bits and pieces

Pictures first. 

In the most random order of occurrence...

a super cute heart cushion that I got from Ikea at Shatin (沙田) two days ago for less than S$10; I think it was around S$6-7. Nice right!

In Gladys' beanie during the first few days of school; they do an awesome job at keeping your ears warm.

Fruitips candy that I first learnt of from Xuanie in Singapore, chewing on one right now!

My awesome hottie. I used to use these on my tummy whenever I suffered from the monthly cramps but I'm using it here everyday. This particular one doesn't require any refilling of hot water, just 15 minutes of recharging; great for a lazy ass like me who doesn't like to walk 10 steps to the pantry.

Huge glasses of Hoegaarden at Ah Fatt's in Tsim Sha Tsui East; the place with the floor full of peanut shells and we used to passed by every night on the way back to our hotel last year when we were here! 92hkd for 2 large beers and a basket-full of peanuts, very reasonable.

  

KH pointed out the dynamics of order chits in HK (and it's not just limited to order chits la)- simplification is the way to go!

"冬OT" stands for 凍檸檬茶 and "O勿" stands for "檸檬蜜"

Each of the three words at the bottom of the 2nd and 3rd boxes represent one ingredient each. 

My order's in the last box, and I had 豬軟骨 (pork with soft bones), 豬琍 (pig's tongue) and 腐竹 (fu zhouk, is that bean curd skin?). 

I was in awe of all that simplification for the first 10 minutes or so; sua ku to the max I know.

Order that came not too long after; the best thing to have on a cold, cold night is a bowl of piping hot noodles.With an awesome friend, no less.

Can you spot Teeny? 

I placed him in a bowl (from Ikea) with some apples. There's a little blur on the left, but I still think this is kinda cute.

My second week in HK's nearly over now, and to my dear friends who are constantly worried if I'm settling in nicely, I'm adapting pretty well! I don't know a lot of people here, so I'm always asking to hang out with people (I hope they don't mind!). It's cold here, and the weather's really nice for sleeping in (all day), but I just can't make myself stay in my room all day long. So... I'm heading out in just a bit again! Hope all's well back in Singapore!

It's nearly a week since our arrival, and things are falling into place pretty nicely so far, if I may say so - the MTR lines don't seem as confusing now as they did a week ago, I've stopped taking my Octopus card (something like ezlink, but it can do so much more) out when we are alighting from buses now because we only have to tap once - when we board, I only take half the time to adjust the water temperature in the shower cubicle compared to my first shower in HK, layering is an effective way of keeping myself warm (ranges from slightly to much), the classrooms are not as difficult to locate as I'd expected it to be - NIE definitely feels much bigger than this campus here and the list goes on.

I'm probably finding it easy to cope (temperature and language issues aside) because things are really similar to back home; things work in the same ways though there are slight variations here and there. Oh, and things are also more technologically advanced here compared to Singapore.

I haven't really got much idea about what to talk about, so I'll just try to come up with 10 random things I've learnt about HK so far (from school buddies and KH, etc), or maybe just some realizations I've made hur:

1) The main language of communication is Cantonese; people do know how to speak English and Putonghua (what we know as Mandarin), but not all of them are very fluent in these two other languages because Cantonese has been the main language of instruction in schools.

2) Taxis here are colour-coded; red taxis run around the urban areas, green ones around New Territories (where my campus is!) and blue ones solely on Lantau Island. There are designated taxi-stands for the different types of taxis and all of them run on meters so there's really not much bargaining involved unless you're coming from the airport; I think each piece of luggage is chargeable or something. & I haven't seen any blue taxis, yet!

3) HK is a very mountainous place, and there are many areas that you can go for trekking, etc, so there are actually other things to do apart from shopping in this city.

4) I've heard this at least 3 times since we arrived: this is one country with two systems. Even after the return of HK to mainland China by the British, they maintain some of the old British legislative systems, and eh, take charge of their own domestic affairs (that's everything except for national defense and something else, wasn't paying too much attention in class today).

5) According to my tutor this morning, locals 'fight' actively for what they believe in here. There are protests and demonstrations whenever people feel a need to instill changes, maintain current practices, etc. Sounds really interesting and it's the exact opposite of Singapore, I wonder if I'll ever get to take part in one of these during my short stay here.

6) The bus/taxi drivers here don't really use their brakes, so far, almost every ride on a mini-bus here feels like a roller coaster ride; albeit the milder ones. At each bend, drivers seem to be stepping on the accelerator instead of the brakes. I am very thankful the contents of my stomach stayed within my tummy after the bus ride from Mongkok to Tai Po tonight.

7) You only tap once when you board a bus that uses the Octopus card, no need for a second time when you alight. 

8) It's easier to suffer from constipation in cold weather, it's true!

9) Alcohol's tax-free here, so drinks are (supposed to be) a lot cheaper here compared to back home.

10) There's yummy pork chops at the Ikea here!

Anyhow, KH brought me to have 煲仔飯 (claypot rice) at Temple Street last week. The queue was super long, but the food was really nice; it was my first time finishing my food in HK!

Yums!

Happy New Year :)

As the title suggests, happy 2011 folks!

This new year is a little different for me compared to previous years because it was my first new year spent overseas! 

It's my fourth day here in HK now, and I would like to think that I am adapting well. On the brighter side, though the weather's a little chilly and the air is pretty dry, I'm sure I'll manage with lots of moisturizer. I've been enjoying the food too after my second meal and I saw a great deal of cheap and nice stuff to buy at Argyle Centre in Mongkok today; super looking forward to start shopping soon. Cute furry boots/coats/bags/everything here I come!.

