What? Classes? Responsibility???

Here, to the right of my writing is a picture of a random spot on the National University of Singapore campus....stunning really. I still am slightly in shock sometimes that this is indeed where I live now; for a year I live here. I show this picture because it may give some insight into why I am having a hard time switching gears from holiday, craziness and perma-vacation mode into "oh my, I am here to study and learn and further myself academically" mode. Classes began and I enjoy them. I have four of them and by far, the most difficult is Chinese 1201...intro to Chinese language. NOT AN EASY LANGUAGE!!!! I know that I am not dedicating as much time to it as I could be. The hard part is that the class moves very quickly because there are a lot of students in the class who have definitely been exposed to Chinese in some form another. The majority of this is the students who speak Cantonese. Granted, I know that it is different from mandarin, but it is still clear that all of us crazy exchange kids in the class are bug eyed and feeling kinda slow. There are good websites though that I must frequent more regularly if this to become a language that I even capable of having a minor conversation in. Chinese works with a systems of tones. Tones 1 - 5 either flat, ascending, descending and ascending, just descending or neutral. So, for example, depending on how you pronounce "ma" it could mean either horse or mother. I love my mother and by no means do I want to accidentally call her a horse, so I must learn. At this point I can count pretty well and I can say me, you, day, year, and some other things too...other random vocabulary that was taught to me before I came over here. I do feel like I am treading water but my legs are getting very tired. Luckily, many people around here speak Chinese so..I am in the right place to get it right. I do have other classes though.

In Performance and Popular Culture I am learning the difference between performance and performativity. I won't go into it, but the class is very much a mixture of philosophy and sociology type things and thrown in is the context...popular culture. So, needless to say, my presentation will be on Mamma Mia and my paper could be on the Spice Girls or Friends...the sitcom.

In, Performance and Social Space, I am learning about how we perform in the cities we live in and how we react, create change and make our own spaces within those cities. This class will conclude with an essay film about a topic with which we are able to go off on tangents about and film, add music, and narrative to. Should be fun as I think it is Singapore themed.

In Praxis and Performance Theories we will be putting on a play at the half way point. This play will be based on exercises we do in class and will experimental in nature. I will enjoy this class as I am a tad tired of typical theatre these days. Audience pays for tickets, enters the theatre, sits there watches the play which either makes them feel something or not. In this case, we will break down the norms and make a play less about narrative more about an experience in a theatre...something I have been interested in awhile now. Mixing multimedia, movement, sound. Theatre - deconstructed.

So, I am in school, yup. Here I am, in Singapore being taught by a mix of local professors and a Brit. I am enjoying it a lot and I couldn't have chosen a better location to come to. Today, and every day really, it is at least 26 Celsius and more so like 41 or 42. I am approaching rainy season but, hey, you can't have everything you want in this life.

I may be doing a bit part in some sort of opening sequence for an American show. It is filming here, does not pay and it would be fun to do something creative so, I just may.

I hope all is well for all