JYSim for jobless-yokel Sim

While most of the other flights parked along the tarmac of Penang International Airport are delayed for technical reasons (China Airlines flight 674) or non-avaliability of aircraft (Malaysia Airlines flight 1147), my AirAsia flight 6315 touched down and pulled back surprisingly punctual at Gate 7. A fraction of a second after the last passengers disembarked, we were all hushed into the sterile-looking Airbus and departed right to the minute. The seats were nice, and they can even recline! However, the masses of people swarming around on a full flight in the 29-inch seat is quite a torture if you were to be stuck in it on your way to Moscow (dubbed soon by Tony Fernendez). Several minutes before landing an Indian boy seemed restless and soon started to stand and trying to attempt a bungee jump from his seat. Without hesitation, the AirAsia girl picked up the loudspeakers microphone and started ‘little boy, sit down hah!’ Half the cabin turned their heads as another ‘SIT DOWN!!’ rang through the cabin. Nevertheless, the embarrassment was soon forgotten when we landed at the LCCT.
The next day I woke up eerily early at 5.38am. At 6.05am my aunt’s brother’s wife drove me to Sri Petaling LRT station and I officially joined the other Kuala Lumpur workforce heading to the city center to their jobs. I arrived at Hotel Istana at 7.02am to be greeted by my schoolmate, and we sat there looking into the ceilings until approximately 7.30 before our school registrars Mr. Lai and Ms. Shih arrived. We quickly set up the place and made our booth looked like home. Fuelled by sources of the Kuala Lumpur Tzu Chi Branch, we got a table and half a dozen of chairs for a ‘counselling corner’ as well as tea, tit-bids and a huge LCD monitor to run our school introductory clip. Crowds started pouring in at 9am, and armed with my saccharine smile I started on every curious crowd "Tzu Chi University was founded as Tzu Chi College of Medicine in 1994. The school then expanded rapidly to include Schools of Life Science, Communication, Education and Humanities. Currently our medical and mass communication are among the best in Taiwan…yadda-yadda". However, after several ‘oh, thank you, bye’ from the crowd, I soon cut it short to "What courses you interested in? Fashion design? Go try Providence University, ok? Bye-bye" My day ended at 5.38pm and I arrived at Sri Petaling at approximately 6.
And so was it for the following days - people come, I asked my 14,529th repetition of ‘What courses are you interested in?’ and I will have 34% of people just smiling emptily into my face (I’m good-looking perhaps?), 23% frowned and said "you don’t have engineering?", another 23% for "no business or commerce meh?" and 20% of them either wanted me to explain more about medicine, mass comm. or other related courses, among which, 45% of them having no response after my explanation, 23% of them ended up not knowing what to ask next, 22% of them asking whether students need to be Buddhists to enter the university, and 10 % of them chatting amicably with me.
On Sunday we packed up at 4 and headed straight to Muar at 6pm. The three girls following us were curled up behind the van watching a TVB drama while I punched SMSes to Seong Ling, Jieyang and Ping Hui. Due to extreme fatigue I couldn’t really recall the following particulars, but I was extremely clear that I did not sleep very well that night because the Mr. Lai in the same room was snoring with such symphonic variations I found it entertaining.
Monday was a day off for us. We went sightseeing around Muar and I was soon captivated by the town’s old-time feel and traditional air. Coffee shops in Muar still uses carcoal to heat water for coffee, and opposite the eatery was a mini-market reminiscent of one my aunt’s Mum owned several years back. I think the lasts of these became extinct in Penang when Tesco, Giant and Cold Storage started blasting Penang consumers. We ended up watching 7 episodes of the TVB drama the girls were so crazy about yesterday. At 9 that night I MSNed my classmate in Taiwan to ask for my junior’s name. He gave me this name I felt I heard somewhere before, and I instantly asked Ms. Shih. "Oh, he’s that guy from Chung Hwa lah. He’s Khai Jing (my classmate’s) aunt’s husband’s brother’s son."
Tuesday sees us back to our job, this time at Muar’s Chung Hwa High School. Students flooded the hall from 10am onwards, and soon I find it discouraging to explain the difference between medicine, life science and biotechnology to little Form Ones. The organizer, out of their enthusiasm for crowding the fair, had also invited Form Ones, Twos and Threes. While it is a positive act to get to know about universities and tertiary education early, it is senseless to have us determine their future paths for them (’in your opinion what should I study leh?’)
At around 4.20pm the booth was crowded with another flock of schoolchildren. I was standing on the outer ring of the booth, battling my way into the sanctuary when this young guy greeted me. He said "hi, I’m whoever, and I’m going to TCU for medicine soon," flashing a cheeky smile at me. I returned his cheeky smile and said "H’m, I’m your direct senior…"
Seated, we chatted pleasantly on registration, fees, and the school environment before I reached this very sensitive topic:
"What year are you from?"
"1988" (SimRadar: danger!)
"Month?"
"December" (damn it!)
"Oh dear, day?"
"16" (NO!)
"Gosh, I’m born on December 16th 1988 too. Oh dear, what time were you born?"
(His Mum) "At early morning" (SimRadar: For the love of God, NO)
"I was born at 2.30pm"
"So your junior is actually older than you?" Khai Jing asked.
"(sigh) yeah."
"So you take good care of your younger senior yah?"
Anyway, the 6 episods of drama we watched later wiped my memory about the elder junior away completely.
Wednesday sees another mundane day of ‘Tzu-Chi-University-is-famed-for-medicine-and-mass-comm.’-ing. We started disassembling at 4pm, and literally flew home to watch the last episodes of our beloved drama.
The idea of an elder junior is beyond description of words…

