It's actually the start of my 7th week here, I sometimes can't even believe it myself. I know that I said it in previous blogs, but I really do remember what it was like months ago deciding if I wanted to accept this job opportunity and I can remember packing my suitcases. The time really does go by fast, I have become so immersed in work and have a pretty set schedule that I have gotten into a pretty good routine. I miss home quite a bit and the conveniences of home are definitely missed and obviously friends and my condo are missed but those are all things that will be there when I return.........which will be for a week during Christmas holiday!!!!
It's been just over a week since my last installment; I know I originally thought I was going to be blogging more often but when you get home from work every night around 10pm or 10am EST, the last thing on your mind is what are you going to blog about. I will however keep this up to once a week at least until things start getting more interesting and I start traveling for work or leisure.
Prior to my departure from the states, a family friend thought they saw fear in eyes before I left, I personally think it's normal and frankly would be strange if I didn't have a little fear of moving out of the country for an extended period of time. One of the things that was nerve racking was not only moving to another country, but starting a new job.
I ran went through so many scenarios in head over how the people were going to be, how they would react/accept me, do they even like American's and will I make friends? Everyone has been great to work with and socialize with as well. I obviously have so many questions about the culturally differences and although they may seem somewhat ignorant to them, they of course politely answer them and I think they find humor in them as well.
Recently, the issue of race has come up a few times and I have been asked about racism in America. Race really isn't a big issue here but I must say I have noticed there are some prejudices here with people from certain countries. The interesting thing about that is, here you can discriminate against someone because of their race, at least for housing. I may have explained this in a earlier blog, but I have actually seen signs that read: "No Indians or Chinese allowed" outside of Apt. buildings, we all know that this would be a major lawsuit in the states. So, I am asked how bad is racism in the states? My reply was "that is a relative question, certain people and certain races have different experiences in America and it can be based on education, socioeconomic status etc......so it's hard for me to give you a definitive answer. The reply I got was: "but, you can drink out of the same water fountains as "ang mor's" (white people) right? Of course this is funny to me and I let him know that minorities have been able to drink out of white water fountains for about 40+ years now but I was more interested in what an "ang mor" was.
Ang Mor is what they call white people or westerners here, it's not negative just local slang really or Singlish if you will. The direct translation of Ang mor is red hair or red beard, it originates from when the vikings sailed around the world and began settling into China.........they had red beards so they called them red beards or Ang mor's! Again, I decided to ask what they call me since I am not white but I am a westerner. So, I learned that I am called "hei ang mor" which means black red beard or black white person. Hmmm I think, black white person???????
During this same conversation it somehow came up that I had to go and pick up my dry cleaning. "Why use drycleaning, just hand wash your clothes" I am told, and everyone around us seemed to be in agreement with this theory but me. Puzzled, I put my hand on my head and think for a second.........I slowly realized that I don't know how to hand wash anything and in fact, I have never hand washed anything in my life I told them. They were all astonished at this........but then it made sense to me. Everyday when I walk to work and home from work, you see clothes hanging out of everyone's window and you see "aunties"either taking the clothes down, or putting them up. The same holds true in the building where I reside and all units have washing machines. It suddenly became clear to me that although they have washing machines and dryers along with dishwashers, most people here still wash everything by hand and chose not to use the modern conveniences that are readily available to us. This is one of those things that just doesn't make sense, if you have the modern conveniences, then why not use them? But I realized that although we have them here, everyone didn't have these same modern conveniences depending on what country they came from. Singapore is such a melting pot of so many races and countries, you just never know where the people came from.
Having been here for almost 2 months now, I have also had the privilege of observing family life here which is quite different than in the states. Let me first preface this by saying I am not saying that American's aren't these things nor that they do not do the same things, I am simply saying they go a step further than we do in the states. Asian culture has a far greater respect for their elders than we do in the states. It's quite amazing so see the love and respect that these children have for their parents and grandparents here and they are also very hospitable. Education is very highly regarded and quite frankly next to family the most important thing. I have been thinking alot about this, and I am honestly worried for average American children when I see the competition here that they will be up against some day in the professional world. These children go to school year round, learn multiple languages at early ages and the idea of getting good grades is almost like a sport in itself that all kids in the school can take part in. The entire family, both immediate and extended will sacrifice all they can to ensure that the next generation is properly educated.
