Real Life Math Questions

Question 1:
If a pack of Pampers Swaddlers Super Pack Size 2 Diapers costs $24.99 and contains 84 diapers, and a pack of Pampers Swaddlers Enormous Size 2 Diapers costs $39.99 and contains 148 diapers, what is the price difference per diaper?

Answer 1:
2 cents

Question 2:
If Target is offering a $10 gift card for buying any 2 packs of diapers, what would the price difference be then?

Answer 2:
0.2 cents

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Today my parents and I brought baby to the pediatrician, for her 4 month check up and vaccines. It was her first doctor's visit, since moving back to the United States. She was generally very happy, but when it came to the doctor's turn to examine her, she was not having it. Between either the unfamiliarity of the doctor (or maybe it was his beard?), and the fact that she was hungry and I was trying to push off feeding her until after she got her vaccines, she was incredibly upset. I was trying my best to ignore her screaming and listen to my conversation with her doctor when it suddenly got quiet and I turned around, and my Dad was holding her in his arms and feeding her, lol.

Anyway when the needle(s) went in - just like her 2 month round of vaccines - her mouth opened up and her face contorted in agony/rage/pain, but no sound came out for a few seconds. Then she gave several sharp yells and stopped, sucking on her fingers. Minimal fussing on her part, for something that I had been dreading for a while.

My baby is very brave, and she sure handles vaccines a lot better than I do as an adult. 

Observations at 30 Weeks and 3 Days

Today I am 30 Weeks and 3 Days pregnant. I am feeling quite uncomfortable, and am dreading the thought that things can only get more rather than less uncomfortable from here on in. That thought makes me feel quite put out, but I know there is little I can do except to wait things out. So far pregnancy has been everything that I thought it would be, but also a lot worse and filled with more unknowns that I could have imagined. Still, a tiny part of me thinks It'll be worth it.

Anyway so far here are the worst 3 symptoms of pregnancy that I've experienced:
1) Gastric issues: 'morning' sickness that lasted somewhat into the early weeks of my second trimester; elevated GERD and IBS issues that ensure my stomach is usually almost always in some sort of discomfort, which then leads to...

2) Insomnia and sleeping issues: since getting pregnant I've alternatively been so exhausted I feel like I can't function, or been in a constant state of worry that I can't sleep because of either hormones or stomach discomfort. I have gone several nights without being able to sleep at all because of either reason, and now the thought of whether I'll be able to sleep gives me anxiety. Since coming back to Singapore, I've experienced 4 nights worth of sleeplessness where I can't sleep a wink until 7am+ the next day.

3) Symphysis Pubic Dysfunction + whatever other strange new pain that has just cropped up: around Week 18 I started to slowly notice a pain cropping up in my pelvic area whenever I walked. After one particularly straining day when I walked through Central Park, the pain started to get very severe. For a while after getting after getting back to Singapore the pain abated, but is now definitely here to stay, as it has been for the last almost 3+ weeks. Basically it's a deep, wrenching pain that I feel in my pelvic area, and it particularly affects my right side. I would rate it a good 7.5/10 on the pain scale, and it tends to be the worst right when I get up from the bed after lying down. I read someone online describing it as feeling like being torn apart - and while that seemed a little dramatic to me, when I experience it, that description does feel very apt. Joining this pelvic pain, for the last 2 days, is a mysterious sharp pain I feel on the left side near my tailbone. I don't know if it's sciatic pain, or something else altogether, but it's very distinctively different from SPD. As a result now, from all the pain, I waddle around slowly and hope I don't make things any more worse.

Basically, pregnancy has been one of most physically and emotionally trying periods of my life. I really cannot understand how some women say they enjoy it, or feel like goddesses. I am definitely not one of them. The main perk is that if I don't think about things, I can sometimes go several minutes on end forgetting about how uncomfortable I feel.

A Random Day

Today was one of those days where I just followed a parent around, with no real goal in mind, and just enjoyed it unfold.

I woke up around 9:00 am+ as usual, getting just under 8h of sleep. I saw the time on my phone, noted that I had forgotten to plug it to be charged last night, and felt thankful anyway that I had managed to get around 7h of sleep. I continued slowly rolling around in bed, waiting for the pelvic pains to lessen, as I browsed reddit. Then, around 10:00 am, I finally got up and went downstairs to have breakfast. At about 11:30 am, my Dad returned home from exercising, and I quickly went upstairs to take a shower, because I wanted to join him when he went for lunch with Uncle Joo Leong. Around 12 noon, it started to rain really heavily, and we both got into the car to head to Bukit Panjang.

