Busy Bumble Bee

Okay, so I’m not exactly busy, more like I’ve got stuff to pass my time with – I just like the alliteration. It’s been pretty much the same thing the past 3 days. Wake up, catch the bus to my cousin’s house, wait for him to be LATE, walk to school together, meet his friends on the way, experience flag raising ceremony, get my relief form, go through the motions, end of school.

Wednesday: I can’t really remember what happened already. I know I went to my cousin’s house after school. And I was so tired I slept at his house while he was actually talking to me. Yeah~ Sleeping with the contacts on is not fun, your eyes feel like they’re gonna pop out of their sockets when you wake up.

Thursday: I was going for my STB interview so I wore a formal dress to school. My students are sooo cute, they go like “Sia la Cheeeeeeer, I like your dress!!!” This whole bunch of really weeny secondary one Malay girls were shrieking. And I said ‘Hi’ to this two new teachers from NIE today. The male looks quite good ah, shuai man! You know the current Mac’s advertisement where they proliferate the $2.50 morning breakfast meal, he looks like that dude in the car who goes ‘Aunty, Zao!’ Anyway, if most of you don’t already know, which I think is so, STB is actually located opposite Trader’s Hotel. Apparently they’ve been there for about a decade and yet even most taxi drivers and bus drivers travelling along that route don’t know that. My slot was slated at 4pm, so I was there by 3.30pm, but who knew they overran so much I had to wait until close to 5pm for my turn. Oh well. Anyway, FYI, I screwed up! YAH. Expected right. Oh, and I managed to remember some of the interview questions that they asked me so if you’re about to go for a scholarship interview, this might give you a rough idea. I was stumped at most questions because I didn’t do my research. I’m too lazy. I should just resign myself to Singapore education man. Oh ya, the questions:

Give examples of a situation when you found that an old solution could not work and you had to come up with a new one.

What do you think the company (STB) can do in face of the current economic crisis and how do you think the company will be affected by it?

Tell me an incident where you had a disagreement with a friend and how you eventually resolved it.

Why did you choose the public and not the private sector?

What are your considerations when choosing which scholarship provider?

ZZZZzz. I did badly for all the questions I think. I simply cannot will my brain to THINK more!!! DAMNIT. So after I was done, off I go to a wedding dinner at Sheraton Towers. Pretty posh place and the décor’s not bad at all – they actually have a mini cascading waterfall in the vicinity of the area. I get confused about how I’m actually related to the groom, but I know it’s something to do with my Ah Ma’s brother. The food was REALLY GOOD. It was not your typical and damn boring, damn standard wedding dinner dishes. It was different and it was simply delectable. To top it off, they had this chocolate fudge pastry dessert that is GODLY. It’s been such a long time since I had something so good. The chocolate was dark chocolate so I loved the taste, and it was also served on individual plates with a certain degree of presentation that wows. I met my JC PE teacher who’s actually God-daughter of my Ah Ma’s brother and she actually recognizes me. She says I very ‘pai kuan’ because I knew it but I didn’t tell her all through the two years I was there. HEH. Small world man.

Friday: Today school ends for the kids at 12.25pm, which is considered super early. And I only had one lesson to relief today. So today was very slack! But I taught a China girl who’s having problems with English today. I guided her along as she read the words of an oral passage (So coincidental! It’s the oral passage for O-level my year!), it’s actually quite interesting to teach phonetics. Atikah and I had a fabulous gossip session in the Math room today, until it was time for our Alumni tuition. Only 6 kids turned up today, so sad. Oh well, at least the both of us taught them something new =)

I went to my cousin’s house to slack for a while before heading off for the SMU interview. The moment I boarded the train at Simei and I got a seat, I promptly dozed off all the way until City Hall, with I reached there at 4.45pm and guess what time I ended? 7.37pm lah. First, we had a comprehension exercise to do, followed by an essay. Yes, I’m not kidding. Then it was a group interview in teams of 8 where you gotta express your views on a certain topic. I’m so much happier writing than talking. In college, it still wasn’t so bad but in a setting like today’s, it was a tad intimidating man! I don’t know, I should really learn to start being afraid to speak up, and of course saying intelligent stuff. My mind is really BLANK to the max during such impromptu discussions. Wah damn. How the heck do you train for such things? Oh I made a new friend! This poly girl who’s simply awesome. She has experienced SO MUCH – my ‘shi fu’ Hidayah. I swear this relief teaching stint had made me wanna learn simple Malay, because I’m bombarded by the language pretty often. At least next time if my students gossip about me, I’ll know roughly what they’re talking about. I can pick up a few words here and there already eh! Must ask Atikah to teach me more!

Speaking of which, Atikah and I were so absent minded today! We actually forgot about the second recess so we happily went to eat during the free period between the first and second recess and because we took our time, we realised that it was actually the second recess when the bell rang. We got quite scared something was gonna happen while we were in the sea of students – paranoia man! Oh, and these two ex-students who graduated last year came back to teach also – one of them looks like Yul Goon from Goong, princess Hours. Atikah said not really but we both agree he looks damn SHUAI. He really is la. Man… Haha.

Okay, I’m beat. Yes, beaten my all my walking and standing. Good night!

And yes! I weaned myself off technology for 3 days… sortof. XD