Posted on

Things I hate about Singapore.

I really don’t like to overgeneralize. I really don’t. But having been back during this time of year, three years in a row now, there are things that consistently bother me about the city I call my second home. It’s really difficult for me to reconcile a lot of social cultural differences in general and the things I’ll be talking about are enough to make it difficult for me to take the big step of living in Singapore and assimilating myself in the city for a good amount of time. I’ve had my fellow Singaporean friends confirm that these were all fair frustrations but of course, these are just based off of my own experiences so take it with a grain of salt and compare it with your own judgements. But let’s get started. Where does beautiful Singapore fall short?

Singaporeans are always late.

Singaporeans seem to have a different sense of time than North Americans. I’m often really shocked to hear that a 30-minute trip by train or car is “damn far” or “too long”. I live in Toronto, Canada and it’s very normal for people to travel one hour or more to get to work, meet up with a friend, get to the downtown core, etc. Topographically, Singapore’s a small country. I mean real small. For comparison, Toronto, a single city, is 630.2 km², while the whole country of Singapore is 719.1 km². Canada’s size? 9.985 million km². Canada’s the second largest country in the world by area, so I guess I might be comparing extremes here. Anyways, while we’re used to the trek, they are not and it will often be an excuse not to show.

If SGer’s are not complaining about the distance, they’re late. If I meet up with ten people, nine out of ten of them will be late. I’m not exaggerating. And I’m not just talking about ten, fifteen minutes. I’m talking about an hour+ here sometimes. I find that Singaporeans leave just enough time to do things, arrive to places and when meeting up with me, there isn’t any exception. They don’t seem to account for slow-downs and when they’re late it seems so much easier for them to blame it on circumstances that seem out of their control. I got held up a work. I didn’t know traffic would be like that. The MRT broke down. What bugs the hell out of me is when someone leaves once I’ve mentioned I’ve reached the destination at the intended time and that has happened to me on multiple occasions. Do I just have shitty friends? Regardless, I’ve stopped taking meeting schedules so seriously when I’m in Singapore. I think the Singaporean culture of being late comes from habit and mentality. Singapore as a city and Singaporeans pride themselves on efficiency (so kiasu) and they loathe wasted time and energy (so kanchiong) but it always seems to be at the other person’s expense, which leads me to my next point:

Singaporean service sucks.

Singaporeans seem value and prioritize efficiency at the cost of hospitality and it drives me absolutely insane. I was at Ya Kun Kaya Toast ordering breakfast with a friend. It was my first meal upon arriving, actually. “What do you want?” the cashier asks in Chinese, devoid of any sort of facial expression. My friend orders soft-boiled eggs, kaya toast and a Milo dinosaur for me, a set of distinctly Singaporean food items to set the vibe for my arrival. The cashier tells us the total. I held my money out almost right as she said it. Even though she was very aware that I was ready to pay, she did not acknowledge me and she went on to preoccupy herself with something else. She might have been shifting around plates on the counter, I’m not sure. But I stood there, hand out with money in my hand, waiting for her to collect it while she just watched me from her peripheral for an uncomfortably long time. She could have at least told me she’d take a moment. After she finally took my money and the transaction was done and over with, I made quite a fuss about it to my friend as we walked away and the impression I got from him was that I was being a little overbearing. “But it’s efficient”, he says.

A similar incident occurred at a Toast Box. The total came up to be $10.40. I gave her a fifty dollar bill. Just a second later, I informed the cashier I had 40 cents that I could give her. She made no gesture or acknowledgement that she had heard me say anything at all, not even giving me any sort of eye contact. She appeared to be rummaging for change for the initial amount I gave her so I said it again. Still no facial expression nor acknowledgement. But when she handed me back the change, I could see that she did in fact hear me as she accounted for the 40 cents that I hadn’t yet given her. I complained to my friend that the least she could do was say “OK” or nod at me. He responded by saying that he knew she heard it by her body language and that Singaporeans don’t have energy to waste on small things.

Small things? Efficiency should not be at the cost of service. I think I’ve been conditioned to expect a certain kind of service structure that North American establishments provide. Being greeted before being served, being told that someone would be a moment when they needed it, the culture of service with a smile, etc. I think I’ve been especially spoiled working as a restaurant evaluator in the past. I remember timing how long it took a server to refill my water or to note whether to not they greeted with eye contact and a smile within the first minute… Regardless, I’m entitled to have my own opinion and I think local service staff in Singapore are generally indifferent and rude. To be fair, I think my statement applies to very specific cases. Usually hotels, upscale dining, or basically anything that you would very obviously expect great service from, do pretty well. I’m mostly just complain about the service from casual and fast-food dining. In Singapore, it is common for you to see a 10% service charge on your bill and you are required to pay it regardless of whether or not you’ve received shitty service.

Singapore really prides itself on multiculturalism but it’s not true multiculturalism.

Singapore often prides itself as a multicultural nation and as a city that is often said to set an example of multiculturalism at work for the world. According to Wiki, as of 2017, “Singapore is a multiracial and multicultural country with ethnic Chinese (76.2% of the citizen population), indigenous Malays (15.0%), and ethnic Indians (7.4%) making up the majority of the population.” There are also major recognized racial groups like Eurasians and angmoh (Caucasian) ex-pats that are becoming increasingly common. Singapore furthermore has four national languages: English, Mandarin, Malay and Tamil. When you hear passenger announcements on the MRT or see pedestrian signs within the city, you will often hear and see all four languages being used. While Singapore is multicultural with a capital M, it isn’t truly multicultural in the way Toronto is. Singapore is very clique-y and it feels like there is a huge social gap between ethnic groups. You can definitely feel racial tensions and some sort of racially superiority complex going on when you’re there, with angmoh or perhaps the Chinese being on top and the migrant Malays being on the bottom. The kiasu mentality has made the typical Singaporean believe that blue-collar jobs are beneath them; to work in the service or construction industry is to be at the bottom of the rung, so menial labour jobs are often left to darker, migrant workers like Malays, Sri Lankens, Filipinos, Bangladeshis, etc. It’s shocking that these racial gaps exist within the younger generations. One thing that I noticed is that for a “multicultural” nation, there isn’t a lot of interracial dating going on between certain groups. While angmohs are on top of the dating chain, you will rarely see interracial dating between Chinese and Malays, although both are the largest ethnic groups. The Chinese will hang with the Chinese, the Malay with the Malays, the Indians with the Indians, and they all kind of stick to using their native tongue so it reinforces the division between them all.

