in a land 2000 miles away from home...

2 years on...

2009-03-16T23:23:00.002+08:00

Dear HK blog,

I still miss the carefree, awesome days of 2007... A new life stage has dawned upon me and most of those around me, I'm embracing it with anticipation and excitement cos I know God has good plans for me. But I still maintain that 2007 in HK was one of the best periods of my life, and I'll always try to remember those days and that wonderful feeling of being 21 :)

Time Flies...

Bye hongkong

2007-05-22T21:27:00.000+08:00

Bye Hongkong. Bye 203B. Bye Hall 7. Bye Homey Kitchen. Bye exchange life. Bye to all the GREATEST friends I've met the past 5 months - and SEE YOU ALL again, hopefully soon.

Less than 48 hours to home sweet home

2007-05-18T22:02:00.001+08:00

I'm currently blogging from one of the computers in the Run Run Shaw library, where I have been studying hard for my final exam, corp finance 2, since 5 hours ago. Surprisingly, I'm not bored or feeling stressed despite studying for 5 hours in a row, which is something I have never quite done before, and in the library as well! I never had the habit of going to libraries all my life, but somehow, it is so conducive right here :) I've been busy going around running final errands such as major shopping for work clothes, settling accounts etc, studying for my papers(which have been rather alright so far, thank God!), and of course, catching up with all the good friends I've made here, and livin' it up in Hongkong to the fullest.

Less than 2 days left. It's all starting to sink in for Ame and I. Before we slept last night (or rather, this morning), we talked, for the countless time, about the past 5 months and how surreal it is to have reached this point in time at the end of our exchange. She's such a great roomie, such a blessing, and as we sat together and prayed, I felt this sisterly bond between us and for sure, she is one of my closest friends ever. I really thank God for all my experiences and all the blessings, and also for the many temptations and little down periods. Being away from home these 5 months has given me a fresh start to life, and I feel recharged and renewed to start a new phase of life when I get back to Singapore on sunday. What makes this experience even more special, is the fact that I turned 21 here, which is such a a significant milestone in life. I know nothing happened by chance or accident, and at this moment in time, I feel very safe, comforted and blessed knowing the future is in His hands despite whatever obstacles and challenges to come. Returning home on sunday morning will be a challenge in itself, it seems as if I'll be leaving a part of myself here in Hongkong. Maybe Ame is right, maybe when I finally sit alone on the plane for the 3 and a half hour plane ride back, maybe I'll be crying cos this part of my life is gone for good. But of course, I'm looking forward to returning to my beloved family and loved ones and the many little joys and pleasures that home has to offer :) I hope at least on that plane ride back, I'll be able to get down to penning down my reflections while events are still fresh in my mind. haha. I hope I dont fall asleep on plane rides like I always do!!!

For now, it's back to studying. Then, I'll have my final exam tomorrow morning, do some last min shopping, packing, partying! And then I'll be flying back on SQ857 sunday morning. I keep picturing the scene of arriving at Changi Airport now, and looking for my family through the glass windows, haha, it's so surreal, really. And I will finally get to reunite with my wonderful extended family for dinner on sunday, buffet dinner at a hotel! =) Thanks to my lovely parents who want this to be a welcome-back party for me as well as my grandma's belated birthday celebration. I cant wait, really. Then of course, on monday morning 830am, I shall have to report for a 10 week internship at DBS Building at Shenton Way, dressed from head to toe in work clothes. Gosh, I really feel 21 now!

Pictorial updates to come =)

Bits of the past week.

2007-05-08T21:51:00.000+08:00

4 May - Irene's birthday party at KTV

Irene is one my best local girlfriends here. She's incredibly nice, sweet and always laughs with me :) I had a super fun time ktv-ing with my exchange friends. It was interesting because when the hongkongers were singing cantonese songs, half the room of americans, singaporeans and china friends couldn't understand a thing!

Us with the bday girl. haha! she had 3 cakes that night!

Leena, who's actually an Indian citizen living in Calcutta! But she's really like a Singaporean who speaks fluent english, cantonese, mandarin and hindi!!! how cool is that!

Having fun together!

7 May

Fantastic weather in hongkong again. I love summer here. I had to study for exams so I didnt go with ame and all to Repulse Bay for some suntanning. haha. But of course, as usual, life here wouldnt be as boringg. Joined my neighbours and some of their friends for a relaxing time of sunbathing.

This is how we study here :P

Sampson - one of the funniest guys around

Under the shade. This is life.

Hongkongers having a study discussion. They were having an exam the next day. haha. I dont think all hongkongers are this relaxed when it comes to studying, maybe it's just those I happe to meet :)

guys doing some body building exercise. haha. SO many people could see them cos we were right below 2 blocks.

10 more days to go.. and the countdown begins...

Dream come true

2007-05-07T19:59:00.000+08:00

Hocc's fanclub Birthday Party 5 May 2007

I joined the fanclub in feb after I was totally swept away by her awesome concert in Jan. I never expected to be able to attend her 30th bday party, and there were only about 350 fans! It was held at this traditional chinese restaurant at TST. Cheryl, Claire, and Claire's friends Kristine and Cheryl, all flew down for this special event. It was a dream come true for me, I actually came SO close to hocc and guess what, the most UNBELIEVABLE thing happened! haha, see, hocc's father was so uber friendly to us, maybe cos we were fr overseas, or the fact that we were dressed so differenly from the other hongkong fans (who were in tshirts and jeans while we were in our tanktops and nicely dressed), so we took advantage of the situation and asked to perform for hocc! It was Claire's brilliant idea, and I actually got down to asking hocc's dad! To my amazement, he said "SURE!" and went off to inform the MCs that he wanted us to perform. And he came back "Ok you're up next. quick go prepare." OMG. I couldnt believe it. hahaha. so claire, cheryl and I went up in front of 400 people, including press, and sang hocc's signature song "zai jian lu si ma li" She was like 10 metres in front of us, and clapped along and gave us approving nods all throgught the song! This is an incredible experience and I will NEVER forget this in my whole lifetime. I love hocc!!! heh. And I felt like a superstar.

I uploaded the video of 3 of us singing on stage on youtube. The quality isnt good at all, I'm in the middle. Cheryl li has a really clear and good video of the whole son, maybe i'll post it when i get it from her.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8Rll9I9GaM

My Hongkong friends couldnt believe I performed in front of a superstar, the 2nd most popular female singer in hk! hahaha. I cant believe I did it too. and I actually spoke to her, on stage, and wished her happy bday in cantonese!!

Just some pics I took using my not-so-good camera...

Overseas table

It was an unforgettable night. I still cant believe I did it.

Taipei

2007-05-06T21:04:00.000+08:00

Taiwan with Ame,Mel, Zhuomin, Jingli, Ceminata and Tem.

We were backpackers in a foreign land. It was an experience and I'm so glad I went for this break out of busy hongkong life, haha, and just right before the exams as well!

Day One:
Airport - Hostel - Wu Fen Pu shopping - Shihlin Night market

Taiwan no. 1: FRIED CHICKEN CHOP

Day 2:

National Palace Museum - Si Men Ding - Danshui - Lovers Bridge

Again : Fried Chicken Chop :)

I was so tired, I fell asleep on the bench while waiting for the bus.

Danshui Night Market : one of the many night markets in Taipei. Full of food stalls.

Smelly Tofu for me and mel! =) HAHA. we kinda liked it! The rest especially Tem and Ame stayed away from us the whole time.

YUM.

Christmas Tree right in the middle of the year? heh. Taipei is half a yr ahead of time maybe?

Lovers' bridge - romantic!

Girlies I love.

I love this picture! and I love my roommate! Muacks! :P

My turn to piggyback her.

On the empty MRT train back.

nice picture

i was so tired, but still gathered enough energy to smile for the camera.

Day 3 :

NY Bagel Breakfast - Yang Ming Shan - Taipei 101 (only the shopping centre below)

Calla Lily Season. Absolutely breathtaking. I have never seen any nature so beautiful. Truly enjoyed the moment just soaking in the sun.

Like a scene out of a korean movie?

Girls in pairs

Running across the lily fields

Plucking the flower (trying to at least )

Taipei 101!

Haagan Dazs!

Our lovely cosy hostel room. Looks kinda like an IKEA ad.

Day 4 :

Shabu shabu lunch - Shopping - Airport

With Addy and Ruby - Tem's 2 Taiwanese friends who make such a perfect couple.

Backpackers outside our hostel.

In total I spent about sing$500, everything inclusive. It was a good trip. Thanks Ame and Jingli for the pics =)

Church today

2007-05-06T18:07:00.000+08:00

So so so much to update about. But rightnow, I'm about to fall asleep at 4pm on a sunday afternoon, so i'll blog later on when i actually have time :P all i can say is that i am having a blast here, making full use of the remaining time in hongkong the land of my dreams, and cherishing each and every single day. I really thank God for the past 2 weeks cos I have had such a GREAT time doing so many things, I think i'll take about 5 posts to get the pics uploaded. Church today was awesome, I felt like I was in His presence and the message was inspiring to say the least. I've grown much more in my spiritual walk with God just being on this exchange, than probably the last 2 years combined. There is just SO many things to be thankful for, I dont really know where to start. People say I'm lucky, things go my way so often, but I just am thankful and I feel blessed. One song today at church really spoke to me and stirred up something deep in my heart...

"Faithful One, so unchanging,
Ageless One, You're my rock of peace.
Lord of all, I depend on You,
I call out to You, again and again.

You are my Rock, in times of trouble,
You lift me up, when I fall down,
All through the storm, Your love, is,
My shelter,
My hope is in You alone."

I realised that it's so true how God is unchanging and the only sure thing is that when all is taken away from us, the only thing remaining is our relationship with God. Inspiring huh.

Around the world in 3 hours

2007-04-29T20:34:00.000+08:00

Shenzhen on 28/4. With Calvin and Yogi my fellow Singaporeans, and Scott and Tom from the States. It was a GREAT day out. Thank you guys! Everything went so well, and I thoroughly enjoyed the company :)
Windows of the World - from Asia - Europe - Australia - America

Great place to visit!

SUPERB TEPPANYAKI BUFFET DINNER

Perfect end to a perfect day in Shenzhen, China!

