went to actfa on wed and fri.
on wed i got to dance with shawn, this pro dancer from another dance sch. he leads really well and has this amazing knack of making fast moves look slow. he is a joy to watch when he dances.

on fri i got to dance with luther, the dunno wat year salsa champion from jitterbugs. he invaded actfa with a bunch of other ppl from jitters too. and they were all really good. they do cuban salsa, so it was an eye opener- cuban is so much more relaxed and fun and party- like as compared to LA salsa. but i think its harder to do cuban and look good cos there is a risk of looking "nua" and messy if it isn't done properly. nonetheless luther and his partner looked fantastic doing their mix of salsa and merengue and dunno wat else. a highly intimate dance resulted and i was embarrassed to watch it at times. but they were really good.
and at some point in time the actfa guys disappeared and left me alone on the dance floor. that was when justin and yen qing's (very fast and very long) performance piece started playing. so luther, being a really nice person, decided to dance with me. and i concluded that his lead is incredible- even better than shawn's, proving that cuban salsa dancers can lead well too although they look so relaxed. unfortunately for him the song was so long so he had to dance with me for so long, and me, being inexperienced salsa dancer, couldn't do anything fancy at all. so when he shined i was totally lost. bleh. but he did this really cool move that involved a simple CBL which melvin did with me earlier in the evening but felt totally different when luther did it cos he really man-handled and didn't let me move in the wrong direction at all. and i've just realised that we learnt it long long time ago at our first salsa lesson at xenbar. oh well.
i digress. so the conclusion is that i need to improve my following skills if i'm going to even set foot in union square. dancing with non-xenbar ppl made me realise the importance of the 4 basic steps and a good grip. which is so incredibly hard to do when i'm dancing with a complete stranger who looks so relaxed and natural. bah. need more practice man.





-

i'm so happy.
at last.
the med sch portfolio has been completed and submitted
yay~
i only received my recommendation from the doc in the mail at 130pm today, so i was panicking about the whole thing since yesterday when i found out that his secretary mailed the letter to my house instead of keeping it there for me to collect.
so gald that i received it in time.
really thank God for the wisdom to write my personal statement- started working on it seriously on monday, completed it at 1pm today and submitted it by 440 pm.
so its off my back at last.

however i have this feeling that i need to do something.
but i can't remember what it is!!!
arghh.
oH!!!
submit the jhu reply!
i think.
and submit the dsta reply.
both by 1 may.
thats all i think.
and i need to mark dunno how many pracs and the lecture test.
grrr.

i wanna sleep :(
been sleeping after 1 am lately.




-

i'm happy.
i bought new dance shoes from justin yesterday!
complete with 3.5 inch heels.
so now i'm much taller :)
although the guys don't seem to think so.
but i am ok.
since i'm short to begin with the percentage change is larger!

the heels are so slim!
not quite stilletos, but still with a rather small surface area- almost 1/4 that of my old shoes!
and since P=F/A, the pressure exerted on my toes when i step on myself is increased. which is a bad thing cos i keep stepping on my big toe when i dance.
i should remove my red nail polish so that i'll be able to see if there are any blood clots in my nails man.
poor big toe.

i'm doing the tutorial questions now.
i need to finish them by tomorrow.
why oh why did i throw my old bio tutorials away!!!
now i need to redo them :( :(
and my personal statement is still non-existant!!
AHHHH

i was almost late for school today.
and the bus was really crowded
but when the bus stopped in front of njc, half the bus became empty as the tchs, nygh,njc ppl got off.
as well as a few hcjc ppl.
i was still wondering wat was going on when it suddenly hit me-
its monday!
which therefore means that there is combined assembly with chinese high!!
*cue loud groaning*
so those smart ppl got off one stop earlier so that they can walk to tchs directly instead of going to hcjc first, whereas i stupidly sat the bus all the way to the hcjc bus stop.
which turned out to be a good thing afterall cos the hcjc teachers stand at edge of the assembly in tchs, at the region closest to hcjc so that we can siam at once when the whole labourous affair is over.