From about 12:30 pm to 2 pm, we hung out with Uncle Joo Leong at the Bukit Panjang hawker centre. We ate Mee Sua for lunch, from one of the famous stalls in the hawker centre, and also had wu xiang. Then my Dad went to hang out with one of his old mentees from China, He Chao, and so we picked him up from his apartment and headed to a canteen in Ngee Ann Poly. Around 3:30 pm, we left and my Dad then drove to Clementi to pick up Ryan from his day care centre - one of the rare few days that Ryan actually decided to attend school. Then, we headed to Ghim Moh around 4:15 pm, so I could pick up my new passport from the Singpost outlet there. While I lined up to get my passport, Ryan and my Dad went to the Ghim Moh hawker centre to eat Chee Kueh. By the time we arrived home, it was about 4:45 pm.

And thus this is how my random day unfolded, just whiling time away until baby arrives, by following my family around.

NLB

Today marks exactly a month since I've been back home in Singapore. As always, the month seems to have simultaneously gone by fast, yet also slowly. Things have largely been uneventful, which in a pregnancy is always a good thing. I have fallen into a quasi-schedule of prenatal pilates on Tuesday, and following my parents/mama around on other days, interspersed with little meetings with old friends in between.

Today was also a Thursday, and hence also a day where Ryan has an art workshop at Ng Teng Fong Hospital in Jurong East. I tagged along so I could visit the library branch there after we had lunch. Before this, I had gone to the library in NEX a few weeks prior, and had just finished my last library book a few days ago. Even though I did bring some books back from the US with me, they tended to be slightly more serious pieces of work - and I have not been in the mood for anything weighty.

Thus, my objective today was to return those library books, and borrow some new ones. Much like my previous visit to the library however, I noticed something odd about where I found books that caught my fancy. Just like my previous visit (discounting the quick 5 min return trip I made to the NEX library to borrow Book 2 and 3 of a series a few days later), I would go through rows and rows of library books and find absolutely nothing that I wanted to read, but would then chance about just one row where multiple books looked appealing. As a result, all the books I would/have ended up borrowing all had authors with names close to each other in the alphabet. In my previous visit it was the MAs - Juliet Marillier's Blackthorn and Grim series, and Jamie Mason's Three Graves Full. This visit there's a little more variation - a mixture of HAs, GUs, and a lone GR; making up 3 crime thriller style books, 1 trashy historical romance, and 1 slim slightly literary looking book (my one concession to serious thought?)

Anyway, I am very thankful that in Singapore, libraries are so easily to access and are thoughtfully scattered around the island in convenient locales. It helps that they are cheerfully designed, and always look like welcoming spaces.

27 Weeks

Today I am 27 weeks pregnant. I am happy that yet another week has passed, which means I have only x amount of weeks left of being pregnant. Today was also the first time I've gone to a prenatal exercise class in Singapore, some 2 weeks after arriving back home in Singapore. These past 2 weeks have felt both slow in their passing, and quick when I think back of them. I hope by establishing a routine of sorts and meeting up more with my friends, I can both feel more comfortable and get time to pass a little quicker.

The one upside about being back in Singapore is that because I am walking a lot less, and able to walk at a slower pace (no getting trampled like one would otherwise on the streets of NYC), most of my right pelvic pain has disappeared. However I think because I swam using the breaststroke a little too aggressively on Saturday, I managed to reignite my pelvic pain again. Hopefully if I don't aggravate it, it the right pelvic pain will go away soon, because it really does make walking and other physical activities that much more unpleasant. The one downside of being back however, is of course the weather. It boggles the mind how hot it can get here in Singapore, even though a part of me knows NYC in July and August is utterly miserable as well, with the AC in NYC being dodgy to boot. 

