STEFFI in Beijing!!!

Stef is in Beijing since saturday!!! Finally able to meet her though we're here in the same country! HK abd Beijing! Too bad JJ weren't here la! Hahah!

We went to 大董！The reputable Peking Duck place! We couldn't make reservations at first. But we agreed to leave at 7pm! Finally let us in. YAY! The servers are quite blur but the food given are quite nice! For 198RMB, these are wat we get:


plus some porridge and watermelon la! NOT BAD la!

Brought her ard SANLITUN and had 一品小笼. Being unable to go shanghai, eat shanghai 小笼包oso shiok! We went to the TREE! And we realise tat there's live band on tuesday lo! They are from Brazil! Zai rite? Lucky stef！ Hahah!

These are how they looked:



Stef's going back to Singapore! Hope she hav fun! And the rest are having PA! Hav fun with them yea？ Wakaka!!!

Labour Day Trip!

After playing mahjong during the Labour Day itself, YM,YC,WY and howard went cycling ard JingShan Gongyuan, HouHai and Tiananmen! while they went cycling, i juz meet them at the various meeting points while i walked the ret of the day myself! Haha! Lotsa MEEE time today!

We went up JingShan gongyuan to look at the scenery of GuGong! Furthermore, the grass patches are becoming greener and greener! It was cool lying on them! Haha! We also took quite a few pics there! Many activities occurred within the park! For example, line dance, singing sessions etc. Not a bad place for cheapo admission!

We also tried the Beijing pastries for our lunch as everywhere were crowded! Haha! Comments were mixedbut generally, still edible! =)

Nxt on our trip is HouHai which we went before alr! However, this time round, we went during the daytiime. I realised HouHai is super BIGGGG!!! Walking ard it took me almost abt 4 hours leh! Haha! the rest of the went to tiananmen instead! They had a wonderful experience there! Haha!

However, they wwere sooo late when they met me back at the bicycle renting area! they were abt half an hour late lo! Haha!
Back at Dongsi, we looked for the cheap bbq oysters that the GIP ppl recommended tat time! Haha! We found it eventually! Wakaka!
Happy ending for us!

We went to meet Cai who came from GIP Shanghai. He's also from the same unit as howard and I! Went to sanlitun to chill for the nite! I realised that ppl are very funny! The caucasians there tried to speak chinese while the chinese tried to speak english to the caucasians! SOO contradicting rite? Trying to show off that they noe some foreign language? Wakaka! Dunno wat are they thinking abt!
Being lazy to upload pics here, do check out the pics on fb yea? Haha!!

Most of the GIP went to SHIDU, outside beijing! Hope tat they are having fun there!

Hip Wangjing!!!

Thursday (30/4/09)
It's the last day of the month alr! I'm tired of having Chinese food all these while! Hence, I decided to go for a different cuisine! I discovered a hip place in wangjing. It's CapitalLand. Hence, it's like Singapore mall, having haagen daas, fast food restaurants, UPS restaurants and stores. There's even auntie annie there! haha!
I went to this italian restaurant called BABELA. Selling economical pasta and desserts! I had my favourite carbonara, tiramisu and a cappucino! Haha! Shiok rite? the tiramisu has cocoa powder on top, rum within it. Juz like this:

Although it's not the best i had, but given tat i only paid 34 bucks for the whole meal, it is quite afforadable! Haha!
Anw, I alr found a hip wangjing! Haha! More hip places ard our house will be discovered!

Great Wkend!!!

Yoz Yoz Yoz!!! It has been a while since I've visited this blog alr!!! Haha!

We went to visit the village within Beijing this friday!It was a field trip for us to understand the village conditions in China. However, this village we went to, had been renovated, improved its conditions thru one of the govt. policies. Hence, when we reached there, we see clean streets, clean plantation etc. Not sth tat I've expected in a village! They even had a showroom for visitors! Zai rite? So sorry tat i dun have a pic to show u.