first we sing the national anthem.
(we stand there respectfully and listen to the band play)
then we say the pledge.
(we stand there respectfully and listen to someone say it)
then we sing the tchs school song.
(we stand there and listen to the band play)
i've never heard the tchs school song before.
but i can actually recognise the tune.
an insipiring, uplifting tune that is unfortunately quite repetitive at parts.
i still prefer the hcjc school song.
the chinese version that is.
with the merger we only sing the english one on weds bleh.
but i digress

so after the pledge the announcements commence.
i think they save all their "achievement announcements" for mondays loh.
i really want to know about how the sec 3 scrabble team won the championships.
such things should be left to their own assemblies, not when the whole of hcjc is sitting there and waiting for the whole thing to be over.
at least the wushu announcement involved the hcjc students as well, so that was ok.
they should learn from them - make achievement announcements that concern both the high sch and college side instead of only one side.
and there was this announcement by the tchs CO person who did the announcement in chinese and used so many 4-letter phrases it was scary.
there was an average of one 4-letter phrase in each sentence- sometimes they were even used in succession.
but i'm proud to say that i could comprehend what he was saying- 70% of it :)
enough for me to make out that they fought hard and won a well deserved gold with honours.
the little details were lost on me, and anyway they should show more consideration for the non-chinese speaking population- half of the morning announcements today were in chinese.
not that it really matters to me cos i don't really listen.
ah well.
the wonders of the merger.
brings everyone together as one big happy family.




-

God is so amazingly good to me.
A*Star finally got back to me after more than 2 weeks since i sent my application.
after days of checking my email almost every hour and checking my snail mail everyday, i was really quite ready to give up.
i was getting so worried that
1. they didn't receive my app
2. i didn't meet the deadline
3. they didn't want me.

although the third point is still a possibility, its nice to know that at least i've got a chance to try. so i won't feel so terrible even if i fail.

so my poor students won't be seeing me on wednesdays anymore for the next 2 weeks. cos of the activity thingy on the 27th and the interview on the 4th.
howhow
will try to shift their lessons.

actfa
went there yesterday
incredibly tiring
though we were only there for 2.5h
did the spining thing that justin ordered.
the right side was ok
but up to abt 40 left everything was spinning liao
but still completed it in the end.
as the whole class did.
but after the shines it was ok- amazingly i didn't feel giddy after that.
so it is important to shine :)
though there is only -one- shine i know though i've learnt a few.
don't like shines except the one i know cos the rest are ugly.
or maybe thats cos i do them wrongly.

got my treat yesterday- thanks! :)
had fun catching up.
i see you've got ur collective futures all worked out :)
not bad not bad
hehe




-

i'm estatic!!!
so happy :) :)
God is so good :)

went to nuh today to request for a referal from Dr Lim, a consultant.
but when i got there they told me that he was on leave!!!
i was so sad :(
so i prayed so hard that somehow i would get a referal.
then i told 2 of the nurses there that i needed a referal, and they suggested The Boss of uro.
but the thing is, i don't know him as well as i know Dr Lim and he is scary :s
when i met him in the corridor today he was in a hurry so he just said hi and was really nice. but since he was in a hurry i didn't want to request for a letter then. so i waited.
10 mins later the nurse who was assisting him in his room told me that he was in a bad mood cos the computer was down and some things he wanted ppl to do didn't get done.
i was so sad again. :(
cos it is obviously not prudent to approach him when he is unhappy.
so i waited and prayed again.
when his clinic ended, 2 drug reps went in to speak with him.
he wasn't too happy since he had to attend a department meeting.
so he was like "hurry up"
but somehow, they managed to make him happy!
perhaps its cos they gave him lotsa stuff like a goodie bagwith company-logo stuff and samples for his patients.
so i seized the moment just as he was about to leave the room to ask him for a referal.
and he said ok!!!
and he was quite nice and smiley too!!!
yay!!!
praise the Lord!
i was getting so anxious not having 2 letters of recommendation since all the med applicants are coming to hc to ask the teachers for letters and i can see the piles of letters piling up on all the teachers' tables but now i'm in the process of getting a letter!
and i'll photocopy a copy of my testimonial.
then i'll have 2!
then can liao
yay

