life lesson

Taking a break from doing my teaching aids for Teaching Practice (from now onwards it’ll be just TP lah ya)…

My third day at school has just ended. B and me both felt that we’d been in the school for a long, long time. It feels more like 3 weeks. Countdown? 52 more days to go. TT

Now I really know how it feels like to work. It’s not as pleasant as expected. It’s not the workload or anything. It’s school politics. Some people say that the education field is ‘darker’ than any other fields.

Today I came home quite a subdued me. I seemed to have made quite a bad impression on a teacher who may become my Mentor, which means she has the power to grade me.

Frankly, I still did not know EXACTLY what I did wrong. I have countless speculations in my mind that I think might have upset her. Perhaps wrong usage of vocab when I talked to her for the very first time? Or lacking in greeting and smiles? Or is it the way I carry myself which sends out an odour of arrogance (back in sec sch a lot of ppl thought I was a peacock until they really got to know me and all I could say was, ‘…’ *speechless*)?

Or some teachers just plain dislike practical teachers because they tend to mess up their teaching plans, do not bother to make sure the pupils learn and leave the dirty job of catching up for the sch teachers after 3 months? (If this is the case, I could very well understand.)

Well, it’s not fun to get cold shoulders and just ‘yes’ and ‘no’ for answers… but I’m sure God is teaching me a lesson of humility and servanthood. I know I have this problem of pride and perfectionist thingy in me that I have to get rid of. It’s just that the process of being molded is so painful and uncomfortable.

I know He is always showing me that I should depend on Him and not on my own strength.

I know it’s when times are difficult and things go well that I’ll give glory to God whole-heartedly with joy and thanksgiving instead of crediting myself for the outcome.

I know that His grace is sufficient for me.

I know that He wants me to trust in Him with all my heart and lean not on my own understanding; in all my ways acknowledge Him, and He will make my paths straight.

Thank You Daddy.

A song that has been running across my head this evening:

主啊 你是我的高台
我的好处不在你以外

虽然面临逼迫
我不至动摇

因我知你与我同在
我就得以往前行 你是我的一切
我信靠你

有谁能使我勇敢的往前走
唯有你 唯有你 主啊 你是我的唯一
我的最爱还有谁能代替你 主啊
我爱你 我心欢畅 哦主啊感谢你

因我深知我的名早已记录在天上
哦主啊 我爱你

“Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.” 1 Peter 5:7

kuching trip day 4

Let me finish telling my story before my real teaching practice starts. ^^

Upon reaching Electra House, we went to India Street & Carpenter Street & dont-know-what Street to… err… shop? These places in Kuching are like KL’s Petaling Street and Malacca’s Jonker Walk. So you can expect pickpockets here… :P

My mom came to pick us up. On the way she asked me to pick up some siew-pau and curry puffs that she’s ordered from a famous siew-pau shop nearby. They’re still steaming hot! *I’m hungry atm!* So we got to fill our tummies a bit while waiting for her.

In the afternoon Jong and I busied ourselves with the car rental and everything and the poor souls had to wait for us until evening.

Finally we brought them to visit the Sarawak museum when it was half an hour to the closing time. == We managed to visit one block. My first time there too! I can’t believe it as well. Hahaha…

Then to the monument. Took lotsa silly pics that you might have seen in FB dy…

I havent been here since primary school time I think.

Doreen harga runtuh dy… hahaha… according to Louis, when they found the rock, there was already the carving of the person there dy…

At night we had dinner at Taman Kereta! Yay seafood I love!! I actually turned like 3 rounds trying to find the place! My dad would have scolded me, “See? Told you to pay attention to the roads! Only know how to sit in cars!” :P

I’ll just show you the highlights of our dinner k… :)

‘O-jian’: fried egg and flour with clam. But this is like the real thin and crispy and keropok-like type.

Portuguese-style ikan bakar. Ray-fish yumm! We saw this so often at SS2 and kept saying we wanted to eat. Ate here in the end. Haha…

Bidin. First try for the west Malaysians. ^^b

After dinner we strolled along Riverside & took pictures but they’re all kinda too dark. Astana looked real majestic at night…!

Kevin came and joined us halfway and they saw Jong’s pick-her-up-from-hospital-after-giving-birth-to-Tigger husband for the very 1st time! Muahahahaha…

Then he brought us to the 175 cafe for drinks and fish spa treatment! ^^ My first time there too! I think I’m a tourist like the rest lah… :)

The old couple.

