Argh am i bloody FRUSTRATED right now. LAWR assignments are just so damned CONFUSING. I think i'm pretty familiar with the cases already; the problem is just how to START doing this email advice thing! I don't know how to combine all the facts of the cases to address a single question, and it's mostly because i'm unsure as to whether i even need to mention the cases which don't really address the issue that i'm given. If i chuck the side points aside, i'd only need about a hundred words or so to finish the assignment. But the word limit is 750, meaning that i need to add in something else. And i don't know what that is.
Basically, i don't know a THING about what is required of me, and my tutor's advice now seems like it doesn't apply at ALL to the situation i'm currently in. I've barely typed out a line or two, and it's been a few HOURS already. Mostly, i've been spending that time moaning on the floor and rereading the cases with a completely blank mind. URGH.
I must say that, just like the case summary that we had to do a couple of weeks ago, LAWR homework (which's supposed to teach you how to do lawyer work - other subjects just teach mostly legal theory) is akin to a bad swimming instruction. It's like teaching you how to swim by vaguely demonstrating the swimming actions while on land (and in a classroom), with interjections every now and then, like "Oh, do remember to stick your head above the water every now and then to breathe." And then, they proceed to throw you into the deep end of the swimming pool and they expect you to swim for them.
Oh, they won't actually say that you're EXPECTED to do it well, but deep down, everybody SHOULD be able to do it, right? So if you show them that you can swim after those rather vague swimming lessons (maybe you employed a private tutor from the outside), you get a good grade. Which actually counts toward your final score at the end of the term (aahh...the pressure!). If you struggle in the water but somehow manage to stay up, you get an average grade. If you come up from below the water surface after a while, gasping for air, you get a bad grade.
But if you drown...well, let's not talk about what happens then, shall we. Alright, back to work! Or rather, back to moaning on the floor! >.<
Urgh. Two days into law school, and i've begun to drown in this unstoppable whirlpool of self-improvement that's been going on at the campus. Getting forced under, actually. Some people are starting the read their notes TWICE. Before AND after lectures. And everyone's trying to do regular work and go the extra mile in preparing for tutorials and lectures.
That's something that i thought hardly anyone would do; i had kinda hoped before going into law school that i'd be able to get ahead by just doing half of what everyone else is already doing now. Of course, it's rather impossible at the moment...and i think that it's mostly due to a few extremely kiasu and overachieving students who decided to read up more than HALF the term's syllabus BEFORE lessons had even started. And those few people are working harder than the rest, even now.
But most importantly, those few people LET IT BE KNOWN TO EVERYONE ELSE that they were working so hard. And now, everyone else's desperately trying to play catch-up with those who're playing catch-up with those who're still trying to chase the kiasu kids...lol i suppose we're all just kiasu at heart. And right now, it seems so critical for all of us to be kiasu...back in JC, if you had students rushing ahead of the rest of the pack, it was perfectly fine; let's all get As together! Or rather, why don't you go on ahead, i can always catch up later, when the grades actually COUNT for something.
But this time, end-of-term exams count, and if someone moves up from 2nd lower honours to 2nd upper honours, it'll mean that someone from 2nd upper would have to drop back to 2nd lower, and maybe one less person would get to go on an overseas exchange...and i don't really know the effect that it has on employment (i hear lots of differing views), but for now, it seems safer to just assume that 2nd lower honours is the pits (lol although i know it certainly isn't; i know successful lawyers with 2nd lower honours...i'm just being kiasu and ambitious - again).
Argh anyway, besides the whole studying craze, i've also been noticing more and more guys going running or training (or at least planning to) and drinking their little protein shakes too like WHAT THE HELL. What on EARTH is EXERCISE anyway??? LOL and today i tasted a protein shake for the first time when i took a sip from a senior's bottle. All the guys are just starting to psyche every other guy up. No, it's more like they're making the other guys anxious. And in no time, every guy will be going to the gym in their free time and getting fit, for sure. Well, except those who've given up or who're too busy studying, of course. :|
And let's be honest here: hardly any of the guys are actually training for personal fitness!!! For most of them, it's all for vanity's sake!!! So frustrating sia...besides a race for the Dean's List, is there now going to be a race to woo all the cute girls and hot chicks?? OMFG so i guess an extremely shy/hands-off/bitchy/not-too-romantic/freethinker guy like me is probably going to still be single at the end of university life???
