Wobbles-

Sunday, March 04, 2007

11:23 PM

This is on my sad and pathetic week [or recent weeks]
Currently I’m at home trying to nurse my swollen leg. The pain is killing me. [Details please look at the ‘Nanyang Junior college’ section] Basically this blog entry is going to be about my account based on the Junior Colleges I have crashed.

And well, just to add, grace is going to participate [or intends to participate] in the upcoming campus superstar [I guess seeing my previous example] and so for those people who have rallied to get her pom-poms and wear t-shirts bearing her name, here’s your chance! Sms me when you see this ad and you’re seriously interested for further details.

Okay, so this is going from the first Junior college I’ve crashed to the most recent one. I’m trying to load all photos but I think it is unsuccessful, so sorry folks. Ignore the pictures part.

** Please take note that this portion of the entry is based solely on my account of the college and the content in this section is not meant to be directed at anyone, or anything [including the college] Please forgive me for any inconvenience caused. Any coincidental content was not copied on purpose and I hope no offence is taken from my account. Names have been slightly mutated to protect the privacy of those people related to this part of my account. Thank you for reading this! **

Meridian Junior College

Website: [www.MJC.moe.edu.sg]
Weather: Very hot and sunny day [but had plenty of clouds though]
Time: About two weeks ago from this entry? [Just after release of O results]
Mood: Quite excited and nervous because it was my 1st time crashing anywhere
Tour guide: Mel. C & Teh Bing
Partners in crashing: Mummy Mustard and Stepdad
Brief Account:

I took bus number 3 and went a long bloody way till I finally ended up in MJC before the school bell rang [phew I wasn’t late on my 1st gatecrash or else it would be downright embarrassing. Imagine being late on your 1st gatecrash! Ha-ha.] My tour guide was supposed to be Teh Bing. But because I was late, and I saw Mel.C 1st so I just followed her. But credits still go to Teh Bing for risking it and waiting for me, and keeping me entertained during her lunch [when I saw herJ]

Mel. C is in the arts stream so I tagged around for her dunno-wat-lesson but the lesson does challenge your thinking and I quite like that [point is I didn’t know wat it was coz I was doodling] But one of the teachers looked so bloody like Mr. Tan [of SACSS] I told Mel.C straight off that she better engage a tutor or she would flunk her h1 math. We agreed on this point. Now it is a truce between the once-great-queen of cheese land and the still-very-great Mao. At this point I had no idea mummy wanted to gatecrash so when she called I was a little startled because, I mean if you want to crash a jc you must first have some sincerity by appearing on time and not when people are all in the midst of their lessons and you say you are coming and you’ve just finished your luxury breakfast rite? And with step daddy some more! Oh these two. Stepdad could have tried to poke mummy rite? [But this is over so I leave them to their sweet nothings >_<]

When those two came after enjoying their breakfast, we strolled round the school and went to the library [oh just to add those people that Mel.C found so interesting [I mean read her blog now and you will get what I mean] were not around so I didn’t get to see how ‘interesting’ they were] So we spent our time at the library [whilst MelC’s class were downstairs trying to figure out how to squeeze ten-over into a room meant for 8 and 8 only by their strict school rules] The first two pictures were taken in the darker upper floor of the library with step dad blocking her face and mummy posing for me [but obviously she would complain in no time that her face looks too big. Too bad Mummy!] Yaps so we tagged along with Mel.C’s class and they were supposed to plan some drama thing with twelfth night [Shakespeare drama] and it’s really none of my business because it’s common knowledge that I’m so not a lit gal. Mummy and step dad were grilled. Hah. Still non-of-my-business.