Caryn just commented on how long BeeGuat’s legs are. Quite true also ya…

Guess which were whose feets? ^^

Stealing a sip from Peter’s beer. :PP

And that was basically it for Day 4!

Oh yea, on our way back, the rented car broke down in the middle of the road! B was driving it and the two drivers in front were me and Kevin. So when the lights turned green we just sped forward assuming they’re following behind. Only to find them missing after almost 1km away! o.O Poor thing they had to pushed the car to the side of the road. At 1st we thought it was out of gas so Kevin bought petrol from the station and drove back to help them while we waited there. Ended up it was some wire problems. Hmmm… anyway, don’t ever rent cars from that company. We’ve got enough bad experience from them this holiday! The cars were faulty and we didn’t get the car we wanted. The workers even tried to swindle 40 bucks out of us without the boss knowing it. I don’t know the name of the shop but it’s in a pink building at Satok at the bridge heading towards Matang. >.<

Gotta start doing some work for practical now. Ciao!

kuching trip day 3-4: the ‘pedalaman’ trip cont’

I think I can try and write a bit about Day 3 and 4 since everyone’s still up and awake here too… ^^

I forgot to show you what we ate after the fruit salad…

Sandwich-toasted fishballs!

Jong brought her sandwich toaster from home and we made full use of it. Hahaha… the next morning the toaster again contributed faithfully too our breakfast! ^^

Square omelets!

We hired two aunties from kedah & malacca to help us make breakfast. ;)

a view from my room window early in the morning

The last night before we slept it rained pigs and monkeys. *new term: only useable in Bako* So that morning it was kind of chilly and wet. Quite a perfect weather to go jungle trekking! d^^b

The pigs came and dug the mud for food. Their diet: everything including worms, fruits, super-ring, eggs, fishballs, tomatoes and all leftovers. And they FOUGHT for them ok! From left to right: Rhino, pig 1a, pig 1b. Rhino was a mean guy. He would bit others’ asses just for food.

Then our adventure began. :)

I had to confess something here. I took them on the wrong route. And we had to make a U-turn back and wasted like half of our energy. Hahaha…

We saw black durians on our way. It’s the kind of special durians that you can find only in Bako. They should taste like…

rotten durians?

Hahaha… Nah I’m just bluffing. Don’t go around asking for black durians next time you visit Bako k. I malu nanti.

And some trees have really special names. Lol~

The adventurous team! Hahaha…

The trail was so long that we passed by Batu Caves… and realised that we’re back in West M. Hahaha… Why am I crapping so much today?

We didn’t manage to finish any trails. Yea I know I know, my fault. :P But that’s when I realised how lousy my stamina was. I need to exercise! But see, we’re so cooperative, righto?

 

This cute white mushroom really stood out amongst the green.

Patah balik time…

And I didnt take any more pictures till the next day. I think we just spent most of our time at the beach and in the sea. Oh yea, I learnt to float and swim a bit! Bb is a good sifu. ^^b

The next morning we had breakfast at the canteen. The food there was surprisingly CHEAP!

My healthy, nutritious breaky! This only cost me RM3.50 I think. And the mee-pok (beneath the spork) was nice! Caryn loved the mee-pok. :)

This is not chinese tea. FYI, this is their HOT WATER. I’m not kidding, serious! That's why I said this is pedalaman. Hahaha… The water is all fresh mountain water. ^^ Hot chinese-tea-lookalike water was 30 sen.

Oh yea I forgot one important episode here. A monkey came and stole Doreen’s food! It just jumped on our table while she was gone to get sth else, grabbed a few chicken nuggets and hotdogs and ran off! Caryn and Jong was too shocked to even scream I think! Hahahaha… Then Doreen dared not eat the food anymore… not sure if the monkey washed his hands or not… so she had to buy breakfast again. Hahahah… Thank God it wasn’t too expensive. The owner then came out with a catapult, only to find the monkey peeping down from the roof! Cheeky~~!!!

After breakfast, we hanged out at the beach… and took pictures…

The view was indescribable!

Caryn: Ey, ey choo, take my back, take my back!

Choo: Ok.

Nah… done! ROFL~!!

Kesian she showed me the ‘ham’ == face dy… so I took another one… hahahah

And then it’s finally time to pack and check out.

 

I found this little hot spring on the ground!

