On Ms Tin and Mr Yeo

For the past 1.5 hrs, I decided to catch myself up on the political scene in Singapore. I read two articles, one on George Yeo and the other on the famous (or infamous) Tin Pei Ling.

Let me comment on Tin Pei Ling, since I'm a woman and only 5 years younger than her. So what do we know about her? She's 27 years old, has been working in grassroots activities for 6 years, full time job at Ernst & Young, and happily married to a chubby husband 13 years older. The rumor is that she broke up with her long-time boyfriend to marry her husband for political reasons. In any case, the rumor, true or not, is not important. Because when you look at what an MP should be, he/she needs to be grounded on issues of his/her jurisdiction. Yeah, Singapore pays an obscene "allowance" of SGD13,000 to each MP and many people don't like that, because MPs pretty much just listen to complains only. So, it does feel like it's "fair" to pay SGD13000 to someone so young, and maybe, inexperienced.

Many netizens have pointed to her lack of experience to handle the duties of an MP. But my question is, why can't she learn on the job? We have never really been totally satisfied with our old MPs anyway. Maybe we should try someone younger. Generally younger people are willing to work harder, be flexible, and bring new ideas to the table. But an MP, you might say? In any case, if you're not agreeable, then don't vote for her lor. But what if there's walkover? Then too bad, she's the only one you've got. Her young age might be an advantage, cos I think the younger you are, the more need you have to prove your worth to people.

Some people point out her inability to understand the poverty of some Singaporeans or how stressed some are to make a decent living. Well, it's really hard to find someone who did come from the slums and had make his/her way to the realm of politics where intelligence & skills are highly required. Sometimes, we just have to pray that people who have had the privilege to be born in better circumstances would look around and empathize with people who have much less. I'm not pro-Tin Pei Ling pls, but as I saw the nasty comments on the Yahoo article about her, I just thought I should say some things to bring a balance to these negative comments.

Now, moving on to George Yeo, I was quite touched to hear about his son and how he struggled through. Then I saw the comments below! Some were indignant that he had the gall to boast about his personal struggle (sending his son to US for top-notch treatment and renovating his house for his family homecoming) when others in Singapore have cancer, no money for treatment and wait to die, or die paying for treatment.

Ok, first of all, his expertise in on Foreign Affairs. Social issues are in other ministries. Reading that George Yeo is a former President and SAF scholar, his credentials must be like superb, and most likely, he came from a well-to-do background. (correct me if I'm wrong k) So I'm not surprised he's married to a lawyer. And with these kind of double incomes, sending your sick son to US is not an issue. (Probably has premium insurance to cover for it) But using that as an issue to personally attack his abilities is mean, cos they are not related.

From my student marketing perspective, both Ms Tin and Mr Yeo should have analyze their audiences first before talking to the media. Heck, just hire a PR firm. While our intentions are good, sometimes, people may not perceive them the way we want it too. I think politicians need to learn to look a little vulnerable before the people, simply because the masses can see through who they are. There's no point trying to smoke them (like how we in SMU try to smoke our way through) cos people are just gonna re-read every article on you and re-watch every video about you. And then, they pick you apart. But if you're honest from the start, there's nothing much to dig out right?

Capsule on March-April 2011

The Climb to Cerro De La Silla: It's a 1800m tall mountain. The peak we climbed up to was called Pico Antena, there are 4 peaks and this route was supposed to be the easiest. Ok, "climbing" is a wrong term cos really, it's a hike up the 4500m trail. But it was the most tiring thing ever by far in my life. Halfway up the trail, I was already exhausted. I have no idea how I managed to reach the top! And at the top, I expected shelters and maybe a drinking fountain. But no, there was nothing, nada! We had to sit under the burning sun, but the view was pretty because we saw behind the mountain ranges. Usually we see the mountain from the city.

