On The Move…

Exhaustion.

Last night, after a very busy HUCEP night (six calls, including the first man we’ve ever walked) I went to bed at 3am.  This morning, I ignored my 7am alarms and slept right through to 9am, when my essay was due.  I wrote a pretty perfunctory two pages before turning it in at 10.30am, which left just enough time to get dressed and leave for class.  (I seem to have lost my bike, which I carelessly forgot, unlocked, on the street outside the OCS building.  Very unfortunate.  I pray I find it somewhere around.)

During Justice I half-snoozed, quarter-read various things for French and quarter-took notes.  When class ended I was desperately ready for a nap.  But instead I decided to be conscientious and watch Mon Oncle for class.  Which brings us to the present, as I sit here in Lamont watching the (slightly bizarre) movie while typing this and (very illegally) eating a spicy chicken calzone from the Greenhouse Cafe.  Here’s the plan for the rest of the day:

12noon-1pm : Watch Mon Oncle (which is two hours long)
1-2.30pm: Attend make-up Gov 1740 section
2.30pm-3pm: Take desperately needed nap
3-5pm: French 167
5-7pm: Read remaining six articles for class/take nap/have dinner
7-9pm: Class at MIT

So.very.tired.

It feels like it’s been a month since I last posted anything.

—

The Dins held auditions this past week, which means that many of my good resolutions died simultaneously.  I had to stay up to 3am, 4am, 5am and then all night.  I skipped a class (to meet with an auditionee who eventually chose to join another group.  I ate lots of junk food I’ve not had in up to a year – oreos, pizza, hint of lime tostitos. 

The new Dins are a great lot, and that’s certainly something to be excited about.  At the same time, in many significant ways the group is either the same, or distinctly worse off as the year unfolds.  Oh well.  Next stop, world tour.  Well not quite the next stop, but we’ll get there before we know it.

I look forward to spending the next week getting back to good academic place, especially important in view of the looming concert rehearsals.

—

In other news, my classes for the semester have pretty much been decided:

Gov 1740: International Law (1)
Econ 1017: Libertarian Perspectives on Economic and Social Policy (2)
French 167: Parisian Cityscapes (3)
MR 22: Justice (4)
11.373: Science, Politics and the Environment (at MIT) (5)

(1) pro: I love the Professor’s lecture style; con: the reading is literally thicker than a stack of four large phone books
(2) pro: Engaging, engaged professor with interesting, radical views; con: I’m not sure I buy the conclusions of the analysis
(3) pro: Prof Conley’s urbane approach to understanding the urban environment; cons: actual work in a French class (*tremble*)
(4) pro: possibly one of the most famous and certainly the most popular Harvard classes (over a thousand students enrolled this semester!); cons: I have to read Mill and Kant, which I’m sure will give me headaches
(5) pro: one of the most fascinating discussion classes ever; con: holding my own against fifteen other Masters and PhD students.

—

Oh, and the people that matter either think my new hair is natural (eg “Jason, you stopped straightening your hair!”), or actually think it’s quite flattering.   Everyone else’s opinion I will simply discount as uninformed or uneducated until further notice.  *beams*

—

And if you haven’t guessed, I finally got my new desktop system up and running.  I am pleased thus far.

It’s been an amazing first week of school so far.  Actually it keeps getting better and better.  I have seven utterly compelling classes I want to take, many of which were unexpected finds, like a sociology class on leadership that’s taught like a HLS or HBS seminar, an excellent international law class and a surprising class on the libertarian analysis of economic and social policy.  I even found a final French class to take (completing my foreign cultures requirement and my language citation in one fell swoop) on Parisian Cityscapes – and it’s taught by my favorite Professor C from the last two French classes I took.

Tonight was the first time I worked HUCEP this semester, which explains why I’m up at nearly 3am.  Prior to this I was in bed by 1am and awake by 8am every day.  And I haven’t fallen asleep in a single class yet!!  (Anyone who knows me will realize how momentous this truly is.)

And hopefully there will be more good news to come *fingers crossed*.

To bed.

I’m back from the beach at Avon-by-the-Sea, which was fun while it lasted.  Meanwhile, Camp Harvard continues.

Living in the endless hallway that is
New Quincy also means easy access
(and incredible proximity) to multiple room parties.  Woah. 
So. Many.
Parties.  I have never seen so very many finals-club-type kids
wandering around drunk before.  It’s…  interesting, at the
very least. 

—

Unpacking is very tiresome, although
the prospect of eventually getting everything set up just the way I
want is quite promising.  I’ve hung many dozens of
wrinkled/crushed shirts fresh out of various boxes and suitcases. 
I’ve rearranged the furniture in my room multiple times, finally
deciding on the configuration that makes the room seem most cramped,
maximizes the distance between the broadband jack and the desk and
offers voyeurs in Dewolfe a full view of my bed.  In other words,
I shuffled the furniture around until I got bored and stopped.  I
have yet to find my five-point Creative speakers in storage (same with my
towels), my new computer is still in UPS limbo (although my lcd screen
has arrived), I managed to leave my winter coat in New York with
Sergey, and I still can’t find my white-tie shirt (which I need for
Freshman Jam tomorrow).

