shui in china!

2007-06-12T09:39:00.000-07:00

Exams coming up soon!

There's reports to rush, exams to study..sighz..

Then again, i made a point to buy great gifts for great friends back home! haha..

Part of your gifts

These are only a really SMALL section of the gifts cos i've packed all into a huge bag!

Can you imagine a huge bag full of gifts???!!!

hahahah...u guys are so blessed!

Anw, Baisheng cooked brunch for me on saturday!

And Singapore Mee Goreng!! haha..my favourite!

I've tried all kinds of dried noodles here in China, but none taste as good as this!

And yes i have to mention this, Baisheng's room is amazing!

hahah...his room is totally a super 环保 place man..

Baisheng can use all his recycled materials to make amazing things.

Like the "table" that was used to place food, was actually made up of a cardboard box from the 凉茶 that he finished and 6 small tubes of finised potato chips!

The egg in my Mee Goreng turned out to be round bcos Baisheng cut out the rim of the tube of potato chips to fry the egg! hahah...

And this....

Shuttlecocks as support base for his laptop!! Genius!

2007-06-01T07:38:00.000-07:00

oh my beautiful nails!

2007-05-31T10:42:00.001-07:00

Clubbing at Zapatas!!

Great music, funky crowd, best company = fun fun fun!!!!

Love the girls!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah...bar top dancing!

2007-05-28T00:48:00.000-07:00

Japan

The long awaited day 4 has finally come!!

Day 4:

Arrived in Tokyo in wee hours in the morning.
Headed straight to the Tourist Information Centre at Shinjuku.
This is the first place that any tourist who can’t speak Jap like us should go..its prolly the only place in Tokyo where people can converse with you in English and where you can collect all relevant information of Tokyo so that planning for the next few days will be easy!

But we were too early and the place doesn’t place until 10am..so all we could do was wait and breakfast that we packed b4 coming to japan – lots of bread and biscuits!

Poor me..looks so pathetic, eating bread in the open..hhaha...

Asakusa Area

After wash up at our hostel, 2 happy girls decided to explore the Asakusa area which was near our hostel.

The Asakusa area is a part of Tokyo that’s very different from the city area. I personally like this place very very much!
It has a very different feel from the crowded and fast paced city area. Here, the shops look more traditional Japan, and there are a lot more cheaper food stores around, especially those standing traditional food places.

Nakamise

This is a shopping street selling all sorts of Japanese souvenirs and food. Many of the stores actually sell the same things, but their prices vary quite abit. So my advice for those who are coming here is to walk the whole street and check out all the prices first before you buy!

When I was there that day, there were a lot of high school kids. Girls all in their mini skirts! Some are really fat, but still in short skirts. I must say I really admire them for their guts! Haha..

Some of the tidbits sold there..

Muah chi like thing

Tong luo shao that comes in many many unique flavours. There's sweet ones, salty ones, 梅味 etc.

Red bean cakes in many different shapes

Lunch at Saizerai!

This is a Italian fast food place that all of you MUST visit when you are in Japan!!!!!
This place is dirt cheap! And the food was really good! Visit the place if you don’t believe me!
The one I went to was along one of the branched out streets at Nakamise. It’s a fast food chain so I guess there should be more elsewhere.

Baked egg with mushroom that I had there.

Sensoji Temple

This is the oldest temple in Tokyo.
Saw beautiful Sakura trees near the entrance of the temple, got me all excited. But when I went closer, I realized its fake…………

There was a school nearby, and the time the kids just came out from school.
Super cute! The kids playing with the fish like windsock thing.

Anyway, the Sensoji temple is at the very end of Nakamise.

As we walked further down, we reached a few streets full of traditional Japanese 歌舞剧馆. It shows the Rakugo (comic storytelling), Manzai (comic dialogue), Mandan (Comic monologue) etc., which are very popular among the old Japanese generation. It’s a super interesting sight because this is the only place where you will see so many old Japanese aunties and uncles queuing up at the many different 歌舞剧馆 along the streets, waiting to enter to watch shows. It makes me wonder if this street will still be in existence after another decade when younger generations don't even know how to appreciate this traditional culture.

We spotted this store with a super long queue.
And it was selling this super cute dessert, at a super cheap price! Only 10yen each!
Though we were really full from all the eating at Nakamise, Khai couldn’t resist the temptation!

Yum yum!!

They are actually towels and napkins sold at a shopping centre! Hahha…did anyone get cheated????

Beautiful Asakusa sunset!

Something interesting..a dirty side of Japan
A huge pile of rubbish right beside a "no dumping" sign!

2007-05-25T07:56:00.000-07:00

Dinner with mexicans!

They are really nice pple man...all thanks to Adolfo and zhen for bringing me to meet up with new mexican people!

They are so so friendly! even made me nice dessert to eat..hehe..

The slightly older man at the side is actually their mexican professor..they were having a mini discussion with their prof..
Even though i cant make out what they were talking about..spanish obviously..but it was still interesting to watch them gesture here and there and how they engage in their conversations!

The group of girls are so crazy and cute!
There was this American guy who came into the house drunk and he laid right down on someone's bed and fell asleep..then the girls wanted to play a prank on him and they started whipping out their cosmetics and drawing on his face, hands and took damn alot of pictures! hahaha..
Made me think of YOUTH..I miss you guys so much man!

Anyway, another really eerie thing happened to me today AGAIN..
This stranger called me in the afternoon and wanted to chat with me!!!!!!!!!
He claimed that i gave him my phone number..which i totally don't remember of doing and would definitely not have done!
Aaaarrrggghhhh...so swei!

2007-05-19T09:25:00.000-07:00

Cooking in dorm!

Khai and I did our first time cooking in dorm!

A simple meal in our comfy room, watching dvd = pleasure!

Later we even cooked tang yuan for dessert! hee...

2007-05-19T07:48:00.000-07:00

Japan

Day 3:

Woke up early in the morning!
Oh by the way, I haven’t shown you guys our room in Osaka!
It’s a traditional tatami room, where two tatami mats are placed together and a sheet is spread on top of the mats.

Though we were sleeping on the floor, its still very comfy.
Unlike cheap hotels in china, which are dirty and eerie looking, cheap hotels in japan are nonetheless clean and cosy!

Tennoji Area

The Tennoji area is the older area of Osaka, where old shrines and temples are located.

Sumiyoshitaisha Grand Shrine

This shrine is designated as a national treasure and many Japanese from all over Japan always visit the shrine to pray for the well-being for their family! Plus, the shrine is well-known for its protection for people in their travels. How can khai and I miss such a good chance to pray for protection?!!

And for some reason, we kept seeing Jap kids and saw a group of them at the shrine again!
They are so so cute!

You see the way they climb up the stairs of the bridge?? They are so adorable!
The stairs are actually quite steep, so in order to balance themselves, most of the kids are climbing the stairs on all fours with their butts facing me..hahaha..

In every shrine or temple, there will always be a well of water for you to cleanse yourself before you enter the shrine.
You can use the water to wash your hands, face etc. But don’t drink the water!

Wishes strung together!
The Japanese believe that after they pray to the gods, and after they 求签, they have to hang the slips of paper up so that all good luck will follow them and all bad luck will be carried away.

And many students hang these wooden planks to pray for passing grades and getting into good schools!

In the shrine, there are many 宝殿, each for different gods.
And at every 殿, there is a bell and a container for you to throw coins in. Before you pray, you are supposed to throw a coin into the container, pull the rope to ring the bell, clap twice and pray.

See how sincere I am!

There’s also a place that sells amulets. Jap amulets are really nice! Bought quite a lot back for my family and friends!

Shitennoji Temple

Japan’s oldest Buddhist temple.
Took us quite a long time to find the temple because it is actually located among resident areas and surrounded by rows of shops.

There was a book fair in the temple grounds.
The things they sell were quite interesting. There were many old gramophone records, old Japanese textbooks, oh and I even spotted Chinese textbooks!

Shin-Sekai

This area is where the Tsutenkaku Tower is located. The tower is said to be constructed in the same style as the Paris’s Eiffel Tower.

What do you think? Haha..

Looking at the rows of shops and with all the nice banners put up, you guys will probably think that this street is a bustling street. But nono, its actually a dead town!
Khai and I were like one of the very few people walking along the street. All the eateries there were almost empty!

There are many yakitori stores there, so we settled in one for our lunch.
Unfortunately, the menu was fully in Jap! Had a hard time ordering food!

Luckily, the really pretty waitress there was very patient with us and with her broken english and our broken jap we managed to order the stuff we wanted.

Up in the Tsutenkaku Tower.
The symbol of the Tower, this cute monkey look-alike thing. I forgot its name, its been too long since I’ve returned from Japan. Haha..

Tennoji Zoo

The zoo happened to be in the same area and we had a free entry pass to the zoo, so we went in.
But it was so boring we went in for 10mins, after taking a few pictures of the flamingoes, we came out!

Shopping at the Minami Area

Basically, Osaka has 2 main shopping areas and places for youngsters to hang out. One is the Minami area, and the other is the Kita area.
The Kita area has more departmental stores and upclass shopping, while the Minami area has more shopping streets and relatively cheaper stuff. So naturally, being poor students, we headed for the Minami area first!

Honestly, shopping is not exactly a fun thing in Japan. Everything here is so expensive! When we went over Japan was having their sale period, everywhere we went there were huge signs saying sale sale sale. But even after the sale, we can’t afford anything! The most basic top easily cost 50sing! No doubt there were many many nice things to buy, but the prices were also very impressive. Japan shopping is only fun for rich people!

So khai and I spent a lot of our time looking for cheap food!

We had this for snack.
Its actually a crunchy biscuit with some Jap sauce and mayonnaise. Tasted really good! For only 150yen!

Dotombori

The Dotombori district is a strategic landmark of the Minami area.

Actually there’s nothing much there, except rows of restaurants.

