ten GREAT things:
1) the cab is real cheap. (8RMB for first 3km, 2RMB/km thereafter)

2) excellent customer service in most places. (EXCEPT the receptionists at my hostel and at the police station)

3) a very successful environmental conservation campaign, I must really agree to this. (everyone's bringing their own shopping bag because all plastic bags here are chargeable)

4) lecturers and classmates are friendly. They offered their help when we needed it badly at times. (:

5) KFC and Pizza Hut are more yummy than in S'pore. cheaper too, haha! :P

6) chinese books are much low priced, textbooks too.

7) realised I love my own country more than I imagined because I tend to stand up for S'pore when people say anything negative about her. :D

8) Xiamen University is indeed a beautiful school.

9) there's lifts in my block, i no need to climb stairs. YIPEE!

10) cheapest buffets I've ever eaten!

ten BAD things:
1) smokers seen everywhere, even in air-conditioned places. It's legal to do that though.

2) likes to spit on the roads, even the ladies. that's so unglam okay.

3) someone said S'pore is less developed than Cam*odia. I rolled my eyes.

4) food is salty and contains high MSG, salty fish is no longer salty to me now. I know I've mentioned it alot of times.

5) the summer here is freaking hot. It can go as high as 35degrees.

6) seems like not many people know where is S'pore. Please go see the map!

7) they don't know how to queue up, act ignorant and stand in front of you sometimes.

8) no shuttle bus service within the school compound. the school is really big and the distance between my hostel and classrooms is very far.

9) no air-con in classrooms. :(

10) hates to cross the roads here, especially zebra crossings. pedestrians are supposed to give way to cars so I'm like standing in the middle of the big road waiting. that's so ridiculous. guess I've made the right choice of buying insurance before I come.

Went to have a haircut last night at Zhongshan Lu. I think I was superb daring to have ever tried to have a haircut here! My hair now is DISASTROUS! :( or maybe I've not get used to it still, somehow or rather I feel like I'm a local now. LOL. Anyway, mummy is right. No one here knows me, so who bothers right. My hair will grow very fast to its normal length so till then it'll all be fine. PLEASE GROW FASTER OKAY!

I'm so pissed off now. :X

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY, KASSYN! :D

I shall update. :D

It's been almost a month since I came here. Beginning to adapt the lifestyle here, though the food is still as salty as ever! School has started for almost two weeks already. Lecturers and classmates here are more friendly than I thought, one thing that I'm unhappy about is those classrooms don't have any air-con at all, not forgetting that the summer here is freaking hot! Coming to this point, I must say I do miss NTU! Love the timetable here because there's a lunch break from 11.45am-2.30pm for us to rest. Though it's a rather long period of time, but it's sufficient for me to take a cab out of school to have my lunch and still come back on time, like this I won't need to eat the food from the school canteen cos' it doesn't seem appealing at all! (:

Taking 8 modules this semester, but I can't even match any to my chinese course in NTU, so all are considered UEs, and there goes my translation minor. BOOHOO! Though 8 modules are more than what I usually study in NTU, the good thing is the classes here are all lectures only, and each lecture lasts for only 1hr 40mins.

Found a few good eating places these few days. We ran out of places to explore so we copied a list of recommended places from the net and explore one by one when we have the time. :P

It is China's 59th birthday on 1st October! So we're having one week of school holiday next week. CHEERS! It's time to get back to my job of a tourist and continue to explore new places, may the weather be cloudy and not scorching hot. (:

HAPPY 22ND BIRTHDAY, ESTHER! :D

LOVES <3

HAPPY 20TH BIRTHDAY, JIAYI!(:

My hair is still not dry yet after 2 hours, I can't go to bed like this. Guess it's time to buy a hair dryer, the one that I brought here seems to be giving out cold air instead!

Anyway, went to eat japanese buffet for lunch today. Forgot to bring my camera with me, shall take pictures again next time cos' I definitely will go back again. It's the only place I went to so far that doesn't serve salty and oily dishes though MSG level is still high, I felt so thirsty after the meal, but still it's better than the others. And it's only at 88 RMB, which is only S$18! CHEERS TO MYSELF! :D

School registration tomorrow! Hope I'll be busy, cos' I feel like I'm rotting my life away these few days.

Goodnight! (:

Today's Mid-Autumn Festival, I kinda miss mooncakes
now! :(

Weather's here been very hot these few days, and it can be as high as 35degrees. Once we stepped out of our room, we already feel like melting, so we haven't been to anywhere in the daytime, except to collect our visa on saturday and that is because we've no chioce. I'm getting tanned, this is supposed to be the last thing that's gonna happened to me because I'm usually very hard to get tanned. Me and Peiching wanted to buy a sunblock lotion but we just can't trust the products here. But come to think of it, most of the products that are selling in s'pore are made in china, isn't it? In the end, we decided on using OLAY, at least it's a brand that we knew.

