Thursday, December 25, 2008

back home.....

Its amazing how time flies..4 months of my exchange in hong kong just flew past like that. Can still remember the times at the start when I am still complaining how not used to the life in hk at the initial stage, and even some time late in my exchange. But somehow, these few days I felt rather lost. Full of mixed feeling, on one hand I want to go back home, on the other hand, I am a bit reluctant to go back because I am pretty used to the freedom I had over here and also the cooling and sometimes cold weather., but most importantly, I dun want to go back to face reality. And I guess everyone who r in the final yr knows what this reality is…yes..working =(…cant imagine myself working for the next 40++ years. So this exchange sorta gave me the opportunity to temporarily escape from the cruel fact that I am graduating and do not need to be in the same stress level as those back home for jobs.

One thing abt this trip is that I had always thought that going on tour is all about finding fun and going exciting places to play, but actually it is not the place that really matters, but the company that matters. It’s the human to human interaction that makes life interesting. So glad to know a few better friends from the exchange..and the surprise by the OVE pple and lastly the visit by my vball friends totally made my exchange a memorable one...and to some extent i do miss the exchange now..haha..

Anyway, i am having some difficulty trying to backdate the posts...so i guess i shall let the pictures do the talking instead..




will post more pics again

Tuesday, December 9, 2008

Time to study...

Finally the end of 5 days of fun with grp 5 pple and the start of my preparation for exams...wun be posting on the 5 days now coz i want to focus on the exams..so will post next week after the papers r over.

Had some serious food poisoning on the last day of their visit which cause derrick desmond kelvin n me to have diarrhoea. And for me, because i do not have anti-diarrhoea pills left, i had to make a trip down to the hospital opposite my hall tt night. Although its just a mere 300m walk from my hall, to me its a long long walk. I was shivering from head to toes and felt so giddy and felt like puking all the time. And after a long wait of abt an hour, its finally my turn to see the doctor and he confirmed tt i had food poisoning. Guess this is the worse food poisoning i had, which made me visit the toilet at least 30 times since sunday. And worse still, i slept for so long tt i have yet started my revision..

Dun like the feeling of falling sick overseas seriously....but somehow i managed to find some warmth somehow, with my friends offering to help me buy meals and my neighbour willingly lending me his heater because he knows i am feeling cold..Thank you so much...

Will post abt the surprise visit by grp5 after my exams...shall catch 2 more hrs of sleep b4 my study officially commence...

till then.....

Wednesday, December 3, 2008

An Unexpected SURPRISE!!!! The BEST i had...

Totally unexpected...the OVE peeps are here in HK!!!!!.....super OMG right. I simply cannot believe my eyes when i saw the bunch of them, 6 of them...Kelvin, derrick, desmond, yen ling, sarah and stacey...appearing in front of me outside the medical library today and shouting "SURPRISE!!!"...Stunned...shocked...speechless...

In fact when i saw them, i had so mixed feelings, because i just ended my phone interview in the library with a bank, and i simply screw up, coz its so awkward talking over the phone and no one seems to be on the other end and i am like speaking to a wall, so i stammered a lot and ya i know..i screw up...so being so disappointed with myself and i unsuspectingly walk out to look for Z who claims tt he wants to pass me some stuff. But anyway, who will expect them to fly all the way to HK to find me, although i did suggest jokingly...and it really did become a reality...so was so shocked tt i do not know how to react...

Felt soooooo touched.....they had planned this like 2 months ago..and made so much effort to keep it a secret from me....Actually the fact that they came here is enough to make me feel so touched...hahaha....so i have not been forgotten afterall =)....So brought them to eat dim sum at my favourite dim sum place at westwood and followed by some shopping at central and causeway bay....this is the first time i step out of my westwood area in 2 weeks siaz...totally so busy with reports...and tt explains why i did not catch any hints or signs that they are coming here...thinking back, when i piece everything together, i shld have detected this plot if i had been alert..haha...but tt would not be so much a surprise already...soooo...i still prefer this outcome...

Still cannot believe tt they are here.....hope tt is not a dream..haha...i will be meeting them tmr right??

BEST SURPRISE i had so far....Thanksssss so much.....nothing can express tt other than spending more time with u all...