One more thing, I stupidly sprained my ankle just before starting on the mountain, like literally ten before climbing. By the end of the day, my ankle was visibly swollen. The sprain was a light one, but the hike worsened it. The hike incline could be as steep at 45 degrees sometimes. I may be exaggerating, but it certainly felt that way. In any case, I'm so proud to have climbed this thing. It was something we had to do and finally did.
Church in Guanajuato: Guanajuato is a very pretty colonial town. The streets are colourful and the people are very friendly. Amanda and I attracted a lot of whistles on the street. I also bought my straw hat here for 199 pesos, about SGD20. There are not much attractions here, so we just walked, looked and see. (wrong tenses, but weird to say "walked, looked, and saw") I stayed a night here and it was one of the craziest nights I had.
Playa Gemelas at Puerto Vallarta: Puerto Vallarta is a very touristic beach town where you can meet many Americans, as a result, it's hard to find more isolated beaches. But we found this lovely beach called Playa Gemelas, which is a 15 minutes bus ride away from a bus stop which is twenty minutes away from our hostel by walking. The water is beautifully blue and the waves are great to washed over in. I never to experience waves this size that come slight over the top of my head, so when it comes, I have to jump with it, otherwise I'll get pulled under it. IT'S SO FUN!!!

Sadly, my camera is soiled internally, as you can see the spot on the picture above. There's no repair centre here, not that I know of at least. I'm thinking of buying a new camera. Shucks, should I? For upcoming beach trips, we'll be traveling to Yucatan where we'll be at Tulum, Cozumel, Playa Del Carmen & Cancun. So looking forward!
Los Cabos at Baja California: This was one super beautiful coast. We had to walk 45 minutes from the hostel to get to here. We're not allowed to swim here cos the waves are huge and you're sure to drown if you swim there. It's pretty thunderous when the waves crash onto the coast. However, there were not much to do at Los Cabos because it's very touristy and many things were expensive.
The Arch at Los Cabos: Took this picture from a boat.

In ending, I must say I have enjoyed myself tremendously in the last month. Went to many places and my most adventurous would have been at Puerto San Carlos in Baja California where we paid only 250 pesos per person (6 of us) for a 3 hour boat ride trip out to watch grey whales. Along the way we saw really nice lonely islands where birds own the place. The driver also dropped us for ten minutes at the sand dunes where the sand was finest in the world. Seriously, you can get finer sand than that. Wish I brought a jar back! Mexico is wonderfully beautiful and I'm super lovin' it here.

Epsiode 7 of theAAshow

Episode 7 is about Mexico City! Watch it here.

For those who missed the previous 6 episodes, here are the links!

Episode 1. Episode 2. Episode 3. Episode 4. Episode 5. Episode 6.

Some thoughts about video editing. I'm the one who edits the video, and I use iMovie, which is the simplest software for video editing ever. But it's limiting cos I can't do cool stuff like ProCut can. But it's ok, I'm happy enough!

I think it takes discipline to film and edit videos. It's like homework, it's hard to get started. But what really motivates me is the thought that my brand new vid cam is expensive, and I owe it to my Dad to produce videos. Furthermore, we've already announced to our friends theAAshow, if we stop halfway, that'll be embarrassing! In any case, my greatest satisfaction comes when people tell me how much they enjoy the videos. Whatever Amanda and I are experiencing in Mexico, we really want to share it with you guys. And when I come back to SG (which is in July!), people will surely ask about my exchange, and I can show them these slew of videos! The usual answers from people who went exchange are "very fun!", "beautiful", or "relaxing". SO BORING LA. As if you can sum up 4 months worth of living overseas in less than 5 words. (But i'm not criticizing those who did!)

Our next travel will be to Guanajuato, Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarta from 19 - 27 March. Yeah *sheepish* we're skipping 4 days of class. But that doesn't mean there'll be no videos! Amanda and I want to do a true vlog soon, just us talking to the video. So watch out for that in the next 2 weeks! :)

Mi País

I had to do a short essay on Singapore for Spanish class. With much trepidation, I wrote one. I got it back today, and to my utmost surprise, there were very few mistakes! I'm so proud of myself! I have to rewrite in this blog! Here goes:

"Singapur es uno de los muchos países es el sudeste de Asia y es una pequeña isla. En Singapur hay 5 millones de personas pero sólo 55% son los Singapureanos. La superficie total del pais es de casi 710.2km square. Hay mucho calor en Singapur; ;a tempuratura es en medio 24 y 35˚C. La Tasa global de fecundidad es muy poca, es 1.3 hijos por mujer.

En Singapur, no hay montañas porque es un pequeño pais. Pero mi pais atrae muchos empresarios porque Singpur es el centro financiero de Asia. Singapur es famoso por la cocina multicultural. A muchos Singapureanos les gustan los maricos y la salsa."

