| | Stay over at JB
Part 2
Jessie's house surpassed my expectation in every way. She lives in a two storey terrace house furnished with a Samsung flat screen TV and a piano in the living room. The house is impeccably clean, impressive for a house of that size.
Jessie has a rather chatty 11 year old brother, who is very entertaining in his own way. I will remember him for talking to me about doraemon in the wee hours of the morning because he drank coffee at night. Jessie's younger sister is 14, very well read and is the also the walking directory of City Square and Plaza Pelangi. My interactions with them are very peculiar. They will speak to me in mandarin and my replies are in English. For many Malaysians, English is easily their fourth language, Mandarin being the first, then Malay, followed by their dialect and then English.
Jessie herself is impressive. She not only reads heavy Chinese literature like Romance of the Three Kingdoms, but also English ones written by Jane Austen. It is really a pity, in my opinion, that she couldn't gain entry into NUS or NTU. According to her, the requirements to gain entry into NTU's material science engineering is 3.9 out of 4. Her STPM grades is only lacking by 0.1. Put through the same grading system, I am confident that half of the Singaporeans in that faculty would never have made it. Her hardworking nature would easily see her in the top 20% of NTU. This is a classic example of how the cards are dealt. But surely, for an intelligent girl like her, failure to study in Singapore is only but a small obstacle in her academics. Her immaculate upbringing is also evident in her self-discipline. Trival matters like having drinks and meals only in the kitchen are strictly adhered to which explains the impeccable cleanliness of the house.
We woke late the next morning. Breakfast, or rather lunch, was hotdogs, salad, bread and coffee, where for the first time, all seven of us shared a table for a meal. I was constantly perplexed by the words they used, which served as a reminder for me to brush up on my mother tongue.
And finally it was time for my brother to leave for KL, Meeiyin back to Segamat and me and Shihao back to Singapore.
Trips to JB will never be the same anymore with Jessie around.
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| | Posted 12/22/2008 1:45 PM - 8 Views - 0 eProps - 0 comments
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