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Recent Posts
· Cookies.· HeForShe - Gender Equality.
· Another Sem.
· Blah bloop blah bloop.
· Motivation
· Rock it 'til waterfalls.
· Quick update.
· :]
· ☮ First ever YouTube video!
· ♔ My wonderful time in Melbourne (Final Post)
Cookies.
Monday 2 February 2015 | Posted by Aaron |
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The last time I made a post on this blog was in late September last year, which means that I really do suck at this "regular blogging" thing. My bad.
Quite a number of events has happened since my last post from 4 months and 9 days ago (yes I counted). Firstly, I would like to wish my readers (if I have any lol) a Merry late Christmas and a Happy New Year! Let us all strive to make this year memorable (in a good, positive way) and improve ourselves so that when we look back at the end of the year, we will feel proud that we have been super duper productive and have become a better person. :] mhmm.
Since my life, and I quote from my friend Nicole, "revolves around dancing", the majority of memorable events that occurred in the past few months have been dance related. One of the most memorable events (possibly from the past 5 years) is that I attended the Cookies workshop organised by Triple8Funk Dance Company. Their workshop was held around last August. If you don't know who Cookies are... I'll post links to videos of them dancing below. Aaaand at the very least I think that you will know two members of the crew... Keone and Mari Madrid? Do you? Uhh, if you don't, I'll post links of them dancing below as well.
Cookies!!! Omnomnom.
Keone and Mari Madrid! <3
Yep. Soz for the spam of videos. I didn't know which videos to link and I was thinking "maybe I'll just put the ones I really like", and even the list above doesn't cover all the ones I like. I had to stop myself. Ehehe. Anyho, I attended their dance workshop and watched their showcase, and it was utterly inspiring. It was surreal to have been able to watch and learn and dance with the people I've been looking up to and whose YouTube videos I've been watching since forever ago. Jaw dropping. Sensational. Amazing. Happy. Inspired. So much feels. Even thinking back about it makes me happy and it's been 5 months already. What's even more amazing, is how humble they are. The fact that they've won first place in competitions, gets invited to places all over the world to teach and perform and dance, with lots and lots of people asking for photos (maybe autographs?) with them, but yet they still remain incredibly humble kind of shocked me for a moment. You would expect that at least one of them would be slightly stuck up? Nah. Nup. Nope. None. Nada. Zero. So sincere, so humble. Oh and a totally amazing moment (which I still fanboy over every now and then) happened after their showcase. Meeting all of the Cookies members were amazing and I loved talking and getting to know them, but I got the chance to actually meet one of them who I've been looking up to pretty much since I started my dance journey. Mariel Madrid. Watching her dance gives me goosebumps. The good ones I mean. After which, I would feel fuzzy and warm and happy and I won't stop smiling for a while. Meeting someone who I looked up to a lot, made me jittery and nervous. I didn't know what to say. But when she came out and I said hi, all nervousness went away. She was so friendly and humble and she had such a bright aura around her, it just made me happy (even from a not fanboy point of view, other people have also mentioned she had a positive vibe/aura around her). The way she greeted me and our conversation for about 5 minutes, omg. Oh. Em. Gee. O. M. G. It was the best 5 minutes of the week. Or even two weeks. Three? Idk, it was amazing. At that time there weren't a lot of people around because people were being ushered out and Cookies had to go back to their accommodation place to rest up. But Mari and I kept on talking whilst slowly making our way out of the theatre. Talk about what, you might ask. We talked about her experiences in Melbourne so far, her life in San Diego (extremely briefly), dancing, food, and God knows what else but those were the topics which stuck out to me. I just paused for like a good 5 minutes reminiscing about the conversations we had after the workshop classes and after their showcase. Anyway, the vibe she (and our conversation) gave off felt like we were old friends reconnecting after a long period of not seeing each other, which involved hugging and linking arms whilst walking out of the theatre (in a friendly way, don't worry Keone hehe) and merrily chatting away. It was amazing getting to know someone I've looked up to in a more personal level. And her passion for her art, her dancing, just made me want to improve myself to the point I'd be able to dance again with her one day, let it be on stage, in class, anything! Thank you for inspiring Mari, and if you're reading this, let me give you my word that this 'baby dancer' will make sure he improves as much as he can and will come dance with you again one day. :) #fanboyfeels
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HeForShe - Gender Equality.
