I Rock!

yesterday we had cluster training. there're 5 clusters to choose from. these are the things we will be teaching once the kids come to camp. so we kinda got a taste of what the clusters do during the whole(cos we're gonna belong to that particular cluster throughout the summer) summer. the following clusters are:

ropes
these are the ropes course specialists from low ropes to high ropes and confidence courses

target
these are riflery and archery specialists who will teach both these skills to the kids

outdoor
these are the outdoor camping specialits who teach outdoor skills and camp survival and orienteering

horses
here you help the barn staff tend the horses and help the kids out with them. no experience required.

general
finally these are the arts and craft and sports and games people

i chose the general cluster as my first choice because i hope to teach sports and games since i feel more confident with that. my second and third choices were ropes and outdoor respectively. ah whatever it hardly matters.

anyway during dinner i got was awarded camp chief ouray 2004's first U-ROCK award for the hitting the bullseye while at target cluster training on my first archery attempt. cool. its so cool like the winner of the award has to go up and make a speech and it was kinda overwhelming. i just mentioned that i was lucky to hit it and blah and then went on to mention what a great time i was having and how nice everyone was and how spectacular a time i was having here. i got a standing ovation and the big 'O' cheer!! haha.

okie anyway today was even more fun. we had WHITE WATER RAFTING!!! so fun!!! but these arn't as tough as when i as in nepal where the rapids were class 3. here its mostly just 1s and 2s. we were lucky cos the whole morning hte sun was out and it was warm. then halfway through the journey just before lunch we stopped at this very steep cliff which i forgot the name and we could do a CLIFF JUMP there!!! wow. it was 30feet high. so thats about 10m. was a challenge by choice thing. so i decided i should go do it. it was super duper high and when i got up and it was my turn to jump, just about everyone(8 boats of 7-8ppl) were chanting 'chris! chris!' haha then it was 'speech! speech!' wah lao eh damn xiong man this whole internatinal ounsellor thing. anyway i screamed out 'this is for singapore! and cco(camp chief ouray!) and the simpsons(my family)!' to the wild cheers of the audience below. haha. was quite funny.

the jump took like 3secs long man....wow. and then once i hit hte water, it was freezing cold!!!! argh forgot about that!! anyway i was shivering by the time i got out. but jen was asking me to go do it once more with her because we still had time and no one else on our boat wanted to do it, so i sportingly agreed! haha. and this time the second jump i screamed "this is my seco.." the rest i was drinking water liao...haha

anyway everyone found it quite cool and stuff. shite. gotta go liao. andrea's chasing me and threatening to read my blog. am in the library now. gonna continue later. going to alco and safeway(two huge departmental stores) with andrea and andy now.

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okie just back in the camp chief ouray office after soccer in the kiva gym. i sucked today but still had a good time. my fingers are sore cos this argentinian cook kicked me in the hand...

anyway as a continuation to my day, after the cliff jump, which i did twice, we stopped pretty nearby for lunch. we had paper bagged bread with cheese and ham. then a thunderstorm swept in. sibeh suay bong man. i was already shivering from the cold from my jump and everyone could tell i was cold("weather too cold for you chris?" - says kelley while she's just in her bloody on-piece). wah lao eh the ang mohs here are damn power siah, got chance to wear bikini or swimsuit only confirm everything off wan. haha. i think they got this exhibitionist streak in them, even though erm...i think their bodies leave much to be desired but i dowan to kenna whack.

so anyway there is was shivering like a dildo and people start coming to give me rub-downs, i mean it feels good lah but they can't do it forever and no one has an extra shirt and i had to take my shirt off because my dri-fit adidas shirt wouldn't dry in time. so we had to re-launch to get going and i was just in my lifejacket and surfer's berms(strong right?). then it started to rain. nao hiah rain nevermind, the wind blew through the canyon somemore. xianz. so i was super duper cold and shivering and getting wet and i thought i was gonna catch hypothermia pretty soon. well funnily enough i didn't. the moment we reached shore everyone made way for me to run like the flash back up the bus. haha. only there did i manage to warm down. wow. good experience. next time i'll be bringing a jacket along. haha.

okie so when we got back to camp it was night's off!! hooray!! that's when i got dragged to hernando's for pizza. not too cheap, i paid about us$9 for my share, but it was really good. we totally jam packed the whole restaurant man. we occupied most of the place and the place was just full of our people. haha so cool and we were making such a huge ruckus, AND best of all i started telling my qian bian wen da ti(those that they could understand like what does bruce lee like to drink and what colour is thunder) its damn funny when you see them totally crack up and wanna beat me up man haha. such fun. the restaurant was also quite interesting because the walls of the place was just covered with us$1 bills that customers have drawn on with crayons so when u go in the whole restaurant looks just like a money house actually. haha.

