Almost 3am but I'm still going to attempt clearing backlog HAHAHA. Not sure if I can even remember what happened during exchange by the time I reach the weekend trips! And also I don't have the photos to guide through. But well, I'll try ahhh, someday. Shall start with our trip to Hong Kong! :)
Warning - Pictures overloadddd!
Credits to all the photos on Facebook (cause I barely took photos at the start of exchange; a bit lazy & there's always Bryan who takes photos of almost everything and Weishan's camera that she brought on exchange! :D)
DAY 1: Start of exchange! :)
Finally our turn to fly lo! Instead of following what most people did by touring around Taipei, we decided to go HK first, then fly straight to KHH before school starts. Super excited to head towards the land of dimsum :D
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| Photo in the plane while preparing to fly :) |
The flight took about 4.5h if I remembered correctly; during the flight I was just... busy sleeping oops. Cause I barely slept from all the last minute packing, and I didn't really know Bryan then so..... it was quite awkward/ (Hahahaha oops, sorry :S) But I guess the three of them were all watching the shows they downloaded; not sure why didn't I download any or even bring my tab along. But so
paiseh, I was really sleeping like a log for like 80% of the flight!
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| Arrived safely in HK! |
We reached pretty late, like around 7 plus 8, so we just ate in the airport and got our prepaid phone cards before heading towards Rosedale Kowloon Hotel. We don't really know where is it though we have a map, but we booked it cause it was cheap and looked nice! Cabbed down to the place, and omg it really does look quite
atas, just that the rooms are a bit small. Lucky we didn't planned to squeeze everyone in a room!
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| Our messy room HAHAHA. |
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| HI ROOMIE :) |
Oh yes, they have nice and interesting toilet concepts, like the toilet door is actually used to separate the bathing area and washing area. Looks small but I guess we are not that fat cause we didn't really have much issues using it HAHAHA. Only thing is, they have this button that will change the toilet glass view from being translucent to transparent - which means... you can see EVERYTHING that's going on in the toilet omg! (Happened once, but we realized it before we bathed hahaha). But then again, when its translucent, you can see the silhouette (normally the back view) of the person when bathing. Lucky we're both girls and there's not a lot of light shinng in so it wasn't that obvious, if not it'll be soooo awkward!
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| Toilet! |
Changed out of our jeans and decided to tour around the hotel! They have a mini gym which we never really get to use it (we only fiddled around with the equipment when we went there for the first time), nice lobby (with cool statues that Bryan took photos with) and some rooftop bar that we decided to check out.
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| Super nice lift that can take photos of our reflections |
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| View from top of our hotel! |
We were hungry after that, and the food up at the rooftop bar was expensive, so we headed down to find food at the Macs that's opposite our hotel. Omo, they have a relatively different menu when it comes to desserts. They serve red bean matcha sundae and things like apple pie with sundae (but actually it's just two separate items then you just dip the apple pie into the sundae; but it's still quite nice!)
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| sundae + apple pie! |
Didn't really do much that night cause it was quite late already - guess we just briefly toured around the area! And decided not to turn in too late to save some energy for the next day. :D
Day 2 : Ocean Park!
Actually this is more like our first day out hahaha. Went to have breakfast at a Cha Chaan Teng near our place, cause it's a must to try that to experience their culture there :) I guess this is my meal - cannot remember already but when I went to find Bev and MZ I normally order ham and egg with noodles for breakfast. Their breakfast is interesting; you hardly see beakfast that serves soup noodle with fried egg and other side dishes in Singapore, and tastes like magee mee!
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| Breakkie! |
Also toured around the area and bought egg tarts before taking the minibus that's quite scary cause they drive at high speeds! And thankfully the driver told us when to alight for Ocean Park :D
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| Us in the mini bus! |
But we ended up being at a different entrance from the normal entrance that I remembered of - the one with escalator up to the ticketing site. So we had to walk in and find the place first! Guess being bilingual is super useful in these countries cause the locals and tourists can understand English and/or Mandarin, such that when we ask for help it wasn't that tough.
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| When we finally found the correct entrance! |
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| Super cute hats that are sold near the ticketing area |
Third time at Ocean Park (for me)! :) We didn't go for the rides immediately, went for the Aquarium first to see the marine animals! :) Omg so many pretty fishes and animals around, makes me happy! Shan't spam photos cause I saw a lot of them on facebook, but here's a smiling manta ray, it looks sooooooo cute! :D
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| It looked soooo happy! :D |
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| Group photo in the Aquarium! :) |
After touring the area, there's a souvenir shop strategically located after the exit of the aquarium! And it's soooo cute omg the toys!! Saw my favourite penguins too! I think I spent quite a fair bit of time going around hugging those lovely toys :D And after much deliberation, I decided to buy more penguins homeeeeee! (Now I have five of them at home)
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| Us wearing cute animal hats! |
After that, we went to the panda area to see how laid back their lives are. The pandas all have different characteristics in the way they try to interact with peopleeee. But they were super cute as well!
