Wild Locusts and Honey

I have been preparing for exams. The IBs start tomorrow with Human Rights as the first paper. (Art was over two weeks ago) And SAT 1s on Saturday. Last weekend we were in Bergen (we being First Years) on the annual walkathon raising funds for Relief International. And we were in full UWC glory in national costumes and flags and singing and drumming and walking proudly. :D

Yesterday we celebrated Adrienne's belated birthday and I cooked assam curry fish head. :D success - thank God.

Before that we were at the Ungdommen's Gulating - youth gathering at the ancient Viking site where decisions were made. And the topic was global warming. MASSIVE cooking by DROP and the Gulu Project and SAFUGE - we were cooking 500 Ugandan chapatis and many more things... till night the day before Thursday.  

Been studying...

Good weather lately.

I am sorry but I have not been able to write here... >< I have an essay to finish.

Things you can look forward to reading about...

1) Languages at UWC (learning and hearing them)
2) The various activities I'm involved with
3) Birthday traditions
4) Pa Flukt
5) First Year Show
6) Christian activities
7) That 37-cm Mackeral we caught...
8) Hiking during Outdoor Discovery on Fridays

Till then!

I have four tests next week! Things are picking up... very quickly in fact.

Hey there!

I'm moving to another address because it will be easier for people to get the address... at least I don't really need to tell them how to spell my username! I guess it's a friendlier address and I LOVE IT TOO...

http://mali.vox.com/

See you there! Vox seems to have made big fonts kewl again!

Yes. It has begun. My UWC journey has officially started as of today. There was the Awards Ceremony at UWCSEA's Small Hall. It was quite a scramble after cleaning the house since the upgrading is over - then changing and buying 7Up and cans of Fruit Cocktail to make fruit punch. And there was no ice at first, then my mom and brother went off to search for ice... Very grateful to them for running about Clementi to buy the ice. And strangely enough the packs of ice from NTUC Fairprice lasted for 1 hour without melting. They must add some interesting things into the water to let this happen. Hmm.....

Big thank yous to everyone who came down! Especially for those who responded positively to my invites! THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Besides that, today's programme ran like this. We came early and hung around to set-up. Then at about 6.30pm the guests started pouring in. (It was quite a cosy setting with about 40 plus people, the place looked like a theatre black box with wooden furnishings) Phoebe's samosas + kueh are awesome. <333 I regret not taking photos... But at least we have official shots with the zero years (beloved co-years Jo, Wanjie and Alex) and Mr J. Whiteley (head of UWCSEA)! It kicked up with Vani MC-ing and the UWC Official video. Then Hanzhong and Debra came up to talk about the UWC experiences. Leng/Leroy Lim was mentioned again today as someone who embodied the UWC spirit! Apparently he did not make it through the round of interviews when he was 16/17, so he completed his A-levels and APPLIED AGAIN and this time he got through! So he spent an extra two years in UWC... Amazing.

Then it was the awards ceremony where we went up to collect our scrolls - essentially a beautiful certificate with important words inscribed - what I call my 'lifelong bond' for this scholarship. When I get my hands on it tomorrow or so I will type them in. :)

So... it has begun. Today is the last time I will see all my co-years in one venue. Like me, they will be going to a foreign land, meeting many new people and experiencing all that UWC has to offer. What Debra said today struck me - she related how news of the Lebanese-Israeli conflict is not just something happening in a distant country, but affects her in a very personal way as she has both Lebanese and Israeli friends after UWC. And her Israseli friend has just enlised into their version of National Service. I expect the same - from UWC on nothing happening in the world will be faraway or irrelevant. I will feel that I hold a greated stake in the world of tomorrow simply because whatever happens affects my friends in that part of the globe. Wow... That's just amazing.

Then the various Christians in the National Committee held hands with the zero years and prayed a blessing for us as we travel abroad.

