Wednesday, November 16, 2005
Ok, i hate leaving things i never ever want to forget behind. Like my class. and the teachers that taught us. It just has been a really great year and just saying thanks can't really express how i feel. Anyway i would have wrote in sooner if my computer didn't crash on me, but here goes. I had my class party like 3 days ago on a Sunday and it was really great. It was held at Chee Yang's house and i got lost twice trying to get there, lol. When i did get there [which i dont think i would have if i didnt meet Xiang Yu and Jillene on the way] i started filling up the water balloons, or actually plastic bags and got so wet before the party actually begun. And after that we played football, and pigged out in front of the tv, before playing some party games. Soon enough the dinner tables were set and the teachers started to arrive, Ms Sri and her boyfriend first, and then Guo Lao Shi and Ms Lim. We then started eating as soon as they arrived and the food was great, or at least it looked great because i only ate rice. Anyway, we got to see the teachers out of school and it was pretty weird at first but, hey i got used to it, too bad they didn't stay for long. Oh and too bad Ms Koh and the rest couldn't make it, i really hoped they would come. After dinner we basically started to get wet, playing with the water bombs and the garden hose, i was drenched to the skin but it was so, so fun. Everyone dried out and i decided to play Def Jam: Fight For NY, i defeated Kenneth first and then Keng Lai after that it was Wei Lun and after which everyone got Izhaq down, whom was really good in the game to versus me. In the David and Goliath match, i won, lol, and it was pretty funny because i had not expected it. But all in all the party was really, really, great.Thank you all. xoxo Heather, God Bless You All
5:50 PM; MUSICfanatic, KNOWitY
Wednesday, November 09, 2005
Im still suffering from the withdrawal symptoms of New Zealand, which include missing NZ like crazy and feeling sleepy at the wrong times, lol. Anyway i wrote this today to tell you more abt my trip to NZ because my last entry was more about the ppl. Anyway New Zealand is really cool, on the first day in NZ we were in Tauranga and visited Mt Eden and an old gold mine and i learn things like how the ppl there used cyanide to extract the gold and how they died of cyanide poisoning or because the fine ground dust got into their lungs. At the mine we also got to cross not 1 but 2 swing bridges which i thought was scary but at the same time lots of fun.
On Day 2 we were introduced to the coastal processes and definitions such as the long shore drift, oh and i learned that our cultures affect our environment and the things in it, what we decide to do can make or break nature. And we sat on this small hill and did this exercise in which we as developers decide what to do with a certain piece of land and how careful the planning must be. And then we got to Rocky Shore and it was all covered in shells without a single patch of sand showing. We found alot of different marine creatures like sea snails, mussels, sea cucumbers but i wasn't too keen on finding worms though, lol. And guess what? We had to climb Mt Maunganui[Maunganui means Big Mountain in Maori] and on the way we encountered alot of goat crap, lol, but it was fun, tiring but fun to climb the mountain.
On the third day we learnt about river processes and we did it at McLarens Falls. We travelled through a forest first and saw a small but natural waterfall. And as we travelled i saw a skeleton leaf which was really a translucent leaf and after travelling through the forest we went to this small river where we measured its gradient and we caught water bugs in it so as to find ut how clean the river was, and guess what? It was extremely clean cause it was being cleaned naturally by the forest. After that session, we travelled to the Estuary it was so incredibly wet and filled with decaying seaweed and it stinked. Our task was really to find cockles in a given area and along the way we found some earthworms which really grossed me out [i really, really don't like worms]. By finding cockles of different sizes we could find out when a big flood last occurred.
On the fourth day we visited Te Puke High School first and talked with the locals. Our conversations mainly was about the difference between Singapore and New Zealand, but i really felt there was not much a difference besides our cultures and the fact that we were more big city while they were more 'country-nised'. But i really thought they were nice and fun. Then we visited Kiwi 360 where we learnt more about high-tech farming and Genetic Engineering [or GE]. Oh and i saw another worm again when a rotten kiwi got split open and the worm just wriggled out, gross [that was about the 3 or 4 time i saw a worm]. Then we arrived at the Paparoa Marae which was our lodging for a night. It was basically a place where the Maoris would live and i learnt so much about them there, like their different cultures, the way they welcome people, and i also learnt a dance while the guys learnt Haka [Maori War Dance]
On Day 5, we got to Hell's Gate, a highly active geothermal spot and the whole placed smelled of sulphur [it smelled like eggs and soya sauce, i think]. It was really owned by the Maoris and there i learnt the Maori's version of how New Zealand came to have geothermal energy. Well this is the story, a brave chief went out on his canoe travellling, searching for new lands, he got to this land which is now called New Zealand, he and his men climbed up a mountain but the higher they climbed the colder it got and one by one his men died. So the chief called out and prayed to his sisters[one could summon fire, the other geothermal activity] to help him, so his sisters sent fire to underwater all the way to him and that was how New Zealand had geothermal energy. And we got to the Rotorua Museum and got to know more about the Maori and geothermal energy. Oh and before i forget, the Rotorua Museum was an old bathhouse that dates back a hundred years ago. Anyway, after the Museum we went to our accomodation and got attacked by so many flies.
