So… it’s finally time to return to SG after spending 124 days over here in Chengdu.

How do I feel after living in a foreign country for 4 months? First and foremost, I feel excited that I finally get to return to my homeland Singapore. Main reason would be that I miss my family and friends a lot. I miss living in Singapore. In fact, after being here for 4 months, I kinda forgot how I used to live my life in SG. Quite sad, but yeah.

I also finally understood what Mr Lee, my sec school band teacher-in-charge told me that working for or living in a foreign country won’t be as good as working in your own country itself. Discrimination is quite common here though there are nice people who treats you better after knowing that you are from Singapore. Being foreigners, many locals here like to point their fingers at us whenever they get the chance to. Like at that trip to Jiu Zhai Gou, at this stop where we were allowed to shop for stuff. There were this whole group of Chinese who were very late and I overheard the other group of tourists in the bus saying “It’s the Singaporeans” when we were already on the bus. And over here at these apartments, people have said that “the Singaporean students climbed walls to other people’s rooftop to play” when we didn’t.

It is apparent that as Singaporeans, we are not really Chinese Chinese. This is one important thing I’d learnt. Of course, I’m not saying that everyone treats us this way, but just some of them. I think this is how many Chinese over here in Singapore feels too. :-/

Not only that, I learnt a valuable lesson of not getting controlled by the temper others want you to have. Else you might lose yourself.

Living with 12 other people also taught me some life lessons. Plus some experiences that I would never have gained if I’d never came. It’s very similar to reality TV in a way that many drama stuff had happened.

One day, all of these will soon be a mere memory. I don’t know what will be remembered from this. Probably just the simple fact that we’d once lived in Chengdu for 4 months with 12 other people. Only time will tell.

Looking at my packed luggage, I can’t believe that 4 months of my things are packed inside it. Just a mere 20kg of things…

And the memories left behind, I wished it can be kept inside somewhere.

Like a pensive perhaps. =)

Will definitely miss this place, and the people.

Must learn to let go. 🙂

P/S: Oh yea, it isn’t really such a big deal living overseas with your friends. It has been an interesting experience. I wouldn’t mind doing it again, provided I get to choose the people to live with. haha. =X 😛

Although I’m an intern, sometimes when the receptionist a.k.a. executive assistant is away I’d have to help man the reception. I remember the first time when the receptionist went to ask Hwa Swee which girl was free to help her. There were only the 6 of us then, and it was only Jia Hui or me. I was free then so I helped. I didn’t expect to help out so many times for the past 3 months over here.

Sitting out here is quite stressful and lonely, because there’s no one around, and it is important to uphold the company’s image and all since most visitors who come up here would meet me first. Also, I’m to pick up phone calls and direct them to the respective people in the company.

Honestly, this reminds me a lot of my short working stint at my aunt’s travel agency where I’m to pick up phone calls and pass the calls to my colleagues when they are too busy to pick up the phone. :S And for those who do not know, I don’t really enjoy speaking on the phone as I have no idea who I’m talking to, and I definitely prefer face-to-face conversations or MSN (I process words better when I read).

Well, after helping out here for so many times, I can say I am used to this job. However, there are still some things that I still do not enjoy while sitting out at the reception area. Here are the reasons:

• It is stuffy – for some reason, even though the air conditioner is turned down to 21 degrees celsius (considered quite low over here), the place still feels warm, suffocating and stuffy for me. And there’s some rule about not allowing the companies around here to turn the airconditioner to below 26 degrees C so it’s already off the limit.
• Language barrier – To be honest, after staying here for 115 days already, sometimes I don’t understand what the locals are saying, especially if they speak in their dialect. I can catch a few words here and there but not all of it. And my mandarin vocabulary isn’t that wide either so sometimes I have no idea how to say certain words in mandarin; whether it’s through the phone or face-to-face with someone
• I don’t know what’s going on – I really look up to the executive assistant here. To be able to pick up calls, handle visitors and all is not easy. You must know whether the employee you are supposed to direct your calls to is in office or not (sometimes they might be on leave or may have went to run some errands), you are supposed to know who is in what department (people might call asking for the person in charged of this and that), you are supposed to handle people who come up here to advertise their products to you, and so on.
• I don’t like picking up phone calls – self-explanatory. Full stop.
• You have to rush to the washroom – similar to Bell’s Theorem, whenever you want to use the washroom, a phone will ring. Or the phone will ring when you are at the pantry or elsewhere. :S Because of this, I always have to rush to the washroom, just-in-case someone calls.

Of course, there are good points to sitting out here as well. You get to meet interesting people who come up here to advertise their stuff, or get you to sign packages. As a foreigner here, after looking at me for about 30 seconds, they would usually ask if I’m local. After I tell them that I’m from Singapore, they would comment that my Mandarin is quite good and that they are honoured to meet someone from Singapore. 🙂

Weather around here’s quite cool recently. Kind of weird how it was horribly warm last week and this week it’s cooler than Singapore. :-/

Missing my Samsung YP-T9B a lot recently. Especially when I see the others playing their PSP to pass time, all I can do is watch them play or just stone. >.< So many things I can do with my mp3! And it’s lying there at home in Singapore. 🙁

On the brighter side of the note, I bought some DVDs yesterday – Lost Season 3 and Il Mare. Il Mare is the original Korean version for The Lake House. 😀 Super happy. And all these only cost me RMB$102 (~SGD$20.40). Recently quite into watching serials. Almost finishing Nodame Cantabile Live Action (one more episode left). :DQuite inspired to be a good musician after watching Nodame. Plus, I’d just finished reading Hui Yi‘s blog on how they’d completed the Grade 5 book and are deciding if they should go for the exams.

Just reminds me of the things I’ve got to do when I go back. Already planning on it:

– Exercise to lose weight: Gained weight eating heavy food over here liao 🙁
– HS Alumni Band Website to be completed
– Rudiments exercise
– Music theory
– SNCO rehearsals

Can’t really think of other stuff right now. But well, there’s still 38 days till I return.
I think I’m getting obsessed with the number of days left to go back to Singapore :S Oh well.

Lots of stuff happening around here actually. 🙁
This weekend, will be visiting some Chengdu’s places of interest with a tour group.

It is my 83rd day here in Chengdu, 42 days left before I return to Singapore. How do I feel? Quite excited actually to be able to see my home again. To see my family and friends. 🙂 There are tasks waiting for me to complete; goals waiting for me to be reached.

When I left Singapore 83 days ago, I left a lot of stuff behind, whether it’s tasks or my daily routine, stuff that I once thought I couldn’t live without. But hey, now that I am here on the 2nd of July, I realised that all these can be changed if you’re flexible about life. At least I left Singapore because I choose to. 🙂

In the cab this morning, I suddenly realised that Chengdu actually isn’t that bad afterall, if you have the money and a proper place to live in over here. Of course, not for long but probably for a holiday or something. There are lots of eateries, places to shop and tourist attractions. The sad thing about this attachment is that we don’t have much time to explore the places around here, and that we really are not too familiar with this place.

Bought Maksim’s Variations Part I & II Special Edition yesterday. The piano score for Olympic Dream was included inside. Just looking at the piano score made me excited and yet sad, coz I miss playing music. And the scary thing was the realisation that my sight reading skills have gone back to the lowest level. 🙁

Also played badminton yesterday. Haven’t played in 2 weeks and it was quite tiring for me, but nevertheless, fun to run around and sweat. 🙂

Edited (4.54pm): Bohemian Rhapsody in Maksim’s album rocks!! 😛