Shanghai Shenanigans Part 3- On Conflicts


When you’re living abroad with 3 other people, no matter how close you may be to them, there will still be some friction. It Today, I’ll be highlighting the tension between us, through various examples that surfaced the past few days. These conflict have been putting a strain on our relationship, and it is definitely unhealthy if we keep living this way.

First, let me introduce you to my 3 other housemates-and their various quirks, sometimes endearing and sometimes downright irritating.*

Felicia: Comm studies friend. Studied in the same JC as me, but didn’t make friends then. Am the most dictator-like person, and talks the way a politician conducts a rally. However, because of this quality, she keeps us on schedule for all plans.

Joyce: Comm studies friend, traveling buddy. Frequently exploited by us for being the only one with a high proficiency in Mandarin. When in doubt, she’ll appear doe-eyed, giving us the urge to box her.

Soon Hui: From Business. Was a complete stranger when we decided to make him our housemate. Doesn’t have a good sense of direction, as he got lost once and made us wait out in hunger. However, he makes up for that by helping us clean up every time.

The Conflict between me and Soon Hui

The day he got lost, we were at Qi Pu Lu (七蒲路), a mega shopping belt for cheap stuff. It is like Bugis Village, only much better and bigger. He went on separate ways because we wanted to shop for girl stuff. We decided to meet an hour later so we can have lunch together.

After shopping, us girls went to the meeting place to wait. We called him and he said he was on his way. After a long, long time, he was nowhere in sight. Felicia and Joyce decided to walk around while waiting. I was tired, so I leaned against a counter and continued to wait. A good ten minutes passed, and he called us to tell us he was lost. He was on the first floor, but couldn’t find the designated meeting place. I asked him to walk on the outside of the building and come in through the main entrance.

Another ten minutes crawled away, but he was nowhere to be seen. Finally, almost fainting from hunger, I called him and asked, “Where the hell are you?!” He said he was at the entrance, and asked, “Where are you?”

“I’m at the entrance! Are you SURE you’re at the right one?”

“Ya. I’m at the lion statue there!”

“I’m also there leh! Do you see a GREY BRIDGE?”

“Ya I saw…”

The conversation continued for another three minutes, with me spinning around in all directions to see where he was. I was getting most impatient. Then finally, FINALLY, he appeared in front of me.

As we walked to find a place to eat, I said, “Wah, can you hear that I was like, shouting?”

“Shouting meh? I cannot really hear. I was also shouting. Did you hear?”

Okay. So this conflict was a failure. (Which I was glad for) We found out that the reason he got lost was that he walked a bridge (inside the building) that connects to another building across the road. Therefore, he ended up at the first floor of the other building, and that was why he couldn’t find us at all.

It was a misunderstanding, not a conflict after all.

However, the next tale of conflict is more tension-filled, quite scary and ended up with a fight.

The Conflicts between me and Felicia and Joyce**

1. The tissue paper/ Coke conflict

I clearly recalled seeing only one box of tissue paper left in the house’s store cupboard, and thus faithfully reminded Felicia to buy more when there are chances to go to Carrefour. We bought another 3 boxes when we went to Carrefour, among the other groceries. Felicia saw a bottle of Coke at the supermarket, and said that the Coke at home had finished. So I said, okay, let’s buy it then.

When we went home, Felicia opened the store cupboard and dug out 3 new boxes of tissue. Dangling the boxes, she said, “Deanna Tan, I told you I bought new boxes the other day but you keep insisting there’s no more. Huh? What’s this? Come, tell me.”

In my defense, I swore I didn’t see the boxes at all.

So I retorted, “Well it’s finishing what. If you compress all the tissue boxes (they were plastic boxes, not the cardboard kind) and if all the air come out, it’ll be 1 box already what. Then I’m correct- there’s only one box left.”

Later, I opened the refrigerator and I saw that there were still some Coke left. I was not at ease with the way Felicia chided me, so I asked her into the kitchen.

