My Soap Opera
This weekend is a weekend I'll always remember. It all started thursday morning when my so called ex-boyfriend calls me at 4am saying "hi, I can't sleep..." You may already know where he was going with that, but being my sleeply 4am self, I had no idea when I heard things like "your future boyfriend, my future girlfriend, if only things were different, etc. etc." So thursday afternoon as I was trying to forget the past days, and even week Alex messages me asking if I would like to eat dinner with him. My mind says "...no." But what came out was, "sure, whatever you want." Then we started a huge conversation about filing a police report about how I was harassed just last week. After a huge argument on msn and on the phone he agrees to give me 2 hours to consider what he said and told me he'd come to pick me up so we could go to the police station together. So that night he comes to my dorm to pick me up.
What ensued after that is a story too long and too detailed to mention here, but if I shrinked it, the effect of how I felt this weekend would be taken away, and my need to express it would not be fulfilled. So as I continue on with my soap opera, you can grab a drink now before you continue reading.
Thursday night, Alex comes over to my room to pick me up for dinner, hoping I was ready to go with him to the police station. His face was ashen, full of grief, guilt, embarassment, remorse and definite heart-break. In which I calmly replied, "hi!" Being still in my pjs from studying all day, I told him to wait as I change and as he waited, to think about where we were going for dinner. This was how he started, "I thought you were going to the police station with me." Here after this comment I'm wondering if he wants me to hate him. I tell him I only said I'd consider it 2 hours ago, and as I did the laundry and took a nice long shower I realized that I'm content and safe today.
So as we walk down to wait for the CUHK bus he takes me aside and we start talking. Clearly at this point, I know what he wants, because he's telling me what he wants very clearly even though his words are broken and stuttering and he is sort of breaking down. The point was, he was begging me to take him back. That was the first step. The second step was getting me to agree to go to the police. First step was successful, even if it took a long while. As I mentioned before, I did love him. The second request, I was never going to grant, ever. So he pins me in his arms and calls the police without my consent. I'm crying and kicking and practically punching him and he still doesn't let go. I'm stuggling so hard to get away from this person that I'm not liking at that moment so I can run away when this guy from the car that's been circling around us for a while now gets out and asks, "did somebody call the police about a girl being sexually harassed?" Of course my back-to-being-boyfriend boyfriend says yes, in which the guy replies, "you might want to cover her head with something cuz there's gonna be reporters coming soon."
As if I'm not already in an uneasy state, the guy wants me to put a bag over my head. What I really wanted was to run away and hide in a small small hole. A minute later the police came and 4 police men lead me to a room in the lobby of my rez, in front of a whole audience of people watching tv. The nice police woman starts questioning me...just a short proceedure before I'm taken for questioning. I need to tell my whole story. My boyfriend wants me to file the report. They need to take me to the Sai Kung police station. I walk out of my rez with my boyfriend's jacket over my head as he leads me to the police van. I see dozens of camera flashes reflecting off the floor. Apparently, there were reporters, and they were taking my picture. I go to the Sai Kung police station, give my story again and they ask me if I really want this guy done for. Discussing with my boyfriend one last time I tell him, "if you're gonna make me do this, I don't guarantee that I'm still gonna be sticking around you." He says yes, I consent and the police take me all the way back to Shatin police station, which was really close to my university, to give my official testimony to the CID.
After I tell my story to another police woman, she says, you're going to have to come back to give your official testimony. "Oh, but I thought this was the official testimony?" "No, we need to find an interpretor for you because you can't read chinese, come back friday at 4." Walking out of the police station, I'm depressed, angry, tired and still crying. I tell my boyfriend that we're through and I'm walking away. He gives me that look of anguish yet again and succeeds in helping me realize that that night last week, wasn't my fault. He's sorry for blaming me for what happened and guilty for not being able to protect me even when he foresaw something like that would occur and he promises to support me through the process of facing my problem. I'm screaming at this point, "what problem?! I have no problem...I was going to forget about it but now I can't because now I've told my story a dozen f*cking times! So if I'm left alone, I'll forget it." Of course after swearing, I'm feeling horrible because what I was saying and what I was thinking did not agree. I was thinking that I've been told that I'm great at suppressing experiences and bad feelings to the point of repression and it's been said by many different people.
