Playing around...

Finally got my pay for last month's work... went to buy groceries after and half the pay was gone... sighz. I'm probably only earning 1/10 of what i spend per month... but I guess it is better than nothing.

Pretty productive day today, finally managed to get myself to do some studying! Also planted some laska leaves in the garden and made lasagna and tomato basil soup for lunch and dinner! Yup... that was where half my pay went...

Tasted some of the herbs from my box of herbs. Didn't read the toxicity content of one of them - 細辛. Just a pinch of it made my tongue numb for a while... lolz.. so fun! hahaz

Found a really funny clip on youtube for Thai people to learn English! Lolz... They're really creative.. hahaz... the lady's expression is just hilarious...Had a good laugh even thou I could only understand half of it... Lolz.

Part 1:

Part 2:

phom yak rian pa sa thai (I wan to learn thai)

It was yet another cold, freezing summer's day in Pacifica... makes u just wan to do nothing but hibernate. Its cool at first to see the fog fly pass your window everyday, but after awhile, things get gloomy.. I miss the sun...

Been thinking of learning Thai ever since meeting Ajahn Jumnian and Ajahn Prasert several months back, but just never got to it. And after watching a thai movie and listening to some thai songs, I finally got inspired to give it a try... After staring at the wriggly, squiggly script of the thai language for hours, I still could make no sense of it... =.=... Thai is difficult to learn...

Other than being able to understand the teachings from those eminent teachers, and understanding the movie, I don't really know what other motivation I have to learn it. Yet I still want to learn! Lolz... Well, my grandfather speaks fluent thai... and erm, I guess the last time i went to thailand was 20 years ago... gheez... I'm growing old...lolz... All I remembered from that trip was that instead on placing the gold leaf on the buddha, I placed it on myself instead. Lolz... You can't blame a 4 year old! And oh yah, I made a really good friend there... but lost touch over the years...

So the 1st song currently playing at my blog is a thai love song. Thou I don't understand the original language, I think the melody is really nice, and the meaning of the lyrics is simple and straightforward too. I think thats the way love songs should be. The songs we have now have just too much techno or rap or what notz in it... So anyway, here's the translation:

taa bok waa pleng nee dtaeng hai ter ter ja cheua mai
If I told u that this song was meant for you, would you believe me?

man aat mai pror mai seung mai suay ngaam meuan pleng tua bpai
It may not sound as beautiful as other songs.

yaak hai roo waa pleng rak taa mai rak gor kian mai daai
You may not know that love songs couldn't be written out without feelings of love

dtae gap ter kon dee roo mai chan kian yaang ngaai ... daai
But for you, sweetheart, it all came out easily.

ter kong koie dai-yin pleng rak maa nap roi pan
You may have heard thousands of love ballads

man aat ja dohn jai dtae gor mee kwaam maai meuan-meuan gan
Some may touch your heart, though they mean nothing more.

dtae taa ter fang pleng nee pleng tee kian peua ter tao nan
But you'll know when you listen to this song, it was meant just for you.

peua ter kao jai kwaam maai laew jai ja daai mee gan lae gan
You would know by heart what it meant, and we would be there for each other.

Chorus:
---
hai man bpen pleng bon taang dern kiang tee ja mee piang siang ter gap chan
Let the song play while we're walking together on that path. All I hear is just the voice of you and me.

yoo duay gan dtraap naan-naan
We'll be together for so long.

dang nai jai kwaam bok nai ga-wee waa dtraap dai tee mee rak yom mee wang
As mentioned in the poem, that when there's love, there is always hope.

keu took krang tee rak kong ter song jai chan mee bplaai taang
Your love has lightened up my heart, you are my destiny
---

mee kwaam jing yoo nai kwaam rak dtang maak maai
Love has many truths to look for.

lae tee paan maa chan chai way-laa peua haa kwaam maai
And I have wasted my lifetime searching for them.

dtae mai naan gor perng roo meua took krang tee mee ter glai
But not so long ago, I realized when I get close to you,

waa taa chee-wit keu tam nong ter gor bpen dang kam rong tee pror lae seung jap jai
if life's a rhythm, you're the beautiful lyrics to this song that has touched my heart...

