dailies
Saturday, September 27, 2008
My Week in a Nutshell.
-10:51 PM
21st Sept
I went with the family to the outskirts of Beijing today. Zhipeng ge ge who just arrived last wk came along too. The family car was packed to the max-driver and da ge infront;da sao (with alicia on her lap) and dua pek (with andrea on his lap) in the middle part of the car; zhipeng ge ge, me and dua um at the back of the car. They picked me up around 820 am in the morn and went off to buy 大饼 for breakfast. Super yummy! It was a long drive out. The way BJ is designed is that it has 6 concentric circles with tian an men being the center and the 1st concentric circle. Today, we drove beyond the 6th circle. Kind of got lost halfway and had to ask for directions.
There were many corn fields along the roads of the outskirts. Its pity I couldnt get any photos. If i am not wrong, there are 3 types of corn here: the typical yellow sweet one we have in Spore, a colourless bland one and a third one which is a combination of the first two. We also saw some rams (or sheep??) along the road. As we drove up, mountains after mountains came into view. THe pinnacle of each mountain was covered with clouds..similar to the one I saw for the first time in Ba mei(世外桃源）during my mission trip to Yunnan 2years back. Finally, we reached 石花洞, a cave in a mountain which has a man-made trail through it.
Brought back memories of my mission trip 2 years back. Miss ba mei cause its so nice and tranquil and green, without significant traces of tourism back then. We had to take a sampan in. NOw, i'm not sure already. Tourism may have set in. But in any case, cos i've been to ba mei, normal tourism scenic places do not interest me that much already.
Strange English.
I learned form Andrea that this is stalacite because it grows from the celing downward as oppose to stalagmite that grows from the ground.
Dinner at Da Sao's place!! Curry!!! Yay!
After that, we had a picnic at some location along the road down the mountain. We had french loaf, tomatos, cha2 ye4 dan4 (fav!!!), sausages, biscuit, danish pastries, and corn!! so nice. Then it was the long drive back to da sao's place and we all fell asleep in the car. When we reached back, it was pouring but da sao brought zhipeng ge ge and i out to get our quilts. I got a 单人 quilt though I am sleeping on a 双人床. So it looks a bit weird..like korean style..mattress/mat. It took me a while to get use to this er..strange style..but now i i like it!
22nd Sept
I went back to the bank at 方庄 with my bank passbook to check the balance. I was so so so relieved when I saw that my money was still there. I was about to leave when I thought I would just kaypo and ask if there is a lost-and-found system in the bank. I gave them my card number and asked if anyone returned the card. The bank manager was nice enough to check it out for me. To my utmost suprise, my card was with the bank all along. THe atm machine had somehow 'eaten' my card. I was so thankful to God that he kept the card safe and more importantly, the money. :)
Today was the first day of our 见习lesson. My group was to do 物诊见习。Basically, we learned how to do general physical check-up for a patient (eg. temperature, BP, pulse, breathing), physical examination of the head and neck region (lymph nodes, thyroid, tonsils, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, gaut, skin, health status etc.). All of us took turns to be the patient and the doctor. When checking the lymph nodes, one of the areas to check are the arm-pits. ITs super ticklish I must say cause you have to apply a substantial amount of force and touch every area of the arm-pit. Imagine the amount of energy we took to control the laughter. The whole procedure is suppose to take only 10 minutes under exam conditions but all of us exceeded the timing..i took...20 mins.
Happy birthday Christie! Today was my sister's 17th birthday too!!! The family had a virtual celebration through Skype. My family was in front of the computer with my sister showing off her chocolate cake which has alcohol in it (and she is so proud of it..-.-). My dad sang happy birthday with his not-so-in-tune voice and he made me sing it over the computer too. -.-. and SM heard it...so paiseh. :P
23rd Sept.
Today's attachment was 检验实习。Btw, the system here is that we have lessons in the morning, have lunch and then come back for attachment. Anyway, today we had lecture first even during attachment time. It was on blood test in general...so the lecturer went on about the techniques we should use in the laboratory and yada yada. After that we just went to the lab and checked out the equipment. I realised tt the labs in the hospital are the cleanest area. No dust at all. Everything is in chinese..so imagine the PCR, ELISA, data entry stuff all in chinese. There is this machine that mixes the reagents for you in the amount you want. We all agreed that it was the smartest machine made cause it saves manpower. Hmm..Tll should have invented this for my PCR master mix and maybe a machine to make gel and run gel for me. Hmm. :P.
