On racism

Any person who's been a student of sociology (or pretends to be - for example, yours truly) will know that the United States is an environment in which there's a lot of debate and discussion, as well as tension on racial matters. As part of the Chinese majority growing up in a country which is by and large racially harmonious, you never really get much exposure to the kind of atmosphere in which this racial tension exists.

Until now.

The events of the past few days have certainly helped to bring some perspective to issues which I think are pretty much entrenched in the American social fabric.

A little background - the centre (or epicentre, if we want to be ostentatious and flamboyant with words whose meaning we aren't able to exactly decipher) of the University grounds (campus) is a place called the Lawn (some would argue otherwise but don't listen to them, because I'm always right). It is, essentially, a lawn (well were you expecting otherwise?). Anyway, it's really a beautiful place and occasionally, people get really drunk and streak across the Lawn. The residences around the Lawn are reserved for the best of the best, the top-notch scholars who get their names etched on their doors. This is because we all know that top scholars don't get any and thus will have to make do with the occasional streaking individual across the lawn.

So one day, one of the residents (who happens to be Afro-American) arrives back to his room. Btw, all the residents at the Lawn have fancy white boards for people to leave messages. Except the message that he receives is "Nigger!" and "I Hate Jesus". Which is, of course, totally uncalled for (particularly since Jesus has a father I wouldn't wanna piss off). This incident circulates around the whole university and here's the part I like the most.

On Monday, it makes the headline news of the University paper. Meanwhile, a silent protest of sorts is staged by various people asking others to wear black to condemn this incident. Although I clearly see no clear consequentialist effect, I thought I'd join in the symbolic gesture, just because I'm not a fan of racism (yellow guys get beaten up in America, it's true). But what really struck me was this: as I went for my classes on Monday, I walked past the lawn and saw that on every door was a piece of paper. The words "I WILL NOT TOLERATE INTOLERANCE" were printed in bold and each of the pieces of paper were customised with the resident's signature. What was most striking was the fact that this appeared on EVERY SINGLE door. I think that the ability to find this kind of solidarity in standing up for a cause is so refreshing, coming from a Singaporean perspective.

Today, though, I had the opportunity to speak with my neighbours. We were discussing about the movie "Crash", which is to be screened sometime in the next 2 weeks. In my opinion, it's a fantastic movie which explores a variety of things related to racist behaviour. In any case, one of the neighbours was discussing about her first-year experience and how in exploring these ideals of preventing racism, there are some things to note. For example, she originally came to university and stayed in a mixed dorm (racially) and at first everyone got on well. It later occurred that some of the racial minorities in her group just happened to group together and do stuff that was, in her own words, unnecessary. For example, they turned off the lights while she was showering (although in all fairness, you don't know if it's necessarily these people - I suppose it's just an example). She didn't want to make a big fuss outta it because she saw the possibilities for misinterpretation, particularly because of the whole racial make-up of that group. But it's certainly food for thought - what do you do when in our zest to eradicate the evils of things such as racism, it overcompensates and becomes something that can be abused?

On a totally separate note, the homework for Spanish is driving me absolutely mad. I just finished something like 10 exercises, but I must have botched up at least 5 of them. Argh. Still, going through Juanes' "A Dios le pido" has certainly taught me a phrase which I actually find most poetic, and probably should teach all the guys who want to charm the pants (or skirts) off the lasses.

"...si me muero sea de amor
y si me enamoro sea de vos"

"If I die, it's for love.
And if I love, it's for you."

Plucky fella, ain't he?

The Village Idiot? Jem looking stupid...as always.

Yet another apple shot.

Gwyneth Paltrow's daughter repeat ad nauseam

A view of Charlottesville.

The barn at the top of the hill. Lovely apples on sale - pics coming up!

Some random guy at the top of an orchard

A bunch of rather unprepared people, but here's Dan, Emily, Frances, Allie and Will. Oh, and us Singaporean peeps.

First real weekend in Charlottesville

It's been quite an interesting weekend, all things considered. I'm not going to speak much since I'm pretty exhausted despite sleeping in until 12pm (yes WL, stop giving me that look). Essentially, this weekend has been one for the suaku Singaporeans (i.e. Jem, L'ing and myself) to go visit an apple orchard, with pics to be uploaded. That essentially covers Saturday.

Sunday has been spent cooking as well as spending some time with the other exchange students in the Commerce school (conveniently and collectively known as the Bath girls because well, they're girls and they're from Bath university). Liying is very much convinced that I'm useless in the kitchen (which may well be true, except for my skills with instant noodles). I, of course, beg to disagree but it'll take some time for me to prove otherwise, which I'm not sure anyone is willing to accord me (not that I've that much reason to complain, though).

We've also spent dinner at Newcomb Hall, courtesy of Clara. Folks like her are on a meal plan so she's giving away her meals since it's accumulated on a weekly basis and everyone's in the "Let's give away free food to make people join our fraternity/club/association/hall/orgy" mode, resulting in a number of missed meals. This was a nice event except that the food in Newcomb is really nothing spectacular spectacular, which partially helps to explain her eagerness to give it away. Ah.

