-The Journal-

Preparing for Exam

2010-09-08T09:36:00.001-07:00

I finished my first paper. I think it was okay.
I'm preparing for the second and third papers now. Geez, I still have the 'hangover' from the last paper on Tuesday.

My iPod spoilt! I hope nothing will go wrong during the replacement thing.

Rainert, the red fox.

2010-08-29T15:49:00.000-07:00

"I'm hungry," said Rainert, as he strolled by the side of Rhine River. The golden ray of sun, few hours before evening twilight, reflected by the water and shone on his face. He stopped and glanced at the river.
"How beautiful. But I'm hungry. I wish there is some raspberries for me to eat."

He walked again, and he encountered a brown beaver.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Barry the Beaver. I'm going to do some fishing for my dinner later. Keen to join me? I can spare you some if I have extra."
"I guess so, in fact, I'm very hungry now. I could use some fish to fill my empty stomach."

-to be continued-

Break at Bandung & David Choi in Singapore

2010-08-27T10:27:00.001-07:00

Hey, what's up? I went back to Indonesia last week, taking a short break before facing my last examination in SP. My family and I went to a few places where good foods can be found. I visited Etcetera and The Black Market. I also had a reunion with martabak keju a.k.a cheese 'pancake'. Thanks mum!

After bringing back some of my stuffs there (before I will be 'homeless' soon) and having this little break, I need to prepare myself and get ready for the exam. Things will be over in less than 20 days.

From the title, of course you will know what is the other event that I want to highlight in this post: David Choi came to Singapore last week!

So I went to his autograph session in HMV Somerset and bought his new album 'By My Side' beforehand. Azmil and I were early (we reached there at 6.30pm) and we were in the front position of the queue. At about 7.45pm he finally came (HMV said that he will come at 7pm, but David in his Twitter said that HMV asked him to be there at 7.30pm =.=) and took a video using his camera for his "davidchoitalk" channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/davidchoitalk) (I was in the video 'David Choi in Singapore Part 4!)
During my turn, I asked him to talk to my handphone camera (I forgot to bring my digicam!!) and say hi. But instead he chose to be random and said more than a 'hi'.

Autograph Session

Hi!

After the autograph session, we proceed to TAB@Orchard to watch him perform live there. You are awesome, David! Below are some low quality video that I captured at TAB.

His Trademark Dance

I should be sleeping now. Tomorrow I shall continue with the topics on antigen presentation and T cell activation for my Immunology module. Nites.

Regret

2010-07-05T11:17:00.001-07:00

The first thing that came to my mind after I got back some of the results for my MST papers was: "I regret that I didn't study enough during my first two years in SP."

Now that I'm in my last year, no, LAST SEMESTER in SP, it seems that I can't do anything to mend the holes that I made 2 years back. Well, I don't say that my result is dreadful or what, but I feel that..oh well... nevermind..=(

I have to do something very important tomorrow. Something that I, um, try to avoid. But I have to do this, there isn't many choices for me.

I had a talk with my vice-president earlier this evening, and I realize that my time for my club is getting shorter and shorter, and I know that I have to do something while staying put to the plan that I have made few months ago. Something that will ensure that the club, including the people inside it, will go better in the future. Yeah, the people inside it, the club members whom I care alot and whom are the reason of all the efforts I have be putting since a year ago...

SP Guitarists at RoboCup '10 Gala Dinner

Solving a Rubic Cube behind your back is challenging! You should try it sometimes!

2010-06-24T20:50:00.000-07:00

This morning I wanted to transfer some of my downloaded movies to my hard disk, and I was shocked that my 320GB Maxtor is already full! So, I tried to find out which files or folders are the culprits! Then, I found it! It is the folder of all the pictures and videos from my Philippines Overseas Community Service project, which make up to more than 100 GB in size...

So, I double-click on the folder, and...well, I spend more than 1 hour looking at these pictures and videos (at first I just wanted to see how many pics and vids are there), while deleting some of the pictures and videos that are not successfully taken/have problems.

It was indeed, a great and very interesting trip and also gave good experience. Beside that, I also learn more about myself, and this is very important as reflection. Not only those, I also find myself many good friends from various countries, including in the Philippines itself! You can CLICK HERE to view the videos of my Philippines trip last year March-April.

I started to read Harry Potter series again! (now in English version, thanks to Jay Teo for giving me the soft copies in PDF :D). J.K. Rowling is cool!

I'm supposed to go to ICA (Immigration and Checkpoint Authority of Singapore) today. But, I think I'm lazy though (STOP PROCRASTINATING, ERIC!!). Well, um, maybe tomorrow then..haha..And I also need to finish my datasheets before school reopens!!

This blog is not dead, yet!

2010-06-22T05:35:00.000-07:00

Well, yeah, long time no see! I don't know why I decided to update this blog after it was abandoned for a long time (it seems like I went back and disappear in my hometown after the last blogpost), and I'm sure that nobody visits this blog anymore, until sometime in the future at which I will announce this blog to public again. It is okay if nobody is reading this, well, maybe 1 person, cos at least 'talking' to the web is slightly 'better' than talking to a wall..hmm..

Now I feel a bit desperate, I'm not sure why. Maybe it is because I have to handle 'slightly more' things than a 'normal' overseas student..yeah, just 'slightly more' =.=

And the 'difficulties' that I have faced so far keep telling me and reminding me that, hey, it is only the prelude, it is only the beginning; it won't be this 'easy' in the future...Maybe I need to shape up a little bit, and try to, again, learn more...

Chinese New Year Break!

2010-02-09T17:43:00.000-08:00

Yay! All the things are finally done: FYP presentation, FYP dist panel, two OC presentation, 5 quizzes and heaps of assignments and datasheets!
Tomorrow (Thursday, 11 February 2010) I will go back to Bandung, Indonesia for Chinese New Year celebration with my family.

Here's some pictures on some events and/or activity I did (I realise my recent posts have no pictures =P):

SP Guitarists @ ISC Annual Dinner and Dance

ISC Theme Song's Sing Along

End of the Event

Never Say Goodbye - Bon Jovi

Distinction Panel Preparation

My FYP groupmate that became
my temporary adversary during dist panel

Indonesian Students!

With presenters from the other stage

Class Photo at Plant Tissue Culture Lab

The Last Stand

2010-02-02T05:08:00.000-08:00

So, it appears that my FYP saga has not ended yet. The last showdown with a panel worth of 12+ lecturers is ahead. It will be held this Friday, 5 February 2010. In this panel, each nominee needs to present his/her project in 5 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of question and answer session. Let's see what will happen next~

4 tests, 4 assignments and 2 presentations left before CNY break!

After FYP Presentation

2010-01-29T09:23:00.000-08:00

Finally my FYP saga ended today. Oh, wait, will it be ended now? Or is there still a distinction panel waiting ahead? I dunno.. I want to be selected to be in the panel so that I know that I get to know the most probable grade for my FYP much earlier..hahaha. But this is definitely not a time to take a breath, there are 3 quizzes plus 1 presentation next week. Plus, 2 bioinfo assignment and 3 animal cell culture lab datasheets..this is too much..

Tomorrow SP Guitarists will perform at ISC's Annual Dinner and Dance. Hope everything will be alright. Oh ya, one more thing..you will know that you are too stressed already when you type your admission number as loginID when you want to sign in to facebook @.@

Welcoming 2010

2010-01-01T00:42:00.000-08:00

Few last hours of 2009 was spent with my OCS'09 teammates. We had our gathering dinner at Empire State @ Iluma, Bugis. It was nice to meet up with those people whom I stayed with for about a month in the Philippines last year March.

After that I went to be a part of about a quarter of a million Singaporean to catch the firework display at City Hall.

Some 250,000 people were waiting for this +/- 10 minutes show from 2-3 hours before the display. When I reached there, it was already super-packed and I was forced to watch from the open area at Food Loft @Marina Square. Although it was not very clear, but I can still catch the display.

Lastly, I want to wish anyone who read this blog a Happy New Year! May year 2010 be better and more fruitful for all of us!! =D

nothing

2009-12-28T09:22:00.000-08:00

Everyday, from 8am to 8pm, need to do FYP stuffs. Very boring life..
But, the report submission date is 11th of Jan. Will 13 days be enough?

"All I hear is raindrops falling from the rooftop...
and today, I'm officially missing you...."

Year 2009 is coming to an end

2009-12-26T17:10:00.000-08:00

So far, year 2009 has been the most thrilling year I have ever experienced in my life. With both local and overseas community services, environmental conservation works, guitar club performances and activities, events, competitions and things happened within my course of study, I can say that this year is TOO MUCH!

I learn one thing that constantly reminds me to work harder when I'm doing something. Sometimes, we feel lazy to get something done, or maybe we feel extremely exhausted and have no mood to settle the things we have been doing. However, I believe that after we get the result of what we have been doing, all the tiredness and fatigue will be forgotten and we will be proud on how our efforts finally create fruitful achievements. On the other hand, if we were slacking, we will regret that we didn't put in more effort in the past. The sad thing is, for me, the latter happens more often. But ultimately, all these things motivate me more to not to slack around.

We went to Orchard Rd on the 25th of December. I was shocked that more than 90% of the people there were couples o.O! Then where did the singles go? I guess they were at home playing facebook..haha

Orchard Road on 25 Dec '09

Christmas Tree

Run?

2009-12-23T03:38:00.000-08:00

In my opinion, there are three ways to react toward the problems we may encounter anytime. The first way is to stop and to think on how to solve that matter with the best possible way. But the problem is, we may not have that time to stop and think, or maybe, we just don't have the 'mood' to think and we may decide to do the second and/or the third way. The second way is to be hasty and to try to solve that problem without clear mind, which will eventually make things become worst most of the time unless we really make a good decision.

The third way, which I think people usually do, is to run, or to pretend that those things didn't happen. People may find or do other things while they hope that their problems will somehow ease...funny right? I'm sure that they actually know and aware that the problem will now be solved itself. It is just an act of procrastination.

I've been running from my problems, too. I hate it, really hate it. I know that I can run, but I can't never hide. I want to stop running..

Untitled

2009-12-20T08:07:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow is Monday, actually now is already Monday, which means that I will continue doing FYP stuffs again. I feel like I'm 'saturated' with all of these things already.

Actually I wanted to dedicate some of my time on yesterday (Sunday) for my Oral Communication presentation, but I'm out of ideas.. And I still haven't started doing my Bioinformatics assignment, and a few others..

I went to Christmas KKR yesterday in Queenstown, and Dr Tong, as usual, inspired me with many things about our Lord. I really wish this Christmas will not only be a mere celebration and holiday for all of us despite of our religions, but will also be a moment for us to reflect on the things we had done this year.

SPG Camp aftermath

2009-12-19T07:01:00.000-08:00

Hey, i think there is very few people, or maybe there is nobody visiting my blog already. I think it is somewhat good this way, since I can post other things, or should I say, more personal things. Haha.

Went to SP Guitarists' training camp ytd until today. So glad that all the objectives were achieved, while the mistakes made were also there, just nice to give us more experience and learning. We are now more bonded and we also have run through the complete arrangement for The Entertainer. Woohooo!

After a quick count, I realized that there are 9 things and preparations that need to be done during this holiday, including the FYP report and FYP presentations. I need to have strong determination so that I can finish everything well. And I also just realized that all of us will be welcomed by MST results when school reopens...I dunno la...

I have been listening to Guns n' Roses' Paradise City lately, an old song from the 1980s. I also want to go to a place where the grass is green and the girls are pretty. HAHA

Hmmm....

2009-12-17T07:51:00.000-08:00

I'm tired..
Well, normally it is quite rare for me to express that sentence, but this time, I choose to start this post with that. I met my FYP supervisor this morning to discuss something regarding our report. I'm glad that she was in a quite good mood today. Finally my FYP can get into slightly better 'shape' at the moment, at I hope my group can maintain this pace for the next 2 weeks.

I missed the OCS meeting today. But I still have the chance to meet some my team '10 teammates to discuss about the food tasting 1 tomorrow. I also met Kenneth, my Philippines Overseas Community Service (OCS) teammate in the Lego Robotic room. We still have a lot of things to talk despite we haven't met each other for more than 4 months already. I think he actually wants to go back to the Philippines again.

After that I went to SPG clubhouse to have a meeting for the training cum bonding camp tomorrow (Friday) and Saturday. It is good to see that everything goes well up to this point. I hope this camp can really make us know each other better and help us to understand each other.

Oh ya, yesterday I went for the CLS Ambassador training. At last, I can meet another CASS (Communication, Arts and Social Sciences) lecturer who is, um, student-friendly, a very rare occurrence. Hmm, I think I should sleep now. I'm tired..

I have a little time to post something today!!

2009-12-16T06:19:00.000-08:00

Wow, it has been a very very very long time since the last time I made a blogpost. I wanted to post the photos taken during my birthday as the next post after that SPG video, but I have been very busy since then for my FYP and other things.

