Through My Eyes

Things I will miss

2007-07-06T06:01:00.000+08:00

Ten things I will miss:

Watching 相声 (Chinese crosstalk) in the morning before going to work. (so I bought 郭德刚 DVDs. Yay)
Chatting on MSN in Chinese.
Being "rich"~~
Ability to cross a 12-lane road junction without any traffic lights (but I will never attempt this again.)
Nice ice kacang!
The lunch in the office (although laden with MSG)
Playing online mahjong with the 3 of them. Hoho.
Sour milk/yoghurt!
Being told I'm pretty when I go shopping~ (I fondly remember this Etude sales assistant who had this dazzled look as though mesmerized by me when she was serving me.)
Cheap peaches

So yup. I'm leaving Tianjin in about 24 hours, reaching Singapore in about 42 hours. I can't wait!

A purely communicative post

2007-07-05T16:10:00.000+08:00

SDX, regarding your recent comment on MacDonalds: I would be more that willing to treat Evie and XFX to MacDonalds, if only I had Singapore dollars with me. Do they take credit card there? And regarding Duty-free, I was wondering if my Boss will slaughter me if I go dilly-dally in there instead of coming out quickly... and wouldn't I miss my luggage if I go shopping in there?
And regarding presents, obviously I bought all of you something. I'm not THAT forgetful nor heartless, you know. (Ho ho ho) Evie and XFX are getting something cute, unlike Rain who's getting something ... funny and authentically Chinese. So they are quite lucky. And your present is something mildly classy (if you disregard its origins). (How cryptic of me.)

60 hours

2007-07-05T10:06:00.000+08:00

In about 60 + 2 hours, I'd be back in Singapore! Yay!
(But before that, I have a lot of work to clear. Dammit)

I haven't started packing; I'm in this state of Zen-like denial when it comes to attempting to squeeze everything into my luggage.

And oh yes, I just received a 2/5 month bonus yesterday - nothing much, 500RMB (~SGD100, and yes, I only get RMB1200 a month). I refuse to see it as a reward for hard work because I don't have a price on the things I produce, and if I do, they are horribly and obscenely unaffordable. So, it's not a reward for hard work. It's more like extra pocket money for us out of his goodwill.

The Shanghai Team

2007-07-03T06:47:00.000+08:00

About the other team of interns in Shanghai. I didn't really want to talk about them, but this time round it's gone too far. See, one of the interns, Alvin, blogs. So I read his blog on a regular basis, reading about their tours and exploits.

This morning while I was checking my feeds, I found this article. Horrible, no? At first I thought it was some stance or a joke, and I imagined the kind of trouble one can get into making up such lies. Then I realized it is probably too much trouble that it just cannot be false.

And then I considered what I would have done if I were in that girl's (roommate, not defendant) position. Fortunately for me, I don't stay in a twin-sharing hostel so I really don't know what happens in places like that. It is now still unsure (to me) whether that girl actually did talk to the defendants about it.

Whatever it is, this is horrible. (And amongst that horror, why do I feel this sense of relief I'm not over at the Shanghai side, and that I have my own big room here? :P)

----------------

In other news, Auntie007: obviously I'm happy with extra shopping money! : D
And oh yes, I heard we have dumplings back home? Which means we can eat on Sunday? : D

Surprise

2007-07-02T09:13:00.000+08:00

I refer to the previous comments by Auntie007:

Lovely will be receiving a "great surprise" when she comes home. She is one
lucky girl. Keep her in suspense until she is back.

What surprise is that?! Someone tell me quick! I'm not the sort who can appreciate surprises in this manner - whereby I'm being told that there will be a surprise but intentionally kept in suspense. Surprises don't work like that in my view. Now I'm dying to know what it is~~~
If it's THAT surprise that involves more shopping money for me, I already know about it. Uh-huh. If it's something else ... drop me a hint, please? A teeny-weeny one will do also. Now I can't wait to go back!

Fans

2007-07-01T16:14:00.000+08:00

I went souvenir-buying today and I bought quite a number of fans, which are so pretty I can't bear to part with them. (And from this, now I know I should buy ugly and impractical souvenir items for people so I wouldn't feel the urge to horde them).

I bought 7 silk fans (one is not in the picture) for ... RMB200 (SGD~40). Unlike paper fans that probably last 5 hours (after which they crumble/get wet/break/tear), these silk fans can last me a long long time. The one that is not in the picture is a cheaper one that I intend to use on a daily basis; these are for special days when I want to feel special :D They are so pretty and dainty, aren't they? I really cannot bear to part with them. I want them all!

And besides, it's not nice to give people fans as gifts, right? Like 扇子 (shanzi) sounds like 散子 (sanzi) . So, I shall keep them all (except one of it, which I really want to give to a friend of mine.) And then I can coordinate my fan with my outfit. Fans are so useful during summer~

And so, I am still short of souvenirs. Forget it. Nobody's getting anything. I'm a regular conventional me-myself-and-I self-centred Singaporean youth. :D

Change in Flight Plans (again)

2007-07-01T07:25:00.000+08:00

Dear all,
there has been a change in my flight plans again. I'm coming back on the 7th instead of the 8th, landing in Singapore at 11.45pm (still). I will send out a mass email soon.

So I'll be back on Saturday! Yay!

I'm Confused

2007-06-29T13:10:00.000+08:00

I'm confused as to when we're having N parties.

Auntie James Bond: Saturday Buffet at Equinox sounds good. Saturday is 14th July, able to book?

So what's happening 13th and 15th July? Original plan was to go for dinner on 13th July, and come over to UBK for bazhang and ...Pizza Hut on the 15th. But if we are going for lunch on 14th July ... ?

I'm confused. BAH. Can the decisive one(s) take over from here?

Gym

2007-06-29T07:23:00.000+08:00

Yesterday I went to Tiffany's gym with her after work. It is ... small. And stuffy. And we went for spinning class (my first spinning class ever!) and I felt this horrible disadvantage I have - everyone there has a foundation in riding commonday bikes unlike me. So I'm sure they have muscles in places I didn't even know exist.
While it was tiring, it was fun. At least the music was English!

And the most horrible thing is their changing room. It was a common shower for females. I was quite traumatized, really.

And after gym we went for ice kacang (Chinese version) and let me tell you, I'm never ever eating ice kacang in Singapore ever again. These Chinese ones are so much better. No lousy syrup or milk; it was sour plum and sour plum sauce that makes it oh-so-delicious. And you have the red bean, jelly, etc. Really, don't offer me Singapore ice kacang again. It is rubbish.

This picture hardly does justice to that oh-so-heavenly ice kacang (刨冰). I took it with my cellphone camera, which really doesn't produce very nice pictures. See they even give a straw to drink the melted ice! (Since the temperature can go up to 40 degrees in midday, ice will melt really fast).

And my Yahoo mail is working again. Apparently it is a long story as to what happened (no, I'm not just complaining without proof). See, Yahoo was in cahoots with the Chinese government to provide proof to convict a dissident, and also Yahoo is censoring the Internet for China IPs. (Just go Google Yahoo-ban-China). So yesterday was what I assume a trial run; the Chinese Yahoo! was working fine; but there was a blockade between Chinese IPs and the regular Yahoo! (US) servers. So in time to come, I think a ban is imminent.

Anyway, 13th July. I veto the following:
1) CHINESE food (I've eaten so much I can probably cook for you)
2) Japanese buffet (Because I still DON'T eat sashimi)

I want somewhere with prawns~ lots of prawns. :P

Homecoming Party

2007-06-27T09:49:00.000+08:00

I assume my family wants to hold a homecoming party for me :D
I suggest we hold it on 15th July 2007 (Sunday) at UBK because:

Free parking
Weekend = no Japanese class for someone, no swimming classes for the children
Should request for UBK bazhang be approved, we can spend Saturday cutting shallots and wrapping (someone go request for bazhang ok)

Timing is free and easy. Those who want to order ... foodstuff from Pizza Hut can do so on their own. Yup.