I'm so happy!!! Of course, I had help from Google Translate & Amanda's intermediate Spanish TB. STILL!!

SG women in demand!

Are Singaporean woman marriage material?

The article in the link states that an international dating agency, unnamed but apparently quoted by Time mag and the BBC, said Singaporean women are most ideal for marriage. 1000 surveys were conducted and women were ranked "based on qualities such as beauty, loyalty, adherence to tradition, initiative and fluency in English."

However 73% of 1700 Singaporean men and women polled disagreed. Half were male, and I'm pretty sure they contributed much to that 73%.

I can only say, Singaporean men don't treasure what they have here.

6 Weeks into Mexico

Cuatrocienegas, 29-30 Jan

My friends and I rented a Chevrolet Suburban and drove to Cuatro Cienegas a few weekends ago. It's a little town 4 hours away and is know for its oasis in the dessert and sand dunes. The picture above is of Poza Azul, an oasis that we found. Despite the numerous benches and tables available there, we were the only ones there. We had a slow 5-10 min bumpy car ride in from the gate and we were blown away by the beauty of the place. It was extremely quiet. Amanda and I swam a little. The depth of the water was just about my height. We took some beautiful shots, go to my FB to check the album out.

In the night, we rented a cabin for 7 people and had a BBQ. Because it was a rushed affair to buy food for the bbq, we didn't prepare really well. For example, the huge chicken leg that JW and Ben were cooking kept burning up because of the oil from the chicken. Anyway, i discovered that Budweiser beer and BBQ meat go very well hand in hand together. Probably most guys know that by now, but hey, I don't really drink beer. The guys had to squeeze into the three beds up in the tiny loft. It's so small that if you just sit up from your bed, you would hit your head.

I really liked the sand dunes, except for sand flying into your eyes. We took some really nice photos there. The AA show episode 5 featured this trip. Watch it if you haven't already! [The magical sentence was "I like Singaporean guys because they can be domesticated"]

Mexico City, 4 Jan - 1 Feb

The weekend after Cuatrocienegas, the 6 of us headed to Mexico City, which is the capital of Mexico. Without including the small cities linked to the main one, there are about 9 million people in Mexico City. (Wikipedia) Mexico City is THE place to learn about the birth and history of Mexico. The Mayans, Aztecs, Independence, Revolution etc. If you're going to Mexico City and want a real education and tour of the place, I suggest you hire a private tour guide from Journeys beyond the Surface. We had 2 private guides over 2 half days; they brought us to art markets, fruits and veg markets, korean restaurant (big highlight for a starving Asian although I'm Chinese), museums, and other landmarks. It was like extended history lessons out of class.

In the photo above, you see me at Teotihuacan. Teotihuacan is an archaeological site featuring 2 major pyramidal structures (one for the Sun and the other for the Moon) and other complexes. It was first found ABANDONED by the Aztecs, thousands of years ago. Knowing some of the cruel methods of human sacrifice, I kept imagining the butchering at the top of the pyramids. Pyramids found in Mexico are different from those in Egypt. In Egypt, pyramids are tombs. In Mexico, they are used as temples and the top of the pyramid is a platform, not a point. Within the pyramid, there are no chambers. It's about the exterior flight of stairs leading to the top. Crowds would gather at the bottom of the pyramids to watch animal and human sacrifices. The stairs up the pyramids were really steep, and me being really unconditioned, had to stop once in a while to catch my breath while the rest "gazelle-ed" up.

Interesting as Mexico City is, I wouldn't go there again this semester. We had initially planned to visit Mex City again in Holy Week (something like Spring break) but, we feel that we've seen and heard enough. Next stop: Guanajuato, Guadalajara and Puerto Vallarte!

Friends in Mexico

If you've seen my FB pictures, you would realize there's this usual 6 of us. Four look Chinese and 2 white people. Well, Amanda, Jie Wei, Xue Kun and myself are from SMU. And yes, all 4 of us are Chinese, though we have heard a comment from someone questioning whether the guys are Malay or Indians. (Wait, need time to laugh about this!) The two (very) white people are my favorite Germans in the world; Ben and Kati. Well actually their real names are spelled weirdly, Benedikt (there's actually a "k"!) and Katje (don't try pronouncing it). It's usually the 6 of us and we have so much fun hanging out. We play monopoly deal, watch movies, make up a cheer about Kati's sexy bf, tease Ben's name (we call him "ben wow"), and Amanda ("Sexy Amanda") and for me, I'm the Domesticator. If you don't get it, it's ok. This blog post is for me to read in the future and laugh about. :)

Happy 1st year.