okie following that i went to the library(was really small but interesting!) to use the internet. and then to alco/safeway to buy a new sweat shirt and a magazine with andy and andrea.

tomorrow is prom night!!!!

voted #1 wilderness camp in america

yes. its true. camp chief ouray. and its not hard to see why just from how we're trained. been having staff training the last three days. its unbelieveable. this experience is totally awesome and i think it just might change my whole life forever...

what might u say? lets see...

the american counsellors
okie for starters, the people here are absolutely fantastic. i'm just about the only international staff member of camp chief ouray so i kinda stand out like a sore thumb sometimes. but i've said it so many times they're friendly helpful and enthusiastic to know more about different people and not just foreign people. unfortunately i've been warned that this spirit and behaviour is only restricted to camp chief ouray and the snow mountain ranch. outside of here there're the good, bad, ugly, and really ugly. so i've been told to watch out.

for some reason or another, the people here are here for a reason. and thats to contribute in full utmost, their talent and ability to the camp. as marty(our camp director) puts it, each and everyone one of us staff is here to serve a purpose and that purpose, we ourselves have to find out and no one's gonna tell us. but we're the best from around the country(hmm i wonder if it includes me) and the largest collection of camp-wise talented people.

i must say its kinda intimidating. its kinda pressurizing, and its kinda scary. over the last few days, i've gotta retract my previous blog mention that some of the people here are dumb. i mean sure some still are, but more often than not i would think its a case of not knowing certain facts that's all, yet being ever so enthusiastic to find out. not sure if anyone gets what i mean...anyway amongst are are state-rep dancers, guitar players, philosophy majors, political science majors, usa olympic hopefuls and most of all, people who've camped in the wilderness every summer since young.

its amazing how each staff member has such a different story to tell.

what's more, they're passionate and enthusiastic in what they persue. though sometimes these subjects may be abit specific, you can definitely trust them to make it sound super deep when they get going. so unlike myself who's like a jack of all trades who knows alot but only abit here and abit there, these people are deep. way deep.

hence it sometimes makes me feel like whatever i know, there's always someone who knows it more than i do(thank goodness no one else comes from singapore, erm haha). somehow there's a wee fear in me that people here are gonna see me as a skim-the-surface jack of all trades and find that i'm not passionate enough in anything in particular, thereby leading them to presume that i have no direction in life...hmm.

anyway there's this other bit of these people here that hit me today, that got me suddenly flopping outta my bed during BOB(bodies on bed - its like rest time). these people have the ultimate and i mean the ULTIMATE sense of humour. back when i used to wonder why there were so little people who shared my kinda humour during hall FOCs and stuff, the people here are almost a miror image of the person i think i am.

they're wacky, funny, intelligent and totally dig slapstick humour while at the same time responsible and committed as well. which is pretty hard to find in singapore to be honest(okie so i think i'm a rare breed, sue me...) its like all 85 of us are like that and the people here go absolutely crazy. their quips and spouts and one-liners just get the whole world laughing and they can tell long stories and jokes and make up the dumbest of things that funnily get you interested in entirely boring affairs. take chris miller's medical lecture for example, instead of just reading the boring sheets of regulations, he got different volunteers to perform each regulation to the rest of the people as funnily as they can, nad my goodness these people can really be funny i tellya. and they're all damn bloody enthu to volunteer for these kinda boliao things just to make a fool outta themselves. geez i gotta volunteer one of these days...and yet when you think about it, not only are we entertained, everyone gets the picture. till now i still havent seen anyone fall asleep during lectures yet.

energizers

these are really fun games that have been passed down from years ago and they're super fun. from the icebreakers to the cookhouse games to the freetime burners, the games are super splendid.

the icebreakers have different variations of games we've played at home like pepsi cola and thumb wars...then there're the really boliao BUT purposeful ones like screaming toes, egg chicken dino superman,and so on haha.

in the cafeteria during mealtiems we have several boliao things that surely will be done. singing songs is a definite. then there're certain words that, when said, a song or cheer has to be sung before the speaker of the day can continue, words like announcement and square off. then there're certain things you can't do like putting your elbows on the table or eating with your hat on. if someone spots you, you'd have to do something silly like run around the cookhouse or go touch the flagpole. and these people sportingly go do them. however silly they are... finally there're mini-prizes given out at every meal such as the U-rock(the trophy happens to be a rock) whcih is given out to anyone who might have done something super cool. and the blue clue, given out at every meal to anyone who's done the most clueless act. and anyone can nomiante anyone for these awards and share their tale. its just so funny.

