merry is love ;

郁闷的啦

Just bought a new Cashcard, topped it up with an extra 20 bucks, for the start of my poor-student's-textbook scheme. But before I even embarked on said scheme, I dropped the Cashcard so there goes my 30 bucks.

That could have been a brand new rich student's textbook.

DAMN.

P.s. I'm officially a H1N1 positive statistic.

Xs don't mean hugs.

China boiboi wants a new school tattoo (read: colourful and casual) on his calf and he's been wanting one for THREE years.

XXX.

Still, a new friend made! He's easy to talk to and is the only real China night owl I've met so he makes for pretty good company on MSN and the next time I go to Suzhou. (:

Experience in Suzhou -- 4

This is quite bad, I am just typing down my experiences in China as I recall them in bits and pieces and numbering them from 1 to ___. But better than not even remembering ay?

Anyway, I was mentioning yesterday about firsts. And today I suddenly remember a couple more firsts.

1. Eating the best dumpling I've ever eaten (Ah Ma's handmade dumpling not in consideration) that had dried scallops, mushroom, chestnuts, and other delicious ingredients in the stuffing. I swear it's the most most most yummy dumpling I've eaten EVER. A few days after, we realised each of those mouth-watering dumplings cost more than RMB30 and Our Best Friend had bought 10 and given us 3. RMB30!! Convert it to SGD and it still costs more than 6 bucks. Would you buy a dumpling that is more than 6 bucks?! Me? Sorry, a bit kiam siap, I probably would not unless it's for something/someone special. Plus according to my very limited access to salary information, it does take up a 2-digit percentage of her salary. Wait, it just occurred to me, was it because we are someone special? :D

2. On my last weekend in Suzhou, after my last visit to Bookworm, before Our Best Friend came over for the last gathering at our home, she gave me a call. And the first thing she said was 'Ter, someone has a crush on you!'. Those were her exact words. I was so stunned I immediately burst out laughing. It turned out to be her Bookworm partner, the guy who made me my very first tuna sandwich when I stayed there from light to dark the first Sunday Sissy S wasn't around and Uncle LM was. Apparently, he told her he liked '我这样类型的女生'. Anyway, one day the week after I returned to Singapore, I was suddenly uber enthusiastic about keeping in contact with my newfound acquaintances so I emailed Mr Softee, a fellow Singaporean intern I bumped into in a DVD store at 平江路, and asked Our Best Friend for his email address. As I got a tad busier, I got caught up with other stuff and forgot about this... until today when Our Best Friend asked me to add him on MSN again 'cause '他老是提'. So we just had our very first MSN convo and all's good. I'm officially calling him China boiboi. (:

3. Eating pig's brain, 夫妻肺片 which includes pig's ear and other innards, soft bones, ants, dog meat, cow tendon, and once again rabbit meat (sorry all animal/insect lovers!). Pig's brain is like tofu with a slight pork taste. Pig's ear is crunchy. Soft bones are also crunchy but the hard kind of crunchy. I don't really get why they like to order this for 烧烤. Ants to me is hmm... quite tasteless? Dog meat is tender-er deer meat. Cow tendon is chewy but the nice kind of chewy. Rabbit meat is less tender chicken meat. Other than ants, dog meat and soft bones, I quite like the rest and can't wait to eat them again! Sarah ate a scorpion. I didn't have the guts to.

And I'm missing Szechuan/Hunan food and 烧烤 A LOT A LOT! It's so easy to find a 川菜 or 湘菜 restaurant in Suzhou but here? No where can any be seen! So much so that when I spotted one Szechuan eatery at Chinatown and a 凉皮 stall at Geylang, I was so damn happy though I know I prolly won't patronise them 'cause they just seemed too... well... empty. And you can't even dream of finding a 烧烤 place in Singapore. ):

P.s. Remember to get recipe for 可乐鸡 (coke chicken) from Bo Mei.

