Personal Development

Hi.

I've had 3 and a half months of blissful holiday till this week. Sem 4 starts and its beginning to just look incredibly tough. I have six subjects, which is one subject more than the past few sems. and just seems like a lot to cope and i'm not gonna have such a good schedule anymore.

But I also know that 4 months is actually really short and before you know it it'll be July and I'm shaking my legs for another month again. Hehe.

So. What have I even been doing.

If you don't count December, which was crazy busy, as it will be every year and after officially celebrating my 21st, I will break down what my January to March has been like.

We did somehow manage to plan an early trip up to Genting this year, where the last two years were near the June break for Monash. This year was the first week of January and hey somehow it felt very very necessary. lol.

If I remember right there were 3 cars going up this time. and as usual we start the first day with a grocery trip to Mydin or Giant before we have brunch and head up.

So yeah, this time the we more or less banned the video game marathon that the guys had the last trip which made it so draggy lol. this time we had more board games. Zombiecide, Legendary, Shadow Hunter and monster something. I think we all owe Gideon a lot for being such a constant blessing to us hehe.

and Gid brought me and Matt to the casino for the first time. just to watch and experience. it seems so surreal you know. like how exclusive and luxurious casinos are made to look like in the movies, and here it is and its almost just the same heh. and you realize how many people have much monies lol

we also stayed an extra day. like on the day we were supposed to leave everyone was just lazy and unwilling to move and it was like 12pm before we were like, can we just go home tmr. and after everyone had the OK from parents and made sure we had enough clothes and underwear or whatever then yeah. also cooking with them again testing my patience. and car trouble :(

I don't know for how many more years we can keep doing this. I mean, next year should still be fine, but the years after that when we're all working and stuff then how. Growing up is really not fun :(

The immediate week following was Kuala Krai, Pahang. and no, it wasnt a holiday. That time they really needed volunteers to help with disaster relief for the flood victims in that area. and since we were free, we went to help out. it was almost 9 hours there and 9 hours back. and as much as i love car rides, but like the 7th hour i was like enaaffff

The entire area that we were at was actually pretty vast, lots of land all around, and yet its hard to imagine ceiling-level floods that affected all the way even past like an hour journey from the river. Scary. We spent our time cleaning a few badly affected houses. then second day the girls and guys split teams. From what the guys describe as 'chocolate cake', they basically shoveled 3 or more feet thick literal gunk, and i tell you when we say mud we mean more than mud, its like cake batter and weirder. and THE SMELL.

the girls (WHICH INCLUDES ME) went to this bakery which was badly damaged and it was dark and dingy and smelly and muddy and messy and the place was so big and i remember thinking (admittedly in a bratty way) that this had to be a joke or something like someone would come and tell us like wow this seems tough lets just go back and do something easier.

but no. nope. we just picked up the shovels and got to work and within an hour we cleared the place up. so proud. and exhausted. after that we went to a school and helped to wash some equipment and stuff.

overall, the trip really opened my eyes to be thankful for what I have. I mean, we mostly helped low-income families, and they had so little to begin with, and after the flood, they basically were left with nothing, except donations of stuff like maggi mee and toothpaste.

and I have so so much here at home. and not to sound proud or self-righteous or anything, our problems are just so petty :(

my third and last 'holiday' was the 365 Boot Camp. I was like just an honorary camper or something lah. Besides ATM, I was the oldest girl there, and Sarah Steevan was the second oldest and she was 18. the camp was mainly for those kids with school holidays. the first and last boot camp i went to was when i was 17 and there were just so many good memories that I just didn't want to miss this one, even though i felt just a tad too old to do everything there.

idk if i ever blogged about it that boot camp but it was just so fun. leeches, and people constantly worries about leeches, beaconhouse, the night trekking, and i cant even remember lah but yeah. going back to same campsite 5 years later, just makes you veryy...

okay i went to fb to look for pictures and got caught up in a storm of nostalgia. so just take my word for it. lol.

reaching there the weather was just mad hot, and setting up tents and everything just seemed to give off heat and ergh. hot.

there were puppies! and clean showers! and good food! 

no reception! no wifi! lots of bugs!

second day was long and tough alright. we went stream trekking. which is like hiking up a mountain, through the stream. through water and rocks and errthing. fun lah, and only one leech reported. and the waterfall and then walking back down. then the senior bunch of us had to set up a complicated campfire which took so long and then the campers made fried rice by themselves. and then the actual campfire which was really nice :)

needless to say that night i just fell asleep in a blink. the stars were beautiful too. and the fireflies.

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basically the three biggest events. the rest, as below:

1. CNY was fun, lots of visitations :) lots of food, lots of angpaoz

2. Joel and Eve's wedding. I helped in designing some stuff, with the deco and took care of Aaron the fish and it was a great wedding :)

3. Skytrex. That was fun. Highly recommend it, worth every penny, every shaking muscle, every deep breath and every hit of vertigo. Want to go again please. :)

4. Hiking bukit Gasing. Thanks to Anna banana we made the trip up.

Well those are the big things i remember lah.

I also did like 4 consecutive design work pieces for 365 with my free time. Going out a lot with friends. Gym-ing. Captain ball. 

I finished all 10 seasons of friends, finished up Glee. catched up on my Big Bang Theory. I'm also currently at level 845 in candy crush. attended FOUR of my uni mates' birthdays. lots of bonding time with mummy. 

also a lot of sleeping. 

this is just so you all know i wasnt a complete waste of space during this time of my life lah. in defense i did look for jobs, only just a bit late lah. and i thought since I already was at EY last year, i thought i wouldn't mind not doing anything this year lah, since next year would be my official internship already and work and life in the next years after that.

Growing up is so not gonna be fun. :(