The Teacher Assistant
October 15th, 2009
we always walk into heartbreaking things, or slip into them. i was sitting in starbucks today with the usual mid-week brain cramp, staring into space, when a young blonde woman paused to rest in the center of my vision, and for some reason she brought me back to earth, and i caught sight of her clear plastic bag of apples just before she turned away. the apples reminded me of my TA from one of my classes last year. the professor had introduced them at the front of the lecture hall in the first lecture, but i wasnt paying attention, so i never put the names to any faces. inadvertently i picked his section. i walked into the little room in the math building one day, and there he was, all curly hair and crinkled white shirt like he’d just rolled out of bed reeking of intelligence and manliness. i couldnt place my finger on who he reminded me of. i later realized it was timtam he was reminiscent of — although it must be said that i wouldnt think of timtam as reeking of intelligence or manliness, ha ha ha — and it made me miss timtam, who was in aarhus at the time. but timtam likeness notwithstanding, i looked forward to section every week. cos he — the TA — was so smart. so scatterbrained but so smart. he was my first columbia crush, i think. i later chanced upon a really weird photograph of him straddling the merrill lynch bull, and that made me giggle. finance guys with horrible penmanship… just cant run away from these patterns. briefly i wondered if he could be gay; with this school, you never really know. but then i guess i didnt care too much if he was gay or not — inspiration fornicates asexually. he’s graduated now, and i have another TA whom i have not met. i wonder what he’s doing now. and i meant to write this post a whole year ago, the first day i met him, but i eventually forgot. there were no apples around to remind me.
Entry Filed under: College Life
24 Comments Add your own
1. Hoong | October 15th, 2009 at 7:30 pm
It might be an insignificant part of the story, but do tell, how exactly did the apples remind you of your TA?
2. CraSH | October 15th, 2009 at 7:39 pm
hmm… you like geeky guys with glasses dont you? haha
3. MIchelle | October 15th, 2009 at 8:25 pm
Associative learning.
4. junkit | October 15th, 2009 at 8:37 pm
Is the TA the dude with the slippers and half folded jeans? lol erm, do all of u walk around campus like that all day?
5. xiao | October 16th, 2009 at 12:14 am
geeky guys are my weakness :(
6. Ee Vonn | October 16th, 2009 at 1:49 am
it’s a short nice post! :)
7. Jin Rui | October 16th, 2009 at 7:37 am
Inspiration fornicates asexually.
Nicely put =P
8. Grey | October 16th, 2009 at 10:11 am
Well, gay or not, you still caught an eye candy. :P
And I agree, loved the quote, Inspiration fornicates asexually. :3
9. WP | October 16th, 2009 at 1:13 pm
I have the same question as Hoong :P
10. pinkpau | October 16th, 2009 at 1:15 pm
hoong & WP: hehe it’s a secret :P
crash : not really .. it’s more the personality that comes with the geekiness and the glasses. though i must say not many of my ex bfs were geeky + glasses!
michelle : how so?
junkit : prolly 40% of us do, yes
xiao : haha you would have loved this guy.
ee vonn : more of these to come :)
jin rui : thank u!
grey : haha only true
11. MIchelle | October 17th, 2009 at 12:08 am
apples associated to TA.
when you eat apples, see apples, do you think of TA?
12. Hanson | October 17th, 2009 at 1:54 am
Great post pinkster (?). Haha – inspiration fornicates asexually! what a cool metaphor is that! How are you lar, now that you’re ahem, 21? ;-)
13. CraSH | October 17th, 2009 at 8:07 am
hmm, come to think of it, woo~ now you are officially able to drink here!! going out soon? anyway, the best in school. i think it is about midterms now.
14. KY | October 17th, 2009 at 12:51 pm
awesome case of procrastination? lol
15. 3Plus4 | October 17th, 2009 at 11:46 pm
are u studying journalism by any chance? brilliant writings here. beautiful stuff.
16. yiwin | October 18th, 2009 at 1:57 am
you write really, really well. :)
17. Tey Cindy | October 18th, 2009 at 1:59 am
haha! i like this post. got pinkpau style of writing; suits yr blog description about the nouns and the irrelevant-ness. xD
18. Artificially Tamtim | October 18th, 2009 at 11:39 am
wah… i am like the most random insert to this post ever. the apples reminded you of the TA which reminded you of me. lacking manliness and intelligence of course… which is why i have this high squely voice and help you out with your econs hw *rolls eyes*
=P
19. pinkpau | October 18th, 2009 at 2:59 pm
michelle : not all the time, no!
hanson : feeling olddd :(
crash : haha turning 21 has no real bearing on my drinking activities though. yes midterms in a week :((
ky : indeed. me = thief of time
3 plus 4 : i am not :( cant study journalism here as an undergrad
yiwin : thank u :))
tey cindy : haha thank u!
artificially tamtim : -_-
20. peach | October 19th, 2009 at 12:19 am
“crinkled white shirt like he’d just rolled out of bed reeking of intelligence and manliness.”
haihh!!
intelligent men in academia = yaaaaa ;)
21. Huai Bin | October 19th, 2009 at 1:36 am
I was in comp sci so we didn’t have any hot tutors (at least not for guys). It’s just one of those majors which has overwhelming male enrollment. :(
22. pinkpau | October 19th, 2009 at 2:04 am
peach : amen :)
huai bin : that kind of makes me wanna reinforce my ambitions of being a CS major…
23. mumzzy | October 19th, 2009 at 4:43 am
sorry, whats TA?
24. pinkpau | October 19th, 2009 at 8:08 am
mumzzy, TA stands for teacher assistant. they are usually students who hold smaller discussion sections for big lecture classes so that there’s more individualized attention.
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