Day 1
Most of them move in and out on a temporary basis, but there are four main characters. There is I-don’t-do-anything-but-watch-TV-man, there is I-don’t-do-anything-but-hide-in-my-room man, there is I-don’t-do-anything-but-fly-overseas man, and I-don’t-do-anything-but-go-out man. Put them together and you can just picture the most happy bunch of colleagues in the world. So what's been up for the first three days? Well at the risk of making this turn into a food blog, I have some pics here that might paint some sort of story... Day 1 I arrived at the airport slightly ahead of schedule, but thankfully the driver was oredi there waiting for me. The drive through the city of Shenzhen reminded me of Chengdu - Like Singapore in the 80s and early 90s, which was fine by me though, just that you know people always say how advanced China is now, I half-expected to see newer, taller and more modern buildings.
Anyway I arrived at where I'm supposed to stay (will take pics soon) and it is not exactly a villa like they told me lah, it's more like a detached house. But it's within walking distance to the factory where I work.
Most of them move in and out on a temporary basis, but there are four main characters. There is I-don’t-do-anything-but-watch-TV-man, there is I-don’t-do-anything-but-hide-in-my-room man, there is I-don’t-do-anything-but-fly-overseas man, and I-don’t-do-anything-but-go-out man. Put them together and you can just picture the most happy bunch of colleagues in the world. So what's been up for the first three days? Well at the risk of making this turn into a food blog, I have some pics here that might paint some sort of story... Day 1 I arrived at the airport slightly ahead of schedule, but thankfully the driver was oredi there waiting for me. The drive through the city of Shenzhen reminded me of Chengdu - Like Singapore in the 80s and early 90s, which was fine by me though, just that you know people always say how advanced China is now, I half-expected to see newer, taller and more modern buildings.
Anyway I arrived at where I'm supposed to stay (will take pics soon) and it is not exactly a villa like they told me lah, it's more like a detached house. But it's within walking distance to the factory where I work.
I met the housemaid. I call her 陈小姐. Apparently here in Shenzhen it's ok to call 小姐 leh. It's not taboo like what people told me. Miss Chen has been really nice. She'll cook lunch for me everyday and do all my laundry. Cool huh?
Miss Chen brought me to the where the one and only supermarket is around the area to have my lunch. There was a KFC there, but I opted for the 面点王 instead. It was pretty ok, just expensive, even for my standards. I one person ate 25 元 which works out to about 5 bucks. But I had 饺子 AND 炸酱面lah, so I guess I shouldn’t complain.
I swung by the factory and it reminded me of Sundtrand, where my dad worked at, during the 80s. It seemed a little run down, but I wanted to reserve my initial impressions, because it was just a quick pit-stop.
I went back to where I stayed, and yes, after an entire week here I still don’t know what the compound is called. I managed to determine it’s at the junction of 国威路 and 畔山路 and it is in the 连塘 district. But that’s all the clues I have for where I stay. There are no major landmarks around here except for a few sleazy 休闲中心s if you would consider them landmarks. I spent the day in my room unpacking and hooking up to the internet. Then I watched House until some of the Singaporeans came back. I half expected them to ask me to dinner, but of course being who they were, it didn’t happen. So I eventually ventured out on my own, only willing to keep my route straight for fear that I might not know how to make it back. Anyway I thought what the hell right, I should try to eat at the most lok-kok looking place and experience some “culture” and boy oh boy there sure weren’t short of candidates. Some of these places looked like the cooks would spit into your food or there would be mice and cockroaches crawling around as you ate.
I went back to where I stayed, and yes, after an entire week here I still don’t know what the compound is called. I managed to determine it’s at the junction of 国威路 and 畔山路 and it is in the 连塘 district. But that’s all the clues I have for where I stay. There are no major landmarks around here except for a few sleazy 休闲中心s if you would consider them landmarks. I spent the day in my room unpacking and hooking up to the internet. Then I watched House until some of the Singaporeans came back. I half expected them to ask me to dinner, but of course being who they were, it didn’t happen. So I eventually ventured out on my own, only willing to keep my route straight for fear that I might not know how to make it back. Anyway I thought what the hell right, I should try to eat at the most lok-kok looking place and experience some “culture” and boy oh boy there sure weren’t short of candidates. Some of these places looked like the cooks would spit into your food or there would be mice and cockroaches crawling around as you ate.
