Birthday!

Had a pretty interesting day today. My day started out at school where I forced a class of Sec 4 students to pay attention a 20-minute lecture, much to their dismay, because none of the other classes had lessons before the KDU college trip. Yes, I'm mean. Of course I'm mean. And that's because I really want them to learn.

Anyway, some of my students had earlier managed to dig out my birthdate from me, and a group of Sec 5 Aristotle students sung Happy Birthday in the hall in at least 3 separate occasions (yes - the same bunch) whenever they see me walking down the hall. Of course they were out to embarrass me... but I think it's sweet all the same ;) Su Yi of 5 Mozart even gave me a hug for my birthday.


The school bus took us to KDU college, where the field trip unfortunately, was boring for most. They started with an inter-school quiz where the first prize was a trip to Australia, and each school were to send 3 representatives (I can't remember how many schools there were today). We initially did pretty well, but our students started faltering towards the end, but they still did pretty good coming out fourth, although they unfortunately didn't win any prizes.


As for the students in the audience group, they were quite supportive at the beginning, but as the quiz dragged on, they started fidgeting, and many got really hungry, so we slowly lost numbers as they disappeared to get food, and most of them wandered around the college, which I thought was the general idea for the field trip today. However I had to stay in the quiz area, and after it was (finally) over, I sat with the students for lunch. There wasn't much opportunity for me to wander around the college (not that I wanted to) as there was not very much time after lunch till the bus came; so I spent the remainder of the time checking out some of the booths which were set up along the college hallways selling trinkets which were mostly girl stuff. Bought lots of butterfly accessories, hehe... of course spent a fair bit.

Oh, and a student from 5 Mozart - Adrian - gave me a Memory Lane bear. He admitted he got it for free, but it's sweet of him all the same.

It's br-- err, students like all of these who make it feel worthwhile to go to school, and I've only been teaching for little more than a month. :) (I'm refering to the ones who gave me birthday songs and wishes and presents, not the ones who resented my 20-minute class)

After we returned to the school, the day at school ended with an IS evaluation which left a bitter taste in my mouth because the IS guy is such a jerk. Was determined not to let that ruin my day.

Spent the rest of the afternoon asleep... that's my usual Friday activity, I catch up on all my lost sleep from the week then.

My birthday ended with dinner with four friends from school - Ik Choon, Jefri, Teik Seng and Jick Yong. We went to TGIF at Section 14, and I hadn't realised until it was too late that I was the only girl... not that it was a problem, of course ;) For the first time though, I didn't get a TGIF birthday song... all I got was the usual stand-on-chair, give-a-speech, blow-candles-from-a-mile away and a normal birthday song business :( But the company was great and I had a really good time.


Jefri gave me a really great gift - a photo of the two of us taken when we were 15, which was really the start of our long and close friendship. Childhood friends are great reminders of what we were like as kids, and they're among some of the most sincere friends we'll have in life (provided we stay friends...).


Well, at least I wasn't spending my birthday alone as I dreaded :) Had a very tiny-scaled treat from Bron earlier in the week, and yesterday a few of my teammates threw a small surprise party during our practice session. Small, cuz usually our team celebrations involve larger numbers. It's silly of me not to have expected it, because my team always makes it a point to celebrate no matter how few there are who will be present (not counting the birthday girl, of course), but I've learnt not to expect anything from my friends so that I won't be disappointed. Whenever it's someone's birthday, I always come equipped with my handycam and digital camera, but this time because it's a surprise birthday for me, I came without my trusty digital memory-recorders. When I first saw Cat come in with the cake (she being the third to arrive after Kobe and me), I was ready to go straight home to take my camera, but fortunately she remembered that her camera phone had an excellent camera and video function inside (Sony Ericsson K750i. Damn cool phone!) so we used that to take pictures. Catherine gave me a lovely set of toiletries from Crabtree & Evelyn, with a tiny purple bear (including Adrian's bear, that's 2 for my total this year, which is a lot to be said since I've never received bears - big or small - before for my birthday), and Barbara gave me a pack of Sally Field's cookies which I would have opened on the spot if we hadn't been too full from the cake. Hui Koon said she'll bring her pressie for me next week since my Friday was already reserved, hehehe. I honestly didn't expect any presents from anyone; cake was usually more than enough for me, so I'm really touched this year.