In the end I agree with my boyfriend, give in and I'm feeling very safe in his arms. So friday evening he accompanies me back to the police station to give my official testimony. It takes 3 hours. I tell my story, the police woman writes it in chinese and the translator writes what the police woman wrote in english. We all sign 12 pages worth of my testimony and this is when the head of the CID Division 3 walks in and says, "after you're done, we want you to take as back to the place that the incident occured. We would like you to try to remember where it was, so we're going to drive you there and you lead us okay?" No...of course that's not okay, I look at my boyfriend with eyes that say, no, it's not okay. I'm not walking back up that way ever, I'm not going to see that guy ever, I don't want him to see me ever. As you might have realized, my attempts to go against everyone else just doesn't work. So as predicted I get into the back of the car, of course, it's a normal car because no way was I going to get into the back of a police cruiser and drive around the outskirts of Sai Kung.
Walking back up the same way I walked that night to that guy's house was too hard. So I took the 2 CID officers on a little route of my own. Eventually, I found the house I was at last week. My knees were shaking the entire time. I couldn't walk up that same hill, I couldn't bear to see any sign of life in fear that the next person I saw was him. So as soon as I got to where they wanted me to take them, I fainted briefly. If it wasn't for my boyfriend holding me up the entire way there I would have never made it. When I was able to concentrate on what the CID officer was saying, he was telling me to leave quickly, because what would happen after that he didn't want me to see. As he said that the CID in HK are getting better, they were still not as cultured as the police in North America. They feel a need to show who's boss when dealing with criminal offenders. He said that he didn't want me to see what they would do because I'd be terribly afraid. I didn't need him to tell me how fast to leave, I just needed his permission before I darted down that hill and found another route back to my boyfriend's house. Alex lives in Sai Kung. Then I realized how close I was to my boyfriend's place that night. I'm panicking and Alex is consoling me by telling me that it was okay because its a long long way from that guy's house.
What became of the guy that night, I have no clue. I only know that when I went back to check if the CID officer's car was still there, it was already gone. I was afraid to walk around in Sai Kung, even if I loved Sai Kung. I was even afraid to take the bus home because the bus home was the same bus where I first met that guy. So I stayed with Alex and his parents for the rest of the weekend. I went with him to pick up his grandma who was coming from Vancouver and I went to catholic church with his mom sunday morning before the necessity of completing my work took over. Preoccupied...I took that bus home.
I haven't heard from the CID yet. But each time I hear police sirens I'm nervous. Each time my phone vibrates I'm afraid it's that police woman calling me from Shatin police station. I never gave them my address in Canada. I didn't want them to reach me. I didn't want to be subpoenaed while I was back in Canada. Although Alex was there to support me the whole time, he could see I was suffering and started to lose strength as well. He could see how much I didn't want to be bothered anymore by this incident, so after a while he never mentioned it again. I never brought it up. Thankfully, no image of me was found in the paper that thursday morning.
I'm better now. I'm able to face what happened that night and not entirely blame myself. Alex and I are back to normal like the whole of last week just never occured. But I can still feel the burden that he has when he tells me that he feels the need to protect me. I feel like I'm his burden, and he tells me he'd protect me anyway cuz he loves me. Still, it's weird not being in my normal state of mind, the "I'm independent" state of mind. I wouldn't ask Alex to stop doing what he does because I realized that if it wasn't for him I wouldn't have been able to do all that I did last weekend. I don't know what it is about Alex that has made me begin to rely on him and listen to what he tells me to do. But whatever it is that we have between us, I wouldn't ever want to lose it.
Confessions
I'm feeling really really horrible right now. I've never felt regret for anything I've ever done. But today, I realize what regret feels like. It feels horrible. I think I cried and cried until I couldn't cry about it anymore. I feel so horrible I can't explain it. It's so horrible, there are no words for me to use to describe it. This is the first thing I've ever regretted in my life thus far.
