I was too lazy to go back to my previous adulthood post, but there were some stuff in there that I forgot to mention.
The reason why I was looking at the scholarship in the first place, was partly to do with me looking at overseas universities. Initially, I was interested in Durham and UBC after some of their people came to introduce the universities to us. It all sounded very fun and exciting, and a sort-of Plan B. When my mum knew, she was upset about it, saying that none of my siblings have done their undergraduate studies overseas, and money. And honestly, I don't know why money is a problem, considering how things are going. Even if I were to pursue the issue and these things weren't a problem, I still have to stay for my braces.
Also, if I am serious about journalism, wouldn't it be smart for me to apply for a journalism scholarship anyway? Even if there were a bond to serve regardless of where I went, I would have a job for at least a couple of years. However, when I went to the scholarship talk session, I didn't realise that the admission process involved an internship. It makes sense: you'd want to at least see if the people you're investing money in, can actually do a decent job as a journalist, even if they cover small stories. Frankly, that portion of the admission process deterred and frightened me, because uh, hello, socially awkward person here. I mean I guess I'm not as bad as the term implies, but it's definitely not the first thing I'd jump at. (Wow, all the more reason for me not to become a journalist, huh...)
That aside, I realised that I didn't really need it - at least, not right now. After the little meeting with my dad's professor-friend at the laboratory, my dad said that if I'm staying here, I don't really need a scholarship. I mean I still could go if I want the internship experience, and that's not a bad thing (apart from maybe, cutting short my time at the labs since the journalism internship is around March). I even forgot that the scholarship isn't limited to undergraduates, until my dad reminded me. when I got home, I realised a possible course of action.
If I didn't take the scholarship opportunity now, I could even do it while in university, or after as a graduate. That would give me more time to seriously consider journalism, and if I still want to go overseas to pursue a degree in scientific journalism, then all the more reason to have a journalism scholarship fund that. Even better, I'd have a job right after for a longer period of time ouo
I know it's not a big deal, but I thought that it was still good for me to write down the thoughts I've had and keep them together in one place.
Saturday, 19 December 2015
Braces: Week 1
[At first I wanted to do this as a day-by-day recount, but then I didn't have enough time to finish writing everything, so I'm just gonna have to do it in one shot, but a couple of sittings lol]
Man, so much has happened this week, huh? I think about a month ago, I scared myself into thinking I have some serious teeth problem, where the gum recedes and teeth become increasingly exposed, partly due to overcrowding of teeth. And sometimes I could feel my teeth shift, like it would move forward a little if I pressed my tongue against it. I freaked myself so badly that I cried and seriously considered needing braces. My initial reason for not wanting braces, was because the idea was introduced to me in the form of "looking better/prettier/etc" which I thought wasn't the purpose of braces, and wasn't what I would want them for. Neither did I want them just because everyone else did, like it was some cool fashion trend. Life is suffering as it already is.
I understood if people needed them for health reasons - and I suppose in some way, I'm doing it for that. When I visited the dentist, we had discussed what to do if I go through with getting braces. Also, apparently my wisdom teeth in my lower jaw were impacted, meaning they were going sideways against my existing teeth, so that was a problem that needed to be dealt with anyway. Everything seemed fine and dandy with me, even if it meant not eating proper solid food for Christmas. Past-Me apparently did not understand the concept of pain.
A consultation with a proper orthodontist was scheduled soon after. It was okay, just that it felt really weird when they took pictures of my teeth, with a warm mirror shoved into my small mouth, and molds taken of my pre-braces teeth. I was told it would taste funny, but it wasn't as bad as I expected, to be honest. [We interrupt this blog post for a news bulletin: as I was writing this, [on Wednesday] I tasted blood at the back of my mouth, and apparently I started bleeding. I went down to my parents' room, and my mum said that it's just raw gum that was scraped a little and started bleeding. It's nothing serious, thank God, but still kinda terrifying if you don't know what's going on. Anyway, I hope it stops soon ono]
I forgot where I left off, lol
My oral surgery was scheduled for the later half of December, but it was later shifted to last Monday, the 14th, which was just as well, since I had to sing the psalm the day before. I was stuffed full on Sunday since my surgery was first thing in the morning. There was fasting 4 hours prior to the surgery, to prevent any vomit or gagging during it. But I was surprised I couldn't even drink water. The surgery itself was pretty quick - or at least, it felt so. I remember reclining back in the dentist chair, had some of those operation, green-outfit-things put over my clothes and my hair. I was knocked out by sedation, not general anesthesia, so I was poked in a vein in my hand. The last four things I remember saying was "this wasn't the first time, being poked in my hand. My mum had to take a blood test, but I didn't have any good veins in my arm" and "I can really feel it" when things seems to move slowly when I tried looking around a bit. I was knocked out for an hour, but it felt like ten minutes, and the sleep didn't even feel that deep. Amazing.
When I woke up, I remember the nurse showing me the teeth that were extracted, and she asked if I wanted to keep them. I didn't really see the point in that, so they just threw them away lol I threw away my baby teeth quite awhile too anyway. (Yeah, I kept them in a little ziploc bag for quite a long time) Before the operation, my mum told me to just go home and sleep since the anesthetic was gonna be in effect for quite some time. I was still pretty conscious during the ride home, but I couldn't really feel my lower jaw. Like when I pressed on my lips, chin, and jaw, it felt all puffy, which was kinda funny. The picture of me on the first day isn't as funny as my swelling on the second day though.
I got home in one piece. I went upstairs to change my clothes, and then came back down so that my dad could change my gauze. I couldn't do it myself since, one: I didn't know where the extractions were (I couldn't feel it in my mouth LOL) and two: I can't do it myself. I was standing up as he shone a small torchlight into my mouth, and I remember my vision going fuzzy for awhile. At first I thought nothing of it 'cos I've had them before and nothing bad happened - but the next thing I knew, I heard my dad calling for my maid pretty loudly and desperately. It felt so surreal because it felt as though I was half asleep. It was only once I was laid down on the sofa that I realised what happened. This was the first time I passed out ouo
I suppose my fainting spell wasn't very serious since I was still conscious of what was happening. I was laid down on my side, and felt my legs were raised by a pillow, and soon fell asleep again. Me fainting was probably due to the anesthetic and me not having anything to eat. As I slept, I could feel myself biting on the gauze on and off, until I felt my shoulder get wet. I was drooling saliva and blood. My dad changed my gauze again, and I was laid down to sleep once more. At least it wasn't anything serious. My dad said it was just "old blood", and I figured that since I have no control over my lower jaw, I can't keep my drool in. That was later confirmed when my maid tried to give me some liquid paracetamol, and since my lower jaw wasn't functioning, I couldn't drink any of it. It just kinda came out with more bloody saliva onto my shirt. Not a pretty sight, I tell you. At some point nearer dinner, I could swallow at least a little, and good thing too, because I think I started getting a fever at some point.
And if it wasn't pain, it were fevers. I remember taking paracetamol at 12, waking up that night at 2, and woke up again at 4 with a fever. I took the paracetamol again, when actually it was only supposed to be taken every six hour lol orz Also I couldn't really taste anything, so drinking soups wasn't so bad. (It was only when I got my sense of taste back, that I found it sad to eat when food got cold and just tasted the same ono)
The second day wasn't as bad, I think. At least it wasn't as messy and embarrassing... My mum told me to take Panadol if there was any pain, and I was like "lol what pain am I supposed to feel". Considering I didn't feel any pain the day before (thanks, sedatives!), I had no idea what was in store for me. The swelling was the most that day, and I could barely open my mouth. The swelling was so severe, that the area right under my left ear felt numb and a little painful. It was pretty funny though, when I took pictures of my swollen cheeks and sent them to friends. At least I got some laughs out of that, and hey, I completely understand: whenever I go to the bathroom and catch myself in the mirror, I break out in silent laughter (since I can't laugh properly). It didn't occur to my mum either that I should have iced my swelling on the day of the operation, saying that my siblings' swelling wasn't that serious and went down pretty quick. It did help a little I guess, but might have been better if it were immediate.
I ate a lot more that day, too: banana smoothie for breakfast, mushroom soup for lunch, mashed papaya and honey, half a cup of ice-cream, mushroom soup (again), and mashed pears with more ice-cream. After awhile, eating starts becoming a chore, because not only does food get stuck in the sockets (the empty gaps between teeth), but jaw movements was still limited. Also it's sad to have to eat so slowly that food gets cold, and you still have to eat it.
