It's Singapore, LAH.

It's weird to be back. Everything's all so familiar, and yet it isn't. I came back to my room and I was like "This is not my room. Where's my stuff?"

Now that I'm back, everyone wants a piece of me. I haven't really had any time to myself till now, 4am in the morning when I can't sleep, and everyone else is deep in slumberland. The first night I was back I had to entertain my cousins who had stayed over to welcome home the expeditioner from faraway lands. I was quite jetlagged so I don't think I made a very good host. The second night I had to eat supper with them. They ordered wanton noodles, oyster omelette, char kway teow and rojak, and they said "Eat." Wow thanks really but eating that much Singaporean food at one go is the way to make you wish you were eating fish and chips again.

Actually, no I did not just say that. Blasphemy! I have just cursed myself into a lifetime of eating potatoes and their ilk. My current attitude towards potatoes is something close to I want to take that darned tuber and just do something to it. The only problem is, if I shred it I get fries, if I slice it I get chips, if I squash it I get mashed potatoes. The angmohs really love potatoes. No matter what you do to them, they will still find a way to eat them. Damned tuber.

One question I'm constantly asked is "How was Europe? Was it fun? What's the most memorable thing about it?" I'm really sorry to everyone who has asked me this question because I've done a really bad job of answering it.

Here's my usual answer. "Oh it was really fun."

That's the kind of answer you give when you just came back from a trip to like, Johor Bahru. It makes you seem like such an asshole because you took so much money and went on a flight of fancy and all you say about it is 5 words. I tried explaining my trip, then I realised they didn't really have a frame of reference to refer to, so it was quite futile. One comment went down pretty well though. It was this one.

"You know how they say the French are rude? Yeah it's true. The French are rude bastards." To which the whole extended family reacted with laughter.

Actually, the Singaporeans aren't much better. This guy speaking is actually pretty potty-mouthed too. And on the bus, I overheard two uncles having a "chat" in Hokkien, which made me smile. I forgot how much I'd missed the bite of authentic Hokkien... pleasantries.

The next question I keep getting asked is, "Why is your hair so long?" I told my cousin I was keeping it long so I could empathise with what it was like having long hair. She dismissed it as my usual rubbish. My aunt thought it was cool. Well, I think it's cool too, only that the weather is seriously making me feel like a haircut is necessary so I don't die from being overly furry like a Siberian husky. My dad was more direct. He thinks it's gay. He just flat out told me "Long hair does not suit you."

Wow thanks dad. Way to go. My mom even had to chip in "I think when the angmohs saw you they must have been scared. Why this guy hair so messy like some homeless person." Alright, that was really kind of rubbing it in already. I've decided that first thing tomorrow I'm going to do something about it.

Tomorrow, because I spent today looking over the skyline of Singapore.
High above on the Singapore Flyer.

=)

Pfft.

I was looking for baggage lockers at Heathrow so I could dump my heavy bags while I took a walk around to buy stuff, because I'd arrived too early to check-in. Being utterly unfamiliar with the place, I somehow stumbled into the section for passengers requiring special assistance. I asked the staff there if they had any idea where I could find baggage storage facilities and they gave me a blank look. Maybe it was because I wasn't in a wheelchair so they couldn't figure out how to help me.

As I was turning around to leave, a British girl rushed right up to me and asked "excuse me what does this word mean? do you speak japanese? what is this word?"

She was pointing at the word for rice "米“, so I told her that word meant rice. Then she went "So my name is RICE?" My Japanese name is RICE?!

"No, that's just the meaning of that word. What's your name?"
"Emilia"
I looked at the Chinese characters scrawled on the piece of paper.
"艾米利亚“ (ai4mi3li4ya3)
It was a pretty good fit.

So I told her "It's the whole phrase, that's your name. The Chinese do it that way." I then pronounced the whole thing out for her.

What happened next was totally unexpected. She went like "Okay you're like super cool! You speak like Japanese and Chinese. Alright thanks!"

I only have one thing to say. For the last time, I am not Japanese!

Cheers. It's been one hell of a ride.

It's funny how all good things always come to an end, too soon. Just exactly 5 months back I was sitting in my room in Singapore, packing my luggage, full of trepidation, and yet secretly excited. I did not sleep much that night.

Now I'm sitting in my room again, over 6000 miles away, packing that very same luggage bag, and I don't know what to say. I don't even know how to describe what's happened to me over the last 5 months. Normally, I would call it the time of my life, but I don't want to jinx that. I believe the time of my life is yet to come, so I shouldn't say that or it will all go downhill.

I've walked along the beaches of Barcelona, traversed the countryside of Italy, and walked down the Champs Elysees. I've seen the girls in the windows at Amsterdam, strolled in the gardens of Prague, hauled myself into a night train in Budapest, and watched an opera in Vienna. I've visited the English towns of Windsor and Bath, climbed atop a hill in Edinburgh, the highest churchtower in Porto, and I saw the harbour where the Titanic was built in Belfast. I visited the Cadbury factory in Birmingham, fooled around as a leprechaun in Dublin, and ate Swedish meatballs in Sweden. The last is nothing much I know, but Stockholm was so boring I struggle to find something to remember it by.

All this came to an end in Berlin, and atop the Reichstag I looked out at the Brandenburg Gate and gave thanks that I've been privileged enough to have been given the chance to experience this, to have backpacked across a continent and met people from all over the world, something many of my peers will probably never get the chance to do.

And I look back at the pictures from my earlier trips, when I was new to everything, from the first few times I visited London, to my first trip to Belgium, and I see how much I've changed. I really miss those times, because in them I had an innocence in traveling that made me go "wow" at everything, before I became "Eurojaded". I will always remember the first time I went to London and was utterly confused by the Tube system, or how I had to navigate the labyrinth under Charing Cross station as I struggled to find the exit to Trafalgar Square, the first place I set foot upon in Central London. Or how excited I was when I saw a pond of swans and ducks in Belgium, or rows and rows of chocolates waiting for me to sample them.

Somehow, I do miss that person I once was, but I know that person is gone, replaced by someone who has had his eyes opened to the workings of the world. This experience has been humbling, to say the very least, because I've come to see that the world is not just about Singapore, and it's not just about me.

And I know its the little things that I will miss the most. Like opening my window in the mornings and taking in the cool morning air. Hearing the different strains of music playing out of the different windows in my hall. Watching the locals go about their lives. Eating in the cafeteria on Indian food Thursdays amidst the hustle and bustle of other students and staff. Taking a walk to the supermarket to buy groceries for the week. Taking the bus down to London for a walk about town.

I will even miss sleeping on the bed in my hall room, or sitting in this very seat that I'm on as I type this. The very same seat I've slumped into as I returned from countless other trips, utterly dogtired and happy just to have Internet access again.

Everything's all packed now. I've been typing this line by line even as I packed items into my luggage.

I'm ready to leave.