But anyway I settled for this place that sold roast duck rice. I ordered and to my surprise, it wasn’t just roast duck and rice like what we get in Singapore. There was a whole plate of fried vegetables and a big bowl of soup too! I wanted a drink too, but to my surprise (again) they didn’t sell drinks, and told me to help myself to a free flow of mineral water. Strange business plan huh? I thought selling drinks was the most profitable. Hmmm… Anyway the entire set cost my only 12 yuan, which is like 2 bucks. Sure the duck was boney, but I’m not about to complain man. The fried vegetables were actually quite nice.
I wandered more along the same straight route coz I wanted to find some breakfast for the next day. I went into several convenience stores but could only find biscuits, so I had to keep going further. But my patience paid off because I found a nice little bakery that made nice breads much like breadtalk. Cool, I don’t have to worry about the lack of breakfast ever again.
Day 2
My first day at work and I met some people. I spent the entire morning waiting for this MIS dude to configure my laptop and it was painstaking man. He was doing a ton of things at the same time and still found the time to IM with random people. But I didn’t complain, I wasn’t in a rush, I had three months of doing nothing ground-breaking or world-changing, so he could waste as much of my time he wanted. I spent the rest of the day reading procedures and rules in Chinese. Actually I’m quite impressed with the company. They have everything documented because of ISO, so most of the basic stuff of the company was available online.
When lunchtime drew nearer suddenly occurred to me I didn’t have any lunch plans. I was about to settle for anything nearby liao, but the lady that picked me up on the first day at the airport asked my if I had any plans, and when I said no, she told me to go her hostel where she and a bunch of other workers lived. They cooked and ate together everyday and she asked me to join them. I was paiseh at first, but I really wanted to see their living quarters, so I said what the hell, lead the way.
I met her boyfriend there and some other workers. The place was nice and cozy and I really enjoyed their banter. I had a pure vegetables and rice lunch, which made me realize how much these people loved their vegetables. I had only one bowl of rice coz I was paiseh for intruding their lunch but by the time it was 4pm I was regretting it coz my stomach started to growl.
I realized they knock off at 5.30pm because lunch was 1 and a half hours. That’s cool by me, I didn’t care if they made me work till anytime. I had nothing much to do anyway. After work I sniffed my way to where the 面点王 was coz I figured there would have nicer places to eat.
I settled for this joint that sold claypot porridge. It’s so unlike me because I dun usually eat claypot, but the place had aircon and looked clean. I wanted to eat their frog porridge but they didn’t have enough so I settled for a bak-kut rice (I figured if I ate porridge I would have to find supper at night). The meal confirmed their fascination with vegetables coz it came with a plate of fried vegetables again. I’m seriously not complaining, I love their vegetables. I think maybe their staples are rice and vegetables. Anything else is a bonus add-on.
I swung by the supermarket to find breakfast, and to my surprise I managed to find cornflakes! I bought a muesli with raisins and nuts – No more breakfast worries for a few days. at least.
I came back and realized my internet connection at my place is totally unreliable. I get cut off at random times and can’t reconnect. So if you MSN me and I don’t reply, most likely it’s coz I’ve been cut off. I’m really sorry about this.
Day 3
I started to have lunch at home by getting 陈小姐 to cook. It’s too much of a hassle to figure out where to eat lunch everyday and it’s free anyway, so I figured why not right? I realized her cooking is really not bad. Feels good having home-cooked food. Anyway the after work activities was slightly more interesting. I spent the whole day at work looking at maps of Shenzhen. I got a little frustrated along the way coz I simply couldn’t find where I was, so I thought perhaps I should get a map or something. After googling around I realized there was a 书城 or “Book City”, so I thought there must be some good maps there. I took a cab there. It was when I determined that the standard of living in Shenzhen is 2.5 times of Chengdu. When I was in Chengdu, the flag-down rate for a cab is like 5 yuan, so we took a cab to EVERYWHERE. Here in Shenzhen it was 12.50 yuan man. I spent almost 30 yuan on the cab fare, made me think wah liew, quite like Singapore ah.