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| SUPER LAZY PANDA SLEEPING BEHIND |
When it comes to Ocean Park, how can we miss the rides? Hahahaha. This was taken at our first ride - if I remembered its the Arctic Ride. (And I guess that was the day I realized the guys are not really fans of theme park rides, oops)
Didn't take a lot of exciting rides cause Chongkai cannot really take them and I guess 3 people a bit hard to enjoy the rides too because I guess it would have ended up with only two people taking them. (& if that's the case I wouldn't want to take it cause I may vomit from those rides too HAHAHA) So we took the more relaxing ones! But hor, some of them that looked very chill are quite scary too, like the ride with music. Totally remembered the time when the guys got squashed from the rides, felt so bad then! Headed to watch the dolphin show in the evening, can never get over my love for them since young <3
Walked around tried to find some of the more chillax rides, but I guess we only went for the Ferris Wheel and Viking! Didn't get the take the super scary gold mine ride cause it was closed! (Hahaha that was the ride that I wanted to take even if the guys cmi cause the last time I took it with Bev, MZ and Janelle it was so fun though we totally didn't expect the fall cause we cannot see anything in the dark HAHAHA)
By the time we wanted to leave it was quite dark already; but the night view is also super niceeee, look at the water fountain with lights :)
Took the normal bus out of Ocean Park to look for food, but didn't really managed to find any - googled and they said there's this restaurant that sells relatively nice dimsum. But hor.... it's so bloody expensive. No choice though cause it was so late and we actually walked a long way to find this place. (Felt super bad about it cause I think I really fail as a planner man.)
Super long and tiring day, headed back after that.
Day 3 : Food hopping! :)
This was probably my favourite day in Hongkong cause it's a day filled with eating, I mean who can resist food?? And it's always a must to try their local delicacies whenever we go on trips right :) :) So yeap, the first stop was to head towards
One Dim Sum near Prince Edward Station!
We went there at 11-ish but there was already a long queue!! We even had time to tour around the streets there (and I remembered drinking Yakult when we passed by some convenience shop along the way.) But I guess it was worth the wait, look at the amount of food we ordered hehehe. (think we over-ordered cause I was so excited about coming back here) But hey, the bill wasn't too expensive though, its slightly over SGD 12 each for about 10 dishes. Cheap cheap and it's niceeeeeee! :)
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| While waiting for our food initially! :) |
Headed to Central after that for our second food stop at
Tai Cheong Bakery!! All-time favourite egg tarts in HK!! Hahaha the last time Janelle and I headed there on our last day after sending Bev and MZ off at the airport, and I remembered buying 17 tarts back to share with le family and friends!
They have a branch at the Peak too, tried both outlets back in Dec 2013 and I personally prefer the one at Central!Partly because you have to pay to get to the Peak, and back then there wasn't an special events going on so there wasn't a need to go there just for tarts when we don't really have timeeee. But yay, finally reunited with my 蛋塔 *inserts the HK accent* and even picky Bryan also said it was heavenly. Thankfully it was worth the trip there :)
Can't wait for my next trip back here for theseeeee, and hopefully I'll get to go Macau and try the famous Portuguese egg tarts that Jeremy recommended too!
Walked around Central to see if there are any other nice food places around, cause on google maps there were a lot of food. We went into this food place cause it said it was established for quite a while and all... but it doesn't look that nice ooops, and we were quite full form all those eating. So we just tried something that sounded interesting - 狗不理包. But it's just the normal 湯包 that you'd see in Taiwan haha. Nothing really special.
Went for the last stop at Honululu Cafe for dinner. Not sure why people recommended these till.. I tried their egg tarts omg. Guess the main dish wasn't spectacular, but the egg tarts are really awesome!! Hahaha adding this to my top few favourie egg tarts to try again in the future :)
Headed to
Lan Kwai Fung after that cause it's at the central area too, and it's famous for having clubs and pubs around!
We wanted to go into a club for the experience at first, but it's so expensive! Went to a bar instead; they were having Happy Hour so we got drinks and food at cheaper prices :) Bryan went to buy cards as well so just sat there to drink and play cards, using the food as forfeit!
Headed to Temple Street after that; Weishan and Chongkai went to have their fates read! Was contemplating at first, but I still went to read mine as well. (& because of that Bryan didn't want to tell me if the 算命師 was accurate or not, but oh well this kind of things... shouldn't trust too much ah hahaha) Headed back to the hotel after that; not sure where I was headed for but at least the guys know can already LOL. (We walked back to the hotel without really relying on the GPS cause they can remember the streets and all!)
Day 4 : Last day already :(
Last day in HK! Decided to head towards Australia Diary Company at Parkes Street for brunch because it's recommended by most of our friends; even Rae was telling me this is a must-go place in Hong Kong! But I guess good food places always have long queue eh, when we arrived we were at the far end of the queue! And we thought we would have to wait for like one hour or something lolol. So we decided to take turns to walk around the area. Bryan & I went to a wet market nearby (it was already closing cause it was late morning/early afternoon when we reached there) but didn't get to tour much cause not long later Weishan and Chongkai were telling us that it was reaching us already, like whuttttt it's super fast!
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| Looks super crowded, people had to share tables to make space! |
But I guess we realized why the queue was moving so quickly - everything was so fast paced there. The waiter was impatient as well, he was rushing us to take our orders and food was served shortly after. And they were quite fierce too when we told them we made a wrong order oops. But yeah, not really satisfied with the service but have to say the food was really not bad ehhh. Was texting Rae about it ad she was like "that's the way of life here, super fast paced oneeee!" Hahaha seems like we need to get used to it!
Headed towards Lantau Island after that cause there's Citygate Outlet where you can get branded stuff at discounted rates! Finally had the chance to do some shopping, but didn't really buy much cause... there weren't stuff that really caught my eye, like I'll only get expensive stuff if I really see something that I like that I wouldn't mind splurging on!
But it's quite funny cause we initially split off as Weishan & Chongkai while I went with Bryan; somehow we all met at Espirit outlet shop.... And we decided that it would be easier for the girls to shop together instead HAHA. Weishan says it's a bit stressful to shop with CK around cause she doesn't know if he was comfortable shopping with his girlf, while for me I can't really give my opinions on the stuff Bryan were interested in buying cause I hardly go shopping with guys also hahaha.
