Hectic, and boring

Havent been blogging lately because of many things that are going on. How funny that while my life is hectic, with so may things going on, it's boring as well. It is kind of sad that I do not take much interest into whatever that I am doing now.

As usual, exams are around that corner (in 2 days, in fact). Studying this holiday has been... so unfulfilling (in accordance to my emotional level at least). I have not been able to enjoy myself, with the exception of the pre-u seminar - which allowed me to make a lot of friends and gain loads of experience (shall blog about this another time). 

I've just finished editing and am now printing this bunch of economics notes that I did with Joelle and Dion. So proud :'D hahahaha.

Right now, the few things that I have ahead of me are these:

- Common tests

- Guitar handover

- Sports carnival

- Some random workout with purple buds (if we have one)

- Movie outing (someday! I want to watch Man of Steel, Despicable Me 2, etc etc!)

- Catching up on my TIME mags

Anyway, during the holidays, I found a few songs that are really awesome and basically, I have been just listening to them over and over again this whole month :)

They are all found in my playlist (sry if some songs can't be played!) and here's some more to add on:

明明就 by Jay Chou

Brave by Sara (I dunno how to spell her surname)

Unchartered, also by Sara

Off to studying economics now!

PI

So, I have just completed my PI - it felt very last minute to me.
I had to change my topic at the very very last minute - although the content was basically the same, the way it was presented was different. Although I understand the purpose behind having the PI and PW component, I did felt rather frustrated at it because it was a long-term process that would undoubtedly cause some stress for us. However, PW in itself is a pretty good concept - emphasis on teamwork, consistency etc. I guess we just cannot have the best of both worlds.

Anyway, my PW experience thus far has been horrendous. Not to say that it was extremely terrifying or anything, but it did felt very different from anything that I expected. The question posed to us this year was also extremely different from the ones posed last year so we had basically, very little references that we could make use of.

Coupled with the fact that most of us just weren't sure of what to do and how to go about doing it.

Mine was a traumatizing experience because I started on a subject which I WAS interested in. However, as time went by and I started to do my PI, I started hating my subject because it was complex in strange manners. My PI was extremely hard to do because I felt like I had to address all these issues which were somewhat important for me to develop and define my scope. And yet, I could not find any ways to effectively define it. Instead my PI just got less and less clear.

Finally I changed my topic after discussing with my mum about potential topics. I was pretty satisfied with the topic because of my personal attachment to it due to some incident.  I started doing on it and thought I was doing okay until it came to the proposal. I could think of nothing new. STUCK.

So, today, I consulted the teacher and she wanted me to keep the content, but change the topic/question. I was literally STUNNED. In my mind, I was screaming at her, "Now?! You want to change it now?!"  It was the day before the submission. I was stunned and frantic because of her proposal. Although it did make my proposal abit clearer now (I guess), the way she put it across was just insensitive and shocking because it was just the day before. I mean, couldnt you have told me earlier?  D:

But anyway, I have already done it. So I am just hoping for the best now! I did take a kind of nonchalant and heck-care attitude towards PI these past few days because of various things that were going on, but I guess I realised that I dont want to make the same mistake as I did for my HCL O-level.

Holidays... and BOOKS.

The holiday is now half gone. More than half actually.... D:

School has been pretty okay, except for when there are tests - those moments are the worst, especially when you have one after the next.

Had a Bazooka outing two nights ago. It was really fun, just sitting over the table, complaining about our food HAHAHA. It was funny how we actually started out as the 'sch uni' club though LOLOL. Really missed talking to a group of people whom I am comfortable with :) 

Talked alot with Siyun yesterday also, while waiting for Dion to come ahahah. 

Anyway, main topic today is BOOKS. I had this impulse buying thing going on when I went to Compass point Popular on Wednesday. The member's 20% off sale was really tempting too. So I went to buy two books: Between the Lines by Tammara Webber, and Requiem (the last in the Delirium series!!) by Lauren Oliver.