We visit the plantations there! Mainly the veg plantation! And mushrooms! Wahh! This is how they grow the mushrooms! Got to noe abt it the first time!

Cool huh?

I'm starting to noe the GIP ppl better and better alr. Through the field trips and the lessons tat we had. And of course, the sports days after lessons and the dinner after tat allow us to interact with one another better! It's great to be here and noe more ppl! Haha!!!

Sunday! (26/04/09)
In order to allow us to have a better understanding abt the modern art industry in Beijing, we went to 798 after our 自然醒. It's an old factory now with many arts galleries inside! The paintings are magnificient! At the start, we tried to guess wat is the painter trying to imply. Haha! None of us got it correct!
Some of the arts inside are bold, touching on the controvesial issues. for eg:



there's a series of photos which a hostess shot herself to reflect her thoughts and feelings. and her undestanding of different men that she had met during her times as a hostess! It's something tat I've nv come across! Yeah! So it's an eye opener for me!

This wkend will be a long holiday! But i wun be travelling out of Beijing la! Haha! Stay tuned for wat i will be doing den! Wakak!!!

九寨沟之旅

I'm finally free to write the blog already! Haha! It had been a while since I'm back from the JZG trip! This time round, replacing Howard and YM were 2 juniors from CS who are here for exchange!

We left on thurs evening and stayed over at 梦之旅 for a nite! Cheap! And we set off early at 5.30am! Btw, our transportation is taxi which we bao for the whole trip! 600RMB per person!

went to 牟尼沟and take a look at the fountain! Nothing amazing to me la! Haha! BUT... it starts snowing after that for the whole nite! The nxt day! this is wat i saw:



The snow there is totally different as compared to wat we saw in Beijing! It's soft, white but with some green! It's nice to see green green all ard! Haha! Took quite a lot of pics while waiting for the uncle!
However, the day was wasted as we can't go to 黄龙due to the snow! Taxi uncle say will all be snow! And may not be able to go all the way up!

We had lunch and check in our hotel! There's electric heating mat underneath our bed! Shuangssss! We went to explore the area before uncles brought us to 藏家to experience their culture! It was really fun! We had a chance to noe a new culture and they are really very entertaining! Everyone noe how to sing there! WY and LM had most fun out of it as they were dragged to be married into the family! The drink was really nice and the 烤牛肉！fantastic! We danced with them till nite! i bet everyone's having a lot of fun! Except for YR! Haha! Tink she cannot really drink too much tat she vomitted! 12% oso can vomit! Haiz!!!

The Nxt day! It's time to enter the 沟口!Best moments awaits inside there! We see many seas tat day! I tink it's the most number of seas and lakes that i had seen in my life! However, the scenery is not that magnificent as ppl had exclaimed! This is due to the weather as it is still quite cold, hence, the colours and the leaves etc are not fully grown!



Nice rite!!! Haha!

We headed back to Chengdu on Monday! Best part came! Our fight had some problems that we had to take the nxt day flight! AND... We will be given 400RMB refund plus accommodation and meals provided! Shuangsss! AND We can still skip a day of work! Shiok！

During this trip, some conflicts occurred among us! However, we handled it well at the end that things are back to normal! I guess this is because everyone had different mentality and see things differently. Managed to get this drawn out finally! Hope tat we starts to have the mutual understanding among one another!

Anw, it had been 2 months in China alr! I'm getting use to the life here! Still enjoying! Anw, my pics are on fb! Do check out if u're free! Haha!

Cheers!!!

I've been to Tianjin le!!!

Went Tianjin this morning! Hearing the rest of the GIP-Beijing people who went to Tianjin said that it is not that great, we made it a one-day trip! This will be my first time taking train! Yeah! So exciting!
We took the normal train there which cost us 19 bucks BUT no seats! So we actually cramped ourselves at the doorway like this:

thought that it will be alrite until we realised that the door nxt to us is the entrance to the cafe in the train itself! Everyone keeps going in and out! AND someone actually juz smoke nxt to us! What an experience! Shifting in is a betta choice and some uncles offered the girls their seats while they walked abt!
We reached tianjin after one and a half hour!

