Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Hi guys!

Has been a while since i last blog. My finals are comin' up real soon on the 5th Jan and hence having my revision week at the moment. I won't be going back to Malaysia this winter break. Will save up my plane ticket $$ to travel elsewhere for vacation. hehehe. Haven't really decided where...but I'd really love to go to Hong Kong once again tho I've just been there 2 years ago. I still have not finish exploring Ocean Park the last time (due to the crowd)! SoOoo wanna go there again...

Anyways, coming back to Christmas. We had our X'mas Eve celebration at a fancy restaurant serving local dishes. Breath-taking scenery. But the food......*bleks* Surprisingly, the restaurant's business was freaking good (or maybe it's only for that particular night. haha). There were still a long queue of patrons even as late as 9p.m.! We're lucky as one of my friend made an early reservation.

I'm the only Malaysian there and the rest are all Thais. I do feel out of place at times when they start speaking their native language among themselves. But still, they are a fun bunch =)

They are soOoo...cute! haha!

Scenery facing Zhong Shan Lu, a shopping paradise and also the hit spot in Xiamen.
Choco Christmas Tree! A friend's handicraft. Neat ay?

This is one cool cafe. The whole place is so white! absolutely heavenly. Who says we need snow to experience white christmas?

We then had our exchange gift session later that night at our dorm on the 4th floor, also known as a 'Thai village'. This whole level is conquered by their kind. haha! We had a little game before receiving our gifts. Each person's name is written on a piece of paper, folded and inserted into a box. Then we'd need to pick the name, of whose gift we're getting from, from the box. The catch? Beware of getting 'Gan Bei', or 'Bottoms up' in English, mixed among the names in the box. A friend had like 5 glasses of beer before getting his gift. Poor guy. I was lucky. I got a name the first try ^.^V But still they forced me to have a glass before giving me my gift. =.=

That's it for now. Merry Christmas and a Happy New year!

Yuan Bo Yuan, Xiamen

This is an interesting place where they display all sorts of chinese architectures and gardens. It was actually my dad's company trip and so I just tag along. This place is huge! Funny to see most of the girls wearing super high heels when they knew there would be a lot of walking to do. Tsk tsk...in the name of beauty...they rather suffer. They eventually gave up in the middle and walk bare foot though. Lol.

After millions of years, rocks turn into diamonds. As for this one, wood turned stone!

Huaqiao University, Jimei

The lake facing my uni.

Our hangout area...

The main entrance.

The putt putt thing that transports us to the places nearby.

Jimei Market

Track field/ Basketball court.

Badminton court.

The cafeteria.

The dorm where I'm staying in...

Night shot...

Me and Maricel, my roommate, from Philippines.

My room!

Finally, my new hairstyle! Tell me that it's nice Xp *lol*

Happy Moon Cake Festival

Hey! My room here doesn't turn out to be that bad after all. After cleaning and stuffs, it's now so comfy!! hehe.

I thought I'd lead a mundane life here at first. On the contrary, this is quite an interesting place! Have not even started reading any of the novels I brought here>.< There's night market every night at Jimei Street, which is reachable within walking distance, as well as lots of good food just around the corner. Eventhough I've been here for 2 weeks already, I've yet to try our canteen food. haha! It's just so convenient here. I don't even need to go to the shopping complex to shop for my necessities!

Uni life is pretty hectic. We have classes from 8am to 4.30pm everyday. In the first week, we would need to memorize about 10 Mandarin characters daily. I've no problem coping in the first week...but 2nd week onwards is just crazy! We have to memorize at least 17 characters each day! T.T Wish me luck...Learning mandarin does need to put in lots of effort.

Oh Yeah! Happy Moon Cake Festival!! Moon Cake Festival is such a big thing here in China, thus the extra holiday on Monday. XD Joined my dad and his friends for the Chun Qiu Jie celebration dinner on Friday night. After dinner, it's their culture here to play dice games. It's more of a luck game I must say. They even have prizes ready for the winners! And I actually bagged away the ultimate gift! Won myself an air purifier machine!! =D haha! What luck!

Sorry for not posting any pics yet...will post them up soon=) Have to stop here now...

Tata!

P.S.: Will have internet connection in my room by this Tuesday. Yay! ^.^v

Campus Visit

Paid my 1st visit to the campus today and enrolled myself in Huaqiao University for Chinese Language course.