Anyway I made it to the Book City and bought 2 books – a detailed street directory and one with a general map of the whole of Shenzhen and included some sight-seeing places and food recommendations with it. The two books totaled 35 yuan or 7 bucks Sing, so I thought what the hell, small price to pay for not getting lost ever again.
There was a nice shopping center opposite Book City, so I thought I’d go there for food. There was a nice food court upstairs, but the prices were Singaporean prices. I was starving by then so I ignored the prices and ordered a hotplate fried noodles. There was, as I expected, more vegetables than noodles and it was nice, though on the oily side. It was waaaay too much for one person though. It came with soy bean milk and soup – these Chinese sure like to make an entire meal out of things. Singaporean food vendors ought to be ashamed of themselves for being so ngiao.
I figured I have to pay 6 Sing to get back, might as well explore the area and make my money worth it. When you’re walking alone for an extended period of time, you start realizing your thoughts to yourself are louder. I wanted to find a café with desserts and I expected to find one coz the place was buzzing with people and nice shopping centers. I also told myself if I find a supermarket I would get a beer. I got the beer (3 yuan, or 60 cents Sing peepz, read and weep!), but not the dessert.
Day 4
I got transferred to the training department, which was great coz that’s my expertise, and the department was small and cozy. It had only 4 people, in a separate place opposite the factory, so the people had lesser inhibitions and were more chatty, unlike the main building where everyone just kept to themselves and their work. I immediately felt more comfortable, even more so when I realize the guy I was sharing a table with was just a year older than me and he also just joined the company a month ago. His name is 赵一名 (Zhao Yi Ming), and we chatted a lot and I realized he’s a cool dude. I attended some training sessions for new workers, half of which I didn’t understand coz it was all technical jargon – IN CHINESE. Strangely, I enjoyed it. It made me realize their training programmes are quite well planned and well thought out. I sure know a hell lot more about resistors now.
In the afternoon I started translating a powerpoint about teambuilding, and it was a self-actualization exercise. I only translated 7 slides the whole afternoon. My Chinese just simply sucks lah. My best friend is now called babelfish. He gives me the answers that I need in life. I managed to translate goals into 目标 and objectives into 目标, groups into 小组 and teams into 小组. How do you say these things in Chinese anyway? And what’s the difference between 队友 and 组员? Screw the differences lah, fuck it lah fuck it lah, it’s the same lah.
Apparently from Monday to Thursday after work, workers and staff members (there is a difference here: Workers work in the factory, staff members do administration) can attend a 20 minute English lesson at the training center on a voluntary basis. By English lesson, it was actually watching a video that claimed to be 新概念学英语, loosely translated to “a new way of learning English”. Curious in this “new way”, I sat down and watched the thing. New my ass man, this has got to be the worst way of learning English I’ve ever seen. The people who come to listen don’t get to practice, they just listen. And the video goes so fast I don’t think they caught anything. I also realized that everyone is on a different page. Their standards of English are so different depending on their education. Some crappy flash animation is not going to help these people improve one single bit. I told Yi Ming what I felt (of course not so directly) and he came up with a brilliant idea of me becoming an English teacher there. Apprehensive at first, but I think I’ve found my purpose in this company.
I went back and went for a jog coz I wanted to start keeping fit. I had nothing to do anyway, but the jog did make me feel really lonely. Anyway I thought a lot about what I could do to teach English and started to get excited about it. I wonder if this thing is a serious thing or a just say-say thing. We’ll see.
I explored the area more in search for dinner, and after seeing more 休闲中心s I settled for this place that claimed to sell dumplings. It turned out the cook was sick, so there were many things on the menu that was not available. I settled for a 狮子头 which was really a meatball soup in claypot. When it came I was shocked because this was so not a one person meal. 4 people could eat this one dish and there would still have been leftovers. The meatballs were so friggin huge I started to feel full by the time I finished the first one. There was plenty of tang hoon and, yep you guessed it – Vegetables! Vegetables must be dirt cheap here man. That’s the only logical explanation for their fascination with it. It’s a good thing lah, vegetables are healthy anyway.