“Hey Felicia, can you explain why there’s Coke in the kitchen when you say there’s no more? Huh? What’s this? Come, tell me?”

“HELLO, the Coke left how much? Your tissue boxes got 3 new boxes leh. The Coke very little okay.”

“Got Coke lor. You tell me don’t have. Huh? Why, why? Still scold me for the tissue paper la. You same lor,” I said.

She ignored me on that and went to do other stuff. Joyce, meanwhile, shook her head as she watched on.

2. The Meat in Broccoli conflict

One night, we decided we would cook dinner the next day. Tucked in bed, Felicia was thinking of what to cook. I hopped to bed too, and when she said she would cook Bak Kut Teh and a dish of broccoli, I asked if we can cook meat with broccoli. After some muttering to herself, she said out loud, “Aiyah, tomorrow’s matters tomorrow then think la!”.

Shortly after, Joyce came into the room, preparing to go to bed. (The three of us are sleeping together in one bed now, because Soon Hui’s bed hasn’t arrived. He is sleeping in Felicia’s room currently). Joyce started asking Felicia if she wanted to go to the supermarket tomorrow to buy groceries after work. They started talking animatedly, but all that was in my mind was the pieces of meat that would end up in the plate of broccoli.

“Can you go buy meat? Then we can have meat in the broccoli dish tomorrow!” I chipped in.

Felicia turned her body to me, looked at me for a moment, and said, “Eh, Deanna Tan, you never listen to me issit? I said that we’re gonna have Bak Kut The and broccoli with meat right? Ah, never listen to me. See la”

Fancy having amnesia at such a young age. Pity.

“Er, no. You said…” and I proceeded to quote the words she had said, and finished with her “tomorrow’s matters tomorrow then think la!”

She fell silent. Tried to give me an act cute face, hoping I’ll forget her false accusation. But I continued,”Ah, still say what? Huh? Say I never listen right? I got listen k? The coke also la. Listen to you, then buy new bottle when still got coke. Huh…”

And it went on and on as we dug up the Coke and Tissue Paper issue.


3. The Cotton Pad fight

Another time, I was doing my own things when Felicia came over excitedly to show off her cotton pads. You know, those small things you use for facial toners and other mindless stuff like that? Yea. Irritated by her, I swept my hand across the bag of cotton pads. Little did I know, half the pads fell to the floor.

Felicia looked at me in horror and disgust. “Eh!” She shouted. Joyce jumped up in alarm.

Unable to take the nonsense anymore, I swept my hands again, and only 1 quarter of cotton pads remained in the bag. Angry, she threw the remaining cotton pads on the sofa, and stared at me with her huge eyebags.

Therefore, when we live abroad, I realize there is bound to be tension and conflict. We cannot avoid them, and so, I did what I thought best- to fling cotton pads off your housemate’s hand. Yes, and even though the cotton pads shall never be clean again, we’ll still move on and try to not suffocate while living with these outrageous people.





(to be continued…… straightaway)





*disclaimer: Actually these quirks aren’t irritating la. In fact, I think I’m the one who irritates them the most. Hehe.

**Any conversation in this section was done in a joking manner. Of course, some of my retorts are completely nonsensical, but in order to keep comic timing, I did them in the straightest face possible, which in turn made Felicia and Joyce very tempted to throw me off our house window. And everything we said was followed by bouts of giggles and stupid faces. Especially when I was flinging the cotton pads. (and picking them up after that, apologizing profusely to her)

Conflict? Collision, more likely, and everything good comes out of it.

Okay, I bluffed anyone and everyone who’s reading this. Hehe. Well, because I used to believe that when people live together, there is bound to be conflicts and disagreements. However, this has really been a fairytale living here. Even though we do have arguments (the meat in broccoli thing, Coke and Tissue Paper thing and the Cotton pad fight really happened), we tend to solve them with laughter and mindless nonsense. Which works!

