This was a fantastic day… I received fabulous news from my company that I’ll be shifting to another place in Nanjing!!! Some of my super kind bosses found that my original apartment was far too dark at night due to the lack of street lights, and felt that it was too dangerous for me, especially if I were to go back alone after work… so they wanted me to move out of there immediately… woohoo!!! A lot of other good things happened at work… so all in all, I was tonnes happy!! Hahaha… felt really fortunate… like how blessed can I get… the very problem that was bothering me all this while was suddenly solved! Gosh…at a loss for words… just thankful… really thankful… =D most importantly, I’m glad that I can finally put my parents’ minds at ease… I know they must have been worried sick… but well, yay! I’m gonna be safe… hahaha… =P
Anyway, traveled back to shanghai in the afternoon… met William at 延安西路 mrt to look for jiaotong uni together with a whole bunch of ntu guys who’re also working at his company… they’re all from ntu eee as well… haha… wonder why I couldn’t recognize any of them… oops… guess I’ve been sleeping too much during lect… hmm, but surprisingly, quite a few of them recognized me… hope it’s not bcoz they remember me as the girl whose head keeps bobbing from side to side in the lt… -_-“
We took a long while to find jiaotong coz the guys were kinda searching for the wrong branch… >_< apparently, there’re quite a few jiaotong uni branches in shanghai… and the one we were looking for was the one at xuhui district… but the guys were kinda looking for another one elsewhere… which was fortunately not that far off… so eventually, we did manage to locate the correct jiaotong uni… took a couple of pics there… the school reminded me of ntu in several ways… take a look at the pics:
S2 - EEE's counterpart in shanghai jiaotong uni... =P (looks like a haunted house right! perfect location for fright nite... hahaha...)
jiaotong's equivalent of "lee wee nam library"
jiaotong's SRC
After walking around jiaotong uni for a while, as we were on our way out, we saw some tkd pple training in their sports complex! Omg… William & I were damn excited!!! Hahaha… I immediately decided to go in to take a closer look, and perhaps ask them if we could join… and *yay* we spoke to the coach, who handed us this recruitment pamphlet! =P it costs 400rmb, which is about S$80 for 20 x 1.5hr sessions, so each session’s about S$4… not that cheap…but oh well, for the sake of satisfying our tkd cravings… the money’s well spent! =P
We left jiaotong uni in search of a place for dinner, and found this western restaurant called ‘steak king’ nearby… it looked pretty nice, so we decided to give it a try… price was quite affordable… various western set meals cost ard S$5-6… most of us tried their black pepper steak, which was really nice! Really worth it… where can you find such good quality beef at such an affordable price! We concluded that we would be visiting that restaurant pretty often in future… hahaha… =P
our new post-lessons hangout - "Steak King"
appetiser
soup (quite diluted & watery)
my delicious black pepper steak! =P
After dinner, William & I thought of cabbing home while the rest of the guys went off to continue walking around xu jia hui… but oh my… we tried waiting & calling for a cab for about half an hr, before we eventually gave up & decided to take the train… we took the train from xu jia hui station to ren ming guang chang station for transit, BUT we’d missed the last train from ren ming guang chang back home! Argghh… the last train was supposed to be at 9:30pm, but we reached ren ming guang chang at 9:20pm and the last train was already gone! Crap… cheat our feelings… so no choice, we had to get out of the station to hail a cab back home… luckily we didn’t have to wait that long to get a cab, coz we’ve sorta mastered the technique already… if the cab stops in front of you, do NOT hesitate, just go forward and hop onto the cab… any moment of hesitation will result in you losing the cab to some aggressive local Chinese who will totally snatch it from you… -_-“
metro city at night...
the group of us from ntu eee
william & i at xu jia hui... =)
Day 17 – 8 Aug (Fri)
William & I went on a food hunt today!! Woohoo.. decided to go west nanjing rd station (南京西路) to check out this 小吃街 (food street) recommended by 1 of the guys yesterday… it’s at 石门一路 （Shimen Yi Road. First, we had a pudding milk tea at a small bubble tea shop called “Coco”, under that friend’s strong recommendation. It was super nice!! Omg… William & I really enjoyed it… such a delicious beverage in such hot weather… shiok! The pudding was so smooth, and the pearls were nice and chewy! Hahaha… addictive… =P
1st stop: coco's pudding milk tea...oishii!
the 1st coffee bean we found!
beard papa!
william & i in front of beard papa... =)
holding onto our delicious milk tea, we headed to our next stop, 小杨生煎, once again recommended by that friend. He was telling us that he loves their 生煎 so much that he can eat 8 at one go!! Haha… at the stall, we saw the sign that said 4RMB/两 so we thought it meant 4 RMB for 2… so we ordered 2 portions… but it turned out that 1两 = 4 pieces! So we ended up with 8 生煎包s! haha… impossible to finish, so we just ate 2 each and brought back the rest… the 生煎 was indeed very nice! The meat filling was sweet and juicy… just ask William… the moment he took the first bite, the juice/gravy from the 生煎包 kinda spurted out and dirtied the table… hahaha… not pro enough… apparently, as we observed the locals eating, there’s a technique to eating the 生煎包… as you bite slowly, you must sorta drink the gravy also, to prevent it from spilling/spurting out… haha… dun worry william, practice makes perfect… I hope the next time you eat 生煎, 锅贴，小笼包 or any of the like, you’ll be more pro… =P
石门一路's 小吃街
小杨生煎
look at the whole wok of 生煎包s!! =P
our 生煎包 is ready!!
