am reading japanese studies readings now. i'm so tempted to call japanese studies "jap studies", but Clem said the lecturer said it's affronting to the Japanese to be shortened to "jap". so. since i'm a student of their studies, i shall conform.
soci tutorial today was rather.. useless. i dunno, i always feel like i walk out of soci tutorials not really having learnt very much. i think maybe it's also the subject matter. soci's so.. questionable. so many different ways to view things, so many questions. like say for example, religion is always seen as a constituent of culture, and hence ethnicity. but how does religion remain a part of ethnicity when people from different countries are taking up different religions like nobody's business?
Christianity has always been seen as a religion that originated in the West. hence, a part of Western culture. (though the Bible would beg to differ, since Christianity seems to have originated in the Middle East. but whatever, i'm not here to argue about theology) but how does the several million Asians who have turned to Christianity belong to the same ethnicity as the Westerners? by virtue of the fact that Asians originated from Asia, duh, and that we Asians have some varying facial features from the Westerners in the form of less deep-set eyes, flatter noses, higher cheekbones - we're ethnically different. the sociologists can argue all they want about how races don't differ so much among each other than within, but there remains the fact that people of different 'races' look different. which is good, cos i mean, variety is always good. but ethnicity is supposedly tied in to race in the form of the culture of each race. but if i'm Catholic, that doesn't necessarily make me ethnically Western or Middle Eastern, right? i'm Chinese, i look Chinese with my pale skin with yellow undertones and not so deep-set eyes and double eyelids that are joined to my eye corners, which make my eyes more almond shaped than if they weren't. i celebrate chinese new year and go visiting and expect i'll pour tea for my parents when i get married too. but i'm not Buddhist or Taoist or whatever, don't believe in the things that people normally expect the Chinese to believe in.
so what does that make me?
or rather, is religion a part of ethnicity or should the two be separate?
argh i dont't like soci. it makes me think too much about rather unimportant things. and i think this whole post was rather incoherent and i feel stupid after reading it. but whatever, who cares.
met Stef for lunch/dinner after tutorial and we sat at the Grinning Gecko at the Central Library and talked for a rather long time after we'd finished our food. the food was unsatisfiying, by the way. no wonder i never ate there before. then came back to hall and went to Chels's room to collect the chocolates i'd left with her. and i plopped myself down in her chair and we talked for an awfully long time! sigh bad. i should be studying more.
and i need to complain about inconsideration in hall. i hate it when someone wakes me up when i'm sleeping. i hate it even more if someone wakes me up rudely and loudly and abruptly. banging on one's door in the morning, even if it's 9am, constitutes as all of the above, in my opinion - rude, loud and abrupt. trying to open one's door when one doesn't respond takes it beyond rude or loud or abrupt. it's just inconcievable and i have no word to describe my outrage. i tell you, lucky i latched my door. i wasn't wearing a bra, i wasn't wearing shorts - if i hadn't latched my door before i slept i would have screamed and died on the spot when the door opened. ugh. it turned out to be the hall maintenance guy who wanted to ask me which light was spoilt.
supper downstairs in half an hour! so much for my 'no more supper' stance. going to eat the fish fillet pita bread and wasabi wedges i think. the supper menu in kr is improving. :) hungry.
