Weekends

Weekends used to be so different: in JC I would come home on Fridays and crash, play Euro 04 or that tennis game Top Spin, and not do any work at all. Of course I'd be doing work on Saturdays and Sundays, but still I would take a couple of hours off to play or do something that didn't involve work of any kind.

During book-outs this year, it was again different: chilling every weekend with friends, going out for drinks, revelling in our shared misery and traumas-often hilarious on hindsight; but only on hindsight-and bonding over those memories. Needless to say, who thought of work??

If getting used to all the reading was the first adjustment I had to make (coming to college, that is), then getting used to reading smart will be the next adjustment I have to make. There's so much reading to do-if I read everything-that I have to spread the readings throughout the week, and even then I have a couple of hours of reading to do a day. Actually, that seems do-able, but somehow time just goes poof. And now that I'm finally getting my jazz guitar going (after all these years) I'm pressed for time. Yesterday I just sat down in the music room and practiced for two and a half hours straight, and I did the same today right after ear training.

The point is, I can never afford to just squander a day-I would screw myself if I ever procrastinated.

No I'm not complaining, and I am having fun, but it's just different.

I finally finished reading Oryx and Crake a few days ago. I had been stuck on it for a month, since it was a book that I was actually reading for fun (as opposed to the millions of books I read for my classes); in the end it wasn't all that fantastic and I thought the plot unfolded too slowly-but I was reminded by the dear owner of the book that I probably found it that way because I took so damn long to read it. Yeah there were times if I doubted if I'd ever finish the book, just like how I've read miniscule abstracts of a million and one books but finish only three and a half of them.

So it was a challenge of sorts to finish this book, to conquer it. And now that I have, I can move on to all the other book-presents I've received from you all... oops.

This week's theme seems to be 'archaic language that befuddleth why pee', because I am reading many tediously long works of archaic language and it is befuddling. And it is annoying. The pressure to stop reading is getting heavier and heavier, just as sometimes I feel that I'm slowly approaching that state where I'd just wait for the weekend to come-which I hope won't happen soon. I'm still surviving, I guess, and it never struck me that adjusting to college life would be a problem at all. Not that I regret anything, of course... (dare say I? Haha of course I mean it, I don't regret anything).

Homecoming weekend was over-big football game between Williams College and Amherst College, and we supposedly trashed Williams. Some what like ACJC and RJC-I mean, the football game takes place between the two schools. But I don't really care for football, and school spirit in college is somewhat different from JC spirit, ya? And anyway, I was playing in my jazz combo at the gym, where the school provided nice food in the hope that they would be able to dig deep into alumni pockets. Oh, college is so familiar in so many ways.

Unfortunately, I didn't get to record the songs we played-next time, I promise. There will be a couple of concerts in early December where all the jazz combos play for about 40 minutes each, I think, and there should be another big jam session next month. I'll try and record those.

I felt lost for a while after the homecoming performance-big woo pee, we pulled off a fairly good performance, now what next? Huge blow number two was dealt to me yesterday when I found out that I have to wait one year for the sequel to Jazz Theory and Improvisation-only Advanced Jazz is being offered next semester, and in any case, it clashes with the first Econ course I plan to take, Advanced Macroeconomics. Blergh, Econ. I have so many issues with taking Econ, but I shall just conform. It rhymes.

Midway through the week! Oops.

Hills

I've been having periodic ups and downs, over a variety of matters. Right now I think I'm on level ground, though.
I have a humanly impossible amount of reading to do, so I think I'll have to start studying smart instead of studying everything. On top of that, I face the prospect of having two papers due Friday. In short, this week is hell week.
On the other hand, I've been assigned the most delightful piece of homework, ever. To come up with my own variation of 'Twinkle Twinkle Little Star', although I know not the rules of re-harmonization and other theory thingamajigs (yet, I hope). But for now, so much work...

In the interest of planning, part two

London people, hint hint.

In addition to the Thanksgiving break, I am free from 18 Dec to 5 Jan (after which I'm doing an internship in D.C.) as well.

In the interest of planning

My next break is from Sat 19 Nov to Sun 27 Nov, but I can probably leave campus as early as Thursday 17 Nov.

So it was a Sunday evening

And we were having dinner at Ollie's, this place in Times Square that serves Chinese food. We ate a lot, of course-roast duck, char siew and soy sauce chicken, spinach with garlic etc. In the midst of our meal this old ang moh man next to us asks if he can borrow some sugar (for his Chinese tea). But that's not the point (although we did start whispering in Mandarin about sugar and Chinese tea, and hopefully he didn't notice).

The point is, towards the end of the meal, I suddenly decided to say very loudly:

"I think it's very undignified to eat alone."

And at that point, I was signing for the bill (credit cards are bad [but don't worry dad, it wasn't your sub-card]) when Weiming looked at me, smiled, and tapped my leg with his leg. The smile was a very curious smile.

