warm L hand, cold R hand

I've concluded that my fingers swelled bcuz of the cold. Seems to fit this thing called 'Reynard's Syndrome'. So I've been wearing gloves even at night to sleep nowadays, and the swelling has gone done a lil. yippee! Thanks for praying!

I find it strange though, how, for example, my R hand's temp is quite diff from L's temp. Right now, in fact, my L hand is pretty warm to the touch. But the R hand is like... very cold to the touch. 2 hands, one body, and 2 entirely different temps. So interesting eh!

gd start to the wk!

Today was a good day. After commiting the matter to God and checking myself for the right attitude, I brought up the matter to our tutor during our meeting today. Told her honestly about how I felt about her ngiao marking and how it has been quite discouraging. And hey! It went really well. She was open to the discussion and was apologetic about how she has unintentionally been so discouraging. I guess the best part about it all was the mutual increased understanding that has come out of it, and how the communication lines are maintained openly. No more griping w/o a feeling of justification. No, the marks ain't gonna be changed, but I expected that anyway. At least I know now that she is aware of how we feel towards her marking.

And guess what?!!! Haiyah... her mum is an editor lah... that's why she is so ngiao about language and punctuation. She's also aware that her background of 'growing up with a mother who was always holding a red pen to correct things' has influenced her to be the marker she is now. When we heard that, i think we all went CHEHZZZ!!! simultaneously in our hearts. lolz.

My fingers aren't looking much better. The dr wasn't helpful at all. To his credit, he was really honest... about being absolutely clueless about what was happening. Sigh. A$5 wasted. So I decided to self-treat and bought a roll of coban to do some taping. It's only helping minimally. So pls continue to keep me in prayer yah?

The dr told me to go back if it doesn't go down in a wk, which is highly likely since it's already been 12 days. I don't see why it shd go down anytime soon. My housemate says that even if i go back to the dr and try to get a specialist appt, the appt will be 3mths later.

Conclusion: I'll juz cont to coban, pray, and tahan until I go back home and get some advice. OR mebbe when I'm back in a climate in which I belong more happily, everything will go back to normal.

Poor poor body of mine. So ultra-allergic to the cold. :|

looking at the big picture

In the midst of all my griping and whinging, I was humbly reminded during bible study yesterday that to be able to study - to be able to be educated - is in itself a huge, huge blessing. What more to be studying in a uni, and to be able to experience studying overseas... and on a sponsorship as well.

Immeasurably blessed. And I don't want to forget that juz because the going gets a lil tough along the way.

Well, after one week of my edematous right-hand fingers still being the same, and even looking a bit worse recently (warm swelling, weird colours and weird skin temp), i've finally decided to see the dr. Pls pray for me and my health and that the dr will be able to wisely figure out what's happening. thanx!

friends

You know how they say that your uni friends will be among your closest friends for life? I can so understand why. Maybe I feel it more as an intl student. After all, we practically live together, eat together, breathe together, moan and whine together etc etc. Hee. I guess I’m in a reflective mood today, because I’m beginning to realize how close I am to finishing uni. And leaving here.

I've done it - I’ve put up the ad to sell off my guitar. *wince*. Currently that’s like... my first major step towards home. Semester officially finishes in 3 weeks. Yup… that’s when I no longer get to sit in tutes and lecs. Back to working life in no time. Mmm. I remember being reflective and all during my final weeks in NYP too, but I guess that was different cuz I always knew that I would be continuing in Oz. This time it’s really a this-is-IT feeling.

Today we also did something that we used to do quite a bit of last sem, which is to walk to the shops from chis and do our grocery shopping. I have not walked down that familiar path at all since November last year. What a familiar feeling. It would have been nice if I could have seen those three resident ducks in the moat again though. But didn’t see them today leh…

Thanx, gang, for all that you’ve been to me. We’ve shared so much together.

Discovered new places together.
Got lost together.
Perfected recipes together.
Indulged in chippies and monte and gelato together.
Moaned about our terrible diets together.
Griped about absurd tutors and the aussie system together.
Proof-read assignments together.
Braved the cold together.
Talked about our dreams together.
Filled each other in on good supermarket buys.
Stayed up till ridiculous hours together.
Just… been together.

Luv you all. =)

indignance

I don’t feel this indignant easily and often. But this is really getting on my nerves. The more I look at how my tutor marks my assignments, the more I note her mistakes as glaringly as she notes mine. First, she spells ‘attendance’ as ‘attendence’. Then, she corrects this sentence of mine

Parents benefited by being able to envision futures for their children, while others, like schoolmates, were better equipped to cope effectively with childhood cancer and accept affected individuals.

to become

Parents benefited by being able to envision futures for their children; while others, like schoolmates, were better equipped to cope effectively with childhood cancer and accept affected individuals.

Fine, put in the semi-colon if you want, but that means the ‘while’ has to be taken away. If not, it just becomes a weird, weird sentence.

This sentence of mine was also changed.

Support offered by the school was viewed positively by parents and in particular, support in terms of facilitation of a smooth reentry into returning to school was positively highlighted.

to

Support offered by the school was viewed positively by parents and in particular. Support in terms of facilitation of a smooth reentry to school was highlighted positively.

This is pretty bad man! I’ll give her the benefit of doubt and assume that it was a mistake on her part. But I must say that I was stunned when I read the corrections she wrote. What the…??!