finally the freetime burners or the real energizers which are games played just to perk you up and really super fun too. we play all kinds of silly games like four squares and skit acting and all that. haha. its all way silly but fun and purposeful.

vespers
hmm. the funny thing about this word is that when i first heard it to thought it was a religious christianity word. but no. its not. its just quiet time for the whole camp to sit down and relax and watch other people perform. everyday, a designated family(i'm part of the simpsons family by the way...)has to perform vespers based on a certain theme. they can do soothing songs, read poems, read stories, play instruments, do any soothing acts, or whatsoever as long as its soothing and is relevant to the theme of the day. like today's theme was body. so my family led everyone in stretches, followed by played a soothing song "your body is wonderful", then gave everyone else massages(in a giant circle) and finally hugs all round. such togetherness and fun. i'm just glad to be fitting in.

devotions
these are night family gatherings when we're in a smaller group where we cabin staff will have to lead once the children get here. its a time of sharing and talking about our thoughts and issues. for hte first night, we all played a simple m&m game and got to know each other alot better as a family. tehn last night during devotions, we each wrote a piece of question on a piece of paper and shuffled it and randomly gave each person another piece and they had to answer that question. its a quiet time of sharing certain private things about ourselves and getting to know each other more just before bedtime.

its funny how vespers and devotions get associated with christianity so much and yet we do not talk about god and jesus at all. we say our graces and other things but there is a sense of comfort in me that i am not pressured to conform to a certain religion here(in this instance, christianity). as marty puts it, we are a camp based on christian values but not the christian religion. there is no evangelism in camp and people respect one another's faith. simple as that.

okie i think i've bored alot of you guys liaoz so i'll stop here. i feel like this camp is really gonna change me as a person and the way i behave and think. its scary because i can feel the change. its presence is so strong. what's more, this is just the beginning...

The Melancholic Death of Oyster Boy

haha. i was given this book to read this morning and its so funny. its written by tim burten(from nightmare before christmas and big fish fame?) and its super funny and whacky i was having a ball just reading. life here is great. i don't even know where to start. okie lets just recount from where i left off. does anyone think this is all too draggy and longwinded? if u do then dun read lor! haha.

okie so yesterday was another lobo day. woke super early at 7am and after breakfast went to find things for myself to do. notebly go and find other staff and ask if they need help. ended up helping chris miller, the camp nurse(he's supposed to be the coolest guy in camp before i arrived...hehe), andrew, the maintenance head, and ranson, the facilities head or smtg lidat. was doing boliao things lah. but i guess what's important is to give the let people around here know that i'm useful and not some leech. so for the whole day till dinner time i ended up picking up trash, cutting up boxes, mending a fence, and disposing of paper trash. haha was quite fun.

now one thing to take note was that yesterday's weather was way cool. not cold, and i found myself wearing a tshirt and sports pants whereever i went. super shiok can finally wear so little.

at night i was invited to the kiva gym to play basketball with some of the older staff. and it seems like people are really taking on to me. people are coming up to talk alot more to me and blah, saying i got game, i play hard blah blah blah. so i just tell tehm the same stuff they wanna hear and blah...i think americans super love to be praised. so the more you praise them the more they think you're cool. especially when its obvious that i play better but i remain modest. haha. okie that out of point. but really the staff here are the best man. super easy to warm up with and everybody treats each other like good friend and all. so its really good.

okie so today was a totally different story.

in the morning i got the chance to go denver with brandy and michelle. they're really great and i really appreciate them letting me tag along. anyway it was still sunny on our drive to denver. we had to cross a mountain to the other side just to reach the highway to denver. whole journey took us about 2hrs. denver's pretty huge city and i think there's quite alot to see. but this tmie around we had no time since we had to go pick up another staff member from the airport. so when we finally picked him up, we went to walmart!!! yay. now walmart here is like carrefour in singapore, only much much bigger. and u really can get anything and everything here. so the first thing i when to grab were hiking boots. in the end i got myself a good pair for only us$40 and a pair of trainers for us$15 and then got myself some moisturizer, socks and a nice brush for my lovely hair. haha. then we had subway for lunch. its more expensive here than in singapore. the prices are almost the same 'cept here its in us dollars.

okie so finally we're on our way back, and as we start going up the mountains, guess what? it begins to rain...then this super huge fog starts to develop across the mountains where we were heading. as we got through the fog, it got thicker and thicker so we had to drive slower and slower. the know what? the rain turned to snow...at first a little bit by bit the rain still splattering on the windshield, then after awhile to more sound liaoz. the snow just blows by. so cool!!!! and cold!!!!

