Current mood:

reminiscent

a good singapore experience
sigh. i still miss the whole singapore experience. benjamin, a friend i met during icophil, told me that i would appreciate my being filipino more when i'm abroad. but he was wrong. or my case is simply an exception to the rule.

it was even frustrating that, on my way back from the airport, i had to deal with an annoying taxi driver, an overpriced taxi service which seemed to have monopolized the taxi service in naia terminal two (rumors have it that manny pacquiao owns the business and the terminal management banned other taxis from picking up passengers directly from the terminal bay).

the whole research conference was very enriching. even my room mates were very nice. learned a lot about south east asia and i think my fellow researchers learned quite a lot about the philippines too. as per institution listed in the conference programme, we (filipinos) were only six, but a lot of filipinos studying abroad came. a lot of nus staff were also filipinos. it's funny too that in the keynote speeches, the speakers seem to leave out the philippines in their analysis of south east asia and whenever i raise a question about it, they'd say that we're too westernized. but the south east asian trends and tendencies in politics and pop culture they discussed actually happened or is already happening in the country. frankly, their dearth of empirical knowledge on the philippines presents an opportunity for us, filipino researchers, to join and even set the south east asian dialogue on regional identity.

made some good friends too. am actually exploring a collaborative exercise now with claudio, an italian harvard ph.d candidate in anthropology. the guy just wowed me with his analysis of economic fluidity in bangkok and i pitched that maybe we could work on an article on bangkok and manila (he's based in bangkok now for his dissertation). well, i think he liked my presentation on democratization too; that's how, in fact, we started talking. his girlfriend, futura, was very friendly too and i'm kinda uh.. envious(?) that an academic like him can actually afford to have a romantic relationship even as he goes around the world, hehe..

had dinner with them last monday. went around little india and chinatown too and they introduced me to the dhoby ghaut (singapore's mrt which i was very hesitant to try on my own). when we ate at a chinese restaurant, the place was already about to close and the owner was hurrying us up with our order. it pissed us, of course, but then the owner went to me and asked me if i was chinese and when i said i was and that my father's family is, they seem to have treated us better. futura said it was because in singapore, chinese treat fellow chinese better, especially if the paternal family was chinese (i think the owner noticed that my left eye was smaller than the other, looked more chinese, haha!)

and speaking of uh.. romantic interests, i met this one french girl who really caught my eyes. she's tall, good looking and by god, she's brilliant! she's living in indonesia right now but i was able to get her card to stay in touch, hehe.. nothing serious though. but i'm really smitten.

met a lot of interesting people too. even talked lengthily with dr. hefner's thirteen-year-old son during the farewell dinner. the kid likes video games so much and i was interested to pick his mind as an exploratory exercise of henry jenkins' theory on the gaming culture. he seems to be very good at what he does (video games) and told him he could have a good career at mit (he said he's not so much interested with research as his father is, so i thought of introducing him to a 'new' kind of research, something which i think both him and his academic parents would be interested in, hehe..)

then during my last day, i met two lost aussies. fortunately, i had my map with me (and already had my share of getting lost), so i accompanied them on their way to plaza singapura. they gave me their contacts and told me to give them a buzz in case i happen to be in perth, australia. it feels good meeting people that way.

didn't really have time to shop, since the two-day conference was whole day, but i just can't leave singapore without scouting their bookstores, hehe.. bought one book from the discounted nus press stall during the conference, but i wanted to see what kinds of books do they have in the market. so i went to times, kinokuniya and borders to check it out (they were all along orchard). nus told us that they wouldn't give any per diem allowances, but they still did, so i just used it to buy books! hehe..

bought six books at borders. i even got their preferred card (discount card). then again, i bought another book at the airport (just can't resist, hehe..) so now, i finally have "journey to the west", two of marshall mcluhan's book and a book on social theory and analysis (just some of the books in my must-have list). was also supposed to buy jenkins' book (unfortunately not "convergence culture"; they were out of it too) but i ran out of money. didn't do much shopping though. was really just interested at buying good books not available in our bookstores.

sigh. looking back at it, i still remember the experience very vividly and the good friendships forged. it was a very, very memorable first time outside the country. the whole thing actually makes me think of what i'm supposed to do now that i've finished my masters. i should fast track my ph.d application now and i guess, instead of hopelessly hoping i get to teach in ust again, i should just focus my energies on becoming an independent researcher and seek funding elsewhere. and hopefully, i get to see my fellow ari alumni again. sigh..