Long time no post!

After all the time I spent on sprucing up this blog, I got to Shanghai and the Great Firewall of China blocked my blog! Sooo…luckily, I had a backup blog at LiveJournal for ShigeSuki, so I just posted there instead. And you know what? About  4 weeks into my course,  with 2 weeks to go, my LJ blog got blocked as well! Unbelievable…just unbelivable. So, my updates for Shanghai stopped 2 weeks before I finished my course. Once I got back to Singapore, I continued blogging at LJ…heh…and now I’m back in Melbourne, and am wondering what I should blog about now…pwahahaha…but, chances are, updates will be at LJ,  http://d3vilishazn.livejournal.com/

Last email from SG before I leave for Shanghai tomorrow!

Early flight tomorrow, hopefully everything will go smoothly…arrival time is 3:15pm local time, 6:15pm Melb time. Estimated time to get from airport to hostel…an hour? Or thereabouts. I’ll sms.

Went to Dua Be’s house today, saw Baby Wan En…have pics, will post some another time, and email the rest home. SOOOOO cute…looks like Ah Peng gorgor.

Am tired, need to take shower. Hopefully I’ll update once I get into Shanghai.

More pics!

Bryan...

Jerlyn & Bryan

I don’t have a good pic of Jerlyn, due to this previously mentioned disease of mine…

Ok…this one is for Johnson and Dad…I also had bubble tea today for $1.50…that’s like, half the price it is in Melb…

My first plate of Hainanese Chicken Rice in 2008

I found this while in Cold Storage, similar to Coles/Safeway, only cooler…I forgot to take pics of why that is, but plenty of time for that when I come back from Shanghai…anyhoo, this is not available in Australia, or at least, I’ve never actually seen it on selves before…

WOW...

What’s the highest you’ve seen, Yan? 75% is nice, and I’ve tried 85%, but this is what they feed people as punishment in those Taiwanese game shows…I’m sorry to say that I wasn’t gamed enough to buy it and try. I’m sure that would’ve produced a priceless photo, if I survived long enough to take a picture. Johnson and Yan, you guys wanna try it? You think I can buy some and bring it back to Aust?

PIC SPAMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!

Erm…I have what people call “seriously shaky hands disease”. Symptoms include not being able to take non-blurry pictures, not being able to play Jenga, not being able to sew or thread a needle without much swearing and not being able to perform surgery of any kind. These are the ‘better’ (I use that term subjectively) ones…

Leng Leng jiejie & Baby Yu Xin!!!

Leng Leng jiejie & Yu Xin

Dua Gu

Si Yi & En En

Si Yi & En En

*dies of cuteness overload*

I’M HEREEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

Got in last night! Flight was good, except the cabin was quite stuffy for some reason, and a baby would not stop crying. The poor parents were oohh-ing and ahh-ing at the baby, holding him/her and walking up and down the aisle but yeah, didn’t get any sleep at all.

Look at...the Sunset

View of flats from 7th storey

Surprised some relatives today. It was really good because I saw everyone, including my cousin who went to Vietnam and nobody was sure when she would come back. I also met a darling neice for the first time *cuteness overload* I took some pictures, but I forgot to ask permission to post them…I don’t think they’ll mind, but I think I might ask first, then see what happens.

As promised to my friend Win, a picture of the black, thick framed glasses I bought today. kekee….they’re expensive to buy online, so i’m really happy… Hopefully I can get my hands on some mufflers in Shanghai *fingers crossed*

mine, Mine, MIne, MINE!!!!!!

The blue in the pic, Win, is colour of the part that hooks around your ears…you know what I mean… ^^ And no…no pic of me wearing them…keke…

Hopefully, I’ll be buying some awesome earrings tomorrow…then I’ll upload the pics, and maybe the ones of my relatives so Mum and Dad can see them too!

FINISHEDDDDDDD!!!!!! XD

Bit late….but exams are overrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Got through another year of Uni…a couple more years to go! Jap exam was…hmm…got the words for ‘north’ and ‘east’ mixed up…*palms face* I know that minami is south (courtesy of Hana Kimi’s Minami senpai!) and that nishi is west (Akanishi Jin) but forgot that kita is north for Horikita Maki. That’s pretty much how I learn Japanese…using Chinese…anyhooooo, should be ok…I think.

