Saturday, May 22, 2004

Sungei Buloh

I went to Sungei Buloh yesterday for a field trip and yes there is a river in this place . Sungei Buloh is located in the north west of Singapore (if my sense of direction doesn't fail me ) I finally kinda understand about the name of the place. Initially I thought Buloh is just a name, but after reading several things, I found out that Buloh is a Malay word for a part of a bamboo tree. See in Indonesia we call it buluh, just like in the song Layang-Layang...Ku ambil buluh sebatang, ku potong sama panjang...La...la...La...layang-layang Sorry I can't give you the full lyrics of the song, since I don't know what they are. I know the song but I think I'd never learned it in kindergarten. Maybe my teachers thought that we, city kids studying in a private school, will never be interested in playing a kite or even make a kite on our own Yeah, it's not easy to find buluh in a city. Anyway, the field trip was interesting, I saw some things that I've never seen before. I saw monitor lizards and I know it's kinda silly and stupid of me to admit this, but when I first saw it, I actually thought it was an alligator or a komodo or something dangerous and that's why I was surprised to see people approaching it without hesitation. Then I also saw mudskippers. I have never heard or seen them before so I don't really know what they are or what they are called in Indonesian. They're kinda cute and their homes are pretty interesting. There were also crabs and again very silly of me. I was expecting big crabs, like the ones we can eat, but the crabs there are the small one, cutie ones There were lotsa mosquitoes and I know that I'm just prone to mosquitoes bite. In Indonesia, I think they say it's because we have sweet blood that mosquitoes like us I remembered my biology teachers in my first year in high school talking about mosquitoes, how the ones that we meet in the city are nothing compared to the ones out there in the wild. For example the mosquitoes that bit me yesterday actually left me red spots which will stay for a few days. This red marks that they gave me will still itch from time to time So this is different to the so called city mosquitoes which will only make you itch for some minutes. Nevertheless, the trip was interesting. We should know this kind of things and have appreciation and respect for nature and try to conserve whatever little piece of nature that we have for future generation. I know my statement sounds so "official", right out-of-the-book type, but I truly feel so

Met several people this week. Accidentally met Nyile on the MRT on Thursday. I guess I often do things which lead to so many coincidences. Last Thursday I got in the MRT from a normal door, like any others, but I felt that I just needed to walk to the centre of the train. As I walked Nyile saw me and we talked a bit. See, if I hadn't walked to his side, I may not have noticed him. Then on Friday, I went to NUS again. Met JTG and then had dinner in Science with Vivy. A lot of stalls had closed so I couldn't really choose much. Then today met Felis, JTG, Malvin, and Yongki in church. Everyone seems to be doing okay.

Today, I read Today and I read a name that I know. The name of a guy who was once in the same group with me in one of my assignment in my 1^st semester in NUS. I know that people may have the same names, but it just seems to add up, and my feeling is telling me that it's him (my feeling is rarely wrong). The news was about the guy who died when his plane crashed in USA recently. Apparently this guy that I know is a good friend of that guy. So I'm feeling slightly sad about the whole thing now.

Watching Criss Angel now, man! The guy is scary. Too much darkness in him and I'm feeling scared seeing him. If I'm given the chance to meet him, I will pass. No matter how good he is, he's just too scary. I don't know why, I'm not feeling so well now. I just feel so tired. I hope I won't get sick, at least for this coming week. I just have things to do this coming week and they require lots of energy.

:) eKa @ 11:55:00 PM •