Canada, like Singapore, prides itself on multiculturalism. According to StatsCan, one in every five people are foreign-born. Back home in Toronto, I can definitely feel a strong social intermingling of different ethnic groups and I think a strong reason for that is that we don’t have four national languages. Isn’t that ironic? The fact that everyone uses English, one common language to communicate, really promotes a sort of unity between everyone. And though we have existing stereotypes about ethinic groups and jobs that we giggle about (Indians in taxi cabs, Koreans in dry-cleaning shops, etc.), we have a fair distribution of people from different backgrounds doing every job. Could you imagine if it was only blacks doing construction menial labour?

I read an interesting article on the concept of multiculturalism here. It makes a really interesting point that using multiculturalism as a national identity is very “unbecoming of a self-professed global city”. If we think about it, multiculturalism should be a sort of baseline that every city should reach. It’s like professing that you’re LGBT-friendly — who shouldn’t be LGBT friendly? 

Singaporeans are close-minded.

This one probably gets to me the most. It’s really hard for me not to be self-conscious when I’m in Singapore. I’m told that because of the tattoos and coloured hair, I’m automatically assumed to be a degenerate and possibly an ah lian (There isn’t a North American equivalent but a bimbo comes close enough). In other words, Singaporeans will automatically assume that I am uneducated, unsophisticated and ignorant all based on the way I choose to dress and present myself. Singaporeans are expected to dress, act and speak in a certain way and once you break that image, people don’t seem to know how to take it. My cousin once said to me looking at my tattoos: “Why so man?” Tattoos are strangely understood to be a very masculine thing.

Singaporeans seem to live in a sort of bubble. Society dictates how you should behave, how you should not behave, and there is a shared aversion for things that do not conform to the norm. From young, children are taught how to progress in life and everything is mapped out: study hard, get good grades, get into university, get a job, save CPF, get married, buy a HDB flat, have a family and you teach that same cycle to your children. Sure, this all sounds very normal being raised in an Asian household but there are key details that make things significantly different. So CPF, or Central Provident Fund, is the Singaporean government’s way of taking care of its citizens. It is a mandatory social security savings scheme, which takes a percentage of your monthly salary (37% if you’re under 35 for an idea) which goes into an account that can only be accessed when you’re 55. In other words, you’re forced into having a retirement savings plan. End of story. Sure, it’s almost like a non-screw-up program and it’s great for some people but the fact of the matter is, Singaporeans can’t even choose when to spend their money and, a scarier reality, how they want to live their lives. Because Singaporeans don’t have the luxury of choice, they can’t afford the risk of disrupting this seamingless failproof bluemap. CPF’s not the only thing that robs its citizens choice. Another good example is a limitation on owning property: You cannot purchase an HDB flat as Singaporean single (not married) until you are 35.

Factors like these really set limitations on one’s lifestyle. Growing up in the Western world, I feel like I have the luxury of choice. I can choose to save or spend my money, I can choose to buy property, but ultimately, I can choose how I want to live my life and pursue a lifestyle that works for me. As a result, I have a wider perspective for what I want for myself, not only for my living preferences but also in understanding myself as a person, allowing me to further learn and grow. If I had been born in Singapore, I think things would be much different. I wouldn’t be so open-minded, so transient, so free to express myself. I’d be instantly tied down, another cog in an insular society, where the only obvious option would be to conform.

Singaporean girlfriends are batshit crazy. 

I’m not joking. This is a very serious point I have to make. I have to say, it’s really difficult making friends in Singapore because there will always be a batshit crazy girlfriend that will stir things up and cause some unnecessary drama. I have to have secret meet-ups with guy friends because they’ve been forbidden to hang out or speak to me. I have multiple crazy SG girlfriends stalking me while I’m in town or on social media in general. (Hi, Felicia). I have to play coy so I don’t set any alarms off that I’m a man-eating succubus from the West. Let me share some super short stories:

I watched a proposal video of a friend’s brother who lovingly said to his wife-to-be: “I’ll never to take another photo with another girl ever again”.

I was in a photo with six guy friends that we had taken during Halloween Horror Nights at Universal Studios. One of the guy’s girlfriends saw the picture and asked him, “Where are her friends? Why is she hanging out with you guys?”

I hung out with a guy who told me not message him about us hanging out because he wasn’t allowed to hang out with girls and his girlfriend read all his messages.

So yes, I have to say: Singaporean girlfriends are just insecure as fuck. I’m speaking generally, of course. 🙂

Alcohol is damn expensive.

My friend Toast pointed out that I missed this point so I’m adding this one after I’ve posted. One thing I love to do is seek out the best cocktail bars that a city has to offer but in Singapore, it’s a very, very expensive activity. Cocktails are on average $20-25 each and a beer’s around $15, unless you’re drinking in a hawker centre where it’ll be around $6.50 or so. Alcohol is heavily taxed and it makes drinking a luxury, I’d say. I had been a little more controlled this trip around, training for the Standard Chartered Marathon but I can’t say it’s been easy to go through a night without emptying out my wallet.

So, those are my main issues with a city I still very much love… and I’m actually back in Singapore on the 9th. Anyone want to hang out and not be late?

Posted on

FUCK, I ACCIDENTALLY INGESTED CAFFEINE. !@#$%^&

Fuck. So, I’m in Hanoi and I’m accidentally hopped up on caffeine right now. For those of you that need context, I’m caffeine-sensitive and having a cup of tea keeps me up all through the night, even if I have it during the morning. Tonight, I had a whole fucking pot. Right now, I feel hot, twitchy and panicked right now because I know I’m not going to be able to sleep for a very, very long time.

