Dr. Makwa Speaks
Scenes and characters from an unpublished book. Dr. Makwa Speaks does not exist. Refer all inquiries @jvhickey.
Traveling
Safely ensconced at a pretty nice hotel near all the shopping malls in the world, apparently. It’s now the weekend over here. Hot outside but cold in the room.
I did not sleep on the plane apart from an hour here and there. I traveled twenty hours. Ten hour flight and then a seven hour one—I’ve heard of longer but that’s the longest one I’ve ever been on. I put my syllabus in order and watched about thirty movies. “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” was especially amusing after 15 hours in the air. So nothing exciting yet! It’s night outside.
The work week
It feels good to be in front of a classroom again; it’s funny how it all comes back so soon. Of course, it helps that the school assigned me a couple of very competent, intelligent TAs to do my bidding. I’m still struggling with the time change and we’re already halfway through the course.
At five this morning, a mentor of mine texted to say that my old professor Dan McCall had died, which was sad but not quite unexpected news. Last time I heard from him was a couple of years ago, when we exchanged typewritten letters. I’d never gotten around to sending my novel to him, and I really should have. It had been in the back of my mind these past couple years and now I’ve missed the opportunity.
There hasn’t been a whole lot of picture-taking over the past few days—mostly teaching, eating, and sleeping. Sing dollars are different sizes, depending on the denomination. Food can be cheap or expensive…It’s been a mix. There are a lot of malls in this area—I’ve seen more Cartiers than 7-11s on Orchard. Hoping to get the Little India tonight or tomorrow.
Eating
Ate fried silverfish today, and yet somehow, that wasn’t the most disgusting thing I’ve eaten today. That honor belongs to the three flavors of durian ice cream I sampled at Vivo City.
