Tuesday, 25 November 2008
TK Leadership Overseas Expedition 2008Y
It has been 8 days, 8 fruitful days, 8 memorable days, 8 wonderful days, 8 days which we all will remember for the rest of our lives...
This update will be long,
and I'm sure if you're reading up to here right now,
you will want to go on
even though it may take you
an entire hour to read through
because this trip is too awesome to be missed!
I don't know what I'm saying,
but I know that I'll go through this
day by day...
Let's start from hours before we left...
Day 0, 7 November
Today was the very last time we all met for our finalast final briefing and meeting. Today was also the very last day of our truncated lessons (except Louis's and mine, but I still came back for Oral training and PSL training, anyway).
It's quite a weird feeling, and most of us shared this feeling... we were not very excited. At least for me, it didn't feel like last year when I was about to leave for China for my exchange trip. Really no excitement. Was it because we were tired?
It's close to tomorrow already and I've not packed, so are some of the others. We have to meet at 4.30am in the airport tomorrow. Nothing is pushing me to speed up a little so at least I can have 3 hours of nap.
Okay, be realistic, Chiaw Min, you are going to Hong Kong tomorrow for a great trek plus kayaking plus exchange programme plus shopping. You have been preparing and training and waiting for this period, right?
Erm...I don't know, maybe?
Day 1, 8 November
Right, I hardly had an hour of sleep in the morning. At the airport, 3E people and some other friends' friends and friends came to see us off. We checked in individually. My 2 baggages weighed 14.1kg. Got my boarding pass, sandwiched it between the pages of my passport, placed that 2-in-1 thing into the back pocket of my hand-carrier and I told myself, "Don't touch that pocket till I have to show the police officers."
We were given about 50 minutes to grab our breakfast because JetStar did not provide any food and drinks unless you purchase one. Okay, breakfast was done despite having to eat when I didn't feel like eating just to fill my tummy.
Let's go to the toilet. Josephine (Jo) was like running around searching for her boarding pass. I wanted to help her, but I didn't know what to do. So I just carried on with what I was supposed to do first. The first cubicle's door opened, Jo requested to go in for a search since she went into that cubicle just moments ago. Then I went in and *censored* (actually nothing much to censor lah, just everyday routine). Out of the loo, I thought I should give a check on my boarding pass too.
And, taadaa, it wasn't there! And I didn't even dare touched that 2-in-1 THING.
I began ransacking my entire bag over and over again, and I really couldn't find that damn receipt-like boarding pass (not the hard kind of material, seriously exactly like a piece of receipt which you would request not to have it from the cashier kind). The worse thing was that my dad just kept asking me to search everywhere in my bag (which I already did about 3 times) and refused to listen to any of my explanation or plain conversation. I was absolutely lost and petrified! I was supposed to enter the immigration counter within the next 10 minutes!
So Mum and Clarissa's Mum had told me to go to the counter to get a re-print as the last resort, but Dad was like, "找,你给我找出来!" ("Find, you better find it out" *direct translation) I was super frustrated for he was of no help at all, only adding on the stress.
Finally, Mum asked me to just get a re-print. Exasperated, I ran all the way from one end of the departure hall to Counter 1 at the other end where JetStar was. I saw Rifat on the way, but I hadn't get over my irritation, so I continued sprinting. I could feel the "Voom~" as I passed Rifat. The Jo was ahead, with James's Mum and a YMCA staff. "Jo, I've also lose my boarding pass!" I was panting while speaking. We brisk walked to the counter and successfully got a re-print with "DUP" written at the top of the receipt-like slip which I believed represented "Duplicated".
I was only about 4 metres away from the short queue at the entrance and Mum was like, "You better take care of yourself okay? Never bade goodbye to your father arh?"
And I turned to my left, where we came from. He was not in sight. I paused for 5 seconds. Alright, I saw him. I waved and said that word and turned back.
Mum gave me a pat on my back and repeated the same line.
