| by comrade commissar | Thomas | @ Monday, May 02, 2005, 6:27:00 PM | permalink |
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A handful of people trot into Mr. Ang's room to attend additional Lit classes on a Saturday morning. The room was on the 4th floor, it was spacious and air-conditioned (big veto factor). The architectual design of the school is such that the room is held suspended with 3 stories of air below it. From here we had a wonderful overseer's view of the front of our school and Bartley road. I call it "Mr. Ang's room" because that was where our Lit teacher in 2003, Mr. Joshua Ang, used to retreat to instead of the staffroom. A smaller claustrophobic room was linked to this, and that was where he laid claim for his private Back to the handful of people. The actual size of the class should be 10 in total, but what happens is that someone will rush/walk briskly through the door, be sheepish/embarassed/apologetic/surprised, and proceed to present a 20 second performance art piece entitled "OPPS", or something similar. This occurs between 5 mins to ½ hour after lesson proper has commenced. I'm one of the title's most frequent performers. We sit somewhat stoned at our tables. All try to make an effort to take notes, some try to be involved and contribute to the discussion. In my recollections we were currently talking about the meanings behind the Albatross in the Rime of the Ancient Mariner. Or was the topic Sex, Religion and John Donne? I wanted to leave as early as possible. The yellowish rays of the early morning beckoned me back to my bed at home. The bamboo leaves lined along the road below sashayed lazily and- ok lah, I am a sleepaholic. Need ZZZs bad. I should have appreciated the surroundings and the view more. Me, always with the illusion at the back of my head that I will always be back there to enjoy school and a student's life tomorrow. The lesson would follow a comfortable routine, which roughly follows this pattern: Lesson > Discussion > I crack lame joke > Peers laugh/roll eyes > Discussion > I propose some wild bullshit of an idea > Peers roll eyes somemore > DiscussionLooking back, I am surprised that I wasn't banished or given pariah status with the amount of nonsense I was consistently churning out. Even then, I was taken aback alittle that my attempt to link Anti-Bush rhetoric to ideas expressed by a poem (or was it a book?) was received with serious consideration by my Lit teacher, Ms. Ng. I didn't think the grave expression on my face played a big part in influencing that. I count myself lucky to have great Lit teachers who encouraged out-of-the-box (in my case, this-dimension too) approaches, and eternally patient and tolerant friends. (except for Esther and Rathiy, who have threathened/tried to kill me more than once) I miss those days. |
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