Connections

Dreams

Not the lofty, inspiring kind but those we have at night. I am listening to Dr Pam on radio and she is discussing about sleeping and the types of dreams we have at night.

Listeners call in to relate their strange, recurring dreams and Dr Pam tries to analyse them. Strangely enough, she is correct most of the time. Maybe, the listeners are just trying to search for situations which self-fulfill what Dr Pam has analysed.

There is this man who constantly dreams of being killed, either by people or monsters. Dr Pam asked if there is an overpowering problem which he thinks he cannot solve. And it turns out that he has an controlling father. But come on. Everyone has problems which they think are overpowering.

Then, a woman dreams of giving birth to chickens! Dr Pam says that she should look at her children with a different perspective and accept changes which she has refused to acknowledged. Again, that seems quite applicable to everyone. Hey, I could be Dr Pam.

Hmm….new one here. Man dreams of flying. Dr Pam says flying is about sex, according to Freud. If he’s flying happily, it is a reflection of his happy sex life. The man goes, “Er…no. Very often, I dream of flying to meet my parents who are dead.”
Dr Pam then explains perhaps, he has moved on from the grieving process.

The Education System
Had a fun session in class today. Learnt many ways of beginning a drama workshop for kids. It helped that everyone participated and Martin (our tutor) eased us into the games. Of course, these activities are not new to everyone, especially those who majored in theatre. But everyone gamely joined in the activities as if for the first time.

We did cultural policies and education reforms last week and the non-UK students, like myself, just could not appreciate much of it. It was necessary to explain the scheme of things in theatre in education, but it was rather boring.

From what I see, there are many parallels between the Singapore education system and the British one. Both advocated a prescriptive form of education in the 70s and 80s, with a great emphasis on assessment. Now, both countries emphasise choice (in subjects), diversity and creativity. Of course, in terms of art education, UK is much more grounded. The opportunities for kids to access the arts here are limitless. I am not very impressed with the education policies here. But I applaud the UK Arts Council and related associations for trying to bring arts to the public. I am not talking about just ONE Esplanade being the only hip and happening place. But schools, churches, town halls, any space available could be a potential venue for an arts performances. Well, I suppose this comparison is extremely unfair. The market is a thousand times bigger here.



Friends (Singapore)
A few days ago, I was at the traffic lights when I heard, “Mei Yee”. People know me as “Mei” here. So, it’s impossible anyone would call me “Mei Yee”. For that nano-second, before I turned, I asked myself, “Who is this from Singapore? My university friend? My ex-colleague?” Turned out to be Meow Na, the Singaporean I met a week ago.

That short walk from the traffic lights to the library was rather fruitful. We exchanged phone numbers and I learnt that she is a SPH scholar who just completed her degree in Warwick. According to her, there is another SPH scholar doing a course here too. Well, Goldsmiths is not too bad! Singapore scholars here! Apparently, SPH requires all their scholars to complete their Masters before returning to work full-time. Hmm…is that good? I think some kind of work experience would help greatly before embarking on another degree. But then again, youthful energy does not hurt either. Anyway, coming back to the chance meeting, there’s a potential of a mini Singaporean gathering.

Gabriel (my flatmate who’s Mexican), when asked if he’s met any Mexicans in college has this to say, “ Yes, I’ve met my countrymen but I don’t really care. I have seen enough Mexicans in my whole life anyway. It’s time to meet people of other cultures here.”

How true. Nevertheless, the familiarity of a Singaporean face is, no doubt, comforting.

Friends (International)
My course mates and I are going to catch a performance recommended by Martin. It’s actually a children’s performance. It is currently being toured in schools and the play would be performed in public for just one day. So, we could go watch the show and return to the halls together, since we all stay in the halls of residence. It is a strange ensemble – Japanese, American, Greek and Singaporean. By the way, the theatre is just ten-minutes walk away. This is what I call accessibility!

Sara and I will also pop by the Performance Research Forum held in our college. This forum is organized by our drama dept, primarily by Giva’s course convenor and focuses of physical theatre. It’d be interesting, I think.

So, I’m beginning to establish a network and I’m glad that it is going to be an international one.