Road Trip - Thailand.

Hello!

(basically this has been sitting in my "draft" folder since like two weeks ago. >< ) 

First off: HAPPY BIRTHDAY TAYLOR SWIFT! Thank you for being so amazing and inspirational, for about 5 years I have looked up to you for so many reasons. Continue to make music and impact the world as you have now. I cant wait for your 5^th album! It’s gonna be great. And do come back to Singapore. I promise Cheryl and I will go FULL OUT to get into the T-party. Lots of love from Singapore!!

Okay. Now to the real stuff.  Haha

Sorry this is kinda late again, didn’t really have the time to blog about anything whilst I was up in Thailand with my family and all that. I’m currently on the flight back to Singapore. Feels good to be going home after time away in a country quite unfamiliar to me. Plus, CCIS starts tomorrow (for me at least) and I’m so excited to see all my mates again ^^. (miss them to bits)

some of the CCIS people.
CHARLENE DIDNT WANT TO BE IN IT :(
(i miss you all)

I hope that you’ll indulge me in sharing with you what I learnt and realized from the trip instead of doing the usual day by day kind of diary thing I usually do. J

From the start, I was actually quite reluctant to go up since I would be compromising time that I could spend with friends playing music and basically having fun along the streets of orchard road, sharing about the Christmas story and all that. (They told me that wifi was probably not available too, so that made me more reluctant) However, after the entire trip, I cant say that the semi “wifi-detox” was bad.

Equipped with a Sony A230 courtesy of my aunt, we set off to the land of smiles.

clouds. 

The thing about Thailand that I’ve realized is that while things here are quite inexpensive, some of the people here can barely afford that. I was quite fascinated by how the Thais lived their lives. Outside the hotel we were staying at, there would be rows and rows of shops run by locals trying to earn some cash. To my surprise, they never did harass us for money or food. Even beggars merely sat nonchalantly on the ground, cups in hand, some with children. They accepted life for what it was, even if it wasn’t the best.

hotel room

We spent a few days shopping here and there, as one should when in Thailand, buying mountains of shirts, dresses and twelve pairs of socks. (Basically they sold 4 pairs of socks for about 4 Singapore dollars, and my mum felt the need to contribute to the economy in Thailand through the large purchase of socks.) Walking around the streets of Thailand also showed me things that mass media would never be able to properly portray on screen.  Children were carefree, playing around in abandoned telephone booths, their primary purpose changed from a means of communication to a source of entertainment for the younger generation. The kids didn’t seem to mind when bugs would crawl or strays would come to accompany them during meal times.

This lead me to think about how they learnt to live alongside nature and all that, striking a slight balance between keeping the vicinity of their country business like and serious, and yet a place where weeds and grass were free to grow. Maybe it’s just me, but I suddenly felt that Singapore was too organized. Children are told not to play along the paths both because of hygiene and safety reasons, we don’t get to learn through actual experience. Dogs get chased away instead of welcomed because of the diseases that they may carry with them. Maybe it’s me, but I feel like maybe we see ourselves as beings much higher than living organisms even though we’re pretty much the same. We all want love, shelter, warmth, a family, and friends. So who are we to deny others of these rights?

Something else I discovered, was that Bangkok was really different. (I know what you’re thinking. “duh dumb ass, it’s an entirely different country”)  Compared to Singapore, I felt like their cultures and traditions were more deeply rooted in the people than Singapore’s culture. Hawkers would sell food that was uniquely Thailand. Thai people were selling Thai food. Rarely did you see any Thais trying to sell Norwegian or Icelandic dishes. In Singapore we see different people cooking various dishes, not necessarily from their own culture. I’m not saying that’s a bad thing; sometimes fusion of flavours is good. But I guess I was pretty flummoxed when a thai was cooking Thai food and not someone else. It tasted really good though.

FOOD. <3

(sidenote: I’m in the plane and we just hit turbulence. If I don’t make it, whoever gets this please post it to my blog. It would be much appreciated. Thanks )

Anyways, while looking around, I also realized that The Thais in Bangkok had to

Juggle having to keep their own traditions and cultures alive while coping with

the ever-changing world due to globalization. Many of their signs were in

English or Mandarin, rather than in Thai like one would expect. Honestly I was

rather shell-shocked when I realized there were no less than 5 Starbucks cafes

within a five mile radius from the hotel I was staying in.  This made me wonder if

the impact of globalization has in fact stripped away a portion of Thailand’s rich

culture.

