Only if you read tags.

So yesterday I was catching a movie with my family over in 1U, then we had dinner and by the time we came out it was 9.30 pm.

Oh man, it was shocking, the roads were unusually jammed up.

And every single petrol station we went past had a billion cars flooding the place (all except one station, which we realized, upon closer inspection, had already "habis" petrol).

Apparently while we were at the mall, news got out that petrol price would increase today.

Super sudden.

Really bad time to be on the road, even if you're not kiasu enough to go out to fill up petrol, still have to be stuck on the road for a good amount of time just to get home.

Guess now's the time for People With License to try not to drive everywhere, and for People Without License to not expect so many free rides! LOL.

(Seriously. I was talking to someone, and she complained that one of her friends always made her (my friend) drive her up and down, without ever offering to pay for petrol / parking fees. I dunno about making people pay for your petrol la, a bit mean like that, but parking fees can seriously guzzle up your money.)

(I'm not talking about roadside RM0.60/hour parking LOL.)

(Esther now I seriously seriously appreciate you having used to drive us around all the time! Thanks x 1000!)

Now that we're all kind of grown-up, we've all got our Probationary driver's license, no one takes the bus/train/LRT/whatever anymore. I mean, I can't remember the last time I took the RapidKL bus anywhere.

But damn sad la, now we've got to revert back to the good ol' days when going to Midvalley automatically meant taking the LRT + KTM.

Then come August I think everybody will be even more kiam siap. Super crazy to pay an average of RM100 a week on petrol (for one car)!

Actually come to think of it, I am a bit kiam already. Like, I lower/turn off the air-conditioning when I think I can tahan without it, or like having slowed down over one bump, I'd see if I can make it to the next bump without stepping on the accelerator. All in the name of trying to cover as many kilometres as I can with a full tank.

Good news is I won't be driving after August, since I'll be leaving then.

Uber good news is, my 'P' license expires on 1st August, just in time for me to get a Competent Driving License! Then I can feel very Adult lah.


* * * * *

This one, tagged by Yun Lu. So here goes!

1. What is the most important thing in your life?
Freedom! Of expression, in choosing what to study, in choosing careers, in living life my way!

2. What is the last thing you bought with your own money?
Umm photocopies of documents.

3. Where do you wish to get married?
In a neo-Gothic castle! Definitely definitely! I am a sucker for Gothic architecture!

4. How old do you think you'll be permanently owned by your lover?
Ehhh. Own, like a possession? How 'bout Never?

5. Are you in love?
Definitely. With life and the many exciting possibilities it brings. (LOL do I hear someone groaning inwardly?)

6. Where was the last restaurant you had dinner?
Vietnamese Kitchen, in 1U.

7. Name of the latest text book you bought?
Gruber's Complete SAT Guide 2008. Does that count?

8. What is your full name?
You'd think this meme was an online predators' attempt to scam kids like us.

9. Do you prefer mother or father?
Would you prefer your right hand, or your left?

10. Name a person that you really wish to meet in your real life for the first time.
Hmmmm... Off the top of my head, A.A. Milne, maybe?

11. Christina or Britney?
Christina, for her funky style.

12. Do you do your own laundry?
Err will have to lar, in 2 month's time.

13. The most exciting place you want to go?
Outer space. TOOOOTALLY. I've not even let go of that spacewoman dream yet.

14. Hugs or kisses?
Hershey's, thank you.

15. Point out 5 things about the person who tagged you.

1. She has really soft hair.
2. Her birthday's on the 13th of August.
3. She has super adorable siblings!
4. She's a year younger than most of us, but is more matured than at least half of us LOL.
5. Extremely clever.
   

16. 8 things I'm passionate about

1. Life
2. Music, I guess
3. You probably wouldn't believe it, but... Learning.
4. Lord of the Rings!
5. Education
6. Education
   
7. Me
8. Me (a bit narcissistic la)
   

17. 8 things I say too often
I SERIOUSLY cannot answer this question. I have absolutely no idea. But I know I've a habit of going, "It's like..." then proceed to give horrible analogies. Dunno.

18. 8 books I've read recently
(if by recently you mean within the last year)

1. "On the Cosmic Horizon" - Jeffrey O. Bennett (Reread. Super cool book.)
   
