of mice and men (ad astra per alia porci)
I've finally come to the conclusion that, like Steinbeck, I wanna fly to the stars on the wings of a pig. Which is extremely befitting since I'm born in the year of the pig and I'm kinda like a pig anyways. =P
For some reason, I've been feeling disconnected from the "real world" for some time. I don't know why, but I absolutely hate shopping malls, tv, places with huge crowds, and anything that requires me to "socialize" with people I don't care for. Well, not that the "real world" should revolve around these things in the first place (at least to me), but my family seems to think I've gone crazy. Apart from working on dengue virus all the time, I spend the rest of my time swimming/running/going to the seaside and hanging with my sister/nephew. Maybe I'm just getting old I guess. The only "real world" thing that I really wanna do is to go hit the clubs, but given the abysmal night scene and phenomenally bad dance music I've seen here (save paul van dyk that other night, which really rocked my socks off!) I don't know if I wanna pay a ridiculous cover to be in pain the whole night. I've also successfully steered clear of orchard road since I returned, which is quite a record I must say, so don't even ask me out to orchard road i get a massive migraine attack if I go there especially during the weekends when all the malls are just crazy packed.
Been reading east of eden by john steinbeck and I have to admit it just blows my mind. I fondly remember the days in middle school when we had to study steinbeck's of mice and men for literature class. My literature teacher had us memorize that "george shot lennie in order to ALLEVIATE his pain" and special emphasis was placed on the at-that-time-out-of-the-world word: alleviate. Not that it's such a hard word for 14-year-olds. But anyways, I've always felt that little kids nowadays face the problem of having to grow up too quickly (think kindergarten kids who go to school with fancy iphones and text their housekeepers/parents/friends) but during my time, we were made to relate to a story that we had absolutely no way of relating to. Who could truly understand the dream of moving west in search for a better life, or the complexities of Salinas with all its rich fertile soil and its strict social strata?
When I was at the marine station in Pacific Grove, it suddenly struck me that monterey county was extremely racially segregated. The less affluent, hispanic people lived in the city of salinas, the more well-to-do white people (and a few asians) lived in monterey, and the filthy rich white people were in carmel, 17-mile-drive etc.. The "ghetto" asians and some hispanic people also lived in seaside, as if it were some kind of middle grounds. I wonder what Steinbeck would think if he were still alive and saw steinbeck country in its current state. I'd imagine he would get a second heart attack and rename his book grapes of wrath and choose the more befitting title of watermelons of wrath. I still remember my trip to South Africa many years back. I had read in the textbooks about the famous apartheid system in SA, and how its abolishment was a major victory for human rights and the fight against racism. When I arrived in Johannessburg (ok I must be spelling it wrong) I got the shock of my life. Like your regular american city, blacks lived in the decaying city center while white flight brought the more affluent white people out into the suburbs. White people that ventured out on the streets at night were often the victims of deadly crimes. In effect, the apartheid system was as alive as it could be though it was technically abolished. Cross one street from a black ghetto and you would find yourself surrounded by nice trees and spectacular houses and white people everywhere (you couldn't even tell you were in Africa!). Not that you could blame the white people. When it comes to raising your kids and the safety of your lives, everyone has to make the natural decision of protecting himself. I guess I just wished that things would be better after so many years of "modern civilization".
So my neighbors are German, according to my parents. I have a huge passion for baked german pork knuckles and currywursts and hanuta hazzlenut waffles, so I wanted to invite them to our place for dinner last year, which pissed my parents off cuz they "might steal" our precious chinese works of art. Fine. I can "accept" that. When I walked past Ian a few days ago, I decided to introduce myself (I mean, we're neighbors!) and after some words, I told him that I loved german food. And he was like "umm ok"... and then we chatted more (all kinds of stuff... like his work, his cats, what his wife did, why they had all these plants etc), and I was catching a FULL-BLOWN british accent, which sounds amazingly sexy after you've lived in america for some time (i finally understand why the americans go crazy over the british accent now) and suddenly, ian tells me that he and his wife are ENGLISH! I turn scarlet red, and murmur my byes. When I get home, I tell my parents that our neighbors are ENGLISH, not GERMAN, to which my mom vehemently protested (no they're german!) and my dad added "english and german are very close"! So much for racial harmony.
I was working overnight in the lab the other night (thanks to my over-zealous supervisor) and it suddenly struck me that I now understand myself a teeny weeny better. Aaaaarrrggghh... gonna steer clear of all shopping malls/crowds for as long as possible!
I seem to be the target of umm weirdos for the past year. Can't say too much, but yeah, McCreepies, McStalkers and McShadies are not welcome in my world!
I've decided to go to UCSF for my PhD. I recently found out that they do terrific work on HIV, and since my personal wish is to do something meaningful with my infectious diseases training, I think HIV would be great. I'm thinking malaria would be cool too, but Stanford seems to study mostly "affluent" diseases (at yale they do lyme disease! not sure if i wanna work in that area) and I can't bear to move to Harvard/Yale and leave my most beloved Pacific Ocean. So yeah, UCSF it is (keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get in!)... I imagine myself having dim sum on a lazy sunday morning by the sea, and then proceeding to baker beach to do some reading and tanning... Yeah baby!
I watched a little of the Olympic swim heats today (felt weird to finally watch tv after so long) and I must say it's just soooooo beautiful to watch them swim! I really hope I can swim like them! Not that I'm a bad swimmer or anything, but i don't know how they do butterfly strokes like they're really flying... So beautiful!
