Mid-Sem Crisis

Haiz.. This mid-sem break is really a break for the teachers. It is not a break for me... I really cannot take it anymore. The workload this semester is just too much. I am really breaking down...

Okay... I guess I shall start this post from Quad-Fac Bash at Zouk on last Friday. It was a big disappointment. Well, I was not really looking forward to go if not to listen to a junior singing. The item was scrapped. And the other items were like xxxx. Haha... So it was a pretty waste of time. The pharmacy dance was enjoyable though (I am not being biased here by the way. If they sucked, I will say so). The free drink was also somewhat disappointing. Haha... At least I know what Zouk is like, and I enjoyed the dinner. I would not go again next year though. Haha...

I had some interesting experiences though. Firstly, I suspected that someone molested me -_-! I felt someone was doing something funny to my stomach. It was not like a friend playing prank on me as I felt as if the person was going to pickpocket my phone.. not the usual joking feeling. Well, if it was really a friend, I hope he/she would identify his/herself hoho... Secondly, as I was wearing a full black attire, at one point of time, I was so shocked that I saw a lot of white spots on my shirt. I thought they were dust -_-! It was actually the light... So embarassing... A testimony that I never went clubbing before lol... Thirdly, I was a bit scared when I left (and it was only about 10pm plus). The people outside the club were a bit scary for me.

Next was retreat for YEP. I had fun playing the games. I found the retreat was a waste of time though. Too much time was wasted on games (Games are good but if they are too much...) and people ended up sleeping late to discuss the important stuff. Oh well... The alien/spiderman/watermelon game was very very good :) I enjoyed the soccer (surprisingly) although a very embarassing incident happened to me. I was goalkeeping and there was a time when I threw the ball away. I jumped and threw... I ended up on all four. -_-... lucky nobody saw me fall... So unglam de lol haha... Oh ya... before soccer was captain's ball... And the first ball that I received hit me point blank on the cheek. Haiz...

I am a bit worried about Cambodia. It was already damn hot here.. Haiz... I had a trial on using my thermal sleeping bag to sleep. It was freaking HOT! I woke up one time that night with my whole back sweating like crazy. And despite the thickness of the sleeping bag, I still could not sleep well as I still could feel the floor touching my tailbone. Oh gosh...

Today was another sucky day for me. I travelled all the way to Toa Payoh to get a new pair of specs (actually for spare) and sandals. The bloody optic was closed for renovation and there were no sandals under $20. WHAT THE HELL!!! 1 day was wasted. I went to Orchard after that. Wanted to buy $111.30 Valkyrie Profile book. I was seriously considering it. I wanted to get a $40+ and 2 $13.20 Code Geass R2 books. Gosh... I guess when I am really stressed, I am really in obsessive compulsion of shopping. I managed to hold my horses. I will check and make sure that the Valkyrie Profile book is fully coloured and nice artwork/illustration before buying. Haha. I ended up buying none of them because I bought a book called "Clamp in Cardland". Haiz... The book did not really meet up to what I expected it to be so my heart is still a bit painful for the loss of $29.40. Oh ya... out of nowhere, I decided to waste $6.60 for coffee cinnamon drink from the Coffee Bean haha... I actually do not like and do not drink coffee.

In my sadness, I went to Wheelock Place. Outside the Apple Centre, it dawned upon me that I was pretty foolish to spend $700 for cca points (aka YEP). Haiz... with that money I can get PSP plus IPod plus the books I mentioned above. T_T.... I guess the experiences from YEP would be priceless... Haiz...I am very stressed... I hate my parents... I hate cca points haiz...

So where is my story about studying? None... Because for Christ's sake... I haven't started any bloody revision work... My SP essay is also still 0% in progress. Haiz.. Chinese has become a chore for me... I cannot remember the words already... I really wanna give up... I am suicidal again...

Forgiveness

For the past few weeks, all the masses I attended always had the message of forgiveness. But I was still stubborn... until today. I do not know why. Today is the 24th Sunday of the Ordinary Week. The topic was really about forgiveness. Before the mass started, I read the readings first. And yes, I was really struck!! Ok, God, I will trust that it's your will. I shall forget the past and look into the future. I shall forgive.. Now the load in my heart was gone. I feel lighter =) The funny thing is that today the Church of Holy Cross was celebrating the Feast of the Exultation of the Holy Cross. Thus the 24th Sunday readings were not used. Funny... really funny indeed... though the church was not celebrating the 24th Ordinary Sunday, the short passage in the bulletin was about that: forgiveness. So if not because of it, I would not be inspired to open the missal book, I would not read it...

Well, below is the passage from the bulletin:

A New Lease on Life

Most of us have experienced how difficult it is to forgive. It is almost impossible. In Old English, it means "give to the uttermost", "extremely", "as far as you can go". Isn't that what it really is, going all the way? Wo can forget the hurt? Yet we should. Who doesn't see and feel the scars and keep the memories? And yet we shouldn't. Think of God: when He forgives, the evil belongs to the past. It is gone. God keeps no accounts. He want us to think only the future. Jesus did not condemn but gave new chances.