After a few days of appeasing the shopping Gods, we took a roadtrip up to hua

Hin. Basically it was a 3 hour drive up to a fairly new tourist location, one that t

The government was trying to promote as a “beach getaway”. Well… there was a

Beach, but I felt the need to “getaway” from the beach rather than to the beach.

Yeah, I’m not really a “long walks on the beach” person. :/ But there was Wifi, so

I came out alive. The family spent nights watching movies like white house down and Mr bean’s holiday. (Joey king and channing tatum, shit down my throat omg)

Hua Hin was also something different. Since we were staying about 40 minutes away from the town center, we had to travel by bus to the mall to allow my mother to buy various things. The stuff sold there were pretty commercial, so there wasn’t anything much to see or buy.

paradise.

At the end of the day, Thailand was quite an eye opening experience. I felt like not only was a good time away from the busy and hectic Singaporean lifestyle, but it also gave me a chance to catch up with some family friends who also went on the trip with us.

we went to the beach too

the bulk of the time in Hua Hin was spent just relaxing and being with family. We cooked dinner and celebrated a birthday too! basically, given a chance, i would totally do it again, even though wifi was limited and there wasn't much to do. hahah

making the birthday cake

end product.
(aka. butter cake and nutella)

family photo :)

Alrighty, the plane’s about to land, so I shall stop here. By the time you read this I should be safe and sound at home, trying to make this more interesting by adding pictures. Catch you next time, guys :) 

weird face of the week.
(i actually have a whole lot of them now in my computer. well. )

Best wishes,

Audrey.

Packed to the brim!

Hey guys!

sorry this is really late, (we're almost through another week) I was really swarmed with stuff this week. From going Children's camp, to filming, to cafe hoping with the (Newly established) explorers' club, this week was really exciting. So much so that i forgot to post here on sunday since i was pretty tired out >< A thousand apologies. (ironically, i'd told myself i would try to blog more instead of doing weekly ones. Look how that turned out.)

For once, i'm not in some exotic place where the rain is beating down on me, nor am i in another country accompanying a friend while blogging with limited wifi. I'm seated on my bed with Hazel tucked neatly on my lap, typing away as i watch my sister sleep like the pig she is. (Honestly woman, you wake up later than me and you go to sleep earlier than i do?) 

Monday - Haji Lane // Ninja Outing

As usual, we gathered at 10am at YFC to learn about how the christmas story would affect the world and how our shadings, while small, could affect many people. I learnt that death is completely inevitable, and that life and the experiences we have (and will) face are things that cannot be changed. We can only learn to either live happily in the moment or learn from the past. (To be honest, i felt really weighed down, like woah man, it's only 11am! too deep for the morning )

After lunch, the fun started. :D

Remember how in the last post i said we weren't going to Haji Lane? The most beautiful place in Singapore? We ended up going there on monday, seeing as we were all really excited but the rain denied us of our fun. Personally, i was buzzing in my seat all the way through, excited for the shots that we could take. My camera isn't the best, but surprisingly it took pretty decent photos. 

The darling who helped take photos

We were basically given about an hour and a half to take whatever photos we wanted with a little toy. I'd brought along the little hulk i got from Malaysia a few weeks back, and decided that it would be my subject.

my shot of Haji Lane.

photo spam in 3. 2. 1. 

the little hulk 

typical dunbo shot.
(sidenote: it looks like it's about to fall)

Lamps. 

the opposite gender in their natural habitat. 

self timer selfie
(one of my favourite shots to be honest)

Basically i was having the time of my life, running from place to place trying to capture the best shot possible, soaking in the beauty of Haji lane. My camera does the place no justice, if you can, you should go see the area yourself. It's completely amazing.

As we were about to leave, the guys decided that it would be pretty cool if everyone was in a shot of them running, akin to those seen in movies. 

it resulted in this. 

The camera ran out of battery though, and as much as i would have loved to capture every colour and detail, my camera's battery would have rather let me keep those vivid colours in the depth of my mind. ( Legit. it was beautiful )

From Haji lane I grabbed a cab, rushing down to Ngee Ann to meet up with the Ninja's for dinner. 

