more of china

Me and some huge craving kinda thingy @ our hotel called 徽州酒店， there is this old ancient house right behind the hotel which we visit.

I like these details on the knocker of the doors.. i want one on mi door someday :)

the mirror reflects lulu n his brother.. intently discussing something I do not understand.

apparently.. the richer the person, the higher the wall he built.. this is to prevent his wife (wives) from running away when he is out doing business for long periods of time.

the courtyard with funny looking doorways.. talk about Chinese being pragmatic

The intricate cravings on the door, you could even see the expression on their faces!

a contrast: the old and the new

Front view of the old mansion I visited (heck, i really can't remember the name)

See the mud like remnants on the cravings? Apparently during the cultural revolution, the owners smeared the cravings with mud and wrote "long live chairman mao" to prevent the carvings from being destroyed. interesting.


2nd week of sch.
can't sleep. hot humid night. worrying about my fyp which is quite non-existent.
so. i decided to upload some of the nice nice pics i took during my trip to China~~ yay!
hope it would help lull me to sleep :)

China-GuangZhou

Kaki gatal in me brought me to GuangZhou this time :)
on 4th Dec, I went for a trip to Lu's mum's place..

I met Jay @ this huge poster of his @ the subways of Guangzhou

Had milk tea by this 'lulu' character (i think the cartoon is supposed to be a female character...)
hahahahahha


Had SNAKE...... yummy

This is how we order food...

My Fav Xue San Bao... i still can remember its lingering taste... salivating

Lulu and a McD's Mocha Vanilla Cone..
I had to force Lulu to bring me out shopping.. poor me..
but it couldn't be helped, his place is kinda far away from the subway n stuff like that..
from his 'taman' we had to take a shuttle bus to a nearby subway station that was 45 minutes away.. it was really far..
then we took the subway to the 'walking street' which literally had an ancient market place right under it. awesome. hehe..
more awesome was the shopping.. i blew most of my $$ on DHC products.. (don't tell my parents I spend around RMB500 on them) so I was not that tempted by the various boots and winter wear on sale.. bought some comics.. some odds and ends..
bla bla.
the nice part of the trip was going to Huangshan which I would be describing in another post :)

a day before my 2nd last exam

it's engineers and society exam tmr..
my 2nd last paper... haha.. i hope i can manage it.. tho i hv been slacking for the past few days. sleeping of hours of time where i shud b mugging/memorizing the books..

i always wonder. what is the point of having us university students vomiting out what we have been memorizing for the exam? what is the point of having us being like robots, churning out perfect textbook answers.. time and again?
what is the point?
what is the point of education?
to educate, to enlighten, to lead one into more knowledge so to speak.
For me, I think education is more about the latter, to lead someone to learn. I realized that a lot of useful stuff are not learnt from textbooks, rather by books, info off the net and even the discovery channel. Education is about teaching someone to think critically, not being parrots of what is written on paper.
It is difficult. education is a awful, pressurizing matter, that is why I do not want to be a teacher. the responsibility is too much. a person's future thrust into your hands, how terrible can that be?
people now are too complacent. for one thing. i m getting too complacent. expect everything to be laid nicely in front of me. this defeats the purpose of life isn't it? Life should be an endless pursuit, no final destination but the processs of it that moulds one character and the experiences that would let one feel that it was not a life wasted.
education nowadays is kinda political, a child since born is thrown into a factory that makes them into a bolt or nut of the ever growing industry.
i guess asking anyone on the street: why do you study?
the answer would be: so I can find a job.
so why do a person finds a job?
so that the person can earn money.
so education is about making money?
work is all about making money?

i'm clueless.
just daunting to think that I would be one of the bearings that churn out money so that I could live.
but there is more to life that this, right?

*i guess when I start work next year, I would not be saying such childish stuff. I will be packaging my resume, trying to make some company think it is worth hiring me, trying to fit into a company, trying to run the rat race. For what purpose? To make more money.*

*in a few days, 2 of my secondary school mates would be getting married. wow. can't imagine that.. but I do admire them making such a big decision at such a young age while I m still building sandcastles by the seaside. hehe*

oooo... meaningless exams...

meaningless
meaningless.....
wth.
got 4.5 for writing for mi GRE which totally, absolutely made my previous effort to score in verbal and quantitative vanish into nothing.
have no confidence to apply for grad sch now.
results like sh*t. what i can do.. :S
sigh
i know people to change but i didn't expect myself to change so much
giving myself too much pressure?
hmn. maybe not. i m such a person who strives to gratify myself. *snicker*

so easy to say 'i give up'
especially to requirements set by myself
to my goals
my dreams.
just dot the tiny period
.
I give up

xxx 'n' xxx

It has been more than a month since i blogged.
time flies so fast. really.. too fast.
completed my GRE,
started applying for sch, only two so far but not the least completed.
stuck writing my statement of purpose.
stuck writing my statement of....

what is my purpose?
what do I want?
Do I really want to spend 5 years pursuing something that I am not 100% passionate about?
5 years, 5*365+1 isn 't a short time. i'll be at least 29 when I finally graduate again.

so now, what I wanna do IF i am n not going to study?
what am I going to do?
work?
had applied for a few companies with no avail for the past few weeks.
but I felt nothing when I recieved my rejection email.
so what?
that is how i feel.

i think my biggest flaw is being apathetic. I do not know and do not want to blame anyone instilling it into me. it is me.

apathetic. procrastination.laziness.
all come together.
the lack of passion and drive to do something.
make everything seem grey.
passive. no energy to accomplish anything.
everything passive.
like the shopping cart in a hypermart. waiting for someone to push, to pile it with all sorts of rubbish.

I do not want to be so. I do not want to be filled with something I do not want.
I do not want to do what I do not want.
I do want to know what I want.

What I want?

Life feels like the mangrove swamp I want to last weekend.
Mushy. Marsh. Muddy. Messy.
My legs are in the wet soil.
I'm stuck. can't move anywhere.
tide comes in.
I can't move.

recess

has been SEVEN FULL weeks since school started..
so...
what did i achieve thus far?
hmn..

1. getting a 42/100 for my Design pratical test...
2. studied around 1/2 de GRE wordlist but my memory retains less than 1/2 of that
3. bruised my nose from falling face first onto de sea doing a foward roll 2 days back
4. managed to swim around 10m finally
5. tanned again after 2 days under the sun
6. slacked for 4 weeks for my FYP
7. finished 1 full drama serial, 3 downloaded movies, hairspray and de rat cooking show
8. pending:
9. pending:
10. pending:

i need to get going
too slack for my own good.
argh.

missing yellowstone

in another few days... it would be fully one month since i left the states.
sigh.
i
miss
yellowstone.
argh

it's 4:21am now, it should be around 2:21pm there in Yellowstone.
I wonder what people are doing right now....
lunch would be over.. the eccentric vegan would be cleaning the EDR..
in the dining room, the lunch shift would be nearly over, hope there isn't a geyser rush right now else i m sure the servers working now would curse and swear.
the weather outside would be fair, the skies would blue, big and beautiful..
some people would be hanging out around the porch of laurel dorm.. smoking.. listening to music, chatting...........

arh. i miss yellowstone