One year ago, Joshua asked me to be his girlfriend officially. We were sitting at the front seat of bus 15.

Today I received a card in Mexico all the way from Singapore. I believe Joshua when he wrote that the poem written on the card by Suzanne Berry accurately describes how he feels about me.

I love you.

I love you for your sexy smile

and the ways you make me laugh

I love you

for how you look at the world,

for your good heart

and quick mind,

and for the many ways

you're my truest, closest friend.

But most of all...

I love you for your love -

the kind of amazing, generous love

that has absolutely changed my life for the better.

And thought I knkow I say it a lot,

everytime I do, I mean it

deeply and forever...

I love you.

I love you.

I love you.

I truly am so blessed to be your girlfriend, Josh. I love you too. Te amo, Josué.

At Monterrey, Mexico

Hola!

It's now 15th January, I'm not sure about you but the blogger in me is wondering where the heck I've been. Well, I'm now in Monterrey, Mexico, for an exchange programme at the Tecnologico de Monterrey, Campus Monterrey.

Ever since I started making videos, (ok, only 2 AA episodes and one FB vid), I kinda stopped having the inclination to blog. Some people can vlog, blog, tweet and FB status-whore (I mean that as a verb) all the time! But I can't. How many emotional outlets do you need??

Right now, at Tec, I've met several people. It's a lie when people say they immediately settle down into a big party of 5 months during exchange. For me, I took several days to really settle down. First was the physical settling down: I had to learn how to sleep with a room mate. Living with your best friend as a roomie is as good as it can get, but for me, I've slept alone for 10 years. I'm an extremely light sleeper, and the initial wave of homesickness kept me awake for many nights. But with a lot of prayer, that worst part is finally over! So wanna give God all the glory, cos now's the part when things start to fall in place.

I've become good friends with 2 SG guys and got to know better 2 Germans (a man and a lady). For all the other international students, it's still more on a hi and bye basis. Today, we got to know a guy from HK as well. It's was really nice just sitting at JW & XK's place just yakking away with him.

The past 2 nights, Amanda and I got back home at 3am. Nope, we didn't go to parties. We were just invited to friends' places to have drinks and just talk. I mean, there's really a lot of talking and exchange of culture! So far, it's really more of a German-SG exchange though. LOL.

As for school so far, as an exchange student, I'm just going to take it easy. All the Tec students are so bright and hardworking. But I'm all prepared to skip class for necessary travelling. The school allows exchange students to miss up to 3 weeks worth of classes, beyond that, you would fail the course. 3 weeks leh!!! We have 2 long weekends, so probably we'll take Friday's off in those weeks? ;)

The language barrier is killing me. But I'm determined to learn some Español! (Spanish) I would be a total loser if I don't give it my best shot. Guess what? My basic spanish textbook is totally in spanish. It's so WTH you know. If the entire textbook of BASIC SPANISH is in spanish, how am I supposed to learn spanish? Currently, I type in the words into google translate to understand the text. But that's uber tedious.

I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. Firstly there'll be church in the late morning. Can't wait to sing some praises to God. Then our host family will be bringing us to a mall! *Shopping!!!* Dad, if you're reading this, please note that you'll be receiving some bills at the end of the month from OCBC! HEHE. And in the evening, we'll probably be barbecuing at the Germans' nice big house. (Well, they're the ones with the Euro) So yup! Until the next post, nos vemos! (pronounced: nose b-air-moss, meaning see you again)

The AA Show

Hey all, Amanda and I going to Mexico for exchange. We're starting a web series called the AA show (Anna & Amanda). Click on the following link for the 1st episode. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L8F6RPopmHw

I used iMovie to edit it. So far, it's just us talking in the room but I hope subsequent videos will have more adventure. Some friends have said that it's funny, hopefully they're not being too kind. OK, enjoy!

