the past week's been alright.. managed to finally settle all the administrative matters like finalising the courses i'm going to take, banking matters, payment of residence fees etc. in addition, i've also got a new uk mobile line. i went down to down on monday to check out mobile price plans and found out that the only option i had was pay-as-u-go cos i'll only be here for 6months. there was a buy one get one free offer for SIM cards from o2 for 9.99pounds and i decided to get it. the other dealers had their SIM cards priced at about 15pounds or more. so now i've got 2 SIM cards, one of which is still looking for a new owner. i dropped by the bank several times this week to check if they had my debit and credit card ready. at first i was told that i would have to wait till the end of this week. on my second visit, they told me that they had forgotten to place the order and now i have to wait till the end of the month. i mean, how long does it take to prepare a simple magnetic card? in singapore, u'll get your atm on the spot and your debit card within a week! i know that things aren't supposed to be as efficient here but i'm really appalled by the slow service. maybe it's just natwest.. i heard barclays is better but they have really complicated plans, extra costs etc. oh well.. nvm.
i decided to drop my astronomy course simply because there was way too much physics in it. (btw, i can't stand physics. i makes me go crazy). the course was originally named 'astrophysics' but they changed it to 'astronomy'. they should have just kept the original name because the new one's very misleading. the course is indeed astroPHYSICS. it's basically teaches us to apply all the laws of physics (kepler's laws, newton's laws etc) to the universe in the form of calculations of interstellar distances, angular momentum of planets, gravitational pull, tidal movement etc.. gross!! i was looking for hardcore astronomy... not spinning headache. this means that when i get back to nus, i'm going to be doing 4 core modules in a semester which is somewhat crazy..
lab this week was really enjoyable. i synthesized polyiodide salts (tetramethylammonium-pentaiodide & tetramethylammonium-triiodide) and they are very pretty! metallic blue and metallic purple respectively.. i think they're the nicest salts i've seen so far and i actually took a picture of them. u can view it on my friendster page if u're a member.. really proud of my work =P i did synthesize really colourful salts last week but they weren't shimmery.. ok, i'm starting to sound like a bimbo or maybe... someone who's leading such a mundane life that synthesizing glittery salts would actually light up her day? haha~ nah.. kidding.
saadia's cousin came over to my place on wed to have snacks. we had a really good chat. she was going on about how she started to miss singapore after she met me... probably because she was sharing about the times she spent there (about 16 years of her life). as for myself, well.. i do miss singapore's efficiency and convenience (service, transport etc) but i definitely do not miss the culture. i think the society's just too conformed, people are too narrow-minded and the government is running the country like a childcare centre. yes, this has it's pros but i'm someone who appreciates diversity.
in singapore, life's just too stressful, everyone's working to get ahead in the rats race or a higher rung of the social ladder. people give up their childhood dreams for fame, fortune, power. if u had a dream as a child to become a social worker, you'd definitely be told that it's stupid and unrealistic instead of, "my child, i'm so proud of u." - the same goes for wanting a career as an artist or musician in singapore. that's probably why the local arts scene is barely thriving. relax pple!! life's about having dreams and working towards them. life's too short to be engaged in an unending race. besides, "naked a man comes from his mother's womb, and as he comes, so he departs. he takes nothing from his labour that he can carry in his hand."-ecc 5:15 yes, u need a job to support your family.. the question is how much is enough? when will u be content? (or rather, will u ever be content?) would the people who love u support your effort in achieving your goals?
allow me to cite an example from bill bryson's 'a short history of nearly everything'- there was an english professor (by nationality, not by subject) named arthur holmes. at the prime of his career in the 1920s he persisted in pursuing his interest of radiometric dating of rocks even when "physics was the new excitement of the age" and "geoglogy had slipped out of fashion." his research was severly underfunded and he had to wait many years for the university to finally provide him with a simple adding machine. for a long period, he was the only one in his department at durham university. many a time, he had to stop his academic life in order to earn enough to support his family and sometimes, he couldn't even afford the 5pounds membership fee for the geological society. despite all the difficulties that he experienced (financial difficulty, opposition etc.), he persisited and overcame them one by one and finally determined that the earth was at least 3 billion years old. after this, the scientific community at that time was unwilling to accept his findings for many reasons. but that's not the point. the point i'm trying to illustrate is, how many people have holme's unwavering determination? his determination is so inspiring i wander what his motivation was. would anyone we know be willing to work so hard to achieve what they want?
coming back to the never-ending rats race,it is written in 'Rich dad, Poor dad' by Robert T. Kiyosaki that (paraphrasing-)the more u earn, the more u spend, the more credit u live on. is spending that extra amount of money worth it? it is not wrong that parents would want to give their kids the best -at least, more than what they had as a child but, who sets the limit? the limit so that luxuries do not become a need - something which i myself am guilty of. bascially, it boils down to the attitude that is exemplified to children when they were young by the people around them (basically,adults). "material possessions elevate your status in society (particulary in singapore) - it is very much desired to have a high place in society." that "teaching/mindset" repeats itself in a vicious circle, being passed down from one generation to the next... ... u think?
next - singapore's education system. it is stressful no doubt but it does benefit the many children who are under it. the standard of math and science in singapore is so high that according to hira, she didn't even need to attend classes in canada for grade12 (supposedly JC2 in singapore) math and passed with a 98% score. putting the high standards aside, are the teaching methods used appropriate? since i arrived in the uk and started learning under the british system, i've come to realise how pampered singaporean students are. every little bit of information is given to us (spoon-feeding). and because of this, sometimes i have difficulty deciding how much reading up is actually required. however, in the british system, little information is given, much reading up is required - this very much promotes independent learning and creative thinking. i don't deny that sometimes i like being spoonfed - who doesn't... or maybe, it was what we were "taught" - spoon-feeding is good, it is the norm. hmm.. creative thinking.. the thing the MOE is trying to promote now in schools. i simply can't see how creative thinking can actually be taught/trained when at a young age (prob primary school) our creativity is already "impaired" by the rigid school system - teachers drum bits of info into our heads and sometimes don't expect us to ask why it is as such. just accept.. don't question. it's probably better now with the MOE implementing creative thinking in the primary schools (or should i say, asking the teachers to practice less hypnotism) but i think it'll take at least a generation or two before any real results show.. simply because of the 'vicious circle syndrome' i mentioned just now. the lack of creativity could be the reason why singapore is in "need" of foreign "talent". is possessing creativity a talent? - i'm sure that's one of the reasons why they're referred to as foreign "talents"? (i'm refering to innate creativity - which i'm sure everyone has, not prodigal creativity.) the education system is probably another reason why singapore society is so clinical and rigid.
well.. guess that'll be enough this time round. ciao
