oh people i shipped three boxes of books to myself by speedpost last week, and sent them at the same time from the same post office. two of them arrived just fine and on the same day, although i was a little puzzled that there were only two, not three, and asked the mail room girl to double-check. and i've been going down to the mail room to check everyday since and finally i think to myself that something must be wrong and ask my parents to send me the tracking number and when i tried to track it the package status shows up as: held by us customs, since sept 7th. what is going on? there were only books and also two winter coats it's not like one was smuggling pearl necklaces. and all my important books were in there, dozens of latin texts and my miltons and shakespeares and spenser and a bunch of important theory books some of which were gifts and meant a great deal to me! why would anyone confiscate books i mean if there was any problem then what about the other boxes that were let through.

do you know when harriet's chessmen were smashed? i feel like that - i cried for an hour, first out of self-pity and loss and then anger and impotence and a powerful sense of failing to defend one's personal possession. "my chessmen... i could kill her!" harriet said. and that's right: what started out: my books!, has become my! books!

what can i do? we have international student orientation today perhaps i can get hold of one of the international office advisors and ask for suggestions or help or perhaps they'll know what to do. there must be a few law students from singapore who are up at the law school for their llm this year or something who would know how to read documents and draft. but no. no, i think i've gone back to "my books!" oh bloody hell.