The food here is very oily and salty. My hair is seriously dropping more than usual, i bet it's the huge amount of MSG used. Everyone likes to smoke in this country, and it's LEGAL for them to smoke even in air conditioned places, it's really suffocating me and I'm not exaggerating at all! So, that means my lungs and kidneys are turning black soon, so we both were joking to go for a transplant when we return. LOL!

School registration starting on next tuesday! Can't wait to start school now, because at least there's something for me to do. Our life now revolves around washing clothes, grocery shopping, eating our meals and mopping the floor! I have never done so many housework in my life!

Went Gu Lang Yu (鼓浪屿) on Wednesday, it's an island across the sea from Xiamen. We took a 5mins ferry ride to the island. A tour guide approached us at the terminal and offered to bring us around the island at only 20RMB for the four of us.

One of the tourist attraction is the statue of 郑成功,

Visited the wax museum that house many famous people,

Founder of XMU, Tan Kah Kee

Celebrated an early Mid-Autumn Festival at Peiching's relative's company last night. Mid-Autumn Festival in China is considered an important occasion, and their way of celebration in Xiamen is very different. The highlight of this occassion is 博饼.

The game only needs one bowl and 6 dices. We will take turns to throw the dices, and when one of the dice shows the number '4' , there'll be a small prize and this is called 一秀. When there's two dices show the number '4', then it's called 二举. Prizes for these two categories are usually our daily neccessities, like soap, toothpaste, towel etc. If there's four dices that show the same number, it's called 四进. The prizes for this category are normally pots, bedsheets, etc. If there's 4 dices that show that number '4' is called 状元, but if there's another player that throws 5 dices of the same number and above, the player will win the 状元 instead, and the prize is 500RMB. It's so complicated, and I took very long to learn all these! Anyway, when the locals asked us how we celebrate in S'pore, we said mid-autumn festival to Singaporeans is like any other normal days, and they gave us a very surprised look, like we're freaks can!

But frankly, it's a very interesting game and it really helps in the bonding between employees. No matter how big or small the prize is, everyone has their own share of prizes. For me, I won 10packets of tissues (一秀), 1 toothpaste (一秀), 3 Lux soap bars (二举), 3 Dettols soap bars (二举), 1 towel set (二举), and I'm very lucky enough to win the 状元! :D Because I threw 5 dices of number '5' and a dice of number '6'.

Today is my 8th day at Xiamen. Everything is beginning to settle down more or less. The first few days here was hectic, we travelled to many places just to get our visa done. Though Xiamen is only a tiny part of China, getting from one place to another is really time consuming. Luckily, the cab fare here is cheaper than S'pore. It's only 8RMB (=$1.70) when you board the cab and able to travel very far without the meter moving at all. With such a cheap cab fare, we both took cab to wherever we want to go. :D

I am starting to adapt to this place. The food here is very salty, and the chinese terms that the people here speak is very different from us. Because we know how to speak english, we started to translate for some foreigners since they don't know how to speak or understand chinese at all. We happened to know two Cambodian students on our way to school from the airport, and they're actually government officials in their country who were awarded schlorships to further their studies. They even cooked for us their local dishes on our second night here.

The hostel we're living in is mainly for overseas students, and we can see part of the sea from our windows. The summer here is almost similar as S'pore, just that it's much drier over here and that makes my lips cracked on the first few days. There aren't many entertainments over here. Me and Peiching were getting bored, we even went to sing ktv yesterday just to pass time. Anyway, coming to this country makes me feel that everything in S'pore is so expensive. The classic french manicure over here is only S$10, and they're using O.P.I brand okay!









Xiamen Airport,



My small room,



Shophouses in XMU,



The South Gate of XMU,






Founder of XMU, Tan Kah Kee









Food from Cambodia,



Seyha & Choeun

Shall backdate again.

Celebrated Wenxiang's 22nd birthday last monday at Billy Bombers. Lovvee the cheese fondue there! :D Anyway, though our uniform plan failed in the end, still I hope the birthday boy like the b'day celebration planned for him. I bet the birthday cake had caught him by surprise. Because the look on his face was priceless when the cake was carried out and everyone is singing b'day song for him. (:

I shall backdate a'lil.

31Aug- 2days before I leave S'pore

Went to Weili's house in the afternoon to have a farewell lunch, together with the girls. :D I finally get to taste Weili's cooking after waiting for verryyy long. The food is yummy and I bet there isn't another guy who can cook this well!

To Mr. Weili,

Don't forget the steamboat you promised when I'm back.

I am WAITING!

Hello people! :D

This is my new blog for these four months in Xiamen! I totally can't believe that China can't access livejournal and wordpress webpage, that's real dumb okay! Alright I'm still getting used to blogspot, and I miss my livejournal blog like mad!
Anyway, I have lots of stuff to update because I only got my internet access this afternoon. Can't stand those days without my MSN!


P.S. This is the link to my livejournal blog: chocsandcandies.livejournal.com

Toodles.