Between the Lines was pretty good. I did feel embarrassed buying it because it just seemed like a love story that was like a teenage read. I usually buy books with more... meaning? hahah. Anyway, reading those books once in a while is good. The plot was pretty interesting, love triangles duh. But the context was slightly more cool - Hollywood. And even though it was in Hollywood, it didn't glamorize it in an exaggerating way. It did feel rather realistic, which made it a very interesting read! Surprisingly, I enjoyed it very much! Some excitement in my dull life I guess. Though I would definitely not buy such books again... probably hahaha.

So. REQUIEM <3 p="">

I posted a review on Goodreads. So I shall just paste it here:

Okay, this is really quite fresh in my mind because I have just finished it in about 30 minutes ago!

So... frankly, when I started reading Requiem, I was a bit lost because I read Pandemonium a few months ago and not every single detail of the book was fresh in my memory. Some weird names came up, and I just went 'Whatttt? Who's that?' My advice: It's okay, just go ahead, because as long as you know who the important characters are, the story can still go on pretty well.

The book is told from Lena and Hana's perspective, which makes for a very interesting plot. You see direct opposites of their lives (one is of the Wilds, the other is of the posh life of a wife-to-be of the mayor), however, there are also some similarities that come through as the book goes on. Both are dealing with personal struggles, and miss each other (whether unknowingly or not, especially for Hana). Anyway, I think it was refreshing for Lauren to put Hana's perspective across. I did talk about it in my review on my blog, so it was nice to see it happen :)

The book did feel a little slow in the beginning. I was actually more interested in Hana than Lena! Surprise surprise.What I did like was that Hana did not lose her zest. It was still there, just muted and hidden from everyone around her.Lena was much much stronger now. Physically, yes. Emotionally? Nah, not so much, although I'd agree that she went through some personal growth throughout the story. 

Oh, and while reading the book, you would just be SO MAD and frustrated at Alex. Because he was something like a sourpuss in this book. Hm... Was that the wrong word to use? Anyway, he's so cold... and confusing. I know where he's getting at, but Lena doesn't, HELLOOO? Someone give a mind reader to Lena because that would make everything alright.

Anyway, the Julian-Lena-Alex thing gets on my nerves, ever since it had appeared on the last page of Pandemonium. I was DREADING the love triangle, and wondering why on earth did Lena fall in love with Julian. Couldn't there just be Alex, ONLY? The love triangle does complicate things a little, but I am glad that Lauren doesn't JUST focus on that, she did talk about other things that were going on in the resistance, which was what I really looked forward to in this book. There was also a lot more exploration about the concept of love and the irony of it, which I loved. The stories (Solomon and the weird guy who killed women) were also nicely woven in and created some depth in the story.

Most readers would probably find the book slow at first. Don't give up! Continue and the pace picks up. Especially towards the end, YOU WILL BE SKIPPING WORDS JUST TO FIND OUT WHAT HAPPENED. At least that was what happened for me! I was so EXCITED!!! It was like the grand finale! :DD Loved what Lauren did there = making me so anxious to find out what happened. Although I would have loved for Lena to play a more active role, like fighting/killing people, I guess it wouldn't be like Lena to do that either.

The ending was GOOD. SO GOOD. It did leave some uncertainty, but it was uncertainty at its best. You don't get a definite happy ending there, but you do know that somehow everything is going to work out fine.

Requiem did not disappoint me. It was a really exciting, well-written roller coaster ride that made me fall in love with the Delirium series again (especially after how I did feel abit disappointed after Pandemonium) :D

Really a great way to end off the series :)
~

So, overall, I really enjoyed reading those two books these past few days (around 3 to be exact). It renewed the sense of pleasure I got from reading books - I had almost forgotten what it felt like after months of reading TIME magazines and study notes. I think that I will always love books. No matter what :)

Now, it's time to catch up on my work!!! 

