Off to the Land of Harry Potter.

Will be leaving for London tomorrow. Back on Sunday.

Looking forward to all the shopping in London. And more castles, museums, cafes, English bookstores and parties with Eliz.

Check back here for all my lovely buys, sight-seeing and wicked fun in London soon.

Much love,

huiling

Of Bitches. And Freaks.

I have been feeling incredibly upset for the entire day. One of my Hong Kong housemates has been starting nasty stories about me to the other Asian students at the EBS. According to this creep, I am an incredibly arrogant person because I always speak English around the other students. And the worse part of this is that she made this judgment just three days after meeting me.

Her excuse for me being an arrogant person amazes me so much that I wonder why it has not been written in the Guinness Book of Records - under the “dumbest thing that any person has ever said” category.

I usually do not like to devote an entire blog post to any single person. Nor do I like to waste my time pursuing a series of mindless name-calling foray. The reason is because I am a twenty-going-to-twenty-one year old university student and she is a TWENTY-SEVEN year old graduate student. What I loathe the most is how people like to speak without even using their brains to think about what the words that comes out of their mouth. Naturally, her allegations of me being an arrogant person only serves to reflect her intelligence level. Rest assure, she has my utmost sympathy.

The only way that I can prove how ludicrous her suggestion of me being arrogant just because I speak English all the time, is to expose her flaw in logic. Pardon my usage of Analytical Skills. Right now, I am absolutely sure that my Analytical Skills Professor will be so proud of how his teachings have come to use once and so many times when I meet extremely dim-witted people.

I speak English all the time.
I am an incredibly arrogant person.
If I speak English all the time, I am an incredibly arrogant person.

Lee Kuan Yew speaks English all the time.
He is an incredibly arrogant person.
If Lee Kuan Yew speaks English all the time, he is an incredibly arrogant person.

Goh Chok Tong speaks English all the time.
He is an incredibly arrogant person.
If Goh Chok Tong speaks English all the time, he is an incredibly arrogant person.

Three-quarters of the SMU population speaks English all the time.
They are incredibly arrogant people.
If three-quarters of the SMU population speaks English all the time, they are incredibly arrogant people.

I am incredibly astounded and amazed by her amazing line of reasoning. In case you are wondering, if what she says about me being arrogant because I speak English is true, then it will fit perfectly well into the Modus Ponens argument form. Everybody knows that our very own Minister Mentor Lee and Senior Minister Goh are more accustomed in speaking English. But does that make them incredibly arrogant people? No. In fact, more than three-quarters of our Cabinet Ministers in Singapore can only speak English. Are they arrogant? No.

Therefore, I am extremely mystified as to why you are making yourself appear to be the epitome of Dumb and Dumber. As to why you implied that people who speak English are arrogant.

Maybe for your next thesis, you might want to consider the following topic: Is a person’s arrogance based on the language that he speaks? And better, you can grant the academic world a big expose by revelating your own stupidity as a real-life example.

I can safely assure you that my Mandarin is better than three-quarters of the SMU population. However, I speak English to all my friends and acquaintances in SMU. Anybody accustomed with the education system in Singapore will be able to tell you that SMU is the most westernized school among all the three universities. This is the culture of MY school. This is the culture of Singapore. We speak English. Besides, English is the first language in Singapore. So why shouldn’t I speak English?

If you are expecting me to code-switch to Mandarin or to learn Cantonese every single time I communicate with you, maybe you would like to perform a deep reflection on who is the arrogant one. So let me tell you, FARK OFF!!

I have never ever told anybody what you said or did to me and my other wonderful housemate. You made my other lovely housemate cry on the first day that she came here and she had to call home, crying to her parents. You told her not to buy any more food because you took up two out of three shelves in our smaller-than-an-oven fridge. You made us throw the trash all the time even though it is you who cooked the most and left the garbage behind. You made false accusations of her leaving egg shells on the table and made her clean up after you when it was you who left it behind and refused to apologize to her. You behaved farking rude all the time, as if we owe you one thousand euros. You were incredibly rude to me and my friends during the time that they were here.

In case you want to know what happened: Eliz, Nicholas and I came home quite intoxicated after the school party last Monday and were fidgeting with the keys on the door. That revolting woman just bloody pulled open the door and walked away in such an impolite manner before we even had the chance to say anything. You really have to be there to see what actually happened. The three of us were left flabbergasted by what happened. We were utterly speechless by her insolent and discourteous behavior and I felt really embarrassed that somebody actually behaved in such a manner.

