Reflect, Recount, Relive

Sending off the old year and ushering in the new always tends to bring about the two Rs – Reflections, for the year gone by, and Resolutions, for the year ahead. But resolutions don’t usually work for me – if I say my resolution is to, for example, lose weight, the opposite will happen. So I’d rather just shut up and not make any new year resolutions. Well, saying hello to two thousand and seven inevitably causes me to harp on two thousand and six, a wonderful, exciting and action-packed year. In particular, December’06. So after the O’s, this was a shorter year-end holiday than usual, but I felt it was one of the most well spent holidays I’ve ever had.

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Family Holiday to Hong Kong
Hong Kong was a blast! Then again, so is every little bit of time spent with the family. Still, being my first time in Hong Kong, everything just kind of took me by surprise. The shopping was a total highlight, of course. Although I don’t much care for shopping in terms of clothes (everything in my cupboard is bought by my mom, haha), but Hong Kong was really a Christmas presents treasure trove – nearly everything I needed to buy for the Christmas season was bought there! Which was excellent, since that meant I didn’t need to drown amongst the throngs of shoppers crowding Orchard Road when I returned to Singapore.

Besides shopping, there was food, one thing four out of five members of my family will forever fall prey too (the exception being my brother, who’s as skinny as a stick). I went absolutely insane over the Bo Luo Paus (pineapple buns which are worth sinning for any time), dim sum and mango desserts. Bread being my weakness, plus the fact that I was intent on finding the perfect Bo Luo Pau, led to my wandering into every single bakery I came across, whether it was on the street or in a shopping centre. Mostly, I wasn’t disappointed. With fondness, I still remember a loaf of coffee raisin bread which I devoured in less than an hour the night I bought it. Sigh…(that’s a happy sigh, by the way). My family and I also found this mango dessert shop. There, I fell victim to the Mango Juice with Sago and extra Mango. It’s impossible to describe how it tasted, but the closest I can find would probably be heaven, in its tangible form. That’s how great it was.

Now, you’d think Hong Kong is just bustling city life, completely urbanized and everything, but that’s not totally true. On one day during the week, we decided to take a trip to Lamma island, one of Hong Kong’s more popular offshore islands. The place was beautiful, especially the windswept beach. To get from one end of the island to the other in order to take a ferry back to Hong Kong, we had to take a pretty long, mountainous walk. It would’ve been a superb experience, save for the unfortunate fact that I was sick that day. Climbing a treacherous hill and walking for what seems like forever isn’t all that wonderful when you’re running a fever and nursing a sore throat. The falling sick, which started with my mom, then passed on to me, was probably the only downside to this trip.

Oh! And the best part of Hong Kong? The signs. All kinds of signs. Rather interesting ones in the MTR station, involving old ladies and condoms (I’m afraid that’s all I can reveal for now, haha), some in English that, let’s just say, require a little more thinking through than normal to figure out, and many others. I’ve been trying to upload the photos that I took for days and days on end, but the computer doesn’t appear to like me very much. One fine day, when I’ve got a whole load of spare time on my hands (hah, yeah, like that’d ever happen), I’ll try again.

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Missions Trip to Cambodia
I can’t quite remember what inspired me to sign up for Missions this year. I mean, I’ve always been attracted to go for Missions, especially when I think of the poverty in the targeted countries and the lovely little children there, but somehow I never quite felt called to it as much as I did for this December’s trip to Cambodia. The youth team was wonderful, with nine girls (mostly from cell) and two (poor) guys! Haha. We also overlapped with the adults Medical Missions team for about four out of the nine days we were there. Most of our work was done at and around Prek Tual Methodist Centre, which is supported by my church (Barker Road Methodist Church) back here in Singapore.
We did home visitations, where we went from house to house, talking to the people there and handing out pamphlets to encourage them to come down to the church for English lessons, medical consultations, children’s programmes and a Christmas outreach service. For the first three days, we also constructed a playground in the church during the day (tough manual labour!) and conducted English lessons for the local children, youth and adults in the evenings. Everything we did there was so rewarding, in all sense of the word. The kids, in particular, were such joy bringers. Each night, we left the church with huge smiles on our faces, as did they, telling us that they’d “miss [us] big big” and waving, saying, “see you tomorrow!”. One night, I remember, the kids started chasing after our little van as we drove down the dirt road leading away from the church gates. They ran and ran and ran and were waving so hard that it brought tears to my eyes; how they couldn’t bear to see us leave – and that wasn’t even our last day!
That last day finally came, of course, and as much as I tried not to, I couldn’t help but cry. The children were really sad too, some even bawling their eyes out. It was near depressing. Now that I’m back here, in the comfort of my home, I keep thinking back to those nine days in Cambodia, the company, the activities, the kids. Even though I tried not to be biased, I was – my favourites were Sok Lai (despite her violent pinching and whacking tendencies – but she’s only four!), Watanak (he’s a dumpsite kid, meaning he doesn’t go to school but picks up stuff from the dumpsite to sell as a way of earning money. Sad, isn’t it?), Kong Kea (he was so quiet during the first few days because he was ill. The doctors even suspected that he might have HIV, perhaps from an open wound or something. But by the end of our stay, he was healthy and well and really smiley. Phew, what a relief!) and Tari (she was super sweet, always offering me a place to sit to rest after playground building). Wow, as I recount all this, it just makes me realize how much I actually miss them and the time we spent there.
The thing is, I think of how I miss being there, but I probably enjoyed it so much, partly because I knew I would only be there for nine days and not forever and ever. For the kids there though? The poor conditions, the poverty and everything, it’s their life, and probably all they’ll ever know. I don’t know…I guess…it’s just…Well, everyone on the youth team has expressed an eagerness to return to Prek Tual next year, so I hope this isn’t the end of Missions for me. Now I just pray that the Cambodians will be kept safe in the palm of God’s hand till I next get to see them.