We saw many bbq stalls along the food street, and decided to try this bigger shop that seemed to have more customers queuing outside… since many friends have mentioned that china’s 羊肉串(skewered mutton) is a must try… I decided to give it a chance despite the fact that I’ve NEVER eaten mutton coz of the repulsive smell… William & I ordered 6 sticks for 10RMB = S$2. it turned out to be really nice! Haha… surprisingly… I think the seasoning covered the goaty smell… hahaha… sorry, mom, ate your tong bao… =P Since the mutton satay was so nice, we decided to go back to that same shop to try other bbq stuff… we ordered the scallops (3 for 10RMB) and oysters (2 for 10RMB)… and OH MY GOD… damn nice! Hahaha… you guys should seriously try it if you’ve a chance… where do you get scallops and oysters at such a cheap price! They kinda cook the scallops and oysters with some soy sauce, garlic, spring onion, and bits of vermicelli… really yummy… =P
before...
during...
after!!! =P
colourful corridor at the 南京西路's shopping mall...=)
Haha… anyway, there was nothing much to shop around there, so we took the train to 张江高科，coz our friend told us there was this underground shopping mall there… but when we reached, we tried asking around for that shopping mall… but apparently, it was non-existent! We soon found out that the friend kinda got the Chinese name of that station mixed up… it was supposed to be 上海科技馆站 (Science & Tech Museum) but when we asked him if it was张江高科, he just said yes… -_-“
ulu shopping centre at 张江高科 station
So anyway, something really unfortunate happened while we were at the rather ulu 张江高科, which is a terminal station of one of the train lines… my slipper strap broke! Argh… had to limp to the nearest taxi stand, which was not that near… hopped onto a taxi and asked the driver which was the nearest shopping mall, where I could buy shoes… he said the nearest would be a Carrefour, so we decided to head there… managed to find a pair of shoes which I kinda liked… so yah, it wasn’t too bad… =) carrefour was quite nice… William bought this dri-fit top from there, & I finally managed to find a nice letter writing pad!!! Omg… took me ages to find a decent looking one… seems like the Chinese here don’t like to write letters… or they prefer to use some 稿纸 with those square boxes… I couldn’t seem to find cute letter writing pads anywhere… >_<
carrefour near 张江高科 station
Our next stop was 南京路步行街…I’ve been there many times already… but william’s never been there…so took him there to take a look at the shops and night lights… BUT… it was a huge pity that many of the shops were closed!!! It was the opening night of the Olympics ceremony, so many shops were closed early to watch the opening ceremony on 08/08/08… haha… what an auspicious date… we had dinner at 南翔小笼包 (Nanxiang Xiaolongbao), believed to be a branch of the南翔小笼包 at 城隍庙(Cheng Huang Temple) recommended by shi jie as a must-eat! Haha… William & I shared a portion of xiaolongbao as well as a 豆腐粉丝汤 (Tofu Vermicelli in soup) which was quite nice… though the soup was rather salty… xiaolongbao was good though! =)
南翔小笼包
豆腐粉丝汤 (Tofu Vermicelli in soup)
Since so many of the shops were closed, we decided to go back early to watch the olympics opening ceremony on tv… =)
beautiful night view at 南京路步行街
outdoor screening of olympics opening ceremony 2008!
me taking part in olympics... =P
Day 18 – 9 Aug (Sat)
Didn’t have a good rest the previous night coz of some upsetting stuff… and wasn’t feeling too well again the following day, so continued lying in bed till quite late… the first half of the day was juz spent stoning at home coz no mood to go out… sorry William… caused you to starve coz no one to have lunch with you… haha…
But luckily, my mood changed for the better later in the afternoon…so we went out at around 3+pm… wanted to go 七浦路 (Qipu Road) to shop but coz half the day was already gone, so we decided to go Xu Jia Hui instead… brought William to the metro city food republic (, where we had dinner… I ate this hotplate chicken with rice, while he ate some pork cutlet with cheese & rice on hotplate (what i tried on my last trip with my family)… the food was quite nice, but not cheap… food court price… mine cost around S$4, while his cost S$5… portion was quite big, so we were really full after that… walked around the shopping mall to digest our food, and at metro city, there’re quite a few familiar shops… like popular, swensens, bread talk, etc.
hotplate black pepper chicken at metro city's food republic...
We then walked over to 徐汇广场 & bought some stuff at the supermarket downstairs… tried another bubble tea – 红豆布丁烤奶茶 which was quite nice… there was red bean & pudding inside the milk tea… not sure how the “roasting” of the milk tea made it different… seemed quite similar to the normal milk tea to me… just more ex… hahaha… =P
Anyway, today’s singapore’s national day… but too bad we didn’t get to watch the national day parade… I especially miss the fireworks… I’m definitely looking forward to countdown 2009!!! =P
HAPPY 43RD BIRTHDAY, SINGAPORE!!! =D
