Tuesday, October 11, 2011
I was reminded by my sister that I haven't posted anything on my blog in forever. The thing is that besides the fact that I'm lazy, I didn't think anyone was still reading it. In fact, I think it's just my family. So I'll just put a post to let them know that, no, I didn't get a new blog, and yes, I'm still alive and well down under. Labels: choir, college, focus, university
The last time I posted was on my birthday, and if I have to recap I think it would be pretty hard, since my memory isn't good. I'll just put down what I remember.
*long pause*
Mid-Year Break
- Michelle came to visit from Melbourne to Sydney and stayed with me for about 10 days! It was nice catching up with her! Sorry for being such a lazy host :P
- I went for the Mid-Year Conference organised by Campus Bible Study, as we looked at the theme of humanity in the whole Bible. It was really cold (apparently was -2 deg at one night) and also really intense. I think one really interesting bit was reading through the whole 1 Peter as a small group without a leader and without paragraphing or verse numbering.
Teaching Period 3
- We started the term with a new half of my tutorial group - all 1st years, plus the 2nd years whom I've been with for a year already. It's a bit weird to be the older ones in class now.
- I started the course A Life Worth Living in FOCUS Team this session (was doing 2 Ways to Live in Session 1), and it's a really good course. It makes you think about fundamental aspects of the Christian life, such as why you believe, the importance of the Word, prayer, sin, and reaching out to others with the gospel.
- I joined the welcome team and music teams in church. It feels good to be actively serving in a defined role in church once again :)
- The New College Revue had a slot for a choir, which I participated in - we sang Somebody to Love by Queen in parts!
- Our Growth Group had a picnic social at Centennial Park, in which we ate pizza, played Taboo, and had lots of fun!
Teaching Period 4 - now
- I picked an assignment on euthanasia and ethics, and have managed to just about finish it, way before the deadline, yay.
- The women in church had an evangelistic event with baking, high tea and a panel of our own girls to answer questions that our friends had. I helped Jieyu to make quiche! My TEA group (me, Jo and Grace) was researching on the reliability of the Bible, focusing on the gospels. But since I was co-MC with Renette, Jo had to be on the panel :)
- My UNSW choir concert is coming up this Sunday, and I have bits and pieces of the songs stuck in my head!
That's all for now. I hope whoever may read this is satisfied.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011
I turned 21 today! Labels: college, family, focus, friends, university
For a birthday, today wasn't really a day in which I could celebrate, because Wednesdays are my busiest days. It was marked by especially cold rainy weather with vicious winds that kind of spoilt my umbrella.
Special things:
- I received Jiejie's birthday card to me on Monday
- I went to my cousin's house yesterday, and she cooked chicken rice (yum!) for dinner and baked me a cake with chocolate icing and sugar roses that were speedily devoured by her children
- I got calls from my parents and my sister: literally held 2 phones with both parties on the line at one point! note: this made me a little late for my lecture.
- Audrey got me a slice of cake from 85 Degrees!
- Gilly got me a brownie!
- Renu wrote me a card!
- I got birthday wishes in person, via SMS and Facebook wall posts from more than 100 people! the ones in person are the best :)
I think a birthday is only as special as you make it out to be (Lin, 2011).
People in Australia seem to make a big thing of turning 21, which is bizarre considering they can do most things when they turn 18. For me, it means I can vote, but I wasn't 21 early enough to vote this month anyway. I don't like the idea of being old - 21 really means that you're an adult, apparently.
I'll be sort of celebrating with my Bible Study group on Friday with another guy's birthday, and then with the Singaporeans in my year with another 2 people's birthdays next week. It begs the question of how important the actual day is. And yet whenever I see the date 25th May pop up anywhere, it makes me feel like it is my special day!
Saturday, May 14, 2011
As the title indicates, our College production of the musical I Love You Because has finally come to an end after it's three-night run this weekend. Labels: college
I guess I was pretty excited last year at the prospect of there being a musical rather than a play, and I kind of volunteered to be a choral director without thinking that I actually don't have the vocal training to be one - that was silliness on my part. But I'm glad the directors thought I could help out being the rehearsal pianist and teach the parts to the singers in the musical!
Then I got roped into being one of the keyboardists since I had to learn the songs anyway, as a rehearsal pianist. Thank goodness Audrey played more songs than I did for the actual thing, or I might have gone crazy trying to do it.
While the musical wasn't perfect, if I have to be very honest about it, it definitely was a success in ticket sales and audience response. The best was when one ex-Collegian (who's a very talented music student) complimented the entire production, especially the band!
