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♠ Recent Musings ( Sunday, August 21, 2016 // 2:59 PM )
As many other Singaporeans know and are celebrating, Joseph Schooling did our nation proud by clinching that amazing gold medal, beating his idol Phelps and 2 other amazing swimmers on the world stage just a few weeks ago. As the celebrations continue and the newspaper reports continue to flood, I can't help but wonder, what if he was not as "Singaporean" as many would be quick to define as "born in Singapore", but someone who came from overseas to swim for this tiny nation?
Amidst the celebrations, our table tennis players tried their best but sadly failed to make it high up the ranks. In one of the interviews, they gave a match review in mandarin, which was perfectly normal, until some people had to comment on the language that they chose to use, finding fault in even the smallest things, instead of encouraging them and giving them praise for the hard work they had put in to fight for our nation, "Singaporean" or not. If one were to comment and say they should have spoken in english instead, then why not choose melayu? Isn't that Singapore's national language? Sadly, the same reactions would not come if a "Singaporean" were to comment in chinese instead of english.
I'd have to admit, that my recent month exchange to Korea did open my eyes even more to the disgusting ways of some of the Chinese nationals. From pushing their way through, to cutting queues and even forming their own queues; all these oblivious to the stares and frowns from everyone around them. Of course, in Korea the xenophobia against the Chinese is quite obvious in the change of attitudes when they realise that the group of us are not from China, but are Singaporean chinese instead. Even our airbnb host commented slightly that many did not welcome them because of their rude actions and the noise they bring.
However, my friend was quick to reassure me that not all of the Chinese nationals are like that, after all, China is a big country. Her sister's exchange to China proved that not everyone was like those individuals we saw in Korea and even sometimes in Singapore. It was because we were exposed to such examples that we have, sadly, become so quick to assume the worst of these individuals.
Just like one ex-national shooter commented, if Joseph Schooling received the funding that many people are talking about right now, but did not win/did not return to swim for Singapore in the end, would the response be the same? I do remember not long ago, some people even questioned his dad if Schooling was really Singaporean. Really??
Why are we so hung up upon a definition of what it means to be Singaporean. To be Singaporean is so much more than being born in Singapore. Does it mean our great grandparents who came from China/India are just foreigners, and just because our grandparents were born here, they're suddenly Singaporeans? Yes, maybe they were not born in Singapore, but they called this place their home, they worked here, they lived here and they formed a family here, without, we would not even be here.
Sometimes, the xenophobia gets real and is overwhelming, and it gets scarier as I try to imagine life in the future -- with a shrinking "local" population and ageing population, the reality of more FTs joining us looms near, for without, we are unable to support our own economic and social systems. Of course, there are many flaws in the ways information and things are being carried out. But ultimately, we should take a step back and think before talk.
♠ term 2 already! ( Monday, March 19, 2012 // 9:34 PM )
Time really flies whether you're having fun or mugging away. sigh term 2 wk 1 already! we just got our PW topics today, and the deadline for IP or PI (?) submission is really near D: shall have to push myself to do it!
♠ peanut butter ( Friday, March 16, 2012 // 12:02 AM )
♠ finally! ( Sunday, March 11, 2012 // 12:07 AM )
♠ Orientation! (: ( Tuesday, January 31, 2012 // 11:00 PM )
♠ Thoughts. ( Monday, January 30, 2012 // 3:20 PM )
♠ GO VISIT :D ( // 12:01 PM )
♠ jip ( Monday, January 16, 2012 // 11:24 PM )
♠ White Christmas! (: ( Friday, January 6, 2012 // 11:42 PM )
♠ happy new year! ( Tuesday, January 3, 2012 // 5:46 PM )
♠ decemberrr ( Friday, December 2, 2011 // 11:16 AM )
♠ holeedays! ( Sunday, November 20, 2011 // 12:32 AM )
♠ happiness ( Saturday, November 5, 2011 // 1:08 PM )
♠ it's finally goodbye ( Friday, November 4, 2011 // 4:33 PM )
♠ last lap! ( Tuesday, November 1, 2011 // 4:33 PM )
♠ this funny feeling ( Thursday, October 20, 2011 // 9:48 PM )
♠ more and more ( Monday, September 26, 2011 // 9:28 PM )
♠ short breaks ( Monday, August 29, 2011 // 10:55 PM )
finally a short holiday before we really "chiong" for our exams (: managed to go and watch cheryl and mr boo perform at black box. It was really cool and an eye-opener! It was fun too, especially since it was a daji outing at the same time! There was this little boy sitting next to feng and me and he was so cute! XD haha we was imitating their drumming movements and he even ran up during the audience participation perf and was playing on the xiaogu.
