In conversation

Englock's friend, Tim came back to Singapore and invited us to his house for dinner last night. Other guests came and the hosts introduced us to their friends. Their friends were either angmoh or the English sort... You know the sort who kiss each other on the cheeks when they meet? And then there were the dunno-what name and the what name...and the I-really-don't-care-what's-their-name...so when I introduced myself as Lixia, they were like "Li-Sa" (pronounced with a bit of squinting). I don't know why....but pronouncing my name seems to produce that effect...

Finally, one super late couple arrived and we sat down for dinner at 9pm. Great!

Part I
Tim's wife (forgot her name): Hi Christina (I think that's her name), this is Li-Sa, EL's wife.
Christina: OH!!! *Shocked look* (took 5seconds to recompose herself)
Christina: Are you from China??
Me: *dry laugh* No. I'm a Singaporean. *wry smile*
EL: Ya ya....this is my wife from China! *laughs heartedly*
(Host tries to distract the still-shocked Christina by introducing her to someone else. EL tried to pacify me by saying some crappy stuff....)

Part II
Tim's wife was talking about the chinese course that she's taking at NUS (they are Vietnamese..) and showed us her textbook...
Me: (reading out some of the paragraphs aloud)
EL: Wa! Your chinese is terrible! You shld attend the chinese class as well....
EL's cousin: Ha!!! I thought you were a Chinese Helicopter (Read: Chinese Ed....)
Me: (in my heart...) Walaoz!!! English cannot make it....Mandarin cannot make it....this dinner getting a bit hard to digest.......

Part III
While having dinner, Christina's husband turned and asked me.... "So!! Which part of China are you from??" Walaoz!!!! So EL exclaimed (intended for the deaf to hear as well...) that I'm NOT from China and I'm a Singaporean all my life. Well, thank you very much.

Conversation during dinner was about someone's trip to Dubai, another person's trip to Bueno Aires, someone went to France, someone then started a whole trend of discussion on Calvados (an apple brandy that is produced in France). Tim wanted to offer wine...and I asked for water.....

I know I ought to have learnt how to appreciate wine and go along with the conversation but I haven't been to Dubai nor Bueno Aires and I don't drink. I just want to be me. I don't drink. I don't want to drink. I'm Singaporean and I don't kiss anyone else other than my husband. Thanks.

Felt quite out of place....Christina's husband was a pilot (SIA), their son's a lawyer, EL's cousin a lawyer and a jolly good one too, the rest are businessmen and their wives are tai-tais. I'm a civil servant.

Post dinner. Women adjourned together and talked about what else but....tsk tsk....diamonds. Men gathered and started talking about soccer. How exciting...................................................

Tomorrow I'm going Changi to work. Same goes for next week, and the week after next.