"No, no, I don't mean Marilyn," who was eating alone (and not understanding what was going on. "What, what?") while the two of us waited for her to finish.

"I mean, ALONE, like, by yourself."

And so Weiming continued giving me that curious smile and tapping my leg, when I realized something about the man who borrowed the sugar.

I've never sworn so much in such a short time.

We got the fortune cookies and siam-ed out of the place, while Marilyn was still trying to figure out what happened.

Back in Amherst-will write more soon

NYC

I'll be gone this weekend, from 10/8 (Saturday) to 10/10 (Monday). I'll be leaving my laptop in the dorm, but if you need to contact me, email me at my Amherst account. I'll be crashing at Wei Ming's place-pity that so many people are having midterms next week and are busy studying (haha I don't), but we'll meet during Thanksgiving or something, ya?

Che

I finally finished watching The Motorcycle Diaries. It was seven months ago when I first started watching it (and now I realize how fast time has gone by-and this is probably the first time I mean it, because time passes so fast now) on the plane from Shanghai. Watching a biographical film is justifiable because you learn something as well, you know what I mean? Haha so Singaporean. And I was just about to say that I could imagine myself taking the path that Che would have taken-perhaps only people so foolishly drunk and honest in their ideals would do such a thing. Oh well, it was an excellent movie.

The Bible

It's pretty ironic that only after 14 years of being in religously-affiliated institutions am I picking up a religious text and reading it. This time, though, it's not just reading-it's studying it; not in the Singaporean sense-rather, trying to understand it. I will be blunt in saying that I know so many of you have wished of me to read the Bible, so here's your wish come true (sorry, I realize I sound very patronizing). I have so many questions though, and I cannot understand Genesis 1-20 as a story-there are so many disjunctions and what seem to be contradictions, and given that I've learnt not to accept things as they are, there are so many questions that bother me. I'm halfway through the readings assigned for Exodus, and they seem much more coherent than Genesis.. but I'll probably have to write a paper on this so I'm guessing that I'll revisit Genesis sometime soon..

On another note, NYC this weekend.

It's crazy

In the words of Sakura M. Noda-"That's crazyyy..."

Today was weird. I've been reading consistently since Thursday so I managed to finish all my work early today, even while spending 24 hours at Smith. I woke up at 11 today, read National Geographic, spent time practicing-go download Impressions by Coltrane (It's this ridiculous song that only has two chord changes but it's notoriously difficult to get the timing right, even for me. Just go download it and see what I'm talking about. It was good fun though, trying to solo over that song... it's crazyyy)-spend a bit more time going over the Oxford Study Bible, going for two hours of Jazz Combo rehearsal; I guess I'm finally settling into my schedule and this is the time to start doing other stuff.

It was this sudden change of state that left me feeling a little lost-what to do? Talking to Sakura and Suvayu and Chris, I realized that in the past two years I never had to think of what to do next. I had a full time table all year round. Perhaps there's a stronger sensation of 'carpe diem' that I'm feeling due to the postponing of certain obligations to the state, ahem, but.. this whole realization got me thinking (again) about my state of being (though not at all in a philosophical way-in fact, just the complete opposite)... so lost...

So we went out to the forest. We were talking about my nightmares and how vivid they were, so naturally, the topic turned to ghost stories. And Suvayu suggested that we go out into the middle of the field.. brrrrr.

Well I guess the scarier thing is that tommorow is Monday.

ISO party at Smith

Eva is the hostess with the mostest la, okay? Hahaha. ISO party at Smith.. I planned to go for the party and catch the 1.45 a.m. bus home, but with Ashley in Smith, somehow I knew that going home wouldn't be an option.. But for once I'm actually covering homework at a very comfortable pace, so, yay! Planning to join debate, so that I can visit colleges all over the country. Haha okay the real, or more PC reason, is that I get to think through my own views and think about what makeths the two hemispheres lodged up there. Because for quite some time I've been worried about how apathetic I am and how unassertive I am (with regards to my opinions). I thought college would change that-yes, it's only been one month and it's too early to tell (shit, it's October already!)-but somehow I have the feeling that I shouldn't just sit around hoping that someone will engage me in debate and challenge my views, the way Caleb would challenge my "noooooos". So, onward debate! Onward, ACJC (Amherst College Jazz Combo! Oops, and I mean, Anglo-Chinese Junior College as well)! Onward Smith! Onward New York (hey hey I want-correction, we want-to go to NY next week during fall break!)!

Oops

I won't be online from 10 to 3, as promised earlier-sorry about that. I'm going for Eva's International Students Organization party at Smith.. so I'll either be online at 2 p.m., 1st October (gosh, it's an new month already? This week passed so quick...) or 10 p.m., 1st October (Singapore time).