The Wizard and I.

Monday, December 31, 2012

Last moments of 2012

Isn't it scary how a year flies by so quickly?

I still remember how I felt in the beginning of this year. I kept on telling myself that it was a new start and I'm gonna make the year worthwhile. I still remembered how "Page 1 of 366" and all subsequent numbers trended on twitter daily (and I almost spelled it as tweeter omg.) I remember feeling overjoyed when I got my first results slip of the year, which is unfortunately not counted in anything official at all.

2012 was a year of joys and setbacks. I learnt that backstabbing (it's a strong word, and different people have different definitions for it.) will be inevitable some time in your life as long as you do maintain even a single friendship. I got my first this year, unfortunately I can only say that friendship problems like this will be considered "minor" because I still have a long way to go in dhs and who knows what I'll face out in the real world someday. I absolutely hated that feeling of being extremely confused and unhappy. Feeling extremely disappointed in myself when I performed really horribly in choir and it really sucks when you have to sit out of performances. Academic disappointments also found its way into my life by mid-year because I spent so much time on cca. Mostly, bad things are mixed with feelings of angst and disappointment.

However, one problem doesn't mean the end of the world. At the same time I found great friends to keep for life and also got to know some of my classmates more through the most unexpected things. I didn't perform all songs for concert but at least I did sing, and I had a hell of a night on 25 May. I got up from my disappointments and I am happy for my eoy results. Many events also happened this year that were really fun and exciting, from lvl camp to peas to step. I also had my most extensive (not longest though) stay in China and I had so much fun and learnt a lot at the same time. I decided to choose paths and I am so thankful for Sher who brought me to the house of god and I enjoyed all my visits there. Choir year 2 inmates and epimeans would make my days. I definitely find all these moments much more worthwhile and that's what made 2012 memorable :)



It doesn't matter if you screwed up or didn't do your best, always think back on what went wrong and set your mind in the right direction. If you have had a better or great year, don't stop what you're doing.

Believe, work hard, stay positive. Happy new year :D

x

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Things I owe 2E

Disclaimer: the events happened from october- early nov, I typed everything from late nov and it's late dec now... I'm sorry :( *cues beginning of post*

So... Uh, hi. I finally decided to care about this virtual space and update about my life. Anyway, as part of the overdue series on "what went on in my life since eoeoy", I'll begin with the last day of school.

... And now my mind is a total blank because I have no idea how to even begin, or what to write... can't think of any philosophical stuff to write either, what even.

Okay, I'll begin in a chronological order. I walked through the door into class and realised that I'd be the last time that I walk through the same door for the same purpose at that time of the day. It was sad :( I could feel that the atmosphere of the class was different, like the usual people chatting weren't exactly as lively (or maybe because it was 7+ on a Thursday.) Anyway, I had PT so I took out my cards which I had painstakingly written and innovated for each and every Epimean. Handed them out like Santa claus man haha and I received praises from some people OH WAI THANKIU I spent $8.90 on the cards, $2.90 for a pretty metallic marker and $4 on sta... again, it doesn't really matter because it's for 2E.

I came back to class much later to see a remarkable stack of cards, some snacks and a piece of Napkin on my table. I think the whole class was just checking out the notes on their desks and simply reading the words given by our classmates. Special thanks to Peng, Baobao, Chelsea, Phoebe, Yidi (and her musical score tissue paper), Richel, Kelly, Jansen (and his anonymous note with Adele lyrics), Joanna, Weiqin, Kee Bin, Annadine, Yan Lin, Lu Ning (with her note thats in complete chinese) and who can forget, Lily! All in no particular order except for the flower.Your cards are now kept in the my envelope that used to be for our Angel and Mortal system. Maybe special thanks to all of you who thought of me and also those who thought of giving cards but didn't cos you were too lazy or whatever...

And then we all placed our chairs in a circle and Mr Ong, (with his recently-revamped-closet fashion, of course) gave us all a talk. It's nothing much, we understand how good he is with words... and then he gave out expensive Ice-cream to the class comm. Holy shit we are talking about Haagen-Dazs here and he gave the first mini tub to Ms Low... Hmm... afterwards he presented it to the comm and when it's my turn I chose Chocolate Fudge (or lava, whatever some exquisite name because it's effing overpriced) but mainly because I wasn't adventurous enough to try those.. Rum & Raisin oh so high-class flavour type? He also gave out Macaroons!! Talk about being generous!

