Today was a REALLY sian day. Haiz cos Thurs I have Intro Stats B in the morning. As far as Im concerned, my animosity towards anything with numbers in general has never and probably will never channge. To make things worse, let me tell you about my Stats Professor.

Well, my Stats Professor is a Chinese called Prof Yang Zhenlin. Now he is a pretty nice guy and is quite dedicated to his job. However, I really doubt my passion for maths could ever be ignited under his tutelage.

For one thing, he speaks with this thick accent. I mean I dun mind accents and it did sound rather adorable at first. But after a while, I found it a little annoying. After all, its bad enough that I dun understand what's going on in the powerpoint slides. If I dun even understand his explanation of it, it only makes things worse. At the same time, his monosyllabic droning has a tendency to drive you into this half-conscious state between wakefulness and sleep. In other words, you could practically sleep with your eyes open.

And he probably wouldnt mind either, cos the guy doesnt give a damn whether or not we truly are paying attention. Most people in class usually have their laptops out and MSN blatantly under his nose (*cough* erm me included)or check their emails.

Well, what does he do?

Nothing.

He just carries on with the teaching. Sometimes, you see people smiling into their computer screens and you definitely know their minds are on anything but Maths. Even more obvious is the fact that in between slides when he stops talking, you hear the mass rapid tak tak of people hammering away on their keyboards. I dont think you can take notes like that in Maths, because of the numbers and symbols. So I seriously doubt these people are adding notes below their saved powerpoint slides on their computers.

Today was just another day like this. I gave up listening to him and decided to MSN. On my left, Jacqueline was doing the same and checking her emails. On my right, Li Yan was checking her hotmail. After some coversations with another guy in another class, I went on to entertain myself with Xiaxue's blog.

And it was big mistake. Cos as I was reading it, I had to struggle to keep from bursting out loud. She has a wicked sense of humour, the ROFLMAO (rolling-on-the-floor-laughing-my-ass-out) variety. So I was struggling to stop giggling. Instead, I snorted and then pretended to cough, eliciting strange stares from Jacqueline.

After the lesson ended, went for lunch with Jacqueline, her bf Eugene, Clarice, Li Yan and Jacklyn at the Kopitiam across the road from the SESS block. Then, we went to a GSR, from which we got kicked out from because another group had booked the room. Its always like this in SMU, a constant struggle for the best GSRs to slack and study in. Had to help carry Li Yan and Jacqueline's stuff cos they had earlier left to meet Prof Marcos (Plural Perspectives on Political Issues professor) to discuss their project. Finally, we found a small GSR with no window and a tiny table.

Then, went for Plural Perspectives on Political Issues class.

To be honest with you, I rather like Prof Marcos' class, cos its interesting and the Professor is quite a cool person. He's this tall ang moh guy from the Netherlands who was originally from the University of Germany. Apart from sporting a bald head and a funny slurred way of speaking as if he were drunk, he has this really cynical attitude that's really funny. He talks in laymen terms, simplifying big issues, and has a firm belief that things are only hard if we make them seem that way. He also has favourite phrases like "pardon my French" and "shit hits the proverbial fan". Lol.

Anyway today we were studying a fatalistic society, in which people are mistrustful of each other, there is a struggle for survival and people are apathetic towards the community cos they are too busy trying to advance themselves. Its something that affects many third-world countries where the people are poor.

So he did a lecture on the subject, gave us a break, then started a video to show us clips from City of God, this artsy film that documents life in Rio Di Janeiro in Brazil. It showcases the lives of the characters against a dark world of crime, drugs and gangs. Nothing talks there except money or guns and to be rich means to be a drug lord dealing in cocaine.

It makes you think to see a rwelve-year old boy take out his gun and open fire on innocent people while laughing madly. And then he grows up and starts killing off other gang members to dominate Rio's drug trade. In this bleak landscape, most people even kill their own friends and family to seize power. Fatalistic indeed.

After the clip ended and we were dismissed. I bid April and Jacklyn goodbye at the base of the SESS block and walked home with Samantha to the City Hall MRT station. We took a wrong turn and ended up walking to Bugis instead. Oh well, it was fun to talk with her. Especially since she was Hafiiz's classmate in MJ.=)

And then, the long ride home with her on the MRT. She lives in Tampines so I got off first.

Home sweet home...