A few days ago I called my school in Aus to ask about my IB grades. They promised to fax a copy of the results slip and asked for my name. So I said it and spelled it out for them.

When the results arrived, I nearly choked with laughter when I saw the name Yim Hui Lin (Stefanie). Brudder, they sent me YOUR results, HAHAHAH. Well, they got the 'Hui' bit right, and the 'Y' and the 'in'...but fact is, I never mentioned a Christian name, and no matter how hard you try, there just no way you can say my name in a way that produces the 'L' sound!

I called them back and patiently pointed out the error. They were mortified, naturally, and commanded me to DESTROY the document immediately. The usual hush-hush confidential policy. I didn't think it could get any worse than that really; I felt this incident came really close to when Baldrick spelt 'Christmas' without getting any of the letters right. Compared to Baldrick, 6 correct letters out of 10 is a great score. 60%! You gotta say, it's fantastic!

Unfortunately, the moral of this story is, it CAN get worse. My parents went out for a wedding dinner tonight and the onus was on me to order dinner. The majority voted for McDs delivery, and I wasn't about to pass up a prosperity burger. =) My brother was perhaps more interested in WoW and didn't seem at all concerned with dinner so I took my time about calling them up. Let him starve, I thought. Now usually I'm a conscientious, exemplary big sister, and I might not have dallied if he didn't keep staring at the computer screen while pestering me to order dinner. WoW sucks the soul out of you, I tell you.

Anyway, that's not the point. The point was, when I eventually did call (it was about 8.10pm) I was asked for my address and my name and my order. The works, you know, and soon dinner was on its way.

When the food and bill finally came, it was a little past 9pm. The food was good, fries a little soggy but the name - oh, the name was atrocious! They got my name down as, you'll never believe it - Miss Angrie Yen.

Actually...I knew an Angrie Yen.



There's nothing wrong with my pronunciation at all, thankyouverymuch. I blame everybody else for this. *sulk*

Today...

We celebrate Phoebe-hoebe-oebe-ebe-eeeee's birthday!!! Happy 18th! Hope the short guy's taking care of you. I expect a romantic dinner for two in a swanky 5-star hotel, no less mind you. =) Also, it's not because I'm too cheapskate to SMS you; I would have done so if I had credit. Would have SMSed gracie the crazy too...but I sent her happy vibes all day so I hope she got at least some of that. If you're seeing/calling her anytime soon, tell her happy belated from me and that I didn't forget.

In response to your blog, how to not remember? =) Years of sitting next to you in class and having you proclaim your birthday every day of the year to any victim in your vicinity have seared November 14 forever in my memory. Hope you're having fun dearie and happy vibes to you!

I am almost sort of not quite finished with exams, and I feel much more relieved now after my heaviest day today. My wrist nearly fell off during the last essay of Econs Paper 2, and if you guys had seen me then, all shrivelled up in consternation and pain, you'd have a right hoot. I can't help it, it's my writing style, with its typed-out regularity and me lifting my pen after every letter. I can write fast, but not as fast as those who join their letters messy, and it's more strain on the hand.

Yeah anyway. Probably too much information. Now, I shall need to go cram some more. Stupid Econs. There's no satisfaction from spewing out memorized facts in the exam.

Two subjects down, 4 more to go. The biggest of my worries, i.e. HL Math is done for good. Chinese was all right, though I expected to go a little better despite no study at all. I just took some time off the night before to learn some fancy words and cheng yus, all of which were pretty useless thanks to the weird essay questions they asked. Some questions in Paper 1 were vague and ambiguous as usual. They should really dig up some file on those nuts setting the Chinese paper. Geezes. The essay I wrote was incoherent, disorganized and far too short for my liking. Oh well.

Math was relatively uneventful as well. It was harder than many past year papers I did, and rather tricky. I had a crazy urge to write "Therefore, E=mc2" for everything I couldn't solve. Bleah. I won't fail math that much I know. I know I've done enough on the paper to scrape through. At least the stats option was good. I managed to answer the whole thing well.

