Enlistment day today.. Cya civilian life, and cya in 2 weeks! =)
Woo.. I'm back from vietnam.. though i had only been there for a week, i have been charmed by the place. Wells, since i think i have loads to type, i shall divide the thoughts of the trip into 3 blog posts..
Starting off is Hanoi, the capital of vietnam.. this trip to vietnam was focused on the northern parts of the country, so i didnt visit hochiminh.. Upon touchdown from the airport, it is evident how different vietnam is from Singapore. Immigration and baggage collection in the airport took more than an hour, despite the handful of flights arriving in the middle of the day. Up next was the 45min road trip to hanoi city.
The first impression the city gave me was that, it looked like a city from the past, a city seemed to be stuck in 1970s. There are very few tall, modern buildings. Most of thte buildings present are old shophouses, 3-4 stories high. Some other buildings reminded of their colonial past; they have been under the French rule for 96 years. Streets are rather dusty, people sitting in front of the shophouses smoking or tucking into food prepared by street vendors.
Another instant impression hanoi gave me was the terrible, terrible traffic system it has. Vietnam has a population of roughly 80+ million, and according to the tour guide, approximately a quarter of them own motorcycles. And after doing your math, you realise that there are A LOT of motorcycles in the country, more evidently in the city. Traffic in the city is chaotic, with motorcycles travelling 'recklessly' weaving in and out of traffic. Some of them dont even obey traffic lights or the lanes of the road they are supposed to be travelling on. So to a singaporean, driving there will be stressful and dangerous. Crossing the road is no better. There seems to be no obvious break in traffic, thus not allowing you the space and time to cross it. So according to the guide, again, the only safe way to cross the road is, amazingly follow the locals, who themselves cross the road recklessly, at least in Singapore's standards. If we did that in Singapore, we probably get knocked down in no time. Yea, so crossing the road was one of the most interesting things i did in hanoi, with all the motorcycles and cars whizzing within inches past you. Fun!
A dissapointing area i guess of hanoi is that they have really limited shopping opportunities, compared with say taiwan, which was much better. Stayed there for 3+ 4 days but everyday was more or less spent on the same district, and that is supposed to be one of the more prominent shopping areas in hanoi. There isnt a jurong point like shopping centers, just shophouses selling goods. And you could see a shop selling more branded goods aka adidas/topman beside a shop selling obvious counterfeits. And the things there arent excatly priced cheaply, since the shops deal with US dollar or Vietnam dong or both, and the rates they give usually favour themselves. As a result, i didnt buy anything for myself. =(
Anyway, hanoi is still a nice place to go, but only in winter time, as i guess the cool, not-so-dry weather is a nice getaway from singapore. And you should go before hanoi is transformed into a modern metropolis.
Ok. I've just decided to splurge ~$80 on a united jersey.
But still, according to instigator louis, this is a steal, with the shirt, preimer league champs badges and the player printing costing $80 altogether. I'm buying it thru the united store in england, thats why. A similar purchase in Singapore would probably cost double..
Oh wells.. A nice X'mas present for me!
Bah.. Chem paper 1 yesterday.. Didnt really study for it.. I felt that the paper was much simpler than the prelim mcq, but it wasnt all to easy either.. After discussion with chem pro kenneth, i think i am safe for around 30/40..
A for chem? BRING IT ON!!! (although i will only believe it when i see it printed on my results slip)
It seemed like eons since i last touched ebloggy.. Anyway, A's is coming to an end and it seems so, so fast. The last 6 months has really flew by, with everyday's program being as monotonous as a.. er.. clock. Everything has been so repetitive, sleeping, eating, studying... (ok and the fun) and i am so so glad that it is coming to an end.
Well, so far, i cant say that i have performed exceptionally well for all of my papers but what i can say is that the exams is not short of surprises. Case in point... Bio paper 2.. Supposed to be one of my more well grasped papers, but in the end, everything that came out was not covered by me in detail when i was studying. And whatever i studied didnt. -.- So i resorted in creating on-the-spot theories and intelligent guesses for almost 80% of the paper. Luckily i could do the remaining 20%. Hopefully Paper 3, which is on next monday, will be much kinder. Another paper is Chem Paper 2.. Flipping through the paper as instructed before the exam, the paper looked very straightforward. The paper had 4 qns and the last of them was worth 21 marks! Doing the paper, it seemed quite straightforward that i am actually worried that i have sat for the wrong paper.. HAHA. managed to do the first 3 qns in 30 minutes, and stoned at the last qns for the remaining hour. Man the last qns is tricky and to a certain extent, tough.. Took me an hour to do that qns and i still cant really grasp the concept.. Luckily it turned out that quite a number of people also got stuck and in a sense, i am 'safe'.
1 more freaking week to go, 3 more papers ( 2 mcqs) and i will be officially free! After that is intense workout as the date for tekong chalet breathes down my neck..
2 more mcqs to go!! But i dont feel like studying for them liaos.. Exhuasted msot of my energy on the written papers, and mcqs, can tikam la..!
