Remember when I said uni was kind of slack - at least, slacker than jc? Well, it still is slacker than jc (hitherto, jc has been the craziest time of my academic life), but the work is definitely piling up.

I realised it's thanks to my two requirement modules (SE1101E - Southeast Asian studies - and SSA1203 - Singapore, Asia and American Power) that my days are more filled with schoolwork now. For each module, I have to write three papers. Add that to my EL3254 (Media, Discourse and Society) paper and presentation, as well as my EC1101E (Intro to Econs) tutorials and online graded practices, I'm a heck lot busier than I'd been last sem. And this is only 4 modules. Imagine if I took 5, like I was supposed to. (Which brings me to contemplating about next sem, where I have to take 6 modules, to compensate for the 1 module I didn't take this sem ... no, stop. It's too depressing.)

So I'm down with three papers (two SSA1203 and one SE1101E), and am working on my next SE1101E paper, which is due 2 March. I know, you must think I'm crazy to be stressing out so much when the deadlines for most of my papers are still a long time away. But I'm the sort who'd manically try to finish them all the minute I'm told what I'm required to do, just so I can avoid the mad rush towards the exams, where then I'd have to study for the exams and work on my papers. Makes sense, doesn't it?

Yes, so right now I'm riffling through online books, researching about the Mekong river and how it contributed to the construction of a collective identity (that was quite a lot of alliteration right there) of Vietnamese people before independence in 1945. The essay required us to explore how a place or a form of technology culminated in the formation of a collective identity of the people in a Southeast Asian country before or up to the point of independence. 1250 - 1500 words, at least one source about the place or technology, and at least two sources about the place, have to be academic.

The thing I don't quite understand is, what's the difference between before independence and up to the point of independence?

1300 words. Despite working on the paper the whole day yesterday, I've only managed to crank out 393 miserable words. This is unbelievably depressing. And what really makes me want to kick myself is that I've forgotten everything about the Mekong river that I studied in jc. That is, if I even paid attention. I don't remember listening in lectures when the Mekong conflict was being explained. See, that's what you get for being so disinterested.

Two and a half more months. Two and a half more months before Reading Week and the subsequent exams. And then no more horrible papers to write.

But then, of course, there is always next sem. Joy.