Wrap up of the semester

Alrightey everyone, exams for the term are finally over. From now, I'm starting my break from SMU for another 8-9 months. That's because I'll be going to Monterrey, Mexico for exchange next semester, from January to May, and then I'll be living in the US with Amanda and her aunt for another 2 months. WHATSUP EVERYONE!!! I am so freaking excited, and right now, I'm just having a mini moment trying to imagine what my next year would be like.

I'll like to take some time to blog about my past semester, some parts in excruciating detail. Let's start with the modules:

Marketing Research - I had good profs for all mods this term, and of course, I definitely liked Prof Cathy Chen for MR. When she first stepped into class, we thought she was a little bimbotic and crazy. (nonetheless, a very smart one) She's the kind of teacher that teaches and then tests you if you've understood what she just said. And that is scary because most of us tell ourselves to figure it all out when the lesson's over. But not Cathy, she will call your name and ask you what she just said. It's ok for me cos I always listen in class (teehee!) but some people just go to class to log on FB which I have no idea why. And it's funny to hear them stutter in front of her. Anyway MR is a marketing mod, meaning I LOVED IT, cos I'm a marketing major.

Business Processes - To be honest, BP was boooooring. Prof Demeester is a handsome, grey-haired 50-year old but his class is really the least interesting. But it's not the instructor's fault, it's BP. Sitting through BP is like sitting through e-math classes. The great thing about BP was there was no project, just 4 group assignments and I totally am so grateful that my assignment mates were normal people. (Will explain that later)

International Economics - I think I met one of the best professors in SMU by attending his IEA class, and he is Tan Kim Song. He's like a really good teacher, cos even though he doesn't use powerpoint, his teaching is so clear. But the project was one of my toughest this semester, cos my project question was this: China will be the key driving force behind economic integration in East Asia, do you agree? Yup, I know, it totally qualifies as a WTH question. And though my group mates worked real hard for it, we got a B+. My heart broke a little. By the way, I just had the last exam for IEA yesterday, and it was essay questions. Truth is, I totally wrote rubbish. At some points I panicked cos I had nothing to write, and that's when the rubbish came in. Sigh, so not looking forward to finding out my grade.

Ethics - Last but certainly not the least, ETHICS! This one was tough. Prof Shubhankar Dam has this crazy way of twisting the facts of the scenario and asking you for your opinion again. So we visited several topics over the term: corruption, environmentalism, discrimination, racism, whistle-blowing, kantianism, utilitarianism, libertarianism, egoism etc. For final exam, it was essay-style. Let me try to describe it: 3 women turned up for an office party, that was strictly casual dresscode, and appeared topless. The next day, they were suspended from work. The 3 women pointed out that 3 men who appeared topless at the party were not given any disciplinary action, hence they being suspended from work is a form of discrimination against women. In this case, analyze if there is indeed a case of discrimination against these women. Well, this question plus another 4 scenarios? Yeah, so it really wasn't easy. But I learnt a lot. It's only in Ethics that I've met some of the sharpest minds in SMU and we really had some great dialogues in class. I mean, this is the real interactive learning that I was promised when I came to SMU.

So this pretty much wraps up my academic term in SMU in the past 4 months. I had choir stuff as well, did you know I performed at the Istana in Week 13 (I know, it was crazy mad!) for the President of Singapore? And the choir took a photo with him :) By the way, Josh and I are still together. Yay. Oh i promised to write about the "normal" people in SMU.

The deal is, SMU is a very culturally diverse university. Just full-time students alone, we have a good mix of Vietnamese, Burmese, Malaysians, Indonesians, Chinese nationals and of course, our own Singaporeans. Then we have exchange students from Europe, Korea, Mexico, US and others. Here's a breakdown of stereotypes, and this is just meant to be teasing ok, I don't mean to be racist and I'm not!

- Exchange students are always MIA-ing. I've heard so many stories of exchange students who don't turn up for project meetings and the stupidest excuses they give for not doing their work properly. And when they do turn up, it's hard to understand them cos of their strange and weird accents, especially the Europeans. They have that Frenchy-German overlay in their accents. OK, but you know why they get away with it? Cos exchange students are hot and cute and tall and blonde. Yeah, so they always get away with it.

- Full-time students from Vietnam, Burma and China have very strong asian accents. They don't have same accents, but it's the same problem for us. On top of that, some have poor English and hence their sentences can be quite broken. It's not so bad if it's spoken, but when it comes in the form of report writing, man, it keeps me up another 2 hours in the night just to rewrite what they have written. In any case, I worked with two Vietnamese on the same project this term and they were wonderful. Just because we have obstacles in language doesn't mean we can't work together. We had many moments of laughter and you know, when you see everyone working together, it can be a very sweet experience.

- And of course, the Singaporeans! The Singaporeans are the bitchy ones. We bitch about others and about own people. Because among "our own people", we have other races right? Like Malay, Indian and Chinese. But because this is Singapore, sorry, it's a restricted zone of conversation. In Ethics, we talked about the different races and stereotypes in Singapore, it was damn funny. Prof went "give me your stereotypes of Chinese, Malays and Indians in Singapore". Man, my classmates sure didn't hold back. Also among Singaporeans, we have different classes of people like the "JC kids", "poly students", "deans lister", "all talk but no work guy", "the powerpoint volunteer because he/she cannot write", "the agressive group member", 'have never heard him/her speak", and the occasional chinese dude who speaks in a very polished, angmoh-ish accent.

So there you go. Isn't SMU a great university? It is, because the people are.

Uncle, mian bao?