Countdown: 2 more days, 2 more days!!!!!!!!!!!! SOOOOOO excited!!!!!!!! *jumps up and down like an idiot*

One down, two to go!

Had Psyc exam last Thursday. Knew a couple, educated-guessed a few, and blind-guessed a lot… opps. Next up is Chinese on Friday, and then Jap next Wed…

I also got my visa into China done. Apparently, once they found out that the course Monash University is running in Shanghai was only for 42 days, some people down at the consulate refused to give anything more than 50 days on the visa. So those who had planned to stay in China after the course has finished will need to apply for an extention once in China. I, however, was VERY lucky to have gotten the 60 days I’d applied for! Don’t know how I managed to slip through the crack, because my application clearly stated my university as Monash, and the university in Shanghai as SISU, but it just saves me the trouble of applying for an extention there *ish happyyyyy*

The exchange rate is soooo dodgy lately, that the AU dollar has actually fallen lower than the SG dollar!!! I’ll also end up getting less from the RMB compared to say, a few months ago…grr….must spend wisely……. *scoops up an armload of NEWS and TVXQ merchandise*

Post Jap oral test thoughts

Just came out of my jap oral test and grabbed the closest available computer in the libary to blog. my hands are still shaking so badly that I’m repeatedly hitting the [backspace] key. Felt like an eternity, but in reality only 5 mins. I TOTALLY had this great line I was gonna use and impress the examiner, but completely blanked out when the right moment came. My prediction? If the test was out of 10 marks, I’d be looking at around a 7? Of course, that’s not relative to other students. For all i know, they could’ve all aced it, which would bring my 7 down to about a 5…pfft. Feel a lot better now, after this little rant. Now, onto the jap listening and written exams……………………..

Pre-departure information session + other stuff

Iyahh…

Just attended a pre-departure information session for trip to Shanghai and spent the last hour and a half been warned about health safety, hygiene safety, safety of belongings, scams from taxi drivers etc etc… finally, it’s all sinking in now…in a little more than a month from now, I’ll be travelling to Shanghai by myself for 7 weeks. Just because language isn’t a problem (I seriously hope) doesn’t mean that there aren’t other threats to my safety, *looks like serious jail-bait*. Luckily though, there will be internet access in the accommodation rooms (at an extra charge) so I’ll bring my notebook and hopefully update daily.

In other NEWS (keke), NEWS has a new album coming out!! wOohoOo! Seeing how I’m stuck on this island that is Australia, I can only rely on other people’s blogs for information like this…*curses non-satellite installed home* AND, AND, AND! NEWS’ concerts starts in less than two weeks’ time, so I guess a heck of a chuck will be taken out of most fan-girls’ wallets! Anyhoo, I’m really excited about this, but not excited enough to wanna pay the shipping charges to the Land of Down Under, so i might just get it whilst in Singapore or Shanghai *gets bricked by die-hard fans* For my source of information, please clickey this linkey!

OK…waiting to do my Jap oral test at 3:20pm…had to get that rant about my pre-departure info session and NEWS’ stuff out of the way and concentrate on memorising more stuff. Ganbarimasu yo!

Singapore Day 2008

Taking a break from my very unproductive day of report writing… My family came home not long ago, having been to Singapore Day 2008 which was held in Melbourne this year. Lucky ehh? Was really excited to go, but realised that I totally needed to finish this report, so I didn’t end up going. They brought back heaps of goodies, all Singapore related, like laksa paste and Yeo’s drinks and satay paste and…kaya! kyaaa….brings back the nostalgia yo! I think the organisers figured, “If the Singaporeans can’t bring themselves back to SG, then we’ll bring the SG to them! And then, they’ll realise that they miss SG too much and obediently return!” Really wished I could’ve gone as well…

In the avalanche of goodie bags my family trudged home, there was a t-shirt…awesome t-shirt, think I’ll wear it to sleep. Picture underneath!

Hard to read the print ne?

Close-up of the print...took me awhile to decipher the words...

Then I realised that in the bag the shirt came in was a piece of paper which described the different shirt designs available. It says “My heart lies one hundred and thirty seven km above the equator on a littl red dot.” TYPO!!! keke…despite that, I like I like…

Anyhoo…back to the report I’m probably gonna finish in like, 9086753535645786898345 years *bangs head against table in resignation*