New year...new class...new challenges...

Yes yes, I know I haven't been posting in a long time. Not at I didn't want to....but 1) I didn't have time to 2) When i wanted to, Blogger kept rejecting the photos! What's a post without a photo or two right? :P

So very quickly, a month and a half of 2009 has passed by...I must confess that I'm only JUST getting used to teaching full Math load again after doing a partial music load for the past 3 years. And to make matters worse, my timetable has changed like about FOUR times since school started (and no, I'm not trying to be funny, it literally changed 4 times). Oh well, what to do? I have no say over when and how my timetable changes anyway...so, whatever la.

My kids from last year have all finally settled into their respective JCs and finished their orientations. Seeing their orientation photos on Facebook and their blogs makes me recall the great times that I had while in JC too. To be frank, my own orientation was SUPER BORING. Haha, no thanks to my quiet and shy OGLs that took my OG...plus the super cliques that stuck to themselves. But the rest of my life in JC was a blast! =) The camaraderie and school spirit, something that I'll always miss.

The other day some of my boys came back to visit, and we were just talking about their orientation, the cheers, mass dance and all...and they were commenting on how the school spirit is awesome in JCs, and how it was almost a culture shock to them. But actually, I think, they felt that way coz WE don't have a strong cheer culture nor hyper strong school spirit over here. Something that I, up to now, only half understand, and feel a sense of helplessness about. To me, strong school spirit, love for the school and cheer culture is an integral part, or even part and parcel of school life.

But oh well, I guess for our boys, better late than never :)

So, 2 major fun events that took place over the last week...

S2 Learning Journey - Battlefield Tour

My 2nd time going on the Battlefield Tour, brings back some memories... Was very happy that we visited the Battlebox this time round =)

The entrance into Battlebox, the underground chambers that the British army operated in when they were defending Singapore during the world war.

A pity no pictures are allowed inside the Battlebox itself..

Everyone walking towards the gate of Fort Canning....love the background being slightly blur with the focus on one of my boys.. Love my new camera functions!! :P

At Changi Museum..

The many little notes of remembrance and thanks from visitors and relatives of the soldiers who gave their lives to fight for Singapore..

Kranji War Memorial

I think it's always at the Kranji War Cemetery-cum-memorial where the kids will have their deepest impressions of the whole trip. At least, that's what I feel.

Throughout the day, our guide had told us many many stories about our war heroes, and how they fought for us...and to finally see their graves at Kranji....it just leaves a greater impact than ever.

The ceremony of remembrance, of those who gave their lives, that we may be free...

Simply love this pic.... :)


And this is us, at the end of the Learning Journey :)

*tired*

Sec2 camp another time.......

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy new year everyone :)

Heh, seems like I'm still a lazy blogger during the hols :P

Can't quite believe it's the new year alr, and that sch reopens tomorrow!!! Dark eye rings...here I come..... :\

Haha...well, don't really feel like writing much, so as usual, pictures shall do the talking ;)

Taiwan trip

Me and my favourite bing tang hu lu!! Basically it's malt-coated fruits :P Simply LOVE it. LOVE. I think I had one stick almost everyday that I was in taiwan..

G and I taking a pic near our hotel..thought the trees and flags in the background was pretty nice.. :) And look at the perfect weather! I think we had perfect weather 6 out of 7 days that we were there...nice and sunny for taking pics :)

No this is not my hotel's lobby, it is Qian Gui, the equivalent of PartyWorld KTV in Taiwan. Just look at their posh lobby! And, the ENTIRE building is for KTV...they have nice lifts inside that brings you to your room's floor, and what's more, every single karaoke room has its own toilet. It's own toilet! My goodness...

This is where we had Steamboat, Mala buffet steamboat =) Super yummy...it's called La(4) Zhong (1) Jian (1) :) Though it took us a little while to find it, it was definitely worth it! My favourite dish was the fish ball that had fish roe inside...yummmmmmm...