Haiz, since the last holiday on September, my FYP has been very demanding. Up until now, our progress is still not as fast as how we wanted it to be. Now I have the feeling that I won't be able to finish my FYP on time... =.=

This semester's term break started 2 days ago on Monday. Yesterday, I watched New Moon with my friends. I still don't understand why girls like it so much....really don't understand. One of my friend that went to watch this movie together with me said that the movie is very good. Hmm..is something wrong with me? Or, am I just perfectly normal?? Cos 99% of my other friend which are guys also said that the movie is rather, uh, hard to be understood.. same thing happens when we see a girl's face after she watches a movie like "Transformers"..I don't know...haha

SPG School of Classical Jr. First Time on Stage!

2009-10-13T04:40:00.000-07:00

It is delightful to see that they were performing well without any visible mistake. Keep up with your good work guys! All the way to our concert next year!! =D

Sungei Buloh Mini Expedition

2009-10-08T19:27:00.000-07:00

Singapore Polytechnic Overseas Community Service Team 2010 had done a mini expedition in Sungei Buloh. The activities included long-grass planting, nursery boxes preparation, night survey, mangrove salvaging and bird-nest construction. These are the photo taken by me with my digital cam. Pretty obvious that the photographer is still inexperienced..hahaha

Green Grasshopper

Fully matured female Huntsman spider

Purple-claw Crab

Another Huntsman Spider

Tree-climbing Crab

A spider and its prey

Bees

Another Grasshopper

Back view of the grasshopper

Dragonfly

Spider web construction

Climbing the tree

This random photo was taken few months ago. Even a sunny-side up can smile at you.

This photo is taken in my lab when I was doing my FYP. It was a quite colorful gel electrophoresis casting.

Due to my FYP, I missed the celebration of Mid-Autumn festival this year. Nevertheless, thanks to Siswanto, I was still able to enjoy the moon-cake with some of my friends. FYI, this charcoal-powder coated durian moon-cake is worth $15.

But despite the price, Siswanto, the moon-cake 'salesman', said that boxes of this moon-cake is sold like hotcakes, and mostly the rich people from Jakarta are the buyers.

#

Last week of September

2009-09-26T21:55:00.000-07:00

First month of holiday is going to end soon. Hmm, let's recall some of the activities. One day after the exam, my class, DBT/2b21 had our class outing with our tutor, Dr. Cui Taian. It was arranged last minute bcos of some issues regarding the SP allowance for class outing. The place was at fc5, so, I should better call it as class school-ing instead of class outing..haha :D

On the next day, SP International Students Club started their preparation for the Residential Project at Yong En Center, which is located at ChinaTown.

Preparing the ingredients for Cookery Class

In between of the activities and meetings, FYP is my regular costumer. Most of the time is spent in our lab at T1A. SPGuitarist holiday practices and future planning also fills in my last few spaces in my holiday agenda. Now the juniors at School of Classical Guitar are preparing for their first concert on 7th October. They will be performing Rhythm of the Rain at Dance@Moberly, together with other members from School of Acoustic Guitar and School of Electric Guitar, who will present their holiday project of song writing. Good luck to all of you!
FYI: The concert is open to public! Free admission!

~to be continued~

09/09/09

2009-09-09T05:30:00.000-07:00

Children can always amaze you. You will be startled if sometimes, you see that they can think and/or act as 'logical' as you. They can learn super fast as well. Their brain's absorbing power is like a cotton ball's ability to absorb water. Sometimes I wonder, why as we getting older, it seems like it is more difficult to 'absorb' new things, as in our study (I remember that it was just super-difficult to remember the 8 hormones produced by a particular part of our brain and their functions) and in terms in learning soft life-skills such as "how to be a good person", or maybe, "how to understand others' feelings", etc. Why? Well, what do you think? haha..

I was a one of the student helpers on Life-Science Camp which took place on 8th and 9th of September. Some of the my reasons of joining this activity are to get different exposure with different people at different ages, and to observe the effectiveness and influence of different types of education for primary school students. And, guess what, there was a two-way learning, and in fact, there are may things that I can learn from them also.

Oh ya, do you realize that today's date is 'cool'? 9th of September 2009. Many people say that this date-numbering is very rare since in will only happen once in 100 years. That's why many people choose today to do something special, for example, as a launching date of a movie, marriage, etc2. But, if we look from other point of view, each and every day is actually unique. Let's take another date, 9 Sept 1999 (09/09/99). This number will also happen only in every 100 years, same as 09/09/09. And actually, each and every date will only have the same number again in every 100 years interval. So, we have to cherish and be thankful for each day that we may have been taking for granted. Every moment is special.

Few days have passed since the holiday started last week. I hope the rest of the holiday will be more and more enjoyable.

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One sem has passed

2009-08-31T04:19:00.000-07:00

As I write this, 1 hour 15 minutes have passed after my last exam. Well, this is the end of my '4th season' in SP. This semester has been the most 'pressuring' months here in Singapore. There are a lot of learning experience, as well as many pain, fatigue and utter disappointment, have come inside the story. For instance, one of the most disappointing event was when you are finally aware that your bunch of effort is meaningless. Picture a situation, when you are given a big FAT hope to be the first in your family to go to somewhere in Europe. But, at the end of the day, some arrogant and self-centered people ruined it, and I'm sure, some people, not only me, also shared the same disappointment. Haha, sounds pretty bad, eh? This is just for sharing purposes only.

Hmm, I can say that I have forgotten when was the last time I was filled with a 'jug of happiness'. Was it after Whampoa? Hmm, maybe it was not that long. But I remember that some series of events that sum up together around January and February were the starters of the problems. And, it was getting worse as the time rolled. I remember one of my Philippine OCS teammate asked me, "Hey, why do you never 'dance' (which was actually a soft word for 'exaggerated forfeit', hahaha..) for us anymore??" I think I still owe her a few banana dances..haha =P

The holiday, which has been packed with a lot of things is just one step ahead. But again, I'm sure there will be a lot of learning there.

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The Beauty of Indonesia

2009-08-19T19:25:00.000-07:00

This is my country. Carved to its perfect and excellent shape by our amazing and mighty God. Look at her beauty and grace. Look at the fantastic beaches, lake and mountains. Look at the white peacock, comodo dragon, orangutan. Look at the wonderful culture..

I'm sure you will envy me. Despite those temporary problems caused by several greedy and power-thirsty people, I still love Indonesia..

~Indonesia, tanah air beta. Pusaka abadi nan jaya. Indonesia, sejak dulu kala, selalu dipuja-puja bangsa. Disana, tempat lahir beta, dibuai, dibesarkan bunda. Tempat berlindung di hari tua. Sampai akhir menutup mata~

Week 16

2009-08-04T05:22:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since the last time I updated this blog. These days are fully occupied with tests. Metabolic Biochemistry test was yesterday. Today, I had just done Basic Instrumental Analysis test. This Thursday will be Molecular Biology test.

SPG also takes some of my time. Being a school coordinator was not as simple as it was explained by our president. To make sure that 46 people will have a good learning in a conducive place is not a simple task. Sometimes I need to get in touch with an SAA officer to book a lecture theater since Mr Toh, our instructor, complained that the clubhouse is too small to hold a practice session for 40+ people. Two lessons have been done at an LT, although there is a problem with bcos the centralized air-con is switched off around 6 pm, one hour plus before our practice ends.

I like my members. I like it very much when they are hardworking, ask many questions, and have a passion to improve although most of them don't know how to play, YET. Of course there are some people who always busy with themselves and a bit stubborn. Nevertheless, all of them are nice people. One of my friend, which is the coordinator of the School of Electric guitar, told me that he envies the atmosphere in my school, "my people ah, wahlao, where got talk to each other like that....And somemore everytime oni 10 plus ppl come only...." HAHAHA =D

Well, a concert is coming. The LTA performance will be held this coming Friday as a part of Singapore National Day celebration. We will bring up Besame Mucho, Quien Serra (Sway) and Home. It is an honour to play in front of a few ministers, too. Hmm, by the way, now I am waiting for an email, a reply from someone, which made me unable to sleep well last nite.. >.<
COME ON FASTER REPLY LAH! hahaha =P

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Listening to the rhythm of the falling rain,,hoping that the rainbow will soon smile..

2009-07-29T04:48:00.000-07:00

Listen to the rhythm of the falling rain
Telling me just what a fool I've been
I wish that it would go and let me cry in vain
And let me be alone again

The only girl I've ever loved has gone away
Looking for a brand new start
But little does she know that when she left that day
Along with her she took my heart......

Rain please tell me now does that seem fair
For her to steal my heart away when she don't care
I can't love another when my heart's somewhere far away...

....

Okay okay! Due to some comments that asked me about what has happened to me, I will make it clear that this song is NOT related to my life. I posted this song cos this song keeps floating in my mind. It is because SPGuitarist. The school of classical has already practiced this songs for two Friday. I'm getting bored...hahaha
#

2009-07-24T08:17:00.000-07:00

http://mylifesailboat.blogspot.com/2009/07/what-will-u-do-if.html

Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR)

2009-07-13T07:10:00.000-07:00

Found this video on Facebook, quite a creative way of advertising. So, this company, Bio-Rad, is one of the biggest laboratory instrument manufacturers. Anyway, for those who don't know what is this all about, Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) is a common but remarkable way of amplifying DNA. It can even detect and amplify DNA with concentration less than 1 gram in 100 liters of solvent. Well, actually we don't measure the quantity of DNA in that way. It's just a comparison. =)

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Friday, 12 June 2009; Aklan - Manila - Singapore

2009-07-08T05:00:00.000-07:00

We had to rush out this morning since almost everybody (excluding the people in my room, hehe..) woke up late. We needed to take 7.30 flight, but left the hotel at 5.30 am, very last minute. The walking and traveling time from the hotel to the jetty was around 40 minutes, followed by 20 minutes boat ride to Aklan mainland, and then van ride to the airport was 30 minutes. So, we still managed to catch the plane.

We had our breakfast around 10 in Manila and then went to a monument to observe the Flag Day there, since 12 June is the Independence Day for the Republic of The Philippines. After our lunch, we went to Rockwell Mall to collect few kgs of mangoes from Mr Emilio's nephew. Then, we proceeded to the airport.

Due to the H1N1 scare, and an order from DIS, we had to wear our N95 masks. It was quite funny though. Imagine 10 people wearing N95 masks and walking in a line together when we entered the airport. But, most of us cannot stand wearing the masks since it was very hot and humid, and then we all removed our masks....hahaha =P
VIRUS ALERT!!

An N95 mask

After we had waited for around 2 hours, finally we can board to the plane. This 3 hours flight then brought us back to Singapore. We reached Singapore around 10.30 pm. Patrick was there to welcome us. After saying farewell one another, we went home to rest, and be ready for a meeting in DIS on the following day.

Well, this was the end of our second trip to the Philippines. Our second eye-opener trip. This post is rather short, uh? Hm, maybe because there was nothing much to say about this day. Hm...

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Thursday, 11 June 2009; Municipality of Concepcion - Municipality of Malay, Province of Aklan

2009-07-04T07:12:00.000-07:00

We woke up at 5 am and got our luggage done. We were leaving Concepcion again. We bid a short farewell to Mario, reminded him to check his Facebook account regularly and then, 10 of us hopped on to the van. In the van, some of the girls called us, and each of us took turn to say goodbye to them. Well, a trip always has its end, and I was quite satisfied as I can finally put almost all of the tick on my 'what-i-want-to-do-list'..hehe

We passed the 3 century old Santa Monica Church on our way to Aklan. It is well known since it houses the biggest bell in Asia. The church, a grand structure made of coral stone, is 70 m long, 25 m wide and 18 m high. We climbed to the top of this Filipino colonial Baroque style church to see the bell. According to the history, this bell was casted by Don Juan Reina on 21st of December 1878 from 70 sacks of coins, weighing 10,400 kg. This awesome church is indeed one of the wonders of Panay. [ADV] Oh yea, don't forget to catch this church's appearance on "The Pearl of Panay", coming soon on -The Journal- ^.^

We need to take a plane to Manila before we can continue our flight from there back to Singapore. So, we went to Caticlan City, in Municipality of Aklan. We got a chance to stay in the small island there for one night, I'm not going to mention the island's name here due to 'sensitivity'. Anyway I will show you the picture of the beach. I think most of my Phil' OCS teammates will know where it is since we were spending a little bit of our time here.

The beach at Province of Aklan

It was only a 'post-teaser' here. We reached this island at around 3 pm and had our lunch. After that, we split in to two. Ren Hui, Kenneth and I took a short dip in the beach, while the other 5 had some fun and experiments with their Digital Single-Lens Reflex Camera. I will post some of their nice work here soon. ^.~

[pictures]

We had our dinner at one of the restaurant at d*mall, followed by a few sip of fruit punch at the Jona's.

We then split up again for different routes of night beach stroll before we went to sleep. We had to leave this place for Manila tomorrow morning at 6 am. Time to say goodbye to this dumbbel-shaped island.

