Goodbye 2007! Hello 2008!

And the last day of 2007 is finally here, and here we are, welcoming in the new year at midnight tonight. It's been absolute ages since my last blogpost, mostly due to the fact that I was on holiday with my family and when I came back to Kuching, I was just too lazy to blog. Too lazy to sit down with my trusty sidekick El Laptop and type type type. But I'm back, at least for today, and it's time to get back to the normal blogging routine. I've got so much to say, some pictures from the vacation, but for today, I'll just focus on reviewing the past 12 months. I remember doing something like this last year too, so let's try to make it into an end-of-year tradition or something.

Esther's Significant Events of 2007:

January to April - This was the second semester of my sophomore year in Unimas, and it was also during this time that I started getting caught up with the Heroes craze.

May and June - A period of total bliss! The 2-month holidays for all Malaysian public universities started, thus marking the end of my sophomore year. I was quite busy, going for church events, having slumber parties with my buddies, catching movies at the local cinema, and overall having a good time.

July to October - I entered my third year of TESL studies in Unimas. This semester was probably the most hectic and busy semester I've ever had. But we managed to pull it all off - crazy assignments, so-hard-you-can-cry exams, and the play production. The play was especially important, as I wrote the script and directed a group of 45 coursemates. This semester was also a special one for my debating experience. I was part of the Unimas A team that won the Yayasan Sarawak World Style English Debate Competition 2007, and it was a thrilling and memorable journey. We helped create history by becoming the first institution to win the championship trophy three years in a row. In the finals of the debate competition, our team was the Closing Opposition, and I spoke in the position of the Opposition Whip. I also won the Public Speaking Competition, also organised by Yayasan Sarawak. We made the news in 6 local newspapers, and to this day the memory of winning still makes me smile. Heroes Season 2 also aired in the USA, and I spent a lot of time and energy (not to mention disc space!) on each precious episode.

November - Holidays again! Went to Hornbill Steamboat twice, the first with some coursemates to celebrate the end of exams, and secondly with triSh and Vivian.

December - The best family vacation ever! 8 crazy days of shopping and walking and eating and laughing and touring the fabulous night lights of KL! I also turned one year older (horror of horrors, I'm 22!), and of course, beautiful Christmas! A new shopping mall called Boulevard opened, and for the first week of its opening it seemed like the whole of Kuching was concentrated into that one building! Traffic jams all over!

And there you have it. Memories of another year fading into a few pages of diary paper. In a matter of hours it'll be 2008, and the entire cycle begins again. It's funny how time flies by so quickly. Almost like blinking and realising the traffic light has turned green and all the cars are zooming past you. But anyway, below is another list to add to my blog!

In 2007, I discovered...

• Heroes
• Adrian Pasdar
• Bleach
• Cecelia Ahern
• that flowers can make me smile
• that I am a 'romantic sentimentalist'
• that dried roses are still very beautiful
• that I still can't finish reading Tolkien's LOTR
• there's nothing like a cup of hot tea on a cold rainy day
• an icy cold can of Coca-Cola is also really good
• I still like instant noodles
• spicy Korean noodles
• KimGary restaurant in Midvalley Megamall
• Shakey's Pizza serve pretty good pasta
• I never get bored of pasta
• I cook really good creamy mushroom soup
• DoTa
• the digital camera is a blogger's best friend
• you can debate in your T-shirt and jeans and still win
• "On The Street Where You Live"
• Facebook
• sloths are beautiful creatures
• kedondong juice
• belachan goes very well with kedondong slices
• that if you talk/eat too fast, you might bite yourself and get a terrible ulcer at the very spot in your left cheek where your upper and lower molars meet
• that if you smile suddenly in an air-conditioned room, your lips might crack
• cracked lips are painful
• that the colours pink and purple are really pretty
• that I get a headache at night if I don't take a nap in the afternoon
• too much sleep will kill me
• too much shopping will kill me
• too much Cola still hasn't killed me
• the words "empath", "cryokinesis", and "yatta"... all thanks to the Heroes obsession
• you always feels safer when you're holding a torchlight
• I still like little stuffed toys
• sometimes the simplest things are the ones that make you happy

And this is it, people! The end of 2007, the beginning of 2008! I can't believe this past year has flown by so fast! Too fast, almost. But then again, there's always tomorrow to look forward to! See you next year! Cheers!