Tonight was the final performance, and as could be expected, some actors took the liberty to do funny things they hadn't on the past two nights. The funniest was probably when the Chinese-restaurant-manager actress put on a sort-of-Chinese accent - I think it came out as a little Singaporean at the end of her lines, but it was hilarious!
Being the final night means that at the end the producer and directors gave speeches and thanks to all the people involved. And the directors were so sweet - they gave me a gigantic bouquet and gave me special mention in their speech and in the programme booklet! Considering how I can think of five other people at the top of my head who could have easily done my job, I don't think I was as instrumental as they said, but then, Collegians are very affirming and encouraging people!
Now if only I knew how to keep the flowers alive...
Saturday, March 12, 2011
I realise this is the first post I've posted since getting back to Sydney. I'm just too lazy to post regularly; maybe I should make it a point to post once a week or something just for fun. Maybe if I'm feeling free I will post on dates that have already passed. Labels: college, focus, friends
Today we had the FOCUS social in which we had breakfast at the Quad, then walked to Coogee Beach, and then did the Coogee-Bondi coastal walk to Bondi Beach. I somehow slept through my morning alarm and didn't arrive at Shiwei's place early enough to help with preparing the breakfast - so paiseh!
We had a late start, and the sun was really hot, but I learned my lesson and applied sunblock! I'm still gradually losing the sunburn I got last Sunday from watching the inter-college volleyball matches in the late morning - early afternoon sun. There was actually only one FOCUS newcomer, for all that it was supposed to be for the new people, haha.
I was an awful participant in that I complained most of the way about the length of the walk, the heat, my tiny headache and sore feet, so I apologise to all the people who put up with my complaining, especially Rachel! But I guess I had a good time with the beautiful scenery and talking to quite a few people along the way. I also happened to walk near the street where my cousin lives near Bronte Beach.
Anyway, I felt pretty accomplished when we reached the end. According to the Internet, the coastal walk is about 6km, which means it's like walking on High Street along UNSW from Anzac Parade to the junction at Botany Street 6 times, or walking around a typical school track for 15 rounds. It doesn't sound like much when you put it like that, but it felt really long.
College is currently pretty quiet with a lot of people gone to Weekend Away, or at MedCamp, or who were at some festival at the Randwick Racecourse tonight. It's simultaneously nice (being peaceful) and strange (not hearing the usual noise).
Thursday, November 18, 2010
I can't believe I'll be flying home to Singapore today! It feels like I've been in Sydney for forever already. Labels: college, focus, friends, university
The last few weeks had been mostly about studying for the AEB theory exam, and after that, for the progressive prac exam. I think I'd gotten so used to only having 1 exam every 8 weeks that having to study for another exam after the first one felt very strange and tiresome.
But I must say that because this time round I studied with friends like Rachel and Suyi (law library gang!) it was a lot more interesting and helped me remember things better.
We all went to eat ba chor mee at ASEANA after the exam on 9/9/10, and I've decided that when I go back to Singapore I need to eat it again - as some others have agreed, it's pretty sad that my first experience eating ba chor me is in a foreign country.
The prac exam wasn't exactly as horrific as I thought it would be. I think it's a matter of how well you know your pracs and histology slides, and the main factor is that you're given very little time to write stuff down.
I followed some of the others after the prac exam on 15/9/10 to this Thai place, and got this green curry that was nice but spicy! Thanks to Mann Ying's recommendation! Then went to Coles with Renu and Wenyan for some random last minute shopping for things to bring back - didn't end up with much, really.
In our One Wei Bible study group, Christie organised this mass card-signing thing where we each write a short note to each person in our group on these pretty cards that she made. And I love doing this kind of thing - it's a priceless memento. But I realise some people like Kwong haven't written on my card yet, so I'll go chase them in Singapore.
The last few days have been spent packing up my room in college for good - since I won't be getting the same room next year, so it's a different feeling from when I had to pack it end of last session. And I've rediscovered how much I dislike packing. I wish Jiejie was here to do it for me. (Plus I had Wella and Christabel to help me last time!)
But many thanks to Dan Foong for the use of his weighing scale, Gizmo for the use of his printer, and Rachel for the use of her room, haha! Without these people I would have been in big trouble by now.
I've made so many new friends over this year in college, classes and church that I'm kind of afraid that I'll go home having forgotten a lot of friends in Singapore. I'm not sure what the brain's capacity for remembering people (faces+names) is. If I appear to have 848 friends on Facebook, how many will I actually be able to recognise, put a name to, and tag on my memories of that person's character to?
Anyway, I've got to go do some really last minute tidying up. Looking forward to going home!
