Back In Singapore~

Wow!

Finally back in Singapore after a month in China! It’s so much warmer and humid than in China! T.T I think the thing I will miss the most is China’s weather now. My body can’t get used to the change in temperature! I feel like I’m sweating the whole time! This will probably be the last time I’ll be posting in this blog, and I find it a little weird not to be posting about my day here. The times where the eight of us in the dorm is trying to post each of our blogs at the same time, the times where the pictures didn’t want to be uploaded, the times where we are able to post our blog with no problem then laughing at those who can’t… I will remember these memories. Who knew blogging could have given some fun times? Who knew blogging could bring all of us together? This is a pleasant discovery, and I’m sure my dormmates will agree.

Finally! Chicken rice! Laksa! Mee Sua! Bak Kut Teh! Ahhhhh. The familiar foods, the aroma we missed for five weeks. It’s all coming back now.

Going to china, made me realized lots of things.

Singapore probably has the best roads in the world. There rarely are any major bumps, the road is so smooth, even the buses can drive along without too much vertical movements. In China, even the roads in the city are pretty bumpy, potholes filled, and dusty. Coming back to Singapore, sitting in the car yesterday made me really appreciate the roads in Singapore so much more. Especially since I have to travel for at least two hours every time I go to school.

The streets. The well-lit streets, the well paved concrete paths, the clean walkways. The street lights in Wu Han was quite far spaced from one another, so sometimes the roads are very dark. The walk back from the hospital to the dorm has only a few street lights that I can count on two hands, and the last stretch leading up to the dorm doesn’t even have any street lights! I can walk on the pavements in Singapore and don’t have to worry about weird things sticking up from the ground like loose bricks, stones, and nails(I don’t even know how this came to be).

The people. It might be weird for me to say this, but I missed seeing the Muslim females wearing the Hijab, the shorts wearing population, and the different styles and dressing of the people here. Fashion and dressing in China is pretty important, because it is the way they present themselves to the world, but even though there are many different kind of clothes worn, the styles are somewhat similar. In Singapore, the styles can range from very casual (shorts and tee and flip flops) to smart (business suits anyone?) for both male and female. There are quite a few goths around, so black leather and metallic accessories can be seen pretty often.

Food. Of course the food. I mean, why NOT food when you have roti prata, mee siam, laksa, chicken rice, hokkien mee, etc etc to eat? As much as I’ve enjoyed Wu Han food, I still like Singapore food the best. J

Tap water. I missed Singapore’s tap water so much! So clean that I can just drink it from the tap alone. I can say that in Wu Han, I have never swallowed a mouthful of tap water. Not even one. As much as I know that the water isn’t as clean as Singapore’s, when the water came out of the tap was yellow, I freaked. But after that day when our water supply got cut off because the pipe got broken, I was really grateful we at least still had water to bathe, and even a heater so we don’t have to go through our cleansing routine while shivering uncontrollably.

The TV shows. Well not really, since I don’t think very highly of Singaporean dramas, but at least i understand what they are saying even without the subtitles.

The Singlish. I know this is weird too, but when I heard someone other than our Ngee Ann people speak Singlish before we boarded the plane back, I became so excited! I can see people with the Singaporean passport(lol it’s so bright its kinda tough to miss it), speaking with the Singaporean English, and the Singaporean slangs used when they speak. Man, that felt so nice.

The internet. I know we have wifi in the apartment, and in the classroom, but I really miss being able to go onto Google without using Freegate or VPN. And twitter. And facebook. You get the gist… but yeah, even though the service now is a little haywire (SingTel anyone?) I can still use the connection(probably). LOL erm…

I WILL REALLY REALLY REALLY MISS THESE PEOPLE. THE AWESOME ONES THAT MADE MY STAY THERE IN CHINA SO FUN AND ENJOYABLE. I WILL NOT FORGET THE PARTY MOVES WE DEMO-ED, THE WEIRD JOKES WE MADE, THE FUNNY THINGS AND ACTIONS WE DID, THE GOOD LAUGHS WE HAD, AND THE GOOD PEOPLE WE LIVED WITH. HOLA PEOPLE! LOVE YA~ A BIG THANKS TO ALL OUR LECTURERS AND STAFF, MS TAN, MS MIKIA, MS CHUAH, DR. SUJIT, MR LEE, 刘老师AND MR VINCENT! AND MS TAN, I STILL REMEMBER YOUR 红毛茶! 

this is Squitch and Ichigo! i separated them so they wouldn't fight. :D looking for another addition to my bag family soon :D 

family photo! taken on the last day. i'll miss you guys so much! 

