I must say that I felt less enthusiastic about the assignment to write a daily journal to record my impressions (and whatnot) on Shanghai and Tokyo during the school session in the city. For one, keeping a diary ain’t my cup of tea. I was never the kind of person who keeps daily journal. Never had one nor did I ever had the inclination to do so. I was a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to me, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant, rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.
I tried. Few times in fact, over various period in my life; junior high school, high school, university. All to no avail. I failed to keep the momentum going and simply lost interest on the third day. Since then I abandoned the idea of keeping any diary altogether.
It is kind of ironic that now, years later, I found myself encouraged to log daily journal for school assignment. The universe probably laugh at this point.
Having lived in Shanghai and Tokyo for nearly seven and two years respectively, I find it rather challenging to observe let alone experience the place as if I just arrive here yesterday. My eyes, for lack of better word, were already jaded, cynical and disporportionally awed many times over. I doubt anything will caught me by surprise nor shock me anymore. Well, at least not at the scale it would few years back.
If I could rewind my memory or going back to time, this would be a perfect moment to do so. A friend actually suggested to retrieve all my FaceBook posts and simply cut and paste the experience and be done with it. ^_^
Still, I am challenged. Perhaps, I no longer my naive self few years ago, perhaps I’m jaded or already bored with China. But maybe just maybe, the child in me could still be tempted to play and pretend that this was my first time in China.
We shall see…