In Motion

I spent some time peer reviewing my Coursera coursemates today. That hour or so made me realize how much I hadn't mellowed down in work mode, not even after two years of lazing around. As I graded my fellow peers, some submissions triggered angry rants like "what on earth were you thinking?" and "how can someone submit something like this and still get so far in the course?". Of course my rants weren't just one-liners (they never are) - JW had to hear the whole tirade and my utter bewilderment at how grownups can't even follow simple instructions. An hour later while walking Jasmine, we were still discussing whether I was being a hard-ass or if my reviews were perfectly justified.  Mind you, this doesn't happen every time. I peer review some in my cohort every week when the course is running, but this time 3 out of 6 submissions had problems with them, and when you mark people down you have to provide an explanation and "constructive crit...

I feel like I'm a walking contradiction. [Disclaimer: This is a first world problem that probably only housewives with too much time on their hands can relate to. Most people are busy handling real problems. =P] Every time I read up on style tips for my type of body shape, I always come across things that would work to address one challenge, but exacerbate another challenge. Perhaps it's my unique body type, which is not the easiest to dress. Case in point: I'm considered petite (by American dress standards), but I also have B cup boobs and a curvy bum. By that description, you must think I look like a ball, but I'm actually pretty slim with a 27 waist size, also known as a size 4. I don't mind my curves, but truth be told, they tend to make me look fatter than I am. I don't like to wear clingy clothes because 1) they are WARM, 2) they aren't as comfortable and 3) they don't look all that appropriate. Clingy clothes do define my waist, though, and ...

This happened when I was carrying out my final practicum in SK Taman Rasah Jaya 3 years ago. I was teaching a class of 9-year-olds with low to intermediate proficiency and my supervisor had decided to pop in for my final assessment unannounced. I was taken by surprise, but was relieved that I had borrowed a soft toy turtle and some teaching aids from another friend. Because we were teaching the same grade, we often borrowed lesson ideas and teaching aids from each other.  The topic for the day was pets and my objective was to teach my kids to write about their own pet. At the end of the lesson, I asked different students to share what they had wrote. One student stood up and went: "My pet's name is XX. It is pink and blue." I was appalled. An entire lesson on pets, and this girl STILL didn't understand that a pet had to be an animal? Did bringing in a soft toy backfire on me? And my supervisor was sitting right there at the back of the class assessing me!...

January flew by. Is it just me, or is time speeding up as we get closer to leaving? It's been a pretty warm winter if I might say so myself. Thanks to the agreeable weather, I got lots of things done - we bought our final flight tickets home, I read at least 6 books, we explored two new grocery stores, we're doing weekly devotionals, we've been watching Read Scripture YouTube vids and spending quality time with friends and family - all in all a productive January. We're also in the process of finding Jasmine a good home, so any prayer about that is dearly appreciated! So far we have a couple of potential homes, but nothing confirmed yet. Things are looking optimistic though. This little doggie's future has been the subject of fervent prayer for a while now. As the date draws nearer, I'm filled with a sense of urgency to cross things off my bucket list. I know I won't be back for a long time, if ever, and I find myself treasuring things like the amazi...