I was having a conversation with a friend about living at home with your parents and they all said that they thought American youth we're stupid for not living at home with parents well into your 20's and even 30's. I was told by a local that here, you are a loser if you live at home past 35 years old............I can only imagine what we would say about a 35 year old whom still lives with parents and never moved out. It's quite the opposite in the states, I mean it seems like we want to leave home on our 18th birthday and some of us never come back. The locals say this is why American's look so much older than them because we try and age ourselves faster than we should and in the long run we really do age ourselves. Although it sounds strange, in reality it is kind of food for thought......they look younger than us, live healthier lives than us, and live longer than us, there just might be something to this way of thinking.
On another note, I got another hair cut this weekend so I got to see my "Asian brutha from anotha mutha" and this time after he was done, he looked in the mirror at me and said: "I hook you up playa"! And I have my first Chinese language book and CD that I have been studying for when I take my first business trip to China. It's funny because I study the book at night and then I go to work and try to have a very basic conversation and say good morning, how are you etc.... sometimes I get the words mixed up and I will say something to them and they reply: "Ahh, I think you just asked me where is the post office?" But the important thing there is that they understood what I was saying, regardless of if it was correct or not.
Alright, it's late now and I have a very long 2 weeks ahead of me at work. I have more stories, but I am saving them for future blogs so I have stuff to continue to write about.
Until next time,
Jason
Monday, October 26, 2009
Friday, October 16, 2009
5 weeks and counting.....
I have officially made it 5 weeks so far........I am telling you, the weeks go by so fast it's crazy, I am sure before I know it a year will have gone by and who knows where I will be or have been by then, but I am certainly looking forward to the unknown.
So also that means 5 weeks on the job, I am adjusting quite well. They pretty much had me working within the first 30 minutes of walking in the door so I am getting both training and a little trial by fire. Things are done in half the time in Asia than they are in the US, I look at some of my project schedules and think it's almost impossible to get done but we are managing quite well. Being so busy, I haven't had the time to really think how fast these deadlines are because I have been so immersed in getting the work done. Here in Asia though, we work harder, faster, and much longer hours than you people in the states!! Just kidding, that is what they always say to me....they things like" you people in the states or you American's and your drive thru banks" for some reason a drive thru restaurants and banks is very strange to them and they nearly flipped out when I told them we also have drive thru pharmacies as well....... they were under the impression that we also have drive thru doctors appt (I am not kidding here) where you go through the drive thru and order a shot or vaccine and the doctors administers the shot while you are in your car. I just let them believe that this is how I always received my shots and continued on with the story.
So this week I had to make a run to the grocery store and pick up some additional hygiene items such as toothpaste, deodorant etc. I am looking for deodorant and struggling to find it yet I know that I am in the correct aisle. Oh I forgot, I am in the American/Western style grocery store that has lots of American brands. I can't find any deodorant at all in the store, confused I continue to walk around the hygiene section and eventually notice that in the original aisle I was in they had 1 stick of deodorant and lucky for me, it's the kind I HATE. I am probably too picky about alot of things, but I dont like gel deodorant or the kind that leaves white residue because it just gets stuck in your arm hair. I learned that deodorant is not the most popular of items here and I have always had my suspicions (if you know what I mean), so it seems as though I have to switch deodorants or just import it which other Americans have been known to do that here. Anyways, as I am walking around looking for deodorant I continue to notice that there is large quantities of an item in each aisle that I went in. What is this I continue to ask because they only had 1 stick of deodorant but hundreds of this item so it must be popular I thought to myself................well, I eventually succumb to my curiosity and discover that this item that they carry in large quantities happens to be disposable men's brief underwear. At the time, I just kind of laughed to myself and thought nothing of it really. But later as the week progressed, I found that I couldn't get them out of my mind, I would think about them at home, at work and just bust out laughing hysterically. I had so many things go through my head, I mean what goes on in your underwear that is so bad, that you can't just wash them? I don't get it! As we are now at the end of the week, I have admitted to myself that I am absolutely obsessed with these things and have to go back to the store and get a closer look because these are hilarious and I don't know why, I don't think they would have been so funny to me had they had more deodorant and it not be in a grocery store because there is nothing wrong with wearing briefs. But hygiene is not a priority with some I am told (again confirming my suspicions) and I think a combo of no deodorant and not showering for weeks at a time, you probably do just need to throw your underwear away at that point as it's been a long and dirty life for them.
So tonight I went back to the store to get a closer look..........I almost want to try them out just because I think it will make for a good story. As an FYI, perhaps too much of a fyi even I am not a brief man, I am all about the boxer, but I am willing to try these out. I sometimes embarrass easy and this would typically be something I would be embarrassed to ask for but not tonight...........I would asking anyone: "hey, can you tell me where I can find the disposable brief underwear section" I think I just liked saying disposable brief underwear...............it's crazy I know but this so funny to me. So it turns out they come 7 to a pack and are only $1.95 SGD or just over a dollar USD. One thing I do know, if I ever get strapped for cash here I know where I can get cheap underwear and when I get money again I can just throw them away no big deal!!! And does anyone wonder why a grocery store sells underwear in the hygiene aisle?