Since we had quite some time, we wanted to take the cable car up to see the Buddha (if I remembered correctly) but decided against it cause we wouldn't be able to spend much time there if we wanted to catch the last ride back in the evening.
Anw, saw these cute elephant statues somewhere near the cable car station and took photos with them! There were many different designs but we just chose the ones that we liked!
Headed to Dim Sum Square for dinner - we took super long to find this place! (Even when I went bthere back in Dec it also took us awhile to find it with the GPS) Dimsum for dinner yayyyyy, but I still prefer the ones at One Dim Sum, except that they have really nice baked charsiew buns! Really liked the baked ones even in Sg when we dine at Tim Ho Wan!
Hahaha these are just 9 out of the 1x dishes we ordered! It's slightly more expensive but.. still cheaper than dim sum in SG :)
Headed to the Avenue of Stars after that; we wanted to visit a museum near there but it was closed when we reached. So we just walked around the area! The night landscape is similar to the one in Singapore at Raffles Place, near Marina Bay Sands! (remembered seeing the night view with office buildings after jogging on Tuesdays!)
Headed to find some roasted food because we haven't tried any in HK. Saw this restaurant that sells roasted pigeon and it's quite famous, so we headed there. But omg, I didn't read that minimum spending required to dine there. And so when we went in and ordered the pigeon, they gave us the weird look and told us we each need to spend a certain amount for dine-ins. It was quite epic uh, we changed to buying take-out instead. Cabbed back and we got Asahi on the way back to the hotel :) Had the pigeon for supper and played cards with beer as forfeit on our last night at the guy's room. Didn't sleep that late, probably by 3am cause we needed to leave early for the airport!
Guess even though things didn't really go well (I was such a bad planner, and I felt so bad that the guys have to always use GPS to travel around when we got lost a few times during those few days) it was still a nice experience. Glad to have known le housemates better, and learning how to cope with a couple around too hahaha. Imagine if we just kick-started our Taiwan exchange in Kaohsiung straight it'll be super awkwarddddd.
Third time in HK, but I guess it's always a different experience each time I visit. Can't wait to be back someday :)
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This took damn long cause I fell asleep halfway while finishing up Day 1 last night and took a few more hours today. Surely there are bits and pieces of information that I missed out or decided not to post, but yayyyy at least I'm starting to clear my backlog! Hopefully all these can be things that I can look back and talk/laugh about in the future hehehe :)
Labels: debzintw
Hahaha finally had time to finish this! :)
(Actually I'm NOT that busy, considering the workload is a lot lesser compared to the previous semesters; but I guess post exchange blues and re-adaptation will take time. Been either sleeping/going out during my free time though I know I should be finding part-time job or something to kill time and earn money so that I can go to more places after graduation!)
Anyway, after looking back as my past resolutions and all, these are what I hope to achieve in this year! :) Same old things, there're always values that I strongly hold on to as well; guess there'll be repetitions along the way!
Credits to articles - Things that you should stop doing in 2015 / 20 things you should insist no matter what other people say.
In no particular order:
Loved ones to be safe and healthy.
Cannot emphasize this enough - With grandpa's passing and uncle's health, I really hope everyone else will be healthy! Really, nobody likes being sick and helpless, and with a bunch of us graduating and going into working life, guess work-life balance is something that we should all seek to achieve :) No point working sooo hard when you are not healthy enough to spend it on things you like cause you're sick right?
To change for the better, and grow as a person.
Everyone has flaws, but I guess improving and striving to be a better person than who you were yesterday is important. People do change to suit specific people needs, but we cannot be
always changing just to suit everyone's needs. This year, I just hope to be a better person to those whom I hold dear to and maintain good relations with them :) Time to slowly get rid of bad habits, learn from past mistakes and move on! But then again I must always remember to be true to myself even as I seek to make changes - Make these changes and decisions for
myself, and never compromise or shortchange myself :)
Optimism
Guess this should be something that is not hard to achieve! This is just a matter of perspective - like how people view a glass of water as half-full or half-empty. I believe that optimism has its advantages, like sometimes it does gives assurance to people to believe that I'm okay :) And also, laughter when you sound a little too optimistic. (I still remembered when my leg was bandaged, instead of telling people how horrible it was, I was telling them my old scars were only making new friends so that they wouldn't be lonely haha. Sounds like
wts but I guess if it makes people laugh, why not? :D) Being pessimistic and overly-concerned/worried can never get anything done when you're so preoccupied with these negative thoughts too. So.... let's all be happy and smile moreeee! :) :) :) And not think that the glass is half-empty!
Spending more time with people whom I care for / Being with people who make me a better or happier person.
I guess the main point is that if I spend time with those whom I care for and those who care for me, I'll definitely be happier! :D Just something that I realized in my last semester in school - this is actually the last few months when you can meet up with your favourite people and friends before entering the working world. & Once you start working, it'll definitely be harder to find time to catch up with them and all when we are in different fields. So yeaps, must cherish the remaining time with friends and family - catching up and being there for them, and making time for those whom I don't see often but are still important to me.
& At the same time, to cut out those who bring me down. This is difficult but necessary I suppose. No point being so unhappy because of them - afterall life is really too short to be bothered by these people right.
Learning to be more appreciative of what I have.
This is something that I am really thankful for - that I am always blessed somehow. Definitely evident from those significant events that happened in the past year. Hopefully I have accumulated enough good karma to bless me for the whole of this year as well! HAHAHA. Nahh, I was kidding about that. Shall just accept whatever comes along the way and be thankful if it's something good :)
Contrary to the saying that the grass is greener on the other side, I hope that I'd complain less this year!
Being able to open up more to people.