Since I couldn't open my mouth very wide, I had to settle with rinsing my mouth with salt water. Unsurprisingly, it tasted like the sea (obviously). I thought it would hurt a lot, because salt and open wound, but it was okay. It did feel weird to not brush my teeth, and at least this kept my mouth a little cleaner. Only problem was, that when I closed and opened my mouth, my molars felt a little sticky. Dangit, plaque! When I first tried brushing my teeth on the third day, I could only manage my front teeth, but now, I can (very gently) brush my molars too (barely). Kids, brush your teeth regularly and thoroughly; you don't know how good it feels to have clean teeth.
Thursday and Friday were okay, nothing new, really. Apart from pain being more apparent. I don't know why, but my teeth hurt when I lied down, and it would take me a while to properly fall asleep. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night, needing a drink, since my mouth dried easily with me sleeping with my mouth open. Even now as I'm typing or doing anything else, I have my mouth open wider than usual.
I still can't eat much. I can bite with my incisors, but the chewing molars is where it's at. Like I know it's only my pre-molars that are gone, but it's really annoying to have food stuck in the sockets - and have a large ulcer on the underside of your tongue, at the front left corner. My dad kept asking me if I've been able to eat properly. No dad, sadly my dumb ulcerated tongue is in the way of that. Also I still have stitches, which will be there until the 29th.
Anyway, at least I'm well enough to go out. I hope Christmas meals will be specially catered for me, because I really don't want to have to painstakingly chew my food right now. I'm not being lazy, I just want to be really careful and not accidentally stab my closed wounds, or get food stuck at the back where my stitches are. Also biting is still not good when teeth are still kinda shaky. Most of the swelling has gone down, but pain at the jaw bone, both at the cheek and on the inside, is still there. Also ulcer. Ulcers are the bane of my existence. If you know me, I've complained about ulcers more than once. And oh my God, I'm not looking forward to braces because of the gosh diddly darn ulcers. ULCERS.
So, how is everybody else's Christmas holidays?
Man, so much has happened this week, huh? I think about a month ago, I scared myself into thinking I have some serious teeth problem, where the gum recedes and teeth become increasingly exposed, partly due to overcrowding of teeth. And sometimes I could feel my teeth shift, like it would move forward a little if I pressed my tongue against it. I freaked myself so badly that I cried and seriously considered needing braces. My initial reason for not wanting braces, was because the idea was introduced to me in the form of "looking better/prettier/etc" which I thought wasn't the purpose of braces, and wasn't what I would want them for. Neither did I want them just because everyone else did, like it was some cool fashion trend. Life is suffering as it already is.
I understood if people needed them for health reasons - and I suppose in some way, I'm doing it for that. When I visited the dentist, we had discussed what to do if I go through with getting braces. Also, apparently my wisdom teeth in my lower jaw were impacted, meaning they were going sideways against my existing teeth, so that was a problem that needed to be dealt with anyway. Everything seemed fine and dandy with me, even if it meant not eating proper solid food for Christmas. Past-Me apparently did not understand the concept of pain.
A consultation with a proper orthodontist was scheduled soon after. It was okay, just that it felt really weird when they took pictures of my teeth, with a warm mirror shoved into my small mouth, and molds taken of my pre-braces teeth. I was told it would taste funny, but it wasn't as bad as I expected, to be honest. [We interrupt this blog post for a news bulletin: as I was writing this, [on Wednesday] I tasted blood at the back of my mouth, and apparently I started bleeding. I went down to my parents' room, and my mum said that it's just raw gum that was scraped a little and started bleeding. It's nothing serious, thank God, but still kinda terrifying if you don't know what's going on. Anyway, I hope it stops soon ono]
I forgot where I left off, lol
My oral surgery was scheduled for the later half of December, but it was later shifted to last Monday, the 14th, which was just as well, since I had to sing the psalm the day before. I was stuffed full on Sunday since my surgery was first thing in the morning. There was fasting 4 hours prior to the surgery, to prevent any vomit or gagging during it. But I was surprised I couldn't even drink water. The surgery itself was pretty quick - or at least, it felt so. I remember reclining back in the dentist chair, had some of those operation, green-outfit-things put over my clothes and my hair. I was knocked out by sedation, not general anesthesia, so I was poked in a vein in my hand. The last four things I remember saying was "this wasn't the first time, being poked in my hand. My mum had to take a blood test, but I didn't have any good veins in my arm" and "I can really feel it" when things seems to move slowly when I tried looking around a bit. I was knocked out for an hour, but it felt like ten minutes, and the sleep didn't even feel that deep. Amazing.
When I woke up, I remember the nurse showing me the teeth that were extracted, and she asked if I wanted to keep them. I didn't really see the point in that, so they just threw them away lol I threw away my baby teeth quite awhile too anyway. (Yeah, I kept them in a little ziploc bag for quite a long time) Before the operation, my mum told me to just go home and sleep since the anesthetic was gonna be in effect for quite some time. I was still pretty conscious during the ride home, but I couldn't really feel my lower jaw. Like when I pressed on my lips, chin, and jaw, it felt all puffy, which was kinda funny. The picture of me on the first day isn't as funny as my swelling on the second day though.
I got home in one piece. I went upstairs to change my clothes, and then came back down so that my dad could change my gauze. I couldn't do it myself since, one: I didn't know where the extractions were (I couldn't feel it in my mouth LOL) and two: I can't do it myself. I was standing up as he shone a small torchlight into my mouth, and I remember my vision going fuzzy for awhile. At first I thought nothing of it 'cos I've had them before and nothing bad happened - but the next thing I knew, I heard my dad calling for my maid pretty loudly and desperately. It felt so surreal because it felt as though I was half asleep. It was only once I was laid down on the sofa that I realised what happened. This was the first time I passed out ouo
I suppose my fainting spell wasn't very serious since I was still conscious of what was happening. I was laid down on my side, and felt my legs were raised by a pillow, and soon fell asleep again. Me fainting was probably due to the anesthetic and me not having anything to eat. As I slept, I could feel myself biting on the gauze on and off, until I felt my shoulder get wet. I was drooling saliva and blood. My dad changed my gauze again, and I was laid down to sleep once more. At least it wasn't anything serious. My dad said it was just "old blood", and I figured that since I have no control over my lower jaw, I can't keep my drool in. That was later confirmed when my maid tried to give me some liquid paracetamol, and since my lower jaw wasn't functioning, I couldn't drink any of it. It just kinda came out with more bloody saliva onto my shirt. Not a pretty sight, I tell you. At some point nearer dinner, I could swallow at least a little, and good thing too, because I think I started getting a fever at some point.
And if it wasn't pain, it were fevers. I remember taking paracetamol at 12, waking up that night at 2, and woke up again at 4 with a fever. I took the paracetamol again, when actually it was only supposed to be taken every six hour lol orz Also I couldn't really taste anything, so drinking soups wasn't so bad. (It was only when I got my sense of taste back, that I found it sad to eat when food got cold and just tasted the same ono)
The second day wasn't as bad, I think. At least it wasn't as messy and embarrassing... My mum told me to take Panadol if there was any pain, and I was like "lol what pain am I supposed to feel". Considering I didn't feel any pain the day before (thanks, sedatives!), I had no idea what was in store for me. The swelling was the most that day, and I could barely open my mouth. The swelling was so severe, that the area right under my left ear felt numb and a little painful. It was pretty funny though, when I took pictures of my swollen cheeks and sent them to friends. At least I got some laughs out of that, and hey, I completely understand: whenever I go to the bathroom and catch myself in the mirror, I break out in silent laughter (since I can't laugh properly). It didn't occur to my mum either that I should have iced my swelling on the day of the operation, saying that my siblings' swelling wasn't that serious and went down pretty quick. It did help a little I guess, but might have been better if it were immediate.
I ate a lot more that day, too: banana smoothie for breakfast, mushroom soup for lunch, mashed papaya and honey, half a cup of ice-cream, mushroom soup (again), and mashed pears with more ice-cream. After awhile, eating starts becoming a chore, because not only does food get stuck in the sockets (the empty gaps between teeth), but jaw movements was still limited. Also it's sad to have to eat so slowly that food gets cold, and you still have to eat it.
