| with bells on |
[7.5.09] |
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mood |
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 mellow |
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Filched off fffound. Such an uplifting photo, it makes me smile. When I get married I hope my wedding will be intimate too, and as full of hope and light. Not some long and drawn-out affair where I turn into Bridezilla and the meaning of the vows gets lost among the pomp and circumstance of some elaborate affair with countless meaningless rituals that pleases neither the bride nor the groom, only overbearing relatives nobody really cares about. Mine will be cosy with only the few people my groom and I keep close to, inexpensive so we can spend more money on a longer honeymoon, at dusk because the wedding night will be closer and guests won't linger lolll and most importantly, make me and my man happy, even if it does nobody else.
Of course, it's much too early for me to be thinking of weddings. But still. Nice pic.
And like sands in the hourglass (I remember that phrase from watching Days of our Lives every afternoon at 2pm in P6)... the holidays are going away much too fast! So far I don't regret what I've done. Spending loads of time with family (though not with friends, unfortunately), travelling Italy, my internship... though I regret more and more what's coming after internship ends. Still kicking myself for getting involved with this whole painintheass affair when I want to savour all the time I don't have to be in school before school starts!!!! :( :( :(
Ahhh but I'll put that out of my mind for now.
I'm halfway through my internship, which is going really well! This is the first time since I've entered law school that I feel I made the right choice. I've been plagued by misgivings the whole of my first year, from the big regret at not going overseas to do humanities to the myopic quandary of law school, where I occasionally wonder how I could honestly and confidently defend any client in so-and-so area of law when I can't even get an A in anything.
Now though, I feel a lot more assured. My boss, who does mainly criminal law, has been a really great mentor, taking time to explain everything and answer my inane questions without making me feel like an idiot ("Err what's open court?") and more than anything, making me feel actually useful and that my opinions are worth something; discussing how to approach some cases and even allowing me to not just sit in interviews with clients before trial but actually field some questions of my own. It's a bit of a steep learning curve sometimes - on my second day he gave me over 200 pages of a Preliminary Inquiry on a drug trafficking case to read and then asked: "Not to put you on the spot or anything... but tell me how you think we should defend him."
Ya "not on the spot" haha.
It's great fun! I love using my brain, it makes me feel happy, strange as that sounds. There are a couple of trials going on so I get to go to court a lot, which is always dramatic in some way or other. I may even get to go to prison next week:D I've seen and heard a lot of not-so-good things too, that leave me to wonder about the state of law enforcement and prosecutorial discretion here and question a lot of comfortable assumptions. Quite an eye opener.
While no, it doesn't make me hop out of bed cheerily and take me bright eyed and bushy tailed on the hour plus commute with STINKY UNWASHED PEOPLE WHO DON'T SHOWER IN THE MORNING to the office (honestly what would? especially during the holidays!), I'm really glad I dedicated two weeks of my precious holidays to interning.
Oh and on the whole $MUL@W internship issue - ha honestly who's surprised, $MU has always been quite cutthroat about job placements and networking and other things to get you a job, while NU.S has really crap career development services.. well nothing much to say, just we'll see which uni turns out better lawyers in the end.
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[7.1.09] |
ARGH. I know this is an oft-repeated theme but WHAT THE FUCK IS WRONG WITH SINGAPORE'S EDUCATION SYSTEM? Seriously! What's the point of cramming all this USELESS mathematical and scientific knowledge down throats!! Raising the bar for amount of knowledge needed just to show off to other countries how "smart" we Singaporeans are? Good test scores don't make people intelligent. Any brilliant Singaporean gone and won a Nobel or a Pulitzer recently? People from other countries find it a complete joke that all we're drilled to do is pass fucking exams. And it's not helping the students, I can tell you that for sure. Most of the people who will end up reading this are probably like me; from the same factory mold of elite schools and high grades and prestigious universities and future careers. We normally forget that WE are the exception. This is a good system for people like us- and why the bloody hell should it be! Why make the people with average IQ suffer just so we can get better test scores? Why ruin some kid's childhood with tuition and abacus and assorted nonsense classes just to make sure he keeps up with the rest for the school? (Even worse, why do people with smart kids send their kids for tuition? Whoopdedee 95 isn't enough, my kid must get 100 for me to feel like I love him. I'm glad my parents never made me go for tuition once in my 12 years of public schooling.)