Mongkok

2007-04-29T19:59:00.000+08:00

I have decided to capture my last few weeks in Hongkong to the fullest. Had dinner with Vince, Calvin , Yogi and Vince's roomate Ah q on friday 27/4, when Ame and the rest were in Disneyland. We went to Mongkok, one of our favourite haunts for food, shopping and just hanging out. I'm so gonna miss MK when I go back.

Busy streets on a friday night.

Part of my set meal, before my main course of charsiew spaghetti. Really YUMMY!

Calv and Ah q

This restaurant served superb steak and eel set meals for just HKD$65!!! OMG. haha. no wonder Vincent loves it there. I have to say it's SO worth the money.

Guys with their dinner.

Yogi full and satisfied.

We bought 11 signboards each!

Everything here - the streets, bus stops, mtr station - seems all too familiar for me already. My life here in Hongkong =)

Dessert at Chung Ke afterward. BEST in Hongkong!

Happy birthday roomie

2007-04-27T19:06:00.000+08:00

It was Ame's turn to turn 21 :) Her birthday celebrations went so well, and I'm really happy she had a wonderful and magical birthday like she'd always wanted. I loved and really treasured being able to celebrate this special occasion here in hongkong with her. We had a really nice, quiet, dinner at this Italian restaurant at Stanley along the seaside, followed by a surprise party at Shek Kip Mei park opposite our hall. Unforgettable.

At the park later on...

The party place

Singaporean girls in Hongkong!

Ntu peeps

Cheese!

The birthday girl with her 2 birthday cakes...

Love you dear roomie! I really hope you loved your 21st =) cos you deserve the best party! and presents too.

Evangel Hospital

2007-04-26T13:48:00.000+08:00

I went to Evangel Hospital this morning to see the doctor and it cost me s$40. That's kinda expensive, but the medicine given is really effective. Thank God. Thank God also for Tony, one of my neighbours, who took his time out, and brought me to see the doctor despite him being still sick as well. I really am thankful for wonderful and caring local friends. Yesterday and yesterday night wasn't easy for me, but in the end , it was ok cos I could feel so much love and friendship all around. Thank you Ame and Mel, Stephen, Sampson and Tony for everything single thing. I'm so gonna miss Hongkong - and especially the 3 guy friends I've made, somewhat the best guy friends I've ever had in my life. It's my dearest roomie's 21st bday tomorrow! :) It's gonna be a great celebration and lovely time ahead. till then.

25 April

2007-04-26T02:57:00.000+08:00

My throat is still not well. I wonder why. My neighbour Tony is bringing me to see the doctor tomorrow. To get it cured once and for all. I just decided to join my friends to go to Taipei next monday. Will be on holiday from the 30 April to 3 May :) Lookin forward to it!

Consequence of partying

2007-04-25T01:13:00.000+08:00

It's 1am. I'm currently feeling sickish, running a slight fever, and having a terrible throat. It doesnt help that I have an korean exam tomorrow which I'm not confident of at all. Tried studying before this, and I just hope I can remember my "anions" and "i-yea-yos". Tonight's the Man U vs AC Milan game. Ame and gang have gone to a friend's house in Tuen Mun to watch it. But i shan't cos I have this exam and im really not well enough to go. I guess the consequences of too much partying and fun here in Hongkong are getting to me. And I just wanna say to you out there - there are such things as priorities and how I will not accept certain excuses because they are simply unexcusable. Ahh. Okay, gonna go now.

Brian the dog

2007-04-24T12:58:00.000+08:00

We have a new pet. It's a huge Siberian husky named Brian. It's HUGE and I'm bringing it back with me to Singapore. It's gonna occupy one whole seat on the SIA plane beside me. hahaha. Last night was so fun. Took a long walk to the 7-11 with the americans. Here are the pics of our lovely doggie!
*The Picture of the day* I really wanted to take this photo of my roomie, in the rain, with Brian at 1am outside our residence. I think this pic is priceless and simply hilarious! She walked our dog to the convenience store- his first walk in his life.

My first Doggie! =)

This Shawn, who is just ridiculous and hilarious. He's from ntu as well, engineering.

Muacks! Another pic :):):)

With vince, one of our personal favourite friends here in hk! You go vince hahaha! Keep up the retarded lame jokes :P

Brian. haha. who gave me the dog. He left for California this morning, due to a really unfortunate incident that happened back home. So we had a mini farewell gathering for him, and right now he's on a 20 hour flight back :s

We LOVE HK!!! hahaha. roomies in matching tshirts I bought :) I'm gonna get many of these.

Fishing at Ma On Shan

2007-04-24T11:25:00.000+08:00

My very first fishing experience in my life.

Saturday night at Ma On Shan. It was pretty much a spontaneous decision to join some of my friends for fishing at 7pm(!!!) haha. Got up at 2pm to yumcha with Mel and 4 other friends at this traditional Chinese restaurant which served rather good dimsum. Ate and chatted till 5.30pm. On the way back to residence, I decided to join 3 fellow singaporeans, yogi, chris and calvin, and some other exchange students - tommy from sweden and some locals for fishing at Ma On Shan, which is this area in the New Territories and so local no tourist will never go there.

It was a good experience. We fished with fishing lines, live baits, and an improvised fishing can (using a Vitasoy drink box). I really enjoyed myself. The pier was so quiet, with about 15 people in total. I liked looking out at the open sea, enjoying the breeze and spending alone time. I thought back on my whole exchange , my life, and I really enjoyed my own personal space , which Ive not had for such a long time.

I like fishing. And maybe when I get back, this will be a new hobby of mine. haha shocking huh! Calvin couldnt believe his eyes when he saw me there cos he thought I was a 'City girl' :) I've changed somewhat in many ways through this experience. Well well I'll save my reflection for another time.

It's gonna be exams in 2 weeks, and 3 weeks to packing everything I have here, and leaving this life behind for good. For now, I'm making the best out of every single minute I spend here.

The live worms :S hahaha. We had to chop them up ourselves for bait.

Kelly caught this puffer fish! and it really did puff up!! interesting stuff.

The group of us a the pier =)

Ma On Shan estate

A really unglam pic of me. I really am not as girly as some of you think I am.

My Catch of the Day! This is the biggest fish caught that night, hahaha, really pathetic actually. And I caught it!!! USing the vitasoy box which Calvin gave me.

Our Catch of the Day!

Unhooking, to throw the fish back into the sea.

After fishing, we headed to Sugar at Lan Kwai Fong. Brian and co. got a table at the VIP section, so the 3 of us who were late got in FREE! instead of paying 200HKD just for entry. I had an awesome time that night! The DJ was great, music was fantastic, company was super! =)

Fun fun fun times in Hongkong :)

My 21st Birthday

2007-04-21T02:54:00.000+08:00

It was an unforgettable and definitely memorable 21st.

I wanna say a big "Thank you" to all my very special friends who took their time, spent money and for just being here to celebrate my birthday with me.

The people...

The night before my actual birthday, we had a great dinner at Hard Rock Cafe! The food was really yummy - the burgers were the best so far in hongkong :)

Us girls!
Ame - My favourite roomie looking really pretty that day. Without whom, my birthday and this whole experience in hongkong wouldn't be 1/a millionth as awesome.

Mel - One of my closest girlfriends here. It's really a blessing to have gotten to know her, and I'm gonna miss her sooo much when exchange comes to an end...

Making my wish :P I loved the cake and all the fruit on it. Thanks Jings for buying it and carrying it all the way.

I got a mini polaroid shot taken for free. Great service!

My lovelies!

This was so funny! A birthday message was flashed all around the cafe on the tv screens and I was made to stand on stage in front of the whole restaurant. haha. I was so surprised :) This is something I've never done, loved the experience and the great atmosphere! Thanks guys.

Zheming, Tem, Jingli and Henri (THC and The Jings), all dressed up lookin good. Thank you all for being such good friends and company to have here in Hongkong. I can't imagine not having any one of you here.

All of us on stage with about 50 people staring!

With Maggie- Ame's friend turned my friend too. Super fun hongkonger!

13 April

Pizza Party!!!

My Mango birthday cake- thanks roomie for this and carrying it up the stupid slope!

Singaporeans- Chris, Yogi, Zheming, Lian, Ame, Calvin, Vincent and Shawn!

These are great friends I've made here, and whom I definitely will wanna meet up with when we go back to our sunny island.

With all my guy friends. I really appreciate each and everyone of them and their presence that night. This photo look alot like a class photo doesnt it! haha. As if I'm their teacher , with a bunch of really international students!! Let's see... Singapore, Hongkong, Canada, USA and Sweden - as international as it can get huh!

Us girls. The few of my best girlfriends here.

I'm very thankful that God placed such lovely friends into my whole Hongkong experience. And I am really amazed at how friendship can blossom and grow in these few short months. I was very touched when all of them turned up, and some even with gifts. It's amazing when I reflect and realise that I've only known most of these people for barely 4 months, and yet, they care enough to take time and spend effort to celebrate my 21st with me. These friendships are definitely something I want to treasure and take away with me when I leave hongkong.

I would never have imagined how my 21st would have been like, especially being in Hongkong away from the comfort of my family and close friends. I guess I've never been big on birthdays before, and I've really never had a real big party :) This big 21 has been an experience indeed! Not forgetting the early celebration with my parents and boyfriend the week before.

I think this marks a new chapter in my life, and the beginning of this chapter was wonderful. In the coming days, months and years, although I really dont know what's in store for me, I am excited to find out. I know God has a perfect plan in store =)

I want to blog more about the gifts I recieved. But I think that will have to wait till next time.

For now, it's exams in 3 weeks. But so much has been happening here, and some activities lined up already. ahhh! I cant believe exchange ends in a month!

Early Thank Yous

2007-04-12T17:00:00.000+08:00

This post is dedicated to everyone who has brightened up my life in someway or another. It isn't my birthday yet, but I want to say Thank You to all of you who took such effort and trouble to remember and for all your lovely kind words. To everyone who made sure I recieved your gifts and well wishes on time - Thank you.

To:

My Relatives

Kummo and Er jiu - I love the gold coin very much. Thank you for your handmade card and kind words which really meant alot. It's been so many years and I'm very thankful to have an aunt and uncle who is ever so supportive and always there for me.

Ahyi and Yi jiong - This is the first time I've seen your handwriting :) Thanks for your encouragement and present. I miss you very much and I hope to see you on webcam more!

Yi ma - Thank you for remembering. I really appreciate the gift and really hope to see you soon!

