Half a Foot
I hate this feeling. My room is a royal mess, much like my head and heart. I wish a particular highly-regarded institution would give me a call soon- good or bad, I am beyond giving two hoots. Just tell me what it is now so I can finally snap out of this dreamlike state and make a decision about how I want things to be. It’s funny how I can really taste how different circumstances can really shape people differently, because right now my head really doesn’t know which way to go. I don’t know what to feel. Once I have an actual decision in hand, I will know.
It still feels like summer camp, like RJ in 2006. It’s funny, really, these recurrences of unexpected parallels between now and two years ago. This constantly feeling of uncertainty about how far to go, of being unsettled, of wondering, of dreaming, of seeing things that aren’t there, then seeing them disappear in smoke…poof. A stark contrast also, in other ways: maybe now I want to love people so much more, and this makes it all the harder to let go.
A good laugh, no? Two weeks in 2008 versus two months in 2006, and everything seems to be taking me down the same road, now compacted. 2006’s drama ended in initial disappointment, but that gradually ebbed away because I found that I ended up with something I had absolutely no regrets about. <3 RJ (: But I hope, and I hope, and I hope, that this time won’t be the same.
And what now? Am I supposed to pray about this? Is this supposed to be a lesson?
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On a funny note (always always welcome these days), Amanda was telling me about how she told her friend, Galriad a.k.a Gal, that she has very little eyelashes so she can’t exactly bat them to look cute.
Guess what he said. Don’t fall off your chair. None of us are liable for this:
Not to worry. He said he heard Apple is inventing iLashes.
OMFG I REALLY NEARLY DID FALL OFF MY CHAIR!! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.
The world needs more funny people like that (: Alright folks I’m off to brood good night!
Orientation Camp
Truth be told, I went for camp because my dad asked me to sign up (no kidding) and then I finally conceded that much as my ultimate dream deviates from this path of going Overstraits, I shall get all psyched up about this and give it a try. And I can really say that I don’t regret going for camp at all. Fun? Check. Awesome people? Check. What more would I want, really.
I suppose our Orientation Group (OG) is relatively dormant- but I think we are comfortable with each other. I absolutely love this feeling of familiarity, and I hope it lasts, and isn’t just a one day thing that came along with camp high, and like camp high, will blow over.
Awesome experience. ‘Tis amazing what you can discover about people – good and bad and ambiguous, and the kind of bonds that come with spending nearly 24 hours a day together. What Terry said rings so true. This- ANY- group dynamics is unique, and we’d never be get the same taste elsewhere. I think it struck a chord when he said that. It reminds me of how wonderfully weird the Twock family is and how much I always miss the times when all of us would loll around the classroom after lessons and do such unimaginably silly things. This is much the same, just that the things we do are different- special. A special irreplaceable group of people doing special irreplaceable things. I will miss them, because I know once camp is over, once POST-camp get-togethers are over, everything will change as well.
Anyway here’s a list of the people in my OG! Xomura:
Soon Leong Xin Yi Hong Kiat Weng Fei John Jackson Chongjyn Chee Siang Suk Kwan De Zien Ley Sze Bregitt Terry Adeline Chong Yen Kai Ming Ee Shieng Yi Sheng Teck Bin Yong Zhen Li Yuen Wend Li Xin Yi Jr. Huang Woei Liang
Wrote all their names just in case they ever feel narcissistic for a day and Google their names. Then they can stumble upon this post and realise how much
I LOVE MY OG MATES!
I don’t think I’ve had that much fun in a long long time. I have never been the kind to be enthusiastic about station games, but this time was so different. And for this I have each and every one of these people to thank.
I’m really glad we’re now currently enjoying a string of post-camp gatherings, for lunches and dinners and shopping trips and so forth. I love that I’ve gotten to know some of us better! The feeling is really good. And we are already in the midst of planning a stayover at chalet on Saturday…
I wish I could sum all this up more coherently. Perhaps I can say that through a whole wealth of lame jokes and riddles, through dirty and funny games, through quiet sleepy moments of sitting around a table, of casual conversation at lunch, of teasing – Ms. Chong! Adeline and Li Yuen. Fake freshie! – I have met a great bunch of people that I don’t want to forget, ever.
And here are pictures:
Post-camp outings
Camp time!
My OG galpal and I. “Twins”
Oh this wasn’t part of camp, just one of the exhibits at the Singapore Garden Festival 2008 at which I was a ‘volunteer’. Awesome designs! Shall upload all pictures to Facebook.
Alright. I’m off. Good night. <3
Scratch that…
Cheered today at freshie orientation camp like nobody’s business. HALF of that energy at RJ’s J1 orientation would have been novel to me. Hahaha.
Okay la. Things aren’t bad. Just some tiny teensy eensy weensy things that annoy me (: but other than that fun as fun can get in this context.
Gosh I’m totalleh beating around the bush haha. I’ve only had 8 hours of sleep in the past two days and I JUST got back so…I’m exhausted. Down to the bones ooh I can feel it.
