treading gingerly we walk circles around what we think may cause pain
or set up fortified strongholds to protect what was once broken


would that I be God and dive straight in

0530 reflections

i do wonder how many mirrors it takes to make enough angles to get five hundred and thirty reflections.


waking up at 530am in the morning on the other hand, has truly been amazing. yeah... it was a fantastic learning experience and all that... but seeing Daddy God work in so many things throughout the three weeks was simply awesome.


tremendous favour...

everytime i talk with another teacher... who is unhappy about this 'n' that... i realise how easy it is to step on someone's toes in the staffroom... and just how much favour i have with the teachers i'm working with. that not just my mentor but the other teachers bother to talk to me when i ask questions - there were just so many tips on teaching from them. and this 'cher that i spoke to for about 5 min after observing his class actually passed me a book as a farewell present... oh and the principal agreed to help me with my fyp questionnaire thingy - less work for me!


i think i've been blessed with a tremendous amount of practical wisdom this attachment... learning and watching the different styles of teachers. having a project with so much pedagogy that we had to get our heads around - a project that really required thinking in order to make the lesson plan and defend its purpose... it was a stimulating 3 weeks unlike the survey based projects. perhaps we didn't get to learn as much about the school structure and stuff, but that can always be picked up. the teaching tips on the other hand i think were invaulable - things like that can only be caught not taught..


comparing experiences with some other people... i can only be thankful that i didn't have anyone making me campaign for something i didn't believe in... didn't have to stick my nose into other people's business to evaluate them (esp since i'm just a small fry)... i learnt a lot more than i contributed... and had fun to boot. talk about grace and favour in the workplace. Daddy rocks.

wait until you're back for good

i woke up yesterday with stuff in my eye as usual...

what was unusual was that one eye was completely red and puffy and the surface was kind of swollen.. like if i looked to either side i could see the skin folds of the eye (eww.)

so today i went to the doc... cos it looked gross and i didn't want to teach with a red eye. and he said 'you have sensitive eyes...'

how useless.

me: eh then it's gonna be like that for the whole of summer?
doc: yeah you just have to wait until you're in singapore for a long long time so your eyes get used to it

*pekchek*

$34... for 5 min of shining a light into my eyes and steriod eyedrops. ohwell.


haha. should have just claimed healing and waited (though granted it's less uncomfortable now)
but i think i wouldn't want to take joshen's suggestion to put anointing oil on my eye (the eye. omg... not the eyelid...)

or maybe i didn't

so much for blessing someone.

Daddy blessed me instead! lol. i'm not complaining. hehe.
forgot to blog yday - fell asleep at 7pm, woke at 12am and went back to sleep till 6am (oh the luxury)

but. they tracked down the person who took the 60 bucks! and are crediting it back to my account yay =) i should say 'credited' since it happened yesterday. but WOW. that means i got blessed by a 10 buck voucher and free ice cream over and above having the money restored. hurrah for Daddy God. awsomeness.

tmr is D-day for my first lesson taught in a primary school.
pray pray pray. i = scared.

today i blessed someone

60 bucks......

and how?

i went to draw money but was thinking about other things... and then i took my card and left the money there. thank God the bank was open (on a sunday! amazing) and they're gonna trace it...

*shrug* ohwell. i got free ice-cream and a coffee bean gift card worth $10 bucks from standing there and making the poor guy's life difficult. now that's really supernatural favour man.

i should blog about the attachment... maybe if there are interesting occurrances in class starting tomorrow heh.

novice 'chers

okay i take back the slack part.

we have to come up with the lesson proposal for two levels by friday... along with the rationale behind each activity... as well as a scoring rubric... then these thingys will be implemented in the next two weeks and we'll have to revise the report accordingly.

so for now... not slack at all methinks

waking up at 6am

i thought there'd be something more 'concrete' that we'd be doing... but nope, for the next few weeks we're gonna come up with an experimental plan for outdoor learning that has to take place indoors cos of H1N1, attempt carrying it out in the second week... and finalise the proposal in the last week.

right.

i thought it would be different....
we played taboo in the lounge today while waiting for time to pass cos we didn't have computer access and it was kinda hard to do research.

then again. all things work for good i guess... aside from the waking up time... the work itself is pretty slack - just that we're on completely new ground (yeah even the mentor)

i think i'm really unmotivated cos there's no pay. hmm

windmill-love and more sunsets (9-11 june)

9 june
we woke up early just to go take photos at the windmills we saw at night before catching the ferry from mykonos back to athens. good call i say =)

love <3

back in athens we only had time for dinner... and everyone was very nua. so we had dinner and nua-ed and went to bed... and for the first time in the whole trip all of us were in the same room *woohoo*

10 june
woke up late as well then went off to brave the sun and see the acropolis. we were so nua... that every short stretch of walking (the sun was crazy...) we would see some shade and a place to sit down and would stop there fore like 10-15 min. 'take 5' was always more like 'take 20'. it was really really hot though... a 37 deg day and we were walking in ruins with no shade... i didn't have much heart to take photos lol. too busy concentrating on walking and frying in the sun. hilarious though, that after all the climbing and treking in the afternoon (missed lunch)... we came down the hill and saw a gelato shop. and the conversation went something like: 'do you see what i see?' 'i think so' 'GELATO!!!!!!!' cheap thrill man =)

fire trench @ acropolis this bit of the amphitheatre was a replica =( i bet the original is in the brit museum -.-"
junli creating a stone monument for li-en
how amazing would it be to have a concert in the restored ruins?

