Diary of an Asian Kid

8 Jan 2011

8th January 2011, Saturday,

I had to get up early to see Master Cheng-Yen today (founder of the Buddhist Tzu-Chi Foundation, of which I do volunteer work for). And I mean early, as in five o'clock in the bloody morning. Mom and Dad dropped me and Victor off at the Guandu TV station.

Suffice it to say, we did not, as Mom had originally led us to believe, receive the red packets (with a token coin) that we were half-there for. Instead, we had to perform with a gaggle of primary one and two students. I was rather disappointed. And after getting up so early, too!

Dad came to pick us up at around eight. We went to MacDonald's for breakfast (at the drive thru), which turned out to be quite good. Even though we did have coke instead of coffee.

As there was very little traffic on the roads, I got to Alice's house at around eight forty, much earlier than I expected. She took a long time getting ready, which included eating breakfast.

By the time we got to the library, almost an hour later, there were no more seats at the studying sections. The guard there told us to study in the various couches around the library.

I got the books on hold: the first two books of The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins (it was recommended to me by Tiffany, a friend of mine who's currently in class 905), Insatiable by Meg Cabot, and The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella. Every single one of them was in hardcover, which translates to ridiculously heavy. I'm pretty sure that I would break my arms and back lugging it all home on foot (and I had two heavy workbooks, too).

Alice and I managed to find two adjourning couches on the fifth floor, so we settled into it and started to study. I decided to finish one of the books first to reduce the weight, so I got out The Undomestic Goddess and started to read it (sadly, I didn't finish it at the library). It's about an overworking lawyer who gets fired for a colossal mistake, flees blindly into the country, and accidentally winds up as a housekeeper who knows absolutely nothing about housework.

A was the norm, I got out a page of my binder to use to pass notes. It seems that the hole Alice is finding herself in (as in, not fitting in society, no passion about anything, can't summon up the energy to study for the BCs properly) is because of her own passive outlook on, well, everything. She wrote that for her, Taiwan was like a sinking ship-she would be guaranteed to drown if she stayed here. So she has to go abroad, where there is a chance of survival.

You can imagine how I felt when I was reading this. Discounting the 'she is deserting me' bit, no one likes to see their best friend in such a bad situation that she has to get out of here. Alice said she wasn't cut out for studying here.

I had some success in keeping my dismay and horror over her condition at bay. I pointed out that the situation in the US wasn't much better than here. They just don't have to take the BC, unlike us. I think that is the sole problem. She needs time, which we don't have, what with the exams being on May 21st and 22nd. There's only a few months left.

Okay, I told myself. Don't be morbid, and enjoy the present while you can.

We went out for lunch at noon. Alice's mom had prepared four small muffins for her, because Alice had a past history of either eating no lunch or one consisting of junk food. I bought a hot dog bun and a drink at 7-Eleven.

We settled down to eat at the stone seats outside the library. Besides the pavement, there was a mobile fruit store with an orange-squeezing machine, for orange juice. And another for sugar-canes, which instantly reminded me of the fresh sugar cane drinks that are pretty common in Singapore's Basa Malams (equivalent to our night markets). Debbie walked past us with her dad (her cram school is around here), and Alice called out to her. She looked a bit surprised to see us there.

When we were through the food, I got out my Dad's old iPhone 3G (I'd smuggled it out today, because its battery lasts much longer than my stupid iPod Nano) to listen to music. After a bit, we were both singing along loudly and happily to it (we both sing pretty well. At least we always hit the right notes, which is more than I can say of a lot of my acquaintances). Quite a few passer-bys looked up at us with strange looks on their faces. We continued with it, nonetheless.

Alice then said that she wanted to buy a stuffed animal, preferably a cat (she loves them). So we waited until the stationery store on the corner across the road opened, then went in search of it. There were no cats. Lots of dogs, bears, and a Doraemon, but no normal cats. Alice asked me if I knew any other stores nearby which sold stuffed animals.

I could only think of the stores near my home: Eslite, JSF, and 9ta, all of which were not near the library. When I listed them out, Ariel said that she wanted to go to JSF, which is in the Shida Night Market. We started to think on how to get there: going on foot was too slow, and we would most certainly get lost; can't take the MRT there, there's no station around here; can't ride our bicycles, because Alice's mom wouldn't let her go shopping...in the end, I decided to go by bus (Alice's sense of direction is virtually non-existent; it was actually me rambling out loud).

There was a bus stop on the side of road that we should be going at the nearby Daan Park, so we headed there. I tried to teach Alice to look at the bus route map on the stop, but I don't think she actually took any of it in.

We managed to catch a correct bus fairly quickly, and in three stops, we got off at the Shida Night Market stop. I recognized the place we alighted as part of Shida (Teacher's College, or something), and we were off in what I hoped was the right direction.

When we were almost there, someone going the opposite way snapped his fingers at us and said, "Hey!"

It was Christopher, on the way to cram school. I was absolutely astonished; I knew he lived around the Shida Night Market, but I hadn't thought of putting it together with the place we were now in. I could see that all three of us were surprised, and reasonably so.

I was in a state of light shock after that. Okay, not really, but it felt so unreal. I mean, what were the chances of me meeting him on a street far from my usual haunts? I never expected to see him outside school, that was the problem (and Christopher has cram school the whole weekend, so I can't even ask him out to play, I mean, study).

JSF was only mildly crowded, perhaps because it was about two in the afternoon, and, well, a night market is busiest at night. I had a good time looking around, but Alice did not find anything to her satisfaction.

We scoured the streets, looking in any shop that might have stuffed toys, but none of them had cats. Alice decided to get an 'H' Rabbit instead (the whole thing looks like the letter H with arms, eyes, and mouth). I persuaded her to go back to JSF, as its prices are usually lower.

Alice was too picky, in my opinion. There were no blue rabbits (yes, blue is her favorite color) that were not keyrings or decorations of some sort. She ended up going back to the shop beside the library.

Was I irritated? Just a little. But the fact that I had successfully located JSF (and bumped into Christopher) tempered it rather. In fact, I was feeling rather smug at being much better at directions than Alice was.

I resolved to quickly start doing my work, so I finished a chapter of the Physics (Electricity this time round) workbook. Alice, however, did no work for the whole day. She was either staring at the history textbook without taking anything in or reading. She finally finished 'Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret', the book that she started last time. I was rather surprised at her reading speed: SLOW. Her Chinese reading speed is two times slower than my English speed (though I actually do English faster than Chinese).

Now you'll see why I'm worried. In an hour, I could probably finish the second half of that book and get some work done. She could only read one-fourths of the book, period. And Alice's not afraid of staring into space (or a textbook) without doing anything, which I absolutely cannot stand. I have to be doing something, be it reading, doodling, or whatever. I just hate wasting time like that.

I got home later than usual because I was walking instead of riding my bike. And my earlier prediction was right: it was hell lugging the heavy bag of books all the way from the library to my home (1.5 km in all, I think).

Had a pretty uneventful night, as Mom and Vincent are always off to 'Math Appreciation Class' and Dad had gone out to swim (he's trying to lose weight, and happily for him, he's succeeding).