香港天氣

It's such a pleasant feeling waking up to a 17 degree celcius weather in Hong Kong. I was wondering when winter will come and finally, we see this day of cooling weather. Finally I can put my long sleeve shirt into action. Strolling along the road to class, seeing all those around me wrapped up in long pants and long sleeve (except a few who still wore shorts/miniskirt), enjoying the cold breeze in my face. It would be perfect if everyday were to be like this.

The bad news, cold weather is only expected to last for 2 days in HK. After the 2 days, it will be back to the hot sun and T-shirt and berms will come out once again. Have to wait till december.

And Beijing had her first snow fall of this winter, a bit too early though. After seeing the news, I then realise that the central govt did cloud seeding which caused the snow. I guess Beijing will be freezing when I visit in december. Need to buy winter clothes!

Another crazy weekend!

All the last minute work for the past 3 days is killing me. Well, that's the price to pay for having fun during the weekend. Which means working my ass off on monday to finish an essay as well as to study for mid-term. Throw in another 2 assignments to rush through on tuesday night. Well, now i am only left with another mid-term and then I can go back to enjoying myself till the last week of nov or the beginning of december, where all the deadlines are.

It's gonna be a crazy exam schedule this time round. We have only 3 days of study break!!!!

8th dec - GRM3310 paper due

9th dec - Cantonese oral exam (give a speech)

10th dec - GRM3305 paper due

11th dec - UGC296U and GRM3310 Exam (Back to back!!!)

14th dec - UGC219E Exam

15th dec - GRM3305 Exam

18th dec - GRM2324 Exam

Looking at such a crazy schedule makes me hate december. But well, after the 18th, i am free to go travelling! Planning Xiamen, Beijing, Tianjin and Guilin in december. Tentatively, flying back to SG on 8th jan and sch starts on 11th! It's gonna be tiring.

First, it was Ocean Park on Friday (23/10). 6 of us went in the day, taking almost every possible ride. The last time i went to Ocean Park, it was raining cats and dogs and most of the rides were closed. This time round, it was sunny and we are able to scream our hearts out on the roller coster and the Abyss Drop. The Abyss Drop is the one that makes my heart skip a beat and it is really committing suicide. It is not called 跳楼机 for no reason.

all happy before all the games!

View from the cable car.

The plunge that got us wet.

This turn spins us round and round... looks innocent but it's not.

Roller Coster with a view!

The other roller coster. with overturns you 3 times!

The abyss drop. From top to bottom in less than 1 sec!

another turn round and round game.

Flying swing.. reminds me of genting....

Ocean Park Aquarium. Underwaterworld is better.

one of the halloween decorations!

The animal show! What a great backdrop!

All the CUHK peeps with 辫子姑娘，the single braid lady poster.... It's a CU ghost story and I have to walk past it to the canteen everyday..

Panda! They are my next favourite animal! So cute!

The most exciting part of Ocean Park is at night. When night falls, Halloween Bash starts and the whole theme park is turned into a giant haunted house. With lots of 'ghosts' wandering around the park and up to 8 haunted house to visit, it was definitely not for those with a weak heart. It is like Fright Night on a scale of the whole campus.

The haunted houses had themes such as a school, a hospital, police station and there were 'ghosts' inside to scare you. They will be hiding behind doors, under tables, lying down on the bed and they will jump up to scare you when you walk pass them. I do realise something, the more afraid you are of them, the more they like to disturb you. I did get a shock a few times, especially when i am leading a line of girls behind my back, clinging onto my bag. One of the haunted house even had each of us stand alone in an individual booth, while they show you some scary clips and a random ghost will pop his head into the booth. It's kind of funny seeing girls, and even some guys, who were so afraid that they kept the head down throughout the whole journey in the haunted house. And it's fun to hear them scream!!

The shock and scaring does not end once you step out of the haunted house. There were roaming 'ghosts' who will occasionally creep up to you on the streets, scaring the wits out of you. We were able to take pictures with some of the friendly ghosts though. I can see that a lot of effort was put into this halloween theme, with decorations and the ghosts' makeup. I even lay inside a coffin! It feels good to be dead. After all night of getting scared and screaming, I was wondering, is Halloween about scaring others? Well, whatever, at least all of us had lots of fun! The only downside, we had to queue for at least 1/2 hr at each haunted house just to get scared for 5 minutes.

Kudos to the ghosts! I think they did a great job and it was really tiring i think. To scare people for 5 hours straight? I wanna go be a ghost next yr!

