All THANKS to Mr. Yang, now everyone knows we're from Singapore. He's my lecturer for Russian Culture, and we dislike him to the core. Simply because he is always telling the whole class about "glorious" history of his, and not talking about russian's culture at all, hmm...or maybe a'lil only for the past few lessons. Last week, he overheard me and Peiching talking to each other in english after class, he immediately questioned us in a kind of "no manners" attitude, asking us what language we're talking and we said it's english. He was quite surprised we could speak that well, or maybe better than local students only. So, we told him we're exchange students from S'pore. So, this week, we thought he'll forget about this, but he didn't of course. He kept picking on us, asking us questions and told the whole class we're from S'pore. We are not feeling embarrassed or what, but we always drift off in his class so now we have to pay like more attention in his class or else we won't know what stupid question he's asking!

On a happy note now, Peiching's family came Xiamen this week, and that's how we got the 24 myojo tom yam bowl noodles too! THANK YOU AUNTIE & UNCLE! :D We're craving for that like mad, because bowl noodles here sucks, it smells awful and the taste is yucky as well. Weather these few days are terribly hot, seems like summer is back again but by right it's supposed to be spring okay! must be due to GLOBAL WARMING! loll.

one day to 24 bowls of myojo's tom yam noodles. (:

Watched the movie "Butterfly Lovers" yesterday, like finally! WHEEE! :D

Anyway, the movie isn't that great, storyline is almost similar to Romeo & Juliet. Wu Zun's acting is still as funny and weird. Some of the scenes are supposed to be sad, but we just couldn't stop ourselves from laughing at Wu Zun because his expression was kinda hilarious.

The cinema that we went to was not as bad as it looks from outside. At least there's AIRCON. (: but the tickets are freaking expensive. It's 60RMB (=S$12) for one on a normal weekday afternoon, no wonder there are less than ten audiences in such a big theatre.

Been busy with school, or rather with just going school as according to the timetable only. Ain't studying much during my free time cos' textbooks are real boring, and needless to say, all those readings are piling up, waiting for me!

Just had my greek mythology presentation this morning in my european studies class. Learned nothing out from it, except to realise that the students here don't really regard presentation as important as exams though presentation will more or less affect grades too. My groupmates are practically driving me nuts! One of them, who is the fiercest of all, kind of requested me (or isit demand? they never let me choose at all) to do the introduction part because there are too many greek names that are really hard to pronounce, I didn't want to argue so I agreed. Obviously I'm not good at pronouncing those complicated names too. But the worst part is, they didn't know that for presentation, all of us are supposed to compile our ppt slides together! Guess they probably thought of bringing five thumbdrives there and each say their own section. So it's okay, I told them that we need to do that and I'll compile it since we have less than one day left, have to make all the fonts and backgrounds similar, so that the teacher will not know we didn't meet up nor have a proper discussion beforehand.

After lesson today, we realised we forgot all about the written report that need to be done too. AND THAT SAME GIRL STILL HAVE THE CHEEK TO GIVE ME 5 MISSED CALLS AND ASKED ME TO DO IT! This time, I just told her we shall do for our own sections then we compile. Now, I have finally realised how cooperative they are when doing groupwork, I am just glad that my turn is over, though I doubt I will pass well. :(

HAPPY 22ND BIRTHDAY, YONGZHENG! :D

"We are weighed down, every moment, by the
conception and sensation of Time. And there are but two means of escaping and forgetting this nightmare: pleasure and work. Pleasure consumes us. Work strengthens us. Let us choose."

I'VE FINALLY RECEIVED THEM!! ((:

After making a few trips to the office, the person at the overseas college finally make it for us, like after so long! Well, that's how they usually work, I'm slowly getting used to it.

This is my student pass that looks like a mini passport. Now I don't have to worry about the security guard at our school gate, demanding me for my student pass anymore. YAY!






And this is the school card that works somehow like our ez-link card. With this card, you can enter the school library, pay for stuff at school's supermarket and also buy food at canteen!

It's the weekend, finally!

Went to SM's Walmart to stock up our snacks and to have lunch at our favourite Sunshine Palm. I've come up with a great idea of deciding where to have our meals, and that is to draw lots. At least I think this is a very brilliant idea okay, though sometimes we play cheat by drawing a few more times so that we can have more choices to choose from.

Meet Huiqin coincidentally when we came back, she offered to bring us around the school because the both of us are usually more interested in things outside school and we haven't really explore the school compund yet. Went to a small hut/shelter that is built specially for Lim Boon Keng, to recognise his contributions to the school. Then, she brought us to a reservoir that's at the other end of the school. The place has a nice scenery, it's definitely so much better than the botanic gardens. I'm beginning to understand why the locals here say XMU is one of the most beautiful school in China.

