sechzehn-16

23/3/2011

I decided to study downstairs. Talk about conditioning. For some reason, I thought concentrating on the APPG would block out the thoughts about the cold that were coming to my head. 

I didn’t expect it to work. It did. As I was scribbling the notes, I wasn’t expecting anyone to come. No one in their right mind wants to go downstairs in 0-4 degree Celsius weather to study in the half darkness. I was wrong. Some Chinese guy went down to read what looked like a rather thick book with small font. Never did I think that anybody had the same crazy thoughts as me. The ideas inside my head are not of the regular things. 

This must be the common experience shared by students studying in cold countries. It’s too cold to do anything else, except to sit down and study. Explains why us Singaporean students seem so slack at home, but do well overseas. At home, it’s too comfortable and we tend to be more relaxed and slack more, given that we are familiar with our surroundings and tend to be at ease. However, when put into a new environment, the “flight or fight” mindset takes charge and we end up fighting against the environment and that’s why we tend to do better. Although we may seem to be studying or working in a new place, but the truth is we’re fighting. We’re fighting for our lives, we’re finding ways to adapt and gain acceptance of the new community, and that’s what makes these foreign students so competitive in their studies, why these overseas employees are so hardworking, and why the foreign bosses are toughest. It’s not that we’re cold, aloof or anything like that, it’s just that we have trouble adapting to this environment for now, but we will be alright. 

I shall try to be a better friend to the foreign students in school from now onwards, having understood and experienced being in their position. If this is the pathway to success in the future, so be it. To experience this just to get an overseas university degree, no I don’t mind. I’ll gladly do it. Savor the fight, and the road to the end seems shorter than it was.

funfzehn-15

22/3/2010

Theory test 1 and tour of the ECO city

Theory test 1 today, I came to class armed with nothing. Borrowed a pen and did my test. I hope the results come out well and I don’t fail the test or anything like that. I hope everybody did well, so there is no failure rate in the group.

Moving on

Had an ecocity tour today. The guide who came with us seemed to know much about Singapore, and he was proud of it too! I think Singapore left a very good impression with the locals, and when the shopkeepers and man on the street we interact with learn that we’re from Singapore, they seem even friendlier to us and sometimes offer us discounts. Talk about first impression, we sure do leave a good one.

Even on the bus, when the guide learnt that we never had a proper city tour, he asked the driver to slow down when the highway goes past parts of the city, like the sports stadiums and skyscrapers, allowing us to take photos even on the road. The best part was that the other vehicles on the road didn’t seem to mind and nobody honked at us for blocking their lane. They just simply drove round the bus. In Singapore, if you did that, the driver behind would probably curse and swear. 

That’s a totally different reaction to the same situation. In china, there is a strong idea of community and family, much emphasis is placed on it. In Singapore, such a culture is not so strong, and there is a “me” thing going on, especially in my peers. I think after I return from this trip, my thinking and perception might have changed completely. There is so much in their thinking that we can learn to adapt into ours. I also learn to live less indulgingly, buying what I only need and learning to use things slowly, for the store to buy things isn’t located exactly downstairs, but a walk away. Neither do I have the luxury to tap into the housekeeping fund, nor can I borrow from somebody. 

When the bus pulled outside the welcome centre at the eco city, we saw the flag on top of a flag pole; it felt exceptionally heartwarming to feel that Singaporeans overseas are being remembered. And the flag may not seem significant to them, but it is of great importance to us.

vierzehn-14

21/3/2011

Monday-.- one more day before the common test. We were assigned “weekend homework” of 2 past year’s papers. Sad to say I was in the middle of my 2^nd one. *sighs*

Attended a Chinese philosophy class today. For some reason it felt as though whatever the lecturer spoke about the different forms of thinking sounded like the ideals I learnt as a child. He actually went to the trouble of looking for video clips for us to watch. It spoke a lot about him, how much he took his job seriously and how much he enjoyed it. If it was me, I would just play the videos in class and not do any explanation. I mean, watching a video engages the eyes and ears, and it’s a faster way of getting things inside your head. No, but he still did it anyway, and he was willing to explain it again in case we got stuck somewhere.