A picture is worth a thousand words - and it is hence that Muggles around the world take pictures wherever they go, as evidence that you’ve really been to one place - supported the leaning tower of Pisa with your arms, sat at Emperor Shih’s seat in the Forbidden City (forgive me, I never really learnt Chinese history), or stepping on the Greenwich Meridian Line.
Over time this old computer of mine collected enough memorable pictures to be showcased here today - pictures that portray something but signifies another, that’s what makes them valueless.

A kid photographed moments prior to touch-down in KLM from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur. His Dad, who stayed up all through the 12-hour journey, standing behind him. This little kiddo and his family caught my attention from the first moment they boarded the aircraft. Daddy was seated two or three seats away from Mummy (toddlers were not assigned seats, provided if you pay the cash for it). Perhaps they were late for check-in, they boarded the aircraft rather late too, and Daddy was frustrated to find the overhead compartments all full with our stuff (exchange students, what to do?). He crams his luggage into the compartments nonetheless, threathening the doors to tear apart, and was seated. However, the constant and non-stop gargling of Dutch to Mummy two seats apart was too much for the Indonesian seated in between them. He offered him his seat, just beside Mummy, and they were more than pleased to accept the offer. Soon after take-off Little Kiddo started to wail for milk, and the blue KLM crew whizzed around with baby biscuits and baby food from the galley before Daddy stood up and with a thunderous ‘plump!’ opened the overhead compartment. Food wasn’t a pacifier good enough for Little Kiddo, at a little after 2am Little Kiddo burst into a series of sobs and intermitten wails that continued on till 5.30am. Daddy and Mummy constantly switched pacifying Kiddo during the entire journey.
Breakfast time sees Little Kiddo soundly asleep. For the first time in 8 hours, Daddy got a chance to eat something, and it was the rubbery airline omelette processed and cooked 16 hours before, loaded into the aircraft and kept warm for 10 hours.
2 hours before touchdown Little Kiddo woke up to a fresh morning, while Mum and Dad constantly yawned and fell into slumberland at 10am. The captain announced preparation for touchdown, and Little Kiddo was excited. He started grabbing hold of seats and tray tables, wanting some exercise after 10 long hours of solidary confinement in a 25 x 32-inch space. He somehow managed to stand up and look behind him to my friend’s camera, and this momentous occassion was recorded with a Cannon. It was a legacy, and a tired memory of how on long plane rides you should always avoid taking along Kiddo-s.

A piece of tainted glass my host Dad gave me before I leave Italy, with Malaysia Airlines economy class cabin baggage tag on top (the baggage tag is just the icing, let’s focus on the cake). My host Dad presented this perfectly squared glass one day before I am scheduled to leave, perhaps never seeing them again for the rest of my life. I wrapped it with my towel and jacket and placed this fragile being in the centermost past of my baggage. After traveling through 4 airports, 20 hours of fights and 3 airlines, this ornament arrived safely. My host Dad said in Italian, translated by my host sister that the sun signifies ‘coldness of the Italian winter’ while the mountains are the two mountains I’ve visited during my stay (I don’t really remember the names now, regrettably). The rest are left to my interpretation. Perhaps this glass was hung in a secluded corner at home, it took me two long years to finally figure out what this piece of art meant. Observe the colours - the yellowish taint of the Sahara, the azure blue of the Carribean, the icy blue of the Scandinavian plains, the jade green of the Amazon, and the tranquil green of the rainforests - everything under one roof (or two mountains). And once I figured this, it took me straightaway to the answer. Connect Malaysia and Italy in one straight line, extending either easterly (over the Americas) or westerly (over Africa), and you can observe all these colours, the natural colours of the world. It is an item of memory, that I now had experienced the life of the light-green zone (Malaysia) and the icy blue zone (Alps weather), as well as a token of blessing - to bless the short-sighted Jun Yi to explore lives of all the other colour zones in his life. The world is too wonderful for one to stay put, stretch out and experience, it says, because soon you won’t have the chance as Earth meets its ultimately demise, and hence the weakening sun. Mountains are challenges in life that you must face everyday in your life, and another mountain conquered is another icing topped (remember the baggage tag now?).
See, a picture is truly worth a thousand words.