On Day 6 we visited the land of the Glow Worms, Waitomo. Anyway, glow worms are really glow maggots cause they're carnivorous, but i saw them in the Waitomo Caves and they were really pretty, but at the same time i was really afraid of it cause remember im freaked out by worms. And then we visited the Ruakuri Caves and saw the Cave Weta which to me looked like a humongous spider, lol, and as i said before in my previous entry, me and Chang Ling was putting on our hoods half the time, lol. On the other hand i kept losing my balance and Clarisse kept laughing cause each time i would narrowly miss falling off.
Day 7 was the last day in New Zealand and everyone was like really sad, no one was ready to go yet. But i really enjoyed my stay in NZ and the company of the ppl there and the ppl who travelled with me. Thank You all, lol, xoxo Heather God Bless All Of You
11:15 PM; MUSICfanatic, KNOWitY
Tuesday, November 08, 2005
Wow, i so love New Zealand, it must be the greatest experience ever to learn abt the Maoris and the New Zealanders, they are all so friendly and welcoming. Plus, the environment and nature there is absolutely beautiful, i really recommend it to all the ppl in Singapore and the rest of the world. But this school trip wouldnt have been complete without the ppl tt were travelling with me and i made so many new friends. They were all really nice and funny and im abt to name all of them,lol.
From the sec 3s we have Jessica whom i thought was really quiet at first, Olivia and Stephanie who are both from overseas and i thought the language they spoke was weird at first,lol. Then we have Jareth who was our 'chief' and spoke to the Maoris, and Erlina, whom i sat next to in the flight to Auckland and had absolutely no idea who she was but now i do, lol. And also i got to know Chang Ling, whom i thought was really smart cause she could answer most of the qtns but she also hated bugs and creepy crawlies like me and we were putting on our hoods half the time while travelling in the forest,lol. There was also Syadad, who half the time i thought was really broody and never really smiled including in photos, also there was Pearlyn who hung out with Chang Ling most of the time, but i didnt really get to know her better so thats bad, lol. Oh, not forgetting abt Thamachart who was the equivalent of a class clown on our trip, there was never a dull moment with him around. In the grp was also Clementine, Sophia, Clarisse, Gernaine and Tara who hung out together all the time, too bad i only really got to know them towards the end cause they were all so nice and energetic when they're not sleeping,lol, cause Clarisse and Tara are real sleepy-heads sometimes. And Gernaine is also from Megalife, cool huh? We also had Hui Qi who organised the whole performance we had to do for the Maoris and Russell who was called so many different names i cant remember all of them.
From the sec 2s we have Olivia and Celine, Olivia was one of the assistant leaders and Celine had her digital handycam with her half the time filming. We also had Jocelyn who unfortunately fell sick but got better towards the end, thank God and Tina whom i thought was really 'blur' at times and was really funny. Also from my class i had Amos, who fell sick towards the end, Tsz Pui who said something really funny on the second or third day but besides that he was quite quiet. Julia and Julien stuck together throughout the whole trip and i thought whenever i talked to them they seemed to be in a bad mood but i know that they dont exactly like me. Kabeer, Navin, Rico and Yong Yi were really nice throughout the whole trip, they were also so helpful and thank God they were there. I also made another 2 new friends, Jessie and Stephanie who was incredibly open-minded to things and were extremely nice. And the people in which i let down cause i didnt know what was going on in my life and at the same time i was having difficulties setting things right ,Jillene, Natasha and Xiang Yu, sorry, but i dont have any answers. Anyway, im glad that these ppl travelled with me and hopefully we willl all keep contact, but hey that's not impossible especially when you're in the same school. xoxo Heather, God Bless You
12:40 PM; MUSICfanatic, KNOWitY
