I don't know why I'm feeling so utterly depressed. I can't figure out the trigger. I'm not facing any life-changing or major problems. It might be the lack of nutrition though; someone told me that insufficient magnesium can cause anxiety, irritability and depression.
Well, this sucks. I hate being depressed. The self-pity is more of self-loathing. I'm getting this way too often now.
Saturday, July 29, 2006
Friday, July 28, 2006
What I got for my birthday this year
OK, this post comes a bit late. My birthday was over about three weeks ago, but I haven't really had the time to sit down and write about it. Anyway, here goes...
My birthday, having fallen on a Saturday, meant that there were bound to be something happening on the Friday. My class attempted to throw a surprise party for me, which didn't really turn into a surprise because someone said the wrong thing.
Three boys came to look for me in my staffroom during their break, and one of them said, "Miss Hoo, can you please come down to the cafeteria?" I already knew something was up. Some of the others got a bit mad because they had planned to say something else; they were about to tell me one of the boys in class got into a fight at the cafeteria. If they had told me that, I would have gone flying down without a clue!
Anyway, it was still pretty thoughtful of them to take the trouble to buy the cake and stuff. Coincidentally, their English teacher's birthday was two days after mine, so they made it into a combined celebration.
That night I went for dinner with a very close friend of mine. We went to TGIF, and the crew had the usual "We Will Rock You" song. Yowza!
Saturday night I went to dinner with another friend, but didn't take any photos during then.
Sunday night, went out with a bunch of my former schoolmates. We tried out this Korean restaurant in Taipan. It wasn't too bad; the food was nice and the concept interesting.
The cake was bought by my friends, not supplied by the restaurant.
All in all, my birthday wasn't too bad this year. I was half-afraid that everyone was going to forget and I was going to spend Saturday night alone. Haha! I've got bigger plans for next year though, because it's extremely rare for my birthday to fall on a weekend. Couldn't do it this year because of the lack of funds...
My birthday, having fallen on a Saturday, meant that there were bound to be something happening on the Friday. My class attempted to throw a surprise party for me, which didn't really turn into a surprise because someone said the wrong thing.
Three boys came to look for me in my staffroom during their break, and one of them said, "Miss Hoo, can you please come down to the cafeteria?" I already knew something was up. Some of the others got a bit mad because they had planned to say something else; they were about to tell me one of the boys in class got into a fight at the cafeteria. If they had told me that, I would have gone flying down without a clue!
Anyway, it was still pretty thoughtful of them to take the trouble to buy the cake and stuff. Coincidentally, their English teacher's birthday was two days after mine, so they made it into a combined celebration.
This is the cake the students bought for us. It's CHOCOLATE. Yum yum yum.
Ms Anjali and me
This cake is lip-licking good. Mmmmmmmmm....
That night I went for dinner with a very close friend of mine. We went to TGIF, and the crew had the usual "We Will Rock You" song. Yowza!
Helen and I
Saturday night I went to dinner with another friend, but didn't take any photos during then.
Sunday night, went out with a bunch of my former schoolmates. We tried out this Korean restaurant in Taipan. It wasn't too bad; the food was nice and the concept interesting.
I've got cake again!
The cake was bought by my friends, not supplied by the restaurant.
Happy birthday to me...
The tedious process of cake dissection
Hai-yahhhh!!! A totally lame attempt at trying to practise Korean martial arts
Here's looking at you, kid...
All in all, my birthday wasn't too bad this year. I was half-afraid that everyone was going to forget and I was going to spend Saturday night alone. Haha! I've got bigger plans for next year though, because it's extremely rare for my birthday to fall on a weekend. Couldn't do it this year because of the lack of funds...
Thursday, July 27, 2006
All about 4A
Here I go again, talking about my class once more. My class can be really annoying sometimes. Well, some of them, not all of them. But not too deep down, they're really good kids. I think that they're quite united, and there is no one who is an outcast in the class.
When the new students came in the second semester, I was quite impressed to see how quickly the class tried to make them feel at home. For example, when a new boy arrived, as I was talking to him, some of the class quickly formed a group around him to get to know him better, and to include him in their conversations. It was really heartwarming for me to see this.
