sushi tei & 1st tkd training in china!!! =P

Day 25 – 16 Aug (Sat)

2nd day of school… full day of lessons from 830am – 430pm… gg… how to survive… =( the day didn’t start off too well, coz the beard papa cream puff that we bought last night seemed to have gone bad!! T_T we forgot to keep it in the fridge… I took a bite and found the cream slightly sour… so got rather wary… asked William if he thought it was spoilt, but he’d finished his already… -_-“ haha… so well, to be safe, I decided to throw the cream puff away… =( ate some bread instead…

we shared a cab to jiaotong uni today! The journey was quite fast… it took only about 15mins… and the cab fare was 22RMB = S$4.40, which was quite cheap, coz split among the 4 of us, each of us only had to pay around S$1+… so we decided that we shall cab to school every week in future, coz it’s just a little ex-er than taking the train (4RMB=S$0.80), but we get to save a lot more time and trouble… =)

we had a 1hr 20min lunch break frm 1150am-1:10pm, so we went out of the school, to a nearby restaurant for lunch… it was a Chinese restaurant serving hong kong/Cantonese cuisine… all of us ordered noodles, but different stuff to go with it… for eg. Mine was roasted duck, william’s was soy sauce chicken, sharnice’s was wanton, & louise’s was fishball… i liked mine quite a lot! =) the noodles were quite chewy & you can even describe it as slightly crunchy… haha… quite authentic hong kong style… the roasted duck meat was really nice too, and it came with some plum sauce that complimented the bbq taste of the duck meat really well! =P unfortunately for sharnice & louise, they didn’t enjoy their meal as much as William & i… sharnice disliked the texture of the noodles, while louise described the fishballs as ‘plastic fishballs’! >_< apparently, the china fishballs here are really different from what we typically see or eat in sg… the fishballs arent really ‘balls’, but more like rectangular blocks of fish meat mixed with lotsa flour… >_< I suddenly miss nice fishball noodles in sg!!! =( well, anyway, they had a few promotional items… one of which was this 鲍鱼鸡肉酥 (abalone and chicken meat puff), which was half priced, 12RMB instead of 24RMB for 2! =P Haha… as expected, the greedy duo, i.e. William & I, decided to order a portion to share…=) the pastry was really not bad, with a rather generous slice of abalone for its price! The chicken meat filling was also quite juicy… definitely worth ordering… =)

my roast duck noodles

鲍鱼鸡肉酥 abalone and chicken meat puff


after a hearty lunch, we headed back to to endure a few more unbearably boring hours of lessons… the thought of having tkd training later kept us going!!! =P haha… William & I were gonna join this tkd club at jiaotong uni for training later in the evening! We were so excited about finally being able to train again after such a long time!!! Our legs were getting rather itchy… hahaha… so yah, we were just looking forward to the training! =P after lessons, we went for dinner first… SUSHI TEI!!! Hahaha… I searched online and realized that there’s a sushi tei branch at metro city, which is rather near jiaotong uni! So William & I decided to check it out and satisfy our endless craving for jap food! =P anyway, most of their food items were priced slightly cheaper than sg, and their menu was rather similar to sg’s, with the addition of a whole section on hotpot items… =)

sushi tei counter

dragon roll

zaru udon (cold udon)

salmon sashimi


next, TKD TRAINING!!! Woohoo… super shiok!!! I haven’t trained in a long while, and I must say… TKD ROCKS! Hahaha… sorry… not that I haven’t realized it since ages ago… =P but well, guess I really miss having tkd as an integral part of my life… and definitely, I really miss all my tkd palsl!! really miss enduring shifu’s physically challenging trainings with all the ntu tkd pple, and miss training my beloved hc tkd juniors… =) miss hearing the thundering sound of kicking handmits, the unique shouting and noises produced by different people when kicking, the cheering for one another when everyone’s simply exhausted and lifting our leg for 1 more kick feels like lifting a 100kg dumb bell… those were the times man… haha… but well, a few more months & I’LL BE BACK! Haha… 南大跆拳道加油！=) hope everything’s going on fine back in ntu tkd & hc tkd… Keep me updated on any latest happenings in the club k… =)