I wrote about Alex a week ago, about our relationship. I mentioned that I did something wrong, but I didn't say what it was that I did wrong. I'm going to say it here...right now...because I'll always remember this was the first thing in my life that I ever regret.
A week ago I decided to go spend time with a friend of mine. This friend whom I also wrote about before. Some guy that I met on a bus to Sai Kung. I promised him that I would go to his place the next time he threw a party. I told him I'd go to his place before I made plans to go to Macau with Alex. Since I wanted to go to Macau with Alex, I told him I would postpone going to his place. My trip to Macau with Alex was wonderful, a trip I could never forget. But as soon as I came back, the guy asked me when I'd be free to chill with him. He said he couldn't chill on the weekend because he had to go work. That night, after calling Alex to ask him if he could eat dinner with me, expecting that he'd have to go home to each with his parents, I was prepared to tell him that I made plans. Things didn't go the way I expected.
Alex asked me to go home with him to eat with his parents. No way was I going to eat with his parents, in his house, under such a stressful situation I declined. Then, he said he'd eat dinner with me elsewhere. But I argued that I had already made plans with someone else. So I turned him down. I don't know what possessed me to go into Sai Kung, so close to where my boyfriend lived, to spend time with another guy. In Sai Kung Thursday night when I met up with this guy, we had drinks. He told me it was his birthday on the weekend, and for some reason I immediately I felt sort of bad for him. It was kinda dry to be drinking alone without a party and not even knowing it was his birthday, I thought the least I could do was spend it with him since he wouldn't be home to spend it with anyone. In my mind, he was just a friend. I never thought about whether he was interested in me. And for some reason, I never mentioned that I had a boyfriend.
So that night, I went over to his house, I was buzzed. But he was my friend, I wasn't worried about the situation. But my boyfriend was worried about me. He kept on calling me, and I just got annoyed. I felt like he didn't trust me, that I couldn't just have fun with a friend. I was innocent minded. I had no motivation to hurt my boyfriend, in my mind at the time, it was simply, I'm spending my friend's birthday with him, just the 2 of us, cuz I find him to be a pretty good friend and I only had 1 bottle of alcohol. Anyone who knows me, knows that I can't take even half a bottle. If you ask me, I'd never admit that. My boyfriend asked me, I didn't admit it.
That night I was exhuasted, my mind was absolutely blank, I couldn't think anything. The only things going through my mind were very simple. I'm tired, my cellphone batteries are running low, I told my boyfriend to stop worrying and go to sleep so he probably did that, I should turn off my phone cuz the batteries are low. What followed that night, I can't mention in detail here. In my sleepy state I was harrassed, exhausted and paralyzed I couldn't defend myself. I just knew I couldn't stay awake, I lost all sense of logic and rationale. I slept that night because my body needed it. Thankfully, the guy stopped. In the morning when I was fully awake I didn't know how to face him. I didn't know how to react because he didn't react. He acted like nothing happened, so I thought he must have misunderstood. I wasn't into him, he was my friend. I planned on telling him as soon as I left...as soon as he was no longer in view I would tell him that I could not see him anymore. It was my fault, I must have mislead him, he was mistaken, I realized my innocent decisions at the time turned into something truly horrible.
I let my boyfriend worry about me the whole night. He called me a billion times but my phone was off. Because at the time my simple mind told me to turn it off because it was out of batteries. Then in the morning when everything was fine, I could call him with my cellphone. That morning I had breakfast with the guy before I left because he wanted to. I don't know why I didn't just leave right there, I had no clue where I was and no sense of plan. I was completely clueless, like I had lost my mind. The only thing I could think about was being with my boyfriend. The simple fact that I was not happy with what happened that night and what that guy did to me and all I wanted was to be next to my boyfriend, safe in his arms. So I went to find my boyfriend, and I told him the truth.
That was what I did wrong. Something so wrong in fact, that I didn't know why at the time, in my mind, I couldn't see past "spending time with a friend because it was his birthday". I couldn't see past why my boyfriend didn't trust me. I couldn't see past why I shouldn't have turned off my phone. As soon as I realized what I did, I knew my boyfriend would break up with me. Any guy would. I knew that. I had no idea what possessed me that day to spend the night at that guy's house just because I considered him my friend. My boyfriend didn't break up with me then. He broke up with me now.
