Its week 3 of the June holidays and I don't think I'm screwed. Maybe I am if I compared myself to those people who are free and have the entire holidays to mug but I'm not (self-comfort). Because there are people who have been wasting their time. (Well, while they were wasting their time, I've been staying up till 2-3am to finish some work because my days were all packed.)
10/06/13 Monday:
Advocates local CIP programme day 1 (In lieu of our OCIP trip to Vietnam).
Basically, we had to clean the school and it was a difficult task because there was simply so much to clean (dirt between lecture theatre chairs and all. OCD people can't stand it) and I didn’t really know where to start from. Besides, I seldom do the housework at home apart from trying to keep my room as neat as possible. (which obviously failed because I've piles of papers and books all over my table and I figured that I've to take a day off from studying to pack it up or its going to be a major obstruction when it comes to studying because I'll have to spend around 5-10 minutes to dig for something).
Basically, the aim was to actually just to be able to empathize the aunty and uncles in our school and to be able to better feel that I should take ownership of my surroundings and spare a thought for the aunty and uncles in our school because they had to clean up after our mess and it was certainly not an easy job even with 20+ of us. In fact, most of us were inexperienced when it comes to cleaning including me.
However, after cleaning the lecture theatres (which was
super dusty), I really feel that we should take ownership of the school
property because I realized that many people just leave tissue paper, sweet
rappers and other forms of rubbish in between the seats. I felt disgusted as I
never thought that it would be that bad until I had to clean them and I really pity the aunty and uncles and I figured that everyone have to do a part in at least keeping the seat connectors clean.
Evan, Denise, Ngan and I then left early to buy our items for our street sales at night. (Last minute people -__-) It was the most rushed out planned in which Evan, our event manager, called for a trial on Monday and guess we really did it. Shamelessly printing stuff from the school printer (well, its free as long as we have our papers) and recycling stuff from the trophy room. After, all of us plus a few more advocates (Monique, Weilin, Bona, Randy, Jae Eun, Xin Siang) went with us all the way down to Orchard to do our street sales in which we were selling lightsticks with the theme, light up our city, light up their (elderly) world. and in fact, we did a pretty good job (plus Evan's friend, Isaac) despite everything being rushed and it took some time for us to warm up and dare to approach people to buy stuff from us. :)
By the way, I've also learnt that we must always persevere because despite being rejected by khong guan, our email, letter and personal visit paid off and khong guan actually agreed to sponsor us ice gems ;D and honestly I was so high after reading it at 2am that night after finishing a physics paper that I died for day 2's programme. :(
11/06/13 Tuesday:
Advocates local CIP programme day 2.
Woke up at 6 and went straight to the willing hearts kitchen and it was something I
wasn’t interested in because honestly, I was so worried that I’d destroy the
kitchen. Considering the fact that I can’t even cook Maggie noodles or pour hot water
properly and that I couldn't really find meaning in packing food or cooking vegetables. What made me dislike the entire kitchen the most was that I didn’t
know what was going on half the time. Everyone was telling me different stuff
such as scoop this into the rice and don’t scoop that and vice versa and then
we get scolded double. I really wanted to do my job properly but then again, I
really didn’t know what was going on and I really wanted to ultimately serve
those at the receiving end properly. Indeed it was tiring (4hours of sleep the
night before) and what I enjoyed most was plucking the vegetables!
Big sweep after was much more meaningful especially at the
second aunty’s house(First Aunty wasn't around) because though it was just Monique and I… Struggling with
Chinese… without other group members… Monique and I managed to successfully
entertain aunty. I figured that the food we packed at the kitchen was
probably transferred to the aunty here who does not have enough money to
support herself. With this, I felt that what I did in the morning was useful despite
getting annoyed because I really didn’t know what was going on ¾ the time did
not go to waste and in fact I felt that I’ve helped them to pack the food so
that these people get their food and without us, the elderly/people at the
receiving end will not be able to receive enough food. What made me regret the
most was me falling asleep while Monique and I were teaching and singing songs
with the aunty. Because according to Monique, Aunty was sad.
