Buon Natale Folks Plus The Summation Of A Day.

Buon Natale!

Christmas mood was certainly in the air today as I was shopping. I've met many shoppers humming along to the Christmas carols blaring out of the shops, and whilst I was walking around with the hat, many people seem to be smiling at it, or it could be that they were just laughing at my eccentric-ness. (that's not a real word by the way)

But hey, to each its own right? I shall wear whatever head gear I like to the mall.

So anyway like I was saying the Christmas mood certainly has arrived early, and I constantly have to stop myself from humming "here comes Santa Claus, here comes Santa Claus" because I can see my sister is at the end of her rope having continuously listened to carols for more than an hour.  Christmas, like any other national holiday, has evolved from a simple celebration to a full blown holiday extravaganza which involves us spending lots and lots of moo-lah. Though I try not to be materialistic, but the sight of so many wonderfully shiny trinkets on sale made me delve into my purse time and time again. It seems like every shop window I passed I can automatically here myself saying 'ooooh I want that!' or 'I MUST get that!'. So I guess I'm really just another materialistic teenage girl. 

*sheds a little tear at having finally joined the dark side but brightens up a moment later when she realises the dark side has cookies!*

Anyway it has come to my mind that I haven't really done a proper summation to my 'end of the exams' day, I'm not sure if anyone here really remembers or even has the vaguest hint as to what examinations I'm taking, well it's A levels actually. It's kinda..ok it's grueling.

This is proof that I'm actually enrolled in a college doing this A levels thingy.

Well the examination consists of 5 subjects and 13 papers altogether, and since we're staggered with other examinations so it took quite awhile to finish all these papers.I can't comment on how I did because I'm not really sure, good news is there seemed to be an answer to the questions, bad news is I'm not sure if it's the answer their looking for. I take the 3 sciences, math, and thinking skills which is a compulsory subject in college. Needless to say everyone was really really relieved when it ended, and the moment it ended, on that day itself I jetted of to Midvalley with my long time friend Vivian. 

It was actually pretty amusing as both of us did not know the actual way to Midvalley, and we assumed that the other party knew. So after a lot of mix ups we managed to find the place, and even luckier managed to find a parking there. Hoo boy did we shop, there were no pics, neither of us were particularly in the photo snapping mood, but rest assured there will be more about why we are shopping coming up.

So anyway, while I was there, I found this at the highest level of the mall where World of Feng Shui is, and this dish is actually a popular Taiwanese snack affectionately named 'Coffin Bread', recently a new twist has been put to this dish, whereupon usually a savoury snack it's now a sweet dessert, toast with ice cream and caramel, yam meh! 

So I'm eating the savoury version, and well, to be honest it wasn't really that nice after the initial 5 bites or so, the toast is deep fried, so the outer layer is golden and crunchy while the inside remains soft and fluffy, the filling is a starchy salty soup like filling with mix veg and crab meat, it sounds nice and all, but can be a little sickening after a few bites. As the bread is really oily and the soup just a little too starchy. Oh well, thumbs up for the strawberry tea though.

And that's how I spent the last day of examinations, pretty tame right? Some of my peers have interesting ways in which they spent their last day, I also have first hand versions of the spectacle they displayed, and that totally made my day cause it was hilarious, with the capital H.

Till then people of the world, one must take over the world one hat at the time!

It's a running joke.

With all my love, 

Neaj.

You would think that I'd have learned to tell you goodbye.

We're Back!

It has been too long since my last update. 3 months have already flown by with the memories of so many eventful happenings, some enlightening, some not to happy ones, rolled up jumbled up and dumped into my lap as a bundle marked 'life'. Everyone can probably tell that examinations have ended today and now I'm trying to delve into the folds of my brain to bring up the events that have transpired in the past 90 or so days.

How to even begin narrating things that have already happened so long ago? Maybe with the earliest event. (As I'm typing I'm actually looking at the calender trying to piece together my life of 3 months ago) . During the semester break in the month of September under the persuasion and cajoling of my classmate D , I signed myself up for a event known as TAYMUN (Taylors Model of United Nations).

As you can see from the name tag up there I represent the Kingdom of Thailand which is actually just another fancy smancy way of saying Thailand, which everyone associates with transvestites, seriously over the duration of the event the joke I told that garnered the most laughter was "Well, Thailand is secretly assembling an army of transvestites to take over the world." I feel kinda miffed that out of all the witty (or so I think) things I said, THIS sentence has to be the one that is well received. I need crash courses on humour with Russel Peters. 

