Friday, December 29, 2006
Woo today was eggciting! I went to sch quite early today to pack all the orientation packs for next year's J1s. It's quite a good deal of stuff they're getting there; haha i can't help but be envious. The packing itself was quite xiong had to make sure that everyone's accounted for, then throw in all the stuff and make sure everything was labeled.
I remember Gen whining about how our opacks seemed bland compared to others' coz some people were writing their OG names on the bags with fabric pens or hiding secret stuff inside. Hmm in my opinion, if you put stuff into the opack ppl just tend to take it for granted. Makes more sense to present it to them personally so they appreciate it a bit more!
Then after that we sat down to tie poles together to form the foundation for our flag. I feel quite proud of myself, haha learning from Jung How the proper way to tie a Clove Hitch and frapping and such. I think i pulled too hard on the twine tho in trying to secure the poles together, got myself rope burn. Now there's a blister on one of my fingers. Ouch Ouch. ><
And afterwards Gen and I headed out to vivocity to buy stuff for our OG coz we were both like feeling a little guilty for not having like the best opack HAHA so we decided to shower our OG ppl with food instead! Leaving sch was quite risky for gen given that she had storyline rehearsal in an hour's time but in the end it was postponed SOOooo ^_^ WOo she could put her guilty conscience to rest!
So we spent like 2 hours at Vivo (my first time there lol) wandering from Candy Empire to Giant to Mini Toons buying candy and eating stuff. LOL Gen's like some food addict she was like sharing her "expertise" with me by commenting on what was nice and buying chips and korean satay. Kind enough to share with me too. Thanks..
LOLz and after that i still had enuf energy to go training with leonard. While we were training we overheard some errr HMMM convo between some RG girls about one of our seniors. Everyone was like wondering why two guys who were like standing quietly in a corner minding their own business were suddenly ROFLTAO. But hmm on hindsight the joke was actually in bad taste so hmm dun think i wanna repeat it here. Then when we were trying to make it to the arcade at northpoint to slack we had to go the long way round coz leo saw his mum and aunt standing at the entrance to the shopping centre and promptly made a U-turn lol think his mum would have told him to go home had she seen him ^_^.v. Cunning.
Wahhhh still gotta design the OG card and paint the OG flag. Sleepless weekend here i come!
Chris LOLed @
ABUNDANT PEACE :)
10:20 PM
Saturday, December 23, 2006
My gosh theres <2 weeks left before sch starts! OMGOMG. Anyway DR2's over at last! Some down time for me to get started on hw. Haha 2nd day was quite routine got the other ppl to play through all the games again.
And the 3rd day was the first time we tried out Ext. Activity. Oh yeah we got to go Little India while some group went to Yishun which is like a super hippening place /sarcasm. And we had to do all this silly stuff like eat lettuce with a whole lump of salted veg and drink water from holes poked in paper cups and use our mouths to pick up and eat super rings from a plate full of flour. And lewis got himself a shirt full of it after his botched attempt at attacking the stationmaster.
LOL... And yesterday night we had shooting xmas party! WoO it was part celebration part final farewell for the j2s before the guys go NS. Aiyah I was a bit sad that not too many ppl turned up. After all the more the merrier but oh well the atmosphere was more cosy and intimate that way so i guess it was alright. Played lots of lame games and WIL DRESSED UP AS SANTA CLAUS and gave out presents!!! how amusing lol. LOL i got soft toys again!!!
Someone buy me something i can use please! 
Bye bye j2s! You've been a great inspiration for all of us! If it wasnt for success stories like daniel and wee wee i prolly wouldnt have make the leap over to pistol HAHA. Best of luck with NS/uni and rmb to come visit us sometime!
Chris LOLed @
ABUNDANT PEACE :)
11:47 PM
Saturday, December 16, 2006
HEYOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! I'm back from taiwan! FINALLY!Opens email inbox *laughs and dies*Haha my gosh i really really really didnt want to come back at first. Wanted to just forget that i'm Singaporean, from some sch called RJC and from oteam and shooting and just stay in taiwan FOREVER and eat and sleep. But haha that needs money....Dont wanna bore everyone with some stoopid day-by-day account of my trip so might as well just write down random stuff that i find really interesting!