Clearly, I’m not ready for the fact
that I have my first essay due on Tuesday at 9am (pushed back from 9am
on Monday, thankfully).  Just two days till classes start – ready
or not, here they come!

I woke up this morning thinking I was snuggled in my new bed at Harvard in my spacious single in the New Quincy building.  It took about five minutes of blissful half-consciousness before I realized that I was in fact snuggled in a new bed in an even more spacious double in a New Jersey beach house.

How lucky can one guy be….?*

As I was saying yesterday, being back on campus just made me so exuberently happy.  There’s no truly logical reason for this, but the sun has been out, the move-in has been easy and punctuated by screams of delight upon seeing old friends (Dougie! Emmy! Judith!), plus not only is there nothing pressing to do, but I honestly cannot even remember what it’s like to have lots of stuff to get done on campus.  Camp Harvard, indeed.

As I told Dave, it’s like being a Freshman all over again – everything just seems so fresh and filled with promise.  It’s the junior high after the sophomore slump, I suppose.

*I’ve got a whole bunch of songs stuck in my head, and they’re mostly ones I heard sung on Friday night at Ellen’s Stardust Diner in Manhattan (which is wonderful in every way imaginable).

—

On Friday, with absolutely nothing to do in New York, I walked from 49th Street above Times Square to the Financial District (from Sergey’s office to Century 21, if you must know), and back again.  That was a lovely long walk in glorious weather (and of course, following a proud personal tradition I was in long-sleeves and a tie, wool dress pants and leather dress shoes, naturally) which took me past many favorite haunts, like the Joseph store in the meatpacking district (where I spotted someone wearing one of those last-season Prada hats!), the Prada epicenter store in the Soho area and the colossal Strand bookstore (which I’ve actually never been in before).

I’m still completely disinterested in shopping, post-London, so I bought just one thing all day – an oversized mug to replace the one that disappeared during Meredith’s REP study break last year.

—

And now I’m blogging from an unbelieveably nice house by the Jersey shore (distance to beach: 40 seconds on foot) right out of the pages of Architectural Digest or Vogue Living (headline: “Classic New England with a Modern Twist, gracious and functional”).  It belongs to a Din alum who had it built just three months ago – you can still smell the newness of the unvarnished hardwood floors.  His jewelry-designer wife did most of the work and all the decorating, and you can tell that everything has been chosen with great care and thoughtfulness – the bathroom fixtures, the landscaping, the window treatments, everything is just right for the place.  There’re 11 of us Dins here, and there are more than enough beds and bedrooms to go round without using the humongous master bedroom or any of the couches, and the entire third floor of the house is not even finished yet.  There are apple trees in the backyard with ripe fruit just falling off of them (best ones are the ones that land on the enormous hammock and thus escape bruising).  Loverly.  Ridiculous.  Perfect.

And chatting to the owner on the way to get groceries was very comforting too, in a number of ways, some of which I can’t quite explain.  I asked him about his job (lawyer) and how much he enjoyed his work (7/10) and what he thought about making career and life-choices (many tradeoffs).  He concentrated in Government and didn’t write a senior thesis, and now works in Manhattan but spends long summer weekends with his wife and two young children at their vacation home at Avon-by-the-Sea (he works from home on Fridays).

Ok, people are finally starting to get up.  Time to go for a walk on the beach 🙂

I just had a piece of home-made kueh bankit and a sip of Wyndham’s Estate cabernet.  It made me think of communion so I gave thanks.

I’m all done packing and there’s actually space to spare in my bags.  And it’s only past 3am.  Praise God!

—

On Monday’s episode of America’s Next Top Model, the girls were made to simulate being a tv correspondent covering fashion week in Paris by reading off a tele-prompter on-camera.  What a fiasco.  Never mind that not one of them could pronounce “Hermes” (or correctly read “Gisele Bundchen” or “Christian Lacroix” – what kind of aspiring fashion models are these??), they were even completely unable to read words like magenta and technicolor!?  Unbelievable and also very sad.

Which reminds me of two things:

Firstly, public school systems all over the world have major (but different) problems.  I’ve sketched out the outline for an essay on why I think people ought to stop being completely ungrateful for the MOE system (which is arguably overall the best system in existence), but since I’m starting school shortly I doubt I’ll be finishing that anytime soon.  (NB: Of course the system has problems and some/many of them can be solved with time/effort/money.  The point is that the way some people blindly idealize education overseas is simply not an accurate reflection of reality.)

Secondly, according to Janine, this year’s Miss Singapore Universe pageant (yes, I know, very sad programming) saw the clear front-runner fall from grace after she was asked during the final interview round to name her favourite festival of an ethnicity other than her own, and why she enjoyed celebrating it. 