So in Vietnam, they do this thing where they mix tea leaves with caffeine in teas that are not normally caffeinated. I was on a junk ship that was serving lemongrass tea to its guests. Now, because of my condition, I am very familiar with which teas are caffeine-free: mint tea, camomile tea, rooibos tea, ginger tea, to name a few and lemongrass tea is one of them too. But when I took a sip, I could taste the flavour of tea leaves. I think it was black tea. I asked the staff to confirm and they informed me that yes, their lemongrass tea had Lipton tea mixed into it. I dodged a bullet. But only once.

Just less than an hour ago, I was eating at a restaurant and I ordered myself a camomile tea. It’s always been a safe choice for me. They brought me a pot, with a side of honey and a packet of sugar. I didn’t really think much about it and I drank it with my meal as always. It wasn’t until the last cup where I realized that it didn’t taste like a regular camomile tea. Actually, it tasted like green tea. I panicked and looked at the tab on the tea bag. It said “camomile tea” and there was some Vietnamese on it that probably said the same thing. I reassured myself that I was fine and took a couple more sips  But I went back to the same thought… it really tastes like green tea… I open the pot to look at the tea bag and what do you know, the camomile was mixed with green tea leaves. WHAT THE FUCK? There was even more green tea than there was camomile. WHAT THE FUCK!

Whatever. It’ll pass. I just have to see how long it will take for this to pass through my system. Maybe I’ll go for a run. I was wondering if taking melatonin would counteract or negate the caffeine but experiences vary and are very dissimilar on the forums I’m reading. Fucking hell… someone just please knock me out… 

Posted on

Run, rabbit, run.

Less than 48 hours until the SG Standard Chartered Marathon and my legs are still sore from training and my sleep patterns are more fucked up than ever. The run’s at 4:30AM so it might actually help since I’ve been waking around 5AM daily. I’m kind of excited and nervous all at same time; I want to push myself to my limit but I’m afraid I won’t do as well as I want. The forecast calls for rain and that terrifies the shit out of me. Last time I had to deal with that, I had blisters on my feet and a terrible score. Fingers crossed and praying to the gods on my auntie’s alter for a change of weather. Running’s been a little more liberating than usual for me in the past days and been helping me keep things off my mind. The last run I went through East Coast Park, to Marina Bay to the Marina Barrage and it was fucking amazing. The beach, the skyline, the lights… it was all so surreal. I hope the race views will be just as impressive. I just need my body to keep up with me…

I haven’t been doing very much this trip other than running, eating and spending a lot of time indoors. It’s a huge contrast from last year and the year before. Looking for boars and bothering monkeys on Pulau Ubin, exploring temples and museums, cocktail bar hopping, searching for the legadary wild cow on Coney Island… which is apparently dead now. Come to think of it, it might have already been dead when I was searching for it. Whoops. Also, I haven’t been playing Gitadora much. Who am I? I think I’m just drained from work. And with plenty of sleepless nights, I’ve been trying conserve a lot of energy for my runs. I’m not stressing over it any which way. I’m guess I’m just on different footing right now.

Wish me luck for my run.

//

notable eats so far:

Peranakan @ The Peranakan Restaurant

salted fish skins @ Irvin’s (People line up an hour before opening and it sells out. Worth the wait.)

Seafood [cereal prawns, yam scallop rings] @ Jumbo

Had cereal prawn three times now… First time around I peeled the shells off. Noticed my friend didn’t have any left over on his plate so the second time around, I peeled and ate, half and half. On the third try, I just motherfucking ate them all, head and tail intact. Like a true homegrown Singaporean. What what. Can’t say it was a completely enjoyable experience though…

Posted on

Goliaths, heads in the sky. 

Arrived to a very rainy Shanghai and left it that way too. I’m a little bummed out because I was really looking forward to run on The Bund, especially because the skyline was so beautiful and the temperature was nice. I was expecting colder based on my trip to Beijing last year but it was more like Toronto late summer/early fall, where it’s warm enough to wear a tee and shorts but chilly enough to keep me cool during the run. The rain was light but it lasted my whole layover so I got myself a cheap, pretty-but-tacky umbrella. I guess it’ll come in handy for my stay in Singapore, which is my next stop. I really need to fucking get myself some waterproof shoes because I was stuck with wet socks and shoes again. Eventually I got fed up and just changed to my flip flops. I think people were really weirded out by that. Again, Chinese people were really bundled up while I was wearing a hoodie and skirt… and flip flops. Maybe they were just judging my clothing coordination… like a socks and sandals sort of thing. I was thinking to myself, “Why doesn’t everyone do this? This is amazing!” I’m talking about wearing sandals in the rain. You don’t have to worry about ruining a nice pair of shoes or the nasty feeling of having feet trapped in soggy socks; It made so much sense to me… until I got my foot stepped on in transit. Ouch.

I took transit during my last trip but I didn’t end up getting on a trains that were super crowded. This time I did. People were crammed, pressed up against each other and no one seemed to mind, especially because a lot of people were fiddling on their phones over someone else shoulder or head or the other way around. I tried to take the pushing a lot less personally this time. I actually pushed people myself. It was kind of exhilarating, actually. It was like a mild therapy for my pent-up frustrations.

Crossing the street still scares the shit out of me. Like being on the train, people just have a different sense of space here. Cars and motorcycles are too close for my comfort and like most Asian countries, they don’t stop for you. While crossing the street, people will weave past me, inches away from hitting me. I remember when I first learned the trick from Mike: Act predictable. Don’t suddenly stop. I still hold my breath every time and I pray that I don’t die.

