Controversy

Sportsmanship is a difficult quality to assess, especially not in one day.

Yesterday, there was a sports carnival and there was fun whole day, till after the prize presentation. A group was awarded the best sportsmanship group and this sparked off a huge war of words on FB between them and another group. Apparently either the award boosted the winning team's ego and it got too big or the other group felt the result was unfair...

Anyway, both teams had demonstrated bad sportsmanship and I don't think they would deserve the award. They just don't understand what sportsmanship is about, should have changed the name of the award to maybe "best cheering team".

An invitation

In my times as a primary school student, I can't wait to get far far away from my teachers. Why do I get a birthday invitation then? Time really has changed..

Happy Children's Day!

Never thought I would hear this song again, but now, I'm back celebrating the occasion.

Started work for three weeks already, and not exactly that busy, haha.. Just been lazy to update the blog. Been rather fun sometimes, but I really need to brush up on how to get the class to listen when I speak..

In the few weeks, I probably got many kids to be scolded, letting them break the school rules without knowing.

Anyway, today is Children's Day, and I went out a few of them to play soccer. Not sure whether I doing the right things, haha.. Dilemma!

Respect vs Disrespect

Respect is earned.

Today went to play table tennis with chubbs after eating breakfast with him and Kai. I had booked the table online and we were punctual at the table, but there were some elderly at the table playing. Though obviously they seen us, they don't look like they were gonna stop.

Hm, maybe they were just trying to finish their game. Nope they weren't keeping points. Were we at the wrong table? So i went to check with the counter, and indeed, it was the right table. So this time, I just asked them and an auntie answered, "this table and the other table are reserved for senior citizens, are you sure you booked it? You got receipt? You got pay anot?" And all sorts of funny questions. So in the end, I just go the counter and get them to print me a piece of paper that clearly stated the time and table I booked. What more can they say? Com'on you want play you book table la, waste my time and had to kill more trees to get the receipt printed.

Yesterday, or weekly in fact, I felt exploited by this relative of mine. Every time, doesn't help out in preparing food, and just sits around waiting to play mahjong, grumbles when lose money, and in fact, none of us likes to play with her, then EXPECTS me to drive her home. Always brag about how good his sons are when I only see them 0-2 times a year (CNY, Ching Ming), why not ask them come pick her up? Brags about her grandchild, when she really is a terror even at a young age of donno what, cos also 0-2 times. Has B.O. (not genetic) since I didn't remember her having that problem when I was younger, so probably clothes never wash or something like that. Stink up the car somemore.. The list probably goes on, but enough grumbling for now. Find it a bother to even talk to her, really donno how to show respect to her sia.. Why should I go the extra mile for her?

Vic also pointed out after I told him bout the table incident, and commented something like not youngsters dowan respect them, but is cause the way they behave. Anyway, he probably only refers to that particular auntie-type SC. They can really be a nuisance, push trolleys to their home, and chuck them by the roadside, beside the bball court/void deck. Blocking people from alighting trains are also them, expects people to give up seats to them when they fit as a fiddle. Don't like other people call them auntie when they call themselves aunties -.-

Linked Article

Goal setting

Earlier in January this year, I attended the mentoring program training and I had this session where I had to do a goal setting exercise with my mentor-in-training. At that time, I wasn't really sure what I wanted as well, so had to anyhow put up something in the form. Well, it was a career related goal.

Anyhow, since I've acquired this goal around March, I've started to lose my sense of direction and have slacked for a while now. Until a while back, one of my neighbours called yy, a secondary one candidly told me this, "On the first day, my teacher came in, I straightaway told her that she was fat." When you see a "she", being linked with the word "fat", you can imagine the rivalry between them since then.

Of course, if I hadn't been in the mentoring program, I probably would have just laugh off what the youngster said, since I was in the mentoring programming, I felt obliged to say a word of fairness to this poor teacher. I did however make it sound casual and not like I'm reprimanding him. Not sure if it worked though.

Backed to the point, I was asked this question many times "How come I going to teach in a p sch? Is it by choice?". And I really hate to answer this question, cos really, I was given this posting. But to think further to the past, I would also have chosen to go p sch for a personal reason which I cleanly forgotten because many pple have started questioning my beliefs, and it's difficult to stand firm like that. To me, education is not just about attaining the grades.

Many ppl have the preconception that adolescents are rebellious. They probably are, but certainly, from most of them that I have seen so far, they probably just shoot off the words before thinking, and thus hurting the feelings of other people.

To end off with the quote "a thousand miles begins with a single step" of course spoken by a famous person, whom I'm too lazy to go search who (why in the world do we need to know who said that?) . Taking a first step is very important to reaching the ultimate goal, cos by the law of inertia once you start, you will have less willingness to stop.