We then went for farewell assembly and they started it with prize presentation for the Humanities trial and let's just say I couldn't believe my ears when they said that our group tied for first at some history station and thought I was dreaming when we won 2nd group overall. Didn't felt like we were that good though so it's surprising. Everyone in my group bagged home $20 worth of popular vouchers *hehe* Anyway, the classes sat in this curve position (like choir) and so all the photo montage and sentimental stuff began. Can see that a lot of effort had been put into making the vids, preparing the paragraphs and all :D lastly, the teachers surprised us with a BUFFET CATERED FOR THE WHOLE LEVEL WHAT EVEN it's madness. I don't see them being so nice to other levels T__T but the queue was horrible lol so ended up I ate vegetarian food cos the queue was shorter and also food that other people gave.

Lastly we headed back to class again to clean up the room and I have no idea why but we suddenly found this bus 158A card in one of the cabinets. Well who stole it from the bus... anyway, it's like a brand new class accessory for only one hour and I hope the cleaners don't remove it. It now sits proudly on our whiteboard :D


After vigorous cleaning and getting back our dossier, we gathered in the circle yet again for final briefing, I guess. We collected money for CCF and Mr Ong gave out eclairs and the tulip collar pins that he had received from donating to ccf beforehand. Nothing much happened then and then he dismissed us. That is all.

And then you'll realise that all those people who frantically packed their bags and left aren't coming back anymore... It just hits you like that :( It was s sad but mainly because I'm emotional and can't contain my feels. There were only a handful of girls left and we started to hug and all, it was a full-of-feels moment. Actually I did sob a little and peng smacked me for making her feel like crying too. Evelyn caught the crying disease. Lily accused me of being a liar when I went around telling people I'm not crying... aww come on :/ haha, finally we packed our bags and left, looking forward to class chalet, ultimately hoping to cross paths again.

CLASS CHALET 20~22 NOV

The long awaited chalet is finally here!!When I was at the MRT waiting for the shuttle bus to nsrcc I saw 2B and 2C there and for a moment thought that I'm gonna miss the bus and won't get there in time :O Anyway I was there earlier cos I was supposed to meet Daniel's mum to check in, and really special thanks to yx and Rachel who kindly insisted that I must get into the bus before them upon hearing about why I was there... ended up having about 4 2C people left to take a cab. That's because there was about 6 tourists on the bus with us as well.

Upon reaching I was aware of how effing high class the place is. The design of the bungalows are exquisite. It's almost like a condo - where everyone lived in private property and had shared facilities like the pool and gym. Note: country club members have it all. The place was just... so pretty and you'd want to live there forever once you set your eyes on it.... maybe I'm just crapping now cos I'm comparing it to the aranda chalet last year with horrible decomposed ketchup smell in the whole room experience...

That was just a part of it... it's like, the four corners are ALL glass. Behind me was a kitchen island and to the right was a living room with the dvd and stuff, then a spiral staircase that leads to the bedrooms. Damn pricey considering how small this place was.

Then some of us girls decided to go to the beach :D The chalet is actually along the coasts of ECP but it's too far away... like in area H, when the usual places you'd hang out at ECP would be area A-F.. so there wasn't any beaches but we walked across tall grass just to get to this really small coast that linked to the sea. The weather was nice and we mostly walked along the coast, sometimes spraying water at one another... Then Lynette insisted on getting wet, I have no idea why, and she influenced Keebin and Jiamun into doing so as well... so Lynette sat in the sea and then proceded to dunk baobao and Keebin into it as well. In the end they were all complaining about having sand in their underwear. HAHA.

We went back and tried to splash sand off our feet. Tried. The living room ended up having so much sand, dirt and dust that it was impossible to ever sweep it clean afterwards... Anyway, we watched the Spongebob  squarepants movie together like a bunch of kids. Daniel started singing the goofy goober song after that to annoy us all. Played cheat, daiti for a little while to kill time, had unbelievably good luck that day cos I caught accurately. Key words: that day. Then Ms Low announced that she was coming and would be spending the night there! After dinner there wasn't much to do so we went to go bowling :D rented two lanes and watched the hidden talents from our class doing one strike after another. It isn't the game for me as the ball is too heavy for me to hold properly by one hand. Jiamun started narrating this horror movie called Final destination to us and it was all about death hunting down people who escaped it with a photo as a omen... and I swear she's that good at it that I felt extremely nauseated and Phoebe felt queasy after she was done. As the bowling arena was about to close we headed to the arcade and we played with the basketball stall. It's like people kept on appearing with one dollar coins so we kept on playing with the tossing game. Sadly the place closed so we had to head back to our chalet.

