THE BEST MOVIE I HAVE EVER WATCHED

Can anyone guess what movie it is?

Bryan: I don't know who you are. I don't know what you want. If you are looking for ransom, I can tell you I don't have money. But what I do have are a very particular set of skills; skills I have acquired over a very long career. Skills that make me a nightmare for people like you. If you let my daughter go now, that'll be the end of it. I will not look for you, I will not pursue you. But if you don't, I will look for you, I will find you, and I will kill you.

Marko: [after a long pause] Good luck.

Simply the best movie ever. Can't wait to watch the second sequel.

How To Stay In Touch

From Huffington Post

"I don't often get to see or even talk to my closest friends from various stages of life (including the 16 who were my bridesmaids). But I stay connected with them -- and the thousands of others in my BlackBerry. The key is managing your friending: The more organized and accessible your friends' information, the easier it is to stay in touch. So you have to set calendar reminders for birthdays (I do it for anniversaries, too), and keep your address book up-to-date. And when someone pops into your mind, let them know, even if it's just with a 'Thinking of you' text. Don't let the moment pass; treat it as a reminder to reach out." 

-- Alexandra Wilkis Wilson, cofounder of the five-million-member Gilt Groupe; keeper of 16,500 BlackBerry contacts

LAC2201 Group Assignment: Chinese Audio Podcast

About our guest speaker:

Chen Minqi (陈旻祺) is Heizel's friend for five years. A native Hangzhou-born, Minqi moved to Singapore in 2007 under MOE school-based scholarship. Currently, Minqi is studying Computer Science at National University of Singapore.


Job scopes:

All of us put in equal amount of effort in the production of this audio podcast, but the following is the breakdown of our individual roles.

1. Searched for guest host: Heizel
2. Wrote the script: all of us
3. Hosted the podcast: all of us
4. Acted in the podcast: all of us

• Heizel as the Indonesian tourist
• Kevin Ardian as the restaurant owner and narrator
• Kevin as the giftshop owner and narrator
• Minqi as the local Chinese friend

5. Produced the audio file: all of us
6. Made edits: Heizel

Self reflections:

At first, we felt that this assignment was too difficult and time-consuming to do. We did not understand how it could help us in our Chinese-learning journey. However, it turns out that we were totally wrong.

Looking back, we had a lot of fun in brainstorming and coming up with ideas to put into our script. Some of our ideas were so crazy that we couldn’t help but to laugh at them. Also, we realize that the most difficult part was to find a time when all of us could meet up together to record the podcast. However, we were quite efficient as we didn’t spend too much time in recording the podcast.

Lastly, this experience has helped us in improving our Chinese-speaking abilities. Through our interaction with Minqi, we managed to pick up the correct pronunciations for some of the new words. We also had the opportunity to practice our speaking abilities. In addition, we ourselves learn some common conversations in China through our podcast, and we hope that the audience can benefit from our podcast as well. We would also like to specially thank our beloved 张老师 who has been extremely helpful and supportive with her feedbacks and guidance throughout.

Through this experience, we rediscovered our interests in learning Chinese. It was a humbling experience indeed. We also realize that we need to hone our Chinese further so that one day (hopefully) we may speak much better Chinese. We really hope that all of you enjoy listening to our podcast as much as we enjoy making it. 拜拜!

Beautiful in its time

Hola! Today is October 9th, 2012, which means that I've officially been a university student for more than two months. It's been a great journey so far. I've finally moved in to my own room in the boarding school. My grades so far are satisfactory. I've just finished my last midterm paper, too. Life is good.

National University of Singapore, my beloved school

To you who are reading this, perhaps you think that my life is too good to be true. However, few of you know what I went through in my first weeks after I moved back to Singapore this year. Right now, I want to tell you my story, of how it was God's grace alone that saw me through those dark days.


July 2012

It was the last few days of holiday before I had to fly back to Singapore. I was having lunch with my mom at Trans Studio Mall (formerly known as Bandung Super Mall) when the news came - I would have no place to stay in Singapore. As some of you might have known, I made an application to become an assistant hall tutor (sort of assistant teaching staff) in my boarding school in Singapore. Just when I thought my application was successful, I received the news that the teachers needed more time before confirming my place. Then the question was, where am I gonna stay while waiting for the decision to be made? An option might be to rent a room for a month before moving in to boarding school, provided my application succeeded. Yet, I spent hours searching for a room-for-rent, only to find that none of the owners were willing to rent their rooms for such a short period of time. Right until the day before my flight, I still had nowhere to stay. In the end, I decided to call my ex-teacher and asked if I could stay with her for a couple of days while I looked for a room to rent. Thankfully, she said yes, and so I ended up staying in her place for the next one month.