I went back and watched House since there was no internet again. This is damn sad, and I do feel I’m wasting a lot of time not exploring the area and experiencing the culture. But I’m just making the best out of my situation I guess.
Day 5
I finished translating the powerpoint I started the previous day and that burned the whole morning. Time flies when you have something to do. In the afternoon, I went to their version of OBS. It’s a place to teach leadership and teambuilding and I thought this was really great. I think their people could do a lot of learning from these activities. It will sure help develop a generation of managers at least. I find to many of them are administrators, but can’t really cut it as managers because of their lack of knowledge of leadership and teambuilding. Places such as this could really take them to a new level. Yi Ming was definitely interested to have this training, but I was trying hard to tell him a half-day thing won’t do anyone any good. 2 days 1 night at least, 3 days 2 nights the best. But I guess there’s always budgetary and time constraints. The other girl, 张灿 (Zhang Can), who came along, was far more critical about their techniques because she felt too much time was wasted organizing everyone and explaining rules and regulations. I tried hard to explain to her they absolutely have to do this to cover their arses, but I guess she still didn’t really get it. Either way I found she was pleasant to chat with and easy to get along. I felt happy I was slowly finding more people to talk to. We took a bus back, which made me realized their buses are a lot better than I expected – air-conditioned, clean, and had crazy drivers with no regard for speed-limits, just the way I like it.
I had dinner with Yi Ming at this place near 面点王, and it was better than the bak-kut place I had the other time. I had this 木桶饭, which literally translates to “wooden bucket rice”. It had, come one everybody, say it with me – RICE AND VEGTABLES! Different style of course, this one had so much green and red chilli it was like somebody pissed off the cook so he needed to burn someone. It was still nice, after some painstaking removal of a large portion of the chilli. These dudes do delivery! I got the pamphlet, so next time if I got no dinner plans and don’t feel like going out, I’m just gonna call. Oh wait, I just gotta figure out how to tell them to come here. Damn.
I quick shout out to my baby for keeping me company on MSN the first few days, what would I do without you dear?
I wandered more along the same straight route coz I wanted to find some breakfast for the next day. I went into several convenience stores but could only find biscuits, so I had to keep going further. But my patience paid off because I found a nice little bakery that made nice breads much like breadtalk. Cool, I don’t have to worry about the lack of breakfast ever again.
Day 2
My first day at work and I met some people. I spent the entire morning waiting for this MIS dude to configure my laptop and it was painstaking man. He was doing a ton of things at the same time and still found the time to IM with random people. But I didn’t complain, I wasn’t in a rush, I had three months of doing nothing ground-breaking or world-changing, so he could waste as much of my time he wanted. I spent the rest of the day reading procedures and rules in Chinese. Actually I’m quite impressed with the company. They have everything documented because of ISO, so most of the basic stuff of the company was available online.
When lunchtime drew nearer suddenly occurred to me I didn’t have any lunch plans. I was about to settle for anything nearby liao, but the lady that picked me up on the first day at the airport asked my if I had any plans, and when I said no, she told me to go her hostel where she and a bunch of other workers lived. They cooked and ate together everyday and she asked me to join them. I was paiseh at first, but I really wanted to see their living quarters, so I said what the hell, lead the way.
I met her boyfriend there and some other workers. The place was nice and cozy and I really enjoyed their banter. I had a pure vegetables and rice lunch, which made me realize how much these people loved their vegetables. I had only one bowl of rice coz I was paiseh for intruding their lunch but by the time it was 4pm I was regretting it coz my stomach started to growl.
I realized they knock off at 5.30pm because lunch was 1 and a half hours. That’s cool by me, I didn’t care if they made me work till anytime. I had nothing much to do anyway. After work I sniffed my way to where the 面点王 was coz I figured there would have nicer places to eat.
I settled for this joint that sold claypot porridge. It’s so unlike me because I dun usually eat claypot, but the place had aircon and looked clean. I wanted to eat their frog porridge but they didn’t have enough so I settled for a bak-kut rice (I figured if I ate porridge I would have to find supper at night). The meal confirmed their fascination with vegetables coz it came with a plate of fried vegetables again. I’m seriously not complaining, I love their vegetables. I think maybe their staples are rice and vegetables. Anything else is a bonus add-on.
