The Summer of My (Dis)content

What now after the World Cup? After nursing the almost expected disappointment of England crashing out early in the tourney? After witnessing Zidane's spectacular headbutt to that idiotico Materazzi's chest? Life after World Cup seems not to hold much meaning anymore--I mean this figuratively, and it's not like I'm planning to commit suicide or anything!--until one is reminded that there are always the English Premiere League, Champions League, Serie A (sans Juventus, Fiorentina and Lazio), Bundesliga, and not to mention, the 2008 European Championship (World Cup's little brother) in Austria/Switzerland. The semifinals of the World Cup had given us the preview of what teams to watch in the upcoming Euro 2008: Italy, France, Germany, and Portugal, though my unrepentant self will always bet the farm on the perennial underachiever, England.

Anyway, finally, no more excuses to slack off, right? Right! Summer is such a screwy, topsy-turvy season that foils any attempt one makes to restore order and discipline in one's life. It's hard to function normally in an environment of almost unrelenting daylight when the day breaks at 5am and sets at 9pm. To people who complain that I've not been returning their phone calls and emails, updating my blog or in brother's case for that matter, contributing a piece to his blog, here's my schedule in an average weekday: Wake up around 8-9am, go to work until 5-6pm, play volleyball and/or soccer until 9pm, and by the time I finish my shower and dinner, it's almost midnight. Then it's time to catch up on the news that I miss earlier in the day due to work, which takes about an hour or two. As the clock strikes two, I start to curl up with a book until I fall asleep, which is usually around 3am or so. To say that time flies is such an understatement. What about the weekends, you'd say? See, I do have some free time on Saturdays and Sundays, only if they are not filled with BBQ outings, dinner parties, movie nights, volleyball, soccer, and riding the trails at night with the guys (my new favorite activity) among others.

To top it off, I will have to present a paper in an academic conference on SEA Asia in less than two weeks and revise my MA paper at the same time--I'm using the same paper for both. One good thing is I have to tweak the paper's theoretical framework to make it sounder and clearer and the conference will provide plenty of opportunity for constructive criticisms and refreshing ideas. On the other hand, for the conference, I'll have to shorten the paper to more manageable 10-12 pages from its original 35 pages, so as not to burden the panel discussant, who will have to read my paper, along with two others, a few days beforehand; and I will later have to lengthen the paper to about 50 pages or so to get it up-to-snuff for MA degree submission--and I promise my advisor, Dr. Paul Hutchcroft, that I'll work on the paper through the summer and get it done by sometime in October to have ample time for oral defense. Last Saturday I finally checked out from the library several books that Paul had recommended me to read to further refine my paper's theoretical framework, but I still haven't gotten around to crack open any of them yet. What can I say, it's the same ol' summer malaise.

Anyway, the topic of my paper is "Greening of Indonesia: Islamic Revivalism in the Orde Baru Era," in case if anybody's interested in discussing more about this issue. Doesn't have to be period-specific, say, like during the last decade of the Suharto's Orde Baru rule, but can be at any time, any place, and I especially love to make a comparative study between Malaysia and Indonesia in their respective experiences with Islamic revivalism in the past thirty years or so. I'd also love to explore the connection between SE Asian Muslims who went to study abroad, absorb the Modernist Islamic ideas, and later transform and imbue them into a workable socio-political agenda within the SE Asian context.

Oh, another thing on my to-do plate: Start on the Fulbright English Teaching Assistantship (ETA) Program application. I plan to take a year off from school August next year as soon as my assistantship with the UW's Center for SE Asian Studies ends, and teach English in Indonesia or Thailand--I haven't fully decided yet, though I'm leaning towards Indonesia since it's where my academic focus is at. The deadline is sometime in September, and there are shitload of paperwork to prepare and submit for the application. But the thought of spending ten months teaching English in Bali or Lombok never fails to motivate me. Ahhh, the paradise!