a vast, vast silence! filled with getting settled in Singapore, at ISEAS, at my little flat in West Singapore; with getting internet in my house; with the arduous exertions of Singaporean bureaucratic procedure; with just getting acquainted around this tiny island that’s to be my home for the next year — all this, broken, to wish America the best (choice) on this most momentous day. It feels like we have been waiting forever. From here in Singapore, halfway across the world, the exhilaration is almost palpable. And – is it just me? – it seems so very many people are strangely, uncommonly aware that history is being made this evening; it seems that on this day, the past, present and future are mingling like mists, turning everything at once historic, thrilling and, somehow, a little unreal. If it feels like that from way over here, I can only imagine what it feels like way over there…
More soon.
did you tell us what you’re doing in S’pore? my uni has programs there, and i teach over there during the summer, so i’m interested to see/read your thoughts.
I don’t think I mentioned – I’m out here doing fieldwork research for my PhD. Do you teach at NUS in the summer? I didn’t know they had twinned programs with American universities – which one are you from?