One of our last meetings, Uniqlo sponsored heat techs for us. So awesome :')







Testing out our games at the void deck,




I just love my neighbourhood's kids. They're my friends now :'D



Whattup.


After 4-5 months of preparation,

My team and I are READY TO HEAD OFF TO LAOS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Omg I am so excited. Yet calm at the same time?

I can't believe that everything has eventually come down to this. All our canvassing like carwashing, Laos day for publicity, scouting for funding, weekly meetings.... are all done and ready to be tested and meted out tomorrow onwards!!

For the entire semester, I think I invested the most time on OCIP but it has been a joy doing this. Time sacrificed but all worth it. (I had to cancel about 3-4 dates with my friends this week just to devote last minute preparation all to OCIP. So sorry guys but I'll meet y'all in the new year!!)

Some things turned out better than expected like canvassing, member-turn up rate for meetings and packing of logistics today (freaking fast only 2-3 hours I thought entire day) and some not so... actually no leh? I can't think of anything that didn't turn out so well. Maybe some financial issues and planning, but for now, we're all ready to go man.

So lucky to have a team like this. And now we're just all ready to get out and do some awesome work.

For some reason, I've a feeling everything will go fine.

But I still have worries about possible problems that may crop up like safety and health, bonding amongst members, Laotians.

I say Laotians, because since so many OCIP teams have been to the village since I went last year, I'm afraid they will be a bit too used to foreigners and my team won't experience the true Laos spirit. At the same time, I think whatever comes, comes. And it'll still be awesome.

Aiya, I'll just live the Laotian way for the next 2 weeks. I hope... to be able to unwind myself and not be caught up in matters that aren't worth my worrying over. Also, I want to have a taste of how leading a team overseas is like! I think it's gonna be excitingggg, with Yunxuan and Sianpei : ) They've been my sisters the past few months.

To be honest, when I started off this journey at the beginning of this semester in August, I was actually quite scared. VERY in fact. Dunno if y'all could sense it in my older posts, despite me saying that I was more excited than scared. PI AH, I was actually really quite nervous? But I didn't really want to show my scaredy cat-ness hahaha. I didn't know what to expect and how problem solving along with decision making should happen. It was my first time. Like sex. Virgin. But I'm happy I have my friends to help me along and I learn as well. It's impossible for me to do it alone and the team has been awfully helpful with that. And I always use my experience from the last 2 OCIP trips to guide me along and let me be more confident in decision making.

Now, I just can't believe everything has come down to this. And I will continue learning. Definitely things will crop up, but I will be ready to deal with them along with the team.

Can't wait to show y'all more pictures again. Maybe what has changed since my last OCIP trip to Laos? During recce trip in September, I was quite happy some students remembered me when I showed a picture of me with long hair and them. I saw bright bright smiles from the Laos students and thinking about it now just makes ME feel happy. I think going back shows them that we do care... and that it's not like 'I went there once and never gonna go back again.'

Only this time round, it could really be my last time back at the village and that saddens me : ( I hate these kinda things. I always tell myself not to cry, but I still end up crying. Sigh.

To replicate the same awesomeness I experienced last year was one of my worries, but now, I actually think that's quite lame lah that I got stressed over thinking that, for this year, I have to make sure things will be just as awesome. But, I know that whatever that happens will be special for this team and me. Whatever that we experience, will be unique this year. Different people on the team with different surprises to offer. I can only look forward to what's to come and chide myself for having doubted anything like that.

Initially, I wanted to type some encouraging last message to all my team members, then I withdrew. Coz after reading all their "Before Laos" blog posts on our Weetrip blog page (http://weetriplaos.wordpress.com/), I thought, let them be. Their worries are so honest and amusing to read that they're endearing. And I like how they're articulating these thoughts on to the blog, with all their "omg, we're going to have thousands of mosquitoes" "gonna have to bathe in icy water!??". I think they have a lot of these worries that I feel they should deal with themselves and experience how it's gonna be like without me having to allay their worries before the trip.

I think everything will turn out all right eventually. And it'll be a fun trip for all of us : )


Anyway, I'll be missing out on a lot of Singapore news while I'm there coz no wifi no internet in the village. Only during R&R but oh well I'm only glad that I'm devoid of the Internet. Ah~~

Singapore news- Frankly speaking, I know it's insensitive to say this, but I'm kinda happy that the Little India Riot happened? It has provoked more Singaporeans to talk about issues that matter in our society and I think that's important. No doubt though, it was a seriously unfortunate incident that a foreign worker was killed and an angry mob started tearing down the street leaving police cars and an ambulance damaged. But it served as a wake up call to Singapore. How the government reacted to the situation, what Singaporeans had to say about the foreign worker issue, race issue even, and how our history textbooks are gonna change haha.

All in all, I'm gonna come back to Singapore with hopefully a renewed sense of I dunno, whatever it is and hopefully more stories and pictures to share! : )

SEE YOU GUYS 2 WEEKS LATER!!! Probably in the New Year. Flight's at 1:30pm today, I'm off!



Merry Christmas and a Happy 2014 to you all!!!!!