and so i finally 'met' my sister's bf, but in a rather bu4 guang1 cai3 way, since mum made me open door for sis in my jian4 bu4 de2 ren2 night gown.... sick. always come home when i'm like in ready-to-sleep wear... then got no time to change cos like by that time the bf wouldn't be at door anymore...(my hesitation the past few times have resulted in a few missed opportunities) sigh. what an embarrassing first meeting. and i feel so funny, why cannot guang ming zheng da meet him, must like purposely open door then like tou1 kan4... but chap looks like decent guy lah.. least i got to see him once before i leave on tues =P
after touring the Asian cities i did this summer, i have decided that Singapore's perhaps one of the few Asian cities (out of all the Asian cities i've toured so far, which is not that many lah) i would actually want to stay in...I actually quite like Tokyo, but living expenses are too high. maybe when i'm rich and retired... anyway, would def return to tour other Japanese cities soon! i hope. this sounds dumb, but i really do feel quite at home here... when i first came back from China, somehow i really appreciated how u hav ppl speaking singlish again, how u have all kinds of familiar-tasting local food again... and i mean no matter fluent i get in Mandarin over in China, it's still not natural somehow...

it's sometimes good to be sick huh... u get extra attention and parents fuss over you... haha... my usually lazy dad peeled and sliced an apple for me yesterday! have been sleeping so much over past few days that i feel very tou hun nao zhang. glad i'm feeling a lot better today and am ready to do some last min shopping/ meet up with frens tmr before i leave on Tuesday =) sometimes, i really think parental love is the most wei3 da4. they can be a lil bit fan2 sometimes, but their actions are always well-intentioned lah.

Pictures!

Jingshan Park, Beijing.

Buildings at The Bund, Shanghai.

Xi1 Hu2 (West Lake) in the evening, Hangzhou.

hmmm too many pics to post on my blog... for more pics, click here! i find myself getting more and more interested in photography... i want to take nice pics. There's a visual studies Intro to Photography class at Berkeley this Fall, but unfortunately it clashes with my other classes... =(

yay. back in Beijing... and quite ready to go home tonight. i'm almost over my cheap-food euphoria, had enough of horrible weather (yest was so scorching; it's now pouring in Beijing...no wonder i'm getting sore-throaty and falling sick) and of course, quite sick of hunting for cheap DVDs... but happy i found my jc-era Beautiful Life Jap drama for acceptable price. also a little sad though that i'm leaving just when my conversational Chinese is actually getting pretty decent =P

hmm. i forgot to add that with such uncomfortably hot/humid weather, you get interesting sights on the street though. every now and then i will see adult men with shirts rolled up to their chests walking around. hmm actually i just changed my mind. it's not interesting at all. rather gross, actually =P

of Suzhou, Hangzhou and nightmarish train stations
am now slacking in Hangzhou before my evening 13 hr overnight train that will take me all the way back to Beijing... i am starting to get burnt out; aching muscles and sore feet, plus uncomfortably hot and humid weather makes travelling really somewhat unpleasant. and i've decided that i've had ENOUGH of train stations in China... it is really a pain to have to wade through swarms of people to get to your destination each time...well. but this is China; what did i expect? =P i've also started wondering if Chinese really enjoy peddling their wares... was pretty amused/amazed to see railway staff peddling gadgets on some trains! from 'special' socks to toys and weird gimmicky gadgets, complete with detailed live demonstrations (for toys and gadgets)... i mean food/ magazine carts were ok, but "officially"selling random toys on trains was just weird.
Suzhou's gardens were really picturesque; but there's really little else to do beside touring the gardens. the whole place is pretty small and somewhat touristy too. but some gardens can be really beautiful. at some point i just sat at stone benches/on bridges to admire all that was around me. would have been very peaceful without the tonnes of ppl touring the gardens at the same time. the effort owners spent into designing their gardens was amazing. gardens were really meticulously planned. eg. to view a certain scenery, u can only stand at this particular spot; anywhere else you wun see the complete picture... who on earth has the time to do such things these days...
came to Hangzhou mainly for the famed Xi1 Hu2 (West Lake) and it's also very pretty... esp if you go at the right times. it's not immediately breathtaking, but it's nice to just stroll by the lake and take in the view at different points of the walk. Ting and I decided to catch the sunrise and escape the heat; so woke up at an unearthly hour this morning. by 515am we were by the lake and i was surprised that there were already many old folks strolling around, doing their morning exercises, hanging around etc....also partially felt like i was reliving my pri/sec sch Chinese textbooks, what with attractions like Yue Fei's temple/tomb, Wu Song's tomb (all fake and reconstructed one though, and apparently Sima Guang's house or something but that i didnt see) and the famed Lei2 Feng1 Ta3 from Bai2 She2 Zhuan4...
hmm anyway hav to stop now. glad i'm going home on Tuesday.. think i've had enough of China in sucky weather for now =P