rantings in middle country

Packing

2008-06-28T20:46:00.000-07:00

Its funny how when you leave for a place foreign, every item you fill your luggage seems to bring hefty nostalgia and unfound reminiscence as these thoughts weigh you down.

And when you bid goodbye and once again, attempting the same cycle, every item seems to weigh a little too prodigious in your grasp now; the simple mechanical movement of the arm seems dilatory with the rumination of memories.

This infallibly would be my last blog post in MC and I am uncertain whether I would be coming back in the near future. The friendships forged were undeniably unique from the ones back home, the process of breaking down the barrier of different nationalities with distinct cultural differences became made it special at heart. Not many would actually be able to live and interact with a plethora of nationalities (norweigians, germans, koreans, japanese and thai) at any the same given time.

Thank god for the invention of e-mail, the world definitely seems smaller with it.

It's time to start this all over again =)

Tian Jin

2008-06-19T08:48:00.000-07:00

So last sunday I went Tian Jin with 5 Koreans, 2 Japanese, 2 Thais and 1 Australian/Singapore (chloe is kinda of lost as to which nationality she is).

We sat on some gorgeous train which cost us 10sgd to go there; the seats damn business-class man.

So without further-a-do here are the pictures!

Niang (thai) going crazy with cam-whoring.

Chloe (pink) and Yumi (blue) totally chilaxing

I forgot their names but they are koreans LOL. They arent in my class lar!

Mini (korean) sitting next to the window. I joke with her saying I am a large. No sexual connotations PLEASE.

Yumi and Yun Mei (korean) with hairband.

Hideous CCTV tower on the right

Chloe going mad with her winnie balloon.

Manami (jap) with her Lays apple chips.

Posing with the 3SGD wind mill thing crap that yun mee bought for herself.

Lee mei li (korean) and chloe posing at a lavish restaurant at tianjin selling 狗不理包子。 which tasted like normal buns and we were ripped off - damn exhorbitant.

Crap next week I will be back... I am so going to miss the nice people and the great times here.

Chengdu/ Sichuan

2008-06-03T07:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, so it has been eons since I have even accessed my blog. Blogging is tiring and very sian. Really.. Uploading pictures can be a chore too.. Oh well, I am going to write less and upload more pics, here goes..

峨嵋山/Emei Mountain

紫竹林/bamboo forest

Some random SiChuan Arts Centre

I totally loved the performance from this troupee man! Go check out the videos I posted below.. Easily one of the best stage entertainment performances!

Videos!!
Funny Knife Throwing Act

Try This!!

Funny Act

Dont try this at home

Swords Play

SICHUAN MASK CHANGING ACT!!! MUST SEE!!

PUPPETS CHANGING MASKS

authentic peking duck!

2008-05-09T02:43:00.000-07:00

You know, its so hard to blog or do anything on the internet even wiki or youtube occassionally when MC has such stringent laws regarding to internet . Most of the proxy sites that I used to frequent are being rejected by ISP, and its no wonder after all the political hiatus that MC has been bagging itself in light of the olympics.

Anyway, I had a wonderful dinner on wednesday with some of my previous 202A classmates at this fantastic peking duck restaurant ,beijing da dong roast duck restaurant 北京大董烤鸭店。Not to put all the spot light on the duck, the other dishes were just great too in arguably one of the best meal or the best meal I had here. All thanks to CHLOE and happy 22nd birthday! She treated us to this awesome meal! So take a look at the dishes!

Cold Dish- Chicken Slices wrapped in Chicken Skin

Sauteed Bamboo Shoots accompanied with Seaweed

Some random greens

Australian Sliced Steak

Beautifully crafted Oriental Tofus

Finally... the Peking Duck

The first picture is the variety of condiments used for the peking duck. While the picture below the peking duck is this pastry thing used for stuffing the peking duck in. They had the white wrap but this is also used to wrap the duck in.

The pictures below are just Chloe and Asina whoring with the Chef.

and Naoto-san, Chloe and Manami-chan whoring around with the other peking duck chef. Naoto is doing the infamous japanese kawaii pose. eeek...

Below are just some of the random photos of the night....

Okay so this episode ends on a tranquil,peaceful,harmonious note. Next time I will be talking bout my experience in chengdu 成都 aka sichuan 四川。Very interesting post on how the locals think bout Singapore and my fascinating experiences. So long...

-need to wait for my friend to send me the pictures before i can blog about it and maybe find a new proxy site to slither past the ISP idiots.

great wall

2008-04-22T07:50:00.000-07:00

During my absence from blogging, I had exams and other stuff that kept me occupied. However, it was primarily laziness of having to type out a whole entry and upload pictures- time consuming!

Ok so last Friday school organised a trip to 长城 aka great wall - 幕田峪 aka Mu Tian Yu. It was nothing like Ba Da Ling since it was on a hill/mountain and had to climb a super long flight of steps or could ride a cable car up, my group went by foot.

Without further a do, here are the pictures...

So the journey from school took a grueling 2hours on the bus. But it was so darn hard to sleep since it kept rocking due to the uneven grounds.

Anyway this is the olympic stadium called 鸟巢 "bird's nest". Still cannot enter until the olympics is done.

So this is like the entrance area to 幕田峪. While we waited for our tour guide to get us the admission tickets, we were taking some very random pictures. Oh yeah so above you can spot a donkey randomly grazing a grass patch opposite a drain ; feasting on wild grass.

Anyway, these are some of the pictures. My crazy japanese friend, yumi, was literally on the edge of the great wall. if she lost her footing, she would have rolled down the mountain. She is the one clad in the red top and all of us were taking photos of her as though she was some exhibit in the zoo.

My review on this trip, quite a sight but simply not worth the walk up. If anyone wants to come to MuTianYu my suggestion would be to take the cable car up. It took us almost 40mins of climbing steps upwards and to just see foilage and fog. It was really breath-taking (pun intended).

random

2008-04-01T02:31:00.000-07:00

So my parents came last friday to monday to visit me and pass me some stuff which i wanted from singapore (such as my badminton racket).
旧货市场, pan jia yuan jiu huo shi chang。As the name suggests, the goods were mainly antiques or contemporary goods with old age charm. I was suppose to help syafiq make a name chop for his friend but the uncle (whom I patronised the last time) said the words look really ugly and he would STRONGLY advise not to do it. Instead of using computer fonts, he told me to get someone to do a design and he will carve it out by hand. Since Syafiq who happens to be a siao-on artist cum purchaser, I told him to do a proper design. Anyway, before I went off, I saw emilia online and asked her if she wanted a name chop too. So i got wilson and herself each and its damn hot man don't you agree. It costs S$15 each. so emilia, i guess we are quits now, reference to the assistance you provided to my blog aesthetic alterations. If anyone wants one too, let me know.

