Fall Semester 2008
Tuesday, August 26, 2008
Fall Semester 2008
It's a little hard to believe that a year from now, when I am blogging about fall semester 2009, I am going to be in the States, tasting the first of winter's chills and thousands of miles away from home. The countdown finally begins, the very last fall spent in Singapore before the great journey into the unknown. How petrifying and exciting at the very same time, and clashing of emotions cannot be put into words indeed. So, this year's fall semester seems to be going on fine so far, a curious combination of late afternoon rainfalls and darkened corridors. Two weeks after school ended for the summer semester, we are back in action again like stubborn cockroaches who refuse to die under the slipper. I suppose that is the closest analogy an university student can get, like some cockroach with a powerful will to live. At least that is what is expected of us anyway, to dust ourselves off and move on no matter the consequences. It wasn't a bad semester, but I guess it could have been a lot better. Either way, it does seem like we are having a recycling of lecturers all over again, a lot of old faces and the same old rules that we have heard a dozen times over for the first class in the semesters.
It's a little hard to believe that a year from now, when I am blogging about fall semester 2009, I am going to be in the States, tasting the first of winter's chills and thousands of miles away from home. The countdown finally begins, the very last fall spent in Singapore before the great journey into the unknown. How petrifying and exciting at the very same time, and clashing of emotions cannot be put into words indeed. So, this year's fall semester seems to be going on fine so far, a curious combination of late afternoon rainfalls and darkened corridors. Two weeks after school ended for the summer semester, we are back in action again like stubborn cockroaches who refuse to die under the slipper. I suppose that is the closest analogy an university student can get, like some cockroach with a powerful will to live. At least that is what is expected of us anyway, to dust ourselves off and move on no matter the consequences. It wasn't a bad semester, but I guess it could have been a lot better. Either way, it does seem like we are having a recycling of lecturers all over again, a lot of old faces and the same old rules that we have heard a dozen times over for the first class in the semesters.
Like how I began the entry below, it is Jan all over again. Nothing much to say in regards to that, save for how murmurs of her behavior last semester has turned a lot of people off. Apparently her antics in the other class last semester was so bad that she resorted to screaming at some of the students, something you don't see a lot of at this level of education. I honestly can't imagine her raising her voice over that of a falling leaf though, but apparently something short circuited in her head and she went a little overboard. A curious thing happened yesterday after I signed my attendance, right before I returned to my seat. Jan approached me and apologized for last semester's group project grades. Wait, you mean lecturers actually realize how unreasonable and irrational they can be at times? When did giving a bad grade to a student become something for you to apologize for anyway, I thought to myself as she went through her excuses as to why she gave my group a bad grade. I'm not sure what the apology was for, and to me it felt a little hypocritical, to be completely honest. You don't give the lowest presentation grade to a group and give the excuse that you were "in a hurry". What's up with that, anyway?
And as for Sociology, it is shaping up to be an interesting module indeed, but I suppose my class got the worse end of the deal as compared to the others. The other class under a different lecturer has lesser quizzes, lesser projects, and that is good news for anybody with at least half a brain. On this side of the deal, we have way more projects and way more quizzes, and the very first assignment is due on Tuesday next week. Oh, the horrors. The lecturer, however, looks like a soft spoken woman who is generous with the grading, although such things are difficult to judge on first sight. She obviously spent a substantial amount of time in England, judging from her slight accent and the way she had a pair of sunglasses perched on top of her head throughout the class. I don't know, the latter just seems like such an European thing to do, perhaps I am merely stereotyping. So Sociology is looking to be a heavy subject, a module that is going to take up the better half of my time - great. Just when I thought I'd be given enough time to ease slowly back into the whole school thing.
So, I wanted to drop the philosophy module, simply because the timetable sucks - it does. A four an a half hour wait on Fridays just for the lesson until five in the evening is not welcoming in my books, especially not when it is on a Friday - Friday! Which is why, before today's lesson, I had every intention to drop the subject. In fact, I didn't even want to go for today's lesson if not for Janis' and Joyce's presence at lunch today (not to mention Cheryl, whom I have so rudely left out previously). I actually wanted to meet with Neo, to see the procedures and consequences in regards to dropping the subject, since it'd be my very first time doing so. We stayed in Megabites for the most part, ate the same disgusting Fish and Chips for lunch, and went ahead to the philosophy class without knowing how it'd turn out to be like. There I was, seated at the front of the class and feeling studious and eager to learn all over again, nervous about the lecturer and the nature of the course. "Critical Thinking" isn't exactly a very specific description, if you ask of me.
But there she was, Angelica, all over again. I couldn't recognize her when she walked in though, I suppose the new set of glasses must have changed her looks somewhat. But it was her alright, with a curious little bulge in her stomach that could only indicate one of two possibilities: either she was pregnant, or she gained a substantial amount of weight since the last time I saw her during history classes. Apparently, she was indeed pregnant, and I was right about it. She was happy to announce it to the class too, and it is always nice to see someone who isn't actually worried about the responsibilities that come with carrying a baby around. She went through the course outline as any other lecturer would, and no other modules have interested me in the very first lecture like this one. Questions in regards to existentialism, the existence of after life, death, religion, the kind of metaphysical questions I love to debate and argue about. It all felt too familiar to me, right in the same ball park as myself. However, we have to keep in mind that I also single-handedly messed up COM 231 despite it being my favorite module. Like so many other things, I seem to have the talent of turning everything I love against myself.
I had a nice little chat with Angelica after class, about the whole pregnancy thing and about Sophie's World. I really dislike Sophie's World, the novel that is, and she agrees with me. She read it when she was much younger, and we talked about how the sexual undertones in the story made us both really uncomfortable - but at least she managed to finish the book, I didn't. NTR is probably going to be fine, although the idea of writing the research paper is going to turn me off quite a bit. This fall semester is shaping up to be pretty alright, I suppose, and like every other semester, I hope for the best to come. At least this time around, I've got the greatest bunch of people on my back, and that is as comforting as it gets in the midst of everything else.
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