But I digress.

TAYMUN is actually a really 'cool' event, contrary to its name 'Taylors', participants were from many different institutions. A short background info on what it is coming right in this paragraph. MUN or Model of United Nations is actually an academic simulation of the United Nations that aims to educate participants about civics, current events, effective communication, globalization and multilateral diplomacy (lifted off Wikipedia as usual) . The participants, or students, take on roles as being a country's diplomat and participate in a simulated session of an intergovernmental organization (IGO). Generally we have to research our given country and investigate the current issues happening, then we have to debate and actually come up with a mock solution to the world's problems. United Nations, is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace. 

There you have it, the wonderful TAYMUN event all listed out for you. From that stupendously boring text up there, can you imagine what a nightmare was it to be Thailand? I'm not even sure where I should stand most of the time, and it was especially mortifying to be reminded about where I should plead my allegiance while I was strongly opposing a motion that I *PERSONALLY* was against. I remember that the USA diplomat was constantly stressing on how pushing the motion forward is going to prove beneficial to USA and its allies and to quote him "like Japan, THE KINGDOM OF THAILAND , just to name a few'. Mortifying.

There were three motions being debated on during the 3 day event of TAYMUN, and they were 

1) The reformation of the Security Council

2) The prevention of arms race in space. (The motion I was against, but forced to concur as my country supported it)

3) The status of government that hold associations with terrorist organisations.

The above two pictures shows my group hard at work doing something called lobbying where we come up with a proposal to fit the motion as in why we should/should not support the motion. Generally we brainstorm till we have a piece of paper that will hopefully stand the attacks of anyone disagreeing with it. It was my first time writing a proposal , and I had to say I was lucky as one of the chairperson guided me through the entire process, invaluable experience may I add. However it did not get through, oh well.

At the end of the day I was really humbled by the amount of talent being displayed at TAYMUN by people who were younger than me (12~13) or elder than me (19 I think) and I have truly gained a lot from this event. If there ever were a chance for me to participate in this event again I would definitely hop onto the boat no hesitations whatsoever! 

Then it was pretty much endless studying since the finals were so close, Oct 13 to Nov 19 for that matter, and it pretty much explains my long hiatus from the virtual world, though not facebook. I have to admit facebook has sneakily wormed its way into my daily schedule and it's not showing signs of budging. So now it's wake up, facebook, do my stuff, facebook, eat, facebook, study, facebook, sleep.

Yeah, I'm truly a facebook addict, my life is heading towards a downward spiral. I spend all my free time liking stuff on facebook, pathetic really, but I can't help myself from nodding in agreement at all the statuses. =/

And I digress YET again.

So during the uneventful month of October, we discovered a small ice cream palour by the name of Gelateria in Kota Kemuning. (We being my mom, my sister and I)

And what you are looking at is actually their specialty which is making spaghetti or any kind of Italian dish really out of ice cream. Yes people, that is ICE CREAM spaghetti on a white plate. Doesn't this make your mouth flood with saliva with the anticipation of tasting it?  Unfortunately you can only tempt yourselves with this wonderful picture for I once again cannot direct you there. I feel like I totally FAIL as a food blogger because I absolutely have no sense of direction. No inkling whatsoever!

It's really a nice place, tucked cozily away from the hustle and bustle of the KK town. If I ever find the address I will post it up here again. Till then, SALIVATE in vain!

November caught me unawares as I've been stuck in a limbo of endless revising for endless examinations, I wake up, I look at my books until it's time to sleep again. However, November was (is) one heck of a month. Bittersweet and filled with nostalgia. 

From left : FG, Me, YX, and Leona (fellow blogger here on blogspot, check her out at leonafeng.blogspot.com and this is a rare sight of here in UNIFORM! Bwahahahahahahahhahahahahahahaha)

That's because all my high school friends graduated during the month of November! I can't believe 5 years passed by so fast, it seemed only yesterday that we were all little kids in white uniform and now look at them, graduated and ready to test the outside world. Life passes us by in leaps and bounds. I am so so very proud of all my friends. Happy Graduation and all the best in future undertakings, and remember WE ARE HIN HUA!