What happened recently

Hmm... I have not really been updating my blog. Think the last update was one month ago - this is what happen when schools start.

So, just an update on a few major happenings recently:

1. Group proposal consider in SMU competition (yay!! was a close shave)
2. Applied for Student Council - went for the SC boot camp
3. Got rejected for SC
4. Applied for OSAC
5. Got rejected for OSAC

Basically, what happened was that I think I got rejected a lot of times. D: But don't worry, I am not actually feeling that sad over all the rejections. 

I guess I wasn't that keen/enthusiastic over SC as some other people, so I thought that they deserved it better than me. I did go in being prepared to face rejection after all. However, it does make me feel a little depressed; this was my second time trying for SC after all. Being rejected twice is not something very nice :( Sometimes, I truly wonder what is lacking in me.

Hmm, mainly right now, I am just hoping that I can get into the pre-u seminar, maybe OCIP, and hopefully smu competition (tough luck to self though). 

Anyway, there was this recent hoo-ha over the Population White Paper.

Hmm, my truthful feelings about it?

7 million doesn't sound good. 

It's already such a squeeze at 5.5 million people, what more 7 million. Although the government promises that they will upgrade facilities, and ensure that there will be 'sufficient space' for everyone, we know that on this island, there is only so much you can fit.

I just read this article by Robin Chan talking about population stability rather than 'indefinite growth'. I agree with him on this point, because the government has always been talking about increasing our population and getting more people in, but they have never actually considered the idea of "when do we stop?"

I think that that is a very important question. The least the government can do is to give us a rough estimate of where the population of Singapore will stop at? Everyone's got to admit that it's got to stop at SOME point. I think that that is very important in crafting our future. This way, we know that our common goal is to achieve this certain amount of population, which we deem as sufficient and sustainable for Singapore's growth. There will be this common consensus.

Although the government say that 7 million is not a target that we will work towards - it's just an estimate, the fact that it's been published kinds of seals it as a 'target'. 

With regards to the building of more homes etc on Singapore, I hope that they will consider the idea of decentralisation seriously. The main reason why it gets so crowded on trains during peak hours is because everyone heads towards the same direction. The business hub is located at the centre of Singapore - so obviously, everyone will go there for work. The residential areas are also located near each other, making all the commuters travel from home to work, and then work to home, of which the direction of travel are mostly the same for everyone.

With decentralisation, it would ease the peak hour 'squeeze' since everyone would be going in different directions. Not everyone will have to squeeze onto one train line that goes in a certain direction.

Having more train lines is not going work when no one WANTS or NEEDS to use them. What we should do is build something along the train line that makes it a need for the people to take the trains. 

Assuming you have a new train line, but there are no offices located along the train line. Who will actually take the train during peak hours? How does that alleviate the issue of overcrowded trains on other lines? Only when you have an office built there, with people working there, then will it alleviate the issue of overcrowded trains, because it would have then DIVERTED traffic away from that train line.

So, more train lines is NOT THE SOLUTION. Stop saying that 'we plan to build more train lines to solve the overcrowding issue... blah' because it won't solve the issue. What will solve it is to spread out the areas for business 'hubs' to achieve a more uniform spread of traffic during peak hours.

Also, (as my parents mentioned to me), why is the government asking some middle-aged men what they think about the 7 million population? Their target audience, and hence the people they should be interviewing, should be US - THE YOUTHS. 

HEY, we are the ones that are going to be MOST AFFECTED by your Population White Paper. (We will be in our thirties in 2030) Why aren't you asking us for our opinions? It need not be done through televisions/very troublesome events. It can be done through simple channels such as the school. Simply have the school allow us maybe say, 1 hour to examine the White Paper, then have us answer a survey that reflects our level of satisfaction with the White Paper being proposed.

Such activities can be easily organised since a survey is already the very bare minimum. As the beneficiaries of the government's future policies, I believe we have a right to have a say in this as well.

It also increases the political awareness of the youths (and perhaps helps in our GP haha).

