one life, live it...

Lesser

2011-05-17T22:52:00.002+08:00

Talks less and less

Smile and laugh lesser and lesser

Just find something missing in my life thus far.

Yearn to have it.

But guess just gotta face with the reality in life.

those days....

2010-07-01T01:57:00.002+08:00

Been one year + since i typed anything on this blog...work has indeed zap my energy and soul so much that i am left wondering what's good and nice in life.

I found the answer when looking at those videos and photos of the Laos trip. Life is not just about earning big bucks and living on luxury goods. Life is simply just about bringing joy and laughter to those around you.

I miss those days...

忍

2009-10-25T01:11:00.003+08:00

忍一时风平浪静, 退一步海阔天空

how far will this bring me? what will happen if i cant 忍 anymore?

....

2009-09-10T17:57:00.002+08:00

Been sick these 2 days and so did not go back to office. I must say this is a long overdue break that i need from work. Been working day in day out, some days till late nights. And on weekends, been going out till very late and reach home super late. So as you can see, i dun have much time to rest at all for the past 3 months. I feel tired and drained out. So these 2 days, been staying at home, sleeping most of the time and enjoying the slack moment which i missed..really.

Today is the first time in like 3 months since i open the photos folder on my comp and look back at those times i had. Cant help it but feel sad that life have changed so much since graduation. Life is no longer the same anymore, or rather it can never be the same anymore. I miss those times back in JC, where we can be so rebellious so playful. Life was simple, but fun. I miss times in Vietnam and Laos...I miss times in HK...and those were the times when i am feel so carefree, without the need to face the reality of the world....

When one of my friend told me that he is going to quit his job coz he dun like it, i tried hard to presuade him not to quit, telling him the reality of this society and the things he have to consider if he want to quit. But now, thinking back, i kind of admire his courage for quitting something he doesnt like to do. I dun think i can be like him because i lack that courage, because i tend to think too much about the consequences. Not that i am unhappy of this job, but i just find that working is just zapping my energy, my soul away. I used to have a lot of crazy ideas, a lot of places i wanna go to, but now everyday after work, all i wanna do is go home and have dinner and then sleep. This cycle repeat itself for 5 days. Is this the kind of life i want? I seldom really smile at work, because it is not like doing projects with your friends, you can joke around, you cant say stupid things, you can buy food and munch your snacks while discussing. You have to be serious all the time. This is killing me..really. This isnt me at all. I dun want to be so serious for the rest of my life....After 3 months+...i feel tired. Do i still have the energy to last for the remaining 1 yr 9 months? i wonder....

The answer

2009-08-17T01:10:00.003+08:00

Started work almost 3 months ago and by right, i should be very used to working life. But in actual fact, as i continue to work, i was made to ponder hard, to wonder hard, what exactly lies ahead of me, what is the meaning for the rest of my life. For the past few days, my msn nick says "searching hard", and yes, i am searching hard for an answer to what is the meaning in life.

I got the answer on saturday when i spoke to a friend whom i have known since Primary 1. And i must say i am so glad that i have a friend whom i know for 17 years and still keeping in contact. What he said in resposne to my question enlightened me:

"Dun search for the meaning of life, give life a meaning".

Wow..that struck me immediately because all these while i seem to be on the wrong track, because life has no meaning unless you give it one yourself. Like what he says, what he wants in life is just to have fun, to be happy, to be healthy and to be well fed.

Perhaps life itself is just as simple as that.

幸福需要勇气!!

2009-07-14T00:14:00.004+08:00

Saw this report on the papers today on the comeback of homegrown singer Sun Yan Zi. Really admire her courage to take a 2 years break from work to search for the "answers" and to pursue what she wants to do. It also takes a lot of courage for her to go back into the music industry after so long.

Somehow, tt really made me feel that if you truly wants to find happiness, you got to have the courage and the will to find it. Like in the search for happiness in love life, you got to have the courage to make the first step in order to even be in contention for tt "happiness". For happiness in work, you got to have the courage to make the decision of when to leave if you find that you are just the slave of working and you are not feeling happy at work at all.

All in all...happiness really lies in our own hands. We got to decide what we want.

I like how this article is written...somehow i realise that chinese articles tend to be able to provoke deeper and thinking and reflections oneself.

Time flies

2009-06-05T06:42:00.005+08:00

Lots of things happened in the past one month and i simply do not have time to blog down whatever that happened. So i will do a quick summary and then follow up on them this coming weekend.

Firstly..i went on a grad trip to australia (sydney and melbourne) with my uni friends from yr 1 sem 1...its such a nice place..totally love it, Beautiful scenery and nice weather. How i wish i had more time to travel the whole of australia. I wanted to travel all around australia since my maiden trip there during secondary 4, where i went to perth on a school annual camping trip. Love the weather in autumn and winter and the lazy feel there. It just makes me relaxed. Will post pics and stories soon....

Next..went back to hk yet again, but this time with my family. In fact i cant remember when was the last time i travelled on plane with my parents before (i think it was in primary school). So although i am going back hk again, i have no complains about it. Went back to most places i been to the previous time, except this time round, we went to Tai O, which i din go previously. It is just like a small fishing village, which has some resemblence of Singapore in the 19th century. Din buy a lot of things there because i think i have bought enough 6 months ago. So mainly its just sightseeing and food...

Actually during my grad trip in australia, i received calls every alternate days informing me to attend interviews, but i cant, and they are not willing to reschedule any of it. So i was sort of disappointed or sian diao by that. But on the last day in sydney, i got a call from citi informing me that i am being offered a job there. The next day when i returned back home, i signed the contract with them. And guess what is the starting date...the next monday..meaning i have like less than a week before i start work. And i still have to travel to HK the following day and will return on saturday only. The 2nd part of the grad trip to india and nepal have to be sacrificed, sadly. So i am filled with mixed feelings on getting this job, it is not that happiness or excitement that i felt when i signed the contract, but the sense of lost. Suddenly..my life changed.

So how has it changed? waking up at 630am every morning, and returning home from work at about 7 to 8pm..and then too tired to think or do anything, and just fall asleep. So seems like work has taken the bulk of my life now. This is the 2nd week of work and i am starting to wonder..what is the purpose of my life now? What is the goal i am chasing after? I am not sure.

But speaking back..maybe i shld be contented that i got a job...and yes i am...

Sometimes its just such an irony...when you are schooling, you have lots of time to travel to play. but no money....so u start working to earn money to satisfy your initial dreams...but now..i start to realise that you have money to travel..but you have that time to do so...

Why cant there be the best of both worlds?...i wonder..

Starting line of the next lap

2009-04-30T18:08:00.003+08:00

Concluded my 15 years of studies yesterday when i finish my one and only paper. Unlike previous semesters, i dun really feel particularly excited nor happy about it. Maybe like i mentioned before, its due to the uncertainty the next phase of my life presents. But maybe i should also see it from another perspective, that is to enjoy every moment i can because life is short and anything can just happen.

If you ask me if i will miss school or miss my friends, i dun really know how to answer this. Been through so many separations through these years, in secondary school, JC, army and every time everyone had to move on with their own life, we will be sitting down saying how much we will miss the place and the company together, and sometimes pple get emotional about it. Some friendships i had in university are precious, something that i hope can last, but i am trying not to go down the path i use to travel, by putting zillions of hopes and expectations because having too high expectations will lead to extremely high disappointment if things dun turn out the way u want it. But no matter what, guess i will still put in my best efforts to maintain them, just hope that i wun be disappointed at the end...will it be different this time round? we shall see....But come to think back on these, everyone can still meet up after graduating. It is just the amount of effort one put in to make things happen. And that is really the test of a friendship to see if it can be one that last forever.

Been getting lots of comments from pple on me being too kan chiong, not relaxed, too paranoid for my last paper in NTU, saying that since i had S/U it, i shouldnt be so uptight about it. To me, i feel that it is not a matter of whether you have S/U the module and therefore you should relax or not. But it is rather about putting in the best efforts for everything you do. I am a person who will put in 100% effort in doing things if i decide to do it. I S/U the paper because i do not want to take any risks but that does not mean that i should slack and neglect the paper. That is just not me. At the end of the day, i think whatever one does, he/she answers to him/herself. As long as you can pass the standards u set for yourself, then fine, just do whatever that suits you.

As for jobs application, went for an interview today and i stunned myself during the interview by giving replies that not only shocked the interviewers but also myself. When being asked on a hypothetical question, i replied "is this a trick question?" almost immediately when he asked it. I dun understand why i said that at that moment, but that is the biggest mistake you can make during an interview. On the question on what i thought are the traits of those in the post should possess, i actually mentioned that the person should not be ambitious...super omg, because the interviewer sort of gave a disgusted look and mentioned, "so i am such a non-ambitious person"...haiz..should have think deeper and give some more well phrased replies. There are many more times during the interview where i gave some incoherent replies..somehow, the replies i gave at the interview today are just so shocking..so off form...i really stunned myself today....when will the job come? some more things happened today which adds more stress on me needing to secure a job soon..

Worries aside, i am getting excited abt the aussie trip next week and family trip to hk mid may...must enjoy these moments of freedom while i can...

Absolutely inspiring.........

2009-04-16T01:41:00.010+08:00

Was introduced to this song by Lionel today in school and it turn out to be one of the most inspiring performance i had seen. In fact, this song moved me to tears and i had watched it like almost 3 times today. Yup..if you have been catching up with the latest in showbiz, you will know this...Its the performance by Susan Boyle on the 2009 series of "Britain's Got Talent", which was only aired less than a week ago and though it was uploaded on YouTube for like 4 days, it had garnered almost 6 million views.

She performed the song "I Dreamed a Dream" from the musical Les Misérables

"I dreamed a dream in time gone by

When hope was high

And life worth living

I dreamed that love would never die

I dreamed that God would be forgiving.

Then I was young and unafraid

And dreams were made and used

And wasted

There was no ransom to be paid

No song unsung

No wine untasted.

But the tigers come at night

With their voices soft as thunder

As they tear your hope apart

As they turn your dream to shame.

And still I dream he'll come to me

That we will live the years together

But there are dreams that cannot be

And there are storms

We cannot weather...

