8 days as Relief Teacher

Dear jumjum...

  Okay so on the last day of exam Mdm Soon came up to my table after the papers were collected and told me that Mdm Armstrong wanted to see me. I was super freaked out because the last time she came to look for me was to scold me for parking at the front gate! I got Cam to accompany me to her class, and Mdm Armstrong was like, "The Chemistry teacher at national is on leave for two weeks and they need someone who knows Chem to sit in, would you be interested?" Interested? I was MORE than interested!

  The night before I was to start work, I wasn't feeling so confident anymore. In my head I was thinking, I suck at Chem! And the reaction the ex-national Lodgians gave me when they heard didn't help either: "Huh?! Good luck man..." 

  The teacher had already allocated worksheets for them to do each day, and all I had to do was make sure they did it and to answer any questions they had. So the day before, I would do my revision on the chapter and complete the worksheets myself to make sure that I got it all down pat before the kids do it. 


  Anyway the first day wasn't so bad, I think because the kids didn't know me they were kinda subdued and scared...but the second day was really bad. They basically realised that I'm not as fierce as their real Chem teacher and started pushing the boundaries, and so from the third day onwards I put my foot down. I tried to start each class with a quiz, but in order to not scare them too much I gave it a funny name- "Is (insert class here) a Jumjum or a Dumdum?", and basically called up random names from the class list and made them answer questions related to their worksheet that day. Some classes were really funny, when anyone got it wrong they'd yell "Dumdum!" and boo them lol. Once I could more or less control the classes it was pretty fun, amd from then on I started to bond with some of the kids, which made leaving them really hard =(


  I was told I had to be in school for a minimum of 6 hours each day, so whenever I didn't have classes I'd be in the staffroom preparing for the next day. And when that was done I'd be bored to tears! So from the second day onwards I started bringing my advanced biology book to read and kill time... And of course, there was the near constant office gossip going on in the staffroom to keep me entertained!

   Sadness of having lunch everyday alone at my cubicle...except the last day when some teachers got me to sit with them in the canteen.

Ms Carrie!

  Very few teachers talked to me, and they all seemed really busy and it made me feel pretty ashamed of myself and so I pretended to look busy too heh heh. Ms Carrie and Mr Kelvin were really nice and helpful though, telling me where my classes were, reminding me of my sit-ins, chatting with me and the such. And in my last two days I approached Cikgu Anita (everyone's favourite Biology teacher) and she gave me all the advice and shared her experiences with me.

  All in all, I quite enjoyed my time there. The last day was hard, though...the kids had some camp that night so a lot of them went home already, and so had most of the teachers, but I had two sit-ins with classes that I wasn't familiar with =( and the whole school looked like it was the zombie apocolypse, all quiet and lonely =((

  Oh yea! During one of the periods with 5D, I was flipping through the notice board at the back and out of nowhere jumped out this big dark lizard! And I was so shocked I did a mighty leap backwards (in my tight black skirt) THANK GOODNESS I didn't scream!!! Only one girl saw me and she was laughing her head off! Ahhh 丢脸！！！

  Oh and teh youngest that students and teachers guessed me to be was 23, the oldest....28! =O sadness!

Someone took a pic of me on one of my 'patrols' making sure everyone was doing their work...and I had no idea I looked so sour grapes! ><

  On another note, HAPPY BIRTHDAY CAM!!! Lessthanthreeyou! Can't wait to spend all 24 hours of the next 9 days with you! =D

*atm*

Farewell, Raphael!

Dear jumjum...

  This morning we'll be bidding farewell to one of our own, my son the prince, Mr Raphael Chen the Singaporean. 

  I still remember the first day he came to Lodge, a few days after classes had already started, and he asked me to lend him my maths book to copy the notes. I must say, if I knew then what a little math genius you were, I probably wouldn't have lent it to you xD That day during break that little boy started talking to me and asking me about us Kuchingites and only then I realised how lonely he must have felt, alone in this little city, with all of us more or less already formed into little groups. 

  Somehow he joined our little clique, going out daily for lunch with us and such. And I think my fondest memory of you will always be the time we went to Bako National Park and you made a comment that confused me and I asked you somewhat unbelievingly, "Raphael, you DO know Bako is a natural park and not man-made?!" and he was all, WHAT? REALLY?? LOL!!!