Ms Low went out with Mr Goh (from 2C's chalet) after that to buy plain water... and the place was far from civilization so I think they went bloody far out to get those. So we took the chance to watch horror movies and when the show started, I realised that it was actually a Malay horror movie. If there's anything you don't know, you must know now that horror movies that really freak the shit out of you begins with Thai movies topping the list. Then Malay/ Indonesian. So some girls incl myself was pretty freaked out by the first scare (at some toilet scene) so we headed upstairs to watch Ted from the Laptop. Keebin who is extremely innocent laughed like mad during the Thunder song... which caused all of us to laugh hysterically as well and rewind to that scene two times. So while we're watching our vulgar show we suddenly heard this piercing scream from downstairs and it freaked us out. We were told later that it was actually Alvin who screamed the highest pitch during all the sudden scare parts, followed by the girls. Can you imagine if a sucker like me went to watch it... When our movie was almost done people downstairs came to our room and demanded to watch what's left to "neutralise" the scare. Badly shaken... they still had to watch the Simpsons after that to actually feel better. Ms Low came back and said that they went all the way to Tamp to get stuff... she also bought roti pratas for us, which we had to finish at like 2am in the morning.

By 3am or so some of us girls decided to take a nap cos if not we'd be badly knocked out by next day (actually it's "next day" already.) Some of them were still wearing contacts that that ungodly hour and Phoebe actually had a serious meeting in the school the next day but she's still awake! We pieced the small beds together and slept like that, with Phoebe and I on the ground with sleeping bags. So... it was really damn awkz cos we did everything then except to sleep! Also the girls on the bed had a serious issue about sharing the blanket and were complaining about having their feet sticking out/ the shorter one shifting too much. And the people downstairs were making a hell lot of noise \o/ so it was like 3.10am and we set an alarm at 3.40am to wake up cos we really couldn't sleep at all. Anyway... you know, I'm kinda like the heavy sleeper and any condition doesn't matter to me, so I was in this half-trance by the alarm time and all of them got out of the room! I decided to sleep on. Shame on me. probably missed a whole load of fun. But by 4.30am I was still bloody shifting on hard wooden floor and then Ms Low came in and wanted to sleep, so I supposedI fell asleep then. I found myself waking up at like 7am the next day surprisingly VERY refreshed. Weird.

So I went down and discovered that phoebe was already in half school u and she totally didn't sleep at all last night. How does she even do that. Kee bin and I tried to make breakfast and we found out that the carton of milk was actually placed in the FREEZER so it was really a block of rock hard milk and has the potential to kill if smashed against the head. So we had to wait for it to defrost and being extremely stubborn we didn't even want to eat the cereal without the milk. All of us settled for instant noodles/microwaved leftovers from dinner instead of the nutritional stuff. So about 8 of us wanted to rent bicycles but unfortunately the counter only opens at 9 and we needed to make guest passes before renting them. When we got to the renting shack we still spent a heck of a time finding the keys to the correct bikes cos the counter didn't have the keys to some of the bikes! We cycled along the stretch of easy coast and back to even further, heading towards changi beach, and back to the chalet. Shisong did some stunt which went horribly wrong and he totally did a somersault with his bike into the air and got some pretty nasty looking wounds. Alvin carried on cycling while the rest of us returned the bikes, and all of us except myself didn't sleep at all.

So when we got back till about noon was all buffer time. Baobao and keebin were the first few to crash and they fell asleep immediately upon contact with the beds. After that some of the boys went to their room to sleep as well, and some epimeans arrived for the day. Michelle was being cute as usual and was extremely shocked to hear most of us didn't event bat an eyelid. Then Annadine and Kelly (actually they don't know this at all) were on opposite ends of the couch and they blanked out for a moment and started leaning towards the middle. Mich was so excited to see them both like that. I guess they did fall asleep but 2mins was too short to announce so. Lunch came by and we ordered macs with Daniel order a Double quarter pounder with cheese upsize. ("With a diet coke please, don't wanna get fat. ")

After that it was *drum roll* TREASURE HUNT. Ok it was supposed to be treasure hunt but... It's more of amazing race though :) I think we pulled it off rather well except for the starting game cos we just wanted to waste time and didn't put in effort to dry run to see if it actually works. (LEGIT COMM EXPLANATION) Overall I had fun at where I was stationed!

