in the interest of providing opportunities for socializing (as our job descriptions say that we should) my fellow members on the singapore student association committee and i had organized a trip to 'penang', the new franchised pseudo-south-east-asian restaurant in chapel hill. this happened today. 15 people came along, and for one of the few times in my time here at duke i felt that grotty sensation that comes when too many singaporeans are clumped together in a foreign land, like being on one of those chan brothers tours to europe with the big buses and the ample, nouveau-riche aunties fanning themselves with brochures and conversing loudly in teochew and buying baubles and trinkets from the gift shop for the nephews and nieces back home. our waitress sequestered us in a corner of the restaurant where we could do as little damage as possible and was quite rude, interrogating poor ailian about why she had reserved a table for 18 and only 15 people showed up (not her fault, some irresponsible people RSVPed and didn't make an appearance). i felt quite irrationally embarrassed by the whole affair, not on behalf of singaporeans, but just for the fact that race and culture are such a big deal here and that i still can't walk around with my asian friends on campus (or in the mall, or down franklin street) without being conscious of segregation and clique-mentality and other such sententious labels that americans quite unwittingly conjure up without even really considering why, or what they mean.

on the bright side, the food was really good.