  I just wanna say, Raphael, that you really are one of us now, and oh yeah! I wanna thank you from the bottom of our hearts for helping us out so much with all our maths problems, especially during exam time =) HAVE FUN IN NS ahaha. We're definitely gonna miss you, kid!

*atm*

I see the colour!

Dear jumjum...

  I just realised that I didn't blog yesterday. Dam! Failed my challenge...

  Today I noticed that my hair colour is actually starting to show! YES! Very subtly, just the way I like it ;) But it looks different from different angles..idk. Please excuse the awkward photos, had to climb onto the bathtub to get the setting sunrays...

*atm*

Songs with Memories

Dear jumjum...

 All my life I have unintentionally associated songs with memories and I'm sure that I'm not the only one. It's pretty cool how listening to an old song can stir up the exact memory and feeling and emotions you had and felt at that certain point in life.

  When we were living in Kajang, Selangor, my dad used to help my mum sweep and mop the floor every Saturday morning and I remember waking up to the tunes of the Bee Gees and Air Supply blasting downstairs and my dad singing along and I would be so excited that the weekend has started and that my dad didn't need to go to work for the next two days. 

  During one of our trips back to Kuching before we moved back, my sister, mum and I, influenced by my late grandmother, were obsessed over this chinese drama series 偷龙转凤, and we would all huddle near the tevlevision set after dinner. It was also the time when I leant to sing 逃亡- I don't remember if that was the theme song or our cousin just happened to play it all the time, but I always associate that song to that series. Also, I believe that was the first chinese song that I learnt the full lyrics to too.

  For our primary 6 graduation ceremony, my friend and I performed Now and Forever by Richard Marx and then we also sang 隐形的翅膀 together with the other class. I remember how excited I was to be finally graduating and no longer going to 'kid-school', and how I couldn't wait to join my sister in sceondary school.

  I also remember singing Teenagers by My Chemical Romance back and forth together with Edric in form 1. We used to compete to see who could sing it the fastest and with the most vehemently lol! 

  Song of the year in form 2 was Bleeding Love by Leona Lewis. I used to sing it all day, everyday- I would put my phone in the shower cap hanging on the door so I could sing while bathing. And because of that, every time the song came on in the car my mum used to joke and sing 'Keep bathing, keep keep bathing' instead of bleeding xD

  Form 3 post-PMR song was the Black Eyed Peas' I Got A Feeling and it was SO appropriate since it's a very club-dancing, upbeat sort of song that described our mood at that time so very well.

  If We Ever Meet Again by Timberland ft Katy Perry reminds me of form 4 when I had a crush on a senior, and we were in the midst of organising prefects' dinner and Freda and I were also preparing for the science show competition. I remember just feeling really busy but contented. 

  Just before SPM I was learning to play Allegro op. 50 no. 1 on my guitar and it was a time when everything was crazy with exam stress, sadness of leaving secondary school and all the conflicts that were going on and I remember not being able to sleep, I would pick up my guitar and practice as softly as I could to vent my frustrations. And even now whenever I play that song it sounds even more violent than it should...

  
  I generally do not listen to Korean songs as a rule, but thanks to my crazy friends everytime I hear Big Bang's Fantastic Baby I think of our time in A Levels. Ahhh. And the boys surrounding MiaoMiao and serenating her during our first field trip...

  Last year when I was watching Pitch Perfect I was so happy to hear No Diggity again! I remember listening to that song sometime in my childhood and I really liked the beat but had no idea what it was called or what they were rapping about...

*atm*

I just wanted to say...

Dear jumjum...

  Yay! Accomplished all my goals for today. =)

  I just wanna say to my ANNOYING BROTHER: YOU ARE VERY ANNOYING. SOH AH GLEE AH YOU. AH GLEE ER BY THE DAY. STOP READING MY BLOGS.

  Also, hereby promising myself to post something less boring tomorrow. I know I know, just super tired. Heh heh.

*atm*

Annoyed to the max

Dear jumjum...

  Okay I really really really don't feel like posting today, but I'm tied by my self-challenge =S

  Was very tired when I got home, bathed and took a nap- supposed to sleep for 10 minutes only, as per usual, but I was practically dead til two hours later. Very annoyed as I was supposed to help my mum out with dinner. 

