mother tougue
cl paper tomorrow, and im wasting my time blogging and watching tv. ha really regrating taking chinese, sheese if i didnt take it i will be like free from studies by now. argh need to get that stupid a1 or else this whole year was a wast of time. ok nvm moving on... lynette's wedding was simple, haha got to serve time to them so got a red packet. not bad haha extra pocket money. the dinner was great. only 4 tables, and they had guess what red bean pancake for desserts my fav! haha marcus converted from being a schummacher to kimi fan! YAY ! good choice. anyway expressed my distaste for sharksfin by not eating the dish yesterday so marcus eat 2 bowls. ok will have to go back to study chinese. should i o to little india tomorrow? hmmm.
the end of school year
todays the end of the semester! OH MY GOSH, time really flies. anyway oh my gosh, ESPOIR WON!!! AHHHH we did it! But this really marks the end. after 19th nov it will be really the end of this, no doubt we may still hold on to the espoir spirit for a long time to come, but team espoir will cease to exist as a unit for yfc. talked to lawrence about a sequence next year, but i doubt i can commit since i have ya,ccas and a levels to care about, amongst others. i really want to do something about astusiam or dxylesia. agh ymca just move yfc to like march to june, please. anyway cousins weddings tomorrow. preparing worship with mummy and daddy. i love weddings but i think this will be a little different coz its a second wedding. oh well but its still a wedding. but im not goin to be there when william picks lyntte up. so sad that means i cant get a red packet or some other goodies. anyway the good thing is that the dinner this time will be small, coz they want to keep it a low profile. no more big extragent weddings like jenettes and bens wedding. ah i love sherton hotel. ok nvm.this time it will be a very family orientated thing. haha please study. i have to study for chinese. ok i will stop.
grades
Some people have been complaining about my horrible english, so i shall try from now on to blog in complete sentences so on and so forth.
Well today was most uneventful. Have an eye infection, so now i have to apply this antibiotics into my eye, which is really scary to look at as it looks like I'm going to pierce my eyes or something. Anyhow, my parents are having their Bible study group in our house today, and one of them brought their 3 year old son - Nat - he's so cute. Pretty and long eyelashes i must add.
As for yesterday, got back Chinese, GP, Chemistry and Biology results. b3, b4, a ,b respectively. Not that bad considering i was really not prepared for the promos, but definately not my best, hence got a real nag from mum. I have not heard from dad yet but i sure he won't be very please either. He wants my grades to be above the 80 percentile.
Ok will go and play with Nat now, so long.
walkin
one of the things i want to do after the prelims was to walk around singapore. today i walked from city hall to little india.visited raffles hotel, national library,simlim on the way. haha i sound like a tourist. oh well basically wanted to rediscover this little island that we always deem as boring. the national library is huge, havent got the time to visit it till now, so today was my first time, the last time i had seen it, it was still erm a mess, in contruction. next was bugis village, they have airconditioned the first level, but its shall so mesy and cramped. ah have to go and attend to some stuff downstairs now, will continue later.
17 to 1
Yay! kimi won the japanese grand prix, from 17th place. oh my gosh the japanese grand prix was indeed exciting. go and watch the reply.
anyway figued out where bukit panjang plaza was today, met up with some kids and their teacher, they are under an entrepeneurship programme organised by mediacorp. helping them out. anyway im really amazed with want these kids has done. they raised like aroun 1.6 k over 3 days through the sales of sweets and stuff. potential i tell u. the future olivia lums and kenny yups of singapore. ( i cant spell the creative guys name, let me try sim mun hu) sheese my spellling is bad. anyhow. the kids are so cute! really impress with the commitment of the teacher in charge as well. its a sunday and hes still meeting up with his students.
anyway the three of us, the teacher, one of the kids uncles and i was having a talk as we were kicked out by te children who wanted some private meeting time, they said they would be more productive without the adults around. anyhow talked about ice cream coz the kids wanted to sell that. the uncle apperenetly wanted to set a franchise in singapore of this hk based gelito ice cream brand called xtasy on ice. nice name. but obviously the connotations arent very good. but he said that they made very good sorbets. argh cant wait to taste it. got some shops address from him so i can go try it out when i am in hk next month. theres one at the star faire terminal on the tsui sha tsui side. so if anyone is goin to hk before me go try it out and report your comments back to me!
ok back to doin some more productive stuff.
its over...sad
promos are over! i cant believe it, enjoying a delayed post promos realization as i had to prepare for our presentation today for YFC. stayed up the whole night to do up the presentation, which lead me to be very high in the mornind blabbing a lot of nosence. oh my couldnt believe i was like so childish and brainless.
anyway left school at around 900 after the 40 min econs mcq paper, 40 mins! that like how long i willl take to go to school on dads car. anyway went to coffee bean to do the presentation, was really restless, lost all my creative juices to the rigior of examinations. anyway ended up watching corspes bride with yan. quite interesting movie very funny animiation but the story line too simple i suppose. ended up wandering around orchard, haha everyone seemed to be there. anyhow had to go back to school for bio o which i think i wont be selected coz i came late for quite a few lectures due to some yfc stuff. and my bio promos, oh no... i think its quite gone.
regaining part of my sanity back.
