Wednesday, December 31, 2008

I just received a mail from my dad

Hi All,

This is to confirm our schedule for Chinese New Year Dinner as follows:
Date: 22 Jan 2009,Thurday
Time :7.30pm
Venue: Villa Seafood Galleria,30 Labrador Villa Road,Labrador Nature Reserve ,Tel 63770351

Regards

Dad

HAHA SHO CUTE. I guess the workshop he attended with my mom a few weeks ago was of some help.


Just came back from Bernice's sleepover with Cherie! :D Watched I do I do with Melcher and Spencer. It was quite funny! Then went for supper at Thomson road, or was it MacPherson?! Same same. Mama Mia-ed! AND THEN BERNICE WAS THE FIRST T SLEEP AGAIN. Ghim Moh market for Brunch, and then back here.

Prolly sleeping over again tonight! :DD

GOSH 2008 is ending and I haven't done much reflection for the year! :X It feels like I haven't done much because the bulk of the year was spent slacking (before Uni started). 2008 has been a really great year. I don't recall being sad at all this year. Maybe I was, but I've forgotten what it was about. I spent most of my days laughing and laughing! 2008 led to a new path. New school, new friends, but old friends still remain (: As I've said, the most significant part of year 2008 is probably the YEP trip to Cambodia. I think so many things have happened this year, I'm probably still too overwhelmed by everything even up till now, the last day of year 2008. Maybe I'll cool abit and reflect abt this year, next year.

; TEN FEET UNDER

BACK FROM CAMBODIA, AND ALREADY MISSING IT! ):
TSUS LEI (Hello in Khmer)

DISPENSE-A-DREAM '08 was definitely a blast! Probably my most significant 19 days of year 2008. No regrets! Even though I had my doubts before the trip, like how 19 days would be so damn long I'll miss home and everyone back here. Like how I'm going to live with and survive with people I barely know for 19 days. It turned out to be really awesome. I can't really say in words what I've learnt because you've to experience it yourself to understand.

Stayed at the orphanage for 10 days, Probably the worst and the best part of the trip. Worst in terms of Conditions. Best in terms of people, closeness, companionship, fun-ness, activities, excitement and surprises. The place wasn't as bad as I've expected it to be. Nevertheless, the conditions there were quite lousy. 13 girls had to squeeze in a room, shared with mice, cockroaches, flies and mozzies. One door and one window (which should be closed when sleeping). Raffia strings tied up above our heads with the laundry hanging down. A wooden bed at one corner of the room where 4 of us had to share. That means no room for tossing and turning. But still I think we slept quite well because we were always tired. There was only one toilet for 20 of us plus the host (Lucky Man) plus 2 teachers, plus a few orphans. So you can totally imagine how long it would have taken for all of us to clean up. The best part of it is the closeness of the people. There, bonds were formed. Night chats, and afternoon break. Night meetings and briefing. Playing our own music, slacking while the world passes us by.

During our stay at the orphange, we were distributed to four different schools each day to teach the kids/young adults English. We also painted a new school, Ang Kor Wat School, which we have fund raised for during pre-trip. Now the school looks pretty! (:

Teaching English isn't easy. Especially when the classes have a wide range of ages and abilities. It was fun interacting with the kids over there. They're unlike any Singaporean kids, they're not pampered, they don't cry easily, they love playing with people more than playing with toys, they play in piles of hay, sand, and dunk sometimes. They're really warm, they hold your hand, they climb onto you, they give you flowers, they try to mimic you, they try to make you at home, they appreciate the things we've done for them, and some really do enjoy learning.

On the fourth day, Lucky man brought us to their so called 'swimming pool' which turned out to be a lake. It's damn cool, you get to rent a spot for a cheap price and have picnic by the lake. They have hammocks. Nice.

On the last night in the Orphange (19 december 2008), we had a mini christmas cum farewell party. It was damn fun, we played music and danced macareena many many many times. Balloons and christmas carols. Candies games and laughters. The preparations for the party was as fun as the party itself! We drew reindeers, christmas trees, santsa clause, snow man, put on lights on trees, hanging streamers, cooking, peeling eggs, blowing up balloons and playing chapteh with the kids when I got tired of preparing for the party.

Okay, so after the days spent staying in the Orphange at the more rural area of Siem Reap, we moved closer to the slightly more urban area and lived in a Guest house (Holiday Guest house). Without saying, conditions got better. Four people to a room now. Totally missed the orphanage days already. But still, guest house days were great with retarded roomies to laugh throughout the nights.

