June Holidays!

  Hihihi everyone!

  So I'm FINALLY back after a whole hectic semester - and time really does fly by fast, doesn't it? I can't imagine that half a year has gone by already... I've barely immersed myself in the RGS Experience yet. Knowing that I'll only be able to spend 4 years in this beautiful school makes my heart hurt even more - I really, really never want to leave this place.

  This afternoon, 29th May 2015, Raffles Girls' School concluded its annual Sportsfest, and I'm so glad that I didn't give in to the temptation to sleep in and feign an illness, even though I only got to sleep at 1am the previous night and had to wake up again at 5.20 in the morning. Ugh >.< But the effort was totally worth it. I'm in the Richardsonian house -- and we won!! I'm so proud of us, and I'm so proud of everyone else - everyone in the school, be they Buckleans, Tarbetians, Waddlians, Hadlians, or members of my own kin - Richardsonians. This Sportsfest really opened my eyes to how wonderful and amazing RGS is, and it made me feel this wave of love for my school all over again, because I mean, which other school has this level of bondedness and boldness and love for each other as sisters in learning and sisters at heart? I might be biased when I say this but -- there's no school that can beat the liveliness and sense of belonging that RGS has, and I'm glad, really glad, that I came here.

  And the end of Sportsfest signified the beginning of something else too - you know it - the June Holidays!! :D Now people, I have mixed feelings about this little 1-month event - on one hand, I'm really scared, because this June I'm going to visit my mom's hometown, where everyone speaks a language that I can neither understand or speak, and I'll be seeing my maternal cousins after, what, five years? All of them have grown so much since I last saw them and I really don't know what to expect, and I really don't want to be awkward towards them - I want to become really good friends with them and build enough memories to last us another 5 years if necessary. But there's a language barrier between us - I know that my cousins can speak English too, and I think that they can speak it pretty fluently, but I feel like I'm inconveniencing them by forcing them to speak English instead of speaking their native tongue, which they're definitely more comfortable with. Language is a powerful thing - it can build friendships, form relationships and strengthen bonds, and yet it can tear connections down in a second, and dissolve old friendships into dust. It's unpredictable.

  And it's not just connecting to others that I'm worried about. I'm a Grade 2 violinist - well, technically I'm studying for a Grade 3 exam, but since I haven't gotten an official certificate yet, I can't really claim anything more than a Grade 2 - and yet I'm going to be made to perform at my maternal grandparents' 50th Wedding Anniversary. A Golden Wedding Anniversary. And let me repeat my point - I'm a Grade 2 Violinist! How is a tiny little unqualified, jitterbug-filled person like me going to put up a satisfactory performance that will make my grandparents and parents proud?? The pressure is immense :'(

  Oh well, but I've recently managed to negotiate a deal with my mom where I can skip playing the second song on my repertoire and just play one song for the whole wedding reception, and make up for the one lost performance by playing a duet with my younger brother, where the both of us will be playing Edelweiss. I'm totally unprepared for the second song and all, but it's my grandparents' wedding anniversary - I'll try. ^^

  And yes, now let's move on to the happier side of the June Holidays - the sheer, wonderfully vast, amazingly ample and unbelievably abundant amount of free time that we're going to have! I'm painfully aware of the bending of the No-Homework-Policy by my Math teacher *looks at said teacher accusingly* (even though I still love my Math teacher to bits because she understands how our class has a particularly immature and blur-sotong mindset and mostly doesn't judge us for it) but I'm sooooo happy because I already know what I'll be doing in abundance during the June Holidays --

