The Man in Van
We cleaned out the house at last, now the Lebanese dude has left! They (Gilbert, Matthew and the-other-David) are my housemates, and they cleared out some of his stuff after he left, and I joined them on Monday in cleaning up, the day after I reached Vancouver from NYC. The house is now in more-or-less clean and tidy conditions (less my room which looks like Ernesto missed the whole of America and just came to Room A, my apartment, Thunderbird Residence, UBC).
School has started and I've had two modules to go for. I nearly forgot that it started on a Tuesday and I looked at my timetable for Monday before Gil reminded me that Monday was Labour Day. I hate school; it's not the subjects or the learning part...it's more about the competition part. I hate the idea that I'm pitted against other students just to get a good grade but that's just the way it works, and I have to live by that.
Anyway, UBC's less lonely because I've found more Singaporeans and Malaysians and Indonesians there! There's Gilbert (my housemate) who was a PTI in the batch before mine, there's Sulynn who's Boob's friend, and there's Huey who is a Malaysian, but who studied in Singapore all his life, and Simon who's Indonesian but, like Huey, studied in Singapore as well. And then there's Sun/San who's Singaporean/Indian. At least that's how they introduced him to me.
I can't really comment on the lessons now, but I can comment on how they're split up into various parts so that each module takes up 3 hours per week. So you can have module A for 1 hour, 3 times a week, or module B for 1.5 hours, twice a week. Tomorrow, I am going to suffer. I start at 9 in the morning and end at 9 at night. And Residence is so far away from the northern part of campus where my lessons are held that I don't think it's worth the effort to walk back and sleep.
Anyway, the weather report today according to prophecy is that Ernesto hasn't hit us yet. With any luck, it won't hit us at all. Actually it's almost impossible because we're on the west side of the continent and Ernesto is going around the east. There are no clouds in the sky during the day and I've become so acclimatised that I can walk around comfortably in a T-shirt and jeans in the day (because in New York and New Haven it was raining 2 out of the 4 days I spent there, and the weather was colder there than in Van, oddly). I hardly perspired when I went on a run with Gil and Sulynn, and the view from the Rose Garden in the northern part of campus is amazing (these two statements have no link). Just row after row of mountains beyond the sea (this statment is linked with the second statement of the last sentence). Wow (this is just an exclamation because I don't know what to say).
Anyway, Van is great even though I miss New York. Oddly, when I was in New York, I missed Van. But wherever I am, I miss Singapore, even its sweltering weather. That is the most Singaporean thing I can think about in this multiethnic city I live in at the moment.
The Man in Van has to leave now because he has school tomorrow. Goodnight.
School has started and I've had two modules to go for. I nearly forgot that it started on a Tuesday and I looked at my timetable for Monday before Gil reminded me that Monday was Labour Day. I hate school; it's not the subjects or the learning part...it's more about the competition part. I hate the idea that I'm pitted against other students just to get a good grade but that's just the way it works, and I have to live by that.
Anyway, UBC's less lonely because I've found more Singaporeans and Malaysians and Indonesians there! There's Gilbert (my housemate) who was a PTI in the batch before mine, there's Sulynn who's Boob's friend, and there's Huey who is a Malaysian, but who studied in Singapore all his life, and Simon who's Indonesian but, like Huey, studied in Singapore as well. And then there's Sun/San who's Singaporean/Indian. At least that's how they introduced him to me.
I can't really comment on the lessons now, but I can comment on how they're split up into various parts so that each module takes up 3 hours per week. So you can have module A for 1 hour, 3 times a week, or module B for 1.5 hours, twice a week. Tomorrow, I am going to suffer. I start at 9 in the morning and end at 9 at night. And Residence is so far away from the northern part of campus where my lessons are held that I don't think it's worth the effort to walk back and sleep.
Anyway, the weather report today according to prophecy is that Ernesto hasn't hit us yet. With any luck, it won't hit us at all. Actually it's almost impossible because we're on the west side of the continent and Ernesto is going around the east. There are no clouds in the sky during the day and I've become so acclimatised that I can walk around comfortably in a T-shirt and jeans in the day (because in New York and New Haven it was raining 2 out of the 4 days I spent there, and the weather was colder there than in Van, oddly). I hardly perspired when I went on a run with Gil and Sulynn, and the view from the Rose Garden in the northern part of campus is amazing (these two statements have no link). Just row after row of mountains beyond the sea (this statment is linked with the second statement of the last sentence). Wow (this is just an exclamation because I don't know what to say).
Anyway, Van is great even though I miss New York. Oddly, when I was in New York, I missed Van. But wherever I am, I miss Singapore, even its sweltering weather. That is the most Singaporean thing I can think about in this multiethnic city I live in at the moment.
The Man in Van has to leave now because he has school tomorrow. Goodnight.
posted by david at 11:05 PM
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