Rudi posed me this question when we were on the bus ride back home. He always comes up with these type of though intriguing questions whenever he starts talking serious and it always sets me thinking about my future. Basically, it was all about how Singaporean female university graduates would prefer not to marry someone who had a lower level of education than her and how we girls are at a disadvantage at the end of the day. Why? Because if you look at the ratio of the girls to guys in university, the number of females far outweigh the number of males. In Bizad itself the ratio is 1.8 (girls) : 1 (guys). In Pharmacy, I hear the ratio is 7:1. And according to Rudi's explanation, if there wasn't a cap put on the ratio of female:male medicine students, the female population might more than trounce the number of males studying medicine. He quotes from RJ stats where out of the 13 medicine classes, all have the female population outweighing the male population. Ahh... Forgot to ask about the Engineers. I'm pretty sure the ratio in there would be highly reversed (maybe something like 1 girls : 3 guys?)

At the end of the day, his point was that there are more female graduates than male graduates.(hmm... but if we count in the engineers, will that still stand?) That being stated, he was saying that females will definitely be at the losing end, because female graduates would only have such a small pool of male graduates to choose from. And why such a small pool? Especially in a Singaporean context, thinking is still very traditional and in terms of relationship issues, it's still skewed highly to a masculine thought: The male has to have higher or equivalent level of education to his female counterpart and not lower; The male will still be the breadwinner of the family even though his partner maybe earning a respectable income because, eventually the males will have to shoulder that responsibility. Sure, this trend may be changing, but it will take a very long time for females to accept a male who has a lower level of education than her. And, he proves it by saying that there are many females who are choosing to remain single than marry someone of lower education level (which, is a huge society problem). Cos, these women are financially independent, so they are not eager for a financial pillar to lean on and slacken off unless they find one steady and sturdy one who has as vast a financial independence and intellectual level as them. And, so goes his theory that SDU and SDS will never merge because of this disparity. On the otherhand of males, if all else fails, and they really want to get married, there are always China, Vietnamese brides for them to take their pick. So, should they really be unlucky with Singaporean women, they can always shop for a bride for another Asian country.

On hearing his case, I gave him the "are you sure" look. And he shot me this question: Would you marry someone who was not a university graduate? Would you marry someone who is not earning a pay packet around yours?" That really stumped me for a while, because, deep down inside, I knew that he was right. Maybe not so much for his second question, but for me, as long my future husband is able to provide for the family (without having to eat into my pay), I'm fine with it. My pay packet will go to my own expenses and other investments, like house etc. I mean, he's the man, so he should be able to provide for the whole family. But, for the first question, I had to agree with him. I would not marry someone who was not a university graduate. Well, at least at this stage of life, I would not marry someone who isn't a university graduate (I don't want to make things hard, but if I had it my way, not some university degree, but one from a university which has had some reputation at least). Yes, I may sound very superficial, but I think many girls would love to have someone who is intellectually on par or even better than them. It makes you think more and you have more intelligent conversations rather than just superficial talk. Just like the way Rudi always makes me think whenever I talk to him (sure, he has his crazy moments), but when he gets serious and poses me questions, I find it super challenging and that challenge makes the conversation highly interesting. Rudi's an extreme example, cos he's got the smarts. But, if I had that type of conversations with my future spouse once it a while, would be great. Apart from the intellect, I think it gives us girls a form of assurance and the knowledge that the person has a higher probability of being financially stable. Call us bimbos for being such superficial beings, but that type of assurance is one important thing to allow us to spend the rest of our lives with that person. In financial terms, it's the choice of investing in (i) a stock that has the higher probability of higher returns and lower risk, or (ii) a stock which has higher probability of lower returns and higher risk, or if all stocks don't look good, or (iii) might as well not invest. For me, (i) and (iii) will be the way to go. (I think I've been having too much of FM class).

Ahh well, but I never know what God has installed for me. (I don't deny that I'm secretly praying that my future husband will have those ideals) So, for now, don't blame me if I say I wanna marry a doctor/ banker (Investment, corporate banker would be good)/ someone working at management level in an MNC/ lawyer/ Dentist etc etc...

My long awaited one week break has just flown past. Yes, it really flew past. I'm so not ready to start school, and already, I'm in the last day of the first week of school. Well, technically, I won't call this week a full week of school, cos there was the national day holiday and I'm still shopping for modules (aka, still appealing and looking for modules). Ah yes, national day, Happy 40th birthday Singapore.

Anyway, I was talking to Shir and Rudi when we were on our way to Suntec to watch Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. During our conversation, the issue of how some girls came back thinner after the holidays arose. Rudi's apparent dreaded issue. He hates it whenever we broach that subject, well, simply cos he knows how he has to keep quiet. Anything he says related to the weight thing would basically be wrong. Or rather, I should say, us being girls, we'll unknowingly take his neutral innocent statement to be a personal attack on our weight issue. Sounds unreasonable? Yeah... I know, but it's a girl thing. But, before you think that we're bullying him, it's no such deal, cos he has his chance to do likewise (well, think of it, he had his male power during CF last sem and poor me being the only girl got the brunt of it, and this sem, I have a nagging feeling that the FM group is going to ooze testosterone, except for the rare rose among the thorns) and we make sure we don't carry things too far.

