According to my newly crossed-out The.Future, it seems that I am.............

.................dead. Oh well. Bye bye.

Haha.

Okay, we were 5 minutes late for Creative Communication today. Not because we got lost, but because we waited too long for some classmates. I was right on the dot at 8.30 though. :P

CC is...cool. I'm reading the booklet the lecturer gave out. All writing activites. We're going to do Prose Writing, Script Writing, Advertisement Copywriting and Pamphlet Writing. Not to mention the lecturer is pretty nice too. Actually all today's lecturers were nice, but whatever. Anyway, when we entered the com lab for the tutorial, the lecturer wanted to get to know us better, so she got each of us to stand up and say something about themselves - mostly why they joined DMC. This sparked three interesting things - 1) I found out that another of my classmates isn't 17 this year, 2) I realised that my class has quite a few more appeal cases than I previously thought, and 3) the whole class found out we had two new classmates. It happened when the lecturer called out one guy's name. Then everyone started looking wildly around, like since when was there a guy by that name in our class?! Turns out he was another of those posted-to-wrong-class on the first day cases. Then after that a second new name was called out - well, not really new 'cos that guy had registered with 1A04 during orientation, yet not turned up the whole 3 days.

We were let off from CC about half an hour earlier, with a one hour break to follow. Went with the class to FC 4 (the air-conditioned one). It was only like 10.30 a.m. so didn't feel like eating, unlike them. Ended up sitting there reading my book before some of the girls decided to get up and go "explore".

There was only like 15 min left at that point, so we didn't really have much time to linger at the Sports Hall where the CCA booths were set up. I seriously think those manning the booths thought I was a second-year or something, since only one of them actually approached me with a flyer. The rest of the girls in front received don't know how many other stuff!

Oh yeah. I am seriously tempted to join Astronomy. But the way that timetable is going, not to mention French class...I highly doubt I have the time. Besides I want to try for the specialist diploma thingy next year, and if I get in then that's more time taken up. 4-6 p.m. on two days of the week, I heard. :(

ANYWAY, the next class was also a tutorial, Introduction to Communication Principles. Met the rest of the class outside the door. The lecturer was also very nice, even suggested to us the number of times we can afford to skip her class in order to stay within the 75% attendance. Oh, and she showed us the ICP textbook, which is pretty cool (anything that has pictures is cool...well, as long as it isn't science...*suddenly remembers those freaking heavy science books*) but on the expensive side, especially for a book that's only going to be used this semester.

So our ICP lecturer released us after 40 min, along with another 1 hr break...which meant a total of 2 hr 20 min of waiting!!! Somehow, as usual, got separated from the rest of the class. Fell asleep listening to the other four girls talk. Can't remember what they were talking about. Then I woke up after one of the girls left, and guess what the remaining three girls then went on to talk about?

...Chinese television shows, Korean dramas, and movies.

Three of my favourite things in the world. It explains why I 1) rarely watch Ch 8, 2) think all Korean dramas are waaaaaaay too over-dramatic and avoid them at all costs, and 3) have a one-movie-per-year quota.

Oh yeah. They discussed all these in Chinese, of course. I was so happy I could've just rammed my head against the nearest pillar. Or jumped down to the foyer.

And then, in a great show of irony, one of them suddenly said how it was like she has similar interests to talk about with this group, but as for the rest of the class, no.

That made me seriously wonder why I was with them. As usual. Or just anywhere where there wasn't somebody going "HUH?!" loudly at practically everything, or someone else suddenly branching to Chinese (from a perfectly good English conversation) and leaving me clueless.

Well. Always tomorrow. And French class. Darn, I should so change that class to some other day...

Jessica wrote home at 10:25 pm

Okay, maybe if time permits, I'll go out after school tomorrow. IF time permits. I have something to buy, which is probably sold out by now. But what the heck. No harm trying.

*yawn* Slept in the late afternoon whilst listening to Hilary Duff's CD. That was a bad idea really (listening to the CD) because all it did was bring back the atmosphere of post-Prelim and 'O' Level days. Eek.

I still haven't decided what other clothes I am going to wear for the rest of the week. Great. So this is like my new weekend "homework", eh, deciding what to wear? :P

Meeting my class at 8.30 a.m. tomorrow. 15 min earlier. I think it'd be pretty interesting if we end up losing our way and getting to class late. But we have 30 whole minutes to find the stupid place so it should be all right. Besides, our first tutorial is in the first classroom of Block T22, level 4.

Oh. I just realised I revealed where I'm going to be at 9 a.m. tomorrow. So you can pop in and meet me if you want. Hahaha. But first, assuming I don't already know you, how on earth are you going to know how I look like???

Lalala. My bag is still half-packed. Can't think of what to put in. I've got my file (don't know why I didn't just buy a plastic slip file) with my unreasonable timetable in it. Then there's my lovely, 3-year-old pencil case (cleared out a few stuff that day), with its equally lovely but slightly older lizard keychain and an even older Manchester United one. (Oh, I know for a fact that at least one guy in my class is against Man U. But do I care? :P )

Then there's my umbrella and a plastic bag to put it in after using it. And a packet of tissue paper (in case I cry in class...yeah, very funny), a tiny notepad, and my SP pass. I haven't decided where to put my new Tertiary card yet. I think I'll get it activated on the way home tomorrow, but in the meantime I can't put it with my SP pass or in my wallet with my current card, due to all that magnetic field nonsense that might end up spoiling two of the cards.

And...I'm debating whether to bring my book or my GBA SP. I'm serious!!! I have nothing to do between 2 and 3 p.m. because my lunch break is from 11 to 12. I'd much rather bring the GBA but that's a surefire way to make everyone think I'm totally nuts (which I am, but I shall try to delay anyone noticing). The book? I'll probably just fall asleep while reading it. Argh.

