BEIJING; AN EXPERIENCE OF A LIFETIME
its been more than 2 months since my last update here on blog. ANYONE MISSED ME? *stares at screen and hear crickets instead* lol!!
2 months hiatus and where did i go? Beijing. There's a helluva things memorable about Beijing. THE GOOD, THE BAD AND EVERYTHING IN BETWEEN. I've made a lot of friends that I know I'll never forget. That I know that will cross the oceans to meet up and catch up on our lives. The effort that they are willing to put in sometimes blows me away. Some of my long time friends don't even do that... Hell. Some of my cousins don't even bother either.
And here, perfect strangers that i've met and gotten close to within a span of 2 months are planning the next time they're gonna see me and making sure if i will be in Australia or Singapore when that happens. People that lived on the other side of the world. People that see day when I see night. It amazes me still.
As anti-social as I am, I've made friends. Friends that have been there through the thickest of times in Beijing. Friends that became my temporary family in the absence of my real ones especially with the sucky internet connection and the lack of social network sites literally cut me off from the world and life I had back home. In return? I created a life in Beijing.
I had a life. I have people that I come home too. I have group dinners that I go for with the same people after work. Random activities that we do to pass the time like manicures, massages, or just shivering in the cold waiting for our Beijing pancakes to be ready and standing there bouncing up and down eating those street food.
Even as I'm typing this, I can't believe that it has all come to an end. There were days that I feel odd that those people that I used to see every single day isn't around anymore to come to my room to harrass me out for dinner or to get ready and go out in the middle of the night. Memories. heh.
Work was good. I lived the expat life and I had an amazing internship supervisor who was extremely concern with my well-being and if i were accustom to the extreme weather changes and that I start work at 10am and ended at 430pm to beat the peak hour rush. I had an insight into China Laws and I was doing foreign and international investments into China.
Money money money. Investments investments investments. Corporate corporate corporate.
Just the thing I like to do. So yeah, I definitely did enjoy my internship.
I lived the high life in Beijing. Work and play all within the same day, everyday. I liked it. It was busy but at the same time resourceful. I even played sparklers and fireworks during the Chinese New Year period...
There were some memories that I can't forget and it wasn't necessarily good. The day he fell sick in Beijing, fear rose within me; almost suffocating. How could it be a Deja Vu? How could one nightmare i've been having all year that never fail to wake me up in the middle of the night breathless and scared be replaying in front of me only in reality? When I saw him like that, I excused myself from his room to take my lappie and I remembered thinking if I was dreaming only to realise that I was tearing all the way back to my room praying silently that nothing worse will happen.
I didn't go to work that day becoz of it. How could I? Leave him there and expect him to call me if it gets worst? In Beijing, how long will it take me to get home from work considering Beijing and its traffic? What if something happen and I didn't get home in time? I will never be able to forgive myself.
It was as if my deepest fear came true. It wasn't a sight I would wanna remember, but it was definitely something I can ever forget either. Everyone saw the after effect of that day on me. After he left and despite knowing he's better, I wasn't relieved. People politely left me by myself; often checking up on me after.
Beijing was harsh in so many ways. Like the weather, my experiences were equally on each extreme ends. I've had that. I've had my brand new 1865RMB (SGD 373) Follie Folli watch stolen from right under my nose while I was busy checking out of City Hotel to transfer to Swissotel. I've had my wallet pick pocketed in the subway 1week after i end my 2mth internship.
But if I were to be given the another opportunity in Beijing, I wouldn't mind doing it all over again. There are some things in life that can't be learned or read about, but experienced and earned instead.
Beijing drove me insane with frustration sometimes, but truthfully, it was worth it. Coz not everything was bad. I've been blessed to be able to meet the people I've met on this internship. That was nothing, but amazing. =)
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