I don’t think I did anything particularly special this quick trip. I guess my highlights were walking The Bund, having a hot pot of tea while overlooking the city at Aura, and eating some delicious dumplings at Yang’s Dumpling. I ran out of yuan so I’m eating Burger King right now. At least it’s one of those novel local specialties, a mango spicy chicken burger. It had two large slabs of mango on top of a crispy fried chicken. Well, it was supposed to be crispy. Sounded better in my head than the taste in my mouth. Oh well.

I’m just one flight away from seeing all my family and friends in SG. I’m really excited to catch up with everyone. (That and using GMail, Google Maps and Instagram.) My ears perk up every time I hear a Singaporean accent. I’m so in love with Singapore… Why don’t I live there yet…

Posted on

Deprived, depraved, in more ways than one. 

My insomnia has been particularly awful to me these last few days. It’s been so hard for me to get to sleep and with the chances that I do, I just keep waking through the night, even after having melatonin under my tongue. SOS. My sleeping arrangements have been so different night-to-night so maybe my body’s having a little trouble adjusting. I think I had a good opportunity to take a nap yesterday but I fucked it up by sipping on some pu er (poh leh?) during dim sum. Whoops. Anyways, I’m on a plane on the way to Shanghai. I thought I’d have better luck here being especially sleep-deprived but still no luck. So as usual, I’m here to ramble and complain.

I have to say, Chinese people are fucking weird. I’m allowed to say that, right? Never in my life have I been on a flight that has been more bewildering than the ones going to China. My first experience with a China flight was to Beijing, around the same time last year. Can’t say I’m used to the social mannerisms of those of the mainland. With that flight, garbage was strewn everywhere. On the table tops in the the waiting area and the plane floor. It was awful. People flooded the line to board, far before pre-boarding and couldn’t seem to understand how the boarding zones worked. At least there was a line, I guess. I remember eating A&W breakfast next to someone who shared the same flight with me, peeved at him chewing with his mouth open. Ugh, the worst! People just spoke in loud Mandarin all around, trying to speak over each other. It was a lot for me to handle and it was a small consequence for snagging a cheap flight.

This flight was a similar experience. While boarding, I was pushed by a much larger woman, trying to get ahead of me though I was clearly in front of her. I scolded her. Not even a minute later, I spotted an older man shamelessly pick his nose. I think he saw my disgust on my face and the extra space I gave him when I was walking past him down the aisle. And again, the Mandarin was irritatingly loud. Sometime during the flight, I had a Chinese congregation form in front of me. People were just standing around, talking, laughing, having multiple conversations over each other BUT REALLY LOUD. I started off with a very comfortable arrangement. My friend had upgraded me to the spacey emergency row and my neighbours were pleasant. (Both gentlemen in my row were not from China and I wonder if it would have been a different experience next to people who were. Am I being too prejudicial?) Fahrenheit 451 with Maximum the Hormone coming through my new headphones. Not bad, not bad at all. But suddenly I had these rowdy guys in front of me and I couldn’t stand it. It was so bad that I had to get up and ask a flight attendant to help do something about it. I’ve been starting to learn to speak up for myself.

“I hate to be a bother but there are a bunch of people —“

She cut me off because she knew exactly what I was talking about. While she apologized to me for having to deal with that, I watched a woman grab a large stash of cookies for herself from the kitchen storage area. One of the Chinese-speaking flight attendants went to shoo them off for me. Easy resolution, I guess.

I had a nice seat to observe people. I don’t know what it is but Chinese people really love to do these weird physical motions. I think they do it for health reasons and it’s part of some obscure Chinese self-help physiotherapy. Like any flight when the seatbelt sign turns off, many people get up, stand around, walking about to recirculate the blood in their legs. But many people on this flight were swaying their hips or squatting in the middle of the aisles. Bums an inch off the floor, up, bum back down, up again. People were also standing around, lightly pounding themselves with their fists against their wrists, their backs, their heads, each other. Bizarre.

// Beijing

I faced a few additional Chinese bad habits while I was in the city. People were spitting everywhere, I was being pushed around on transit, things like that. But apart from that, I had a really fun time exploring Beijing on my own. It was a super spontaneous; I barely had any idea where I was going and Google Maps was blocked but I managed to find myself catching sights and stumbling in areas that really took me by surprise. First thing I did after getting off the plane was wash up at my hotel. It was a “five-star hotel” but it was definitely a two-star hotel by North American standards. I remember scrutinizing the blackened, half-used eraser I had in a stationary box on my desk. I got in and out as soon as I can.

It was a couple of hours before sunrise. I didn’t have data so I simply decided to follow random strangers. I would change who to follow every here and there as my mood changed. Pretty soon, I found myself walking with a ton of people walking in the same direction. Followed them for a bit more and discovered the flag-raising ceremony that way. It was pretty cool. Have to say the Chinese anthem sounds pretty grand.

All throughout the city, people were standing around in groups doing tai-chi, dancing, badminton, etc., in the middle of nowhere. All in huge, thick jackets too. Chinese people really can’t deal with the cold. People were bundled up like it was Antartica. I was layered up with a sweater, skirt and scarf and so many people would ask me, “(need to insert this when I can access Google Translate) “ (You’re not cold?!) One guy yelled that to me while moving fast on a bike, as if he didn’t care to hear my answer. I weaved through spit on temple grounds, ate jien bing with extra hot sauce from a street cart, and survived crossing the streets. I remember sitting around a cute cafe, sipping on mulled wine somewhere in Hutong, a surprisingly hip area.

Hopefully this trip will be just as fun. I didn’t want to pack my Goose so I’m pretty much wrapped up the same way I was last year. Need to come up with something snappy when people ask me if I’m cold. Anyways, my energy’s dwindling. Sorry if my writing has lack of flow and is a little oddly segmented this post. Haven’t been able to think straight without enough sleep and the endless gin doesn’t help.

I don’t have access to Facebook, Instagram, etc. by the way. Don’t get offended. Get over yourself.