♠ EYAs soon! :O ( Thursday, August 18, 2011 // 8:32 PM )
♠ long time! ( Tuesday, August 16, 2011 // 10:56 PM )
haven't posted anything in a while. EYAs are coming up already D: SO FAST! next week is chinese, philo, ss and english. gah, so many things. plus chinese is 4h in a day. shall promise to continue posting soon. after i get this chinese practice paper done. haha :D
As many other Singaporeans know and are celebrating, Joseph Schooling did our nation proud by clinching that amazing gold medal, beating his idol Phelps and 2 other amazing swimmers on the world stage just a few weeks ago. As the celebrations continue and the newspaper reports continue to flood, I can't help but wonder, what if he was not as "Singaporean" as many would be quick to define as "born in Singapore", but someone who came from overseas to swim for this tiny nation?
Amidst the celebrations, our table tennis players tried their best but sadly failed to make it high up the ranks. In one of the interviews, they gave a match review in mandarin, which was perfectly normal, until some people had to comment on the language that they chose to use, finding fault in even the smallest things, instead of encouraging them and giving them praise for the hard work they had put in to fight for our nation, "Singaporean" or not. If one were to comment and say they should have spoken in english instead, then why not choose melayu? Isn't that Singapore's national language? Sadly, the same reactions would not come if a "Singaporean" were to comment in chinese instead of english.
I'd have to admit, that my recent month exchange to Korea did open my eyes even more to the disgusting ways of some of the Chinese nationals. From pushing their way through, to cutting queues and even forming their own queues; all these oblivious to the stares and frowns from everyone around them. Of course, in Korea the xenophobia against the Chinese is quite obvious in the change of attitudes when they realise that the group of us are not from China, but are Singaporean chinese instead. Even our airbnb host commented slightly that many did not welcome them because of their rude actions and the noise they bring.
However, my friend was quick to reassure me that not all of the Chinese nationals are like that, after all, China is a big country. Her sister's exchange to China proved that not everyone was like those individuals we saw in Korea and even sometimes in Singapore. It was because we were exposed to such examples that we have, sadly, become so quick to assume the worst of these individuals.
Just like one ex-national shooter commented, if Joseph Schooling received the funding that many people are talking about right now, but did not win/did not return to swim for Singapore in the end, would the response be the same? I do remember not long ago, some people even questioned his dad if Schooling was really Singaporean. Really??
Why are we so hung up upon a definition of what it means to be Singaporean. To be Singaporean is so much more than being born in Singapore. Does it mean our great grandparents who came from China/India are just foreigners, and just because our grandparents were born here, they're suddenly Singaporeans? Yes, maybe they were not born in Singapore, but they called this place their home, they worked here, they lived here and they formed a family here, without, we would not even be here.
Sometimes, the xenophobia gets real and is overwhelming, and it gets scarier as I try to imagine life in the future -- with a shrinking "local" population and ageing population, the reality of more FTs joining us looms near, for without, we are unable to support our own economic and social systems. Of course, there are many flaws in the ways information and things are being carried out. But ultimately, we should take a step back and think before talk.
Labels: random
♠ term 2 already! ( Monday, March 19, 2012 // 9:34 PM )
Time really flies whether you're having fun or mugging away. sigh term 2 wk 1 already! we just got our PW topics today, and the deadline for IP or PI (?) submission is really near D: shall have to push myself to do it! Chem test tomorrow, so not looking forward to it, actually i'm not looking forward to bio either :/ at least i know chem is probably not counted but bio is D: hopefully all goes well.
♠ peanut butter ( Friday, March 16, 2012 // 12:02 AM )
Had class outing today at ecp! :D was so much fun haha, hope we get to do it again next time! i must remind myself to look out for shirlyn cause she's such a dangerous rider! lol riding in and out of the lane, we were so scared she'll knock into someone haha.
sigh i think i have been spending too little time on my hw this holiday D: must chiong econs essay and study for bio and chem lecture tests D: My brain was so stressed out from chem (always) so i went to make these peanut butter cookies for my mum's birthday! THEY'RE YUMMY OK. haha, though i wish they would have a bit more peanut-ty taste. i shall go and find out how to do so.