Finally found a tailor shop in the school today. When I brought my coat in (dropping buttons), the boss initially mistook me for a local Chinese. She even hazarded a guess that I was from the Fujian province. She was surprised when I told her I was from Singapore, and I do have ancestors in the area. She then told me I didn’t resemble one just by judging the way I conversed with her in mandarin, and sharing with her my aspirations for the future. The shopkeeper was a retired seamstress, and she opened the shop in the school compound in the afternoon, saying that business is slow now, given that people would rather buy new clothes then takes them to the tailors for a repair. I guess china’s going through a phrase of pushing out the old traditions and including new ideas into their culture, 

Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but sometimes I can’t bear to throw my clothes away. The ones I don’t really like come out looking brand new; the ones that I keep wearing look old. And then I can’t bear to throw the ones I like, and the ones that I don’t I can’t toss them out. Argh.  

derizehn-13

20/3/2011

I am a very underground person. Only I will have such an idea in my head.

To go to the shopping district at 9 am in the morning. i thought all the shops would be closed. Boy, I was wrong. In fact, most of them already were open, catching the Sunday morning crowd. I was kinda expecting a 9am orchard road scene, not so many cars; many shops still have their shutters down, less people on the streets. 

But no. people are already starting their day in china, even on a weekend. I think I’ll be eating breakfast at 9 am on a Sunday morning. It certainly shows the difference in the types of lives we lead. The Chinese take each day to be their last and live it to the fullest, while we sometimes happily whirl away few hours. Maybe if I applied their attitude into my life, everything will change.

So after doing something underground like going to the shopping district at 9 am in the morning to pick up a coat, the next underground thing was to go to school to have lessons. On a Sunday afternoon, and isn’t the school deserted on a Sunday? My impression of Sunday afternoon was to sit in my grandparent’s house to watch cable until my head hurts (literally). Spending Sunday afternoon in school was certainly different from all my Sunday afternoons (visiting, sleeping, tuition, work, homework, etc.)

My buddy was in school too. There are people in school on a Sunday, just that classrooms are not open, so everybody’s sitting outside doing homework/catching up with friends/playing basketball/snapping photos. 

Students staying in the school dormitories are mainly from other provinces or other countries. My buddy pointed out that there are foreign students on campus, but a small number stay in the school dormitories, and many prefer to rent their own outside the school for slightly higher price. Many of them are actually taking the arts degree program than the languages one. 

Pity I can’t find other Singaporean students other than us. The school community seems used to the presence of foreign students (people don’t stare at us for being different, they stare at us for being loud) but I think being able to meet one would greatly help in this. It’s hard to talk to strangers without anything in common. 

I wanted to find a tailor for mend my coat for its buttons, and she brought me to the one in the dormitories. He couldn’t mend the coat for me (as he was busy with 3 others), but he lent us some thread and a needle. And we ended up stitching buttons after dinner in the school canteen（锅盖饭 again）, when we returned it he didn’t charge us for using the thread, but I left my other coat (brown) with him anyway so I felt less guilty about using his thread and needle (it needed a wash and iron anyway.), and I’m looking forward to a clean coat during the trip to Beijing (this one has deep pockets, although it’s thin. Wearing more layers = bringing less). Hopefully it’ll be done soon.  

zwolf-12

19/3/2011

Saturday. 洋货市场visit and karaoke session.

After today, I can conclude 2 things. 1) you see more things on a public transport system. 2) I am not going back to 洋货市场

We decided to venture out of the city further, so the first stop was the yang huo shi chang. It sounds pretty close by to me. After all of us got up on the 643 with some of our china buddies, it then dawned to me how far away this market actually was. I’m guessing 50

On the way, the bus passed by the 5 streets area, and I had a taste of 5 streets scenery. I was sorely tempted to get off the bus, carrying nothing but a camera. Now I understood why my father insisted I bring one of his “black beauties” with me on this trip. I argued that if they were to be lost or damaged, there was no way I could pay him back. He compliments my skill with using a basic camera. I beg to differ. 