On Sunday night, Chloe, Yumi, Sheng Yu, Woo Chol and myself had dinner with my parents at this place called 空乙记, kong yi ji, which I went with my sister and her friend sook yee on the first night of my arrival in beijing. I thought the food was good and still is. However, my dad obviously felt it was a tragedy since he constantly reminded me his displeasure by saying how the food tasted norm sporadically during the meal. Surprisingly, after the meal, Woo Chol and Shen Yu said that the food was great especially the fish. Well "to each his own".

while walking back a while ago, I took a few photos on the way since I had my camera. The above are the 桃花, tao hua, which we constantly hear in chinese novels like 神雕侠稆, shen diao xia lu (I cant find the "LU" which I had known it to be but hope this is the correct one). In one of the pictures above you can see alot of cars parked outside the hostel block. These are known as 黑车， hei che (black cars), where the operate like taxis but arent legalised. During dinner, Sheng Yu said that he heard a Korean student (who was drunk) got killed by the black car driver. In addition, these black car drivers have weapons in their booth. It's a horrifying thought that a foreigner like us gets killed.

2 days ago, the Singapore Students Association (SSA) in beijing sent me an email about the updated upcoming events. Frankly, my enthusiasm about meeting Singaporeans during my sojourn here would equate to my opinion on eating fish. Not that I hate them but I would choose not to, it defeats the purpose of going overseas. But they said that Ng Ser Miang is coming to beijing in a few time and would like to meet the students here. I feel like going to since he is a notable figure in Singapore and a member of the International Olympic Council (IOC) but the strange thing is that he stays a few houses away from me in Singapore and I cant meet him in Singapore but in Beijing.

Ok tomorrow is wednesday, weekend coming.

MC having mood swings

2008-03-28T07:36:00.000-07:00

okay so as everyone know that MC is supposed having Spring - beautiful sunshine and lush greens. The weather for the past 2 days was great, i actually perspired a little. How little did I perspire? I dont want to go into details of the volume of the droplets.

But today the weather was horrid man, at 12 noon where incandescent sunlight was supposed to great me, I was faced with a blanket of dark clouds that engulfed every inch of the sky - no sunlight could pass through. And for the first time, I actually was caught in a very light shower when i was walked to class for my afternoon lessons. It was so cold that I could see vapour when i breathe out. evidently, the sight of vapour exiting from my mouth has ceased to amaze me, now its an indication of how many layers do I have to wear to face the confused climate of MC.

so tonite, my classmates decided to go chill together with 2 of our teachers. too bad i didn't bring my camera so i didnt have any pictures. something i realised about lunching with koreans is that they are really noisy at the dinner table - boisterous laughter coupled with jugs of alcohol. It was great fun hanging out with people form different origins. Through this dinner, my perception towards some of them has changed for the better. Though they maybe real lazy to not do their assignments, but that doesnt make them bad just that they indulge in fun and games a little too much.

So I was supposed to write out any article on the newspaper which I thought would be interesting. So I ended up with this one, it speaks of how a glass of coffee actually requires more water than you were to bathe. The article delves into the amount of water required to sustain the coffee plant prior to production of coffee powder/beans and how much water does the machinery for the production of the powder/beans require. It also speaks about the amount of water used in production for beef. After reading this article, I gained a fair amount of insight and definitely would not look at food superficially.

The journalist then ends off with " So will you cut down on coffee powder and beef."

Okay look, I mean yeah its great to let people know about how much resources it takes to meet up with our dietary wants but is water really that much a deal to actually change our diet? What huge amounts of water we may have used with regards to production of beef/coffee is not irrecoverable, I believe the journalist should have heard of something like evaporation and condensation or RAIN at the least. I felt that he should actually tabulate his findings on the amount of money needed to get the water and the amount to sustain a factory for coffee reproduction. I could just imagine him writing "will you now take public transport?" if he wrote an article on pollution.

So I wrote my paper on how the journalist should have approached his case since his last line ruined the entire essence of the paper. It should be "will you look at potable water the same way again?"

Okay so now my mother is back is here in beijing. I hope I survive the weekend.

shabu shabu / xiabu xiabu

2008-03-23T04:21:00.000-07:00

okay so dad stopped by beijing and stayed at Sofitel hotel. So I made my way there yesterday for lunch with him. He brought us to this places that supposedly served fast healthy japanese shabu shabu influenced steamboat. And boy was I so FULL again after that meal!! The amazing thing is that it cost a total of 72 yuan (S$14.40) for the whole portion above! Look at the amount of beef slices and horrifying amount of greens displayed.

While window shopping, a moment of epiphany struck me. The whole world might have wronged people of MC, they do not have bad fashion sense but they are ONLY sold the ugliest of clothes! So I took a sneak photo of the adidas shoes at the authentic adidas boutique, tell me its tragedy. I concluded that MC is the place where designed-rejected goods were sold in this foreign land, hence, the fashion sense. I mean you can't go wrong with simplicity as a fashion style but look what came out from simplicity! A flamboyant disaster.

So my entry on March 17 had garnered much attention from some of my readers that they had to leave comments. While sharing the same sentiments as Amos, I think I should put this episode aside and carry on; but glenn being glenn must has to have the final say in everything especially when challenged. those who aren't familiar with the SAF or this abrupt discussion on my blog it's better not to read it since it will be too mind boggling.

My favourite understudy, I guess if you are only capable of helping them get a minimal of 5 extras???? you kidding me? LOL. then you ought to not be sitting at where you are. Poor judgement on my part.

Look, not everyone goes to another and engage in a petty ORD contest. Well perhaps not with you anymore la. So don't come and be bitchy with me and talk using some fucking intellect.

You double checked with them after JunLun died or?? for fuck u want to double check, what purpose would it serve YOU. and don't come and talk to me about the bloody GOM, you think I would not know what the statues are with regards to license submission. My submissions were all successful even for people who had collision with civilian vehicles. Dont talk to me as though I have not your work before.

If you are able to read *fingers cross and looks to sky*, i said the demerit points were awarded by CPT gary and not by HQ S&T. You would not even need to go through Law school or have legal to answer the question I am going to put through once again.

"Was CPT gary in any position to pass judgement on the bloody demerit points? "

If fucking HQTPT can say yes to it. I might as well ask my maid from indonesia to decide. Or even better, you preside all the cases of the unit with RSM, just send your reports to HQTPT. For one fucking time can you use your brain and not having to make me try inject some intellect to you. Like when you call me at fucking 9am in the morning to ask me where to deliver the fucking documents at HQTPT 5 months after I ORD. Very smart with GOMs la but dont know how to find out who to deliver documents to.

Finally, I have to laud you with the 4 paragraphs of disaster that ensued. I seriously didn't have to read all these "cry mother cry father" talk all the way in beijing. But as many know, I love to entertain cry babies. Point form ok, easier to understand for u.

- one. dont associate the word "master" with yourself, this is where you get carried away my son. I didn't say master but said influenced.

- two. you dont have to hear rumours from others but when people start calling you and bitching to you on msn about your understudy after you ORD, that i gotta believe.

