In this page, you will get to explore the mind, events and feelings of a Chun Jui... ok, fine, judging from the past 24 years, my life is far from what you call "eventful" (in fact, "dull" might the be more appropriate adjective) but I'll try to keep my entries interesting!
B> Saturday, July 24, 2004
I shudder, feel slightly nauseated, feel anger slowly creep into my body, my heart drops to my stomach, and my eyes burn with hot tears whenever I watch or read a news story about the killer--- oh excuse me, the alleged abductor and killer of little Cecilia. What kind of human must he be to be able to do such a heinous thing? Was he born without a conscience, like how some unfortunate people are born without limbs? Whatever it was that drove him to do this, the fact of the matter is, he did the most cowardly and most sinful thing possible: take the life of a helpless child.
Other thoughts on my mind: work, of course. This past week was one of the strangest, most tiring and frustrating week at work. While is nothing out of the ordinary to have a child cry and scream for hours on end due to separation anxiety (I swear, I think I have developed a somewhat immunity towards crying!), it is somewhat unusual to have a parent to keep forcing the child back into the classroom even after her child has thrown up FOUR times (due to being so worked up when he was crying)! For three days in a row, this mom has tried to get her child to stay at preschool but has failed. He has vomited more times than I care for, yet I've never had a parent who has refused to listen to our advice and instructions to take her child home. Our rule of thumb is, the child can cry because we can handle and know how to deal with it but once they start puking (or pinching or punching or kicking or commiting other likewise "violent" acts towards instructors or other children--- trust me, I've been pinched, punched, scratched, nearly strangled, and kicked!), they're out for that day. But nope, this mom kept on forcing the kid to stay in the classroom, resulting in the child throwing up at least 3 times on himself, the floor, and on his mother! Even after I told her straight out that she needs to take him home, she kept on saying to me, "No, it's ok, he's fine, he has nothing left to throw up!!!" (Can you believe it?!?)... Anyway, she brought him back the next day (which we suggested-- we believe in second chances), and as we expected, he threw up no less than 4 times in about 40 minutes (mind you, the class is only an hour long). The mother was so frustrated and angry with her son, that she started screaming at him, and kept on shoving him into the classroom, so hard that he nearly fell over! Yes, lady, shoving him and screaming at him will get him to stop crying and want to stay!! Sheesh. Anyway, she didn't listen to us about taking him home and ended up disrupting the class for almost the entire hour. We had to get the facility manager to talk to her and kick her out---twice. Argghhhhh.... Anyway, the point of the story is, if any of you thought that being a preschool teacher was simply playing with cute little kids, you're wrong, very wrong, almost to the point of ignorance! I come home from work everyday simply exhausted. :/
Anyway, on a happier note, Viv , is coming to visit in September!! :D Yay! Now that she has informed everyone, I can be openly happy about it! :P I had known about her visit for a little while but was sworn to secrecy and I was dying to tell someone! :P Anyway, Viv, thanks sooo much for the HK postcard!! I'm so envious that you got to go back to HK and see once again the mesmerizing night view of HK--- I miss it so much!
Ok, one more thing before I end this really long entry: I'm just finishing up East of Eden by John Steinbeck and it is one of the most powerful books I've read. It's quite thick (about 600 pages long) but everytime I close the book, I always feel "Whoa!". A lot of scenes are subtle but in fact, very powerful and moving. Only a genius or at least very close to being one, can be capable of writing a book like this. A definite MUST READ!
Saturday, July 17, 2004
I'm in a rut. My bad mood from last weekend has not completely dissipated yet, though I don't know why... I feel like all of my sense of creativity has disappeared. The mellow contentment that I had experienced before is starting to go too... I am ready and in need of some exciting new change in my life! I felt exactly like this way just before I made the decision to go to HK three years ago--- and HK was the perfect remedy! When and where is my next "HK" experience??
Thursday, July 15, 2004
Ok, ok, I get the point people, I'm putting up Deerhurst pics, ok?? :P My apologies for my tardiness, thus causing the impatience of "Deerhurst participant" (yes, I read your message in the guestbook!) :D Ok, so here is my little reflection before you get to the pics: I had a wonderful, fun-filled but tiring (in a good way) weekend with my HK group. The weather was absolutely perfect for us, the sun shining down on us on every single day we were there, except for the day we were leaving. It wasn't too hot nor too cold, which made it perfect for lots of outdoor activities! Like Caroline said, I don't think I've packed so many physical activites into each day of the weekend in a very, very long time! I played like a kid with tons of energy to spare! (Which largely explained the subdued, calm, sleepy atmosphere in the apartment during the evenings-- even though we were a group of 11 twenty-something year olds!). I "played" tennis (May, I think we chased after and picked up balls more than we actually played!! Yeah, we suck. :P), a little bit of basketball (suck at that too), did pedal-boats, barracudas, kayaked (again, May, we even sucked at that!! We are two of the most unco-ordinated people on the planet!! But it was fun... even though some stranger laughed at how we were spinning in circles! He was just jealous. :P), hiked, swam (without ever putting my face in the water because I had forgotten to bring my contact lenses case to take out my contacts!! arggh...), got ripped off at our manicures (the nail polish is completely gone now, plus some of my nails chipped anyway) but a really, really, really relaxing massage! :) Oh, and my most favourite part of the trip: laying on the beach for hours, doing nothing but chilling and watching little kids play (no, I'm NOT a stalker!)!
As for the food part... what a sight our cupboards and fridge was! You'd think we were going to be there for like a month, if you saw how much food we brought!! It was sooo hiliarious, in particular our snack cupboard (see below for a pic)--- we had about 8 bags of chips, a whole assortment of crackers and cookies, two jars and a jug of salsa (*shudder*), instant noodles, instant soup, cereal, granola bars, etc., etc. We managed to polish off a whole case of 24 Nesteas, a whole case of bottled water, and 2 tubs of ice cream within 2 days! However, we still had soooo much food left over! I guess everyone was just so excited about the trip that we just went nuts and bought everything!
As for the meals, I'm proud of our group for not burning anything (although Sacha DID drop a slice of bacon on the floor when she was cooking breakfast! :P) and everything tasted great! Good job everyone!
Speaking of bringing everything, we had a whole collection of DVDS and CDs, enough decks of cards to start a casino (we had the poker chips too), and enough board games to last a whole month of rained-in days! :P The funniest moment though, was on the first night after everyone had showered, we all morphed into geeks when we all took out our contacts and whipped on the glasses!! What a huge nerd fest! 8) heehee...
What else... oh yes, the cars. Because we all brought so much stuff, all three cars were packed to the max, leaving little or no room to shift or move around in our seats! (See below for pics of the cars). In our car, May had to put her huge duffel bag between me and her in the back of the car, then we each had to hug our pillows, stuff our purses onto the floor, basically was only able to move our heads from side to side. Even Edward and Tammy were so squished that the eggs we were bringing had to be stored precariously under Edward's (the driver) seat!
Anyway, as you can tell from my incessant babbling, I had a terrific trip and I can't wait until our next vacation! I couldn't ask for a better group of people to go on a trip with! Thanks for the memorable trip, you guys! ;)
And now, the pics:
Came across this pic on the Internet-- brings back so many memories of the night we went to Jumbo! :)
The Cars:
May at the AMC parking lot meeting place:
Deerhurst Resort:
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