Just Got Here
I have just returned home from a long day out. This is easily proven from the fact that I left the house at 9:20 this morning and, as just mentioned, just got back. I have also walked more in this one day than I usually do in a week. It is somewhat surprising that I should have so quickly gotten used to calling the dim little flat that I now inhabit with my family ‘home’, but then the old bromide—are there any new bromides?—says that home is where the heart is, and what better place is there for the heart to be than where one’s family is also?
I have met Canal and family (Father: Leaf, mother: Trace, brother: Ice, sister: Broccoli, kid sister: Mercedes, kid brother: Jo, last brother: Ben), as well as several other gweilo families, including a Chinese American one, which is the first one I have met so far (outside my own family) that speaks both good English and Chinese. Unfortunately, he is a rugby enthusiast, which I am not. In fact it seems that a large part of the local English-speaking population is addicted to Stupidly Puerile, Odorously Rotten Things like Sports (SPORTS). A pity; I had thought I might find intelligence lurking about somewhere.
The two flights (I took a transit via Brunei) were uneventful except for a few incidents. First, I met Kevin on his way to KL in a KFC restaurant during lunch. Second, the flight to Brunei from KK was delayed four hours. Third, the plane’s entertainment system shut down completely on the way to the Big S, relegating all passengers to 3 ¾ hours of gloomy monotony. Fourth, the view from the plane en route to Brunei was interesting because the top of the…troposphere, I think it’s called…formed a mirrored surface and reflected the clouds, which being in their customary weird shapes, gave the impression that we were looking at mists reflected off water.
I am now officially very cold. In the last twelve hours, I have gone from a 30 Celsius clime to a 5 Celsius one: a 25-degree drop. My customary T-shirt and shorts have been swapped for long johns, a T-shirt, jeans, and a sweater when indoors; going outdoors requires me to put on a parka and windbreaker as well. (I think they call it that because it smells like someone just broke wind on it when it’s new.)
I sat through 4 hours of church services today. It wasn’t too bad, though, since the children’s section put on a Christmas performance. Technically, it’s actually Advent, since Christmas is still about 20 days away, but so what?
The best thing so far about the place is that most of the bills are footed by my dad’s company. The worst things are that there’s no keyboard here so I can’t practice unless I visit Canal who has a mini upright, there’s no computer but my dad’s so I can’t chat much, and I can’t access a blog because they’ve been banned by the Chinese servers! I can access the charitable classmate’s blog, but not my own; apparently this ban extends only to the public blog services like tabulas.com or blogger.com. Anyway, the upshot of this is that I am virtually cut off from all my former contacts.
Not, of course, that my current contacts are perfect little beasts. Canal and family are somewhat interesting characters, and they can take quite a lot of physical abuse (Ben in particular never seems to get tired of getting beaten up), but their accents are beyond incomprehensible. I can understand their English only with difficulty, let alone the mangled and distorted Chinese they speak! Oh well, you can’t win them all.
For now, I’m almost contented. No studying for me in the near future, a mega bookstore within one hour’s walking distance, people to chat to (and snob or insult if necessary), and massive portions of food. Because raw material here is cheaper than dirt, a RMB 5 bowl of noodles here is twice as large as any in KK; and probably is better cooked, too. I only wish that the surrounding area was warmer by about 15 degrees, and smelt better. It reeks of cigarettes, cars’ exhaust, factories, and countless globs of spit. But then one can’t have all things to order.
Like one’s bed, for instance. The flat is small, and has six beds for the seven of us. As a result, I got assigned to sleeping on the sofa. It’s easily the softest bed in the place, and warm, but I am always the last to sleep as I find it difficult to sleep except in total darkness. (Perhaps my short-sightedness and colour-blindness combine to create extra photosensitivity?)
The flat, my mother says, is in filthy disarray. That translates to a day of spring-cleaning tomorrow with my siblings. I haven’t even recovered from arriving past midnight—strictly speaking, I only arrived this morning. Very early this morning, to be sure, and I did catch a few hours of sleep, but it was this morning all the same. All I want now is a nice long respite from work, study, and physical activity in all forms; but given that my father and brother are now on the sofa (read: my bed) watching tennis, I’m not likely to get my wish for awhile yet. Oh well, it’s been a pretty OK time so far anyway, except for my socks, which now stink to high heaven. What can you expect after wearing them for 9 hours straight?