Jiayi - Thank you my lovely cousin who has been there ever since we were both babies. It's been great having you in my life this 21 years. And you'll be turning 21 soon in 4 months too! We're always so similar =)

Jiahui - Thanks for the card and for the bag as well! I like it alot! Missing you here and I'm very glad to have a cousin like you!

Michelle - My little (not-so anymore) baby girl cousin. haha. I've watched you grow up and now you're already 14! Feels very weird. You're a wonderful girl and I miss you so much too!!! Thank you for the pretty card and the very nice flowers you made in it. It means so much to me.

Eugene(Geney) - My cutest Cousin! haha! :) Thanks for your CUTE card - it's really so so cute! Just like you! Hope your skin remains as smooth as ever and ears remain as soft. Love you!

Grandma - haha, she wont be reading this, but I love her very much and I really miss her cooking.

My friends

Leen - SO sweet of you. haha. my dearest panda! You do know what suits me best! Thank you for your present and for your attempt at writing a touching card. haha, I know you cant write as touching a message like me, hahaha, but i love it anyway! =) i'll see you soon for late night prata and kbox yeah? Hang in there thru the exams!

Xinhe - haha. I got a shock when i saw 'JOEL'! Is that gonna be your permanent name? Thankyou for your words, and my love for you as a dear friend will only grow deeper too :P see you in ntu really soon!

manda - thanks for the makeup. really something i love and want and need at this point in time. thanks for remembering every year.

Aunt carol and uncle henry - Thank you for your support and encouragement and for being great mentors.

Aunt Steph - Thank you for your generosity and love this whole time. I really appreciate it.

For now, everyone above has contributed to the many cards and lovely presents I have recieved so far. I'm starting to love my 21st :) And I really feel so blessed. Thank You.

6 - 11 April 2007

2007-04-12T03:07:00.000+08:00

Hi everyone :) This is gonna be a really long post, just mostly pictures from the last week since my parents and boyfriend arrived. It's been non stop everyday for me- waking up early to be their tour guide, and exploring so much of hongkong ive never seen before as well. It was one of the best holidays Ive had in my life- haha, except that you cant really count it to be a hol for me since I somewhat live here now. But things have been great, my easter break rocked! Ame my roomie is back from her trip too, and all my exchange buddies too, so things are back to normal here in city u and in residence. School starts tomorrow again, and my birthday is in less than 24 hours! I'm gonna be the BIG 21. I've got lots of people I want to thank, but I'll do it in my next post. For now, here are the picture updates...

6 April...

Airport - City U - Namshan - TST ave of stars - Chungkei dessert

7 April...

Yum cha @ 9 am at Wanchai - Causeway bay shopping where I got my lovely Tiffany& Co. necklace which I absolutely love - Mongkok - The Peak for my birthday dinner(in advance) - Haagan Daazs at Causeway bay for dessert

The Peak and the really good dinner we had :)

Thank you Mum and Dad. You guys really are the best ever! I love you!

Thank you for being here for my 21st, and for everything. I love you too.

My dad has to be one of the funniest and most creative dads around. See, I didnt have a bday cake cos it was not my bday and there were too few of us to share one anyway, so my daddy actually drew me a '21st' plate! =)

8 April

Saikung , this fishing pier which was such a relaxing place to take a nice stroll and have really delicious seafood for dinner!

Dessert at Mongkok afterward. hahaha. HK is definitely the place to EAT.

10 April...

Ferry to Mui wo - Bus to Big Buddha on Lantau - Cable car back to Kowloon - Shatin for famous roast pigeons!

Roast pigeons - YUMMY!

10 April ...

HK musuem of art

11 April... Sushi with Mel !!! and Shopping - like CRAZY- 10 tops and 2 skirts :P rocks.

Love you Mel! I'm so glad you're well and it was a fantastic night! :) I totally slept my day away cos I was so exhausted from being the tour guide, haha, and woke up at 5pm. Officially the end of easter break, simply unforgettable!

All the way from Singapore

2007-04-09T22:58:00.000+08:00

My little tour group this weekend :)

Easter

2007-04-09T22:53:00.000+08:00

Easter Break: 4 - 11 April

We have a week off from school! Almost all my exchange friends are out travelling.

The few most important people in my life are here to visit :):):)

I guess updates will have to come much later when I actually get the time to fill in the many many happenings.

For now, I'm really happy and satisfied. God is really so wonderful. Each Easter I reflect on how undeserving I am, and I'm reminded all the more of His grace and love for someone like me. Thank you.

A glimpse of summer

2007-04-01T16:35:00.000+08:00

31st March

The first time I experienced a 26 deg day here in Hongkong. It was one of the rare saturdays I had no plans to go anywhere. But I guess pleasant surprises are always in stored when I least expect it :) Had an international banking quiz that morning, which I took together with my groupmates- who really kindly invited me to join their class or else I would have been all alone in the friday class with many PRCs. Afterwhich, Sampson suggested going to the beach cos the weather was gorgeous! It was really a relaxing day- the sun, sand, sea, wind, mountains, good hongkong company. Nature is all too beautiful here =)

Groupmates acting like exchange students

The REALLY crowded canteen (even on a saturday can you imagine!)

The automated order counter- impressive for a school canteen! NTU should definitely learn.

While walking down to the beach.

When I lost at tic tac toe.

It's actually kinda like a bay between mountains, with really soft sand.

Rocks by the bay

Dinner was with Amelia's mum who was here to visit. haha. Ame's friend said I look like her mum! Funny huh!

The end of one of the most relaxing and memorable saturdays here.

Happy birthday to you!

2007-03-27T15:44:00.000+08:00

Happy 23rd Birthday Ceminata! =)

We had a nice birthday steamboat dinner at this chinese restaurant at mongkok. This is the 3rd birthday among the 6 of us here in hongkong! Mine's up next! haha.
The birthday boy, Zheming.

The whole group of us at the restaurant.

City chicks and birthday boy.

Girls and zheming.

After that, back at city u residences, the singaporeans met up and had a good time of fellowshipping downstairs our halls.

Early morning supper

2007-03-27T15:02:00.000+08:00

Macaroni and cheese at 4am.

There are certain things I do here on exchange, which I'm sure I will never do back home. One good example would be cooking an instant packet of macaroni and cheese with the best roomie at the weirdest hour. We get so hungry so easily here in hongkong. Almost every night, one of us will definitely be complaining, about our growling stomachs and we'll start munching on chips and biscuits which we have in abundance in our room now. On sunday night we were up at 3am as usual, and it was one of the times when we really couldnt take the hunger anymore, so we got our packet of mac and cheese, potato chips, apple juice and went to our common room (which was obviously empty at that ghostly hour haha!) The 2 of us really aren't the cooking domesicated type of girls, but it was SO fun coooking together :) just enjoying each others company, and taking photos even though we were SO tired. haha, typical of ame and i! I really thank God for my roomie! Love you!

Check the time out. haha.

Cheers! To hongkong, to life and to this experience of a lifetime!

Christian Dior

2007-03-26T03:51:00.000+08:00

This is my early 21st birthday present.

I absolutely am in love with it. Just gorgeous. haha. I'm quite speechless :p

Thank you shauny xoxoxo.

Cheung Chau

2007-03-24T16:51:00.000+08:00

23/3 Wonderful day at Cheung Chau with my NTU buddies...

I loved every bit of the island fishing village. The sun, sea, wind, the company... Hongkong just has so much to offer- The shopping, vibrant nightlife, good weather, and beautiful nature as well. Most hongkongers go hiking on weekends, to the outlying islands, villages, have picnics at beaches. It's a good balance of life they have here i must say. I wouldnt mind life like this for a few years :P

This is the sign before entering HK's most famous cave.

Before entering the REALLY tiny cave..

HAHA. it's literally a HOLE.
Had to rent torchlights for $10 so we could see in the dark.

The HOLE (cave)

At the end of the tunnel...

We just sat at the beach admiring the beautiful open blue sea for the longest time. The first time I truly enjoyed nature.

Dinner was at Triple O...

Canadian Fastfood outlet- something like Carls Junior. We really enjoyed our burgers and had the most wonderful hilarious time talking lots of rubbish and just kinda getting to know each other better.

It was a fulfilling friday =)

After that, it was off to Tribeca at Wanchai. These are my american friends- June, Ly and Anna :)

Really nice Vincent and Enging :)

Off to Macs at mongkok for a really hearty yummy mac breakfast! Greedy us ate about 2 meals each :P

hanbok

2007-03-24T16:32:00.000+08:00

Korean class 15th March

It was really interesting learning about the korean traditional costumes, and actually getting a chance to dress up. My teacher Ms kim is an incredibly nice and patient lady :)

Jessie from Hk, Adeline from NUS and me!

My whole class.

Local Friends

2007-03-18T22:48:00.000+08:00

My trip to Sham Shui Po at 12midnight for arguably the best dessert in Hongkong...

The weather was chilly last night, perfect for a long 1 hour stroll across a typical old local hongkong housing estate. For wonderful dessert and with great company.

This is Joseph. He is EXTREMELY hilarious. Famous phrases:

"Whats happening?"
"What happened?"
"Why you laugh at me?"
"It's my Privacy..."

Ame and I can spend hours laughing when he's around. We gave him this lil cute frog i won at the AIA carnival. He named it "Yan Wai" - A combination of mine and ame's canto names :)
Quite sweet.

Outside "Hot Jon"s room! We wanted to look sexy but turned out just ridiculous.

This is Lina and Lily. They are really interesting people. Sisters who are Indian citizens, who are from Calcutta, but are Chinese and speak English, Hindi, Hakka and Cantonese! Who are studying here permanently.
All of us on the way back!

14-16 March

2007-03-17T02:02:00.000+08:00

What I've been up to...

Friday night-

Here's a picture with our FAV security guard:) She's our friend we talk to almost everynight when we get back home. She's so nice! and she keeps our hall safe too haha.
Roomies at the gym for the first time! haha. In the changing room. I worked out twice this week! haha. Will try to work out 3 times next week... I feel good~

Temmy's 21st bday lunch at City U's Chinese restaurant...

"Happy belated 21st Tem :)
Thanks for the Dimsum treat! I really enjoyed the food and the good old company.

Trying to settle the bill.

Good old company. The 6 of us.

Wednesday night...

It was Nicole's birthday, and she left for a resort holiday in Phillipines 2 hours after drinking 4 SHOTS! haha. Madness.

Here's a picture with the birthday girl!

Roomie Amelia. I have no idea why I'm always SO red.

