I set off the bloody fire alarm today whilst cooking for my friends today. Drama.

It's so sensitive that fire alarm! I think they're pretty strict about fires and stuff like that here, coz you know what?


THE FIRE TRUCKS AND FIREMEN CAME


to the rescue... of no one.

(note plural form of fire truckS and fireMEN)



Yeah. My knights in reflective armour.

We were asked to evacuate. Not just people in my cottage but ALL FOUR COTTAGES. Paiseh siol.

Let me explain. I was grilling chicken in the oven when massive plumes of smoke came gushing out from the oven. I thought it was kinda fine since I grilled chicken 2 days earlier and there wasn't MASSIVE smoke. But this time, I placed a tray below my chickens and it started to sizzle and shit when the chicken fat burned. Wahniaozeh.

I went around saying sorry to everyone coz they had to all gather outside. My friends smiled and said it wasn't my fault. I really was very apologetic. It's highly embarrassing.

What I'm worried now is having to pay a fine for the sounding of the alarm. It's not a 20 or 50 dollars fine. IT COULD BE A 2000 DOLLARS FINE FML.

Before me, a bunch of PRCs in the other cottage burnt their egg in a pan on the stove and the bloody alarm went off. Guess how much they had to pay? 5 freakin hundred bucks for that. F THEIR LIVES.

But my friend says he'll pray for me that I won't have to pay and others told me I won't have to pay coz it wasn't my fault. It was the oven's fault.

The reason why the PRCs had to pay was coz their egg was burnt. Since my chicken was unburnt, I wouldn't have to. And I was like, huh? It was only a burnt egg. Turns out, it was due to negligence on their part. They left the egg on the stove for too long I think? So they were endangering lives lol lol.

WELL FOR ME, I WAS CONSTANTLY CHECKIN MY CHICKEN BUT I DIDN'T KNOW THAT THE STOVE WOULD PRODUCE THAT AMOUNT OF SMOKE. Bloody hell. What's more I'd used it earlier on, so I didn't expect THIS shit to happen

Sigh, I'm blessed with making stupid things happen hahaha.

So I really hope I won't have to pay anything at all coz to my defence, it wasn't due to negligence. And to cite evidence that it was the oven's fault, last year, someone in the same cottage used the same oven and sounded the alarm. But she wasn't fined. So it's not my fault that they didn't warn us or change the damn oven.

Playing the ignorant little shit here coz I don't wanna waste money on something like that. I'm just gonna use the microwave oven from now on damned it.




Nevertheless, I MANAGED TO COOK A SUMPTUOUS MEAL FOR MY COTTAGE FRIENDS WOOHOO!



Singapore style.
I'm still freakin awesome lah. No oven on fire can burn me down.
Since the alarm sounded even before the chicken was cooked, I had to pop them into the microwave to get them fully done.

Still tasted awesome so hell yeahhhh. They loved it leh. No shit! I'm gonna be Master Chef haha. Kidding. This is all thanks to my momma. She told me marinating the chicken is so damn easy. Oyster sauce + Soya sauce, leave it overnight and pop them into the oven. VOILA! Of course ensure that your oven doesn't f up like mine does.



Stir fried veggie and eggs with onions.

I can't believe I did this. I can help my mom back at home when I get back now. I have confidence that I don't murder others by food.



Look at the German. Eating rice with chilli sauce. I had to take a picture of this coz I for one, definitely do not put chilli on my rice.

Glad that I took a leap of faith and decided to try cooking for my friends. Only a few tries on my own before I told them I'd cook for them. They think it's good and I'm touched :'D Out of courtesy or not, I'm still touched. LOLLL.

Can't wait to taste German food next week teh heh.



Anyway, tests and assignments are beginning to roll in. I have 3 essays to submit in the first week of April which is really soon. So I gotta get going otherwise........... What's more I can't spare another weekend next week coz I'd most prolly be heading out for a mini trip. No more time. I also have 2 tests to study for. One next week and the other in the first week of April.

SO. Time to get my Singapore spirit down to business and get things done! Been procrastinating long enough. But not as long enough as ahem hahahah. Am just being an asshole.


Speaking of that. My presentation today went pretty terrible. I was expecting something like that to happen especially since there was little preparation and commitment. I was quite disappointed nevertheless coz I feel like, I hadn't put in enough effort. I always think effort should be put in whether or not I'm here for play or study. It's like, half-hearted work is as good as I can't give a shit. And although everyone tells me to "just play", I don't feel awesome when I give only 40% effort. It's definitely a nice feeling to not be bothered, and a nice change from a stressful Singapore environment. But at the end of the day, I still want to be proud of something I did, whether or not it was just a small project.