Tuesday 23 September 2014 | Posted by Aaron |
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If you haven't watched this already.. please do. Emma Watson recently gave a speech at the UN regarding the He For She movement for gender equality. Not only does this speech talk about taking action against all forms of violence and discrimination faced by women and girls, but also about freedom for both sexes. Gender equality is an issue for men as well. Men don't have the benefits of equality either, as men are also imprisoned by gender stereotypes. As Emma said, if men don't have to be aggressive in order to be accepted, then women won't feel compelled to be submissive. If men don't have to control, women don't have to be controlled. Both men and women should feel free to be sensitive and strong. Gender should instead be perceived as a spectrum, instead of being viewed as two sets of opposing ideals.
I am a feminist. And I am PROUD to call myself one.
"Feminism, by definition, is the belief that men and women should have equal rights and opportunities. It is the theory of the political, economic and social equality of the sexes."
Good job, Harry Potter girl.
If you want to show support for the He For She movement, just click on the link below and follow the instructions on the website :)
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Another Sem.
Tuesday 29 July 2014 | Posted by Aaron |
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Yeap, so another semester at uni started. Classes commenced yesterday, and I arrived in Melbourne the day before, just in time for class. Hehe.
Its only day 2 of Semester 2, and I can already feel the pressure and stress regarding assignments and exams. This is probably partly due to the subjects I'm taking, along with the co-curricular activities I have responsibilities for. When I say co-curricular activities, it's mostly dance. As mentioned in one of my previous posts, I've successfully managed to be involved and be part of Flare Dance Ensemble's annual production, which I am extremely grateful for, though happiness through dancing comes at a price... it takes up a lot of time. Along with that, I really want to be involved in some of Flare's gigs this sem as well, and this will only add to the workload. This means that I have to get started with exam prep early, and I'm actually starting (ish) and it's only the second day of uni! I can't afford to slack since I'm taking relatively 'Asian' subjects, which includes Introductory Microeconomics, Data Analysis, Biology (Genetics and Evolution), and finally, Mind, Brain and Behaviour 2.
MBB2 and Bio are relatively alright (judging from the first couple of lectures I've read up on), but my math skills are extremely lacking, hence Data Analysis will be slightly challenging. I had my first tutorial for DA an hour ago, and I actually survived! I managed to actually solve some stats questions and be involved. Super proud of myself.. and it's all thanks to Ms Yap (my A levels teacher for stats from GIS). THANK YOUUU. Though I am able to solve some questions, I still can't afford to slack. Aaaand since I haven't done economics before, I cannot afford to be lazy and skip anything! Today's lecture was pretty dull though, I need to find ways to keep myself awake and pay full attention to them. My econs lecturer seems pretty dull and strict, and along with that, SUPER old fashioned. All my lecturers so far have been using some form of powerpoint presentation or electronics presentation during lectures, but she is the only one who uses the PROJECTOR, and actual printout slides... the number of times she got mixed up with which slide she was on or was moving on to earlier was just... I facepalmed every single time. She's a good lecturer though, she knows her stuff, it's just that... I don't think her lecturing style suits my way of learning... or more like since she's lecturing to over 200 people, it's harder to be engaging with her style of lectures. I can already see myself going for her consultation hours and making an utter fool of myself, asking questions about even the most simple stuff. But then again, I managed to understand today's lecture pretty well, partly cause my dad (without me realizing) already started teaching me about econs... during family dinners. Whilst we were eating, my dad would talk to my mom and I about work and explain concepts behind what's going on, and yeah. THANKS DAD FOR INDIRECTLY PREPARING ME FOR THIS. Good stuff.