And among everything that has happened this week, being naive, I knew it was coming but I didn't see it happening. I loved my boyfriend too much. And I can't answer why I did what I did last week. I don't know. I may have been interested in that guy when I met him but just as a friend. I failed to think about whether this guy liked me or not. But because of what I did, I am now heartbroken. All because of my own doing. And I have to tell you all. I have to tell you all the sins I've committed. I have to tell you how horrible I feel. Nothing in this world ever made me feel so horrible than what I did to myself, to him, to us, just last week today, at this time.
I feel like I lost a part of me. I did lose a part of me. Because I've never met anyone else who was as compatible with me as Alex was. I never felt this lonely before. I don't remember ever loving someone this much. And I can tell Alex loves me a lot too because he's hurting. I hurt him. He would rather break up with me and forget about me because when he thinks about what I did, it pains him so much because he loves me so much. It also pains me to see him hurting so much just because he cares about me so much. And all I did was throw our relationship out the window, just like how I wanna throw myself out the window right now.
I'm writing about this because I need to tell you what a horrible girlfriend I am. When I say I am, I know I am. I'm writing about this because it's the first thing I've ever regretted and this feeling of regret is so hard to bear that I need to express it here. For everyone to know. It's the least I can do to make it up. To right all the wrong I committed. And even thought I know this cannot right any wrongs or patch any holes or restore any feelings, it would be a lesson for me. A reminder that I finally know what regret feels like, a reminder that this time it was actually me who threw away what mattered most to me. It was me who destroyed the one thing I didn't learn to cherish until it was too late. I sit here wondering what it was that I was supposed to learn in this episode of my life. On this exchange when it was supposed to be that happiest time of my university life. It could have been, but I screwed it up. I can't stay here any longer because I want to run away from this place. I want to run away from the possibility of ever seeing Alex again. But I know even if I ran back to the other side of the world...I'll always take this memory with me. A bittersweet story.
Coming Home
I just learned that I have to check out of dorm on the 31st of December! Which means, I won't have a place to stay... =( *sigh* I guess I can't stay for New Years. I'm going to have to catch an earlier flight home. I know it's for the best though.
I could stay with my aunties, but it would be extremely inconvenient. Not sure if the college will let me extend my stay. If I do extend I would have to extend it for a week, and I'm not sure if that's too long a time to approve. Oh well...I guess fun's over. Everything's over. Back to reality.
Yesterday's Mail
Psalm 23 (Revised Student Version)
The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not flunk;
He keepeth me from lying down when I should be studying.
He leadeth me beside the water cooler for a study break;
He restoreth my faith in study guides.
He leads me to better study habits.
For my grade's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of borderline grades,
I will not have a nervous breakdown;
For Thou art with me.
My prayers and my friends, they comfort me.
Thou givest me answers in moments of blankness;
Thou anointest my head with understanding.
My test paper runneth over with questions I recognize.
Surely passing grades and flying colours shall follow me,
All the days of my examinations,
And I shall not have to dwell in this university forever,
Amen!
Alex
Today was another one of my bittersweet days. This one, perhaps, is one I can never forget. It was dramatic, empowering, heart-wrenching, reconciliating yet full of pain all the same. Ever do things because you stand by a principle or value that you just can't bend, yet in the end you shouldn't have done it because your principle or value just wouldn't lead you in the right direction? That was my day.
My boyfriend and I got into our first argument today over something I did. I think all the wrong decisions and bad judgements I made were enough to fill a book titled "All the mistakes you can ever make in a relationship". Yup...so I screwed it all up again, it was truly my fault, I admit. Then again it's been a month along in our relationship, so it's around that time when problems start right? Well, not really, he was right while I stuck to my principles which led me in the wrong direction. I guess I'm used to throwing away what matters most to me because what matters usually hurts just as much. What I care most about also has the ability to make me hurt the most. Which is probably why I wouldn't hesitate to bail when things get hard. It's absolutely unlike me, but I felt that from someone and sort of adopted it when I shouldn't have. I guess these are the reasons that keep me quiet about my relationships, the same reasons why I'd hesitate to tell anyone I like that I like him. But then of course, bailing would bring about a sort of pain that is self-inflicted, which to me is easier to take than rejection. So, before things starts to go downhill, I'd be crazy not to run away.
