Sakinah Abdul Aziz

Well, it's been way too long isn't it? Let's see. 4th week of school was so passé and I've begun to feel slightly worried about my schoolwork cos I haven't really done much about it. And also, it's been a week since I've bidded farewell to my dear Beninois. I've been busy with YOG ever since its opening ceremony. I used to tell Kai Teng during one of the June/July trainings that we attended, that I never felt any form of satisfaction attending any of those. But once the olympics commenced, I feel the satisfaction sinking in bit by bit. First of all, I had access to the village, which is an atmosphere you'd want to sense every single day. Ok, at least for me, I love the international feel of it. You walk along those long corridors of NIE, and you see people of different colours speaking different languages. Trust me, I'll never look at NIE the same way again. It's like a mini world. With people exchanging pins, basking in the culture of others...

So this morning, I totally felt defeated. I guess language acquisition is really hard. Really, really hard. I went back to reflect upon myself how in the world do I acquire English and Malay in such a progressively easy way. And I realise that the only way to acquire language so well is to speak it everyday. And by everyday, it means, every single moment, every single opportunity you take to communicate with someone else. To utilise it in our speech everyday, and to listen to others when they speak. Because otherwise, you can never get across what you really want to say, and you can never understand what others want to convey. Acquiring a third, forth, fifth (and so on) languages at a generally older age IS hard. I used to have this confidence that if you throw me in a French-speaking country, I think I would be able to hold conversations. Yes, that's true. Normal conversations at a rather average, slow-ish speed. But I don't want to feel limited when I communicate (I do admit ...

Modules this semester: - Social Psychology - Paediatric Psychology - Learning and Conditioning - French 5 - Management and Organisation So tomorrow, or rather, later, will be the start of a new semester. Daym, Year 3 sounds so old. I'm feeling pretty apprehensive because some of the psych modules above are rather heavy. I am uber scared for French because this time round it is mostly about French literature which is something new and foreign to me. And that apprehension is futher aggravated upon seeing that my lecturer could be the same one I had 3 semesters ago. Not that he's bad, just that he always has tendencies to call my name whenever I was off-guard or wasn't prepared for answers, like all the time. Do you know how silly that looks? Imagine question marks all over my face while trying my best to form sentences in my head. Ok but thankfully because of him, I bucked up a lot and that probably contributed to why I'm still pursuing this language. So yeah, this is a c...

Happy Birthday Singapore! Although the National Day hype diminishes as I age, Singapore is too tiny a country to not feel the vibe, especially when you get those roadblocks due to the parade rehearsals in the city, fireworks on Saturdays and of course the aerial flypast. I guess partly the reason why it diminishes is because I'm no longer exposed to what we used to when we were younger. Remember back in primary and secondary school we have the sing-along sessions during assembly? And we would readily sing them? Damn, I miss those mass celebrations that succeeded in building up an atmosphere enough to make you feel you have celebrated an occasion fully. I have to give credits to the National Day songs because most of them, if not all, are really good. A few days ago, I was present at this YOG event, and they started to play several national day songs. And without fail, I can easily sing the songs without putting in effort to remember the lyrics at all. It's amazing how words to ...

"Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship - a play between divine grace and willful self-effort. Half of it you have no control over; half of it is absolutely in your hands, and your actions will show measurable consequence. Man is neither entirely a puppet of the gods, nor is he entirely the captain of his own destiny; he's a little of both. We gallop through our lives like circus performers balancing on two speeding side-by-side horse called "free will". And the question you have to ask every day is - which horse is which? Which horse do I need to stop worrying about because it's not under my control, and which do I need to steer with concentrated effort? There is so much about fate that I cannot control, but other things do fall under my jurisdiction. There are certain lottery tickets I can buy, thereby increasing my odds of finding contentment. I can decide how I spend my time, whom I interact with, whom I share my body and life and money and energy with. I ca...

So here's basically what sums up my Sunway getaway: - Sleeping late - And with that, of course waking up around noon almost everyday - Playing Monopoly Deal till late nights/early mornings - Social networking - And by this, knowing Kiki's circle of friends in Sunway, thank you for making my stay awesomest! (: Kiki has awesome housemates and her roommate from Sabah is hilariously expressive! - How I Met Your Mother marathon. In need to finish up Season 5 before the semester starts! - Karaoke with an unbelievable, cheap cost of 5 Sg bucks somewhere in Sunway Pyramid. It's not even those shady-looking karaokes, it's actually better than decent. Zomg, why is karaoke in Singapore so bloody expensive?! - Had the best of both worlds of food. Hands down, nothing can ever beat hawker centre food with sumptuous home-cooked meals. It makes me feel closer to home. And for what felt like the longest time ever, I finally taste the best Nasi Padang with awesome belachan! Everything fo...

Woohoo, I'm typing this away in Kiki's hostel room in Sunway campus, Malaysia. How awesome is that! Ok, so the story is, I made an impulsive (and I mean this well) decision right about two days ago, probably 1 ish or 2 am on Monday after Khai and I got chased by a cat (this is another story altogether, gonna skip this). An impulsive, spontaneous decision to follow Kiki back to her campus and bunk into her hostel room, and to relive what Nuurun and I did exactly a year ago. And the best part is, when Kiki's friends asked me how long will I be staying here, the only thing I could say is, I don't know. Haha, I'll go home whenever I feel like, so we'll see! So we just reached here 8 pm, bumped into few of Kiki's friends and drove us for dinner. Cool medicine students. Ok ciao.

Howdy har har everyone! I know it's been sometime since I've written. I feel like there's nothing much to write because the truth is, you never know what's really in store for you. Remember four months ago I was excitedly writing about how I cannot wait for the summer break to come and the list of plans I mentioned? One thing I learnt is that, we can make endless plans, but they don't always go our way all the time. Some may look promising at first but they fail and turn their backs on you towards the end. Yes, because human beings are only capable of planning, otherwise we have no control over the outcome. And look where we are now! It's almost coming to the end of July. I'm not expressing disappointment though, I am actually glad that these couple of weeks I've been pretty much rotting away and slacking. So I didn't get an internship just like I wanted to (and yes, NOW I finally believe my seniors when they said that psychology majors would face di...

Sometimes I get so weird I even freak myself out I laugh myself to sleep it's my lullaby Sometimes I drive so fast Just to feel the danger I want to scream it makes me feel alive To walk within the lines Would make my life so boring I want to know that I have been to the extreme So knock me off my feet Come on now, give it to me Anything to make me feel alive Is it enough to love? Is it enough to breathe? Somebody rip my heart out And leave me here to bleed Is it enough to die? Somebody save my life I'd rather be anything but ordinary please I'd rather be anything but ordinary please Let down your defenses Use no common sense If you look, you will see That this world is a beautiful, accident Turbulent, succulent, opulent Permanent, no way I wanna taste it Don't wanna waste it away yeah, yeah Sometimes I get so weird I even freak myself out I laugh myself to sleep it's my lullaby I'd rather be anything but ordinary please

So it comes down to Mani the Parakeet vs. Paul the Octopus. Lame I know. For tonight's World Cup finals, I don't really want to choose sides although I have to admit, I am more on the Holland's side but that's only because Spain won and Germany lost during the semis when I wanted the Germans to win. But that's stupid. So may the best team wins!