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The name's Minyun. 16 going on 17 Singaporean JC Humanz student positively flippant in the face of potential trauma
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Friday Haoming was telling me of his plans to study in either Duke or Dartmouth. He wants to do Lit in those places. I think I've got my place in mind - Stanford University. It's in California so there won't be those horrifying snowstorms you get in Ithaca that my senior talks about. But it won't be as hot in Singapore since the temperature's a nice thirteen degrees celcius or so. I'll do International Relations there and take up Spanish, maybe. I took French at O' level so it'll be nice to study another language. Kelvin's written five more lines. We're all cheering him on. Thursday I am going to a funeral with my parents a couple of days later. I find it a waste of time - I would rather be curled up at home finishing Paul Kennedy's "Rise and Fall of the Great Powers". But my parents insist I come along - it's the funeral of my father's boss. Dressed up in black in this kind of weather? Omigod, we are so going to die of heat stroke.
Wednesday
Overheard this morning - "Shut up, woman!" "Don't blame me when you can't see it yourself look at the accounts. So many errors! How? You tell me how you are going to settle thisyes, and what are you going to do about your stupid air-con?" Kelvin tells me to write everything in a diary (hence my log - tadah!). The class is into publishing webdiaries these days. It gives us another outlet for communication and expression. We've even moved the class logbook online. My parents' arguments make pretty interesting discussion fodder. There's tons of speculation over the state of my parents' marriage. "The postmodern marriage condition is a dismal one," Jamie says. "I'm looking forward to the government's next move convincing us to bear screaming babies." Tuesday My seniors talked about SATs today. Apparently some people were stated to go for the SAT II some time in October. "You should start thinking of which 'S' papers to take," Haoming told me. He takes Lit S and History S. "Take two S papers. That'll be safe." History S is definitely one of my choices. If I want to take International Relations, I think it'll be cool if I could have that kind of academic backing. Econs S would be another good choice. By now, we've settled into our niches nicely - Kelvin's definitely a Lit S/History S person, Jamie's an Econs S queen and maths freaks like Yvonne and Taijun can meddle with those dastardly equations in maths S. I come home these days to an empty house. My father's usually out entertaining his clients and my mother's usually at aunty Natalie's. It makes the place a very conducive place to study. My only gripe - the air-conditioner's broken. I wish someone would take the initiative to repair or order another one. Monday I don't understand the weather AT ALL. It's been so bloody hot for the past couple of days, no, it's actually been weeks. The tarred roads are steaming, the granite of the pavement is warm. Everyone in the block is getting agitated. The babies are starting to bawl and people seem to be arguing more. I keep seeing delivery men hoisting air-conditioners at the lift lobby. In school, it's worse. The classrooms (with the exception of the lecture theatres) are not fully air-conditioned so my classmates and I fall asleep with less inhibition than usual. The heavy humidity, the warm sun shining down our backs, our sticky school uniforms, it's enough to give one perpetual pms. At least, that's what Jamie says. Kelvin finds our current meteorological situation inspirational. Then again, Kelvin finds everything inspirational - from the canteen food vendors to the small cat that hangs around our table. Kelvin is our poet extraordinaire. "I'll write something about this confounded heat wave," he announced to the class. So far he's got fifteen lines. Not exactly The Waste Land, he laughed, but it'll do. The tutors are getting a little edgy. They're still not terribly used to the climate here in Singapore. I'm not surprised. To the average Singaporean, the heat can get quite annoying to almost amazing proportions so one can imagine how much worse it'll be for a foreigner hailing from more temperate lands. |