你好！你最近还好吗？好久不见！
It has been a long time since I've blogged. Reasons?... Maybe because the past few months have been extremely challenging personally and that no one likes to hear bad news, and I for one do not like to write material on the sadder side of life especially if it is close to my heart.
So lets extrapolate the good from the bad.
1. Work
Work has been one of the many personal challenges. Settling in has been easy yet tough at the same time. The change in lifestyle has led me to realise that there is barely enough hours in one day to get everything that you want done. You are working from 9-5 (or for me, the last 6 weeks working was like 8-8) and when you come home, you really only have 3 or so hours to eat, do exercise, some reading etc. It is frustrating coming from uni life, and unfortunately that is the life that most people lead. I guess in a way, it forces you to be more organised. Time management is of the essence and being strong enough to enforce the "Work, Life, Balance" way of life. I tired, and I think I was successful enough. Working, and then usually having some social sport at night, allowing me to meet up with my friends who I no longer get to see at uni, as well as exercise.
I found that as work got harder, the only thing that kept me going was the sport after work, or going out for dinner or any activity with friends after work. Though I don't mind staying at home, I'd prefer to be out because it is a change of scene and people. I guess I am cool at home if I got me a book to read.
A plus side to work is that I was offered articles at Sparke Helmore which suits me perfectly! I love the people there, and I don't think there is a more perfect firm for me at the moment than Sparke Helmore. The size of the firm is not too big or too small, and being a national firm, allows various work opportunities to pop up. That was one of my fears of applying to small firms, that the work would stultify and be the same thing over and over again. I must admit I get bored easily, I like seeing the bigger picture... the small details I would bang my head against the wall after a long time. I guess that is kind of bad, since Law is all about the small details.
My boss is super lovely, she has allowed me to take 2 months off before I start articles, and I cannot imagine how I would be without it. I already feel heaps better and I feel like I have been given a chance to sort my stuff out.
2. Social
I've been chilling out with a great bunch of people, mainly the v-ball crew, but also the netball peeps. China peeps have been very busy with uni and their part-time work, same goes to the old uni crew. Everyone from the uni crew have now pretty much left uni and have started full-time work. A lot have been busy with life and are moving on. It is not a sad thing, it is just a... HrmMmm how can I describe it? Another phase of life. I am melancholy for the days of uni that will not return. I did feel the same way a few years ago when uni started and high school ended. But hey, that is life.
It is funny how I felt and most of the time still see myself as being at the peak of my life. I felt like I knew myself completely and that since I have experienced so much in the 23 years of my life there is nothing new to expect, except meeting new people, making more money, moving jobs, getting house, car etc. But this year has proved to me that, that is complete horse shit and an illusion. I must say I have been humbled, and I know that this will be the case for the rest of my life.
3. Sports
Tied into my social circle is my sports. I have continued with the mixed soccer on Mondays with the Bananaroos, (which even though we played better, we have had an unlucky semi and finals in both seasons). I have quit the mixed basketball on Tuesday nights with Captain Seng's to try out mixed netball with Team ROWDY. It has been an awesome season, each game is super fun, and I really really want to improve. Then there is Volleyball on Friday nights, which has taken a more serious turn. We have joined the league and by doing so, the committed ones come and have heaps of fun. I must say, the competitiveness side of me has started to show it's head, as there are times in all these sports where I have felt frustration. Frustration in no improvement. Initially when I start, I don't really care, it is all for fun. But after a season, or a decent amount of games, I begin to expect SOME improvement in skill. Overall it has been ok. Volleyball could use some speeding up though.
I have also started running. O_O Yea... that's right you read correctly, running. I would have never ever thought that I'd be one for this type of exercise. I hated running when I was younger. But after this year's City to Surf, I had heaps of fun. It could be because I had cool running buddies (Thanks to Kev for being nice and holding back to stay with me, and thanks to Adrian for randomly bumping into us and taking the last 4km home with me). Something about running along the pathway at my beach really shuts out the mental chatter I have in my head. If I want my head to stop thinking and to just shut up after a day at work, the run is the best thing.
OOOOOH and what else... I've bladed a few times too! hEHHEe... OK.. twice so far. Thanks to Adaliee for giving me a pair of blades saving me heaps of money! The first time blading was with Adaliee, Kev and Doris around the river starting at the Hyatt and making one loop around through South Perth back to the city. The second time was with Kev, and though it was easier because I wasn't so shaky in the legs and rusty at the blading thing, the wind was killer, and the first half was a mission. Great exercise though. Everything gets a work out, 10km you would hope to get something out of it.
There as been a lil bit of Baddy on the side too... which I am determined to get better at again.
4. Events, Past times etc.
This year has definitely been the year of festivals, concerts, sport and just having fun enjoying the freedom and the money. Godskitchen was awesomeness in a box. First night rave, very eye-opening and enjoyable. Global Gathering was just as awesome, it being my first day festival. The weather was cool, and we were rained on but that didn't stop the fun! Stereosonic was also awesome! Warmer weather, beautiful sunset. All of these have been so much fun, and the music! AH the music is sooo good. After China I have been more open to the idea of Trance music, because Trance was very popular in the clubs, and now, I can happily say that I can add Trance to my long list of enjoyable music.
Chris Brown and Rihanna was a pretty good concert. We were in standing and I had so much fun with team ASS (Anna, Shaz, Sarah)+ Kev and Jesi. Overall I think the Justin Timberlake concert was better, and possibly Gwen Stefani. But that could be because I am more of a fan of the latter two. Chris Brown and Rihanna are still awesome, it is just I didn't know all their songs by heart in order to say...be totally engaged with the show.
Besides the loud/party side of life that has emerged, there has been the quiet side of life too. I have started to read again, and I am desperately trying to catch up to those who have surpassed me. I barely read anything besides textbooks and statutes and lecture notes during uni, up until last year when I decided to take on the Harry Potter series. Ben, Sarah and Kev are all well read. It's frustrating that I am so behind on...I guess you can consider it as useless knowledge. Reading adds colour to the way you see the world, and because it has been a good couple of years since I had read a decent number of books non uni related, I have become a little grey. But... that is changing now. ^_^ My sense of humor is slowly returning, and my personal interests are reemerging to the surface for myself to see. It is strange to realise that things like, work, uni, commitments etc had taken over life so that I couldn't even identify things I enjoyed.
Let me just say randomly that the Beach is awesomeness in a box, and I can't believe how much I missed the sand and water.
5. Memorable Moments
2008 has been no joke, a jammed packed year. I will list the most memorable moments of 2008, in no particular order:
1. New Years Eve in Hangzhou, China. Went to Carrefour with Quentin and James and bought French Champagne which we chilled outside on the Balcony, we then went to "In Club" which opened especially for NYE where it was cheap as chips drinks. I remember I had an awesome time, all our Hangzhou crew were there. Danced the night away with Frenchies, but then felt sad, because I missed the people at home. Had the best phone call to Will and then everyone else who were partying it up at Clem's place. The countdown was non-existent. Was dancing, then next thing I knew it, there were streamers and sticky spray string things going on and people around me hugging. Anti-climax.
2. Lunch at Myth Cafe the day that Megan and I were leaving Hangzhou for Beijing. This was very... surreal. All our Hangzhou crew was there. The day was rushed because everyone wakes up so late, so we had a late lunch and had to rush it so that we wouldn't miss our train. It was sad. I had formed such intense and strong relationships with these people... I loved them... and I was to never see them again. It was sad, but I was detached in a way. They were friends of the moment, and will be forever living in my memory. (Except James of course because he's the other UWA-ian that was there)
3.Australia Day in Beijing. That was awesomeness, the gang plus other Tour Group people just bar hopped and we were screaming out Aussie Songs being proud Australians. Ended up at Vix/Mix, was an awesome night.
4. The Morning it snowed in Beijing. I knew it was going to snow that day. I had a dream, woke up with the feeling and saw the sky. The colour was weird, and I knew it. It was the best day for all of us. We were all innocently, blissfully excited all day, the Guy and the Girls. :)
5. Visit to Hakea Prison. Being so close to criminals was such a shock to my senses and an eye-opening experience.
6. Metamucil Night and the Epic Rain. This is by far one of the most beautiful, fun filled memory that I'll have. Hahaha. Just remembering the moment how we had this false sense of security that we would make it to our cars all fine. And out of no where this random epic rain just hit us. My small Oroton umbrella did very little to shield Kev and I. Jon and Shaz had Farhan's golf umbrella, Jesi and Shaz's friend seemed just as wet as the rest of us. We were all fighting the crazy horizontal rain and wind except for Karl and Viv who had the right idea. They had no umbrellas, they just walked through it... and we were just as wet as them. The experience was fresh, and just one of those moments that would never happen again.
7. Godskitchen - It was the first Rave I went to. Though I found Global Gathering and Stereosonic just as fun or maybe even more fun, Godskitchen was the first. Big thanks to Jesi who stayed with me most of the night and kept an eye on me, Anne and Khang who also kept a close eye on me.
8. Friday night drinks at Hula Bula Bar. This was an unexpected night. Got thoroughly tipsy at work. Met up with Kev who took me to the Korean place in NB near Singapore and met up with Ben and Sarah. It was the first time I met Sarah and we had an awesome night together!!! Getting smashed on that crazy Korean alcohol. Chinny came and we were soo awesome that the people in the restaurant couldn't deal with such awesomeness, and we had to leave. LOL. It wasn't my fault I swear. Such random goodness. We then went to Hula Bula Bar where we met up with Jesi, Wilbur, Mark and others. I couldn't remember this part of the night, but there were heaps of photos the next day. LOL.
9. Yallingyup. This trip was exactly what I needed. Chilling and relaxing with Will and just having quiet time during a time of such turbulence. Listening to cruisy music, cooking and enjoying nature. Was definitely one of the most peaceful times this year. The last breakfast was awesome. :)
10. And last but not least, Graduation. Thanks to Will for making such a special event, that much more special.
Most of these memories are in my blog. Just back track to find them ^___^
6. 2009?
So the year is coming to an end. I must say I can't wait for the year 2009 to come around. This is the first time that I have felt this way. Part of me has this glimmer of hope that the next year won't be so hard as this. The other part of me feels like I should not be so hopeful because it is the year when the REAL work starts. Things that I am looking forward to:
1. Melbourne Trip from December 26 2008 - January 4th ish 2009 with Team ASS, Kev and Jesi. Sensation White for new years eve, and a whole lot of shopping and eating!
2. Summadayze with the vball crew, with a line up that I can say that I recognise a few names now. (unlike the past where I've just been like "meh, just go and see what happens")
3. Thailand Trip from 20ish of January 2009 - till 31 January 2009. With part of the v-ball crew: Sarah, Ben, Thien, Chinny and myself. Will be awesome!! Cheap, relaxing and fun fun fun! The last hoorah before work.
4. Phantom of the Opera - I really can't wait for this. I will fall in love again.
5. More sports, hanging out with friends and sorting life out ... this can never go wrong!
posted by anna at 11:51 AM
It was... epic... the night kept on getting better till the last moments for the huge monstrous finale!!!
It started out alright. I had friday night after work drinks... 2 glasses of white, and I was all honkey-dory. Pretty alright...pretty settled. I then made my way to meet up with Jesi and Kev outside of Myers. Got calls from Sharon and El saying they were going to be a little late. So the trio made our way to Makan Makan. Kev was super awesome for volunteering to drive us... (I had initially planned to take the train all the way home to pick up the car, to then drive back to the city and drive ppl... i wanted everyone to have a good time.) So at Makan makan, we were soon joined by El and Mike... which was awesome because the talk was all engineering... >__< which wasn't too bad, but my involvement level = 0.
Sharon found her way to Makan makan and the crew was set. We made our way to tigerlils which had a mega long line... and it was RAINING! *Augh*. But the wait in the line wasnt too bad, Seng came soon and he was able to get us VIP entry with him, though he wasnt able to get El and Mike in who ended up having to go back into line and wait for a little longer... (Sorry guys). In tigerlils, found Viv, Karl and the other bball boys. Rounds of drinks started... and before we knew it, we were off to Amplifier bar. There was a 20 Buck entry fee. >__< So when Viv left to find his crew at the Belgium Beer Cafe, the V-ball crew (plus, Jon and Co) stayed and just had a few more drinks and enjoyed the live band.
After the last round of drinks, we made our way to Ktv at Hits Studio. It started raining pretty heavy... but we were all still good, we did not let it dampen our mood! Once at Ktv... it was pretty good... but unfortunately the room that I had booked was not big enough. There were people spilling out of our room, waiting around the door >__< felt mega bad!!! But other than that.. was awesome. Farhan, Viv, Karl and Co joined us... and we lasted till like 4am!