We went to the 鼓楼 by cab! The most interesting of all there is the 钟！YM and me hit it 3 times for gd wishes!


We made our way to the Ancient Cultural Street! Bought a lot of stuff from there! Cheap and gd! YM, YC and WY bought the 扯铃tat we saw during the arcobatic performance yesterday! WY is quite gd at it!

As we took quite a long time at the Ancient Cultural Street, we went to 天津狗不理大酒店 for the famous 狗不理包子! It's actually Haha! Not as bad as the rest had said! But the service there is awesome! When u get down from the cab, there's ppl opening the door for u, someone offering u a hot towel to wipe urself! UPS leh! Haha! Had quite some food there which cost us abt 45 RMB each.

It's time to head back home le! We will be taking the reputable bullet train which cost us 58 bucks!

Haha! But it only takes 30 min to reach beijing! Look at the speed:

There are free bottle of water for each of us at the entrance and magazines for us to read! In fact, it made me feel like I'm on the plane! Cool huh!!!
Home Sweet Home!
So satisfied that it's an one-day trip for Tianjin! Filled with areas that we need to see there! And of course getting quite a handful of good deals there! Haha! Recommended for one-day trip!

It will be great for this and the following week! Been travelling to Great Wall and Tianjin! Nxt weekend, I will be going to 九寨沟. one of the nicest place in China! So excited! Keep posted yeah!

不到长城非好汉！

Today we went to 长城 for our first sch field trip since we came here! Yeah! Going to one of the seven wonders of the world. So happy!
Cold wind blows as we reached the place. We went to the 居庸关 part instead. After taking a group photo, it's time to conquer 长城! Yeah!!
It was tiring climbing up the steps. they were high and the land is steep.

We took pictures along the way. The scenery is fantastic! Nv see it much in my life before. Dun really rmb if I saw such magnificent scenery before! Haha!


We climbed for about 2 hours! Although we din really walk through the whole 长城，which i tink will like take dunno how many days, it's a gd feeling going there! together with a bunch of frens! Haha! Shiok!

on the way down, we saw this stretch which have many locks chained onto the wall. Flora said that these are done by couples to show tat they will be chained together!
Eh, for me, I feel that being chained together sounds bad. Like they have no choice like tat! Haha!

Anw, wish them all the best in that la! Haha!

We went to watch acrobatic performance after Great Wall! It was amazing! though we missed quite a bit at the start due to some stupid system by the theatre, the performance by them is......! Oops, running out of vocab! Use ur imagination! Wakaka!

Wanyi called me today! Haha! While saving her lights in the dark! Study hard ar! Dun play too much!

Exams coming for everyone! All the best! See ya back soon!

What a day!!!

I juz met a person who pissed me off today! In the night actually!

We were trying to get a cab from Carrefour as we waited for the bus and realised the the last bus is alr over! AND...

Juz when we saw a cab appearing and flagged it, a ...... juz ran to the middle of the road and flagged it down! Right in front of us! ARRRGH!!! What the ....! Why is there such person here! I dun understand why i din stop in front of the taxi and confront the guy! Haha! Maybe i wun do tat too la! Haiz! Spoil my day!

It has been a long time!

It has been a long time since I blog le. Haha! Been super lazy nowadays and life's a bit common la! Nothing much happened since then.

Last wk i went to a volunteer session that is about communication between parents and primary school children! It is one of the few volunteer sessions that I took part in after I am not required to do CIP in school anymore.

The parents are from the rural areas in China. Hence, the kids have to stay in their school for their convenience. This results to communication breakdown between the 2 parties as they do not have much times together. The aim of the event is to try to break the communication barrier between them.

It had been great fun playing the games with the parents,children and the other volunteers. There are other student volunteers that took part in this event. Had lotsa fun getting to know them! There's even an American volunteer who is studying here. Guess what? He majored in Chinese studies lo! LOL!