It was her birthday last week. Thank you madam, for everything J

August 2012

Although it was very nice of my ex-teacher to let me stay with her, it was far from the comfort I used to enjoy during the holiday. Back home, I had a bedroom with a queen-sized bed all for myself. Yet, I had to sleep on a fold-able mattress on the floor in my ex-teacher's place. That wasn't the end. At that time, I was going through a heartbreak, and since I missed all the orientations and camps, I virtually had no friends to talk with. I ended up sitting on the sofa all by myself in self-pity, wondering why all these happened to me. "Why me?", I asked God. As a perfectionist, I had visualized how my life would look like when I went back to Singapore - happily attached, made a lot of new friends, had my own comfortable room, and all the great things I could have had. So where did I go wrong, that I deserved such a tragic ending? Honestly, it was a very tough struggle for me. I had nothing to do whole day, since school was yet to start. I was still very sad after losing my significant one. Back then, I had two options. I could continue wallowing in self-pity and refused to accept the stark reality that I had lost everything, OR I could start reflecting on my experience and learned something from it. I'm not gonna lie - I chose the first one. For the next two weeks, I turned into an emo and bitter person with no purpose in life. There were moments when it was all too overwhelming that I really had to struggle just to hold back tears. I was tired, both emotionally and mentally.

The good life I have planned

Then came the watershed moment (i.e. turning point) to it. On one of the days, I was so free that I decided to read the story of Job in the Bible. Job used to have everything - wealth, happy family, social status, health - before God let Satan test him by taking everything he had. I thought that my story is similar to his, so perhaps there might be some things I could learn from him. (By the way, at the end of the story, God restored Job's life with twice as much blessings, so Job must have responded to his situation well.) So how did Job respond when everything he had was taken away? The answer can be found on Job 1:21.

And he said:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The LORD gave, and the LORD has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the LORD."

Right there, right then, I felt as if I was slapped on the face. What was my suffering compared to Job's? I'm still as healthy as ever. I have the best family anyone could ever ask for. I'm blessed more than most people are. If Job, in his great loss, could still praise God, why couldn't I?

After I finished reading the book of Job, I decided to change my attitude entirely. Whenever I felt sad, I would pray and worship God in songs and writings. Whenever I remembered my significant one, I would quietly pray for her in my heart. I told myself that God is more than able to change my situation in a blink of an eye. After all, my story with her was a miracle in itself. (How many people you know manage to escape the friendzone alive?) Truly, God gave and God took away; blessed be His name.

Yet another lesson I learned through all that happened

September 2012

So, did things suddenly got better from then on? No. In fact, things only got worse when I started talking less and less with her. There was no news about my assistant hall tutor application yet, either. If prayers are powerful, then why didn't it work for me? Why hasn't my situation got better? I struggled with that question before God spoke through my beloved aunt.

If you are evil, and a powerful prayer is coming towards you, what are you going to do? You will try to fight back to make the situation worse, right? What does it prove? Your prayer is so strong that evil actually fears.

There was no word to say how encouraged and strengthened I was by my aunt. Holding on to His promise, I moved forward in faith to where I am today.


October 2012

Back to the present, today marks 70th day of my walk with God here in Singapore. It has not been easy, but looking back, it was well worth the pain. To cut the long story short, God has been challenging me in a few areas of my life since August. His plan was made known to me through the Bible verses He gave me along the way. I'd like to share some of them with you here.

Fear not, for I am with you. (Isaiah 41:10)

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. (Matthew 6:33)

Be still, and know that I am God. (Psalm 46:10)

If there is one thing that has kept me going, it must be His Word from the Bible. Everyday when I read the Bible in my quiet time, I was constantly reminded of God's love and mercy in my life, and that He has the best plan for me. God is good, yeah?


Right now, I'm sitting for a test of faith from God. I can't tell you the story in detail, but I believe that He will give me the strength to pass the test in flying colors. But don't worry, I would surely share the good news with all of you once the test is over. So yeah, that's all I have to say. I want to end this writing with another verse from the Bible, which is found in Ephesians 3:20.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us.