2 weeks back home. Apart from doing some very expensive shopping and sticking myself to a stringent but uneffective Biochemistry study plan, I met several old friends to ‘relive the moments’. Whether or not I had had a milder semester at Taiwan or a quarter of my mind is preoccupied with Biochemistry, this summer is filled with the warmth of Malaysian Hospitality for me.
From people asking me to call them right after I landed (Kai Yan), which I forgot, naturally, to Seong Ling asking me out spontaneously and myself getting a reply in less than 30 seconds after I sent out an invitation SMS, I was thoroughly amazed by how hospitable and together my friends could be. In fact, it was until the news about Malaysia Airlines being awarded the World’s Best Cabin Staff that I finally realised this - Malaysians are hospitable and warm in nature. It’s in us. MAS had been having the World’s Best Cabin Staff for 2001, 02, 03, 04 and 07. It’s something already second nature to us.
It’s rather different in Taiwan, as I observed. Nevertheless, observations by an individual alone may be biased or subjective. And gradually, I lose my warmth and friendliness dealing with other people - especially when I’m busy. Slowly getting used to the ’self-service’ way of life in Taiwan, I feel so pampered as a guest back home - Kee Wai making sure I got on the right KTM Komuter terminal heading for Puchong, Soon Khen asking me along to his AIESC meeting, though I wished to go shopping that evening, and Seong Ling offering me a lift home even though I can walk home. Things don’t usually go that way in my secular country.
I guess being together and being friendly is a nature brought up in every Malaysian through living and receiving an education in Malaysia. In fact, I don’t feel lonely back home, as I quite often do back in Taiwan. But then again, the simple fact that I’m a ‘guest’ and not a ‘long-term burden’ will bias me on my judgement. However, just allow me to say that the amount of warmth exhibited by everyone I’ve met is just overwhelming.
Nevertheless, soon everyone will be off on their own chosen pathways and calling on a gathering would not be as simple as it is today. In fact, this might be my first and perhaps last summer spent in Malaysia with all of you guys - one year from now everyone will spread to every corner on the globe and Malaysia (which sadly have different seasons for holidays), and till then I think it would be worthless to spend summer back home alone (to Mum and Dad - ‘alone’ doesn’t imply without you guys, you are still greatly welcomed in my life). Without you guys, Big Thumb (or Just Cafe will simply be an ordinary cafe serving ordinary drinks with amature singers mimicking the stars. Without you guys, e-Gate and Tesco would just be a place to shop for groceries and have dinner. Without you guys, MidValley would just be another option on the shopping list to shop for a sling bag.
It’s always hard to imagine a total transformation of life when you’re so comfortable with yours now. It’s always easier to grip and enjoy what you have right now and not anticipate tomorrow, but reality will always strike the ones least prepared.
So, to everybody back home who really made my summer meaningful and worth the almost-two-thousand-ringgit air fare (not that I had any extravaganza awaiting for me in Taiwan), thank you so much for the care and warmth you showered Jun Yi when he meets you with a blank face. He really does enjoy meeting old friends and reliving every and any moment in his 18 years of life, and he thanks all of those who can show up, again and again. And even though he might not have contacted you, please do find the opportunity to whack him when you see him strolling in Gurney or Queensbay (which I haven’t gone to yet), or nudging him on MSN and make his computer hang. If it’s not for preparing to serve Lord Biochemistry, he would’ve visited each and every one of you guys at home.

This markth the 100th post on ‘JYSim for jobless-yokel Sim’. It’s been almost 2 years since I penned my first post on friendster (it’s actually 1 year, 7 months and a couple of days to be exact). All of us had gone a long way, and I’m sure I changed a lot during this period of uncertain adolescence.

