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Overwhelming, Thank you for picking up the trash and 10 pm, go to bed!

Day four since I’ve moved to the boarding house. In this short period I have experienced about as much as in four weeks usually.

Since Julia picked me up from the hotel, I am surrounded by only lovely people who are happy to welcome us who are the new boarders and help us with all the confusions such as the laundry system (thank you, Anna!).

All the processes in the boarding house, where to go, the places and all the people are of course new to me. That’s why “overwhelming” definitely is the word of the week. Also my first day of school (and at the same time my last, because now is October break) can be described by this word.

When I went to my first music lesson in person, I expected experimentation with melodies or rhythms as usual. Well, the next moment I found myself on the school stage with a djembé between my legs and we recorded a drum piece for the annual dance show “Culturama”.

After that, I was taken to the next class by my classmates because “hey, we’ll show you the way to your next classroom, we’re already late for math anyway, come along!”

So much lovableness in such a short time is especially after the unsocial quarantine, well, just overwhelming.

Thank you for picking up the trash!

The following days were marked by IKEA, Gnocchi cooking (I have to fly around half the world to learn how to make Gnocchi!) or the beach cleanup yesterday. Honestly, I did not participate because of my environmental awareness, but because it was compulsory for new boarders.

I can’t say it’s going to be my new favorite hobby, but I think it’s important to have participated at least once. The beach section looked pretty clean at first glance, but in the end I could have spent one hour on a single square meter with plastic particles.

a plastic bag full of trash at the beach Pasir Ris in Singapore
I needed only 40 minutes to collect all the trash in the bag.

So people, just take your waste with you! Then you don’t have to thank me like the passing man with the words: “Thank you for picking up the trash!” Uhm, you’re welcome?

Today we’ve been in Chinatown and at the Buddha Tooth Relic Temple, a Buddhist temple that houses a relic of Buddha: a 7.5 cm long tooth.

one street in Chinatown
one little street in Chinatown

In a few minutes is teatime, getting together and drinking tea with the other boarders until the bell is rung at 22 o’clock (or somebody just says a few words). Unfortunately, the ringing is not for the Christ Child that brings the gifts at christmas, but for the boarders who have to go to their rooms now.

I still find it strange to be sent to bed at 22 o’clock weekdays and 23 o’clock Fridays and Saturdays. I understand the meaning behind it, because if we are somewhere on a balcony or a common room, there must always be a person on duty who cares if everything is alright and going to bed at a reasonable time is also more than important. It’s still strange.

Still, the early bedtime is not my “uugghh” of the week

It’s the deficient M & M’s pack. I haven’t found normal M & M’s yet that just have one package and a lot of M & M’s inside. No, instead there’s a big bag with fifteen 13.5 g mini packages inside. Again, it’s not my environmental awareness that is mad against them (okay, a bit) but the fact that I have to open a new package for five M & M’s every time. Well, admittedly, I’ve only been looking for it in two shops so far.

GIF of the Week:

via GIPHY

Lovely,

Milena

2 thoughts on “Overwhelming, Thank you for picking up the trash and 10 pm, go to bed!”

  1. Pingback: Oh true, I'm still new! | milenarrative

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