Term 1 is Ending!

27.7.13

This is Week 11, 3 more weeks to the end of Term 1.

Pretty much enjoying the uni life, except that it was not so much like the kind of uni life that I have been expecting. It was still more like JC rather than Uni. Hopefully next term things will be different.

Met some really awesome friends. Felt really blessed that I actually manage to have this kind of friends around me. They are willing to spend time with me and accept me. Some of them are even willing to spend extra time to teach me what I want to learn for eg guitar. I wonder what I can do for them in return. We are so close that we spend most of our time together. And I become so attached to the group that I kinda starting to feel sad when the weekends approach - won't be able to see my friends :(

But chengyuen being chengyuen, sometimes I will just think too much, unnecessarily. (Yea, I know in this aspect I am totally like a girl :/ since when are guys so sensitive about this kind of things?) "Why are they treating me so nicely? Are they genuine? Or are they just acting?" Sometimes I don't even know whether whatever they do or say is unintentional or with purpose. Putting these stupid thoughts aside, I will also sometimes think too much into the future. This awesome group will not stay long. 天下無不散之筵席, sooner or later they will find the other half and leave the group. OR when next year comes, everyone of us will be put into different pillars and it will be much much harder for us to stay close to each other. One of my friends was telling me that she hoped that her band will stay as a band even after they graduate so that they can perform as a band in the future. This idea is really really cool, and it serves as a platform for the people to meet up. Sadly I am not in a band :( Sigh

Talked to my friend about it and I realised how stupid I was. Since I have acknowledged how short we are going to stay together as a group, instead of mourning for what is going to happen, I should be enjoying this short moment with them. (*nod* makes sense)

Anyway, looking forward to next term, especially the design class.

First Half of the Term in SUTD

There goes the first half of the term in SUTD. There has been nothing to complain about, I have been laughing every single day ever since I stepped into SUTD, thanks to all my friends around me. (Though sometimes I do feel that I need some time some place to be alone.) Really loving the SUTD family :)

Made a lot of good friends here, that's a good thing, just that I think I have been over-acting too much. Need to have some self-control. Treating friends wise, sometimes still don't know how to react in front of my friends, and not sure what others are thinking. A bit thinking too much, like I used to be. Never changed eh :(

Aiya no time to write so much, just want whoever read my post to know that I AM TOTALLY ENJOYING MY LIFE HERE!

20th Birthday

It just so happened that in Kratos there are, including me, three people who have birthdays in May. Therefore, as our first family in SUTD, we celebrated the birthdays of all three of us together.

It was nothing much, but this celebration was so far the best as I can tell. Why? It was not in terms of what we did, but more because of this was the first time in Singapore when there are people who are eager to celebrate my birthday, which made me feel loved HAHA. Past years, I had been waiting to see if anyone was ever gonna remember my birthday (excluding my family of course, they always remember), not that I ever had any expectation of it. But no one ever wanted to celebrate my birthday, with a few exception of course (I know I was quite childish la but oh well it is in past tense).

What I really want to say is that really thank you for the birthday party, Kratos! I really appreciate it. And of course to those of my close friends, thanks for the birthday wishes too!

Might & Magic - SUTD Orientation 2013

12.5.13

5 months had passed and I am back in Singapore for my uni. I was so excited and worried at the same time because I had no idea how school is like and how the people are like. Especially as I was from RJ, I was even more worried that the name "Raffles" would bring much unwanted gossips behind my back. Not that I am not proud of  Raffles, but the fact that Rafflesians have always received much prejudicce and stereotype from other communities is undeniable.

But the three days (or 4 days) of orientation had told me that my worry was quite unnecessary.