Walking out of Hits Studio, I looked at the sky and I think Sharon said "wow, lucky its not raining." I was thinking the same thing. We made our way to the cars and it started drizzling... I had my umbrella, but I also had a jacket. So i offered my umbrella to Sharon and Jon (Jon who only had a cotton shirt on). They were like "nah its ok, we are cool" I was like "ok...".... next thing we knew it *POW* it just started pouring down, big fat rain... sharon and i shrieked... and it kept on getting worse. The winds made it like horizontal crazy rain... Farhan stopped by in his car and lent us his umbrella which was a huge help!!! But the rain just kept on beating down on us. It was soo epic... it came to the point were i looked around and saw us, Sharon, Jon, Kev and I, Jesi and Sharons friend (forgot her name), and Viv and Karl... all of us just head down, fighting the weather. I started laughing. it was hillarious. Something sooo... unexpected, something so... refreshing, a situation that we would never willingly put ourselves in, but it just happened. It was beautiful. LOL. It is by far my favourite memory up to date.
Labels: Friendship, Fun, KTV, Party
我的身肢不喜欢我！下星期我的身体不好！ 因为星期一我吃过东西，以后我有胃痛！所以都下星期我不高兴。可是我到去过我的工作。
My Body hates me! Last week my health was baaaad! Because on Monday I hate something and afterwards I had a stomach ache, so all of last week I was not happy, but I still went to work.
LOL my attempts at Chinese. help.
But yes. Last week was terrible. I had serious case of food poisoning that did not go away. I toughed it out though. I went to work because I knew we had quite a lot to do for our discovery and it was due really soon. But the whole time, I felt like shit, and I felt really unproductive and sad at work, and last week was the mother of stressful weeks. I was sick, had Chinese class at Tafe on Tuesday and Thursday night, and I had article applications due on the Friday which I had not started due to being super busy. It was a terrible week.
What did I eat? well I thought it was some bad Thai chili that I added to my food for lunch and dinner coz i LOVE hot food. But after living with the food poisoning for a whole week, on Friday I made an appointment at work to see a Dr. at 9.30am in the city. (Some random dooude). I told him my current situation, and he said that it appears to be some bacterial infection, to which antibiotics could cure. He then asked me whether I was allergic to anything... I said... "hrmMm Yes... Flagyl I think..." I went on to explain that I when I took Flagyl I could not eat, everything tasted like metal (even my saliva! (which was horrible!!! couldn't drink water.. nothing) He kinda went "HrmM" and then said "Well here's Fasigyn, it is related to Flagyl, but it is not the same. It should be alright as you are only taking it once off."
He told me my stomach would be better by the next day. So I took it (all four pills in one shot, as instructed) Hopefully I would be able to go out to dinner and Ktv with Will and his work mates. Hours later... MEGA FAIL! I started going weird at work. I felt soo out of it. Stressed about the job at hand, but feeling shit. My mouth started drying up, and having the weird metallic taste... Was not a happy camper. So I piked on Dinner and Ktv with Will to rest.
Saturday. Woke up feeling better.
stomach? - FINE!
Overall feeling - SHE'S BACK!
So I spent the beautiful day with Will were we went to Hillarys and I was able to eat half a steak burger.(FOOOOOD!) And then we went for the movies to finally see the Black Knight - Batman. Heath Ledger, has definitely outdone himself, and on an inspirational note, a great final piece of work to be remembered by.
That night, went out for Ktv with the netball crew, and then metros for the rest of the night. Lots of fun! Those cool fantabolous people who I saw there included: Myself, Jules, Eloise, Dez, Darren (part of the netball crew) Shaz, Jon, Clem, Gal, Farhan, Kim, Megan, Lincoln, Kev, Ben, Jesi, Penny and Trinh. Those that I heard where there, but did not see... Yorms, Hanif and Vanni.
The night was huge. But too huge for me. It has definitely been a beautiful love/hate relationship between myself and Metros for the past few months, but this Sat was the last. I hate crowds. People step on me, and bump into me, and I can never find friends if lost. Friggin annoying. No dance space. no movement space. Try to order a round of drinks? - (Squashed frogs was the drink of the night for me) - bar chic says "not enough shot glasses!"
Sunday.. woke up... and mega allergic reaction to the antibiotics had taken phase 2!!! Now still recovering from it... >_<
My Body hates me! Last week my health was baaaad! Because on Monday I hate something and afterwards I had a stomach ache, so all of last week I was not happy, but I still went to work.
LOL my attempts at Chinese. help.
But yes. Last week was terrible. I had serious case of food poisoning that did not go away. I toughed it out though. I went to work because I knew we had quite a lot to do for our discovery and it was due really soon. But the whole time, I felt like shit, and I felt really unproductive and sad at work, and last week was the mother of stressful weeks. I was sick, had Chinese class at Tafe on Tuesday and Thursday night, and I had article applications due on the Friday which I had not started due to being super busy. It was a terrible week.
What did I eat? well I thought it was some bad Thai chili that I added to my food for lunch and dinner coz i LOVE hot food. But after living with the food poisoning for a whole week, on Friday I made an appointment at work to see a Dr. at 9.30am in the city. (Some random dooude). I told him my current situation, and he said that it appears to be some bacterial infection, to which antibiotics could cure. He then asked me whether I was allergic to anything... I said... "hrmMm Yes... Flagyl I think..." I went on to explain that I when I took Flagyl I could not eat, everything tasted like metal (even my saliva! (which was horrible!!! couldn't drink water.. nothing) He kinda went "HrmM" and then said "Well here's Fasigyn, it is related to Flagyl, but it is not the same. It should be alright as you are only taking it once off."
He told me my stomach would be better by the next day. So I took it (all four pills in one shot, as instructed) Hopefully I would be able to go out to dinner and Ktv with Will and his work mates. Hours later... MEGA FAIL! I started going weird at work. I felt soo out of it. Stressed about the job at hand, but feeling shit. My mouth started drying up, and having the weird metallic taste... Was not a happy camper. So I piked on Dinner and Ktv with Will to rest.
Saturday. Woke up feeling better.
stomach? - FINE!
Overall feeling - SHE'S BACK!
So I spent the beautiful day with Will were we went to Hillarys and I was able to eat half a steak burger.(FOOOOOD!) And then we went for the movies to finally see the Black Knight - Batman. Heath Ledger, has definitely outdone himself, and on an inspirational note, a great final piece of work to be remembered by.
That night, went out for Ktv with the netball crew, and then metros for the rest of the night. Lots of fun! Those cool fantabolous people who I saw there included: Myself, Jules, Eloise, Dez, Darren (part of the netball crew) Shaz, Jon, Clem, Gal, Farhan, Kim, Megan, Lincoln, Kev, Ben, Jesi, Penny and Trinh. Those that I heard where there, but did not see... Yorms, Hanif and Vanni.
The night was huge. But too huge for me. It has definitely been a beautiful love/hate relationship between myself and Metros for the past few months, but this Sat was the last. I hate crowds. People step on me, and bump into me, and I can never find friends if lost. Friggin annoying. No dance space. no movement space. Try to order a round of drinks? - (Squashed frogs was the drink of the night for me) - bar chic says "not enough shot glasses!"
Sunday.. woke up... and mega allergic reaction to the antibiotics had taken phase 2!!! Now still recovering from it... >_<
So... after my entry yesterday. I headed straight to my warm and cozy bed and got some sleep for a few hours. I bummed for the rest of the afternoon. Went to pick up suit from dry cleaners, and then bought some flats for work with the parents. Throughout the day I got sms's from Julie asking whether I was going to head into Metros as Lincoln was trying to recruit for the night. I wouldn't mind to have gone, but I was pretty buggered, and didn't really feel like clubbing. (Plus I had been there the past 2 Saturdays!) At about 5/6pm I get a call from Farhan asking what was happening tonight. I was like... "Well so far nothing, no one has organised anything..." Farhan was said that Kim and himself was up for some ktv tonight, and I was like "COOL!" I really wanted a good sesh after the morning. So went and made the rounds.
At 9pm I left my house for ktv! Was amped! was sooo excited again! First stop was Jesi's place to pick him up since he was car deprived because of a bang up a few weeks ago. It was a mission of a drive! Two reasons, first, because I made a turn too early and ended up going in the wrong direction. But it was good again! I was able to find my way. Secondly, for some reason this night, my car was getting mega fog. My windows, all of them were fogged up so thick and the anti-fog was doing absolutely nothing!
After picking up Jesi, we made our way to the city where I was going to pick up my Nintendo DS charger off Will from his work. Will has been busily working on his CA project... therefore depriving us of time to spend together. =( Was good to see him, I had not seen his new haircut and he looked fresh, and he was wearing the UWA jumper I bought him! WOO! ^.^
We then made our way into northbridge to Utopia where Farhan and Kim were waiting for us. It was buzzing this night. So many people!!! I bumped into Trinh!!!! She was there with her kung fu school! She is ultimate coolness! So super nice! = D We exchanged numbers, as I had neglected to do so last Saturday night (I knew that the guys were jealous! I picked up... yea!) Farhan and Kim then asked whether I was up for clubbing at Ruby Room. I was like "Nooo!?" I looked down at what I was wearing, jean skirt, boots and my adidas jumper... I was so not dressed for clubbing, plus I was supposed to be home by 1am... mandate from parents GRRRR.(Don't get me started...) But I guess if I didn't have that curfew, I would have accepted. I love the randomness... but yea, early night so no. There were no rooms in utopia for Ktv so we ordered bubble tea (me with the original milk tea, warm with sago - CHINAAA!) and then we walked to Hit Studio! The guy at the front desk was the same guy that served us that morning... we asked if he recognised us... sadly he said no. AWWW no fun!
We got a room and sung out little hearts till 1.30 (whoops) The time just flew, it did not feel like 1.30, in fact it felt like only 11.30, 12 something. *sigh* I just belted it. I did not hold back. The group dynamics was good again! It ended up being myself, Jesi, Farhan and Kim, but all of whom were open and at ktv to have a good time! Hit Studio is pretty cool, as they had quite a few modern songs! The only song I really wanted to sing was "No air" By Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown and "With you" by Chris Brown, but no such luck. I was able to find "Tattoo" by Jordin Sparks though, and there was "Summer Days" (the Grease song) which was SO AWESOME and went OFF!!!... that is until it was somehow "nexted" *sigh* The boys rocked with the usher and outkast songs. We then finished with Aerosmith "I don't wanna miss a thing." I was pretty relieved that we looked over Mariah...
Home time... and the damage for the paid parking was $7.50 Woo! I was praying it wasn't huge! Jesi had an "emergency" sms from his friends at Metros who all were drunk and unable to drive home, so I dropped him there so that he could be a good friend and be "Designated Dave". The drive home was pretty good... a part from the fact that my car was getting the ultimate fog part 2! *sigh*
But yea... good night! Loved it! Anyone wanna do more ktv... let me know ;)
At 9pm I left my house for ktv! Was amped! was sooo excited again! First stop was Jesi's place to pick him up since he was car deprived because of a bang up a few weeks ago. It was a mission of a drive! Two reasons, first, because I made a turn too early and ended up going in the wrong direction. But it was good again! I was able to find my way. Secondly, for some reason this night, my car was getting mega fog. My windows, all of them were fogged up so thick and the anti-fog was doing absolutely nothing!
After picking up Jesi, we made our way to the city where I was going to pick up my Nintendo DS charger off Will from his work. Will has been busily working on his CA project... therefore depriving us of time to spend together. =( Was good to see him, I had not seen his new haircut and he looked fresh, and he was wearing the UWA jumper I bought him! WOO! ^.^
We then made our way into northbridge to Utopia where Farhan and Kim were waiting for us. It was buzzing this night. So many people!!! I bumped into Trinh!!!! She was there with her kung fu school! She is ultimate coolness! So super nice! = D We exchanged numbers, as I had neglected to do so last Saturday night (I knew that the guys were jealous! I picked up... yea!) Farhan and Kim then asked whether I was up for clubbing at Ruby Room. I was like "Nooo!?" I looked down at what I was wearing, jean skirt, boots and my adidas jumper... I was so not dressed for clubbing, plus I was supposed to be home by 1am... mandate from parents GRRRR.(Don't get me started...) But I guess if I didn't have that curfew, I would have accepted. I love the randomness... but yea, early night so no. There were no rooms in utopia for Ktv so we ordered bubble tea (me with the original milk tea, warm with sago - CHINAAA!) and then we walked to Hit Studio! The guy at the front desk was the same guy that served us that morning... we asked if he recognised us... sadly he said no. AWWW no fun!