so happy
God is good :)

yay
went to actfa yesterday with jy, jb&teresa, jasper, zhongyang, yijun and some other nice ppl.
and at last justin taught us a new variation:)
yay
quite a short variation i think.
but not easy.
i keep losing grip
ah well
but its a fun sequence :)
actfa is fun :)

oh and edmund (the bartender, not my brother) is an exballet dancer!
and he could tell that i did ballet too!
so yesterday he asked me to do an attitude, then he lifted me!
not very high lah cos i've never done it before but so fun :)
and then he asked me to do a develope (or however u spell it) then he did a dip!
similar to the "fish" dip but much much safer.
always wanted to do that but haven't had the chance to.
at last yay :)
so now its time to work my abs and back muscles so that it'll be easier for me to remain in one piece.
ok that doesn't make much sense but its true :)




-

i discovered something new today!

"The mucus in goblet cell granules is condensed, but upon secretion, expands in volume tremendously and almost instantaneously (picture a pressurized can of shaving foam or whipped cream). In some systems studied, the mucin gel increases in volume 500-fold during a period of only 20 milliseconds! "

and there is more!
Goblet cells aren't really shaped like goblets!
"The name goblet cell derives from the characteristic shape of these cells in conventionally-fixed tissues: a narrow base and expanded apical portion that sometimes extends into the lumen. This morphology is known to be an artifact of fixation in which mucus-laden granules in the apical portion of the cell expand, causing the cell to balloon. If special precautions are taken during fixation, goblet cells are seen as cylindrical cells."

oh my. so i've lived most of my life thinking that the goblet cells in my (and my fellow Homo sapiens') intestines are shaped like goblets. when they are actually cylindrical.
feel so cheated.

i punished a naughty student yesterday.
made him do a mindmap cos he didn't do his tutorial.
and this morning he handed up his mindmap.
which i think is pretty good.
not fantastic but not too bad either.
but it also shows that he doesn't listen in class cos i told my classes that peroxisomes are not part of the endomembrane system yet he wrote that they are.
tsk tsk.



-

i feel like shit again.
it started off well.
twas a happy evening, cos so many pple came- jian bang, teresa, zhong yang, jasper, ying, vincent, jerad, ghim (?), steph, and a girl from med sch.
haven't seen some of them for so long!
and strangely i missed them quite a bit though i don't even know them that well.
so i was happy to see them all.
so we went for basic as usual.
then we skipped intermediate to practice our basic.

and that was when it all started.
i realised i couldn't spin anymore.
i dunno why.
i just lost the ability all of a sudden.
maybe its cos i haven't been practicing enough.
the last time we danced was thurday!
2 days and i've lost it.
argh.
and that was made worse by the fact that i totally lost balance and crashed onto the drums when i did the chennae turn on the dance floor. the first time in my life i've fallen so terribly. don't even remember having it that bad when i did the turns on pointe!
it can't be because i'm too tired cos i haven't been practicing much, so i have no idea wat happened.
haiz.
and i think we have to start leaving xenbar earlier to avoid paying the extra $5 for a drink to stay for an hour more.
just as well so i can reach home earlier.
perhaps we should also skip sundays.
but that would mean that our friends might not go as well.
then i'll feel bad.
dilema.

i'm tired.



