33 Epiphanies

Fleeing Comfort Zones

The past few weeks I have focused on escaping my comfort zones, through food, sleep (or lack thereof), and actual travel. I didn't always understand what I was doing at the time, but I have a better idea now that it is all over (except for a stubborn cold as a result of the process):

The first related to food. I was getting into a routine of making homemade powerbars for my pre-run snack, homemade granola for my post-run breakfast, and various one-pot stews, soups, and noodle dishes for dinner. I decided to try the opposite and eat as much local food as I could over the three day weekend. My gateway dish was kway chap, basically pig offals. I had a desire to try it out ever since Ruhlman's post about offal on his blog. This created an avalanche that led to yong tou foo (various types of fish paste-veggie combos in broth), various dim sum delicacies, durian juice (most amazing drink ever), soon kueh (a type of dumpling that I struggled to eat with chopsticks), peanut ice kachang (like an upside-down snow cone, but much better), bak kut teh (beef rib in peppery broth), curry noodles from a vegetarian restaurant (a mistake: not outside my comfort zone), soup toulang (a tribute to Bourdain, featuring mutton bone marrow in a nearly-addictive red sauce), and "carrot cake" (more like an omelet than anything from a bakery). After all that, it seems that the less-processed the food the better: durian thrown in a blender was the best, followed by leftover mutton bones in a red sauce, with various manual-labor intensive Chinese dim sum dishes being my least favorite.

The second related to sleep. I nearly always go to bed around 10 pm (+/- 1 hour), so I decided to try staying up all night watching movies at the 24-hour theaters on Orchard. I ended up watching Evangelion, a Japanese movie that made absolutely no sense in my sleep-deprived state. I considered having some chicken rice at the 24-hour Meridian restaurant or taiwan porridge at the 24-hour Goodwood Hotel cafe, but I ended up with the far less expensive option of the Newton food center, which was surprisingly lively at 4 am, where I had the identity-confused omelet.

However, I paid a price for my curiosity, and came down with a cold the next day. This actually didn't bother me too much, since I just found a blog post about various cocktails for treating colds. I attacked my viral invader with the full arsenal of salt water gargles, ginger tea, chamomile tea, nasal rinses, Zycam homeopathic oral mist, Emergen-C, oranges, and so on. Sadly, I am still sick.

The third comfort zone was breached by leaving Singapore for a trip to the Philippines. I visited my friend Emily, who is working as a teacher in Manila. I could easily devote a whole other post to the topic, but I will keep the focus on comfort zones for now. I was struck by how foreigners could move Manila and pretty much feel like they never left home: we visited malls that looked exactly like something out of Southern California and saw luxurious apartments that would fit perfectly in any US city. Moreover, the cost of living is so low, that one can live a five-star lifestyle for the same amount as a middle-class existence in America. However, one of the advantages of having a local guide was being able to see the real Manila. Riding in jeepnies (public taxis made from old US military vehicles), serving kids breakfast in the slums near Paco, going out to a birthday lunch with one of Emily's friend's family at a fast-food restaurant, and taking the light rail trains gave me an invaluable view into how most of the world lives.

Why did I wait until now to post all this? I didn't really understand my Makansutra-inspired, sleep-deprived expedition around the island until I left it temporarily. I am searching for something that I can't get from working 14+ hour days in lab like everyone around me. I can't always travel physically (although many of the American and European exchange students do explore new Southeast Asian beaches every weekend), so I find whatever substitute I can. I listen to podcasts whenever I am on public transport, listen to new music whenever I am doing repetitive tasks in lab, try out new recipes on my own and new food in hawker centers, and explore new routes on my morning runs.

Cashflow

Who buys those ridiculously expensive watches on Orchard Road? Who can easily spend several hundred dollars for a gourmet Japanese meal? Last night provided some answers.

A friend that I met on an organic farm tour invited me to a presentation about the latest Pharmanex product, a weight loss system called The Right Approach, or TRA for short. She wasn't by any means suggesting that I was fat, but rather wanted to illustrate the concept to passive income. I first learned about this technique when I played the game Cashflow at her house on the Chinese New Year. The basic idea is that there are two types of people: (1) Those who are in the rat race of working for others and (2) those who have enough sources of passive investments (e.g. stocks, real estate, business ventures) that they have financial freedom from any employer. By some amazing combination of luck and advice from Amy, I ended up winning the game.