With Mel before breakfast.

These are our neighbours

... who we finally met after 2 months of being just beside one another. They make SO much noise at night, singing, laughing, etc etc. Finally we know the faces behind the noise. haha. I have no idea whether that's a correct expression :P oh wells. They have a really nice room with a tv and cushions, a fridge even! And they are such nice and funny people, we won't complain about them. heh.

That concludes my week. Of course, I have gone for all my classes and I did pretty ok in my Finance and Banking tests! yay!

Only about 8 weeks left and I'm gonna have to pack my bags and leave this life behind.

H&M Madness

2007-03-13T15:21:00.000+08:00

6 Hours waiting in line on the red carpet for free Madonna shades...

What an unforgettable once-in-a-lifetime experience! It was my dearest roomie's great idea. haha. Cabbed down t0 Central at 4am with Ame, June and Ly from California. Absolute madness. We were number 21st - 24th in line though, so we JUST missed out on the 20% discount and free trenchcoat for the first 20 people in line! It was the official opening of H&M in Hongkong, something Ame has been looking forward to since she knew she was coming to Hongkong on exchange! haha. We killed time by trying to sleep, played cards, ate Macs breakfast, trying to get as many reporters to notice us(HAHA)!!! It was fun, joking around, talking about how none of us would be caught dead doing this back at home.

After getting into the store and being greeted with loud cheers and SO many cameras snapping...

Check out our FREE coupons for M sunglasses:)

It was worth the wait. A pair of jeans, tube top, pretty dress, and a cute cap... just a total of s$120 spent!

Lantau Island

2007-03-11T20:17:00.000+08:00

A quick post just to make sure I cone back to complete this soon...

Alvin, Glenda, Rachel and Samantha are in Hongkong!!! :) It's been so much fun hanging out with them- eating at the "da pai dang" on their second night, great shopping as usual at mongkok, lovely dessert, and Lantau Island on saturday. Just talking, catching up, gushing about Hongkong and how wonderful it is here... I really enjoyed meeting up with them these couple of days. Hee. I have limited pics now cos most of them are in Glenda and Rae's camera, so perhaps a more detailed post soon!

Travelling to the Big Buddha at Lantau on sunday....

On the super nice cable car ride there... Loved it! One car could fit 17, but ours had 6. The view was good, and it was so stable.

Dearest Glenda :P Absolutely loved shopping and talking with you girl!

Girls

Look at how big this cable car is!

Greedy us with our icecreamss, although it was say, 15 deg?

Haha. Alvin and I in front of the pigs, such pigs we are- icecreams!!:) See Alvin, you're in my blog!!!

Us in front of the Beijing lookalike structure.

Ugly monkeys

Along the streets.

Me and my Madonna shades:)

Big buddha. We were too tired to climb. Congrats to Rae and Sam who made it up!

The end for now. Lantau Island.

*Risa!! I misss you too!!!!! I know, you must come visit me in early May ok?! You'll LOVE it here i promise you :) Hang in there in NTU ok? I'll be back to join you in august. hee. MUACKS :P *

Home is where the heart is

2007-03-06T13:08:00.000+08:00

My 10 day break back home was fulfilling to say the least.

Chinese New year...

I loved meeting up with my cousins, aunties and uncles, grandmas, my whole family during Chinese New year. I feel very blessed, with a wonderful bunch of cousins whom I really treasure and love so much. All these years of growing up together, watching Michelle and Gene the babies of the group grow up to become young teens... Family will always be there :) My aunts are so super concerned and caring, and my ahyee even wants to skype with me often! haha. My grandmas are so cute and lovely and popo cooks so well, CNY is never complete without her yam cake and "zai". I am very much of a family person, mostly because there's just so much love in my whole extended family.I cant describe how absolutely endearing and wonderful my parents are... All I can say is that, when I become a parent next time, I'll definitely teach and treat my children the way they have treated me. I'm so excited that they're coming in 4 weeks!!!

Of course, no forgetting my dad's side of the family, whome I've really grown sososo much closer to these past 2 years or so. Jamie and Marcus are ever so cute and pretty and handsome! Mei-jie is almost 3 months pregnant, and there'll be a new addition to the family by next new year! yay :) Love my 2 aunts so much as well..They really care and so easy and fun to talk to.

It has been a fulfilling new year, especially with so much bakkwa, pineapple tarts, yummy goodies every single day.

Glenda and I :)

My lovely Jamie...

Indians for the night! Just for cheryl's 21st bash! :)

-The End-

Disney Magic

2007-03-03T18:01:00.000+08:00

Disneyland is magical.

Fantastic day, spectacular fireworks at night. I absolutely loved every single moment spent there. Truly in love with "A whole new world" now =) I think everyone has to visit disneyland at least once in a lifetime. The S$55 entrance fee was worth every cent i must add.

In the super cool and pretty disney train that takes us from the mtr to disneyland's doorstep.

Mickey mouse wannabes!

The magical castle in the day.

Dumbo :P

Before the awesome 4D adventure! Woohoo...

Checkout Tarzan's (*Thanks to Kat*) tree house behind me! On the river adventure! It was cool...

haha. Real crocs? Take a guess.

Space Mountain

haha. the cheapo way of remembering the ride.

Winnie the pooh adventure ride in a Hunny pot!!! CUTE!

The Beauty and the Beast restaurant

haha. we queued about 20 min just to take this picture with Chip and Dale!

The Disney Parade! It was so lively, fun and a must see!

Us at dinner

As night fell. Along the Main Street.

On board one of my personal favs, the carousel :)

Inside the Crystal Disney Shop. Nice eh.

Mickey mouse Cheesecakes!! haha, we didnt get any though.

Main Street at night. It was beautiful.

Imagine watching beautiful fireworks above the magical castle, with "A whole new world" in the background. It was enchanting, and romantic to say the least =)

This marked the end of Eudora's trip here to hongkong. And i'm really glad we got to go to Disneyland together! haha. I only had an average of 3 hours of sleep each night for the past few days. Back to normalcy now with 2 midterms to study for!

I find that the busyness here with so many going-ons is kinda preventing me from missing home as much. Last night I dreamt I was home, and I woke up feeling quite homesick. Smsed my parents immediately. haha. and then the feeling was sorta gone once the day started.

2 days ago, one of our friends, Emma from Australia, left to go back to Camden. She was only here for a summer term, 8 weeks. It was so sad seeing the first of many goodbyes to come. Emma's one of the few people without airs, and she's so friendly, easy to talk to! All of us made somewhat a promise, to meet up again after some years, maybe in hongkong back here at city u. But things will never be the same again here once we leave in May, the people, the life etc. It's sad thinking about it. For now, I'll treasure my remaining time here, every single bit of it. I really thank God for everything.

Sang this at church today,

"Over the mountains and the seas, Your river runs with love for me..." :)

I better go back to studying for my finance and korean midterms. That's all for now.

little bits of my first week back here...

2007-03-03T14:21:00.000+08:00

Feb 25 - 28.

Feb 27...

What an international bunch - 2 Singaporeans, 3 Swedish, 1 Hongkonger, 1/2 an Indonesian (haha)

Loved having you here dora!

Us being spastic. hahaha! I won and Dora lost.

The hardcore gambler look.

With the horse at the Happy Valley Jockey Club. I was the tour guide that night.

My dearest Ame brought back pandan cake and pineapple tarts all the way for our local buddies...

It was so enjoyable watching them marvel at the bright green pandan cake, haha, i guess this is part of cultural exchange huh.

Ame with her homemade cookies, and yummy pandan cake! haha, we really didnt know pandan cake was something special and found in Singapore only!

The little party at level 6 common room.

Meeting Kin, Yeohan ( = Johann *Thanks to dearest Ame for the kind correction haha!* ) and Jenny from Sweden...

When we first got back and decided we needed to do some serious spring cleaning :S

I didnt know why the vacuum cleaner stick broke.

Just an idea of the amount of dust and hair accumulated in our room over one month.

It was a great feeling sucking up the dirt and dust really!:)

Ame with her 30 kg luggage.

We struggled up the slopes by ourselves, dragging and carrying along a grand total of 60kg worth of luggage!!! haha, girl power really!

Guess Who's in Hongkong?

2007-02-28T11:25:00.000+08:00

Eudora's in Hongkong!!!

I'm so so happy my bestie has finally arrived! :)

After 8 precious years of friendship, being classmates for our whole secondary school life, being roomies when we were 14 in Malacca, countless parties, conversations, many christmas and birthday cards, we're finally on a holiday in a foreign land together!

It's gonna be a great 3 days...=)=)=)

Along Victoria Harbour where we watched the ever romantic laser display show in the crazy cold wind...

I really never fail to be amazed and captivated by the beautiful city lights and just the whole scenery along the Avenue of Stars. What more when Eudora's beside me, dancing along to the chinese orchestra-like music as if we were at Zouk on Mambo night! haha. This girl is such a joy all the time. And not forgetting our conversations about our past present and future... how 8 years ago we've never expected us to be in HK together... and of course, how things are gonna be like in 8 years when we're 29 :s

The lights shown below are really not an accurate reflection of how beautiful the actual lights are, due to my lousy camera! haha.

Will update again soon! For now,it's back to school officially for me...

I wanted to look like HOCC...

2007-02-13T01:54:00.000+08:00

Lovin' my new hairdo!

It's so funky and chic I cant believe I agreed to it. Highlights in purplish grey and dark chocolate base. haha. The salon rocks, and our stylist was the creative director there :) Ame and I really love our new look! Singapore.. Here we come!! haha. just being lame.

I cant believe I'm coming back to Singapore in 3 days! Cant wait! And I really need to collect red packets... hee, if you know what I mean :p

See you all soon!

I actually showed the stylist 2 pics of hocc, and guess what... my hair really turned out to look alot like hers in this pic! :)

And here's a random pic from 10th feb when I went to eat at this super famous and super expensive steamboat restaurant... With a local friend Tiffany and June from the states.

AIA World Carnival Hongkong

2007-02-12T02:36:00.000+08:00

It was a blast on Friday 9th Feb...

The carnival at Central was just by the river, overlooking kowloon island, against the backdrop of tall skyscrapers and a very clear blue sky. It was exhilarating taking almost all the rollercoasters and every ride. Thanks to my fellow gungho buddies- Zhuomin and Paul, we conquered even the ultimate scary thrilling ride- the G FORCE, which swings you about 30 storeys in the air. Just imagine you are on one end of a gigantic windmill :s haha. I loved it!!!