As I have said before, I really want to learn and embrace the local culture here. There is a very strong Chinese influence here, in fact most Singaporeans are of Chinese decent or what we call Singaporean Chinese. I am actually told that there isn't really a "Singapore race" per say but Singapore is really a melting pot for all races in Asia which is also why I think it's a great places for expats from other countries to live and work, particularly from other countries because they speak English or Singlish as they say which can be difficult to understand......let me try to explain.
You may remember from a previous installment that I said Singaporeans add "lah" to the end of words randomly. So I will ask someone: "Hey can you forward that email to me" the reply I will get is: "Canlah" and sometimes they will drag it out and say: "Canlaaaahhhhhhh". They also use the words "can and cannot" as both to ask a question and to answer a question. So if they are asking me if I can get my work done in time they will say: "Can"? and if I were a Singaporean, I would reply "Can" or "Cannot". Let me just say, it makes absolutely no sense to me and I will be talking to someone and they will add lah at the end of words randomly........so lately I have been calling people out on it and asking them why do they do it as it doesn't make sense, it's not proper English. Apparently, you can add lah to anyword and give it a meaning, it's adding emphasis to the verb or adjective you used but it can also be informal. So you can say: "How do you feel today"? Tiredlaaahhhhhh.........would be the reply. So add in the accent, improper English and random words that mean nothing in the English language, it can be difficult at times to communicate. But you get used to it and although I will add a lah every now and then to a word, I am not sure it will stick over time. I certainly do want to learn more about Singlish.
On another note, I have been asking about why and when you call someone Auntie or Uncle. The Chinese culture is very hierarchical, you must always show a great deal of respect to your elders and part of that respect is to not call them by their first name. I always thought you just called "the help" auntie and uncle but it seems that it's so much more than that. You remember that I said we don't have building maintenance that comes in and cleans the building after hours like we do in the states, we have an office auntie and she cleans and brings people coffee, water etc. You just call her auntie, never by her name, I am told that it would be extremely rude if I were to call her by her name because she is our auntie...of course being my sarcastic self I continue to debate them and tell them but she is not my auntie so I can't call her that and taxi drivers aren't my uncle, so I can't call them uncle. "Well, what do you call a taxi driver in your country" they say to me? "Well, I would say Sir, please take me to ......" To which they all immediately started laughing and saying that Americans are so formal. "Ok, what if a woman in the grocery store drops her bag, you wouldn't say, excuse me auntie you dropped your bag"? "No I reply, she is not my mom or dad's sister so she is not my auntie" I say with extra emphasis.
The conversation was somewhat funny but at the same time I struggled. I realized that once again I am the weird one and I had 10 people laughing at me because I am so convinced that I am right yet they know I am wrong, after all I am in their country now. It can be quite difficult at times for me because I really do try and understand these things but some of them don't make sense, it's like I can't comprehend calling some random guy uncle or random woman my auntie. I was even told that your real aunts and uncles you don't call them by name in the Chinese culture, you still refer to them as auntie or uncle and again, it's very rude to just address them by their name.
They also do names differently here so they are typically confused by my name. For instance, in Chinese culture you do your surname or last name first followed by your first name, then middle name and family name I think. Family names are given by the grandparents to an entire generation. So lets say my name is Daniels, Jason R...........(u don't need to know my middle name) then I would be given another name, let's say it's Smith for instance, so it would be: Daniels, Jason, R........ Smith. Smith would be given to all of my cousins that are in my generation so that when we are introduced to people, they automatically know what generation of the family we are in because I have the name Smith and my kids and my brothers kids would have Johnson and all of their cousins would have Johnson as well because it's a entirely new generation of the family. Because my signature reads: Jason Daniels, they always think that Jason is my surname or last name and Daniels is my first name.....so I am often referred to as Daniels but that doesn't bother me.
So in closing, the next time I see those of you reading this, remember to cut me some slack if you hear me say: Canlaaahhhh or Cannot or perhaps I am hungrylaaahhhhh! Oh, and don't be offended if I call you auntie or uncle, it just means that you are older me and that I respect you!!!