Waiting for the boatmen to come… and left Bako finally…

We had to wade through the water this time to get into the boats… coz of low tide eh… everyone took off their shoes!

Getting into the boat…

I betrayed the other boat. I took the covered boat twice. :P

 

Don’t know why BB’s gay mode was on. But wahh… beautiful slender legs! Phewitt~~!! :PP

 

And we’re sailing again!

The other boat… I’m sorry! :PPPP

Bye bye Bako! Till we meet again! I’ve truly enjoyed myself! Thank you Jesus for making this trip possible for us!

p/s: stay tuned for Day 4-8!

practical day 1

Went to school today and joined their assembly for the 1st time. The shocking thing was that they asked us to go on stage and introduce ourselves… in Malay! I had no time to be nervous and when I went up there I just repeated what Louis said. Hahaha… After that I decided this on-the-spot things was better than telling me way beforehand where there’s time for nervousness to haunt me.

Sat in the staffroom for the whole day. Sleepy yet dared not start fishing in front of the teachers. Guess what I did in the end? Read dictionary. How interesting…

Got my timetable already. If there’s no more changes I’ll be teaching Year 5 English and Year 4 Math. 12 periods altogether. Louis’ lagi ‘geng’. 14 periods. Don’t know how to negotiate with the teachers tomorrow la… ><

After sch GB said today cannot go back early, got meeting. So sat and listen to them for almost one and a half hours… But the meeting was not as boring as I expected. The GB cracked a lot of jokes and sometimes he laughed himself. Haha. The teachers seemed to be very comfortable with him, yet you could feel their sense of respect towards him. So altogether it’s quite a conducive working environment. :)

After that rushed to see our supervisor. Got some good tips & reminders from her. It’s another pleasant meeting too, I would say. ^^

Oh yea, in the holidays I actually prayed for good and cheap canteen food… (haha) and yes God answered my prayer. But there was no variety. I forgot to add that… lol~!

Don worry I dont think I’ll describe my Day 2 and Day 3 and the rest of the days in detail. Unless there’re some great happenings. I feel like writing my kuching trip Day 3 and am wondering if I should. It’s 10.26pm already.

Hmmm~

practical, oh practical!

Some commercial break before I go into our Kuching Trip Day 2-4.

Tomorrow would be the starting of our practical!! *shivers* Really don’t know what to expect. And tomorrow I have to go meet up with my supervisor, lagi don’t know what to expect!!!

God please, may we find favor in Your eyes as well as men’s!

I’ll see if I can take some pictures tomorrow… but there’ll be nothing much to see anyway. Imagine the kids having their assembly and suddenly Louis or me take their photos, with his D90, hahahaha… the headmaster’ll kick us out of the school kot.

I’ll be getting my timetable tomorrow! I wonder which classes I would get…

You know these few days I’ve been thinking of how I should manage the class and everything… what kind of tricks I should use to get the kids to listen to me… and to entertain them. As my lecturers always say, primary school teachers have another identity: clowns! =='"

Well, let’s just keep our fingers crossed that tomorrow would be a great day! Because God is in charge! :)

p/s: by the way, I can’t believe I’m starting my 4th year! My final uni year! So old senior. ;]

kuching trip day 2: the ‘pedalaman’ trip

I think I’d better complete the chronicles of kuching trip (hahaha) before any procrastination causes loss of memories and in the end, a hanging piece.

In fact, through this trip, I’ve learnt A LOT of things… and at the same time experience our ever-loving, miraculous God at work. I’ve learnt that it’s not easy to plan a trip, not mentioning being a tour guide. I’ve learnt that if I want to bring my friends to visit Kuching (for a long trip), I have to come back at least a few days earlier to make sure everything is in place: the transports, the accommodation, everything!

And I guess I took many things for granted. I was supposed to manage everything about the Bako trip coz I was the one suggesting it (kepo~), but by the time Lucas and Peter marinated the chicken and prepared to go to bed, I started to panic. Because I didn’t know how to get to the Kampong Bako, where we’re supposed to take speedboats to the national park. I’d been there, but that was like… 6 years ago!! And I called a friend (in KL!!) who’d been there in Feb, who promised to give me another girl’s number who seemed to know better, but in the end I didn’t get the contact. So I was imagining the worst scenario ever: us waiting for the bus at Electra House until evening and coming back subdued and sitting in the house looking at each other for 3 days and 2 nights (with the marinated chicken spoiled). It was midnight dy and all I could do was nothing but to pray.

