I have a belief that sometimes being away from home makes you miss home more. I guess that coming from a relatively small and sometimes unknown country, it makes one even prouder of every accomplishment that your country makes.

I can't begin to count the many times when I've met people overseas and when I told them that I was Singaporean, they ask me whether it is true that one would go to jail if one ate gum there! Or some other joke like the "fine" city.... I will also never forget when I first went to the states and one of my roommate's friend's told me that he learnt in class that Singapore was a communist state and LKY was a dictator. Or even now living in Budapest, from time to time, I do get similar comments from the locals that I meet.

But I think that despite all these jibes, I'm still proud to be a Singaporean. Having been travelling quite a bit around Europe, the feeling of pride and amazement when I meet a local who tells me that they know Singapore and they've visited my country before is totally awesome. Despite having made the decision to continue living overseas, there are still so many things that I miss about my country
I miss the food, and more I miss being able to go out at 3am in the morning and still find food.
I miss my friends, karaoke sessions, supper sessions, shopping sessions...
I miss my family.. especially my brother who's now in the army...
I miss being able to speak in SINGLISH!!!

So here's me wishing my country happy 44th years of Independence. No matter where I am, Singapore will always be home to me.