Ok, God! You won :p and Thanks!

I feel quite blessed this weekend. After the gruesome Thursday and Friday, I felt to fresh after sleeping for 10 hours on Friday night. Lol. The stress also at least put some urgency in me to do my schoolwork. I finished my fact sheet on Friday night, and my Chinese compo-blog was up by yesterday evening. At night, I mugged Econs too. Yay! I hope tonight I can go to Lecture 3-5 and hopefully I can understand with the help of the book.

Oh ya, my chinese compo-blog is here. Please leave comments :)

Depressing life

Just a quick update from me in the midst of my busy and sucky school life. I am still recovering from my 6 in 1 sickness last week (lethargy, headache, gastric, sore throat, runny nose, cough). I was procrastinating for my fact sheet. It was really the problem! After the due date was over, I felt much lighter.

This week will be another tough one. I have Chinese quiz and Pharmacostats CA. I am not well prepared for that (and here I am blogging and playing new games at facebook -_-). I just finished my proposal for my cca and I still have to crap something out for the topic of my SP1203 essay. Haiz... I wanna cry seeing the schedule for next week. Final submission of fact sheet and first draft of essay. SP1203 is really a sick shit :( I hate it I loathe it!! No matter how nice the teacher is, the workload is just too much. On top of that, there is chinese blog assignment, chinese character writing, chinese conversation exercise, chinese project 2.

I am feeling quite down as my practicals have been failing lately. I did not get a nice cream last week and today something went wrong with my test limit. Haiz... I retried for both but both failed. I am a bit worried of practical exams. Haiz...

Oh my God... I really need you to survive... I have so much on my plate that I sacrifice my prayer time. This is fatal! I think because I am not in inner peace, my life becomes chaotic. I shall try to mend and repair my sad pathetic depressing life.

Breaking point

The 2nd week of school just ended and all my enthusiasm for this semester has died. I had very little sleep (the average was about 5 hours daily) and that made me physically, mentally, and spiritually tired. No more smile on my face in the mornings but I am glad that I could control my mood swing better. Okay, let's see where I left off last week.

I attended the sunset Assumption Mass and that coincided with the opening of the grotto and the unveiling of some paintings at the Church of the Holy Cross. Actually I wanted to leave after the mass and skipped those events but there were only about 3 ppl who left. So I decided to stay. Lol. On my way to the overhead bridge, I stepped on XXXX!! Darn!! It was damn smelly and I could not get rid of it. So instead of risking hostile stare on the bus, I walked back to PGP. Crazy eh? Exercise :) Lol. I took the shortcut I knew from FOW and it was damn scary to go there on my own. The Temasek Life Science Lab is freaky and eerie. The minimal lighting but yet enough too see what inside the labs. I imagined if someone suddenly appeared from one of the labs... Gosh... A good spot for fright night. Haha...

On Sunday, I met with a cousin who was holidaying here. Lol. She stays in US so it has been years since I saw her. We had a nice talk. It was worth my nap time :)

On Monday, I had to sing Hallelujah!! Lab actually started on next monday. Hurray!! Lol. I really needed the time to sleep. But during the break, I met my OG who were going to swim!! Alamaks... Seriously... They were too enthu. Lol. So after my assignment was done, I went to SRC (to see of course! not to swim). Had a very sucky lunch at the very cheenah food stall next to the swimming pool and I managed to come out with half paragraph for SP. Lol. The evening Econs lecture was so embarrassing. I had promised to wait for the juniors. So basically we were late for 30mins and we still dared to sit in the most front row directly in front of the lecturer. Never mind... Thick-skin de..

I HATE CHINESE 2!! The exercise averages for 2 pages now. That means the workload is 2x of chinese 1. Wth... And as much as I am thankful for the very enthu and loud tutorial teacher (I did not fall asleep), I am very much horrified with the fact that she gives EXTRA exercises. Die de... And I hate the people... Many of the are fakes! They are already good in the language but they still take it. Haiz... Anyway... let me share something embarrassing but funny. At the beginning of the class, the teacher asked my name. I said my english name. When she asked for my chinese name, I said I did not know how to say it. Lol. So I anyhow said it. In the middle of the lesson, she asked around names again. When it came to my turn, I said "I don't know my name... I mean I do not know the tones." The whole class broke into laughter. But I WAS SERIOUSLY clueless about the pronounciation of my name. Haha...

After Chinese was my ICy AGM and exco selection. I was nominated for secretary but lost. A bit pissed (I heard that I was edge out by 1 vote) but after yesterday, I came to realise that it was God's will to not add more things into my plate. I was so down yesterday as I was tired and I felt that my workload was too much. I hate SP1203!! I loathe it!! Lucky that I finished the stupid statement in 2 hours. Haiz... I shall see how well/badly done it is next week.