"Orh," I replied softly.
Somehow the irritation got overboard and I got emotional. "Gotta be strong, don't let papa mama look down on you," I told myself. I wiped off every single drop of tears.
Those tears were not because I was leaving them, they rolled down because the last thing they gave me before my trip wasn't a smiley goodbye but a scolding when I was already so lost.
Case closed. Don't ask me more about this.
Clarissa and I successfully got pass the immigration counter. Jo hadn't enter yet. I hid behind a pillar so just not to show my wet face. I had to cry it out. Jo's not a Singaporean, so she needed some pass and her wallet was with Isabel Ho (who went to send us off) and Isabel handed it to Vivian thinking that Vivian will meet Jo anyway and Vivian was already through the immigration process and Vivian was in a phone restricted zone. So Jo called Vivian with Rifat's help (remember he was walking when I "Voom-ed~" pass him?), and Vivian just said "ok" as an airport staff was prompting her to switch off her phone. She just passed the wallet to Stefan (*ehem* the Athletic's Captain we're talking about here) gave instruction where to go and off he dashed.
Once Jo got through, everyone (of us TKsians) who were anywhere near walked towards her and she started tearing.
"I'm so touched, thank you all so much." That sentence replayed a few times.
You've got to understand that nobody was with her except her friends. Brave Jo, bravo =D
So on the plane we were. I was supposed to get the window seat but since Rifat requested for a switch, he sat on my left anf Ryan Lai was on my right.
We were kind of tired (hardly slept the night before, I guess). Rifat was observing the wings of the aeroplane. He shared that he wanted to be a pilot. Music would be a something to fall on if his pilot dream failed or when he retired, right? Ya. More or less... he DID say "something to fall on".
Ryan Lai was reading his book. I tried to sleep. I needed to sleep. I shifted so many times just to get into a comfortable position to at least nap. Totally unsuccessful, at all.
Gracie (YMCA staff who had been with us since the first briefing in September) was sitting right behind me and she slept throughout the entire plane ride and I was so impressed!
Though hungry and thirsty, I beared with them especially when Rifat ordered his Gormet Sandwich which cost S$7. Sharmane (sitted next to Gracie, on the left) treated some mini chocolate bars.
There was this sudden clear air turbulence and as usual, I grabbed the 2 arm rests beside me, okay, maybe clenching them. Rifat was like, "Chill, relax. The captain crew is very experienced, he can control the movement of the plane very well." Then together with Ryan, they told me about their experience on the flight to Melbourne in June when there was more than 30minutes of ups and downs and O Wen could still drink his soup.
The landing was really smooth, and cool. We were staring out of the window, in search for land for all we could see was water. Then suddenly, we landed, hardly feeling the 'touch' on the ground.
----------------------------------------------------------After typing soooooooo much just for not even half a day, I've decided that I'm too lazy to carry on, so... for more information, do check out the TK SLC blog (there's a link by the side) or watch the video done by the video team or flip through the pages of the scrapbook done by the scrapbooking team which will be placed somewhere in school (I hope so).----------------------------------------------------------------
PAISEH!
I shall let the pictures speak then...
This update will be long,
and I'm sure if you're reading up to here right now,
you will want to go on
even though it may take you
an entire hour to read through
because this trip is too awesome to be missed!
I don't know what I'm saying,
but I know that I'll go through this
day by day...
Let's start from hours before we left...
Day 0, 7 November
Today was the very last time we all met for our finalast final briefing and meeting. Today was also the very last day of our truncated lessons (except Louis's and mine, but I still came back for Oral training and PSL training, anyway).
It's quite a weird feeling, and most of us shared this feeling... we were not very excited. At least for me, it didn't feel like last year when I was about to leave for China for my exchange trip. Really no excitement. Was it because we were tired?
It's close to tomorrow already and I've not packed, so are some of the others. We have to meet at 4.30am in the airport tomorrow. Nothing is pushing me to speed up a little so at least I can have 3 hours of nap.
