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Monday, November 14, 2005

Here I am, in Singapore at last.


The last few hours on the plane were spent in a daze, reality did not exist on the magical portal with wings that was transporting me from my old life to this new one. In between getting kicked in the foot and waking up to adjusting my position for slumber, I tried to pretend that I'm not heading alone into a world of the unknown.


For weeks I've been excited about coming to Singapore, yet the last few days anxiety built up. To be totally honest, that last few hours I sat on the plane, fatigue was mixed with dehydration from crying when saying goodbye and fear. I fantasized about getting off the plane and arriving at Melbourne again, I even wondered at one stage: why the hell am I here? What the hell was I thinking? God I missed my family, and Neil.The goodbye scene at the airport was surreal like that in a movie. Ok so tears were involved. A guy at the customs looked at my teary eyes and pointed to the huge yellow ducky I had in carrying in my arms. "What's its name?" He asked with humor, to which I replied, "Peckle" in my 8 year old voice. I did feel like an 8 year old then, I felt so lost.


Talk about culture shock on my first day. I knew Singaporeans had an accent, I didn't know it was this hard to understand what they were saying! Perhaps due to the accent, I speak mandarin 70% of the time now because it's easier to communicate this way. Another shock was how fast customer service was here. Ques were long and workers were under stress to work fast. Impatience like this was seldom seen in Australia, they just hurried me along and said "next!" before I begin with my second enquiry!


Aside from that, I suppose I'm getting used to it.

xiao ying @ 1:03 AM.

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