♠ finally! ( Sunday, March 11, 2012 // 12:07 AM )
so school has started for quite a while and i've been trying to get into the rhythm of things i have't updated in a while >< lectures have become more of a habit, though it's hard not to feel sleepy especially if we have PE or break before it...
just had CO camp yesterday, it was so much fun! we played name bingo, captains ball, and pass the ball. after the activities, we had a bit of extra time so we played like captains ball but with 3 balls and 4 teams. so daji and diyin, being the smallest teams were put tgt and it was so funny case we were saying how we would sure win cause all the diyin people are tall and can intercept and balls haha XD and they actually did!
after bathing we went to the hp classrooms to sleep and the girls from daji and diyin plus claire spent at least an hour playing mind games and feiji. oh and we started getting a bit high later in the night around 12.30? and me zhangyue and julia were telling each other stupid lame jokes :P
woke up at 6 for breakfast and dazu started at 8.00. but i only managed to play one note before i had to leave for tuition D: i was so sad, but i have no choice cause if not i have to change it to sunday and i have ypms... so i ended up missing station games, dtw and dazu :P after tuition i rushed home, slept for 45 minutes (need to catch up!) then rushed off again for M&M. we should have checked out how to get there, instead we walked around for like 20+ minutes from queenstown station only to find out the library was nearer to commonwealth station -.- so we practically almost walked the distance of one staion... turns out we were late so they had to cancel it at first but they were nice and rescheduled it for us ^_^
so tired today, rushing around everywhere... SHALL SLEEP NOW!
♠ Orientation! (: ( Tuesday, January 31, 2012 // 11:00 PM )
Today was the start of Orientation'12! (: I was kinda scared at first that it'll be really awkward cause there was no one from 412 or 203 in my OG. But, the other people from rg were really nice, so we got on really well. We has station games after lunch which were quite entertaining, but i fell when we played the chair game and i swear i'll never to stand on squeaky chairs ever again :O (my butt still hurts though) haha anyway the day ended really quickly but we were all tired and sleepy by the end of it.
Then we had OG dinner at pastamania where we played the zhongjimima game and the forfeit was to pour the cheese on our OGL's head. This guy lost and he was going to do the forfeit. BUT our OGL not knowing what was going to happen cheered him on -.- We were all laughing like crazy when he then realised he was being pranked on XD
Got home around 9+ and was super tired. :/ SLEEP NOW.
Labels: random
♠ Thoughts. ( Monday, January 30, 2012 // 3:20 PM )
Was watching Junior Masterchef Australia last night and it suddenly got me thinking about how great it is to be a kid. I mean, i've watched Masterchef US and Junior Masterchef Aus, and there's this really really big difference on how the contestants treat each other on the show. Okay, maybe it's because i watched the season of the US series where they had this 2 people constantly bickering and bitching about each other. :P
It's really heartwarming to see the little kids cheering each other on even though they're competing with each other for the title. Like when they have these individual "interviews" they talk about how much they want to win or what they're cooking and stuff like that. Not bitching about other people and saying how much you wish the person would be kicked out :/
Anyway, I was so happy that Greta won! she was my favourite right from the start :D
Labels: random
♠ GO VISIT :D ( // 12:01 PM )
GO VISIT
macaquesandme.blogspot.com (:
It's a really cool place where you can hang out and read more about...
MACAQUES
Labels: random
♠ jip ( Monday, January 16, 2012 // 11:24 PM )
so school hasn't officially started but we still have to go back for JIP :/ it's kinda boring yet fun at some times (: had FOSL today while the rest of our class went to nex for movie. horrible people haha :D It was quite fun considering that we had an awesome facilitator who let us off for early lunch, so the canteen wasn't that crowded.
After that i went for dinner with xueling, jialin and leez before going for CO prac. It was quite fun actually, Leez went to see diyinbu and played for the teacher i think :D But i feel so tired already, i wonder how i'l gonna survive like this :O
♠ White Christmas! (: ( Friday, January 6, 2012 // 11:42 PM )
I've finally found english subs for this kdrama i watched on kbsworld! >< and yup i sorta finished it in one day. hehe. i really really liked the show cause it was different from the normal k-drama love story.
so basically it's about these students trapped in their school for some reason i can't remember (cause i watched the first few episodes quite long ago) and people start dying after they saved this psychologist who was dying in the snow. Turns out this psychologist was a serial murderer. So yeah, they try to escape but he has a gun so they have to play along. He was trying to slowly turn the students into monsters so he could prove that he wasn't the only one. :O In the end, they confront him on the rooftop after he escapes (after the police saved the students from the school they thought he was their teacher and let him off or something) and say he has failed in turning them into monsters, like on of them killed himself before he would become a "monster". So they push him off and let him drop down and die making it look like he committed suicide. The scary thing is before he drops off, he says "i win" because eventually the students have become monsters by pushing him off and wanting to die.
there were some parts of the drama when i was thinking why can't they snatch the gun (cause he placed it on the table and turned around) plus he only had one uninjured arm, so it could have been easy to defeat him like that. but i guess they were scared and if they did the story would end there. D:
I had a Wii/kinect party with leez and karthigah today! :D was quite fun haha. Jingyin and Sandy were supposed to come but they had something on the last minute :/ Getting back Chinese O level results on monday >< I really don't know what to expect though... 顺其自然吧!
