Mary Shelley is a crazy nut

Today, I had 2 very meaningful discussions, one with my Dickens lecturer, and the other with my thesis supervisor.

I'm going to be looking at religious depictions in Dickens' novels. This marries my two great interests - religion and literature. I'm very happy with that.

With my sup, we discussed Mary Shelley's novella Matilda, a bizarre work where Matilda's father declares his love for her! Shelley's really a crazy genius. While her writing is definitely not as stylish as Jane Austen's or Charlotte Bronte's, her boundless imagination is amazing.

Back in college for dinner, and I met this year 12 boy who's visiting. He's Malaysian but he's been in Oz for 3 years and he told me he's picked up the Aussie accent because people can't understand the Malaysian/Singaporean accent.

Well, I guess at 28, my accent is more or less settled and I'll not be able to pick up any Western accent. As long as I speak grammatically, that'll be alright.

Busy...busy

I've not blogged for a few days, and that's because these few days have really been packed. The research methodology module is really intensive (Dr. Rutherford calls it the 'boot camp'). Every week, each of us has to share with the group the development in our thesis. So far, I'm still working on the idealistic individual but it's apparently too broad and I might have to narrow it down to the idea of an idealistic child. Well, let's see how it goes when I meet my supervisor next week.

Earlier this week, I attended a forum called 'Politicians and the media: bedfellows or adversaries?' or something like that. Well, politicians and the media traditionally have an uneasy relationship. In some countries, the media is closely scrutinized by the government, or used as its mouthpiece; in others, the media is very open and free, where everything goes, and it acts as a political watchdog, making sure that the government is doing the right things. One interesting thing (which we actually all know) that was mentioned very much during this forum was that politicians often have a slippery way of evading tough questions posed to them by the media, and how frustrating that is for the hapless reporter.

Anyway, I met this lady who sat beside me at the forum, and I told her I'm in Melbourne studying English Literature. I guess she must have misheard that as 'studying English', because when we parted, she told me (very earnestly) that every speaking and listening opportunity is a great lesson in English and urged me to make the most out of them. How funny is that. I think it's stereotypical to think that every Chinese person who comes to an English speaking country to learn 'English' must be here to learn how to speak good English, and not to pursue other English disciplines like linguistics or literature.

Another thing I have to mention is that I'm so glad that I'll be serving in the youth ministry of a baptist church here. I attended their youth fellowship on Friday and in a fortnight's time, I will be leading the music and bible study. The even more interesting thing is that the youths there are all from a Chinese background, and some of them are from the same dialect group as I am. I'm grateful to God for opening to me areas to serve Him everywhere I go to, in Shanghai and now in Melbourne. This is great blessing indeed.

First time at a baptist church

I worshipped at Northcote Baptist church today. It took me 1.5 hours to get there because I didn't know the arrival times of the two trams I had to take and thus I had to wait for twenty minutes for each. I'm still getting used to it, because in Singapore and Shanghai, the public transport comes with greater frequency, and it's only a matter of minutes before the next bus/train comes.

I loved the music at the church. They sang traditional hymns with organ/violin accompaniment, and one of my favourite hymns was sung today.

When I gaze into your holiness
When I look into your loveliness
When all things that surround become shadows in the light of you.
I worship you, I worship you.
The reason I live is to worship you.
I worship you, I worship you. The reason I live is to worship you.

When I find the joy of reaching your heart
When my will becomes enthroned in your love
When all things that surround become shadows in the light of you.
I worship you, I worship you.
The reason I live is to worship you.
I worship you, I worship you.
The reason I live is to worship you.

Lovely hymn. I like traditional hymns, those that fill you with reverence and awe for God. I'm not very comfortable with hymns that sound too much like love songs. You know, those hymns that seem as if you could sing it to your lover and it will still sound alright. It's unusual if you sing 'I worship you' and 'my will becomes enthroned in your love' to your girlfriend, right? (maybe some pompous people will still do that, nevertheless)

Then, after the service, the church secretary, Colin drove me back, explaining the layout of the roads as we were travelling. This was the second time I've been given an explanation of the city on a car ride here and this is really one aspect of the Melbournian's hospitality that I'm deeply grateful for.

Things to do this afternoon
1. Read Old Curiosity Shop
2. Read Othello
3. Think of key words for my research

randomness

'Tis my second blog post in 2009, and the first on my new blog. For those who don't know, I used to blog at vaguely-understated.blogspot, and though I still treasure that old one fondly, because it recorded precious moments of my teaching career, which now seems so long ago, I've decided to step out of that past life and begin a new one here, with the url bearing my name no less (not for narcissistic reasons but because I can't think of a neater name than my old blog url, but I still pay homage to my old blog in the title of my new one).

Anyway, being quite out of touch with blogging, this post will seem rather rambling, or as many Singaporean students would say, random (haven't heard that term used here in Melbourne).

It's 4.39pm (you see, I'm so out of things to say that I've resorted cheaply to the announcement of time), and I'm waiting for my laundry to be done and having a gnawing sensation in my stomach. There's a grand total of 2 laundry machines over here, and I had to visit the laundry room 4 times today before I could start getting mine done. I'm feeling rather hungry now, despite having a rather heavy lunch, which consisted of thick soup, a cylinder-shaped pastry thing which seemed too phallic-looking at first, and salad. I guess winter does make one hungry. That's why everyone was surprised when I lost instead of gained weight during the last winter when I was working in Shanghai. Well, I know the reason, but I guess some things cannot be told, not even when I know one should be completely honest in a blog. Haha, but just glance at the title of my blog, and it tells a lot about me.

So here's my piece of rot for today. I promise I'll try to be more coherent (and less random) the next time.