Such a pussy eh? Stress complain. Relax complain. Ask her go eat fart or something.

With that said, I shan't dwell on it. It's nice to know that all I need is a pass and stress and worry is taken off the whole equation. Could've done better definitely. At the same time, I had no control over my project mates. They were honestly, too bochap until I lost hope on the project. Sigh. What's one to do when you want to do something good, yet at the same time, feel like you can't.

And guess what, this presentation that I'm doing is for a Leadership paper. Introduction to Leadership. Paves the way for future Leaders.

I started out feeling really optimistic and driven for this paper coz it was gonna teach me the meaning and ways of being a Leader. I used to feel the positive energy and vibe of the class every time I stepped into class coz the lecturer had such a vivacious and infectious personality, it made me feel excited. But after a month, I've grown disenchanted. Especially after that project. I feel that not everyone taking this class is there to truly learn to develop themselves to become a leader as much as I want to. They only took it coz they either thought it'd be useful or easy. Useful, but I don't really see the interest or passion? Again.. I come back to the notion of culture. Do they really just not care enough? I feel kinda sad sometimes.

But it's a level 100 paper. In order words, a Year 1 paper. Meaning, freshmen are the majority who take it. Thus, they're all fresh out of high school at the age of 18. So, their capacity and drive for knowledge have not yet taken flight? Like for now, it's the 'party' stage and getting their engines ready. I remember how it was like then, myself. Guilty of it. So can't really blame them. But I definitely did my work man. Even then.

So I think maybe this paper should be pushed up another level. When students are more mature and are TRULY interested in learning about leadership.


Thankfully, I'm taking another paper which is at level 400. Really off the other level 100 papers I'm doing coz level 400 would mean a final year paper. So technically only Year 4 students can take it here. I was allowed to take it coz it was a comms paper and I fulfilled the prerequisites for it. I could clear a comms course back at NTU too. It's called "Communicating Across Cultures"

And I really REALLY enjoy this paper. It's so damn interesting and I think very relevant to the situation that I'm in now. I'm on exchange and I'm meeting so many people from so many different cultures. It's so exciting to be able to apply stuff learnt to current contexts. What's more, Jan is taking it with me and it's really funny coz for every class, I'd relate things to stuff taught in class and incidences that happened between the both of us in the house. All those misunderstandings became so clear to us after attending classes.

I remember once when we had a stand-off due to some toilet issue. I wanted to murder him then. And coincidentally, the story was kind of 'addressed' the next day coz we learnt about behaviours by individuals from different cultures. Him being European, he was definitely more individualistic and straight forward by putting things across bluntly, whereas I, an Asian, was more collectivistic and gave more subtle hints about what I was trying to put across.

So in a way, this class that we're attending are benefiting us in ways that we interact. And I believe we understand one another so much more because of that class. And misunderstandings and negative stereotyping are not so much of an issue anymore. Of course, it comes up time and again, but at least we don't attribute too much negativity on each other's behaviours as much.

What's more, since it's a final year paper, the students are way more mature. And studious. They're the same age as me, 21 years old. So they think better and are just better to work with. They still procrastinate, but at least, level of thinking is higher. Comparable.

Thank God I decided to appeal to the International Staff to allow me to take this paper. Coz it's this one that caused me to exceed maximum number of papers allowed.


My other 2 papers are level 100 papers. They don't involve project work so not too bad. At least I take responsibility on my own if anything. One is New Zealand Histories which I do find highly interesting and boring at times. I love to enhance my knowledge of a country through the learning of history. The Maoris and the Europeans. But once history goes into the specific people and places, I get lost. Coz I can't really relate to them since I know nada about them whereas Kiwis must have probably heard of these people whilst growing up and are familiar with the names of places. Still fun to learn tho.

The other paper is International Relations. Quite disappointed with this paper coz I was looking forward to something more insightful. Lectures are only teaching history such as Cold War and WWI and WWII which have already been taught in Singapore. What's more, the essays we're supposed to write are really very easy. Like secondary school style. Not challenging at all... which is quite disappointing coz I was really looking forward to more theoretical stuff on World View and stuff like that. Now I'm making myself sound like I'm oh-so intelligent. But this paper is honestly secondary school level in terms of Singapore standards.

So, Singapore really is quite up there eh.

The only difference would be the need to do referencing since it's University. I kinda just want to dig up past work and hand up haha. But everything's over at Singapore. So I shall take this as a refresher course. I forget history very fast. So maybe in a way, this class helps me remember facts learnt in Coral and JC.

In total, 4 papers this semester here at Waikato. Thanks for listening to my rambling. Gotta head off to bed now. Extremez tired.