Posted on

Sulk and Ramen

You know what really sucks? Eating something you don’t enjoy eating, alone. And that’s what I did tonight. I don’t think I hate ramen but it definitely wouldn’t be something I’d pick for a meal if I had the choice. Ramen, bahn mi (also most other cold cut sandwiches), and traditional Chinese food are all at the very bottom of my list for choice of meal. But I was with a couple and I let them have the pick. I never like to choose the restaurant when I’m among friends. I usually feel a lot of pressure to pick something that people are happy with and think I have an easier time adapting to others than the other way around. So ramen it was.

It started off like a typical night but my friends were clearly stressed with some work-related issues that went on today. We were at Ramen Koika, downtown Vancouver. Though I don’t really enjoy eating ramen, I do my best to pick something that will soften the blow. I ordered the Asari Miso Ramen. The picture looked pretty good. It had a shit-ton of clams and had an option to made spicy so it was an easy choice for me. The couple was with, both ordered black garlic ramen.

Noodles came. One of the reasons I don’t enjoy eating ramen is because I have a lot of trouble handling hot (temperature) foods and I usually have to wait a long time for it to cool down before I can start eating it. So I started to eat all the clams first and it took me a while to realized that they fucked up my ramen. They forgot to make it spicy. They had no issue replacing it but they were going to take some time to make me a new one.

“But I ate all the clams already”

“That’s okay.”

I felt a little small victory that I would be able to eat another full serving of clams. By the time the new bowl came, my friends had pretty much finished theirs. One of them continued talking to me but it appeared that there was a bit of tension between the two of them. A bit more time in, they began to argue. It was very awkward for me. I didn’t do much but look down at my full bowl and poke my noodles around. At some time, I broke one of the awkward moments of silence and encouraged my friends to go home and sleep things off because they were clearly stressed. They were going to drop me home initially but I thought it better that they didn’t have to wait around for me and they could sort things out amongst themselves sooner rather than later. They agreed and went home. 

So there I was. Me, and a bowl of ramen. After my friends had left, every bite I took just got more and more unenjoyable. It’s not like I haven’t had ramen before. I’ve had ramen with friends plenty of times. When they suggest it, I don’t even bat an eye. I guess I’m okay eating something I don’t enjoy as long as the company I’m with is enjoying it. This, however, was the very first time I was alone, stuck with food that I ordered, that I really didn’t enjoy eating. I don’t even know why I continued eating as much as I did. I got to about to the half-way point and then I asked for the rest to be packed up. I don’t even know what I’m going to do with the leftovers tomorrow morning. I think what made eating my ramen even more depressing was that One More Light by Linkin Park was playing. That, and it costed me $18 after tax and tip. Bleh. Get me some French food or something.

Tonight kind of made me open my eyes to how much I’ve kind of been spoiling myself lately when it comes to eating when I’m solo. Generally, I very much enjoy everything I choose to eat and never choose something simply out of maintenance. And I intend to keep it that way. I should never settle for less but I’m such a pushover when I’m with company.

//

People always get really shocked and appalled when I say I don’t like ramen. They just don’t get it. So let me make a case for myself and tell you my reasons:

  1. As mentioned, I have trouble eating hot foods so I tend to avoid meals with things like hot soup.
  2. Ramen is really heavy and I don’t like the bloated feeling after eating it.
  3. It’s high-calorie.
  4. I generally don’t prefer wet or moist foods. That includes things that are steamed. I rather have something with a drier texture like something that’s fried or raw veggies or something.
  5. It’s messy and being a clumsy eater, I always end up staining my shirt.
  6. I rather eat pasta and pasta’s not really high on my list either.
  7. I generally don’t like carbs (that’s another can of worms, ain’t it?)
  8. And I rather eat more meat and veggies than noodles.
Posted on

Trust me, I’m a nice person.

There’s something that’s been on my mind lately. I don’t know if it’s just me but I feel like people have been rather mean to me lately. More often now than ever, strangers will approach me with hostility and aggression offhand when they speak to me. And when I say ‘lately’, I mean in the past year. What I think it is, is the look I’ve adopted. Maybe the tattoos, the hair and the crazy nails make me look like a bitch or something. I’m not sure. But I certainly don’t remember having this degree of antagonism in my life. Everything I wrote in my previous post still holds true; I get more interactions with strangers now with the tats and I can now further affirm that the increased interactions are both positive and negative interactions.

The thing that got me thinking about all this was something that happened to me yesterday. I was on a bus in Vancouver. I had been doing a lot of shopping this week from the Erdem x H&M collection so I had two enormous bags with me. And me, being me, I was also holding a large 15-pound box. I couldn’t handle holding everything on the moving bus so I stood by a seat and put my box down on it. The guy sitting next to my box gruffly said, “People can sit there, you know?”. I told him that I could sit down and hold the box if it made him feel any better. I think it was my attempt at be passive-aggressive. He said, “No, for old people.” To be fair, I was somewhere by the front — not the very front, but all the handicapped priority seats were empty besides one which was occupied by the old fat man scolding me. I didn’t want to argue with him so I picked up my box. It was too big for me to hold with one arm so here I was, clutching onto it, unable to use any bus handles to keep me stable. With giant bags on each shoulder, both larger than me no less, I was performing some balancing act for everyone else on that bus. When the bus stopped to let people on, a young girl, who looked similar in age to me, sat next to him. He didn’t say anything to her. I really wanted to say something to him like, “She’s not old; why didn’t you tell her off?” But I didn’t. I kind of regret it. Fortunately, someone sitting a few seats down backed me up. He asked to hold my box for me even though I declined a couple times initially. I gave up when he insisted that I was going to hurt myself. For the next few stops, I stood there, battling with my typical social anxiety in my head. I was frustrated just looking at that fat old man and the guilt I felt from a stranger helping me didn’t help. A few stops later, the seat beside the man helping me cleared up so I sat down beside him. I thanked him a million times and gestured for him to pass over the box. He refused and was happy holding it for me for the rest of the way. He told me not to worry about that man, that some people were just really inconsiderate and there wasn’t much to do about them. He said it really loud as if he wanted him to hear it. I felt a little better when he said that to me.

