Happy 2017: Throwback to 2016,

It's time for...

THE REVIEW OF THE YEAR

I'd say that 2016 has been nothing short of amazing! Having to deal with studies for the first 4 months, stressing over all the assignments that had tight deadlines, before I unofficially graduate from university. Travelled to a total of 4 countries in a short span of 7 months and totally loving my life in 2016.

Yes, my friends were all very amazed that I could travel to so many places in 2016. But what they didn't know was that I burnt a hole in my pocket after travelling! Worth it? Yes, definitely!

RMIT University

I got a module during my last semester whereby I had to work with course mates whom I didn't know at all. I'd say that it was an adventure! Half excited, half worried. But I'm glad that things turned out well with our result being one of the better ones!

Graduated with an average GPA from university. I'm not a studious person since young so it's a rlly great achievement for me to be able to get my Bachelor's Degree after so long! Of course, this was just the beginning! I'm still unemployed up till now (I worked for 3 months last year before I ended my contract with the company). So, hopefully my prayers will be heard soon! :)

Thanks for always giving me support in whatever I do. I rant, I complain but you never fail to always give me your listening ears (while multitasking. HAHAH).

Travels

Penang

It was an impromptu trip whereby I had to convince Mr. Z for Penang. I love how accommodating he is without fail. It was a rlly short getaway which was much needed from our studies. Thankfully, neither of our timetables clashes with this trip!

Johor Bahru - Jan & May

Both were one-day trip to JB with Mr. Z for the cafes there. It was also our first time travelling to JB tgth in Janaury. Photos shown below were taken in May.

BANGKOK

As mentioned in one of my posts last year, it was a graduation trip with my uni friends. We planned this trip for quite some time before purchasing it in January. I'm not sure if it's just me or what but whenever I travel to BKK with friends, there'd bound to be unhappiness with the group of friends. Hmmm... Sorry but I think I should just stick with one travelling partner. Hahah, okay I kid!! Anyways, I got to visit some night markets that I didn't have the chance to previously.

HONG KONG

Yay, finally a family trip after soooo long! Our last family trip was in 1998, when I was 6? That was freaking long ago! I rlly cherish the time there so much but, the trip was too short!

JAPAN

Also the trip that I looked forward to the most! Ah, this trip rlly burnt a hole in our pockets but Mr. Z and I enjoyed ourselves so much that we wna go back again when our bank accounts allow us! Our next destination in Japan would be Hokkaido! Hopefully, this wouldn't be 10 years from now.

Working Life

I started working in September 2016. Though it's a short duration of 3 months contract job, I was able to keep myself busy and pick up new skills and knowledge of the field that I want to pursue. Right now, I am still trying to find a job that allows fresh graduate. However, with the market being so bad right now, I guess I have to think of an alternative positions that I think would help me for my future. 

Long Distance Relationship 

Mr. Z applied for a 1-Year exchange program with his school and he got the offer to Beijing. It was a really tough period even months before he flew. Arguments kept occurring. Us, being stubborn and not wanting to give in, minor arguments turned into heated arguments and there were times whereby we felt like giving up. I, being the overly attached girlfriend, was really hard to please on one hand. I needed both actions and words of assurance from him all the time. While him, on the other hand, is a passive guy and wouldn't say anything when arguments happened. 

It's been 7 months into his Exchange Program (I'm typing this now on 11th March 2017) and I'll be visiting him on 31st March and he'll be back in end of July!! That's rlly how time flies! Things have turned so much better since the start of 2017. I think this is also what they say "distance makes the heart grow fonder" and cherishing every moment when you're miles away from each other.

With that, I hope that we would stay together and overcome all obstacles that we'll encounter in life. And I appreciate friends who never leave me during my darkest period, encouraging me and stuff. These really brought some positive thoughts to me during this time and I hope that I'll be able to see my light soon! 

Goodbye :)

The Day I Say Goodbye to Schools,

Hello,

I have so many backdated entries that I think I could use more than one year to finish updating them! NTS: to post entries about 1) Graduation (which is not) 2) Graduation trips to 3 different countries with different groups of people 3) How we spent our days before Baby flew off 4) Baby's farewell to Beijing

My graduation was on the 25th August 2016. This also marks my last graduation in my life. No more exams, no more studying, and no more schooling as well... Just, the start of job hunting and stress over finance.

