homeward bound

After close to two weeks in Canada and a couple of days in more familiar territory (Boston), i'm now on an Amtrak train headed back to Washington DC where i'll be spending two more nights before flying home. It always seems to be the case that while initially when you get somewhere for a holiday, time seems to go by rather slowly, but then before you know it time passes far quicker and then it's time to head home. This trip was no exception.

I'm pleased that i had made the decision to spend the bulk of the vacation in Canada even though geographically speaking it may not have made much sense, since my flights in and out of the US are from Washington DC. I had figured that since i've already seen quite a bit of the Eastern United States (or at least stepped foot in most of the states), it made sense then to go to the nearest place to me where i'd not yet been to. It also gave me a good opportunity to be immersed in a language which i, at least in theory am supposed to be familiar with. And it was definitely the case - though as is so often the case, while initially i was rather overwhelmed with the need to speak French, by the time i had left Montreal to head back to Boston i was missing the opportunity to get better by doing so. The winter(-ish) weather in Quebec City was an added plus, not to mention the opportunity to do bona fide winter stuff that is impossible to do in Singapore, such as ice-skate and snowboard outdoors. And as a bonus, along the way back to Washington DC i've passed through the two remaining states in the region that i'd prevously yet to visit (i'd say 'set foot upon', but technically i've only been on a train passing through both Connecticut and Delaware, without actually getting off in either state - but details schmetails eh?)

It's actually only just over three weeks before school starts again, so i can foresee my mood gradually dipping from this point onwards, especially since there's work to do (i did some less-than-token bits of it just now just so i can feel a bit more satisfied with myself). But at least i've had the privilege to travel so extensively here :)

Greyhounding

I’m just about a week into my trip, and am currently on a Greyhound bus bound for Ottawa from Toronto. Thus far it’s been a relaxing and largely enjoyable trip. It was great spending part of the Thanksgiving holiday with my relatives in the DC area – I mean couchsurfing’s great, but it’s always nice to be with people you already know as well – it lends a different aspect to the trip.

After a few days with them, I took an overnight bus all the way up to Toronto. Now, it’s been a while since I’ve taken a bus up to northern Malaysia from Singapore, so I’m not sure how that compares to the DC – Toronto bus, but suffice to say that now that I wish that Megabus covered the Toronto – Ottawa route as well. While it didn’t have those business class seats that some of the Malaysia buses have, it had free (and hi-speed – or at least fast enough) wi-fi, which made me so pleased with myself that I had decided to bring my laptop along (and admittedly, also ponder about getting a tablet of some kind, if not at least a netbook). Now, since I’m stuck on Greyhound, I’m just typing this into a word document that I’ll just cut and paste later on. I have to say though that this Greyhound bus is probably the best one I’ve ever sat in (which is not saying much anyways). As i type this, there’s a finger-sized piece of unidentifiable half-eaten food right under the seat adjustment lever of my seat, not to mention a far-too-squeaky pair of windscreen wipers, doing extra duty in this particularly rainy day.

Toronto is the only place I’m visiting in Canada this time that I’ve been to before. That however was no more than a four-hour day trip from Niagara Falls twelve years ago. The only thing I remember about that visit was gazing upwards at the CN Tower and then retreating underground due to the cold and browsing a bookstore while my mother randomly bumped into someone she hadn’t seen for around twenty-five years. It definitely is worth a visit, regardless of the weather (which, in keeping with my snow jinx status – has remained stubbornly slightly above freezing and rainy). You can just be walking along the street and cross into the next city block and feel like you’re in a totally different place. I remember reading a couple of weeks ago about how someone was basically saying that in terms of a multicultural place, Toronto can’t compete with Singapore. I beg to differ. Singapore is still predominantly Asian, whereas in Toronto the people seem to come from all over the world. At last count I heard at least ten different languages from different continents being spoken. And this was all within a three day period, and only the languages that I could positively identify.

Whenever I travel, I normally try to stay as far away as possible from Chinese food. (Ok, I do that when I’m in Singapore as well =p). What’s the point of travelling for more than a day if you’re going to eat the same thing as you can eat back home? (Though I did have a good bowl of pho at a Vietnamese place in Chinatown, but that was in part due to the rainy weather – you’ll never see me in line for dim sum, that’s for sure).But since being on my own and on a budget means that I’ve usually taken my meals at food courts here, I’ve found that hard to do. Maybe it’s due to the large ethnic Chinese population here that even the “Bourbon Street Grill” and “Caribbean Queen” serve up chow mein as one of their meal offerings, let alone the stalls that sell other types of Asian food. At least I did have one satisfying Greek (or at least Greek-inspired) meal, which I was quite happy with.

