Pages out of the Beijing-er's Diary

What a perfect way to end off what i first started out with Tales and Spills.

I thought there would be lots of tears and flashback memories today. But today, my mind was a blank, and nothing came. No tears, no memories, nothing to remind me of my 2 years in Beijing. Gasps, this is what has become of me. An emotionless monster.

So anyway, a while back, i started on this end piece, something to commemorate my days in Beijing.

" Beijing-er, a fond term used by my family to address me, the student, temporary and current resident of our motherland, China. In the summer of 2009, I, along with 50 other wide-eyed students from the Nanyang Technological University, flew into the great capital of the motherland, to complete the final 2 years of our Traditional Chinese Medicine degree.

The first real Beijing experience began as soon as we stepped out of the mammoth-like Beijing Airport, and took the first whiff of the Beijing air. *Coughs, you get where this is going? And within the next few days, I started putting together a character profiling of a true blue Beijinger. A Beijinger (note the spelling difference between that of a 'Beijing-er') is certainly a character of such colourful beginnings. They can be anyone of the following:

• The little toddler heading down his own catwalk in his fashionable statement-of-the year pants – a slit right through the bottom (no further explanations required)

• The puffer sitting next to you at a non-smoking restaurant, standing beside you in a lift, queuing behind you in a hospital.

• The group of friends whose grandparents might have owned practically every road (big or small) in Beijing

• The scraggy old uncle who seems to possess a high-steamed-sputum-churning mechanism within the walls of his mouth

• The doting husband and father whom you get acquainted with, be it on a bus or train ride or simply just by brushing pass each other. All because there are no secrets amongst the Beijingers. They shout it, they scream it, they will let it be known who they are.

For most of us, the move to Beijing was not all sweet and sugary nor was it smooth like a cup of oh-so-good cappuccino. Thrown into a land where we once thought was impossible to live in, it was time for us to be weaned off the milk bottle. Within days, we mastered the roles of a housewife, handyman, cook, you name it. We became the man of the family. There were so many decisions to be made and so many things that needed fixing. One day it was the shrewd landlords that we had to deal with and the next day, the house was falling apart.

No, don't get me wrong, I still do love the Beijing experience. In the mornings, its always such a joy to walk from my apartment to the hospital I intern at. In sporadic areas across my neighbourhood, groups of old grannies would gather and dance together to the tunes blaring on the stereo. Further along, the chinese classical tunes fade away to the sweet melodious chirps of the morning birds sitting in cages strapped to the laps of the old man parading his pride.

In the evenings, the pseudo-doctor in us return home with a wealth of knowledge from a day of internship, all eager to put to practice what we have learnt. And this often involves a pack of needles, a bottle of alcohol and an unsuspecting victim. From being an intern, we now take on the alternate role of becoming a pin cushion for one another.

Weekends are reserved solely for stalking the streets of Beijing. Weekend is a time we pamper ourselves the tourist way. The day is packed sardine tight with sight-hopping, good food and even better shopping. Its a bonus when we get long weekends. On such good luck, we the restless adventurers journey out into the suburbs of Beijing for some real action and deep forest exploration.

From the Forbidden City, to the 798 Art District, Beijing is full of endless surprises, a melting pot of both the past and the present, of traditions and innovations. Beijing is a city that we have all slowly come to accept and embrace. Beijing is a city I now call home. For now."

Bye bye Beijing.