The stress on job hunting is so overwhelming that my eczema has acted up. Not sure if it's also the reason that my emotions are unstable recently or what... Anyway,

GRADUATION

Don't mind my messy room. This is the test shot that Baby took because we are still new to our camera.

Woke up at 10am to prepare for my convocation. I've wanted to buy a dress for my graduation but I thought, why waste that money for that few hours? I have a proper bodycon dress to wear on that day, so why not? Hahah! And there, I wore this dress that I bought for CNY this year.

I'm a fresh grad! Please hire me!

No photos of me in the hall because I walked too fast and it didn't focus on me. HAHAH!! The ceremony started at 3PM sharp and ended at around 410PM. It was a fast one. The chancellor gave his speech after their walk-in at 3PM and another lady (I totally forgot her position) as well.

Anyway, I paid full attn to their speeches bcos after the speech, Baby was telling me what he heard and I said "I REMEMBER! SO APT PLS!!" The lady said smth along this line "When you're finding a job, do not focus on the starting pay. Instead, focus on the experience that you will gain because you will be earning more in future after gaining the experience that you need". Yep, that's what I need too because I've been focusing way too much on the starting pay when I was job hunting!

First off, thankful for family & friends who were present that day to witness this significant milestone of mine! Of course, I wouldn't have done it without parent's support for paying the super expensive school fees for me. It's like one semester for 6k++! Just how much do we, the people from average family background, have to work to earn 6k+?! Then 6k+ multiply by 4 semesters... Thankfully, I graduated from Polytechnic, hence I was exempted a year of studies. So, it's like 13k off the shoulder from the very beginning!!

Also, the daily whines and grumbles when I was chiong-ing for my assignments and studying for exams. The no-day-and-night period was rlly hectic. All I wanted was just to sleep them off because I had no motivation to study during exam period. We would normally have 1-2 weeks of study break and I would stay at home for that whole 2 weeks. Yes, staying home means not going out at all for meals. All I had was to wait for my family members to come home with my meals, chiong for dinner within 10mins, bathe and that's it, BACK TO MY ROOM! I was literally living in a cave during exam period. As said by my family, "exam period is here agn... Eileen is gna be a caveman again!" hahahah! #Truestory! I'm glad that all these have came to an end because I no longer have to neglect them for my exams or assignments. My mum used to say that I was always very quiet and would shut them off when I was stressed over schoolwork. Hahahah! :/

Also, on the day of my graduation, my family waited patiently for me to finish taking photos with all of my friends before going to them. Rlly appreciated it because my friends would not be staying in school till late. Whereas we could take photos after them, and stay till whatever time we want. And yes, we stayed till about 7PM before leaving the school compound. The best thing was, we caught Rhyhorn (or was it rhydon) at the old bus-stop!

Ohana means family

Secondly, a big hug for my boyfriend who has always been there for me. No doubt there's arguments between us but he's always placing me before anything. He was supposed to fly on the day of my graduation day but he postponed it to a later date just so that he could witness this milestone of mine even though that meant that he would have lesser time to settle down in Beijing. Just so thankful for having you in my life for almost a decade! More to come, baby! :)

Also, times when you had to lend me your ears and listen to my rants and all. Telling me what I should do though sometimes I didn't heed bcos all I wanted was just a "listening ear". Hahah! Still, very happy.

Thirdly, my uni-mates who never left me despite the down times. These are the people who got stuck w me for two full years. If not for them, I think I would have flunked quite a few modules because assignments were always either Distinction or high Credit!! School aside, they are also my entertainments most of the time as well as my GPS! I remember that it was one morning in Year 2.1 when we had Comm Law lecture at 830am. I reached school at about 823am but because I had problem trying to locate my lecture hall, and I ended up reaching late T_T It was rlly that bad, I had to call Dumb for help because I rlly got lost in that area. And guess what! I walked past the LT a few times. I saw the signboard stating that LT (room number) is in that particular direction but damn, I COULDN'T FIND IT AT ALL! Yalah, I get lost very easily lah. No sense of directions too! Hahahah!