Fun Facts about Taiwan:1. Everyone there speaks Chinese to some extent, but their chinese is traditional, not simplified. SO even if one's chi is very guat, one must still be prepared to ask for "translation" sometimes ^^.2. STARHUB CABLE TV SUXXX. Long live taiwan tv. There're like 10+ news channels alone. Really enjoyed watching Xiao Qi Da Cai Shen and star movies everyday! There's even this show where 2 girls get sent into haunted places to be freaked out by scenes of tables and doors falling and moving violently. Creeepy...3. Taiwan isnt the urban metropolis that some ppl make it out to be. In fact many of the buildings in the capital Taipei are actually quite run down coz there's no restructuring scheme like S'pore. Things get worse in the rural areas where haha some flats still have to make do with zinc roofs!4. Ok la not abt taiwan but random! Chris left S'pore weighing 65 but came back 64! :P Amazing isn't it? ^^5. Do you know that A-Mei is actually from the A-Mei aboriginal tribe? It's true! They have the complexion of malays and they have their own traditional dances and garb!
ChrisTang's guide to taiwan:
WHERE DO i GO?
That really depends on what kind of person you are! Muahahahha if you're a devout Buddhist, like my family is, you can go visit the various temples scattered throughout the country!There's the Wen Wu temple, which commemorates historical heroes like Guan Yu and Yue Fei!Theres the Martyr's Shrine, which commemorates the officers and soldiers who fell during WWII and the anti-communist movement. There's even Fo Guang Shan, which is the centre of the Buddhist movement in Taiwan. you can tell coz there's a gargantuan Buddha Lvl 100 with brilliance aura mounted on the top of the hill with 500 acolytes around it!
If you just like history in general you can go visit historical sites scattered around the country like the Wu Fong earthquake museum, which depicts the scenes of carnage of the 921 earthquake as well as the more recent 1999 earthquake!
Or if you're just there for the scenery, theres plenty to see just driving up and down the winding mountain roads or along the coastline! Some kid in my tour group threw up twice in the same day coz HE WASN'T MAN ENOUGH TO HANDLE THE ROADS ^^.v.
And lastly theres always the night markets! Its like Chinatown X10 + tons and tons of students with their bf/gf (xingfuuuu) and bargain hunters on their scooters! The stores are open till past 10!
What must i bring?
1. Number 1 MOST MOST IMPT THING is mp3 player. If not you're gonna be bored to death during the traveling. There was one day where we covered 300km in 7 hours. Thank god i had my iPod with me just set it to shuffle and went to sleep! YAY X ]
2. Jacket. I made the stoopid stoopid mistake of assuming the weather would be clear and sunny throughout, then on the last day i wore a short sleeved shirt and bermudas VS 9 degrees temp. Guess who won? ><> last you the entire trip worrzz! Enough for plenty of food, souvenoirs and presents for yourselves and your loved ones!
What do i eat?!
They dont call taiwan the kingdom of small eats (xiao chi wang guo) for nothing!!! Esp when you venture into the night markets, OMG for $20 (NT 400) you can buy one of everything and eat and eat and eat and eat until your stomach bao zha! Just have to be abit more adventurous!
Stuff like
Smelly tofu (didnt try coz i make it a rule not to eat anything that smells like shid)
Bittergourd juice (they use a special white colored bittergourd+pineapple+apple and the drink's actually very shiok! Closest thing to alcohol you'll find. Cooling and got slightly sweet and bitter aftertaste!)
Black Pearls (taiwanese equivalent of apples! Looks like an oversized strawberry with the complexion of an apple and the flesh of a starfruit! Soft and sweet)
Liu Ting (taiwanese equivalent of orange) Looks like an orange, but its flesh is yellow like a lemon, but the taste is almost always sweeeeeet..
Coffin Board (didnt try but from what i know its this giant piece of toast with meat and veggies buried in it <---- get the joke notnot?, almost like a burger)
What do i buy?