Then this demanding classmate of Mel.C from CHIJ or KC started grilling us [making use of the gatecrashers [Oh btw there were 6 gatecrashers in Mel.C’s class and 4 of them (including me) are from XXXJC] and so me, step dad and mummy took the excuse and went round the college. We went to the tennis courts, the gym, some ulu corner, the hall, the field, the spectator’s stand and some classrooms up and down and everywhere and finally we ended up in the canteen where Teh bing [who was eating this bad tasting, high cholesterol and over-fried plus over high priced fries which had too little chili that even XXXjc has better stuff] was eating with her class [she is in the same class as Laura but Laura was SURROUNDED by guys of course, I mean it is Laura the beauty we are talking about here XD]

Yaps and generally Mel.C’s class is freaking clever and everyone did better then me with their single pointers or close to 10 pointers kind of people. Oh and the food at the canteen freaking suck. The price is so high you might find it cheaper if you went out to eat at some hawker centre. Although the food tastes quite nice but only a teeny-weeny bit nicer than my XXXjc, it is not as good as in YJC and only on par with TJC. The canteen environment suxs as well. It’s too open to enjoy food in peace and the ceiling height gives the eaters a weird feeling. They have so little stalls and the stalls are up till quite high it makes the place feel intimidating rather than a useful dining ambience. It is also TOO spacious. The stalls and the tables are really far away from each other [but I kind of understand coz there are lots of people but few stalls so the space for queuing needs to be big] but its way too big [TJC’s canteen also has big space but I think theirs is just adequate and the stall alignment is cleverly placed and a good variety of food at reasonable prices]

I don’t like the architecture of MJC either. Its too stone and metal and quite small. Plants look like they’re dying and they can’t lower the temperature of the school coz it’s not thriving well. Also the plants are like so little as compared to other jcs and all of mono-variety; bamboos. And not the real kind, it’s the cheapskate kind of bamboo. It’s like they wasted so much money on the cement and metal there is little $$ meant to green the environment. I think even Meridian primary school looks to be of better taste. The constant blue tone throughout the school also absorbs heat radiation form the sun and makes to temperature of the school building generally much warmer, and that means more $$ on air-cons and fans and more global warming. Silly design. The cement and metal gives a trapped feeling as a whole and I don’t feel well there so I think the fengshui suck as well. The toilet is average. Water cooler design can be a bit more thoughtful as a whole. Okay I forgot all my other minor complains so here is it folks about MJC.

Number of smilies: J

Yishun Junior College:
Website: [www.schools.moe.edu.sg/yjc]
Weather: Rainy till some parts of the junior college flooded
Time: 28th February 2007
Mood: Relaxed and happy
Tour guide: Ah-toria
Partners in crashing: Nil. Me, myself and I
Brief account:
I kind of like YJC and made a few new friends there [Not to say I didn’t in other jcs, but you understand?] They have their assembly in class and their teachers are very nice. [At least not like in MJC where the teachers scorn at you for coming into class and accusing things that you do when you didn’t even do it because they do have prejudice about people who sit in and give that low-down look to you when hearing you are from a worse-off jc and now here to suck it off…] The teachers there treat you like an equal and ask you nicely like where you are from and they don’t give sarcastic looks wherever possible. Can tell that they love YJC a lot and that is how they manage to push it into the top-ten jcs. They defend YJC till the end unlike those damn counselor seniors I have in XXXjc.

½ uniform is allowed except on some days [in which I don’t know] and their security is tight yet not strict. Unlike in MJC where they treat crashers like criminals, given a tag, sign in, and a security guards that make sure you are not here to be up to no good, in YJC they let their folks tap cards [high tech] and crashers are graciously welcomed in, safety assured at the same effect in MJC when you report to the CT of the class you are crashing. They won’t scold your friend but glare at you when they obviously want to scold you and think that it is your fault.

The toilet there is a bit cramped but still alright and rather clean and a comfortable design. The school is big. Their water coolers have hot/warm water for their students on cold days and their food dispensers have cup noodles and hot water for those folks who are staying late in school to mug because the aunties and uncles close the canteen quite early. There are quite a few places to study like outside the LTs and outside the library and the studying environment is green and cozy. Nice.