Whatever the case may be I think layers of foundation just crashed down and now we need a little more time and effort to rebuild it back up. Provided that I haven't run away already, which of course I tried to do, but thankfully didn't succeed. I sort of just...melted back in a puddle when I realized that I truly cared about him. Something I did not plan or account for during my exchange. I did not plan to seriously date someone here and totally fall for him.
I can just imagine what you're thinking. Some of you are worrying about me and telling me to protect myself, while some others are getting mad at me for not saying anything about having a boyfriend sooner. Then some of are you are really happy for me and wouldn't expect any less from me right? To which I'd respond by saying, tsk tsk tsk what do you mean you expect me to mack as many hot guys as I can here?!? One's enough...heh heh. Then I'd tell you not to worry because even if a long d relationship is hard, I wouldn't want that factor to prevent me from finding someone who truly understands me.
Alex, understands me. To a degree of understanding that I don't even have in myself. I've been dating Alex since...mid-autumn festival, so all the blogs where I wrote "my friend and I" since mid-autumn, I was probably referring to Alex. Lol. It's kinda scary the way he reads my mind. I don't realize what I thought was what he said until after he says it. More importantly, he knows I love him without me saying it. None of that... I don't feel that you love me bullshit. No... I'm scared of committment. No... just right now in this moment. Yet again I am reminded about how horrible I am as a girlfriend.
This relationship was sort of different. It was a mix of magical, odd timing, do-able, fall into place, happy get together. He reminded me of someone. Correction... when I first met him I was staring at his back the whole time so the back of his head kind of reminded me of someone close to me at the time. I guess this was also the time I thought I'd give myself a chance just to live out how fun an overseas, four month relationship would be, he didn't seem serious about it anyway. Then, the reminder was removed. Being with him made it clear to me that he wasn't who he originally reminded me of. But, I continued in my downward motion of falling for him as I wanted to spend more time to get to know him because he was fun, because he was comfortable, because he intrigued me. I thought I could give it up, that I could let it go when time made it so. Now, I can't. Something clearly went wrong in my plan to keep things fun and relaxing and simple.
He slowly gave me a sense of security I didn't expect. I guess my original judgement about him not being serious was devastatingly wrong. Everything he did was just so logical, everything he said was right too. I couldn't break him down or chop him up because I couldn't be the cut-throat me that usually comes out when some guy that likes me comes along. It's bad, but automatically, I gotta test if he's worth it. That he's not some dumbass who says stupid, obvious things making me disrespect him even if he's older than me. That he's not irresponsible because that drives me insane and he can do what he says he'll do and follow through. When I think back, we were both interested in each other the day we met. Hmm...that's kinda cute. *smile*
I love him a lot, even if it's only been a month. Even if I met him only recently through a friend I also met recently. There are some things that just seem so right sometimes and those opportunities don't come along very often. Things aren't easy as they used to be, but our relationship started so easily like it was just how things should be, a normal flow. Now I can't let go... *sigh* I got myself into another little dilemma here. Anyway, time will tell us where this relationship will lead. Whatever doesn't tear us apart, only makes us stronger right?
Macau
I went to Macau on the weekend, 2 days 1 night hotel package all for $660. The best part is that all the pocket money I brought to Macau, I brought home just as much! Heh heh... My friend and I hit up a couple casinos and won back all the money we spent during our whole trip. My wallet felt very full going home. Hee hee. The tourist places in Macau were really pretty, but as I walked, and walked, and walked, I realized that many buildings were very old and dark.