So anyways, we’ll see if the weather gets better by the time I reach Ottawa. Forecast, last I checked, is for rain for two days, then a sunny day, followed by some light snow showers. And wouldn’t you know it? That’s the day I leave town… #snowjinx

One thankful turkey...

Travel Bulls and Bears

I am not a stocks and shares man, and probably never will be, judging from the nerve-wracking experience that i've had over the past couple of months. Not with actual stocks and shares though, but with air ticket prices. So after some regretful procrastination, i finally bought a ticket a few days ago.

The reason behind the procrastination was that while i would occasionally come across some rather good deals where tickets were concerned, i was not willing to commit, and also was thinking about whether the price may in fact drop further. Perhaps there's less data that's readily available when it comes to monitoring air ticket prices than there is (and probably ever will be) for monitoring share prices (for starters, i don't ever see myself hiring a broker to help me plan my next holiday). Nevertheless that sinking feeling you get when you see a $300 price increase on the ticket that you had been eyeing the day before is not something that i would want to experience again.

But anyways, after seriously considering at least three other possible destinations (and boy am i glad that i passed over going to Tasmania with Qantas). I finally settled on going to a place slightly more familiar, though dare i say in possibly rather unfamiliar weather. Lots more planning and then some to go (and of course i must remind myself that there's still three more weeks of school =/), but at least step one is done :)

Too far north?

Here's a picture i took somewhere around the city centre of Jyvaskyla in Finland earlier this year. The thought came to me then and now again after reading about the shameless acts of certain Singaporeans (and probably foreigners as well). I suppose the culprits have never made it all the way to Finland eh...

symptoms

I was at the mrt station waiting for the train home today, when all of a sudden i started sweating profusely. Thought that was rather weird since while i tend to sweat more than the average person, generally that's when its warm and humid, and i'm moving around a lot. In this instance, i was standing perfectly still, reading a book in an air-conditioned room.

By the time i boarded the train, i had started feeling somewhat faint and giddy as well. Again, nothing new, but still a tad alarming given the context (I was waiting for a train, not recovering from a long run). The ride to my stop felt like it was taking forever, and meanwhile i kept on thinking that i wanted something ice-cold to drink. Also, i wanted to get out of the train as soon as possible since there i was, one fella sweating away, while the rest were happily relaxing in the air-conditioned train.

Once my train finally arrived at Bras Basah station, i made a beeline for the nearest 7-Eleven (Well initially i wanted to get an ice blended from Coffee Bean but at least i was still thinking straight enough to calculate in my head that i could satisfy the craving at less than half the price of an ice blended by just rounding the corner and getting a slurpee instead). So that's what i did, and decided to get an overpriced pastry as well. Felt like things were back to normal soon after getting a sip of the slurpee.

When i got home, i did a quick internet check based on the symptoms, and the general consensus seems to be hypoglycemia (i.e. low blood sugar). I'm somewhat skeptical of this internet self-diagnosis though. That's because while i didn't have a proper meal until just now, i definitely had more than my fair share of sugar (thanks to Teachers' Day, practically every snack item in my possession has lots of sugar in it). So maybe i'll have to put it down to a spiritual attack? Nah...

Third Time's the Charm

It was Teachers' Day a couple of days ago. However, while i'm currently into the third year of this job, it was my first time actually having a Teachers' Day celebration, at least as a teacher. This is because the past two times i just so happened to be doing military reservist duty. In fact, the first thing that comes to mind when i think of the day itself, 1 September, is that it was the day that Hitler invaded Poland (something that i felt rather pleased with myself for informing my class about, since i just so happened to be covering that topic during class that day).

But anyways, i have to say that while i definitely appreciate whatever the students did in appreciation of all the teachers on this day, i'm sure i speak for many, or even most other teachers when i say that we'd gladly forego all of this if the students would show their appreciation instead by trying their best to pay attention during class, something that they fail to do far too often. Of course, we can only dream. At the same time though, it always is encouraging to see some positive response from the students, even if it only were to come once a year.

I'm definitely glad for this holiday-laden week though - Presidential Election off-in-lieu, Hari Raya Puasa and Teachers' Day certainly made my week :) Doubt they will ever coincide like this for quite some time more though, certainly not before i leave the service at least haha..

Hoping for the best for the Sec 4Ns...

July, i barely knew ye...