AND OMG I UPLOAD PICTURES SO FAST TODAY!!!! 

a big thank you to Mr Liu as well! :D

erm, she was bullying me so... (lol not really)

COUPLE JACKET COUPLE JACKET COUPLE JACKET! 

AND MOST OF ALL, THANKS TO MY ROOMIE FOR PUTTING UP WITH ME! <3

this pic cos in the other one my eyes too small... 

So this is goodbye, Wu Han. I hope I have the fortune of visiting you again. who knows, maybe one day, i'll come back here. ^ ^ i hope i really do, and then if i'm really lucky, i'll see some familiar faces again! (and one furry one-Mei Zi i miss you...) 

Good OIP trip, and peace out~ ^ ^

Last Night in Wu Han... Mixed Feelings...

This is the last night we’re gonna be staying here in Wu Han, and even though I loved the time I spent here, we have to part ways. There will be many things I will miss, such as the food, the big open spaces, the pretty sceneries, but most of all, the people we’ve met here and the few friends I made.

Mr Liu! Mr Liu was friendly to us, and always helpful whenever we asked for help. He always made things easier and is also a very nice guy to talk to. And of course, I had the fortune to meet with his beautiful dog, Mei Zi, and there I made another new friend. I’ll miss them a lot, but I’m sure they’ll do well. :) 

Then there is the lady who taught us tea ceremony. She was also very friendly, and always answers our questions about tea and the different ways to conduct the brewing of tea whenever we wanted clarification about something, regardless of whether is it the way to brew tea, the temperature of the water used, what types of tea leaves, and the different kind of leaves and their specialty.

And then are the many different street food vendors. The dumpling auntie and uncle, the meat skewers lady, the crepe auntie and uncle(plus wrap boy), the porridge stall auntie and uncle and the ramen shop’s cute boy(XP).

They have all been kind and friendly to me, even though I had been an idiot on a couple of occasions(I forgot to pay them… Rarh can I just jump off a cliff or something) but they just laughed it off.

And of course, I have to mention food. The dumplings, the crepe, the meat skewers, the dessert, the porridge, the ramen, the rice, … sigh. I will miss them a lot too. But I do miss my Singaporean chicken rice, the noodles, the roti prata, the laksa, and a lot more.

I will miss going down with friends and having meals together, the way we will pass other classmates when we climb up that long hill to class, going to eat at the school canteens and squeezing(no not really) with all the other students, having to ask the stall owners to repeat something they said cos they said it too fast for me to catch the first time, and staring at the pile of rice on my plate after I got my food because the rice portion is too much and I wonder if I can even finish half of it.

I will miss messing around with the others in our apartments, and I will remember the party we had and the weird stuff that went on in the master bedroom that was never kept in the room(thanks to Pris and Danesha and ZeeZee)

Seeing the state of my luggage after packing it today, I realised I bought quite a few stuff while here in China. Well, for one, the bag, then the pants and shirt, fooooood, and the socks. At last count, I bought 20 pairs of socks, maybe more. Annnnnnndddddd I brought almost 10 pairs of socks here, so I have 30 over socks now. >.<

But at least I learnt how to pack more efficiently. Kekekekeke at least I learnt the art of using vacuum packs to squuuueeeezzzeeee all my clothes into a flat… idk what… Pizza-like thingy? Lol well at least it works so yeah…

I bought a lot of Pejoy, but not as much as some others. Well, I do know I can’t bring too many stuff back so I didn’t want to buy too much. Thank goodness I could stuff all that I bought into my hand carrier. And my bagpack will be sooooo heavy when the laptop goes in… T.T

Sooo tired. I didn’t buy much today, but I walked a lot, mainly because we walked the place a few times and there really isn’t much to buy. My knees and ankle will kill me tomorrow. XP but its ok, it’s the last full day here, and I wanna go look look one last time before I leave. Ok, need sleep. Last night here, and we’re sleeping early(relatively since it’s not even 1 a.m. yet). Jovin has been camping with us since yesterday and also today! Hehehehe ^ ^

Goodnight, andddd peace out~ ^ ^ 

NO MORE COMMON TEST! YAY!! :D

Yay! Common test is over! No more studying! Wheeeee :D :D :D

The past few days were so meh… I even studied while I was on the cruise last weekend, and I’ve been studying since we came back. But it’s ok! I’m done with studying! Yes! I watched How To Train Your Dragon today! Toothless is shooooo cute :D lol

