Wednesday, June 09, 2010

MOVED!

moved to gohjiayin.tumblr.com (:

scribbledY7:20 PM

Saturday, February 20, 2010

about time

Yes, I think it's about time for me to include updates from my experience in Deutschland! So here's an excerpt from my diary entry:

I don't want my exchange experiences to be reduced to vague memories and soon turn to dust and be swept away, lost and forgotten. So, I shall jot down the random things that shape/are representative of my experience here as they come to my mind -

- Living in a little town, or more like a village on a mountain (Hallgarten) of a little town (Oestrich-winkel).
- Walking the 2km stretch of road leading to Hallgarten MORE THAN ONCE in pitch darkness because some (perhaps governmental) mistake left this road stripped bare of street lamps. Without a torch, we had to reply on the faint moonlight and the glow of the white snow to guide us along the road to home.
- Fumbling with our house keys and the darn door for 15-30mins MORE THAN ONCE as our fingers (and other parts too) stiffened in the cold, because we didn't know we had to turn the key RIGHT and not left, pull, then push to open the door.
- Living on apples, kiwis, nutella, bread, chocolate, nuts, cheese and cherry tomatoes, especially when travelling (there's no kitchen to cook).
- Having all 3 meals at the nearby supermarket, preferably Aldi (it's the cheapest!)
- Collecting plastic bags whenever available in supermarkets is routine.
- Visiting the supermarkets more often than we go to school.
- Patronizing all 3 supermarkets in our vicinity (the school's vicinity to be precise - we've to take a bus out of Hallgarten, the little town within the little town) each time to buy grocceries at their most economic price.
- Usually visiting the 3 supermarkets in order of their economy in pricing - first Aldi, then Netto, followed by Rewe, the most well-stocked but also the priciest of the three.
- Hand washing our clothes because we've a calculative landlord who charges us 3euros per wash when other students have landlords who charge nothing for the use of the washing machine.
- Bringing larger and thicker items (eg. bedsheets, thick clothing) to our friends' house to wash using, thankfully, the washing machine - a humble but wonderful invention.
- Scheduling our days' activities around the bus timetable
- Getting paranoid when the bus is late (especially when it is snowing), because punctuality is not only a virtue but also the norm in Germany. A late bus means it was stuck in the snow some where and this opens up the terrible possibility of us having to return home (~2km, 50min up slope).
- Protein-less for a week - my first week in Germany.
- Skype-home and house-cleaning Sundays
- Watching cooking videos for tips and recipes
- Converting my room into a mini studio with a towel as a makeshift yoga mat for my exercise indoors, with BBC news playing in the background.
- Wishing I had a bolster.
- Pedalling a bike that can't back pedal. The pedals don't move when wheeling the bike. We got our bike refunded because it was impossible to cycle up slope to Hallgarten. Walking is a breeze in comparison.
- Enjoying chopping vegetables (don't ask me why) and cooking. I find chopping vegetables kind of therapeutic though I do cut myself occasionally.
- Becoming increasingly skilled at peeling kiwis through practice (I peel at least one kiwi per day on average).

scribbledY6:54 PM


Tiger Woods

It's funny how these days there's all the talk about Tiger Wood's public apology on BBC, and there's a similar problem I know of closer to home. Well, what I reckon is that people aren't intrinsically bad, but that people are just human. The fact that Humans make mistakes. I don't believe in the ideal role model. Everyone has an ugly side..it's just a matter of perspective. What you see is literally what you get. What you don't see is what you don't get...until you see it. I guess the important thing is to acknowledge your mistake and learn from it. BUT, there's a limit to how many mistakes you can make and be forgiven, because people can't be infinitely forgiving - they're human too.

Speaking of one's ugly side, these are what constitute my ugly side that I've come up with: too serious and uptight at times, insolent at times, miserly and picky at times, too proud to admit my mistakes or publicly acknowledge my ignorance at times and also petty at times. (I certainly hope that this list has been exhausted!) Note that "at times" accompanies each ugly trait of mine. Just to prove the point that people exhibit different traits at different times. Sometimes I find it pathetic and aversive how people tend to generalize and stereotype others, yet I'm guilty of doing that too at times. But I have learnt that this is a mechanism that we as humans are hard-wired to carry out. It's a way to simplify things; make information easier to process. So the key to preventing stereotyping really is to manage it.

scribbledY6:48 PM

Monday, October 05, 2009

exercising self-control

Self-control is like a muscle that needs to be strengthened, the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets. No wonder you exercise self-control.

Unfortunately willpower seems to be on the verge of fleeing and self-control is kind of evading me :( Need more discipline to study, exercise and eat right!

scribbledY11:53 PM

Sunday, October 04, 2009

con-fidence

That day i was just talking to a friend of mine and the topic of confidence came up. I recall telling her about how I envy those people who can exude confidence effortlessly when they speak and present to a class. And her response was: confidence is really con-fidence. It was kind of a moment of enlightenment and changed the way in which I view confidence.

