the day of commencement..

the end of a chapter, the beginning of another..

the commencement was just an event that signified the end of my academic education.. 18 years of schooling (since nursery) isn't a short timeframe.. almost a quarter of my life! haha.. but again, i believe in life-long learning, though not neccessarily academic-wise.. haha.. and besides, i hate exams.. haha..

but this was an important moment for my parents, with all the investment they have made.. i think it's something all parents would be proud of..

for the first time of my blogging history, i present to you, my parents! haha..



see? i got my grey-hair trait from my dad.. haha..

and i was surprised when he bought the NUS commencement lion for me when i told him it was a waste.. $40 for a plush toy leh.. haha.. yeahhey..



and of course, i was happy to see friends there.. it was glad to have them to be part of this milestone of my life..



biyun, who has seen me through my ups and downs in NUS.. it was these 3 years that have bonded us closer.. we celebrated our birthdays together in the midst of exam preparations, we slept through lectures (on rare occasions, i must stress.. haha), binged on chocolates during our stress-high periods, complained to each other about horrible people in school.. thank you my friend, and let's look forward to our tai-tai life.. haha..



another surprise, when kaiwen called.. a coincidence that her brother had the same commencement session as me.. a very close friend from JC, somebody who never failed to cheer me up, give me encouragement when i needed them..

and of course, many other friends who were there as well.. =)



i'll miss the free time i had as a student, the friends and the fun.. now, it's time to work towards my aspirations and dreams.. =)

or maybe, work towards the goal of earning big money, so that i can buy this $50 baby dress from TopShop for my future kid.. haha..



haha.. kidding.. =D

one left!

finally.. i can get some good sleep tonight.. haha.. i miss my 8-hour sleep.. too much caffeine is no good for the health..

one last paper left.. after that, i'll be FREE~~~!! =D

today's papers were like.. oh well.. wrote a lot of crap.. just hope they make some sense.. i think my three years in NUS has made me a better fisherman.. so many "crabs"..
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ok, not funny.. see? too much caffeine is really no good..

love-hate relationship

for the record, i stayed at home for 4 days.. haa.. and sleeping at odd hours, i wonder how i'm going to cope during the exams.. maybe i should start condition myself for the exams.. yesh, my last set of exams!! haha..

oh well, another phase of my life is going to begin.. but before that, the love-hate-relationship with the school still lingers around..

love -
1. the field trips! =)
2. wonderful lecturers and tutors - it's so fun imitating them.. haha..
3. the long holidays - because of the holidays, i can get to travel, be away from home for as long as a month.. something not really possible when i enter the workforce.. damn..
4. friends - of course they have been playing a major role in my life.. just hope that we won't lose touch when we go our separate ways.. =)
5. wearing slippers! - haha.. i'm a person who hates wearing shoes, who likes to wriggle my toes and cross my legs on the chair.. i dread the days of wearing shoes to labs.. haha..
6. student discounts! - who doesn't want cheap deals? =)

hate -
1. lousy lecture halls and chairs - just when i am going to graduate, they are going to renovate the super old and horrible LT26.. and i was put through 2 years in that LT.. yucks.. now i don't have to put my termites in there to destroy the LT anymore.. hmmph..
2. 8am lectures - i just hate it, when i gotta get up early in the mornings (especially monday mornings) and struggle through the lectures in a half-asleep mode..
3. horrible lecturers and tutors - enough said, they give you a hard time when they are incompetent.. arghh..
4. endless projects and exams
5. sucky timetable
6. bad groupmates - where is the teamwork?!

sigh.. sometimes i wish i won't grow old.. haha.. i wouldn't mind being a student forever, with the exams and projects done away with, of course.. haha.. =)

fiery lecturer..

for the first time in my 3 years in NUS, i witnessed how my lecturer got frustrated with the noise level in his class, so frustrated that he chased students out of the lecture hall.. *eyes wide open*.. and i supposed those 3 gals were super embarrassed when the whole class turned to look at them.. haha..

sigh.. the crucial month has begun.. besides the endless rush for reports and assignments, time to start panicking over exams.. oh shucks.. that means more late nights, later late nights.. and perhaps a grouchier me.. haa.. but i can be easily pleased with chocolates, coke and chips.. haha..

and don't ask about me getting a job.. i'm not going to think of that until after the exams.. haha.. i still have plans for what i want to do.. haha.. we'll see..

finishing all those bloody reports are more important at the moment.. haha.. good luck to those on the verge of going crazy over reports too.. haha.. like me..

a long day..

sigh.. i'm really tired.. it was another long day for me.. was in school from 8am, with a field trip to Tanah Merah beach, and then a 3-hour tuition.. only got home at 10pm..

and this week i have to meet 2 deadlines, and then the NUSCO concert.. i'm really dead.. sigh..

and when the bus passed by Changi Airport back from the beach, i wished i could fly away.. anywhere.. a place where i could stop thinking about things..

sigh.. i need more chocolates..