I had a dream my life would be

So different from this hell I'm living

so different now from what it seemed

Now life has killed

The dream I dreamed."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9lp0IWv8QZY&feature=related

If you read the lyrics of this song, you will find that it is actually a rather sad song, about someone having a dream but being dashed. But when Susan performed this song, she managed to bring out another side of the story...an inspiring one. The song she performed seems to echo her life thus far, at an age of 47 and having a dream to be a professional singer since young. Even as she knows her age and looks cannot bring her far in the showbiz industry, she remain undeterred by any obstacles, and stood tall in this theatre of dreams to pursue her dreams. In the end, she made an astonishing and stunning performance that awe everyone, including me.

Initially, when she started singing, i was wondering if they had used the wrong tape with the original singing, because the singing is just so perfect and nice. And yes..totally agree that this is a wake up call for everyone, never judge a book by its cover...never judge someone by his/her looks....

Yup..so this song sort of uplift my mood tremendously and i am totally inspired by it..i will overcome all odds and continue to live my dreams...nothing shall stop me.

live the dream you dreamed.....

Uncertainty....

2009-04-14T02:40:00.005+08:00

Been really down on luck these few weeks or months, with less than 3 phone calls i got regarding job interviews etc despite sending out more than 20 applications. Finally understand how tough the market is right now. I cant help but wonder why are my applications being rejected time and time again. Is my degree not good enough? or is my resume not impressive enough? Without a doubt, this is causing me lose confidence in myself. Suddenly, a person who had been so self confident in the past feeling so inferior about himself. Everything that i do these days, i cant help but question myself repeatedly whether this is correct or not. I am so lack of confidence that i hesitate speaking up even though i feel strongly against things or i have some burning questions. This is so unlike the me back in year 1 or year 2, where i am one of the most vocal in classes during discussions.

Even as i get the interviews, i attended it in fear. I am so unsure about myself, that i think i blew my chance yet again. This is a vicious cycle that i must find a way to stop it. Saying it is easy, but doing it is not. Now i can only pray real hard that my luck will turn for the better these coming weeks.

Saw this on the newspaper today..and it sort of explain the kind of situation i am experiencing now: on the verge of ending my 15 years of studies after the exams on th 29th and at the same time moving aimlessly into the uncertain future. The room behind the door i am about to open appears to be so empty and lonely....something which i hate and fear....i dread closing this schooling chapter of my life.

Colours in the sky

2009-03-22T10:17:00.003+08:00

这一刻回头看见自己

这一路的风景百感交集的我

下一刻又将飞向哪里

渐渐疲惫的羽翼为你披上了勇气

放心离开我

我会记得这一刻

那些还飞翔着不可思意的梦

雨后的天空会有绚烂的彩虹

像最初相信着我们总会找到自由

saw this beautiful rainbow yesterday while i was playing vball in hwa chong....it just lifted my spirits..this is just some simple things that can put a smile on my face.

Forget you never....

2009-03-22T02:20:00.009+08:00

It has been 8 years since we parted our ways. I have moved on with my life but i will never forget the many “firsts” i had with you. Even though i had left you, you will always remain dear in my heart. Thank you for instilling to me the many values in life such as "自强不息" and "饮水思源"that i will never forget. Thank you for shaping who i am today.

Yup..Attended The Chinese High School (or Hwa Chong Institution) 90th anniversary dinner today. I must really say that time flies because 10 years back, which is chinese high 80th anniversary, i participated in the opening ceremony in the day where then prime minister goh chok tong graced the ceremony and open our newly extended campus. At that time, all sec 2 boys(incl me) have to perform some traditional chinese "dance", called 红绸舞 for our PM. That night, i had to be the traffic marshal at the now defunct Singtel towers opposite our school. And of course all the npcc guys attended the 80th anniversary dinner after our duty, and the guest of honour is none other than our alumnus late President Ong teng cheong. Remembered one thing that he said that i still remember till date: 'If I'm not at Chinese High on March 21, where else can I be?' "...It just spell the passion he has for the school and the meaning of 饮水思源. This is indeed the true 华中spirit

So 10 years have passed and here i am, back in TCHS attending the 90th anniversary. I do not have many photos from secondary school because at that time, digital camera is something that is virtually non-existent in the market. But surprisingly the memories of that chapter of my life seems just so fresh in my head. I guess such memories that is so deeply embedded in my head is much more valuable than the millions of photos taken. I remember those days where my classmates and i will be playing chapteh after school almost everyday outside our classroom till about 6pm. I still remember playing mini soccer in the classroom using tennis ball during break time, and i tried to do a bicycle kick when i fell on my buttock. I remember attending music lessons, where we had to take test for the keyboard and i still remember the show "The Sound of Music" that we watched during the class. I remember failing my first exams in my life in sec 3 and had to see the dean at that time. I remember boycotting geography lesson with the rest of the class because we dun like the teacher teaching the subject, and we also got chased out of class for not bringing textbook(even those who brought volunteered to get out, so as not to attend the lesson). Thats how daring and rebellious we were..haaha.... I remember going on an overseas trip without going with my parents for the first time to perth for a 2 weeks camp. I remember spending lots of time in the library reading Tin-tin comic books and spending lots of time in the computer lab playing online games which chalk up to almost 100 bucks of internet fees.

Lots of memories flowed back when i saw many of my teachers who taught me before. Though some of them dun remember me, i do remember them...Remember what they had taught me and the encouragement they gave me at times when i need it most. Thanks for that.I remember having fantastic teachers such as Mrs chan (our form teacher & history teacher) who always joke with us and can be so casual with us. Really one of the best teacher i had. She can joke with us and we always bully her too, but her comments are just hilarious. Spoke to her just now, and she is as candid as 8 years back.

Mrs chua (chem teacher), who is soooo strict on us, making us run from our classroom to her chemistry lab the moment the bell rings. And i still remember that there was once we tried to act as if we were running by stamping our feet very hard on the steps to create the noise, but actually we were strolling up the stairs. Who knows she is watching from upstairs and caught us doing so...haha..its just so funny looking back. She is also the teacher who made me remember the formula for phosphoric acid for life...H3PO4...hahaa, because i was made to stand for the whole lesson for not knowing this formula.

Mr Png (Maths teacher). My A-maths and E-maths results were one of the most cui in class and had to go for his remedial lessons. He always give us lot of assignmets, and i still remember my friends and i wanted to finish the assignments fast so that we can play the "who wants to be a millionaire" online or street fighter, so we just simply copied from the answer booklet or famously known as the "grey book"....haha...ok..those were the times where i think i am so rebellious....=(...but i am glad i had learnt from my mistakes.

Yeah...so many memories from Chinese High..and i cant possibly type everything out now....simply love my school so much so much...Chinese High always hold a very special place in my heart and i will definitely be back for the 100th anniversary...The Hwa Chong spirit, which is "自强不息" and "饮水思源" (never give up and never forget our roots) is also something that i will never forget.

Once again...thank you chinese high for everything...happy 90th....

爱我华中, 我爱华中

after a long break

2009-03-08T03:02:00.003+08:00

Lost the inspiration to blog recently maybe because there is really nothing interesting tt happened in my life for the past one month or so. And tts is rather true actually especially when i only have one module this semester..and tt is something i am regretting now..i shld have taken a language module at least..dumb dumb me..but no pt looking back too.

And my life start to pick up pace these 2 weeks especially with the FYP going to be due within a week time. So spent a lot of time in school, collating data, reading the lengthy literature, trying to get myself started on data analysis and writing the report, which certainly requires tonnes of effort to overcome my super powerful inertia. And tt is followed by only 8 hrs of sleep in 3 days, the least i have slept for almost a yr.Basically the reason why i had to burn midnight oil is coz we have not submitted the first draft by the dateline..but ya its finally done ytd after some mad rush.

Actually wanted to finish the report by wednesday so tt i could bring my hk friends (who are japs n italian) around spore, but coz i cant finish on time, had to rush here n there and try to make out time to fit their schedules...but i feel quite happy seeing them in spore..how often do u have foreign friends and yet still keep in contact after exchange...shall go slp now..coz tmr will bring them ard to little india and tmr is their last day in sg..so fast...

Quote....

2009-02-09T15:22:00.002+08:00

"Don't limit yourself. Many people limit themselves to what they think they can do. You can go as far as your mind lets you. What you believe, remember, you can achieve." - Mary Kay Ash

yet again..

2009-01-31T22:09:00.004+08:00

3Rs

How often do i need to travel down this path...

Big relief..=)))

2009-01-22T03:57:00.003+08:00

Woohoo...finally got back my results for my exchange in HK this morning...Its really a super long wait for the results release and i must say that i am super worried because i had taken 2 core, 1 PE and 1 UE which i MUST transfer over in order for me to graduate successfully this july. And the fact that i only studied for my 3 papers for only 6 days while struggling to get well from food poisoning made me even more worried.

Yup, so am very glad with the results. In fact, they were all up to my expectation. But if this is the result i get in NTU, then i will think its quite cui..Since its only transfer of credits, as long as i passed, i am happy. So really heaved a sigh of relief when i saw the results. Finally cleared this bothering issue, which is making me rather sian and cranky at times. So, i can now finally fully focus on my FYP and job seeking lo...

Speaking of FYP...was in school for most of today, trying to write my part of the literature review and of coz to distribute out the survey forms to whoever i know. Yup...pretty desperate lah because the deadline set by the prof is actually next week..and how am i going to get 250 sample size and key in the data within one week...really need all my friends who received my email blast to complete it man..else i think i confirm GG...

Gotten the bak kwa today which i bought from ove'09 and tts means tt the footsteps of CNY is really getting nearer n nearer...In fact...its this sunday..OMG...i must say tt i dun feel the CNY mood at all, and this is the same feeling i had over the past 2 years. Guess the meaning of CNY to me have changed over the years. Issit because i am getting older? or is everyone feeling the same as i did? I really do miss those fun days of CNY i had when i was young....but it can never be the same again...maybe i will visit my primary school this friday to experience it again..HAHAA..=p

最初的夢想.....一定要到达

2009-01-17T00:53:00.006+08:00

最初的夢想范瑋琪

如果驕傲沒被現實大海冷冷拍下

又怎會懂得要多努力才走得到遠方

如果夢想不曾墜落懸崖千鈞一髮

又怎會曉得執著的人要有隱形翅膀

把眼淚裝在心上會開出勇敢的花

可以在疲憊的時光閉上眼睛聞到一種芬芳

就像好好睡了一夜直到天亮

又能邊走著邊哼著歌用輕快的步伐

沮喪時總會明顯感到孤獨的重量

多渴望懂得的人給些溫暖借個肩膀

很高興一路上我們的默契那麼長

穿過風又繞個彎心還連著像往常一樣

最初的夢想緊握在手上

最想要去的地方怎麼能在半路就放

最初的夢想絕對會到達

實現了真的渴望才能夠算到過了天堂

heard this old song over the radio just now and thought its pretty nice, as in the lyrics are quite meaningful..

am threading along the thin thin line.......