Today I went to OUBC for a hair scalp treatment. My scalp feels so much more relieved now. Unfortunately I have sensitive & oily scalp, and have recently started using some special Keratase shampoo since August, which makes it much better. But every once in 2 months, I go back to my hairdresser to do a deep cleansing. (I can't see how I can survive without my hairdresser for 6.5 months next year, gosh I'm so spoilt!)

As usual, at OUBC I always order the raisin cream buns from Barcook Bakery. They're freaking awesome, you've got to try them. There's always a queue in the already quite crowded "alley" at the basement of OUBC in front of Barcook. So I bought 3 raisin cream, 1 mash potato bun and 1 bo luo bun. Anyway, I headed back to school cos my car was parked there and intended to go home. Then I passed by this grandfatherly cleaner I always see at the School of Business. But today he was walking towards Pink Orchard, which is a boutique shop at the basement concourse at SMU. When I walked pass him, my heart kinda stopped because I knew at that moment I'm supposed to give him one of my raisin cream buns. I continued walking but then I stopped. He was already several meters behind me. There and then, I knew if I ignored this "instinct" of mine, I would regret forever!

So I went up to the uncle, and he was peering into the window of Pink Orchard that displayed the high-end handbags and purses. I called to him, "uncle" a few times, at first he didn't hear me but then he looked up at me and smiled and pointed to the purses in the window and said, "Piao liang ah! ba shi ba kuai!" Now that I look back at the incident, was he thinking about a daughter/granddaughter/niece? Anyway, I took out my raisin cream bun and gave it to him. At first he stared at me and then he said "xie xie". He kept pointing at the purse and commenting that it was $80. I laughed and said it's so expensive, better not buy.

I'm not sure what really came over me. There's something about this uncle that always tugs my heartstrings. As Abi once commented, when you look at him, you kind of feel the sadness and loneliness. If that's true, then I pray that my extremely small deed had helped chase away some of that today, even if it's for a while.

Not a Staring Incident

It's 1am now, but I can't go to sleep cos my hair is wet from a fresh bath and I hate taking out the hair dryer. So might as well take the time to blog.

Most of us have heard the horrifying news of Darren Ng being slashed and left to die at Downtown East and the other slashing incident at Bukit Panjang. A recent news article just released clarified that the death of Darren was gang-related and not a result of a staring incident. I was not surprised, in fact, when I first read that it was a staring incident I found it hard to believe. As in the words of a friend, it "was obviously planned since they were carrying choppers in their hands and they must have been waiting for him".

So what the are the consequences of these horrible actions? I can tell you that it's not just injuries and one death. I do sense an atmosphere of fear now among Singaporeans. Even when I walk home from the carpark (which is a long walk to me), I constantly look sideways and backwards and suspiciously at those small gatherings downstairs my house. Now that Singapore doesn't seem as safe as before, I'm starting to wonder then how bad it can be in Mexico, which I'll staying for 4.5 months next year.

In the afternoon today, I was scouring the Internet for personal defense items I could buy. I'm particularly interested in the personal safety alarm that can trigger a 90-130 decibel high pitch sound that might help scare away your attacker, or at least stall him for 2 seconds before you run. When I'm going to Mexico, I'll buy 5 of those and hang around my bag and neck.

There was an article about how you can use a small knife, that must have its blade easy to pull out. A small knife is only successful if you defend yourself by catching your attacker by surprise. And there's no point giving a small scratch, you have to penetrate flesh and really hurt the person if you want to get away. Of course it ended of with the advise that said the knife should only be used by an experienced person. What exactly is this experienced person then?

There was also a paragraph about umbrellas cos such items can extend your reach. The thing is, an umbrella is of no use to you unless you practice using it. So for December, I'll have to put aside some time for umbrella practices. Who wants to spar with me?

In the end, the greatest defense is the defense against fear. Fear is crippling and it magnifies all the bad things. My best weapon against it is prayer and love of God. I'm so happy that I have a God who cares for me and promises to be with me. :) We should not belittle the dangers in our environment, be it SG or Mexico, but living a full life is so much more important.

Movie: 71, into the Fire

71 is a Korean war movie, set in August 1950, depicting teenage soldiers who have volunteered to fight. At the start of the movie, teenage soldier Jung Bum is terrified as he crosses lanes and alleys which are caught up in war between the N and S Korea to carry ammunition to another part. So, early on in the movie, one thing is clear: war is bloody. When Jung Bum retreats and goes back to some sort of command centre which is the now-empty school called Pohang Girls Middle School, he finds out that all the trained adult soldiers are going to Nakdong to fight the main war. But Pohang still needs to be protected because it is a somewhat strategic point too. (I'm not sure why, not very well explained in the movie) So, as the soldiers leave, 71 fresh-faced teenagers were given the responsibility to protect Pohang. The adult commanders somehow believe Pohang will not be attacked as the main war will be at Nakdong. Well as the story goes, Pohang is indeed attacked by one arrogant N Korean commander and his troops. With some ingenuity and guts, they manage to hold on until the adult troops came to help. Don't wanna spill too much cos I want you to watch the movie!

While the movie cannot match up to Hollywood's bang and glam, it certainly makes up for its character studies. We definitely see all kinds of teenagers there, how Jung Bum secures his leadership and how they have to fight their fear before they can fight any battle. It's such an Asian film, the people who can most culturally understand this movie will be the Koreans, Japs and Chinese.

When I watched the Town, I found it culturally inaccessible. Firstly was the accent, then the slang. Many Singaporeans probably do not understand how hoods work and how drug gangsters can be really powerful. Cultural accessibility is the main reason why I'd prefer a local performance to a foreign one.

That was a sidetrack. Go watch 71, into The fire! It's a GV exclusive btw, so don't go to the wrong theatre.