We went out to the tea specialty shop of the lady, who happened to be the manager of the store, who taught us the tea ceremony on Monday. Me, Xenia, Jovin, Ms Tan and Mr Lee went out to the tea shop together, and I had my fill of tea. Wow, good tea, good place to drink tea too. It made me realise we don’t have enough these kind of tea specialty places in Singapore. I think people are just too busy and we rarely stop and just indulge in some tea or coffee(whichever is your cup of beverage). We saw people just sitting down and enjoying tea with their friends and staying in the store for hours! We stayed there for around two hours, and these people already were there before we came, and still there when we left. It’s a little like Starbucks, and many cafes but what made the store special is that the whole store was dedicated to tea and tea leaves, and the appreciation of tea. The atmosphere there was just too peaceful, so quiet, and the staff there are very helpful. The store manager even came out to brew tea for us and we chatted too. She was very nice, introducing us some tea that we can buy back to Singapore either for ourselves or to be gifted to others. We also got to taste some very expensive tea, some of which costs almost six thousand yuan for two hundred grams. That’s 600 SGD for a hundred grams of leaves! Wow, I wish we had the time to go visit there again, but it’s a little impossible.

We’ll go out to shopping tomorrow! Yay! This weekend is Qing Ming Jie, so a lot of the locals here will travel back to their hometowns, to pay their respects. We were afraid that the street food stalls won’t be operating so we went to the stalls we frequent to ask. Other than the banana pancake stall, the others will be here! Yay! :D I was struck by how friendly the stall owners all are. In Singapore, though we are polite most of the times, I can’t really say if there were many of the times I’ve had a friendly experience with the stall owners in Singapore. Here, all the stall owners and staff are all friendly to us, maybe because we are foreigners, so I will never hesitate to ask the stall owners anything, and they take our unique requests well. Monisha and Lynn had asked the banana pancake stall owner to make plain pancakes for them, and he obliged them. And when we have some requests like less oil and no chilli, or no ginger and more onions, and stuff like that, they never seem to get impatient or grouchy, even though they have a lot of customers. J

Oh and because the canteens here uses a prepaid card system, so it’s much easier for us to pay for food, and the staff manning the stalls also do not have to waste time trying to find change for all of us when we pay for our food. I think the schools in Singapore should try this out too, because then we can reduce contact with notes and coins(they have a lot of germssss) so it’s more hygienic too.

I went to play with Mei Zi(the pretty doggy~) again! She remembers me! :D she keeps sitting her butt on my foot so I guess she likes me too. Teehee. I’ll surely miss her when I go back. I’ll miss a lot of things here, not just the food.

Finally I can really really sleep in. I can even wake up and go for lunch afterwards. Yayyyyyyyyyyyyy planning to slack and slack while I can. School starts the week after we get back to Singapore… T.T

Oh and I found out that, if I drink tea brewed directly from tea leaves, I will have to go to the toilet within half an hour after drinking it. It’s like the tea just clears a pathway through my gut and goes immediately into the kidneys and then settles in my bladder. I mean, the effect is just too quick. I drank the jasmine green tea(I bought from the tea specialty shop) yesterday and I keep going to the loo until I stopped drinking it. It worked so fast! But I didn’t have breakfast yesterday, and so maybe the tea acts faster than normal. Hmmm. But I sure do feel detoxified after all the tea I drank on Monday! XP

I’ve decided to buy Pejoy back to Singapore to give as gifts. It’s much easier for me this way so I don’t have to wrack my brain trying to think of something suitable to buy for my friends. And! Pejoy is not sold in Singapore! And it’s nice! There are so many flavours! Red wine(smells goooood), cheese cake, matcha, the standard three, hazelnut chocolate(mmmhmmm), and a few more I can’t remember right now. Oh well.

Bed is calling me. Haven’t slept well for a while now, especially on the cruise, and now I finally have the chance I’m gonna grab it! J

Goodnight and peace out~ ^ ^

Back from the Three Gorges cruise~~~

Hey guys! I’m back from the Three Gorges trip! We took a cruise! We had to take a five hour bus ride again and I didn’t even sleep well on the trip there. But the view after we changed to another bus was really great. We changed the bus in Yi Chang city and since it was at night, we got to enjoy the nightlights of the city buildings.

The thing I found ironic was that Yi Chang is the city that produces the most electricity since it is where the Three Gorges dam is located at, but the price of the electricity there in Yi Chang is higher than the rest of the other cities, and even then the city is the brightest city we’ve been to so far, even though we only went to like Wu Chang and Yi Chang so… LOL

Once we got onto the cruise, we just settled down and went to bed. The room was alright, but the bathroom wasn’t. It was really small. Tiny. In order to close the door, I had to maneuver and do some twisting and turning. Good thing none of you can see me. Lol

The next day we went to a scenic spot called 白帝城 Bai Di Cheng or the City of the White Emperor(I think!). It was really touristy, but the story of the temple is pretty interesting. But the thing that struck me the most was the mass of people selling the same items all over the place. When we exited the temple and was on our way back to the meeting point, we saw a lot of people selling wooden combs and toys. It was a little scary because there was a lady who kept following me and pushing me while I was walking down the steps, trying to sell her items. I kept rejecting her, and saying no, but she followed me for a good while before giving up. And then a little boy kept following Asaph after he took photo of him(the little boy). 