Since I couldn't open my mouth very wide, I had to settle with rinsing my mouth with salt water. Unsurprisingly, it tasted like the sea (obviously). I thought it would hurt a lot, because salt and open wound, but it was okay. It did feel weird to not brush my teeth, and at least this kept my mouth a little cleaner. Only problem was, that when I closed and opened my mouth, my molars felt a little sticky. Dangit, plaque! When I first tried brushing my teeth on the third day, I could only manage my front teeth, but now, I can (very gently) brush my molars too (barely). Kids, brush your teeth regularly and thoroughly; you don't know how good it feels to have clean teeth.
Thursday and Friday were okay, nothing new, really. Apart from pain being more apparent. I don't know why, but my teeth hurt when I lied down, and it would take me a while to properly fall asleep. Sometimes I would wake up in the middle of the night, needing a drink, since my mouth dried easily with me sleeping with my mouth open. Even now as I'm typing or doing anything else, I have my mouth open wider than usual.
I still can't eat much. I can bite with my incisors, but the chewing molars is where it's at. Like I know it's only my pre-molars that are gone, but it's really annoying to have food stuck in the sockets - and have a large ulcer on the underside of your tongue, at the front left corner. My dad kept asking me if I've been able to eat properly. No dad, sadly my dumb ulcerated tongue is in the way of that. Also I still have stitches, which will be there until the 29th.
Anyway, at least I'm well enough to go out. I hope Christmas meals will be specially catered for me, because I really don't want to have to painstakingly chew my food right now. I'm not being lazy, I just want to be really careful and not accidentally stab my closed wounds, or get food stuck at the back where my stitches are. Also biting is still not good when teeth are still kinda shaky. Most of the swelling has gone down, but pain at the jaw bone, both at the cheek and on the inside, is still there. Also ulcer. Ulcers are the bane of my existence. If you know me, I've complained about ulcers more than once. And oh my God, I'm not looking forward to braces because of the gosh diddly darn ulcers. ULCERS.
So, how is everybody else's Christmas holidays?
Wednesday, 16 December 2015
Adulthood: Part 2 & 3
Quite a couple of things happened last week, but I didn't really have the time to write it down, since I've been Christmas shopping with my mum and making gift tags for her. Also, I just recently got some teeth extracted, so sleeping and physically hurting has been taking up my time ;w;
On the 5th of December, there was a journalism scholarship talk I was gonna go for. Sadly, I had to go alone lol The only other person whom I knew was at least a little interested in journalism, was away for the holidays for a really long time, so I just had to make do and go by myself. Still, it was kinda cool to go by myself. I don't think I've ever gone out alone. If I do, it's usually to meet someone else, but this was kinda surreal and exciting in some way. (Don't judge me.)
The journey there wasn't so bad: there was a straight bus from my house; but you know me, I cam somehow mess up the smallest of things. I saw what I thought was my stop, but my reaction time was too slow to get up and alight. That turned out okay, because my actual stop was the one after it. And the same thing happened again. Okay, nevermind, I just need to get off at the next stop and walk back maybe! The bus went round a curve along a highway, before going back into residential area. I had to make do with stopping there, crossed over, and took the same bus back to the actual place. I guess it could have gone worse, but yeah, waste of time and worrying haha orz Anyway, I got to where I needed to be, asked where the talk was being held, and made my way to the place.
It was kinda daunting at first. The little foyer in front was empty, with a few staff on site. I wondered if that was the right place, and it was, when they ushered me into a small little hall with rows of seats. I didn't really pay much attention to my surroundings, I was too busy being nervous, as a lady told me to fill in the seats of the front row. Fair enough, until I realised I was visible, and in the line of sight of the speakers. Wow, okay they can see me, no biggie ;w;
A couple of videos of staff members and previous scholarship recipients played on loop, recounting their experiences and what it meant to be a journalist. There were two grammatical errors, and I couldn't believe it. ["A lot" isn't "alot" and it's not "adrenenline" omg] Most of the recounts by the scholars were of their experience covering small stories, that people wouldn't really know or care about. At first I thought that was kind of pointless, but then again that was what journalism is about: bringing stories to people so that they would care about such things. Later on, other questions popped into my head, like, "why am I here? Do I really want to do journalism?"
I thought I knew what journalism is. After watching "Kill The Messenger" about that journalist who exposed the truth behind the introduction of drugs into America, I knew that journalism is about bringing the truth to the people, and letting them come to their own conclusions. It's about educating the public, providing them with information from all perspectives and letting them decide for themselves. I suppose what they stressed in the talk was more about story-telling, which is important in it's own way, too. Additionally, they talked about how journalists tend to shift to different areas of journalism after a few years, which is kinda cool, but at the same time, not quite what I had imagined. My dad told me that what they look for in journalists, is an area of expertise. I'm pretty sure that if you cover politics or economics, you would need to understand all the jargon and terms before you translate them into something simpler and easier to understand for the general public. I should have taken the Q&A session to ask about scientific journalism, but I didn't know what exactly I wanted to ask ;w;
Anyway, after the whole session was some tea catered outside, and maybe I should have taken the opportunity to ask about application requirements, like whether I needed teacher references, and when was the closing date, but I got too scared. What made it worse was when I was thinking of getting some food (free, yey!) but then I two J1s caught my attention and gave me a general indication of recognition and I immediately nope'd out of there. I didn't want to stay around after that.
It was around 4, coming to 5, when I was at the bus stop. I could take the bus all the way back home, but I thought that since I was out, I might as well look for the Coldplay CD I wanted ;w; But, with the building being in the middle of almost nowhere except residences, it was hard to do so. I took a bus to a stop that I recognised near school, but didn't really know where to go from there. I ended up taking a bus to the place where I lost my EZ-link card, in the hopes of finding it. I had to walk across the overhead bridge with the sun setting, directly in my eyes, and since the bridge is pretty high up, it was blinding ono Once I got to the shopping centre, the bank was closed at 4.30. Had I gone earlier, I wouldn't have made it in time anyway. I just had to make my way home.
Wednesday was my next trial. My dad managed to schedule a meeting with one of his school friends who currently works in the laboratories at NUS, and he thought that if I'm doing biological/biomedical sciences, I should get a feel of real laboratory work first. Nothing went wrong during the meeting, I think it was pretty okay. There was even a little introduction and walk around the labs, which were a lot smaller and cluttered than I thought. My dad poked me to ask questions, which is still very awkward for me, when people are around LOL I don't know, I wasn't particularly inquisitive or curious (and how can I ever be a journalist like that, omg)
The most strenuous part about the whole thing though, wasn't the meeting, but the fact I had no socks on. My mum told me to wear something formal but comfortable - and anything with "formal" in them means, one of my black shoes. Those black shoes that haven't been broken in and are still stiff and uncomfortable. I would have been fine if I had my socks, but they weren't dry. So, I just had to settle with going sock-less. Bad idea.
My dad parked at his office nearby and said we could walk to the place. It was further than he expected. Then we almost got lost because the campus is so big, so he was concerned that I couldn't find my way home. (That was the initial plan see, he'd drop me off, and then let me go home by myself c:) While we were walking, my shoe kept popping off, which was really annoying and troublesome. I couldn't help but curse under my breath. I hope my dad didn't hear that, but he knew it was causing me trouble. When everything was over, he decided to take me to the train station and wait for him at one of the stations nearer where he parked the car, and then I could wait for him there to pick me up. In the end, that was okay c: (yey dad)
Well, that has been my journey so far. I guess you could include my oral surgery as part of this since that's pretty daunting on its own, but that's for another post. And maybe I shouldn't call these posts "adulthood", or specifically relate it to becoming an adult. I feel like that just makes it larger than it really is. I mean yes, it is in some way, part of my growth to become independent, but at the same time, I need to approach it from an angle in which I don't see it as troublesome or fearsome. I don't know, I'll figure it out when I'm in less pain right now.
Friday, 4 December 2015
Look Ma, I'm an Adult Now
-- LIKE YOU WANT ME TO BE.
I know it's weird to suddenly start using this blog again, but I really really need to write this down. This is going to be part of coming-of-age story and I need to document it. Okay, here we go.
On Tuesday, my first step towards actual, social, material adulthood (I guess I could call it that) was getting my first - you guessed it! - card. Awhile before that, my mum had asked me if I wanted a supplementary credit card, so you know, going plastic was going to be a thing in my life. So we went to the bank and got an account set up and everything.