Then, I went to check out the dormitory and my room! And...sad to say...my room sucks. So disappointed. I was expecting something better since the exterior design of the uni looks darn nice. The dormitories and rooms in UNMC are wayyyy........BETTER lor...

They first gave me the key to my 1st room, that was said to be in a newer dorm and was highly recommended by the staff. So, in our mind, 'new' is definitely always = to cleaner, better rooms. However, the place turns out to be very stuffy, filthy and dodgy looking. My excitement and enthusiasm to get into this uni suddenly just crash flat like pancake. I was like...."OH NOoooooOooo........."

So, I then requested to check out the so-called 'older' dorm, WHICH appears to be NEWER compared to the newer one! I was fuming inside. I wonder if that uni staff wanted to trick me into getting this room? or was it just a pure mistake?

I can survive with my new room in the older block... but still it isn't that great. The washroom is too small...=/

Classes starting on 1st September. The classrooms are all right. Located next to a lake, environment is peaceful. Sorry people, no photos available to be posted yet. =p

At the moment, I'm back in my dad's house in Quanzhou. Don't wanna leave my comfort zone so soon yet. Will only leave and start staying in uni on the 30th. Guess what? my room mate from Philippines has the exact same name as mine! (Great! now I'm feeling so special) Luckily different surname. Hers is Chang Sook Leng. haha.

I was told that I won't be having any internet access for my first 2 weeks in campus. Again, "NoooooOoooooo!!!" Dunno if I can believe that particular staff again... If it's true I would online to the max when I got home to my dad's place during the weekends. haha.

Have to stop here now...gotta get my beauty sleep! And hey! One more thing... noticed that there are coffeehouse here in Xiamen already! hepi-nya~ XD lol.

Off to Xiamen on 23rd August

Leaving to Xiamen, China, tomorrow morning. Flight departing at 9.45am and estimated to arrive the destination by 1.50pm. Have packed all my stuffs. I can't be too sure if i had really packed ALL my stuffs though. Each time I realized I'd have forgotten something I'd keep adding & add & add into my luggage bag. Now I worry if it would be overweight >.<

I even packed in Sambal Belacan as well as some Coffee and Mochachino packs. haha. Xiamen have neither coffeeshops nor mamaks for us to enjoy any coffee. Not to mention Starbucks! Sad huh? i think if i start a coffeeshop there im sure to earn big buck!!! No doubt there's a demand for it. Dad always gets us to send over Old Town White Coffee packages in bulk to be distributed to his friends there in China as gifts. He eventually taught everyone there to love coffee. And now they are addicted. Like drugs. lol. Reminds me of a sentence said by Mark in Ah Long Lmt., the Singapore movie, "Sekali try, tiap-tiap hari pun mau" (Once tried, wants it everyday).

Gosh...I'm missing my granny, mum and sis already... am gonna miss my grandma's cooking (im not being sarcastic. She's indeed a fantastic chef!), miss my mum's voice, & I miss my sister's snore (yes i share my room with my sis. And no lar... she don't snore loudly like a pig. It's just a soft cute snore that i can't help giggling over each time ^.^) and our girls talk. On the other hand, I'm eager to meet up with my dad in China soon! I really miss him...

Taman Connaught Accident (1st August 2008)

This is the accident that caused me to be LATE 40 minutes on my very 1st day of work for Acer's roadshow. My supervisor threatened to report this matter but thank god I managed to snap some pictures of the scene with my trusty handphone camera as evidence. Wahaha!

First day of work sudahlah leave bad impression. sobs sobs. Anyway, told myself that i should really start counting my blessings instead of whining. I should be thankful I didn't leave my house too early or I would probably be among the casualties from the accident. Also, being stucked in the jam saved me the 40 minutes torture from standing with my high heels. The terrible accident that snatches 2 lives reminds me how fragile life is. Learnt to be more careful on the road (esp. during this month, which is the seventh month of the Chinese Calender). And finally, I'm glad to be alive.

Note: Photos below are not mine

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Acer's Roadshow at Midvalley from 1st to 3rd August.

Hennessy Artistry Bkt. Kiara

(Update for 19th July)

Sorry for the delay! Said that I would blog bout Hennessy Artistry but I’m just too lazy. Moreover, I didn’t have many nice pictures to share for this event…Thanks to my sister for removing the SD card from my camera. I simply stuffed in my very bulky n heavy SLR into my cute little bag only to find it without the SD card later that evening T.T So frustrating…Anyway, I think UncleJosh did a great job blogging bout it already. Check out his site!

