29 June 2006
Today, I have finally finished all the drafting and have submitted my IA report. I have no more reports or essays to submit liaoz!! After soo many late nights and lost free time ... now I can concentrate on the World Cup without typing on my laptop.
During the 2-3 weeks time where I had school work to do after work, many things had happened ...
We had a dialogue and networking session with Minister Tharman and a delegate of businessmen.
Chek and me, at the dialogue.
We have also graduated from 北京大学. This picture is taken at the graduation lunch.
At our table. It was Bao Zhen's birthday as well. I think she had the greatest birthday of them all who celebrated their birthdays in Beijing.
Back at work, sigh ... very pek chek. I am now delayed and dragged down by circumstances I have no say and control over. My 工作能力 already 受到肯定, but now my 工作效力受到怀疑, feeling quite in the pits over that. Then my mentor came over to 'check' on my progress even though she already knew that I could not have possibly have progressed anyway, and then whispered (really very softly) to me that I should probably not surf net too frequently. Sigh ...
I still went online. I can't possibly bring a book there and read, or worst still, watch DVD or wat right? I managed to finish reading 张爱玲's 《倾城之恋》. Here are some classic sentences from the小说 which I've adapted:
"一个女人，再好些，得不着异性的爱，也就得不着同性的尊重。女人们就是这一点贱。"
"你最高的理想是一个冰清玉洁而又富于挑逗性的女人。冰清玉洁，是对于他人。挑逗，是对于你自己。如果我是一个彻底的好女人，你根本就不会注意到我。"
21 June 2006
Thinking of suitable titles for blog posts are a real chore. Naming them after dates that you write them is not very representative of the things you write.
Had been really busy these days. After work, we cook and wash up, and then it's back to essay writing. And then I have the World Cup matches to watch. I have been facing inspiration shortage (again); all my creative (and copying) juices have been diverted to complete the 6 one-thousand-and-five-hundred-word essays. I have finally finished them!!! Now I've got the final IA report to gaodim, then I can relax and enjoy liaoz. Owing to the fact that I seldom write about difficulties and unhappy things, a lot of people think that I am enjoying life here. I work hard and I play hard, although not as crazily as the others.
The short time that I've been here in Beijing, thrown out of comfort zone, away from home, helped me to learn more about myself. And sometimes, I see myself more and more like the person I did not wish to be, and lesser the man I had wanted to be.
-I cannot stand loneliness.
-I cannot be unoccupied.
-If I were to be disabled, please God, take only my voice.
-I don't like cold wars, but I can fight pretty well.
-I'm stubborn and possess a violent streak.
-I am not so sure if I am as adventurous as I wished.
-Uncertainty do excite me, but I am scared most of the time.
-I don't know if I am a private person, or am I fond of hosting friends.
-I can't be sure if I can survive as well as I am now in Beijing, as in other parts of China.
-I am more and more like my parents
Here are also some of my observations of people, very subjective and very unfair but I so so so don't care;
-连体婴都是自私的；谁离开了谁，两个都会死。离开之前，只要有彼此，就算全世界毁灭了也不关他们的事。去自生自灭吧。无事不登三宝殿 。。。不要每次需要帮忙的时候才来找别人。
-Some people's idea of a tour, is about shopping.
-Some people's idea of a getaway, is yet another city.
-Some people live for the moment, some live for the future.
-Some people claim to be saving money and reject your suggestions, and then splurge a much larger amount that was saved on something else.
人民大会堂
Alex and me went to the 人民大会堂 for a free concert with the tickets given to us by our colleagues. Turned out that the concert was actually a charity premiere of a cultural performance by some 广西 cultural group. Our company bought quite a lot of tickets for all the perm staff.
The 人民大会堂 is actually a super big meeting room for all the 代表s from all over China to hold their meeting here. When there is no 人大 meeting, the venue can be used for concerts and stuff. There's also a room for each of the other 'states' like 湖南room, 广东room etc etc.
That's me waiting to go 'meeting', lounging at the big sofa outside of the meeting rooms hehe. Felt like I was D.SP for a moment.
Then there was this 'star' in the main meeting hall that was above all the delegates' seats. Quite cool looking, very spaceship feel.
13 June
Hmmm ... I really have short term memory ... I had something in mind to write as I login to post, and I forgot about it as soon as I see this blank page.
Here it is,
We have a total of 6 essays to write and submit for my Chinese modules in PKU and while the following differs for undergrads from different schools in NTU, we all have some sort of attachment report to write as well. All these on top of the hours we spend at work. I do miss the days where we can come home to watch dvds, documentaries or serials. Nowadays, I need to juggle between work, World Cup, essay and report writing.
Sigh, 排得满满. 又得安排最后的几个weekend该去哪里玩.
有些人很经典； 一面在这边又whine又complain又shoot email, 另一面又作的比谁还要快. Reminds me of those who claims that they never study for exams and then still get 'A' type of *^!&@s. What a irony. It just shows that the 'workload' is not beyond your capability at all.
Then 又有另一种人, 也一面在这边又whine又complain又shoot email, 另一面又拼了命去看连续剧、看我猜、 and all the watever crap shows ... There's not really too much work, but just too much (self imposed) distractions.
Now that the deadline has been specially extended to accomodate the above type of 'not-so-geniunely-in-need-of-extension' pple, I am hearing them trying to push for all to submit on the original date. I am confused about what it was all about.