The first day, we didn't take any taxis, but travelled Macau on foot the whole day. We got lost a couple times, which is the fun part, but then we covered everywhere I wanted to go. We went to the S. Francisco Garden, Monte Fortress and Museum of Macao, the Ruins of St. Paul's Church, a couple churches not ruined and Senado Square. We walked the rest of San Ma Lo back to our hotel and took the taxi to this amazing restaurant called A Lorcha (it's called Boat House in Chinese). We ate curry shrimp with rice, an amazing dish of mussles and a seafood soup. Being very full, we walked south to the A-Ma Temple and along the Nam Van Lakes. We sat by the lake across the Macau Tower to watch the fireworks, it turned out to be pretty romantic. Afterwards we walked to the small street market near the Nam Van Lake Fountains, and of course headed to Casino Lisboa.
The next morning we took a taxi all the way to Sun Yat-Sen Park, then bussed back to the 4th Macau Food Festival where we spent about $100 just eating. We got free packs of candy and a souvenir! We walked over to the Macau tower but didn't go up. We couldn't do a lot on the second day cuz we were so exhuasted from the first day from all the walking and late night gambling. That and cuz my feet hurt so badly I refused to walk anymore. Haha... Too bad we missed some of the other gardens, the wine museum and Grand Prix museum and some statues.
Still, I had so much fun. It was really tiring, yet it's so fun getting lost in some city you're new to! Anyway, if you're ever in Macau, I recommend a visit to Sands and Casino Lisboa, but don't gamble there, gamble at the Egyptian Pharaoh's Casino. That's where we won all our travel money back. ;)
Jay Chou Concert!
WWWAAAAHHHH!!!!!!! Zhou Jie Lun!!!! AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!! That's about it...there's nothing else that needs to be said. WAAAAAHHHH!!!!!! Hahaha...
The concert was SOOOOO amazing!!!! WAAHHH!! It was so worth it! He sang SO many songs back to back, it was SO cool!! I took lots of pics and videos!! But my batteries died on me after the first quarter!!! So what did I do?! I ran out of the concert, I ran OUT of a JAY CHOU concert! Let's emphasize that point here. Why? To run out to get a pack of 8 batteries to take pictures like I promised! So I took the rest of the concert, but I missed the one part when he was dressed in a pink jacket.
WAAAHHHH!!! He was so amazing! He did this piano solo during the slow songs, and then introduced some guy to play a CRAZY CRAZY duet with him! I still dunno who that guy was he introduced. Apparently the guy he introduced was some musician in a band in mainland. He also did this sword fight in the middle of Luan Wu Chun Qiu! AAAHHHHH!!! Then he also played the flute, well, a version of the flute, dunno what it's called. But the guy took forever to change!! The crowd went wild every time he got off stage to change and we were all anticipating when he would return, all with our cameras and cell phones ready for the opening of another new song.
The opening and ending needed a little work...but what could be more important than the grand entrance of Jay Chou himself?!?!?! AAAAAHHHHH!!!! *cough cough*
To Macau I Go
Jay Chou concert today! I'm so excited!! But still a little sick. That's alright I guess...a Jay Chou concert can lift my spirits. Heh heh. I'm planning another trip this weekend! Gonna take a short trip to Macau on Saturday and stay one night. Apparently there's a latin american festival going on, a food festival (yummy!) and an Asian Karting Open Championship. All this before their Macau Grand Prix. There's gonna be so many fans watching formula 1 racing next week, so I'm going this week. Ya...I don't really want to be there during the race...I mean come on, you watch a formula 1 race and you only see the cars for 2 seconds total even if it comes by a couple times, might I add you see blurry cars.
Gonna hit up the casinos in Macau, dunno which one yet since there are so many. Living in a 4 star hotel in downtown. All freestyle! No freezing bus, no aunties, no waiting for their slow asses, no hundreds of washroom stops.
Probably gonna meet up with some friends to head to the HK Coliseum together. AAHH!! ;) I am so not gonna fit in...hahaha! Alright...gonna find the fobbiest thing I have in my closet, which amazingly, I do have. I went shopping and decided to get something fobby that I thought I could handle...nope, when I got home, I couldn't take it looking in the mirror, so it's been in my closet ever since.
Trip to Shanghai
My trip to Shanghai and 4 other places was so amazing! I went with Jenny from Schuuulich, her cousin and her cousin's friend. There's so much to mention, but I'll try to keep it short.