Haha, how I wish that someday, ppl will quote what I might have said purposely or accidentally, but I don't really want them to quote it with my name, they can own that sentence if they believe in it. Looks are deceiving so sometimes, nonsense do make sense :p

I will give way

I pledge that I will give way to YOG vehicles even when:

1) I unknowingly drove onto the second leftest lane, when I was driving on the second rightest lane in a 4 lane expressway when it suddenly converges into 3 lanes.

2) the traffic is very congested, I will forcefully change lane.

(So that I will not be fined).

(Why can't they just share the rightest lane with emergency vehicles, instead of splitting affected roads into 2?).

Just a little bit Retro

Yesterday while lunching at my old place of residence, my mum said hi to an auntie whom she suggested that i remember. In fact, I was totally clueless and it happens that the auntie used to be the ice-cream vendor at my primary school, while I was studying there.. Wow, my mum has great memory.

After a while, she saw and greeted another auntie, and shot out a name that was totally foreign to me, and who is the child of the auntie. That child happens to be my classmate in kindergarten :/ OMG.. I only remember 2 names from kindergarten, and I've already no contact with them, trust my mum to remember. Guess they remember everything about their children.

Later in the afternoon, I have a guest, who came over to borrow my comp to try to restore his iphone. He even brought over some PS games and a controller to play at my house :x Playstation 1 if anyone don't know what that is. Haha, I thrashed him in winning eleven, since I'm quite pro at it, and he beat me in the racing game he brought. LOL..

Today was slightly better. After a long day out, I played DOTA with my mentees, probably 1+ yr since I last played with anyone. Maybe they will still ask me to play again soon :p

Homework Strategies

It's the parents that fret about the child's homework when they can't finish or won't start doing them. It's rather amusing to see parents using many different strategies to get their child to do their homework.

1. Baits

Using food to entice the child to do their homework. Some favourite baits include ice-cream, sweets, chocolate. Could prove very effective when dealing with a gourmet kid (if put in a nice way). However, with so much food attracting the attention, how much of the attention is spent on the homework?

2. Play time

"Work hard, play hard". No one says it the other way round, obviously parents aren't exceptions. More often than not, you will hear parents shouting "Quick do your homework, then you can go play your PS3!", if you don't do your homework, then your play time is compromised, simple. But a lot of time, after doing homework, the parents will say "Go learn your spelling!!". LOL! Bye bye to play time..

3. Reasoning

Over the weekend is when there is the highest amount of homework, and you will hear this "You do this homework now, then you will have less to do tomorrow." Perfectly logical, but not appealing at all.

4. Threaten

Possibly the first exposure to the notion of threatening comes from the parents when they threaten to give them a beating for not doing their work.

Acquaintances

Just a few years back, I would have played bball only if the court was at least half empty, so I could train shooting on my own. Even on days when there were people who came and wanted to play with me, I would have reservations about playing.

Nowadays, I realized that I did not want to play when the court was empty. My view of making acquaintances seemed to have taken a big turn, probably thanks to the CCA that I had joined for 2 years.

It's common interest that pulls people together, and then it takes effort to nurture the budding friendship, and even more to maintain the friendship.

I've read or heard somewhere that it's easiest to make friends during childhood. Friends are constantly replaced by new ones, that's why we have contact with so little of our primary school friends. As we grow older, and become more and more picky with our friends, there ain't no constant flow of new friends, and therefore spends more effort in maintaining friendships.

I think it's important to maintain friendship and at the same time keep meeting new people, so that you don't cling onto just a single friend and be a burden to that friend.

Keep an open mind and be thick-skinned!

游山玩水

The holiday so far can be very much summed up using the above proverb.



The hotel


玩水1: whitewater rafting


游山- take nothing but photographs, leave nothing but footprints


downhill! OOPS, the peak you will have to find in fb photos


玩水2: kayaking 1-star


chubbs to the rescue


GTG!

Four weeks on

After making the crazy move, I think I sort of got the results I was looking for. There were many hiccups along the way, but I think the trouble was worth going through.

Let's hope everything goes well till end May, and well beyond. Good luck to people having exams soon!

I just made a crazy move on the chess board, only time will tell whether it's the right move.

一着不慎，满盘皆输。

Have you not enough time?

Bad news!
http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-01/chilean-quake-likely-shifted-earth-s-axis-nasa-scientist-says.html

Thinking

The past few weeks, I spent so much time thinking that I felt I had cease operations, greatly reducing productivity. Most of the time, I've spent planning for sessions with my 2 new brothers and bring out learning points from the activities. It's kinda hard to do so, since it's very unnatural if you want to do it purposefully.

Initially, I had thought that this activity would not be so demanding, since I was supposed to have around one outing every two weeks. But with all these plannings, it seems like I spent almost everyday thinking about what to do. LOL.. So far, we've had 3 sessions and they were really good. I felt that it was time well-spent, but I would need to manage my time better so that I can find a balance between academic and non-academic matters. Ultimately, I don't want to go for convocation with Godlike Kai..

Lost!

