Am i really back home?

I have been backed for 3 months, but why do i feel like i have come back to a different place?

It's the same living room, same sofa, same kitchen, same tables and chairs.... but something feels different.

Maybe i'm just tired

Friends in China

It was only during Dec and Jan did us girls made tonnes of friends and got closer to the friends we had already made...i have yet to write anything about them.. nor the events that we had..

Our friends.... the 2 korean friends, Malaysian friend Zoey, Classmate Jun Hua, Hair Stylist Liuyi, Yangyang (guy), Yangyang (girl), Big brother Zhengkai, Shop Owner Shao Ping, Evil Aura Jie Jie, Mongolian Ailiyah, Photogenic Li Fang and her boyfriend, another hair stylist Cheng Long. Did i miss out anyone?

Oh ya... Liying's shanghai cousin Yan Ning and my singaporean cousin Mei Ting... Anyone else?? hmm.. i'm not too sure.. but those are the bulk of our friends.. heehee ^^ and the important thing is we're all still in contact.... we are not hi-bye friends... i think they are the only people that i have been using my webcam with...

Miss them? Definately! I'll do a introduction for all of them once i have time in office.. oh ya.. did i mention that i have started working?? I'm in MOE as a tempt staff.. heehee..today is day 4 of work and also the day that marks the 1st month i have been back.

Liying, Yeahhooi and I will be going for dinner and to watch brideswar after i end work.. I can't wait.. I conicidentally met up with yeahhooi yesterday on the mrt and i invited her home for dinner... it is really nice that we are actually so close to one another and each others' family...

I know polytechnic is still having Exams... so good luck !!

February 2009

It's been so long since the last post....

There has been lots of Ups and Downs for me during this one month plus. Things that happened in china, things that happened after i came back.. (Just checking, do you even know that i'm back?)

There are still many things left undone.

It still feels like i'm living in a dream.

Surviving China - Video

Liying and I prepared this for the publicity meeting, and i have edited it for my aunt. This is the edited one...I'll do the other posts when i'm not teaching english to my china friends or when i'm not doing posts for my QQ空间 (China's MSN).

I think that we are facing the same problem when we are back, we cant seem to find people who are interested to know how we lived our lifes there. It is hard for them to relate what we have done there, and we are becoming more reserve each time someone asks us how was the trip...

I cant be bothered about how the guys felt about the trip, because the 3 of us had a great time there. I think we must thank them for their childish acts, because without it, the 3 of us might not have made so many friends. I know that each of us have changed during this 4 months, and this change is not isloated to just the 5 of us. Everyone back home is also changing. But I have met friends who are still standing in the same spot as when i left. Should i feel sorry for them? It is true that when someone travels, their mindset becomes broader,and they will look at things from a different angle... what we think and how we look at things become different from what we felt 5months ago.

I am still adapting to the life here....

Shining Friends

Dedicated to LI YING AND YEAH HOOI

Countdown 30days

30more days before taking the plane, back to a place where i belong, a place called home.

But then again, i have found another place called home. It is in China, Jiang Su province, Suzhou city, at the cross road junction of 现代大道 and 新港街.

I will miss waking up to seeing Liying beside me. I will miss running in campus with Yeah Hooi. I will miss the times when we walk hand in hand along the streets, laughing, singing while we walked. I will miss the times when we are under the spot light (焦点) on buses, in restaurants... what can i say, we love attentions.

30 days left...

And they say that this 4months long programm is very long...

Can't it be slightly longer? Just a tiny tinnie longer?

Looking for DHL

I went out to look for DHL alone. I was suppose to send things back to my cousin. I found a DHL customer service centre just 2 streets away, it is still walking distant, but i was feeling lazy that day and didn't want to look for the centre.

When i went downstairs, i saw a DHL van parked at the condomium's foyer. I was tempted to ask them to give me a ride but I took a cab instead. The centre is located at 新海街 225号. Apparently, the taxi driver do not know where the centre is. So i asked him to drop me at a place i am familiar with and began walking in another direction. I have to admit that i was actually walking aimlessly...

I noticed a familiar yellow van parked in front of a buliding. And you know what i did?

I actually went up to the van and tapped on the window. The man reared down the window and i asked where DHL's customer service centre is. Do you know why i have every confidence that this man know where DHL is? The reason is simple, it's because i have tapped on the window of a DHL van....

And true enough, he directed me to the centre. But when i got to the centre, the only useful information i got was to dial 400-810-8000 instead os 800-810-8000...

But i had "fun" trying to look for the centre...

楊丞琳 - 帶我走

I have written the FINAL chapter.

And I have closed the book...

A beautiful night.

40days,

and it is

the START of all ENDINGS...

Learning Chinese Culture

Sunday morning and i am feeling lazy... a few more reports to do =X

Today is the 30th November. Another month and 10 days till i am back home in Singapore. Why does it have to be so soon? Why does it begin to end, when we have only started to learn and understand?

The first 3 months. But i can't really say i have truly experienced the culture of China, until i came to know and make friends with the local Chinese...and it is only recently that we began to have a stronger friendship with the friends we came to know. Although not all are local Chinese, but getting to meet Korean friends and Malaysian friends are quite fun too.

I know i have yet to introduce Zoey(the Malaysian friend) and the 2 yang yang(s) that Yeah Hooi met in her church. I even left out the fact that we went to wuxi on Monday =X haha.. my bad..

