but i lost it somehow: nose to the grindstone

"Five weeks of uni with 2 science courses (2 x 2hr lecture per week EACH) have spurred me to critically rethink the stereotypes of science/computing/engineering people being geeky and gawdy as compared to their counterparts from law, business and arts. For them, I believe that with so much content pumped into every single lecture (many courses have lectures twice per week), and after throwing in the weekly tutorial questions, quizzes, labwork/report, dressing glamourously or exercising care in appearing trendy can easily and unsurprisingly be the last things on their minds. I am not suggesting that they look that bad or anything along this line in the first place. Just that if they look generally less orchard-roadish as arts people, I can now better empathise without unthinkingly dismissing them as plain janes like most people typically do. There were times I myself grew tired enough to not wear my contact lenses (thus parading around in glasses) and also ended up in my sleeping t-shirts and shorts without caring much for social perceptions.

Another thing I noted over the past five wednesdays was that immediately after my lecturer ended his final slide in a science LT and the departure of a few fortunate students who packed fast enough, tonnes of PRC students in the subsequent class would stream in like armies of hungry ghosts rushing to sit for a long-awaited feast. The grand arrival of these fervent souls consequently jammed the passageways of the two front doors and resulted in the remaining bulk of us having to fight our way out at the risk of headlong collisions with them. Two weeks ago I overheard one girl shrilly exclaiming to another girl, both trapped in the annoying torrent: "wah lau! let people go out first lah, still so early". Then last week my friend David went: "eh finished already, faster pack, if not later invaded by China", and another guy just went "fuck" to himself while trying to worm his way through the incoming stampede. There's another exit at the back of the LT, but it doesn't make sense to walk all the way up the stairs just to walk down another flight of stairs outside the exit to get to the canteen and bus-stop. I wonder what module is so attractive to have brought about such riveting passion in our foreign friends."