Come Away with Me

Connectivity

Let's see, I still have several dozen travel pictures to put up but what with less than half an hour to the next class, I might as well just stop by for a quick, real-time update. Figure I was due a rambling blog entry anyway.

For some reason, I feel extremely out of touch with everyone and everything for the past week. Without the luxury of going online as and when you feel like it, my connectivity level depends entirely on my work schedule. A Tuesday is almost certainly impossible for me to get anywhere close to a computer, both my own or the schools', reason being that it's my weekly elementary school day and I can be sure of a day packed full of teaching and prancing.

A typical online day is every Wednesday and Friday, when I am back in my base school and able to access the internet using my personal laptop. So in between classes and as and when I have free time, I would ineveitably spend most part of these two days staring intently at my screen and typing away furiously. It must be a rather strange sight I presume, to be so abosrbed and looking terribly busy for an ALT in a school with a total population of less than a hundred students. There are days when the paranoia streak in me take precedence and a general sense of uneasiness overcomes me. That my sort of anti-social presence in the staff room, mainly a by-product of my intense preoccupation with the computer may not be look upon too kindly. There are days however, when I simply threw caution to the wind, preferring not to let my hopefully over-imaginative mind get in the way of my only window to the outside world.

Last Sunday I had work the entire day and as such we had Monday off. Without having to go to work, naturally I have no means of accessing the internet. So you bet I was really glad that it's finally Wednesday once more.

Much as I am able to understand most of the news on TV, the Japanese news and newspapers I must say, is not for one who are pining for some up-to-date account of what's going on in the world outside Japan. Otherwise how else would I have been able to know how a waterspout off East Coast looked like, or that UNSW's Singapore's campus' premature closure within 3 months of its opening. Indeed, never before had I been such an avid reader of Channel NewsAsia, The New York Times and yes, even Lian He Zaobao! I would love to be able to read good old Straits Times too had it not been that for some strangely incomprehensible reason, subscription fee is a prerequisite for Singaporeans trying to access their only national paper. In comparison, the Chinese paper's website turns out to be such a pleasant surprise, a real treasure cove of nicely archived news and articles.

Besides reading the news, whatever precious online time I have is divided between updating this blog, catching up with friends and siblings over emails and doing research for all the trips that I've made so far. Though I do miss the occasional MSN chat over the weekend with friends and webcam sessions with family, life without internet is not as unbearable as it may seem. Fact is, I hardly have the time or urge to be constantly log on after working hours these days. What with the little time I have left of this place, I'd rather spend more of it watching local TV program, making simple meals or taking my bike out for a ride along the coast anytime while I still have the chance. The Internet can wait.

posted by テレサ @ 9:22 AM