Farewell Dinner

2007-06-27T07:27:00.000+08:00

Yesterday the girls treated us to a farewell dinner, because they are leaving for Shanxi on a business trip this coming Friday (and bringing DY with them I think). We went to this roasted lamb place called 羊上树 (literally, lamb on the tree).
We ordered a lot of food - fish, lamb (duh!), squid ... among others.

The famous leg of a lamb. The spices that came with it was really nice.

The squid~ served on a hot plate. It was really big!

回眸一笑值千金~(can't translate this without sounding weird, but heck - the smile bestowed with a backward glance is worth a thousand golds) DY and his insane blush/flush from drinking beer.

Me with the girls. I kinda look pleasantly flushed in this photo too. (Beer in China tastes soooo much better than stuff like Heineken). And it's probably the cheapest/one of the cheaper beverage on the restaurant menu.

Since DY might be leaving for Shanxi this Friday, we took a parting shot outside the office:

Ken is NOT usually dressed like that - he said only because yesterday was a farewell dinner. For me, I routinely put on that garb. -shrugs-

Me in my cubicle (actually belongs to another engineer who's away to some site for months) looking annoyed because yesterday I had to translate some really strange things (like company motto and belief).

Anyway, soon soon! 11 more days!

Good News

2007-06-26T10:20:00.000+08:00

Good news everyone, I'm coming home earlier than expected.

Since our Visa is expiring on the 10th of July, the company has decided to let us off earlier, so I'm coming home on the 8th of July (Sunday) instead of the 15th!

But with every good news there is a piece of bad news - I am taking the 3+ pm flight from Beijing on Sunday (transit at Hong Kong) and I will reach Singapore only at 12 midnight, which means no excursion for kids and working adults. I'm perfectly fine with taking a cab home myself (if I had brought Sing dollars. Ol' silly me.) But mummy told me on the phone just now that she can come and pick me up :D Yay. (If not I can always find a cab that takes Nets, or find an ATM machine at the airport.)

So I'm so looking forward to the 8th already! It's only next next Sunday!

(And yes, that also means intensive souvenir shopping this weekend :P)

Nail Art

2007-06-24T19:24:00.000+08:00

Today I went shopping again, and I went to get a ... nail art done! (I wouldn't exactly call it manicure though)

If you're wondering why it's only partially painted, let me tell you, it's on purpose and it's part of the design. And this photo doesn't do justice to my nails now. The ... nail art consists of basic shaping and buffing, no cuticle job (seriously I would rather they not do it). Costs me RMB50 (~SGD10). It's quite cheap in my opinion, because this has crystals. Someone tell me this is considered cheap? Oh yes, I didn't get it done by the roadside if you're wondering. It was in a shop with decent drying fans. Yet I'm not too impressed by their skills; I can easily emulate this. (Maybe even on myself!)

And to Auntie007, it is obviously too heavy for me to bring mahjong back. I would rather use that weight to bring shoes or clothes or even food. Hahaha.

A Day of Celebration

2007-06-24T00:05:00.001+08:00

So today we went to KTV (again) to give Tiffany a surprise birthday celebration! (Her birthday was yesterday).

A picture with the birthday girl.

So Vivian bought the cake, and the candle. I must say something about this candle. I have never seen anything like this before in Singapore. I've heard about singing candles, yes, but a candle that opens up like a lotus? See:

When it is first lit.

When it opens up and starts to sing (well, the Happy Birthday tune)

Interesting, right?

Another picture with the birthday girl.

Then we came back to our place and played mahjong. I learnt this strange way of playing with a "poker" tile. Like a tile that can be anything- as long as you hold that tile, you can only win by 自摸. It's a whole set of complicated rules, but it was quite fun and much more challenging.

And we had Korean BBQ for dinner!
We went to this part of Tianjin where a lot of Koreans live, so essentially everything is Korean there; all the shop signs were in Korean (or at least had Korean words), and there were no less than 8 Korean BBQ shops.

What a load of food; they provide free kimchee, and lots of small side dishes (salads, etc)

Fatty beef!

Squid!

Pork chop on the BBQ; the BBQ is heated by charcoal.

Pretty fried potato cakes (I don't think I'd call them hash browns though).

The 3 of us. Again. Haha. See, metal chopsticks (I don't think they are real silver though).

So we ate a lot of food, and we even ordered 2 rice dishes, 1 辣炒年糕 (spicy rice flour cake), and we were so stuffed full of food. It cost 6 of us RMB255, which works out to be RMB43 per person, which is approximately SGD8. According to DY, he ate once at a Korean BBQ place near Haw Par Villa in Singapore, it cost SGD110 for 3 people.

Bored

2007-06-22T07:32:00.000+08:00

So nothing much is really happening nowadays, each day we go to work, try to get something done, try to past time, and then we come home, have dinner, and the 4 of us will start playing 明星三缺一 (mahjong game) on LAN.
It's pretty fun! But I haven't won a lot; DY once did a 大三元that was ... 20台. Haha.
And this Saturday we're going to ask the girls over to play; I heard they are bring real mahjong tiles. Will post pictures.

Translation Joke

2007-06-21T09:11:00.000+08:00

Yesterday DY told us a joke on translation.

X: "Are you kidding?"
Y: "No, I'm serious."

was translated to ...

X: " 你是凯定吗？"
Y: "不，我是施莱斯。"

(Sorry if you don't understand Chinese, but this is just too funny).

端午节 (Dumpling Festival)

2007-06-19T20:19:00.000+08:00

Today is the 5th day of the 5th month of the lunar calendar, known as the Dumpling Festival (also known as the Dragonboat's Festival around the world). This day commemorates the death of the poet, 屈原(Quyuan) who drowned himself in the river because ... I don't really care anymore since this festival, like any other festivals we celebrate in Singapore, revolves around food (see the Mooncake Festival, which really should be Mid-Autumn's Festival).

So I bought a few dumplings from Carrefour yesterday. One strange thing about dumplings in the northern parts of China is that, they are all sweet. I was telling ZZ (who comes from Shenyang, even more north than Tianjin) that I prefer salty bazhang and he went "粽子有咸的吗?" (There are salty dumplings?) So apparently the difference in filling is essentially a geographical difference.

So I picked a few dumplings at Carrefour; they were selling them by weight. Each one is a bit smaller than the regular dumplings in you get in Singapore, and I bought 5 at RMB6.40 (~SGD1.30). I randomly chose a few flavours, and I really only remember picking a chocolate one.

Here is a picture of the dumplings reheated.

Here is a picture of the black glutinous rice dumpling and red bean paste dumpling (red bean paste inside lah.)

Here is a picture of the chocolate dumpling (extreme left) and 2 other random flavours that look identical to me (I suspect they are dates).

And after work today we went to a supermarket near our place and we saw frozen 汤圆(rice dumplings? glutinous rice balls?) and I said, "hey, might as well celebrate 冬至 (winter solstice) together!" And so Ken got the 汤圆 and cooked it.

It was peanut and white sesame filling; really unique. He also made the soup base with ginger and sugar. A bit too sweet, and really, I'm not a big fan of desserts with ginger.

My verdict? Sweet dumplings are disgusting. The rice was tasteless; ZZ said we have to eat it with sugar. Then what's the point? For a person who has eaten nice salty bazhang (I miss my mummy's nonya dumpling~~) from the South, this is rubbish. I will never ever eat them again. So I ended up finishing 3/4 the chocolate one, and only half the black glutinous rice one, and a bit of the red bean one. And 3 汤圆s. Let's hope I don't get indigestion (and oh yes, I also had a cup of green tea, and an apple.)