Okay, be realistic, Chiaw Min, you are going to Hong Kong tomorrow for a great trek plus kayaking plus exchange programme plus shopping. You have been preparing and training and waiting for this period, right?
Erm...I don't know, maybe?
Day 1, 8 November
Right, I hardly had an hour of sleep in the morning. At the airport, 3E people and some other friends' friends and friends came to see us off. We checked in individually. My 2 baggages weighed 14.1kg. Got my boarding pass, sandwiched it between the pages of my passport, placed that 2-in-1 thing into the back pocket of my hand-carrier and I told myself, "Don't touch that pocket till I have to show the police officers."
We were given about 50 minutes to grab our breakfast because JetStar did not provide any food and drinks unless you purchase one. Okay, breakfast was done despite having to eat when I didn't feel like eating just to fill my tummy.
Let's go to the toilet. Josephine (Jo) was like running around searching for her boarding pass. I wanted to help her, but I didn't know what to do. So I just carried on with what I was supposed to do first. The first cubicle's door opened, Jo requested to go in for a search since she went into that cubicle just moments ago. Then I went in and *censored* (actually nothing much to censor lah, just everyday routine). Out of the loo, I thought I should give a check on my boarding pass too.
And, taadaa, it wasn't there! And I didn't even dare touched that 2-in-1 THING.
I began ransacking my entire bag over and over again, and I really couldn't find that damn receipt-like boarding pass (not the hard kind of material, seriously exactly like a piece of receipt which you would request not to have it from the cashier kind). The worse thing was that my dad just kept asking me to search everywhere in my bag (which I already did about 3 times) and refused to listen to any of my explanation or plain conversation. I was absolutely lost and petrified! I was supposed to enter the immigration counter within the next 10 minutes!
So Mum and Clarissa's Mum had told me to go to the counter to get a re-print as the last resort, but Dad was like, "找,你给我找出来!" ("Find, you better find it out" *direct translation) I was super frustrated for he was of no help at all, only adding on the stress.
Finally, Mum asked me to just get a re-print. Exasperated, I ran all the way from one end of the departure hall to Counter 1 at the other end where JetStar was. I saw Rifat on the way, but I hadn't get over my irritation, so I continued sprinting. I could feel the "Voom~" as I passed Rifat. The Jo was ahead, with James's Mum and a YMCA staff. "Jo, I've also lose my boarding pass!" I was panting while speaking. We brisk walked to the counter and successfully got a re-print with "DUP" written at the top of the receipt-like slip which I believed represented "Duplicated".
I was only about 4 metres away from the short queue at the entrance and Mum was like, "You better take care of yourself okay? Never bade goodbye to your father arh?"
And I turned to my left, where we came from. He was not in sight. I paused for 5 seconds. Alright, I saw him. I waved and said that word and turned back.
Mum gave me a pat on my back and repeated the same line.
"Orh," I replied softly.
Somehow the irritation got overboard and I got emotional. "Gotta be strong, don't let papa mama look down on you," I told myself. I wiped off every single drop of tears.
Those tears were not because I was leaving them, they rolled down because the last thing they gave me before my trip wasn't a smiley goodbye but a scolding when I was already so lost.
Case closed. Don't ask me more about this.
Clarissa and I successfully got pass the immigration counter. Jo hadn't enter yet. I hid behind a pillar so just not to show my wet face. I had to cry it out. Jo's not a Singaporean, so she needed some pass and her wallet was with Isabel Ho (who went to send us off) and Isabel handed it to Vivian thinking that Vivian will meet Jo anyway and Vivian was already through the immigration process and Vivian was in a phone restricted zone. So Jo called Vivian with Rifat's help (remember he was walking when I "Voom-ed~" pass him?), and Vivian just said "ok" as an airport staff was prompting her to switch off her phone. She just passed the wallet to Stefan (*ehem* the Athletic's Captain we're talking about here) gave instruction where to go and off he dashed.