This group of people (3 OGLs + 9 fellow OGMs) was the most enthusiastic, most awesome, most amazing people I have met in these few years in Singapore. They treated me just like everybody else, ignoring the fact that I am not a Singaporean and was from Raffles. This reminds me of my first day in RI, when I was worried that the Singaporean classmates would ostracize me for being a Malaysian, of which the worry turned out to be unnecessary, too. And their enthusiasm had bonded us closely together, which impressed not only our OGLs, but also the House Head. In the morning, we were still strangers in the company of silence, but when night fell, we could talk about almost everything as though we had known each other for quite a while. In all the activities, be it Station Games, Wet Games, Amazing Race, Mass Dance or Night Games, we put in all our enthusiasm and creativity to make this once-in-a-lifetime event enjoyable and definitely memorable. Special mention to Hui Shan's "Bottle Band" (refers to how she played music with just bare hands and a bottle - the one Anna Kendrick played with a cup in Pitch Perfect) which in my opinion bonded us faster and closer than anything else. It had become an OG thing within a day with fellow OGMs and even OGLs addicted to it. If all 10 of us are gonna be OGLs next year, this is gonna be a batch thing for the next batch to come.

To quote from one of our OGLs: "... I didn't expect you guys to be that insane and you all surprised me on wet games day. When it reached amazing race day you guys were so comfortable with one another that you all fed off each others' energies and created awesome stuff -" or the most awkward stuff that we hope not to do again in our life "- which we'll always remember each other for." Of course I am not gonna forget the videos we made on that day. Sorry, MR10! You have been taken over by Kratos as he awesomest OG.

Geraldine, Kenickie, Edward, another group of OGLs (apart from Lin Wen, Eunice and Jon) who have inspired me. Hopefully I can be an OGL next year and inspire my OGMs as I was inspired.

Red Raiders - Kratos!



ps1: The Head of SUTD is so cool! He is old but he knows how to talk to the young. No wonder all the students love him. I think I am starting to love this school, too, as I love RJ.

ps2: Orientation Finale Party @ Sentosa, this was probably the first time I stayed on the dance floor for the entire event. 53A is really awesome!

Less Than A Month Away From Entering Uni

Just got back from attending my sis's wedding ceremony in Singapore two days ago. Haha when I first heard that he was going to propose to her, I really got pretty shocked. Haha I didn't really expect it. But now think about it, she is around the age of getting married too. Can't wait for too long eh.

And that made me wonder when am I gonna get a girlfriend :P I was thinking that I will get married when I am 25 so that the generation gap between my kids and I won't be too big. But the thing is I don't even have a girlfriend now (probably not gonna get one any sooner haha) and why the hell am I thinking of getting married. True that whenever I see couples I would get itchy and think maybe I should get one soon, but to be honest, I am pretty sure that I am still not ready yet eh haha.. Like I still feel that having a girlfriend is troublesome and I will have to spend a lot of time with her which I can possibly spend it on other stuff. So I guess I am not ready yet. Hmmm but when will the time come? :P

Attended POP (Passing Out Parade) on last Saturday. Seeing that all my friends had completed their BMT, I felt really happy for them. And somehow I felt kinda touched too, I wonder why? Hmmm maybe I got affected by the movie made by Jack Neo - Ah Boys To Men. His movies are always so touching and making me cry. I wonder if that's what would happen in the army and whether they do make close friendships. I hope they do.

Met my Sec 4 classmates the next day for lunch. Haven't met them for ages and I really missed them. They have ever been so nice to me since the first day I started school in RI, always taking care of me. I felt really blessed that our friendship never wavered even after 4 years (in which there was this one year that we didn't meet up at all). I wonder why sometimes I just feel that they are being too nice to me and I don't deserve such treatment. Talked to a friend of mine about this and we both came to the conclusion that I have been thinking too much. Maybe I am being too socially awkward that's why.

People always said that the gatherings after their enlistment would always be full of convo about the army, and those who are not gonna enlist (like the girls) would be extremely bored because they have not a single idea what the army boys are talking about. Hmmm it just got 2/3 correct. During the gathering, the two of them who have enlisted kept sharing their BMT experience with the rest of us, I kinda didn't understand some part of it, especially all the short forms, but I find the stories very interesting and exciting. I guess if not because I have the excuse not to serve NS, I would enjoy the army experience too.