Unsettled/Sentimental

Tonight is my last night in New York City. I've lived here for about 4 and a half years, and have had the last 6 weeks to come to terms with the fact that I'm leaving New York City - but these 6 weeks seem to have flown by in a heartbeat (caveat: ask me how I would have felt 6 weeks ago and I'd have replied that these 6 weeks would probably feel unending). While I'm not exactly the world's biggest fan of New York City, and God knows I've got very many negative things to say about this city, it has been the city I've lived in the longest besides Singapore, and the 'devil that I know'. I have adapted to this dirty cesspit of a city; learned to weave around the giant piles of poo, learned to passively aggressively fight back when people cut me in line at Trader Joe's, learned the thousand-yard stare in the subway when a panhandler comes through (even started to recognise a few regulars after a while), and learned how to quickly spot dodgy characters in my peripheral vision and give them a wide berth, all the while never losing my sense of politeness and friendliness.

This somewhat abrupt departure from New York City - as opposed to the original end-of-June that Jon and I had been anticipating for years - also comes at a very tumultuous time in my life. Jon and I are going to have a child. I'm worried about being separated from Jon for 3 months, and then another 2 months. I'm pregnant and physically uncomfortable, with pretty bad pelvic pains and hormonal insomnia. I'm worried about the 3rd trimester, giving birth, and taking care of a new born. I'm worried about moving to a new city and adapting to a life there. In September when I return to the United States with a 2 month old baby, we will be going straight to St Louis via Seattle. No more New York City for us - which also sort of works given that Jon and I currently don't stay in a very child friendly part of town. Basically it's a lot to digest at one go, and I haven't even begun to process my emotions in a healthy way. Instead I've been either avoiding them, or been preoccupied by other pressing matters. Tonight however, there is no more time left, and I am unable to not think about leaving New York City and all it entails, despite the fact that I still have other pressing matters to think about and things to do.

I know of course that everything will ultimately work out, and be fine. That I am very blessed to be so loved and coddled by my in-laws, my parents, my friends, and my spouse. Still however, the negative and worrisome emotions remain - at least for tonight. I just hope that I will somehow be able to get some sleep tonight despite my emotional state, or tomorrow's flight will be a misery. Fingers crossed.

Lao Ma Spicy

Today I met Shirin for lunch at Lao Ma Spicy, by NYU. We ended up staying there for over two and a half hours, just chatting and enjoying the repeated water top-ups by the nice wait staff. Today also happened to be one of the warmest days NYC has had in a while, so for the first time in months I actually wore a light wool coat out and it was just right.

In total, I walked about 2.3 miles today, which hopefully is enough exercise for today. 

DMV Midtown Manhattan

Today I finally went to the DMV, after having put it off for an inordinate amount of time. Years ago when I switched my drivers license from New Jersey to New York, I had gotten so caught up with chatting to the lady who was doing my license that I didn't notice that she had entered my birth month as Aug (8) rather than March (3). Rectifying the error however required me to fax some documents in, and as a result I never got the error fixed until now when I realised that I needed to update my immigration status anyway.

The DMV was, as expected of a location right in Midtown Manhattan, busy and verging on chaotic. Still, I have to say that despite the large volume of people there, my visit was not unpleasant - most of the staff were polite and friendly enough (and definitely friendlier than the staff I remember in the NJ DMV). It was however, long, as I got shunted around because of my immigration status. I ended up spending an hour and a half there.

Even though I was really tired afterwards, I decided to walk back home, in hopes of getting exercise and physically tiring myself out more. Last night was another one of those terrible insomnia nights - I slept zero hours and had to leave home for my 10 am appointment at the DMV. When these nights happen, I really feel at my wits end and wonder how I can cope with another 4 more months, but somehow manage to keep on keeping on - during the daytime at least. In total, I managed to walk about 2 miles, with pits stops at Duane Reade, Burlington Coat Factory and Dos Toros. I hope the walk is enough to tire me out so I can at least take a nap in the afternoon, because not being able to sleep worries me a lot, especially as it affects the overall risk level of my pregnancy.

Now, as I sit in front of the desktop slowly taking bits of my Chicken plate from Dos Toros, I feel the physical exhaustion set in. I can feel my feet slightly throb still, and an ache in my tailbone (more pregnancy fun). I can also feel the heat rising within me from acid reflux, and the dryness of my eyes from yet another night of no sleep. I worry whether I will be able to even nap at all. Still, this morning, as I made a last ditch effort to try and get at least an hour of sleep, I felt several strong kicks in my abdomen. Though I feel utterly miserable physically and mentally, I am thankful at least for a sign that baby is well and active - and just maybe all of this suffering will not all be in vain.

