I wonder if this can be implemented in Singapore..and if it will be of any use...
From morning till evening, there has been this perpetual tension within me. Stress yes… I had to churn out the NTU ppt for the Corporate Communications office to vet, and while forcing myself to work on it, I realised that my target audience are probably PKU undergrads who wanna find out more about NTU’s Masters programmes. What do I know?!!!!
At 10 plus in the morning, Peijuan and her friends arrived from Shanghai. I really think PKU should have given us, exchange and international students, an official tour of the campus so that we can qualify as guides for visitors. ;)
Peijuan and Xingying are my Comm Studies course mates, now on exchange in Fudan University, while Hanzhong and Lynn are NUS Law students, now in one of Shanghai’s top Law schools...some 法政学院 ;)
Peijing, a NUS Law student also staying in 勺园, had prepared the 4 visitors mentally for the living condition here, so they were busy taking pictures more than oooing and ahhhing at the state of the hostel. But…as I was showing them the laundry place, a middle-aged lady walked towards us, smiling and smiling…and smiling…and smiling…
When she heard that the visitors came from Shanghai, she immediately said that their living conditions were definitely better than ours here. Then, she introduced herself as 张老师, the former director of the International Students department (if I didn’t remember wrongly). She informed us that PKU is indeed building a new hostel for foreign students, and it should be completed by next year. Finally…news from an official source. =) Knowing that we were from Singapore, she expressed her admiration for Singaporean and Thai students, who are especially hardworking here. Nice! ;) Moving on, as we passed by her office, she came out and handed us some PKU publications. Sure left a good impression on our visitors! ;)
We had all wanted to get a PKU tee each from the pushcart vendor, but once the school’s 巡逻车came, these so-called illegal vendors had to flee. I didn’t manage to get my shirt but believe the others went back after lunch to purchase them.
After a sweet-tasting lunch with dishes like 拔丝香蕉 and 咸蛋香炬南瓜, I had to leave first and come back to work on the ppt and my Newswriting mid-term take-home exam.
Leow reached my hostel around 5pm, and we departed for Tsing Hua an hour later with some other Singaporeans. Junyuan aka Ian had invited us over again for dinner, and the theme tonight was “Chinese New Year food”.
The head chef and his helpers began preparing around two plus in the afternoon, and we finally got to eat at 9pm!!! But the food was oh-so-delicious! Curry chicken was the highlight, but I particularly like the yam dishes - 算盘子and OR-NI aka yam paste.
Junxiong and Leow
Dinner was fantastic, and so was the conversation some of us had about current affairs and China issues. I learnt so much from Xu Zhou (below:2nd from left) and Li Xiao (below: extreme left), Tsing Hua’s Chemistry students. Capitalism vs Communism, military and defence, poverty and income inequality… Did you know that out of China’s 1.3 billion population, 800 million are still living in the rural areas? To give us an idea of how poor these people can be, Li Xiao said that many of them cannot imagine ever seeing a 100rmb note. It caused me to think about how in China, cashiers often have to check if the 100rmb note you hand them is counterfeit. I always found that a hassle. Also, I couldn’t understand why China hasn’t eliminated the use of
"分" (cents). Oh well…now I sure do…
Leow and I were also stunned by the estimated suicide cases in the universities…sigh…
I had a fulfilling time.
gRacE =)
No comments:
Post a Comment