Walking
One thing Dustin and I have realized around here is it seems like the people are just oblivious to what is going on around them. I have never seen this before in all my travels, granted other than this I have only traveled outside of the US one other time and went to Italy but still. This happens anywhere and everywhere around this country, on the streets, in the MRT station, stores, everywhere. People are walking and all of a sudden with no warning just stop, right where they are. I have run into them a couple of times because I wasn’t expecting them to stop so abruptly. Or you will be walking and then out of nowhere someone just comes from where they were standing and walk in front of you and then stop walking, for no reason! This happened to us a lot and one time Dustin and I were in a hurry and the person stopped and stared at us, dumbfounded and didn't move, we were letting them go by us and nothing until I got so frustrated I just told them with a firm voice (no not yelling) to go and waved them to move, and thankfully they did. Now in stores I can understand this, you’re looking for stuff that’s fine I am use to it there but not in the middle of the sidewalk or walking to the MRT at the station. If anyone can tell me why people around here do this, great awesome I want to hear about it because honestly, I just don’t get it.
People here, we have noticed, are really slow walkers. I know we all shouldn’t be in a hurry to get somewhere when really you don’t have anywhere to be but Dustin’s legs are long and so are mine and we are just fast walkers, especially compared to people here. You get behind a group of people more than three and you have a hard time getting around them. It was explained to me from our friend Andy that the reason why people walk so slowly is because of the heat. The faster you walk the hotter you’re going to be. I get that I do, I even gave this slow walk a try and yes its nice but my natural pace won’t let me go THAT slow, I could only stand about five minutes of walking lake that and I had to keep reminding myself not to get frustrated and not be in a hurry so much, after all, half of the time I have no place to be but out walking but I tell ya what I just can’t go that slow.
Utensils/napkins
The first thing I noticed the second day I was here was that most restaurants (local ones) don’t have knives. All they give is a spoon and fork. I was really confused how I was supposed to cut chicken and such with it until Dustin showed me how to do it correctly. I don’t know if this is a culture thing or not. Maybe everyone is just scared to give knives to people around here, but again this is a safe city and hardly any violence so why should that matter? If the place does not offer forks they offer chopsticks and a spoon. Now that was some kind of challenge. I do have trouble with it still but I am getting better at cutting things. I am happy that they offer chopsticks; I use them most of the time if they are offered. We also bought some to have here at the apartment and bring home with us. I love using them and am probably going to have great skills when I come home.
Most hawker stands don’t have napkins either. Napkins seem like a luxury. Even at McDonalds the paper napkins, you are only supposed to take one. Dustin saw me taking more than two and he told me not to take more than two there is no reason behind it, thats just how it is around here. There are older gentlemen who walk around the area trying to sell packs of tissues (considered napkins) and you can buy them from the older men but Dustin and I get them from the store and learned never to leave the house without a pack of them.
Local Slang
At the end of our tour with the guide from NCompass and our realtor they let us in on a few slang words we can use around the locals so we don’t look too American. They use the word LA a lot. So say someone comes up to you and wants to sell you something you say no-la and they will walk away. Or saying okay-la sounds good-la. There is also donwanla basically saying no you don’t want it thank you. The other one is Kan or Can, I don't know how it's spelled here. This one is a little hard to explain because it can be used to say yes I understand or yes, like yes you know you want to come with us to the movies or it's asking you if you able to do something.
Bless you?
I know growing up I was taught to say excuse me either for burping or going around someone, saying please, thank you, have a good day, covering my face when I sneeze or cough, being polite basically. I don’t know if it’s culture or not but I have yet to hear someone say bless you when someone sneezes. People also hardly cover their faces when they sneeze. They just sneeze right in the open and everyone will get the germs on them from that. I am not an ocd germaphobe but I am not comfortable walking in an area where someone just sneezed in the open. This also happens when someone coughs. They don't cover their mouth and I don't know why they think it is okay. They are spreading germs and most of the coughs I hear are just nasty and you know the person is sick. I fear that this expericne is going to make me a germaphobe like Howie Mandel or Donald Trump, espically dealing with all of this on the train where it has no where to go but around you.
I have also noticed that people don't say excuse me when they are trying to pass you they just push you aside. When I am in a store, and 90% of the time it is really crowded, when I can't pass though but need to I say excuse me and the people look at me like I have two heads. At least I can say that I tried to be polite but apparently it's not appreciated and that's okay, again this is not the states, it's Singapore, a totally different culture
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