sock. at first i though it was a ladybird so i took a rock and sweep it off. and it just clinged onto my sock. then i realised its slimy and is a leech! and i didnt know i should not sweep it off. so my wound just keep bleeding and wouldnt stop. soon my sock was stained with my blood. and there was nthing i could do si i just stuff a tissue there. hahaha. only me, gao, lifern and peixuan got bitten. hahah. but it was an experience. at least i know that i should let it bite and let it grow fatter and bigger and drop off when it has sucked enough blood. hahah. but i guess it's human instinct to sweep it away.
so later in the afternoon, we went back! THANK YOU UNCLES AND AUNTIES at the coffee plantation! they are so cute and nice! i'll remember them! :D
SHOPPING!
we went shopping on the last day. i love shopping there! hahaha. i bought a lot of things! i brought 100 sing dollars which is 2700 rupees. we were supposed to shop in groups. and my shopping group has sipei, minx, gaomin, chai and me. and we call ourselves simbananagaochailili. minx is simba and sipei is banana! OH. and my name in kannada (the language there) means sun! surya! (shuli ah) so cool right! hahaha. 我跟太阳很有缘！
i bought a lot of things. let me see. here's my 战利品！
-10 cards for friends
-1 coffeebean notebook
-2 mini books for my teachers
-bookmarks for 305!
-lots of bangles for friends!
-5 pairs of earrings for myself and cousins!
-3 scarfs for mums and aunts
-1 skirt for myself! :D
-1 bag for myself too!
-3 t-shirts for brothers and me
-1 wallet for my dad
-1 hankerchief for my mum!
-1 letter holder for my family!
i think that's all! hahaha. i cannot bargain! so have to ask sipei to help. but there's a price to pay for bargaining. hai. nevermind! :D
YAYY! i finally finshed recounting! it's such a long and boring post. :O i salute you if you ever finsh reading the whole post. hahaha. :D
[i'm not taking mrs tan but the squirrel! hahah. can u spot it?]