Oh, guesssssssyyyyyyyy what? I got my French books and Antiquity wrapped (or else I wouldn't consider bringing it at all). Not by me, by my mother! :) I decided I better leave my lousy wrapping skills for less important stuff...

And last but not least, my sister came back this morning. I knew 'cos I slept at 5 a.m., awoke at 9-something and got irritated as she was speaking so loudly outside and I couldn't get back to sleep. I eventually did, though, and at noon I finally got up and went to get my pressies from her. Haha. One purple shirt, one purple belt, a book, and a TON of postcards from Rome and Naples and Florence and Barcelona and Madrid and Seville. :)

...Okay. That's all for now. Glad I finally found something to blog about. Thought this post would never get posted, actually. Haha. Bye.

Jessica wrote home at 9:50 pm

Anyway, that's not the point. Let's talk about today. I had a good time sleeping, yes I did. I slept from 7 p.m. to 12.30 a.m., and from 4.30 a.m. to 11.30 a.m. Finally all my lost sleep made up for!

I was late leaving the house because I was, erm, too engrossed in FE. First time I had the chance to sit down and play! I was originally only supposed to complete one chapter (that marathon one with hordes of enemies rushing at you), but then of course I had to stick around and play the next chapter too. :P

Reached Tampines between 3.45 and 4. Sam was there a while later in her school uniform!!! :) We went to the usual places, like Sembawang (where Sam decided not to get her CD), Popular (to look at A-Level books again), Toys 'R' Us (where she nearly broke my nose with a confectionary lightsabre), and Mega Multimedia (where the guy in the shop asked, "Can I help you?" and I realised my nose was practically pressed against the glass).

The new FE was out, obviously. And it's cheaper, too - $58. They also reduced the first game's price to $58 from $65 (or $69?). Too bad I have no time to play. Not to mention I'm still playing the first game. Haha.

Oh, and as we were walking out of Metro, someone called my name. I turned around and saw a girl. At first I didn't recognise her but didn't feel like saying, "Erm, sorry, who are you??"...then I realised it was Wei Wei! :) Haha, what are the chances that I haven't seen her for 5 years, and now I see her when I've just recently gotten in touch with her again?

...Yeah, and then, after finally running out of places to visit, we were faced with yet another Dinner Dilemma. After a loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong time, Sam agreed to KFC, which sparked off another loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong wait as we both tried to put off being the ones to buy. :P

After dinner we went back to Sembawang to buy CDs, then I left for my loooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong journey home. I was pretty sad that the New Paper was sold out at the news stand, though. Sigh.

Jessica wrote home at 9:56 pm

Wednesday was fine though. The outside of the convention centre was so crazily crowded, I was practically forced to stand way back in the rain. And I didn't see the rest of my class till I was actually inside the place.

The auditorium in the centre was HUGE, of course, with seats like those in movie theatres. There was this seating plan on the large screen in front, and it was amusing to note how little space the whole DMC course took up, compared to the other diplomas.

Before the talks started our class was asked to stand up and shout our cheer, 'cos the emcee remembered us from the day before. Hey, we're pretty darn good, considering we're such a small class as compared to the rest of SB. :P

For the next two hours we had talks concerning SP's facilities (man, you should see the gym...wherever it is), the BizIT Library, CCAs etc. Then after that I had something important to do so I left.

At about 3-something I returned to SP, desperately needing to pay my foreign language course fees before the closing date. I went in by the Chemical & Life Sciences block, which was 1) nearer and 2) where I was less likely to meet my classmates.

The Admin Building was actually pretty high-tech-looking...quite out of place amongst all the old buildings...anyway, I walked right up to the counter and paid. Just as I was turning around and stuffing my receipt into my envelope, I heard...

"Isn't that Jessica?"

My classmates (those who were taking language classes) walked in.

Oh great!!! All my effort. :P

I waited for the others to pay, then we walked back to the SB block (where the Language & Communication department is located) and entered the FLLC to present our receipts and collect our textbooks/workbooks/whatever other books. Apparently the French texts are like the most expensive - $70 for one textbook, one workbook and one accompanying book! We lingered a while to compare our stuff, then walked out again. I went to the notice board to sign up for my class. I wanted Thursday as the class started only half an hour after my day's classes end, but it was fully occupied so there was only Monday and Wednesday left. My classmate managed to be the last person in Tuesday's class.

Problem is...Monday I'm still having lessons when the class starts, and Wednesday...

...was (previously) the day when I go home earliest. So now, instead of 3 p.m., I have to wait 2.5 hours before class starts, and finally only leave SP at 7.30 p.m.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm going to be sooooooooo dead when I get home on Wednesdays...not to mention Thursday and Friday are end-at-5 p.m. days too. Argh.

But that was the only bad point of the day, other than the fact that my classmate and I aren't in the same French class. ANYWAY, so after that we walked the looooooong way back to the MRT and took the train back as usual.

Outside of school though, it was a very bad day for me so I wasn't in a really good mood when the Champions League final started. Not to mention that after four days of limited sleep, I was dozing off already. I whiled away the time leading up to the game by reading my textbook. It is sooooooooo interesting, all short dialogues, brightly-coloured pictures, fun activities and all. Sort of like English textbooks of yore (i.e. primary school, although the secondary textbooks weren't all that bad)...how come Chinese textbooks were never like this???

ANYWAY, the match started and by halftime the score was 3-0 so I was all like, "I think I shall now proceed to my room to cry." So I went to brush my teeth and everything, and by the time I was done the second half had started, so I thought, "Aww...but it's like so mean to abandon Liverpool just 'cos they're losing. Never mind. I'll stick around for another ten minutes. If they don't scored in ten minutes then I'm really sleeping."

So I sat on the armrest impatiently (and uncomfortably - you know how hard the thing is?!). In true Luck of Jessica Yeo style, Liverpool scored nine minutes later. And from then on there was no turning back, not for them and not for me. Even after thirty minutes extra time (that was like more than an hour later!), I was still perched precariously on the armrest. The penalty shoot-out started and for the first time ever, I actually saw more than one penalty saved. Not one, in fact, but three.