Also, there's a module in the last semester that required us to group with people whom we did not know at all. The group was formed by the head of the course. That sucks, we thought! We were all alrdy so comfortable with our own friends, then all of a sudden, we had to break the group and bond with people who are of different personalities.

My SM group was the only all-girls group in the class. So, you can imagine how bad it was!! The bitchiness when one didn't do her work. Initially, I thought that the group wasn't cooperative. Thankfully, we still managed to to score a Distinction for our assignment 1! Then it was assignment 2 that led us to more disagreements because apparently, there were not one but two free-riders in the group. The lecturer even asked us about it and told us to go for peer evaluation/mark down if that's the case! Whatever it is, I'm glad that the 4 out of 6 of us worked together and stayed in school till 11PM on the day of submission to chiong everything.

Most of the group knew their PowerPoint score but we didn't. That's a sad thing seriously because we couldn't rlly estimate how much we got for our second assignment. But no matter what, still glad that we didn't give up at all despite ranting so much during the assignments! Rebecca (left) was also on the Distinction list. So happy for her!

+ Yvonne who wasn't there

Lastly, my friends who came down specially for this!! Friends for more than a decade, and I rlly treasure these friends so much! I mean, people whom I'm still in contact with as well. Because as I grow older, I realised (and know) that the quantity of friends can never beat the quality! People come and go. We just have to know who are the ones that are more worthy!

***

That was one of the days that I was so truly happy and proud of myself because I did not expect myself to enter a university at all. Even though it's an overseas degree, I thought "hey, at least I made it to university and I FREAKING COMPLETED IT!!". So what's there not to celebrate!

I'm not a studious girl to begin with. I have nvr made my parents proud at all. Topping the class for Chinese was a norm for almost everyone in P1 and P2. Then it was P4 Streaming where we would stream to EM1, EM2 or EM3. My bro, who got streamed into EM1, inspired me to do the same too. However, I wasn't that lucky lah... I got streamed into EM2, first class of EM2 though! Hahah!

My dad promised to buy me a discman (way before MP3) if I got into EM1. But he said "First class of EM2 is good enough too". So yep, I earned my first discman through this way. Then it was PSLE when I scored a mere 199. I couldn't even reach 201. There isn't 200 for your info and I've no idea why!! I rmbred walking in and out of the hall and burst into tears after leaving the hall and walking towards my parents. I've no idea why I did that when I wasn't even feeling sad right after taking my result slip. But I guessed that I woke up after knwing that I was one of the lower scorer in my class. Most of my friends got 210-230. It's like, Heaven and Earth yknw!

My parents took me on recce and we shortlisted a few secondary schools. There were PHS, KCPSS, YSS, AISS, and the list goes on. But I chose Anderson Secondary School because I liked their uniforms for both genders. That was also the school when I had my rebellious moments throughout Secondary 1 - 5. My parents couldn't handle me when I was in Sec 1. That was rlly my most rebellious period. I attribute it to the friends I made, rlly! I stopped hanging out with them when I was in Sec 2 and things started changing positively and I was finally single again. HAHAH! Yknw the puppy love which I wouldn't say "Hey, I was in love back in Sec 1". Seriously, that's bull!

I started hanging out with good people, the guaiguai and studious ones, but errr. Sadly, the studious traits in my had never increased any bit at all. All the way till O Levels and this time, I cried immediately after getting my result slip knwing that I scored 24. Like, hey... FML! I knew at that point of time, I WAS SO SCREWED!!!!

Took 3 subjs as a private candidate the following year because I rlly wanted to enter Polytechnic and not private diploma! I have friends who took private diploma and completed their course within 15months which I thought that it was rlly rush. We took 3 years to complete our dip whereas they used only 15 months. Also, polytechnic allows students to take up internships unlike private ones. So yep! I studied rlly hard for my 3 subjs but as expected, English failed me. HAHAH! Retook it during my Year 1 in TP and finally got a better grade, a grade that I had not expected at all!

