i discovered Attitude Dance Studio's website!
http://www.asiasalsa.com/Home.html
the lessons are more ex than the one at jitterbugs.
this one is $18 per hour the other is $12 per hour
Attitude seems to be more focused on salsa, as opposed to jitterbugs, which is more diverse.
but Attitude's system isn't v clear.. for jitterbugs 8 beginners lessons and u can move on.. Attitude doesn't say.. must call up and ask

courtesy of jac! thanks dear :) 

Dance

I miss dancing
i miss dancing so so so so so so much
:(
esp since i just visited the jitterbugs website
it made me feel so sad
my last dance class was ballet.. and that was in i think march last year.
i miss going for lessons
i miss learning dance moves
i miss the exhaliration that only the completion of a dance can give

all these memories were brought back by a visit to
http://www.swingapore.com/salsa.htm
i am determined to learn salsa.
and i think jitterbugs is a good bet
cos of its reputation
and there are different levels to learn too
so progress is ensured

but the bad thing is that its so far away
and jitterbugs is known for its lindy hop not salsa

the first lesson is on 12 jan which is the same day as my dsta interview!!!
like why must everything occur on the same day man
but its not confirmed if i'm going to learn salsa there lah
but i'm definitely gonna learn
and asap
i'm suffering from severe withdrawal symptoms from lack of dancing. properly.
so
whoever wants to learn salsa too please contact me... then we can go learn together! :)
i don't wanna go alone leh.. scared hehe
but before u contact me please check out the website so u can get a better idea of jitterbug's classes.

and i might wanna look for the Attitude dance studio
not the one at bt timah plaza (that one is terrible man... went for one jazz lesson and never returned)
i think its in chinatown or sth

or i might ask ben... who did MAD's performance for hchc.
see how first.

or maybe i'll go for multiple lessons!
then i can dance many times a week
plus the social dance places
wowee
butbut
i need to get past the first level... which according to jitterbugs takes 8 lessons... or 2 months!
so i wanna start asap!!
ahhh!!!

its 4 am in the morning.
argh.

i detest the Post Office at Clementi
:( :( :(
horrible place.
other post offices in other parts of Singapore, eg IMM or Woodlands, close at 6pm
butbut
the one at Clementi closes at 5 pm
like wats their problem man
so when i arrived there at 510 pm, they were closed
&^%$
i ran all the way from the MRT station to the post office loh
in my heels summore
to find that it was closed
grrr
so pissed

then went to NUH with xiaoen to visit esther
a lot of ppl where there visiting her too
i'm so glad she is much much better
she could even walk a bit!
really thank God that she is ok
the full diagnosis will come out tmr.
cos the doctors still dunno the cause of her condition.
do pray that she'll be alright...

and so
i have finally
at last
after days of self-imprisonment
completed my apps.
*thunderous applause*
this is a momentous event.

although i haven't mailed the stuff out yet.
everything is ready except for the bank's statement
really pray that it'll be out in time
to catch the postman tmr

so technically the apps aren't out of my life yet
but soon
soon they will be
then i can start waiting
which would be easier than writing the stoopid essays
which i think i screwed up anyway
but i would like to thank thesaurus.com for helping me out
and my long-suffering online frens and ppl who happen to call me when i'm typing my essay- cos u guys have helped me a lot
and those who helped me look through my slides
thanks :)

actually i'm already waiting
and waiting and waiting
for cambridge's reply
why are they so laggy
oxford was out so long ago loh
ok lah its last week
but still
its long ago compared to camb
i'm just curious lah haha
and anw i happily screwed up my interview by informing the interviewer that animal testing is perfectly ok.
and he is a vet.
yay.
and the essay was pure crap
trying to make a gp topic sound bio
grr
sth to do with is GM food good or bad... sth along those lines.
and i guess it was a good think that a few days before that i was reading some bio s stuff that we bought from the photocopy shop, cos they had some GM food stuff there.
but its also a bad thing cos i forgot 50% of wat i read.
so wat i could remember was sth like ".....DNA can cross the ..... enter the bloodstream.... mutations"
then i had to fill in the blanks on the spot when writing the essay
so of course i smoked my way through the whole essay
and it didn't help that i met hong king after the whole thing
who informed me that he wrote abt physics and bio and their respective impacts or sth lidat
then i was like "u know abt the impact of phy meh"
cos he applied for bio
then he said "yah.. i wrote half an essay on it"
...
should have known better than to ask
and knowing him, its probably v pro
so i'm just glad he is not applying to the same college as me
but then again
the ppl applying to robinson are probably v smart too
so wattheheck
just wait and see.