You want to be so ngiao about APA referencing, then make sure you really mark according to the APA guidelines, right? Not anyhow hantam commas and periods and semi-colons here and there using your own standards as a guideline then say that it’s APA style.

You want to assume that your command of the English language is better than mine, then make sure your basic spelling is in order. As for syntax, sighhhh… I don’t even want to begin talking about that!

If this tutor has such dodgy spelling and referencing guidelines, it makes me start to doubt how credible she is when marking the content itself.

The reason why I've finally decided to look into seeking grievance is not just about the english. It's a range of issues which I think would be good to address and not just gripe about it with no end in sight.

I know that at the back of my mind too is the Holy Spirit telling me that in seeking fairness in such issues, I must remember to conduct myself in a manner that is above reproach as well. No, it is not easy. Esp not when you're this indignant. But I will endeavour to address this issue 1) w/o slamming her unfairly 2) stating nothing but the facts 3) with love.

I've done #1 many times I know. #2 is easy to fall into when I remember that exaggeration is also a form of twisting facts. And #3 is a major struggle.

"I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." Philippians 4:13

"Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I will say, rejoice! Let your gentleness be known to all men. The Lord is at hand." Philippians 4:4-5

thursdays

*typed this yesterday but only got to post it today, so it shd actually come before the previous post*

Thursday is Domestication Day! Haha. I like Thursdays cuz that’s when I get to spruce up my stuff.

- My room is tidied
- My laundry gets done so my laundry basket is emptied out once again (and I like that, haha) and I get nice fresh laundered clothes to wear again
- I get to cook stuff that takes longer time to do (e.g. soups, green bean dessert, cookies, etc).
- And also… I can invite people over for lunch!

Which is what I did today, when Ramona and Jess came over and I cooked sambal fish and porkrib+leek soup for them. Plus some noodle+mushroom dish that I kinda invented on the spot, heh. Realised that I really like entertaining guests, especially after I see my housemates (okok actually they’re my landlord and landlady, but I feel weird calling them that cuz they’re really essentially my bro- and sis-in-Christ and my good friends above all) doing that with their friends.

When Ramona and Jess first came in they were all exclaiming that my house is so homely, something that I knew but didn’t really appreciate greatly until today when Jess pointed out that most students in shared housing won’t get to really ‘home-ify’ their houses that much. Indeed I have been greatly blessed through God’s provision of this lodging arrangement!

Anyway, semester is fast coming to an end. 3 more weeks to the end of semester! Though of cuz THAT dreaded module continues on till end-June… It’s been discouraging how our supervisor has been SOOOOO super ngiao when marking the papers. Was talking to the gang about it and Sharon does have a point about how it’s not very fair in the first place to have each team, which are supervised by various supervisors, having their OWN supervisor mark the papers cuz of the lack of triangulation and moderation of marking consistency. We’re thinking of going to the grievances dept. Should we? Let’s see how it goes.

Thankfully my other two modules have been so wonderful. As usual, I enjoy my electives much more haha. Both Art Therapy and Gestalt Group Therapy are things that I have a keen interest in and an inclination towards, so being in these two electives have been such a blessing.

I am also really glad that my cerebral aspects of me are not the only ones getting input. After all, this body and this brain will return to dust someday, but what is eternal is my soul isn’t it? I have been learning heapssss from CU, bible study, my own QT and church etc. Some ‘soul food’ that have made an impact on me:-

From church where we’re currently into the book of Daniel – Daniel was in a situation where he was most definitely the odd one out. He chose to stand firm for God and not do what everyone else was doing. Do I endeavour in the same way to not do what everyone else is doing (stuff that are not glorifying to God) too when in similar situations?

From weekly CU bible study where we have been covering the book of 1 Peter – If we suffer as Christians (e.g. like how Daniel had to be put into the furnace for refusing to bow down to the idol), it is never purposeless, just as in the same way Christ’s suffering was definitely not purposeless, but very, very purposeful indeed. It is also very natural to veer towards the directions of self-pity vengeance when suffering, but we are called to do neither of that.

From my QT where I’m exploring the extremely intriguing book of Job – Job was a man who, above all, sought hard for God just because He is God. I have been challenged to think of this question – Do I love and seek God simply because He is God? Or is it because I don’t want to go to hell? Put in another way, am I a Christian just for the ‘benefits’? (‘god bless me with this and that’ mentality)

Finally, from CU Mon-nite-trainings, where I’m doing a workshop on discipleship right now – I shall include an illustration for this.

 
The question that challenged me: Am I merely a maintenance-minded Christian or a multiplication-minded one??

My blog entry is half the length of the assignment I have to do, lolzzz. I’ll stop here and continue on my essay! :p 

gripes of an NON-esl intl student

What do you do if your final year paper tutor corrects your English in a paper... but it's 'correcting' right syntax and grammer (i.e. mine!) to wrong syntax and grammer (i.e. HERS!!)...??

sheesh. Should i tell her that hello, knock knock, I may come from an Asian country but English is my first language and I've always done well for English and my essays were published in school mags last time and... perhaps you are not always correct even though you're my tutor?

That the use of commas and semi-collons at times are a matter of preference and yours isn't necessarily superior to mine?

sheeshhhhhh.