Grad trip plans in progress.

Time now: 9.22 am (I should be hard at work instead of blogging)

I’m bored, extremely tired (I stayed up late watching re-runs of Desperate Housewives Season 3 with Alaska last night) and extremely hungry. I cannot, absolutely cannot concentrate on work. I kept doodling, sneaking peaks at Friendster and photo sharing websites and snacking from the pile of junk food I have on my desk.

Well, so I decided to blog: about graduation trip plans. Interesting topic.

Let’s see, I still have 9 months before I officially graduate and I’m harboring plans for a graduation trip. Well, it’s never too early to plan right.

2 major options:

1) USA (my first choice)
2) Eastern Europe

Initially I just wanted to go to USA with Jax for my grad trip. And then my friends from school suggested Australia or Easter Europe. Seriously I do not want to go to Australia because I’ve been there 5 times (yah, bragger...)

Anyhow, I just want to go to another totally un-ventured foreign land. And Easter Europe sounds good.

Travel with Boyfriend or with friends?

Let’s do both. LOL. But lack of funds.

Quite a dead knot situation, unless Jax don’t mind traveling to Easter Europe with my friends as well. The more the merrier. I know traveling in big numbers is a hassle but not for me, I like having a variety of different people to travel with, that makes life more interesting.

I think this post is strange. It seems that I’m talking to my blog trying to get my thoughts together.

Well, shall end off here. 1 week more before my family comes over =)

Mid Week Blues


Ok, before going on to talk about my mid week haps, I shall broadcast a very important notice over here:

“I cannot gain access to blogs over here in China!”


Meaning,

1) I cannot read my tags since I can’t even read my own blog
2) I cannot read any of my friends’ blogs. Yes all kinds of blogs, be it Wordpress, LJ or Xanga
3) I cannot tag as well


That sucks!

My friend who is interning in Shanghai has the exact problem. So we are assuming that China might have exercised a ban on foreign blogs while allowing their local blogs to continue operation.

Oh well, think on the bright side, at least I can still update my blog.

So dear friends, if you want to leave a comment behind on the tag board, please don’t. I would not be able to read it and reply accordingly hence please leave a comment via the ‘leave a comment’ below any posts. That way, I can read the comments on my blogger dashboard.

Ok work-wise, I have been meeting up with my manager in charge and general manager more often these days since it is almost the halfway mark for my internship. We meet up to discuss about work in the most unorthodox meeting places ever. There was a power meltdown once in the company and we drove to a Starbucks nearby for a short meeting. We got our air con and I got a FOC large cup of ice hot chocolate. (FYI, every alternate Fridays, certain parts of the company will prohibit the use of air conditioning in order to save on energy especially since it’s summer now). By the way, thriving cities in most parts of China are required to do embark on this energy saving policy to prevent the use of air con on certain days.

Sidenote: I HATE THIS POLICY!!!!!! Please allow me to vent my frustration because I’m a very air con person! hahaha, most of you who know me will certainly be sure of this fact. I stay in air con three quarters of the day back home.

So, I’ve bought a mini portable fan! Which only costs me 15RMB (3 Sing with batteries included). I use it mostly when I’m walking or even working. I kinda started the trend cause my roomies have followed suit and bought mini fans as well. The weather is seriously smeltering hot these days to an extent it’s almost unbearable.

Well, what I’ve learnt from working in a Chinese firm; I’ve learnt to always check back with the manager and my colleagues what is required of me in terms of the tasks assigned to me. Never make too many assumptions. They pretty much leave you on your own to do whatever is necessary and they can be rather demanding of your work quality.

