Goodbye, Hong Kong...

It was a good 2 years....

My Bank Account

2 years on, but I can still vividly recall what happened when I first came to HK. Running out of money and desperately needed a bank account to get my salary in the first month, I went from HSBC to Hang Seng Bank and finally to DBS (oh, did I mention with insufficient supporting documents?). I stood at the counter labelled Treasury Banking and told the teller, "I am Singaporean and I need a bank account. HELP ME!" and shoved my passport and IC and employment contract to the teller. 10 minutes later, after the branch manager made a call to Singapore, I got my bank account.

Classic, isn't it? It's something I'll remember for life...

Every bit of you

Every so often, I get hit by pangs of homesickness. But the things around me comfort me - things from friends and family surround me. The Elmo I sleep with every night is from Pris for A levels way back in 1996. The Titus watch I wear everyday is given by my sisters on my 28th birthday. The EP hairclip I use everyday is from Eunice then-Goei-Iong some five years ago. The cross that hangs on my wall is from good friends YS, SW and Jessica for a blessed life here in HK. The DD clock that keeps me on time everyday is a Christmas gift from my best friend. There are just so many...CDs, books, jewellery, food and even bath towels and socks! So far yet so near - life is a little more bearable because bits of you are with me, no matter how far I am away or how long I am away from home.

Show me the money!

"If something can be resolved with money, it is not a problem at all."

I was fretting over the cost of my new furniture and essential electrical appliances I must purchase when my HK colleagues mentioned these words of wisdom.

Whoa...is it just me (self-proclaimed melacholic idiot) or is this HK culture?

There's a reason for everything?

"When something happens to you, good or bad, consider what it means. There's a purpose to life's events, to teach you how to laugh more or not to cry too hard."

The above is the message I attach to my outgoing emails. Ironically, the person who needs it the most now is none other than yours truly. You see, a freak accident caused my HK apartment to be flooded (yes, 5cm no less) ; other than discarding all wet and spoilt furniture, electrical appliances, rugs and beloved shoes, I thought I had gotten a few dagger stares from neighbours for flooding the corridor and causing them not to have any flush water for 5 days!

A softie as I always am, this time, I surprised myself by not crying... well, not immediately, at least. I finally broke down today after 2 days as I sat down in a totally empty apartment after hours of cleaning. I'm not exactly sure what the tears were for but looking at this incident from another perspective, what is the lesson God wants me to learn from this?

Cold winter's night

3000km - that's how far I am away from home. Sure, the shoe box I'm living in is where I call home in Hong Kong. But home is not a physical space per se; it is a feeling. For the longest time, I'd wanted to move out of the service apartment I was staying in because it didn't feel like home.

12 degree celcius - that's how cold each night is and it'll continue to fall. Sure, the heater I'm using keeps me warm. But warmth is not just hot air being blown out from an electrical appliance. What keeps me warm on a cold winter's night is a phonecall 3000km away and of course, friends' company.

Previously, M once told me that when a friend leaves for home from a holiday, the other who has to stay behind will feel sad and at times, it may take a couple of days to get over. Sure, I believe this to a certain extent but little did I know that it will hit me hard too. Each time someone leaves for home, I can't help but cry. Tomorrow, my best friend is returning home after a 10-day visit and despite the fact that he gets on my nerves constantly, I think I'll even miss kicking his shoes to a corner so that it doesn't block the door.

Cold winter's night, anyone?

My Disney Adventure

Some people are really critical about Hong Kong Disneyland, well, which is true to a certain extent. After living in Hong Kong for more than a year now, I finally went there last Friday. And yes, it's true...the place's really small and all; every negative report you've read from the papers, from rude mainland tourists who blatantly walk past you while you're having your picture taken to boring kiddy rides...the list goes on. But at the end of the day, I think it doesn't really matter how insufficient that place is, but the company you are with. One thing though, I sure had fun in puny Hong Kong Disneyland. *WINK* It's always the company, don't you think?

Green Fingers

Green fingers? I reckon I have none. My house plant of 1 month is dying despite my watering it conscientiously and sunning it. I don't know what to do. In retrospect, I tried to grown Gerbera 8 years ago, and my plant died before it bloomed.

Sigh...green fingers? I reckon I have none.

Nostalgia

Along Haiphong Road (adjacent to Nathan Road) on Tuesday evening, a sudden drift of familiar music was aired. And I thought to myself, which idiot blasted his iPOD in the middle of nowhere? Apparently not, as I found out in a split second. Along the road was this pickup (yeah and it's blue too) with a huge poster of The Village People and a humongous speaker attached to it (think mobile PAP elections rally).

In a place of a foreign language (well, I consider Cantonese foreign), Y.M.C.A sounds really good and it sure does bring back wonderful memories of uni days when the whole gin gang would hit the club sometimes. Of course, having said that, I think if I were to ask you to go to a club that plays retro music with me now, you'll probably freak out.

