Ok, before you get the idea that I am not treated well here or could not get used to the life here, I shall clarify things clearly. I am just what most people overseas will feel, homesick. I miss Singapore. I miss the familiar life there. I miss the people.

Never thought that I would be so homesick and it's what? Not even the 10th day. But I really feel very homesick. Maybe when days passed, I will be better. Afterall, I am still able to contact home. I even got a China prepaid card (which was not cheap btw) to call home. It entitled me to free 100 mins of international calls so it should be enough. I will be fine.

My homestay is good over here. The family was nice, too nice as the matter of fact. The mother saw to my needs and even paid attention to minute details like I wasn’t feeling well. That’s right; my body had not really adapted to the climate change. It’s a friggin 20 degrees Celsius here. And that is the maximum temperature. It could be lower. I had this sinus problem since forever and of course, it aggravated since my arrival. Back to the point, yup it was really nice to stay with the family. I got my own room with the convenience of a computer. They also kept on piling my plate with food and more food. I think I will grow fatter. Oh my gosh! No!

42 中 is a pretty big school. They have like the high school and the middle school studying together in the same compound. So naturally, there are lots and lots of students. Oh, and the number of bicycles in the school is huge. Bet you can never see this amount of bicycles anywhere in Singapore, not even the bicycle kiosks in East Coast Park. The teachers are rather friendly. The students will be like looking at us and perhaps making comments amongst themselves? I don’t know. It could be our dressings as we or should I say, I was wrapped up like a dumpling. The classrooms are not as high tech as Singapore but I think it's is still conducive for studying. I have a problem with the toilets though. They stink to high heavens. You can also literally see flies flying around. Yes, that's how bad it is. Plus, they have no doors to their cubicles in the toilets. NO DOORS. So you basically have to finish whatever business you have in the public. I may be quite open minded but going half naked from the bottom and doing whatever business in open is definitely a no-no for me. I wonder how can the students tahan it?

Well, at least I know the other foreign students could not accept it. I attended a class with them. They are from Thailand, Italy, Australia, America? and Japan. And they are learning to speak Mandarin too! I really take my hat off of them. Seriously, I don’t think I will ever dedicate years of time to learn Japanese or French. But they could make simple introduction about themselves in Mandarin and understood the teacher. FYI, the teacher wasnt speaking English when teaching them. Ok, maybe English was used occasionally to explain some terms. The point is they can understand Chinese. Zai lor. The lesson was conducted in a very conventional way. Something like your secondary mother tongue class. So naturally, I erm, slept. Hahaha! =pp

Besides sitting in class to listen to the lesson, we went to get our prepaid card too. And we walked there and it's very very far. I hate it when we had to cross the roads becoz the cars just drove on even though it showed green man. Maybe it's the traffic light problem. And then, they also zai lor. They can even drive onto pedestrian pavement. I have a really good piece of mind to like yell at them but then Vanessa told me that it would be to our disadvantage if we do so. So ya, I diam diam. They love to honk and honk and honk. Well of course, with the traffic that do not really respect the basic road safety regulations, who wont? So I am slightly scared if I am going home on my own. Becoz the house is rather ulu and it’s quite a long walk. But then ya, I will figure it out by myself.

So basically, that is my first few days. Will be blogging more if possible.

Pictures will be up soon if I am not lazy.

Ciao!