Feel so fortunate that i have known so many wonderful friends around me.....=)))))

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

LKF...Club 9

After a super long long thursday of lessons and that 2 projects, my much needed rest finally arrived. We went to patrick mansion to celebrate meida birthday and then proceed down to Club 9 at central, near LKF. First time i went with them to clubbing. Actually i am not intending to go because i am sick and just ate panadol, but thinking that there might not be much opportunities for big group outings, so i just go ahead with them...I personally dun really like clubbing because i dun dance and dun really like super loud music blasting into my ears. But occasional visits is fine for me and can destress too ba.

The rest initially had the plan to knock me out(make me drunk) to embarrass me, but did not succeed because i cannot drink alcohol after eating the panadol(which i kinda regret eating). But i still drink quite a bit lah..cant resist the temptation..haha..so took the the gamble hoping that i will not die coz of liver complications the next day...haha..ya..and i survived of coz....There are still quite a number of funny stuff that happened actually...but i shall not elaborate here before i get killed by the rest..hahaa...Just some pics below..

with meida(bdae girl), rachel n wesley

the guys..wesley, kenn,davidgroup photo...its actually super duper cold out at the balcony...

and after clubbing which is about 3am, we decided to cab down to the fav supper place to have some midnight supper...and one thing abt this dim sum place is tt the shop owner is like treating us like her VIPs siaz..esp when the amount of dim sum we order can easily surpass the total amt of dim sum those customers in the shop order..haha..and guess what...we stayed there eat and talk till 5am...super happening siaz..really going to miss this kinda life when i get back to spore...

Mad rush for projects...

Had a busy week last week because i had 2 projects for 2 of my modules due and they are of super high weightage, one of it is worth 50% and the other 30%. So spend a few sleepless nights last week researching on the stuff and writing out the content. And of coz, both are last minute work, not that i want it to be last minute but i am forced by some circumstances like not receiving the parts from other group members to compile etc...

Speaking of which, the 50% project is perhaps one of the most disastrous project i had done so far. To be honest i am so pissed off with the group people, that the anger with their attitude becomes disappointment and a sense of hopelessness. Simply dun understand why this project turn out this way, with people not doing anything and me as an exchange student doing almost ALL the project content.....And there is this girl who only sent an email to the prof informing her on our project scope, and she assumes that her task/responsibilities for the project is done and over. Hence, she did not even do anything about the content for the poster and still have the cheek to slam paper and pen on the table at me...how dare she!!!...If not because of my rather high tolerance level, she would have already been slapped a few hundred times by me siaz. First time i met such ridiculous, arrogant person. The best thing is one day before the presentation, she send a mass email to everyone desparately asking for help because she do not know what to present on or what content to present on. Wonder how come she has such thick skin to ask for help siaz. What an experience...bad experience with the locals. =(

If this is not the worse, my the other project the next day was another mad rush. As usual, i am the one doing the slides again. Sometimes i wonder why i kept volunteering for doing the compilation when i know it is going to be so tedious and so tiring. But anyway, work till 7am in the morning and was waiting for another group mate to send me her slides. i waited and waited and after sending a number of smses and emails to remind, she finally send the slides to me at 1.15pm...and guess wat, the presentation is at 2pm...wooohoo...first time i did such a last minute work..so last minute. And due to the lack of time to prepare for the presentation and lack of sleep, i think i simple screw up my presentation. Dun sound confident of what i am presenting. Haiz..simply return all those presentation techniques from 214 already.

Yup...so thats a super busy week with lack of sleep and of coz i fell sick due to the sudden change in weather. The weather here been quite erratic. It can be quite warm one day and on the other day its so cold. So many of us actually fell sick, esp with stress from studies coming. Gotta start mugging for my exams which is due in 20 more days...but before that, it will be another busy week for me this week with 2 more papers to write.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Eventful Saturday....

Think today is actually one of the more fruitful saturday i had in Hong Kong so far. Went for vball competition in the morning and i nearly couldnt wake up until david gave me a call. Actually coz i only managed to fall asleep at 8am in the morning. Super crazy. Something wrong with my bio clock. But ok, tts beside the point. Today's match was against the engineering faculty and the BEA fac pple kept telling us tt it is going to be a tough match and i think i know the reason why when i saw 3 Uni team members in tt fac. Ok, this is going to be a real exciting match. Finally got chance to play with some "pro" players. I think my team played quite well and really put a great fight, leading both sets till 20 points b4 our fate change and eventually lost 25-21 for both sets. Actually, this shows tt there is really nothing to be afraid of though they are the star studded team. Actually we could have won if not of some individualistic behavior of one player on our side. Kinda sian diao by him actually. Just wanna say, Volleyball is a team sport, you cannot win single handedly.

