suite life

i finally got around to taking photos of my room! it's not fully decorated but i hope these still convey some of its understated charm...

left: my pink cushiony spot for doing those 12-2 am reading // right: my bed plus bday gift from lx and lj from march

oops bad pic. where i study/facebook/send those incredibly long emails...

left: tn, ax, st, and dv who collectively make the suite a warm fuzzy place to live in :). ax and st are unofficially my physics tutors now. seriously who needs professors or TAs when you have PLME suitemates (that means brown students who are already accepted into brown medical school). i was so grateful to them on tuesday night/wednesday morning for helping me get through those blasted questions.

oh and there's also Sir Duckly Ducklington of Duckshire the Third, Esquire in the photo. can you spot him?!

anyway crazy week finally over. :) it was good. i even enjoy working at the career development center cuz we get to meet so many amazing students. spent an hour today with a mature undergraduate student (she was forty...but looked 25, which was unbelievable!) critiquing her resume. it was just... well i guess i feel so humbled when i talk to these people and hear/read about their life experiences. she spent twenty years around the world, being self employed, and even did humanitarian work in Haiti in the 80s. it was silly trying to put all that on her resume (we didn't).

no piece of paper will ever be able to capture a person's true talents and courage.

i really like the word courage these days...

me and who

i really don't want to end up a scrawny old spinster with the cats and fumbly knitting. i don't even like cats.

maybe it's just me and my romantic illusions...but how is it that the protagonists in books always end up with someone, however plain or flawed they may be? 'it just happens', but how does it all really happen...that moment when you just click and something is stirring and you feel all floaty and champagne-bubbly like.

there are no real answers...just felt like wondering through writing.

sophomore!

couldn't have asked for a better first week back: minimal jetlag and homework, interesting classes (especially 'the victorian novel' - steeped in novel reading, including dickens' Bleak House), beautiful summery weather, fun suitemates, and all the wonderful brownies. when i first stepped into newark airport i confess to feeling a bit sickened by all the americanism that was at once familiar yet instictively foreign. but college campus life is so different...! it is nice knowing you belong.

courses i'm taking this fall semester
* Intermediate Japanese
* Basic Physics - yeah i know what you're going to say; my answer is i actually enjoy physics and chemistry more than biology (or at least i did, back in the GCSE years). i also shopped Intro to Calculus Part II but the professors were horrible at teaching. what is with the math department anyway? is it that hard to find qualified individuals who are enthusiastic about their subject, can smile, and know how to explain integration lucidly? sheeesh.
* The Victorian Novel
* Chinese - still wondering whether to take Academic or the lower level course, Advanced II. i shopped both and am confused. i feel as if the lower level one would be an easy A; the Academic would be one of those work- hard-or-fail courses (for my level anyway). and i don't do the failing thing.

so that's about it for classes...i'm a little apprehensive about taking three languages, but a lot of people do that, so it can't be that hard. will post photos of my room some other time! i haven't finished decorating though the turquoise/blue rug lx recommended does wonders to the colour scheme, or as dv said, ties the whole room together :D.

blah

what i hate about life is that no matter how much you hold onto a certain world, it will inevitably shift due to some thing and thereafter take on different shades of meaning and feeling. maybe that's supposed to render us more resourceful, strong beings. events are viewed through their effects..the lessons and realisations. but all this only comes after slugging your way through that in between period when what was before and what is now is so different - and i still don't know what i really think. nor does anyone it seems. it's just a whole bunch of awful silence and attempts to string together thoughts that are only half forming.

down with sheila-like sensibility

it's strange finding myself with this blog, wondering what i should write. conversations with ritz about public blogs crop up perennially - this time i decided to just do it, even though we've always agreed that blogs are complex things. for one, i hate the idea of being judged by what or how i write (might as well 'fess up now: i'm a crappy writer when it comes to anything other than english essays, lacking the eloquence of my counterparts). and the idea of conveying private thoughts in an incredibly public medium freaks me out a little. but if i don't have the guts to post entries read only by friends and acquaintances, then i might as well forget about pursuing a career in publishing or teaching.

i say this as disclaimer to what i'm about to do now, and that is, talk about something i've wanted to discuss with others but was unable to for fear of boring them. it concerns an obsession with mine which most people don't understand. not the obesssion part; the sheila-actually-obsesses-over-things? part.

...Christian Bale! recently rewatched Little Women for the nth time, and all the wonderful scenes have just been replaying in my mind these past few days. truth...Little Women was one of my favourite books as a 10-year old; i used to address all my diary entries with 'Dear Beth' because Beth is the sweetest and gentlest of the March sisters. :)

so for the fun of it, here's a list of Bale movies i've seen and want to see. you will be surprised at some of the titles...and have probably watched him in quite a few without realizing it!

checked off
- 'Empire of the Sun': he was only 13 when he took on the starring role as an English boy separated from his parents in Shanghai, the day the Japanese invaded (1937? ahh my chinese history is rusty.) bale's performance was so amazing a movie academy created a whole new award for him - best juvenile performance.

- 'Pocahontas': yes the disney movie! ahh bet you didn't know that he voiced Thomas' character (the guy who gets arrowed by the native americans by the river)

- 'The New World': those who can appreciate or at least tolerate slow, achingly beautiful scenes with zero dialogue should watch this...it's a modern re-enactment of the Pocahontas story. coincidentally, it also stars Colin Farrell who i used to obsess over 4 years ago hahaha

- 'Little Women': :)

- 'Equilibrium': a cult video classic amongst some guys, it is apparently often shoplifted from video rental places cuz there were limited copies produced! having said that, i hated this movie. it was like a really bad version of the Matrix with a lot of guns, solemn guys in black suits and pseudo religion/science vs morality stuff.

- 'The Prestige': Bale was good, but i liked the other magician-flick 'The Illusionist' with Edward Norton more

- 'Howl's Moving Castle': you HAVE to see this animation movie by Ghibli Studio if you haven't already! same director as Totoro, Spirited Away, etc.

- 'Batman Begins': one of my favourites :) but i still like the older Michael Keaton batman movies

to-be-checked-off
- 'The Portrait of A Lady': couldn't believe he was in this movie!! those who knew me well during the IB years probably remember me carrying around this book by Henry James (THE master of novel-writing...you must read 'The Turn of the Screw' or 'Washington Square'). it was cuz i wrote my extended essay on this book! it's just too bad there isn't a rental copy in Singapore :(

- 'Harsh Times': Bale plays some deranged American soldier who returns from the Gulf War. the trailer was... .... intense stuff.

- 'The Dark Knight': batman sequel! summer 2008

- '3:10 to Yuma': the title refers to a train bound for Yuma. Christian Bale is a ranch owner who volunteers to hold, then escort an outlaw (Russel Crowe) to his hearing in Yuma. okay so i've never even seen a Western, but the whole Bale/Crowe conflict in the story seems pretty intriguing. see the trailer at: http://www.310toyumathefilm.com/ it releases on sep 7th - so soon!!

sorry...i've bombarded you all long enough :D. i'll try posting something less self indulged next time. if this has piqued your interest in the actor, then yay i'm glad :)