me
LOVES
# Joy JM
# Dancer
# Believes in the spirit of volunteerism!
# Future backpacker:D
# NATURE-lover
# welcome all who wants to make friends:)
# To Sing:D
# Sunflowers!!
# Musical boxes:)
# Yellow & Orange
# Kids!!
And most importantly my brother, sister, mum n dad!!!
~Beautiful fragments of my life~
Saturday, January 15, 2011
School has started and I am back in hall, once again attending lectures and having meals with my hall friends, back to my usual routine of dance every thursday..
It's indeed a very enjoyable part of my uni life, but at the back of my head something just keep telling me that this is not reality.
Yesterday when I got home, problems that my family members and even my relative are facing just simply reached my hands, and there seems to be many matters unsettled. This is reality right?
Problems are unavoidable, but it really depends on how you view them as they are not necessarily detrimental. Sometimes they pose as a challenge or even a learning experience for us. And I feel that all these I am facing now will in some way or another contribute to my social work career:)
I really envy people who can voice out their feelings well. It is so hard for me to describe my thoughts and emotions to even my closest friends. And it feels terrible when you keep all the mixture of anxiety, fear, anger and sadness everything within you. Although I know when the storm is over, all these negative emotions will clear away, it is still very important to be able to express oneself!!
Really quite frusfrating to not being able to tell others exactly how I feel. And I admit that its a major flaw I have as it sorts of put up a wall/boundary between me and others, as if I am always keeping a distance.
I've gotta work on this! :)
Time to go back to my readings!
Love,
Joy
jiamin=) out
@ |Saturday, January 15, 2011|
Today's already the third day of 2011!
The weather is rather bleak now, haha but well, its time to share some thoughts:)
2010 has been a good one, where i got to travel, and also meet many new friends, especially those from Raffles Hall:) I believe that these bonds are long lasting. I also moved a step closer to being a social worker, which I hope that 2011 will give me more and better opportunities for me to work towards this dream of mine.
Now some updates of the previous 2 weeks!
Christmas eve was spent with hall friends:) David, Rohan, Waner, Edmund, Fauzan, then later Sean and Yuekiat.
We dinner ate at Swensons before Rohan drove us back to my house for a sleepover:) I love having friends over at my house heehee coz they can play monopoly with me!
Playing monopoly with them was really fun! Rohan was mega excited, trying to make deals using 10cents coins and by offering to buy cup noodles. HAHA! Really enjoyable.
Dad cooked beehoon for us and we finished playing at approximately 3am.
Some went off to sleep, leaving me edmund david and fauzan watching DVD all the way till about 5am.
Christmas was spent at AhGong's house, then Joyce and JH came to sleepover! Hahah played monopoly again. Then coz i was so tired, i went to sleep first. Joyce and I were chatting halfway when at 12 mn the crazy trio outside threw my bedroom door open and sang me the Happy Birthday song! Hahah! What a surprise huh!:D I was elated of coz:)
Boxing day (my birthday) was spent with family at Bukit batok CSC. Sang Karaoke the entire afternn. Had fun!:) Then Linyan and LEN came to surprise me over dinner with the lovely musical box and awesome hand-sewed and handwritten card:D
Hehe my birthday wish was for everyone to be happy and healthy, and to do well in their studies and work! :DD
MOnday i met up with Xinran to go to the Singapore Art Museum. The exhibit was really cool! It showed the way of life in the city of Pompeii which was buried under volcanic ashes many many years ago after successive volcanic eruptions.
That night, I had dinner with my dearest MS colleagues! Li ying(and her sis), shuling and shuen! Marvellous:D
Wednesday I went shopping at NEX with DG (which we did more talking than shopping). After dinner at Sushi Teh, we headed off to Singapore River for a walk. WOOHHOO it has been long since I last went there. We went into the prettily decorated Fullerton Hotel too! HAHA very pleasant to the eyes:D
We did some reflections and here's my 2011 new year resolutions:
1) To have a healthy lifestyle and get my family and friends to do that too
2) To pull my CAP up to above 3.5. I want to go for Honors year!
3) To dance my heart out:D
4) To take some time to help my sis with her studies.