On the less bright side, my throat's not really getting much better and I'm really worried that it'll transform into a full-fledged cough. Oh, and my laptop's mouse-pad is starting to look like it's going to give me some problems soon too; I can only move the cursor sideways but not vertically. Blah.

Prior to my departure, I had quite a few meet-ups with friends; Sam, Mike, Xuanie and Rongster (Audrey was sick), the KTOWY peeps and the primary school clique. I missed my barrage date with G, Bun and Jolb  because I turned sick closer to my flight, sorry girls :( It was great catching up with everyone (as usual) and some of them called my name a few times more than they would in the past since they wouldn't be seeing so much of me around for the next few months. Aww.

Some photos from the meet-ups - 

ECP Chalet with KTOWY peeps:

  

we played a gift exchange 'game' later on.

all the c'uppers'

and the 'poohers'

 

our logcake from cold storage.

 

frolicking Santa!

 

the obligatory full-group shots, taken with self-timer

Merry-making; wii after.

With Rongster and Xuanie at Orchard Central:

Macarons from Jewel Artisan Chocolate; cut up for sharing.

The macarons were delicious! I really liked how they were so bold and creative with the flavours; my favourite was the bottom-most right one with salted egg yolk. It was neither too sweet nor savoury, just yummy and perfectly to my taste. Shiok!

Paradise Dynasty for xlbs after! 

Before I move onto HK, I want to thank everyone who came down to send me off at the airport on Thursday. I truly appreciate everyone's efforts for making it down to the airport even though you may not be living very nearby. And the ones who sent me farewell messages too. Thank you all for making me feel so loved. Lub you all deep deep! 

And now, my new year's eve in HK. 

The first half of the day was spent in school for orientation; there was no rara games (thank goodness), but everything else was in place. I learnt that 75% of the exchange students are from Europe/UK, so we were really the minority amongst everyone else. I really enjoyed speaking Putonghua to all the student buddies/volunteers and other exchange students whom I spoke with; most of them are really nice people, not to mention helpful too. There was one particular girl, however, who wasn't too friendly; I mean, even before I could say hello, she took one look at me and then turned away curtly to start talking very aggressively to flirting with the angmoh guys. Annoying max. I wonder if there's a local term for SPGs, or something similar.

The student volunteers/buddies brought us out to the market area and we bought pillows (!), together with a few other neccesities... and a pair of covered shoes for me.

In the evening, we headed to Tsim Sha Tsui with Gladys to meet her friend, and KH too! Split ways after dinner and KH brought me around. Thought of watching the fireworks initially at Tsim Sha Tsui but look at the crowd -

Crazy or what!

And this was only 9pm. Can you imagine how much more crowded it'd have gotten by midnight?! We went to KH's friend's roof-top party in the end. And it was awesome! At 49 storeys above sea level, there was a barbecue, some drinks, many friends of KH's friend, and a cute 5-month old golden retriever pup running around. And, we had a rather good view of the fireworks too.

My noisy pictures are not doing the view any justice. I'm sorry :(

Anyway... fireworks!

And to distract you from the shitty quality of my pictures, here's a cute little doggie and I!

Baileys!

She was running around the jaccuzi pool in circles and I don't know what exactly happened, but she fell into the pool later. Everyone (her mummy and daddy especially) started panicking but they eventually got her out of the water, rubbed her dripping fur with a warm towel and sat her in front of a ceramic heater. Learnt from her mummy later that that was her first 'swim', 

We went back to KH's friend's place for games... and he ended up drinking a lot, because I kept losing and he agreed to drink for my forfeits lol. One guy got drunk and he started talking funny; I couldn't make out some of the gibberish that he was saying because they were mainly in canto, pity! 

Ended the night with Pictionary (HK version!) and our team lost. I think I'm the reason lah, 3 times in a row and we had to drink as forfeit. Oops.

文記車仔面(mun kee cheh zai min); mine and KH's. According to him, this is similar to yong tau foo. You put a check on the items/ingredients that you want for your bowl on the order chit. There's pig's blood curd, fried fish skin and beef balls in my bowl of noodles with beef stomach (I think) soup. Yum! Thank you for bringing me around for such awesome stuff!

reluctant...

Met up with Gladys and Zhenhui at Mongkok after lunch and we walked around a fair bit; first at Argyle Centre (旺角中心) followed by Ladies' Market (女人街). I bought me a pair of furry boots for HK$150 and we ended up in a roast meat place for dinner; the owners were really nice, and one of them, an old granny kept checking if things were okay for us. The 油雞 (Oiled chicken) was Fantastic! See...

we don't ever have 油雞 that taste this good in Singapore.

My feet were aching like crazy and I guess so were Gladys' and Zhenhui's, decided to call it a day and we went back to campus. I took a shower, lathered on the most generous amount of moisturizer all over me and here I am, freezing a little in my ridiculous outfit now -- knee-length pants, knee-length socks and my hoodie... you may laugh to your heart's content now. 

:)

Oh, and I met my room-mate today too! 

This is the view from my window when I wake up in the morning; I'm living on the 10th floor by the way. I can see the sunrise too, isn't that awesome.

and my side of the room. Didn't have a pillow the first night so I rolled my coat up and used it as one.

I'm darn sleepy now, and it's nearing 4a.m. (again!). I hope I didn't bore you with my lengthy post, good night people! And once again, Happy 2011! :) 

Lots of love.