Yeah I suppose this is borne of my daily frustration with struggling in helping my ADD brother focus long enough to understand pi and algebra and cellular functions and other jackshit just so he can get past his PSLE to go to a secondary school. (Languages aren't that much of a problem because obviously you can speak it to understand it, it's a lot more real than all these stupid diagrams and numbers) I feel very sorry for him, but even angrier, that he has to suffer every single day to feel validated as a person.
When will they ever realise. Just having a higher IQ does not make you a better person than anyone else.
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| first day jitters |
[6.28.09] |
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 nervous |
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Starting my internship tomorrow. My criminal lawyer mentor has a trial so we'll be going to court! Should be interesting. Had a brief moment of panic when I couldn't find my blackwhites in my closet but then I realised I'd already taken them out lol.
BUT WHAT SHOES WILL I WEAR. I don't have a pair that won't tear my feet to pieces:( And I'm worried my mentor will be scary. And who will I eat lunch with. Hrmh.
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| Arrivederci? |
[6.17.09] |
flight home tmr aftn. don't mind leaving here, i'm sure i'm coming back again. this is an amazing country. i loved the cinque terre, which is made up of five small colourful villages carved into steep hills overlooking the italian riviera, where the sea is incredibly clear. steffi and i hiked along the coastline for four hours today. last night i watched fireworks. pisa was celebrating the luminare and all the city lights were dimmed or switched off altogether and the town glowed with candles lit in windows in honour of the patron saint.
should sleep soon, but i just have to say how very glad i am that paris was scrapped and I spent all 11 days in italy. paris I can appreciate better when i'm flush with cash and want to be swathed in luxury. but since i'm young and kinda broke and want to go on holiday to be thrown into an intoxicatingly intense culture that inspires shock and awe and takes me along for an adventure, italy was... perfect.
wish me luck dragging all my stuff home and see everyone very soon! miss family and scott.
next up: internship then law orientation. i'm still annoyed at committing my wonderful law-free holidays to going to school so often but too late I guess.
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| misadventures |
[6.16.09] |
don't believe ff and steffi if they tell you i set off a major alarm in the world famous uffizi gallery by breaking into the secret vasari corridor.
(i didn't break into it. technically.)
other than that (and the money i can't find, and the mercedes i crashed into while cycling lol) everything's amazing!!! have i mentioned how much i love italy? about a million times i guess. going home in a few days!
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| sunburn in europe |
[6.14.09] |
scooter trip in il chianti fail. it's a saturday so the bus we were planning on taking didn't run. gna try in lucca instead - can't believe we're leaving florence alr! days move fast.
i had the most amazin g lasagna and gelato in the world today mmm. i am going home with a body worthy for one of botticelli's paintings.. we saw them in uffizi today. omg i got sunburnt!!!!
must sleep night!
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| firenze! |
[6.12.09] |
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 giddy |
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Ciao da Firenze! In our amazing hostel right now (toilets are gross though but you can't have much when you're paying for backpacker digs obviously). Met up with FF today yayy. Have had a fantastic time so far in Rome and Florence. Today we checked out Steffi's beloved and very impressive David and took sneaky pics of him (now we've actually seen him I'm going to have to hear 'Dov'è da Vinci?' far more often from Steffi haha) and tombs of Michelangelo and Dante and Gallileo and walked around...a lot. Too much it seems cause Steffi's feet arches are aching so badly she can't join FF and I on our scooter expedition in Il Chianti (or our attempt to, anyway) tomorrow:(
Yesterday we arrived in Florence in the afternoon. Was pretty sad to leave Rome cause I really loved it there but Florence is great though expensive (Coco, Rome is cheaper than Florence!!) and I can't wait to check out the Tuscan countryside, which we got glimpses of on the train ride here. In the evening, we took a half hour bus ride out of Florence to this tiny hillside village called Fiesole, where the views are honestly breathtaking. Attempted to snap photos but they won't do the panorama any justice. We saw the whole of the city spread in front of us, surrounded by hills and valleys on which a few smaller towns were occasionally speckled. I guess I see now what people mean when they saw Firenze is the heart of Toscana. It was definitely great to go off the beaten path and avoid the tourist crush.