Guess people who know me well probably knew that I'm an extreme introvert, and it's always very hard for me to start talking to people, not to mention sharing thoughts / issues that are close to my heart. Especially when I always find it hard to trust people because 人心難測 - there are times when I don't think I can really tell if someone is sincere, or just trying to get information from me for other reasons :/ Despite that, I'm glad that I still have people whom I can share my troubles with.
This year I hope that I can try to start conversations with people (i.e. being more active than passive) and hopefully also be able to voice my opinions with greater ease!
To be more independent.
This is really something that I hope to achieve - guess I'm still very dependent on people, especially when it comes to directions and going out with people cause I'm scared of getting lost. (Getting lost is fun as you get to explore places, but not after you realize you're panicking and all because you cannot find your way homeeee). Realized in exchange that I'm pretty dependent on people too - hardly alone and it's not a good sign! Let's hope before flying to a foreign country again I can learn to be less "sticky" to people hahaha. If not I can never go on a solo trip mehhh :(
To stop being so accident-prone.
Welllll, I guess there's nothing much to say here. I can fall from doing anything and everything - such as... walking HAHAHA. Let's hope I won't get anymore scars from riding stuff like bicycles! And I shall try riding the ATV one day when I'm not scared of it anymoreeee :)
To learn to eat more types of food.
Glad that I have started to try new food in 2014, especially during exchange, This year I hope the list of food that I eat gets longer :D And also to continue eating those food that I've tried to get used to the taste. Hopefully there'll be a day when people really don't have to be concerned about my diet and ea at ease instead of having to order food to accommodate to my preferences even though they do not really like them.
Stop inducing unnecessary stress on myself.
Just a reminder to self to be less sensitive and not think too much cause it really adds unnecessary stress or unhappiness to myself :)
(Had a lot more while I was thinking about it but I cannot remember and this is already taking so long! Hahahaha)
Cheers to a better year ahead! :)
Everything gets screwed up, like naooooo HAHAHA. My Dropbox folders are soooooo messed up. Moved folders to other joined folders omg lucky there weren't very important stuff that I cannot disclose and all, if not ahhh! And comp is scanning currently so it's taking forever to undo the movesss. Mehhhhhhhh.
Shall stop being lazy and just get new batteries for my mouse though I hardly use the laptop lolol.
I'm switching around between blogger and
dayre! Hahaha decided to use it cause it's not very convenient to use blogger with my phone - too many google accounts; both my phone and laptop don't use this email as my primary email. Abit troublesome to keep switching accounts :P
Only thing is, dayre has word limit and cannot add on paragraphs once the day has passed! And my posts are always so fragmented cause I just record random musings at random timing hahaha.
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But anyway, so many things happened in the past week. Like omg since I came back I have been so busy and all though. Grandpa passed on last Saturday morning; was quite shocking cause Friday we received a call from Auntie Pamela that the doctors are not optimistic about his condition and we all had to rush down to the hospital. Uncle Michael and Cousin Eby also booked tickets to rush back. Stayed there for the whole day - everyone was so worried and though he was awake a few times, he probably was not as sane as we expected.
Many distant relatives also came by to give their prayers, and this was probably the first time I learnt that we have sooooo many relatives. But yeaps, he passed on peacefully early in the morning while Auntie Ju & Cat were on night shift to look after him. Sad that he has passed on, but glad that he is finally free from all those suffering - no more injections and all that made him uncomfortable (Even the doctors also decided to remove most of the tubes on him to let him have more comfort during his last few hours). Also glad that most of his loved ones were with him before in the day before he left. :) Spent the next few days helping out at the wake, it was less tiring that we booked a parlour such that we can lock up the place and rest well every night. Talked to quite a number of relatives (though most of the time I was pretty quiet cause I really have no impression of them - most of them probably seen me while I was really young.) and spent quite a while playing with squirrels - they are really cuteeee :) At least these helped to make the atmosphere better. Super thankful to those who went down to comfort us, really appreciated it. :) And somehow I'm proud of grandpa cause he managed to live until 95, which was quite a feat.
Oh yes one of our relatives suggested doing up the family tree- which I think I really need it omg. At least I won't be so blur when I see them again - I didn't know I have quite a few distant cousins other than Jade, Victoria and Aaron (whom I last met a few years ago :O) Learnt of at least 4-5 more cousins and hopefully I will still remember them when we meet again. That aside, glad the hectic week is finally over; gna be quite tough for aunts and grandma to cope, but I'm sure as time passes by it'll be better :)
Missing you also has another meaning other than missing people - it's the korean show that I'm following. First korean drama since I'm back though it was aired in 2013. And I really like the title OST by Wax. Super sad but ballads are always awesome :')
Ending here for now; heading towards grandma's place for lunchhhhh :)
Woohooo, first week of school just ended like that :) Quite happening but I guess in general it went pretty well~
Went for my first risk reporting lesson - hahaha yay sickdebs still made it for class afterall :) Groupings were a lil' screwed up but I think it;s not too bad already, at least I have Kenny and Janelle! :) #notaloneeee Hahaha if not I'd really have regretted my choice to swap my Tues/Fri class again I tell you :P It's abit hard to re-adapt, given that back in NSYSU you don't take down SO much notes in class. But it's okay, I'll get used to it soon! Took Ziyang's car with Liz and co to Northspine - they went to have lunch, whilst I went to walk around and print notes cause I can't eat much so restaurants are definitely a no-no for me this period. Went to NIE to get our textbooks (omg why sooo far now) only to know that they are out-of-stock arghhhh!