In yet another one of countless juxtapositions on the island, less than 1 km from my apartment are thousands of South Indian immigrants who work seven days a week for a job that barely houses and feeds them. Meanwhile, a Nu Skin representative can enjoy a steady $100,000 per month (or more) income as a result of business connections. The world is unfair. No matter how hard or long you work, there is someone in India or China (or elsewhere) who will work longer hours for less pay. The only way to reach your personal goals in life is to constantly question your assumptions, seek out new people, and pursue creative ideas.

Death of a Meme

I've been tagged by Anna Kushnir at Sunday Night Dinner to spread the following meme (a type of cultural gene, proposed by Richard Dawkins, in case your were wondering):

Here are the rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names, linking to them.
4. Let them know they've been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

So, here are five facts about myself:
1) During my senior year at Stanford I took red-eye flights to and from San Diego to see Tool live in concert. The concert was in the evening and I spent the whole day in the UCSD library working on a computer science assignment that was due later that week. The concert itself was amazing beyond words. Afterwards, I took the wrong bus, ended up walking for several miles in the middle of the night, before struggling to catch a few hours of sleep in the most uncomfortable airport chairs ever. It was totally worth it.
2) I joined the Phi Kappa Psi fraternity during the fall of my junior year (better late than never), which ended up being one of the best decisions that I made in college. I learned so much from my brothers: ranging from making a Black Russian to solving for Clebsch-Gordon coefficients.
3) In a parallel universe, I am probably working at National Instruments. In addition to the Tool concert, another highlight of my senior year was flying to Austin, Texas for one an interview with one of Fortune Magazine's 100 Best Companies to Work For. I loved the work environment at their headquarters, but my performance in front of the judges was less than stellar, resulting in a rejection. On top of that, I got violently ill with food poisoning that night and had to delay my return to Stanford by two days.
4) Unlike Anna, I do watch TV (or, more accurately, I do when I'm not in a university-setting). I am a huge fan of Boston Legal (Alan Shore is one of my heroes) and Curb Your Enthusiasm.
5) One of my current life goals is to live the laboratory equivalent of Gordon Ramsey's Kitchen Nightmares (with less profanity).

The morbid title for this post comes from the fact that I don't have five other fellow bloggers to tag for the next generation of this virus of the mind. However, if you are reading this and have a blog, please let me know so that we can breath new life into this cyberspace life form.

A Pattern Emerges

While my friend had just returned from a grueling series of med school interviews, I was able to experience life on the other side of the table as a judge for the Stanford Book Prize. It was one of my most mind-expanding experiences on the island, giving me new information both about Singapore society and my own psychology. There was too much too include in a single blog post, so I would welcome follow-up comments or e-mails.

At first I was struck by the apparent lack of correlation between how the applicants wrote and how they communicated in person. Some applicants were quite expressive and made the half hour seem likes a couple minutes, whereas we suffered through long, awkward pauses with others. Several of the judges mentioned how the quality of spoken English has declined over the years in favor of "Singlish" (best described as think in Chinese, speak in English, lah). I was fascinated by how one applicant could be so eloquent despite a relatively strong accent while another could struggle to convey his thoughts, despite going through an English education system.

Over the course of the day, I also learned more about the Singaporean education system. The country appears to be undergoing an educational bonanza. The American school has a long waiting list, in addition to a rather pricey tuition. The top private schools are less expensive, but parents often need to supplement with tutors (sometimes multiple ones for different subjects). These private tutors can earn $100 per hour, so many grad students can double their salary by spending their weekends giving private lessons. The number of schools is also on the rise, although a recent expose showed that the educational credentials of the principals and teachers in many of these institutions are somewhat dubious.