Learning and growing it's happening daily here and I am really starting to enjoy my time. I am going to start planning some trips outside of work to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bali Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Dubai all places I plan to visit in the coming months and I can fly to on weekends for sometimes under $200 SGD or $140 USD and stay at 5 star hotels for around $50 USD. I will of course be posting pictures and writing about those trips as well so stay tuned. I have a day off this weekend so I will post more pictures of Singapore up on Facebook and here finally for you to see how beautiful Singapore is. I hope you still enjoying reading my blog because I sure love writing it. It's a totally new way of expressing yourself that I was not previously familiar with until now but it's great.
Until next time,
Jason
So also that means 5 weeks on the job, I am adjusting quite well. They pretty much had me working within the first 30 minutes of walking in the door so I am getting both training and a little trial by fire. Things are done in half the time in Asia than they are in the US, I look at some of my project schedules and think it's almost impossible to get done but we are managing quite well. Being so busy, I haven't had the time to really think how fast these deadlines are because I have been so immersed in getting the work done. Here in Asia though, we work harder, faster, and much longer hours than you people in the states!! Just kidding, that is what they always say to me....they things like" you people in the states or you American's and your drive thru banks" for some reason a drive thru restaurants and banks is very strange to them and they nearly flipped out when I told them we also have drive thru pharmacies as well....... they were under the impression that we also have drive thru doctors appt (I am not kidding here) where you go through the drive thru and order a shot or vaccine and the doctors administers the shot while you are in your car. I just let them believe that this is how I always received my shots and continued on with the story.
So this week I had to make a run to the grocery store and pick up some additional hygiene items such as toothpaste, deodorant etc. I am looking for deodorant and struggling to find it yet I know that I am in the correct aisle. Oh I forgot, I am in the American/Western style grocery store that has lots of American brands. I can't find any deodorant at all in the store, confused I continue to walk around the hygiene section and eventually notice that in the original aisle I was in they had 1 stick of deodorant and lucky for me, it's the kind I HATE. I am probably too picky about alot of things, but I dont like gel deodorant or the kind that leaves white residue because it just gets stuck in your arm hair. I learned that deodorant is not the most popular of items here and I have always had my suspicions (if you know what I mean), so it seems as though I have to switch deodorants or just import it which other Americans have been known to do that here. Anyways, as I am walking around looking for deodorant I continue to notice that there is large quantities of an item in each aisle that I went in. What is this I continue to ask because they only had 1 stick of deodorant but hundreds of this item so it must be popular I thought to myself................well, I eventually succumb to my curiosity and discover that this item that they carry in large quantities happens to be disposable men's brief underwear. At the time, I just kind of laughed to myself and thought nothing of it really. But later as the week progressed, I found that I couldn't get them out of my mind, I would think about them at home, at work and just bust out laughing hysterically. I had so many things go through my head, I mean what goes on in your underwear that is so bad, that you can't just wash them? I don't get it! As we are now at the end of the week, I have admitted to myself that I am absolutely obsessed with these things and have to go back to the store and get a closer look because these are hilarious and I don't know why, I don't think they would have been so funny to me had they had more deodorant and it not be in a grocery store because there is nothing wrong with wearing briefs. But hygiene is not a priority with some I am told (again confirming my suspicions) and I think a combo of no deodorant and not showering for weeks at a time, you probably do just need to throw your underwear away at that point as it's been a long and dirty life for them.
So tonight I went back to the store to get a closer look..........I almost want to try them out just because I think it will make for a good story. As an FYI, perhaps too much of a fyi even I am not a brief man, I am all about the boxer, but I am willing to try these out. I sometimes embarrass easy and this would typically be something I would be embarrassed to ask for but not tonight...........I would asking anyone: "hey, can you tell me where I can find the disposable brief underwear section" I think I just liked saying disposable brief underwear...............it's crazy I know but this so funny to me. So it turns out they come 7 to a pack and are only $1.95 SGD or just over a dollar USD. One thing I do know, if I ever get strapped for cash here I know where I can get cheap underwear and when I get money again I can just throw them away no big deal!!! And does anyone wonder why a grocery store sells underwear in the hygiene aisle?
As I have said before, I really want to learn and embrace the local culture here. There is a very strong Chinese influence here, in fact most Singaporeans are of Chinese decent or what we call Singaporean Chinese. I am actually told that there isn't really a "Singapore race" per say but Singapore is really a melting pot for all races in Asia which is also why I think it's a great places for expats from other countries to live and work, particularly from other countries because they speak English or Singlish as they say which can be difficult to understand......let me try to explain.
