"perceiving life as a perpetual film."

i'm so tired and i'm feeling lazy and everything aches and i don't wanna do my work

you know how we're supposed to be on exchange and thus passing is the only issue, we don't really need to get As? yeah well. there's tons of readings to be done by the week and unlike in NUS i can't really postpone all my readings till reading week (duh so THAT's what it's for!) simply because they have quizzes and such every single week. sigh... so yeah us sophomores seem to be just barely surviving while the guy seniors are cruisin' their way through everything. nofe'air.

summary of the week

thursday: went to watch this reaction to the vagina monologues, guess the name (duh, of course the male counterpart) and it was tremendously funny... ange and i managed to score the second row seats despite griping about being so far behind in this snaking queue around the forum building ... and bitching about people who just try to melt into the crowd BEFORE us by entering through the side doors and jumping queue... well we got prime seats! HAH! (and this is for a free performance by the way). anyways when angie and i came back to beaver we realised that there was this big crowd gathered in the hallway. apparently racist and homophobic insults (really bad ones) were being yelled at people in the stairways... and so the police came and there was a big hullabaloo (bet you haven't seen this word for awhiles) and we all have to attend mandatory hall meetings with our RAs (resident assistants who're usually students) and the police and the residence management.. which we just went for today because they take attendance. whew.

friday: went to IFH for a party... it was hilarious the way jiwon tried to escape tawon's advances... the clingiest of the clingy superglue kind! we would form a halo around her while dancing (they had turntable equipment... so cool.... and poor floriaan was so sad that not many people liked his brand of eurotechno but seriously i was okay with it) and he'd manage to weasel his way in. amaaazing. so we ended up hiding in faizal's bedroom with absolut vanilla (and sharon's transported to vodka heaven) and firework rockets going off from the frat house next door... and jiwon going fearfully "whOZAAt!" everytime someone knocked at the door... so yeah. we left the place at around 245am to get canyon pizza and partake in the age-old penn state late night tradition.

the weekend seems to have just dissolved into nothingness... it being THON weekend (the largest student-run charity program, a 48 hour dance marathon) and me going to photograph it twice for photojournalism class, friday night/saturday morning i met kathy at 415 am at rec hall... it was utter chaos i tell ya. i hope my photos come out okay and that it's someone i have the name of or my friends know... so i messaged mil bon voyage at 6am and turns out she was still awake.. so i stayed with her till 745am when she left for her greyhound nyc-bound bus and i just crashed into bed (sans contacts, i still had presence of mind for my eyes) in the same outfit i'd worn the entire day... oh. so tired!

saturday: i wake to jessica's phonecall at 130pm and reluctantly take a shower to get ready for the malaysians' chinese new year gathering at east beaver... someone has actually put on the traditional music tape you hear at oriental emporium (or whatever it is now) and chinatown shops... jianmiandiyijuhua jiushigongxigongxi and there's LOTR on cable tv.... the mix seems rather surreal. i gratefully chomp down jess's beehoon and they've got red bean drink, good stuff!

i then do laundry and spanish homework

later on in the day i head with norman to alex's (a swiss girl he befriended through salsa and we went to IFH together) place at blue course st... it's a beautiful cosy homey apartment and there's people from her IECP (or just english) class... everyone's from a different country! i meet people from japan (sent here by honda corp. to study engineering here as visiting scholars and they're delighted to know dad's car's from honda), korea, brazil, turkey, germany and of course there's alex from switzerland and norman and i are from singapore... there's 3 older people... two are a couple from the states and one's a lady from taiwan... when they leave the younger people (meaning us) start gelling really well and the turkish people start jamming on the guitar.. i think i like turkish music! haha. the atmosphere's really great and i love alex's homemade swiss bread and the fairy lights strung out about the whole place makes for a relaxed setting. linda's job as an au pair here in the states makes me want to be an au pair too! (mental note to self: probable job after graduating from arts if i don't pursue an honors/masters degree)

sunday: i wake real early to go for this combined churches service at eisenhower auditorium... it's HUGE and it's my first time being inside. i go with kim and her friends again from christ community church and there's 4 other churches there... (too lazy to look for the bulletin from today) and i'm amazed to see that down the rows way up at the front on the left side there's a sign-language translator.... her hands moving a mile a minute keeping up with whatever's being said on stage. the service was unique, people very much into worshipping and even the preacher's the sort you see sweating it out at the pulpit... getting so into the message that his forehead glistens ...you get the idea.

i then go back and head to THON again with alice... saw digger outside doing a promo for a local rock radio station and he hands me a free lunch card at some local steakhouse (all riiiight!!) it's a wait to get inside and light snow's falling... we get in just in time to hear the last two families talk about how THON's helped their kids suffering from cancer.. people are getting emotional and i feel something welling up inside too.. how this community is just so close-knit that people don't mind working together for the cause to fight cancer.. it's all about family and everyone knows everyone else and the tradition's going strong.. how come we don't have that sort of thing in singapore? for one, i can see singaporeans sneering at how cheesy the dances would be.. but seriously if everyone doesn't laugh but dances with all their might, i don't see how it could be deemed cheesy at all. we really lack bonding in our society i guess. maybe because we're all caught up in our own lives and if we interact with others we start making judgements and everything, not being able to look past dress styles religion skin color mannerisms sexual preferences - you get my drift.

alice and i head outdoors and the snowfall has intensified... everything's carpeted with a light layer of white and i happily crunch around making footprints.