I think that it is only from them that we can really know Chinese culture. And i am confident to say that i am learning things from they, even from Liu Yi. Being brought up with different family background and environment, each of them taught us something different, but then again, there are some similarity between them...

I know we are going to learn more... and i hope that they can learn more about us ^^

小红外套与火车

有一天，小红外套买了从无锡前往苏州的火车票。这是小红外套第一次搭火车。一开始，小红外套傻傻地跟着别人排队。排了很久，也没有听到火车的声音。 小红外套，等到不耐烦，就踏过百线。饰演了女主角在Just My Luck叫车的时候，喊了，"TAXI!!" 转眼间，火车就来了。。（不知道为什么，火车是从另一个方向开来的。。）

小红外套就很开心地踏入火车内。

第一次乘坐的旅程便开始了。。。

Going out with 刘毅

I told you that i made a friend in the salon. And he was nice enough to bring us to China Post to make payment for our electricity bill since not all China Post branch have that service...

We found a new street to play in!! The whole street sells, fishes and plants!! My element !! Heehee, i would definately go back to buy some seeds and maybe some pots. Perhaps, we can get a christmas tree ^^

I think we scared him, by "dragging" him to take neoprint with us.

He taught me something that day, "No thank you!" 不谢！

We were walking along the fish and plant street when, Li Ying noticed a plant bearing some fruits. They began to touch the fruit with the utmost curiosity. The uncle tending the shop began to reprimand them, “麻烦你们不要乱动，谢谢！”（Do not touch the fruits, thank you.）And you know what was Liu Yi's first reaction? He replied to the man "no thank you", which literally means ,"不谢". 不谢 actually means "your welcome", but under the translation of him and his friends, it suddenly became "no thank you".

He explained that China students learn English word by word. And their teacher never taught them how to reply when you receive thanks from others. So they themselves came up with the term, "no thank you!". Interesting...

Video Call

The flexibility and applications available on the Internet is really something that removes distance between people.

I managed to have a video call with my group mates back in Singapore !! Heehee. Just look at Xuan Ming's shirt, a classic example of what it is like back in Singapore. I ave no idea why he is inside the photo. (I wanted to take photo with Mrs Tan ! Xuan Ming, Extra...)

The class seems like they are doing fine. Some new gossips and happenings..and i am not there to join in the fun =(

Enjoyed talking to you guys ! ^^

I love Salons !!

I guess it's the Monday's blue for everyone. 3 of us went out to have our breakfast at a Happy Place call, Macdonald, to have Happy Food.

I introduced to them a bookshop at one tiny street, and we bought a few more books. We're sort of like book addictics. We can stay in a bookshop for more than an hour, doing nothing but flipping pages. Someone have to stop us from buying any more books!!

For some reason or another, we decided to have a hair cut at this salon called, Jane Eyre. "I am now sitting in a hair dressing salon, waiting for Liying and Yeah Hooi to get their hair done. I met someone this afternoon (sounds…erm… ya….), the assistant hair dresser.

He greeted us at the entrance, leading us upstairs to the salon. Each of us got served by a different assistant and the one serving me was him. It was pretty, how do I put this, nerve wrecking to be served by a not-bad looking guy. Being us, we started conversations with the assistants serving us. Awkward, awkward and more… I told him that we are not locals and were students studying in the local university.

He was quite surprise by that, he told me that he did not notice that we are foreigners. We talked. I found out that he is not from Suzhou, but from some other city in Xu Zhou. He came to Suzhou 6 years ago..."

Let me carry on my story... because i allowed the hair dressers to play Crazy Taxi using my laptop thereafter....

After having a sort of in depth conversation with him he told me that my chinese isn't really there yet. *Heart Breaks* And he encouraged me to use the term "普通话" and "中国话" instead of 华文/华语, because locals isn't familiar with the term.

He washed my hair for me! *Blissful feeling* =P heehee.
But then again, he helped 2 other girls wash theirs that night. *Jealous* =(
But he helped me clean my ears! *Melt* hahaha... Victory ! (i'm kidding)

He told me that he intends to tell his boss that he is quiting his job at the end of the month (is it for me?... I'm sorry, but my brain isn't working. It is what people would call "Xiao Lu Luan Zhuan")

If you want to know, this is the hair desser assistant... His name is 刘毅 (liu yi)。You know that i always use "口是心非 (kou shi xin fei) to introduce myself. And he tried using "留意" (liu yi, the meaning is to take note of something) to help me remember his name. And yes, i got his contact number !! *big smile*
This is wang lei...the manger of the salon.



Make me feel like the time during SP Superstar the Musical...
Wang Lei playing Crazy Tazi with my laptop..

I can't find my fringe...!!!



The final looks...
Yeah Hooi and her Hair dresser.
Our hair dresser...


heehee... A Very "Fruitful" Day.

I LOVE MONDAYS ! ! !

Tough Cookie

My Tough Cookie-ness was being eaten up by the Cookie Monster Inside of Me.

BBQ at 太湖

We went to a BBQ at TaiHu, with s friend that we met in during the WuYiShan Trip. He invited us to join him and people from his company =)










The guy behind totally looks like the tou guide from wuyishan trip !! Me and the 2 girls felt that they look alike for a very long time, before i broke the slience and said that he look like the tour guide...!!








Water-powered Generated.

Xinfei acting dumb at the back.. =)

Andy say i look so cartoon.