Culture Shock

Having been here for almost a month now, I still wonder why I struggled so much to settle down. Afterall, this is not the first time that I am in this country. This should have been the issue last October, not now. But why? Why am I so convinced I don't understand the people of this land and also convinced that they do not understand us. 


I wondered why have all my years of working with Americans, British, Koreans, Japanese, Thai, Indians, Chinese, Australian, New Zealanders, to name the majority nationalities in my line of work, would I be hitting a road block? I mean, it is not as if we have a language barrier here...


The more I think about it, the more upset I am with myself. I wondered whether age has eaten up the openness in me, or having been out of the scene for awhile now, has killed my love for being open and embracing new cultures and new people. If anyone of you wondered what kept me working so hard, for so many long hours, much of the motivation really is in the many cultures I get to cross everyday. That is exciting to me. Sitting at my seat, running through my mind before picking up the phone, "how do I put it across so that they understand, so that a relationship can be forged?" I love every chance of being able to put that to practise. I think the hardest for me was in understanding my scottish staff. But they turned out brilliantly nice to work with, once I come to understand their world of English. 


But being here makes me wonder if I have forgotten to pack that skill in my luggage, amidst all the things I have forgotten to pack, like winter wear or enough tops. I have less than WEP. My goodness. I am really living on bear minimum here. So pardon me if my outfits become a little too familar over the course of time. 


Anyway, back to the main topic, I think I got a eureka today. I think there is such a thing as an international culture, you know a code of behaviors and language, of values and morale that are wired into people involved in international business, and military is also part of this. I think for people who are very involved in the international scene and exposed to vastly different cultures over time have this wired in, conciously or subconciously. Which explains why we have no problem last winter (we are in a military community and also a city with many travelers). 


And it is for me a humbling experience. That I cannot presume to say I understand a culture by just the people I meet at the workplace or any place. I have forgotten that culture really is a complex thing, woven in it are life experiences, traditions, community, economy and nature, all at play to shape the place, meter by meter, mile by mile. 


So let's learn culture, religion, people, race, one person at a time, for there truly is no generic in any of this. I now understand why it drives a friend of mine up the wall by the slightest bit of stereo typing we let ourselves in for. Well, guess his wealth of life has backing for it. 


Share your thoughts, would love to hear your point of view too. 

Motivation...

Hmm, finding the motivation to write....

If you are still convinced, check this out

The following are taken on 29Sept and this is not a special day. It is pretty much any other day - sunset @Coronado Beach

Sunset - moment by moment

Plane landing at sunset 

(moment by moment)

29 Sept - To our fav little island: Coronado

Here is where we lived our last winter and this little island still charms me the same way it did.

I miss it so so much.

Coronado Bay Bridge

San Diego downtown skyline - From Coronado

Little sandal who has lost its way....

Seahawk in the sky

(reminds me of how I used got woken up each morning by the sound of helicopters)

Palm trees and blue skies (Love it)

Rainbow in the sky. Nice!

Cutest accidental photo by WEP!!! Dog on his evening walk.

After all these photos, are you sure you are not convinced that this is the place to stay?

For the laidback, this is the place, slow, nice, warm. but if you are the party sort, then I don't think it is for you.

Guess you know which I am?

Partying days are over. Yes, for those of you who have seen my crazier days, you must be surprised.

And those who happened to manage to get enough drinks down on me, you got a glimpse and count yourselves lucky, doesn't happen often...

And for you who have been trying so hard to get me to that zone, first, you got to get hold of the person who unknowingly got me drinking enough. I don't even think he know he did. Hahaha.

Nope, not WEP.

So, to encourage me to write more, let me know you are reading and letting me know if you are now sold - "Coronado is a beauty?"

29 Sept - Lunch before heading to Coronado

Yup, we are still on the topic of food.

Sashimi from Mitsuwa. Yum yum. We had ramen too, but by then, we are too hungry and the ramen too yummy, we forgot to take photo again. What is new....

SASHIMI!!! And inexpensive too, coz from supermarket.

And I got Amaebi!!!!!

There is salmon, tuna and I think hamachi. (was it hamachi?)

And WEP never likes tuna, but he loves this one. Really good.

Dinner at Ten Ren, Irvine - 28Sept

Mine Mine, we are still on 28Sept. I better do some speeding up.

Hahaha, that is what happens when one slowed down from work.

Haven't quite learn to live for myself. Wonder why I am still not recovered from workaholism.

My speed for work and for leisure is too far apart. My ex-colleagues might know what I mean.

Anyway, I was a skeptic of this place. Everything is made with tea as an ingredient, even in my soup. Hmm hmm. Is it really going to taste good?

Well, it did taste really yummy, and very refreshing. Makes the soup base tastes so light and refreshing.