I swung by the supermarket to find breakfast, and to my surprise I managed to find cornflakes! I bought a muesli with raisins and nuts – No more breakfast worries for a few days. at least.
I came back and realized my internet connection at my place is totally unreliable. I get cut off at random times and can’t reconnect. So if you MSN me and I don’t reply, most likely it’s coz I’ve been cut off. I’m really sorry about this.
Day 3
I started to have lunch at home by getting 陈小姐 to cook. It’s too much of a hassle to figure out where to eat lunch everyday and it’s free anyway, so I figured why not right? I realized her cooking is really not bad. Feels good having home-cooked food. Anyway the after work activities was slightly more interesting. I spent the whole day at work looking at maps of Shenzhen. I got a little frustrated along the way coz I simply couldn’t find where I was, so I thought perhaps I should get a map or something. After googling around I realized there was a 书城 or “Book City”, so I thought there must be some good maps there. I took a cab there. It was when I determined that the standard of living in Shenzhen is 2.5 times of Chengdu. When I was in Chengdu, the flag-down rate for a cab is like 5 yuan, so we took a cab to EVERYWHERE. Here in Shenzhen it was 12.50 yuan man. I spent almost 30 yuan on the cab fare, made me think wah liew, quite like Singapore ah.
Anyway I made it to the Book City and bought 2 books – a detailed street directory and one with a general map of the whole of Shenzhen and included some sight-seeing places and food recommendations with it. The two books totaled 35 yuan or 7 bucks Sing, so I thought what the hell, small price to pay for not getting lost ever again.
There was a nice shopping center opposite Book City, so I thought I’d go there for food. There was a nice food court upstairs, but the prices were Singaporean prices. I was starving by then so I ignored the prices and ordered a hotplate fried noodles. There was, as I expected, more vegetables than noodles and it was nice, though on the oily side. It was waaaay too much for one person though. It came with soy bean milk and soup – these Chinese sure like to make an entire meal out of things. Singaporean food vendors ought to be ashamed of themselves for being so ngiao.
I figured I have to pay 6 Sing to get back, might as well explore the area and make my money worth it. When you’re walking alone for an extended period of time, you start realizing your thoughts to yourself are louder. I wanted to find a café with desserts and I expected to find one coz the place was buzzing with people and nice shopping centers. I also told myself if I find a supermarket I would get a beer. I got the beer (3 yuan, or 60 cents Sing peepz, read and weep!), but not the dessert.
Day 4I got transferred to the training department, which was great coz that’s my expertise, and the department was small and cozy. It had only 4 people, in a separate place opposite the factory, so the people had lesser inhibitions and were more chatty, unlike the main building where everyone just kept to themselves and their work. I immediately felt more comfortable, even more so when I realize the guy I was sharing a table with was just a year older than me and he also just joined the company a month ago. His name is 赵一名 (Zhao Yi Ming), and we chatted a lot and I realized he’s a cool dude. I attended some training sessions for new workers, half of which I didn’t understand coz it was all technical jargon – IN CHINESE. Strangely, I enjoyed it. It made me realize their training programmes are quite well planned and well thought out. I sure know a hell lot more about resistors now.
In the afternoon I started translating a powerpoint about teambuilding, and it was a self-actualization exercise. I only translated 7 slides the whole afternoon. My Chinese just simply sucks lah. My best friend is now called babelfish. He gives me the answers that I need in life. I managed to translate goals into 目标 and objectives into 目标, groups into 小组 and teams into 小组. How do you say these things in Chinese anyway? And what’s the difference between 队友 and 组员? Screw the differences lah, fuck it lah fuck it lah, it’s the same lah.
Apparently from Monday to Thursday after work, workers and staff members (there is a difference here: Workers work in the factory, staff members do administration) can attend a 20 minute English lesson at the training center on a voluntary basis. By English lesson, it was actually watching a video that claimed to be 新概念学英语, loosely translated to “a new way of learning English”. Curious in this “new way”, I sat down and watched the thing. New my ass man, this has got to be the worst way of learning English I’ve ever seen. The people who come to listen don’t get to practice, they just listen. And the video goes so fast I don’t think they caught anything. I also realized that everyone is on a different page. Their standards of English are so different depending on their education. Some crappy flash animation is not going to help these people improve one single bit. I told Yi Ming what I felt (of course not so directly) and he came up with a brilliant idea of me becoming an English teacher there. Apprehensive at first, but I think I’ve found my purpose in this company.