Bio paper 3 wasnt too difficult, ok it was easier than i expected. The paper was straightforward, with little thinking and integrative questions being asked.. hopefully the bio department set this paper on a comparable standard with the a levels.
Arghh.. with the conclusion of prelims, i will now have to clean up the 'war zone' on my tabletop. It is quite messy now and i am starting to feel irritated by it, since i am mostly staring at it once i get home everyday.. x.x
Woots.. prelims are almost over, with 3 papers left, including 2 mcqs..
However, i think i wont be doing too well in this round of tests, since i am not 100% ready.. This is especially so for maths, and i will be very relieved if i pass my maths, since paper 1 was literally a disaster. GP, as usual, in AC standard, is always tough. Econs was okay, but again dont think i will score very high in that. Bio, with only paper 2 completed so far, was quite challenging, with many aspects requiring you to think. Chem, by far is the most do-able subject, should have been able to score, but i think elucidation killed me.. =(
Watching the track and field now and saw the jamaicans fail to pass their baton in the 4x100m.. Wads worse was that they took out great britian too.. lols..
2 more days to the end of the olympics.. boo..
Warining: long post ahead..
Well, yesterday was a blast! One of my most exciting birthday ever!
But first, a very big thank you to those who remembered my birthday and wished me a very happy birthday. I really appreciated it!
The day started off like any other day -- mugging.. -.- I swear that i havent mugged on my birthday for the past 17 years, until yeaterday, such was the reality of the exams that are just round the corner. Mugged till noon when grandma whipped up the usual scrumptous birthday meal -- HK style noodles, broiled chicken wings and cereal prawns. As usual, it tasted great!
Rushed to Suntec after lunch for another treat, but this time was a kbox treat from kenneth, shijie and ervin. Well, actually it was a treat not only for me, but also for junhan, who coincidentally was born a day earlier than me. Sang the usual jay chou and jjlin songs, along with bei pan etc. Also tried out xiao jing teng's latest songs, which were, er.. challenging.. Haha. At the end, at around 7, when we were about to leave, the 3 guys selected all of the happy birthday songs in the database and sang them 1 by 1.. Problem was that most of the songs were different in rendition with the basic 'Happy birthday to you' song, so they ended up making their own songs up.. Nice improvisation guys!!
All of that happy birthdays managed to eat up 15 mins of my precious time, as the concert was supposed to start at 8. So junhan and I decided to cab there. I forgot that yesterday was friday and it was peak hour, so finding a cab was ultra-hard. We wondered around the suntec, marina square area trying to find a cab and finally found one outside some hotel 30mins later.. WTH?!
The jam on the road on the way certainly did not help matters and we arrived at the Indoor Stadium a tad late, but its ok since the show hasne started..
my lovely ticket..
The stage decorated with 4 planets..
What can i say, THE CONCERT WAS SUPER DUPER HIGH!! Right from the first song (wu xian) to the last song (fly away), FIR didnt disappoint. Faye was on top form, belting out rock tune after rock tune, without going out of tune or forgetting the lyrics. Ah qin and Chen jian ning also did really well playing various instruments.
I was also really impressed with the guest star, xiao jing teng. He came in midway thru the concert, when FIR was singing 'We Will Rock You', an interesting introduction, in my opinion. He then sang shou cang, and wang zi de xing yi, which was super hot. Characteristically, he didnt say more than 30 words in his 15mins on stage, but his 2 terrific songs were more than enough..
Mr xiao singing with FIR..
Nearing the end of the concert, the atmosphere began to get really high, so high that half of the audience were standing up and dancing to the beat, to the beat of 'first day' and 'get high'. I didnt get up but was on the verge of doing so.. haha.. The final song before the encore was 'wo men de ai' where the whole stadium momentarily became a huge karaoke room. It was so cool..
More pics:
FIR!!!
The concert lasted a little more than 2.5 hours, but it seemed like 2.5mins.. I WANT MORE!! haha.. hopefully they will come back in 2-3 years..
Its friday night again, a time when productivity from studying is at its lowest, therefore i decided to chuck my books to a corner of the table and instead enjoy the remainders of the night.
These 2 days of school are marked with much quietness, quietness due to the lack of students in the class. Attendence rates is at a whopping 50%. I dont really care anyway, cos i most probably will join the 50% studying at places excluding school next week. haha. oh, and a 11 period break is real tiring. -.-
One more week to go!
11 days to prelims!
All the best, everyone!
1 month to my birthday!
1 month to F.I.R's concert!
It was a miracle that i survived school today. Why? Thats because i barely slept the night before, due to my mind being overactive, refusing to switch off, resulting me being in a subconscious state for the duration of my 'sleep'. My eyes were so heavy that i could fall asleep by just closing my eyes for more than 15 seconds, so i just kept psycho-ing myself that i was super not tired and that i will finish the school day without dozing off. and i did. =)
Highlights of the day:
1. had a free chem tutorial period! woots! hope to have more. haha
2. mdm tham saying that she has a hobby of watching guppies give birth.. -.-
-i just hope that i am only being oversensitive