The Chinese place much emphasis on after work entertainment. After a hard day’s work, usually the last place they want to go to will be home. They like to frequent pubs, KTV lounges, restaurants and massage/spa houses. They are very big on unwinding after work and they are generally very good drinkers. Every weekend is something to do forward to cause we will be invited to join them for dinners, KTV or live band bars. I would say the organization culture in the company I’m working is very good for team building. Every quarter of the year, there will be department trips organized to visit scenic places in the other provinces of China. My 2 other friends from NYP just came back from a 5 day trip to Hunan (all expenses paid trip!). Sadly, my department just went to Xi’an in April. How sad, I’ve always wanted to go take a look at Qin ShiHuang’s Terracotta Army. But it’s good to know there’s such a love for travel culture within the company. Everyone is like family. During dinners together with my manager and colleagues, they will get all busybody and asked me about my private life and naturally, it’ll centre around my boyfriend. It’s pretty embarrassing actually because technically speaking, I didn’t tell them personally that I’m attached. They saw the neo print picture of the two of us on the side of my laptop screen when I was presenting my ideas and findings to them. That was so unprofessional of me.

Well, anyway, my colleague has this comment of Jax after she had a closer look at the neo print,
“你的男朋友看起来很年轻” (your boyfriend looks young)


All I can say is, 我也如此认为! (I think so too)

Hmmm.

Ha! I cannot blame them for saying so. He really is boyish looking.

And I just looked at the Krispy Kreme website! Donut party at my place on the day I get back ok! I’m buying 4 boxes of KK donuts back. (I have no idea how in the world I’m gonna hand carry them but I’ll find a way!)

I can only buy 2 boxes for friends, so Marie, Kavi, Youie, Shirong, Yuying, Eileen and Julie, if you want, maximum is 2 ok =)

Check this out!
http://www.krispykreme.com/varieties.html



And for a little "just for laughs" humour (courtesy of Qiu Xin)


(click on it to see a larger view)

Hahahahaha! We were super bored during work, so we use internal email to email each other. Cause some of us do not have internet hence no msn. So we have to resort to his channel to communicate and to send each other lame jokes we found online. Qiu Xin went to the extreme by photoshopping Zhongwei's (aka Mr. Full of Shit) constipated look onto the baby's face. LOL. It was hilarious! I tried so damn hard to suppress my laughter in the office. My shoulders were quivering from the sheer hard work of laughter suppression.

Work is so much fun with this bunch of lame ass people =D hahaha.. They made my work week a tad more interesting!

And I've been relying a great deal on Google Translate. Its really very useful for me cause when I write emails to my colleagues or ask my managers questions, I'll type in english and let google translate, translate everything for me. Haha! cool right! Made me life so much easier. I can type an entire report in English and let it translate into chinese for me. =))) And I'll just copy and paste. But thankfully, report writing can be done in English or it'll be a -bangs wall- situation for me.

Weekend: Shopping at LuoHu and Live Music at TrueColor Bar

Qihan came over for a one day visit in Shenzhen and we brought him to LuoHu Commercial shopping centre for some cheap shopping. Honestly, it was quite an experience for him to haggle over prices. I’m already pretty much used to it. I remembered the first time when I went there to shop; I find it really strange to stand there for 10 minutes to haggle back and forth over prices. I find it a waste of time actually. But now, I think it’s a good way to stretch our dollar, or in this case, Yuan. We do most of the bargaining for him. After we paid for our purchases, the shop owners actually commented we can bargain really well for a foreigner; as good as a local. We actually did our homework before bargaining. We asked our colleagues about the standard prices of most items such as clothes, bags and shoes. From the price they gave us, we quote to the shop owners way lower prices so that we can work our way up to the target price we have in mind. 8 out 10 times, we get the prices we wanted. Our Yuan is stretched that way. I can buy up to 5 items with 40 Sing Dollars. A junk food tee which can be passed off as a real junk food tee costs me only 8 Sing dollars. It’s also a good place to shop for affordable and good quality cufflinks. You can get a simple and expensive looking cufflink for less than 10 sing dollars. Did I mention China shopping rocks? Totally. Ha, not in terms of the best quality but in terms of getting the best price of not bad quality. Friends, please leave a comment behind if you want me to buy anything for you or your boyfriends. =)

Anyway, it was a good afternoon of shopping. Most of us got what we wanted. I got my junk food tees and Coppertone t-shirt and Qihan got his cufflinks. He practically bought every nice cufflink in that place. Everything is cheap, cheap and cheap according to him.

