Friday, August 07, 2009 @8/07/2009 03:07:00 PM
I'm at Mt. Elizabeth Hospital now looking out for my poor dad.. I hope he recovers soon.
It's been ages since I last updated.
This has been one of my most fruitful yet tiring summer holidays I have ever had =) (well i only have 2 in my whole life.)
For those who has been trying to catch me this holiday would have realized that i have been travelling
too much. I think I have only stayed in SG for 1 month out of the 3 months I am in Asia..
My first stop was tokyo with Pearleen and Xinying, it was a
shopping paradise!!! hahaha and I love the culture and the wide range of interesting gadgets they have.. If I have to choose another asian language to learn, it will be Japanese! I'd love to exchange there if i can learn how to speak jap. Tokyo drained so much money of mine.. I must have been mad to shop there..
After resting in Singapore for 2 days, I flew to Beijing! I fell sick on the first day due to the freaking hot weather, it was 45DEG that day! I had really high fever and due to the extremely tight precautions on H1N1, i was forced to quarantine in a hospital for 2 nights. Not that I am complaining, it was the best hospital in that province and i stayed there for free! But hospital stays are b-o-r-i-n-g.. and i never liked hospitals.. too depressing. After i was declared SWINE FREE, i was free to deal with the ups and downs of the trip. Seriously, the only up i had was teaching my student english. Other than that............. i dont quite appreciate the chinese culture. I didnt like the food, i didnt like their attitude and i didnt like being mistaken all the time as a native chinese. omggg. BUT!!! I LOVE SILKSTREET SHOPPING CENTRE. the girls went back to the shopping centre like... 4 times in 2 weeks?! Our bargaining skills improved so fast. But bargaining was tiring.. for example when I was buying a shirt the conversation will be like this..
*laid eyes on a shirt that I like*
me: how much is this?
*whips out calculator*
shopkeeper: this is good quality. for you i give u good price. i dont give you this price
*types 4000 (which is about SGD800)*
shopkeeper: i also dont give you this price
*types 1980 (about SGD200)*
shopkeeper: for you, i give you good price, this
*types 900 (about SGD100(*
at this point i was boiling mad thinking, are you crazy? for a piece of non-branded local market quality shirt you wanna sell it to me at that price? and whats with showing me crazy prices that you were not giving me anyway?!
me: no way, i am only willing to pay 40RMB (~SGD8) for that shirt.
shopkeeper: nono, this is very very good quality, you no say i no say, i give you good price
*types 700*
me: ?!?!?!? i said i am only willing to pay 40RMB, if you cant give me at that price then its okay i dont want it.
*i walked away*
*shopkeeper runs and pulls me back, holds on me tightly*
shopkeeper: come back come back. you know this is good quality, give me better price. middle middle
*types 300*
me: i said no, i am only willing to pay 40.
*types 100 and shoves calculator at me*
shopkeeper: ok? 100. very good price
me: no, i said 40. its okay if you dont want to give, i dont want it anymore.
*types 80*
me: no.
shopkeeper: a bit more please, i really want to sell it to you
me: no.
*types 50*
shopkeeper: ok 10 more
me: no, 40.
shopkeeper: *shakes head* okay money money
that is only after 2 days of practise in bargaining that i became more firm. I was still getting ripped off at 100RMB for my items on the first day. can you imagine restarting the WHOLE process for each item i wanted to buy? it was
mentally draining cos i get angry at ppl trying to rip us off.
oh well, i had a more enjoyable trip afterwards at indo with james (: i celebrated my birthday in the
ZOO! with the animals! hahah it was a chilled and laid back birthday (: we tried out a few cool things in indo like driving an ATV (all terrain vehicle) in the mountain and also a mini white water rafting experience! indo trip was good (:
i had a bad toothache on the night i returned from indo and luckily i managed to get an emergency dentist at 11pm! i had a root canal treatment done till 1am. what an experience!
but i got to have a more enjoyable time at my birthday party the next day (: thanks a bunch to those peeps who came to my place and all the birthday wishes that i received! I made the same mistake by not spending enough time with each one of the groups but it was really nice to see so many familiar faces again (:
i'll be leaving singapore in a week and i really hope i will study harder in mcgill this time.
i'm being plagued with the question of
"what do i want to be in the future?!" i'm looking into dentistry now.. but it seems like a long and tedious road. I dont want to settle down at the age of 30 plus ):