Let’s start with my conditions currently - a 100 posts ago, I was at home, chubby and frustrated from all the studying as well as a small unfriendly spark in class that happened that very afternoon. 100 posts later, I’m sitting in front of my cousin’s computer typing into her very hard keyboard trying to commemorate this 100th post and trying to make it mistake-free. My shoulders hurt, as always - it started to hurt everytime I feel tired since I participated and overworked in a science competition in Form 4. I lost approximately 13kgs since I departed for Taiwan, and people just keep asking why even though I don’t know the exact reason - stress? Not really; fasting? Not once; Vegetarian? I hated the idea of it. So, let’s just take it that Jun Yi has cancer and he has less than a year to live, so if you love him or hated him just be honest with him now. I’m sulking about not studying Biochemistry, which will be tested upon beginning of semester, forgetting the fact that it was me myself who was so deeply stuck in Harry Potter a few days ago. Nevertheless, at this moment as my senior told me she got a book prize even though she just started studying one day before semester begins, I feel more relieved.

100 posts ago all I wanted was full-aces for my SPM, and a good time after the examinations. 100 posts later I’ve been to Italy, received my SPM cert, became a CLHS alumni, and getting ready to become a 2nd Year Medical Student. Ideas and concepts change - I no longer think staying in Malaysia is the only option for furthuring your education even if you’re not-so-well-to-do. 100 posts ago I was a whiner - complaining this and that, not realizing how life can go desperately wrong or complicated. 100 posts later I felt more grateful about everything around me - from GSC and MAS to all the great friends I have (names not listed to avoid controversy).

While a great part of this blog is about the good old days and how’s life with me, I did wrote things that are interesting to me from time to time, though they don’t usually get commented - and I know the sixth-formers are busy preparing for STPM and everybody is getting more busy with life. It’s always been a pleasure to write and share things I like with those willing to read. During times of turbulence, turmoil and uncertainty, I thank all who commented and gave advice through reading my posts. And since 100 coincides with the release of the final Harry Potter series, why not include a sentence of it as well for reminiscence? I personally thank Harry Potter for accompanying me through my high school - getting to know you (it’s Rowling actually) in Form 1 saved my English, and bedded my English it’s solid foundations for future use. In Form 3 you made me believe that I can achieve whatever I dreamt of, and I did achieved it ultimately, though I did not venture into it. In Form 5 you gave us endless days discussing about you at the back of the classroom. And finally, now, though I hated you NOT dying (though you actually died once) instead of Dumbledore, I’d still like to thank you for all the great experiences and imagination beyond boundaries.

For me, this blog had been a training in discipline and creativity. I always try to blog once every week, though occassionally unforseen circumstances will see that doesn’t happen. And though I doubt you realize it nowadays, I kept looking for ways to make you read more - I know my essays are lengthy, and I know you still have 50 pages of alcohols MCQs to be completed, but I wanted to express so much, and you had so limited time. Nevertheless, pursuing medicine as well as dedicating much time to choir and SCOPE doesn’t make that a solid reality at times. However, I was usually surprised by how things turn out - my posts always seem to me (a personal opinion) to contain a huge lesson about life (disclaimer: a purly personal opinion of JYSim the buster).

So many people, events, and things ought to be thanked and celebrated as this blog clockes its 100th post. The biggest portion of thanks goes to the readers and supporters who witnessed it grew all the way - to Kee Wai, Peter, Tham Min and Mum and Dad and Soon Khen (remind me if you’re left out). ‘JYSim for jobless-yokel Sim’ thanks you from the deepest of his heart and hopes to see your prescence through the future (and forgive us if we occassionially post weird or unreadable stuff).

It’s best to speak of things while they’re ongoing, but I was too busy, too preoccupied - everyone is during the whole duration of the camp I hardly find time to bath and sleep, and needless to say to blog when I was still in Taiwan. The TCU Medcamp was hosted by TCU’s faculty of medicine for the purpo0se of introducing high school students to the life of a medical student and doctor. High school students - young lads and ladies easily influenced by the media and fake impressions, need exposure particularly before deciding their path into this perilous, challenging and demanding career.
I participated in Medcamp practically because I wanted to make my prescence felt in my class, and particularly too because the summer is void when I made that decision (now it’s packed full to the brim). The 9th Medcamp began with us all staff gathering according to our work units and set off for 7 days of gruelling (and for some, boring) preparation checklist. I will admit that the preparation course of the camp was a little aimless for me and I had many times before wanted to call my airline and book the next flight home, but my partner for Medcamp silently held on to me and cheered me up with his outspoken personality. I was lost until my little kids came.
On 12th of July 148 high school children flocked from all parts of Taiwan into TCU, with their arrival times ranging from 11.01am to 16.30pm, it was a tiring task for group leaders like us. My partner and I was the only all-boys group, and we were to take care of 12 children in Group 12.

