How quickly time has passed- it's already been three weeks since I reached Ann Arbor, and I must say I'm settling in pretty nicely. These three weeks have been rather jam-packed with activities... all the Destination Michigan orientation events, like Festifall, Maize Craze, Escapade and Artscapade, buying sprees at Meijers, Target, Linens & Things, meals at South Quad and Bursley and Stockwell (food sucks at Stockwell! phooey), morning runs to everyplace imaginable, gymming at the CCRB, rugby practice, rowing tryouts, and yeah, of course, classes which started on Tuesday. Even though I can't deny that my class schedule seems really good (which it is), the workload already looks staggeringly heavy. It's only the first week of classes and already I don't dare to procrastinate (like how I spent much of my JC life, lol), because once you neglect to do the readings they'll just accumulate and haunt you when it comes to midterms and finals. So far the best class has been Cultural Anthropology- it's really interesting and I think the lecturer's a blast, and to think that was a class I picked to sorta fill up my last open credit slot. I'm still not into the Iliad and the Odyssey and the Greek tomes we get in Great Books- to be honest, if it weren't a requirement I'd never have taken a second look at it.

Haha it's sort of strange how prior to when I came I had thoughts about being subsumed into the some of the more questionable aspects of American culture- the wild frat parties, Greek life, drinking, drugs, that sort of thing. And yeah I guess it is prevalent, well not exactly overwhelmingly so, but it Does exist, just perhaps not to such a large extent as I thought there might have been. Sure, sometimes I open the door of my room and see some topless guy chasing a shrieking, laughing girl down the corridor and disappearing into a room with the door slamming behind them. And I've heard stories about how one of the Singaporean freshies in UM apparently has two druggies as roommates- when he walks into the room it's a purple haze with the pot and all. But somehow I don't know. I really don't give a shit about all the partying and crap like that. Before I reached, I thought I'd at least be curious and go check out one or two of the parties. You know how they say lots of freshmen, when they arrive in a foreign place, they suddenly feel so liberated that they throw all caution to the wind and indulge in wild abandon? I just read a blog which mentioned that scholars, in particular, do this sort of thing because they've been holed up working their asses off in Singapore for too long. Ha I won't say too much, except that it is an unfair generalisation. Anyway, even when some of the other singaporeans suggested checking out the asian frat parties and stuff like that, i just gave it a pass. Nah. I don't know why, but it's like I feel I've got so many other things to do than just getting stoned or drunk or wasted. And there are a lot of people and things (and, well, Organizations, LOL) that are important to me back in Singapore that I guess I'm just here to do my best and live up to their (and my) expectations. Not to mention keeping the faith of the people that I live for. Strange, isn't it? To become a chao mugger here. Lol...


***
Tonight the music seems so loud
I wish that we could lose this crowd
Maybe it's better this way
We'd hurt each other with the things we want to say
We could have been so good together
We could have lived this dance forever
But now who's gonna dance with me
Please stay