KTV Trip

2007-06-16T21:38:00.000+08:00

So I went to sing KTV with the office girls today.
The one we went to is called MiloStar, apparently it's this big chain of KTVs from Taiwan. So the facilities and selection of songs are great, much better than Kbox.

The place. Looks posh and nice, ain't it?

Our room. The graffiti on the wall are quite funny, really. You see the machine by the right of the picture? That's the station where you go and select your songs. Really good system they have, with a full A-Z keyboard for typing Hanyu Pinyin, and all the buttons you find on the lousy Kbox remote control is on the machine.

The mini-stage! The screen is fully workable; you can even choose to adjust the volume, the pitch or even eject the song with the screen.

This is Vivian, one of the persons I work with (but not a lot).

Picture of LL. I don't work with her, but she's a really nice lady.

Picture of me and Tiff, my supervisor and the person I work with the most. She's graduate from Nankai University in English Studies (apparently includes English Linguistics and Literature). And she took 3 semesters of French too! So we have lots of fun together, chatting on MSN at work (well, half the time we talk about work-related things). She's only 3 years older than me! (Ah, and I look so fake in the picture; I bet KL's going to say I look like a RY again. Haha.)

Anyway, KTV was really cheap! The package was buy 2 hours get 1 hour free, so we got 3 hours for only RMB 80 (~SGD16) for all 8 of us. Well, you have to bring you own drinks (they have a minimart in there that sells quite a lot of things, from Lays chips to cup noodles to VSOP).

And the place is really good in the sense they give you a disposable microphone cover. So you don't have to endure people's saliva like at lousy Kbox. And they have the best toilet I've seen so far in China (including that at Isetan).

I so want to go back there! (And oh yes, I don't know if it's just me today, or the system there is so good I did a perfect rendition of FIR's 天天夜夜. And Ken can sing so well it's a pity he's not in 绝对Superstar. And DY can do those Lee Hom and Jay Chou raps so well.)

Intellectual Toy

2007-06-14T09:10:00.001+08:00

When I was in Beijing I bought this toy for my Mummy.

Initially I didn't want to open it, but my friends advised otherwise. They said I need to learn how to solve it so that when I go back I can solve it for my Mummy.
So I opened it:

The idea is to form a big 3x3x3 cube out of that string of smaller cubes.
I took so long to fix it, and still couldn't do it after half an hour until my friends taught me how to solve it. Now I'm an expert. Yay. So I can solve it for my Mummy when I go back to Singapore.

Beijing Day 2

2007-06-12T09:06:00.000+08:00

On Sunday, we woke up at 5.30am and went to the Great Wall of China at 6.30am. We booked a tour package to Badaling Great Wall and the Ming Tombs from the Chinese Tourism Board (i.e. licensed). It consisted of transport, entrance fees and lunch. It costs RMB160 per person(~SGD30) which I feel is quite cheap.

We reached the Great Wall at about 8.15 am, and we were given 2 hours to go climb. The highest peak of the Badaling Great Wall is said to be almost 1000m above sea level, so it would take 3-5 days to scale it.

See how crowded it is over the other side of the Badaling. We scaled the steeper side with less people.

And it was so steep at certain places I was so afraid. See, I have a fear of heights, so when I turned around to look behind me, I had the fright of my life because it was really really scary.

A picture to exhibit how steep some of the steps are.

Alas, 不上长城非好汉 (Heroes are heroes only after they have climbed the Great Wall), I kinda made it. There was a part I totally gave up cos I was too scared, but still, I was on the Great Wall.

And I would rather go up the steep side with less people than having to go up the less steep side that was crowded like a Mardi Gras parade.

Then we went to the Ming Tombs which I felt was a total waste of money and time. Don't ever go there if you have the choice.

The underground tomb.

There was nothing much; all the valuable items were shipped off to the Forbidden City (which we went on Saturday). So there was practically nothing to see and do (besides trying to throw RMB 10 cent coins into the replica coffins)

A picture of me saying "Bye and I will never come back here".

Then we had lunch and went back to Beijing city centre with the tour group. After that, we took a bus to 天坛 (Temple of Heaven).

This place is called the 九重天 (Nine Heavens), where there is a stone in the centre called the 天心石 (Heavenly Centre Stone) which symbolizes the centre of Heaven. It is surrounded by 9 layers of concentric stones, there are 9 stones in the 1st layer, and 81 stones in the 9th layer.

This is the 祈年殿 (Hall of Prayer for Good Harvests), the biggest hall, as well as the symbol of 天坛 (the ones you always get on postcards and posters).

Another view.

After that, we actually had time to go to 西单 (Xidan), a shopping district somewhat like 王府井 (Wangfujing). There's a very big 77th Street there! In fact, there was this underground shopping mall called the 77th Street Shopping Mall!
Then we took the 8.45pm train back to Tianjin, and reached our apartment at about 10.30pm.

The entire weekend was tiring but fun.
Next time, we'll go to the Summer Palace. :D

Beijing Day 1

2007-06-11T09:58:00.001+08:00

We took a train to Beijing from Tianjin Railway Station. The 1st class (I think) one-way ticket cost us RMB 42 (~SGD 8.40) each.

A picture of the exterior of our train. This train is one of the newest and fastest. It took us about 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach Beijing Railway Station.

Inside the train! See, the seats are so nice, and the leg room is even larger than your regular economy class airplanes.

Our first stop after reaching Beijing was to take the metro to our hostel (yes, a youth hostel under Hostelling International, a reputable international resource for budget travelling for youth). Our hostel is near the metro, and near Tiananmen.

A picture of me at Tiananmen.

After lingering at Tiananmen (and taking plenty of pictures), we went to 故宫 (Forbidden City). The entrance ticket costs RMB60, and we paid RMB10 more for a Chinese automatic guide (a system that will commentate according to the spots you enter). The ones that have multiple languages (English, French, Japanese etc) will cost RMB40 rental.

The 乾清宫(Qianqing Palace) that we always see on 环朱格格(Huanzhugege, a TV serial).

Picture of me on some random steps.

Picture of Ken and me at 御花园 (Imperial Garden). The Imperial Garden was less than impressive; it was so small. But I reckon with a place like the Summer Palace, you wouldn't need anything else.

A picture of all 4 of us at the 九龙壁 (Nine-Dragon Wall). Yes, it has Nine Dragons. Somehow the one near Wisma Atria looks nicer than this. If not for the fact this is the authentic one that has seen the ages. See ZZ and his big prosumer Panasonic Lumix camera. He took about 490 pictures of the scenery and exhibits in the 2 days we were in Beijing. I took about 370 pictures of us and scenery.

A picture of me ... under a tree. Just for the fun of it.

A picture of me at the Glass Palace. This palace was unfinished. If it had been finished, it was supposed to be built of glass, and there will be fishes swimming in the moat beneath as well as between the double-layer glass walls. It would have been an impressive site.

A picture of me being frightened by the headless princess and empress.

A picture of me with Aunty Suzy (Cixi, or otherwise spelt as Tzu Hsi by some historians).

After touring the Forbidden City (walking and taking pictures for 6 hours), we went to 王府井小吃街 (Wangfujing Food/Snack Street) for dinner.

And I had 冰糖葫芦(sugar-glazed fruits). But I had the 冰糖提子 (sugar-glazed grapes) and let me tell you, they were fantastic! I'm beginning to miss it. It's sweet and crunchy on the outside (the sugar hardened) and sour on the inside and it's just so nice!

And in the food street there were many BBQ stores, where you can get meat on a stick, as well as exotic things like silkworm cocoons (RMB5 a stick), starfish, seahorse, scorpion... but I didn't try any of it. Maybe, and just maybe, if we ever go to Beijing again, I MIGHT give it a try.

