Its ending?! Time to go homeeee?

Oops.. Realised I havent been updating this page for some time! Probably it was me having too much fun overseas; me mugging too hard; or i’ve just been a lazy bum for the past few months.. I guess its the latter. :\ 

Its been fruitful months since I’ve first stepped onto HongKong land. The image of the first day where I met my fellow exchange mates over here is still deeply etched in my mind, and guess what! – one of us will already be flying back for SG after completing his exam paper in the morning 2 days later… How fast is that.

Well, actually I’ve been counting down to the days of me returning back home too! I guess time spent here has already been sufficient for me to learn anything that i’ve not been able to do so back home. Explored most of HK alr and i’ll probably not be back here for some time. Off the back of my mind now, the only regret i can think of would be just the lack of soccer games that i’ve played with the locals and other foreign exchange students. And they’re all leaving back to their homeland in a few days time too. I would’ve wanted to play more games with them. :/

I miss home probably and the many many friends back there. I know someone’s been waiting for me all this while and i miss her so dearly too. Im coming back soon!

With exams ending in 4 days time, I definitely cant wait. Shenzhen – Guangzhou – possibly Korea! The 2-way air tix from HK to Korea is just less than SGD$500 on Cathay Pacific. Thats like half-price off cf. to if you’re going from Singapore… Travel plans not cfm yet though. But oops! Money’s running low, even after mummy transferred additional funds over. Hehe….

Probably update more soon!

The toughest period so far…

Much as its the recess week in NUS, term in HKU still continues as its only week 4 here now .

HKU recess week period is from 3March -10March. 1.5 weeks more to go before the week arrives! Im even wondering if the week is meant for play or study then. The entrance fees for the theme parks (Ocean Park/ Disneyland) are cheaper during weekdays i guess and its the perfect opportunity to head down then.

Furthermore, with the anticipation of watching live horse races which only occur at the Happy Valley race course on Wed, I’m definitely tempted to go down and perhaps place a bet too!

Oh well, we’ll see how it goes…. though i know the recess week for me wont be completely for the sole purpose of studying.

Valentines’ Day is over! Very happy to have done everything i could for Dar, though im like here <3… Thanks to those who’ve helped me Was anticipating Dar’s letter to arrive, checking the mailbox now and then. Reading it when it arrived was like having a happy pill in midst of the gloom caused by my illness. Lifted my mood instantly

On a side note, im really glad to have recovered from fever and diarrhoea after enduring the nonsense for 3-4 days. How irritating it was. Was too tired and lazy to even head down to school to utilise the FREE medical services and hence self medicated, ponned school and rested on bed for a day. It can be tough to be sick back home, but its even worse in a foreignland, isnt it?

Fortunately i’ve recovered and its the continuity of exploration on this quite-huge country. A failed attempt of catching the sunrise at dawn at the Peak, trips to Stanley Market, Wetland Park, Peng Chau Island, Kowloon Park and the Scouts HQ basically summarised the past 2-3 weeks.

Also, with the weekly Sunday home-cooked lunch sessions with other fellow HKU exchange students, we’ve almost tried everyones’ cooking. The next ones to cook would be me and Xiujie?! Oops… Not confident of my cooking at all. LOL! Hopefully we’ll get through it

Assignment deadlines and test dates are slowly appearing in my mind. Gosh…. But my mentality is JPO ( Just Pass Only) …. so it isnt too bad eh!

Its February!

Yo! Life continues as it approaches February…..

Yes, we had our own homecooked lunch for the first time from the girls and jinhao. It was just a day after i landed in HK once again. A mini 团圆 lunch as we had our own Singapore style food in HK for the first time. Chinese steamed fish, broiled chicken soup, stir fried soy sauce chicken, vegetable with oyster sauce and steamed egg with mushroom! Quite impressed with the girls’ abilities as its some of their first time too! Furthermore, we had tangyuan to fill up the remaining space left in our tummies for dessert! To top it up, comes the so called ‘Singapore style’ yusheng with salmon, orange, soba, crackers, carrot etc..

Oh wells, i helped with the washing of the dishes at least

I guess i was fortunate not to fall sick during this period unlike my roomie Xiujie who unfortunately had a fever and was not feeling very well for days. Will eat more fruits, vegetables and drink more water Furthermore, compared to some exchange students who faced certain problems in their confirmation for their modules, I need not worry as mine was smooth-sailing compared to theirs. A good year for those born in the year of the snake?