Her explanation: there's a reason why confidence is spelt as such. The first three letters "con" literally mean conning someone. So now I view confidence as having two layers to it. The first being apparent confidence, as implied by the word "con". People deem you as being confident because of the way you manage to display an exterior of confidence. Basically you've successfully managed to 'con' people around you that you are a confident individual despite the few or numerous insecurities you may have beyond that facade. The next layer would be true confidence. You're indeed confident about yourself and this shows as confidence naturally exudes in your demeanour and speech.

Oh yes and now I remember how this topic cropped up in the first place. It was after CRM midterms and before Advertising. I was feeling nervous about my advertising individual presentation when I made that comment that was followed by my friend's remark.
Fear - the enemy of confidence. Only when you've confidence in yourself can you conquer fear. I'm glad my confidence triumphed my fears that day :) I was happy with my presentation and was glad I displayed my talent during my presentation. One of the rare opportunities to showcase my talent during a presentation - not for a general education module mind you, but a marketing module! I really owe my friend one though (the same friend who enlightened me about confidence) - she was the one who believed in me, the one who had confidence in me. If not for her, I wouldn't have done the stunt I performed for my presentation :)

It's amazing what confidence can do!

scribbledY10:13 PM

Sunday, September 27, 2009

I didn't have any summer romance

They're always writing songs
About a summer love
That never seems to last beyond the fall
But I ‘ve a different reason
For crying this season
A reason I can hurt you most of all

I didn't have any summer romance
Nobody bothered to break my heart in two
While others where fooled by the sweet words someone vowed
I was the one who made company a crowd

I didn't walk down the beach in a trance
Or listen to little white lies that sounded true
And no one could be as blue as I was in the fall
Cause I didn't have any summer romance at all

And no one could be as blue as I was in the fall
Cause I didn't have any summer romance at all

scribbledY11:40 AM

Friday, May 01, 2009

lazyy day

a lazy day at home then will be out for dinner later to meet up with my LTB freshies :) been a long time! 

ahh i'm still achingg..so loser-ish! after like a full day after training and i'm still aching :/

anyway had a good day yesterday meeting up with ying, together with shiyan and chris :) it was fun reminiscing about old times again. i just love doing that..it's damn funny. and then as usual we came to the topic of hc chinese dance and our two common enemies - our own teachers! haha. and the baby crying ringtone and the espirit skirt, the goldfish eyes, the warrior milkmaid costume, the bells that attracted more attention than desired, someone being stuck in the toilet cubicle when the rest were already performing etc etc. haha if you're an outsider you wouldn't know what i'm talking about at all. but well that's the whole point..not supposed to know. haha. 

ahh it's time to sort out my IE stuff...i think i haven't done that in almost a year now :s what a procrastinator i am. bleah. today's labour day! i think i should get it done today! fresh start to a new month and of course the summer :)

scribbledY1:58 PM

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

feeling shitty

sighh i think i'm going through a horrible phase. a phase where things just don't seem to be going right..went through a sickly semester, and by that i mean i was sick quite frequently then. and then now it's like the aftermath..the shitty results, the weight gain (yes i'm heavier now and i don't think i can go back to my previous weight, booo). i'm getting quite sick of school and things just don't seem to be going smoothly and i'm not too sure what's wrong. and i'm only halfway through! arghh. 

oh yes and by the way i just did a facebook quiz on my handwriting, and the result is that i'm depressive. how wonderful. doesn't make me feel better in any way. and what's more, my friend said that he thinks it's quite accurate :/ though i know online quizzes aren't to be trusted and are supposedly not indicative of what i really am, i can't help but feel slightly (or maybe more) affected. bleahh

on another note, i hope i get my internship soooon

scribbledY9:41 PM

love affairs
contemporary dance. latin dance. chinese dance.
my family. tako. buffy. meh meh.

me
goh jiayin / 吴佳音
singapore.

singapore management university (SMU)
hwa chong institution (HCI)
nanyang girls' high (NYGH)
nanyang primary school (NYPS)

me again.
indancity. caderas latinas.
nanyang chinese dance. hwa chong chinese dance.
hokkien huay kuan.
nanyang primary and nanyang girls' art gym.

speak


link up
PALS
hc 05S71 class blog
shimin
chelly
shiru
huixuan
kaiqian
pam
ritz
kian
ronald



reminisce
July 2007
August 2007
September 2007
December 2007
January 2008
February 2008
December 2008
January 2009
February 2009
April 2009
May 2009
September 2009
October 2009
February 2010
June 2010


credits
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