I'm still trying to accept the fact that math really is finished. I don't know what to do with myself now. It seems too quick, too trivial, compared to almost a whole week of solid math work I did before the paper, from 9am to 12 midnight each day.

Gah. I want it all to be over now.

I think...

...a quick update is in order. =P School's officially over, and my finals are coming up in 5 days. Been studying close to non-stop this week or so, and running worst case senarios through my head. I find that the dispassionate calm that comes from accepting the worst takes away a lot of the pressure and expectations I put on myself and believe others put on me. That way, when I don't fail, I can be pleasantly surprised.

I don't know why there's such an onus to prove myself to others academically. It's perhaps even a little pathetic that I measure my worth to the world with an academic yardstick and not much else. Shows, really, the typical (and grossly inaccurate) mindset that good grades and glowing certificates make a person hasn't quite left me. It's even more depressing to realize that I measure others the same way too. I have to get out of this habit. I suspect it has its roots from all those years when I'd mention a new friend to my parents, and what they'd be most interested to know was what position said friend got in class or how said friend was performing academically.

And I'm still doing it! So my mom called the other day to clear up a few details about uni applications and enquire about my general state of being. One of the first few things I said to her was, we had Leavers' Assembly and Rachael got three academic awards. This would have been acceptable if it was just a passing mention, but I knew the thought process behind that statement was - Rachael is my friend. She got three academic awards. This proves she is a good choice of friends. Now that you know, I know you approve.

Gaaah! Scary, isn't it. It's almost second nature; if I don't think hard about it, I wouldn't even notice it. I don't know why I want their approval so much. As if I have this innate fear of being rejected, disliked. I probably do. I'll have to see to that after the exams.

But now, lunch is calling, and then more Chem. Onwards, I say!

I'm feeling poetic. So sue me.

For the uninformed, I am in the quagmire of trials, hence the absence of posts. Irony takes its form again in the weather, which has been absolutely beautiful and sunshiny since day 1 of my trials, the kind of beautiful that makes you want to pirouette out in a white frock, sprinkle daisies and sing The Hills are Alive. Unfortunately, last minute study means I'm trapped in my room desperately ploughing through 2 years worth of work. And still the sun mocks me.

So the other day I just had to go out and decided to walk up to K-mart for supplies (which is about an hour away on foot, plenty time to enjoy the weather). Feeling on top of the world, I grabbed my wallet and phone, cheerily signed out with the staff and marched triumphantly out - in the wrong direction.

Knowing me, I didn't realize until 10 minutes into it when I saw McDonalds looming up ahead of me. That's not right, I thought, McDs is on the way to the city and K-Mart is in the opposite direction. At this point I could hear Nature suffocating with laughter, undoubtedly causing 15 flash floods to occur in various locations around the world.

I surrendered, took the next tram that came and sulked all the way up to K-Mart.

PS: Why is it only now, when I can't afford the time, that I find so many uses for it other than study?! Lately, I've been taken by an overpowering desire to read up on Greek mythology, the Victorian era, Bertrand Russell and of course, slash. Mmm slashy clexy goodness. *bonk*

I can't stop listening to One Man Guy - Rufus Wainwright.

I love this song! The folk-ish melody and simple guitar strumming really captures me. It's cute at first when you think of the whole Rufus Wainwright being gay and having a song called One Man Guy, but as Aditi pointed out, the song is about something else. But it's a nice double entendre nevertheless, intended or not.

Before I go back to class, I need to spread my overwhelming joy at having finished my ToK essay! I finished the last three paragraphs last night, in about 2-3 hours, a major improvement from the 2hours/paragraph before. I managed to squeeze the arts in 550+ words but I still have stuff to add and the essay's too long anyway. 1856 at last count. I'm so proud of myself!!! It was probably the second most challenging essay I've ever written, only because the Extended Essay required so much more research and was 4000 words long. Or maybe they tie.

As I was writing the penultimate paragraph, I was involuntary seized by spasms of joy on the verge of erupting into something dangerous. Ironically, it was these great happy waves that hindered my progress, because I was so happy at the prospect of finishing I could hardly drag myself to actually finish it. But I did in the end, at 12 midnight, and was bursting into people's rooms and proclaiming my unending rapture and doing jigs and floating floating floating! *sighhhhhhhhhh*

ToK is DONE! =)

I'm still alive, I promise.

