Random Funny Thing

Dear jumjum...

  Every hall has a few 'aunties' who take care of and maintain the halls and are stationed at the front desks. They speak Cantonese but I try to smile or wave or say 'zhou san' because it just feels so impolite to walk out of the building without addressing them. 

 Anyway today one aunty came into our tiny private area (where our toilet and bathroom is) and told me she was looking for the girl in 319, my neighbour, who was in our room at the time. And my neighbour was very surprised so I asked the aunty, 'meh si ah?' and she was struggling to answer because I didn't understand her Cantonese answer...but finally she came up with an English word while pointing downstairs- 'policeman' !!! My neighbour totally freaked out and was like, oh no oh nooo what did I do?! I was pretty shocked too but the aunty was trying to calm her down and she was like, go down and you'll understand.

  And sitting in the lobby was.... a delivery man! With a courier package for her! LOL! All three of us started laughing like mad. And the aunty asked me how to call him and I was like, 'POSTMAN!' xD

*atm*

Of Utilising Our Free Time & Stuff Overload!!

Dear jumjum...

   It's a privilege to wake up to this every morning. That's all.

   I was super duper blur about choosing courses for my next four years and I really felt left behind by everyone else. There's like this requirement, that requirement, credit transfer options from A Levels and bla bla bla. So I chit za bek za woke up and when to the School of Science office for advise once it opened. The advisor is really really funny. Everytime she enters a room, she'll go "Hello!" in a very high pitched, cheerful voice. And she carries around this piece of paper with the details of all the new science students in the smallest print possible. Honestly she's like Santa! She knows everything we did before we came to UST! She's really good and kind though...cleared up all my questions under 5 minutes!

  My korean neighbour's friends in Year 2 advised her to enjoy the free time that we have now, because it'll disappear very very soon. So today we went shopping! Again. At Festival Walk, in Kowloon Tong. We had the first real taste of HK dining- finding no place to sit at the food court. I finally managed to grab a vacant table and this little kid just calmly sat down at the table, avoiding eye contact! I wasn't in the mood to cause a scene so I just walked away and went to wait by another family who looked like they were about to finish. Then this couple in their twenties came by and eyed the same table. I looked at them and in my mind I was like, don't you dare! And the !"£$%^&* woman saw me, went up to the man at the table and asked to have his table when he was done! Like WTH!!! She KNEW I was waiting there first! I very nearly yelled at her. The only thing stopping me was 1, I'm not fluent in Cantonese, 2, I'm a foreigner, 3, my korean neighbour came up to me right at that instant. Still, when I walked passed her later on I felt like spitting in her food. Very evil thought. But seriously. Didn't let her spoil my day though...told myself to let it go, get used to it and get ready to defend myself next time!

  After Festival Walk I went to my aunt and uncle's place for dinner again. They are way too nice. They always feed me like a cow as if  to fatten me up! My cousin's grandmother is always forcing me to finish the soup ever since she knew I like soup. (I learned that the Cantonese are big on soups) and everytime I come back from my aunt and uncle's they WILL give me stuff. And my dorm is so small!!! I have a large bag of just the randomest stuff on the floor next to my bed and it annoys the heck out of me. I like everything organized on the shelves but there honestly isn't any more space! I have THREE sets of bed sheets. 500 raincoats and about 1000 shower caps. Let's just focus on the food I have in my dorm currently (some of it I bought myself and added to my troubles):

-Four maxi packs of Jacob's-like biscuits but thinner.
-3 apples
-Instant coffee mix x48 sachets (it was buy one box free one box! And I need coffee)
-2 bars of chocolate
-2 packs of chocolate-covered biscuits
-3 packs of instant noodles (between my mum and aunt)
-1 large pack of oats
-1 loaf of bread (I'll force my roommates to finish it with me)
-3 cans of tuna spread
-Butter
-Leftovers from cousin's grandmother
-9 packs of roasted seaweed (it was on promotion)
-Almonds
-3 mini buns (I intended to eat for breakfast tomorrow)
-Raw mushroom, cabbage and tofu (I wanna cook tomorrow- no more eating out!)
-1 pack of rice !!!
-2 packs of Japanese curry paste
-1 bottle Japanese salad dressing
-1 big bag of asssorted tea packets
-1 bottle of honey