Finally a medal...=)))

2009-01-17T00:11:00.007+08:00

Went down to school today to settle some stuff for my FYP, which only lasted for a few hours. Coz the highlight for me today is actually the ISG semis in the evening against NIE. Its actually quite some time since i played competitive vball. I like playing competitive vball coz i like the adrenaline rush, the excitement, the feeling of triumph or sorrow(not really!!!) after the match, the mind games you play with the opponents, to outwit each other. Have played for NBS at the ISG for all 3 years already and since this is my final yr in nbs, so i am pretty determined to end it off with a medal from the ISG. In fact the last time i gotten any medal from a vball competition was 2 years back, also at the ISG, where we got 3rd. So it had been a medal drought for me from vball for quite some time.

So played NIE in the semis, where we were expected to lose coz we are the underdogs in the competition especially when both ivp players weren't around. The first set was so tight, where we lost 29-27..then the second set, we fought back with 27-25...both sets were super duper close..and every points count..make me sweat siaz..haha..then the final set, we won 15-11...so first time through to the finals for nbs for all my 3 yrs. Because no one wants to come back on Saturday for the finals, we decided to play the finals right after the semis, which means its quite shag, especially when we have totally no substitutes at all. Surprisingly, the finals wasn't as exciting as the semis because the other team, the engine, made too much unforced errors. And eventually we won...woohooooo...guess this is the first time nbs won the isg vball, defeating all the pre-match hot favourites. And yeah...another GOLD medal added to my collection. =)))))

Today is one of the rare occasion whereby i am super on form and highly motivated. There is this unknown source of motivation that is powerful enough to inspire me today...haha....i will try to find out wat this source is. Hmm...the last time i was on form for vball was way back in army, where my team won the inter-unit comp. Yup..totally love the feeling when i am on form, where almost every ball seems to know where i want it to go..hahaha...But nevertheless, must say that vball is a team sport, it require lots of understanding and cooperation from everyone in order to win it, so it doesnt really depend on just one person.

People always say that its the process of fighting to achieve that matters rather than the end product, i agree with that. Somehow, i think we managed to enjoy both the process (coz we were not too stressed up, as we can even joke and laugh though we lost some points) and also achieve what we want today.

And one thing i learnt is that, never go into a battle with the mentality that you will lose, because you have already lost half the battle with that mindset. So i am pretty glad i went into the match with the strong mentality that i will win the game. and i guess thats wat everyone in the team feels as well, though we are facing a much stronger opponent..."there is nothing in this world tt u cannot do, it is whether u want to do it or not"

Hope this win will give me more confidence to face the uncertainty for whatever i am facing now or that come my way.

i am really slacking like mad !!!!

2009-01-14T22:59:00.004+08:00

Not been doing much these few days since i am only having a one day week and FYP for this semester. I know that a lot of people are pretty envious that i am only having a one day week, but i myself is not exactly fantastically happy about that fact. Because it can get really super damn boring staying at home with virtually nothing much to do other than slacking, nuahing and lo-bo-ing. Sometimes it has come to a point whereby there is nothing for me to surf on the net, no more movies to watch online and no one to chat online. I even finish reading all sections of all newspaper available everyday lor. So what can i do?? I am now just having a glimpse into that kind of life i will be living after i graduate IF i do not get a job by august, which will be damn sad lah. But then base on the papers reports i think there is a 50% chance that such thing will happen, though i am praying hard that i can get a job.

Totally dun like such slack-until-nothing-to-do kinda life, because it is just simply wasting my time and my life away. And that got me motivated enough to renew my search for job today, but i have not apply yet. Been trying to find a part time job to do from wed-fri of each week and also some volunteering work to do on sat, which i applied with kelvin. Luckily there is still weekly vball session to look forward to, or else i think every single day of the week will be the same to me. Maybe its a good chance for me to go learn some new sports, some new musical instrument or what. Got to live my life man..hahaa...

Realise that quite a number of my friends are feeling rather down or sian or unhappy for some unknown reason these few days. Wouldnt want to probe them too much actually but just wanna say that:

"笑也一天，哭也一天，为什么不笑着过一天??"

It is really up to one's choice to feel happy or not. No matter whether u are happy or unhappy, one day of your life will just go past. So why not make the effort to think positively and be more optimistic right?

letters and cards...

2009-01-09T04:23:00.002+08:00

Surprisingly i am still awake at this unearthly timing....been tossing around on bed for almost 2 hrs but just couldnt sleep at all..dunno why..maybe i had slept too much on the bus back home just now. So decided to just tidy up my desk for a while. But that din really last long because i got attracted to a stack of letters or cards that pple sent me during xmas, new yr, bdae or just some random letters since pri sch...

Yup..i do keep all these cards n letters because they have an additional sentimental value to me. I do like snail mail more than emails. Though email is fast and instant, it just cannot replace the additional value and meaning that snail mail brings. The anticipation of receiving the letter or card and the joy of receiving them is much more than what email can brings. And that is why i had never sent out e-greeting cards and prefer physical cards instead. But speaking of which, i have not been sending cards or letters for a few yrs. Guess i have become more busier or maybe more lazy over the years. But actually writing a card doesnt really require hours to write it, i guess its just the amount of effort one is willing to put in only. I myself am happy to receive cards or letters from friends so i guess the receiving party should be happy too right...haha..so why not share the joy...Just hope this mode of communication will not become obsolete.

a place so familiar....NTU

2009-01-06T02:07:00.003+08:00

Finally went back to NTU today for FYP meeting...it had been almost 6 months since i stepped into this Pulau NTU, a niao3 bu4 shen1 dan4 place. The first feeling i had when i saw the familiar FAL and the IT labs is "finally..i am back home". Quite surprised that i had such a feeling because in the past i am not exactly proud to be associated with ntu somehow. But i guess its coz after my exchange in HK at hku that makes me appreciate what studying or being back in ntu can offer me. And also, my uni life had been made more colourful and memorable by the various stuff i joined, like the vietnam study trip, the OVE laos expeditiion, the hall life and actually most importantly are the friends i met and the strong friendship bonds that are formed in these 2 yrs that made my uni life more exciting.

So my uni life isnt that boring as i was expecting it to be when i first entered ntu. And somehow, i am starting to miss NTU now especially as this is the last semester that i will be here. So miss staying in hall too, coz it offers convenience for me, gives me some degree of freedom and independence, and can chit chat with pple in halls and go for suppers...what i pity i cant get hall this last sem.

Yup..so since this is my last sem studying in sch for my entire life..i must try to appreciate and treasure every moment, every bits of it. This august will mark a new chapter in life, provided that i found a job of coz..and i will surely miss this schooling chapter which i have lived through for the past 15 years...somehow, i also realise that what really define my schooling life are not the academic achievements i got (if any) but rather the CCAs i joined, the fun n joy i had in these ccas and the friends i have made..yup..so my advice to the kids these days is that they shld join ccas..and join them with passion n enthusiasm coz these are the things that will define their experiences in sch...

Alright...enough of all these crapping n bullshiting...
Time to focus and get back to reality..and of coz must end this sem with a big big bang man..hahaa

back home.....

2008-12-25T03:53:00.001+08:00

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

Time to study...

2008-12-09T06:51:00.003+08:00

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.....

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

2008-12-03T03:50:00.001+08:00

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.....=)))))

LKF...Club 9

2008-11-25T05:18:00.005+08:00

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...

2008-11-25T04:45:00.003+08:00

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.

Eventful Saturday....

2008-11-16T04:56:00.006+08:00

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.

Study Abroad Fair

2008-11-14T06:07:00.005+08:00

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!!!

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

2008-11-07T03:54:00.005+08:00

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

2008-11-07T02:51:00.008+08:00

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"

Guilin Pt 3

2008-10-27T14:20:00.005+08:00

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

2008-10-27T09:13:00.006+08:00

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)

Guilin Trip Pt 1

2008-10-27T01:18:00.014+08:00

Been slacking since my last paper so here i am posting something abt guilin... As said perviously, its a pretty rush day for me tt day when i depart for guilin as i had to return back to hall by 3pm and then rush off to the airport with the rest of them and reach the airport by 4+....luckily we made it on time and everything was smooth (i am pretty worried coz of my passport..haha..always seems to have lots of problem..luckily its smooth this time round)...

Reached Guilin airport and to our surprise, the hotel tt we booked is like 65km away from the airport and 45km from the city...and coz of the time we arrived, there is no more bus to the hotel. Had to take the cab which cost 320RMB (about 60+ Sing)..and along the way to the airport, both cab drivers stopped at the side of the road and advise us to go n stay in Guilin city instead and forgo our 5 star hotel(merryland Resort)...Spent like almost 20 mins trying to decide whether we shld go ahead with what the cab drivers suggested. To be honest, i dunno why we are so easily manipulated by what the cab drivers said...maybe singaporeans trust pple too much already....

Glad that we stuck to the original plan and checked in to our 5 star hotel....actually we were also being mis informed about this hotel, coz we thought it is located in the city, but actually its so far away. And tt gave us tonnes of headaches for the arrangement of the transportation...which result in us being Kings and Queens for the next few days. Chartering the hotel vehicle for ourselves...and on top of that, we even ordered room service almost everyday...this is an ultra luxurious trip for me..but luckily, these services after converting back to Sing dollars is still considered cheap. Alright, enough of the grandmother story....now into the main part of the tour....

Merryland Resort Hotel (5 Star)....ultimate luxury siaz...=)

Day 1: We took a raft and travelled along the river and visited several nice scenic places. And actually we kena chopped once again like a radish head(Cai Tou) coz we paid 200RMB for the raft, which in the locals eyes as astronomical price!!!!...Ok..so Singaporeans really so gullible siaz...but the scenery and the experience made up for this cai tou experience....

soaking our legs in the coooooooling water...

After that we went on to visit the reed flute cave…actually I have visited numerous caves before, Vietnam, laos and now Guilin…and I find tt this is the most spectacular one I have seen so far..

the super nice lighting in the cave...