♠ happy new year! ( Tuesday, January 3, 2012 // 5:46 PM )
finally a new year has started! :D truthfully, i feel like i'm still living in 2011, maybe cause the "school" mode hasn't kicked in yet :P
I've been too lazy to update this blog for the last two months? haha i shall be diligent and write something today (:
so, we were invited to ms ng's solemnisation on the 31st of December (cool date), and it was AMAZING! Ms Ng was so pretty, and it was just really touching to see her get married and have someone to take care of her after all that she has done to take care for us (: And we made her a photoalbum/ourwishes thing that hopefully she'll like. One thing though, cause she held it in a hotel near the poolside, it was kindaweird cause there were little boys and girls peeping from the side :D plus someone else was having a party i think, and they were bursting balloons in the middle of the solemnisation person's "speech" which was quite bad :/ anyways, xinyu and karthigah being their usual self went to make friends with the little boys haha, turns out they were catching fish :O
after that some of us went for dinner at plaza sing, then me kar and jingyin went off to raffles city to have ben&jerry's with my voucher :D it was quite hilarious cause first we got on the wrong train (opposite side) and then when we got on the correct one, everyone was squeezing and this person in front of us was like "sh*t" while we were trying to hold our laughter XD
school is starting soon! >< wonder how orientation will feel like...
♠ decemberrr ( Friday, December 2, 2011 // 11:16 AM )
time flies fast (as always haha) it's december already! :O school starts next month, and it won't be the same rgs anymore :/ hopefully jc will be exciting, i'm looking forward to it although i really wished things would stay the same.
gah i feel like my holidays are wasted, i've not done much :p i've tried learning japanese again and even dug out my sec one jap stuff that i've not touched for 4 years haha :D
♠ holeedays! ( Sunday, November 20, 2011 // 12:32 AM )
hmmm i realised i haven't posted anything in a while? :D anyways we finally had our class chalet on the 15th of Nov! it was AWESOME.
we had potluck barbeque for dinner and it was quite funny cause we were one of the first few to start and the last few to end :P cause everyone else barbequeing aroung us had the guys to set up the fire, while we were doing it ourselves. BUT it was good okay. haha :D and rae-ann and wangxuan fahui their girl guides skills and used dried leaves and stuff to create our own campfire. so we ended up eating all the marshmellows before we ended our dinner. opps!
anyways we had lots of good food: otah, satay, chicken wing, banana and melted chocolate, sweet potato and corn. oh and hotdogs too. but those were quite salty :/ we bought too much chicken wings and kat ended up offering it to the people in the next barbeque pit. and they were really nice to accept it and even came to show us a magic trick. which was quite cool even though the person's hands were trembling ;D
after that we had a mario kart race which was really fun and then we played cards and went to sleep. me, kar, kat, sandra, leez ended up in the living room, and jingyin (who got pushed to the wall by jerm) came over in the middle. It was much more cooling that the bedroom really :D so karthigah was sleep talking (and even conversed with sandra who thought kar was awake) and clearing her throat at night, which was quite hilarious. But, at lease she woke us up at 6 sharp and we had a nice breakfast before going back to play more games haha.
then we woke up the rest of the people and after lunch we went WWW. It was really fun, but sadly it rained halfway. :/ so we ended early and bathed before we went for dinner then bowling (which i was horrible at, and i was aching the next day)
so today, me rei jiemei hsin pei and some other rg people went for rjco interaction, which was quite enjoyable in a way. (: we got to see our J1 seniors and i got to play the timpani which imo was really bad. But it was a good experience teehee :D
shall sleep now. have to wake up early tomorrow :/
♠ happiness ( Saturday, November 5, 2011 // 1:08 PM )
EAT, PRAY, LOVE
♠ it's finally goodbye ( Friday, November 4, 2011 // 4:33 PM )
i've never thought about leaving rgs in these 4 years actually, until today. The sadness wasn't apparent in the beginning, but as Mrs Hoo made her speech and almost cried, it really made us realise what a journey we've been through and that as raff11es we have made memories in rgs that will last us forever.
i'm really proud of what raff11es has accomplished, our flash mob was quite successful haha. Being able to pull everyone together to do something special for our batch, our school, it felt like we were ever closer as a batch than before. And it was great <3
I guess the rest of the batches can never really feel the same way as we do during this last official day of our school, just like i didn't in my past 3 years. But i feel grateful for them, because they're the ones who've supported us in each and everyway be it in CCA or just random programmes and activities.
