don't let (life) dull your sparkle

so i realised i haven't really been giving my 101% to blogging something that's meaningful and read-worthy.
no i will not let my linguistic sentiments hit rock bottom right now, i need to revive the spirit of writing fervently!!!!!!!!!!! *throws celebratory confetti*
and that's mainly because there is zero hype in life right now.

so for the past month, i haven't actually really been up to anything interesting.
well, except for the intermittent job-hopping and occasional shopping sprees.
i think as everyone knows, i quit my internship at my fomer web design company for clear-cut reasons.
well, i actually really enjoyed my job because i did a lot of writing and it honestly offered me a decently competent challenge to stretch my creativity to the fullest potential to think about what to write each new day.
i really enjoyed doing corporate profile write-ups for various companies and generating smooth-tongued catchphrases for advertising purposes.
i actually picked up pretty basic yet useful photoshop skills during my attachment too!

when my company actually finally launches their new website - i'll do some free advertisement for them here and claim credit for all the writing that i've done inside heehee. (but it's true - that was my fruit of hard work after 2 months)

so after i fulfilled my 2-month internship, i had the thought of staying on to work at a part-time hourly rate, just like those admin workers at the offices.
as i mentioned in an earlier post, it was unfortunate that the pay didn't live up to my expectations and hence i quit the job!!
it was kind of a pity because i really liked what i was doing.
but i knew i had to be fair to myself - i had to balance passion and pragmatism on a fine line.
so i did myself an unsolicited favour and left.
may consider freelance back there again even after i start uni who knows?



that marked the start of my unemployment for 2 weeks.
and it truly did feel weird because i was so used to a stable income (not substantial though i was still earning more than i spent) and having something to do every single day.
sounds robotic but i did miss having a systematic lifestyle to lead because honestly, with that 2 weeks i did nothing productive, and everything else the opposite.
up till now, all the things that i promised to do after a's - making my 2016 planner, getting up to exercise (hey no wait i semi-fulfilled this) daily (ok wait no) and whatnot are still left unchecked off the list.
basically in summary i spent that 2 weeks of unemployment watching too much running man, fangirling excessively about exo, sleeping like snorlax and well, trying to find a new job.
wow ewww, i actually feel slightly revolted at myself thinking about my indolence then.
what subliminal aversion towards myself lol.

actually i was quite hesitant about working because i was going to fly in a month's time then so i felt
then there was no pressing need to search for work to kill time.
and that brings me to my next point about the only hype/sparkle/excitement/wow factor in my life: my korea trip!!!!!!



god knows how excited i am to be flying in about 2 weeks time. :-)
i have been researching all day every day about seoul since december, and finally, my trip is happening in real life!!!!!!!!!
going to temporarily migrate - as i ineptly call it - to seoul for 17 days in may and i'm actually quite excited.
(i think even vanessa is put off by my overly enthused vibes that i'm radiating everytime i see her, oops)
when i come back rejuvenated from wanderlust, i promise i'll deliver detailed posts coupled with good photos ok?
17 days doesn't sound very long for a super effective therapeutic getaway but then again, spending more than 2 weeks in foreign land... homesickness is inevitable :-(
#seoulfarseoulgood is happening right here right now!!!!!!! (don't laugh at my cheesy hashtag, friends)
D-14 leggo!

okay anyway back to the mundane realities of life - so i am employed now and i just finished my first week of work at a salad bar!!
i didn't really expect much out of this job, the only reason why i initially agreed to work was because they were really in need of people (and partially also because i've always wanted to try working in a salad bar/cupcake shop)
but ultimately i conceded because the pull factor of a warm and fun-loving environment struck me.

