Peter: THE frisbee guy

Peter, diving for a frisbee in mid-air!

I just came back from a frisbee tossing session with Peter in an open space outside Canteen 13 in NTU. My hands are covered in bruises.

Peter, on the other hand, is really good though. He has been playing frisbee for 5 years now. Meet Peter Tung, an American Taiwanese student from the University of Maryland. He plays frisbee for a team back home called the Tenacious B. There isn't a frisbee team in NTU, so he plays for a local club.

Back home he's known as the guy who does all the dives. That's why his friend got a picture of him lunging in mid air, like Superman, he says.

I first heard about Peter through a common friend, Alex, who plays tennis on the school team. Apparently, Peter wasn't good enough to play for his school's tennis team, but got on the NTU tennis team instead. He plays pretty good too! Here are some pictures I got of him in action-and some while he was dying off court-because he was sick that day. Thanks, Peter for showing up to let me snap pictures of you despite the fact that you were so ill.

He was running a fever that day when he played, and so after the match, he was barely alive. (He usually plays better, I think.)

So, right in the middle of training we sit down and talk cock. By that, I mean Peter and I talking about random, not-so-important things.

He said he lost weight since he came to Singapore, because 'the food here is so much healthier'. He is so skinny, that when he told me he USED to be a fat kid, I had a little trouble trying to match his face to a fat body.

Then he tells me how unhealthy American freshmen get when they enter college. Click on the video below to find out.

I was curious about how his Asian identity would fit with the environment he lived in. After all, he told me that in high school, he was the only Asian in his class and for that entire grade there was only one other Asian student-a Korean girl-whom he said, people joked about wanting to see them together. "People ask me whether I face racism all the time here in Singapore, which is really surprising. I have NEVER been discriminated against," he told me. "It was also because I had really good friends."

"When I came to Singapore, I was like, wow, there are so many people here who look like me! That's where all the Asians are, they're on the other side of the world!" he said jokingly. "I don't see myself as Asian though,"he added. "I see myself as American."

I asked if he did drugs. Surprisingly, his answer was no. (He must have been a really good boy. Hehe.) When I was on exchange in Washington D.C, I realized that drugs are much more easily available in the US. This doesn't mean everyone and anyone in the US has tried it before, but they're probably easier to come into contact with.

"That's my blowjob face...no, actually it's my shock-absorber."

Another tip he gave me for losing weight-eat PAU.

"When I first came here, I ate pau every meal! For breakfast I would have a charsiew pau and a cup of tea, just like everyone else does," he proclaimed with pride. "Then for lunch I get a cai pau (vegetable pau), a da rou pau (meat pau), and a dousha pau (sweet red bean paste pau)-and I think to myself, I have my meat, vegetables and dessert as well, it's a complete and balanced meal!" he says, chuckling to himself.

"Now I'm so sick of pau, just hearing people say the word 'pau' makes me wanna puke."

He also loves doing Singlish impersonations. Yeah, we Singaporeans just love to hear other people trying to speak our language. Singlish is a lifestyle, ok! Not easy to learn hor. Dun pray pray...

Some other random stuff we talked about after training...

Why are you called Peter? And his answer is...