So... Fasnacht break is here again, and yes time to bloggg. 2 months alr.

My mum works in Shanghai for 3 weeks, comes back to Basel for a week. Technically I'm like single-parented now. But it doesn't really matter, I find. Soon, I'll be without my parents. And it's pretty soon. Like next year. 2013. When I graduate from high school... Urgh, the future seems so uncertain.

Hmm. Basel MUN 2012 was quite a success! I really enjoyed chairing my Environment Committee, although they were mostly first-timers at MUN. We didn't have the highest quality debates, but they were still pretty good for nervous 8th, 9th, 10th graders. :) Well it was my first timer chairing, so I hope I did a good job to make my committee as interesting as possible. Got some pretty positive feedback from them, so I'm really glad! :D Like about the structure of debates, the topics chosen (I thought of the topics by myself!) :P

And oh, recently I went to The Hague for a Maths competition. Koreans dominated again, but oh well, so many Maths topics such as Calculus I haven't learnt were tested, so I didn't do very well overall. :/ 120th out of 220 students? Ah well... Anyway I had loads of fun with Burcu, my team partner, and we shopped with our teacher in Leiden. Valentine's Day sales all around, so I got pretty cheap stuff. :) Better in the Netherlands than in Switzerland where things are all so ex hahaha. And Stroopwafels are AWESOME; I cannot get enough of them! :D

Currently catching the Korean drama series Dream High 2. Still pretty good, but I think I prefer the Dream High cast. :) I also watched Sweet Spy last week. :P I should cut down watching Korean dramas.

Still as clueless as ever about what to study for university. Registered for the May SAT and planning to take SAT subject tests in June if possible. Sigh. UK or US?? And WHAT to study? :S I'm going on a UK uni tour in mid-March, so hopefully I'll get some inspiration...

I chose to do a Maths Extended Essay. Perhaps in the field of spherical trigonometry. I still don't know what exactly to research on. But first, I guess I have to self-teach the fundamentals of spherical trig since it's not covered in the IB Maths HL syllabus...

That's about the highlights of my life now.

The Enchanting Twilight

Labels: Fasnacht, IB subjects, Korean dramas

Whoo, time passes by so quickly... CNY and Fasnacht are all over, and school's starting next week. :/

This year's CNY was white and snowy, no noise, no firecrackers, no yummy goodies. :( We had our normal 'reunion dinner' which was no big deal, just like any other dinner. But well, I succeeded in making my own pineapple tarts! :D So in a way, I did have some goodies. Plus my parents went back to Singapore and Malaysia and got some goodies back, like love letters, but no bakkwa. :( And my relatives didn't forget about me; I still got my annual hongbaos. :D In ringgits. :P

Fasnacht was pretty fun, viewing it for the 1st time in my life! I went for Morgenstreich (Morning parade) at 4am on 22 Feb in Basel town centre. People dress up in thick weird costumes and wear crazily huge masks and go marching the streets in cliques and lanterns while playing the piccolo or drums. Quite cool. It was cold, standing out for about 2 hours, watching the whole procession. Then on 23 Feb there was the Lantern Exhibition, where all the lanterns are stationed at one spot in town so people can take a look at the really detailed designs/drawings and slogans. So sad I don't understand Swiss-German, if not I'll be able to understand the jokes in the slogans... 24 Feb was the last day of this event and my sis and I went to town to watch the wagon procession. The people in the wagon threw out oranges, bananas, apples, flowers, toys etc to the crowd, so my sis and I were like waving madly at them and "begging" for goodies. Haha, it was really an experience because we never really begged before. :P Oh, and random people run up to you and stuff confetti into your hood and jacket. My sis got stuffed more as she's an easier target... ;P Mostly the "attackers" are children, so they're kind of short, but if the adults do it, it gets pretty violent. Haha. You can't see who's doing it because they have their mask and costume on. In the end when I returned home, I had to shake out all the confetti on my clothes and in my bag and jacket. :/

Oh yeah and for Semester 1 I got a GPA of 6.88 out of 7.00. Sigh I COULD HAVE gotten 7. Silly PE. More precisely, it's soccer which pulled my score down. Oh well, AIMING FOR 7.00 FOR SEMESTER 2! :D

The Enchanting Twilight

Labels: CNY, Fasnacht