-

good good
things are looking up
the bio reps have confirmed that they will probably receive the tys by next week.
yay
so thats settled then.
but that does not diminish the fact that i spent over an hour getting and printing this week's tutorial for them. and shrinking the font and rearranging the questions to utilise space efficiently.
and killing many trees in the process.
i should pick up gardening.

today will be an exciting salsa day.
jian bang and zhong yang are coming to xenbar!
haven't seen them and teresa for ages!
looking forward to tonight :)

i feel like shit.
i have one very obvious career path that i can choose but i dunno if i should because astar and nus are -both- daoing me. and even if the latter 2 do somehow accept me which one should i choose? and then there is the problem of clashing deadlines and all. and the stoopid JHU is being irritating by putting me on the waiting list which is so incredibly uninformative. and i'm super stressed now cos there are 2 piles of pracs on my table in sch waiting to be marked and i have to do the latest tutorial to make my own answer key for mrs foo to vett. by like thursday or sth. and now the classes i teach don't have their tys yet cos their bio reps all didn't order it. and a quick check with the other teachers showed that all their classes have ordered. a long time ago in fact. so wat the *toot* went wrong man. i detest inefficiency (though i'm often guilty of it). and so now the best thing to do would be to print the tutorial qns for them. which is damn a lot of work. but its worth it cos its for 3 classes. i guess. and then there are ppl who have to miss pracs. i know they have legitimate reasons (syf, srp) so its not really their fault but it happens so often, and i keep having to arrange make-up pracs for them. and even make-up pracs to make up for the make-up pracs that they missed. that seriously irks me cos there are so many different students with diff schedules and diff pracs and i have to remember all that. argh.
and i still have to decide wat i wanna do for the rest of my life.
help me Lord
i need strength.
and wisdom.




.

oh my
someone has found this online periodic table
in arabic.
complete with music.
that is currently blasting away
ahhh


.

goodness
i've just discovered, quite recently, that a lot of ppl read my blog.
including the boss of xenbar, jy's and my shi fu,
as well as the dear children i teach in HC.
which therefore means that i have to watch wat i say.
i feel so restricted~

being able to eat in the staff room brings multi-tasking to a new level.
so now i can eat lunch, blog, chat online, sms, book driving lessons and complain about all the marking i need to do all at once!
increases efficency quite a bit.

and i've made the discovery of the century that has revolutionised the whole sitting-in-a-cubicle-in-the-staff-room experience:
a site that plays fantastic music!
and not just any music.
but music that God-fearing, bible-reading ppl would appreciate.
its time to venture beyond hillsongs, WOW and the other common cds and be exposed to more songs and singers.
and u can do that here:
http://music.yahoo.com/launchcast/stations/category.asp?i=55
makes marking stuff more bearable somehow.

somehow i miss wearing uniforms.
not because they are nice
but because i don't have to think of wat to wear to work!
plus i need to ensure that what i wear in the day is suitable for dancing at night. a most strenuous task indeed.
yup
so those of u out there who are still wearing uniforms, be thankful.

today a student gave me a star!
one made of straws, no less.
so nice :)
i guess this is wat the other teachers mean when they say "teaching has is rewarding moments"
though of course there are downsides.
like when students are deliberately very late for lessons, or if they don't do their tutorials and i have to punish them. and be accused of being sadistic.
i'm not ok..
if i were sadistic i'll make u copy the -whole- set of lecture notes :p
but i don't!
i only make u do a mind map.
plus u get to go home to do it.
but i'm running out of ideas.
this mind map thingy may or may not work.
i need ideas!
on how to punish students and yet not be sadistic.
no, its not ironic.
its just... a delicate balance that needs to be achieved :)
so its mind maps for now :)



.

went down to dance again yesterday.
i'm sad.
discovered that my basic is not good.
and and my grip is very bad!
need to work on that.
realised that we've been going to chinatown so often that even the liang cha stall uncle recognises us and even keeps his shop open a wee bit later so that we can get a bottle of liang cha from him.
such a nice guy :)

conducted a prac today.
i'm starting to like pracs more and more cos i get to sit in front of the class and slack :)
unlike tutorials where i'm expected to talk and talk.
perhaps i should give them a spring test.
hmmm....
but that would mean even more marking to do so..
dowan
hahaha
but i don't like marking pracs!!
takes super long
like 2 hours to do one class.
haiz

oh well.
back to work.

