20061128
11/28/2006 11:43:00 AM
This will be an extremely long post... bear with me if you're really interested in knowing every comment i made during the China trip... here goes nothing...Day 1, Saturday, 18 Nov 2006--------------------------------------Arrived in Beijing at 23 06 hrs. The weather was fine, i was only wearing 1 layer of clothes. Then we had this really long bus ride to the hotel... and that was when, i really found someone so similar to me. From personality traits to hygiene habits and the way we speak. Whatever, i was happy, finally, i could smile naturally. Now to complain about the hotel. We checked in and the first thing that came to my mind was WATER... we checked the thermoflask, ok it was fine... until we started boiling some water for drinking... guess what we saw? White precipitate in colourless solution!! eeeewww... ok, so we boiled a new flask of water, and we still got the same result... thus, we concluded that our flask was really screwed up and China water was really left untreated.... (poor chinarians... no pure water for them...).Next, out of 4 electrical sockets there were only three working ones. Thus resulting in the so-called suite looking really empty. (i called it suite because my room had quite a huge area compared to the rest). yea.. so my room appeared really dark. The wallpaper at several areas were torn apart, hangers in the wardrobe were all defected... and they call themselves a 3-star hotel.. LOL!! "China has this (x + 1) star rule.. where "x" is the actual number of stars that was given for the rating."We didn't sleep that night, two gals came over and chatted till 05 45 next morning. (we finished unpacking our stuffs only at 02 35 hrs.)Day 2, Sunday, 19 Nov 2006
--------------------------------------Breakfast at the hotel was ok. It was a buffet with dishes ranging from appetisers to desserts. Fried rice was the best among all because it was the only familiar dish... Went lunching at some China-ish restaurant. Nothing much, rice was the best dish since it was the only thing that wasn't "infested" with salt or oil... Ok, everything went well until i requested for a glass of lukewarm water from a passing waitress. She said ok... but i waited DHL for it. (DHL = damned hell long... so now you know you shouldn't ship via DHL.. it's damned hell long.. hahaa...). Ok, that's still fine, humans err at times anyway. I went up to the counter and asked for it again. This time, it really came... but the thing is.. she brought me a glass of boiling hot water!! I said LUKEWARM in chinese.. hello?? nevermind, shan't complain too much, dun wanna be complain king, just being sarcastic.. hahaPardon my STM.. all i can remember from here is forbidden city... which really wasn't that "forbidden" after all. nothing much to say here... The best place we went today was the supermarket!! I'm a natural shopper when it comes to daily necessities!! haa.. My roommate and i bought 3 x 4L bottles of mineral water, some snacks and stuff. and it only costed like S$8!!! OMG!! so cheap, the SOL in china is really low!! (SOL = Standard of Living)oh.. before i forget, kudos to those who were members of the "back of the bus Choir"!!I love those people.. haha.. That's all, nothing much, we went straight to bed after washing up in the hotel that night...Day 3, Monday, 20 Nov 2006
--------------------------------------Let "X" be Attached High School of Capital Normal University.As usual, had breakfast at the hotel... now wait a minute.. why are they serving the same fare of food again? It's ok, that's fine, just have to adapt to the environment and culture.We departed for X and attended some flag raising ceremony which was really chilly.. (not chilli). Anyway, Mrs Tan spoke to the Principal of X in english before the flag raising... guess what the Principal of X replied? He said that among all that she has said, he could only understand a third of it.. LOL.. ok, i won't laugh at him.. heee.. okok.. i feel so evil now for writing this.. haha.. well.. can't help it..ok.. what else.. oh ya, the canteen!! There were no stalls!! OMG! ALL CATERED FOOD!! AGAIN!! Man.. i really take my hat off to all those china students.. imagine eating the same food everyday for 4 years.. that's hell..Attached to one of the classes, they weren't actually very warm people... sigh.. i thought they weren't anyway, so.. nah, it wasn't a disappointment.. Classes in chinese weren't all that bad.. they were studying kinematics and languages while we were there. Oh, and i almost dozed off in the middle of that Chinese lesson.. Then there was dinner outside X and back to hotel for debrief and yadda yadda.. more or less.. slept rather "early" cos it's some "am" already.. hee.. ok, not funny.Day 4, Tuesday, 21 Nov 2006
---------------------------------Breakfast was still the same thing. SIGH... Schooled at X... Still the same things... SIGH....Returned to hotel to change into formal clothing for some peking duck at some far away place. umm.. so on the bus.. i sang non-stop for 1.25 hrs (i hope i didn't irritate anyone..). mm.. Peking duck was such a disappointment.. so oily.. there was oil everywhere.. I feel that china has an abundance of OIL!! not petroleum, but OIL and also SALT (Sodium Chloride)!! Singapore's Peking duck is soooooooooooooooooooooooo much better.Day 5, Wednesday, 22 Nov 2006
--------------------------------------ok.. Let "Breakfast was still the same thing. SIGH..." be "A".Let "Lunch was still the same thing. SIGH..." be "B"Let "Dinner was still the same thing. SIGH..." be "C"Then again... A. hmm.. B and C also..Tsinghua University.. got some gifts in bulk there... so.. yea. get ready to receive gifts.hmm.. what else, nothing much... Day 6, Thursday, 23 Nov 2006--------------------------------------A, B, C. umm.. went to X to do some pottery crap, didn't really make anything. I tried to craft 5 times, and they were all failed attempts, darn, so just.. gave up.Went to this Old summer palace after that. VERY NICE!!! I love to explore ruins!! I love adventures!! Edmund and I were running in front of the group, both wielding our cameras as weapons, taking pictures whenever and wherever we could. Yea, we rock...