after the gelato... and lunch/dinner we decided to go to the park to catch the sunset (A LOT of climbing up stairs and slopes and stuff) i was kinda dying by then cos my foot hurt like crazy every time i took a step. and if i walked without putting that part of my foot on the ground my calf muscles would cramp cos the angle required me to use weird muscles -.- but i'm glad we went... awesome photos =) and gosh the trip was just so full of Daddy's goodness. cos we were kinda lost. and we asked this random lady who was watering her flowers. and Thank God she could speak English! like what's the probability of finding someone in a housing area (non-touristy) who can speak really good English?

sunset and the bell tower doggie on the tower
i love the sky
according to li-en... i live in a different planet cos i see things like these when people see normal scenes

11 june
time to go back to london... and fly back to singapore lol
we nua-ed again... then spent the day chilling and shopping for souvenirs (therefore no photos aww.) caught the flight back. thank God we checked the flight time. cos we were all thinking that the flight was 10pm but it was actually a lot earlier LOL. chilling and walking around - i was preparing myself for the next two days of non sleep so i could pack and get to sg in time for chuch camp. at that point i was regretting not flying back one day later lol. but that would compromise camp... so. no regrets now =)

indeed i'm home...

mom to dad: eh how come i've been seeing cockroaches since your daughter came home

me to dad as i walk towards the kitchen: (overhears) wha? how come mom says i attract cockroaches??? -.-"

dad: *laughs*


WHY??
cos there's a big cockroach that's walking towards me

dad to mom: go see what your daughter is attracting
me to mom: come look! i'm attracting cockroaches
mom: huhh??

*proceed to 5 min of cockroach killing time*

gaygaygay! (7-8 june)

one last day in santorini...
-nua-ed in the hostel reception
-cooked ourselves on the red beach
-walked around town and got some pretty souvenirs... i blew about 20 euros cos of this figurine made of nuts and bolts (ah geek.)
-ate alot for dinner (mama's house... the food was fantastic... and the portions huge... and amazingly affordable)
-had gelato (and li-en had a scoop of dark chocolate... which resulted in my post title - her answer to 'so what are you guys doing tomorrow' => 'mykonos... GAYGAYGAY!')

this was in stavros' guestbook... -.-"
li-en + me + li-en = oreo arms
the red beach. to quote some ang mohs 'it looks better from up here than down there'
incredible town signage i wish sg had such character...greek coffee is actually from brazil -.-"

in mykonos itself...
i had the most embarrassing moment ever.
we reached the port... then got fetched to the hostel which was at paradise beach itself. and there we discovered that the hostel was nothing like what we expected. thank GOD we decided to stay for one night instead of the two nights we booked *phew*

so. the embarrassing moment: there was a beach... and there was a rock 'island' a couple of meters away from the beach that you could swim to (too deep to walk). so we swam to island and climbed up and walked along it... amidst various squishy things and barnacles... there i fought with a rock and lost... got sliced by some edge and then to top it off i stepped on some barnacle on the exact spot of the slice and it poked a hole in my foot. hurrah. in an inconvenient place too... so i couldn't walk even if i swam back to the beach -- gordon had to piggyback me to our stuff urk. got the lifeguard and everything... taped up the cut and hopped back to the shack. too much attention i say... too much

oh. then it was pretty hilarious taking a shower... thank God i'm flexible...cos it was narrow and i had to prop my leg up against the wall so the bandage wouldn't get too wet. *think standing splits for stretching* then we went off to the town for dinner where i managed to procure some good waterproof plasters to survive

the ferry from santorini to gaygaygay!
OBS shack hostel
OBS hostel toilet
with no hot water... and a shower overhead tt was like a sprinkler
hostel grounds: a totally different experience man
too-enthu-wannabe-mr-universe-snorklers (mr universe cos the 6 have merged to 1)
the gals... conservative and clothed while half the beach people were nude (like that woman in the background)
my cut... 2 inches on the ball of the foot. talk about inconvenient.
united nations/ mr universe
cool pasta chef in town... was making somth like ravioli

not many pretty photos unfortunately =P

sports day in greece (6 june)

this is the day that deserves it's own post... cos the photos are too nice =P
we took a boat tour this time, got chaotar on a tour of the islands, climbed a dormant sea volcano (70 deg celsius), swam to the hot springs... swam in the hot springs (haha we had to jump off the boat and swim in open sea... cool huh) and watched an amazing sunset.

amazing...
flowers growing on volcanos...
and the sunset - man... we simply take for granted that we'll see the sun everyday - and i think that if i lived in santorini i'd take for granted the beautiful sunset everyday... but this is creation - God's creation, and every bit of it is amazing and for us to enjoy

let the pictures do the talking

huuge chillies in the supermarket
jun-liang fruit juice advertisement
our tourist ferry
'crocodile' island
winding paths on the sea volcano
flowers growing on the volcano! amazing.
an attempt to show off the muscles
and God divided the waters from the waters - and God called the firmament heaven
'london' in greece
we climbed many many stairs to avoid sitting on poop machines (aka donkeys)
but that meant i could get amazing photos
'city on a hill'
the person who painted this had amazing colour sense
i like the ship - if only i had a telephoto lens
the sunset begins
i love the character of the place
too much exposure - but it makes for a nice magazine shot
sunset on the city
halfway setting sun
junli's sunglasses and a lot of squinting made for this photo =)
more squinting
i think the photo doesn't do it justice
and when the sun was set... everyone clapped (for the creation instead of the creator. how sad)

beautiful.