Haiz ... 等一下shoot到人, 又惹人厌 ... 还是shaddup比较好, 毕竟敢写, 就不要怕人家会看. 很多事情不再是一个抱歉就可以解决的.
Department Dinner - 2nd June
Our company would be merging with another rival company, and LM would not be leading our team anymore (she got promoted). So she suggested a lunch/dinner via email on Tuesday. It was quiet on the email front (for a small intern like me) until on Thursday when we approached her to ask her to write the testimonial for us, and tell her we would be interested to go for the lunch/dinner, then we knew the the meal has already been set for Friday lunch .. We would be having lessons at PKU ... of coz we couldn't make it. Was a little upset that we were left out of the loop ..
But then there came a miracle! It was changed to a dinner on Friday! For us! Soooo happpy!!!
It was a very fun night with lots of food and drinks. LM was allergic to alcohol but she 破例 and toasted to us all. I think the drinks were helpful in getting everybody high. And it was quite a sight to see all the ladies so 'on' about drinking and not 'act 矜持' like their sg counterparts. Sigh ... pity most of them are already attached or married liaoz ...
There were lots of jokes around and we were let off from telling a 色情 experience because we were 'too young' hehe. Well ... there was nothing 色情 but it was all 初恋s and 恋爱 experiences etc etc haha It was pretty funny.
7th June 2006
My colleague received lilies, again, although that was last week's addition. This set seems to be very long living, including today, it's already about 7-9 day old liaoz i think.
Lots of good things seems to be happening lately.
- My manager told us that if we need any sort of recommendation letter or testimonial, she could write it for us. Yay!
- Had lunch with all the ladies colleagues in the office. First time since entering the company loh ... It's great to be able to talk to them outside work topics, and finding out more about them hehe etc etc.
- Colleague gave us tickets (free from the company, but not for us interns ... ) to go 人民大会堂 to catch a performance by some 广西 cultural group. We got the tickets otherwise selling at 680yuan. But shucks ... thru the tickets' exchanges, got to know that the office babes are already 'untouchable' liaoz ... sit near them also no point ...
- KT invited me for a radio interview at 北广传媒. First time of my life ever in a radio recording studio. And I shall be Beijing airwaves for 15 mins haha. Will upload the recording clip when I get it.
- The pantry is loaded with Oreos and choc chips and choc wafers lately. They usually come once a week, 2 rolls each time only. Could it be because of the merger, the two company's pantry accounts also merged? Wow ... the other side's pantry must have been rich!
有朋从远方来，不亦乐乎！
Mr X has finally arrived in Beijing last friday! Just like the way LJ came, it was g-r-e-a-t to see sg friends who come up to Beijing for a tour. Funny ... How come I didn't take any photos with him??
Recommended him to stay at the HI hostel near my office and took him out for dinner when he arrived. Then we walked over to Wang Fu Jing where we then met his friends from HK, whom he made during his exchange in Korea. They were May, Grace, '细佬' and Ben. They were a fun bunch who wanted to try all the 'famous food' in Beijing like QuanJude and DongLaiShun and of coz (like us), they were pretty disappointed (like us too) haha. Well ... they actually wanted me to bring them to the place I brought LJ to for the roasted duck but it was already pretty late, so they settled for the QuanJude duck at Wang Fu Jing. Haa at least they can say, 'been there, done that'. Grace later also said the DongLaiShun wasn't really nice and was very exp, she even had the tummy ache after eating it.
And then on Sat, I climbed Simatai section of Great Wall with James and Mr X. Man ... climbing Simatai will make you the real 好汉 loh ... 金山岭 ... is still quite manageable (read: nothing).
It rained very heavily when we reached the bottom of the Wall, and we waited for about an hour before we decided to screw the weather and climb the Wall in our silly looking duck-beaked pontos.
Fortunately, the rained stopped while we are halfway up and the rain actually cleared the fog/dust/pollution whatever-it-is a bit which made taking photos not a waste of film. And frankly speaking, nobody wants to take photos in these on top of the Wall loh ...
After coming down from Simatai, we went over to 后海 to meet the HK gang for dinner and drinks there. Been to Beijing so long, I myself also haven't sat down and drank at 后海 before. Never occured to me that I would be drinking there with HK pple I have just met 2 days ago. But well, they were fun to talk to =P
Rem we went QuanJude? They gave me the QuanJude duck 'body' which they couldn't finish (on the same night of coz), and said I could make soup with it. Then I invited them to come over my place for dinner on Sunday so I cook the duck soup for them but May, '细佬' and Ben had to return to HK. So only Grace and Mr X came over. Cooked the 'portugese sauce' ribs, soy sauce wings, some vege and also the duck-n-tomato soup for them. Just wanted to make these travelling friends feel like home, I know how great it feels that when you are away from home, you still can find food and warmth as if you are at home. And after making new friends from HK, now I want to stop over at HK also =P Now I might wanna stop over at Guangzhou and HK liaoz.
We had a dialogue and networking session with Minister Tharman and a delegate of businessmen.
Chek and me, at the dialogue.
We have also graduated from 北京大学. This picture is taken at the graduation lunch.
At our table. It was Bao Zhen's birthday as well. I think she had the greatest birthday of them all who celebrated their birthdays in Beijing.
