another dream

weird but not that weird. i could imagine me really being there in that scene.
remember how i always tell people that i am someone who really loves to host people? part of it definitely stems from the fact that my family hosted a lot when i was young. every other time there'd be a dinner somewhere, and all the toasting and all. but that hasnt been te case of course, in recent years. Dad kinda told me he doesnt have that many friends anymore. a lot of those business acquantences are no more there. of course its tough, because my Dad probably has exhausted every favour from friends to help him. and in some sense there is some limit to those goodwill no matter how much you have built over the years isnt it?

this morning the setting was set in a simple teochew restaurent. i'm not sure if its his birthday or something. and there were 2 modest tables of people. and before the dinner started he stood up... in the emo speech kind. and spoke for a min.. he said something like 'its been a long time since i had a chance to treat everyone to a good meal. that is why i want everyone to eat Teochew good food like steamed prawns etc..' and he stopped for a while to kinda take control of tears that were going to come out. and he didnt continue, instead he went on the pour Chilli Sauce onto the little saucers for everyone.

and the dream ended.

this could be real near to my heart, because i could really understand how it all works out. on no matter how poor you are, you still have this desire deep in your heart to host people. and poor people can host in a poor way. there's no problem to that. and for me. it just sucks sometimes on the fact that i have no ability to host a bigger one, because of space constraint of course. but ultimately its a $$ issue. because space could always be rented with money. haha. in the end i approach friends to host someting that i organise. and that seriously sucks. but well.

maebe a big part of that has died in me. kinda resigning to fate. but i feel that being rekindled this semester. probably one of the things to do when i am back is to make that dinner happen for my Dad.

Schindler's List

nothing beats experiential learning when it comes to history. even for someone as ignorant and nonchalent as me, when i am here in europe, little pieces of history just start to piece together.

didnt finish last night. continue. i hate it when a single blog gets broken up into 2 segments because the feeling is totally different coming in from a different day.

schindler's list is probably a relatively non-blockbuster by steven spielberg. and it attempts to as accurately as possible depict the time of the holocaust when Nazi Germany invaded a huge part of europe. it depicts the life of the Jews particularly in Poland and Czechoslovakia. and there was this Nazi German by the name of Oskar Schindler who went to poland in search of his fortune and he did make it in the end, thriving on the war by providing pots and pans for the army, and utilising cheap jewish labour.

as more and more jewish were sent to the Ghettos each day and being killed, he made use of his connections with powerful people in the German army to continue to allow the jews in his factory to work for him, in the name of them being skilled labour.

in a massive turn of events he had to sacrifice his fortunes to buy each of the 1200 people working in his factory. and just before the war ended, he finished his entire fortune bribing German officials to let them live. he came up with a list of people and thus the name of the movie.

he is a modern day Hero in which many of the jews he saved are still alive today even tho he is not himself.

the movie probably will bore even the most atentive of people but it had special meaning to the group of us watching it because we just came back from the Auswicht concentration camp from krakow, where spielberg shot a huge portion of the film. it was also where 1million jews perished over the war period. 42 to 45. and many of the images in the film were eerily representative of the real thing we saw in the camp. thus to watch it in film and hear the testimonies of the many survivors kept us all glued to the film and even the bonus tracks at the end.

to this day, many jews regard themselves as Schindler Jews because they wouldnt have survived if not for this man.

what i always wanted to say

ask any exchange students why they like their exchange and its common to hear things like:

1. can travel!
2. learn to be independant
3. can know ang moh girls/guys!
4. international perspective...
5. etc etc etc..

i have a rather peculiar proposition on why i am enjoying my exchange so much... and perhaps on top of all the above mentioned, the one that i cherish the most is that i somewhat have a place of my own. yes i know that the place doenst belong to me. and tecnically i havent used the living room a single time. but the fact that i could invite friends over for dinner on a simple roundtable that sits 8 people comfortably. this is the main draw of me. perhaps fulfilling the long time desire that i have of hosting people over simple dinner. and the fact that i did so many of that in my sort exchange here makes me feel like i am the me i am supposed to be. i love the feeling of that.

and i told myself that when i am back in singapore, i am going to cook for the people who matter to me. i might not have a place to do that, but i think in this transition years, there are many possibilities again.

Thank God for jie wei who never for once minded abt my nomadic life. in copenhagen and even in singapore.