Monday, August 30, 2010
So, it's been quite a nice month, to my recollection. For one, we celebrated several birthdays. Labels: college, focus, friends, university
There was Simon's birthday for our Bible Study group, as well as going out for karaoke with most of the 1st year med people. There was also cheesecake, which is always good. Even though it was practically chosen by him, despite it being a 'surprise' cake.
Then the week after was Rachel's birthday, and while our surprise didn't really surprise her, it was quite a fun attempt at sneaking around and organising things. It was more complicated because we were planning to surprise Andrew as well, and he was definitely surprised! The kidnapping thing was kind of fail, but it all worked out ok in the end :)
We celebrated Justin's birthday in an elaborate set up with 2 surprise groups, one at the movie and the other in the quad. I was in the quad group, and my only regret is that they didn't walk a bit faster, so that by the time they reached back, all the sparklers burned out!
And in NC, we celebrated Ice and Wallet's birthdays one after the other, with cake, chocolate, balloons, poppers, music and pass the parcel!
Both my individual assignment and group assignment have been submitted, so I only have the exam left, which happens to fall on a certain Brother-in-Law's birthday. Coincidence!
NC put on their annual Revue, for which I was in Tech, which was a new experience for me! I might have stuffed it up on the first night, but I hope not many people noticed! Revue was really funny, especially all the fillers!
We recently had our 2nd Dialogue Night together with The Min(g) Dynasty, and I'm thankful for all the invited friends who came to listen to the Word, and watched the Christ Files video, which was excellent.
I've had too much cheesecake recently as well. Once at formal dinner last Wednesday, then at Dialoge Night on Friday, then today at SG, courtesy of Renu's great baking skills. And then all the cake at all those birthdays!
And most exciting of all, there was a fire yesterday! Flick and I were returning from Randwick Coles at around 12:15? We first noticed a police car stop at the junction of Botany St and High St, and the policeman got out, and we were wondering what was happening.
Then as we were reaching Uniwalk, we saw the smoke in the distance, and decided to check it out. We didn't know which building was actually burning, though I think later someone said it belongs to UNSW. There were many fire engines, ambulance cars, a couple of helicopters, and film cameras.
Seeing the flames was really exciting, and I have great respect for the firefighters. They even got out this pipe from the ground at the road and connected a hose to it. They also stopped all the traffic between the Barker St traffic light and the High St one, I think.
At first there were only about 4 of us from NC watching the fire, but then more and more people came out to watch. Lots of them were taking photos, and some too advantage of the emptied road to skateboard. I think a few of them brought out their lunch on a table and sat eating while watching the fire.
Disrespectful, or funny? Not too sure myself.
Tuesday, May 25, 2010
So today's my 20th birthday. My age now begins with a 2 instead of a 1, signalling that I'm no longer as young as I'd like to be. I got pretty depressed on my 19th birthday, because you're still a teenager up to 18, I think? I guess I just have to accept it...and then dread turning 21! Labels: college, family, friends, university
So, I had a pretty great day today. I received a birthday sms from Jiejie at about 8am, and then Mummy called about 10 minutes later to wish me as well! Not to belittle all the other wishes, but these were the ones that mattered the most to me.
Subsequently, I got a lot of wishes from my fellow med students, college people etc. It did kind of make me feel a bit special!
Another good thing is that I only had 3 hours of class today! If my birthday had been yesterday - 7 hours of class - it would have been kind of sad. As it is, I went to have a Chinese lunch with Christabel and Audrey, which was fun. And they bought me a slice of cheesecake - so sweet of them!
Afterwards I went to Sze Hui's house to kind of celebrate, and even though she didn't have time to make a cake (not that I expected her to!), she managed to whip out 12 tiny cupcakes and put them together with a candle! And I've been invited to her daughter's birthday party too!
Then I returned to find my room decorated prettily by 2AB group members, after which they had a cake that Stanley baked, and two birthday cards!
I'm currently trying to respond to the mass of Facebook birthday wishes that people have posted on my wall. I suppose it won't be finished by tonight, though.
Even though I'd have loved to spend my birthday with my family, I guess living here and having so many new friends just multiplied all the well-wishes that I received, and it really made me happy!
I'm really thankful to God for the past 20 years of my life, in which He has given me so many things that I don't deserve, and always protected me and loved me. I hope that I can become more mature and wise as I continue to grow wholly as a Christian.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
The weather's been getting colder, probably due to the continuous rain, and sometimes we can breathe out warmly and see the air!
I spent time with the lovely freshers from 2CD playing Billionaire and Jungle Speed. Many thanks to them for inviting me to play with them. Also, Happy Birthday to Perry! I'm so jealous of him for the pillow he got from Fluff's mum!