Funny gloves i bought from Carrefour cos i handwash clothes everyday. Its scotch-brite brand, the only home-brand i recognise. Super thick and protective.
24th Sept.
Today the class had the afternoon off!!! Yay! Class ended at 1030am? SM and I made our way to 红桥 which is actually a shopping centre meant for tourists. There were a lot of ang mohs there. We went to the building next to it which sold a lot of toys and stationary. The stationary there were all very very cute. We both got stuff. Then we went to the shopping centre and started our most exciting haggling experience since we came to BJ. I was suppose to buy a thumb-drive for WH. So, we randomly went to one shop and asked how much a Kingston 8GB thumbdrive would cost and the salesgirl (who can speak fluent english..they all can..cos its a place to earn money from tourists)said very cheap, just 300RMB. *faints* I immediately said '不买了' and began to walk away. She called me back and passed me a calculator and asked me to key in the amount i was willing to pay. I pressed 6o RMB and she gave me some stunned look and asked me to raise the price. I raised a bit and walked off after she didnt want to give it to me at that price. I approached another shop but from the corner of my eye,i could see her waving for me to come back. This same whole experience was repeated at the 4 shops we went. After doing enough 'market research', I bought a Sandisk Cruz for 70 RMB...slashed from 500RMB. But i was thinking..hmm..could have gotten it for 50-60RMB? haha.
After that, we went to the second level which had the imitations of branded bags, shoes and clothes. I bought a pair of converse shoes for 60RMB, slashed down from 480RMB and 2 Ralph Lauren polo tees for 60 RMB, slashed down from 520 RMB. THere seem to be some kind of organisation controlling this market cause the pair of shoes i wanted...the lowest all the shops were willing to give was 60 RMB although their starting price varied. They were all so sure that every shop would not sell me lower than 60RMB. As for the polo tees...the owner had given me 2 female shirts at first when I wanted one male one female. At first they were not willing to give it to me but i think i sounded a bit fierce and they allowed me to exchange. While trying to get them to exchange, the owner of the shop opposite came to chat. He kept asking about our nationality and of course we just said ‘猜猜看' just to drag time. He ran through all the counties of SEA including Spore but I just said 'no' to everything. Before I left, I just replied in chinese that we are from Fujian, leaving them all stunned. This is bcause SM and I had agreed to speak totally in English to make them believe that we are foreigners who dont understand what they are talking about when actually we do. THis tatic is very useful and can be used to your advantage.haha.
The Converse Shoes.
After that I went shopping with Da sao while SM went home. We went to Decathlon to get some warm clothings for me cause the temperature had dropped to 12-14 degrees due to the rain and all i had was summer long sleeves. Thank God i have not fallen ill although my throat is getting dry. I got a ski jacket cum windbreaker, turtle neck long sleeves and long thick socks.After that, she brought me to 世贸天阶。 The only shop i like was Zara which was too expensive for a student. Imagine everything in the shop having 3 digits and a scarf costing 285 RMB. Imagine the coats but they are really nice and thick. Didnt buy anything although I almost did. Good thing I didnt, cause after reflecting...i think..the money can be put into better use.
世贸天阶. It has a very big LCD screen that shows pretty displays like the one above. It will look even more spectacular at night!
The chauffeur drove me back and as i was walking towards my block, the wind was so strong and i was so cold, my teeth were chattering and my hands were full with stuff that i bought, i dropped my textbook onto the ground. eeks. But man, its really cold.
Went to open the letterbox anyway despite the cold and found something that made my day. :)
25th Sept.
Today was ECG internship. Before that I was attached to the ultrasound doc. Due to the milk probem in China, many parents brought them kids to the hospital to scan the kidneys for stones. THere were so many kids and most were wailing because they think that hospital=injection! The doc had to apply some gel to allow proper contact between the machine and the body. I also saw the ultrasound of a fetus. You can see the small heart bobbing on the ultrasound screen. So exciting! But there was one fetus which was attached to the lower part of the uterus, resulting in the possiblity of a miscarriage.