WATCHING KOREAN DRAMASSSS!!! <3

  Yes yes, in case you haven't heard yet, I've recently restarted my K-DramaLlama life. During a time of stress this year, I suddenly remembered my very first KDrama, a show that I watched after PSLE, when time was ample and free-and-easy, and I recalled how much the show (which is, by the way, Boys Over Flowers) had made my emotions go topsy turvy and had made me feel so strongly for something for the first time in my life - and all of a sudden, I wanted to feel those things again. So I began collating a list of dramas that I would watch, by hopping around countless Drama Recommendation sites and noting down interesting-sounding dramas - and I currently have a very, very, very long list of to-watch KDramas in my phone. In the past semester, I've managed to watch two Korean Drama series(es? What's the plural of series anyway?), in between studying for exams and completing PTs and AAs and all of the supersupersuperstressful things that we have to finish here in RGS - I absolutely both of them to bits and I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself for picking up good Korean Dramas at first sight. I'm pretty sure I missed like a gajillion good Korean Dramas that look boring at first and slowly develop and blossom into a drama with a wonderful storyline, but I'll repent for that sooner or later. ;D (Oh yeah, and if you want to know, the two KDramas that I watched were The Heirs and You're Beautiful <3 <3 <3 )

  So yupp, I think that that's all I have to say in this post! I haven't posted much recently (I haven't posted anything at all ugh) but I know that no one really reads this blog but me, and I'm pretty happy with its state now - I know that in the future, I'll be able to look back at all of these blogposts and see a side of what I was like "back then". So for now, I'll keep writing whenever something significant pops up and I want to share it with my future self. À bientôt, mes amis, and see you all soon! :D

  With a whole lot of jumpiness and love,

  Kirsten :)

(P.S. For now, feast your eyes on the adorable Jung Yong Hwa <3 <3 <3)

Re: UNIVERSITY

  Hii again guys :( I feel really sad now. I was so, so excited about the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), but then I went over to look at the Singapore Medical Council's article detailing the qualifications that one must have in order to be considered to be registered as a Medical Practitioner in Singapore - and EPFL's certificate wasn't listed in the list of accepted Universities. 😞 I mean, I'm pretty sure that it's only because EPFL's certificate is one of a Bachelor of Science, and the SMC (Singapore Medical Council) is looking for a Doctorate Degree or a Doctor of Medicine degree, but still, I feel really sad, because this means that if I want to practise Medicine in Singapore, I won't be able to go to EPFL, and I'll have to go to another school that offers a direct Doctorate Degree. :'( I want to become a specialist, too - a paediatrician - and I guess that my end goal is more important than the school that I go to. Right?

  So... Right now I have two options.

1. Study in EPFL and become a Research Scientist / Biomedical Engineer / Pursue an additional degree to allow me to practise Medicine in Singapore

2. Study in another Institution of Higher Learning that will allow me to practise Medicine and, more specifically, paediatrics, in Singapore.

  Sighhs. That's gloomy. :/ I guess Option #1 remains, and I could choose it if my career goals changed somewhere down the road - but just to be safe, I'm going to research on Option #2.

  The only thing is that I really want to study in an Institution that is listed in the top 20 Universities in the world, as listed by QS World, but at the same time I want to be able to speak a language other than my native one - English - for some time in my life.

  And in the top 20 universities, almost all reside in the UK, the US or Singapore. All English-speaking countries. Sigh. I guess that means that I have to let go of one of my original criteria - well, beggars can't be choosers, I guess.

  Let's work downwards.

  The Massachusetts Institute of Technology - highest on the list. However, the undergraduate international fee is $42000 - $44000; that's too out of my league.

  The University of Cambridge - $26000. Same as MIT. The same goes for Imperial College London, too. The same goes for all of the universities that follow, with the exceptions being: 

1. The Swiss Federal Institute of Technology;

2. École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lusanne;

3. McGill University;

4. NUS; 

5. École Normale Supérieure, Paris

6. The University of Tokyo (but sighs I don't know Japanese)

7. Seoul National University (same woes as #8 - I don't know Korean)

8. École Polytechnique, France

9. Kyoto University

10. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

11. The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology

  The universities that are listed in SMC's accepted university qualifications list, and which speak languages that I know, are:

1. McGill University, Faculty of Medicine

2. National University of Singapore, of course

3. Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

  And while McGill does rank slightly higher than NUS and NTU according to the QS World list, its school fees range from $14000 to $16000, and adding the cost of living, plus the additional cost of me flying back to Singapore biannually - it's too much. Plus, I can vouch that the quality of education is Singapore is nothing short of magnificent.