We got a room and sung out little hearts till 1.30 (whoops) The time just flew, it did not feel like 1.30, in fact it felt like only 11.30, 12 something. *sigh* I just belted it. I did not hold back. The group dynamics was good again! It ended up being myself, Jesi, Farhan and Kim, but all of whom were open and at ktv to have a good time! Hit Studio is pretty cool, as they had quite a few modern songs! The only song I really wanted to sing was "No air" By Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown and "With you" by Chris Brown, but no such luck. I was able to find "Tattoo" by Jordin Sparks though, and there was "Summer Days" (the Grease song) which was SO AWESOME and went OFF!!!... that is until it was somehow "nexted" *sigh* The boys rocked with the usher and outkast songs. We then finished with Aerosmith "I don't wanna miss a thing." I was pretty relieved that we looked over Mariah...
Home time... and the damage for the paid parking was $7.50 Woo! I was praying it wasn't huge! Jesi had an "emergency" sms from his friends at Metros who all were drunk and unable to drive home, so I dropped him there so that he could be a good friend and be "Designated Dave". The drive home was pretty good... a part from the fact that my car was getting the ultimate fog part 2! *sigh*
But yea... good night! Loved it! Anyone wanna do more ktv... let me know ;)
Labels: Friendship, Fun, KTV
Man... working really makes you appreciate your weekends. Work has just become stressful, and yea really needed to de-stress. Loved v-ball, though its got a bit tiring as a lot of people had piked *sigh* We even played with someone's dad... that was kinda strange, but he was quite good! The night ended with Kim hurting his finger... eww.. it didn't look too happy.
After v-ball we all went to hang at El's place. We decided to go for KFC and take one car, so Chia Hui and I went in one car to El's and Kim and El in the other. We arrived.. and then.. we realised "wheres Farhan?" LOL We had left him at the indoor beach volleyball centre, as he was having a shower! hAHhA... but its cool he had his own car, and soon enough, perfect timing, he arrived. LOL we all jumped into his cool lexus and then drive to KFC.
... after a few wrong and missed turns, we arrived at the drive in at KFC. "No air" by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown came on the radio, and since I loved it, started belting it out! Chia Hui, El and I in the back singing while the boys tried to order.. was funny! The people at KFC were like looking at us smiling... I thought... "whyyy not!" I was on this mega high, I looked down, found the window button, and rolled it down and started singing... LOL. The KFC ppl were cool though.
At El's place, we just smashed that KFC... spicy chicken... yum. I don't usually have KFC, actually never (was raised as a non KFCer) but yea looking at all the guys eating... it looked so good, and I already had hoped on board the unhealthy train, so i decided... "yeaaaaaa... why not," so I jumped on the express to unhealthiness... 3 of Chia Hui's cookies, 2 pieces of chicken and chips later... I was one stuffed monkey. I was soo full that when I should up I was unbalanced. But yea it was really good. Great conversation, all of us sucking on our fingers...We then had El's cupcakes which ROCKED!!!!!!! Loved the sprinkles... tasted soo good!!! It was really cool.
We then went for guitar hero which was fun! and I just loved El's bean bag. Sooo comfortable. We played for a while... then after a bit I was like... "i feel ktv!" Ever since singing in the car to "No Air" I just wanted to! So I was like pushing it... "cmon cmon cmon! we gotta live it up! Live life in the now! Be sporadic, random!!! I got my second wiiiind!" Everyone was like "WHAT? serious? its soo late?" and I am sure there was a mention of being "crazy." LOL I thought it was about 12.30 but no... it was like 2am! But after amping it up saying its going to be awesome, both Clem and Farhan was up for it!!! = D El decided to have a early night in... so she said home... so we all made our way to Northbridge.
Northbridge was surprisingly still packed at 2am on a Saturday morning! People were still trying to get into clubs and stuff. I was very surprised... and happy about it... Because if ktv didn't work out, we could do something else. The main thing in contention was what time ktv closed. I thought utopia closed at 4... but the boys thought 3am. So we decided to go to Hit Studio. But then we were like why dont we crash Farhan's friend's party... So he made a call to Jesi, and yea... it was a go. Walking there... Clem said "but but but... nothing good ever happens after 2am!?!?!?" (referring to what Ted said on How I Met Your Mother) I was like naaah... its going to be AWESOME!! Farhan explained that this was his "other crew" and Clem and I were like "awww...cool." Only when we were walking up the stairs of uptopia, did Farhan explain that.. this was his "old" crew who he hardly hangs out with anymore. Clem and I just looked at each other.. and were like "shiiit! that changes everything! we are no longer friend of a friend... we are randoms!" LOL
When we entered to room. It was... awkward. so many faces I didn't recognise. I saw Voon, Jesi and Kev. Thats about it. It was one of those big rooms too. Farhan then introduced us to the birthday girl, and yea we took our place. I sung 1 or 2 songs awkwardly... feeling like such a tool... and then soon enough utopia closed. So we then decided to go back to Hit Studio for one last hoorah. (Jesi and Kev piking!) Arriving there at 3, the guy at the counter said "look you'll only get about 45 mins." We were like... "yeaaa lets do it... we came here for a reason!" So we paid the guy 30 bucks for 45 mins of pure fun!
We DID it... we destroyed our voices! We sung Bon Jovi, Mariah (NB do not start off ktv with Mariah, she kills your voice range prematurely) Backstreet Boys, Westlife, Michael Jackson... we did all the bare essentials... and pushed our time in there by 15 mins after the dooude told us to leave! It was sick! We ended up getting that full hour!
We left feeling accomplished. It was exciting. It was... soo very on the fly and last minute... to tell you the truth, thats the cool parts of life. the unexpected things! All 3 of us, went out... in good faith, out to have a good time and being open... and it was sick! Arrived home at 5am... buggered but still had energy... was woken up at 7.50 by a sms from Dean whose in Geraldton...and then walked out the house at 8.15 for walkies with Julie. Now... I am here. on my laptop...blogging. What a morning!
After v-ball we all went to hang at El's place. We decided to go for KFC and take one car, so Chia Hui and I went in one car to El's and Kim and El in the other. We arrived.. and then.. we realised "wheres Farhan?" LOL We had left him at the indoor beach volleyball centre, as he was having a shower! hAHhA... but its cool he had his own car, and soon enough, perfect timing, he arrived. LOL we all jumped into his cool lexus and then drive to KFC.
... after a few wrong and missed turns, we arrived at the drive in at KFC. "No air" by Jordin Sparks and Chris Brown came on the radio, and since I loved it, started belting it out! Chia Hui, El and I in the back singing while the boys tried to order.. was funny! The people at KFC were like looking at us smiling... I thought... "whyyy not!" I was on this mega high, I looked down, found the window button, and rolled it down and started singing... LOL. The KFC ppl were cool though.
At El's place, we just smashed that KFC... spicy chicken... yum. I don't usually have KFC, actually never (was raised as a non KFCer) but yea looking at all the guys eating... it looked so good, and I already had hoped on board the unhealthy train, so i decided... "yeaaaaaa... why not," so I jumped on the express to unhealthiness... 3 of Chia Hui's cookies, 2 pieces of chicken and chips later... I was one stuffed monkey. I was soo full that when I should up I was unbalanced. But yea it was really good. Great conversation, all of us sucking on our fingers...We then had El's cupcakes which ROCKED!!!!!!! Loved the sprinkles... tasted soo good!!! It was really cool.
We then went for guitar hero which was fun! and I just loved El's bean bag. Sooo comfortable. We played for a while... then after a bit I was like... "i feel ktv!" Ever since singing in the car to "No Air" I just wanted to! So I was like pushing it... "cmon cmon cmon! we gotta live it up! Live life in the now! Be sporadic, random!!! I got my second wiiiind!" Everyone was like "WHAT? serious? its soo late?" and I am sure there was a mention of being "crazy." LOL I thought it was about 12.30 but no... it was like 2am! But after amping it up saying its going to be awesome, both Clem and Farhan was up for it!!! = D El decided to have a early night in... so she said home... so we all made our way to Northbridge.
Northbridge was surprisingly still packed at 2am on a Saturday morning! People were still trying to get into clubs and stuff. I was very surprised... and happy about it... Because if ktv didn't work out, we could do something else. The main thing in contention was what time ktv closed. I thought utopia closed at 4... but the boys thought 3am. So we decided to go to Hit Studio. But then we were like why dont we crash Farhan's friend's party... So he made a call to Jesi, and yea... it was a go. Walking there... Clem said "but but but... nothing good ever happens after 2am!?!?!?" (referring to what Ted said on How I Met Your Mother) I was like naaah... its going to be AWESOME!! Farhan explained that this was his "other crew" and Clem and I were like "awww...cool." Only when we were walking up the stairs of uptopia, did Farhan explain that.. this was his "old" crew who he hardly hangs out with anymore. Clem and I just looked at each other.. and were like "shiiit! that changes everything! we are no longer friend of a friend... we are randoms!" LOL
When we entered to room. It was... awkward. so many faces I didn't recognise. I saw Voon, Jesi and Kev. Thats about it. It was one of those big rooms too. Farhan then introduced us to the birthday girl, and yea we took our place. I sung 1 or 2 songs awkwardly... feeling like such a tool... and then soon enough utopia closed. So we then decided to go back to Hit Studio for one last hoorah. (Jesi and Kev piking!) Arriving there at 3, the guy at the counter said "look you'll only get about 45 mins." We were like... "yeaaa lets do it... we came here for a reason!" So we paid the guy 30 bucks for 45 mins of pure fun!
We DID it... we destroyed our voices! We sung Bon Jovi, Mariah (NB do not start off ktv with Mariah, she kills your voice range prematurely) Backstreet Boys, Westlife, Michael Jackson... we did all the bare essentials... and pushed our time in there by 15 mins after the dooude told us to leave! It was sick! We ended up getting that full hour!
We left feeling accomplished. It was exciting. It was... soo very on the fly and last minute... to tell you the truth, thats the cool parts of life. the unexpected things! All 3 of us, went out... in good faith, out to have a good time and being open... and it was sick! Arrived home at 5am... buggered but still had energy... was woken up at 7.50 by a sms from Dean whose in Geraldton...and then walked out the house at 8.15 for walkies with Julie. Now... I am here. on my laptop...blogging. What a morning!
Labels: Friendship, Fun, KTV, Sport
Why am I awake again so early? Yesteday I awoke after about 4 hours sleep after staying on the net for so long, and had no naps.. ttoday... this morning. I got to sleep around 5am and woke up at 8.50am! WHYYYYYYY???? I am so exhausted?!?!? At least im up tho, so I won't miss out on dim sum at 11.30.
Anywho last night... what a night! It rocked! very interesting, unexpecting, sporadic and a great time for the 3 Musketeers! It was the first time Lils, Jess and I hung out in a night time scene. I mean Jess and I bump into each other once in a while, but never Lils. So this was THE night.
We started out at the Brisbane for Trinh's and Teresa's 23rd birthday. I must not forget the unforgettable journey there. We all took time getting ready at Jess' place. I was make-up and hair stylist of the night... and I was a pretty nervous one. People don't realise how stressful it is to be asked to do someone's hair and make up. I found it scary as hell as they have entrusted you to make them look good. If you mess it up, millions of thoughts could run through thier mind "Did she know what she was doing?" "Oh she's pretty bad" "Oh she made me ugly on PURPOSE!" etc... So yea I was scared as hell. But the girls were pretty happy with the job *fewf* and there were practical consequences which I will explain later on...
The drive to the Brisbane was pretty epic! Lils was driving and had to turn left onto a street at a set of lights. But there was a give way lane and instead of going through it, she went through the lights and turned left. Haha.. I was on the phone at the time, but I then remembered seeing red and blue lights flashing in the window. LOL
Pulled over we all were like "OMG!!! LILY!!!" hahahah the cop approached the window, and Lils blurted out something like "oh yea I know what I did wrong, I went through the lights instead of the give way, I am sorry..." The cop kinda gave lils a blank look and said something like "Oh i'll give you a warning..." he then took out a breathalizer and asked her to breathe into it! Jess and I lost it, our Lils has never touched a drop of alcohol in her life. LOL. The cop was pretty cool about the whole thing though and gave Lils the tubey part from the breathalizer as a "keep sake."