- three. of course you dont make decisions in promotions,license and extras but you had a significant amount of influence over it. maybe not with promotion but come on la, i am your upperstudy, you think i would not know what you can be capable of. unless you are really that useless but with you chumming up with RSM I think perhaps you are. I dont recall I had to blow anyone only how i used to step on RSM like he was shit. hmm.. I guess eldon was right it was just me.

- four. dont come and twist my words, I did not say that you love recommending more extras ok. but come on, you tell me 5? and let me tell you something, I have seen you work in camp la, I know you call people to your desk and act like boss hor.

- five. the feeling of disgust is mutual, I might probably might have to go pluck some china plums from the vegetation below. very nauseating having to read such shit. Eh, with the GOM talk, look at the above. Sibei tired to type here AGAIN!

- six. i am horrified at myself for making such poor judgements. I thought you could maintain some equilibrium of sanity from the regulars, evidently the see-saw gave way.

I dont know whether you actually feel remorseful after reading the entry that I dedicated to you previously. I personally think that you feel high and mighty after reading it right or not? Monday sure go cry to RSM say how you were unrightfully accused. If we were still in unit I wld bloody ask eldon and matthias to ram some sense into you.

Lastly, what did you tell desmond when he asked you whether Jun Lun visited you the other day. I dont want to say it here ok but if I was in singapore, I would go take my driving license and slit your voicebox and let you bleed to death. You could fucking say those kind of shit still man.
-ovation-

A quote from one of my good friends:

"who needs enemies when they have friends like you" - marcus chow.

- i apologise having to speech in such language above but when you speak to animals, you have to.

Thank You Emilia Yim

2008-03-18T08:04:00.000-07:00

As you all can see, my blog has gotten a new look to its structure. Now it looks so much more handsome with its broad shoulders doesn't it.

As many of you might know, I am a html illiterate/idiot so thanks to Miss Yim's unconditional help (it will remain that way right) I manage to rectify the scrawny pony to a beautiful stallion...

So on saturday after collecting my new bank card from "Bank of Communications" aka 交通银行, Yumi-san and I went to walk around the school's vincinity. And it was approximately 1430Hrs and I have not eaten lunch so both of us proceeded to this ghetto noodle restaurant/cafe/parlous to have a meal. And I loved the Ramen here. I ate the beef ramen aka 红烧牛肉拉面. Damn good la and it cost S$2.40 approx. The portion was totally out of this world too. And after the super delicious ramen, we went to an ice cream place where I got this long long soft cream (which naoto hori-san would affectionately call it "sof-to cre-mu") and it cost me S$1! Damn good la the food around school. Oh and I realise the sole purpose of my belt is coming to reach its terminus for its good use. No shit. I am serious.

So this is what I had for dinner tonight. Instead of going to 五道口 again to escape from the 4 walls of my room, I decided to order a "call-in". I ordered chicken cutlet rice and onion rings which cost me S$6 and it came with a free packet of red tea. The price was not something that would leave you startled as some of the other culinarary delights of the other entries, but the portion was just humongous!! It could feel 2 people I believe, no shit. I was so full I decided to give my left overs (shit i am damn evil right ) to my roomie.

Another incriminating evidence of me putting on the kilos.

Today, I came to realise something.

Still, I am quite sore about Jun Lun's death, memories of both of us drinking at the combat engineer's canteen at nee soon camp after our matches kept coming back and forth. Badminton was an integral part of my NS life and he too left an indelible mark in that field.

2 days back after reading the newspaper article, I was unhappy about that one of the newspaper article photos had a yellow arrow. Not a normal block arrow but an arrow that looked like that from a 3 year old child's hand. An arrow that look so effortlessly drawn (without much thought) which I interpreted as a form of disrespect. This was not an advertisement to an Kindergarden but a pictorial illustration of the scene where he passed away. After which, I crafted an email preparing to send it back to the journalist about how the arrow had expressed ill-respect to the late. Couldn't they just incorporate a proper computer designed arrow that would be more fitting to the event reported? But when I was going to send it out today, I asked myself what was I out to do? Seek justice for an ARROW used in a report of him? What would be the outcome of my email? Would it just land itself in the trashcan just like any other junk mail? I then realised that whats the point of executing such trivial acts only where there will be no physical result.

when petals fall

2008-03-17T05:32:00.001-07:00

It's very unsettling emotionally when someone of your age group/generation pass away. It makes you only think of how fragile life is and whether you have been living yours to its optimum fullest.

Last night a friend of mine ,clarence ong, informed me of a disheatening news- a friend of mine had passed on. His name was Ong Jun Lun and we were from the same unit. The latter and I weren't closely knitted but definitely more than superficial friends. We were from the same badminton team and played the inter-signals formation tournament together. After Weipin and myself Ord-ed, he took over Weipin's singles spot in the signals formation badminton team. Everytime when we completed our games, he would ask me to get my CSM to let us off early, but I didn't want to go home early since I had nothing to do at home too. He would then ask me relentlessly to have her give us time off and make me drive him out of camp. He had always been indolent, perpetually sleeping all day long and would skive when given tasks. However, he was a great person, didn't have any ill/violent tendencies to others. Recollections of him and I were playing badminton during the tournaments and bitching about how stupid some of the other NSFs were.
One thing that leaves me wrenching was not calling him back, he smsed me when I was on the plane to Beijing. After having downloaded pfingo, I went to give him a call but once again he was sleeping and I said I will call him back. I refrained from deleting the sms to remind myself to call him back.

Just yesterday (after not changing to my Singapore Sim card for 2 weeks), I decided to return his call. I already knew what he had wanted to ask me: status of his civilian license application. Though I completed NS in June last year, I was somehow responsible/linked to his civilian license application.

- Earlier on in 2006, Jun Lun had reversed a 5 tonner into a Commading Officer's Civilian Vehicle and was awarded 9 demerit points by my Officer in Command. Since the case was not reported to HQ Transport nor was the demerit points awarded by the SAF transport department the 9 points should not have been justified/valid.

Evidently, my understudy felt that such an act was blatant transgression and ALLEGEDLY wasn't very helpful during the license application procedure. Instead of thinking of ways to help Jun Lun get his license, he felt a 180 degrees approach was more appropriate. When I came to hear of such news, I felt that this was total bullshit. Ergo, i took up the onus to try get his license application through with my warrant officer/CSM. Our task was successful, the licensing department gave the green light but that was probably 2 months ago.

However, when I came to find out that my understudy was very adamant lately that Jun Lun would not get his license I guessed that something was amiss.

-To my understudy whom I know you read my blog-

大哥 here shall now fuck my usual euphemistic self. Why would something as trivial as competing whose ORD dates are earlier get to you. Everyone ORDs in 2 years, need you be so vengeful on an issue as insignificant as such? A fellow NSF driver who worked 2 years under a unit such as ours should not deserve a license? He might have had an accident during his tenure but from what I understand from the GOM (unless there was a drastic change to it) he should get his license. Though you didn't have the hierarchal authority to avert the situation, you were the puppet master to it weren't you. If I am still sitting in your position, Jun Lun would definitely gotten his license already.