I feel bad for having neglected this for so long. I wanted to post, really. But I've recently developed a habit for procrastination that I find most worrying. Anyway, from whence you saw me last, nothing new has happened in my most unillustrious life. =)

Exeat weekend was just over, without much fuss or internet connection (sadly) and my ToK essay draft is too long yet too short. By this I mean, we were meant to write on 2 areas of knowledge with a word limit of 1200 - 1600 words, so that'd mean ~700 words per area of knowledge, ideally. Unfortunately, I've written 1000+ words on knowledge, opinion and propaganda in history alone and have thus given up trying to cram knowledge, opinion and propaganda in the arts and a conclusion in 500 words. I don't really know what I'm waiting for...some form of divine intervention perhaps. Like my ToK teacher, or Aditi. *offers the sacrificial carrots* (cause Aditi's vegetarian) =P

Moving on from ToK, I'm having a bit of a headache over uni options. It's PR status, parents, accomodation, course options, fees, scholarships, and a missed prerequisite test (the UMAT) all crushed into one big painful and tedious mess. Well okay, it's probably less that I'm making it out to be, but nonetheless, rather uncomfortably distracting.

I'm currently reading Harry Potter, more out of curiosity than a burning desire to follow the gripping life of The Boy Who Could Say Voldemort Without Twitching And Gets Annoyed At Other People Who Couldn't. A little past halfway, as I've just started for a couple of hours yesterday in any free time I could squeeze in. I think I'm getting bored, if not downright annoyed at Harry's obsession with Malfoy. I don't believe any twist in the plot later on can justify his obsessive stalking and suspicions. And I'm beginning to wonder about the cliched-ness of Rowling's obvious use of character names to reflect their personalities. You know, like, Snape sounds like snake associated with slyness, evilness etc. Sure, it's a literary technique which a lot of writers use, like Charles Dickens and his character Thomas Gradgrind in Hard Times (among other characters). But I feel Rowling used it to the point of clichedom, and that it's a technique that gets old really fast. Or maybe I need to remember that when she first wrote her target audience were younger kids and maybe that's why she's signposting so much.

I read Flowers for Algernon not too long ago. What a great book! I may post a little more on my personal response to it when I find time, because I don't remember a book that I've been able to relate to my present self so much before. I have a feeling, TP, that you will really enjoy this book too. Go read it! If you haven't already. Then we can rave about it together. Hehe. =)

Anyway, the trials are inching closer, and I feel extremely guilty for not having done any Physics revision. I don't have Physics classes anymore you see. The Standard Level students were finished with the course like a month or two ago, giving me extra spares in my timetable where any Physics lesson was. *whimper* I'm not stressed, really! =)

I have 2 minutes now to eat my lunch before I go for my lunchtime Math lesson. Gotta run!

I try too hard sometimes.

2 hours till dinner, but I’m not really hungry for beef schnitzel right now. Exams are chugging along, English and Math down; Econs, Chem, Physics and Chinese to go. (In that order too!) The mood to study has disappeared since Friday (after the Math papers where I completely fried any remaining brain cells but, I felt really smart for figuring out how to do most of Paper 2!!!) and I fear for my results if it doesn’t return soon. For now, I shall exploit my apathy by posting.

*awkward silence*

Riiight so what I meant to say was…exams are such a dreadful bore. There’s so much to look forward to after it but four days is a long wait for us impatient types. =) Gwen invited me and brudder for a Malaysian lunch at her place immediately after the last paper on Thursday. *celebrates* And, I may go see H2G2 with Connie at the cinemas if it doesn’t cost 11 bucks. Rach and Aditi are planning to watch Star Wars instead. It’s quite amazing how I haven’t quite caught on with Star Wars, as seen from my convo with Connie the other day.

Connie: …and I think they’re planning to go watch Episode 3: Attack of the Siths.
Me: [pause**] …What?
Connie: Attack of the Siths. Star Wars.
Me: …Oh so is that what it’s called? Right. Cool.