I can take it if that offensive creature is rude to me. But I can never rest my case when anybody is rude to my friends. Or start spreading horrible stories about me.

Yixiao says,

“I think she is festering in her own depression. You should feel sorry for her. You are the bigger person. Haha. That’s very condescending but whenever I feel angry towards someone, I always tell myself to sympathize with the
unfortunates.”

How true. As a housemate, I have always respected your existence. But now that I find out that you have been rumor-mongering about me, do not blame me for disrespecting you. The reason is not just because you are a disgusting scandal monger, but also because you have displayed intelligence the level of a five year old child.

From now on, I can officially tell everybody that I have only one lovely housemate. Your dreadful existence in the house will not be sorely missed. I absolutely do not speak to brainless gits. Nor do I speak to egocentric and self-centered freaks. Don’t ever talk to me again because I am absolutely sure that I am going to scream at you the next time you open your bloody mouth.

Period.

Reflections.

It has been slightly more than a month since I have arrived here. Reflection on the prior apprehensions and the prospective homesickness seems pretty superfluous and redundant now. Even as the feeling of lonesomeness sets in when you sit in your bedroom, thinking about how everybody that you love is doing back at home, I have never been able to imagine what would happen when I return to Singapore.

The irony is that every morning, I would lament at how comfortable everything was back at home. I don’t have to worry about my dreadful culinary skills and not having anything to eat. I don’t have to be concerned about laundries and my clothes not drying in time. I don’t have to fret about grocery shopping and having to walk 3km to the grocery shops and all the way home. I don’t have to bother about disquieting the peace of the house from my incessant singings. I don’t have to agonize over not having anything to wear in my wardrobe and having to wear bloody socks and shoes everyday. I don’t have to lose sleep over not having internet connection at home and missing out on important events and news.

Even though I may be fretting over all these things that I never have to encounter back home, the prospect of returning home back to Singapore and SMU just makes me wonder if I am ready to embrace all my realities again. The last month has been spent engaging in so much traveling, parties and settling into an unfamiliar (and less than comfortable) environment that only now do I have the time to think about what I want to achieve for the next three months here.

For a moment, I have an impulse to just enjoy this all expenses paid trip to Germany and Europe. Although after a while, a nagging sensation starts to sink into me, telling me to study hard. Everybody tells me that I study too hard here. After all, if I really want to study, the right place to do that is back in Singapore.

The sickening thing is that I am starting to think that they are absolutely right. My uptightness over grades, projects, less-than-desirable project mates and readings are not going to matter here.

Maybe from now on, I shall be less edgy by little details that go awry from the plan and start taking pleasure in every single thing that I do. Monotonous, weariness and dreary or not. Grocery shopping, cooking and doing my laundries included. =)

Italy Trip: Pisa!

I realize that I have been blogging about the Italian trip for nearly two weeks and I am still not done yet. So here is the second last of our Viva La Italia trip – our journey to Pisa.

Home to Galileo, the most famous icon of Pisa would be none other than the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Having spent too much on shopping in the earlier cities of Italy, the penniless me could only ration the remnants of my euros. Entering the Leaning Tower of Pisa and taking the scenic view was something that was out of the question. Besides, paying a ridiculous price to enter a tower that was built based on an architectural mistake is simply laughable.

Nevertheless, I spent the morning taking many pictures of the Leaning Tower of Pisa and had great fun window shopping at the many open air markets.

Of all the pictures that I reviewed, there were a few really amusing ones.

Not to mention that something serious but hilarious happened to Lai Meng. I did not even know whether to laugh or to cry at that particular point in time. On our way to the Pisa Train Station to catch our train to Florence, Lai Meng besotted me to take a photograph of her with one of the architectures. She took off her glasses like she does whenever she takes pictures. At that point in time, I swear I saw something fall out from nowhere. As the sun was really bright, I could not identify the object clearly. Only that it was glass and I could see the reflection of light. I asked Lai Meng if she dropped something. Without even checking, she answered no. So, I granted her a picture and the four of us started our 1.5km journey back to the train station. It was three quarters during our walk that Lai Meng exclaimed that she lost one of her lens from her glasses. Being quite myopic, she realized that there was no way she could survive without her glasses and went tracing back the path that we took.