While being accomodated at the guest house, we visited a University (Build Bright School). Big school with not bad facilities! We also had our first R&R session. We finally saw some tourists and nice cafes/restaurants with nice ambience. Nothing special about the food there. Lots of MSG, spices yadah yadah. Visited Ang Kor Wat Temple as early as 530AM to catch the awesome sunrise! Nice. Visited the other temples and we had great fun climbing the steep stairs of the temples. We must have accumulated a lot of good Karma during this trip. Went for Thai Massage at some Spa place, it was damnnnnnnnn relaxing but quite ticklish some time. LOL.

Then, came the 2nd part of the project; Mass Drug Distribution to the villagers. We worked together with Cambodia's MOH and distributed drugs in villages, schools and health centres. It's a yearly vaccination programme against Encephalitis. Nothing much about this project, just that we got to visit different parts of Siem Reap. We stayed in the guest house for a week. I think we visited the night market, cafes, bars, mini mart and pharmacy every night when we were there.
On Christmas eve, we had team dinner at Dead Fish Tower. Very special place with weird architecture. It even have crocodiles and ducks in the restaurant. Went for fish Spa after that, it was damn hilarious because it was so ticklish! Only USD$3 for that! On the last day at the guest house, we booked a tour to Tonle Sap Lake. BEAUTIFUL PLACE! We caught sunset on the boat, freaky damn nice please. B-E-A-U-TIFUL like totally. It was like 8712823 times nicer than the sunrise at Ang Kor Wat. Next time, when people ask me if I prefer sunrise or sunset, I'll definitely say sunset. :D

And on 27 december, we left the guest house and off we went on a 6hr bus ride to Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia. It's been so long since we see traffic lights and tall buildings. Civilisation alas. Ironically, we were all sad to leave Siem Reap. ): Anw, on our way there, we had 2 pit stops. At one stop, they were selling fried spiders and fried grasshoppers. Sounds gross and looks gross. tried the Spiders, they tasted like ikan bilis! Not so bad afterall! :D

Basically, the rest of the days at Phnom Pehn were R&R sessions! Went shopping at Soriya Market (It's a seven level high shopping mall), selling obiang clothes. Bought DVDs hahaha. Went to one of the killing fields (Choeung Ek Genocidal Centre) where we got to see how cruel Pol Port was. Learnt about the whole Pol Port Regime. It's really sad.

Ohyes, at Phnom Pehn, conditions got better as we stayed in a hotel (there's aircon and room service). But still, missing Siem Reap and the orphange days. Team dinner on the last night.

I enjoyed my cooking days with team 1 (Choonpei, Tracy and Ziqin) Bascially, the whole YEP team is divided into 4 cooking teams, and we take turns to stay at the orphange/guest house and cook for the whole team. We get to go to the wet market to get the groceries and then come back and cook. Cooking is damn fun but DAMN TIRING. I think it's the most tiring thing during the trip. Hahaha, but of cos we get to slack a bit after lunch while the rest of the team goes out to teach or to distribute drugs. Really love the times we laughed so hard at each other's retardness. LOL.

AND NOW IM BACK IN SINGAPORE!
): and :) at the same time right now. Love cambodia for it's slow and relaxed pace. YEP'09 Anybuhdy? :D Thanks for coming to the airport to welcome us back! Ate Swensen's and cabbed home. Home sweet home, miss my family and friends. But I also miss cambodia.

Thanks for all the Christmas cards and greetings! :DD I only get to see them today. HEH.

Ohkay damn a lot of photos, next time. Facebook, soon.


I LUB CAMBODIA, SAME SAME BUT DIFFERENT.

AU KUHN THOM THOM (Thank you in Khmer).

; TEN FEET UNDER

LUB MY FAMILY MANY MANY! :DD
LUB MY FRIENDS MANY MANY TOO! :D

Anw, my parents are making me feel like I'm leaving for a damn long time, it's just three weeks! Actually, it's less than 3 weeks, it's only 18 days! Hahaha. My mom handed me like a bag full of medicine, like some mini pharmacy.

Hahaha, and my sister actually passed me an ultra loud alarm LOL, to ward off evil-doers. Omg, so cute, sank yew! And she bought me a giraffe cup from New Orleans' ZOO! :D

I'm bringing with me a pillow to Cambodia, so at least I wont have to wake up everyday with neck-aches. Ohkay I'm excited!

I WILL BE BACK ON THE 29TH AT 1115AM 3K 592!

GOODBYE SINGAPORE, GOODBYE TO TECHNOLOGY, GOODBYE TO GOOD FOOOD, GOODBYE TO CLEAN WATER, GOODBYE TO QUITE SAFE CITY, GOODBYE TO AIRCON, GOODBYE TO FACEBOOK, GOODBYE TO MSN, GOODBYE PEOPLE! :D

Ohyes, MERRY CHRISTMAS IN ADVANCE! :D

LOVESSSSSSSSSSS!

; TEN FEET UNDER

LOVE-HATE

; TEN FEET UNDER

G'morning, bright and shiny!