This is the first time I found this daily horoscope thingey accurate.. Here is your Daily Horoscope for Friday, February 5

You are feeling rather odd about something that's important to you -- maybe your career, maybe your family. You can see where you're headed, but you're not sure exactly how to get there.

PSK 09 Part 7 - The Celebration

Day 14:
It's time to move on. Our mission at Prey Veng is completed. The morning before breakfast, the landlord wanted to have a photo taking session with us. Kinda like taking a class photo.



After breakfast, we packed up and returned the logistical items to the NGO. Then we took some time off to visit the market and this might really be the last time I'm walking to the market. Don't really think I'll be so on to visit the place like Eric and KH did :p

When we were finally back at the youth center and ready to leave, the emotions get really high, just like last year.. But we still managed to get some good shots before we leave - the Sang Khem big family!



The bus trip from Prey Veng to Siem Reap is about 6 hours. In a more local context, it's about the time we'll take to drive from Singapore to KL at 110km/h. But we really didn't move at that speed, so the distance should be less. Along the way, we also kana tok by some restaurant, really expensive food..

We had dinner at Siem Reap, at 7000riels/head, really cheap and nice Zi Cha + free flow of rice. After dinner, we visited the night market, and for me, I just went to one corner of the market to relax.



Day 15:
The hotel this time was really shiok, though slightly more expensive than last year, I felt it was money well spent. Today is the day we visit Angkor Wat, though not that interesting a place, it's still a must go if you visit Cambodia.

The morning we visited the smaller temples and after lunch, we went to the main temple. It really wasn't as nice as last year, not just because it's the second time that I went, but because of the restoration works in progress. Look at the green nettings!!



After dinner, I decided that I'll go back to the hotel while most of the team went to the night market again. It was a good time for me to enjoy some quiet moments by myself.

Day 16:
The morning and noon was spent at 2 different markets. This is the last chance to do our shopping and everyone really bought a lot of souvenirs, except for me, since I don't really wanna buy the same things I bought last year, lol..

The highlight of the day was the cruise along Tonle Sap where we get to enjoy the final sunset at Cambodia. Somehow I felt relieved as the sun slowly disappear beyond the horizon, my journey as VPD of the project is almost coming to an end :)



Day 17:
We flew back to Singapore at 12pm, and some of us stayed for popeye lunch, like a year before. Somehow I see this becoming a routine for future batch..

Afterthought:
After PSK09, I attended a mentoring training. Like the instructors say, many of us neglect the importance of giving ourselves credits for things that we have done. We might keep thinking of the things that we had failed to do and want to correct that the next time and improve ourselves. However, I thought celebrating is very important as it spur us to achieve greater heights. Give yourself a break. Here's a video for you if you bump into this post :D

PSK 09 Part 6 -Camp II

Day 11 - 13:
After the break, the team was rejuvenated and ready to complete the education camp, or were we? I was slightly sick on day 11 but was well again by day 12 and ready to give my English lesson. Though I think my lesson wasn't that fun, the kids still kinda enjoyed it, lol..

Day 13 was the finale day. In the morning, we had some competition style games and breaking the participants into teams to compete against each other. The way they played were quite aggressive and we were lucky no blood was shed.

Afternoon was "disco" session, but there weren't many people, mostly the regulars who came. With the end of the last song, our mission there has ended.

Some of the youths invited us to an exhibition match of football. At 5pm, we made our way to a nearby school where the match will be held. It was 6v6, and we really had fun. The field was quite rough and some of us were hurt in the game, but nothing can dampen our spirit to have fun. The match ended in a 8-3 defeat.

PSK 09 Part 5 - Break Time?

Day 10:
One more week and we'll be headed back home, and today, the youth centre took a break from the camp. After breakfast, we all changed into a slightly more formal outfit and made our way to the church. Just like last year, we will be there to have a Christmas celebration, but we'll not be performing this time round. Something else that's different was that we had to walk there!! No more convoy!!!

We reach at about nine. There were various performances from different groups and the performance was like 3 hr.. Phew, when it's time for lunch. This time, it's curry pork and bread, really nice! After lunch, it's the dance segment and we were all invited to join in and have fun. This was when the Love Export team finally come, and they joined in the dance after their lunch.



At around 3pm, we left the church and most of us went to the market. Mostly, it was free and easy until after dinner, when we had a good sharing session to end the day.

PSK 09 Part 4 - Camp

Day 7 - 9:
The second highlight of the trip was the educational camp, lasting a grand total of 6 days. With feedback from last year, we tweaked our camp content a little, focusing more on conversational english. To cater to the younger ones, we also had the english divided into beginners and advanced level.

Apart from that, we also had handicraft sessions where we learn handicrafts from them. Though it was originally intended to be the other way round.

Though we're suppose to be giving conversational lesson, there were still the need for translators to help convey the message in Khmer language. Many thanks to the friends who helped out with translating :)