Random Readups #1

Ok, so I haven't any interesting news so far yet and that's why I'll just give you a short briefing about my workplace (a.k.a my room).

So this is my room! Isn't it awesome?

And this is where I lay my ....... wait........ WHAT'S UNDER MY BED!?

And this is my multi-purpose shelf. (Dressing table/ bookshelf)

Obviously, this is where I do my stuff on the computer......

Any song requests??

Another bookshelf.....

Thats all folks!

Coffee Terrace

I just came back from Genting Highlands where we celebrated Father's day. And if you're wondering, no, we didn't take him out to the theme park. Instead, we took the dads out to dinner at the Coffee Terrace in the Genting Hotel.

Generally, its an international buffet restaurant with various types of food cooked in different styles such as nyonya, chinese, japanese, western, western asian, and they even have a lanai bar.

It was so awesome! I actually got the chef to specially make that fire for me.

The restaurant has got all kinds of food. You name it. Sushi, pasta, soup, ice kacang, steak and all kinds of stuff, but a girl can only eat so much.

Excuse me for the mess at the back. Apparently, the rest of the family members finished their meal by the time I came and they went off for dessert.

In the end, I got myself some keropok (2 types), dim sum, fish, some black egg, soup, and not surprisingly, sushi.

Every one of the food I got is of high standard and everything tastes great! The only thing I would've complained about was that the dim sum had a wee bit too much pepper for my liking (Just for the record, everything here is 100% halal).

Now for the highlight of the day; dessert. The desserts were presented well and everything looks delicious, but the most outstanding one for me is the chocolate fountain.

Mmmm...... don't you just wanna dip your head in it?

Ok, WHO PUT HIS/HER FINGER IN MY PHOTO?

The desserts were pretty good too. I got myself two types of jelly and cream and 1 scoop of chocolate ice cream. But that was my share of the food. I did get to 'curi' food from others here and there, so I got pretty full.

As for the interior design, everything is elactic but stylish. Plus, there's even a place where customers can enjoy the view outside. (Not that there's anything to see for that matter, just cars and buildings.)

The design of the entrance was pretty good too.

Check out that fountain!






Oh... one more thing......


Chocolate fruits anybody? Ewww...........

Brilliant BRATs

I know this may be a little late, but its better late than never right? So I just came back from the most awesomest camp ever called the BRATs (Bright Roving Annoying Teens). Its a 4 day 3 night journalist camp in Ipoh, Perak where we were treated as real journalists. Sounds awesome right?

Before I continue, I had a secret which made me feel uncomfortable when I attended the camp. The age group for this workshop is between 16 to 19 years old and I'm 15.

How did I get in? Well, you're supposed to write an essay about yourself and if they think you're good enough, you're in! Its not that I LIED about my age or anything, I just didn't mention it. Plus, I look like a 17-year old because of my height. (I'm pretty tall for my age, you know.)

But, I've always wanted to become a Brat someday even as a kid because I did accompany the Brats to Sipadan, Sabah one day. Not that I was in the group or anything, my dad was supposed to teach them how to make reefballs, an artificial home for aquatic life and raise awareness about our environment. Just by watching them, I knew straightaway that I definately want to be a Brat.

Brat, haha!

As soon as I noticed the ad for the Brats workshop in the beginning of the year, that's how it began.

A few of my good buddies!

So anyway, a month later, I received a letter from them saying that I'm in! I was like wow! I really enjoyed the camp immensely, but honestly, it wasn't exactly a bed of roses either. We had a street poll where we were sent out to the streets and interview random people based on a subject. Sounds easy right? WRONG!

Based on my experience there, I understand that most of the locals around spoke cantonese, hakka or chinese, and I don't know how to speak their language. Not only that, we have to interview at least 16 people in an hour!

In the beginning, we were sent to a shopping mall, Jusco and it started out quite smoothly at first, until some idiotic security guard chased us out! Apparently, they think we were 'harrasing' their customers. We're just a bunch of kids, fool

At the end of the day, we interviewed about 6 people. Sad isn't it?

Also, there were some plus sides to it. We got to interview our famous local band, Bittersweet and we even got featured on the newspaper for the past 4 days. Another fact is that the majority of the entire group of 34 were girls! Guess how many boys?

17? Nope.

10? Try harder.

Give up???

4 boys.

During the workshop, I realised that there's a lot of skills needed to become a journalist. We were taught how to take a good picture (you be the judge how good my photos are), how to make a photo essay, talking heads, writing good articles (trust me, the editors are soo hard to please) food reviews, making videos, interviews, how to present yourself in front of the camera and all kinds of stuff.

As a Brat, you're also privelledged to stuff yourself all day, 'cause with the Brats, you'll NEVER go hungry.

I even got to design a pot (I was the only lucky one) at a pottery factory we were supposed to write a report on and here's how it turned out....

Isn't it beautiful?

Of Beaches and... Boobs!?

See this picture? Looks like an ordinary family photo eh? Well, this picture tells many stories, I can guarantee you that! This picture takes me back from a long, long time in.....wait! I'm 15, I sound like an old lady.... let me rephrase that again.

Well, it all started in our recent holiday to Phuket, Thailand a few months ago. We had a dive trip and it was gorgeous, but that isn't the story that relates to this photo, right? Well, I think it was some of the most outrageous(hilarious) holidays ever!

My brother and I were playing by the beach in the sea when we saw a middle-aged woman coming into the sea as well. She's still wearing a bikini if your wondering.