Also the first time the team I wanted to win in a penalty shoot-out, actually won.

Can you imagine if I'd REALLY gone to sleep at half-time???

But of course, then I only had like 40-50 min of sleep....................

Now...as for today...hmm...don't really want to talk about it. Just that doing flag day when you've had an extremely upsetting week just makes you even more upset. Not to mention that everywhere we went, there were already like five hundred SP students around the area too, so we didn't get much in the way of collections. Then we tried door-to-door, which was quite a big failure because some of the groups had done that in the morning already. Plus out of the too-many-to-count doorbells I rang, only one person opened the door and donated. I don't really have a problem with that though, since I doubt I would open the door in my case. :P BUT...I actually came across an open door (with a closed gate), whereby I rang the doorbell, this guy peeked out from somewhere in the living room, then quickly ducked away and never reappeared, although his children saw me and were screaming for him.

!!! Like what, not even the decency to tell me, "No, thank you." ?! I mean, what am I supposed to do then, stand there till I know for sure someone is or is not coming out???

And even worse, my classmate (who was with me), came across this grouchy old woman walking towards her door. She asked politely and the woman didn't look at her or reply, just hurried to her gate, opened it, then turned around to stare briefly at us before making a big show of stomping loudly into her house, SLAMMING the gate and SLAMMING the door!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

What the hell!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Jessica wrote home at 1:29 am

Wanted to blog yesterday but didn't have the time and was too tired. :( Actually I haven't been having a lot of free time the past few days. Haven't touched FE and my book in soooooo long.

ANYWAY, Tuesday was the first day of our official orientation. I made the long journey up that big hill to the business block very grumpily, because of a few reasons, mainly my lack of sleep and the fact that I really couldn't face another day with everyone speaking in Chinese.

Okay, so at the foyer there were posters indicating where to go for each course, and DMC was like the third floor so I climbed wearily up. Reached there and, as expected, there were balloons all over the place. Didn't take long to figure out we had to be with our classes, but I didn't see 04 anywhere. Everyone was mostly standing alone, with a few exceptions. There weren't really many people about. Anyway, I wasted my time by checking out the signboard and finding out where the Foreign Language Learning Centre (FLLC) was. Then someone called us to go find our classes, so I decided to venture past a pillar...and voila. There were the balloons with DMC 04 scribbled on.

As I told the facilitators my name and got a peek at the class list, it dawned on me how very small my class was. Definitely less than the 20 I had expected. In fact as we later gathered in a circle, the number seemed to be just slightly over ten. And we all weren't really in a talkative mood. Haha.

After far too much time on level 3, we dispersed with our classes and headed for an empty classroom. There we had to play - argh!!!! - icebreaking games. The first game was the "Good Morning" one where you go round in a circle saying good morning to everyone, and therefore remembering all their names. Then we had to spend 5 minutes at a time talking to various classmates. That was actually quite fun.

About a gazillion games later, we finally had a break and got to chat with everyone. That's when I found out that one-third (out of the 15 present on that day) of my classmates were taking foreign languages too - two Japanese, two French, one Korean.

Things were looking up.

Next was lunch. Instead of the nearby Foodcourt 6, we walked to FC 5 instead, where Pizza Hut and McDonald's are. The place was freaking crowded. I was in the KFC queue for almost 20 minutes!

*makes mental note to bring packed lunch in future*

Anyway, after my very rushed lunch (Shrooms meal was good though...it always is...), our whole class started a round of five inter-class games. I won't go into details here (although they were either very fun or very stupid - like running back and forth across a field with a box!), just to say that in the end I had quite a lot of fun. Then at 5 p.m., when everyone could finally leave, I realised that three of my classmates also take the same train home, so I had company at least.

So anyway, we arrived at the fountain. Remember my group's first station was the only one where we got wet? Well, so by then our clothes had mostly dried. And yippee, we were going to get wet again.

Actually it wasn't so bad, since we could get rid of all the sand on our clothes and everything, not to mention this wasn't sea water. But let's not talk about that. Our task was to - in one line (alternating boy-girl as usual), grabbing hold of the person's shirt in front of us - follow the circular layout of the fountains whilst covering all the water holes at the same time.

Our group was actually leading, but when the game ended the station masters announced that we had lost. We were all like staring at each other in bewilderment. Our forfeit was to roll in one line over the fountains. Trust me, that was waaaaaaaaaay better than the sand one. In fact, it was pretty fun. I think the other group was even jealous! :P

The final inter-group game led us to some secluded stretch of beach, secluded because it had started to drizzle. To my dismay, we had to walk in the sand AGAIN. First we had to win a tic-tac-toe game by shooting at the "game-board" (really just sheets of paper towels) with rubber bands and small pieces of paper. Since I am *ahem* terrible at that, I was of no use to my group there.

Our group finished slightly after the other team, whereby we were finally allowed to proceed to a large cordoned-off sandpit to dig for puzzle pieces. After digging and digging and digging (whilst the station masters stood at the side and hurled buckets of seawater at us - they seemed to have something against me...) for ages, neither team managed to find the full range of puzzle pieces, although the other team only had three missing. So the station masters decided to go into a "tie-breaker", in which we had to play an inter-group scissors, paper, stone-like game again.

Our team won that, thank goodness, and as a reward were allowed to fill up water bombs and throw them at the other group's members, who were kneeling in a line in front of us. Haha.

Well, so that was done with. All games finally completed...

...or so I thought...

As we reached the meeting place once again (this time Palawan Beach), we were told that there was one last game left, the Finale. There was a looooooooong wait whereby the sun set, the rain got heavier, and we all shivered. However the organisers were unfazed and continued with the activity. :( This one was very confusing and involved all the groups. It didn't help that it was already dark (the lights on the nearby island were on, though) and still raining, so I absolutely couldn't see a thing through my streaky spectacles. Therefore it was really hard to keep track of my group members.

