CULTURE ShOcK

I am going to try to cram up everything i need to say within 30 minutes because will need to go get lunch and proceed to C.H's house later . Was trying to blog this since Sunday night but i got easily distracted by too many people chatting with me and yeah .. therefore nothing was posted .

I'm glad to say that i had a very interesting weekend .. hahaahh .. something i'd remember for a very long time ... imagine getting a c ulture shock , i'm sure you'd remember it for a very LONG LONG TIME ...

Saturday night was suppose to be the ALL IMPORTANT dinner with my fellow colleagues and boss ... It was already amazing when everyone who was invited for the dinner did not know the direction to the venue and even have a clue whether it is a restaurant , or a hotel . I checked in to work at 1pm and started teaching till 5 pm while in between had a little chat with Shiyan arranging our transport later in the evening . She decided to drive to Hem's house and later follow my car to the "so-called" place .

So at 5pm i came out of my studio and enquired on details of the dinner and found just as good as nothing . I decided to call LS later when we get lost . The only information i found was the place is Semenyih and i already got a little shock by that fact because obviously that's not Kajang and i won't know how to drive there .

Later at 5 30pm Shiyan came out and we both left Ampang to Puchong when we also couldn't find any useful information regarding the venue . Only found out how many cars are going and who's going with who (which in our part , WHO CARES!) ..

At 7 10pm Shiyan arrived at Hem's house and we both took off in my car . While driving our dearest Shiyan who's the smartest of all with a smart smart boyfriend (who seems like a walking map!) gave us very helpful information . Thanks to her boyfriend's direction (who was in Seremban at that time) we both managed to find that place without any phone calls made and help needed . Hahahha we arrived just in time actually !

So while walking up the stairs of the chinese restaurant and after the adventurous ride to Semenyih , i heard loads of words being spoken in mandarin by the people there and i thought

"OH great ... mandarin , shiyan pls help me to translate them!"

Then we reached 2nd floor of the restaurant and found our colleagues seats and so we took our seats happily ... anticipating for the food because i have been starved since 11+am till at that time almost 8pm without a single drop of solid food! When we just sat down then i saw another table further down was seated by our Kajang colleagues ... who seemed pretty happening ..
Pretty soon i saw 3 familiar faces walking towards my direction and i had a pat on my shoulder and saw it was C.H ! hahahaha ...

He smiled at me and i returned it to be shocked that he as usualy being himself wore just a T-shirt and Jeans .. ahahhaa ... while Shiyan and I dressed up like we're going for some real posch dinner! (coz we didn't know what to expect although we had some rough idea of what's going on)

By 8pm i got more and more culture shock when i heard stories of the whole dinner behind .. it's actually a singing competition with participants taking part are students of this vocal teacher who teaches oldies chinese songs in Karaoke style! aARRGHHHH!!!!

So yeah LS was contestant number 4 and while anticipating for the food ... the host started speaking in mandarin and i got more and more culture shock . I picked up a stack of papers clipped together on my seat and saw that the first page was a score of a famous Chinese New Year song while the pages behind were papers for us to vote for the winners . So yeah , the VOCAL TEACHER came up to sing the CNY song and asked us all to follow along . Which , obviously was in chinese and so .. Shiyan came up with this brilliant idea to sing it in the language we both understood well and had no problem reading !

SOLFEGE!

And so while the teacher sang we both sang it in solfege (it was a score) and when it repeated 2nd time she came up with another idea to sing it chord notes (Like in JMC!) hhhahhaa.. so both of us were trying to harmonize the melody singing , "Do-mi-so , Do-fa-la , Re-fa-la" according to the score . hahhhha HOW STUPID!

After that i finally had my first chance to "lo sang" before this year's CNY and yeah .. we had a good chat while eating along the way ... While eating the first contestants were up and ready to sing , and boy i got my 3rd culture shock of the night ... they were old ladies (sisters) who dressed up in super duper gowns and really screamed their voices into the mic and got all of us at the dinner table stunned for 3 seconds or so before putting our food into our mouths .

Staring at each other with those wry eyes and smiles , i just couldn't help it and straight away sms mum to tell her she should be the one sitting at my place rather than myself .

So yeah , the next few dishes came out while more and more contestants came up to sing (including LS that we all cheered and clapped along so much she won the "Most popular Audience Voice award") and i started to get used to the culture shock i had .. but then my stomach wasn't too happy with the whole condition and starvation , it betrayed me . I started having gastric and my face was turning blue slowly ...

By 9 15pm the 3 familiar faces i saw earlier from the Kajang table stood up and told LS they got to leave because "blah blah" (didn't hear) ... my faced from the initial "blue" turned longer knowing that shiyan and i wanted to leave desperately! So while getting influenced by these 3 familiar faces' slain idea of leaving early , shiyan and i thought about leaving too . I sent and sms straight to C.H complaining how unfair it is he could leave early while i sat there dying of gastric and culture shock. By 9 30pm in the toilet i felt more sick and when the next dish (which was a vegetable) came out i immediately felt like vommiting ... (I think it was also partly due to the deafening voices of the old folks screaming in my ears my stomach rebelled)

By 9 30pm Shiyan said

"Come , let's go. Just tell her"

We stood up and i told LS i had to go due to my gastric and so we both left HAPPILY .. hahaha Shiyan was very nice to offer to drive but i insisted i'm fine because i'm used to my gastric problem , moreover i know the way better . So yeah we took off and while driving back i felt the pain in my stomach slowly subsided and gone ... HAAHAHHAAH

HOW CAN THAT BE!?

It must be due to the situation and culture shock i had up there .

By 10 10pm i reached Hem's house and took a hot shower and told my them about my AMAZING dinner and culture shock i had . While stomach was still feeling uneasy , i ate a little of supper cooked by Eric ko-ko and we all went downstairs to watch A Night At The Museum . Wasn't it good to escape early?? ahahahha

The next day i woke up super early to go to church and to work in Ampang in the afternoon as usual ... i really appreciate the concern shown by my colleagues coz she asked did i feel much better and all .. i choked up a real good lie and said this

"Yeah , i went home , drank a hot milo and slept immediatelY"

(Since when i learnt to lie without thinking!?)

So yeah ... later in the evening LS came over to Ampang and saw me outside asked me the same question i was asked earlier and to make my story tally i choked the same lie up . How pathetic ... But all in all , i really appreciate the fact that LS invited me for the dinner because she only bought 3 tables and could only invited selected people for the dinner to support her . So although i had a massive culture shock (my first in 2007) it's a memorable event to make me have a good laugh until the end of the year . AT LEAST!

Ooops , 11 49 am .. running late .. gotta go buy lunch and off to another good afternoon!