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accident... =(

2009-06-30T03:12:00.000-07:00

Today was our second day of MST. After the MST today, while I was walking to the bus stop, I saw a guy. This guy had just had a terrible accident. I won't mention here where was the place I saw him. I saw this from afar, and after I reached the place, he was not there already, so, I couldn't do anything to help him...maybe somebody had approached him and called others for help. I remembered that few years ago I had a quite similar accident. I have a bad experience about this accident, that is why I dont have the mood to explain this accident as well...I took me more than 2 weeks to recover, and the bruise could not recover as fast, and in fact, I still have that bruise until now =(

[under construction]

Crayon Shin-chan =D

2009-06-29T06:02:00.000-07:00

Japanese Version

Indonesian Version

Crayon Shin-chan

Wednesday, 10 June 2009; Municipality of Concepcion

2009-06-23T02:22:00.000-07:00

The time was 01.34 am. All of us were still here in Tourism Office. Some people were already asleep. There were still much to compile and write. Siswanto shook his head when Ren Hui asked him about the progress.

02.37 am. Our eyes were getting sticky. Mr Lim was now asleep. Finally I finished the report and passed it to Siswanto. Shui Yu also finished her work and fell asleep on the couch. Half an hour later, Zi Xuan and Shawn passed their work to Mario for checking. Kenneth was still doing his part. We have to finish our work before morning, so we could go get some extra data in case we missed something.

03.55 am. Choon Poh, who was looking through the photos, choosing those to be put in the presentation slide, commented that the photos were not enough. Mr Lim was awake again, looking at the photos together with Choon Poh. Meanwhile, Me and Kenneth were practicing Uncle Bong in Concepcion clap to keep ourselves awake. Mario and Janice were still there, helping us with the script.

04.30 am. The script was almost completed. Some of the people had already asleep now. One hour later, the script was done. We walked back to the town center to have our breakfast, and took a nap. At 10 am, we were back to the tourism office to contact the rest of the team in Singapore for any other required data. We then divided ourselves, some of us stayed in the office to edit the script, and some went out to hunt some photos.

Kenneth, Ren Hui and I walked around to take pictures. As we met with a bunch of people, we requested permission from them to take photos.
"Picture, lang!"
SNAP! SNAP!!

Unfortunately, the clouds above us turned very dark, so, we rushed back to the office.

We were invited by dr. Helen, the municipal health officer to her house. Upon our reaching, we were greeted with a bunch of children, together with traditional rice cake and dumpling soup. I realized that her house is identical to those of people in Middle and East Java. It has similar floor, wall, furnitures and living room design.

Back to our room at the town center, Uncle Bong visited us to say goodbye. We had a short chit-chat, and (again) tried to make Shawn cry. But we werent succesful although this time Uncle Bong also 'helped' our effort, haha..

Well, after dinner we went back to the tourism office to take the video which was requested by our team members in Singapore, finalized the script, and it was done! All of us then tidy up the tourism office, and went back to JunBee to sleep....

#

Tuesday, 9 June 2009; Municipality of Concepcion

2009-06-16T23:26:00.001-07:00

My teammates had just finished their interview with Mayor Hon. Betsy Salcedo by the time Mr Lim and I reached Concepcion this morning. At 9 am, the 10 of us plus Mario and Ricky, the Municipal Coastal Resource Management officer, went to Barangay Plandico for mangrove planting and also for documentation of the mangroves planted by Singapore Polytechnic students over the years.

[pictures]

We then equipped ourselves with boots and gloves, and went down into the swamp for mangrove planting. We also took a number of mangrove saplings to be planted in Barangay Nipa.

[pictures]

Swamp's baseline soil has different depth. While we were walking back to the jeepney, I fell down to a deeper part of the swamp, until the water almost reached my chest level. How unlucky! That time, I was also carrying one video camera including its bag and one camera bag, together with my own belongings. All the documentation since our first day in Philippines up to today's activity was gone, and what made it worsen was that we also lost Dr. Raul Banias' video, which really took some of my and Mr Lim's time and efforts in order to get it. Mr Lim was rather unhappy about this accident. The lenses in the camera bag and the microphones in the video camera bag were still ok, but all non-plastic things in my wallet, and also my handphone, were gone...~.~

Next stop, Barangay Nipa. On the way there, some of our friends from Barangay Lo-ong hopped on to the jeepney. Uncle Bong, Jason and Mariz! Glad to see them again! When we reached Barangay Nipa, Ren Hui and Kenneth went ahead for the some interviews with the fishermen. The rest of us proceeded to the coastal line for the second mangrove planting activity of the day.

With 1 camera and 1 video camera left (Kenneth took one camera along with him and one video cam was still in comma state) the documentation for this activity was very crucial, and we were happy that we got it beautifully. More than 3 photos taken in Barangay Nipa are inside the final presentation slides, and 1 photo featuring Siswanto, also taken in Barangay Nipa, were inside the Annual Report. 2 hours later, we went back to the town center for lunch.

In the jeepney on our trip back to the town center, the video camera seemed to be alright. But, when we tried to retrieve the data in my video camera before having the lunch, the hard disk was corrupted and the screen turned pink. Maybe the components inside were shortcircuited. OMG...Dr Banias' video gone..mangrove planting video and pics in Sungei Buloh gone...pics and video taken in Barangay Plandico were also gone....

[pictures]

Well, the story has to go on. In the afternoon, the team was again split in two. Shawn, Zi Xuan and Siswanto went to GK SEA-K village and Lo-ong Bukid for the data collection of CocoVinegar and Provision Stores. Kenneth, Choon Poh, Shui Yu, Ren Hui and I went to Barangay Aglosong to meet the Women's Association of Aglosong for Kaya De Pinoy Project. In Aglosong, we were greeted with the same friendly smiles as in 3 months ago. We were there to impart financial literacy for the advancement of our kaya project and to solve the problems they commonly encountered during the production of the kaya. I was happy to see that they were still very enthusiastic in this project and willing to improve the quality of their kaya after the workshop held 3 months ago. After we had finished, I gave something I brought from Singapore, and bid them a farewell. Glad to see you again, people! Hope you will be the first batch of the successful kaya entrepreneur in Western Visayas, and also, always remember us.. =)

[pictures]

Now, guess what, we were going back to Barangay Lo-ong!! All of us went there after we reassembled our team in the town center. Okay, i will tell you one secret. Visiting Barangay Lo-ong and Aglosong is one of my 'hidden agenda' for this trip, hahaha.. In Lo-ong, lies the most memories of our 20 days stay in Concepcion last March. Shawn even said, "You know, when I reached here, it is like I have never left this place!"

Our teen center (described by Jonathan as 'a monument of our friendship made from our own tears, sweat and blood') was still standing there and it is used for some events. All the tito and tita there, the children whose name if I am to mention here will make the post absolutely long, and also nanai, were very well. We spent a few hours there to revisit our bunk, the hut, the kitchen, and basketball court where we had our cultural night. Me and Kenneth learnt Michael Jordan clap, which the lyric was then changed by us to Uncle Bong in Concepcion. =D. Well, after we had finished with our documentation, and remembrance exchange, we had a re-farewell, this time without Shawn crying (though we and Lo-ong people had tried 'very hard' to make him do so). And then, we were 'forced' to leave Lo-ong after the moon showed up its pale face in the sky...

[pictures]

Nope, the day had not ended yet! We went to the Tourism Office after dinner to compile the extensive amount of data and documentation we got today.
Some of us fell sick today, including one the lecturer. After all of us compiled the data, we began the script writing together with Mario and Janice, who were constantly providing us with valuable information. At around 10 pm, Choon Poh, Kenneth and Mr Lim joined us in the Tourism Office, bringing the news that all the data in the spoilt video camera were managed to be retrieved, even the video camera itself could be used again. I wonder why...haha. Kenneth said electronics are unexpectable, sometimes they can be easily go iinto 'comma' state, but suddenly, they can be functional again. Or maybe Mr Emilio did something to that vid cam? Hmmm...

The night was getting late. I was still doing the trip report while Shawn, Zi Xuan, Kenneth and Shui Yu were working on the data they had collected, and Siswanto and Choon Poh were doing the script. Mr Lim was still there accompanying us in our work.

Monday, 8 June 2009; Iloilo - Concepcion - Iloilo

2009-06-16T06:51:00.000-07:00

We woke up early, and moved out at 6 am in order to reach the Municipality of Concepcion before noon. We reached Concepcion around 10 am. Monday is their Flag Day, so, almost all their town officers were there. By the time we reached, we divided ourselves into several groups; one group went to gather the data for PHE (Population, Health and Environment) project from the Coastal Resource Management officer; one group was assigned to obtain the facts and figures of the Municipality of Concepcion from Janice, the Municipal Planning and Development officer; the last group went around the town center to get some documentations. Many eye-opening data were obtained and we were very sure that this was a very good start.

We realized that the video of Dr. Raul N. Banias, the initiator of PHE program is really important as a foundation for the Philippines project. So, after lunch, Mr Lim and I went back to Iloilo City to look for him and take a video interview of him regarding our project. Meanwhile, my teammates continued our data collection job with other Municipal Officers and also with Tito Amang, the chairman of Gawad Kalinga in Concepcion.

Now, the story moves to mine. After our lunch, Mr Lim and I took the 2 hours ride to Iloilo City. We arrived at Dr. Banias' office at 3 pm. Mr Lim told him the requirements for the interview video after further explaining to him about our SIFE project. Being less than 2 metres to the person that represent the President of the Philippines in Western Visayas was quite an experience for me..ahahah. Sometimes I wonder how good he is to be able to rocket his career to become a Presidential Assistant from 'just' a Mayor of the Municipality of Concepcion. After several takes, we finally got his video, and he was pleased with it as well.

We also visited WVCST (Western Visayas College of Science and Technology). Mr Lim gave some software in order to enhance their learning of LEGO Robotics, after some of the college students there were taught by our teammates last March.

We stayed in Westown and prepare to leave early for Concepcion on the following day. There were still many things to be done there.

Sunday, 7 June 2009 ; Manila - Iloilo City

2009-06-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

We woke up for breakfast at 5.30 am, then rushed to Ninoy Aquino International Airport. I was quite shocked when I lost my wallet by the time we reached the airport. I almost went back to the hotel when I finally found it under the seat. Hmm, it reminded me to always be careful (ABC) , which is our ground rule point 1.2. Hahaha..

The computer system in the airport was down, forcing them to do manual check in, and caused the airport lobby to be severely packed with people. Choon Poh and I were asked by Mr. Emilio to stand a bit in front beside our line, so we can slip in and reach the counter faster, and then, Mr. Emilio and the whole group will approach us if let's say we can reach the counter desk. There was only 1 hour left before boarding time.

After some time, CP and I realized that we were creating a new line. We were just stand outside the group queue, and although we hoped that we can reach the desk faster, there was almost no space to move, and we seriously didnt know why people were following us. But then, we could move a bit by bit, slightly faster than our other teammates.
When we reached the counter, one security guard asked us, "Where is your line, sir?". Me and CP then at first dunno how to answer
"Uh, there," pointing the 'correct' line beside us, where Mr Emilio and the others were queuing.
"Then why do you queue here?"
"Umm, because (trying to find good excuse =P) there was no space behind so we just stand here and follow the line from here, we really dunno why people are following us."

Then the security guard asked the ppl behind me to return back to the correct queue line. But suddenly, one lady behind me approached the guy, and argued with him that her line (which 'started' by CP and I) was the correct one, because actually, the line 'started' by me and CP was really in front of the counter desk, while the 'correct' line was a bit to the right. When all of us wanted to start the queue, we were also not sure whether this 'correct' line would lead to the correct desk. So, the guard then asked the people who had already queued at the 'correct' line to move to the line started by us..oh my goodness..haha..

Well, anyway, we reached Iloilo City around 11 am and met Mario at the airport. He was always able to cheer and bring up the atmosphere during our community service there last March. The 11 of us then went for lunch at the place where Dr. Banias treated us at the end of our 2009 trip last time. We also tried the local sugar cane paste. It is sticky but very sweet. I like it!

After lunch, we went back to the place where we stayed to carry on with the SIFE briefing with Mario. Mario is the spokesperson of the Municipality of Concepcion, so he will help us to connect us with the officials there. At 7 pm, we had a courtesy dinner with Dr. Raul N. Banias, the former Mayor of Concepcion. Currently, he is the Presidential Assistant for Western Visayas area of the Philippines. This dinner was held for us to discuss more about his PHE (Population, Health and Environment) project, our SIFE project and how to link both of them. After this formal dinner, we went back to the hotel at 10 pm.

PS: I'm really sorry that i 'lost the control of my brain'..and perhaps, unknowingly hurt the feelings of some ppl i talked to after the dinner..

Saturday, 6 June 2009; Singapore - Manila

2009-06-13T03:55:00.000-07:00

Yay! Fly to Philippines again today!!
Although it is a working trip and we were given many responsibilities and tasks, it was still an adventure for me. I'm sure that I will experience something different compared to my last community service trip to Philippines on March 2009.

I woke up rather late today, after i was called by Siswanto. As the train travelled to the east side, some of our OCS teammates joined us. Siswanto, Zi Xuan, Yun Ting, Han Song, Shui Yu and I reached Changi Airport at 7.30. After breakfast, we hopped on to the plane. This time, due to the outbreaks of influenza cases caused by H1N1 virus, we had to wear our masks throughout the flight.