For me, I didn't graduate from my high school at all, I actually left school. So there was no graduation ceremony or anything for me to attend. When I made the decision to leave, everyone said that I will feel sad about all these lost memories, and I actually scoffed at that idea, I mean it's just graduation, to achieve some things in life there must be a few sacrifices along they way. Little did I know I sacrificed one of the best years of my life, and no matter how great my new life is, it cannot replace the lost year. The year where friendships are forged with a steel like bond and gratitude is taught not through books but through life's rites of passage. The last years you know. 

One weird thing about me is : I have an abysmal memory when it comes to remembering organic compound names and reactions, but I can with absolute clarity remember every sequence of events leading right up to my enrollment in HHHS, and I can always remember how my Mandarin was so different from the rest of the form for apparently according to my friends I spoke with an English accent, the highlight of my wonderfully immature 13 year old peers' life at that point of time was to listen to me reading a passage in Mandarin, it cracked them up. I remember donning on the pristine white uniform with the starched skirt, I remember all the bits and pieces of life there, I remember the laughter shared, the tears shed, the friendships made and then broken. I remember and I remember and I thank HH, for she partly moulded who I am today. 

Like I said nostalgia to the maximum.

So thus ends this long post after a long hiatus..fitting actually. And rest assured there IS more to come. 

TEEHEE

So the lion sleeps tonight then!

I live in your chess game but you change the rules everyday.

Signing off, with hugs and kisses galore,

Jean.

Apologies

Terribly sorry for the extremely long hiatus from this blog 

*cough* EXAMS *cough*

Will update as soon as the exams are over.

Love

Neaj!

Merdeka...or Bust

It's National Day today, it's the 53rd year of independence for our country, relatively young if compared to other nations  such as USA or China, but nevertheless a remarkable feat. Somehow eventhough it's supposed to be a joyous event, I didn't feel as though it was a great thing to be excited about.

I do love my country, and it's because I love it so much I feel heartsick about the going ons in the country. Right before National Day, the name Siti Inshah Mansor became famous overnight for the alleged comment "“Chinese students are not needed here and can return to China or Foon Yew schools. For the Indian students, the prayer string tied around their neck and wrist makes them look like dogs because only dogs are tied like that." ( Source : The Malay Mail ) This of course sparked a lot of controversy which set off the never-ending "bumiputera vs. pendatang" arguments amongst the youth and the public. Indeed, many Facebook pages regarding this case have mushroomed on the website, either slamming the headmistress or supporting her.

Happy Merdeka indeed.

Pendatang, that's really such a nice term to coin and use on Chinese when in reality everyone in the country is a pendatang one way or the other, the only people who haven't voice out any complaints are the true aborigines in the country who have been siphoned off to live in some god forsaken place, so how come they are not the ones in indignant fury whereas people of other races are harping on this 'pendatang' issue. We were actually the ones who conquered the land and drove them off it and yet we are the ones making the most complaints. Isn't it time we stop this issue?

If we were really going for the concept of 1 Malaysia, shouldn't we put down all titles, stop with the "bumiputeras" and "pendatangs", or is everyone too high up their horses to even give a damn? Who gave anyone the right to rule over another race anyway, who gave anyone the right to state that they were more superior and the others were inferior? No one, all of this stemmed from political bullshit.

Which brings me to another thing that can be classified under political bullshit. 1Malaysia, this concept has been around for so many years, but yet only brought to light repackaged as the government's brainchild. In irks me that the ones who are mouthing 1 Malaysia, are really the ones who are not for the concept. All those LIES they are feeding us sometimes makes me wonder 'Do they really think we're idiots?' 

Another topic of great interest would be Malaysia's politics, if we could make a movie out of it, it'll be so intense it could rival say Inception,  politics here is truly a dark dark world with no hope and no glory.  I have to say that there will never be a perfect government, we have to accept that no matter what corruption is bound to exist, just we don't want it in this extent, where they are BLATANTLY corrupt and they are so ARROGANT they do not even care if they were found out or not, and even if they were caught doing it, they LIE their way out of the mess. Even if the Opposition may be corrupt and all, but for now, they are the lesser of the two evils. That's all I can say.

We have to ask ourselves if Malaysia has truly improved all these years or did we just remain stagnant? Let's take a look at our neighbouring country Singapore, though they may be an island which is like a drop of shit off our Peninsular, but in a space of a few decades, they have risen up to overtake us. Nobody in the 1950s could have even predict that one day Singapore will be stronger than us, let's face it, we have an abundance of natural resources, we have OIL for god damn sakes!, and we have everything that Singapore did not have last time.Yet, now Singapore has everything we don't have. What went wrong here? 

Simple : We were too arrogant.

