Wednesday, June 29, 2011

I am Alive!

Hello blogosphere! I know I have left you all abandoned and such, and for that I apologize. I assure you if you had my schedule you would understand! As they say here "So beezee ah!".

My first week of teaching like a real person has been insane, lots of running around and trying to figure out where I need to be, what I need to be doing and how exactly to convince a group of 40 kids that they should listen to me. On top of that, I've got extra duties, and the Founder's Day presentation I have been working on with my students for the last month is on Saturday so of course everything is stressful and seems like it is going to fall apart because that's how theatre goes.

All of this distracts me quite effectively from that horrible lonely monster waiting for me back at my flat at the end of the day. The thing is, since Ben came, I actually feel like the monster has become a small little mouse. It's still there, and it can make some noise and mess with me, but most of the time I can ignore it. I think that the depression and culture shock I was going through the last little while is really diminished and it's only now that I can see clearly that it was really a depression at all.

So, with that, I Go Forward (our school's motto and the title of our drama piece) and continue to tread water in the thrashing sea I find myself in, hoping to keep my head about the water. I promise that I will come on and write about all of the lovely things that Ben and I did while he was here on the weekend, though not Saturday of course because I am working that entire day. Luckily Monday is a holiday. Oi!

Tuesday, June 21, 2011

I'm Alive!

I promise, I am still alive. Ben is here until next Tuesday so we are going to be squeezing all of the good stuff and fun out of our time together while we still have it. For the last week or so we were staying at my friend's flat where we didn't really have access to Internet which is why I haven't updated this here blog. Also, I was too busy having fun. I am loading some pictures onto Photobucket that I will put up here and I will write all about all the cool stuff we did when I am back to the daily grind.

http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/h343/Bea_Jolley/Singapore/Ben%20in%20Singapore/

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Outraging Modesty

Those of you who have read my previous blog will say "Ah, there's the Bea we know and love..." when you read this post.

If you know me, you know I'm rather a feminist. Now, I am going to take this moment to explain to you what my personal definition of this term is (which happens to be the actual dictionary-style one, but is often not fully understood or known by a lot of people whose concept is clouded by lots of BS from the media etc.) and tell you that in my concept it means that I believe that men and women and people who fall outside of that category all together all deserve rights. I also happen to believe that in spite of the amazing strides our gender has made in the recent past we will have quite a bit of work to do to even things out and make sure that things like being paid the same money for the same work, or ensuring that educational opportunities and the right to consent to what is done to our bodies are made equal for both genders.

All of that being said I would like to tell you what things look like to me right now here on the ground in Singapore. The other day I read an article in the Straits Times, the newspaper here in Singapore that contained an interesting phrase. It said something about a man getting intoxicated at a bar and which then "lead to him outraging the modesty" of a female server for which he is being charged. You see, outraging someones modesty here in Singapore is a crime. One that I have often giggled at because I find the language rather humorous however I stopped and gave this some thought.

I think this law probably stems to some extent to Muslim laws about women, and the notion that their modesty be protected (case in point, women who wear head scarves or burqua) which then got me thinking about the women in religion course I took in university where we talked about how pro-women most large religions were before people came along and eventually turned them into being not so pro-women. This extends to Islam, where Mohammed (or The Prophet, if you will) can actually in many instances be seen to have been rather pro-sister.

The assumption made here ladies, is that we have this innate "modesty" which is a right and that if someone messes with it then they are committing a crime. As a feminist, I kinda like the cut of that jib. We spend a lot of time fighting for the right to sexual expression and freedom (hello SlutWalk you kinky harlot) in whatever way we choose and I think we sometimes sort of forget that women also should have the right to modesty. Here in Singapore, you walk through a crowd and to your left you might see an incredibly gorgeous, tight, short dress,  8 inch heel wearing Chinese goddess and on the other you might see a beautiful Malay lady kitted out with a beautiful headscarf and long pants and sleeves. Both of these women have the right to express themselves and their sexuality however they please and they both have the right to whatever degree of "modesty" they see fit. Now that my friends is kind of a cool thought.

I am in no way arguing here that Singapore is some sort of Gender Utopia. If I were to get pregnant tomorrow, as a civil servant I am entitled to three months  of maternity leave. Yes, three. And that is only if I am married. I'm not entirely sure what I'm supposed to do if I'm not. I guess have my kid on the weekend and make sure I show up on Monday? No one at the Ministry of Education seemed able to answer me when I asked, mostly out of feminist indignation what would happen if a single woman became pregnant.

