My losses…4A’s gathering, many once-in-a-lifetime 21st birthday celebrations, Kristal and Esther’s return, church camp… 终于领悟到有得必有失的道理……
The first thought when I awoke this morning was, “I’m leaving next Sat…” As I tossed and turned in bed, I couldn’t really decide what to do for today. I knew I had to write two pieces of hard news, and they were to be about Shaoyuan and the recent suspension of the 周末文化市场, but where do I start?
Thankful. Knowing that Eric bought 1000rmb worth of books in PKU, I needed his opinion on his favourite haunt’s suspension. Also through him, I managed to get the contacts of a vendor…my potential interviewee. Aye…you know, it usually isn’t a problem getting people to talk when you represent an organisation, but when you are writing a piece of news for an exam, who would bother? I was hesitant about calling the stranger, but I had to! Thankful…It turned out to be a rewarding 20mins phone interview! Fruitful! I was exceedingly cautious about not using any English or Singlish so that she could understand me, and now I know…I can speak proper Chinese!!! Hooray!!! =P Before we hung up, the Sichuan lady called me 小何 and that felt really 亲切! Hee…
The story took me half of the afternoon, and when I finally went down for my favourite noodles, the shop was having a “sanitary break” from 2.30 to 4.30pm. Sigh. Ended up trying 红烩鸡肉饭 at 康博思中餐部, and at 药膳 for dinner, mama and I ordered 铁板鸡串. Both my lunch and dinner were tomato-based dishes! Yeee…I conclude that I detest ketchup!!! =S
My second story was about Shaoyuan’s demolishment, and the undergraduates’ move to a new dormitory. Hmm, would it still be called Shaoyuan? While surfing the net, I could not find any negative Chinese news at all about the issue (the only one from Taiwan was blocked). Instead, I came across the following:
The toilets in China are primarily an oval shaped hole in the ground.
Hahahahaaaaaaa…!!! Mind you, this wasn’t just some comment from Tom, Dick or Harry. It was stated in a Guide to Study in China by Dickinson College in Pennsylvania! Somehow, I wished universities in Singapore could publish such guides too. Blatant explicit descriptions might have prevented the NUS exchange student in Xian from giving derogatory comments about China.
Ooooo yeah…I’m done with my two pieces of hard news!
gRacE =)
Monday, June 12, 2006
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Revelations!
It’s always nice to have dear friends keep in touch, even if it’s just through a simple mail.
"anywya, some minor updates from home, gracia's back already, i havent seen her yet, but shes sick ah. quite sick i heard, so u better drink lotsa water and prepare urself physically for the change from china to singapore ah.
and secondly, melissa and lance are married already. serious. pics are up at mel's blog. i see i oso kena stun. so young married liao leh. u dun chu stunt and marry some china boy ah. im a 100 times better."
I read and re-read SQ’s last paragraph. I don’t think I was consciously thinking, but I sure was overwhelmed with unidentifiable emotions. All I wanted to do then was to verify the truth, through Mel’s blog and whoever I could contact. I then realised that almost everyone from church was at Port Dickson, Malaysia, for the annual church camp.
To say that I was surprised is an understatement. SQ was right…STUNNED is a better word. Not just because the couple are the first friends of mine to tie the knot, but also because we never saw it coming! Hmm…then again, me in China and SQ in Tekong…
Anyway, my sincerest blessings to Mr. and Mrs. Lance Oh!!! ;)
Hurting, but Hopeful
Dick Dowsett from England shared the message at BICF this morning, centring on 2 Corinthians 4:6-5:9. His message caught my attention right from the beginning to the end, and he didn’t lose me a bit. I see God’s empowerment through this humble speaker, and older believers like him who has roughed it out, and seen many others through lives’ ups and downs, have certainly encouraged me.
How many times have you read or heard the passage on Treasures in Jars of Clay? I have, umpteen times, and they have become mere words…well, at least till today. More and more, I am coming to understand our vulnerability (a physical body that is fading away, and having so many things that are beyond our control), and in contrast, God’s absolute power.
I have so many faults. It is so tempting to live for the approval of self and man. When is the day people will look at me and say, “Wow…What a wonderful God!”
I am not in a valley low at the moment, but when God decides that I should walk that path in the future, I pray that I will remember that I am “hard pressed on each side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed”.