Hmm... see the pics down here? A bit late to put ah? Lol... Well.. The reason I put these is because I am so free today that I visited some of my frens' blogs. Lol. Everyone is covering rag rag and rag... How about FOW? Lol... FOW was FUN too ok!!! At least I had a lot of FUN!! Lol... And I am sure those who went also had a lot of fun!

Kudos to these bunch of freshies!! Without your support and attendance, I would not have so much fun during FOW :)


Kudos to the seniors :) Especially to the FOW committee members.. Even I, as an OGL, felt very hurt and sad when my OG was halved and we could not play games, I know it must have been more painful for you all to see your programs and plans fail one by one. Thanks for the Sentosa :) The fun justified it!!


Group Photo :)



The always forgotten cheering squad (a.k.a non-raggers). Never being mentioned anywhere...
Well at least we still got this very nice photo taken. Thanks for the care and coverage for us, Mr Photographer :)



My favourite and most memorable picture.. Lol.. Thanks for the love ^o^
Someone (I cannot remember who you are) said: "Let's point at and say XXXX"
And the guy who helped us to take this said: "Do you want me to take picture of only xxxx?".
Everyone in unison said: "OF COURSE NOOOOOO..."

Well... the fun is gone... But the memory remains... And hopefully the friendship lasts too

Bowling

Haiz... my days of lethargy are not over yet. I am now very worried. Is my exhaustion the remnant of FOW? Or is it due to my very packed timetable? If it is the latter, then I am on the road to doom. Haha... The semester is not in full swing yet (labs and the stupid SP1203 assignments only start next week). Ok I am dead meat :( Just to illustrate how gross my time table is: I (will be most likely be rejected) cannot join Exxon Mobile Campus Crew as a CCA because my tuesdays end at 6 and my wednesdays end at 8. Ok myself, brace yourself to take up the study loan next year just in case my parents don't want to fund me for out of campus accommodation. How to earn enough cca points? Haiz...

Enough of the complaining and worrying, here comes the nicer news. I played bowling yesterday! Woohoo.. It was my first time and I was so excited. I was thinking not to go due to dental appointment and the problems with my Microsoft Office, but early wednesday morning, I changed my mind. I did not regret it! Yeah... The results are below :)

3 strikes for the first game? For a newbie? Lol.. The subsequent games will tell the difference between 'lucky' and 'skillful'. Lol.

So the conclusion is: I am a lucky unskilled player. Haha.. I had a great fun. Thanks for the people who went to play (one of them was having headache... I appreciate that!) and organise. Yippie... There were other 3 girls who played with me but they did not let me to capture their moments of glory so yeah... Haha... We played at Tampines SAFRA and I say 'archery'. Maybe I should try that next. It will be interesting to play since all of us never play it before. After sem 1 exam perhaps?

Just for me to remember when I play next time, my optimum ball size is 9!! I should experiment to give more force without compromising the control/direction. I have to say I have not mastered the path of the ball yet. Next time...

It's olympic season and I shall write about that in my next entry... Whenever it may be...

School again..

Today is only the second day of school and I am already feeling dead tired. Haiz... I guess it is really not easy to fulfill my target to be a good student this semester.

It was the first day of school yesterday and I have to say that vitamins did help to sustain me throughout the day. I almost fell asleep during the lecture but my consciousness was still there. The key word is ALMOST! I did not fall asleep. Haha.. And for the first time since long time, I was early for lecture :) The lecture started at 820 so yeah... of course I was early. As there was no more lesson, my clique and I decided to have a lunch at Pizza Hut Clementi (again!). Before that we were at Central Library and for the first time I joined the queue for the free diary. I will never ever do that again! I don't find the diary nice or whatsoever. I gave it away. I don't understand why people are so eager about it. Because it is free perhaps? Haha...

I was still high that I decided to attend the Econs lecture from 6-8pm. I was amazed that I did that. Thanks to a friend of mine. I had no intention to take that module but a few minutes before the close bidding was over, he asked me questions about his own bidding. And at that moment, I got the temptation to take econs also. It was even luckier that he took this module before. So I could get his notes (which is useless and totally different from the current set of notes) and he assured me that there would be no project. It was exactly 3 minutes before closure that I logged in my bid. Now that I got it, I am really at lost whether I should drop it or not. I am afraid that I cannot manage :'( But chinese is non-examinable and most likely to be S/U-ed. And the econs lecture and chinese tutorial are at night so that should not really affect my day. Less computer should be fine. Haha... I am really confused.

Yesterday I managed to sleep at 11pm. Yet, I still felt very sleepy throughout the lectures today. The vitamin did not work and my sour dried mango could not chase away my sleepiness. Oh well. The english module is quite horrible. I don't think I will be able to do well again this semester because of this one module. With that, I seriously think I do not need to drop my econs as my semester looks pretty bad already. 1 less day to think about it. I hope I won't make another wrong decision.