Trinh's and Teresa's 23rd Birthday was pretty interesting. I didn't really know anyone there, a whole lot of familiar faces though, which I ended up finding names to! As a result of learning about all these people I foolishly made a bet with one of the new friends where I put entry into metros on the table... yea... I lost... but luckily, I wasn't asked to honour the bet. Hehe. Oh yea.. that was the other MAJOR unexpected turn of the night. We ended up at Metros. Its strange... when I was in the mood for clubbing and was into Metros.. I always had a average to crap time. By 1am I would be tired and feet would be sore as. But lately the past few weeks when I have been dreading going to Metros... its been... well frankly, awesome!
It was soo cool... Lils, Jess, Trinh Robert and I were the ones who lasted the night, we danced out little booties out! Heaps of people were there surprisingly! I bumped into Vanni and Penny in the girls toilets, I ended up dancing next to the Chia Hui, Eloise, Mei, Fahan, Kim and Voon group... I saw Eddie (who left quite early) and found Yorma for a few seconds as he was looking for a lost and very drunk Hanif.
This night was a strange night. Because within our little group, everyone got hit on... at the beginning there were a group of guys dancing around us. One behind me was relatively close, but I didn't think much of it until after a good 10 mins Robert leaned over and asked "Do you want me to save you?" I was like "HUH!??! They aren't YOUR friends?!" So yea... Robert did his manly duties and scared the guys away. Jess was appoached at the bar by some guy in pink. Where she shut him down pretty neat, and Trinh... well she got some guy grabbing her hand and gave it a kiss. LOL (whilst Robert was away). The epic pick up was... LILS!!!! hahaha!
There were these guys dancing around us... and I kinda saw 2 of them talking and glancing and our beautiful, mysterious and unassuming Lils. After a while, I leaned to Jess and said "Look out, Lils has caught someone..." Just as I turned back to look at Lils, one of the guys was leaning into Lils and pointing to his tall friend. Awwww it was sooo cool. Lils politely declined (as polite as one can be at a club) But for the rest of the night, we could not shake those guys off... the tall shy guy had it bad for lils... hehehe...
We ended up leaving around 4... and I was surprised at how the night just turned out. Now Im buzzing on 8 hours in total of sleep from Friday and Sat night... I hope to catch a hell early night coz i know im gonna be screwed for work tm...
P.S
Ah... special shout out to Linc-dwag who I neglected to mention as one the cool peeps that I bumped into at Metros. ;)
Labels: Birthday, Clubbing, Friendship
祝你生日快乐 Mich!!!!! = D - Happy Birthday!!!
Last night was Mich's 21st birthday bash, and it was a pretty awesome night! It great to catch up with the China gang all over again! It has been a while since we had all been together!!!
I hastly packed my stuff in order to meet Julie in Claremont. I had to take the trains... so since I was a Northie... it took a while! But once there... it was good again! Jules and I went to the bottleshop and bought el cheapo alcohol! Jules bought some good old passion pop (which actually tasted better than what I remembered it to taste like) and I bought some el cheapo red wine.
We then dropped of some decorations for the MSU river cruise at the Jetty then sped to Mich's place to get ready. We had a little navigation problems... but it was ok in the end! When we entered, AWW! It was great to see Rhianna, Manuel and Birand again! I was so surprised to see them because I had forgotten that they would be there at Mich's place! Throughout the night I was like in awe that they were actually here! I couldn't believe it!!! It was... sooo surreal! Like I never really expected to see them again. ^___^
Anyways... we all got ready mega quick and headed out to Jade Dynasty. The banquet was pretty awesome... it started with... 北京烤鸭！ (Beijing Duck). AWWWW *drool* it tasted soo good! It was good to taste it again! We also had some... lettuce wrap thingos with the duck meat, and other dishes... which I cannot really remember. I know there was a vegie dish, there was a chicken dish (chicken had really crispy skin) and there was a fish dish too.
Afterwards, we went to utopia to have our cheap drinks and then we went to Metros! *augh* metros again... but hey. We were already a little tipsy... so it was good again! It was really cool hanging out again with the China gang again! It was pretty fun! Mich in particular had a VERY good time... and we left around 2.30ish. The funniest thing happened in the taxi though. After we were trying to describe to the taxi driver where to go... Mich then says "Xie xie!" We all just lost it! it was soo random especially since the taxi driver was not chinese. The taxi driver then replies with "Xie xie ni!" hahahah how gold!!!! = D
Anywho... yea... a pretty awesome night I must say! Made extra special since we have our guests from over east! = D
Labels: Birthday, China Gang, Chinese, Clubbing, Food, Friendship, Party
hehHEhe... it has been a while since I've had a good day of randomness! And yesterday was the day to break that!
It was also the day where it friggin 下雨!! (rained) I couldnt believe my ears in the morning when I heard the roaring thunder... I was like...
"no friggin way..."
*second thought*
"Siiiick"
*rolled over and went to sleep again*
Anywho... eventually made my way to uni... was going to meet up with what was left of our friends at uni for luncheon at 12. So yea... I was getting my 学习 (study) on... well as much as I could possibly do. (I have been lacking the heart lately. Just being half assed. Like right now, I am supposed to be listening to my employment law lecture... but the lecture keeps cutting out... and for like 1 hour I've been attempting to listen to the rest of it... but I've given up. Anywho. yea... eventually 12 came around so I left the law library and headed to the tav.
It was still raining! It was like winter!!! Yorma had a great idea for some yum cha! It was cold, grey, wet and miserable... sooo perfect! So Adrian, Kean, Yorma and I went to Joy Garden. (Oh yea... Adrian bumped into Charlene, whilst on the way to meet us, and she was gonna come with, but she had class at 1pm = ( )
Anywho... yum cha was pretty fun. Pretty good catch up. Interesting conversations... LOL I think the thing that stands out was... the FAILS! Yes... the fails.. it started with poor old Adrian. He was being such a gentleman... he offered to share the fried seaweed roll thingo (yea... i got no idea what the name is) so he took his 筷子 (Chopsticks) and started "cutting" in in half, until we hear this *SNAAAP!* LOL Yorma and Keans face said it all!!! Adrian was there looking at the uncut seaweed roll and his chopstick that had been snapped into half! (HrmMm whats in that seaweed roll?) LOL was gold!!!
The second fail... was perpetrated by me... yes... mee... *sigh* I've always used chopsticks frequently and in China you would have thought that I would have obtained ultimate chopstick skills... but no... I went to take the ... (yea... shit... i dont know the name of this dish either) the dish where its like a wet spring roll kinda thing, but inside it is only prawns and it is drizzled with soy sauce... (really, have I learned ANYTHING in china?!?!?) yea... as I was bringing it over to my plate, *BLOINK!* a piece of it fell nicely into my friggin tea!!!!!!!!!!!! >___< left =" (" size="4"> 买单 (Bill) hehehe you'll never see this when you go for yum cha.
It was also the day where it friggin 下雨!! (rained) I couldnt believe my ears in the morning when I heard the roaring thunder... I was like...
"no friggin way..."
*second thought*
"Siiiick"
*rolled over and went to sleep again*
Anywho... eventually made my way to uni... was going to meet up with what was left of our friends at uni for luncheon at 12. So yea... I was getting my 学习 (study) on... well as much as I could possibly do. (I have been lacking the heart lately. Just being half assed. Like right now, I am supposed to be listening to my employment law lecture... but the lecture keeps cutting out... and for like 1 hour I've been attempting to listen to the rest of it... but I've given up. Anywho. yea... eventually 12 came around so I left the law library and headed to the tav.
It was still raining! It was like winter!!! Yorma had a great idea for some yum cha! It was cold, grey, wet and miserable... sooo perfect! So Adrian, Kean, Yorma and I went to Joy Garden. (Oh yea... Adrian bumped into Charlene, whilst on the way to meet us, and she was gonna come with, but she had class at 1pm = ( )
Anywho... yum cha was pretty fun. Pretty good catch up. Interesting conversations... LOL I think the thing that stands out was... the FAILS! Yes... the fails.. it started with poor old Adrian. He was being such a gentleman... he offered to share the fried seaweed roll thingo (yea... i got no idea what the name is) so he took his 筷子 (Chopsticks) and started "cutting" in in half, until we hear this *SNAAAP!* LOL Yorma and Keans face said it all!!! Adrian was there looking at the uncut seaweed roll and his chopstick that had been snapped into half! (HrmMm whats in that seaweed roll?) LOL was gold!!!
The second fail... was perpetrated by me... yes... mee... *sigh* I've always used chopsticks frequently and in China you would have thought that I would have obtained ultimate chopstick skills... but no... I went to take the ... (yea... shit... i dont know the name of this dish either) the dish where its like a wet spring roll kinda thing, but inside it is only prawns and it is drizzled with soy sauce... (really, have I learned ANYTHING in china?!?!?) yea... as I was bringing it over to my plate, *BLOINK!* a piece of it fell nicely into my friggin tea!!!!!!!!!!!! >___< left =" (" size="4"> 买单 (Bill) hehehe you'll never see this when you go for yum cha.
Anyway afterwards I returned to uni for some good study. I then get a call from the UWA sports centre saying that our soccer game had been cancelled as the other team forefeited because they had a graduation to go to. I let Adrian know becasue he said he might have come to watch us after his hiphop class and karate. He then smsed me back asking whether I wanted to join him for dancing... I was like HrmMM... well if I went.. I would stay back at uni, and study more... So I agreed, despite wearing the most unappriopiate clothing for it. (Jeans, thongs).
Was a really good decision though! I had heaps of fun! = ) I think I preferred the dance here rather than the sat classes (the one Chia Hui and I went to) It was more... popping and locking... less smooth... the Sat class was a lot more like usher style I think. But yea... unfortunately I can't continue it regularly... no time... no moola... *sigh*. Adding to the randomness... We actually came in a little late. So we just ran to the back. Adrian was in the back row, I was in the second back row... I get a tap on my shoulder and theres Amy! Adrian had plonked himself right next to her! hHEHEhe! Random!!!
Labels: Chinese, Food, Friendship, Fun
Reading over my blog entries from November 2007 till Feburary 2008 made me realise how quickly time passed.
Things that seem to have happened a few weeks ago, actually happend months ago... Reading my blog made me realise that. I guess I have been guilty of re-living the past and relishing on whatever I can savour from my time in China. I loved it... so sue me if I want to hold onto it. = )
Ok... 3 words that will sum up my condition... "Reverse Cultural Shock":
"Reverse cultural shock is actually more difficult to deal with than the original cultural shock experienced when entering a new land. This is because most people don't anticipate the need for adjustment when returning to their home country."
Little quirks from my blog entry. I apolgise for the incorrect spelling of names. I have seen myelf misspelling Quentin's name wrong on so many levels... hahaha. Gabriel and Hanalee I have spelt so wrong as well... EEP! Ive even spelt Zhejiang Daxue wrong a few times... though I think they might have been sevre typos.!
My Chinese... LOL well its getting there. I am really furstrated with the fact that I have really high expectations of myself, and I really thought that I could come back and speak good coversational Chinese. I can speak... basic.. and thats about it. But... I guess what is a bit rewarding is that all the beginner's books, programs that I have bought or downloaded I can understand most of the content in it. So I guess that means I have made some progress.
Things I will NOT miss about China. Well first of all... I will not miss the spitting. The hacking, and that noise that comes from your the back of your throat or nose, I am not surewhere its from... I will defiantely not miss that. The smoking... awww I am soo happy we are back in Australia... my lungs can breathe again. The pushyness... well I dont like being pushed around in general, but in China I think I got used to it. Also some of the rudeness... there are some rude people... but thats how it is in most places in the world.
Things I WILL miss about China. How cheap things are....tasty food that you can walk down the street and pick up.
I will miss the random Chinese candy! I will miss the jaozi or dumplings!!! AWWW I miss the ones from the canteen at Zhejiang! I will miss the baozi or steamed buns that I would eat every morning in Hangzhou from the shitang before class, I will miss the 1.50 Kuai Ice cream that I always bought every day from the same little shop a few doors down from our dorms in Beijing... (the guy rocks! everytime I walk in there, he knows what I want, he gets the icecream out before I ask... and If there are time when I cannot find it, he will find it for me. AHHH!!!) I will miss Beijing Kao ya (peking duck) I will miss Nai Cha (Bubble tea/Milk Tea).
I will miss trying all those awesomely packaged drinks that only once you take a sip of it, you realise it tastes like shit.
I will miss the pomelo!
I will miss the lifestyle of being a foreign student learning Chinese. Living in the dorms and being able to go to class in your Pjs (which I ended up doing in Beijing). Trying to talk to locals... being lost in translation...getting away with things because you are foreign... Meeting people from different countries, cultures and languages. Learning about the differences between Australia, China and everywhere else. All those little cultural idiosyncracies facinate me and I just get filled up with .... I don't know... awe?