Mabuhay! We reached Manila at 2 pm. Skipping our lunch, we had our dinner with Mr. Emilio's nephew, together with his nephew's wife and niece.
After dinner, we went back to Kabayan Hotel and had a meeting in Kenneth's room. We discussed and finalized the interview question and who were the officials we wanted to interview to.

After the meeting, I did some final 'check up's for a video camera that was entrusted to me. Oh ya, something really bad happened to this camera. Want to know more? See you again on the next episodes! =P
By the way, I played chess with some ppl in the hotel, and I won! Sicillian Dragon is still my favourite opening, hahaha...XD

Philippines Once More!!

2009-06-12T20:43:00.000-07:00

This trip was a data collection trip for SIFE, a world-scale competition of entrepreneurship. We really needed to, once again, go to the Municipality of Concepcion in order to complete and link everything in our project. Actually I'm still wondering why I am inside this thing. Hmm~

Many things happened during this trip. Beside having this marvelous chance to meet up with Mario-the funny and super easy-going Concepcion tourism officer, Mr. Rizalino Panes a.k.a Uncle Bong, the barangay captain for Barangay Lo-ong, local adults, and those free-minded-happy-and-cheerful children, we had to settle a lot of paper work, documentations and many important interviews.

Well, a trip has its own fun, challenge and problems. The next few posts will be about this trip. See you!

Week 6

2009-06-04T09:16:00.001-07:00

This week was not that fun,,erm
quite busy with SPG jobs and SIFE..
umm, what else..anyway, i will write something next time..

[under construction]

Intermezzo =)

2009-06-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

The caterpillar, a bridge connecting the buildings on the east part of Singapore Polytechnic.

This place is called the smoking alley. Although there are 2 no-smoking sign placed there, in addition of the security post around 30 meters ahead. Kinda funny. And people are still smoking here, although recently there was a case about 10 SP students got busted because they smoked here.

Week 5

2009-05-24T18:17:00.000-07:00

My blog is getting more and more boring these few weeks, haha. Anyway, here I am updating my blog.

Well, I spent most of the days this week in DIS room to do the scripting together. Sometimes, we had to stay overnight in that room, in order to catch up with the deadline. One of us even said that DIS room is more to a prison to him rather than a conference room or camping site.. =P

Some pictures about the poly life:

T1A corridor

Infra Red Spectrophotometer in
Basic Instrumental Analysis Lab

Mark with soon-to-be-dissected big frog

On friday, we had birthday celebration for Kenneth. I met Patrick after my class ended and went to Clementi Town to buy cake, candles, whipped cream and durian. After we had done with 'cake decoration session', we decided to catch Night at The Museum 2 at Jurong Point, together with Choon Poh as well. Quite enjoyable show I guess.

After the movie ended, we rushed to my house to get everything, and quickly made our way to ISC clubhouse, where we decorate these cupcakes, brought by Zun. Thanks Zun!

"Happy B'Day Kenneth =)" was written on the cakes

We finished the cake decoration and water bomb preparation at around 7 pm. We are sure that it was a joyful and memorable moment for Kenneth when we sang the birthday song for him, smashed the cake, which was double in size after filled with whipped cream, to his face and of course when we dipped you to the swimming pool, right Ken? Happy Birthday to you, Ken, stay happy always! =)

OCS team '09 + Zun

After the celebration ended, I went back home to take a short nap, and to prepare my things for SPG camp which was held on the Saturday for the freshies. All of the 2nd and 3rd years had to stay in school for Friday night as well.

On Saturday, the camp started. I had nice people in my group, and with our teamwork and skill (haha.. :P), we managed to come out as the champion for the captain ball tournament and Don't Forget the Lyric game. I hope you guys will enjoy being a part in our club.

"S-u-p-e-r! Goooooo SUPER! Sweee~"

Jay, the vice president, commenced the end of the camp on Sunday noon. After we had done the housekeeping for the clubhouse and classrooms used for the camp, we all went home, walking like zombie after staying in school for 2 nights. By the time I reached home, I slept for around 15 hours, that is, from 4 pm to 7 am on monday morning, charging my battery after around 4 overnight stays in SP. Woohooo~

--
self-reflection...what did i do..

ThePearl6 - The Pearl of Panay

2009-05-17T09:53:00.000-07:00

A legend said that deep in the sea of the Mollucas, Indonesia, there was a huge clam. Its shell is made from the delicate fibers of gold, and inside of it, there was a sparklingly beautiful pearl made from its tears. This legendary bright shiny indigo coloured pearl was said to possess a miracle power that can make the holder of it to become the 'Conqueror of the World'.

In the late 15th century, tempted by gold and glory, some of the countries in Europe began to set up expeditions in order to search and discover a 'new world' filled with gold and spices. Christopher Columbus' expedition in 1492 to South America, which was mistakenly thought by him as India, was said to be the pioneer of the colonization in the Age of Discovery.

Portuguese was one of them who wanted to find the "island of spices". In 1512, the Portuguese landed it the Kingdom of Ternate in the Mollucas, which was really rich of spices. One day, they heard about the legend of the "Pearl of Genesis" from the locals, and quickly extort their naval army to search for it. True enough, after they obtained the Pearl, nobody was able stop them. They become the first colonist in Indonesia, ruling the most fast-producing spice islands in Indonesia.

The Spaniards wanted to have a glory as well. One of their vanguards was Ferdinand Magellan, who returned back to Madrid in 1515 from his first expedition to India. In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan set off with his second expedition to go back again to the Mollucas, bringing along with him 5 Spanish Royal Galleon; San Antonio, Trinidad, Concepción, Santiago and Victoria. The reason he gave to the King of Spain, was to look for spices and to spread Christianity, but who knew that he was actually trying to find the "Pearl of Genesis".

In early 1521, he reached the Mollucas. After he knew that the Portuguese had obtained the "Pearl of Genesis", he order his crew to sneak into the resident where the Portuguese Governor was staying. The captain of Concepción, Gaspar Quesada found this purple pearl and immediately sailed off from the The Mollucas together with the entire of Magellans' royal fleets. As for the Portuguese, true enough, after they lost the Pearl of Genesis, they started losing their battles and finally forced to leave the Mollucas in 1575.

Ferdinand Magellan's Route

-to be continued

Next episode: The Pearl of Genesis and the Municipality of Concepcion

Week 3 and week 4!!

2009-05-15T18:57:00.000-07:00

These days, I put some part of my concentration to SIFE. Sometimes we had to stay until very late to work together on the SIFE script, giving opinion and advice to each other. For my own job, I still have to write the interview questions for our collection data trip, which has not yet been confirmed by SP. These are the highlights on what happened in the situations where I present these 2 weeks.

-. SPG concert! My third concert since I joined SPG. Photos at spguitarist.blogspot.com. To SPOCS team ppl, ISC and the Medans, thank you for your support!

SPOCS team feat Zunnie

-. Practicals on my modules which are getting more and more strenuous, especially molecular bio practicals.

Agarose Gel Electrophoresis

My classmates were loading samples to the agarose gel

-. Kaya session 2 with Shawn, which unexpectedly, had a beautiful outcome! The first time can reproduce Aglosong's grade kaya in Singapore. Anyway, I still wonder why I can make that in Aglosong. Hmm...

-. Last but not least, sharing session with the principal of SP. On 6th of may, SPOCS team gathered back as a team to attend this last official group activity. The main point of this sharing session is that, in life, we are suppose to accept and be contented of what we have and continue filling our field of knowledge and skills. Sometimes, we might have to step out of our comfort zone to extend our arms, in order to learn more about teamwork and sharing. And, the most important thing is that, ENJOY your life responsibly, life is not about chasing your own ambition, but to serve people and to have FUN.....

To the future!

-under construction-

ThePearl5

2009-05-14T22:53:00.000-07:00

"Hey, Wendy, how is Pearly?"
"Ya, it has been quite a while since the last time we talked about her," I replied, "Pearly had returned into a pearl..."
"Huh?" her eyes widen, "what happened?"
"Actually nothing had happened, it was just...well, can we don't talk about this?"
"Are you sad, Wendy?"
I look at her eyes, "I don't want to lie, Nicea," I blinked my eyes several times, trying to hold my tears from flowing deliberately into my eyelids.
"But, nothing happened, right?"
"Yes, but, it was my fault to hatch her pearl prematurely, and she didn't grow as a Ganda, but as something I never imagined before..."
"It was not totally your fault, things could happen unpredictably.."
"I don't know."

"Come on, Wendy, don't get too emotionally affected by your Pearly," said Nicea, "you must know how to handle your own feeling, and don't forget that our town really need you guys to catch the fish, as it is our town's main income, and obviously you cannot eat a pearl, right?"
"Yes, but these things cannot be easily scraped off from my head. And, Pearly's pearl is on the sea that is very near to my place. How to forget her so easily?"
"I know that it is very hard to forget, but you have to step forward and carry on with your life."
"Do you mean that I have to find another pearl?"
"The answer can be yes or no. Yes, because you are a hatcher, no, because I don't want your next pearl is just for your ego of substituting Pearly."

--(below this is not too related to 'thePearl')

Sometimes we put too high hope on something. And, if that we cannot achieve that something, regret and disappointment are what we get. I did put high hope, but, hmm, we cannot do anything if things do not go as well as we have predicted. So, what can we do?

-under construction-

2 weeks had passed...

2009-05-04T06:35:00.000-07:00

Third week have already started!! Whoa, it is kinda fast. Well, I'm with different classmate again now, whom I spent my second semester in SP with. The atmosphere is different since 3 of us left our class for several reasons. Anyway, we have already had some lectures and practicals. One of the 'interesting' practical we had was the measurement of the blood glucose level. So, in this experiment, the subjects (8 of us) were given various treatment. 2 were asked do fasting, so they were not allowed to eat anything after their dinner on the night before and the other 2 were asked to eat their breakfast. Then they were asked to have an exercise for around 20 minutes afterward.

The other four subjects were given different food sample, glucose solution, egg white (protein), butter (fat) and white bread (starch). Then, our blood sugar level will be measured at 15 mins interval. Hmm, so, we need to be poked around 6-7 times that day, okay, so these are the pics:

Blood taking

After 6 small holes were punched to my hands,,LOL

Then, for the following weeks we will have electrocardiogram test, followed by frog dissection experiment. I hope it will be fun!

Oh ya, one more thing, this time, we have 4 brand new international students. This is our small group photo:

The guy in blue is from Indonesia, the girl with lanyard is Camilla, one of our ex-committee, and the three girls on the right are from Malaysia. Welcome to Biotechnology course, and hope u can have lots of fun here in SP!!

Is it around me?

2009-05-01T18:16:00.000-07:00

One of my good friend reminded me about this cover poem by myself which I made 5 years ago. This poem reminds me of my high school time..Yea, there were quite a lot of things happened during my 3 years in Saint Angela Senior High School...Maybe I will share some of them later on, here in -The Journal-. I think this poem still relevant for me now as well.

Okay, here it is:

"Beginning to see you"

It's all around me
Always fills my body
mysterious feeling
I like to find out what it is

The more I see you
the more I feel desire
many times I've tried to find you
you were always out of reach...

Every night I dream about you
every day you're always on my mind
Now that you are close to me
my eyes are beginning to see you

Random photos for today:

High School friends

d' Assassins Live @ Holiday Inn Hotel Bandung (2005)

@ Jimbaran, Bali, Indonesia (2006)

Videos of our trip

2009-04-28T10:38:00.000-07:00

Our training days which lasted for 2 weeks.
Sit back and enjoy!

Philippines Overseas Community Service Project
-Team 2009-

PS: Thanks to Choon Poh!

Cebu - Singapore ; 7 April 2009

2009-04-28T10:30:00.000-07:00

Today the team woke up extra early. They were both joyful and reluctant to leave the beautiful country of Philippines. However, as one member commented, the team must move forward and be jolted back into reality. The debris of the dream can still remain, including the friendships and the camaraderie forged.

From Cebu Port to Mactan-Cebu International Airport

The team took a ferry at 7 back to the island of Cebu, where they had a quick lunch and checked in at around 11. They then waited for the flight which was scheduled to be at 1.

Days always seem so short when one travels. It felt just like yesterday when the members set foot onto Philippines, but now they must go on their own ways. Another commented that she would feel strange waking up without the others by her side. It went to show how close the members had grown together during the expedition, even though there were times when disagreements surface.

Last group photo in Changi International Airport, Singapore

However, the friendships that were created in 25 days would last them all through the years. Everyone hoped that the proud stature of the teen centre would stand forever as an everlasting testimony of their hard work and determination.

For the team, this was just the beginning of another chapter of their lives. Everything was well and will be well.

Boracay and Bohol ; Monday, 6 April 2009

2009-04-24T19:46:00.001-07:00

We reached here the night before. We still manage to witness the beautiful sunset in Boracay. It was really heart-warming to observe this wonderful portrait made by God, painted by the nature. We had our first dinner in Boracay. After dinner, we had a briefing for snorkeling trip on the following day. Then, we were given some time to stroll around Boracay beach and to buy souvenirs.

Arrival in La Camella de Boracay

Sunset at Boracay

Boracay Beach

On the next day, we got ready at 8, and walked together to Station 3 to take a boat to the marine park, which is located near the Crocodile Island. In the briefing, we were told not to make any unnecessary noise, so that if there was anyone in need of help, he or she could be heard clearer in the silence. As soon as the boat stopped, we put on our gear and dipped down into the beautiful underwater world.

