Reminisces: 10/12/2005
I am going to post everything I recorded in the Big S, beginning with this. Since school life is boring anyway, even the first day of it, you'll be much more interested in this than in how my sister is now in KL with me and studying the same course as I. But I digress.
10/12/2005 10.20am
I arrived in the Big S on the 7th, some time in the afternoon. I was a little travel sick since I had just gotten back from a church camp the day before. It was a 5-hour journey by bus, nad the driver was under the impression (or delusion!) that the bus worked best at any speed above the legal limit. At least two people vomited on the way, not including me. (I was probably more than a little green in the face when it ended, though: I didn't have a mirror handy.)
The flight wasn't the most enjoyable one--the company was apparently trying to cut down on expenses. There wasn't any in-flight entertainment--no TV or games or radio--no extra food (peanuts included)--bad service--and since my sister and I got seats right next to the emergency hatch, our seats couldn't recline at all. It got so boring that we were reduced to snapping silly-face photos of each other. We also took photos of the photos in the in-flight magazine. (You know you're bored when you do that.)
The weather's pretty good---in fact, it positively seems to be getting better and better, which (to me) means warmer and warmer. It was about -2 C when I arrived; and by now it's gotten to roughly 4 or 5 C, which is warm enough to "only" require my wearing 4 layers of clothing, and walking in open air without my hood on. I have, however, found it necessary to change into thicker socks.
We have moved house, and are now inhabiting a 195-square-meter apartment. It's 1/4 the size of my Patience house, but it's inhabitable--and huge by Big S standards. It's very nice, furnished with lovely wood furniture, and it has TVs in every bedroom! It even has one huge plasma screen in the living room, but that doesn't count since we never use it (the electricity here is very expensive too) and anyway it won't receive any signals as far as I can tell. But simply having the thing gives the place a sort of swank air. Very nice.
My brother seems to have picked up some kind of bodybuilding craze, and has bought an 80-yuan workout guide. I've looked through it and it's positively calculated to make one feel puny--there's a swaggering Neanderthal on every page. Sometimes even two. I suppose it's meant for encouragement--if their purpose was to illustrate the pose, stick figures would've done just as well. Unfortunately I got into a bet with my brother and lost; and now I'm due to go through the book if or when he requires. Fortunately, his enthusiasm for sports has died down somewhat, and anyway I can hope he gets amnesia. (Edit: He totally forgot it, so I'm off the hook. /edit)
I've met Canal, Broccoli, Mercedes, Shoe, plus a collection of other gweilos. They're much the same as ever, but Ice seems to have gone wild and was off somewhere with "one of his girlfriends", according to Canal, last night. They're quite enthralled with my hair--apparently they've never before seen so many colours on one head before. (I have, at last sight, gray, green, yellow, white, blue, black, turquoise, and gold in various spots on my hair.)
10/12/2005 10.20am
I arrived in the Big S on the 7th, some time in the afternoon. I was a little travel sick since I had just gotten back from a church camp the day before. It was a 5-hour journey by bus, nad the driver was under the impression (or delusion!) that the bus worked best at any speed above the legal limit. At least two people vomited on the way, not including me. (I was probably more than a little green in the face when it ended, though: I didn't have a mirror handy.)
The flight wasn't the most enjoyable one--the company was apparently trying to cut down on expenses. There wasn't any in-flight entertainment--no TV or games or radio--no extra food (peanuts included)--bad service--and since my sister and I got seats right next to the emergency hatch, our seats couldn't recline at all. It got so boring that we were reduced to snapping silly-face photos of each other. We also took photos of the photos in the in-flight magazine. (You know you're bored when you do that.)
The weather's pretty good---in fact, it positively seems to be getting better and better, which (to me) means warmer and warmer. It was about -2 C when I arrived; and by now it's gotten to roughly 4 or 5 C, which is warm enough to "only" require my wearing 4 layers of clothing, and walking in open air without my hood on. I have, however, found it necessary to change into thicker socks.
We have moved house, and are now inhabiting a 195-square-meter apartment. It's 1/4 the size of my Patience house, but it's inhabitable--and huge by Big S standards. It's very nice, furnished with lovely wood furniture, and it has TVs in every bedroom! It even has one huge plasma screen in the living room, but that doesn't count since we never use it (the electricity here is very expensive too) and anyway it won't receive any signals as far as I can tell. But simply having the thing gives the place a sort of swank air. Very nice.
My brother seems to have picked up some kind of bodybuilding craze, and has bought an 80-yuan workout guide. I've looked through it and it's positively calculated to make one feel puny--there's a swaggering Neanderthal on every page. Sometimes even two. I suppose it's meant for encouragement--if their purpose was to illustrate the pose, stick figures would've done just as well. Unfortunately I got into a bet with my brother and lost; and now I'm due to go through the book if or when he requires. Fortunately, his enthusiasm for sports has died down somewhat, and anyway I can hope he gets amnesia. (Edit: He totally forgot it, so I'm off the hook. /edit)
I've met Canal, Broccoli, Mercedes, Shoe, plus a collection of other gweilos. They're much the same as ever, but Ice seems to have gone wild and was off somewhere with "one of his girlfriends", according to Canal, last night. They're quite enthralled with my hair--apparently they've never before seen so many colours on one head before. (I have, at last sight, gray, green, yellow, white, blue, black, turquoise, and gold in various spots on my hair.)
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