The World's turned upside down

Woo. Its been a while. Been too lazy/busy to blog lately. More of the former tho. School's been a crazy mad rush. It's only been 2 weeks and I already feel the pinch to mug. Im succumbing to all the peer pressure. Haha. Of course, sitting next to geniuses during lectures doesnt help either. Not when theyre writing down everything the lecturer says.... and more; And yours truly's struggling just to listen to the lecturer. And having a never ending battle with the Zzz monster as well. He gets me most of the time. I really should be more discipline at night.

Argh. School. Such a sharp contrast to the holidays. If only, IF ONLY, we were there once again. No robbins, no levinson, no crossman and neary, no katzung, no notes, no LT28. Bleah. But schools here. And here to stay. No more long breaks for us. September's (Or is it October?) 1 week break is likely gonna be time for most of us to catch up with the books.Sigh. Somehow I just don't feel ready for it all. It's taking a while for me to adapt to all this stuff once again. Wish I knew how I should pace myself for this year. It only gets harder, everyone says.

Oh well, enough complaints about school. Ive gotta talk about happier stuff some time. Almost forgot that I went to Tioman last weekend! It was....a refreshing escape from the world...Ill upload photos and talk about it soon! Oh yes, another GREAT surprise. 26th August - 7th May = much more than 30 days ( 101 i think ). Thats how long 51 Scuba took to send my open water dive card to me. Thought it'd never come. Oh well, at least it's here, safe and sound. Alright, enough!

We did it!

M2s!

A Grand Congratulations to our Holy Trinity is in order! Thanks Amanda, Lijia and Sabrina...for all the hardwork..planning..commitment...and encouragement as we tried to learn everything you choreographed! It was definitely a challenge. I still half can't believe I did it. Ive never liked dancing. Dont know if I ever will. Haha. But the experience has been a good one. After all this, I can see how one would feel satisfied and fulfilled after putting a routine together and seeing everything executed like clockwork. And executed like clockwork it was...not without its imperfections though..but I heard we really rocked the judges. And thats good enough.

The Men.

And our Ladies.


Kums and QT fooling around. Don't worry girls, Kumaran's straight.

Yesterday and today were killers though. We bummed and practiced on friday...working on our costumes and going through the full run several times, in and out of costume. Dinner was an all-guy thing at holland v. And I guess we only really slept at about 12 plus 1..so we could get up at 3. But I only REALLY slept from 1 something to about 2. Couldnt really make the trip to neverland after that. I SO felt like a zombie in the next few hours....which we spent doing a sound check..and waiting around in the dark..trying to put on our make up. Which I thought was just plain insane until I saw the Hall dance teams. THEIR make up was insane man. The epitome of insane. They must've had a good time bathing after all that.

M1s!

Our Egyptian Girls, realize i dont have a picture of the guys in costume.

Our Ninja/Assassin Wushu man Calvin.

So there we were, at the track next to our float..being sleepy and still doing make up. After the static display inspection, we moved over to the rest point and just happily laid down to sleep. ALL of us. Haha. I think we had more than a few bemused photographers coming our way. It was a pretty long wait for our turn to perform, in the hot sun no less. The sheltered area was pretty well occupied by other teams so we didnt have a choice. But as the time drew nearer, we slowly moved out of our slumber and psyched ourselves up. I wasnt even feeling apprehensive till that point. Id think i would, coz I get still get a little nervous up on stage in front of many people. But then..somehow, I was just mentally prepared to go through the entire routine, regardless of the audience.

Our costume. The front hadn't been done yet though.

Costumes!

I think a little anxiety hit me as we stood at the last waiting point, where we could see our friends standing on the field and ready to cheer us on. Where there were many many people taking photos of us in our silver and bronze skin. I tried not to think about it. Tried to remember my steps. Tried to get with the music that was playing, to loosen up and just enjoy myself. And when they called for us, we ran.

It breezed by so quickly. I didnt even really notice who was watching. I didnt even see the judges. I just saw that one point i was glaring at...to maintain our 'fierce' appearance..and the positions of the other dancers relative to mine.. I noticed the cheers we got from our friends..and hopefully from other people as well. But other than that, I think I was just really into it, I'd thrown myself into the entire dance, making myself pretty oblivious to anything else.