This is referring to my school... yup. CUHK has lots of ghost stories.

The queue we had to endure through before getting scared.

Another haunted house site.

The police staiton. With lots of vampires inside...

Occult Lab. The place where you have to go solo!

Sleeping in a coffin! It's kind of comfortable. One should try sleeping in one cause when you really do sleep in it, you will not know how it feels like!

The Forbidden Mall. Another haunted house.


Taking picture with one of the friendly ghosts!


Another Friendly ghost!

A whole 14 hours spent at ocean park. amazing.......

After a day of recuperation, it's time to head out again. This time, to Lantau. One would not have been to Hong Kong if he or she have not gone to the Big Buddha. When I first touched down in HK, the Ngong Ping Cable Car was under maintainence till end of september and we were like, oh well, we can always visit it later on. (coincidentally, when i came to HK in 2007, the cable car had an accident and it was shut down till further notice) This time round, I finally got to sit on the cable car.

View from the cable car is great. You can see the whole of Tung Chung, the whole Hong Kong Airport Island and lots of mountains in Lantau. It really makes you wonder how the cable car system is built. After the ride, it was to the Big Buddha where you squeeze yourself in between all the tourists for a picture with the Buddha.

View just after leaving Tung Chung!


Hong Kong International Airport! Looks like i am on a plane!

Big Buddha statue in the distance!

upclose to buddha!

Group photo!

a really good vegetarian meal! I have not had so much vegetables placed in front of me for quite some time.

After Ngong Ping, we headed off to the other side of Lantau, to Tai O Fishing Village. What once used to be a quiet fishing village with a rather large salt industry has now became a tourist site filled with people on a weekend. I can see that there are still a lot of residents there and many of them are actually locals who visit their parents who stayed there. In a way, I guess the residents have gotten used to the large crowds on weekends. It means more money for those doing a business. We did manage to walk till Shek Tsai Po, a relatively quieter area, where we are able to sit down and enjoy the view.

Tai O packed with tourists!



Kind of like the peaceful surrounding and the 'old school' feel. Different from the Hong Kong we see.

Sunset!

What a weekend! Where to go next?

Super White.....

This song i bet will never hit the Singapore Radio airwaves.....



but I was wondering if it will be available in Kbox? Imagine singing (or swearing) in Kbox?

Kind of absurd that there is actually such a song.

This seems somewhat similar to the"Delay No More" you see in HK. At least "Delay No More" still sounds a bit off from "diu lei lou mou" but "超级白" sounds exactly like CCB.

Well, a short entry as i am totally bored from reading my tutorial notes.

SHE 巡回演唱会2009 香港站

红墈就是演唱会的圣地！

这一次能够有机会都红墈看一场演唱会，也了了我的一大心愿。在来香港之前，我对自己说，有机会一定要在香港看一场演唱会，买了最贵的票，我也觉得是值得的。朋友们临时放了飞机，我只好自己一个人去看了。自己一个人就不能high到疯嘛，但也能像其他的歌迷一样尖叫，一样摇着荧光棒，跟着SHE一起唱。

这一次的演唱会，在视觉上，真的做得不错，服装上也是千变万化。台没我想象中那么大，不过我觉得已经足够。在歌曲上，SHE也真的唱了很多很多，也跳了很多舞，我自己都不知道到底有几首。

我很喜欢的部分：

1）爱的KTV！体育场成为了一间超级大的KTV厢房，Selina，Hebe 和Ella 各带来一首KTV歌曲。 Ella 唱了周杰伦的简单爱，Selina 唱了崇拜，Hebe 唱了王菲的给自己的情书，而且是粤语版。之后她们再唱了两首high歌：终结孤单和三天三夜，真的全场high翻天！她们还为这项目特别拍了MV！能听她们唱其他歌手的歌，真的是新鲜！

2）百老汇版的触电！以及SHE的solo！

3）许多搞笑的时刻，像SHE以性感以及骚的方式演唱锁住时间，还有她们好多关于走光的笑话。还有Ella叫观众站我们就站，叫我们坐下我们也真的坐下，真是好听话的歌迷。

一时间也不能想起还有什么项目，就让照片来描述我的经历吧

相机的功能不是很好，所以照片都有很不清楚。

这一次真的是爽翻天了。我还心痒痒的，想去看郑秀文的演唱会，不过真的没有钱了呀！！！

Concerts!

Concerts concerts and more concerts! The good thing about being in HK is that you do get a lot of pop acts coming into town, as well as local canto pop, which in itself is a thriving industry.

