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I'm back from tuition, a little tired out. I guess I'm now in a pensive mood, hearing from the korean kid that his parents told him he might be heading back to Korea at the end of this year. Though I realise that life is a series of hies and byes, the good relations are so hard to bid farewell and the bad so dreary that one can't wish to end it soon enough.

Which brings me to a point of what do I hope to achieve in life.

http://www.allisonruth.org/accomplishments.html

JET Interview - Feb 16/80 days left

It's almost 10 days and I haven't posted an entry since! So many things have happened meanwhile..

I went for JET interview on Thursday morning. Everything went alright and I was for once not late. :) However, it was quite a bad stroke of luck when I realised that I was the last interviewee in the morning and it was compounded by the finally late time of the interview. Though I was scheduled at 1150 (and told to come 10 minutes earlier), I arrived at 1135 and and waited for 25 minutes at the front lobby. What an unnerving experience! After the wait, a lady who seemed to be the previous interviewee left and I was fetched by a Japanese lady soon after. The lady looked pretty composed and professional, so that sounds good news to her.

While walking up the flight of stairs to the interview room, the lady kept apologizing to me as the interviewers were taking a quick break and she asked me to wait in an adjorning room. That's pretty alright there, but the tiredness of the panel was evidently portrayed on their faces when I entered the room. The panel consists of a Japanese man right in front of me, with two Japanese ladies to his left, a caucasian man to his right and on the furthermost right another Japanese man. I was incidentally interviewed predominantly by the Japanese man right in front of me and the caucasian man.

The questions they asked caught me off guard. Gone were even the typical questions on why I was interested in JET. Instead, there was a strong emphasis on my exchange experience and what my exchange experience has brought (I said it changed my perspectives). There was another question on how my exchange experience might have been a significant factor by pitting me against the have-nots, something which I found difficult to answer. The caucasian guy asked me about my teaching experiences, cumulating in a "what are the differences in teaching English and Chinese". Goodness.

I left the room in jitters and lost all thoughts of decorum like wishing them good luck in their quest to select ALTs. I was told that results will be out in mid-April, which was a relief as it means that I can hang up my boots meanwhile and concentrate on getting a passing grade on my thesis project.

Kitto umakuyatte ikeru.. it's gonna work out fine.. I hope.

JET Interview - Feb 16/80 days left

It's almost 10 days and I haven't posted an entry since! So many things have happened meanwhile..

I went for JET interview on Thursday morning. Everything went alright and I was for once not late. :) However, it was quite a bad stroke of luck when I realised that I was the last interviewee in the morning and it was compounded by the finally late time of the interview. Though I was scheduled at 1150 (and told to come 10 minutes earlier), I arrived at 1135 and and waited for 25 minutes at the front lobby. What an unnerving experience! After the wait, a lady who seemed to be the previous interviewee left and I was fetched by a Japanese lady soon after. The lady looked pretty composed and professional, so that sounds good news to her.

While walking up the flight of stairs to the interview room, the lady kept apologizing to me as the interviewers were taking a quick break and she asked me to wait in an adjorning room. That's pretty alright there, but the tiredness of the panel was evidently portrayed on their faces when I entered the room. The panel consists of a Japanese man right in front of me, with two Japanese ladies to his left, a caucasian man to his right and on the furthermost right another Japanese man. I was incidentally interviewed predominantly by the Japanese man right in front of me and the caucasian man.

The questions they asked caught me off guard. Gone were even the typical questions on why I was interested in JET. Instead, there was a strong emphasis on my exchange experience and what my exchange experience has brought (I said it changed my perspectives). There was another question on how my exchange experience might have been a significant factor by pitting me against the have-nots, something which I found difficult to answer. The caucasian guy asked me about my teaching experiences, cumulating in a "what are the differences in teaching English and Chinese". Goodness.

I left the room in jitters and lost all thoughts of decorum like wishing them good luck in their quest to select ALTs. I was told that results will be out in mid-April, which was a relief as it means that I can hang up my boots meanwhile and concentrate on getting a passing grade on my thesis project.

Kitto umakuyatte ikeru.. it's gonna work out fine.. I hope.

I then started to return to school, realising that I might actually make it for the Japanese mid term examination held in the afternoon. I had gotten an excuse from the teacher for a make up in the event that I couldn't make it. Frankly, I haven't prepared much so I was really caught at the crossroads. I decided to try my luck by returning to university for lunch, and for goodness I met a classmate who was heading for the exam! She agreed not to squeal on me and we chatted for quite a while on the bus. It was pretty enjoyable I guess, 'cos we got to talk more about ourselves rather than in class where any form of communication is mediated by the teacher. To make a long story short, I did a brave thing (in my opinion) by not going for the exam and had lunch with a friend instead. I took the replacement test yesterday. :)

The Future - Feb 13/83 days left

My mom called me in the middle of Intellectual Property class this morning. She was sobbing and begging me not to go on JET.