Meh. I miss my parents. I miss being spoonfed everything, from transport to food and everything.. haha. I guess this is just part of life. You gotta leave your nest sooner or later right.. and start being responsible for yourself more.
And honestly I don't even know how my seniors and other Flare members manage to cope with their workload and still managed to be super involved in production... along with that, I know some Flarians who have 3 jobs alongside that as well! How... I can't even. Wow. Much respect.
ANYHO. Moving on from all my rants about stress and workload, I made a few new friends in my tutorial today! James, Danny and Jason :)) HELLO IF YOU'RE READING THIS. They're all like really smart and I'm actually slightly intimidated... they're really nice though! James is really good at stats, Danny's an engineering student and Jason knows what he's doing... and there's me. HAHAH. My tutor is super nice too! She's super understanding and it's like she knows when I want an explanation about things LOL. Maybe it's cause I'm an open book and my facial expressions of self-doubt, obliviousness and confusion gives it away? That exaggeration though, but yeah. She's uber nice and friendly. I like this tutor.
So.. it's almost halfway through the week. ALMOST. Almost survived the first week of uni. Just a couple more days to go. I'm going out with Gigi and everyone tonight for dinner! At least I still have a social life... for now.
P.S. Can't wait for the Cookies workshop and Keone and Mariel's workshop in August! SO EXCITED FOR IT. Yeap dance is taking over my life. Defo.
P.P.S. It was super nice to go for Shayna's class again! If you don't know, Shayna is my dance teacher in Melbourne. Well I go for other teacher's classes as well, such as Tarik, Arisa and Trevor, but SHAYYYYNA is my 'main' teacher. Haha it's probably cause I've been going to her classes since I arrived in Melbourne, so she's my 'first'. LOL. Hi Shayna. You awesome. And whoever who's in Melbourne right now and you're reading this, you should DEFINITELY GO CHECK OUT HER CLASSES. All the other teachers I mentioned above as well but SHAYNA, YES. I'll post some links to her dancing below so you can check out her awesomeness:
P.P.P.S. I'm so happy I got to go back for Maybelline and Lydia's classes when I went back to Malaysia! I also got to check out Elaine's classes as well :) They all teach at Sole to Soul Dance Studio, and yep. They super awesome too. Here's a link to the chorey I learnt from her when I was in Malaysia. I hope I did justice to the chorey! I honestly felt like I could've done better... a lot better. Nicole filmed one of me practising when we went out with Nazzy for a dance session, I'll consider posting it if.. well.. yeah. Haha. Anyway here's Maybelline's latest chorey to Problem by Ariana Grande ft. Iggy! Thanks for having me! :)
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Blah bloop blah bloop.
Tuesday 8 July 2014 | Posted by Aaron |
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Should probably write about something soon, this blog is collecting dust. :(
Hmm, what is there to write about though?
First semester at Melbourne Uni done and dusted! Super happy that I survived all the assignments and the workload I got. I got pretty decent results :) One H2A and 3 H2Bs! They definitely are not H1s but I'm happy with it, and that's what matters right?