Public Transport in Singapore

First I'll like to blog about the recent awesome pantomime called Cinderal-Lah! produced by Wild Rice! Productions. A pantomime is a mixture of theatre genres that aims to localised famous moral stories and inject lots of humor and cross-dressers into it. In Cinderellah, my usual favourite theatre actors were there: Sebastian Tan, Emma Yong, Gurmit Singh, Najib, Chua En Lai (*small scream*), Neo Swee Lin and more. Let me be upfront and say that local musical theatre can never be as good as Broadway, at least not as good as what I've heard on Youtube/soundtracks since I've never been to New York. Vocals wise, we have a long way to go. But as I said in one of my earlier post, I rather go to a local musical show than a foreign one. All the usual wisecracks were there, and I loved everyone of them. And the story is ridiculously ridiculous. So, if you're looking for deep plot and awesome Broadway standard vocals, you can go fly to New York. But other than that, it was a great show, lots of laughter, very interactive, and best of all, very Singaporean flavour. And of course, a great thank you to Josh who generously treated me to this show and got us both really good seats.

Next, I wanna talk about transportation in Singapore. As you know, because I managed to obtain season parking at SMU in the past term, I've very hardly taken public transport for 4.5 months. It's drive, drive, drive, drive and drive. And man, driving is expensive!! Season parking, which ended on Dec 1, had cost me about $450 altogether. Throw in about $100 a month for petrol, $20 a month for cashcard top ups (for ERP and non-SMU carparks), $10 a month for parking coupons (for open carparks @ HDB flats), and the occasional $30 fines (thrice this term) for running out of parking coupons or forgetting. MAN!!!

Anyway, I still loved the privilege for being able to drive around. No waiting for buses or trains and no crowding with the massive crowds. But on the other hand, I had traffic jam troubles especially on Tuesday mornings when I have BP class at 8.30am. To reach on time, I always leave at 7.50am, and ERP would cost me $2.50. It's stressful cos you need to strategize; you need to decide to filter lane or stay; In a traffic crawl, try to stick close to the car in front because you don't want people to cut in, not when you're already waiting like forever. Neither do you want to stick too near because you don't want to kiss another car's ass. PLUS (!!!) my freaking Chevrolet Aveo is a manual car!!! But through it all, I still loved the fact that I could drive as and when I wanted to. Overall, a lot of time was saved.

Since I have no longer any season parking, I've pretty much stopped driving. I simply no longer have a place in town to hide my car. Adults, when they meet, usually park their cars for like 1.5 hours over lunch or dinner and then part ways. But people my age, when we meet, we like to sit and chat and shop, watch movie, hop from mall to mall, and all these require mobility and long hours. I simply cannot afford to park my car at Raffles City for 2 hours for lunch, drive down to PS for movie and then to ION to meet someone else for dinner. Let's not forget the million ERP gantries in town. So what then... Ladies and gentlemen, I've successfully eased back into our beloved public transport system.

First was the decision to NOT drive. It takes conscious effort to leave your car at home and take the bus. In the beginning, I had one or two moments of weakness.. meaning I took cab. (I know, I'm so spoiled!) All the flaws of our public transport system were glaringly clear to me: the waiting the times, the fact that my house is 6 bus stops away from the MRT, bus stop which I walk to from the MRT to go home is a 7 min walk, and worst of all, the crowds. But you know what changed my attitude? It was a comment from my best friend Amanda, I can't remember what she said but basically it totally made me realize I'm actually really pampered (I hate to use the word 'spoilt' but u may say that?) and that this fact might actually make me a bad travelling partner when we go to Mexico. All that driving has made me a weakling, one who fears crowds and walking.

So with a positive attitude now, my perspective on travelling has changed. It's amazing what attitude can achieve. These are my following observations:

1. MRTs don't make you wait long, usually 3 minutes. Even the occasional 6 minute wait is actually a piece of cake in the grand scheme of things in life.

2. Buses and trains in Singapore are uber clean. Something I'll really miss in Mexico.

3. Public transport in SG is safe. In other countries, crowds at subways and bus stations make it an attractive place for petty thieves.

4. Public transport is cheap!!! Cityhall to my place is $1.10. I remember paying 6 or 7 Euros in Amsterdam for a single 20 min train ride.

5. With Distance Fares, routes become faster. Just hop on and off, whatever suits you. I know that LTA recently admitted to some wrong calculation of fares up to $300,000, but still, I think I was one of the people who saved money.

