last day of 2008, shall have an entry today.

year 2008 was pretty good, starting off with jay chou's concert in january, it was a blast and indeed the best concert that i've come across. then came ntu taekwondo ivp and ltc'08 which turned out better than expected and it was really funnnn to be part of it! :D

and lastly, this year ended with something that i didn't expect at all. I got a chance to travel abroad to complete my studies for this semester, irregardless of my seriously not up to standard results, but i somehow got it. this was on one of my wishlist, so i'm still glad i made it, though it wasn't as good as expected. (because there's no BCM here!)

since a new year is coming, it's a MUST to have some new year resolutions, though they usually were left unfulfilled in the end cos i'll somehow forget about it. Anyway, i hope i can grow taller by a'lil and weigh a'lil lesser (okay, i had this one like almost every year, but i don't know why it just didn't come true, but this time i wasn't aiming for more, just a'lil will make me happy). and of course, an even more important thing, hope my results for the coming semesters will have some improvements, or else i'm gonna be so dead. see, my resolutions are so simple, so please let them come true alright!

and one last thing, happy new year to everyone! (:

santa claus is coming to town!(:

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY, PEARL

& MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ALL!! :DD

twenty-3

Exam dates are more or less confirmed, last paper will be on 13Jan. Called Silkair today morning to change my departure date to 16Jan, lucky there're still vacancies! :D

it's too late

hainanese chicken rice and sliced fish soup for lunch today, felt so contented now! HOLA! (;

Of the Fujian's Earth Buildings

Alright, I shall update a'lil before I go for my afternoon class.

Dad, Mum and Sis left Xiamen yesterday morning, sent them off at the airport. Just one more month to go, and I'll be on my way back to Singapore. But I guess this one month will be a torturous one, because I've 4 essays to hand in two weeks later, and also 3 exams to study for. Anyway, time really flies, four months are gonna be over just like that. Think I'll miss their cheap taxi fare when I'm home! :B

And one last thing, I MISS ALL MY FRIENDS! Can't wait to see them next year! :D
Love y'all!

Dad, Mum and Sis reaching Xiamen at 12noon today.
Going airport to fetch them laterrrrr! :D:D
YIPEEEEEEE!

mountain climbing for the first time in my life yesterday morning, woke up at 6.30am specially for that. it was a class outing and their purpose of suggesting mountain climbing is to avoid paying the entrance ticket to the botanic garden because there's a route that can lead us there from our school. the process is really tedious to the extent that it can make me sweat during winter, and the route was steep and scary that you will feel you're falling downhill anytime. i should say, it's a very special experience to climb a mountain in China, and i will definitely remember it for life.

HAPPY 21ST BIRTHDAY, JASMINE!
may all dreams come true, i miss you dearest! (:

Weather's been changing drastically like nobody's business these few days and those frequent strong wind is ridiculously cold (btw, my school is just next to the sea), and I'm down with fever plus sore throat plus flu. :( It is really awful to fall sick over here because I can't find strepsils or some other kind of medicine that's familiar to me at those pharmacies, and even my classmates told me if it isn't a serious illness, don't go to the hospital because doctors there aren't well-trained. I kind of expected it but I didn't expect to hear it from locals. Hope I'll get well over the weekend, cos the semester is coming to an end real soon, it's time to start preparing for those essays. After doing some calculation, I've got 5 essays, 1 script and 2 written examinations waiting for me six weeks from now!

Well, good luck to me!

Shall blog about my 4D3N Shanghai trip. ((:
(This post is gonna be freaking lonnnngggg!)

I think the most daring act we ever did was to choose Spring Airlines, a domestic flight specially catered to fly to places within China. It's a really horrifying experience, and my senior is right, the taking off and landing process were the scariest of all. Not to mention the turbulence part because i supposed most planes will experience that especially in cold and windy weather like now, what shocked us the most is, the minute before the plane was about to take off, we heard two passengers' phone ringing and they still answered the call! At that instant, both of us just rolled our eyes and we were laughing non-stop cos we find this kind of situation quite ridiculous and rarely seen. Another funny thing was, we thought food are prohibited on the plane, but you know what, we saw locals peeling oranges, eating macs when on board the plane. I wonder how they manage to pass the security checks. And on the flight back to Xiamen, the plane suddenly descended very fast till our hearts almost came out. But, I observed those locals beside us, they didn't find anything unusual at all, guess they've already get used to it. now I realised, SQ ROCKS!

okay, anyway we managed to reach Shanghai HongQiao Airport safely on 14nov afternoon. Checked into Broadway Mansions Hotel and settled down. On the first day, we spent our day shopping at XuJiaHui (徐家汇) then to Nanjing Road.