The first night after we put down our luggage at the hotel we took a taxi to eat a late night dinner. The food was pretty good, but the xiao long bao were amazing. They were the best I've eaten all trip, and yes I ate xiao long bao whevever I got the chance. We went to this place near Shanghai Xin Tian Di (New Area). The second morning we just went around sightseeing.
We did more sightseeing in Hang Zhou. We got there in the afternoon on the 2nd day. The best part of Hang Zhou was the Xi Wu (West Lake). We went at night after the tour guides took us back to the hotel. We met up with this friend who lived in Hang Zhou and he showed us around the lake, took us to a bar, and eat small lobsters. I liked Hang Zhou the best because you can get the best of both worlds there. Whether you enjoy a coffee in the morning by the lake or late night drink, Hang Zhou has both. So the first night in Hang Zhou we had drinks at one of the bars by the lake as we listened to techno and watched these girls dancing on the table (dressed). The second morning, we had coffee by the lake. But the weather in Hang Zhou is rarely sunny and clear, it's always a little foggy or murky but bright. Anyway, the small lobsters were SO good! There isn't a lot of meat, but it was a lot of fun getting our hands dirty. Then we went to this street in Hang Zhou that sold a lot of cultural arts and crafts before we headed to So Zhou.
The third day in So Zhou was cool too. But we went to some shopping area and most of the places were stores from HK. The local tour guide introduced a place to us that sold candy, but most of the candy were either too sweet or really sticky. The best part of So Zhou, was when we went to the silk factory to watch the process of making silk. We watched them make silk blankets. I took a lot of videos! Almost everyone on our tour bus bought 1 or 2 blankets. I bought one myself...heheh...costing $430HKD. They shrink pack it for you, so it's gonna stay that way until I get home. We had small crab (dai jap hai) at the restaurant they took us to for dinner, but it wasn't that great, I didn't like it at all.
In Nan Jing on the fourth day we learned everything about jade stones. They taught us how to tell whether a jade was real or fake and whether it was good quality. We also went to another shopping area in Nan Jing. We ate more xiao long bao and my friends had some cow meat...well I dunno if you can still call it beef if they only ate internal organs.
The fifth day in Wu Xi we went on a cruise. It was a really nice day that day, reminded me of a nice summer day in Canada. We also had a lesson about fresh water pearls. The manager at the store made us guess how many pearls were inside one shell. All he said was...well...all I understood that he said was that it was more than 5. Whoever got the closest number got a bag of pearl powder. So of course, all the aunties started screaming on top of their lungs as if their normal volume wasn't loud enough. There were 43 pearls inside. My guess....7...cuz I thought they'd be bigger!! I wanted to see huge gigantic ones! Not tiny, incy, bincy ones. Pssh. At night the mainland tour guide, ah ling ling, took us to eat a late night dinner at some hot pot place. We had more small lobsters and small crab. This small crab had another chance to prove how great everyone says it was. I kinda felt like I was missing out, thinking that I didn't like it, so I made myself try it again and this time it was so amazingly good compared to the first time!!
On our last day, we headed back to Shanghai and walked the Cheng Huang Miao. Everyone was lining up for xiao long bao at some famous place during free time, while the tour guides took us to a place to eat another kind of bao called sang jin bao during our free time. The 2 tour guides took us 4 out a couple times without the rest of the people knowing. Anyway, I can't tell you my reaction eating it. Saying that it was amazingly good just isn't good enough. It was even better than the xiao long bao I had the first day. A picture tells all right? That's what my friend thought too, so she captured a very personal moment of mine as I was holding my food.