More food galore as we went around searching for delicious food as usual. The better one would be the hotpot meal in Yoshinoya! I just had my first experience in Yoshinoya in Singapore a week ago and was quite satisfied with the beef bowl in their student meal. Thanks – my darling once again for bringing me there when i was back last week!

This time, it was even better. In midst of the cold weather with breezy winds, hot and steaming food arrived at the table. Check out the seafood hotpot meal which came with rice/udon and drinks, costing only ~SGD10 bucks… The shabu shabu beef slices, fresh prawns, oysters, vegetables and even the soup base was awesome. For those who’re overseas, make sure u try this if Yoshinoya offers it in winter! Heard its only available in these few months. Friends back in Singapore, im afraid I cant do much

After weeks of eating out, someone prompted me to try cooking, saying it was ‘cost-saving and healthier’. I was wondering how undercooked/overcooked food would be nutritious as i knew my culinary skills weren’t that awesome. It was time to experiment. I guess its okay since I’ll be the only one eating everything that i cooked. Off to the supermarket I went to grab some ingredients. Not too many items bought. Beginner level first!

This was the outcome! I never thought cooking was such fun. Perhaps its having the luxury of time, unlike back in Singapore where i would be too lazy to shop slowly in the groceries section. Not even mentioning cooking up a meal in the fast-paced city. Quite satisfied with the results. No wonder i scored an A in Home Econs last time. Natural talent! HAHA!

Would be having supper at a dimsum place tonight at 2.30am. Can’t wait. First dimsum experience after being in HK for 3 months! Gosh! I must have been missing out. Their opening hours are 2.30am – 4pm. Weird eh… hence explaining having supper in such a wee hour.

Visiting Lamma/Lantau Island over the weekends. Or perhaps going over to the west of HK island to shop at Stanley. Still undecided. Nonetheless, i wanna explore as much as possible during my stay over here.

Despite having fun at this foreign land, I miss SG much too. A few more months and I’ll be back!

Leaving once again

As i was departing for Hong Kong once again -this time for a longer period, a telt of despair and unwillingness just crept into me. Much as I tried to stay strong, the first drop of tear trickled down my face as the plane sped down the runway, taking off shortly after.

Wiping it off, I knew it was really the ‘start’ of my 4 month adventure, or rather exchange programme. The past week had indeed passed faster than I could have thought. CNY visiting went as usual, except that darling Kaye was with me at times. Catching up with cousins as we crowded around the smoking steamboat pot and humongous lot of food was partly the reason why I came back for CNY..

Receiving angbaos is definitely a happy pastime for kids during CNY.. Well I guess I am still one as i am still enjoying the art of collecting red packets, including one from dar’s daddy this year.

Much as I wanted to meet all my close friends during the one week back, it wasn’t possible due to time constraint. Even crashed one lecture at NUS to see as many friends as possible, though I could only talk to some during the short break interval.

Nonetheless, i could still squeeze time out to dinner and play LAN with my sec sch friends. gosh! How long haven’t we played LAN tgt… I guess we’ve grown and priorities have changed since the sec sch days.. How old are we? 23 year olds! Overaged kids dominating the LAN shop. What a sight..

Really appreciate those who came to send me off though I wanted it to be a quiet affair. Thanks Clare jer and… Kaye.

Wish to thank my darling for her support all along. Without her, I guess life would really have been tougher. Much as we wanted to be side by side everyday, this world is really much more than that. I’m glad she understood that and hence, I’ll support her decision to go for her summer programme too even if it means we’ll be ‘separated’ for a longer period of time.

The 4 months at Hong Kong will really pass very fast as I can already foresee my departure to SG after this semester. I’m glad to have my bunch of friends in HK for they’ve made settling down a lot simpler. Better make our time at HK count!!:)

Whenever I switch my SG sim card for my HK sim card in my phone, it’s like leading a whole new life overseas suddenly.

I love my family and friends See you all again in 4 months time!

Wan Chai / Mongkok!

