Sunday, December 10, 2006

Many things had happened after nov, 06, a very busy time for me.

First I had to take over my colleagues as they ALL either went on course or on leave, so for two days, I TOOK ALL the lessons for all 3 of them cos there were no one else.

Second, at that opptunate period, we have to prepare for examinations on the first week when the students returns.

Third, My research projects starts, I have to cheong into the hills with my students at least once per week.

Fourth, my lovely taiwan trip.

This time round, I really enjoyed myself with the Taipei trip, (can guage from my spending!) I bought n bought n bought.

First night is nothing memorable, the only memory i have is that why is the hotel so so so small, no bath tub, n also the hotel gave us a room that is next to the counter, water cooler/heater (cos there is NO water heater in the room) and lift. Thus you can imagine the noise, Every morn i will be rudely awoken by the laundry ladies and the etc etc, then when noisy ppl exits the lift or waits at the lift landing, I am also the first to know. I guess u get the gist of it. I ate a totally tasteless yuan yang guo. haha the evening was spent at xi men ding where i cheong cheong cheong the accessories. head bands, clips, earrings raid ah... :hoho: I also bought gifts for my students, will pass it to them when sch reopens

The next day, we spent at a more interesting place known as long shan si. One reason is to make mr Troll's family happy as his parents have the tendency to pray at every temple that we pass by. However, the trip is fun. I had fun cos i saw xie chang ting's promotion car right in front of the metro station. He is the fella who is running for taipei's mayor with the theme of making taipei able to host the olympic games by 2012. Then camera friendly Miss TRolly went up n steadily took a pic with the car n the banner. Next on the task list is to enter the temple. The temple is relatively big with a big waterfall right at the entrance. of cos we took pics thr. Then shopping at wu fen pu... BIG BIG BARGAINS!!, haha Bing's fav time. But can sense tat in laws are a bit sick of the place, actualli must forgive them cos wufen pu is a distributor and they carry small sizes which means my mom-in-law cant buy anything cos of her rather heavy build. N so we moved off to shi lin again. I got one of my wedding stuff there, my cravings for victorian stuff was satisfied thr.

DAY three, we went to the hot springs at Bei tou. Darling Lost his wedding ring thr. haiz, the hot spring is sulphuric in nature so the max time allowed is abt 20 min. i had a long long long time in dipping in the pool, cos it is like HOT!!! haha i thought i am bad until Hubby gets in, he took a MUCH LONGER TIME AH. laugh at me somemore la. a bit of backgnd info, the public pool is cheaper n unlimited use, but u have to go naked. Being conservative sg ppl, we chose the private room. Private room can hold 2 people max with 2 hrs of use in which one hr is the use of the lounge. I bought MA LAI REN a gift there, but tio con by the reception, she told me that it's a massaging stone, n when we gave the pressie to him. it turned out to be the worse embarrassment ever!! SORRIE IST, SI RECEPTIONIST, if i go back, i am going to get u!! we then went to the westernised end of taipei when we got polo ralph stuff cheap. n For one night, we didnt go back to shilin, THK GOD.
Rushed to 7 eleven to raid their magz section as meek asked me to buy some for her as well.

Day 4, jiu fen trip. Taking the train was a new experience, you can eat on the train although it looks like the metro. We took the train from taipei main station where i spied the magazine that meekie asked me to buy n realised I BOUGHT the wrong magazine last night. Oopies, so bought the right one. so sad. On the train, i realise that thr is dog shit under the seats, n that the train is still human operated, a officier will walk in to ensure that all humans are safely alighted before pulling the trigger to alight. The journey is long, i had time for reflection, i realise:

1) mom-in-law is tired, she slept throughout the journy
2)the housing system in taiwan like hong kong is terrible, houses can be build next to the stations. - they hang their washed clothes out to get dirtied by the dust?!!?? can they stand the noise? n in sg if the mrt is like 20m away, ppl already complain. haiz i will further reflect on my next post.
3) how poor the outskirts of taipei is.

Upon reaching, we realise our fatal mistake. neber go jiu fen on sat/sun cos it will be a internal hol for all residents of taiwan. We waited n waited n eventually took a cab. haiz it lightened our wallets by 100 NT each .. abt 5 bucks per person ( cabs are cheaper in taipei as compared to sg- craps to the person who suggested that sg cabs are somewhat the lowest in Asia), however can sense tt my in laws are unhappy but i am not going to stand waiting in queue, i came from sg not to wait but i think in laws wanna save .. i was like bus is 50 NT, need to wait, CAB IS ONLY 100 NT n no need to wait. wth? that is like 2.50 sg more? what for, if i am posted to taipei for 2 yrs, i might take bus, but I only have 2 more days left in taipei, i dun wanna waste it on waiting.

Actually the cab trip is worth it as the driver brought us to lao jie, a place that we didn't manage to walk to in our first trip. lao jie is full of tea houses and coffee places with great view. i went to this coffee house where they served me the real coffee i have been craving since day 2 in taipei. ( i have hunted for thick kopi in day 2 n 3 to no avail) . the shopowner after listening to our english accent declared my husband to be american chinese. hahaha or mei guo zhang da de hai zi. How come everyone sees me as taiwan ppl. Even when i declare that i am not bei di ren, they thought i am from gao xiong. *swt* I guess cos i speak fluently in mandarin, n i tend to spk faster when i am thr cos they spk to me faster. Haiz, so i am a taiwan mei with a ABC in jiu fen. I went to this shop where i bought meek a xmas pressie. n alot of keepsakes. ate n ate n bought what meek wants- the yam ball. BUT HOr.. tragedy on day 5. I also bought a glass horse for daddy, cant wait to give it to him

Day 5, i left hubby to pack while i went to get breakie, when i came back he told me every thing packed, BUT we left meek's yam ball n our petite cheesecake in the hotel fridge. haiz. well with nothing much ado, we went to xin kwang san yue, had a superb lunch n also bought my kose. After that, back to sg, haiz.
I really dun wanna come back

UNTIL THEN TAIPEI, i will be BACK!
I must find the me, the one whom I know I wanna be ;
6:13 PM