of sweets and adventure

CONVERSATION

Post a Comment

My life has been privileged, I will not deny that. At the PSLE, I managed to get a decent score and had been admitted into a RVHS, a secondary school which placed emphasis on the honing of one's Chinese language skills. This would be a launchpad for me later on when I moved to Taiwan temporarily for two years, because my dad was assigned there for work. In the earlier part of my Secondary 4 year, I was given a choice at the time: to move and stay together with my family, or to remain in Singapore alone to continue my IP studies and await my family's return. At that time, I was an angsty teenager and was constantly bothered by school drama. I was also not doing as well as I started out in Secondary 1. And so, reasoning that I would not be able to 'mentally' survive being without my family members, I chose to escape briefly from the stifling education system in Singapore and to instead explore the world out there. I was very prepared to be retained for one or two years to compensate for my lack of academic progress, if there was any.

Living in Taiwan was fun mostly due to the new experiences. There was new culture, new people, new friends, new food, new places to visit, new school new teachers, new weather phenomenon and so on. Although it was intimidating at first to join a school where I didn't know anyone, my classmates and teachers were very friendly and welcoming. By the end of my stay, I had already formed genuine and precious friendships with both my schoolmates and the teachers. It helped that the school was extremely small and tight-knit -- there was only one class per grade.

Fast forward three and a half years later, I found myself on a plane to Tokyo for my single semester exchange programme. It was another juncture to overcome because the semester coincided with the ideal time to be doing one's summer internship. I chose exchange over internship because I was probably only going to get this one shot at living in Japan as a student (not sure if I'll be doing postgrad studies). I would have more barriers to overcome if I am going to try as a working adult. Student concessions ftw! Anyway, it got a little weepy at the moment of leaving my family and flying to another country on my own for a few months (grad trip to Thailand didn't count because it was only a few days). Thankfully, I wasn't alone really. I embarked on my amazing journey with the person I trust the most outside of close family and that helped to ease my transition so much.

Fast forward again to the present, having returned from my exchange, I am feeling kind of homesick for my little dormitory room back in Nakahara-ku, Kawasaki-shi, Kanagawa-ken. I miss my rice cooker, my electric kettle, and my personal humidifier which tide me through the dry winter months. I miss being able to go out and find cheap Japanese products be it food, cosmetics, clothes (sometimes) and more. I miss taking the express trains to school and watching Tamagawa go by outside the windows. I miss my friends at Motosumiyoshi Residence so bad. They helped me learn how to cook, fed me insight into the lives of people from where they came from, and made all our outings together that much more meaningful.

From this exchange, I've traveled a lot, but not without the expense of time, money, and careful planning. Now I know how to cook quite a few dishes, how to keep a house, speak conversational Japanese albeit not as skilfully as you think, and deal with cultural gaps. There are many thoughts swimming around in my head now but translating them into actual, audible sentences on a computer screen is too slow and too demanding. I think that's enough for this long post. Thanks for reading if you have been. Maybe I'll expand more in future.