Life Changes

In early Jan I flew home to Singapore for about a month. Right before that I been feeling very ill and weak from a whole host of gastrointestinal problems that had begun in late Nov, problems that I attributed to stress leading to a nasty flare up of irritable bowel syndrome, and gastroesophageal reflux disease - problems that I had been diagnosed with years before. This was to the extent that I had started losing weight; the only consolation I could glean from how miserable I felt.

On 15 Jan, while during an appointment with the gynae, I found out I was 14 weeks pregnant. I can safely say that the thought of me being pregnant had never once crossed my mind, and so I was incredibly shocked to see a wriggly fetus during the ultrasound. I had sat in the chair fully expecting the ultrasound to bring up cysts in my ovaries (I had been diagnosed with polycystic ovarian syndrome years ago), and instead there was a fetus, complete with heart beat and spine. I had somehow passed the entire first trimester in complete ignorance of the fact that I was now carrying another being inside of me. I can also safely say now that I know exactly how, physiologically, how shock feels.

Since then I've have faced a whole wide ranging host of emotions. Breaking the news to my friends and family was crazy and also entertaining, but at night I worried about the logistics of everything - Jon and I were supposed to move to St. Louis in late June for his fellowship, and baby's estimated delivery date is 16 July. Then there was the issue of air travel, was I well enough to travel back to NYC; and is it a good idea for me to stay there to give birth? In the end Jon and I decided that I will fly back to Singapore for the 3rd trimester, and give birth there. Jon also managed to postpone the start date of his fellowship to Aug, and so will spend July in Singapore.

Still worry about a whole host of everything, even though the big questions have been settled. Currently at 19 weeks, these are the things I worry about: Will baby turn out fine and healthy? Will I be able to sleep tonight (because I've been getting bad insomnia as a result of pregnancy hormones)? How much more uncomfortable will the 3rd trimester be (because I've had a shitty time so far)? Am I going to get gestational diabetes, or pre-eclampsia? How horrible is the birthing experience going to be? What will living in a new and unfamiliar city be like with a baby? And so the list of worries goes on, and there isn't really anything that can be done about these worries except to soldier on and let time pass, which is perhaps the most difficult thing about it all.

Le Delice

Around the corner from my apartment is an old school bakery called La Delice. I used to walk past it all the time on the way to and from the 28th St subway, and inevitably more times than once I'd find myself walking into it without much thought after smelling the baking sugary goodness in the air as I walked on the south side of 27th street. Since August however, the 28th St subway has been closed for renovations, which also meant that I now walk a different route to get to and from the 23rd St subway (as an aside - I really dislike the 23rd St subway because walking to it involves navigating down far more crowded and busy streets; it also has no convenient MacDonalds right by it for sudden french fry cravings). This inevitably resulted in me ending up at La Delice far less. As a substitution I supposed I ended up buying Lloyds Carrot Cake, especially since my student teaching school was a stone's throw away from its East Harlem outpost.

Anyway I didn't give it much thought until today. I was walking back home from Burlington Coat Factory on 23rd St and 6th Ave when I thought to pop by La Delice. I had originally forced myself out of the house for the sake of health (mental and physical) and had embarked on a rather joyless trip to Burlington because I needed to at least walk for a bit. Burlington was very crowded, and the lines were long, and people were angry (I don't know why I still find this surprising about NYC; everyone is always pissed and testy). I ended up finding a small gift for Merlina, and also purchased a bag of Albanese gummy bears as I heard they were supposedly the best tasting gummies around. After spending sufficient time spent standing and out of the house, I walked home and kept thinking about how the fact that I had finished that activity meant I had made it for yet another day - something rather bleak and pessimistic in tone.

Just as I was walking down 26th St, it suddenly occurred to me that I should pay a visit to La Delice, especially since I had originally left the house just over an hour earlier thinking about picking up a sweet treat for Jon. So to La Delice I went, and I selected a slice of white chocolate and chocolate mousse cake, and a chocolate chip cookie. As I went to pay, I looked at the lady serving me and wondered if she was the same assistant that always helps me, but she looked more made up and so I wasn't sure. It wasn't until she handed my change back to me, smiled at me and said, "Welcome back!" that I knew it was her. Walking out, I then started thinking about how it indeed had been a while since I was there. Sometime a few months ago I wandered in to buy macarons, but that had been at least two months ago, especially because I've been so sick. I also thought about how her comment made me feel warm and fuzzy inside - it's always nice to be recognised - and how that comment has definitely made my day.