Plus, the entrance fee of HK$120 included 25 tokens which could be used to play stufftoy winning games... and I was so lucky that night- I won a rather big Tigger, 2 small plutos, 1 small doggie, and 1 cute little tiny frog :) Didnt know i was talented at shooting basketballs, hahaha, just kidding! I had a blast of a time with all my friends that day and ended up all sweaty and starving at Macdonalds at 10pm. Had a good time chatting and commemorating our "One Month" Anniversary in Hongkong =) Time truly flies.

Acting spastic with Henri, who was trying to look like a retard, and succeeded. haha.

View from the ferris wheel:)

Us with our winnings that night! All kids at heart really. hee.

The 3 Musketeers!

All of us at the ferris wheel. Love you all!

1 Month anniversary at Macs. Thankyou all for being such fun company and looking forward to many more months of great friendship!

*Thanks Zhuomin and Jingli for all the pictures!*

Yuen Long and Yoyo

2007-02-12T00:19:00.000+08:00

Thursday 8 Feb 2007...

Yuen Long is the place to go for the most famous Hang Heung wife biscuits, egg rolls, and not forgetting the fantabulous Wingwah restaurant!

This post is once again, meant to be read from the bottom up, that would be in chronological order :)

On the mtr back to kowloon tong... 3 girls with our trusty Ipods!

3 guys with all our buys!!! haha. new year goodies for my family...

On the long long bus ride from Yuen Long to the MTR station. We passed the famous Tsing Ma bridge and went on a highway! haha. how cool is that.

Me being the waitress of the night! haha. I scooped the fruits so well and evenly all of them were singing my praises (hahaha!!) Comes from my korean restaurant experience ok.

The super delicious fruit bowl called "B zai leong fun"- another specialty in Yuen Long.

Hilarious. Ame was the official Ipod holder for the night, and we were singing our hearts out along the streets!!!

After the super delicious yummy meal. Thanks guys for the GREAT recommendation.

Gary trying to mix soy sauce, PIG OIL, and rice :s hahaha. He makes a great comedian.

With the "ma lai gou"

Just hilarious. Melody and Ame with the food and our hightech entertainment system for the night! :) Joseph is so full of wacky ideas man!!

OKAY. This is seriously the most TASTY chicken I've tasted. I know it doesn't look spectacular, but one bite and you cant stop! It's called "five spice chicken" , specialty at Wingwah.

PIG OIL RICE. haha. super delicious. but just kill me if i have to eat this everyday :s

All my buys!! New year goodiesss- Almond cookies, egg rolls, sesame balls, chicken biscuits etc etc. haha. my mummy was quite tickled when i called her excitedly telling her not to buy too much back home cos i'm bringing 'em back from Hongkong!!

Gary. Super amusing genuinely nice local friend.

Yuen Long has this train called the west rail which operates right in the middle of the roads in the city!

Yuen Long.

Celebrity Sighting at Festival Walk...

"Festival Walk, the shopping mall my university is connected to by an underpass, has been known for its celebrity sightings and secret events. Yesterday as I was heading straight for MNG at the shopping mall to wake myself up after a terribly boring lecture, I saw a bunch of people crowding over the railing, and there were exclaimations of "hai bin gor lei gar!?" (who is that?!) The instinctive part of me smelled celebrity, and I peered down. I couldn't recognise the person initially, so I quickly rushed down the escalator to the stage, and suddenly Yoyo Mung was about 2 metres away from me. She's not that big a celebrity, but I've watched her on Healing Hands and Forensic Heroes and a couple of other Hong Kong variety shows. But what took me away initially was how tall and how skinny and how much prettier she looked in reality." - Taken from Ame's blog =) An account of how Yoyo was spotted haha. Thanks dear.

Anyway, Yoyo was SO nice!! She posed for Ame's cam, and she was RIGHT in front of us!

And guess what... we were so star-struck, we waitied outside this salon she went into after the event, and 10 mins later, she came out with her manager and helper! At that moment, the 2 of us decided to be super thick-skinned, went up to her, and asked for a photo with her!!! And the best thing is that... Yoyo was sooooo nice about it!!!! haha. and so, we got our first photo with a celebrity. Many more to come hopefully!

Wednesday Night in Hongkong

2007-02-11T18:14:00.000+08:00

Nightlife in Hongkong is a thousand times more happening than back home.

Happy Valley Jockey Club on a wednesday night.

"Happy pastimes for HK people. Beer, gambling and chips, shout profanities at horses wouldn't affect anybody. No wonder they like to come here.We're gonna come here again." - From Jingli's blog.

Ladies Night at Skitz, Wanchai...

GREAT fun with 10 fellow exchange babes:) What else can I say... Check out the pics!

That's me with Angeline's super yummy norwegian salmon omelette and my vanilla milkshake at 4am in the morning! We had a FANTASTIC american breakfast at this place called the "Flying Pan" nearby. After which, it was home sweet home in 2 cabs back to 22 Cornwall Street, Student Residence of City Uni of Hongkong.

Chocolate Hotpot aka Fondue

2007-02-10T04:09:00.000+08:00

6th Feb 2007...

On exchange, I realise I actually do many things I wouldn't even bother myself with, or sometimes even condemn back in Singapore. Went to this Valentines Chocolate hotpot gathering organised by some hall committee with a couple of our best hongkong local friends. Played some lame games where we had to partner a guy each. haha, but what happened was that there was a lack of guys, so I was so fortunate to partner Irene, this super nice local friend of mine! haha, had a blast just being lame and being a part of some mini SDU club. hee.

Girls with our numbers...

My partner for the night - Irene

2 of the funniest and nicest hongkong guys around- hotpot John and happiness meets Gary =)

Chocolate really is so yummy...

My group of friends that night. Most of us live here in hall 7!

Singaporeans unite

2007-02-05T02:52:00.000+08:00

Went to Lamma Island on Sunday!

Met up with Ann! My fellow SA mentor and it was so fun catching up and actually I cant believe after almost 3 years of not meeting up, we reunite in Hongkong! :) And to further illustrate how small Singapore actually is, Ann's friend Angeline, also a fellow ntu mate from comm studies, is my church friend Sarah's best friend! It was wonderful having girly company, talking about common topics and really just having a great time exploring Lamma island and its greenery together.

I think I walked a total of more than 5 km, up and down hill, stopping by small shops along the way and just taking in the beauty of the mountains, clear blue skies and the rural village life. Upon trekking for about an hour, we finally got to the Lamma Wind power station, kinda like a windmill! It was totally worth the trek, as we girls excitedly took many pictures, even asking a passerby to kneel down to take a photo for us! haha, thankfully she was so nice about it =)

Nearing sunset, we trekked up to this pavillion on a hill, with really a breathtaking view. Then, as night fell, we made our way in almost total darkness to this beach, what an experience! Caught the sunset there at the seaside, purplish skies and one of the few beaches I've been to here in Hongkong.

And of course, we ended our island trip with a seafood dinner at 'Sampan' Seafood restaurant near the pier. haha, it was challenging ordering food for 10 of us, but thankfully it came up to about 20sing dollars per person, not too bad eh! Managed to catch the 830pm ferry back to Central and I had a nice chat with Angeline, haha, it's funny how after hearing about each other for so long, we finally got to know one another personally =) I really look forward to more outings with Ann and Angeline, the Chinese babes(as the guys put it , haha) cos they're in Chinese Uni of Hongkong. I really do appreciate having girl company especially since we are all mostly on the same wavelength :)

It was a busy, eventful weekend again, exploring more of Hongkong. So once again, thank God I have mondays and tuesdays off from school.

9 more days to Home Sweet Home :)

4th week in Hongkong

2007-02-05T01:51:00.000+08:00

Here's what I've been up to the last week or so...

Just managed to get the pictures of the last couple of days, here are some of them! haha. actually, here in hongkong, we take pictures almost every single day, it's getting challenging trying to post all pics, so here are the really pretty pictures from 4 days last week. If you wanna read chronologically, pls do start from the bottom of this post :)

3rd Feb 2007...

God really provides. And sometimes He provides for us abundantly, beyond all our expectations or wildest dreams. Aunty Jacqueline, Amelia's dad's cousin, is truly God-sent. I'm really blessed to have gotten to know her cos ame's my roomie and we go to the same church. Aunty Jacqueline is a wonderful lady, really sweet, thoughtful and generous.

on Sat night, she invited us to have dinner at Lamma Island and for a stayover at her apartment in Happy Valley, one of the expensive neighbourhoods in Central Hongkong! This night was absolutely one of the greatest nights I've had in Hongkong so far....

We boarded the ferry to Lamma at around 6pm, when the sun was about to set, and the ferry ride was so GREAT. We decided to sit at the open deck upstairs for better scenery and just for the experience. Thankfully it wasn't a cold day, so the wind was bearable, although half an hr later I got too cold and we moved to the lower deck haha.

On board the ferry. That's seng tiong, aunt jacq's friend's son who came along, and aunt jacqueline on the right :)

Queens Pier Central. This is so old school right? I remember so many scenes from tvb dramas being filmed here. Apparently, the government has plans to demolish the pier! We saw many protest posters and all along the way there.

Hongkong is so beautiful. Ame took this on board the ferry. The buildings on Hongkong Island have Chinese New Yr decorations like this!!

Crazy hair! haha. The wind was so strong, but we thoroughly enjoyed the ride:) i hope ame doesn't kill me for putting this up. haha.

Oh gosh. This is probably my favourite picture of all time! The sunset was absolutely breathtaking, we seemed to be travelling out into the open sea, and the waves and the view of the vast horizon just made me marvel at creation and i felt at peace with myself =)

Arrival at Lamma Island after a 45 min boat ride. There were restuarants lined up along the harbour, all seafood restaurants, just think East Coast!

Great variety of seafood at Rainbow restaurant.

Aunt Jacqueline was so generous- Scallops, prawns, squid, bamboo squid, Lobster... gosh, it was the BEST meal surely, yummy!!!

Satisfied us after dinner =)

After the ferry ride back to central, Aunt jacqueline suggested taking the Tram back to lower happy valley, near her place. I was really excited cos I've not taken the tram before! Sitting onboard, we could take in the city lights of hongkong's business district, and i truly felt how vibrant this city was- at 10pm, the streets of Causeway bay were still packed, with people shopping, eating, non stop activity really!

