People on the Bus
As time passes by the many faces on the bus becomes increasingly familiar. These people take the same good old 14 as me everyday at 8:37 and there are many interesting characters. There is the Justin Timberlake lookalike who reads everyday. The book he carries look more or less to me every time. Maybe it's part of a long series or maybe he is just reading too slowly. There is a black man who is always dressed in a hood and sits right at the back, gesturing and mouthing the lyrics from the songs of his PSP. He seems to enjoy his music a lot. He might be the next Eminem. Then there is the beautiful Hispanic lady who gets off 2 stops after I board the bus. Whenever she alights every guy would be looking at her butt and I bet she must have felt tremendously uncomfortable with her butt being threatened. Later I found out that she works at the supermarket as a cashier. There is an Indian couple who are always bundled up during the winter and I always wonder why they do not speak to each other during the entire bus trips. Most intriguing is the young lady who is always dressed in a Gothic style and her make up is Gothic as well and if she is going to college in that dressing how do the professors possibly put up with that? Sometimes at the bus stop an old lady called Sue would appear and preach to me about the goodness of Jehovah Witness. She passed me these books and articles which I hardly read but I still placed them on my shelf to show my appreciation for her efforts even though they ultimately ended up in the dustbins. What a waste of trees. I told her that my name is Wayne but somehow she always insisted on calling my Chinese name and I would have liked to tell her that calling my Chinese name doesn't make her any closer to me although she had an impeccable pronunciation. I would also like to tell her about the concept of 彼岸 and 此岸 but I didn't want to risk having an argument about religion.
And then there are the weird people. The grumpy lady who wouldn't let me sit next to her because she feels more comfortable with more space. Oh yeah I feel more comfortable with more space too and who doesn't? Another grumpy lady would shout at anyone who speaks too loudly and she would go in a squeaky voice,"The whole bus doesn't have to hear your conversations." There is a guy who has a long face and he intimidated me the most in the beginning because he was always trying to talk to me. Later I realised he talks to everyone, waves to every passing vehicle and has the intelligence of a 7 year old.
"It is a nice weather today ya? Not so cold." he would say,"I woke up late this morning you know. Brushed my teeth and then I saw the time and I knew I was late!"
I replied, "Oh is it."
"The bus is late today. Always late. You know why? It's the school buses!" he would say.
I replied, "Oh is it."
"Looking at the bus! Haha. Haha. Look at the bus!" he would say.
I replied. "Oh ok."
He might be irritating and restless but at least he doesn't hurt anyone.
Sometimes I would sit next to the intern who is doing his PHD and would be here for only 3 months. He is an extremely thin fellow with a thick facial hair that made him look so much older than he actually is. There was once I saw him run through the woods at an amazing speed and I asked him whether he did that because the cold was too much for him and he was eager to get to shelter. He said, "Well, I see it this way. If I can run from one place to another. Why should I walk?"
A long pause. My mouth wide opened.
I was too dumbfounded to reply to that.
There was another time I asked him about the things he did in the weekends. He said, "Do you know about quantum cryptography? It is cryptography using the quantum phenomena of quantum entanglement to detect eavesdropping." He added ,"That is my interest and I hope to make a breakthrough in this field. I also looking at formulating everyday problems in mathematical formulas because once we can do that, we can input them into the computers and computers would churn out software solutions that are absolutely free of bugs and other human errors."
A long pause. My mouth wide opened again.
He asked,"So what is your hobby?"
I didn't know what to reply. Any hobby would have seemed childish next to quantum cryptography. I said finally,"I read."
In a way I respect these kind of guys. They are not exactly equipped with social skills but they are focused and highly intelligent and they make a difference to this world. I could have been talking to the next Einstein for all I know.
(upload album "Saint Patrick's Parade")
The Banquet part 2
My conversation with XXXX was interrupted by #####. “Hi, I need 2 persons to sit with our consulate and ambassador for Singapore. How would both of you like to do that?” she asked. I would have liked to ask her what difference was between a consulate and an ambassador but decided against it. I didn’t know anyone anyway, so it wasn’t a big deal for a change of tables and we promptly moved to sit with the consulate and his family. The consulate was a bubbly fellow. After our introduction he started recounting the number of cities he had been living in --- Cairo, Brussels, Geneva, Kuala Lumpur to name a few --- and he revealed the MFA relocated them every three years. It certainly sounded like a fantastic job to be in. Which was his favourite? It was Cairo.
