Sunday, January 29, 2017

金鸡报晓喜迎春

金鸡一声炮竹响,四海升平喜迎春!


正月初二,我给各位网民拜年来咯!恭祝各位在鸡年大吉大利,万事如意!学生们学业突飞猛进,生意人生意蒸蒸日上,打工族事业步步高升,各家各户年年有余,最重要的是大家身体健康、出入平安!

今年过年对我而言意义非凡,因为这是我回国后第一次过大年,也是我工作后的第一个新年。

年二八,洗邋遢:广东人喜在腊月二十八这天打扫家里,除旧迎新。以往每年的这天我和我姐都会花上一整天的时间洗洗刷刷,布置家里。今年的年二八,我还在柔佛沙仓为学校的事焦头烂额着,姐姐也远在曼谷工作,所以打扫这个重担子就由妈妈一人扛下。

年二九,漫漫归途长而久:我有两位朋友开车北上槟城,我便搭他俩的顺风车回怡保。晚上八点半,朋友的银色轿车宛如银鱼入江,加入长长的车龙,和其他车子一起浩浩荡荡地踏上回乡之路。南北大道上有一些路段交通缓慢,可是还不至于长时间停滞不前。我放眼望去,一片车海亮着红色车尾灯,似满街的童子提着红灯笼游行,红当当的好不热闹!

凌晨一点半,我们抵达吉隆坡,要在朋友的亲戚家借住一晚。这时候我们都累坏了,只想早早歇下。无奈我们太幸运,竟赶上罕见的公寓大停电。我们在停车场睡睡醒醒等了一个多小时,电梯才被修好。我们上楼后,公寓里的电源还没修好,可是我们也管不上了,倒床蒙头就睡。


第二天,犬尚在守夜,鸡还不及司晨,我们就摸黑离开了。我们离开时,公寓的电源还没修好呢!我不由感慨,我三这是名副其实的悄悄的我走了,正如我悄悄的来。

年三十,团年饭,阖家食:我回到怡保时约上午十一点,正好赶上去舅舅的粤菜馆吃年饭。我们陈家并没有年饭必须在婆家吃的硬规矩,尤其是奶奶回天家后,更多时候过年我们一家都随妈妈回娘家吃饭。叶氏粤菜,必属佳肴。我的表哥近年来已经可以独当一面煮一桌子的年菜了,经他手烹调而出菜肴色香味俱全,一点都不逊于我舅舅的好手艺,反而有青出于蓝而胜于蓝的滋味。




年菜当中啊,我的最爱非捞生莫属。一般的捞生我不爱,我偏爱舅舅店里的水果捞生。苹果丝、雪梨丝、木瓜丝、蜜瓜丝、芒果丝,配上传统的柚子粒、炸番薯丝、炸芋头丝、炸脆皮、和芝麻花生碎,淋上特制酸梅汁和香油;色彩缤纷的冷盘尝起来偏酸带甜,多汁清脆的口感让人欲罢不能。


大年初一啦!我家一般的作风是:吃一顿素菜清肠胃,和父母拜年领红包,然后一家人去亲戚家串门子。近几年啊,我们是愈来愈迟出门,却愈来愈早回家。太累了,我们宁可在家躺着,啃啃瓜子看看电视。


近年来,留守在怡保的,回来怡保的亲戚,也是愈来愈少了。陈叶两家原本就是女娃多,随着一个个女儿远嫁,家里是愈来愈冷清了。今年两家更是只有三三两两长辈坐镇,我的表姐表妹们都没回来,让我怪伤感的。女眷少了,我才惊觉原来我有好几个表哥表弟!这些年你们到底都藏哪去了?!

福建人喜在过大年期间吃象征长寿的面线,我家也不例外。年初一晚上,妈妈就忙着在厨房里准备明早吃面线的汤底和配菜。年初二一早,我们的早餐就是一碗碗热腾腾的鸡蛋面线。面线、鸡蛋、香菇、生菜、鸡肉,浸在用山鸡熬的高汤里,再撒上油葱酥;爱心汤面一下肚,整个人都是暖呼呼的。


这次回家过年,除了享受佳节气氛,我也必须腾出些时间整顿一下我接下来的教学计划。不瞒你说啊,我其实是夹着尾巴逃回乡过年的。工作方面诸事不顺心,可能是菜鸟上阵吧,也有自己努力不足之嫌。工作的事我不想多说,说多错多。现在我只想睡很多很多。。。


Saturday, January 21, 2017

Week 3 in action!

It had been a week of highs and lows.

As teachers, we might not get enough rest, but we definitely get enough dramas. One moment we might be at cloud nine because of the achievement of our students, the very next moment we might be pushed to the verge of weeping because of their misbehavior. Sometimes, it’s the same group of students who lead us to experience from one extreme to another.

Here, I would like to highlight some people and some moments that had made my days for the past week better and made my hard work worthwhile.

First, let's start with some school related stuff. :D


I am currently teaching Civic Studies, Mandarin, and Art to lower secondary form students. For art classes, we were covering the topic of ‘Lines’ for the past 2 weeks.

For my Form 1 classes, I asked the students to draw a tree according to their own imagination, and they were encouraged to include as many types of lines as possible in their drawing. Some examples of types of lines are dotted line, curved line, spiral line, straight line, thick line and etc. 

I purposely gave them very little instruction so that I could see how they communicate and work in group.
One of my classes amazed me with their high quality artwork, so I would like to share their artworks here with you:


(The photo has been edited to intensify the lines drawn using pencil so that you can see the drawings better.)

For my Form 2 classes, I did ‘capan’ with them this week. Definition of capan in Malay is as follow:

Teknik capan merupakan teknik yang menggunakan bahan semula jadi yang mempunyai jalinan tertentu untuk menghasilkan karya.