And then there's this:

Well. Some souvenir from Forbidden City. I bought 1 for myself, the rest are borrowed for photography purposes from Ken. Now this picture looks like I'm trying to dig my nose with the nail guard. Oh well. Oh yes, each of this cost RMB10 (~SGD2).

Back!

2007-06-11T00:33:00.000+08:00

I'm back from Beijing!
I will blog more about the trip, but to give an overview, we went to Tiananmen and Forbidden City on Saturday (9/6) and today (10/6) we went to Badaling Great Wall, the Ming Tombs (十三陵) and Temple of Heaven (天坛).
Between ZZ and I, we took about 800 photographs. About half are sceneries and exhibits, and the other half are pictures of us.
So stay tuned for lots and lots of pictures.

PS: And I hate China because I can't see my own Flickr pictures! (Apparently I heard it's banned as well). Seriously, the Iron Fist is so last millennium. Anyway, meanwhile you can look at a few pictures on my Flickr (tip of the iceberg, really). And when I get home we can sit and look through the 800+ (will hit 1200 by the end of 2 months, I'm sure) pictures on the TV :D (Momoko, since you're so chummy with my family you are to attend this sharing session too so that I don't have to explain the pictures 45987235 times with 568345 of my friends.)

Killer Litter

2007-06-08T18:27:00.000+08:00

So we were leaving work just now, walking from the office to the main road to catch a cab when I heard a rustle of the leaves of the trees, then a thud, and then DY letting out a small scream. I turned 90 degrees to my left and saw a black pile of something on the floor. My first thought was "oh someone threw a shoe!"

Well, apparently not. On closer inspection, it was a fallen bird. A fallen pigeon, to be exact. We assume it's been electrocuted by the high-voltage wires that were running on top. Then we considered the prospect of this bird actually hitting one of us. Definitely not a pretty sight. It missed DY by a bit! If DY had been a bit walk 2 steps slower, it would most probably have hit him. Eek.

Ok, strange incident aside, just an announcement; I'll be going to Beijing from 9th - 10th June (Saturday and Sunday). So be prepared for lots of entries on ... let's just say the next week. Will be going to Forbidden City, Tiananmen, the Great Wall, the Ming Tombs.

What I Do

2007-06-08T07:56:00.001+08:00

Some of you are wondering what exactly I do on this internship (besides sitting around chewing gum like my life depends on it, that is).

Well, in a nutshell, I translate stuff. From English to Chinese, from Chinese to English, from laborious legalese to understandable normal human speech, from Ah-neh's I-need-to-pay-money-to-use-commas-and-periods-so-I-shall-just-omit-them-and-write-really-long-sentences English to appropriately punctuated Chinese... and so on.

I deal with words like 泵 (quick quick, pronounce that :D), 氨氮, 氰化铝，污水处理 ... and things like aeration tank, microbes, membrane, profit and revenue ...

So that's that. So I sit in the office all day from 9 am to 5.30 pm (lunch from 12.30pm to 1.30pm) twisting and mincing words from 2 languages (and trying not to imagine stuffing a copy of Eats, Shoots and Leaves in the original author's face).

Oh yes, and for some strange reasons, I can't see my own blog. I can post, but I can't comment. So. I'll disappear from the comments scene for a while (although I can still read them via my email.)

Dean's List

2007-06-06T16:45:00.000+08:00

Em, another unrelated post but apparently I'm on the Dean's List for this semester. (And FYI, Dean's List is awarded to the Top 5% of each cohort based on the current semester's performance.) And this is my first Dean's List.

Well, you can go read it yourselves here.

(Any rewards anyone? :P)

My Bling Bling Bring Bring

2007-06-05T08:16:00.000+08:00

Remember I bought tons of handphone crystals? So I stuck some on my phone and it looks absolutely bling bling now. So pretty, no? So that's why I bought 10 sheets. I think I will go back for more. Who wants?

The Sun in China

2007-06-04T16:00:00.000+08:00

You know, I have problems differentiating the sun and the moon in China.

Apparently, that little ball of light in the middle of sky is the sun. At 6.30pm. I mean, if the sun is that high up, shouldn't it be brighter?
So I was telling Ken, hey, China sun runs on China battery, so that's why it looks like it has no power. Hahaha.

My Shopping Exploit

2007-06-03T18:56:00.000+08:00

Today I went shopping because I was feeling really bored and I really felt like spending money. (Hey don't you comment on that).
And ... I spent almost 800 RMB (SGD 160), including taxi fares and food. (And don't you comment on this either).

Here are the things I got:

Just a helicopter view of the things. Way too tedious for me to give them individual spotlight.

From Isetan supermarket: Pocky-like thing (RMB2.90), Meiji Black dark chocolate (RMB10.40). Not in picture: Kimchee, yoghurt, unagi. I realized the key to not feeling poor at Isetan supermarket is to shop in Singapore dollars. Like, convert everything to SGD and it all seems reasonable again.

From handphone trinket shop : a bunch of trinkets and toys as souvenirs for people. I spent about RMB100+ here. To the extent I got a membership card. -shrugs-

From ANOTHER handphone trinket shop: sheets of crystals to stick on your phones and nails and wherever else. Those were going at 2 sheets for RMB5. I bought ... 10 sheets. (Should have gotten more! So cheap!)

From Maigo departmental store: The Etude (Korean brand) cosmetic item (I realised there's no point talking about what it is here, since no one will understand my need for it.)

From a shop above Maigo (where I'm definitely going back again before I leave Tianjin): A Nike shirt (RMB55 ~SGD11) and an Adidas shorts (that I'm eventually going to pass to Wolfgirl RMB65~ SGD13). Don't ask me about authenticity because I really have no idea. They look decent enough to me, so that's that. And they stock like other brands as well, like Le Coq, A&F, Puma... So I am definitely making another trip back there.

From Kama Collection (where I got the red blouse and flower blouse): I love the flower blouse so much I went back and got another one in another colour (RMB 95~ SGD19) And I got a green t-shirt (RMB55 ~SGD11), a green top (RMB75 ~ SGD15), 2 camisoles (RMB35 ~SGD 7 each)

And yesterday I kinda spent RMB220 (~SGD44) at Aupres Shiseido buying random things. (Don't ask).

So... in 2 days I spent RMB1000 (~SGD200). Don't comment. Dang I think I'll switch off comments for this post. I DON'T want to know what people think of my spendthrift lifestyle. Urgh.

Ok, spendthriftiness aside, I just discovered a hobby in China. Like, count the number of times people ask me if I'm local/Chinese/foreigner (whatever that connotates to them). Today, I think about 3 times? First was at the handphone trinket shop.

The salesgirl stared at me for a while and asked, "你是外国人吗？”（Are you a foreigner?) So I gave an affirmative answer, not knowing what "foreigner" connotates. Then she went "你是哪里来的？”(Where do you come from?) So I said Singapore. Then she said, "你的眼睛很漂亮.”(Your eyes are very pretty.) What am I supposed to say at that? So I just smiled.

Then the next one came from the salesgirl in Kama Collection. "你不像本地人..." (You don't look local) (and I missed the other parts of her speech because it was quite noisy.) So I told her I'm from 外地 (outside China; which I assume is the correct term to use). So she asked "是香港来的吗？" (Are you from Hong Kong?) Arh, now I know I speak Mandarin with a Hongkonger accent. Thanks. So I told her no, and that I'm from Singapore. And she had this look of momentary awe on her face.