My God can be trusted. There is HOPE. I have HOPE.
gRacE =D
"anywya, some minor updates from home, gracia's back already, i havent seen her yet, but shes sick ah. quite sick i heard, so u better drink lotsa water and prepare urself physically for the change from china to singapore ah.
and secondly, melissa and lance are married already. serious. pics are up at mel's blog. i see i oso kena stun. so young married liao leh. u dun chu stunt and marry some china boy ah. im a 100 times better."
I read and re-read SQ’s last paragraph. I don’t think I was consciously thinking, but I sure was overwhelmed with unidentifiable emotions. All I wanted to do then was to verify the truth, through Mel’s blog and whoever I could contact. I then realised that almost everyone from church was at Port Dickson, Malaysia, for the annual church camp.
To say that I was surprised is an understatement. SQ was right…STUNNED is a better word. Not just because the couple are the first friends of mine to tie the knot, but also because we never saw it coming! Hmm…then again, me in China and SQ in Tekong…
Anyway, my sincerest blessings to Mr. and Mrs. Lance Oh!!! ;)
Hurting, but Hopeful
Dick Dowsett from England shared the message at BICF this morning, centring on 2 Corinthians 4:6-5:9. His message caught my attention right from the beginning to the end, and he didn’t lose me a bit. I see God’s empowerment through this humble speaker, and older believers like him who has roughed it out, and seen many others through lives’ ups and downs, have certainly encouraged me.
How many times have you read or heard the passage on Treasures in Jars of Clay? I have, umpteen times, and they have become mere words…well, at least till today. More and more, I am coming to understand our vulnerability (a physical body that is fading away, and having so many things that are beyond our control), and in contrast, God’s absolute power.
I have so many faults. It is so tempting to live for the approval of self and man. When is the day people will look at me and say, “Wow…What a wonderful God!”
I am not in a valley low at the moment, but when God decides that I should walk that path in the future, I pray that I will remember that I am “hard pressed on each side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair, persecuted but not abandoned, struck down but not destroyed”.
My God can be trusted. There is HOPE. I have HOPE.
gRacE =D
Friday, June 9, 2006
Uncle Ong’s 大寿
Thank God for bringing me through fiveeeee papers!!!
Thankful for Kai Qin’s 绿豆汤, Ee Jin’s invitation to watch tonight's match, Liang Zhou’s screwdriver (and invitations to watch England’s matches), and *cough cough* , I’m still drinking Jian Kang’s 板蓝根.
Mama once said that my hostel room shouldn’t house more than two people cos it becomes crammed, stuffy and unbearable. Uncle Ong aka Weilie’s 30th birthday surprise last night brought THIRTY people into Zhijian 夫妇’s room. Thought Jian Kang summed it up pretty well: Greenhouse effect.
小妹 Ruyin preparing the “cakes”
Sorrrrieeee… I was basically tagging along behind, so I managed no shots at all of Weilie’s suppose-to-be-surprised face. In fact, I almost had to elbow my way through, jump, peep, before I saw the birthday man’s face! Hee, thankfully, Kai Qin “chope-d” a small section of the bed in his room for me, so once I managed to get into the room, I got a good view of the celebration!
First off, Jia Song presented a “兽” calligraphy to represent 寿比南山 His Korean girl---friend wrote a “伟”. The paper was torn, so it literally becomes 伟…裂.
The others gave him this frame with something about a “30 Years Old Virgin”.
Tadaaaa!!! Blow the candles, cut the cake!
After all the hype in the room, we moved down and out of 勺园 onto the green grass field.
Not long after, the power supply to the entire 勺园 was cut off due to some maintenance work. How memorable indeed… The three blocks together, with their pitch dark corridors, looked like a haunted mansion right out of some movie. =P
Tadaaaaa!!! Almost 1am…
Fri-DAY saw a very stressed me faced with my fifth paper. Ahhhh…do not 临时抱佛脚!!!
Friday NIGHT, Uncle Ong’s birthday celebration continued with a yummilicious vegetarian dinner @…
Year 1 scholars...四朵花! I caught one of the “flowers”, Yvonne, staring at me over dinner. She noticed my eyessss!!!! Somewhere along the week, I got a double right eyelid! *poof!* Just like that… Now I have大小眼!!!
Looks like eel yeah? This is fried mushroom! We loved it so much each table placed a second order.
Why oh why do these sausages taste so much like reeeal sausages?
Finally, I’ve been hoping to try 水煮鱼, a famous川菜, basically made up of fresh-water fish, water, oil and lotsa 麻辣. The vegetarian version here was gooood! The “fish” slices even had fish skin on them!
After a satisfying dinner, Uncle Ong received his 寿桃 and birthday cake!