:) I like the tram. It only costs HK$2 per ride! So to kill time or just for the experience, anyone coming to hongkong has to try this.

Back at Aunt Jacqueline's apartment...

For Hongkong standards, her apartment is HUGE!!! Well, it's even bigger than my house in singapore, haha, probably costs 5 times more too. See, she works for HSBC, and the bank actually provided her this accomodation. there was 3 bedrooms, fully furnished! And ame and I had our own room for the night:)

The super huge living room, with her plasma tv! we had the best time catching the amazing race, and drinking hot chocolate , sitting on the plush sofa... It's been awhile since I last sat down comfy to watch tv.

haha. I took a 45 min bath that night. didnt wanna get out of the shower actually!! super shiok lazing in the bathtub, hot water running and just relaxing.

We were so excited to be living in such a great place, had to take some pictures!just trying to show how huge the place is. hahaha.

So excited we had a kitchen of our own(somewhat)!!! being spastic hahaha. ame is really so funny and fun to be around la!

Our own room for the night. Check out the bed and comforters! Gosh, really hotel style. I had the best sleep without freezing under the blankets, and with the hotel-like mattress! A little piece of heaven indeed :)

Thank you Aunt Jacqueline for everything!

1st Feb

Met Paul and invited him back to my hall for a hotpot dinner with my hall mates and new friends! These Hongkoners we've met were truly God-sent. They are so genuine, friendly, sincere and so generous and fun to be with! Despite not being able to communicate as fluently in english, i feel that these friendships will blossom in time to come :) Jon, this really super nice hongkonger actually went to the market to buy the ingredients and prepare the whole hotpot for us!

There's this hotpot culture in Hongkong. the local students love gathering at the common rooms to have this steamboat like dinner, where the ingredients are thrown into the huge pot and eaten fresh. But, the variety of fishballs here is amazing!! There was this fishball with CHEESE oozing it out of it, simply amazing ok!! haha. we were saying how we should import these back to singapore and set up a hotpot shop. Us 3 singaporeans, ame, paul and I really experienced the warm fellowship with local hongkongers that night, something which is a sure part of every exchange experience right? :)

5 Hongkongers and 3 Singaporeans. A night to remember.

30 Jan 2007

Billy, our best hongkong pal, invited us over to his house at Po Lam, which is a one hour ride from school. This was the best chance for us to learn about the average Hongkonger's lifestyle, which is rather similar to Singapore actually. Except that most apartment buildings in Hongkong are 40 storeys :S

View from Billy's 21st storey apartment! wow.

Bobo, Billy's doggie!

Girls and Billy at the entrance of his estate:)

Met Billy's parents and sister Sharon. And we had a good time talking and relaxing in his cosy apartment. Billy's parents are such hospitable, wonderful people. They even gave each of us a hongbao, and treated us all to dinner! These hongkongers are soooo nice. Us 6 are thinking of treating them to the famous Yung Kee roast goose restaurant soon after chinese new yr when we get back.

Thankyou all, the people who have truly been such a blessing to me in Hongkong :)

2007-02-03T04:27:00.000+08:00

About the other part of my Hongkong life... City University of Hongkong...

I realised that this whole blog has been mostly about the fun wonderful activities, people and interesting events, and hardly anything about my school life! haha. So, i think i have to inform you all that it's not all play and no work here, although if you compare this to school in NTU, school life here is a bed of roses =)

I have a 3 school day week here! And the best part is... I have mondays and tuesdays off!!! So it really is wonderful once the weekends arrive haha. I'm clearing 4 modules here, 2 banking and finance, 1 business core and 1 elective. Total hours I spend in class is 12 hours per week, 3 hours for each subject.

The most interesting subject i'm taking this semester has to be Korean 1!! =) I actually enjoy and look forward to going to class. Has to be the teacher who's really patient and kind. Korean is interesting, gotta memorise my vowels and consonants soon! it's pretty funny when miss kim, my teacher, gets us to sing korean songs in class! we learnt the Da Chang Jin song last week, haha. this is what learning should be like really!

Then, I have 2 banking and finance mods, which are officially the most boring modules this sem! haha. For Advanced Corporate finance, a weds afternoon class, I have to buy a whole box of cut fruits to munch on to stop me from falling asleep. And for international banking, my only class on friday, i bought a box of jelly beans and had to resort to listening to my ipod occasionally to keep me from dreamland! haha. finance modules are much more difficult as compared to Comm studies modules, cos the english terms used are mostly official and i guess the students in finance are really quite driven and competitive, like in ntu! My lecturers speak good english, most of them were educated in the states or britain, so understanding them isn;t much of a problem. in fact, i actually think my lecturers here speak better english than most of the professors back home in ntu!

Hmm, i think i should take some pictures of my university campus, the classrooms and all. Soon ok?

As for this weekend, I really feel so blessed and thankful to be surrounded by such wonderful warm people like amelia's aunty! Besides bringing us out for GREAT lunches after church, she invited us to stay over at her apartment at Happy Valley tomorrow night! She works for HSBC, and has this super spacious, lovely 3 bedroom apartment on a hill at Central, the rich expats area ok! We're going to Lamma Island for SEAFOOD tomorrow night!!! Gonna take a ferry from Hongkong Island. hahaha. I'm really looking forward to it. Just realised that Hongkong has lots of nature trails and really beautiful scenic areas to explore... such as Cheong Chau, Lamma Island etc. Next week, ame and I will be going with a few of our REALLY nice hongkong friends to Yuen Long for great food and for local hongkong delicacies. Got to know some very sociable, outgoing and genuinely nice hongkong friends these few days - been mahjong-ing, and WII-ing. haha. Wii is this nintendo game thing we play on the tv at the common room! it's something like PS 3 i heard, haha, its SUPER fun ok!!! i dont really know how to describe the game, will take pictures soon!

Up at 9am!?!

2007-01-30T09:40:00.001+08:00

For the very first time in a SUPER LONG WHILE,

I'm actually awake at 9am on a tuesday morning!! GOOD MORNING everyone:) It was cold last night, so around 7 plus I was already semi awake, tossing and turning. Only when my roomie's alarm rang at 9 cos she had to wake up for class, and some irritating drilling noise started coming from dunno where, I decided, NO TIME TO WASTE! OFF TO THE GYM! hahahaha. i wanna laugh at myself sometimes... this is ridiculous, giving up 2 hours of sleep! but, i'm actually feeling great! The sky is so so blue, sun is bright, Thank God for this beautiful morning:) I really love living here in Hongkong. I appreciate God's creation- nature, the weather so much more here. So before I head to the treadmill just downstairs,

here's a lousy picture I just took! in my very very cute bed room slippers =) Isn't the catty so cute? (Leen i'm really CAThy now haha)

Ok i think i better go now before i procrastinate any longer!

*Mum dad if you're reading this... aren't you proud of me? =) Love you all*

10.50am 1 and a half hours later...

This is absolutely ridiculous!!! I had such a positive start this morning right? So this is what happened... After writing that blog post, I went down to the gym. See, every hall is supposed to have a gym, and I've seen hall 4s, not bad with at least a treadmill and the bicycle thingy. BUT when I went down excitedly all pumped up, there is only ONE pathetic bicycle thing and a mini hockey table?!?! OH MY GOODNESS. haha and the room looks like it's not been used for ages.

Ok, so nevermind, I was disappointed, but decided to come up to take a nice shower and have a good start to the day. I took my stuff, went into the shower, all ready to hop in for a warm refreshing shower... only to find... the HEATER COULDN'T WORK!! i couldnt believe it, cos the light was off although the switch was down! So for 5 mins, I stood there, shivering in the cold, with the water running, hoping that I would feel some warm water asap. AHHH. hahahaha. Couldn't believe my luck really! So i got changed out, and marched downstairs to the guard post to complain, like a typical singaporean :P heh. guess what the guy did? He walked me to the lift, and pointed to this sign on the notice board which read:

"Fresh Water Supply will be switched off on 30/1/07 from 9am to 5pm due to maintenance works. Heaters will switched off as well..."

UGHH. JUST MY LUCK hahahha. Of all days, I had to choose to wake up so early today!!

pretty happening this morning really. i'm never doing this again man!

Pictures update

2007-01-30T00:55:00.000+08:00

PICTURES GALORE!!!

Favourite instant noodles- Kimchi Ramen:)

Us with our krispy kremes we had for dinner last sunday...

When we went to Sham Shui Po for dinner with Juergen, new Hongkong friend...

My first holiday to Macau. Fri 26/1/07...

Walking in the cold wind to SANDS casino...

Typical houses in Macau , really pretty right? (Thanks Jingli for the great pictures!)

Ame and Tem at the entrance of the Library. The trees look like from the Harry Potter movie right?

Colourful streets of Macau

At the cross =) Beautiful Macau.

With Jings at St Pauls... We look so touristy!

Roomies in shades!

Macau has beautiful quaint places like this, small little fountains and squares.

Beautiful Catholic Cathedral.

With Ame and Zheming at this beautiful garden.

The bunch of us at St. Pauls :) Beautiful clear blue skies and picture perfect we were!

haha. my back view. ame thinks its a great shot, so here it is!

Me at St Pauls ruins. Macau is so beautiful.

Jings and me at the Senado Square.

Olympic exhibition!

My dearest roomie and I at Senado square, the first tourist destination we went to.

On the First ferry to Macau at 1pm. Tickets weren't cheap at all... Sing$60 for a return trip! e all got a shock cos we had thought tickets were at most S$30. haha, so this just means less extra cash for more shopping :s

Outing with Baptist Uni girls

Mahjong night with Juergen, Andy and Kit...

Overdue pics from HOCC concert day!

When Che and Claire were in town...

Thanks to Ame's great photograophy skills! Us excited before Hocc at the Hung Hom.

KTV again! We had a great time singing and performing for each other in the HUGE room we got! Claire and Che really sounded like professional singers la...

On the streets of Tsim Tsar Tsui...Look at our 'happy to be in Hongkong faces' :)

On the Mtr, when it was almost empty! It was great fun that few days!

THE END for now =) Love you all.

