i just came back from viet yesterday and today i went to malaysia for an eating and shopping trip with my parents and sis. yaye. two more chops added in passport collection of chops. i think i went to malaysia 3 or four times this year. bleaugh.

as said earlier, i'm supposed to blog more about vietnam. okay now i shall but it'll be only in a few sentences cos i'm too lazy and i should start writing my christmas cards. if you want more info, you can read my poorly written travel journel.

ok. it was an enjoyble trip to the socialist republic of viet nam. if you take a budget airline, what you pay is what you get. so of course, besides the flight, you dont get anything else on the plane. not even plain water. anyway the ridethere was good. a little too short though. vietnamese food was good. i like the pho, something like beef noodles, the pancake with meat of prawns inside (think murtabak concept but nicer), the spring roll with transparent skin thingy, their seafood soup etc etc. of course they had food with strange names, like 'something something(cant rem the exact words) with jumping molusk' (the spelt it this way), or like 'fried noodles with ten things'.i'm thankful for the clean air in singapore. if you think that singapore has toomany vehicles, you should check ho chin minh city out. my goodness they've an overwhelming number of motorbikes. it's like a colony of ants or a swarm of bees. they just keep driving and driving.. and driving, whether it's red light or not. the cars do that too. and ironically, the trick to crossing the road is to walk slowly cos the bikes would then 'be able to drive around and avoid you'. quoted from tigertales, tiger airways' travel guide. shopping was okay except this place called An dong market, about half an hour's taxi ride from our hotel. gosh it was quite an experience for the three of us. it's a crazy place with rows and rows of shops. when you want to walk you have to tip toe or balance on one foot so that you wont step on the goods that are strewn everywhere or tied in big bundles, or on the people who're sitting around doing their stuff. people dont say excuse me or anything to that effect. they just put their hands on your shoulder and push you to one side. it was a mad house. the day trips that we had were quite good i would say. we got to talk to people from canada, newzealand, australia, israel etc. the israelis were hilarious man. hahah. they bought pirated nsync cds and danced to it in the bus on the way to mekong river. and while on one of unicorn island, one of the island in mekong river, they danced the same moves to vietnamese music. was really quite funny and they're really nice people. heh.

this is the end of my few sentences about vietnam. okay maybe it's slightly more than a few sentences.to end off, i shall the encapsulate the whole trip with a quote by sk - when you drive, you just drive. when you eat, you just eat and when you shop, you just shop. hah.

i am quite determined to go backpacking in cambodia and laos next year end, after listening to storys by the canadian backpackers who have been travelling for 7 months already. oh yes. i want to go backpacking in japan too! i've got to save work hard and save more. i'm sure i can. :)

if you thought that i've disappeared from civilisation, you're half right! i had yf camp last thursday to sunday. after yf camp, i immediately went to start on my painting job till 12pm and early on monday morning, i was off to vietnam. and now i'm finally home, safe, clean and in one piece. okay i shall blog about it again. bye:)

was away for 3 days last week for children's camp. it was quite a havock with 140 kids age ranging from k2 to p6 all around. though it was super tiring and made all of us sick, i must say it was quite learning experience la. i had the chance to better my interpersonal skills by communicating with the adults, my peers and the children, of course.sometimes it is tough dealing with adults especially when two people ask you to do different things at one time and you have to choose one and explain to the other why didnt you do her task. sometimes it is difficult to undersand why they do things in a certain way when you think your way is better but you've to do it their way. it really irritates me when they think that you're young and there to play a fool and forbid you to touch their things even when you're obviously helping her to increase efficiency. sigh. after all they're adults so all the more we've to respect and listen to them. oh well. it was a good mix of kids from sunday school and other kids from tuition programme who live in amk area. managing them was the ultimate test of patience, endurance and strength. we wasted a lot of time trying to get them to settle down to listen to instructions, especially on the last day when we had 2 hours to put up a 10 minute skit with more than 12 uncooperative recalcitrant boys and some quiet girls. we almost died.

the camp was also a good time of bonding with the girls from cell and the guys. it was heartwarming seeing all of us supporting, cooperating and helping each other. we got to know the guys better and vice versa because we dont really do so due to the lack of yf events. but let's not digress into that. i think the worship sessions were great. although most of us havent attained the level of skill required for 3rd service playing, it was awesome when it came to playing as a team and giving God the glory with what He has blessed us with. seeing the children singing along and doing the actions enthusiastically was an encouragement. we had a quite a fun time teaching the kids the theme song and the dance. the kids loved it and dance it a million times.

in retrospect, i feel it was a good camp. two small children responded to alter call on the last day. we should not underestimate their understanding about what all these are about. i was promptly reminded that if God can speak to and use samuel, he can speak to those two little kids too. :) yaye. on a lighter note, we had fun taking photos of the cute children and thinking of plan on how we can capture them and bring them home. meals were an important affair too. i had ten bananas in total. i had three plates of beehoon on one of the lunches. hahahhaa. what a pig. but it made up for the energy i used running here and there. heeh.

immediately after the camp it was cell movie marathon at my house. goodness i was so tired i didnt even finish watching one show. drifted in and out of slumberland sitting in awkward positions on the side of my couch, only waking up to prepare food for the girls and to eat. sheer exhausion.

okay. enough of children's camp and things that are over. coming up are yf camp and then i'll be off vietnam! and then christmas! yaye! so looking forward to them all.