Even with the stupid jabañero peppers. Someone brought the peppers and the whole class ended up tricking students from other classes - and even some teachers - into eating them. (Thankfully, I had heard about them before and I did not even attempt to touch them.)
And when the new girl was sort of harassed by a boy from another class, she saved the MSN conversation and the WHOLE class read the conversation. OK, that was partly my doing too; I displayed the conversation on the projector using my laptop. Perhaps not the whole class was interested, but a huge majority of them were. And some of them got pretty riled up about how the girl was (sort of) harassed.
And with the yearbook page in discussion, some of them were coming up with ideas on the pictures to take. Many of them were heavily involved in the technical bit; i.e. rigging up the camera from overhead to take a bird's eye view picture. We haven't taken the photo yet, but we've done a test run and it seems to be working to plan. It's incredible how seriously they're taking this, to take just one picture. They've got measurements and a drawn plan and stuff.
My point is, some classes have outcasts. Some classes have segregated cliques. Some classes can't stand the sight of their own classes. My class isn't perfect. We still have cliques, we didn't win the Paramount Championship, we made losses trying to sell liquid nitrogen ice-cream. But I'm so proud of them, every single one of them. I hold no credit to their achievements or their unity. I'm just glad to be with them this year.
I'm so going to miss them.
When the new students came in the second semester, I was quite impressed to see how quickly the class tried to make them feel at home. For example, when a new boy arrived, as I was talking to him, some of the class quickly formed a group around him to get to know him better, and to include him in their conversations. It was really heartwarming for me to see this.
Even with the stupid jabañero peppers. Someone brought the peppers and the whole class ended up tricking students from other classes - and even some teachers - into eating them. (Thankfully, I had heard about them before and I did not even attempt to touch them.)
And when the new girl was sort of harassed by a boy from another class, she saved the MSN conversation and the WHOLE class read the conversation. OK, that was partly my doing too; I displayed the conversation on the projector using my laptop. Perhaps not the whole class was interested, but a huge majority of them were. And some of them got pretty riled up about how the girl was (sort of) harassed.
And with the yearbook page in discussion, some of them were coming up with ideas on the pictures to take. Many of them were heavily involved in the technical bit; i.e. rigging up the camera from overhead to take a bird's eye view picture. We haven't taken the photo yet, but we've done a test run and it seems to be working to plan. It's incredible how seriously they're taking this, to take just one picture. They've got measurements and a drawn plan and stuff.
My point is, some classes have outcasts. Some classes have segregated cliques. Some classes can't stand the sight of their own classes. My class isn't perfect. We still have cliques, we didn't win the Paramount Championship, we made losses trying to sell liquid nitrogen ice-cream. But I'm so proud of them, every single one of them. I hold no credit to their achievements or their unity. I'm just glad to be with them this year.
I'm so going to miss them.
Thursday, July 20, 2006
All about Khor Sue Ching
Sue Ching is a girl, I think. She eats biscuits. And when she talks, she sometimes spray people with biscuit crumbs. At least, at me. Oh, and she bought me a jar of hot chocolate powder. She was supposed to get one year's supply, and somehow her idea of one year's supply is limited to only 500 g's worth. I wonder how much she drinks in a cup of hot chocolate. Maybe she puts about two drops of hot water with every grain of hot chocolate.
I wrote this with Sue Ching right behind me. I'll upload a picture of her as soon as I can find one.
I wrote this with Sue Ching right behind me. I'll upload a picture of her as soon as I can find one.
"I like AIDS"
At least, that's what this one brat -- err, I mean student of mine always says. Coincidentally, he had to attend a workshop on AIDS today for 5 whole hours. Well, he and his classmates. And another class. And ... oh, that's it.
I had to sit in with them for the first hour because the first hour was my subject with the students today, from 8-9am. The workshop, conducted by a group of volunteers (I can't remember the name of the organisation) started with ice-breaking where the facilitator told the students that she will ask them a series of yes-no questions, each of which they had to respond by moving to different parts of the room (left side: YES, right side: NO, middle: NOT SURE). It started of with simple personal questions ("Everybody likes me", "I share my problems with my parents", "I talk about sex with my friends") and went on to test their knowledge on AIDS ("If a mosquito bites a person with AIDS, it can infect the next person it bites"). When it came to the knowledge testing part, I was quite surprised on how so many of the students got the answers wrong. Yes, even the kid who loves AIDS did get some of the answers wrong. The facilitator went on to show presentation slides with information about AIDS after that litle exercise.