Overall the places we went to had a lot of sight seeing and a lot of shopping places, but I haven't mentioned the funniest things yet. The funniest part was on the bus during our 2-4 hour bus rides with all the chubby or fat aunties. Really, if you think you've gone on a bus trip and think it's really tiring in Canada, you should go on a bus trip here in HK with HK aunties. They annoy the crap outa you and then make you laugh so hard the food they offered you just comes right out. Some are just plain horrible...you just wanna hit them or something and tell them to shut up. Then there are those you feel kinda bad for cuz the loud one sitting in the next seat is calling her stupid, because she really is a little dumb. Then there's the newlyweds probably around 40-something years old that are still both very active in their lives that just happened to be rooming next to me on the last day, the day we had to wake up earliest to get back to Shanghai. But it's like they say, there's a little destiny among us because we all happen to be on the same bus. Guess what I did on the last night when the newlyweds were making such a fricking loud moaning noise disrupting my much needed sleep?
I needed my sleep cuz I got sick on the third day. The bus was so cold, colder than the temperature outside that I finally caught a cold. All the chubby or fat aunties already wearing layers were complaining about the bus being hot and stuffy. So the good driver was blasting the A/C keeping his jacket on himself. Whereas I, who didn't have a big enough jacket, finally caught a cold. I borrowed my friend's jacket in Hang Zhou and So Zhou and then bought one in Nan Jing cuz they said it would be colder in Wu Xi. It ended up being the hotest in Wu Xi and the last day in Shanghai was hot too. *sigh*
I'm recovering now, speedily recovering, cuz the Jay Chou concert is tomorrow!!!! I have to recover so I can scream at the top of my lungs and sing like there's no tomorrow. Then if I lose my voice again and cough so hard I can't talk, at least I'd have no reason to. =)
Play It Up
One of my favourite things:
Eating a hot bowl of congee with freshly made rice rolls on a cold day.
One of my most hated things:
Girls who don't wrap. Please, girls, wrap it. It's not something I like to see first thing in the morning when I go to the washroom.
Lately, I've been hooked on roasted chestnuts. They're so good when they're hot! The shell just cracks right off and the nut is so warm inside. Mmm... =)
I saw a lot of exchange students dressed as white angels walking down to the university station on their way to Lan Kwai Fong. I...went to Ocean Park. I was so scared I totally lost control of my legs and my knees just bent and I was practically on the floor most of them time. I haven't had so much fun on halloween since...don't remember. Sunday was one of my luckiest days, so lucky that I can't remember another day that I was luckier. Anyway, I was obsessed with buying these cell phone chains with cute dogs on them so I tried to get the whole set. I got 4 and 2 duplicates and I felt so sad... =( When I went back, a guy who worked there was standing there opening the egg machines so I asked him to open it for me and I left Ocean Park with a whole set. =) hee hee....
I had so much fun at Ocean Park, I went to 3 different haunted houses. Chinese Bridal Nightmare, Cursed Castle and Arachnaphobia. Yea, for those of you who know I'm arachnaphobic, that was the one where I fell flat on the floor. The Chinese Bridal Nightmare was pretty scary too, I guess it's cuz I was always afraid of chinese horror films as a kid. I couldn't even go thru the first quarter without walking bent downwards. The Cursed Castle wasn't really great until the end when some automatic skeleton thing opened in my face. Western horrors aren't really that scary tho. It's so cool how HK plays up every festival and special day no matter if it's part of the chinese culture or not. Ya, that's why they say HK is an international city. Too bad I didn't get Thanksgiving off.
Ever have that feeling when you walk past something on the ground and you don't know what it is but it looks a little shiny and it could be something nice? But then you just walk by and forget about it cuz mom told you not to pick up stuff that isn't yours off the floor? Well, I almost made the mistake of not picking it up. I went back to pick it up and it was a really nice bracelet. =) Score!
Going to Shanghai on thursday!! Yay! Gonna be on a trip for 6 days, missing my presentation. It was my bad, I thought the presentation was on Wednesday, in which I'd be back in time for it. But it's actually on Monday so now I'll be missing it. Oh well, 5 %. No matter...moving on. I wonder where I'm going next. ;)
People have been wondering about that Jay Chou concert. YAA!!! I'm so excited. He's holding 6 concerts in HK, 4 in the beginning and then they added 2 more days. I'm going on Nov 11. =) Hee hee... That's 1 day after I come back from Shanghai. I'll be sitting facing the front, 20th row I think? =D Don't worry, I'll blog about it and take many many pictures!