And i'm missing everyone. My mummy daddy, ah ma, hern. Popo, all my lovely cousins, auntys and uncles. Church buddies and Aunt carol and uncle henry. Che dern. Leen xinhe hong seetoh ade and all. Eudora shuo joany xia. Shauny. Shuen ven all my uni mates.

just a little quick update

2007-01-29T02:31:00.000+08:00

Sorry for the lack of blog posts recently my dears. Due to circumstances and many factors such as the lack of free time in my room and how I've not gotten any pictures from my friends' cameras, I've been missing-in-action. Internet connection isnt very good still, so pictures and all will come tomorrow ok?

I stayed in the whole time today, was down with slight cramps this morning so had to give church a miss. So, I slept till 12. It was really cold, even under my blanket, so it's like, when I manage to fall into deep sleep, I don't ever feel getting out of bed. It was good being able to laze about, settle my internship applications online-something I dread cos it's just so troublesome and time consuming and I'm really slow at things like writing my resume :s , do my laundry, and skype with my parents :) I miss lazy days like this. The past 3 weeks have been filled with late nights- socializing with new friends in the cold downstairs, online writing blog posts etc. haha. Those of you who know me, will know that I really cant function well without lots of sleep, so really, I'm so glad I got today off in a sense.

I was chatting with michelle, my dear cousin, and I realised I really miss sunday nights at my grandmas place, fellowship with my cousins and relatives, my popo's cooking. I'll definitely cherish my chinese new year with them :)

There are many things I want to thank God for, He just has been so good to me. More in my next post yeah.

Tues 2pm

2007-01-23T13:34:00.000+08:00

It's 2pm now Tuesday 23rd Jan, and i'm sitting at my table, having a packet of yummy,, black pepper chicken chop rice and hot horlicks i just bought from the cafe downstairs. I woke up at 1pm, had a good sleep! :) Mondays and Tuesdays are my free days, so I get to sleep in to replenish and recharge the energy lost over the hectic weekend...

haha. just thought i should show you all exactly what i'm up to now:)My desk doesnt have any books so far because school hasn;t actually started. haha. Maybe in time to come ya, just maybe, my desk will look more like a uni student's desk :p

Current view from my room window. Opposite my hall, is hall 9. by the way, my hall is called Jockey Club Harmony Hall. hee. interesting name right. Temmy's hall 2 is called HSBC Prosperity Hall. haha. how funny right. The weather's good today, pretty cool. I'm very thankful that it's not been raining at all lately, but according to locals, the rainy season will come in late feb or march? Not too sure.

This was taken yesterday evening around 530 when the sun was about to set.

No plans today, just resting in. oh my, i have yet to find the time to go apply for the gym membership!!! haha. I really need it. Maybe tomorrow when i have lessons in school!

2007-01-22T12:20:00.000+08:00

Since pictures speak a thousand words, here are some shots from the past few days...

At church. It was a huge celebration at the Queen Elizabeth Stadium at Wanchai. Amelia's aunt was so nice to wait for us at the mtr station, despite us being 20min late.

The flight of 200+ stairs I gotta climb down and up everyday to school :s

Walkway from student residence to the steps. I'm on a hill, so the view's great on this walkway bridge. Kinda makes my day in the morning. And walking in the cold weather is fine cos i dont perspire like how i will in singapore.

Ice rink at Festival Walk, the huge shopping mall connected to City uni. About 5 min down from hostel. All branded boutiques, restaurants, fastfood, cinema, supermarket that closes at 12midnight everyday, underpass to MTR station (Kowloon Tong)...

Haha. Kinda a bad shot of me. Was at Lan Kwai Fong at this bar called twenty one that was SO SMALL. LKF is just like holland v, with some famous clubs there. Hmm. Not really my cup of tea. but the drinks were really pretty and quite reasonably priced. We just went there to chill and talk...

Us on the MTR. I like the trains here. They are fast, efficient, clean and gets us almost everywhere we wanna go in hongkong!

Oh gosh. Hongkong has Krispy Kremes!!! Amazing donuts!!! I plan to eat them every week on sunday when we go to church cos church is on Hongkong Island, near Times Square where the donuts are at :) really yummy.

Celebrating Jingli's birthday at Bubba Gump Restaurant on the Peak.

Had seafood, like fish n chips, shrimps and all.. Pretty cool view. The restaurant's themed after Forrest Gump, so its a must-go for Forrest gump fans =)

The 23 yr old birthday boy and his surprise cake!

The group of us, haha. Look at Temmy, like a small boy! and Henri!!! Jokers :)

Dinner with fellow Singaporeans from ntu cs....

At this Thai restaurant as Kowloon City, this area about 15 min from my uni. Famous for thai and vietnamese food. We had such good thai food for about S$10 per person!

SCGS girls in Hongkong:) Amelia, me, Victoria.

Star struck!

2007-01-21T17:47:00.000+08:00

My life in Hongkong has been really exciting and filled with unexpected surprises so far, it's been an amazing experience to say the least. I'm star struck!! haha, lemme explain...

On friday I was at Times Square (Hongkong) in the afternoon... and as we were walking towards the shopping centre, we spotted a large crowd around this tiny stage right in front of Times Square, so excitedly we squeezed our way to the front and guess who we saw?? MIRIAM YEUNG, Yang Qian Hua in mandarin! She's this popular hongkong singer whose songs my friends always sing during Kbox sessions. haha. It was just exciting being so up close to a popular star, and ame and i are always hoping we'll spot more of these HK stars on the streets in time to come! hee. I'm getting really into the HK celebrities, other than those I was introduced to by cheryl! Maybe I'll really become a TVB junkie, then my canto will improve! Cantonese songs are really nice as well... Joey Yung, Denise Ho, Miriam etc. The entertainment scene here just seems so much more exciting, compared to Singapore(where I really don't find any celebrity close to attractive), or Taiwan(where the stars are just so act-cute and crappy it gets disgusting!) haha.

We were really quite close to Miriam! Just that there were thousands of cameras blocking out view! haha.

And on Saturday Night...

HOCC Live in Unity 2007 - we stand as one

I went for Denise Ho's concert, and it was SPECTACULAR to say the least!!!! REALLY. haha. for those of you who dont really know about canto pop, D ho is also known as HOCC, and she's this really cool, goodlooking and fantastic singer!!! I knew some of her songs before I went for her concert, but now, I'm a huge fan :) It was held at the HK coliseum, something equivalent of the indoor stadium here, almost as big i think. The atmosphere was really electric, with fans on their feet screaming and dancing along to her music. The stage design was sooo cool, quite simple but really COOL at the same time! The dancers' costumes and the props were really attractive and eye catching. AND of course, Denise HO was SUPERB! Her hairstyle, her singing, dancing, and her stage presence... WOW. haha. we were up on our feet dancing and rocking to the music with the rest of the crowd! and we weren't even fans to begin with, imagine that!! Hocc has this really spunky, funky, rockish, cool attitude- just absolutely her own sense of style! I really enjoyed myself. Somehow, being at a concert like that in HK makes me feel totally into the HK lifestyle, listening to all the canto songs, taking the MTR and railway all over hongkong, screaming at the top of my lungs with the whole bunch of crazy enthusiastic fans! =) an experience I'll never forget!

Check out the stadium- really huge, colorful, and everyone was given this lime green balloon banner thingy to wave and clap along to the rhythm! Simply awesome! haha. Me, amelia, cheryl and claire simply went crazy screaming and dancing and having a ball of a time!

Hocc was really fantastic! Her awesome stage presence kept us excited and energetic then whole night from 830 to 12 midnight!! Look at the musicians' costumes, so cool right!!

The dancers were really awesome!! haha. I dont know how else to describe it, but I felt inspired to learn proper hiphop/ or at least some form of dance after watching them! Hocc is just TOO COOL to be true! haha. look at her hot outfit too!

Hocc up close and personal! haha. She came around to the side I was seated at, and so i was able to zoom and capture this picture of her! Her hair is just so funky, and she's really very funky and goodlooking. I dont know if she can be considered to be pretty cos she's not the sweet, girly singer kind, but shes definitely really attractive and goodlooking! And her songs are very nice too!

Amazing how someone can pull off such a cool funky hairstyle SO well!

Another picture of her on stage in this doll dress- she was supposed to be a doll, something to do with the lyrics of her song!

AHH. haha the connection in my hostel room is really slow and I take about 30 mins to upload one pic. I have thousands more pictures I would love to show you all, but connection's simply making it impossible. Maybe tomorrow or something I'll try to upload again =)

Oh, I bought this Hocc concert poster for only HK $20!! And its up on my wall now :):):)

Sunday we went to church with ame's aunt again. It was ICA's (International Christian Assembly)thanksgiving sevice so it was held at Queen Elizabeth Stadium where all the 5 congregations came together once a yr! It was amazing to see Thais, Indonesians, Fillipinos, Cantonese, SriLankan and Indian congregations coming together to worship!

I do have lots more to blog about, but for now, this is it! will update soon, maybe later:) tata.

Random thoughts

2007-01-19T11:13:00.000+08:00

Thank you all for your comments! :)Im really so happy to hear from you back home! Come to Hongkong if you can, cos a few days here can be enough for the best food, best shopping and best scenery! haha.

Suddenly it's friday already, this week really flew by very quickly. So many things happen in one day here for me, it's like, i can go to class in the morning, go out in the late afternoon hanging out, shopping, eating, then dessert at night. I kinda lose track of the days. It's only been about 10 days since I came here, but feels alot longer than that. haha.

Hmm. I think my cantonese has improved since last week you know! haha. conversing with locals isn;t that easy, but i do speak canto and try to practise as often as possible. Almost everynight, ame and i will chat with our female security guard downstairs at the counter! She's a really nice lady :)

Oh, and my korean class is really fun! I'm learning how to write the language, turns out that korean is actually made up of vowels and consonents, and it's actually not that difficult! haha. and korean is rather similiar to cantonese!! heh. and the korean teacher actually teaches the class in cantonese cos i guess im the only non-hongkonger in class, but surprisingly, i can understand her very well!! Must be the 20 years of conversing with my grandmas and the hongkong tvb serials and songs! =) Ya man, leen, i cant believe i'm actually enjoying school here! a lazy cat turning over a new leaf. hahaha. but seriously, exchange has made me more independent in many ways- i'm good w walking to school alone, waking up by myself, arranging my own schedule and all... Sometimes when i'm walking down the hill to school, i just look at the mountains and the wonderful scenery of the city and i'm so happy i can be here to enjoy this. I guess one semester is just the right length of time for exchange, a good break indeed!