Bought myself, Mum, Aunt

  And that's not counting the cutlery and utensils I have here =S Just remember that whatever happens and for whatever reasons I'm stuck in the dorm with no supplies, I'm good. For at least a month. Haha! In all seriousness, I know that I'm very very lucky to have caring relatives here with me. and it trains my muscles lugging plastic bags full of stuff up and down buses and all the way to the dorm... 

*atm*

Frustrated but Grateful

Dear jumjum...

  I asked about scholarship condition for the undergraduate students who took A Levels today, because I really do feel that I should try my hardest to try and ease my family's financial burden. And to cut a long story short,  it was very unfruitful and annoying. Haiz. Wished I could've gotten at least a 10% scholarship? It would still be something =( 

 Anyway, I am very grateful for the three friends I made here, with whom I can talk to and hang out with and have meals with and ask for help from (course registration preparation today, I was totally blur) I really don't know how I would get by these first few days without them. Oh and we realised the weirdest thing today when we all took out our laptops to research course options- my roommate and our neighbour use the same Samsung laptop, and the European girl and I use the same HP Ultrabook model! But different versions so similar but different sizes. LOL!

*atm*

New Rommate

Dear jumjum...

  So I do have a roomate! A korean girl also. She arrived two nights ago at 1am! Alone! And her first time to HK! Man I salute her. Luckily I wasn't asleep yet because although she had the key card, I locked the door from inside too. Heh. She's into makeup too so we have that in common. 

  So yesterday the four of us- european, korean roommate, korean neighbour and I went for lunch together and did some more campus exploring...And they were talking about the rumour that four people at our uni committed suicide last year (rest their souls if it is indeed true) and we concluded that we would never do that cause we all laugh too much lol!

  The counsellors organised a talk? program? for us yesterday and it was all about dealing with homesickness and stress. To be honest, hearing her talk about being homesick homesick homesick made me homesick! I wasn't even THAT homesick before but after that talk I went back to my dorm and started crying once my roommate went out. And later that night she told me that she felt the same too! It was like, induced homesickness! Even our neighbour came over to our room at night cause she was feeling lonely.

*atm*

Dorm Move-in

Dear jumjum...

  Moved in on Wednesday. Double room but until now tak ada roommate. Hoping that I'm alone for privacy and more space! 

  Two double rooms share a toilet and bathroom, so today when I heard the next door open I rushed to open mine to say hi. She's a pretty, shy Korean girl. Met her again when we went to apply for student ID...and we ended up sticking to each other for the whole day =)

  Since we're both so shy, we sat really far away from everyone during the UG dinner. And a European girl came and asked if she could take a seat so we started talking to her too. Then I saw this Chinese girl eating alone, standing in the corner. So the European girl invited her to sit with us too. Then the four of us went down to the beach! Unfortunately it was closed. Probably because of the high tide at night?

  Oh yes, on Wednesday night our Malaysian seniors arranged to meet us in the atrium and bring us out. We took the bus and went for a chinese dinner. They were really nice and funny and caring. Most of them are from around KL, and I highly suspect that I am the only one who doesn't speak Cantonese... (trying!) They also brought us to buy an octopus card and bedding stuff, both of which I didn't need thanks to my aunt and uncle who keep giving me stuff! Speaking of which, I think I'm running out of storage space =S

  Mummy went back today =(((( I finally cried since coming to HK. Good that I made new friends today, otherwise tonight will be emo night! The Korean girl's mum went back today too, and I told her to come knock on my door if she can't sleep.