Keep praying, keep believing, keep strengthening one another in faith. I hope you are blessed with what you just read. If you are, please share this message so that more people will have their lives touched as well. Jesus bless you. J

我的最好(zuì hǎo: best)的生日。

去年是我的十九岁生日。那是我最好的生日。 我的出生日是一九九二年二月十六日， 属猴。 二月十五日星期六晚上，我跟我的好朋友伊万 (Ivan) 去教会 (Jiàohuì: church) ，十一点才回宿舍 ，很累。 我的朋友们都一直在等待 (yìzhí zài děngdài: have been waiting) 我们回来。当我们回到宿舍时，他们给我一个惊喜派对 (jīngxǐ pàiduì: surprise party) 。 有十八个人， 都是印尼人 (Yìnní rén: Indonesian) 。 他们祝我生日快乐，唱生日快乐歌，也送我一个大可可 (kěkě: cocoa) 蛋糕，又漂亮又好吃！我们一起 (yīqǐ: together) 玩儿，当然我们很高兴。

我的惊喜派对

我吹生日蜡烛 (chuī shēngrì làzhú:  blowing birthday candles  )

我和我的好朋友

第二天 (dì èr tiān: the next day) 是星期日，是假期 (jiàqī: holiday) ，我们不上课。我们要在早上去游泳 ，但 (dàn: but) 下雨 (xià yǔ: raining) ， 所以 (suǒyǐ: so) 我们不能去游泳。到了下午，朋友们 参加我在糖水吧 (Sweet Dynasty Cafetaria) 的生日聚会

糖水吧 (Sweet Dynasty Cafetaria)

我用了Groupon 优惠券 (yōuhuì quàn: coupon) ，有三折 (sān zhé: 70% discount) ， 所以我没有花 (huā: to spend) 太多的钱。包括 （bāokuò: including) 我 , 有八个人参加。我们吃西式餐点 （xīshì cān diǎn: Western food ），喝冰水 (bīng shuǐ: ice water) ，也吃甜点 （tiándiǎn: dessert) 。

烤鸡扒 (kǎo jī bā: grilled chicken steak)

炸鱼片 (zhà yú piàn: fish and chips)

芒果汁 (mángguǒ zhī: mango juice)

在回家之前 (zhīqián: before) ， 我们一起拍照 (pāizhào: take a photograph) 。我喜欢跟我的好朋友们庆祝 (qìngzhù: celebrate) 我的生日。（４０２ 字）

友谊地久天长
(yǒuyì dì jiǔ tiāncháng: friendship lasting forever)

A glimpse of my first day as a uni student

Hello. Last Monday was officially my first day as an NUS student. To tell you frankly, it wasn’t that bad. The first lecture was 2 hours of Marketing from 9 to 11 am (very early, I know). The prof has a funny Singlish accent, which made it difficult at first to absorb what he was saying. Nevertheless, after the first hour has passed, I was already more comfortable with his teaching style. Despite not knowing anyone in the lecture, I found the class interesting (maybe cos I’m into this kind of business-related stuffs). It also turned out that the prof was the co-author of the textbook we are going to use for this semester. Cool huh? But it won’t sound cool anymore if I tell you that the book cost me $53 (that’s after discount already). That’s enough $$$ to go for sushi buffet three times. L

Da book

After that, I was supposed to have an English class for Critical Thinking and Writing, but fortunately (or unfortunately) the class was cancelled, leaving me with 5 hours of free and easy before the next class started. However, I had to attend a placement test for my Chinese class before heading for lunch. The test was so hard, I gave up halfway. Thanks to the test, I was late for a lunch appointment with my Chemical Engineering (Chem Eng) buddies. In the end, I had my lunch alone. Luckily the food was good, as I will eat this food for the next four years.

After lunch, I decided to spend the rest of my free time in the library where I met Novi. She was sleeping (lol) when I saw her in the snack corner. I read my new marketing book while waiting for her to wake up. We then talked about many things, including her question “If a guy likes a girl, what would he want her to give him?” Weird, I know. Haha. But time flew as we talked, and it was time for Math lecture (yay or boo?)

We had two hours of Math. It was good cos I got to sit with our other Chem Eng friends (Ivan, Novi, Marcella, Icha). The lecturer for this module had decent English grammatically, but his thick Chinese accent made it hard to catch what he said. For instance, his pronunciation of “down” sounded like “tongue”. His intonation was also very flat and had a dozing effect. Bad, bad news for me, since Math isn’t my strongest subject. Well, guess it just means that I must put in more effort in this subject.

