Church Bulletins

I got one of those lame chain mail messages and flipped through it (figuratively, of course) because it was from my mum. Not bad...

"They're Back! Church Bulletins:

The Fasting & Prayer Conference includes meals.

The sermon this morning: "Jesus walks on the Water." The sermon tonight: "Searching for Jesus."

Our youth basketball team is back in action Wednesday at 8 PM in the recreation hall. Come out and watch us kill Christ the King.

Ladies, don't forget the rummage sale. It's a chance to get rid of those things not worth keeping around the house. Bring your husbands.

The peacemaking meeting scheduled for today has been cancelled due to a conflict.

Remember in prayer the many who are sick of our community. Smile at someone who is hard to love. Say "Hell" to someone who doesn't care much about you.

Don't let worry kill you off - let the Church help.

Miss Charlene Mason sang "I will not pass this way again," giving obvious pleasure to the congregation.

For those of you who have children and don't know it, we have a nursery down stairs.

Next Thursday there will be tryouts for the choir. They need all the help they can get.

The Rector will preach his farewell message after which the choir will sing: "Break Forth Into Joy."

Irving Benson and Jessie Carter were married on October 24 in the church. So ends a friendship that began in their school days.

At the evening service tonight, the sermon topic will be "What Is Hell?" Come early and listen to our choir practice.

Eight new choir robes are currently needed due to the addition of several new members and to the deterioration of some older ones.

Scouts are saving aluminum cans, bottles and other items to be recycled. Proceeds will be used to cripple children.

Please place your donation in the envelope along with the deceased person you want remembered.

The church will host an evening of fine dining, super entertainment and gracious hostility.

Potluck supper Sunday at 5:00 PM - prayer and medication to follow

Ladies Bible Study will be held Thursday morning at 10 AM. All ladies are invited to lunch in the Fellowship Hall after the B. S. is done.

The pastor would appreciate it if the ladies of the congregation would lend him their electric girdles for the pancake breakfast next Sunday.

The Low Self Esteem Support Group will meet Thursday at 7 PM. Please use the back door.

The eighth-graders will be presenting Shakespeare's Hamlet in the Church basement Friday at 7 PM. The congregation is invited to attend this tragedy.

Weight Watchers will meet at 7 PM at the First Presbyterian Church. Please use large double door at the side entrance.

The Associate Minister unveiled the church's new tithing campaign slogan last Sunday: "I Upped My Pledge - Up Yours" . "

My day was all right. A lot of planning, etc. This past week has been pretty low key, but tomorrow is a big meeting, so maybe things will start to roll for next week. I also get to attend a business seminar from Monday-Wednesday! I'm really excited!! If you noticed the picture of the durian, that is in front of the Carlton Hotel in Sg, which is where the class is to be held.

Take care baby!

Te quiero un poquito,

Sansies

Obama's Perspective on Learning Spanish

I watched a clip of the news talking about Obama talking about having American kids learning Spanish. He said that the immigrants coming in will learn how to speak English, but American kids should try to learn Spanish too.

Critics are trying to push through legislature that would make English the national language of the USA. They also say that it is hypocritical and that America is the most multilingual country in the world (due to the amount of immigrants that come).

1. I think that learning another language makes you more aware of the world.
   
1. Thus, I agree that learning a second language (or third/fourth) should be encouraged in all schools
2. I disagree that only Spanish should be encouraged (it is the only one that Obama mentioned). I think that the greater the diversity offered to the student population, the better.
2. I think that making English the national language of the USA is a waste of taxpayers' money. We should focus on more important things, like legislature concerning improving the overall education system, improving the American economy, etc.
3. I find it incredibly narrow-minded that people say that we should not push for learning new languages because we already have so many languages spoken in the USA.
1. Just because someone speaks Polish in a certain part of the country does not mean that all students throughout the US have been exposed to Polish.
4. Learning another language opens the door for you. You learn the language, but you can also learn about different cultures - what they love, what they hate, what they adore, what they fear. You learn about different traditions. You see different styles of cooking, clothing, and friendship. Learning about a different culture, in hindsight, was a blessing for me.
   
1. I have studied Spanish, French, and Latin. I have dabbled into Korean and Italian. I live in Singapore now. I don't feel like I know any other language as well as I know English, but at least I have exposed to various cultures.
2. Moving all the way from Indiana to Singapore has been a life-changing experience for me. Yes, I am a bit lame in moving to another English-speaking country, but hey! It's something at least.

All in all:

• learning a second language should be encouraged in all schools, but there should be more options than one (Spanish)
• pushing legislature that would make English the national language is outdated and incredibly narrow-minded. It also is a waste of money. Let's put it this way: if you want to go anywhere in the USA and/or beyond, it would be wise to speak English. If you want to stay in your little non-English-speaking community (besides speaking English in school), so BE IT. AMEN.
• The USA has many languages, but using this as a reason why to not push learning another language in school is absolutely illogical and pathetic.

I had a good day today, even if my face just popped a bazillionousity.

hi my name is so-and-so

Friday was low key. I don't know why I was so tired after work (especially from sleeping so well on Thursday) but I just went home and slept early.