My FOCUS Bible Study group had dinner at Chong Hing with another group called M&Ms after church just now, and at the end they brought a marble cheesecake with 2 candles on it to celebrate my upcoming birthday! I was really happy!
Actually we had homestudy on Friday night at Weibin's house, which was when they were writing on my birthday card. Our guest member Lester said that he was watching them write it before I'd arrived. Then when we did a round of introductions and I said my name, he immediately turned to Weibin to say, "Oh, so she's the one you guys were writing the card for!" Of course he was sitting far away, so I didn't hear him.
Then during dinner that night apparently Kwong Ming said something like, "aren't we celebrating Sixuan's birthday?" But I didn't hear him even though he was RIGHT BESIDE ME (so blur, right), and then Adeline looked at him and was like, "You say it a bit louder, can?" LOL.
I returned to college with the rest of my cake, and then it was time for group supper. We had it in the courtyard for Pedro's suprise proposal from Nicola, and it was really beautiful with everyone's participation and all the tealight candles and the singing!
Saturday, May 1, 2010
I kept meaning to blog, but always forgot when I actually had time to do so. Labels: college, university
I had an exam on Tuesday, signalling the end of the Foundations course I've been in for the past 8 weeks, i.e. Teaching Period 1. It was harder than everyone thought it would be. And to think the lecturers made it seem like it was going to be so easy, suggesting that we might finish it in 2/3 the allocated time, and, I quote, that "it takes real talent to fail".
The exam was at the racecourse next to the school, and the day before the exam I dragged Christabel with me to see how long it would take us to walk there, and which of 2 routes was faster. The walk itself was very pleasant, due to the weather, which is gradually getting colder.
I went out with some of the Singaporeans after our exam (coincidentally turning out to be all Christians, lol) for a dim sum lunch, and promptly felt guilty for spending so much money.
On Wednesday, we all had our first visit to our assigned hospitals, which was more of an orientation than anything. And mine was at Bankstown, even though my actual venue in the coming weeks will be Liverpool. I'm glad I had quite a few friends going with me! We even played cards on the train, and only saw that we'd reached our station just as the train pulled up into it!
After a 40 minute introduction by a doctor, we were taken around in small groups by older medical students to see certain wards and such. Apparently people in other hospitals didn't get to do that!
But it kind of felt like a waste of time, because it took about 1 hour and 45 minutes to get there, but we only spent about 1 & 1/2 hours there, before taking the same amount of time to get back.
Then on Thursday we had our last SG session as SG-A4, because for the next term we'll be split half-half according to our hospital allocations and mixing with the 2nd year students. It's pretty sad because I do like our SG (we even have a Facebook group), and don't know if we'll be put together again. We went through exam answers without our papers, and ate lots of yummy food.
On Friday, we had practice at NCV for our Dialogue Night for three songs, after which I went to the library to use the Internet, but got evacuated due to goodness knows what, then went to the Motor Registry to get a NSW Photo Card. My cousin kindly invited me to her house for dinner again. I think I made her baby cry - he doesn't like me!
I went to Bondi Junction with Cub today to help someone get art stuff, as well as to see to a little shopping, because she didn't really know how to get there. It was fun, but we both agreed that the shopping loses its excitement after spending too long doing it.
I just spent some time watching The Prestige with two of my groupmates, and I must say that the plot is pretty cool!
Our College has been busy preparing for the play that is being performed next week. I've helped out a bit with painting the set and doing backstage stuff - it's really fun! It's a play about a play, and after watching the first five minutes of their rehearsal I got pretty confused.
That's pretty much it for this week. I will try to update more often, I guess. If anyone's reading this at all.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
Yup, so it's Sunday and week 4 at uni has ended. Labels: church, college, school
I guess the most important thing for school this week was that our individual assignment was due. For College A and B it was due on Thursday (includes me), while College C and D had theirs due on Friday.
I'm glad I wasn't one of those people who might have put it off til the last minute and then slogged the entire night, because I wouldn't have been able to do that! I need sleep. (no disrespect to such people, though!)
And so even on Wednesday night when we had supper crawl, I was more concerned about doing my laundry than my assignment, because it was finished already, after receiving peer feedback on Tuesday. Many thanks to my oldie who gave me excellent feedback prior to that!
Bible study on Friday was at Janelle's home, where we celebrated Ade's birthday, with lots of fruits, weetbix and popiah! We played a bit of Balderdash, had good food, and studied the parable of the rich fool and stuff.
We did Revelation 4 in church today, and the image of what the throne in heaven must look like is utterly brilliant and amazing. I wish I could have seen what it was like! God is holy indeed.