Hahaha.

Ok, enough of shopping already.

After shopping, we were famished so decided to bring Qihan to this Hunan restaurant which we chanced upon when we wanted to just get lost and roam around the city area. Yups, we just took a random bus and stopped at whatever busstop that looks interesting enough. And it proved to be a good idea because we randomly found a nice restaurant which serves tasty food. Qihan didn’t get to try the restaurant’s signature rice wine (which we are all huge fans of) since the rice wine was sold out by the time we reached the place. =\

Rice wine is fermented rice drink which tastes very sweet and fragrant. No alcoholic content so you can drink as many cups as you want and not get drunk. The rice wine dessert is my personal favorite. As I’m typing now, I'm craving for a bowl of cold rice wine sticky paste with tangyuan.

Since it’s Saturday and weekends should never be wasted by going home early to rest no matter how tired we were, I suggested going to a live band bar, TrueColor Bar which my manager recommended to me. The SMU bunch went to the bar and the NYP friends went back home. Anyhow, the company was good. The place boasts a really warm ambience, good for chilling out and unwind after a long work week. We were given really good seats in front of the stage. One bottle of Hoegaarden costs us 30 Yuan each (pricey actually, but we really do not mind paying for the music and the ambience). In all, I think I drank 3 types of beer. Hoegaarden is the best, Paulaner tastes pukish after drinking Hoegaarden and Budweiser surprisingly tasted good for an American beer. Ok, the live music part is awesome! The place is seriously a Chinese version of Wala Wala actually albeit True Colour plays more mainstream sounds. The bands mostly performed Chinese music, some English oldies like Hotel California and Richard Marx songs. Their voices are unbelievably good and they can play a range of musical instruments like keyboard, drums, electrical guitar and harmonica. We just sat there from 9pm to 1 am, right from the first performance to the last. Talking about the last performance; the female singer and her keyboardist was the best act for the night. For one thing, she’s very beautiful in an oriental beauty manner. Long curls, pixie like face and very well groomed. According to Adrian, who was completely mesmerized by her, she has a voice of an angel. –Rolls Eyes- That night at the bar, I really cannot stand Adrian. He really annoyed me. He was sitting beside me the whole time, telling me how beautiful the singer was, countless times; when I was trying hard to be in my own world listening to the performance. The last thing I want was to be interrupted. I mean, seriously, I’m there to enjoy the music, you can tell me about how pretty the girls look all you want AFTER the performance, I’ll gladly listen to you gush all you want. He was such a pain in the ass, really. I told him to shut up halfway through. Haha, Qiu Xin and Alaska were annoyed as well cause we were all trying to enjoy the songs and he was yakking away. Anyway, the night ended in a bad way, but I think if I were to type it all down, it’ll be lunchtime soon for me. We ended up going home at 3.30 in the morning. So I’m not elaborating much on that. Anyhow, some guys can be too infatuated with beauty to an extent where that mere infatuation can severely cloud their logic and judgment. Those type of guys, is best for me to avoid. I’m still in a vindictive mood. I have no idea what gotten into me. Well, at least Adrian apologized after we gave him the ‘silent treatment’.

At the hunan restuarant:


The pictures we took at the bar:

The stage

The first performance.

The 2nd performance; the worst of the best. The singers try too hard to be cool and rock-like. Was jumping all over the place. Weird.

The loud bass and the drums nearly made us deaf. Half the time, I have to stick my fingers into my ears. =XThe 3rd performance. The lead is talented, he can sing well, play the electric guitar and the harmonica. Not once did he go out of tune. And his diction for the english songs is excellent.

The girl in the light pink shirt is the singer with the superb voice and the singer Adrian is mesmerized with.

From left to right; Qihan, Wen Wen (the singer), Adrian, Me, Alaska and Qiu Xin.

Jules, Qihan and I miss your company!! =(... We mentioned you a couple of times during the night cause you would have loved the place.

Dinner with my department colleagues and some thoughts.