26th Sept
I lost my water bottle!! Haiz. I was searching for quilt cover and bed sheets and somehow, i lost my fav bottle! Somebody had tried to steal it before but i grabbed it back in time but now..haiz.ITs either in 方庄 or Carrefour. But who am i to blame but myself? I was deep in thought about something and i forgot about my surroundings. Last time in singapore like that, now again. Haiz. So upset. First is the bank, now this. When will i not be so muddle-headed and absent-minded?
Lunch today was fun! I helped YY and frens to move their stuff to their new apt and also to check out the electric keyboard at their place. Finally got to touch the keys again. I went with Tiff in a 'thingy' to get McD coz i wanted the toy that came with the happy meal. I had gotten one toy yesterday but i wanted another one too! :P
The thingy.
The cute toys from THE DOG series. A golden retriever and a er er big black nose dog. There are 15 in total...contemplated getting all 15 but erm..better dont. Happy meals here range form 14.50 to 17.00 and the dog comes free. The dog if you buy alone is 10.00 RMB. My meal today had an extra nugget set which i din realise until i was at YY's hse already. yippee!
27th Sept.
Today is saturday, but we have classes still. JL went with me today to carrefour in search of the water bottle but to no avail. :( We bought stuff and then went to 集天小吃 for lunch. It was really nice of her to help me get over my loss of the bottle. Now i have another prob...where to get a water bottle to put hot water? I need hot water in this freezing weather.
Today we learned how to do 胸部检查. The guys, David and CC had to sacrifice of course. But it was bit ke lian for them cos the weather is really cold. The girls just practiced on the guys. It was quite funny cos at one point, we had to place our hands on the lower area of the ribcage but we were not sure exactly where and so some of the classmates put their palms at the waist of the guys, as if hugging them. After that, we used our stethoscope to listen to the abnormal heartbeats of a dummy.
Friday, September 19, 2008
-10:58 PM
16 Sept (Tues)
Had lunch at this small eatery in this alley behind 方庄 called 新四方小吃. I ordered 刀削面 and told them to put less oil and less salt. The soup was still oily but I decided not to ask for a spoon and so did not drink down most of the oil.
SM and I actually wanted to cook that night cause we really felt that eating outside food for 3 whole weeks aint really healthy. BUT, we din noe how to get the stove working. Apparently, we have to open 2 valves, change batteries for the stove and the meter and fiddle around with the switches of the stove. Its quite simple now that I think of it. So, we called pizza that night cause it was raining and the two of us were too lazy to go down to buy food plus the da bao service for the 巧食家had closed. THe pizza cost 89rmb but it was finally normal food.
17th Sept (Wed)
Lunch at the hospital..like for the 2nd time or 3rd time only. Cause i always eat outside. It simply amazes me that food at the hospital can be more oily than food outside. The round pastry has veggie fillings but the pastry is too thick and has no taste. For once, I think they forgot the salt. :P. Carrefour has also run out of salt.
After class, all of us went to get our 白大衣 and the funny thing was, the whole class (60 of us) walked togther as a class for the first time, and in TWOS!!! The only thing missing that would make us look like primary school kids was to hold hands with your partner. 孟老师 was walking in front and when she stopped, all of us stopped too! The two rows were very neat and all of us started laughing when we realise how hilarious the whole class looked.
The lecturer for liver disease diagnostics recommended this medical bookshop opp 协和医院 and so after class, some of us went down to check it out. I bought 165.60RMB worth of books. But books here are super cheap. I bought the Chinese-English Medical Dictionary, a bilingual anatomy atlas and a how-to-read-ECG guide in ENGLISH. I am in desperate need for english. Haha.
18th Sept (Thurs)
I got to see who my 导师 was for the first time today. I think she is one of the directors of the hospital. She is heart specialist and spent time teaching us how to read ECG for atria fibrillation. I also met post-graduates under her. Numbers were exchanged for easier contact during group discussions and meetings.