I am pretty glad with myself actually, coz i am starting to find confidence in myself with the spikes and receive. And best of all, i have found back the motivation and inspiration.

HKU BEA...front row are the players...

Then at night, we organised a BBQ session at Deep Water Bay Beach. Woohoo..so long din go for any bbq already, so it kinda excite me a litte. And this BBQ gathers all the singaporeans and some of our japanese friends and italian friend. A total of 19 pple turn up. gd gd...Its also a long time since so many pple turn up for an event or gathering...So its kinda nice. Talk a lot, crap a lot, try to be crazy a lot. Basically i enjoyed myself at this BBQ, coz i xiang3 tong1 already, when i study, i must study hard, when i play, i must play hard too. So throw all the troubles aside and just immerse in tt total crap, total nonsense and total fun atmosphere...Yep..so fun =)...i must start to treasure my remaining 1 month of freedom in Hk siaz.

@deep water bay beach...nice view siaz...

the whole bbq area is filled with pple....so crowded siaz...but i guess we are the ones making the most noise.

the usual bbq stuff...hotdog, chix wings, corn, sweet potato...so so nice.but oily

grp pic..david, waysi, kenn, me, Genta(Jap), rachel

all the guys....

last grp photo of EVERYONE at the bbq area.

Friday, November 14, 2008

Study Abroad Fair

Its the HKU study abroad fair yesterday and so all exchange students from various countries will have a chance to set up a booth to showcase the best of their countries and promote their universities. So as patriotic singaporeans we also set up a booth to show everyone where we came from. Been sort of doing last minute preparations for the fair like doing up the "singapore flags" decoration only the night before. But i did sent out lots of emails to Singapore tourism board to ask for brochures and to lend us the singapore flag and sent email back to ntu to get them to send us some stuff. So guess we got all the materials and stuff we want.

Just tt we did not make any singapore food for them to sample coz none of us have time as out timetable for thursday is so packed. And me rachel and kenn scrambled to decorate the booth within 20 mins b4 we have to all rush for our lessons. But luckily everything turn out well. Hope we have done Singapore proud..haha =)

Just some photos...enjoy


the preparation phase at patrick mansion


the Singapore booth design....=)

some of my foreign friends i met in HKU..Adrian(Canada), who is coming to singapore next sem, Hiedi(Germany), vball player from my hall, and Alex(Scotland) from my hall too..nice painting on his face..=)

Shing yuan, rachel, me, shara...we were suppose to man the booth, but we turn out to be busy phototaking..haha

SINGAPORE ROX!!!!
(in the pic: Wesley, kenn, david, me, shingyuan, rachel)

All Exchange students in HKU!!!

Friday, November 7, 2008

What have i been doing these while!?!?!

Yeah...like what the title of this post says...what the f*** have i been doing all these while???!?! Been living like a zombie everyday. Waking up late for lessons, falling asleep during lessons, not doing a single piece of homework when i have time and then panic n rushing to do the assignment only 5 hrs b4 the due date. Been watching videos and movies non stop on the net, been watching lots of soccer matches on the cable tv in my pantry. I think i have watched a total of 10 movies in 4 weeks siaz...Am pretty reluctant to go out to shop coz i find shopping very troublesome and hectic, Not been going out for dinners with the rest coz i always like to dilly dally and taking my own sweet time. ARGHZ..... Am i CRAZY!?!?!?! oh man...i am totally cui-ed, totally not motivated...totally lose the energy and drive in myself.

Oops, i think you all will find this super unbelievable and surprised and stunned. This cannot be the Kx that you all know right. hahaa, actually i myself cant believe it too...why such a big change in me...

Must find something to really inspire me back to start living a life again and finding myself back.

莫等閒 白了少年頭,空悲切......just in case u all dunno wat it means..it meant tt dun slack and wait until you grow old and start regretting wat you can or ought to do while u were young...been singing this song in sec sch for 4 yrs n its only now i understand the real meaning of the phrase.

Hopefully the vball competition this sat does provide me with the much needed motivation and drive to achieve something

Come on KX!!!!....