~

Anyway, Singapore is going to have a new line of COINS. 

The new set of coins are UGLY D:

Our current set looks nicer, and classier!! I will save some of the old coins as keepsake! :)

SH orientation

This post is one week late haha, but anyway, so heres the rough outline of my SH orientation Unitas:

Day One:
So, I was just feeling pretty grumpy on Day 1 because I have not changed my class yet and the prospect of having to interact with them made me feel miserable, I gotta be honest. I cannot remember much from Day 1 actually; all that I remember was that Day 1 was SUPER AWKWARD. I thought that maybe Xiyu would talk to me, but she didn't, which made me feel worse hahah. Attended lectures and mainly stayed with my ex-class.

Day Two;
Day 2 felt much more worse than Day 1 for me, mainly because there were so many free periods and I didn't know where to go since I couldn't exactly hang out with my 24 class. So, I just hung out with some of my ex-classmates (meaning desperately trying to find them every time I am free).
We did have some house ceremony where we were 'officially' welcomed into our various houses. Mine was Homa then. We did have this ice-breaking session where we literally had to break ice by melting a frozen shirt. I laughed a lot watching the 24 guys trying to melt/break the shirt by hitting it on the floor. LOL. It worked... to a little extent. HAHAH, it was mainly funny seeing them so anxious since the losing class had to do a forfeit which, I JUST remembered, they DID NOT DO. LOL. The house ceremony was kinda fun too, since we learnt Homa cheers which were pretty catchy :)

Day Three:
Things got better on Day 3, MUCH BETTER in fact. Since the whole day was filled with activities, it was pretty much a good chance to bond with our classes. It did feel a bit awkward at first, but I would say it got better. We had this class bonding time at first where we were at the auditorium. My class went to this 'secret place' (which I can't say haha). Anyway, the place is FREAKING cool, which made it a nice and special memory to have hahah. We took a picture! We were supposed to play bonding games there but the place proved too small/cram. So, we went out to the audi again lol.
Sprayed our hair and coloured our faces orange.
We then went to the hall for this mass dancing session which was actually pretty fun I guess. It was nice to see everyone actually trying to dance :D This doesnt usually happen because I remembered that during a mass dance session in y2, everyone was so shy! But this time, most people danced seriously :DD
After that was class lunch :) That was actually the first time where I actually PROPERLY got to talk to some guys, which was a nice opportunity :) I am more of the kind of person whom you have to sit properly in front of me for me to speak to you. I like to talk while sitting/walking side by side, but not while doing random stuff cuz it just seems uncomfortable to me haha.
After that was the games at Katong park! It rained at first, but it stopped so we managed to go out. yay! We went there and played at only one station LOL when it started to rain again, hahaha. Most of us got pretty wet cuz the rain was pretty heavy (I shared an umbrella with jingying so I wasn't that wet hee). While waiting for the rain to stop, we did this intro game where everyone had to sit opposite someone in one row. We'll talk for a while, then one person in one of the two rows would have to shift up, so you will get to talk to the next person. I talked to some of the guys, which was nice cuz like I said, I am more of the 'sit down and talk' type, so I got to know some of them slightly better.
After the rain stopped, we resumed our games :)) We actually won all of them LOL. And after that game, it was easier to talk to Xi Yu YAY hhahahha.
We were actually in a pretty high Homa mood (at least for me - amazing what one day can do). I think it was cuz our OGL taught us the homa cheers again so we knew how to cheer = cheer more = high homa mood.
In my opinion, Day 3 was very fun and I actually went home in a happy mood :)