Clubbing!! awww I will miss the clubbing, how stupidly cheap drinks are! Transportation via taxi being hell cheap. In Hangzhou... I miss S.O.S and Maccas... perfect stumbling/sobering up distance from the dorms.... I will miss the bikes!!! Jeeemes! CHINAAA! I will miss K TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was not really big on K tv... I thought it was kinda pussy and like I mean I would do it for kicks and have heaps of fun... but once in China... I've become addicted to it! I love it!!! miss it already! got huge withdraw symptoms. The Ktv ROCKS! There are plasma/flatscreens there are party lights, there are tamberines, there are cool computers there that help you select the songs... they serve food!!!!
I will miss the freedom. Being able to think of something to do and on the spot be able to organise it and do it! Being able to have the carefee attitude of "yeaaa why not?" and there is nothing or no one there to stop you from doing it. Being spontaneous! I love it! AAAAHHH... CHINAAA!!!
Oh wells... thats my reflection of China. Wo xiang zhongguo!
Things that seem to have happened a few weeks ago, actually happend months ago... Reading my blog made me realise that. I guess I have been guilty of re-living the past and relishing on whatever I can savour from my time in China. I loved it... so sue me if I want to hold onto it. = )
Ok... 3 words that will sum up my condition... "Reverse Cultural Shock":
"Reverse cultural shock is actually more difficult to deal with than the original cultural shock experienced when entering a new land. This is because most people don't anticipate the need for adjustment when returning to their home country."
Little quirks from my blog entry. I apolgise for the incorrect spelling of names. I have seen myelf misspelling Quentin's name wrong on so many levels... hahaha. Gabriel and Hanalee I have spelt so wrong as well... EEP! Ive even spelt Zhejiang Daxue wrong a few times... though I think they might have been sevre typos.!
My Chinese... LOL well its getting there. I am really furstrated with the fact that I have really high expectations of myself, and I really thought that I could come back and speak good coversational Chinese. I can speak... basic.. and thats about it. But... I guess what is a bit rewarding is that all the beginner's books, programs that I have bought or downloaded I can understand most of the content in it. So I guess that means I have made some progress.
Things I will NOT miss about China. Well first of all... I will not miss the spitting. The hacking, and that noise that comes from your the back of your throat or nose, I am not surewhere its from... I will defiantely not miss that. The smoking... awww I am soo happy we are back in Australia... my lungs can breathe again. The pushyness... well I dont like being pushed around in general, but in China I think I got used to it. Also some of the rudeness... there are some rude people... but thats how it is in most places in the world.
Things I WILL miss about China. How cheap things are....tasty food that you can walk down the street and pick up.
I will miss the random Chinese candy! I will miss the jaozi or dumplings!!! AWWW I miss the ones from the canteen at Zhejiang! I will miss the baozi or steamed buns that I would eat every morning in Hangzhou from the shitang before class, I will miss the 1.50 Kuai Ice cream that I always bought every day from the same little shop a few doors down from our dorms in Beijing... (the guy rocks! everytime I walk in there, he knows what I want, he gets the icecream out before I ask... and If there are time when I cannot find it, he will find it for me. AHHH!!!) I will miss Beijing Kao ya (peking duck) I will miss Nai Cha (Bubble tea/Milk Tea).
I will miss trying all those awesomely packaged drinks that only once you take a sip of it, you realise it tastes like shit.
I will miss the pomelo!
I will miss the lifestyle of being a foreign student learning Chinese. Living in the dorms and being able to go to class in your Pjs (which I ended up doing in Beijing). Trying to talk to locals... being lost in translation...getting away with things because you are foreign... Meeting people from different countries, cultures and languages. Learning about the differences between Australia, China and everywhere else. All those little cultural idiosyncracies facinate me and I just get filled up with .... I don't know... awe?
Clubbing!! awww I will miss the clubbing, how stupidly cheap drinks are! Transportation via taxi being hell cheap. In Hangzhou... I miss S.O.S and Maccas... perfect stumbling/sobering up distance from the dorms.... I will miss the bikes!!! Jeeemes! CHINAAA! I will miss K TV!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was not really big on K tv... I thought it was kinda pussy and like I mean I would do it for kicks and have heaps of fun... but once in China... I've become addicted to it! I love it!!! miss it already! got huge withdraw symptoms. The Ktv ROCKS! There are plasma/flatscreens there are party lights, there are tamberines, there are cool computers there that help you select the songs... they serve food!!!!
I will miss the freedom. Being able to think of something to do and on the spot be able to organise it and do it! Being able to have the carefee attitude of "yeaaa why not?" and there is nothing or no one there to stop you from doing it. Being spontaneous! I love it! AAAAHHH... CHINAAA!!!
Oh wells... thats my reflection of China. Wo xiang zhongguo!
Labels: China, Chinese, Clubbing, Food, Friendship, KTV, Opinion, Travel
你好! 现在我的电脑有汉子！我很高兴！
But Yea... I'm not that "Ultimate Chinese" enough to be able to write more than a few sentences! hhEhHE..
Anyways, I am now at home... returned to Perth on the 6th of February. How sad. The epic ends! I should though recall what we did in the few days that we spent in Hong Kong!
星期五, 二月一号 (Friday 1st Feb)
We pretty much had our graduation ceremony as I had descibed in my previous entry. It was sad. We had our lunch and then after that, we all just chilled for a bit, I packed... and yea. We were supposed to hit the town that night. I went to KFC for the last time! I ordered the "Beijing" wrap *sob* it was going to be my last one evvvverrrrr!!!
Afterwards I realised I was pretty buggered... and since we were going to go to the airport really early, waking up at 5am to take the bus, I piked. Megan and I stayed home with most of the gang. I stayed up pretty late though. I think I was chatting and uploading photos! EhHE... we also took some farewell photos!
星期六， 二月二号 (Saturday 2nd Feb)
Early in the morning, say about... 3ish while enjoying the little slumber that I could afford, I hear a noise... I hear a bang at the door and in storms Timu "Tim" shouting "Sasssss!! Hello Sas!" People had returned from Propaganda! I was pretty much out of it, but Megan and I said my goodbyes to Timu and then rolled back to sleep. We then awoke at about 4.30 to get to our bus in time.
Our luggage... was alright. We had the bus ride there and once we arrived at the airport we got out trolleys. Megan and I were nervously hoping that our luggage weight would be ok. Megan was 28kg and I was 27kg... ewwwiess... But nevertheless Dragonair allowed us to go in! I think it was also because we were so stupidly early. We were there at about 7am and our flight was at 10.30am.
Megan and I said our goodbyes to the other group, and we went around shopping for a bit...but eventually at some breakfast and crashed on the chairs there. We had some good sleep there.
The flight was pretty alright... the food had Hagendaz! Was soo good! Megan got a 2nd serving! I was pretty much out of it for the whole flight. I was zoinked! Like... to the point where I went into my optimum sleeping position >.< size="4">我听说 (I heard) from Megan and Will that the place where we were staying at was crazily in the middle of the main area in Hong Kong. Little did I know that they meant like literally smack bang in the middle of Causway bay. I had no concept of what Causeway Bay was, and it was only until we arrived did I appreciate it!
This night Megan and I just went out for dinner. We ended up having Maccas ehehehe. We had the Pepper burger, which was packaged in a Chinese New Year box. The burger was in a box which looked like an Ox and the chips were curly fries like a rat's/mouse's tail and the box was a mouse!
星期天，二月三号 （Sunday 3rd Feb)
This day, I met up with Lily! It was such a cool day! It was cool to see someone who was so dear from home, in Hong Kong after weeks away from home!
I must admit, I was a right poo intially! I had overslept and had Lily waiting for me at the bodyshop (next to our apartment) for 20 mins! Her friend Trinh had to ring me to see where I was. 我起床 (I got out of bed) as quickly as I could!!! I was like Flash Gordon 快点！
I felt sooo bad! Lily was there waiting for me!!! But she still gave me the biggest hug!!!
We went up stairs and I showed her where we were staying. Megan was still in bed and needed to get ready, so Lils and I went to get some breakfast. We went to Mix which had some nice healthy food! I ordered a fruit drink... was soo good!!!!
Once we met up with Megan we went to the Avenue of the Stars! We took some happy snaps there and then had a drink at a cafe there so that we could have access to the internet!
Lily and I then went to the Art Museum whilst Megan used the net. The artwork was sooo good!!! Wan Qingli was one of our favorites. I have heard terms such as "a brush with Irony" which describes his style and themes behind his work.
Afterwards we met up with Megan again... we walked around Hong Kong, took the Ferry, bought some souvenirs and then went for some Vegetarian dinner!!! Lily drew Hong Kong, Megan, and attempted to draw me again (as I have a strange face, it is difficult to draw me hehehe) and she read our palms! Aaaahhh It was good to have Lils again! hehehe
星期一，二月四号（Monday4th Feb)
Today was SHOPPING and HAIR! Megan and I met up with her Dez at about 10.30ish, and we went for lunch at the Spaghetti House. The food was pretty alright... the place in general was pretty alright, minus them messing up my order!!!
Afterwards we met up with Lincoln, Mich, Christine and Julie at the Bodyshop! But Megan and I had filthy grease hair. So we took them to a hair salon that looked alright. It was called "More." When we went upstairs to the place, it looked really quiet. But pretty swish. Megan decided to have her hair washed and then permed. I was determined to get hair like Hyori... hahaha so I had my hair dyed and washed. Lincoln being the cool man that he is, jumped on the ban wagon and got his hair cut and styled.
They did a pretty good job. I love my hair color, its not a crazy brown/red, its a subtle chocolate brown. Perfect color really. Lincoln's hair looked awesome, and Megan's perm was really good! it was not too curly but natural waves! The only downer was that they did not have enough staff on, as we found out later, we had actually popped in on their opening day! We were like their 5th customers ever!!!
The rest of the day was shopping, a crazy dinner with roast goose and then we went looking for a bar to chill! We found these buildings which had bars on like every floor. So we all squeezed into a lift and pressed the button for every floor and checked each bar out. HehEhE... we were totally hogging the lift! We ended up choosing a place which was 100 $HKD for unlimited cocktails! = ) We did a lot of dancing and singing, as it was kinda like an open room with Karaoke. No mic... but tvs. hahah.
星期二，二月五号（Wednesday 5th Feb)
Michelle 和我一起去 DISNEYLAAAAAANNNNDD!! （Michelle and I went to Disneyland!)
This was the coolest day! I loooove disney! We were like in heaven! Michelle accepted me in "her gang" for the day ;) We bought minnie ears so that we could wear it during the day and in all of our photos! We went on as many rides as we could. But we mainly wanted to get photos of the characters as well as see the performances!
The performances were pretty awesome! We went and saw the Lion King, and the Golden Mickeys and a Stitch performance where Stitch actually talks to the audience! I think my favourite performance would have been either the Lion King or the Golden Mickeys. The live performances was sooo good... it ... nearly brought me to tears again... hahaha. The Lion King was a 30 min musical which had all the songs from the movie! I really liked "can you feel the love tonight, " "Hakuna Matata" and "Be prepared."
The Golden Mickeys was like the Academy Awards, and they showcased songs from the movies such as beauty and the beast, the little mermaid, Tarzan, Mulan.... it was sooo coool!!!!
We stayed there the whole day! from 12pm till 8pm!
星期三，二月六号 （Wednesday 6th Feb)
This was it. We were leaving. I felt ready to go home though. I think I was really tired, and I was missing Will, friends and family. Dez came and hung out with us in the morning, we had some breakfast at Mix, and then he walked us to our Bus. There was a little drama where I had misplaced my itinerary and I needed to find which Airport Terminal to go to. But Luckily I was able to contact my brother who told me I was at Terminal 1.
Our luggage was not as bad as our flight from China to Hong Kong. I had re-packed so that my luggage was 25.7kg. I think Megan's was 27kg. My hand luggage though... was EPIC. I had my handbag and my laptop bag which were both packed to thier capacities. I also had my hand carry luggage which was full and... I had Xiao Da Bian.
Xiao Da Bian had been alright for the flight to Hong Kong as I had the window seat. So I squished him on the window and used him as my pillow. This time... nah... I was in the middle of the row. So I had to put him up with all the other hand carry. HEhEHe... it was cool though. All the fuwuyans at the airport were looking at him and loved him... yeaaa they were jealous... hahahah a few of them asked me what his name was... and I had to sheepishly reply with "Xian Da Bian". they would all give me this blank, shocked, disbelieving look... and then when I would repeat his name... they would laugh. HAHAHa... yeaa.