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ryan has a baby boy! i'm now officially a ninay (filipino for godmother).. haha.. show me the pictures of my godson! =)

field trip to Gunng Belumut..

sheesh.. i was really exhausted after yesterday's field trip to Gunung Belumut.. i slept for almost 12 hours straight.. but it was an exciting trip indeed.. how often do you get to go out of Singapore to do a practical? haha..

i had to wake up at 5am to get ready, and was in school by 7am.. when was the last time i got up so super early?



it took us almost 4 hours to get to the forest.. and we were all geared to conquer! creating a stir, i mean.. haha..

so it wasn't your normal sight-seeing kind of field trip.. we were doing our practical.. which means, we were there, armed with equipment, to collect specimens, doing data-recording and measurements.. so who says we were there to enjoy? haha..



we had to do the practical at 2 different streams.. the first one was a little one, water level was perhaps below the knees.. nothing much to describe, only managed to catch sight of some small fishes..

then we had to take the bus up to the inner forest, and then to walk through the forest to reach the other stream.. we had to cross many obstacles, such as big tree logs blocking our path, muddy patches, steep slopes.. this time round the stream was a bigger one, with large, slippery boulders.. and the depth was greater.. many of my groupmates slipped and fell, getting themselves all wet.. haha.. but i was lucky enough.. :D

again, doing the same thing, collecting specimens, doing the measurements..

and then, lunch time!! haha.. yes, we had our lunch at the stream.. sitting on those large boulders, passing potato chips around.. what an ambience.. haha..



me and my TA, eunice.. =)


and then it was time to move out of the forest.. thank goodness there were no leeches.. but i still got some small cuts, by sharp branches or leaves..

i suppose this was the most interesting field trip i had so far.. something memorable before i graduate? maybe..

arghh.. my brain is still stone-ing.. wake up!!

rainy field trip..

the field trip today was an ultimate failure.. haha.. even before we got off the bus, it was already starting to drizzle.. the moment we started walking into the forest at Lower Pierce Reservoir, the rain got heavier.. and it was really impossible to continue walking in such heavy rain..

imagine, walking in the forest, amidst of all the trees, with an umbrella.. what if lightning strikes? haha..

and so the field trip was called off within 1 hour.. and we had to hide in some prata place for shelter.. haha.. but we were all drenched by then.. from head to toe.. haha.. what a wasted afternoon.. and they better not make us go back there again..

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anyway, yesterday's yusheng was the best! haha.. that big plate of yusheng.. more than enough for that 8 of us.. haha.. with extra ingredient - shedded roast chicken!! haha..



and this was what being left after chomping down the yusheng.. haha.. notice that there was 2 pairs of mini-chopsticks and a fork.. not enough chopsticks for everyone! haha..



die lar, this week is filled with 2 term tests, practices, tuition and 1 more field trip to Johor.. i want my new year holiday back!!! give it back to me!!

monday blues..

i think i will oversleep on every monday, and i think i will need to take a cab to school every monday.. who likes to have lessons at 8am, on monday?? arghh.. and it's 8am to 6pm every monday.. 10 freaking long hours.. my goodness..

one of my favourite lecturers, Prof. Benito Tan, is one of my lecturers for this semester! yeahhey.. although he will only be guest-lecturing for a few lectures, but i think it's good enough, at least i know it's not some other sucky lecturers.. haha.. and his philippino accent.. ooohh.. reminded me of my dear friends in the lovely city of Bago.. haha.. his "actually", "back", "rank" and my favourite - "fungus" (he pronounced it as "foong-goose").. haha..

but i don't like my TA.. serious, i really don't like him.. he doesn't understand what we are trying to say, and same goes for us.. we don't understand his questions, and he doesn't understand our answers.. and he likes to drag the lesson, and talks non-stop.. he can only understand our answers if we phrase them in his words.. and i mean, word-for-word.. arghh.. i can't imagine i'll have to see him for the next few practicals.. arghh.. what happened to all the other good TAs? why is my good TA from the last semester not teaching us this semester?? why???

first day back to school..