Felt really nice to be back with the Ninjas again. Seemed like a huge family gathering. I found myself  missing the camp more during the meet up than right after camp (and that's a lot. i suffered from pretty bad post camp hangover). Obviously, some of my mates were there too, we come as a package. You get one of us, you get all of us :)

The evening started out with a game. Soon, we found ourselves witnesses to one of the many NP traditions: 7 wonders. Basically, this forfeit entailed that the victims  participants were made to have 7 points of contact. Thankfully, i only had to do it with a girl, and not a dude.

Notice how members of the opposite gender play the game with much trepidation,
touching foreheads all for the sake of fun ;)

We met up with Sam, where we talked about life in general, french and other things. Inside jokes and memories, among other things, filled my head as they were talking. After a while, we joined another table, to "make friends". Basically, this table had dudes in it. A girl and two dudes who had just met that day. 

The girls and i decided to be cheeky, tricking SLs and other campers into thinking we were international and we'd just met for the first time that night. The dudes fell for it, this guy (whom we later found out would be one of the guys in the NPP program) even stared at us, but you could see he fell for it. hahaha.  Sorry guys, but Sheryl isn't korean, Cheryl isn't Canadian and i (sadly) am not Half-swedish-half-vietnamese, and my "swedish name" is definitely not "Elin with an 'e' and two dots above it". (side note: i actually have a friend called Elin, she's swedish :) )

Sam and the Girls.

Sam and the other SLs decided to do the same, saying they were ABCs (American Born Chinese) and they had a long history of unplanned meet ups which lead to them being friends. (They did it in pretty good American accents, in my opinion) Sam taught me a bit of swedish, which i used on the guys. I shan't say what i said there, since it's pretty vulgar, but i told them it meant "i like beautiful flowers". He also spoke french and impressed us, especially Sheryl, and i was pretty gobsmacked too. 

Now, what would a blog be without a little romance, eh? ;)

We brought together (With the help of wingman Sam) Romeo and Juliet. Well, okay technically the dude's name wasn't Romeo, and the girl was basically fake canadian Cheryl, but it counts right? Sam, being the dude that he is, went up to Romeo and asked (for Cheryl) if they could take a picture. I felt like it was fate. The dude was wearing a suit, and we all know that if a cute dude wears a suit, he immediately become better looking. (Seriously.)

We ended with pretty cute photos.

Exhibit A:
Romeo and Cheryl.
Notice how the pair complements each other, thus leading to a very nice photo.
Also, with the help of a very good photographer (aka. Sam)

Exhibit B:
The rest of the picture
Notice how Sheryl and I made sure that there was a proper division,
 so as to allow proper cropping of "shipping" photos
You're welcome.
(thanks Sam, for taking the photos haha)

All good things come to an end, and as we left, pictures were taken, jokes were made. The SLs had Common Tests to study for, and we didn't want them to spend too much time not studying. It felt good to be back on a campus that i was already so familiar with, and yet learning more about it with each visit back.

I'll see you soon Ninjas ;) HIYA!

Tuesday - Media Studies Hiking Trip

Tuesdays are usually my rest days, where i spend pretty much the entire day being a blanket burrito, coming out only during lunch time to consume edible goods, or to go to the loo. But this tuesday, i was out and about, all the way in the east at hortpark with some of the other media studies students, searching for plants and other creatures in the park, being feeding the lovely mosquitoes, and making friends. 

The girls and I met up first to dance in the train and to make a card for our teacher. And as usual, like the many times we've been for lessons, our group was fashionably late. In our defence, we got lost. It's not in our area to be in Labrador park. We nearly missed our stop. 

Venessa trying frantically to glue things down. 

the frantic moment of not knowing what to write.

While at Nex, someone approached us with a ball, asking us to write our wishes for the new year.

Lihui's

Fake Canadian Cheryl's.

Venessa and mine.

Long story short, the teachers (whom we all know have a tendency to make our lives difficult) decided that it was only right to have all the students go on a "treasure hunt" of sorts, finding plants and taking pictures of them. It was hot, sweaty, but loads of fun. I didn't get to take pictures of the hunt itself, but i had a lovely time working with the guys from SST to search for weird plants ^^

Elephant Fern.

one of the plants we had to look for.
life plant.
just let that sink in. Someone called the plant a "life plant".

