Business Study Mission to Israel

For a brief description (and some pictures) of the trip, please visit http://wildarms7.livejournal.com

only because i'm too lazy. but i'll write some more stuff and post some pictures soon. + stuff from the birthday and christmas, etc...

Blessed Christmas and Hapy New Year everyone! (:

some through the fire, some through the flood

wow! it just occurred to me that i havent blogged in ages.

an entire term. the whole term just went by. poof. just like that.

saw someone's nick on msn saying that university life is a marathon, not a sprint... but i think it's more like a perpetual sprint.. and it's very very exhausting. i still believe that pple are motivated by deadlines tho. at least, i am. it's really amazing how a typical project meant to be done over weeks can be literally 'churned' out in a matter of hours. at sm(u), we're being moulded into report and presention churners, very much like production workers. much scheming and planning goes into carefully ensure that the deadlines are spread out qutie evenly over the term, so that the workload doesnt get too unbearable at any given point in time, especially towards the end of the term.

this term was quite abnormal for me.

i thought i had everything under control with everything planned out (kinda anyway). i told myself that 6 mods wasnt such a big deal since i would survive somehow, so i might as well live through more within a given timeframe. heh. halfway through the term, i was still enjoying my long-awaited holidays since i didnt get any all summer. there weren't even mid-term tests to wake me up from my slumber, save for 1 - ethics, which didn't require much studying anyway. there were some presentations tests, and proj deadlines set for slightly after mid-term, but they ALL happened to be pushed back, so the net result was having ALL 5 projects and the various misc tests in weeks 11-13. yesterday is a case is point. there were 3 projs due, and they were all in shambles. AMA was the most stable because the report was actually out- only we just had to find out on thurs that we got therequirements wrong, and we were 3000 words over the limit. what does one do, when caught in that kind of a situation on a thurs afternoon, and with the other 2 reports not started on? ans: spend the afternoon cutting the AMA report anyway... and spend the night rushing a bit of the other 2 projs. so income tax was left to friday; and equities, well, it's still in progress, since the deadline got pushed back to monday. spent 12pm -12am in the library writing/compiling/editing/formatting the income tax report.

anyway, just to sum up a term of projects... project mates really made the difference for me this term. i had really 'heck-care' groupmates, who didnt initiate any thing or respond to emails, and really super on team-mates, who kept up with meetings and constantly set up more (a working style which doesnt really suit me)... and most imptly, i had luyi, who saved me from loads and loads of crap. i really dunno how i would have survived without her! thanks babe, can we please bid for MORE courses together....? heh.

adrenaline. it's what keeps you from being the easily distracted person you usually are, and also helps you forget hunger and not even notice the back ache from sitting on a backless stool for hours. it's as if your body knows that it isnt the right time to disturb the brain with such trivialities.

relief. is what overwhelms you after you hit 'submit'. you can only look back at the miracle and thank God, who seemingly tried to give you a chance to manage your time but you fail and he had to step in for a rescue mission. and your head finally has time to hear your body's cry again.

with lu and chian @ our cafe galilee corner around midnight on friday/sat with the fruit of our 12-hour labour... (sounds wrong. heh)

at sm(u), study-break = holidays because you're liberalised from the snare of projects... ; exams are an after-thought- even if they're 40% ; and birthdays, well... what birthday?

well, on a brighter note: only 2 more weeks till proper rest and holiday! about that same number of days till david comes home, and israel beckons, tho with it comes a different set of worries...
___________________________________________________________

In shady, green pastures, so rich and so sweet,

God leads His dear children along;

Where the water’s cool flow bathes the weary one’s feet,
God leads His dear children along.

Some through the waters, some through the flood,

Some through the fire, but all through the blood;

Some through great sorrow, but God gives a song,

In the night season and all the day long.

Sometimes on the mount where the sun shines so bright,

God leads His dear children along;

Sometimes in the valley, in darkest of night,

God leads His dear children along.

Though sorrows befall us and evils oppose,

God leads His dear children along;

Through grace we can conquer, defeat all our foes,

God leads His dear children along.

a perfect song which i was humming quite a bit this week... and goes hand in hand with my favourite verse too!