  Busy busy week ahead! No photos of my dorm because I'm not satisfied with the arrangement yet. Oh and I'll try to wake up early tomorrow to see the sunrise- sea view from my window! Also, my neighbour, the European girl and I plan to go running on the track in the morning IF we can wake up. xD

  Oh almost forgot- am currently blogging on my SPANKING NEW LAPTOP. It's a 15 inch HP. I like big screens and I cannot lie =D

StudentID, Dorm Key Card and Octopus!

*atm*

Fourth Day in HK

Dear jumjum...

  Okay short post today. I is very tired. Today we went to Fa Yuen Kai 华园街, which is basically a day time-night market, with shops and stalls along a long street. I foresee that I shall visit there often for clothes. Hehehe. 

Creamy custard buns are the ♥!

  We went to two electronics shops to look for the laptop I chose from the uni promotion website but couldn't find it, and I couldn't decide if I should just buy another one. I dunno. Have never owned a laptop before and I'm a tech noob, no idea what to look for in a laptop. Honestly (this makes me sound like an airhead...) the most important thing to me is how it looks. I like big screens and thin laptops which are preferably light! 

  My uncle drove us up to The Peak on HK island. 

 It was beautiful and cooling and nice up there but it kinda made me emo...because my dad's leaving tomorrow and I'm moving into my dorm too, and as he pointed out, it'll be the first time I go stay somewhere totally alone. Don't even know half a soul there, no idea what kind of roommate I'll be assigned to. (Please please please roommate, don't be someone like me. We'll emo each other out and jio each other to go shopping all the time...) anyway at least I can still escape back to the city to see my mummy- at least til Friday, and at least my parents and aunt have got everything ready for me already, even bars of chocolate to battle emo attacks! *wink*

*atm*

  

Third Day in HK

Dear jumjum...

  This is my student visa story, prelude to what I had to do today. It is long and sorta complicated so skip if you have no interest.

***

 We had to apply for it before our A-Levels exam, through the university. They told us that they would only courier it to us once our offer is confirmed- when our results meet the conditions. So the A-Levels students had a pretty tight timeline from the confirmation on the 13th to moving in on the 21st.

  Awhile before our results were announced, the uni sent us an email saying those who have not received their student visa, please enter HK with a tourist visa, then get the student visa from the uni, and go to Macau before re-entering HK to activate the student visa. Then I got my results, and my dad said I should come earlier to accustom myself to HK first before moving into the dorm, so I booked a flight 4 days after the results were released.

  Two days after booking, I received an email saying that they have sent out my student visa and I should receive it by Monday. I was like =O!!! I knew that it would take at least three days to reach Kuching but there was nothing I could do save tracking my documents day and night online. By Saturday I left Kuching without my student visa- and when we landed in KL, V called and told us my visa had just arrived. TMD!!!

 Anyway V couriered it back to HK for me and it arrived this morning! YAY! Thank God! I was sick with worry that it wouldn't arrive before my program registration this week- no activated student visa, means no program registration, means no student ID, which means cannot start up bank account, cannot apply for HKID, cannot apply for Student Octopus Card...

***

  Instead of going to Macau to activate my visa, my aunt suggested that I go to Shenzhen by train. According to her, it's nearer and cheaper (although you have to pay for visa-on-arrival and that ain't cheap) I think it took about half an hour to go to the end of the line, Lo Wu from Kowloon Dong. Thank goodness for my aunt accompanying me! Wouldn't have a clue what to do or where to go otherwise.

  My first time in China! We went there, took a spin around the shopping mall (big on selling counterfeits), then headed back to HK. 

  There are two different levels for HK residents and foreign passport holders at the immigration. My aunt took the resident one and I went to the foreign one, arranging to meet at the 7-11 before boarding the train. After lining up all the way to the front, the officer told me that with my visa, I should've went to the other level! And I tell you, the queues were crazy long okay! I wasn't even sure which queue to join...