Well, She was there for quite sometime until she went back to the beach and came back topless! Usually, in Thailand, this is not allowed and because of the fact that I've never SEEN a topless woman, I was pretty shocked..... I have a much better figure than her, why can't I go topless?

But sorry to disappoint you, I didn't get a photo of her and I didn't go topless. So how did that photo came to be?

This is one of those golden moments in my life. My mom was taking pictures of my brother and I in the sea and we still couldn't help staring at her, so, we tried to take our own pictures until the topless woman casually comes up to us and goes "Hey! Do you want me to take a picture for you?"

How do you answer to that?

So in the end, we let her take a photo of us and if you understand our situation, you'd have a better understanding on why its sooo hard to focus on the camera when there's two extra large eyes staring back at us!

Right after she took a picture of us, she was laughing her head off and went away, and if you look back at the picture, you know why.

About Anne

Hey! Whats up? My name is Anne Wong Synpuhn, but you can just call me Anne. I'm 15 and what I love to do is playing the piano or guitar, reading, kickin butt in Karate, scuba diving, and most of all I love to travel.

For a 15-year-old, I have been pretty active lately. This year, I'm taking a major exam, gone to several dive trips, just came back from the most awesomest journalist camp, and now, I'm preparing myself for one of the most (and only) interview to a student exchange programme!!

A random fact about myself: I'm deeply in love with........ MINI COOPERS! Yep, I am cukoo over mini coopers. I practically drool over it and so, I make it a mission to get myself a mini cooper when I get my drivers liscense. (Currently saving. Sadly its not much...)

Taught My First ESL Class Today

A Day At The Beach

I have been observing a teacher friend of mine once a week for about two months now as she teaches regular daytime ESL classes in school. This is a good learning experience for me as I have no formal background in teaching other than some training of coworkers where I used to work. Although, I had taken numerous classes in years past myself, and it's pretty much a standard routine, practical experience is another matter. Anyways, yesterday she said that I should teach today's class. And, I did.

I had taken a bit of time yesterday when she first told me about it to do a quick and dirty lesson plan that I presented to her that she approved. Later that evening back home, I fleshed out the lesson plan a bit as I was wondering if I would have enough material to cover the entire class, or not. The class is a two and a half hour long class. That's quite a bit longer than a regular class that I would be teaching in Korea. In any case, I made sure to have enough material to cover it all. And, I did, too much as it turned out. Time really does fly when doing a class lesson in real-time.

I went in early as is my usual thing and wrote all the things I wanted to write on the blackboard before the start of class. Being prepared for everything is key. It's less stress as everything you need is there already. I started with my own intro, moved on to the materials in the book, had two volunteers come up to the front of the classroom to read the dialogue, and then worked on some of the vocabulary in the book pertaining to the dialogue that was just read. Everything went very smoothly as the interchange of materials presented and class participation by about 90% of the class was excellent. Everyone seemed interested in the lesson so far. It was a class of about 20 students today. Later on during another exercise where participation of the students was required, I noticed a loss of energy in the class and came to the conclusion that the materials from the book was losing their interest. I cut it short about one third of the way into it and gave them a 15 minute break. I think that is key. One has to drop something that is just not working and move on instead of trying to slog through it in the hopes of finishing it. You can always revisit it from another angle on another day. An hour and a half had already passed and it flew on by. Time does fly!

After break, I broke up the class into smaller groups for a group exercise that I had made up and that took up the rest of the class time until the end. Everyone participated in the exercise. But, I felt that perhaps I could have come up with a more interesting exercise as opposed to the one we actually did. It seemed to engage everyone, but I felt it could have been better. The students seemed intent and engaged, though, as I saw a lot of note taking during the entire class. I still had a section of material left that I just did not have time to cover. But, that's alright. Better to have been prepared than to scramble when one runs out of material.

All in all I felt like I did a good job of teaching the class and afterwards my "instructor" reinforced my self evaluation with her evaluation. That was gratifying to hear. I hope I can do as good a job of it while in Korea for my students there. Now, I know some of you might have been wondering if there was any nervousness, or apprehension, on my part during any of this and I have to say with all honesty that there was not a single bit of that from the moment she told me today's class was mine to teach until I finished it. I think that's a good sign that I will be comfortable in my school in Korea, too. Hopefully.

In-Town Orientation

Toy Story

On Monday of this week, I went to the in-town orientation session conducted by the nice people at Canadian Connection, the agency that hired me for my new position in Korea. There were about 20 of us new teachers altogether and it went well. A lot of information was given out amongst the various presentations by various speakers. A nice Korean food lunch was also provided, too. Yummy!

Along with ample reading material to read through, I only have one more set of papers to complete in order to get my work visa. I had already submitted my first set of papers a few days prior to the orientation. That was a relief. I should be getting my official contract and notice of appointment within the next couple of weeks. That will then complete my second set of papers and I can go and apply for the visa at that point. For now, I am just waiting.

I have read through many blogs of current, and past, teachers regarding their experiences in Korea and I think I lucked out when it came to an agency and the process so far. Most seem to be dropped into the new life without any preparation and support. Basically, a sink or swim type of affair. As I am working for the Ministry of Education, there is an official 5 day orientation in Korea as well as the short one by the agency here. This helps immensely with not feeling totally lost and abandoned half way around the world. Thus, if there is anything I can recommend in my short exposure to this so far, it would be to find a position with the Ministry and an agency that provides some level of support both before, during, and after landing. It does lessen the shock.

So far, so good.  Wish me luck with the rest of it all.