Who's Got Trouble?
Aileen held up three CDs: one by John Lennon, one by The Carpenters, and one by The Cardigans.
"Okay, I'm definitely getting this one," she said, waving the John Lennon, "because my sister wants it; but I can't decided between these two."
"That's a no-brainer," I said.
"Yeah," Diana agreed, nodding.
"Of course the Carpenters," I continued, the same time Diana said, "The Cardigans."
Aileen gave us both an exasperated look and sighed.
"What the hell - I'll get both," she finally decided.
If only all of life's difficult decisions have such easy resolutions ...
:::
Somehow, the conversation turned to school, grades, and Honors degrees.
Aileen is still undecided as to whether she'd want to continue at Vic after her summer papers for her Honors. She said she is trying to get a B average for all her papers this trimester so she would have the choice of getting Honors for her BTM.
I said I thought keeping a B average and getting an Honors degree at Vic would be easy-peasy; after all, it's Vic, not NUS ...
That's one thing I can never figure out - why I persist with the mentality that NUS is a tougher university, and Vic is 'easy'; it's like I've been brainwashed that NUS is better than Vic, and that the Singaporean education system ismuch better very much tougher.
Diana then pointed out that I wasn't too far off the mark, citing a report that ranked NUS as one of the top ten universities (?!) world-wide, while Vic at best made the top two hundred, or something.
I don't really give a shit about rankings, but having gone through tertiary education in Singapore, I do think life at Vic is so much more relaxed. Most people, like me, take three papers a trimester (the minimum being two, and the maximum four); that adds up to just twelve hours of lecture and tutorial time a week - a breeze compared to the eight modules I had per semester in polytechnic. I'd thought it would be so difficult to get a place in NUS I didn't even try.
Keeping a high B - or even an A - average at Vic isn't difficult either. If you've gotten the hang of writing essays, then a low A average won't be beyond you.
I told Aileen and Diana this much, but they disagreed. Aileen said her Tourism papers were tough, as did Diana of her Economics papers, and Aileen pointed out that Jen was always talking about how difficult her RELI and ANTH papers were. So I had to concede it was prolly just my ENGL papers that were easy.
Which is why I don't like getting Bs for my essays and overall grades; I tend to get pretty pissed off at myself if I'd gotten a B+, nevermind anything below that. I thought I should be getting straight As because ... well, in my head, a little voice's always chiming, this is soooooo much easier than NUS, you know ...
When I met with Christine two weeks ago about my Old English project, I told her about the many aspects of my project I'd have liked to look into if I had the time, and she said, "No, this is enough. It's not an MA ..." Then, in response to my "but it seems I haven't done much for this project", she smiled and said, "You're a perfectionist."
It'd thrown me off completely, just like Hideki's "She's very analytical" during my second portfolio review. So I've come to the conclusion that lecturers get pretty strange ideas about you, especially if you're quiet and don't interact a lot with them, because then they can't get a decent understanding of you.
Anyway.
I told Aileen and Diana about the letter suggesting I enrol for Honors I got last trimester from Robert (I really should be addressing him as Prof. Easting since he's been made Head of School, but it'd be too weird), and they thought I should really consider doing my Honors at Vic.
Then I said I thought everybody doing their final year of E.Lang and/or E.Lit would've received it, because for Linguistics, everybody is encouraged to do their Honors, and to apply for a the Honors scholarship. Aileen then asked if I'd asked any of my coursemates whether they'd received Robert's letter as well - but obviously I hadn't: that's just crazy.
So they kept egging me on to stay for my Honors; and for several weak moments, I had almost been tempted. I've got evil friends. (Especially when Christine had announced during our last class that she'll be offering Icelandic Literature again next year for Honors students. I'd almost cried: I'll missing out on the possiblity of reading the Sagas in Old Icelandic - and I'd only dreamt of it ever since Christine mentioned such a course two years ago! This is definitely the time to pronounce Life Is Shit.)
I've figured I'll do a post-grad diploma if and when I should want to pursue a Masters; so, for now, I doubt an Honors degree will be featuring in my near future ...
Tant pis.
:::
"Okay, I'm definitely getting this one," she said, waving the John Lennon, "because my sister wants it; but I can't decided between these two."
