Feeling Thankful

I just wanna thank some frens of mine for their always being there for me and supporting me behind the scenes these few months, and for some, these few years. First, a BIG thanks to my sister's fren Linnet, who is also now my fren and cell group leader, for her unending patience and understanding towards me..I've been skipping cell group regularly to study but she never once did confront me or judge me for it...When she sees me its usually "When are your exams?" or "How's it gg?" or "let me pray for you" and that really encourages me.

Another person is Crustacean, who always makes me laugh thru the smses she sends me but through which i can also sense a genuine concern. Thanks for all your encouraging and assuring smses, i really appreciate them...

Then there are people like Stella and my primary school fren Qian Ling, who sent out smses before the exams to tell everyone to "jia you!". I think if there's something to be learnt from all these pple is that frenships need not only time to develop but effort as well. And it doesn't have to be effortful in a big, time-consuming kind of way...Just a small sms here and an email there can go a really long way...And this is something i think i really need to inculcate and learn. So thanks peeps! Also a shout-out to Zhiqian, my long-time secondary school fren, who always makes effort to catch-up with me...I admit that i've neglected our frenship and i really want to apologize...I resolve to make more effort and to not let our frenship fade...

Finally, the dragon boat tragedy in Cambodia has made me so much more aware and conscious of my own mortality, given that those guys were around my age. Life is so fragile and it is an illusion to think that just because we are young, we are invincible. In other words, try to live life to the fullest and try not to take things for granted...Easier said then done sometimes but it is at least good to recognize that being alive is in itself in many ways a blessing. If you think about it, there's really a lot to be thankful for...Waking up to a brand new day, having your loved ones around you, having good health and being able-bodied, being able to taste and enjoy good FOOD! etc...

Thanks for exams too! No? NOOOOOOOO!!!! That's one thing you never need to be thankful for...Good riddance on the comin 7th hahaha...

Kicking myself...1st paper was bad!

So today was the day my exams started...Slept badly last nite, was real tempted to call Crustacean who was mean enuff to tell me to listen to her phone ringing in order to fall asleep i.e. she's not gonna pick up...Then, i made the mistake of not visiting the toilet before the exam even though i had the time to and i had to go within 5 minutes that the paper commenced. 5 MINUTES!!! The air-con in SHEARE's-freakin-cold-HALL was blasting like it was 17 degrees...I mean, please...we know Christmas is comin but we're in the middle of a freakin exam!!! Whoever set the temperature of that place ought to be shipped to Antartica. Then the girl in front of me kept flashing me her grandmother undies whenever she leant foward to write. Please girls...unless you have a nice bod and undies to complement pls pls pls DUN ever wear a tee that's too short for you...Needless to say, it was very very distracting in a bad way.

I think i answered the 1st question ok...But the 2nd question was like ???
It had to do with how english in SEA needs to be taught in terms of multilingual goals and local contexts and not as a dichotomy between English and local languages...And we were supposed to say if we agreed with this solution and why...I said that i agree with the position that ELT in SEA needs to be grounded in local contexts but disagreed with the implication that a dichotomy is necessarily a bad thing.

It was only during lunch that it hit me what this question was really about. It was about glocal english education and how we should be looking at teaching an english that is intertwined with local languages since english is no longer just a western imposition but a locally adopted and adapted language. Wah!!! I really wanted to kick myself man!!! KENA SAI!!! !@#&^%(*)!! You know, the frustration at knowing that you could have done better is absolutely killin me now...I thot i could score on this module...but with a bloddy b- on the group project and now this, the most i can hope for is a B+.

The only saving grace today was my LIP project and presentation grade with claudia. We got a nice A on the former and an A+ on the latter...That was really satisfying...So i went to Orchard to kinda celebrate and take a break from work...But the thot of the stupid question 2 just kept on bugging me and i lost all urges to shop...So i'm writing this post now to try and get it out of my system...

Had the chance to sample PJ Harvey's White Chalk album...In the past i would have bot it straight away but recently i find that my taste in music has been shifting quite radically over the past few months...I dare say it's a reflection of the kind of state i'm in. I think i'm a much happier and contented person now than before and so i no longer dig as much, the dark brooding self-piteous music of some artistes. I'm actualli quite into good ol' top-ten kind of music these days...and this surprises me cos i used to realli hate bubble-gum pop.

Man, i realli hate exams...

Studying sucks...work sucks more!!!