After several cloudy, gloomy days, the sun is finally out again. Kind of a rare sight eh…

It was the first time when i stepped out of my residence, being unable to lift my head due to the glaring rays of the bright sun. It was as bright as 12 noon in SG. On a typical day, the sun will be blocked by the clouds even if its up. A brighter day to a happier morning

The past days were like the CORS bidding period in NUS. Except that we start in the equivalent of round 3. Its tough to map modules and fit them in a timetable that doesnt clash. Hence, everybody is hoping that the modules we’d chosen can be approved by HKU. Ages it take man…. Finally after 4 days, the results are out. My interesting ‘sex and intimacy’ module got rejected sadly. Over-enrolled most probably as up to 20-30 students were left standing in the first lesson for a whole 2 hours.

To appeal or to take another core module?? Hmmmmm :/

In spite of the start of the school semester, we still did not forget to explore MORE parts of HK. Off we went to Wan Chai, where we visited the electronics centre. Cameras, laptops, accessories and so on. About the same or slightly cheaper than SG – maybe ill buy something there before i go back to SG after this semester.

The hunt for food continued. No problem finding a 茶餐厅, while we munched on street snacks like 臭豆腐 and 鸡蛋仔. The agony started when we took around 1 hr walking up and down Jaffe Street to find a dessert store called 五代同堂.. Oh well, I was just following behind, trying to learn Canto from Xinyun and Johnny as we walked. Trying very hard to learn indeed. Could see that Corinne felt paiseh for bringing us in circles around the area.

The desserts were not bad! Mango shaven ice, apple crumble and the much awaited chocolate lava cake! Whoosh.. the chocolate flowed as we broke the cake apart. 

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It felt tempting to ‘pon’ school the next day as I’d only one 1hr lesson that day. Nonetheless, with a wake up sms and my alarm sounding off, I forced myself to school.

Time to explore Mongkok! Despite it being a weekday, it was still crowded with loads and loads of people.

Comparable to that of Bugis Street on a weekend. There were really many shops! Checked out the electronic gadgets, clothes, jeans etc. Nah… not the usual departmental stores! Instead we ventured further into Chic之堡 – the bugis street of Mongkok! 买东西，吃东西… With the help of Openrice.com, my stomach was filled with delicious food too! Yummy!

The day seemed short every night as dark fell as early as 6pm. Thats good too as it meant that it was time to go back to rest. The feeling of home is slowly embedding into me as I crawled my way back to Pokfield Road Residence. Time for a good night rest

First day of sch in HK

The first day of sch? Like finally!

A blink of an eye and school finally starts after a week of feasting, sightseeing, shopping and nua-ing. Its been a few days since I’ve last woke up as early as 8:15am. Not knowing what to expect for my first lessons in HKU, i was kinda excited to face the day ahead…

It was quite a long day with lessons from 0930 to 1230, followed by lectures from 2pm to 4pm after a lunch break.

The first day of school, not having any notes for any lessons. Bringing along a foolscape pad and pencil case was sufficient to last this day at least. Apparently, we’ll only have access to the modules websites when we’ve registered for the lessons. The window for exchange students for selection of classes only open on the first day of school itself. How then are we suppose to download and print our notes for the first lesson? :/

This aside, the first lectures were not too bad, except Organic Chem which I certainly need some refreshing of memory. Nucleophilic/electrophilic substitution mechanisms; grignard reagents; ortho, metha directing compounds etc etc. With the limited knowledge and memory left from level 1 organic taken 2 sems ago, it certainly wasnt easy with the pace that the lecturer was going as well. Fortunately, all the lecturers so far had understandable accents, much to our pleasure.

Met Carlos, my HKU buddy and his friend for the first time today too! A nice, young guy. Bringing me and some friends for lunch, we headed down to Bonham Road to settle lunch. 星洲炒面 was what i had with their recommendations. 星洲 = Singapore? Thats what my buddy said. Not sure about that :/ Nonetheless, it was tasty as usual. With Antonio (Spanish) and his friend, Matthew (French) – we shared about the food and life in our country as well.

An interesting question was, ” How many cities does Singapore have?” Not very tough right, people?!

Talking to these people is indeed stressfree and enjoyable. Will certainly continue interacting with fellow exchange and local students while im here!