On the bus, the tour guide explained why there are so many people selling the same items. It was a little off putting, but then I guess they had no choice their homes have been submerged by the river(I think because of the building of the dam) so they have to do this in order to earn some income. I feel a little guilty, but there are just so many of them. Then after that we went back to the cruise. 

At first, before we left the cruise for Bai Di Cheng, they told us to be back on the cruise by 6 in the evening. But by 6.45, we still haven’t left the dock yet. I’m sure we were also late for the assigned time, but the one that really delayed us was the other local tourists(I swear I’m not pointing fingers). I thought we would be the last to get on board since I’ve observed that the locals are always very quick in these kind of stuff, but I was quite surprised when the last to board(more than half an hour later). In the end the dinner was like at 7 plus. And the worst thing was, our lunch that afternoon was also delayed. From the assigned timing at noon to around 1 p.m. Sigh. But at least we got to watch the sunset while waiting for dinner! In Singapore, the sun takes about fifteen minutes to half an hour to set but here, it sets within five minutes. The sun is literally setting right in front of my eye. I can see it moving! Wow! An eye opener, seriously! But the next day morning, when we tried to catch the sunrise, we didn’t make it. Even though we woke pretty early, and breakfast was at 6, we still missed it. Dang. But the view in the morning is still very very nice. The fog covered many things, and I think it made the whole gorge look a little mysterious. The bunch of us brought our bowl of porridge up onto the deck to eat while waiting for the sun to rise(though we didn’t know the sun had already risen by then) and also some hard boiled eggs. It was a really cool experience, and I would remember that morning as the morning we sat around waiting for the sun to rise even though it had already risen. Lol

After that we went off the cruise and onto a smaller boat in the shape of a dragon. No, it isn’t a traditional dragon boat but let’s just call it that.

i am the only sane person here in this photo. i'm sure you agree. XP

we look a little more normal now. pardon my squashed face. lol!

But the view while on the river is really gorgeous(pun intended), no but I’m not kidding. I’ve only seen the view of mountains in the shadows of the other mountains in paintings, but this time I got to see it with my own eyes. The trip today, the last day on the cruise, was the best. The view of the gorge, the rock faces, the river, the cool breeze. Wow. Just wow. I’m glad I had the opportunity to experience it. What was even better was that we got to take the dragon boat to the scenic spot. The way there was really cold and loud, cause we were sitting right at the last row of seats and where the engine was. Despite that, the view is still incredible!

Once we reached the scenic spot, we got down from the boat, and onto lego blocks! Lol not really, but it’s something like inflatable lego blocks that we can walk on! It floats on the water, and is pretty steady even though it does bob a little on the small waves the river has. I really had fun there, and it would be my favourite out of all the trips we’ve had so far.

Even though there are human interventions, the gorge is mostly untouched and still retains its beauty. The lego blocks leads into a smaller inlet of the river and then leads upwards. Yes, there is a staircase leading up to a trail, on the cliff face itself. Got a little fright while climbing up, but once on top, the view made me forget anything. We could look out into the distance and see the other cliff faces even if the river winds a little, but man, I wished we could’ve stayed a little longer up there. On top, I even said hi to some strangers on the lego blocks below. Frankly, I thought they were our students so I said hi, but then I realized they weren’t, but oh well.

we took this on. the. trail. itself. you can see the rocky face behind us. :D

There were some obstacles along the trail, like tree roots and trunks that were sticking out into the trail, and worse, some rocks sticking out into the trail. But the good news is, I didn’t hit any of them. Yay! Haha! We didn’t really do much there other than enjoying the scenery(for me) and taking some weird pictures, but I still think that this trip out to the cliff face trail is the best excursion out of all the places we’ve been to.

And then we headed back to the cruise and finally disembarked at 11 in the morning. We took a bus out back into the city, where we had our lunch, before taking the five hour bus journey back to Wu Han. Even though I didn’t slept much(I went to bed after 1 a.m. in the morning and woke at almost 6 a.m.) and I only napped a little when we were waiting to dock and disembark the cruise, I still didn’t sleep on the bus(not that I would’ve slept well anyways). Wow. So that means I was awake for the entire trip doing nothing. Lol >.<

What a relief when we finally got back here in the apartment. I missed the bathroom. Now I don’t have to perform body gags everytime I want to go to the loo. And the street food. The pan fried dumplings, the wraps, the crepes, and the banana pancake. Yummy!

