The title says it all.

I replied with a nod and a smile, to the Vietnamese girl who was sitting beside me on my flight back home to Singapore. The plane had just landed at Changi Airport. Same for her, she was heading back to Vietnam, with Singapore as a stopover, after more than 2 years in New Zealand. It humbled me knowing that someone had been away from home much longer than I had. Yet for her, she has to go back to Auckland after 28 days, to complete her 3-year degree course at AUT.

"28 days spent at home are not enough", she said.
I agreed.

"Will your family be there at the airport to meet you?", I asked.
"I hope so" she said, with a slight grin on her face. She directed the same question at me.

I imitated her reply, "I hope so!", with both of us laughing.

It is conversations like these that I will miss a lot after my return from New Zealand. Simply striking up a conversation with COMPLETE strangers, whom you learn so much from and about yourself within that moment in time when the conversation was held in your own tiny little bubble of thoughts, ideas, opinions and perspectives.

Upon landing at Changi Airport, I bed goodbye to the Vietnamese girl whose name I didn't get a hold of, after 10 laborious hours sitting in the plane beside her.

"It was nice meeting you!" I said. She reciprocated, and we waved our goodbyes.

Usually my conversations with strangers would end up like that. I used to get emotional about meeting new people, get attached to them and then have to say goodbye. But having met so many new people and striking up so many new conversations in such a short span of time, I think I've gotten more immune to these farewells with people who were strangers just minutes or hours ago. Months, for the friends I met on exchange.

After those 5 months, I am, finally (and safely) back!

Frankly, I have not yet missed my life Down Under after 3 days here in Singapore. I am in fact, still, revelling in happiness and excitement. It truly is great to be back home.

I thought I would have to scream "JIN ZHUA" ('sibeh hot' in dialect) the moment I landed. But surprisingly, I didn't feel that much of the heat at all. Of course it was hot duh! But it was the heat that strangely, reminded me of home. It was actually ENDEARING TO ME. Lol lol, siao right. I have to say I adapted really fast. In fact, I was having a slight sore throat, but the moment I breathed in Singapore's air, I was instantly cured. Not joking. I felt my throat ease and become less irritated. The air here is so THICK whereas it's so dry at Australia that my nose shit had blood hahaha. Thank you humidity.

Everything was different from what I was used to in NZ.

Familiar Asian faces everywhere. Singaporean to be precise. Clouds covered the sky. Tall buildings thrown into the equation as well. Terminal One felt like a shopping centre, full of people. Like how a normal city should feel like.

I immediately felt at home.

The moment I stepped into my own Pasir ris home, I felt like, hey, this is such a familiar place! Oh my goodness! hahaha ok not so dramatic. But I eased into my normal routine real quick. Routine, meaning habits. I switched the showering tap on as if I just showered in the same place the day before. (yes there's a certain way to switch the tap on) Nothing felt different. It was as if, I never left. And I'd been here all the while.

I thought that was strange. Honestly. Just weeks ago, I completely forgot how my room looked like. Serious. I thought I'd take a while to adjust. Guess not.

"It's your home what", my brother told me. He was the first whom I ranted to about how surprised I was with myself and how quickly I adapted back to normal life.

Ahhh, I miss the family. Distance truly makes the heart grow fonder like the grass that the cows graze on and eat lol. Sounds like fodder. Hahhaha too much NZ I suppose.


New Zealand was definitely one HECK of a great experience.

A clichéd person would exclaim, "I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR THE WORLD!!!!"

F you lah. Must be so kua zhang a not? Exaggerate until like that/

But I agree that YES, I WOULDN'T TRADE IT FOR THE WORLD!!!!!!!!! Hahahahaha, dissing myself. In the face.

What I hear about everything, must be experienced to truly understand what it feels/means. Like cultural differences, I would never know what it truly is even though I've heard so much about it. Until I experienced it myself.

I wanted to blog about my return the very first day I returned to Singapore. But, for me, if I haven't touched my blog for quite a while, it takes a bit of time before I get my head working and my fingers typing. Every blog post has a lot of thought put into. I believe so for every blogger as well. It's like, how am I gonna announce my return? A big smiley face and a HEYYA IM BACK? Or just a short post describing my flight back? What? What should I type?

And usually, such blog posts end up talking about something else for me haha. I just let myself type in the moment. Spontaneously.

Right now, I have to say having returned for 3 days, I feel immensely familiar and comfortable with my surroundings. As of a month later, I might not feel the same way coz of all the things that I have to do at school and stuff.

Which makes me kind of sad knowing that I won't feel the same surge of euphoria and happiness about being back! Feelings are so uppie and downie haha.

I have to say though, that I have grown to be so much.. so much MORE curious about my own country than ever before. I have never been THIS curious about Singapore and I hope it stays that way. Despite talking about how I felt immense familiarity in Singapore again, I must reiterate that everything is different from what I had been experiencing in NZ the past few months. Which means even though I feel at ease, I still have to take in and soak in a new environment as compared to what I was used to. Even though it is just Singapore, it is still different to me. Getting used to seeing certain everyday things again.