Taken on the 3rd day of our camp, showing all 14 of us. Our group, though led by two boys, was nonetheless as easygoing and talkative as the others. The camp generally included introduction to the life of a doctor (big yawn for us now), some lessons on anatomy, physiology, pharmacology, histology etc (of course, they all must be degraded to high school level in order to fit into the minds of a 16-year old). Besides the academical aspects of the camp, we do have other outdoor activities as well as on-stage slots for all groups. While it is the group leaders who has to be the most actively participating and most actively contributing ideas, our group, thanks to my partner’s deregulation of power at the beginning of the camp, were basically ruled by the two ’small’ group leaders we appointed.

Time really flies when you’re busy and tired. Every night I went back to my room exhausted and unwilling to move another muscle. After scrambling up and climbing 6 stairways down to ensure my kids are all well in their rooms, I scramble up 6 stories up again to shower and sleep. 6 hours later I would be dazingly grabbing my glasses and run for the basin before skipping 3 steps at once to meet my kids again. Not that I’m so willing to see them, but the schedule is arranged so and if I (or my partner) were not present before the appointed time we’d be screwed for the next 5 years.
Anyway, the camp finally ends on noon of July 18, and that’s the same day we had our feedback meetings and celebration dinner. After the dinner I dragged my partner to a shopping spree of local goods to be brought home, as my train departing for Taipei will be leaving in less than 18 hours. I hastily packed and slept for 9 straight hours.

Me and my partner (and my little rabbit down below).
The 9th Medcamp had left something in all our hearts, may it be to treasure friendships (for me) or to expect less from ‘commercial’ camps (like my friend), or the skill to produce 20-minutes movie clips in 30 seconds, or to learn to how not to screw up on-stage performances, it’s a worthwhile experience for all of us (and a fat chance of getting sunburnt too). I’d like to say thank you to my partner for the wonderful lessons and guidance all the while. It brightened our summer.

Is your education experience just another credit to your CV (’cheat visa’ as interpreted) or should education be everything we were asked to be when we were small - have everything by heart and finding a way to utilize them whenever we have the chance? The argument for the true meaning of education, and subsequently a larger picture, life, had been on even before Ministries of Educations were set up globally - competition is getting stiffer and tougher around the world by the second - losing out by a fragment of a mark or lacking an important skill will perhaps bury you for a longed-for shining opportunity. However, what is the true essence of education?
‘The History Boys’ by Alan Bennett is one groundbreaking, and impact-leaving play that truly probes deep into the true meaning of education and examinations. A bunch of boys, majoring in history, did very well for their ‘A’ Levels (in the 80’s even 3As is considered outstanding). They proposed to strive for the Oxbridge examinations (entrance examination for Oxford and Cambridge), and the school willingly set up plans and curriculum to assist them - Hector, for English, emphasizes that literature is something to be experienced and appreciated and that examinations are the biggest killer of education. Stressing to learn language by heart, the boys were always able to do impromptu plays or poem reciting, and the lines were really beautiful and touching. Irwin, their young history teacher, was a complete opposite from Hector. Having the notion ‘being different is the key in getting into Oxbridge’, he stimulates his students to think in ways what other people do not - Stalin is not-so-bad after all, the Jews were rightful to be exterminated during WW2 (of course this must be backed up with solid evidences) etc. The contrast of these two teachers forced the boys to re-think the real value of education and re-evaluate what education is supposed to be.
In the play (it’s a play as well as a movie) we are given several flash-fronts - bad things generally, that really led us to think what really happened to these boys after that (they all got in Oxford finally, a happy ending so to say). Finally we realize that because so much effort was put into entering the university, so much motivation and energy powered to break through the gates, they were left with nothing upon entrance. It’s like competing in Thomas’ Cup - you fight as though there’s no tomorrow, and you won, but when it’s time for you to really parade the trophy (being in Oxford), you pass out. They drool in Oxford, and ended up being people they’re not expected to be in high school - a journalist in a low-class paper, a tax lawyer whose interest is only on money, a teacher with a hidden identity on the Internet, and a dry-cleaner who takes drugs in the weekends.
This led us to think about the theme ‘life’ too - a brief moment of glamour or glitter does not always guarantee eternal brightness - Sim Jun Yi might perhaps suddenly lose interest in studies and become a slug, and eventually end up selling newspapers and chewing gum in a stall in Puduraya (though the idea to include some romance seems more dramatic), China will one day exhaust its resources and vastness of land and their younger generation will have to clean up the mess they left behind during their now so-called ‘Second Great Leap Forward’. This is life - a roller coaster. Being Oxbridge candidates these boys though not arrogant were in the prime of their life. They were the creme de la creme of Great Britain, ready to enter one of the most prestigious universities in the world, and they did it, but when they finally did, they lost momentum and took a great dive that never recovered.
However, Hector’s education left the boys enough substance and material to still work things out and manage their own chipping lives - once in a while they will suddenly remember a verse so well memorised for the suitable occassion, a song so apt to their feelings, or a poem so beautiful their life briefly sparkled. Hector taught them everything about life, and that’s what I really think education should be - less academically and more on morality. A phrase I find a killer is "Pass the parcel. That’s sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on, boys. That’s the game I wanted you to learn. Pass it on." We do believe that life is destined and we are in no power to change it when God really wants it that way. That’s why whether our life totally sucked or is in ninth heaven now, we should just ‘take it, feel it, and pass it on’. Things will eventually take a turn for the better or the worse, and we can sometimes only face it and endure it. Pass it on.
I do realize very often things are much easily said than done - it’s so simple to type the paragraph above, it only took 3 minutes, but when I’m really in my life’s low, I might brood over it as long as 3 weeks and yet not recover. That’s when friends come in important. Nevertheless, what Hector said was again really true - if we really believe in Almighty above, we should just leave everything to fate and pass it on.