That’s pretty much how my first day went. Not so bad, right? Will write another post about the dance open classes I went for in that week next time. That’s all for now folks! Jesus bless you all J

Bonus: my timetable (assuming my balloting is successful). If you notice, I always have a day or two off after two days of school e.g. Mon-Tue school, Wed holiday, Thurs-Fri school, Sat-Sun holiday. Good life huh...

What happened last week (part I)

Hi again. Just came back from church on a Saturday night. Tired, but feel like I should write another blog post. God has done so many miracles in my life recently, and I want to share some of them. It may get a little personal, so here we go.


1. Jesus healed my broken heart

It's like stating the obvious. From my past few posts, I'm sure anyone can tell that I've just had a heartbreaking experience. I don't want to go into the detail. It doesn't really matter now anyway. There is this close friend I've had a crush on for like forever. Things went well at first, but as times passed by, we realized that it wasn't gonna work out anymore between us. We decided to end it there and then, but I guess I was the one left with a worse heartbreak. There were days when I was so depressed, all I could do was praying and reading the Bible. At times, it was also hard to withhold tears from flowing. As pathetic as it may sound, I would break down in the shower when the painful feelings got to its worst. It was all regret and sadness back then.

However, looking back, there were positive sides to the experience as well. During those days, I managed to finish the whole book of Job and Psalm in just a few days. I'm gonna move on to Matthew, and then Rome, very soon. I also got as close to Jesus as ever, spending way more time in prayer than before. I drew strength from His Word as well as from singing worship songs whenever and wherever I could. Talking to my friends and family helped a lot, too. Right now, I'm already feeling much better, although it may take some time for the wound to heal completely. It was so painful, trust me. Nonetheless, the whole experience has drawn me closer to Jesus in every aspect. Thus, I know for sure that this is all part of His plan for me. Learn to be thankful. As Pastor Phil shared in church this evening, "Don't underestimate the power of a grateful heart."


2. Jesus healed my body

Besides the painful heartbreak, I had been struggling with health issues in this past week as well. As some of you may have known, every freshman student at NUS has to undergone a medical test before enrolling into the university. I first took the test in May this year. I breezed through the stations with confidence, only to find that there was a problem with my urine test result. After consulting the doctor, I discovered that my urine sample contained excessive amount of blood, which wasn't a good news at all. The doctor advised me to repeat the test as soon as I was back in Singapore. Then, on the first day of August, I came back to the University Health Center (UHC) to repeat my test.

I felt neither anxious nor afraid, as I thought I was just unlucky the other day. I was wrong. When the result was released, the concentration of blood in the urine sample increased compared to the last time. To give you a clearer picture, normal people should only have 0-3 part of blood in their urine sample. The result for my second test revealed that my urine sample contained 150 part of blood. It was 50 times that of a normal person. If you think that it wasn't a big deal, you were wrong once again. High level of blood in the urine sample may be linked to serious diseases such as kidney stones, urinary tract infection, or even cancers. Bad news.

This time round, the doctor asked me to see a specialist immediately, to which I objected. Besides the likely exorbitant cost it might incur, I shuddered at the possibility of having to suffer serious illnesses. Instead, I requested to take the test for the third time. I then spent the next one week drinking bottles after bottles of water because I thought it could help to dissolve the blood. I couldn't do any exercise either, as it might affect the result of the test. My parents were equally worried, if not more. I told them to prepare for the worst if I failed the test again. We prayed hard, asking Jesus to touch and heal me from whatever had caused the excessive blood level. When the day for the repeat test came, I surrendered everything to Him. Did all I could: drinking water like camels, saying 'no' to futsal, and so on. The rest was His, I prayed. Truly, our God is One who never disappoints. It turned out that the test was my third and last. In only one week, my blood level dropped from 150 to zero. Praise the Lord!


Right now, I've been praying hard, asking God what He wants me to do next. Here is the verse that I got from Him:

"But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and ALL these things shall be added to you." - Matthew 6:33

Yup, I'll use this opportunity to hone my faith in Jesus. After all, as a friend told me, talking to God about the person is more powerful than talking to the person herself. Pray hard, move on with life, and perhaps one day miracles will happen in my life. I'll close with this verse from Matthew:

"Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you." - Matthew 7:7

Christ bless you all :)