The BBQ came afterwards and of all things that could happen, it started to rain. We were holding umbrellas while trying to start the fire and cook satays and wings. We also poured boiling water over hot dogs and crabsticks but it ended up undercooked :/ anyway the real shocker was that we ordered a 10 pax package and the 20+ people present at the BBQ couldn't finish everything, not even close to half. Maybe a little over half. Spammed murderer and cheat before I left with Kelly.

--

Well, these two years had its ups and downs. We definitely didn't have a smooth journey as a class, but the fun times we had definitely outweighed all the discrepancies. I'll never forget all the funny moments, from Hintze interrupting class to Mr Ong's torturing.

I'll never forget how all the boys became Bobby and all the girls became Sally.

I'll never forget how we upgraded from pea brains to coconut heads.

I'll never forget how Mr Ong told us about the inappropriate things that happens at NUS hostel, and then we laughed like shit when a confused Ms Low told us that joining YWP will give us a chance to stay there.

The moments are endless and never fail to make my day, so thank you all for that.

Epimea is also the place where I found out who are my true friends. Epimea allowed me to constantly improve myself and change for the better. So thank you all again for the cooperation for any class events. Thank you all for the encouragements when... Stuff happened to our class. I'll never thank you enough, Epimea.

Let's keep in touch and wishing you guys all the best :)

p.s I actually have much more photos of class chalet, but you know what, I lost my phone. YES GUISE, JUST A YEAR AFTER I FIRST DID. So many pretty pics of the seaside... I get pissed even thinking about it.

x

Sunday, October 28, 2012

When your mum's away

Well, if your mum is the usual housewife (aka. Superwoman), you'd probably end up with a catastrophe as your daily routines are messed up with a flustered dad (aka. The novice household guru)

ANYWAY, my Mum has some important things to settle overseas so she just left around 6am today. That leaves my dad settling things she normally does, one thing being administering my bro's daily shots. So.. imma end off this post with a convo.

-It is in chinese, but who cares. Life's too short to change the language bar.-
Dad: *Takes an alcohol swab and wipes it over the head of the vial, many times*
Bro: Once is enough!!!! Germs might get onto it again!
Dad: Oh? *wipes again*

Dad: *draws out the fluid from vial*
Bro: *spots an air bubble in the barrel*
Bro: *gulps* ... I am going to die...

Dad: *Takes swab to wipe the area where he'll inject*
Dad: *buffers* wait... where did I wipe it again?

Dad: *pinches up that area of skin*
Bro: Ahhh!!!
Dad: Be a man! This isn't even painful!
Bro: No you must pinch deeper! You're only holding onto the surface skin...
...
Bro: Oh my god... (*a mix of cry and laughter) Mummy.. where are you?! MUMMY!!
Me: Good luck, you need it.

--
A post about last day with 2E coming up soon. I've been drafting it, but it's really sad to think of what to type...

Saturday, October 20, 2012

And that's just the way it goes

Just so you know, results are out. Actually, the portal for online subject selection has been opened an hour and nine minutes ago (as I type this).

Shall be honest. When I received my results, I was really disappointed in certain subjects. Not because I aimed for an A+ and only got an A, but because... being Chinese, I actually scored lower than what I am able to do so in mt. You know, it's really about the expectations: I was unhappy for that but was over the moon when I passed history. FYEAH, YOU CAN GET DOWN AND KISS MY FEET HIST. That would be totally the last History paper I'll ever take in my life. Thank goodness that I have AEP to replace History. Happy for geog essays but not so for DRQ though, guess I'll work on that. Well unfortunately dropping maths next year isn't an option so I shouldn't comment about Madly Math, it's okay la.