You may remember from a previous installment that I said Singaporeans add "lah" to the end of words randomly. So I will ask someone: "Hey can you forward that email to me" the reply I will get is: "Canlah" and sometimes they will drag it out and say: "Canlaaaahhhhhhh". They also use the words "can and cannot" as both to ask a question and to answer a question. So if they are asking me if I can get my work done in time they will say: "Can"? and if I were a Singaporean, I would reply "Can" or "Cannot". Let me just say, it makes absolutely no sense to me and I will be talking to someone and they will add lah at the end of words randomly........so lately I have been calling people out on it and asking them why do they do it as it doesn't make sense, it's not proper English. Apparently, you can add lah to anyword and give it a meaning, it's adding emphasis to the verb or adjective you used but it can also be informal. So you can say: "How do you feel today"? Tiredlaaahhhhhh.........would be the reply. So add in the accent, improper English and random words that mean nothing in the English language, it can be difficult at times to communicate. But you get used to it and although I will add a lah every now and then to a word, I am not sure it will stick over time. I certainly do want to learn more about Singlish.
On another note, I have been asking about why and when you call someone Auntie or Uncle. The Chinese culture is very hierarchical, you must always show a great deal of respect to your elders and part of that respect is to not call them by their first name. I always thought you just called "the help" auntie and uncle but it seems that it's so much more than that. You remember that I said we don't have building maintenance that comes in and cleans the building after hours like we do in the states, we have an office auntie and she cleans and brings people coffee, water etc. You just call her auntie, never by her name, I am told that it would be extremely rude if I were to call her by her name because she is our auntie...of course being my sarcastic self I continue to debate them and tell them but she is not my auntie so I can't call her that and taxi drivers aren't my uncle, so I can't call them uncle. "Well, what do you call a taxi driver in your country" they say to me? "Well, I would say Sir, please take me to ......" To which they all immediately started laughing and saying that Americans are so formal. "Ok, what if a woman in the grocery store drops her bag, you wouldn't say, excuse me auntie you dropped your bag"? "No I reply, she is not my mom or dad's sister so she is not my auntie" I say with extra emphasis.
The conversation was somewhat funny but at the same time I struggled. I realized that once again I am the weird one and I had 10 people laughing at me because I am so convinced that I am right yet they know I am wrong, after all I am in their country now. It can be quite difficult at times for me because I really do try and understand these things but some of them don't make sense, it's like I can't comprehend calling some random guy uncle or random woman my auntie. I was even told that your real aunts and uncles you don't call them by name in the Chinese culture, you still refer to them as auntie or uncle and again, it's very rude to just address them by their name.
They also do names differently here so they are typically confused by my name. For instance, in Chinese culture you do your surname or last name first followed by your first name, then middle name and family name I think. Family names are given by the grandparents to an entire generation. So lets say my name is Daniels, Jason R...........(u don't need to know my middle name) then I would be given another name, let's say it's Smith for instance, so it would be: Daniels, Jason, R........ Smith. Smith would be given to all of my cousins that are in my generation so that when we are introduced to people, they automatically know what generation of the family we are in because I have the name Smith and my kids and my brothers kids would have Johnson and all of their cousins would have Johnson as well because it's a entirely new generation of the family. Because my signature reads: Jason Daniels, they always think that Jason is my surname or last name and Daniels is my first name.....so I am often referred to as Daniels but that doesn't bother me.
So in closing, the next time I see those of you reading this, remember to cut me some slack if you hear me say: Canlaaahhhh or Cannot or perhaps I am hungrylaaahhhhh! Oh, and don't be offended if I call you auntie or uncle, it just means that you are older me and that I respect you!!!
Learning and growing it's happening daily here and I am really starting to enjoy my time. I am going to start planning some trips outside of work to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Bali Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Dubai all places I plan to visit in the coming months and I can fly to on weekends for sometimes under $200 SGD or $140 USD and stay at 5 star hotels for around $50 USD. I will of course be posting pictures and writing about those trips as well so stay tuned. I have a day off this weekend so I will post more pictures of Singapore up on Facebook and here finally for you to see how beautiful Singapore is. I hope you still enjoying reading my blog because I sure love writing it. It's a totally new way of expressing yourself that I was not previously familiar with until now but it's great.
Until next time,
Jason
Friday, October 9, 2009
I have survived........
I have officically been living in Singapore for a month now, it's so crazy because it seems like yesterday I was excited about my first day on the new job, first time overseas, but also sad to leave Chicago. I love my job and feel as though I am settling in well at the office and also with the country.