Apparently, he had requested for book vouchers or cash (something practical I guess), but the former were not available and the latter inappropriate. Hence, the group “stole” his food card and topped it up with 400rmb! Should last him one semester eh… ;)
Too touched??
大场面！
Chinese Majors...
Wei Hao giving a thumbs-up for the peach. Only knew today that he’s a scholar from CAS (Civil Aviation…errrr…)…
Cake for our table! Mama always ask for the cream…why oh why…
Yeah! This pic brings back memories of the time when we first arrived at PKU and Uncle Ong brought us around…
Tomorrow is Junyuan’s 21st birthday! Finally…finally…got to tell him that I used to see him on Bus No: 961 whenever we went to school, he at HC and I at NJ. Shunyi and Jasmine from CS were his “granddaughters” too…Such a small world indeed! Oh, Junyuan’s a PSC scholar, and so are Melissa and Regina.
I just have to say this: I am not shorter than Liang Zhou! Saved him the trouble of tiptoeing…=P
Meiying and I…how did Chek pop in…?!
Sobz…so touched…Liang Zhou finally allowed me on his bike (without saying that I would burst his tyres!), and ferried me back.
Oooooo…I think the Chinese commentators are cool. As I’m typing this blog, they successfully grabbed my attention each time before the past 3 goals were scored. Nice!
Ah…And in celebration of World Cup 2006’s opening, I’m going shopping!!! Haha… =P
*cough cough*…
gRacE =)
Thankful for Kai Qin’s 绿豆汤, Ee Jin’s invitation to watch tonight's match, Liang Zhou’s screwdriver (and invitations to watch England’s matches), and *cough cough* , I’m still drinking Jian Kang’s 板蓝根.
Mama once said that my hostel room shouldn’t house more than two people cos it becomes crammed, stuffy and unbearable. Uncle Ong aka Weilie’s 30th birthday surprise last night brought THIRTY people into Zhijian 夫妇’s room. Thought Jian Kang summed it up pretty well: Greenhouse effect.
小妹 Ruyin preparing the “cakes”
Sorrrrieeee… I was basically tagging along behind, so I managed no shots at all of Weilie’s suppose-to-be-surprised face. In fact, I almost had to elbow my way through, jump, peep, before I saw the birthday man’s face! Hee, thankfully, Kai Qin “chope-d” a small section of the bed in his room for me, so once I managed to get into the room, I got a good view of the celebration!
First off, Jia Song presented a “兽” calligraphy to represent 寿比南山 His Korean girl---friend wrote a “伟”. The paper was torn, so it literally becomes 伟…裂.
The others gave him this frame with something about a “30 Years Old Virgin”.
Tadaaaa!!! Blow the candles, cut the cake!
After all the hype in the room, we moved down and out of 勺园 onto the green grass field.
Not long after, the power supply to the entire 勺园 was cut off due to some maintenance work. How memorable indeed… The three blocks together, with their pitch dark corridors, looked like a haunted mansion right out of some movie. =P
Tadaaaaa!!! Almost 1am…
Fri-DAY saw a very stressed me faced with my fifth paper. Ahhhh…do not 临时抱佛脚!!!
Friday NIGHT, Uncle Ong’s birthday celebration continued with a yummilicious vegetarian dinner @…
Year 1 scholars...四朵花! I caught one of the “flowers”, Yvonne, staring at me over dinner. She noticed my eyessss!!!! Somewhere along the week, I got a double right eyelid! *poof!* Just like that… Now I have大小眼!!!
Looks like eel yeah? This is fried mushroom! We loved it so much each table placed a second order.
Why oh why do these sausages taste so much like reeeal sausages?
Finally, I’ve been hoping to try 水煮鱼, a famous川菜, basically made up of fresh-water fish, water, oil and lotsa 麻辣. The vegetarian version here was gooood! The “fish” slices even had fish skin on them!
After a satisfying dinner, Uncle Ong received his 寿桃 and birthday cake!
Apparently, he had requested for book vouchers or cash (something practical I guess), but the former were not available and the latter inappropriate. Hence, the group “stole” his food card and topped it up with 400rmb! Should last him one semester eh… ;)
Too touched??
大场面！
Chinese Majors...
Wei Hao giving a thumbs-up for the peach. Only knew today that he’s a scholar from CAS (Civil Aviation…errrr…)…
Cake for our table! Mama always ask for the cream…why oh why…
Yeah! This pic brings back memories of the time when we first arrived at PKU and Uncle Ong brought us around…
Tomorrow is Junyuan’s 21st birthday! Finally…finally…got to tell him that I used to see him on Bus No: 961 whenever we went to school, he at HC and I at NJ. Shunyi and Jasmine from CS were his “granddaughters” too…Such a small world indeed! Oh, Junyuan’s a PSC scholar, and so are Melissa and Regina.