The school is fairly big as well and going round and round the place still gives an air of mysteriousness that is beautifully alluring. There are many wonders in YJC. They seriously trust and love their students a lot in YJC. What left me the biggest impression was this auntie of a Malay stall. Although her attitude of treating customers can still be improved, she actually heats the food up for you again before serving. Example, I ordered this plate of fried noodles during lunchtime, and obviously in most school canteens, they get the food ready and there to sit all through the day. Realizing this, this auntie takes generous portions and re-fries them in her wok before serving it to you, hot and nice. You don’t have to give her the money. There are little bowls by the side of the stall. Like a bowl for containing 10cents, 20cents etc. and you can leave notes at the counter. So basically, if your food costs $1.20, and you have $2, you place the $2 on the counter and help yourself by taking your 80cents change from the various bowls. If you want nuggets she has on her display cabinet, just draw the glass open, help yourself to the bags, take as many nuggets as you want, do your math and place your coins in the little bowls by her stall.

This is so touching. She really treats her customers like adults [not like other colleges that harp their way through it]. She does not even glance in your direction whatsoever when you put the money in. She trusts her customers. She contents with the amount of money she has collected from all her business. She concentrates on serving piping hot food and a sense of warmth to her customers. I guess that is what makes her food even tastier. How many stall holders can have a heart as big as hers these days? Not only does this help to improve your math, it helps you develop your sense of honesty in the most primitive way that has been erased by adults of modern society. This is most touching, this sense of being trusted although you are just a mere stranger. Any person dishonest in such a situation should be struck by lightning. The mere though of this trust and love would deter anyone from being dishonest and I believe this is certainly the best way of building something called the conscience.

I went with ah-toria to her lion-dance troupe and every one, regardless of race or religion [I mean seriously] accepts the lion-troupe’s blessings. It is really like a big family. The instructor was also very funny. He was talking about the ‘lion’ trying to pluck the veggie hanging from the ceiling and usually the lion-dancers would clip the mouth of the lion over the veggie before plucking it down, but this newbie stretched his hand out from the lion’s mouth and was trying to reach the veggie so basically it looks like a hand stretching out from a lion’s mouth trying to have a go at the hanging veggie. XD Bloody funny! Another one was this ‘eating of mandarin oranges’. Usually the lion head dancer would bend down its body till its mouth touched the orange on the floor and pretend ‘eating the orange’ for good luck. The reality was the orange would be picked up by the person dancing the head and passed on to the guy at the back who would process the orange so that it would look eaten. This idiot moved in such a way so that the person at the back of the lion, who was supposed to ‘process’ the orange was right over it, aka. The lion was eating with its backside! Hahahahaha! XD Can you imagine it yet?

There are about 3 things I observe that might need some improvement. The flooding part, the canteen design part, and the academic part [with classroom design]. YJC’s building structure is such that some corridors upstairs are half of the corridors downstairs, so half of the corridors downstairs are not sheltered downstairs. Rain can fall on those on the unsheltered corridors downstairs and rain that has fallen on the upstairs corridor can get stepped on by many shoes before falling and dripping on the poor innocent soul’s head downstairs. Yuck! Thank god the staircases have panels to block out the rain. Greenery, like the papaya tree outside Lt 4, had its soil all flooded with muddy water from the rain. More has to be done on the drainage and surface runoff of water from the soil. On the ground level, there are also places with depressions so water piles itself up there and becomes breeding ground for mosquitoes. Roofs have good drainage systems though. All are tilted to drain rain waterJ.

The canteen is small [like the smallest I’ve seen in so many jcs] and a bit cramped with the blue and yellow tables [typical] but they are building a new one and it’s like half-completed, so it’s good! People in YJC have to be much disciplined about their learning, seriously. I saw like 3 folks sleeping openly in front of the teacher while the rest was teasing the teacher. Sad case. And al the guys in ah-toria’s class are flirts so… sad case again. And the teacher trying to raise his voice to get attention but they are really nice folks. This GP teacher realized the gatecrashers have no handouts and so he went down to zap some more. How could I not listen to his class like that? I mean teachers usually print enough for their class and gatecrashers usually share the worksheet or do without at all but this old chap went down to zap it for us without charge. Nice right? Content based, their notes are seriously detailed like in secondary school, does not evoke much thought except you know what to do when you want to mug, it’s all in your handout. Classrooms are like MJC but a little darker though. And the design is a bit weird but still okay, just that the folks vandalize the tables too much and so did I [opps!] And I forgot what else I wanted to say so that’s it folks, YJC, that’s what I call an upcoming college. [Oh yes and they have pool tables to let you play! With 1 tuned piano and 1 un-tuned grand piano]

