Life doesn’t always have to be logical.: Trip to Edinburgh...

During my weekend trip to Edinburgh, I experienced 2 incidents which, upon reflection, made me consciously aware that I am a product of a multi-racial, multi-cultural society. The results of immersion in such a society are so ingrained in me that I take them for granted... Until situations such as the ones below occur.

If I were to come from a different society, I may not have the knowledge I have today.

Incident #1:

2 students from India (Nick & Jim) were sharing with me about their race and their religion when a dark-skinned man wearing a turban walked passed.

Jim: That's an Indian also, you know?
Me: Yeah, he's a Sikh right?
Jim: *shocked and almost unable to eat his vegetarian fries* Huh, how you know?!!

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Incident #2:

I was reading on the bus on the way back from Edinburgh and it was getting dark in the bus (No, the point here is not that I have bad reading habits, the point here is I'm super hardworking, ok?) when a student from China (Jonathan) leaned across the isle.

Jonathan: You can turn on the lights above to read. It's very dark and bad for your eyes.

Me: I tried it just now but it was too bright and glaring. It can't be adjusted I think.

I think I was too demure and soft-spoken.

Jonathan: Huh?

Me: (Louder this time) The light is too glaring and cannot be adjusted.

Jonathan: What?

Me: Wo shuo deng guang tai liang, bu ke yi tiao (I said the light is too bring and cannot be adjusted)

He looked like he was going to fall off the chair loh.

Suddenly the Chinese girls that appeared to be sleeping woke up and stared at me. Then they turned to inform a guy who was listening to his ipod (nano, no less) that I could speak Mandarin and he turned to stare at me also. Then they started to bombard me with questions to test if I could speak Hokkien, Teochew, Hakka, Cantonese etc...

Scary.

I spoke English after that.

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Onto the trip proper... A total of 5 hours was spent travelling (2.5hrs each way) and we spent a grand total of 6 hours in the city itself. This is known as BALANCE in life.

I went on an open-top bus tour, alighting when I felt like wandering the streets of Edinburgh or to go into museums and galleries. 6 hours is not enough!