I have met Canal and family (Father: Leaf, mother: Trace, brother: Ice, sister: Broccoli, kid sister: Mercedes, kid brother: Jo, last brother: Ben), as well as several other gweilo families, including a Chinese American one, which is the first one I have met so far (outside my own family) that speaks both good English and Chinese. Unfortunately, he is a rugby enthusiast, which I am not. In fact it seems that a large part of the local English-speaking population is addicted to Stupidly Puerile, Odorously Rotten Things like Sports (SPORTS). A pity; I had thought I might find intelligence lurking about somewhere.
The two flights (I took a transit via Brunei) were uneventful except for a few incidents. First, I met Kevin on his way to KL in a KFC restaurant during lunch. Second, the flight to Brunei from KK was delayed four hours. Third, the plane’s entertainment system shut down completely on the way to the Big S, relegating all passengers to 3 ¾ hours of gloomy monotony. Fourth, the view from the plane en route to Brunei was interesting because the top of the…troposphere, I think it’s called…formed a mirrored surface and reflected the clouds, which being in their customary weird shapes, gave the impression that we were looking at mists reflected off water.
I am now officially very cold. In the last twelve hours, I have gone from a 30 Celsius clime to a 5 Celsius one: a 25-degree drop. My customary T-shirt and shorts have been swapped for long johns, a T-shirt, jeans, and a sweater when indoors; going outdoors requires me to put on a parka and windbreaker as well. (I think they call it that because it smells like someone just broke wind on it when it’s new.)
I sat through 4 hours of church services today. It wasn’t too bad, though, since the children’s section put on a Christmas performance. Technically, it’s actually Advent, since Christmas is still about 20 days away, but so what?
The best thing so far about the place is that most of the bills are footed by my dad’s company. The worst things are that there’s no keyboard here so I can’t practice unless I visit Canal who has a mini upright, there’s no computer but my dad’s so I can’t chat much, and I can’t access a blog because they’ve been banned by the Chinese servers! I can access the charitable classmate’s blog, but not my own; apparently this ban extends only to the public blog services like tabulas.com or blogger.com. Anyway, the upshot of this is that I am virtually cut off from all my former contacts.
Not, of course, that my current contacts are perfect little beasts. Canal and family are somewhat interesting characters, and they can take quite a lot of physical abuse (Ben in particular never seems to get tired of getting beaten up), but their accents are beyond incomprehensible. I can understand their English only with difficulty, let alone the mangled and distorted Chinese they speak! Oh well, you can’t win them all.
For now, I’m almost contented. No studying for me in the near future, a mega bookstore within one hour’s walking distance, people to chat to (and snob or insult if necessary), and massive portions of food. Because raw material here is cheaper than dirt, a RMB 5 bowl of noodles here is twice as large as any in KK; and probably is better cooked, too. I only wish that the surrounding area was warmer by about 15 degrees, and smelt better. It reeks of cigarettes, cars’ exhaust, factories, and countless globs of spit. But then one can’t have all things to order.
Like one’s bed, for instance. The flat is small, and has six beds for the seven of us. As a result, I got assigned to sleeping on the sofa. It’s easily the softest bed in the place, and warm, but I am always the last to sleep as I find it difficult to sleep except in total darkness. (Perhaps my short-sightedness and colour-blindness combine to create extra photosensitivity?)
The flat, my mother says, is in filthy disarray. That translates to a day of spring-cleaning tomorrow with my siblings. I haven’t even recovered from arriving past midnight—strictly speaking, I only arrived this morning. Very early this morning, to be sure, and I did catch a few hours of sleep, but it was this morning all the same. All I want now is a nice long respite from work, study, and physical activity in all forms; but given that my father and brother are now on the sofa (read: my bed) watching tennis, I’m not likely to get my wish for awhile yet. Oh well, it’s been a pretty OK time so far anyway, except for my socks, which now stink to high heaven. What can you expect after wearing them for 9 hours straight?
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