Sea urchins

Marine park corals

Blue starfish?

At the sea

The underwater scenery simply could not be described in words. There were large schools of fishes surrounding those 2 to 3 years old corals. We learnt how corals were formed, what makes Boracay sea water is always very clean, as well as the distinctive features of the sand of Boracay and how they in turn were formed. We came back to the land at 10 am. Some of us wanted to try either the parasailing or banana boat on the remaining time, but due to the safety reasons and time constrain, we could not make it to do that. At 11 am, we had our lunch before moving on to Bohol, which took a total of three hours of traveling time by bus and ferry.

Upon reaching Bohol, we took an interetour around the island. We visited the Chocolate Hills, one of the wonders of the world, as well as a visit to the world’s smallest primate, tarsier. The tour showed the members the importance of preserving nature while they still had the time and chance to do it, in order to leave behind a clean and green world to their future generations. The educational tour rounded up with a visit to the local butterfly park.

Chocolate Hills at Bohol

The 8 cm tall tarsier

With that, the expedition team put up at the Via Bohol inn for the night and prepared themselves for the big day tomorrow, their return to Singapore.

Manila ; 5 April 2009

2009-04-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

We woke up at 4.30, and quickly rushed to the airport for 6.10 am flight. We reached Manila at around 8.30 am and immediately proceeded to the Embassy of Singapore in Taguig City, Metro Manila. Upon arrival, we were greeted by the First Secretary again, Mr. Alexander Lim. After a short refreshment session with sandwiches and pastries, the Ambassador, Mr. A Selverajah, arrived.

The team was warmly greeted by him before the student leader of the team, Siswanto, gave a presentation of what everyone did in Lo-ong, including teams from the previous years of 2003 to 2008. After showing the videos, each member was invited to give their impressions of their stay at Barangay Lo-ong. Everyone gave different opinions, which meant that each individual learnt different lessons after having similar experiences. The Ambassador was pleased to hear different comments from the team members and congratulated everybody for stepping out of their comfort zones to help out others in need. A memento was given to the Ambassador as a token of appreciation. All in all, the session ended with a happy note as the members thanked Mr. A Selverajah for his time and encouragement, leaving the embassy after having a short tour led by an official.

At Embassy of the Republic of Singapore in Manila

The friendly Your Excellency Mr. A. Selverajah

Presentation about 2003-2009 projects by our student leader, Siswanto

Listening to what we have learned

Without wasting the time, we proceeded to the Malacanang, the Presidential Palace, after having their lunch. We were greeted Dr. Banias, who led us inside the Malacanang Museum. Sadly, due to security reasons, only one camera was allowed inside the Malacanang. The members got a privileged tour inside the museum, thanks to Dr. Banias, and visited several sites such as the Kalayaan Hall and the offices of the late presidents, including Ferdinand Marcos.

Us at Malacanang

Our team leader (right) was presenting memento to Dr. Banias (left)

This was the late President Marcos' office

Malacanang is indeed a fascinating place and full of history. The carving on the walls, ceiling and the furniture are just awesome. We were also able to see the President's 'treasure room' by where the artifacts given by the leaders around the world are being kept.

Treasure room

It is an awesome palace!

The day ended with the members heading to Caticlan, which was two hours of flight from Manila in total. They found lodging at the La Carmela de Boracay hotel for the night. Tomorrow would be another long day in the Philippines as always.

Barangay Lo-ong - Ilo-ilo City ; 4 April 2009

2009-04-24T06:18:00.000-07:00

We got up at around 8 this morning and went over to the newly constructed teen centre to do a final clean-up in preparation for the Closing Ceremony. This time, the children from Lo-ong also helped in the washing up of the area. It was a heartwarming session as we worked together with the children’s laughter and sincerity.

Cleaning the teen centre together with the children

Our hard work!!

Chairs were quickly stacked up and carried over to the teen centre to prepare for the layout of the Closing Ceremony. Once again, the First Secretary from the Embassy of Singapore, Manila, Mr. Alexander Lim, graced the event with his presence. Honourable Elizabeth T. Salcedo came to witness the event as well, together with Local Government Units. The ceremony started at 10am with opening speeches from the expedition team leader, Mr. Lim Moon Choon and Honourable Elizabeth T. Salcedo.

Mr Alexander Lim and me beside my bed

After the speeches, Mr. Alexander Lim proceeded to give his greetings to the floor with an inspirational speech. Certificates were then given out to the various schools of Concepcion upon their completion of the training that the expedition team had offered as their value-added activities. After that, the team members were in turn given certificates as proof of their identities of being adopted as sons and daughters of Concepcion. The Women’s Association from Barangay Anglosong was congratulated for their mastery over the preparation of localized kaya. Samples of the kaya were given out during the ceremony for everyone to taste and enjoy.

Closing Ceremony

Lastly, the ceremony rounded up with the turning over of books and laptops to the people of Concepcion. Some expedition team members were invited to give their impressions of the whole stay at Concepcion. A memento was given to the Mayor of Concepcion to signify the team’s presence and completion of the teen centre. It was a both a joyous and sad moment as the whole ceremony ended. The team quickly packed up and set off to Iloilo City after lunch. Emotions were rampant as all of us reluctantly left Concepcion, there were exchanging of mementos between people from both sides. One of my friend commented that he would rather much stay here than return to Singapore. Though that was impossible to fulfill, it just went to show once again how attached the team had become to the people of Concepcion and vice versa.

Sad farewell

Last group photo with our chef

We will remember this forever

We reached Iloilo City and settled down at City Corporate Inn for the night. They would wake up extra early at 3am tomorrow to catch a flight to Manila to visit the Embassy of Singapore and the Malacanang Museum.

ThePearl4

2009-04-22T19:00:00.000-07:00

I have wandered across the sea, travelled on the solid wooden boat on Loboc river, and peregrinated to the highland of Mt. Manaphag to find the real truths about the pearl.

My journey really brought me inspirations. I discovered that the bond between a Hatcher and a Ganda is always absolutely strong, although he might be not the chosen Hatcher for the Ganda. Like between me and pearly.

It cannot be helped. And, what I have learnt in this country of the mystical fiend called Tarsier was that, to break a bond between Hatcher and Ganda, a Hatcher needs to seek another pearl, which is, hopefully, will be the correct pearl.

Boracay, the temptation island, where I found extra truths about pearls. There were plenty of pearls here. Some pearls were just very pretty. It attracted many Hatchers, although it was not the time for the pearl to hatch. Yea, how can I say that it is ready to hatch if it doesn't even know when to open and close its shell the right time. A sea creature may just harm it, or maybe some hatchers will steal it. A pearl is just like a chicken egg. The embryo inside must be mature before it could hatch. Well, I don't care about it anymore. I have left that place for several weeks now.

"Wendy," somebody tapped my shoulder, "you are back!"
"Hi Nicea!" i replied.
"How is Pearly?" she asked me the one and only question I really want to avoid.
"Oh, yeah, umm, fine i think..why?"
"Haha, nothing, just curious. Why you didn't bring Pearly there?"
"I just want to be myself a while, Nicea, I want to take a deep breath, and relax myself a bit"
"Oh, I see.. "

Barangay Lo-ong ; 3 April 2009

2009-04-21T06:22:00.001-07:00

Cultural night was today! Finally it was us who will show the audience what we could do. Cultural night is a must for every Singapore Polytechnic team that goes to Concepcion. We believe that cultural exchange activity will strengthen the bond between us and the locals. The cultural night would start from as early as 3 pm and end at 11 pm. The event itself consists of two sessions, cultural show and cultural food tasting sessions from us. And not forget the exotic performance of Filipino dances and songs from Roberto H. Tirol art school.

I woke up at 4.30 pm to start removing the bone of 9 chicken for the Indonesian satay and curry puff. Really thanks to Mario, Jason and Mariz who were willing to wake up earlier to help us. As the time passed, more and more cultural food chef joined us in the kitchen and together with their respective helpers. At 10 pm, the chicken rice, bryani rice, curry puff and satay were halfway finished. As for my Indonesian satay, I finished poking all the chicken around 11 pm, and started to grill the 350 sticks of satay.
All the food was done completely at 2 pm

We went for sound check at around 2.30 pm to make sure all the microphone were working. All the performer started to dress up as well. The cultural show started at 4 pm. 8 of us danced the Shan Dance, which originated from Myanmar, as the opening performance. The second performers were our two diabolo experts, Zi Xuan and Yun Ting. Our third show were me and Vincent playing guitar, with Sing Hai playing harmonica as our first song. The second song was Myat Nar (English: The Face), a Myanmar folk song.

Diabolo show

Guitar performance

The next one and a half hour was spend by Roberto H. Tirol students, Barangay Aglosong women and Barangay Lo-ong women, all performing Filipino traditional dance. Those dance somehow brought some inspiration for me. After the intermission, we continued again with Singapore Polytechnnic performance.

Traditional dances

The first performance was the wushu performance, again by Sing Hai. Then, we proceed to Muay Thai show by Kah Min. Next performance was one of our best performance, the Burmese percussion. After that was the breath-taking light stick show. Poh Lim, our team member, always knows how to make his audience fascinated. Our first part of cultural night show was ended by our group song, Won't Go Home Without You by Maroon 5.

Our group song

The next part was the cultural food tasting. Our dishes were Indonesian satay, chicken rice (Singapore), curry puff (Malaysia), nasi bryani (India), mee siam (Singapore), and Burmese Chicken soup with noodle. Each chef had to present the food to the Mayor of Concepcion, the First Secretary of Singapore Embassy in Manila and the Local Government Unit (LGU) people of Concepcion. After the first round of food tasting for our guest of honours mentioned above, our foods were served to all the audience. Our foods were invaded, and in half an hour, everything was finished. All of us were very cheerful while observing our cultural food being enjoyed by them.

Food tasting for the guests of honour: Mayor Salcedo (left), Mr Alexander Lim (right) who is the first secretary for Singapore Embassy in Philippines and the other Local Government Unit (LGU) members

Everybody loved our food!

After the show, the Mayor invited us for a thank you dinner. One suckling pig was given to us to represent their gratitude, That dinner made our relationship with them getting closer. As the moon smiled to us, we called it a day. Some of us started packing their things as on the following day we were going to leave Barangay Lo-ong. As the night was getting mature, the atmosphere changed. Some of us started to feel sad because we knew that we are going to leave soon, leaving our wonderful memories here.

Barangay Lo-ong ; Thursday, 2 April 2009

2009-04-21T05:58:00.000-07:00

Early in the morning we began our work to finish up the remaining tasks of completing the Barangay teen centre. We started with painting the pillars in the morning and continued with the beams and some walls in the afternoon. Today we were in exceptionally high morale as the whole team could feel the completion of the main project drawing near. Everything was completed by today, including putting our school name in the roof part of the teen centre.

As all of us stood at a distance and stared at the fruit of our labour, we felt an irresistible sense of achievement. One of my friend even pointed at a pillar and commented that his sweat and blood went into it while he was doing plastering. When the team started building the Barangay teen centre, they also strengthened their friendships in the process. Hence, this building would be an everlasting symbol of the team’s strong bonds together and a proud stature of the members’ hard work and determination for the whole trip, covered with loads of sincerity.
#

Cultural night was just right at our doorstep. All performance and ingredients for cultural food had to be ready for the following day. In the morning, me and Melissa went to the market to buy a bunch of onion, garlic and ginger. We also bought other stuffs needed by a particular food, for instance, beehon and lime, which were necessary for mee siam.

In the afternoon, me and melissa went to Municipality of Sara. In this neighboring town, we hunted for the orange sweet potato, tauge, beancurd skin, coriander seeds, turmeric powder, aluminium foils and containers. Then, I went back to Concepcion market to buy more than 20 pieces of chicken for our cultural night purposes. We had to prepare for the food tasting for 100+ people. It was challenging task for us. At night, we did the last practices for the cultural performances. Everybody was putting a lot of effort, so that the locals would be able to see the best of us.

Barangay Lo-ong ; 28 March 2009 - 1 April 2009

2009-04-19T18:36:00.000-07:00

In this period of time, all of us gathered our strength to concentrate in our constuction project. We had the strong passion to finish the teen center on time. But, by looking at the our current progress, it seemed that we still had many things to be done. Despite of this, we believed that if we could unite our strength, we were going to finish it this week.

On Saturday, 28 March, the expedition team started to put on roofs for the building project. Early in the morning at 8am, they gathered for a short briefing as usual by Edric and proceeded to carry the GI (governized iron) sheets up the shelves to set up as roofs. Any additional GI sheets which had not been painted, were completely done so in the afternoon. The team did not manage to finish roofing the teen centre at the end of the day, but we were quite satisfied with the progress. Everyone was also reminded to take their malaria pills today.