so this went on throughout the mountain drive so we thought it was just a mountain thing but nooooo....turns out its snowing in camp chief ouray too!!! wow!!! fantastic and it was a snow storm, so the ground and the trees got white super fast. so cool!!!! its amazing how we can have sun one day and then snow the next. wow.

okie so next up was dinner. today we were all invited to maryanne and andrew(they're married)'s house which was near the lodge, for dinner. it was a byob which mean bring your own bbq. cool! haha. i didn't have anything to bring but i asked molly to bring buy me smtg. and of all meats u can find she bought me crummy hamburgers haha. but thanks anyway. so we had a bbq going outside where it was freezing cold(was snowing tons!) and the food eating session inside. there were quite alot of people, most of whom i already know, and everyone brought their own food to be bbqed. so cool! haha. and we had a ball talking and stuff, and as of now i lost count how many times i replied with the same answer that singapore's a 17hr plane ride followed by a 20hr train ride from chicago. wow long journey eh? yeah, long journey. *brief silence* cool!

haha people here say cool and sweet and great and lovely ALL THE TIME. its like a must say when someone tells u smtg. haha so i do the same. and i think i say it real well cos most of them say i speak really well and they can immediately understand what i'm saying as compared to previous asian counsellors whose english is terrible. hmm. makes me feel good about myself. haha. after dinner we all went to play basketball again. i think playing with them bonds us all.

well i havent received any gossips lately? hopefully someone could drop me an update about hte latest things that're going on back home. will almost cfm reply wan. haha.

kie anyway i'll stop here liao. take care everyone.

Camp Chief Ouray

aloha everyone!!! i finally got to use the net. its so hard and painful to be searching so hard but being unable to find it. it the end i really got desperate and here i am in my camp director's office using his computer. i think my camp director should be a nice guy bah. i haven't met him yet, but the rest of the office staff seems to be really excited that i'm here. hmm. i dun even know where to begin from where i left off...

okie first off, travelling america alone for this trip has been amazing. i think i've felt more emotions in the last 3 days than the last few years combined. the people are great and the weather's almost fine(hmm,more about that later if i remember). things are running pretty smoothly up till now and with the exception of a my stoopid m1 phone having no autoroam(even though i applied for it), and so little internet access opportunities, i think the rest of hte trip has been super duper wooper good so far...and hopefully it'll only get better.

okie now from where i left off.

let's start with chicago. i'm pretty lucky i had jing jing and carol with me on my flight because when we reached o'hare airport, ther iccp people who were supposed to pick us up were like gonna be 5 hours late. then once more we got lucky because the singaporean contingent flying korea airways arrived an hour after we did and we met up. then from there we looked so obviously like camp counsellors that other international camp counsellors camp to join us!!! quite a funny sight, but the ice-breakers were done before we even left the airport. my group in chicago had like 6 singaporeans, 4 malaysians, 6 ukrainians, 4 danes, 3 mexicans, 3 moldovans, 2 columbians, 2 taiwanese, 2 ugandans, and then one each from thailand, france, brazil, paraguay, and india. and we all knew each other before even leaving the airport. so cool.

from the airport we were taken to camp henry horner in chicago where we setteld down have lunch and bonded. everyone of the counsellors are really great and friendly. we were lucky also becasue our singaporean contingent was super friendly too like everytime i make a new friend i'd drag her to the other singaporeans and introduce her and so on and so forth. so it kinda helped with getting to know everyone. at night, we had our cultural orientation even though we were all super tired. it was fun seeing everyone in funny garb and singing folk song and all.

next day it was time to leave. i realise that most wilderness ymca camps have little or pathetic internet acces or even payphones. i think they try to limit people from using these instruments to call for help haha. okie that wasn't so funny but dunno why americans laugh loudest at such statements.

anyway i was brought to union station in chicago where we were allocated our train rides. i was to travel alone to granby, colorado for 20hrs by train. no kidding. butthe good thing was that the train ride(am-trak) was really comfy. its sad because when the train first left off i was so tired that i fell asleep, so by the time i woke up in the middle of the night, i realised i missed the sights of iowa. and then in the night going through nebraska i couldn't see shite in that darkness. still the people there are sibeh boliao but friendly. bo tai bo ji will talk to you and ask you where you're going and they do that to everyone and anyone. and they arn't shy about telling total stragners about their family problems and all that. like this one guy who was going around telling everyone he was taking the train to california to run away from his stalker wife! haha. the stories the americans tell mirror those of edward bloom from big fish. its damn dua kang but damn interesting. haha. so i just listen to everything with a pinch of salt and smile and laugh when i see fit. haha. they're not that smart though.