Times in TP weren't as smooth. I struggled my way through Year 1 because everything is damn dry and errr, Physics. I hate Physics and disliked Math. So imagine my pain when we had to take these modules during our first 2 years. I almost had to go for supp papers, yo! Hahahah! Luckily, the curve bells rlly helped me! Year 3 was a breeze because I understood more of the things that were taught!

Then it was UNIVERSITY. How did I come about to choosing Business Management as the course that I wanted?

My Bro's girlf entered SIM-RMIT one semester earlier than me. She took Mgmt, while Bro was taking Marketing as his major. I have never liked analysing things but I'm more of theory-person. Knowing that Mgmt requires more of memory work, of course I chose this course. And plus, I would rlly like to work in HR dept despite many people telling me that it's a very boring job. I haven't tried any HR job now but will be working in a company real soon. I hope my mind will stay firm even after the contract ends!

With that, I shall end here abruptly with this...

Success in life comes when you simply refuse to give up, with goals so strong that obstacles, failure, and loss only act as motivation. 

YAAAAS, shall live with this quote (I hope!). G'bye!  

Twenty-two Years of Education,

Hello, future Eileen!

Five years down the road, you may be reading back to this post because you miss your school life so much while trying hard to cope with your stressful work. No worries, this blog is for you to walk down the memory lane when you feel tired of your working life. Be thankful that you graduated with a Bachelor certificate, despite the number of obstacles you've met along the way, when you did not have any intention of pursuing degree back in Polytechnic. This post will be a long yet sweet memory of your education life.

Today, 26th May 2016, is the day when my last academic result is out. I've never thought that. It's been a long 22 years of education since nursery! I've been through nursery, kindergarten, primary school, secondary school, polytechnic and now university. You can read my a bit of my journey here in Secondary school (or even times before this because this post has only photos of prom night), Temasek Poly (1) and Temasek Poly (2)!

I wasn't a bright student to start with. Everything I did was because of rewards. I fared pretty well back in Primary 4. Dad promised me a discman if I were to get into EM1. But no, I was streamed into the first class of EM2 instead. Despite that, Dad still bought me a Discman because it's the "first class" of EM2. LOL! Things started getting tougher as time flew. I couldn't catch what the teacher was teaching, especially Science and Math. My cousin even took time to travel from her workplace to my previous place (Sengkang) to teach me Math and back to her place at Pasir Ris. I scored well for that period of time but because we shifted to Yishun, I no longer had this advantage of playing "Math" game during my tuition sessions. I rmbr there was once when my cousins took time to design a game that's similar to Monopoly. The only difference was, they hand drew it in Pokemon theme with different Pokemon! I love Pokemon that time and yes, because of this, I rlly loved Math! But it was only for a moment! I did not do well for my PSLE. It was lower than what I expected. I thought I wasn't affected until I stepped out of the hall the second time. The reality hit me hard.

I entered the Normal (A) of Anderson Secondary. I love their pinafore and therefore, this school. This was my first choice after going rounds in Dad's cab to see which school is nicer and such. My parents rlly took the effort to tell me "this school would be good because ...". Despite being in a good school, I got influenced in a bad way back in Secondary 1. I did not like the systems nor the teachers. All I wanted to do was to play. I think I rlly disappointed my parents that time. The only things I did not do were smoking, fighting, and skipping school. I skipped supplementary lessons though. I picked up a lot of vulgarities and I got slapped a few times because I uttered it in front of Mum when she was scolding me. Yes, rude! And I hate the past me TBH.

Started to change for the better in Secondary three when I got together with the guai-er group of people. Hahah! Not saying my babes aren't! They are too smart for me. K, I kid!! It's just that it's easier to hang out with people in your class as the timetables and all are the same. N Levels results were pretty good but not my O's. Though there were subjects that I did well in, there were also subjects that I did poorly in. I decided that I should retake 3 subjects for my O's instead of going to a course that I didn't want in Poly/going to ITE. I studied harder this time because I felt that it's rlly a waste of money to repeat subjects and going through the same thing again! So yep, with that, from a 20+ score for first O's, I improved quite a lot. Despite that, my English result was still the same. Of cus, I didn't give up. But, I told myself that if I were to get the same result agn for the third time, I would just heck it alrdy.

