one exam down, one more (10-page) paper to go. yay. haha.
so i have no idea how that exam went. but my lecturer believes that 'short answer' questions merely refer to questions that are not essay (ie 3 page answers), but are actually answers that are 8-9 lines long. right. short answer. totally man...

anyhow, i really have no idea how it went. although i can tell you what to do if you are an easterner (as in, from the east coast of US) who just inherited 500 acres of land in the montana (the west) and wants to develop it into a fishing and hunting club for the elite. it's a winter habitat for the (threatened) Bald Eagle and a possible place for the (endangered) something something something Swamp Lizard (that spends its time in marshland, but comes out to dry land every full moon... i have no idea whether it really exists. :) i can tell you what public policies you have to consider, what plans you have to do (HCP) and what you land regulations you may be subject to. yeah. that was my essay question. yeaaaaaaaah. my lecturer really loves coming up with all this hypothetical situations. it's quite funny actually.

and the reason why environmentalists and ranches don't get along? cos environmentalists don't like cows. that was sth a rancher said, according to one of my readings. and it was a 'bonus question'. pretty hilarious. cos my lecturer hates cows too. and he made that really clear during lecture haha.

ah well. it's over. the last exam felt the same way... the kind that u come out not knowing how u did. but i aced it. so that was cool. this one might just swing the other way. so it's all in God's hands...

and really really really thank God for my last paper. perhaps one of the crappiest papers i've ever done. wasn't about the writing or the organising, but the content itself. again, a hypothetical situation and you're supposed to come up with ideas suited for that unique situation and town. and it stumped me. and i was highly dissatisfied (and worried) when i handed it in. thank God though, cos it turned out great. (and i guess, thank God for giving me a super lenient TA who somehow agrees with all the stuff i write hahahahaha)

but i think, the most important thing i've taken out of this class, is perhaps that there are no solutions, only trade-offs. I struggled so hard with that paper, because it seemed like we have so little land use management tools on hand, and none of them can adequately resolve the issues. but that is the same in real life isn't it? there's no one method that will solve singapore's land problems. and there is no end to the constant struggle and competition for space. the land planning system here may not be the best, with all it's imperfections, but this is perhaps the most pragmatic for the current situation. the same goes for Singapore... although I do wonder what would happen if we actually had some of the same policies back home as they do here.

and you know, when u feel that you just aren't cut out for it, and this isn't something that you can do, He shows you once more, that it never was about you to begin with... it was always Him in control.

and another thing that struck me in my folklore class the other day, as we were going thru folk religions -- the challenge has always been for us christians to translate Christianity, as we know it in the Bible, into our vernacular religion (according to folklore terms)... we struggle with this day in and day out, trying to 'practice what we preach'. but that is, indeed, what pple will see and judge us by...

and then u get things like 'snake handlers', who believe that mark 16:17-18 should be practised in service all the time, and they come under the umbrella of 'pentecoastal'. the thing is, numerous pple have died or been hospitalised because of this, and pple judge them according to this. obviously my class didn't think very much of them.

but at the end of the day, i guess all we wanna do is glorify His name isn't it?