Dotombori Gokuraku Shopping Street

One of our main reasons of coming to the Minami area was because of this place. It was written in our guide book that this place is actually a gourmet place where we can experience food culture unique to Osaka. Hence Khai and I saved spaces in our stomach to have a good meal here!
But to our disappointment, there really weren’t much stuff here..and the food sold here were way too overpriced!

So in the end, we settled for MacDonalds. Haha..
Macs in japan do have some interesting things on their menu.
For example, Khai ordered a shrimp burger with real shrimps in it! She was so excited about it.

And I ordered a McChicken burger and Chocolate pie for only 100yen each!

Singapore should start coming up with such cheap Mac deals, then maybe I’ll start to frequent Mac.

Shinsaibashi-Suji Shopping Street

There are many shops selling clothes, shoes, food and stuff. 100yen shops sprawl the street.
Oh and guys would love this – porn video shops, adult toys shops and show clubs (where guys can appoint girls they fancy to perform “shows” for them and charges are made by the duration of the show)!

Off to Tokyo!

Pack up to set off on an overnight bus to Tokyo.
For those of you traveling around Japan, you can consider taking an overnight bus which is probably the cheapest mode of transport around Japan. Plus you can actually save on accommodation.

2007-05-18T23:52:00.000-07:00

Japan

Day 2:

Our first actual adventure in beautiful Osaka!

Osaka Museum of History

The Museum is located just next to the Osaka Castle. So we can see the castle view right from the Museum!
The smart thing is that at the highest level of the Museum, it actually introduces different parts of the Castle by opening up the blinds to show actual parts of the real Castle just opposite!

View from the Museum - Osaka Castle

Different levels of the Museum displays different periods of old Osaka.
Now let me bring you on a tour in the Osaka Museum!

At the 9th Floor, enter the time of Hongan-ji Temple, when Osaka was named “the Water City”. Osaka at that time as you can deduce from the name, was surrounded by water and the main source of living was fishing.

And bridges were everywhere to connect land and water.
Me and the huge life-size structure!

The life-size fishing boat. See how elaborate the structure is.

Proceeding down to the 8th floor (just in case you were wondering, in Osaka, usually the viewing of all exhibits starts from the top and we move downwards).

This is a life-sized archaeological excavation replica that allows visitors to use authentic archaeological tools and reference materials to experience the process of discovering the past!
But because we can’t read and don’t understand Jap, we can’t really carry out the activities cos we can’t communicate with the helpers there! A pity!

To sidetrack, although we did not discover the past, we discovered amazing toilets!
Hahaha..call us country pumpkin, but both khai and I were so thrilled by their high-tech toilet seats!
Both of us went into the toilet and took many many pics and played with every button to test out the function.

They even have a function that help you wash your butt!

But again bcos we can’t read jap, khai did a really embarrassing thing. She pressed the emergency help button and made the Museum’s security came running up to the 8th floor toilet looking all frantic! Hahahha..it was funny…

Back to the exhibits, to the 7th floor.
This floor shows the early modern and contemporary Osaka.
Took many stupid pics here..haha..

Khai: "Hi sir, how much are these?"

Khai: "Come back my child!"

Mummy, this is my bf Ge Li! hahhahhhhaahah!!!

And the exhibition ends here.

Osaka Castle

Khai and I decided to take a tram which will bring us to and fro the entrance to the Castle, since we have a free pass.
It helps a lot in finding the tram location when Japan workers are so hardworking. There is no supervisor whatsoever, but the worker at the tram station constantly say his lines through the mike to try to bring in more people to take the tram even when the whole place is almost empty! We could hear him from a distance away and see him gesturing for people to go over to the station. It helps even more when he is so friendly, greeting everybody with his great smile, plus he is CUTE!

Snap shot of the hardworking guy!! Nobody around but still working..haha..

And we saw jap little kids while on the tram..i tell you they are the cutest thing ever! The Jap uniforms make them even cuter.
Cute right????

Inside the castle museum, there are many exhibits on the old samurai weapons, uniforms etc.
Actually no photos were allowed, but we still took pics anw! Hhaaha..

The war gears. Wonder how they go to war in such heavy gears!

Samurai swords!

This is a huge panel showing an ongoing war with at least 30 armies at one single time! Imagine the chaotic situation and mess the place would be in!

Miniatures of the soldiers fighting

The beautiful Osaka Castle during sunset!

Museum of Housing and Living

This museum is a life-size replica of the houses and the way of living of the Osaka people in the past.

The streets of Osaka

OOOhhhhh...I love sauna!

Children’s toys. They actually remind me of traditional Chinese toys too. They have something similar to the Chinese 陀螺 and the toy im holding is like one of the many Chinese toys too.

I’m whipping up a good meal!

Shhhhh…khai is studying! Don’t disturb!

Tenjimbashi-Suji Shopping Street

This is Japan’s longest shopping street! It’s 2.6km long. Khai and I walked from around 6pm till 10plus, when all the shops closed and we haven’t finished the street!

Anyway, did I mention?? I love Osaka for its cheap food and 100Yen shops! Osaka is filled with street food and little munchies. We can also get nice tasty biscuits at 100Yen shops that are seen almost everywhere! Tokyo lacks street food and 100Yen shops..=(

Our first sushi meal!

I was too hasty in deciding to eat sushi once I see the first sushi shop along the street. It cost 130yen for a plate of sushi. But as we walk further down, there were so many more sushi restaurants with sushi going at 75yen per plate! Oh well, for those who are visiting this street and want to eat sushi, walk further in!
But in any case, it’s a satisfying meal!

Bay Area

We wanted to go to the Tempozan Marketplace at night to continue with our feast of Osaka food, where Osaka specialities like Takoyaki, Okonomiyaki are sold.
But to our disappointment, the place had already closed! Boohoo!

All we could do is to take picture with the place! At least we’ve been here!

2007-05-17T12:27:00.000-07:00

Zhen goes clubbing today! haha..and i dolled her up..

oh well..she made me blog this down..hahaha..

I was trimming her brows for her

I did her make up and we went shopping for the top together!
haha..she's super excited about the clubbing night.
I'm happy that she's happy! =)

Anyway, update from ydae.
Went over to the law peep's place for dinner again.
This time for Singapore food!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
All thanks to wenshan's family for bringing over 2 full suitcases of spore food!
We are so deprived of Spore food here.
Finally, the taste of home!
Khai and I was so super delighted over the sight of laksa and bengawan solo cakes! Yum yum!!
In fact, ydae was my first time eating laksa! hahahaha.
Can you guys believe it? i've never touched laksa in spore before and im actually eating it for the first time in china???!!

I have the urge to gobble down the whole cake! haha..

A big thank you to Huiyi for cooking such a delicious meal for us!

2007-05-12T09:35:00.000-07:00

Okay finally the long awaited Japan entry is up!

Japan

Day 1:

Setting off!
2 very excited girls

and their super huge backpacks!

Reaching Kansai airport (Osaka)

We successfully reached our hostel, Hotel Toyoh, with the help of a really kind old lady!
Our first encounter with the Osaka people was so good that I was convinced I am going to have a really great trip in Japan.
The old lady was so helpful, she saw us holding up a map looking lost and she approached us to help even b4 we asked! Plus we totally couldn’t make out what she was saying but she still continued to guide us and helped direct us to our hotel.
Great people make a great day!
Our subsequent days in Osaka went smoothly with the help of all the friendly and nice Osaka people.

We arrived in Osaka late afternoon.
So by the time we settled down, there wasn’t much time left for us to head for the city area. Moreover, we need to get our transport card that was really important as it allows us many many free admissions to the Osaka tourist spots! Luckily there’s a tourist centre near our hotel where we can get the card, so khai and I quickly set off and WALK to the place.
For all my dear readers’ information, china has been good training for khai and shui in walking long distances without much complains! Haha..no distance is far for us anymore. Fits perfectly well in our budget japan trip.

Anyway, after getting our card, we explored the area which happened to have some shopping malls and settled our meal there.
First meal in Japan. Ironically, its not a jap meal, its western crepe! haha..but with jap innovation. I just love how the Japs are able to popularise and innovate on things that were not originally theirs. On our subsequent days in Japan, we saw tons of crepe stalls everywhere, with all sorts of different kinds of saliva savouring crepes. There's even cheesecake in their crepes!

Quickly made our way back to the hotel after that as we have to make it in time for our baths! Our hotel allocated different bathing times for different genders. Just before you wonder why this is so, its because our hotel bath is PUBLIC BATH!!!!
I’ve never had public baths before and it was really weird.
At first I thought it would be okay, so I went down with khai to the shower room, but in the end I escaped back to the room even before bathing…hahaha…
But yes I did bath that night ok. I just went down at a later time to bath when there’s nobody around!

Us in our bath robes.

My first day in Japan, and i was totally blown away.

Not that i didn't know how great Japan is in the first place, but being here and actually experiencing it myself is a total different story.

Maybe its also because of the huge contrast between Shanghai and Osaka.

Shanghai streets are dirty and littered, vehicles are constantly emitting black soot, drivers are forever playing with their honks.

But in Osaka, there's only peace, fresh air and clean streets!

Bicycles don't even need to be chained or locked up in a busy shopping area.

Nobody litters even when there's so little dustbins around.

People apologise to you even when its an accidental brush across the arms!

After 1 day in Osaka, i can only say I LOVE JAPAN!

(stay tune to more stories of japan! haha..)

2007-05-12T09:04:00.000-07:00

Not only have i been down on luck these days, im also starting to attract the weirdest pple!!

First, there was a group of korean uncles who started to chat up with khai and me when we were heading to the airport on our japan trip (i will talk more about it in my japan entries).

Then, it was the molestation thing at the mrt stat.

Then the security guard at the law peeps' place, according to khai tried to 搭讪 with me by telling me that he could recognise me but not khai even though we don't stay in the apartments there and we don't really frequent that place! More imptly, i've never seen that guard b4!

