i found this on the net www.last.fm.com which keeps track of all the songs I'm listening to and updates directly onto my blog. so if anyone's curious to know wht i'm listening to in class, in between class, all u have to do is to look at this entry. awesome hey.

Weddings and romance aside, there is a very lonely side to this city. Expats living alone in the city who sit at the bar, watching golf games and chugging beer, alone. Married businessmen who come in search for vietnamese girls to have a fling with. Wives of expats who pass time by drinking one bottle of white wine a night, waiting around at bars and mingling with whoever happens to be there that night. Waitresses who work so much that even on their off days they come back to the bar because they have no where else to be, and no other friends to talk to. Perhaps she is secretly hoping to pick up a nice foreign man who will take care of her. Nevermind if he is younger, older, fat or thin. Speaks the same language. "Love is blind" - she says. Well if love is blind, then currency is the miraculous all-seeing touch.

The loveliness of weddings fade. After all, each of these characters, at some point in their life, had/will done/do the whole she-bang (see previous post) but somehow gather 'round the bar at the end of it all.

weddings are always so special, no matter how cheesy... and i seriously mean cheesy. i don't know, its just the whole concept of it, getting married, tying the knot, two hearts uniting as one, yadayada thats just so scary that any one couple who wants to do it must be quite brave, obliged, insecure. or in love. whichever.

after watching what must be my 10th vietnamese wedding, each wedding just seems so routine. the same music plays the same ritual of popping the champagne and cutting of cake. (btw the whole thing is really like its out of the 1960s, saxaphone music,neon lights and dry ice) i especially like the dramatic music when the bride walks in. they play such strange stuff... like star wars fanfare or jurassic park shit. im like 'hmmmmm'. but everyone's v. happy and takes it seriously (which also adds to the funny-ness of it all).

In just about one hour, everyone will be marching out drunk and blurry while i will frantically distribute flyers to promote the wedding package so that someone else can do the same thing all over again.

hey not many people will probably believe this but im currently waitressing/bartending/being a giftshop sales assistant at a tiny hotel in Ho Chin Minh. I've actually gone 6 whole days, standing on my feet 8 hours a day in fucking heels. wearing their traditional costume.

In just a 1.5 hour flight, i've totally gone from 1st world princess to 3rd world servant.

Well maybe not quite. i got my costume tailored and in pink silk and bought shoes tht cost half the average monthly wage (3rd world chic i guess?). I head to a bar and grab a drink before shifts so that i am patient enough to stand around and curb the desperation that befalls me when i serve someone ELSE a beer. BTW, new talent discovered on this trip is my ability to open and pour beer.

my legs are paralyzed from standing but i think my brain is dead.

alright everybody im in Singapore. as a blogging zygote, i just learnt that if you make a post that says you're leaving, you have better make another saying you're -back- or people are constantly going to ask 'when you coming back, how is KL, etc'. possibly till the end of time.

when i came back from debate tourney i told myself thats it.. my liver needs a break. that's all it can take. i like my liver soft and mushy. not hard like a rock. i heart liver (eu that just sounded like a Chinese delicacy). unfortunately theres a particularly bad influence of a person who has been dragging (okay i exaggerate, i probably went skipping along)around town in search of the perfect combination of fried foods and beer and so that plan is clearly not working out.

on the more boring side of life, i've still been on the Starbucks project which, for those who have not heard, is a consultancy thing i'm doing for the company with regards to employee's satisfaction with their pay package. its so boring. if any of the people in management bothered to talk to their baristas, i would not have to sit around all day collecting data from surveys and coming up with multiple ways of reporting in an intelligent-sounding manner that your people are under paid and over worked you jackass.

one and a half more months of holiday to go!

i'm so bored, rather bored of the things i have to do here, that i'm actually running off to KL for a bit... i haven't told many people here that i'll be gone. lets see when they realize i'm missing. :)

Dear friends

Since most of you on my LJ are filipino and all are debaters, i expect you to know who
Carl(a) Nicholas(Nicky) Ng is. Its his birthday tomorrow and the poor boy is not feeling too excited about it. Due to geographical differences between Carl and I there really isn't much i can do so could all of you just i don't know, wish him a Happy Birthday? I know you guys probably wouldn't have done so if i didn't ask, but just as a favour, reach out to Carl and just love him a bit. show him some lovin... he is quite a good guy. If possible, could one of you hug him? the rest could just maybe pat his back (don't whack him, just a pat)or make eye contact. That would be awesome.

Carl, don't bother thanking me for each and every Happy Birthday wish you get tomorrow. Its a gift. From Me to You.

Love,

Jayme

just one post and 16 comments, i say, this LJ thing is proving to be quite so very cool.

unfortunately, life as it is in Singapore isn't quite cool. besides taking Jen (my new nerdy import) around, i've been basically in school doing legal research on what just has to be the most interesting topic -ever-: insider trading (insert groan).

someone asked, why should we have laws against insider trading? shouldn't it be legal? how else would anyone profit, if not from asymmetries of information? - haha it takes a chinese chinky chong to say that (and it wasn't me!)

on a less nerdy note, i'd like to say hi to people who have since added me Adrian, Mahar, Theresa, etc.

also to the 'four who got it right (henceforth known as the "FWGIR")' + Kellda (henceforth known as the "FWGIR + K") i can't believe its been a whole week since our mad weekend at Chicane and Punta Fuego. Oh Gosh, i so wish i didn't have to come back snap snap to reality. *looks around* (insert groan).

one last thing: Bye Kellda! Have an awesome trip! XOXOXXXO

Filipino-nization COMPLETE

1. get liver spots from san miguel CHECK
2. breathe in 1kg of tar/sulphur dioxide/nitrogen dioxide CHECK
3. visit the slums alone and not die CHECK
4. watch fanatical youths speak abt people power CHECK
5. eat your weight in assorted fried proteins CHECK
6. eat twice your weight in MSG CHECK

and

7. get a LJ to keep in touch with your most favourite filipinos