A New Semester... Again

Today is the start of a new semester... and here we go again. I'm so ready for it to begin though because if all goes well, I only have one more year of classes to go!!! The countdown begins. This semester, I'm taking:

1) History of Black Women in America - not really related to my research, but it was one of the courses offered from the U.S. Historians this semester, and I figured it goes well with my Modern U.S. and Women & Gender fields.

2) Center for Historical Research year-long fortnightly seminar: State, Power and Culture - once again not really connected to my work, but I think it can be useful since I study the interaction of state and non-state actors, and culture.

3) Independent Study course - I'll do readings about women and transnational history. Really excited about this, although I foresee a lot of intense reading. When it's just you having one-on-one sessions with the professor, you better know your stuff!

Other than those 3 classes, I'm grading for a History of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender (LGBT) History in America, 1940-2003. Yeah...*sigh* I know a lot of other graduate students would love to be in my place, given the current political situation in America and since LGBT history is an up-and-coming field. I'm excited to work with the professor who is teaching this class because he's very friendly, and his work utilizes oral history interviews (which I do too). We have talked about the methodology of oral history interviews, and he has some very useful suggestions and advice.

It's just that I'm not completely comfortable with this subject of queerness, given the current political climate and my personal views and values. I believe that everyone deserves to be treated with kindness and love, and I have a very strict "no-bullying" stance. However, I draw the line at homosexual sexual relations and gay marriage. It is already difficult to discuss (and defend) my feelings with others without them going, "Oh it's just your stupid, oppressive religion that's making you discriminate against others." How am I going to survive being immersed this semester in a course that is most likely going to outright defend and advocate a position that I disagree with?

Of course, as a grader, it isn't my place to go against the professor. It is his course, and he has every right and freedom to design the course however he wants to. I also sincerely feel that we can benefit from greater knowledge about subjects that are not as well-studied, such as LGBT history. Most knowledge helps humanize others and makes us more understanding, hence my "no-bullying" stance.

I just don't know how I'm going to balance between being fair while making sure that I don't cross the line. Will I emerge unscathed at the end of the semester? Probably not.

It's going to be quite a semester.

Confession: My New Addiction

School is starting soon (cue "Jaws" theme song), but am I getting ready for it? Other than a few emails here and there... HECK NO! Gotta enjoy my freedom!

So what have I been doing, aside from decorating my room and blogging?

Introducing... my new addiction, RUNNING MAN! It is a South Korean game/ variety show that debuted in 2010, and is still ongoing.


Each week, the show is filmed in a landmark building in S. Korea (the art museum, the national theater, etc), and the cast has to complete a host of zany missions to avoid being "punished" at the end.

I had heard so much about it before, but never had the time or interest to check it out. Now that I am procrastinating have time, I started from episode one and

OH

MY

WORD

I can't stop laughing and watching.

Not only do they do the weirdest things to complete their missions, there are "special" sound and image effects included by the editors to make everything more dramatic. The editing isn't the best (very obvious where they cut-and-paste-d because of the repetition) but it makes everything so much funnier.

Do yourself a favor and begin from episode 1 (below or click HERE). It will be one of funniest hour and a half you will spend in your life! You can skip the first 15 minutes where they introduce the cast members and guests. And even though it's in Korean, there are English subtitles.

Running Man... HWAITING!

[And Jung Yong Hwa melts my heart... :p]

Perfect Timing

I am NOT a good photographer by any means- and I'm not trying to be modest. I'm just realistic about my artistic skills. It is my belief that my second sister (the one right after me) got all the artistic genes because she has one heck of a creative mind and excels in art, while I stink at it.

No, really. I once played a game that involved drawing, and warned my friends that I couldn't draw to save my life. After playing a few rounds, my friend turned to me and said, "Wow you really weren't kidding when you said you can't draw."
Yeah...

*Sigh* I can live with not having the ability to draw well though. However, I really wish I was a better photographer.

BUT even as an amateur photographer, sometimes, just sometimes, you get a rare picture in which you clicked the shutter at
just
the
right
moment.
[Or maybe your model did xx/yy/zz at just the right moment... (-__-) C'mon, give me a little credit here!]

There are some fantastic "perfect timing" pictures you can Google on Buzzfeed, such as THESE PICTURES. I'm don't think I'll ever achieve that level of photography in this life, but I don't mind settling for pictures such as this:

My beautiful sister at reaching Taal Volcano

OR

This picture, which is my favorite of all the pictures I took while in Manila (more about my trip HERE and HERE). We were about to board the boat at the base of Taal volcano to return back to the mainland, and there were a few children playing at the shore. I asked if I could take a picture of them, to which they cheerfully obliged. I aimed my camera, and counted to three. Just as I said "3" and clicked the shutter, to my complete surprise, this little boy jumped out of the water.

And that is how I ended up with a perfectly timed picture of a cheeky little boy in all his birthday suit glory. 