This weekend's gonna be another busy one, so i'll update soon ok? in the meantime, I miss you mummy daddy, and all of you! i'll be back in 4 weeks =)

i wanna speak the kimchi language:)

2007-01-18T02:49:00.000+08:00

just a quick update...

I'm really excited!! Cos I just enrolled myself in the Basic KOREAN course =) and it starts tomorrow morning! Haha. For once, i'm excited to wake up and go to school. although this is going to be my earliest day with the 930 am class. Soon, i hope i'll be able to say more than 'kamsahamida' and 'anioniahseyo'. YAY! suddenly i'm in the mood for some Kimchi! i just bought 2 bowls of kimchi instant noodles from the supermarket. yummy. But since it's 2am, i think i better forget my hunger pangs by sleeping it off cos i really cant afford to continue eating at the rate i'm eating at the moment. ok dears, goodnight and comment ok! haha. i'm still a rookie blogger so i get very excited when i see new comments (*hint hint*) bye!

Hongkong...the land of glorious food and unbelievably wonderful shopping...i'm lovin' it!

2007-01-17T01:50:00.000+08:00

I am so frustrated! Last night, I stayed up excitedly writing this really long post, and guess what, my clumsy fingers accidently hit some random buttons and my WHOLE post was gone :~( AHH. so here I am, so you guys better appreciate what I write ok? hee :)

Wed 17/1/07- My first day of School

No pictures from today yet, cos my whole time was spent in school since 9am. Pretty interesting stuff happened today though. The 6 of us happily went for our first Basic Cantonese lesson we enrolled for, only to find that that course was catered specially for non-mandarin speaking students, and so we were kinda over-qualified!! Haha. I was honestly quite bored in class, although it was really amusing listening to each other and the others from Canada, Spain pronouncing some really weird canto words. Hmmm. So i'm actually considering switching to Basic Japanese, cos i guess i'll be more interested, and afterall i just need to Pass! haha. Then, I went for my first finance class, pretty much like back in NTU. I'll be off for dinner later with Amelia and the guys, meeting up with the other Singaporeans who're in HK Baptist Uni.

I realised that I didn't manage to upload lots of pictures from last week in my first post... so here's some more of the really nice ones I picked out :)

From Saturday, when we went on the City Tour...

Group of NTU students + one from Uni. of Tasmania... Look at the number of guys and girls! Honestly, last week, it was testosterone overload for me and ame. haha. Seriously. just check out the dynamics of the group...

Ame and I at the Peak. Beautiful viewing gallery they have there :)

It was a beautiful day!

This one's taken at Stanley Market, along the coastline, with really pretty scenery. The weather was great on saturday, sun, breeze and clear skies! Just fantastic!

Ame and I along the holland-V lookalike streets at the Stanley Market. We're dressed Hongkie-style already yeah? Haha. Got boots last week during out first shopping trip. They were about Sing$22 i think, quite worth it huh! Everyone wears boots here cos the weather's quite cold and the girls here just love dressing up!

The tour brought us to the Avenue of the Stars, which is along the river between Kowloon Island and Hongkong Island. The night view of Hongkong island was really beautiful, the lights and the breeze. The laser display show was fantastic, laser beams shooting out from different buildings to the music... Really romantic! haha. A must-go for all coming to Hongkong!

Now, why I say Hongkong is the land of glorious food...

Traditional Hongkong dessert at a local dessert shop. They have little cafes like that all over Mongkok, Causeway Bay... Really affordable desserts and they're mostly open till midnight or so! Haha,. No wonder some hongkongers say singapore doesnt have a night life. When we went for dessert around 11pm, it was still bustling with people!

Extremely HUGE wantons we had for dinner on our first night:) YUMMY ok. All thanks to Ame who has been to hk 5 times and her great recommendation!

Girls Night Out 16/1/07

Ok, as I was saying, we were kinda suffering from boy-overload last week (no offence anyone, haha!), so a great break came yesterday!! We went out with 4 other girls we met at exchange talks... It was a wonderful, fun, girl-bonding time just walking along the shops at Tsim Tsar Tsui, eating yummy food and SHOPPING like crazy!! haha. I'm one happy girl. Hongkong has FANTASTIC shopping i tell you! Prices are reasonable, and there's just so much variety- from jackets, coats, sweaters, pants, dresses, shoes, bags etc... You can get just about anything here! I bought a really cute dress, black pants(for like S$15!!) and a top, and some oriental gifts for a total of about s$120! Not bad huh. haha. As Ame puts it, "we contributed so much to the HK economy last night!!" hee. it's really true. and to think we still have 5 months to go! So if you're thinking of visiting, no prob! better save up now for some really good shopping ok!!

It was so much fun getting to know the other girls and learning about the different countries. Example, Nichole, my friend from Canada hasn;t heard of Horlicks before, and when she ordered it over dinner to try and be adventurous, she didnt like it! haha. so i took it in the end. Tha canadians have never heard of Coffee Bean or Ribena as well!! Interesting right?

Us at Hui Lao Shan, this famous dessert shop selling all sorts of Mango desserts! YUMMY! haha. We eat dessert at like 11pm when we do go out, so all of us are planning to join the gym membership in school and working out together! hee. hope our plans become reality! But the food here is SO GOOD!

From left: me, Emma from Australia, Ame, Yingying and Nichole from Canada, and Lian from SMU =) Girl Power!! HAHA.

Hee. Here's a picture to end this post. See, I bought this street sign as a souvenir and I put it up on my wall =) I'm actually pointing to the sign and the real Ladies Market (the pic above me). Hahaha. I'm loving Hongkong!!

Seriously, besides the shopping, eating, I'm very thankful to have met great girl friends these few days, and i really am hoping we'll grow closer in time to come. Exchange is really a good time to meet new people and really something different from staying in singapore all the time! I'm very glad I chose to come here.

Alright, will blog again soon yeah. Oh, i changed the comments format already so now all of you can leave comments =) hee, dern ah, you better leave more ok!!

My very first post...

2007-01-15T23:19:00.000+08:00

My first week in Hongkong.

This is my very first time attempting to blog, and it was frustrating to say the least! I started this post 2 days back and my very lousy internet connection in the hostel room had to give me problems at the very crucial times when I was saving my post! Horrible really, haha. So here are the few pictures I could upload, which will hopefully give you an idea of what's been up :)

One of the entrances of my uni, City Uni of Hongkong. Doesn it look pretty much hospital-like in this picture? haha. It's really a city campus,where everything's connected- lecture theatres, tutorial rooms, offices, cafeteria, the bank, with a link to Festival Walk, this paragon-like shopping centre (except that it's about 5 times bigger, with an ice-skating rink in the middle of it. PS: That was where fei tin hei see (To grow with love), the tvb show with the cute plump myolie wu and andy hui , was filmed!) The place is great, with this supermarket Taste, which opens till 12midnight every single day! We get our groceries and stuff like breakfast and snacks from there almost everyday. The group of us on the first night! We looked ridiculous, carrying pillows, bolsters, blankets around the reallly crowded Mongkok! haha. It was an exhausting day. After settling into our hostel rooms, we went straight to Mongkok to get our handphone lines and get stuff we needed desperately. Just imagine, walking down crowded Orchard road on a saturday night carrying huge plastic bags and weaving through the crowd! it was an experience man. heh. Thankfully we had Billy, my room mate Amelia's friend, who's a student at City U too, to bring us around to get the cheapest deals and introduce us to good yummy food! He's such a blessing cos we wouldnt have known what to do without him. Thank God.

A very blur picture of the Student Residence I stay in. There're 9 halls altogether. All 15 storey buildings. Very condo-like! Modern and very clean, the best thing is that, it's really safe!! =) My parents are the happiest to know that my every hall has a security guard 24 hrs a day. We have to scan our student cards to get past the main door, then every visitor has to sign in at the security desk, and our room keys are computerised cards like those in hotels! How cool is that, makes me feel like i'm staying at some hotel really. Cleaners clean our toilets and common places once a week so at least our toilets are kept clean. I have a wonderful roomie Amelia, who's such a blessing to have around and we really can get along so well! Our room is really cosy, clean and homely, after putting up pictures and stuff we brought from home =) I'm settling in well!

My side of the room. Thanks to my dad who actually vacuum packed my thick comfy blanket, I sleep every night warm and cosy :) The weather is rather cold, sometimes at night when there's wind it can be about 13 deg maybe? So i'm really thankful I've got my sweaters, socks, blanket!!

The past few days have been pretty much like a holiday. The group of us went to almost every popular spot in HK- Mongkok where Ame and I shopped at Ladies Market, where we bargained like crazy with our limited cantonese haha!, Tsim Tsar Tsui where we had HUGE wantons for dinner (reallly VERY SHIOK! Thanks to Ame who brought us there..), and last sat, we all joined this City Tour, where we went w about 50 exchange students and some local Hongkongers to all the famous spots. Really felt like we were on a holiday then =) So my friends, if you're interested in coming to visit hk, i can bring you around! haha. Give me awhile more and i think i'll know where to get the best deals for shopping and eating!!

(The following pictures are really small cos I couldnt upload them in bigger sizes, i dunno how come my internet connection is so lousy!!!)

Us at the Peak on saturday! The view was fantastic and the weather was great, breezy and not too cold :) The Peak has a few shopping malls, with many cool restaurants I really am so gonna try out soon!

At dinner on the first day. In one of the many many many HK cafes in Mongkok. Great yummy food!! Our fantastic tour guide and friend Billy on the extreme left :)
At LKF :)

On Sunday, Ame and I went to this church, International Christian Assembly. Mainly expats, singaporeans, malaysians, americans, and all. I felt pretty comfortable there, cos it's alot like Covenant, except maybe with a congregation about 5 times bigger. So will be going for some homegroup soon, and hopefully we can settle down there.

So far, I've been enjoying this experience thoroughly cos it's really something new to me to be without my dearest family, relatives, boyfriend and friends around me. Thank goodness there's the internet now, with skype, webcam and all... haha. I'll be reallly homesick if not for the fact that I webcam and skype with my parents almost every night! I'm looking forward to the next few months already.

Alright, I think that's all for now. I'll post more pictures when my connection's better. Haha. It's already 4am. I actually took 3 hours to write my 1st post! Amelia stayed up till 4 too the other night to write her post, now i totally understand why. heh. I know leen, xinhe and some of you reading this think I'll stop updating after awhile cos you all know me inside out- the many lazy bones in me... but i'll try to keep this blog alive! =)

Missing you all!