I went back and went for a jog coz I wanted to start keeping fit. I had nothing to do anyway, but the jog did make me feel really lonely. Anyway I thought a lot about what I could do to teach English and started to get excited about it. I wonder if this thing is a serious thing or a just say-say thing. We’ll see.
I explored the area more in search for dinner, and after seeing more 休闲中心s I settled for this place that claimed to sell dumplings. It turned out the cook was sick, so there were many things on the menu that was not available. I settled for a 狮子头 which was really a meatball soup in claypot. When it came I was shocked because this was so not a one person meal. 4 people could eat this one dish and there would still have been leftovers. The meatballs were so friggin huge I started to feel full by the time I finished the first one. There was plenty of tang hoon and, yep you guessed it – Vegetables! Vegetables must be dirt cheap here man. That’s the only logical explanation for their fascination with it. It’s a good thing lah, vegetables are healthy anyway.
I went back and watched House since there was no internet again. This is damn sad, and I do feel I’m wasting a lot of time not exploring the area and experiencing the culture. But I’m just making the best out of my situation I guess.
Day 5
I finished translating the powerpoint I started the previous day and that burned the whole morning. Time flies when you have something to do. In the afternoon, I went to their version of OBS. It’s a place to teach leadership and teambuilding and I thought this was really great. I think their people could do a lot of learning from these activities. It will sure help develop a generation of managers at least. I find to many of them are administrators, but can’t really cut it as managers because of their lack of knowledge of leadership and teambuilding. Places such as this could really take them to a new level. Yi Ming was definitely interested to have this training, but I was trying hard to tell him a half-day thing won’t do anyone any good. 2 days 1 night at least, 3 days 2 nights the best. But I guess there’s always budgetary and time constraints. The other girl, 张灿 (Zhang Can), who came along, was far more critical about their techniques because she felt too much time was wasted organizing everyone and explaining rules and regulations. I tried hard to explain to her they absolutely have to do this to cover their arses, but I guess she still didn’t really get it. Either way I found she was pleasant to chat with and easy to get along. I felt happy I was slowly finding more people to talk to. We took a bus back, which made me realized their buses are a lot better than I expected – air-conditioned, clean, and had crazy drivers with no regard for speed-limits, just the way I like it.
I had dinner with Yi Ming at this place near 面点王, and it was better than the bak-kut place I had the other time. I had this 木桶饭, which literally translates to “wooden bucket rice”. It had, come one everybody, say it with me – RICE AND VEGTABLES! Different style of course, this one had so much green and red chilli it was like somebody pissed off the cook so he needed to burn someone. It was still nice, after some painstaking removal of a large portion of the chilli. These dudes do delivery! I got the pamphlet, so next time if I got no dinner plans and don’t feel like going out, I’m just gonna call. Oh wait, I just gotta figure out how to tell them to come here. Damn.
I quick shout out to my baby for keeping me company on MSN the first few days, what would I do without you dear?
4 comments:
hey!!!!!!
How is shenzhen so far? I am in Beijing..the air is bad and working is like clubbing coz everyone smokes indoor!
How's internship so far? U sound like u r staying wif strangers leh...how come?
Yu Hui
eh sounds like your work not bad what! i think teaching them engrish is right up your alley man!
Hello yuhui! SZ is ok lah, it gets kinda lonely here, but the locals are quite friendly at least. Take care of your health, wear a mask! I'm staying at a place where they house all the Singaporeans (and fillipinos if any) together in SZ. So it's kinda like a temporary place of sorts for all the travellers.
Hey Daryl, I mght not be teaching engrish any more, coz they want me to experience other departments too. I sense you are suanning me about my engrish... Hmmm... ;)
hey hey!
Oh that is how it is over dere ah...Are you alone from SMU?
I am staying with 3 guys from SMU la and I am totally part of a MAN gang of the apartment liao...hahaha
Have you been touring around? Like sight seeing spots and stuff?
Yu Hui
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