a picture speaks a thousand words

What kept me busy during christmas/j-term break...
(not in any order)


trying to do a paparazzi shot..but i look too happy to be running from the paparazzi

Nene!! openly chewing on a fishball. haha

prawning - the first time where i caught only 1 prawn in 4 whole hours. those prawns were really quite sad. i watched them wriggle and struggle as their last ounce of strength drained away on the bbq pit and death consumed them. and them ming, joce and clar ate them. such sad lives prawn lead!

bottle tree park! ulu place. clar insisted on taking a pic with the sign.

i sure hung out with these 3 a lot this time round :) good times.

happy times right before joce threw her whole cup of some sort of tea onto clar's lap, whereupon clar just sat there stunned and unable to move as the drink soaked her entire outfit. haha.

family christmas party. we made ryan wear jedi's present (shirt) and mine (scarf) and he looks so cute! like a mini model :)

visit to the peranakan museum after service. kinda inspired by watching the little nyonya i guess. i only saw one episode though. one really boring episode where some guy spoke really bad english.

nyonya poses. trying to be demure :)

squashed in the mrt :)

last youth service :( but actually it doesn't feel so different.

eve + e8 (mostly)

even in the toilet also must take pictures. haha. shopping dayyy

fake eyelashes. what an experience.

oh aud. u make me laugh. :) christmas, christmas time is hereeeee. love our mini christmas hats! even though it was daylight robbery at $5 a piece.

happily pushing the huge cart at ikea. why? because i have humbly and obediently accepted my fate as someone's PA forever. need someone to hold your clothes and stand in line at Topshop while you browse through more stuff? sure. :)

more pics in the toilet. this time at some hotel toilet, which was swarmed with kiasu singaporeans unwilling to use the 'more dirty' ones in the shopping centre.

haji lane shopping! (meaning joce and clar spend lots of $$ while lm and me take random pics)

at some restaurant i forgot the name. oh Ivins!! i think.

cousins! although those cousins on the right i never met before but i guess we're related since we're at a wedding dinner sitting on the bride's side.

DE retreat. good times, good times :)

ignez is seriously the cutest baby EVER!

i love this pic. everyone looks so sian/sad, except for some CMI people who are secretly smiling on the right.

happy pic!

karaoke wed night. 'lord i lift your name on high!' :)

DE run. i got a medal for being road marshall. even though kevin and i didn't see the 10k runners and let them run 20k instead :)

Dawgz waraku ladies' night outing. omg never ate so much jap food before

our visit to Play! first gay club experience ever. and a pretty interesting one at that. haha

countdown party '08 at tc!!

ben is so cute :)

awesome foursome :)

at lm's house getting ready for the countdown

liang ming - nyonya in the making; cook-er of awesome food.

The rocker and the safari ranger. who wouldn't go see a movie entitled that? :)

it's 2009... party like a rockstar!

clarke quay in the wee hours of the morning :)

cartoon's first clubbing experience. too bad zouk was playing boring music.

yello jello the retro bar. it was a little sad to admit we knew most of the songs. means we're OLD!

christmas cluster party

awwww...this pic is so... warm :)

DE24 at the christmas cluster lunch.

i kinda miss my nice long curly hair. now it's short and flat and straight. argh. nvm wait for it to grow out. again.

ice-skating escapades.

:)

so most of these are on facebook. ok all of them. but it's always good to have multiple backups :)
can't believe i'm leaving tomorrow already.

One thing

Just one thing i have to say - i'm SO entirely glad i stayed home this j-term.

A bunch of reasons why...
-longer break, no classes!
-catching-up time with wonderful people
-Chinese New Year! finally after 2 years. pineapple tarts, hongbaos and quality time with family :)
-tons of bonding time with you know who you are :)
-DE retreat, which was really awesome especially hearing the life journeys of everyone
-amore kickboxing/new body madness (and making full use of the facilities by bringing 'guests' every so often)
-family time!
-watching movies, karaoke-ing, ice-skating, playing arcade games, shopping, eating yummy local food, prawning, clubbing, having sleepovers.... everything upland doesn't offer! haha.