2. "LOTR: The Fellowship of the Ring" - J.R.R. Tolkien
3. "The Complete Winnie-the-Pooh" - A.A. Milne (Billionth time reread!)
4. "The Life of Mahatma Ghandi" - Jonathan Cape
5. "The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid" - Bill Bryson
6. I seriously
7. Cannot
8. Remember
   

19. Songs I could listen to over and over again

1. Man That You Fear - Marilyn Manson
   
2. The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
3. Hallelujah - Jeff Buckley
4. Panic Prone - Chevelle
5. Can't Stop - Red Hot Chili Peppers
6. Gone - Switchfoot
7. Lord of the Rings OST (50+ songs altogether, so cheating a bit la here)
8. I Alone - Live
   

20. 8 things I learnt last year

1. Getting a C in a major exam is not the end of the world
2. Essays don't write themselves.
3. I am not hopeless in Chemistry after all (!!)
   
4. When you've decided on something, and you Know it's right, but other people think you're too rash/naive/impractical, STICK WITH YOUR DECISION ANYWAY! Your gut instinct wouldn't fail you.
   
5. No study, bound to fail. Study your ass off, Amazing Things happen
6. Dunno
7. How to side park properly?
8. Dunno
   

21. 8 people you tag
Skip! I am pathetic, not enough blogging buddies!

Scholarships and grants and loans, oh my!

You know, amidst all the things that are happening in the world today, the catastrophes in Sichuan and Myanmar, the political happenings splashed on the front page of the dailies that pretty much read like a drama novel, the global food crisis, and the horribly stupid things some politicians say, only ONE thing actually got me a bit pissed.

And that thing is the one regarding PSD scholarships.

Seriously mem-piss-off-kan, when these SPM leavers write to the editors and talk about how they got 10As/11As/12As and didn't get the scholarship.

But before that. I think that if there's a large pool of the people's money set aside for financial aid, then the whole idea is to get the money to as many people as possible, so that as many people as possible can have a shot at attending university.

The idea is NOT to make it so that a very select few get to go to VERY expensive places by paying as little money as possible.

That being said, it's probably NOT the best idea to fully sponsor students to study in super expensive countries in super expensive fields, e.g. medicine in UK/Aus. It's probably A LOT better to send them off to reputable universities that don't cost close to RM 1 million, so that more people actually get a shot at studying medicine.

I'm sure you'd recall this Indian girl who got I-have-no-idea-how-many A's, and didn't get the PSD scholarship, and it came out in the papers and she was quoted saying that her father only earns RM3600 a month, and thus cannot afford to have her studying medicine overseas.

This is where the mem-piss-off-kan part comes in. First off, RM3600/month is a very respectable salary. But for argument's sake, let's just put it like this - my family may earn more than hers, in fact many families may earn more than that, BUT we still cannot afford to study medicine overseas.

I mean, come on!

I think many people have that mentality that a PSD scholarship is a Malaysian Right, that if you get a certain number of As then your ultra-expensive undergraduate education overseas HAVE TO BE fully sponsored. (It obviously isn't; it's a Reward, not a Right.)

Then when they don't get the scholarship, they write to papers complaining that they got 11A's and was rejected, some of them going, "But PSD said 9As, guaranteed scholarship!"

(You just have to visit any one of the many Malaysian education online forums to see even more of such people.)

Again, come on!

First off, seeing that they got good results in the SPM, you'd expect them to have a bit of sense to read on further and realize that the scholarship guarantee for 9As scorers are only for LOCAL institutions. (Honestly, I wouldn't want my tax money spent on sponsoring these people to UK/US/Aus.) (Err if I pay tax, I mean.)

It's not very correct to demand a scholarship (paid for by the taxpayers' money) when in all honesty 10As is not as amazing an achievement as it was before. (LOL that's not a very intelligent thing to say, considering I didn't get 10As, but true fact : almost everyone I hung out with in high school had at least 10As -except myself LOL-, and people I hung out with in college happened to also get straight / nearly-straight As. It's just more common now.)

There could be close to a 100 people from CHS who got 9As and above during my year, with a large number with straight As, and I know a lot of people who applied, but how many were given the scholarship? (I can only think of Li-Ann, so I'll say one, or two at most.) But no one complained, no one made a big issue out of it. In a way we know that you could randomly throw a stone and chances are you'd hit someone with 10As and above, it's just THAT common.

And all vying for the 2000+ (ONLY!) places for a PSD scholarship.

So to pacify satisfy people, maybe it's time to review how this thing works. Stop sending people off to study medicine/dentistry in SUPER expensive countries (which would cost probably the lifetime savings of a less affluent family), and sponsor their education in more affordable (yet reputable) institutions.