At that point in time, Gizem, Dikun and I were starting to feel really concerned. In barely two hours, we had a train to catch to Venice from the Santa Maria Novella Train Station in Florence and we still had to travel a one hour train to Hotel Sofia in Florence from Pisa to retrieve our luggages. Being the extremely politically correct one, I was tasked with persuading her to give up the search for her lens because the three of us sincerely believed that even if she found her lens, it would be scratched and there was no way that she could fix it back. Moreover, we had already spent a bomb on the train tickets and if we miss the trains, we would probably kill ourselves. And being the resolute and stubborn one, she refused to give up the search. It was virtually a hunt for a needle in the hay and there was pretty much that we could do.

As my Italian is only limited to the vocabulary section from my piano theory from eons ago and none of us speak Italian at all, there was no way we could communicate with the locals and ask them for help.

The funniest part was that Lai Meng actually found an intelligent yet peculiar way of communicating with the locals. Whenever she meets an Italian, she would go, “Scossi”, take out her glasses and poke her finger through the hollowed part of the glasses to communicate her point. No wonder she aced her Intercultural Communications class in SMU.

I know that it was not supposed to be funny. However, thinking back on what happened never fails to make me start sniggering again. Wahaha. In case, you are wondering, we managed to find her lens and she fixed it back. Thanks to no one but yours truly who happened to possess an extremely sharp eye.

Anyway, the final installment of my Italian trip soon. Venice. I absolutely LOVE Venice. More on that soon! Ciao ciao!

Italy Trip: Florence!

Like Rome, Florence was one of the greatest tourist attractions of Italy. The architectures in Florence were undeniably amazing and this was also the place that we found the famous David by Michaelangelo.

Gizem, the Turkish exchange student from EBS, joined us at the Santa Maria Novella Train Station in Florence. Our first stop was none other than the Galleria dell’ Academia to view the most famous structure in the world, David. This was actually one out of the three Davids in Florence. It was also in this gallery that I saw the famous (or not so famous) painting of the Sacrifice of Issac. It was actually through Smallville that I learnt about this painting. Lex Luthor said that in the Phoenix Episode of Smallville Season III when he thought that his father was trying to kill him. Haha. American TV actually helps me to learn about history and art.

After millions of cathedrals, museums, paintings and sculptures, Galleria dell’ Academia was just one of the museums which I sped viewed within two hours. Housed near the flea market areas, I decided to venture into the crowd to continue my great adventure in shopping. Calling it the flea market is a misnomer because the prices of clothes, bags and souvenirs were jaw-dropping. The standard price for a leather bag alone would set you back by 220 Euros. Multiply that amount by two and you get the amount in Singapore Dollars.

It was during this part of the trip that I finally started to realize that Italian guys are freaks. Seriously, what is wrong with Italian guys and their perpetual need to ask for a kiss? I was so freaking grossed out by this Italian dude who gave-me-a-kiss-and-momentarily-changed-my opinion-of-them that I threw newspapers at him. Seriously.

Enough of that grotesque moment. That Kodak moment shall forever be buried in the soil of Italy.

It was mentioned in the Lonely Planet Guide as well as by the kind elderly couple owners of Hotel Mondo Nuovo that there is a pasta restaurant in Florence which is a must-visit. It turned out that Mario, the restaurant was tucked away in a neat corner of the flea market. Mario was indeed popular. The restaurant itself was miserably small but the crowd for the lunch was incredibly huge. Nevertheless, everybody seemed pretty contented in waiting. Even Eliz and Nic went down to Mario’s on their trip to Florence.

We had red wine and tomato pasta. The tomato pasta was really amazing. Though Gizem forgot that I did not take cheese on its own and poured too much cheese onto my pasta to make me feel a little nausea, I still loved the pasta a lot. I basically drowned the cheese part with the wine. Good thing I was still sober by the time I finished the pasta.

It was back to shopping again for me after lunch although it was more of window-shopping because most of the shops were selling the same stuff. Besides, I was already pretty penniless from my shopping in Rome.

The setting of the dusk was spent at Piazza della Signoria. This was the place where it held fine replicated sculptures of David and the Rape of the Sabine Women. For the already-budget-conscious me, it was truly a moment when I wanted to kill myself for paying so much to enter Galleria dell’ Academia when everything was available here, free of charge. Wails.