5) To have a meaningful Social work field placement during the may-july holidays
7) To save up for Australia/holidays
8) To go for OCIP
6) TO LOVE, LAUGH AND GIVE!
p.s. Can someone lighten up the atmosphere please?
jiamin=) out
@ |Sunday, January 02, 2011|
Please treat my loved ones with respect. PERIOD.
jiamin=) out
@ |Saturday, January 01, 2011|
Yesterday was really unforgettable! Haha! Nat celebrated my birthday with me and we went to pizza hut for our dinner. Because one of the waiter was holding on to a guitar and offering to play guitar and sing to anyone who request for it, Nat asked him over to sing a Birthday song for me. I was so paiseh!
Hahah and he really sang a R&B style birthday song for me. Haha it was not bad la. So i thanked him. THen the surprises just kept coming!
Suddenly the "Happy Birthday" music was played throughout the whole outlet! And a waitress brought a scoop of icecream with a candle on it to our table. WOAH i was utterly in shock! Haha got people cheer some more!
Haha so i was thanking natalie for taking the silly step to ask the waiter to sing the song for me coz got free ice cream! Well, we thought that it was the end of it. Until.
The manager came and offered to take a photo for the 2 of us. Natalie reluctantly took the picture after much persuasion from the birthday girl:) Minutes later, the manager came over with the developed photograph in a photoframe! OMG i didnt know how to respond to it. Great memories, really!
So me and Nat continued chatting happily while eating our baked rice and pasta. When we were almost finished, another waitress walked over with a balloon sculpture and presented it to me!
Hhaha so i concluded that pizza hut's service is really good:D Very worthwhile meal I had yesterday:D
And the best thing is that my good friend is there to share this memorable moment with me:D
Hehe:D What a happening day yesterday!
Did i mention? Rapunzel is an awesome movie! Its hilarious, and really a well produced fairytale:) Go watch the video of the song "When will my life begin" and you'll know why:D
Today's christmas eve and I am in a really awesome mood:D
"Wherever you go,
No matter what the weather,
always bring your own sunshine."
:) Joy
jiamin=) out
@ |Thursday, December 23, 2010|
This whole week was pretty fun-filled and meaningful:) Tuesday and Wednesday was more monotonous because of work. Friday was fun because I got to go to town with Natalie(our yearly christmas time meet-up)! And we even met Waner and Ross for dinner this time round. The lightings wasnt as good as last year's, I feel. But it still felt chrismassy enough:)
Saturday I went to Nat's church at suntec convention hall. It was a youth christmas service and it was wonderful. When we first entered, we were made to walk across this passageway where there was "snow"! Woah we were all really astonished! Better than the one at snow city :)
Pastor Benjamin was the one who addressed us. And he preached about the part of the bible about how Jesus was born and prophesized to live as an equal like us. His name being also Emmanuel, meaning "God with us" and all. Though I am not a christian, I just listened with an open heart. And many things he said was applicable to our lives.
He talked about us being able to change our own destiny. He said that intelligence is nothing compared to wisdom:
"Favor opens the door for us, but wisdom tells us which one to choose."
I feel that religion is just something to guide people in lives. There is no good or bad ones. As long as we believe in it, we may gather strength from this faith to always try to change our lives for the better. I do not believe in being overly immersed or obssessed with it though.
Later that night, I went over to Ryan's house for his christmas party! The rest of our OG were already there by the time I arrived. Haha he really leads a luxurious lifestyle! He has aircon in his living room and he has a real big christmas tree at his front yard! Anyway, the food was awesome! Turkey, fries, chocolate cookies, expensive Royce chocolate, logcake.. WOAH! Really shiokk! HAha. So we stayed around and slacked abit, watched tv until 11plus and we went home.
And on Sunday(yesterday), a few of our OG people met again! We went to ECP to cycle:D
It was really great time spent and the weather was marvellous:) We cycled all the way from ECP to changi village. On the way, there were airplanes, rivers, nice trees, traffic lights(irritating), the breeze, and the awesome company:) We ate the famous nasilemak at changi village and drank weird tasting coconut juice! The journey back was damn tiring! Haha but we made it in the end!