damn.. first day of school, 8am lesson.. i almost overslept.. because i didn't hear the chickens.. haha.. tricia and papa will know what i mean.. when i was there, i woke up at around 6am everyday.. almost no fail.. haha.. and i always told them that "the chickens are working very hard".. haha..

but next week onwards, every monday is going to be a 8-to-6 day.. 8am to 6pm.. arghh.. monday blues!! but thanks goodness tuesday is my free day, and the rest of the days are short days.. but i don't think it will not be a free day anymore, after i put in all my slots for the kids' tuition.. in another words, i may be working almost 7 days a week.. sheesh.. and i have already started tuitioning the kids yesterday.. no time to rest.. haha..

anyway, i've already uploaded the photos from my Bago trip to flickr.. so just click on the icon to view them.. =) perhaps i will select some, and post it here, because every photo has its own story to tell.. =)

once again, thanks to all my friends who have made the big tofu for me.. =) i had a good time hugging it to sleep.. hehe..

lack of sleep..

the last time i didn't sleep for a night, was during my preparation for exams last semester.. that was about 5 months ago.. now the vicious cycle is coming back.. and i couldn't take it.. >_<"" i was rushing one stoopid lab report last night, and i didn't catch a wink.. and i felt so terrible in school.. wanted to sleep, but yet had to force myself to keep awake.. worse still, today's lessons were from 10am to 6pm.. non-stop.. no proper time to rest, no proper meal.. i could only get 10 minutes of sleep during the break of Prof Ip's lecture.. oh man, that was so pathetic..

and the rest of October is going to be a killer.. more reports, more assignments, more tests, and my kids' exams too.. arghhhhh..

enough of ranting..

everytime when people scold somebody else "cuckoo bird", it means that poor person is stupid.. but do you know that cuckoo birds are actually a smart bunch of birds? they practise something called "boot parasitism", where the mother cuckoo bird will replace her eggs in some other birds' nests, and let some other birds to take care and feed her babies together with theirs..

now, the smart thing is, when the baby cuckoo bird is hatched from the egg, it will push the other birds' unhatched eggs out of the nest!!! wah!! get rid of competitors in this way.. smart right??

so now you know, cuckoo birds are not stupid.. and never use "cuckoo bird" to scold people stupid.. haha..

brain-dead..

i've never woke up so early.. for this semester, that is..

had to go back to the mangrove today.. by hook or by crook.. i dun wanna wait till the weekend, when the low tide starts to get later and higher day by day.. and i dun wanna end up in the rain again.. and so i woke up at 6am.. though i was already half-awake by then.. didn't get a good sleep anyway.. restlessly made my way to kranji to meet huiyan and biyun..

luckily the clouds were nice to us.. no rain, in fact sunny... haha.. but then i hate the mud in the mangrove.. i mean, i like nature.. i like seeing small little animals crawling and digging into the mud.. but i hate it when the mud always suck in my slippers.. almost every step i took was energy-draining.. had to pull my feet (together with the slippers, of course) out and mud was splashing onto my back.. then i ended up walking barefoot on the mud.. heck, if i got bitten by crabs or anything sharp lurking in the mud.. luckily my soles are hard enough..

and so i managed to do some fieldwork a.k.a measurements.. i die die also have to do something.. i dun want to go back again, and neither do i have the time to do so..

then we had to go back to school for lecture.. me and biyun fell asleep outside the spinelli in the new admin block.. then got up to buy coffee to get us through the lecture awake.. well, it sort of worked.. but i still yawned throughout the lecture..

after that i came home, took (quite a long) bath and then off for 2 sessions of tuition.. and so now i'm brain-dead.. super brain-dead.. i need glucose to keep my surviving brain cells alive..

bad weather..

wah lao.. everytime my field trip will end up raining.. this time round no exception either..

first thing in the morning, i overslept.. damn.. couldn't even hear my phone alarm beeping away, same goes for the numerous calls biyun and huiyan made.. arghh..

never mind.. went there and reached sungei buloh.. the reception there was real bad, made many calls and sms to both the gals.. but no replies.. so i waited around the lobby area, see what notes i can make/copy from there.. and then all those noisy aunties who were there for their own excursion were making a din manz.. hello??? you are supposed to keep the volume down in the nature reserve!!! they even cut my queue when i was in the toilet!! what the hell..

and then it started raining.. raining non-stop.. we can't get out to do any observations, so we were stuck in the lobby.. the only thing we could do was to have our lunch (it's expensive, by the way) and read some of the magazines and books provided in the resource/reading area..