oops, realized I haven’t actually talked about the training I attended here… the club trains at the 体育馆(src) of jiaotong uni, but most of the members aren’t students from the uni… they are just like any outside club in sg I guess… except that they have quite a lot of pro people here! Haha… I saw like 1 or 2 4th dan black belters, several zai black belters (not sure of their dan) & a few cool poom belters! Their warm-ups were rather similar to shifu’s training, except a less strenuous one… there were the usual stretching exercises, the jump up & knee lift or split in the air kinda drills, as well as the split on the floor kinda stretches… fun… =P there wasnt much of the pair up & do handmit kicking kinda training though… probably coz the class was quite small, about 20+ people, so we merely split into 2 rows (senior & junior belters) and there was 1 target holder in front of each row… oh, have I mentioned… I was a WHITE BELTER!!! =P hahaha… white belter with black collared dobok… coz in china, whether you’re a colour belter or black belter, the collar of your dobok’s black… unlike in s’pore, where only the black belters wear black-collared doboks… well, both William & I didn’t bring our dobok and belt from sg, so both of us bought a new set of dobok, & the coach lent us a white belt to go with it… hahaha… might as well right… we were a little too embarrassed to wear the colour of our real belt levels… hahaha… and since we were wearing white belts, we joined the junior belters for the kicking! Haha… *phew* the other side was too stressful lah… thunderous kicking… intimidating… the kicking went pretty well, guess we were both rusty, but still managed fine… =) conclusion: we’re good as white belters, but noob as our true belt levels… >_< haha… forgot to mention this highlight of the training session (to us at least)… we did lotza flying side kicks!! =S like omg… how often have we ever trained FLYING SIDE KICKS back in sg?!! The people here did it like it was some basic kick, where everyone just queued up to take turns flying here & there… -_-“ at first, this person just held a handmit out for everyone to take turns running & jumping up to do a flying side kick… later, they added an obstacle in front and we had to fly over the obstacle to kick the handmit!! *faints* hahaha… but well, it was fun lah… now that I actually survived it without breaking a knee… (almost did though… >_<) oh yah, I forgot to mention this 色小弟 who totally reminded me of 蜡笔小新 (crayonshin chan)… at first, he was sorta talking to William & i…asking where we were from… so William told him we were from sg… & guess what he said… “哦！你们新加坡的奥运很烂吧？好像没赢什么奖牌?” (Oh! Singapore’s lousy at the Olympics right? You don’t seem to have won any medals…?) -_-“ –awkward- but well, he was right… so we just sorta laughed it off… and as we continued talking a little, our beloved色小弟playfully kicked William in the butt and came over to me, mumbled something, & KICKED MY BUTT TOO! Argh… his feet were like so freaking dirty, causing some black marks on my new & white dobok! *pissed* So I quickly used my hand to sweep away the dirt on my dobok, then he came over, and SMACKED MY BUTT!!! Omg... like what the crap… bullied & taken advantage of by this stupid fat boy?!!! *argh* disgusted… after that, he still kept trying to come over to do the same thing again! I just kept evading… >_< well, William & I were both stunned by him, and both feeling tempted to smack him in the butt to let him have a taste of his own medicine… -_-“

anyway, despite that small distressing episode, all in all, we had lotza fun training! Excited to go back for more… =)

celestine getting to know china...

Day 1 - 23 Jul 08 (Wed)

There was a considerable no. of friends who sent us off at the airport. There was a large group from NTU TKD, such as cheng yi, changyan, sebast, kuan rei, randal, ee onn, jirong, xuanie, shijie, daniel, wenxiang, jf & xi’er. Some of them even came down after training, like all the way from boon lay… omg… seriously from one end of sg to the other… *touched*