I proceeded to Temasek Polytechnic, again, with not the course that I wanted. I did very badly for my first two semesters because it's mostly about Physics and erm, A-Math? I did not learn Amaths back in Secondary school so I thought it was frigging difficult. Anyway, that was also when B came back to my life. He taught me Amaths (till he frigging wanted to puke). Anyway, that's not the point. I graduated from TP in 2014 and thankfully, I did not have to retake any modules. Yes, needless to say, I applied for Business Management in SIM-RMIT. It was a short 2 years of studies but the stress level was high enough for me to think about dropping out at a point of time. Whenever my results were out, I could see how happy Mum was.

It took me 22 years to complete my education. I was and am still slower than others. I take a longer route. I take a longer time to understand things. But, I'm thankful for the people around me especially my parents who did not give up on me once. Not when I had to retake my O's. Not when I complained to them about my assignments and such too! Oh, how can I forget about this!! Throughout my 22 years of education, Dad will send me to school no matter how early or late it is! I love my family!

I saw this image that Bro shared on FB ystd... Thought I'd share it here too!

“Just because you took longer than others, doesn't mean you failed. Remember that.”

Thanks for giving birth to me in this family on 23 years (2 months more to go)!! We aren't rich but our parents will always try to satisfy us as long as they can do it! :)

Now, I'm looking forward to our family trip that's gna happen in June!! 

The Graduates of 2015,

It's my study break right now and 2 more days to my first paper........ While all are currently mugging their lives away, I'm here to update my blog to relief a bit of my stress :/


Bro's graduation ceremony - 26th August 2015.

So, we reached quite late and I forgot what's the reason but what's new! HAHAH! The guests were each given a green sticker to enter the hall, after presenting our tickets to the staffs, to prove that you had the ticket. Actually, one could easily get the stickers from the earlier sessions if they knw anyone for that session(s) because the stickers are the same throughout the whole week of graduation ceremony.

 

The hall looked so nice that day! And I didn't knw that this is the hall where we go to during exams! I thought this was another hall at the same level. Ok, my friends said they can never trust me when it comes to directions/venues which is very true! I can still get lost s'where somehow even after studying in SIM for a year plus now!

The lavender.

Why this girl!!!!!

Done with the ceremony, done with the buffet. It's time for photos!

Because, keep calm! You're moving on! :)

Once again, congrats Kor!! You're so done with school after 11 years of education. And now, you've to face the reality and the harsh (which I hope it's the opposite) world of the working society. Wishing you all the best!

Goodnight!

Back To Six Years Ago,

Just told Baby this: Omg, I miss our times back in Anderson. Those times!!

Three Saturdays ago (30 May 2015) was the day when I finally stepped into my alma mater after a good 6 years! It was a special occasion where Anderson celebrated its 55th Anniversary by holding a big-scale carnival in school. I've been looking forward to this very day when I got my hands on the coupons that costs $10. Ah, that was during CNY period. Hahah! How long ago was that!!

Erm, anyway I lost my $10 just a 2 hours after we reached Anderson :/ But Mr. Sim was so nice to give me one set of coupons to replace my lost one! Thank you, Mr Sim. We bought a portable charger with the remaining coupons we had.

Played back some scenario that would always happen during lesson time when we reached the classroom...

Chitchatting when the teacher's writing on the board.

Students who made the teachers speechless (1)

Students who made the teachers speechless (2)

Thanks for making my dreams come true... For a good 20 minutes! HAHAHAH!

Anyway, it was rlly nostalgic once I stepped into the compound of Anderson Secondary School. Lots of memories came flashing through at the back of my mind. It was as if I left Anderson only at most 2 years ago. But, nah! I'm old now... This was my first snapchat vid I sent for the day. I was rlly excited so please pardon my scream at the end! HAHAHAH! 

5/1 '09 classroom. Not much changes. The only thing was that, it's no longer 5/1 anymore. My friends are all so cute! They auto sat in this formation when I said I wna take photos! 

So good to see people whom I haven't seen for years!!