Study breaks mean...

Why I don't like STUDY BREAKS

• study breaks = studying
• study breaks = studying lots
• study breaks = having to read lots and lots of really boring books
• study breaks = having that stressed, worried feeling at the back of your mind
• study breaks = the end of the semester = final exams (booooooooooo!)

Why I love STUDY BREAKS

• study breaks = a break from the hecticness of university life
• study breaks = the end of horrible assignments (for that sem, at least)
• study breaks = not having to drive an hour and a half each day just to get to class
• study breaks = not having to stay up in college and miss the comforts of home
• study breaks = waking up late every morning
• study breaks = sleeping late every night
• study breaks = watching all the really cool TV shows at night
• study breaks = not having to worry where the next meal is gonna come from
• study breaks = the end of the entire semester = a lovely 2-month holiday (OH YEAH!)

Cheers!

Today I...

• Tried fiddling around with my blog - So if you guys notice something different (ahem: if you hear something different), all I can say is... Muahahahaha! Yes, Esther the HTML-impaired Technopath-wannabe has been at it again, adding stuff by trial and error to see if it accidentally manages to appear successfully... So what do you think?


• Am preparing for a night out - At this steamboat place that I've never been to before called Garden or something like that. It's a reunion of sorts with some classmates and schoolmates who I haven't met in months (and years, obviously). Looking forward to the food. It better be good. For 20 bucks, it better be...


• Posting funny little CNY messages - Yup, you know all those graphic images stuff that people post on your testimonials on Friendster. Well, if you receive one from me, well lucky you!


• Am on my second day as a laptop-using, Internet-accessing person - Enough said. The wonders of the laptop and all (refer to previous blog entry).


• Stomach ache! - Right NOW! Rushing to the toilet. Will be right back. Wait for meeeeee...! *15 minutes later* Okay, I'm back. Resuming blogging session.


• Feeling rather lethargic - I'm wondering if it's because I sleep too much, or sleep too little. I mean I know this sounds a little confusing. This week the average sleep I get each day is approximately 8 hours. I usually sleep about 10 hours. So is an 8-hour sleep too little? But then again, I know the average human being survives with as little as 5 hours of sleep. So am I sleeping too much then? See my problem?


• Have new favourites - Am currently into Howie Day's Collide, Lifehouse's You Belong To Me, and trying to finish reading The Lord Of The Rings. Yeah. Just to give you guys an update and all.

Okay, so as of today, I am officially down to my last one week of holidays before university resumes again. One week of trying to get started on assignments. One week of contemplating whether to start studying for my midterm exams. But it's also one week of late night 'Net surfing and TV, one week of sleeping until the sun is high in the sky, and one week of carbonated drinks, cookies, and hanging out with my buddies! And to that, I say:

Cheers!

Goodbye 2006, Hello 2007!

Well, Christmas 2006 is over, and the new year 2007 is hitting us in exactly 5 days' time... So what have I got to say for myself this year? Have I been naughty or nice? I think I've been more nice than naughty... I mean, weighing it out comparatively, of course. Let me just run through the list of events and things I've put myself through this past year, okay?


Esther's Significant Events of 2006:

(1) Start of 2006 - I entered my 1st year, 2nd semester of TESL studies in UNIMAS. Looking back, it feels like such a long time ago, when I was still that rather naive, idealistic freshman, thinking the whole world of tertiary education was just oh-so-perfect and chummy, y'know? But yeah, I got through that semester, and now I've kinda 'wisened up', if that's what you can call it... I also moved out of college, and started driving to and fro each day. Yes, it sounds kinda hectic, but if you consider it all, the pros definitely outweigh (by a few miles and more) the cons. So who cares if I get home each day and literally pengsan for the rest of the afternoon? At least I still got to laze around the house in relative comfort eh? Not to mention the beautiful invention of mankind called the 'idiot box'.