When I was leaving the plane... the airline hostess said "he should have had a ticket!" hehehe. Yea.. he is big. LOL I love Xiao Da Bian!
But yea... thats pretty much the conclusion of the EPIC trip to CHINA... *sigh* it was fantastic!!!
But Yea... I'm not that "Ultimate Chinese" enough to be able to write more than a few sentences! hhEhHE..
Anyways, I am now at home... returned to Perth on the 6th of February. How sad. The epic ends! I should though recall what we did in the few days that we spent in Hong Kong!
星期五, 二月一号 (Friday 1st Feb)
We pretty much had our graduation ceremony as I had descibed in my previous entry. It was sad. We had our lunch and then after that, we all just chilled for a bit, I packed... and yea. We were supposed to hit the town that night. I went to KFC for the last time! I ordered the "Beijing" wrap *sob* it was going to be my last one evvvverrrrr!!!
Afterwards I realised I was pretty buggered... and since we were going to go to the airport really early, waking up at 5am to take the bus, I piked. Megan and I stayed home with most of the gang. I stayed up pretty late though. I think I was chatting and uploading photos! EhHE... we also took some farewell photos!
星期六， 二月二号 (Saturday 2nd Feb)
Early in the morning, say about... 3ish while enjoying the little slumber that I could afford, I hear a noise... I hear a bang at the door and in storms Timu "Tim" shouting "Sasssss!! Hello Sas!" People had returned from Propaganda! I was pretty much out of it, but Megan and I said my goodbyes to Timu and then rolled back to sleep. We then awoke at about 4.30 to get to our bus in time.
Our luggage... was alright. We had the bus ride there and once we arrived at the airport we got out trolleys. Megan and I were nervously hoping that our luggage weight would be ok. Megan was 28kg and I was 27kg... ewwwiess... But nevertheless Dragonair allowed us to go in! I think it was also because we were so stupidly early. We were there at about 7am and our flight was at 10.30am.
Megan and I said our goodbyes to the other group, and we went around shopping for a bit...but eventually at some breakfast and crashed on the chairs there. We had some good sleep there.
The flight was pretty alright... the food had Hagendaz! Was soo good! Megan got a 2nd serving! I was pretty much out of it for the whole flight. I was zoinked! Like... to the point where I went into my optimum sleeping position >.< size="4">我听说 (I heard) from Megan and Will that the place where we were staying at was crazily in the middle of the main area in Hong Kong. Little did I know that they meant like literally smack bang in the middle of Causway bay. I had no concept of what Causeway Bay was, and it was only until we arrived did I appreciate it!
This night Megan and I just went out for dinner. We ended up having Maccas ehehehe. We had the Pepper burger, which was packaged in a Chinese New Year box. The burger was in a box which looked like an Ox and the chips were curly fries like a rat's/mouse's tail and the box was a mouse!
星期天，二月三号 （Sunday 3rd Feb)
This day, I met up with Lily! It was such a cool day! It was cool to see someone who was so dear from home, in Hong Kong after weeks away from home!
I must admit, I was a right poo intially! I had overslept and had Lily waiting for me at the bodyshop (next to our apartment) for 20 mins! Her friend Trinh had to ring me to see where I was. 我起床 (I got out of bed) as quickly as I could!!! I was like Flash Gordon 快点！
I felt sooo bad! Lily was there waiting for me!!! But she still gave me the biggest hug!!!
We went up stairs and I showed her where we were staying. Megan was still in bed and needed to get ready, so Lils and I went to get some breakfast. We went to Mix which had some nice healthy food! I ordered a fruit drink... was soo good!!!!
Once we met up with Megan we went to the Avenue of the Stars! We took some happy snaps there and then had a drink at a cafe there so that we could have access to the internet!
Lily and I then went to the Art Museum whilst Megan used the net. The artwork was sooo good!!! Wan Qingli was one of our favorites. I have heard terms such as "a brush with Irony" which describes his style and themes behind his work.
Afterwards we met up with Megan again... we walked around Hong Kong, took the Ferry, bought some souvenirs and then went for some Vegetarian dinner!!! Lily drew Hong Kong, Megan, and attempted to draw me again (as I have a strange face, it is difficult to draw me hehehe) and she read our palms! Aaaahhh It was good to have Lils again! hehehe
星期一，二月四号（Monday4th Feb)
Today was SHOPPING and HAIR! Megan and I met up with her Dez at about 10.30ish, and we went for lunch at the Spaghetti House. The food was pretty alright... the place in general was pretty alright, minus them messing up my order!!!
Afterwards we met up with Lincoln, Mich, Christine and Julie at the Bodyshop! But Megan and I had filthy grease hair. So we took them to a hair salon that looked alright. It was called "More." When we went upstairs to the place, it looked really quiet. But pretty swish. Megan decided to have her hair washed and then permed. I was determined to get hair like Hyori... hahaha so I had my hair dyed and washed. Lincoln being the cool man that he is, jumped on the ban wagon and got his hair cut and styled.
They did a pretty good job. I love my hair color, its not a crazy brown/red, its a subtle chocolate brown. Perfect color really. Lincoln's hair looked awesome, and Megan's perm was really good! it was not too curly but natural waves! The only downer was that they did not have enough staff on, as we found out later, we had actually popped in on their opening day! We were like their 5th customers ever!!!
The rest of the day was shopping, a crazy dinner with roast goose and then we went looking for a bar to chill! We found these buildings which had bars on like every floor. So we all squeezed into a lift and pressed the button for every floor and checked each bar out. HehEhE... we were totally hogging the lift! We ended up choosing a place which was 100 $HKD for unlimited cocktails! = ) We did a lot of dancing and singing, as it was kinda like an open room with Karaoke. No mic... but tvs. hahah.
星期二，二月五号（Wednesday 5th Feb)
Michelle 和我一起去 DISNEYLAAAAAANNNNDD!! （Michelle and I went to Disneyland!)
This was the coolest day! I loooove disney! We were like in heaven! Michelle accepted me in "her gang" for the day ;) We bought minnie ears so that we could wear it during the day and in all of our photos! We went on as many rides as we could. But we mainly wanted to get photos of the characters as well as see the performances!
The performances were pretty awesome! We went and saw the Lion King, and the Golden Mickeys and a Stitch performance where Stitch actually talks to the audience! I think my favourite performance would have been either the Lion King or the Golden Mickeys. The live performances was sooo good... it ... nearly brought me to tears again... hahaha. The Lion King was a 30 min musical which had all the songs from the movie! I really liked "can you feel the love tonight, " "Hakuna Matata" and "Be prepared."
The Golden Mickeys was like the Academy Awards, and they showcased songs from the movies such as beauty and the beast, the little mermaid, Tarzan, Mulan.... it was sooo coool!!!!
We stayed there the whole day! from 12pm till 8pm!
星期三，二月六号 （Wednesday 6th Feb)
This was it. We were leaving. I felt ready to go home though. I think I was really tired, and I was missing Will, friends and family. Dez came and hung out with us in the morning, we had some breakfast at Mix, and then he walked us to our Bus. There was a little drama where I had misplaced my itinerary and I needed to find which Airport Terminal to go to. But Luckily I was able to contact my brother who told me I was at Terminal 1.
Our luggage was not as bad as our flight from China to Hong Kong. I had re-packed so that my luggage was 25.7kg. I think Megan's was 27kg. My hand luggage though... was EPIC. I had my handbag and my laptop bag which were both packed to thier capacities. I also had my hand carry luggage which was full and... I had Xiao Da Bian.
Xiao Da Bian had been alright for the flight to Hong Kong as I had the window seat. So I squished him on the window and used him as my pillow. This time... nah... I was in the middle of the row. So I had to put him up with all the other hand carry. HEhEHe... it was cool though. All the fuwuyans at the airport were looking at him and loved him... yeaaa they were jealous... hahahah a few of them asked me what his name was... and I had to sheepishly reply with "Xian Da Bian". they would all give me this blank, shocked, disbelieving look... and then when I would repeat his name... they would laugh. HAHAHa... yeaa.
When I was leaving the plane... the airline hostess said "he should have had a ticket!" hehehe. Yea.. he is big. LOL I love Xiao Da Bian!
But yea... thats pretty much the conclusion of the EPIC trip to CHINA... *sigh* it was fantastic!!!
Labels: Art, China Gang, Chinese, Food, Friendship, Hong Kong, Shopping, Travel
Mega Catch Up
I was still shitting myself. Ok…I had the general gist of what to do, but not down pack. I packed it even more when I saw that I was not going to be alone at this part of the slope, but about 30 instructors were just standing in the middle of the slope for some filming.
What really got me to turn my fear around was Kenny. Kenny was like me, never snowboarded in his life. For lunch the girls told him accidently that the lodge is at the very top of the mountain… yea… not cool. So he had to snowboard down himself… BUT he did it, and learned how to go down falling leaf all by himself. My inspiration!
After going down from the mid point and hearing that Kenny made it to the bottom alive… I “man-ed” up and took the plunge. Went to the very top of the slope… and I never looked back! It was scary, invigorating and a great way to learn to snowboard! The slope is long, and since I was only going down one way my legs burned like hell!!! I ended up having to try to forget the pain of lactic acid in my thighs by singing while I snowboarded down… ahahahah… but by the end of the day, I would just make myself fall over to let my legs rest!
The day would have been perfect if the next part didn’t happen. I was super cold and tired, so I changed and returned my clothes and gear. When I walked out to see everyone again and I went to buy some Nai Cha (Milk Tea) I realised I had no money in my wallet. I had taken all my money out and put it in the pocket of the snow jacket I had borrowed! I ran to everyone and told them and we made our way to the hiring desk. I had only JUST returned it, and I wore a green jumpsuit in size small which was not that popular. We told the people there, and they let us look in all of the pockets of the size small green. But… all the pockets had been opened and my money was no longer there. The people there were asking whether I had kept my pocket open and perhaps I had dropped it. But I knew this was not the case. I saw that every time they received the snow gear back they checked the pockets then and there. Someone… blatantly lied to me and someone got themselves an extra 400 kuai. *sigh*
Lincoln, Me and Kenny - Boarders Baby!!!
Lincoln, Michelle and I eating some Lunch on the slope
Xingqiyi (Monday) 21 January – Xingqisi (Thursday) 24 Janurary
We pretty much continued having classes in the morning. But instead of going to the afternoon activities that were available to us, we went out shopping this week! We realised we only had 1 more week left. So we took the ditie (underground train) to the Silk Market and Xi dan. They are awesome places to go shopping! This holiday I did not buy a lot of clothes, but I bought a lot of “Zhongguo dongxi” (Chinese Stuff) Such as my name in a chop/seal/stamp. I had them put Xia An Na in the traditional script. I also bought some cool water paintings of the Great Wall, Huang Shan and some Pandas. I was looking for a painting of Xi Hu (West Lake) in
To tell you the truth, the night market in
One of the coolest buys was… I bought a Zhongguo MP3 player!! Because what happened was the day after snowboarding, my ipod died on me!!! I plugged poddie into megan’s computer and it just froze… I didn’t know why. I waited for ages but nothing happened so I unplugged poddie from the laptop. Since then, I cannot access my music… itunes will not pick up poddie, but the laptop will detect a mass storage space connected. *sigh*
I was hell depressed. I pretty much have lost 3 years of music! It had everything on it! Mandarin, French, Japanese Lessons… My European trip OST, my
My new Zhongguo pod
I also put got my Sony Ericsson w660i flashed!!! Its soo cool!! I got them to put Chinese characters onto it! I love it! It also has Bahasa Indonesia dictionary on it, so now I can write and receive sms’s in like 3 languages that I can understand!!! Writing hanzi is pretty fun, and really helpful for learning it.
We also went to Vix/Mix. These are 2 clubs in
Xingqiwu (Friday) 25 January
We had a free day, but as usual it was taken up by an excursion. Today we went to the
There is nothing really much I can say about
The cool stuff I bought from the
Later on we hit Vix/Mix again!
Xingqiliu (Saturday) 26 January
I was tired… exhausted to the max from clubbing and the lack of sleep from the past 2 nights. But… I still woke up at 8.30am to go to our next excursion. We went to visit the new Olympic Stadium! Unfortunately it was not open for the public, so all we did was take a bus to it, to see it, we took some happy snaps and then we headed back home, which was fine for all of us. The Olympic stadium is pretty awesome! Has some pretty sick architecture… why couldn’t our silly Convention Centre look anything like this. The stadium looks like a birds nest, which is supposed to mean something… but yea.