  When I finally got through I was thinking that my aunt would surely be worried about me, cause I had no phone number for her to contact me. There was so many people and I walked up and down around 7-11 and I couldn't find her. I asked for directions to the phone booth and the stupid thing ate up all my coins! I had to buy some water just to get more coins, but the operator recording told me (with what little Canto I could understand) that no such number exists. At this point I was scaring myself that some bad guy would surely target the lost girl walking up and down...(don't laugh okay it was terrifying)

  I spotted a pair of policemen and I approached them to ask for help. And one of them was really, really handsome, like TVB drama material handsome. I kid you not. And he told me in English, that I shouldn't dial the whole number, and told me where to start. And as I hung up the phone after contacting my aunt, he came up to me and asked me where I was from. Then he asked me if I came across the border from China. LOL. 

  Went to my uncle's place for dindin. And that was pretty much my day. =)

*atm*

First Day part 2 + Second Day in HK

Dear jumjum...

  Okay where was I? I left two little brothers at home (Z and Mark me cousin) and gained one here- my HK cousin Edwin. Honestly he's just like my brother. Computer computer all day, erryday!

  We went to St Theresa's Church today. It's a very old church that was renovated...

Old-school organ!

  Also, I just realised that HK has a cardinal! Cardinals are the ones who, when it's time to elect a new pope, gather and elect the next one from amongst themselves. I have never seen one in real life and I wanna meet him! (Msia tak ada) 

  After a yummy dimsum lunch, my HK uncle drove us to see the campus. He's been so nice and helpful since I landed. He said he doesn't want me to feel helpless and alone, as he did 30 years ago when he went to London to study. 

  So the campus is kinda on the outskirts, I think about half an hour's drive from Kowloon City. Which is good for me since this shopaholic would be slightly isolated from the big big malls! The campus has more tiles than I expected =S weird thing to say but I have this issue with tiles heh heh. But I guess it keeps the walls clean. But the view! Ohmahdays!! You can see the islands nearby and the yatchs and little boats sailing around. 

View from me dorm hall! Wish Cam is here to run with me =(

  I can see the sea from my dorm hall but I really dunno what I'll have to deal with if a typhoon comes..the waves =O unless I get a back room, where I'll have mountain view instead. Me no likey. Me likey infinity sea view. Didn't really get to walk around the main academic building because there was parking time limit, but definitely will explore when I move in on Wednesday.

  After that we went to a nearby erm...town? Called Sai Kung 西贡, where the Hongkies go to the islands for the beach by ferry or yatchs. 

Boats selling seafood. People yell down what they want, they kill it on the spot and clean it, then lift it up with a net on a pole to the buyer.

  Then we walked around Kowloon City for my dorm supplies. Got most of my toiletries. Apparently buying shampoo and stuff from the small convenience shops are slightly cheaper than buying them from supermarkets. Haven't been to the big malls though, probably do that tomorrow. 

  Went about all day in my long pants since church...so super uncomfortable!!! Not exactly hot, but super duper humid so it feels like it's hotter. Dad and I suspect that the humidity makes us both feel tired too. I don't remember who but someone from Kuching told me not to wear my my contact lenses here cause it's very dry. Whattheheck wrong info!

  But so far so good! Picked up quite a lot of Cantonese today! Proud of meself. =)

*atm*

First Day in HK!

Dear jumjum...

  I feel like I've been so busy these few days that I haven't really been able to prepare for leaving my home town =( I filmed some home videos of my family, wrote some rushed letters for friends, but that's about it. Oh yes, and last night right before going to sleep, I realised my mistake of not bringing any "cuties"- what my bro and I used to call our soft toys (before he grew up and out of it =( )...I only brought jumjum. That was stupid. Should've brought at least two =(

  Anyway sad stuff aside, thank God for cloudy but clear skies when mum and I landed in the evening! I was really excited and kept peering out of the window in the plane to see the HK skyline. So pretty! Okay I know I sound super sua gu but I am. It was nice to see clusters of big tall buildings, and then regions of absolute green.