Anyway, the first task was for the group to run, one by one, to get one article of a pirate costume each. After that, we had to dress one of the members in that costume, and that member had to run across the bridge to the island and up one of the two towers to get coloured flags assigned to our group (ours was PURPLE!!!). While that member was still somewhere about in the towers, the rest of the group had to fill water bombs and transport twenty to another pail some distance away. After accomplishing that (and the member returning), we had to all roll in the sand AGAIN (!!!). Next some of the members had to go across to the towers (also AGAIN) to retrieve our group flag, then when they returned we all dashed towards the finish line.

Our team came in second.

Once all the chaos had subsided, we all gathered together to take photos (in the rain!!!) and get our belongings back. Also to trade handphone numbers. Then most of us proceeded to the bathrooms to bathe/wash up/change/whatever. After that I walked to the bus stop where I missed two buses before the whole big group of remaining students decided to get up the third bus, which was headed for the bus terminal on Sentosa. The connecting bus to HarbourFront came promptly and I got off, starving, to wait for my bus to bring me home.

After that was a nice looooooong bath (followed by rinsing out all my clothes and emptying my pockets of sand), and finally...bed.

Jessica wrote home at 11:23 pm

My Saturday @ Sentosa, Part II

(Part I is below, in case you haven't figured it out!)

So...where was I? At the Underwater World, right? The first thing we did was to separate into two rows, girls and guys again. I ended up facing my group leader. Then we got little cardboard cards with different body parts written on them. I got Mouth, my group leader got Right Cheek.

!!! That sounded bad already. Anyway, the station masters got us to swap with the person facing us, so I got the Right Cheek one. After that we found out our task was to (in pairs) transport a random fruit up a small slope, using those body parts on our cards.

Upon hearing that, my group leader said since he was quite a bit shorter than me, it would be too tough. So we traded partners with another pair. Ended up with a guy slightly taller than me. His card read Forehead, which actually didn't make it any easier for us to transport the stupid rambutan up the stupid slope. I think we spent more time dropping the damn thing then walking. But that also allowed us to cheat a bit, like everytime the rambutan dropped, we'd pick it up, move a liiiiittle further up the slope, and continue. Haha.

Anyway our whole group did it in record time. But...again, that was not all. Next the station masters gave us a lemon and told us to share it amongst the group and eat it in front of them.

!!!

We got one of our group member to peel it. He had just finished peeling it and was about to set down the last piece of lemon peel...................

.....................when he somehow dropped it! We watched in horror/amusement as the lemon went bouncing happily down the hill, into the grass patch.

In the end we washed it with water, divided up the dratted thing, and ate it. (shudders)

Then we were off again! *trying to sound enthusiastic*

Our next stop was the Cable Car Centre. We got there, and promptly began our task - to play one of those flip-the-card-over memory games, sitting around in circle alternating boy-girl (as usual).

It wouldn't have been so hard, if by then we hadn't forgotten each other's names...but we did, so we took a sadly long time, until the station masters decided they wouldn't prolong our misery by swapping cards around and making it harder. And then because our group leaders made some odd blunders along the way, we had to do another forfeit.

...Which turned out to be passing this small little slip of plastic (like a square cut out of a plastic bag), mouth-to-mouth, around the circle.

And remember, we were alternating boy-girl at that time.

!!!

Actually it wasn't that hard for our group. The others managed to pass it around super-fast...until it got to me....haha. Which wasn't entirely my fault, because everytime I passed to the guy next to me, the plastic would either drop straight away, or he'd turn around and it would drop. Thankfully after the umpteenth time, I managed to end my turn before I went crazy. Then after that, of course, he had problems passing it on to the next girl, so the station master said it wasn't the girl's fault if his kissing skills were that bad! Haha. :P

Done with that, we waited impatiently for our next clue.

After a little while, the station master came up to us, laughed, and announced that we had went to the wrong station again, but acknowledged it was really their fault because the station we were at was actually the Sky Tower station, and the Sky Tower and Cable Cars are right beside each other.

So we left and went to the REAL cable car station. It was hidden right behind, at a secluded staircase. The floor there was tiled and there were shapes marked out in masking tape on it. Apparently our task was to all cram into the shapes with the requisite number of feet/hands. And we couldn't have our feet touching the floor outside the borders, so we were all either hobbling on one leg or sprawled over the nearby bannister. Anyway, we did it really well so (thankfully) no forfeit there.

Our last station brought us behind the Musical Fountain. We were given two sheets of cardboard and made to travel as a group via the two sheets, to a signpost a distance away. That wasn't very hard, a tight squeeze maybe, but we made it to the signpost (although it took a loooooooong time) without all falling down or something. Anyway, at the signpost we had to memorise all the names of the places printed there. There were nine places so three people memorised three names each. The three returned (by themselves) to the starting point and answered questions about the signpost. Got stumped at question three or thereabouts, when they had to name one of the attractions in Chinese. The Chinese names were on the signpost too, but obviously nobody bothered to remember them.

So for all our hard work, we had to do another forfeit. Thank goodness though, it was only to shout two group cheers!

Feeling really tired by then, we returned to our meeting place, which was...Siloso Beach. Again. Reached there and found out (to our horror) that next we had to play three inter-group games, all at Palawan and Siloso beaches, but spaced very far apart. As luck would have it, our first task was once again at the furthest place, at the end of Palawan Beach. Took ages to walk slowly there, where we had to play this game where blindfolded people had to be guided by some other teammate and throw water bombs at the opposing team. Our group kindly decided to blindfold all those who wore spectacles.

I actually wouldn't have known who my guide was, if there hadn't been a little crack at the bottom of the blindfold to see. Haha. Still, that didn't stop me from turning in the wrong direction and throwing at air...but never mind.