oh yes
and DSTA
is supremely irritating
they enjoy ignoring my emails it seems.
ok lah
so they replied once
but they didn't reply the second time.
instead, they sent me an email that totally did not ans my question.
how strange.
they said "thanks for applying for our scholarship blah blah"
when i didn't even apply
then it seems as if i don't need to fill in the CV or write the essay and just turn up at the allocated time for the interview.
all i said was that i wanna go for the interview
and whee
i got an interview
how strange.
but its ok man.
i don't wanna write another essay.

and this is a very long post :)
how nice
after a long haitus.

and now
its time to plan wat to do for next year
after i celebrate
and after i get those apps
out.
of.
my.
life.

argh!!!
stoopid apps
almost done yet not done
a bit bit more
when it's done i'll celebrate :)
haiz
and i need to find a job!!!
bleh

Christmas!

hi everyone!
merry Christmas!

went carolling with the church yf last night
fun fun :)
but tiring as well
and everyone sang so well so i was struggling to keep up
no voice today liao
really wonder how the choir ppl do it man...

ate left-over food from last night's christmas party at my house (which i left to go for carolling) this afternoon and last night
and ate my first bit of chocolate since a long time ago
about 5 days
since i got back from msia and fell ill and had to abstain from chocolate
but now since its Christmas i had to eat the fantastically moist chocolate log cake with mint cream in the fridge :)

a night out

at last
amanda ying and i went clubbing yesterday
at chinablack
and true to its name, the place was superdark
how on earth do they play pool when they can hardly see the ball
anw
it was a traumatising experience on the ears, eyes and liver

eyes cos it was really dark at first.
then we ventured to the area beside the dance floor
so there were flashing lights
bright bright flashing lights
the muscles of my poor iris were contracting and relaxing to adjust to the rapid changes in lighting.

ears cos it was so darn loud.
and they were still ringing after we left the place

liver cos i'm ill
so the doc gave me 4 types of medicine to take
so its already quite taxing on the poor liver
and i had to drink alcohol
so thats added load on the poor liver
and obviously i ensured that there were 12 hours between the last med dosage and the alcohol but still...

anw
so we got on the dance floor
that was the most traumatizing experience of all
when i was observing ppl dance on the dance floor prior to entering it, i thought that they couldn't dance.
when i entered the dance floor, i realised why.
it wasn't that they can't dance.
it was the music.
it sucked.
it was uninspiring.
i just stood there
how to dance to such music...
but of course i couldn't just stand there cos ppl were trying to sqeeze into the already-packed floor, so i just attempted some moves. which wasn't easy considering the space i had. or the lack of it.
no wonder everyone just moved the upperbody. there is only sufficient space for that.

however
as the night went on, the music gradually became better
much better
so it became easier to dance.
and everyone looked better dancing.
so it was the music.
and 10 mins before we had to leave, this bunch of guys sqeezed onto the floor beside us
and of course i was pissed cos the floor was already so packed.
but
upon closer inspection, we realised that one of the guys was actually quite cute
(sorry amanda.. that was much later :s )
hehehe
so it became even more fun
cos of the combi of cute guy+good music
after 10 mins we had to leave
so we did

on the whole, it was an interesting experience
no infringement on personal space even on the dance floor
except for one terrible incident
in which the over-enthusiastic female in front of me stomped on my toe.
with her heel.
that was incredibly painful.
even worse than the assult by the baby pram (read amanda's blog)
otherwise it was ok

just got back from msia
went to ly's house to stay for the night
visited pulau kukup and the kelong
i saw a puffer fish!!
so incredibly cute
i wanted to touch it
the guy there was stroking it so it should be harmless.
to touch, that is.
its blood and saliva are toxic though.