But you know what? I almost danced along the pavement to Y.M.C.A (yeah, with the actions and all)!

Too Dubious

Remember the shady character in Dubious? Apparently, he has AWOL-ed a couple of times from school in the past week. Well, the interesting thing is that he will go to school to sign in and then, disappear for the whole school day and then, return at around 6 plus in the evening to sign out. Voila! So, he still gets his pay despite not being physically in school. And when confronted, he feigned ignorance, or so I've heard from the grape vine. Smart eh? Man, I wonder when I'll ever have the guts to do something like that...heh! Have you?

Dubious

...doubtful, ambiguous, arguable, chancy, debatable, diffident, disputable, dubitable, equivocal, farfetched, fishy, fly-by-night, hesitant, iffy, improbable, indecisive, mistrustful, moot, mootable, obscure, perplexed, problematic, questionable, reluctant, shady, skeptical, suspect, suspicious, trustless, unassured, uncertain, unclear, unconvinced, undecided, undependable, unlikely, unreliable, unsure, untrustworthy, untrusty, vague, wavering...

I didn't know that there were so many synonyms of dubious until I did an online search at www.dictionary.com.

And these are the exact words I would like to use on a certain shady character who has just joined the school. Not only because of his sneaky behaviour and questionable qualification, but you know what? He dons dark-coloured long sleeves shirts over a tee all the time in this hot weather everyday! Yes, you've read my mind. I wonder what kind of tattoos are on that body. Nananana...it's not what you're thinking....definitely, absolutely not in an amorous way, okay?!!

The Sequel

"Is it really bad in Hong Kong? Why don't you come home?"

"Whoa...read your blog. Sounds really terrible!"

Yadda, yadda, yadda...and the questions and comments go on. Well, contrary to popular belief, I'm not suffering in Hong Kong. Of course I can't really say that I'm having a ball here, but hey, nothing's perfect, remember? Utopia is only a construct, a vision, a dream. And I felt really compelled to make a blog entry ASAP, i.e. once I get my hands on a network that doesn't block Friendster, because apparently, everybody seems to think that I'm having the worst time of my life in Hong Kong. Well, the answer's no. In fact, most of the time, life's pretty good.

You see, each time I felt like writing a blog and actually writing it is when something bad happens., which is why you only read about the horror stories. Hah, sadistically speaking, my blog serves as a personal reminder that HK is not home.

So, here I am, sitting at Counter 19 in MOS Public Library writing my disclaimer.

Pissed!

I'm a NET in a local HK school. It is evident that the local teachers feel quite strongly about the NET scheme that EMB introduced. I'm offered a contract with different T&C, my workload is deemed lighter in comparison to my local counterpart in the English Panel (i.e. in case you're wonder WTH is a English Panel, it means EL department), and I'm not expected to do any adminstrative work because I don't speak Cantonese or write Chinese. I also get to colour my hair in whatever shade I like, much to the dismay of the local female teachers who were expected to only spot one hair colour - black. I also get a special allowance on top of my basic salary (PS: that's basically to help me pay the exorbitant rent here!) And my being Asian-Chinese does not help to pacify the inequality because unfortunately, they see me as a comrade. So, their point, I presume, is, why should I get special treatment and they slog in the same job and get paid less (and we're all Chinese in race)?

I'm pissed today because of this single sentence that was used on me today: "I think you should do this too, because Sarah and Mr Lee are also doing it." FYI, Sarah is the TA (aka teacher assistant) and Mr Lee is a newbie who does not have much experience teaching and the reason why he's employed at this time of the year is because he's here to finish marking all the assignments for his colleagues, dig? Anyway, back to the pissing (no puns intended) scenario, this was how it all started. I was asked, even begged, if I'm permitted to use the word, to give the Form 4 and 6 students more chances to speak in English, so I was asked to design a form for students to sign up. Now, that's not my job to design a freaking form. Fine. I did it anyway. Then, the students do not turn up, so I was pissed because I hate to wait. So, I told the PC about it and viola, guess what? I was told that in order to cover my arse (I beg your pardon), I should be filling in forms (one for each student, mind you) to remind the students to turn up for the extra class that I'm giving them after school, which, by the way, is out of my job scope. Then, I should give the forms to the GO on the same morning and if the students still do not turn up, firstly, I have to let their English teachers know about it and then, fill in another form so that they'll have performance scores deducted from them. Oh, did I mention that the forms are all printed in Chinese? Never mind, and do you know why I should even be doing this in the first place? Well, (quote and unquote PC this morning) "I think you should do this too, because Sarah and Mr Lee are also doing it."