So the next morning… (by faith) I asked Dad & Mum to fetch us to Electra House, and we had breakfast at the old market opposite EH, which was once very famous for its shio-bee (shio-bee is Sarawakian siu-mai).

Look at our loaves of bread… hahaha… like we’re going to a place hit by famine…

I felt that I’ve got tons to do! I had to settle the accommodation bills but didn’t know where to, if not I don’t think they’d ever let us be on the boats! So I called the number which was so often engaged, and it got through! Praise God! And I found the place, and the whole billing process was simple and smooth! Praise the Lord again! ^^

I got back to the place, and now it was time to settle the transport. So we asked around, and the friendly kolo-mee aunty told us we could take the bus, which was only RM3 per person. But it didn’t look like it’s very regular and punctual! *oh no!* I was praying in my heart, God, I don’t want to reach there in the evening!

So we waited… and waited… AND waited… aish, why waste time, take picture lah! *It was blaring hot!* And when the bus came, I really wanted to shout Hooray! Hallelujah!

Finally in the bus! A big load lifted from my shoulders instantly! Thank You Lord for providing!

After a long, long journey of stopping here and there, finally we reached the terminal!

Then there were more payments to make… and we’re ready to sail! That was when we saw the Buaya sign! *oh no!!*

Nvm.. we have our life jackets on! They’re supposed to save lives right? Right? Boat uncle didn’t even wear ok…

Some picturesque view on the way… My K770 not bad wad… :P comparable to DSLR… hahaha… and I could actually receive a call from my mom on the boat! DiGi coverage is not very bad after all! ^^

This is the swampy area… Paya Bakau that we learnt in Form 3 Geography.. hahaha

Reaching the park! On the way to the registration counter… excitement mounting! d^^b

We waited at the ‘lobby’ after registration. It so happened that we arrived too early by an hour plus and had to wait for the rooms to be cleared. God could be so humorous at times. I said I didn’t want to be late and this was what happened. Hahaha… It wasn’t too boring, i remember playing games and laughing too loudly that people hushed us down. Oops! :P

We stayed at Hostel C. Another thing to thank God for. Initially we planned to stay at Forest Lodge but it was fully-booked. So no choice lah, had to take Hostel, which was cheaper by half. I already expected the worst. Mana tau… the forest lodge and the hostel looked the same only… Forest lodge has got 2 rooms and the hostel has got 4! Hahahah….

Can you believe it? Our 3-day-2-night stay only cost us RM21 per person. Hahahaha… thank God!

The first pig that visited our hostel. When I told Priyatha back in KL that there’d be lotsa pigs, she thought I was kidding her…

Up close!

There was a time when we had 7 to 8 with us. They’re never choosy when it came to food.

After making sure our food would not be stolen by monkey thieves, we went for a stroll on the beach. Crazy, on a hot scorching afternoon. (See my footprints? ^^)

Then the BBQ ‘party’ started! Fire first! This was like the hardest fire-making attempt ever! I think we spent a good one and a half to two hours and still couldn’t get it up. Everyone was pitching in to help. Our cooperation and love (for the sake of food) was really touching ok!

Then halfway we got visitors… One of them ate up our Ben10 beach ball! Yes, I’m just exaggerating. He bit the plastic and we literally watched the balloon deflate!! >.<

The aunties who helped peel off the charred meat and potatoes. :)

But I tell you the truth (sounds familiar? hahah), the chicken really tasted oh-so-yummiscrumplicious! Very cooked ok! With some added foreign ingredient… towards the end Peter and Doreen complained, “Why so much sand??” Hahahah!

Sunset in Bako

And we did some tribal dance before going back.. Hahaha to kill Piggy… and BBQ-ed marshmallow!

And the thank-God part was, some manager came and asked us who allowed us to BBQ there. But anyhow our party was coming to an end too, so we’re not too disturbed. Imagine if he came halfway when we’re still cooking and some chicken was cooked and some not, it would have been very pek-chek rite? The weird thing was, we’d been there like for so long and he only noticed us at 7 when it was dark? I suppose God knows how much all these meant to us and helped us through it miraculously! Thank you Jesus!

To make up for the lack of Vitamin C sources, we had apples in mayo + raisins + corn flakes! Superb!! :9

And everyone fought took turns to use the bathrooms, talked talked talked, then zzz la… save some energy for tomorrow! :) Stay tuned for Day 3 lah~~! ^^