The day before that we checked out Vatican City. Spent ages in the amazing museum and we now have a permanent Sistine Chapel crick in our neck. The queues for the Basilica were way too long and the sun was horrible so we spent an hour just sitting in the shadow of some monument thing in front of St Peter's Basilica just recuperating. Then saw Pantheon and Tempio di Adriano (honestly only went there for the name haha).
Day before that... Trevi and Ancient Rome. Spagna is totally overrated, don't bother going there. There's honestly so much to see it's crazy. We walked till our feet burned and it was less painful to keep moving than to stand still.
I really love Italy!!!! (But I miss my family and Scott very much)
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| Ancient rome |
[6.10.09] |
Steffi and I walked till our feet practically fell off today. did the old city; colosseo, palatino, foro romana, capitolino etc. only managed to sit and get lunch way after five. that's like nine hours straight of walking. but it was completely worth it. the ruins are breathtaking.
food here is so GOOD - and surprisingly cheap!!!! pasta and gelato everyday mmmmm!! emirates has amazing plane food too!! I have only had fantastic food these few days.
I love rome!!! I want to live here:))
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| When in rome... |
[6.10.09] |
Jet lag is a bitch:( there's so much to discover here but steffi and I are back in the hostel room we're sharing with four other girls from argentina/brazil/dunno at 9pm cause we're just so shagged. This city is crazy and I love it! If rome were a person, it'd be the eccentric bad boy. The graffiti highlighted proudly like tattoos, the whole world weary and battered air hanging over the ancient buildings that make up this city, lovers grabbing each other fiercely in the streets and characters that could only have walked out of the wackiest tales- amazing!!
And omg I SAW IRAQ FROM THE PLANE TODAY!!!! I couldn't contain my excitement at seeing the red, harsh land and the towns that looked as if they were created from reluctantly chipping away the ground they stand on.
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| dubai airport is nowhere as good as sg's! |
[6.8.09] |
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at dubai after a seven hours of arm-restling (stef and I got seats far from each other though i'd reserved hers next to mine:s) and no sleep:x laughing at stef practising her italiano now. bagno!! dov'e david? haha. yawn. emirates has great food!
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| 31 hours to takeoff! |
[6.6.09] |
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mood |
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 stressed |
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STRESS!! The Pisa hostel just emailed me to say they only accept cash payments (wtf?!) and I already changed my money YESTERDAY! And I only have a 2gb SD card to take photos with, which is 600+ photos and since Steffi won't have a camera I doubt that'll be enough! And the train schedules from Pisa to Rome on the 18th are STILL not out! If we don't manage to get a train back on that day we'll miss our flight back home lol. And urgh not booking Vatican tickets online (if the queue is disgustingly long for the ridiculously overpriced Sistine Chapel I don't care how much of a blasphemy it is, I will forgo it all together). And packing sucks! I'm just going to bring one large wheeled luggage and a backpack.
Flying off tomorrow, excited:D!!! I'll be travelling with a walking pharmacy and a med student. Lol.
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| i <3 life! |
[6.2.09] |
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mood |
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 bouncy |
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At the moment life feels fantastic. Today I will get to see my scoddity for the first time in many many weeks! And Lin is coming back on Thursday! And I'm going to Italy with Steffi and FF on Sunday!
My experience in being cheap labour for G2000 at Isetan: HAHA I'll never do it again, $5/hour for being on my feet for hours at a stretch, telling customers "no more stock" and folding and refolding the clothes that just keep getting messed up again and again. It was painful and brainless and very boring, if I hadn't had good company my brain cells would probably have spazzed all over my achy feet. Charmaine Miranda I don't undestand how you can enjoy retail. Siao ah. But well it was definitely an experience. At ten am in the morning they play the Isetan song and we have to stand at attention. (!!) We have to take the service lift to go to any floor though the escalator was right in front of us. It's disgusting picking up and folding discarded clothes when the people who tried them on didn't shower!!! People come by once in awhile and check on "discipline" (i got told off for my nametag, I guess we can never escape schooldays lol). A man FARTED!!! EWWWW.
But there were cute things too, like old couples who come by holding hands, and a sweet elderly lady asking whether any of the shirts have breast pockets because her hubby, this cute doddering old man wearing those huge framed glasses that are fashionable nowadays, only wears shirts with breast pockets haha.