and we waited till 4pm and the rain was still pouring.. and heck, we walked out of the place and walked the nature trail, trying to see what we could do.. so umbrellas out, but still got wet.. then we went down to the muddy mangrove to do a bit of measurements and picture-taking.. having to take the umbrella and camera and papers was a hassle, me and biyun ended up walking in the rain.. i only had my hat to block some rain out of my sight, but biyun was totally drenched.. but heck..

so in the end i didn't get to do anything related to the topic i planned to do.. *grrrr* now i have to find another day to go there again.. who's interested?? this time round, i'm going to the kranji reservoir to get into the mud..

field trip..

today's field trip was quite alright and interesting.. but then it rained!! my god.. having to carry the file, pen, camera and holding on to the umbrella is no joke.. luckily it only rained for less than half an hour.. learnt quite a lot of things today.. but when we reached to the last station (there were 3 stations, where each lecturer was in charge of their own area), it started to get sooo boring.. Dr Lu Xi Xi.. alamak.. don't know what's he talking about, didn't bother to pay much attention.. hahah.. was more concerned about the mosquito bites i got..

so when we were dismissed, me, huiyan and biyun had to walk out of the Pasir Ris Park and happened to pass by a carnival for OCBC's family day.. tempted by the smell of popcorns, we walked into the carnival, trying to pass off as somebody related to OCBC.. haha.. and we were "kopping" free food!! haha.. free candy floss!! free pop corns!! free drinks!! haha.. too bad the photos are with huiyan.. then we also bought the $1 ice cream from the ice-cream uncle.. =) since when do you get to have a field trip with such enjoyment?? haha..

and so me and huiyan were contemplating whether to come back for our CO practice, and it so happened that BK was giving us a lift, so we came back.. but.. i was too lazy and tired to play my erhu, and i sneaked off to meet aline and waipeng at suntec.. hahah..

had dinner, walked around.. and ended up at the SWISS CULTURE place again.. for?? CHOCO FONDUE!! =)

this time the layout of the fruits was different.. haha..

after trying to finish off the whole pot of chocolate, we decided to go into Toys 'R' Us to look at some halloween play stuff.. and this was what we were getting into..
want some more??

and each "head thing" costs $24.95.. duh.. enough to have our pictures taken..

we also tried our luck at those soft-toy-catching-machines.. too bad we wasted our 2 coins..

i'm looking forward to cheese fondue!!! whee~~~

first day of school..

today's the first day of school.. after a long holiday (though i'm still in the holiday mood).. had 2 lectures today, but i wasn't really listening.. was half-stoneing and yawning away.. haha..

saw friends that i've not seen since the last semester.. saw familiar faces, and a lot of new faces.. all the year 1 students.. manz.. i'm in year 2 now.. time really flies eh..

happened to see yupin in jurong point while i was looking for the glue for my jigsaw puzzles.. haven't seen her for ages.. since we graduated from JC i guess.. haha.. but it's still the same old yupin.. haha..

suddenly i feel nostalgic.. haha..

into another frenzy..

school has yet to start.. CORS bidding has yet to begin.. but we, the life science students are into another round of frenzy..

we have just received an email telling us our allocated modules.. because we were divided into 2 different groups, taking different core modules, so we assumed the groups will remain unchanged until the 3rd year when we start to choose our areas of concentration.. but then.. it didn't turn out that way!! some of the people in my group whom i know got the modules different from me.. biyun got the same modules as me, but kareen and mark got the other modules.. damn.. sucky siah..

luckily i managed to find someone willing to mutual swap with kareen.. if not us the 3 musketeers would be separated.. =P.. but everything's not confirmed yet..

arghh.. i hate the school system.. bleahz

early weekend..

yeah.. finally done with the practical report.. sacrificed my stats tutorial this morning.. no wait.. i didn't sacrifice it.. i will never sacrifice my sleep for the tutorial.. haha.. supposed to hand in my stats homework due tomorrow.. but i completed and handed it in during my break in school this afternoon.. so that means i don't need to go to school tomorrow!! haha..

kareen crashed my calculus lecture today.. and think she got a shock when she saw my lecturer came walking in.. haha.. bowl-shaped haircut, long sleeve shirt, tie, and a big pot belly.. haha.. and she don't understand what he was talking about.. haha.. oh well.. perhaps i have succeeded in tuning my frequency to try understanding his weird language..

nicole went back m'sia for this weekend, my dad too is going back tomorrow for qing ming festival.. the house is gonna be a little bit quiet this weekend.. nah.. i will create havoc!! muahahaha..

shall go for a little retail therapy tomorrow before giving tuition.. =P