And for those intending to ever come to UVa, please learn your Chinese well. It's amazing how half the world wants to learn Chinese now and suddenly you're the person everybody wants to talk to about learning the language, however much your Chinese sucks. And when you're a useful friend, I'm sure you're gonna be a popular person.

Damn, I need to run. Stupid school full of running peeps.

The weekend begins

It's 1am so no long and rambling entries but just a few thoughts:

1. Spanish Homework taking 3 hours and it's bloody ridiculously difficult. What have I gotten myself into?

2. A cappella groups. UVa has got some of the most amazing groups EVER. Puts just about half of all the groups out there to shame. There was one with a rendition of MJ's "Thriller" that almost actually sounds better than the King of Pop Wacko Jacko himself.

3. Sun here goes down pretty late.

Some brave souls trying our hands at the kitchen.

Folks gathering for the A Cappella performances, which were amazing. I only remember 2 acts - one with a Chinese guy that has got a better black voice than All-4-One (I Swear) (bad pun fully intended). The other is a group called the Virginia Silhouettes who did a pretty damn good impression of MJ's "Thriller". Btw, you should notice that the skies are pretty bright for a shot that's taken at 8:08pm.

Margarita Night at Amigo's@The Corner (kinda like the place on campus where everything's at). Drinking on an empty stomach? Bad idea. From L-R: Andrew (Jem's super nice roommate who has been driving us everywhere), Tanya (not sure if I got the spelling right, she's German), Thomas (Tanya's BF), some very red guy, fat Jem and Liying (not in shorts or skirts).

A picture of the entrance to my room. Notice the person holding up the camera?

People in UVa are absolutely mad about their sports - their daily newspaper (yes, they have a daily, which is more than we can say about a lot of our university publications) has a sports segment (which really takes up half the publication). And their coach Al Groh (or something like that) just renewed his contract after transforming the football team from a nobody into a good one (7 players got into NFL draft last year - it's that good) and he's gonna get paid something like $10.5 million over 5 years (could be 6 - my figures are not precise but it's definitely more than a million a year). Man it's a scary world out there.

Drive-through ATMs!

The Inescapable MacD's in Charlottesville - 10mins walk from where I stay. Note the American flag!

A lil' Old Navy to drive the people back home jealous...did I mention I got a rain jacket for US10?

First class

Went for the first class of the day here, so far it's been pretty relaxed. Instructor's speaking Spanish non-stop in class, which I suppose is a good thing. Classes are a bit farther than expected. Time to go pay accommodation fees - can't get classes otherwise. Grrr.

Of placement tests

In relative terms, the past few days have been amazingly hectic. This is, of course, not a wonderful thing for someone whose natural inclination is to nua. Let's try to recall the things worth recalling (or not).

One thing that has struck me about America and Americans is that you come in with the expectation that maybe the average American is the hardcore Christian right Bush-voting gun-toting redneck and then you realise you're at a good university, which means that you won't meet any of those. I'm not sure if the average American really is a redneck but certainly in terms of the areas that we've been in. But the point is, we've yet to meet any rednecks. In fact, most of the people we've met are pretty intelligent and sophisticated. Jem's roommate, Andrew, is remarkably intelligent and perceptive and we had a discussion about publications like Foreign Affairs and how Krugman is pretty slanted in his writings for the NYT. June (Joon?), on the other hand, is wicked in his humour. I'm not sure if it's possible to convince him to quit college for the comedy circuit but we'll see.

And I just received an e-mail saying I have to take the Spanish placement test. Goddammit. Time to go be productive.

Quick note

Considering the repertoire of endless activity prior to the start of the school term, I don't see myself finding much time to blog. Too many things to do, too little time, and I could seriously spend more time hydrating myself. Damn diets here are overwhelming too, I can actually feel myself getting fat.

Urgh.

First post from Virginia

Finally got the Internet connection up and about. Have spent about 2 days in UVa already and so far everything's going well. I'm bloody exhausted though, so not sure if I'll be able to do the long blog entry that I had originally intended (yes, lazy ass that I am).

So, had to rush for a flight at 6am, due to the fact that I almost botched up my travel timings and thus had no time to really do packing (thank goodness for the packing list). So off to the airport at about 4am, to find L'ing in jeans and a pair of glasses. This is, of course, momentous (for those who know her) and thus, a picture was taken when we reached JFK (more on that later). Will upload that later.

So, stopover in Narita. Nothing much there, put on a connecting flight to JFK. Turns out that Northwestern Airlines does NOT have personal in-flight entertainment units for flights from Tokyo to JFK, so good luck to all those taking this connecting flight.

