Jia is an adventurous Singapore girl who spent the last 15 months in Greenland, helping to run a Chinese restaurant. We were honoured to be able to invite her to speak about her experiences in Sisimiut, a town of 5000 people at 66°55′N 53°40′W - above the Arctic Circle - and second largest settlement in Greenland, which has recently voted for greater self-government from Denmark. And yes, I wouldn't be surprised that the restaurant she worked in was possibly the northernmost Chinese/Thai restaurant in the world. It was also great for us to meet her Greenlandic boyfriend - they met while playing badminton in this land covered by snow 8 out of 12 months - and listening to the unusual out-of-this-world sounds of Inuit-Greenlandic language. And I am privileged to be able to host this at my place. It was cool listening to how she got bored working in an office in Singapore, and woke up one day determined to do something different. She remembered her childhood dreams about the strange faraway icey land called green and then found a job there via an online forum. Her stories of this exotic, faraway land - dog-sledging on ice-caps, learning Inuit language, long winters and lunching on seal meat, whale fat and carribou BBQ - were most enlightening as well as inspiring for Singaporeans who sometimes feel that they are trapped in an eternal rat race. The moral of the story has to be: Follow your heart and dreams! Go forth and discover new horizons! Jia, we thank you for the wonderful evening and all the best in whatever you do! |
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