  Okay time for church gtg!

Beyond Nervous?

Dear jumjum...

  Okay before I left to tutor, I was more or less drafting in my head what to blog about today. I was initially going to write about how I am beyond nervous- I have been counting down the days to 13th August on my wardrobe since a month ago and I've been praying every night about my future education practically since exams started in May, and it was as if I had no more nerves left to be nervous anymore. Or so I thought.

  Now that it's getting late and I'm getting tired and emo levels are increasing, I'm getting intermittent heart attacks thinking about all the what if's for tomorrow. It all started when I called Ele (who has kindly offered to view my results with me since everyone else from A Levels has decided that the best course is to view it alone...), and she asked me if she should drive since it wouldn't be advisable for me to drive home crying my eyes out, and I was like, "I dunno...I dunno.." and I just had a super hard time making a super simple decision. 

  Arghhh I don't even know where I'm going with this post. I've been basically telling myself that if my results meet the uni's conditions and I get in, great, I'll be very happy and proud of myself but it'll definitely be a challenge to study there. If my results aren't as expected then I'll just go to a local uni and save myself a ton of stress and my parents a lot of money. So yea, either way (I HOPE) I've got myself covered.

  Okay too depressing, change topic. 

  I have been taking guitar lessons again after a year of hiatus and today my guitar teacher took out a piece and was like, "Okay Jacq, we'll do this piece next lesson. I know you like this one right?" And I was really, REALLY surprised. It was about two years ago when this dude who was in a much higher grade than me had replacement class during my lesson. I really really liked the song he was playing so I took note of the title and asked my teacher to play it for me in the next lesson. Two years and my teacher still remembers the exact piece I liked. So touched! So apparently I'm advanced enough to play it now WHEEEEEEE~

*atm*

My favourite female author

Dear jumjum...

  I'm not like Z and V who enjoys the books my father reads about lawyers and crimes and the mafia... I once tried reading a book about Lee Kuan Yew and was bored to death, except for the part about how he met and courted his late wife. I'm the dumb one who reads mostly chick lits, but lately I've grown really sick of them. Perhaps because I've read too many of them or because I've just grown out of them. Anyway the books I really do enjoy currently are those by international best-selling author Cecelia Ahern...but I'm not really sure if her books fall into the chick lit category, they probably do, but in like, upper-class chick lit.

  Okay so about Cecelia- she is the daughter of the former prime minister of Ireland, Bertie Ahern. She used to be in an Irish pop group! This is news to me. She obtained a degree in journalism and media communications. Besides writing novels, she also created and produced the ABC comedy Samantha Who? and she has a daughter and a son with her partner. Also, I just found out that her sister married one of the Westlife guys.






  I just finished reading one of her latest, The Time of My Life and I think it's one of her best. Most of Cecelia's books are erm...fictional? I don't like using that word to describe it but I can't think of anything else. It's fictional in a very beautiful way. Like a fairy tale without the fairies and elves. Hahaha. This sounds ridiculous. For example, Thanks For the Memories revolves around the idea that the recipient of a blood transfusion also receives the memories of the blood donor. A Place Called Here is about a young detective who is obsessed with finding missing things and missing persons, and one day she herself goes missing and she ends up in the place where all missing things go. The Gift is about a career-obsessed man who is running out of time but doesn't know it. He meets a homeless man (after finishing the book I conclude the man is something like his guardian angel) who gives him the ability to be in two places at once so that he doesn't have to choose between his job and family during the last days of his life. 

  It sounds so cheesy when I summarise the stories like that but like I said before, it is written in a really beautiful and realistic way. They're the kind of stories that make you really think about it after you finish it. 

