...Ssssssssss...

Finland. Taken by Eevyel

ZOMG! I'm Published! Again!

Can you believe it???


I can't either!

I'm so happy that I've been chosen to write the article and I'm even happier to see my name and my work printed in black and white! Its the first time my article is on the newspaper!

Well, apart from the one in the magazine last year:




Lookie!


To read about my article in Pulau Tioman 2009, click here!

Or, if you missed last Wednesday's paper where my article's at, the action is right over here!

I know that although my works are not up to most people's standard of professional write ups yet, but I'll do my best to improve myself next time!

Thank you to the editors of RAGE from TheStar newspaper for giving me such an opportunity, I feel so honored to be chosen.

:D

This is LEBANON

"Lebanon..Land of contrast". Taken by C. Stramba

The day the rains came

Innsbruck, Austria from Thaurer Zunterkopf at sunset after a storm. Taken by AustinGohn

Smoke and Prayers

"Smoke and prayers at the Man Mo Temple, Hong Kong". Taken by Steve

Moonlight

"In the evening when the tourist and the pilgrims leaves the ghats in Varanasi, then is there time a chat with each other , sitting on the roof of a building, with the light of a lamp and the full moon!". India. Taken by Dick Verton

Camp Nou

Camp Nou - the home of FC Barcelona. Spain. Taken by Zhiehl

Święto Katalonii

"The Feast of Catalonia on the Main Market Square in Kraków". Poland. Taken by bazylek100

Labyrinth

Alexandria, 2010. Egypt. Taken by Alexandre Foulon

Mariestad Harbour at Night

Sweden. For more click here. Taken by RennyBA

Volcan San Miguel, El Salvador

"We were stunned by the view". Taken by Bessie and Kyle

Wildflower Ballet

"Emily Oaks Nature Center, Skokie IL". Taken by Renee Rendler-Kaplan

My Kind of Guy

Hey everybody!

Not much have happened so far, but yesterday was my baby brother's 15th birthday! Yay!!
And so, mom got him a present and it was a book called 'The Secret'.

Its a really good book for teenagers. If you're looking for motivation, this is the perfect book for you.

So, being the bookworm that I am, I was reading a few chapters from the book in random such as attracting money, how to make friends, blah, blah, blah, and then I came across the topic, relationships.

Ah hah! Got your attention there, didn't I?

Yes, 'relationships' are one of the all-time hottest subject and according to what the book says, its best that you should picture and write down what your lover will be and how would your relationship go based on emotions and personality.

Apparently, this will help you pick the 'right one' and who knows? You might actually have that fantasy romance!

So, since I'm totally free of exams, I thought I'd take a whack at it.

Hmm... lets see, well lets start with the looks of my ideal guy (and I'll be as reasonable as possible for all you male readers out there).

1) I guess he should be fit and healthy.
2) He must be taller than me (and if you're wondering, I'm 167cm tall).
3) He must be all natural (and by natural, I mean no hair dye, colored contact lenses or even straightening his hair, it sounds kinda gay to me. And no! It will not look good on you. Trust me.)
4) He should dress neatly.
5) I think guys with curly hair are kinda cute, but those with straight hair looks cool (once again, PLEASE, I beg you, do not perm or straighten your hair if you're going for any of those looks. What God gives you would probably look best on you).
6) Omg! 6 pack abs!
7) I prefer guys who are tanned.
8) Super skinny guys or super fat guys are not my type. He has to be somewhere in the middle.

And that's all I can think of for his looks at the moment.

As for his personality...

1) He must be a gentlemen.
2) He must be kind.
3) I like a guy who is really sweet and romantic.
4) I can't deny a man who is generous!
5) I'd prefer a guy with good brains.
6) I like a guy who's a good leader.
7) He can't be a wimp!
8) I can't resist a man with guts!
9) He should make me feel secure and protected.
10) He must treat me with respect and dignity.

Out of all the personalities, I think the most important point I'd look for in a guy is no. 10. Of course, it'd be really nice if he had the rest of those other qualities as well.

OK, and now here's some of the things I'd probably feel if I think I'm in love (gosh it sounds so stupid, but I guess its no harm in following what the book says... I think).

So don't laugh ar, please! I'll just describe what I felt whenever I saw my crush...

1) Whenever I see him....
......
......

I can't do it!! Sorry people, but my feelings would probably be best kept a secret. Too bad.

Well, that's it! I hope I'd meet a guy just like how I'd described him. How 'bout you? What's your ideal boy/girl? I'd love to know.

Brothers in Arms

"Two lonely trees on the Belgrade-Novi Sad highway, near Beska". Serbia. Taken by Vladimir Krzalic

Home Again

Well, it was a whirlwind couple of weeks in Toronto and that was that! I'm now back home in South Korea again.