6. With GPS in SBS buses, you can always know when your bus is coming. I usually take SBS buses only, so that totally rocks for me. The sucky thing about waiting is not waiting itself. It's the question, "Is it coming yet?" and the expectation to something to come come be frustrating. But when you know when something is come, the subconscious anxiety is cut off. For those with iPhones, I highly recommend the app SG Buses.

I better appreciate Singapore's public transport as much as I can. For a glimpse into what I'll be expecting at Monterrey soon, the following was taken from the FAQ at the handbook they gave. Oh swell.

Is public transportation safe in Monterrey?

Yes, you may feel safe taking a cab for transportation. However, we make the following recommendations to minimize risks:

Avoid using city buses. Use a cab instead.
Try to arrive during the day.
Don’t share your cab with strangers.

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.

The Story of Cosmetics

A while back, I posted this video called, The Story of Stuff.

Recently, I went back to the website and saw a shoot-off discussion about cosmetics. That's how I came across The Story of Cosmetics. (Women, click on the link to watch the video)

I started thinking about all the cosmetics and beauty products I use everyday. Let's see what I have:

1. Shampoo

2. Conditioner

3. Body wash

4. Facial Wash, sometimes Facial Scrub

5. Make-up remover, if I had make up that day

6. Mascara remover, it's not the same at no.5 !

7. Moisturizer

8. Sunscreen

Things I use every other day:

9. Hair tonic

10. Hair oil

11. Hair night repair; As you can see, I'm quite the hair person

12. Deodorant

13. Make-up stuff like foundation, eyeliner, mascara, blush, lipstick

For once in a while:

14. Face mask

15. Fragrance

Wow, that's a lot of synthetic stuff full of chemicals I can't pronounce in 5 seconds. It's scary when people claim these stuff in the bottles have been found linked to cancer. My initial reaction was to brush these comments off, but in times when you're just not too sure, better to walk on the precautionary side yeah?

The solution sure isn't to abstain from these products. I can't imagine NOT putting on sunscreen and moisturizer everyday. Nor can I stop using my shampoo which has only recently proved very effective for my oily and sensitive scalp. I need this whole bunch of hair stuff cos I sometimes use the hair straightener to shape my hair, and that thing does it at 180 degrees Celsius. And with the wonders of make up... Ok, I'm getting carried away.

Right now, I don't really have the right frame of mind to really think about these things. I need to concentrate and bring my game for my projects, which usually consist of reports and presentations. That is why I haven't been very successful in being vegetarian and eating healthily. When my brain goes on an overdrive, it seems to need lotsa junk food and craves meat. My brother interprets this as vegetarian being unhealthy for me. HUH? Anyway, when December comes, I'm going to delve more into these issues and think about what I want to do. :D In the meantime, let me keep staring at my reports to see how I can squeeze an A grade out of my professors. :p

About presentations

It was 9.45pm when I got home last night. The mail pouch (a cloth bag with 3 pouches for my father to separate the mail among my siblings) held an envelope for me. My first thought was "Oh, a card from Clarinda!" I'm not sure what gave me that idea but anyway, when I opened it, the front said "Just wondering... ever u dream of 'someone' to walk hand in hand?" So my next thought was, oh, this is a wedding invitation. And when I opened the card, I just smiled cos it's one those no-rhyme-or-reason card that he sends like once in 6 months? Haha. Anyway, I totally did not understand the front page of the card. It totally needs grammar restructuring to become "Just wondering, have you ever dreamt of 'someone' to walk hand in hand with?" I'm not sure why the word someone has inverted commas though.

I put the picture above on Facebook and got 10 "likes". Gestures of love never fail to make people smile. Josh did say he felt violated cos some parts of the text was in the picture. Haha.

Anyway, now's the time for presentations. After 8 semesters in SMU, this is my 9th, I've seen plenty of presentations. To me, in a business setting, the best kind of presentations are one which speakers are well-prepared, do not hold cue cards unless there's a good amount of data, speak spontaneously, good flow of presentaion and SIMPLE slides. I mean, slides that have minimal animation, just key words, clear and good fonts, and clean template. If you're a real slick speaker, you can pull off with white and plain slides, really!