As stated in a previous blog I said I was going to start taking Chinese lessons.......let me tell you, this has to be the most difficult language to learn in the world. In fact, I think it would be extremely difficult for any westerner to learn as the pronunciation and function of the language is quite unique. First, in english, we have 26-27 letters that we use to pronounce words....each letter has a proper way of pronounciating and can only be written in 3 ways. Well in Chinese (Chinese Mandarin, not Chinese Cantonese) they do not have a alphabet or way of pronouncing words. Their language consists of a what they call "characters" which are basically strokes of the pin and these characters make up the words. There are somewhere between 5-10 thousand characters that make up the written form of the language as a whole and the written form of the language is still evolving to date. For instance, let's use the word car.........we know there is only 3 different ways (to my knowledge) to write this word,we can do it in lower case, upper case, or cursive which are all part of the written form of the english language. Well that same word in Chinese Mandarin can be written upwards of 50 different ways depending on the characters you use and what era of the language you are writing in; remember the language is still evolving so the written form has changed over time. A friend of mine writes the language completly different from her mother and vice versa..........but because her mother understands most of the characters used in this new form of the language, she can for the most part read the new language. The characters can also be a "sketched out" form of the word meaning the word turtle in one form of the written language actually looks like a line drawing of a turtle because of the characters that are used; the characters used for the word water are actually wave like to signify water. I hope you can follow that....it's a pretty difficult concept to grasp and even more difficult to explain over a blog.
The language also reads from from right to left and in columns rather than across the entire page like we do in the states. However, as the language continues to evolve, many of the younger generation Chinese are reading left to right and across the page like we do in western society. If you hear the language everyday you begin to pick up certain words and perhaps can have an idea of what people are talking about......all signage is in both english and chinese and people for the most part speak both, but often people speak Chinese Mandarin in leisure converstions, so it sometimes feels as though I hear more Chinese daily that English......unless I am having lunch with the American club at work (that's what they call the 3 of us). On that note, there is an American club here where other American expats get together hang out etc..probably something I will do when I have more time for sure.
Now regarding the food......I can't say I am totally adjusting toowell to this. There is a place next door to our office that I get lunch at everyday. It's a hawker center so it's basically chinese and indian fast food tightly packed into a covered outdoor area on the ground level of an old high rise building. The business are all family owned, the grandparents do the cooking, sons and daughters whom speak english serve the guests and and grandchildren helpout whereever they can. By US standards, I think most would consider this place just above a "dive/hole in the wall" but the food is quite good and it has a B rating. In Singapore, restaurants are rated on the their cleanliness and given a grade of A-D and they must display their cleanliness grade on their signage for guests to see.
For the most part, I pretty much get chicken fried rice everyday for lunch.....when I am feeling adventrous, I will get shrimp or as they call it here, prawn fried rice. I can now just walk up to the counter and when they see me they yell my order to their grandmother in Chinese. Today the grandmother saw me and said" You no get chicken fried rice, get something else"....I of course declined but in the future do plan to try other things. I have a friend in Chicago who is an amazing chef and he would probably be pretty disappointed with my food selections thus far, but I do plan to be more adventurous in the future.
This region loves spicy food, they put chili sauce and jalopenos on everything here. In fact, the restaurant next door always puts them all over my rice and you can imagine my disappointment to see a third of my food covered in this sauce and jalopenos, if you don't know this about me, I HATE spicy foods........a friend of mine in Chicago used to make fun of me and say that tomatoes made my eyes water, so you can imagine my frustration the first time I bit into that chili sauce covered rice. Chili sauce is also put on french frieds, all soap/liquid chinese dishes from what I can see, all meats etc. Because I am such a picky eater as they learned at work, I have been advised by many to bring along protein and power bars with me when I go to China for business as they are quite adventurous with their foods and when they are entertaining us westerners, they want us to try everything........I have been told they will try and feed me: pig tongue, goose feet, dog (but not the domestic kind), pig ears and many other strange foods to us westerners but delicacees in their culture.......oh and shark fin soap, so it looks like I will be packing a lunch for my first trip to China. But I am told they are sensitive to western taste buds and have began to ask us in advance if there is anything we won't eat, so I guess in my case that's everything but chicken fried rice.
The Chinese way of dining is also quite different from ours.......they do not like eating in open restaurants like we eat at in the states. Most restaurants are all private dining rooms and some have individual kitchens and bathrooms so that you don't mix with other guests. In fact, it's almost considered low class to eat out in the open in traditional chinese restaurants. You also only eat at round dining tables..........in the center of the table there is a lazy susan that spins around and will hold all of the food. People order a number of entrees and you just spin the lazy susan around and everyone shares, from my understanding no one orders their own entree. I am learning alot about these cultural differences because alot of the hotels I am working on, have a high end chinese restaurant in them; so in order to properly design a high end chinese restaurant, I am forced to learn how they traditionally dine, very different from us.
