I have had a terrible week and while this week doesn’t seem to be going as bad as the last week, I suspect it will either stay this way or get worst. No way its gonna get better.

Forget it.

I’m too filled with rage to type.

Make what you think of it.

I haven’t been posting much lately since there has been alot of changes in my life. Firstly would be me moving back to Australia, Perth to assume my proper role as a university student of the University Of Western Australia. Yes finally I have finished my torturous year at Taylors College and now I’m finally a full student of the university. I think one of the best perks of being a university student is no longer having to be called a Taylors kid by all the other university students, especially when I stayed in Currie Hall. The sense that I am finally a full student in UWA is quite an overwhelming sensation and rightfully so, this goal that I have sacrificed so much of my brain cells and burned so many bridges to get to is finally here. On a side note, I enter University with only one person that I don’t like entering alongside with me. The rest has either been exiled to Curtin or Murdoch or sent to the East Coast. HAH SUCK IT ANH, you can go copy other people’s work over there instead.

*Ahem* I digress.

I used to arrogantly believe that I would be able to take University and not be overwhelmed by everything that is happening around me. Oh boy was I ever so wrong in my life. I’m feeling completely overwhelmed by the amount of reading that I have to do in the first week and I went through my first tutorial at the Faculty of Education and I feel really unprepared compared to the rest of the class. I hope its just jitters so far and not an indication of my performance throughout the semester. For the uninformed or the curious, I am taking 4 units this semester. Anthropology Global Change Local Response, History From Imperialism to Globalization, Political Science The Contemporary International System and finally Education Youth Culture. I managed to get a good timetable with little wasted time and nice starting times around 10-12pm and one free day on friday! Which is always good, a three day weekend! Most of the lecturers are nice and interesting people with the exception of the History lecturer. I’m not saying that she’s bad or lousy just abit strange with her lectures. Forcing me to relisten to her lectures on the internet. Thank God for that.

I’ll spare you all descriptions of my university and so on. Lets focus on something else more…hmm…substantial.

Recently a friend and I committed a religious faux pas against another friend of another religion. It involved a frying wok owned by that person and a set of sausages that was fried on that said wok. Now that person who owns the wok is muslim and the rest of us aren’t. She kinda freaked out when she saw us cooking sausages on it. Now we went to check and found that the sausages were beef so no damage there but it got me thinking about such things. I kinda have the feeling that I am going to offend some people with this but who gives? So the general rule of thumb is that muslims cannot touch or eat pork. That much I know but what I find it terribly unfair that we have to keep jumping around that rule. We can’t do this and we can’t do that because we offend some kind of rule from another religion. Consider the fact that we have to keep watch over so many things and juggle so many commitments, I find it funny that we will have to ensure that we are politically correct and religiously correct around select religions. I not blasting anything or anyone, but I am bothered by this…atmosphere of special treatment and mindset that some religions seem to have. While I am Christian, I don’t seek to have special rights conveyed on my religion and I think things would be alot better if all the religions were treated equally and so on *blah blah*. Maybe its all this negative press about religion, religious wars and persecution that I feel strongly for a complete separation of church and state. I think that is the reason why I was slightly bothered by what I saw today in church about the new Australia Prime Minister and the Greens. One issue raised up during the church announcement was that the Greens supported the idea of Gay Marriage and so on. Now I will go on record saying that I support the idea of Gay Marriage and Rights, despite the fact that I am a Christian. I believe that such things are inevitable and we are doing them no big favour in outcasting them and causing them so much annoyance and suffering…..Christians can counter me by accusing me of embracing their ideals and so on but I rather accept them that they are here and not going away instead of attempting to destroy their lives. They are humans.

But what do I know? I’m just an idealistic university student who through the course of his 4.5 years in University be embittered and cynical about the world.

I recently made the decision to start serving in church and I chose to go back to the basics where I started off back home in FGA. Projections. From what I observed, there are slight differences between both projection teams and formats in both churches but aside from that it is essentially the same program and job which makes adapting much easier. But I am not writing about that, something struck me today as I watched people set up church, run soundchecks and practice for the coming service. These are very very dedicated people. The first test would be the fact that the assembling time for everyone to set up is at 6am on a sunday morning. I felt like shit when I woke up at 5.30am to wash up to go church. I would draw a parallel between FGA and Zion Praise, both are manned by extremely dedicated youth teams who basically run the entire service from start to finish. I just think that these people need to be acknowledged more often for making such services possible and running so smoothly. Sometimes too much emphasis is placed on the worship team and rightfully so because they are indeed the main thing that people see when they enter the hall during service but sometimes its best to not forget about the little people who help bring them there, who help make sure they sound good and get their lyrics on time.

I’m tired.

I’ll write more another day.