anyway the train ride through the colorado rocky mountains was fantastic. we were going through tunnels and tunnels and mountains towering over us and all, and all the americans were cramming into the viewing gallery(me the kiasu singaporean got a really good seat early on liao on teh advice of an old lady). to catch the sights. beautiful.

okie so i finally arrived at granby. the train station is damn cool. its like a little house in the middle of nowhere and there was no one manning the station. so the camp chief ouray staff came late and i found myself taking silly pix of the little house and me. interesting. so finally this woman cindy picks me up and drives me to camp. so i figure first day should make a good impression so i said i wasn't tired(even after the long ride: wow, chris you're good!) and helped out around camp. the camp's really in a chao ji super duper ulu place. and the staff are mainly interns and counsellors from all over the united states. the super sad thing is that i'm the only international camp counsellor amongst all the locals. so a simple introduction the whole day would go like: hi i'm chris, from singapore! and the reply would be: wow that's like sweet, dude! and then i'll say: yeah, cool! and that was it. haha. nothing to say liao. they must be thinking wah lao bloody chinese can speak good english? anyway they got warmer later on, the staff like michelle brandy corny kevin and the jamaican michelle really take care of me. i think they also know i feel lonely. like during lunch and dinner they just keep introducing me to the whole world and the conversation above keeps repeating itself. but after awhile everyone gets friendly. asks how singapore's like and all, then i also dowan to say so much cos i gotta do a presentation later so i dun wanna exhaust all my trump cards. haha.

at night i was invited to play soccer in the gym. i was glad to accept the invitation since it seemed fun and americans seemingly can't kick their best friend's balls if their lives depended on it. but turns out everyone's not too bad but naturally i was comfy and it was really easy to make friends through football. well they call it soccer here. and i also got to know alot of the snow mountain ranch staff which is just a 5min walk from my camp and they got like tons and tons of international staff. so fun. but they all do the boliao jobs like cleaning the kitchen, maintenance, giftshop salesperson and blah. sibeh boh wan lah.

*pant* okie the altitude here is very high so i walk abit also will pant. playing soccer is tough, one spurt and that's it must stop and take breath and pant like dog. jialatz. but hopefully it'll get better. michelle says by the time i leave camp i'll be fit as superman.

the weather here's super jialatz. you can get several different types of conditions in a single afternoon. just today alone, i got caught in super hot sun, rain, and even hail. thats like frozen rain. and yesterday it supposedly snowed in the night. the walk down to my camp director's office is a long, dark and chilly one but i guess it's all worthwhile to be able to use the net.

okie lah i think i ought to stop here. hoping to here gossip from home. been super out of touch with the outside world and of course singapore and hall. the life here is super laidback, no rush for anything. food's american-style, i'm okie with it and i like it too because i'm forced to eat my veggies just so i wouldn't constipate. and veggies here come in the form of salad which is diy and very nice. so i end up eating only lotsa lettuce but with lotsa different types of sauce. i think i've already picked up the american accent. it wasn't too difficult and the americans pick it up right away as compared to when i speak normally they gotta come closer to listen again. so always just speak loud and slow and they'll geddit.

here they're also super confident in everything they do. dunno how to do also gek seh know how to do, then when they do poorly they still praise each other for the right spirit and blah. takes getting used to but as long as you get things done with integrity and honesty the americans don't falult you even if what you do fucks up. they encourage alot of failing and trying and even on the train every mother's son has a story to tell about their super mega failures(and i mean really dumb stuff man - like this guy who said he bought a car and sold it a week later for a huge loss just because he decided he wanted a boat instead!) haha.

okie lah shall end here liao. everyone reading this please take good care and update me on any happening things if possible yeah. miss everyone back home and miss the singapore life.

to mark and joe, whatever you camp instructor tells you to bring or whatever advice were given in our smu orientation, its all super duper wooper relevant, so read through that a few more times.

take care everyone!