Maybe mice and men really aren't that different. It's sad, but it's true.
For some reason, I've been feeling disconnected from the "real world" for some time. I don't know why, but I absolutely hate shopping malls, tv, places with huge crowds, and anything that requires me to "socialize" with people I don't care for. Well, not that the "real world" should revolve around these things in the first place (at least to me), but my family seems to think I've gone crazy. Apart from working on dengue virus all the time, I spend the rest of my time swimming/running/going to the seaside and hanging with my sister/nephew. Maybe I'm just getting old I guess. The only "real world" thing that I really wanna do is to go hit the clubs, but given the abysmal night scene and phenomenally bad dance music I've seen here (save paul van dyk that other night, which really rocked my socks off!) I don't know if I wanna pay a ridiculous cover to be in pain the whole night. I've also successfully steered clear of orchard road since I returned, which is quite a record I must say, so don't even ask me out to orchard road i get a massive migraine attack if I go there especially during the weekends when all the malls are just crazy packed.
Been reading east of eden by john steinbeck and I have to admit it just blows my mind. I fondly remember the days in middle school when we had to study steinbeck's of mice and men for literature class. My literature teacher had us memorize that "george shot lennie in order to ALLEVIATE his pain" and special emphasis was placed on the at-that-time-out-of-the-world word: alleviate. Not that it's such a hard word for 14-year-olds. But anyways, I've always felt that little kids nowadays face the problem of having to grow up too quickly (think kindergarten kids who go to school with fancy iphones and text their housekeepers/parents/friends) but during my time, we were made to relate to a story that we had absolutely no way of relating to. Who could truly understand the dream of moving west in search for a better life, or the complexities of Salinas with all its rich fertile soil and its strict social strata?
When I was at the marine station in Pacific Grove, it suddenly struck me that monterey county was extremely racially segregated. The less affluent, hispanic people lived in the city of salinas, the more well-to-do white people (and a few asians) lived in monterey, and the filthy rich white people were in carmel, 17-mile-drive etc.. The "ghetto" asians and some hispanic people also lived in seaside, as if it were some kind of middle grounds. I wonder what Steinbeck would think if he were still alive and saw steinbeck country in its current state. I'd imagine he would get a second heart attack and rename his book grapes of wrath and choose the more befitting title of watermelons of wrath. I still remember my trip to South Africa many years back. I had read in the textbooks about the famous apartheid system in SA, and how its abolishment was a major victory for human rights and the fight against racism. When I arrived in Johannessburg (ok I must be spelling it wrong) I got the shock of my life. Like your regular american city, blacks lived in the decaying city center while white flight brought the more affluent white people out into the suburbs. White people that ventured out on the streets at night were often the victims of deadly crimes. In effect, the apartheid system was as alive as it could be though it was technically abolished. Cross one street from a black ghetto and you would find yourself surrounded by nice trees and spectacular houses and white people everywhere (you couldn't even tell you were in Africa!). Not that you could blame the white people. When it comes to raising your kids and the safety of your lives, everyone has to make the natural decision of protecting himself. I guess I just wished that things would be better after so many years of "modern civilization".
So my neighbors are German, according to my parents. I have a huge passion for baked german pork knuckles and currywursts and hanuta hazzlenut waffles, so I wanted to invite them to our place for dinner last year, which pissed my parents off cuz they "might steal" our precious chinese works of art. Fine. I can "accept" that. When I walked past Ian a few days ago, I decided to introduce myself (I mean, we're neighbors!) and after some words, I told him that I loved german food. And he was like "umm ok"... and then we chatted more (all kinds of stuff... like his work, his cats, what his wife did, why they had all these plants etc), and I was catching a FULL-BLOWN british accent, which sounds amazingly sexy after you've lived in america for some time (i finally understand why the americans go crazy over the british accent now) and suddenly, ian tells me that he and his wife are ENGLISH! I turn scarlet red, and murmur my byes. When I get home, I tell my parents that our neighbors are ENGLISH, not GERMAN, to which my mom vehemently protested (no they're german!) and my dad added "english and german are very close"! So much for racial harmony.
I was working overnight in the lab the other night (thanks to my over-zealous supervisor) and it suddenly struck me that I now understand myself a teeny weeny better. Aaaaarrrggghh... gonna steer clear of all shopping malls/crowds for as long as possible!
I seem to be the target of umm weirdos for the past year. Can't say too much, but yeah, McCreepies, McStalkers and McShadies are not welcome in my world!
I've decided to go to UCSF for my PhD. I recently found out that they do terrific work on HIV, and since my personal wish is to do something meaningful with my infectious diseases training, I think HIV would be great. I'm thinking malaria would be cool too, but Stanford seems to study mostly "affluent" diseases (at yale they do lyme disease! not sure if i wanna work in that area) and I can't bear to move to Harvard/Yale and leave my most beloved Pacific Ocean. So yeah, UCSF it is (keeping my fingers crossed that I'll get in!)... I imagine myself having dim sum on a lazy sunday morning by the sea, and then proceeding to baker beach to do some reading and tanning... Yeah baby!
I watched a little of the Olympic swim heats today (felt weird to finally watch tv after so long) and I must say it's just soooooo beautiful to watch them swim! I really hope I can swim like them! Not that I'm a bad swimmer or anything, but i don't know how they do butterfly strokes like they're really flying... So beautiful!
Maybe mice and men really aren't that different. It's sad, but it's true.