Today, the delivery man who delivered 外卖 to my dorm asked for my no.!
The conversation went like this:

Man: 你是韩国人？(cos i ordered korean food)
Me: 不是阿，我是新加坡人。
Man:哦，新加坡阿......我很喜欢新加坡人。我觉得新加坡女生都很漂亮。能留个电话吗？
Me: .......................

I was totally speechless!
Yes go ahead and laugh..i bet all of you reading my entry must be laughing your ass off now...
Sick!

2007-05-09T11:27:00.000-07:00

Take my bad luck away!!

The past 2 days have been super super unlucky!!

I got MOLESTED ydae!!
its damn sick i totally don't know how to react to it..
what happened was i was at the mrt stat when this china man came approaching towards me at quite a fast speed..
but when he got nearer to me, he started slowing down.
I tried to avoid him but when he walked next to me, his hands slowly moved across my thighs!
Its so sick! i don't know how to describe it.
At least a cute looking hunk touching me would be more consoling than a middle age china mrt cleaner!
What's worse was when i turned around, i caught a grin on his face!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
aaaarrrrggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh
And my unluckiness did not end that day.
I was supposed to get my visa done on the day, but bcos china people are so lousy in giving specific and accurate instructions, i failed to have a single most impt document to do my visa and so i wasted 2 hours queuing at the place!

So then today, i made my way down to the place to get my visa done again.
After waiting for another 2 hours plus, i went to the counter and the man there tells me that i cant do my visa AGAIN!!!!
i nearly died on the spot!
He said that the most impt document has to be re issued after i return from overseas which i did not get it done..
But nobody told me so!!
And the freaking thing is, khai could get hers done w/o any probs! We went to the same places and had the same form and all. She could get hers done, y cant i?????!!!!
i tried to argue with the guy, but he just wouldnt let me pass and asked me to check back with the school.
So that's exactly what i did when i got back.
And guess what! they said i am still staying in the dorm so that document cannot be re issued!
China's administration is just so screwed up!
Now im left stranded..if i cant get my visa done by the 16th u guys won't see me back in spore anymore! im officially an illegal immigrant in china and im gonna go to jail!

THANK YOU SO MUCH CHINA!

2007-05-07T02:40:00.000-07:00

Back from japan!
Finally settled down to blog..hahaa..okay not really settled down but im actually in the mood to blog now...
japan will be a super long entry..or i'll prolly split it into diff entries which will take some time..
so meanwhile i'll update u guys bout what i've done the past few days after returning from Japan!

Day 1:

Went over to the law peeps' place to return the backpacks that we borrowed from them for the trip..took a bus there and that made khai and i both really miss japan alot!
The bus trip totally brought us back to reality that we are back in China..land full of noise and smell pollution!
Inconsiderate and loud people..pls start learning from your jap comrades what's a 文明社会.
Had a really great dinner - 小龙虾大餐!
Its really delicious. The different ways of cooking this fingers sucking 龙虾. Everyway was fantabulous!
Anyway, i think china is really an enterprising country.
Every season that pass, different kinds of food or products will be seen popping up at every corner of the streets.
During winter times, we see 火锅 everywhere. Now that weather gets hotter, 刨冰 and the 小龙虾 is sold everywhere.
Its amazing what the chinese people do to make a living..how versatile they are. One moment their little stall can be selling 麻辣锅, the next moment you see them with a different signboard selling 刨冰.

Day 2:

Buffet Ktv!!
We had buffet ktv at partyworld, the most upclass ktv place ever in China.
The whole partyworld just feels like a 6 star hotel when u enter the place.
And the thing that deserves to be praised the most is there's finally toilet papers in their toilets!
You will be as impressed with it as me if u've been in China long enough to know that every single toilet you go to has a lack of toilet papers and we always have to carry tissue papers along in our bags all the time.

Day 3:

Visit to 田子坊 with Rebecca!

This is a really artsy place where art pieces and intricate pieces of works are sold and exhibited.
Its a really fresh place to be in as compared to the noisy dirty streets of Shanghai.

The surroundings surprisingly has a mixture European feel and old Shanghai street feel.
The shops there are uniquely designed and the things they sell are more sophisticated.

But Shanghai is a place full of contradictions.
A turn out from this street, we are pushed back to reality - the noisy polluted land.

Vegetarian buffet!

Its simply heavenly to eat healthy and yet the dishes look so delicious!!
You will never believe these are vegetarian food..so nicely done!

Nice pumpkin dessert!!

Day 4:

Time alone in the room.
Its nice spending time alone in the room sometimes. Spending some solo time with myself, doing my things the way i please. Just feels so satisfying! =)
Finished up my translation assignment, listened to some new songs, read a book.

Anyway just in case you guys are thinking im starting to dislike Shanghai cos i've been saying all the bad things about it..hahaha..its not really the case.
I think its just the after effects of returning from a clean civilised country like Japan, the dirty noisy part of this city becomes magnified.
Shanghai still has its interesting sides.

2007-04-28T08:30:00.000-07:00

In Japan!!

The past few days have been crazy!
Communication is one BIG problem here..
But pple here are so so friendly everybody is trying to help..
Whenever khai and i looked totally like lost tourists trying to navigate our way, theres bound to be pple offering their help.
We met this old lady when we were trying to look for our hostel in Osaka.
Even though we were left dumbfounded cos we cant understand a single word she is saying, she looked at the map in our hands and even brought us into a convenience store where she helped us ask for information and directed us to the place..
I think we saved a lot of walking with the help of these really friendly japs!!

And they are so polite..
a light gentle touch..yes i mean touch not push..the lady will apologise to me..
who will do that in china???!!
they wont even turn back after they shove u!

And we have been really touristy people for the past few days..hahaha
meaning photos photos and more photos..
visiting touristy places..esp in Osaka cos we managed to get a tourist pass that allows free admission to many tourist places..

in tokyo now...
shopping shopping and lotsa shopping..
but clothes here are so so expensive i dont even wanna look at them..haha..
we just cant afford it!
Its actually japan spring sale now..but guess what..their sale prices are so horrible!
the sale prices are all 3999yen 4999yen...thats like 50plus sing!
what kind of sale is that????!!!!

but still..being gals we are always on the lookout for cheap buys..managed to find SOME..
like this retro store that we went to..really cheap cheap buys!
all the clothes and bags and accessories there are sold for either 333 or 555 or 777 or 999yen..
that equals to bout 5plus sing to 12 plus sing at most..cheap buys in japan!!
khai and i almost went crazy there...hahhaa..

oh but the pple here arent as friendly as those in osaka..
mayb cos its a bigger city and all..
theres lots of shoving and rushing..
i still like osaka better!

photo updates will be up after i get back to shanghai..
tmr more shopping!! =)

2007-04-23T12:34:00.000-07:00

Setting off to the land of the rising sun!!

Back on 2 May..

Stay tune for more exciting stories!

2007-04-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

我讨厌下雨天！

雨天让人觉得好悲，也让人倒霉透了。

不幸。

这是我的手。

一个被脚车撞过后，脱皮得可怜小手。

在一个刮大风的雨天，雨伞挡在前头看不到路。

迎面而来的轿车也没长眼睛，跟位拼命在挡风的女生撞个正着。
还没来得及闪避，手上的皮已悄悄被带走。

心情完全跌入谷底。

幸亏有joyce 的爱心晚餐拯救了小手的悲惨命运！

简单的一餐，幸福的感觉！

2007-04-20T12:08:00.000-07:00

Nice tasty home cooked meal!

After eating for a month plus of china food, I am getting sick of it.
Its always noodles, wanton, rice all the time.
Especially when I’m saving up for my japan trip now, eating budget food all day long is so boring!

Oh but I am getting hooked on road side food though! Hahaha..
There will always be road side hawkers outside our dormitory every night and zhen is always tempting me into eating the road side food with her..
蛋饼，肉夹莫，炸鸡条 all makes me drool!
So sinful! Esp its eating really late at night..

Anyway, back to my home cooked meal today.
All thanks to Zhen the GREAT AND WONDERFUL COOK, I got to eat really tasty 家乡风味food!
Nonya curry yong tau foo and claypot rice (without the claypot)!

Zhen asked me to praise her on my blog..haha..so thick skin!
But oh well..her food is really gd! From the bottom of my heart!
Its been long since I’ve eaten such a full meal!
We have to do this more often zhen!
No wonder little girls like to play mashak..cos its so fun! Haha..

Of course I helped in the cooking as well..
I cooked the vegetables..haha..
And zhen passed it! Yay!
In fact, she said it was good..*pat pat* myself..haha!

Oh btw, can you guys see?? zhen and i are wearing the same tee!

its our NY school camp tee! hahahha...

cheap thrill you might say, but zhen was super excited over wearing that same tee as i am..

those were the fun and memorable days with our beloved YOUTH plus sunshine! haha..

2007-04-13T09:19:00.000-07:00

i've procrastinate long enough.

here's an update of what i've been doing for the past week.

Huangshan trip

Its a really beautiful place.

But tiring as well.
2 days 1 night up in the mountains

When we first saw the scenary up in the mountains, its breathtaking really.

But soon, all the climbing takes your attention away from the sceneries.

Your eyes are only focused on the steps in front of you, your mind is constantly telling you to push on, you're reaching the top.

Still, we took many many many really nice pics on the way!

Before we start climbing huangshan, we stayed in this really eerie looking youth hostel at the bottom of the mountain.
The bus turned into a construction site and immediately i was thinking "Oh no! This is NOT the place we are going to stay in".

It turned out that this youth hostel is new and only one block is fully renovated and we are the 2nd batch of students staying in!
The amazing thing of the accom is, it is dirt cheap. 25yuan per night! That equals to $5!
But it comes with a price -- no heater, no hot water!
For the whole night, khai and i were freezing to death and none of us slept well.