Leaving On A Jetplane

haven`t been blogging much the past coupla days. been super busy packing up for campusa. i can`t say i`m terribly excited though, what with moving out of hall and certain events that happened during our final cheonging session before i left. kinda leaves me more worried about what`s left behind than where i`m heading.

still. here i am. on my way to the 5mth adventure i set out to plan since january. on the bright side, its finally become reality unfolding and i hope this will trully be a memorable and perhaps even life-altering(it better be in a good way!) experience.

i`m at narita airport, tokyo, japan right now. beginning my 5hr transit time blogging to one and all. temperature`s normal air-con, and scenary@s nothing much to speak of. am with jing jing and carol, with whom i took the flight with. they`re pretty nice people, jing jing`s from nie, sporty and chatty gal so there`s pretty much to yak about since we met. carol`s 29 and working already and she`s already assumed what looks like an older sister role. nice to talk to as well and better yet speaks super duper wooper fluent japanese(super impressed) which helps get us around alot. i hope my fluent english will help when we get to the states.

the flight here wasn`t exactly the most comfortable. 6hrs. i tried to sleep but its hard to do so in a sitting position even with the seat inclined to its maximum. in the end jing jing moved to the row behind us which was empty, thereby freeing the middle seat between carol and i. and i curled up on her empty seat like a cold puppy. nice of carol to tahan facing my smeely feet. as much as i didn`t think i had good sleep, both carol and jing jing agree that i sleep like a log. a very dead log. so much so that i missed breakfast completely and the stewardess had to leave a note informing me to inform them when i`ve awoken. haha. and carol couldn`t go to the toilet just because she felt i was sleeping too comfortably and didn`t want to wake me(and THAT`S why i don`t take the window seat). breakfast totally sucked. they served porridge and exactly two mouthfuls of soba. tasted like plastic, but i finished them just because i was hungry. least they gave nice yoghurt.

last night the family sent me off. along with chun and jinde. nice of them to come. though its hard to juggle friends and family especially in burger king. which is why i don`t like people sending me off. ma was a weeping mess. haiz, hate it when females cry. haha. but yeah i promise to take care of myself, ma.

oh well, i`m going for breakfast with jing jing and carol now. will tryta blog as much as possible to keep evryone updated about my current status. i don`t think i`ll be blogging much once i get to camp though. so will just blog as much as i can while i can. everyone do feel free to update me on current events via the comments page yeah?

meanwhile take care everyone. narita airport is nice, but not as nice as changi.

Closure

just met up with prof chan just now.

he came down to confirm with me some of the details regarding the experimental rig. think he was trying too hard to end our student/prof relationship on a good note. we spent more time talking about my trip. told me not to worry about my fyp grade, will definitely pass(which i suppose is good enough for me), what's important is what i do after i graduate and going on such a trip is a very good start, colorado nice place, volunteerism will go a long way helping my career...and so on and so forth. i don't think he's ever been this nice to me ever before. his last words were that if i needed any help or references don't hesitate to look him up. somehow i got a feeling he'll be looking to me for help about the rig more than i will need his. but what the heck, a good note to end my campus life nonetheless.

also a relieving sense of closure to know that i wouldn't fail my fyp.

clearing up room now. final move back home tomorrow morning. tonight gonna party hard.

countdown to campusa: 3 days

Pride Reclaimed

just came back from ippt. earned back the $200 that i missed out on last year. surprisingly managed 10 pull-ups. yay. went with fitness freak lincoln. whatever i do he does better. MUCH better. but what the hey, always good to have company for these kinda things. results as follows:

sit-up
me: 40
fitness freak: 40

standing broad jump
me: 250cm
fitness freak: 260cm

pull-ups
me: 10
fitness freak: 12

shuttle run
me: 9.0s
fitness freak: 8.6s

2.4km run
me: 10:54min
fitness freak: 9:25min

haha.

moved out 2/3s of the things in my room liao. hostel room looks pretty empty now. released my bitch into the nanyang lake. giving most furniture away. either tom or saturday will be the final round of shifting. bloody tough work. handed over fyp stuff to yuan chuan liaoz. tomorrow final handing of my hard-bound fyp report and then i'm done with ntu liaoz. yay.

oooh. cuz my nokia 5210 is not a tri-band phone, i had to change it so went out and got myself a samsung v200!!! wheeee...so cool camera phone, spent whole day taking pix of the whole world. bought it at taka m1 shop for $338 when the advertised price was $388! haha the staff made a mistakeso i save $50. hooray. went out with leon fiona mulian chun yesterday too, ate at taka's pasta cafe.

day before went shopping with joe and mark. went to beach road to buy our gear. got myself a good backpack at a good price of $170 (u.p.$249), then got other things like jungle hat, poncho, inflatable pillow and a zero-degree sleeping bag ($38) for the trip. all quite good buys after good and sound bargaining. joe thinks i'm damn auntie. haha. hey, if got talent then must make use of it mah...

tomorrow hopefully will go cheong with the lot of them before i fly off on monday.

countdown to campusa: 4 days

Rush Rush

been too busy to blog lately. so busy in fact, then when i logged on just now, my homepage was gone, just like mentioned in john's blog.

