The Hols Have Begun *insert relieve here*

Andrew you're one of my few readers :P Isabel drew this for you haha. If you're wondering what that green thing growing outta your head is, it's a coconut tree.

Missing my days at DJ already ): I miss making noise in my class *ahem*. Now, in Econs, it's literally silent. At least Maths isn't so bad (: Hahah the guys in my class never cease to amuse me :,) My teacher's cuteness just adds to the fun and having the other Djians around me, I guess, kinda helped me settle down easily. As stressing as the workload is, I think I have to say, Maths is my favourite class.

Lock Down- Right Or Wrong?

It's 2am in the morning but I have to get this off my mind.

Recently, my beloved former high school went through a lock down. If you are familiar with the Malaysian Education system, all students are required to attend a uniform body, sports practice and a club. I've always been pro-extra-curricular activities so I never really saw a problem with this ruling. Scouts and CF after all do hold special places in my heart.

Anyway, today was the day uniform bodies have their meetings and for the first time, nobody was allowed outside school. The school no longer wanted to tolerate poor attendance in meetings. From what my sister told me today, it was like 'school was a prison and there were attempted mass breakouts' Liiyung texted me just now telling me about the incident and how I felt about it -impartial by the way. She felt the same. However, a lot of the alumni and the students have said that this is preposterous, stupid and just plain bullsh*t.

But is it fair to put the blame entirely on the school? When DJ has one of the lowest attendance records in the state? Could they just sit there forever and watch their co-curricular activities slowly rot? If I recall correctly, my year in scouts and CF was a miserable year in terms of attendance and involvement. People my year just didn't see any point attending scouts (there were 5 of us only) and Christians just didn't see any need to be part of the school CF (the biggest club in the school) except for about 8-10 of us. And let me make it clear, my year consisted of over 300 students. Measures had to be taken. I remember my previous Senior Assistant saying that DJ would never resort to this. Clearly, their options have been exhausted out.

But was it right for the school to impose such a ruling? Did they violate the student's right to attend whenever he/she pleases? There are those who say that forcing a student to attend dying clubs will not help the situation. How true is that? Five years ago, I would have never imagined I would end up attending CF. But last year, I stepped down as a committee member. Attending CF sparked my interest in it and so could it perhaps apply to other clubs as well?  There are clubs in the school overflowing with potential. But because of the lack of passionate people, they are on their deathbeds.

There are some who say attendance is not the true measure of the quality of a club. Yes, but before a club can get started, there MUST be people attending it yes? Still, they argue back saying that students should be allowed to attend (or not attend) whatever club they please. That's true, but the compulsory attendance was not the school's idea. It was the Education Ministry's. And as long as this rule is imposed, and as long as co-curricular attendance continues to deteriorate, our poor Senior Assistant will have to endure someone high up telling him/her every year that his/her school has the lowest co-curricular attendance in the state probably implying that you've failed as a Senior Assistant. Humiliation is never a nice feeling. So any problem with compulsory attendance should be brought up to the Education Ministry, not the school.

There are some who say the whole system is flawed anyway so why bother? Well, I do admit that's true but our school syllabus -in my opinion- is equally as flawed too. But we study anyway. We aim for the straight A* s even though we know that our syllabus is screwed up.

There are some who say that the school should let us run our own clubs. I agree with that but this is, for the time being, unachievable. Why? Students don't attend co-curricular activities because they see no point or they don't have the time, And when they can't even have the discipline to ATTEND something, how can they ever dream of even STARTING something?

Personally, I think the root cause of this whole problem was the diminishing love of co-curricular activities in students, which is what the Education Ministry should be looking at. What caused this? The overemphasis of exam results (hence resulting in excessive amounts of tuition thus causing less time)? The lazy attitude? The 'it's a waste of time' -DOTA is a waste of time btw-attitude? The fear of venturing into new things?