We took a cable car up to the mountains and we waited a few hours just to board the cable car.
While waiting, we played some lame games, but it was a good time for interacting with new friends!

From left, lionel, wensen, shine, khai, me being blocked by uncle chinguan haha and baisheng

Grace and Zurong, two new korean friends who played lame games with us!
Learnt some korean from them, mostly bad words (all thanks to lionel) haha..

Some nice scenary pics taken on huangshan

Its amazing how people in the past build such magnificent pieces of work.
The structure stacked up with stones is in the middle of a really high mountain that has no paths or roads that is linked to it.
It makes me wonder if people in the past really knew martial arts of some kind, maybe some 轻工 that helped them "fly" to the other side to build the structure.

One of the symbolic stone structures there.
This one is supposed to look like 猪八戒. what do you guys think?

Of course, there will never be lack of photos of the PEOPLE in the trip!

When you're on huangshan, you just feel like you want to perform martial arts. HATA!

A relaxing moment up on the mountain! A short break from the tiring flight of steps.

Ouch my head!

All things up in the mountain are at really costly prices.
A stay in a lousy 8 people room cost 180RMB
A normal cup noodles that cost 3RMB is priced 15RMB up there.
But before we start complaining about the ridiculous prices, think about how the poor workers carry all these things up.
And they are only earning 20RMB per trip that they take!

After we descended Huangshan, went to Tunxi old street for a little shopping.

Joyce’s and Paula’s Bdae party

Introducing the bdae girls

Joyce
She's a great cook man! She's gonna prepare international dinner/lunch for us soon!

And we got her a oven for her bdae present, so that she can bake things for us! hee..

Paula.
Paula is a Spanish girl who can speak really fluent Chinese! Really pretty too!!

Taking this chance to introduce the other FUSSA members that I haven’t done before

Zhengyi Jiaming and Shuzhen (from right)

Beside khai is Chinguan, the president of FUSSA.
Behind Chinguan is Ziwei, a really sweet and nice girl! from ny too!
Behind her is Weixiong. Everybody calls him boss because he is going to be the future high management in MOE. He's ranked no. 1 in his level for chinese faculty! winning all the ah tiongs! Dun pray pray!
Next to him is a korean girl (i don't really know her..haha), and beside her is Lyn! Chio bu!
Beside her is her bf, an indonesian, Jimmy. He's really good at badminton.
Wensen is next. He's a really gd speaker, the taiwanese host kind of speaking. He loves 小S and adores 蔡康永. He actually won first prize in the hosting competition in Fudan last year!
The last person is baisheng.

2007-04-10T10:01:00.000-07:00

Okay i haven't updated for quite some time.
Conquered Huangshan over the wkend!
It was a really fun but super tiring trip!

My leg and calves muscles are aching like mad now.
Khai and I have been walking like 90 year old ladies for the past 2 days.

I am a lazy bum.
Photos will be up soon.
Waiting for the wkend to come.

2007-04-06T00:38:00.000-07:00

My hair!!

My poor hair!!

I snipped off my fringe while i was trimming my brows today!

What a sad day..boohoo!!

2007-04-04T09:54:00.000-07:00

Saw this in class today. Really funny!

Shows how boring lessons are..haha..

Just in case you guys can't see it properly, it says:

天涯何处无芳草，何必单恋一枝花
何必要在复旦找
复旦女生虽不少
可惜质量不担保！

China people are quite witty I must say..haha..

The hongkong gang (Jingli, Amelia, Zhuomin, Victoria) came down to Shanghai today.
So khai and i met up with them at the bund after lessons tonight.

We finally got to go over to the other side of the bund, the Pudong area.
The whole atmosphere at Pudong side is really different from Puxi.
It is not as crowded, alot quieter.
The whole place feels more classy, filled with more high class and expensive pubs and cafes.
The surrounding buildings are newer and more westernised.

In Puxi, the bund area is older with colonial style buildings.
The streets are older, full of tourists and locals who will try to shove namecards into your hands, cameramen asking you to take pictures or locals selling weird stuff.
Basically the crowd is rowdy.

That's probably because Pudong is a newly developed area of Shanghai and there are less locals there as the residences there are not fully developed and most of the things sold at Pudong are really out of the affordable range of most locals.

Anyway, a group photo taken with the CS peeps!

2007-04-03T07:26:00.000-07:00

Exercise day!

Went for badminton after lessons with khai, shiyu, lionel and his 2 roomies, Shine and Oscar (they are taiwanese)!

Its been long since i've worked out so much!

Seriously, i think khai is turning me into a work out freak...hahaha..

I don't even bother running so much and exercising so much in Spore.

Now im cycling almost all the time to school, walking alot, running at night and now badminton for 2hrs!

This is gd.

It means i won't put on weight! though im eating like a pig still...hahaha..

Im alwaes wanting something more after a proper meal..alwaes think its not satisfying enough...oppss!

Intro of the new addition to the Shuiling friend's list

Lionel (left) and Shine

Lionel and Oscar

Lots of readings to catch up.
Project work to complete.
Just in case everybody thinks im really here to play, there's also work to do!

Off to do work!

2007-04-02T10:54:00.000-07:00

Internet down the past few days..so havent got the chance to blog.

Really tired now.

Only going to get 4hrs of sleep! Have morning lessons tmr.

So the entry is going to be brief!

Friday.

Went for another KTV session with the FUSSA people.

Zhengyi can sing really well!!

He totally tok Amos in imitating Fei Yu Ching! haha..

Amos have to work harder!

That's zhengyi, ziwei and ziying in stripes (a korean friend), zifang singing in the background

khai trying to act feminine that day!

After that was pizza at shiyu's place.
Was really gd! ate alot!!

Btw, after the ktv session with the FUSSA people, a few of us are going to take part in the Fudan singing competition! hahha..

just for the fun of it..hope it turns out well!

Sat
Had international curry dinner at shiyu's place!
There's jap curry, indonesian curry, curry vegetable, curry fish head.....
Yum yum!!

Then joyce started to catalogue everybody's pic by horoscope
Presenting the scorpios!

Sunday
Nuaing day.
Spent the whole day in dorm, fed on 3yuan bread the whole day! hahaha..

Today
Cheng Huang Miao.
It was under renovation, so whatever nice views it had was blocked by all the construction.
A pity.
But we went around eating and eating alot!
6 big wantons for 2yuan
煎饼 that comes in salty or sweet flavour that cost only 50cents yuan

Along Cheng huang miao old street. The things sold there are really more ex.
Not surprising cos its a tourist attraction.
But just walk a few streets down, its a cheap food haven!

What are you unhappy with Amos??? haha

And i have to end off saying this, the weather here is SICKENING!!
When im all prepared for spring, pulling out all my shorts, the weather report says that next few days will be back to cold cold temp! AAARRRGGGHHH!!

2007-03-29T10:59:00.000-07:00

Okay i have to say, i am starting to get sick of china food! haha..
I miss home cooked food! I miss mummy's cooking!!

This explains why khai and i excitedly went over to the law peep's place for dinner yesterday cos Shawn offered to cook for us!
Man! He is a gd cook!
Too bad my camera is with zhen, else there will be pics of the tasty and delicious spagetti he whipped up for us!
Should have seen Shawn toss and turn the food in the pan..so pro!
Please cook more Shawn!!! =P

The weather is really good now. The temperature is just right in the morning and turns slightly colder at night, but still bearable.
We can officially wear shorts and slippers and tees!
But i seriously think china people are super duper scared of cold.
Under such hot sunny weather, they are still clad in their winter wear, all wrapped up tight from top to bottom.
And when i started wearing tube and a vest top over, i invited stares. Lots and lots of stares!
Oh well..i'll never do this in Spore..its so AA..but when u're on exchange, u dont seem to care less..ahhaha..its betta then sweating and torturing yourself under thick layers of clothes!

Please let the weather remain good!
I love the weather!

2007-03-27T10:15:00.000-07:00

奢侈的一天!

i've never ever spent so much in my time in Shanghai before!
Everything i've done today, including my meals, the taxi fares are all the most expensive ever.
I vow to be a pauper the next few days!
Stop SPENDING!!!!

My spendings of the day:

200yuan - shopping (1top, 1 bottom)
490yuan - tailor made clothings (1 vest, 2 jeans, 1 corset top)
48yuan - taxi fare (the most i've spent on taxi when usually taxi doesn't cost more than 30yuan)
65yuan - food (if u've been reading my blog, a meal usually only cost 5yuan. But today, khai
and i went to sushi tei to eat! the only branch in Shanghai. Oh my god its super
darn gd when u've been deprived of gd jap food for so long. And its cheap!
Chicken teriyaki and udon only cost $5. The nice sushi roll that cost $16 in spore
only cost $8 here! How can i not eat right???)
48yuan - ziwei's present

Total cost: 851yuan = ~$170!!!!!

AHHHHHHH!!! This is crazy! Absolutely crazy!
Considering i did so many things at this price, its reasonable. But still........i spent a BOMB!
Mummy is going to kill me!
With that money, i can go to huangshan already!

Oh and btw, next wkend i am going to huangshan with the FUSSA pple and that's going to cost arnd 800yuan.

I'm going to eat grass tomorrow.

P.S. Ziwei happy bdae!! hope u enjoyed your bdae celebration today! =)

2007-03-25T10:02:00.000-07:00

YANGZHOU TRIP

Slept at 4 the day before.
Woke up late.
Made the whole bus wait for us. Our bad.
I guess it’s a Sporean thing. We are always late.
But the terrible thing is China people are ALWAYS early!
Made us look so bad!
Even if we are on time, they are still waiting for us.
Even if we are earlier than the allocated time, we are still last. Sigh.
We can never beat them to this time competition!

This entry will be super image heavy.

Pictures say a thousand words! Haha...

Day 1

瘦西湖

The place was kind of crowded when we went over.
It was a budget trip so there was no tour guide to tell us the story of the lake.
We tried to tag along some tour guide, but went separate ways soon after.