actually i have more things to say. haha.
looking back on 2008, it's been a great year. maybe not so much restful since it's always crazy busy during the semester, but fun all the same. growing to love taylor has been a big plus. really learned to appreciate my family as i've realized how blessed i am because God has always been SO GOOD to me and my family!!
i thought of writing a list of things i'm grateful for in the past year, but it's tiring so maybe another day. :)

Home sweet home

YAY finals are over and they weren't too bad... and even though i stayed up till 5am last night polishing my script, it's all good!! am pretty proud of my finished product. came up with an AWESOME ending!! hope i get an A :)
my very first script - entitled 'The Long Road Home' - about a secret that binds two estranged brothers together... i really enjoyed working on it!! wouldn't mind doing more of this kinda stuff in the future.
so. leavin soon to go to miriam's house in indy to spend the night..and my flight's at 8am fridayy. so i'll be back sat midnight! can't wait.
it's kinda sad though. so many girls in my wing are leaving! three to study abroad next semester in costa rica, hongkong and ireland...one to get married...one to another school. oh well. will miss them.
pray for journey mercy and safety! :)

Phantasmagorical - sequence of real/imaginary images like in a dream

Totally how i feel now. Everything's just... so surreal. bizarre. dreamlike.
i really, seriously, honestly CAN'T BELIEVE i'm leaving in 3 days!! it's so weird. this semester, like all the others, just flew by in the blink of an eye.

Had my first final today, after i slacked off ystdy. this Specialized Reporting final was definitely the easiest EVER. his study guide was basically all the questions on the exam. which, by the way, amounted to 50 points. WEAK! even our last assignment was worth 60 points! so i totally didn't bother studying much for this. haha.

so ok. on monday, i didn't have anything, so i slacked around in my room and didn't put on any makeup. and then my friends persuaded me to go to dinner... so i reluctantly trudged to the DC looking all plain and washed-out. and then... i was really quite self-conscious of my appearance cuz i was makeup-less and donning sweatpants and a huge First West sweatshirt (I don't know why it's so huge cuz it's M..but i'm like seriously drowning in it). that just got me thinking of how i'm more aware of my appearance than in the past. like, i pay more attention to my makeup, to what i wear on what days...
and i guess that isn't bad, it's just... different. from what i used to be. but then again, looking back at what i used to look like, i always can't help but cringe. at my hair, my glasses, my style of dressing... haha. i guess we all have embarrassing phases in our lives.

but anyway, this week... totally heck care about what i wear. sweatpants and sweatshirts all the way! so comfy and no one cares anyway. since everyone else is wearing the same thing. too busy studying to care how others look like. also, i got my first 'real' American sweatpants over Thanksgiving break, and I LOVE THEM!!! SOOOO comfortable. nothing beats it. i just wish sgp was cold enough so i could wear it at home too!

and today's Freelance Writing final was totally not what we expected. after our specialized final at 10am ended at 10.15am (that's how lame it was), we carpooled to Fort Wayne for the last time :( it's been really fun hanging out with these girls for 5hours every tuesday evening. so we studied, or attempted to, at the Starbucks at Barnes and Nobles... for like 3 hours. but actually we talked and joked around most of the time and took frequent study breaks. haha. and left early to have dinner at Flattop :) and i was glad we didn't study too hard, although we were pretty nervous about the final. the prof's pretty harsh and it's a freakin 4 hour credit class.

but THANK GOD there were only 4 questions!!! we had to write a query letter, a devotion, a movie review and answer another question! that's all! so we got outta there in an hour and a half. YAY :) goodbye fort wayne forever... the feeling's kinda bittersweet. will miss making fun of the weirdos in class. haha

and the campus-wide study break in the DC today was pretty darned lame. no pizza, cookies, guitar hero, Wii like last yr. only cereal, milk, hot chocolate and donuts. L-A-M-E!! so it's 1am and i'm procrastinating studying for my final tmr.

Christmas, christmas time is HERE

I LOVE THIS WEEK! it's been full of Christmas activities. happiness :)
Monday was our Olson open house, which was kinda lame cuz we just got back from Thanksgiving and had zero time to decorate. but still fun. went to the Daudts' for Christmas cookies and carols. went to Wengatz (guys' dorm), which was really lame. they only put lights up and no decorations at all. not even food!