So anyway, our group lost again. Our forfeit was to do a cheer. Again. But at least that was completely harmless.

After that, we headed back to our meeting place, which was the small water fountains at Siloso Beach. You know, like the water fountains at Bugis Junction, where you can go splashing in them.

...And I think I will continue this later today (if I get the chance). Because I'm currently sick of typing. :P ...

Jessica wrote home at 12:48 am

xxxxSunday, May 22, 2005xxxx

My Saturday @ Sentosa, Part I

Okay, I'm still beyond tired from yesterday's Vikings Showdown so this update is going to be completely routine only. Can't be bothered to go into ALL the details (because there were so damn many).

Firstly, I woke up after a nightmare in which I was 1.5 hours late. In reality though, I was almost late - luckily so was the bus. I fairly ran out of my house after stealing my sister's sports sandals (having none of my own, since I've always hated sports sandals...but hey, that's what rich-siblings-who-are-the-same-size-as-you are for!!!) I had to dash down the whole long steep flight of stairs to the bus stop just to catch it.

Turns out I couldn't make the vital trip to the MRT station with only my negative-value EZ-Link card. Had to go drop some coins in. I was like, *fumble in my wallet* Ah, seventy cents, that should be more than enough... *drop into coin box*

And after waiting a few seconds like an idiot, the bus drive kindly told me the fare's at least eighty cents.

But whatever. I got to the station, topped up my card, and still manage to board the first train. I arrived at SP at 8.54 a.m. or something. Wasn't too bothered about not being at the meeting place (in the heart of SP so it meant a long walk) at 9 a.m. 'cos the people said there'd be someone to show me the way.

I so didn't see anyone! Ended up just walking straight where the sign pointed to Foodcourt 5. On and on and on and on looking very uncertain, until the occasional person who appeared in front of me must've thought I was stalking them. But then I got to a flight of stairs, climbed up, and immediately saw the large black "Vikings Showdown" banner.

So I went to register myself, then was ushered to join a growing circle of people...to play those stupid orientation games. AGAIN. What was more pointless was that they weren't even the people who were in my group so there was really no sense remembering all their names only to be confronted with a whole range of new names afterwards.

ANYWAY, when the games were finally done with, we got separated into our groups. I don't know what the usual number of people in each group was, but mine had eight - 4 guys, 4 girls. Our group leader turned out to be my senior; the other group leader turned out to be the only one in the whole group who wasn't a business student. And our group name was "Corsair", which everyone pronounced "Co-Sigh-Er", for some reason. I always thought it was "Corr-sare" or "Co-sare"!!! "Co-Sigh-Er", by the way, sounds ickily trigonometrical...

Oh, and all the girls spoke Chinese. Those were like the happiest moments of my life really, when they all started chattering on and on and asking me questions in that language. If you didn't get the sarcasm, then I shall just make it clear that it nearly drove me crazy for the next eleven hours.

The good thing was that we didn't really play any more introductory games this time. The bad thing was that no one really tried to socialise, so when our first task (design and paint a group flag) commenced, it took a long time for us to actually get started. Initially there was a requirement for three group members to stand tied-up to each other (so that they could travel over to the main table to get more coloured paint - we only started with white), but after the tied-ups from our group decided they wanted to paint more, I volunteered to take their place.

Ohhhhhhhh, bad mistake that was. First we went off to get a new colour. After making the long journey to the table, I said we wanted yellow paint. Apparently when you do that, people will just come up to you and paint/write something on you. I had two yellow "CSSC"s (the guy forgot that the initials of his club was CSCC) painted on my legs, plus the initials of that guy painted on my left elbow. Then we went back to give our team members the paint, and in return had to go get green and blue paint. This time we had blue crosses painted on our arms, some marker scribblings here and there. Oh, and the guy beside me got his toenails painted red. For some reason the other member of our trio (a girl) was unscathed where paint was concerned.

That done with, we went back, got ourselves loose, and watched the rest of the team paint our flag. Then our time ended and we had to gather and show off our masterpieces.

And now, let's digress a bit. There were four other teams, named Zorro, Swashbuckler, El Draque and Bahamas. Other than the first one, don't the other three just seem to suggest "Caribbean"? ...................... And if so, then I have absolutely no idea where the "Vikings" in "Vikings Showdown" came from!

ANYWAY, the next big event after that was lunch, at 11-something, so I wasn't hungry. Then we put our bags and valuables away and boarded our bus.

Reached Sentosa, was briefed about what we were supposed to do and which places our groups were supposed to go first, before getting clues to the next destination. Our group got one of the furthest places - Siloso Beach. By the time we managed to get up a bus headed there, sooooooooooo much time had passed already and we knew we were the last team still travelling about.

So we finally got off at the crazily crowded beach and started our trek through the sand. No time to admire the scenery, just hurry about since we were so late and keep our eyes peeled for people in black T-Shirts.

Didn't see any. We walked the whole stretch of Siloso Beach (and you know how far that is?!), and we didn't spot anybody. Finally the group leader gave up and called the supposed people in charge at Siloso. Came back that they were at Underwater World, which wasn't too far off from where we were at that moment - just that they chose to be right at the far end of Underwater World.

Anyway we raced there, cursing here and cursing there, and finally found the spot.

And guess what? Turns out they weren't the people at Siloso. There was a separate station at the Underwater World. ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ran back (cursing even more), before FINALLY finding our station. They gave us this pail with holes drilled into it, so we had to cover the holes with our shoes as they poured sea water in. I don't know which one was harder, trying to cover the holes or trying to keep both my feet over the holes without getting tired out (because the pail was suspended).

In the end we didn't succeed, and the station masters had to just give us a pail without holes instead.

We ended up cracking it!!!

...And to think, we were the first group to try that out...

