Chinese New Year

As far as many kids are concerned, Chinese New Year (CNY) means only one thing - ang pows 红包. It was not much different for me.  The way I saw it was when we were young, the celebration of CNY is all about receiving ang pows. Visiting relatives? Ang pow. Playing host to friends and family at home? More Ang pows. 

      I remembered the days when my sister and I would rip open the red packet once out of sight of the adults to see whether the inside content is 'a lot' or not. Those were the days where we children would be delighted to get even RM2 and gasped when it was more than that.  

       Now that I am older, I have of course realized that CNY is not just about money. It is more about spending times with our loved ones. The joy was to sit down together during reunion dinner and on another occasion on the 14th day of the CNY (Chap Goh Meh) to lou yee sang  to wish for prosperity and future success. 

       My family has the tradition to travel back to Bekok, Johor to my paternal grandparents house on the 1st day of CNY. For your information, Bekok is situated between Labis and Chaah.If you still don't know where is it, its somewhere near Segamat. 

        Bekok is a very small town with only two rows of shop lots, one restaurant, two grocery shops, one kopitiam, one municipal hall, one basketball court, two temples and mostly papan houses (yes, I purposely count out the number of buildings they have there)

        I enjoy these trips back as I get to spend time with my relatives who lived in Singapore. The adults usually gambled and drink and the children would play firecrackers. Since it is a very isolated town (I mean it, very very isolated) there are zero risk of police catching children playing firecrackers illegally because, they themselves are gambling too. 

        There was one year whereby the house opposite put out a firework that lasted for 15 mins. It was quite a majestic display as it was so up close to us!

        The most interesting thing that we do each year during CNY is bringing in the lion dance troop into the house. Each year, there are always two or three lion dance troops that travel house to house to perform lion dance upon request. 

        The usual method is for them to 'dance' in front of the 'praying table with the statues of guan yin and other gods'. The climax of the performance is to peel mandarin oranges to be eaten by members of the household. The catch is the more oranges you want them to peel for you, the 'bigger' the ang pow that you have give them. 

         This year there is something even more 'exciting'. I saw a 财神爷 (loosely translated as a god that brings wealth)  just outside my grandmother's house, with a basket on one arm filled with pink ang pows and a handful of fake golds on the another. 

         The funny part is, this 财神爷 ask for gifts like mandarin oranges and ang pow from you in return if you were to invite him into your house for the so called blessing of fortune. The 财神爷 also give ang pows to children, me myself included. Guess what is inside the ang pow.... TOTO NUMBER, NO MONEY. Yeah, that is the so called wealth that he could bless us with.

To all who are reading this,

恭喜发财  红包拿来 

祝大家在来年的牛年身体健康财运滚滚来

Gong Xi Fa Chai Hong Bao Na Lai.

 I wish everyone good health and prosperity for the year of the Ox.

2nd Week - What do I think about...

Okay. 2nd week has passed. Its Saturday morning and its time for the weekly updating of my academic blog. ( a bit late though). 

Seriously, I don't know what to write. I want to make the blog more interesting(perhaps creative) but I find it hard to do so. Words do not flow out smoothly from my brain and often I have to 'squeeze' my brain to get some ideas out. I don't think I am creative especially in writing. I always have grammar problems in my writings. This is why I do not like to write a lot. I envy those who can translate all their ideas in words, and coil all the sentences together in a coherent manner. It's hard for me to do so because.... erm..I don't know why. Hence I usually keep my essays simple and straight forward. 

I thought I would be free of essay writing after form 5 but the matter of fact is I am still stuck writing essays ( I do not detest it but I simply don't like it). What an irony huh? The more I want to be free from it, the more essays I have to write. Every essay felt like a curse to me, okay maybe this is a bit exaggerating but to put in another way, I simply don't feel excited whenever I have to write an essay. 

Many people would say you must read more, speak more, blah blah blah.... to improve your English but I do read a lot, in fact I enjoy reading the newspapers, storybooks, blogs etc. Maybe it boils down to a person's interest (or passion) to enjoy writing essays. Some people could write on non stop because they love writing so much. But for every sentence that I write, I would be worried of the grammar mistakes or the sentence structures. So, it can be stressful at times. This is another reason I don't like writing essays.

Okay, I know I sound a bit emo/pessimistic in this blog, but these are my thoughts about essay writing, and it happened to be not very positive. Nevertheless, I find great joy in reading.