Duncan and I at the New Olympic Stadium
That night we hit Propaganda… BIG night. It was probably the best night I had in
This night I ordered drinks, talked to the bar tender (who was a newbie but still really cool). Like for example, I ordered a round of drinks… and
He said he came alone! Hahahahaha oh well at least he was a nice guy..nice enough guy to humor me and my bad Chinese.
The night ended… well… yea.. it ended good… lets just say… not as bad as
Xinqitian (Sunday) 27 January – Xingqisi (Thursday) 31 January
On Sunday I kept a low profile. Lincoln and I went to eat at a place called “Lush” which had the sweetest burgers there! Aw… I miss the western food! Monday through to Thursday we were all busy studying for our exams with a bit of shopping on the side.
This week I got really frustrated with my Chinese. Things were just not sinking in. I was SO thick! I didn’t understand. I felt like my Chinese had gone backwards. I was sooo augh!!! It was horrible especially since I had my exam!
James in 
Zhejiang Daxue Snowed in!
Xingqiwu (Friday) 1 February
Today… well we had our graduation ceremony! It has only really just hit me that.. hey we are leaving tomorrow morning. We are leaving
The ceremony was pretty cool, they gave us a DVD presentation which was a movie of photos and video clips of us while out at excursions or in class throughout this month! It was soo cool! They gave us a CD of the movie as well as the photos they took!! They presented us with our certificates and along with a shirt with the School’s name on it, and a class photo.
All the classes had to give a performance. Our class just did a role play with some dialogue. But the other classes did some crazy stuff like… a “who dunnit” “Murder in the dark” role play, whereas another group did a presentation on experiences in
They also presented awards for the classes. For our class A1, Ke Li Si and I were awarded some prize… I didn’t quite catch what it was for, but I think it was for being good students. It was cool I got a Chinese mask thing which you can hang on a wall or door. There were also awards for the best acting in the class performances. For our class the award went to Megan. = )
I wanted to get photos with both of my Laoshi. But I was only able to get a photo with one. = ( Yea… the Laoshi here were a lot better than the ones in
The staff here are really nice as well. Like they actually care. They took care of you!!! Really! Like… ok… I was getting frustrated with my Chinese and on Thursday in class.. well I kinda randomly fell a part. I do not know why. Nothing was sinking in, things I knew I forgot. I was really flustered. Wang Laoshi was teaching that day, and she could sense I was bu gaoxing (Not happy). She asked whether I was uncomfortable… but I couldn’t answer her because… well yea… Anywho… I didn’t return after the break. I asked Megan to explain to Wang Laoshi that I was just concerned about the exam and that it was not her. I kinda had a feeling she thought I was angry with her. >.<
Anyways… this Monday I missed class because I was feeling down. But I had a “one on one” class and instead of getting a random teacher to talk about random things to, I was directed to Wang Laoshi, who went through the lesson that I had missed. It was really good. She asked me about the Thursday and whether I was ok. And I said to her… “dui bu qi… mei guan xi, wo shi mafan.” (sorry, don’t worry, I was being difficult) I thought it was the best way to say it especially since “mafan” (troublesome) was a new word which she had taught me just then!
Anyways… after the graduation ceremony we all went to a farewell lunch. But Both of my Laoshi did not turn up. I was quite… well cut. HAHAHA. I wanted to talk to them and say thank you and all that jazz. So afterwards I asked the other Laoshi for their emails, but they didn’t know. Instead they gave me their mobile numbers… siiiick = ) I got my Chinese hanzi on, and messaged them = ). It was cool! Really really cool… but I was mega exhausted trying to figure out, the grammar, the words and then what characters to use hahhaa… reading them was pretty alright.
Anyways… I better go… been writing this thing for ages and Its already 6.48… need to finish packing…need to rest before tonight…
Wo aiiiiiii Zhongguooooo!!!!
Our Class "A1" Ban - Ke Li Si , An Na, Hui hui , Lao La, Cheng cheng
Winners of the "Amazing Race" Activity
Yu Laoshi and MeLabels: Beijing, China, China Gang, Chinese, Clubbing, Food, Friendship, Shopping, Sport, Technology, Travel
Wo yao xue! I want snow!
I was giving James crap about how we were eating at Sizzlers... he looove sizzlers and there is none in Hangzhou.
Anna sms: Hey guess where I am, it starts with an "S" and ends in "izzlers" HAHAH
"Buzz Buzz" Anna gets a reply:
James sms: Thats a tough one... how bout I punch you in the face!!! It is ducking snowing man! Jealous?! I thought so...!
(Anna gets a shock, reads the sms 3 times over.... Did he say SNOWING?)
Anna sms: Serial? Are you serious? How much, send a photo!
James sms: Dead serial...The whitness is still collecting on the floor, maybes tomorrow it will be all white!
(Anna is in shock, saddness, annoyance! WHY!! this is the 3rd time I've missed snow! When I went to detriot, was there for 3 weeks, the day we left... snow. Europe, only snowed for 10 mins, once we left, a week later, heavy snow... now this!!!)
James sms: Hangzhou rules!!!!
This is the photo he sent me on MMS:
Quentin sent me an MMS... with the character of snow: Xue3
I was giving James crap about how we were eating at Sizzlers... he looove sizzlers and there is none in Hangzhou.
Anna sms: Hey guess where I am, it starts with an "S" and ends in "izzlers" HAHAH
"Buzz Buzz" Anna gets a reply:
James sms: Thats a tough one... how bout I punch you in the face!!! It is ducking snowing man! Jealous?! I thought so...!
(Anna gets a shock, reads the sms 3 times over.... Did he say SNOWING?)
Anna sms: Serial? Are you serious? How much, send a photo!
James sms: Dead serial...The whitness is still collecting on the floor, maybes tomorrow it will be all white!
(Anna is in shock, saddness, annoyance! WHY!! this is the 3rd time I've missed snow! When I went to detriot, was there for 3 weeks, the day we left... snow. Europe, only snowed for 10 mins, once we left, a week later, heavy snow... now this!!!)
James sms: Hangzhou rules!!!!
This is the photo he sent me on MMS:
Quentin sent me an MMS... with the character of snow: Xue3
Labels: Beijing, China, Chinese, Friendship, Hangzhou
Everyone holding thier favorite thingHeya all, long time no see!!! Now I am in Beijing. We arrived jintian shangwu! But before I tell you how we got here, let me recap on the week that just passed… the last week in Hangzhou.
Xingqiliu 29 December 2007
Megan, Jesse and I had dim sum for chi zao fan, afterwards we rushed to the Shanghai South Train Station in order for me to head back to Hangzhou. I must make a special thank you to Jesse for looking after Megan and I whilst in Shanghai for the week! So I hopped on the train, found the dui cabin and seat and enjoyed the ride back. People are very helpful in China believe it or not, for an example, when I arrived at my seat I had my little suitcase (compliments of Melissa) and this man who was sitting across from me took it and placed it in the overcarry thingo. He then took it down when we arrived in Hangzhou.
I was soon awoken by a phone call from Quentin, he was wondering whether everything was alright and whether I wanted him to pick me up from the train station. It made me smile = ) A few days before when I had told James that I was coming back alone, he offered the same thing. Awww I feel loved. But yea… they were looking out for me, knowing I barely know Chinese. But yea anyways, I told Quentin I would be fine, I mean I have successfully directed the taxi driver “Wo yao qu Zhejiang Daxue, Yu quan Xiao qu, Xixi lu Hou men”
When I got off the train, I followed the crowd like a sheep to the exit. I found the taxi line and waited in it for a looonnng time. When I did get the taxi, awww I was lucky! I had gotten a really nice taxi driver. Initially after I directed him where I wanted to go, there was silence. He then said something which obviously I did not understand. So I smiled nicely and said Dui bu qi, wo ting bu dong. He then laughed and said something which I assumed he asked where I was from. I told him I was Australian and our conversation started from there. I tried stringing words together like Wo xihuan Hangzhou, Wo juede Hangzhou hen hao kan… Wo xihuan Hangzhou-ren. Heheheheee poor Chinese, but he understoold. He asked where I came from (which I only understood after he asked 3 times) and I told him I came from Shanghai and I was there for yige xinqi. I told him I preferred Hangzhou. I also told him wo shi xueshang, wo xuexi Hanyu zai Zhejiang Daxue. There were a lot of times where I had NO idea what he was saying, and there were a lot of times where he had no idea what I was saying, so majority of the time we were passing over my English-Chinese dictionary!!! While he was driving too!!! He was soo cool.
And yes… I successfully reached my destination.
Walking the streets through the campus was sooo nice. I appreciated it a lot more. I felt like I was coming home, because wo ai Hangzhou! It made me sad as well knowing that I will be leaving in one week. I made my way to Quentin’s room where I was greeted by the frenchie! AAAAH I had missed him. I had missed James and Quentin whilst in Shanghai. There were so many “in jokes” which I wanted to pull out, but no one would have understood. Quentin was nice enough to give up his spare bed for the week for me. Hes my hero!!! Wo meiyou qian!!! (I had no more money).
Oh yea… what is it like staying with a guy? Well its ok. Quentin as a roomie gave me the insight of a typical guy. 3 things. Messy, unorganised and carefree. I thought it might have been weird… but it was ok. It was pretty fun, a bit ma fan when I wanted to change and stuff, like I had to go to the bathroom and change, I mean when staying with Megan we get to the point when we don’t care anymore and just change our top or bottoms and make sure the other is facing the other way. Quentin had clothes everywhere, rubbish that had accumulated after months, and yea. But he was sweet enough to have his room and bathroom cleaned by the Fuyuan.
Xingqitian 30 December 2007
That night James, Quentin and I went to CarreFour where we bought some champagne for Guillaume whose birthday party we were going to that night. It was some really nice French Champagne recommended by Quentin.
Afterwards, we wanted to go for dinner, we ate at a place that opened up near Zhejiang Daxue zai Xixi Lu. It was pretty good. Like we chose a plate and they heated it up and served cooked and all. Quentin got James and I on beer, and over dinner and the beer we decided that we wanted to drink the Champagne ourselves and then get Guillaume another drink from the convenient store… we were like “Yeaaa, why not.”
When we arrived at the dorms, we got ready and then popped open the Champagne. The weather is cold enough now that all we did was put the bottle outside on the balcony for an hour or so in order to chill it… yeaaa… all natural coolness! We then got stuck into it… it taste sooo niiiice despite the fact that we drank it out of plastic cups!!! But yea, we had so much fun!!! Afterwards we walked to Guillaume's and Gabriel’s place for the party… that walk was really fun too! Just the shenanigans and the conversations that emerge!!
At the party, everyone was there, and I had a really good time!!! Ive taken some cool photos of the Terrific trio (James, Quentin and I) sharing the love =)
After that we all went to G+ (another club) where I must admit I was sooo exhausted by then, that I didn’t really dance and all I really wanted to do was sleep. We left around 3am and yea… wo xuejiao!!!
Xingqiyi 31 December 2007
New Years Eve!!! Awww… Quentin, James and I awoke really late.. at about 3am we had lunch at a place near Xi Hu where we ordered pizza!! It was really cool, we chilled out, talked and yea… some of the conversation involved Quentin and James going Geek style, talking about physics and shite. (James is studying engineering and Quentin used to study engineering). Hahaha its funny, sad and cute at the same time.
Anyways… it was around this time we got a phone call from Megan who had arrived in Hangzhou with Sam. We then quickly ate our food, and tried to get all the shopping we needed to get done quickly. James bought his Nike Airforce 1s and then we went again to Carrefour to get more Champagne to drink before heading out for new years eve.
After getting ready and drinking the Champagne, we all had more pre drinks in James’ room. Afterwards we all headed off to “In Club” which had an open bar. This club was James’ favourite club of all time which had been closed, and was open only for new years. The club was pretty swish, not as nice as SOS but still pretty swish. I guess the only downfall was the countdown. It was not made as a big thing. Usually in Australia, the music would stop, and then the DJ would be like “10, 9, 8, 7…” But here, the music just ended and then some girls started shooting out these streamers and like spraying this stringy shit on the crowd. People were hugging each other saying happy new year, and so I assumed that was it. This is where I automatically looked around for Will, even though I knew he wasn’t going to be there. But yea… Hugged everyone!!! James picked me up (the crazy boy) even though his back is fractured!!! (actually James still does crazy physical stuff even though his back is a bit fractured… JEEEEEMMES!!! CRAZY!!!)