19th Sept (Fri)
SM and I finally got the stove to work. We were SO SO SO excited and were like jumping around in the kitchen and clapping hands! haha, so duh right! We cooked noodles! ok, we only had packet noodles, but we din use much of the seasoning cos we are quite sick of msg and salt-filled food. So SM washed the 小白菜 and some yong tau fu ingredients that I bought from 方庄超市 while I boiled water, threw in noodles, 2 eggs and the stuff that SM washed. We should have added more veg, then the soup would have been sweeter. But then, we may not be able to finish the food. We actually threw in stuff that filled 3/4 of the pot! Then, we microwave canned sardines which tasted like the ones back home in Singapore. Washed grapes as well. The whole dinner was so nice! The yong tau fu ingrediants tasted flour-ry but they say that its like that in Beijing. The meatballs are okay thought. My soggy noodles actually tasted like 米线, and they tasted very nice! I think apart from the Jap meal Dage and Dasao treated me to, and the food cooked at their place, this is like the next best.
This is a picture of a flaccid cucumber. We left it for too long in the fridge and it became flaccid. SM and I were laughing at it actually cause it really looked funny..imagine wobbly cucumber. I thought i saw while fungi on it. I ate 2 of these prior to this current one and actually, this kind of japanese cucumber taste nicer than the nasi lemak kind. I actually just eat the japanese cucumber raw, after washing the skin clean. Its quite fresh.
CE came to ask me if I ate cornflakes cause she wanted the 2 garfield magnets found in each cornflakes packet. I took a look at the magnets and realise that they are super cute! There is a variety of them. So now, several of us in class are eating cornflakes just to get the magnets. SM went to buy the cornflakes and we decorated out fridge with our first 2 magnets. And I get to bring the magnets home!! (cos only I gian the magnets. But its like super cute.)And the ironic thing, is one of the magnets say 'best cook in the world'. Er. Okay. No comments.I think the class may become like primary school class when we start exchanging our magnets for the designs we dont have. In primary school, I exchanged stickers. But this is our source of entertainment in our very limited social life.
China news and probably international ones too (I think I am quite cut off from the rest of the world), recently reported that the san lu brand of milk caused kidney stones in 400,000 plus kids. Good thing the one SM and i drink is san yuan. BUT, we eat yoghurt from the brand 伊利. Today, SM went to carrefour and saw that many brands of yoghurt were cleared from the shelves including 伊利!! We later learned that 3 brands of yoghurt were found to have some 'problems' and 伊利 was one of the 3. No wonder when we first bought the yoghurt, it was like 8 for a low price and we grabbed it cause it has many flavours and was cheap. And we ate 6 out of the 8 already. Hmms. Now what. DO we still finish of the last 2 ? I didnt expect this though..i mean..its carrefour...hello??
Yay! My letters to Singapore have reached the people they are supposed to reach. They took 8-9 days. I was quite worried they wouldn't reach though.
Monday, September 15, 2008
-10:40 PM
Today was a holiday for mid-autumn's festival so I stayed at home the whole day. It was so boring just reading the textbook cause I didnt understand the terminology. Just imagine learning Western Medicine in Chinese. Resting potential, and ECG and X-rays, CT, MRI, etc..all in Mandarin. SO, i diverted to surfing the internet for a while..contemplated studying on the bed but decided against it in the end because I fell alseep on Sunday when I did that.
Midway throught the studying I had a splitting headache probably due to the chinese and cause I wasnt concentrating as well.. SM da bao food back and we ate dinner. I wanted to watch TV but I couldnt find my hong kong drama channel despite the 50 over channels we have here. Then at 730pm (if i'm not wrong), at least 10 channels were synchronised to the same newsbroadcasting station at the same time. -.-.
Is there a way to make certain posts private on blogspot? Like have some posts where everyone can see but some where only I can view ? Doesnt seem so...I'll have to stick to my good ol' handwritten diary then.
