Footie Weekend

So it's been a week since I fell sick and well...I am slightly better, but the cough and blocked nose is still there. Plus with all the phlegm, I feel like I'm about to hack up furballs all the time. On Saturday morning, it all culminated in me almost losing my voice. I taught both classes on Saturday with a voice that couldn't make it through 3 words without croaking or breaking. Of course, it greatly amused the students. Some were quite concerned, especially the morning class, and kept telling me to drink water, or to go home and buy lemons to go with honey. My little rubbish collector said 'Teacher, you go back and buy lemons then you put honey ok?' I said I do that every day already. 'But Teacher, no ice wor!' I laughed n said I'm using hot water and he went 'Then??!' I said it doesn't seem to be helping. 

The assistant principal gave me some chinese medicine and it helped for a bit before it all went downhill again in the afternoon class. The afternoon students weren't quite as caring tho, they were quite enthusiastic for me to lose the voice completely. And took advantage by showing attitude again. I told them off, that either they can choose for me to save my voice and I would shut up, so they could just do the work without my explanations or they could shut up and let me explain. If I was willing to sacrifice my voice for them to do well, they jolly well better pay attention. So of course they shut up, for a bit.

After all that, went home to dinner and then crashed for 2 hours. Woke up feeling slightly better and continued to do marking till almost 3am when the guys told me they were at 3rd Mile Siang Siang watching the match. By then, I was kinda distracted and in need of de-stressing so I did go over and watch, despite having only a total of 4 hours of sleep in the last 24 hours. And good grief, the match went into overtime and penalties, so by the time I got home, it was almost 6am. -_-|| So that was the latest that I went out...and the 'earliest' I came home. And all without alcohol.

It was pretty fun though, listening to their commentaries and snarky comments. And it's definitely different, watching with a big crowd, than watching by yourself at home. Though yes, we have Astro HD and air-conditioning and a comfy sofa at home. Though I admit, there were some of us who were falling asleep in extra-time. I was one of them, but hey, since I had the least sleep, I'm excused. But things were of course more exciting in the penalties. Haha. 

Later that day, Julius also texted me 'Come see Cech play later...' since Chelsea won the Champion's League...he would be dressed in Peter Cech's full kit. I agreed to go at 5pm, since it was the last few times they would be playing futsal there. After all, I'd been promising for so long too. Of course, i had to Google Maps the place first before going. So I finally got to watch the Drink Team play, but I was only there to watch the keeper, striker and defender. Haha.And it was quite interesting to watch them play. THough I wish that some of them could 'perform' at full level, but I guess we were all running at limited battery coz of the late night. There were a few moments where I got worried coz I was the only person sitting there and the ball was coming in my direction. But in all, a good experience. Some were worried that I got bored watching them, but I was actually paying attention to wherever the ball went. So it was all good. And yes, that was a footie packed 24 hours.

Spot my favourite keeper, striker and defender! Haha.

Why?

Just finished a group presentation for genre studies an hour ago and received some feedback on it, including our previous written assessments. Wasn't too happy with my marks as this is probably my favourite subject and well, I try to do well in it. But I definitely couldn't fault the lecturer's comments as they were true. Most of us in the class could analyse the texts well on their own, but we couldn't critically compare them with each other or to critically explain why we pinpointed those features of the text. We just did them because we had to. 

This is so similar to the mindset of the students most of us teach. They learn and do the things they do...simply because they HAVE to. Or so they think. In the current Malaysian education system, this may be the case, where we just have to learn these pre-set subjects and focus on these areas so we can do well in exams. But once students reach university, these concepts go out the window. In most good universities, critical thinking is crucial. This is also later seen in their future careers and life itself. We may be able to identify the problems or things to focus on....but the lecturers don't want to know what is the problem. They want to know, WHY is that the problem, and why is it important....and well...how do you fix it later? What are the consequences if you don't fix the problem...why do you fix it in such a way..and so on. We need to link the Why to What we do....

So, the most important question in studies and basically life in general...is...WHY?????

We get so caught up in our busy lives, trying to finish our never-ending to-do lists...trying to balance everything that we do, from life to playtime. But I think most of us tend to forget, why are we doing all that? Why do we work so hard everyday? Why do we slot in time to do some things..and leave out others? It becomes methodical and automatic for us to just make time for everything, but we never stop and think, is it really an important thing to do? Could we make do without doing that? If we turned down someone's request, would they really suffer without our help...or die? Why do we do things a certain way, and why not another way?

There's so much that I could actually write on. But basically, I think most of us have gotten so used to things that we never actually question ourselves...or question the status quo. I think I will try to live my life in such a way, that I should always ask myself 'WHY???' first before I do anything. Instead of just accepting something as it is...I should ask 'Why should I do it? Why is it important? Why is it done in such a way? Would another way be better?' and more. Basically, look at the big picture, instead of focusing on the small details right off the bat. 

So despite feeling bad about my marks, which were actually not too bad, but the competitive side of me refuses to accept them...I need to think of the big picture. Will I ever remember how I did for this assessment after some time, or will I remember that because of this, I was reminded to look at the big picture? I think, I will be more likely to remember that I need to think of the 'Why?' in life, or anything at all. Always think critically and try to link what we notice to what we learn. Not to accept status quo or things as they are. There is never 1 set rule for doing things, coz different people see and do things differently and we just have to accept that. So sometimes, we need to think out of the box and be open to various possibilities. So one month later, I probably won't remember that I got 10.5 out of 15...but I will try to open my mind to the big picture. It helps that I'll be in Bali, this time next month. Hehehe. :)