This author is currently on hiatus for the ignoble cause of mugging. The public is advised to remain calm, as this routine protocol has been shown to have no effect on one's violent tendencies in 96% of cases.
| Wednesday, May 28, 2008 |
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I realised i haven't uploaded any photos from Beijing yet. So my blog looks kinda wordy atm... *suspense* Nope sorry, you're still gonna have to wait a while for the pics, since I'm slacking and busy with 14 SLC (woot Izel!) for this week. ... Holidays always suck out my inspiration for colourful blog posts. D: |
'Twas teh winnar at 11:27 pm.
| Sunday, May 25, 2008 |
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One month since I: - Saw my home, family, 4N classroom, HCI, Mr. Hon, Superman... - Bathed in potable water - Shat using a toilet bowl - Slept on a proper matress - Ate a lunch/dinner that doesn't consist of noodles, rice or dumplings - Saw REAL merchandise on sale - In fact, bought anything for more than ¥100 (SG$20) - Surfed without having to use proxytor - Bought a lollipop - Played AR D: etc. But in the past month, I have: - - Learnt more about Chinese culture than i could ever hope to back home - Had the privilege of attending China lessons - Brushed up on my Chinese. The oral bit at least, i hope. - Uncovered more about myself and friends - Watched tons of (pirated) DVDs - finally im uptodate with movies =P - Slept no later than 11+ pm on most nights - Haggling sk1llz +1 - Played lots of CS (oops) - Survived. Without falling too seriously ill. etcetc. It's good to be home. |
'Twas teh winnar at 12:00 pm.
| Monday, May 19, 2008 |
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Possibly one of the worst nightmares here. That is, besides pollution (most of the time) and food (sometimes). Three washing machines for 52 boys, mostly untrained in the ways of housemaidery. Throw in some inconsiderate ones who will do anything to get their laundry in those machines and out to dry (taking others' clothes out of them before the time's up, throwing clothes hanging out to dry on the floor and taking the communal hangars) and you get utter chaos. Hell, they've filled three boxes full of lost laundry already and thrown away two. It's not just socks and undergarments that go missing, but even bulky stuff like jeans too. Probably cos most people don't bother going through a pile of stinky laundry or plain forget about it. In fact, it seems its a ritual for me to lose one piece of underwear each time i do the laundry. Either because someone took them when i left them out to dry, or dumped my laundry out of the washing machine before i could get to it so it got lost in the mess of clothes strewn over the floor. Half the time i manage to find it, and the other half i lose it for good. The laundry room's supposed to be a place when you clean your stuff, but i'd say its the messiest place in the whole dorm, what with random clothes and spilt washing powder thrown all around. Talk about hanging your dirty laundry in public. |
'Twas teh winnar at 5:54 pm.
| Thursday, May 15, 2008 |
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I r teh backzors. Yeah, it was all just a hoax. Not even the slighest shaking here. :[ We've been following the news closely, and its pretty sickening to see the death toll rising every day. The students here are doing their part to help the victims, and everyone (including us) is doing our part by donating. On TV, nearly every single channel is showing a video of the destruction and the rescue workers fervently doing their job, while playing nationalistic music in the background and urging everyone to unite in this time of adversity. Immersion's ending tmr, and i must say its been a pretty...unique experience sitting in to the China lessons. I used to think that all Chinese students were muggers who listened to lessons as if their life depended wholly on it, had no life and spent all their free time mugging extra. Thankfully they proved such a stereotype false. They aren't very different from us, they go to Mac's after school, and they play weird games and friendly-fight for fun too. I think their school life is actually slacker than that back home, since they don't get much homework and nearly no projects and get to sleep at like 11 pm provided they're not cramming for tests omgomg. Or maybe it's just that they're Sec 2. Their discipline is much worse than i expected though. They chat a lot during lessons and don't even bother listening to the teacher, which makes our stay more interesting i suppose since they like to niao and shout out random stuff. xD We sit in for four periods daily, and today they managed make two teachers give up teaching. On Monday, our first day there, they also pissed off their Politics teacher enough that she simply left the class in a huff. (That resulted in the scolding from their FT when the earthquake struck.) Their lunch kinda sucks though. Unlike ours, theirs is catered and served in lunchboxes, in other words they have to chow down whatever the caterer decides to serve up. Which is generally edible in most cases, but nothing much more than that. Makes me appreciate the BSC food much more, and the canteen food back at HCI canteen seem like heaven. Gotta run now, some bigshots are apparently coming over from Singapore to visit us so we're supposed to clean up our dorms for their grand arrival. D: |
'Twas teh winnar at 8:34 pm.