It's the little things in life.

More Books

I finally finished student teaching last week Wednesday. It was probably the most tiring, health-draining, emotionally exhausting few months I've ever had in my entire existence. Yet at the same time, it was also extremely emotionally rewarding and bittersweet. Since finishing student teaching, my priority has been to try and get well again, as my health has suffered and I'm currently the weakest that I've probably ever been. It also doesn't help that the gym I usually go to is closed for renovations, and so I am also deprived of that activity to help gain my strength back.

Last week I finally finished A Plague of Doves by Louise Erdrich. I had originally started the book over a week ago, when I started teaching the unit on Westward Expansion to the 8th Graders. I ended up being so ill and tired that I couldn't finish the book until after student teaching ended, because all I could do when I got home was nap and hope I didn't get more ill. Anyway, A Plague of Doves turned out to be a very different book from The Round House, which threw me off a little. A Plague of Doves was a lot more nuanced, and read like a study about the overlapping lives of the Native Americans and the white settlers, and their respective descendants. Unlike The Round House where there were clear villains, most of the characters in A Plague of Doves were presented as figures in different shades of grey morality - human and relatable. 

Since then, I have also finished two more books, The Wild Inside by Christine Carbo and Strike Your Heart by Amelie Nothomb. The Wild Inside is part of a series of mystery thriller books set in Glacier National Park in Montana, which I enjoy for its unusual setting, and Strike Your Heart is a slim novella that I received as part of sponsoring something on Kickstarter. Clocking in at 135 pages with a medium sized font, I ended up finishing Strike Your Heart in less than 12 hours after picking it up last night, and it definitely stands out as one of the more unusual books that I've read in a long time. A simple and sparsely written prose about the damaging effects of selfish motherhood, Strike Your Heart is able to paint complex portraits of emotions with very little words. It reminded me a little of Edeet Ravel's The Cat.

Accountability

The ultimate number one way to end up with messed up children who don't contribute anything back to society is to never hold them responsible or accountable for anything - the actions they take, the things they say, the decisions that they make as conscious human beings. I don't what else more I can say. 

Gilead

This week, I finished reading Gilead by Marilynne Robinson. Although on a level, I could appreciate at artistry that went into crafting this book, on another level I found it hard to relate. It felt very much to me a book that would have better appealed to someone who was either middle aged or male, preferably both. The overall narrative is of the loving yet tumultuous relationships between 4 different sets of fathers and sons - John Ames' father and grandfather, John Ames' father and himself, John Ames and his young son, and John Ames and his namesake godson John Ames Broughton.

While I appreciated that this book was very well done, the narrative didn't quite strike a chord with me. Maybe I needed to read it as an older person, or read it in quieter spaces (e.g. not on a NYC subway). I did however, enjoy the historical details about John Brown and the abolitionist movement in Kansas. Overall, I would give it a 7/10. 

3 Memorable Books

Since student teaching has started, I haven't had much time for reading at all. Still whenever I have the chance, I read. These days I get most of my reading done on the 6 train, as I go to and fro school. Back and forth from my subway stop to the school's subway stop, it's about 15 minutes each, and since I usually get a seat, I am able to read for that time.

So far I've finished a few books this week, but out of these books, 3 stand out (well +1, if you include the sequel to one of the books). These 3 books are Leigh Bardugo's Six of Crows (+ the sequel, Crooked Kingdom), Julia Alvarez's Yo!, and Edeet Ravel's The Cat, the latter for which I just finished this morning.

I read Six of Crows early on in student teaching, as the students in 7th Grade were reading that as one of their books for Lit Circles. It turned out to be a very well written and entertaining young adult fantasy book, with some very memorable and well-sketched characters. The moment I finished the last page of Six of Crows (which had been loaned to me by the 7th Grade ELA teacher), I ended up going onto my Kindle and immediately purchasing the sequel, which I then finished over the rest of the weekend. I would describe the plot as a mixture of fantasy Oceans's Eleven, but executed in a way that felt more entertaining and meaningful than The Lies of Locke Lamora, which I had read during the Summer. I would rate these books both 9/10.

