Quick updates

Quick updates before the year ends. Which will be very soon.

ACJC Seniors' Night 2009.

I really pity my bank account. (the money actually comes from my mom...) The total amout spent on hair, makeup, dress, heels, bra, prom ticket etc is SCARY. I dare not calculate the final and exact amount. But my mom says it's okay since it's once-in-a-lifetime. So that means I shouldn't feel so bad about spending so much right?

No photos (they're all on Facebook). I didn't bring my camera, don't ask why. Many thanks to Amelia for letting me use hers, thanks also to Dixin for opening up her house for prom prep! (:

Food was good, but I didn't really get to enjoy it cos' my tummy protested after a few courses and I had to skip some of them. My table 20 was mostly empty except when the yam ring was served -.- What else do you expect from prom? People don't really care about the food, what they want is to take photos. More photos. And yet more photos. I couldn't eat in peace because

1. I didn't want to look like the only glutton eating at the table when everyone else was dispersed around the ballroom and posing for photos
2. When I actually got to eat without feeling paiseh, meaning at least 2 of my table mates were present, other friends would come and either ask me to help them take photos, or take one with them.

Hahah sounds bad right. Actually no, it was a velly grand way to end off our 2 years in ACJC. I'm glad I went for it because it's kind of like the last gathering for the class of 2009.... before the release of the A level results. A significant event I wouldn't want to miss, so that means I had to put aside my timidity, stop feeling inferior, SMILE and act normal. That really made things a lot easier.

Still trying to get over the fact that never again will I study on campus, in the void deck with all the other void deck muggers - the noise polluters and the quiet ones. Been so used to studying there and seeing them around, such that I'm not ready to end off my pre-university life cos' it's hard to believe I'll never see them again. Ahhh. We're like one big family that's being pulled apart.


Vietnam trip with family

My dad drove to Shangri-La to pick me up so that I could go home and (continue to) pack my luggage. No post-prom ): Daddy got free air tickets to Vietnam, including return tickets, so that explains why my family went there. SIA rocks. Service, comfort, entertainment, everything! It makes the budget airlines look like nothing in comparison O_O but that's why it's called BUDGET right.

Shopping at the market (both day and night) was the main highlight of this trip. The shirts and jeans were so cheap it was unbelievable. I mean, we bought 4 pairs of jeans from this shop and it cost only about S$28 in total? You will never see this in Singapore! Most of their products sold - apart from the souvenirs - were imitation goods that looked real enough to pass off as originals. What gave maximum consumer surplus was the price and quality of the goods :D

This trip was an eye-opener.

There were many on the streets who tried to sell tissue packets, portable fans and stuff, as well as those who carried sleeping babies or toddlers and asked for money.. when we bought tissue from one woman, more would come, and we just had to shake our heads politlely whenever they came up to us tourists to ask for money. It makes me wonder how many of the children were actually borrowd... I read about cases of people loaning their kids to others to be used as 'tools' to gain sympathy... Made me wonder if the kids were actually drugged cos they always appeared to be sleeping... sometimes these thoughts hinder me from feeling for these people, and compassion becomes replaced with disgust. I prayed instead that God will help me to love them and be thankful for the many blessings I have such that I do not have to go through life the way they do..

Their roads. It came as a shock to me, when I first saw how their roads were like. There were so few traffic lights it amazed me that there were no traffic accidents (none that my family witnessed, at least) and that motorists and pedestrians could actually live in harmony with each other. Just that they sounded their horns a lot. Pedestrians crossed roads (at the 'zebra' crossings) when they needed to, and the motorists would slow down and/or drive to their right or left to avoid them. This is usually accompanied by the sounding of horns. duh. Crossing their roads made me think of the mission trip to Bandah Aceh in 2007.. only more hair-raising and thrilling. I actually could cross their roads with ease at the end of 3 days.

Oh, and their motorists actually wear masks. Most of them. I mean, those who ride bikes. Cuz the air is so polluted it becomes unbearable.

The Vietnamese, from what I observed, are happy-go-lucky people. They don't have much to worry about, they don't curse their government, they really love their country. When their soccer team won at the SEA games, people went wild on the roads, bikers zoomed past with their pillion riders waving their flags cheering at the top of their lungs. I would have thought it was their national day or something, if not for the night market stall owners who told us about their victory over Cambodia ( i think).

Sights like these, you will never see in Singapore.

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When a Catholic tells you he wants to change church, and he prefers Christianity because "the Christian concept sounds way better than the Catholics ... as in their way of doing stuff," and you don't know much about the way their religion works, you still invite him to church right? Cos' I know God doesn't reject anyone, "He will take them all."

This Catholic is a friend whom I'm not very close to. He sounds like he has backslided. He is someone I'd never expected or thought of inviting to church, cos' he's just an ex-classmate from Chinese class. But this also seems like God is placing here, leading him to talk to me about this aspect of his own life (that I never thought I'd hear about), he can be led back to Christ. I wonder. It's like I don't even have to search my entourage and target a few, cos' right now there's one who appeared before me on his own accord.

Dear God, please grant me the wisdom to say the right things to him, and give me the words to use that may impact him so that he may say 'yes' to You...

it's been long since I last felt a tug or a burden to truly 'impact one.' this comes a little late bue well, better late than never.