Then there was my DIP group! Too many to be named… but well, they were really nice… gave us a photo frame with photos (& msges behind), a piglet soft toy and a single rose bouquet! =) Oh, and I finally got my “bday polaroid pics” from wee keat that were taken at jp’s fish & co on the last day of DIP… hahaha… there were even ‘happy bday’ msges written on the postcard!! =P

the piglet soft toy frm DIP grp! =P


My insinyur Persians also came down! Haven’t met up with them in a long while… really sad that I couldn’t join them for this year’s insinyur… *sigh* I kinda knew that my mom would slaughter me alive if I’d gone for the camp, so yeah..didnt dare to trifle with her just before I leave for china… moreover, I had some very important stuff to do just before my trip, and so I had to make sure I could get all my packing done earlier to ensure that I would have time to settle my stuff the few days just before leaving… oh yah, forgot to mention that my beloved persians even bought a cake to ‘celebrate’ our departure? Haha... -_-“ special mention goes out to jun & angie! Apparently, they bought me this photo frame that had some ornamental design by the side… no wonder they were asking the photographer to take our pic off-centre... Haha… oh, and angie even had freshly baked macaroons for William & i! wow… good stuff… glad that jun & I got you the recipe book! Worth the investment… =P oh, but the blur her (as usual) forgot to put this liquor choc that was meant for me into the paper bag, so well, she told me that she’ll take pics of the choc and gobble it down herself after all… -_-“ and jun, thanks so much for the huge favour k!! (wait, favourS rather...both day & night...) you're really a great pal! yah, i owe you gifts from china... =P


Next, my beloved 04s65 clique! Haha… thanks quintet! Haha… kiet, yj, sam, chin… really glad to see all of you!! I thought you guys wouldn’t be able to make it, but seriously, appreciate you guys coming down… especially when kiet has work the following day! Thanks for the jap goodies & card! I’ll slowly enjoy them in china… I’ll be keeping them for nanjing (where I might be feel lonely & emo more often)… haha…


Also, not to forget my beloved hc tkd juniors! Jieying, meiying & liwen…I love u! =) haha... (oops…I love my other frens too) anyway, really touched that they specially sent me off despite having school very early the next morning, and 2 out of 3 of them are westerners… >_< hope you gals didn’t keep dozing off during lessons on wed? special thanks go out to the rest of cfc who couldn’t make it… don’t worry, I could feel your love… =) I definitely appreciate all the gifts, cards and photos! I’m so gonna miss you!


Well… I’d really like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all who had specially gone down to the far far away changi airport to send me off… even for those who couldn’t make it but sent their well wishes through cards or smses, thanks a lot! really touched to see so many of my wonderful friends just before I MIA from your lives for 6 months…


I’m really proud of myself for being able to hold back my tears… I told myself to be strong, coz I don’t want any of my friends or family to be worried about me while I’m away from this familiar homeland… so to all of you out there, don’t worry, I’ll take care of myself and stay away from pickpockets, sex maniacs, and any other suspicious characters… =P


Since it’ll be another 6 months before we next meet, please await my return in dec, most likely 27 dec (sat)! haha… looking forward to meeting you again… dakishimetai~ =)


for more departure pics, view my online album at http://picasaweb.google.com/celest8787/DepartureForGipChina
or my junior, meiying's album at http://picasaweb.google.com/tan.my90/CelestSFlight

Arrival in Shanghai Pudong Airport

Gosh… first welcoming event that we experienced was 3 very fierce women having a heated quarrel with a security staff… all local Chinese… the women were shouting at the top of their voices, gesticulating aggressively… gosh.. intimidating… and I thought my mom was fierce (oops)… haha… jk… she’s not lah (sorry mom >_<)… but well, back in sg, the security personnel would usually just diam diam and suffer in silence, apologizing to the travelers or something… but sorry, not in china.. haha… the security staff was obviously bu shuang, and just argued back… chung, hong, charyeot, kyongre, sijak… >_<

Oh yah, must mention something not very smart that William did (oops)! Hahahaha… first thing when we arrived at the airpot, we decided to visit the washroom… the smart him habitually took a sip of the tap water after washing his hands!!! Haha… mind you, it’s china tap water, not sg tap water… can you imagine how his taste buds must have felt… hahaha… ok, not that bad lah… I guess the taste was just like a mixture of bleach, unknown chemicals, particles, solvents, etc… yah… that’s about it… nice taste yah? =P