Day Four:
I was actually looking forward to Day 4 with 24 since there was DOTA, meaning that the guys would probably wreck the other houses hahaha. But... when I went to school, someone told me that she heard I transferred classes. I was like huh??? I took out my phone to check my email using sch wifi and found out that I had like 3 smses congratulating me on my class change, and I was like WADDDD. I didn't even know about it, HOW DID YOU. LOL. So I checked and the email was sent last night, and I didnt know LOL. Can impt email not be sent at night, pls.
My new class was 21, the class which is very hyper (at least from what I saw). I went into my new class and kinda said goodbye to my old class (awkwarddd).
My new house was Drakon, which was kind of sad for me because I actually started liking Homa!!!! (aka started being loyal already). hahah. But anyway, I missed Homa but still wanted Drakon to win, since it's my house after all.
We had mass dance session, where I partnered Ying Xuan.
After that was Siege of the Empire. It was really fun! I stole 2 gold balls LOL, and killed a person HAHAHHAAH. Sounds damn violent but it wasn't really. hahaha. Anyway, we won for our game, but I heard we lost for the other (we had 2 ongoing games, divided by levels).
Then it was lunch. I played some games with my new class and got to know them better. They (specifically Joshua) were very funny hahah.
After that was our A-level Chinese results - such a spoiler! I got B3 LOL despite all the studying HAIZ.
Then, it was DOTA. DOTA was pretty fun, but VERY VIOLENT. I didn't actually participate in much action, which I regretted. But at that point of time, it seemed really scary to go over to the other side, seeing as what we were doing to those who were attacking us LOL. It was kinda like TACKLE WHOEVER COMES OVER. Scary ahhahaha. Anyway, my aim for next year is to go into the mud pool. LOL. Think I should at least try it once, hahahha.
Drakon got attacked a lot of times. Like around 6?? Thats a lot.

Day Five:
Last day of orientation. I forced myself to learn Drakon cheers on the way to school :D 21 wanted to meet up first to play captain's ball. It was pretty fun! :D Got a nasty scratch though. We then ate lunch, and went back to playing ball. But we played against some Homa people though, so it was like 21/Drakon vs Homa hahaha. Great game.
Then, we took class photos.
We then learnt our mass dance first, then played some mass games.
After that was dinner. We were in this DAMN HIGH MOOD. We kept cheering and cheering. The feeling was actually pretty awesome and cool! At the canteen, you could see this whole bunch of y5 drakon people cheering damn loud. We kept cheering until we got to our designated seating area LOL. I didn't actually know Drakon cheers were so addictive til then. There were some cheers where you could just get high and go wild! It was a good thing I learnt the cheers, because I was screaming my lungs out then! XD After we ate, some of my classmates starting teasing me, saying I was a betrayer of Homa and told me to go back LOL. Then they started chanting the homa go home cheer at me (telling me to go home), and THIS kinda sparked off the whole cheering war LOL. Cuz everyone started cheering homa go home along with them HAHAHAHA, for different reasons from them. The cheering war was easily the highlight of Day 5. Because you see people standing on chairs and tables, facing each other and cheering like crazy! FRIGGIN COOL. I heard someone video-ed it down, I WANNA WATCH AHAHAHHAHH.
After that, we continued our high spirits and went to the hall because it was raining  = no campfire D:
We had the mass dance. Best house went to Homa, best house spirit went to Drakon!! We came in 2nd.
Then, the teachers announced that the campfire would continue, because the rain stopped. HURRAY.
We had performances at the track/field area. Towards the end, all of us started singing together and linking shoulders. Really memorable! :))

Overall, Unitas was a good memory! It didn't exactly started out as fantastic, but it ended well!

Shit

Some stupid shit.

I feel so annoyed.

And desperate.

Whoever said making mistakes are good because you learn from them probably just made that single mistake in his life only. I hate the fact that I made so many significant wrong choices in my life.

Including the one I just made, that's three. And the fact is, it's so hard to find a remedy for those wrong choices. Right now, I am just here waiting for something that never seems to come. 

I keep refreshing my window hoping to see something unread, something that I actually WANT and NEED to read.

Grr. Hate myself for the choices I make. 

And the bad luck I face.

Lesson learnt: Don't choose controversial choices. Just stick with your gut feeling and follow the crowd. That's definitely the safest option. 

