Exams Over

My exams were over last Saturday. So now I can really say goodbye to the academic portion of my NUS life. However, I am still jobless, and will still need to attend interviews.

Tirza says that if I have to work, it would be only meaningful to choose a job that I really like (OK this is paraphrased, hope I didn't distort the meaning of it). Sadly the industry that I would like to be in is not really hiring in bulk. I can do other jobs, but I would only like to work if 1) I can learn things from a job, and 2) I am capable/ competent in performing the job well.

Sometimes I feel apprehensive to start a career in a non-pharmaceutical field. Because even if I have a chance to move back there later, I would need to start from scratch after many many years. But I would really love to get a chance to work in this field. It fits my character, and it would carry much meaning.

However, without a good honours, one cannot be picky, no? Sometimes you get to do what you love, but other times, you just need to love what you do.

Maybe one day, I'll just put down everything and chase my dreams opening a boardgames cafe in Singapore (may the board games heat among the Singaporean (and non-Singaporean) youth live forever!). Then I'll get to play every single day :)

Maybe one day, I might do a Masters in Business too. IF I could.

But now, it's time to be realistic, to be humble, and to accept whichever door God opens. Thank God for the interviews I got this week :) Hope to learn much from them.

Speech is not free

There are stuff that I would blog about at the spur of the moment, but then again, they are stuff that should be kept in a diary, or maybe not to be kept at all.

You may say: speech is free, it's my blog and I'd blog what I like in it, and it's up to you to read it or not. But certain things, once read, have irreversible effects, and I'd rather those effects not go out at all. It's not so free after all. Someone has to pay an emotional debt sometimes, and since I've already paid my part, there's no reason why the debt has to go out to others too.

Anyway all emo-ness aside:

1. Tomorrow is my first paper for my final semester's final exams. My aunt brought chicken soup for me again and even made extra for Jon. Super nice of her :)

2. Wayne visited Jon & me and hall this morning/afternoon. Can't believe after spending 2 hours with him the next time we'd meet would be at least a year away. But at least we get to meet.

3. Political sentiments are on the rise on Facebook and in the social media. And I haven't registered to vote. Which makes me feel pretty useless as a Malaysian.

You might think all those students who are studying overseas like us have no sentiments towards the country. Yes maybe towards an extent we feel helpless and eventually develop a hands-off attitude. I am no longer (that) concerned about who gets what percentile of the economic pie. That is a question that can never ever be answered without people getting hot and bothered over it. But what I feel REALLY unhappy about is that even when obvious tyranny is going on and our taxes are being exploited to prosper a select few, there is NOTHING we can do about it to protest. Nothing beyond liking certain statuses/pages. Even votes are sabotaged.

The cost of living is rising. And so is the nation's debt. I wonder when there will be a really big economic crisis, and our country will bankrupt without us knowing it. And when, and will, youths who really love the country stand up and run for leadership positions. And whether it will be worth their while doing it. It puts everything at risk for them if they do - even their lives.

Such sentiments are rising in Singapore too, but so far it is still under control. I wonder how long this will last as well.

Exam Week

Exam week has been OK so far. Not sure about next week though - a lot of memorizing to be done for Food Tech. :S Have an interview on top of that too.

Anyway I have been half-slacking, half-working the past week and more. Last Friday we had a board game session thanks to Jerome who has a nice collection of awesome board games. There was actually 2 sessions, but most people (read: everyone except Jerome and myself) only managed to make it for one. So I 'tried out' Incan Gold and Munchkins with Jerome in the morning. The minimum number of players was actually 3 but we kind of made do with 2. The only difference was only the lack of player dynamics, actually. I must say I quite like Munchkins now. Then we played Incan Gold again in the afternoon, and Settlers of Catan which I watched.

Went warehouse shopping with WM and Tirza (and Jon who tagged along) on Saturday but left quite quickly because there were no suitable clothes despite them being so, so, cheap. Still, there are certain stuff that I won't be wearing outdoors even if you paid me to do that (on second thoughts, I probably won't mind if I was decently paid), and yup the whole collection of those were in the warehouse. :S I wish I could have bought something but couldn't bring myself to. Anyway we had a quick tour in Clementi Mall again before returning from dinner.

On Tuesday Jon, Tirza and myself paid Alicia a visit in Oldham Hall. It was actually a cooking session by the three of them, but I tagged along to study in Alicia's air-conditioned room after being persuaded by Jon again and again. Turned out that the food was awesome, especially the mushroom soup and shepherd's pie, and I kind of felt like a leech for not helping to cook (but I did help to wash up k). Didn't manage to study as much as usual but at least I completed most of my tutorials there, on top of playing blockers (not sure if that's the correct spelling for it), and toying with Alicia's ukulele (my first time playing one!). Turns out that the ukulele is very easy to learn, and nice to hold and play to,o because it's smaller than a guitar. However, it is only limited to the soprano range. It was pretty cute. JonC came later in the evening and brought bread to go with the mushroom soup :D Then he demoed is new violin skills in front of the mirror haha. Thanks to him we got a lift back home too, which was good news for me as my EZ link card might not have sufficient credit for me to take a bus back without paying with coins. :S Oh yes Alicia has nice cheese from New Zealand too, and I tried Blue Cheese for the first time.

Yesterday night Jon and I over-nighted in the Chem Eng ice-box, and it was completely empty. So we used his headphones as speakers to listen to songs while studying. It was very fun for me - big comp screen and air-con, with our discounted student-priced McD nearby with its one-for-one Fillet O Fish promotion. Not so fun for him because he didn't bring his jacket and can't turn the air-con off. :p

Anyway that's my blog about the week so far :D I will miss these versatile hours and empty time-tables when I start work! But hopefully we can have board games sessions every now and then on weekends! <3

Jacky Cheung - 不老的傳說

Like this song :)