Need to sleep soon, since I want to wake up earlier to write out some of my notes, so bye for now. Goodnight and peace out~~~ ^ ^

Tea ceremony and calligraphy!

Haven’t updated the past two days, but I shall today.

The day before we had an IS class on Feng Shui and the different foods in China. I think the lecture on Feng Shui is very interesting. I’ve always been a little curious about how the masters calculate Feng Shui, but now I think the gist of it. It’s pretty common sense to me. If your back and sides are protected, that would be favourable, because this would keep the Chi in the building for a longer period of time. Chi is like the life force or energy in us. And if there is a body of water in front, that would be favourable as well. So if you, and by you it could be a room or a whole building, have your back and sides protected, and a body of water in front, then that would be the best. But if the body of water is moving, like a river, and it’s coming towards you, then it would be unfavourable. This is a disclaimer, that this is my interpretation of the Feng Shui. I’m not sure this is what the teacher actually meant but I think of the moving water as a medium. It could either bring you good fortune, or bad. If the water is moving perpendicular to the building, it would be like it is sweeping the bad away from the building, but if it was coming towards the building, then it’s as if the water is bringing the bad towards the building. And when in a room, it is best not to block the doorway, which is where the Chi enters the room. So this means it will be better if the bed wasn’t placed in front of the door. To me, all these kinda makes sense to me, but I don’t know about anyone else though.

Then we talked about food. The lecture started at 6 in the evening, the time where we’re usually having dinner out. It’s a good thing I ate a cup of instant noodles before going for class, but still its jaw watering when he went through the different types of food in different region of China. He also went through some of the common food we have in Singapore as well. This was the worst part. We got reminded of what we are missing. I mean, just the mention of Bak Kut Teh gets my saliva going. Add in the sweet and sour pork, that’s it man. I can’t express how grateful I am to have eaten something before the lecture. The food was pretty intense. But it is really interesting how different region have different tastes. The teacher said Hokkien people have stronger taste, 重口味 (zhong kou wei). I find it to be true for me. My family are Hokkien, and I like to eat food with stronger taste to them, so I like salty and spicy food. This was pointed out by the lecturer, and I was a little amazed. So many things you can tell just by looking at the food and its taste. Some of the province likes blander food, some prefer stronger tasting food, and some likes a balance of both, not too strong, not too bland. And then some have simple, easy to cook(?) dishes. Dishes that would be easy to cook and are not too complicated. I think it is really cool how we can guess what kind of food and background of a person by looking at the way they cook or prefer their food.

Then yesterday we had lecture in both the morning and the afternoon. Forensic psychology in the morning and crime scene investigation in the afternoon. Both are interesting but I think I like the crime scene investigation lecture better. But the differences between insanity and incompetency and the difference it makes in court is cool. I used to think they are all the same, just mental disorders, and they are all the same, but in fact, there are differences that determine if a person can stand trial or is certified to be mentally incompetent to stand trial. The line might be very thin in some places, so being a reliable forensic psychologist is really important. For the lecture on crime scene investigation, I was pretty intrigued from the start. I won’t go into the gory details, but I have to say that in crime scene investigation is where the real action is at. The application of the techniques we are taught in school and how to decipher the results to get to the conclusion is really interesting.

But the highlight was at night. We went out to the city again. Did I mention that I bought seven pairs of socks the last time I went to the city? This time I went back and bought another five pairs? Add on to the three I bought out in the streets, I have bought a total of 15 pairs of socks since I’ve been here. I would buy more if I can find more that I like. XP oh and I also bought macaroons. It’s a little different from the ones in Singapore. It’s a little sticky, not as crisp as the ones in Singapore, but I liked it. Especially the lemon flavoured one. It tasted like the Kong Guan lemon biscuits back in Singapore. Yummy! The yam flavoured one too. Sooooo nice~ kekeke

But other than that, we didn’t really do much. But I did buy a shirt and a pair of pants, along with the socks. And chicken wings~ teehee.