Blogger was down on friday!!!
so this is friday's post:

went to the new atfa on wednesday.
a branch of xenbar.
spent a whole lot of money and 1 h 15 mins trying to locate the place and when we did, only 2 decoraters were there.
and justin told us to practice there.
so we called him up to ask him where he was and if we were supposed to be there.
then he said that he just left the place and told us to go to xenbar instead.
so we spent yet somemore money on a cab to xenbar.
by the time we got there, we were severly pissed off (at least i was) and not in the mood to dance.
but emma helped to calm us down.. she's really nice :)
so we did practice, but it wasn't too fruitful.
then we met justin and yenqing who just arrived from taka.
they were both smiling so happily but since i was feeling just quite the opposite i put on my pissed-off-dao-incredibly-buay-song face. then justin explained that they had been waiting there since 7 plus and left atfa a few mins before we arrived at 8 plus. (thanks to the unspecific instructions we were given on how to get there)
well then so the conclusion of our discussion is that we need to practice more, but thats pretty obvious. i've also come to the conclusion that i won't ever go to atfa again unless its absolutely necessary. ie everyone is going to vacate xenbar for that place.
but the important thing is that while justin was grinning and doing all the talking, yenqing was smiling at us too. and i didn't return her smile cos i wasn't in a smiley mood. and quite early in the conversation she walked away and i felt quite bad, cos yenqing is really nice and helped us quite a bit in our dance technique. must apologise to her soon.

and on thursday we went to xenbar yet again to practice. A lot.
but despite all that practice we don't seem to be improving that much.
better, but not good enough!
argh.

met jireh at taka while shopping at mango.
talked a bit, and found out that he got accepted into cambridge and stanford.
isn't surprising cos he writes really well.
huge dilema there.
and i was informed that the college i got into for cambridge isn't that fantastic- "below par" in fact.
wattheheck.
all the more reason for me to go to nus right.

reached home at 11 pm and received a letter in the mail.
really made my day, after this immensely ego-bruising, self-confidence-shattering week.
i think God is teaching me to be patient.
and to trust that everything will happen in His time.
thank you Lord.

taught my grand junior class today.
they are so laggy the poor things cos a lot of their lessons got disrupted. so i chionged through the tutorial and now they are only lagging behind by abt 3 periods. fortunately they are quite bright so its not too bad.
they are a fun class to teach :) so its sad that i have to rush through everything.
and then their seniors ie my juniors decided to sit in. so there were like 5 juniors in a class of 24 grandjuniors with me the senior for that one very interesting tutorial.
san1 dai4 tong2 tang2, they said.
ah well.
strange experience haha.

went to xenbar yesterday.
apparently we are not practicing hard enough.
so justin wants us to practice even harder!
so that we can dance faster. apparently we are too slow.
so we need to work on that.

held my first practical lesson changed into a 3-period tutorial this morning.
went through cell structure- microscopy and such.
its supposed to be so straight forward but NO.
the students had to ask so many many questions that made sense but weren't really required cos u don't need to know all the info in such great detail!

and then there is the news from xi zhen that we are supposed to do and type out all the tutorials to serve as our own answer key after letting it be vetted by mrs foo.
found out this morning.
i thought it was ok.
then i looked at the tutorial
and i almost flipped.
so difficult!
then i got so worried.

and now its abt 1 pm and the teacher who set the questions just came to give me the answers to some of the tutorial qns.
yay!!!
praise the Lord :)
now i only need to do half a tutorial :)
and i thought that all this tutorial, lecture and prac crap was behind me :(
at least until uni.. which is far far awayyy