xing nian quai ler~

chinese new year's one of the most biggest celebrations in Asia i would say... although the sites aren't as dramatic as to those of xmas or new year's, the sounds are pretty noticeable. Almost everywhere i go they'd be playin those old school festive songs... even in the public bathrooms, like theres ever a need to hear something like That in there~

but i like chinese new year, the free money, the tons of food... its even an excuse for kids to gamble. i have fun just hangin out with my family & relatives. like i said, its a big deal~

although, i've never really acquired the taste for Steamboat, or Shark's Fin, or Abalone or any other exotic (& rather expensive) Asian delicacies for that matter, that's never stopped me from whippin up some chicken poppers or orderin Pizza on the side~ but its the time of the year where i'd put those habits aside n just join in with them and eat the unfamiliar cusines.

its a pleasant cultural change for me and sometimes rather educational.. i sometimes learn new words or random trivia bout the chinese culture that may not appeal to me that much but its still interesting to know since i am, afterall, beige to the skin~

this may all seem rather normal to any other person but for someone like me, whose youth till now's proficiency in the Mandarin language has failed to even obtain so much as a passing grade since my primary-hood. since then most of the friends i made had usually been of different ethnicity from me~

i never watched any of the hk dramas or the taiwanese game shows on tv.. therefore i never had any common topic to converse with the other beige kids at my school. almost half of my closest friends back then where non-chinese. Even today my best friend is Malay~

it was onli during tertiary that i started hangin out with the chinese kids, n that took some gettin used too. now that im in National Service, the singaporean chinese in me has never made such a notable appearance before. i still speak good english, cept now i have a better understanding for Singlish as well~

i order my own tea by telling the uncle, "teh-peng" instead of "iced-tea". for example~ a pretty retarded thing to even mention but for me, when i go out and when i say such things.. i notice it~

i like being chinese, even though i don't act like one most of the time~

after all the fishball noodles and xiao long baos... i like to just go back to having pizza and spagatti for lunch after all this is done :)





post script: did i get the title right?