I’m really glad that stranger helped me. If not, I think I would have just holed myself up in my place and sulked all night. Experiences like that really get to me. They leave me stressed out and upset for the rest of the day and maybe even for a few days following. I still ask myself why that happened. What was it that caused that man to speak to me that way and not to the other girl, especially when I was clearly struggling? I felt like I was getting picked on. I can totally see people assuming that I look like a rich, spoiled Asian girl who thinks she’s entitled to everything. Is that it? Or am I just overthinking things? I guess it’s a nice thought to believe that I have some control over how people are treating me… I’ll continue about this another time…

Posted on

Not-So-Scary Halloween Party, Halloween Horror Nights, Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival 2017

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween. I thought it would be a good time to talk about my experiences at Universal’s and Disney’s Halloween events. So I recently had my second trip in Orlando ever and I still didn’t get the chance to check out the city outside of the theme parks. I don’t know why but Disney has always been a little underwhelming for me. I never got to go as a child so I think for years and years, I really hyped it up and I ended up making it way more glittery and magical in my head. Maybe I would have appreciated it a lot more as a child but for my adult self, it was just a lot of waiting in line for rides that were just okay. I don’t think I’d consider going back to Disney World unless it was for one of their marathon runs, which is something on my bucket list.

There were two unique events that were going on this particular visit that were pretty fun. The first event I got to check out was their Halloween event held at night called the Not-So-Scary Halloween Party at Magic Kingdom. It was a night filled with Halloween-themed performances, people dressed up, and candy! I don’t know what it is about Halloween but it’s always been my favourite time of the year so having the opportunity to trick-or-treat without being judged with how old I am is such an amazing thing. I got to dress up, so witchy and bitchy, I amassed a ton of sweets for myself. There was one particular thing that kind of sucked about this event and it was, as the name makes it clear, not so scary. Actually, it wasn’t scary at all. The “scariest” thing that happened was them playing the This is Halloween song from The Nightmare Before Christmas. Nothing eerie, nothing spooky, at least to my standards. The vibe was so toned down that it didn’t even feel like a Halloween celebration anymore. There was cherry Halloween music… How is that even a thing? It makes sense though; they do it to accommodate all the young children and to possibly avoid a lawsuit in their hands. I’m not sure if it was worth it. Not-So-Scary required it’s own ticket, close to $100USD on top of the day pass. So if you wanted to spend the morning at Magic Kingdom and experience the Halloween event at night, you’d be spending at least $200USD just in one park.

Now, the Halloween event at Universal was a completely different story. They hold Horror Nights on the weeks leading to Halloween. (This is also an evening event with a separate price tag, around $65, depending on what tickets are available). Now, I don’t get scared by these sort of things; it’s really hard to get me to jump or react in a haunted house but I have to say that the haunted houses at Universal are CRAZY. I’ve been to the Horror Night event in Singapore but it has no comparison. The ones in Orlando are all based on horror movies like The Shining, American Horror Story and Saw so it was really cool to see these and kind of be within them. One of the most memorable things was being about to see The Purge enacted in person, with an auctioneer selling people off. A cool thing about the houses was that the actors had recorded sound effects or recordings from the movies that they would jump out at you with, at an extremely large volume. I guess that’s bad news for people who are bad with jump scares. My favourite part of this event were these scare-zones where actors would just wander within or stake out to scare you. I’m like the only small Asian girl in all of the park so of course, I was everyone’s target. I kind of felt like I got the full experience because of it, haha. But I also felt a little guilty that I couldn’t give the actor’s a reaction that they wanted to get out of me. So between the two Halloween events, Universal definitely takes the cake unless you’re like four.

The other unique Disney event I got to go to was Epcot’s International Food and Wine Festival. You pay the regular day-pass ticket price for the event but all the food and wine needs to be purchased. So like the other parks, it’s a day of lining up but this time it’s to spend money food.  The lines weren’t bad but being in line is definitely the majority of the experience. Still, I’d say it’s a pretty cute event and definitely meant for adults. They gave us a little passport to keep track of what food you’ve tried and from what country. Epcot normally has eleven pavilions for countries including Japan, Canada, and Germany, but for the Food and Wine Festival, they added way more countries and had a total of 39 different themed food areas that you could purchase from. Completed the passport, of course. Not only because I’m a glutton but mostly because I’m kiasu (afraid to lose in Singlish), and I don’t like to lose a challenge. The dishes averaged around $6-8USD which is not bad but when you’re trying to try something from each kiosk, it adds up. But they were impressively pretty yummy and I’d say it was worth it to check out.

The thing about Orlando parks and their events is that they’re so expensive. If it’s not spending money just for getting in, it’s spending money on overpriced food, a Fast Pass because the lines are unbearably long and you can’t see everything otherwise, or another ticket to allow you to check out another area of the park on the same day. Fortunately I had some friend-perks but it still ate up lots of cash and a lot of time waiting in line. If I had to choose on picking a vacation for myself, I would definitely choose going to an exotic city over going to Orlando parks. It’d be cheaper, less tourist-y and more exciting in general. I do have to say that I haven’t been to either Universal or DisneySea in Japan so I’d like to check those out.

Posted on

What’s in my carry-on bag?

I’ve been getting some good reception on posts concerning travel so I’ll try to post a little more of them. Thanks for the support! Today, I’m posting about some of my favourite nifty things I like to keep with me for my flights and my adventures in general. The things you’ll see in common here are small compact items that have great use. There’s no denying I’m a materialist and I like to seek out the best of the best for the things I use in my everyday life. Most of the items are a bit on the pricier side but they are definitely worth every penny to me. I tried to find everything in Canadian prices to the best to my degree but some items are only available to buy in other currencies.

