LA Essay Final Draft.

Singapore

“Argh! Why do we have to move to Singapore!” Tom said for the 100th time. Tom's Father was transferred to the Singapore branch and offered a pay 3 times his current job there in Australia. It was too good a offer for Tom's father to turn down as his family was barely making ends meet with his current pay. Since he was going to work permanantly in Singapore, he decided to bring the whole family along with him and migrate to Singapore.

Even though Tom could understand his fathers decision, he still stood firmly in his stand of not going to Singapore. He did not want to leave Australia where my friends and relatives were and go to a foreign country without any friends .

“You know the reason very well so you better stop asking!” My mom replied impatiently. Tom knew that there was no room for negotiation and quietly went back into my room. Just as Tom entered his room, the main door of the house was unlocked and in came his father with a happy expression on his face. " We are going to Singapore tomorrow! Look, I even booked the tickets!"

The next morning, Tom bid his relatives and friends goodbye reluctantly. It was the most emotional moment he had in his whole life. He board the plane unwillingly and was soon on the way to Singapore. On the plane, Tom tried to imagine how Singapore was like and concluded that Singapore was a messy and run down small little country as it was very young.
But when Tom and his family reached Singapore, He was extremely surprised to see that a country as young and small as this could be developed into such a beautiful and clean country. It was way better than what he had expected. As they walked out of the airport, there were all amazed by the greenery of Singapore which were only seen in gardens in Australia. It was as if Singapore was a Garden City. The streets were clean and was well planned just like in Australia. As they moved into our new flat, Tom saw many facilities like swimming pool, badminton court, tennis court and so on. Tom started to think that Singapore was not such a bad place after all. The apartment was quite spacious and my room was bigger than before. School would not start will 1 month later anyway. Tom would just have to explore Singapore within this time.

The next day, Tom was forced by my mom to shop within the district and explore around first. There were many new shops that he have never ever seen in my life and it was quite fun roaming around. After 5 hours of continues shopping, Tom started to feel hungry and went around finding some food stall. But after a long search for some ‘normal’ food, Tom still could not find any. Tom decided to buy a plate of chicken rice as it looks edible not like the Laksa which made me tear just by looking at it. The plate of Chicken Rice was so unexpectedly good that he ate 2 servings straight! He wondered why they did not sell this delicacy back in Australia. It would definitely be a hit! Tom spent a good 8 hours going around the neighborhood and familiarize myself with the new environment. He even visited his new school and explore it a bit.

This little trip developed his interest of Singapore a lot. He thought that the food and places of interest in Singapore are a part of Singapore's rich history. He spend the rest of the day searching for more information online about Singapore and found other specialties other than Hainanese Chicken Rice which he ate that afternoon such as the Hokkien Mee and Laksa which he saw while eating at the hawker centre. Tom listed down all the places that he found interesting, all the local food he found very special so that he could visit or eat them during the 1 month holiday.

During the month, Tom visited many places of interest like the Merlion and the Under Water World. He learnt a lot about the history of Singapore during this period where he would go online and research about the origins of the food and the reasons why those landmarks were so important. Tom had a more in-depth understanding of Singapore’s history

During the last week of my holidays before school starts , Tom accidentally bumped into a gang of students of his age when he was shopping for some clothes in 77th Street , a Singapore company selling all kinds of cool stuff. They were kind and friendly and after chatting for a while, Tom discovered that he was attending the same school as them!. They exchanged numbers just before Tom went home so that they could keep in touch. Finally the holidays ended. Before Tom went to bed on the last day of the holidays, he began to wonder if he would be accepted by the rest of the school. I was the only few ‘Ang Mor’ and was different from them. Even though he had made some friends during the holidays, he was still not confident enough.

The next day, when Tom entered my new classroom, he found that to his amazement that most of them looked just as friendly as the ones he saw during his shopping trip. After a few days mixing around with them, Tom gradually felt that he was getting accepted as one of them. Up till now, 10 years after Tom stepped on Singapore soil, he has become a proud Singaporean.