Interlude - In minibus on the way to Wu Xi
Our tour guide Xiaofeng started to ask 欠扁题. If we can't answer we are supposed to sing a song. If we can answer, she sings.
Qn. A bird wearing a bullet proof vest was dancing. Why it died when a hunter shoot it with a bullet?
Uncle Lee said that the bird ganna head shot, but the answer is wrong.
Ans. 因为它在跳脱衣舞。
As expected, no one can answer such a moronic question. So the whole bus agreed unanimously (me included =P) that Youjie should sing. However Youjie kept refusing. In the end Xiaofeng gave him another chance.
Qn. 南京路一向很热闹，为什么有一天下午南京路上半个人也没有？
Youjie got it this time round. You know the answer? Think hard. If Youjie could get it, so can you! Anwz this time the bus agreed unanimously that Xiaofeng should sing, despite that the question is Youjie's 2nd chance. However Xiaofeng after protesting for a while, still sportingly sing the all time favourite, 周华建's 朋友 to entertain us.
Then she said something that really sets us thinking. She said that it's 缘分 that brought us together for this trip. Throughout the 8 days of the trip, we'll be bonded to each other. And on the last day of the trip, when we're about to leave for Singapore, is when our friendship is the strongest. However, after that we'll go our separate ways and forget about each other, which is very sad.
She said she can't be like those old tour guides, who can feel nothing about parting. Thus for every tour group she brings, she'll write down the description of each and every one of us in her diary. So that one day, if we walked pass each other in Singapore, even though we've already forgotten her, she can still stop us and tell us that on what year what month, she had brought us around China...
After listening to what she said, I can't help but think of how many friends I've let slip, especially those juniors in the group I've led during my J2 CIP. We were so closely bonded in the 3 days when we cleaned Toa Payoh old folk's home, yet now I've kept contact with none of them. And my Xuan Chuan juniors also... Guilty.
Therefore I promised myself that I'll never forget anything that happened on this tour, or anybody from this tour, especially the tour guide, who sets me thinking. Thus this travelog.
You'll be surprised when I tell you the age of the tour guide who said such wise things. Xiaofeng is only 23, one year older than me! To be exact, she's only 9 months older, since her birthday is 10 Apr 82. During the trip, she told us that she has been taking on tour after tour for a few months without break. Traveling the same route, eating the same food, living in the same hotel, saying the same thing. It was hardwork and she's tired. Completely understandable since even we ourselves were very tired, though we were only travelling this route for the 1st time. When we asked her personally why don't she quit, this is what she told us:
"What's the secret of success? When others are kneeling down, and you are standing up, you succeed. When others are lying down, and you are kneeling, you succeed."
Really admire her for her determination.
On the bus, she also told us a lot about herself. Her hometown is Hu Zhou. She almost died from some illness when she was 16. Her father carried her all the way up a hill to a famous retired doctor to begged for help. The doctor told her father that if he was late by one week, she would have died. And because she almost died before, she's very afraid of death, and falling into water, since she can't swim.
She graduated from some tour guide university about a year ago. She was class rep and she was very proud of the fact that she earned her school fees herself by tutoring english. She boosted that her english was quite good last time (but somehow she can't understand Singaporean's english =P). She has been choosen as the role model for her high school and is supposed to write a 自传. Now she rents an apartment in HangZhou and lives by herself, and her landlord is quite 色 (this she told us personally). It has been a long time since she went home.
She's such an independent, determined, matured, remarkable girl. In my opinion, not only Xiaofeng, many Singaporean girls are also very matured and independent. For example, many of my female classmates are already overseas doing their interns and/or working to earn their own school fees or even their living, while I'm still here in Singapore fooling around doing nothing. Really proud of them, yet feeling very 惭愧 at the same time. But then again, it's only 3 years before I step out into the society and earning a living for myself and my parents. Life is short, isn't better to fool around and enjoy while I still can? =P
