I'm home for a month for the holidays. The last time i was home for this long was more than a year ago and its because i get bored easily at home. There really isn't much to do. On campus on the other hand, I could be working on my research project on microbubble pumps, cycling, and of course move about more easily since it had very good public transport.
This time however, things are a little different.
Since i'm going to be interning next semester at Emerson Singapore, and won't be able to come back for another 6 months, i just decided to bring my bicycle back to keep me occupied and healthy for a month. And its working surprisingly. My evenings are spent cycling and playing football, and strangely, that's enough.
And now, i found something new to do online besides the blog reading, online gaming addiction, news and facebook.
Chatting with random strangers online.....
I know, it sounds distasteful, but lets look past the many weirdos and sexual fantasy addicts out there and just concentrate on one fact. You meet new people very easily and rather safely. You get fresh perspectives, new ideas, insights into a place you've never been to, all from the comfort of a laptop chair.
I am painfully aware that many people, my friends included, are incredible uncomfortable with this idea, obviously having heard and possibly experienced horror stories regarding internet chatrooms.
Ignoring the remarks i've got from mates when i tell them about this, i do find this annonymous chat thing rather interesting. Truth be told, i'm a bit tired of talking to the same old friends everyday. Its not that i don't value them as friends and all that rubbish. Its just, i like meeting new people. Not for the sake of fulfilling some deep yearning for more companionship and other psycho-babble, but rather because it is very interesting.
I have, within the span of 3 day of using this website :
1) Met a chap in Sao Paulo, Brazil who introduced me to life for the common man i Brazil, and that its not the party town filled with hot women and men and cheap yet good beer that we have all come to associate Brazil with.
2) Met a 17 year old who's writing a final high school year history paper on Singapore, and had an interesting conversation about the lack of civil liberties and controversies regarding how the ruling party is maintaining control in Singapore, to add to the many good things she has already researched. It did amaze me, the depth of thinking, regarding potential economic and political consequences an asian city she has never visited, that she had, something i wished more Singaporen youths had. Heck, even I wasn't thinking on such a matured level at that age about my country!
3) Talked to a girl from Massachusetts who was doing a Bachelor in Fine Arts, and was a stage manager. Its great to talk to someone about a field i have never even considered. She's now a pen-pal. I did have one previously though. A girl from Australia during the snail mail era, but the i got tired of writing letters.....
4) A 23 year old woman from Shanghai, China who was fed up with trying to live upto to her parents expectations of marrying and settling down and is on the verge of migrating to the US after secretly securing a job as an analyst for a financial institution.
5) A guy called Dieber from Amsterdam who think the city's reputation as a "fun town" doesn't make it very conducive for raising children and had some whacky ideas on what would happen if weed was oulawed in the Netherlands.
Of, course, i did have exceedingly brief conversations with sex starved men and women, and one chap who wanted to know what color were my underpants =.="
Well, you have no choice but to filter these weirdos out and find the really interesting people out there who genuinely want to share their life stories, experiences, local cultures and lifestyles and then you start gaining new perspectives.
All said and done, all that's left is to try it out here , IF you dare.....
Cheers from the,
Matrix
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