anyway it's really been quite a while sine last i blogged.

on saturday we had the campusa orientation at smu. it's good to be able to put a face to the email correspondents in my may 25th departure group. got to know quite a few of them. in all there're 10 of us heading to chicago on may 25th, of which i'm the only guy. sadly, my theory in the previous blog regarding chio bus seems valid. mark joe and i got split into different groups during the orientation, and we were made to play silly ice-breakers. silly not because i've played them all before nor hat they were unnecessary, but silly because they were inappropriate and ill-managed. i mean, the ice-breaker version of rock-paper-scissors(wizard-giant-elf) played under the searing afternoon sun? allthis before we even got ourselves aquianted in our groups? so silly.

but still ultimately the aim to get to know those leaving the same day was finally achieved. and since they're all pretty nice people, the day didn't end on too bad a note. there's another 3 other girls taking the same flight as i am(the jal one) while another 6 are flying by korean airways. and we'll all be meeting up again during the orientation in chicago.

sunday was the alumni beach volleyball outing in sentosa. was quite fun, attended by quite alot of people though mostly frm my block and the alumni committee. went early to book a nice spot on the beach(turned out to be the other extreme end of palawan beach). we had myself thomas mark lincoln adrian lichun fina and xiuwen. played volleyball, ultimate freebie and a few other games. a few of them even went to the sea to cool off or suntan. was a particularly hot day, and i'm totally charred. in the afternoon we had others joining us, leon steven norman zhihong mulian val yonghui sonya roy, at different times. was really quite a fun day at the beach. i'm sure everyone had his or her own highlight. mine was definitely the 6 of us me linc roy norman steven and adrian attempting the record-breaking one-limb-keep-the-ball-in-the-air. took us a long time and alot of tries(almost gave up so many times!) but finally we managed to acheive our target of keeping it up in the air for 100 hits! so cool!!! haha. we had wanted to stay till only around 3-4pm but by the time we hit the showers it was almost 6pm liaoz. dinner was once again together at harbourfront mcdonalds. a fruitful and fun yet tiring day indeed!

and as if the day's activities weren't enough, i went home and took the car back to ntu with ma to move some of my things back home! dunno how i manage to drive all the way back in my tired mass. to make matters worse, I FORGOT TO BRING MY HALL KEY!! wah lao in my 4 years in ntu this was the first time it happened!!! shite. anyway i ended up climbing into my own room via eric's room(lucky he was around!) and moved my things.then had to lock my door and climb back to his room via the ultra dangerous cliff hanging ledge(funny i didn't think much of it). also gotta thank kee heng for helping me with some of my things.

then at night i still drove out for supper till 2am!!!

and so yesterday i was a wreck with a nose dripping like a tap. ended up resting the whole day and writing all the necessary emails to the different people who're expecting one from me. slept super duper early like around 10+.

and that was my exciting weekend.

countdown to ippt: 2 days
countdown to campusa: 6 days

And Now The Walls Are Bare...

just spent the last 2 hours clearing up the rubbish in my room. goodness gracious i've really got tons of rubbish man. at least 3 trash bags worth of them, and i'm not even done yet. this is just the beginning...

basically cleared the top shelf , the cabinet under the fish tank and various other assorted things lying all over my room.so much rubbish. finally threw away the things i didn't have the heart to throw before(even the original squishie!), and all the useless stuff i kept for just-in-case purposes.

the hardest to clear for today wear the original squishie and my curtains! boo hoo! so sad.

the original squishie is that super-duper huge pirated piyo piyo. like its shaped like a rectangular airplane but its head is piyo piyo. but its so darn cute!!! those of you who were around in year one and two should have lotsa fond memories of it. even got a few good pix of various people hugging it before. haiz. finally dug it out from under my bed(totally went out of flavour after year 2) and sadly dragged it to the rubbish bin. BUT i took a nice cute pic of it, ah, the good times we had...anyone wanna see just lemme know.

the curtains i bought from ikea last year after i moved back from 43 when 44 was undrgoing renovation. lotsa cute animals against a an opaque whitish backdrop. cute! its managed to hold its own a coupla times too. remember the auntie making that stupid curtain joke about me having lotsa pets? yeah. and that was its 15s of fame alright. so sad to have to strip them down.

will be moving even more come next week.

the whole afternoon was spent slogging(okie so it wasn't TOO difficult and it was much faster than the last time i did it) away printing my fyps for hard-cover binding. wasn't very difficult like i said. but spent slightly over $150 for them. so bloody expensive man. haiz. but at least i've finally settled all the fyp admin with the school. just left with handing over my experimental test rig next wednesday.