The poor, stunned girl named Racial Harmony Day.  And said she enjoyed the opportunity to wear different ethinc costumes.   *ouch*  Just about the worst answer possible, no?

(NB: To her credit, what kind of question was that anyway?  How many “ethnic” festivals do we celebrate here??  Most of our public holidays are either religious holidays which have nothing to do with ethnicity like the Buddhist Vesak Day or the Christian Christmas, and the rest are secular, non-cultural events like Labour Day, National Day etc.  Essentially the only ethnic holiday we celebrate is Chinese New Year – but the contestant was Chinese!)

—

I sold my Tablet PC today, which was quite a harrowing experience (and also means I shall have to wait to get any photos up). 

I shall be a whole different person in the Fall this year – new hair, new desktop computer, new housing, new focus.  I’ll be almost unrecognizeable.

See you there.

Feeling a little frayed from being up since 7.30am after a brief and light night’s sleep (during which I  happily dreamt about interacting with white silkie breeders 😉  Getting dressed this morning to send Janine to TTSH, I threw on an all-white Boss ensemble and my new pair of Dior car shoes (yes, the very flat pair in soft brown leather and no traction – but most of you already know my theory about nice shoes and traction).  So of course, before noon I had visited not one, but two wet markets at Clementi and Old Airport Road.  Emphasis on *wet*.

At one point in some random washroom I just stood there laughing at the ungainly waddling I’d had to do to get there without falling over or splashing my white jeans.  It’s important to be able to laugh at yourself, I think.  It also helps to make it bearable when it’s other people doing the laughing.

—

Just about everyone’s gone now.  Luen apparently flew back to CA yesterday before I got to say hi, GJ unexpectedly relocated to Edinburgh and Cal’s already somewhere in Germany.  I suppose it’s my time to leave pretty soon too.  It’s been absolutely wonderful being back though, and feeling utterly comfortable amidst familiar surroundings and friendly faces.  I *heart* my family, my friends and my country!  *NDP song plays in background*

In Bangkok, less than 500 baht (20 SGD, 12.50 USD) will get you two hours at a five-storey mega salon with up to five stylists fawning over your ‘do.  Nice.  I brought a series of lookbook pictures from one of my favourite F/W ’05 runway shows and I think I got exactly what I asked for.

As expected, one of my sisters finds my new mop hilarious at best, while the other has surprisingly decided it has its merits.  Pictures to come.  S, I’d expect you to disapprove 🙂

I read all of 30 pages of Rawls during the trip.  Embarrassing.

Ah, bliss 🙂

Day 1
Lunch:  Chicken tomyam kuay teow (flat rice noodles) at BKK airport; cost: 100THB (4 SGD, 2.50 USD)
Dinner: Japanese ‘Sakira’ steak set and sauteed clams with vegetables; cost: 250THB (10 SGD, 6.25 USD)

Day 2
Lunch: Thai style fried chicken, roast pork slices, whole fried fish, green mango salad, sticky rice and Thai milk tea; cost: 150 THB (6 SGD, 3.75 USD)
Dinner: Family style Thai-Chinese dinner with eight dishes including roast duck, fried grouper, minced pork with basil, seafood tomyam soup etc.; cost: 140THB (5.75 SGD, 3.20 USD)

The immense benefit of travelling with someone who’s lived in Bangkok for nearly two years is the consistently high quality and authenticity of the places we eat at.

And I am still hopeful of returning from Thailand wonderfully detoxed and closer to my formerly svelte-ness.

—

As usual, my favorite Thai, Mr Pinky, was quite merciless:

“The way you stand makes your thighs look bigger.  There’s nothing I can do about that.  And your behind sticks out a lot more than most people.”

*mortification*  (In fact, this section may well dissappear at a later date when I’m feeling more self-conscious.)

—

I have been informed that Thais have a very commonly-used word that refers to the other people that an already-attached person is dating.  The word is “gig”. 

Example:  “Tonight I’m not going out with my boyfriend, I’m going out with my gig.” or “I’m meeting Gig One at 10pm and then Gig Two at midnight.”

Of course, this being Thailand, the term is gender-neutral, and can be used in a pinch even for people who don’t have an official significant other.

—

The new pair of aviator-style sunglasses I bought at MBK (160THB, 6.40 SGD, 4 USD) came in very handy on my high-speed motorbike ride to the restaurant tonight to shield my eyes from the smoggy wind.

—

I’m building up my armour for the coming Fall.  I have high hopes and quite some excitement quietly growing.

Number of kilograms of baggage allowance:  about 30
Kilograms of candy/confectionery/miscellaneous consumables to pack: about 8

The arithmetic is really not in my favour.

—

I leave for Bangkok tomorrow and I’ll be back on Monday.  See you there or see you then.

Oh, and my tablet pc is being looked at, so all those pictures I painstakingly edited are going to have to wait.