I went for dinner with my manager and colleagues after work last evening. They brought me to this restaurant serving Hunan (or in China, they call it Xiang Cai) dishes. And I tried fermented bean curd for the very first time. I can honestly tell you, it was really stinky! I can smell the dish even before the waitress serves it to our table. There was this odd stench which is really quite a turn-off. Since they ordered, I guess I have to give it a try. Anyway, I’m already in a foreign land, I might as well give it a shot at eating things I’ve never eaten before and actually taste for myself if it’s actually that good (or bad!). As my colleagues and my manager look on, I took my first bite of the fermented bean curd. I tried my best to hold my breath as I looked at the bean curd and hesitated for a bit. The stench was really quite overwhelming. The taste was erm, actually better than I expected. It just tasted like normal deep fried beancurd (a little more salty than normal beancurd though). Trust me, the smell is much worse! My manager commented I can adapt really well, if she’s in my shoes, she is not that game enough to try something new plus the fact that the stench is hard to overcome for first time eaters. I think my mentality at the point of time is really to try eating something new since I’m here in China. It’s like what the hell, it’s a famous and popular (most prolly 5 star, looks 5 star to me) restaurant, there’s a slight chance I get the tummy runs. So I just threw my inhabitations aside and eat the smelly beancurd. By the way, there’s this roadside stall selling fermented beancurd near the cinema just 10 minutes walk away from our apartment. The stinky-ness is way worse than the one at the restaurant. So in terms of stinky-ness, the restaurant’s pales in comparison to the roadside stall’s.

Other than that dish, the other dishes were really delicious. We ordered rice wine dessert as well, which was really awesome. There’re small tang yuan balls in the sticky rice wine paste. I wanted to ask for another bowl actually but I was kinda embarrassed to do so, since I’m not the one footing the bill. We went off for mango ice dessert straight after, so it was a blessing in disguise actually; else my guilt level would have gone another notch higher. By the way, I’ve put on 2 kg. I cannot believe it. Hah most of us put on weight. Putting on weight is pretty much inevitable considering the amount we eat a day plus the food is not exactly very healthy. And the only form of exercise I do is climbing 8 flights of stairs everyday and walking to work. Well, I’ll climb up Lian Hua Shan again.

After close to 2 months of living in Shenzhen, I’ve come to observe that it is not as dangerous a place as most people have made it out to be. Snatch thefts have decreased tremendously in Shenzhen ever since they banned motorcycle transportation. Yups, there is not a single motorcycle here in Shenzhen. Honestly speaking, perceptions are very deceptive sometimes, or rather most of the time. Our perceptions are based on other people’s experiences. We choose not to experience it and instead came near to condemning that particular place. I’m almost guilty of that. If I had chose to stay with that perception and not come to Shenzhen, I think I would have regretted my decision. And I wouldn’t have seen what I’ve seen and experienced the diverse cultures of different people who come from very different backgrounds. I used to think mainlanders are brash, crude and inconsiderate people who talks very loudly. Yes, there are still some who behaves in a less than desirable manner, but I chose to group the rest of the mainlanders along with that stereotypical notion. But after staying, working and interacting with the Chinese around me, I feel I’m very wrong in my way of thinking. I guess when I get back to Singapore, I would not allow myself to come to a conclusion of mainlanders based on a mere stereotype.

And it’s safe to say, in general, most of the educated women know what they want in life. Take for example, my colleagues are very educated women who can speak excellent Chinese and very fluent English. By the way, with the exception of my manager, most of them are around our age. The one I’m closest to, Karen, she’s 23. (her boyfriend resembles Marie’s boyfriend, hahaha, same hairstyle!) Most of them traveled extensively and have wide networks of friend working in specialized fields. It’s a very humbling experience for me because I learnt a lot from their experiences and their perspectives towards work and life. My time here seems to highlight to me, this simple question, “What makes you think you are better than the mainland females just because I'm a foreigner from a more developed country?”. It’s really a hard knock of reality. MM Lee completely nailed that fact by saying in his speech recently about learning from China; He said it is best never to believe you are smarter than others. And that's his attitude as well when approaching the Chinese. How apt.

