Mystory

If you read my profile, you can see that I am a Singaporean girl who is now living in Denmark. I have been here for 10 years now, since I was in my late teens. The reason why I came here 10 years ago was because I was abducted by aliens who wanted to use me for some tests, but then they realised that my Chinese and Indian genes were too resistant, so they decided to dump me in what they thought was the North Pole. They almost succeeded, but missed the target by just a bit... .

Ok, ok...you're not buying that story, are you (unless you are a scientologist or something)? The boring truth is that my ex-stepfather was Danish, so after living in Singapore for many years (where he met my mum), it became time to "move back" to Denmark, so our whole family naturally went together with him.

It was of course a very big move from the country I was born and raised in for 19 years to the land far far away. I was just starting my 3rd and final year in my Tourism Manangement course at Temasek Polytechnic in Singapore, but since there was also a Tourism School in Denmark offering a 2½ year Tourism Management course in English (½ year theory in England, ½ year work practice, ½ year theory in Randers, Denmark, ½ year work practice again, and last ½ year in Randers again), plus we get 2 diplomas if we graduated (1 from England, 1 from Denmark), I thought "Cool...I'm going!"

Packing up and leaving Singapore was difficult, but exciting at the same time. I was sad to leave my friends and the place I called "home", yet I had always wanted to try living in a western country since I was young. I had been to Denmark for vacation twice before - winter 1990 for 3 weeks, and summer 1992 for 1 month (the year and month when Denmark won the European Cup Championship....so they should thank me for being there....hahaha), so I had tried the cold and warm of this country before moving here for good. I still can't get used to the cold here, though :o(.

Good thing my immediate family were coming too; that really helped a lot. We left Singapore in July 2006, but first had to go to South Korea (Mokpo City) where my ex-stepfather had started working at, and stayed there for 2 months. Then we headed to Copenhagen altogether in September, and 2 weeks later, I was off to England (Torquay) on my own to start school there. I was a little afraid of that move, since it would be the 1st time I lived in another country for ½ a year without my family.

It was a good experience in the end, though. I shared a basement apartment with 2 of my Danish classmates for a period of time, then towards the end we decided to move to some other units on higher ground (the basement was too damp) so I got a small one for myself and they shared another unit in the main block. The estate was close to our school, plus we had access to a pool, jacuzzi and sauna the whole time we stayed there! Very nice... ;o).

Anyway, I only moved permanently back to Denmark in April 1997 where I started my ½ year work practice at the travel agency I currently work at now. It wasn't easy at all to find a practice place in Denmark since I didn't understand Danish at all. Yes, it seemed that even in the international tourism industry, Danish is fundemental.

After 1 month and a hundred applications of rejections later, I almost had to go back to Singapore to do my work practice in order to continue my course... . Good thing a miracle happened in time, so I was able to stay here to do my practice, and also to return to this company as a full-time permenant staff after I graduated :o). I would be on my 10th year next year in the same company, so time is really flying!

I received my permanent residency already a few years ago (without needing to marry a Dane for it), but I am still keeping my Singapore citizenship. I'm proud of being a Singaporean, so I will not give it up for a Danish one. I would definitely do so if I were a citizen from China, Thailand, the Philippines or some underdeveloped country, especially since it is not easy to travel around with those passports anyway (and I do like to travel).

Now I am married to a great Dane (pun intended), so I'm pretty much "stuck" here. Well actually, HE wouldn't mind moving to Singapore to live, but I prefer it here in Denmark ;o). Working life and family/social life is way more balanced here than in Singapore, and that's something I appreciate a lot.

Anyway, I was actually going to write about else, but that'll make this post extremely long so I'll just end here and save the initial topic for some other time ;o).