First to none / Experience in Suzhou -- 3

Okay so here I am with a high likelihood of adding to the H1N1 statistic. Been feverish since late Wednesday night, with flu and cough. After what the doc said today, I really don't get the mad rush for Tamiflu. You know the side effects of the pill include nausea and hallucinations for young people. Like what the crap, the doctor said if I took Tamiflu, I required close supervision so that an event where I commit suicide under hallucination will not occur. -.-

Our best friend in Suzhou said this on MSN today:
今天心情很不好. 在三星，数着那些报关单的时候，很郁闷，很想哭. 反复问自己是不是真的值得来这里. 连个可以说上话的朋友都没有，让自己彻底地变成一个工作狂. 是不是真的值得...... 好想念Febe,好想念Sarah和Ter. 那些可以无条件陪伴在我身边的人，那些可以随叫随到我身边的人. 而如今他们离我好远. 好想念，很想回深圳. 很想，很想......

I really miss Suzhou!

I miss those times when we carried our cameras everywhere we went, even if it's just to go downstairs because around every corner is something new, every experience is new, and we want to capture every moment because first time thoughts, first time feelings, first time moments can never be experienced again. Like our first time going to 好人民, 山塘街, eating 干锅, stepping into Kaifa, stepping into the swimming complex's toilet, drinking 白酒, seeing a bullet train (gosh, I'm smiling at this memory), going to 欧善 on a weekend, hearing firecrackers from our home, cycling back from our best friend's place, having a major potluck lunch thing, having rashes, getting lost while walking back from our best friend's place at 1am, going to the 人才市场, going to Beijing and Shanghai, having to spend the night at Macs because we couldn't secure any accomodation, meeting Mr Softee (:DDD), walking on 金鸡湖大桥 in that typhoon-like rain, walking on the same bridge alone, eating real street food, playing 八十分, seeing all their faces when we let them try something we baked, standing on a packed bus for 2 whole hours, eating 杨梅, really good 琵琶, and really really good 无锡水蜜桃, seeing Yang Fei puke on the table after downing almost a bottle of beer, and lots lots more. I remember once, when it was still early days, we were so pleased with ourselves because that was to be the first time we managed to get around without cabbing then! we couldn't find the bus stop to take our last bus back so we had to cab home. Boy did our hearts sink.

I miss the people. People who will cook especially for us just because they know we would like to have a taste of their cooking or authentic 家乡菜 before we head home, people who will invite me to their home just because they know I'll be returning to an empty house. In my short 3 months there, I've been to four homes, stayed over at two. And the many long talks 小叶 and I always had after we conducted job interviews where I was enlightened and learnt a great deal. Plus the Saturday morning I spent talking to Qiu Yan at the reception. Oh how about being constantly surprised by the many people who bought for me specialty products to bring home on their own accord, without my asking or even mentioning when they went back to their hometowns. I carried back a suitcase that was literally half-filled with gifts. The warmth, and the open-ness of the people in Suzhou - I will never forget. And it moves me everytime anyone of them says they misses me (us). Even the most unlikely of people, and it truly touches me.

It occurred to me the previous night that 3 months back, I talked about having all the meaningless ones and not having the one meaningful one. 3 months on, it's been proven that the one would have indeed been the meaningful one and the ones are indeed not as meaningful as what I thought they had been.

P.s. Received the package!! :D

The 800th post

If I graduate next year, we are going to throw our mortarboards together and have our pictures taken together and maybe even go for a grad trip together. :D:D:D

:D

I'm a happy girl today because:
1. I got to chat with many people on MSN that I like to chat with.
2. I really smiled/laughed in front of my lappy/computer in comp lab a good number of times. :D
3. Roomie put a MSN nick that said: 'roomies pic fading: ter we're old!'. Okay, not quite the 'old' part but the roomies part you know. It's like I almost forgot we were roomies already.
4. Our convo. Heh.
5. Sissy put me through this personality test thing and it turned out to be quite good. (:
6. I have a haircut date next week. Be gone thick thick hair!
7. I am meeting WH tomorrow.
8. I have an ice cream date with Roomie next week.
9. I got the complete recipe for ngoh hiang (remember the egg, sugar and flour).
10. It dawned on me that I am very blessed - I have friends to go cut hair with me, go hunt and get lost for good food together, go eat ice cream, discuss stocks and shares, etc. I am blessed.

