Frankly, my dear, I don't give a...

I'm trying to finish about 800 pages of Gone with the Wind by Friday for my "Civil War in Fiction, Fact and Film" class. It's a lovely epic novel, but it's been a while since I read such a long book. I bought the book for $12 at my school bookshop, then found a copy online for a dollar, so I returned the first one and bought that. Unfortunately (or not) the cover of the cheaper version looks like one from a really trashy novel, just like the poster above, with huge embossed letters. I'll have to rent the movie soon. It's FOUR HOURS LONG.

I went to my first kickboxing class today. It was great! It makes you feel so strong. Even though I probably looked goofy and uncoordinated, I totally felt like I could kick anybody's butt for that half an hour. I love the defensive pose, as Hilary Swank will show you:

Except I don't wear gloves. Anyway. I have a Texercise pass now, which means I can get into all the fitness/wellness classes. I've only ever been to Cardio Combo (which is 1/2 Step exercises, 1/4 kickboxing and 1/4 abs). I want to try out Power Pilates, Ab Lab, Full Body Sculpt Express, Aqua Aerobics and all these other classes with slightly cheesy names. Hopefully I can fit in one class a day. I'm waging a war on flab!!!

This weekend was pretty fun... We had our first Singaporean Student Association lunch at Buca di Beppo, an Italian restaurant (I think I mentioned it in this space before). It's funny how we always end up talking about food or restaurants, even while we're eating. Must be a Singaporean thing. For one of my classes, my professor told us we'd get one point if we posted up our favorite Austin restaurant on the class website forum. So now we all have a list of about nearly 100 places to choose from :) I had dinner on Saturday with Jill, an American who lived in Singapore for 5 years, at a great Indian place called Bombay Bistro. It was great talking to her about home. We had tons of naan and I ordered this chicken-breast-stuffed with-spinach-and-coated-with-orange-spices thing, which was so huge I only ate 1/3 of it. The remainder served as yesterday's dinner and today's lunch. Mmmm.

School is running along okay, and soon I'll be tutoring disadvantaged kids under an Austin public library program, and teaching and observing 8th grade English classes at Murchison Middle School. These activities count toward a teaching certificate. Should be interesting. I'll blog about it as I go.

Let me leave you with some (pretty underwhelming, I'd say) pictures of Austin:

The Tower, our pride and joy

My favorite trees on campus

Lovely grasspatch cum study area near the Liberal Arts buildings

Don't know what this building's called, but I love the railings and creepy lamp-things

Guadalupe Street, running along the edge of campus. Shops (L-R): c.jane - a dress boutique; Which Wich - great sandwich place; Pita Pit - excellent pitas; some bank or other; Intellectual Property (building with murals) - bookstore

For randomness' sake, here's a picture of my beautiful s!bBiEzZZzz*~ (minus Ky) whom I miss dearly!

And with that, I end this super-long post. Thanks for sticking with me!