First up! (16 oct)

「S.H.E is the One@愛而為一」 World Tour Concert

I splurged on an expensive ticket at the famous Hung Hom (红勘) colliseum. Well, I told myself I must at least step into Hung Hom once in stay here and it so happens SHE one of my favourite groups. So there goest the $$. At least I am on the 2nd block from the stage. Hopefully a clear view next friday!

Next up! (31st oct)

Wild Day Out Grand Show 2009

9 hours of songs with pop acts from 苏打绿，范晓萱，蔡建雅，林宥嘉，黄贯中and many many more! Those mentioned above are already sending me into joy and it's totally worth the HKD380 ticket! What a way to spend my halloween. And we can dress up for the concert!

Hopefully I can hear another cantonese songs from SHE. And who's 特别来宾？ I am wishing/praying it's TWINS!!! haha..

Ok. I gonna have to stop at 2. If not I really have no $$ to travel at the end of the year. :(

Long Long Weekend holiday!

Put National Day and Mid Autumn Festival together and you get a whole string of activities lined up in Hong Kong! It was truly a long weekend for most of us.

October 1st is China National Day and this year, being the 60th year of the founding of PRC, celebrations are much bigger than usual. Hong Kong, being part of China, of course had lots of celebrations lined up.

The night of october first was spent squeezing with loads of people at Tsim Sha Tsui to catch the fireworks. The fireworks lasted 23 minutes and it is definitely one of the grandest since 2007, when HK celebrated 10 yrs of return to China. We were lucky that we managed to get a spot where we weren't pressed human to human and yet able to get a decent view of the harbour. Well, some parts were blocked by the TST clock tower but it was ok. The most exciting fireworks of the day was the "中国六十" display! The whole display ended with a sky full of fireworks.

camping out at TST bus terminus waiting for fireworks to start

full of people!

The fireworks went "boomz" (Ris Low, 2009)

Next up was Mid Autumn Festival on Oct 3rd. The national day celebration continued and there was this 万人大游巡 held at TST. It was a litle disappointing as there wasn't much display to talk of. Just lots of people walking down the street like Big Walk. There were some bands playing and some uniform groups marching and that's all. The highlight of the parade were the celebrities whom zoomed past us so quickly that we were unable to get a good view, let alone get a good picture. At least I got to see 華仔，Ah Sa, Joey, Gigi and 谢安琪!

華仔 holding the flag. 让世界知道我们都是中国人！

容祖儿Ｊｏｅｙ！

谢安琪. Couldn't see her face.....


Ah Sa! She's waving at me!!!!!

Gigi Leung! Her car went past too fast!

In the evening, Mid Autumn festival celebration started and a group of us, exchange students, headed over to Victoria Park to join in the crowd. Lots of lanterns and display at the park, and not to mention the huge crowd at the grass lawn. It looks like a mass demonstration, like how Bangkok was shut down, people sitting on mats, eating, drinking, chatting.

We had mooncakes, cut using my CUHK card (cause we had no knife), and of course lanterns and candles. We made a mistake of not bring lanterns so we were kind of ripped off by the stalls selling lantern at the park. And we had fun lighting our lanterns, playing with candles. Didn't walk around as the park was too crowded so we ended up playing games while seated. I taught them the R.O.C.K Rock game! haha! The celebration didn't end after we left the park as we lighted our lanterns at CUHK and walked back from the train station to our hostel. It was definitely a cheap thrill.

Lots of decorations!

Lots of people on the grass lawn!

Group picture 1!

Group Pic 2, with our lanterns!

Outside our hostel!

Next day, on October 4, I headed out ot Tai Hang to catch the Tai Hang Fire Dragon dance, which is held every year for 3 night during the mid autumn festival. The "dragon" is made of straw and stuffed with lots of incense. It was too crowded and i was too short to get a good view of the dance. So i could only depend on my not so trusty camera to take a look at what's going on. For the first time in my life, i felt so short.....

The signboard telling you that you are in the right place.

This is my view.. lots of heads and a little bit of action....

lighting up the dragon. They stuck joss sticks onto the whole dragon!

The dragon tail.. I couldn't squeeze thru the crowd to get to the dragon head.

While they were parading on the other street, this is what i could see. It's too hard to squeeze through the narrow walkway to the other street, so i had to settle for this view.

Ok, so it's the end of the holiday. Back to school! I should skip more lessons :)!!

