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Saturday, March 28, 2009 @ 12:56 AM
omg im like still awake trying to chiong through my homework load. this weekend is seriously crazy; its like i have homework for EVERY subject!!!

yes, so i dont really have the time to post all those lengthy + detailed posts on many fun expeditions that took place in the march holidays etc.
sorry la jerlyn, i will post the pictures/send them to you asap okayyyy.

okay the things i promise to post about:
1) jerlyn's celebratory outing
2) class gathering 3

hey wait how come it seems so little now.. haha.

oh yes, sorry for being so late but,

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LETING♥
2303
hey lovely batchmate(: i know i've yet to give you a birthday present, but i hope its coming soon. as in the opportunity to give the present to you. its been a wonderful 2 plus years we've been through together, be it for choir, school or just any other aspect of life. its just so natural how we communicate and read each other's minds; it's just like a gift or talent we both share, its almost as if we're related in some way. all the wonderful and unforgettable memories (be it negative or positive, haha) we shared, the ones we had in graz, during silly occasions, during choir/after choir, post christmas outings, and laughing over silly things just during plain normal times. the indescribable times we had will be/are already deeply etched in my heart. so, a big big THANK YOU for leaving such a huge impact on my life.
you know, its not the amount of time we spend together that matters, its how we spend time together. happy belated birthday, and may all your dreams come true! all the best in everything you do, and please remember to chill♥

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHANPING!♥
2403
boy its been so long man, shanping! haha. although we arent really close now.. i dont know why but i can still feel the heartwarming bond between us whenever i walk past/see you. i guess its been so long since the moment of time when RAS was still in "application", but those were the times that i'll never ever forget(: you being the first close friend i had in nanyang, already means so much to me. i guess secondary school life isnt how we always want it to be, and there are definitely regrettable moments for me. i still remember quite distinctly how the 3 of us would laugh over stupid things like um on the way to 3rd lang, making bread, in neoprint booths.. haha. although quite sadly its all over now, and much had changed, those times were certainly one of the best i had in nanyang. its been great having you as an exclassmate for 2 years, and a motivational and encouraging best friend that i could really rely on. now that we're in different classes, its only natural that we dont talk as much, but i really do hope our friendship will last for a lifetime.
happy belated birthday, shanping! all the best in everything you do and may God bless you!♥

xxx

SYF on 21st april; yes yes we can do it NYC!!!

all the best to everyone out there; lets tide through this period of turmoil together!

Friday, March 20, 2009 @ 11:26 PM
i want to take a breather.

holidays have been hectic, and actually more hectic than a normal school week. which is quite
horrible. monday i had choir, then tuition. tuesday tuition, and i got sick so i rested the whole day. wednesday had choir till 5, then went out to plaza sing for dinner with my family. thursday went to sign up for guitar course with jolene and the visit to the library wasnt as productive as i had expected. today i had choir from 230 to 5 and then had jerlyn's belated birthday celebratory dinner. tomorrow mgs workshop till 1230, then class gathering, and finally sunday with wppm(:

suddenly holidays are going to be over, and im so freaking dead. like i have TRUCKLOADS to do.

ugh, anyway today was quite.. not quite but rather VERY unexpected.

workshop with jonathan velasco was a success, and we arent labeled rotten eggs anymore(: its like we kept going around in circles aimlessly, and now we suddenly went back on the right track. it felt so good, right leting? yes now i can see the light. and i know we can do it, nyc!

gathering with jerlyn and cass was heartwarming(: its amazing how we still keep in touch after 3 years.. it takes true friendship to do that. did crazy things and laughed alot; pictures will be uploaded soon, with further elaboration. jerlyn, hope you liked today, and HAPPY BELATED 15TH BIRTHDAY<3

okay gotta rush to do work, bye.