World peace ain't just some beauty pageant ideal. It's something worthy to work towards to. And that's the aim of the UWC movement - international understanding and peace.

Goodnight friends.

Wheeeee!

Yesterday was fun.

In the morning, a mini-crisis ensued as my mom bought the wrong type of tap for the bathroom. My home is being upgraded at the moment (HDB MUP - rosythians recall mugging this for PSLE Social Studies?) so their fixing all the assorted parts of the toilet back into the newly re-tiled space. But I managed to get to United Square on time to get my visa/letter from the Royal Embassy of Denmark. And Danish sounds lovely. I think all Scandinavian languages sound lovely. :D

Then I met Vaneh for breakfast at Ya Kun where she showed me pictures of UWC of the Adriatic. Hoho. And apparently the people at Nordic drink more than the people at UWCAD. Hmm... Ho ho.

Back to RGS where I chatted with the stall vendors, and the drink stall uncle gave me a pack of 10 Pola Snacks. He is highly kind. And said hi to many teachers including Miss Goh, Mr Chia, Ms M Tan, Mr Teoh, Ms Rozanah, Miss Yeo, Mr Lim. But didn't catch any of the teachers that taught me besides Miss Goh - so that was rather tragic... Tried looking for Miss Ng repeatedly to no avail. But I met up with Guo Jun, Hannah, Olivia, Haslina, Amelina etc. etc. and the CmPS Fair Trade girls so that was goooood.

LITTLE AFRICA IS THE LOVE. Met up with my Ghanaian friend Prince to have lunch at this kewl African Restaurant along Sam Leong Road. He says that's where he goes when he feels homesick, when he's there he feels like he's in Africa. Stamp of Authencitiy! We had great food. African food agrees with me a lot. Rice with white beans and a spicy tomato sauce, chicken, pepper soup --> chewy bits of beef. What fun. The atmosphere rocked! Assorted comfy sofas round a large, round, glass covered coffee table, a chromatised plasma TV set with a sports channel on, yellow shop-housey walls, painted red floor, sky blue door frames and dark green wooden windows. Woot! And the PEOPLE rocked. People just walked in and shook hands with everybody else and said 'hi!' in various languages. And looked for three-pin adapters so they could charge their mobile phones. But I really didn't want to appear touristy so I snapped minimal pictures. The whole place was out at the back of a shop-house under a tarp. YAY! Africa! <33333 So we hung around there, and I talked to a South African studying Accountancy at StarHub Centre. And he asked me if I understood their native language (he was talking to Prince) because I asked him where he was studying and I said no - I heard him saying something about school. OH WELL One day I will speak Bambara. Apparently  the crowd consisted of mostly Ghanaians and Nigerians - the English-speaking African crowd because the French-speaking crowd find it difficult to communicate (so that includes the Malians). I MUST GO THERE AGAIN. And Prince has nice shoes - them pointy crocodile-skin looking shoes. Very African. ;) And he cut his hair so he looks very studious and no more like a hip-hop star.

Then off I went to school for the Equator Initiative meeting whereupon Sneha says, "You look radiant, did you go for a facial?" and I reply, "No, I went to Little Africa." :DDD Mingsee says, "You look very very happy.", I say, "I am. And if I am this happy going to Little Africa and I do get to Africa, I think I shall die of happiness there." Heeheehee. *big grin* So it was a good meeting. And earlier on at SR12 I saw Suang, Daniel, Ann Liang, Wally and Char. And Bren!

And SOMEONE threw a rubber rat up the wall at Blk J and it was rolling down very very slowly as it's sides adhered to the wall... And the rest of thEI people stood there waiting for it to roll down. It's worth 3 bucks. Hoho, apparently the Entre Club people are selling prank stuff as it is 'Relax Week'. (AND PECKY AND KAL ARE BACK FROM BOTSWANA! WHEEE!)