In these few months, alot of people had asked me why I had passed my appointment to you.

My answer: I didn't expect the then jovial and happy go lucky person be overtaken by insatiable supremacy.

Do you like basking in the authority that you have attained from the appointment? So what if you have the strongest decision making ability among all the other NSFs, that doesnt give you any respect from them. It's the person not the appointment. I am not saying they respect me but they know they can rely on me and will definitely call me if they get into trouble. And I believe you know that I used to get my ass fried by CPT Ong and others because I help/speak up for them too much then. I can't say that about you can I? Of late, I heard you love seeing people get charged and if anyone gets in your way, he will have a bitter end? Your interpretation of respect, respect = fear, doesnt work out.

Perhaps someone else was indeed more appropriate. And if you dont realise, because of what you did then make me feel like a bastard for not returning the call.

Well, at least now i think we have reached a common understanding/fact - he wont be getting his license for sure. You owned him and finally, me. Respectxxx...

天坛公园

2008-03-15T20:01:00.000-07:00

ok so I have not been blogging in a while since I have not experienced anything interesting. And I had lots of writings to hand in so did not have the time/mood to start with. And to the exchange students in the class, stop trying to be so enthusiastic in class when u nvr do ur assignments, its just really stupid as no one knows what you are trying to prove.

-estatic to have complete the israel and palestine essay-

So anyway naoto hori-san, chloe and myself decided to go to 天坛公园, temple of heaven. But before that I went to cut my hair for S$6 at this boutique which I thought was alright, aint that bad. Just that I had major insecurities pertaining to whether I would turn out to look like another MC man on the street. I was refraining myself from the usage of 剪短 , cut short, because u know how cutting short is such a generic term to length. But it turned out alrite just that I wanted it shorter but didnt wanna say the taboo word so I had to be satisfied whatever the shape my crowning glory was.

After that, we had lunch at Bravo an Italian restaurant and ate this plate of rice thing which is supposed to be an italian dish but I have never seen it in any singapore restaurant. It tasted really nice and it cost S$3. The side dish was a potato ball thing that cost S$2 and tasted alright with a satisfying 10 pieces.

so here you have the entrance of tian tan but scroll down and there is more. Oh I paid $5 to visit all the sites of the temple, i love cheap student rates.

So here we have the 棂星门-Ling Xing gates which lead up to this altar thats made up of white marble. So here we have a picture of Hori san and myself standing on the epicenter of the whole temple complex. Doing so will bring us good luck (i hope) and dont mind the other asians behind, they are just another asian.

Here we have the cypress garden in the temple. We didnt go further since we had a lot more walking to do and rather not spend it on some random trees which dogs would just piss at.

here we have the 东配殿， east annex hall where tablets of the sun , moon, jupiter, stars so that people can pay their respects to them.

Here we have 皇穹宇 where it houses all the tablets of the gods that are used for worshipping. Looks like one of the eerie ghost picture right. correct or nt, shaun gan. Like something lurking at the altar.

Here we have the 9 dragon juniper tree which breeds around the whole temple premise. And nearby, there is this man trying to sell this game thats almost like badminton so after some egging on by my friends I went to try playing it. Quite simple to play cause it follows the same motion as scooping up the shuttle, but the racket is so short and small. Below is a video of the game.

This is 祈年殿， hall of good prayers for good harvests where the emperor would pray for good harvests.

So this is the place where they would cremate the sacrifices for the gods.
The 火柴炉, firewood stove which was just sticking out of nowhere in the complex. I thought it was an ancient water catchment well. Okay people shut the ____ up.

So here we have a station for u to borrow a guide, an automatic guide. So I thought its a real guide person and what tickled me was you had to pay a deposit for 100yuan. So i told hori-san and chloe how stupid is that deposit thing on a guide. So chloe burst out laughing and said its a GPS hearing device where they would give u the historical background on the place where u were at. Ok so ____ me. How in the world would i know MC had such devices.

After we have walked through 天坛公园，the 3 of us proceeded to 北海. It was very disappointing for me maybe because we didnt go into the "had to pay or you cannot go in area". Well I did see sakuras here. Who says you cant see sakuras outside japan and I felt like eating it so hence the picture. Just beautiful hor. Tiff and syafiq must be laughing. RIGHT.

Okay gg off now.. dont think i will be going out soon since I spent alot of money today.. almost S$50 and i didnt buy anything. Sometimes the wallet is just like a blackhole, the deeper you dig, the darker it gets.

潘家园旧物市场

2008-03-10T02:01:00.000-07:00

So I decided to blog what I did on Saturday; I am boiling water so I can bathe, so pathetic.

Anyway for lunch yesterday I had another buffet at "tafi" which is an Italian restaurant for 32yuan (approx SGD$6). The spread wasn't fantastic but it had a healthier spread than other buffets. It had pasta, garlic bread, soup, salad, pizza and etc... As many of my friends know, I am a great sucker for soups so I drank 4 bowls of soup, pumpkin soup. I would like to drink more but was afraid that I would need to use the bathroom and u know how are the public bathrooms in MC are like...

So this is 潘家园旧物市场, where stall owners sell alot of local products that are indigenous to their culture/history. The products range from jade, wood carvings, embroidery, buddhist deity scultures, and even wooden mahjong tiles which i was tempted to buy since it cost SGD$30 before discount =) I might get one before gg back to SG. Weipin so needs it.. hor pinhead....

So after spending 1.5hrs at the street market, I bought a stamp chop engraved with my chinese name. There are some store owners who were being like sluts, they tried to it to me at SGD$40 , like come on .... you are MC u know.. where are the cheap goods you market place. So anyway I went to this other store that sold me the jade piece for 6yuan and went to another store to engrave my name for 60 yuan. So i paid 66yuan in total for my chop.

Here is the shifu that did my chop, apparently he is quite famous in china but its enigmatic as to why someone of his caliber would be setting up a street stall in a street market. He apparently hangs out with some professors from my university so he gave us a discount. He says that convincingly while pointing to his banner that states 50yuan per word. He showed us a magazine article of him recently too!

After our shopping spree, we proceeded to have dinner at this korean restaurant. Though I might sound stupid but it was my first time eating korean bbq. And since Miya said it tasted like the real thing, it is/taste like the real thing. Behold my marvellous spread though which we paid 32yuan per person =) SGD$6.40, glenn is happy.

Oh and Miya lost her wallet so we made our way down to the Police Station where I spoke alot of shit to him on video!courtesy of chloe! Sadly I cant post them here but I have already posted one of it on my facebk grp. Pardon the poor speech in mandarin.

Yes I am alive

2008-03-08T17:20:00.000-08:00

So some people had asked me why I have not blogged for the past week or so. AND no Hamon Shen, I have not been caught by the local authorities for blogging. Basically, nothing interesting has happened and assignments have been piling up .

