I Will Not Fall Asleep... No.... Not...Fall...

It's 2am. I'm one class behind in my readings. I have around forty-eight hours more...

Monday = quiz for the kids and politics of EU integration class (readings done)

Tuesday = make-up class for the IS goddess (readings haven't been touched, not to mention that I am still on the hot seat for the first fifteen minutes )

Wednesday = regular class with IS goddess

Ok. I have... 12 more readings to go. Oh. And an entire chapter on the Cold War for my class.

Sleeping is a luxury.

I am destitute. 

It's a Small World After All

This is effin' unbelievable.

Flashback to last term:

It was a rainy Monday night, and I had to rare opportunity of having dinner with R (one of my guy pal classmates in gradschool) at KFC.

R: I don't understand. No offense, but of all the guys out there, why ATF?

Me: Beats me as well. 

R: You know I have an older brother, he's like six-feet tall, a killer IQ... he even went to Stanford.

Me: Whoa! (to myself: hmmm... probably he could hook us up)

R: But he sucks with the chicks. He even runs to me for advice.

Me (to myself): Oh shit. I've had enough from inexperienced geeks. 

This morning, I accepted R's facebook friend request, and noticed that I had another new friend request from the X (now I write it with an X cause he is one of them "lapse in judgements" if you know what I mean...). I paused for a moment. Wait... I just noticed... that... they... have... the... same... last...name... oh no... this is isn't good... I opened a new tab and decided to visit my dormant friendster account. I hurriedly browsed through my friends, clicked on the page I was looking for... went through his picture albums... and BAM! OMFG. THEY'RE BROTHERS!

Fudge. Fudge. Fudge. I wish X would keep his mouth barred shut. This was the X who called all my girlfriends the night I broke up with him, crying his head off, begging each and everyone of them to convince me to stay. I tried my very best to forget this awful awful mistake, and now it hits me hard on the face. Great. It's a small world after all. 

I've Been MIA I know

I am sooooo sorry for falling off the radar. The previous week was just really extremely toxic. I guess I'm still adjusting to my "new lifestyle". It's no joke really - I have to read for my grad classes, read for the class I'm teaching, come up with modules to keep their minds on the lesson, chat with friends, update my wardrobe and hit the nail spa regularly.... argh!!! Just yesterday I was only able to get an hour of sleep - I had to prepare for an outline presentation for THE grad class (THE cause it's the one being handled by the course god/goddess if you know what I mean). I spent hours and hours reading and typing. In fact, I even consulted my other prof friends regarding my outline, and so far, all of them said it was ok. 

THE CRAZY PART: At the end of my presentation, IS god says, "There is no thesis statement." 

THE EVEN CRAZIER PART: Perhaps if this happened to me last term or maybe a year ago, I would've burst into tears. Yesterday - I ended up laughing at it. I don't know if you guys would see it as a good thing or a bad thing, but right now I see it as a good thing. Last year changed my life in so many ways. This is cheesy I know, but last night, as I was reflecting on the entire reporting fiasco, I sincerely realized that those kinds of moments are part of the entire learning process. Whether it's called character building or whatever, I think it's helping me become a better person. Instead of being hard on myself, sulking, moping, regretting... I don't know, but it really feels right to be laughing. And doing better next time of course. :D

My First Lecture

In preparation for my first lecture, I had to go through a crash course on transformative learning with ATF last Friday. For those of you who are totally clueless, ATF was 2008's ultimate male hang-up. 

* Here's a confession: ATF is a prof. He was my prof and thesis mentor during undergrad and my first term of grad school, and will still be my prof (and hopefully thesis mentor again) next term. 

It's a bit tricky especially now that we're colleagues, but I promised myself to break free from the shackles of the hang-up for 09. However, in the hour of training we had (fortunatley, G, my great gal pal who is also a prof was there), I'd just like to say that it is unbelievable how he keeps changing my life (Oh I am so hoping that my students would never get a hold of this blog and read this post). The guy is BRILLANT! I don't think I've ever met any guy who comes close to how intellectually stimulating he is. Anyway, enough about him...