Afterwards, the whole bunch of us spent the evening at Vivo, where we sat around taking pictures and basically being kids. I love this bunch of weirdos. Honestly though, i don't want this year to end because i'll miss this bunch. They may not all be my classmates, but we know that we're always there for each other, through thick and thin, late nights and rushed assignments. The bunch of us grew closer because of our love for one subject and one thing: media.

Family.

man. i'm seriously gonna miss them.

<3

Wednesday - Children's Camp // Cine65

Wednesday was hectic. It marked the first time i was directly involved in a church camp as a leader and also the first time i was working with someone else to produce something. Basically everything that i'd learnt about being a leader in school, as well as in Media studies just came together in one day. 

Camp started really early. Usually i'm accustomed to waking up at about 8am so that i can head down for "work" by 10, but camp started at 8.30, which meant i had to get up at 6.30. Needless to say, i slept through my ringing alarm for about an hour and a half, waking up at 8am.

After dragging my half awake ass to church to lead, the kids came running in their masses with backpacks and food. They were basically bundles of energy which took me away. I'd thought i'd at least have a few minutes to take a nap before anything started, but nope, the kids came in like a hoard of zombies who'd just seen flesh. Basically, they were really energetic.

Iceman creating their poster
(Jeremy stuck his head in )

The kids were wonderful, even though they made loads of noise. Being around them made me feel really mature and old, knowing that their entire camp could be ruined if i screwed up. Felt weird to be taking care of the kids, brushing their hair, letting them sit on your lap, carrying them around. Suddenly i wanted to protect the kids more than myself. 

my tag.
(the kids gave me cat stickers, knowing i loved cats)

The kids learnt about the belt of truth which i won't go into, but they basically braided raffia string and made it into a little belt. One of my greater moments, i spent the night cutting away even though it was already 3am in the morning. 

one tenth of the total

You know how they say seeing the kids eyes light up when they get a surprise is the best thing? That was exactly how it felt. After they braided it, they came to us to show it off and stuff. Pretty cool.

The kids needed a cheer too. Since RED camp was still fresh in my head, i was contemplating teaching them a few of the cheers. Seeing as it took me 2 days to finally get them clearly in my head, logical Audrey was definitely right when she didn't teach it to them. (side note: how cool would it be for the kids to be all like "HIDAN MATI ICEMAAAAAN"? Putting that into the suggestion box. )

This kid found her way into Lisa's lap.

Right after teaching the kids i hailed a taxi and went straight down to Adria's house, where i helped a friend, Rayyan, to film something for a competition. This was basically the first time i'd be editing and filming for a cause, not just because i had a test or it was some weird random video type thing again. I was excited. (However, i did sleep in the taxi until we got there. the guy had to wake me up hahah. Don't know what that says about my excitement.)

When i got there, the guys were already hard at work, discussing what to film and all that. Honestly it felt really nice to be with people who knew what they were doing (mostly) and were all trying to work towards a single goal. 

Sorry guys, no photos. Was too busy filming to take any decent pictures! 

Sadly, we weren't able to finish shooting everything, so we had to arrange for a later date. It was fun though, Hermione, Vernette and I had a bit of "girl time" to talk about stuff and to hang out. It's gonna be pretty heartbreaking for me when 2014 comes and i won't see them around the hallways again. :( Miss them already.

Thursday - Children's Camp (part 2) 

Since the camp was only a one night stay over, everyone went home to their comfy beds the day before. The next morning, however, the same 8.30 call time applied and i was pretty reluctant to get out of bed. I was still pretty exhausted from the day before so i wasn't the happiest kid in the morning. I'm also not a morning person so that explains my clumsiness during what i call the "zombie hour". (Aka. Any time before 10)

The kids (again) were charged up and ready to go, may of them starting games of their own while the leaders tried to catch a snooze in the corner before everything started. I've realised that as a camp leader, you're basically tired all the time while the kids are jumping around. 

Kids doing worship. They were basically dancing.
their excitement was like. wow.

If not for Jeremy and Lisa, i would have probably died. In one of the worships the kids had to attend, they were made to use household objects to make noise. While Lisa and i had retreated to the comm room to get some sleep, Jeremy continued to stay with them, banging things and having fun with them. Legit, all my respect goes to this guy. Never once did he complain about the work or the kids at all. He'd make a really good dad hahah.

Jeremy and the kids.
It was kinda cute.  