Headed to hospital to visit grandpa after that cause he was in critical condition in the morning while I was in class - got damn worried but luckily he was fine before my class ended!! So yeap, stayed there for quite a while till we feel more assured to head home; at least he woke up from his coma and his fever subsided #thankgoodness!! But it's still a tiring day afterall hahaha.
Tuesday was also spent visiting in the afternoon, but we didn't stayed very long knowing that he got slightly better! (Hehehe grandma bough lunch for us and it's the super nice chicken rice near her area!! Idk the name but I'll find out soon!!) Not sure if I was sick or I was tired or both, I spent almost the whole afternoon sleeping away >:( But yeah, thankfully there was nothing to do to prepare for classes YET. (no textbook!) Submitted risk finals at night and yessss it's another burden down yayyyyy!
Weds was spent at home most of the time too, just that in afternoon I suggested visiting grandpa with le brother before heading to hall - which I'm glad we did!! Cause even though he cannot recognize us, he actually held our hands :') But after that we had to sterilize our hands and stuff thoroughly because he had bacterial infection. Nonetheless get well soon grandpaaaa, we need you to celebrate lunar new year together. Not just this year, but many more years to come. (I'm sooo sorry but I have to admit selfishness on my part - I really cannot afford to lose another family member; esp when I'm still trying hard to not be affected by my exchange mehhh) Headed to hall for steamboat with Kary, WS, Lee and her friends, and it was definitely very enjoyable. Thanks for having us over!! Really had fun with the steamboat, drinks and saboteurrrr :)
Stayed with kary for he night while WS stayed over at CK's, and I'm glad to have talked to her about most of the things that were on my mindddd. Headed out for waffles in the morning but everywhere wasn't opened yet :( Walked to NIE and thankfully the textbook was on sale - got it before heading for class. And I realised that my other groupmate is someone who just returned from NSYSU!! She said she saw me but oh no I really got no recollection of her. (Please don't ask me what was I doing in class HAHA I honestly don't know :P)
Lunch with Kary and her friends before heading for badminton!! And it was really epic 'cause Rachel texted me like half and hour before the class started - think she wanted to know if I got the elective, but since Jinxiang was also going for class without getting the elective, I just said I'll go too.... till I realised I got NO SHOES HAHAHA. So thankful Kary lent me her new pair of white shoes that don't like it's for sports but oh well, at least I can go for class!!! Had so much fun with them + Yizhen and her bf during badminton though it was quite shag! JX and I told the coach about our situation but sadly they cannot add the module for us. Must really pray that I can get this elective, if not I really cannot graduate!! Or must find some shitty elective just to grad liao :( Chillax session with Rachel and JX after class before heading homeeee~ And I really hate taking public transport home cause I'll fall asleep and accidentally lean on people!!! Like damn paiseh but there's nothing I can do mehhhh.
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| credits to Rachel's dayre!! :) |
Came back to some bad news about grandpa but I really really hope he will be well someday though everyone says it's not possible :( Need to sleep in more tmr before settling my tuition assignment - got a new one for this year, and the family doesn't seem as nice as Yanyun's oneeee. But okay I really need to work abit ah, cannot be soo chillax!!
Good read for the night from
@bellywellyjelly - Nothing wrong being single, and no rush looking for the right one :) Being single allows you to cherish loved ones around you, given that everyone is becoming soo busy that you don't realize you haven't caught up with them for the longest period of them ever. True that strong lasting friendships need minimal maintenance, but I always feel more secure that we keep in contact often. At least know that they are safe wherever they are. :)
& Sometimes sparks fly at the wrong timing; sometimes its unrequited love; sometimes things happen when you least expect it... But no matter what,
When the time is right, you'll fall in love, and not find love. Let love find you. :)
Really like to read blog posts from local bloggers who share inspiring stories rather than just posting advertorials, and yay I've gained another source to read from today!
Totally not ready for school but okay, I'll start adapting to the NBS culture soon - time to ask for notes and all again hahaha. Need to appeal for electives tmr (cannot forget ah debz, forget alr then you can shun bian forget about graduating in time) - only got Korean and I hope to get a sports elective!! Preferably the Monday class, but I wouldn't mind going for the Friday one if I can attend it with Anna!!
Learnt the importance of finding a buddy to attend school with hahaha cause Idk anyone in my Korean class and there's pairwork!! (Why wasn't there pairwork when I went for class with Janelle!!) Good thing is, I'm not too bothered since I'm going to S/U it, if not ah!!! (But who knows, I may just not S/U like what I did last time hahaha) But well, I do hope my groupings for consol is not screwed up okayyyy. Cannot afford another semester feeling so helpless/angst/upset like last time!
That aside, have a great semester ahead everyoneeeee! Let's hope I'm well enough for school later! :)
Side note to self to consolidate risk mag and send in by Wed!! And need to find part time job soon. DAMN BROKE OMG and everything in Singapore is sooo exp. I wanna head back to Kaohsiunggggg. (Everyone is probably sick of hearing me say this ooops)
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Oh yes, happy anniversary Grandmaaaa. :') Haven't had the chance to visit the temple but I will do so this week!! :) And to pray for safe return for those who have yet to return this week!!!
Finally had some time to blog after coming back to Singapore - been pretty sick and whiny at home; most of the time was spent sleeping cause I just felt so unwell mehhh. What a way to spend my precious holidays :(
Glad that I'm better today to finish up on my risk finals assignment - hopefully it was not too bad eh, super paiseh cause I offered to do two questions but in the end I probably took the longest time to do hahaha. Not the very smart kind but oh wells I guess if can pass should be okay right oops. #sorryguys
Haven't been venturing much in SG, not even to the nearest malls around my area. Only been to hospitals on the first day back in SG to visit my grandpa and also my uncle - hopefully all of them get well soon :/ But Idk if it was a smart choice to visit them when I wasn't really feeling well cause even if I don't pass my virus to them, I could've contracted some sort of virus instead hahaha. Which is probably why I'm sooo sick now hahaha.