After lunch was the crazy 2 hrs i totally hated. Math lecture that was only manageable for the first 20min. After then on, it was like a bullet train moving with terms that I’ve never seen before. Even struggling to copy the symbols correctly from the blackboard! Felt like a  helpless frog stuck in a well, just waiting for lesson to end as I blindly copied whatever was written. Heard some local students saying it was easy. WTH! I was totally lost! Gave up and dropped the module instantly.

It’s been a day full of anticipations, with simple joy and lotsa fear. Nonetheless, I’ll try to adapt to the days ahead. Afterall, needing a pass is all i need! Will strive for it definitely!

A tiring Saturday before sch starts…

Brunch was first on the list as all of us wanted to fill our stomachs after waking up from our slumber.

财记 stall in Kennedy Town was where we settled that. While me and xiujie waited for the rest, we walked through the wet and dry market first. Fresh fruits, meat, vege etc and jackets, shoes, brooms etc… It was kinda bloody i would say, and even saw a goat’s head hung on one of the stalls. “Who would buy a goat’s head? To boil soup? Goat head soup?” Ewwww

After finishing our meal with the usual guys plus Antonio (Spanish) and Wen Ke (Chinese), we headed down to Central. Comparable to the Orchard Road / City Hall area in Singapore! I guess the girls wanted to come badly to shop. Saw the usual shops like LV, Gucci, H&M, Hermes. Well, bought none of those as we’re on a budget here eh..

Went pass Hollywood street where local souvenirs and antiques were sold. Saw similar streets in HongKong that were filmed in dramas. There were even some CNY deco up for sale in the local streets. As usual, food cant be missed as we satisfied our cravings for egg tarts recommeded by Xinyun. Hot piping eggtarts fresh from the oven. Yum yum!

The guys split with the girls as we’re not into shopping. Off we went to explore the streets ourselves. Without the girls’ help, we still managed to find H&M and even went in to look around. 1 floor in HK compared to the pathetic 0.5 floor in SG.

With our GPS/iphones, we guys decided to head over to the ferry terminal first to grab some food for tea snack. Nope.. Nth much and off we went to Kowloon ourselves. Girls, happily shopping…

Took the ferry once during my previous holiday trip to HK with my family. The fare was cheap! only 3 HKD which is equal to $0.50. It was my first time stepping out of Hongkong Island since i arrived.

Hello Kowloon! Grabbed a bite at Macs and rested our legs a lil and soon it was dark. The Avenue of Stars was just nearby! Many handprints of HK superstars were there, including Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung, Jet Li etc.

There was much hype about the symphony of lights which was supposed to be a tourist attraction. Unfortunately, it led to much disappointment as it was not up to our standards that we expected it to be. Perhaps its the fog. It was drizzling slightly as well, and hence could not see some light rays that were emitted out from the buildings opposite us. Nonetheless, i managed to snap some photos of the scenery with my camera! With some photo editing, it turned out not bad right?

 

As we headed back to Hongkong Island, we tried out the famous wanton noodles recommended by the Michelin guide. The wanton noodles were not bad but kinda pricey and not filling enough for me at least. A big bowl cost 48 HKD which is $8.00. Not very big to be exact.

Oh wells, to end off the night, we went to Lan Kwai Fong, a nightlife district. Something like Clark Quay where we entered an Irish pub to drink some beer and liquor. We played Jenga there as well and it was quite hilarious to disturb people when its their turn and also to see hands shaking when removing the blocks. When we left, it was 12midnight where the parties were supposedly just beginning. The drinks are much cheaper than SG, and the crowd was just there! The shots were like sold at $3 per glass, and there were challenge signs that wrote “How fast could u down 10 shots at just 200hkd?”

As the public buses had alr ended services around 12 midnight, we shared cabs back and fortunately reached our destination with whatever lil Cantonese we knew. Learning it slowly as i spend my exchange period here!

Orientation!

Waking up early in the morning for once again – Its orientation day! Drizzling but xiujie and I didn’t care much and just continued our journey to school as usual. Thanks to Xiujie’s buddy directions, we managed to find a shorter way without having to climb as many stairs.

Arriving 5 minutes late (9:05am) didnt seem much, as the event formally started at 9:40am. The hall was packed with exchange students who were obviously gathered in their own cliques. At least the event was successful in making us interact with foreign students midway through as we had to form groups of 5 from different countries to complete a questionnaire.

