i shouldn't be complaining. but. i am going to anyway. because my middle east paper is going to be much tougher than i thought it was. not that i didn't think it wasn't a steep learning curve or anything, oh boy that i do know, but my tutor is extremely scary! tute's on wednesday, essay due in a day earlier at noon (all right, that is quite reasonable) BUT there's an outline to be submitted by monday at noon as well. she doesn't expect the full essay by monday, but that means that i have monday evening to finish writing it since i really should only write it once i receive her comments. which, because an essay length of 6-8 pages is called for, means i will probably sleep very, very late. if i sleep at all?

6-8 pages?!?! i am no zk. my essays are normally 4 pages long, averaging 2500 words or so. this is with arial font size 11. 6 pages is about 3,600 words. you are so kidding me! or perhaps someone can tell me that i have messed up my math, but i don't think so. maybe i can cheat and use arial font size 11.5 or even 12 huh. right. at an average rate of 500 words an hour that is 7 hours of pure writing alone. no toilet breaks, no breathers, no nothing.

the only consolation is that the course really is interesting. looking at the reading list just sends happy thrills down my spine (i am becoming like zk! damn.) for example, "the reign of the ayatollahs: iran and the islamic revolution", "a peace to end all peace. the fall of the ottoman empire and the creation of the modern middle east", "political islam", "beyond the veil" etc. the titles are certainly eye-catching. the reading list is also long, however, so i envisage more posts like this, me being cooped up in the library.

perhaps i am being overly sensitive given what i have heard about the nature of this course and the purported slight sway in its teaching, but when looking through the list of countries (and the recommended reading for each) it was striking to see all other countries eg Syria, Lebanon, Israel, Jordan etc named just that, and Palestine was "The Palestinians". i felt it peculiar. maybe i am just being too sensitive.

on a more random note, i managed to speak to yet another singaporean in an english accent today. this time it's worse, i didn't realise it at all! =( =( =( basically i had to call dbs up about my card and my signature, and this was after some calls, so that is my excuse. anyway i spoke and enquired about my card and having to re-sign something, and the lady just paused there for a long moment, i thought i said something wrong, and she spoke back in a distinctly singaporean accent. i was in shock, then i realised, omg, did i just commit the cardinal sin again?!?!?!?!?!?!? it took a while before i spoke normal singlish again (according to tracy, who was well amused. she thought dbs had english customer service officers or something). SIGH.


the worse part is, i called to ask about my signature right? well recall a long, long time ago, when i had bank signature problems? well anyway my english signature is a squiggle, it really is, and it is a hard to replicate squiggle, for me at least. each time i sign it, it looks entirely different. i kid u not (i just practiced). i then replaced it with my chinese signature, which is harder to forge imo and also easier for me. well i thought i did, and i did this at posb. however dbs has an entirely different set of records ie it has my english signature.

which, as i remind myself time and again, i can't replicate.

and i can't even remember how i signed it before.

SIGH.