50 Things That I Would Not Have Done Back in Singapore

It’s been 2.5 months since I left home for SA, and around 2 months since I have settled down at Golden Gates. It’s time for some reflection. Here’s a list of 50 things that I never thought I would have done, accomplished or experienced:

1. Drive at 140 km/h.
2. Be driven at 180km/h.
3. Learn to stop at Stop Signs.
4. Learn how to give way at a cross junction of Stop Signs without traffic lights.
5. Learn to signal on the left and put on the wiper on the right.
6. Call traffic lights “robots”.
7. Call BBQ “braai”.
8. Wear shoes into my house.
9. Wear my pyjamas and uniform at least five times before I wash them.
10. Wash my hair only twice a week.
11. Wash my shoes at least once a month.
12. Handwash my own clothes and linen.
13. Wake up at 6.30am to handwash my own clothes.
14. Wake up at 6.30am to cook my own lunch.
15. Make beef dumplings and sweet & sour pork.
16. Bake delicious pies.
17. Eat green apples.
18. Eat green apples everyday.
19. Give green apples to horses trespassing my garden.
20. Feel that Maggie mee is the most important invention that ever happened to Mankind.
21. Feel excited and happy when I found egg noodles in a Pretoria supermarket.
22. Feel excited and happy when I found a Chinese family restaurant in Bethlehem.
23. Feel excited and happy when I spot Chinese, Koreans or Japanese.
24. Feel excited and happy when I see Chinese words.
25. Learn how to say greetings in 9 different languages (English, Mandarin, Malay, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, German, Afrikkans, Sotho)
26. Speak to an audience of 800 in simple Afrikkans.
27. Watch movies at a cinema.
28. Watch movies at a cinema for S$2.80 (R15).
29. Watch movies at a cinema 48km away.
30. Survive for 2 months without television.
31. Survive for 2 months without watching shows on internet.
32. Survive on a budget of S$18 (R100) each week.
33. Be approached to loan money (it’s usually the other way back home, I’m the one asking for loans because I forget my wallet.)
34. Be wary of my expenditure and make every cent count.
35. Compare prices of food in a supermarket
36. Count my money every weekend to keep track how much I have left.
37. Sit in a pothole (will do that the next time I go to Cleopatra Pools).
38. Hold on to a one day foal.
39. Hold on to the torn rear of a one day foal.
40. Hold on to the torn rear of a one day foal in a caddy driving at 140km/h to the vet.
41. Feel sorry for the horses when I ride them.
42. Be at a dinosaur fossil site.
43. Climb up a waterfall.
44. Climb up mountains without tracks.
45. Do a presentation to people from UN.
46. Learn so much about astronomy and palaeontology.
47. Maintain a neat & clean office table.
48. Appreciate that teachers do not have a fix timeslot for lunch.
49. Appreciate that my school forces us to leave the office by 6pm.
50. Appreciate that my school do not let us into the office on sat & sun.