There was a point in time when they needed my NRIC for the creation of an account, and I remembered my mum telling me to bring my EZ-link card. I assumed my mum wasn't going to bring my NRIC (because she wants me to be ~responsible, ooh~) so I did bring it. I was about to take it out when my mum had my NRIC anyway, so basically I didn't need to bring it.
Shaky start on my path to adulthood: I don't have a signature. The lady assisting us (or should I say, me; it's not my mum who needs this lol) left for awhile, and I told my mum I don't have a signature yet, and she was like, "then you just ask her what to do when she comes back!" And being any teenager who doesn't know how to socially interact and ask questions, this was a tall order for me. The lady came back and my mum was like "she has a question to ask you" and I'm just "uuuuuuuhhhh", because come on mum, what do you expect from me ;w; My mum asked for me anyway, so uh, that turned out okay I guess.
After all that was settled with, we went to get my glasses, did some grocery shopping, then went back home.
My mum passed me my cards (the debit one, my ibanking thing, and my NRIC) and told me to keep them properly. I was putting them in my wallet until I realised: I didn't have my EZ-link card. I was kinda chill about it, thinking that it was still in my pockets, so I checked them. It wasn't there either. Okay, not so chill now. I checked all four pockets, even another pair of shorts I remember wearing a day before; not there either. Now what. I freaked out most of Wednesday, not doing anything about it because hey, I don't want to get killed by my mum if she knew lol
I finally got round to telling my mum on Thursday, after we had a really short swim (it was about to rain), and I could tell she was a little upset. I mean I guess her reaction is to be expected, and I thought it would be worse, so uh, I guess that was okay. She told me things like, I should "get in the habit of bringing a bag around when I go out" (it was just a card, omg) and that I have to be more "responsible with cards" (mum pls) and my quest for the week: to call the places we went to, to find my EZ-link card.
I don't know what level this sort of quest would be. Calling up places is one of the more awkward things to do I think, when you're a teenager. I remember there was one point in time, when my sister was in JC, her then-boyfriend was calling up the bus depot, taxi, or cinema (I'm not sure which one) inquiring about time schedules, and she said that he sounded very "professional/posh/proper". Then there are anecdotes from other people on Tumblr about the Fearful Phone Calls that they have needed to make by themselves. Was this a real struggle? I mean I can understand why it would be, especially after being coddled and taken care of by parents.
Sometimes I wonder if my parents are to blame for my inability to talk to strangers or to ask for things. Maybe I would be okay with these things if they had taught me how to do it sooner. I remember the few times when I was left alone to wait for them, or go somewhere ahead without them, and sometimes it's terrifying when you're a kid. When I went for Sunday catechism classes, I had to reserve a pew for the rest of my family, and I used to get myself worked up when they hadn't come yet, because sometimes there'll be other parishioners who come and sit down in the same pew. And me being afraid to talk to them, wouldn't dare say it's for the rest of my family. (2 bad fam, u were l8 there4 no seat 4 u lol)
Another incident was rather recent, I went to cut my hair, and my mum wasn't allowed to sit in the salon and wait for me, so she went to walk around a bit I think. Halfway through my haircut, my mum came back saying to meet her at Taka - she expected me to get there on my own. Internally I was like MOM WHAT YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE ME HERE and I was irritated. Maybe it was partly because while we were in the car to the shopping mall, my mum told me not to cut my hair so short, and that the length I had was nice. But I like short hair, it's less troublesome and faster to dry and it's my hair :v So her leaving me to go find her after - expecting me to be independent - after she tried to direct me on how to cut my hair, was contradictory, it was annoying.
She texted me directions on how to get to Taka, and I tried. I got kinda lost, but I roughly knew where Taka was, so I was okay. Partly, I went around on my own out of spite, 'cos she said that I should "go explore" so I was thinking, "sure, I'll go explore if that's what you want." There was a point in time when I had change after paying for the haircut, and I was so tempted to put it all in a donation box - but I can't, because it's my mum's money, I knew that much.
The only troubling thing was that I took quite some time. At one point, while I was trying to orientate myself, she messaged me telling her when I'm done. And I thought "poop, what if I tell her I'm done and she comes back to the hairdresser's and find I'm not there" so it took me awhile to find her on my own lol So that was okay I guess.
Anyway, where was I going with that story? Oh right. I don't know if it would have been better if my parents had encouraged my independence earlier. I realised that in the beginning of JC1 (and a little till now) I'm afraid to ask if I can go out. It was okay if it was with friends, but I was terrified that my mum would say no if I asked if I could go out with The Boob. I'm afraid of asking for things like this, and even if people say "if you never ask, it's always a no!" I'd rather have a definitive "no" than the possibility of a "yes" to be taken away from me when it is an actual "no". lol anyway, that's enough of the slightly-recent past, now is time for the future.
Continuing on with Thursday, my mum passed me her car keys to search the car for it, and when I went downstairs to do so, the car wasn't there. Turns out my sister took the car out to go to work, and when I asked her to look for my EZ-link card, she said it wasn't there :I
So today, I tried calling up the places that we went to: the bank, the optician, and the supermarket. I had been delaying calling them during the day, by distracting myself with Harvest Moon (IloveitokayitmightbeaproblembutlookwhatI'mdoingnowLOL) and I thought that calling during lunch wouldn't be a good time 'cos they probably wouldn't be in then. This was a bit of a doozy, because the question was where to ask first. I searched online for the phone numbers, so I called the optician first.
Second blunder of my journey: messing up when the optician place picked up my call. I thought I was just going to jump straight into the call and everything I needed to say would be said! Nope. I struggled trying to get past the beginning of the call. It was just a bunch of drawn-out "uuuhhhs" before I could properly get a word out. It was really awkward, I felt like what I said wasn't as coherent as I intended it to be. Anyway, they didn't find my EZ-link card there. Oh well.
Next I tried the supermarket. There were two phone numbers I tried, and neither picked up. Welp.
Last was the bank. This one was kinda tricky and more of a wild ride, because none of the numbers I found online were specific to the branch I went to. Sigh. I actually tried the general number, but it's the usual, automated, "press __" response, so that was useless for me. Then it came to me: call the shopping mall! I found the phone number of the shopping mall (on their facebook page apparently?) to ask for the specific number of the branch, which thankfully, I managed to get! And guess what? The lady who answers the phone calls? She was on leave.
I called the information counter again, and it was the same old man who picked up lol I told him that it was me again, and that the lady he directed me to was on leave, so he went to search for another number. He dug up two handphone numbers, and I was like, wat. H-handphone numbers? He said they belonged to one of the higher-ups in the branch itself, and I think it's kinda questionable if you're able to find a number that goes straight to a person-in-charge - through public means.
Anyway, I tried calling both, both resulted in a voicemail thing, which is understandable, and gladly it didn't really work. That being said though, one of the voicemail thingies said that they worked at so-and-so bank, so I assumed that it was a phone number specifically for work. I tried calling, and I got through! The person though, was overseas. I asked them if they worked at so-and-so bank, and they directed me to the call center. So, I guess it turns out that Information Counter Man brought me too close to the contacts in the bank LOL
I tried calling the supermarket after this uh, encounter, and I had some success. The lady on the other line asked me about when I lost my EZ-link card, and which counter I was at, and a contact number in the case they find it. Hopefully it's there if it isn't anywhere else. Maybe I'll have to personally search the car, and if it isn't there, I'll have to go down to the bank at the shopping mall. At least I remember the first name of the lady advising us on the account, and which room that was in, so there might be some hope there! Only thing though, is that if it's not at the supermarket, I hope they didn't go through so much effort to find it for me ;w;
So yeah, that's my path towards adulthood for you. There were other things, like having to fix a date and time with one of my dad's colleagues, so that I can look around the labs and see what it's like to be a research scientist. That part was kinda scary for me as well because, well, contacting adults and me having to adult. What fun it is to not be the Dancing Queen anymore.
I know it's weird to suddenly start using this blog again, but I really really need to write this down. This is going to be part of coming-of-age story and I need to document it. Okay, here we go.
On Tuesday, my first step towards actual, social, material adulthood (I guess I could call it that) was getting my first - you guessed it! - card. Awhile before that, my mum had asked me if I wanted a supplementary credit card, so you know, going plastic was going to be a thing in my life. So we went to the bank and got an account set up and everything.