Lets see, one of the general reasons I get for not liking the government is that it is corrupted and so on. I agree that there is a high chance that the government is corrupted to some extent and you can view some of their actions as dynastic and corrupted in the sense that they are keeping everything within the Lee family but if you compare it against the other countries in the world. Really you don’t have to look too far, look at Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia to see strong evidence of major corruption and how it is screwing up their nations. Then when you look at them, take a nice look at our country and realise the fact that even though there is corruption in our government, it is so small that its almost nothing compared to our neighbours. Come on people. Our nation is so stable and peaceful, cause their corruption isn’t as bad as the rest!

There is this idea of the grass being greener on the other side. The idea that I think most Singaporeans have that other countries have it better off than them. I will admit that I have been guilty of thinking that way in the past, wondering wether my life would have turned out better if maybe I had a different life, different parents or born in a different nation. Then it would change to thinking that so & so country seems to be better than my country and why can’t I stay in that country instead of Singapore. I lived my life in both Perth and Singapore, i experienced the idea of living in the “greener” side of life. But then I find myself missing Singapore, i go back to Singapore and I find myself missing Perth. We can never satisfy that idea in us, there will always be another place that seems better than our place and we can’t do anything about it except to either live with it or complain throughout our lives. Obviously we can see that most of the Singaporeans just complain that they wished that they could live in another nation and so on.

I’m not looking to insult anyone and so on. Just my opinion. Our generation needs to shape up abit and realise that once our parents kick the bucket, that it will be up to us to do something about it. Scary thought isn’t it? That it is up to our generation to fix the problems of the old generation? My geography teacher told us in class with a hint of sadism that it is his generation that sucked up all the resources and dumped all the poisons into the ocean and up into the air and it will be our generation who will have to clean up the mess that his generation caused. And that he will be long dead before he will have to endure any of the hellist conditions that seem set to descend onto our world from Global Warming to financial upheaval. I take a walk around Singapore and I see the people around my age who don’t seem to be doing anything about their lives and so on. They seem to be living for the Now, for the moment instead of wondering about their futures. I wonder what is going to happen to Singapore and the rest of the world when our generation takes over.

50 bucks that we will all combust into flames.

Okay people will protest that I did have some really awesome birthdays like the one I had i Church Camp where the little british group decided to create an awesome notebook for me. I’m really thankful to them for all that!

So what did I do in Perth for my birthday? Well I ‘celebrated’ it on the day before, Cheeps came over to hang out and then went with the girls to Subi market to eat a late lunch. After that went back to watch How I Met Your Mother before meeting the girls again to go Fremantle for some reason then back to Northbridge for ramen and wandering around. Finally getting our dirty paws on a bottle of Absinthe (Green Fairy) and some beer, we proceeded home to the girls house to sample the forbidden fruit that is Absinthe. Okay first off, it taste like Listerine, mixed with alot of alcohol. Goodness. It was horrible. Research however shows that adding cold water and sugar to the mixture made it alot more drinkable as we have all discovered.

I thought about it. Wow, I survived one full year in Perth studying Taylors College. Its quite unbelievable that I could stand that much horror in that place and in Perth. I know I whine and moan about things that happened to me in Perth and the things happening in school but when I think about the stuff that happened to me, I can say that God really has a plan for me and everything worked out in some strange way. Well, lets see. If I did not go into Taylors College at this specific time and intake I would not have had the chance of meeting people like Syen, Thin and others which at first seemed like nothing but they would go on to make a huge impact in my life in the second half of my Taylors existence. Making the effort to know Nad would then set the stage for me knowing Kaiy even better and that would even lead to my “salvation” and finding a church to settle in Perth. So yeah I guess everything else was part of God’s long and weird plan.

One thing that I’m extremely grateful to God is for letting me know a bunch of supremely awesome people in church. I can safely say if it weren’t for these people, I would have gone insane and killed myself in Perth. Thank you Eunice, Shannon, SK, Shuyen, Kaiyi, Thinn, Wilson, Adeline, Christine and Pauline for being so awesome people! Words cannot describe the fun times I had in cell with you guys. The ninja Shearn and err..Cheeps , these 2 are fascinating people who I am so glad to count as bros. (Stop watching How I Met Your Mother….But I need to finish Season 5).

There was another major reason to go to church today besides the usual reasons of going to church….You know like to worship God and so on but…Okay first some back story to establish context. I go to this church in UWA called Zion Praise Harvest which is awesome. I’m part of Eunice’s cell (still am yay) which is also awesome, there are a number of cells in the church and there are alot of people in these cells. Okay so back to the main story. Today was the day they announced the new cell arrangements for Semester 2. I’m glad that I am in the same cell as before and while we lost alot of people to the young upstart Wilson but I’m happy. . Wilson is gonna be AN AWESOME CELL LEADER!

