Hello dear friends that still bother to check back, it's Sunday (ok technically 315am on Monday) and I am going home in five days! Since I am lagging so badly, here's a short update.

Life here has been good and relaxed, almost too relaxed, only worrying about "real" life back home when school sends an email once in a while, and looking quite helplessly at ministry emails- it took like 20mins to download a simple publicity video, and the download hanged and failed after I waited -_- but you guys are in my prayers!

Food's been awesome (minus the salt and oil and spicy stuff), we are eating like kings, for like duper low prices.



And WAHAHA, I have been delighting myself with strawberries :D
the strawberries here are really cheap and sweet! (*tries not to think about what might have been added in them to make them so sweet)

Transport's here really cheap too, we can afford to cab everywhere comfortably, but we don't always, the busrides are interesting. It's like one buck (S$0.22) for boarding the bus and you can travel to the ends of the place. The drivers are all reckless and havoc, but it seems as though accidents don't occur frequently, they are all so steady they can move to the oncoming lane to avoid traffic and still get back in time before a crash.

The people here are really nice (when they know you), sometimes almost too nice. It seems as though foreigners are not a common sight here, so the people get quite excited to see us. Although everyone asks the same questions ("ohh Singaporeans! why are you guys here? oh what school? how old are you? Is Singapore a lot more advanced than we are...) but I do enjoy talking to almost everyone, and they think my chinese is good WAHAHAHA.

Hmm.. the people here also lead very simple lives, in the sense that they do many small weird jobs. There are many people who collect recyclable wastes, stallkeepers sitting guard at all sorts of weird stalls that I wonder how they survive- some of them sell so little things in almost no variety eg selling (bruised) lemons and pears (only).

Upon speaking to some of them from all kinds of background from humble uncles tending stalls to teachers, I realise they all have some sort of longing to see beyond this place, envy that we are billingual, and some, a sort of resignation to "fate" that they might never see beyond this province, some a hope of sorts that they will one day fulfill their "you qian dang ran yao qu kan yi kan (if I have $, i will pay SG a visit!). I will pack many of them home to visit if I can man. :/ They live like my parents' time when livelihood is well, livelihood, they work to earn living. The entire concept of aspiration and dream is not as widely talked about. I have met some people here with so much potential... sometimes I think it's a pity they don't see much beyond this grey town.

Contrary to prior perceptions, this place is really not all that outdated though. The departmental stores can be compared to our Taka easily, and their shopping places pwnd our bugis street completely. You see huge skyscraper kind of buildings under construction everywhere. I think this entire province will look so different five years later, and I would think it's interesting to come back, marvel at their advancement and to search for familiar faces in a (yet again) strange environment. I so hope they keep their nature, keep their old dilapidated shophouses, and that simple goodheartedness and tenacity for life. You know how we travel to little provinces far away from home to see nature or a different environment? Things are advancing so quickly, I don't know if such places will remain and not look like yet another city.

It amazes me greatly.. that even in this little province most Singaporeans don't know, there's all our common big (and not so big) brands- Nike, Adidas, Pringles, LAYS, Nokia, even Snickers. I see familiar products on the supermarket shelves. They travel like faster than the gospel does... :X

So this turned out to be more like a reflections post.
The weather is turning warmer, we managed to catch the transition from Winter to Spring. We can walk around in Tee and Jeans now :D By the way, my english name is Dirty. I leave rotten strawberries everywhere and drop crumbs every where I walk. I don't like to bathe either. +edit! YYYYTTTTT, im going to kill you

See you soon!