  I had tomorrow planned out fully- go to work, go straight to Suki's place, go home to bathe then pick my cousins for sushi and movie. And then I got on the computer and saw this !@#$%^& email that ruined my whole day. Argh. Have to cut my plans short tomorrow and deal with this first. AND it's gonna cost me more $$. AND my printer chooses now of all times to be out of ink so I can't print the documents. Thank goodness for Ele, who's gonna help me print.

  Really hope everything gets done by tomorrow. And I hope the movie tickets won't be sold out by the time we get there! 

*atm*

  

In the Car

Dear jumjum...

  First day of my new temporary job! Wasn't really what I expected...but not gonna blog about it until after my last day. Pretty tired, so just a short and radom post...

  Here's the thing. I like to sing aloud especially when I'm alone in the car, cause my radio is always on and nobody else can hear me, but recently I realised how ridiculous I must look if people happen to notice me xD 

  I'm sure I'm not alone on this but ever since I started driving and noticing other drivers, I have never seen anyone sing alone in the car before and I can't believe it! I do remember though, that my aunty used to send me to primary school while saying her morning prayers in the car, and she told me she does it every morning and says it out loud even if she's driving alone, and she's seen some people look at her like a lunatic who's mumbling to herself! xD 

  So yea...if you happen to see me on the road, alone in my car with my lips moving, please excuse the singing.

*atm*

2012-2013 Highlights!

Dear jumjum...

  The A-Levels era wasn't the best era (post-PMR was), but in my opinion, it was the period of time where we got to do the most things...

  Since most of us had our own cars already, we could do all the outrageous stuff our parents probably wouldn't wanna do or fetch us to do, like going to the opening of Plaza Merdeka, first day of Kuching Festival, Sung Ha Jung performance at the airport, going to Friendship Park on Lantern Festival, Hitz Birthday Invasion...

  Permai Camp. I honestly never fully participated in an overnight camp before, so this was pretty fun for me, even though I fell and hurt my knees AGAIN on the FIRST DAY. The most memorable event of the camp was of course Jethro lighting the campfire and burning himself xD His leg hairs were all burnt and his fringe looked pretty funky too...

  All the school trips...Sarawak Biodiversity Centre, the Orang Utan place (whatsitcalled?), UNIMAS, and Bako National Park.

  First job tutoring the Tham kids. Certainly an experience for me...got quite annoyed at them sometimes but it was okay overall, although his UPSR results weren't as good as he was supposed to get..

  Interning as Bio teacher at KHS for a week. Seriously seriously enjoyed it...although I was so used to the air-conditioning at Lodge I was sweating buckets everyday. Was really fun going back to my old school and seeing all my old teachers and juniors. The only regret I have is not taking any pictures!! Arghhh.

   Ele had a coupon or something for a free one-night stay so we had a sleepover with the Lenians at Merdeka Palace! Freda and I shared a bed, Cam and Ele the other. We were supposed to stay up all night but Cam and Ele (pigs!) fell asleep halfway through a movie >:\ The next morning they were trying to get us up but we didn't want to, so there was a whole lot of tugging blankets and grunting and pillow fighting going on... After breakfast we went swimming then ended up sitting in the baby pool just talking =)

  Singapore trip! This was the first time I ever travelled without family, going to Singapore to visit Joshua together with Camellia and Kah Sing, and also meeting up with Daryl and Edric. It was great being the master of ourselves for once, for instance going back to Josh's place at 3am and not having to answer to Mummy. The worst part of the trip though, was water! Josh didn't have drinkable water at his place and I'm an aquaholic so I was constantly having to look out for pharmacies and supermarkets and lugging around big bottles of water. Big thanks to Josh for lodging and
bringing us around and worrying about us worse a parent xD

*atm*

  

Decisions, decisions!

Dear jumjum...

  YAY! A Levels are finally over! I have to admit, when the teachers were collecting the exam papers I looked around me and realised it was the last time we'll all be in school together, after which the internationals would be leaving us one by one =( kinda sad. 

  But then I don't really have time to wallow in my sorrow now..busy studying for a last-minute potential job tomorrow. Hope I get it but I'm super scared! It's not exactly in my expertise. More tomorrow if I actually get it. 