[**To dispel any notions that I’m just slow with my replies, I shall attempt to fill in the pause with the complex and intelligent internal monologue which was going on in my mind at that point of time.]

Me: WTF?! Attack of the Sikhs??!
Mind: *tries to grapple with the idea of a mob of angry turbaned men in a spaceship*
Me: That’s not right! Shit! What do I say now?!
Mind: What! Ask her what dammit!
Me: [blurts out]…What?
Mind: Whew. Close shave.

But that’s not to say I don’t know anything about Star Wars of course, even though I haven’t watched a single episode. *defensively* I know the storyline!

A long, long time ago, in a galaxy far away, [ Kabul / Nabul ] was under an attack. And something something [ Quaigon Jin / Kuai Gon Gin / Qwai Gonjin ] tried to talk the federation in to maybe something something one day. And there’s this place called [ Tatooui / Tatouie / Tat Too Ee ] and meeting Jar Jar in [ Bostnest / Bosnet / ?!??!11!1 ].

Okay. So I don’t really know the storyline. But I know the characters!

So there’s the bad guy which is Darth Vader, and the good guy which is Anakin Skywalker son of Luke Skywalker. And there’s Yoda in a toga (sorry couldn’t resist =) and a queen. And Vader will have to wait till someday later because Anakin is just a small fry, but Anakin left his home and kissed his mummy goodbye because he wanted to be a Jedi. Oh yeah and someone met with Darth Maul and now he’s toast.

*unamused silence*

Okay, okay! So everything I know about Star Wars was from Weird Al’s Star Wars parody of American Pie. So sue me.

Connie: *wields imaginary light saber* Hwing! Vuiing!

That, by the way, has become my occasional nickname. How, you ask? Beats me. They made a leap of faith from Hui Ying --> Huiying --> Huing --> Hwing --> OMG-that-sounds-like-a-light-saber Hwing Vuiing.

I’m sorry for this strange post. Procrastination does this to me sometimes. Excuse me while I make my daring escape from the angry mob of Star Wars diehards.

(continued)

I went cycling this morning! Finally got round to hunting down a bike, not a very good one albeit, but fair enough. Twas one of the staff member's. I've always been drawn by the autumn weather...and to get a chance to enjoy it this way...needless to say, I was blissfully happy. =) Cycled up Burwood Highway all the way to Kmart, though the highway was more like a gradual mountain incline.



That's the view of a small part of it from my second storey bedroom window. It wasn't too tiring an uphill, I've done worse.

Anyway, moving on...formal pictures!


Gwen and Stefanie (OMG!!! Hahahah it wasn't until I typed it out that I realized!)


Connie - my kaki at school (beware, she has the most distinctive and infectious laughter)


Rach and Aditi - my other kakis


Pok (*so coooool!!) and me. Much thanks to Connie's mom for helping me with the make up too.


Brudder, Pok and Bel.

There we go. All in all, a good good night. Time for me to hop off to lunch now. Oh and, HAPPY BIRTHDAY HAROLD!!!

After a week of meeting tests and deadlines back to back, I've found some time to catch my breath a little. Heaps have happened since the last time I blogged...I'll try to fill in the blanks, and hope it comes out in chronological order.

The Year 12 formal dress parade.
As insignificant as it is, this was a harrowing experience. So we all had to slip into our dresses for the formal and 'catwalk' down the stairs, to be met by almost the whole bh and flashing cameras. After all that, I think I'm quite happy indeed to return to my little hole and carry on with my puny and nondescript existence.