Hmm...seems to be the case huh. Well, i'd rather brace myself for that, instead of studying ten hours a day, training for another two hours a day, taking two hours a day for travel and food and chatting with girls for another two hours a day. And sleeping for eight hours a day at the end of it. Oh, and weekends are purely for sneaky studying and training and chatting with girls ONLINE. Crap, i'm so not going to do that. It's not like we're living in a Dating Sim game or whatever, for crying out loud.
Well, it's getting late, so i'm going off now. Otherwise, i'll REALLY fall behind in my studies. Oh but i was only joking about the girls bit. Just trying to inject some humour into my blog posts.
...Okay i was only HALF-joking. Might as well say it now before people start calling me a liar.
Whew! Rag is finally over! Finally! :)
...Sigh. :\
Okay so it kinda sucks that it's over and stuff, but life has to go on, i suppose...
Rag day was quite a success too! My dance sections were pretty solid towards the end (LOL self-praise huh) but i was really nervous about the stunts. Our stunt group had a 75% success rate with the full-extention move, coming into competition day, and i was extremely worried that we wouldn't succeed, and would cause the law faculty to malu in front of that huge crowd. Thankfully, that didn't happen, and when our group managed to get the full extention up on the final move, i was relieved and elated. So elated, in fact, that i went around hugging everyone and shouting in joy after the performance was over. Later on, i heard from the seniors that the rest of the raggers played their parts really well, too.
We didn't win anything, though. Ahh, but who gives a shit, anyway. I'd give a shit if we actually won, but if we don't, it's no loss at all. I don't think we could've done significantly better than the standards we reached today, given all the hard work that we put in despite the limited time frame and manpower we had as compared to the other faculties. The only university faculties that were better than us were the crazy ones which used 2nd/3rd year students and had started planning and practising for this competition last year instead of just 2 months ago.
So there really is no shame in losing. Keep up the good spirits, everybody, and stay tight even as lectures and tutorials start!
Okay, i actually wrote all of the above right after i came back home from Rag, but i was so damn tired that the second last paragraph took me 30 minutes to type! Hahaha i was dozing off and i had to reread my progress every time i blanked out, just so that my sentence structures were correct. And even then, i might have made quite a few mistakes anyway! Lol well i'm not going to do a spell/grammar check now. Can't be bothered...
And i'm running out of time too! I have a 6B class gathering tomorrow at my place which i organised (duh) and i need the whole of tomorrow afternoon to prepare the food, etc. Hmm, i think i mentioned all of this before, right. Ahwell. Then, if i have time, i want to watch at least ONE episode of Ghost Hound tomorrow! Sigh i've been neglecting my friends on MyAnimeList a little bit. But i really want to gather more conversation material before chatting with them again. As far as they're concerned, it's like i've fallen asleep for 2 weeks while the rest of them continued their lives as usual.
Oh but before i go, there's something belated that i need to post here (and get out of my system too). BANGKOK WAS FUN!!! Hahaha yup, we didn't visit any temples or anything like that, since two full days aren't a lot. But we DID shop and eat quite a fair bit. Everything in Thailand is so freaking affordable. Food and drink in Bangkok was extremely cheap, by Singaporean standards. Imagine a lovely plate of noodles for SGD1, freshly squeezed juice for SGD1, bottles of soft-drink at 7-Eleven going for SGD0.40 each...meals would typically cost us about SGD2 per person, SGD4+ for a sumptuous feast. On the last night, we went to a buffet on the 82nd floor of the Sky Hotel (or whatever it's called), which served typical hotel buffet fare. And the price? About SGD30 per person, which's VERY cheap if you compare it to hotel buffets in Singapore.