Also, teachers should take an initiative. You want students to attend but do you bother making the club productive/fun? Just last year, 4 hour scout meetings on Saturdays were changed to 2 hour meetings on Wednesdays. Why? TEACHER'S DIDN'T WANT TO SPEND THEIR SATURDAY MORNINGS IN SCHOOL. Honestly, we couldn't do much in 2 hours. We couldn't do backwoods let alone pioneering. We only had time for test sessions, knots and games. In addition to that, everyone was tired out from a long day of school and some were late for meetings because of extra classes. The Court of Honour (which I was part of) was obviously against this but there was nothing we could do. Though I continued to attend, meetings weren't the same anymore.

Can't really point fingers here now, can we?

College

'What's wrong with watching?'
-my English Lit teacher responding when we said William Wordsworth spends his time watching young girls.

Ignoring my stressful Math work and the fact that my Economics class is a bit too quiet for my taste, college is pretty adaptable. Lessons are interesting and I've taken to spending my breaks either alone or with Shu Wen and Siew Meng (: However I am looking forward to CNY. I have only one term break a year so 3 days of holidays is better than nothing. My sis however gets a week ):

My Math teacher carries a cane :P

The Start of A New Year

Well, tomorrow is 2012 and honestly I was going through this writer's block- if that's what you call it- thinking of what totally bombastic, mind-blowing, life-changing post I could write up to end the New Year.

And I came up with nothing. But reading Isabel's blog gave me inspiration! She doesn't read my blog so I guess she won't find out I'm plagiarizing ;)

***********

In 2011 I attended my very last CF camp as a core and camp committee member. New experience being on the committee. But in the process, I had to put off my King Scout for a year.
A sacrifice I don't regret.

In 2011 I won my first essay competition! My first time entering one was in Year 6 and this was my second time. I DEFINITELY did not expect to win. I just wrote what I felt.

In 2011 I went to Singapore for the first time! :D

In 2011 I sat for SPM which is a pretty big thing considering the fact that I always thought I would die or the world would end before the day came.

In 2011 I conspired with Liiyung to trick Ghee Ken into a watching 'Dead Silence'. Why 'Dead Silence'? Because he's afraid of ventriloquist dummies >:) We deserve a pat on the back. Liiyung and I for tricking him and Ghee Ken for sitting through the entire movie.

In 2011 I learnt a very painful and humiliating lesson on self-righteousness. In relation to that, I entered the discipline room for the first time to be scolded.

In 2011 I learnt that  total dependence on God is the way to go!
*insert applause here*

In 2011 I mustered enough strength to deactivate my Facebook. A feat I never thought I would never achieve! Honestly, I think I was bordering FAD (Facebook Addiction Disorder). It's a real illness. Go search it up.

In 2011 I watched as two great teachers left: Madam Tan and Pn Saik. Thanks for being a great Maths and SPBT teacher, Madam Tan. Thanks for being a great CF teacher, Pn Saik. May God continue to bless you both.

In 2011 I rode on a roller-coaster for the first time! :D There was crazy one I rode in Universal Studios that travels at 80+ km/h and there are like loops on the track. And your feet are dangling.
So scary O_O

In 2011 I came to terms with the fact that I'm going off to college soon and stopped being scared. Well, a bit anyway.

Happy New Year, everyone.

More Than Friends?

Oh goodness, never in my life.

PLEASE.

The Small Dot Down There

Recently, my family and I took a trip down to Singapore. My sis and I were excited mainly because we were:

• Going Universal Studios
• We have never in our life been to Singapore. Unless you count the few hours we were in the airport transiting to South Africa :P

No longer shall I join the ranks of Malaysians who have never been Singapore!

Anyway, here are a couple of things I noticed about Singapore.