  Not all of her novels are fictional- Where Rainbows End is one of my favourites, and she tells the entire story (save the last chapter) by notes, letters, cards and emails between two childhood friends and their loved ones and not a single dialogue or desciption, and I think that is totally amazing! P.S. I Love You is her debut and most popular novel about a woman who loses the love of her life to cancer, and on her birthday she finds a bundle of notes from him, gently guiding her into her new life without him, each signed ‘PS, I Love You’. Oh yes, it was also made into a movie! It was the first of her books that I read in 2008, introduced and lent to my sister by her friend. The reason I don't own that book is because I cried again and again throughout the book, and so I alwas prefer to buy her new books than buy one that I already read and cried buckets over. But it's been so long since I read it- I think I'm gonna get it the next time I see it. 

  Anyway I highly, highly recommend her books to anyone who is as eng as me now. Just let me know and I can lend it to you anytime =) Also, I have the entire Shopaholic series by Sophie Kinsella and some of her other books, all ten of The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot and some other random chick lits to lend. 

  Find all of her books here: http://uk.cecelia-ahern.com/books/

*atm*

The Lenians+Retard Retreat

Dear jumjum…

Pic of the polaroid- hence the reflection

  Over the weekend The Lenians had (what we hope to be) our annual complimentary (thanks to Cam and Ele’s parents’ membership) hotel sleepover at Hilton Kuching, which was a major upgrade from our room last year at Grand Magherita hehe. This time round Joshua came back for his study leave, so we invited him to join us, we bullied him into taking endless photographs for us, and banished him to sleep on the sofa.

Comparing the poses xD

 Ele, Cam and I arrived first and we were trying to do reenactments of pictures we took at the hotel last year…and it was a major fail! (pictures are with Cam) The principle of the whole thing was so funny because we looked up the pictures and studied them hard to imitate the poses- and all of the poses were on the bed!

 

The kimono from the closet

  (Before reading this part you have to understand that all five of us get a bit crazy when the mood arises) Sometime in the afternoon Josh started charging at us with twin pillows so I started running towards the bathroom and yelled at the girls to join me and we locked ourselves in. The bathroom light switch was on the outside so Josh switched it off and we were in total darkness- which wasn’t scary at all, but Freda let out such a blood-curling scream I really thought she saw something! Ish! After a while we got bored so we decided to formulate an attack strategy with our only resource-water. We wet some face towels to use as slings and made balls of wet tissue for “bullets”, while playing songs from Cam’s phone in an attempt to cover the water sound. Armed with our weapons and shouting war cries, we flung the door open and charged towards the lump on the bed before we realized it was just a bunch of pillows Josh arranged under the covers to trick us while he surprise-attacked us from behind (he was hiding in the closet- we so dumb!) And a violent, wet war ensued =)

Hiding in th toilet before the lights went off...don't ask me why Freda ran into the bathroom with a pillow LOL

  We went to Kuching Fest for dinner and it friggin rained! Then us girls went to 7-11 to buy water while Josh went back to the room to shower first. When we got back he was still in the bathroom so we had to wait outside- and then two angmos came and asked us if everything was okay. Turns out they were staying in the next room. After explaining our situation, they were like, “Oh okay. By the way, you guys were pretty loud” ahhh so paise!! We apologized, and they were smiling and said: “It’s okay, it was very funny to hear you guys, just don’t do it tonight please” OH MAH DAYS SO DIU LIAN. And so we spent the rest of the night shush-ing each other..

  

  We had a really long ‘heart-to-heart’ session that night and lost Cam who was down with flu halfway through the night xD by the time we were really down for the count and ready to sleep, it was almost 5am =O I’m pretty sure I fell asleep halfway through my nightly prayer too..

  

  The next morning I woke up to find that I had stolen all of Ele’s share of the blanket teehee. Then I realized it was 10+ am so I pulled back the curtains to get them up for breakfast at Green Hill Corner. Then Josh went to the pool and the girls went to the sauna and steam room before we packed up and checked out. Oh oh! And Freda and Josh helped me unlock my dream of doing a handstand! (they each took one leg to get me in position) Nice weekend! =)

Dancing in the lobby xD

                

*atm*