The golden rule for going on exchange is and always will be to not expect things so that the unexpected will always find its way to you and surprise you genuinely. Even after my short life as an exchange student ended in Italy more than one year ago, I still find this rule apt enough in life to promote it - learning to keep your expectations down is just a key to living a less demanding and happier life, as was the events that unfolded today.
At 12.00 midnight I was already planning a whining day - reading some novels and perhaps sleep a little and watch a movie - the last thing I really wanted to do after an examination. I asked a friend out on MSN and we decided we’ll be deciding where to go the next day, and so I went to sleep 1 hour earlier than my usual time in my new room - clean, immaculate and with a brand new stand fan blowing at me.
I woke up subsequently at 6.05 and 7.30 - both times due to the sun directly shining at my face. I am a photosynthetic creature, I live around the sun. That’s why I usually wake up around 9 in Malaysia when I actually can wake up at 7 here - the sun rises earlier in the eastern side of the globe. Anyway, at 8.05 I was awakened by my mobile phone - the most unexpected person called - my senior from SCOPE. Hosting exchange students, it is our responsibilities to expose them to everything while they’re here - food, places of interest, culture and people. He told me they’re heading for Taroko National Park today and asked if I’d be willing to join. As if hitting th jackpot or being upgraded to First Class on my flight to New York, I agreed passionately in my groggy state and went to dress up as quickly as possible.
2 minutes later I was off in a Mitsubishi Lancer my senior rented, and while the air-conditioning was not working very well, it was a luxury to actually sit in a car in Hualien. We went to the various trails in Taroko and the sceneries were absolutely breathtaking. It was the grand canyon with lush greenery dotted with cascading waterfalls almost everywhere. The geography is just as if God had really spent time carving and architecturally designed the way the river flows and the valley dropped vertically into the ravines.

To our Scandinavian visitor, the scenery was of course a huge difference from the snow and frost in Sweden. The humid and perspiring weather made us even more looking forward to a ‘water curtain cave’ we’re visiting. The cave, as its name suggests, is literally curtained by showering torrents of water from the ceiling - icy cold water. I tried to hold some in my plastic bottle and it just frosted from the outside. After getting ourselves drenched, we sun-dried ourselves outside the cave and tiredly continued our journey.

The next spot was special with it’s aquamarine-and-azure blue waters flowing between the gray granites. Sitting on one of the many rocks you can lay back and stare directly into the blue sky - something I had not done since laying back in CLHS’ basketball court after PMR.

Clouds are such beautiful marvels we always fail to notice them - they’re dynamic and ever-changing, and even staring at the pictures of it we feel it changing. The blue and white of the clouds are two colours so beautiful we often fail to notice despite the other artificial colours around us.
I had a great and unexpected day at Taroko today, and I guess I wouldn’t have had such a great time if I had expected something like this since the first day of school. And guess what, I’m going off for dinner now.