And the last encounter was the most interesting of them all. So I was in the taxi, and the taxi driver said "你不是本地人吧。" (You aren't local, are you?) So I said I was from Singapore (this is becoming my favourite phrase in China). Then he said "哦，新加坡是不是有名出美女？" (Oh, then is Singapore famous for producing pretty girls?" So I laughed. And he added "你长得很标准，很俊." (You look like The Standard, very handsome. (Direct translation). Or in other words, you look perfect, very pretty (ha, translator's right to mincing words.)). I just laughed again. How am I supposed to respond to that? Then he said "你的华语很道地。"（Your Mandarin is very authentic and local) Oh man. Uncle, where are you from? Timbuktu? How can my Chinese be anything near the rhoticity local Chinese? (Oh yes, I have a thought about rhotic accents in Mandarin, but this isn't the place for this.) So then we started discussing about Singapore and Tianjin, at how Singapore's population is less than half of entire Tianjin, and how dusty Tianjin is. Uh-huh.

So yes. My favourite hobby is now to count the number of times I stand out among the typical Chinese woman. Which, to my dismay, isn't really a lot.

A Bridging Saturday

2007-06-02T20:28:00.000+08:00

Today was a foggy/hazy day, so we went for a walk. We went to the bridges near 滨江道 (Binjiang Dao).

This is the 大沽桥（Dagu Bridge). It's so sad it's so foggy, because it is quite a nice structure. It's not exactly impressive, but really, to me, it is a mark of modern China.

A picture of Ken and me at the Dagu Bridge. See that shirt? It's another shirt I bought in China as well; for RMB95 too. (It's a little obscured here; better shots coming up.)

Near this bridge was the 世纪钟 (Millenium Clock).

Picture of me with the clock. The clock is really big, just that we were across the road from it. Yes, the shirt. It's got this grunge thing going on.

Then it was the 解放桥 (Liberation Bridge). It looks really old, doesn't it? It's a drawbridge by the way. You can see pictures of the mechanism if you go to my Flickr photos (where I post up pictures in full size, and other pictures I don't post up here).

A picture of me near the Liberation Bridge. The wind was really strong, so my hair was flying everywhere.

A picture of me, and a full view of the Dagu Bridge.

And... proof that I've been in China. See the flags?

And a really stupid thing we saw on the street:

It's not like there is no sign to tell the driver that the height limit is 3.5m, but no, he had to ram into the structure. Good job.

Edit: Oh yes, I forgot to add. We took a 公车 (public bus) back home! It costs RMB1.50 per person, regardless the distance. The bus was considerably advance; it has a TV as well! It was quite crowded, so we didn't sit (but it was definitely not as packed as NUS Internal Shuttle at rush hour). And there is reminder announcements as we near each stop, so it's quite good actually.

Duck Ah-ma (cont.)

2007-05-31T22:10:00.000+08:00

So the other day I was talking about the 鸭婆婆香辣干锅鸭头 (Grandma Duck Spicy Ducks' Heads) shop near our place. So today we went over and had dinner!

It's called spicy for a reason. Doused with copious amounts of chilli oil, this thing looked red. It's made up of solely ducks' heads, and there's 6 heads (i.e. 12 pieces after splitting the head down in the middle)for RMB28 (SGD5.60).

Closeup of a head. See the tongue? I actually ate stuff like that. Aren't you totally proud of me and all the food I've eaten over here?

And after you're done with the heads, they will add more ... soup base and turn it into a steamboat.

It looks way more spicy than it is. It's just chilli oil floating off the top. We ordered beef and mutton slices to go with it, mushrooms, chinese cabbage, tofu ...
It was fun, and since it was drizzling outside (temperature about 20 degrees celsius), so eating steamboat was a kind of experience.

The meal cost the 4 of us RMB90, so it's about SGD5 each.

Edit: I forgot to add, I didn't take these pictures. So if you see really closely at the 3rd picture, that's me in the background of the picture with the flower blouse. That I bought here in Tianjin for RMB95 (~SGD20).

Strawberry Milk Tea

2007-05-31T09:59:00.000+08:00

I saw this at this other supermart near our place (about 5 minute walk)

Just in case you can't see the words in the red circle, it says "草莓味" (strawberry-flavoured). So, strawberry flavoured milk tea. So I bought one home, and it's a packet of powder + a cup of jellies. I was supposed to add hot water and stir and then add ice.

Well, it tasted not too bad, for strawberry milk with jellies. I couldn't taste any tea at all. You know I like my milk tea, so I'm quite fussy. (I feel that the Lipton tea in China tastes really different from the ones in Singapore, and so does the Coffeemate.)

This cost RMB 3.20 (SGD0.65). What a total waste of money; I can find better use for RMB3.20, like buy myself some Walls Magnum icecream.

天津栗子 (Tianjin chestnuts)

2007-05-30T19:25:00.000+08:00

People say another famous food in Tianjin is the chestnut.
So that day Ken bought some from a store near our house. It's not the EXACT Tianjin Chestnuts, but since it's sold in Tianjin it should be something similar, right?

The packet. (Note: not my hand)

The inside (note: not my hands too. But that's my laptop in the background.)
It's also fried with coffee beans (I heard; wasn't there to witness it myself.)

Peeled. (Note: my hand.)

It tastes just like any regular chestnut, I don't see what's so special about it. Maybe because I'm not really a chestnut fan. Or maybe we should have gotten the EXACT ORIGINAL ~~tourist-scamming~~ Tianjin chestnuts. Yup.

Happy Birthday Rain!

2007-05-30T00:01:00.000+08:00

Ang-gu-gu so sad Ah-yee can't be there to celebrate your 1st birthday with you (and cannot eat your cake!) but see what Ah-yee bought for you:

Heh heh heh.

Pre-paid Power

2007-05-29T16:50:00.000+08:00

Look at these things:

Know what they are? They are what we need to keep this house powered and supplied with power and gas for the rest of our time here.
Apparently we need to pass this to our office staff so that they can go "top-up" a certain amount of power, power and gas. It's a pre-paid system here in Tianjin, unlike post-paid in Singapore. This morning we saw that our electrical supply was running low, like only 20Kw left (probably can last us one more day). So we brought this device (looks like a thumbdrive no?) to the office so that the staff can go and "buy" electricity for us. And we're supposed to go home and stick it into the port to "download" (or is it upload?) the value into our system.

How strange.

A Cultured Saturday

2007-05-26T19:32:00.000+08:00

Today we went to 鼓楼 (Drum Building?) and 古文化街 (Ancient Cultural Street).

This is the entrance of 鼓楼。

The last I heard this is rebuilded, so the bricks are all new. This place is probably only good for picture-taking, but there wasn't anything much, unless you want buy tourist-y things like keychains, flutes, swords, jade ...

A picture of Ken and me at the ... I don't know what you call this, but it's a four-directional building with four gates pointing in the four compass points.

Then we went to 南市食品街 (South City Food Street)for lunch.

But the place was filled with shops selling 十八街麻花(18th Street Mahua) and 狗不理包子(Goubuli buns). We had lunch at this noodle shop, that tasted horrible. But never mind that.

After that we walked to 古文化街 (Ancient Cultural Street).

泥人张 (Zhang Clay Dolls). Well... I don't see what's so special about them... so...

A picture of me with the door mascot (heh) of 天后宫 (Tianhou Temple). What happened was, I saw the mascot and I shouted "Let's take a photo with that lion!" And Ken asked "Isn't that a 麒麟（qilin)?" Oh. Yeah. That animal with the dragon head and horse's body, covered with scales. I don't know what got into me to call it a lion anyway.

So today we had lots of fun looking at the "cultural" things of China; there was even a live opera singer at Ancient Cultural Street! And apart from these cultural stuff, what's interesting about Tianjin is the different colonial buildings it holds:

A Gothic building.

Something mildly Tudor-ish.

Something European as well.

And while we were walking along a river, I saw something appalling:

Someone swimming in the river. Just because today it was almost 38 degrees according to the Tianjin weather station? (Didn't feel like 38, more like 34. Maybe because it isn't half as humid as Singapore, so our sweat evaporates very quickly.)Oh, and I have sunburns on my shoulder. It's like 2 red patches there now. Fortunately I have SPF 50 PA+++ on my face. Shall apply it to my body next time.