If you wanna buy stuff, stay far far awayyyy from Taipei 101. Seriously that place is a sad excuse for a shopping mall, only has 5 levels and most of the brands there are like stuff that 99.999999% of ppl cant afford like mont blanc, gucci, prada blablabla. The real gems are hidden in the night markets and places like the mountain side city of Jiufen.
Seriously the ppl there really know how to do business. Food vendors will like put out tons and tons of food for tourists to sample, and as you know Singaporeans <3 free stuff! In the night markets themselves you're like GOD, seriously the hawkers will send out ppl with placards and menus to wooo tourists over to their stalls, and as long as you're nice, they'll give you SPECIAL PRICE (LOL Chinese ppl must look after their own mah RIGHT RIGHT???)
Haha i only bought music albums there. The rest of the money i spent all in my stomach right now ^^ got Joi Chua, Fish Leong and Zhang Xin Yu! TOo bad dun have Elva's 1087 RAWR went there at the wrong time X ]. Buy from s'pore shop not authentic haha. WOOOOO Taiwan ROXXORS! Chris LOLed @
ABUNDANT PEACE :)
5:52 PM
Sunday, December 10, 2006
The last dream I had was about the end of the world (See previous posts). Guess what? Today's topic at church was about the end of the world too and why we should look forward to it. Coincidence?
And oh, goodbye to Chris, who is going off for Taiwan today (plane departed at 3pm). Hope you have fun and meet new friends (instead of entirely old aunties in your travel group) and do say hi for me if you run into Ah Bian ;)
Matt, signing off
ABUNDANT PEACE :)
4:48 PM
Saturday, December 09, 2006
Zomg CIP's finally over. I'm feeling so nostalgic and relieved at the same time. Relieved coz i won't be punched in the back/dragged by my shirt/asked quirky qs for quite a while. Nostalgic coz hmmm.....
Day one was like horrible. I got upgraded from co-group leader to solo group leader the day before. Me, lol, someone with zero experience with handling children. And the intro period was traumatising. My kids wouldnt talk to each other coz some were lower-pri and some were upper-pri and some games the younger ones wanted to play the older ones wouldn't play.
At that point in time I was feeling like I was the most incompetent GL in the whole world. Like "why are the other groups having so much fun and my kids don't even want to talk to each other? WHY am I so failure?"
And to top it off one of my Imps was one of the most introverted kid ever.... Her name's Amanda. She had some inferiority complex where she'd be sad when ppl did things she couldn't (like do a split or cartwheel) and think negative thoughts all the time ("We LOSE! We LOSE!!") and wouldn't mix with the other kids. Just kept tugging on my hand and whine haha. Thankew Ali for helping her warm up!
So when we finally got to the ball games i was uber-relieved. Finally got the kids to start opening up by egging them on and getting them to communicate with each other.. But whoever brought basketballs instead of soft balls should be SHOT. Little un's kept getting whacked in the head by them and crying.
Then there was origami making in the afternoon. OMG hell for me.. no one in my group could understand what Elvina was talking about when she was gesturing to her piece of paper and they'd just give up on their piece and toss it to me. I hated it coz I wanted them to learn on their own rather than relying on other ppl but at the same time i didnt want to dampen their enthusiasm. So hahah no choice just fold all the origami for them. X ]
Second day was soo much better. Got to know my kids much better and they warmed up to me as well. Always on the lookout for a silly qs (Do you have a GF?) or tickles. We played station games with them in the morning and treated them to a movie (Narnia!) in the afternoon while the GLs gathered in the neighbouring room and chilled out to silly songs while discussing campfire programme.
Thanks to Mie and Jiahui for volunteering to be station masters!
And the campfire at night was the most impromptu thing ever. You could hear the kids remark on how our sad excuse for a campfire was dying at the start.. and Wil flipping feverishly through his album to find songs to teach =))
Thank god for Mie and Ali our emcees who entertained the kids with songs and dances. lol the impromptu Rain Dance was DA BOMB all the non-oteamers floundering at the back and the kids were like ????