Saturday was a nice and cloudy day (but with a few breezes which were appreciated). I went on the MRT to City Hall, which is right next to a mall (and bought some Aldo shoes to match the black/blue dress that I bought).

By the way, Baby, you called me today! I was a happy goon but I was, as you know, headed towards a meeting, so I couldn't talk to you. Sorries baby. You better call me later!

So then I went to the Art Museum. I uploaded all the pictures onto the facebook/picasa (including a pictures of some friends haha) that I managed to take before being told that photography was prohibited. I did write down a few names of some of the artists that I really liked from the "Post Doi Moi" (Doi Moi I'm pretty sure is for "change" "new") where various Vietnamese artists painted - some had political themes, other had historical/family themes. One that I thought was interesting was four vietnamese women in their own respective panels representing hear no evil, see no evil, speak no evil - and a fourth - think no evil. But the artist said something along the lines of: to be happy, don't look too much, don't talk too much, don't
listen too much and don't think too much. I will put up some of the pictures later.

Then Saturday night I went to a friend's place (who is from Brooklyn) to eat some dinner and watch some movies. I bought some Mrs. Field's mini cookies (in the shape of reese's cups) along. We ate hamburgers and hot dogs as well as chips. I love seaweed crackers. LOVE. I think I love them more than sesame breadsticks (gasP!). And there are these 'veggie sticks' that are bbq flavored - SO DELICIOUS. SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO DELICIOUS!!!

Sunday's plan was to go wakeboarding, but everyone was too tired from Saturday night, so I ended up meeting a friend to play some pool. After looking around Boat Quay for a place to play, we ended up walking around Dhoby Ghaut for some Chicken Briyani (which was nice) and somehow saw a sign for the toy museum. One of my friends told me that he went to a toy museum, so I decided to go and check it out. Yeah...lots of pictures on Facebook/Picasa.

After the toy museum, we actually went to meet up another friend play pool on Orchard Rd. I was pooped though!! Then we went to this guy's condo to swim for a bit and eat homemade spaghetti. I miss fettucine alfredo a lot :(. We just had a show and tell session of youtube. I showed some of my friends America's Best Dance Crew (2) and Muto. You have to check out Muto. It's a little disturbing, but the amount of time, effort, and art that went into it makes it amazing.

I did a back tuck into the pool and two aerials. My first aerial wasn't so great (ouch) but the second one I did much better. The tuck was fine, but let's see if I end up going to Dubai anytime soon. If I won't, then I won't go sign up for a gymnastics open gymmy thing on Thursday nights. The first one was for stretching anyways). I did some jumps, but I'm starting to do some yoga stretches (from youtube), so hopefully by the end of august I will be back in a flexible condition then. Toe touch was all right and r herkie were ok, but the pike was awesome. I was really happy with my pike for some reason - maybe because you feel more secure doing it into a pool. I didn't try an around the world just because I probably would have severely injured myself. I still hate the double nine. STUPID DOUBLE NINE!

I was exhausted when I came home, and after a long meeting today, I am at home and about to nap after uploading the pics on FB.

Love, sansies

Ciara: Get Up

Garlic naan is my secret love.

Well today I found out something super important. I had coffee today for a coworker's birthday (and a too-buttery chocolate cake that I couldn't finish), and now I know for sure that I am allergic to coffee. I guess this is a good thing because I really never want to become dependent on coffee for energy anyways. I like to think that my 'highness' on life is sufficient to keep me moving day to day! Huzzah! (I have recently picked up this word and over use it. Don't worry...it's just a phase).

So Tuesday was uneventful, but Wednesday after work I went to Little India to meet up with some friends at Amber Restaurant on Serangoon Rd. I also discovered a food critic site: http://yum.sg, so I plan to write in there quite often so that I can keep track of my own past meals. :D The restaurant was quite good - except for the MSG which I felt the next day. :p Asia = monosodium glutamate. People! I don't care if Glu is an amino acid. This one modification totally messes with me.

So I ate a lot of Garlic Naan, which is sort of a nice fluffy breadstick-like bread that was slathered in garlic (my personal heaven, of course) with a bunch of things like chicken, lentils, mutton (the way they pronounce mutton here cracks me up), and other vege-tables that I don't want to think about (being the best carnivorous person ever).

So delicious food - honestly, I think it's better than Samy's Curry House on Dempsey Rd (but the price works out about the same). I'm just throwing a bunch of names at you, but just for memory's sake.

I was totally going to try to do some yoga tonight, but I already am starting to feel the allergy medicine kicking in. Whooo...it's so weird to be allergic to coffee. I know that you say it's to be expected, but when I was at PU with all the Starbucks gift card, I was quite well known for always carrying a cup of coffee into mi clase de espanol. Tu sabes.

And I also met a bunch of americanos ayer durante la cena. It was so nice to hear the american accent because I can totally tell that I'm starting to slip slip slip into this Chinese accent. Mom even told me that she could hear it in my viet accent oh MAN! I think Co7 too. Wow I am lazy. I also talk to chi trang today.