Hanged around at the beach for a while until Ryan's dad came and picked us up. Haha it was epic coz we had to squeeze 5 of us at the back of the car!:D
YaY AWESOME! Great company makes a great day:)
Love,
Joy
jiamin=) out
@ |Sunday, December 19, 2010|
I went to IMH with Darrell and his Ngee Ann friends yesterday! Made new friends!:) Katherine, Yan zong, Marcus and Jeremy( who is extra friendly and talkative) haha!
THats beside the point. Hhaha the best thing is that we did caroling at a few wards in the hospital:) My first time, it was fun! Let me describe my trip in detail!
When we reached there, this uncle who was walking out from the outpatient clinic approached us and started singing really loudly: "We will we will rock you!" Lol! And severeal other songs. One of the girls was so shocked she teared and Jeremy responded the uncle with a "Yo!" The others were either trying to ignore him or trying to contain their laughter. Its really interesting to see how we ourselves react to these mentally ill patients.
Perharps when we say that such and such an experience helps us to understand them, we omit the important part: Dealing with these people helps us understand ourselves.
Later when we entered the wards, I was amazed to find out how we were very warmly greeted by the patients there! They were already standing at the door clapping at our arrival, waving to us and some even with handshakes:) I was expecting to find the patients living in their own world, making weird noises or simply just being very hostile. I guess we should never be too early to judge:)
After we performed, an aunty even asked everyone in the room to thank us! Haha they are all really very cute! And its easy to communicate with them also!:) I was talking to this malay aunty and before i left, she grabbed hold of my hand very tightly and asked me not to forget her. I felt so bad:(
Hmm, so funny people. THere was this female, she loves to sing, so Jeremy played the guitar for her so that she can sing! If you dont listen carefully, you might think that she is just making weird noises, but actually, there's a very nice tune behind it!:) Then theres this uncle who made one of the guys play the guitar and he sang this christian song to all of us. He was grinning from ear to ear by the time he finished singing! The guy made his day man!:D
Yep, so actually, if everyone gets a chance to visit imh, there probably wouldnt be this public fear of the mentally ill! Not all of them are psychotic, they are humans like me and you, they have feelings too!:)
I am reading this book titled "Born Twice" by Giuseppe Pontiggia, and many things that he mentioned struck me. He said ,"When we're hurt by diverstiy, our first reaction is to deny its existence, not to accept it."
THat is what leads to the creation of what deviates from the norm.
He then said,"Our need for the norm, if shooed away from the door, returns to menace us at the window. It's not by denying the existence of difference that we can fight it, but by modifying our image of the norm."
It is not only in the way the society discriminates against the mentally-illed, but also the disabled, migrant workers, act convicts, the critically ill... Too many to list! THese stereotypes and social stigmatization can really deeply harm the victims and impede their progress in our society.
We really need to change the norm!
Ok this is where I will end my reflections part.
Anyway, after the IMH visit, I went to my grandpa's house. He claimed that its his chinese birthday and got Ida to cook dinner for us! But it wasnt his birthday at all :( well, but in the end we still cut the cake, and he even gave us Angpow!
None of us dared to tell him that it wasnt his birthday. Is he like having delusions or is it just coz he wanted to see us? I am really puzzled!
Today I went to town with Nat! Bought christmas presents:) And then met waner and ross for dinner. After dinner the 4 of us went to walk on the streets. THe deco at CK Tangs really deserves to be awarded the best!:D
Looking forward to tomorrow! Gonna go for Nat's church service, then off to Ryan's party:)
Gtg, Ciao
Love,
Joy
jiamin=) out
@ |Friday, December 17, 2010|
I am quite glad I went down to gugu's house yesterday. Or else she probably wouldnt know exactly what to do when the time comes. And I am glad I helped her with the financial forms she needed to fill up, if not nothing will be done.
I was really afraid yesterday when I saw Gu Zhang gasp for breath. He was extraordinarily alert as well. How long can someone survive without food? My dad says 9days. Up till yesterday, its the 3rd day i think. I hope that when the time comes, everyone will be there to give my aunt their fullest support!
Love,
Joy
jiamin=) out
@ |Thursday, December 09, 2010|