my first week at work went pretty well and i must say, the people there are really amazing.
it's a pretty relaxing job i would say, and i felt that this was the place for quintessential domestication ;)
i actually really learn a lot about the kitchen and ingredient preparation, and how to use a lot of the tools.
being an undomestic goddess (like sophie kinsella, oh what deadly influence she has left upon me by indulging in too many of her books oh no), i learnt how to differentiate between a blender and juicer, how to cut pumpkins (holy my arms ache bc it's so tough), how to operate that darned can opener that i have struggled with for years and etc.
so i actually enjoy the exposure i get here in the salad bar.
i'm still in the midst of mastering the art of wrap-making because i am an extreme loser when it comes to stuffing vegetables and its many friends snugly into its outerwear (but an ultimate winner when it comes to eating).
week 1 at work is down and wow, surprisingly i am starting to feel repulsive at the thought of romaine lettuces......
never mind that, i'm just thankful i haven't really caused much of a debacle in the kitchen.
well, exclude the times when i dropped the blender full with carrots and when i absentmindedly added onions into a customer's order when he specifically refused that tear-inducing vegetable...
week 2 of daily work is awaiting me but i know i'll pull through thanks to great companionship! (yay for the familiar faces yx and janice and the new friends i've made)

about to start my tutoring job next week too and guess what, my nightmare is coming true.
the subject i feared most at a levels that left me with abysmal scars is charging right back at me again - chemistry T_T
hopefully i can still cope well enough with the secondary school syllabus...
gotta keep reading up again tomorrow and it's time to revisit the ten-year-series as a good old pal once more.

i am an unlucky girl.

yes, to cut the long story short (because this irritating blogger mobile app really sucks and did not save my post), i am a rare online shopper who just so happened to pop by the zalora store, spent $40, then minutes later i received a flashy email with bizarre gory colors saying:

i think i nearly died........ i seriously just...

yup so i went for browsing round 2 and forked out another $50 to buy more clothes ugh.

so yes that day i earned about $40 but i spent almost $100.

so much for practising prudence -_-

but anyway i can't wait for the clothes to come!!!!!! 

will blog about them when they arrive :-)

oh oh oh!

recently decided (more like i was forced to) to pick up reading.

yes friends you heard that right, I'M READING!!!!!

because i made a little promise to xh that i would pick up reading if i successfully made it into linguistics.

with great power(ful) (statements) comes great responsibility.

so here's to my first book in god-knows-how-long, wordwatching!

yes that was me in a coffee shop a few days back - reading.

picked this out from the library specially a few weeks back because it seems really relevant to my future course of study.

wordwatching is about a man who loves words so much he's inventing his own and trying all ways and means to have them officialized in the dictionary! and so his adventure begins.

(let's see how my adventurous promise of reading will turn out, it's still too early to say)

yup, after i've dramatized my once-unimaginative life, i think that's pretty much i have for the post today.
my schedule for the week ahead is packed to the brim and i don't even want to think about anything else right now :(
the only thing that'll keep me going is probably the pocket money i'll earn for the month that might just be enough to fund a little of my shopping tendencies in korea.
this year i actually finally understand the true meaning of labour day hohoho.

time to go now, i'll update this space again soon!
probably before i fly.

one last piece of advice - if you feel like you've lost your sparkle in life, find one.
just like how i did.



see you kids real soon. ;)

linguistics, here i come!

so i just wanted to give a little heads-up about what it's been like for my academic journey since i received my a level results...
who knows a freshie as a potential linguistics student in need of advice next year will stumble upon this and benefit greatly like how i did from jamiemermaid! :)

going straight to the point, i received my a's results on 3 march and well i didn't do exceptionally fantastic.
but then again i wasn't very disappointed because i know how much effort i've put in considering the fact that i really developed a strong dislike for science subjects that i studied in jc.
given my deep hatred for the sciences, i think my results were considerably reasonable for me to enter a local university.
i definitely don't have the wide variety of choices that the 80 rank-pointers are entitled to, but i was content because i think i did fairly okay for me to get into linguistics :-)

now on to university applications....
i didn't really put much thought into it because i kinda knew what i wanted both before and after i received my results.
to cut the long story short, i only applied for nus and ntu - smu had zero courses that i was interested in.
to be more specific, smu's fass courses didn't appeal to me one bit.
so i applied strictly for nus and ntu's fass.

