Monday, October 19, 2009

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.

Saturday, October 17, 2009

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!!!

Friday, October 09, 2009

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. :(

Sunday, October 04, 2009

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 :)!!

Wednesday, September 23, 2009

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!

Monday, September 21, 2009

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!!!!

Friday, September 04, 2009

@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!