As always, I had to wake up at 4:30 am to prepare (as in beauty preparation) for the 8am class. I wore a satin turqoise off-shoulder blouse, black capris, and gold greek-style sandals (nope, not gladiators). I started the class with a quiz (yeah I know, evil right!). Since it's a global studies course, I require the students to log on to the BBC website every Sunday and read two articles. The first would be the main news front page of the day, while the second would be the news front page for Asia-Pacific. I got yesterday 's question from the main page article and my question was "What did the Israeli Defense Forces leave on the Gaza Strip, and what are its contents?" Don't get me wrong, the BBC articles are relatively short, and my maximum sentence requirement is three (so if they are able to hit the mark in one sentence, they are very free to do so), so I'm a bit surprised with how the results turned out. 

Only four out of five students got the answer. I was looking for the following keywords: fliers/leaflets/pamphlets and warning. Ironically, the first sentence of the news article reads:

"Israel has dropped leaflets on the Gaza Strip warning residents that it is to escalate its military action." :(

Other answers ranged from telling me how many Palestinians died, what sort of weapons were launched... there was even a student who answered, "The IDF left nothing but destruction." There are all valid answers yes, but they missed the point of the question. I already printed a copy of the article onto a transparency and would discuss this matter with them tomorrow at the beginning of the class. 

On the brighter side, I was able to go through the discussion smoothly - they were attentive and quiet (it was also a bit awkward cause one of my classmates during undergrad is now my student), and I had no difficulties controlling the class. They also participated and gave good input, I ended the class showing them a video animation on globalization, which should've presented the concept in a more entertaining and simple manner. 

Tomorrow is graded recitati0n day, and I'm looking forward to seeing my class again!:D

And Another Blog Award...

It seems that blog awards are on the rage for everybody lately :) Before anything else, I would like to thank The Blonde Duck for giving me this award. I just started following her recently, but I am already so hooked! She is such a vivacious woman, not to mention a talented writer. Do visit her blog and read for yourselves! :) 

The rules of the award:

1. Choose a minimum of 7 blogs that you find brilliant in content or design. 

2. Show the 7 winners' names and links on your blog, and leave a comment informing them that they were prized with “Honest Scrap.” Well, there’s no prize, but they can keep the nifty icon.

3. List at least ten honest things about yourself. 

And the winners are....

Starting Over at 24 - Now this guy is the greatest and hottest blog guy on the blogging world for me. He is honest, sincere, and helluva funny. His posts never fail to crack me up! The guy blog I love!

Sex and Two Single Girls - I would consider Bee and E's blog the female counterpart (somewhat) of SO's blog. If SO's posts are great to read especially since it throws all my "guy accusation" right back at me, I love SATSG because I could totally relate with the stuff they go through.

belle etoile - My favorite celeb and beauty blog!!! Do drop by her blog and you'd see what I mean - amazing amazing finds!

Glamour Kills - My blog world hermanita.

Good Gals Inc - *self-explanatory*, but sometimes I think it deserves to update to "Great Gal Inc"

Orchestrated Destiny - A new favorite. Deep, deep girl, with intelligent things to say. 

Sassy Pants - She gives me my daily dose of blog love. 

For the ten honest things bit of this award... I'll be blogging about it in a separate post :D

New Year's Award

I've been wrapped up with preparations for my first teaching lecture tomorrow *hearbeats* that I wasn't really able to post anything, though I've been catching up on your blogs everytime I take quick breaks. :) 

Another blog award comes my way, thanks to the knockout bombshell Good Gals Inc. I am very fortunate to have met such a beautiful blogging friend, but inside and out. 

The rules of the award are:

- You must be a true lover of the New Year to receive this award. The person to whom you give the award must also be in love with the New Year.
- List 5 things that you love about the New Year. If you can't limit it to 5 things, then keep going till you run out of space.
- Pass the award along to as many people as you like. That can be 1 or 50. It's up to you! But keep the New Year cheer going.
- Let your recipients know that you have tagged them by leaving a comment on their site. Also, link back to the person who gave you the award.