The bag itself // Studio Settlement Tarpaulin Backpack in Cloud Pink by Herschel, $149.99CAD: While I have several different bags that I use as my carry-on, the is one of my favourites. It’s water-resistant and the zippers are specially constructed to keep your things dry from the elements. I admit, pastel pink is a poor choice of a travel bag colour but I couldn’t resist! Fortunately this bag comes in many other colours including black, grey and “cinnebar”. They come in a larger mid-volume size for the same price.

What’s inside // Jump Cable by Native Union, $49.99USD: This compact little baby is a 2-in-1, working as a connecting cable and a battery.

Unlike power banks, the Jump cable charges itself after the device is fully charged. I love to keep this around as emergency power for my phone. It gives an approximate 25% charge for my iPhone and it’s compact enough to be put in a pocket. It comes in lightning and micro-usb connection and includes a limited lifetime warranty.

Astro E1 Power Bank by Anker, $17.99USD: One of my biggest fears is a dead phone while travelling but with this battery around, I have nothing to worry about. Built with advanced high-speed charging technology, this external battery is very compact yet high capacity at 5200mAh and it allows me to fully charge my phone two times over while I’m on the move. It comes in white, red and blue and it also has a 18-month warranty.

Mini USB-Lightning Cable by Panasonic, 1,880Yen: Bought this itty-bitty cable from BIC Camera during a recent Tokyo trip. It’s only 5cm long, making it very compact and very convenient to carry around whenever I need to connect my phone with a battery. Its short length also helps prevent against cable breakage.

Annika Hanging Garden Travel Wallet by Ted Baker, 89Pounds: Not only is this wallet super cute and feminine but it has a ton of card slots, eight to be exact, and several compartments to help keep me organized. Inside there are designated sections for boarding passes, receipts and other documents. It means never ever having to fold a boarding pass ever again! It comes with a passport holder and there’s even a compartment for that, making the passport removable when it’s in need. It’s really handy being able to keep my cash, cards and passport all in one place. This particular floral design is out of production but every season they have different designs to choose from. Made from 100% bovine leather. [photo not mine, will replace soon!]

Garavani Rockstud Card Holder by Valentino, $340.00CAD: When I’m doing some shorter trips, I like to ditch my large wallets altogether and just carry the essentials in this beauty. Made with quality calf leather, it has four card slots and a main slip compartment for a few bills, receipts and other small slim items. It comes in a varying colours depending on the season. Made in Italy. [not happy with this photo; will replace soon]

Le Petite Prince Diary 12-Month Daily Pocket Planner, ~$22.00CAD by Moleskine: I’m a type of person that prefers pen to paper over typing into my phone or on a computer so this pocket planner is just perfect for me. This is a daily planner, allowing me to write in my varying day-to-day schedule in detail. There is also a monthly section at the front so I can plan far down the road. The Le Petite Prince cover was limited for 2017 but they have new limited covers every year including a Star Wars one I got for myself for 2018.

Classic Sport Ballpoint Pen in Transparent by Kaweco, ~$30.00CAD: Yet again, another compact item for the trip. Since I’ve always got to carry around a pen for custom forms, I thought it better to get something sleek and classy. This was actually a replacement for my Swarovski Crystalline pen which I had lost but I love the Classic Sport a hundred times more. It’s a pretty steep price for a pen but as with most luxury items, the quality of it is simply marvellous. It’s lightweight, and made of a high-quality plastic resin barrel and the retraction movement is as smooth as butter — it’s pretty cool! The Sport is made to keep the original octagonal design that Kaweco developed in 1955. It utilizes a D1 international ballpoint refill so it will be easily to replace when it’s time. Made in Germany.

SoundSport In-Ear Headphones by Bose, $99.95CAD: These headphones are designed specifically for vigorous exercise and it works perfect for my runs wherever I am. The sound quality is astounding, keeping me pumped and pushin’. It’s sweat-resistant and there’s an inline mic/remote that lets you easily control volume, skip tracks and take calls without having to reach for your device. The silicone tips are designed to improve in-ear stability, increased noise reduction and for a comfortable fit. When you purchase these headphones, they come with all small, medium and large tips for varying ear sizes. Comes in a variety of colours and Bose offers a 30-day free trial for this product.

12-inch Macbook, 512GB in Rose Gold by Apple, starting at $1,729.00CAD: I’m not going to pretend I know much about computers so you can check out the link I’ve posted. All I know is that I love my lightweight rose-gold thing of beauty.

Wool Laptop Sleeve for MacBook 12-inch by Pack & Smooch, $90CAD : Bought this laptop sleeve a long while ago when they were only available on Etsy and since then they’ve become an Apple store product. It’s not surprising considering its fine quality. It’s made of 100% Merino wool so it’s super soft and the grip pad is made from vegetable-tanned Italian leather. There is a storage compartment that is great for storing a USB-C multiport adaptor and other small items. One of the coolest things about this case is that it’s designed to allow you to charge your laptop without taking it out of the sleeve. When Pack & Smooch designed this case, they had the Macbook’s thinness in mind so like it, the sleeve is made to be thin but with strong magnetic closures. Pack & Smooch makes a variety of laptop cases in different sizes as well as other high-quality products such as phone cases, mouse pads and bags. Made in Germany.

Camera Lenses and Phone Case by Moment, various prices: As I mentioned in a previous post, I love having an alternative to lugging around a heavy professional camera and the gear from Moment allow me to take awesome shots, quick and easy. Their newer lens models mount right over the camera of the new iPhones and dozen of Android phones. If you use an iPhone 6/6s like I do, you can use a specially designed case to attach the lenses. Small enough to be put in a pocket or small purse, they’re easy to bring anywhere and everywhere. They have a telephoto, wide, macro and fish lens available and all of them have a 12-month warranty.

Round FlashSunglasses with Lilac Mirror Lenses and Gold Frames by Ray-ban, $190CAD: One of my favourite gifts to help me blend in with the hipsters, wherever I need to. The lilac tint is just too cute; it’s a subtle but a truly unique touch to my outfits. Always comfortable on my face or whenever they’re just sitting on top of my head. The mirror lenses themselves have high shine and have a coating that helps reduce glare. The one-way mirror also helps hide my tired travel eyes when I come out makeup-less from the plane. Ray-Bans sunglasses come in a variety of lens colours or frame colours and will vary in price.