Chorus x 2

mee taang dern hai rao dern kiang lae mee siang kong ter gap chan
We walk along the way, and all I hear is the voice of only you and me.

mee taang dern hai rao dern kiang lae mee siang kong ter gap chan
We walk along the way, and all I hear is the voice of only you and me.

Loneliness

Nice weather today, so I decided to take a walk down Berkeley, and when Sandy wanted to follow, I told her I wanted to be alone. Later Rev. Heng Sure went to take a walk too, and when she offered that we followed him, he too said he wanted some time alone... hmmz... something about the weather today makes it really conducive to walking alone and thinking about things... I had a good walk thou.

Later in lecture, Rev. Heng Sure mentioned a quote from Mother Teresa, that loneliness is the #1 cause of disease. The lack of the human contact, isolation, alienation, facing the computer screen everyday and not having any human interaction... hmmz... sounds like me... Lolz! But at least, I still get my daily dosage of human contact from going to school and to the monastery.. lolz... so to all those people who have given that human touch - my family, my friendz, my broz and sistaz... thankz...

Bone Setting...

Brought Sandy to meet Dr. Jinyin today as she was afraid she might not be able to drive after... and I guess it was true.. lolz... ok... i'm being sadistic here... but really... you don't know what is pain till you've been through her... its basically like the Cruciatous curse! Lolz... Sandy wriggled and screamed till tears were flowing out... After she was done, Dr. Jinyin told me to get on the patient's table to check my back... i was like what!? But... but... but... too late. So my spine was not straight enough, she had pushed it a little bit too much to the right last time and so this time, she used her legs instead and kicked it back...ouch... seriously... after these, you never wan to injure yourself again... life is suffering....*snifflez*

そして、新し映画を見た。さかごろはたくさん映画とアーニメが見ている。ダークニテトとか、ワーリとか、ナルトしっぷでんとか。今日はおれがサイアムのこいを見た。その映画にあいの物語は正常じゃないですが、意味ちょう深い。映画を見たあとで、自分の生命がたくさん質問がある。。。この生命はおれが何をしりたい？何が探している？大悟か？菩提か？力か？恋か？恋日他か？家族か？お金か？何を探せできる？おれはまだたくさんいろいろな物が知らない。今はできるのは、ただ生きてみせるだけ。一歩一歩動いて、そのばいで生きる。。。生は複雑かな。。。

Dark Knight

Went to watch "The Dark Knight" today with Richard, Ken, Stephen and Albert. Another really really good movie! Keeps you in suspense every second of the film. Definitely another must watch of the year! Oh and you know what, I think Edison Chen was acting in a small part of the movie! Lolz.. he said he was gonna step down from HK show biz, well, he did, but he joined Hollywood instead! Way to go Ed! Lolz... Our next outing is scheduled on August 1st - "Mummy - Tomb of the Dragon Emperor"... Think that's gonna be another hella good one. Had lunch at California Pizza Kitchen (CPK) and was checking out Albert's new car, but before that, we had to go up and down the floors as he forgot where he parked his car! Hecka funny! Hahaz.. Albert as always....

Went to chill out at Ken's place after where we watched the banned documentary of Columbine High School's Shooting back in 2001. Really crazy... the two students who carried out the operation basically filmed their entire process of planning the operation, obtaining the weapons, their inner thoughts, how they planned for their tapes to be found, up to the point where they shot the other students and finally shot themselves in the head... A really disturbing movie, but they achieved their objective in making the world think how fragile life is... Really wonder what was going through their minds, and the minds of the students who knew they were about to be shot dead... hmmz... scary...

名前ないの道

Had my 1st midterms for Fundamentals II and Herbs I today... considering the amount of studying that i did... i think it went well... Lolz. Following that, headed over to Richard's place in SF and we cooked dinner. A simple but good meal, only the veggie dish that I made was a little too salty. I usually cook for myself only. So this time for 2 person, I did not know the estimate... Lolz.. Oh well... I'm improving slowly. Planning to go for a movie with the rest of the boy's school who's around the bay area tomorrow... We'll see how it goes.