This is us having our packed MOS burger breakfast at the train station, waiting for the 8am train to bring us to Chiayi, before we took another bus to Alishan for a 2D1N trip. Look at the super cute milk bottle!! It's from the MOS burger there...

This is one of the aboriginal tribes in Taiwan performing at Alishan. They really really look like they are of tribal origins....from their features and all..super don't look like chinese..

Just one of the many nice views in Alishan...

This is all of us, thawing at the Starbucks at Alishan! Haha...we were SO happy to see it coz we were so so so so so so cold. :P Just look at our happy faces...haha..

One of the 2 highlights of my entire Taiwan trip, the sunset at Alishan :) It was so beautiful....*sigh*

It was so cold the whole time we were standing there..THANKFULLY I was already wearing my thermals.... :P

This is about 5.55am in the morning at Alishan, we were all queuing to take the 6am train to a higher up place at Alishan to see the sunrise! My 2nd highlight of the trip :)

The old rickety train....

And this is us, half awake. Hahha...we packed breakfast once again the night before from the 7-11 equivalent there...and ate our breakfast on the way up the mountain..

Our station at the top. And thus begins our loooooooooong (ok not so long, but it felt like it :P) trek up to the highest point to have the best view of the sunrise. I think this was at about 7.30am? The sun was gonna peep at us at about 7.50am according to the guide who was there. Apparently, the sun rises at different angles throughout the year, and the guides there know exactly where it's rising from.

The guide told us exactly which angle at which the sun would be rising, so we were all waiting earnestly for it to peep out from behind the mountain. And apparently, we were VERY lucky as well, because it seems they hadn't been able to see the sunrise over the last 3 days due to cloud cover. YAY! Lucky us :)

These 2 shots were taken only like 2 seconds apart. The sun rose REALLY quickly...you could literally see it rising by the second...super cool... :)

Self-potrait! Haha..it pays to have long arms....because whenever I try to take self-potraits, I always cut my own face in half :S

After the sun had risen....love the scenery still...the colours and all...really beautiful... All who are going to taiwan, must go Alishan to see the sunrise and sunset! Haha..I think the next time I go there, I'll join in this tour which starts at 4.30am in the morning...where we'll get to see even more scenery... :)

This is me in the Ferris Wheel which was in one of the taiwanese serials called Huan (4) Huan (4) Ai (4) which starred Yang Chen Ling and He Jun Xiang.

One of my favourite pics :) Heh, taken at the shopping centre that is beside the ferris wheel, also one of the filming sites of the taiwanese serial. Now I kinda know why those aunties all wanna visit the filming sites of the korean dramas when they go over to Korea...because it really is quite exciting seeing the place in real-life after you've seen it on TV :P

This is yet another sunset that we watched, at Danshui. I'd been to Danshui on my previous taiwan trip, but we didn't stay to watch the sunset then.

OK, that's all for updates. So mah fan to put up pictures coz they keep appearing at the top of the post everytime I upload new pics....but oh well, what's a post without pictures? :)

I can't believe I must wake up early tomorrow all over again!!!!

Ok, enough of self-denial.....

No water?!?!

Yes. You read correctly, my house is out of water :S

I'm beginning to think that I've gone back in time to the era where water was not available through taps but have to be drawn from a common well in the centre of the village.

Apparently some pipe burst and it's raining down into my neighbour's house downstairs, so my water supply to my house has been SHUT OFF.

If you don't realise what that literally means...it means, having to get water from a hose outside of my house for simple things like washing my hands, brushing teeth, bathing, drinking, flushing toilet!!!!!!

OMG. How can this be happening. :(

I hope it gets fixed....FAST. pllllssssssssss....................

Oh wellz, have to live with it no matter what. Am just psychoing myself that I'm like camping...where in the good ol' days, we used pails and scoops to get our bath done..haha..