If I had to pick the most valuable lesson from the experience, it would be "don't be comfortable." This doesn't hold true while talking with interviewers (in that case, it's important to at least appear comfortable), but it's a good guideline for other areas of life. One of the judges told several of the applicants how college is the best time of your life to challenge your deeply-held beliefs and philosophies. One of the unique strengths of the American higher education system is the ability to pursue a liberal arts education before settling into a career-specific track and I deeply regret not taking more advantage of this (although, in spite of what I've told others, I do realize that at 23 I'm still young). Without leaving one's comfort zone, it's easy to become boring. This particular judge picked his degree at Stanford by avoiding what "boring" people were doing, the Amateur Gourmet's main advice to other bloggers is don't be boring, Nobel-laureate James Watson wrote a book titled Avoid Boring People, Dean Karnazes follows a philosophy of pushing the envelop of his comfort zone (which involves running several hundred miles at a time), people in developed countries can have all the material comforts and still feel unfulfilled...I think I see a pattern.

By spending so much time on my own in Singapore, I worry about subconsciously seeking comfort and becoming boring, so any suggestions to avoid such a tragic fate would be greatly appreciated.

Inspired by Adam D. Roberts

On February 13th, I gained a fascinating glimpse into the Singaporean psyche as dozens of junior college students wrote to me about how they spend their time, how they view themselves, and what ideas or experiences they find most exciting. Actually, I was a judge for the annual Stanford Book Prize competition, in which the contest winner gets an all-expense-paid trip to Stanford (just a visit, though, not actual admission).

I am happy to report that the Ministry of Education's mission to mould the nation's future hasn't resulted in an army of clones: I was pleasantly surprised by the variety in both content and style in what the students had written. However, I would have one piece of advice in such a results-driven culture: less is more. An exhaustive list of extracurricular activities does not stand out from the crowd, an attempt to list all personal characteristics is difficult to remember, and an over-extended essay is easily forgotten. The best applications are focused. The Amateur Gourmet author wrote a post about how to write to a famous writer:

Eight paragraphs about your life, love and devotion to this writer's writing will not win you much favor. Instead, pare it down to just a few sentences.

This is a guy who has gone from one of countless food bloggers to being a successful author and attending the launch party of gourmet.com, so I think that he's on to something. If I were applying to the competition, I would follow similar advice and pare down each section to a key essential point.

An obvious next question would be: how does one decide on the essence of the essay? This is particularly difficult when writing about oneself. How can you reduce eighteen years of life to a few hundred words? For some it's a life-changing book, for other's it's a trip overseas. Some people go on introspective journeys to find their identities while their counterparts restlessly travel the globe. Either extreme is a way of disconnecting from society: a solitary, self-proclaimed philosopher with hypergraphia is just as separated as a tourist in perpetual motion, taking photos of all the landmarks, but never staying long enough for it to make an impression. I am still trying to find the right balance here in Singapore, so I am fully aware of the impossible task that the students face. However, I greatly appreciate the time spent by all of the applicants, since it has been enlightening to both understanding their home and my own identity.

[The photo at the top was taken by me on the first day of the Chinese New Year. I am also following the advice of the Amateur Gourmet (aka Adam D. Roberts) and striving to make my blog appear less drab.]

I-S on CNY

It's Chinese New Year eve: a time for family reunion dinners. Although I have some plans for meeting up with friends and their relatives later this weekend, I'm on my own tonight. I am using this time to plan out the next several days with a (free) copy of I-S magazine. The cover story caught my attention: "All rat-tled up: Where to Go, What to Do This Chinese New Year." Perfect.

As I explore the table of contents, I notice an interesting editorial titled "We Got Talent." According to the authors, in addition to engineering and biomedical expertise, investors should consider Singapore for some of the following reasons, excerpted below:

* Our ability to speak fluently in English and at least two other dialects.
* Our workahollsm and penchant for OT.
* Our shopaholic and sales-crazy tendencies.
* Our kiasuism - it leaves no room for Plan B - it's just "die die also must succeed"

Later in the magazine is the feature article. For February 6th, the authors write: "Don't know what to do after that perfunctory reunion dinner [or bowl of pasta alone in your apartment]? Go drinking at the clubs, since everywhere else is pretty much closed [as I found out that hard way]." Perhaps later I'll head over to the St. James Power Station for some "Mandarin power ballads, pop and rock."