The Year 12 Formal.
Was mildly indifferent to the days leading up to it, and wasn't particularly excited about it on the day itself. BUT. This time I've been proven wrong. The formal was absolutely fantastic (though the music could have been better), everyone looked great and it was good good fun! I was notably more comfortable with being in a dress, but I think the make up will still need some getting used to. Danced quite a bit (I can sort of dance! Yay! It's practice really. I find it comes more naturally now.), took lots of pictures and gushed over everyone's dresses. My love for Pok's and Rachael's outfits still stands to this day, and on that night, manifested itself in the form of my wanting to take as many photos with/of them and telling them every two seconds how great I thought they looked. (Not so much Rach, as I was at the same table with her and Aditi) *gushes* The epitome of style and coolness, I say. Ya hear that Rach? ^^ I'd post photos but they can never really capture exactly what you see in real life. I'll rummage about and see if I can find ones that come close. =)

The private afterparty.
After the formal, while some were off in various places getting stoned, Aditi, Connie, Wen Dee and I had a sleepover at Rach's place. We stayed up watching Queer As Folk (that's all you'll ever watch at her place 0:-) but it was really good and as expected, the Brian+Justin bits were very yummy. ^^

The work.
Simply too much >_<. Math and Chem test this week, mid year exams next week, World Lit essay due...

(To be continued. *sheepishly* Book's playing a game similar to The Crimson Room on the com next to me, and I've got caught up in it. Only thing is, the game is in Jap, but luckily there's Maggie, who's on the com next to Book who did Jap for two years. Hahahah! Aren't we just laughable? The benefits of having computers all in a row I guess!)

05/05/05

Hehehe ^^

The math test I spent 5 days religiously preparing for is finally over! The burden's been lifted and I get to have my life back. It was all right, thing is, I blanked out during the first two or three questions, which were really easy. And I could do the tough ones just fine! Terribly ironic. The result of studying too much I think. I mean...they were really really really kacang!!!! *sob*

In other news, I have to catch up on the mound of homework I put off to study for the math test. Also, I did really well on my Chem test which is great and I got a 22/25 for my English commentary after getting a 0/25 REWRITE the last time. And, the prom is in a week and a half's time...I wish I had a date to bring...

And ooh, TP, your surprise b'day party looked like heaps of fun...shame I had to miss it *sigh*. And feebs you look really good in that pic if H hasn't already told you like I asked him to. Mwaharhar. And shoutout to PK too...hallo! *waves* =)

Touchdown.

Arrived safely in Melbourne about 7.30am Aus time after a whole series of delays. Okay. Two delays. But still. ^^ AND, the quarantine people took my 3 in 1 Milo satchets away!!!! *waves goodbye to breakfast* They weren't allowed into Aus cause they contained skim milk Made in Malaysia, which is not a foot and mouth disease free country. Sigh. All these backwater ulu ulu places.

Otherwise, I was glad to be relieved of the rather uncomfortable and sleepless flight. Thanks guys for making my hols, they were an awesome two weeks. =) Before you know it, you'll be seeing me again. Hahahahah. (*groan* Yeah I know, must be terrible for y'all. =)

Anyhow, that's it for the time being. Gotta go study Chem now. Test in two days. Smashing.

Away on Camp

DarkWinter will be away for the next 2 days on IB camp doing ToKky things.

Do continue to keep posting on the jabberwocky which she can't see
because the school has so kindly blocked the site.

But she will catch up with posts once she:
a) plugs her laptop in after camp
b) goes home on the 8th of April
c) start a revolution and overthrow evil school dictators

She also takes 5 minutes to get from one end of the corridor to the other, hobbling like a pregnant lady, someone said.

Aye. She'll get there eventually.

Hmm.

I spent all day on a 1236 word Chinese essay on gay adoption rights and I'm finally finished! This must explain the light and floaty feeling I'm having right now... =) It's so close to the holdiays, so close to home, yet...Oh goodness I don't know how I'm going to get past the next two weeks. Two of the biggest 'projects' in the IB course is due and I haven't even begun doing either of them. >_<

And something's bugging me. I think it's my sentence structure. It's strangely incoherent and it doesn't flow as smoothly as I'd like it to. And I'm using 'and' too much and it really shouldn't be used at the start of sentences. Must be all day of writing Chinese and poring over the English/Chinese dictionary taking its toll on my brain. ARHGHGGHGHGHGPPBRDCTDLSPTSPKTBRCMBNTKT!!!!! Even my tongue feels knotted and I'm not even speaking! What the-?!