After that I calculated my eoy gpa by using the lowest possible scores; like for instance I scored A in EOY but I may not have gotten that grade overall, hence I counted it as a B. Using that, I ended up with a score that allows me to take 8au and was also an improvement from last year. Basically, I wouldn't say that I'm extremely happy but I'm not upset either. I didn't work my hardest for y1 and so I'm quite disappointed that I only improved by, technically, one grade. People tell me that one grade is a huge difference, but is it so? I was really set in changing myself for the better this year, and if my scores have a larger difference... do you understand? It'll make me feel like I had succeeded (ok what am I even saying? Basically I'd feel more shuang hahaha) Secondly, if I go with my guts to take Art next year, my estimated scores would not qualify me for 9au and basically I would need to drop one of the sciences. To me, you might as well take away two pounds of my flesh if you are going to take away one of the sciences from my choice. Lastly, I honestly do not wish to get into any other combi, I only have one set in mind. Thus I seriously have to idea what to select for my 2nd and 3rd choice. People told me to anyhow select, but what if they place me in choice 2 instead? What if appeal doesn't work then? Do I spend the next two years walking down a suicide route?

What if, what if, what if.

Was in a huge dilemma. Because out of the big three problems mentioned, they branch out into a million more questions. How can I choose between my dream combi and my favorite subj in the world? If I take double double what science am I gonna drop? But I'm only good in one humans... What If I didn't even get what I estimated? Can I juggle with so much? Am I even good in art? etc etc you get the point. It sucks, how I have all these doubts when my gpa isn't even finalized. It'd save me a lot on worrying if I do know.

Back to reality. So online subject preference selection opened today. It was 12.24, I was scrolling through twitter to see some people already counting down 2hr++ ago when selection is based on merit and some submitted the form already... okay but I just really didn't want to log in, because I don't have the guts to see my gpa. As the selection form limits choices with regards to your gpa and whether you selected an extra subj, it means that if I selected AEP under the drop down menu for extra subject and I did not get the required gpa, I'd not see 3S1H and 2S2H in my possible combi (9au) drop down menu. So I guess this was it. I selected AEP and I went to see my combi, guess what? So I did see all three combi under the drop down menu after all. Also, sbge subjects were listed at the bottom...

Mixed feelings. First I wondered if there was some kind of a bug or huge glitch which didn't update my scores in the system, and then it hit me that that might be it. Then I kind of was too thrilled to think WOOHOO my darling art we are not parting anymore! This would also signify that I did hit my target for this year and that would be quite a gap with y1 gpa. Subsequently I got worried because I had many talks with my parents regarding what subj combi to put and I did not mention AEP at all (thinking I did not qualify) so this would mean that I would have to deal with 1) can I cope? 2) am I willing to let go taking art? 3) sbge or not? and much more but oh gosh the biggest mystery of all: which subject(s) did I actually get higher than what I think I had gotten?! << going mad thinking about this because I really have no idea.

What a turn of events... Okay whatever right now I'm just gonna think through (again. I hate you, results...) and talk to my parents (again... -_-)

Honestly, I'm not exactly sure if I'm happy now, but I wouldn't say I'm disappointed anymore.

Can't wait for STEP!!! Super super happy that proposed choir chalet dates do not clash with step but one of them do clash with 2E chalet D; fingers crossed that those set of dates don't get selected. Haha :)

x

Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Chasing Pavements

IT'S OVER!!!!

Yes you heard it, Y2 EOY IS OVER AND DONE WITH!!! What a crazy year. Mugged so much harder and everything was comparatively much more difficult, and it's done with! Glad it's over and happy I placed my all!

MORE CELEBRATION! HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE!



So.. now I'm just a little paranoid that I might have unknowingly screwed up some papers... Anxious about geog, not sure if teachers are okay with my hist, lost 3 marks in chinese alrd (and it's all in mcq only leh D:), not sure if my LA essay is actually ok.. and maths! My enemy all year: didn't find answer for 18 and 19. 7 marks gone alrd ha aha ha

But no... GONNA STAY POSITIVE it's over already anyway. Isn't that the main point of this wordy post?

Spent my day on Glee and I'll read The Casual Vacancy tonight.. awwwwww yeah. Jiayou to 2E for interclass tomorrow! All the best Epimeans (◕‿◕) ~

Really need a good rest before planning for next year starts! It's been half a year since I last saw a movie, gosh.. Next up: PEAs, Aes nite, STEP and Class chalet too! woohoo :)

Sunday, September 30, 2012

Ohwell. Its 2200 now and its first EOY paper Chinese p1 tomorrow (and I did not study a lot for zuowen) and i spent the whole day on geog. So I have one last essay to memorise and three SAQs to prepare. Ugh.

:/

Friday, September 14, 2012

So, I guess this is it. A daunting task in front of me, what I've set out all year to get- will I get it?

I hope there isn't any mistakes.