Then after much much persuasion by a local, we decided to go for the raft in the lake again, this time we bargain for so long to reduce it to 5RMB…guess we simply got all our priorities wrong siaz…we din even bargain for the 200RMB raft ride and yet we are bargaining for a 5RMB one..what’s wrong with us??hahaha..What surprised me next is tt, we have to row the raft ourselves!!!.. totally stunned and no wonder the price. But it turned out to be a great experience...

rowing the raft can be scary siaz...esp u have pple like david trying to rock the raft

Mid terms.....

2008-10-20T02:32:00.002+08:00

Mid term exams are just round the corner..in fact 3 more days away..and guess what, i have not started on them yet coz i am busy rushing assignments which are due this week as well...Time is really running out..FAST...

Will be disappearing for the next 2 weeks to officially concentrate on studying...will post more on the Guilin trip after all my mid terms...shall minimise touching this computer also..coz it is proving to be the major distraction...

Wish me luck...

and wish all those in spore luck in ur finals...

Ping Shan Heritage Trail

2008-10-14T15:29:00.003+08:00

Am going to do a short post on this field trip which i went today for one of my module, which i ambitiously (dunno if there is this word) signed up for because i have a flight to catch at 640pm later and this trip end at 2pm...so luckily everything falls into place nicely..luckily i din worry too much abt it and so managed to enjoy the field trip....And as usual, the sociable me tried to mix around with the local students on this field trip and mangaged to find myself a group for my upcoming project..in fact, i managed to find 8 pple to form group with me. tts how gd i am k...hahaa..just kidding..But seriously this is the first time i interacted with the locals so much, maybe coz i am always stuck in my sporean clique. So this time i chose to go on this field trip alone seems to be a gd decision.

Just some pictures on the trail...need to write a reflection report on it which is worth 50%!!!!...Will continue more when i return from Guilin (the China real Guilin...not spore mini version)..haha...going to catch the flight now...

its reading week..or rather...recess week

2008-10-12T16:02:00.005+08:00

Yup...this week is the recees week. Actually nothing to be so excited about for the recess week because i seems to be having recess week every week since i reach here..haha..but this week i will be going on the Ping Shan Heritage trail which is at Yuen Long and its super far from school and on tuesday flying off to Guilin. Finally can take out my camera to do some snapping. Hahah...coz i realised that i have been keeping my camera in the freezer for the past 2 weeks and not snapping any pictures. Am thinking of going to Beijing or other parts of china in the upcoming weeks but that would meant tt i must be more disclipine in my studies esp when mid term exams is only 2 weeks away..starting to feel stressed?not really..surprisingly..

Am supposed to attend a make up lesson yesterday..but to my horror..i woke up at 12pm.and completely missed the lesson. Oh well, guess it had become the norm for me to miss lessons here. Think i should not draw the curtains when i sleep siaz, coz once i draw the curtains, it just seems like it is night time at any time of the day. Will need the sun to wake me up..haha..After that i went to play vball and table tennis at the flora ho sports centre..and since the weather is so good, i decided to go for a swim..and tt was followed by a 20 mins jog....sports intensive day for me. Guess that is something i wun be able to do back in singapore, coz i will be too busy to do all these.

At night, went out for SUPPER at midnight. First time we decided to venture beyond bonham road, which only has 24hrs macs, for supper. So we took a cab which goes to xi huan, which is actually at the westwood area for some dessert and also dim sum. I heard tt its a culture for the locals to have dim sum around 1am to 3am and so we decided to experience that ourselves. To be honest, the dim sum place is rather messy, as in the way you order the food. No one is takng the order and every customers seems to be rushing to the counter and just grab what they want. So in the end, we decided to just follow suit. Maybe thats the typical culture ba. The food is not really fantastic but its nice to eat something warm at night and especially when i had dinner at 5pm...I just love late night suppers..haha..though i know its unhealthy..

feeling hungry for dim sum now...again =)

random

2008-10-10T02:17:00.003+08:00

Realised that i haven been writing for some days. Regarding my previous post, felt much better the next day after the run and the long long hrs of sleep. Been rather busy these few days doing derivatives assignment which is graded and also a project which is 15%. So rush until like 4am in the morning for 3 days until i got so shag out the next day..haha...actually i think i get tired quite easily here than back in singapore, been falling asleep during lessons quite often and not waking up for lessons at all. Till now i had pon 2 lectures and missed 2 tutorial sessions(but went for a make up one). Guess it got to do with the late nights here. Will try to sleep early (like b4 3am) for once today.

Tuesday was a public holiday over here..Cheung Yang Festival, and according to what the locals told me, its a day to go hiking and drink chrysanthemum tea. And they say its to avoid the evil spirits tt are in one's home on tt day. Thats y pple dun stay at home on tt day. Its also a day to pay respect to the ancestors, something like qing ming. Well, for me, i din go hiking coz its quite hot in the day, but i went to play table tennis n vball n had a project meeting...so i sort of maintain their tradition of not staying in hall..haha..sound crappy i know...

Wednesday...my lesson ended quite early and so i decided to visit the space museum and the art museum at tsim sha tsui...mainly coz the admission is free on all wednesday..hahaha...this is money saving strategy siaz...i find the space museum quite crappy, nothing really very impressive. So i decided to watch the shows at the omni theatre. Watch "The Alps" and i find it super nice...the scenery in switzerland is ultra beautiful..totally blown me away...this is the place i so wanna go!!!...now i know why max/des likes tt place so much, coz its such an amazing place...if only i have the $$ and time..haha..then i watch the other show..which cause me to sleep almost throughout the show...complete waste of money really, its so cartoon, so low class production, so cui tt the name of the show is not worth mentioning...Yup then after which i rush back to school for the project meeting where the project is due today..only managed to finish it at 11pm and so tt means tt my dinner will be some microwave food from 7-11 again. This is super unhealthy i know, but no choice, there are no eating places near my school or hall.

Today.....woke up late for lesson as usual but rush for the 2nd half of the lecture...dun really know why i bother to rush for this lesson coz usually i dun get anything out of this lecture, coz i simply dun understand wat the prof is taking about. Maybe its just to not make myself feel guilty..haha...Also attended a talk on the current credit crisis. Think the speaker provide us with a rather clear picture of the current situation which he describe as the worst crisis in the century.

After which i rush down for the vball training for my hall. Actually, not really training coz the guys are not having the competition this semester. But basically i am helping to train the girls for their competition tmr. I got slightly frustrated at some point when they started to discuss abt the positions in court, where to stand and was like even discussing whether like this can receive the ball or not. I was frustrated coz they r simply wasting time!!! You got to try playing a few times before you know what is the problem right? and then address it after tt. Its no point talking so much abt theories behind things..so pointless..only time wasting. And i got quite sian when i see pple strolling to collect the ball, or moving from court to court. totally lack of tt kind of enthusiam a sportsman shld have.....haha..maybe i am having too much expectation and maybe i am doing too much comparison to my own training session 6 years back. Just some observations lah...no bad feelings towards anyone at all..hahaa...wooh..not bad...finally found back my passion for vball after losing it for almost a year.

Paid the money for gulin next tues already and kinda excited siaz...cant wait to get out of hk and travel into china. Next tues will be a rush day for me siaz, having field trip for one of my module in the day to yuen long till 1pm and then since its so far from school,i will need to take 2 hrs at least to reach here...and i have to be at the airport by 430pm..so what i do siaz, should i just go str8?...dunno how but i guess everything will resolve eventually, no point worrying. Just look forward to the trip.

Oh ya...received a phone call from spore on tues...its a company asking me to go for assessment test at their office next monday...but when i said tt i am overseas in hk, she said.." i am sorry tt u r currently overseas, we will have to put ur application for future reference"...so sad lor...hao bu rong yi get the first n only positive reply from all the 5 others i had applied...so was feeling quite sian at tt time. did ask myself if i had made the right choice coming here or not. But i tot tt its not time to think abt this..coz since i am already here, no pt thinking it. Just got to depend everything on luck...

Yup...so tts my past 4-5 days in hk....nothing very special or interesting..haha...will try to find some fun stuff to do these coming weeks..

3am run...

2008-10-05T05:21:00.008+08:00

Decided to go on a run just now although its already 3am. First time i actually ran here in HK. To be honest, i don't really like running a lot and those occasions where i go for a run are times when i get too down, too frustrated, too helpless......

The route that i ran seems to trace my life all these years. Very smooth and relaxing initially and after i reach the school and made a U-turn back, it was up slope all the way. The path was tough, painful and sometimes lonely but i know i can make it through and reach my destination if i persevere on. I had to believe in myself that i can. I had fell down so many times along the way and managed to pick myself up and move on. I believe i can do it too this time. Nothing will stand in my way, not even the impending storm nor the strong gusty wind blowing right in my face can stop me.

" Life can be unfair at times,
when you must maintain faith
and never let go.

It is especially during the difficult times
that you must live your life
to its fullest potential.
Those are the times to triumph
over circumstances
with hope and courage

Life isn't always easy,
But if you keep going and persevere,
To the very best of your ability,
You will gain strength to manage the new challenges ahead"

This had guided me through the toughest time of my life and i hope it can, once again.....

behind every grey cloud, there will always be a blue sky
tomorrow will be a better day =)

move on....

2008-10-05T02:10:00.001+08:00

"Worry a little bit every day and in a lifetime you will lose a couple of years.
If something is wrong, fix it if you can.
But train yourself not to worry: Worry never fixes anything."

maybe i shld just stop worrying and move on.....

Fireworks =)

2008-10-01T23:22:00.006+08:00

Its China's national day today and so its a public holiday..nice..but actually to me holiday or no holiday seems the same to me, coz i am like having holiday everyday..haha...next tues will be another public holiday here..even more shiok coz it falls on my long sch day. Wanted to wake up at 7am to go and watch the flag raising ceremony at Wan Chai, but of coz the lazy me, couldnt wake up on time but instead slept all the way till 1pm+...super pig lor...Then, i met david to go for dim sum lunch, which isnt very expensive, then we went to a travel agency to settle the trip to guilin during my recess week...yeah..i am going into china!!!...its not really very cheap actually but i shall just take this opportunity to go into china...and also reserve the air tickets back HOME to singapore...=)))))

Alright...since the heading says "fireworks" i shall post more pics on the fireworks against the hk city skyline at victoria harbour...and it lasted for 25 mins !!!!...the longest fireworks i had ever seen and its really very nice. and due to the limitations of my samsung camera for night shots..haha..i took a video n took screenshots from it...still not bad lah..haha =)

the star ferry
the olympics ring....and this fireworks is actually to celebrate the success of beijing hosting of the 2008 olympics...