Have any other travel topics or other topics in general that you’d like me to cover? Submit them here. In the meantime, pack well, travel well and you’ll hear from me soon.

Posted on

Mormons and Mountains: thoughts on Salt Lake City 

For a long time, I’ve wanted to go to Salt Lake City. Most people go to check out the mountains and the national parks but I’ve always really wanted to go see the Mormons. I’m serious. I’m not religious but I’ve always been a little fascinated with religion and enough to take a ton of university courses on it. One of my final papers was on the culture of Latter-Day Saints.

I saw my first Mormon, in missionary uniform right at the airport after stepping out of the plane. He had the typical white dress shirt, black pants with a little black name tag that said Elder whatever-his-name-was. It kind of set me up for an expectation that there would be a lot more Mormons in uniform walking about but I didn’t see anyone else other than him at the airport.

So I was at the pick-up zone and I requested for an Uber ride for me to get to my place from the airport. The driver I got turned out to a very sweet lady who helped me deal with my luggage. When I got into the backseat, I heard that she was playing a very different kind of music at a louder-than average volume but I didn’t mind it. She got into the front, started driving, and we had the typical Uber chit-chat. I started to see all the mountains which were right by the city and they were stunning. They were very different from the mountains on the Canadian West Coast which are very green and eternally ice-capped. These ones were dry at this time of year and had a dusty orange-y clay colour that kind of served as a nice background that enhanced the colour of the Autumn leaves. In between the chit-chat, she’d sing along to the music.

“You’re the one true thing I know I can believe in. You’re the things that I desire you save me you complete me.”

It wasn’t radio music. It was much more mellow and it was definitely being played from a CD because the next song had the same singer. I had a feeling it was religious but I wasn’t sure. A couple more songs in, I had an even stronger suspicion.

“Heaven bend to take my hand and lead me through the fire.”

Out of curiosity, I used SoundHound to tell me what I was listening to. Turns out it was Sarah McLachlin. Prior to this Uber ride, I had no idea who Sarah McLachlin was. I’ve heard the name in passing but didn’t really know what kind of music she sang but being in that 45-minute Uber ride, I really got to know who she was. And though Sarah McLachlin does not claim she is religious, her songs sound oddly Christian. My first hour within Salt Lake City definitely had left me with a strong impression of mountain and mormons.

The main thing to see within the Salt Lake City was Temple Square. Because the entire city is architecturally designed around the Church, this complex is right smack in the middle of downtown. Even within the city, I didn’t see as many uniformed Mormons as I had expected and though it didn’t look like the musical cast of Book of Mormon, it was really easy to pick out who was Mormon based on how they dressed. If I had to describe it in as few words as possible, I’d call it conservative-preppiness. The men were usually clean cut, clean shaven, in fitted dress shirts and nice shoes. The women tended to wear skirts that go past the knee, with either boots or short heels. Both usually look like they came straight out of church and maybe it was coincidence but their shoes would always stand out.

Temple Square, typical Mormon dress.

I strolled through this area for a while and though I was too shy to go into any buildings like the visitor center, I spent a lot of time looking at the Mormon statues. While I was studying one of them, I saw a missionary smile at me from a distance and walk towards me. I couldn’t help but panic and I quickly walked away because I was afraid of any sort of conversion speak.

If I’ve learned anything from the past, it’s that it’s really hard to say ‘no’ to a Mormon. For my university paper, I chose to study Mormons, because I knew they’d come straight to my house instead of me having to go to them. Yes, I was interested in studying their beliefs and culture but my laziness was kind of an added factor for this religious group to be my pick. No shame. They assigned me to the closet church within the vicinity of my neighbourhood and that church assigned two sisters to me who came to my house the day after I had sent in a request to speak to someone. When they came in, they introduced themselves to me, told me a little bit about their views and even let me keep a Book of Mormon. They were wonderful people. I kept in contact, going on a couple of church visits with them to further my research but sometimes they’d call me just to check up on me and ask me how I was doing. Close to Valentine’s day, they had decorated the door of my house with foam hearts with little notes on them saying “We love you!” “Good luck on your exams!” Even though I made it clear that my interactions with them were strictly for my paper, they were always eager to convince me to get baptized. And though I continually told them that I didn’t want to be, I spent a lot of time with them even after I had completed the paper just because they were just so kind and it was hard to ever turn them down.

Apart from a stroll in Temple Square, there wasn’t really much else to see in the city. Everything that was worth seeing was within that area or close by it. Utah’s house of government, The Capitol Building was a block down. Their third biggest landmark or attraction within the city was probably the Trolley Square, a mall. Perhaps the only thing that might be worth taking a long walk to is the Gilgal Sculpture Garden where I found their prophet Joseph Smith’s face on a sphinx. Bizarre. I went during the night and because they didn’t have any sort of lighting there, it was kind of creepy.

SLC’s food scene was pretty surprising. I had some amazing hipster dinners and for such a religious city, they also had a number of really cool cocktail bars. I was only able to do one hike on my week there to Grandeur Peak. I was a little nervous while I was climbing it because it was very rubbly, very steep, and I didn’t pack my hiking shoes. I could imagine myself rolling all the way down if I had ever tripped and since there weren’t many trees or the like, nothing would stop me.

The thing that really surprised me about SLC was that everyone was happy with where they live. They loved their city. Most of the people that I talked to weren’t even Mormon or religious; they were just really happy with the small-town vibe and the access they had to the mountains and the wilderness life around them. I had a chat with someone I met who told me that it reminded him of his super religious hometown in India which, like Salt Lake City, was surrounded by mountains. He told me that though it was a religious city, there was a sort of counter-culture that existed within it. It was nice being in a place where people constantly told me that they couldn’t imagine themselves living anywhere else.