Anyway. Huh. Boarders' Social was okay...there's only so much dancing and loud music I can take in my life and even the 4 hours of it on Friday night got a tad excessive and repetitive and boring. My decision to dress up a little for once when I haven't ever really bothered in the past (or found an occasion to) has clearly generated much unwonted comment, so much so that I am inclined to start defending myself soon. Either way, it's about what I had expected, the reactions...no one's used to seeing me dressed up, heck I'm hardly used to seeing myself dressed up anyway, but brace yourselves guys, there's still the formal and the valedictory dinner ahead.

That's the thing yannow, there's a gazillion occasions to dress up here (Too much, in fact. I still don't see why the Year 12s need a Formal, a Graduation Dinner Dance AND a Valedictory Dinner and goodness knows what other formalities), and you kinda have to. So you had better start getting used to it. =) It was rather interesting anyway, going off on a tangent fashion-wise. There was a mild commotion in the BH too when I appeared out of the usual baggy, bummy stuff I wear, but they were generally on a more positive note. So much I can say for your reactions...a wee bit dampening, (Really. Lobotomised and all.) but it doesn't really bother me, as I personally thought the clothes and the make up worked rather well in the end. ^^

I'll trip off for a bath now. I'm not gonna put up pictures of the social and I do hope *coughs suggestively* that LYNN will refrain from doing so too, because clearly my friends aren't quite ready for that sort of shock. =)

newsflash

I'm pretty pleased with my weekend. It feels good to cross out, one by one, each item on the LONG list of homework I wrote up. I'm still going, but the steady pace I'm at is heartening. And in the midst of all that, I found time to watch Hunter X Hunter };-) Nyehehe. In Chinese some more. Learning Chinese this way is fun!

Anyway, this backlog of homework and study came partly from House Concert rehearsals, and partly doing stuff for the boarders' committee. But, good news - Stirling won House Concerts! Everyone was really happy (everyone in Stirling at least), especially since we had a particularly bad run last year.

In other news, I FINALLY got my SAT 1 results. Verbal: 730 and Math: 680. The scores were a significant improvement from the practice tests I did, but I don't think it's good enough. TP how did you get 780 for Math you freak! =) Sigh, to resit or not to resit.

A little late this bit, but I'll say it anyway. Twilight Picnic this year was rather enjoyable, and the cool, refreshing weather helped lots. I think it's because it wasn't so dowdy and old-fashioned this year, and more geared towards the senior students as they brought in a Scotchie rock band and a mass dance session (where you danced to songs like YMCA and Macarena and the like) but it was good break from work. I'll post pictures up once I get them off my friend. =)

5 more minutes...

While I wait in the com room till it's the exact time for me to leave school so I can be fashionably late *deep breath*, let me tell you about what I'll be doing for House Concerts this year. The theme for 2005 is "Cliches in Life" and the house captains have chose "The stuff dreams are made of" as our central cliche. It's about a girl who wants to join the circus, and after some conflict with her parents, finally manages to fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming a clown.

I play the love interest, Salvatore, a clown and the son of the ringmaster, who is sorta geeky, shy-ish, but opens up around the girl. It's love at first sight and a very dramatic moment when we first meet. And that's about it. It's been rehearsals everyday, and apparently I'm in music now and have a double rehearsal on Saturday. Meantime, having killed the spare 5 minutes with an insignificant update, I shall skip off to school...happy holidays guys!

Gong Xi Fa Cai!!!

Happy Chinese New Year guys! Went for dinner at my guardian's place last night, oh....it was SO GOOD. And...I got my first, and probably last, ang pow of the year! So happy! Anyway, the BH is doing something special this year, apparently. Woke up this morning to a breakfast of porridge, and four bowls filled with chilli, spring onions, tofu and fried onions. I was mildly impressed. It could have been better, but good effort nonetheless. I can't wait for dinner tonight. We have a 10 course Chinese banquet or something, they put up the menu for us, and it really looked good. Sushi, Peking duck thingies, chicken, fried rice etc etc...I hope it won't disappoint. Hehe!

Woohoo!!