Another Figurative Example

Hmm... I suddenly thought of another figurative example. It goes like this:

The future is like a vast open ocean. 

Explanation: 

The ocean waves are constantly being formed by the wind, causing disturbances on the water surface. This represents the conflicts in life that always trouble us.

The ocean is very deep and dark. This represents the many uncertainties and unpredictability of the future. 

The ocean is so vast that we could not see the end of it in a glance. This represents that there are many opportunities in the future waiting to be explored.

Ps. I think how you view the open sea (not just simply looking at it, but to feel the breeze blowing at your face and to look further upon) may account for what you think about your future.

:) 

Ciao.

 

First Week

Woah, I am back in college now. First week of lessons were so SLOW!! It felt like 6 months had flew pass, seriously. I pretty much dislike this week because most of my lecturers scared us and said "Everyone must study hard or not you will not going to fly to Australia."  I have been listening to this same sentence over and over again. I know they meant well but it's quite scary when they repeat the same statement so often. 

Oh well, I better start now.

I really like reading storybooks on my bed. I can hug my pillows and teddy bears when the story is heart gripping , toss around my bed when it's exciting, and "go to bed" when it's too boring. However, no way could I read a textbook or reference book on my bed. Impossible. I will straight away fall asleep. 

As for studying, maybe many will choose to study at the study table, bedroom etc. For me, there are few places I study at but definitely not my study table. My first choice is at the dining hall. reason being my dining table is very big and it is next to the refrigerator, which means food is nearby. Then, I can walk around to take a break or snack on food or play with my dog. My other preferences are the living hall and the balcony which is quite uncommon, but my living hall is rather empty and so I can walk around while I cram info into my mind. Best of all is that I can watch TV when I am sick of studying. As for the balcony, my house balcony overlooks a field and the view can calm me down when I am stressed up. Moreover, I would lock myself up in the balcony so that I would not be distracted. Weird rite?

Usually, I like to read at night. I don't know why but the later it is, the fresher i am. I also like the quietness and peace at night. No cars roaming, no one cooking or doing laundry... simply silence. My mum and siblings will be asleep and no one will disturb me. I be left alone. I can fully be immersed into the world of words and let my imagination run wild. Sometimes I will read until the next morning at 6 and still feel pumped up.

I normally study for half an hour at most without a break because I think it's crucial to take breaks in between to refresh the brain or to simply relax. But I can study as long as I want depending on how much time I have. It's a matter of desire. If I am really into studying (because the next day got exams), I would study longer and take lesser breaks. 

I consider the television to be my biggest enemy when it comes to my time management. I have a tendency to sit in front of the TV and stare at it for few hours consecutively. I don't know why but every time I watch TV, I will lose track of time and find it extremely difficult to press the switch off button. With Astro, I could watch many programs and this distract me even more. I always felt guilty but this does not stop me from watching TV. Maybe I have TV addiction and this bothers me a lot.  

On average, I will work on  few assignments in one evening, depending on when is the dateline and also on my mood. If the dateline is near, I will have no choice but to finish the assignments. Haha, but i am definitely not the hardworking type. I will delay my work until the very last minute.Oh yeah, if I have to write an essay, most likely I will spend a lot of time on it and go ka-put. Then i will be done for the day.

Talking about rewards, I don't prefer money, materials or compliments. I like a smile or a laughter from others. A sincere one. But a reward that I would give myself is to do nothing. Let me elaborate more. After studying hard for exams, I would reward myself by simply doing nothing, just sit down  and clear my mind. I reward myself in this manner because during exams I be very tensed up so by doing nothing I will feel better and relax.

So that's about it. Ciao.

A-ho!

Topic of lesson : Literary Terms

Example of  figurative language:

A computer game is like a conversation in a can.

Explanation : A conversation only involves two person in an event, unlike a opera singer who can reach out to many audiences at a time. Through the computer game, the game creator interacts with the audience (player) and the interaction is one-on-one. Yet, both the creator and the player only converse in a contained space, that is in the game only, thus in the example, the can represents a close space.

Foreword

Hmm, very surprised,  suddenly I am asked to (have to) start a blog , wait, not an ordinary blog but an academic one, or you could call it a reflective journal.

I find it rather amusing when my English teacher say everyone should start blogging now so that we can improve our English AND save trees. Okay, interesting... blogging can improving our English... at least it would prompt me to write more frequently.

So, now i am about to start my journey in blogging AND i can finally declare myself a blogger! Yeah!

So, let the journey begin.

A-ho!