New Beginnings

I don't keep close track to such things, but i'm pretty sure that at least when looking back at recent years, today was the earliest on record i've heard CNY music playing publicly - even before the new calendar year has started. Crept me out. Thankfully the supermarket i happened to be in today still had the sense to play Christmas music, but i think the days of CNY music-free supermarkets and other commercial establishments are very numbered.

Another set of days that are certainly very numbered are the number of free days before school starts again - three to be exact. Not that i have had a very fulfilling holiday to begin with, but i'll take whatever i can get. Maybe it's the relative un-freedom of this soon-to-end holiday that has prompted me to already start researching on possible holiday trip locations for next year, even though it's increasingly looking like my June holidays will be another non-event and the next time i can take a trip out of Asia will be at the end of next year.

I shouldn't complain though. After all, as i remind myself frequently, my job is not to travel, but to teach. And the teaching experience next year promises to be very interesting, and if not more so, then at least in a very different year from what i've experienced thus far. On the plus side, next year i can be more focused, subject wise at least, compared to previously. Arguably, i also am able to teach things which are more in line with my teaching interests. However, that also means that i have a heck of a lot more preparatory work to do for this year's classes than i ever had to do in previous years. Furthermore, for the first time i'm also handling graduating classes, which implies the conducting of lessons over the June holidays (byebye summer vacation).

I'm quite ok with that though, and in fact, as cheesy as it sounds, i'm up to the challenge (or at least i say that now - check back in four months). So bring it on, 2011.

Perspectives on Christmas

Somehow i've never really been excited by Christmas here. I reckon it's because when i was a student the arrival of Christmas meant that the new school year would be starting within a week (which is probably why i've been even less excited about New Year's Day). Then when it came to army time i recall having to be back in camp by Christmas night, or at the latest the following day, so regardless of what Christmas symbolizes i never was particularly thrilled. save for the opportunity for a one-day break. Now that things have come full circle and i'm a teacher, i'm still pretty much indifferent since Christmas means that the end of the school holidays is near again.

And while much has been said of how Bethlehem is situated in the middle of the desert, so on the first Christmas it couldn't have been that cold, surely even for people here the idea of "Christmas in the tropics" somehow doesn't cut it. Blame it on the very westernised picture of Christmas that has been etched in our psyches, something that only breeds further disappointment, which is pretty much catnip to this nation of complainers. Why, the only hope we have of the much sung-about white Christmas is to head to Tanglin Mall and be sprayed by soap suds amidst a throng of over-excited young 'uns (and in steamy weather to boot).

Of course, ideally i'd be focusing more on what Christmas really means (isn't that always the case?), especially when year by year, we get bombarded by an increasingly commercialized view of the season. I can't say i'm a conscientious objector to the over-commercialized Christmas season though - i don't Christmas shop simply because i'm lazy - but nevertheless regardless of the proximity to the school term i guess it's good to take the opportunity to look at things from a larger perspective. Which is probably why i was very appalled to read a report on West Coast GRC in yesterday's ST, even if it was just for one line, which actually had nothing to do with the political situation per se (which you'd figure i'd have a lot to be appalled about). The reporters were talking about "foreign newcomers" in the GRC, and said that "residents in Pioneer, Boon Lay and West Coast endure the presence of foreign worker dormitories in the heartland".

That brief line speaks volumes about how Singaporeans in general (and admittedly sometimes myself included) disregard the contributions of the foreigners in our midst and instead just harp on how they inconvenience our daily lives. It almost is as though we see ourselves as superior beings to them. Now, i'd flesh this point out in detail, but that's been done far more eloquently elsewhere. I also can't say that i was appalled by this point in itself, since i pretty much would have expected to hear such sentiments. What i was appalled at was that this was presented as a factual statement on the reporters' own part. For all of ST's faults (and don't get me started on those - again others do so far better than i ever can), you'd at least expect them to present a balanced view (though then again, as i type this, Fox News comes to mind =p) and not take a prejudiced view towards the matter. Instead, we have the reporters themselves declaring that having foreign worker dormitories in our neighbourhood is something that we have to "endure". Surely a role that the press should play would be to dispel such one-dimensional takes on these issues, rather than to endorse them in their own writings, but, again when taking things into perspective, i can't say that i'm surprised. Sadly. Perhaps these ST reporters need to take this opportunity (no ST published tomorrow rite, which means that they really can do so) to think about what they write...

post-Krabi

While it has usually been the case that during the longer school holidays i'll take a fairly long, or at least, as long as possible holiday out of the continent of Asia, the special circumstances of this December holiday (plus of course my last minute planning, which was even more last-minute this time than it has ever been before due to a combination of procrastination and too much darn work to do) have it such that travel plans this time round were decidedly different. Well for starters, i've had to restrict myself to Asia for a change, and in fact, to be more specific, Southeast Asia (though that's in large part because i'm not at all interested in going to any other parts of Asia, at least not at the moment, and in the case of China, not ever). Additionally, the length of the trip's been cut drastically from last year's three weeks to less than a week this time round. So this meant that for the first time in three years there were no quaint Christmas markets in close-to-freezing weather with the obligatory mulled wine to enjoy. Instead, it was decidedly tropical weather for a change, something much closer to home (which as far as i'm concerned is often not something good).

It didn't turn out too badly though. Not that i'm not one to be philosophical about such things, but like i had said earlier, in a way circumstances were such that it was just as well that i didn't manage to get away from say, November, since i had so much work to do (hmm and in fact, still do have to do, though that's another story). Furthermore, i guess after four straight backpacking and couchsurfing trips in Europe a break in the routine couldn't do much harm. In any case, i ended up going to Koh Lanta in Krabi province, which at this time of year at the start of the northern winter season seems to have a tourist demographic profile almost entirely composed of sun-starved Europeans. Being pretty much a lone Asian in a sea of tourists of European ethnicity (yes there were barely even any Japanese, and (thank goodness) almost no other Singaporeans in sight either) meant that i was pretty much ignored by almost all the people in the tourist trade whom i encountered, which can work both ways. On the minus side, in such situations you can't help but feel like a second-class tourist compared to the farangs, but on the plus side, that means that the scores of massage, hotel, and restaurant touts barely even sent a glance my way.

Oh, and of course, another big plus about this trip is that it was a heck of a lot cheaper than what i'd pay usually, even though this time i had to resort to staying in hotels due to the scarcity of budget/couchsurfing options. So now i'm telling myself that the money saved this time round could possibly go a long way next time. Hopefully the next time will be during the June holidays. I dunno if i could tahan any longer without a larger-scale trip...