WHAT A NIGHT! YEAHHHH!! Boarder's Idol has just ended, and my throat is sore from all the cheering and emcee-ing, but woohoo! It was a smashing success! Worth all the lost hours of long overdue homework, worth all the effort and running around, organizing the event, getting people together, rehearsing, it was worth it all! We are just the COOLEST Boarding House committtee! The staff/judges were great, modelled after American Idol's famous three, and Mrs. Knee, one of our sweetest BH staff did an AMAZINGLY accurate and convincing impersonation of mean, snappy Simon. The crowd was enthusiastic, a lot of cheering and screaming and fantastic performances put up tonight. *sighs contentedly* Just the way it should be. Minnie and I had a great time co-hosting the event, and Minnie being Minnie, had the crowd going with her hilarious one-liners and great smile. =) Looks like this is set to become a annual instalment in the Boarders' Weekend from now on!

I feel so cheated.

The BH has brought pretentious diction to a new high. During the holidays they sent e-mails to parents informing them of the wonderful new instalments of webcams (note: PLURAL!) to the coms, and successfully made it sound like the whole com room was rigged with those little Logitech eyes. I was excited of course, I mean, wow, you get to see who you're chatting with and like, wow, you even get to chat fullstop. Hence, you can imagine my sore disappointment upon discovering that all that really happened, was that the sewing room, which is as wide as the span of your arms (maybe less?), now has a sign pasted over it proudly proclaiming 'Web Cam Room'. A peek inside reveals one lonely webcam sitting atop a PC, which we're not allowed to use yet because, I bet, we haven't been told how to share out one webcam among a hundred homesick boarders. Uneccessary hype, that's what it is. It's like meaning toilets, and saying ablution facilities.

On another note, orientation's over, and the new girls have sorta settled in, whereas the old boarders are trickling back for another year at PLC. I've got a good cubbyhole this year, roomy and all, so lots of space for rigging up the electric. I've been pigging out on pineapple tarts, prawn rolls and kuih bangkit, which lends at least some semblance of celebration for the upcoming CNY.

Ooh! Dinner calls. Free seating tonight so I gotta run and get a good place. =) Laterz.

across the miles

Heya peeps. Arrived safely yesterday morning, flight was ok, passed pretty quick as I slept through most of it, though there was this annoying woman nearby who talked with no regard of anyone else around her. And her voice! It was the sort where prolonged exposure to such wavelengths would damage your ear. Wasn't high pitched or anything, in fact it was pretty uniquely low-ish, but in a bad way. Her husband just muttered back answers and generally looked either harassed or grumpy.

The New Girls' Orientation has been going pretty well so far, we're into the second day. I think we have a day tour to Melbourne city, Southbank and Camberwell. Weather's quite warm, kinda like back home at the moment, and the worst thing was, there isn't air-conditioning in the rooms, so I had to sleep last night with only a table fan. My room's really stuffy most of the time so it wasn't very comfortable. There's quite a large Malaysian contingent in the NGO might I add...and they get along smashingly. Hehe.

I'm beginning to feel the pinch of homesickness, not in its conventional sense though...(and in a way I haven't quite experienced before. :-/ I think I've grown too attached to the company, and it feels like I've gotten closer with some of you over the 2 months) Having spent the hols, especially the last two weeks of them with you guys, it's hard getting used to not having company over, or someone to hang out with. Badminton with PK, cycling with TP, my dear Feebsies, Hui Lynn, Kang and Harold (a.k.a. pimp! :) ...have I missed anybody out? Ah yes, Grace, Jeng Sia, Keat Wei and co. ARGH. Just thinking about the hols makes me miss you guys so so so so so so much. Thank you, guys, for such a good time. For the toil up Kiara, for the crazy dinners, for lunch at TGIF, for the weekends, for the fun and laughter, for the inside news on college, for the sleepovers, for everything. I had an awesome holiday with y'all. Hope college is going well. Those doing their licence, how goes?

I looked forward to coming back here, raring for a good start to the school year. Now that I'm here, I wish I was back again. Sighhh. *consoles self* 3 months isn't that long...and when I go back, I expect to be driven round luxuriously by PK or HL! Mwah!!