The experience is sth that I nv had before!

And I went shopping today! Haha! Though i kena 砍菜头 by the lady! But nvm! Lesson learnt! Haha!

Anyway, we celebrated YC's birthday yesterday with a freshly made fruit cake! Haha! Happy birthday YC!

It's SPRING TIME le! Haha! Yeah!!

SICK DAY

My first food poisoning in CHINA!!! All thanks to a 紫米煎饼that i ate yesterday. Cos WY and YC always say the 煎饼 is nice there! But they din say which one!

Vomitted and had diarrhoea! Aiyo! Dunno go how many times liao! In midnite oso! So today report sick! Call office say I'll be going late! Haha! In the end, I din go at all!

But I'm feeling betta le! NO NID TELL MUM HOR!! everything's ok le!

Anyway, it's the beginning of the second month in Beijing! Cheers!

SKI TRIP!!

Sunday 1/3
Happy March!!!
We went skiing today. It's the last day to ski as the weather is getting warmer and warmer and the ski resorts are closing. However, Layming was unable to join us as she had an interview with someone in the afternoon.

It was a smooth trip for us! I guess is becos we did some research in advance not like last wk where we miscalculated the time! However, when we reach there, the place looked totally like a deserted place. And the snow seems LITTLE. Nevertheless, we only paid like 66rmb for the trip, so it's forgiveable!

After putting our gears, we.re finally ready to ski lo! Haha! With our personal coach:



Since Flora skiied before, she taught us on the basics like how to move forward and brake etc! YC and WY picked it up quite fast! I kept falling down, spending most of the time trying to get up! After lunch, I managed to ski without falling down from the top of the slope! Mission accomplished!

I moved on to try make a snowman which I had promised someone to do! As the snow is alr melting, it's almost like ice snowman! However, I managed to do a small one! Haha! So CLARE!!! This is for u:





Haha! It's quite a memorable one since it's my first time skiing! Though it's not the best experience, but it's still quite fun!!!

Some Memories!!!

Gd morning everybody!!! Assuming tht you're in the same timezone as me! Haha! juz some thoughts to share as I was looking thru my FRIENDSTER (So old pok stuff liao) comments:

I realised that I have soooo much gd points. Juz to name a few:
1. Caring
2. Nice to ppl
3. Nv get angry easily
4. Always smiling
5. CUTEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!

I din realise that leh. My GOODNESS!!! It has been so long since I stopped using Friendster. Looking back at these comments made me recalled all the things I've done since my sec sch (if u dunno what i talking abt, it's ok!). Nothing really magnificent i tink. However, it warms ppl's hearts sometimes. haha! I dun really noe if i should say it myself. Haha! Sooo 不要脸！

My point is when you want to do something, always make sure that you do it with your heart! Be sincere in the things that you do! Only then, ppl will understand and feel it! I'm really glad that I have sooo much (to me, they are uncountables) friends around me. Although I know that the things I did sometimes pissed you off, but, if I dun, I will be a SAINT! Haha! So I nid some balance in my life, being good and being bad! I noe that all of you wun take it to heart! And stand by me from time to time! Really appreciate it!!!

And of cos, my family Haha! They noe what's in my mind tat they dun really interfere much with e things that I do! Tat's great! Maybe that's where I learnt to be independent in my life!

Wahh! Suddenly so emotional! Haha! But...... Thanks everybody! I will totally enjoy myself in MY LIFE. Dun worry abt me! =)

Anw, I wrote this during my office hours! Haha! Dun leak it out yeah?

23/2 Monday

Yeah!!! I had my first outdoor exercise today! We swam after our gym session! So shiok after the workout as I had been eating and eating since I'm here! If i still dun workout, I will become...

This is our swimming pool!


Cool rite? Haha!

We cooked dinner after tat! WY cooked fried rice, i cooked veg while YC took charge of the chicken tat had been left over by our lady landlord! We FINALLY COOKED IT!!! Yeah! The dishes came out nice!





See! We finish the food! We're Gd house MAN ok? Haha!