1 month overseas

2008-10-01T14:40:00.005+08:00

Woooh...time flies man, 1 month just fly past just liddat. This is the longest tt i have been overseas, broke my record of being overseas for 1 month last june in vietnam. To be honest, i dun really miss home as much as i tot i will, but actually i usually dun when i am overseas. But there are still times when i tot things are just much more convenient back home, where all the things i need or i want, i can get them easily. There are times when i tot there are not many pple here whom i can talk to when i am feeling down....so no matter what...HOME is still the BEST =))... Perhaps being away on an exchange does makes me appreciate what i have back home. Alright shall not get too emo here..hahahaa

I was watching the Singapore F1 on sunday...so happy to see the beautiful skyline of singapore being beamed to the whole world. That is something to be proud of really. And some of my hall pple in the pantry watching the race also commented that singapore is really a beautiful place just made me feel even more proud of the place i belong to. Was in the global lounge yesterday afternoon and the exchange coordinator here recognised me as a student from singapore n from ntu...kinda shocked me, coz i dun remember myself talking to her before. But nvm, thats good, coz at least i am recognised as a singaporean rather than from china. So signed up on behalf of the rest of the singaporeans for the study abroad fair next month, where us singaporeans in hku will be setting up a booth to showcase our country and our universities. Really a super good chance to tell everyone here that singapore is not china, singapore is not part of malaysia and we are not ah tiongs!!! I gotta start gathering pple and start preparing for the materials already.

got from the net...http://www.itv-f1.com/photo.aspx?IM_ID=50400&PG_ID=22 hope wun breach any copyrights..hahaha

And on studies...i have really been slacking 90% of the time!!!!...first time i felt so slack in my life. Haha...usually i will be busy doing this doing that, involving myself in this activity that activity. But this sem here, totally nuah diao. I gotta psyche myself to start studying siaz else cant even get the passing grade. One thing good is...i receive my motivator to study on monday!!! hahaa...the strawberry pocky!!!!...haha..back in singapore i always eat this when i was studying and i need this..in order to reward myself or motivate myself to study. Hope it does really help!!!

I am also trying to exercise more here else i scared i will grow too fat when i go back home. But then actually quite unlikely lah, coz there are so many slopes and stairs which will surely burn all the fats...so pple who are thinking of sliming down can consider coming to hk =p....Played vball, tennis and table tennis so far. Tried to join the hku vball team but i dun think i can make it..haha..coz my skills seems to have cui diao esp after not playing for months..but my tennis skills is getting better....its not like playing golf anymore..hahaa...and table tennis...played with david a few times this week and ytd night was the ultimate where we played until 230am in my hall common room using a makeshift table tennis table..hahaha...yeah..i just love sports man...

Alright...this roughly summarise my tots these few days....going out now to enjoy the china national day holiday...

Macau Trip !!!

2008-10-01T04:58:00.012+08:00

Finally decided to venture out of HK to other places after 1 month here. The first of which is macau, pple told me tt it is about the size of tampines and i can simply finish touring around the place within one day. Actually, tts quite true, provided that we arrive there earlier and dun spend too much time at the casinos. Started the day pretty early, at 830am, one of the days i woke up so so early over here and set off for the hk-macau terminal to take the turbojet to macau, but we only like reach macau at 11am.

So first stop of the day is The Venetian, mainly coz there is free shuttle bus from the ferry terminal str8 to the casino, so it kinda save some money..haha...To be honest, we did not really plan the route for this trip, and merely just made impromtu decisions along the way. Ok...the design of the place is quite classy and elegant and all their shops and restaurants are obviously targeting the up-class consumers with their super high prices. So poor pple like me, will just entertain myself by taking pictures and more pictures..haha....I must admit tt this place does look very nice, BUT one thing is that there isnt much "life" here..maybe coz there are not many pple(except in the casino) unlike what was shown on tv a few months ago. Guess the hype over this place is gone. Just hope that when our spore IR which will open next yr will have more "life" and more crowd...Alright..just some nice pics of this place....

the casino

the canal in the shopping mall n the gondola

Next up..we visited some historical sites in macau which is classified as a world heritage site by UNESCO, namely the ruins of st paul, the st dominic's chruch, senado square and st augustine....din manage to have time to finish walking the whole heritage trail coz of the rain and coz no time to do so. There are a lot of churches around, think its influenced by the portugal culture. The architecture of all these buildings are nice too. If i have more time to take a look at all the hertiage buildings...The street food here is slightly different from hk, they sell the pork cutlet burger, egg tarts and rou gan everywhere...but then tts all their street food is all about...always so limited choices lor...Also bought quite a bit of goodies from the bakeries nearby...hopefully i wun finish eating them in my room these few months, so tt i can bring some back home..haha

i love this pic...=)

the pork cutlet burger shop everywhere.

I initially mistaken it as a MTR station siaz..haha..

The night scene in macau is also very nice....lots of neon light..colourful lightings to brighten up the night.... we were also treated to a fireworks show near the macau tower as it was part of the macau international fireworks festival the day we went.

of coz this is NOT taken using my camera, but it was taken by ME..haha..nice pic right..

And finally, we also went to watch the unique dog racing and this time round i decided to gamble coz the minimum bet is quite low....But we lost..haha..shi du jiu shu siaz....

the gamblers...we bet on 3 different dogs..but still, none won..haha

Cheung Chau trip & Sha Tin

2008-09-26T14:59:00.007+08:00

Went to Cheng Chau last sunday with the usual bunch of sporean friends here. But this time round, we have a spoean full time student here to bring us around. It is a great island to be at actually, coz there are no cars...only bicycles and trishaws, which of coz made the air so much cleaner siaz. To explore the island, which is not very big(like the size of ubin or sentosa), we decided to rent bicycles for 3 hrs and happily set off. To our horror, what greeted us were slopes and stairs and more slopes....goodness, so we had no choice but to push or carry the bikes up n down these slopes n stairs. In the end, we only cycled like for about 1/2 hr and spent most of the time carrying the bike...so stupid right, might as well just walk..so after the 3 hrs, we were so shag out tt we did not eat the famous seafood there..but just settled for seafood at macs- filet o fish...damn cui diao...

But anyway this is a rather peaceful and not very crowded place..nice seaview and nice sea breeze..i dun mind staying at this place siaz..and get out of the city..haha...

the so called "mini great wall" which i think is a total crap =p

these ah pehs are damn zai at chapteh siaz...

As for saturday, we went to new territories, Sha Tin to explore and check out what stuff they have there. Quite a disappointment actually, coz this place only has one MEGA shopping mall, and a ten thousand buddha temple which completely shag us out coz we have to climb so many flights of stairs....really a super physically challenging weekend siaz...

less than 1/2 way up the hill...shag out siaz

i like this pic....full of colours...life shld be this colourful =)

After the shag out visit to Sha Tin, we went to do some shopping to get stuff to cook for the Singaporeans gathering at night. Yep, some full time students organised this gathering for all the sporeans students studying in HK regardless of which uni they are from. The turnout was pretty good, think about 40 pple came. There will be another one coming up in november i think. Each hall is supposed to prepare a dish to bring over to patrick mansion for the gathering, and so me sin yan n shara decided to cook vege with carrot and mushroom..haha..i did help to cook, erm like to wash the veg and cut the carrot..haha..other than tt i think i am not very helpful siaz. Gotta find a chance to "show off" my cooking skills..hehe..

satisfied =) ...but think we used like 1 hr to cook one dish !!!!

Typhoon signal no 8 in HK

2008-09-23T19:41:00.005+08:00

First time experiencing a typhoon in my life siaz and till now i guess there is nothing much because i have been hiding in my room since the typhoon signal no 8 have been raised. I only got to know of the news that there is a typhoon approaching HK at about 4+pm just now when the signal is no 3. Apparently my situational awareness of such natural disasters is super low, maybe thats because in singapore we seldom experience or should i say we never experience any major disaster. I did however noticed the sky turning dark in the afternoon when i was walking from place to place in school but i brush that aside as just merely a thunderstorm and tts like no big deal, until i heard pple around saying that its typhoon signal 3 and thats when i start to know of this..haha..the wind is actually very very shiok esp because it had been extremely hot for the past few days, so this rain is kinda nice.... and of coz when i heard of the typhoon, i got a bit excited but then also a bit worried...so we took bus and rush back to hall before all the public transportation cease operations.

The minor disruption to my daily routine is actually the dinner, where i have to run to the 7-11 below my hall and grab some microwave mushroom and chicken rice as dinner. Once again, first time eating such stuff for dinner siaz, quite unhealty, but no choice man. This also sorta remind me to stock up my food in the hall for emergency purposes siaz...Anyway the wind is super strong now, so strong such that i couldnt even open my window coz of the force of the wind..and the sound of the rain beating on the aircon unit and the windows make it sounds scary, coz there are chances that my window or aircon will just get blown away...and according to the lastest,the typhoon is about 200km away south of HK island and expected to reach full force in a few hours...and the maximum wind speed is expected to be 170km/h...wow...stunning...alright..for now i shall get some rest b4 i start to study.

Took some pics just now when the sky is still bright.

the dark dark sky...
all these barricades fell due to the stong wind...

Just looking forward to a day off tmr coz of the typhoon...pray hard pray hard..=p

High Table Dinner @ Bayview

2008-09-18T00:06:00.004+08:00

Had the first wei lun hall high table dinner at the bayview restaurant just now. It is something like a formal dinner session for everyone in the hall and all are required to wear formal attire including a blazer, which i dun have it here. So basically i spend some time finding people who have it and borrow it. And guess what, the length of the sleeve is short and the blazer is quite tight, so i have to squeeze into the blazer...luckily the blazer din tear. The dinner is a 7 course meal which i dun think is very nice. haha..cant expect too much from the bayview restaurant lah coz the seniors here says it is one of the most cui restaurant in this area. And i really wonder why it is called bayview when there is simply no view of the bay..hahaha..just lots of trees can be seen from their window.

After the dinner we gathered at the assembly hall for some introduction session by the hall warden(who is a prof). and all freshmen incl exchange students got to go up on the stage to introduce themselves. Nothing much actually...but i got to ask my floor mates to translate those canto into english for me. hahaa..and yeah...my first language have change from chinese to english!!!..i will speak more english in front of others so i wun be mistaken of my nationality again.