Not sure it made news in the US but there was a big earthquake that hit Indonesia, the island of Sumatra actually which is about 600km or 350 miles or so away, but it was an 8.0 shallow earthquake so for those of you that grew up on the west coast or have knowledge of earthquakes, you know that was strong, it was so strong, that most buildings here in Singapore were forced to evacuate because it shook us pretty good here as well. I am not sure if buildings here are built to withstand earthquakes but we had someone out this week assessing the damage.......it shook our office really good, you should have seen the people running for the door and grabbing their belongings.
From the last installment of my blog, I told you that I received confirmation that there are active camera in my apartment and my landlord offered to let me watch the footage if I wanted to see who has been stealing my water. I of course declined, but was told that I got in the shower the night of the incident at 1153pm and the culprit stole my water at approx. 1155pm...kind of creepy that someone can tell you what you did that precise huh? I also got an email about new house rules and some of them are as follows: No alcohol, bacon or any pork products on the premises, we can only have food in the fridge for 5 days at a time, we are no longer allowed to cook on the stove, only the microwave now, no guests can enter the premises they must wait outside for us, we must keep our room and bathroom doors closed at all times so we don't let the energy/chi of the house flow out (some feng shui thing), we must walk around decently clothed since both sexes are in the house, and we can only use the dining table......to dine, nothing else, no cpus, no paperwork nothing and we cannot wear shoes in the house and can only leave a maximum of 2 pairs in the shoe rack and all others must be kept in our room. My mother didn't even has rules this strict............but I must say, it's kind of how I run my house so in a strange way, I kind of respect the fact that she has these rules.......I suppose the only thing I personally would have done differently, is I would not have sent out an email to everyone, I would have handed the house rules to everyone on day one on a laminated card so they can have them in their wallet or purse at all times to serve as a reminder!!!!
Ok, I will save the remainder of my stories for my next installment. I hope you all are enjoying reading about my experiences over here, I sometimes have so much in my head I can't type fast enough and I don't want to have a entry that takes an hour to read either. On another note, I plan to get another hair this weekend so I will get to see my "Asian Brotha" again this weekend.
I will also post pictures on my blog this weekend, I have posted them on my facebook page but I will take and post more this weekend.
Until next time,
Jason
As stated in a previous blog I said I was going to start taking Chinese lessons.......let me tell you, this has to be the most difficult language to learn in the world. In fact, I think it would be extremely difficult for any westerner to learn as the pronunciation and function of the language is quite unique. First, in english, we have 26-27 letters that we use to pronounce words....each letter has a proper way of pronounciating and can only be written in 3 ways. Well in Chinese (Chinese Mandarin, not Chinese Cantonese) they do not have a alphabet or way of pronouncing words. Their language consists of a what they call "characters" which are basically strokes of the pin and these characters make up the words. There are somewhere between 5-10 thousand characters that make up the written form of the language as a whole and the written form of the language is still evolving to date. For instance, let's use the word car.........we know there is only 3 different ways (to my knowledge) to write this word,we can do it in lower case, upper case, or cursive which are all part of the written form of the english language. Well that same word in Chinese Mandarin can be written upwards of 50 different ways depending on the characters you use and what era of the language you are writing in; remember the language is still evolving so the written form has changed over time. A friend of mine writes the language completly different from her mother and vice versa..........but because her mother understands most of the characters used in this new form of the language, she can for the most part read the new language. The characters can also be a "sketched out" form of the word meaning the word turtle in one form of the written language actually looks like a line drawing of a turtle because of the characters that are used; the characters used for the word water are actually wave like to signify water. I hope you can follow that....it's a pretty difficult concept to grasp and even more difficult to explain over a blog.
The language also reads from from right to left and in columns rather than across the entire page like we do in the states. However, as the language continues to evolve, many of the younger generation Chinese are reading left to right and across the page like we do in western society. If you hear the language everyday you begin to pick up certain words and perhaps can have an idea of what people are talking about......all signage is in both english and chinese and people for the most part speak both, but often people speak Chinese Mandarin in leisure converstions, so it sometimes feels as though I hear more Chinese daily that English......unless I am having lunch with the American club at work (that's what they call the 3 of us). On that note, there is an American club here where other American expats get together hang out etc..probably something I will do when I have more time for sure.
Now regarding the food......I can't say I am totally adjusting toowell to this. There is a place next door to our office that I get lunch at everyday. It's a hawker center so it's basically chinese and indian fast food tightly packed into a covered outdoor area on the ground level of an old high rise building. The business are all family owned, the grandparents do the cooking, sons and daughters whom speak english serve the guests and and grandchildren helpout whereever they can. By US standards, I think most would consider this place just above a "dive/hole in the wall" but the food is quite good and it has a B rating. In Singapore, restaurants are rated on the their cleanliness and given a grade of A-D and they must display their cleanliness grade on their signage for guests to see.