Therefore, in conclusion, I really love it here. And I feel extremely fortunate that the above people are my housemates, because they take care of me very well!

Shanghai Shenanigans Part 2- Things I learnt in the Office

Interns, as said on the tv show “Grey’s Anatomy”, are the bottom of the surgical food chain. Using the same theory, I’m current right smack at the bottom of the advertising food chain, the tiny person who sits behind a desk, trying to decipher what the boss just said because he just used terms unheard of, waiting for the rest to start packing up before I dare to shut down my computer to go home and of course, the most clueless designer, if it’s even legal to call myself one, in the entire office.

Welcome to my “Professional Internship” phase in life. Where the term itself is an oxymoron. How the hell can someone be a professional intern? Either you’re a professional, or you suck. But well, that’s what the school calls it, so let’s just stick to it.

I’ve just gone through my first week, and it’s with a smile that I daresay I’ve learnt quite a bit from this. My kind of learning is unlike Felicia’s, who has learnt that her office’s server is so fast that she has finished watching most of her favourite drama serials online.

Therefore, I have decided to catagorise the things I’ve learnt so far.

1) “今天天气好晴朗”shall never be uttered until summer comes.

On my first day, I imagined the office to be a sparse, cool space. Well, it’s quite sparse, in an arty-farty way, and it is way too cool. Cool, in weather-sense. For some reason which I have yet to discover, the people do not switch on the heaters when they work. So there we are, all decked out in thick winter clothes in the office. Why, my fellow intern Jin Jen wears five layers of clothes at work everyday!

Thus, I have started to do something that I never did in Singapore. Check the weather everyday. Shanghai is a place where people actually pay attention when you talk about the weather. And it’s important, because I realize I can’t think very well when I’m cold. It’s brain freeze, in a different way. Gosh, I’d take a 7-Eleven brain freeze anytime over this.

2) Katy Perry is hot in Shanghai.

There must be an alluring quality to her song “I Kiss A Girl”. For the past week, the radio station that my colleagues switch to put this song on heavy rotation. I really wonder if the radio people understood what the song was really about. Cos Singapore don’t ban it on the air for no reason. It’ll be funny to hear a girl singing along without knowing what it’s all about.

Well, the radio station is quite happening. It plays a mix of English, Chinese (by Chinese I mean mainstream songs from artistes we already know, not some Beijing Opera-sounding songs), Korean and even Japanese songs. Cool eh? That’s what I call variety.

3) Adobe Illustrator.
Uh huh. For the past week, the only programme, other than Photoshop, that I’ve been staring into is the above. On day 1, my skills were basic. Now though, even though I still consider myself a basic user, I have managed to do quite a few things with the programme. Which is good news. And even though it feels like a rehash of Chris Yaw’s Publication Design, only I’m doing Illustrator instead of InDesign, I enjoyed my time at work. The past week I was working on a mock newsletter for a client with a prestigious image. It kept me up on Wednesday and Thursday night as I tried to think of a good layout. Ultimately, I submitted my work this evening, and I can safely say I’m comfortable with what I’ve done. Of course, this won’t be enough in time to come, so I hope I’ll be hardworking enough to come out with good works.

3) Being anal is a virtue in design.

Once you’ve tried your hand at it, you know there are rules. Follow the rules, calculate the measurements, be accurate and precise, and viola!

It takes a lot of discipline to stick that pole into your butt. And plenty of reminders. But it’s a good rule of thumb.

4) Staring into the computer screen too long will make you feel “pixel-ated”.

I begin to see a tiny pixel here or there, or maybe a dot or two, and was unable to differentiate between dark green and black for a while- after looking into the screen from 9.30am to about 5pm. It’s really quite scary, actually, but I was more concerned about being freezing cold than blind.

5) It doesn’t feel like being in somewhere far away at all.

My two bosses are Singaporeans. One fellow intern is also from Anti You. That leaves 2 other Chinese designers and one Chinese administrative staff to complete the staff roll.