Solution: Be humble and work hard.

Is there still hope for the country? 

Yes provided everyone's like this guy :

Till then, I shall just cross my fingers hoping for the day to come.

With love,

[Jean]

You know that I love you so, I love you enough to let you go.

And The Drums, The Drums, The Drums.

ARGH! WHO'S THAT!

Track me down if you can X)

Just to let the world know 

'IT STILL FITS!!!'

*cackle!!!*

Suddenly in the dead of the night I got hit by a wave of nostalgia, so I decided to see if my school uniform could still fit me, and surprise surprise, it COULD!

All I need now is black hair and I can infiltrate the school again! X)

Just in case anyone was wondering, Hin Hua High School is a Chinese independent school. The student number is our registration number, for me it says 2005353 , meaning during the year 2005 I registered as the #353 student in the school. So all our records are stored under this number and if the school needs information about you like where you live, what's your contact number, who are your parents etc etc, all they need to do is to key in this number into the database and BAM, all your information comes out, including how many times you have been punished and the awards you've won and even the societies you'd join. It's the ultimate way to stalk us students.

The all white ensemble of our school uniform is to symbolize the purity and simplicity of students and to portray that this is a point of time we were all untainted by the harshness of the world, also white is simple to upkeep and doesn't need much maintenance, but it's really torture on female students, for reasons you all can understand.

So there it is again, a glimpse to my randomness.

Leaving you all for the wonderful motions of forces and the things they do to objects,

Hugs and Kisses,

[Jean]

We'll Be A Dream.

I receive messages everyday, but too bad they are not from the person I want.

My phone damn old school right?

Memories come in all shape and sizes.

Mine is in this form.

Some of the happiest and a shitload of sad ones.

Amazing quote from NTFB found in his Facebook album.

Ditto. 

But it's not true, cause you have friends to make each step easier.

This is turning into a Tumblr like post. Must be because I've been spending too much of my time reading other people's Tumblr.

Here's to the people that will always be there to pick you up when you're down and scold you when you're stupid.

You know I love you guys!

Random post, but still hugs and kisses to everyone!

[Jean]

Everything Changes, In a Second.

It has been over a week since I've last blogged, terribly terribly busy lately.

Trials have started in college, so it means endless nights of studying, endless stress and of course the copious amounts of caffeine ingested. All for the sake of a piece of paper, and the worst part is? No matter how crappy you may think life as a student is, it's a thousand times worse when you're working, that's the sad fact of life. Anyway, just going to slog away and hopefully scrape through with something good enough to apply for _________. (Please fill in the blank for me.)

Which brings me to another story. What. Am. I. Going. To. Study?

So here I am standing in front of crossroads and I'm thinking "hmmmmm...which way should I go?" So I blindly extend my hand in front of me only to realise, there's nobody to guide me, nobody to make my choices, it all boils down to me, myself and I.

I thought I can forever use the excuse 'study 1st think later', but now there's countless of aspects that I have to consider, if I am going to switch courses, for example, the job prospects back home. So, now the real question is, to switch or not to switch? 

"Where do I want to go?"

Anyway, at least my parents are not really piling the pressure on me (yet), they just want me to finish the trials before going into heavy discussion with me. At least, they are supportive and do constantly dig up information for me. Blessed.

So, anyway, many things happened over the course of one week. Been on so many emotional roller coasters that I've kinda lost track, of course with everything that has happened there's always lessons that I've learnt. Which brings on Life Lesson # 934  If it's too good to be true, it usually is.

Dear all, never believe in things that are too good to be true, you'll find out in the end that it was never as it seemed and trust me you'll feel like SHIT when things finally blow up in your face, as if shit blowing up in your face wasn't bad enough, you'll now have to deal with shit feelings AND shit in you face. Double whammy anyone? I can practically see the eyeballs rolling in the sockets of many of my friends reading this, but I'd have to say, yes I was stupid, yes I should have listen and yes you were right, ALL of you were right.

So with great finality I would like to say this is really the last of my illusions, I'm finally having a clear head and I'm going to do something which has been sorely overdue. So wish me luck everyone. Finally, I can see the end.

Remember when I said I was putting a full stop at the end of a particularly long chapter in my life? Think of this as foot notes now. X)

With this, I end my long and boring and slightly emofied post and I'm going to kill my brain cells with the wonderful-ness of double bonds in chemistry.

Once again, Hugs and Kisses everyone,

Lurve,

[Jean]