And in the end we sang Rippy the Gator (went CHOMP CHOMP CHOMP) with Kin Wai sacrificing his shirt (and dignity) for the kids, and Voices that Care, possibly the greatest song of all time. In the end i think everything went better than expected considering the time we had to work with! ^^
Mie and Alison, our two fabulous MCs who kept the kids pumped out throughout our campfire!
Andrew and Jiahui our lead guitarists!
And on the last day, we went to Bishan park. OMG I was praying so hard that it wouldnt rain coz the weather report said the whole of Singapore would be engulfed by rain in the afternoon. Thankfully Singapore's meteorologicial system SUCKS. And the kids had fun under the sun, playing Hunter Fire Earthquake, Ice/Water.
Catch!
And the most awesome game of all.....
*drum roll*
What do you get when you paste masking tape all over 4 GLs and set the kids loose on them in a bid to rip all the tape off?
...
...
...
Chaos. LOL we originally intended for Leonard to be the only christmas tree.. See all of us wearing brightly colored shirts and he's the only one in black? Thats how the kids would know who to chase. But in the end ahhh everyone felt sorry for him so Ke Zhong, Kin Wai and I decided to volunteer to be (chris)tmas trees too. I never knew i had so much energy in me.
And Kin Wai did his Gator thing again! I almost feel sorry for him.... xD
And when it was time to part, hmmm I think I was more emo than the kids LOL. Gave them chocs with personal msgs addressed to them. Hopefully they'll take something away from this camp. X ]
Go Go Imps!
Chris korkor will miss you all!
Going taiwan tml yay!
Chris LOLed @
ABUNDANT PEACE :)
6:46 PM
Friday, December 08, 2006
Ok, enough of ranting. Well, had this weird dream last night (I seldom have dreams). Dreamt about the end of the world, when everyone, no matter dead or alive, have to face judgement, and those whose names aren't in the book of life are to be cast into the hell. It just felt so real. Perhaps the end of the world is closer than what any of us can imagine.
Perhaps it will serve as a good reminder for me to control my own emotions, and to live by His commandments everday. For those free thinkers out there, feel free to approach me if you want to understand what Christianity is all about, or if you want to see how church service is like etc.
Matthew, signing off.
ABUNDANT PEACE :)
6:57 PM
Friday, December 01, 2006
Yay glad that matt's back from holiday!
Just got back from the last Oteam meeting before the official block out period. And training. A lot of ppl are discussing the rule about "couples" not being allowed to become Co-OGLs.
Hmm frankly i think that the rule's quite booshid. Firstly, why are the teachers so kaypoh? You mean they've actually done bg research and know who are couples? Or just using the oteam i/cs to identify the dangerous ppl and forcibly separate them? Asked the i/cs themselves and they thought the rule was BS also.
Secondly, why keep the couples apart? I can understand where the sch is coming from when they say that such ppl might project a bad image for the school, but surely you can trust young adults who've actually survived the selection process to become befriender, open house, and Dry Run 1 to be responsible and be able to toe the line between working and personal relationships...I think that if they work well together, why not?
Haiya i dunno la. Can't understand why the school is so anal about this kind of stuff.
Sigh feeling so angsty today. I wish. I always wish that i could have a decent conversation with people that doesnt devolve into an argument or a teasing session. Was on the train home today with wiL and Leo and they just wouldnt stop ticking me off. Then i got off at Dhoby Ghaut and bumped into Teddy who was on the same train home as me. And we just talked about the OGL grouping, the rules, Casino Royale and it was just great. No one got put on the defensive, just plain cheerful talk. Why guys.. why do you keep pushing the limits? -.- Next time i might as well not say anything since it's gonna be used against me later...
Haiz so frustrated. Still need to think about OGL grouping. Don't have enough names to fill up the list whenever it comes. I guess it's punishment for not knowing enough people outside my own social circle. Sigh >_<
Chris SIGHED@
ABUNDANT PEACE :)
9:29 PM
Well, got back from China on 29th Nov, at 10pm. A bit not used to the warm weather, after getting used to temperature below 10 deg. You can buy stuff(most of them) really cheap there, such as original DVDs for S$5 or less and pirated ones for S$2 or less.