Anyway, I've decided to put up some pics that I've taken over the last 2 weeks with my hp, before I procrastinate so long that I decide to not put them up (like I've done many times in the past) :P

Korea

Just thought it's very interesting how they stick a bar of soap onto this metal rod at this particular toilet instead of having soap dispensers.. :P

We went for an early trek in Jeju....

...this is the view from halfway up the hill :)

They actually have a TEDDY BEAR MUSUEM

Does this look familiar? (*hint: Goong...)
Aaaawwwww..... :)
It was 0.4 degrees celcius the night we reached our ski resort! And if you read my previous posts, it started snowing that night :)

And this is the view from my window the next morning :):):)

Nice right??? The ski slopes are at the back...that's where we'd be skiing a while later...

After skiing...a cable car ride to the top of the mountain...

The view on the way up on one side....

And this is how thick the snow was at the mountain top!! Apparently it was at this mountain top that they filmed the popular Korean drama Winter Sonata by Baey Yong Jun.

Doesn't this feel like the path would lead you into another magical world? :)

In this theme park called Everland, they had this cool safari ride. RREALLY cool coz, some lions, tigers and bears are just sleeping or walking right beside the bus...so we get to see them SUPER close range :P

Displaying an action that was pre-taught in order to get a biscuit from the safari bus driver...

See how close they are to us???

Right in front of my face!!! :)

OK, getting bored of uploading photos. Shall do it some other time....tmw tmw...tmw.... :P

International citizen

Hello everyone....

I'm currently in....................HONG KONG :)
Haha....8 days in Korea zipped by me...reached Singapore at 2 am in the morning on 2 Dec..and then went to the airport again at 6.30am on 3 Dec to fly over to HK :P Heh...really makes me feel like an international citizen...hee.

Korea was.....well..pretty interesting :) I think the best part of it was...that we actually saw snow coming down from the sky! SO COOL. It started snowing the night before we reached the ski resort.....and then by the next morning when we woke up, EVERYTHING was white :) Woah...you must be there to experience it....it's just....so niiiiiice.....
Skiing was pretty fun! Heh, am proud to say that I didn't fall at all :P (also because the slope we were on wasn't THAT steep...keke)

Oh and and....we had a REEEEAALLY sumptous sashimi meal....my abalone sashimi was actually ALIVE when I ate it!!!!!!!! EEKS. Haha...at first I didn't realise it when I plucked it out of it's shell...and then it started squirming...ON MY SPOON. I almost jumped! Hahah...I thought that it was perhaps just uncurling because I scooped it out..and that it was already dead. BUT, it CONTINUED squirming. OMG lor. :P

The only disappointment I felt about the trip was that we didn't do any sight-seeing in Seoul itself. It was ALL shopping and duty-free blah blah. Ginseng shop.....cosmetics shop....this shop that shop..... hmph. I really really wanted to visit the palace that was there...but it wasn't in our itinerary :( Oh wellz...will talk more about the trip when I've got time to post photos ;)


Some interesting facts that I noticed about Korea....
1. All the people involved in the tourism industry speaks average to FANTASTIC mandarin. I'ts amazing how well they can speak mandarin...pei fu pei fu :)

2. Kimchii is included in EVERY single meal of the day. EVERY.

3. The Koreans are really proud of their country, and are pretty welcoming towards foreigners. We had people ask us where we were from, and then ended off with "welcome to korea :) "... shows how much they like to play host to us.

4. The country is not foreigner-friendly, in the sense that, most signages and instructions are TOTALLY in korean. It's almost impossible to do a free-and-easy trip there unless you've got a korean speaking friend amongst the group.

5. Koreans eat very simple meals. Mostly made up of vegetables..and at most ONE meat per meal. (apparently the meat is added in coz we're foreigners...the locals only eat meat once a week!)

6. Eerrrr...can't remember anymore....if I do I'll continue next time =)


Okie, enough updates, I'm gonna watch HK drama now :P
Looking forward to my dim sum over the next few days!! :)