Considering I took 2 arts as breadth subjects last semester (Classical Mythology and Criminology) along with 2 science subjects (Psychology and Biology), semester 2 is going to be a lot harder. I'm taking such Asian subjects next semester.. ugh. Living the Asian life haha. :p well Psychology is not that much of an 'Asian' subject, but along with that I'll be doing Microeconomics, Data Analysis and Biology (again). From what my seniors have told me, Data Analysis is a really dry and hard subject, this semester of Biology will be focusing a lot on Genetics and Evolution (more stats yay) and Psych will have a lot more stats and lab reports as well.. so pretty much next semester is going to be statistics-heavy... yay me. *goes and cries in a corner*
Along with those, there's also Flare Dance Ensemble's annual production to prepare for. Yes, I actually did join clubs and societies from my university and I am actually quite active in some of them.. particularly Flare, because, well, dance. HAHAHA. I'm in 4 production pieces, and I don't want to sound like I'm bragging or anything, but some people have told me that they were surprised since I was a first year and I'm doing 4 pieces! I guess this shows I'm gradually improving and growing as a dancer, and I'm definitely happy about that! Thank you Tash, Deb + Jay, Daniel and Jenn for selecting me to be in your pieces! I will work hard and I won't let you down! I'm actually extremely surprised I managed to get into Jenn's Modern piece, considering I've never done any Modern dance before.. this just means I need to work extra hard for this (which I already am haha). THANK YOU JENNMAMA <33333
So yeah semester 2 is going to be freaking busy. I'm reaaaaally looking forward to going back to Melbourne. Being back in Malaysia and meeting up with everyone who's coming back from all over the world is nice, but I miss my Melbourne family too.. aaagh I'm torn between two groups :( I cri evrytaime haha.
I've been saying this in pretty much every single recent post, but I will try to update this blog more often since I'm on holiday! I have quite a few rants and somewhat 'inspirational' posts I want to write and share with everyone so umm, yeah. Stay tuned!
:))
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Motivation
Tuesday 13 May 2014 | Posted by Aaron |
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Went for Tarik's Urban dance class earlier at Melbourne SuperStudios (MSS). Wow. This chorey is definitely very different from what I'm used to.
Everyone was simply amazing, utterly awe-inspiring. The chorey itself was beautiful. I definitely did not manage to pull it off as smoothly as everyone else, but wow. The energy, the emotions which everyone let flow out of them, the way how they immersed themselves into the dance.. that was beautiful. At one point I was this close to actually tearing up. Watching everyone dance at the end, when we were dancing in groups, made me realize that I still have a long, long way to go to be dancer, the person whom I strive to become. My eyes were definitely watering at a few points whilst watching, heck, even when I was dancing and immersing myself into the song and trying to embody the chorey, trying to make it 'my own' as Tarik said, I felt myself drowning in the emotions that the song brought out of me.
I am definitely grateful and blessed to have been able to come to Melbourne to further my studies and dance. I've met such amazing people, friends, and the dancers. Wow. They are really on a different level. Not to say that the other dancers who I've met and danced with are bad, I mean that the feel, the way how they dance and portray themselves in the art feels so extremely different, it even compelled me to write a post on my blog which is definitely collecting dust since the last time I posted about it. I feel incredibly inspired and motivated by them, and it is people like them who remind me why I started to pursue dance as a hobby, they who remind me why I want to improve and make me strive to not just improve myself as a dancer, but as a person as well.
For those who are interested, here's the song which we danced to earlier.
P.S. to dancers in Melbourne who are interested in taking Tarik's classes, he teaches every Tuesday 8.30-9.30pm (Intermediate) at MSS, and Thursdays 7.30-9.30pm (Beginners 1 hour, Intermediate 1 hour) at Passion Studios.
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Rock it 'til waterfalls.
Friday 28 March 2014 | Posted by Aaron |
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I have to admit I am guilty of sharing this video like.. everywhere. But this video, this dance routine, this choreography holds a special place in my heart. You're probably wondering why.
Well, this chorey was actually the last chorey I finished learning from Maybelline, well pretty much the last chorey I finished learning - period - from all my dance teachers back in Malaysia before moving to Melbourne. So in a way, it marked the point of my life when I was leaving my nest and about to spread my wings and fly on my own. Lol that probably did not make any sense at all. Basically I kind of made it sort of a 'bookmark' in my life? It marked the end of one amazing chapter of my life and it led to another chapter. Hopefully that made more sense haha. I'm probably blabbing on and not realizing that I'm actually not making any sense at all, but yeah. This chorey means a lot to me. What better way to mark the end of one amazing chapter of my life with a dance routine to Queen B's song? Cause ya know, Beyoncé is just like, the queen. Love Beyoncé loads. Queen B. The QUEEEEEEEEEN. Ehehe.