Didnt care much about the questionnaire and just moved over to a bunch of Americans seated a few rows in front of me.

“Hi….” I went. And the conversations started.

Gosh… It was tough trying to catch whatever they were saying. Kinda fast! Especially fast when an American was talking to another fellow American. Luckily they were nice and friendly people and we managed to chat a bit before being forced to quieten down by the emcees. Exchanged numbers and off we were to the Global Lounge for a light lunch.

More interaction with foreign exchange students as we munched on our sandwiches. Americans, Indians, Spanish, Singaporeans studying in Australia etc… Cool interaction, though it was quite brief.

Dota with Xiujie back in our room before we headed to Kennedy Town. Explored the entire area finally after 5 days?! Although old, the place was self-sufficient with pharmacies, food joints, supermarkets, post office etc.

Tried out some local street food along the way before we stocked up at a supermarket for the next few days.

Plenty of time left for me to explore the whole of HongKong…

To the Peak!

Hmmmm up to the top i went!

Early in the morning and the doorbell rang! Ding Dong… Well, it was the cleaning lady who was scheduled to do a clean up in our room every month. What an irony! Me and Xiujie just did some clean up yesterday and now she’s here! If only….. she came one day earlier. Hmmmm…

Met up with the rest of the exchange students and we’re gonna trek up the peak. Nope! Not the tram, but going up with our legs! Morning exercise! And i even bought some biscuits and fruit bars before going up just in case.

Stairs and slopes – as expected! I guess we’re kinda well-trained already as HKU itself is full of stairs and steep slopes. Whats NUS slopes compared to the ones here? *sweats*

JinHao (A Singaporean studying full-time in HKU) led the way. We decided to take a break halfway on the trek up only when one of the girls was tired. As quoted from Johnny, “Guys rest first very malu leh… Must wait for the girls to sit down first.” LOL.

Never been up to the peak before. How suaku i am. But i can now proudly say I’ve been up here before alr Never paid to go up completely as we decided to come back another night for a better view next time. Snapped awesome scenery photos before making our way down as we just chit-chatted and joked all the way.

The wind was kinda strong and chilly with a slight drizzle midway. But that didnt dampen our spirits as we just continued the trek down. This was the first time im using my camera after being here for 4 days. HAHA

Nonetheless, having walked through the HK streets solo just now, I managed to catch a glimpse of the everyday HongKong life that everyone needs to go through. Students, traffic police, park wardens – everyone’s leading their own lives just like you now.

Make full use of everyday then.

Its a new adventure!

The day has finally came- It’s time to move away from the monotony of Singapore culture.

It was dawn, while I was having my last bites of SG breakfast at Wang’s Cafe in Terminal 1 with my parents. Kaya toasts, soft-boiled eggs with a cup of Kopi.

Really glad that friends still came to send me off amidst the rush that they’d to go through, catching the first train etc. Appreciated it lots! Oops! Some of you are not here, still caught in my dad’s camera!

A great beginning, a great flight (3 seats for the price of 1!) though it got slightly complicated after arriving at HK airport.

Met up with 2 other fellow NUS exchange students and the long queue at the immigration counter began. Tugging our huge luggages, we scampered around looking at the choices of prepaid mobile SIM cards available and finally decided on 1 after asking for directions from a customer service guy with a strong hongkie accent.

Believe it or not, we fiddled with our phones, activated them while trying to get 3G services for a whole 2 hours. And it was still not solved.

Continued our journey to HKU via the airport express with our adult octopus card. Getting a bit late and hence made our move to the HSBC bank straight in campus, only to realise that certain documents were not with us!

Forget it! Off to our residences. Parted ways with one another and I met up with Xiujie (another NUS exchange student staying in the same room as me after negotiating with the hall manager). A familiar face as he’s a fellow year 2 chem major too. And I foresee we’ll depend a lot on each other the next few months.

Off to Kennedy town we went (all of the exchange students), where we had our first proper meal in Hong Kong. Too bad we forgot to take a group shot. Big portions were the main dishes i realised! Dessert was awesome too! Some green tea ice cream cake? Though it tasted like pandan flavour. Yummy!

Pillows, bolsters and other basic necessities were bought and back to our new ‘home’ we went, awaiting a new day ahead.