1. Take the DELF, A2/B1 level and hopefully get good results and a certificate!
2. Try to have fun at OBS. Oh well, at least try.
3. Finish reading Gone with the Wind. At part 2 now!
4. Try to finish reading World Civilizations. Hopefully at least more than half. XD
5. Try to have a GPA of 4.0.            3.9 and above won’t be bad either   .
6. At least try to be more fit. Seriously.
7. Try to have an open mind and be friendly to everybody. And forget past grudges.

After coming back from Chengdu on the 24th of December, I realise  that there’s one thing similar about life in Chengdu and life in Singapore. Despite Chengdu being a dusty, grey place (all the more so during winter) and Singapore being at the opposite end of the spectrum by being unnervingly clean, life feels equally surreal in both cities.

In Chengdu, days pass by in winter like a flock of pigeons flying past you: each brief, nebulous day seems as similar as the previous one in its fogginess and dreaminess, while in Singapore, life feels like watching High-Definition TV: everything seems so meticulously detailed, meticulously coloured, meticulously stunning, but everything passes by so fast that you can’t catch all the beauty, thus leaving you dazed by the visual bombardment of colours.

And in both countries, this surrealism which pervades the whole atmosphere makes me doubly doubt their existence. Could this all very well be just imagination?

To move on to another subject, Chengdu’s tea.

I don’t think there’s another city in China which can be as famous as Chengdu for it’s 盖碗茶 (literally cover-bowl tea). No it’s not a type of tea, it’s a method of drinking tea which is rather hard to translate into English, so I’ll borrow a picture from wiki.

courtesy of wikimedia

Traditionally, you brew your tea in the porcelain bowl and drink it from there. The porcelain thing at the bottom is basically a cupholder, your hand grabs that instead of grabbing the small bowl, which would be rather hot from the tea. The porcelain lid at the side covers the bowl if you want to keep it warm and you don’t want to drink the tea yet. The lovely thing about tea in China is that one portion of 盖碗茶 costs only five yuan, which is roughly less than 1 singapore dollar. Additionally, you can drink one portion of  盖碗茶 for three hours, because you don’t gulp all the tea when you drink 盖碗茶, instead you take a sip and then refill it, so the source of the flavour (茶母), is not drunk away.

But of course this is not English tea, so you don’t add sugar or milk, nor would people give you any if you requested for it. Adding milk is even more unadvisable when the Chinese themselves nowadays in Chengdu don’t even dare to drink milk made in China because of the melamine scare even though there are tested to be safe already. A recurring joke is that the Chinese should even win the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for making known to the public the rarely-heard chemical of melamine, or in Chinese, 三聚氰胺.

“Every end is a new beginning”

–Proverb

EOYs are over and I feel liberated! BECAUSE THERE’S NO MORE GRADED ASSIGNMENTS FOR THIS YEARS LEFT!!!

Yay! Yay! Yay!

Oh but then our class still has to restage the MOV production. But then again, that’ll be fun.

Since the EOYs are mostly over, I decided to do something random, so I wrote a parody of a History Essay Question. Don’t worry if it doesn’t make sense, because it shouldn’t…

Q2. To what extent do you agree that Hitler’s suicide in 1945 the most important reason that the Titanic sank in 1912? Explain. [15]

Student’s answer:

In World War II, with Allied and Soviet troops moving towards Berlin and the German army defeated, Hitler commited suicide. This was a crucial event which led to the sinking of the Titanic.

Firstly, when Hitler commited suicide, Stalin was worried that after the Allies defeated the Germans, they would advance into the USSR next with the Titanic, an advanced battleship which was converted from a luxurious Olympic-class passenger liner, attacking from the Baltic Sea. Thus, he ordered the Soviet Army to use a technology which they had only recently perfected, time travel. Stalin sent the Russian Army back in time to sink the Titanic by placing a fake iceberg, which was in reality a block of titanium painted white, just in front of the Titanic, so that it would not have been converted into a battleship later. This resulted in the Titanic being sunk by an iceberg which normally would not have sunk Olympic-class passenger liners.

Secondly, Hitler’s suicide made the Germans so heartbroken that all of Germany cried in frustration, so this new influx of tears flooded the Rhineland and entered the ocean, thus increasing the salt content of the ocean drastically. This resulted in more icebergs being formed, as salt water freezes at a lower temperature than water, which made navigation for the captain very difficult, causing him to accidentally ram the Titanic in the fake Titanium iceberg which Stalin placed there, also resulting in the sinking of the Titanic.

However, though some scientists think that the increase in salinity of sea water causing icebergs to form would not have affected the Titanic as it was roughly 30 years later,  J. Robert Oppenheimer,  a biologist which headed the Manhattan Project which was devoted to investigating the sudden “Global Salting” of sea water which occured in 1945, discovered that the salinity of the sea water in 1912 was indeed the same as the salinity of the sea water in 1945, thus breaking the myth that  Global Salting was caused by excessive pollution .