I just have to say this: I am not shorter than Liang Zhou! Saved him the trouble of tiptoeing…=P
Meiying and I…how did Chek pop in…?!
Sobz…so touched…Liang Zhou finally allowed me on his bike (without saying that I would burst his tyres!), and ferried me back.
Oooooo…I think the Chinese commentators are cool. As I’m typing this blog, they successfully grabbed my attention each time before the past 3 goals were scored. Nice!
Ah…And in celebration of World Cup 2006’s opening, I’m going shopping!!! Haha… =P
*cough cough*…
gRacE =)
Thursday, June 8, 2006
As “Promised”
Closed my first-ever second-hand deal with Swimpig on a 15rmb capo!
I wonder too what caused the delay in me phoning SK. Last night, with every “truuuu-truuuuu””, my heart went “tooop! tooop!” Haha, the limitations of a language…
When he finally picked up his mobile, he asked why I chose to call at that time. Honestly, I answered that I was afraid he was at some kopitiam with his kakis, 翘起脚在喝酒. ;)
We had an amazingly long chat, about results…CS…friendship…future, and even the World Cup. He teased me of the time I brought a banana to school; chided me for bang-sehing him in journalism for PPC; updated me on “happenings”; tested me on each of our clique’s birthdays, and used my own words against me with regards to an ex-close-platonic friend. I haven’t laughed so much ever since I came to Beijing.
In closing, SK jokingly summed up his part of the conversation with the following <四字经>:
“你很漂亮！
我很想你！
快点回来！”
Thanks friend. In 106 you said you wanted to be a candle…I have certainly been touched by your warmth and light. Stay cheerful, Beckham-n-Bae Yong Jun wannabe! =P
Translation
At the beginning of the exam, every once in a few minutes, the winds howled, doors along the corridor were slammed, and we heard the shattering of glass. Dramatic.
I have always been amazed by how the locals learn the hard sciences in Chinese. Our translation passage today was about Eintein, hence terms like mass, energy, relativity etc had to be translated. Thankfully (to my trusty Oxford dictionary!), those were not problematic. Just that until now, I am still unable to effectively translate “Later on in life…” Hmmm...
gRacE =)
I wonder too what caused the delay in me phoning SK. Last night, with every “truuuu-truuuuu””, my heart went “tooop! tooop!” Haha, the limitations of a language…
When he finally picked up his mobile, he asked why I chose to call at that time. Honestly, I answered that I was afraid he was at some kopitiam with his kakis, 翘起脚在喝酒. ;)
We had an amazingly long chat, about results…CS…friendship…future, and even the World Cup. He teased me of the time I brought a banana to school; chided me for bang-sehing him in journalism for PPC; updated me on “happenings”; tested me on each of our clique’s birthdays, and used my own words against me with regards to an ex-close-platonic friend. I haven’t laughed so much ever since I came to Beijing.
In closing, SK jokingly summed up his part of the conversation with the following <四字经>:
“你很漂亮！
我很想你！
快点回来！”
Thanks friend. In 106 you said you wanted to be a candle…I have certainly been touched by your warmth and light. Stay cheerful, Beckham-n-Bae Yong Jun wannabe! =P
Translation
At the beginning of the exam, every once in a few minutes, the winds howled, doors along the corridor were slammed, and we heard the shattering of glass. Dramatic.
I have always been amazed by how the locals learn the hard sciences in Chinese. Our translation passage today was about Eintein, hence terms like mass, energy, relativity etc had to be translated. Thankfully (to my trusty Oxford dictionary!), those were not problematic. Just that until now, I am still unable to effectively translate “Later on in life…” Hmmm...
gRacE =)
Wednesday, June 7, 2006
Paper 3
Poor mama, couldn’t understand why she responded with “又是面？” when I said I wanted to have noodles for dinner. Ohhh…just realised that I had the exact same thing on Monday… =P
In NTU, you arrive at least 15 minutes before the exam, go to allocated seats, the standard papers are already on your desk, and you cannot leave within the last 15 minutes of the paper.
Oh…and you get instructions and marks allocation on each question paper too.