Good night all <3
Overstraits
When I tell people I would like to go overseas for my tertiary education, sometimes they throw this back at me: Singapore is also overseas what!
No, I can’t consider Singapore being OVERSEAS. To be overseas you have to cross the seas (from sea to shining seaaaaa…). To be in Singapore you cross a really short bridge over the STRAITS OF JOHORE. When you start from one side of the road to proceed to the other you can already see the other side. How is that overseas?
Right now I’m officially Overstraits: This is my first day of the Malaysian Students’ Association camp at Nanyang Technological University, Singapore. I just felt like typing it out heehee so it can stare me in the face. How are things thus far? Not amazing, if you must ask. And why? Because I have yet to find something I am actually really happy about, if you must know.
A completely rubbish reason, yesyesyes I know. But I guess I find it’s not really very fulfilling if the days pass with me going ‘oh’ at everything without an occasionally ‘yay’ and a mental clap of the hands in delight. Surely you can empathise? Whatever it is, I do want to go to Warwick. I really do. And I suppose it’s more of a I want to go to Warwick instead of a I don’t want to go to NTU. It’s a pull and not a push factor that is stoking my discontentment. Big difference.
I’ve already met a bunch of seniors from Malacca and saw — who were from my secondary school. And either I didn’t wave hard enough, didn’t stare hard enough, my glasses are too radical a change from my previous look, or some of them aren’t exactly the friendliest people in the world. Nice life. On the other hand, there are also a few who are incredibly nice and friendly…too bad they are in their final year.
Administrative matters – medical checkups and so forth – were so-so, but we were running late, because the admin officer kind of overlooked my group altogether. Also it was kind of a big mess at some spots and there had to be other older staff hovering around and shepherding people in and out of buildings to keep the space clear and breathable. I think I was drenched in sweat all morning thanks to the post-rain humidity and the number of people milling around and constantly rubbing shoulders around me.
(P.S. I don’t think blood tests are supposed to be painful when the nurse is removing the needle, right?)
I know, you can probably feel the childish negativity radiating from this blog post. Ehehe. But it’s a rant (check out the category!!) and rants aren’t supposed to be unleashed at the most rational of moments.
Anyway it is 5pm and I am in my new room, on some sort of break because I don’t need to tend to opening a new bank account like the other international students are doing right now, as I have an account from my last two years in Singapore. Yay. At least I can have some time alone and wallow in self-pity for a bit.
Gosh this is terrible I must snap out of this. I know this isn’t a bad place at all but…is it really that greedy and narrow-minded of me to want something more? The verdict is that I do not like it here so far…but so far’s only been one morning and one afternoon. So perhaps I shall persevere and give this a shot.
):
I Stuck Something Into My Eye
…oh, just contact lenses.
Happiness is when after such a long time of being freaked out about sticking something onto my eyeballs, I finally get myself daily contact lenses!!!
We went back to our regular optometrist and they were so nice and patient about it despite having to entertain such a long-winded and terrified customer like me. They taught me how to put them on and take them off, wash them and put them back on.
I initially took very, very long, just to get one lens into one eye- my right. Then I tried my left.
Which was then I realised my left eye is either marginally smaller than my right (thanks, as if both aren’t already SMALL ENOUGH as they are), or the composition of the flesh of my left eyelid is slightly different because it was much harder pulling up my left lid properly!!!
After the putting-on was over and done with, I thought, phew. Ain’t so bad, was it? Then came the taking-out. That was a complete nightmare, because I don’t merely touch my eye, I PINCH my eye, sort of-I felt like I was about to tear off a chunk of my cornea.
In fact, the really sweet shop attendant had to remove my right lens for me. And strangely enough, having someone do it for me was easier to get through? Anyway after that I managed to remove my left lens. Traumatic indeed. When I put them back on again, I felt like an old hand already. The lesson you learn from adversity- there’s always something worse to come.
Anyway, here’s the after and before:
My eyes seemed to magically grow bigger after an hour or two of wearing them. Just a matter of getting accustomed to seeing my bare eyes, I reckon.
I asked them a bunch of curious questions and here’s what I found out:
* It’s impossible for the lens to roll to the back of my eye (I also read on some website that there’s a membrane connecting my eye the the back of my eyelid so the lens can’t slide through)
* I can take a shower with contacts on
* I can wash my face with contacts on
* I can rub my eyes, but carefully
* If rainwater gets in, no problem
If it’s a problem, it’s only because the lenses get flushed out and then you can’t find them anymore, and not because they move about and stab my eye, or my eye gets a nasty infection, or anything close.
Wow! I never knew they were that flexible!
After about 6 hours of wearing them around the house, I took them off again, by myself, and I’m proud to say the time I took to remove the lenses reduced considerably heehee. I’m getting better! Anyway here they are:
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Before I go, here’s a funny quote from my dad, who is a teacher:
“Today I told them [his students] that procrastination is the thief of time. I said, don’t be a thief! Be the policeman! And then nobody laughed. I think they didn’t understand!”
Haha isn’t my dad so cute sometimes.