Continued watching my Amatsuki anime. Realized the ending song was really nice and meaningful... its title is - 名前ないの道 (The road with no name). Playing it at my blog now. Here's the lyrics with some of my translation... lolz:


その目は今 何を映すだろう 目に見えない真実が本当はあって
I wonder what those eyes are reflecting right now, an invisible truth is what it holds

すべてが閉じる（空へ）眠りについた夜も　水は流れゆく
Even thou everything has ended and the night has fallen asleep, the water flows on

歩きだせ 荒野へ 明日が来るその前に 描きだせ未来を 君が進むその道に 足跡も名前もいらない
Walk towards the wilderness before tomorrow comes. In the future that you paint, the path that you walk on, has no need for footprints or names.

100の祈り 胸に抱きしめて たったひとつの 夢を見つけられたらいいね
I hold to my heart 100 prayers, hope I can find even just one dream

そのままでいい（いつも）誰ともちがう君が君の宝物
You’re fine just the way you are (always). The you that is different from everyone else, is your treasure.

遥かなる未来が 君だけを待っているよ はじめて本当の自分に逢えた気がする まだ夜は明けないけれど
Only you hold the distant future. I feel like I've met the real me for the first time, even though dawn hasn’t broken yet

歩きだせ 荒野へ 明日が来るその前に描きだせ 未来を 君が進むその道に足跡も名前もいらない
Walk towards the wilderness before tomorrow comes. In the future that you paint, the path that you walk on, has no need for footprints or names.

Lesson 1...

Was at the monastery today again and Jinying, the lady who treated my back, was there too. Look wise, she's a really sweet grandmother who's probably somewhere in her 60s or 70s... But strength wise... its incomprehensible... to give you an idea, it was enough to make me scream from pain so that my voice could be heard by all the neighbors in the 5 story building...

So she was here to take a look at Rev Heng Sure, and at the same time, gave Sandy a small treatment too. During my sessions last month, I had asked her if I could learn how she got all that strength and how to treat, she merely gave me a smile and said "Why do you want to learn it? Its impossible.. too difficult...don't even think of learning..." But today, with the same smile, she said "you said you want to learn right? Here, you do it!" So with Sandy as my scapegoat, I got my 1st lesson! Lolz... Guess my wishes are coming true, meeting all these masters with real kungfu who are willing to pass on their knowledge... really hope to be able to learn some cool stuff! Working my way to be a great doctor hopefully! =)

So..... who's willing to be my next victim? Hehehe...

Avalokitesvara's Enlightenment Day

Another pretty busy weekend, stayed over at the monastery and left for Cttb early sunday morning to attend the celebration for Guan Yin Bodhisattva's Enlightenment Day. After attending the ceremonies, went to hang out with Steven, Andrew, Ben, Michael, David. Got to see some of the summer camp students there too! By mid-afternoon, temperatures were about 88 degrees Fahrenheit... scorching. So we all crowded by the white lion statue in from of the Buddha hall to seek shelter from its shadow... it was our "family tree" (In reference to Rev. Heng Sure's song, "The family tree").

Also called my mom to wish her a Happy Birthday! Sorry I couldn't be there... Will be back real soon thou! Sent an sms to my bro Aaron as well... really miss our regular late night supper sessions at the near by prata store! When I get back... that's gonna be the first thing I do! Lolz.

Brahma Kumaris

Went to the Brahma Kumaris Center with Rev Heng Sure and Sandy today. Had a pretty good interfaith exchange with them and they also served really really good food! At the end of it, one of the elders there presented everyone with a message card. Everyone had a different message and here's is mine:

"You celebrate your greatness by having the faith that all will be well. Through this faith, the drama of life blesses you and becomes a golden path beneath your feet."