My family isn't rich by any measure, but we live within a comfortable salary bracket, yet if I were to choose to do medicine, I'd certainly definitely undoubtedly have to do it locally. Doing it overseas in western countries would cost more than a million Ringgit, the sort of luxury few can afford, and yes it is a LUXURY not a requirement, surely these people with good results can do just as excellent in local medicine schools.

(It's very heartbreaking right, the thought that RM1,000,000 ++ of the rakyat's money is spent on financing just ONE student at a super expensive medicine school, when two students could be sent to cheaper yet just-as-good schools. Even more heartbreaking if said student decides he likes it better over there and doesn't want to return.)


Do I sound very bitter? Like I'm sitting here complaining because I didn't get the scholarship (well I didn't apply, but then again with my grades I would've been crushed and trampled on by the other competitors).

LOL Contrary to what I seem to be, I am not bitter! LOL. I just think that education is of paramount importance, and since Malaysia is experiencing serious brain-drain, and since we'd need a lot more educated people/professionals in our country in the future, I just think it's a better idea to send off as many students to (reputable!) universities as possible, rather than give the privileged few the opportunity to study in UK and leave the others in the dark.

Actually, interest-free loans are a much better aid option than full sponsorship, so that the aid gets out to more people. But then again the already-being-sponsored students would probably object.

I'd also go on about how ridiculous it is that only PSD-sponsored undergraduates can apply for postgraduate sponsorship, but this post is getting too long. But basically it's silly to let people who have enjoyed their years in UK/Aus/US for free another shot at not having to pay to go to graduate school.

My two-cents that are actually worth a lot less (zero cents la, maybe).

I'm only writing this because I'm very sien of people complaining in the many online forums that I frequent.

(I hope I don't get "@%#$#* DIE, YOU!!!" type message!)




(Free speech! Free speech!)



(Okay bye bye.)

And when it ends, it ends!

Hmm, I guess it's a very bad sign of my blog (in)activity when every single blog that I track has at least one update, while I have absolutely none!

I dunno why la, I've been so exhausted lately that when I come back from work and I'm reading the papers I can actually start dozing off like that.

But guess what?? I've stopped teaching!

Well, that teacher who was pregnant is coming back to work after this 2-week school holiday, and I've decided I don't want to take on a new class (which means another 2 months of teaching).

(You guys realize or not, that there seem to be a lot of pregnant teachers around?)

Teaching is exhausting.



Anyway. I think I left on a very very bad note =(

The thing was, another temporary teacher was leaving, and she'd made kind of a big spectacle of it, taking pictures and what-not, going all "bye-bye, bye-bye!!", which I guess induced the girls in her class to start crying.

(Damn scary okay, their crying. I remember going, "Oh my gosh what is that horrible noise?!", and some busybody students of mine went over to the next class to bat-gua a bit. They came back and were like, "Teacher! The all the girls are crying! ALL!!!"
Then one boy was like, "Eh teacher, why they act until so real ah?"
Me: "They're not acting! Their teacher is leaving and they're sad."
Boy: "But where got people cry until LIKE THAT!!"
Seriously very scary loh, whole class crying loudly, kind of like kena-possessed.)

So as I was saying, I reminded myself to leave in a low-key way, so the students didn't know until Thursday that Friday was my last day of teaching.

And on Friday, I went through the whole routine of yelling and threatening and what-not, like usual la.

Then during the last period, which was maths, one of the girl prefects (who was a really cool kid, never gave me trouble, plus seriously pretty) and the boy in front of her started talking quietly, not doing their workbook, passing notes.

The boy had always been a bit hyperactive and had short attention span, so it was common for me to go, "XX! Pay attention!". He wasn't paying attention again this time, and it was one time too many, so I went over there and lectured them.

Then (and this I truly regret) I turned to the girl and went (somewhat angrily), "You are a prefect, you should set a good example for him! I don't want to see you talking to him again!"

She just looked at me with her large eyes and didn't say anything. I had never scolded her before, she's always been really sweet, so I imagine this was a bit of a shock.

Then I heard someone from behind me saying very quietly, "But she's writing teacher a letter...."

I didn't pay attention la, I went on with the lesson.

Then the final bell rang, and as they filed out of their classroom the girl came up to me, smiled and went, "lao shi zai jian!"

Okay I was surprised, I thought she would be mad at me.

Then I went to get my bag, and under it I found........ sigh, a letter written by the girl and that boy, signed "From 3J clas ".

