Wednesday, July 04, 2007

alienated.illiterate.culture-shock

And that's how exactly I am in this foreign country .. which happens to be where my roots came from. Perfect example of a banana and utterly shameless in proclaiming oneself of a race that I'm unfamiliar with. Or perhaps we could change the terminology from banana to jez OCBC (orang cina bukan cina).

I'm stuck here for the whole freaking week till for work until I'm transported again to a much westernized chinese country where English is much more accessible there i.e. Hong Kong. The first day at work has been hell for me .. coz all documents are in a language I will never master. Not a single character I can recognize besides the numeric characters of course. Even the basic 123 in chinese has to be made so complex that whatever is learnt in POL classes is not even useful.

And not to mention .. culture shock. It's amazing how people of the same race can vary so much when they're yet so close to each other and brought up with the same values. Am not degrading the people here, but I guess I'm jez not too used to their lifestyles thats all .. and I don't think I'll ever be ... when cleanliness, hygiene, stench and manners is a major problem for me. Or perhaps it's jez unfortunate for me to encounter all these in the first and second day ... and more to come. What a way to start your Monday morning by getting a close heart-attack from our taxi driver to the office. We literally freaked out when he dozed off .. yess.. he so did DOZED off a couple of times with SNORES, and made freaky actions to keep himself awake i.e. scratch his head so hard that I felt he could jolly well tear his scalp apart , shaked his head from left to right so hard as if he had an overdoze of E , and etc which are quite minor but still freaky.

I have yet to stop complaining about my series of unfortunate events ... so far ...
(1) The hotel that we first checked in has a weird stench .. bathroom even worse, where I guess someone left their "territorial markings" somewhere in the corner of the shower
(2) Weird taxi drivers .. the one on Monday morning, and the rest made me too nauseous to even enjoy getting to our destination
(3) Water here tastes funny .. it's a problem when I have to insert that liquid into my mouth whenever I shower or brush my teeth

I will stop bitching so much when I am compensated from the joy that Shanghai can offer me when I start shopping. That would very well be my conclusion of the trip .. I love Shanghai ! If only Chin would stop working now can go ahead with our plans to leave early to shop !!!

Reasons why I love Shanghai ... so far ..
(1) It's cheap .. it's always nice when you can "divide" instead of "multiply" whenever you do currency conversion
(2) There is Starbucks everywhere ... even fake Starbucks "Costa Coffee" which I am yet to try
(3) There is Haagen Daz everywher ... but it's expensive .. but GOOD !
(4) You get to fly here on Cathay Pacific and they serve Haagen Daz on every flight

Pu Xin Jie .. near the Bund .. pretty pretty lights and loads of people. Recommended only during Winter when it's not so warm !

Chen Huang Miao .. a must-go place .. for the Xiao Long Bao. Nyum nyummmm ... Very Very pretty as well .. it's amazing that people actually live in such buildings last time. So ancient but buildings are tastefully architectured .. compared to our wooden kampung houses! We had dinenr at Lao Di Fang ... nyum nyumm as well .. and I guess that building used to be some brothel or something. I think I watch too much TV !

At Pudong .. overlooking The Bund, or Shanghai Tan. Pretty Pretty !

My 3rd serving in 3 days .. but this is the far best, Belgian Choc! As you can see .. I've grown alot chubbier ... if only the chubbiness would go "elsewhere"

More food. I have been eating so much that I am food-phobic. I would tell Chin at the end of each day that I will NOT eat the next day .. but I can never be able to do what I have claimed. This is how much 2 people consumed .. conclusion, never dine with CheeKun if you're not game for a "sumptuos" meal.

It's a weird country ...

Their version of a "box file" for documents. WOW ! *in sarcasm of course! *evil*

A road with 7 lanes going in the same direction is complicated enough. Always stay on the 5th and 6th lane when you're drunk in China, you'll never know when you're reflexes are too slow to make the turn.

* * * * * *

Happy Birthday Jasmine !

A little late .. but better late than never .. love ya hun !!

A shopper , A MNG-addict , A friend from Hell ... all Bi-a-tch's .. whom love each other and be loved a whole lot !
BU-YAO-NIEN !!!!! *hey ... the mandarin is kicking in !! hahaha*

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Man I can't believe this..you even have the best taste in ice cream..

Belgian Choc..best in the world..no, the universe!

Hope you're having lots of fun there!

Anonymous said...

By the way, thanks for the input about the car..I think I'll probably go for the Dodge.

You know, I find myself struggling with another little dilemma..maybe you can shed some light for me.

It's high time I get a spiffy new notebook..what with my current one playing up quite a lot lately. What do you think? Big and beautiful or petit looker? Screen wise that is..

Let me know your thoughts..

AA said...

Shanghai really that bad? I found that it was okay... Maybe I haven't seen the real Shanghai...

aikon said...

I visited Shanghai 2 years ago. I found it ok too. On the contrary, I also found things are relatively more expensive than kl.

You should visit XinTianDi on weekends too..:)

Jamieternity said...

CC: Well, depends on whether you are on the move. A nice big screen is always so much better when you wanna work and surf the net .. really .. it makes a big difference. However, if you're always on the go, it's better to get a small and LIGHT one. I've been traveling for work, and even I'm kinda fed up with my 2.8kg notebook!