SINCE ITS MY DAMN BIRTHDAY.

WHERE THE FRACK ARE MY PRESENTS?!

What do I think of MetroCity? It kinda reminds me of Singapore’s clubs but with some white people. Also there is a stage for stage dancers…We went to MetroCity when there was some kind of dance competition going on so throughout the night, the dancing would stop and some group would come out and dance for the rest of the club to see. I think the names of the groups were Amix, the Tribe and another group that I can’t remember. I did like Amix more though but nevermind, the Tribe won. Good for them. Alcohol here in clubs are quite expensive and this place is no exception, I tried not to think about the prices when we paid for the drinks (which all packed quite the punch!).

I would write alot more but there this is agreement that whatever happens in the club stays in the club, so I shall not say much more. I can’t think of anything else to write.

Back to something more important I guess.

I know I got friends in Perth. I know I’m not alone here. Its just the fact that I don’t feel connected with anyone in the school that I am in. But I think for the sake of the last term I will try my best to attempt to connect with the people who stay in the hall and study in the school. It is my last term here, it shouldn’t be spent miserably. Such thoughts are easy to have but extremely difficult to maintain, it is pretty much confirmed that soon I will feel like shit and be miserable and take it out on the poor souls that are in my school.

Okay I need to rant abit.

While I might not be the most accepting person in the world, I try my best to accept everyone for who they are. Gay, straight etc etc. But then there are those people whose sole purpose in life is just to test your patience over and over with the massive amount of stupidity that is literally seeping out of their blocky heads. I have to see this one person for quite abit in the school and I’m utterly terrified that I will become stupid if I keep staying in proximity. Arghh.. I’m terrified.

Oh…How can i write more.

I’ll do it again another day!

CELLGROUP TMR!!!

Gone are the comforting (albeit irritating) people that I would hang out with in Taylors from the previous batch and now I merely wander from place to place to while away the hours of free periods that I have so undeservingly gotten from the school. I wish I could return them for a shorter school day. Once in awhile I would sit with a bunch of people and smile but thats no longer an option because sometimes I feel like I don’t fit into a group (I suspect its the language barrier) or I would just walk around and sit in a classroom waiting for the break time to be over. On good days, I would find some companionship with someone that I actually can converse with and that would help me just kill the dead time. But those times are rare and far apart. No matter, I tell myself how many more weeks left and I smile. Yet at the same time, even as my time in hell ends, I end up talking to more people, making that slight effort needed to make a new acquaintance or “friend” on facebook, people who make most of my lessons more bearable because I have someone to talk to or make snide remarks about someone else in class or school. I am thankful for that of course. Can you imagine a time without the simple joys of doing this? Horrible.

I am faced with an interesting problem in which the school has decided to flex its administrative muscles and come out with several arbitrary rules that most students have decided to happily just ignore, from rules of compulsory club activities to having us wear our student cards wherever we go. Its interesting because I get to see the reaction of the students to these new rules and problem because I’m still in the school! I suspect the school fails to understand the key problem of why the students do not participate much in activities and so on in this place. Simply put it, most of the students in my school actually don’t really like the school, that is the general feeling I get when I am in school, most of us would want to go there, study and then just go home. We don’t want to spend anymore time than what we need to. I wish the school would understand that instead of simply making stupid rules to force us to do activities when we don’t want to.

The problems of relationships have come up, not with me but with people I know. Again I get the joy of playing the observer in such an exchange between both parties. While I am not privy to the actual exchanges between both sides in secluded areas, I get to see the fallout of a breakup happen infront of me. I see how one side simply takes it in their stride while one side completely breaks down and disintegrates into a mushy pile of mush. When I see something like this, it makes me thankful that I don’t have to deal with such issues YET! The keyword being Yet. It got me thinking about the whole idea of relationships and how its such a bloody bitch to have one. Its utterly important to have one but I don’t want to trouble myself with having one!!!! Why would I want to subject myself to something as hurtful and drastic as a relationship, especially the breakup part? Argh. Yet as one relationship is destroyed, I see so many others taking its place, poorly kept secrets between groups of friends about a boy and a girl, walking into a room and accidentally catching them in the middle of something (completely PG-13) while looking for someone else. Haha! Just get it out in the open lah!

(I’m too lazy to do a write up for media class but I have the energy to do a blog post. Nice.)

Good Night World.

Right now I am at the end of my holidays, next week I will be going through my last term in Taylors College. Yes finally its my last term in that blasted college, I cannot believe that I have survived close to 3/4 of an entire year in that place. I have met many interesting (and not-so interesting) people in there. Some I appreciate for their friendship and some I will never speak to again. I can’t believe in the span of a single year in that college, I would have gone through so much! Wow. I’m so thankful that its all gonna end real soon. And once this is over, I will finally be able to join UWA and become a university student and not a “taylor kid” as some people call us here. I am waiting with eager anticipation!