My Microsoft Office has some problems -_- T_T I am sure it is because a clean up programme from my friend. Darn it!!!

Pharmacy Freshmen Orientation Week 2008

I was asked to be an ogl as the committee was in difficulty to get seniors to be ogls. I actually wanted to be a game master (a slacker job) but since I stay at school anyway, I agreed to help out as ogl if really there were not enough people to help out. I seriously was worried and anxious about it as I had never been an ogl before. On top of that, I know that I am not a very enthusiastic person. I can only be enthu if the people around me are enthu also. So I was hoping so hard that I got a great people in my og. I also asked to be paired up with a very enthu ogl to be with me. I was given one of my clique friends whom I have to say is as shy as I am. Hence, I was totally worried on the few days before.

Day 1
The day I feared finally came. My og name was Haldol. I just realised that the og names were drug names after I was told so. I thought they were some superheroes/fantasy game names. The names were like zoloft, coreg, advair, relafen, etc. They did not sound like drug names to me. Anyway, after I checked out the list of people in my og, I became more worried. Nobody I knew and I saw very few English names. Oh well... Time went by and the icebreaking time came. There were moments of akward silence and I could see some of the guys were like looking at me with the 'what the heck this lousy ogl is doing' look and looking away to see some other more happening ogs. Gosh... T_T Many times I looked at my partner and both of us exchanged the look of exasperation. At one point of time, I was like running away with the excuse of taking my water bottle and let my partner handle the cheer planning session. -_-! so bad of me. But I am very thankful for her and some game masters who came to my og and helped :) Great help!!

I got saboed during whacko and it was a difficult choice between singing or dancing in public. Well I chose the former (Indon song so I could just bluff my words just in case I forgot the lyris) and thank God, there were very few seniors there at that time. I was saved from further and long term humiliation. Lol.
But I had to say my og ppl were great. They were very accomodating and cooperative and enthusiastic. The raggers were even friendlier (as compared to my own orientation week experience last year) and they mixed around pretty well with the non-raggers. Nobody was trying to be prominent or acted popular so the atmosphere was quite positive. The cheers came up pretty quick and the zest they had during cheer really made my heart swelled with the prospect of getting $1000 for the cheer competition. Haha...

I was already dead tired for the first day and it ended pretty late. I had to go back to PGP on foot to show the juniors how to go to school on the following day for Flag Day.

Day 2 - Flag Day
I was more like slagging than flagging. Haha... I was still hoping that seniors needed only to facilitate last year. So when I found out that I had to flag too, I was like wth.. I chose Toa Payoh and could only bring 6 people with me. In order not to show any favouritism, I picked the first 6 names on my list. Unfortunately, due to the way they arrange the namelist, the first few were the non-raggers. I was like "uh-oh".

At Toa Payoh, my spot was the area near the library near the bus stop. I learnt from my last year Flag Day that in order to get a lot, must quickly attack those just alighting the bus. Haha.. My 2.5 hours there were quite satisfying. Although I got very little, it was more than what I got last year for the same time duration. Lol. I was lucky to bump into my CSS senior who happened to go to the church for a meeting. So I went with him for his breakfast and waited for his meeting to start to get donations from his friends. Haha... After that, my juniors were already calling me for brunch. Lol. They gave me the olympic toy. I did not know who went to get the Kids' Meal la. Haha...

After brunch, I went back to my old spot. No more crowd. After wasting an hour to get donation from only 4 passersby, I decided to find a new spot to beg (a bit slow rite?). I was outside library for about 30 mins and it was a disappointing spot too. So I decided to go around the whole Toa Payoh Central to find where there was crowd and where there were few orange people. Lol. I thought of something brilliant at the bus stop across the road but I found all the freshies were already there. I repeated the same old mistake: to get the nice place late :( So after going round Toa Payoh Central for 2 times, the KFC area was free from from the orange people. It was during lunch time so the crowd was great!

We had lunch at about 3 at MOS and the other half of my og was calling to meet up for dinner (they already wanted to do so from the morning). I was told that I could be back at school by 6+ instead of 9+ so I let them to meet at 430. That ended the flagging session as well. Haha... This shameless senior was a bad example as I had the lightest can. At least I could encourage them "As long as yours is heavier than mine, you are safe!". Haha...

I was amazed and impressed that they met up for dinner (none of the other ogs did that) and the rag people did actually talk to the non raggers. Lol. Someone commented that during dinner it would be most likely that the 2 groups would sit separately. That did not materialise. You rocked, people!

Day 3
It was boring. As expected, many would pon as there were only talks in the morning. Haiz... Trouble and conflict were brewing in the night and I was thankful that I was not involved in the politics la. I was having fun playing bridge in the night. It was a sad case that the candlelight soccer had to be called off as too many freshees went home without permission.