More such dinners lined up for us siaz...no chance of escaping coz its a compulsory thing for all pple who stay in hall. something unique about halls in HK, apart from their military style cheering..haha..

my room mate Vinay, Jun Song and Philip
the vball players from my hall... Jason, Hiedi, Yin Lu
sporeans in weilun =) sin yan & shara
Floor 5 & 8 picture...

got to start getting into the studying mood soon siaz...can see the readings piling up...gonna find a conducive place to read. room = meant for online chatting n sleeping. library=meant for in between lesson sleeping place...hahaa..so where else is gd siaz...

Lantau Island- the big buddha...and MAF

2008-09-17T12:10:00.007+08:00

it was really a nuah day on saturday where i think i did nothing except reading story book, surfing net, chatting online and then go for a short vball session. i was so nuah until i din even go out for breakfast, lunch nor dinner.haha..got my friends to da bao dinner for me from westwood. alright. shouldnt be so nuah siaz. Actually i am not used to be slacking n lazing around doing nothing lah. think tts just not me.

so on sunday, as planned, the few of us, me, poh liang, rachel, shara, sato, roby, meida and issac went too lantau island to see the big buddha. took the cable car up and its a very shiok experience. 2nd time i took cable car so far, the first time is up to genting a few yrs back and i think this is definately better than genting one..hahaa..coz the scenery from the cable car is nice...and for a change, we decided to have vegetarian for lunch tt day. kinda sick of the other food in HK already so this change is so timely. and yeah the food is nice..

tried to trek up to the lantau peak but then realise that it wil take us 4.5 hours to get up, which means we will get there at night?!?!!?...so just trek for 10-15 mins and enjoy the nice sceneries before turning back. i think it will be super interesting to hike up to the peak siaz. perhaps we should go back one day.

something i so wanna complain is the air here siaz. its so polluted and dry tt i have been coughing non stop. guess i will go get a mask soon man...wonder how the locals can survive with this kinda pollution everyday siaz...

there is this structure along the wisdom path which is built in the shape of ∞, signifying infinity and there are also craftings on each wooden planks from Heart Sutra

We went to Victoria park at night to experience the Mid Autumn festival mood in Hong Kong. and just nice sunday is the exact day of MAF. i guess it had been a long time since i so called "celebrated" MAF. actually the celebration here is also not very elaborated, just some simple lantern lightings and some traditional folk songs on the stage. But there are lots of pple there, simply just trying to immerse into the mood ba and also playing with lanterns. One thing i observe is that there are not many pple playing with the traditional paper lanterns, most r carrying battery operated ones or even just playing with light sticks. i guess tradition is slowly giving way to modernisation. But we managed to get 2 paper lanterns and played with them and eat mooncake and crap around...just a fun gathering for the lonely sporeans in HK..hahaha

and poh liang was making the heart shape using the candles...dunno make for who siaz..hahaha..scandal!!!..

the peak

2008-09-17T11:33:00.006+08:00

went over to the peak in the evening on friday to catch the night scenery of HK island and also to visit the madame tussauds wax museum. its quite interesting to see the wax figurines of the celebrities and the historical figures. took quite a number of pictures

there there is also this special section in the exhibits where the theme is "ScReam". so as the name suggest, you can expect lots of screaming in this "haunted house". some of the girls who went with us were kinda scared and were screaming non-stop. and i was just laughing throughout the whole thing...haha..actually its kinda expected where those "ghost" will come out right, so whats' there to be scared of. but not bad lah...quite fun and interesting..

oh ya, the BK there is super duper ex. one meal cost like S$9. had never spent so much for fast food before. feeling so xing tong after eating that siaz...haha..guess i got to start to budget my expenses again liao coz i can see the balance in my account depleting so fast...

our respectable MM lee kuan yew
yao ming is really damn tall can!!!! i look like a drawf beside him lor..haha
the night scene...quite hazy right...

laundry friday....

2008-09-12T13:23:00.005+08:00

slept at 330 and woke up at 830 just to do laundry...been sending the clothes to a nearby laundry shop last week and din do my own washing...actually sending the clothes to the laundry shop isnt tt ex lah..hkd24 only...about 5 bucks for 3kg siaz.tts quite cheap..but washing it myself..or rather using the washing machine to wash is cheaper..only hkd10...think in the long run, this is going to save me some money... wanted to make use of the natural sunlight to dry my clothes but apparently the sun is blocked by the shadow of the building..arhz..shld have done my homework to check it out first siaz..so..i decided to just use the dryer to dry it..the consequence: the clothes were all so crumpled tt i had a hard time ironing them just now...so spent like 2 hrs on ironing clothes...tts like so long siaz...now i know how taxing and tough it is for my mum when she does the housework....made me so appreciative now...but anyway..since i have no lessons every fri..fri shall be laundry and spring cleaning day...hahaa..will try to make an effort to tidy up..

the sky today is quite terrible...so damn hazy..think the pollution is damn bad today siaz..dunno later go to the peak can see wat..but nevertheless, i will be going to the peak later to the madame tussauds wax museum...shld be interesting..ahhaa...wanna see the celebrities..i mean wax celebrities..

the hazy sky...cant even see the bridge and harbour at the background

been slacking a lot these days.and i dun even what i have achieve or done these few days. so not use to slacking though i would like to nuah. there is just always something at the back of my head tt requires my attention..or maybe sometime i am just imagining tt there r things to settle..think i have to learn how to relax..yeah..just relax n have fun. hmm..sch so far is still alright coz we are still in the add drop phase and tutorials have not started yet. lectures wise...i personally like the modules on asian financial institution n asian heritages...these are the more interesting modules i am taking..this week lecture on asian heritage talks abt little india in singapore...wooah...nice to hear something abt spore being promoted here in HK...hahaha..the lecturer is actually from singapore..and i could tell from the way she speaks and so after the lesson, i approached her and ask her if she is a sporean.haha..and ya she is...stayed here fro 15 yrs liao..damn long siaz...and i talk to her for abt 30 mins..mainly on the issues on conservation and preservation efforts by spore n by hk govt...so interesting topics siaz...actually one of the place where i wanna work is URA..haha..guess i am influenced a lot by the game simcity..but haiz..see how lah...so unsure abt my future...

lunch in sch is terrible i must say...the long queue at the main canteen and the lousy food they served...boooooooo....the better food i guess are the curry chicken rice n the char siew rice...the others are just inedible siaz..the plate of economic rice tt i ordered ytd is the WORSE meal i have eaten here so far..one egg, one ham, one hotdog, one luncheon meat..some vege and some super er xin gravy..which just makes me feel like puking.. after this er xin meal, i decided to pamper myself and treat myself to starbucks here...and the starbucks here is cheap...cheaper than spore.and somemore still got student discount of 30%..shiok..think can drink more often liao..haha

the WORSE meal i had here...really cmi to the max =(

most of the time i da bao the food and makan along the corridor with david...damn cui siaz...coz no seats in the canteen..haiz.

kinda feeling sian esp on my future job....i know first job very impt...and i know going into the finance industry first has a great advantage for me in the future..but then where does my interests lies? i am rather confused abt this...for me actually i dun mind working anywhere..coz whatever they give me i will just do my best for anything...but the thing is how am i going to convince the interviewer tt i like the job n want the job when i dun really do but am just applying for a job coz i simply just need a job...haiz...dunno lah..confused..unsure..i dunno if it is just me or whether my other friends are also feeling this way...i dunno...no one to really talk to here coz most are here on exchange r not final yr students...arghz...dun wanna think liao...

I am a SINGAPOREAN...really!!!!!

2008-09-12T03:31:00.002+08:00

damn pissed off these 2 days in sch siaz....2 ATs and an exchange student just spoilt my day siaz..went for a tea gathering for my hall vball where the exchange student asked me if i am from mainland china....wa wa wa...best...i was totally taken aback...do i look like a mainlander to you??huh huh huh!!?!?!?!? so tt was the first thing tt got me angry.....but since she is ang mo..forgive her...coz asians do look alike.....the next day..when i was in the lift going back to my room, the ATs in the lift ask me this.."hi are you from da lu(mainland china)"...i was like freaking stunned and angry....and say.."NO, from spore", then she say "oh i am from shanghai, heard you speak mandarin so thought you from da lu"...

ARGHZ!!!!!!!! firstly i din ask where are you from, so you dun need to tell me you are from shanghai...secondly not all pple who speak mandarin are from your da lu....ARGHZ.....damn pissed off...how can spore chinese compare with them siaz...totally different league...so damn pissed off...

got to go for a makeover siaz..i cannot tahan pple saying i am in the same league as the ATs siaz...completely turned off n pissed off...hahaha...so seems like my hatred towards them have just increased...boooooooooooooo to them..ahhaa

excursions pt 2

2008-09-12T02:30:00.004+08:00

part 2 of the excursion is on sunday..where we went on the hong kong island tour...this time round, we visited more scenic places at the eastern part of the island, which is a bit far from hku...had breakfast at a local cafe, where we tried the bo lou bao and the egg tart and the yuan yang....to be honest, initially i tot the bo lou bao (pineapple bun) really have pineapple siaz..haha...who knows tts only brown sugar..but i tot its taste quite nice....a very simple yet nice stuff....sometimes the simpler things are, the better and nicer it is....having a simple life can be nice at times too..less troubles...less things to worry...

alright..after tt we took a sampan ride at Aberdeen, where we saw the nice looking floating restuarant "jumbo"..but according to the tour guide, he told us this place is only good for photo taking..coz the food they serve there sucks..haha...cui siaz...anyway the sampan ride is basically just visiting the place where the fishermen stay..nothing very interesting lah actually..other than the sampan ride..haha
visit repluse bay...which is supposed to be the nicest beach in HK...but to me..everything just look damn man made lah..the sand is so coarse...and there are no coconut trees or palm trees..but some small dunno wat trees planted in a straight row...but i must say the view is nice...coz personally i love the sea...haha...so any places where i can see the sea i will be glad...coz its just give me the relax feeling and the sense of freedom..woooohh..
and this is at stanley town...the murray house..which was reconstruction using the exact materials tt were removed from the old building...and the tour guide told us tt when they are rebuilding the house using the labelled materials, they realise tt 6 of the columns were left over..and surprisingly the hse can stand...alright..so tt means the pple last time dunno how to save materials..haha..
and i simply just love this place siaz...the sea breeze damn nice..damn shiok..damn relaxing..i can just spend my whole day stoning here man...haha...

