Richard.H’s Blog

I am in a Internet cafe in Oxford city center right now.

Why am I here? Because I am careless enough to forgot bringing the address of Belgian embassy which I was going to send me visa application. So I either cycle back and return in half hour, or find somewhere I can get this address. I went down to a travel agent and the guy there didn’t feel like to check that for me using the computer right in front of him, instead, he told me where I can find a Internet cafe in town. Fair enough, so here I am.

It costs me 75p for half and hour, but I just need it for less than 2 mins to google it. I tried to negotiate with the owner here see if I can just use 2 minutes and pay less, but I guess he can tell that there is no way I can get that information but using his slow and crappy computer (they can’t even display Chinese characters), so he said no. And here I am.

I got the address now, it actually took less than one minute. But it’s quite a waste (75p is still money) for the rest 29 minutes, so here I am, writing this, meaningless post.

When there is a scarcity of time and location is limited, valueless thing could become priceless! What a great chance to learn economic theory in real life.

I think I had made most of this 30 minutes. Thanks for your reading. Gotta go now.

There is a mid-age Chinese lady working in my restaurant. I saw her on my first day at work but didn’t talk to her until last week. After a little greeting, she asked me where am I from in China, I said Shantou, then she went on and asked the name of the road near my house. I was a bit surprised but then she told me her husband is also from Shantou and she go there almost every year. Her family is living in Oxford now and her husband is working at the Chinese medicine shop in city center. I was so excited when I heard that, because it’s very rare to meet people from my hometown abroad. I know a few friends from Shantou and studying in UK now, but I have never meet Shantounese randomly like this.

So after work, I went to her husband’s shop right away. While I was living in Oxford three years ago, I walked past that shop many times but I had never thought the doctor inside is just from my hometown, how weird is that! I remember I even spoke to him once when I tried to ask for a part-time job, but that was in Mandarin so I couldn’t tell he is Shantounese.

Anyway, he was very friendly. His wife already introduced me to him before and went, so he talked to me in Shantou dialect straight away. It’s so strange to speak Shantou dialect outside Shantou. For those who don’t know about Shantou dialect, it’s a language that completely different to Mandarin or Cantonese. It’s kind of similar to Fukien, but still a lot differences. In short, it’s one of the Chinese dialects but only people from Shantou area could understand. I only speak to my parents in our weekly phone call or when I went home, other than I haven’t got a chance to use it at all. That’s why I felt so strange. And he, I should call him Dr. He (not English “he”, it’s Chinese family name “He”), was like me. Since he has been living in England for many years, it’s harder for him to speak Shantou dialect. However, we still tried to speak even though it would be way easier if just speak Mandarin.

Both of us were very happy to meet each other on that day, and a few days ago he introduced another Shantou student Ke to me. Ke is currently doing a MA in Oxford Brookes University and also the vice-president of Chinese student community in Oxford. He is an excel and smart guy.

It seems like a cultural sense that people from Shantou (or say Chaoshan area) are very united when they are abroad. There are a lot of stories about Shantou people united together and achieve great success in their overseas lives. Live examples would be those successful businessmen in South East Asia countries like Singapore or Thailand, most of the richest people there are originally from Shantou area. And Li Ka Shing, wealthiest person in Hong Kong and East Asia, is Shantounese too.

I am pound of being a shantounese, and wish I could be one of those successful ones in future.

Haven’t updated my English blog for a while, because I can’t access Internet as easy as before. But somehow I found it’s a good thing as it kinda stops me from surfing the net but not doing anything productive. Anyway, here are a few things to update in my recent life.

Working in Burger King

I have been working in burger king for almost two weeks now. I was running around Oxford right after I arrived here looking for some summer job. Just of one of the trying, I went into Burger King to hand in my CV, and the manager looked and said “come here tomorrow, you get the job”.

This is my first time working in a fast food store, but I like it. OK I have to it’s very busy most of the time, but I prefer being busy at work than standing and doing nothing like waitering in restaurant. Time pass much quicker when you are actually doing something. Also the people I am working are friendly. They teach me all the time no matter I ask the same question all the time. The managers are nice people too. “It’s not that important what I do, it’s more important who I work with”, as I said before.

There are a lot of interesting stories from everyday’s work. I am writing a “Burger Daily” in my Chinese blog, possibly will translate them into English later.

Meeting new people

While I was looking for jobs in the first few days, once I went into a sandwich shop and asked if they need staff. There was a Japanese student working there and I told her I am studying Japanese, she was surprised like any other people that I came to study in England but part of my degree is Japanese (I might write about this in future).

Because the shop is in city center, I dropped by and say hello every time I walked past it, and now we became friends. She invited me to her friends’ parties I met more new friends. Last week they rent a car and about 10 of us went to Brighton together. The beach there is so nice!

Watching “friends”

Found a box of whole “Friends” series in the house, then I knew this is going to very dangerous because once I started it’s hard to stop. But “friends” is just one thing that you can’t resist, so I let myself get indulged. I now spend about 2 hours a day watching it, I’m at season four at the moment when Ross is going to marry that British girl Emily. Her accent is so British I have to say, especially in an American TV show, the difference is so distinguished.

Ok, that’s all for the last ten days.

Yesterday was another annual regular day of nightmare. I had to carry 60kg luggage by myself all the way from Durham to Oxford. But luckily my housemate Cate’s dad gave me a ride to the station and the train was on time, at least. When it comes to this time of the year, moving from a place to another is always a hard time!

Anyway, I am in Oxford now. I am staying in my previous landlord’s house. I lived with her family three years ago and luckily they have a room want to rent in summer, so I pick it. I know her family very well and they treat me like one of their families too. And my little friend (brother) Jiawei now had grown to a little guy now. We are going to have fun this summer!

It’s very hot here. The temperature today reached 30C according to the radio. It’s warm in Durham, but here is HOT. I stayed in the house all day just unpacking and watching TV. This was the first time in England I felt too hot to go outside. But even though it’s a bit too hot, weather like this will not last for long in England, got to enjoy it as much as I can.

Summer plan

About my summer plan, I will be staying in Oxford for most of the time. Try to get some work and earn some money for travelling. If I got enough then will go backpacking around Europe. But first of all, work! Also, need to start doing my reading for dissertation, as well as keeping my Japanese for next year.