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~ ^ ^