Ok, shant be so evil… anyway, when we were collecting our luggage from the conveyor belt, I kinda panicked… coz I couldn’t recognize my luggage!! Haha… shucks… I was super blur, forgot how my smaller luggage looked like… it was black in colour, typical hand luggage on wheels, with no obvious difference from most other hand luggages… >_< but thanks to william’s bright red luggage that came out just a bit earlier than mine, I managed to tyco-ly find my luggage… *phew* oh, and with the troops of aggressive people crowded around the conveyor belt, squeezing in between to lug your dua baggage out is certainly no mean feat… >_<

First meal in China

We bus-ed down to the NTU GIP office, where we had our first meal in China… our breakfast consisted of fake小笼包，rock hard 包子& a bowl of porridge. Haha… ok, to do it justice, it wasn’t THAT bad… we were hungry, so yah…anything decent would suffice… =)

Apartment in Shanghai

Our apt in shanghai is a newly renovated place with 2 bedrooms… the master bedroom is huge and spacious… super nice… king sized bed summore… but sigh, too bad, I’m sharing a room with William, so we cant possibly share a bed?! Haha… yah, so we have to make do with the smaller room (kids’ room?) where there’s a double decker bed… I’m sleeping below and william’s sleeping on top… ok, wait… that sounds wrong… I mean, I’m sleeping on the lower deck, and william’s sleeping on the upper deck… =P
here's a pic of our double decker bed:


I’m pretty satisfied with our apt, location wise and all… it’s pretty accessible, about 5mins walk from 陆家浜mrt station, which is only 3 stations from this central interchange mrt station called 人民广场(people’s square)… it’s like city hall mrt, except that it’s linked to 3 different mrt lines… but anyway, now I can fully understand what shijie meant when she said “getting onto the train at ren ming guang chang can be a bitch” hahaha… it’s seriously damn crowded during peak hours, and people really push and shove to get on or off the train! Like hello…? Are you guys rushing off to reincarnate?! (sorry, direct translation from Chinese: 赶着去投胎) haha… it wasn’t exactly a marvellous experience… like some people can be really rude and rough… if ladies are not careful, it’s very easy to “bei chi dou fu”… >_<

After putting down our stuff in the apt, we went to a nearby hypermart, called century mart, to shop for various household items… tonnes of stuff to buy… detergents, insecticide, cups, flasks, pots, pans, cutlery, pillows, blankets, mineral water, etc. oh yah, china’s supermarts do NOT provide free plastic bags!!! Gosh… can you imagine how we’d look, hugging all the items without plastic bags?! No choice, we had to purchase the plastic bags and luckily my mom brought along this cloth shopping bag which we used as well… alright, come to think of it, I guess it’s pretty good that china made such an environmentally friendly move to ‘ban’ the giveaway of free plastic bags… I thought about it, and well, it isn’t too much of a hassle to fold a cloth shopping bag and keep it in your handbag when you go out, so you wont have to keep using so many plastic bags and damage our environment… it’s just a matter of getting used to it I guess… and if you really need the plastic bags, they do sell it at the cashier, and they’re not that ex… so yah, a little trouble goes a long way in saving our environment! Singapore should adopt this too… =)



Oh, our first dinner in china… guess wat we had…? KFC!!! Haha… like you must be wondering… there’s KFC everywhere, so many outlets back in sg….why on earth would we wanna eat KFC all the way in china?! Haha… well, we shopped till really late, and everyone was starving & carrying too much stuff to walk elsewhere in search of food… so we decided to make do with KFC, which was right beside the hypermart… decent food at a decent price… =)
first dinner in shanghai:


After dinner, mom, will & I cabbed back with all the purchased items while sharnice & louise (my 2 new housemates) strolled back to the apt. apparently, they had ALMOST gotten knocked down by a car on their way back! Which reminds me… in china, seriously, ma lu ru hu kou!! It’s damn dangerous to cross the roads here… I’ve no idea what the traffic lights or pedestrian crossings are there for… or the lane markings on the roads as well… every single lane on the road seems to be a 2-way, up to the discretion of the motorists…>_< the drivers here are really too zai… keep cutting lanes and making illegal turns everywhere they go… even as you cross the pedestrian crossing when the green man lights up, please do NOT assume that you have the right of way coz the drivers, motorcyclists & cyclists will totally make you feel like you’re jaywalking! They’ll horn like nobody’s business and yah, you’d better give way to them… it’s man vs car… take your pick… >_<

Day 2 – 24 Jul 08 (Thurs)

We had a simple lunch at a Chinese restaurant… the food was quite alright… but the tea was disgusting… tasted like cigarette butt ashes+water… I prefer the good ol’ mineral water… but the experience concluded with another taste of our fired up Chinese locals display of their aggression… there was this woman scolding the waiters & waitresses just as she was paying the bill… we couldn’t really make out what the din was all about, but the woman was just making such a scene that curious heads kept turning to see what the commotion was about…well, her behaviour simply reminded me of the Chinese saying “泼妇骂街”… >_<
food at the chinese restaurant:
some tofu thingy...


糖醋小排


esparagus with mushrooms


glutinous rice with pork


After lunch, we went to this elecronics store to get various electrical appliances - water filtration+dispensing unit, iron and rice cooker. The goods were delivered to our apt, and William accidentally broke the dispenser coz he didn’t know that the filter was not properly attached and as he was taking the dispensing unit out of the box, the filter dropped onto the floor and cracked immediately! Luckily the store allowed an exchange, or we would have wasted quite a bit of $...

I went off with mom while the rest went back to the apt. we went down to recce the shanghai train station coz we were supposed to take the railway train from shanghai to nanjing the following day. 上海火车站is really very “杂”… there were many people, some of whom were labourers or wanderers… the whole place was really hot and stuffy… shanghai’s weather is really disgusting… if you thought sg was hot, think again… you can feel the heat once you step out of the house… so at the poorly ventilated train station, can you imagine the long queues of people in front of the counters, all sweating profusely, crowding around… and some of them, for some unknown reason, like to stand very close to you! It gets really uncomfortable coz you’re wondering why they cant just keep their distance! Are they pickpockets, or trying to take advantage of you?! There was this guy who approached us and started asking us loads of questions, like where were we heading for, which country are we from, etc… damn suspicious… he was like smiling in a very 奸manner… scary… wonder what he might have up his sleeves… >_< we basically ignored him and told him we were busy, and quickly walked away… the train stations are basically very dangerous, or so we’ve been warned… lots of pickpockets around, so you really gotta be careful of your belongings… we bought 2 1st class train tickets to nanjing… it’s ex-er but safer and more comfortable… abt S$25/ticket. Anyway, we also recceed 静安寺，the station near my company's shanghai office, where I’ll be reporting on the following morning.

After all the traveling, my mom & I headed for 南京路步行街, one of the most popular tourist spots in shanghai… basically 2 long rows of shops… it’s supposedly the only street in shanghai where no cars can drive on… but well, it’s china, what do you expect… there were still a few cars who sorta drove onto the street…




We had dinner at this Chinese ‘fast food’ chain called 大娘饺子 , food was average… we tried this satay-like 烤肉串too… I think南京路步行街 has nice lighting at night… all the neon signboards hanging by the sides of the shophouses… it’ll be nice to just take a stroll along the street with your loved one, after a nice dinner at one of the restaurants… =)

蟹鲜小笼包


三鲜云吞


When we got back to the apt, my 3 other housemates weren’t around yet… when they got back, heard that they couldn’t locate the Carrefour that they took great pains at trying to find… specially traveled to 上海体育场站 but the Carrefour was too elusive… but well, at least they chanced upon this nice shopping mall with lots of nice restaurants, and had a good Italian dinner at some café cartel-like place… the set meal only cost them about S$6-7! Shall visit that place with them again some other time… =)