We went to hunt for our ex-teachers. Okay, not that exaggerating. We didn't hunt. We saw them coincidentally wherever we were. Hahah! First, it was Mdm Liau! Damn, I miss her teaching us POA and her nagging! This lady here was a form teacher of mine in Sec 3. 

I rmb how rebellious we were, but not to the extent that we would wreck smth in the class, she would always call out to one of my classmates. The way she called out to her is deeply etched in the back of my mind. HAHAH! Sometimes, we'd (my clique during gathering) randomly talk abt it and we would imitate how she called her name. She surprised me by saying "I remember you! Eileen!". She even rmbrs a Chinese name - Huey Zhen. Super surprising because not many of us can rmb Chinese names well. It's such a waste that I didn't do well for my POA during O Levels. 

Ms. Ho

My favourite P.E. teacher who is very patient towards her students. I have never once seen Ms. Ho flaring up at her students (or maybe I just didn't see it when it happened), she always hangs a smile on her face. Super adorbs when I joined my friends, who were alrdy surrounding Ms. Ho when I approached them because... When Ms Ho saw me walking slowly to join the friends at the back, she kind of played Bollywood dance with me (using heads) and I just burst out laughing after a few seconds.

Mr. Sim who is now the HOD of A&T 

I can't rmb in which year did he take our class and was our co-form teacher. My impression of Mr Sim was that he's a quiet teacher who won't show his anger. Hahah, not sure if it's the same during D&T lesson cus I wasn't taught by him before. But apparently, many D&T students like him so I shall assume that he's temper is very good too! 

Mr. Koh

I can't find Mr Koh at first look whenever I see this photo! He can totally blend in!! Anyway, the first thing he saw us was... Asking Zach "how's your BTO house?" HAHAHAH! Apparently, Baby posted a photo on his instagram and the caption was bloody long and funny. To summarise, the caption is about us finally gotten our own house which wasn't true at all. We took that photo in the living room of my place!  I was so surprised by his caption during lunch when I was working at Transamerica last semester break.

Mr Koh seems chirpier than before, which is a super good thing! He even told both Zach and I to start saving up for our wedding soon before it's too late :O He even said this himself "okay, I'll stop because I feel like a pastor now" and he proceeded to another topic (like, jobs/studies) before side-tracking back to this again. Hahah!

Mdm. Wong

"You can't find me. Only Eileen is able to find me because we are of the same level."

"Tell you also don't understand one. You're of a different frequency level while Eileen and I are of the same" 

Laugh die me!! First statement was Mdm Wong to a guy whom Idk. A junior perhaps? Second statement was Mdm Wong to Zach because he asked "what?" HAHAHAH! 

It was only on Saturday that I rmb Mdm. Wong taught us for 3 years straight from Sec 3 to Sec 5! Mdm Wong was the teacher who saw both the good side and the bad of my class. She would praise our class if we did smth good but of cus there were times when we made her real angry. Okay, #whatsnew because my class is the well-known notorious class :/ Forgot when was it but she treated our class pizza and BBQ at her place! I wonder how's everyone doing now! 

Ms. Leow

Nope, she didn't teach my class before but the people who were from 5/1 wanted to find her so, might as well. HAHAH! From what I know, Ms. Leow is a very easy-going teacher who got angry with the class less than 3 times??

Of cus, these weren't the only teachers whom we saw though... Didn't take much photos of the carnival booths but if I'm not wrong, everything was catered by Uncle Ringo. No wonder it seemed fun!

Sadly, no photos from the carnival bcos I couldn't take from a nicer angle :( But, I didn't regret going back at all! I rlly miss wearing the kelly blue pinafore with the belt at my hipbone level (which made it rlly ahlian that time but it was the in-thing!) and getting caught because of the belt, ankle socks and hair colour HAHAH! Those were the times... Good ol' times, giving both the teachers and myself a hard time. Like, wow! So nostalgic!!

If given another chance, I think I'll still be the same as I was in the past. HAHAH! Too much good memories and I can nvr forgo good ones for smth else.

& I hear-say there's another upcoming event. Hopefully it's true! Goodbye!