a few weeks later ntu dropped me an email and phoned me up saying that i got shortlisted for the linguistics interview!!!!!!!!!!!!
it was quite sudden bc it was only a short 2-day notice before the interview.
i was so excited and when the day came, i was pretty nervous because i turned up late at the venue...
i reached ntu on time but i legit got lost in the huge campus of ntu and was late by about 15mins.
please learn from me: REPORT STRAIGHT TO THE COLLEGE OF HUMANITIES AND SOCIAL SCIENCES AND NOT WANDER OFF TO SOME MAGICAL BUILDING CALLED INNOVATION CENTRE
wth was i thinking to have even thought the interview there - i must have been really hit by the nerves.
good job man.
when i arrived they quarantined a group of 8 of us in a meeting room to do a written test.
as what i've read from previous interviewees, the written test is basically just a simple assessment of your basic english ability.
they weren't really looking out for your arguments like they did in gp, it was just more of like a check to see if you could write in complete sentences structured appropriately.
so previous years i read had questions related to singlish and bilingualism pop up, so i read a huge load of it beforehand...
but guess what, a question about animals and language surfaced on my interview day -_-
sighpie the topic i shunned just had to appear for the test :(
so i just wrote whatever that came to my mind and filled up the one page that i was given in 30mins.
a word of advice - there's not much time for planning a draft so just forget about trying to write out an essay plan bc you'll really be busy trying to bomb all the points down on the paper.

next, on to the actual interview itself.
because i came late i was pushed to the back as the last interviewee.
i was quite nervous bc i was scared that they'd mark me down for latecoming which would make my chances of entering very slim.
the candidates who took their turn before me were quite nice and there was much mutual encouragement :)

so i entered the professor's office and wow, it was a nice little square room that housed all his work.
it was cozy and it was so not like what i expected (a solemn job interview setting).
instead i sat beside his desk like we were good friends having a really casual chat.
he asked me a few questions about singapore and even myself, about the languages that i spoke at home.
i even introduced the professor to play quizup and try the english category :P
he seemed quite excited by it and said that he would check it out (hopefully he did!)
we had quite a good chat and he even told me more about himself and how he ended up in the field of linguistics too despite being a science student.
the professor was really nice and attentive towards all the responses that i was giving, he listened really patiently and even added on to keep the conversation going.
he really made me feel like linguistics was such a pride of place!!!!
at the end of the interview, he told me "hope to see you in august!" with a bright smile :-)

so the day ended off like that and for the next few days i awaited for my interview results anxiously.
i usually don't pick up calls from unknown numbers but this time round i was eager with anticipation to receive such a call...
i constantly refreshed my inbox to check if i received any email too but to no avail...

but guess what, the best surprise came on monday! (my interview was held on a friday)
ntu dropped me an email to check the updated results of my admission and so i did.
i logged in and guess what i found?

THANK YOU NTU ASDFGHJKL

WORDS CAN'T EXPRESS HOW GRATEFUL I FEEL

I GOT INTO LINGUISTICS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i think personally that's what actually really mattered for me in the whole process of taking a's.

i never had high expectations of myself and this was probably the only reason and aim i had in mind to get through the hellhole in jc.

and i finally did it :-)

so happy!!!!

after 12 years i actually like something that i'm studying.

on a side note i didn't get into nus fass, so..... idk whether it's a good or bad thing.

i don't really like the environment in nus and the way the system works as well so i guess i have one less problem and dilemma to worry about.

nus offered me science though, but no way in the world am i going to lose myself in the whirl of detailed molecular deciphering and alien formula again.

SO NTU LINGUISTICS, HERE I COME.

see you on 3rd august!