Credits to my super duper awesome dance teacher, Maybelline Wong, for coming up with such a sleek, smooth, sexy, groovy and flowy chorey.
So here it is, Rocket by Beyoncé, choreography by Maybelline Wong. Check it out!
Video was filmed at Sole to Soul Dance Studio in Malaysia. If any of y'all are in Kuala Lumpur and are keen to dance, you definitely must check out that dance studio! They offer such amazing classes and have amazing teachers for you to learn from! So go check them out! :)
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Quick update.
Sunday 23 March 2014 | Posted by Aaron |
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So. I haven't been keeping my word of updating my blog frequently. Hehe. My bad.
Well, to summarize the events that happened in my life since my last post:
1) Got a job at H&M as a Sales Advisor. Great experience working there, got to work with amazing people and made tons of new friends, learnt quite a number of skills (in terms of interacting with strangers i.e. customer service) and I got to earn money as well! Yay me!
2) Took up not just 1 or 2, but 3 dance classes teaching different styles at my dance school in Malaysia - my normal New School Hip Hop/LA Style class, Street Jazz aaaaand Waacking! Totally worth it. Really felt like I've grown a lot in the past few months as a dancer thanks to my lovely dance instructors. <3
3) Hung out tons with friends! Mitty, Cicak, Esther, Ming, Ling, Yoshie and many many more. If I list out the number of people who came back from overseas who I hung out with, it would take up at least half an A4 page. Lol that's an exaggeration but I did hang out with tons of people. Anyway, Cicak (Nicole) went off to Canada in late December last year, sniff sniff. Ming went off to Brisbane as well. Bye bye friends! ;( But it's cool cause we still keep in touch and Skype. We've started a new chapter of our lives guys! Let's make the most out of this experience. Teehee.
4) Did I mention I was accepted into the University of Melbourne for the Bachelor of Science course? WOOT WOOT! :D
5) Went to Singapore for a short holiday with Mitty and Esther. Tons and tons of fun. Shopping, Universal Studios, dance, food and MORE SHOPPING. Hurrah! Oh and can I just say I FINALLY MANAGED TO ATTEND GIN LAM'S DANCE CLASS. I'll post a video in my next post or something, but it's quite a short clip, but I still danced with Gin! The dancer who I saw on YouTube who started inspiring me to become a better dancer. She was the one who started the spark, and my other dance teachers (Adam, Maybelline, Lydia) helped make the spark transition into a bonfire of passion for dance!
Well that pretty much sums up the past few months. I am currently in Melbourne, I moved here in mid-Feb. Settled in, said bye bye to mama and papa bear, and I am now living independently! Really miss my parents, especially whenever it's late at night and when I'm alone. It's okay though, not too bad cause we have a WhatsApp family chat and we constantly send pictures and we FaceTime too! So the nagging is still there, it's just that we're like thousands of miles apart. Lolol.
I've made quite a few friends here already, some I've met in O-week (Orientation), whereas some are my friend's friends and some I've met when I last came to Melbourne! Mitty comes over now and then to visit me, super nice of her to do so <3 I hang out quite a lot with Esther, and my relatively new friends Gigi, Zheng Yang, Ting Nee, Kathy and Tihani! I've also met up with a long lost classmate as well from GIS, Zharif! He left in like.. Year 8 or Year 9, I forgot which year but yeah. He left quite a while ago and I bumped into him in Melbourne Central and we were like OMG HAAAAYYYYYY. So yeah. Rekindling long lost friendships!
Did I mention Yoshie's in Melbourne as well? She decided to stay in Urbanest with me! Btdubs Urbanest is the student accommodation I'm staying in. I'm staying in a studio apartment hehe. She's staying on a different floor though, and even though we go to different universities and have different timetables, we still find time to have dinner and meet up with each other now and then! It's super good to have someone as cool as Yoshie stay so near me. Well, more like a few floors below me but yeah. I can totally just call her or go and visit her whenever she's home.