Saturday, March 14, 2009 @ 11:04 PM
a wild ride/
yesterday was awesome(:

i can vividly remember that yesterday's physics lesson was the first ever that i enjoyed thoroughly. like ever since the start of the year, mrs wong's words are like tamil to my ears. but anyway, force is a good topic, at least a dweeb like me can get it. haha. feel really accomplished(:

zoomed to rjc chorale after choir.
i dont think i can ever be a successful navigator/tour guide; i'll just be putting the people following me at stake. seriously i made a huge huge huge mistake; my stupid instincts led me into thinking that 961 goes to macritchie reservoir so i led leting rebekah lingxuan jiamin and jiayan up. and before we knew it we were along some way leading to orchard. omgosh i was already panicking cos we were out of time, and becks wanted to walk so all of us went on a land expedition in the city towards macritchie reservoir, which we found out later was miles away. so, our land expedition was CRAZY. we were just less than a metre away from vehicles that could kill us. and we walked on this plank like thing along the sides of the roads. and amazingly there werent any other pedestrians in sight, so i assume we were having an illegal trek haha. it was damn fun anyway. its like dejavu; only the setting was in the city.
so we went to the opp bus stop and thankfully we took 153 to toapayoh mrt and went to bishan. dinnered at pasta mania, and ate some creamy pasta which nearly made me puke. its really kinda bad, but i decided NEVER to be a fan of such creamy stuff. juniors were laughing at my eating style; leting said i was like eating grass =.=
after that sop2s and a2s walked to rjc, and along the road leting suddenly spouted some funny nonsense,

"i burped, and i smelt my dinner."

this should be like, commercialised or something. what a nice and hilarious quote, LOL. i like such quality time spent, talking while walking. (:

RJC chorale was superrrrrrr good. although to me it isnt as strong and refined as rioHC, it has amazing entertaining skills. the way they walked into the LT was really surprising, and exactly the same way nyc walked into ny auditorium in my dreams. no wonder everything felt so familiar.. anyway, the concert was splitted into 4 distinctive portions, one by PUNCH, one by BEAT, and two others that i forgot. punch was REALLY good. the skit made us laugh like crap, and omg i LOVE the beatboxing guy. i think beatboxing is super duper COOLLLL. especially during acapellas(: charmaine and i think alike! and then there was this group who sang mambo number 5 which really really rocked; there was this guy who was exactly like a live puppet, his limbs look REALLY detachable and he danced really well. (:

i hope nyc can adopt such.. entertaining skills/performance for limelight this year.. and give the audience a good impression like how rjc chorale left on us. it left me really stunned.

but its time to turn back to reality now; first block test is coming up in like a week. syf in 30+ days, and endless amount of work to do.

really hope i can make full use of this march holidays! and simultaneously make it a very enjoyable and memorable one(:

oh and btw, CONGRATS TO NYNB B'DIV.
i always knew this would happen:D

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 @ 9:58 PM
choir today..

i feel very disappointed with myself.

i didnt know that it is that bad): i felt like tearing my hair today. i couldnt really reach high notes, i couldnt even sing and "sit" on a middle ranged note. its definitely not easy, but.. omgosh its driving me really crazy): tried my best to suck back all the tears of disappointment.
yes, many problems are surfacing, or rather, have already surfaced for i want to see them, be it the tonality, the chords, whatever. but..i dont feel secured enough. its not about anyone else, just myself. i couldnt really tune properly, the voice quality was just.. wrong.

i really detest the inconsistency that i possess. sometimes i just sink so much in self doubt, and i wont know whether im on the right track or not. something is just really really wrong with me.

i really feel like crying out loud and giving up, but i cant. because im from nanyang choir, and because im sec 3.

its time to push push push myself harder.
challenge your limits, amanda tan.
dont give up.

Saturday, March 07, 2009 @ 3:03 PM
OBS
i guess anyone cant deny that OBS was a one in a lifetime experience.

on the first day, i thought that the 4 other days that im was going to spend with my watch seemed bleak cos i barely knew any of them, but the whole course proved me wrong. the ups and downs that we've been through together as one really made us bonded as a team.

it was quite sad on the first day when i realised that my watch consisted of people that i didnt really know and am not closely related to, and i was really really hoping that my batchmates or jolene would be with me, but luckily i had peizhen beishi and so many other amazing people that i could rely on. getting through the first day wasnt easy. being in a different campsite with my closest friends made it all so much worse, but i sort of forced myself to be optimistic... that's the only way i could survive, no?

