today after school, me and timothy went to midvalley for a double-date with sheetal and jay.
it was a lot of fun, i love that my friends and my boyfriend get along.

but that's not really what i wanted to blog about, what i wanted to blog about was the movie we watched tonight.

Talentime, by one of my favourite directors, Yasmin Ahmad. Same woman behind Sepet and Mukhsin and Gubra.

I won't lie to you, i found some parts of the script to be a bit plastic and not as smooth and authentic as it should be, and some of the little details like puzzle pieces that didn't really fit, but still, i quite loved it.

You can clearly see that the person behind the lens is someone with a big heart and so much love for malaysia, it is clear in how lovingly she captures the scenes, rows of old shophouses, an indian classical dancer in lavender, glittering splendour, the fervent interlace of fingers between a bedridden mother and her teenage son. Beautifully done.

The themes in this movie are strong, clear. Filial piety and racial intergration, and falling in love, high-school-style. Somehow, though, yasmin ahmad managed to make it as uncliched as possible, you end up feeeeeeling the themes, not just recognizing them.

The last scenes are still stuck in my head, a malay boy and a chinese boy, in school uniform,arms slung around each other in a hug. It made me think of an ideal malaysia, where things like this happened, where hugs were exchanged regardless of race, where there were no "sides", or where hearts were free of discrimination or stereotypes and favourtism.

Racism makes my blood boil, really, it's one of the few things I wish Malaysia had less of. tonight the thought just occured to me after the movie, there is no place for both love for God, and for racism, in one heart. The two cannot, will not go together. If God really did create people in His image, he loves each race, each tribe, for thier quirks and traditions, He delights in their uniqueness and dialects, in the characteristics that make them what they are. If God saw what he had made and said it was good, who are we to say otherwise?

i love movies that make me think hard.

today was our last class with ms. andrea, she's leaving us, and the college, to go get married and live in singapore.
grrrr.
i will miss her and how fun our classes are, how she listens with a slightly shocked smile as we exaagerate our stories just to scandalize her, cause she's that gullible.

it's funny how i fought so hard against being signed up here, how i debated and rebelled and protested against it, and yet i'm so happy here now.

of course it was a bit of a culture shock, from dollhouse subang, with Taylor's spacious campus, complete with a huge cafeteria and gym and student lounge with a huge TV and a freezing cold, but huge library. Subang, where 7-eleven and Subway and McDonalds and Subang Parade and Starbucks and Asia Cafe were walking distance from where I lived. Where I could leave the apartment alone, at two, three in the morning and still come home unharmed. Where students drove Mercedes and BMWs to school, and we never saw rats.

one year later, it's a small building on Petaling Street, in the real KL, where crazy male hobos in spaghetti straps attack my friends, where whores on the street hit on my boyfriend, where you see rats and dirty drains and transvestites who glare at you.

Also the place where I get my fix of lovely, ice-cold air mata kuching, from that famous stall on petaling street. Where there are tons of stalls lining the streets with deceptively real imitations, and a multitude of interesting looking people walking the streets. Where I walk hand-in-hand with timothy at KLCC park, one of my favourite places in the city. Where the REAL best lotus pau in the world is, and when we say Starbucks, we don't mean my favourite chain of overpriced coffee, we mean our affectionate nickname for a hole in the wall, rustic, old chinese coffee shop with antique teacups and faded pictures of buddha on the walls. Where I can spend hours looking out my window at the city lights, it never tires me to just keep watching.

Same place I met some really amazing people, a bunch of people who make me laugh and have gravity defying hair, who eat thosai with condensed milk, a quirky, intelligent bunch. And of course, timothy, whom I am so glad i met when I did, the deceptively quiet , gorgeous guy sitting in class with the amazing voice, who said "hi" in the lift on my first day.

I love this side of KL, authentic and colourful and how the fast paced, busy city, with it's malls and clubs and skyscrapers are right next to a place little changed by time, ancient chinese shops and street buskers and indian shops smelling of cloth and incense and a reluctance to let go of their origins. I feel like a time traveler, i switch time zones every day.

this wasn't the college life i dreamed about, it's just a million times better.

two letters, not much significance unless you understand what it really means.
b/p
i know maybe three people who read this blog who would get it.
don't feel sorry for me just yet