After a ridiculously long bus ride, we then moved on to a train ride. The train station has barriers on the platform, just like Singapore’s to prevent people from falling over to the tracks. As the train whizzed through the stations, I noticed that there were considerably lesser people living near the train station, unlike Singapore, where the closer to the MRT is the best. I think it’s the lifestyle of owning their own car that they got used to. Even on the train, there weren’t much people around. Most interestingly, the train passed by industrial towns and even a nuclear power plant. I remembered about the Japanese nuclear crisis and prayed that the train could pass through quickly. 

I thought passing through the nuclear power station was bad enough. Until we got off at the last stop, I had no idea how mild that place was. You see, 洋货市场is a really sinister place. We had been forewarned not to buy anything from there, as they were most likely rip offs. That wasn’t too bad. It was the sight of fishing poles, blades, baseball bats, lasers, power tools and electronic taser guns made me cross out that place from that list. It seem like the place to buy murder weapons, and really easily too, for the area where the shops were was really big, and it was common to find other shops selling the same thing. I remembered walking past a shop selling ammunition bullets.  Bullets, according to the size of your gun barrel, type of guns, anything. They might as well sell guns to top it all. 

We walked around for 1 hour plus, narrowly dodging all the murder weapons on display, before deciding to head back (another 2 hour journey awaits). 

Ktv was in the evening. I asked my buddy to come along, and we ended up not being inside the room, but sitting inside a neighboring one, listening to the English songs I helped her to download to improve her English, and hearing the others sing one by one. The other china buddies who went, they seem to enjoy themselves more than me. I think karaoke’s part of their culture, unlike me; I don’t really go to sing.

Eeks. 

And then we ended up eating dinner (well, she was drinking a soda), and I ordered 锅盖饭. I strangely report that I managed to finish it (amazingly), and my food problem is solved for now. Probably the锅盖饭’s the closest thing to what I eat at home, and it’s the only dish I know which is steamed and has minimal seasoning as well (yay porridge!). oh, how I miss my mother’s cookingT_T

elf-11

18/3/2011

Friday! Usually Friday’s the day where everything seems to slow down, until by midday you were wishing that it’s already Saturday afternoon, so you can sleep your time away. 

However, when you’re here, everyday feels like the same.

Cold。 APPG in the morning.  I’m massively doing nothing but that. It’s a fair deal all right; I’m trading my holiday for free time in class. I’m getting used to it, maybe if I could deposit all my free time in a bank of some sorts, 

I’ll be rich then. How nice.

Went to a teahouse for IS class today. People actually go to teahouses to drink tea. And I thought pulling out the tea set and tea leaves was good enough. No, you have to follow numerous steps and procedures to do that. Then the way I make at home must be the version with 80% off.  Just put the leaves inside and let them cook before pouring the water out. But I certainly learnt a lot about the tea culture here. They prize the flavor and heat of the brew, unlike me, where I’m just drinking cause there’s too much in my house. 

I shall make it a point to drink tea more often. 

On the way back, we met some fellow Singaporean students from SP. This probably shows 2 things, 1) there are many overseas Singaporean students; 2) there are many Singaporeans in Tianjin. I think it’s both.

The reactions to foreigners here is different from other places in china I visited. After you reply that you’re from (insert any other place except china here), usual response I get is a stare and a normal question of getting used to the weather, and then full stop. But the people here are genuinely interested about your life and story.

I believe they adapted to be more receptive towards foreigners. After all, 8 countries once held their strongholds in the same city. With so many foreigners living in their city, the locals have probably have learnt to accept them as an integral part of society, which was unheard of in china during that period of time, having closed its doors to the rest of the world, finding a city which welcomed them was like stumbling water in the desert. Gold. I think I'm starting to get used to life here. Hey, probably that could be one of the reasons too!

There is much to learn about them.