so we headed to pulau ubin by the rocky boat and all of us were like, eeyer! so dirty... etcetc but seriously, when we alighted at pulau ubin it was a whole new different story. bernard brought us to our dormitory (where we happily thought we were sleeping in) and showed us to our store. and we had to like take out all the necessities we needed, eg compass mass tins, knives, lifejackets... and they all look really... under unfavourable conditions. but we still had to live with it anyway. lunched at the canteen, andour first activity was belaying, which wasnt too bad yet! it was quite scary to be hanging from the top with all those helmets under the sun and everything, but it really really taught me how to trust. and yes, i'm still alive!:D after that we went to the forest to pitch our tents, and i was like OMG how were we ever going to climb up that steep hill with all these things!!! it was the first EVER time i actually tried to pitch a tent and thank god i made it. although i wasnt really good at it, at least i still had peizhen claire and yuehan. it was quite horrible to know that my comfy little bed would be replaced by some muddy tent, but i comforted myself with the thought that i wouldnt be alone :D haha. and luckily we had sleeping bags to start off with, so it wasnt too bad.

didnt sleep quite well at night, and wasnt exactly recharged for a full day kayak session the next day.

3rd March:
did awesome kayaking drills like holding hands and sinking into the sea in a formation of a circle and actually capsizing.. it was all seriously quite fun(: i love to get wet!!! but the difficult part was transporting the kayaks down the rocky slope which almost made me die. paired up with peizhen and i must admit we have good coordination skills:D although we didnt really start off that well at first, heh. kayaked a good 5-8 km (?) cos we were short of time after a period of rain. didnt consume much during those 4-5 hours, surprisingly. talked a lot with others and met a lot of new people. it was quite fun cos we kept banging into other people, so much like it felt like bumper car in those fantasy worlds? :D OH YESSSS. i cant believe i heard JOLENE in the middle of the sea when we passed camp 2 the first time, and peizhen and beishi and me screamed JOLENEEE but it all didnt work which was quite saddening. ): but as usual, she was screaming her head off over nothingness, haha.

finally reached campsite 2 and we seriously wanted to lay down and sleep, even if we had to be in the sea. continued to pitch up tents, then bathed and cooked:D omg cooking during camps aint exactly the best thing to do, but it seriously is very very very amazing. i developed quite a few culinary skills from there, but im quite scared to apply it at home, haha. ate rice and other ingredients which were super filling after a day of harddd work. oh yes and i learnt something: SING SONGS WHEN YOU HEAR DOGS! i was singing somewhere out there to the moon and apparently a dog ran away. HAHA.

4th March:
the next day, we had PT. i thought it wouldnt be that hard at all but it shocked me when we had to RUN. the other instructors said we were super hardcore(i thought so too) cos i totally didnt have the mentality to do such exertive things. and i cant do crunches for nuts D: anyway, the first activity for the 3rd day was rockclimbing. it looked okay at first, but subsequently when elton demonstrated my heart was already threatening to fly out from my throat. when it was my turn i sort of trembled halfway through but according to hsiaofong i climbed up to the first storey quite fast. ?! no i dont think so lor. haha. tried my best and amazingly did it to the second storey(: the scariest past was to fall onnnnn, and i screamed like HELL beishi said that the whole place resounded my screams. do i really scream that loud? hhahah. was quite glad that i managed to detach myself from the rock wall alive cos it seemed totally impossible to climb. thank you peizhen xinyung beishi and hsiaofong:D you guys saved my life! next was rafting. it was quite sad that marshall's raft didnt pass the test but at least it really displayed our teamwork and everything, so CLAPS! then it rained quite heavily so bernard told us we had better have our dinner at camp2 or else we wouldnt be able to at that ulu camp3, so fortunately we had a good dinner under desirable conditions:D maggi mee! the best one ever(: but the bad thing was we had to trek to camp3 IN THE DARK which was super horrible. hannah fell and sprained her ankle, sadly): i almost sprained mine too and i couldnt really take it halfway, but bernard kept singing "when you say nothing at all" by ronan keating i think and that cracked all of us up, and i continued the song with carrie and laughed laughed laughed our whole way there. but seriously, trekking in the dark? i've never heard of that before. FINALLY reached camp3 where everyone seriously felt like dying. pitched tents and went to sleep almost immediately. after putting powder!!! i bathed myself in powder,and caused yuehan to be covered with powder LOL. and i kept spraying myself with insect repellent and hand sanitizer cherie kept calling me a clean freak): but i felt really uncomfortable sleeping in tents like... without bathing?! so yeahhh. but that was a good night sleep.