So we just went around taking pics with everything we see on the way!
Produced some really good pictures!

We look so sweet and innocent looking! 青春少女！hahahha...

Don't we look like we are posing for some album covers???? hahahaha...zhen says she looks like the 女主角 of the cover. hahah!

My first attempt to use the manual close-up shot. Blurred the back and focused on the front. Not bad right???

At this place, there is this lady who helps people make 面塑 on the spot. It is the use of coloured flour to make out a your miniature figure. I thought it would be a really good souvenir from yangzhou. Who knows, khai and i waited almost an hour just for her to make that figurine. Oh well, but its quite cute! haha..cos its me! =P

The lady at work.
Its a family business.

And this is the me she made! Exactly what i am wearing that day.

绒毛玩具街

We proceeded on to this street that sells so many soft toys at really cheap prices.
But didn't buy any back cos they all look quite cheapo and fake.

But To be fair, there are cute ones. Spot the one in black. haha!!

After that we were on our own. The aim of our dinner hunting trip was to look out for Yangzhou fried rice! What's the point of visiting yangzhou without eating its famous fried rice???

After a long wait and long walk, we finally found it!
See the happy grin on zhen and khai's faces!Poor zhen actually walked such a long distance with her sprained ankle.

Ironically, we ate the fried rice in a shop which speciality is porridge.
So of course we tried their speciality. Porridge!

This sweet porridge actually taste and look like Or Ni. But they added banana and milk. Really special, though it doesnt look that appealing from the picture.

And this is Lionel!
The only guy among us Singaporeans. Really fun-loving guy!

Interesting pics of the day

Terrible terrible english!

Innovative way of advertising!

Day 2

We were the last to report again.
This time its not really our fault.
In fact we were actually early.
The meeting time was scheduled at 830. We were down at 815 and everybody was already on the bus! Sigh.

Anyway, had a really heavy breakfast.
Noodles, Baos, and my fav Xiao long tang bao! Really huge ones!!!

何园

Nice garden.

But not exactly fun. So we started taking lame pics again!

Khai is desperately trying to fix her hair cos i messed it up. haha.
And Lionel is so act cute!

I made Lionel pose in front of my camera reading the carvings, but it looked so wrong! No feeeeling arh!

Zhen trying to look real studious. Succeeded??

We risked our lives, climbed up the rock walls to take the pic! haha

The top view

The bottom view

On a side note, Lionel took a pic of this cute thai guy who's with us on the trip!
i'll share it with you guys..haha..okay cant really see..but make do make do please!

And they snapped me sleeping on the bus!
THANKS!

2007-03-23T11:03:00.000-07:00

Went out with a new mexican friend Adolfo today.

Had really interesting conversations with him.

Learnt a little of spanish.

Had steamboat.

Nice pics taken todae.

Went to Adolfo's place to chit chat.

It's really interesting to find out that actually 2 different groups of people that are half the globe away from each other actually think the same way with regards certain things despite different culture and practices.

Mexicans turned out to be more conservative than i thought! or maybe its just Adolfo..haha..

Too tired to type more.

Yangzhou tmr at 7am.

Stay tuned!

2007-03-22T08:11:00.000-07:00

Another unlucky day at school.

Totally lost and confused in class.
Abandoned.
Cheated.

Though i would say it turned out to be a blessing in disguise.
But still I'M PISSED!!!
Screw those irresponsible idiots who left me and zhen in the lurch!

2007-03-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

What an unlucky day!
Actually unlucky more for khai than for me.
But I was with her the whole day, so unlucky her means unlucky me!

The day started out with khai being cheated by this man outside school.
We were riding to school when khai got stopped by this man outside the school gate.
He said that khai’s bike needs some air pumping on the wheels.
So he dragged khai’s bike into the school to pump air for her.
But later he claimed that the tyre is spoiled and needs to be changed.
So he started dismantling the front tyre.
After he finished with the tyres, he quoted khai at a price of 60RMB!
That’s super daylight robbery!
Okay maybe after you convert it back to sing you may think that it is already quite cheap.
But now that we have been in china for quite some time, 60RMB is a huge sum of money!! 60RMB can feed us for almost a wk!
So khai started bargaining with him of cos and in the end settled at 40RMB (still ex though, but we are already late for school, no time for the hassle).

Took a cab to school.
Climbed up 5 stories of stairs just to find an empty classroom!
Called up the class monitor and he told us that class is cancelled today.
But we are freaking not informed!!!!
Aaarrrggghhh!!!
Wasted trip, wasted money!

Then we spent the whole day running arnd the school vicinity to find teachers to help us sign our course modules.
You see, in fudan, the administration is really super duper troublesome.
For us exchange students to take a course outside our own school, we have to get the department for which the course we are taking, to sign and authorize, then get our own school to approve, then hand up the form to the foreign student’s administration.
So you see, we have to run to 3 places just to fill up 1 form.
And there is no guarantee that the teacher in charge will be around. So we spent the whole afternoon running around from places to places back and forth waiting and waiting just to get everything signed.

Tiring.

But something positive.
The weather is getting better!
No more strong winds.
The sign of spring coming – flowers blooming in school!

2007-03-20T08:28:00.000-07:00

I fell sick!
How terrible.
Felt abit groggy the whole day.

Ice cream on a cold day is really cool!

You guys should try it some day.

Plus the cornetta here is only 60cents sing! hahaah

东台路
The law gang, khai and zhen (finally zhen is bringing us out! She was too busy with her translation work previously to play with us..boohoo!).
东台路 is an antique street with rows of shops on both sides selling replicas of old historical artifacts. They even sell wooden scrolls with detailed pictures teaching sexual positions!

Houses we see along the way before we reach the antique street. It reflects how the poorer people in Shanghai actually lives. It reminds you that in a huge city like Shanghai, there are still people who can't even afford proper living. People still live in houses with dirty and cramp conditions, with dark alleys.

These houses and buildings are really old and according to Amos, they are built in 1822, or is it 1922? Haha..i forgot. Anyway you get my point, they are real old.

The old street.

There was a point of time, I saw this two old ladies sitting outside their house doing something (I was not close enough to see what), and I thought this was a really good inspiration for photo taking. Just when I took out my camera trying to snap a shot of them, the old lady caught me in action and I got scolded! =(
BUT in the end I did capture a human shot. And a pretty nice one too!

Found lots of interesting treasures!

Bought a really nice chess set for daddy. He will love it to bits!
Its in a wooden box with carvings of dragon on top.
The chess board is made of leather and the pieces are in the shape of 兵马俑.

Many stalls are selling CCP related stuff, like these 毛主席 badges, posters etc.

We met a really nice and enthusiastic seller of the 毛主席 badges. This uncle happen to be a collector of the badges himself and he took out so many of his proud collections to show to us and even tells us stories behind the badges. Apparently, there are badges pro and against 毛主席 and the anti 毛主席 badges can be identified by looking at the heads of 毛主席 on the badge. Anti badges have heads turned to the right while pro badges have heads turned to the left!

Me choosing from the huge collection. Bought 2 in the end, one anti one pro. And the friendly shopkeeper is standing next to me.

The 3 law guys are really cute. They are so into these antique stuff and can't resist to trying them out!

Wenshan and his 同志 costume. 同志好！

Shawn and his wei xiao bao specs.

Amos and his er hu! He actually sat there for a really long time to learn playing the er hu from the ah pei there.

And the 3 of them actually made a terrible joke that they will use these things they bought today to haunt huiyi if she doesnt come home everyday by 5pm to cook for them! Poor huiyi! hahaha..

We did some really chinese culture thing too - 品茶. I didn't know huiyi and shawn are so into tea-tasting!

Really fancy these old stuff.
Reminiscence of the past.

Will visit the place again to hunt for treasures.

2007-03-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

This was actually taken a few days ago.
Too bored in class.
Translation. Sounds bad right?
So khai and I whipped out our cams and started taking pics!
The ah tiongs in class must have thought that we are crazy.

First home cooked meal in Shanghai.
Finally there’s a meal with 家的味道.
Presenting chefs Khaiyan and Shuiling!
Tada!

Me hard at work!

Bought lots of groceries and went over to the law peeps’ place to cook cos they have a huge kitchen with all the utensils needed.
Lousy zhen don’t want to lend me hers. Haha..
I really hoped everybody enjoyed the meal!

After the tiring cooking process which took 3 long hours, khai and I stayed over at the place to play mahjong! (okay im the only one playing..khai was studying!!!!)
As usual, I lost. Haha
But its in RMB so its a lot better than playing in Spore!

Woke up in the morning.
Bad rainy day.
Caught a cold.

KTV at 钱柜 (partyworld) straight after at noon with the law people, yucheng and lujing.
Unlike the Partyworld in spore which appeared kind of sleazy to me, the one here is really posh! It looks more like a hotel and the staff really treat their guests like we are VIPS!
Every room has an attached toilet.
Look at how well furnished the rooms are!

The guys singing 笨小孩 and shawn acting like one. Opps! Hahaha

The girls enjoying ourselves.

Yucheng caught on cam singing his only song of the whole session!

Amos and Wenshan sang the hokkien song 爱拼才会赢.
It was super funny.
Amos’ rendition of the song was really gd!
Actually took down a video of it.
But as you guys know, tech idiots like me do not know how to upload it to my blog!
Unless somebody is willing to help me, *hint hint*, else the rest of you won’t have a chance to see it! =P

2007-03-17T03:11:00.000-07:00

Clubbing.

Checked out the local clubbing scene last night with khai, andrew, liwen and the law peeps.
Went to Guandii, a club that's frequent by japs, koreans, abcs, ang mohs.
According to zhen, this club is supposed to be one of the best clubs in Shanghai
Apparently not so.