I got back my results from Taylors for Term 3, despite me losing part of my drive to study and also the fact that I didn’t study at all for half of my papers, I scored pretty decent marks overall with my final average dropping from a staggering 83% to a slightly less staggering 80.9%. For those who really want to know. Here is the breakdown of the marks.

• English 2: 81%
• English 5: 83%
• Media 1: 81%
• Geography 1: 77%

As you can see, it was Geography that pulled down my overall average but I am not complaining considering the fact that I didn’t manage to finish the paper in time (with a ridiculous 3 essay questions to do in 2 hours). Combined with the fact that for English 5 I didn’t study and wasted the day before watching The Big Bang Theory and playing Command And Conquer 4, I think it was a fairly decent score! I was fairly surprised with my marks for English 2 and Media 1 as I felt that I did screw up the way I answered both papers but Thank God I didn’t. I’m fairly sure that it was due to God that I didn’t cock up this term despite it being the hardest term out of the four. With my final average at a remarkably comfortable level of 80.9%, I am now given the choice of deciding to “chiong” for my last term and maintain the average so that I can apply to enter the Law Faculty or basically slack off for the entire term and still manage to get into the Education Faculty. Either way appeals to me so I will need to decide properly on what I really want in my future life.

Speaking of faculties. I have been speaking to one of my close friends in Perth about my reasons for deciding either Law or Education. While the basic reason is that I have an interest in both being either a teacher or a lawyer, the more….raw reason, my real and completely shallow reason for entering Law is not for the money (I don’t aim to earn billions of dollars) but its to rub it into the faces of those who doubted me and compared me against their children (yes I’m talking to you bunch of people who proclaimed to be family friends). So yeah, that reason is just so that I can validate my existence against them and tell them, “Oh? Your son is studying Business? That’s nice. Me? Oh I’m just in UWA’s Law Faculty, you know, the TOP law school around these parts? Yeah thought you heard about them.” Okay I admit its an intensely shallow reason! So so so bloody shallow.

Which brings me to the topic of my intense overwhelming all-consuming desire to enter UWA and finally be a University student. It just rolls off the tongue you know, University. I can’t imagine myself attending lectures in the various lecture halls (most likely I will skip them and just listen to the iLectures at night) and attending tutorials! WooHoo. I see all my friends (seniors) who have graduated from Taylors College and are now enjoying all the fun that UWA offers and I am jealous of them and their flexible schedules. Ugh I have to be restricted to a set timetable which is very very annoying. One thing I heard one of my friends talking about is that how he didn’t like the fact that UWA was focusing alot on theory and the establishment of foundation in every unit as compared against other universities that emphasize more on practical than theory. While I see the benefits of practical experience but I’m a proponent on theoretical foundations that UWA pushes, its like….Yes its better off practicing how to drive the car by driving it on the road but before you can really go on the road without training wheels (you get the idea) but you still need to basic theoretical knowledge of which lane can be crossed, which signboard means what. So yes, UWA for the win on that!

I shall now change to another topic.

Recently Dalton came to visit Perth and he stayed with me in Currie Hall for the duration of his trip here. It was the best two week holiday I ever had in Perth, nothing beats a holiday than spending it with one of your closest friends in your life. While the holiday started slow (he landed right before a public holiday so everything was closed for 4 days! Wtf), it eventually picked up pace as we got a car and started driving around seeing stuff and hanging out with other friends. We hung out with my taylors friends (Shuyen, Thinn & Kaiyi) more because at least they bothered to make the effort to make friends with Dalton and they were moving house and needed our help to move stuff. It was really cool to see their reactions when we passed them their housewarming gifts, clearly the money was well spent on them and now their living room looks much more homely and *dare I Say* Classy. Sending Dalton off was actually harder than I thought, far more harder than I expected. Having him over reminded me why I still miss the people back in Singapore despite them being a bunch of utterly weird and insane people who drive me mad and piss me off constantly but I love them all. It felt weird now that Dalton was gone, I was getting used to having absolutely no space in my room to move around with his mattress taking up a nice portion of my room. I’m really glad that he came over to visit and I’m thankful to God for making it possible for him to come and visit. Dalton, you really need to come back here, and not as a tourist but a student of UWA.

I finally found a church and cellgroup that I am comfortable in, the church being Zion Praise Harvest and the cellgroup being the one that my friends are in (Eunice’s one). It was a good idea that we attended cell after that Ciao Italia dinner as it helped cemented my decision to join that cellgroup! Yes, Sherman you can finally breathe a sigh of relief that I found my church here.

What else is there to write?

Alright I can’t think of anything else to write.