a...b...c...d... a 40 min paper
i have another 60 pages of econs mcq to go through...wahahaha counting down to the end of promos, which i dont fell very confident about. anyhow taking a break, mcq are fun. anyway maths was erm dunno lar it was those type of paper that i dunno whether i did well or not. yes i finally get to go shoppin on sat. havent done any since the time oh my gosh i got back my o level results which is like so long ago. oh sheese after promos still have so much more stuff to do but enjoyable. i dont like studying for exams coz i feel im cramplin g for that short paper which is not really reflective of your ability but just how exam smart you are;which im not at all. at least now i can study what i want to study, for the mean time.
ok. list of stuff i have to do after promos
pw
ya
ballooning training
carolling orgainisation
nrp
yfc
ok back to studying.
wish me all the best
...reflections
really screwed, for both econs and bio. argh. havent been studying the past 2 terms because of all the stuff that has been going on, and worst of all i have an eye infection! which mean i cant keep staring at my notes without rubbing my eye, which hurts. anyway goin to post my reflections for espoir.
(warning: this is written by mayanne who has horrible spelling after being deprived from sleep for about 40 hours, so forgive the crappiness and whatever grammical, spelling errors or sentence structure that you can spot but i cant.)
Through the looking glass, for that moment when I saw that title, I was stunned. I wondered, what on earth did that mean? Well having the most random thoughts, I found the title most prophetic, for here I am in a room looking through a 5m by 2m glass wall. Sitting there, my breath is taken away as I recall the series of events that had led to this day.
As I pondered, I realized that the glass metaphor brought about 2 connotations.
One was that of reflection. A mirror is essentially a glass with a shiny backing.
Now I reflect.
These 3 months has been an adventure, a blessing, and a stage of growth.
Working with three of my juniors meant that even more so I had to step up to take the “da jie (big sister)” role. However this was a humbling experience, as due to the intensity and involvement of the project, it had revealed some of my character flaws to myself – (impatience, lack of consideration for others, stubbornness). I had a taste of the working world, having being in charge of corporate matters, the greatest hurdle was to present our project in a way that the company’s would take us seriously. Initially, I thought that with a set of “goodies” for the company (advisement, mention on webpage), the company would be willing to support us. However I have came to realize that its much more than just what you present to them on the table. It’s the passion that you elude that will convince them. It is also this same passion that has carried me through this project.
Espoir has also been a blessing for everyone. But for me, I had an added bonus. I have developed friendships with many of the volunteers, some of which I believe would last far beyond Espoir. Volunteers like Wen Min aka Wormy and Wei Qin aka China Pump never failed to light up the teams’ day by a word of encouragement or some funny antics, especially during the times that we were really stressed out when things were not going as planned.
Team Espoir has gone through this adventure together, through thick and thin, ups and downs. We have been through this journey together, as co-labourers – serving.
The second point would be that of a glass opening the window of opportunity. After going through Youth For Causes, not only have I looked deep into myself, but I have also learnt to look ahead, to STEP OUT of my comfort zone. I had to look far beyond to seek for opportunities and not wait for them to knock at the door. With the gung-ho attitude of “nothing ventured, nothing gained” I took up the challenge. Getting sponsorships for promotional space for our balloon gardens/roadshows was difficult to say the least. We had to face many rejections but in the end we were blessed with 5 sponsors! I have also discovered the many possibilities brought about through cooperation.
During the course of the project, we have worked with 5 other Youth For Causes teams which opened the doors for new opportunities, and new friendships as well.
3 Things that I have learnt from Espoir
*
To dare to take that step of faith
We can’t be satisfied staying within our own comfort zone. To grow, one must venture into the unknown.
*
· Patience
An elusive quality which I believe everyone has developed through the project. The occasional seasons of quietness in business have trained me to endure. It was also this that propelled us to be more passionate for the project, improving on the service, stepping up on promotion, and also instilled in us a sense of thankfulness for every customer.
*
· The importance of support and teamwork
Espoir is a team. We would not have been able to have completed the project with such success if it wasn’t for each member supporting the other. Our extended family of volunteers provided even more support and pushed us on.
*
2 Things that I will apply
*
· To serve
Through this project, I have discovered the true meaning and joy of service. Now, I understand the meaning of servant leadership, and I am inspired to carry on this servant heart to bring the message of hope to others!
*
· To persevere
Through this indelible arduous journey, there were times that I was so down and out. However I have learnt to persevere and keep on going.
*
1 thing that I will remember for life!
*
Don’t ever lose hope.
For when you choose hope, everything is possible! - Christopher Reeves
ok back to my current situation, now thinking whether all i did these past 4 months was worth it or did i make a very bad decision. have dedicated much of my secondary life to mugging so decided to do something different, something apart from studies which i had a interest in. Espoir was great and the progress of ya and many other stuff, but now i realized i really negligated my studies like really. back than in secondary school, i could watch tv and sleep at like 9 prior to exams because i had been preparing for the past weeks and even months and everything was there, but now! argh.
Also i think i was so busy that my relationship with God has been affected. Also so busy worrying about this and that, doing stuff that i lose sight of what is really important. ah this helplessness now im feeling, it really sucks.
ok shall go back to studying, wish me all the best, i really need it.
