at the foot of the Flatiron building - a famed and historical structure in Fifth Avenue NYC - at a little past midnight yesterday, shortly after i attempted to put up a good struggle but lost:
Martian: sigh. look at it, baby. isn’t it wonderful?
Me: um why is it so special.. it’s just a triangular building..
Martian: *goes off into a spiel about the building’s history* blablabla considered one of the first skyscrapers ever in the world blablablabla insert something about the wind blablabla
Me: it’s only cool cos it has M.A.C on the ground floor. HEY i wonder if makeup here is cheaper!!!
Martian: ….
little things like the above conversation always snake their way into my days to remind me of just how different Martian and i are, and also to make me smile. to most people, this little snippet of lovers’ dialogue must mean nothing, but it’s precious to me. i really like how Martian and i share things and do things together, even though we dont necessarily enjoy it. this Flatiron building for instance - Martian has been insisting for the past week that he absolutely must show me this building, otherwise he can’t sleep. i still dont know why he likes it so much; apparently it was an architectural wonder back in its day, but i played along anyway because he was just so excited about it. in the same way, he probably doesnt understand why i like musicals so much and why i cried buckets while watching The Little Mermaid on Broadway earlier tonight, yet still brings me to these shows and sits through them even though he hates them.
nevertheless, here’s the Flatiron. it’s actually triangular but you cant really tell from this picture:
anyway i also want to say that Martian and i have moved up one significant rung on the metaphorical relationship ladder! this happened a few weeks ago, and i apologize for keeping so quiet about this, but i just wanted to figure out the best way to break the news to everyone, especially my parents. and after a lot of thought, i have realized that there is no better way to do this than to just be frank. after all, the whole point is that this means Martian and i are closer than ever, and that is a good thing.
so… what’s happened is that… Martian now unabashedly wipes his boogers on me.
i’m not farking joking. he used to be so shy about it, but now when he doesnt have any tissue after picking his nose, he’ll just, like, wipe it on me. and then he laughs. he doesnt even care if i’m wearing a new top. is this supposed to be cute? is this supposed to be endearing? is this what happens after two people see each other for too long? i will never know the answer. so i just wipe my boogers back on him.
a couple of photos from last weekend, when my aunt took me to visit UPenn:
1. this is the Broken Button at Penn. Yau tells me that people apparently have sex underneath it… o__O
2. i tried to climb up onto that platform to take a photo with the statue of Benjamin Franklin, but it was quite high up so it was a bit difficult. while i was trying to climb up, campus security drove over in a little cart and started honking at me -_- then they started following me around -_- what is this!!! i wasnt damaging property or anything…
3. sigh so i had to content myself with a boring picture of sitting on the lap of another Ben Franklin statue.. which i’m sure EVERYBODY has done before… -_- *grumpy
4. you know you are Malaysian when you are very amused by things like this and MUST take a photo with it. happy merdeka everyone!!
5. and lastly, spotted at the Philadelphia Museum of Art - a funny rendition of The Scream by a 15-year-old girl called Danielle.
September 3rd, 2008
i write this in a mild state of shock - a direct effect of the sudden imposed revamping of my linguistic hard-wiring. i used to think that if i ever moved to the US or the UK, i would be able to quickly and smoothly adapt to the local lingo, owing to the fact that i read a lot and talk often to friends of both countries, but after four days here, i find that i have been grossly presumptuous about my adapting capabilities. it’s not as easy as reminding yourself to say ‘kleenex’ everytime you want tissue; instead, it is about being totally cautious about what multiple names any given item may have, and then running through your head what would be the American name for it. here, it is ‘elevator’, never ‘lift’. those nametags you hang around your neck during orientation or events? it’s called a badge. ‘faucet’, not ‘tap’. and like, no sentence is complete without throwing in the word ‘like’ as a precursor to like, your articulation of ideas. i observe and soak up these idiosyncrasies with intrigue and bright eyes. yet at the back of my head, i still miss saying, ‘what lah you!’.