I've joined quite a few societies/clubs/organisations/groups - whatever you want to call it. Super fun, met so many people. Made friends in my lectures and tutorials as well! Oh, I'm in week 4 for uni starting on the 24th of March, which is this coming Monday. Which is today. Yikes, time sure does fly.
So far, university has been treating me well. Like I said, I've made quite a few friends, everyone's super nice, super good stuff. Only down side though, is the pace in which lecturers, well, lecture! I swear my hand starts weirding after lectures cause it's just non-stop note taking! I have to say many many thanks to Ms McGregor and Mr Fernandes - my biology teachers from GIS - for teaching biology so well to me. Cause what you taught me in A2, is pretty much what they're teaching us for biology right now. It's only because of you, that I can understand what is going on during my biology lectures haha.
Oh, totes forgot to mention what subjects I'm doing for this semester - Psychology, Biology, Classical Mythology and Criminology. All the "-ologies". Lolol. And yes, I'm taking 2 non-science subjects (breadth subjects) this semester. I'm doing it cause I can. Yep. Peace.
Adam (one of my dance teachers, he's a super cool and amazing guy) recommended a dance studio in Melbourne to me when I told him I was going to start studying here. It's called Passion Studios, and it is AMAZING. Love it so much, thank you for recommending it to me. I'm having a blast learning dance here. It's such a good way to de-stress myself from university and just temporarily lose myself in dance and forget about the problems of the world and whatnot. Did I mention my dance studio is legit one block away from my apartment? Oh and my university as well. Convenient much? ;D
Many many thanks to Michelle, Esther, Gigi, Zheng Yang, Ting Nee, Yoshie, Kathy, Zharif and Tihani for helping me adjust to the Melbourne lifestyle. They really help ease away the feeling of homesickness that has been constantly bugging me, and it's getting better. Thank you my lovely friends, for including/inviting me to join you for brunches, lunches, dinners, to cook and hang with you guys, for showing me where to get really yummy food, for treating me so well, thank you so much. You have no idea how much it means to me. It might not be obvious, but it means a lot to me. I know I can be super duper annoying, I can talk for ages and not stop and totally bore the crap out of you, my kitchen skills might not be up to scratch (it is getting there though, hehe), basically just tolerating my entire existence. I've found a family away from home. I mean Michelle and Esther and Yoshie were already family cause we've been friends for ages, but to everyone who I've met and become closer to in Melbourne - thank you friends, for everything. What would I ever do without you. :) Here's to more of me constantly bugging you for attention and to me constantly hanging out with you!
Oh and I need to thank Esther, Gigi, Zheng Yang, Ting Nee and Kathy for taking care of me when I was sick. Yes, I fell sick in my second week of uni, with a fever and headaches and coughing and sneezing and a sore throat. Thank you for taking care of me, cooking yummy and healthy food for me when I was sick, basically just taking such good care of me. Thank you so so so much. <3
Oh and I need to thank Esther, Gigi, Zheng Yang, Ting Nee and Kathy for taking care of me when I was sick. Yes, I fell sick in my second week of uni, with a fever and headaches and coughing and sneezing and a sore throat. Thank you for taking care of me, cooking yummy and healthy food for me when I was sick, basically just taking such good care of me. Thank you so so so much. <3
Anyway, that's my super duper long summary of what's been going on with my life. I'm pretty sure I've made quite a number of grammatical errors above, apologies for that. I am blogging at 12.40am and I have a Biology workshop at 9am, so yeah. I couldn't sleep, hence I'm blogging. Yeah yeah, excuses, I know. But yeah I figured I might as well do something slightly productive since I can't really sleep! This summary might be quite boring but yes, it's still an update, so I'm proud of myself for finally updating my blog. At 12.42am. Lol.
Okaaaay, time to wash my face and brush my teeth and try to get some shut-eye. Toodles for now my friends! :)
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