The car took us from the airport all the way to Balestier.
This was my first home in Singapore, an apartment on Jalan Rajah.
It was a small two-bedroom apartment. Feng Jie and her boyfriend took one room, while the four of us international students shared the other.
We exchanged simple introductions.
"I'm Sun Qirui," a tall, lanky guy said first.
He seemed lively and cheerful, always laughing and joking around, yet he had a hint of a scholarly air about him. Beneath his refined demeanor, you could sense a certain gentleness and a soft nature. He was quite a character.
"Lu Chang." This guy had darker skin and looked like the honest, bookish type who just buries his nose in his studies. His personality was a bit like mine—not very talkative.
"Du Le," the chubby guy said with a grin.
It was the first time I'd ever seen someone laugh like that while just introducing themselves, as if they'd just told a hilarious joke.
"Wang Sanhe," I said.
We were all around the same age. Through our conversation, I learned that Feng Jie had arranged visas for over twenty of us in total this time.
Only the four of us were staying in Balestier; the others were housed in different places.
Our room was tiny, so small that we could just barely squeeze in two sets of bunk beds.
The monthly rent for this tiny room was ten thousand RMB, which the four of us split evenly.
School hadn't started yet, so we spent our days getting used to the Singaporean way of life—figuring out the bus route to school, handling enrollment procedures, and things like that.
When we had free time, we'd often go out together to walk around.
Lu Chang rarely joined us. He said his English was poor and he wanted to stay home and study before the semester began.
So it was usually just the three of us.
But we mostly just went as far as the nearest subway station, Toa Payoh MRT, to have a look around.
For one, we needed to get familiar with the public transport routes. For another, we didn't know anywhere else to go.
Singapore is a fascinating place—highly developed, yet very down-to-earth.
After just a few days of exploring, we found it hard to say whether things here were expensive or cheap.
For two dollars (SGD), you could get a meal, or you could buy an item of clothing.
Of course, a bus ride also cost two dollars.
In other words, the cost of a single bus ride was enough to buy a piece of clothing.
Singapore is on the equator, so there's little temperature variation. There's no spring, summer, autumn, or winter—it's just summer all year round. Visit g.com for the full chapter.
And being an island nation, it's incredibly humid.
My first impression upon landing in Singapore was that I'd fallen into a giant, steaming bamboo basket. The air was so thick I hardly dared to breathe.
The water vapor in the air was hot enough to make you choke.
Thankfully, after a few days of walking around, my body gradually acclimatized.
Durian was sold everywhere in Singapore. Du Le was so curious that he insisted on buying one to share with me and Sun Qirui.
That was the first time I'd ever eaten durian.
"How do you eat this?" I asked.
"It's easy. I saw people just scoop it out and eat it with their hands," Du Le said.
Sun Qirui, suspecting nothing, pried it open, pressed down on the flesh, and dug in with all his might...
All five of his fingers sank right in...
It was yellow, soft, sticky, and stinky.
It was a ghastly sight.
"Why does it look so gross?" I asked, wrinkling my nose.
"Don't be so picky! I hear durian is the king of fruits, super nutritious. Come on, eat up!" Du Le said, digging in with his own hands.
The three of us fought back our nausea, licked our fingers, and forced it down.
Back then, everything seemed new and exciting. We were genuinely thrilled for a good few days, feeling like we'd made it to a developed country and broadened our horizons.
But it only took a couple of days for the excitement to wear off.
The exchange rate was over five to one.
This meant that ten thousand RMB was only worth a little over one thousand Singapore dollars—not even two thousand.
I hadn't saved much money before coming, and the tens of thousands I'd prepaid for tuition had all come from my parents.
I had asked for another ten thousand RMB for living expenses, but after paying the rent and security deposit, buying necessities, a metro card, a phone card, a plug adapter, and so on, more than half of my money was gone in a flash.
I was too embarrassed to ask my family for more money.
Back home, a monthly salary was just over two thousand RMB. After daily expenses, it would take over a year of scrimping and saving to put away ten thousand. But here, that only converted to a little over a thousand SGD. It didn't go far at all.
As the saying goes, with grain in your hands, your heart is at ease.
We all started to panic a little.
We asked Feng Jie about it several times, but she was always evasive, telling us not to rush and to focus on settling in first.
We had to eat every day.
Our money dwindled day by day.
Our anxiety grew day by day.
Finally, after a long time of pestering her, Feng Jie managed to arrange some work for us.
"This is great! We have jobs!" Du Le jumped for joy. "Let's have a nice dinner tonight to celebrate!"
"Maybe we should wait until we get paid," I suggested gently, feeling a little uncertain myself.
"That works too! When we have money, we can go for an even better meal!" Du Le said cheerfully.
"When I get paid, the first thing I'll do is send some money back to my parents so they won't have to worry," Sun Qirui said, full of hope.
We spent the whole night excitedly discussing how we would spend our first paycheck.
The next day.
Du Le and Sun Qirui were sent to hand out newspapers on the street.
Lu Chang and I were sent to a hot pot restaurant to wash dishes.
We could earn a few hundred Singapore dollars a month.
Forget about covering our rent and tuition, let alone the wonderful dream of sending money back home that had been painted for us.
After deducting our commuting costs, there wasn't even enough left for food.
It was time to wake up from the dream. If we didn't, we were going to starve.
If you want to have money, there are only two ways: increase your income or reduce your spending.
But for those of us who couldn't find a way to earn more, cutting back was the only option.
We started trying to save money in every way we could think of.
A loaf of plain white bread cost just over a dollar and could last for several meals, saving us a week's worth of breakfast money.
We combined lunch and dinner into one meal, saving even more.
But even then, we couldn't stop the few coins in our pockets from dwindling day by day.