so it’s my fourth day here in New York and i must say that things are getting very exciting. i was so tired for the first couple of days because it was non-stop speed-socializing on top of all the unpacking and settling down, and it was hard to even get a moment of alone time because everyone here is so chatty and eager to make friends. dorm room doors here are mostly left often, so people can walk in and out as they please, looking at your books and eating your cookies or whatever. that’s fine by me, but i must admit that my room door has been mostly closed, simply because i still need my me-time to do my own stuff without having to make small talk every now and then. small talk is easy, i know, but believe me it gets so exhausting when you have to repeat the same stuff about yourself every 5 minutes.
however, listening to (probably repeated every 5 minutes too) stuff about my new schoolmates is a whole different thing altogether. i absolutely love it. there are so many different kinds of people here, all of whom are extremely bright and talented individuals with the most diverse hobbies and backgrounds. i met this girl who’s a contortionist on rope - basically a gymnast who does all sorts of stunts on a rope suspended high off the floor. she showed me pictures of some of her performances and i was totally awestruck at how unique her hobby was. then there’s this guy who builds robots in his free time, and he once built a small machine that would run off on wheels with his alarm clock every time the alarm goes off, just so that he would have to get out of bed and hunt it down, awakening himself in the process. damn cool right? and there are many others with equally interesting stories. mine sound bleak in comparison, but the odd thing is, everytime i talk about myself, the focal point of the conversation always falls on malaysian politics.
almost everyone i’ve spoken to knows about malaysia and our politics. the first few times it happened, i was so fascinated, because i was expecting to say things like, ‘oh we’re north of singapore’. of course, Anwar is the most well-known topic among them, and one guy even knew about the Permatang Pauh win. the best part was when i was explaining the social contract to someone, and i used the word ‘indigenous’ in place of bumiputera.. and the girl sitting next to her piped up and told her friend, “oh the term is ‘bumis’” :O words fail me. i feel an urge to go read up on Venezuelan politics now.
thanks to everyone who’s emailed or MSNed me to ask how things are, or left me supportive comments on my blog. i’ve been good. tired, like i said, but very good. i’ve been settling down well. when i first got here, my aunt came to pick me up at JFK armed with this huge box of stuff that i really needed, like voltage converters, adapters, snacks, water bottles, mug, tissue kleenex and vitamins. then she took me to buy furniture and things for my dorm room. and yesterday she called me to ask if i wanted a rice cooker or a water boiler! she truly is an angel :D and then of course, Martian came here with me to help ease the transition and to give me extra luggage allowance!!! he’s staying at a nearby hotel and checking out museums while i’m at school, but he’s gonna be leaving soon :( i feel very thankful that he came with me though. i feel less lonely and homesick knowing that he’s just a few blocks away from me, and of course it’s so good to be able to spend some more time with him.
and speaking of luggage allowance, i really wish i had brought more stuff because i had something like an additional 20kgs that i didn’t use. should have brought Pooch, more shoes, more photos and more bags :( i really miss Pooch! (he’s this stuffed dog that Martian bought me, btw)
and while i dont have my American phone number yet (soon, soon! i decided on AT&T), what i do have is my mailing address! so if any of you guys wanna drop me a postcard or a letter, which i would really really love, the address is :
Su Ann Lim
5771 Lerner Hall
2920 Broadway
New York, NY 10027-8358
United States of America
i’m thinking i’m going to get my mom to courier Pooch to me :D along with lots of Maggi. dining hall food is balls. i’ve been eating nothing but apples and pretzels since i got here :( oh but yesterday Martian took me to Little Italy for pasta so that was good. and just to give you guys a gauge of how truly expensive NYC cabs are, a 20-minute ride from my college to Little Italy cost us 22 dollars, inclusive of a 2 dollar tip. that’s an RM 75 cab ride!!! oh the trauma! we swore never to take another cab in NYC again :\ the subway is cool but still a bit foreign to me, which is why i got lost coming back from Times Square. wuwuwu!
and uncharacteristically, i dont actually have any photos of my college! hahaha! i just realized that myself. have been so busy running around that i totally forgot to take pictures. but i will take many in due time. for now, i will just have to show you the only photo i have, which is a snapshot of one page from the used copy of The Iliad i bought from my school’s bookstore. the former owner basically annotated the pages with his own contemporary interpretation of the verses:
oh and i am changing the timestamp on my blog to NY time! i’m exactly 12 hours behind you guys, and it’s almost 7pm now, which means it’s time for a quick dinner before the next orientation event.
sigh. i miss lots of things already.
August 28th, 2008