It's hard to believe that it's already more than halfway through the new school term. July has really passed so quickly, marked by almost weekly weddings, each of them seeming to gradually segue into the next one before i could even realize it. So much work and so many changes. Unfortunately, the only thing that has remained the same is the size of the pile of marking that i have yet to complete. (Come to think of it though, that has increased as well) Ah crap.

Maybe, Maybe Not...

Maybe it's because i've not really created much time for hanging out over the past few years...

Maybe it's because the past week, the first back in school after a short but nevertheless good break, has been excruciatingly tiring...

Maybe it's because i feel like while i'm back here in body, in mind and spirit i'm really still elsewhere...

Or maybe it's a combination of all of the above...

Whatever the case, i feel like i'm definitely losing touch with many i once felt far closer to...

Where does one go from here?

SIN to HEL and (soon to be) back - random thoughts

As i'm typing this, i'm sitting in a Finnish train headed south from Oulu to Tampere. Rather nifty methinks that the trains (or at least the more atas trains like the one i'm on) not only have power sockets for you to charge your laptops/mobile phones and what not but also free wireless internet access.

Although it's already my fifth solo Europe backpacking/couchsurfing trip (ok i can understand if that sounds more than just a tad excessive/indulgent), there had definitely has always been something new on each trip. I'm not in the business of writing a travel blog so i shan't attempt to expound in grandiloquent detail on how this has been the case on this trip, but suffice to say, while certainly similar to its Nordic neighbours (the high cost of just about everything, except perhaps dairy products and some fresh produce, for starters), there also are ways, albeit oftentimes nuanced, in which Finland is different.

Being, however, in the business of education in Singapore, i, together with all my colleagues, am aware that Finland, together with South Korea and of course, Singapore, has performed well in certain international math and science tests. And being admittedly paiseh to tell them where i was going for my break, i jokingly said that i'd be studying the Finnish education system *score points*. However while, it being the start of their own summer holidays here, i had no opportunity to actually visit any schools, through couchsurfing, i did talk to some people who are in at least some way plugged in to the education system here. Additionally, i did of course encounter some of the local youth. My conclusion based on this limited observations? There's nothing special about the education system here - like in Singapore the teachers are dedicated (and reasonably paid) and the students are increasingly rowdy and disrespectful. I do get the sense though that unlike many teachers in Singapore (or at least unlike me), the teachers here do enjoy most , if not all aspects of their work and are not tired out by it. They too have increasing amounts of administrative and other work to do, and are getting assessed regularly, but the passion to teach within the public system (it's virtually all public schooling here) remains. In other words, perhaps it's just me... Heh.

time better spent

It's a long story, but basically yesterday night i found myself at Koi at Iluma in the line for a drink. A cs friend was in the mood for one, and so since we were in the vicinity, i thought that i might bring him to Koi since (i had heard that) it's one of the best, it being of the wait-in-line-for-up-to-an-hour-or-so variety of f&b service outlet. Given that the line was noticably shorter than what i would have anticipated, (five or so customers long) we thought that we might as well get in line and try it out (i've never seen the point of being in line for that long for any sort of food or drink, regardless of how good it is). This even though i was at that point of time keeping up a streak of i don't know how long without drinking bubble tea.

Alas by the time we had reached the order counter, the mystery of the shorter-than-expected line was revealed. "We're out of pearls" the counter staff explained. Oh bother. But since we had reached the line, we ordered something anyways.

After placing the order and waiting for about another five to ten minutes, our number was called (something both so clinically efficient yet, considering the purpose, terribly ridiculous at the same time) and we collected our beverages. I could see where the 40-50% premium in prices went to - thicker plastic cups, straws (which come in their own plastic sleeves) , and that film they place on the cup in order to seal it. Of, and of course, i forget, the drink itself. It was undoubtedly good. Obviously they used natural flavourings instead of that toxic stuff which has been banned from being imported from Taiwan (my lime green tea was refreshingly, albeit overly astringent in taste). I bet even their ice was made from fresh mountain spring water heh.

Was it worth the ten-minute wait? Yes, i'd say. But for an hour even with pearls at the ready? No thanks, i'll pass..

Oh, and on a totally unrelated note - this little ditty came to mind after i saw this picture (and was inspired by many a mrbrown parody - though this is certainly below par compared to some of the gems that his team and him have produced).

I see him driven round town in an SBS bus, and it is, Tuck Yew!
Now if the change in your pocket isn't enough for the bus call, Tuck Yew, Tuck Tuck Yew!

While i'm certainly no fan of using people's names for humour, i couldn't resist...

