end of my two day SIF symposium at Raffles City Convention centre.... today's session was surprisingly not bad, perhaps due to the speakers they invited...took away some lessons from Ho Kwon Ping's talk about challenges facing youths.... in particular something that struck me as very true was that many of us are still somewhat 'parochial'; even ppl like us studying overseas.... we may think that having travelled to many major cities in US and Europe, we have seen a lot of the world, when in actual fact we might just have merely come into contact witih some of the many diverse cultures in the Western world... and many of us dun really look to the less developed world at all... many issues ppl face in the developing world, i believe i am unable to imagine or really emphatise with... hmm actually even after having gone to Europe, i think all i have done is more like i hav stayed at those places, been to major attractions.... the amount of knowledge of each place i took back with me was like really minimal...
haha and of course at the symposium we managed to find some traces of not-too-subtle messages to the young ones that singapore is facing a declining population and it is our responsibility to do something to alleviate this problem...

today i suddenly became aware that I am actually quite privileged to be given the chance to study at Berkeley. was with two HDB scholars, one overseas one local and was talking to the overseas one about soem travelling experiences and the local scholar expressed some mild form of envy that we get to do so much travelling.... then bumped into one of those Prudential agents lurking at MRT stations trying to get passers-by to fill up their survey forms and upon hearing that i was studying at Berkeley, he just blurted out, "Wah, so zai!"... and dunno felt kinda embarrassed cos it really isn't that zai... but dunno... i guess from my point of view it isn't, cos at Berkeley and more prestigious unis there are a lot of really really zai ppl... and i am just nothing.. but i guess as compared to many ppl studying locally or who dun even get the chance to go to uni, it really is some remarkable academic achievement... sigh so dun really know what to think. but what i do know at this point in time is that i really want to go back to Berkeley and really make good use of my remaining 2 years there....=)

been spending so much money the past few days but it isnt exactly my fault... haha ok shifting blame to other ppl. the gift section in taka is simply irresistable... well stocked with all sorts of cute stuff and paraphernalia (hmm did i spell it correctly).... saw this cute jap wind chime but it's ten bucks for a tiny wind chime...but still went home with some buys and gifts for ppl! =)
house of flying daggers is actually surprisingly hilarious. with flying daggers that can aim so accurately at their targets even when these ppl aren't rooted to the ground.... ppl jumping from bamboos too bamboos and using bamboos as weapons... and bamboos so nicely lodged into the ground in such a perfect formation that allows the two protagonists to be 'caged in' nicely together without any injury...but still i enjoyed the scenery and the cinematography... i liked how when the characters are in action, the background just fades into a blurry image...
had the most zuobo day of my attachment today! spent the morning wrapping sweets and chocs for my colleagues... then in the afternoon i spent half the time at HDB book sale fishing for cheap good titles... i was really happy when i found the lovely bones for 5 bucks! =) randomly bought samuel huntington's clash of civilizations cos it was going for only 6 dollars... haha but wonder if it will just end up as a cheem title on my bookshelf.... last day of work tomorrow.... time really really flies.

haha my mum and sis commented that i look like 'bu liang shao nu'.... while i think that i look like i am trying to be 'pai' but not really succeeding.... oh well in any case i had fun and i guess it's worth looking a bit different, regardless of whether i really screwed up and look really strange haha. at least i can look back and say at least at some point in time i tried it.. =P
went back to hwa chong yesterday for the carnival and i feel really sad that hwa chong junior college is going to disappear altogether... i will feel really strange telling someone erm i studied at this junior college... but it merged with chinese high and became something else instead... sigh. think the education system here is getting a little too messy for me.. and seriously if someone asks me what the high sch system in sg is like i dun think i can give a very accurate answer...
taking leave tmr =) kinda finished my project, wrote a final draft for my paper, emailed it to my supervisor who would be back tmr but i foresee her catching up with 2 weeks' worth of work so i will prob be catching flies if i go to work tmr.... just hope that she would hav read my draft by tues.... have to go down to twinhead tmr (hopefully) to repair my problematic laptop, maybe will catch a movie or something.... getting a tummy from eating so much food here in sg.. and sitting all day at my cubicle and being too weak-willed and lazy to exercise regularly...