I talked to this friend of mine the other day. We were in the bus, and she was telling me how much she missed home. She told me she missed everything back home; she doesn't even care if it's only because she's so far away from home and it's probably just the romanticism of things and that things back home are probably not as rosy as she envisions right now. 'I know my home, my family, my boyfriend, my friends... they're not perfect, I get annoyed or tired of them sometimes, or I get hurt by them and everything, but I never wished to be anywhere else but there.'
She told me she missed the way her mom always ask her for fashion advice. The way her mom would drag her to her dressing room and make her choose which outfit she should wear to work that day. The way she would complain about her huge butt and puffy hair in the morning. She used to laugh at her mom's hair after a bad haircut, she said. She called it the 'Phua Chu Kang' hair, to which her mom gamely laugh together with her.
She missed the way her mom would barge into her room early in the morning and slide under her blanket with her. How she would pretend to be still asleep when her mom shook her and said to be ready for breakfast soon. How she would sometimes join her dad at the doorstep, waiting for her mom to be ready for breakfast at the coffee shop and smelling the baby powder her dad always puts on, despite being a grown man with his own business.
She told me she missed the way her parents like to head outside for a walk after dinner. Just strolling around the neighbourhood, her dad with his t-shirt slung over his shoulder, revealing a fair, smooth round belly. She remembered how her parents never fail to comment on the breezy night weather and how quiet and peaceful everything seemed.
She told me about her comfortable living room back at home. Her parents bought the most plushy couches ever, she said. She mentioned how she had the whole TV to herself in the afternoons, and how she was forced to hand over the remote control at night coz her dad was a bit of a TV nut as well. She remembered hanging out with her family in the living room after dinner whilst watching some Chinese series, always a plateful of different kinds of nicely cut fruits on the coffee table... Mangoes were her favourite, she commented with a sad smile, but she grew to like papayas too after her mom learnt the trick of squirting lemon juices over 'em.
She missed her girlfriends; she hasn't seen them in ages, she said in a thick voice. They had the best fun when they were all together. Sleepovers, lazy afternoons together, doing nothing in particular. They laughed at everything, talked about everything; and when things got boring or monotonous, it was always time to head out for some food.
She remembers hanging out with her boyfriend back in her country. How they would walk all over the city, holding hands while trying not to get knocked over by crazy drivers. How her boyfriend would threaten to kiss her in public, how she felt like one of those couples whom she would usually yell 'get a room' at, and how she could hardly care less.
She remembers riding in her boyfriend's car, listening to the songs while she spoilt them by singing aloud. She told me her boyfriend was a talented musician, which intimidated her for a bit but she's cool now. She also said she used to laugh at her boyfriend's quirky musician habits, like making guitar and drumming sounds with his voice, or breaking into a drumming solo with his lap when the traffic jam allowed him to. She always teased him that he was scaring the other drivers around them with his weird antics and that he was embarassing her, but she loved him for it.
She was getting teary-eyed at that point, so I wrapped one arm around her and told her that if that was what she have back home, she was one lucky lady. Too lucky to be feeling sorry for herself even in this new place, too fortunate to be feeling lonely, when she knows she has all that to go home to in the end.