The music wasnt gd.
Or to say i didn't like the music.
It plays RnB but it was a weird mix of songs.
Occasionally they put in some chi songs, like 我爱台妹, which i thought sound better than the eng songs they put in.
Okay call me cheena. I'm in china anyway!

The guys and girls in the clubs are generally quite good looking!
They all really dress up and doll themselves up.
Not to say spore's crowd don't dress up but its just different.
The crowd here is looks relatively more mature and they are very daring in their dressing.
For example, we saw this china girl wearing really low cut and tight top, her boops are almost spilling out! and she wears a red hot shorts. She has tattoos on her back and tummy area and at the side of her thighs! Its a pity i forgot to bring camera.

But the crowd is really rowdy. Which sux.
At the dance floor, we nearly lost our balance and fell a few times cos people were shoving arnd.
Guys and girls. Both really rough.

Luckily wenshan, shawn and andrew were there protecting us!
Thanks alot dudes! You guys were great! =)
Esp wenshan. He looks so tired but he was still hanging in there at the dance floor for such a long time. Impressive..haha..
And khai has amazing stamina man.
She lasted the whole night at the dance floor!
with her toes squashed in her boots. Poor toes!

After the night, we went over to the law peeps' apartment for supper.
Maggie mee，水饺 and shawn's really nice fried eggs! haha..
Thanks for the hospitality guys!

Oh and i have to say, i feel so cheated staying in the dorm!
The outside apartments are so much bigger AND CHEAPER.
Everybody has their own rooms, a big living room with dvd player and tv, kitchen to cook and refrigerator to store their food.
What do we have in our dorm?
A tv that doesnt work unless we pay monthly subscription to activate it, no refrigerator unless we rent it, a common pantry that looks abit dirty and a smelly refrigerator in the pantry where people may steal your food!
haiz...

2007-03-15T08:43:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to feel the pressure.
Its not just fun and fun and more fun anymore!

Readings are piling up.
Chinese readings mind you.

That's the difficult part.
I came to China thinking that with my chinese standard i can pull through.
I'm only half right.
Yes i can survive in China with my conversation skills and all.
But studying in Chinese is a totally different thing!
Esp when there are so many technical terms in chi.
And the courses im taking, Media Management and Media and Culture, talks all about China's media industry which i know nuts about.
This means that i actually have to read extra to find out more about the industry!

I'm just an exchange student!
饶了我吧！

2007-03-14T10:27:00.000-07:00

Okay I think the lazy bug is getting to me.
Wy is right. I’ll just start blogging lesser and lesser.
At first its everyday, now its 2 days once, soon its going to be once a wk. haha!

Anw ydae after school, 4 vain girls (me, khai, rebec and huiyi), went to do cheap hair treatment!
Thx to Rebec’s 65% discount card, the treatment is really dirt cheap!
I trimmed and had treatment for only 73rmb!
Cutting hair here is really worth it.
Its just like having a food court meal back home, or maybe even cheaper.
A not bad salon cost 15rmb for cut wash and blow.
For guys, those baba shops only cost 8rmb!
I think I’ll be going back for more treatments!
Plus the salon that we went to have *ahem* not bad looking hairdressers..haha.
And that day would be the first time I had real conversations with pure Shanghainese other than my professors.
Don’t laugh, but I actually have difficulty making out their Chinese.
Made myself look quite bad in front of the hairdresser. Its as though I can’t converse in Chinese properly.

Oh the hairdresser snipped off khai’s fringe.
At first she was super upset cos the hairdresser can’t cut fringe for nuts.
But I made her put her fringe to the front and now she looks like a little doll. Haha!

Initially khai and I wanted to go to 城隍庙, but after our hair treatment it was already quite late. So we decided to meet up with the nus gang at 人民广场, since they haven’t been there.
Later, Khai and I split up with the rest cos they were going for some Atas dinner at a jap restaurant and we wanted to save money.
But that’s beside the point cos after dinner we met up with the gang again at 新天地 to chill out and I spent on drinks. Oh well.

The place is really nice.
The other time I only walked past 新天地. But this time round we went into one of the restaurant cum live band cum pub. Really good ambience and all!
Will definitely go back to the place and check out other pubs.

My face is all flushed!

My drink.

And something worth mentioning, Khai and I walked all the way from 人民广场 to 新天地! Without a map! Though we had some help from shuzhen.
Nevertheless we still feel really accomplished! Haha. i sound like a cheap thrill.
And on the way, I saw this…

2007-03-12T10:10:00.000-07:00

The whole of Sunday was filled with activities!

Fake goods mkt in the morning.
It was previously at Xiang Yang Mkt, but shifted over to the Science Technological Museum area as the govt wanted to 取缔假货.
And it seems like the govt failed terribly! Shopoholics and cheap skate people like me are still getting our hands on fakes. Haha.

Anw we met another bunch of new friends! The nus law people – Huiyi, Yucheng, Wenshan, Amos, Shawn, Liwen from Melbourne uni and 2 ntu gip fellow mates!

Above the fake goods mkt is a really nice open area where many people are playing with kites.
It’s a real beautiful sight!
Yucheng Liwen and Amos got really excited in playing with the kite.
But somehow the kite don’t seem to fly high!
Haha..but at the end a really friendly Shanghainese came to the rescue and taught them how to fly the kite and it went up and up and up until there’s no more string!

Them trying to fly the kite.

Some really beautiful and artistic shots we took there!

After that C cube and Min min (the 2 ntu gip students) brought us to eat at this really gd and cheap jap buffet!
It costs us only 15 yuan! And the food is really nice and the place is really cosy.
The group photo above was taken at that small eating place.
Its really cute cos we were the only customers for the whole night.
Its like the place is catered for us cos its so small that 11 of us filled up the whole place!
And the boss is really nice. He’s called 笨仔 (ben)!

See the sign he have in his shop!

We didn’t let the day end there of cos!
Khai and I after delaying our ktv session for so long, cos nobody in FUSSA can go with us, we finally found ktv khakis!
Ktv session was totally crazy!
Crazy company.
Crazy price.
Crazy night!

First the company.
Amos is such a gd imitator!
Hahha..When I first heard him sing, I thought his voice sound so Ah Du.
Then later he sang 邓丽君 songs in his female voice. Gosh! He totally caught the enunciation!
As for the rest, I was so surprised that all of them sing the older songs.
They sang songs that none of my friends would sing.
草蜢，刘德华，动力火车etc. Im impressed! Haha..i love those songs too but nobody else among my friends seem to know them except me. Now I don’t feel so out of place!

The price.
The previous ktv session was already quite cheap.
But this time round, its even crazier!
6 of us went and we each only paid 15yuan!
And what’s more, they gave us free breakfast!

Our breakfast

Having a great time!

Sang till 6am again.

So accomplished!

Pic taken outside the ktv at daybreak.

Khai and I cycled back to the dorm.
Cool fresh air.
Maybe I should start waking up early. Haha.

2007-03-10T09:56:00.000-08:00

Its my first sat in Shanghai.
Khai and I initially planned to keep our Sats as our mugging day.
BUT as usual, the planning didn’t work out.

We watched shows last night till bout 5am and woke up really late today.
Anw let me side track. The intranet here have a hell lot of shows!
Prison break season 1 and 2, Heroes, Friends, Desperate Housewives, 流星花园 (jap version), many many Korean shows…..
A TV junkie like me definitely went crazy. I’ve been watching every night!
Plus, dvds here are like how cheap!
It costs 6RMB for one disk, which is $1.50 sing!
I’ll never ever run out of shows to watch.
Oh and anyone of you want to buy any dvds and is willing to wait 5mths to get it, I can help u buy 1st!

So we woke up late and Rebecca jioed us to eat lunch at this really cheap place at 步行街.
Its really super duper cheap.
It’s the cheapest meal I’ve ever had here. And it tastes gd!

My 90 cents meal. Noodles and Wanton!

After lunch, of course we didn’t head back to the dorm. We went to this mega mall near school and we ended up spending our whole day there!
The mall is really huge. It has 5 buildings and there’s 1 whole building allocated for food!

We had Macs for dinner.
Macs here is quite different from Spore.
After looking at Macs in Tw, where they have such a huge variety of desserts, and now Macs in china, where they are considerate enough to offer small value meals for girls like me khai and rebec who don’t want to put on weight, I really think spore’s Macs ought to improve themselves!

My really small chicken wrap.

Oh and they have really tasty Banana pie too!

Rebec ordered a happy meal. The packaging is really cute and all. And Rebec looks really cute posing with the meal. haha.

A familiar sight in the mall.

Its 130am now.
I haven’t touched my books.
So much of procrastinating!
Sigh.

2007-03-08T05:55:00.000-08:00

Just when i thought that today is going to end as a boring day, ridiculous things happened at night.

Shuzhen says, "Shui, you are so embarressing!"

I bet those of you at home can't wait to agree with her on this right?? haha.

I had a night class with Shuzhen.

And this class is full of cute mexicans! haha..like finally after attending classes full of china people, i see varieties! and the class is really exciting cos there's people of different culture and they end up in debates for many topics. Plus its so interesting to see how people of the different cultures react differently!

Anw back to what happened.

while we were cycling back to the dorm, i knocked into the pathment while at a turn!

Cant stop laughing at myself too cos its so ridiculous.

Its not like the road is narrow or anything, but somehow i lost control of the bike and it knocked.

Okay i have to admit i often lose control of my bike cos i had a heavy bag in the basket in front.

And in the afternoon, i nearly knocked into a bicycle that's coming in the opposite direction. Nearly got scolded! haha..

i think i'm easily the worst rider in china. Everybody here rides so fast! And they all can ride with 1 hand.

And that's not all.

After just a few steps away from the "accident scene", my jeans got stuck in the bike chains!

Luckily its at night where there's nobody.

If its in the morning when everybody goes to school, i won't know where to hide my face!

I really have no fate with bicycles! if you know about my previous bike accidents u'll know what i mean.

But still, it was a good laugh.