I think I took it for granted everyone knew about AIDS. It's common knowledge for people in my age group, because back then, the government had an all-out AIDS awareness campaign; there were plenty of advertisements in the media both printed and broadcast, plenty of leaflets, etc. We knew how AIDS can and cannot be spread simply by listening to a short ad on the radio. The awareness campaign was everywhere.
I forgot that there hasn't been an awareness campaign for a while, and only now there's a gradual comeback to the campaign.
I left at 9am because that was the end of my lesson so I don't know what transpired next. I'm sure they learnt a lot.
And no, I don't like AIDS. And I don't have AIDS!
I had to sit in with them for the first hour because the first hour was my subject with the students today, from 8-9am. The workshop, conducted by a group of volunteers (I can't remember the name of the organisation) started with ice-breaking where the facilitator told the students that she will ask them a series of yes-no questions, each of which they had to respond by moving to different parts of the room (left side: YES, right side: NO, middle: NOT SURE). It started of with simple personal questions ("Everybody likes me", "I share my problems with my parents", "I talk about sex with my friends") and went on to test their knowledge on AIDS ("If a mosquito bites a person with AIDS, it can infect the next person it bites"). When it came to the knowledge testing part, I was quite surprised on how so many of the students got the answers wrong. Yes, even the kid who loves AIDS did get some of the answers wrong. The facilitator went on to show presentation slides with information about AIDS after that litle exercise.
I think I took it for granted everyone knew about AIDS. It's common knowledge for people in my age group, because back then, the government had an all-out AIDS awareness campaign; there were plenty of advertisements in the media both printed and broadcast, plenty of leaflets, etc. We knew how AIDS can and cannot be spread simply by listening to a short ad on the radio. The awareness campaign was everywhere.
I forgot that there hasn't been an awareness campaign for a while, and only now there's a gradual comeback to the campaign.
I left at 9am because that was the end of my lesson so I don't know what transpired next. I'm sure they learnt a lot.
And no, I don't like AIDS. And I don't have AIDS!
Thursday, July 13, 2006
Ear-ring loss galore
It's so maddening! Two weeks in a row I've lost earrings after going to the gym. Last Wednesday I lost my pair of silver hoops, and yesterday I lost one side of my black butterfly dangling earrings. And I really liked these two pairs, and it's not easy to find replacements for these. Sigh... I don't know how I could have lost them. But I'm going to have to take precautions from now on to make sure they don't get lost again.
I'm supposed to put up a post about my birthday last weekend. Haven't gotten round to uploading the pictures. Will do it soon...
I'm supposed to put up a post about my birthday last weekend. Haven't gotten round to uploading the pictures. Will do it soon...
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Today, I've learnt...
Today I've learnt that if a current system has been in use for a long time, it will not be open to suggestions for change, even if the suggestion has grounds in it for a more logical and efficient use.
Today I've learnt that people who are supposedly charitable aren't necessarily professional.
Today I was supposed to learn something about creativity in the classroom, but then I learnt that I was already attempting to do creative things in the classroom and therefore haven't really learnt much, although I learnt a little bit more.
Today I haven't really learnt much, but then, today was a day which has been pretty infuriating and writing is sometimes a tonic.
(I'll write later about what was so infuriating)
By the way, England's out! Brazil's out! Germany's out!
Today I've learnt that people who are supposedly charitable aren't necessarily professional.
Today I was supposed to learn something about creativity in the classroom, but then I learnt that I was already attempting to do creative things in the classroom and therefore haven't really learnt much, although I learnt a little bit more.
Today I haven't really learnt much, but then, today was a day which has been pretty infuriating and writing is sometimes a tonic.
(I'll write later about what was so infuriating)
By the way, England's out! Brazil's out! Germany's out!
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