Made a card with the kids.
(warbler colours)

Lisa.
(and that's the kid on her lap)

That night, the whole bunch of us decided that we would play cards. (Because it's not like we have to wake up super early tomorrow for the kids right?) After a while we were basically so high that we were playing games not to win, but to get the entire deck. Since many of the people helping out were all from the same cell, the "night games" session also helped us to bond a little more. We sneaked into  the kitchen to eat, snacking on food the kids would have been so jealous of. Stories were shared, people were teased, i'm pretty sure it's gonna be a night we'd remember.

Lucas taking a nap. He didn't want to go back to his own dorm, so he knocked out on the chair.

Chelsea being confused.
(mandy's phone and artistic skills)

The perfect set)

It got up to a point where we were putting down 5 "sevens" as a joke, knowing that there were only four in each deck. After a while, we all got really tired. The boys went back to their dorms and the girls fell asleep, all of us anticipating a brand new day.

Friday - Last Day of Children's Camp

Early morning the next day. We all woke up at about 6, stumbled our way to the toilets to get energised and freshened up for the day. My neck was hurting and head throbbing, it felt like i had a horrible hang over from the night before (not that i drink or anything, it just felt crappy)

We brought the kids to the park for some outdoor games, thankfully the rain had stopped just in time for the ground to be dry for the kids. Their task was to find flags and to do other things on their to-do list which would earn them extra points, pushing them up the scoreboard. 

One of the tasks was for the kids to run around the playing area twice. Now, we have established that i cannot run for nuts. This was just testing my fitness. The kids ran and ran, most of them were sweaty even after one round, but they were still really enthusiastic and full of energy. I have no idea how they did it. 

Heidi and Cindy playing on the slide

Kids after the run

They also had to take pictures with trees and ferns. We didn't know which fern was the right one, so the kids devised a clever plan to get as many ferns in the shot as possible. Smart kids. I was really proud of them ^^

The kids and the ferns.
(darren being fabulous at the back)
This picture would then become one of the most laughed at picture of all time

By lunch though, all the leaders were tuckered out, so we grabbed chairs and took a good 30 minute nap before the kids came to wake us up. Yeap. This was when we regretted staying up the night before to play cards thinking that the adrenaline would last us. 

On the bridge

After lunch, the kids had to come up with a performance that they could put up for the concert that night. The iceman kids were on a roll, ideas coming out from them one after another, building on the previous donation to the pile of ideas, slowly shaping their performance.  I had been left alone since Jeremy had left for Malaysia the night before, and Lisa had to attend a family dinner. Elizabeth helped me so much and she was so responsible and organised. I have nothing but great things to say about her. I might have died had she not been there.

cuties.

Long story short, the kids really put in their best, listening to instructions for the first time (haha) and even organising themselves for the roll call at the end. My heart basically swelled with pride and love for the kids. <3

finale night

they even dressed the ceiling
(aka. bad panorama shot)

Time flew by. The concert was done, the kids had gone home. Hopefully we gave them something to remember during the camp, and that we made an impact in their lives. Maybe they'll be inspired to lead children's camp one day too.

Saturday - Explorers' club

On saturday the gang went out to take some photos, i tagged along because my brain was probably still on adrenaline high. Venessa got her chance to take photos and to make Fake Korean Sheryl and Fake Canadian Cheryl models. i was just there to be goofy. But i'll save that for another post. Photo spam!

Explorers Club!

Venessa being all jumpy 

Known this kid for 10 years

SELFIE

frolicking. i was excited

the background was beautiful

i'm not going to get into the nitty gritty of what we did during out day out, but if you wanna see what mischievous things we got up to you can head over to Venessa's or Fake Korean Sheryl's blogs to find out more. It's actually 4.38am right now so i'm kinda frazzled out. 

We did get to interact with horses though. 

Adorable. 

You could see Venessa having so much fun with the horses, showing us around, telling us her experiences with horses. It's like we'd never seen so much passion and love in her until we combined road tripping, photography and horses together. It was pretty cute. 

Fake Canadian Cheryl and Venessa

Thanks for the memories guys. Love you <3

Overall, a wonderful week spent with many groups of friends. It was super busy, jumping from one place to another, doing different tasks almost all back to back. But i loved it. The week that's coming to an end was probably just as hectic, and i'll try to get that up by Sunday if i can find an internet connection point!

Alright, should probably head to bed now. 

I'll be blogging from the land of smiles next! Catch you guys soon!

Best wishes,

Audrey <3

weird face of the week