Lasting Love

I've been in Berkeley for almost a month and there's one thing I saw which impressed me.

The couples here are very loving...and when I say "couples", I am referring to the senior ones (those in their 60s or 70s) and not the young ones who are still studying.

There was once I was walking and I saw this senior couple holding hands. They may walk in a pace that's 1/10th of that in Singapore but behind those hands held together tells a lifetime of love.

I could see that the man was having a difficult time walking. However the lady would just hold his hands and guide him as he walked. Talk about love.

Maybe when they were young they used to date, quarrel, laugh...etc. However, as age caught up with them, there's something that never changed...and that is the love between the both of them. Their body may fail and their youth disappear but I guess what makes them a "couple" still is the love they share.

I don't see such things in Singapore though. Most of the time, I see senior citizens picking up cans from the bin near where I stay (I stay in a HDB flat). Maybe they don't have the time to spend time together in their old age. Maybe they think that it's pointless to spend time together if they can't even afford their next meal. Maybe...it's some other reason.

With the divorce rates increasing in Singapore, it's definitely a worrying trend. I mean when a man and a woman decides to go into marriage, they have a vow to keep (it is the "marriage vow"). I guess statistics on divorce somehow indicates the attitude society has towards marriage. I don't know if I would ever get to see old couples holding hands while walking in Singapore but it's sad if there aren't any.

Maybe the divorce rates are up simply because people tend to separate over fights and quarrels. Maybe they realized that he/she isn't the man/woman they think he/she is. No one is perfect. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Personally I believe that once an individual enters into marriage, there isn't a "U-turn" anymore. What's in front is a one-way street all the way on the road of life with the other special someone. So I guess it's pretty important to understand the person first before talking about commitment.

I believe that the old couple I talked about earlier also had their own fair share of fights and quarrels, but what kept them as a couple still was their commitment...

Man: Can you please help hold my hand?
Woman: What?

It seems that the lady has a hard time hearing.

Man: I said CAN YOU PLEASE HOLD MY HAND.
Woman: Arh...okay.

The lady holds his hand.

Man: THANK YOU.
Woman: Are you shouting at me?
Man: YES I AM...
Woman: Well it's rude to shout you know...
Man: I KNOW. SORRY 'BOUT THAT.
Woman: Yeah it's okay. I love you dear.
Man: I LOVE YOU TOO!

This is what I guess love is.

1 Corinthians 13:4-8
4 Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up;
5 does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil;
6 does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth;
7 bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things.
8 Love never fails.

Time: 9.05am, 20th July 08 (Sunday)

Lasting Love

I've been in Berkeley for almost a month and there's one thing that I see which impressed me.

The couples here are very loving...and when I say "couples", I am referring to the senior ones (those in their 60s or 70s) not the young ones who are still studying.

There was once I was walking and I saw this senior couple holding hands. They may walk in a pace that's 1/10th of that in Singapore but behind those hands held together tells a lifetime of love.

I could see that the man was having a difficult time walking. However the lady would just hold his hands and guide him as he walked. Talk about love.

Maybe when they were young they used to date, quarrel, laugh...etc. However, as age caught up with them, there's something that never changed...and that is the love between the both of them. Their body may fail and their youth disappear but I guess what makes them a "couple" still is the love they share.

I don't see such things in Singapore though. Most of the time, I see senior citizens picking up cans from the bin near where I stay (I stay in a HDB flat). Maybe they don't have the time to spend time together in their old age. Maybe they think that it's pointless to spend time together if they can't even afford their next meal. Maybe...it's some other reason.

With the divorce rates increasing in Singapore, it's definitely a worrying trend. I mean when a man and a woman decides to go into marriage, they have a vow to keep (it is the "marriage vow"). I guess statistics on divorce somehow indicates the attitude society has towards marriage. I don't know if I would ever get to see old people holding hands while walking in Singapore but it's sad if there aren't any.

Maybe the divorce rates are up simply because people tend to separate over fights and quarrels. Maybe they realized that he/she isn't the man/woman they think he/she is. No one is perfect. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses. Personally I believe that once an individual enters into marriage, there isn't a "U-turn" anymore. What's in front is a one-way street all the way on the road of life with the other special someone. So I guess it's pretty important to understand the person first before talking about commitment.

(Shucks the person besides me just farted...what a spoiler...here I was trying to write something thoughtful and that person had to...haiz...never mind let me continue)

I believe that the old couple I talked about earlier also had their own fair share of fights and quarrels, but what kept them as a couple still was their commitment...

Man: Can you please help hold my hand?
Woman: What?

It seems that the lady has a hard time hearing.

Man: I said CAN YOU PLEASE HOLD MY HAND.
Woman: Arh...okay.

The lady holds his hand.

Man: THANK YOU.
Woman: Are you shouting at me?
Man: YES I AM...
Woman: Well it's rude to shout you know...
Man: I KNOW. SORRY 'BOUT THAT.
Woman: Yeah it's okay. I love you dear.
Man: I LOVE YOU TOO!

This is what I guess love is.

Interesting Happenings In UC Berkeley

It's been a long time since I've last blogged. A lot of interesting things happened.

1. It's Chinatown in Berkeley
Session A was over and now Session D starts. Guess what...there are a lot of chinese people in where I am staying...whoa...there are like Koreans, Taiwanese and those from China. Then there's another thing...there are so many girls at my level. It's a contrast to a few weeks before where there were many more guys instead of girls. Then one more thing I noticed is that the people here study hard loh. There was once I was studying and doing my homework late into the night. Late = around 1am and guess what I saw? I saw so many people studying! Diao...it's like only the first day of school for them and they were all like in the study room studying. Power man! Never see before.