Hiking trail...Eight Immortal Peak

Went for a hiking trip in New Territories last sunday with david and sin yan..woke up super duper early at 8am. One of the really rare occasions that i woke up early. Really force myself to wake up and really wanted to wake up coz i haven been pang-sehing some of them lately coz i could get myself of my bed. So we spend like 1.5 hrs trying to get to the base of the Eight Immortal Hills. Without having breakfast nor any warm up session, we started on the journey uphill...I was basically walking like a zombie for the first 10 mins of the journey uphill until one part where i nearly, almost fell off the hill as the ground is slippery coz of the rain earlier. And that woke me up instantly. Oh man, i am just playing with fire siaz. So to keep myself awake and to distract myself from the physically demanding climb, i started playing with my camera. Haha. Been quite some time since i took pictures. So that really kept me occuiped for the whole journey.

This eight immortal hill is a grade 4 hiking trail, meaning, it is one of the most demanding hiking trail in the whole of hong kong. And usually, people will go for the grade 2 and 3 first before embarking of the grade 4. Also, pple will be bringing lots of water and food, first aid kit and walking stick and a map. But i was totally not prepared. The only i had was a bag with 2 water bottles. The best thing is, i din join the rest for the "beginners" course at grade 2 n 3 trails. I am so so daring, so ambitious, so adventurous siaz. Luckily my army days gave me perfect training on such terrain, and it is still considered mild compared to Mt Biang in Brunei.

So after 2 hrs of hiking, we reach the first peak and the whole place was covered by clouds. Actually, we are all standing in the clouds. Super cool siaz..and cooling =). Really have that magical feeling and like us being the immortals, the ba sian. After climbing to all the 8 peaks that represent the 8 immortals, we were shocked that we had only covered less than 1/3 of the total journey. And there is simply no turning back and no way that we can give up on the hiking because we are really in the middle of nowhere. With no map, with no compass, with no guide, we just walk and walk based on our intuition...and we were greeted with some of the best scenery i have seen. It is actually much better than the guilin scenery i think. Imgaine yourself standing on the top of the mountain, with the nice cooling wind blowing on your face and there is no other civilisation in sight. It is just pure FREEDOM. Woooohoooo...Really fantastic experience...Ok, shall not describe more, coz it is so hard to describe the feeling, you really have to be there to experience it...Just want to say...it is really a nice trip..but a super tiring 6 hours trail. Hike at your own risk, but you will well rewarded.

at the top of the first peak...Hsien Ku Peak(one of the 8 immortals)....511m high...liddat already taller than out Bukit Timah Hill..hahaa..

at peak no 5...after some boring and usual pose earlier..we decided to try something different

the highest peak in this mountain chain..Wong Leng Peak..639m...nothing up there actually. Think this signpost is nicer than the view up there. =p

on the verge of jumping...haha..just kidding..anyway its super scary standing up there..really

Wooohooo...enjoying the cool breeze and fantastic scenery

Autumn is here....=)...
actually the leaves of the trees turn red or brown coz this place actually caught fire recently and guess, there isnt much water for the trees..but nonetheless..a very very nice pic right..haha
"我站在靠近天的顶端 张开手全部释放
用月光取暖 给自己力量 
才发现关于梦的答案 一直在自己手上
只有自己能 让自己发光"

Monday, October 27, 2008

Guilin Pt 3

Day 3: So we embarked on the 4 hours ferry ride along the Li river. A lot of pple say that if you haven to the Li River, means that you haven been to Guilin. The scenery along the route was nice…but it could be nicer, if it hasn’t been that foggy or polluted. Its hard for me to explain the experience, you have to be there to feel it. But I strongly dun recommend a 4 hours ride coz it gets a bit boring after some time, coz the most scenic places are only concentrated at the mid stream. So the boring us got down to play cards on the deck..as usual…


the pier....there are so many ferries and so many pple....

the couple in the foreground of the pic made a big big nuisance by quarreling loudly with the tour guide...and someone sitting behind us even shouted "ma4 de2 hao3!!!!"...china pple really love to quarrel

the ferry buying supplies of fishes and prawns from the small boat..


this pic appears on the back of the 20 RMB note...
the tour guide told us..." 想象想象..越想就会象..不想什么都不象"....and "70% depends on imgination..30% depends on...fate (i say one)"..haha...so can u see an old man face on the mountain? can u see a mother and her child?