But when we got back to the apartment, that’s where the real fun starts. I was introduced to Julian Laputa. He has a middle name that I added in, but let’s not be too obvious. But with the added middle name, it has a better ring to it. Seriously! But we somehow graduated from a guitar(Julian) session to a party session. All sorts of weird and hilarious stuff went on behind the closed doors of the master bedroom. All I have to say is that it involves body waves, weird music(Elmo song included) and a new sort of disco light. But it was a really good experience. It was the first time all eight of us came together and sat down, and all because of Irfana’s Julian. :D

Today we had Tea Ceremony and Calligraphy class for IS. I was really excited! I did both before in Singapore but I like the whole process of brewing tea and the also the process of properly appreciating the tea. We tried different tea leaves and the different ways of brewing them. We had green tea, Tie Guan Yin, a type of clear 清(qing) tea, Pu Er 普尔 tea, a type of black tea, Da Hong Pao 大红袍 tea, another type of clear tea, yellow tea. I was already a green tea lover, and after this session today, I learnt that I actually do appreciate the taste and fragrance of black teas as well. They leave a bitter aftertaste that stays in the mouth for a few minutes. Pu Er has a bitterer aftertaste than Da Hong Pao, but both have a floral fragrance when you smell it. And the Da Hong Pao is an expensive tea. It costs 1500 yuan for 100 grams of the tea leaves. Xenia and Jovin doesn’t like Pu Er but me and Kristine liked it. The teacher taught us the different apparatus for the whole ceremony of brewing tea, including the utensils and the whole tea set and how they are used in the brewing process. And different leaves have different brewing methods. For green tea, red tea and yellow tea, because they are not as strong in terms of fragrance as the other teas, they do not have to be washed. For teas like Pu Er, black teas, they have to be washed be washed with hot water. By washing I mean the first brew of the leaves is not drank. Only the second brew is for drinking. This is because the leaves are fermented. The teacher said for black tea leaves that have been fermented for more than four years, the tea’s color will turn out a more wine red color than just black color, like soy sauce. And like wine, the the older the tea leaves, the more expensive the tea leaves are.

We took the teacher’s name card, and I hope we will have the time to go to her shop, she opens her own tea specialty shop, and buy some back for my family. :D I still have a tin of the green tea leaves I bought in the mountains I haven’t touched yet, partly because I forgot about it, and then again because I was too lazy to do so. LOL

After the tea ceremony class we had a calligraphy class. I learnt from my God-mother, and I had some crash course in primary school and secondary school as well, so I’m pretty familiar with the basics. But the hand writing itself… I can’t seem to get my down stroke right. It always turns out horrible. But my horizontal stroke is pretty nice. Even the teacher said so. :D yay to my God-mother’s crash course! ^ ^

I managed to get the teacher to write my name for me, just before he had to leave. Teehee. And I got tips from him too! So all in all, the IS class today was fun and enlightening for me, since I have an interest in both calligraphy and tea.

But I sad to say, I got tempted by Monisha to go check out a pleather jacket. I might buy it. Well, there is a high possibility I would buy it, but who knows. It’s up to the fates to see if they will have my size available!

Sleepy and my stomach have been weird these few days. And I might be coming down with something again. I haven’t even fully recovered from my previous batch of germs, and now I might be down with another… T.T so sleep, I shall(anybody gets this reference? Lol I’m lame I know).

Goodnight and peace out~

Paper cutting! :D

Today we had a paper cutting lesson! Wow! It’s so cool how by just using a pair of scissors and a penknife can produce such nice art. I think all of us did well today, even though we are all beginners in this, but I think through this activity we discovered that we are actually pretty creative. :D I think my cutting is pretty alright. It might not be the nicest, but I like it. Xenia and Jovin said it looked like galaxies, because I cut stars in the paper. I’m not sure it does, but then again, it’s me. I did a second one, but I haven’t completed it, but I think it might be decent too. I like the process of planning and the outlining of the cut, because in paper cutting, one wrong cut means the possible ruin of the whole thing, so caution and care must be in our top priority right at the start.

my first cutting! do you think it looks kinda like a galaxy? 

I was pretty reluctant to start at first, because I’m not an artsy person, but I am a little of a perfectionist. It’s like I can’t do it well, but I want it to be done perfectly well. Does that makes sense? Doesn’t matter, it didn’t made sense to me either.  But I got into the paper cutting spirit(LOL) soon enough. Enough that after I completed my first one, I got started on my second one. We had a few laughs, and I got irritated at my inability to draw nice circles, nor to draw nice stars. We laughed at Mr Lee’s cutting. It looked like it was meant for the Halloween celebration instead of at a paper cutting class, what with a smiley face with jagged teeth. Ms Tan’s looked like a virus. If the next batch of students in her class gets introduced to her virus, at lease we know where did it come from. I didn’t really try to cut some fine details, because if I did, then I would have to use the penknife. I am not so good with the penknife. That’s why I rather just use the scissors than to risk the tearing of my paper with my clumsy self.

Tomorrow is the IS presentation already, what a short time to prepare.  But at least after that, we have another IS class and it’s about Feng Shui. I hope I can finally know more about Feng Shui and its relation with the Taoist Ba Gua(not the kind we eat for new year’s). :D

Need to finish up our project prep tomorrow morning. So gotta go sleep soon. Goodnight, and peace out~~~!  ^ ^ 

lunchie! does it looks nice?

