Meeting my course mates
22nd September
Drama Attitude
Managed to enrol, get my student ID, get my webmail account. The next thing I need to do is to open a bank account. This, I will do tomorrow. Am still waiting for a letter from the Accommodation Office, stating that I am indeed housed in the halls. Staff from the accommodation office are quite efficient and I’m quite confident of getting it tomorrow.
Went for a department meeting today for MA Drama students. Wah… very arty people. And what do you call that in Hokkien? Got “sei”. “Got attitude” The only Asian people were mainly from China, followed by Japan, followed by Singapore (grand total of one). Even the Chinese “got sei” Very ultra-urban, stylish, fashionable, and all seemingly without effort too. And when they spoke to each other in that crisp Beijing?/Shanghai?accent , “shi shuo shi shuo …”, they sounded even more arty. Me? Absolutely no attitude.
The meeting was more of an introduction of the lecturers and their specializations. This would help put a face to the names we see in the department handbooks. I remember the Head of Dept saying something to this nature, “If you cannot find your convenors, they are not having a holiday. They are doing research and probably something really important which would help contribute to their teaching.” How I wish our principal would say that. “If you cannot find your lecturers, they are doing important work.”
Subsequently, we went separate ways to meet our course convenors as well as our course mates. For theatre education, there are eight students. My course convenor started off as an actor, then director, and subsequently have been involved in theatre-in-education work He is now currently doing research work in this area. What I like is that there is a mix of cultures. Two from UK, two from US, two from Greece, one from Japan and me. A few just graduated a year or two ago and they are really young. Twenty-two maybe? Wish I had done this when I was younger. Nevertheless, most are in their mid or late twenties. The two oldest would be me and the Japanese. I think she’s probably in her forties.
In terms of backgrounds, I’m glad to know that we have vastly different experiences too. Some have theatre knowledge but have not really taught before. Others, like me, have been teaching but are not really firmly rooted with theatrical knowledge. Hence, I think I would appreciate the bouncing of ideas off one other. I hope I really get to learn from my peers. I am looking forward to my lessons already.
Daily life and more about flatmates
As for day-to-day living, I’ve finally got all the cooking ingredients ready and have made my meals for the past two days. But while my flatmates go for ready to eat, microwaveable packages, I feel a little embarrassed at having to go through all the hassle just to cook a meal. Garlic lah, corn flour lah, soy sauce lah, meat lah, vege lah, marinate lah, cut lah, sit fry lah…
And today, I took out the slow cooker to boil soup. While Giva commented the soup smelt nice, Gabrial turned it off earlier because he did not know how it worked. He thought someone forgot to turn the thing off and it night boil over and explode! He said my cooking utensils are state of the art. Well, he definitely has not seen Yoke Mui’s cooking equipment! : )
Sarah was sweet enough to enquire about getting phone lines. But she got fed up calling because different people told her different things. So, we’ll just wait for the guys to do something about it. Discovered she’s forty-three this year! Well, she’s certainly not waiting for retirement to do something about her life. Cheers to her for never saying you’re too old to pursue your dreams. Crazy? Dunno. Depends on what you make out of life.
Fire alarm
People here take fire drills and evacuation exercises seriously. As I was typing this, the alarm sounded. Went out of the room and met Sarah. Poor Giva had just cooked some steak for himself and his friend and they had to abandon that. So, down we went. I hope this will not happen often coz it only means we have to climb four floors up again.
Turned out that it wasn’t an exercise afterall. Someone set off the alarm. Probably smoking or something like that. Also, it appears that if you stay too long in the shower and the fans are not working, the steam which escapes would set off the alarm too. We did not have to wait too long at the courtyard though coz someone came to switch off the alarm in five minutes. And up we climbed.
Fellow Singaporean
Saw a fellow Singaporean today! In fact, we were just standing beside each other at the accommodation office. She was collecting her keys coz she just arrived. Thought she was either from HK or Singapore. Then, when I heard her and her boyfriend speaking in Mandarin, that familiar accent suddenly sounded so good. She’s staying in Dean House too. So, I walked them half-way there coz I needed to go somewhere else. Her name’s Meow Na and she’s doing transnational communication and global media. Same as gabrial, my flatmate. Her boyfriend’s some smart fellow doing his studies at Imperial College. She must be a smart girl too. Anyway, just glad there’s a fellow countryman/woman around.
Sounds Greek to me
I needed to go the accommodation office a second time today to settle some stuff and I met my course mate, Katerine, from Greece. It was funny looking at us talk because she her English was spoken with a very heavy Greek accent and she could not really express herself. So, when she spoke, I had to lean forward and listen very closely and look at her intently so that I could read her lips at the same time. And when I spoke, she obviously could not fathom my accent too. So, she would frown and listen to me very intently too.