Not much to talk about on the flights but in a nutshell slept a lot, got to watch the classic "Ice Princess" on the flight (how exciting) and slept more, slept on the connecting flight to Dulles airport in Washington. Got a lift down from Dulles to UVa the next day from a host family of L'ing. They've been great to us so I suppose they deserve the following paragraph:

Dan and Emily Carlton live near (in?) Charlottesville and they have an amazing house with 3 kids. Dan's a pastor at Spring Hill Baptist Church, leading a congregation of 400 (don't play play). They've got 3 lil' kids so Emily's a full-time housewife (as per every American stereotype soap - only without the drama). They've got 3 children - Frances, who's possibly the most articulate 7-year old I've ever met (but to be fair, I don't really know many 7 year olds); Allie, the younger daughter (4, I think) who's big on strawberries and Will, 8 months old, who gets terrorised by Jeremy when we were on our way down from Dan's place (where we stayed a night) in Emily's new Ford (or was it Chrysler?) SUV. Very sweet of them, and I hope the Möet Chandon champagne we got for them from Singapore helped to reciprocate some of the wonderful hospitality we received.

Yesterday was "Moving-In Day" in UVa, and particularly so at our dorms, the IRC (International Residents' Centre?). Long day of activities but this can be summarised as:

1. Getting room keys
2. Dumping stuff in room
3. Going out to explore nearby shopping places
4. Going gaga over Old Navy prices
5. Finding out Old Navy ridiculously cheap prices were there for sizes like 44 and upwards (yes that's waist 44) - i.e. the leftover rubbish
6. Eating lunch at the ridiculously greasy (and tasty) Five Guys Hamburgers and Fries
7. Walking around trying to find a line plan for L'ing and ending up gawking over the Motorola RAZR, going at $299 for a prepaid plan (very gian)
8. Buying a massive amount of crap such as pillows, blankets, bedsheets etc
9. Playing some get-to-know-you games with the folks in the IRC (out of which most of the names I don't remember except for the Singaporeans and a few people I actually had the time to talk to - thus realising that the majority of exchange students are actually from the UK and France)
10. Sleeping

Today was another day with a formal talk about legal status and Visa issues. Shortly after the talk, we met Jem's roommate Andrew (from the US of A) and his friend June (Joon? He's Korean). June summarised the talk in 3 words, "Don't fuck up". This was the most meaningful contribution of the day from anyone.

Too damn tired to go on any more, will have to blog tomorrow. Ack.

1 Day to Departure

Yet another checklist update. Contributors are welcome too. :)

Done
1. Visa
2. International Driving License
3. ISIC
4. Flight from JFK to IAD
5. Travel from IAD to Charlottesville
6. Postponing Fortune subscription
7. Postponing Economist subscription
8. Purchase Webcam
9. Purchase Digicam
10. Indemnity Form
11. Exchange Fee
12. Student Loan
13. Parents' Loan
14. Medical Check-up
15. Cancelling Internet connection

WIP
1. Internet Banking Application
2. Getting Internet Access for The Economist
3. Collect USD from Cheryl

To-be-done
1. GIRO reply for Citibank Loan
2. Delegate laptop for trade-in
3. Purchase running shoes
4. Pack

Memories of Singaporean Food with the BSM chicos y chicas

5 Days

5 days more to go and I don't exactly feel the nerves and all that jazz yet. Just needed an update on what needs to be done and what has been done, to give oneself a sense of urgency, I suppose.

Done
1. Study Loan
2. Digital Camera
3. Web Camera
4. Indemnity Form
5. LAN Cable

To-be-done
1. Insurance
2. Visa Collection
3. International Driving License
4. Upgrading Internet Connection
5. Suitcase
6. Laptop Trade-In Delegation
7. Internet Banking A/C
8. Parents' Loan
9. Warm clothes
10. Exercise clothes & shoes
11. Postponing Economist subscription
12. Getting online access to Economist
13. Packing

I don't like the fact that the to-be-done list just keeps getting longer...grrr. Like that how to play WoW?

8 Days to blast-off

Another 8 days to go. Updated checklist:

Done
1. Study Loan
2. Digital Camera
3. Web Camera
4. Indemnity Form

To-be-done
1. Insurance
2. Visa
3. International Driving License
4. Suitcase
5. LAN Cable
6. Laptop Trade-In
7. Internet Banking A/C
8. Parents' Loan
9. Warm clothes
10. Exercise clothes & shoes

More packing, more WoW?

Checklist Part Deux

Just remembered, I should add insurance to that list. And LAN cable. Did I already include that? Can't remember. Gah.

Debut Entry: 10 days to blast-off

It's National Day in Singapore, which means 10 days to departure. Having spent the better part of the past week clocking up many many hours on World of Warcraft, I suppose it's now time to get down to action.

Which leaves the following items to be settled (it's 5:46am Singapore time - no time to be blogging my thoughts for now)

1. Visa
2. Study Loan
3. Parents' Loan
4. International Driving License
5. Indemnity Form
6. Digital Camera
7. Web Camera
8. Suitcase
9. Bags of Maggi Mee
10. Internet Banking Account
11. Turning in old laptop

There's more, I'm sure but I'll need to write these down as we go along. Gah.