Mark given: L3/8

Teachers comments: One-sided argument. Last paragraph incomprehensible. Conclusion?

Our destiny exercises its influence over us even when, as yet, we have not learned its nature: it is our future that lays down the law of our today.

–Friedrich Nietzsche

ARGH!!! EOYS start again tomorrow!!!

Panic!!!

PANIC!!!

One glance at Richard, and I feel unnerved already because I haven’t studied as much as him!

But then again, he’s quite a mugger .

And then the day after tomorrow, would be the great day of judgement! Because that would judge whether I can get in History RA, which I greatly desire!!!

And I might miss it by not doing well for the test!!!

The History curriculum should have more creative assignments, so not all our marks are based on the EOY, which is a hit-or-miss thing that doesnt’ really reflect a person’s passion for history.

But then again, tests don’t.

Fingers crossed…

Come up to meet you,
Tell you I’m sorry,
You don’t know how lovely you are.

I had to find you,
Tell you I need you,
Tell you I set you apart.

Tell me your secrets,
And ask me your questions,
Oh let’s go back to the start.

Runnin’ in circles,
Comin’ up tails,
Heads on the science apart.

Nobody said it was easy,
It’s such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be this hard.
Oh take me back to the start.

I was just guessin’,
At numbers and figures,
Pullin’ the puzzles apart.

Questions of science,
Science in progress,
Do not speak as loud as my heart.

Tell me you love me,
Come back and haunt me,
Oh, and I rush to the start.

Runnin’ in circles,
Chasin’ our tails,
Comin’ back as we are.

Nobody said it was easy,
Oh it’s such a shame for us to part.
Nobody said it was easy,
No one ever said it would be so hard.
I’m goin’ back to the start.

How should I express what I’m feeling now in words?

Yay? Phew? Wow? Yes?

Oh dear, the Merchant of Venice production has just finished, and I feel so…

Shaken…

The whole process was not easy and rough, but in the end, after the sudden nadir which descended upon us one week away from the production date, we have triumphed it!!!

The MOV production was so heartening! Yeo Jie was Yeo Jie, made for the role of Shylock. Benjamin was totally convincing as Portia, Bjorn was totally convincing as Bassanio, and ZHI YOU, the least predicted of all, gave a stunningly moving performance as Antonio!!!!!!!!!!!!!

!!!!!!!!!!!

And Theo’s oral defence script was so kwekish. Imagine the effect it had on the judges. You know what happens whenever something is written/done by Kwek. It blows your scarfs off. If you’re wearing any, that is.

I feel totally ecstatic right now. Mrs. Suhaimy even spoke to me on MSN ( A TEACHER DOING THAT. O.0), and she said, I am so proud of 2K.

!!!!!!!!

What could I say? I said I think so too.

Yay yay yay yay yay yay yay.

And all these would have been impossible without Ernest and Yan Qi, the directors of the production. And Kwek. And Yeo Jie. And Benjamin. And Bjorn. And MRS. SUHAIMY!!!!

Yes. Mrs. Suhaimy is such a supercalifragilisticexpialodocious teacher!!! I don’t even know what word to praise her! She GAVE US all her periods for the last week, and today’s to work on our MOV production. She is so GENEROUS!!!!!!!

!!!!!

Something I realised from this whole experience is that there are some literary works which are like fine French wine, the more you savour it, the more you realise the multiple layers of flavour and fragrance, and how rich and complex it is. It just wows you away and CONTINUES TO WOW YOU AWAY.

The Merchant of Venice is JUST THAT. I realise that after studying it so much, I appreciate it more and more and more. Maybe it’s because I’m partly so ecstatic about this whole experience, or maybe it’s because I really like it. Either way, Shakespeare ROCKS!!!

!!!!

Come to think of it, the MOV thing would not have even been possible without the whole class! Yes, everyone of you, if you’re reading my blog right now, have contributed to the MOV play in ways which are important.

3 Cheers for 2K!!!!

Hip Hip, Hooray!

Hip Hip, Hooray!

HIP HIP, HOORAY!!!!!!!

Yes… this is the song which was supposed to be done well, but Florence Jenkins ruined it. This is the more proper VERSION. BY A CERTIFIED OPERA SINGER.

This was the clip our conductor showed us. We had a good time laughing at Florence Jenkins and her absolute lack of pitch/rhythm/tone/overall singing ability. It is awful.

I did warn you… According to wikipedia, “From her recordings, it is apparent that Jenkins had little sense of pitch and rhythm and was barely capable of sustaining a note. Her accompanist can be heard making adjustments to compensate for her tempo variations and rhythmic mistakes. Her dubious diction, especially in foreign language songs, is also noteworthy. Nonetheless, she became tremendously popular in her unconventional way. Her audiences apparently loved her for the amusement she provided rather than her musical ability. Critics often described her work in a backhanded way that may have served to pique public curiosity.”

Oh dear…