しょうねん おんみょうじ

Finished watching another anime series - Shounen Onmyouji (少年陰陽師). When I first heard the title, I thought it was gonna be a cheesy anime, but turned out to be one of the most amazing anime that I've watched. All the spells used in the movie were actual mantras used in Shinto and Buddhism. I even found some that I was familiar with! The perfect anime for an anime and buddhism nerd... Lolz. And I finished watching the anime today, on a day of the full moon, and the last episode of the anime also ended on a day of the full moon... creepy... lolz. Oh wellz.... I love my animes. Lolz... Ok... time to start getting back to studying mode... Mid term exams are back again... =.=...

まぶし生き物

やまとなでしこしち変化、シャマン　キング、少年おんみょうじとあまつきを見ったあとで、この決を至。。。おれは眩し生き物をなりたい！やまとなでしこしち変化のすなこそうみたい、でもおれはこの闇が遺す、こころの光は探する、光の道が歩行する！菩薩道が歩行する！おれはまぶし生き物をならなきゃ！絶対にならなきゃ！明日から私は最善を尽くすよう努力をします!

Veggie Fair

Haven't been blogging for a while... my badz.. was just being lazy. Lolz... Well, lots happened over the past few days. Stayed over at Andrew's place on Sat night and woke up the next morning to go with them to the Vegetarian Expo in Sacramento. As Aunt Guojuan stayed up till almost 3am the last night preparing the food, she kept blinking as she was driving up, so i offered to drive instead and the moment we swap places, she fell asleep in the back seat. Must be really tired...

We got there in time and all the other cooks (mums) were already there cooking. There were lots of really yummy food and performances. Rev Heng Sure was there too and he met an old friend, his classmate from 40 years ago! Its really cool but also scary at the same time i guess to think how 40 years passes by with just the blink of an eye.

Went back to Andrew's house after, another 1 hour's drive and this time, I was pretty sleepy... eyes kept drooping. Fortunately, there was a random can of coconut water in the car! Lolz... I was refreshed by that and made it home. After a little rest, Andrew's mom was up cooking again. Lolz... I was out thou... too tired to do anything, but helped stir fry one dish. After dinner, I was just too tired to return home. Feeling a little queasy and nausea... so I stayed for another night before heading home the next day. Probably ate too much in the day... Lolz...

Wafflez!

Back to BBM again, with all the good food as always and this time, we had Vegan Waffles!!! Hella Good! Did some translation work in the afternoon and then soon it was lecture time! Really interesting lecture we had today. Were going through various Bodhisattva's names from the Ten Grounds Chapter of the Avatamsaka. Also went through the list of the various heavens and their characteristics... Kind of goes in line with the anime that I'm currently watching! Lolz... And we also touched on the Bodhisattva Treasury of Chandana Virtue! Which was basically where I derived my chinese name... Lolz... and talked about Sandalwood too, about the different types, and about how burning too many incense sticks actually might cause pollution instead, and makes the buddha's face black... one stick of incense is enough... it's fragrance pervades the entire dharma realm. And the best kind of incense is actually the precept samadhi incense or the incense of virtue, which comes from the heart..
Ooh! And I received a card from Tammy, Shirley & Felix, and a lollipop from Andrew! So nice... lolz ... heart melting.... ^^

Animes

Started on a new anime today - Amatsuki. Really really good! Lolz... About demons and gods and human beings... The philosophy there is pretty deep... They even recited the Heart Sutra in Japanese at one part! Lolz... Starting to really like this anime... But course, this is ongoing with all the other anime's that I'm concurrently watching... Naruto, Bleach, Tsubasa Tokyo Revelations, xxxholic kei, shaman king, vampire knight, one piece .... blah blah blah... n Tammy introed me to watch Wallflower (Yamato Nadeshiko Shichi Henge) Hella funny! They exaggerate all the anime cliches. lolz... maybe someday I'll make a list of all the animes I've watched, which I kind of lost count... lolz... At the moment, I think Amatsuki is the coolest! Lolz...