The instructions here are in Chinese (duh…), and for the past two papers, I haven’t had sufficient time to finish reading them. Tonight, I was glad the teacher read it out. There was something about placing your identification on the table and leaving personal belongings at a designated spot. I have come to understand that these are merely “in theory”.
Before the papers got passed down, the teacher warned us not write more than 300 words for each answer. He said we shouldn’t beat around the bush, we ought to get to the point, and it’d make things easier for us and for him. Excellent…The last time I had a maximum word limit was for GP Summary!
One hour into the exam, and with one more hour to go, the guy behind me packed up, handed in his paper and left. In the next half an hour, more than half the class did the same. With every word and sentence I added, I imagined the teacher frowning at me…Can you believe it, stressssssed cos I thought I was writing too much…
I left 5 minutes before the end of the paper, DEJECTED. Five questions with no marks allocation. First question asked for the names of countries in traditional Southeast Asia. Traditional??? The last question was interesting. I thought! I used my mind! What are some factors that can negatively affect relations between China and SEA? If I weren’t expected to think, but instead copy from notes (I really didn’t come across any related ones), then I cham le…
I wanna say that I’m halfway through the exams, with three papers down and three more to go, but my News Writing take-home examination came in today. Two pieces of hard news by next Friday. Suddenly, I felt very lost. At least Vandana told us to write about food in our basic media writing class. For this examination, any topics will do. Why am I not enjoying this freedom? Have I been “trained” to follow top-down “orders”?
That brings me to another incident today. Miss Wang, a pretty fourth-year journalism student who’s headed for her Masters in Media Policies in Columbia Univ, posed these questions to me. “Do all Singaporeans like Lee Kuan Yew?” To which I answered that most have a deep admiration for him. Then, she followed with, “What about his son, Lee Hsien Long?” This isn’t the first time that I receive such questions from locals here. Now they not only think that one gets caned for spitting in Singapore, our government has become a Lee empire.
So peeps, what do you think of our third PM?
What got me thinking was how I answered Wang. I confidently said that PM Lee had proven himself capable. She was seemingly satisfied, but I wasn’t! How has he proven himself capable??? Will time tell or have I been blinded to exhibitions of his capability?
gRacE =)
In NTU, you arrive at least 15 minutes before the exam, go to allocated seats, the standard papers are already on your desk, and you cannot leave within the last 15 minutes of the paper.
Oh…and you get instructions and marks allocation on each question paper too.
The instructions here are in Chinese (duh…), and for the past two papers, I haven’t had sufficient time to finish reading them. Tonight, I was glad the teacher read it out. There was something about placing your identification on the table and leaving personal belongings at a designated spot. I have come to understand that these are merely “in theory”.
Before the papers got passed down, the teacher warned us not write more than 300 words for each answer. He said we shouldn’t beat around the bush, we ought to get to the point, and it’d make things easier for us and for him. Excellent…The last time I had a maximum word limit was for GP Summary!
One hour into the exam, and with one more hour to go, the guy behind me packed up, handed in his paper and left. In the next half an hour, more than half the class did the same. With every word and sentence I added, I imagined the teacher frowning at me…Can you believe it, stressssssed cos I thought I was writing too much…
I left 5 minutes before the end of the paper, DEJECTED. Five questions with no marks allocation. First question asked for the names of countries in traditional Southeast Asia. Traditional??? The last question was interesting. I thought! I used my mind! What are some factors that can negatively affect relations between China and SEA? If I weren’t expected to think, but instead copy from notes (I really didn’t come across any related ones), then I cham le…
I wanna say that I’m halfway through the exams, with three papers down and three more to go, but my News Writing take-home examination came in today. Two pieces of hard news by next Friday. Suddenly, I felt very lost. At least Vandana told us to write about food in our basic media writing class. For this examination, any topics will do. Why am I not enjoying this freedom? Have I been “trained” to follow top-down “orders”?
That brings me to another incident today. Miss Wang, a pretty fourth-year journalism student who’s headed for her Masters in Media Policies in Columbia Univ, posed these questions to me. “Do all Singaporeans like Lee Kuan Yew?” To which I answered that most have a deep admiration for him. Then, she followed with, “What about his son, Lee Hsien Long?” This isn’t the first time that I receive such questions from locals here. Now they not only think that one gets caned for spitting in Singapore, our government has become a Lee empire.
So peeps, what do you think of our third PM?
What got me thinking was how I answered Wang. I confidently said that PM Lee had proven himself capable. She was seemingly satisfied, but I wasn’t! How has he proven himself capable??? Will time tell or have I been blinded to exhibitions of his capability?
gRacE =)
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