It's almost the end of summer holidays and school will be starting in a few weeks' time. I thought that now might be a good opportunity to note down what I've accomplished over the past 3 months and what are the remaining plans I have before school starts.
List of accomplishments in summer holidays 2019
1. Successfully took a GERPE-BM module to catch up with the curriculum. Didn't do as expected but at least it wasn't too badly done.
2. Successfully cleared my Unity Developer course and submitted my claim. At the moment it is still pending approval and expected date of reimbursement should be sometime after schools starts. However they have not gotten back to me on how I should verify that the name entered in my records is the one that is displayed on my NRIC. Hopefully they get back soon.
3. Finished roughly 1.5 months worth of work in Hall 5 supervising cleaners etc to pay off my GERPE-BM fees. Was also offered the opportunity to transfer to Hall 5 but decided to stay on in Crescent.
4. Finished doing up the S clan flag. The final design was slightly different from what I had in mind originally but it still looks really good nonetheless. Have to give credit to Shawn, Ronald and Brandon for helping out with the cutting/painting etc, especially Shawn for tanking a significant chunk of making the flag.
5. Finished watching Domestic Girlfriend (was a really nice drama anime LOL) and did a drawing on it. I actually want to do a few more sketches on some Dynasty Warrior characters but it remains to be seen.
6. Decided, planned and finished doing up an academic essay for submission to an ASEAN-Korea Centre academic essay competition. At first I wanted to join out of pure interest and boredom during the holiday but over time the work involved in writing the essay did get to me a little. Also, the process of writing the essay spurred me to consider pursuing a career in the Foreign Service. I've registered with MFA to send me notices of events like tea sessions.
7. I've put considerable effort in practising the piano and training up for IPPT through these few weeks. Admittedly, it is a never-ending path to practising but I would like to think that I've achieved the goal of getting back on track to prepare for the challenges of joining NTU Piano Ensemble later this year. Also, I realized that my stamina has gotten quite weak for some reason; I got really bad headaches during the last training and had to force myself to stop halfway. I think it may be due to the short time interval given to train up to the standard as before. I will consider changing my schedule accordingly.
8. I signed up for some random event to bring some students from Nanjing University around NTU and show them certain landmarks. Although it didn't last very long and I didn't make much money off of it, it was a rather unique experience to be a tour guide for a couple hours.
9. I applied and got the highest tier of bursary for the coming academic year. Won't be stating the amount down in this post but it is no small sum. Was instructed to save it for my exchange program which is what I'll do.
10. I've visited the LAN shop a few times to get my fill of PUBG before school starts. The reason I don't buy it but visit LAN is because I know I won't be able to control myself once school starts. Likewise for mobile games, I will be deleting Overhit and Clash Royale (if they are still on my phone) before the school term begins to minimize distractions.
What I could have done better:
1. I did not make any progress on practising how to write with my left hand. Usually, it would have been because I was too busy with stuff or I was too lazy to sit down and practise. Either way, I don't think there is enough time to continue so I will be shelving this goal permanently.
2. I did not get to earn the amount of money I'd set out to earn in July from relief teaching mainly because there were no jobs available for me. Most of the days I got no calls to do relief teaching; some days there were calls but they clashed with my plans for the day or they all called on the same day or they just MIA/retracted their offer. I might have to consider extending my teaching availability into term time to cover my projected expenses once school starts.
3. I have not started studying yet lol. I've been procrastinating too much. I only just got EE2006 notes around a week ago from RT lol. The plan is to start next week.
---
Moving forward, the NTU-related camps will be coming up soon. Other than Crescent camp, I also joined Enitio, one of EEE's orientation camps, as a GL because Raj asked me to help out as they are short on members. Till then, I hope I can earn some money doing relief while studying for next semester. Will also be sending Jovian off for his enlistment so I'll be visiting Tekong again, this time as a civilian!