hopefully i'll pass my fyp. prof wong told me i'll probably pass it, says the moderator thinks i did enough to pass but not get a good grade. but still its damn bloody sickening that i cannot obtain any concrete sense of closure before i leave.

the stupid prof yeo didn't really help much even though he tried to be nice and said i most probably(i hate this phrase already) wouldn't fail. he said he'd help me handle the administrative stuff in the ugly scenario that i have to appeal to do another sem in school, though he can't guarantee that my appeal will be successful in the first place. fuckshite. he says i have to email him asap after my results are out should such an ugly scenario come about. then again i'll be looking after stupid american kids and have little time for email, if i'm lucky i'd get to use the net like once every 2-3days. haiz dunno lah. bottomline is we both agreed that the best case scenario was that i passed everything. wah lan sibeh duh. how nice of him to enlighten me. geez must be the evil thoughts in my head as i stared at his bald pate while he was talking. argh.

tomorrow's campusa orientation at smu. mark and i have agreed we'll walk out early if there're no chio bus in attendence. which brings me to the point as to why there wouldn't be any chio bus going for campusa.

the commitment that this program entails is so long, torturous and tedious that the pretty girls would not dare apply for fear of safety/hassle/loneliness/discomfort and whatever silly reason in a foreign land for so long. but most of all, a chio bu technically should or most probably would have a boyfriend by this stage of their lives who will thereby forbid her to go on such a long trip, chances are laying their relationaship on the line. what choice would they then have but to settle for short yep-organized trips?so there. no chio girls. should there be any then they probably just got dumped.

so what does that leave us with? the good(personality), the bad(looks or/and personality) and the ugly(nuff' said) who're adventurous and very keen to go to the most ulu of places all by themselves(always inviting us, naturally) because they know harm will evade them wherever they may wonder. haha. *evil cackle* and love roller coaster rides *shiver*

okie i'm downright mean. go bathe liao. we'll see tomorrow.

countdown to ippt: 5 days
countdown to campusa: 9 days

A Meeting Of Old Pals

just went to meet up with the old primary school friends in our twice-a-year gathering. this time's outing was attended by a record-low 7 people man, wah lao. only had jinglong noor yonghan hanlong yaoquan lewis. ate at hisamoto, raffles city, then proceeded to father flanagan's, chijmes, for a drink before comine back to hall with lewis.

everyone's finally graduated(hopefully myself included!), and everyone's still bumming around before beginning to find a job.

jinglong, biz ad honours grad, our ex-monitor and the fella who deserves the most credit for making these gatherings a reality will be flying off to shanghai on sunday with an nus biz ad delegation to dunno-what-check-out-what-biz-opportunities there. lucky him. he's bonded to a logistics firm liaoz though.

hanlong, ex-good bud, is still his usual wet blanketty self. forever never change, always likes to see and expose the downside of every idea and opinion and talks like he's seen alot *roll eyes*. anyway he's from nus environmental engine. still bumming around for awhile. waiting to go to cambodia(to build a school i think?) on a yep program(all the rage these days).

lewis, ntu basketball ivp, going to taiwan in a week's time on some ivp tour i think. electrical engine grad. still the cheenapok i've always known. but nice to talk to nonetheless. he was the one who wrote the one poem in my primary 6 autograph book that i can still remember:

when you grow old and ugly,
like old people always do,
don't forget your friend,
who'll be old and ugly too.

sounds a tad funny, but i've remembered this poem since primary 6 haha. its queer yet sensible eh?

yaoquan "the spud", mass comm grad, also another ex-bud, still is the same as ever. i don't think he's changed much compared to the rest of us. but his sense of humour is still well tuned that's for sure. a tad blur at times. only can stick to high-brow humour with him. but a great pal still.

noor, now an sia steward, arts grad. looks even more suave now. talks even more suave. total lady killer(said he was picked up by a milf just a few days back at liquid room! eew!). broken up with wenli liaoz. most in tune with my kinda humour, low or high, i think you gotta be like that if you're gonna charm the skirts off chicks innit?

yonghan, civil engine grad. most distant. nothing much to say about him. very polite and goody. haha. reminds me of myself in primary 6 in fact. haha.

me? i'm still the jokey one who's talking the most and the least serious with anything. haha. i think old impressions are hard to shed. haiz.

nice to meet up and chat and be comfortable anyway. i think such meetings are always good for keeping in touch. else too long never see each other then won't have that much to say to each other and the chats would only be pepper-sprayed with awkward silences. but no, not this regular bunch of us. and maybe that's why i'm so proud to tell people my primary school friends are still meeting up.