rushed...

School’s starting again and I’ve not prepared anything! So what else is new…Back home for a week and New York seems like a long and lazy dream… 4 weeks just blinked by…

Touched down on Sunday night and I’m back to school on Monday morning to prepare for the Bicultural Course that the students didn’t want to attend. But it afforded me my first “close” contact with my form class, they seem like quite a happy-go-lucky bunch, very vocal and mischievous, the boys coming up to me to ask if they can skip the 2nd day of the course because “its so boring!” and the girls laughing at how I cannot remember their names and have to ask them repeatedly whether they have taken their attendance or not. But upon reading the reflection letters they wrote for their poor performance in their mid-year, their sunny appearance seems to be hiding a lot of underlying resentment… the pressure and lack of motivation adding to their stress…

I don’t know how I can help them, being so inexperienced that I often can’t catch what my responsibilities are as a form teacher, thank goodness I’m surrounded by so many helpful teachers that often take the trouble to explain what I’m supposed to do in detail after they made the official announcement. And that’s just the admin stuff, I don’t know how I can help them in the way they need me too…I just hope I won’t let this class down…

Spent the days in school and the nights in town for this last week of holiday, caught up with a couple of friends before school work whirls me away and caught 3 films too.

Monday was the hilariously funny Korean My Boyfriend is Type B with Lin, had a very relaxing time with the de-stressor movie and calming company. Girl, we have to meet up at least once a month no matter how busy we are ok? Being with you is a necessary therapy for me…

Wednesday was the strangely erotic Eros, a 3-short-films-in-one movie that I very much did not understand. Watched is with Shufen and I’m really very apologetic about the movie choice. Wong Kar Wai’s film was still ok, his nostalgic style unmistakable, but the remaining two has a very weird tone to it that wasn’t very enjoyable. But it was wonderful to meet up with Shufen after the long break, except that I was too tired to hold up my end of the conversation after the first day of the course…

Thursday was the moving Be With You or いま，会いにゆきます, a very sweet heartbreaker with breathtaking shots of sunflower fields and the most adorable little boy ever. The courage it takes to embrace love, despite knowing inevitable death lies ahead. Caught it with Mei who sadly isn’t as touched as I was, the pragmatic girl she is. She’s the one that always brings me back down to earth when my head is still in the clouds.

And the weekend arrived and it’s back to the books, as the whirlpool that’s my job takes me away once more… might not surface until the September holidays…