My mum was telling me about my friend Joy whom she is mentoring, working from 9am to 10:30pm at Citibank...the norm it seems...On good days she gets off at 8:30pm...Absolute madness!!! And she isn't the first one i heard working their asses off and their youth away...But people think its normal...In fact some think that we are young, in our prime and that this- working our youth away- is exactly what we should be doing...Personally, i dun see the logic in that...We're young, we're alive and energetic but we coop our bodies up in air-conditioned shit-holes for the good of some elusive abstraction called "the company"...Down with working hours that pass 5pm i say!!! We're in our prime...We should be enjoying life when we can enjoy it to the fullest...NOT when we are old, frail and unable to do things we could do but would not in our youth!!!

Actually, i used to prioritize money over everything else...I would see a sports car drive by and tell myself that i would be driving that before i hit 35...But not anymore! My priorities have changed...I would rather a relatively low paying job (Not too low haha) but one which allows me time to myself...Time to live life and breathe...Time so i can do other things in life...In fact, and contrary to many people's belief, i'm trying to practice this now..By not letting studies be my everything...To not let it be the centre of my universe where everything else revolves around it and i have to fit things in accordance with it...Bottomline, there's definitely more to life than work and studies...



Life in Singapore is shit...No? I can see why people migrate to Australia...There the shops close at 5pm sharp and everyone can go home and have dinner with their families and spend time with frens...Ok, enuff ranting about shitty work and study life in Singapore...More photos pronto:

Kena abused by that crustacean (1st photo) despite organizing her b'day party...Last two photos were taken in a more recent outing to the movies...We watched Bee movie and the 3 of us had to share a couple seat...I ended up sitting on the arm rest (so self-sacrificial--> i m sucha gd fren!) but the tix were free so...The last photo, we were in NYDC and crustacean was gg to smash the mug against Yingzhi who was complaining about scars on her flawless complexion...That crustacean is a really violent person...She needs psychiatric help i tell you...

FASTFOOD!!!

One of the few good things about exams is, it's a really good excuse to indulge in food. For lunch today i had MC's and to make myself feel better, i ate the grilled chicken foldover...Hey! It's grilled okay...And i changed the drink to green tea...hahaha...I'm always doing that...Pairing up something unhealthy with something healthy although i know full well that the latter doesn't cancel out the former...But it does give me some psychological comfort. What's worse is that i ate Carl's Jr. some 3 days ago...Carl's Jr...hmmmmmmm...It's damn good...Try the crispy chicken fillet burger with bacon and you'll know what i mean...Next on my list is Cheestos...I've been eyeing it at the Siglap Shell station for sometime now but i never got down to purchasing it...I really want the twisted one (NOT the crunchy one which tastes different) and i resolve to get it sometime next week...

That aside, here are some photos from Crustacean's birthday...We had a really really good time and the event was highly successful under my superb planning...The best part had to be at Mind's cafe after that though...We were playing a game called guesstures and Crustacean was supposed to guess what action Lingzhi was making...Lingzhi had to act out "Drinking" so she picked up her glass of water and began doing just that...This made Crustacean real pissed cos she thought that Lingzhi was wasting time. Then Lingzhi choked, accidentally of cos, and Crustacean was like "Choke!!! Choking!!!" In the end they lost as usual and had to wear stickers on their faces...

OK! Back to the books...

Anti-Christine Post

I'm actualli ahead of schedule by one full day...But i still can't get over feeling slightly guilty about not studying or taking a break that lasts for more than an hour...I'm crazy this way and i hate myself for being so driven sometimes...

Crustacean says my blog address is boring...Boring meh? Eh hello! Your blog add is your name also lor...christinechenhq...FULL name somemore!!! Anyway, now that i haf this blog...heh heh heh...time for some "anti-christine" fun...

And here's one of lim yingzhi...also known as Ling Zhi...I laughed real hard for a full 5 minutes when i saw this one:

After all that, i just wanna say i realli love hanging out with you two...U gals crack me up...And thanks also to Crustacean for always being so encouraging...Still friends after this rite?!

First Blog!!!

Wow...First blog since 2004...Told myself i wouldn't be so shameless as to put stuff about myself online again but oh well...guess i m dat shameless hahaha...I'm just bored studying home alone so that was my "exigence" (courtesy of DOA) to start blogging again i guess...

Had a great EL honours lunch outing at Kushinbo yesterday...I think it's great that we're quite a close-knit batch and i never envisioned us being that close even after i organized the 1st gathering at my place in July...Newae, here are some photos:

Tsk tsk...Matt digging his nose in public...Karina looking shocked and disgusted...If you look closely, Matt has black teeth too...Must have been the oreo cheesecake...On the bottom right hand corner you will see the picture of the beauty and the bitch...Of cos Stella's the beauty lar...

It was real funny cos Janice and gang were trying to trick pple into eating wasabi filled choco tarts and cream puffs...I never knew they were so cheeky...Pix fell for it btw...I was too smart to fall for their devious tricks...

Ok dats it for now...Will post more pics soon...got to get back to studying!