For the first day, we arrived at the airport at 3.15pm (their local time is the same as ours), and we left the &*@# airport at 5.30pm. Lesson learnt: Never queue behind middle eastern people when going through the customs. They had to check every single detail of their passports, and could take up to 15 minutes per person -_-. (It is less than 1 minute for the rest). Dad queued behind around more than 10 Iraqis. Win. Went to try out themag-grav train. The max speed is 431km/h! Too bad the trip only lasted 7 minutes.
Had dinner after that on a floating restaurant before returning to hotel. Found out that a bottle of beer there is half the price of a bottle of pepsi, and the drivers there (called shi fu, coz they feel that those guys there must have skills and techniques in order to drive well) don't give a damn about pedestrians.
Went sight seeing and visited the bridges and ancient gardens the following days. Visited 三国城 and realised that 唐城 in Singapore was modelled after that. Watched some performance of a battle scene from 三国演义 there.
Visited the silk factory on the 3rd day. Tour guides are really good at talking; managed to convince my parents to spend a bomb on silk blankets and pillows. You can practically tell where we are going by just hearing what product they promote on the bus.
Visited 长江 and found out that the bridge built across was funded(still is) completely by the commoners and hence, there is no toll needed to cross it. Therefore, they encourage us to buy the crystal art created by some local master, claiming that all profits will go to the maintainance of the bridge, which is in pretty bad condition.
Crystal ball art... Pretty? Had to be painted inversely in its interior to appear so.
I seriously doubt their words. The price tag on the table read 400 RMB. However, the price tag attached to the base of these are 640 RMB. After my mum showed some interest in one of those, and felt that it is too expensive for her liking, the salesgirl told us that she will go ask her boss, and returned 5 minutes later, saying that she will make a special discount for us and sell it at 400 RMB. -_- Didn't buy it in the end as we felt that we have too many ornaments in our house already.
Visited a workshop manufacturing 紫砂壶. Parents bought a teapot that can float on its base, and which lid is airtight. Got it for S$50+. Turns out that not all stuff made in China are cheap after all. Ever seen tea leaves sold at S$200/500g? Turns out that there is such thing, and parents bought more than 1kg of those.
Tea plantation...
Also visited a pearl workshop and a place in Shanghai that sells traditional medicine. Tried to sell ME S$1000+ worth of stuff that is supposed to “remove toxic stuff from my liver” and “to make me grow taller”. Well, with that money, I can buy like a ton of those stuff listed in Singapore -_-.
On the final day, visited this feng shui master. The truth is I am quite im pressed, able to tell one’s character and how he fare in life by just looking at the person’s face. He said that I am an introvert and too soft-hearted. He even suggested that I convert to Buddhism to open myself up more (?!). Already have a religion, so that is just out of the question. Visited the Shanghai tower the 2nd last night. Supposed to be 400 metres+ tall. Imagine the lift breaking down when you are at the top.
Final evening and final morning was spent browsing the shops. Got some good bargains, and got quite a bit of souvenirs. The Carrefour there sells original DVDs at S$4+ and original CDs at $3+. Bought like 10+ movies there. Who cares if it is in Chinese, I can understand it pretty well =P
Well, in short, I enjoyed myself there. Drank beer (muahahaha) for all non-breakfast meals and even tried out “Burn Heart Wine”(directly translated) which is like around 35% alcohol. In China, when you bargain, remember to start out at a price that is 35% or less of the price stated, since the PED is really elastic (hundred of stores selling the same good). All you have to look out for is the traffic, which is like shit.
ABUNDANT PEACE :)
8:34 PM
Bye bye j2s! You've been a great inspiration for all of us! If it wasnt for success stories like daniel and wee wee i prolly wouldnt have make the leap over to pistol HAHA. Best of luck with NS/uni and rmb to come visit us sometime! 