The start of something... Dreadful

School is starting soon. What a BOO. It is the thing I look forward to the LEAST every single year. Furthermore, I will be heading to my class which only 2 girls and a subject combi which I want to change. My appeal is currently be processed and I am put on the waiting list for the class I want, because there are currently no vacancies for that class left. However, one of my 4k friend from that class is transferring out, so I am hoping that there will be a place for me soon. 

I reallllllyyyyy hate this endless cycle of holidays and studies. ZZZZ.

Anyway, I stayed over at my cousin's house yesterday after baking Viennese biscuits (it was a last minute decision to stay over hahah). Baking the biscuits was hard work. We had no blender/mixer so we had to mix everything by ourselves. Stirring close to 1kg worth of ingredient was no easy feat. 

We replaced the milk needed with honey. When I asked my cousin why honey, she told me that she just thought of it, with no particular reason, thinking that milk was linked with it being sweet and sweet with honey LOL. We make wonderful bakers haha. Furthermore, we wanted to make heart shapes out of it which had to be shaped by ourselves. Weird ideas of trying to get the heart shapes done more quickly resulted in a lot of laughters hahahahah. We also put strawberry jam on top, which was a really good decision hahah because it tasted pretty good. In the end, we spent around 4 hours to finish baking all the biscuits. Phew!! A job well done ahahhha.

Baking with my cousin was really fun and it provided some nice bonding time :) Wouldn't mind doing it again (with less quantity next time though)!!

Some pictures~~~

We ended up making circled shaped biscuits because it took too much time to make heart-shaped ones.

Also, I've realised that I have watched some movies:

Breaking Dawn - 3/5 Pretty entertaining.

Les Miserables - 4/5 Quite the classic. Hugh's voice did get quite annoying towards the end though. Very touching and a terk-jerker.

(This list of movies is wayyyyyy lesser than what I had expected before the start of holidays D:)

Hmm. I am pretty excited for the new school uniform though.

Wishing myself all the best~

Thoughts

So, I went to Genting with some of my relatives. It was really nice to be back in Genting. The weather was colder than we thought it would be, you know, with global warming and the fact that it didn't seem that cold at all 2 years back. I think that it was a really nice time for all of us to relax. 3 days 2 nights was definitely not enough, which was what made it so enjoyable as well. If the duration was too long, we would end up feeling bored (which was what we did felt at times). On one day, we stayed out at the plaza til 2am because we were playing the indoor rides til 1am. We ate marybrown and started praising it a lot because of some bad service we had at KFC hahaha. It felt pretty nice. The feeling of not wanting to leave, and just staying there forever. The shopping plaza when there was almost no one there. Such a weirdly creepy but calming scene.

I shopped there too. Bought a dress from CottonOn for only S$18 when the original price here would have been around $40!! Of course, there was a sale hahah. Basically, the things there was almost the same price as it would have been in SG, except that it was probably a few dollars cheaper.

Genting is still a pretty nice place to be in. I wouldn't mind going there again (not next year though) with a few years span in between. I would then just take the indoor rides all day (and hopefully get to ride my Flying Dragon - the ride closed when I wanted to take it!!!! D< ) and eat, slack, shop :)

--

Celebrated Christmas and New Year with my maternal family relatives. We had Secret Santa and my aunt bought my slippers hahaha thanks. We also played Kinect and realised how awesomely fun it was. Great exercise too!!! :D We also had potluck where delicious food was provided for by everyone :)) Anyway, it was really fun celebrating these kind of events with families, so I'm hoping to do it again next year~

--

I just attended a 4K dinner. It was nice to reunite with the class. It makes me pretty sad that I won't be seeing their faces when I walk into my class next year :( Dinner was at Fish and Co. Afterwards, we gathered at pasir ris park and chatted, play games, talked about ghost stories (which were only slightly frightening/shocking hahah). Some of them are going for night cycling like... NOW. hahaha.