the 9 horses mountain...can u spot the 9 horses???if u can u r really a talent..

the hill tt looks like a brush...

the hill tt looks like guanyin statue...

playing cards on the deck....and i lost all games..cui-ed=(

After we disembark, rushed off for our short sightseeing in Yang Shuo City before we set off for the airport. The tour guide for our sightseeing is so nice. She knows tt we are going to catch our flight at 9pm and she took the initiative and help us arrange for transport back to the airport and help us bargain..All these done without us even requesting her to help us do. So nice of her. And the best part is, we wanted to give her some tips and she refuse to collect and passed to the driver of our transport instead…First time someone refuse tips in china siaz…really respect her to the max…So…tts concludes the Guilin trip…Must say adventurous trip for me, esp coz I did not do ANY research before going there, and the encounter with the nasty cab drivers and the nice bellboy n tour guide just make this trip more happening…..
Looking forward to my next china trip…..

Guilin Trip Pt 2

Day 2: Woke up very early as we were supposed to go on the Li Jiang river tour from the pier at guilin city area. So we chartered the 2 cabs that brought us to the hotel that day....but turned out that there are some miscommunication with the 2 cab drivers who fetched us from our hotel. Felt so cheated and most importantly, spoil our plan for the whole day!!!...now we have to push back the Li Jiang tour to the last day which is going to be super risky coz we will be rushing like mad to catch our flight…

nice sunrise =)

Back to the 2 drivers, apparently what she told us is a completely different story from what was agreed on the phone. So the rest of them were arguing with her and I cant really be bothered abt all her arguments and sat there to plan for our next journey, until one point when she started accusing our parents for not teaching us tt “zhuo4 ren2 yao4 you3 liang2 xing1”…and that got me so damn pissed off, that I stood up and scolded her…and that shut her up. For me, u can scold me but never ever bring my parents into the picture, else you will really get it from me…and this cab driver got it from me!!!!

this is the cab driver who got it from me!!!!.....she got the fierce look..but i am fiercer =p

So these 2 cab drivers really let us see one side of the China pple, very smart in making business and also very good at quarrelling with people. So all of you going to China, make sure you are smarter than them to outwit them.

Although this incident sort of spoil our plan and mood, we managed to find some stuff to do, like visiting the ”Du Xiu Feng” which has very nice view of the city and also a surprise visit to a local Pri sch, where we saw the sch kids queuing for "Mai Ya Tang"..some candies lah if u dunno chinese....and then we went into the school to look around...hahaa...the sch teacher even asked me if i am from Korea!!!...first time someone say i am from korea...wonder why i look like "a malaysian, AT, Hongkie and now korean" but not a singaporean..haha

climbing up these steep steps can be tiring....
but the view from this "Du Xiu Feng (Peak)" make the climb worth it.

the cave where the imperial scholars study for their exams and write poems in the past...how i wish i have a cave to study for my exams too..without any distractions. =p

this shop sells horse meat!!!!OMG...they really eat anything in china siaz

this "Zha Jiang Mian" cost 3RMB, which is abt 60cents...the dumplings coz 3RMB for 10..goodness its so cheap..but not really nice.

we saw the kids queuing up for the candies (u can order different animals!!!)...this is something u cant find in spore anymore i guess..

i talked to these kids outside the sch..and one of them even gave me a candy...so nice of him..

the so called bridge tt u used to cross the river...just tt there is chance tt u will fall into the river...so i prefer to spend 1RMB to take the raft....and actually wenjie fell down while trying to walk around the river with david

At night, we visited the Shui3 Jie1, which is something like Clarke quay, just tt it is a canal built by Qin Shi Huang long long ago, and that there are no pubs but BBQ shops along it. So we had lots and lots of BBQ stuff there and its really really very nice. If got chance, I will visit this place again. We were then joined by the Bellboy of the hotel, Cheng2 Shi2(honest in English). He is a very nice person actually, been helping us a lot these few days and he knocked off work early to join us to makan and drink some beer. Really nice and easier to talk to him especially coz he is only 25 years old, so about the same age…he told us a lot abt himself, like where is his hometown, why he has to come here to work, blah blah blah… So we finally saw the better side of the china, there are still pple who are friendly and honest(hopefully) to us.

the BBQ shop....we were lucky enough to find this original BBQ stall

grp photo with the bellboy(Cheng2 Shi2)