Friday, January 28, 2011
england: one year later

In my one year of living abroad, i have realized:

1.that the romantic notion of snow and the phrase winter wonderland are indeed figments of imagination.

2.how useful it is to have drinkable water straight from the tap.

3.that my laptop, tefel frying pan and moisturizer have displaced my car, my handphone and astro as the three things i cannot live without.

4.that i was sorely mistaken when i thought i could smootly adapt to the british lingo. Instead, i find myself unable to shake away the years of manglish and having to constantly restructure a sentence in my head before mouthing it out.

5.that i can now astutely tell the difference between an american accent and a british accent

6.(referring to number 5) that having watched the latest Harry Potter film, i was flabbergasted at how british it was. The accents, the constant usage of 'brilliant', 'wicked', 'smashing', 'really'.

7. that i appreciate Sophie Kinsella's writings even more. Stuff like 'the big issue' and 'selfridges' and 'Harrods' meant nothing to me before. To actually visualize for myself these minute descriptions was very exciting.

8.that i find Malaysians incredibly rude. When i went back in august i was mildy amused/dissappointed that we don't hold doors for others, we don't thank people for holding doors for us and we simply cannot learn how to get into a queue.

9. that i miss home terribly. There is something about home that transcends the joke that is our political system and the occasional racial tensions. I can't pinpoint if its the food, family, friends, or the memories. I just find it comforting knowing i have somewhere to return to.

10.that i may be turning domestic. I can produce edible food on the dinner table, skin an onion without weeping, know the difference between pak choi and choi sum and finding out that 'tau yew bak' turns out best with pork shoulder.

Obviously there's more but i just thought i'd come up with a few as it was vexing not having any entries for over a month.