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Christmas Celebrations
I love Christmas. That’s all that needs to be said; it’s my absolute favourite time of year! From lunches, to dinners, to presents, to family gatherings, to parties with friends, to a time of giving, sharing and loving, to the real meaning of CHRISTmas, everything was just perfect.

271206
My Birthday
Sweet sixteen! Or so everyone says. Seriously though, what’s so sweet about being sixteen? That I get to watch NC16 movies? That I’m ‘all grown up’? But I don’t want to grow up! It’s practically an obligation to be mature and not weird, and stupid, and sick, and cheekopekish, not to laugh super loudly in public, not to do little jigs and funny dances so that everyone turns to stare. Besides, I didn’t really wake up on the twenty seventh feeling very different from how I felt on the twenty sixth. In fact, I didn’t feel any different. So you see, fifteen isn’t really all that different from sixteen, sixteen isn’t really all that different from seventeen, seventeen isn’t really all that different from eighteen, eighteen isn’t really all that different from nineteen, and nineteen isn’t really all that different from twenty. Yet being fifteen is very different from being twenty. Hmm. I don’t get the math at all. It’s confusing. But well, I enjoyed my birthday nonetheless. Especially the part where my parents and siblings came into the room, Mom balancing an Oreo Cheesecake on her hands, the whole lot of them singing ‘Happy Birthday’. That’s like the perfect family image, no? Except just then, Dad started singing at a different key from everyone else, and Mom, with all her musical sense, started staring at him with an incredulous look on her face. The minute the song was through, she practically bit his head off. Haha! That’s my family for you.

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Christmas Party
Sitting around my living room table with Lorraine, Fuzzeh, Shan, Jessica, Suyin and OP, thinking how – at the time – in just three days, we’d be split down the middle, more or less, with four of us traipsing into NJC and the other three, ACJC, was really...strange. After four years together in SC. It’s funny how things turn out, huh? I’m really so thankful that I managed to find this wonderful group of friends, all of whom I can get along with; it’s great that despite occasional disagreements, we’ve managed to weather all that and become even better pals. Plus I just love how our topics of conversation flow so smoothly, even from one extreme to the other, like from Politics to Spongebob. I mean, can we possibly get any weirder? Haha. And you know for sure you guys are pretty close when you get underwear as a Christmas present. Especially underwear with cute little penguins on it (thanks, Suyin). Oh, and of course, when I can give Christmas presents like a ‘SEX in progress’ sign without being embarrassed (hope you’re having fun with that, OP).

311206
Watchnight Service
Like one of the boys on the youth Missions team said, what better way to welcome the new year than to spend it in Church? I couldn’t agree more. Well, this year’s Watchnight Service was much better attended than I remembered those in previous years to be, resulting in my parents and I having to sit beyond the doors of the sanctuary (!). That was quite sad, I suppose. But it made me smile to think that SO many people were placing God in first place this new year! Still, the one hour long sermon (our pastor really outdid himself this time) nearly killed me. And my Dad. He looked like he was in intense prayer throughout, but we all know that he was actually asleep. Haha! I feel really bad for nodding off from time to time, but it felt as though I was in class after recess, trying very hard to keep my eyes open and my ears focused on what the teacher’s saying – in other words, it was very hard to stay awake (the service ended at one plus in the morning!). Oh but there’s nothing more calming and capable of putting one at peace than individual prayer. Each time I prayed during the service that night, I thought of family, friends, the Cambodians, school, and of course, God Himself. Sure, maybe one year I’ll go party somewhere or watch the countdown live on television, but nothing beats being in Church, in God’s house, when the clock strikes twelve. Then it’s “Hello, two thousand and seven!”

You know, I can’t quite believe that it’s back to school tomorrow. No. Actually ‘back to school’ is the wrong phrase to use. It’s not ‘back’, when I’ve never even been there in the first place. JC. It’s going to be scary. It’s going to be intimidating. It’s going to be exciting. Most of all, it’s going to be a new experience. I’m not too good with adapting to changes and fitting into new surroundings with new people, but for now, I’m just crossing my fingers that all will go well tomorrow.

Wow. Reading back, I’ve realized this is one mighty long entry. Now, that’s what you get when you try to condense one month’s worth of words into a few pages. NOT a good idea. Moral of the story? Don’t procrastinate (from blogging, haha). For now though, all the best for Day One of JC tomorrow, fellow ex-SC Sec Fours. And God bless to all for the new year!