I'm finally in South East Asia, after 24 hours of travel with Air China and a good dose of interaction with Chinese people. After spending about 15 hours on the plane to Beijing, I silently thanked the unfriendly San Francisco airport lady that had assigned me corridor seat instead of the window seat I initially wanted. I was able to take toilet breaks and walk around as much as I wanted. Well, except when another person was walking too, even if the corridors are wide enough for two people to walk past each other without touching. I swear it seemed everyone on the plane was brushing up against me, especially the flight attendants. Besides moving very brusquely, they were also screaming their heads off in Chinese, running around and signaling each other, which made me feel I was in a chicken corral. So much activity allowed me to assume the topic of the conversations they were having from one side of the plane to the other. "HAVE YOU SERVED PASSENGER IN 27D?? NO?? GO GET THE DIET COKE!! I TOLD YOU LIKE TEN MINUTES AGO!! OMG THERE'S TURBULENCE, FASTEN YOUR SEATBELT!!"
Beijing was freezing; it was even snowing outside. At the duty free and other airport stores they barely spoke English. And I discovered Facebook and Twitter are banned in China, after many unsuccessful connection attempts. On the flight to Singapore, the Chinese man next to me kept burping quite noisily without bothering to conceal it, and loudly collected his phlegm before spitting it into those plane paper bags. A friend told me she once saw someone using the plane blankets for that. So my story is not as disgusting.
I got to Singapore and was pleasantly surprised by how easy it is to leave the airport. You don't even have to go through customs if you don't have anything to declare. You get a passport stamp and you're good to go. For a country with death penalty for drug possession, this is quite lax. I have also discovered there are many rules, but there seems to be more of a tendency to turn a blind eye than to enforce the rules. An exception to my observation is a guy I know here who had to pay 300 dollars for pizza possession in one of the music rooms.
On my cab drive to Oscar's parents house, I was amazed by how much green there is in this city. Singapore's urban forest is very impressive; the streets are lined with trees covered by mosses, ferns and lichens, and the scenery is very beautiful and very tropical. Not at all the cement jungle I was expecting, or the collection of modern high rise buildings (this is only in certain parts of the city). The tembusu is an evergreen tree native to SE Asia, and it's everywhere, including the five-dollar bill. The air is hot and very moist, with really warm rain. One interesting thing is the rain-friendly architecture in the city and on campus: you could potentially get from one place to the other without getting wet because everything is connected and your head will always be covered. They make covered bridges to cross the street, and covered passageways to get from one building to the other. Very impressive. Vancouver, take note.
Communicating with cab drivers, and with adult Singaporean in general, can be quite challenging. Usually the conversation starts off with spoken English and ends with physical motions to describe what you mean. It's like playing charades, except you do it all day and it's not funny. That particular ride was fun, though, as the man was chatty and tried to offer some suggestions on what NOT to do in Singapore (e.g. go to where the prostitutes hang out. Why he thought that would be something on my to-do list is unknown).
Oscar's parents were great: they showed me around and we went out for lunch and dinner to very good restaurants. I also got the MRT (Mass Rapid Transit) 101 crash course to learn how the subway and bus system works here. After a day with them, I headed to NUS. The Prince George Park Residence where I am staying looks like a combination between a tacky one-star Acapulco beach resort and a high-security prison, with a dash of dilapidated Mexican vecindad. I feel at the beach because of the palms and the flip-flop culture, as well as the hot and humid weather. To get to my room, there are three levels of gates, bars and locks I have to go through. When I opened my room, the smell slapped me in the face. Now I love my room, but at first it was the dingiest thing ever. It was a matter of moving the furniture around, opening the windows for fresh air, and getting bed sheets and covers.
Omitting the overly-complicated administrative side of the University (I won't get into this, but the take-home point is that it's more complicated to register for a course than you could ever imagine), the lecture system is quite similar to UBC's. The main difference I have noticed in lectures is that the students don't ask questions or comment, they just take notes and the lecturer speaks the whole time. The participation is expected during tutorials. But even there the students are reluctant to talk and they are very shy. In the one tutorial I have had, we had to introduce ourselves and then present a plant we were holding. The TA gave an example "Hello, my name is ----. I come from ----. I study ----- and my favourite animal is ----". The first student only said his name and mumbled his hometown, and by the end of the round the last student rushed into quickly presenting the plant, avoiding the personal introduction and eye-contact in its entirety. And when it comes to giving a personal opinion or view point, it's even worse.
Something interesting is the Singaporean sense of humour. It's very simple, very superficial, some might call it stupid. Example from Friday: I have this lecturer who was telling us how to dress for a field trip, and said we shouldn't wear high heels. We should wear CLOSED (he lifts up a right foo very high up) SHOES! (lifts the other foot up in the air). Everyone cracks up. Like it's the funniest thing ever. The girl next to me is almost crying with laughter. I am in shock.
Being witty and creative is something Singaporeans are not, but they are very friendly. I have met a few in my lectures and on my floor and I've had a great time getting to know them. A great occasion to bond is over food. Food here is very good, and it's EVERYWHERE. People love to eat and I am trying out new things I had never seen before. Usually canteens have many food outlets, and in the center there is the desserts and drinks section, always very colourful and eye-catching. Overall the food is cheap, but on campus it is the cheapest. The other day I paid around one CAD for a plate of rice, fried tofu, green beans and potatoes.
Besides eating, the national pastime seems to be shopping. Malls and stores are the tapestry of this city state and almost every subway has an associated underground mall. Yesterday I went to a mall in Marina Bay that had a river running through it, with boats and a waterfall. Malls also have hotels and pools in them, and I hear at Christmas time people line up to enter the Prada stores and the like. The amount of shops is impressive, but it's even more so considering they are always packed.
No comments:
Post a Comment