The Sands of Time Wait for No Man

Tuesday, February 28, 2006

Talk To Me!!!

Everyone, get on Google Talk so that I can hear your lovely voice!!!! I cannot use ym or msn here. My brothers, one in Vietnam and one in China, are the first 2 people I managed to talk to! I was so happy to hear from Tuan Anh and Li Yan! They really miss me and are so worried about me! I miss them too!!! And my sissy, my mother and father!!!!

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Me in Myanmar

I'm now in a internet shop in Myanmar. I cannot stop complaining about the environment and conditions here...... Sigh..... It wasn't like this when I went to Vietnam or China. So why is it like this now??? And this was supposed to be much better than Vietnam! Someone get me out of here!

Friday, February 24, 2006

Goodbye! Again.....

I'll be leaving for Mandalay, Myanmar on Saturday morning for another teaching assignment. Not sure when I'll be back. If short, then I'll be back in three months. If long, then I'll be back only after nine months. I'm not sure what's in store for me in Myanmar. I think I may be cut from civilisation (aka internet) when I am there..... Wish me luck!

Thursday, February 23, 2006

Chinese Brother

I've gotten myself another brother. But this time round, I've gotten a Chinese brother. Li Yan is my student. He is a terrible student but a very nice boy. He's from Weifang, Shandong. His province is famous for white radish and he gave me one to try. I've never eaten white radish raw but it was really fresh and delicious! Li Yan is really tall! Most people in Shandong are like that. Since he's from China, his parents had to follow the one-child policy. He says being an only child is so lonely, so he wants to have an older sister to 'teng' and care for him.

"Why not an elder brother?" I asked.
"Because I'm so naughty, if I have an elder brother, he would be worse than me. Then he would bully me!"

The way we communicate is funny. His english is terrible and my mandarin..... Well..... Let's just say my A1 for Chinese is not justified. My mandarin is like 50x better than his english.... When we see each other in person, it's no problem as we can speak mandarin. Just that my mandarin seems to come out in chunks..... But online, it's a totally different story. He has problems understanding what I'm typing in english, and I do not know how to type using the chinese characters. So I have resorted to typing in hanyu pinyin! How long has it been since I revised my hanyu pinyin?! And guess how he replies to my online messages? Using han zi! He wanted to use hanyu pinyin to reply, but I think I would rather read the chinese characters than to guess the different sounds of hanyu pinyin! I'm helping him to improve his english and he is helping me to revise my chinese!

Cheena

I'm back in Singapore after 16 days of teaching in China. I am so happy that I don't have to suffer the freezing cold anymore! (Even though I have to say that I was getting used to it. I could even wear a skirt out!)

I especially didn't like:
1. having to get out of the warm bed in the morning
2. wearing thick layers of clothes
3. applying thick layers of moisturiser
4. getting the sticky feeling when putting on my clothes after applying the mosituriser
5. taking a shower
6. not being able to access the restricted blogspot! Argh! That explains my absence....

What I did like:
1. hiding my fats under the thick layer of clothes

2. the feeling of snow on my face (it's magical! but........ freezing!)
3. seeing the thick pile-up of snow on the ground outside (from the comfort of my room!)
4. looking out of the window halfway through teaching and seeing snow flakes falling from the sky (another magical moment!)
5. the taste of tsingtao beer (I'm not turning into an alcoholic!)
6. the friendly locals and my students
7. watching 4 hours of continuous fireworks set off by the locals on yuan xiao (last day of lunar new year)

Wednesday, February 08, 2006

Drink Like a Fish

I don't think I have ever drunk so much liquor in my entire life before till now..... The Shandongnese are really hospitable people..... The first night that I arrived, I was invited for dinner with a group of big shots. Most of them are professors in the university, if not then director of the HR department or the ambassador or some important person in the ministry of education. Coincidentally, the 'biggest shot' in this group has the same family name as me and he called me his 'mei mei'. It's good having him as a big brother because he said he would make sure everyone would give me good treatment during my stay here in China! He says Sun ge ge will take care of his mei mei!!! And throughout the whole dinner, we were like 'gan bei' all the time..... The dinner was more like a drinking session than a meal, but it was sure an experience!

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Freaking Cold!

I'm now in Jinan, Shandong. My mother is here with me. I'm here to work and she's here for a holiday and to leech on my free accommodation..... The current temperature is -10 degrees Celcius. We took a walk outside just now as it was snowing! It's beautiful! But very cold too! We were outside only for a while and had to turn back to the hotel after a short walk..... It's the first time I've seen snow falling from the sky..... I'm very suaku I know..... I don't know what's wrong with the heater in the hotel but I'm feeling cold right now! Periodically, I have to warm my hands with the hair dryer! Brrr.....

Thursday, February 02, 2006

Fondue & DS

Had a mini gathering at my place with my college band friends on 'chu san' afternoon. It was good as we could all sit around the chocolate fondue fountain and just eat and chat. Plus we had ALL the chocolate to ourselves! Yummy! I hope you guys didn't get a tummy ache from the Vietnamese spring rolls and fish sauce that I prepared! Or perhaps we were all too caught up with playing the DS that we didn't suspect anything wrong! Heh!


Thank you to Ben, Calvin, Patrick and Boon for staying late and helping me with my laptop! But Ben was the one doing most of the work, while the rest of us were waiting in line for our turn on the DS! Hehe..... Since Ben was the one working the hardest, he will get the biggest photo for this post!

Here are Calvin and Boon lazing on the bed and Calvin is caught with the pink DS in his hands! Something that he is not very proud of! But it so matches his blue t-shirt! And I am waiting eagerly to get my hands on the DS after Patrick's turn!