Here we have the article which I have to do reporting on - strife between israel and palestine. Actually, it should pose no problem for me to congure up proper notions leading to the war, its reprecussions and what other things we have, but the main obstacle is to have to write in chinese. Like come on, me writing a political research essay in chinese. Like no shit right. ALSO, if you look carefully, there is an article on Singapore regarding the escape of Selamat. Aww how honoured are we to have a segment crafted out next to articles regarding Rice going to Egypt to try stabilise the situation there. Seriously, Syafiq, Harman, Fazali, Zulkiflee if you know where he is, let the authorities know. I bet Zul has already flown him off on one of his SIA flights. and to the stupid Green Men who appeared on the picture search for selamat, ord loh.

Selamat, you are an international star (just want to let you know that if you come across my blog due to any irrational reasons/means).

So anyway, I was thinking of doing an elective in martial arts which the school is offer from a wide range of electives. The electives mainly are culturally enriching activities such as martial arts, calligraphy, business chinese, chinese art, mandarin speech and chinese culture and social science. Initially, I had plans to take up the martial arts course since I have nvr run/swim/job/badminton during my 2 weeks here, hence, taking up martial arts would be good. But I do not have my sports shoes here nor enough clothes to wear for sports. I do not want to spend unnecessary money and my sister is going to send over the items in a couple of days too so just wait. After much thought, I decided to do chinese calligraphy since I had an interest it in when I was young. Hopefully, after the course I can write everyone's name in chinese beautifully.

So I did shopping earlier for "groceries". The picture should allow comprehension of the earlier used open inverted commas. Some of the food stuff are for breakfast or just snacks! and I bought all the above for SGD$11. Which I thought was quite a good buy =)

Ok I think I gotta pen off now. I need to type a skit out for my grp on tuesday! scripwriter me, scriptwriter me. Oh I shall leave you a picture of what my teacher wrote on my assignment (she wrote on everyone else's too). Don't misunderstand alrite, no hidden notion behind her words its just my overwhelming charisma in play! oh unabashful me..

just like any other day

2008-03-03T04:35:00.000-08:00

Today wasnt a very happening day I must say. After class some of us went to this pseudo macdonald place in school called 清青快餐 qing qing kuai chan. Which sold fast food almost similar to that of macdonalds at a much cheaper price. They even have a wider selection which consisted of local treats as you can see from the picture.

For those who arent chinese or failed products of the singapore chinese education system, I shall give u a transalation for each item sold.

1. Fried Prawn Patty 2. Calamari Rings 3. Octopus pie Hamburger

4. Fried Cod Pieces 5. Yam Pie 6. Red Bean Pie

So if you wanna convert to SGD, just divide it by 5 for an approximate figure. Cheap right! My set meal cost me 13yuan :)

During one of my class, philosophy was supposed to be covered. The teacher spoke about Charles Robert Darwin whom as we all refer as the founder of the theory of evolution. The teacher then digressed from the main subject and went on to speak how we should put focus in our studies and the importance of it. She then quoted Charles Darwin in chinese.

"时间就像海绵里的水，只要去挤，总会有的" - Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

Time is just like water in a sponge, if you squeeze it there definitely will be time"

So clearly she was proselytising us from perpetual "hard core procrastinators" to "on the ball, focused individuals". Not waiting for something to happen but Carpe Diem. It was a very interesting lesson where the teacher would keep asking us questions so that we will speak up. Hence, making the class more engaging and not making us fall asleep from the early morning lesson

For dinner tonight, I went to eat a pizza place in school. YES school has a pizza place! which sells just average pizza but at a reasonable price, a pizze 6" costs S$6 and a glass of coke is S$0.40. The picture above isnt from the school's pizza place but at a pizza restaurant near carrefour in beijing. As you can see, the sign says 39yuan pizza buffet and it was. But the buffet did not just serve pizzas but numerous western food as you can see. Ranging from nuggets, spaghetti, salad, pizzas (DUH), drinks, ice cream, beer (yeah what the hell) and more. Just see the picture! Which was super worth it and I ate till I almost died. Most definitely the best value meal that I have eaten here and taste pretty nice (from all the other horrors I have let entering my mouth). Yeah people get hungry from the pictures.

Anyway, here is the 大长今 da chang jin restaurant which is the gimmick of that popular korean drama. I am not too sure whether there is one back home so decided to post this picture up since there are hoardes of women crazy of korea stuff in singapore.

This place is perfect for skanks like tiffany ng who would die for a korean................................

meal. ermmm yeah meal =)

a piece of history out of the classroom

2008-03-02T04:54:00.001-08:00

So I heard from some of my readers that my blog entries are too lengthy. I do not know whether I am being too explicit or just reporting on garrulous happenings. However, I have had my fair share of blog readings in the past and occassionally I would want to have more pictures and less talk while sometimes have more talk. So in my entries I have included both so its either u want to read it or nt and most importantly, dont make your problem my problem. so chillax =)

So today Woo Chol, Chloe, Miya and Woo Chol's 2 other Korean mates came with us to our little history trip to Tian An Men Square aka 天安门广场. Actually I was quite depressed that the Forbidden City 紫禁城 was not open the public. The reason why so remains an enigma. Thousands flock from around the world to come visit this majestic architectural beauty but I was prohibited to be one of the millions to witness its grandeur. The forbidden city was a place where the emperor would reside during his tenure so it was reverent and I really wanted to see how he lives in contrast to my "ghetto-ness".

But nonetheless, spirits were kept high and our group snapped a considerable amount of photos. However, I only put these few up as uploading photos to blogspot can be a bitch if you know what i mean.

Also, one funny thing is that when you are crossing the bridge into tian an men, you are not allowed to take pictures so as to not slow down the human traffick of people crossing it. So I manage to take a video of how the police man would shout at the people to not take photos haha. So chloe was my accomplice and help instigate the police man to do it by whipping out her camera and pretending to take photographs. Anyway I will tag the video below but I am not too sure if you are able to see it. If you are on facebook, you can check out the video at "more supper LESS badminton" my facebook group where i will be uploading it there soon.

After our disappointing visit to Tian An Men, we went to this street called 王府井小吃街 which sold alot of interesting food! So here is a brief tour of it.

So here we have the

冰糖葫芦 bing tang hu lu. Which is a ancient chinese candy which has been brought to light to many/all of us through chinese martial arts series like 神雕狭侣. But just like the liberalisation of communism in MC, this candy too has experienced a change in its ingredient, no more MC berries but a vibrant set of savoury assortments to choose for the never mundane human palate- kiwis, strawberries and even slice melons! Today, I had strawberry and it was very fresh!