So yep! Today I bought a bunch of groceries for the house (a lot of shin ramyun ^_^ and longan). I also bought a bunch of hangers, but I don't know where to hang them...my closet is sort of full...already. yes. oh well.

One of my guy friends asked me why I did not iron my dress. I think this is one of those wake up calls for me to start ironing in the morning or at least, sometime when I can do a bunch at one time. Maybe this weekend. I am also trying to clean up the studio, but my desk itself is an array of cosmetics and paper and blah.

So I'm working on that right now. Sort of. and talking to you of course. Ok well I'm off for now I suppose because there isn't much else to say. Tomorrow, unless something comes up, I'm goign to be awesome and try to do some yoga, maybe work on a few of my home projects (organizing my iTunes, saying how I know people on Facebook, and working on Wheelock).

Love,
Sansipu

best weekend yet!

...and hopefully more like this to come!

Thursday: After working, I went to Orchard Rd. to do a little more shopping and found some clothing for work. I was debating whether to get a Marc by MJ travel wallet because everything right now is 50% off, but it isn't something I need, so I ended up not getting it. Poor D because he had to wait for about an hour in Zara, but it was so worth it because I got great deals, etc. :D Then we went to Chatterbox, which used to be a rotating restaurant, but it wasn't rotating then. The view of the city was so nice - and while he ordered the Chicken Rice (which really was amazing), I ordered the Lobster Laksa. The restaurant is incredibly overpriced, BUT the scenery was worth it for just a nice dinner. I love looking down at the city - really! It was the 39th floor and lit up at night. So lovely. Afterwards I just met up with a few friends at the mrt station and then we all went home together. Haha.

Friday night...I was at a company cocktail (sipping on some white wine) and talking to the shipyard company at Harbourfront. The office was so nice! I got a little goodie bag and ran off to Esplanade (but I came too late and was turned away even though I had tickets). Then I was totally bummed out and went to Orchard for a little bit, met a friend at Wisma, and we went to East Coast Lagoon (?), which is the nicest hawker center (centre -_-) I've seen so far. It is one of the touristy places to go, so it's also one of the most expensive of the HC's. There also is a manmade lagoon (which is no bigger than our pond at home) where people can 'water ski' being pulled by a cable in circles. Blag! I mean, it seems like fun, but I think the real thing should be much better. Perhaps I will introduce Tubing here since I had so much fun (and embarrassment! :p) the last time at RM's lake house. Then we made plans to go to Sentosa! hooray!

Saturday: woke up super early (630) and got ready to go to SILOSO beach again (at Sentonsa). Swam around a bit, played in the sand a bit, and threw the frisbee around in the water (after waiting for the grocery store to open to buy some fruits, drinks, etc.). It was just nice to relax with a few friends, and I did get a tad sunburned. I have been using Darphin Soothing Gel, and let me tell you. This baby works miracles. I think my sunburn on my face, within 24 hours of developing the sunburn, is practically non-existent. Saturday night I went to Dempsey Rd: Samy's Curry House where I ate delicious Indian food (duh) for PT's farewell dinner. Afterwards I went to go see the latest installment of Batman (The Dark Knight), which was incredibly dark for me. Because I'm not much of a movie person, this one really disturbed me probably due to the psychological factor that I recognized in Joker and the tactics he used. I wish I was still in my Criminal Psych class for this movie! Especially with H. Ledger after this film.

Sunday: Woke up and went to Suntec City to help KF out at this Educational Convention thingy. We were representing Purdue along with four other people, and we would just answer questions from potential applicants. It was cake, but it did drag a little bit. Right before I went into it, I had the best Pho I've had here in Sg. I mean, they say that it is cooked for at least 10 hours with all the right ingredients (but the one at home is, of course, much better) with homemade pho (noodles), but considering that I don't get to eat it very often, I suppose going all the way to Suntec City will become a monthly thing unless I find a better place (like Pho 69, which I have yet to locate along Amoy St. as Fpoo tells me. Sunday night I went out again with PT (as this is the 2nd farewell dinner) at Geylang (big difference from Dempsey :P!) and had beef kway teo and all these other dishes...but the beef kway teo was saturated in msg (my lips....well baby you know). I made some new friends (including Americans!), which is really good. After dinner, K and I went to the fruit stand to buy some mangosteen, durian (bleck), and .....rrruuuuuummmm something. It's sort of like lychee (which apparently is not pronounced 'lee-chee' but 'lie-chee' here) but with a pink, prickly outer coating. I am secretly in love with mangosteen WOW so GOOD! Everyone was trying to get me to try the stinky stinky durian, but I just CANNOT. I was like......are you pressuring me? HAHA Then Y looked back and was like.....um no! So funny.

Oh yes! I met S last night, who I met a Zouk with CN, so it was like my two groups of friends coming into a circle. It was crazy!! Seriously, I was so surprised. I know Sg is little, but I don't have enough friends for that to happen. Even so, ameropat asked me how I like Sg, and I told him that it keeps getting better with the more people I meet. I think this is a fair answer.

Singapore gets better as I meet more people. And I am still sunburned.

Love,
Sans