We went to the school canteen for our dinner. Me and Peiching was kind of unwilling to step into the canteen at first, because we have went into the canteen once and saw students having their meals using metal bowls and plates, the food there doesn't seem appealing too, guess we couldn't really adapt to it. But last night, Huiqin brought us to the second level and ate noodles. Undeniably, the noodles is much more delicious that we have imagined, and one bowl only costs 5RMB (=S$1), and the portion is just right! TOTALLY UNBELIEVABLE!

Went to her hostel room to get to know her other roomies after that. Local students are staying in a 5-people room, but their room has a better study environment as compared to ours. Played basketball with Huiqin and my another classmate, Lixiang for a short while before heading back to room and watch teevee! :D

Came across a brilliant question today, posed by my favourite lecturer.

Between "I, you, he/she/we", why "I" is the only one in caps, while the others are not? Though it's not a complicated question, but it is something we don't tend to notice.

The answer is because of human's self centeredness, we love ourselves more than anyone else! It's kind of true, and this question started from a poet named e.e.cummings, I bet he's the only one who wanted his name to be spelled in lowercase versions, and he may have intended it as a gesture of humility! :D

THE PLAY.

School has once again started after a one week holiday! I'm having my afternoon lunch break right now, and my next lesson will only start at 4pm. It's raining heavily outside since last night and that makes me so wanna skip my next lesson, which is Russian Culture and it is a superb boring class. We have been hoping this place will rain since the day we stepped into this country, and it finally rained! WOOHOO! :D

Spent my last day of holiday (which is yesterday) at Xiamen's supposedly famous Wanshi Botanic Garden, a trip organised by the Overseas College for exchange students. To me, I think the place is like Bukit Timah Hill. There's a rosebush garden as well, but we didn't manage to see any flowers in there, and I really wonder why. We only spent 2 hours looking around and left the place feeling kind of disappointing.

Had my first play reherseal last night. It's one of the modules that I'm taking that requires us to act out a play. So, our group draw lots to decide who's going to act. And I, unfortunately picked on a male role, whose character is like a gangster and needs to be fierce and loud. Still figuring out on how to act this role, but one lucky thing is, two of my groupmates are very pro actors and they can advise us on how to make the play better. (:

Alright, that's all for now.
Good day!

Lunch at a new place today. :D It was a restaurant that we found out by chance a few days ago. I could say, the food there was like HEAVEN. It isn't salty, it isn't oily, it's just nice and tasty. We have been craving for steamed dumplings for weeks and finally get to eat it! Another special thing about this restaurant is that there are pictures of Mao Ze Dong everywhere. On the doors, on the walls, on the menu, and the waiters and waitresses were wearing an all-green uniform too. And surprisingly, this whole meal only costs 72RMB (=S$15) for the both of us. We couldn't finish all the food, so we had to da-bao the popiah-like spring rolls back home. That's our dinner for tonight! (:

Woke up at 11am today, feeling rather moody. It's already the fourth day of holiday, three more days before school's gonna start all over again. We are getting very bored, nowhere to go, even have to think very long where to have our meals everyday. I'm starting to get sick of this country because there isn't much entertainment. I haven't seen any cinemas yet, can you believe it? But even if there is one, I bet there aren't nice movies to watch too.

Starting to miss all my friends in S'pore, I miss those days going to school with Esther and gang, miss dimsum-ing with Pearl, miss working and doing crazy things with Jasmine, miss those gatherings with Weixin and others, miss tkd trainings and k-ing with Huilin and the rest, and many many more! AND I MISS BEDOK 85 BADLY! Okay, maybe those living in the east side will know what I'm talking about. I can eat like ten bowls of bak chor mee now, gimann gonna treat me when I'm back! :D

Viwawa's wahjong is my favourite pastime now. And maybe DVDs too. Though the quality is not that good, but it's better than nothing. There's a chinese saying that goes "No fish, prawn also not bad" (not sure if this direct translation is correct), wonder can anyone decipher this, but anyway I've totally understand the meaning of this phrase during this one month! No one knows it better than me.

Alright, enough of rantings. May tomorrow be better, I sincerely hope!(:

Went Tong'An Film City on tuesday. :D Tong'An is another town in Xiamen, we took an hour bus ride to reach there. The bus trip was real bumpy and the driver was kind of speeding too. But he's rather kind to tell us when to alight because both of us were very blur! And the bus fare is only 4RMB for such a long distance, so cannot expect much right! Film City is actually a place where many dramas were being filmed and it's also a tourist attraction as well. Admission tix is 30RMB for an adult. The place isn't as big as it seems on the map, we spent only around an hour to finish exploring all and took some photos too.

Wanted to try out one of their famous popiah stall there after that, but we just couldn't find it, though we have the address but no one seems to know where is it. No cabs found at Tong'An, instead there are motorbikes waiting at the side of the roads to fetch passengers to and fro places, but we don't dare to take that! In the end, we took another one hour bus ride back. How disappointing can that be! I want to eat popiah!