1) It's clean
Like squeaky clean. I was outside some shopping mall sitting on the ground nearby the Merlion. I rubbed my hand on the floor and it wasn't even dirty. Also, you hardly see rubbish around. Very contrary to home. A good example would be the rubbish in the bushes I see on the way to church. The rubbish has been there for about a few months, I think. I only noticed it 2 months ago so it could have been there longer. The toilets were a breath of fresh air compared to the ones back home. SO CLEAN. Also, according to some residents, there are no rats.

Random quote: Me: There are more sheep in New Zealand than people
                        Sis: Just like there are more rats in KL than there are people.

2) Everywhere you go, you see cabs or buses
You can tell it's pretty easy to catch a cab here. And according to my dad's friends residing there if all the cars -excluding buses and cabs- were to stop suddenly, Singapore would still function like normal because the government has successfully developed the public transport to a point where you don't need a car in Singapore to get around. They also say it's safe. Which is also very contrary to the stories I hear of cabbies who don't use the meter, molest/rape female passengers and of people getting mugged at train stations.

Seeing as we're on the topic of safety, I like to point out that these same people also told me it's pretty safe to walk alone at night. And there are no snatch thieves.

3)There are trees everywhere
Considering the fact that Singapore is much MUCH smaller than Malaysia, I don't think they have the land space to have tropical rainforests. And so they compensate by having tons of trees at the side of the road. They have trees everywhere. Makes the place cool (:

4)I see real Christmas stuff
Seeing as Christmas is near, the decorations are up on Orchard Road! :D But I didn't just see beautiful lights, I saw a shopping mall that hung up a big sign with Ecclesiastes 3:11 on it- well part of it anyway.

'He has made all things beautiful in His time'

And yes, they did put the name of the verse too (: Also I came across some farm thingy and on the information board was the meaning of Christmas. And I saw all this stuff OUTSIDE a church. Religious freedom? I like.

5) Food is cheap
Black coffee, two pieces of toast and 2 half boiled eggs for just over 2 Singaporean dollars? I don't think food is even that cheap in Malaysia.

6) Cool T-shirts!I see people everywhere wearing T-shirts like:

or

WHY DOESN'T MALAYSIA HAVE THESE SHIRTS D:
I wanted to get some of these kind of shirts but unfortunately 1 Singapore Dollar is equivalent to RM 2.35. And so 1 shirt would cost over RM 30.

Honestly, Singapore would definitely be a place I wouldn't mind staying in. Except for one problem: it's not home D: However, I think Malaysia has a lot to learn from this country we call 'duri dalam daging'* in our textbooks. The place Malaysians laughed at when they separated saying they would come crawling back to us. Lee Kuan Yew, boy, did you show Malaysia.

And for that, you have my respect.

*a burden, trouble

Malaysian Forever

I remember some time back Liiyung was telling me a story of how this Malaysian scholar went to Canada to study. The university he was at was having a forum on the issue of brain drain. This Malaysian scholarly boldly stood up an proclaimed that  a lot of Malaysians migrate out of Malaysia because of {insert numerous reasons here}

They all looked at him like he was an armed terrorist.

But let's face it, if something like that would happen in Malaysia, we would all be applauding him for being smart. And for listening to his parents' advice to 'never come back'. And we would all probably emulate what he was going to do. I am ashamed to say that at some point of time I had great dreams to fly off to where the 'grass was greener'. Until I read an article by Pastor Sandra Chin of Acts Church at the age of 14 that changed my course of thoughts and possibly my future. I can't find the link for the article anymore unfortunately but what it thought me was this: that each of us 20 million Malaysians were put on this soil for a reason.

And as I grew up, I became more aware of the things happening in Malaysia. Dirty corruption and intentionally-stirred-up racism by our politicians. I was always taught to be part of the solution, not the problem. I was always taught to never run away from a problem. Well, there is more than one massive problem going on right now in our tanah air. But if we all keep migrating intentionally just because we hate it here, what's going to happen? Aren't we the generation who can change things? I believe we are.

Once a Malaysian, always a Malaysian.