Attending the dinner made me realise that I WAS going to miss them to some extent. No matter what, I think that we are better now than we were 2 years ago. I did think that whatever we did, all of us improved in some way or another, and have at least talked to everyone in the class (no matter the amount of words). This class has been a great learning experience, and I am happy to say that I am walking out of it with newfound friends :))

--

I am going to change my subject combi by submitting the application form to school tmrw. Pretty exciting HAHAHA. Truthfully, I am dreading my current (with my subject combi unchanged) class. I am only one of the 2 girls in the whole class which is my worst nightmare because I am actually rather socially awkward with guys. So being in that class is just probably going to result in me being detached from my SH class T_T So, I REALLLLYYYY hope that my subject combi application will be approved. That being said, it is not for this silly reason that I am changing my subject combi. I have already made up my mind to change my combi before even knowing about my class. So the class actually just acts as an incentive for me to change my combi LOL. I wouldn't mind not changing classes as long as I can change my combi!!!! PLEASSSSSEEEEEE APPROVEEEEEE.

--

Okay, many random topics here at once, so I shall stop for now.
Anyway, I am SO NOT looking forward to school (schoolwork, projects, new class, unknown people, long school hours, more schoolwork...). I am currently relishing my last few days of freedom. Also, I am supposed to go er hum, start reading up on my SH topics, so I shall.... try starting.

About holidays

Amazingly, holidays are already coming to an end (at least to me, it is). When nearing December, I feel a great reluctance to greet the new year. 

It is ending,

I feel sad.

It's waving me goodbye

Even though I'm pulling it back.

A new year ahead of me makes me uncertain and unsure about what to expect. I have mostly been the kind who does not dare to tread on new territory; it all seems so scary. Furthermore, a new year brings about the greatest tragedy that can ever happen to a student: the end of holidays and the start of school! D:

Looking back on my holidays, it has all been a complete BLUR. Seriously. I wonder where all the time went, so Huiyi and I decided to do a little recapping of our own.

1. Studying for HCL O-levels / Workout
2. Guitar CCA and camp
3. Class chalets
4. Work
5. Work
6. Work... (you get the hint)
7. Dinner with friends

So, basically, work just took up a huge chunk of my time. Before the holidays, I use to think that work would be something for me to DO, but I have just realised that it wasn't something that I actually DID DID. Get the idea? Work is just work.. but it wasn't going to be like a 'highlight' or 'event' in my list of holiday activities when I look back at it, which made me realise that work was just A COMPLETE WASTE OF MY TIME. Yep, I got the monetary gains, but my days of working felt like a 'blank'?? It didn't feel worthwhile for me to use my holidays to work - especially since I did say that I was going to enjoy the holidays after all the major exams. 

Hmmm... so if I ever work again, it must be with friends. At least that will be memory/bonding session for me hahaha. 

Anyway, met up with Yunyi and Huiyi yesterday to practise guitar, with a lot of slacking done in between of course. 

I've finally watching Breaking Dawn. Thought it was awkward at times in its execution, but overall, a major improvement compared to previous films AKA more interesting.

Hmm, I wanna go bake and workout with my Purple Buds!!! But some are working and busy, HAIZ.

Also, I have just watched the film Across the Universe, which is a musical featuring songs from the Beatles. OMG, I never knew that The Beatles' songs were SO FREAKING GOOD AWESOME AMAZING ADDICTIVE. Currently, my favourite is Hey Jude :D However, I like the film version's of the songs rather than the original, hahah.

This is the part in the film with Hey Jude :))

Going off overseas tmrw (not exactly a very far place hahaha). Shall tell you where when I return :D

Okay, starting to feel a little hungry... XD

Work experience

So after my chalets, I went to work.

I worked at Metro City Square Mall from 12pm to 9pm, hence explaining my lack of blog posts (which is due to my laziness as well I admit).