and this pic really dun look like i am in hk...it seems like i am in some european country...haha..or i am in NZ..yaya..it looks similar to the pic i have taken in NZ..
and this is a funny shirt...XXXXXXL siaz...who will be so big size to wear this siaz...apparently it is targetted at those fat ang mo siaz..haha..coz the hongkies here are quite small size..

another nice scenery taken on the bus...when we were travelling to our next dest..
ok...just an interesting bus stop..the shelter space for the passengers is so small(left) and the shelter space on the right is so long...dunno wats the pt of having this bus stop siaz..when the purpose is not for the passengers..haha..maybe the advertisments at the bus stop needs the shelter more..

and yeah...mid autumn festival is approaching....this coming sunday..and i will be having sch holiday on monday coz of MAF...but!!! i have no lessons on mon one..arghz...nvm...coz i think i am already slack enough..haha...gotta start planning for trips to macau and other parts of china liao...time is flying damn fast....haha..on one hand i really want to go back to spore fast siaz..on the other hand i wanna travel to lots of places...hahaa..dunno watssup with my brain..so complicated..

excursions pt 1

2008-09-10T11:41:00.005+08:00

the hku iro office conducted a 2 days city tour last weekend for all exchange students to quite a number of places of interests...had to gather at like 845 am in sch in the morning...and as usual...i was late, just couldnt wake up on time. actually i have been like a pig since i reached here siaz..sleeping really a lot and woke up late for lessons...this cannot continue man..okok.back to last weekend. visited these places on sat: the yuen po street bird garden, the wetland park, the wong tai sin temple, the chi lin nunnery & nan lin garden and the hk history museum....

i personally like the visit to the nan lin garden n the chi lin nunnery..coz its such a beautiful place..the structures are so nice and the surroundings so serene..actually in hk, because of the super high density...everywhere you go u just see pple n pple n pple...super crowded lah tt i a bit buay tahan..so i kinda like this place coz its an escape from the over crowded city area siaz...then the visit to the wetland park...its a man-made park actually, trying to recreate a nature environment to educate the young in HK coz they have not much chance to get near to nature. a pity tt it rain so couldnt walk around the whole park...

oh ya!!! i saw the first hk celebrity here..hahahaa..called pui pui (in chinese is bei bei)...its actually a crocodile lah..and i am quite amazed that they treat the crocodile like the star or queen of the park or even the city...coz they say tt is the only crocodile they had seen in the whole of hk...wow..ok..anyway its only a 2m long crocodile..i think i have seen larger ones in thailand b4..so not really very amazing to me..haha...

the tour guide on my bus is very nice, told us a lot of stories abt hk, ranging from the history to the culture..but she seems like a lecturer to me siaz..coz the moment someone at the back of the bus talks, she will tell them to keep quiet and listen to her..first time i see tour guide doing such things..hahaah..asking tourists to keep quiet n listen to her talk..but anyway she gave us some brief history of the return of hk to china in 1997..and this was triggered by due to the return of new territories which was leased to british for 99 years for defence purpose...and also told us abt the opium war..quite a fun trip i must say...though a bit tiring coz walk a lot...

i dunno why they show the arctic here siaz
hk celeb...damn lame can!!!

shopping and eating...mongkok...and central

2008-09-06T01:16:00.010+08:00

decided to go out on wednesday night to mongkok (wang jiao) to check out tt area....there seems to be a lot of things there..there are streets selling ladies stuff (nu ren jie), computer stuff, clothes, birds or pets, flowers...lots of them siaz...seems to me like the old quarter in hanoi..just tt this one really got a lot more pple and its brighter coz everywhere is just billboards....becoz my lesson ended at abt 3+ tt day, i only went down to mongkok in the evening...and of coz in between which, i lost my way at zhong huan(central) as i was trying to find the entrance to the MTR station..haha..but then i roamed around the streets at the CBD area and took pictures b4 really finding my way to the MTR station.haha..so reach mongkok kinda late siaz..

bank of china and HSBC..

the new and the old...i like the contrast..=)

coz the other grp of them reached earlier, i only met up with rachel n sato and have dinner at this high class restaurant...london da jiu lou...the stuff there are EX siaz...din really expect tt coz some pple told us the dim sum are cheap there...so spent like 60hkd per person..and not very full siaz...so lesson learnt..next time must really check out the price carefully b4 entering the place..

i split up with them and went to walk myself b4 meeting again at abt 10+...went to the "sim city" which sells computer stuff and the camera lens which kian boon ask me to check out...its similar to sim lim sq but its smaller...quite small actually...hmm..saw earphones which are cheap and vcds which are cheap too...originals siaz..but kinda old shows lah...but they are like 4hkd per show..so i dun really care so much...bought 6 vcds..guess can keep me occupied when i have nothing to do over here siaz...continued to roam around and went to baleno coz there is like 70% off siaz...so get some shirts and shorts to try out...while i was queuing up..i overhead the 2 ladies conversation in front of me...and it contains words like "leh lah lor meh"...haha..so i just asked them whether they are sporeans..hahaha....guess the spore accent is kinda unique siaz...with our singlish..just feel so happy finding sporeans in this foreign land..so chatted with them for abt 10 mins..haha...we shld promote singlish siaz!!!hahaha..its our unique culture...=p...

the most expensive meal i had so far here..HKD60..

and finally tried the shui liu sha....wow..its nice siaz...but confirm cannot drink everyday lah like wat yenling and kelvin said....else pocket will sure burn one big hole and sure heaty like siao...but its nice lah..haha..my first shui liu sha here..

ok..so today..no lessons at all...and of coz the lazy me woke up at like 12pm..haha..but managed to iron all my clothes and clean up my desk b4 meeting them for lunch at 2pm...so efficient siaz..=)...found a place which sells cheap and nice dim sum..and the ambience is quite gd...ate a lot and it cost only 30hkd per person...so much better than the dim sum on wednesday...then went to roam around at central and walked all the way to lan kwai fong to check out the place...nothing much other than pubs there..haha..similar to clark quay...din see any celebrities around leh...sian..dunno where can i see them siaz...then we walked along the streets and went to do some shopping for clothes...saw some stuff i like but then again...NO SIZE...booooooo....so disappointing lor...but nvm i will visit the shops again next monday or maybe tmr before they officially change all their collections into winter wear...speaking of which..the weather these days are rather cooling...cant see the sun at all actually...i guess autumn and winter season is here already...

nice and satisfying dim sum!!!! =) dun drool on your comp siaz...

@ lan kwai fong..where are the celebs???
cheap and satsifying dinner..=)

alright...hope tt there will be more pics to post tmr night after all the exchange students go for the city tour tmr...

attending lessons after 4 months break.....

2008-09-06T01:02:00.003+08:00

yeah man..it had been so long(4 months) since i stepped into classroom and sat there listening to lectures...felt kinda weird actually..haha..esp when i still need to adapt to the accent the lecturers have..for my derivatives lesson, the prof is an ang mo..BUT..his teaching can really make me sleep siaz..coz he speak so slowly and kept repeating and repeating...so i guess i fell asleep at least 5 times for his lesson...the other lecturers are locals..so sometimes i had to figure out what is the word tt he is trying to say...other than tt i guess everything is ok...till now, the module i like most is asian financial insitution..the prof is really energetic and can tell he is passionate in his stuff..so tt got me interested in the topic...so this shows tt having a gd prof does make a difference siaz...

this just shows how bored i am in class...hahaa..playing with my camera...oh yeah..how can i forget..haha..the ATs in HK are super power siaz..i think can fight with those in spore...dunno y they so kiasu siaz...need to rush in front to snatch all the notes and rush to chop seats...and even rush to lib to borrow textbooks to photocopy....they r really powerful leh!!!...these ATs are really irritating siaz..but wat can i say..this is their land...hahaha..gotta start finding/knowing pple to form project groups..else i jialat and confirm die siaz..

the school...HKU

2008-09-06T00:24:00.009+08:00

been rather lazy to post these few days actually..haha..kinda realise tt i am losing the stamina to blog...erm..actually just pure lazy lah..ok..as requested by max/des..here are the pics of the sch..hku..the buildings are really nothing spectacular actually and it is quite small...NTU is like at least 2 times bigger than hku. BUT the number of stairs here definately win ntu...and if you are complaining tt the lifts in ntu are slow..you will really understand the meaning of SLOW when you try to take the lifts here....haha...and of coz i do have a whole loads of complaints abt this place..haha..as usual..haha..in hku there are damn few computers around for students to use siaz...there is only like a few rows of computers in the library and one main computer lab in the whole school...the total number of computers is even lesser than what we have in FAL at nbs alone..so printing notes will be a big big problem for me i think. and the printing of notes is also kinda ex over here..it cost like S$0.06...so ex!!!...but no choice..

another thing to complain is the canteen over here..hahaa...i tot ntu canteen is quite bad..but apparently here it is worse...the queue is SO SO long during lunch hour and the whole place is kinda crowded at any point of time...machiam like there is a great hk sales there all the time. and the university bookstore here too..just simply cant understand why they did not order more textbooks for the courses when they know students will buy them..they only ordered like 10 books for a course which enrolled 150 students..damn dumb lah...haha...okok...complaints complaints complaints..tts just so me lah...but this also made me realise how good ntu actually is compared to hku...i am starting to appreciate what i have back at ntu siaz...just some pics of the sch itself...

the hku main building

facutly of biz, econs and finance building...

knowles building...and the plaza where events r held (like ntu can A)

sun yat sen steps...and his garden...

hsbc branch is sch..

the insane crowd at ALL time of the day(except night lah)...everyone must pass by this flight of stairs to get from one part of the sch to the other...crowded like mad..machiam like great spore sales

the only computer centre in the whole school...with only about 60 computers!!! goodness..

and while i was walking along the corridor at shaw building..i heard a familiar song by sun yan zi..."We will get there" from the aisec booth...when i heard it...i had the feeling of home..and all of a sudden...i realise i am so far away from home...

still adapting

2008-09-01T16:35:00.001+08:00

its day 5 in hk now and i am sort of still adapting to the life here..mainly coz of the weather, the confusing bus routes, the amount of stairs or slope i have to walk to get from places to places, the prices of the stuff here..got to get out of the "singapore mood" and really "immerse" in the culture here...really man...going overseas just made me realise how lucky i am back home in spore...alright..shall stop whining here siaz..