There was a point in time when they needed my NRIC for the creation of an account, and I remembered my mum telling me to bring my EZ-link card. I assumed my mum wasn't going to bring my NRIC (because she wants me to be ~responsible, ooh~) so I did bring it. I was about to take it out when my mum had my NRIC anyway, so basically I didn't need to bring it.
Shaky start on my path to adulthood: I don't have a signature. The lady assisting us (or should I say, me; it's not my mum who needs this lol) left for awhile, and I told my mum I don't have a signature yet, and she was like, "then you just ask her what to do when she comes back!" And being any teenager who doesn't know how to socially interact and ask questions, this was a tall order for me. The lady came back and my mum was like "she has a question to ask you" and I'm just "uuuuuuuhhhh", because come on mum, what do you expect from me ;w; My mum asked for me anyway, so uh, that turned out okay I guess.
After all that was settled with, we went to get my glasses, did some grocery shopping, then went back home.
My mum passed me my cards (the debit one, my ibanking thing, and my NRIC) and told me to keep them properly. I was putting them in my wallet until I realised: I didn't have my EZ-link card. I was kinda chill about it, thinking that it was still in my pockets, so I checked them. It wasn't there either. Okay, not so chill now. I checked all four pockets, even another pair of shorts I remember wearing a day before; not there either. Now what. I freaked out most of Wednesday, not doing anything about it because hey, I don't want to get killed by my mum if she knew lol
I finally got round to telling my mum on Thursday, after we had a really short swim (it was about to rain), and I could tell she was a little upset. I mean I guess her reaction is to be expected, and I thought it would be worse, so uh, I guess that was okay. She told me things like, I should "get in the habit of bringing a bag around when I go out" (it was just a card, omg) and that I have to be more "responsible with cards" (mum pls) and my quest for the week: to call the places we went to, to find my EZ-link card.
I don't know what level this sort of quest would be. Calling up places is one of the more awkward things to do I think, when you're a teenager. I remember there was one point in time, when my sister was in JC, her then-boyfriend was calling up the bus depot, taxi, or cinema (I'm not sure which one) inquiring about time schedules, and she said that he sounded very "professional/posh/proper". Then there are anecdotes from other people on Tumblr about the Fearful Phone Calls that they have needed to make by themselves. Was this a real struggle? I mean I can understand why it would be, especially after being coddled and taken care of by parents.
Sometimes I wonder if my parents are to blame for my inability to talk to strangers or to ask for things. Maybe I would be okay with these things if they had taught me how to do it sooner. I remember the few times when I was left alone to wait for them, or go somewhere ahead without them, and sometimes it's terrifying when you're a kid. When I went for Sunday catechism classes, I had to reserve a pew for the rest of my family, and I used to get myself worked up when they hadn't come yet, because sometimes there'll be other parishioners who come and sit down in the same pew. And me being afraid to talk to them, wouldn't dare say it's for the rest of my family. (2 bad fam, u were l8 there4 no seat 4 u lol)
Another incident was rather recent, I went to cut my hair, and my mum wasn't allowed to sit in the salon and wait for me, so she went to walk around a bit I think. Halfway through my haircut, my mum came back saying to meet her at Taka - she expected me to get there on my own. Internally I was like MOM WHAT YOU CAN'T JUST LEAVE ME HERE and I was irritated. Maybe it was partly because while we were in the car to the shopping mall, my mum told me not to cut my hair so short, and that the length I had was nice. But I like short hair, it's less troublesome and faster to dry and it's my hair :v So her leaving me to go find her after - expecting me to be independent - after she tried to direct me on how to cut my hair, was contradictory, it was annoying.
She texted me directions on how to get to Taka, and I tried. I got kinda lost, but I roughly knew where Taka was, so I was okay. Partly, I went around on my own out of spite, 'cos she said that I should "go explore" so I was thinking, "sure, I'll go explore if that's what you want." There was a point in time when I had change after paying for the haircut, and I was so tempted to put it all in a donation box - but I can't, because it's my mum's money, I knew that much.
The only troubling thing was that I took quite some time. At one point, while I was trying to orientate myself, she messaged me telling her when I'm done. And I thought "poop, what if I tell her I'm done and she comes back to the hairdresser's and find I'm not there" so it took me awhile to find her on my own lol So that was okay I guess.
Anyway, where was I going with that story? Oh right. I don't know if it would have been better if my parents had encouraged my independence earlier. I realised that in the beginning of JC1 (and a little till now) I'm afraid to ask if I can go out. It was okay if it was with friends, but I was terrified that my mum would say no if I asked if I could go out with The Boob. I'm afraid of asking for things like this, and even if people say "if you never ask, it's always a no!" I'd rather have a definitive "no" than the possibility of a "yes" to be taken away from me when it is an actual "no". lol anyway, that's enough of the slightly-recent past, now is time for the future.
Continuing on with Thursday, my mum passed me her car keys to search the car for it, and when I went downstairs to do so, the car wasn't there. Turns out my sister took the car out to go to work, and when I asked her to look for my EZ-link card, she said it wasn't there :I
So today, I tried calling up the places that we went to: the bank, the optician, and the supermarket. I had been delaying calling them during the day, by distracting myself with Harvest Moon (IloveitokayitmightbeaproblembutlookwhatI'mdoingnowLOL) and I thought that calling during lunch wouldn't be a good time 'cos they probably wouldn't be in then. This was a bit of a doozy, because the question was where to ask first. I searched online for the phone numbers, so I called the optician first.
Second blunder of my journey: messing up when the optician place picked up my call. I thought I was just going to jump straight into the call and everything I needed to say would be said! Nope. I struggled trying to get past the beginning of the call. It was just a bunch of drawn-out "uuuhhhs" before I could properly get a word out. It was really awkward, I felt like what I said wasn't as coherent as I intended it to be. Anyway, they didn't find my EZ-link card there. Oh well.
Next I tried the supermarket. There were two phone numbers I tried, and neither picked up. Welp.
Last was the bank. This one was kinda tricky and more of a wild ride, because none of the numbers I found online were specific to the branch I went to. Sigh. I actually tried the general number, but it's the usual, automated, "press __" response, so that was useless for me. Then it came to me: call the shopping mall! I found the phone number of the shopping mall (on their facebook page apparently?) to ask for the specific number of the branch, which thankfully, I managed to get! And guess what? The lady who answers the phone calls? She was on leave.
I called the information counter again, and it was the same old man who picked up lol I told him that it was me again, and that the lady he directed me to was on leave, so he went to search for another number. He dug up two handphone numbers, and I was like, wat. H-handphone numbers? He said they belonged to one of the higher-ups in the branch itself, and I think it's kinda questionable if you're able to find a number that goes straight to a person-in-charge - through public means.
Anyway, I tried calling both, both resulted in a voicemail thing, which is understandable, and gladly it didn't really work. That being said though, one of the voicemail thingies said that they worked at so-and-so bank, so I assumed that it was a phone number specifically for work. I tried calling, and I got through! The person though, was overseas. I asked them if they worked at so-and-so bank, and they directed me to the call center. So, I guess it turns out that Information Counter Man brought me too close to the contacts in the bank LOL
I tried calling the supermarket after this uh, encounter, and I had some success. The lady on the other line asked me about when I lost my EZ-link card, and which counter I was at, and a contact number in the case they find it. Hopefully it's there if it isn't anywhere else. Maybe I'll have to personally search the car, and if it isn't there, I'll have to go down to the bank at the shopping mall. At least I remember the first name of the lady advising us on the account, and which room that was in, so there might be some hope there! Only thing though, is that if it's not at the supermarket, I hope they didn't go through so much effort to find it for me ;w;
So yeah, that's my path towards adulthood for you. There were other things, like having to fix a date and time with one of my dad's colleagues, so that I can look around the labs and see what it's like to be a research scientist. That part was kinda scary for me as well because, well, contacting adults and me having to adult. What fun it is to not be the Dancing Queen anymore.
Saturday, 2 August 2014
Long Overdue: Austria Trip - Church Edition (Part 1)
yesyesyesyesyesyesyesyesyes IknowIknowIknowIknowIknowIknow this is loooooong overdue - but here it is now!!! The long-awaited post about my trip to Austria~!
