work @ ZOO. 14 november 2006.
it was a terrifying but fun experience;
an exhausting but enriching trail. :DD
met teng at the 6.30am to take bus 138 to the zoo.
we were instructed to rch at 8am, but teng insisted tt thr are ALOT of stops.
and guess wht!
the journey was only half an hour. :/
we spent the whole journey trying to cram in our scripts, and the fun facts about the polar bears and cat family.
thankfully esther and some of the guys rched at 7 plus also.
then we waited and WAITED for the rest of the facilitators to rch.
esther brought us into the zoo for a RLLY RLLY QUICK TOUR and told us some random facts about animals and plants.
i scribbled them down in rlly awful handwriting la.
its hard to walk when u have to copy stuff down okay.
yupp, then at 9 plus we went out to meet the girls.
my partner was sposed to be teng!
but esther swapped teng with elgin. hahah.
at first we were supposed to take 4 groups of girls each, but the fussy/demanding mrs teo wanted her WHOLE class to do the trail tgt.
urm. so in the end instead of 16 girls, i had to take on a bunch of 31 girls. :/
i took the lead while elgin took the back.
so im sposed to know whr to walk and stuff.
being the blur queen tt i usually am, im SUPER GLAD tt i din lose my way or lose any girls.
but the girls were a little harder to handle than wht i had expected la.
even with the mic tt esther gave it was hard to talk to them while walking.
the line was too long cos they walked two-by-two.
so only the front half cld hear me.
and stopping all of them down wld be too much a waste of time.
the girls are RLLY slow in following my instructions la.
i had to repeat the same line several times before it sinks into them.
urm. the most common ones are "GIRLS, PLEASE KEEP TO YOUR LEFT/RIGHT! THR'S A LORRY COMING!" and "GIRLS CAN I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE!".
you HAVE to get their attention when you're speaking.
it's rather demoralising when you try to speak to 31 girls and not even half are listening to you.
so the random facts tt i copied down earlier din come into use at all. HAHA.
actually at every station we were sposed to brief them about how to complete their trail booklet.
but ALOT of them completed on the bus alrdy. :/
kids nowadays.
too exam orientated and spoilt.
LOL.
at most animal enclosures, most of them were more interested in looking at the information board for answers rather than look at the animals.
even though i stated tt me and elgin wld ONLY be marking the leaders booklets, it din stop them from asking me to mark theirs as well.
while we were collating the points for the top group, several of them came up to me and ask "teacher, how did our class do? did we do very badly?"
OR
"miss ng! the marks is upon wht?"
LOL.
they were probably more concerned with their marks than the animals.
being the prim and princessy type of girls, throughout the trail they keep coming up to me and ask me when is their break, the weather is very hot, they're feeling v itchy cos of the mosquito bites.
HAHA. GIRLS.
for the mosquito bites i looked at them and asked them whether they want me to help them scratch. :D
the most frequent question tt all the facils got by the girls was, "CAN WE TAKE THE TRAM PLEASE? WE WILL PAY!"
hahaha. i dont mind taking the tram too. but they were not allowed to.
these girls are rich as well la.
they just whip out their mobile phones and digital cams and you know alrdy.
they're only primary three. gosh. :/
despite of the cumbersome demands made by the not-so-angelic girls and their tcher mrs teo, i find my job ytd very rewarding.
i like the way they call me 'MISS NG' and 'teacher', although i still cant rlly get used to it.
they respected me and sometimes their questions are nonsensically cute la. hahah.
i was especially elated when a girl came up and told me "Miss Ng, i like your trail!"
and they were trying to steal snapshots of me at the polar bear enclosure.
at first i thgt they wanted to take the polar bear so i shifted, but the lens shifted with me.
stood thr and wave as their bus took them back to marymount convent.
and i rlly shld say sorry to elgin cos i sabo-ed him to tell a joke during the "award ceremony", but he had no joke to tell. X)
esther said she was quite impressed with me and teng, especially since this is our first time, and i took on one whole class of girls, plus the zoo trail was the hardest to do.
she asked us to join them next year!
well, i wld, if it doesnt clash with Alvls.
im one step closer to being a primary school teacher! :DD
you just need to have: patience, unlimited patience and UNDYING PATIENCE.
HAHAH, but i dont want to be one also la.
after the debrief by esther i was SUPER ENERGISED.
went for a quick lunch at KFC. then i dragged teng to go on a zoo tour with me. :D
you shld have seen the 'SAVE ME' and 'LET GO OF ME' look on her face.
but i still got my way in the end.
went around taking photos with and of the animals.
WE TOURED THE WHOLE ZOO. except for some places.
like the fragile forest, cos teng was afraid of the vicious butterflies, the creepy caterpillars and the venomous spiders.
i got to see the white tigers, elephants and kangaroos!
hahah. teng was horrified by my high level of enthusiasm when i was happily walking arnd the zoo.
i decided to spare teng from watching the elephant show cos i've seen it before.
its a pity we couldnt find the sun bear enclosure. ):
i think i've learnt more about the animals than the girls did from this trail. HAHA.
and who's the creator of the AJ houses!
damn ignorant. hahah.
through teng's course of research, she found out that 'cougar, puma and panther' are the same type of cat, only with different names.
HAHAHAHAH.
next time we can change our houses names to primate names.
got more types.
mandrill, baboon, chimpanzee, orang utan, white masked monkey, probiscous monkey.
the SINGAPORE ZOOLOGICAL GARDENS has the largest collection of primates as compared to any other zoos in the world.
i can differentiate between a jaguar, cheetah and a leopard now by looking at their spots.
giraffes can get high blood pressure.
polar bears can swim for 10 hours without stopping. they are actually black in colour, just tt their fur is white.
they are the biggest bears and largest land carnivore.
JAZREEL!
the rhino's horn is actually not a solid structure, its just a mass of hair.
for every pride of lions, only one is male, the rest will be female.
usually the females will go out hunting.
in each pride, all the females are related.
they are either mothers, daughters or sisters to each other. :O
white tigers dont exist in the wild, only in zoos.
see! i've become more knowledgeble after the zoo trip. :D
i took over hundred photos during my own tour around the zoo.
HAHA.
i wna commend teng's improved photography skill, and her utmost patience for accompanying me around the zoo. ((: YAY.
its a SUPER LONG entry, but PHOTOS!
bright and early, 7am @ the ZOO!
me and the crocodile! hahaha. its fake la, i wldnt dare to do near one, much less take photos with it.
jazreel! i specially took this for you. your favourite: rhino butts! got three eh. HAHA.
special guest appearance: teng and the meerkat's butt.
baby kangeroo! i wanted to hide it in my bag and bring it home. X)
the white tigers. they're all too shy to face the camera.
the neatly coiled GREEN TREE SNAKES. teng's favourite.
i wanted to bring this lamb home too! but my bag was quite occupied with the baby kangeroo inside alrdy. X)
pigs rlly have curly wurly tails. HAHA.
the elephants and me! okay, doesnt rlly look like elephants in the photo. but whtever! i took photo with the elephants! :DD
a painting done by one of the elephants. WOW. can draw better than many of us la.
the HUMONGOUS pelican tt flew out of its tank and had teng running away at 115km/h, as fast as a cheetah!
hahaha. an ass.
i bet the CHEERS convenience store must be raking in big bucks.
$2! when the ones you see at ntuc is only 70 cents. :/
the ben & jerry's is cheap though. $4 for a single scoop. other outlets in sinapore selling one scoop for $4.50.
ayer. time for math peer tutoring. HORRIBLE HORRIBLE HORRIBLE.