Once Jo got through, everyone (of us TKsians) who were anywhere near walked towards her and she started tearing.
"I'm so touched, thank you all so much." That sentence replayed a few times.
You've got to understand that nobody was with her except her friends. Brave Jo, bravo =D
So on the plane we were. I was supposed to get the window seat but since Rifat requested for a switch, he sat on my left anf Ryan Lai was on my right.
We were kind of tired (hardly slept the night before, I guess). Rifat was observing the wings of the aeroplane. He shared that he wanted to be a pilot. Music would be a something to fall on if his pilot dream failed or when he retired, right? Ya. More or less... he DID say "something to fall on".
Ryan Lai was reading his book. I tried to sleep. I needed to sleep. I shifted so many times just to get into a comfortable position to at least nap. Totally unsuccessful, at all.
Gracie (YMCA staff who had been with us since the first briefing in September) was sitting right behind me and she slept throughout the entire plane ride and I was so impressed!
Though hungry and thirsty, I beared with them especially when Rifat ordered his Gormet Sandwich which cost S$7. Sharmane (sitted next to Gracie, on the left) treated some mini chocolate bars.
There was this sudden clear air turbulence and as usual, I grabbed the 2 arm rests beside me, okay, maybe clenching them. Rifat was like, "Chill, relax. The captain crew is very experienced, he can control the movement of the plane very well." Then together with Ryan, they told me about their experience on the flight to Melbourne in June when there was more than 30minutes of ups and downs and O Wen could still drink his soup.
The landing was really smooth, and cool. We were staring out of the window, in search for land for all we could see was water. Then suddenly, we landed, hardly feeling the 'touch' on the ground.
----------------------------------------------------------After typing soooooooo much just for not even half a day, I've decided that I'm too lazy to carry on, so... for more information, do check out the TK SLC blog (there's a link by the side) or watch the video done by the video team or flip through the pages of the scrapbook done by the scrapbooking team which will be placed somewhere in school (I hope so).----------------------------------------------------------------
PAISEH!
I shall let the pictures speak then...
. . . . .
Friday, 7 November 2008
Truncated LessonsY
Truncated lessons are finally over, people!
Can you imagine (this only applies to non-TKsians), 1 period is 1.5 hour long and every day we have 3 periods of lessons with a short 25 minutes break in between. As usual, some teachers like to eat into our breaks. The worst of all is that poor students like me often find ourselves starving during breaks for there are hardly enough food available in the canteen!
Well, I'm glad that it's all over now.
I've got to pack for my Hong Kong trip now. I'm not sure why, but I don't feel the excitement at all. It's so unlike last year's China Exchange. I guess I'm quite tired.
Got to meet in the airport at 4.30am tomorrow morning, so I've got to go now.
Will be back in a week's time...
Can you imagine (this only applies to non-TKsians), 1 period is 1.5 hour long and every day we have 3 periods of lessons with a short 25 minutes break in between. As usual, some teachers like to eat into our breaks. The worst of all is that poor students like me often find ourselves starving during breaks for there are hardly enough food available in the canteen!
Well, I'm glad that it's all over now.
I've got to pack for my Hong Kong trip now. I'm not sure why, but I don't feel the excitement at all. It's so unlike last year's China Exchange. I guess I'm quite tired.
Got to meet in the airport at 4.30am tomorrow morning, so I've got to go now.
Will be back in a week's time...
. . . . .
know me
littlest of the Pang Family
people call me ChiawMIN or ZhaoMIN
was from Maha Bodhi School
and TanjongKatongSEC
and Temasek Polytechnic
Temasek Design School
tracking people
PANGsters
大哥
二哥
know littlest PUNK even better
HANrelated
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Alwin
Dennis
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Charmaine
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Dean
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Eileen
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Hafiz
Hasif
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HuiXun
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WeiYing
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ChinaExchange'07
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ChinaExchange'07
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them
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YuJia
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