Here comes the short semester. Hold on tight. It'll be bumpy!

Good news. I'm officially a third year student. It's quite hard to believe that I'm finally at my final year, with an undergraduate thesis to complete soon. Things have been getting harder. Lecturers are expecting more from us. As for this semester, I have a 100 plus plus pages of Industrial Organizational Psychology assignment to do. Heh. Not kidding. I've been randomly assigned to a team of students. 12 people including myself.

I used to work on an assignment with a usual group of people. Since we've been working together for quite some time, we've actually developed our own way of doing things. Now that I'm placed with 11 strangers, it will never be the same again. A new group=a new culture. That rounds it all. Somehow, I felt that this randomized method was good in a way..because in the end of the day, we cannot actually choose who we would want to work with in future, whether it is in a company or doing a research. And, working with new people helps me expand my social network, which is great!

There are three parts to this assignment: selection, training and evaluation. I volunteered to write on selection phase. It's been quite rewarding to see pieces of our own work are joined together. So far, we've wrote about 48 pages in just two weeks! Our lecturer said, "We're training you for the real-world. It's even worse out there, looking at the enormous pile of workload and how little time you have." I cannot agree more to that. =) Anyway, third year is the time where we will be stretched and tested. It's a stepping platform to graduate and finally, work. *sigh*.

On top of this, I've another assignment to complete with another separate team altogether. We're writing on date-rape drug, rohypnol. It sounds familiar if you've been receiving forwarded e-mails on rohypnol. Mid-term starts next week. And there's probably a reason why I can't make it for the church camp. Aww.

Okay. Time for me to sleep and rest. On duty for tomorrow's Sunday worship. Playing the piano with a full band..with a Lizzie on the cello and her husband, playing the violin. I count it a privilege to work with them.

Good night, everyone.

The Surprise And Its Challenges (Edited)

The interest to visit Singapore was born from a small conversation. From this, I learned that Jeremy did not visit Singapore for over 15 years (!) and Evon has never been to S'pore. So, the four of us, Jeremy, Matt, Evon and I planned to visit Singapore on the 12-15th May 2010 during our term break. Deal! Two months before the pre-planning of this Singapore trip, Elisha told me he will be landing on the 14th May 2010 at Changi Airport, Singapore. I thought, hey, why not kill two birds with one stone? We will go to Singapore on the 12-14th May and, on the 15th May, we'd hop on to the causeway link bus to Johor (where he and his family live) and give him a surprise.

Challenge No.1: Parents and Accommodation>>>

Having a rough idea was a good start. The first challenge was to get parental approval to go on holiday with this wild bunch of friends (just kidding). I guess my parents were more concern about safety and accommodation for the entire trip. To cut the long story short, I gave my sweetest eyes (like the pussy cat in Shrek 1) to my dad and he gave me the green light. Yey! It took me two days or so to get a good accommodation in Singapore for a reasonable price. In the end, we booked a two-bunk beds room at Footprints Backpackers Hostel for $27 per bed per night with facilities: Wi-Fi, free internet access, hot showers, air-conditioned rooms and free breakfast. Haha.. And, of course, the counter guy *inside joke*.

Challenge No. 2: The Surprise Plan>>>
The planning took place one month before today. Step. 1: SMS the sister and get the dad's email. Step 2: E-mail his dad, the pastor of Wesley Methodist Church. His dad was very kind to offer transportation from CIQ (Johor check-point) to his house despite his busyness at church during the weekends. Pastors are usually very busy on Saturdays. I also contacted both of his sisters, Susanna and Sophia. Sophia became my spy and she told me what Elisha was doing while I was on my way to his house. ;) The whole family knew about it. And I'm thankful for them.

Challenge No. 3: To Keep the Surprise A Secret>>>
Keeping the surprise a secret was not at all straight forward. For some reason, I learned that quite a number of aunties and uncles from church knew about our Singapore trip. Once the parents knew, the news spread like fire. Few of my friends accidentally posted comments on Facebook, indicating that I am going to Singapore! Twice, I had to send a message and ask politely if they can delete the comment immediately. Why? Cos' I didn't tell Elisha about this trip. On my side, I admit I almost let the cat out of the hat twice. But, I managed to cover it up and Elisha did not questioned me further. So, fhew, I was saved. Then, Matthew posted a group picture of us in S'pore..and I was like, "No...you have to delete it." Hon Yau even sent a message to sort of 'warn' us. Thankfully, on that day, Elisha was flying on air so he won't be able to log on Facebook to check my profile. On the 14th May, he landed at Changi Airport at 2 a.m. Haih.. so near yet so far. You see, I was staying at Little India and I can actually travel to the Airport via the very efficient SMRT. The bad news is my phone does not have roaming services, so, he wasn't able to get me the whole day of Friday. I felt guilty because I knew he will be calling me a million times until he reach me.