Though, another interesting social state here is that men are required to enter two years of service in the military here. Yes, we can talk about how women are just as capable and the other implications of this policy. But the interesting thing that I hadn't thought about until I was speaking with one of the trainee teachers at my school is that he is now two years behind the girls who grew up with him in primary school. A woman at our school is a full-fledged teacher and she went to primary school with this guy, but he was in the Navy for his required two years and is just now finishing his training. Does that give women a bit of a leg up? Does it even out the difference because of time we may take off (our whopping three months!) if we have children? I'm not sure, but it's something to think about.

Anyhow, these are things I think about when I am wandering around and looking at stuff and I do so like to write about them. On a side note, if you've ever been to the wonderful Hillside Festival in Guelph and are familiar with the ANTICIPATION sign that leads down the curve of the hill onto the island when you first get off the bus, I kind of feel like every day that has passed this week was passing another letter of that sign when you hear the drums rise up in the night air, and start to smell the Hillside food smells until you turn that corner and you look down into the valley that the island lies in, the lights reflecting off the water and you know: it's party time kids.

inate right to modesty
slutwalk

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Holidays

Today's drama rehearsal was cancelled because half of my kids have strep throat and I thought better to give them today off to rest and work tomorrow when they might be better than to only have 2 people trying to work on a show. Which gives me the chance to catch up with my dear blogosphere!

This week I helped our Sec 4 and 5 students prepare for their O level oral exams, which meant lots of scolding kids waiting for exams and organizing who went where. It wasn't too bad considering I had to come in on a "holiday" to do it, and I worked with my drama students in the afternoon.

I had a really good time working with the drama kids, it was a cool chance to actually do some of that drama teaching I always talk so much about living to do, and it was a good lesson for me in turning something crappy into something good and fun. Initially I was worried about having to work on my holiday but I chose to look at it as an opportunity to show the school that I can teach drama and that it's a good idea to give me tasks like this and it was a good chance to get to know some of the drama kids a little better.

We spent some time chatting about the history of Singapore and I told them things about the history of Canada because they always have questions about it. I think I spent 15 minutes discussing snow and explaining what it's like and what seasons are like because none of these kids have lived somewhere that you have seasons. They think daylight savings time is funny and toboganning and snowpants are cool.

The big story in my life of course is that Ben is arriving here tomorrow night. As you can imagine there has been a lot of dancing about, giggling and general excitement. Also: apartment cleaning. His flight leaves tomorrow afternoon Canada time which is tonight Singapore time, and he will be here around midnight Singapore time on Friday night.

I am super pumped people. Super. Pumped.

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Photos and Videos

The much awaited Malaysia photos are here: http://s1105.photobucket.com/albums/h343/Bea_Jolley/Singapore/Malaysia/

As well, I had the pleasure of watching some awesome Singaporean line dancers last night and took some videos:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hp_zPM2ksyk&feature=player_embedded

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O28FXtt0_nA

The second one being my favorite. This week I am still working at school, we are doing an English Language programme that I need to be in school for and I am continuing my work with my drama kids on our Founder's Day presentation. Hopefully I will be very busy so the last few days before Ben arrives go quickly.

Most of the people I know here are going away for the holiday or already have so it's going to be a little lonely here this week, but that's what ER and the Sims are for. I'm getting really excited for Ben to arrive and the closer it gets the more excited I get. I am hoping we will get to do lots of things around the island and I will hopefully have some great new pictures to post for you soon. In the meantime, enjoy the glory of the Singaporean line dance. I know I did.

Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Malaysia

Today our staff went on a trip to Malaysia. It was an exciting experience to go to another country and it felt sort of like going to the States for a day from Canada. It started with me being detained before we even got out of Singapore because I left my wallet in the bus thinking I just needed my passport only to find that they needed to see my employment pass. Fortunately, it wasn't very long before we were all back on the road.

We had breakfast of Nasi Lemak, which is rice cooked in coconut milk and panadan which was pretty tasty and then we did a batik painting workshop. The rest of the day we spent going to different places to shop, I got some Malaysian coffee and ate a whole bunch of durian.

It was cool to see another part of this area of the world but I did find by the end of the day I was looking forward to coming back to Singapore. Once we crossed the border I was happy to see the familiar sights of our buses and streets.

Ben arrives next week and I am getting super excited about it. The next week I am spending pretty much still at school with different programs and organizing my drama students for our Founder's Day performance that I wrote the script for.