Tag: volare novels

Day 5: Sept 13th

Today was my birthday! I did A LOT today, so hopefully this post won’t be too long. I promise it’ll be interesting though!

I ate a piece of pork jerky for breakfast as usual, and then I headed to Chinatown. The closest subway stop to my hotel was Fort Canning, and Chinatown was only one stop away. Previously, I was planning to walk, but Mino suggested it was better to take the subway.

The walk would have been 15-20 minutes, and honestly, I would usually walk if it’s under an hour in Toronto unless I’m in a rush. But it was so hot that I did what a Singaporean would do; take the MRT.

I was meeting Mino and Cosy at noon, but decided to leave earlier to check out the mall and look at the nice stores around. When I got off the station, I entered the mall that was right there (Chinatown Point?) and began checking out each floor.

There were so many different food options and also shops to see! I saw a supermarket that was called, “Fair Price Supermarket” and decided I had to go in to check if the items were fair priced. See what I did there? 😉

I was so proud of my joke that I kept telling everyone, and Cosy was so fed up that she complained she heard the same joke 7x on the last day! HAHAHAHA.

Sorry for repeating myself so many times, but it was with a different group each time, ok? So I’m not that sorry.

Mino used to translate on Wuxiaworld. He was also one of the twenty translators I had chosen back in the summer of 2019. Mino is a lawyer, but he was on a sabbatical and was taking a break at the time.

Mino was/is a super pro translator because he is so articulate. I think having a strong vocabulary really made/makes him stand out! Sadly, his workload became too much, and he stopped translating last year in August.

Nonetheless, we still talk once in a while, and I said I would come to Singapore to meet him one day. When I decided I was coming, I asked him if he had time. I also asked him if his wife or Adrian would like to join as well. Adrian had edited the first 700 chapters of Keyboard Immortal, and he is PRO. Adrian was Mino’s referral, and his friend in real life, so I thought it’d be nice to meet if they were all free.

Unfortunately, Mino says neither his wife nor Adrian were available, and due to his busy schedule, he only had time to meet for lunch. We met at Chinatown because his office was in the mall.

Mino said he usually eats at a hawker centre, but because I couldn’t handle the heat that well, I wanted somewhere with A/C.

Then, he suggested the Breakthrough Café. Mino said that the café is actually run by previous drug offenders. Their mission is to help them integrate into the society again. I find that very admirable, and thought it would be an interesting experience.

Mino and I met at the mall, and when he arrived, I gave him a hug! He did hug me back, but I think hugging is just too weird in Singapore, so he wasn’t that comfortable. Sorry Mino! LOL

We then went to the café first because Cosy was running late. When we got there, Mino ordered a bunch of items so that I could try; he ordered everything in Mandarin.

I praised Mino for having great Mandarin, and he said, “No, I suck. I cannot do business in Mandarin at all. It’s too hard to get my point across. I can only say simple stuff.”

This reminded me of my brother. HAHA. My brother has very lousy Cantonese, but extremely great English. I recalled he wanted to tell my parents that he went to see the Northern Lights with Charlene (his lovely girlfriend), but he told my parents he saw the green sky. LOLOLOL. (I wonder if he’ll read this? *hehe* Charlene convinced him to read Day 1-3, so I think he might see this. What kinda bro are you. You should care about your sister!) Continue reading “Day 5: Sept 13th”

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Day 1: Arrival (Friday, Sept 9th)

Back in May, I found a SUPER good deal to go to Singapore for a week (hotel and flights included) for $2000 in September. I was very excited because I was finally travelling again after five years!!!

Actually, for the past decade, prior to my San Diego + LA trip, I had only gone to China in 2014 for treatment, and to New York City for several days back in 2017. I had been so sick that I couldn’t really go anywhere. That is why I’ll be travelling A LOT this year and in 2023.

Anyhow, I only told several people I would be coming after I had booked my ticket because I wasn’t going to arrive until September, so I didn’t think I’d need to give people four months of notice. It seemed too much.

Because I deal with Chinese to English translations, I know quite a lot of people in Singapore, and probably had met roughly 30 people on this trip. As a result, I’ll be breaking down my posts into seven or eight (one for each day). It would be impossible for me to describe my experience and everyone in one post.

Quite a number of people had told me that my previous post was way too long, and they couldn’t remember who was who, because the letters confused them too much. So, I’ll be using their discord names or a shorter version of their discord names instead. Hope you’ll enjoy!

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The first two Singaporeans I told were Fallen and Cosy. I had met Fallen over six years ago on a translation discord server. Back then, I was translating on my blog because I wanted to grow my audience, and wanted people to read my blog posts.

Meanwhile, Fallen was translating and editing on volarenovels. However, Fallen actually can’t read Chinese. He read/listened based on the sound of the word (pinyin), instead of reading the characters themselves.

I thought he was nuts because it seemed so much extra work, but I eventually met more people that translated based on listening as well. Some people could read, but not speak. Some people could speak, but not read. In the end, I guess as long as you can process what the text is trying to say, it doesn’t matter!

Anyway, Fallen was asking for help in the translation server, and I helped him out back then. I think eventually, he privately messaged me and asked me to read his novel (and I did). At the time, I was also promoting my novel and my blog.

Back then, because I wasn’t really working due to my poor health, I had quite a lot of time. I would hop onto discord voice chat and talk to random people from all over the world and karaoke with them. I really enjoyed listening to different accents, and songs in different languages!

People might find it really odd, but I’ve actually met and maintained quite a few close relationships through discord (both male and female). However, most of the really close ones were formed years ago when I used to have a lot more time to chat leisurely.

Anyway, at the time, Fallen would hop on VC (voice chat) sometimes, and listen to either conversations/people singing. I remember I would tell him to hop on sometimes to chat/listen. He rarely spoke, but he would type a lot. I even remembered playing pipa for him once and he played the piano for me before as well. But that was soooo long ago, and I haven’t touched my instrument in years.

Throughout the years, I had made numerous Fallen jokes that he did not find funny. Ex. I told him he should name his future son “Trippin” since he’s “Fallen” LOLOL. I thought it was hilarious, but he just thought I was lame.

One of Fallen’s hobbies is reading, so he read all my translations from the time we met online (and probably most of my blog posts). From time to time, he would ask me for book recommendations. We would go for months without talking, but when we did talk, it would be quite a lengthy conversation.

However, Fallen never sent me any photos of himself. I had asked for years, but he said I would only see if I came to visit Singapore. He is not a fan of social media. (Disclaimer: I did not go visit Singapore because I wanted to see his face, BUT I did want to meet him. He’s the first Singaporean I had ever spoken to!!)

Anyway, Fallen told me if I was coming over, I had to give him a lot of notice, since he had to take time off work in advance because of his job. So, after I booked my flight, I told him I was coming!! He offered to get me from the airport if I wasn’t arriving in the middle of the night; I arrived at 7am.

Anyhow, when I arrived, I messaged Fallen and told him where I was, and took a picture of the area around me so that he could easily find me. I was grumbling and sad because I wanted to get a SIM card, but the lady at the booth told me I’d need to pay $60 for a 100GB one that would be valid for a month. But I didn’t need 100GB! I was only here for a week! Sadly, she said that was the only option. Fallen told me to wait until he got there; he was probably fifteen minutes away.

Later on, I noticed a good looking guy walking towards me. I didn’t know it was Fallen. Then, he stopped in front of me and said hi, so I was like, “Uh, are you Fallen?” LOL

And he said yes. I blurted, “Why wouldn’t you send me a picture for the past six years? You look fine!?! So cute?!?!” Continue reading “Day 1: Arrival (Friday, Sept 9th)”