Studying in HK

It is now week 3 of school and the workload is getting heavier and heavier by the week. Deadlines for assignments looms ahead and there's gonna be some tests here and there. I guess it's time for me to settle down, not think of playing everyday and start to do my readings. Well, it's Student Exchange Program. Students means you are still studying and studying means you got to mug a bit. The ideas of S/U keeps lingering behind my head but still, I need to study.

This semester seems to be have the heaviest workload since i started university life. I am currently doing 6 modules, 4 geography, 1 elective and 1 cantonese module. I used to tell myself I will never do 6 mods in one semester and yet I am doing it on what is supposed to be the slackest semester for me (exchange don't need to study hard right?)

The cantonese module was a last minute decision. I knew a little cantonese before I came over to HK and I realise that little cantonese is not enough. On the streets, in the school canteen, on the bus, at my hostel, everyone converse in cantonese. At times, I feel so lost in a world of cantonese words. Especially if you are chinese, most Hong Kong-ers will assume you speak cantonese, so they will speak to you in canto. If I can understand, I will reply them in canto. That spells trouble as they will continue blabbering on in canto and I will just have to ask them to repeat in mandarin. During my hall orientation (Hall-O), the local students were speaking in cantonese most of the time during the activities and I really appreciate the few locals who translate what they said into english for us exchange students. Part of me wanted to join in the fun for all 4 days but part of me don't want to feel awkard and lost in front of them. Sometimes at canteen, I really can't understand what the canteen auntie is telling me. If I am lucky, that auntie can speak putonghua. If not, I gonna have to guess what she means, and that may lead to a disastrous meal that is served to you. So, I was thinking, since I am in Hong Kong, wouldn't it be a pity if I don't learn cantonese?

At least the choice was right. I enjoyed the class (even though i only attended one lesson and it is freaking early at 9.30am). The teacher (Leung sin sang) is so damm funny and he totally loves to talk cock (chui shui). The 3 hours just passes by very quickly and I would say I feel more comfortable speaking in cantonese after just one lesson. Now, I will try to speak cantonese to my roomie! Practice makes perfect so I gotta speak more.
My geography modules are interesting and insightful in their own way. Transport and Logistic is my favourite so far. There are really a lot of things that I have learnt after just 3 lectures and things are getting interesting as I start to see the link among the different theories. NUS doens't offer transport and I am really happy i got to do it here. Third World Development gave me a very good insight into globalisation and the impacts of western colonisation on many colonies! Understanding Ecotourism brought me on a field trip to Lion Nature Education Centre in Sai Kung and being on a field trip feels like FS09 all over again. The taking down of notes in our notebooks, taking photographs. The only thing that is missing is the jumpshots! Population & Migration is something new to me and I have only been through 2 lecture (one was cancelled due to the typhoon) so I can't comment much. And another elective Magic, Myth & Supernatural offers explanation to the existance of myths, urban legends, superstition, rituals etc etc... The lecture are always fun to attend!


Lion Nature Education Centre at Sai Kung. Basically a park where many different species of plants are grown for people to visit and learn. Like a big eco-garden.

The beautiful greenery in HK. Hiking's up next!
Lecturer giving an outdoor lesson and everyone busy taking notes. Looks like Field Studies right?

Our attempt at a self shot group photo! Grasses is our project topic!

Today marks my first month anniversary of living overseas. Time seems to fly by and it has already been one month since I left sunny Singapore (in HK, it is as sunny as well...). It takes some time to get used to living by oneself overseas but I still don't miss home. It was must the company that I have over here in HK.

Living overseas means having to learn many things from scratch. I still remember on my first day in the hostel, I don't really know how to operate the washing machine. Being a noob, I also didn't know how much washing powder to put (at home, it was just one spoon of powder into the machine). Then, I also learnt that I have to put my clothes in the dryer for at least 25 minutes for the clothes to dry. I have also learnt to compare prices when buying things, need to budget a bit. On top of all these things, still got my school work to handle (well, I am not going to study real hard....)

Travelling is part and parcel of SEP and I have travelled to quite a few places. Shanghai, Hangzhou, Suzhou, Macau. Well, not a lot actually as HK is relatively well connected to many palces. And there are still many parts of HK which I have not explored. Hmm, I did have this crazy idea of getting off at every MTR station and checking out what's in the surrounding of the station. I guess that will cost lots of $$..... Perhaps taking long bus rides to the more remote parts of HK will be a better idea?

Well, 3 more months to go and I have lots of places I want to go! Next stop, Taipei!!!!