Let me begin by saying that this trip, as a pilgrimage, had a slower pace (and more shopping) than the previous pilgrimages with my parish priest, according to the regulars who go for these trips. So although there seems to be more shopping-than-pilgrimage, this was purposely slowed down for the older folks, I think. Also, to make it easier for the usual people, considering that the other pilgrimages to France and Italy were way too packed, with all the rush of travelling up and down. We also did a couple of touristy stuff, like visiting the local attraction of Hallstaat, their salt mine, going to mount Titlis (lul) in Switzerland, and went Swarovski shopping. We even crossed borders: we went to Germany for less than a day to visit one of the churches, and went through Liechtenstein, saw two churches there, and then went to Switzerland to stay overnight. Ain't so Austrian after all! I also got a poop-ton of postcards and pictures of flowers, so I'll probably put those in a separate post.
Back to business though: unlike the previous pilgrimages, where they had booklets with all the information of the churches, this time round, we had to fill in our own booklets, so that people would actually pay attention instead of just taking pictures all the time lol. We also had sessions on most nights, where our parish priest would talk about certain things about Lyfe, which I'll probably put in another post as well.
Anyway, you wouldn't think of Austria being a country for pilgrimage journeys, compared to places like Italy, France, Israel, Jerusalem etc but Austria is quite a Catholic country, in the sense that most of the churches we went to were all relatively close by to one another. Compared to the other pilgrimages, it took them hours to reach the next cathedral or shrine. Not saying that those countries are any less Catholic, but just that I think it shows how strong the Austrians' faith is. We went during the time of Corpus Christi (celebrating the belief that the bread and wine during Eucharistic celebration in mass is the true body and blood of Christ) and the Austrians seem to take it quite seriously - but I'll explain more about that later.
So with that done, I'll start with the churches we went to! I think we missed one in Switzerland (St Francis Cathedral I think?) but apart from that, we covered quite a lot as well. Also forgive my horrible photography orz
Maria Zell
As it is with most of these churches, they didn't start out very fancy, and were simply little shrines or chapels. So this, started out when this dude, Monk Magnus, was going somewhere, but there was a huge rock in his way. He prayed to mother Mary, and it split, so he placed a statue of her on a branch in her honour, and created a little chapel. There are also two statues in the front of the church: one of Hungarian king Ludwig, who was fighting a battle against the Portuguese, and won after praying to mother Mary; and another of dude was healed from gout after praying at the church.
There are a couple of unique things about the church: it is the church with the most ex-votos (gifts of thanksgiving) than any other church - in the world; the tabernacle (where the body of Christ is kept in the church) is a globe, which is actually quite unusual. Only a few other churches have that I think. There's also a figure of baby Jesus, and he holds and apple and fig in his hand, but I can't exactly remember what they were meant to symbolise lol Anyway, the yellow-white flag in the front is supposed to signify that it is the designated pope's basilica in Maria Zell.
Maria Taferl
Maria Taferl is around in the same area, I think. Anyway, it's three centuries old, 200 000 people visit it annually, and it's the second largest Marian pilgrimage church in Austria. It was during the time when Celtic people were living in the region, so a group of Christians fixed a cross onto an oak tree in the area to prevent Celtics from praying there or something I'm not sure lol Anyway, The Christians nailed a cross to a board, with Mary and John on it. There are two main stories that certain around this, and it's even painted in the church as a fresco!
In 1643, a cattle herder came across the rotting tree and tried cutting it down - but he cut himself twice while trying to do so. It was then that when he fell down, he saw the cross, prayed for forgiveness and was healed. The other story, is that the local magistrate, who suffered from fits and depression, decided to replace the rotting cross with a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows - and was cured soon after. A couple other miracles were things like miraculous flashes of light in the town, and apparitions. There was even a time when an altar boy accidentally burned down the altar, but the holy image of the Our Lady of Sorrows was untouched I think. (I have horrible handwriting, and writing in those books with glossy pages ain't good for a person with inky pens orz)
Anyway, the church was raised to basilica status in 1947 by Pope Pius XII. What's also unique about the church, is that it has a depiction of Joseph's assumption, which is very rare.
This church is pretty well-known in its area for it's Fisherman's pulpit. On it, has a depiction of Saint Francis Xavier, who dropped his cross in the sea, and a lobster (or sometimes shown as a crab) comes out of the sea to give it back to him. It also shows the scene of the miracle when the disciples' boat was filled with fishes when they tossed the net on the other side.
Oberndorf Bei Salzburg
Let me begin by saying that this trip, as a pilgrimage, had a slower pace (and more shopping) than the previous pilgrimages with my parish priest, according to the regulars who go for these trips. So although there seems to be more shopping-than-pilgrimage, this was purposely slowed down for the older folks, I think. Also, to make it easier for the usual people, considering that the other pilgrimages to France and Italy were way too packed, with all the rush of travelling up and down. We also did a couple of touristy stuff, like visiting the local attraction of Hallstaat, their salt mine, going to mount Titlis (lul) in Switzerland, and went Swarovski shopping. We even crossed borders: we went to Germany for less than a day to visit one of the churches, and went through Liechtenstein, saw two churches there, and then went to Switzerland to stay overnight. Ain't so Austrian after all! I also got a poop-ton of postcards and pictures of flowers, so I'll probably put those in a separate post.
Back to business though: unlike the previous pilgrimages, where they had booklets with all the information of the churches, this time round, we had to fill in our own booklets, so that people would actually pay attention instead of just taking pictures all the time lol. We also had sessions on most nights, where our parish priest would talk about certain things about Lyfe, which I'll probably put in another post as well.
Anyway, you wouldn't think of Austria being a country for pilgrimage journeys, compared to places like Italy, France, Israel, Jerusalem etc but Austria is quite a Catholic country, in the sense that most of the churches we went to were all relatively close by to one another. Compared to the other pilgrimages, it took them hours to reach the next cathedral or shrine. Not saying that those countries are any less Catholic, but just that I think it shows how strong the Austrians' faith is. We went during the time of Corpus Christi (celebrating the belief that the bread and wine during Eucharistic celebration in mass is the true body and blood of Christ) and the Austrians seem to take it quite seriously - but I'll explain more about that later.
So with that done, I'll start with the churches we went to! I think we missed one in Switzerland (St Francis Cathedral I think?) but apart from that, we covered quite a lot as well. Also forgive my horrible photography orz
Maria Zell
As it is with most of these churches, they didn't start out very fancy, and were simply little shrines or chapels. So this, started out when this dude, Monk Magnus, was going somewhere, but there was a huge rock in his way. He prayed to mother Mary, and it split, so he placed a statue of her on a branch in her honour, and created a little chapel. There are also two statues in the front of the church: one of Hungarian king Ludwig, who was fighting a battle against the Portuguese, and won after praying to mother Mary; and another of dude was healed from gout after praying at the church.
There are a couple of unique things about the church: it is the church with the most ex-votos (gifts of thanksgiving) than any other church - in the world; the tabernacle (where the body of Christ is kept in the church) is a globe, which is actually quite unusual. Only a few other churches have that I think. There's also a figure of baby Jesus, and he holds and apple and fig in his hand, but I can't exactly remember what they were meant to symbolise lol Anyway, the yellow-white flag in the front is supposed to signify that it is the designated pope's basilica in Maria Zell.
Maria Taferl
In 1643, a cattle herder came across the rotting tree and tried cutting it down - but he cut himself twice while trying to do so. It was then that when he fell down, he saw the cross, prayed for forgiveness and was healed. The other story, is that the local magistrate, who suffered from fits and depression, decided to replace the rotting cross with a statue of Our Lady of Sorrows - and was cured soon after. A couple other miracles were things like miraculous flashes of light in the town, and apparitions. There was even a time when an altar boy accidentally burned down the altar, but the holy image of the Our Lady of Sorrows was untouched I think. (I have horrible handwriting, and writing in those books with glossy pages ain't good for a person with inky pens orz)
Anyway, the church was raised to basilica status in 1947 by Pope Pius XII. What's also unique about the church, is that it has a depiction of Joseph's assumption, which is very rare.
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| Dude who cut his leg |
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| Dude who put the statue in the tree |
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| The fresco of Mary's assumption is like hella fine omg |
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| And here it is in its full glory, with some of the scenes of Mary and Jesus as a child. There are actually some inaccuracies in it, but it'd be quite a lot to go through them lol |
Linz Cathedral
The story behind this altar is actually p cool. There was a dude who had epilepsy, and went to the forest to pray, and used a holy image (can't remember what of, though) to help him focus as he prayed. He later put a little figure of Jesus into a hole of a tree. And that tree is the very same tree that is in that altar piece, with the figure of Jesus in it. Like, holy poopers bro they got a tree as an altar piece like !!!!!!!! Also, it has a golden globe tabernacle too.