Btw, It's the start of recess wk le! To those STILL in UNI, do enjoy urself ok?
Hopefully!!!

Everyone Do take care!!

Day of impromptu-ness

Let's talk abt yesterday first!As i fell asleep after dinner! Haha!
Sunday 22/2/09

We were supposed to go skiing yesterday! Everything had been settled. However, we anticipated thetime wrongly! We tot tat it will only take 2 hours to reach the skiing area! Only to realise tat the final transfer bus tat we need to take to the place will take ard 2 hour plus! This means tat we'll reach the place only ard 2pm! With all the admin stuff to settle, we will only be left with 2 hours before the skiing area is closed! =( My Goodness!!!

So we decided to stop halfway for lunch and make our way to 鸟巢, the Olympic Stadium! The place is magnificent! It's my first time in such a big stadium. Standing in the middle of the field makes me feel like I'm the centre of everything! I have everything in my control! So 爽！




Clare! So i can't make a snowman for u! Sorry!!! I'll try yea?

We had impromptu steamboat at our place with the Panda Group except YM cos we called him too late! Haha! It was a fabulous experience! check out my fb for the pics yea? Wahaha! We will have more steamboat in the future yea?

It's SNOWING!!!

It's snowing here! From Morning till now! My goodness! It's the first time tat i see snow/touch snow! SOOOOO coool!!!

But I realised tat we nid to be careful in Snowy times too! I fell twice on my way to work! The floor is superrrrrrr slippery de!

i keep going to the toilet during work to take pics, though not really very nice la. Cos the snow is not tat big! But, manage to capture some la!

For those who haven see snow yet, and those who wan to see it again, here u are:





Btw, my room is still not very ready for inspection la! In case u're wonder whose king size bed is tat in the previous blog, it belongs to yc and wy ar!!! I single bed de! Wahaha! Those wan to see still muz wait la!

Seeya!!!

The day where we make the house OURS!!!

After these 2 wks here, we decided to do sth to our house! Cleaning up, making our workplace nice and comfortable and NOW! We're ready to show u our house! Haha!

u'll see the pics below:






Nice rite??? Haha! We spend the time shifting necessary furnitures! AND we CLEAN THE FISH TANK which took us like 3 hours la! Refer to fb for pics yeah!!

Dun get envious yeah! 有空来坐坐！！！

Our First Home-cooked meal!!!

Yeah!!! Today our household finally had our first home-cooked food! All thanks to Wei Yang! Haha! We had taiwanese veg, jap curry, omelette and our shrimp chilli paste! Sooo shuang! But i over-microwave the shrimp chilli paste till a bit dry! But still......

Work has been quite boring these few days! Cos nothing much to do except for some translation work. However, I spoke to my supervisor on my job scope and i told her tat i wan to do sales! Mainly going out to meet clients etc! Dunno i can handle it not? Shall see how yea? HAHA!

To ppl i noe: ENJOY LIFE!!! =)

First Wk le!!

It's the first wk in Beijing! Super duper cold today! I was still shivering in the afternoon! It's my first day to work today! Haha! the ppl are quite nice to me today! Haha! We even had a company lunch! Cos today's yuan hsiao too ma!

I went to put fireworks today le! For Linghui! Cos she cannot put! Haha! So fun! Btw, the fireworks are for those 1) want to put fireworks but dun dare to put, 2) dare to put but no chance to put! Basically everyone la hor!!! My family and frens!

Happy GREAT YEAR ahead! =)

Fireworks all the WAY!!!

We met up with many Singaporeans tat are in China today to celebrate Yuan xiao! Haha! We met a 蔡康永 look alike who is the AEM of Grand Millenium! So zai lah! Muz wait for them to upload the pics den let u all see!

The Best part is the fireworks after the dinner! Haha! they had like tons and tons of fireworks and we all manage to lit up a few! We were sooo high lah! The fireworks are sooooo BEAUTIFUL! Muz wait for howard to get the pics! He's a damn professional photographer! The feeling was great seeing all the fireworks! It's like my life is going to be as colourful as them! Come on Man! Haha!