Wednesday was English (girls' dorm) open house, which was awesomeeee. tons of decorations.. themes like Gilligan's Island, Elf (the movie), Going green..etc. and Second North had a spaghetti + maple syrup contest (just like Elf did in the movie). was gross!! these pple sitting around a table, slurping spaghetti as fast as they can.. haha. pretty entertaining. Gerig was cool too..FOSO (the guys) had a sumo-wrestling pad. and they had hot chocolate in a mini-toilet bowl, which looked gross but i licked it cuz someone dared me to. haha.

Thursday no more open houses.. :( but the international students had a Secret Santa gift exchange.. i gave random candies and got a hot cocoa mix in return! it came with hot chocolate, mini marshmallow, a huge mug, chocolate and those cheese grater thingys to grate chocolate into my drink! cool or what?? i love it! haven't tried it yet but will soon! cuz it's freezing cold in my room - there's a huge, gaping hole by our window. it's been there the entire semester and they haven't fixed it yet. ugh.
thursday was also our LAST ECHO until feb!!! SO EXCITED! no more newspaper stress for a while!!!! YAY :) it went pretty well too. andrew was stressing us out about stories, and i had to write a last minute one, but it was all good.

and then FriDAY! LAST DAY OF CLASSES!!!!! SO HAPPY! this semester pretty much flew by! things just feel so surreal. can't believe i'm leaving in less than a week!

Fri was SILENT NIGHT! where we all dress in our pajamas and go cheer our basketball team on in their Ivanhoes Classic game. this year was funny. so we were all silent as usual until our team scored their 10th shot, then we all jumped up, hyper and screaming our lungs out. but then turns out the shot didn't count. hahahaha. so we all collectively sat back down and shrieked again 5 seconds later when they did score for real. haha. was fun seeing everyone dressed down. as usual there were half-naked Wengatz boys and Sammy boys dressed in weird outfits like Elmo and Winnie the pooh. haha. oh so fun. i got so excited cuz we WON! totally dominated the other team, doubling their score!! :)

cartoon,me,alana at Silent Night! too bad can't see my PJ bottoms. hot pink and white stripes! haha

Silent Night 2008! this year was way more fun than previous years.

Half-time games. look at our Taylor Trojan mascot on the left! haha he was so cute. anw those pple had to put on bball outfits over their clothes and whoever did that and shot the first basket in won. was pretty entertaining.

then we rushed to the DC for Habecker's Holipalooza!! Christmas cookies with frosting, hot chocolate, pudding eating contest, christmas carol karaoke, 'ice fishing', christmas ornament decorating, building gingerbread house contest, taking pictures with santa... oh fun times :) esp the karaoke part. there were definitely alot of pple who cannot sing but still sang their hearts out. their bravery was admirable. haha

At Habecker's Holipalooza... watching pple participate in the pudding eating contest. they put stockings over their heads and sucked pudding through it. disgusting but highly entertaining.

rushed back to the wing and we all drove to Fort Wayne to sleepover at Megan's house. her house...is simply beautiful. seriously. why can't houses in sgp be as beautiful??? they had a gorgeously decorated christmas tree, a warm fireplace, a coca-cola themed basement, huge TVs, comfy couches, a white christmas tree...beautiful decorations everywhere...omg was totally jealous. wish i could live there. haha. was fun hanging out and talking with the girls. talked about our VCs (visual crushes) again. haha. interesting how everyone has different eye candy. and on sat morning our PAs woke us up and gave us christmas presents from our parents! it's a sweet Olson tradition. i wasn't expecting one but they gave me two! they bought it themselves cuz my parents didn't send any in time.. so i got a barbie doll and a ribbon twirler. haha. our theme this yr was 'gag gifts'..so everyone got funny, lame, weird stuff. and then we got our FIRST WEST OLSON hoodies!!! they're red and so awesomely decorated by our PA Carrie's fiance :) she's leaving next semester to get married :(

Sat was the Christmas banquet at the DC..crazy crowded and waited like an hour for the food. but was better food than usual.. and was nice to see everyone all dressed up :)

at the Christmas banquet. yummy marshmallows/strawberries in chocolate.

oh josh. such the player.

oh cartoon. can't believe i've known her for almost 3 years! time flies insanely fast.

me and dan!


and then Sing Noel: Christmas around the world! the chorale did an awesome job singing all those songs in different languages. then they did a Bahamian dance. and we sang along with the songs in english :)

The finale of Sing Noel! was an awesome concert. those pple with the crazy purple headbands are my awesome Bahamian friends :)

went to the DC for desserts after the concert..