  Well, I guess that's the end of my comprehensive argument. I guess that I can always live elsewhere at another time, when my job had been secured, and that I can always carry on with speaking the French language without living in a French-speaking country - completing my studies in Singapore would make me eligible for applying for a job in almost any country. Anyway, Singapore is my home - and I guess I've just taken a while to realise it.

  So I can safely say that running around in this particular circle has been fruitful. I now have been reminded once again that Singapore is my homeland, and I know that no matter what - no matter how many trials I face - I can always run back here; to my family; to my country; to my home.

  I'll try my best to work hard for you, Singapore. 

  Love,

  Kirsten <3

UNIVERSITY

  Hii everyone!

  So it's the end of Week 9, and I'm just writing because next week's Learning Journey week for all of us and we don't have to turn in any homework so yay, I can post here :D :D Yeah, the homework load's been crazy lately :( But that was one of the things that I prepared myself for before I stepped into RGS, so I'm fine with it. :)

  So... Just to update you on what's happened so far, everything's been going great - I've made a lot of really, really nice friends, and while bouts of insecurity do still come about now and then, I feel like RGS has made me a lot more confident about myself - and yes, I've discovered that it's surprisingly easy to survive in a Girls' School. I used to think that I'd only be able to do well in a co-ed school because, you know, I've been more comfortable with boys than girls for my whole life because I grew up with my two brothers, but I've found it really liberating to be in a Girls' School, because there, you can act however you want and be as "uncool" and "nerdy" as you want to be, because there aren't any boys there for you to impress - and you can experiment with anything and everything, like for example a new hairstyle that could end up making you look terrible, because again, no one's going to judge you. It's just this really nice sense of freedom that I never knew existed in a Girls' School. :)

  So now I'm going to move on to the main topic of this post. :D I know, I know - University's really far away. I'm only in my first year of Secondary School, and I still need to get through JC - and who knows, I might even not do well enough to continue on to a University, so who am I to think so far into the future? The thing is that... Well, the sparking of my interest in a University came really randomly. I was, as usual, being very kiasu about everything Rafflesian, and so I searched up the Rafflesian Press - and there, I found this article about Rafflesians who had chosen to go overseas for their University studies. That piqued my interest, because many of the Rafflesians on that list had cited that they had gone to a foreign, non-English-speaking country to further their studies, and I started to think about my French - was it a possibility that I could go to a French-speaking country to further my studies too? After all, most of the Rafflesians cited had said that the environment was a lot less stressful in those other countries, and the reason why this was possible was because the people in those countries learnt how to manage their time really well. For example, during working hours, they did nothing but work, very seldomly being distracted by personal things, and that was why they could complete everything on time before going home and having fun.

  And I thought that it'd be really interesting to experience that for myself. So I went online and looked at the list of the top Universities in the world, listed by "QS TopUniversities", and scrolled downwards from there. The top 15 spots or so were dominated by schools in the United Kingdoms or the United States - which I skipped because I wanted to look for non-English-speaking options elsewhere - and two Universities stood out - the ETH Zurich Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, and École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne.

  I looked at the first one - the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology - and it seemed really, really interesting - but one of the major setbacks was that it was in Zürich, a part of Switzerland that spoke mainly German. :( I didn't know how to speak German and knowing the language was part of the admissions criteria - and so I had to give the promising Institution a pass.

