Successful class outing

NYJC's dragonboat team organised an inter-team dragonboat fun race at the Kallang basin today. I met up with my class at Lavender MRT at around 1030am. Everyone was excited about it. Each team comprised of ten members and had to have at least 4 girls. My class registered for two boats with almost everyone joining in the fun. One member from the dragonboat team briefed us on the event and taught us the rowing strokes.

We finally got into the boat and it was my first attempt at dragonboating. It was a great experience indeed. There were several rounds of heats with five boats racing against each other during each heat event. We came in last for our heats and were not able to advance to the semi-finals. Albeit the defeat, we were still joyous after the event. We did not enter the race to win, but to become closer.

At around 2pm, we washed up and decided to go for lunch together. We travelled all the way from Lavender to Suntec City just to have a meal at Subway. We were told about an promotion that Subway was having - buy 3 breads and get 1 free. So 3 of us chose the fillings, together with the free one. When we were at the counter, the casier then told us the promotion was invalid for our purchase. The bill ended up to be ~$33 for 4 breads! I'll definitely be more cautious about promotions, even if the staff recommend it. I should've followed other friends to eat at the foodcourt or burger king. It was a lesson learnt...

We finished eating at around 4:30pm and everyone left for home. I walked together with a few of my friends taking the same route as me. Along the way, they passed by shops and went into browse. Girls definitely love shopping... We then reached the mrt station at 5:30pm. I took the NEL and reached home in time for dinner.

I had a great time today, especially seeing that my class is finally bonding together. I still miss my NJ friends though, and hope to have an outing with them soon! :)

An Interesting Conversation

This powerpoint presentation showcase an ongoing conversation between a student and professor on the issue of science and religion. It's very interesting and if you give it a deep thought, there's nothing that can fully differentiate the conflict between science and religion.

Click here to view it :D

I finally feel closer to my classmates. We sit together during lectures, we have common topics to chat about during lunch and in class and also, we make fun of each other more oftenly. After more than a month, I've more or less settled down.

NYJC is known for its very weak GP grades. Now the college has even implemented a compulsory reading program for all J1s every two weeks during Wednesday's assembly period. Personally, I do not like the style GP lessons are conducted at NYJC. We have mass-lectures for GP, which I feel is totally unnecessary. Colleges with strong GP grades such as NJC and AJC do not have mass-lectures for GP. Instead of having mass-lectures, I think the time should be used for tutorial lessons instead because GP is a fully interactive subject where views of students must be heard. Mass-lectures are "one-way" and boring... Argh, I've a feeling I'm going to do badly in GP.

After all the lessons today, we had to attend a security seminar conducted by SAF at the hall. The seminar was conducted with the aim to clear any doubts students may have about National Service and SAF as a whole. The presentation was very short and the officer did not share much of his experience with us. Boring, IMO...

My YFC application is still pending approval and I'm really nervous about it. Hopefully my medical is cleared and I'll get an interview.

International Friendship Day

I don't know whether the actual International Friendship Day was yesterday or today. My friend in NJC told me the celebrated the occassion yesterday, but NYJC celebrated it today. There was a costume parade displaying the traditional clothings of the various countries groups around the world. There were clothes from Vietnam, Indonesia, Japan and China, not sure if I missed out any country. Then the SM2 scholars went on stage to sing Stephanie Sun's Together and Emil Chou's Peng You. But sadly, I feel that the concert was boring and meaningless. They should have organised some notes-exchanging session between friends, or maybe give out wristbands signifying Int Friendship Day.

NYJC also has a dragonboat fun-race coming up. We have to form groups of 10 to fill one boat, and almost everyone in class signed up and filled up two boats. I'm sure this event will be fun and hope that it'll bond the class.

Today's PE lesson was quite fun, probably not as vigorous as NJ's. I think due to the lack of PE teachers, each class were given a task list of the various exercises to do and we had to complete them on ourselves. We only had to run 4 rounds, do pushups, situps, dips and it was over. No wonder NYJC managed to clinch only a silver award for Napfa last year. o_O The Napfa test for NY is scheduled in May, I've to work on my standing broad jump!

It's Friday tomorrow and I look forward to the weekends. My YFC medical is during this weekends, hopefully I'll do well in it and get selected for interview. Wish me luck! :)

Wooohooo!

I went to SGH today to collect my Methacholine Challenge Test (MCT) test results and I've passed! Yeah, I finally have the chance to apply for a place in SYFC. The service there was great, doctors and nurses were friendly and helpful. I went to the confectionary shop in one of the blocks of the hospital for a light snack and a drink after that.

I'll be going down to SYFC to hand in the application form. There'll be a full medical checkup and an interview. Should all go well, I'll be flying :D I'm so excited about this great opportunity as it has been my childhood ambition to be a pilot. Obtaining a pilot license will open a door of opportunities for me.
My friend already submitted the application form. I hope everything goes well for both of us. :)

Long day at sch

Lessons ended at 5:10pm today because of a 2 hour long science practical session and a 1.5 hour long Chinese lesson. I'm beginning to feel more settled down in NYJC and also starting to make close friends in my class. However, the class as a whole is still not close. During lunch and breaks, the class splits up into small fragments, with groups of 3 or 4 sitting together separately for meals. How nice if the class could sit together around one table for meals and chat happily...

