Cross-Cultural Conversations

Observations by a Malaysian studying in Australia

The Test Pests

Today we had to sit our Trial Exams. To impress myself on how illustrious a person I am, I woke up at 5 am this morning with the sole intention of studying for my Chemistry test. An hour later I finally managed to get myself out of bed and begin The Study Session. But not before I put on my contact lenses and brush my teeth. It’s impossible to study with your teeth unbrushed, not least with all the germs and horrible odour wafting inside your mouth.

 

Teeth cleaned, contacts applied, now let us convene The Study Session. Just then I remembered an advice I read somewhere about the importance of starting the day with a good breakfast. Yes, studying is important, but health is vital. I went down to the kitchen to get myself some canned tuna (brain food) and ice coffee (I was feeling sleepy by then).

 

After the hearty (and healthy) breakfast, I am now all set to start The Study Session. It was 8 am. I still have 4 hours’ worth of studying to do, and not a minute to waste. And so I did what any sensible and diligent student would do, and that is to search for my Chemistry text book. After all, without the text book, how else am I suppose to study?

 

Chemistry text book found, I, with a sense of academic pride every Science student inevitably bestows upon himself (or herself), carefully opened to page 1. That is when I realised that my fingernails have grown to a length completely unacceptable by any hygienic standards! This calls for immediate affirmative action, and action was what I did. My fingernails had to be clipped. There was absolutely no way I was going to allow them to be a source of disgust, even if it means delaying my Study Session by a quarter of an hour. That fixed, I was finally able to re-convene The Study Session in peace and scholarly solitude.

 

 

 

Waiting for the clock to strike 12.30, I was pretty confident I would do well in the test.

 

To my surprise, the Chemistry test was a bit more difficult than I expected. The examiners seem to have adopted a new style where they include questions that we would absolutely have no idea about.

 

To make matters worse, I had the misfortune to sit beside this pest of a girl who was writing really quickly on the test pad. I get really intimidated by people who write really quickly (and noisily) during tests, especially when I have nothing to write about. To add insult to injury, another pest, this time in the form of a boy, was pressing his calculator at lightning speed and with such tenacity that it would appear to the casual observer (me) that he was pressing all of his calculator buttons at once.

 

The marathon writer at one side, the crazy calculator-person on the other, and the time mercilessly ticking, I had no choice but to do my best to ignore them and to concentrate on the exam. At least my test paper is clean and tidy, devoid of any handwriting that could potentially reduce its value should anyone feel the urge to buy it.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 08:40 | link | comments (1) |

Starstruck

 

Today as I was walking out of the Dining Hall after dinner, I looked at the clear evening sky – as one normally would – beautifully dotted with stars. I caught sight of a particularly bright one, the brightest in the night sky, and golden-coloured too. I exclaimed, “Ooh, what a bright star!” – as one normally would – and continued to gaze at it while I was walking.

 

As I took a few steps forward, I realised its brightness was fading. This star’s brightness is affected by the angle of the viewer! A quarter of a second later, highly aware that this statement was totally incorrect, and realising how it seems to be “falling”, I understood that it was in fact a falling star – my first ever falling star.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 10:39 | link | comments |

Spice Boy

Traditional Aussie fare essentially does not utilise a lot of herbs and spices. The one seasoning they do use, and in great amounts, is salt. Another flavour enhancer quite common in Aussie cooking is cheese and butter.

 

Like most people, I find it hard not to like cheese and butter. So great is the complex texture and contrasting taste of cheese that I’m more than prepared to ignore its pungent smell (and saturated fat content).

 

However, like all other things, these two dairy products cannot escape from the Too-Many-Times syndrome. Humans are biologically pre-conditioned to tire of a sensation - however enjoyable it may initially have been - when they are exposed to it too frequently. This syndrome has been inflicted on pretty much everything- KFC, Suharto, the ‘Malaysia Boleh’ phrase, Friends and Hari Raya (when we had it twice instead of the usual once a year in 1997).

 

At the boarding house, I opt for a vegetarian diet. The chef probably has very limited creativity when it comes to vegetables and does not know how to make them tasty on their own because almost every vegetarian meal is accompanied by cheese or butter. In the past two days I’ve had Spinach Quiche and Cheesy Sub for lunch, and for dinner, Spinach Quiche (yes, again), Buttered Potatoes and Creamy Mushroom Fettuccine. Tonight, I’m going to have Pasta with Vegetable Cream Sauce and for dessert, Baked Cheesecake.

 

I’m getting pretty sick of it. In Malay, there’s two beautiful words which accurately describe one’s feelings towards these very rich and creamy food when one’s had a bit too much of them too often- ‘Muak’ and ‘Mual’, ‘Bored’ and ‘Sick’ respectively, although unfortunately ‘bored’ and ‘sick’ doesn’t do justice to the intensely negative graphic impression those two Malay words create on cheesy and creamy food.

 

I decided to take a hands-on approach. This cannot go on any further. I need something hot and spicy. At the supermarket, I desperately scanned for any food product with the word Chilli in it. I found at the instant noodles section one which advertises itself as Spicy Thai Noodles, complete with the warning: Chilli Powder Included Is Very Hot. This is just the one for me.

 

I don’t normally eat instant noodles, partly because of its poor health aspect, and partly because I don’t quite like the industrial taste it imparts. However, desperate times call for desperate measures.

 

The advertisers - very uncharacteristic of them - weren’t lying. The chilli powder was very hot. Very soon, tears were coming out of my eyes. Similar things were coming out of my nose. Sweat started to drip from my forehead and neck. My tongue was burning. I was voluntarily, and quite happily, being abused by a potent combination of chilli powder, kaffir lime, pepper, lemongrass and all sorts of exotic Southeast Asian spices.

My body may have suffered the punch of Thai cooking, but my tastebuds have never been so satisfied. That was the best thing I’ve eaten in a very long time.

posted by: Tembaga2 at 12:41 | link | comments (1) |