and we went to walk through the mangroves.
so nice.
some trees are labelled
eg the Rhizophora sp.
so cool
bio comes alive
it has the fruit that ripens and the seeds that germinate while still on the parent plant
we saw the fiddler crab too
so cute :)
i enjoyed that walk tremendously
-pics coming soon-

and at night we watched White Chicks
super farni
hehehehe
liked it a lot :)

went to ly's church there on Sunday morn
reminded me of mission trip in sec 4
the small cozy church
of course this one is much more high-tech
but i'm touched by their faith despite the smallness of the church.. the size of a shophouse i think.. makes me realise how blessed we are in Spore

after that we went for bah kut teh
very good :)
and then we went to city square to shop
i only managed 2 levels in 45 mins... rusty liao.
bought 2 pairs of earrings
which is not a good thing to do
cos i already bought a pair the day before
and abt 8 pairs in japan
oh no :p
but i didn't get anything else in msia lah
except chewing gum for little bro 1 and wrist band for little bro 2.

then on the bus 170 on the way home
i decided that i should dye my hair
so after reaching home i dug out all the negatives for old dance photos and went to bt panjang plaza to redev photos
and buy hair dye.
and so i dyed my hair in 10 pm
and its not a nice colour
the pic on the box is brown but my hair is reddish
wat the heck
i feel cheated
:(

had 3 letters in the mail
1. a nice letter from stanford that actually makes rejection sound good.
2. confirmation letter from King's with a form to fill in on accomodation there or sth
3. invitation to some scholarship seminar by brightsparks. cheat money one loh.. over a hundred bucks to help u decide which scholarship to apply for.
...

but i received the online version of all 3 letters liao.
so no kick.

but

reading letter #1
was painful
a reminder
all the work down the drain just like that
the dream crushed
but
i know God holds the future
i remind myself often
as often as i think of the email version of letter#1
which is quite often

whee 

went to sentosa today!
with ying, nette, yuanjin, sui and claire
so fun :)
we played frisbee and ate a lot
and took lotsa photos
unfortunately i didn't bring my camera so no photos for the blog!

anw
there was this bunch of pple- 3 guys and 1 lady
from moscow i think
at least thats wat i think i heard them say
the lady is like some gymnast that was practicing on the bball court and 2 of the guys were kongfu ppl
they were practicing their strokes on the beach
everytime they exhaled they made a funny noise
we thought it was birds screeching at first
but apparently they are quite zai

so we took a few photos
then decided to take a photo on a rock
and we asked the gymnast lady to help us take the photo
and 2 of the men requested to take a photo with us!
so hilarious
hahaha
so we said yes cos the lady was helping us to take e photo
so now we have a couple of photos with 2 complete strangers!
taken using our cameras, and not theirs
so strange haha
not v shuai lah, but nice bod i think...can't remember :)

then we decided to take photo in the sea
then this china lady approached us
and said that the 3 chinamen she was with wanted to take a photo with us!
and somehow somehow dunno how and dunno why we agreed
to take a photo with a bunch of jikopeks
eeeeeee
we were utterly grossed out lah
at least i was

then we decided that we wanted to take a group photo
so we asked this guy
who was passing by with his group of guy frens
and of course he agreed
and his bunch of frens stood a distance away sniggering
please loh
as if we were hitting on him
only a kid loh
as someone said, "young and not shuai"
indeed
but quite helpful lah
however as it turned out
all the photos in the 3 cameras were blur
possibly cos his hands were shaking
oh well

then it rained at abt 1 pm
so we went to ps to watch ocean's 12
nice :)
my first intellectual movie (as opposed to bimbotic) in a long long time :)

Japan trip third day: mt fuji, yokohama, ginza, palette town
went up mt fuji then went to yokohama, took bullet train then JR train to Ginza
then went to Tokyo river for dinner after visiting toyota showroom at palette town (shopping centre)
long day




on mt fuji!

on the bullet train! 

took a bullet train from yokohama to toyko 

lunch at the bullet train station



from the bullet train station we took a JR train to Ginza, the famous shopping area where everything is exhorbitantly priced. as a result all i could afford was a photograph that i took using my phone

hello kitty ovens and microwave... those ppl are nuts. 

ah hah! the Hello Kitty shop. the japs have an obsession with Hello Kitty. the shop spans 3 levels in a departmental store in Ginza. this is a hello kitty toilet seat :) 

a Chanel Christmas tree in Ginza. the white baubles have the signature chanel logo on them. jap pple were taking photos of the tree using their camera phone while waiting to cross the road. so i did the same :)

went to a Toyota showroom after leaving Ginza.



nice irridescent purple van complete with a sound system




left the car showroom after 15 mins and went shopping in Palette Town instead :)

another shot at the showroom.