Yo! was a book that I had picked up on a whim at Housing Works. I had previously read In the Time of the Butterflies before, and thought it was just OK. I did not feel very impressed with it, although it was obviously a book written during a very important historical period for the Dominican Republic. Yo! has a similar narrative structure to In the Time of the Butterflies, alternating between different narrators. A key difference of course is that Yo! revolves around one person, the titular protagonist Yolanda and her journey through life as an individual. By focusing only on a singular person however, Alvarez managed to flesh out a very human character that is equal parts flawed, confused, and heroine. Though at times bordering on the absurd and silly - I really disliked the part about the stalker and thought the nonsense about her old college professor seemed unrealistic - the book still possess enough artistry to get away with those two low points. I would rate this book 8/10.

Another book picked up on a whim at Housing Works was The Cat. I was - of course - initially attracted by the title of the book, but it proved overall to be a very moving and simple read. Unlike many authors nowadays who can write mountains of text based on the most prosaic of events in their characters lives, Ravel does the opposite and is sparing, almost stingy, with her words. She also breaks up her narrative into short chunks, separated by line breaks. Somehow, even by doing these two things, she still manages to paint a deep and rich world in the reader's mind. One example is this short section: "The leaves are turning. I lower my blinds against the glowing forest, the clear blue sky. I don't want to see what my son can't see." The result is a heartbreaking portrait of a grieving mother trying to navigate a new world without her son, and the cat, Pursie, which is enough to keep her going just long enough for her to find her own momentum to keep moving forward in life. I would rate this book 9/10.

Saturday in Astoria

Yesterday Jon and I had one of those rare, free and spontaneity filled days. He had the idea of taking the NYC Ferry across the East River to Astoria, and for us to visit the Socrates Sculpture Park. Then I had the idea of visiting AbuQir, which Marc had told me about a few months ago. This then made me think of asking Marc and his girlfriend, Amanda out for a beer if they happened to be free, and so I texted him. And with that, we had the bare bones outline of a plan for the day.

Jon and I took the NYC Ferry to Astoria from the 34th St dock, and it turned out to be a very nice ride. The Ferry was 90% empty, and made stops at LIC and Roosevelt Island, before dropping us off at Astoria. We then walked about 3 minutes to get to Socrates Sculpture Park, which was quite small but filled with people. There were sculptures scattered all around the park, and a mixture of volunteers helping sweep up fallen leaves, and families with small children goofing around. There was a lone market tent open, for Hellgate Farms which turned out to be a local city farm with apiaries on top of buildings in the LIC area. Intrigued, we bought a bottle of spicy ketchup. We ended up spending around 15 minutes in total at the park, and then walked to meet Marc and Amanda at Astoria Bier and Cheese. It was interesting walking through that stretch again, because I used to do observations at a school right by the park, and the area has definitely changed since I was there about a year and a half ago - for starters there were a lot of Japanese places, complete with actual Japanese script.

Astoria Bier and Cheese turned out to be a really cute shop and bar kind of place. We ordered a pretzel with bier cheese, and Jon ordered some sort of beer, and I had a wildberry cider which was really good. After a while Marc and Amanda came, and we ended up hanging out for about an hour. I also bought a spicy prosciutto spread that I saw in the cooler, and a bar of blanxart chocolate (I had it years ago in Spain - and remember it being the best I've ever had - but haven't seen since). Then we walked down the Broadway to catch a bus to Little Egypt, to AbuQir. AbuQir turned out to be packed, and almost exactly like Astoria Seafood, but much more smaller. The food took a while to come because it was very busy, but it was very good. The only regret was that I wish we hadn't ordered so much fried calamari, but instead had smaller portions of everything else.

After AbuQir, I googled 'feta Astoria', because I recalled Irias talking about a place in Astoria that sold several types of feta cheese - her favourite kind. I ended up finding Titan Foods, and we decided to walk there since it was right by the subway anyway. Titan Foods was a cute small Greek specialty supermarket, and we picked up three things: a decadent chocolate cake with almonds, 1/2 pound of Bulgarian feta, and 1 large takeaway carton of fasolada (Greek Bean soup). We then lucked out with the subway, as it came about 4 minutes after we were waiting at the platform; when we passed other stations we saw that the duration for the subsequent trains were about 15 minutes each.