2. A co-ed bathroom
If you didn't know yet, the floor I am in has a common toilet (by the way, the people here call it "washroom" instead of "toilet"). Both guys and girls share the same toilet. Inside the toilet there are 3 cubicles and 4 shower cubicles.

I noticed a few things here. The amount of stuff girls bring into the toilet is definitely many more than guys. There was once there was this girl that brought in a basket of stuff. Then another time I saw this girl bringing in a plastic bag full of stuff. I didn't know you could shop in the toilet.

Oh yeah. Girls spend more time over the sink than guys. Once I saw my friend (a girl) in the toilet at the sink so I greeted her and we chat for awhile (like talk about how was class...etc) then after that I went into the shower cubicle and took a bath. After my bath, I went out of the cubicle and my friend was still there washing her face! Wow...nothing to say. It can only mean 2 things. One, I bath super fast that she has no time to wash her face. Or she took a long time to wash her face. Then I took a closer look at the area around the sink she was using. Lo and behold...there were bottles, tubes and containers of some sort. Now I understand why girls spend so much time in the toilet.

Then there was this case where I was bathing and suddenly a girl knocked on my door. I was shocked!

Girl: Excuse me.

From her voice I could tell that she was Chinese.

Me: *too stunned to say anything*

What is she doing?

Girl: Excuse me...
Me: Yeah?
Girl: I left my key in the shower room. Can you pass it to me?

Eh? Like that also got.

I looked around and true enough I saw a key. However, before handing the key to her, I must do security check.

Me: What's your room number?
Girl: It's ???.

I looked at the key...true enough the number matched. And so I did something I've never ever done before in my life...I passed the key over the door to the girl.

Girl: Thank you.
Me: You are welcome.

After that short encounter, I realized I had to blog about this and continued to bath. Weird man...weird...

3. Studies and exams
I am not sure if it's representative of the students here but somehow, the number of students in my class attending lecture is decreasing lecture after lecture. I don't know maybe they are too smart for lectures.

I just had my Midterm. It was on Monday afternoon. It had 4 questions and it was a 3-hour long paper. Guess how long I took to finish it? I took around 20 minutes. How come so fast? Simple...NTU students are smart.

Anyway, after finishing the paper, I didn't submit it immediately, instead I checked through it. Thankfully I noticed an error I had made and changed it. In the end, I submitted my paper 30 minutes before the end. I discussed my answer with my friend. Our answers agreed until the last part. I must admit that the last question was tough...no wonder our answers differed. She presented her logic as to why her answer was right. Somehow, I agreed with her...shucks...if she's right, then I am wrong. I just hoped for the best.

The result of the Midterm came out on Wednesday afternoon...pretty fast I must say.

Oh yeah, here in UC Berkeley, they have something similar to edventure...it's called bspace.

And so I went to bspace and checked my result. It's the same feeling you get when you go to StudentLink to check for your exam results...I clicked on the button...and...and I saw...

My marks.

I was stunned. I did pretty well. I am pleasantly surprised. I guess studying in Berkeley isn't that hard after all. All you need is hard work (e.g. sleeping late into the night studying and not partying). Or maybe the class I am taking is easy. For your information I am taking EE100: Electronic Techniques for Engineering

My friends all did pretty well too with 90+ marks. It's scary knowing how smart the people here are.

4. Workers on strike
This week started out with workers from the campus out on strike. Early in the morning, I could see the workers walking around chanting slogans with signboards asking for better pay and working conditions. It's pretty interesting as I've never seen a live one before.

I don't think you'll ever get to see such a thing in Singapore.

However, when the workers go on strike, things start to happen. The food over at our canteen started to go from "nice" to "so-so". No one cleaned the toilets in our halls and so it has a certain smell to it.

That's what you get when workers go on strike.




So that's about it for now...I need to go and sleep liao.

Time: 10.38pm, 18th July 08 (Friday)

The Ostracized Girl

There was once I was eating breakfast over at Crossroads. I took my food and sat on one of the empty chairs. After eating for awhile, there was this group of girls that came in and took their breakfast. They sat in the row which was in front of me. The girls seem to be of secondary school age? Maybe they were here for some summer camp. Anyway, I just continued eating. Nothing interesting so far.

However, there was this particular girl (let's call her A) that caught my attention. She was just your ordinary girl. Simple looks, simple attitude and she eats bacon and eggs for breakfast. She looks Chinese. However, something seems to be happening. She seems to be...ostracized.

In the group of girls, there was this particular girl (let's call her B) who was better looking and much more vocal. It isn't surprising that she seemed to have friends all over her. Most of the girls from the group were talking and chatting with B while A sat by herself.

As time passed by, A was just sitting among the group of girls eating by herself while B on the other hand had lots of company and enjoying herself. I felt sorry for A. I understand how she felt as I used to be in her shoes when I was small. I wasn't a vocal boy nor was I like the super-handsome guy in school. So yeah...my clique was pretty small.

All this made me think that to be famous, you need to be pretty and vocal. It's true in a way which is sad for A.

On the other hand, you can argue that maybe there were girls in the group who wanted to be friends with A but because A was anti-social, hence she ended up alone. Well, there are two sides to the argument.

Anyway, I finished my breakfast and went for my morning lab.

Time: 1.14pm, 5th July 08 (Saturday)