greetings from shanghai!
back from 16 days trip to shanghai. really missed all of you, my friends.
the first few days were the toughtest, as i tried to get over my home sickness and friends sickness and tried getting used to the weather, the food etc.
it was a really good experience. can't blog it right now. will tell u morewhen i meet u.
tmr will be leaving for san francisco. thanks to all of you who have been calling and msging me and made the past 16 days easier to get thru. made a new bunch of frens and guess we impacted the lifes of at least some children and old ppl in shanghai.
miss all of you =)

been packing my stuff this morning. think i packed too many shirts and pants haha. shaun has been telling me to go there and buy and wear haha. he has been there for close to six months le. less than a month and u will be back soon! we all miss ya :) remember to call me when i m there. haha i dowan to get lost or get kidnapped haha

watched the green mile last night. nice show. mixture of sombre-ness with humour. more impt is the lesson we take away from it. haven't watched a moving movie in a while. all the movies now revolve ard action, love, slapstick humour. mb i won't have the patience to sit thru a serious movie like this if not for a bunch of like-minded frens haha. where is the love man. whoever invented the electric chair ought to be the first to sit in his own creation. the amount of dignity and respect the wardens give their prisoners, maybe we can learn to emulate that level of compassion and tolerance for our frens first, before we learn to do teh same to strangers and to ppl whom the society has condemned.

anyway, these 2 days are kinda slack yet busy. i dunno why also. wed i m leaving already! the weekend passed so fast haha.

KACCANA!

boon boon and ryan

jacq and ue

kc and sj

kc's birthday!

Saturday morning - went to cut myhair, get a super huge luggage. need to slowly start packing stuff into my luggage. i have taken
1. medicine
2. toiletries
3. 2 power plugs/adapters
4. many story books
5. the blessed card

haven't packed my clothes. haven't gotten my vaccinations. need to bring
1. my camera + charger
2. my phone + charger
3. one marker plus one big paintbrush
4. waistpouch
5. slippers + shoes + socks
6. washing powder
7. tid-bits
shd i bring my laptop? hmm. not sure whether got internet access. plus heavy. need to bring all the chager, wires, cables etc.

and pls don't hesitate to msg (or call) me. u will be paying normal rates while i will be paying in yuan. will try to get a phonecard there and call back. if u wanna call me or msg me, just msg to this curent number. will definitely miss all of you so must msg or call me okie?

thanks everyone for ur well wishes so far. to xiong, alvin, wanling, dee, no worries - you will be in a little pocket in my heart. my sariputta gals and mentor will be in another bigger pocket (cos hwee a bit bigger in size) in my heart. liddat my heart very fast full liao hehe

alright finalised whereabouts of where i will be
7 june 2pm till 22 june 850pm shanghai
23 june 5pm till 1 july 1am San Francisco

to my darlings, luckily my parents din ask me where the flowers come from haha. my mum just said," nice flowers." :)

sunday morning
had a graet time with my family. went for breakfast with my parents and lion. eat full full and cheap cheap. then we went to sheng siong supermarket. next time we are under a budget, can go sheng siong. there is super cheap. most of the things are cheaper by like $1/item. bought loads of cereals, tid-bits for tonight's green mile :)

think my family really learn to appreciate the times we have before they do not see me for 3 weeks hehe. thanks for making me feel special. my mum has been taking good care of me. she knows i kinda over-exerted myself. but thanks to TLC, i m back and ready. and my dad has been doing all teh backstage - changing currency, buying insurance etc. think he was touched when i passed him the anti-bacterial cream. so thanks sj! and lion will be super happy when i m away. hopefully he will use my room to the fullest extent to study. no one to nag at him.

my parents have been asking me abt my results. yest my mum asked and today my dad asked. guess in jc there was result slip but in uni dont' have. dunno how to tell them also. so jus brush aside. think tehy see me play too much, hang ard too much, having too much fun, too many commitments. but to tell u guys, i really learnt a lot throughout these period of time. whether i m hanging out with my frens or hanging out at the temple.

and to SPEEDY, lion will be in charge of your mission to search for ur fren, SPARKY, the biggest cat with the waving hand!

that is all for now. shall blog more these few days :)

HAPPY BELATED BIRTHDAY KC
was caught up in my sucky mood yesterday forgot to wish kc a happy birthday.
think i was still caught up in my sucky mood today. my mum could sense it when we went to cut hair together. went to buy luggage get some medication.

and my sucky mood was gone when met hwee and mich and dee. thanks darlings, for a wonderful time. just sitting and talking and not rushing anyway. my sucky mood was gone too. hehe otherwise hwee will get an immense headache. no la it is nothing, so don't worry okie? and thanks for the flowers too =D 3 bouquets sitting happily at the florist hehe.

Not to do evil,
to cultivate the good,
and to purify the mind.
This is the teaching of all the Buddhas.

life cannot be smooth sailing all the time. but sometimes it is just hard to open up our hearts. i must be a jealous and selfish person sub-consciously. i feel like Jean Gray in X-men. not as powerful as her. but probably needs to control wadever power i have.