We got off at 23 Street, and then went to PetSmart, which was right by the subway. It was Jon's first time there, and I have to say it was probably the most crowded that I've ever seen the store. We ended up not buying anything because the lines were very long and we didn't want to wait.

By the time we arrived home, I felt utterly exhausted. I ended up sitting on the couch, all zoned out. Jon joined me after a while and we ended up watching a silly and raunchy Korean movie called Love Clinic.

All it all, it was a very satisfying and enjoying moderately adventurous day.

Memories of Student Teaching

I will miss this school when I finally finish student teaching. Although I have never felt more tired, I have also never felt more proud of the hard work that I've been putting in, and the relationships that I have formed with the students and teachers. For many of the students especially, as I never expected to feel such close bonds to them within a short period of time, given that the gulf between cultural backgrounds and experience is so large. Almost everyday I come home with an entertaining story to tell Jon.

For instance in these past few days alone:
- Telling students that we need to shove a little bit because tourists were cutting us for the Ellis Island security check, and one of them immediately said, "Stiff shoulders everyone!"
- A student taking coffeemate creamers from the cafe on the Ellis Island ferry, drinking them proclaiming to me that they 'tasted really good and were free!'
- Half-heartedly telling a student to stop feeding the birds when we were eating lunch on Ellis Island. He ignored me, I didn't care, and he kept throwing the bread closer and closer to where he was sitting with another student. Next thing I know they're all screaming and freaking out from 1) watching the seagulls bully the pigeons, 2) from the birds flying too close to them. Finally the other male student who was sitting next to the perpetrator somehow got bird poop on his jacket and sweater, even though no one knows how that happened
- A student telling me that I should be on My Weird Addiction because she always sees me drinking Juice Boxes. Now she calls me Ms. Juice Box
- A Grade 8 class bursting into the Cellino and Barnes song while I'm talking about the Haymarket Affair, because that's what they strongly associate any legal/court cases with

Some of the other more memorable events thus far also include:
- A student giggling like mad to himself because he contoured Margaret Sanger's face on a handout. I didn't even notice what he did until he showed the original to me; his contouring actually looked really good
- Watching students roll down the grassy slopes in central park, after the Grade 7 field trip to the Natural History Museum
- Figuring out how to replace the staples in the Lanier photocopier on the 5th floor

I should really take more pains to record things down, so I can recall them in the future.

A Typical Sunday

Things to do today:

1) Laundry

2) Visit Trader Joe's

3) Gym

4) Cook dinner

5) Prepare lunch things for week ahead

6) Grade student work

7) Plan lessons

8) Call my parents

Since student teaching has started, I have never felt more busy or tired. Although I can go home some days at 2:20 pm, right on the dot, I often stay for at least 40 minutes afterwards, if not for hours more. The hours seem to just melt away when I'm in the classroom after hours - there is always more planning, more grading that can be done. Although I am really enjoying myself, finding the experience rewarding and a learning a lot, I feel exhausted. 

First Day of School

Today was the first official day of school, and I ended up going up and down the 5 stories (the Social Studies room is located right on the top-most floor, the 5th) what must have been at least 10 times. Around the 5th time I went up and down, I started wishing that I had invested in a fit bit watch, just to see exactly how much unexpected of a cardio workout I was getting just by doing my 'job' as a student teacher. By 9 am I felt so completely disgusting and sticky all over that I wanted a shower, and by lunch break, I was pretty sure that I could smell myself even though I deliberately wore the strongest, sweat gland clogging-est deodorant that I had.

Just my luck that the first week of school coincides with another wave of heat, and that I picked a school that has 5 stories and no lift. At least the deli next to the school seems pretty good, because the school also lacks a staff fridge for me to bring and store my lunch in.

Pachinko

Earlier today, I finished reading Pachinko by Min Jin Lee. Although seemingly as equally thick a tome at The Luminaries, Pachinko is considerably shorter, clocking in at only 479 pages. Told through a very simplistic third person narrative, this book was nevertheless an easy read that kept me turning the pages. I finished it in just under 36 hours, and Jon kept commenting that I looked very absorbed as I was reading - an apt description of how I felt about the narrative.