After some more crazy dancing and partying we all left at about 4am. The best part of the night though, was being able to talked to all you guys in Australia! Even though I could barely hear you all, I still really loved talking to all of you!!!
Xingqier 1 January 2008
Today, we recovered, and then went out with Sam. We took him to get sticky pictures done, and we then went to Xi Hu to take some more pictures and show Sam around. It was really beautiful, different to how it was when Megan and I arrived, but nevertheless beautiful. I can never get tired walking around it. It is so tranquil. I love it! Quentin has taken one of my artistic shots and used it as his wallpaper on his laptop for a bit. (YAY for my camera skills and for my sick camera!)
We then had dinner at the Pizza place that Quentin, James and I went to yesterday and ate Pizza. I was really full at the end of the day, yet we had to take Sam to SOS to show him what this club is all about.
SOS was ok. I have had better nights, but then again it was one of the better nights overall. Going to SOS in general is always good! There were a lot of performances this night because it was new years day. I scored myself a cowboy hat from one of the dancers while they were dancing to Will Smith’s “Wild Wild West.”
Xingqisan 2 January 2008
We awoke, and then had brunch at Grandma’s Kitchen, the place where Megan and I ate the first night we arrived in Hangzhou. It was pretty alright, the food we ordered I think was better than the first time we went. Afterwards, Megan and I took Sam to the train station so that he could make his way back to Shanghai. Megan and I then headed to Hangzhou Da Xa (not sure of the spelling) in order to take more sticky pictures but this time have James in it too. But… James and Quentin being lazy asses did not want to come. So Megan and I quickly bought sweaters from Zara (which was having a sale) and then we returned to the dorm. We then did our washing, Megan moved into Melissa’s room, and then Quentin, Megan, Deddy and I watched a movie I bought in Shanghai on the recommendation of Gulliamue. The movie is called “Shanghai Kiss” and it was pretty interesting. It was just about a Chinese American guy going to Shanghai with no Chinese Skills whatsoever. It made us remember our time in Shanghai, and it also reminded us of all the experiences we had with the language barrier.
Afterwards, Megan, James, Melissa, Jose, Qiao and I went to the French restaurant for dinner. Our lasssst time!!! I love French food. I had the goat cheese again and then I had this chocolate cake as a dessert. YUMMMMM!!!
Afterwards, Megan, James and I tried to watch Blood Diamond, but we were all pretty tired so we did not get a chance to finish it.
Xingqisi 3 January 2008
For breakfast we all went to the other Canteen (Not shitang, but the canteen with the sick dumplings, jiaozi). Here I just ate the dumplings… I eat nothing else in this canteen, just the jiaozi with the vinegar and garlic sauce… YUMMM!!! Heaven! I will definitely miss the jiaozi!!!
Quentin and I then broke off from the group to go to the Zhongguo Yinhang (Bank of China) to get some money. Quentin needed to check his bank account so he needed a bank teller. (He couldn’t use the ATM) and for some reason, this day, the Bank was packed! So we took a taxi to another Bank. Afterwards, we decided to walk back to the campus as it was about a 15 min walk… and hey… its China “yeaa why not!” The walk was fast. We were singing songs and stuff. We sung Pour Qu Tu M’amies Encore which is a French song sung by Celine Dion, but Il Divo did a version of it too. Me loving Il Divo, I knew the words off by heart, and Quentin being frenchie, well he knew it too! It was cool! We had sung it earlier in the first few weeks of our time in Hangzhou, but yea. We also sung “Be Prepared” from the Lion King, as it is his favourite song from the movie. He sung it in French, I sung it in English. Its funny as some of the English words sound similar to the French words.
Once arriving at the dorms, everyone else was chilling, so Quentin and I chilled too. We pretty much just Youtube-d it for the afternoon. After that we attempted to get a massage with the others at the massage place we went to earlier (near the stadium) but it was too expensive at this time. So the group disbursed. Quentin and I had not eaten dinner so we went to Maccas… *Sigh* I tried ordering. I said “San Hao Tan Can” which mean pretty much “Meal number 3” which was the double cheese burger. But I didn’t get a cheese burger, I got a McChicken!!! Augh. The meal was so unsatisfying, and I asked Quentin what would be the first thing he would want to eat when he returned to France. He said he would go out, and then his mother’s cooking. I was thinking at the time that HrmMmM French cheese and bread would be nice… and then Quentin asked whether I wanted to go to Carrefour to buy some French food. HAHA… “yeaa why not” It was an expensive feed, but soo worth it. We have had hardly any dairy products whilst in Australia. We ate French cheese with bread, and then this fromage yogurt thingo with sugar and Banana (a dessert that Quentin loves). It was friggin niiiceee!!!
The experience in Carrefour was pretty good too. Like there were things we wanted to get but we didn’t know the Chinese word for it. So me being a geek took out my dictionary to find the word for Sugar. Tang is the word, but in my dictionary it had Shatang. We got frustrated when some of the Fuyuan did not understand us, but we found one who did. She said “Ah! Baise Tang” meaning “White sugar” and yea… we then found it. We also looked for bowls. I again took my dictionary and found that the word for bowl is “Wan” this was easier than the sugar, we then had to find paper bowls as the plastic bowls were kinda pussy (Quentin’s term) so I found the word for paper Zhi and we eventually found it. This day… I learned a lot of new words. Pointless words, but nonetheless, words!
Xingqiwu 4 January 2008
Today we did 3 things….
Massage, K-TV and SOS.
All were really good! Massage, well not much to write except it was really nice! Qiao, Quentin, James and I were the ones who ended up going. It freaked me out when it turned out that my massage person was a guy! Usually I get a girl, but yea… I was kinda freaked out… but he ended up being really good. He massaged me in ways that the other girl didn’t do last time (ok… that’s not supposed to sound dirty… but honestly, he was really good. The other time, I felt like the girl did a rushed job as I would always finish before the others).
After our foot massages were done, we had to take separate rooms (2 ppl in each room) for the body massages. It was during this time that Quentin and I got to know our massage people better. Quentin did most of the talking. I am pretty shy around James and Co. when it comes to speaking. But by the end of the massage, Quentin had invited the massage people to come out to SOS with us tonight.
Me enjoying massage
The Boys
After massage, we then got ready for K-Tv…K-tv was FUNNN!!! I loved it! I sung Tong Hua which symbolised the realisation of my goal which was to learn that song by the time I left Hangzhou! Megan and I dedicated “Stop” by the Spice Girls to our Hangzhou Crew, James and I did a crazy duet for “I don’t wanna miss a thing” by Aerosmith… and then at the very end, Quentin and I were able to squeeze “Wannabe” by the Spice Girls. It was really cool! Afterwards we headed to SOS which was open barr! But it was a very quiet night. Not a lot of people there, but still I had heaps of fun!!! Everyone was there!
We went to Maccas after SOS… just as a token “goodbye” I started getting emo around this time… I hid it pretty well though. No one knew. It just… well I realised there and then that this was it… I was leaving Hangzhou forever. I will never see these people again (a part from James). *tear*
Xingqiliu 5 January 2008
Our last day. It was really really quick and rushed. Everyone woke up late. I packed away all my stuff and we were all out by about 1.30pm It took forever for everyone to decide where to eat. We ended up going to Myth Café which was recommended by Gabriel and Guillaume . It had a nice friendly atmosphere and yea… it was cool as we were joined by everyone.
On the tables, there were handwritten messages from patrons of the restaurant. One of them said “Girlfriend Wanted.” hHAHAHAh the guy sounded so desparate. So we rang him up, Melissa did the talking… she sounded so sweet on the phone.. it was hilarious especially since her boyfriend (Guillaume ) was sitting next to her.
We then decided to leave our message there. We got a piece of paper, wrote “Hangzhou – Ni xihuan wo, Wo ai ni” and we got everyone to sign their name and where they where from! Megan and I then got everyone to write us a message which was pretty cool…. All heartfelt messages!!! *tear* Those who joined us were:
James, Gabriel, Deddy, Quentin, Guillaume , Melissa, Yongyong, Hannalee, Qiao, Jose, Yukes and Willy.
4.30pm came around sooo fast. I had to rush eating my meal, and Megan and I ended up having to leave early before everyone else was finished. It was a rushed goodbye. Hugs here and there photos… I really would have preferred a nicer way of saying goodbye… but… yea… it was still a nice send off.
James, Quentin, Megan and I now had to rush to find a taxi. It is hen ma fan to find one at this time. We were lucky to get one quickly though, and we were even more luckier to find a nice taxi driver who had agreed to wait at the back gate of the uni for us to take our luggage from the dorms and then to take us direct to the train station.
We got there 1 hour early, but it was good as we didn’t have to rush. Megan and I brought so much shit it was not funny. The boys helped us with our suitcases but even they were complaining about how heavy they were. Quentin made a comment “Girls, you bring more things than me and I am staying here for a year.”
We sat down in the waiting room where we were able to just chill and say our goodbyes. I was really annoyed that Megan and I didn’t have enough time to buy a nice gift for James and Quentin as they had looked after us soooo well! I gave them a little dog toy each as a token of thanks from Megan and I (I had bought them in Shanghai). The dogs are so cute! Small and pocket-able… I hope they look after them! Soon… (too soon) we had to board the train. It was again a bit of a rushed goodbye… it was surreal as it didn’t seem like we were leaving. But yea… *tear*
Quentin and James with our dogs!
had SO MUCH SHIT its not funny. We were struggling. I had my big uni bag, my laptop bag, my suitcase and I was also hand carrying Xiao DaBian. We had to go down a flight of stairs!!!!!!!!!!! Augh! Megan ended up getting a guy to help her most of the way down… I was struggling and then another guy who could speak English helped me down. We then found our carriage, but when we were getting on, Megan drop her chicken little teddy (Falong, named after Quentin as it was his toy initially and he gave it to her) and it fell onto the train tracks under the train! But the train guard guy was nice enough to pick it up for Megan!!!
Walking down the corridors of the train was cool! It reminded me of Harry Potter when they are on the train to Hogsworts. The cabin we had was a soft sleeper meaning that there were beds. The train ride is about 12 hours long, so we were definitely getting the soft sleeper. Some of our friends took another one, I think its called a hard seater, where you sit for the 12 or more hours. Apparently THAT is epic! It was pretty comfortable, the only thing that concerned Megan and I was… who were the other 2 people going to be. Our luggage alone took up 1 bed. And if the other 2 beds were taken then we were going to have to share a bed, or take turns sleeping! We were lucky! As little Jack a 16 year old Chinese boy walked into our cabin and put his stuff down. He had a big smile one his face, and as it turns out, he was travelling to Beijing alone to compete on this TV competition. One part of it was to speak English to Foreigners. He was very happy to see us, and we were very happy to see him! We talked to him in Chinese and he corrected us, and he spoke to us in English. It was SOOO COOL! We were using our dictionaries and everything! We shared food, we shared music… he is a little genius! He wants to study computer science… I assumed this much as he said he wanted to write computer programs.
Xingqitian 6 January 2008
Anywho… we slept at around 11 and then were woken up by Jack around 6am as we were to arrive in Beijing very soon. Jack then said “I think, I need to help you get to your hotel.” = ) What a sweetie!! We then got off the train (hen ma fan man!!) And jack bought us a map of Beijing. We then had to hunt for a taxi…the taxi drivers all wait outside the train station and then they try to cheat you into offering you trips for a set price. We were soo exhausted that we accepted the 2nd offer which was for 60 kuai. But the dooude agreed to take us to our hotel and the Jack to his hotel for a total of 80. Which was cool. Jack instructed the taxi driver, but the thing is, our hotel is a place where not many taxi drivers know about. Its in this little road. But luckily this taxi driver knew. Talking to our other friends who have arrived, mentioned that some had to be dropped near the hotel and walk the rest…etc…
I didn’t want Jack to leave without knowing how much we appreciated his help. So we gave him a bag of candy, a little toy dog (again I had bought in Shanghai) and a handwritten note in English to him. We also paid for the whole taxi fare. We have his email address and all so we can catch up with him and see how his show went.
Me and Jack lost in translation
The school here are ok. There is no exciting buzz as there was at Zhejiang. It is pretty empty and depressing. The rooms are ok. Not as ghetto as I thought it might be, but not as nice as the rooms in Hangzhou. The coolest part is that Our door has our names on it!!! EhEhhEhEhEhee…
Anywho… that’s about it for the massive blog. I’ll see you later!
Labels: Beijing, China, Chinese, Clubbing, Culture, Food, Friendship, Hangzhou, KTV, Movie, Music, Party, Shanghai, Shopping, Sightseeing, Travel