Alrighty, here we go.... 

5 things I love about 2009 so far

1.  I've met so many new and wonderful bloggers such as Snow White, Rosemarie, USCEMILY, and A Duck in Her Pond.
   
2. I'm now transitioning to a healthy lifestyle, and believe it or not, I am now beginning to drink lots of water (I this is weird, but I am not much of a water drinker, and I am quite lazy when it comes to chewing food). 
3. Yesterday was my first Italian language class, and I sooooo love it! The people, our professore, Martin... the entire class was purely benissima!
4. My relationships with the people I care about are strengthening - I was able to overcome my hang ups from the previous year. 
5. 2009 welcomed me by making one of my greatest dreams come true. I'm now teaching!!!

Now I'd like to pass this award on to the following fantabulous New Year's chicks:

Sassy Pants

Snow White

Rosemarie

USCEMILY
The Blonde Duck

Practically Perfect

Mrs. Buckingham 

Chloie

Tina

Debbie

Sex on the beach

Victoria

First Day High

First of all, I'd like to thank everyone for all the encouragement! Being a professor has always been one of my greatest dreams (since highschool actually, and this desire intensified even more as early as my freshman year in university) so your support really means a LOT!

I've been asked to teach "Introduction to Global Society" to a non-bloc, non-IS (int'l studies) class at  8am-930am every Mondays and Wednesday (this means I get to wake up at 4:30. I'm not kidding! It takes me three hours to prepare and all that jazz. Oh! Just to provide you guys a brief intro about this aspect of my life: I took up International Studies, Major in European Studies for my undergrad (I graduated last June 2008, but I wasn't present during the ceremony cause I was attending summer grad school at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University), and I am currently in grad school (this is the last term of my 1st year)... and yes same degree :) 

Anyway, I was up until 1:30 am designing my syllabus' layout and furnishing the 41 copies for my students-to-be (OMG! I can't believe it - "my students"!!!). Woke up at 4:30 to begin the morning rituals, walked out of the door at 7:23 am (I live across our university), and landed in the IS Dept at 7:31 am. Can I just say that I went through a bit of disaster before leaving our flat - I was returning my blow dryer into the closet when my favorite bottle of Orly Plum nail polish fell, shattered, and splattered rich, glittery nail polish all over the floor and ALL OVER MY FEET! I had to pour half a bottle of nail polish remover to get all the gunk off!!! Fortunately G was already in the department so I just kept hopping and squealing around the department while it was still empty. I began to walk to my assigned classroom at 8:10 to give the students some leeway. After all, it's their first class of their first day of classes. 

There are no words to describe how I felt as I pulled the door and stepped into the classroom. 

 

"Is this (subject)?"

A low "yes".

"Good morning guys! I'm *!llegally blonde* and I am your prof for this term.  I know this is the earliest class ever so I'm sure it's a pain for all of us to be here. Nevertheless, let's help each other out in making this class as lively and bearable as possible. Here is the course syllabus - get one and pass." 

I surveyed the room... the sea of faces...a few of them were giving me shy smiles, while the others were doing the usual what-type-of-prof-will-she-be-like-does-she-have-fashion-sense once over assessment (hey I was and still am a student so I'm familiar will all the tricks in the book hehe). I introduced myself briefly, went through the class list, discussed the syllabus, asked them to form their permanent groupings, go through the cheesy "introduce yourselves" portion, and dismissed the class 30 minutes early. 

I emphasized the following:

1. I shall be strict in checking attendance - we are all suffering from the early schedule.

2. I will not tolerate distracting noise - there were these two girls who were talking loud enough (they were sitting 4 rows aways from me) that I could already make out their conversation. 

