Almost apposite.

The post Christmas week usually strikes me hard. Like real hard. I get all pensive about the year...And I get more pensive about my work too! Not so much last year, but especially this year.

As of late, I've been hopelessly addicted to Maplestory. I just want to play it every single waking moment! Damn it. And not forgetting that I have a whole list of work to complete. Not too encouraging. Still, I can't seem to beat that compulsive gamer in me.

"Hey, it's high time you start to work on those damn DRQs."

"Right. Damn the DRQs."

"Get going!"

"Who cares. Maplestory first. Gotta get to that next level."

Those conversations with myself really happen in my head. I'm not kidding. It's rather puzzling how I can become such an addict like..overnight? Blame my sister. She's the one who's always harping on and on about the new equipment that she found when she hunted those oh-so-scary mushrooms. Sheesh. And now I can't get myself off those damned mushrooms as well. RAWR.

***

"Is your shirt glow-in-the-dark?"

"Hm...when you wash it in water, it goes all sparkly. It's really special and nice, you know."

*long pause*

"So that's a no?"

***

Absolutely classic.

Christmas is coming!

Ding dong merrily on high, the christmas bells are ringing!
Ding dong heav'n and earth reply, with angel voices singing!

Christmas is coming once again, and I'm inundated by my countless carolling duties at Conrand Hotel and Fullerton Hotel. Well, most of it is at Conrad Hotel, which didn't exactly surprise me because of the disparity in standards between the seniors and us. =) Still, I'm glad I get to perform at these two places because it's mighty mighty posh!! Yippee. Carolled once yesterday at Conrad and it wasn't too bad. The bass one beside me was very strong in singing so it proved as a check for my technique. Sigh. Still working on it.

After the good carolling session, I went out with Eu for dinner again! Yay. It's so nice to go out with her because we click so well! =)

At this juncture, I thought that I should make at least a mild allusion to my trip in France. Those were the best 25 days in this entire year. Never have I felt so free...and partially it's due to the 16000km separating me and my problems here. Call it escapism or whatever, but I think I really enjoyed the trip a lot because I didn't feel like my problems were creeping up on me every single second and I wasn't thinking about how to survive each day, how to complete all the tutorials in time, how to forge stronger relationships with the people around me. It was liberation. Again. I've learnt a lot about myself throughout this entire trip, most of it from talking to Christl. She's an amazing person to talk to 'cause she's so mature and it's very interesting to see some issues from her perspective. Although I didn't experience any sudden life-changing epiphanies like she did, I'm glad I conversed a lot with her 'cause it put a lot of things into perspective. =)

Not forgetting the fact that I improved my french a lot! Yay. Most satisfying was watching Beauty and the Beast (La Belle et la Bete) in french and understanding almost all of it, save for the songs! Sigh. I'll never forget the ballroom scene. I watched Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire in french as well, much to my dismay at first, but I managed to understand only about 70% of it at max. Lost the nuances in the dialogues and whatnot. Sheesh.

I think I'll just let -some- of my pictures tell the story. =) Enjoy.



































The rest of the pictures are here! =)) Please go and view them 'cause they're really pretty. And I spent a lot of time typing the bloody captions. LOL!

[edit] Because this entry is extremely, profoundly backlogged, I'd just like to add that I had a great time carolling with you guys, the HC Voices and the J2s! It has been a fantastic time. Although I didn't do everything correctly (like clapping when I'm supposed to snap! gee.), I think it was still a good performance overall because everyone tried their best! Yay.

Now for more schoolwork. Biology beckons! =) Cheers to all. And merry christmas. Erm, a day late. [/edit]

Quick newsflash!

Ok, my second week in France is drawing to a close and I'm feeling this sudden need to blog something before my blog becomes dead-er than a dead rat.

Allllllll-right. I think there has been so many things that I've done over the past two weeks that I can hardly find a place to start with! France has been amazing so far. And I do mean AMAZING. It's just like what I imagined it to be! I'm proud to announce that I'm more fluent in the language already. Ha! Ok, not fluent fluent, but at least more proficient in my oral skills as compared to before I came here. I can only wish that I've done this before my oral exam! Sigh.

Anyway, I drank a lot of alcohol yesterday, when it was my birthday. Sheesh. Four cups of red/white/rose wine, two cups of champagne as the l'apéritif, another cup of red wine at dinner and of course, another cup of white wine to end of at a bar. ARGH! I was surprised I could still walk straight right after the last cup of wine. Of course, this is excluding the many many sips of other people's wines at the bar, with names like Kamikaze(!!). Oooof!

I'd like to take this grand oppurtunity to thank all the people who wished me happy birthday in one way or another...

Mum for calling me so early in morning to wish me happy birthday over the phone. Never mind the fact that at dinner, we were all laughing at Mme Evrard's English. Hahaha...Love you loads.

Eunice (aka shu) for wishing me happy birthday over an email! I love you loads. Thanks for bringing me back to Christ and for being such a great friend and buddy over the past few years, since our toot choir days in RV when I was still a bloody alto. Lol! Hope you don't strangle the kids in Sunday school for their short attention span! Hehe.

Mavis, Lin, Zhirui and Xingqun for wishing me happy birthday and singing an online birthday song through MSN for me!

Judith for sending me that very sweet sms at midnight! At least in Singapore! I received it at about 8pm before I attended the rock concert and it really touched my heart. =D Thanks a bunch.

Pamela for remembering my birthday and sending me that sms! Seriously, I'm very surprised you remembered my birthday! =) Thanks a lot all the same and see you at the 4c gathering!

Wanjun (if you'd allow me to call you that!) for that very nice sms too! I didn't expect one from you too, but I was pleasantly surprised. Thanks!

Yuhui and gang for that very *erm*....interesting toy from Kinder Bueno. Ok. =)

Xinyu for that sms too! Thanks for remembering my birthday! =) God bless too. We should meet up soon too! It's been a long time.

Michelle (omgomgomg!) for sending my that happy birthday sms too! GEE! It's really sweet of you to remember. How did you manage to know that it's my birthday anyway? Gahahaha. Thanks. Really cracked me up. =D

Anrong for being so nice to offer to buy me the first thing that I wanted to buy for the day...Even though there really was nothing to buy because we were in school. Lol! Thanks all the same!

Victor (my correspondant over here...) and his family for giving me that wonderful book about Bordeaux, which thank Heavens I didn't buy, and for that wonderful dinner. Not forgetting all the drinks that I got yesterday. Lol. Didn't get drunk though, so it was an experience!

And not forgetting Christl(!!) for giving me that card, which was really sweet of you (Christl, duh). You're undoubtedly one of my closest friends in the immersion programme and in french class and I'm so glad I can share this experience with you (although it would have been a BLAST if Bryan and Georgia were here too!). Thanks so much for everything and do enjoy yourself in the campagne! Haha...Grosses bisous à toi! =)

Thanks one and all for everything once again. Made my day in one way or another. =)

[disclaimer: the people listed over here are not in any particular order, although Christl was left deliberately to the last because she was the first one to give a present. Heh. And that's only because she's in France too. Just kidding, Christl!]