By Denise Wee

This spring break was the first one I spent on campus. My plans to go to the Dominican Republic had sadly fallen apart. Tickets bought but no visa. With seemingly limitless time at hand on campus, I began to contemplate of all the hidden joys that Middletown might hold.

What could I do?

I could go down to the Russell Library and borrow the tapes on break-dancing and travel destinations that I have been meaning to borrow.

I could walk down to the Caribbean restaurant, and satisfy the insatiable cravings that I have only recently developed for spicy food. I could eat like a king (or more accurately, a queen).
Goat curry, fried plantains and beef patties.

Or I could go for a little shopping spree at Bob’s store.

As it turned out, thankfully I managed to leave Middletown and go to Boston for a few days. My boyfriend and I took the Greyhound to Boston. We unceremoniously crashed in with
his high school friend at Tufts University after finding his number in the Yellow Pages. I think he was quite happy to see us, we gave him an excuse to procrastinate. And I was a little
touched when he told us he had cleaned out his room and put a new poster on the wall when he heard we were coming. We sat on his roof drinking Amstel Light with a blanket over us,
until I got so cold that I had to go back into the room. 

We also met up with my Singaporean neighbor, Nikki, who used to live two floors below me, who is working for the Westin and now happily wants to make the shift into the corporate
world. We met in Chinatown. While I was there, I bought a pack of fresh red chilli padis which guaranteed that I need never suffer through bland food as long as my stash of chilli padis
holds out and I avoid all campus dining areas. (For the uninitiated, chilli padis are highly potent, small red chillis). 

We walked from Chinatown to the Boston Commons to Copley Square. And we looked over Boston from the top of the Prudential Building. And we sat down and watched Remington
Steele with a younger Pierce Brosnan on Nikki’s couch. And we talked. She talked about her boyfriend from Brooklyn, who she had met over the internet, and with whom she has been
going out for the last three years. And she talked about the visa she is applying for, so that she can stay in the States.

"I’m trying to stay here," she said. "I’ve been here for three years, and I’ve risen pretty quickly in the hotel. I look at my friends in Singapore, and they’re working twice as hard as I’m
working and they’re not even getting paid half as much. I don’t think Singapore’s me anymore." 

I couldn’t help but think, damn what comes after? Do I go back to Singapore? But I’d thought of this question too much anyway, so I gave up on brooding about it.

I was glad to see Nikki after such a long time. She walked us to the bus station, gave us both a hug and we were back on the bus bound for Middletown.

It was great being off campus, however short the time was. I was actually glad to be back in my Intown house after a few days. However, after a few days of being back on campus, being
the masochist I am, I went back to working for the Office of Residential Life at the front desk. I had worked for them last summer, diligently churning out mailings to the whole school. But
by spring break, I had forgotten the nightmare of stuffing letter after letter into envelopes. So I let them know I was available and went in Tuesday, eleven to one, Wednesday, ten to two,
Thursday, ten to two. The hours were not as long as my summer hours and I earned sixty dollars. At least it reminded me of all the things I know I do not want to do for the rest of my life.

The rest of the days on campus passed in a humdrum fashion. I cooked rice filled peppers because I had nothing better to do with my time. I did some productive things with my time. I
e-mailed newspaper publications in Singapore, asking if they needed anyone over the summer. And I read Motherhood "Black and White." And a reserve reading on electromagnetism in
the science library.

I’ve come to accept the fact that I live in Middletown, although I feel more like a transplanted Singaporean than a happy Middletown dweller. Living in Middletown, Connecticut, makes
me long for the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) in Singapore, for buses that run every few minutes, for taxis I can flag down in the wee hours of the morning, for the thrum of city life. I usually
do not feel the need to get off campus during the semester. However, during moments like spring break, when I am not caught up in the whirlwind of university life, when I actually have
time to sit down and contemplate a little, I find myself increasingly wanting to take that first bus out of Middletown.
 

Wee is a member of the class of 2002.