  i squandered the entire afternoon reading up on, um, asian political leaders. which is a very fun topic to read. i came across some short writeups of some asian leaders and so on: they are featured under the time 100 list. emperor hirohito, sukarno, and one written by urlLink mao zedong's english teacher . probably a 30 minute read. it's worth the time reading through the list, in particular rabindranath tagore (the first asian nobel laureate for literature!
) and hirohito. there's also one on lee kuan yew. sylvia pek, a local phd maths student studying in U of michigan: "But to the Peranakans, dressing in Malay-Chinese-Indian-British influenced fashion, living in a house roofed with intricate Chinese tiles and supported on stilts of Malay fishermen' s houses, drinking tea out of British teacups is an absolutely normal way of life. " (now you know why. it's in my genes. ) i am losing to that nerd again at the puzzles. he solved 3 subquestions, and i have done the same for 2. out of 98 questions. oh yes. king of the world. and normal lessons as usual tomorrow. what the heck! 