5th March:
omg the LAST full day but sadly the most horrifyingly great day. ): note the oxymoron. it was trekking day, back to campsite1 and it murdered us all. but left us with a greatttt sense of accomplishment that could made us really cry(: travelling with marshall over such an amazing great distance of nearly 10+++ km felt really really good. there were other people who looked out for you and that was very heartwarming. really felt like giving up on the way and was praying super hard i could see jolene or leting on the way.. but sadly i didnt see jolene): missed everyone else a lot a lot and ig uess that was what that kept me going the whole way(: the power of friendship!! we were quite lucky cos we reached camp 2 and then it started to pour so heavily. bernard called us an impressive batch:D and we trekked 2km to camp 1 from camp 2 and took only 20 min which was the most unbelievable thing ever:D:D:D
i think the break really hyped all of us up.. with really good digestive biscuits plus prunes etc. and pink panther's really funny, she held up a plastic bag and said:

"nah! digestive!"

omg like how can a plastic bag be digestive?! so it was freakishlyf unny i laughed the whole way to camp1 haha. i was going to die already, just when i saw a tent, at least a sign of civilisation and OMG WE REACHED!! everyone was hooting for the first time, including carrie the cold one. was super duper happy when we reached:D hahah. next we had JETTY JUMP which really scared me. it was quite fun but my inability to actually swim made everything a whole lot worse. at least joy was there to pull me over to the barnacles-infested ladder LOL. jumping off that wooden thing really reminded me of peter pan which scared me so much, everything i got ready to jump i would imagine captain hook trying to push me off. bathing session was super hilarious with carrie and deborah cos they kept insulting choir in a weird way.
whats wrong with WORLD CHOIR GAMES HUH!!! games are not meant to be games in the literal way okay. carrie made it seem like games are like hide and seek and everything -.- and track and field shirt? she said that the first picture on it looked like the person was getting ready to spear himself, the next was he was in the process of spearing himself and the last was he SUCCEEDED in spearing himself. omg la how lame is thatttt. its supposed to be RUNNING SHOTPUTTING AND JAVELINNNNN. but you know, at least that kept her from screaming "HURRY UP LA " in the toilet.
celebratory dinner was so good although we were quite a failre at cooking, LOL. our originated idea of fried rice turned into a disguised mashed potato, and long beans were super uncooked. haha but it was the most most most enthusiastic night ever! i was damn happy everyone actually agreed to cheer our stupid cheer!:D:D

it goes like:

Marshall marshall all the way!
Dont give up,
thats what we say!
Die also nevermind,
All we got to do is try!

i have no idea why everyone thought that the the fourth line was particularly funny, but hey, at least we did it:D we displayed team spirit quite muchly i guess(: even though our end product wasnt really... edible i guess, heh. it was seriously the best night ever. and since it rained that night, all of us had to squeeze into mph to sleep. it was very cold, but definitely very heartwarming because everyone looked out for each other by sharing sleeping bags and bernard kindly lent us his tent and ground sheet.(:

6th March
the last day! cleaned up our dorm and store and all those "saikang" LOL. did the last group reflection about 30 min before debrief and eveyrone was really quite sad. spoke out our fears and lessons learnt. then we pledged to commit to our commitments by jumping to touch the bell. i was quite scared that i wasnt able to do it but i did(: the last few moments we had together as Marshall really really made me feel like obs... is so horrible yet so special. it really taught me a lot of things, like how a team really works, how teamwork is so essential in everything we do, how to socialise, how to look out for others, how to be selfless, how to truly believe in yourself in eveyrhting you do, how to exceed your limits by constantly telling yourself "i can do it!" and so on. i guess this was why we cried when we were waiting for the boat. for a moment i hoped the 5days would come back, i hoped that i wouldnt have to back. but at the same time i really missed so many people, i missed my old life so its sort of sitting on the fence. but im glad ive been through obs, it changed my life.

so when we finally got off the jetty into the boat, it really marked the beginning of a new journey, by a new me with my new and really good friends(:

obs is now a string of memory to cherish, it cant take place again, but i promise it'll be deeply embedded in my heart that i'll never forget.



Marshall ftw!♥

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