Challenge No. 4: Surviving the MAZE in CIQ and Planning the Surprise>>>
CIQ, Johor Check-Point was really huge. Uncle told me not to cross the overhead bridge. Little did I know that there were actually three overhead bridges and what he meant was the last bridge, which takes us to City Hall. It took us quite some time to locate his car. Finally, we met. I crossed my fingers and wished that Elisha will remain in his room when I come over. Still, he was unaware of this plan. So, we went to the house, silently stepped on the wooden staircase, knocked on his door for three times. He opened the door and we shouted, "SURPRISE!". Hehe. He said, "What's going on here?"

It was extremely good to see him after 1.5 years of being physically apart. It's really hard to pen down how I felt at that moment when I saw him. To me, it was like a dream came true. "Wow, I can actually see him face-to-face, not on SKYPE anymore!" I can only testify that it is by God's grace that we can stay together despite the distance and different time zone. It was never easy. Like all relationships, this was tested. I believe that there are two things that kept us going: prayers and the effort to sustain this relationship. No 1: We prayed that God will strengthen our relationship.No. 2: We take the effort to spend time with one another on the phone or SKYPE. We speak our thoughts out and make the effort to appreciate each other's differences.

Credits:

Well, this surprise would never happen without the help of the key people.
Thanks dad and mum for sponsoring my Singapore trip.
Thanks Pastor Joshua Hong, Sophia and Susanna for keeping in touch with me.
Thanks to my bunch of friends, Matt, Evon and Jeremy who spare their time at J.B with me. I hope you enjoyed yourself and loved the Chocolate Ice-Kacang.
Thanks to those who prayed for our relationship.

Thanks Elisha for travelling 23 hours on plane to come home and see me! I love you very much.
You're so sweet. ;)

Now, I look forward to spend time with you.

Please pray for us!

LDS......the joy and pain.

Being in a long-distance relationship has never been easy.

party.. because I get very negative comments from people. I know that they do not mean to be harsh. They're just trying their best to bring 'reality' to me. They say:

"Long-distance relationship won't work."

"Don't say yes first. Got so many boys out there. Afterwards, you find a better one, how?"

..S.L thinking inside, there will be always boys who are better with the ones that we are with. That's why adultery happens. That's why when we think we found a 'better' one, without strong commitment, a relationship or a marriage tears apart. Anyway, there will be always boys who are worse than him. I say, there's only one unique person I won't want to let go.

"Out of sight, out of mind".

"Boyfriends are suppose to be there with their girlfriends..they're suppose to take care of them."

"So, what's next lah? Are you two gonna be like apart forever?" *sarcastic*

Sometimes, I keep quiet. I find that there's no point for me to argue with them because they're

so hard up on their opinions. Oh well, it's not like I ask for their opinion in the first place.

Well..I could have given up in this relationship.

But, I won't and I can't...

because I believe there is HOPE

.... LOVE

..................and FAITH in God who keeps us both together.

And it has been three years of joy and lil' misunderstanding along the way. :)

In the end of the day, what matters is God's purpose for us.

I'm not too keen to know what a few people say. They don't want to understand the situation.

They're just busy bodies.

However, I'm ever grateful for good friends, church friends and CG people who prayed for this relationship, and that we will grow together. It's truly a divine intervention that we're still together. I can't even imagine being this far apart for so long while I was in college. :)

Thanks for all your prayers and wonderful support. I cherish it alot.

Clinical..what?

Yes! I've been elected as the secretary for Clinical Psychology Interest Club. It gives me a twitch in the stomach when I think of my new responsibility.

"Siaw Lin, you're in Clinical Psychology Club!", I say to myself a couple of times.

Sometimes, I wonder what, in the world, am I doing in this club? Are you into clinical psychology? The stereotype here is that all students in Clinical Club are on their way of becoming clinical psychologists in future. That won't happen to me...because I can't picture myself dealing with people with abnormal behaviors everyday (although my dissociation skills are pretty strong).

Don't mistaken me. I'm not at all against Clinical Psychology. I love Biological Psychology and enjoy reading cognitive neuropsychology (yup, bombastic word). Cognitive neuropsychology studies the relationship between the neural system and human behavior. Psychologists in this field have a deep interest to know the effects of brain damage and diseases such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's on our behavior. It is a beautiful combination of medicine and psychology. Knowing how our brains work and things like plasticity direct my thoughts to our great Creator, who intelligently wired our brains to function well.