So Chloe was raving about 臭豆腐 chou toufu which smelt like manure and she deeply needed satisfy this craving. Unperturbed, she advanced to the stall, made her purchased and walked to the group. Though it smelt bad, I did not think it was too taxing on my nasal cavities and after little or no persuation from Chloe, I downed one of the fried cubes: it tasted bland. Perhaps, its not the same in terms of smelly degree to the ones that you guys had. But at least i can say i have tried the most probable only dish in the word where the more disgusting it smell, the better it is.

Here I have a splinter in my mouth that was used to pierce the toufu. I handed Miya the stick of strawberry candy and decided to down a cob of corn as it looked so tempting on the roast. But sadly it tasted quite boring, I believe the streets of phuket had nicer tasting ones. If only they smeared a slab of butter on it. I was so full after eating the corn, though it was bland the kernels were full and fresh. After eating through 7/8 of it, I decided to let the dustbin devour the rest.

So here are some of the weird food that I had spotted on the street. Most of these we have seen before but I have never once spotted a starfish haha. The things people eat here is amazing. AND NO I did not eat the starfish.

So anyway, i loved today alot since i was able to experience a whole lot of the rich heritage that china had to offer and I believe that this is the defining factor of what makes an overseas working/studying experience worthwhile. Just like how Hamon Shen is making full use of his time in America to go visit many other places of interest. So Hamon let's compete to see who had a more fulfilling academic semester abroad when we are back haha.

Since I have dedicated a paragraph for you, dont keep complaining to say I write too much since you are one of the reasons for this lengthy entry.

spring is here

2008-02-29T18:05:00.001-08:00

Okay so this is the morning I woke up to. Normally its bursting with incandescent sunlight but today its so dark and gloomy. You can vaguely spot that the buildings in the background are sort of smothered by smoke. I cant really be firm whether its fog, a rise in the SPI index (very familiar to us Singaporeans) or a natural phenomenon of the weather since its the 2nd day of Spring and clouds might be wanting to form but hampered by the still undesirable temperature. I wanted to blog yesterday but I was to tired and fell asleep. So here is my entry on events that happened yesterday. Enjoy......

So this is what I had for lunch yesterday at 紫荆食堂 which cost like S$2 in total. I decided not to eat the egg since it tasted like mercury, it had this conspicuous metal taste. I was rather bewildered because how could anyone possibly go wrong with fried egg? But well the other dishes tasted fairly well and I proceeded to lessons after which.

Yesterday after class I went to the administrative office to change my class to level 3 class 02A. Well I think it would pose not much of a threat still by going to this higher level class since I think I should be attending a level 4 but I am quite adamant in not doing a whole lot of composition/作文 during my soujorn. Anyway I challenged/ asked my teacher regarding a question that she put to the class, she asked us to read a sentence from a para but only the second sentence and not the first. Somehow, I still dont know why I listened to her and read the second sentence only when you know ALL Singaporeans would be so kiasu and read the whole damn passage.

So the sentence goes as follows:
而且科学家们指出，单身生活方式造成威胁，甚至比控制全球人口所带来的挑战还要大。

and her question was :

对什么有挑战?

Don't you agree that the sentence above in no way played a part in anwering the question? Since it did not cover who/whom/what/where it affected. It just merely said singlehood poses a threat. a threat more threatening than controlling over population.

and her answer was : 世界

like seriously... eat my shit..

So me being me, questioned/ask the teacher in front of some students in the class how could one possibly derive an answer from the sentence. So she was telling her answer from her master analytical skills which totally sounded preposterous.

So I told her:
"这个句子根本没题过向什么东西有影响，只是说单身生活方式比全球人口曾长还要南控制"。

Which was correct right? After which while I was telling my friend what I told the teacher and she walked away. Like ok chillax woman, I did not intend to challenge your intellectual capability as a normal human but just wanted to clarify how could you get your answer from that sentence.

Or did I.....

So after changing my class, I had to change my textbooks too and the bookstore was at this place called 京裕宾馆. It had a row of korean food restaurants and 1 japanese restaurant. It was a small street that exuded a warm cosy feel when I entered. The food on the adverts looks good enough for me so I am quite sure I will be patronising there very soon one of these days. You must agree that it looks really good/cool. Anyway, you guys must be wondering whats with the dog. On our way there we saw these 2 aged ladies walking the 2 dogs and I was laughing because the white dog was so DIRTY that its white fur changed colour. I wanted to stand next to the dog with my white jacket to show how dirty it is but I was afraid the owner would kao pei me. Though, the picture doesnt illustrate well the degree of dirt on the canine but trust me it was quite a funny sight.

For dinner, yumi, chloe, yu chol (korean) and myself went to one of the canteens to have dinner. I love eating in school since the food is really budget ahha. But the thing that puts me off is either the taste or how cold the food gets. Unlike Singapore, they cook the food bulk so that they wont have to keep entering the kitchen to cook, they just cook the portion they wish to sell and display all of it at the window. So its quite disgusting to be eating cold egg. Upon exiting the canteen, there was this small tentage which provided a spectacle cleaning service for FREE as a publicity stint for their shop that was rather near 清华. The personnel said they use ultrasound technology to clean the glasses but all I could hear was them talking la. (ok bad joke) but they just put my specs into a small machine that had a pool of water (see picture above), for 5 minutes and I tell you, my vision through my specs had never been so clear! Its probably better than the first time I bought it AHAH!!

Now the 4 of us made our way to 五道口 again to walk around. This is where I purchased this S$0.80 fried chicken burger. It tasted quite nice and will sure buy it again. Then we proceeded to a korean supermarket where I did not buy anything since my sister stocked up a gargantuous amount of junkfood in my room which I probably wont finish till semester ends since eating alot of junkfood makes u sick. Also, I spotted a part of the convenience store that sold condoms. The brand was DONLESS condoms which I thought was quite funny since how can u not don a condom for it to be effective. It probably meant that if you were to wear it, you would not notice its presence. like very duh riteee..

Shortly, I had a craving for ice cream and were scouring the district for an ice cream parlour but landed ourself at this Italian restaurant where I had chicken mushroom soup and my first sip of 清道啤酒. I had never been a fervent fan of alcohol (and dont think I will ever be) but this beer tasted much better than most of those that I had tried before. Especially tiger beer! Oh there was this lady selling these 2 dogs on the streets which were really really adorable! I feel like bringing one home to Singapore in the future but I dont know how to get by doing the immigration pass. It cost 300yuan before bargaining. Emilia if only you were here man. I bet you would be screaming.

Oh and because I 打包 (ta paoed) food for my korean house mate on 2 occassions (you know how much I love feeding people right? my Orion Section 1 bunk mates or platoon mates would know), he gave me this oreo like packaging cream puff marshmallow thing which is filled with cream. like omg having too much junk food alrady! and I dont have my sports shoes here to play badminton or go to the gym.. speaking of badminton, jeannie chew, where are you...