I may not have good photography skills, but heck man, sometimes even the most professional photographers can't capture priceless moments such as these! 

Beauty Amid Squalor

A few weeks ago, I traveled to Manila, the capital of the Philippines, with my Mom, sister, and two church friends. It was... an experience. We went during off-peak season, and yet, Manila is already so crowded so I guess there isn't much difference whether we went during peak season or not.

Divisoria

As we traveled through the city, my heart sank as I witnessed the poverty and filth. Traffic was TERRIBLE- it took us about an hour to travel from the hotel to the LDS temple, a distance of only about 13 km/ 8 miles! You would think they would at least make the capital nice and all... Nope. Not to say modernization hasn't taken place, but you just know it could have been so much better if it weren't for the rampant corruption. Once, on a ride back to Manila, we passed a house where reporters were camping outside. The taxi driver told us that the house belonged to one of the three Filipino Senators involved in the Priority Development Assistance Fund scam, and the reporters were waiting for the arrest warrant. It is estimated that the government was defrauded of 10 billion pesos, or US$230 million, in this scam alone! How much more money has been siphoned off by other corrupt officials?
The taxi drivers are also constantly ripping tourists off. Either they will quote you a fixed price that is way above what the meter would have calculated, or if you go by the meter, they will take the longer route. It tells a lot about the condition of living when the taxi drivers are so poor that they have to resort to such tricks. Even the tuk tuk drivers in Cambodia were more honest and upfront. It's just sad.

Still, you can find beauty amid the squalor, such as:
- The lush vegetation of the Philippines. At least, outside of Manila. GORGEOUS!!!

- Taal Volcano at Tagaytay (if I heard correctly, it's pronounced "ta-ga-it-tai") City. Taal volcano is the second most active in the Philippines, and the only active volcano around Manila. Cool fact: the entire volcano is an island itself.)

The boat ride to the volcano. 

The weather was beautiful going there (it started raining on the way back).

Ariel view to prove my point... (hee hee)

Photo by bon salido at Panoramio

It was cool to see an active volcano, even though it wasn't the fire-spewing, flaming-orange monster I imagined it to be. In fact, it looked like a placid, blue lake.

So anti-climatic! Until I found out that it's because the mouth is surrounded by a lake. Seriously, a volcano within a lake within a volcano... kinda cool!

- Horseback riding up to the volcano. This was my first time horseback riding to a destination (as opposed to riding round a pen), and it was fun but harder than I thought! My horse/ pony and guide:

We paid about S$40 (US$32)/ person for the half-hour boat ride to-and-fro, the horseback ride up and down the volcano, and a personal guide. Well worth the money (although my friend later told me she paid even less- urgh!).

- The innocence of the next generation:

A group of children were playing near where the boat landed at Taal volcano, and a few of them were stark naked!  I asked a group of them to pose, and the whole group started clamoring for their picture to be taken.After I took their picture and got onto the boat, a few of them begged for candy or money in exchange for posing. It's just sad.

We were at the local market, and saw people selling bags and bags of rubber bands.

Children (and adults) would buy them to make these colorful bands:

Youth and children at church proudly displaying their creations.

- The friendliness of the local church congregation. These people worship in a very humble chapel, and where the facilities are nothing to boast about. Yet, the people... It was by far the friendliest ward I have ever been too. I have never had so many people, adult and youth(!), come up and introduce themselves. They also made an effort to translate the Sunday School and Relief Society lesson into English for our sake. It was an eye-opening experience.





- The Manila Philippines Temple of the LDS Church. The weather wasn't too conducive for picture taking, but you can still see how beautiful the walls are.

- The pineapple. Seriously. The Philippines is known for its dried mango, but since we didn't go there during mango season, we had to settle for the pineapple... and waaaaah! It was SO GOOD and so cheap!!!

- Mini-figurine display of the Life of Christ within Greenhills Shopping Center. I was so astonished when my church friends took us to this (literal) hole in the wall in a shopping center, and it turned out to be this low-key, absolutely beautiful figurine display showcasing scenes from the life of Christ. The juxtaposition... 

[On the subject of shopping, Manila has tons of shopping malls, and because the Singapore dollar is much stronger than the peso, I shopped like crazy .]

Like I mentioned, it was an experience. Would I go there again? Frankly, I don't know. I didn't feel safe, and that is a huge factor for me. Still, I don't regret going. No matter what, there's always something to enjoy, appreciate and learn. 

One Week Back

I've been back in Columbus for about a week now, but man, what a week it's been! Some "blahs", some "yeahs". Let's see,

"Blah": I'm still a little homesick. Read my last post and maybe you can get an idea of why. I wasn't expecting this because I thought I should be used to moving back and forth by now, but apparently my heart has other ideas. I'm sure it'll get better once I'm swept away in the whirlwind of schoolwork again. 