One of the credible universities that offer specialization for cognitive neuropsychology is University of California. The course may costs a bomb but I hope U.S is generous enough to give out scholarships to students like me. Apart from this, I was thinking if it is practical to take up a Master's degree right after graduate or work a couple of months? Gah. Anyway, I won't know if I qualify for a master's degree in clinical until I sit for GRE and get, at least, second-upper class degree.

Oh well..... thinking thinking thinking.

Life As A Student Tutor.

Yesterday marks the last day of my own tutorship at Peer Assisted Learning. It has been approximately 5 months, tutoring students who are at the same level as I am. I joined PAL as a tutor because I thought it would be a great opportunity to have a hands-on teaching experience and it will be a plus point in my C.V. in the future. :) Being a tutor for two semesters have given me a new perspective on teaching and facilitating small study groups. One of the lessons I learn is that teaching does not always have to be in a one-way, passive, spoon-feeding manner like what we usually have in high school. As Piaget says, we're all constructive learners, curious to experiment new things and solve problems on our own. This is the reason why I get students to pair-up, search for information on their own and present what they've learned to others. This is also known as the jigsaw approach.

Learning can be made fun

The old school way is reading from the textbook alone, which explains why students fall asleep in class. I tried something new in tutorial this semester. I gave quizzes, crossword puzzles and games to get them on their toes. Showed relevant videos clips from YouTube to get the students to broaden their knowledge on current debates from the States and beautiful animation that explains certain biological processes.

Because I am learning Educational Psychology this semester, I became more aware of which educational theories and principles I can apply to my method of teaching. You can say that my students were my 'guinea pigs'. *grins*. Over this semester, I find that jigsaw approach fits well for big groups of students- keeps them attentive and interested in the lesson.

About the job:

I can't deny this. The job is challenging because it requires constant revision and preparation from my part to teach others. I spent approximately two hours or more every week, preparing teaching materials and coming out with examples/analogies to elaborate on certain main points for a topic etc. Another two hours for each tutorial itself. In total, I have to sacrifice four-five hours each week, which means tighter studying schedule and less time for assignments and even sleep. And it can be quite discouraging because not all students are motivated to come for tutorials. There was poor attendance for the first half of tutorials. I was suppose to have 13 students, only four students would turn up each week. But, things got better. For the second half of tutorials, the attendance dramatically improved. We had seven regular attendees, which was great!

The fruit of the work:

The intrinsic motivation comes from knowing that students have improved throughout the semester. :) On the last day, all the students thanked me. A few came up and shook hands with me, showing their gratitude. What makes me happy is seeing them satisfied with what they have gained from these tutorials. Recently, I saw drastic improvement on their class test 2 on Biopsychology. From a single digit on class test 1, they've attain double digits on class test 2. (etc. Class test 1: 7.5/15, Class test 2: 15/20). I was surprised myself, so were they. :) And I wish them all the very best for the finals. To me, all of them have the potential to achieve whatever they want as long as they put in effort into it.

As for now, I plan to resign from this job. I won't have the capacity to tutor and finish my thesis simultaneously. I'm glad I've given tutoring a chance because this experience have taught me about real responsibility and persistence. So far, I've already achieved 4 goals in university, 1. maintaining my grades, 2. won best speaker award for research colloquium 3. be a PAL tutor. 4. and PSG mentor. And I'm about to reach my 5th goal next semester that is holding a secretary post in Clinical Psychology Interest Club :). Looking forward for the next challenge and new experience altogether. :)

A Note of Gratitude

Hi all,

So sorry for my absence. Been really busy with the assignments. I've just handed-in four assignments yesterday. It was very tiring for my group mates and myself. For the past few weeks, we've been spending long hours on the computer to find online journals and write research papers. It is a very challenging task. I find myself editing all the group assignments, making sure its parts are coherent with one another and there's minimal grammatical errors etc. As time goes by, the work load increases and lecturers are having higher expectations since we're at Year 2. They all expect quality work from us.

Okay. Let's push the academic to one side. Writing about it makes me feel saturated. Let's talk about something else k?

Like my 22nd B'day

I'm really thankful for those who made my 22nd B'day memorable and special. Thanks mum and dad for bringing me out to my favourite Japanese Buffet at Daidamon, Great Eastern Mall. Thank you, my bestie, Becky who sent more miniature stuffs all the way from Melbourne. Hey, it's been 15 years of good friendship! Thank you, Elisha for calling me and wishing me twice. We will celebrate our Birthdays together when you arrive home this coming May ya! Thanks to four cheeky friends: Matt, Evon, Ruth and Jeremy for the surprise mini party. I will remember it for a very long time. Thanks for the Ramli burger which became my only 22nd Birthday cake. Not kidding. :) Thanks to all who contributed to my Selangor Pewter Limited Edition Pumpkin Kettle and Nicholas Spark's Novel. Love them very much. A big thanks to my course mates, Jenny, Chin Looi, Nicole and Jennifer for the Italian Dinner at Midvalley and paying the bills. Thanks to all who posted Birthday wishes on my Facebook Wall and wrote a card to me.