(2) Mid-year 2006 - In March/April, I officially ended my stint as a university freshman, what with the culmination of it all ending in final exams and all. Then one month passed another, I think it was May, yeah, and I had the opportunity to travel to Singapore with a few of my church band members for a worship conference there. It really was a great experience (refer to my previous blog here for details). In June, the World Cup started in Germany. My team (Portugal!) did really well, and I'm happy they got as far as they did. In late June, I was called up to join some training at UNIMAS for Liaison Officers, to welcome the new intake of freshmen entering UNIMAS in July. It was 1 week of so-called 'training', and then it was Orientation Week, so altogether I was back in uni 2 weeks earlier than I should have been, if I had otherwise refused to be involved. But yeah, I took up the challenge, I survived, and you know what? It was a lot of hard work and sweat, not to mention the rather severe sunburns I got, but yeah I seriously did enjoy myself. Meeting new friends, getting to know some juniors, sharing laughs with other LOs... Welcoming new students at the bus depot and the airport, transporting students in buses (I more or less had full control of a whole bus all to myself), distributing food, conducting games and icebreakers, waking them all up at like 1 o'clock in the morning for a 'fire drill', yeah it was all in great fun, and would I like to do it all again? I dunno. I'll see when the time comes. In July, I officially ditched my role as a freshman to become a sophomore! Yes! Esther, now 2nd year TESL student in UNIMAS. Oh boy, this semester was nothing short of chaotic and stress. Being a sophomore is nothing like being a freshman. Talk about the shedding of all that first-year-oh-so-innocent mentality. And oh yeah, we finally moved into the new campus. I also moved back into college, just for the fun of it, y'know, to be able to say I stayed in both the old and new campuses. Oh yeah. Of course, the courses got harder, not to mention all the red tape procedures we all had to go through just to get the simplest of things done. But still, chalk it all up to experience eh? I also got myself involved (heavily involved!) with the UNIMAS English Debate team. In August, our then-small-and-unknown team competed in the Yayasan Sarawak World Style English Debate Competition, and it was great fun. It was an added bonus that I managed to steal off 300 bucks by being adjudicated as one of the three most proficient speakers... Oh yeah, definitely one of the highs of this year for me.

(3) Coming to the end of 2006 - I was still very much involved in all the debating stuff. More and more people started joining, and as of this moment, we're a pretty big family. As for my studies, well... To say that I slacked off would be one of the greatest understatements of this year. I really need to pull up my socks, buck up, start digging my nose into those books, y'know what I mean? Yeah, my studies dropped, to say the least. I failed 2 midterms, then had to face the possibility of getting Cs... But now looking back, after all that's over... Well, I don't think I did as bad as I thought after all. More about that soon. It's not official yet, but it should be confirmed within the next month or so. Anyway, yeah back to the debate. We ended up joining the Royals, which I have blogged about, just check out the previous entries. We didn't win, but we'll be back. Then on the 14th of December I turned 21. Enough said about this topic (which I've blogged to the death!), and moving on to Christmas. Christmas this year was a little different than the past years, 'cause this year my church decided to celebrate Christmas in the kampungs! Yup, just 2 days ago, I woke up at like 6am, and my Lifegroup members came to pick me up and we all drove the 1 hour plus journey to Pasir Hilir, which is the kampung my Lifegroup were celebrating Christmas in. It was interesting. Ask me if you want to know more.

So yeah. That's it. More or less what's been going on this past year. Doesn't sound like much to some of you, I know, but you know what? This were the highlights of my year, and it'll probably end up stuck in my memory banks for a few years to come. So to sum up this year, here take a look at what I've discovered this year:

In 2006, I discovered...