Ah, but that wasn't all. Next they made us all go into the water and separate into a boy group and girl group, facing each other, to play five rounds of a game similar to scissors, paper, stone. The girls lost so we had to do a forfeit: go get ourselves completely wet (previously we were only at most waist-deep in water), and then roll in unison in the sand.

So by the time we re-appeared at Underwater World (our second destination), the station masters there were wondering why on earth the guys all looked so dry. :P

And now...I have typed for far too long, so I shall post this and continue in the next post...

Jessica wrote home at 11:14 pm

xxxxWednesday, May 18, 2005xxxx

I hate people who can't get their priorities right.

Apparently I'm one of those people.

That's not to say what I have to do is so urgently important I cannot afford to procrastinate a bit and do something else (I mean, school hasn't started, what important thing is there to do?!) in the meantime. I just enjoy doing things on a whim and, at this point of time, my whim says to blog.

So I blog.

It's been raining the past two days. Not like I care, since I have a self-imposed ban on going out and spending money. I, erm, over-spent last Sunday. :P (Although I somehow think that if the weather's fine tomorrow, the ban's off...)

Oh yes, FE is going along great. Except I screwed up at the last moment on Tuesday and had to restart, which sort of earned me a real ban on it. :( Never mind, though, I have my ways. Mwahahaha.

That Antiquity book. Yeah. That's fine too. Maybe the second chapter (The Greeks - don't look at me like that, YQ!) bored the hell out of me and I fell asleep, but it was short. At least. Shall do some reading after this again...

...Because I didn't get the chance to do so last night. Why? Well, I was doing something I completely loathe and am terrible, terrible, TERRIBLE at....................................................

...........................................

...........................................wrapping books. (!!!)

Yup. I fail in all things wrapping. That's in case you ever wondered why I never used to wrap my textbooks up. But this time I shall try to change! I shall try to wrap my textbooks up as nicely and neatly and prettily as humanly possible...in other words, like how everyone EXCEPT me is currently able to do. :P

ANYWAY, the books I wrapped obviously weren't textbooks, since I don't have any yet. I've been planning to wrap up Angels & Demons since after the O's, and last night I finally got the chance to. I was supposed to wrap three more (including Antiquity), but my pathetic-ness only allowed for one more before I could go crazy and break down crying.

I think I shall give the wrapping business a rest tonight though.

Oh yeah, guessssssssss what? I just logged on to the Transitlink website, and my card has been sent to SP! That means I can go collect it next week!

Now...WHERE THE HELL AM I SUPPOSED TO GO AND COLLECT IT?!?!

*checks SP map* ARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Did they really have to make such an important building as the Department of Student & Alumni Affairs so out-of-the-way???? And as a side note, ditto for the Administration Building too. I'm going to have so much fun getting lost in SP next week.

*calms down momentarily* But never mind, never mind. After next week I can stay safely in my own block, with its own food court and its own library. For three years. :)

*gets sudden brainwave* Heyyyyyyyyyy...you know those two-hour long breaks? Like for the first week at least, maybe I could bring along my GBA and play FE!!! Haha.

Erm. Well. Never mind. Maybe I'll just go home and rot.

P.S. My last post? I think that was my longest so far...

Jessica wrote home at 10:43 pm

xxxxSaturday, May 14, 2005xxxx

Oh look! Jessica is back today to tell you all about what happened...*checks clock*...yesterday!

How exciting! (end sarcasm)

Well, let's see...I went to bed at 3 a.m. after completing 5 chapters of FE, including the secret chapter I was cheated of the last time. That's not to say I fell asleep at 3 a.m., so when the alarm rang later I couldn't get up. In fact I overslept by half an hour, although I still had ample time to get ready.

Reached Tampines very late (for some reason the bus was late and the train was slow). Had lunch at the Multi Food Mall with YQ, then we wanted to walk around but Sam arrived from school early, so we ended up making a mad dash to the Interchange to meet her.

Missed the first 293 because Sam was busy buying her Chinese newspaper. (Ack!) The second one didn't take long to come, but that's because we were preoccupied with talking.

Travelled by the familiar route to school. *Ahem* I mean, ex-school. Seems like only yesterday when the bus was rounding the bend in the morning and I was hurriedly trying to get that stupid tie on.

We stopped at the primary school bus stop since the side gate was closed (it being a marking day). Everywhere was very quiet, which was a good thing, and we got our certificates from the office very quickly, meeting Mrs Yeoh on the way in. On the way out we saw Mrs Pang and after that spent a looooong time in the HOD room.

Oh yeah, and none of you (this meaning YQ and Sam) know this, since you happily abandoned me, but on the way to the HOD room Mrs Pang asked me what I was doing and upon hearing my course, said it seemed to be popular and "many students do that".

Interesting, really. Since I don't know anyone else. But it would help if I knew these mysterious students.

ANYWAY, then we left school. As we headed for the front gate, we saw Mr Philip walking to his car. We went to the good old bubble tea stall and sat down and talked, because by then Sam had gotten permission to have dinner with us so we had time to waste.

After that we walked to the bus stop. At that point of time I was carrying my file (with certificate inside) and YQ's Bio book (which Sam had borrowed). It felt just like the not-too-long-ago days when we would in that direction to the bus stop after getting bubble tea, and grumbling all the way about A Math homework and whatnot. And it was equally hot too!

Sadly, we missed the first bus again. But when we got back to the Interchange, we all weren't hungry. Ended up walking around TM and CS. After our last stop - Mega Multimedia, where FE:TSS still wasn't in stock - we spent some time debating where to eat.

I mean, it's a tough debate when you are against foodcourts, restaurants and fast food.

Finally settled on Swensen's. Which I know is a restaurant, but never mind. I had breaded chicken, they had fish and chips. During the end of our meal, the conversation somehow turned to Sam's impending blood donation. So we ended up talking about injections and loss of blood and other lame stuff about blood and plasters. And then I mentioned the time I wanted to do Haematology in poly (biomedical science), and Sam said she suddenly wished she could do it too, because she likes it so much. But then she'd want to go to SP, but she'd probably end up in TP, and TP doesn't have Haematology.

