Girl-Next-Door

Tracy is my student. But ironically, I don't teach her. She's doing the IB programme in my school. I first knew her when I brought a bunch of kids on the service trip to Jogjakarta.

Tracy is Vietnamese (her Vietnamese name is Mai Trang) and is a very bubbly and charming girl. I don't know why, but I feel that we share a special bond. So I brought her along with me to meet my brother and Ngoc Anh. Turns out that Tracy and Ngoc Anh came from the same hometown. Talk about coincidence! Vietnam is not exactly small you know!

I'm not bullying Tracy! Just trying to get her away from the water source.


There you see it!

She's wet but I'm still dry!

I like the baby Merlion. But Tracy thinks it look silly. National pride!

My Bro and I

My Vietnamese brother, Tuan Anh, finally visited me in Singapore. He brought his fiancee, Ngoc Anh, along. He says he wants me to meet her first before they get married next year. Is he asking me for approval? Haha..... Either way, they are getting married next March. I'm so happy for them! Also looking forward to attending their wedding in Vietnam since it will be the school holidays for me. Congratulations!

Aesthetics Day

It was Aesthetics Day and I was to go out with my students for a SoMA workshop. No idea what SoMA stood for until I was there. SoMA - School of Music and the Arts. We were herded into a recording studio like room to wait for the instructor. I was so worried that the kids would ruin the expensive equipment inside, so I took photos to keep them occupied.

At first I though we were there for a song-writing workshop, but this very un-song-writing-looking instructor turned up at the studio. He was so casual and started talking about beat-boxing and introduced to the kids some beat-boxing techniques.

Check out Peter's videos. The most amazing thing I thought was that he could beat-box and sing at the same time.



My students enjoyed his workshop so much that they were beat-boxing the whole afternoon and on the bus back to school.

True to what I originally thought, there was a song-writing workshop after lunch. The second half was boring in comparison to beat-boxing. But the students picked up some very handy song-writing skills. Song-writing didn't seem so difficult after that.

At the end of the day, I discovered that my students were not only talented, but very sporting. I would absolutely die if you made me beat-box or sing in front of the class.

Haiku

I love the
silence
that brief,
beautiful
silence
between
every kiss

I read this haiku first on Le Love. But it's from a Daily Haiku on Love by Tyler Knott Gregson. Actually is the above really a haiku? I thought a haiku is something with 5, 7, 5 syllables in a total of 3 lines. But there does seem to be a kind of rhythm to this whole thing and it adds up to 17 syllables in total.

I'm not really into poems and haikus, but was just curious about this person and his writing. And haikus just bring back memories of secondary school literature class. The site is really a pleasant surprise. He has many more interesting haikus. Go read for yourself. Perhaps one more haiku from him to entice you a bit more.

Hold these hands and let
my shoulders dry every tear
you will ever cry

Students from China

Being at Jo's wedding meant that I had a chance to meet up with some of my students from China. Most of them are doing great. In fact, one of them just graduated! Gosh, I feel so old! They all seem to enjoy life here and some have even started to look more "prosperous".

George is from my second batch of students. He is Jo's first batch. Very down-to-earth and street-wise. He's one of the few Chinese students whom I can hold a decent conversation in English with.

Students from SMU. I only taught some of them. I did the Math SATS and conversational English with them.

My last batch of students before I returned to Singapore. Tina and Amy! Both studying on scholarship! So smart yah! Didn't manage to get any photos of Pan Tao and Xiang Jing. Surely there will be other chances.

Congrats Jo & Bruce!

Jo is one of my best friends from China. Jo and Bruce have a wonderful love story. When Bruce came to pick the bride, his "speech" to her moved us, the "sisters", (and Jo) to tears! He ruined our make-up!

Bruce is kind and capable. I used to work with him in the Singapore office. Even under stress, he is cool as a cucumber and would just say "Sandra, 可以帮我吗？" I worked with Jo in the China office. She looked after me and helped with the classes, timetable and all my arrangements. Jo is not like the usual Chinese girls that we see. She is sweet, demure and intelligent. We usually converse in Mandarin but she speaks good English and speaks even more fluently when she is drunk! Her favourite phrase/sound is "噹哩咯噹".

So happy that she and Bruce are now married and she will be in Singapore from now on. Congratulations!

Malacca Service Trip (8 - 10 Aug 2009)

My student, Nam, made this video for our service trip to Malacca over the National Day holidays. Lovely!

K-ing

Some friends and I were just talking about the last time we went singing. It's been so long that we could hardly remember. Guess no one in the group is really interested as they don't really listen to Mandarin songs.

It made me think of the last time I went singing. Friend L sang this song. It was sung so nicely. I like it. I like the singer and his boyish smile too. This made me think of L and the times we spent together. When will we go k-ing again?

Shop, Eat, Sleep

Friend L and I spent a very fruitful 4-day, 3-night holiday in Hong Kong. We were almost penniless when we left the place. Heh. We had barely enough to buy ourselves a can drink (seen in photo 2) to share before we left the place. More photos of what we ate and saw after we next meet up. Realise we didn't take any photos of our shopping! H & M!!! I LURVEEEEEE!!!!!!!!