the purpose of higher education

in the midst of this fanatic nerve wrecking waiting of school decision, after all those weekend and evening hours squeezing out intelligent but sincere words of personal statement and sunken in the sweet but slightly annoying whirlpool of decisions, I seem to forget

what was the reason why I wanted grad school so badly?
I was freaked out of the idea of graduating at 32 with debt and no saving and with a lower paid job than now, but I knew that the sweet pursuit of knowledge would worth any financial means in the world, ok maybe shoulder to shoulder with the cost for travelling... but after these 2 things, no material wealth could compare.

ok while I am still a bit of sane, I would like to drop a few lines so that here will be the mental sanitary that I could come back to when I go drama again in the coming one month...

I go to grad school because...

I am addicted to the happiness when I crack something hard and got the 'aaarh'
I love going to lectures and be inspired and be aggressive in argumentation and be smartass every now and then
I would have time and space again to drill in books, lost in thoughts or have a wonderful nap in the midday sun when I study really hard
I would live, eat and travel like a student again, with little money but abundant in free spirit and fun
I would see and live a different continent (WOW)
I would get to know so many nice, arrogant, smart, stupid but generally interesting people (bonus factor 100% international)

hmmm seems I do have some good reasons!

Location:in the small town bonn

Can one be faith filled and curious at the same time?

Budapest

The Best - themal bath outdoor on a sunny winter morning
The funnest - Chinese 80 style kongfu movie in Hungarian; slighted topping the similar production of Japanese carton on tv

that really speaks for my heart

Singapore as a future home?

Is probably not a crazy idea at all...
It is relatively close to canton (4 hours flight) so my family can visit easily but not so easy (I.e. 4 hours drive) to visit all too often ;)
It is modern and easy to work, both for Chinese and non Chinese speakers - sounds like a perfect place for couples like us
It has even quite good museums and other cultural elements - new discovery this trip - the natonal
museum of Singapore is probably one of the best history museum and the SAM is also up and coming!
Activity vice, tried the night safari first night upon arrival - of course this is more a tourist spot than a standard outing for residents, but I'm impressed by the effort of Singaporeans to entertain. Also did kayaking and if I would be living there, water sports would be my first choice to stay active.
And in longer term, working in Singapore for a period of time will also provide me the opportunity to obtain a Singapore pass, which is way practical than a Chinese one and emotionally more acceptable than a german one for example, thinking personally.

Sounds all good, what's stopping me then?!

Things work so well there, probably even too well - so called 'too controlled', well for someone enjoys living in Germany, that's unlikely a real issue;)
It is too established, where's the exciting new opportunity?!

All in all, it's simplily not crazy enough to move to Singapore...it's too normal & easy to call it a new adventure.

So it can wait, there's still so much to explore elsewhere:)

The myth of malay

Seed of thought from yersterday's visit to national museum of singapore - Malay sounds like Swahili?! Of course it feels strange first look, but let's dig deeper...

Malay, I was told halfly based on Sanskrit.

Swahili on the other hand, spoken locally by the people in the coastal area - coast of the Indian ocean.

Any other thoughts?

Another interesting piece of realization, the tools local used for grading coconut are more or less the same as those I've seen in lamu or Kenyan coastal region in general...

Lasak is a word origin from Persian language, who would have thought?!

Well a lot to think about... I love the national museum of Singapore!

Venice 2

Had amazing dinner in one of the very small restaurants on one of the back lanes not far away from where I stay. Was not suprised that bar tender can just explain almost the whole menu into English for me when I asked, but was excited to see during the course of my early dinner, a whole bunch of people came in and had appetizer... All seems to be knowing the bar tender for as long as they remember. I forgot there are actually venetions living so close by. No, Venice is not an open museum, still. I had the safe option of mix plate of bar starters and ventured for squid - well at least didn't know that when I ordered! It came out to be squid that cooked in their own ink, it was blacker than black I've seen. Wearing the only semi decent dress that I brought to Venice for a vivladi concert afterwards, I was literatuly watching every single bite. If there's any thing more eveil for closing than tomato saurce, it could only be squid ink! It was very delicious though, intense and slightly bit too salty for my liking.