...Which, I just realised, means she didn't properly read those notes I printed for her! TP's biomedical science does have Haematology, and Blood Banking too. But never mind. *turns to Sam, wherever she is* "You can always - if you're bothered to! - do that course after your A's!" If I'm not wrong, the course will only take 2 years. But then again, might as well do it in university. Oh well.

ANYWAY, back to the point. After dinner it was slightly past 8 p.m. so we all had to go home. They to do tutorials; me because I had a long journey ahead.

In fact I got home at 9.20 p.m., after a stop at Raffles City to collect some thing. And walk around. Haha. AND, get this...

There weren't any lizards around!!! :P :P: P

Hahaha. So happy. Didn't really feel like coming online since I was so tired already (as usual, nearly fell asleep on the train), but did anyway. Just for the fun of it (actually I do this almost everyday), I logged on to SP's My SAS website thingy, keyed in my ID and password...

...and realised my timetable was finally posted!!!

WOW!!! So fun!!! ...But not for long. My timetable looks like it's only half full, but that's because one period is counted as one hour, and I only start school at the earliest time on one day - that's 8 a.m., Friday. FRIDAY, of all things! Not to mention I go home at the latest possible time on three days - that's 5 p.m., Monday, Thursday and Friday. Friday. AGAIN.

I think I'm going to seriously hate Fridays. Not to mention that I have ridiculously long breaks between some lectures/tutorials - 2 hours on three days - including Friday. AGAIN!!!

Oh, and in case you're wondering what modules I'm taking this semester, there are 7:

1. Creative Communication (writing!!!)

2. Introduction to Communication Principles

3. Information Technology for Business

4. Oral Communicaton (I'm so dead)

5. Fundamentals of Marketing

6. Desktop Publishing (the only module labelled as a "Practical")

7. Character Development

Fundamentals of Marketing sounds by far the most boring. Not to mention I have it the most times a week (3), and one of them is a THREE-hour tutorial. I also have Introduction to Communication Principles three times a week, but that's only 4 hours in total. FOM is 6!

Oh yeah. Something else I noticed. For lectures in Mass Lecture Theatres, there are the numbers 01, 02, 03, 04 and 05 above it. Others only have an 04. Which I deduce to mean that there are five classes in my course, and I'm in 04. Since DMC only has 100 people, that makes 20 people per class.

That's...all right. 25 would be better, but it's all right. I guess.

Jessica wrote home at 12:18 am

xxxxWednesday, May 11, 2005xxxx

Hello!

First off, my chatterbox is acting up again. Stupid thing.

Secondly, I haven't been blogging because there's pretty much nothing to say. Except that it is getting highly ridiculous that it rains everytime I want to go out. And on Monday, the only day when I had to stay at home...it was as bright and sunny as anything.

Grr. Then yesterday I wanted to go check out Borders, but it was raining so I had to give it a miss or go splashing around in the rain again. And this morning I woke up all sleepy, thinking, well there's still Thursday to go out, you can afford to sleep in today.

And then...Yeah right, like you can afford it! Chances are you'll wake up tomorrow and it'll be pouring outside again!

So I dragged myself to Orchard. Spent an aggravatingly long time choosing a book. Settled for that Antiquity one I wanted to get like how many months ago. So that's done with. No more books!

...before Harry Potter #6 comes out, anyway. I think I might get that.

ANYWAY...guess what. I succumbed to the lure of Fire Emblem AGAIN! Like I have so many things to finish and now I'm plodding through Hector Mode again. But I have a really good strategy this time round so it's worth it. As long as stupid Lyn gains some Strength, anyway. Grr. Other than that I'm only using 13 characters (4 of which I haven't recruited yet) so they're all at pretty high levels now.

Okay. I'm going to shut up now.

Jessica wrote home at 11:33 pm

xxxxSunday, May 08, 2005xxxx

Woke up today, heard a mini explosion.

Looked up and realised I couldn't see anything out the window, although it was quite bright. Then I heard the wind. And the rain.

Then I squealed and jumped out and ran to close the windows before the rain could disintegrate my papers.

Then I went back to sleep. I should have just slept the whole day through, as planned, but somehow I ended up at Raffles City for lunch. Cafe Cartel. Half a Spicy Thai Pasta, half a mushroom pizza. Then lost my mind and decided to try a coffee float. As in, hot coffee with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top. I was still finishing my pizza when my coffee arrived. By the time I got to drink it, more than half of the ice cream had disintegrated.

Me: "Eh...it melted! So fast!"

My father: "What did you expect?!"

Gee. Good point.

After that went walking around aimlessly, then took 131 home as usual. Contemplated sleeping but it was a little too late.

ANYWAY, what a completely pointless post!!! I should just go drown myself now.

*leaves*

Jessica wrote home at 10:24 pm

xxxxFriday, May 06, 2005xxxx

I'm blogging today because I didn't get to blog yesterday.

Now, yesterday started off very sad. Because I went to sleep at 5 a.m. after my match, and at 6.45 a.m. my sister woke me up 'cos she wanted me to lock the door behind her (since she's not bringing her keys along).

And then at around noon I woke up very abruptly because I had two things to do on behalf of my sister, the two things being to pass some card to her friend, and to wait for the second delivery of her stuff (yes, the same stuff I had to arrange the second delivery for). In the meantime, I keyed my IC number into the Transitlink database and - surprise!!! - they had my record. Just when I had to be so busy too...

The stuff was supposed to arrive between 1 p.m. - 5 p.m. The guy came around 2.20 p.m. right after I had finished my pathetic lunch of cornflakes. Yes, cornflakes for lunch. Then around 2.40 p.m. my sister's friend called up and said she would be arriving in twenty minutes' time so could I please go downstairs and pass the card to her when she called me again?