What did I do for most of my time there? Lots of things. Most of my free time was consumed by physiotherapy, therapeutic message, a dentist appointment, shopping for medications, visiting with mom, and bringing friends up to speed on their new Mac computer systems. To say I was running non-stop would have be an understatement. Plus, the jet lag made sleeping through the night very difficult. Sleeping was not restful under these conditions. All and all, I'm glad this trip is over.

This was one trip I did not look forward to as I knew things would be rough. From getting my injured shoulders treated to dealing with my mom and her constant worries, I did not enjoy this "holiday" very much. Although, it was good to see mom again and things were not as bad as I had originally thought they would be based on past experience.

The only things worth it for me were seeing my friends that I had not seen in a year and eating some delicious and authentic ethnic foods not available here in Korea. And, that's about it.

Time to plan for the next "real" holiday! But, that won't happen till winter break in mid January 2011. I need to make it till then.

Mosaic to the Fallen

"This wonderful mosaic fills the ceiling of the chapel at the American War Cemetery in Normandy. It symbolizes America blessing sons as they depart by sea and air to fight for freedom, and a grateful France bestowing a laurel wreath upon American dead who gave their lives to liberate Europe's oppressed peoples". Taken by English Granpa

Sadhu

"Nice and colourful sadhu with his stick". India. Taken by Dick Verton

Moody Beach

"One of the many beautiful beaches around Bremer Bay, at the very bottom of Western Australia". Taken by Daria

Happy Baby

"Chunky happy Tibetan baby and mom, in matching colours! Vajrayogini initiation, Tharlam Monastery of Tibetan Buddhism, Boudha, Kathmandu, Nepal". Taken by Wonderlane

Red Russia

Moscow, Russia. Taken by yulia_rodnina

Peaches

Catalonia, Spain. Taken by Miss Mandarina

Monk

"Kiyomizu-dera (清水寺), known more fully as Otowa-san Kiyomizu-dera (音羽山清水寺)... an independent Buddhist temple in eastern Kyoto". Japan. Taken by Ross

Gimonde

"Gimonde close to Braganca and Parque Natural de Montesinho". Portugal. Taken by Maciej

Market Folk

"Chefchaouen, Morocco". Taken by Dave_B_

Getting Too Close to Nature (Day 2)

"Are we there yet??", I asked for probably the fifth time since we've started the nature adventure session.

We've been walking for about 3 excruciating but exciting hours in the jungle and let me tell you, it wasn't exactly a walk in the park.

Yes, day 2 was all about being one with nature!
You have no idea how hard going jungle trekking in Genting can be! I mean, I've never thought Genting can be so.... natural. I've always thought Genting was like the City of Entertainment!

When I hear the word 'Genting', theme parks, casinos and movies pop up in my head, not the jungle.
But so not to confuse you guys, here's what happened early on Sunday morning;


Well, the longhouse was a pretty comfortable place to sleep. The mattresses and pillows and stuff was all set up for us already. Although the night wasn't that cold before I slept, it was friggin cold when we were asleep!

I was practically freezing the whole night. I'd roll about and stuff, take a peek at the others and just close my eyes once in a while, hoping that it was already morning and it was time to get up.

Then, the song "I Wanna be a Billionaire" came on and we all woke up. I love that song!


Morning, sleepy heads! There's Kai Tying from the left, followed by Melissa and Kai Shuen, Kai Tying's twin sister! That's soo cool!!




We played Fire, Hunter, Earthquake as soon as we all got together before we went for a superb breakfast!



After breakfast, we had an extra activity in which I call the Camwhoring session!






Not long after, we all got into our groups and we had to solve a sudoku and crossword puzzle before we can proceed to the jungle trekking before the other groups. So it was sort of like the Amazing Race.


The crossword puzzle was a piece of cake, but the sudoku took some time. Unfortunately, we took too long and we were the last group to leave!

As soon as we were done, we had to read up about some facts about the rainforest.
Then we started our journey in the jungle!


At first, I thought it was gonna be easy as we just had to go over tree trunks, jump over ditches and avoid muddy spots, but nooo! As soon as we got deeper, our guide stopped us, gave us a task and guess what it told us to do: Catch at least 6 leeches!

You may not realize this, but I get uncomfortable at the sight of blood so blood-sucking parasites isn't exactly my idea of fun...
At first, I was thought it wasn't gonna be easy to find any as we're in a dry place waaay above sea level, so how can we possibly find any?? I looked up, I looked at the leaves, anywhere but the ground.

Turns out you didn't have to do anything to find them, they'll find you.

EEeeeEEEkkkk!!!! Leeches!!

Funny thing was that we need to catch 6 of them, right? Well, I got bitten by 6 of them and guess what? None of them got caught!!

On the way, we saw this HUGE tree!