Students were asked to produce an artwork in groups through combination of prints. They can make prints using leaves and/or other items that have natural patterns. Some of the other things with natural patterns that can be used to make prints are palm and fingers, crumpled paper balls, Amanda, coins, and etc.

Here are some of my students’ artworks:


As for my Form 3 classes, I taught the students how to make small greeting cards using the technique ‘lipatan dan guntingan’.

Each student was given 2 color papers. They were asked to fold one into small piece and cut the paper while it is folded. When they unfolded the cut paper afterwards, they will get a paper with 3D recurring patterns. Then, they pasted the cut paper on another paper of different color to make a simple card.

The task is simple but it’s not mundane! My Form 3 students from the front class really immersed themselves in the cutting and pasting because the task allowed them to relax and do hands-on activity to explore and express their creativity. The class certainly had a ‘zen’ vibe going on when all the students were occupied with creating their own artwork. 

Here are some of my students' artworks:


Okay. Enough with school. Let's move on to some social events!


My housemates and I hosted the second Christian Fellowship gathering at our apartment last Tuesday!


Amanda and I hung out at Aeon Tebrau on Friday after our weekend classes at teaching school. 

Grace’s aunt had generously given us a lot of big tiger prawns last week. Wait, ‘big’ is an understatement. The prawns were as gigantic as my palm!  In fact, ‘a lot’ is an understatement as well. To be exact, we received around 50 prawns from her!

Last Saturday night, Sui Yang had selflessly offered to cook cereal prawns to satisfy everyone’s craving. He had to split the prawns into 3 batches when he cooked because the wok cannot fit all goodness in one! He has proven himself to be a terrific chef. The prawns tasted so delicious!




*Everyone please pause reading and give a round of applause for Sui Yang*

Friends came to join us for the prawn tasting feast. It was a nice time savoring good food and chatting with friends. We were enjoying ourselves so much till we forgot to take a group picture to commemorate the occasion!

Once again, thank you Grace for sharing, thank you Sui Yang for cooking, and thank you to everyone who came and shared the moment with us! J

5 more days of teaching and I can go back to Ipoh for CNY break! Hooray! I need my sleep and space out time...


Sunday, January 15, 2017

第一堂课:沙仓

我开始学会欣赏沙仓的夜景。

截至今天,我已经在柔佛州生活了三个星期!我在沙仓的新居入伙也刚满两个星期。

柔佛新山

我其实很满意我现在的住处:公寓天台朝北,迎风向;我的房间窗口朝东,早上睁开眼睛,就能看到清晨的第一束光破云而出。


房东是个室内设计师,他一手包办此公寓的装潢,所以家居摆设什么的通通无需我们操心。哪怕是我和室友当时临时临急地搬进来,我们也没有任何不便或不适之处,因为房东贴心得连被褥、餐具厨具等琐碎东西都准备俱全了。

每天我下班回到家时,天上只剩下一片墨色,地上则是华灯高挂了。操劳了一整天后,我最喜欢做的事,就是洗澡后站在窗前,边吹干头发边欣赏窗外的景色。


站在高处眺望,我才惊觉沙仓和邻国原来真的是那么地靠近,两岸之间的距离亲密到我能从窗前清楚地看见一峡之外,各式各色彩灯闪烁。对岸的火树银花固然迷人,沙仓的万家灯火也不逞多让。

夜里海风吹寒了地,吹凉了人心,也吹散了人情。 还好咱有一盏盏橘色的街灯,用尽其卑微的光辉在温暖着这座城市。柔和的灯光之下,凝聚了多少的悲欢离合?是哪家在街灯下大肆放鞭炮?是谁和谁在街灯下拥吻?是谁在月黑风高的时候,偷偷摸摸地在街灯下细数贼桩?又是谁籍着街灯,企图用泪眼看清爱人离去时的背影?

职场菜鸟,工作总是辛苦的,钱总是不够用的;可是我相信,我会慢慢爬上去的。

我任职的学校玄关

第一堂课

感谢主,带领我来到了沙仓。

这里的马路虽然千疮百孔,但是笔直宽敞。我希望我自己、我的战友们、还有我的学生也能像沙仓的马路一样,常保品行端正、心胸宽敞,千磨万击还坚韧, 任尔东西南北风。


Thursday, January 5, 2017

POW snapshots

On Christmas morning, my parents helped me to load all my belongings into Asyrad's car, and off we went on a 7 hours roadtrip to come to Johor.
The place that I shall call home for the next 2 years. 

Kacang pool. Johor's specialty. 

The assignments for the week were simple: 

1) Wait for news to arrive from the department 
to find out which school we will be teaching in, and which course we will be majoring in in our postgraduate diploma in education program. 
2) Look for a place to stay for the next 2 years 
3) Attend briefings and relationship-building classes

For the week, we were staying in the dormitories of a local teaching school.


If my memory served me right, it was my 6th time staying in dormitory/hostel like this. I had stayed in similar quarters at other states when I attended camps and competitions. 

These quarters are not the most comfortable place to stay in, the shared bathrooms and toilets are probably everyone's least favorite. However, the people made things better. 

The right group of people, who makes me feel loved, who we all share the same vision and passion, made the place bearable. 


We spent a good chunk of time during the week in this lecture hall. Here was the place where we received all the news, good and bad. 

This room is definitely not as memorable as our PSP site, where we first knew each other, learnt together, worked and played together. But this room shall always has its place in my mind.

For all my 2017 fellows friends, let me put it this way: 

PSP site is the interactive, effective, happy learning space that I want to go back to everytime when I do the O-Alele song to open up my imaginary ideal group learning space, 

while this lecture room is the war room that I need to go back to everytime when I receive a major news or when I need to do a split second decision.

I don't know why. Maybe it's because of the wood. :p