And then it was over. A mere 5 minutes. All our preparation for that glorious 5 minutes. Haha. Well, we tried to clear off quickly. I think the float had a little bit of trouble moving off the stage area. They sure were quick to start destroying all their hardwork though. Haha. I didnt even get a shot at the float myself. After some photo taking..by prof raj and many others...we were still high on endorphines. We hung around...talking...proud of what we'd done...doing full extensions and elevators for the fun of it. Haha. Unbelievable. A couple of complications came up along the way though. Lost items and all. But everything was reclaimed I think. As happy as I was with the dance being over, I was even happier wash all that stuff off myself. Haha. Ok enough!

Oh man, BR creating another scandal for herself. Haha!

The End of How It All Began

Another 28 hours will pass, and there we'll be, seated in LT28, promoted from a year of sitting,sleeping,paying attention,writing furiously and doing whatever else we did in LT29 - Now to be occupied by our newest batch of successors...may they do as well as we did, or better. Haha. LT28, our new homeground, is much colder i think, has wider rows, which makes it harder to move around. And perhaps...easier to escape a lecturers field of vision when you sit at the sides. Hm..well, we'll have a year to get to know the place better. And Im not really looking forward to it. Then again, maybe a part of me is.

All good things must come to an end. And how good these holidays were to me. I won't say they flew by too fast. Because they didn't. But I will say that they've probably been the best holidays I can remember since...I have no idea. And I suppose they better be, since they're the last of any long holiday we'll ever have. Endings like these always make me think about how everything started. How did it ALL begin? I feel nostalgic already. But what I feel more...is gratitude...melancholy...a mix of happiness and its opposite...and...I'm even a little puzzled. Puzzled at how things have turned this way and that. But Ill leave that for the moment.

I remember. Feeling so lost even before we finished our pros. I feared its ending more than I thought i would. You know how we all slowly get numb to finishing exams over the years? Like..we're estatic in primary 6, happy in sec 2, relieved in sec 4, neutral in j2 and somehow, for me at least, fearful in m1. I didnt see anything I had to look forward to. The holidays just seemed like a mass of aimless,undirected amount of time that I had to occupy myself with. I didnt know what to do. I felt..totally lost. And it really sunk in the night before physio...Ok, I bet I sound like an absolute weirdo now. Haha.

Well..physio went by the way anat and biochem did. Only it was the last exam and that meant our freedom. And I guess I feared what was to come next. But...little did I know...that over the next few days, Id make friendships that would last an entire holiday..and hopefully, an entire lifetime. Suddenly, I had some direction, I had things to do, places to go, people to meet. All that empty space and time that I was worried about...was gonna be filled to the brim, and more. That turned my expectations of the holidays around a full 360 degrees. I was overjoyed.

So I'll cut to the chase. In short, I'm extremely, absolutely, entirely, totally, completely grateful for all the people who have been a part of my life in these long/short 4 months. (Short because we've the rest of our lives to go!) They've made my life a whole lot happier. They've made medschool seem like such a bigger, better, more vibrant place. They've given me a niche to fill. A role to play. A person/friend to be. Well...enough emo stuff for one entry eh? Thanks guys. I don't think I have to mention names do I? You should know who you are. You better. Haha.

More on Turkey...

Alright..Im lazy. I admit it. There's just too much to say! And I can't possibly recall everything that happened. Turkey felt like it happened in another world..on a different plane...an alternate dimension.Then again, it WAS another world.. So, ok...these photos are not arranged in any particular order. They'll do the story telling. Alrighty then, here goes.

Here we are, at the Cotton Castle or Pamukkale, essentially, its a limestone formation...er...set over some hot springs..that explains the water streaming from the top all the way down...and the many pools of water here and there. Its protected by UNESCO I think. And well, its beautiful. The flowing water erodes and carves the limestone and everytime you return to the cotton castle, its never the same. We're allowed to walk around around certain parts of it barefoot. Here, we see Eugene looking all emo and reflective as he looks over the valley.

Now this, this is just such a heyhey shot. Haha. But its such a beautiful picture. What with the sun beginning to set in the background. And the purity of white limestone all around.

Not my idea, this photo..But apparently, its supposed to be good luck to take random photos with newly wed couples. So. Yeah, the girls led us on this one.

A group shot at Cotton Castle. Somehow, we look kinda glum. We lack the usual sparkle in our eyes. Haha. And I don't really remember any particular reason for that. Oh well.

Eugene at work! He's quite a budding photographer...equipped with his trusty slr..He took most of our group photos..Haha. We appreciate the sacrifice Eugene! Then again, if it were anyone else handling his slr, we probably wouldnt get such clear shots. Eugene thought to capture the terrain, the texture of the limestone, the cloud-covered setting sun, he just lacked a model, so he used his shoes! Haha. I think its good! It gives off this slightly poetic feel...As if...someone set off to explore the great white limestone dessert..the mystery, why would he leave his shoes behind? Haha.