Our next task: Give the tree a big bear hug! Aww...

Eventually, we got to a river.

There, I got stung by some kind of flying insect. Until now, there's a sorta purple spot on my hand and it itches once in a while. But whatever it is, I'm sure it'll be gone.

Otherwise, I might get the same powers as that insect!

Right after the river, our guide stopped us again and gave us another task. Here's a clue on what it said:


Give up? Take a group picture with mud on your face!

Although it sounded rather dirty, it was surprisingly rather cool and refreshing on my face, believe it or not.
After that, things got really tough.

Because we started off downhill, we had to come back uphill and it was not through he other way. Man, it was the steepest, muddiest, leech infected place I ever came across! It was so steep, we had to use a rope to pull ourselves up!
As soon as we think we've gone past a steep hill, there's another one to climb!

God bless Malaysia!

By the time we were almost there, my legs were bloody from the leeches, muddy and soaking wet because I slipped into the river twice! It was the most tiring, toughest jungle trek I've ever been to.

On the way, I saw the most ginormous millipede I've ever seen in my life!
It looks just like this and it was hanging on a twig:

Somebody stuffed the poor little worm into the bottle and took it away!

3 hours of nature later, we've finally came back to civilization!



A lot of people have discovered lots of leeches sucking on them and things got real bloody at this point. And they thought Twilight was romantic. Pfft...

Some people was even macho enough to let their leeches grow fat and drop off by themselves. This particular guy in our group even named his fat leech 'Jon' after one of the other participants of the group. I'm sorry, but gross!



We had a short break after that and then we all split up into two groups to do a different activity. After that, we'd switch activities with the other group.

And so, my group went for the Flying Fox! Wheeee!!!




We then exchanged activities with the other group and went abseiling! Yay!

I had such a great time, Melissa said that it was the best camp ever, and I'm sure everyone had a blast!

THUMBS UP FOR NATURE AND THE PEOPLE WHO MADE IT HAPPEN!

YEAH!!

Dubai, UAE. Taken by Saharsh

A Small Cosmos

Goudriaan, South Holland. Taken by Wim Koopman

Back to Nature in Genting (Day 1)

What's up, my dear readers?

So what's been going on with my life so far? I've just came back from the most adventurous camp ever in Awana Genting last weekend.




It so happened that The Star newspaper was one of the sponsors of this event. So, they've decided to send two Brats to go for the camp and I was one of the lucky two! Yay!!

The other Brat who came along was Kai Tying, who was from the same workshop as me last year. (Being the silly blur one, I was like ,"So Kai Tying, which workshop were you from?" and then she said, "Ipoh." Oops.)

Sorry Kai Tying, do forgive my forgetfulness. Sometimes, I'd walk into a kitchen and wonder why did I go there in the first place.


But aside from that, I had no idea Awana Genting Hotel had a Longhouse! Its big enough to fit 100 people in there!

This private place is just next to the hotel right in the middle of a jungle so we're being as close to nature as possible. Its all about the environment!

26 other readers of The Star newspaper who won in the contest also came along for the camp. Plus, we get to bring a friend!

This time, I brought Melissa with me.


She's pretty fun to be with.

So we were divided into 4 groups and we had to come up with a name. Ours was such an awesome name: Green Tigers!

The other 3 groups were team Durian, Horn bill and Four Leaf Clover. We've played plenty of fun games together for the past two days.

Aside from that, for a place in the jungle, the facilities are surprisingly squeaky clean! I mean, check out the canteen!

Ooh!! So fancy!

There's even a waiter and a buffet dinner too! I feel like a VIP.





Here's some of the wonderful people I've met during the two day camp!

Right after dinner, somehow or the other, we all eventually got in a 'circle' and began to tell random stuffs about ourselves. The most interesting one was when one of the facilitators was like, "I have a 2-year-old son!"

*gasp* And then she went, "Just kidding!"

Boy, did she get us good! I really fell for that one!

Ooh! And then, we were told to get into our groups and write down what we expected from the camp into a mahjong paper. Here's what we came up with:


And then, and then, we went for a moonlight walk!

I'm surprised that it wasn't very cold at all though. It was rather disappointing...

On the way, we saw FIREFLIES!! It was the first time I've ever seen a firefly before and it was rather exciting for me.

At first, I couldn't see because I thought fireflies would constantly be lit up all the time but apparently, their lights goes on and off.

And then, this photographer used this super bright flash on us which made me see bright spots everywhere and so this confuses me with the fireflies too.



When we came back, there's this bonfire that greeted us and I was like, "So where's the marshmallows??" But, there isn't any. Dang!

We all gathered round the campfire and shared what we've learnt so far and stuff. You get the deal.

We had supper after that and at 12 midnight, they just came and switched off the lights.

Talk about punctual!