Well, it’s that time again and everyone at UCLA is done with finals and have been spending the past few days graduating. Today marks the final day of all the ceremonies, from commencements to departmental graduations to the ethnic-based ones. I’ve been getting e-mails on the AKPsi listserv of people talking about taking pictures together, attending their respective ceremonies, and otherwise celebrating the Class of 2009’s achievement. It’s really a festive time of year, as everyone has summer on their sights and just this one last hurdle before induction into the world of alumnihood. For just a moment, any worries about the future can be set aside as we focus on the here and now and rejoice in the completion of a degree.
Still striking.
All this hubbub reminds me of my own graduation last year, with the drama of the strikers, the excitement of the surrealness, and the hectic whirlwind surrounding finals and graduating. The summer of 2008’s kickoff will always be a bittersweet one for me, since some of my relatives were able to fly in from China to attend, but the strike drove away Bill Clinton and Ariana Huffington as commencement speakers. I still feel it would have been better for Clinton to come and talk to us about the strike, rather than avoid the issue completely and leave us all so bitter over that outcome. Overall, it was still a good time, to enter Pauley Pavilion and see so many of my peers filling the floor as their loved ones crowded the arena. The Deans of each segment of the College of Letters and Science introduced us with flair and I got to be represented in both the Life Sciences as well as the Social Sciences.
Phil Wang at the APIG.
The following day I had both my Psychology and Economics departmental graduations, which my relatives split up to attend, with half coming for the morning Psych one and the others coming for the afternoon Econ one. It was a crazy day that started way too early and had me going far into the night as I ran around to get to places on time and find my family amongst the crowd. I still had some packing to do, which I needed to complete by the next day so I could go to the Asian/Pacific-Islander Graduation (APIG) in the afternoon and head back immediately thereafter to celebrate Father’s Day.
The APIG ceremony was truly special, since it was much smaller and was held outside in Dickson Court. I gathered together with a bunch of my fraternity brothers and we sat quite close to the front. Far East Movement and Wong Fu were there, with Far East performing customized lyrics and Phil Wang speaking to us about how the Asian-American community needs to unite. We had a local Asian-American leader as a guest speaker, but of course I’ve forgotten his name. All of the graduates even got t-shirts commemorating the event, with our names on the back! It was great that one of my fraternity brothers was actually organizing the event – I was so proud! Now he’s graduating as well. Amazing how a year can pass just like that.
It was a nice overcast day for the most part, which kept things cool. Thankfully, the rain stayed away though and allowed us to enjoy a very nice time at the park. Apparently a lot of people are blood donors because the place was packed! From the bus that took us from Boon Lay to the park to the line to get in, we could tell it was going to be a crowded place. It was still great fun though, as we made our way from penguins to flamingos to macaws to hawks to ostriches, and so much more! There was even this beastly creature that was huge and rather ugly, with remnants of a dino-like crown protruding from his head. Along the way, we came across a pelican feeding, where we were told about the seven types of pelicans in existence, and then got to see an entertaining bird show with all kinds of fun tricks.
At the end of our trip, we took the tram for one more spin around the park and headed out to meet up with some of Mizu’s friends. We stopped by the gift shop hoping to find a cute penguin pen to bring back to Starfish, but they didn’t have any. 🙁 We also came across this free pearl offer (where they would extract it in front of you), but it was only for real ticketholders. 🙁 I was so sad because I really wanted one so I could bring something back to Chatty to thank her. Oh well. We then squeezed back onto the bus to take us to the MRT and took a nice long ride to Ang Mo Kio to wait for Mizu’s buddies. Typea’s been using my iPod touch to play Tap Tap Revenge (it’s like DDR but with your fingers on the touchscreen), which Mizu also enjoys, so we played a few rounds challenging each other as we sipped on some drinks.
Though I’ve been getting little tastes of Singaporean culture throughout my time here and occasionally something will remind me of China, it wasn’t until last night that I truly felt a strong cultural impression in everything around me. We had gone to East Coast Park, where there’s an outdoor cafeteria of sorts with stall upon stall of laksa, satay, dong dongs (I can’t remember what they were called), stingray, and who knows what else. I felt at once lost and amazed among all the dishes I’d never seen and had hardly heard of before. Paths cut through the park to allow bike riders, rollerbladers, and other such athletic activities to ensue. A little stage consisting of a piece of carpeting and a half watermelon backdrop provided the scene for an acrobatics show. On one side, we could look out across a small patch of trees to the ocean beyond, which was filled with ships.