All I can say is that, I’m very glad I came for this internship to Shenzhen. If not, I would have restricted myself to a very narrow and old-fashioned way of thinking which will not do me any good once I stepped into the working world.

Visits from home

I'll be looking forward to this date, 6th july. Cause my dad, mum and my sis will be coming over for 6 days to visit me! I can't help but feel a little home sick and I really miss my comfy bed with all my bolsters and pillows. =\ My bed here is very hard though I'm used to it already. But still, I would love to sleep on a soft bed with heavy quilts again. That is why, I'm looking forward to staying at a hotel for the weekend.

but before that, I'm looking forward to 23 June too. My good pal from SMU. Qihan is coming to visit too. A day trip to Shenzhen from Hongkong where he'll be interning at. Qiu xin and I are gonna bring him for cheap shopping at LuoHu commerical centre. (the cheap and good knockoffs place).

Gotta keep this short, have work piling up for me to do.

I can't help but realise my sentences these days sound weird and grammatically unsound. Haha, is it me or is my english/grammer deteriorating? =

Where’s My Junk Food Tees?

It has been 2 months since I ordered junk food tees online and until now, I have yet to get my hands on them. Well, I can only get to wear them only after I get back home. Crap.

Since we are on the topic of junk food tees, I received this email from my boyfriend on Monday morning at work. And he sent me 3 pictures of junk food tees and how it relates back to us:


Picture No. 1:

A pictorial version of Me:




Picture No. 3:
A pictorial version of Him:






And lastly, of us…
Picture No. 3:
Us:


Smile.

It just brightened up my especially dull Monday morning. Totally.

Actually, it takes very little to make me happy.

I know this is totally random. Ha.


well, anyway, China bans Blogger, Xanga, Wordpress and Wikipedia. That means, I cannot read any blogs over here. And I can only post but I cannot view my own blog after I post.. How sad. It doesn't matter anyway, I reach home at like 8 everyday after dinner and a visit to the dvd shop we always frequent. That leaves me with little time to surf net and blog. Haha, we just got our hands on a set of HK mahjong so.... we couldnt be bothered with surfing net and watching movies anymore. We got a new and better past time. Going back home after work cannot be any better!

Oh 5 of us went up to Guangzhou during the weekend. Quite a miss-able place as in, you can totally skip the place if you are thinking of touring a city in China. Honestly, it's a messier and dirtier version of Shenzhen. With cheaper shopping. But the stuff there is seriously inferior in quality albeit the cheaper prices. One common thing you get to see while shopping in Guangzhou, especially in the street shopping areas, is the haggling over prices. Not to mention the messy crowd. Its really very maddening to shop under such circumstances. Well, I'm getting used to the shopping style here. I have better bargaining skills now. Haha, we will go, "Pian Yi dian..!" And we always use the walking away technique. If the shop owners do not want to sell us the price we quote or lower, we pretend to walk away and move to other shops selling almost the same range of products. 8 out of 10 times, we'll be asked back to the shop and they will give us the price we want. The annoyed look on their faces is a sense of satisfaction on our part. Heh, thats how we shop in Shenzhen. Like it or not, we have to get used to it.

One major event happened during the weeks I failed to come online to blog. I fell ill and I had fever for 2 nights. My first time having such a high fever of 39 degrees. And I was put on the drip in the company's clinic. My first time being put on the drip. So in that one week alone, I went for 2 drips, a butt injection to bring down my fever and a blood test to check if I have any major sickness. Quite an experience for me. Out of 5 workdays, I only worked on Monday, the rest of the week was spent resting in the company's clinic; lying on the bed with the drip. I had company though; my housemate, Alaska had stomach runs, so we were both put on the drip. A very much eventful week for the both of. Dear Qiuxin was like our nanny, bringing delivered porridge for lunch and reminding us to take our meds. Our managers were really helpful and caring too, offered to send us to the hospital (I almost had to go to the hospital the second day when my fever didnt seem to want to subside). Our VP even paid us a visit to offer meds from Singapore for us.