X-men is not worth a re-watch. seriously. i personally felt it was a dumb show. then again, it was not the best time for me to watch a show. but some characters are there without a purpose or reason. shall not spoil the fun. but the ending is super lame also. wad are summer blockbusters becoming.

i m getting kinda worried for my shanghai trip. no com, no msn. will miss my frens here. miss sbm. what have i put myself in man. i always do things on the impulse and ask myself the reason why. i keep telling myself it will be a good experience. but as the day of departure creeps nearer, i get more worried. and i m worried for a lot of other thigns as well. i m a perpetual worrier. it is not a good thing

my frens are all goign to work, study in poly... when i officially come back, think i will only be dreading for the day of school reopening to come. will miss all teh fun i had. all the times i enjoyed keeping myself busy. life will continue when we go and work, like this: all ur frens working and the only time u can meet up is probably afetr work. but u need to accompany family as well. sian.

meanwhile, enjoy wad we have. things will work out by themselves eventually i always believe. call me a procrastinator. fatalist. cynic. skeptic. probably ppl out there who are more procrastinating, cynical, skeptical than i m.

ehi-passiko
come and see you'll know
the teachings of peace
the teachings of love
the teachings of the buddha is for all
who wanna be free forever more

back from camp-ehi-passiko 2006 prequel. this camp is special. cos it marks the one year i have been here. haha. lasy june camp as a camper, dec camp as a group leader and this june camp as an organisor. very different roles, very different feelings and all for a good cause.

as a camper, i was apprehensive. i din know what to expect. probably the oldest camper in sbm history. nonetheless, i had fun, thanks to my group leaders, hong li and yi gong of Uppekha.

as a gl, i was more psyched up. must say my grp Panna had been really supportive and co-operative. it also tested my limits. many ppl helped me. remember forrester always suan me abt my grp. and hang qi was ever ready with his wonderful mop to help me mop up spilled food.

as an organisor, probably had more free time. no exact particular training, though our games team did meet up to rehearse. haha really had loads of fun, both at rehearsals and at the camp. with GAME GOD wencai, GAME MASTER alvin, Mr TEO liwei, as well as with the LOGISTICS AH-team, the Ah-li, Ah-Lok, Ah-Feng, Ah-Pork and alex and melon ryan and Big ryan! always gang up and bully me :( but really had loads of fun. once, i saw the happiness on the camper's face, how much they were enjoying themselves and i actually felt happy. u may think it is cliched, but when everyone is tired, sweaty, smelly, sleepy, u start seeing little things like this that brightens ur day and energizes ur day :)

first day was ice-breakers and station games. the field was muddy. but our campers were enthusiastic to really go in and get wet and dirty! u shd smell them man. sweat, water, mud = smelly haha. think they really broke the ice and made some frens albeit calling their team amtes by names like "nanyang gal!"

i was in charge of the water transport game, together with big ryan. my game was not exactly fun. but it was hard work. fetching pails of water. but all the teams really put in their best efforts. and their gls were very enthusiastically helping them. some of teh boys took off their shirts to soak up the water. remember forrester and jonathan refuse to take off their shirts (cos tehy scared fat) and jon actually used his head instead. super hilarious.

then the second day, the teams were sent on a world tour ard the Lim Chu Kang area. there were stations at the goat farm, frog farm, along the bus stops etc. i was stationed at the goat farm together with mr zz. mr zz was super funny. asked teh teams which came to our station to cheer him up but not with a cheer. so some teams gave him a massage, others gave him a banana strip tease and tehre was a team which acted the process of milking a goat. haha. both of us felt like singapore idol judges.

then at night, we had the night mission water bombs training for our campers. believe they enjoyed themselves a lot. was taking notes by the side. usually we only observe the exciting stuff at the front. i was in charge of the back and saw all teh funny stuff. like bryan playing with his shadows at the back. his team had left him behind and all the snipers had followed his team and left him alone and he still thot tey were after him. super funny. got many other incidents la. can narrate to u guys more.

third day was final showdown. i was prepared not to get hit by water bombs. but who knows? grp Upali had chosen me as their shiny card hero!!! my power was so lame, but i decided i had to help them, cos i think they really fought hard to get their shiny card hero and i could not fail them for my own fun's sake. had loads of fun shouting "sariputta star!" even tho there were times when other teams came and pelted me with the water bombs. super pain sia, especially when our armours were placed on the stomachs. must salute jonathan once again, who sneaked up on me from behnd and tried to hit me. pain pain pain. and lincoln was ever ready to protect me haha. thanks lincoln!

then we had our camp fire on wed night. i had so much fun. we sang more new songs, we danced for a long long time. teh parents also danced with us. nice to see pks ppl with us. like sel, ching wi, and nick shen was there too! haha

my eye was red. still is red. but that was not goign to dampen my spirits. supposed to help pack up on wed night. but must thank the logistics team. realy did a good job. while i sat ard, with my big red eye. i looked tired teh whole camp. sad. hopefully don't publish any photos of me or any video clips of me pls. PLS. PLSSSSS.

wed night slept at 5. sorry mich and dee, cannot tahan le. but nice to see both u gals. and sel and cherie, hope tests are alright. jiayi, hope u r enjoying ur italy trip :)

came home on thurs morning. after unpacking and bathing, watched a bit of nba before falling asleep on my sofa, knowing that detroits were leading by a huge margin. woke up for my shanghai trip meeting. met one new fren. ada :)

this morning went for ros meeting. pls allow my buddhist society to be set up. i have everything ready except the stamp of approval.

tonight we are goign to celebrate kc's birthday. to kc: happy belated birthday! sorry forgot to msg u on tues as i was in camp. not a good enough reason. happy biorthday my fren.
meanwhile, will continue doing up my teaching materials for shanghai trip. and the pictures u see below are the pictures we tok at the goat farm of the 8 groups. these 8 groups were named after buddha's disciples :)

Upali

Rahula

Kondanna

Purna

Channa

Subhuti

Anuruddha