But anyway, here to clear some of the backlog before school starts - finish up blogging about my Taiwan exchange hehhh.
4~7 January (Let's see how much I can remember)
Last few days in Kaohsiung already! Sunday (4/1/2015) was mainly spent out of my house! Rather impromptu date with my Taiwan buddy - last date already, so thank you for acceding to my request to eat waffles! :D She brought me to the cafe that we initially wanted to go to last time and yay the waffles are really niceee! Briefly talked about random stuff and yes, thank you for the gift ^^ Really really thankful for having such a nice buddy in Taiwan- let's keep in contact and do visit me if you come to Singapore! :) Came back in the afternoon to get my last cup of yakult green teaaa (or is it second last? heh) and the lady was nice enough to draw out a map to tell me where to shop for nice stuff at YCP.
Met Lynn in the afternoon to walk around the steel exhibition but sadly it was still under construction. But instead we decided to cycle to YCP to look for the place that was recommended! Thanks to Lynn, I learnt more about the nice food around the area (like Big Mama, Xiao Xi Men, some famous xlb shop, etc), but I don't think I can ever finish trying them :/ Managed to get some souvenirs back, and didn't stay out too long cause I was holding on to Bryan's keys oooops. Went to get my last Wan Bing ice cream - they happened to sell milk tea flavour that day!! ( last chop + free icecream woohooo) Lynn and Darius visited my place briefly before I went back to school to pass the keys to Bryan. (which he didn't need but oh wells I get a free meal cause of that hehhh)
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| Last Wan Bing ice creammmm :( |
Dinner at YCP with Darius and Lynn before going to Kaisyuan + Jinzhuan night markets to meet Rachel, Fiona and Bryan! Last time walking around night markets in Kaohsiung and to win those little toys! Had a really fun time there - we stayed till like 12 plus before cabbing back! :)) Stayed up with Bryan at Hi-life to do work but in the end still headed home cause he needed sleep HAHA. But yeah I ended up dozing off with my laptop after waking him up at ... 4 to meet his Taiwanese friend.
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| Dinner @ Xiao Xi Men! |
Napped and woke up at 7 again to have a proper sleep. Overslept and missed Yoga lesson on Monday - thankfully it was the exam period so if I went I can't try out much. Went back to school to settle leaving procedures before meeting Shihui to collect my bubble wrap! Lunch with her and Bryan at the pasta place before heading back for more packinggg - I remembered my room totally looked like some warzone hahaha. Went for my first softball session in the evening - so much fun with Bryan, Shihui, Fiona and Eldon(?) though I sucked at it HAHAHA. And probably earned a few blue blacks as momento :P Dinner at Yuan Fu (the place next to our apartment) and my very last Tofu Bing dessert in Kaohsiung. Back home for more packing before WS and CK came back hahaha :D
Tuesday was mainly spent packing up :'(. Cycled to YCP alone in the morning to get my fave breakfast after trying it once!! Chicken dan bao without corn and onions hahahah. And also my last iced red teaaaaa. Spent quite a bit of time repacking and taking out stuff to ship back. (had to ship our stuff by that day cause we don't have time already!) And omg Bryan and I had two full boxes of stuff to ship back and it's a lot considering I only had one luggage of clothes when I first left Sg; Bryan had to ship back quite a bit of stuff to pack light for Korea hahaha. Didn't have time to go Xin Jue Jiang for the last time; instead went back to continue packing before having dinner with my apartment mates! One of the apartment mates decided to treat us as a form of farewell dinner :') Sold my bike that night too, sigh it just felt like we were leaving then lor.
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| :') |
More packing (AGAIN) after dinner, and after that I went to school library to meet my buddy to pass her some food and my Melody toy~ and also to talk to her for the last time. Ahhh really really gonna miss her too. Exchanged addresses and I promise to write to her when I have the time! And also I'm definitely going to visit KHH one day, just not sure whom I will be travelling with? Hahaha. Cycled around school for the very last time with Weishan's bike, and it's quite scary cause it's quite high and I can't really stand even when I tiptoed! Headed home to pack again and realised that it's still overweight and I have to ship more stuff back?! *shrugs* But anyway, headed down at 3 plus in the morning alone to talk to Qiu Xian Sheng for the last time - had quite a long talk hehhhh, and ended up with one hour sleep LOL. He was asking where was Bryan which I guessed he also figured it out that he overslept again hahaha. (So much for trying to nap :P)
Woke up early to see if there're anything else to ship back, and thankfully Bryan had, if not I have to pay a lot just to ship 2 items back. And sadly, we can't ship our honey back!! (it was about 80% full omg now I wonder why did we buy it hahaha). Cleared our rubbish and thank you Bryan for helping to bring my luggage and baggage down omg I knew it was super heavy so I felt sooo bad cause he also had his own luggage and stuff. #besthousemateaward goes to him already hahaha.
Cabbed to Zuoying with Bryan and Cheehao to catch the HSR to Taipei! & Once again thank you guys for helping me with my ridiculously heavy stuff after y'all deposited your luggage at the lockers!! Still can remember them complaining how heavy it was and how I managed to pull my luggage around hahaha. Went to deposit my stuff at Space Inn and yay it felt soo much better after that :)
Went to Mr J's cafe that has the 不能說的秘密 feel!! Thank you Cheehao for the recommendation hahaha :D Headed towards Chia Te to get our pastries, thankfully there wasn't a loooong queue when we got there so we had quite a bit of time to walk around after that. Accompanied Bryan to get his haircut done before heading to Uniqlo which was on the way back to Space Inn for me. Headed back while they head for the HSR station/airport/Korea. Really thank you guys for allowing me to tag y'all for those few hours!! If I had to travel alone I'd probably be lost or died from carrying all my stuff to the hostel. Have fun in Korea and please have a safe trip back, see y'all back in Singapore though we all have different timetables hahaha.
