Post-celebratory

Today marks the end of the first Chinese New Year week, and the end of pretty much all the festive hype. Every year, my family & I would have completed our rounds of visitations by the second day of the festive season. When I was younger we used to go around visiting relatives all the way till the fourth day, but I guess times have changed. This year's Chinese New Year was like any other recent year's; it didn't give me anything special to remember. Everyone was pretty much celebrating for the sake of celebration. But although it was true that none of us saw Chinese New Year in the light it was supposed to be seen in, I don't feel that we abandoned the core purpose of the festive season at all. Guess the very act of making the effort to meet your relatives, some of who you may only see once a year, and wishing them well, is more than enough. A simple congratulation for having made it through the year, and an assurance that everyone is moving on with life along with you — powerful encouragements disguised as simple, seemingly meaningless thoughts and actions. :) Of course, a very heartwarming, enthusiastic celebration would be perfect. But a quiet, more reserved Chinese New Year isn't at all bad either.

I'll let some random snapshots do the talking from here:

Wednesday spelled back to school for all students (unfortunately). Had a mini lohei session with my class during our Civics period:

The funny thing was that I didn't manage to snap everyone tossing the vegetables and crackers in the usual sticky sweet sauce, the focal point of every lohei photo. Guess that effectively makes the photos above random shots of people getting excited in crowds over seemingly nothing, rofl.

On to something non-CNY related (not really): I fell sick shortly after the festive season, around the time when school reopened again. Gave a couple of training sessions a miss this week as a result, but the good thing was that I wasn't sick to the point that I couldn't leave my bed. I still did go to school, and as much as I hate that place, I don't really want to miss out on anything important. Though it's not like I even get half of what's going on during lectures (not so tutorials to be honest, so all is fairly well I guess).

Next week will be a hectic one, because the juniors will be informed of the tertiary institution they've been posted to on Monday. Which means I'll be expecting a new batch of students coming to school as J1s. Which marks the start of a horribly busy Orientation week. Hope things'll unfold just fine, I'm even planning to join the Mass Dance @ Suntec on one of the last few nights of Orientation. :) But then again, there's still tests to think about...

Let's just see if I can strike a balance between work and play this upcoming week, then (as much as I'm not confident of rising up to the challenge at all).