This was at the Hierapolis..or Pergamon. The stop before Cotton Castle. We spent a mere 20 minutes here. If I remember correctly, it was also called a necropolis. I suppose, for all its graves and tombs...and perhaps because of the function of the settlement. Too bad, we didnt get to explore the ruins more. It was where we first encountered those whistling bird toy things tho. Haha. They were pretty cute. There's one sitting next to my toilet sink now.

Within the Necropolis...There were one or two buildings which were cordoned off because they were deemed unsafe to be around. Cant remember how old the ruins were, but apparently those buildings could collapse at any time.

Haha, random shot. Tied a knot with my tongue.

Bao's face is PRICELESS. Hahahaahaha. It was so amusing. This all started when we were told that the thing i was holding was a dried poppy stalk with its fruit. We started photowhoring with it...when someone came up with the idea of proposing with it. Haha. Well, after the shop vendors saw me proposing to her with the poppy plant, they gave me a small bouquet of flowers to do it properly. Haha. Looking at her expression really cracks me up.

Mom-less

Mom and Tasha

A month has come and gone since Mom's gone off to Cornell with Jeannie and lil' Natasha. And I daresay the men are doing fine at home! Haha. With some external help of course. BUT, I must say that it might change when school starts. I don't think Ill still be hanging the clothes to dry at 1.45 in the wee hours of the morning/night. And I'm a little tired of looking at undone dishes the whole day..only to wash them myself some time at night. Oh well. Dad does breakfast, John can bathe the dog. That kinda leaves a lot of gray areas here and there. We need to really divide the workload properly. Although its been pretty smooth thus far.

Tasha!

Well, onto some stuff bout Turkey. The Salt Lake! It was a random stop along the way. Can't remember where it was. Sibel asked if we wanted to stop by to have a look since we were passing by. Haha. She gave us 20 mins. We probably took at least half an hour. In her words, we were worse than Japanese tourists. Haha, we were absolute photo whores. Our cameras whipped out like 6-shooters in a cowboy quick draw, always ready to snap wherever we were. Memory was never a problem, though Eugene's limited number of rolls of film posed a problem for his slr...but that didnt really stop him. He carried an additional digital camera to make up for it.

Anyway, the lake was gorgeous! It looked like a white dessert, pure and clean..but not really.Haha. The shades were seriously protection for our eyes, what with the sunlight reflecting off the ground. So much salt had crystallized and formed a thick layer on top of the water or something. We thought to run all the way out to find out where the water began, but it was kinda far and we were limited by time and painful feet. For all we knew, perhaps the salt formed a layer on top of the water thick enough to support our weight. The salt was kinda rocky., so it was painful. We were walking around barefoot just to get a feel of it. Whats puzzling is that if you dig down deep enough, there'd be water there. So...who knows? Haha. Google it.

The End of the Road.

Its the end of the holidays. Well, practically. They were good while they lasted. The end of our longest ever holidays. The end of m1. A new beginning. m2's arising in the distance, coming up over the horizon. The end. The end. The end.

Turkey!!

Blue Mosque

Ok. How do I start? Well, we touched down in Istanbul after spending about 13 hours in a plane..service was a little poor on Turkish airlines though. Not sure if we can attribute it to their inability to speak good english. And the food was..ugh. Anyway, we were so excited when we landed. We were pleasantly surprised by the good weather. It wasnt really boiling hot like we expected it to be, in fact, it was cooler than it is on usual days in Singapore. After getting our luggage and stuff, we were greeted by a smiley and laughy sibel..our guide for the next 8-9 days! I must say that she's one of the best guides Ive ever had. Hope I won't forget the stories/life lessons that she told us. Especially that 2 hour talk on the bus. Haha, I was sleeping for the 1st half hour.

Peekaboo!

Anyway, we started the tour right away with our first stop being St. Sophia Church, the Blue Mosque and The..er...Palace. It was...all interesting and beautiful in its own right...but then...i just dont really appreciate this stuff enough. And I cant even really remember the names of everything i saw. Haha. Hm...shit. Ok i cant do this. Ill get down to blogging about the really interesting things that happened during the trip. Haha. Soon soon.

Our Boy/Girl Band shot.

Somewhere out there.

Ibrahims Joy.

Eugene's Steal.

We were pretty jumpy that day.