i enrolled myself in science faculty of the national university of singapore (nus) in jul 1987.
for my first year, i signed up for 2 of my favourite subjects – biology (comprising biology 'a' and biology 'b') and chemistry. little did i know that what i signed up for was known as the killer combination cos all 3 subjects had laboratory hours. it was interesting for me cos for the first time in my life, i actually experienced a 6-hour laboratory session. anyway, all in all, on a heavy week (during weeks where i had a 2-hr evening compulsory module on intro to computer [ic101] on monday evenings), i had a 41-hour week and on a light week, 39 hours. my friends in other faculties, particularly those in arts, could never imagine how a person could possibly survive such a punishing schedule. to them anything close to a 2-digit hour would be considered heavy for that week. heh heh... but because i enjoyed these subjects, i actually found myself looking forward to lessons.
frankly, after 2-plus years in ns, i found the beginning a little difficult for me. i had forgotten quite a bit of my studies. and so, you could imagine that "oh-this-term-is-so-familiar" feeling kept coming to me as i attended my classes - mitochondria, ribosomes, cytoplasm, la la la... but well, i caught up within a month or two and after that, it was rather easy going. and soon enough, i found myself immersed in the nus lifestyle. here're some of the snapshots of my nus life:
- in my first year, i stayed in sheares hall. i had heard so much about the hall ragging that when i signed up, i gave them all sorts of cock and bull stories (i think i told them i need to look after my sickly grandmother - which for the record, had died a dozen years earlier). but well, i got myself excused alright. my not attending the hostel orientation camp resulted in many of the seniors not knowing me and soon enough, many started to ostracize me. frankly, i didn't bother. i had my own clique of friends in the hostel in the end. the "kuai kuai" nerdy group... :-P
- i lived in block "c". and that was known as the "creative block". apparently many creative people lived in the block and they include people who are rather high profile today - you will probably know them as so-and-so who are the creative director of some recent international event staged in singapore, so-and-so who was known to enjoy performing in drag (nonya kebaya somemore!), so-and-so who choreographed so-and-so national events, etc. and boy, creative block with creative people can be very creatively scandalous too! there are always sightings of so-and-so coming out of so-and-so room in the middle of the night, with ruffled hair, sleeping over with so-and-so la la la... and becos everyone was so creative, everyone was also very open about it. so... haiz. and of cos, for me, i had my fair share of scandals too. read on.
- i got myself really involved with another person in block a. it started off as a nice group chatting session in his room on a saturday afternoon before we locals go home. and soon enough, everyone left except 2 of us. and we continued chatting. and we yak and yak and yak and soon enough we started talking about sex. and gradually, we began to tease each other about being aroused and soon enough, things got physical. in the end, we couldn't get enough of each other and before we knew it, we were so addicted to each other. it was a really really really really intense and sexual relationship - much as we constantly denied our sexuality. thinking back, it was really very weird cos two were actually leading an exclusively gay lifestyle although he was bisexual. he would read his love letters to me and even had me around when he wrote his love letters to his then girlfriend (now his wife). it went on for many months until i finally decided to call it quits cos i was not able to accept the whole relationship. i was convinced i was straight and that it was just something i could simply switch off when i felt like it. i broke his heart badly. we went on the different faculties after our first year and did not talk to each other after that.
- there were some interesting things i experienced when i first joined nus. for a start, i thought the girls in my year (who were 2 years younger) were really childish. they behaved like spoilt kids! it was so clear during the science fac orientation camp. but well, in the end, i realized i felt this way because of my ns. ns did really turned many of us into men. yup, men. no longer boys. and i did admit, much as i tried, i was at times conscious of my "officer" status in my ns. but it certainly did not stop me from interacting and mingling with my peers who were non-officers. but i realized that my ocs training and subsequent exposure to leadership positions made me a lot more mature than many of my contemporaries.
- i had the habit of studying through the nights before my exams. and he (i did not ever considered him to be my "boyfriend") would do the same. we would study in the science fac canteen and usually there would be the same group of people there. and there was this very interesting character. she was from bizad. we called her "amy". amy would usually study at the hon sui sen library and she would come over to study at the science fac canteen after the library closed at 10pm. we would all cower in fear when we heard her the high heels sounds approach us. you see, she had this weird habit of wearing red dresses, super high heels, and white gloves (yes, white gloves!). and she would study until just before 12am, then approach any of the guys in the canteen and asked them to walk her to the bus stop where she would catch the last bus to clementi interchange. and as the guy walked with her, she would tell the guy things like - oh, last night, i saw a guy in the toilet playing with himself... and when i saw, i very scared... or, tomorrow can i study with you?... or, will you be here over the weekend (or chinese new year)... she never failed to freak us all out! thank goodness i was never asked cos i would be sitting with him and we would both look down or pretend to be engrossed in some deep discussions when she walked towards our direction.
- i started learning how to ride the motorbike when i was in nus first year. i did it secretly. my parents wouldn't have permitted me to do so if they had known for my dad had a scooter and he knew the dangers associated with bike-riding. by the time i was in second year, i had purchased a secondhand bike from a fellow-itd platoon commander. i rode the bike home. there was nothing my parents could do. my mum could only ask me to ride with care. on the seventh day of my bike purchase, i was turning in from marine parade road to marine terrace when my bike hit the kerb. i was thrown off my bike and the bike crashed. my brother witnessed it from my flat. my mum freaked out. but there was nothing they could do. that was my first bike accident. i had many more bike accidents after that - including quite a few along the ecp (that was when the fort road flyover was not even constructed) and once i walked into the lecture with my jeans totally torn and my thighs still raw with blood and my good friend had to half support me to his hostel room to apply the qing chao you onto my wounds!
- the standard annual routine for me during my years in nus was that i didn't get to celebrate chinese new year. i am not sure if it was good or bad, but it certainly weened me off the excitement of the occasion. so, during chinese new years, i would either be studying at the science fac canteen or locked up in my room at home.
- as i said, i was a regular on course in nus. i had no financial worries. and i had lots of time to focus on my studies and to make friends. by the time i was in second year, many of my peers started talking about their future and as i reflected, i started to regret signing on. there were so many things ahead of me that i could have done or could pursue. and i realized i couldn't do it becos i had to fulfil my obligations to my contract. i regretted and for a short period, comtemplated breaking my contract. it so happened that one of my ocs platoon mate (who had also signed on and was in the same science fac as me) also studied in the science library. and we would chat frequently outside the science library. once, i shared with him how i felt. and he shared the same thoughts. we talked it through and he convinced me when he rationalized that the reasons why oour minds could think of such things was becos we were not preoccupied by other things like financial concerns, job prospects, etc. and so, rather than regret, we should instead feel blessed to be "looked after" well by the armed forces. and for that, we should do our best, complete our studies and pay back to the organisation. and that was exactly what we did.
- for my first year results, i did very well and obtained an "a" for my chemistry and 2 "b"'s for my bio. i dropped my chemistry after some deep consideration. i love bio too much. i continued with my bio 'a', bio 'b' combination in my second year (another crazy chap some would say) and this time round, decided to drop a major to a minor. i chose general maths (or 'g' maths). second year came and went, and again i did very well and obtained an "a" for my maths and 2 "b"'s for my bio. once again, i love bio too much to drop it. and in my final year, i took both bio 'a' and bio 'b'. once again, i got 2 "b"'s for them. i was offered both zoology and botany honours. in the end i went on to do my honours in botany and graduated with a 2 upper honours in botany in jul 91.