Number of smilies: J J J J

Temasek Junior College:
Website: [www.tjc.edu.sg]
Weather: Fair at first but turned rainy after awhile [but not the stormy-rainy kind]
Time: 2nd March 2007
Mood: Freaking nervous and not too happy
Tour guide: Jia Jia
Partner in crashing: Huay huay
Brief Account:

Yaps so finally we are at the part with Temasek! I reached there at quite a decent time waiting for Jia and Huay who were bloody freaking late at one corner of the canteen near the side gate. Of course I felt panic. Being from like a so low end college to be inside the big five was like so intimidating. So things ended up like this; Huay was waiting for Jia at the court where they were supposed to assemble, and I was waiting for them in the canteen until the freaking bell rang and I panicked but didn’t know where to go [because it was my first time inside Temasek and I didn’t know where was where] so I followed the dispersing crowd [Jie Lin saw me and gave a really weird expression. Was it shock?] to the court [had no idea where to stand] and then in my panic I went to the back of the canteen stalls, where there were some rock-climbing fake rocks and mats, and I hid behind 2 stacked up mats in the middle of the passageway.

The auntie from the fruits stall saw me loitering behind that passageway when the bell rang and she stuck her head out to look for me. Thank goodness I ducked in time, crouching behind the mat and there I stayed till the folks said they could go back to their classes. And they guy said it just in time because there was this auntie sweeping the back of the mat not far from me. The people were going back to their venues and I stood up, scaring the auntie who was cleaning. My god that was like so embarrassing. Felt like a fugitive due to the lack of proper planning… But kind of glad I scared her because she was mean to be before when I was waiting for Huay and Jia. Ha-ha XD. So when I met Huay and Jia at the canteen I was fuming [I mean who wouldn’t?] but they apologized so the matter was dropped. Jia rushed off to class after explaining some dos and don’ts [she didn’t bring us to tutorial because her tutors don’t welcome them]

Me and Huay explored the library, and fish ponds, and the Temasek academy and the ‘haunted place’ in Temasek, plus the school lounge which was actually a bus-converted-lounge and the field and this whole stretch of wall with imprints from the past. Cool. Their library is like gorgeous and they do have very creative structures [look through the pictures and you’ll get what I mean] their library is damn pretty, cool and conducive. The slogan ‘The College for nation’ was like inspiring [or did I remember it wrongly?] The architecture is great, with the feel of an overseas university that was big but a bit of a ‘compressed’ structure’ cause most of the school building was about two floors tall only [but the library was like 3 floors? Or 4?] And the whole college was like wireless access everywhere with lots of people with laptops.

So the food at the canteen was like okay, still passable, with average service but the design of the canteen was damn good. Not too open, yet wide, and the color coordination induced people to relax and eat. The place was also well-sheltered from the rain and there were a good variety of food. And the tables and chairs were not the typical blue and yellow but the ones like in the café at XXXjc and outside SACSS canteen. One bad point was if the chairs were not pushed in place the chair would clutter the people from moving from one end till the other of the canteen. There is also a hot and cold water cooler and their food is seriously a variety. There are ice-creams and desserts also! XD Happy luanie there!