Our first proper city tour~ Updated!

Yesterday we finally went on a city tour, and get to look at the city proper. We went to four destinations, but I was disappointed they didn’t bring us to the zoo. The first itinerary included a trip to the zoo but the plan got changed so we didn’t go. But we went to some interesting places too! :D

The first place we went to is the museum. Yay! Museum! The museum might not be as large as the other famous ones, it still contains many interesting stuff. We went to look at the treasures unearthed from the tomb of the Marquis Yi of Zeng. There are so many interesting stuff, like porcelain bowls, jewellery and the normal bling stuff. But the more interesting items on display are the coffins and the bells. The coffins are beautifully decorated and the color is beautiful. Other than that, we went to other exhibition and we saw belt made of gold and gems, ancient bronze weapons, and interesting bits and pieces. Me and Jovin were moving so quickly we finished walking the whole of the second level of the museum in half an hour. But we got a little startled at an exhibit. It was a skeleton recovered from one of the clan cemeteries. It was quite complete, but I got a shock when I saw it. I was a little sad that this skeleton is placed as an exhibit. I’m not sure if the skeleton itself is a replica or not, but let’s assume that it is the actual skeleton. Even though I know displaying it at the museum is a way to educate people about the past, I still think it’s a little disrespectful for us to just leave the remains of the people of the past right out in the open. But then again, if we look at this issue this way, then all the exhibits, especially of the tombs then should be left in their places.

look at the details of the markings on the side!

isn't this little cup beautiful?!

this, is a belt. gold and inlaid with gemstones. oooh

 this is the outer principal coffin, the inner coffins are smaller, though no  less beautiful.

The second place we went to was the East Lake(directly translated by me), but we didn’t get to see much because we had some time constraints and the scenic spots we were interested in were pretty far apart so we didn’t went to check them out.

Then the next stop is… Lunch! We got to go to a famous food street in the area and had fun buying the different dishes to try. The first thing we got was Tang Bao, or soup buns. It’s a little like Xiao Long Bao, except that there is soup in the bun itself. It was really good, really appetizing, and after eating that I was even hungrier. That after that, I went to get soup. Lotus root and spare ribs soup. I would bet that the soup has been simmering in the pot for quite a few hours because the soup was rich with the taste of the lotus root and the spare meat on the ribs. This dish is pretty common here in China, but back in Singapore I seldom see stalls that sells soups like this everywhere. Then I had something that looks and taste like Roti Prata, something that I love eating in Singapore. Finally, a little something that tastes like home. But this kind of dish is not common in China, unlike in Singapore, we can still find Roti Prata rather easily. And after the Prata(I shall just call it that), I had some fried meatballs! But for me, it’s a little hard for me to really satisfy my cravings sometimes. I am a meat lover so I often find dishes with some meat in it, or I would supplement my meal with some other meat from other sources(erm lol). But here in China, their staple food here is rice, and they have a lot more vegetable dishes than meat dishes. Normally if I go to the school canteens, their dishes available are always mostly vegetables, and limited choices of meat dishes. I guess it’s because here it’s easier to plant crops like rice and other plants than raising live stock. And from all the farms we've drove past in our trips to places, I don’t think I can say that I've seen a farm that rears livestock yet. Mostly it’s all veggies and rice.

scalded my tongue with these little buns. but they are good. yum!

But the only bad thing I find about the lunch yesterday is the amount of time allocated to us for lunch. We only had 40 minutes to get our lunch! I was peeved. Why bring us to a place with good food when we don’t have the time to enjoy and savor it? Instead, we have to rush through, and I had to abandon some of the things I wanted to try because of our time constraints. Because I tried to finish my food quickly, I scalded my tongue with the Tang Bao’s soup. I know, a little too old for this kind of things to still happen, but I really don’t have a choice.

Then after lunch we went to the Yellow Crane tower. It looks five stories high from the outside, but is actually taller. We took a lot of pictures, good or bad, glam or unglam. It was really packed, and the times when we had to take the stairs down was really scary, because there are other people going down the stairs and some people are rushing down the stairs, and others were slowly strolling down.