So, I'm pissed off with 2 things, first, doing idiotic admin work when the TA should be doing it for me, and second, being juxtaposed with 2 persons who aren't even professionally on par with me.

No, I'm not a bureacratic person, neither am I so full of myself that I'm throwing my weight around in HK, but in a society where the citizens greatly value hierarchy, why do I not get treated the way I should be? Is it simply because I'm yellow and not white?

You know what? Sometimes I wonder if such situations were created unintentionally because of the lack of proficiency in the language that is necessary to foster effective communication? Do they really mean what I thought they meant, or is it because they do not know how to use the words correctly?

Let me end with this: Some Form 6 students (equivalent to JC1 in SIngapore) do not know the difference between 'cancel' and 'postpone'; they thought it's all and the same.

Typhoon Chanchu

Damn! It was a real disappointment. I'm serious. Typhoon Chanchu was slated to be heading towards Hong Kong from The Philippines after killing 41 last weekend but it veered its course to Guangzhou, China early this week.

Now, you must be wondering if I've gone bananas. You see, when the typhoon signal is hoisted, everybody (in HK) hopes and even prays for T8 signal. When T8 is hoisted, everything comes to a standstill. Of course, that'll also mean I get the day off work. Hah! Now, you see why I've been praying so hard for T8 on Tuesday? Of course, there are some people who didn't have to go to school on Wednesday - the kinders and special ed students. You can imagine the envious look on my face when only a T3 signal was hoisted on Wednesday, the day it was postulated to have hit HK big time.

*Praying for the next typhoon*

Buddha's Birthday Holiday

This week is GOLDEN week. Why do I say that? Well, May Day is a public holiday and it falls on a Monday. The coming Friday is The Buddha's Birthday, also a public holiday. So, I only work 3 days this week. Nah, not bragging at my 3-day work week. Rather, let me tell you about my adventure at booking a 3-day 2-night trip for this Friday. No agency will entertain me...DAMN! They need 7 f***ing working days to confirm.

PS: Tracy figured that The Buddha's Birthday holiday is probably not Vesak Day because the buddha here could be a different one worshipped in Singapore.

The Staff Toilet Part II

It has been raining these days. No, it's not like what you think...it's not leaking in the toilet, not yet anyway. Hah!

Well, have you ever pee under an umbrella? These days, I've been doing this so very often. Apparently, there isn't much space for teachers to air their umbrellas, so the female teachers came up with the novel idea of airing their umbrellas in the staff toilet and the "early birds" will get the much sought-after cubicle space.

So, today, it was Felix the Cat and the day before yesterday, it was the african safari. Cool eh? Hahaha...

58 Working Days

I sat down on the sofa that day and stared at the calendar. The next thing I knew, I was counting the number of days to going home for the summer. The number was depressing: exactly 58 working days from 24th April!

Have you ever had this feeling before? Not too long ago, I met an old friend on MSN after a long time and he was thinking hard about going home after many years abroad too. I remember asking him,"You miss home too?" And he answered, "Yeah, I guess so."

The Staff Toilet

There are five cubicles in the ladies toilet for female staff. Let me start from the fifith cubicle. This last cubicle is furthest away from the entrance. Whoever uses it always forgets to flush it. The fourth cubicle is the most popular one because it is always out of toilet paper, which is weird as four is considered unlucky to the Cantonese people. And someone who uses it loves to leave the toilet seat up. Hmmm...pee standing? The floor of the third cubicle is always wet. I don't know where the leak is (no pun intended). There is a pillar where the second cubicle is and there is hardly any space for one to stand when you're closing the door; not my personal favourite. The first cubicle is next to the corridor and one pees in fear for being heard by anyone who walks past. Paranoia? May be...

So, which is my favourite cubicle? Go figure...

Morning Assembly

I can vividly remember how everyone would rush for the morning assembly and would be all jittery if we were to miss one because there would be reprisals. These days, however, I find myself in the toilet when the school song is being played over the PA system. No, I didn't do it on purpose; it's just, well, what can I say, coincidental. Of course, I do attend the morning assembly still, I just miss the school song, that's all.

Important Tasks...not.

Today, I was perturbed by the fact that although it's the Form 7 internal oral examination and despite the fact that I was listed down as one of the oral examiners, I was told that I could share out the workload with the time-keeper, a certain Ms Law, a lab technician. And I was told that it is my responsibility to make sure I fulfill my duty.

Now, I must clarify that I'm not putting Ms Law down, what I don't get is something more personal. You mean I'm not qualified enough as a NET to assess the students in an internal oral examination? You mean I'm only capable of doing inane things like time-keeping?

On hindsight, that's slightly better than being dumped piles of students' work on my table a couple of weeks ago, asking me to cut and paste them and pin them up on the noticeboard for English Week.

*Speechless*