The hardest parts of multi-speakers presentation is that the changing speakers do break the flow of presentation, a good handover from speaker is crucial. Another one is flow of presentation. As presenters, definitely the info and meanings are good in your head, but often the audience needs to be pointed out the important explanations. When you jump from one point to another without fully showing the relationships of your information, your audience is left confused and forced to make sense of your presentation. But the hardest hardest thing is the speaker him/her-self. Let's face it, not everyone is a Steve Jobs or a professional motivational speaker. We like to think we are, but even the most out-spoken and confident amongst us would tend to lose focus in a presentation simply from the lack of practice. I'm not talking about lack of practice of your speech but simply, as students, it's not our job to face people as a presenter daily. Professional speakers do that all the time, and they naturally get better.

As student presenters, we need a different strategy. For example, know your audience well. These classmates have been with you for 10 weeks, use that to your advantage! Speak to them student-to-student, of course armed with a lot more knowledge, but don't pretend you're a professional, just someone who has done his or her homework. Create opportunities for interaction, throw out rhetorical or simple questions just to keep them on their toes. Basically, do not pretend you don't know your classmates, where they're from and assume they will be listening hard to your presentation.

Just give me 2 more minutes, I wanna highlight the importance of first and last speaker. First speaker needs to set the tone and energy of the presentation. You excite your audience about your topic, why's important and usually, you'll be the one giving the background information. You make sure why they should listen and you have to be a bit drama to get them to focus. The last speaker needs to be very attentive to the audience throughout the presentation. He or she needs to watch out for audience reactions as they listen to 2nd and 3rd speaker cos usually these are data information. Sometimes, due to fatigue or simply bad presentation skills, the audience is simply not getting it. The last speaker needs to reconcile that understanding in an impromptu summary, if needed, before diving straight into the conclusion. And that's why the last speaker needs to be extra clear and confident.

Stressful period ahead

I'm stressed. Let me describe my stress: 1 presentation and report due this Saturday. 2 presentations, one report due the week after.

Marketing Research - My major quantitative survey is nowhere near our targeted numbers. Ladies, if you're Singaporean and between the age of 18-38, please click here to participate in the online survey. Please, pretty please.

The stressful thing is not the amount of work but the huge amount of thinking I'm putting into my projects. Sometimes I feel like my brain is malfunctioning and I can't answer questions. Many times I experience what psychologists like to fondly say, 'groupthink'. This happens when everyone just doesn't think critically and in the end, no much is contributed. I'm extremely frustrated cos I have to keep pushing my project mates for meetings and ideas and basically, getting work done. It's quite a bit of mental strain here.

Every student has 3-4 projects on their plates. So during meeting times, productivity is extremely low. But I don't think tiredness and lethargy are good excuses. The best present you can give yourself is to push yourself mentally, contribute to the meeting and be efficient so that we can all go home early.

Ok back to my IEA report...

No carbon footprint? Wow

During Ethics class, my instructor played a video of a man named Colin Beavan and his wife who decided to live a no-impact lifestyle. They undertook a year-long experiment, together with their 2-year-old daughter, to see how they can live a life without harming the environment. That means no taking public transport (ride bicycle), buying from supermarkets (buy from something like our wet markets aka whole foods market), no buying new stuff (no bags, clothes etc), no detergents and shampoo (make your own), no lights (beewax candles) and no toilet paper. Oh wait there's more, no meat & fish, no taking lifts, planes (for people in the US, it means you can't visit your relatives living in another state), no soda or carton milk (you fill up your milk from like a big big bottle with your own flask), bringing out own cloth bags everywhere, can't eat at restaurants and no fridge. And by the way, they live in New York City.

That was 2007 and the experiment is over. I guess they took back some stuff, probably toilet paper? It certainly put me to shame cos I'm finding it a little hard to maintain my twice-a-week vegetarian lifestyle. This week, I've been trying to do it daily, but slipped into temptation over 2 meals. Amanda, my best friend, tried out vegetarian for 2 weeks in May 2010 and she said, "When I did it, it really wasn't hard at all. I did it because it was a challenge. But now, no one challenge me, so point doing it."