I squirmed on my seat and waited eagerly for SL to declare a break. I told her I had some personal matter at home and had to rush off.

My mom wasn't around when I reached home. After calling her, she came back after a while empty-handed though she told me she went to get groceries. She looked composed but the tears came once we entered the house.

The main vexation was that they were wondering why can't I stay by their side and live a normal life in Singapore. To them, they see my education as a bane, a necessary sacrifice to put through in order for me to get a comfortable job in Singapore after the whole ordeal of studying. Since I entered pre-university, since I entered university and stayed on campus.. they have been increasingly wondering why are they more and more distanced from their son as the son becomes increasingly stressed and has to spend more time on his studies.

However I think the world today is a very different one from what they have lived through. We're steadily talking about globalization and dealing with other cultures. So what if I have a degree in the end? I join the countless other graduates out on the streets fervently scouring the classifieds for jobs that are oh-so-same. Why does 'going into the society' indicate the crux of the maturity process? Can't going on JET be considered as the epitome of the maturity process too? What is wrong with equipping oneself with another language and skills to deal with another culture? Those sound like good skills to have that can distinguish one from the rest of the graduates out there.

Thaipusai - Feb 11/85 days left

Saturday was a tiring day. I had Friday evening off as tuition was cancelled in the afternoon (a little vexed about it, but I welcomed the relief). I ended up spending the stolen time on Rakion, a Counterstrike-like Internet game. Though I play the mage which is terribly weak in hand-to-hand combat, it is pretty fun when I ran in circles to confuse other players and whacked their butts when they weren't looking. :)

About Saturday. I played too long on Friday (past 12am, late in my opinion) so Saturday was a dizzy start. I had a make up class for Intellectual Property and realised I ran out of breakfast (soya milk, actually). I went with YH to bizad for breakfast and realise what an extravagant person I am (so shameful). The class came and went, and it was time for lunch! It was then I realised I forgot to download money from the ATM and had to borrow 10 bucks from YH. After that was a tuition session with SH where we played and it was very casual as I cannot control him so I just played along. :(

It was the journey home that was fascinating. The Chinese New Year period is almost ending and there is a huge occasion in Little India today! So many indians coming out from the Hindi temple with spikes on their bodies.. yup it's Thaipusai! I felt just like a tourist as I strained to take snapshots on my phone. I feel so embarrassed 'cos I know so little about the festival although I'm a Singaporean. I guess if I go on JET I'd better brush up on such information.

Chinese New Year - Feb 08/88 days left

I am trembling as I write this.. 88 days left for goodness! I realised I haven't been here to face reality until yesterday evening when I met YJ and ZJ for dinner. I was late as expected (sigh, a very bad habit of bad planning) as I had a long chat with Suzuki sensei about JET which I was late for incidentally too (not again). Though I was late, she was quite alright with it, which was a huge surprise to me as I have always had the impression that the Japanese are very edgy towards puctuality! Anyway, YJ told me he reads my blog so that was a motivation for me to get back here again!

I have been procrasinating this week on work too. Such is a terrible thing to do as it means that I have to work doubly hard to catch up. Awful.. I shall write more here as an encapsulation of my experiences - I have an essay proposal due next Wednesday morning, another essay on intellectual property which I should start thinking to avoid the late semester cram, JET interview to tackle next Thursday and the usual plethora of tutorials.

Chinese New Year just went past last week (technically it is still ongoing) and I met so many friends that made me feel like a human being once again. Being stuck in front of the computer every living hour is no joke, as I can willingly testify. I met HY for dinner at Tiong Bahru Plaza to chat and hear about her recent trip to Europe. It was most certainly an enjoyable and laid back evening (getting old..), even more so to see an old friend once again.

I'm getting pretty good at going to Orchard and other places from the bus stop outside Science Park/PGPR. Saves me lots of time. Why didn't I discover it earlier and only until I'm so close to graduation?



An ugly night photograph of Harbourfront. I can barely see the cable cars in the sky if I squint. I'll try the night mode next time.

Other than the usual relative-visiting, this year's Chinese New Year was a quiet affair. There was lots of blackjack and I won a little after all those stints. I also met up with QK and WT too, after doing a little shuffling around in my calendar as I Have Forgotten Again. I should update my organizer more diligently!





Walking down the Singapore River

WT the Lawyer that Refuses to be Photographed.

The Singapore trishaw

Caught this along the Singapore River, though it's a little late when I switched to video cam mode.

And oh yes! RY went into the top ten finalists of an essay-writing competition that talks about the future global knowledge society will be. Congratulations! I really hope he will win as I think he is a suitable person to appreciate such international cultural exchanges. Ganbatte ne!



My family and I went to Chinatown again for dinner on Sunday evening before sending me back to PGPR for another week of studies (which explains my pitiful situation now sigh). There was a lion dance for one of the stalls in the wet market and it was a treat to see them perform. I got a video of it too - does anyone know how to convert it over to a normal video format like avi/mpeg?