XXXXX asked, "So did MFA prepare you before your trip to each country?"
"I was from the older generation you know, so they didn't do anything like that. But I wouldn't be surprised if they do nowadays haha," said the consulate with his infectious laugh.
Yes the younger generation is better off in a way, but I wondered if the consulate knew that it isn't easy to get into MFA nowadays. I heard from HoeHoe that they made him go through all those grammer and writing tests and it felt like being in elementary school all over again.
The ambassador and a manager from SIA joined us. The dinner then started with a lion dance led by an old Chinese master. The lion dance was amateurish, very much like the one I saw in Washington DC. You couldn’t really expect the lion to perform any stunts when there was hardly any space to move around. But I have to give credit to the master who was hitting the drums with so much zest that it livened up the atmosphere. In fact, I thought he was the only one in the troupe to be showing that much enthusiasm. After the dance the ambassador was asked to address the crowd. He said, “This year is the year of the Boar and people born in the year of the boar are supposed to have good luck. Hillary Clinton and our very own Mr Lee Kuan Yew were born in the year of the Boar and before I ‘boar’ you further let us commence the dinner.”
During the dinner we were entertained by a skillful mc who quizzed us on our very own country. If you are reading this maybe you would like to test your knowledge too. I provided the answers at the end of this blog entry.
1) Who is the first Chief Minister?
2) How many Merlions are there in Singapore?
3) What is the name of our tallest building?
4) If I have to go to Sentosa which MRT station would I go to?
5) What is the oldest departmental store in Singapore?
6) Name 3 of our Presidents.
7) Name the first televison drama.
As the night progressed our consulate belted out a song titled “You were always on my mind”. I think he did really well on the song and the whole time he was looking at his wife while he was singing. When the song ended there were screams for an encore from the crowd. Meanwhile I discovered XXXXX was from the same junior college and university as me. We took the same subject combination in junior college too. Even though she was a few batches earlier it helped that we share a common background because that meant we had more things to talk about. The manager’s wife asked if XXXXX was my wife. I would have liked to think that she said that because XXXXX looked young. In any case the manager and his family were invited because he was in charge of the east coast operations and he had sponsored air tickets for a return trip to Singapore for the lucky draw and auction. The market price of the ticket was $1600 USD and the starting bid was $1000. It didn’t seem right to me because $600 was too little ground to play with and when the winner walked off with a bid of $1500 she had only shaved off a pathetic $100 and I didn’t really think it was worth the effort.
I told the manager I had all the good things to say about his company because the 22 hours trip didn’t kill me though it nearly did and when I recently changed the date for my flight the call was smooth and efficient.
“Oh. Thank you. Not all my customers say that.” he said.
“I am sure I am one of the many hahaha.”
SIA has a huge presence here and many of my friends here are well aware of the brand name. I have more than once chanced upon its advertisements in local business magazines. It certainly is doing a good job.
When it was time to go XXXXX offered me a ride to the Grand Central. I was touched because new acquaintances are not usually that nice. So this was how it felt to be helped by a fellow countryman. While I was on the train I realized that even after all that chat, I still didn’t know the difference between a consulate and an ambassador.
Answers to the quiz:
1) David Marshall. He was the architect for our economy wasn’t he?
2) You would have guessed 2 like I did. But there are 5. Where are the rest? I don’t know, but I suspect some rich men might have bought them and put them in their gardens.
3) Republic Plaza. It’s somewhere in the CBD.
4) HarbourFront.
5) Tangs.
6) Well if you don’t know this you are not a Singaporean.
7) The Awakening, aka 雾锁南洋
The Banquet part 1
I got in touch with New York Singapore Association (NYSA) before I came, hoping that by participating in their activities, it would offer a glimpse into the lives of Singaporeans here. I must have got in contact with the inappropriate email though, because it was the President of NYSA herself replying the emails. The first email was for a social gathering at a pub in Manhattan. I looked at the date. It fell on a Thursday. I replied the email, “I am sorry that I cannot make it as I am staying in upstate and I have work commitments.”