Me, susan, christina at the DC after Sing Noel

me, susan, janelle.

Rhona, dan, me, norah. their african outfits are AWESOME!

look at their cool outfits! and if u think i look like an asian waitress, i think so too. but don't care! couldn't find my heels and it was freezing outside anyway.

i love norah! :) sad she's graduating this year.

After Sing Noel.. with the awesome singers of chorale

and then to Payne's! a coffee place..and then to walmart where i got several christmas presents cheap :)


Midnight Wal-mart run.
Me=happy chick flick lover
Cartoon=emo macho/gross films lover

YAY for cheap movies at Walmart!

outside Payne's (cafe)..freezing cold and these 2 girls insisted on taking a pic

"Playing around with a feather" series in Payne's
Luke's 16th century feather pen

Susan sneezing out a feather. gross

My huge feather earring. total fashion statement.

erm.. my feather mask.. that failed to cover my face.

awww. cartoon, me and susan (cartoon's future roomie!) SO EXCITED. we're gonna have so much fun in the spring!!!!

birds of a feather :)

the whole group at Payne's. think this is the biggest group i've ever been with to Payne's.

Mmmm.. piping hot caramel apple cider on a cold winter night.

December=my fav month :)

I love december, yes I do!
I love december, how about you?

December = last week of classes, tons of holiday activities/open houses, yummy christmas cookies, break, christmas day, huge holiday sales, new year party, being home with family!
LOVE IT!

anw thank God we got back safely last night. drove for 12 hours back cuz it was rainy, foggy and there was tons of traffic. we almost ran into a truck once, but thank God Katie's such an awesome driver. i think we must've sung along to 1000 songs to keep katie awake. haha. it was such a fun road trip :)
we visited katie's church on sunday. was a nice little quaint church with really friendly people :)
and we went hiking up an intimidating mountain on sat! even though it was drizzling and the trek was kinda long and tiring, we made it to the top! where we marveled at the beautiful view. it's just so amazing how God created all this beautiful nature. makes me wonder how anyone can think that God doesn't exist.

and we got lost hiking down. hannah led us down this STEEP slope where we almost came to the EDGE of the mountain!!! it was pretty crazy. thought i was gonna die there. so we climbed back up the steep slope, slipping and falling as we went, and finally made our way back to the trail. thank God! we've termed this our 'near-death experience'! haha.
and then we tried to find the Hillbilly Hideaway, a family-style restaurant where they don't have menus and serve u anything, but it was creepily dark when we went in, and this guy with a torch chased us away and said they were closed. scary!

so we went to carter brothers. dinner was a splurge. BBQ pork, tater tots, mac&cheese, oreo/choc cake. ooh yum. we rationalized that since we exercised, we could indulge :)
and suddenly our adrenaline rush kicked in, and we couldn't stop laughing at everything! three waitresses came by to ask if we were ok, and we were laughing too hard to answer. haha. craziness!

Here's pics from our thanksgiving threesome road trip!


Our only sad photo from the beautiful Festival of Lights. There were lights forming every kind of shape! From santa to reindeer to fireworks to castles to swans in lakes to snowmen... it was simply magical driving through the park.

We climbed a mountain! It was like a 2mile hike. And boy, were we exhausted like 5 mins into it. we realized how unfit we are. haha.

I don't know when hannah took this. I was busy admiring the breath-taking view from the top of the mountain! there were trees galore.. in all kinds of wonderful colors like red, orange, green... and it was so foggy for miles.

we took turns taking each other. i love hannah's pose!

yayy for perseverance/determination and making it to the top!

i tried to look like i was falling and failed. haha.

angry macho pose. YEAH we're awesome hikers!

awwww. i had a really fun time with these girls over break :)

our 100th break. tired!

look at those steps! they go on for like forever.

we took a break like 10 mins into walking. haha.

ooh thanksgiving meal! sooo yummy.

yayy sweet potato casserole with marshmallows on top!