Bringing up the roofs

Hammering the roofs

Finish roofing on one side

SUNDAY, 29 March 2009

We continued with the roof on Sunday and took the whole day to place the remaining GI sheets in position. As the team worked, the Mayor of Concepcion paid them an unexpected visit. This took everyone by surprise and they quickly prepared for the sudden event. The Mayor was entertained accordingly and was very satisfied with the team’s progress and sincerity.
Then, we had to re-compact the soil to make sure the ground was leveled, as well as plaster the columns to make it flawless. Hence they had to work overtime in order to catch up to the schedule planned.

Mayor Elizabeth T. Salcedo (middle) visited us in our quarter, welcomed by our student leader, Siswanto (right) and our team facilitator, Mr Emilio T. Chiu (left)

Last compacting work before flooring on the following day

Two weeks had passed and the team members were already used to the lifestyle of the people there. The serenity, the relaxed lifestyle was really infectious and welcomed by the people from the busy city of Singapore. The members played with the children, whose happiness and enthusiasm never failed to put a smile on the tired expedition members’ faces after a hard day’s work.

MONDAY, 30 March 2009

The team began to feel the lethargy that we had accumulated these past few days, which had began to take its toll on the team’s progression. But, everytime we looked at the unfinished teen center, our heart moved our body, and although the progress became slightly slower, all of us still participating in the construction site.

Flooring had started and the were mixing cement the whole day while piling the cement which was mixed onto the compacted ground. There were lines tied across the ground to indicate the suitable level of the floor. The members had to keep filling the ground with cement until it reaches the level of the strings. After that, we had to even the cement and make it smooth. Everything on the construction site was going well.

Concrete mixing for flooring by our construction leader, Edric

Flooring work

We also had to start preparing for the Cultural Show, a traditional event of every expedition to Philippines from Singapore Polytechnic. Members started to put in more effort and time at night into their performances rehearsals after de-briefing sessions to prepare themselves for the Cultural Show. Everyone was expected to give their best and truly bring diverse cultures and traditions right to the doorstep of the locals.

TUESDAY, 31 March 2009

We continued our work at 8 am as usual today, continuing the flooring of the teen centre. The cement mixing really seemed to be endless. 25 batches of concrete were made by us. 1 batch of concrete consists of 5 bags of sand plus 1 bag of cement, which meant, we had carried and mixed 150 bags of material for the past two days!!

Flooring was completed by today and the local volunteers who had been working with us were really impressed by the works that we had done. The locals saw us grow in experience and skills pertaining to this construction project since day one and commented that the improvement was exponential. Our hard work was clear for everyone of Barangay Lo-ong to see as the locals would come and see us working on the construction site for days on end.

Reaching the end!

Finally flooring work was finished!

We had completed more or less 80% of our teen centre

Planning of the layout for the Cultural Show had already started. We were getting ever more ready to show the people of Concepcion what we had been preparing over the past 8 months.

WEDNESDAY, 1 April 2009

Flooring was completed yesterday. Today we started to paint the floor green, and the pillars and beams white. The 'floor colouring' was created by mixing cement powder together with a type of green powder, together with lots of water. This would cause the mixture to become slightly adhesive and solid. The method to paint the floor was about the same as that of plastering, hence it was a simple task for the team. Paint used on wood cannot be washed off easily and thus the members had to take extra care not to drip any paint on the green regions of the floor.

This reminded us that in every task they do, extra care must be taken in order to avoid any unnecessary mistakes. Otherwise, the damage and cost incurred could be very troublesome to solve and wash away, just like the paint.

Colouring and making the floor more adhesive and solid with green cement

Painting work

95% complete!!

'Labelling' the newly built teen centre

A fighter cock

We also got to experience a unique and never-before-seen event in Singapore, cockfighting. Watching the animals fight and ferocity got the adrenaline of the team pumping. It was a furious fight as feathers rustled and beaks attacking swiftly from time to time. Even animals had passion and fire for the things they do, how about human?

Barangay Lo-ong ; Friday, 27 March 2009

2009-04-19T07:55:00.000-07:00

Almost everybody, except the Microsoft Frontpage team, went back to construction site since most of the value added activities came to an end.

The team proceeded to completely plaster the remaining 4 pillars of the building today, mixing cement mortar in the process. A large amount of cement mortar had to be produced and everyone was satisfied with their work at the end of the day.

Sieving to separate fine sand to be used for mortar mixing

Mortar mixing for plastering

Roof Plastering

Some of the returnees from last year were invited by their foster parents to have dinner with them. It was a heartwarming experience for them as they took time to catch up on each other’s lives. Some were even invited to have a mini-karaoke session with their foster parents. All in all, it once again showed the close bonds that were forged and endured over the years between the members and the locals. It also goes to show how Filipinos treasure their relationships, even with people outside their culture.

Barangay Lo-ong ; Thursday, 26 March 2009

2009-04-19T06:06:00.000-07:00

I went for IT (Information Technology) teaching in Lo-ong National High School (LNHC). Our participants were 16 enthusiastic students studying in that school. This value-added activity started on 24 March, with Microsoft Word as their first software to be learnt. We continued with Microsoft Powerpoint on the following day. And today was my turn to help Kah Min, my teammate in charge of IT teaching LNHC, in teaching them Microsoft Excel.

IT teaching in Roberto H. Tirol school

IT Teaching in Lo-ong National High School

The children were talkative and they learnt very fast. In the morning, we taught them basic operational functions in Microsoft Excel. Then, after lunch, we gave them exercise so that they could practice what we had taught earlier. After they finished, we sat in circle and started chit-chatting about their daily life, favorite food and their family members.

Next activity was mangrove planting. Together with the local children, we managed to plant more than 100 saplings of mangrove. Mangroves are essential to the life of the people in Concepcion. Most of the people there are fishermen. Healthy mangrove ecosystems will become the habitat of prawns, clams, crabs and many species of fish.

Walking to the mangrove salvaging area

Mangrove salvaging

Together we will save the nature!

Barangay Aglosong ; Wednesday, 25 March 2009

2009-04-17T06:02:00.000-07:00

I went to market this morning. Every Wednesday and Thursday are market days, so, there were a lot of things to be bought. We bought squid, few pieces of whole chicken, vegetables and bread, to fill the team's appetite during morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner.

The marketing team for today

I had mushroom omelet and a indigenous tropical fruit of The Philippines, the star apple, as my breakfast. This fruit can be used to stop diarrhea. Then after that I went to Aglosong with Shui Yu and Kuri to continue the kaya making session. That day, their task was to do return demo to us, that is, they do, we see.

The first return demo's outcome was surprisingly good. They were still remember the important points I told them on the previous day. But, of course, there were still some rooms for improvements. The second return demo was satisfiying as well. Then, after lunch, during the third round, Mayor Salcedo came in to the scene and had few bites of the kaya toast. From her comments, we could tell that she was pleased with the outcome.

Preparing the ingredient for the return demo

Return demo

Kaya is GOOD!

Before we bid farewell to the Women Association of Aglosong, we saw their singing and dance practices. What came to my mind was the 'Harvest Moon' life. Their dance's theme song and their unique dance could bring the thought of a peaceful village with a worry-less life. Good bye Aglosong, hope this brand new skill will improve your lives!

Then we went to town clinic to meet dr. Helen, who wanted to help us submitting our kaya to the Department of Agriculture to be certified that it is safe to be consumed. Back to our quarter, we finished the roofing.
That night we were doing overtime work for plastering and soil recompacting. The whole work finished at 9 pm. We bathed and went to sleep afterwards. We could hardly hear any voice later than 10 pm that night.

Overtime plastering work

Overtime soil compacting work

Barangay Aglosong ; Tuesday, 24 March 2009

2009-04-16T03:49:00.000-07:00

The time had come for me, Kuri and Shui Yu to go to Barangay Aglosong to teach kaya. We reached at their multi-purpose hall at 10 am. Upon our arrival, we were warmly greeted by 26 housewives. Mr Lim did a very good opening 'teaser speech' for them. He was able to get their attention very well.

Opening speech by Mr Lim

Occupation and income level survey

Preparing the utensils and ingredients

They were divided into 4 groups, and I had to do 4 rounds demo for the three groups. While other groups waiting for their turn, they did the survey and gave comments for the kaya we brought from Singapore and the taste of our localized kaya. I finished two successful demo before lunch. We had kampong chicken and mango shake as our lunch.

Kaya teaching

Giving feedback

In the afternoon, I did another two rounds of demo. I have to admit I was nervous during the few first trial. But, thanks to the supports from Mr Lim and Kuri so that I could do the demo very well. After this, me and 5 other teammates went to Lo-ong Bukit to know more about the people there, as well as observing the condition of the electrification project which was done in 2008 project.

Lo-ong Bukid

Photo taking with the villagers of Lo-ong bukid after interview session

On the way home, we visited a villager's house, one of our teammate's foster parents last year. We were given a chance to taste their adobo chicken, banana soup, their local duck dish and their special fermented coconut drink. It was awesome! Back to quarter, and we had dinner. Then I wrote this journal, practiced for guitar performance and slept.

As for other value added activities, Shawn and Sing Hai went to Central Elementary School to teach Mandarin to a group of tourism officers, teachers and some students in grade 5 and 6. This mandarin teaching session was held for two days. They were surprised at the enthusiasm of the people and their quick absorption of knowledge. A teacher even suggested taping the whole session so that they can practice after it ends. As the session progresses, both sides taught each other their languages, with Shawn and Sing Hai learning Ilongo as well. At the end of the day, both sides learnt much from each other.

Mandarin teaching

Giving exercise paper

The Lego robotic team also did a good job in WVCST (Western Visayas College of Science and Technologies). During debriefing today, they sent an sms telling us that their participant had already learnt the basic programming for the robot. Everybody was pleased to hear their updates.

Lego robotic workshop

Teaching basic robot programming

Barangay Lo-ong ; Monday, 23 March 2009

2009-04-16T03:08:00.000-07:00

This week we started to have manpower problem for the construction work because we started the value-added activities in our second week in Lo-ong. Today's work were plastering of the columns and starting to paint the GI sheet. In the morning, we did the cement mixing and plastering work. Scratching of the column must be done so that during the plastering work, the mortar would stick well.

Concrete Mixing for plastering

Scratching

Plastering the column

After lunch, we did the GI sheet painting. First, we cleaned the roof with acid and water to remove any stains on it. After it dried, we painted 2 layer of green paint on one side of the roof. It took us 2 hours to finish one third of the total GI sheets roof needed for the construction.

Cleaning the GI (Governized Iron) Sheets

GI sheet painting

There were three value added activities for today. Handicraft Teaching, led by Yun Ting and Harry, taught the students of Central Elementary School to make Rolly Pollies and straw flowers. The eye check team, led by Fifiana, went to Central and Aglosong elementary school, and finished checking the eyes of 112 elementary school students.

Harry was teaching how to make Rolly Pollies

Yun Ting taught the children how to make straw flowers

Making straw flowers

Concentrating

Visual Acuity check

The last but not least value-added activity was the Lego-robotic Workshop. Kenneth, the world Lego-robotic champion, together with Jonathan and Aung Thu Moe went to WVCST (Western Visayas College of Science and Technology) in Ilo-ilo City.

At night around 10 pm, I did the final check of the localized kaya recipe made by me for the kaya teaching session in Barangay Aglosong on the following day. I found a small mistake in my recipe, and after solving that, the recipe was complete and I made 2 success results out from 2 tries. Tomorrow will be the kaya teaching session day. I hoped this very short 'charging' time will be enough for me.

#

Pan De Azucar Island, Agho Island and Sandbar Island ; Sunday, 22 March 2009

2009-04-15T01:56:00.000-07:00

Today we visited three islands, which are still inside the territory of the Municipality of Concepcion, for our short sightseeing trip. After breakfast, we set up to the airport. I saw a wood pole planted by Jonathan and and some of his friend last year. It was still there!

We went for a short trekking to observe the lava formation in Pan D Azucar island. The scenery on the higher spot, at the place where we could see lava formation is nice!

Trekking at Pan De Azucar Island

Posing on the frozen lava at Pan De Azucar Island

Pan De Azucar Island

On the next island, Agho Island, we were given a chance to swim and have a rest for around 1 hour. We had bangos fish (The Milk Fish), which is the national fish of the Philippines, and Adobo Chicken Pork as our lunch in this island. Some of us, bearing the slogan: "I love the sun!!!", sun tanned instead of swimming. On the last island, we saw many seashells, and we had sticky rice there. 30 mins later, we went back to our quarter, taking the same boat. The boat has the same shape as the boat used in Celebes (Sulawesi Island, Indonesia).

Agho Island

Swimming in Agho Island

Sandbar Island

Sandbar Island shoreline

Early sunset at Sandbar Island

We did construction work until 5 pm as usual. Today’s construction project was focused on doing the skeletons of the roof and the purling, as well as cement mixing and bricklaying to form the triangle shape of the roof. Then, we had our dinner together as usual. Everything was well.

Back to reality!!

2009-04-11T17:50:00.000-07:00

3 days ago i had a small outing with fellow OCS teammates. I was very happy that i can see them again,,although maybe some of them were not feeling well.

My full mind and consciousness are still not here yet. And there are many things that reminds me of our times when we were still there, when we were having together our very sweet and memorable dream. I want to stay in this dream, or at least, extend it a bit longer. But, obviously, it is not possible at all. We have to move forward and face all the difficulties that will shape us.

