This is home, truly =)

Woke up with a start this morning to find that it was already bright outside which meant that self was very late. Was rather thankful that mommy dearest was still fast asleep else she would have increased my panic ten-fold with the constant urging to hurry up. Managed to dash to school on time (by taking my third consecutive cab if you count the two yesterday - there goes my $$$).

Struggled to settle the CIP stuff with my class (coz nobody listens when you're trying to talk to the class as a whole) and somehow worked out a rough plan. Can only hope that everything goes smoothly on Friday. Thank You, God, for giving me a positive response from the home. Had been sooo desperate.

Went for this workshop on how to relate with parents yesterday. Was terribly tired out by the course (almost collapsed from exhaustion during piano class) but did learn some useful stuff. Had been feeling unhappy about something, but sorted my thoughts out a bit after listening to the trainer's constant emphasis on the "power of the situation". Like how if someone snaps at you suddenly for no apparent reason, it doesn't mean that he or she is being mean and ridiculous towards you. Most likely there would be a reason behind that behaviour, like some unpleasant encounter or situation that angered the person. So...avoid committing that "fundamental attribution error". People are really not that bad, most of the time it is the circumstances that are.

It's kinda strange when I reflect about this coz I caught this bit on yesterday's channel 8 serial that had the character contemplating about the misconception she had about her colleague. Same kind of thing - he wasn't as terrible a person as she had thought. She had misjudged him based on his actions.

I had my own personal experience of misjudgement during lunchtime, when I quizzed a student about his apparently errant behaviour and he revealed his reasons which struck me as somewhat unfortunate for his part. Had gleaned (wrongly) from my observations that he's an irresponsible and slack kind of person. Upon learning the truth, ended up feeling rather sorry for him.

This job is teaching me a lot of things. Like how a lot of things are not what they appear on the surface. People, especially, are often more complicated than one thinks. I guess I'm just too...dumb.

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Oh and to link back to the title of this post - It's National Day tomorrow!!! Cheers to us, Singapore...for pragmatism, racial harmony, first-world desires, kiasuism, hawker food, bad driving etiquette, stoicism, efficiency, ever-changing urban landscape, paternalistic government, armchair critics, harsh censorship, spectacular National Day Parades...