Virginia

Went to Oakland Airport to send off Felix, Tammy and Shirley. They're flying back to Virginia and the next time we meet will probably be next year's summer camp. So sad... But it was really fun hanging out with them throughout summer camp and at Andrew's place. Following that, went Costco & Walmart with Andrew, Julia, Aunt GUo Juan and Michael. Did what I did best - Window shopping! Lolz, but got some churros too! Mmmmz... more stuff to munch at! Went back to their house after for late lunch with stories from Michael this time. Drop by school on my way home to study for a bit and met Nicole there, so we went to thinkers for a drink before going out separate ways. Another fully packed day...

Davis'

Spent a whole day at Davis' house with Tammy, Shirley, Felix, Andrew & Davis. His friend Anthony joined us later too. Went to Daiso in the morning and then later Davis' mom brought the whole lot of us to Sweet Tomatos for lunch. Anthony drove Aunt Guohua, Andrew & myself and the ride was hilarious as Aunt Guohua kept commenting on Anthony's drivin! Lolz... It was as if it was driving test all over again!
Went back to his house to chill after that and Tammy & I watched "The Eye 1"... but its not as good as "The Eye 3"... "Eye 3" is a definite must watch! Lolz... Extremely hilarious! Finally got home at 11pm... Preparing for school tml... sighz... I wish my holz was longer...=.=

Airport & Games

Left Andrew's house this morning to send my sister to the airport. Got there and we spent about 1 whole hour repacking luggages due to it being overweight. She was flying with 2 other friends. At the gate, got a goodbye hug from my sister, and then the next thing I know, both her friends also gave me goodbye hugs... Its my 1st time meeting them... Lolz... Oh wellz... share the love... hahaz.

Went back to Andrew's to celebrate Julia's & Tammy's Birthday again! Then we played Bingo! That was fun. Tammy was the ultimate winner and went home with $12 of winnings. At night, we went to play bowling. Been a long time since I played. Horrible results but at least the ball didn't go into the drain that many times. Finally, decided to go over to Davis' place to sleep over with Andrew, Tammy, Shirley & Felix. Heard many wonderful stories from Davis' mom too. Its 1 am now and they are playing monopoly and I'm blogging away.

Went to Berkeley Monastery to help out today. Cleared tonnes of Wood pieces and re-painted the stairs. Everyone came home with "battle scars" - white paint everywhere. I got it on my hair =.=... as if I don't have enough white hair. Ate hella chips and salsa for the rest of the day and then went for lecture. Staying at Andrew's tonight again.

Told some ghost stories in the night, in the end, nobody dared to go back to sleep in their individual rooms, so everyone crashed in the living room. There was not enuff space so I basically squeezed with my brother Andrew in the tiny space inbetween on the floor... No space to even turn in the middle of the night... But its kool...its kool...

Independence Day

Stayed over at Andrew's place last night and stayed up chatting till almost 2am. Woke up in the afternoon and went to the beach to play volleyball with Andrew, Julia, Shirley, Felix & Tammy! Then we walked to downtown Alameda to get pizzas, mc donalds, and to rent videos! Yup, the typical kid's food and lifestyle! Watch some Jin Yong chinese drama on tv after before heading out to the beach again at 9:30pm to watch the fireworks light up around the entire bay area. Some people even brought their own to the beach. Played a short game of soccer and monkey before returning to watch our movies! Got 3 movies in total. "The Eye 3," we thought was gonna be a scary movie, turned out to be hilarious. "Shaun of the Dead" was horrible... "Hitman" was pretty good too. Finally went to bed at around 4am.

End of Summer Camp

Rushed up to cttb after class, thought I could make it to the end of summer camp performance. But I was too late. Got there in time to say bye to everyone at least, and just in time to do the dishes... Went to Talmage store with Andrew & Felix for burritos after, then went over to the girl's side, the forbidden territory for most part of the year, to pick the girls up. Also got to have some cakes as they were celebrating Tammy's birthday!

Daiso

Went to Daiso today, bought lots of rubbish... but also got a calligraphy set! Gonna start practicing myself... Gotta improve my horrendous hand writing...

Youth Summer Camp

Finally back from summer camp... Left at 0500am and rushed directly from Ukiah all the way to San Francisco to attend my first day of school. Holiday over... But I had a really really wonderful experience up there!