I thank God for such great and supporting friends like you. Birthday will never be that special without each of you. I look forward for spending more time with you and allowing our friendships to grow and blossom.

God bless.

And I am counting down to my holidays.

Elisha's coming home really soon. Haven't seen him in two years! :P Feeling quite nervous to see him too. It will be so different once again.

Speaking the Language of Love (The Five Love Language by Gary Chapman)

"March is a significant month, isn't it?"

It is now a trend to list your Birthday wishes so that people will know what to get you for your Birthday and make your day. It's not a bad idea by the way because your giver knows exactly what you want and you'd be happy to get what you receive. It saves quite a lot of time thinking of what to buy.

Years ago, I read a book of the Five Love Language for both Marriage and Bringing Up Kids. After completing a questionnaire, I was quite sure that my three primary love languages are quality time, words of affirmation and receiving gifts.

So....

...if you're thinking of making Siaw Lin happy on her Birthday this coming 15th March, here's a simple 1-2-3 manual! The biggest hint I can give is to speak my love language. Don't worry. Nothing gibberish. :)

Number #1: Quality Time

"A central aspect of quality time is togetherness. I do not mean proximity.. togetherness has to do with focused attention."

My first primary love language is quality time. When someone enjoys spending time with me, I feel loved and cherished. Quality time does not mean having to sit at the table and stare at each other awkwardly. It means spending time together and doing activities we both enjoy. It can be simple as taking me to:

-a party with closed friends

-a good dinner

-shopping at Ikea...

-CupBon at Wangsa Walk

-taking long walks around Melawati

-playing boardgames

-pillow talks (applied strictly for girls. haha.)

-watch a movie at GSC

While you're at it, pay attention to what I say and give me undivided attention. Share about your thoughts, feelings or experiences in a friendly or serious manner, whatever suits your style. Just as you lend me your listening ear, I will do the same for you. I love exchanging opinions, thoughts, ideas, (lame jokes), and intellectual questions with family and friends. Tell me how your day went, bad or good. Ask me questions to show your genuine desire that you truly want to care and understand me. The time I spent with my family and friends are deeply embedded in my memory.

Number #2: Words of Affirmation

My second primary love language is words of affirmation. On my study desk, there is a glass filled with Birthday notes from my friends from Msia, Australia and United States. They were all compiled by a bunch of friends who threw a surprise party on my 21st B'day. Most notes are touching. Some were lame (ahem). But, whatever, it is, this glass is like my little sunshine. When I feel sad or discouraged, I'd randomly pick one to read. And you'll never know how much a positive encouragement can cheer me up or make me feel a little better. Your birthday notes remind me of the beautiful friendships we both share and value. It is the same for the letters and cards I received over the years. I've learned to cherish snail mails even more because of their plunging popularity rate ever since Facebook and e-cards have taken over our world.

Overall, it is words of encouragement that keeps me positive and motivated. Verbal compliments affirm that I am capable to reach a goal and they build my self-esteem. It offers me the security to try new things and the courage to persevere when the going gets tough.

So...What can you do on my Birthday?

-Send me a snail mail

-Send me a Birthday card (preferably hand-made) or a letter

-Send an e-card, post something on my Facebook wall or whack me with a virtual pillow

-Send me a SMS with lots of smiley

-A phone call (distant or near)-handphone, Skype (which you can access through my blog too), house line

-Give verbal compliments and be honest about it!

-Tell me how much our friendship means to you

-Reveal to me how much I've impacted your life, whether in the smallest ways

-Tell me how much you cherish the time you spent with me

Number #3: Receiving Gifts

Gifts itself is a symbol of the giver's thought. It doesn't matter if you've made the gift your ownself because gifts need not be always expensive.It is the thought that counts. Gifts are something that I can hold and say to myself, "This giver thought of me while he or she bought this." I cherish the gifts I received from my friends, although some may seem insignificant to others like M&M and Kit Kat wrappers. To me, it is the intention that matters. Gifts hold a significant meaning if it was given with a sincere and genuine heart.

p/s: Posting my Birthday list is most unlikely. :) If you do not know what I want for my Birthday yet, please refer to number #1 and #2 and do as accordingly. Simplest way to know what I like/need is to talk to me personally! Find out what I like or dislike! If you've known me well, you will know (that I am very picky when it comes to cakes so you might want to leave that out ya!)