I have fully experienced the phrase, “it sounds greek to me”. J
Drama Attitude
Managed to enrol, get my student ID, get my webmail account. The next thing I need to do is to open a bank account. This, I will do tomorrow. Am still waiting for a letter from the Accommodation Office, stating that I am indeed housed in the halls. Staff from the accommodation office are quite efficient and I’m quite confident of getting it tomorrow.
Went for a department meeting today for MA Drama students. Wah… very arty people. And what do you call that in Hokkien? Got “sei”. “Got attitude” The only Asian people were mainly from China, followed by Japan, followed by Singapore (grand total of one). Even the Chinese “got sei” Very ultra-urban, stylish, fashionable, and all seemingly without effort too. And when they spoke to each other in that crisp Beijing?/Shanghai?accent , “shi shuo shi shuo …”, they sounded even more arty. Me? Absolutely no attitude.
The meeting was more of an introduction of the lecturers and their specializations. This would help put a face to the names we see in the department handbooks. I remember the Head of Dept saying something to this nature, “If you cannot find your convenors, they are not having a holiday. They are doing research and probably something really important which would help contribute to their teaching.” How I wish our principal would say that. “If you cannot find your lecturers, they are doing important work.”
Subsequently, we went separate ways to meet our course convenors as well as our course mates. For theatre education, there are eight students. My course convenor started off as an actor, then director, and subsequently have been involved in theatre-in-education work He is now currently doing research work in this area. What I like is that there is a mix of cultures. Two from UK, two from US, two from Greece, one from Japan and me. A few just graduated a year or two ago and they are really young. Twenty-two maybe? Wish I had done this when I was younger. Nevertheless, most are in their mid or late twenties. The two oldest would be me and the Japanese. I think she’s probably in her forties.
In terms of backgrounds, I’m glad to know that we have vastly different experiences too. Some have theatre knowledge but have not really taught before. Others, like me, have been teaching but are not really firmly rooted with theatrical knowledge. Hence, I think I would appreciate the bouncing of ideas off one other. I hope I really get to learn from my peers. I am looking forward to my lessons already.
Daily life and more about flatmates
As for day-to-day living, I’ve finally got all the cooking ingredients ready and have made my meals for the past two days. But while my flatmates go for ready to eat, microwaveable packages, I feel a little embarrassed at having to go through all the hassle just to cook a meal. Garlic lah, corn flour lah, soy sauce lah, meat lah, vege lah, marinate lah, cut lah, sit fry lah…
And today, I took out the slow cooker to boil soup. While Giva commented the soup smelt nice, Gabrial turned it off earlier because he did not know how it worked. He thought someone forgot to turn the thing off and it night boil over and explode! He said my cooking utensils are state of the art. Well, he definitely has not seen Yoke Mui’s cooking equipment! : )
Sarah was sweet enough to enquire about getting phone lines. But she got fed up calling because different people told her different things. So, we’ll just wait for the guys to do something about it. Discovered she’s forty-three this year! Well, she’s certainly not waiting for retirement to do something about her life. Cheers to her for never saying you’re too old to pursue your dreams. Crazy? Dunno. Depends on what you make out of life.
Fire alarm
People here take fire drills and evacuation exercises seriously. As I was typing this, the alarm sounded. Went out of the room and met Sarah. Poor Giva had just cooked some steak for himself and his friend and they had to abandon that. So, down we went. I hope this will not happen often coz it only means we have to climb four floors up again.
Turned out that it wasn’t an exercise afterall. Someone set off the alarm. Probably smoking or something like that. Also, it appears that if you stay too long in the shower and the fans are not working, the steam which escapes would set off the alarm too. We did not have to wait too long at the courtyard though coz someone came to switch off the alarm in five minutes. And up we climbed.
Fellow Singaporean
Saw a fellow Singaporean today! In fact, we were just standing beside each other at the accommodation office. She was collecting her keys coz she just arrived. Thought she was either from HK or Singapore. Then, when I heard her and her boyfriend speaking in Mandarin, that familiar accent suddenly sounded so good. She’s staying in Dean House too. So, I walked them half-way there coz I needed to go somewhere else. Her name’s Meow Na and she’s doing transnational communication and global media. Same as gabrial, my flatmate. Her boyfriend’s some smart fellow doing his studies at Imperial College. She must be a smart girl too. Anyway, just glad there’s a fellow countryman/woman around.
Sounds Greek to me
I needed to go the accommodation office a second time today to settle some stuff and I met my course mate, Katerine, from Greece. It was funny looking at us talk because she her English was spoken with a very heavy Greek accent and she could not really express herself. So, when she spoke, I had to lean forward and listen very closely and look at her intently so that I could read her lips at the same time. And when I spoke, she obviously could not fathom my accent too. So, she would frown and listen to me very intently too.
I have fully experienced the phrase, “it sounds greek to me”. J
posted by changzee at
6:44 PM
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