| Monday, May 12, 2008 |
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When I came to Beijing, I thought the trip would be chock-full with Chinese culture, 2008 Olympics, bad English translations etc. Little did i expect us to be (un)lucky enough to experience all sorts of natural phenomena as well. First, heavy rain and winds just over a week ago (a rare occurrence in landlocked Beijing), after which we found out was the effects of a cyclone in Myanmar; then a fire broke out at a nerby building and we actually smelt the smell of burning rubber, causing some of us to panic and unplug our laptops in the fear that we overloaded the circuitry. And now, a 7.8 magnitude earthquake in nearby Sichuan province. Apparently it was strong enough to feel in Beijing too, and the ceiling lights in the school shook during our immersion. Too bad no one in my class noticed it, probably due to the fact that they were being scolded by their form teacher then. =/ China quake kills 107 (ST, May 12) Stuff we'd never get back in Singapore, as much as the SCDF issues notices regularly about what to do in case of...well, just about everything, in true kiasu-ism. A pity our experiences have to come with so much human suffering in other places. D: Anyway, there's warnings of aftershocks here so we'll be going all-out in taking precautions against a possible earthquake tonight. Only problem is that our dorms (on the 11th storey, too!) have no furniture besides rickety desks and double-decker beds...which aren't exactly very stable either. A Lester hanging on one side could topple it, i tell you. So our Plan B tonight will be to huddle into the dingy and stinky toilet, which has nothing to fall down and kill us. Hopefully i don't die from suffocation fronm all that sh*t or step into the WC by accident in that case. And well, if this happens to be my last post, it's been nice knowing you, kay? And uh, thanks for reading. =P |
'Twas teh winnar at 7:38 pm.
| Sunday, May 11, 2008 |
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I can't tag due to the Great Firewall. Actually, we're not supposed to be able to access blogspot.com, Wordpress, Reuters or even Xiaxue (not that i would want to visit it anyway) if not for... *drumroll* WOOTS for PROXYTOR! It's teh saviourz. EDIT: Jiakun just taught me how to tag. Or rather, his refusal to tell drove me to such frustration that i simply went to try all methods by myself, and it worked! Damn you and thank you. D: I still have quite a bit of RMB left. I think i probably came with the least, but by the second weekend (that's last week) i had the same amount left as most people...and since i didn't really go shopping this weekend i have half my capital left. ...Which is like, three times what some others have left. One last weekend to spend it. =P It seems most conversations nowadays revolve around: 1) Girls 2) Sex (or innuendos, references and naughty jokes) 3) Niaoing. Unfortunately i only learnt Ability #3, so do pardon me. :( I'd say our stay here in Beijing has been somewhat a journey of self-exploration. Being cooped up in a foreign land with friends and strangers alike does make one find out much, some that id rather be ignorant about. I wonder if ive gained more than i lost (besides the broken camera <_<) here. Thy trooth doth hurteth sometimes. D: Also, ive been bored enough in Beijing to cobble some old clips i took from an old Java Game called Need for Madness [ring a bell? ;)] into a vid. Go help me get more views here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mZ_bM8X33fE Finally, to all mums and to-be's out there *coughjiakuncough*, Happy Mother's Day! And yes, if you haven't already noticed, im back to spamming emoticons. =D |
'Twas teh winnar at 8:24 pm.
| Wednesday, May 07, 2008 |
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Moar lyk ACES Day lolol. Imagine more than a hundred China students standing on a fake field (i.e. green mat thingy passing off as grass) wearing blue track suits with white sleeves and doing weird dances (there's even a section devoted to eye exercise), and all perfectly synchronised. And there's a group of rowdy students at the back, wearing the same uniform but still sticking out like a sore thumb, trying their best to keep up with the crazed moves. Looking down from the lift lobby on the 11th storey, its kinda funny watching every single one down there jumping around swinging their arms. Somewhat impressive too, considering how synchro they are - Though its not too surprising since they've do it weekly for probably years now. But things change drastically when you're down there as one of them. D: Anyway, we just had our first taste of the Beijing subway the other day, due to the teachers insisting that we take public transport for field trips to be livvin' up dat Cheena lyf. The older subways are really...old. They're rundown and the plaster boards of the fake ceiling is broken in most places. But the newer lines, built just in time for the Olympics, are really really nice. They actually remind me of MRT at home, heh. In fact, their trains actually have TV (not the fake "Tunnel TV" stuff SMRT has) and this blinking board thingy lined with bulbs to tell you which stop you're at. Though the TV's not much use when them Chinese go plonk themselves in front of it, effectively blocking it from everyone else. <_< And I broke my camera at the Temple of Heaven (for Good Harvest and Great Success)...Damn smooth steps. Maybe it was to atone for those who were playing cards in a corner there too. :( |
'Twas teh winnar at 8:43 pm.