For the most part, I pretty much get chicken fried rice everyday for lunch.....when I am feeling adventrous, I will get shrimp or as they call it here, prawn fried rice. I can now just walk up to the counter and when they see me they yell my order to their grandmother in Chinese. Today the grandmother saw me and said" You no get chicken fried rice, get something else"....I of course declined but in the future do plan to try other things. I have a friend in Chicago who is an amazing chef and he would probably be pretty disappointed with my food selections thus far, but I do plan to be more adventurous in the future.
This region loves spicy food, they put chili sauce and jalopenos on everything here. In fact, the restaurant next door always puts them all over my rice and you can imagine my disappointment to see a third of my food covered in this sauce and jalopenos, if you don't know this about me, I HATE spicy foods........a friend of mine in Chicago used to make fun of me and say that tomatoes made my eyes water, so you can imagine my frustration the first time I bit into that chili sauce covered rice. Chili sauce is also put on french frieds, all soap/liquid chinese dishes from what I can see, all meats etc. Because I am such a picky eater as they learned at work, I have been advised by many to bring along protein and power bars with me when I go to China for business as they are quite adventurous with their foods and when they are entertaining us westerners, they want us to try everything........I have been told they will try and feed me: pig tongue, goose feet, dog (but not the domestic kind), pig ears and many other strange foods to us westerners but delicacees in their culture.......oh and shark fin soap, so it looks like I will be packing a lunch for my first trip to China. But I am told they are sensitive to western taste buds and have began to ask us in advance if there is anything we won't eat, so I guess in my case that's everything but chicken fried rice.
The Chinese way of dining is also quite different from ours.......they do not like eating in open restaurants like we eat at in the states. Most restaurants are all private dining rooms and some have individual kitchens and bathrooms so that you don't mix with other guests. In fact, it's almost considered low class to eat out in the open in traditional chinese restaurants. You also only eat at round dining tables..........in the center of the table there is a lazy susan that spins around and will hold all of the food. People order a number of entrees and you just spin the lazy susan around and everyone shares, from my understanding no one orders their own entree. I am learning alot about these cultural differences because alot of the hotels I am working on, have a high end chinese restaurant in them; so in order to properly design a high end chinese restaurant, I am forced to learn how they traditionally dine, very different from us.
Not sure it made news in the US but there was a big earthquake that hit Indonesia, the island of Sumatra actually which is about 600km or 350 miles or so away, but it was an 8.0 shallow earthquake so for those of you that grew up on the west coast or have knowledge of earthquakes, you know that was strong, it was so strong, that most buildings here in Singapore were forced to evacuate because it shook us pretty good here as well. I am not sure if buildings here are built to withstand earthquakes but we had someone out this week assessing the damage.......it shook our office really good, you should have seen the people running for the door and grabbing their belongings.
From the last installment of my blog, I told you that I received confirmation that there are active camera in my apartment and my landlord offered to let me watch the footage if I wanted to see who has been stealing my water. I of course declined, but was told that I got in the shower the night of the incident at 1153pm and the culprit stole my water at approx. 1155pm...kind of creepy that someone can tell you what you did that precise huh? I also got an email about new house rules and some of them are as follows: No alcohol, bacon or any pork products on the premises, we can only have food in the fridge for 5 days at a time, we are no longer allowed to cook on the stove, only the microwave now, no guests can enter the premises they must wait outside for us, we must keep our room and bathroom doors closed at all times so we don't let the energy/chi of the house flow out (some feng shui thing), we must walk around decently clothed since both sexes are in the house, and we can only use the dining table......to dine, nothing else, no cpus, no paperwork nothing and we cannot wear shoes in the house and can only leave a maximum of 2 pairs in the shoe rack and all others must be kept in our room. My mother didn't even has rules this strict............but I must say, it's kind of how I run my house so in a strange way, I kind of respect the fact that she has these rules.......I suppose the only thing I personally would have done differently, is I would not have sent out an email to everyone, I would have handed the house rules to everyone on day one on a laminated card so they can have them in their wallet or purse at all times to serve as a reminder!!!!
Ok, I will save the remainder of my stories for my next installment. I hope you all are enjoying reading about my experiences over here, I sometimes have so much in my head I can't type fast enough and I don't want to have a entry that takes an hour to read either. On another note, I plan to get another hair this weekend so I will get to see my "Asian Brotha" again this weekend.
I will also post pictures on my blog this weekend, I have posted them on my facebook page but I will take and post more this weekend.
Until next time,
Jason
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