Last night, me and xiaobao had a talk about about 'banana boat'. We were discussing that friendship is like a banana boat. At the first time before the ride starts, we hold on the boat tightly. As the ride goes, waves from the sea shake the boat, and it may try to pull us apart from the boat itself.

There are splashes of salty sea water that hurts our eyes, and maybe the boat can be tilted and throw us to the sea. But, we will try our best to climb on it, and ride the boat back until the very end. At the end of the day, the ride itself is fun, and give us memory.

The same thing goes in friendship. Sometimes, maybe we feel that we are drifting apart from our friends. Maybe we feel that maybe one or two friendship we had may come to an end. But, don't ever worry just remember this:

" Just keep in touch with all your friends
like how you grip on to the handle of a banana boat.
Never lose touch
Never lose grip
Don't let the waves tear you apart
Never let the waves finally throw you to the sea
Remember
Hold firmly
Hold tightly"

(xiaobaointhesteamer.blogspot.com , 2009)

I can't explain the last part better than this, hahaha....To the poet: you have made a very good poem!

Photos will be uploaded to my posts ASAP.

Barangay Lo-ong ; 17 March-21 March 2009

2009-04-10T19:10:00.000-07:00

Construction time!!
Our team led by Edric, a Built Environment student returnee from the 2007 team. We were splitted into three groups, each doing different task everyday. On Tuesday, 17 March, we started the foundation work, laid the base hollow blocks and not to forget, the mixing of concrete. The other group were doing the bending of reinforced steel bars.

Construction site on the second day

Shawn and I were doing concrete mixing for the hollow blocks

On wednesday, we sawed more steel bars, helped building form work, and covered back the finished foundation with soil. Today was Kah Min's birthday. We had a little celebration with a birthday cake after dinner.

Sawing the steel bar

Binding and reinforcing the steel bar

The following day, we did the column work, started digging more soil to be transferred to the construction site and spent the entire afternoon doing the back fill of the soil to cover the hollow blocks used for foundation. We spent the last 1 hours today doing compaction with coconut trunk.

Filling the soil back to cover the foundation

On Friday morning, some of us went to Gawad Kalinga, an area in Lo-ong to observe the life and the profession of the villagers there. Then, after that, I joined back the construction. Still transferring and compacting the soil.

Taking sand needed for the mortar

Carrying sand to be mixed with cement

We did a lot of concrete mixing work on Saturday for the construction of the roof beam. The compaction of the soil and one side of roof beam were completed at the end of the day.

Roof beams and columns were partially finished

Each day, 4 of us took charge in the cooking for the whole team. The respective cooking team had to go to the market in the morning, and prepared the food for morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack and dinner. Everybody found that the marketing and cooking experience were very fun.

Concepcion Market

We got to know the life of the villagers of Concepcion as we met them in the market. We became closer to the volunteers in the kitchen and construction site as well. The first week here was lovely and memorable!

Barangay Lo-ong ; Monday, 16 March 2009

2009-04-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

It was our third day in Philippines, and I was still amazed how similar the Philippines is from Indonesia. We went to the Municipal Hall to attend the flag day and to have a short tour there to see the offices of the local government units. We were also honoured that we were allowed to observe the parliament, which was discussing about the adoption of 28 of us as the sons and daughter of Concepcion.

Banner for us

Attending the Flag Day

Observing parliament work in Municipality of Concepcion

In the Mayor's office

We were back to our quarter at lunchtime. We started to work at 1 pm. As for me, I was the cooking team for today, so, me and Kuri went to the market for some shopping. Everybody has their own cooking roster, so, each and every of us have to cook for everybody at least twice during our time in Lo-ong.

We tried to do kaya for the first time here, but unfortunately, the result had not been able to fulfill our standard. Then we had a long debriefing after our dinner. Today was ended with guitar practice with Vincent. Lights were off at 11 pm.

Trying to modify the kaya recipe to cater local's taste

Cebu - Municipality of Concepcion@Ilo-ilo Province ; Sunday, 15 March 2009

2009-04-08T22:14:00.000-07:00

We woke up early today, and took Cebu Pacific Airways to Ilo-ilo city. This island has the shape of a nose ( nose = 'irong' in Ilonggo (one the the dialect) --> ilong-ilong --> ilo-ilo for easier pronounciation).

SM City at Ilo-ilo City

We went to SM city at Ilo-ilo city to buy SmartBuddy SIM card and daily toiletries. Then took a jeepney, the Philippines public transportation vehicle, that can fit more than 20 people in one go, to attend a banquet from Dr. Raul Banias. The taste of the seafood cooked in Philippines' way can fit our tongue very well.

Welcome lunch from Dr. Banias

Our team leader, Mr Lim Moon Choon (left) and Ex-mayor of Concepcion, Dr. Raul Banias (right)

Our team and Dr. Banias' family

After that, we took a 2 hours bus ride to the Municipality of Concepcion. I will explain a bit about the political segregation in the Philippines.

Road to Barangay Lo-ong

The Philippines is divided into three island groups, Luzon, Visayas and Mindanao. These are divided into 17 regions, which is further divided to 81 provinces, then cities, then municipalities and barangays as the smallest political region. Altogether, it has 136 cities, 1,494 municipalities and 41,995 barangays.

Upon reaching, we were warmly greeted by more than 50 children. Then we had a short briefing and orientation from Mario, our guide who stayed together with us from the beginning of the trip until the end, and from Mr. Rizalino A. Panes, Jr. , the Barangay Lo-ong Kapitan (Captain). Then we were given a time to interact with the children. We taught them the everybody dance now clap and the famous authentic banana dance.
They learnt very fast! Our night ended with debriefing after dinner.

Briefing on the first day at Barangay Lo-ong

Some of us were still nervous since that was the first time we were swarmed by kids

Me and Lo-ong Children

Teaching them banana dance

The ever-friendly Barangay Captain Rizalino Panes a.k.a Uncle Bong

Singapore - Cebu ; Saturday, 14 March 2009

2009-04-08T07:59:00.000-07:00

Today is my first day in the Philippines! A great journey waits ahead!!
We took 3 hours plane from Singapore Changi Airport to Cebu and reached there at around 11 am. Then we took vans to the Anemone resort. My first impression of this tropical country was that it really looks like my home country, Indonesia! The filipino's and filipina's appearance, the foods, the trees the public transportation and even their language.

Departure from Singapore Changi Airport

Arrival at Cebu

After putting our luggage, we went around the city with a van, to see how Cebu city looks like. We visited an acoustic guitar factory, Allegre. For your information, allegre means happy in Spanish. The handmade guitars here are good. I think they are able to compete with other machine-based guitar factory, as the guitars are made with superb technique.

Anemone Resort

The craftsmen in Allegre guitar factory

The famous guitar factory in Cebu

Next we visited one of the biggest Taoist temple in Visayas and also the place where the war between Ferdinand Magelhaen, the Spanish bucaneer, and filipino led by Lapu-lapu took place. This was the place when Lapu-lapu vanguished the Spaniards. Returned back to Anemone after this short tour.

The Taoist temple at Cebu

Lapu-lapu Shrine

Woken up from his slumber and dream...

2009-04-07T16:50:00.000-07:00

I opened my eyes today, 6.47 am in the morning, blinked my eyes a few times and said to myself, "what a dream...." Yea, it was a long and wonderful dream about life, passion, friendship, teamwork, care, love and sharing. I felt something was missing from my life. I wish I could 'snooze' myself, pull my blanket, and dream again for another '10 minutes'. But, it can't be possible. I have to 'tidy up' myself, and prepare for the real life, in this hectic metropolis city of South East Asia. A new semester, my FYP and other CCA activities are waiting for me. I can't always stay in this 'transient condition'.

I will post my story, or should I say, our story, in the next following posts. I really hope that the memory of this trip can stay forever in our each and every heart. And we can use the things that we had learned there in our life.

@ Chocolate Hills, Bohol

Leaving for Philippines tmr (14/03/2009)

2009-03-13T04:09:00.000-07:00

"That's one small step of a man, one giant leap for mankind" Neil Armstrong, July 1969

Yea, this is one of my virtuous hope in this trip...After 6 months of training, finally we will fly to Philippines. Many things to be learned, many things to be done. A team of 28 people will set off there, and try to make a difference, to continue maintaining Singapore Polytechnic's influence on Municipality of Concepcion that have been lasted for 7 years.

Building a teen centre, SIFE-kaya making, and many value-added activities such as IT teaching, mandarin teaching and handicraft teaching will serve as sharing activities between us and the filipinos. In 25 days, our teamwork and preseverence will be tested there, and i'm sure we shall see an extremely fabulous outcome.

This journal will be updated after the trip.

***

2 days before 'touch down'..

2009-03-12T07:47:00.000-07:00

this morning i did kaya again, this time the outcome was much much better...seems like after my 'research's, there are gradual improvements, and we are quite pleased bcos of that..

then me and siswanto rushed to school, threatened by 'banana dance' punishment...but the end we couldnt make it...so, of course we were forfeited...and some ppl were taking video in the class..haha,,but bcos of some sensitive reason this video cant be posted online..
then we play badminton for a while. bao family was vry strong,,nid choon poh's help so that after that we could stand against them.haha

nxt was logistic presentation,,everything seemed to be allright. the ppl were willing to share the team's loads in their own luggage...keep this teamwork guys!!

in the afternoon, after helping sis carrying a 'mountain' of loads to his home, we went to KR+, a hairstylist studio who offer SP students COMPLIMENTARY cut!! wahaha..so, me, edric and 612 went there...it was amazing, bcos i think was the first time for all of us to go to a VERY expensive hair studio (worth S$ 80),,after we went out, we laugh a lot..haha, and maybe 'one of us' will be always late afterwards =p (not me! rly!! hahaa). after that we bought few things to be brought to Concepcion..

hmm, still nid to do 2 bottles of kaya...tmr i also nid to go joo koon to buy preservatives which we have been looking for since last week!! that was really hard to find..hahaha

***

First week of training came to an end

2009-03-08T09:54:00.000-07:00

We went to Pulau Ubin a.k.a Tile Island to do coastal cleaning on Chek Jawa area last sunday, end of the first week. Wow, there were freaking A LOT of thrash there: styrofoam boxES, hundreds of bottles, sandals, part of clothings, and some 'unusual' things like underwear, big dustbins we usually found in bus stops, and even NTUC trolley o.O

After around two hours of work, we managed to collect around 12 big bags of thrash, plus some very big things,,after this coastal cleaning, i promise i will tell my friends not to throw things to sea anymore!! hahaha =D.. It's really damaging the enviroment u noe!

and this sunday, still doing kaya...haiz, dunno how many kilograms have we made alrd..at first we just tried to make with 3 egg yolk 3 egg white, but we used 2 different method, intact double boiling and steam double boiling..then try many times with different amnt of sugar and coconut milk to get the really shiok taste. The recipe is secret..hohohoo :P

After we get the vry good taste, we tried to make a better texture by adjusting the amt of egg white. We tried 3 yolk 3 white, 3 yolk 2.5 white, then 3 yolk 2.25 white, and the champion was 3 yolk 2 white...but somehow it became kaya-mel with the thick caramel appearance, or sometimes it became too rough...we nid to do a few more to find the correct temperature when boiling the kaya..we usually did at least in the range of 71-74 degree C (bcos 72.3 degree is the critical point for pasteurisation)..

ok, i still nid to do 1 more time, i hope this time i will be successful,,then i can slp early..haha

#

kaya..kaya..kaya

2009-03-05T08:43:00.000-08:00

okay, today's food tasting was not bad,, zi xuan and yun ting came to my house to do their dishes, and did so many things, including blaming the person owning this blog, so many times for dunno reasons,,haha..

anyways, the food making was fun, and the food tasting also went very well..thanks to you guys who had done everyting very well!!

tmr is the performances,,i expect nothing can be wrong hahaha, and tmr is only a teaser..lolx
we shall see tmr then...

kaya was done very well, we have found the best formulation to make the kaya very good in shape and taste. But i wonder if we can find a double-boiler there in philippines..we will still think about it,,

now i'm going to slp,,just reached home..at 12,,

-sign out-

second day

2009-03-03T06:15:00.000-08:00

ytd's BE training continued...today we were taught how to make roof!! we 'played around' with the timber, hammer, cheap saw, medium saw, expensive saw, nail, screwdriver, etc...
at the end of the day, finally we can erect the roof!! (more than 30% done by mr koh 'the steel') =D

and today, after the training, i almost travel by train thru all the red line stations...so bo liao..lolx
from jurong east until dhoby gautt,, on the way rest awhile at ang mo kio,,meet a friend there, then continue to plaza singapura..look around a while, then go home...

tmr continue the training,,a lot of things must be done...
2 forms for SIFE
FOOD TASTING on THURSDAY!!!