| Monday, May 05, 2008 |
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Are a pain in the @$$. So we have like, 1.5 hours every night allocated to this "Online Lessons". In other words, we stay in class with our laptops and do whatever work for whatever subject the period is assigned to. There's just one snitch. There's no supervising teacher in class. There's just one other little...problem. The lessons are non-existant. No, it's not the Great China Firewall blocking the school website. Nor is it that we have no internet access (else i wouldn't be blogging now). It's just that the online resources DO NOT EXIST. So far, we've had Literature, Chinese, Physics online lessons. And every single time ive scoured the school website and that of the varous departments, iVLE, message boards, email...pretty much everything. To top it off, we didn't even receive proper instructions from the respective subject teachers in the first place. ...Nothing. Tonight's supposed to be Biology online lessons. My hopes (and my heart) jumped a little when i saw the Bio site:  Dizzy with joy, i clicked on the link, and lo! and behold!
So don't blame Zack ("YES! I just killed my first terrorist!") or Xian Rong for showing us the hilarious HP promo vid on Facebook (Chen Xing's the star *hinthint*) or basically anyone else who's shouting "Rush first lane! Gogo tower nearly down liao!" We do really want to learn (ya srsly), but it's just that the teachers aren't teaching. :( And that's probably why the results of previous batches plummeted like shet once they returned from BSC. Though our Maths will probably become damn imba here, with Ms Tey around - They teach Maths, Chem and Geog here, but little else since the school doesn't have enough resources *cough* to send more teachers over. At least im blogging instead of succumbing to the temptation of CS like those other weak minded fools. HAIL MEH! |
'Twas teh winnar at 7:34 pm.
| Friday, May 02, 2008 |
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OBJECTION! This pair of jeans in nary worth 80 bucks... OBJECTION! It's worth every cent, look at the brand - "Ema Garde", this is branded stuff, if you have such a low budget go... OBJECTION! How do you explain the childish blue stars on the cloth the pockets are made of? And the obviously poor quality! If you're not lowering your price I'm not buying... HOLD IT! Wait, come back! Ok, I give you price of 150, best offer!... ... In case you haven't realised, Phoenix Wright has NO RELEVANCE at all to bargaining, other than the fact that you get lots of both here in Beijing. Yes, ive been playing Ace Attorney on a DS Emulator to pass time when i can't/don't feel like (urk...) blogging, and the constant cries of "Objection!" has kinda gotten to my head i guess. xD It's a pretty fun game, and one of the only few out there that actually requires you to THINK. Good for RAM-deprived laptops in a faraway place. (And if you want to think even further, Wei Qi has actually done a philosophical analysis of the game on his blog, too. Check out the post on Thursday, May 1. :o) We just had our first taste of real bargaining in China yesterday. Since it was Labour Day, we went down to 秀水街 for shopping, and hooooboi was it crazy. Lots of crowds, lots of ang mohs, lots of shouting, and most of all lots of haggling. Thankfully we were told beforehand that the shopkeepers could jack up prices to up to 5 times higher than the original, so armed with our amateurish bargaining skills we were prepared to slash 'em mercilessly down to 20-30%. ...Or so we hoped. Sometimes we succeeded, but often we failed. Boo. :( Still, we got the stuff at relatively cheap prices compared to the goods back home, so i suppose we were pretty satisfied with our purchases. As a rough price guide, shirts (whether they have "Billabong" imprinted all over them or not) go for ¥35 (that's around SG$5), while other clothes usually don't go above ¥100. (Not forgotting the fact that nearly all of the stuff there is counterfeit anyway. Adidas belts anyone?) I must say I was pretty impressed by the grasp of English (and a smattering of other languages) of the shopkeepers, and also the Chinese mastery of the ang mohs there. Shows just how sly them shopkeepers can get in such a competitive marketplace. DOn't be fooled. Best deal of the day: A pair of jeans for ¥90. Initial offer: 600, which was actually the serial number stuck on the tag, but which the shopkeeper passed off as the price anyway. Then again, it was my only purchase that day. Worst deal: A pack of "magic cards" and a fake thumb/red cloth set for ¥80. Inital offer: ¥160. Bought after we all acted as English-speaking only, in theorising that we could get better prices that way. Conclusion: Whenever you buy anything in China, you'll definitely get scammed; it's just a matter of how much you're cheated of. <_< |
'Twas teh winnar at 3:54 pm.