Ok guys so thats all for now... I think I am going 天安门 tomorrow if the weather is good. Will post some pictures if I do so =)

my patek philippe- geneve. oh i mean MC

2008-02-28T06:13:00.000-08:00

Alright I started of the day with a small meet up of myself with some of the 公寓 commitee over at Level 2 of my block. I was supposed to represent the residents in 紫荆公寓 and speak about the problems or areas needed to be rectified. I spoke on the wrecked hot water pipes to some of the toilets (sinceI am probably its greatest victim as I nvr had hot water in my toilet since the first day I came here), how we should have clothes drying machines on every floor (as only level 4 and 7 has it), how I can explicitly hear people opening and closing their doors from my room and some other stuff. As many of you would know, I have an amazing ability to make others digress from a topic to something irrelavent to whatever conversation should encompass. So the commitee members and myself were talking about places to visit in Beijing such as tian an men square, great wall, summer palace and alot of other places of interest.

So here we have photos of my classmates and I in our classroom. Don't mind the constipated face, I think I was going to laugh as Yumi (from japan) said she would help us take a picture when I took out my camera. But as you all know, I was taking a sneak video on the conversation between the japanese and koreans as I thought it was rather entertaining but Yumi foiled my plan! I think they are a cool group of people but I will be going to a different class next week so tomorrow will be the last time I see them. Today during chinese, we had 听力 and the teacher was being really annoying by repeating the tape over and over again when the students couldnt give the answer. I did not want to give the answers since I did not want to attract too much attention and seem like a arrorgant bitch. After all, I am not suppose to be in that class. Oh yes and 诸葛亮 was covered explaining why it was written on the white board. Very Siannnn.

While for dinner Yumi Chloe and I went to Tafi, an italian restaurant near university which serves a 5 course meal for SGD10. So much so for being budget in china but I guess I just had to try it for once. Here we have my carbonara and Yumi's Takaro pasta which is seafood roe pasta. The food was ok, average in Singapore terms but thankfully it wasnt at the same culinary level as last night's dinner. Which by the way still gives me shivers. You guys certainly got to be wondering what am I trying to do on the picture to the right. Well, I just wanted to show you guys how miserable that slice of cake was. Though it tasted quite delightful, quantity clearly wasnt at play. But after all the bad food I have tasted in MC, I would give up on quantity and beg for quality. And yeah the fork was really thin which kinda of reminded me emilia's arm for some weird reason.

Yes I just got my first imitation purchase in MC. Its a fake Patek Philippe and I am proud of it ( I am so dale, an LSU joke). It was quoted to me at 870yuan but chloe bargained to 200yuan for me. I dont know whether its expensive but $40 for a watch seems alright to me and i think its quite nice too. I bought this watch at a shopping centre called 秀水街 which is the left picture. Oh and geraldine, I did try to get you your LV Tivoli handbag there but my it did not match your description- did not use one piece of material and since this other MGS girl said that it's "so fake the material", i did not get it and the stupid sales lady was so insistent of selling it to me. So damn annoying man some of the sales personnel here.

So on my way back from 秀水街 back to 清华大学, we managed to pass by 天安门 which was beautiful at night with all the lights on but as I was too far from it and with poor lighting, I could only capture some very mediocre shots so I leave you with these 2 pictures to visually ravage on. I shall pen off now and see if I shall do any more blogging as I came to realise that blogging can be quite tiring since blogspot is not very user friendly when uploading photos.

Oh and after many many request why the pictures of the girls are not on my blog I shall leave one for you guys. It's Miya (korea) and Chloe (australia).

worst dinner experience ever

2008-02-27T04:43:00.001-08:00

okay so as the title suggests, I officially had my worst dinner experience since I had stepped on soil of MC. But I will start my entry from this morning to finally the utter climax of this entry - the dinner.

Actually, morning class was pretty alright. Though it was elementary, I learnt some useful stuff which I had probably forgotten or overlooked in when I was studying in chinese before. Today the 老师 mainly covered 配词. Like what words would you match with stuff existential or

non-existential. Also, previously she taught us the difference between 发布，发宣 and 发行.

发布- Publish. Such as articles on newspaper.

发宣- Announce. Such as notifications.

发行- Deliver. Just deliver la.

So after class my friends- chloe and naoto hori (a jap), proceeded to have our lunch at one of the canteens. Well above is what I had for lunch, beef fried rice. Evidently, cooking oil in MC has to be free since it was really oily and salty to add. Apparently, chloe's dumpling was very appetising but I didnt try it. So anyway the only reason that made lunch very satisfying for me was the price, I paid 4Yuan for my meal: 2.50Yuan for my rice and 1.50 for my drink. Hence, the meal cost me a gratifying 80cents. Yes readers, scream in astonishment.

So after which I crashed the 401A class which was also doing something like 报章报道 but the damn teacher was talking about the different publications that MC had. From tabloids to magazines to sports which was not related to the damn lesson. I wanted to know what was the syllabus like and what kind of homework I would get or have to do. And here we have that very teacher in the picture above and all his crap written on the board. Yes SHRIEK.

Okay so at 1830hrs, chloe, miya (a korean exchange student who majors in chinese culture) and myself made our way to this porridge place where my sister said sells very good porridge. However a very sad decision was made, we walked past this chinese restaurant and somehow a unanimous decision was made to have our meal here. It kind of had this old age charm that probably attacted us. This decision was the beginning of the end as only tragedy ensued from here on. So this is what happened. Very sadly, they screwed up my chicken cutlet rice set order and gave me some meat rice dish that I painfully consumed. I would like to believe that its dog meat so I can tell people that I have eaten dog in china but I dont think it is. So I did not realise that this was not the dish I had ordered and that the waitress asked me to pay for the dish which she had wrongly given me. I didnt argue since it would be quite sad if they had to fork out their money to pay for this as you know these people are very fortunate as us. Then after, I had to wait a good 15mins for my right order to be placed on my table. Obviously that skank lied since she said that my order was on its way. My evaluation was that the chicken cutlet didnt have any meat taste (which I thought was rather skillful since you can eliminate it's orginal taste) and it tasted only of batter/flour. Amazing culinary skill you must agree.

Anyway, I this is what I shall pen off today. I am supposed to go recite 游子吟 which is a
唐诗 tomorrow during chinese class. Thankfully, we learnt this in primary school so its just refresher.

the first day in school

2008-02-26T04:53:00.001-08:00

Everyone by now should know that I am doing a module in Chinese Language. As I had expected, I got "0" for my listening comprehension test the other day. Evidently, the teacher did not tell the marker that I was exempted from taking the test. The class I was posted to was teaching a pretty elementary syllabus. But I came to know that anyone could change class if they feel that the class they were posted to is not to the level. However, I spoke to a teacher regarding my case and she told me to choose a class myself that I deem appropriate for my level but the problem is I do not want to pass judgement on my level of chinese but the university to allocate me. I do not want to be in a class where it would be too easy or a class that is TOO hard. Truthfully, though the class I went to was rather elementary, I still learnt quite a number of skills pertaining to vocabulary usage.