On a side-note, I encountered some fellow 1st year medicine students who find the current curriculum (Foundations) to be boring because they're merely being taught and not really using their critical thinking. Somehow they're not really fascinated by how what we're learning is happening right now in their bodies.
And they're probably not sure if they've made the right choice getting into medicine. Meanwhile I also know people who want to get into medicine but didn't make it (just like me for NUS!) and I find it just sad that places get taken up by people who aren't that keen, or perhaps didn't think it through properly before choosing this pathway, and by doing so deprived others of a place.
I guess not everyone knows exactly what they want to do or study or be when they grow up. And realistically speaking the university will try to pick the best students as it sees fit. That's life for you.
Thursday, March 4, 2010
Everytime I mean to blog about my day's events (and during O'Week there were PLENTY of events) I get lazy and end up not doing it. Labels: college, university
The rest of O'Week was pretty fun.
Thursday: PT Rally where we went around to various places including UniSyd; Trivia which really had all sorts of information and challenges unheard of.
Friday: Harbour cruise, where the theme was A Fresher In Uniform, so every group had their own type of uniform, and we made a pretty gay sight on the way to the harbour. The cruise sights were really pretty, including the Opera House and Harbour Bridge!
Saturday: Jet-boating, which is always a thrill, and too short a trip, followed by lunch at Manly Beach; Schoolies Night, which I couldn't go for because I couldn't prove my age, so we got free gelato and watched Valentine's Day at a theatre instead!
This week: I've had some scenario group sessions, practicals and a lot of lectures (got 4 more tomorrow), and it's been a good opportunity to get to know people! I was surprised at the number of Asians (whether Asian-raised or Australian-raised) in the faculty - much more than I'd expected. Of course, about a quarter are international, half of those coming from Singapore!
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
So far I've had three days or so of orientation, mostly in the residential college and a little bit of stuff in the main campus, and it's really tiring. I feek like I'm living each day very slowly, maybe because there's so many things to do. Labels: college
I've made many new friends, especially those who are in my rooming group 2AB. Everyone at the college gets nicknames (don't know WHY) based on info about themselves or their names or could be totally random, so mine is Panda (please don't laugh), and my friends include Bones, Stanley (a girl), Elvis, Rashman, Spoon, Rocky, Shamwow, Gilly, Bora, Sahara, Tingle, Pixie, Squishie, Chansey, Brumby, Ben (a girl), Taxi, Keg etc.
Other names include F'Taang, Swede (he's not a swede though), Fluff, Brick etc. No one can pronounce my name except the China people, the Singaporeans and the Malaysians. I love Chinese people!
I've just done my 100 check point to confirm my identity with the medical building, and am sitting in a campus food court using the free wireless because I can't stand having to pay for the internet usage by the kilobyte in my room in the college.
Okay, I'm too lazy to post anymore.
Edit: okay, I have free time and shall post a bit more about tonight's shenanigans.
They had this compulsory formal dinner which I wanted to skip but couldn't. So we had to sit at pre-assigned places, thank goodness I had one of the other Singaporeans with me. The food was pretty good!
And then we found out we'd been pranked for what must be the umpteenth time already. The seniors had said they'd wash our fresher t-shirts for us, but what they did was to hang them all in funny places in the courtyard on level 1, like hung really high, or in the soil, or on benches or whatnot.
It was terribly noisy and all, but I did manage to direct a few people to their shirts, though not finding mine. So I gave up in the end and went up the usual way to my group's common room. I thought I'd walked to the wrong one again, but it turned out they'd swapped the decorations for each common room to confuse people.
It was really thorough, including the number plates and bathroom toiletries. At this point I concluded that the seniors had got to be the most kongxian and boliao people ever.
Apparently they managed to trick people into thinking that they'd swapped all the stuff in their rooms and switched the locks or something. I swear if they'd really done that it would be theft. And plus some people locked their rooms anyway.
A special shoutout here goes to Fluff. He came into 'my group's' common room (which was probably actually his common room) to take a golf club from behind the door, claiming he was trying to get a fresher shirt down.
Then later as people were going out to do the mass dance, he returned with a shirt and the golf club, and asked if anyone was missing a shirt, which of course I was! So I asked for the label, and found that it was indeed mine! He said he'd gotten it off a tree. A TREE.
I'd helped him earlier in the courtyard to identify Sahara's shirt to give it to her, so I guess he'd just gone around helping people get their shirts. Many thanks to Fluff the whipcracker!
Thanks to all the blogs i referred to (countless) for html code help :) (esp. cyn' and sixseven)
Adobe Photoshop Elements for supernatural abilities