Sunday, September 14, 2008
140908
-10:37 PM
Yesterday, Feng u, Peijia and Peijing and I went to 西单just to walk around. The 2 PJs bought 羽绒服 while Feng u and i ventured to another building cause I wanted to find Zara. We didnt find Zara but instead found 美特斯邦威服饰博物馆北京旗舰店展区(Metersbonwe Costume Museum)at the top most level of 西单国际大厦。No photos were allowed to be taken, which is a pity. The place showcases the clothings worn by the royal families and court officials and their wives. It also features the clothings worn by the 少数民族，eg.苗族. Every piece of clothing takes around 2-3 to make and every embroidery work has its meaning. Its as if every piece of clothing can tell a story. There were also ornaments around but those can be seen even in Singapore museum..not the exact stuff, but similar. Over there, we watched a documentary of this old lady sewing a top, pants, shoes and sling bag using skins of various types of fishes, including carp. She had painstakingly taken the effort even to match the skins so that the colour gradient would be nice. THe skins had stuff added to them and were flattened out etc before sewing was done. Embroidery and patterns were also done using fish skin as thread. On one hand, I felt it was a bit cruel on the fishes (if the fish meat can be eaten, does it lessen the cruelty?) but on the other, I must admit that the intricate details that went into the design and construction was simply amazing.
Model.
In the evening, I brought them all and Sanmei to my cousin's place for a bbq and dinner. I finally got my Bak Kut Teh!!! My auntie made them. FOr once, no oily and salty food. That afternoon, we actually ate this 6RMB noodles which is the most salty thing I have eaten in my entire life. I ate 1/6 and dug out the cucumbers to eat and left the rest untouch. Even drinking my whole 1L of water down will not save the bowl of noodles. ANyway, back to my bak kut teh!
Bak Kut Teh. Simple but nice!
Other stuff.
At night, I couldnt sleep cause of something that happened in the day which really pissed me off. I really thank God for SM who patiently listened to me. I was telling her that for the one hour that I couldnt sleep, I was praying to God to help me cultivate some form of patience and a magnanimous heart..and maybe try to love people who are not exactly so lovable. And SM pointed me to Bible verses that really helped me get my perspectives back in place. Really thank God we are housemates that get along pretty well.
2 Peter 1: 5-8
But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love.
Today, I went to Beijing International Christian Fellowship (BICF) with YY and Marietta. Only people not from China are allowed in cause of rules imposed by the govt I suppose. THey check the passports at the entrance to the building. Its really so nice to see Koreans, Singaporeans, Africans, Americans, Brits, etc etc. I was really so happy and excited to see the church building and to go in for service. All of us were actually. Today was the last bilingual service. Next week onwards, english and mandarin services would be held separate. I dont know which to go for but I actually actually, to my suprise, feel an inclination towards the mandarin service. Hmm. It felt good to be able to sing worship songs again..really a break from the hectic school life and rubbishy stuff I had to go thru in the past wk. As worship went by, tears filled my eyes as I was reminded of God's forgiveness,grace and miracles in the past half a year that has gone by. As I was praising God, I felt that I really wanted to go back to the music ministry, to serve God with what He has blessed me with...it was the same feeling I had when I first wanted to play keyboard for church worship.
THe sermon itself brought back many issues which I have to grapple with and probably come to terms with... Yep. At the end of the service, Mariatta and I wanted to sign up for small group but didnt know how or which one. So we decided to do it next week when we are more settled.
The auditorium.
Lobby.
YY,Me,M.
My Gong Bao Ji Ding Fan which was my lunch and dinner.
Heres a new song I learned at church today. Its super duper nice.
禱告禱告，因為我渺小；
禱告，因為我知道我需要,
明暸，你心意對我重要。
禱告，已假裝不了；
禱告，因為你的愛我需要；
你關懷，我走過的你都明白。
有些事我只想要對你說，
因你比任何人都愛我；
痛苦從眼中流下，
我知道你為我擦。
在早晨我也要來對你說，
主耶穌今天我為你活；
所需要的力量你天天賜給我，
你恩典夠我用。
A myriad of emotions. Happy,excited,exhilarated,boredom,tiredness,sadness,devoid of emotions.