Today rebecca khai and i went to eat at the school canteen.

Tell me it doesn't remind you of prison food. haha.

2007-03-07T04:53:00.000-08:00

Today I had a full day of lessons. So tiring!

And the last lesson here ends at 810. To think i kept complaining when CS lessons end at 6. haha.

But my last lesson, forensic sci is the most interesting lesson man!

The teacher is also a really funny lady. But she doesnt try hard to be funny.

She's the kind that says her jokes in a straight face.

Anw let me enrich u guys with what i learnt today in forensic.

The teacher was explaining to us how to differentiate if the person hanged himself or he was killed before hanged.

Apparently, when a person hang himself, the blood will stop flowing. And because of gravity, the blood will accumulate at the tips of your limbs. So blue black will appear at the tips of the limbs for people who hang themselves.

However, if the person is killed 1st, the blue black will appear at different parts of the body depending on how the person is killed. For example, if the person is lying down, the blue black will appear on the back.

Then the teacher showed us this picture of this man who used a really unique and extreme method to commit suicide.

Anybody who knows how to swim will naturally swim when they are about to drown. And anybody who hang themselves will naturally want to pull the string away from the throat when they have lack of oxygen. Its all human reaction!

But this man who was so determined to die, twist and tightened a rope that was attached to a wooden plank, around his neck. To prevent the rope from loosening after he let go, he let the plank rest on a table so that the plank will not flip back the opposite direction. Crazy fella!

Oh and we also learnt that when a living person drown, foam will form at the nose and mouth for about 2-3 days. After which, the foam will disappear. But if the person is dead when thrown into water, there will not be any foam.

Okay there's still many interesting facts but i cant remember all and i'm too lazy to type everything down. BUt if there's a chance please take up forensic sci! haha.

Today i had another wonderful lunch with my fellow Singaporean friends.

We went to a Chinese restaurant at 步行街, ordered like 6 dishes.

And i thought they all tasted quite well. Most importantly, its only $3 sing! hahah..

i'm not complaining!

Me and my FUSSA friends at the chinese restaurant!

Oh, i forgot to mention, yesterday i went to this place called 新天地.

Its a really nice up scale place with all the posh restaurants and bars lining the streets.

The whole atmosphere there is really good.

Its abit like clarke quay, but i think the 情调 is better.

Good chill out place. Plus its not taxing on the wallet.

I had a meal that with only a slightly higher price than usual - $8 sing.

Another new addition of things i learn about China's culture today - why China people (okay maybe just Fudan local students) don't like to bath during cold weather.

According to my dearest Shuzhen, they don't really have a choice.

Because they don't get to enjoy the facilities that foreign students enjoy in their dorm!

All their dorms have no attached toilets to their room so they have to use common toilets.

And their common toilets are not like those we have in NTU where at least every levels have toilets. A few buildings act need to share a single toilet.

Everybody have to queue outside the toilet to bath. Plus they have to pay to bath! The water is timed as to how long they can use it!

Worse if its in this super duper cold weather where i freeze once i step out of my bedroom toilet. Imagine them out in the open! i really do pity them man..

Also, Shuzhen says that the oldest dorm in the school don't even have a heater in their room!

How to sleep like that??!!

2007-03-06T08:05:00.000-08:00

After fixing my blog and updating my backdated entries every single night, there’s finally time to finish watching my prison break 2!

Oh yes, thanks to weiyang, my blog is finally up! Haha..thank you!!

Today’s weather is just as cold.
There is this stretch of road in front of the dorm that we have to walk past every day, it is the most torturous stretch of road I’ve ever walked.
The wind there is strong. No, its ridiculously strong.
Even I can be blown away! That’s how strong the wind is. Haha.
If jj is here, she’ll prolly be blown back home.

It’s the first day of school for me and so have a look at my school!
It may not be fantastic as compared to US schs but I think fudan does have some 古色古香的味道.

This is part of journ school. The older part of the school where all the lessons are normally held.

This is inside the main school compound. DOesn’t it have the winter sonata feeling?? Haha..All around China are these willow trees which I really love. So beautiful!

The school main gate has a 毛主席 statue, a strategic lookout for newbies like us to get to the school gate.
The statue is really huge man. At least 3 stories tall.

I only had 1 lesson today so after school Rebecca Khai Shuzhen and I went shopping at 七浦路.
This is a wholesale market place so things are supposedly the cheapest. Still bargain is necessary.
Before everybody start thinking that I’m a shopoholic, I’m not! (haha..okay to a certain extent).
But today’s shopping trip was important! It is to clothe 2 poor girls in the right clothes under the cold weather!
It was quite a fruitful trip! Got myself 1 boots,1 heels and 3 apparels for under $100.
And khai says my bargaining skills improve a lot! Haha..im so proud of myself!

Oh one thing that I have to say again about the traffic of Shanghai, its really super duper scary!
Today, my feet were nearly ran over by a Tutut lookalike vehicle while I was crossing the road when the green man lighted!
Then at night when we were in a taxi while returning to the dorm, we were caught in a surprise by loud honks of cars and taxis behind. Apparently, they were honking at the taxi that we were in, forcing the driver to drive out even though it was red light! So 无法无天！A single car sounding the honk is already bad enough. Imagine many cars honking together! Deafening! Moreover what they are doing is so unethical!

Zhen say I don’t really know much about Shanghai yet. And I think its so true. There still a lot of things awaiting me! Let it all be good.

2007-03-05T09:17:00.000-08:00

Cold weather.
Strong wind.
Terrible!

Hands and fingers numb.
Lips crack.
Speech retarded.

On a lighter note, Khai and I discovered that on a cold day, people will start laughing uncontrollably! (maybe its only the 2 of us)
While we were walking back from our school to dorm, we just started laughing without any reasons. And its hysterical laughter.
My theory: laughing generates more heat that keeps your body warm. So a body not clad in proper clothings need more heat and so laughter is generated.

How wonderful! haha.

khai looking so pitiful! Poor gal! Lousy weather!

Khai and I braved the weather and went to this street called 步行街 near sch to get cheap scarves

Its only then that I realize how big Fudan is.
The sch stretches across 2 streets and it occupies both sides of the streets!
步行街 is smacked right in the middle of the sch where every shop on that street is somehow named after the sch.

We also went to this electronic building near sch that’s very similar to Sim Lim.
I got myself a really good webcam from there for only $15 sing!
Its really cheap compared to those good ones you can get in Spore but my friends still said I got it at a high price cos I didn’t even bargain! =(
Anw those of you who have webbies can come talk to me!! Hee..

For dinner tonight its eating in again. Too cold to even want to step out.
Zhen and Rebecca came over to our room.
And we have another guest too! Our indo neighbour..haha
Today’s dinner is Chinese food.
$2.50 sing for a really huge proportion. Super worth the money!

I just realized, for the past entries all I can raved about is FOOD.
Give me more friends and more fun!!

2007-03-05T02:25:00.000-08:00

Today is a freaking COLD day!!!
Chilly strong wind blowing all day! I nearly died.

Currently, I encountered 2 huge challenges in Shanghai.
The first one is to jay walk.
I am not a very good jay walker in the 1st place. And jay walking in Shanghai is scary!
The cars just zoom past you even when its red light for them.
Over here, its 车让人, not 人让车！
And the cars here like to honk like crazy. To think I complain about impatient drivers back in Spore. Here its much worse!

The second challenge here is to survive the cold.

Today was supposed to be registration day and I had to cycle to sch.
And 老天作弄人, it had to rain.
And as new students from Singapore where pple never really cycle to sch, I have no idea how to cycle with one hand and hold the umbrella on the other.
So I end up cycling in the rain.

Rain + Wind + little layers of clothings = DEATH

I am seriously not prepared for this weather.
I thought the cold season will end soon and I brought mostly summer clothes!
Now I have to replenish my winter clothes.
Its not an excuse to shop, cos I am really dying of cold!
Tmr is going to be worse.
Its going to be 0 degree Celsius! Just kill me!

Its so cold outside khai and I decided to stay indoors for a while
Went to shuzhen’s room to have lunch.
We ordered 外卖!

Anw zhen is a pig. All she wants to do is stay in her room and sleep!

Hahha..okay before she actually kills me when she reads this, I’ll clarify.
She’s sick so she got to rest.

Lights watching with Rebecca at 南京东路

See its so windy khai’s hair is messy! Haha.

The street is filled with beautiful neon lights.
And many people are putting fireworks cos it’s the seventh day of new year!

I have to say, Ajisen Ramen here is really good and way cheaper!
There are more variety too!
And the proportion is so big!
I ate a bowl of 猪软骨拉面 for $5 sing compared to at least $10 back home.
And its definitely more tasty cos I don’t even like Ajisen in Spore!
Too bad pics taking is not allowed in the store.

After that we went to a night market nearby.
Mummy will be disgusted by the sight.
And I became a litter bug the 1st time in my life!
But as what Rebecca has told us, people don’t feel bad about throwing things on the floor here. And we shldn’t too.
Now throwing rubbish is also an art to master.

Look at the pile!
I wonder when they start clearing
There are more exaggerating piles elsewhere.

Another lousy English thing we saw while walking around.

Does that mean we buy one and get two free?
Dream on. Haha.

2007-03-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

This is the 3rd day in china and im still going to rave about their cheap food!
Its amazing how cheap their food can be man.

Today khai baisheng and I went to the food street near 人民广场 to hunt for gd food.
We ate half a plate of chicken for only $4 sing!
And its super tasty esp with the sauce.

And then we ate my fav xiao long bao.
Guess how much….
Only 80cents for 10!!! Madness!

Besides their food, books are also at a crazy price.
My fav 几米 are only sold for $5 sing! And other bks are also sold at arnd the same price.
Man of cos im going to bring some home!
Later we met up with other fellow Singaporeans for dinner.
Btw the Singaporeans here formed a “clan” called FUSSA
It stands for Fudan University Singapore Students’ Association.
Way better than MIF – Msians in Singapore. Hahah..im so mean!

