I think Mrs Leong detests our class. I can see the hatred in her eyes when she stares at us, talks to us, and her general unwillingness to step into the class to teach us.

Sigh. Its a cycle that feed into itself, I guess. She didn't really like us at first, or maybe she's AP all the time so we thought she didn't like us, at least, we didn't like her, so we stopped doing turorials because they seemed useless, stopped talking in class because we hated being looked at like a worm...and now it's even worse.

In any case, I belong to the category that can't generate more than a passable liking for her. Oh, she might be all right as a person, but I don't know her all that well as a person, so I only base my judgement on her behaviour in class. For starters, the way she switches on the fans and air-con on full blast really gets on my nerves. And the way she tells people not to turn it down with a withering voice and withering look, because, oh, she's cold. The whole darned class freezing and because of one person, the room has to be seventeen degrees. Doesn't she know the basics of simple consideration?

And I hate the way she blames it all on us when things don't go well. Yes, I admit that we share partial fault for some things, but not necessarily all of it, and she has not right to dump it all on us just because she can't face up to herself. Like today, when the Econs 'S' people went to look for her during Chinese lesson to either do the test early or tell her about match support today. Zhiyun was supposed to take it then too, so we waited with her.

It's quite clear that she forgot completely about the fact that ZY was supposed to take the test. She was 15 min late and she didn't have the paper--and gave us withering looks to blame us for it. Granted, we agree that she shouldn't have the paper for us, but she didn't even have a copy for ZY, and she made it seem like all our fault! Can't she just accept that she's not always right, for once? That she, actually (gasp) forgot! Irritating.

Bitch, bitch, bitch. I mean, me being the one bitching. But it's all the little frustrations these days.

Anyway, on something more lighthearted. This is an excerpt from my sister's email, on reflecting on cultural differences...

"About yesterday's trip to Pondicherry - ok, there is nothing there. Looks exactly the same as Chennai city, only with more churches, the beach was alright lah, but I could give it a miss, and I won't regret. I attended a mass, because my friends were catholic, so for politeness sake, I stayed.

Wah, I was quite horrified. They pray to Jesus and Mary like "bai shen", you know, kneel in front of the statue and like pray. Nothing wrong with it, but I just find it damn weird. It was the weirdest mass ever. They had bells, fire, "holy water" and ermz, chartings, then Indian sounding Christian song. They sprinkle holy water over the cross, and have bells as they take up the cross.. The whole mass was just like a Hindu or Buddhist kind of ceremony... Ok, nothing wrong with that, because its just their belief. Nothing is right or wrong in this world anyway. I was blessed so many times by the act of sprinkling holy water over my head. Not that I believe it works anyway. You all must attend a mass if you do have a chance to go to India. Damn wierd. Really damn wierd."

I think religion is really just a way to express culture. The basics remain the same, it's just the form that changes.