Late Night Tea

I left the office today after 6pm.  Was a busy day interviewing candidates for an open staff position, and finishing a proposal for funding on an upcoming project.  But my day was not over yet…

I left the office and took bus #124 from Orchard Road in Singapore to my new flat in Chinatown.  Traffic was quite heavy and it took about a half hour for the trip.  I exited the bus at the the Chinatown Complex, and was looking around for a place to speak a little Chinese – this is my new daily project: to find a new small shop where I can start a conversation and maybe buy some small thing in Chinatown to practice speaking.

I found a herbal health tea shop and asked what kinds of tea they were selling.  The woman recommend I try their chrysanthemum ginseng tea.  It was not bad, and served from a giant, pear-shaped, golden urn.  Next time, I’ve got to find out why they serve it in those urns.

I then went up to the second floor ‘hawker centre’ in the Chinatown Complex. This is on of the largest food centres in Singapore, and has a wide selection of cooked local foods.  After wandering around a bit, I decided to try some Hong Kong style steamed fish with rice.  I asked the hawker stall owner which of his fish plates was the best flavoured.  Without hesitation, he told me to order the “Tou Cheong” steamed fish.  I ordered in mandarin, and he complimented me on my Chinese. We chatted for a bit about where I am from and where I learned Chinese.  His co-owner also complimented me, and pointed out to me that I very much looked like… Superman!  (0r Clark Kent!!).  I am used to being confused for Harry Potter, but this is the first time someone has compared me to Superman.  I told them that superman was my older brother, and we all had a good laugh.

My new flat is just next door to the Chinatown Complex, and when I returned Uncle Chao was visiting with his old friend from Hong Kong.  She has been friends with Uncle for over 20 years and they sat me down and asked me about one or two million questions.  Uncle’s friend (whose name I never found out!) speaks Cantonese and pretty good Mandarin, but with an accent that was hard for me to understand. But she was very kind and very friendly.  She mentioned that I’ve been living with Uncle for only four days, but that he likes me very much and thinks I am a “good boy”.  She asked me my shoe size, she had me stand up and compare heights with her.  She told me about her young daughter who works at the hospital, and insisted that I speak with her on the telephone.  She rang up her daughter and we had a very awkward conversation!  Her mother then insisted that we all meet for tea later that evening.  It was impossible to say no, and she was quite friendly.

We continued chatting while we waited for her daughter, Shanna, to arrive.  She asked me how many brothers I have, how many sisters, how much I earn, where else I lived in Singapore, … all kinds of things.  Very curious.  And I felt much closer to Uncle during this time… he would help to translate some of the Cantonese into Mandarin so I could understand and reply.  I complimented Uncle on his singing voice and violin playing skills (having heard his evening concerts these last few days!).

Around 10pm, Shanna rang and we were all to meet her downstairs for a glass of tea at the tea stall outside the building.  We met, and had an awkward sort of greeting – knowingly rolling our eyes at the meddlesome senior citizens.  But it was pretty nice.  This is exactly what I was hoping for in my recent move to Chinatown – to get to know Singapore a little better, to meet more local families, and to learn from the long and rich life of my new Singaporean ‘uncle’.

It was a nice evening, with a lot of memorable moments and conversations.