Anw, this are my new friends! Joyce, Rebecca and Zhenyuan

We went to this really nice ambience café nearby sch to eat.
Really cheap price again.
My vanilla pudding only cost $2 sing! Tell me how can I not get fat here..

After dinner, khai zhenyuan and me went for ktv at midnight.
And we last from 12am all the way till 6am! We are so 强!

Oh the ktv here is fantastic man! 100 times better than kbox.
The rooms are really well furnished, seats are comfy, sound system is superb and the machine to 点歌 is so amazing!
You can act play with sound effects like clapping, cheering and stuff after very song.
And you can record a cd for only 18yuan!

This is one cool machine man. Why don’t they have it in Spore???!!

Although the ktv is not as cheap as I thought it would be, compared to Spore, its still cheap.
We ordered food like spring roll and wanton soup it only cost each of us $10 sing.

Oh and my singing khakis can sing really well too!
Hahha..weiyang you are not the only one I can sing 珊瑚海 with anymore!
Cos zhenyang can too! Hahhaah.

The process of a 6 hour ktv session through the night.

12am
Using all energy available

3am
Starting to get hungry

4am
Starting to go crazy

6am
DIED

To sidetrack, ydae we witness a fight at the bund, today we met china ah bengs and ah lians at the ktv place.
Shanghai I have to say is an interesting place.
Its actually quite scary to go to this ktv place at night.
The shopping centre is having renovation so the place is really dark and gloomy.
We have to make quite a long detour to get to the entrance of the place.
Then when we were at the entrance, we met a group of 阿飞.
They are really scary.
1st they talk really loudly
2nd they were all smoking away
3rd they look like they will beat you up anytime.
Imagine how scared khai and I were when the only guy (zhenyuan) around to protect us is shorter than khai.
We just wanted to find a hole to hide when we had to take the same lift as them!

Anw ktv was really fun.
We have to go again with more people for sure!

On some reflections, instead of saying that china things are cheap all the time and comparing it to spore price constantly, I think I have to start looking at the prices here as compared to china’s standard.
Or else like what zhenyuan say, I will tend to OVERSPEND!
I better watch it.

2007-03-04T07:51:00.000-08:00

Slept till 2pm in the afternoon with no interruptions from my beauty slp.

Oh and btw I found out more similarities btw khai and me!
Hahah..we both prefer wang dong chen in Fahrenheit
And we both love Energy!
Lame. Haha!

Day 2:

Shopping at the town area with khai and baisheng

The town area is filled with buildings that have the European flavour.
Really nice.
Love how the old constructed buildings contrast with the new high-rise buildings.

The taxi driver stopped us at Raffles City along the road.
For those who don’t know, RC is opened by Singaporeans and is a Capital Land development.
It sits opposite人民广场.
Its really huge and have many familiar stores like BreadTalk, Haagen Daz, Mango etc.

So far..Raffles City seems to be the only shopping mall i've seen in Shanghai..

Shopping at 人民广场

The place is really huge!
内有乾坤
Sells tons of accessories and as usual the trick is to bargain.
And as jingli and khai says treat the items as dispensable!
But I can never do that. So I get cheated and ripped off.
When I first went in and saw many accessories stores I got crazy and bought a lot, at cheap but not exactly super cheap prices.
Who knows as I walk further into the mall, which seems never ending, there are MORE accessories!
And I definitely can get the accessories at cheaper prices. DUI!
Bargaining is an art man.
And I’m learning. Haha.
Khai is super zai at bargaining. She does it the cool way.
Walk off.
And all most all the time, shopkeepers ask her back and gave her the price she offered to buy.
The jaw dropping bargain was when the shops are closing and khai managed to get a jeans jacket for 150 when the starting price is abt 400!
And so I got inspired.
Bargained for a old granny sunglasses from 78 to 25!
Spent my last cent on it..haha..
Quite an achievement!

Btw see the necklace im wearing??
Got it in HK for $4 sing! Hahahaahah

Oh and even the KFC in Shanghai is also super cheap!
A huge bucket for 3 plus 2 ice cream cone plus a corn plus a bottle of pepsi only cost $10+ sing!
And the chicken taste much nicer than those in Spore.

Bund at night

The place is really beautiful.
But what’s interesting is we witness a fight at the place.
A real fight with fist and wrestle!
Quite scary. Didn’t know what to do.
I hate to see fights cos I have an urge to stop those people but yet I can’t do anything but to stay aside to watch.
And khai actually found it interesting to watch and stares at the people fighting. Hahah..

Pics we took on the way while looking for the cheap accessories place

I like the old Shanghai flavour.
Very 有情调.

Khai totally blends into the queue!

The old Shanghai train.

Jj! The accessories I bought. =)

This is just a tiny collection. Haha.

2007-03-04T06:53:00.000-08:00

In Shanghai

While khai and I are queuing up to board the plane, a man in front of us was talking to his wife on the phone.

Man: “老婆，飞机延误了。你在家等我吧。不用来机场接我了，我怕你累…”

Tell me why should I not be impressed by him.
Caring husbands are rare nowadays.

Then on the plane to Shanghai, Khai befriended a china man who substantiated what we observed.
He was filling us with info of the Shanghai pple.
He told us tt Shanghai women are very domineering and they look down on local men.
They prefer to be married off overseas.
Shanghai men on the other hand, are the best husbands a woman can ever find.
They take care of the family well, do household chores, bring back all the money to give to the wife!
Interesting.

After we alighted the plane, we experienced what is called real KIASU.
Sometimes I wonder why this word is used on Singaporeans when China pple win us hands down on this.
First when we are alighting from the air bus that brings us to the airport terminal, china pple just shove and push their way through to get down the bus.
I was being squashed in the middle, carrying over 10kg of luggages trying to get down the bus and this lady with NO LUGGAGE just pushed me aside!
Courtesy lady!
Then while collecting our check in luggage, people just swarm to the front of the belt as if there’s some free gift awaiting them, while khai and I are left stranded at the back though we came 1st.

See khai’s disgusted expression

Reached Fudan hostel really late.
Settled in the really cold room on hard beds and dirty floors.

Day 1:

Tidied the room abit.
Paste up pics so that I can see all my dear friends and family everyday. It means im missing u guys! Hahaha..

Groceries shopping at 大润东

Really bought a lot of stuff!
I think khai and I were too ambitious. We bought so many things that we can’t even carry all back to the hostel.
But thanks to Baisheng, our new ntu friend who is also a exchange student in Fudan, we managed to lug everything back into our room.

We filled up 2 big trolleys of things!
Imagine spending 3 hours plus in the supermarket.

And I finally know why my jiu mu say shanghai’s living expenses is lower.
The food is really unbelievably cheap! This 水饺 cost 50cents sing for 6!

After groceries shopping, we went for dinner with our new friend Baisheng

We went to eat at a Korean restaurant near sch.
I only spent $6 sing on a 石锅饭 and a huge serving of 辣炒年糕.
I think im just going to grow fat here with all the cheap gd food. Help!

Something interesting.
This is the first time I see such a vending machine.
What are they actually promoting man! Hahah..

Spring cleaning!
And this is how it looks now. All cosy and neat. =)

All the munchies and cup noodles that we stock up!
Greedy gals will never go hungry..haha
And we’ve got ourselves a laundry basket too.

My most proud clean up of the day – my cupboard!
Spent a long time packing it up.
Up to standard right mummy?
Opps sorry for exposing my undergarments! Hahah..

Clean up till 2am in the morning.
TIRED.

2007-03-03T08:03:00.000-08:00

Firstly i have to say..CHINA SUX!
Blogging in china is really a pain in the ass! arrrgghhh!!!
Anw complaining aside, i shall start updating on my very backdated entries.

2 DAYS IN SHENZHEN

Staying in my relative’s place (read khai’s blog for a full description of the place)
Finally get to see my Shenzhen relative. My jiu jiu and jiu mu and my cute cousin!

My jiu jiu and jiu mu are really nice people.
Even though I don’t see them often and we are not really close, I received a HUGE angbao from them.
And on the very 1st day of arrival, they brought us to eat a really posh meal.
Btw, its not bcos of all the material stuff like a nice house to stay in, good meals which made me conclude that they are nice okay. I am not so superficial..haha..
Maybe its due to my mum’s influence, I do not have a really good impression of china people, sorry to say that.
But my jiu mu turned out to be really different!
She’s really nice and caring.
She offered to help carry my huge and heavy hand carry bag even when she’s already carrying my gramp’s luggages!
She patiently intro us to Shenzhen and answer all questions I have, bring us arnd town and all.
Oh and she told me something which was really surprising – Shenzhen living expenses are much higher than Shanghai!
I’ll know when I get to Shanghai.

This is a pic taken inside the really long and posh Peugeot car!

This was taken on our way to Shenzhen, at the train station.
Seldom see my grandfather smiling so happily! Love the pic =)

Day 1:

Exploring my relative’s place
The living room (this is only half of the apartment)

The bar counter and kitchen

Khai resting comfortably on the couch. She absolutely adores the place! Haahaha

My comfy bedroom with a super nice view!

The bedroom my gramps stay in has a treadmill inside. And tts where I had my first run in china. Else its too cold to run! Haha.

Day 2:

Had a really nice xiao long bao breakfast! My Fav!

Shopping at 老街
They have really cheap stuff here! But the trick is to BARGAIN.
The selling price of a jacket is just $7 sing!
Again, if not for the overloading of luggage to shanghai I would have shopped like crazy!

Eating at 小肥羊

This is the first time I actually dared to eat mutton.
Its really tasty! And there isn’t any raw smell to the meat.
Eat until I nearly died!

The tasty mutton!
Was too busy eating to take pics of the spread that we ordered.

After a satisfied meal and shopping, off to Shanghai!