Saturday, November 4, 2017
Dinner at istana
Wednesday, August 16, 2017
Thursday, July 13, 2017
Nathanael at 2
- Scene: mimi was washing the veg and scaling the fish when Nathanael pulled his little stool to the kitchen sink and stood next to her.
- Nathanael at 2 yrs: "Mimi, why the fish has no legs?"
- Mimi : (shocked to hear this question) stared at him and tried hard to figure answer. "That's how they are made. God gave them a tail to swim in water."
Tuesday, May 2, 2017
Guangzhou
Monday, April 24, 2017
Read this when you feel dejected
Wednesday, April 19, 2017
Nathanael at 2
Saturday, April 15, 2017
Wednesday, April 12, 2017
Ivy league university application
Nohttp://afterschool.my/news/72793-2/
Read the Essay that got a Malaysian-Born Girl Accepted Into All 8 Ivy League Universities
April 7, 2017
A 17-year-old girl by the name of Cassandra Hsiao, achieved the incredible feat of being accepted into all eight Ivy League schools.
Hsiao, who resides in Walnut, South California, has offers from Harvard, Princeton, Yale, Dartmouth, Brown, Columbia, Cornell and Penn, leaving her with arguably the most pleasant headache of her life, as she decides which world-class institution she wants to join as part of the class of 2021.
Hsiao immigrated from Malaysia at just 5 years old. She’s a first-generation immigrant, and while her resume was impressive beyond all measure, it was her essay about learning English that impressed the universities.
Speaking of her impressive resume, her GPA stands at 4.67, while she scored 1540 on her SATs. But her impressive resume somehow gets even better the longer you go on. She’s one of two student body presidents, an editor-in-chief of the school’s magazine and active in her community.
Not satisfied being just good with the books, Hsiao has conducted on-camera interviews on red carpets at film festivals, media screenings and press conferences. She’s even interviewed Captain America himself, Chris Evans!
In addition to being accepted to all Ivy League schools, she was also accepted to Stanford University, John Hopkins University, University of Southern California, Northwestern University, New York University, Amherst College and many others in the UC system.
As promised, here is the much talked about essay that helped Cassandra Hsiao pull of this truly incredible feat.
In our house, English is not English. Not in the phonetic sense, like short a is for apple, but rather in the pronunciation – in our house, snake is snack. Words do not roll off our tongues correctly – yet I, who was pulled out of class to meet with language specialists, and my mother from Malaysia, who pronounces film as flim, understand each other perfectly.
In our house, there is no difference between cast and cash, which was why at a church retreat, people made fun of me for “cashing out demons.” I did not realize the glaring difference between the two Englishes until my teacher corrected my pronunciations of hammock, ladle, and siphon. Classmates laughed because I pronounce accept as except, success as sussess. I was in the Creative Writing conservatory, and yet words failed me when I needed them most.
Suddenly, understanding flower is flour wasn’t enough. I rejected the English that had never seemed broken before, a language that had raised me and taught me everything I knew. Everybody else’s parents spoke with accents smarting of Ph.D.s and university teaching positions. So why couldn’t mine?
My mother spread her sunbaked hands and said, “This is where I came from,” spinning a tale with the English she had taught herself.
When my mother moved from her village to a town in Malaysia, she had to learn a brand new language in middle school: English. In a time when humiliation was encouraged, my mother was defenseless against the cruel words spewing from the teacher, who criticized her paper in front of the class. When she began to cry, the class president stood up and said, “That’s enough.”
“Be like that class president,” my mother said with tears in her eyes. The class president took her under her wing and patiently mended my mother’s strands of language. “She stood up for the weak and used her words to fight back.”
We were both crying now. My mother asked me to teach her proper English so old white ladies at Target wouldn’t laugh at her pronunciation. It has not been easy. There is a measure of guilt when I sew her letters together. Long vowels, double consonants — I am still learning myself. Sometimes I let the brokenness slide to spare her pride but perhaps I have hurt her more to spare mine.
As my mother’s vocabulary began to grow, I mended my own English. Through performing poetry in front of 3000 at my school’s Season Finale event, interviewing people from all walks of life, and writing stories for the stage, I stand against ignorance and become a voice for the homeless, the refugees, the ignored. With my words I fight against jeers pelted at an old Asian street performer on a New York subway. My mother’s eyes are reflected in underprivileged ESL children who have so many stories to tell but do not know how. I fill them with words as they take needle and thread to make a tapestry.
In our house, there is beauty in the way we speak to each other. In our house, language is not broken but rather bursting with emotion. We have built a house out of words. There are friendly snakes in the cupboard and snacks in the tank. It is a crooked house. It is a little messy. But this is where we have made our home.
Wednesday, March 29, 2017
Supee bb
The wonderful things about little 2s are starting to sprout now that he had officially turned 2. It started off with his wardrobe. The littlest one is so close
Monday, March 20, 2017
Time at the beach
Never been a beach fan but since we are all having cough, I thought it's most appropriate if we were to make our way to East Coast to end of the school holidays on the high. Had a whale of a TimE with them. Nathan the curious beaver has been trying to dig into breathing holes left by crabs and brought an entire bucket of rocks home! Jie Jie who is a mermaid fan brought home a full collection of seashells! Everyone enjoyed the beach except for supee bb who disliked the waves and feel of the sand. Fortunately he wore boots.. else I had to keep carrying him as he refused to step on the sand!
Sunday, March 19, 2017
Piano lessons
From Ms Yoan
"Nat's mummy, look at this picture.. I manage to take during Jie Jie last part of piano lesson, she was playing the Sakura's song as performance n the boys became the audiences.. so cute 😄😄"
The kids were amazing! Learning at their own pace and enjoying the session!
I recalled when teacher Yoan first came to our place. The little ones were rather territorial! Supee baby didn't allow her to touch the piano and has been observing her like a little hawk. Whereas now, he would run to the kitchen, help himself to a packet drink to pass to Ms Yoan without consulting mimi or gongong. This cutie will take the drink and pass it to ms Yoan telling her "teacher, give. Drink!".. then he would run to the kitchen again and help himself to a packet lol! Such a smart bb. When kor kor started his individual lesson, he would pushow his little chair next to the teacher and said "Learn piano".. soon he realised that his seat is way too low and can't see anything. He would Stand on the chair.. climb up to teacher's lap and instruct her "play". Teacher was shocked but amazed at his zeal to learn! From hitting the teacher to sitting on her lap, this constituted a huge transformation! You never know what your babies are thinking and making sure they develop self confidence is key! All this happened when he was 1 plus.. amazing little boy!!
Supee baby
Gong gong made a special cake for super baby! Guess what are the ingredients? Bread and Nutella! It's so beautifully made that we can't tell it's bread in it!!
Super baby has been allergic to eggs and it's difficult to source for egg-less cakes... so gong gong decided to take it upon himself to make a super special cake for this super special baby! The taste was very good and super baby kept asking for more, saying "yummy yummy! More please."
He is good with speech under the tutelage of his siblings! Amazing how much he can absorb at such a tender age! He could say so many words on his own and use them with the right expression! This amazing baby never fails to amaze me I am so privileged to have all my babies with me! And having such a strongly knitted family! Love you guys so much!!