Overseas Singaporeans UNITE!
I know I haven't blogged in a while. The last time was when some prat called me ugly. But that's behind me now. Anyway, after speaking to Eve (Miller), another immigrant to the USA through the US Embassy in Singapore, I decided to contact my consulate here located in Washington DC via email to e-register my overseas residency, leading me to register at the Overseas Singaporean Portal (OSP). Upon registering, I looked around a bit, then came across a "SG In My Area" section of the forums, where I did a wide search for "Idaho". Found a couple of people, tried my luck and sent them some messages even though they hadn't logged on in a while. And I got responses! Yay! And they are about my age, too! Emails were exchanged as were phone numbers, and we decided to meet up on Sunday (today-ish) for lunch. It was great!
They decided on the Cheesecake Factory, which I couldn't afford, but one of them decided to pick up the check for today. In return, I will watch New Moon with them. ...mumblegrumblelol... Seems like we really hit it off, which means YAY! I have two new friends that are not friends of Karl's now! One's Esther, the other is Ernie. Esther is Chinese and Ernie is Malay. So I think from now I'll call Esther, "Esther 姐姐" and Ernie, "Kakak Ernie", both of which refer to an older sister in our respective mother tongues. BECAUSE THEY ARE BOTH OLDER THAN ME HAHAHA! I like to kacau them for being older than I am because they're about five years my senior. Heehee. <3
Best part is, we totally dropped our adopted American accent in preference of our native Singlish accent, which means for an entire afternoon, we spoke in an accent and in terms that we were TOTALLY comfortable using. Which was awesome, I haven't felt this comfortable around people since June when Hannah and Jeff drove us down to Sacramento for their wedding. We just talked and talked and talked, and forgot to take a picture to document that historic moment where three Singaporean women would become friends in the cold, bleak land of Boise. :P
After lunch, Esther drove us home and I think I made her minivan lopsided now (hey, in my defense, I was FULL!) and after that, Double-N drove us both to the choir concert where we spent the evening moping... Double-N about the fact that his name wasn't on the roster, and me about the fact that Karl didn't attend, and Jessie about the fact that she was mov--oh wait, she has a house, she doesn't get to mope, BLEARGH! Concert was good-ish, I don't think we "kick(ed) Rutter's ass", more like brush it with our toes a smidgen. Bwahaha.
Anyway, after hanging out with Esther 姐姐 and Kakak Ernie, I felt a bit nostalgic and started to look for all the songs I grew up with. You know, like 吴奇隆's 《追梦》, 刘德华's 《笨小孩》 and 郭富城's 《对你爱不完》. I also found 邓丽君's 《甜蜜蜜》 and someone else's 《鲁冰花》 (天上的星星不说话，地上的娃娃想妈妈). Then I started thinking of my mom. So I've always known the Chinese nursery rhyme, 《世上只有妈妈好》 like my mother taught me as a child, and even more so just before I left for the USA, but only now did I realise that there was a second verse.
“世上只有妈妈好
有妈的孩子像块宝
投进妈妈的怀抱
幸福享不了
世上只有妈妈好
没有妈妈像根草
离开妈妈的怀抱
幸福哪里找”
I wish I could translate it for you, but my translation sucks. Either way, I almost cried when I heard the second verse for the first time. I've always known the first verse, but now that I'm 'away from my mother's arms', I feel a little vulnerable, know what I mean?
I miss my mommy.
Edit: Stacy "translated" it for me :D
Rough Translation:
In the world, only mother is the best
A child who has a mother is like a treasure
Engulfed in a morher's embrace,
All the joy in the world is found
In the world, only mother is the best
A child without a mother is like the wild grass
When not in the embrace of a mother,
Where would happiness be found?
They decided on the Cheesecake Factory, which I couldn't afford, but one of them decided to pick up the check for today. In return, I will watch New Moon with them. ...mumblegrumblelol... Seems like we really hit it off, which means YAY! I have two new friends that are not friends of Karl's now! One's Esther, the other is Ernie. Esther is Chinese and Ernie is Malay. So I think from now I'll call Esther, "Esther 姐姐" and Ernie, "Kakak Ernie", both of which refer to an older sister in our respective mother tongues. BECAUSE THEY ARE BOTH OLDER THAN ME HAHAHA! I like to kacau them for being older than I am because they're about five years my senior. Heehee. <3
Best part is, we totally dropped our adopted American accent in preference of our native Singlish accent, which means for an entire afternoon, we spoke in an accent and in terms that we were TOTALLY comfortable using. Which was awesome, I haven't felt this comfortable around people since June when Hannah and Jeff drove us down to Sacramento for their wedding. We just talked and talked and talked, and forgot to take a picture to document that historic moment where three Singaporean women would become friends in the cold, bleak land of Boise. :P
After lunch, Esther drove us home and I think I made her minivan lopsided now (hey, in my defense, I was FULL!) and after that, Double-N drove us both to the choir concert where we spent the evening moping... Double-N about the fact that his name wasn't on the roster, and me about the fact that Karl didn't attend, and Jessie about the fact that she was mov--oh wait, she has a house, she doesn't get to mope, BLEARGH! Concert was good-ish, I don't think we "kick(ed) Rutter's ass", more like brush it with our toes a smidgen. Bwahaha.
Anyway, after hanging out with Esther 姐姐 and Kakak Ernie, I felt a bit nostalgic and started to look for all the songs I grew up with. You know, like 吴奇隆's 《追梦》, 刘德华's 《笨小孩》 and 郭富城's 《对你爱不完》. I also found 邓丽君's 《甜蜜蜜》 and someone else's 《鲁冰花》 (天上的星星不说话，地上的娃娃想妈妈). Then I started thinking of my mom. So I've always known the Chinese nursery rhyme, 《世上只有妈妈好》 like my mother taught me as a child, and even more so just before I left for the USA, but only now did I realise that there was a second verse.
“世上只有妈妈好
有妈的孩子像块宝
投进妈妈的怀抱
幸福享不了
世上只有妈妈好
没有妈妈像根草
离开妈妈的怀抱
幸福哪里找”
I wish I could translate it for you, but my translation sucks. Either way, I almost cried when I heard the second verse for the first time. I've always known the first verse, but now that I'm 'away from my mother's arms', I feel a little vulnerable, know what I mean?
I miss my mommy.
Edit: Stacy "translated" it for me :D
Rough Translation:
In the world, only mother is the best
A child who has a mother is like a treasure
Engulfed in a morher's embrace,
All the joy in the world is found
In the world, only mother is the best
A child without a mother is like the wild grass
When not in the embrace of a mother,
Where would happiness be found?