Compared to The Luminaries, I felt a lot more drawn in by Pachinko, probably because I was a lot more familiar with the geographic locations - Korea and Japan - and the history behind it. I had also long heard of the burakumin ethnic Koreans in Japan, and the societal discrimination that they have historically faced. Generally, I also enjoy epic narratives that follow the stories of characters over a long duration of time, and Pachinko's narrative fit neatly into this category. I would rate Pachinko 9/10.

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For dinner today Jon and I met with Hannah outside our house, and together we three walked to the West Village to eat at Kish Kash, a restaurant serving Moroccan food. The restaurant's claim to fame is its couscous, which is made in the restaurant by the chef. The food was good, the price reasonable, and the decor pretty. Afterwards, we made a quick stopover in Milk & Cookies bakery to buy some cookies for dessert later, and then walked back home. In total, it was about 4 miles worth of walking, which was great since I had pretty much been sitting all day and reading. The weather was also nice and pleasant, and so, good for walking. In all, it was an enjoyable outing. 

The Luminaries

I have just finished reading The Luminaries by Eleanor Catton. Clocking in at a formidable 830 pages, The Luminaries is a large brick of a book that I've put off reading for some time because of its crazy size - it seemed like a book that would require time, focus, and staying at home, because of its obvious lack of portability.

I first heard of this book when it won the 2013 Man Booker Prize, and it was described as something like a murder mystery. When I came across it in the Barnes and Noble discount section what must have been at least more than a year ago, I purchased it with the idea of reading it in some sort of future time, as Man Booker Prize winners are usually worth a read. Earlier this week, as I was casting my eye over the brimming bookshelf after finishing The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch on Kindle (8/10), I thought of finally starting The Luminaries as this was the last week of my Summer break (sort of, Hunter has already started but I'm only taking one class; full time student teaching starts next week), and to clear out the shelf by tackling a very fat book.

Picking up the Luminaries to read, and starting the first few pages, felt intimidating. This was in part due to its size, and also in part due to the page introducing all of the characters, which listed about 20 different names and characters. I was afraid that I'd lose track as I read (I'm thinking about the annoying experience of reading A Hundred Years of Solitude). This did not happen at all, and I think this is because of the skillful way Eleanor Catton wrote her characters. They all came off as being very different people, with their own motivations and ways of doing things, and hence it was easy to follow along as to what was happening.

One thing I really admired, besides the carefully crafted plot, was the usage of two major literary devices (is that even the right term? I haven't been in an academic literature environment since IB more than 10 years ago): the usage of a 19th century writing style, and the use of different timelines. The writing style of the novel reminded me a lot of Vanity Fair by William Makepeace Thackeray, the last 19th century novel I think I've read, and this was very obviously a deliberate choice. The little summaries at the beginning of each chapter were useful in helping me follow along, and the whole omniscient narrator thing helped flesh out the motivations and personalities of each different character. As for the usage of timeline, the novel roughly goes from 'present', to 'past', and finally, 'past to present', and so the novel ends before the 'actual' end of the narrative. This reminded me a lot of the God of Small Things by Arundhati Roy, one of my favourite books of all time, a writing technique I definitely appreciate.

I'd rate this book 9/10 - only because I'm not sure how the the narrative itself will stay with me.

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For the past month and a half, Jon and I were in Singapore, Batam, and St. Louis. I flew first, in the middle of July, and Jon joined me right at the end of July. Before we flew back to the US, we went for a 3 day 2 night stay to Batam with my family. At the end of that Batam trip, we were thoroughly sick of Chinese-style seafood, as my grandparents went totally nuts with ordering seafood. We then came back to NY, and about 2 weeks later we left for St. Louis as Jon had an interview there and I followed him. St. Louis seemed like a decent city, and we had really interesting and good conversations with all the Lyft drivers there - one driver, who was a male Jordanian immigrant, said the city had a huge racism people, another driver, a female tribal member from Oklahoma, talked about how Missouri had the lowest age of marriage in the entire country. We ate Gooey Butter Cake twice and thoroughly enjoyed it, and visited the National Blues Museum.

In the interim, I've been going to an Allergist, to try and figure out my allergy situation. I got both the skin prick test, and have just finished the skin patch test. I've also been cooking, and trying to go to the gym to lose the weight that I gained in Singapore. For the past two days, I also babysat Rudo. I was very happy to see him before student teaching starts next week, as I definitely won't be able to see him then.

It has been a very nice Summer, and I am reluctant to let it end.