Linz cathedral is also known as Our Lady of Immaculate Conception, although I can't remember why lol Anyway, the cathedral has 2000 stained glass windows, and holds 20 000 people. There's quite a lot of stained glass windows, such as the one you can see from the outside, which is a rose window.
The stained glass window here is split into three sections, which is supposed to represent God, Mary, and life in Linz. I'm not sure which one is which, but some of the pretty important people in Linz are like Kaiser Fredrich III, Maximillian the poet (I think), Johannes Kepler (whom the University of Linz is named after), Anton Brugner (something like that) and Beethoven.
The church's layout is such that it looks like a cross, so it's like the altar is at the head, and at the two arms, are rose windows. The rose window on the right represents war and the seven deadly sins, and on the left represents peace, the four cardinals virtues and the seven works of mercy. There's even a huge pipe organ at the back, which I have a postcard of lol. There were also quite a couple of depictions of Mary, considering it's a Marian church lol. One was of Mary's assumption as the apostles finding flowers on her bed, but not her body, and another was of her as the mother of the church, sheltering the people under her arms.
Christkindl Steyr
This was one of the Christmas churches we went to, and it was quite cute, 'cos the building beside it, that is usually a restaurant, gets transformed into a post office around Christmas, where children come in by school bus-loads to send letters and such to friends and others. There's even a display of a huge nativity scene and mechanical moving scenery kind of thing that is opened around the Christmas season - but they were opened specially for us!
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There was also a dude who asked the bishop, who was in a place along the border of Germany and Austria, for allowance to build a church, but they fought about it, and even while they were fighting, the dude was getting it built anyway lol such a rebel
The mechanical moving scenery comprised of 300 wood carvings, that took the dude, Karl Lauda, 40 years to make - by hand. It was initially moved using bicycle chains and turned by hand, but now it's motorised. Anyway, it goes through different biblical scenes, apart from just the birth, like the annunciation to the shepherds, and some of the people in it are the apostles, king David, Saint Paul etc.
There was also a large, something like a diorama, that went was a 58 square metre nativity scene, that had four scenes: the shepherds, the birth, the magi, and oriental women at the well in their village.
Traunkirchen
This church is pretty well-known in its area for it's Fisherman's pulpit. On it, has a depiction of Saint Francis Xavier, who dropped his cross in the sea, and a lobster (or sometimes shown as a crab) comes out of the sea to give it back to him. It also shows the scene of the miracle when the disciples' boat was filled with fishes when they tossed the net on the other side.
I can't remember if there's any significance of this altar, but hey, it's p cool and vibrant lol
Gmunden
Well, that's not the name of the church, but rather the town, but we visited their local parish church, which is dedicated to the three magi - a rather uncommon church, I'd say. (The pictures here were poop, so uh, no photos ono)
Loreto
I don't remember much about this church, considering we couldn't spend much time in it, and it wasn't in our book either. But I think it had a miraculous statue, that was only shown during mass. Otherwise, it was kept with the nuns.
Salzburg
Just to side track a bit: we got the chance to walk around Salzburg, which is p famous for Mozart. That's where they sell the original Mozart balls (*immature snicker*), had a plaza where they played a Mozart piece every day, and had those cute, hanging iron signs to show what the store was for (before people could read). It was home to Mirabell gardens as well, which is one of the sites where they filmed The Sound of Music. Heck, we went to a few places where they filmed it lol I'll put photos of the Mirabell gardens in one of the other posts lol
Salzburg also means "salt fortress", 'cos they transported salt via the river there, and there's a castle fortress thing on the hill nearby too. (Even Hallstaat is in reference to salt, considering they have a salt mine there lol)
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| cutie owl omg |
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| cutie lederhosen omg |
Salzburg Cathedral
omg don't get me started on Salzburg cathedral - it's damn huge. It's so huge, that I didn't get a chance to take down everything about it lol But what I did get, was of The Virgin's Column, which depicts Mary right on the top, with an angel, the devil, Wisdom and the Church at each corner. The Church symbolises how Mary is the mother of the church; The angel represents Mary in God's kingdom, as the queen of angels; Wisdom is represented as a woman, and how she knows the will of God for her (which is essentially what wisdom is from the Catholic point of view of the gifts of the holy spirit); and the Devil represents what is said in Revelations of a woman giving birth and the devil comes to get the child, but the mother and child are both saved. There's also a lightning bolt heading towards the devil, which is supposed to be about how the disciples saw the "devil fall like lightning" when they went out to preach.
Another thing about the Virgin's Column, is that if you stand at a particular angle, in front of the statue, the crown on the cathedral lines up perfectly with Mary, such that it looks like angels are crowning Mary.
Inside, was where Mozart was one of the organist for awhile, I think. There are like four organs in each corner of the main section of the church, and like all four organs are only used during special masses. There was even a crypt kind of thing under the church, but I think they only keep the old parish priests there or something, can't really remember lol orz
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| You can see the holy spirit, represented by a dove, riiiight in the top |
Just outside of Salzburg, is a little chapel where Silent Night was written. Franz Gruber and Joseph Mohr did the music and lyrics respectively. It was first performed, here, on Christmas eve in 1818, before it spread all around the world after that. It was sung in Germany and New York City in the 1830s by then lol There's also a replica of this in Frankenwurth (I think) in in a German themepark in Michigan, 1973 lol
Maria Plain
The church overlooked quite a huge piece of land, since it was on a hill. You could actually see the Salzburg fortress from all the way up there! And there was a large scene of the crucifixion there too.
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| You can see the fortress riiiiiiiiight there! |
Anyway, the church houses a miraculous image of Mary inside. Once, a fire broke out in a family bakery, and destroyed everything in the town - except the image. The image was then brought to the plain, where people visited it, and church was eventually built there. The anniversary of Mary's coronation was also celebrated in this church, and Mozart wrote his coronation mass for Mary here too. It was also raised to minor basilica status in 1952.
The other thing that is quite interesting about this, is that there is a hanging statue of Mary in it. What most people wouldn't notice though, is that on the wire that holds the statue up, are big beads, to represent the rosary lol Even I didn't notice it at first.
Saint Michael's Church (Mondsee)
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| That's St Michael there lol |
Now this, is my favourite church, mostly 'cos it's yellow, and it's Saint Michael's church holla~ Anyway, it's a Benedictine monastery, and one of the largest Gothic churches in Austria. It was also the church where Maria and Von Trapp got married in The Sound of Music lol The oldest German translation of the bible was also here. The other funny things in the paintings, are things like in one of them, the painter actually included himself in it, and the church can be seen somewhere in the paintings.
Maria Hilf (Help)
We went inside here, but it was more of a veeeery small chapel, and we couldn't get past the gate inside the chapel, (apparently a lot of the small churches and chapels have gates on the inside, although I don't relaly know why) so we didn't do much except enjoy the scenery outside. Inside though, are pictures of Mary and Jesus and stuff, and I think they might be ex-votos, but some of them were pretty unique. I remember one of them being sort of like a sketch, and it showed Mary kissing baby Jesus' hand, and she looked young, yet gentle and motherly, compared to the usual depiction of just her and Jesus with the two angels beside lol idk made her look a lot more real and human.
Saint Wolfgang
In Saint Wolfgang, there were two altars: one main one, and the other dedicated to St Wolfgang, which they don't use for mass I think. The main one has these panel-doors that can be moved, so it can be opened or closed. On the inside, shows the coronation of Mary, while the other panels show Mary praying to baby Jesus, circumcision, presentation of Jesus in the temple, and the death of Mary. What's unique about the last panel though, is that it shows Mary's soul going up with Jesus.
The story of St Wolfgang, is that he wanted to be a hermit, and the devil came to tempt him. But he prayed hard, and eventually the devil left. He then decided that he would build a church wherever his axe would land when he threw it. So he did, but then the devil came back again. The devil then said that he wouldn't torment St Wolfgang anymore, if the first person that enters the church was to be given to the devil. So St Wolfgang prayed about it, and lo and behold, a wolf entered the church, so that was given to the devil.
Hallstaat
Hallstaat is a rather small, picturesque-kind of town on a lake, which I'll probably talk about more in one of the other posts. It has two churches: one Catholic and one protestant.
