Tuesday, January 27, 2009

A special occasion

It is now the Chinese New Year! The festival traditionally begins on the first day of the first month in the Chinese New Year and ends on the 15th. Over the past two days, I had to go and visit my relatives. Since I do not have much relatives I only need to visit two relatives. On the the first day of Lunar New Year, I had to go to my aunt's house. At about 1.30pm that day, my uncle came to visit us first. I received a red packet from my uncle. Red packets are passed out during the Chinese New Year's celebrations, from married couples or the elderly to unmarried juniors. It is also common for adults or young couples to give red packets to children. The money is used to suppress or put down the evil spirit during this period. At around 3pm, they left and my aunt and her family came. I received another red packet and chatted with my cousin and there were so many things to talk about as we only meet once or twice per year. At about 5pm, we left for my aunt house. My aunt's house was beautifully decorated and really had the New Year atmosphere. I played the Nintendo Wii with my cousin and we had a lot of fun, it was very tiring too. Soon, we ate macdonalds, my uncle had bought for us. Time passed quickly and it was already 9.30pm and it was time to go home. We bid our farewells and left. The 2nd day, we had to go to my uncle's house, and about 2pm we reached our destination. We stayed there for about 2hours eating delicacies and talking about any interesting things that happened. At about 4pm, we left for home.
I think that Chinese New Year is a good time to gather together and talk. I had an enjoyable time and I am looking forward to next year's Chinese New Year.

A family vacation

My family went to Seoul, Korea from 13 Dec to 21 Dec 2008. As you know Korea is a place where few people know English, it was likely that we will have a communication problem, so we did some research on Korea to understand more about them and the language. When we reach Seoul, we were able to instantly feel the cold weather. It was about zero degree celsius. We took a 5 people cab which we book from a guesthouse and took about an hour to reach Seoul. We settled down in a special family room we booked and after resting, we decided to go and tour round the place. The next day, we went to try to take the ''MRT''. Korea's train system is very different from Singapore as it has about 12 Train lines unlike Singapore which only has about 4 lines, it was thrice the number! We used the 5 city pass that we purchased at the airport and they are used like ezlink cards.This is the written example of ''City Hall'' in Korean Language.



















The next day we tour round Korea and went to the shopping centers. We found out that the branded stuff like Nike, Puma, Adidas were cheaper as there was no tax included. The strawberries that were sold there were also bigger and juicer than the ones in Singapore. There was also something terrifying that happened. When the train we were waiting for arrived, we moved into the carriage. Normally when the doors are closing, the train conductor would say the door closing in Korean, but this time the conductor did not say anything and the door closed quickly. Unluckily, one person's foot was stuck at the door and the door closed. Luckily, the person was quick enough to remove her foot from her shoe and was just inches away from her foot being brutally crushed by the door. Everyone was shocked and I am glad that Singapore was not like this. The Korean food did not suit us and we went to a restaurant and ate this.

















Western food which we like to eat and this for dinner.




















The drinks we ordered are just like sprite and they come in glass bottles.









The next day, we went to an amusement park called Everland. It was not as fun as Disneyland but it is still fun. We went on a lot of rides and also went to watch some animals. There was this particular animal that I pity and laughed about. It was a polar bear and was caged in a open area. It was the only polar bear around and it walked from one end to another. It kept repeating the same pattern and although there was a pool, it did not swim in it. It just kept moving. I wanted to video it down but did not as the camera battery was running low. There was also a monkey area where you can watch monkies. Suddenly, we saw a chicken on the walkway. It was quite big and I think had escaped from the cage below.















This are the rest of the animals including the polar bear.



























































































These animals are in the safari.

























































Everland's rides.
























































The rest of the four days are used to go shopping round korea and we ate pizza hut on one of the days.These photos shows Korea scenery.









































































The pigeons in Korea are also fatter than Singapore's pigeons. People in Korea feed them with bread when they have spare time.














We had an amazing experience in Korea and my parents have taken a liking to the Korea food- kimchi. They have decided that we will be going Korea again this coming June Holiday.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Something unusual that happened that day

I had to do a project on a weekend and had to go to my friend's house to do it. When it was time to go home during the late afternoon, I grumbled to my friend saying that I had to wait very long for my bus ride home. He told me that a bus number 81 can be taken back to Tampines. I trusted him and so walked to the bus stop. Soon bus 81 came, and I board the bus. Due to the long distance to Tampines, I started to play my PSP, paying no attention to the surroundings. After finishing one long hard level of the game, I glanced out of the window, trying to see where I am now. But instead of the familar environment, the bus was going through unfamilar territory that bore no resemblance. I kept jumping up and down in my seat due to my extreme agitation.I was shocked when I saw a green sign labelled Serangoon Avenue 10. I did not realised I was so far from home. I decided to alight and climbed over an overhead bridge to get to the bus stop at the other side. I heaved a sign of relief to see the number 81 on the red coloured plate at the bus stop. I heaved another sign of relief when I read the words 'To Tampines' on the bus that arrived soon. As I sat patienly in the the bus, I decided to confront my friend who I assume was playing a prank on me. He replied ''Stupid, you must have taken the bus from the wrong side of the road'' in chinese. I still blame him for not telling me where to take the bus up to this day.

A moment spend alone doing something i enjoy

There are quite a few things I enjoy doing but I am picking something I enjoy most and that is playing games. Games are structured activities, usually for enjoyment and sometimes also used as an educational tool. There are many different kinds of games and I practically play almost any kind of games - strategy, RPG, first person, 2nd person, 3rd person, adventure, sci-fi, action, racing, sports, but i prefer playing first person games. Examples are Doom 3, Counter strike, Brothers in Arms. Many people say that games are useless and are a threat to our health, although I agree with these people but games can also be beneficiary to us. Take for example, Brothers in Arms provides some insight in the past history.It is said to be one of the most realistic and authentic World War II shooters ever.
Based on a true story, the game puts players in the role of Sgt. Matt Baker, a D-Day paratrooper squad leader as he leads the squad through the European campaign. Each battlefield has been recreated from aerial reconnaissance images, US Army Signal Corps photos and eye-witness accounts of war-torn Normandy.

I would play games when I have the free time and would enjoy it. Sometimes I would so engross in it that I will forget what time it is. Playing games are one of my methods to release stress.
Games can be harmful or beneficiary to us, it entirely depends on how you play it. If you were to get addicted, studies will then be affected and the situation might get worst if you cannot control yourself.


Brothers in Arms


Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Something that took place at school

It was just an ordinary school day except that I had a math project to do that day after school.It was about finding the diameter of the school crest which was outside the auditorium. When my group found out that was our aim, we were awestruck. How are we able to find out the diameter of the crest which was impossible to reach or touch it? But after thinking for quite a while, we decided to take a picture of one of us with the school crest in the background at the fourth floor. We then measured the distance from the camera to the boy and the boy to the school crest as accurately as possible. Taking the distance from camera to the boy was pretty simple except for the fact that the measuring tape we brought was not long enough as it was only 3metres . Next was the hard part. We went down and found out we had to measure the length from the library then across the pond and to the estimated part of the floor where the crest was above. Luckily, we managed to borrow a longer measuring tape. One of my group member then slowly walk to the edge of the library, careful not to fall into the pond. With help from another member of the group, we managed to get the measurement from the edge of the library across the pond.We then measured the rest of the length with ease. After that we tried to work out the ratio of the boy's height and the school crest to find out the diameter of the school crest. After a long period of brain juice used, we finally figured out the diameter of the school crest.
Since the math project deadline is not out yet, I cannot tell you what the answer is.