We also followed Jia to her physics lecture at Lt1. The teacher was basically rattling and I guess everyone was turned off and noisy [didn’t expect this in TJC cause it was noisier then in XXXjc so I wonder if they actually listened at all? But usually the inattentive ones are silent and so I presume they do listen?] And thank god their Lt had no seat number to call of I would have been roasted. Their biggest Lt is smaller than XXXjc. There we saw Lorxxxxx, and Nana. Well Nana wanted to sit with me but her friends ran off so she had to go but I was glad when she said “why didn’t you tell me you were crashing?” And Lorxxxxx was right behind but I was so blind and had no idea until she tapped me. I turned off during the whole lecture though I absorbed some parts and was doodling the piggy family on Jia’s paper. I have no idea what Lorxxxxx was doing but it was pretty obvious she was not concentrating on the drone of the lesson and was giggling with some guy beside her [aw… the wonders of a budding romance] and at some part she was kicking my chair. Now I seriously wonder what they were doing… >_

Number of smilies: J J J

Nanyang Junior College:
Website: [www.nanyangjc.org]
Weather: Clear, but I went at night after the afternoon shower
Time: 3rd March 2007
Mood: Felt a bit unlucky but it didn’t ruin my beautiful mood!
Tour guide: My cousin
Partners in crashing: Nil.
Brief Account:
I went to watch their annual production called the ‘Wo men de bai yun gang’ with my cousin. We agreed to meet at 6.45 at serangoon mrt but I was late so I told her 7.00 but then she was later than me. Ha-ha. I guess we owe it to the same blood line. So she was late and we decided to walk there for fear that the bus might take forever to come as it would make us later then we were supposed to. So it was raining and we were sharing an umbrella between ourselves and going down many slopes. My slipper had soles that were slippery inside so the water got in and made it very hard to walk. So whilst we were crossing the car park I fell on the curb, causing one side of the skin below my knee to be scratched through halfway and a few more injuries on my other leg and hand [that’s why the pain is killing me even as I type] and the strap of my slipper to break. Thank goodness she was beside me and caught me before I had my face straight on the muddy car park lot. So, she lent me her shoes whilst she walked barefoot. [Oh bloody nice cousin I have ^_^] And so when we went up the stairs with the ushers they were laughing at our state [obviously in the teasing manner] and we were just in time to see the show start in their biggest Lt4 [XXXjc’s Lt is slightly bigger]

The show was good. They made use of lighting to create the illusion of space with out solid panels that would block the view of the audiences in the extreme. One actor who was a year one from PLMGS was outstanding, she really looked her part but we were not allowed to use any devices so I couldn’t get the pictures down. They had a production special and the hard work they have been through to stage this production was commendable. My cousin’s friend [that’s why my cousin went] was also great. She seriously looked like a woman who was worn down by work and problems in marriage but she would have made a very good looking housewife: D

So here are some pictures taken of NYJC at night and the school looks very well furnished, inside or outside. In fact I would believe the interior of NYJC is generally better than that of TJC, but both gives you the same idea that you are not in a secondary school but a college. They have like air-con classrooms and excellent toilet [must say its more than 10 times better than TJC because its really beautiful and considerate to users] and they also have hot and cold water coolers/fountains. And the water is not like the other JCs so far, fairly warm water, but really hot ones that you can eat magi me with :D. Very nice. The school’s canteen is also quite pretty and the whole campus is lined with artworks like sculptures and drawings and paintings that give a very comfortable feel to the not-so-cemented buildings. There are also some open aired spaces where the night-sky view can be enjoyed from below and much greenery all around the place [and all thriving] but what I felt missing was… Where is the standard 2 coil fish pond? Can’t find any fishes L but other than that the campus is big and really conducive area for study [I see study benches in quite a number of places] but of course it would have been better if the uniform was of a more pleasant color…

Oh so after the show as we were going home my heel came off but I took ribbons tied beside seats and used them to fix my shoe. Oh yes and the NYJC is freaking near the place I had job attachment when I was sec3. Oli-sama knows what I’m talking about. Shall we visit Doctor Leong one fine day again?

Number of smilies: J J J J

That’s all folks. Bye and hope you enjoyed this entry [please go rest your eyes after reading this ok?]

[Wobbles]

Labels: MJC, NYJC, TJC, YJC