Anyway, the Catholic church, Maria Am Berg (a.k.a Mary's Assumption Church) was on one of the hills. It has a bone house, where they keep bones from graves every ten years. I mean considering how really small the town is, there isn't a lot of land for graves in the church, so they get dug up, but kept in the bone house.
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| The Catholic church |
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| The protestant church |
Much like the previous church, they also have panel-altars, but with two "wings", so there's an inside, an inner pair of panels, and then a second pair of panels. Depending on the occasion, different altar panels are shown. The first position (when the inside of the outermost panels are shown) depict the meeting of Anna and Joachim, Mary and Elizabeth, circumcision, and the wise men. The second position, when everything is completely closed, shows Jesus in the temple as a child, the wedding at Cana, Jesus and Martha, and the ascension. The position that we saw, was the one of Mary's birth, annunciation, presentation of Jesus in the temple, and the death of Mary. Inside, shows Mary, with St Catherine and Barbara on her left and right. There's also a second altar, that shows Gethsemane, Pilate, the scourging, and carrying of the cross.
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| The Marian altar |
According to our parish priest, the protestant church that we went to demonstrated that protestants kinda "contradicted" themselves? I mean like in the sense that some protestants don't believe in "praying to statues" - yet there were statues in this church; there were votive candles which are used to for praying through a saint/person - yet these weren't dedicated to anyone; and protestants don't use a crucifix - yet there was one in that church. I'm not sure which denomination it was, so I'm not sure whether there are any denominations that keep in line with certain traditions that the Catholics have, but yeah. I guess, from what he saw it as, is that they were kinda "lost" in the middle of all the different beliefs that denominations and Catholics had.
The other thing about Hallstaat, was that we went there to witness their Corpus Christi procession, which is actually quite a big thing: it even gets news coverage lol There were other tourists who came on the same day as us to catch a glimpse of their procession. First, they bring the Eucharist to the plaza, where there's some prayers and stuff (it was all in German so I have no idea what they were saying lol), and then they bring it out onto the lake and sail around for a bit. There was a previous trip that went to Austria as well, led by the same priest as this trip, so when they went, they only saw the procession - but this time, when we visited the Catholic church, the priest there offered our priest a chance to get out onto the water to join them! And he did lol - in his Hawaiian shirt (cos he initially tried to go undercover).
There are a couple of townsfolk who go out onto the water themselves to try and catch a glimpse of the boat with the Eucharist on it.
That aside though, the way they celebrate Corpus Christi is very different from how we do it in Singapore. At some of the churches we went to, they were making serious preparations for it. They have outdoor processions with the Eucharist in a monstrance, and a banner-tent-like thing to protect it as it's brought around outside the church. In Singapore though, apparently we're not allowed to have processions - not even just outside our own church. I don't know why though ono
I guess I'll stop here for now. There's about 15+ more churches to go, so I'll see if I can finish them up in another post lol (Hopefully not too long from now!)
Monday, 14 July 2014
Saturday, 22 March 2014
Resolution Recap
Since I had the time, I thought I might as well write a post. I mean I could spend this time writing on my writing blog - which I should, since Saturdays are my designated writing days HAHAHAH sigh orz Anyway, I suppose I should do a quick update on how life's going on.
In reference to my resolutions: I didn't really set up a newspaper club, but I am part of the school's online newsletter and school magazine, so that's close enough! It's been p okay so far. I mean Claire and I have an interview to do, and I recently did a joint article with some of the other writers, so that's good.
My second resolution was going pretty well for awhile, but ever since I started getting work and Chinese tuition again, I don't really get the chance to even think about plot development, let alone actually get to write orz Hopefully, I can figure something out and see if I can at least getting something out once a month, be it on this blog, or my writing one. I know it's not a lot, but I guess it's better than nothing.
My third resolution has kinda worked? I mean, I suppose I try to stagger and spread out my workload. It's not that easy, considering my HL subjects are content heavy lol (Chemistry, Biology, History). My SL subjects are still p okay, I suppose: Chinese, Math and Lang Lit. School does get quite busy, when you put subjects aside. There are school events, CAS, class stuff... But I guess it keeps me on my toes c:
I shan't say much about my fourth resolution because it has worked too well - maybe to the point of technically shattering it? But speaking about brofriends: I did once had a dream that I was some sort of band manager of some guys in a school? I mean I was p rad, and the guys didn't mind me and I was one of the bros - although there was one guy whom I hung out with a lot lol He was like the guy version of Julia, and I remember him wearing a skirt in my dream... I don't know why he did, but I didn't mind! [Hmmm, maybe it was a sign of sorts? I think a certain someone would understand...]
Speaking of friends though: I suppose I've integrated well into my class! I mean we're a p small class, so we kinda stick around each other quite a lot, and we can't really afford to have cliques anyway. I wouldn't really call them friend-friends yet, like my usual circle of secondary school friends, but it's only been a bit more than a month, and there's still plenty of time ahead of us. (Only my brofriend can be on the same level as them though lol)
And yeah, I don't know about a craft store lol Maybe I can set one up at the end of the year? Or next year, once school is completely over? I mean there'll be at least three months of nothing, so I might as well earn some cash. I recently learned how to make friendship bracelets out of embroidery thread, so das cool. I'm very tempted to make so many because it's kinda mindless, and my hands are itching to make something!
Hmm... I suppose I could talk about my one-week holiday?
I spent most of my time either lazing around or doing homework-- or maybe it was more like a balance of both lol Probably the highlight of the week was yesterday, when Julia, Brofriend and I went to a cat cafe at Boat Quay. We hung out with cats for two hours, and put them to sleep before our time at the cafe was up lol We sedated them with scratches behind their ears and brushing, leaving the other guests to just take pictures of sleepy kitties lol After that, we just had lunch and hung around c:
Time for some CATZ YEEEEEEEE
In reference to my resolutions: I didn't really set up a newspaper club, but I am part of the school's online newsletter and school magazine, so that's close enough! It's been p okay so far. I mean Claire and I have an interview to do, and I recently did a joint article with some of the other writers, so that's good.
My second resolution was going pretty well for awhile, but ever since I started getting work and Chinese tuition again, I don't really get the chance to even think about plot development, let alone actually get to write orz Hopefully, I can figure something out and see if I can at least getting something out once a month, be it on this blog, or my writing one. I know it's not a lot, but I guess it's better than nothing.
My third resolution has kinda worked? I mean, I suppose I try to stagger and spread out my workload. It's not that easy, considering my HL subjects are content heavy lol (Chemistry, Biology, History). My SL subjects are still p okay, I suppose: Chinese, Math and Lang Lit. School does get quite busy, when you put subjects aside. There are school events, CAS, class stuff... But I guess it keeps me on my toes c:
I shan't say much about my fourth resolution because it has worked too well - maybe to the point of technically shattering it? But speaking about brofriends: I did once had a dream that I was some sort of band manager of some guys in a school? I mean I was p rad, and the guys didn't mind me and I was one of the bros - although there was one guy whom I hung out with a lot lol He was like the guy version of Julia, and I remember him wearing a skirt in my dream... I don't know why he did, but I didn't mind! [Hmmm, maybe it was a sign of sorts? I think a certain someone would understand...]
Speaking of friends though: I suppose I've integrated well into my class! I mean we're a p small class, so we kinda stick around each other quite a lot, and we can't really afford to have cliques anyway. I wouldn't really call them friend-friends yet, like my usual circle of secondary school friends, but it's only been a bit more than a month, and there's still plenty of time ahead of us. (Only my brofriend can be on the same level as them though lol)
And yeah, I don't know about a craft store lol Maybe I can set one up at the end of the year? Or next year, once school is completely over? I mean there'll be at least three months of nothing, so I might as well earn some cash. I recently learned how to make friendship bracelets out of embroidery thread, so das cool. I'm very tempted to make so many because it's kinda mindless, and my hands are itching to make something!
Hmm... I suppose I could talk about my one-week holiday?
I spent most of my time either lazing around or doing homework-- or maybe it was more like a balance of both lol Probably the highlight of the week was yesterday, when Julia, Brofriend and I went to a cat cafe at Boat Quay. We hung out with cats for two hours, and put them to sleep before our time at the cafe was up lol We sedated them with scratches behind their ears and brushing, leaving the other guests to just take pictures of sleepy kitties lol After that, we just had lunch and hung around c:
Time for some CATZ YEEEEEEEE
~They're so soft and cute I WANT TWENTY~
- Micaela c:
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