Clothes were really cheap too. I wasn't too sure of quality though. For example, lots of places sold jeans which cost SGD5-10 each. Insanely cheap, but we weren't allowed to try the jeans on. Still, i managed to satisfy myself by buying plenty of T-shirts, which went at around SGD4-6 each. Insane. There were lots of dresses and pretty accessories on sale too, but well...being a guy and all that...
Then there was the tailoring place that we went to! Tailored (meaning much better than off-the-rack) suit sets cost about SGD150 there, and you could also make trench-coats and overcoats at lovely prices (well, at least compared to the cost of tailored coats here in Singapore). Very nice. Personally, i didn't think i needed to get such a nice fitted suit set just yet, so i simply ordered 3 shirts. The workmanship was pretty good, the shirts fit me PERFECTLY, and they finished the whole job in just over a day and delivered the final product straight to our hotel. Oh, and my shirts cost me SGD29 each, by the way.
And even then, i think we got ripped off. Hahaha! Okay this'll be one of those rare moments where i actually laugh about getting ripped off. But seriously, the prices were just THAT GOOD when you compared them to Singapore price ranges. We got ripped off so badly that the store-owner gave us a free tie each, AFTER we had already made the deal. And no, this time i definitely did NOT flirt with the store-owner. LOL. Even then, knowing all that, i left the shop thinking "Wow, did i just get myself a totally awesome bargain or what??" XDXDXD Very nice.
The service in Thailand isn't very good, on the other hand...well, at least compared to Japan. I'd rate it at about the same level as Singapore, actually (except that Thailand has that "corruption" bit that i'll talk about later). Service is excellent in expensive and attas locales, but in places where profit margins aren't very high (read: market areas, etc) people tend to give that impression that they don't like their jobs too much and only smile at you when it seems like you're definitely going to buy something from them. Kinda like Singapore, huh.
Everything in Bangkok is overpriced as well (lol that really detracts from my previous ravings hahaha), because you are EXPECTED to bargain for lower prices. If you don't bargain, they'll just happily rip you off and thank you silently in their hearts or something along those lines. Meaning people like my dad should never EVER go to Bangkok. Well, he should at least take my mum along lah. Some street-savvy friends would also work just fine.
It's so bad that taxis in Thailand don't even use their meter (the device that tracks the cost of the trip based on how far the taxi has travelled and how long it's been travelling for - and ALL regular taxis are equipped with them) when ferrying passengers; they just ask for your destination and quote you an obviously inflated price. And if you can't accept it, they'll just drive off; willing and "stupid" customers are always easy to find. Sometimes i wonder why nobody ever complains; corruption in their service industry runs deep, i see.
And it's so, SO bad that i actually prefer dealing with a fixed rate for taxis. At least that way, they'd take the fastest route to my destination, and i won't have to worry that they might take me for a joy ride just to increase my taxi fare, or drive me off to some deserted warehouse and rob me blind and cut off my arms and turn me into a beggar or whatever my mother likes to tell me...
But ohwell. At least people in Bangkok can speak English decently, unlike those in Japan. They seem pretty used to tourists as well and can usually tell us apart, while Japanese people would start talking to me in full-blown japanese, creating plenty of embarrassing situations...
Whew! And that's that! Finally got that out of the way too. My desire to post about my Bangkok trip was clashing with my own laziness at the back of my mind, and the epic battle that resulted was creating quite a bit of
stress in me. I was tired out from Rag and there was never enough time to blog, but i just didn't want another New York again. What happened to the post about New York that i promised two years ago, i wonder...i believe that the draft's still lying around somewhere...
Anyway it's time to go off to sleep. Shower comes first, of course. I'll be in bed before 4.00am today, i promise! And, since i probably won't write about it in my blog, here's a big WHEW for the upcoming conclusion of that primary school class gathering that's happening later today! X)