Anyway, only my og had the full attendance (until the end of the FOW). So great to get these enthu bunch! Really lightened up my work! Haha... The organiser had to arrange some new groupings due to the lack of people for the telematch in the afternoon. I had to play hockey as my group was 1 person less than the opponent. I had great time! Nobody shouted me any order. We all played for fun and not to win. So I enjoyed it. And tadaaa... I scored a goal! Haha... Maybe it was my first goal in any ball games I had every played in my life!

At the evening, we started on making cheering props. Then after the drastic drop in number of people who remained at school, the freshees were allowed to leave but they had to come back on thursday and stay over! I was really touched that the 2 guys remaining in my og stayed at school to accompany me instead of camping at PGP as 1 guy stayed there.

We went to Fong Seng at late night with some of the seniors. 1 of them recommended plaster (now I know what it is) and my adventurous self made me order Bandung Dinosaur. It was not bad! I slept at 330. Oh no...

Day 4 - Sentosa
Weeeeheeee... it was another fun filled game. Only about 20 freshees left with us. New groups called "Satu" and "Dua" were formed. Haha... The weather was great. It was breezy and cloudy. Great weather to sleep. Haha... In the morning, I played frisbee as my Satu was short of a person also. Haha... But at half time, I asked another ogl to replace me. Unhealthy boy could not do sport and run for more than 30 minutes la. Haha...

In the afternoon, I chose to slack and guard bags. Haha.. wanted to go down to the beach to play but the weather was too nice to slack and I had not enough sleep so at that time I was quite moody. I was not in the mood to get dunk also. Lol. Sorry to spoil your fun guys. Haha...

At night, the stupid rain cancelled the candlelight soccer again! Sigh... My fun was gone lor... It was more sad for the freshies I supposed as I had played it last year anyway. So it was another cheering prop making session again. Hehe... Many got damn high and mad lor. The people were so obedient la. I got the queiter people to do work and they obliged. I had fun cutting and making the big "Pharm Rag" and "Rx capsule" with the year 3 seniors. Haha..

I was like so excited to see the loser forfeit game. And the Fuzzy Bunny really made my day. At one point of time, I was literally rolling on the floor laughing.

This is a super damn lame show that we watched after the games. The way they say "Charlie" is just too..... -_-!

It was another Fong Seng at night with all the juniors. We reached back at about 245 and I was like nagging to make them sleep. They still continued on making pom-poms until that late. I could only manage to make them all sleep at 330. Gosh... These crazy people really beated me! I could just have slept but as a senior, I had to show good example mah. Haha.. Must have they all sleep first before I do so =p

Day 5 - The End
I was furious in the early morning as some tuuut were being inconsiderate and making too much noise. I woke up and went to toilet. Lucky that they were gone after I returned. They missed out my scoldings!

I got real irritated in the morning as we were like so unprepared for the cheering session. Out of the 20 or so people, only about 10+ were the high ones. So I was like naggy and had to act enthu at the grand stand.

Rag day was great. My favourite was Eusoff Hall's item. Too bad that they did not win. Pharmacy's winning came as a big surprise to me. Lol. I had to be honest. Lol. At least the stuff we made the night before came into use. One senior made one with the writing "Best Rag!". A premonition huh? I screamed and cheered loudly at 1 time until some year 1s in front of me were like going deaf. Too bad that you did not do the cheer la! Haha..

In the middle of all the celebration and fun, I only regretted one thing that they really missed out the non-raggers freshies. I personally think they need to get some form of recognition and thanks too. They were the very few who enthusiastically joined in all the activities of FOW and faithfully be there throughout the week. They came up with the cheer, they cheered their lungs out, they made the props, etc. They did a lot. Yeah hopefully the $1000 and whatever was prepared for the winning og for FOW will be given to these few year 1s. They really deserved that!

The Aftermath
I am really tired now... Haha... I had been sleeping for most of the time today. Last night I lost my voice (but that loss of voice state made my voice damn sexy lol!). I met 2 PGP seniors on the way to get my dinner and both saw me at my unglam cheering moments la. I was like super paiseh lor... Not sure when they saw me or at what state I was in. Oh well...

It was a great week for me. It was my first (and most likely my last) ogling experience and I am very thankful for the opportunity. Not only my og ppl were great, some of the very enthu juniors were great too! The FOW also gave me the opportunity to know some seniors and some of my batch mates (whom perhaps I may not talk to in a normal school environment) better. I had a great chat, time, and fun with them. Thanks to everyone.

Alright... This concluded my FOW experience. I am tired now. I need to sleep early today. I need to print notes (hopefully the library is open tomorrow) and I need to get ready for school. Haha...

Bangkok

Finally, my 1 month of endless activities is over. And now I have 2 days to recover and get ready for school on Monday. Haha... I did not have much time to blog lately so I shall write about my Bangkok trip first. Maybe tonight or tomorrow then I share about my orientation week experiences.