I didn't really want to leave school today, but everyone else was leaving as well. D: As our graduation song continues to linger in my head, i shall and end here (for i have more feelings that cannot be put into words. really) quoting Laura:
5 minutes, 4 years, 3 batch projects, 2 weeks, 1 batch11.
♠ last lap! ( Tuesday, November 1, 2011 // 4:33 PM )
time flies whether you're having fun or not :/ we had our grad ceremony rehearsal today. it felt weird going through all of it and thinking about leaving this wonderful place you've spent 4 years growing, laughing and learning in.
anyway chinese Os are coming up really fast! I feel sian doing practice after practice and want to get over with it but then again i'm not that ready yet. i shall 顺其自然 haha :D better go back to doing my 公函 or else i won't be in the mood to finish it once i stop hehe.
♠ this funny feeling ( Thursday, October 20, 2011 // 9:48 PM )
i don't know why i'm so tired these few days :/ options is really draining out my energy, plus chinese Os which i don't want to think about at this moment. i'm getting irritated with my mouse now haha :D it keeps dying and running out of battery.
Got our class shirts yesterday! I'm so happy they turned out pretty and nicer than i expected. but jingyin said something about the colour running so i shall keep my hopes too high until it comes from washing (:
ms ng showed us the video of the 3-year old girl that got hit in china and it was really heartwrenching and irritable at the same time, especially about the part where the father said the driver called to ask for his bank account so he could give him money rather than turn himself in to the police. It was really selfish of him to think of himself and not of the pain of girl and her family, and even thinking that money will solve anything. :O on the same day mrs moh showed it to us during geog options and she started talking to us about how we must do something so that our society will not become like that. Aww, i shall miss Mrs Moh and her insightful lessons and teachings after we graduate.
i've been meeting rei for prac almost everyday for the past week but didn't on wed and thurs cause of class stuff. But monday was really fun, especially since dom and sylvia came to join us after their post EYA activities. Can't believe CO farewell is on the 3rd of Nov D: that's really fast, (plus we haven't done what we've planned :O)
on a side note, snsd released their new album! :D haha i spotted meixian spazzing on twitter. lol
hope we do well during net carn! (and urm win hehe)
♠ more and more ( Monday, September 26, 2011 // 9:28 PM )
exams are finally over! well, not for math and chinese though. :/ can't believe we're having a chinese prelim on this saturday! gah 4 hours of chinese in the morning is not good for the body haha :D i feel like alot of things have ended but there's still much more waiting for me to accomplish, like there's not actual rest until schools officially over. there was yearbook photo and now there's class video and informal photo. luckily we have sandra, xinyu and jerm who 自告奋勇to do the video, haha or it'll be horrible :D
i have decided to read more books to improve my english (: i can't wait to read the second book of the girl with the dragon tattoo and maybe even perfume. though it was quite a scary story, it has quite an interesting plot which hopefully doesn't freak me out all over again. i guess i won't be reading that book at night haha :D
shall go back to my chinese paper. D:
♠ short breaks ( Monday, August 29, 2011 // 10:55 PM )
We should have another outing together soon, it was really really fun, but we'll have to wait until eyas are over. and i hope we get to have a daji concert, which will be really fun, cause i won't get to play with the sec ones after this year D:
went for learning lab today and we listened to this video about morality by some harvard professor. which was quite interesting, but the part about cannibalism just freaked me out. Especially when we saw the trailer for this movie "alive" which is based on a real life story. actually, the scary part was the trailer, cause it showed the plane tear into half and people flying out. i was freaked out. :O shall remind myself not to think about it anymore. gah
can't believe we had our last physics lesson, so fast! and soon we'll be having our last bio, chem and all other lessons. D:
♠ EYAs soon! :O ( Thursday, August 18, 2011 // 8:32 PM )
EYAs start next week! But i don't feel like it is really setting in, and i can't believe that we're only going to have like 3-4 lessons for each subject left D: time really really flies in sec 4 D: now it's a mad race till the end! After EYAs we still have math and chinese o levels, so at least we'll still stay as a class. :D
gah don't like my options timetable D: i have to wait for 4 hours before bio options on monday ><
♠ long time! ( Tuesday, August 16, 2011 // 10:56 PM )
i started growing chilli plants on national day, and they're sprouting already (: but because i didn't place the seeds in order at first, i left some lying around in the soil and it ruined my neat rows D: but still, they're really cute!