Lol definitely an experience, getting paid to do manual labour.
Okay, off to help my brother with his assessment books now. I love my baby brother very much, he's such a sweet boy. Though he can hardly be called a baby anymore - he's already taller than I am and he's starting to smell like a teenage boy, ick!! But he still has that slightly chubby babyface and demands cuddles from the whole family haha.
And then I get to see my boyfriend!!!!! I have missed him so much:(
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| The mocca ad on lj is annoying |
[5.31.09] |
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Tomorrow, in a bid to earn money, i'll be cheap labor for isetan. strange but i'm kinda looking forward to it, never done retail work before. i'll probably hate it but it's just for a day (covering for sher) and hey, new experiences are always interesting lol.
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| chase you down until you love me! |
[5.29.09] |
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mood |
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 blank |
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I am 90% positive I may be able to keep my scholarship for another year at least (: Whew. Okay lah I was rather disappointed with crim and contract, I thought I could have gotten better. BUT since I made it clear from the start that all I was aiming to do was not get kicked out from the scholarship and it's not like I was expending much effort in that direction anywayyyy I shall desist from hypocritical whining and calmly eat my string of straight Bs with a shit faced grin.
And on to more to important things:
- When to get flu jab?
- Travel insurance!
- Confirm accommodation.
- Start buying tickets for the major tourist sites?
I should really get out of bed to eat breakfast but I'm soooo lazy.
**************
Okay just went to polyclinic to get my jab. Yawn.
Lady Gaga's Paparazzi video is way cool! I liked the song when I first heard it on one of the earlier Gossip Girl episodes in Season 2 but I adore the vid!! Watch it here!
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| my (not so) baby brother says |
[5.28.09] |
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mood |
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 amused |
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"I will still love you very much even if you become skinny and not so nice to hug."
HAHAHAHAHAHA. Choke.
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| new moon? |
[5.21.09] |
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mood |
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 bored |
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Not a huge fan of the Twilight series or anything (read the books, watched the first movie, didn't really take to either though) but I have to say, Jacob looks mega hot on the poster taken off Perez. Never got all the oohlala about Rob Pattinson (hello, he looks like a crackhead paleface) and the girl playing Bella is an awful actress (deader than her undead boyf); but Jacob looks quite yummy. Werewolves>vampires.
I have nothing to do now, okay. Refusing to go out much (okay, at all) to save money for my trip. Schools haven't called for relief teaching. Haven't seen Scott in half a month:( Shereeeeen where are you!! Now you're not going to Japan you can come over:D:D
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| travel plans |
[5.20.09] |
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mood |
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 excited |
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I had this sudden desire to ride a scooter through the Tuscan countryside and I just spent the past two hours getting a biking tutorial from one of the few bikers I know over MSN.
I could be there in a month!!
First, though. Stop googling "how to ride a 50cc scotter". I'm sure my boyfriend would be insulted to know he had such a small capacity. Haha.
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| days go bye |
[5.18.09] |
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mood |
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bored |
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I just spent today catching up on the two series I've been missing for the past month or so. Haha. Yes, there are only two TV programmes I watch. Teevee's not my exactly my brand of heroin, as Edward Cullen would say. Anyway I watched the great quality episodes burned onto a DVD for Gossip Girl (thanks Terenz!!) and the crummy quality streams for Ugly Betty off greatstufftv.
I wish Blair and Chuck would get together already! I love the whole Daniel-Molly ship on Ugly Betty. Probably would hate it if she wasn't dying though.
Not been up to much, just staying at home, reading, planning my trip to Italy!!! :D:D (Paris was unceremoniously scrapped lol) Can't decide where in Tuscany I want to visit. And I should brush up on my Italian. The one thing I notice from all my travel experiences is that the natives treat you much much better if you can speak (or at least make a valiant attempt to speak) their language. So I really should learn more than "Mi scusi, puo parlare inglese/tedesco?" and other basic greetings lol.
Where to go after Rome and Florence? Still can't decide. I have 21 days to do so lol. Steffi!!
Argh and I really need to earn some money. Everyone keeps saying that the $2000 budget is a ridiculously low one for ten days in Italy but it's still a heck lot of money to me!!
I realise I'm not writing anything interesting these days. Haha no material.
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dri_zzle's journal
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