I feel that my CT cum physics tutor is very friendly and I have a feeling that she'll spur me to do well in physics. On the other hand, my maths and chemistry tutors are both very boring and speak monotonously. I'll definitely have to concentrate hard if I want to do well in these subjects.

My childhood asthma record has given my hopes of entering the SYFC a huge setback. If I cannot complete the asthma checkup in time, I'll not be able to enter the club as the in-take for JC students is going to close very, very soon. I cross my fingers and pray that everything goes well...

New timetable

I finally received my JC timetable today, and the schedule sure isn't pretty at all. School ends at 4:10pm on Mondays and Thursdays, 5:10pm on Tuesdays and Fridays and 2:10pm on Wednesday which is a CCA day. It makes me feel that I took NJC's 50-min periods for granted. NYJC's periods are 1-hour long, and shaving off 10 minutes each period may allow you to end one hour earlier everyday! Sheesh...

I went to the Singapore Youth Flying Club with my friend today to enquire the details of the course. The registration fee is $10 and if you pass the medical and get selected, the costs for the remaining lessons are fully subsidised. I'll be going down this weekend to register for the course and I hope everything goes well. It is my childhood ambition to be a pilot and I'm finally on my way to becoming one! If I do get selected for the flying course, it'll be a challenge for me to juggle my academic work, school CCA and the flying course.

There's a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. At the end of my JC course, I hope to gain as much knowledge and enjoy myself as much too.

At this moment, I still miss my NJ friends. My secondary school mates, who were in NYJC for the first three months, have found new friends. It now seem to have all comes back to square one when I entered NJ and had no friends. The new timetable starts tomorrow and hope that my new classmates will bond and have fun! :)

New attire

I put on the Nanyang JC school uniform for the first time today. The shirt was slightly oversized and so was the pants. Everything suddenly felt loosened up as compared to wearing my secondary school uniform. The brown coloured uniform looked like Hwa Chong JC's uniform, only that it was of darker brown. The attire also came with the belt, but I didn't wear it today. I think I have to wear it tomorrow because the pants is loose.

My friends also wore their new uniform and looked handsome and pretty. At the assembly ground, it was almost an entire field of brown coloured uniform. Last week, I could easily find my friends as they were in blue uniform, but the task will be much more difficult from now on.

There was a talk on SPA, followed by several lectures. As my physics lecture was scheduled at the end, it left me with a 2 hour break in between. I hope the new timetable will be released soon, or else it'll be a waste of time having so many free periods.

I'll probably be checking out the youth flying club tomorrow with my friend. Hopefully I'll be able to get all the details and decide whether to join or not. It is my childhood ambition to become a pilot and roam the skies in an aeroplane. But this dream could be shattered by the heavy commitments to my JC life.

I've pretty much settled down in NY already. I still miss the memorable moments in NJ though, and I'll remember them forever and reminisce them.

It was another boring day at school today. There were several make-up lectures for Maths and Physics. NY also introduced Project Work (PW) to all the J1s today. I don't know what will be in stored for me in this subject, but I sure hope that I'd be grouped with interesting and nice-to-work-with people.

I decided to miss the chemistry make-up lecture and went for lunch. I ate duck rice which had quite a small serving and drank iced milk tea. The meal wasn't very delicious though. I then headed home after lunch. In the afternoon, the air was hazy probably due to the many forest fires in the region.

Upon reaching home, I took a refreshing bath and started on my maths tutorials. I still have many to complete as I wasn't in NY for the first three months. I just have to take it as a revision. Later on, I went on a group outing with my NJ friends.

I actually wanted to bowl, but Wilson was unable to book the lanes at his condo. So I went to his home. My friends love mahjong and taught me how to play it. I was my first time playing mahjong. The learning process was quite hard as I didn't know the tile combinations, which tiles to throw etc. After a few rounds, I got the hang of it but still couldn't play well. The game was fun though.

After that, we went to a Jap restaurant at Lot 1 for dinner. I ordered char siew ramen with soft shell crab and green tea. The ramen tasted normal but the soft shell crab was nice. Then we began to chat. The whole TRP except one, was posted to the same class. He appealed from NY back into NJ but did not select CL 'AO' during the subject combination selection and thus was posted to a different class. Everyone was sad as the once 9-member strong TRP in S10 has dropped to 6 with 1 posted to another class, and Jinghang and I posted to another college. But on the bright side, this will allow us to form a cosmopolitan group, and we wil all have different experiences to share during outings.

We left at around 9:30pm and it was a one-hour journey back home for me. I reached home at around 11pm. The outing was fun :D

Anyway, Happy April Fools' Day :)