And after my rough calculation based on the map, we walked about 7.6km today. Arh. My calculations muts be faulty then; we left the house at about 12 and came back at about 6, and deducting time for lunch and Metro ride... we walked/strolled for about 5 hours?

Anyway, just in case you need more pictures of me:

A self-taken shot near said river.

Exam Results

2007-05-26T09:22:00.000+08:00

Totally unrelated to being in China, but just thought I might share the news.

EL2102 Structure of Sounds and Words - B+
EL3216 Language and the Internet - A+
EL3201 Morphology and Syntax - A
GEK1542 Forensic Science - A-
GEK1511 Introduction to Computing - Satisfactory (Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis)

CAP: 4.13
(Well, still a 2nd Upper, but heck this is my first A+ ever.)

Me

2007-05-24T07:39:00.000+08:00

For those of you who miss me, here's a photo of me

looking semi-crossed due to 8392740123 previous attempts of trying to take a good ~~act-cute~~ picture but failed.

All In A Day's Work

2007-05-23T22:14:00.000+08:00

I conquered the two famous food product of Tianjin within 1 day.

We (Ken and I) got this box of 十八街麻花 (18th Street mahua - fried doughstick; Chinese pretzel) from the mart opposite our house to share. There's 5 of them in the box (and the box ain't small as you can see), and it costs RMB 19.90 (SGD 4).

Here's how it looks, and how big it is! Longer than my palm, which is about 15cm. It tastes... quite normal. Nothing fantastic. Just slightly different from the ones we get in Singapore. The ones in Singapore are more packed, whereas this is packed looser (so more crumbs as well). And this one isn't coated with sugar on the outside, it's got sesame and peanuts in it. But it's one of those things you only need to eat once in your life.

Then after work we had to go activate our China prepaid SIM card, so we might as well dropped by Carrefour and we went to the 狗不理 (Goubuli) shop opposite Carrefour!

It looks like a fast food restaurant. There's even a takeaway counter.

The origins of the 狗不理 (Goubuli), which I can't be bothered to read.

Food! So yes, this tiny 小笼包 lookalike is the revered 狗不理包子 (goubuli bao). We ordered the sets; it's 16 baos, 3 side dishes, a soup and a drink for RMB39.90 (if I didn't remember wrongly, somewhere around that figure). It is supposed to feed 2 people. So the 4 of us ordered 2 sets, 1 set is 肉包（meat bao) and 1 set is 三鲜包 ("3 fresh" baos - shrimps, meat and ... vegetable?) and we shared it all.

Here's closer look at the bao (submerged in dark vinegar - my favourite condiment). And our conclusion, "WHAT A WASTE OF MONEY!" Even the bao we had the other time at the rabbit meat place near our house was much better and a lot cheaper than this. Heck, even the big meat bun they sell for SGD 1.10 each from the coffeeshop near my house in Singapore tastes so much better. So this is another thing you only need to eat once in your life (to understand how cheated the rest of us felt).
This is such a disappointment. I always thought the 狗不理 was some big gigantic meat bun so big it's grotesque. Oh well.

So I've eaten the food I'm supposed to eat in Tianjin. Now I can go back to eating some regular food.

Cold!

2007-05-23T15:50:00.001+08:00

It's apparently 17 degrees celcius outdoors now in Tianjin, so indoors, without heater, is considerably cold as well.
I can't imagine having to leave the office later to brave the cold. Fortunately we all brought our jackets (I brought my windbreaker). And Ken says I look like a penguin when I pull my hood snug on my head. ~~I'll ask him for my picture later and let all of you see.~~

[Edit] Here is the penguin picture.

Well, double-chin aside, I do like my nose in this angle. I just need a yellow beak to look like a real penguin.

康师傅 (Master Shifu) Cup Noodles

2007-05-22T20:50:00.000+08:00

My Aunty James Bond recommended 康师傅 (Kang Shifu) cup noodles. So I went to the mart opposite my place to get this:

(I think my hand is so pretty under this light)

Anyway, I bought the 红烧牛肉面 (braised beef noodles?) flavour. It costs RMB2.50 (SGD0.50)

After adding hot water and putting it into the microwave for another minute or so.

It tastes all right, not exactly fantastic. Maybe I didn't get the correct flavour? Aunty James Bond can recall which one she had?

Rain

2007-05-22T20:14:00.000+08:00

So it rained today. The 2nd time ever since I came to Tianjin. The first time was last week, and we were nice and cosy indoors. Today, we were stranded at the office with only 3 umbrellas among the 4 of us (not too bad though).

So this is a picture I took while we were in the taxi:

See, it was so cold outside it misted INSIDE the taxi, something you'd never ever get in Singapore. So while there's mist, we decided to write some words on the window. Well, you can probably only see 猪 (pig), but we wrote 你大猪头 (you big pig head).

The rain in Tianjin is really ... cold. I read from Yahoo! Weather that the temperature today is about 18-20 degrees celsius. Think colder than Genting. I was so cold (didn't bring a jacket) my teeth were chattering. So yeah.

Duck Ah-ma

2007-05-21T18:35:00.000+08:00

A short one today.
I don't think I have posted this picture up, but this is a shop in my neighbourhood.

"鸭婆婆香辣干锅鸭头”（Grandma Duck Spicy Ducks' Head)
Well. I'm sure my mummy and sister will love this.
But I haven't eaten it before. Maybe some time in the future I might go and try. I think.

What I cooked

2007-05-20T20:58:00.000+08:00

Today I cooked dinner for everyone.

A vegetable (I have no idea what it is) with pork slices in light soy sauce.

Chicken with ginger shreds in sesame oil and light soy sauce.

A soup with potato, carrots, onions and pork pieces, soup base boiled from chicken bones.

This is barely passable I guess. Nothing fantastic, just that I felt like cooking. Well, at least I dissected and de-boned a whole chicken by myself!

And one thing about the rice in China; they are all short and round, like rice used in sushi. So it tastes really good for some reason.

Yoghurt

2007-05-20T07:29:00.000+08:00

I bought yoghurt from Carrefour yesterday, and like anything else in China (including soy sauce, chilli sauce), it's packed this way.

And I drank it just now for breakfast and it tastes ... like yoghurt. Just a bit less sweet ('cos this is sucrose free, but I think the rests are still less sweet than Singapore yoghurts). For a person who likes natural yoghurt, this is great. This 227g pack costs RMB 0.95 (SGD 20cents)

A Walking Saturday

2007-05-19T21:19:00.000+08:00

Today we went out! It was just Ken, ZZ and I, because DY went to meet a friend. So, we decided to go take the Metro (equivalent of the MRT). The nearest station was about 1+ kilometres from our place, so we walked there.

This is the Metro station (the glass structure). Looks really new and high-tech, since I think it was only opened earlier this year.

The system. Currently only the red line is functioning.

The ticket! It's a token where you tap on gate (like an Ezlink card) and return the token in the slot when you exit.

The train.

Me smiling funny in the train. Today was a hot day, so I'm in just a T-shirt.

So we took a train to 滨江道 (Binjiangdao) area (3 stations away), the equivalent of Orchard Road in Singapore. There is ....

Isetan (that is really expensive! Even more expensive in Singapore! Sells ONLY import goods subjected to exhorbitant tax)

Starbucks (that is the same price as Singapore, which is about RMB25-31)

Watsons and Hagen Dazs.

And then we passed by the main Catholic church in Tianjin.

This was definitely built during the colonial eras of Tianjin.

Don't the billboards remind you of Hongkong?

We had lunch at 美国加州牛肉面大王 (USA California Beef Noodle King). They even have a website: http://www.usacbnking.com. Apparently they have a lot of branches all around China.