#

50 random things in my head tonight- - - =D

2009-03-02T06:38:00.000-08:00

1. food tasting this friday
2. there is second session of BE training tomorrow
3. saw very strong teacher (martial artist) today, i wonder if i can learn something from him
4. need to sleep soon
5. your full stops make me damn frustrated
6. thanks for the vivocity trip!
7. pls ask me! one question is enough!!
8. next sem gt fyp alrd...
9. guitar performances
10. sing hai, your harmonica playing is very cool!!
11. wushu + costume + music
12. first rehearsal on 9th of march
13. KAYA
14. cultural food tasting, hope everything will go well
15. pls dont be like a stone
16. 2 weeks left before fly to philippines
17. sife presentation next week
18. martial arts show in first rehearsal next week
19. need to return dr yuen's paper
20. bioinformatics?
21. a cute white rabbit
22. i wont go home without youu~
23. intro riff for peterpan "Menghapus Jejakmu"
24. Singapore Polytechnic
25. mafia wars finally reach lvl 100
26. dr cui taian and ferrari
27. mouthwash formulation
28. blood group, SNiP
29. stirring kaya...omg! its clotting!!
30. preservatives! potassium sorbate?
31. phoon huat
32. vivocity (again), thanks! (again, too)
33. guitar performances...1 more song to be done..
34. this number was impt 3 yrs ago..
35. haizz, my high school time...now the 'farm' is closed
36. starting to become crazy after filling these things until number 36
37. cute rabbit!!
38. please...
39. SIFE..(again)
40. i think i shud stop writing..
41. yea, i will stop soon, but 9 more it will be finished..hmm
42. hope my indonesian satay will have the same quality on the food tasting as it was during the BBQ
43. mee siam, chicken rice, curry puff, tapioca dessert, burmese soup
44. its gd, BUT....(food tasting I)..lolx
45. cannot do lego T.T
46. pearl
47. yakinkan aku Tuhan...
48. kaya making tmr
49. sife, sife and sife
50. give me strength, God, to overcome the 50 things i have just written above...

Haha, i think i will delete this post soon..

A mssg to you:

2009-02-18T17:06:00.003-08:00

Feel..

ThePearl3

2009-02-15T16:00:00.000-08:00

On the next day i met one of the good friend of mine. She was a breeder, not like me, a Hatcher.
"Ah, wendy, "she greeted, "the new Hatcher in southern beaches! What brings you here?"
"Nicea, I have a problem with a pearl." said I.
"I see. Do you know that there is one thing you must remember. It is that every pearl has a particular hatcher. We can't just take a pearl, then hatch them like chicken egg. " she replied.
"But, how we know that the pearl is ours? I mean, how do I know the pearl is really my pair?"
"You must use your feelings, and see through the thick fog of uncertainty, and you will find the answer. But, in most of the cases, even though the pearl is not particularly connected to you, you can still grow them into a very beautiful Ganda."
"Oh, so the pretty creatures are Ganda.."
"Yes, they are very fascinating sea myth. And their egg, the pearls, can only be hatched by the chosen one, the Hatchers."
"I don't understand Nicea."
"Wendy, you are a grown up enough. I think this is the time I should tell you this. I was born from a pearl."
"What!? You said, you are a pearl breeder?"
"No, Wendy, there are two types of creature in this world, Man and Ganda. Ganda hatches from a pearl. When Ganda's are picked by not her Man, it may still hatch, but, as the time goes, Ganda will die, and his spirit will return to the sea, back into her pearl form."
I was shocked after listening to her story. It really sounds like a fairy tale my mother usually told me. And, one thing suddenly came into my mind.
"How about Pearly?"

#

011208-the pearl2

2009-02-13T06:17:00.000-08:00

WARNING!! DON'T READ THIS UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY 'BO LIAO'!!!

The pearl - Episode 2

Yeah! the pearl hatched!! and a little creature did come out from the small little pearl...
3 months have passed, now the little creature whom I gave a name 'Pearly' has grown bigger. But, I dunno why, as i keep observing its growth, it seems like it has been growing into a beast!! with its long hair, fiery eyes, and sharp fangs, it looks very fierce! I can see sparks of fire whenever it opens its mouth, especially when something angered it.

I wonder why such thing can happen...does it have any relationship on where I got the pearl?
I took the pearl from a clam in a corner part of the ocean, under a very big, bulky and heavy rock. There were only very few clams under that rock, i forgot the number, maybe only 5 or 6 clams were there, and I took the pearl from one of the clam.

This morning I sailed through the ocean again, just to try my luck whether i can find a pearl. Then, as i rowed my vessel far to the ocean, i saw a dark patch around 2 meter below. I took off my shirt, and jumped to cold sea water. I was exhilarated when i found out that the dark patches were a group of houses of the small creatures hatched from another type of pearl. As i observed the small 'village', i saw the adult creatures. They were very pretty. That time, my thought flied to Pearly, which i left in my house. How could pearly grow into a beast? Then, I observed their 'children' carefully. It looked similar to Pearly. Maybe it is because they lived together, and groomed and socialized each other, so they could become like that.

I hopped back to my small boat and sailed back home. I hope i can learn some other things when i sail back to the sea tomorrow.

#

~Kaya~

2009-02-06T17:47:00.000-08:00

last week we went for a training at W2. Down there we were trained by a young, attractive, smart, kind (but married already ~.~') TSO. We had succesfully done the things!! Hope everything will go well..

Tmr will be the last assessment for this sem,,den aft tat entering pseudo-free period..lol..
Exams are comiiiinggg!! all the best for all of us!!!
#

30 january 2009

2009-01-30T06:08:00.000-08:00

OMG..the biochemical technique quiz today,,screwed almost all the long question..dunno what to do with the 40 marks...haiz..what makes it worse, it doesn't have examination paper...of course i'll be happy if there is no examination unless the module is very hard...but this BCT was freakin' hard!! now can only hope for pity marks.. T_T hahaha..

tis semester going to end soon..must prepare for the last tests and report..then after that, holidayyyy!! (still very long actually >.<)
hope the kaya making task will go well..

PS: rico, your hand ok or not?
PS2: control your anger..it will bring you to the dark side of the force,,hehehe.. =p

17 Jan '09 - You're in my mind

2009-01-17T06:53:00.000-08:00

I made quite a 'maneuver' today...7.40 reached chinatown and ate the dimsum near the ppl park cntr,,then after some group project, i went to tg bahru at 2 for the club jacket measurements, aft that, at 3.30, went back to SP for the ISC basketball competition...Our indonesian team, again, lost to the opponent team, with the final outcome score that, uh, not really good...(muz maintain confidentiality, haha...),,reached home at around 5.30..

I listened to a romantic song that was popular 5 yrs ago, Pelangi di Matamu (Rainbow in Your Eyes)...

#
30 minutes, we have been here
without any voices
and I am worried i have to wait a long time,
to hear a word from you

Maybe I need a course, to mend a word
to be said
and I hate i have to be honest to you
about everything

Even the wall clock is laughing,
because i can only silent, and tight-lipped
I want to tease myself
who is speechless in front of you

There are something different in your eyes
that makes my tongue nervous and motionless
There is rainbow in the ball of your eyes
and force myself to say..
I love you...

Perhaps later i will say
everything in my heart
and I hate i have to be honest to you
about everything

There are something different in your eyes
that makes my tongue nervous and motionless
There is rainbow in the ball of your eyes
and force myself to say..
I love you....
#

16 Jan '09

2009-01-16T07:18:00.000-08:00

Today was a little bit tougher than the usual friday..dunno why the lectures seemed like vry long..hmm,,then check the result for two expts, go to ICA, and did other things,,finally can reach home at 9.30..and tmr must reach chinatown by 7.30 am,,I need sleep..look forward to going back to indo next two weeks,,with all those freaking assigment, testS and projectS following closely behind me....
Haha, i dun wanna be so emo...so, let's put some pictures here =p

And,,one of my favourite guitar player!!Slash!

Ha3, okay, i think i'm going to sleep now...

signed out....

PS: I....-sigh-

2009-01-14T04:37:00.000-08:00

Yesterday was quite a game. Although we lost the game, we can actually fulfill our main objectives..hahaha =p. Our main objective in this competition was not to lose with the margin more than 3..We lost with the margin not more that two, so, yea, a loss was still a loss, but, nevermind, this was the first time for most of us to take a soccer competition seriously. Bryan scored 3 goals, i did 2, and hiroshi's best chance unfortunately missed around 5 cm from the goal...But, at the end of the match, I am still very happy to you guys because all of you can be less pessimistic. I hope all of us look forward to joining other upcoming competition,,this time, i hope we can get better results...=) oh yea, thanks for those who came down to see our matches and supported us,,without you, we can't get this result ^^

Today i wanna talk about one of the biggest misconception known by people. It is about desert. The Sahara is the world's largest hot desert, but it is not the world's largest desert. Antarctica has almost no liquid precipitation (rain) and little or no vegetation. Almost no animal life exists in its interior at all (scientists in research stations and nesting snow petrels are about the only exceptions). It is land that lacks liquid water available for plants and animals to use. This is sufficient to qualify it as a desert, and it is larger than the Sahara.

Hmm, misconceptions, do you remember one of the popular saying in our main library? People are like teabags, u must put it in hot water to see how strong they are. Or other very very famous one, don't judge book by its cover. Yea, we won't know one's characteristic before you befriend with him/her in a period of time. So, find a lot of friend!!

--yaay, tmr finally a bit free!!--

PS: i'm serious about 'it'...are u?

The Pearl

2008-12-01T04:06:00.000-08:00

PEARLS!!
It is a very nice little thingy! Very adorable to girls, and boys also. Who doesn't want to be given this shiny tiny sphere? Do you know that Cleopatra likes to drink a very special drinks made from pearls dissolved in vinegar (DON'T try this at home!! it's better to give it to me :p).

Okay, that was just an intermezzo. So, we all agree that pearl is very valuable..but, it is just merely a stone, am I correct ?( yea, yea i know, stone is made from SiO2 but pearl is CaCO3..are u happy inorganic chemistry people? =p). What i mean is, can you treat them as a pet? can you talk to them? You just wear them, for dunno reason..right?

Have you ever heard about a story, which tells us that pearls are actually eggs for small creatures as big as your thumb? They are very cute and attractive! I like pearls, too..I hope the pearl is really an egg, that will hatch for me and entertain me..hahahha..(dreamingz..after those two MST papers)@_@

Pay the transportation fare!!

2008-11-27T05:22:00.000-08:00

Today was very tiring...3 hrs of plant science practical, cutting the chinese medicine plant to be cultured, and we had to extort extra attention to prevent any fungal or bacterial growth..quite tough..haha..hmm, after that i had 3 hrs lecture, then stucked in library to study molecular genetic..haha, well, anyway..i had to try very hard to make all the theory to be transformed to my brain...so then i don't need to conjugate any longer with the lecture notes..(see, i'm now blur-blur already)..

*EHEM
Today, when i was taking the bus 14 to my home, i saw a girl having a trouble when she wanted to tap out before getting out from the bus. Eventually she found out that she didn't tap in properly when she went up to the bus after she went back and forth a few times to ask the bus capt'n. I was quite amazed that she want to to that and at the end, she did a 'late' tap in, the she tapped out from the bus..very honest rite? actually, i saw my housemate forgot to tap in before, but when he couldn't tap out and the machine wrote -ERROR- PLEASE ENTER THE BUS FROM THE FRONT DOOR- (or sumthing liddat), he just went down and ignored that, then he said, "LUCKY i didnt tap properly just now, ha-ha-ha!!). This is the difference between Indonesian and Singaporean. Now, can you imagine if this tap-in-tap-out system is applied in Indonesia. We put it in the angkot, bus, and train..I'm sure only 2 out of 10 people will pay the fare properly. The rest will just go down without paying the fare. Or even worst, the machine might lost 2 days after it's attached on the vehicle (yea!! it happened before,,to the vending machines in Indonesia!!). So, we all must be more honest okay? xD

Sincerety

2008-11-22T18:03:00.000-08:00

This morning, I just watched '50 First Dates'. Yea, it's quite old film, released in 2004.
I watched this movie in my room, alone, with my roommate still snoring like pig behind my back..hahaha...my other house mates, i dunno what they are doing on the next door..hmm,

And today i have no appointment with anybody else. I have canceled my guitar practice with Pyae Soe San, the Burmese guy. And, my group mate, she is going with her aunt today..so, basically, i dont have anything to do this morning and i am far too lazy to start studying the formidable Molecular Genetics..so, today i bo liao then i decided to watch this movie.

okay, i am sure that everybody has fallen in love before..but, is your love sincere? Or maybe i should ask, is it really love? Or is it just like what we usually say: 'monkey's love' (it's an indo slank fyi..it's a fake fake love, then next week we lose our feelings liao)? For those who have watched this, i'm sure you are touched by all the things done by Henry Roth to desperately bring back Lucy's memory. For those, who haven't watched before, the story goes as simple as this:
Lucy is a girl who suffered damage on a part of the brain that holds short term memories after a very terrible car accident on 13 October 2003. So, she simply forgets ANYTHING that happens after 13th October, including her meeting with Henry. Henry tries very hard to make Lucy to remember him, and makes her fall in love again and do the 'first kiss' every single days for 6 years. I think you should watch this movie..and then talk to yourself..Are your love sincere enough?

Hello^^

2008-10-24T23:02:00.000-07:00

Hi!!

This is my first post in my blog.
Feel free to browse around!!

Cheers
Eric