But beautiful things always come to an end! I'm starting work tml le! Haha! There wun be much outing unless till in the evening or during wkends le! Haha! Hope the workplace will be fun tml!

To all my frens! Hav fun yeah! SEE YA SOON!!!

The Most Happening Day So far!!

We realised that ppl here nid to rush de! The water man is supposed to come ard 9! We call and call den the person come at 1040! Making us late for the shopping trip with the rest! Haha!
The shopping trip near the Beijing zoo was super fun! We all got our stuff tat we wanted! Haha! we got quite gd deals! It's quite cheap theretat not really much bargain is needed! BUT... I was too impulse on the trench coat! Haiz... when i reached home, i tink tat it's too big for me AND there're a bit defects! So sianz!!!

We den had lunch at an electronic superstore where all their stuff are sold out! 麻婆豆腐 oso dun hav! AIYO! and the beer is damn cheap. though a bit not tat nice as Tsingtao! We got a router at 135rmb with free wire but we still trying to set up the wireless NOW!!



We met Howard for Sizzlers which is havin the offer of chicken chop with salad bar at 39rmb! Wahhh!! Super cheap la! And the stuff is quite nice! Think i'm going to live like a king here! But maybe by den i broke liao and FAT!



Howard brought us to 王府井 for a stroll! Haha! We finally got to try the famous fried scorpion and fried starfish! The girls are so happy abt it except for Yinyin as she's so tramatised by it! We oso bought the panda hat which howard, YM and YC bought yesterday... At a lower price! Haha! den we take stupid pics like this:






We went to Howards workplace today! Haha! and think his manager saw him! Gd luck ar!

It's the best outing so far i tink! haha! Guess cos there's a mix of guys and girls make it betta! When are we going out again?? Haha! Wonder When!

I feel tat everything so far is positive abt here! So far so gd! Give and take! no worries! Gd luck Kwang Hup! Muz really make the best out of it!

Finally able to blog!

FINALLY ABLE TO BLOG IN BEIJING!!! By Day 3

It has been fun for us soooo far! Haha! From the time we landed till the time we got a place where we call home and we cleaned it up!

Our place is quite a quiet place where it will be quiet after 8pm. The people here eat their dinner super early like 5.30pm cos the sun sets down earlier here! We had been going to various places to shop and eat!

The best place to shop so far for us is at 秀水街 where it is a pasar malam shopping centre which we went yesterday. We tried imitating like foreigners and the stallholders tried to get us into their shops and jack up the price like CRAZY!!! I was offered $320 for a shirt where Howard was offered at $80! And we learnt e strategy of bargaining! Wei Yang had some gd and bad deals. Eventually, we all got wat we wanted!



Howard brought us to the LAN Club where we went to the special toilet which totally looks like a fright nite scene! SO SCARY!! But the place was ex! So we went off and went to the mando-oldies-pop pub. Aiyo! and they sang songs meant for Jap war den de! Yesterday was quite an experience for us!

DAY 3 Thursday

Harbin trip was cancelled le! Every household had their own problems and can't make it liao! So sad! We went to the supermarket today with yong ming today after we settled our temp permit! it was sooo big and had 4 levels! Spent abt 6oo rmb there to get all the stuff we nid! MOST Importantly!!! WY dropped the key la! AND... he seems ok abt it! SO we waited outside for the lady landlord for abt 2 hours! I felt a bit feverish today! tink nv drink enuf water! and i tink we always nv had proper meals until dinner! cos we were always busy during the afternoon! Tml muz try to eat lunch le! We realised tat our apartment is near to some eating places but most are korean food de! Haha!

I will go to some other places tml! Maybe with some other household! Update again!

Anyway, i would like to thank everyone for their wishes! thanks those who came to send me off! And oso those who are unable to make it! Thanks everyone! I will enjoy myself for u all de! YEAH! Take care yea!!