To illustrate how much my curiosity has peaked, let's just say that I made friends with 3 primary school boys and 2 uncles in my neighbourhood on my first day back in Singapore. Amazing huh? I was talking to them as if I was their neighbour or something. I'd never really do something like that before.

If you follow me on Instagram, I got to know the boys when I was jogging at the canal and they were fishing. For guppies apparently. But you can no longer do that seeing how dirty the water is now. Nevertheless, when I heard what they were doing, my heart leaped. I raced down to the longkao to see how many fishies they had caught. All small silver ones. It reminded me of what I used to do when I was a kid and my bro and I would get scolded by my dad for going to the canal. Such fond memories came rushing back just looking at them waddling through cloudy waters. It was definitely very heart warming for me to be seeing that on my first day back. They asked me what I was doing and was curious about me. Which pri sch I was from. One even asked if I was from overseas and I said no. Disappointed by their lack of guppy catching at the longkao, they proceeded to the fishing lake beside White Sands where they were yet again disappointed coz guppies weren't around lol. Kids' innocence. I'm amazed.

It was there when I met the other 2 uncles minutes later. I was curious about all the uncles sitting around the perimeter of the fishing lake, waiting or trawling for a catch. I then asked one of them if I could watch him fish and he said yes. I squatted and talked to them till 7.15pm. One thought I was interested in fishing. I wouldn't say I am, but I was definitely interested to see how they fished. Watched them catch 2 fishes at least yay. It was cool! I've never seen people fish there despite living in Pasir ris all my life. All these things... we take so much for granted when we live here. We simply overlook things that would be so interesting in the eyes of a foreigner. I'm not one. But it came to me as a realisation that hey, wow, I've been overlooking so many things that would've been seen as new and wonderful to someone who didn't know Singapore. I know Singapore, but... do I truly?

After travelling the past few months, everything was about discovery and seeing new things in different places. It influenced me to want to discover Singapore as well. Especially after returning and having to adapt to "new" surroundings again. Such an oxymoron. It's "new" yet not at all new.
I don't want to get used to Singapore and things around me. I still want to feel like I'm seeing everything for the first time. It's really cool. Everything just becomes new and amazing. You just can't stop learning.

When I was in Australia and New Zealand, people would randomly smile or say hi to you and speak to you. I enjoyed that kind of friendliness. Just makes everything more cheery and happy whether or not you think it's superficial, gotta admit it makes everything more polite and nice. So I believe, I have brought over some of that back here to Singapore. I have started to randomly smile at strangers. Not in a creepy way duh. I selectively pick out whom to smile at and at the right moment. For example, a lady walking her dog and the Malay uncle just walking by as I jog past him. TO MY SURPRISE, they smiled back. Damn, Singaporeans are actually friendly. It's hard to believe. When people I met who've been to Singapore tell me that Singaporeans are friendly, I would reply with a cynical "really?", coz I'd never imagine Singaporeans to even be friendly. Let alone smile at strangers. Now when I do it and people reciprocate, IT FREAKIN BRIGHTENS UP MY DAMN DAY. I mumbled to myself a couple of times and looked up at the sky saying "THERE'S HOPE IN HUMANITY" and make a cringing face like I'm so touched and the world is about to drop into my arms.

Quite dramatic huh? 'Quite' is an understatement. But I truly felt surprised by my own people and their responses. Wtf man. Who ARE they? It's not normal man. Hahahha.

But seeing how this actually works, it's comforting to know that hey, Singaporeans can be friendly too. And most importantly, that it's possible to bring across cultures, different practices. It's quite a new revelation to me. Yesss, I feel quite accomplished by even such a small deed. Just smiling and feeling good. I dunno if I can do that in NTU though. Would be different. They'd think I'd have intentions. Intentions that might lead others to think that I'm expressing certain interests. So, yeah, not so good idea.

Another thing though, Singapore, or at least where I live, gave me that sense of freakin security and comfort the moment I got back. Oh my word. People are always saying Singapore is so safe blahblahblah. Yeah, I thought ok. Yeah it's safe alright. But I'd never known it to give me that much feeling of ease just coming back and knowing that the streets are devoid of dubious looking characters. In NZ, my friends tell me NEVER to go out late at night alone. True enough, so many experiences to understand what they meant. Even in New Zealand. I thought it'd be safe, just like Singapore.


These are just some of my thoughts on coming back. So far all good experiences, seeing I haven't been on public transport yet. The crowds ugh. Ain't looking forward to that haha. Yet I kinda miss crowds as well? Ah wtheck. I'm tired. Abrupt end, or else it won't end.

Will blog more soon! But here's a lengthy post just for you chronicling my entire thoughts and feelings on coming back. Let's just say, I'm glad to be back folks.