  Then I went on to EPFL, and I realised - it was perfect. It was located in Lausanne, a French-speaking part of Switzerland, and that was one of the huge bonuses for me, because well - I'm going to take French as my 2nd Language for six years, and this will be a perfect opportunity to continue speaking French and nurture my skills as a French speaker. Also, I've always wanted to go to Switzerland, and the Life Sciences and Technology programme at EPFL were AMAZING. I just knew that I wanted to go there - and now it's on my bookmark list. :D

  Another really good thing is that the fees there are really cheap - 633 Swiss francs a month, or 844SGD, which is way, way lower than the fee in NUS. My only concern now is the cost of living in Switzerland, but I haven't even researched on that yet, so I don't know if it's expensive or not - let's just hope it's the latter!

  So yupp, that sums up why I really want to go to École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne. It's my long-term goal now, and I'm more driven to do well than ever - so I'll continue to study hard (and hopefully not get distracted as easily haha) - wish me luck, because --

  C'est mon rêve. <3

  Yours sincerely,
    Kirsten :D

EPFL's Rolex Learning Centre - Credits for the picture go to Ken Lee (September 4, 2010)

EPFL's Logo - Credits to URL: http://www.harness-project.eu/?page_id=11

Our First Aesthetics Project! :D :D Year 1, Term 1 (Informal Pre-Project Reflection)

  Hiii guys! :D

  So school's been really great lately and I've made lotsa new friends and started studying, and together with studying, there's been this one three-hour block in our week that's called our Aesthetics block. And let me tell you, it is both terrifying and terrifyingly awesome. Here in RGS, we do different modules of Aesthetics every term, and this term, we're doing needlework - and so we're doing a project wherein we have to scout around for fabrics in our houses and recycle them into functioning, creatively designed bags that we would feel comfortable with bringing around.

  Andddd.... I've decided what kind of bag I want to make! :D I was discussing the Aesthetics project thing with my mom because I honestly didn't know what kind of bag I'd make or what materials I'd use to make the bag, because all of my clothes have really thin fabric (you know the climate in Singapore) and that wouldn't be suitable for making something that's supposed to be able to carry my waterbottle, notebook and pencilcase without tearing into two. And plus, I really love my clothes so I don't want to cut them up and make them into a bag :'( Thank you for being thin-fabric-ed, clothes! Y'all are smart things! :D

  If those last few sentences made sense to you, I'd seriously applaud you for being able to understand Miss Looney - aka Yours Truly.

  So I feel kind of weird doing this particular blog entry, because I'm being as informal as usual with you guys and... This doesn't feel like homework at all O.O Part of our project is keeping an online journal - a blog, in layman terms - and recording our thought processes and the details of the creation of our bag here, in four different posts. And so this is kind of a prequel to all of the serious stuff that i have to do, and that means that I can be informal with all of you... Right? O.o

  If I'm wrong, I'm soooo sorry, Mrs Willamme - I promise I'll be a superserious angel for the formal posts. :D

  Anyway, you can expect me to get really formal during my Aesthetics Project posts, and I'll be writing lots of specific stuff that'll probably be boring to you (e.g. exact dimensions of each part of the bag, my WHOLE planning process etc. ect. XD) so don't feel obliged to read the posts ^^ I'm putting them here for my Aesthetics project. Oh yeah, and on a side note, I've already drawn out this supernice bag that I can make using my baby brother's diaper mat (you know, the mat that he lay on when my mom was changing his diapers when he was a baby) and an old quilt that my little bro slept with. MUAHAHA I'm stealing all of my baby bro's stuff XD XD But I'll repay him with lots of love in return okay? :D

  So I won't reveal anything to you guys yet, just to keep you waiting... *Wink* *Wink* But you'll get to see my work soon enough. We only have 6 weeks to make the whole freaking thing :( :( :( It's such a short amount of time. But as long as we focus and keep on schedule, I think we'll all do fine. :D

  So yeahh, that's the end of my post for now. Look out for the posts succeeding this one, okay? :D I'll see ya next time!

  Yours with lots o' love,
    Kirsten <3