"Yeah!": Miss Cee and I moved to a townhouse (actually she and another friend very kindly moved my stuff to our new place while I was in Singapore), and I'm enjoying my new place. My room is much bigger, and I've enjoyed having the wall space to pull out a lot of my decorating stuff that I had stored away. Plus, I have a small walk-in closet! I feel so atas (Snglish for "highbrow, high-class")- bwa ha ha ha ha... It's tiny though, more like a walk-in cupboard, so no need to be jealous ;) Here's just a sneak peek (pardon the quality of the pics taken using my phone):

Also, never say never. I was wondering how to hang my necklaces in my room, and there was a suggestion to use command hooks. I dismissed the idea immediately because I thought it would look too tacky. Well, guess what?!

My necklaces now hang on 5 clear plastic command hooks, and it actually looks good! So again, never say never.

"Blah":

I'm not a huge fan of Robin Williams or something, but I was still sad to learn that we've lost a world-class comedian. He made me laugh as a kid, and I thank him for making the world a better place through his talent and works. May he rest in peace now. 

"Yeah": Guess what I went to pick up from school today?!?!?!

Yup, remember THIS POST of being stuck in stupid limbo? Long story short: After resubmitting in my paperwork, and paying $161 for "student activity fees" (i.e. ploy to milk my money), I got my diploma! And I actually got back in time for the graduation ceremony, but since I was continuing on to the PhD program, I thought it was so anti-climatic and waste of money to go for graduation. So sorry, no pictures of my in my gown because I didn't get one!!! But now this diploma hangs on my wall- hooray, especially after all that drama! 

Overall, it's been a rather relaxing week because school hasn't started yet. Yeah yeah yeah! I do have work (it's never ending...) but since it's not urgent, I'm just going to put it off, and enjoy my last few weeks of summer and, more importantly, FREEDOM!!! (:p) Here's to procrastination! 

Bittersweet National Day

Perhaps today is the most apt day to write this post- it's Singapore's National Day (August 9).

Happy 49th Birthday Singapore!!! I love you!



Only I'm not back home, but in Columbus. Whenever someone found out I was returning to Columbus on August 6, they inevitably went, "Huh? Before National Day?" Unfortunately, plane tickets over National Day weekend and after that cost a few hundred dollars more, and I didn't think it was worth it to pay so much more when my ticket was already over $1,700!

But it gets harder to leave home every time. Maybe it's because I'm getting old(er) and ready for more permanency and stability, as opposed to the carefree but unstable life of a single, graduate student. My wanderlust to travel far from home decreases with each passing year.

Or maybe it's because it hit me this trip that my parents are getting older, and I have a duty to take care of them more. My parents are very active and healthy, but still...

Or maybe it's because I find that I'm much more comfortable in an Asian environment, and that I want to raise a family with Asian cultural values. I'm a very Singaporean heartland girl.

Or maybe it's just the food. I'm sorry, but you just can't beat the variety and taste of food in Singapore. I miss the food so so so so so so so so much.

Singapore is not a perfect country- far from it. Just from this trip alone, I've observed how increasingly materialistic Singaporeans are becoming (including myself- I bought SO MUCH clothes this trip). Since the standard of living has drastically increased , the cost of labor/ rent/ service is also very high, which means that EVERYTHING is expensive. I cringed when I walked into a grocery store and saw how much a candy bar cost (S$2.20/US$1.80! In the States, a candy bar costs only US$1). Furthermore, no one really cares about history there, much less American and/ or women's history, so I'm basically screwed if I want to find a job as a history professor.
Also, the dating pool of Mormon men in Singapore is very very very tiny. Just saying. (To be fair, even though the dating pool in America is much bigger, not much dating takes place there either. It's a global problem.)

That's why I appreciate what America has to offer. It truly is a land of opportunity, and I know that if I didn't come to the States to study, I wouldn't have qualified into a PhD program. I've also made so many awesome friends here, and if I move permanently back to Singapore, it is their friendships I will miss the most (thank goodness for Facebook right?). So I do love America.

Yet, there is just something about being home. This secure, breathe-a-sigh-of-relief feeling.
Dick Lee was right when he wrote the lyrics to my favorite National Day song, Home.
"This is home truly, where I know I must be
Where my dreams wait for me, where the river always flows.
This is home surely, as my senses tell me
This is where I won't be alone, for this is where I know it's home."

Does anyone else understand what I'm talking about?

Sadly, I'm afraid all my love for Singapore won't be enough. I don't know if I will ever move back to Singapore permanently because I don't seem to have a place there. I am an American citizen who wants to teach American history- who would hire me?! And even with my Singapore permanent residency (// American green card), I don't qualify for certain benefits that would make life easier. Since the Mormon dating pool is so tiny, I will almost certainly remain single for the rest of my life, and even if I (miracle of miracles!) marry and raise a family there, I, as a full-time homemaker, will be treated as a second-class citizen.

It's a very bittersweet reality.