Sunday, 07 June 2009

• Finally updated

  I've been back from China for about a week now, which gives me some time, to finally just seat down and consolidate my thoughts.
  
  I must say, going to China was a foolhardy move for me: I had every intention of graduating when I come back, and no intention of staying in school any longer.
  
  With that negative thought in mind, I didn't make any plans for the entire summer: internship, study, or part-time work. Zilch, nothing.
  
  But first, about the trip.
  
  Travelling alone always opens up a new side of yourself, I believe. I was just talking to S about it last Friday, and I think that the trip made me realize a part of myself that I didn't know. I can quite socially awkward due to an only child syndrome, and travelling with a random bunch of 24 strangers brought that out in me.
  
  However, I was really lucky to have been grouped with a NTU roomie. My roomie was awesome. I thought that pairing up with someone you didn't know at all would bring its share of hiccups, but we had almost no hiccups despite the stupid one-key only hotel policy throughout the trip. My roomie, C is also an absolutely seasoned traveller, and I learnt so much from her : her workaholic attitude is one, for starters. Every night that I came back from whatever wild rampages organized by our group, she'll be hard at work at her comp, tidying up loose ends. Oh yes, she owns a company. At 21. WOAH. It is really unfortunate though that the 18 days tired us out so much so that we didn't have much time to really talk. Everytime i was energetic enough to chat, she nodded off. And it was the other way round on the last day of our trip. Sigh.
  
  Anyway, back to the group. Initially I was apprehensive about being paired with someone else from another school. It meant that I had virtually no close friends in the group, or so I feared. I admit that I am too, a little too clique-ish for my own good. I blame on my girls' school beginnings. For once in my life, I had no close clique or partner to bond with, and I was left on my own to figure out the group dynamics. This meant two good things: being apart from the group meant you had a little bit of space left for yourself. It also meant you were able to observe different people in the group, without seeming judgmental.
  
  Apart from the social side though, I really enjoyed the late night alcoholic or non - alcoholic binges ( FOOD and DRINKS were cheap), the late night conversations with random people coming into my room to use the internet, the barbecue & Tsing dao beer at a roadside store, playing drinking games till I was unable to walk, being the confidant of short-term crushes, even to some extent the boring museum, tourist attraction trips. Bonding with the Chinese students also meant brushing up my Chinese, sweeping aside prejudices, and you know, just learning about another culture through someone else's eyes. Even now, despite the ups and downs, and there were quite alot of downs for me, I still missing rushing down at 7am just in time for breakfast, sleeping on the bus all the way to whichever tourist attraction we were headed to, late night outings, and the motley crew of random 24 strangers, thrown together to tolerate each other's weird mannerisms for 18 days.
  
  It doesn't mean though that it was all cherries and sunshines. I supposed people take the opportunity to play mind games and manipulate if chances arise, whatever the circumstance. And while those mind games frustrated me to no end, at the end of the day, I guess you just have to take these people with a pinch of salt.
  
  So back to the summer plans.
  
  I got my results back on the same day I flew in from Shanghai. And it was quite surprising : i did better than I expected. Not EXTREMELY well, but okayly good. After much thought, I've decided to stay on for the gruelling honors year...while it will be alot of hard work, I realized during the trip how much I value Education, and the fact that I actually enjoy every single minute of it - the bitching, the catfights, the endless nights trying to make the project WORK IT, the mugging...this is something that wouldn't be repeated in corporate life or any moment of of my life any more...so, while it sounds sadistic, I think I should hang on to it while I can.
  
  After about a week into Singapore, I signed up for an animation course at Egg Story. It's quite intensive, 4 x per week, 3 hrs per session. What am I hoping to gain out of it? I've always been interested in animation and I'm hoping this course will let me understand abit more about the rudimentary skills I need to work in this industry. I know that for this industry, software doesn't come cheap and the learning curve can be pretty steep, but I'm hoping this course gives me some heads-up.
  
  I wouldn't say I'm totally bummed out about not working. It was never in my intention to get a summer internship - I've had enough of working here and there in the journalism field, and the 3 x session interviews plus persistent phone calls from some companies while I was overseas turned me off from corporate life. Still, after coming back and catching up with the rest of the girls, it felt like quite a bummer to not be working...
  
  Then again, L's words of encouragements to enjoy my summer break ( my last one, to be exact ) is something I'm going to hold on tightly. I will try my very best to make this last summer my awesomest one yet.
  
  A volunteer opportunity and a part-time job are top of my priority list for now. Hopefully, I'll get to carry out these two!I think I'm hard-pressed to seat idle, just like S. It's difficult to do nothing and while away the time. I suppose it's human nature to want something you cannot have ie to want to work when you have time to spare.
  
  
  

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