My First Time

My first time flying involved also my first time going abroad. That was in 1987, some 20 years ago. I had never being in a plane before that.

Apart from the excitement of flying for the first time, I was also extremely excited for the oppurtunity to go abroad. I was going to be in Belgium for 4 months for a course. I cant describe how it felt to "fly" and several hours later found myself in a foreign land.

I cant really recall what season was it back then now. Early spring I think. There were 12 of us from Thailand (3 women), Malaysia (3 men), Indonesia (3 men) and the Phillipines (3 men). The Thais were so-so la. From Brussels, we were driven to Brugge, a 40 minutes drive if I recall correctly, arrived at our apartment complex, shown to our respective room and thus began a 4 months adventure for me. I was naturally thrilled that day and absorved the surrounding and the environment.

The apartment complex has also a big kitchen and a dining area. All of us cooked our own meals. Now here is the interesting part, a turning point for me!

After we had settled down (we arrived at the complex around 10 am), it was time to eat. We the Malaysian decided to go to the city and looked around as well as have our lunch. It was an interesting experience indeed for me that day as I had never been out of the country let alone to a western country. Everything was different, the people, the environement, weather, food, behaviour and habits etcetc. . For that first day, we had fish and chips! Later on we bought our groceries and supplies, fish, meat, chicken, eggs and other stuffs.

That night, we had our first cooking session. Each group from the different countries would need to cook their food for themselves. Our dish was curry chicken, vege, rice and some potatoes. Since I have never cooked a proper meal before, I was tasked to cut and clean, whilst my other 2 colleagues cooked everything. My other 2 colleagues have stayed outside of Malaysia before.

Been a first timer out of the country butstill conscious of the requirement of eating halal food, it was not a dilemma for me to know that I cant eat the chicken curry. I fried a few eggs and sat down with them and had my dinner. Ofcourse I was also observing how delicious the curry chicken looked as my friends devour everything. They did try to rationalise with me about being in a place where halal food is not available, about being musaffir etcetc but I just couldnt bring myself to eat the chicken.

So, that was the beginning of my 1 week of breakfasts of eggs, lunches of mainly eggs and dinner of eggs and sometimes suppers of eggs. Occasionally I had fish if it was the menu for the day. During those times, my friends had chicken and beef and lamb. I also began to experiment cooking for myself and soon began to cook for the group. Well, it was not really that difficult but ofcourse those dishes that I cooked wasnt exactly 5 stars. But the temptation of eating those lamb, beef and chicken!

After 1 week of eggs, I was beginning to tell myself that I cant live on just eggs for 4 months. I need protein and stuffs in my mouth other than just eggs. That was the day when, as we sat in the dining room for lunch with the chicken curry and fried beef dish infront of me, I decided to take my first bite of non halal meat. It took a lot to put the first piece into my mouth.

I know and I really dont have any defence!

My first 4 months abroad!. We visited a few of the Belgium cities. For those who have never been to Belgium, thier architecture is really a wonderful sight to behold and appreciate. Lots of things happened. In the kitchen for example, when the Phillipinos and the Thais were frying/cooking pork and we were beside them cooking our own dishes, it was hard to avoid stuffs flying from thier pans into ours. But we generally get along well.

Maybe I will write about some significant stuffs that I experienced whilst in Belgium later.

Belgium was the beginning of me going to many many other countries, south, north, east and west!