On our second day, we signed up for a guided tour organised by out hotel, to Suzhou and Zhouzhuang Water Village. We visited the Lingering Garden and the Silk factory at Suzhou. It really amazed me how silkworms can produce so much silk, and it's a long process before silk products can be finally made. On our way to Zhouzhuang, we passed by the Great Canal and the tour guide also showed us the watergate, though i think it doesn't look like a watergate at all. Took another 45 mins bus ride before we reached Zhouzhuang. I love the environment there because there's rivers everywhere, and the air is rather clean and refreshing. We took a 45 mins boat ride on the river to explore this crowded water town, perhaps it's a weekend so there are alot of tourists too.

On our third day, we also signed up for another tour to admire the night of Shanghai, especially their famous Oriental Pearl and the beautiful night view by the river. We took a ship and sailed across the Huangpu River that divides Shanghai into half, that's what the tour guide told us. The tour guide also brought us around XinTianDi (新天地), a Clarke Quay look-alike place where many foreigners, especially Caucasians, will gather there at night. We request the driver to let us alight at Raffles City. (yes, it has the same name as the one in S'pore and it's built by Capitaland too.) This is the shopping mall where i get to eat my favourite SUBWAY! I've been missing their sandwich since the day I came Xiamen. Basically, this Shanghai trip helps us to end all our cravings to some food that will never be found at Xiamen. During these four days, we ate dimsum at bifengtang (避风塘), ate our lunch at Bakerzin, and lastly, meat dumplings! The only disappointing thing is, there's no bak chor mee at Shanghai too. LOL!

And on our last day, we visited the Shanghai Museum as recommended by those hotel staffs and also the tour guide. The museum is unbelivably huge and it has 4 levels, with 3-4 galleries on each floor. We didn't finish all galleries cos those artworks are making us sleepy.


Shanghai's Hong Qiao Airport

the Lingering Garden at Suzhou

Great Canal

Zhouzhuang Water Town

Oriental Pearl Tower

Shanghai Museum

I'm back from Shanghai, had lots of fun for the last 4 days! :D Shall blog about it some other time, because i'm so lethargic now after all those unpacking, and I can't imagine how many clothes I had to wash for the next 2 days. BOOHOOO!

WHHEEE! off to SHANGHAI tomorrow. :D
Be back on 17th Nov.

& lastly,
HAPPY 17TH BIRTHDAY TO MY SISTER, LIMING!
this is for 14th Nov. (:

no school on wednesdays, it's been long time since i last resumed my identity of a tourist. we came across a cabby uncle the other day and he told us there's another tourist attraction at Jimei, and it's a waste if we came Xiamen and didn't visit the place, so after asking around for directions beforehand, we set off for Xiamen's Horticulture Expo Garden! (:

Jimei is a town outside of Xiamen, but only needs about an hour bus ride to reach there. today's weather isn't as cold as last few days, it's very sunny but windy at the same time, so basically it's rather cooling! but, i still got tanned from all those long hours of walking under the sun. The whole place is real HUGE (10.82-square-kilometres), and it's divided into several themes. i love International Gardens the most! it's special because they built 24 gardens representing 24 different countries, so it's like "building gardens in a garden" kind of thing. and of course, they used Merlion to represent S'pore, like DUH. Apart from International Gardens, there's Landscaping Architects Garden, and others that showcased other parts of China, like the Lingshan Gardens, South Yangtze River Gardens, and blah, blah, blah...too many to be mentioned.

spent almost the whole afternoon there, but we still couldn't finish the entire area, too tired to continue already. left the garden and thinking of visiting Jimei University too, cos' there were many positive feedbacks about how magnificent the school is. anyway, we were lazy to go in after that though we've already reached the school gate. some other time, perhaps. hehee. :B