Japan Trip Second Day: cross a lake, sulphurous springs and hotel in Yamanakako

left Narita hotel go to the mountians.
popped by the sulphurous springs en route to mt fuji
wanted to visit mt fuji but we arrived too late and it was closed at 5 pm.
so we went to the hotel instead

in a hotel with a hot spring and a view of Mt Fuji. had to strip bare in order to enter the hot spring so obviously i didn't do it :) enjoyed sleeping on the tatami though 

the same meal. the bottle on the right is wasabi! yup its a black oily liquid :) the bottle on the left is a fantastic tasting comination of seaweed, wasabi and other unidentifiable objects 

this is wat we ate. courtesy of my phone. the best meal we had in japan.  

had lunch at a little restaurant on the other side of the lake 

on the boat crossing a crater lake to get to someplace to go to Mt Fuji 

Jap trip day 1: Tokyo Disneyland

this marks the start of a series of photos from my trip to Japan.
in sort of chornological order
taken using the digicam and my phone.
digicam for serious pics and my phone for interesting boliao pics.

we went to disneyland on the first day!
yay i love disneyland :)

noteworthy things:
1. 99.9% of the pple there were Jap. strange. i would have expected more tourists. according to the tour guide they spend most of their time there shopping (in the shops which sell exhorbitantly-priced goods)
which brings me to the next point..

2. the rubbish bins in disneyland are interesting. they have the words "Waste Please" printed on all four sides of the bins. and on every bin. seems like the japanese are actively responding to the pleas on the bins and enthusiastically wasting their money in the shops. 2000 Yen for a box of 20 cookies. one tiny cookie in the shape of mickey mouse's head =S$1.60.
and the postcards there are the most expensive i've ever seen. one postcard is 157 Yen, which is about $2.50. which is crazy. one postcard of Spore from orchard road is about $0.80 max. in coro its $0.50 each. in thailand is $0.20 each.
but since i collect postcards from around the world i bought 2 postcards for $1.70 each there. the cheapest ones in disneyland are 84 yen ($1.30)

3. the japs have this thing about mickey mouse. they enjoy eating him. there are mickey mouse shaped hamburgers, cookies, waffles, chocolates, sweets and goodness knows wat else. i bought a post card of a mickeymouse pancake. i was so fascinated by it that i just had to get it. one day i'll scan it in.

and i stumbled upon this shop selling teapots and tea. and i saw a whole row of teapots from Beauty and the Beast!! and i had to take a picture of it (surreptitously) with my phone.  

its a small world. thats the name of the ride in the background. nicely lit at night. taken by my dad before i ventured out on my own to visit the shops that populate disneyland. and subseqently got a bit lost walking around in the semi-darkness. the japanese do not know that street lamps exist. they believe that watever little light that the rides/shops emit are sufficient to light up the streets in disneyland. which is so not true. therefore i ended up walking around in circles. since disneyland is shaped like a circle.  

look closely. u will see that the girl in the pic is wearing a furry hat complete with leopard-print mickey-mouse ears. the jap teenagers there have this thing for artificial ears on hair bands, clips, hats and ear muffs. they love them, and are willing to fork out thousands of yen to pay for them. and they actually wear that stuff.  

nice trees in disneyland haha 

the castle as seen from my phone. taken when we were queueing up for the haunted house 

this is wat we ate at disneyland. some super ex super fatting greasy food. taken using my phone 

feeding ducks that wandered over to our table during lunch at disneyland 

Christmas parade 

the cinderella castle. although in the fairytale cinderella didn't live in a castle