It's 8.40AM right now right here. I've got a meeting at 10.00AM in school and I have to lug a load of foodstuffs there. I wanna go sentosa! ): The day's damn good, surely much better than ytd. It was pouring the entire day. It was so cold but so nice to sleep in. Anw, yesterday we had dinner at some Thai cafe at sunset way. My sister's treat cos she just got back from New Orleans! :DD I lubxzs Tom Yam!

Yes, when I come back, there's a lot of things t do. First, I really need to pack my room. It's like some storeroom right now, with my different bags sprawled all over the floor! It's even collecting dust, ewwwww. & then there's also the stupid Deskjet F2235 HP PRINTER! SOMEBUHDY JUST BUY IT PLEASE?! I'LL SELL IT TO YOU AT $50?!?! LOL.

Then, I really must go Sentosa! How can the holiday pass without making a trip there? Okay, I've just been there last Saturday but that wasn't counted because it was an un-shiny day.

& then all the other catching up comes next. :D

For now, I really think I need to finish packing my bag soon. Ugh, I don't like to pack my luggage, esp when it's for sucha long trip! ): So many things t bring over! & Shiate, I've to go change some USD!

Okay, I'm gg t shower now and then off I go.

; TEN FEET UNDER

Insanity, how can anyone finish 42.195km in just 2++hours! ZOHEMMGEE. My bro took 5.5 hours to finish his race, and now he can't walk properly. LOL!

Yes, today was the Standard Chartered marathon. The one which I paid $50 (I think) to get an ugly singlet. LOL. 10km is really long, how is it possible to run 21km, or even 42.195km! :O Madness, but it feels really good after the run!




The ugly bag.


Hahaha Tzel shoes after the run


The singlet's damn ugly and damn short! RAR

& my hair sucks. ):

Lunched out and then went to shop for log stuffs. Which consisted of many many many cans! Food stuffs for 18 days, and for 20 ppl! I almost died carrying it home. Dined somewhere in Alexander road to celebrate my Dad's birthday! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

Sentosa yesterday was, a real failure. No sun at all. Heavy down pour over and over again. We had a room at Amara Sanctuary. The room was quite awesome, big bed and the pool's just right outside!

Okay that's it, bye.

I’ll get it all figured out
When I’m out from under

; TEN FEET UNDER

Eh, I think everything is on facebook, all the photos and events, it's all on facebook. This blog is getting abit useless. OHNOES, this can't be! :O

Anw, I think I'm really suffering from serious insomnia! Even drinking for two alternate nights didn't help. I think it got worse ):

Two days ago was zouk+dblo! HIGH! :D HAPPY BIRTHDAY SPENCER TAN!

Yesterday was shopping with CPW! Which was quite a failure because we didn't get anything other than the starbucks drinks for 80cents HAHAHA. Anw, it was dead tiring because of the stupid insomnia-lack-of-sleep thang.

Today, had meeting. & then BBQ at MBLX's! Pretty fun, most of the people got dunked haha. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MANDY! (who won't be reading) Sorry spen and cherie couldn't go home club w ya'll. ):

Tomorrow (Saturday) is Family day at Sentosa? Funny

Sunday is Singapore Marathon but I'm damn lazy to run. Then it's birthday celebration for my Dad! :D

Monday is unbooked. I wanna sleep, if I'm able to. And start packing my luggage!

Tuesday is meeting for, I think, the whole day. ): Pack pack pack

Wednesday is rest day

Thursday is byebye-I'm flying-t-Cambodia-be-back-on-the-29th Day. I'm a little worried. I'm damn lazy to pack. And I don't think I have shorts long enough to bring over. :X OHWELS I think for me, everything is last minute!

OKAY TIRED. HOPE I'LL GET T SLEEP LATER. AFTER FRIENDS.

; TEN FEET UNDER

ROAR!
IT'S OVER! GOODBYE TO ANATOMY, PRINCIPLE OF ECONOMICS, PHYSIOLOGY I, PHYSICAL PHARMACY, PRINCIPLES OF PHYSICOCHEMICAL DRUG ACTIONS. BYEBYE PLEASE DON'T COME AND HAUNT ME EVER AGAIN!

WELL THE LAST PAPER YTD WAS HORRRRRRENDOUS, HORRIBLE TO THE MAX! BUT WHATEVER, WHEN WE DIE WE SHOULD DIE HAPPY. OMG I DON'T WANT TO SEE MY RESULTS WHEN IM IN CAMBODIA!

ANW, IM DAMN TIRED BUT IM TOO EXCITED TO SLEEP! :O

YESTERDAY WAS SHOKUDO AFTER PPDA PAPER AND THEN TIMBRE@ARTSHOUSE. TODAY WAS KARAOKE FOR 7 HOURS STRAIGHT! :OOO

NICE SONG!

; TEN FEET UNDER