A month later, there came another email with an invite for Thanksgiving celebration. Again it fell on a day where it was definitely too much of an inconvenience to go to the city. I had to reject the invitation again with much regrets. By this time I had already dismissed any hopes of joining their activities.
In Feb I got yet another email from the President. This time it was for CNY celebration in March and it was supposed to be the biggest event of the year for NYSA. My God, this President was actually doing her job at the very ground level and she was so persistent with these invitations that it would have been very bad of me to put this off again. Moreover the day was more favourable this time --- it was a Saturday. No harm accepting the invitation, I thought, even though as a non-member it was slightly expensive.
“You can pay us by check,” she wrote back.
Ohh. I had no means to do that. As Brian would have put it, I have no freaking banking services here to give any freaking checks and would you be ok if I pay you in freaking cash on that night?
“Yes that would be fine,” she wrote again.
Nice lady indeed. Thank you.
And so I turned up that night expecting to see an old lady as President with a couple of tables. It certainly wasn’t what I had in mind. I saw at least 20 tables with a stage in the middle very much like what a typical Chinese banquet would be. I was the early bird, so I sat at the seat reserved for me and the first thing that captured my attention was the big LCD televisions. They were showing the recorded tv programme of Mediacorp artistes celebrating the CNY in Singapore. So I saw GuoLiang, Hong HuiFang, Jamie Teo and these many familiar faces of Mediacorp playing games and busking in the atmosphere of Chinatown Singapore. Now before this I didn’t think I was homesick. I didn’t think of home that much to be frank. But that night I found myself glued to the tv, my senses savouring the sights and sounds of the programme. The more I watched the more my misery grew, and suddenly I felt an impulse to just catch the next flight home. So as much as I would like to put on a brave front and say, “I don’t miss Singapore at all. NY is the gateway to freedom and if I have a chance I would stay here forever.” The fact remains that, I miss Singapore. I truly do.
My misery was cut short by a lady. She said, “Hi, I am ####### and I am the President of NYSA. Are you here alone?”
I looked up to see who she was. A young, elegant lady with a huge smile and she was dressed in a beautiful traditional Kebaya.
“Hi, I am Wayne. You are the one in contact with me all this while? Nice to meet you and that’s right I am alone tonight,” I said.
“Could you help us with the packing of the gift bags? It would be great if you can because we are shorthanded here and I would have to prepare my speech if you would excuse me.”
Ok, so an early bird didn’t warrant any early bird awards and early birds had to help with the packing. In any case I didn’t intend to be an early bird because all I wanted to do was to get away from the chill outside. Well, it was great to lend a helping hand even though I wanted to continue watching the tv that made my misery grow and grow. So what do I have to do? Pack the gift bags? Put in a propaganda magnet? 2 mandarin oranges? Nice. 3 golden chocolate ingots? Why 3? Is it not a pair supposed to have better connotations?
As soon as I am done with the packing I went back to my seat. There was this kid that came up to me and introduced himself. We chatted and he rattled on about how pleased he was to be studying here and joining NYSA activities. What am I doing here? I am on training for my company for 6 months. I didn’t want to go into the complications of getting a government sponsorship that allows me to work for others. That didn’t made sense to most people and I didn’t think it would to this kid. “It must be pretty tough for you not to be able to bring your wife and child over,” he said. OK, so I looked old enough to him to have a child. By the way kid, I didn’t understand why as a year one undergraduate you would have to have a namecard. You have a business? Networking is important but I wouldn’t try to come across as unnatural. And why would you want to spend a bomb on your education using your parents’ hard-earned money? Unless of course your dad is like a Rockfeller. I would rather use that to buy a HDB flat you know. Hope you can understand these things when you grow up. I thought. Good luck to you.
Before long another Singaporean lady joined us. She told us she had been here for 4 years and she had a wine shop in Manhattan and was invited because she had sponsored 3 cases of wine. In her 4 years she had been mugged 5 times and she didn't know what was it about her face that made her seem so vulnerable. One mugger even asked for her MacDonald's. I bet she forgot to ask him how he would like an upsize of fries.
Another lady sat down at the table and started reading her magazine. I didn't want to appear unfriendly so I made my introduction. She was called XXXXX and was a banking associate and she asked me whether I was here to study. OK, now I looked young to her...
...to be continued