So I'm a little inspired now to try to reduce as much waste as I can. I can't compost my waste even if they're biodegradable, cos my family will have a big issue having me keep soil, worms and decaying stuff in a big box. And my biggest guilt? Driving to school each and everyday. And everyday on a weekend to anywhere. Much as I try to reduce my consumption in other things, i do trump over many of my friends just based on my car fuel consumption. (About 40 litres every 2 weeks?) In Amsterdam, Amanda and Shun and I rode our bike everywhere. It made our trip so much fun and it wasn't tough at all. But in Singapore, it'll be many years before we find any shred of political will to transform our road grids to include bicycle lanes.

So some stuff I'm gonna do:

1. Avoid buying things that require packaging. Er, ok that pretty means everything. Probably I have to bring a cloth bag and a tupperware everywhere I go. So if i want to grab some bread, I will have to ask the staff to pack in it my tupperware. Same for take-aways at coffeeshops. Otherwise, I'd have to eat-in.

2. Think like 5 times first before buying anything. That is going to be a big issue cos I like shopping and buying new things. (I don't even want to think how many shoes I've thrown away) I wanted to buy some stickers at Daiso today, but couldn't bring myself to do it cos i know they'll be thrown away after an event.

3. Try to be a full-time vegetarian. This is hard hard hard. Hmmm, the only vegetarian meal I truly love is salads from Salad Stop! A typical salad will include lettuce, grapes, oranges, toufu, brown rice, apples, broccoli, sunflower seeds, potato, cucumber, string peas, corn, chick peas and a dressing called orange mint. Talk about yummy! But it costs $9.50. I think on the basis of health and nutrition, $9.50 is totally worth it. Yet, knowing I'm a student and having the very Asian value of saving, spending $9.50 is simply put, a splurge. OK, the other two options are yong tau fu and economic rice (aka Cai Fan) which is typically one-third the price compared to salad. (but not as shiok)

I do feel quite alone in all these. Even among my close friends, few agree with me. The familiar saying "the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" is true. If you've read this far, I'm super grateful and I hope you'll at least give it some though about your impact on the environment.

Videos. How hard can they be?

I've been watching so many KevJumba videos that I've developed a minor crush on this boy one year younger than me. Haha, kidding la, Josh, I only have eyes for you! But this whole vlog culture in the States is amazing. It certainly looks more fun than blogging! Well, you just look at the camera and talk. The best is, people think you're really confident and cool (& good looking) but the truth is, for that one good take, you had to take 10 lousy ones. Oh btw, vlog is video log, the video version of blog. ("OOOH, i get it now!") And another btw, blog came from the word web log. Cool huh?

So I was saying, you look at the camera and talk about your life. Apparently many people dig it, including me. It's the voyeur in everyone that keeps those fingers clicking on these videos, and before you know, you're a fan of this absolute Nobody in the States. Just like that! The best part about these videos is NOT the video itself, it's the comments!! I mean, I could click on like ten pages of comments and not get sick of it. Wow, I sure know how to waste time!!!

Last night, on the phone with Manda, I said, "Man, we have to do videos in Mexico! We might actually get fans." I continued,

"We could do dance moves as intros!"

"Like a signature tune?"

"Yeah, I can compose one!" [What am I thinking?]

"Well, what are we gonna use to record?"

"In-built webcam la! Or digital camera video function?" [We will be so noob if we do start on this vlog thing]

So what do you think? Should I go ahead with this wacko idea???

To get an idea how cool these videos are, check out my favorite Youtube comedian:

Why i can't study without distractions

When I was sec 1 - jc 2, I could typically study 9 hours a day. You're probably going, "wow Anna, you're a nerd!" Haha, maybe! Did I say I was pretty much a straight A student? (ok, B for A level Physics and GP, but still..)

But since then, 2 to 3 years on, with the YouTube and FB boom, I can't study straight for 15 minutes without picking up my mobile to put up a "status", watch a short clip or simply refresh my gmail page. Like right now, I'm at Starbucks supposedly studying BP... Hmmm.. :)

But really, I can't help but smile. Being distracted allows me to put more steam in my studying minutes (not hours!) It makes me dread studying less, I think! But then again, I'm at the university level, in a biz school. My education is more than memorization and hitting the books. It's involves observation, surfing the net and spending time just mulling over biz issues. (or am I just trying to defend myself here? Haha)

In any case, I do not recommend such ill discipline of studying at the jc/sec levels, can't say for poly! Because at the lower levels, its abt really knowing and understanding the fundamentals, so don't get distracted, ok kids? :)