  Anyway I was so caught up with everything today that I almost forgot that the housing application for uni started today!! Oh dear. And I am THE WORST decision maker in the world. I am constantly thinking about opportunity costs! And I hate that as we grow up, we seem to have more and more decisions thrown at us to be made. At first it was the decision of what to study, then where to apply, where to accept, and now which hall to stay on campus. Honestly I've been thinking over which hall to choose since a month ago! And I found out that a lot of Malaysians have already booked their flights there, but what if my results suck and I don't get in??? It would be a bigger blow if I already booked the flight =( And also, they've been adding me into all these international students' or Malaysian students' groups that I kinda feel like part of them already. If my results don't fulfill the criteria I don't know what I'll do =(

*atm*

Dying hair fail & first job interview

Dear jumjum...

  So I dyed my hair again after half a year of sparing it from all the dying torture, and it was once again, a fail. =( Everytime I dye my hair the colour doesn't seem obvious until a few months later, so hopefully this is the case too.

  I used Loreal's Casting ammonia-free one this time (because the strong dye smell makes it very difficult for me to breathe). 

  The last time I used it the colour ran everytime I washed my hair for about a week but this time it was waaaaay worse, probably because I used two bottles after reading that long-haired girls usually use two bottle to self-dye. After washing my hair 3 times that day, my poor white shirt still got stainned. And I didn't wanna stain my dinosaur bedsheet too so I cut up an old shirt and used it as a pillowcase with a plastic bag underneath to sleep...

  Oh yea! My mum was out today so I had to go tapao lunch for me and my bro, and my mum suggested that I go to this organic shop near our house. As I was paying I noticed the 'Vacancy' sign outside their window. It's quite a nice, well-organised place that I wouldn't mind working in before heading off for uni, so I enquired about it, and the lady owner sat me down for an impromptu interview! Pretty nervous because I wasn't prepared and she kept speaking to me in her perfectly-pronounced Chinese and my Chinese ain't that good... I left her my details so we'll see how it goes.

*atm*

WhatsUpELLE!

Dear jumjum...

  Okay anybody who knows me well would know that I have been addicted to watching Youtube videos this year, and I think this addiction is gonna be a lasting one...

  Anyway I wanna promote one of my favourite channels, WhatsUpELLE, because I honestly think she's awesome and doesn't have enough subscribers to do her justice! Her channel has EVERYTHING I enjoy watching- humour, creativity, dancing, honesty (not one of those many, many super fake girls who only show their pretty side all the time on YT) and most of all her adorable, pretty little toddler Presley!!!!

  And she recently announced that she's expecting again!!! Arghhh the cuteness. She got her doctor to write the baby's gender on a card and went shopping for baby girl and baby boy outfits, then handed the card to the cashier and asked the cashier to wrap the baby outfit according to the gender and charge it on her credit card. Then she, her Japanese husband Ross and Presley opened up the box at home to find out the gender!

  Her videos almost always have her 'clones', who barge in and interrupt her conversations all the time. She also does ''Backward Covers" where everything is in reverse and prior to filming she has to learn to sing the song backwards in order to make the video convincing! I am just seriously amazed. She's really a crazy woman who doesn't mind acting dumb for a laugh. =)

*atm*

Liberty is close!!!

Dear jumjum...

  After the month-long exams, honestly haven't felt so free and relaxed in a long time!!! Late celebrations for Suki's birthday yesterday and had a nice long talk with the gang. =) Last paper on Monday but I dont really worry about Econs objective...heh heh. 

  On another note, started dieting again...look at those flabby arms @.@ No complaining this time, if I want it, gotta work for it! 

*atm*

In the middle of exams, but...

dEaR jUmJuM...

  I have another Bio paper in two days time and an Econs paper the day after...but I'm blogging?! Heh supposed to be online to check my anwers for past year questions...

  Anyway, yesterday I was so distracted planning out my post-A Levels activities and it totally put me off the mood for studying..then I felt super guilty and undisciplined. =( Wonder if anyone else does that too...

  So one of my plans is to challenge myself to start blogging again daily throughout my holiday! Since I haven't done any creative writing since I left secondary school, and I really feel that my writing skills have gone down the drain. Okay gotta stop now, back to Bio!

*atm*