3. If you didn't do your reading/don't have a copy of the reading then don't come to class at all. 

4. Let's work together. I will do my best to give you the best grade possible. 

I survived this week's meeting. 

Prof at 21.

It's too good to be true. 

Everyone keeps reminding me that it is true.

I'm so happy I'm floating.

You have no idea guys. No idea.

My First Happiest Day in 2009

The department chair just gave the green light at 4:00 pm this afternoon. 

I so cannot believe it. 

This is my dream come true.

I am teaching. Yes. Teaching as in an entire class of 41 university undergrads. 

Tomorrow.

8am. 

This is it.

This is really it. 

Help me God.

... and I'm Back!

Sorry for dropping off the radar for a bit, cause I got so wrapped up in post-New Year happenings. Nevertheless, I now come crashing back into harsh reality - the holidays are so over (unless you squeeze in Chinese New Year on the 26th) and it's time to get the house in order. It is extremely stressful to look at the holiday rush mess left unattended just like this one:

Yes, that is my desk, and that is how it usually looks during finals and hell week/month.

I know it's horrible so I'm off to clear it up right after I post this. Classes are starting tomorrow, but my professor in International Political Economy is still in HongKong, so I'm crossing my fingers that he would let us have the day off (I only have two classes this term: the one I've just mentioned and Politics of European Integration... sounds like serious business I know - cause they really are! If you guys could only see the amount of reading load we get per week... it's totally crayzeh!). 

Anyway, I started my healthy eating lifestyle yesterday. It is a great thing especially since my friends noticed my holiday weight gain :( 

Yesterday's meal log:

Bfast

decaf tea

vegetable quiche

AM snack

pistachio nuts 

Lunch

grilled chicken

side salad

PM snack

cottage cheese

Dinner

steamed fish

mixed florets

pandan jello

Everything was so bland... I am seriously having difficulties adjusting to the "flavor" of my meals. I'm a sugar addict you see, so yesterday was quite a "shock" to my system. I had a terrible terrible headace, but I couldn't tell whether it's my body's withdrawal or my new astigmatism (I had my lenses fixed in any case and I'm glad the headache's gone when I woke up). I kept craving for my usual cup of coffee and desserts the entire day! I really couldn't help myself that I decided to eat a cookie and a brownie in the evening :( It made me feel so effing guilty, but fortunately I read a passage from the South Beach book that featured a dieter's story (he was going through the same cravings thing) and he said that instead of depriving himself, he cured his intense sweeth tooth gradually. Perhaps I should do the same. *sigh*

Anyway here is my menu for today:

Bfast

lite milk tea

hardboiled eggs and canadian bacon

AM snack

dry roasted nuts

Lunch

chili shrimps

side salad

salad dressing

PM snack

celery sticks with salmon dip

Dinner

roast pork

cabbage in olive oil

chocolate tapioca

I'll keep everyone updated with my food log (sorry if it would bore some of you) in the hopes of helping me stay motivated and focused with this whole new healthy eating lifestyle thing I'm in. 

All Smiles for 2009!

This is it people - 2008 is officially OVAH (boy am I glad it finally is)! The previous year was a challenging one for me... I graduated from university, plunged into summer school abroad, entered grad school, met so many new people. While there had been so much buzz on the "credit crunch" in 2008, I also had my fair share of "emotional and mental crunches" during the year. As I've mentioned in my earlier posts - no looking back. HELLO 2009!!!

2009 will witness...

1. The sexiest ever - yes. Let's all burn those new "holiday pockets" we've all acquired and aspire for that dream figure. Aim for the best and it shall be!

2. My Italian journey - I will be beginning Italian lessons on the 10th and I'm totally excited!

3. Intense focus and dedication - I shall follow my time tables religiously! If it ain't listed down, it doesn't exist.

Let's toast to a wonderful 2009! It's going to be everything we hope for!

4. Peace and love and happiness - self-explanatory.

5. The culmination of everything I'd get into this year. As in everything.

Let's toast to a wonderful 2009 everyone! It's going to be everything we hope for!