It’s been 3 weeks since I’ve left Beijing and 1 week since I’ve returned from Hong Kong. Life is slowly returning to normal, and the realities are sinking in.
1. NS is freakin coming anytime. Better start preparing.
2. I still haven’t got my driving license after N years. Time to hit the accelerators!
3. I’ve yet to meet up with friends whom I have not seen for the past half year. But they seem busy with themselves too, so…
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People ask what I liked/hated/missed about China, so here’s my conclusion to it.
It was a great experience.
I liked, mostly, the freedom. The freedom to go anywhere I wanted to, to meet anyone I wished to, to eat whatever I hungered for.
I liked living in a real big city. Experiencing the hustle and bustle, the people from all woks of life, the frenzied rush on the subways, the neon lights, the POLLUTION. While it may not sound like the most appealing place, there is something about this chaos that is quite mesmerizing.
Whenever I made contact with locals like the taxi drivers, they were happy to engage in a conversation.
The conversation would ultimately come to them asking where I was from. And 90% of the time they would reply Hong Kong and Taiwan when I asked them to guess. There was also one occasion when someone asked me about Korea. NONE said S’pore.
“在新加坡吐痰会鞭刑”and“你们是不是很干净”were the eventual topics they never fail to bring up. And I would always think.. it is quite sad people only know us for caning and fines.
Ok, back to topic.
Other memorable stuff. Ah yes, eating ice cream that never melts, having my S$4 Ajisen ramen after work, laughing at corny ads(优乐美奶茶) repeating over on buses, taking photos in snow, seeing Mingjun on TV, etc etc.
Of course, I hated the indiscriminate spitting and lack of social graces. And yes, the overly persistent sales people were really irritating. The negative list could go on and on, but I rather choose to overlook them now.
Finally, I’m not going to be like others and say this experience has changed me or turned my life around or whatever. Because it has not. I have simply chose to spend my last semester doing something different, hence benefitting in another way. And it has been a nice detour from the old routines back in S’pore.
NOW back to points 1, 2 and 3 above!