Doesn't this just seem so delish? This costs RMB 8 (SGD1.6) But, there's nothing special about it; it looks way nicer than it tastes.

Then we went to the bazaar area.

This is the equivalent of Bugis Street, but the products are much more limited. Like, there are really only about 10 different types of stalls, but there are at least 150 stalls there. So there. But the things are really cheap, where you get jeans that go for about SGD10, and ripoff Converse sneakers that are RMB45 (SGD9).

And while we were on an overhead bridge, we saw this peddler trying to sell these poor animals:

They are adorable, but ... the living condition is really bad.
Well, then again, it's not like they are eaten. So that's that.

Then we passed by this place called China House, that is a house that is entirely made up of porcelain and china.

ZZ and me.

A closeup of just 3 of the many many vases on the outer wall. I think this is a private place, probably owned by the big boss of a china factory.

So we walked a lot today~ And our last stop to buy groceries:

Carrefour! This is the one near our place (well, not entirely near, maybe 20minutes walk), at 海光寺 (Haiguangsi) Metro Station. We bought lots of food because ZZ and I are cooking tomorrow. :D So prepared for pictures tomorrow!

Scenery

2007-05-18T23:06:00.000+08:00

As I said, we went for a company gathering today and we were driven to the restaurant by a colleague (the Engineering Manager I think). Along the way we passed by many interesting buildings, and I snapped the following pictures while we were caught in a BAD traffic jam.

A hospital built on what seems like a cliff. I think it's just a man-made wall feature. There is a river at the bottom of the "cliff".

The 天津电视塔 (Tianjin Television Tower). Apparently this used to be one of the highest building in the world, before they built the Taipei 101. And we already saw it when we were at Nankai University that day, but not as clearly as this.

A strange piece of artwork that seems oddly ... ~~proletariat~~. [Edit: A friend corrected me that proletariats are the poor working class in a normal hierarchical social structure. Well, I guess what I meant is that it really has this feel of "Rise of the Working Class" and "Power to the People" thing. And not forgetting that this statue is essential propounding the idea of having 1 child and giving him the best ~~and spoiling him~~.]

I will post more pictures when we go out on Saturday.

Dinner at 朱氏新丁香

2007-05-18T22:44:00.000+08:00

So Mr. Yap (Head of North Asia, 2nd Big Boss, from Singapore) came over to Tianjin today and decided to give the entire company a treat at this fabulous looking restaurant in the Hexi district of Tianjin City. Hexi district is about 6km away from where we live.

This is a picture of the restaurant, it has its own carpark and is surrounded by this rustic red brick wall. Looks posh right. Like one of those tycoon-entertaining-clients-restaurants we always see in Hongkong dramas.

Here's the interior of our ... room? (厢房。Whatever you call it in English)

I only took the picture of the empty table because I didn't think it was polite to go round snapping pictures of random unsuspecting colleagues.
And I didn't take pictures of the food because ... that would seem really strange to the other 6 people were shared a table with (all engineers at that).
Essentially there are the usual Chinese dinner fare, prawns (that are smaller than the ones Mummy uses in her fried rice), soup (some mushroom in chicken broth), steamed fish, duck+charsiew+ribs platter etc. No sharksfin or abalone though (what a spoilt brat I am). What was interesting was this dish made up of black and white fungus. It tastes exactly like 玻璃鸡脚 (boiled de-boned chicken feet mixed in sour and spicy dressing)! Instead of red chilli, they used green chilli (along with the vinegar) and it tasted really good.

What was funny about this dinner was that ... we had to bring our own drinks. Like, the other staff went to Carrefour and bought copious amounts of orange juice and beer and wine. The waitresses were all cool about it, and even helped us them decork the wine.

So yup. I've been eating well. Definitely getting fatter by the day.

Interesting Chinese Products

2007-05-17T20:47:00.000+08:00

So after dinner we went to the supermart across our apartment to stock up on water (the dispenser is here, but we haven't ordered the water), and I stocked up on diet Pepsi. And then I bought this 2 interesting items!

On the left is this chocolate milk packed in such ... environmentally-unfriendly packaging. Yes, it is single-serving, and doesn't really require refridgeration. It reminds me of washing detergent refill pack, you know? And then there's the Xylitol Chewing Gum. Apparently Xylitol is good for the teeth, as it reduces the acid yada yada. It tastes good. I'll put it in the office to chew. Oh by the way, milk costs RMB1.40, and Xylitol gum costs RMB8.90.

What's for Dinner?

2007-05-17T20:33:00.000+08:00

Today we walked a little further to hunt for dinner, and we ended up at this place, with a big 饺 (dumpling) written on it.

(Sorry if the picture isn't very clear). It looks quite an upmarket place, with its own building and all. So we went in and ordered some food. Here are some pictures:

This is the interior of the restaurant. Nice no?

白菜炒冬笋 (Cabbage stir fried with winter bamboo sprout and capsicum)
Oh man, these few days I've eaten all sorts of vegetables I don't eat in the past, like capsicum, wintermelon (there was wintermelon soup for lunch today), some variety of long bean ...

樱桃肉 (i.e. what we call 咕噜肉in Singapore; deep fried pork stir-fried in sweet-and-sour sauce, with capsicum and more capsicum.)

番茄蛋花汤 (Tomato soup with egg) This seems like quite a popular soup in China, since we had it once at 东北一家人(the Northern cuisine restaurant I went to on Sunday) as well. But this is a lot better than that one.

饺子！(Dumplings!) Oh my, don't they look a bit like what I made last time? I never knew I had it in me to be able to create authentic Chinese food. In China they sell dumplings by the pounds, so we had half a pound of dumplings (25 pieces).

In total food cost RMB64, working out to about SGD3.20 per person. Quite expensive given how much things cost in China. (Since fried rice from the shop across our house costs only RMB3.)

At this rate I'm stuffing myself here, I'll put on 2839469811kg when I get back. -cries-
But good news is we finally realized how to turn on the gas, so I can probably cook this weekend.

Where I Live

2007-05-16T19:44:00.000+08:00

Today let me talk about where I live.

This is where I live in Tianjin. My apartment is called 天江格调兰亭，the English name is ... Patten Roomage. When I first arrived at the venue I thought I saw paltern roomage,and I paniced. Like, does paltern have something to do with being paltry? Alas, it was my own bad eyesight.
This is the garden below my apartment:

Now, let's take a look inside my room.

This is my room. Sorry for the mess, but as you can see, I'm entirely comfortable in my room.

This is my toilet. There is no shower in my toilet, so I have to shower at the common toilet, which has hot water supply. As you can see, all my barang is strewn over the counter. Heh.

Ok, a picture of me sitting at the balcony/alcove area of my room. This window overlooks a garden, and this is where I hang my laundry (at the curtain rod on top).

I don't have pictures of the rest of house because they are too large to put up. But rest assured the rest of the house is as nice as my room (and probably even neater). There is a kitchen, a living room, a dining table, a common bathroom which the 4 of us share, Ken takes the study room (with a single bed and a study desk, and wall shelves), and CY and ZZ share a room. Yup.

Food

2007-05-15T20:32:00.000+08:00

So I promised pictures of rabbit flesh and all. Here they are!

Here is the jellied pig skin thing. It was delish, I tell you. I must ask Mummy to make some when I get back to Singapore.

And this is the rabbit meat. I seem to think this is half a rabbit, because there were some ribs and thighs. Like I said, this is something you only need to eat once and never eat again. Or maybe it's just me.

And this is my dinner today, it's a Xinjiang dish called 新疆拌面 from the lamien shop across our apartment. It was really nice! But the portion was humongous, I couldn't finish it all. I think it can feed two people. Anyway, it is made up of assorted vegetables (like cabbage, bakchoy,tomato ...and some unidentifiable vegetables) and some beef. And the sauce is sour from the tomato, so it's very appetizing! This cost me RMB8, which is quite expensive for this restaurant because fried rice only costs RMB3. Arh. Whatever.