• Howie Day
• Teitur
• that I'm not as nice, or friendly, or patient, as I previously thought I was
• that people can be nice one moment, and mean the next
• that not all that glitters is gold
• most friends will come and go, but a few (very few) friends will stay forever
• that out of these few friends who stay forever, some are not that nice, but a miniscule few are real treasures to cherish and keep (to this friends, I say "thank you")
• no matter what happens, life goes on
• Patrizio Buanne
• that I can't seem to control my eating habits
• my favourite position in the debate team is when I'm the Whip
• that I still haven't completed reading the entire LOTR trilogy
• Yahoo! Avatars
• blogspot.com
• that even if you don't know anything about a subject, crapping 5 pages or so in the final exams can still get you an A
• that there is a reputation that comes with getting an A by crapping 5 pages in the finals
• contact lenses go dry and crisp under air-conditioning
• too much pasta will make me sick
• too much Coca-Cola will make me sick
• too much sleep will make me sick
• too much of anything will make me sick
• Grey's Anatomy
• there is more to life than what I am currently doing
• I get terrible headaches if I don't get enough sleep
• chewing Panadol without water tastes really bad
• sometimes, to be nice you've gotta be cruel
• I don't know very much about politics or economics
• singing at the top of my lungs while speeding 80 km/h is very stress-relieving
• I cannot sing
• I get lonely sometimes...
• sad songs can make one cry
• I love sad songs
• I love dreamy songs
• cooking in the middle of the night is an exhilarating experience
• U2's "With or Without You"
• Jerry Yan's songs
• my favourite Daniel Bedingfield song is still "Never Gonna Leave Your Side"
• some people change - some people don't
• it is possible to not take a bath/shower for 3 days
• it is not possible to smell nice without a bath/shower in 3 days
• it's nice to sit back and reminisce when a good song's playing in the background
• punctuality is almost everything
• sometimes you find a true friend where you least expect it
• Goo Goo Dolls
• writing is rather hard work
• I'm not getting any younger
• file-sharing programmes
• if I try really hard, I can understand a little Mandarin
• understanding a little Mandarin is not gonna get me through an entire Mandarin drama series with no subtitles
• life can be rather monotonous
• I can drink 4 to 5 cups of tea a day
• genius can only get you a short distance
• "Nobody's perfect... I'm Nobody."

And with that, 2006 comes to a rather brilliant end ("Goodbye 2006!"), and here's hoping 2007 will be equally (or more) fun than this year has been("Hello 2007!")! Have a great New Year you all... Cheers!

Esther's List on How To Waste Time

In the morning, upon waking up from a good night's sleep,

(1) Crawl slowly down the stairs in a state of grogginess (is there such a word?) - 20 minutes
(2) Search for Maggi Mee and 2 eggs - 5 minutes
(3) Slow-cook abovesaid Maggi Mee and 2 eggs - 15 minutes
(4) Eat abovesaid cooked Maggi Mee and 2 eggs - 1 hour
(5) Put bowl aside, read outdated magazines - 2 hours
(6) Crawl slowly down the stairs - 3 minutes
(7) Wash bowl with dried up Maggi Mee strands - 5 minutes
(8) Read even more outdated magazines - 1 hour
(9) Attempt to clean up room - 1 hour
(10) Side-tracked into playing with laptop - 1 hour
(11) Paint fingernails and toenails with expired nail polish - 2 hours
(12) Peel off expired nail polish from fingernails - 20 minutes
(13) Get ready to go out for dinner with buddy - 30 minutes
(14) Dilly-dally around house - 20 minutes
(15) Pick up buddy, dinner, supper, have diarrhoea in buddy's house - 5 hours
(16) Rush home, have diarrhoea at home - 30 minutes
(17) After-supper meal - 1 hour
(18) Dazed in front of computer - 30 minutes and counting

Welcome to my life.