RJ class gathering that night, I almost couldn't meet my class if not for the timely appearance of two of my classmates. Not a single person was at the meeting point and my phone was being problematic - I couldn't call out and apparently my friends couldn't reach me either. It was quite a long while since the back row people all met up, missed them much too. It was quite an enjoyable dinner except that one of the girls was not used to me wearing an earring and I was forced to take it off. Haha I guess none of my friends are used to it. Maybe I will just not wear it whenever my RI friends are around, so that they could still have their original impression of me :P

So soon, this long holiday is coming to an end. I will be leaving for Singapore for my uni life in less than a month time. And my sessions with my players are left with .. 10? Was hoping that before I leave I can see some improvement in them, but I guess this kind of things takes time and the time I spent with them is really not enough. Was thinking that maybe I could do part time coaching in Singapore too so that I can get some pocket money besides the allowance. But .. hmmmmmmmm maybe not :P Just a thought. I probably will be a waiter somewhere ..

Excited for uni. Wish I get awesome apartment mates!

One and A Half Month Away from the Start of Uni

It is 20 March. It is about one and a half month away from the start of my uni life! Kinda looking forward to it. Hope I can blend in well with the others.

And that means I still have one and a half more month of being a coach! Oh yea forgot to tell yall that I didn't take up the job as a waiter at the restaurant because it takes away 95% of my time. Every day working from 12pm to 10pm and only have a day off every fortnight. True that the pay is quite high, but ... nahhhh. I kinda prefer what I am doing now: being a coach for 4 days a week, the rest of the time going back for state training. 

Being a coach really isn't that easy, what with having to know what are the strengths and weaknesses of the players and provide training plans accordingly. Worse still, during a match a coach has to be quick enough to  spot the strengths and weaknesses of the opponents within 11 points. To be honest, I suck at this. Those who don't know me well might think that I am super pro, but the truth is, I am just pro at fighting for every single shot. I am unable to coach my players on how to play in a match. Somehow, I only get better at observing the opponents when I am THE ONE in the court playing. Sooooo ... while I enjoy the time now, some part of me actually want to escape from this job.

While my time of being a coach is short (about 20 more sessions?), I do hope that my players will improve at least that little bit before I leave for Singapore again. Didn't think about it that much before, but now I understand why some coaches want to boast to others about how good their players are, how their trainings are effective, how the players improve a lot after joining their training etc etc. Well, I guess this is something that one will only understand if he has been a coach before.

OK that's all for now.

A's results were out

So.... After 3 months of waiting, A's results were out!

I am not going to tell you what results I got here, I am just going to say that the results were just what I wanted (though I expected it to be that tiny bit better) because it just met the minimum conditions for me to be guaranteed a scholarship (Y)

While I got the results I wanted, some of my friends weren't so lucky. Seeing some of them crying, and I didn't know what could I do. Trying to tell them not to be sad would just make others think that I was there to gloat. While not doing anything ... I just didn't feel right about it. My friends suggested me that it would be best to just be there for them, that's more important than any words that I could say. I guess this would be easier for me? Since I am awkward and not good in comforting others. I just realised that when my best friend was really sad about his result, I wasn't really there for him. Sigh, guess in my journey of becoming a true friend, I still have a long way to go. :(

Back to the scholarship. I actually wanted to try for other scholarships but after checking out the websites, the scholarships either are for Singaporean Citizens and PRs only or have difficult selection processes. Sigh I gave up... Well it wasn't a bad thing to have the ASEAN scholarship, at least I don't have to worry about the tuition fees.

Right. So 5 days in the island, got the results and some stuff from my juniors, I am now back in Malaysia.

ps: ran in heavy rain today, didn't know that the rain could be so strong that I couldn't even see properly.. definitely a different experience haha.