Anyhow, I'm back to my healthy self again. It was really an experience for both Alaska and I. We realised how blessed we are under such circumstances with so much care and concern coming from the people around us. In a place away from home, where the amenities are not as well developed as the ones back home, the simple concern and help shown to us really means a lot. God-sent really.

Back With Updates!

Gosh, It's been quite awhile since the last time I've updated on my life in Shenzhen. Long enough to make me pause for abit before finally recalling my password for Blogger sign in.

Anyhow, how are you guys doing? I'm doing very well over here. Settling down pretty alright. I love the food, the cheap shopping and the culture. No culture shock whatsoever, which is really unexpected.

Okies, I think I'll find it tough to update you on the tiny nitty grits of everyday life over here, so I'll just update on the major highlights starting from the most recent weekend (I think I missed 2 weekend updates, I guess. )

Happy Valley Saturday 2 June

Last saturday, We went to Shenzhen's Happy Valley (the largest theme park in China).

And it was really really fun! Superb!Haha! I love theme parks. Actually it was way better than what we've expected. Seriously, China packs alot of surprises. You just go there with minimal expectations, dont expect way too much, and you'll be delightfully surprised with what it has to offer. The rides were really more than decent, exceed our expectations. So thrilling that we screamed ourselves hoarse! Poor Qiu Xin is nursing a cough and a sore throat right now, cause she really screamed a great deal! I sat beside her for most rides. And boy, can she shrill and scream. Damn funny.

The most exciting ride was the Sky drop ride, Its 60 metres high and you get elevated to that height before getting plunged right down to the bottom. So figuratively speaking, your heart is still left at the top when your body is down at the bottom. I felt like I was being flown off my seat. I loved the adrenaline rush! Qiu Xin, Donna and I had fun just screaming our lungs out. Haha.

The suspension loop rollercoaster was really fun too! Basically, its not your conventional run of the mill sort of rollercoasters with you sitting in your seat. This time round, the seats are designed in such a way where you are hanging from our seats, so you feel as if you are flying around when you get plunged down the coaster. It's damn cool. I opted for the front seat cause the effect is really the best upfront. The view is fantastic; amidst all the screaming and upside down overturns, we manage to take a glance at the hills and mountains in the distance. We managed to queue for a second ride! Heh, lucky us, we took one hour to get onto the ride, the average queuing time is 2 hours max. We went on the right day since the school kids are preparing for their mid year exams.

A picture of the suspension loop coaster:

Thursday after work - A taste of nightlife in Shenzhen

[SoHo bar clubbing at -China's equivalent of Clarke Quay- Shekou]

Shekou really look very different at night. It's all lighted up with pubs, restaurants and clubs all strewn together. A unique feature of the place is the liner ship revamped into a hotel. Plenty of cartshops all around the liner. A little too touristy, I feel.

Anyway, the 8 of us made our way down to this club, Soho Bar with my colleagues from the marketing department. In total, the 12 of us rented this van to head down for some chilling out and dancing. We ate at Subway! How I missed eating at Subway. The vegetables tasted fresher and they were really generous with the helping esp the meats! But one major downside is the horrid tasting cookies. They only have 3 flavours and my favorites, Choc chip and macademia white chop chip cookies wasn't on the list. Well, we were still satisfied with the dinner. Too much chinese food for the past weeks, need some western flavour. =)

2 Weekends ago

Beer Party @ Adrian's Place

Friday night and we got nothing planned so we bought 12 bottles of Tsingdao, Kingway and Heineken from the convenience store near our apartments for a drinking session. Played loads of card games which are plain silly but really fun! Totally enjoyed the awesome and hilarious company.

Shopping at LuoHu

Counterfeit leather goods everywhere. Think LV, Coach, Longchamp, Prada and Chanel.
Loads and loads of them. Haha, eyes blurred.

Alright, that's all for now. Off to continue on my work. Plenty to do and I've slacked for too long. Bye!