Day 1 (22 Jun 08)


The individual counselor groups got together in the morning for a meeting and to give their individual presentations of their lesson plans. The students finally arrived around 4pm and it was an evening of ice breakers! I participated in most of it, then finally left for dharma lecture by Ajahn Sumedho.At the end of the lecture, they invited Ajahn Sumedho to bow on the cushion in the middle of the Buddha hall used only by the Master Hua. It felt almost as if Master Hua was back...

Day 2 (23 Jun 08)

Woke up for morning ceremony at 0330am with Richard and Michael, then our work as counselors began at 0630am...Working at the organic farm, followed by meditation session.


Lunch ceremony followed by classes (Chinese, Art, Buddhist Studies, Recycling), then outdoor activities where we played dodge ball!I was in charged of the Buddhism class in the afernoon and with an age group of 10 - 17, it was really difficult to get everyone's attention. I spoke standing up and was speaking so fast, I kept running out of topics... Its not easy being a teacher....


After that, we had extra curricular activities where you could choose to either learn cooking, lion dance, dragon dance or taiko.Then it was dinner time, followed by evening ceremony, and then sports where I was forced to play basketball since everyone knew I seldom play bball... but I guess it wasn't too bad. Day 2 finally ended at 9pm with night snacks complimentary from the cooking club! =)

Day 3 (24 Jun 08)
Body was beginning to ache from the basketball game yesterday. Growing old.. Joe even plucked out 2 strands of white hair for me today... =( Other than that, everything was pretty much the same, and I did not have to teach Buddhism as the kids went for a seminar . Phew! During the outdoor activities time, we played Re-charge, a modified game of catch. Then for sports, I played soccer with the little kids.

At night, after night snack, we had entertainment from our very own home grown talent... Joe Zhu!!! Lolz... as he played, the rest of the counselors started throwing pennies on the ground for him. Too bad he got robbed by another counselor half way through... Lolz



Day 4 (25 Jun 08)

Back to lessons as per normal, so in order not to run out of topics again, I decided to play some cartoons on filial piety for the kids. As it was in Chinese, all I needed to do was to provide translation to those who didn't understand. Easy job! =) The little kids watched with full attention! But the older kids almost died of boredom...
At night, with request from Jackie, went patrolling around the dorms and we pulled a urban ops door kicking stunt on one of the student's room as he was acting really suspiciously, but instead found him and his younger brother doing prayers. Alexander saw it and kept making fun of me after that, even swung his wet hair on purpose so that some water got onto me and then ran away... Little did he know I was one of the 3 famous slipper throwers of the boy's dorm. Back in the days, my close buddies Richard Tsai, Richard Chiu and myself were the slippers marksman, while Mark was the cards marksman. So my slippers flew through the air and landed exactly on his back, leaving my signature foot print there. Lolz...

Day 5 (26 Jun 08)

Continued playing the cartoons for my class due to popular demand from the younger kids. As the haze was pretty bad due to over a hundred fires burning around the county started by chain lightnings, we decided to stay indoors to play board games instead of sports today.

At night, I had a wrestling game with Alexander, but he was too strong... got pinned down by him twice... sigh... Can't believe I lost to a 16 year old...

Day 6 (27 Jun 08)

The haze still hasn't cleared and thus our excursion to the solar center was canceled. And in place of that, we had a treasure hunt game ending up in a POW water torture session for all the students. But the students were tough and got their revenge soon after on the counselors. I managed to stay dry throughout.. that is until I was betrayed by one of my fellow counselors and soon all the students attacked and not a single person was left dry...

As for my Buddhism class today, I decided to do away with all the preparations that I did with my previous class. It was to be my last class before handing over to Qinzhi, so I decided to tell them stories today. Stories of the Master Hsuan Hua, stories of saints, of ghosts and spirits, of demons and gods...Little did I know that this would turn out to be the best session. No matter what age range, none of the students fell asleep and the entire session was filled with stories after stories, and questions after questions... Soon, I became the camp's story teller. Everyone who met me asked for more stories. That night, I told stories to the counselors who missed my morning session. And it went on till 2am.