Next up, dinner with Hong Jia and Tiffy. We were last minute recruited by Els to photoshoot the Raffles Rock people which was quite fun. Then we searched Orchard for Sushi and ended up at Cineleisure eating deep fried protein bento sets. Wandered around The I shop and ate Blizzards at Dairy Queen. First time eating a Blizzard for me. Wish I'd tried them earlier! Strawberry Cheese Quake be good.

HOME SWEET HOME. What an eventful day.

Check out my Norway Countdown!

Besides that... Here are the details for my flight.

August 20th Sunday.

My plane is leaving at 10.55PM which means I'll be at the airport around 8PM.

Flight No. KL 0838, Terminal 1.

See you there! <333 And please bring your camel-paper.

woo... I have six days to Norway. My final week on the Sunny Island of Singapore has begun.

Just yesterday we had a 415 outing which was insanely fun - with Jiayan and I building our amazing castle-cum-royal-toiletbowl structure out of driftwood, twigs, loads and loads of sand and other unidentified salt-water vegetation. Pictures to follow when I get them online. Followed by loud drunken singing with the rest of the 415ners who came yesterday (Especially Ellen, Sooneh and Michy).  Angie cooked up amazing baked pasta - and Rachael and Su-mae sent a (roasted) chicken in their stead. Then I went off with Tiffy and Tabby for dinner at Roxy 1 - the Qiu Rong ban mian which I will be missing when I am no longer around here...

Last week, on 8th and 9th we had an amazing time at 07A13A's Sleepover the Third. I have really amusing photographs. Which again I will owe you all - but I promise to upload them soon. Highlights include my first time EVER bowling and I managed to score a strike! And numerous gutterballs besides. Twas fun! Followed by dinner at a steamboat place on Marina Bay - where there was a Frog Incident which ended rather tragically. Also witnessed the death of several prawns who were boiled alive *shudder*. Besides that, the food was quite good - decent crab and black pepper chicken (yay to Cher who cooked amazingly good chicken). AND we made Prawn essence soup. :D Towards the end when everyone started getting high on carbon fumes (due to the burnt food) Els, Zhao Meng and I did our Three Witches routine a la MacBeth Act 1 Scene 1 complete with bubbling cauldron of unidentified matter.

A-hem. Listen while I recite our incantation.

Ball of Fish and Phoenix Wing
Melted Ice and Unknown Thing

Hoho. It sounded funnier then. It was a bubbling mass really - loads of carbon, melted ice, remnants of soup, overfried chicken wing, ice-cream... and it tasted like coffee ><

Then we embarked on the arduous journey to Sruthi's home. On the way, we ran through the forest(-ed area) to see the fireworks outside Marina Bay Station. I got some pretty pictures of those too! Will upload them. A pity Daniel and David went back to search for the Ez-Link card which Daniel misplaced at the Bowling Alley - or forgot to claim after we were done. So it was baths, City of Angels and a round of 'truth or truth' since we were all too sleepy to do dares. Then people nodded off - especially the History guys. The girls went to talk/sleep in one of the rooms and we all awoke (or were forced to awake) to see the sunrise in the morning down at Bedok Jetty. Which was quite fun really. The moon was awesome looking - hugely round and it started to glow in a strange orange way as the sun rose. We sat on the cement benches and started singing National Day songs. Haha. (Chan David Chan!) In a pseudo-patriotic way. :D Twas fun.

Then we went back to eat breakfast - courtesy of Macs. and Martin sleepily told Brenda that he did not want breakfast. Hoho. When he DID want breakfast. Boardgames! Jenga and Scrabble with the WINNING WORD was...  DUCKS at the top right hand corner of the board vertically down - scoring 51 points to earn Elspeth the lead. Sruthi cooked lunch for us - really cool fried instant noodles with carrot and chicken. *clapclap* Then we all went home.

I love my class. (both of them)

I AM ON VOX AT LAST.

I've been waiting a long long time for this...

Oh yeah!

OfficialCamel