And Ken just cut up a watermelon that weighs 5kg (that cost us RMB30) that can feed us for a few days. Well, that's that. All right, I'll blog more tomorrow. Ta!

Day 3

2007-05-15T12:10:00.000+08:00

Ok so I was too busy to blog yesterday because it was my first day of work! We were picked up by a colleague, and the drive took only 10minutes, but the way there is so complicated and traffic was so heavy.

And I was given a piece of impossible task (in my opinion). To translate from English to Chinese. I felt so helpless because I have lost so much touch with my Chinese...and Babelfish doesn't work at all for Chinese (gives you strange sentences - when I entered precipitation it gave me something to do with snow. Well, technically that's a possible sense but still. BAH)
And we had lunch at the office, because there is a kitchen in the office, and the cooks prepare everyone's lunch (unless you opt out). Lunch costs us RMB4 each a day, which translates to 80cents SGD. Like, how cheap is that.

And then we were ferried back to our apartments. We went up, put down our bags, and slacked a while before going out to hunt for dinner. And the weather was so cold yester-evening, I think it's about 21 degrees celsius? Definitely cold for a tropical me (Singapore's temperature hovers 31 all year round?).

So we took a walk to this shop near our place that sells "3-Fresh Baos" (三鲜包). We went in, and realized it's a shop that sells primarily plain porridge (稀饭) with dishes. So we ordered one Chinese pound (一斤）of abovementioned bao, this dish that's like jellied pig skin (猪皮冻) and ... rabbit meat. Yes. Rabbit meat. I had rabbit meat for the first time in my life. Now I know why people say "there's a first for everything" and not "there's a second for everything." Rabbit meat is something you just need to try once in your life and lay off it forever. I mean, it's not like it tastes horrible, just that it felt really weird to be eating rabbits. And the porridge was free-flow, and it's really nothing like I've seen in Singapore. DY says it's 小米粥，which really translates to "small-rice grain porridge". The rice grain was small and yellow, really quaint. The bao was nice! And let me tell you, I'm not kidding, but it really really resembles my jiaozi attempt the other time. (Go see my regular Wordpress blog for that one). There is meat, shrimp and some form of vegetables in the bao, which is collapsed like a dumpling, with thin skin rather than the white soft fluffy sort of regular baos in Singapore. Arh, now I have a name for my dumpling attempt. Heh.
(And I'm kinda still fuming that I didn't bring my camera out with me when we went for dinner. Will wait for Ken to pass me the pictures he took with his handphone's camera)

[I feel strange writing starting all my sentences with and and so. Like as though I'm a ... regular blogger. Pfft.]

Day 2

2007-05-14T07:37:00.000+08:00

Ok, so technically I've never introduced my flatmates. I don't think I should really reveal names here, so let's go by acronyms. There's ZZ and DY from Engineering, and Ken from Arts. So do keep in mind these acronyms for my later posts.
So today was our day off before we start work tomorrow, so in the morning we met our landlord (really nice lady; a Math teacher at a nearby secondary school) and she arranged for the broadband guy to come over and bridge the connection (and hence me emailing people now).
Then in the afternoon we met DY's friend who studies at Nankai University and we went for lunch and a tour of the university. Lunch was interesting. We ate at the place called 东北一家人 (really just means that the Northeasterners are Family, or something to that extent), which serves cuisine from North-Eastern parts of China, like Shenyang, which is ZZ's hometown. There was this really nice dish which I like; it was this kuayteow-like thing in peanut sauce. I forgot what's the name, but I think I'll attempt cooking it when I come home! And we had beef with sweet potato in stew served with corn cakes, chicken wings cooked with fragrant leaves (hey, it's called 香叶鸡翅), chicken coated in prawn sauce batter and deep-fried (虾酱鸡？), tomato and egg soup (don't ask me how, it tasted horrible. The tomato tasted really raw), and lastly this really interesting dish, which is corn kernels coated in batter and fried with dried chilli, so it was a little spicy and salty and sweet on the inside. A meal like this, including drinks cost RMB135, which is about SGD27 for 5 people.
And then we went to the university, which is really really big. It has 3/4 gates, located at the four compass points (North, South, East, West), and to walk from one gate to another... it took us more than 1 hour? And the university is this eclectic mix of old and new. Here are some pictures:

Me posing at one of the bridges across one of the rivers in the campus.

Us at the statue of ... whoisitagain? The founder? And apparently according to our guide (guy in yellow shirt), the building behind this statue was inspired by the Soviets. What is not shown in this picture is the top of the building, where there is a pole with a RED STAR on it. Arh.
And meanwhile walking around the school, we saw many different statues and figurines and somehow they look strangely ... proletariat to me rather than artistic. Oh well.
And then here's a funny sight I saw today:

Yes, that's the 天津市黄瓜研究所 (i.e. Tianjin City Cucumber Research Centre). Cucumber research. Like, to make them grow faster and bigger at half the cost?
And a picture of me, holding the duckie fan KL and all gave me. Like just in case I don't eventually get a picture with in on the Great Wall.

(Please do not mind shiny un-made-up face)

Day 1

2007-05-14T07:28:00.000+08:00

(Sorry if I didn't manage to post this up in time; the landlord is still trying to fix the broadband for us)
So I left Singapore at 1015am. Muchos gracias to KL, Cel and TS who came to send me off at the airport! And thanks for your wonderful cute gift. And since I'm mentioning names, thanks to this other 3 ancient friends of mine who came over on Friday night and treated me to pizza and cheap Vietnamese wine that reminds me of my JC chemistry lab days.
Anyway, so the lot of us (all the interns) were to fly to Hongkong for transit, and there we were thinking that we could probably shop around the Hongkong airport for a while before boarding, but no. Our plane touched down at 2.25pm, and we had to be at the boarding gate of the connecting flight at 2.35pm, and meanwhile moving from one gate to another, we had to make time for restroom break, doing some Amazing Race-ish jog through the amazingly big Hongkong airport, and playing 终极密码. I mean, who writes "Gate 1- 80" (which is incidentally ALL the gates), and slowly count down? So here's a shot of the short train we had to take between terminals: (see, countdown down to 33-80, what great improvement).

And here's a picture of me looking fugly and posing lamely at the Hong Kong airport, just outside my boarding gate. So, technically I was in Hongkong. For maybe 30 minutes.

So the flight from Hongkong to Beijing took about 3 hours as well, and then we were picked up by a company employer and sent to Tianjin (and thanks to traffic jams we took twice the normal amount of time).
And while travelling in a car along the Beijing highways, my only thought is, "omfg this place is so damn big." What an understatement. I mean, you can't possibly spend 2 hours on ANY Singapore highway without turning around or something. Anyway, the apartment. It's this pretty place, and it seems like what would be considered a condominium Singapore. There's the guards and intercom and whatnot. No swimming pool though. I think it's too cold to swim here. Yes, it's TOO COLD. When we arrived at our apartment it was about 9.30pm, and it was dark and cold outside. Cold as in something lower than 22 degrees celsius (methinks. Colder than my aircon). And it's much dryer compared to Singapore.
My room is nice! It has this alcove/balcony sort of thing that overlooks a garden (we're on the 2nd storey), and I have my own toilet. Just that, strangely, this toilet has no shower facility. So I have to shower in the common bathroom. Oh well.
So because I was so starved for sleep (only slept 3 hours on Friday) I slept like a hog last night, and woke up this morning at ... 5.30am. Because it was freaking daylight already at 5.30am. What the.

P/S: OMFG China bans Wordpress! It just doesn't load!