I've never really like clubbing all these while as I can't really drink. I mean, I can drink but not a very good drinker. Never got drunk before. Don't know how it feels like. But I don't think I wanna try. Haha! Cheers with ice water the whole night... and everyone was like, "huh?? what's this? ICE water??" giving me the suspicious stare. And I would go, "no no! This is Hennessy Kiara. Made specially upon request!" Most of them knew it was a joke. But one actually believed me. And that was really funny! Lol.

I was mainly there for Machi's performances. Love their songs thus I wanted to get the 'feel' of it from watching them live. Thanks to the Joshuas (both Lim and Lee) for their kind invitation =D Great performances by all the stars. Overall, the whole event was very successful and well managed I must say.

However, I didn't quite enjoy the night very much. I have to admit that I am very shy. Oddly, I performed at school choirs and was brave enough to take part in singing contests (tho im not a fantastic singer). My shyness is situational. I react queerly during social events when faced with unfamiliar faces. Or maybe it would have been fun if my bestie(s) was/were there...or someone significant. haha. I'm just glad Peiman and Wilson (very nice people) were there to accompany me or it would have been a disaster. lol.

God must have heard my prayers when I was having troubles with transportion back home. Met a kind soul who came to my rescue =D Thank you Andrew! Owe you one!

Below are some photos taken by UncleJosh's new toy.

Me and Josh Lim. Can tell he was pretty drunk that night. It was written all over his face! XD


Levy Li, Miss Malaysia Universe 2008.

Daniel Tan aka Ah Long~ I think I'd need him to loan me $$ already with all the Mega Sales going on. Shop until PK liow T.T

Picture stolen from Simon's blog. Thanks dude ;-)

Graduation day!

The day has finally come!

Had mix feelings. Was relief that I’d never need to sit for exams again and I can finally send all my lecture notes to the recycling bin. At the same time, it dawns on me that all of us may never be able to hang out like how we used to. Some friends would be back to their home town. Some would be working in Australia and some in Singapore. Everyone would start working and get busy with their lives.

“If life is a rat race, I am Minnie Mouse”, a statement made by Janice Wong, which I find it pretty amusing. haha. Time seems to be something we are all chasing after these days. Working friends have told me that the only thing that actually keeps them moving and looking forward to is their Sunday break. I would go green with envy when they told me they’ve gotten good jobs in good companies. But it seems that they envy me more when they found out I’ve another year to go before I start working. If some of you did not know, I’m leaving to China by mid-August to take up Chinese Language course. Yes, I’m definitely taking up the piece of advice everyone has been telling me: “Enjoy life while you can before you start working.”

Ok. Enuf of this emo talk. Back to graduation day in Marriott IOI Putrajaya Hotel. While we’re all seated in the hall with Professor Brian Atkins giving out a memorable speech (not really listening to him the whole time though), mum suddenly pops up out of nowhere to take my pictures. Thank god that camera is an SLR so she somewhat blends in with the rest of the professional photographers from our uni. Or else I’d need to dig a hole and bury my face…cuz she’s the only parent that came up to the front to take photos. Anyway, it was STILL pretty embarrassing as most of my friends recognize her. Siok Kin, whom was sitting beside me, comforted me saying, “Don’t worry dear. She’s doing this because she loves you.” Yeah I know that. But…can’t she do it LATER?? Anyway, all of us had a good laugh about it later on.

Later that evening, we went back to our campus to snap more pictures. Mum went home early as she needs to send my sis to tuition. It was really nice of Melvin’s family to provide me with transport to uni and back home. I felt sorry for his mum as the bouquet of flowers she bought for Melvin was stolen by some greedy people when she left it aside in the hotel. I did notice how unhappy she was... The bouquet costs her RM150 @.@ And they didn’t get to take the family portrait with the flowers yet at that time! sad huh

I hope all of us would be able to find time to hang out some time soon again. I will absolutely cherish all the wonderful moments... =)

Went to Hennessy Artistry event later that night…which I will talk bout in the next post.

Sis and I. She says everyone look so yengz in our grad robe. haha. i do agree. Minus our mortarboard, we do look like Harry Potter from Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

My Family~ Sis, me, grandma and mum.

Picture taken in my bedroom the following day. By paying an additional RM50, we can rent the robe for another 10 days before returning =D

Graduate teddy bear mum got me.

Thanks mum! *hugss*