The trip to Bangkok was a bit disappointing for me. Haha. I was hesitant to go anyway. But I have 2 friends who had been there and both say that it is nice. So I trusted them. I did not go with the intention to shop but to take photos :) They say that Bangkok has a lot of places to take nice photos. That what made me so eager to go.

I went with my dad and sister and we arrived at Bangkok on Saturday evening. I was impressed with the airport. They have so many lights. Too many lights in fact. But that gives the impression of a very nice airport. The interior is all made of steel/iron/something like that and the ceiling is so high. So basically the Suvarnabhumi Airport is bigger than Changi but Changi is still of higher standard la. Thailand's tourism is also so advanced that I saw so many people and flights from cities that I never see in Singapore before. One interesting thing at the immigration counter is that there was a camera. The people are supposed to look at the camera and I think the officer would take photo. So I kept looking at the camera and smiling. Lol.

The following day I went to Chatuchak Market. It is a weekend market so my dad was like die-die must go there. Haiz... It was like going to a wet market. It was so hot and thus I did not really enjoy it. I did not have anything to shop also. And I hate to bargain. Well, at least I experienced the train system in Bangkok. The train is colder than MRT haha... And on that day, I concluded that Bangkok is just a city like Jakarta. So I guess now onwards I won't be so eager to go to Asian cities. Ok, Bangkok is better than Jakarta because it has train system and it is cleaner. I hope my hometown can advance like that in a few years time.

For shopping, I also went to the shopping mall across my hotel (meaning the hotel at which I stayed, not the hotel which belonged to me!) and Siam Centre. Not all at the same day of course but since it had been 2 weeks plus since then, I kind of forgot the sequence already.

I shall highlight the high moments of my shopping spree. Lol. I am so glad that I found a manga 'Please Save My Earth' volume 1! Gosh... I missed out the Indon version and have been looking for it for about 10 years and here I found it! Yay! It is the US version (I don't know why it is no longer in sale in Singapore) and it cost 450 baht (quite the same as the price of US mangas in Singapore). Secondly, I bought a local manga. Thailand has so many manga publishers. I was wowed. The people are so lucky! The price is roughly the same as the indon version but the quality is lousier. Haha... And my favourite item is a shirt with the writing "Devil out to kill sombody". Haha.. Yea it is 'sombody' and not 'somebody'! I thought that would be a good opposite of my "I'm good boy" shirt. Haha.. Can wear on 2 different days.

Travelling-wise, I visited the Royal Palace, the Emerald Buddha, the Reclining Buddha, and the Temple of Dawn. Not really exciting pieces of the past of my favourite I have to say. The nice things to be captured in photos were in camera-free areas. So yeah cannot really share it. :( Some interesting facts: 1) The Emerald Buddha has 3 different attires, each for rainy, sunny, and cold season. 2) The Reclining Buddha is really gigantic! 3) The stairs at Temple of Dawn are crazily steep! The only thing worth remembering from going there was the thrill of climbing up and down the steep stairs. I did not really enjoy my photo-modelling sessions there as my photographers sucked. Lol.. I had to give instruction until I fed up and gave up of posing already.

Okay... I guess that's all. It gets quite long already. Haha... Oh 1 last thing is that the food serving is so small. No wonder the people are very thin. Yes, I am envious! While on the topic of food, I want to share about my experience of eating 'spicy chicken rice' at KFC. Local stuff I guess. I looked normal but the spiciness really made me cry T_T. Crazy. The roadside culinary looked good but I did not dare to try them although I was prepared with diarrhea medication.

Because of this Bangkok trip, I changed my phone number. Got the link? No! Haha... While I was bored waiting at the airport before going to Bangkok, I went to M1 shop at T3. Lol. They had an offer of K660i for $0. As my dad was in need of phone, I sacrificed lor. I was excited initially due to wrong information that a salesgirl gave me. She said I could just change my prepaid no to be a postpaid. But when I came back the second time, another person told me it was not possible. I loved my old number! I got my new number for $32.10. Haha... Got a 90408328 (which differed from my old number by 1 digit only!) but since it was difficult to memorise, I got a xx228328. If only I could get something with 428328 in the tail. Well.. It's alright!

World Youth Day 2008 in Sydney

Day 1

There was nothing much happening on the first day as it was only a day of the flight. We were supposed to meet at T3 by 445am. I reached there at about 430 and initially I was a bit stunned as I only saw 1 more person there. The checked in counters were surprisingly slow and inefficient. Thus, it was very close to the boarding time by the time check in, immigration, and security check were done.

On the plane, it was not too bad. I looked forward to it (first time in SQ) and yeah everything was satisfactory except that I found the leg space was a bit small and the lack of toilet. I watched 2 episodes of Heroes and the movie National Treasure: Book of Secrets (left with 15 mins when the plane landed in Sydney). The food was great and yummy :) I tried white wine and I am not a fan of it.