As I’m told only to take instructions from the two Singaporeans, and they do speak a whole lotta Singlish, I feel that I’m right back in Singapore everyday. Other than broken conversations with the 2 Chinese designers in Mandarin, I speak Singlish (and proud of it) the rest of the time. I walk back home speaking Singlish to my fellow intern, I go home to my Singapore friends. I have dinner with Joyce’s colleagues, who are interns from Ngee Ann Poly. Therefore, in my own brain, I’m still in sunny (SUNNY!!) Singapore.


One week down, 21 more to go. Can’t wait.

"You're not supposed to be thinking of home" Part 1

Shanghai Shenanigans Part 1- FAQs

*shenanigans
n. Acts of misadventure or playful mischief. Frequently involves Lemmiwinks, 1 beer, and Sharpies. May result in speeds in excess of 88mph and size 14s if a lamb's pit is involved.
Taken from Urbandictionary.com

This is day 6 of my new life in Shanghai. Well, I think it's boring if I went through every single mundane thing I did over here to spice up the apartment (but seriously, we bought so much stuff from Carrefour, which is very near us). Therefore, I shall tell you what Shanghai really feels like. Sort of an FAQ section for everyone who's been asking me questions about life over here.

1. How is it over there?

There have been a lot of opinions formed on the people and the place of Shanghai. First impressions, really, and as we all know, first impressions can be wrong. They are a quiet lot when it comes to giving way. They won't say a "sorry", nor an "excuse me", but just push their shopping cart till it bumps gently into your butt, making you jump up in alarm because you thought that someone has just violated you. They don't, or seldom queue up, and it really is irritating considering that I lived 20 years in a country whose entire system is based on the concept of queuing. Many times, I just want to put my basketball boxing out skills to use, especially my razor sharp elbows, but Singa the lion will always appear in a dream-like motion, beckoning me to resist.

Now, as for the place itself, it is as modern as Singapore, if not more. It is indeed a city, as high skyscrapers dominate every subway station. The skyscrapers are all awe-inspiring in their architecture, so different and beautiful, yet so similar at the same time. Things are easily available, and the public transport system is very efficient. Seriously, except for the fact that our heater is currently spoilt, therefore making bathing at night a bitch, everything works the same.

My only gripe is the darn hazy sky. I am very tempted to take a cloth, aim it at the sky and start wiping. Visibility is not good, and buildings at night cannot be seen unless they have bright signboards or advertisments on them. The other night, I was at the Bund, where I thought I saw two eyes floating in the dark sky. Turned out to be television advertisments on a skyscraper.

2. Is it expensive over there?

Well, in comparison, clothes in Bugis Street-styled shopping districts are tentatively cheap. Probably the same price as those in Singapore, or a bit less expensive. Chic outer coats that cost more than S$100 are only S$20-$30, and prices are dropping like mad since spring is starting. Boots, too, starts at S$20, sometimes even less. And the good thing is, there's H&M here.

3.What have I been up to?

For 6 days straight, since I landed, I have been in the two floors of Carrefour. Everyday, without fail. And even though I go there everyday, there's something new to buy every single time. For example, today, we need to buy a peeler so that we can peel potatoes. Also bought a house bell, so people can "ding dong".

4. When do I start work, and where is it?

I start next monday, working in an advertising firm under the Creative Director. My only fear is that my photoshop/InDesign/Illustrator skills are not up to par. However, I do believe when there's a will, there's a way, and in using computers, there's always a way.

The workplace is conveniently located 15 minutes away from my house, to my happy surprise, and therefore, I can wake up rather late every morning. Also, there is a lingering temptation to buy a bicycle so I can ride to work- something that will never happen in Singapore. I shall KIV this, and decide whether to do it or not.


Next week is the week I start work. Wish me loads of luck!