I went out for lunch with this Melbourne born chinese girl called chloe (whose parents are currently residing in Singapore) at 五道口 (wu dao kou) which is supposedly the fashion haven for fashionistas. Yes there are supposedly fashion elitist in MC alright though evidently a visual exploration of such endangered species have proven futile in my 6 days here. For lunch, we went to this korean restaurant where I ordered chicken cutlet rice and the rice was so darn miserable. I didnt bother taking a picture of the poor excuse for a korean dish since it would vandalise my pristine blog with such a mediocre dish.

So while walking chloe spotted this pseudo nike home/local brand to china. Its seemingly popular with the locals here as there has been adverts of it on the school's tennis court fence. And its not exactly cheap since a wind breaker there cost approximately S$50. The primogeniture's slogan of "just do it" has been modified to "anything is possible". Even the logo has been slightly modified from its elder brother.

Okay so this is the 东南门 (north east gate) of 清华大学. And before entering the university, a majestic sign salutes you at the door way which probably one of the sights of the university since there were locals who were taking pictures of it. I think that its quite cool as it exudes enigmatic aura of "pre-civilisation" with the stone carved letterings which is indigenous to chinese art in ancient times.

So yes, this is the famous ginko biloba tree thats familiar to many of us since our parents had fed* us drugs containing a certain essence/part of this vegetation that helps stimulate our brain juices. Since its winter now, what stands before us now is a tired looking tree. I guess I would come back to this same tree and take a photo of it in Spring which is going to come in a month's time I think. Leaves should/will be sprouting out by then.

*note: I had used past tense in the above passage since I would like to think that all of you readers out there arent consuming the drug at this point in time. But if you are, may mercy be taken upon you. Especially on you Amos Goh Kim Yang.

Here we have the adminstrative headquaters of the university where the incumbents are working. I wanted to go into the building to take some photographs of the exhibits that were shown there, but apparently, the security guard thought I was probably mentally unsound when i told him about my plan above. He replied "外人勿进" accompanied with a snigger. I just love being bitched by a MC security guard. Dont you? Pity.

Behold, bicycle attack. I mean come on, I need to take something indigenous to china right? not like I am trying to laugh at them or something. But what are china photos without the hot wheels? Some/most of the bikes here are not chained since I guess nearly everyone has a bike. So hamon, if only you had studied here, your bicycle would not have been stolen by some abunehneh/bangladesh construction workers at Kovan. Ehhh watch your mouth, dont come and 鸡蛋 me.

Here is the grand university sports stadium,

清华大学综合体育馆， hopefully I would be playing some badminton here since it looks damn cool! It's almost like a proper sports centre. Now weipin, are you going to send me my racket haha!

Here is the bowling alley of the school. It's quite cool to have a bowling alley in the school premises right. It's a small one though, around 10 lanes, but i think its good enough already. Cool stuff huh. A game there would cost one S$1.60 approx. not expensive i reckon.

Okay so this is my dorm. Or rather apartment since its called 公寓 and not 宿舍. Oh and if you didn't know, there is daily room service where they clean my room everyday and the toilet too. Complimentary television which sadly shows only china shows and hong kong serials occassionally. And also a few days back a local guy gave me this menu thing and has a whole lot of japanese cuisine where I could call him and he would deliver to my block. The receptionist downstairs will call me to collect it. Loves this, almost like room service right =) Yes hit me. If only they could do my laundry too.......

Okay now I got some serious/funny news to tell. My university has this "cafereria" which serves chinese cuisine. You know how university cafeterias/canteens are right? But this is nothing like the rest.... Behold in spectacular fashion................

Okay so this the cafeteria/canteen in the university. I ordered 3 dishes over here of gargantuous portions and it cost S$17. Though the supposed wrap of the beijing duck was quite grosse and very different from that back home, the food tasted quite alright.

So here is the beijing duck in sliced form. The wrap is machine produced beancurd skin which had alot of "pores" and the taste was bland. But the duck had salvaged what it could from the overwhelming distasteful wrap.

Okay people, I think I shall stop tonight as I have completed what I had done today. night.

middle country has met its saviour

2008-02-25T00:39:00.000-08:00

Ok after all the excessive bitching that I was doing on my (very sad) friendster blog, I have finally found a way to slither past the web authorities of the middle country/MC*. Yes yes I have once exhibited one of my plethora of hidden abilities/talents. I managed to find a proxy site which enables me to blog on blogspot. You must wonder why am I even doing a blog since I never once had an interest to such a past time. But I concluded that should anyone want to know how am i doing in MC, just visit the damn blog to save me from either wasting my saliva or typing on the keyboard unncessarily.

Anyway, the time zone is the same as Singapore's- GMT +8. Of late, the weather has been quite bearable (when the wind doesnt blow) but hardly pleasant when night falls. It's freezing cold and if I dont clad myself with 3 or 4 layers of clothing, I think might be a human popsicle. Also the food in MC is cheap, plentiful and delicious (alright, most of it). One thing about the people in MC that I find quite cool is their customer service attendants who attend to you when you apply for something like lets say internet. On my application form if I did not write down my chinese name and instead of asking me to fill this entry up, the woman would just fill it in herself. Something very contrasting to Singapore.

Anyway this is what I had for lunch, I had this Value meal at this place called "Real Kung Fu"- Zhen Gong Fu. This meal costs me 23 yen. Approximately S$4.60.

The price isnt something that makes you go WOW or anything but its a nice good enough meal. Supposedly a healthy meal (minus the cup of coke of course) since the food here are all steamed, not fried, so to make it more healthier for the diners; supposedly a novelty for this fastfood chain/ restaurant. I had no qualms with the taste, I thought it was nice.

I went to purchase my books for lessons tomorrow at around 1500Hrs. I think they gave me a bad class for chinese as I saw the textbooks and I have 3 books on listening comprehension and 2 books on general chinese stuff. Last friday, I took a class placement exam and went late. so I didnt do the listening comprehension part as the teacher said I could speak rather fluently and the listening comprehension would be a waste of time. So I just did the normal written exam and wrote a very short open ended paragraph which I spoke about how great the people in china are etcetera... So my guess is that the marker for my paper didnt know bout my situation and gave me a "0" for my listening compre. I certainly do not know whether this would appear to be a blessing in disguise since the better classes have to do compositions!!! Something that perhaps is the bane of every Singaporean Chinese. But I heard that if the teacher thinks your chinese is better than the class, you will be pushed to the better class. hmmm....

Okay I think I shall pen off now though I have alot of things to say but I have not organised my thoughts on how I should structure my post so will do a probably better one tomorrow or tonight. I shall leave you with something funny I saw at the supermarket a few days back.

No stupid. Its not dog meat. Don't we all wish it is.

*MC has been used since a certain government body prohibits its citizens to view english blog sites to spare them of reading entries by foreign bloggers bitching about their great land. And to provide at least a certain level of ambiguity for a certain country against me.

Since I am using a proxy site to enter blogspot. Did anyone say illegal?