Though I woke up after that, I felt really guilty afterwards
because I didn’t get to entertain aunty for 30minutes out of 2hours (I made aunty sad) and I
really wished that I could repeat that day again so that I wouldn’t make that
mistake again. Though we sang songs after that and like I taught aunty new
songs and everything, I’d still want a redo because I shouldn’t have
fallen asleep during big sweep (I know that I deserve getting scolded and yes, I deserve it. I'm embarrassed but I feel that this should be here because it will serve as a reminder to myself in the future.) and honestly, I don’t want to stop big sweep
because the aunty was so happy after that when we left that words couldn’t
explain how I feel. I want to make the next big sweep better. All in all, I
felt that I’ve grown closer to aunty (despite struggling with Chinese here and there)
much more because aunty opened up and we really enjoyed ourselves.
12/06/13 Wednesday:
Advocates local CIP programme day 3.
Ubin for the happy girl. So we went to ubin for the last day of the programme to learn more about nature and this dog followed us from the jetty to chek jawa. We named him Johnson. I think it was the dog that I touched and then I got nagged at Ms Ho for. It followed us all the way, waited for us when we stopped and all and I could really tell that it was disappointed that it was unable to follow us back on the road to the jetty.
I enjoyed myself running round or jumping around on the way to jetty because I basically had overflowing energy and I couldn't wait to move around and play.
On the way to ubin
Old bicycle discarded in the sea (near the shore?/below the jetty? Somewhere that people can't just go down to pick it up...)
Johnson when we first saw him.
Tons of discarded plastic bottles on the way to chek jawa ):
End of our trip around the mangroves!
Pictures with all the advocates:
I totally have to go back there to bike! Some day at the end of the year bah! :D (I'm in black HAHAHA)
It was like a geography field trip and I enjoyed it so much that I really want to go back to ubin and dance around in the sun again. No joke okay. I saw mangroves and all and I instantly became excited!
Watched Now You see me with the advocates and I was totally mindblown by the show. In fact, its better than inception! (Maybe because I could get the plot better and I was following it intensely until the last part when I lose concentration and lost the plot) but after having Monique explain to me the last part and all, I was totally mind blown. Its worth to watch and its in fact my first movie in months? I think.. I can't remember any other movies that I watched. I think its just this and I do not regret wasting 3hours just to watch it because I enjoyed the revelation of the story. :B
13/06/13 Thursday:
Met up with Sharlene and Beatrice ;D
I really miss these 2 poops a lot. I miss studying together on Sundays though we're still taking almost the same subjects (I took geog, they took econs) I still hope that we can study together but we're all so busy that it took us some time to even meet up.
I actually miss fooling around in the playground. I still remember Beatrice's cycle challenge which obviously she sucks at cycling. LOL took her forever to cycle finish 1 round around active while Shar and I took 3-4times faster than her.
14/06/13 Friday:
Nicole goes shopping with ShiHui.
Shopaholic Nic strikes and hit the stores. After having the urge to shop for like months, I've finally gone shopping and I've spent a lot of money on Friday. I don't even dare to check what is left in my bank account. I got a feeling its not good. I'll just check it when my allowance come in (self-comfort) and now, I must hide in a hole and not step into orchard (which is obviously not possible).
Well, I don't think I bought a lot but I bought a lot. 2 tops, 1 bag, 1 jacket, a pair of sunglasses. Its not a lot but somehow $$$ is a lot. :( I went out with the mindset, "DO NOT HESITATE TO SPEND" HAHAHAHAHHAAHHAHAAHAHA.
Anyway, had street sales at night and we had many volunteers. (I'll probably reflect it on a later date) but YFC is so stressful now and there are times that I feel like giving up because its taking up much of my time and I can't agree with my teammates here and there (well, I didn't want to repackage the stuff). Come on, we got no time :( I know where I'm standing and I know the amount of effort that I've to put in for each subject so I shouldn't get judged for studying too much because clearly I've to work a bit more than everyone else to achieve average. And I work on consistency. I don't rush everything, neither do I leave everything to the last minute. Alevel Chinese Oral MUST STUDY ONE.
Caught up with my juniors and celebrated exo's first win together with Joan and her friend, yitong.
That's it for the week. Had a productive weekend ;)
And pray hard that my fever goes down and all. :\ I need to collect my biscuits from khong guan. Time to do some chemistry and math ;D Yesterday's geog 'day' camp was terrible lol. 4hours of geog is enough to scare me because its so content-ish. HAHA.