The endless days and nights sitting in front of the lamp, reading through paragraph after paragraph of Organic Chemistry or Media Studies which seem totally Greek to you, and the torn apart feeling when you’re deciding whether to continue studying (and be very ill-tempered later) or watch a movie on your PC (and feel so guilty later) is ending as you scribble away the last sentence of your memorised media studies essay. Handing up the script full of condemnation about how rotten the media in Taiwan is, you feel liberated. Merdeka! Liberation! Free! απελευθέρωση! (Greek for ‘liberation’).
But the blissfulness lasted only a fraction of a second. The second thought flash through now - what’s next? This is what I as a Chung Ling student feel after each and every exam in CLHS - what’s next? I will be home in less than 20 minutes, bidding Mdm. Mok goodbye, I’ll have a whole afternoon to my own. However, on this particular day I shall not ground myself to more books, the pile of reference books lying on the marble table at home will be standing there, towering to the ceiling until one day Mum can’t stand it no more and threaten to whack it down if I don’t clean up. I will watch a movie, take a long nap, and wake up to more television. This was my post-exam life as a Chung Ling student.
Now another level higher, as a university student I’m given extra freedom but with less privacy or will to exercise it. No Mum will be there nagging about the towering pile of books and papers, and my roommate won’t care if all the sheets are flying about on the floor, as if a tornado had just blown over Wall Street. Though good times lie ahead, there’s still this small constant gnaw inside your brain about things still not done - borrowing the BioChemistry textbook from your senior, study BioChemistry Chapter 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 11, 14, 15 and 17 during the summer (to be tested upon beginning of term), arranging how the water-balloon fight for September etc. The feeling of ‘what’s next?’ is still there, though to a lesser degree. And we’re all so unmotivated and reluctant to do anything after the exams.
Exams are a part of education - a necessary evil, an absolute evil I may say. I really did study hard for O. Chem, well, perhaps not that hard. I did steal an hour or two watching ‘Hot Fuzz’ and ‘Charlotte’s Web’ (and cried), and I did spent some time daydreaming, but on the whole I do study, and why the heck when I see the questions I stupidly picked ‘R configuration’ when my fingers are doing the anticlockwise motion - it’s so obvious. And why, why and why did I wrote ‘there are 5 stereogenic centers on the molecule’ when I actually marked 6? I ought to just jump from my friend’s room from the third floor. Half the time during the exams I do not know what I’m scribbling. In fact, I’m even amazed by my performance at producing a 1000-word Chinese essay within an hour today - I never got the chance to check it through, but the amount alone is enough to shock me. If you’d ask me what I wrote, I honestly cannot reply. My brain had been rendered nonfunctional since weeks before the exams - many blunders I committed recently - calling people by their wrong names, saying illogical things like ‘the french fries looks smile ice cream,’ (my mind was going through three things - ‘the french fries looks small’, ‘why are you smiling?’ and ‘i want an ice cream, too.’
While I’m still pondering over ‘why did I stay here for such a long time?’ I’m dead envious at my classmate Hueih Ling and Jieyang in England getting to go home so soon. The feeling of going home, for us first and second graders, is even better than hitting the jackpot or being upgraded to First Class - just get us home, that alone is happy enough. My mind is so tired now it cannot do anymore sentence structuring or analyzing. I’d have to stop here before sentences like ‘my hands is with the chicken’ starts to appear.

My enjoyable and relaxing Year One is two weeks from ending now, and a long and a-little packed summer holiday is waiting for me once I defeat the evil evil final exams. Come to think of it, I think the only education worth having while you’re in college or university is to learn to resist temptations and pursue what you really wanted. Temptations are bad, though you’d sometimes get the message ‘temptations are good, so give up to it’ in a paper wrapped in chocolate or something similar. You plan to study the entire morning, and just because your roommate who is beside you is so successful with his Sim City 4 (I bankrupted it a dozen times) you’re so tempted to study how he managed his city so well, you end up turning on your computer and downloading 5 movies and 3 soundtrack CDs. To make things sweeter, you continuously reassure yourself you can eventually get your studies done in the afternoon and head out to a 2-hour lunch.
Summer holidays is the period of lust, of unimaginable idleness and totally relaxed pace of life. It is angelic when you’re in it, but before you step into the cubicle you see it as a demon - it distracts everything. You have 3 papers to be submitted, a total of 10000 words, and there you are, checking airfares to Phuket and Langkawi, and though you know the probability of you actually going to Phuket is like 0.5%, you still go on WikiTravel and took notes even more precise than for O. Chem what you should buy when you’re there.
Nevertheless, Sim Jun Yi being a person who easily gives up to temptations, has find his summer holidays almost packed (even though it’s like one month before he’s actually home). It will kickstart with attending Mum’s Convocation Ceremony in PWTC, it would be a really touching and memorable moment - even grandma is invited. Then, as August looms ahead, the triad (or quartet - Soon Khen, Jieyang, me, Jiong Kit) would probably go paintballing. And as Jieyang says he’d like to spend more time with us, I emptied the first 10 days of August for him and his friends. Around 11 - 15 of August I will have the chance to travel to KL in style as an ambassador of Tzu Chi University for an education fair in KLCC. As transportation and accommodation is provided by the school, I’m drawing plans to fly Malaysia Airlines First Class and charge the school for that.
Next, my friend and his sister would do a short visit here, around the school holidays, and as I’m still in a daze of where to bring them, I cannot yet churn out words for this paragraph.
After the certainly-glamorous National Day Celebration of Malaysia I’d start doing the usual ’see you next January’ procession with everybody I asked out. This time back, I’ll be certain I stocked enough CLHS notebooks and exercise books, and I’ll bring my Italian glass-painting here - I just realized it had become my life, symbols are my life. Before the summer ends I’ll be making plans for the NEXT summer already, and just as Dad’s paintings, it is boundless, it is powerful, it calms you and makes you happy, but realizing it or not is another matter. I guess life is what we are now - to plan perfectly but to realize it unexpectedly interesting and enriching.
Guess this post is completely babel all the way.

