Saturday, December 24, 2005
how can i ever begin my description of beijing? the first thing that pops into my head (it can be inferred that reminders are all around the city) is that beijing is to host the 2008 olympics. then, the blistering cold (perpetually negatives) and bald trees along the streets, of which many contain a lane for cyclists, follow. along these same streets, european-influenced buildings stand next to ancient chinese architectural wonders. this capital city of china isn't that
cheena if you really take a closer look at it. just across the tian an men square is a very westernised clock tower substituting the roof of a subway station. one major complain, however, is the awfully oily and salty food. i was hopelessly cold and hungry throughout my tour largely because of my preference for western food.
on a more personal note, i must comment that albeit all the lovely things mentioned above, the rather uncivilised behaviour of the chinese nationals did fiddle with my nerves: their ability to release their bowels without closing the door of the cubicle (warning: it is quite a common sight), their unwillingness to politely request for you to kindly move out of their way (no 'excuse me' at all and instead, what you get is them jostling against you), their incessant cries for you to patronise their stalls and (note this) their disgusting pouts and/or obvious expression of displeasure when you choose not to buy anything from them. one interesting thing about this city is their
ve-ly pow-der-ful eng-rish. examples can be seen from
my photo album.
then again, there are beautiful things worthy to be mentioned: the heart-pounding climb up the great wall of china (now, i am truly a chinese!!), the lobby manager of my hotel being the cutest (in my microscopic view) guy in the entire beijing, making yet another group of new friends (young and old) and experiencing history classes all over again (intriguing introductions to the ming and qing dynasties by my lovely tour guide, gu ping).
during one of my final moments of this trip, i experienced my most hilarious encounter at the custom. very often, i'll get officers staring my passport photo and i for at least half a minute due to the startling difference. the officers will usually glance at my passport photo, then stare at me hardly for quite some time before commenting that i look different. but this time (conversation in mandarin, of course)...
officer: (
after starting at my photo and i) you look very different.
michelle: yeah, i do. (
smiles)
officer: you lost a lot of weight.
michelle: yeah, i know.
officer: (
without breaking into laughter or smile) was it difficult?
michelle: (
silence) quite. (
bends till head is below the counter and laughs quietly)
anyhow, it's christmas again, not that there's much atmosphere here in singapore. i reckon beijing has more christmas atmosphere. hohoho!! merry christmas!!
a cultural immersion experience for us all
&
hush pretty pink lady ;
at 4:01 pm
Tuesday, December 13, 2005
to prove my blog is far from dead, here i am. today was a memorable 'tweenies' day out. mitch and i can really talk non-stop from the unearthly hours of 1000hr to the sun-setting hours of 1800hr. that's eight consecutive hours of gossiping, chatting and, of course, chilling (you cannot not chill in mitch's presence). the best thing was that boredom never lurked. we talked about everything from guys, to family, to basically everything under the sun. the highlight of the day would be our little fashion parade at 'winter time'. the junior sale staff didn't dare to throw us a damp blanket and didn't stop us while we blatantly tried on coats and scarfs, while taking pictures. however, to our displeasure, the senior staff soon came and reminded us that photo-taking is not allowed. for goodness sake, i am advertising for them without asking for payment. really, it's only in good company that you can do absurd things without feeling embarrassed. tweenie, we rawk!!
one day, the backdrop would be that of the tower of london. trust me.michelle` insouciant extremist *tweenies rawk* says:i got kristy a christmas present. (name of gift has been obmitted for personal reasons)marc eko says:that's so common.michelle` insouciant extremist *tweenies rawk* says:go get a nice one then, since you are so smart.marc eko says:did you get anything for me?michelle` insouciant extremist *tweenies rawk* says:did i get for you anything? nope.gosh, egoistic eko. that's what i've christened him.
&
hush pretty pink lady ;
at 9:41 pm
Monday, December 05, 2005
how often are you approached in a bustling and crowded ngee ann city coffee bean outlet by a crew to be asked if your drink tastes good? that happened to mandy and i last tuesday. i actually already caught him eyeing, possibly, mandy when he was filling up the straw dispenser. he must have wanted so bad just to talk to her. however, his attempt only managed to make mandy giggle. she didn't say a word. aww...
michelle: when you see a group of men together like them (referring to a group of men dressed in corporate style), they must be chauvinistic.
mandy: they must be what? GAY?
michelle: (
laughs) well, that kind of fits too.
last wednesday, mandy had a tennis match at kallang tennis centre. i think i might have just walked pass the very adorable, charming gregory who participated in the debut episode of the season one of singapore's brainiest kid back in 2003. he is really tall and has lost a bit of the childhood innocence, but he managed to preserve his charm. what a suave, good looking male adolescent now. haha. he is seeded second in the spex under-14 tennis tournament and ranks 7th in singapore's under-14 tennis category. bradley lai is ranked 9th in singapore's under-12 tennis category. how impressive!!
saturday night was a full-fledge feministic bitching session. it was a pity my favourite bitching partner, samantha, wasn't around. i felt really honoured to be able to be one of the few non-family-related people to be driven by shuowen. she drove mitch, wanshan, eileen, marie anne and i out for dinner. way cool to be driven by a friend because i've always been the one driving friends around. haha. the night was actually a launch party mer's sister organised for her clothing line. but turned out, the few of us and xinyu (who came rather late) just chilled at a corner with some chips and started gossiping. that's what girls do best. yay, can't wait for christmas party!! (:
alas, goodbye to lnat!! say, l-nat!! haha. whatever it is called, i am free from that. i hope i didn't do badly though. the thirty mcqs were horrible to say the least. and they only allocated a miserable forty minutes to write an essay. i chose the essay about charity conferring benefits more to the giver than the receiver. i kind of wrote that benefit cannot be measured because people have different pespectives. if you give a meagre sum of money to the tsunami victims, to you it might be insignificant, but to them it might be the drive to live. okie, the undergraduate offices of the universities can now begin to mock at my juvenile essay. (:
&
hush pretty pink lady ;
at 5:39 pm