It was pretty exciting as we landed. But I find that the Sydney Airport is not as good as Changi. O well, the security dogs were quite interesting to see though. It was drizzling when I arrived and the cold wind was brrr.... Thank God I could survive. Within the few minutes of the journey to the Asiana Centre in Ashfield, I immediately liked the city. I seriously don't mind staying there. The dinner was Pizza Hut (different from Singapore's or Indonesia's version... nice but a bit too oily). And it was a great blessing that the shower facilities were not as bad as I imagined.

Day 2
Free day to tour around the city. The St Mary's Cathedral wowed me but Sydney Opera House close-up was not as majestic as those pictures. Haha.. Though initially it was cool to see the Opera House from the train. The evening mass at the cathedral was very touching to me. For such a big place, I did not think that there was a huge congregation that day. But the priest said it was bigger than any other days... I was thinking, most of these people were pilgrims so I wondered who attended the mass during normal times. I guess I am so blessed that Singapore's churches are still young, youthful, and energetic. At least I won't feel that bored when I attend masses. On more memorable thing was on how friendly the other pilgrims were during the exchange of peace. We shook hand... In Singapore, some people would not even care to wish strangers peace.

Day 3 - Day 5
Retreat with CASS at Bringelly. Initially I was worried about the temperature as it was forecasted to be reaching 0 degree. My worry did not really come true. The retreat was great. The people were very warm and friendly. I made some new friends there and I had some very very interesting experiences.

Firstly, was the dishwashing duty after the dinner in the first day. Though it was very disgusting to shove the remnants of food, it gave me the experience of working in the kitchen. Not really a job I fancy. Haha... It was a good experience and it was not too bad because the cleaning crew had so much fun there (plus the appearance of a RAT! gosh).

Secondly, I had the first Adoration experience. I could not concentrate and appreciate that I was worshipping the Body of Christ. I knew it was the Body but at that time I only viewed it as a piece of bread. It was easier for me to pray in front of a cross or statue. Maybe it was because I was still in a broken spiritual state. It got better after I went for the reconcilliation and now I feel great! :)

Thirdly, during the Saint picking (it is more correct to say that the saint who picked me), I was disappointed to get St. Osanna Andreasi. I don't know who she is (even until now) and she is a patron of schoolgirls. That is like so irrelevant to me. Oh well, I shall do my research to find out about her. Haha..

Last but not least, I (and I am sure almost everyone) had a lot of fun at the last night. I really admired the Taiwanese. Despite their insufficiency in English, I could see their passion for Christ and for their country. Their culture item rocked! It made everyone sing and dance together. Wonderful.

Day 6
God started with his work. In the morning my group was late for the morning plan to go to a church near where we stayed (I don't know the name of the church). The church was locked but we were very lucky that we bumped into the priest and he opened the door for us!! The church was small but inside it was grand and nicer than most of churches in Singapore or Indonesia. We prayed rosary there and I found it difficult to stay awake. When I woke up (when the rosary was over) and opened my eyes, the sunlight shone through the windows. It was like God trying to get attention.

In the afternoon, we had International Students Mass at the Great Hall of University of Sydney. Gosh... if only NUS is that nice. I felt warped to Harry Potter world. Now I would not be surprised how J.K. Rowling came up with 'Great Hall', and the paintings of the old headmasters. It is the culture of British schools I guess. Majestic!!

Day 7
The proper WYD week started! I was excited to see the plane in the sky writing JESUS (as we were about to board the train to attend vocation expo) and WELCOME (as we waited for the opening mass to begin). The atmosphere was great. Strangers greeted one another and everyone was so friendly. It was a hot day but in the evening it was damn chilly. I slept during the homily but surprisingly I could feel that I attended a mass (and not some social gathering as what I felt at the masses on the later days). The music was also grand, it was as if I was attending an orchestra concert. Cool!

Day 8
Catechesis started. We got the St Martha's parish and I had to say we were lucky. It was organised by the Emmanuel Community which have their own very happening music for the mass and the Praise and Worship. I don't really fancy singing but I have to admit that their songs were easy to learn and to follow, fun to sing, and have profound words. Slept throughout the talk though, but fully awake for the mass. Had taize in the afternoon which was another event filled with heavenly music and constant battle with drowziness. At night was Asian Youth Gathering which was a very pointless activity for me. Thank God I met my church friend there and we had a chat outside the venue throughout. So it was not as boring.

Museum Station reminded me of the train station in Narnia: Prince Caspian.

Day 9
Fell asleep again during catechesis. But today, I tried to keep awake. The result was I felt lethargic for the whole day. In the afternoon was the Papal Arrival. The walk to the venue was literally filled with horse dung (yeah the police officers were riding horses) and it was so sickening to eyes and nose. I was looking forward to see the Pope (that was my main reason to attend WYD in the first place) but I was disappointed that I could only see him from the screen. It was as good as watching TV at home. Haiz... Almost saw him at the end as he was leaving the venue through the opening of the food collection tent. Unfortunately I was too late and could manage to see only the back of the Popemobile. Haiz..