Did some packing and talked to some of my bunkmates before heading out to Ximending! And it's actually quite interesting to stay in a female dorm - the last time we came here was with le housemates and hence it was a 4-bed co-ed room. Met quite a numer of NBS students at Ximending though lolol. Tagged Shengkang and his apartment mates for awhile (cause I happened to bump into them) before meeting Janelle! Good catchup session with her and it was quite scary to walk back alone, but yay I made it back safely!! Continued to pack my stuff at night, squeezing as may things as I can so that I don't have to carry so many baggage alone, but ended up oversleeping a little. Cabbed to the HSR station thinking I was late but I wasn't! And I managed to carry everything up to the train cabin myself hehehe :D Took the bus alone to Taoyuan Airport to meet HY and all! Oh yes, met Zhihe, Huili & Kelvin, Yifan and his friends who happened to be on the same flight as us hehehehe. Did some last minute shopping before boarding the plane ^^
Did some transferring of of photos from my phone on the planeeee, shall find time to upload them :') Done!
And tadas.. I'm back in SG!
I guess I'm super glad that I didn't cry infront of people when I left!! :) Like only cried/teared when I was by myself hehehe, like when I was cycling at Pier 2 exhibition, along the ferry pier on Monday after softball (but it wasn't that obvious cause I was just cycling v slowly as though I was too tired hahaha) and when I was in school after meeting my taiwan buddy. Or at times when I'm just alone at homeee, like when all of my housemates weren't in. I guess it helped alot in making sure I can control my emotions when I say my goodbyes hahaha. But yay goodjob debz :D
Once again, thank you guys (and girls) for making my exchange an awesome oneeee!! hopefully this is not the last time we're meeting up! Let's catch up soon someday! :)
Sigh, one day left, and there are soooo many things that I want to do but have yet to have the chance to. Time just seems to fly by, and now I'm really really reluctant to head back home, though I know I miss people back in SG, so are my parents. But still, let's hope tomorrow will be a good day so that I'm not leaving any regrets behind :')
Sunday and Monday well spent though I did not get the chance to eat my five meals at Yanchengpu. But heyyyy more things off the to-eat list!!! Really don't think I can ever finish the list. Shall list everything when I have time :) And also more toys - I don't really remember being so crazy for toys back in SG.....
Anyway, just a brief idea of how I spent my past 2 days! (Definitely going to blog it out someday..... maybe when I'm on the train/plane/back in SG)
Sunday - Last date with Heidi buddy / Steel exhibition that is still under construction / YCP shopping, recommended by the Yakult Green Tea lady / WAN BING / Dinner at YCP / Kaisyuan & Jinzhuan night markets / Supper @ Hi-life / Dozing off with my laptop till daybreakkkk hahaha.
Monday - School to settle leaving procedures / Lunch with Bryan and Shihui / wash clothes / pack clothes / softball / dinner & tofu bing (last time already!)
That aside, packing my luggage is really a pain in the ass omg why my luggage weight seem to have exceeded the limit when I have already thrown so many things to the boxes to ship!! Seems like some people will not receive their gifts soooon if I have to ship more stuff!
Shall finish my work tonight, wake up early to cycle around for the last time; need to sell my bicycle tmr :( And get some last minute gifts, change money for Taipei, and finish packing up. (Need to ship by tmr ahhhhh!!!) Lastly, if there's a need to, I'll consider adding baggage meh! But I don't think I'll have the strength to carry it myself.
Need to transfer photos out so that I can capture the last moments here in Kaohsiung :') And print those pictures for keepsake!
Omg song on loop - good recommendation hahaha but it sounds so emo nemo - totally fit in the settings for a goodbye :/
~3 days left in Kaohsiung - I'm trying very hard not to remember this and try to enjoy myself to the fullest before heading back.. And this includes clearing as many things on my to-do and to-eat lists before heading back.
& That being said, that was what I have been doing for the past 2 days! Going on spontaneous dates to do all of these! Super thankful to Lynn/Darius/Anna/Yanni for agreeing to do these with me; if not for them, I really don't know what else I'll do while le housemates are away except enjoying my alone time touring Kaohsiung. (I really wouldn't mind this, but I feel that I'll be happier with my friends cause these few days are probably the last few days I'll see all of them - some of which I'll probably never see in school anymore) So yeaps, these two days I've been out for the whole day though I'm supposed to be finishing up my risk final assignment and packing up. And initially I wanted to blog daily to do up posts where I have visited while I can still remember, but really no time ah!!