Then we ended our tour by going to the longest river in China. Chang Jiang in Chinese. We went the Bank(river bank) of Han Kou, along the river. The river also happened to be the third longest river in Asia. We took some funny pictures at the bank, and some with Ms Tan. Apparently she gets too caught up with making sure everyone is in the shot and forget about her own expression. LOL ^ ^

being silly. Insiders will know this pose. XP

The highlight of the day(read:sarcasm) happened when we were own our way to board the bus to get to the Bank of Han Kou. We had no idea we needed to cross the road to get to the bus, and the tour guide just suddenly, like really SUDDENLY, crossed the road when there is a break in the oncoming cars. I was stunned for a second before I ran after the guide. I swear my heart almost stopped. The traffic was jamming pretty bad, and the cars were packed. And also, we crossed near a bus stop so all the huge buses were lurking around the area. I think Wilson almost crashed into a scooter that was going in the OPPOSITE direction as the rest of the lane! I was open-mouthed by the scooter. And then another bus that was cutting through two lanes to get to the other side. That was the scariest traffic I’ve seen. I know there are worst, but I hope I don’t ever be in a situation in those conditions.

Today we went strawberry picking! Right after a night of raining. There was so much mud, and I was wearing my new shoes. T.T but thank goodness it was pretty waterproof on the outside, so I didn’t suffer the most. And it was easier to clean off too. Lol Nazhifa had to take off her shoes because her soles doesn’t offer her much traction in the mud so she ended up bare footed. Then after that we got back to the school and had a party with some of the local students. We had a karaoke session with them as well. I’m glad to see that they have some of my all-time favourites. Most of the songs are in Chinese, but there are a few English songs and we managed to get Ms Mikia and Mr Lee to sing. Teehee. XP And one of the games we had during the party was to hold the balloons between two persons head and get it to the end point without dropping. We made the teachers do this as well. Mr Lee with Ms Mikia and Ms Chuah with Ms Tan. It was hilarious!

We ended the party around 4 in the afternoon(I know it’s a little early but we started at noon) and then took some group photos. Ms Tan even asked some random passers-by to take the photos for us! LOL! And when the rest went back to their apartments I still have to go interview some of the local students for our IS project. Sigh.

Went to dinner with Jovin and Xenia. The stone twins and Kris went out to town because they got tempted by Sherdyn. Tsk. But that’s good for our plan. It’s Clarissa’s 18^th birthday today, and we planned to surprise her. But we totally forgot about the cake until yesterday! Good thing the bakeries here are very efficient, and even though we just ordered it yesterday, we can collect it today night. Because they came back late, we had to leave the cake in Jovin’s room and turn the AC to 16 degrees to preserve the cake. And then we went down to the room a while before they came back to prep the cake and everything else. And when they finally came, Kristine was alerting us by stomping up the two and a half flight of stairs and singing some random tune. We all laughed even though we were holding on to the cake and were supposed to be quiet. Oh and we invited a sleepy Mr Lee too. Too bad Ms Tan and Ms Chuah didn’t come up. Then we trekked to all the other apartments to share the cake with them but in the end I ate like some of the leftovers even though I had a slice already. Too bad Pris didn’t like mousse(we got chocolate mousse cake) or else I wouldn’t have to eat so much of the cake. But there were still mousse leftover though. I got a little sick of the mousse by the end of my first slice.

But I think it’s really cool that the bakeries here are so efficient. If we ordered in Singapore, we would have to do it three days before collection. If all bakeries were this fast, we might be able to get away with some last minute planning sometimes… Hmmm…

I think I’m starting to sleep better on the bus now, as long as I plug in to my music, because even though in Singapore I can sleep in the bus with no problems, the roads here are full of potholes and also uneven, so the rides as always bumpy. Teehee.

I shall go to bed soon. I thought I was going to be better but today I felt even sicker. I’ve been sick since the Red Cliff trip and I’m still having snot problems. Felt feverish today. I have to sleep early today. Well since class is at 10 I can sleep a little later. XP

Miss Mikia left today, so we didn’t get to celebrate Clarissa’s birthday with us. I’ll miss her. But I’m envious of her. She gets to travel around China with her brother for a few more days before heading back to Singapore… I wanna do that too…

Been watching Indiana Jones movies these few days since that day we went to the biopharmaceutical factory and the bus uncle played it on the bus I got hooked on it. I decided to give the second instalment a miss because it was too gory for me. Like, nope. No thanks. I don’t wanna watch people happily eating eyeball soup. Gross.

Tomorrow we’re continuing the lecture on forensic DNA. Yay. But the contents are so heavy, so much memorizing to do. T.T but thank goodness it is something interesting to me, so I won’t have too hard of a time while studying( I think). And also, my tongue is still scalded. ouchie. :( 

Bye bye~ Sleep time soon(don't believe me)... Goodnight and peace out~ ^ ^

p.s. my wifi is being really mean to me and don't allow me to upload photos at all. >:/ Grrr...

wheeeeeee~~~

updated! thank goodness Xenia's lappie can upload photos. mine doesnt like the wifi here i swear... T.T