Isaiah 43:2 (King James Version)
When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, thou shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee.

one from the shepherd

my shepherd's so funny.... i love this letter...! yay...

i should be a good sheep and write back soon!

no more work!

yayyyy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

bye bye to 18 weeks of internship

hello to 14 weeks of school

relief.

everyone was requesting prayer to 'start the engine' at fcm last wednesday... i'm in a frantic search for mine. i'm like 3455037 km behind alr....

panic.

introducing......

carol

the (aspiring) mugger.

this is a totally pointless post.

the garden of eden

had an interesting 'westminster confession of faith' class today. here're some snippets of it:

context: we were discussing the covenant of works, which adam and eve were under, before the fall. while trying to read through genesis 2:8 - 3:24, we got interrupted so many times...

carol: where is the garden of eden now? is it in iraq? is it a physical place on this earth?
eld boon: yeah, people think it's in iraq cos of the reference to the rivers mentioned?
jonnie: so where in the middle east is there gold?
carol (acts smart): oil is also known as black gold...
ji en: nah, you've to find Havilah (c.f. gen 2:11) it's like a treasure map!
jonnie: Gihon must have dried up since ethiopia is so _____.

random not-so-funny comment
eld boon: so you can see from here (gen 3: 7) that adam and eve were the first fashion designers....... and they were trying to cover up their nakedness, but the fashion designers of the world are trying to reveal more of that...

on gen 3:16-19 - the curse.
eld boon: so, what does it mean to multiply 'thy conception'? does that mean the modern women, some of whom are in the room now, are breaking the curse by not having children?
carol: ......
rachel: why is it breaking the curse?
ji en: be fruitful and multiply!
eld boon: imagine conceiving your whole life..
rachel: like those people who have 12 kids..
carol: but they used to live 900 years... so they had lots of time.

eld boon: 'thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee'.
carol: does that mean that if eve had not eaten the fruit, there might actually be gender equality?
cherie: and if adam ate the fruit first, the men might be the ones conceiving instead...

eld boon: for the men, in sorrow shall thou eat of the fruit of the ground all the days of thy life... so they'll work hard to earn a living, and the women can just stay at home and be tai-tais...
carol (enthusiastically): yup!
[darn i should have made him repeat that a 2nd time so that i could have recorded it]
rachel (trying wayy too hard to sound noble): i want to have kids and work all my life
[nice try, i'll ask you again in a few years...]

on pork
eld boon: thou shalt eat the herb of the field, so adam and eve were vegetarians.
jonnie: so when did they start eating meat?
eld boon: after the flood...
(that was something the rest of us didn't know... but the reference is in gen 9)
jonnie: and when did they start eating pork?
eld boon: after peter's dream...
(and so began the extended digression about pork)
jonnie: but in gen 9: 3 it says that "every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you", so that includes pork...
eld boon: good point, homework for you, find out for us.......
(and the task gets pushed around until it reaches ji en)
ji en: nah, i've an immediate solution, check the hebrew text, i'm sure it says "every moving thing except the pig", so let's just leave it as that...
cherie (mutters): hai yah why do we care, since we can eat pork now?
eld boon: i think it's gotta do with the abrahamic covenant... with abraham, isaac and jacob, who was israel
carol: so you can't be a jew unless you were born after jacob.
(jonnie, still dissatisfied, refers to leviticus and reads out the whole list of things that the jews cannot touch)
eld boon: so there was no kosher until after that... and the key idea of having a list of animals which they cannot eat was because of?
sharon: blood.
(hahahahaha, all animals have blood lor....)
jonnie: separation.

(ok case closed)

on being herbivores and more digression
eld boon: anyway, so all the animals were herbivores. but after the fall, they started to kill each other, like the horrible hyenas i saw at the night safari yest... (cos of the 50% discount thingy)
carol (mutters, a little too loudly): how come he has a 50% discount?
rachel (anyhow whacking): he must be a friend of the zoo
(upon which we all crack up)
eld boon (senses the commotion): yes?
rachel: carol wants to know why you have a 50% discount, because she wants to go to the night safari?
eld boon: i'm a friend of the zoo!
(WHAT?!? HAHAHA he's a friend of the zoo)
(after which jonnie trys to sell carol 50% discounts to the night safari in hushed whispers.... hahaha)

more about the garden of eden (gen 3:22-24)
ji en: so why did God stop them from eating from the tree of life by expelling them from the garden after the fall?
eld boon: cos it will give them eternal life... and what state were they in?
ji en: sin
eld boon: so if they eat the fruit, they will...
sharon (brilliantly): have no hope of salvation
carol: how you know?
cherie: she was just completing the sentence...
eld boon (rather sarcastically): what if they tricked the cherubims and sneaked back into the garden?
jonnie: they are only guarding the east entrance....

(and that was the last brilliant answer in a really funny class)

one day i'm gonna find the lost garden of eden....