Friday (2/1/2015) - Escape Room & Honey Creme Ice Cream & Xin Jue Jiang
Enjoyable Friday afternoon spent at #freeinghk escape room with Lynn, Darius, Anna and Yanni!! :D Super happy that this plan still went on despite the fact that we only had 4 people initially so it was too expensive to get the 8-people group price but lucky Yanni decided to come with us!! :) And we are super funny ahhhh - Not smart but we still decided to up the game by choosing the hardest room Silent Blood. And we're lucky that we still got student discount so it got even cheaper per pax ^^
-Spoilers ahead-
But I guess it was really worth the money, mainly because of the company! HAHA we got stuck at the first section for damn long cause we never knew such cool technology existed, and we are doing all the wrong things there LOL (even after we sought help). But yeah the subsequent sections were slightly smoother when we started to figure how things work... But the funniest part was still at the last section where.. 1) We moved the skeleton prop out to another area of the room HAHAHA cause we got no idea what we are supposed to do even after getting all the hints. But hey in the end we managed to find the key cause I inspected the prop thoroughly HAHAHA!! (shan't say how I did that) And 2) We got the escape key a few seconds before times up but we didn't know it was for escaping so yeah... we played with the props again HAHAHAHAHAHAHA. In short, we were mainly laughing non-stop in the room!! So yeah.. we sort of failed it but they allowed us to finish the whole game ^^ And yeah we got praised cause it was a really hard room but we were fast, if not for shifting and playing around with the props! #skeletonpropsareourbestfriends
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We took this picture to let people guess! But technically we DID finish the game though!
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And since it was so fun, I suggested going for another room and they all didn't mind yay :) So we tried the pirates-theme one cause it's damn cool that our hands would be tied up at the start!! So yeah, it was another round of laughter-filled room cause there were skeleton props AGAIN, so we did the same thing of thoroughly inspecting them though there wasn't a need to HAHAHAHAHA.
But it was epic that we found an important clue without using the prop they gave us HAHAHA - At the last stage we kept thinking that some prop was key for escaping but in the end it was a useless prop for us cause we already got the clue by another method which I guess they didn't expect to.
Also, cause our help buzzer wasn't really working, so we had to wave and call for them. But somehow there were two incidences where we solved the clue right before they came we just said we pressed wrongly HAHAHAHA. Lastly we cannot read instructions properly - reading 'after' as 'before LOL. No wonder we couldn't escapeeeee. But we still finished in at least 5 minutes before time's up!
So after 2 rounds of playing we randomly decided to get... HONEY CREME!! Because there was 1-for-1 woohooo! And it's my first time trying :) Will never get to try this if not for them omg happydebs!!! I got the honey flavoured one and it was quite nice! :)
And we went back to central park for dinner (like a jokez cause we were there in the afternoon) but the Korean place where we wanted to eat at.... HAD FINISHED SELLING ALL THEIR CHICKENS HAHAHAHA. So yeaps, we got food around Xin Jue Jiang! Didn't get my favourite 天使雞排, but we tried the Nodding Chicken stall which was not bad too - Seaweed nodding chicken cubes, fries and Cheesy Fried Chicken Cutlet ^^ And tried this bun recommended by Anna - it has egg and meat in a bun. It was good and I wanted another one but they finished selling them so quickly omg!!!
But so sorry that I cannot be as spontaneous to go on a movie date cause I really spent a lot that day and I was up early with v little sleep!! :/ And I was so tired that I slept early without doing my work hahaha.
Saturday - 柴山/壽山, 凹子底
Saturday well spent with Lynn & Darius! Super thankful for agreeing to go with something that I randomly suggested HAHAHA. And yeah sorry for not allowing y'all to go on dates, LOL. (Hehehe kiddingz)
So yeah, woke up super early to meet them for breakfast - tried this egg burger that was really quite good at this shop named "Jie Mei"! Kudos for clearing another thing on my to-eat list which is to try breakfast places that I have yet to try before. And hey, I ate bread!^^
So yeap, we went to Long Quan Shi to begin our hike at 柴山!! We took the leisure trail up, but it is not as easy as expected - A LOT OF STAIRS UP!! (And they are long flights of stairs hahahaha) Can totally feel our legs starting to ache at the top when we enjoy our well-deserved 養身茶 :D And we got to see many monkeys - during the hike and at the top!!
Being adventurous, we decided to try a different route back down, and we passed by this super steep slope where you have to grab on to tree branches and ropes to get down! And if you slip and fall can 斷手斷腳 oneeee! Super scared but we went ahead anyways!! Thankful that we met this uncle who hikes often to teach us how to get down the slope safely; he's damn good eh, we watched him climb up the slope as though it was nothing difficult!! #noobdieus!!
We met this crossroad that can link us to 壽山, and we decided to go for it though it would take longer to descend! Super rocky paths but it wasn't too difficult! :) We met this speaker who shared his expertise on dealing with monkeys at the peak of 柴山 and he was nice to lead us to the exit near the 壽山zoo. Cause we told him we didn't understand what we was talking about earlier, he voluntarily offered to repeat everything in Chinese so that we can catch what he is saying ^^ So yeaps, it was a fun hike for close to 4 hours and we learnt quite a bit!
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| Super nice background and this is only one of the many long flights of stairs behind |
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| This looked like we were at the peak but no, we were only halfway through then! @ Outlook Pavilion |
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| The super scary slope down! I was near the end of it where you can just grab onto the rope and walk down safely :D |
Headed to Aozidi for lunch, and yay I tried a different brand of milk tea and pancakes today after lunch! Sat down outside the bubbletea shop for damn long to talk/share stories HAHA before getting Lynn's dinner and visiting their apartment! And so another day was spent like that! Wanted to meet le buddy cause we wanted to pass me something but I guess it was a bit too impromptu cause I have yet to finish my stuff! Had my last plate of fried rice here, as well as my ice cream red tea!! :( Need to clear my to-eat list, one which included chicken chop spaghetti served on hot plate that are commonly found at night markets! Could have gotten it at Gushan night market but was too lazy to head back there :/ And I think I won't get to eat it unless I go to Ruifeng tomorrow night.... which is not very likely ahhhhh.
Okay, time to do work and START PACKING. Must finish these two before I sleeeeep!! And yes my card!!!!!
On a side note, the end is really near :( Got my tickets to Taipei and Taoyuan airport yesterday... #dontwanttoleaveyet :(((((
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