The Merry Month of May (and other Ms in between)

It has certainly been a very eventful past month - and in the interests of providing applicable learning aids (i am a teacher after all), i shall summarize them in the form of relevant M words.

Mugging and Marking:

The past month at school has been a very hectic one due to the exam period. Let me say though that based on the results, there was far less of the mugging on the part of my students than there was of marking on my part. This was the first exam period of the four that i've encountered thus far whereby i only had upper sec scripts to mark, and only for History for that matter. (Previously it was always only lower sec, and a mixture of English and History). While as a setter this made things easier as upper sec assessment is far more straightforward than that for lower sec, as a marker this made things far more tedious. Since there's a much greater focus on so-called higher-order thinking skills, it means a greater level of cerebral involvement on the part of the marker. So much so that encountering scripts of answers of only a couple of lines long (if there were any answers to begin with) in response to 12 or 13 mark questions was, while bad for the student, rather a relief for me.

Challenges to marking are not only qualitative, but also quantitative in nature. Hence, over the two weeks or so of marking you would see me marking at school, marking at home, marking in the bus or train, marking while waiting for the bus or train, marking while having overpriced coffee at coffee bean, and the ultimate - marking while at a wedding dinner. Certainly not my shining moment.

So by the end of the marking period, it almost felt as though my purpose in life had gone, since the good part of each day would ave been taken up by marking.

MM and his Minions:

Of course the other major event of this past month was the general elections. Ironically, while at the last elections, i still had managed to vote although only more than half the seats were contested, this time round i didn't get to vote although only five of the seats (out of 87) were uncontested. Chalk it down to suddenly finding myself living in Tanjong Pagar, under the watchful eye of the above team. And of course having their potential opponents be a bunch of jokers who submitted their documents 35 seconds too late. And you'd think that by this time they'd get their act together.

On the plus side, staying in an uncontested ward meant that i was not required to perform any election duty. Which meant more time for marking on polling day itself.


This was definitely the most eventful of all Singapore's elections, at least since we gained independence. It was certainly encouraging to see more Singaporeans really thinking through the issues at hand before casting their vote (provided they didn't stay in Tanjong Pagar, of course), regardless of whom they voted for. What i cannot stand are people who cast a default vote without much, if any thought, beyond "oh everything seems well and good to me." I still encountered some of such people, who are testament to the dumbing-down of the political process here over the decades.

Well i hope to see this trend continue at the presidential elections - and i hope that there'll be one this time round. Certainly at the least i've had enough of the oompaloompa..

silver lining

If there's any upside to staying in a walkover ward, it's that i've more time to mark my exam papers :p

walked over

So i'm not voting for the PAP

I'm not voting for any opposition party either

All thanks to 35 seconds...

*sigh*

on autoteacher mode

I've been having to find my way to nie for the past three days for a course, and was unpleasantly reminded of how much i hated travelling between home and there on a daily basis. That surely explains in part why i recall often being in a bad mood when i was there (though to take liberties with the common saying, it's not all in the journey, but also in the destination). The sheer distance and the need for multiple public transport transfers is one thing, but what really made things rather trying for me over these few days were the sheer number of people who were my inadvertent travel partners.

The technical term escapes me (ok, so i've never found it in the first place), but i certainly have a case of crowdoclaustrophobia (i.e. a fear of being amongst a huge mass of people who seem to crowd all around you, forming a man-made enclosed space). Coupled with the general ungracious behaviour of many amongst the local mrt-taking populace, it always makes for a rather riled-up me.

Such was the case this morning at Raffles Place, as i attempted to board the east-west train to Boon Lay. It was at least twenty people including myself who were hindered in our attempts at boarding by several inconsiderate commuters who seemed to have a fear of being more than two metres away from the nearest train door. Which meant that there was at least four or five square metres of perfectly empty standing space slightly further away from the doors which they neglected to occupy.

Maybe i was particularly pissed off, for i found myself scolding this inconsiderate lot at a classroom-worthy volume. I'd like to think that this worked, but well, all it really did was get them to inch enough to one side for me to squeeze past them to occupy the few square metres of neglected standing space. At least i took enough grip of my senses to hold my tongue when i spotted one lady who looked like she was smirking (for what reason, i dunno) and was about to tell her to wipe that smile off her face. It was only then that it struck me and i realised that, no, i was not in class, so no, i had better not say that. Wouldn't that have been something - i'd probably have made stomp :p

Well, at least once school starts again, there''ll be no more of this problem, since by the time i reach school most of these inconsiderate folk probably would not even have left the house yet. The silver lining.

I can has march holiday?