Tomorrow it's time to "Do Random Things!" The Singapore River Hong Bao Expo at Esplanade Park (see photo above) looks intriguing: "cultural exhibitions, demonstrations and workshops, traditional song and dance performances, fireworks displays, amusement park rides and games, and exotic food and drinks."

Friday it's time to "Get Arty!" but I already have plans. Saturday is "Eat All You Can!" According to the article, "No Chinese New Year celebration is complete without completely sinful, rich and decadent Chinese New Year grub." A common theme is yu sheng, a raw fish salad (photo from thebakerwhocooks), as well as classics like "braised sliced abalone, dried oyster and black moss." Prices start at $65 per person, so I might pass on this. Sunday it's back to shopping (those shopaholic, sales-crazy Singaporeans), but spas and jewelry stores aren't really my thing.

Thinking ahead, Valentine's Day is coming up. I don't have any plans yet, but I-S magazine comes to my rescue yet again, with an article: "How to Get Back in The Dating Game: Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Valentine's Day might just be the clarion call to get off the bench [or out of the lab] and out on the field." Instead of working overtime, like many workaholic Singaporeans, Michele Koh suggests that I join a cooking class, have a group picnic, buy a present, write poetry and recite it, or fake my Facebook account.

After writing that, I have a much better plan for the next four days. Now it's time for some clubbing (right after I add rock-climbing and scuba-diving to my list of hobbies on Facebook).

Thoughts from the ridge

During my seemingly endless hours waiting for and traveling on public transport, I have ample time to listen to podcasts and read free newsletters. The latest issue of The Ridge, the NUS Student Union publication, had a couple blog-worthy items. In the essay "To Belong or Not to Belong: Is it the international student's choice after all?" L Preetha writes that:

In a conservative society like Singapore's, where everyone believes in minding their own business and hanging out with their own cliques, a foreign student is forcibly made to face the agony of having to deal with an emotional roller-coaster ride. Finding one's own identity in a different place, where everything functions differently can be a very challenging phase and the process of alienation begins with this quest for identity.

In my case, I don't take classes or live in the same building as the other students, so I haven't really been alienated. Instead, I lead a separate life in the no-man's-land between undergraduate and graduate school where I am free to focus on my "quest for identity." Despite this self-imposed isolation, I am still aware of the vastly different experiences that exchange students can have: European and American undergrads who party in Clarke Quay and escape to overseas beaches every weekend and Asian grad students who routinely come back from lab past midnight on weeknights and do additional experiments on the weekend.

On the opposite page was a similarly thought-provoking article: "Standardizing Knowledge: with the industrialization of education and standardisation of knowledge, what will happen to the human pursuit of knowledge in the future?" Thet Lin Thu writes:

Apparently, in NUS, there is little evidence of pursuit of knowledge. Higher education means nothing more than following the trodden path, discovering the inevitable and scoring the perfect grade. The two terms "knowledge" and "education", perhaps at least in Singapore, are in no way symbiotic with each other any longer."

Since I'm not taking any modules, anything that I write is based on what I hear from the students around me. According to the exchange students, there is a greater quantity of work compared to their home institutions, but it is not necessarily more difficult. The classes are sometimes disorganized, since NUS recently changed from a teaching- to a research-focused university.

Last week, while I was chatting about plastic bags with fellow environmentally-inclined islanders, one of my friends went to a screening of Singapore Dreaming. Apparently, there was a lively discussion afterwards that clarified many East/West differences. Once again, as reported by The Ridge:

While the West often has a “follow your heart!” philosophy, Singaporeans tend to feel that we cannot afford to be idealistic in this pragmatic society. Su said a lot of his peers gave up what they wanted to do after they went to university, owing to parental and societal pressures and the lure of financial rewards. He also said that if one were to choose the idealistic route, he/she cannot expect to attain monetary rewards.

I definitely agree with that statement. I know many people back in the States who changed from math and physics to comparative literature to economics or computer science to pre-med or pre-med to linguistics, which would be next to impossible here in Singapore. I am deeply grateful for the freedom to travel around the island, talking with various taxi drivers, a street musician in Boat Quay, a chain-smoking Aussie winemaker, a Filipino bakery employee, a Bay Area architecture student, a Kiwi law student, and numerous others in my quest for identity.