Saturday, September 13, 2008
-12:25 AM
I've never been so happy to reach Friday...ever..I'm just so worn out by school alone, let alone the foreign environment and the limited amount of social life I have. Everytime I walk on the streets, esp when alone, I have to make sure all my belongings are in front of me and no hand or whatever suddenly appear to steal my stuff. And when I cross the road, I have to look at cars coming from different directions and not only that, still got the thingies with two wheels!!! Argh! No more late nights because by 7pm, the streets are quite dark and I dare not walk by myself. In school, I have to pay attention for such a long time, like 8-5. Haiz. And to think I thought I could play and travel when I came to China. SInce when do I have to do all these in Singapore???? I remember liking school but now i really dont like it.
But I guess, its important to be able to adapt and try to fit in to the new world I am in now. Living with someone else that is not from my own family has its difficulites I suppose but at least we dont have certain issues faced by people from other groups.
Dunno what I'm typing now...
I'm suppose to be studying...
I feel kind of lost...
in my own world...
dunno how to say what I feel...
and no one to listen anyway.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
-11:56 PM
Yesterday, I went with WH to 方庄市场 cause she wanted to buy a quilt and check out pillows and the stationary shop. I realised that she was quite good at bargaining and to think that i've not bargained since I stepped into BJ. So, that very evening, SM and I went back to 方庄市场 and checked out a wooden shoe-rack. It was selling at 70bucks and so I decided to try bargaining. I said 60 but the woman wouldnt budge, the lowest she would go was 65. THen the other owner 可怜us and said that he saw us checking out two stores, walking back and forth and not daring to open our mouth for the prices. For that, he got the woman to sell us the shoe-rack at 60RMB! Yay! First attempt at bargainig...so exciting...erms.. Should have tried 55RMB right? =P
Went home to mug a bit before falling asleep on my books. That afternoon,I had fallen asleep in class with the high-lighter in my hand. When I woke up, there were 2splotches of high-lights on my page. -.-. But I was sitting at the back and the screen was small and the ventilation wasnt that good...ok..i'm giving excuses. But I seem to always want to sleep during lessons held after lunch.
In the evening, the water dispenser guy came to install the water dispenser at our house. I should have ordered the large size dispenser cos the small one is so small, it sits on our dining table and blocks the phone (not that the we have a line..but..it doesn look nice.). THe big one can stand on the floor and help fill my our empty but spacious living room. Next came the broadband guy who was nice enough to help SM and I do up our wireless network for free! SM and I were so so so excited when everything was done cause we had spent 2 nights trying to fix it ourselves but we kind of messed up the system instead.
Today, our stethoscopes came!!!! We were all excited and started fixing up the thing and playing around with it.
JL (warning :chaoji kaypo catwoman that claws, stalks and ransack my bag) and i. Okay. She is actually very nice. :)
We found Yoshinonya!!! So happy! and the beef bowl taste like the one in Singapore!!!
We also found Watsons where I got my pretty cheena umbrella thats so thin, I was afraid I would rip it. But all the umbrellas sold here are like that...I've done my market research. Also found Diary Queen!
I grew fatter not because I ate a lot, but because everything here is so oily. I seriously suspect they coat the utensils with oil.
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
-10:37 PM
6th Sept 2008
Today SM and I took the day off from cleaning the house cos we employed a day maid who would come the next day to clean the house for us!!!Yay!! Soo, we decided to go out today!
In the afternoon, we went to 壅和宫, the nearest place of interest to our home.It used to home to Yong Zheng when he was still a prince. When he became emperor, the place was converted to a lama temple.We took the subway there and even the subway station was constructed to look like a 宫.
A park opposite the subway station (I forgot the name of the park).
A very funny sign along the road directing people to the place. There were a lot of shops all selling incense and joss-sticks along the road to the place. Every owner was saying how good and authentic their stuff were. SM and I were taking photos even along the road that a PRC commented why couldnt we go in to the place and take pictures instead of blocking the way. Thats true, in certain sense.
THe entrance. The sun was too glaring..couldnt a get a picture that would show the words.
One of the many pretty design from the architecture of the buildings. The place is really like a maze and is so huge for just ONE person. I would get lost if I'm a palace maid.