@CUHK

It has been 4 days in CUHK and it's the end of orientation tomorrow. Will be moving out of our orientation dorms and into our permanent dorms, where we will meet our roomie for the next 4 months. Orientation here for exchange students isn't like the orientation camps that nus has. No screaming and cheering and stupid games. Just campus tours, administrative issues, talks, course registration etc etc. Well, the schedule still allows us to hit town for the night before coming back to school, in time to catch the shuttle bus uphill to ur dorms.

Just like any orientation, you meet a lot of people. Some will become good friends, some will be acquaintance while there will be some others whom you will forget. Saying, "Hi! I am Shan Jun. What's your name?" and a handshake, followed by "Where are you from?" is like the typical and SOP when you meet someone. One can't possibly remember 101 names in one day so those that I tend to remember are the ones that I had a more meaningful conversation with. Another thing I have to admit, all ang mohs looks the same to me. I really could not differentiate David from Paul and Mary from Alice. I could only remember my fellow sgporeans exchange mates names well, as well as the random people in the Singaporean clique.

Talking about clique, just like any other orientation, cliques are bound to form. Since we exchange students are all new in a foreign country, we tend to stick to our own clique. There are the ang moh clique (some cliques are like all americans or all germans), the PRC cliques, the korean cliques, the japanese cliques and of course the Singaporean Clique. Of course, there may be one or 2 people of another nationality joining a particular clique. Of course, yours truly is sticking in the familiar Singaporean clique, where i can just ratter off in singlish freely. Well, I do try to speak in standard english where there are non-sgporeans around. I don't mix only with singaporeans only ok?

Speaking is another interesting thing here. To some who are not as proficient as us in english, we have to speak slower. To some, we have to speak in standard english with a certain slang so that they could understand us. It's tiring at times but that's how it goes here.

Socializing is another thing that we have to constantly do. If you are stuck in a lift with students from other nation, or the person seated next to you in the LT happens to be an american, even in the toilet while you are brushing your teeth or filling up your bottle in the pantry, you are bound to meet someone whom you may or may not know. Apart from the "Hi I am blah blah blah" thing, the situation makes it such that you have to bring the conversation to another level and that is socializing. You think of topics to talk about, chat about your home country, chat about things that you know about the other party's country. One can gain a lot of insights through these conversations.

For example during the Welcome Dinner, we were seated with a few Swiss and americans and it is probably their first time having a chinese banquet dinner. We, as chinese, would definitely need to tell them more about chinese food, how we eat, the dos and don'ts on the table etc etc.... I am of course proud to introduce the chinese culture to them and they were as equally amazed and at times amused at the things chinese do. For example, the swiss guys were so amazed when they saw the chicken head served on the plate along with the chicken meat. They were also curious on how to use chopsticks the correct way. (Talking about chopsticks, all the westerners on my table were trying their best to use the chopsticks even though the westerners were provided with fork and knife. When in China, do what the Chinese do!) I am equally happy to share what I know with them and I did enjoy hearing stories from them about food back in their home country. That's what SEP is all about! Mix around and get to learn more!

Well, tomorrow we shall all be separated and I shall be moving into a hall, where the majority are locals. Another round of socializing shall begin all over again and I may need to use terms like " lei hou ma?", "lei sek jor fan mai?" etc etc.... Well, I did come to Hong Kong to learn more about this place and improve my cantonese. So I shall not be one of those anti-social people who will hide in their room the whole day.

Adam Schall Residence (our orientation hostel)

My room for 4 days.

the small bed.

walking around in Central (taken at IFC mall)

Group picture (6 sporeans, 1 malaysian and 1 japanese)

we each got our little mailbox.

Welcome Dinner for IASP students

Cam-whoring

Group picture before the dinner!

After like close to 8 hours of travelling, I am finally back from Shanghai in Hong Kong once again. Lugging a 15kg backpack and crossing the border at shenzhen is really a bit crazy.

Once on campus, it was going around school settling all the admin stuff. Getting our matric card, getting information on course registration, checking into orientation hostel, setting up bank account, setting up internet, getting lost around school, conquering the slopes and stairs in CUHK. Phew! Most of these stuffs are settled. Next up will be course registration which I hope it won't be a pain in the ass. I think I won't ever complain about NUS anymore. The hill in NUS is nothing compared to here.

Still trying to get around with my broken cantonese. Did manage to ask for some stuff in cantonese as the other party could not speak english or mandarin. Even had to help some ang moh translate into canto at supermarket. Speaking a bit of canto is ok, but when the other party start to reply in bullet-train speed cantonese, I will just switch to mandarin.

Ok. Time to hit the town. What's exchange without enjoying ourselves?