In one simple word, no. In fact, i probably had more free time during the CNY break.

But when you put things into perspective, it's really not so bad. In fact, this March break is the first one week school holiday since i've been trained as a teacher that i've actually had the chance to enjoy any real holiday time (that's actually just one day's worth, and it's not due till Friday, but i'm cautiously optimistic)

The past two September breaks were spent at reservist training. 'Nuff said about that. (Another round coming up in a bit...)

Last year's March holiday was spent on a working trip to India. And as much as i love them (and while there's much room for improvement in that department, i do), spending time with students does not equate to a holiday, be it in S'pore or overseas. Not in my book anyways.

In any case, i fear that the recurring theme of the posts here in the past year or so in particular have tended towards the complaining type. And especially when taking things within the larger context of many of the world events of the past couple of months, my complaints really just wither in comparison. On that note, i do hope that the MediaCrap VP for MarComms does a lot of soul-searching...

Mr. Brightside

Contrary to the impression that i may give sometimes regarding the lunar new year holiday, it isn't all bad. It is a holiday after all. As long as i'm able to keep clear from supermarkets and other commercial establishments who remain hell-bent on playing insufferable 'festive' music, which they seem to have an uncanny knack for doing just moments after i set foot into the store (whatever happened to all that talk a few years back about stores who play the music having to pay royalties?), and successfully conceal my eye-rolls at crucial moments during school celebrations and when people recite those meaningless (to me) Chinese couplets when preparing the yusheng before tossing (the only fitting one i can think of at such moments is 乱七八糟, which i doubt is in reality very fitting at all), i can definitely get by the couple of days with minimal fuss.

Plus, i've the rare opportunity to have more than just the increasingly abrogated weekend away from work. In its physical manifestation, at least - of course i still end up doing work, just that i don't stay in school for more than twelve hours to do it. As i've been commenting a fair bit this time round, i am very much in the lunar new year spirit, in the sense that i'm adding a touch of red around me. The red may be in the form of ink from a red pen and the medium may be my students' homework, but at the end of the day it's still red.

Hopefully there'll be a bit of time left over from work-related stuff for a bit of exercise, especially since the weather bureau promises that there'll not be a repeat of the recent weekend of rain. Of course, if there's one thing that i've learnt about the met service here, it would be to take everything they predict with a bucket of salt. In fact what they seem to be better at doing is to account for past weather patterns, rather than predicting future ones. They probably have had to issue a forecast this time round since they'll be minimally operational over the next few days.

Minimally operational. Sounds good. Wish it could apply to me =p

new year, same rant

So i finally get down to posting here four whole weeks into the new year. And as much as i'd like to think that new year would equate to some sort of change in the kind of stuff that ends up here, unfortunately that isn't the case. Which basically means another cathartic rant/complaint post.

Not that there have been no changes. On the contrary, where work is concerned, there have been changes aplenty going on. However, these changes have by and large meant more things to do, and consequently less free time. Note though that i didn't say that the changes were all bad. Many changes have really been for the better. It's just that none of them result have resulted in even the most microscopic of shifts in the mythical work-life balance towards the latter. In fact, i'd say that at least from my own experience, i'd consider any attempt to promote work-life balance in any teachers' recruitment drive that moe may ever think of putting up to be a clear-cut case of misleading advertising.

Whatever the case, though, there is much about what i do that i enjoy, even if it has meant much ore work in the process. While i'm pretty sure that, provided i remain in the system, i will never have the opportunity to teach areas of history that i'm deeply interested/passionate in, at least (most of) what i've to teach doesn't result in me having to dig deep to find whatever token acting talent that i may have in order to feign enthusiasm anymore. Or is it just that i'm becoming a better actor?

Where these acting skills would really come in handy would be in how i react every time there's something that has to be done in which i can discern little, if any value in doing, beyond padding my work review at the end of the year. This year i've occasionally reached the proverbial tipping point, whereby i somewhat brusquely declined to do something simply because i had too much to do. I don't regret having done that in the sense that i don't really care (or at least so i think) about how that might reflect upon my prospects for promotion [because, particularly after looking at the amount of work that the higher-ups have to do (or in the case of some of those that i work with, more of delegate), i can honestly say that i don't care for a promotion]. However, i am somewhat regretful of having done that in the other sense of not wanting to be a bad witness, as i'm pretty sure that i could have carried myself off far better than i'd ended up doing.

Until things start changing on the moe end (which, realistically speaking, will not happen anytime soon), maybe i should look towards my own change instead. Then come the end of bond time, we'll see how things end up working out.