In the evening was the one man show of the Gospel of John. I cannot recall the name of the actor but he was great and brilliant! I was amazed with how he remembered the whole words for his 1.5hours performance. Madness!!

Day 10
I learnt from the previous day experience and decided to happily sleep during the catechesis. And I was awake for the rest of the day. Wasn't that amazing? Lol. My friends kept saying I was angsty for the past dunno how many days and I did not remember how many times I was moody because I had not enough rest.

We were quite lucky to be allocated Sydney Opera House as the venue for the Stations of the Cross. 3 stations were acted there and I had to say they had the best prop here. Cool to watch. Though I still think that the luckiest ones were those at St Mary's Cathedral as they might be able to see the Pope.

At night, we attended Receive the Power concert. I never enjoy Praise & Worship so I stoned all the way.

Day 11
The most worrying day for me as it was the sleeping out under the stars day. I was worried sick that it would rain! It did not! Yay! The pilgrimage walk to the the Randwick Racecourse was just mad! 4.2km phoooey!!! Glad that I made it. We reached the place by 5pm plus so it was too late to get a place. It was quite a depressing mood. But out of craziness, we decided to just open the our ground sheets to 'reclaim' the land! Lol. Yeah we slept at the racecourse, the dusty/sandy part where the horses usually run.

It was a pretty cool and fun experience that night. The temperature dipped below 8 degrees at 530am and I was not the only one who woke up and shivered due to that.

Day 12
It was actually the actual World Youth Day as the Pope celebrated the Final Mass. This time I was luckier as I managed to get a glimpse of the Pope through a pair of binoculars as he was driving around the venue. Yay!! Lol.. Did not really catch what he said in his homily though.

The journey back was even more tiresome than the journey to reach the place on the previous day. It was at least 5km to me and I ran out of water. My bag just felt heavier and heavier. There were moments when I felt like stopping and sitting down to rest. Madness...

Was so tired at the night and wanted to fall asleep even as I had dinner. My crazy group mates came up with a humiliating cheer to wake me up and I have to admit that it worked. Lol.. Group sharing went until so late as on the following day, my prayer buddy had to leave the group already. Super duper tired.

Day 13
The stay at Sydney was almost over. Today was a shopping day. Felt very sad as I had to say bye to my prayer buddy. Cried in the morning. It was a bit unbelievable... Seriously... Only about 2 weeks knowing someone and I could feel such a deep sense of attachment. It was still a mystery to me.

Without no plan of meeting, I met my cousin and an old friend from my cca at the Hyde Park, just after we were done with WYD merchandises shopping. What a coincidence. I was too tired to continue on the day and I even slept at a bookshop. Well, that's what chairs are for. Haha...

Day 14
Back to Singapore via A380. The plane is not as impressive as all the advertisement and the hoo-haas about it. The food was lousier than the food when I was coming to Sydney. I finished my unfinished National Treasure, and I watched 300 and Jumper (both which I found boring). I also tried red wine, singapore sling, and irish cream. Singapore Sling was not too bad but Irish Cream was damn good as the taste of the liquor was not too sharp. Cool! The bottom line is that I am not an alcoholic. Lol.

That's all folks...
I spent 2 hours plus on this and I am getting very tired. I did not have enough sleep due to shifting of room and laundry work yesterday and the post-WYD session today. So please pardon any 'weirdness', wrong grammar, etc here as I can barely keep my eyes open now.

For the photos that I took, please check out my Facebook photo album.

After WYD

Wheww... I was away for 2 weeks and here I am now. I am very busy currently and thus I have no time to write down my World Youth Day experiences (it would be damn long!). I have not even finished renaming the photos that I took. I only had about 100 while my friends have at least 300 and they finished uploading. Lol. Now I know it took a lot of hardwork and time to upload photos. Haha...

So yeah I was on Airbus 380. It felt just like any other planes though. Not really up to expectation from what those advertisement and promotions said. Well, I did feel that it had slightly bigger leg space though.

I moved in to my new room today. Yucks yucks yucks.... I prefer my old one. This one is damn dirty and disgusting. The walls are dirty and there is one huge spot with yellow stains (I know what it is but I shall not be obscene here). Just plain disgusting! What make it worse is that the room only has 1 lamp. T_T How to mug? A table lamp is provided to replace the light which should be shining on to table. Haiz... Well, I shall not lose the WYD spirit and shall not complain. Now it takes longer for me to get water and to go to bus stop. It is also more difficult to get to other places around PGP. The only good thing about my new room is that it is making my laundry chore more convenient. I just need to go down 1 level. Sigh...

I am still in the middle of unpacking and doing laundry now. Haiz... I completed nothing today. Just half of this and half of that. Lol. I hope I can finish all the post-WYD things I want to do by tomorrow because on Friday onwards I will be busy overseas (again!) and by the time I return, most likely I already forget everything about WYD hahaha...