So, back to the topic. It arose because Shir was complaining that she was fat. And, for the record, that girl is anything but fat. Well, she was almost in pageant (or was she in? can't really rmb now), so how fat can she be? And, in my opinion, I think she's slim, model quality, and here was this girl complaining that she was fat! But, upon hearing her explanation about how this other model girl got thinner and a few other Bizad girls having lost weight, I was on her side. No, I still maintain that she is slim, very slim in fact, but I began thinking about myself, about how I needed to lose weight. This reminded me of a chinese current affairs programme about the societal role played in pushing women to be slim, that I had watched a couple of nights ago. It was critiquing society's views on slim women. and how some girls had been affected by it and had go anorexic of which some had led to bullimic problems. Those girl featured were practically bamboo thin, and still they felt they were not thin enough?!?!? Gosh, what do they want to be? Skin and bones before they are happy? Society's views and media portrayal have caused these girls to think they way they are. Indeed, the media has always used thin and slim models and artistes as their poster girls and the faces of the media are always thin, and this has pushed women to think that thin is the way to go. Slim seems to be synonymous with the recipe to attractiveness. Look at the number of slimming centres that have sproutted out around tiny Singapore. And, these slimming centres have been doing brisk business and so have the slimming pills, teas and practically any slimming product in the market. The Slim10 incident seems to be long forgotten.

Enough of me ranting about society and media, but at the end of the day, I still succumb to this imposition. I hate to admit that this is peer pressure, but seeing so many girls in such a slim frame, makes it all the more a stronger force for me to lose weight. But, I don't want to be bamboo thin, I want to be slim (not thin) and lean. Basically, slim, but yet having muscles and a well toned body. Many girls I see are just thin, but not toned. They just starve themselves and try to lose weight that way. In my opinion, it's near disaster to do that. Once those hunger pangs come haunting you, and you give in, you start to binge, and you put on more than u lost. Well, fir me, I prefer the exercise way. I think it's the best. Ah well, I'm one lazy fella, can't be bothered to go out to jog or use the gym, and I still love to eat. It's one of my favourite pastimes. Sometimes I pray and ask God that he would bless me with those high metabolic rates so that even after eating so much, I need not worry about growing fat. Gee... So, how will I lose weight? I wonder how. Maybe seeing those super slim Bizad girls would give me the motivation to whip my body into shape. Do I sound like I am contradicting myself?

Photo from Celisa's surprise birthday celebration, China mission team and the Pollyticians. Notice: The back row of girls. We were trying to stand in pageant formation, and yes, u guessed it, our manager is wearing a blue shirt at the end of the line. =) 

After a long time of silence, I'm finally back!

I think I last left off at the Thailand trip. Yes, I'm back from Thailand, did a bit of shopping, but didn't spend as much as I would have expected. Could have bought more if time permitted, but alas, we only had 4 days and 3 nights in Thailand. But, yup, it was a good trip of resting, catching up with friends and eating like mad.

So, anyway, after coming back from Thailand, it was back to work. It was the last 2 weeks of work, but every day seemed like a drag. My superior was pushing on things for things to be wrapped up. So, basically had lots of work to do. Started off on the Salsa class from the voucher that YQ gave me for my 21st birthday. It's quite fun, tiring and gives u a good workout especially if you go more high level. But, I'm a slow learner (Especially when it comes to things like dance and sports... u'll see evidence below). I need time to process the things I learn, what more, my hand leg co-ordination isn't my best skill. Ah well, anyways, there was this guy (very Cheena looking) who was super rough and ungentlemanly with his dance. Super stiff and overly forceful in every action. Hated dancing with him. Gee... Yar, he may have come for more classes than I have, but, sorry, I still don't like the way he treats the girl, like we're some kind of object that u can treat roughly. HMPH!!

Ah, yes... now to my internship, it's finally over!! It's been such a long time! Was evaluating my experience on my last day there, and 3 things stood out from the internship 1) It's a much smaller company than the last one I worked in. 2) I've got ang moh bosses, and it amuses me every time they break into sacarsm or dry humour or when they use a myraid of vocabulary to describe certain events and things. (what's more their accent is one of my fav accents) 3) I realised that telemarketing could actually involve more than telesales.

Ok, so, that brings me to this week, where my official 1 week holiday has started. And, some people are calling me a slacker. Not that I mind it, but, I think this slacking is warranted, for the fact that I've been working for the pass 2 1/2 months (ok, I had trips in between, but only 1 was a real relaxation trip). It's been an eventful week so far, with Joanna's birthday celebration on saturday, CM games followed by a 3 hour blading session on sunday, movie marathon cum shopping for musical instruments on monday, movie marathon 2 plus fellowship with some ppl, and today, wakeboarding with Sarah.

Wakeboarding's been a smash. I love it! I wanna go again!!! For the record, I love the sun, the sand and the sea. Didn't manage to stand on the board though, always in the half standing position, the fall back into the water. But, it's the adrenaline rush that's pulling me back to wanna do it again. Oh, and I found out that the sea water is super duper salty. As in, really salty. I didn't expect it to be that salty, but it was. I really had a great time. Only pity was that my camera battery died halfway through, so couldn't take any good photos. I wanna go again, to master how to stand on the board and to actually remain on the water for a long time. Anyone wanna sponsor me? Diving's next on the list. =)