Hello.
Sometime mid September, immediately after the end of my semestral exams, I was promptly shipped off (by plane haha) to do my overseas industrial training programme, or OITP, in the People's Republic of China. There, I spent six weeks with an American aerospace company called Pratt & Whitney. There I had a whirlwind of a time, and here, I shall tell you some things about it and also some lessons from the peoper's rebubric of China.
(see what I did there I slid the title of the pos--nevermind)
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| flying was fuuun the views were niiice |
Week one: The week of independence
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| this was a tiny garden place to chill at work |
My first week in China was pretty intense. Taking all of Beijing in, settling down in my hotel, making friends, everything took place quickly. This was my first everything; being in China, being there for six weeks, being there for that long without family, it was all new. And it was all so much fun. So it made sense that my first lesson there was the lesson of independence. I was always an independent child (chey) (my MOM said that ok) so I was sort of alright. Besides overspending my money. And spending too much of my free time lazing around instead of studying. And falling ill for quite a few days. But let's not worry about technicalities :)
Anyway, I had to cope with being alone (friends aside), and taking care of myself, and I am relieved to say that I may have slightly exaggerated before and actually did quite ok ^^ Perhaps my biggest issue was with my terrible homesickness, and sure enough I felt it enveloping my mind from the third week onwards. I didn't really prepare myself (or the people around me) for my leaving, so it was coming, but fortunately I managed to weather the storm (or haze) (since China) (no? ok)
Week two: The week of industriousness
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| a really big engine |
The second week was a week of work. Like literal work. Getting to grips with the Beijing life, learning about the magic of how jet engines work and how they keep really heavy stuff from really falling into the ground, making friends (hardest work so far) and doing laundry and washing dishes. There may or may not have been a housekeeping service to help with the chores. I have no comment on that. But anyway, the second week saw me finally settle in for the next few weeks away from home, in a small hotel with friends, herbal tea, and lots and lots of cool engineering stuff. It almost sounds like bliss :)
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| a hangar of engines! |
Week three: The week of religion
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| front of Nu Jie mosque, oldest in Beijing |
On the third week, I made an interesting discovery regarding my hotel. It was comfortable and cosy, but it was still old and rather bleak; the rooms were not as well lit as I would've liked, and the hallways were especially dim and gloomy. Like, I've seen brighter streets in Singapore kinda gloomy.
Anyway. I discovered my hotel may be occupied by more than humans. I thought it was a load of bull semen (that's actually very expensive) ( but you get the point) but then things started happening throughout the dang place. Toilets suddenly smelt like vomit, doors were being endlessly knocked on at dead hours of the night, strange figures were being seen where they shouldn't have; one particular room (my peers changed from this room cos it was freaky shiz) had the especially uncomfortable aura about it, and..... I'm slowly freaking myself out as I type this in the dark of my room..
Anyway. Besides my lavatory smelling like a drunkard's vomited all over the floor, I didn't really experience anything ~out of the ordinary~ besides the odd hair on end moments. I prayed harder, and read more of the Quran as a form of insurance (there's nothing to lose going down that road btw) and generally ignored and eradicated any opportunity that I may have in experiencing anything out of sorts.
I cringed at the thought of having three more weeks of staying there, so I prepared accordingly and apprehensively.The toilet (weirdly) stopped smelling like cat pee, and everything slowly returned to normal, bar the odd anomaly. This may be one of the contributing factors to my wanna-balik impulse. I am a brave boy :)
Week four: The week of smelling roses
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| orympic stadium!! |
Week four. Week four was the week where I was really enjoying my time in the People's Republic. The adventures to attractions like the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the many many shopping districts and the workplace itself, everything was thoroughly interesting and fun and I didn't want it to end, homesickness aside.
The fourth week taught me how to stop and smell the roses, or rather smell them better. To stop and look beyond the hectic and harried thoughts and going ons of school, or work, or anything for that matter; to stop and appreciate the finer details of our daily misadventures, the smiles of strangers, the random act of kindness to someone in need, the accomplished feeling after a long day of work, the good food we take advantage of a lot (emphasis here x100000), these intricacies that we overlook because we worry for our future well-being, or that deadline for that project, whatever it may be.
We shouldn't let ourselves miss the beauty of the today worrying about a perpetual tomorrow. I don't know about you, but my mental health improves with all of this in mind, and I can only hope everyone who reads shall feel this improvement as well and not instead feel that I am spouting hogwash :)
Week five: The week of positional awareness
The coming of the fifth week was the week I finally realised(and accepted) my current position: a boy with his pals in foreign lands. I shall cut right to the chase and talk of positional awareness, and what exactly I mean and whether it's total bull.
In football, the notion of positional awareness is important for players. It's one thing to know what your role is in the team. It's one thing to know what the roles of your teammates are in the game. It's an entirely other thing to know both things, make sense of it, and modify your play accordingly, and that is positional awareness. In a very crude sense, anyway.
I feel it relates a bit to how we live our lives everyday too. We have to understand that each of us are uniquely different with our own abilities, but also in our struggles. So we should treat each other with that fact in mind, with the respect and without the cynicism; living for six weeks in China and having to properly get to know people I may have dismissed prior, this is one of the biggest nuggets of advice I can share to yalls :)
Week six: The week of friendship
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| peeps |
My final week in China was a thoroughly memorable one indeed. Farewells, last kopeks at hanging around the capital, eating duck (!!) more farewells, it was so nice. I have rarely felt so happy (to be going home!!) yet so sad (to be leavinggg) it was a whirlwind.
The friends I managed to make made the trip an extremely enjoyable trip, and I am eternally grateful for that. The people I met there have helped me immensely in settling down, and honestly I had so much fun learning and relaxing and sightseeing and all that stuff. Sure, some things didn't go well, like the haunted hotel of terror and the fire breakout and all that, but all of those contributed to a thoroughly memorable trip, and I couldn't have asked for more.
Thank you to SP, friends, educators back at China, but my parents most of all for ensuring I would be able to go and do well so far away JazaakAllah and till next time :)
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| goodbye :( |
