Month: September 2012

A Dream in my Pocket

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This slice is inspired by another slice I read from Pamela here: http://www.pamelahodges.org/2012/09/22/its-okay-to-start-small/

A Dream in my Pocket

I have a dream in my pocket.

I pull it out.

I shove it back in.

I completely forget about it.

I sit on it and it pokes me.

I carefully pull it out.

I look at it and wonder.

I shove it back in my pocket.

* * *

I pull out my dream again.

I put my dream into words.

I share my dream with people.

I realize that this is a big dream, but it’s my dream.

I will need time to nurture and grow my dream.

No longer in my pocket, my dream is in front of me.

*  *  *

What dreams do you have in  your pocket?

Flower Dome @ Gardens by the Bay

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I decided to tag along with my friend who was going to check out the flower dome this weekend. Despite the F1 races going on next door, it wasn’t crowded at all inside the flower dome. This is one of two domes at gardens by the bay. The other dome is the cloud forest, which is now on my to do list! The flower dome was well worth the $12 entrance fee! This has just opened a few months ago here in Singapore, and it was fun to go there with my camera.

I wasn’t sure what to expect inside. I was pleasantly surprised by the amazing variety of flowers and plants from all over the world. I got a good number of pictures, before my camera battery died. I didn’t realize until I got there that I only had one battery bar left. There was a really interesting section with all kinds of cool cactus and trees that I had to take on my iphone. Here’s a helpful tip, the AC was pretty strong inside, so make sure to bring a cardigan with you!



   

Survival of the First Month of School

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I am so happy that the first month of school is done with. It was a great time, but incredibly stressful and overwhelming all at once. It definitely had its highs and its lows. However, I wanted to remember how I survived it all!

  • I survived my first month of school! This is a big deal. At times, I felt like a first year teacher all over again. As I was dealing with a new curriculum, a new school, and a new country, many days I could only focus on one day at a time, in order to prevent myself from drowning!
  • I survived back-to-school night, where almost all of the parents came. Partly because I’m a new teacher, and they are scoping me out! 🙂
  • I survived my first round of progress reports. It’s nice that the format is open for us to choose and they are not required, but of course I still did them for all of my students!
  • I survived a field trip to a water park with 280 5th grade students on the second week of school.
  • I survived on our school’s amazing cafeteria food (Mr. Hoe’s catering) for lunch, and many times breakfast and/or snacks during our meetings. This food has given me energy, life and possibly a few extra pounds?!
  • I survived figuring out our 24 day rotating schedule with only 1 small mishap so far.  Yes, we have 24 DAY ROTATING SCHEDULE!  Somehow, it’s not as complicated as it sounds.
  • I survived my first month of school, despite the overwhelming pressure I gave myself to do the best job possible, especially as a new teacher.

I’m still trying to figure out how to balance school life with everything else, including blogging. I hope that I can at least keep up with the slice of life Tuesdays, even though these past few weeks, sleep became a priority over blogging. Thank you to everyone who has been leaving comments on my blog! I’m so thankful to have this writing community because it helps me feel at home, even if I’m 9,500 miles away from my physical home.

What are some of your accomplishments in the first month/weeks of school?

night + safari + singapore

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One of the things to do here in Singapore is go on the night safari. Did I mention that I’m kind of scared of the dark and wild animals? So going on a night safari was a little bit scary. The tram got awfully close to all these wild animals.  Good thing none of the animals attacked us, considering we had some people on the tram making all these obnoxious noises at the animals!! When Kristen and I were walking along the trail, we were PRETTY close to all these animals in the dark! Plus, on some parts, there weren’t any other people on the trail.

Luckily, I got over my fear quickly and managed to get a few shots. However, I’m still not that good at taking photos at night with my new camera,plus we are not allowed to use FLASH for obvious reasons. Therefore, I ended up taking a lot of videos of the animals, which I’ll save for my awesome life in Singapore video I’m working on…

   

A Night in the Garden

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On Sunday, I had the chance to go to a free concert in the park. It felt similar to the concerts in the park by the Philharmonic in NYC! Everyone brought food, drinks, and blankets to enjoy the concert that started at 6pm. It was the Singapore Symphony Orchestra that played a selection of songs including Pomp & Circumstance. The stage area that they have in the Botanic Garden is pretty amazing. There’s a pond that surrounds it with the huge jungle like trees in the background. I enjoyed the good music, food and company. Here are some of the photos and I snuck one in I took earlier that day in front of my church in Chinatown. All the lanterns in the street are for the mid-autumn festival!