Day 19

Another day of shopping where I initially intended to get nothing but returned to the dorm with 2 pairs of shoes, a scarf, pants and a top. Anyway, what happened on the way to the shopping district made me proud to be Singaporean.

Reflection: Despite having National Education classes in primary/secondary school, I've never exactly felt the urge to be any more patriotic than I've ever needed to be but after listening to an old man speaking highly of us to another stranger on a bus made me proud of where I come from. It feels good to hear other people's perspective on us because it sheds light from another angle on how we Singaporeans are. As a native, I have grown immune to all the good that happens around me so much so that I can only see the negative things. Like how [even in school] people just brush past you to get into the elevator when you're not even out yet. Or how people lack courtesy and don't appreciate your holding the door open for them by not even bothering to smile or say thank you. It's because I've been staying in the country for so long that I fail to see that there is some good too. Like having neighbours of different races to exchange different foods [yes, my family actually does that]. Or how you don't have to be wary of the people in your surroundings and feel safe walking alone at night.

Being away from home, I see how I've been taking things for granted. Things are safe, stable and I don't have to worry about clashes or getting robbed. Also, I've never realised how privileged we actually are to have education compulsory and I don't know, education is so much more easily available to us than it is to other parts of the world. I know the previous paragraph isn't all that related to this but I feel that this is what makes Singapore a wonderful place to live in. In Singapore, even the poor are given equal opportunities for work and education to break out of the poverty cycle. Like our 6th NE message:

We have confidence in our future. United, determined and well-prepared, we have what it takes to build a bright future for ourselves, and to progress together as one nation.

Together as a nation, we have it in our hands to mould a better future for the generations to come. With the absence of apartheid it makes things easier on people to improve their current state of living and not feel discouraged or be robbed off the opportunity to do something worthwhile just because of financial restraints or anything of the like.
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For the day, we went about shopping and at the end of it all, we had Pizza Hut for dinner. The bill amounted to 300ish yuen and we were converting it back to our money and saying how cheap it was. But it certainly is steep a price for the locals. Anyway, here are some of the photos.