The Pending.

So I've been able to come up with a reasonably truthful abstract of a research proposal for Prof K's term paper, although I was stuck in a rut for the better part of last week, making things up when I was required to talk about the research in class, although I knew that there were gaps in what I was proposing. I've since read more literature and have gone a round circle back to where I started, but at least I've grown a little wiser.

My abstract is a page long, but some Kiasu Kids are sending in four pages. I wonder if they understand what an abstract means. "A statement summarizing the important points of a text." Given that the paper will be about 15 pages long, 4 pages is sure a lot of important points. It will be in my best interest to finish this paper as soon as possible, before I start to work on Dr. C's on an entirely different topic, because I have puny brains that tend to get confused when working on multiple subjects in tandem.

As always I'm afraid to start writing. As stupid as it sounds, I'm always afraid that what I write won't be perfect. Logically I do understand that it's impossible for me at this stage to spurt perfection (ooh graphic) on the spot, but that's how I write - each sentence painstakingly crafted, revisited over and over again, and at the end of the day I end up with two paragraphs done. Two beautiful paragraphs, mind you, but something tells me that this isn't the smartest way to do stuff. I think for this paper I shall try a new approach, i.e. throw in all the ideas with the brokenest English possible, and do my editing at the end once and for all. Maybe that would work.

Oh and I made a new friend this weekend, his name is Kukui and he's from Hawaii. He gave me this brilliant idea of learning Spanish in Guatemala, a total submersion in the culture and the language - and I've been playing with it ever since. Apparently tons of people do that, the classes are held half-day and you do a homestay with a local family so you'd pick up the language really quickly. And you get to do some volunteering work as well, if you want. The first Spanish school result that came up while googling revealed a price range which was quite reasonable, i.e. USD125 per week of 20 hours of lessons, and USD75 with food and board provided with your host family. Which means it is about SGD300 per week, SGD1,200 per month, and if I want to budget for two months it will be SGD2,400, plus SGD600 of miscellaneous expenses ==>SGD3,000. Add in the flight tickets, which I have no idea how much it costs (Alvyc, do you happen to know?), it should be at the range of SGD5,000-SGD6,000 I guess?

As a comparison, a homestay in Tokyo for 15 days, provided by titanplanet.net, costs RM6,500 (inclusive of flight tickets and board) which is around SGD2,720. And that doesn't even include Japanese lessons.

Man it's so doable. Central America has never really been on my travel radar until now - and damn I can't stop thinking about the possibilities! Learning Salsa, cooking the local cuisine, immersion in a totally unfamiliar culture... I'm itching to go somewhere, anywhere! I'm currently saving for Europe which I'm aiming to do next year, as and when I get the time or the permission for fieldwork, so this year I'm probably strapped to Singapore, which is never a cheery prospect. The closest thing that I have to hope for is this conference in August which is held in Boston, but I'm not counting too much on that lest I get really disappointed if it doesn't work out.

I guess time will fly really quickly this year - it's almost March now. I need to move out (I'll save this headache for another post) of hostel in May, and after the last of my classes this semester, it will be full speed on my confirmation report, which hopefully will be done within this year so that I can do data collection next year onwards. And there's nothing spurring me on harder than that. To get funding, to get formal permission to leave. Singapore does good for a base to work hard, to motivate me, but what I really want to do is to see as much of the world as I can before the self-imposed deadline of 30 years old... and there's not much time till then.

I don't really know what I'm going to do after I'm 30. In my head time really just stops there - it's the settle-down-dom ("dom" as in kingdom) and that's pretty much it. Probably involves sperm banks and such, but I wouldn't set it down in stone yet. So the current plan is just to live to the fullest before I'm 30. Sometimes when I'm particularly down I wonder why I'm staying in Singapore during probably the best years of my life. Then I remember that travelling needs money, and money doesn't grow on trees. The only way out, is to stay in.

In other news, Jane Austen's Emma is coming to an end. Loo-going will never be the same again.