am trying to settle my course registration since this morning. had a shock yesterday night back in hall when i couldnt login to the sch system to check out the courses timetable etc..luckily everything is working again this morning..maybe i was dreaming yesterday night liao..till now i got 2 confirmed modules..biz policy and derivatives..these 2 i die die also cannot make any adjustments to them...coz if i adjust them and din get it at the end of the day..i might as well fly back home immediately...then made changes to the timing of 1 module to suit the other...now awaiting for approvals...very scary siaz coz the approval will only come at the end of the week...by then 1 week of the add/drop is gone liao..am starting to appreciate n like the fastest finger first system back in NTU...and of coz with the gd relationship with the nbs office..things can be easily settled...now..i just have to wait n see...tmr lesson will be at 9am..early siaz..

got to adapt to this place fast man....but at the same time..i am kinda missing home...missing my friends back home..

first weekend...pt2

2008-09-01T16:18:00.004+08:00

alright..now for a short post for sunday...because i seriously din do much on sunday..hahahaaa...esp when i slept until 12+ b4 i woke up...oh ya..haha...the reason y i can sleep until so shiok until so late unlike the previous past few days is coz me n my ghana room mate found a way to save money for the aircon..haha..we did an experiment the night b4, measuring the number of revolutions per min for the aircon meter for the different temperatures..and found the most cost efficient and still cooling temperature..haha..tts so funny siaz..both of us doing physics experiment...

alright..since i am on the topic of my room mate, shall say more here about him...he is vinay, from ghana..a west african and now studying at boston uni..and actually i tot there is kinda no topics i can speak to him until he saw the screensaver pictures showing the OVE pics and he asked where i went to...so i happily showed him and my south korean neighbour,kim jun song the OVE08 video...wooooah..shiok..so my video is now gaining more exposure siaz...and after tt he told me tt he is also actively involved in volunteering work too back in his country..and he appeared on the boston local newspaper b4 for having a campaign to raise fund for his countrymen..and he also had a band called gforce and released an album b4...and one of their song became the official song for the ghana football association when they got into the world cup in 06...wow..so interesting life tt he had siaz...oh but one thing tt dampen his day i guess is tt his wallet got pickpocketed at the peak...i guess i gotta be careful when i go to the peak next week..

ok..so yeah...lazy sunday...wants to do thing at my own slow pace..so only like went out pretty late..and met the rest at kowloon at night at the avenue of stars to see the symphony of light..i must say..it would be more impressive if there is fireworks..haha..but the skyline does looks nice...spore got a lot to learn...then after tt we took the ferry back...so..till now i guess i have tried all the mode of transport in HK already..some pics i have...regret not bring a better camera really..haha..coz samsung camera really sucks at night scene...these pics r the best i can get...

on the ferry.......

the last 3 pics use my friend camera to take one..ahahahaa

first weekend...pt 1

2008-09-01T15:46:00.006+08:00

so my first weekends here...nothing really eventful siaz...travelled to 2 places in 2 days..on saturday, i went to the factory outlet shopping centre at lautau island..the place is at the end of the mtr line..and actually it is very far from our hostel. got to take bus, then walk then talk train to the place...the stuff there are slightly cheaper than in the town area..but coz i have not much money left as the bank draft is not cleared, i simply just walk around n see see look look...din buy anything...will go back n visit one more time some other day. also din take the cable car to the giant buddha coz we reach there rather late...its actually quite tiring coz we walk a lot and also stood down there and wait for quite long for everyone (a 17 pple group)...guess next time cannot so many pple go out siaz..else it is becoming like a super big tour group liao...just some pics below...

the MTR to Tung Chung which cost HK$18(S$3+)

the factory outlet shopping mall..so crowded

Food Republic!!!!! spore food court here...but the chix rice cost S$8..OMG!!!

the cable car to the great Buddha

with shara ,rachel, sin yan and sato(from japan)

dozy, me & zhengxun(the other ntu guy)

the "bugis fountain"
sunset view of the cable car station...

send off, touch down...in HK day 1 & 2

2008-08-30T11:03:00.006+08:00

flight was 640am at terminal 1....its a damn early timing actually..kinda regret booking this timeslot coz i dunno whether i shld slp or not esp coz my bio clock kinda screwed up..like sleeping at 3+am every night..haha..went to the airport with my parents and met up with david to check in..my luggage is like 23kg....exceed by 3kg...luckily there is no additional surcharge siaz..think i gotta buy extra baggage when i travel back end of the yr...quite surprised to see so many ove guys around to send me off...i know they were coming but i din know so many..and seems like most of them are having 830 lessons back in sch..so i am kinda loss for words when i knew tt...anyway..thanks for coming down..so kan dong...and the book they pass me..hahaaha..was reading on the plane to HK..the comments were so funny and they really bring back nice memories for my trip..

me and my parents
my super nice ove gang....=)

of coz..once i enter their arrival hall, i cant help but compare their airport with ours...apparently i think our changi is much better..hahaa...our changi looks much more cosy and welcoming than thier airport..alright..at least to me changi looks better..bias..haha..i got stuck at the immigration counter ONCE AGAIN!!!!! goodness...i always seems to have problem with visas siaz..this time round, due to communication barrier, they misunderstood tt i am going to study in hk for 4 years when i told them 4 months...and of coz on the visa, it indicates that i am only allowed to stay for 180 days...and so with this confusion, i have to wait at the counter for 20 mins and i missed the shuttle bus to the uni...which makes me wait another 1.5hrs!!! so me n david went to have lunch at some chinese fast food...ordered the wanton mee and i nearly died eating it coz it is damn SALTY!!!! the soup is 3 times more salty than the MSG soup i drank in vietnam(where they pour 1 spoon of msg into each bowl)....ok..enough of complaining of their airport..hahaha..

met a south korean, canadian and PRC on the shuttle bus to hall..and so qiao that the south korean is staying in the same hall as me and is just staying next door..hahaa...talk quite a bit with them and exchange contacts coz everyone are equally blur abt this place, so all blur pple can meet up after checking in to go settle those admin stuff..the air quality is not very gd, though its better than wat i tot...realise they do have a lot of flyovers, tunnels...their transportation network is really quite developed..erm..and messy..haha..

basically after checking in, i was made to fill in tonnes of forms..paid for some access card, bought an aircon card..i am glad i bought it on the spot coz it is so damn hot in the room...no fan at all...then went to the uni to settle admin stuff again..along the way..damn qiao tt we met sporeans!!!haha..they were exchange students from nus...really a lot of them from nus...yup so can tag along with them for the first day to roam around...we went to the westwood shopping centre which is at the foot of the hill where hku is and buy some essentials like pillow..cant really rmb wat i have done..i think just walk along the street and buy some snacks and eat...no shopping yet..haha..not in the mood yet actually...

alright..back to more complaining..hahahaa...my room is like facing the cemetery siaz!!! best lor....david's rm got sea view lah!!! sian....the hall toilet is so so damn small siaz...i cant even like turn in the shower cubicle siaz..and the weather is so humid tt i am sweating like mad..i think if derrick is here...he will be complaining how "tong ku" he his siaz..haha =p...oh ya..haven mention abt my room mate..i din see him until the 2nd day morning when i woke up...coz he went drinking i think..then only came back at 3am(when i am already asleep)...and btw he is from ghana(somewhere in west africa) but he is studying in boston..haven really talk to him much yet..will try to do soon..hahaa..and he hang a super huge flag of his country at his desk siaz..haha..aiya..i shld have brought along spore flag to hang too =p

@ hk airport

on the airport shuttle: jun song(korea), zheng zhi(prc), tricia (cananda)
along the streets with david n the nus guy, poh liang..

my room's view...facing the cemetery..but if u look further..can see the harbour

Day 2 is quite sian..coz went for the orientation which is boring like mad..most pple were like drifting away and falling asleep...and the lunch they provided were just sandwiches...so all of us (the bunch of pple i met on day 1) decided to pon the talk in the afternoon..went to set up hsbc bank acct so tt i got money (only left with like hkd 1.5k)...then we went to causeway bay at night to explore the area...must really say that the place is damn crowded...and kinda luan to me...and one thing i notice..there are simply no trees in the city at all siaz!!!!....but anyway i took the 100yrs old(come hk must take) tram to causeway bay...the rest of them left earlier via public bus(with a/c) coz i have to go and collect my passport photos ....and of coz i chose to take the tram coz its cheaper (only HK2) and tt this looks interesting..haha...wow i think i really din do much things ytd siaz..hahaa..so nothing to put here... but oh ya...i notice something abt their hall culture siaz...they are like military training style leh...even when they cheer, they have to fall in...so weird!!!!...i am realy stunned n shocked by their hall culture...

falling in and doing cheer...weird

at loke yew hall for orientation...nice architecture

with the other sporeans and their foreign room mates

@ global lounge

the 100yrs old tram..only HKD2..cheap=)

finally found this place..but din buy coz too full..

1st post....pre trip mixed feelings

2008-08-27T22:51:00.001+08:00

1st post here...to blog down my experience in hk...

wow....time flies man...the day has come and i will be leaving for hong kong on exchange real soon....like in less than 24hrs..and i am blogging now on my comfortable bed using my laptop..haha..will miss my messy but kinda cosy and comfortable room..haha..just finish packing all the stuff..now hoping that i have not missed out anything for the trip..somehow those things i packed are more for travelling sake siaz..haha..and less of study...

4 months in hongkong...it seems so long to me siaz..coz this is the first time i am overseas for such a long time (>1 month)...and worse still..will be in a place where pple uses canto as their first lang..how am i going to survive siaz..but no matter wat..i WILL survive there. these few days i am attending lots of farewell dinner or lunch or just gathering with different grps of friends..like the vball gang, ove comm, yec, ntu friends.....really appreciative of all these little gatherings siaz..though i am only going for 4 months..coz i know some really made the effort to miss their other appointments or rush after lessons just come down for the dinner or meet up...so touched siaz...=)

having mixed feelings now...a bit of excited..a bit of nervous coz dunno wat to expect..a bit of yi yi bu she...haha..but no matter wat..i will try to have lots of fun, eat a lot, travel a lot and of coz study hard there...will post more pics as well...

just some random pics to post here..

farewell dinner @ seafood paradise

thank you dinner for ove08
at ritz carlton for fireworks fest (wasted..din take more pics with the rest of the vball gang)
@ "ri ben chun aka jap village with ntu friends