By this time I was completely absorbed in some battle in Fire Emblem, having nothing else better to do. Oh, and it had also started raining, which made me even sadder because I was supposed to go out and apply. So after that I had to go down and pass the card, then run back up again, slightly wet.

Back home I had half a mind to just go and sleep. BUT I went out in the end. And smart little Jessica ended up traipsing around Orchard road in a torrential downpour. Yippee. I popped into Borders but didn't really see anything I wanted to buy. Like I said I'm kind of sick of reading, and I do have those two books to finish. Then I, as expected, went over to Zara. Made plans to meet my mother in City Hall, and at the same time apply for my Tertiary Student EZ-Link Card.

Anyway, the whole application thing took like ten seconds. Just hand my IC, answer which Poly I was from (for some reason I forgot), pay the $5...then get back my change, IC and receipt with a reminder to collect it from school. I was so tempted to ask, "That's ALL???" I mean, considering how long it took for them to receive my record and everything.

Then I met my mother and we took the bus home. When we got back I followed her to the check the letter box. She asked me if I wanted to walk to some shop to buy the day's newspaper. I was like, "Uh...erm...er..."

She opened the letter box and there was only one letter inside. I stuck my nose in and saw that it was addressed to......................ME! Finally, my letter from the Department of Language & Communication! Phew!

At this point I was smiling idiotically at the envelope and my mother asked me again if I wanted to walk to the shop and get the newspaper. "Yes!" I exclaimed, all enthusiastic.

Haha. I practically skipped all the way to the shop and skipped all the way home, where I finally opened my letter and got my confirmation. Suddenly the day got brighter and happier. Even though it was evening and still raining so it was actually getting darker, but never mind.

And of course after dinner I was like dropping dead from the lack of sleep, so I ended up falling asleep until 10-something. Got up and watched 3 straight hours of television since I couldn't go online. I surprised myself. That's the most TV I've watched in half a year.

So anyway...since I got my long-awaited letter yesterday, I sure wasn't expecting another today. From SHSS. To collect my stupid 'O' Level certificate. Like I want a certificate of my (crappy) results!!! :P :P :P

Hmmph. And I thought I was done with making the loooooong journey there. Eek.

Jessica wrote home at 7:58 pm

xxxxTuesday, May 03, 2005xxxx

Well, I survived.

Okay, okay, it was only one hour. Exactly one hour, in fact. But if they'd just handed us our forms and gave us the proper instructions and useful numbers, I could've left in like ten minutes.

Unfortunately I had to stick around and play introductory games. And I don't even know why we had to play introductory games, because there were two separate groups and, after all, we're not the only people going for the activity.

Anyway, let me just think through what games I played. There was the go-in-a-circle-and-name-everybody game, of which I was like the fifth person so it was easy. Then there was some really weird chicken game, which was easy until the chickens got replaced with frogs and we had to multiply the number of frog's legs - that was so not fun. After that was the-introductory-game-I-hate-most, Concentration. And then our groups merged and we had two mass games, some Evolution thingy (where I was constantly being demoted to an egg) and that Hunter, Fire, Earthquake thingy, which is the game I usually don't mind playing - although I keep losing. :P

So I had to do a forfeit for that game, which I won't go to details about, then we finally got our forms.

And then I was off like a bullet.

My first instinct was to go home and sleep (more about that later), but curiosity got the better of me so I detoured outside the school gates and continued walking till Block T19 was in full view.

And for the first time I realised why people keep making such a big deal of the hill.

It should be a mountain, really.

Flabbergasted, I made my way back to the MRT station. Got home and the first thing I did was to call up Citipost to reschedule the delivery of my sister's stuff.

Like, gee, your little sister has to do that for you, and where are you anyway? Oh, right, suntanning on a beach in Phuket. And why can't you do it when you return tonight? Oh, right, because you're leaving on Thursday on an European tour!!!

*is really miffed*

*intends to hog the salsa tonight* (anyway I bought it so who cares)

Where was I? Yeah, so I finished the whole rescheduling thing, had a nice little bath (and forgot to turn off the heater and the lights, apparently)...waited for my hair to dry, then slept like a pig.

I didn't wake up properly till 7 or something. Apparently that's what happens when you awake at 5 a.m. for no reason and can't get back to sleep. Well, at least I won't fall asleep tonight. :)

Jessica wrote home at 7:59 pm

xxxxMonday, May 02, 2005xxxx

I feel like wasting this little plot of cyberspace today, so don't mind me.

Tomorrow is going to be a long day. Because I'll start it (relatively) early and end it (extremely) late. I am not looking forward to the whole briefing thing. I hope it's short. I think the maximum time they can possibly take is 3 hours, if they're going to play introductory games within our teams (if we're breaking up into teams, which should be the case). I hope they don't, so I can get home ASAP and get to sleep ASAP, whereby I can finally last through the match.

The only thing I'm looking forward to is the match. Because I get to eat tortilla chips and salsa again. :)

In the meantime, I must find some way to wake up on time tomorrow.

Oh yeah, what was I going to say...erm...I finished Hector Mode finally. Actually not really "finally", because the last level was so easy (for the first time in 4 playthroughs it didn't give me heart attacks!) that I restarted it and played it again for fun. And I even copied the file into another slot so I can play the same chapter whenever I want. Haha.

Ahhh...just remembered. My memory is so bad. I had dinner with YQ again yesterday! We went to where else but Pastamania, then had shared an Oreo Brownie Earthquake. I think I shall stay away from all things chocolate for some time. The chocolate sauce was too much for me. Eek. And after that we had a large Coke Slurpee and walked all the way to Raffles City. By which time I was also sick of Coke. It was 9.43 p.m. when I went to catch my bus; the stupid bus came 2 minutes early and I had to wait till 10 p.m. for the next one. So I got home pretty late. Thankfully though, there was only one lizard in sight.

Jessica wrote home at 8:12 pm