Here is the yummy photo of my dumpling soup

Here are photos of other yummy food some of us are having....

To top it off, bubble milk tea. It is just great!!! Damn, no photo of that. Must improve on this photo taking. But as you can tell, dinner was good. Good to have friends who love eating and know good eating places. Thank you, WY and yes the search engine that assisted - YELP.

Hahaha, our road trip was full of YELPing for food.

P.S: WEP and I are not good at taking photos. We were have our camera with us, and we will totally forget to use it, only to regret it later.

Special Moment at New Port Beach, Orange County California

Isn't this a wonderful sight? Kids being kids at the beach, waiting to get caught by daddy. Actually, only baby girl gets caught by daddy. Guess to daddy, boys must be boys. Jump, fall, get up jump again. Blood is a part of boys' childhood ;)

Arriving in Orange County (28th Sept)

First off, we want to thank our friend WY for picking us up at the LAX airport. It is amazing that how all our luggage (of 3 persons) can fit her car, including all of us. Remember, we were packing for months of life here... so we are talking about too many bags. BTW, the car wasn't a sedan.

This is the moment that I regret for the lack of pictures. How could anyone else imagine what I am talking about here....

After unloading our bags in Brea, we headed to Inspiration Point, for lunch and then New Port beach (I hope I got this right?) for some more sightseeing.

Here are some pictures of the

beach. Isn't it just beautiful? Who would be motivated to get up for work with this a stone thr

ow away. It is hard living here unless you are a beach bummer. Hahaha

For those of you who always complain the lack of people in our photos, here is a backview of WY and me. Haha.

28th Sept - Narita to LAX

Yeah!!! Upgraded to Business Class

Wow - Orange Juice in a glass. Yum Yum

Happy Happy in our Business Class seats

This is the "I slept really well and just awake look"

A truly satisfied customer!

Blue sky from our business class windows. Haha, no difference of course.

For those of you who don't know, I love clouds and blue skies, so everytime I am on a plane, this is a must. So can you imagine how disappointed I was to find out the first leg we were sitting on centre aisle. This is great!

Can you see, the shadow on the plane in the clouds? Beautiful isn't it?

28th Sept - SIN-Narita

What a extremely hot morning I could remember. We were just raining down sweat, making sure we got everything packed, the house is in the order in which we would like it to be. This was 1 am. Pespiring at 1am was just ridiculous.

So we decided, we needed to get to the airport anyway, and since sleeping was not a great idea, in case we overslept, we decided to head for the airport.

Arrived at 2am, checked in and started wandering around, waiting for WEP's parents and our fellow travel partner to arrive.

It was all rather uneventful. We boarded the plane, WEP waiting anxiously to see what we would be getting. We were flying NorthWest this time and he had heard so much of American airlines, that he was all anxious. He thought he saw the big screen TV online, you know where everyone are forced to watch on one screen whatever they were screening. And for people vertically challenged like me, can forget entertainment altogether.

What a delight on his face, to know that we had individual entertainment system (or whatever it is called). Not bad, not bad for a start....

Food was okay. Seats are not too cramped, all good, all good for a start.

Actually, coming to think of it now, if we were travelling SingAir, we were not have been so delighted since it would be expected that we will be getting our own individual entertainment system. Then, we wouldn't have the chance to be thankful.

Sorry, no photo. Too tired by then to take any. And we were sitting in the centre aisle, so nothing to take as well.

Oh oh, almost forgot, we do have another thanksgiving on this flight. The plane was actually very very packed but just on our row, a four seated, there was an empty seat between us and the other lady. The entire section around us were all packed. Isn't that wonderful? We were so thankful.

Without Whom I will not be here

Today and tomorrow (3rd-4th Nov) are one of the most important dates of my life. And how I wish I could be in Singapore at this very moment.

Today (3rd Nov) is my daddy's 70th birthday.

Tomorrow (4th Nov) is my mummy's 60th birthday.

To my beloved parents, thank you for always caring and loving

us. For sharing with us your life's experience.

Thank you daddy for always being encouraging.

Thank you mummy for showing that it is never too late to start exercising.

Although it is not grandma's birthday too, but I also want to thank grandma for showing that it is never too late to pick up a language - she picked up English in her sixties and with that we all lose our hainanese language, at least I did.

Miss you from here.

I am always proud of this. Look at my daddy's hair. They are his, all his, no dye involved, at 70.

This is taken 2 days before we flew off - 26 Sept 2009

He only started having white hair in his 60s. I wonder why I didn't get those genes. But he would say this, it is all about staying healthy, exercising and eating right...

If he sees me now, he would be totally dismayed...

Happy Birthday, daddy and mummy!!!