Day 7 (28 Jun 08)
Despite sleeping at 2am, I still got up at 0330am for morning ceremony. And i guess, inspired by the stories, this time a group of counselors joined me - Ali, Ken, Andrew, Richard, Davy, Raymond. After that, we just hung out till breakfast time at 0600am. Caught a bit more sleep after that before waking at 10am for our hike today.

It was a pretty fun hike. Got to see many of the herbs that I learned from the Curandero last time. And the weather was very nice today too! No haze! Must be a response to our sincere praying in the morning. Lolz...

In the afternoon, the older kids played basketball while the younger kids were just hanging around. Tom, one of the residents in the city then handed me a water ballon. So I ran to the midst of the basketball game and threw it at Alexander, but pity it didn't burst and he caught it instead. In the midst of trying to escape, I fell and scarred my knees pretty bad as I was wearing slippers. But because of that, all the little kids were roused up and form the "Jonathan's Army." And soon, my single action, avalanched into an all out water ballon war between the older counselors and students and the younger kids. Everyone got drenched again though this wasn't in the plan of the day. =P

Day 8 (29 Jun 08)

It was yet another beautiful day so we brought the kids out to Mendocino Lake for a day of swimming, volley ball, board games and picnic!

The brothers Fredrick & Jeffrey, Billy & Jackson, and the instructors walking about looking for stones to throw at the students! I mean uh... into the water...Lolz.. A really fun day and everyone played so much that they forgot about the sun. In the end, many were aching from sun burn.

Day 9 (30 Jun 08)

Today was basically another regular day of class, but since my substitute teacher came, I basically just woke up at 0330 for morning ceremony, then slept till 6am and went for breakfast, then slept till 1030am then went for lunch, then slept till 2pm before waking up. Shiok! Lolz. After 2pm it was games where many got wet again.


At 4pm, brought all the chao keng onez for their torture session! Lolz... In the army we have the IV drip, here we have the acupuncture needles and the fire cups! Lolz.

I was suppose to have returned to SF by now, but at it was 2 student's birthday, I stayed. But this birthday celebration was different. Throughout the whole day, nobody mentioned a thing or even wished them. Half way through their last event of the day, we gathered everyone in the main hall and called this 2 out, and started scolding them real bad instead. Then we switched off the lights and told them to go reflect upon their conduct. At that time, Ben and I brought out the cake and presented it to them. It was a total surprise for everyone. None of the students nor counselors knew about it. Only the instructors. Hope this really turn out to be a memorable birthday for them.

Day 10 (1 Jul 08)
My official last day of summer camp, and 1st day of school. In order to send me off, many of the counselors woke up at 0330am to go to morning ceremony with me. One of the students too - Alexander. Well, he said he would go last night, but when I went to his room, he was still lying in bed, and I had to wake him up. Asked if he was still gonna go, and he immediately sat up and said "Of course! Becoz I love u Jonathan!" And gives this really cheesy smile... yah right man... But I was really touched... In the end, about 14 people followed me to the ceremony. Joe, Richard, Ken, Jackie, Alexander, Ben, Chris, Steve, Justin, Jack, Xavier, Ali, Raymond, Alex. Think the assembly was surprised to see so many people in the morning ceremony.

Ceremony ended at 5am and it was time for me to go. Pity I didn't get to say bye to the kids. Last night, Tom Li, the youngest in the group still gave me a good night hug and said "see u tomorrow"... Guess he didn't know I was gonna leave... Felt really bad... So did our good bye hugs, and when it came to Joe, he hugged but didn't stop walking until both of us fell on the floor... gheez.. more bruises for me... then when it came to Alexander, he basically hugged and lifted me off the ground and carried me towards his room =.=... It was another half an hour before I finally got to go...

It was a 2 1/2 hour journey before I finally arrived at my school. Had no time to return home for a shower or anything. I crashed in the student lounge for half an hour before making my way to class, and forcing myself to stay awake the whole day. School finally ended at 4:30pm... What a long day... 13 hours of continuous toil... Think I'm gonna have a reaaaalll good sleep tonite...