Experience in Suzhou -- 2

There’s a well-known saying – 上有天堂，下有苏杭 – where 苏 refers to the 苏in 苏州 and 杭 refers to the 杭in 杭州. While I haven’t been to Hangzhou, I must say Suzhou does live up to its name of being a heaven on earth. This is not a place you will immediately fall in love with, but it certainly grows on you. Before, I’d always thought a vibrant city like Shenzhen would be more fun and interesting and this belief I held throughout my time in Suzhou, right till the very last day. It was only when I reached Shenzhen did I realize how much I miss Suzhou’s character and history.

When Suzhou is mentioned, people think of silk, pearls, 园林 (private gardens), 虎丘 (Huqiu), 寒山寺, the Suzhou Museum, the Suzhou Industrial Park (SIP), hairy crabs from Yangcheng Lake etc. All of these either have their history or are things unique to Suzhou.

Moving onto Shenzhen, what do you think of when someone mentions about the place? Cheap shopping immediately comes to mind. And perhaps a few other places like 莲花山 where Deng Xiaoping’s statue sits atop, 世界之窗, Book City, and an amusement park I forgot the name of. Anything that is truly unique to the place? No. Everywhere looked the same, everywhere just looked like a shopping venue. Even the cab driver and a newly-made friend, Andrew, agreed that Shenzhen is lacking in that aspect because Shenzhen is after all just a piece of reclaimed land that has been developed as a commercial area. People treat the place as one that will offer them a better salary for the same work, a stepping stone to a better future. Few develop a sense of belonging to the place.

Suzhou is also pretty much an immigrant city as many factories are located in the SIP (this is the one Singapore apparently got played out), many workers from the other less prosperous cities come to the SIP to work. So many that the ratio of Suzhou workers to non-Suzhou workers is higher than 1:30 I believe. But the difference is, many do see their future here. They buy houses or hope to. They start families here.

You see, Suzhou is actually a very family-friendly place. I haven't actually seen any of those messy red-light stuff, unlike in Shenzhen and Singapore. Public buses stop operating at 8.30pm in the SIP and at 10pm in the city. So yes they do promote the wise, old saying, ‘Early sleep early rise, makes you healthy, happy, and wise.’ The air, though not as clear as Singapore’s, is still way better than cities like Shanghai and especially Beijing. Landscaping is comparable or even better than Singapore’s. They have specifically set a law that buildings in the city cannot be higher than 4 stories so as to preserve the old city look. And the lights switched on all around the SIP every night, you wonder where they get all their money from. There is even police patrolling and police posts located at traffic junctions. Oh, not forgetting the 科文中心 (Suzhou’s Bird Nest) with the 摩天轮(ferris wheel) in the background. Totally feels like seeing the Esplanade and the flyer, only in China. All in, the SIP is very much like Singapore – safe, accessible, has nice scenery, organized, or maybe even better.

El's words

'Basically i hate school. smelly boys. slow drivers. no toilet in science. jerky ride. hot weather. crawl to my seat. crowded buses. wahlao. ultimate man.'

Haha all summed up in an sms.

吉祥如意

Mummy was admitted into hospital last last night for high fever which was later confirmed to be H1N1. I'm wondering if this has anything to do with the fact that 吉祥 shattered so badly I couldn't even try to put back the pieces.

Experience in Suzhou -- 1

It's about time! I have been procrastinating A LOT - my suitcase is still not completely unpacked and I have provided nary a Suzhou blog post here so here's the first! Of photos in May.. A video we did of the start of all our good times. ((:

About pictures back

She said something about 夫妻相 and a feature which has, well, disappeared. I need to lose weight!!!

Is it me or is 1am supposed to be late?

Need to be a better person.

I made someone cry today. Because for all his effort, no one showed any appreciation. I ought to treasure him more.

An exchange of 'important' knowledge

Tonight (technically last night) I said what I have been wanting to say for the longest time. And, he asked, he cared. (:

2nd day of school

Got all 6 mods and just realised I have TWO back-to-back days with TWO back-to-back papers. I'm SCREWED.

On a happier (sadder) note, am back from Suzhou which I totally had FUNFUNFUN at. Update soon!