Yes, welcome to Shanghai. Modern, efficient and most importantly, butt-numbing cold. It has been 3 days since I arrived, looking forward to start a 6 month internship over here. It's really like living all over again, starting from ground up.

As you know, I left on the morning of 7th Feb. Most of you will know, since, most of you came to send me off anyway. It was quite overwhelming, because really, almost everyone I knew showed up. My beloved Champion teammates, Andrea, Steph, Shi Qi and Gek Eng, and there was Gwen, Yuen, Grace and Ya Qi (yes, thanks for calling me Cleavage one last time), Leanne Wong, Victor and David, Zhao, Jac(quline..hehe), Amanda and Char, and of course my CS gang, Cathy Chia, Chee Harn, Ros and Col!

And then most of you guys didn't tell me that you were coming, which led to such a wonderful surprise. However, I must apologise the fact that I didn't have time to say a proper goodbye to all of you guys. It was a rushed trip into the departure gates, because Felicia's mum was beckoning me to go in. But still, I really appreciate you guys waking up at such an unearthly hour to send me off.

Thank you!

After a 1 hour transit at the Thailand airport, we endured another 4 hours before we finally touched down in the land of the Orient Pearl. With so much baggage, we went ahead and took the airport bus downtown. Sound good, doesn't it, the airport bus? Well, for the first 30mins, we stood at the front of the bus, with Felicia carrying her ten kg backpack and us struggling for balance. The bus was so packed but we were just cheapskates. (But it was really very cheap. Sing$6 from the airport to a place near our apartment!)

And it was well worth it, because when we finally got to our apartment, we faced a house with nothing. Sure, there was a sofa, tv, beds, a dining table. But there wasn't any pots and pans, bedsheets, toilet rolls and the works. We had to go buy an electric kettle, because the heater didn't work. Thank goodness our house is very near Carrefour. We lugged back a whole lotta things the first night- bedsheets, quilt blankets, toilet rolls, bowls, cups- (SEE RECEIPT on picture above for evidence) and it was, in Felicia's words, "torturous" because our fingers felt like they were dropping off from the heaviness and coldness.

My proudest moment yet is fixing the internet! Yes, we had to buy a wireless router, and 2 LAN cables, then figure out the whole shazamm. But I did it, and that's why you can see this post. Woohoo, I AM SMART. (Even though it took me 2 days to do it)

Well, there are too many things to tell, but I'll leave it till tomorrow or another day. For now, check out these pictures.




Champion Cynthia stuffed this into my bag while I was distracted. I only found it just before we landed. It's a notebook!



Champion Angel, Michelle, gave this to me, and I stuffed it into my lugguage without much thought. Now it serves as a standee for Cathy's cards to all of us.




The Champion photo frame, given to me on Thursday, which is on the TV table so I can see it everyday!

My "Respect the Champion" pillow is on my bed :D Okay, goodnite, show you guys my "Welcome to my house" board next time, where Cathy, Ros and Col's faces are stuck there to "bi xie".

Forget about the new webpage, guys. I can access blogger in China! Woohoo. Times have truly changed.

Because China banned Blogger,

visit http://myorientpearlwenthome.spaces.live.com/ instead.

Too Much Playing on Chinese New Year Makes One Sick.

A whole long weekend of playing cards, mahjong, taboo and steamboat made me feverish yesterday night. I guess it was over-exhaustion that did me in. Nevertheless, it was the most fun CNY with my teammates and friends.

And so, last night, the parents whisked me to the 24-hour clinic in the middle of the night, and forced me to stay home today. The good thing is, at least I can start packing.

Photos!





Amanda's house on Saturday night. We only slept at 6am.




Team A's celebratory photo after we won! Check out Amanda's new hair.




Team B listening attentively.



It was gathering with the Champion teammates the next day. Also a full day of activities. This was Karaoke at Cynthia's granddad's house.




Lastly, I suspect this is the thing that did me in. Alcohol, whether in the afternoon or any other time, is never good for me.