"That's a no-brainer," I said.
"Yeah," Diana agreed, nodding.
"Of course the Carpenters," I continued, the same time Diana said, "The Cardigans."
Aileen gave us both an exasperated look and sighed.
"What the hell - I'll get both," she finally decided.
If only all of life's difficult decisions have such easy resolutions ...
Somehow, the conversation turned to school, grades, and Honors degrees.
Aileen is still undecided as to whether she'd want to continue at Vic after her summer papers for her Honors. She said she is trying to get a B average for all her papers this trimester so she would have the choice of getting Honors for her BTM.
I said I thought keeping a B average and getting an Honors degree at Vic would be easy-peasy; after all, it's Vic, not NUS ...
That's one thing I can never figure out - why I persist with the mentality that NUS is a tougher university, and Vic is 'easy'; it's like I've been brainwashed that NUS is better than Vic, and that the Singaporean education system is
Diana then pointed out that I wasn't too far off the mark, citing a report that ranked NUS as one of the top ten universities (?!) world-wide, while Vic at best made the top two hundred, or something.
I don't really give a shit about rankings, but having gone through tertiary education in Singapore, I do think life at Vic is so much more relaxed. Most people, like me, take three papers a trimester (the minimum being two, and the maximum four); that adds up to just twelve hours of lecture and tutorial time a week - a breeze compared to the eight modules I had per semester in polytechnic. I'd thought it would be so difficult to get a place in NUS I didn't even try.
Keeping a high B - or even an A - average at Vic isn't difficult either. If you've gotten the hang of writing essays, then a low A average won't be beyond you.
I told Aileen and Diana this much, but they disagreed. Aileen said her Tourism papers were tough, as did Diana of her Economics papers, and Aileen pointed out that Jen was always talking about how difficult her RELI and ANTH papers were. So I had to concede it was prolly just my ENGL papers that were easy.
Which is why I don't like getting Bs for my essays and overall grades; I tend to get pretty pissed off at myself if I'd gotten a B+, nevermind anything below that. I thought I should be getting straight As because ... well, in my head, a little voice's always chiming, this is soooooo much easier than NUS, you know ...
When I met with Christine two weeks ago about my Old English project, I told her about the many aspects of my project I'd have liked to look into if I had the time, and she said, "No, this is enough. It's not an MA ..." Then, in response to my "but it seems I haven't done much for this project", she smiled and said, "You're a perfectionist."
It'd thrown me off completely, just like Hideki's "She's very analytical" during my second portfolio review. So I've come to the conclusion that lecturers get pretty strange ideas about you, especially if you're quiet and don't interact a lot with them, because then they can't get a decent understanding of you.
Anyway.
I told Aileen and Diana about the letter suggesting I enrol for Honors I got last trimester from Robert (I really should be addressing him as Prof. Easting since he's been made Head of School, but it'd be too weird), and they thought I should really consider doing my Honors at Vic.
Then I said I thought everybody doing their final year of E.Lang and/or E.Lit would've received it, because for Linguistics, everybody is encouraged to do their Honors, and to apply for a the Honors scholarship. Aileen then asked if I'd asked any of my coursemates whether they'd received Robert's letter as well - but obviously I hadn't: that's just crazy.
So they kept egging me on to stay for my Honors; and for several weak moments, I had almost been tempted. I've got evil friends. (Especially when Christine had announced during our last class that she'll be offering Icelandic Literature again next year for Honors students. I'd almost cried: I'll missing out on the possiblity of reading the Sagas in Old Icelandic - and I'd only dreamt of it ever since Christine mentioned such a course two years ago! This is definitely the time to pronounce Life Is Shit.)
I've figured I'll do a post-grad diploma if and when I should want to pursue a Masters; so, for now, I doubt an Honors degree will be featuring in my near future ...
Tant pis.
Please take me out of here
So we can have a ball
I've been tied up
My face against the wall
Who's got trouble
We've got trouble
Go ahead make mine a double
I do declare I'm in a state
And I just can't wait ...
'New Casablanca'
Shivaree, Who's Got Trouble (2005)
posted by s at 22:14
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