SM and i wanted to take a photo together and we just asked this spanish guy who is prob there for the paralympics and cos SM can speak a bit of spanish. In the end, he put on the spanish hat for us and took a photo with us. Ha. It was nice to speak other languages other than chinese. Gracias and Adios.
This is actually a record for a 18m buddha statue which was carved out of one 26m tree.The buddha is really huge. From the outside, I only could see the ankles and I was wondering what was inside. When I walked in, I could only see the knees. I had to walk really in to see the entire statue. The building was also constructed such that natural sunlight would shine through some windows, onto the face of the buddha.
After that, we walked down the streets and realised that there were other museums,smaller 宫s around but all need money. We didn want to pay cos we realised that students get half price at most, if not all places of interest. So, we'll wait for our student pass to be made.:)
Water.
A place where in the past, people riding on horses have to dismount to show respect to the scholars and sages around. The school of Confucius is on the right side while the temple of Confucius is on the left. It's a tradition that they have schools on right side while temples on the left.
A post at the Olympics Information Booth that made SM and I very happy.
THe park.
Cute dog in cute pram.
Quiet walk to find dinner.
KFC!!!! Its a burger with a potato patty. I requested for salad rather than fries cause I think too heaty le and I need the veg. THe salad is corn salad. First time I every saw such a salad. Its nice! The chicken was tasty too, better than the McD here. As for the drink, I only understood 果汁 and not the other string of words the person was saying cause she was going at bullet train speed, so here is my 果汁。
When we went home, we walked the wrong way, in fact the opposite from the one we were suppose to walk from the subway. So, we took an extra one hour plus to get home. We cleared, I think...more than 10KM walking today. Actually, I'm pretty sure, its at least 10KM.
7th Sept 2008
Today the maid finally came. Paid 15 bucks per hour and within 5 hours she cleaned the house. Way faster than SM and I (we took abt 5 days and only did as far as the kitchen cabinets,part of the toilets and our rooms).
Lunch at California Beef Noodles. 方州牛肉面。Its very very very tasty!
THen, Dage and Dasao came to bring us to Decathalon to buy some warm clothings. In the end, Dasao started to talk to us about Zara and that made our eyes blink a lot except that the prices here are super exorbitant.Then, we went Dage's place for dinner and Da Qing(one of the maids) made 饺子。
I predict Monday blues cause school is starting tml.
8th Sept 2008
School has started and its monstrous. We have lessons for 5 days from 8am to 5pm daily. For the week leading to holidays, we have lessons from 8am to 5pm for SEVEN days a week. By the time lessons end, we are half dead and have to find dinner and go home, bathe, study etc. And the workload is monstrous too! We cover one major system/organ/technique in one and a half hours which is insufficient time for the teachers to cover everything. In the end, they rush through but yet briefly touch on whatever they wanna touch, meaning, we have to read the info ourselves. And considering we are doing Western Medicine now in Chinese...man..Its like we know the stuff in english..but in chinese, the terminology(s) is really a big headache. I need a bilingual medical dictionary seriously and urgently! Oh, did i mention, we only have a 2 hr lunch break each day. No breaks in between lessons, unless the teacher decides to have one.
And final exams are on every month. I have 4 papers in mid-october itself. -.-. I sound like a whiner. But its really bad. I've nv got it so bad at all when in NTU, even when i was doing 28 AUs in one sem. I thought I could go travel/play/enjoy/whatever..now..hmms..I dunno.
We ate at the hospital today. And supposedly, we have to bring lunch box everyday cos they dont provide plates and utensils except for today which was our first day. The hospital looks gloomy I must say. The canteen staff are nice but the give like one dish and a lot of rice. Before I could point to another dish, they already lumped rice onto my small lunch box, filling everything up.My veg was quite tasty though oily but some ppl got food that...din taste so nice.
I came in later than the bus that fetch ppl from the hostel to the hospital. SInce that makes up like 85% of the class, I couldn get a seat in front. Half the time, i couldn make up the words on the ppt screen cos they were either too small, or too stretched, or the colours used were inappropriate. Oh wells. By the end of class, my eyes were really tired plus the fact tt we have to write really quickly cos lecturers go very very very fast and dont wait for us to finish writing.