I felt so so bad.

And the worst part was, she left before I found the letter, so I'd never have the chance to apologize/thank her.

I was feeling so horrible that night.



Do you think it'd be wrong to post up the class photo? I mean, would it be a violation of their privacy?

No hor, since I'm not giving out names.


(Um, you can click for a larger view, but ignore the comparatively giant-sized person sitting at the bottom-middle. I dunno why it looks so blurry/watery, I scanned the original, which looked smudgy and watery itself.)

The girl prefect standing in the far left (second row) is the girl I was talking about. She's much much prettier in person!

Remember the girl I said who'd smile so sweetly when I look at her that I'd melt? That's the first girl (from left) sitting in the first row.

Oh yeah, and the little Indian kid I was talking about. Easy to spot guar.

One of the most adorable kids I've come across is the little guy in the third row, 2nd from left.

I imagine he'd be an architect or an engineer when he grows up! One time I asked some kids to come out and act out a short skit off the textbook, and this little Engineering Kid went, "Teacher, I have camera! I take photo!"

I was surprised, and was about to ask him if he was allowed to bring cameras to school, went I realized what he meant - on his table was a weird little contraption made of pens, mechanical pencils and rubber bands. His "camera".

Then another time the prefect gave me a piece of paper on which she copied the names of students who were noisy in the hall. The Engineering Kid's name was on the list, and next to his name was (in scruffy 9-year-old handwriting), "做家给干电池" ("build house for battery").

I have NO IDEA what that meant. Then I found out that they were required to bring a used battery to school for science class, and the little Engineering Kid had actually built a "house" for his battery. The prefects told him to stop, he didn't want to, so they "copied" his name.

So cute, he's always building stuff!

Have you ever realized that the person in your class who's a trouble-maker, the one who's impolite and annoying, is also always the one who looks the most innocent in class photos?
(It's just something I realize over the years la, dunno.)

Take a look at the boy in the second last row, 4th from right. Damn innocent looking right? With Bambi-eyes and all.

He's a total trouble-maker, infamous in the staff room for kicking / biting / hurting his previous teachers.

Seriously, if it weren't for him, my teaching stint would've been 10 times more peaceful.

During my 2 months teaching them he had managed to throw a chair, chase his classmates with a broom, tear down drawings from the corkboard, trip me, and called me "Teacher from Hell".

But he's not a bad kid, he's just hyperactive and has problems controlling his anger.

He gave me a tiny bear and Ferrero Rocher chocolates for Teacher's Day, right after I'd scolded him for not doing his homework. And when he was walking out of class on my last day of teaching, he went, "Zai jian lao shi! Hope you graduate from your university!!"

He was so adorable! (Seriously la, I think he oughta have said "graduate with honors", 'cause if I cannot even graduate means I'm a huge failure.)

Then you see the first boy in the top row (the one next to the prefect)? Damn big-sized right?

This guy is the Trouble-Maker's partner-in-crime, so I always had to cane his leg to make him sit down (there is no other way, believe me. It's also utterly frustrating when they go, "Cheh, not painful one!" and start running around again.)


During Teacher's Day I had to bring the class to the library, so I asked Big Kid and 2 other students to bring the stuff I received from their class (which includes a very beautiful glass angel!) to my table at the teachers' room.

They went ahead of me, and suddenly I heard this loud breaking sound, and realized that someone dropped something, which broke into pieces.

It turned out this Big Kid was holding a cup someone gave me, and his classmate (a skinny kid) accidentally pushed him. He dropped the cup, and it broke.

What was interesting was that the skinny kid who knocked into him had his leg cut by a broken piece and had blood trickling down his leg, but he wasn't crying. He was looking worried though, because The Big Kid, was crying like a baby.

It's always a bit bizzare to see a big, strong, loud, gung-ho type of boy crying like a baby.

The bleeding kid was sent to have his wound tended to, and the Big Kid continued on to the library.

I asked him why he was crying, and through tears he told me that the cup was from him, and he's sad that now he doesn't have a good gift for me.

WHOA MAN, my heart sank like what only!

I almost wished something else had dropped (not the glass angel, though LOL).

It's weird that it's always the kids that you reprimand/cane many times who turn out being the ones that show the most affection towards you in the end.

(LOL all the above anecdotes are interesting to no one other than myself, so I suspect hardly anyone read till here!)





So am I glad I don't have to teach their class any more?

Actually, yeah I am, 'cause they are one super-tough class to handle.

I don't know how their teacher does it.