Too far north?

Here's a picture i took somewhere around the city centre of Jyvaskyla in Finland earlier this year. The thought came to me then and now again after reading about the shameless acts of certain Singaporeans (and probably foreigners as well). I suppose the culprits have never made it all the way to Finland eh...

symptoms

I was at the mrt station waiting for the train home today, when all of a sudden i started sweating profusely. Thought that was rather weird since while i tend to sweat more than the average person, generally that's when its warm and humid, and i'm moving around a lot. In this instance, i was standing perfectly still, reading a book in an air-conditioned room.

By the time i boarded the train, i had started feeling somewhat faint and giddy as well. Again, nothing new, but still a tad alarming given the context (I was waiting for a train, not recovering from a long run). The ride to my stop felt like it was taking forever, and meanwhile i kept on thinking that i wanted something ice-cold to drink. Also, i wanted to get out of the train as soon as possible since there i was, one fella sweating away, while the rest were happily relaxing in the air-conditioned train.

Once my train finally arrived at Bras Basah station, i made a beeline for the nearest 7-Eleven (Well initially i wanted to get an ice blended from Coffee Bean but at least i was still thinking straight enough to calculate in my head that i could satisfy the craving at less than half the price of an ice blended by just rounding the corner and getting a slurpee instead). So that's what i did, and decided to get an overpriced pastry as well. Felt like things were back to normal soon after getting a sip of the slurpee.

When i got home, i did a quick internet check based on the symptoms, and the general consensus seems to be hypoglycemia (i.e. low blood sugar). I'm somewhat skeptical of this internet self-diagnosis though. That's because while i didn't have a proper meal until just now, i definitely had more than my fair share of sugar (thanks to Teachers' Day, practically every snack item in my possession has lots of sugar in it). So maybe i'll have to put it down to a spiritual attack? Nah...

Third Time's the Charm

It was Teachers' Day a couple of days ago. However, while i'm currently into the third year of this job, it was my first time actually having a Teachers' Day celebration, at least as a teacher. This is because the past two times i just so happened to be doing military reservist duty. In fact, the first thing that comes to mind when i think of the day itself, 1 September, is that it was the day that Hitler invaded Poland (something that i felt rather pleased with myself for informing my class about, since i just so happened to be covering that topic during class that day).

But anyways, i have to say that while i definitely appreciate whatever the students did in appreciation of all the teachers on this day, i'm sure i speak for many, or even most other teachers when i say that we'd gladly forego all of this if the students would show their appreciation instead by trying their best to pay attention during class, something that they fail to do far too often. Of course, we can only dream. At the same time though, it always is encouraging to see some positive response from the students, even if it only were to come once a year.

I'm definitely glad for this holiday-laden week though - Presidential Election off-in-lieu, Hari Raya Puasa and Teachers' Day certainly made my week :) Doubt they will ever coincide like this for quite some time more though, certainly not before i leave the service at least haha..

Hoping for the best for the Sec 4Ns...