The degree of how busy you are - business (busy-ness), is coincidentally the same word for a commercial trade of goods and services, business. While Oxford had had no recognition on the word ‘business’ used on how busy you are, I’d like to claim it mine first in order to continue on for this post.
I’m extremely sorry for not being blogging for such a long time, the main reason being I’m 10 on the business scale recently, and that my past posts had had no comments, which was rather disconcerting. Recently I experienced several kinds of business, listed below with description:
1. The Abrupt and Acute Business
You’re happily watching Air Crash Investigations of China Airlines 006 when suddenly 3 of your friends nudged you on MSN. No. 1 demanded that you complete your description for the water fight you plan to organize on September this very instant while No. 2 is trying to get the message ‘go sign up for the course on how to handle a society tomorrow before 12pm at the Office of General Affairs with Ms. Foo and don’t forget to pay 100 dollars and ask her to issue a receipt as well as submit the society’s reimbursement for the money used on tuning the grand piano…..’ across, but of course you weren’t paying attention because you’re too preoccupied watching and typing at the same time. At that immediate moment No. 3 urgently needs an explanation on why you did not call up your group members and inform them about paying up 1000 dollars for a camp.
That’s the precise moment when you wished you had the remote control to your life so that you can yell ‘ STOP’ and everything will freeze.
2. The Slowly Gnawing Business
You had a great day at school. The lessons were ok, you did not fell asleep, and you were planning to clock some study hours before finally leaping into the ‘ER’ DVD your senior lent you at 10pm. You’re back at your bedroom, and you had the physics textbook in front of you. Just as you’re about to plug in your iPod, you suddenly remembered about your scholarship next year - are they terminating it or are they continuing it? And why the heck my money has been delayed for almost one month? And then another worrisome problem crops up - heck, I have a 3000-word essay to be submitted the day after tomorrow, and currently I’m still at Word Nought. Sim Jun Yi, you know you’re not a genius and you cannot produce a 3000-word essay in 30 minutes, so you gotta get your butt off the chair and start typing now. But, oh, I’ve gotta study a little or else I’d be so behind soon.
As you’re still contemplating on whether to start typing or continuing studying and your eyes wonder around the pages sending nothing into the brain, you turned and saw this mountainous pile of recyclable garbage in the washroom. And then - didn’t the dorm master just entered your room yesterday and warned you guys better get that pile out of your room soon or else he’ll set them on fire and roast all of you alive in there?
And thus you are so undecided about doing these things until finally you’re too tired to think at 1am and you fell asleep.
3. The Talked-into Business
You’re dining alone at an eatery outside your school, feeling down from the weather and the coming weekend. Your senior walked in with his boyfriend, and, as you’re usually smiling all the time, she noticed something different about you.
‘Oh, you looked so cool when you’re not smiling!’
‘H’m, ok.’
‘Well, you’re so well-versed and cool all the time ain’t you? Such a talent!’
‘Uh-huh’
‘We need a host for our farewell party this weekend, you’ll be accompanying Ning Ning on hosting. It’ll be fun! I’ll contact you soon to give you the details ya?’ (prepares to leave).
‘But, I…’ (she just left and closes the door).
And thus I had to vacate up to 20 hours in the next 3 days in order to prepare for the host job. It was a nice party overall, but I blubbered a lot, and now that I’m not anymore expected to do anything, nobody says I’m cool or good-looking anymore.
To conclude - business, it comes in all forms.
Would post more soon, I’m still busy anyway.