The first day of work was HORRIBLE. It was a Saturday. I showed up in black pant, covered dark blue shoes and a black tee with prints. Turns out I needed an all black attire, with no prints, no nothing. Haiz. So I went to buy 2 black shirts, of which one was bought for me for free because apparently this problem did not just occur once, so it was kinda a punishment for the person ic.

I was a promoter for toys - the company I shall not mention. Anyway, there were so many kids!!! My job was to let the kids play the toys, hope that they don't break them, and hopefully, get their parents to buy the toys.

So this is the thing: KIDS ARE MONSTERS. Well, some are.

Some of them would snatch for the toys!!! Very annoying. Some would not follow instructions, and do things which would probably accelerate the process towards which my samples would get spoilt. Very irritating. Some would get excited and start shouting. Very noisy.

Because of my location, weekdays were boring while weekends were terrible. There were too little people during weekdays, and too many during weekends. The difference in contrast is too huge!!!

But then again, some kids are actually pretty decent and cute. These situations usually happen when there is only one or two kids around the table. It gets easier to control them too. Some kids are adorable too :) Their huge eyes and small statute. Hahahah. Sounding like a pedo here.

So, when I first started working there, I was lost. When customers asked me stuff, I didn't know how to reply. I would then just rush off to find an associate; when I can't find one, I panic. Somehow, it seemed really important to fulfill the needs of the customers once I was put into my job. It was part of my job, and yet it wasn't at the same time. I was just a promoter, but since I was working at Metro, I needed to follow the basic code of conduct in Metro since I was 'representing' them as well.

Another sad fact of my work was I wasn't close to anyone. I was all alone. So lunches (if taken outside) and dinners were by myself. I did enjoy the loneliness sometimes though, after being surrounded by so many kids especially.

Another part of the job which I hate was the fact that we had to stand the whole day!!! Just standing, and in my case, waiting for people to come along. There was this day when I felt abit tired and sick. That whole day was torturous because I had to stand even though I just felt like collapsing and sleeping. The thought 'I wanna go home' kept ringing in my head.

AND, I HAD TO WORK ON SATURDAYS AND SUNDAYS. WHAT A BUMMER.

I did gain experience though. I finally knew what it was like being a promoter. If ever I work as a promoter again, I want to promote products for adults. At least they behave more civilised at times than kids. Haha.

I also did packing and stocking of items, which was very tired. It is pretty amazing because now I know how do products actually get into the shelves. Oh, and we had to stick the price tags on by ourselves, which is surprising because I always thought they went though some machine which would stick them on, LOL.

I learned how to deal with customers a little better. And I learnt that it's important to pick things up fast. Like for example, when a customer wants to open the shelf for some Tomica cars, I used to find and ask my colleagues to open it. If I can't find the colleague, it would be quite bad because the customer has to wait for me to find him/her, then wait for him/her to open it. In the end, I found out where to find the keys, and just opened the lock on the shelf by myself, which is way easier and better because it's faster, and I don't worry about not being able to find someone else to do it. Relying on oneself is always better.

I also realised that eating by myself is not such a scary thing. Partially because city square mall had way less people. But still, eating alone always seemed terrifying to me. Somehow, we all get the image that it screams 'loner'. But when I was forced to eat along, it started being okay and normal for me.

Yep, yesterday was kind of my 'last' day of work. Zixin came to visit me, and we ate dinner together :) A break from eating alone! I would be officially working my last days of work on the 17th and 18th (which are weekdays phew!!).

As of now, I shall not be working anymore. I have quite a lot I wanna do. I need to watch Breaking Dawn and buy my Christmas gift! :DD Korean dramas toooo!! Alice in Cheongdam-dong is GOOODDDDD. Go watch it! Shall go out for dinners with people more often. I went out for dinner with Huiyi and Dion on my off day. We initially planned to watch a movie, but there were no more seats/ good timing. So we resorted to just eating HAHAH.

The next time I look for work, it must be either with friends, or be an admin/office hours job. Tuition's not bad too hahhaha!