Dinner with my department colleagues and some thoughts.

I went for dinner with my manager and colleagues after work last evening. They brought me to this restaurant serving Hunan (or in China, they call it Xiang Cai) dishes. And I tried fermented bean curd for the very first time. I can honestly tell you, it was really stinky! I can smell the dish even before the waitress serves it to our table. There was this odd stench which is really quite a turn-off. Since they ordered, I guess I have to give it a try. Anyway, I’m already in a foreign land, I might as well give it a shot at eating things I’ve never eaten before and actually taste for myself if it’s actually that good (or bad!). As my colleagues and my manager look on, I took my first bite of the fermented bean curd. I tried my best to hold my breath as I looked at the bean curd and hesitated for a bit. The stench was really quite overwhelming. The taste was erm, actually better than I expected. It just tasted like normal deep fried beancurd (a little more salty than normal beancurd though). Trust me, the smell is much worse! My manager commented I can adapt really well, if she’s in my shoes, she is not that game enough to try something new plus the fact that the stench is hard to overcome for first time eaters. I think my mentality at the point of time is really to try eating something new since I’m here in China. It’s like what the hell, it’s a famous and popular (most prolly 5 star, looks 5 star to me) restaurant, there’s a slight chance I get the tummy runs. So I just threw my inhabitations aside and eat the smelly beancurd. By the way, there’s this roadside stall selling fermented beancurd near the cinema just 10 minutes walk away from our apartment. The stinky-ness is way worse than the one at the restaurant. So in terms of stinky-ness, the restaurant’s pales in comparison to the roadside stall’s.

Other than that dish, the other dishes were really delicious. We ordered rice wine dessert as well, which was really awesome. There’re small tang yuan balls in the sticky rice wine paste. I wanted to ask for another bowl actually but I was kinda embarrassed to do so, since I’m not the one footing the bill. We went off for mango ice dessert straight after, so it was a blessing in disguise actually; else my guilt level would have gone another notch higher. By the way, I’ve put on 2 kg. I cannot believe it. Hah most of us put on weight. Putting on weight is pretty much inevitable considering the amount we eat a day plus the food is not exactly very healthy. And the only form of exercise I do is climbing 8 flights of stairs everyday and walking to work. Well, I’ll climb up Lian Hua Shan again.

After close to 2 months of living in Shenzhen, I’ve come to observe that it is not as dangerous a place as most people have made it out to be. Snatch thefts have decreased tremendously in Shenzhen ever since they banned motorcycle transportation. Yups, there is not a single motorcycle here in Shenzhen. Honestly speaking, perceptions are very deceptive sometimes, or rather most of the time. Our perceptions are based on other people’s experiences. We choose not to experience it and instead came near to condemning that particular place. I’m almost guilty of that. If I had chose to stay with that perception and not come to Shenzhen, I think I would have regretted my decision. And I wouldn’t have seen what I’ve seen and experienced the diverse cultures of different people who come from very different backgrounds. I used to think mainlanders are brash, crude and inconsiderate people who talks very loudly. Yes, there are still some who behaves in a less than desirable manner, but I chose to group the rest of the mainlanders along with that stereotypical notion. But after staying, working and interacting with the Chinese around me, I feel I’m very wrong in my way of thinking. I guess when I get back to Singapore, I would not allow myself to come to a conclusion of mainlanders based on a mere stereotype.

And it’s safe to say, in general, most of the educated women know what they want in life. Take for example, my colleagues are very educated women who can speak excellent Chinese and very fluent English. By the way, with the exception of my manager, most of them are around our age. The one I’m closest to, Karen, she’s 23. (her boyfriend resembles Marie’s boyfriend, hahaha, same hairstyle!) Most of them traveled extensively and have wide networks of friend working in specialized fields. It’s a very humbling experience for me because I learnt a lot from their experiences and their perspectives towards work and life. My time here seems to highlight to me, this simple question, “What makes you think you are better than the mainland females just because I'm a foreigner from a more developed country?”. It’s really a hard knock of reality. MM Lee completely nailed that fact by saying in his speech recently about learning from China; He said it is best never to believe you are smarter than others. And that's his attitude as well when approaching the Chinese. How apt.

All I can say is that, I’m very glad I came for this internship to Shenzhen. If not, I would have restricted myself to a very narrow and old-fashioned way of thinking which will not do me any good once I stepped into the working world.