WHEN IN ROME, DO AS ROMANS DO...

My colleague Michel invited me for dinner with her friends yesterday. All local shanghainese. 4 of us. You can say its kinda like a double date. Ahem! o_O *Ooohhh* hahaha... Dinner was steamboat served the local style. They had 鸳鸯火锅, just like in Singapore, plus a few dishes and sauces which I thought was rather nasty tasting though. Put in duck's brain (omg! they really have it!) and pig's tongue (that one I not quite sure) and TADA! You have Fear Factor, Shanghai style! Hehehe...

It was pretty awkward at first, being the only alien there but any fears of a potentially cold situation were put to rest because well, I speak pretty darn good mandarin to begin with. Hahaha... no lah, actually it's because they're really chatty people, especially michel's "老婆". All younger than me, but looks older leh. In fact, most locals I met here looked far more older than they really are... don't know why. We had lots to chat over dinner and we realised that we had more things in common than what we actually thought. Things like watching the same cartoons over the years (NARUTO IS HOT IN CHINA TOO!)to playing the same computer games (WARCRAFT 3:DOTA!) and eating the same type of food, albeit slightly altered (eg. 油条 and 豆浆). Maybe its not a surprise afterall considering the world is getting smaller with each passing day.

Most local Shanghainese grads here speak conversational english better than I had expected, cos they told me they had to learn the language for 13 years prior to entering university. Much like how our Singaporean government "forced" batches after batches of kids to learn the chinese language, to much disgrunt. And to think some Singaporean Chinese can't even speak chinese at all. What a pity. (Nono, not you Jo... but close... hahaha) Well, it didn't affect me much. I'm born with a talent, with languages that is, and it pretty much stops there. Hahaha... Being the effectively billingual me, I surely had no problems with picking up new languages (Just look at the ease in which I can "fake" those bloody accents that almost sound so real). If I had my way? I would want to be an interpreter for anyone, and the world can be my office. Oh yeah, you heard that right...

It's also a good thing to get out and mingle with people from different culture. If I were the me from a few years back, I would rather stick to the singaporean clique in my company and stayed within my comfort zone. Obviously, it would not have made a lot of sense when you are working in someone else's country. How do you consider yourself to have truly been to a country and lived in it unless you play, eat and work like a local?

And yeah, tomorrow morning I'll be playing soccer with the people in my company, including a few ah cheks too. Haha... Cant hardly wait because the goh tat chuan in me is dying to be unleashed on my unsuspecting preys. Most probably will make quite a few enemies because of my dazzling soccer skills and nifty footwork. Can't be blamed though, people often get all green-eyed over talented people. It happens everywhere so its not a big deal. *shrugs shoulders*