I saw a great performance by the most amazing basker that I have ever seen in my entire life. His rendition of the theme song of “Autumn in my Heart” was hauntingly beautiful. In case you have been living in the caves for the past century, “Autumn in my Heart” is the Korean hit drama from like five years ago that got everybody weeping in their Kleenex and started a unique trend of the female lead dying of leukemia in the endings of all Korean movies and dramas.

That’s about it for Florence because I was so tired during my trip in Florence that I basically could not even remember much. Traveling with your 29 inch luggage and walking under the scorching sun can be physically draining. Besides, it was during this trip that my camera started to malfunction so pardon the lack of pictures.

Anyway, coming up – Pisa. Till the next time, ciao!

Eliz. Party. Camera.

Eliz came and went. For two whole nights, the perpetual and foreign sense of loneliness that I have been experiencing in Germany was gone. The heartwarming and blissful sensation of seeing one of your best friends in a foreign land is simply gratifying. Eliz and Nic gave me a pleasant surprise when they returned one day earlier than expected.

I brought Eliz and Nic to the party at school on Monday night. We had a fantabulous night out. The last time I could remember partying with so much exuberance was with the twenty-sixers at MoS. I miss you guys so much!

Truth be told, the party at EBS was boring itself. Nevertheless, Eliz and I had so much fun by ourselves that we really did not care about anything else. Whee! We were basically just spinning around and around on our own, oblivious to the prying eyes of the ang-mohs around us towards the two weird Asian girls laughing hysterically. I am so looking forward to going drinking again with Eliz in London. It will be uber fun!

My mum sealed the parcel that she was sending over to me before I even had the chance to tell her to add in the Panadol Extras, which has become a staple part of my diet due to my terrible hangovers from alcohol. Luckily, Eliz gave me her Panadol Extras, otherwise, I will probably just suffer from the migraines. Thank you so much for the medication and fun night out, babe!

Anyway, my sister’s camera died on me. Officially. Damn, I should have brought my Canon Ixus I with me. But then, my Canon Ixus I only serves the purpose of being slim and sleek and does not really capture beautiful shots. Now, I have to either buy a new camera here or get the current one repaired. It seems a wiser choice to buy a new camera since the Powershot S45 is already so old. But I am reserving my money for shopping. Sigh.

Idol Frenzy.

Jonathan and Hardy are the Final 2 for the Singapore Idol Grand Finals. Really happy that we have deserving idols in the finals though I am feeling kind of sad because I cannot get to watch it. And Stacie Orrico performed live last week. Sigh. That is one of the disadvantage of studying abroad.

Anyway, I do like Jasmine alot too. I can totally identify with her since we both have the same "potato sack" that she wore for the Singapore Idol Auditions. How apt.

No matter. Vote for Jon Leong, okay? Cos he is like so cute. And he looks like a rock star. Haha.

Italy Trip: Perugia!

Being extremely sick of rocks, stones and pebbles in Rome, we shortened our intended four day trip to Rome for a day in Perugia. According to The Lonely Planet Guide Book,

“Perugia is a well-preserved medieval hill town that offers sweeping panoramas at every turn.”

Being part of the half-glass empty persuasion, my immediate thought was that I would be trading rocks and stones for grass and mosquitoes. Joy. Moreover, our arrival in Perugia was marred by the fact that our bloody hostel misstated the station that we were supposed to arrive at. My traveling buddies and I ended up 60km away from the hostel.

Sensing that there was no other better choice than to find a proper (read: expensive!) accommodation at midnight, we checked into a four-star hotel for the night. Hotel Mondo Nuovo was one of the best parts of the trip. The owners of the hotel were a nice elderly couple who drove us back to the hotel, perched in a fortress called Foligno. This was an immediate relief for me because I was actually dead beat from lugging my 29 inch luggage, Adidas gym bag and another huge shopping bag. Not only did our room offer us a panoramic view of the mountains, we were able to catch the break of dawn without any optical obstructions.

Despite being less-than-densely populated, Perugia offered to me the old town charm that still leaves me bubbling with euphoria every time I think about it.

The Montefalcro wine from Perugia is supposed to be one of the best kept secrets of the town. And best of all, it is freaking cheap. Silly me actually forgot about purchasing one for myself daddy after making a mental note to return to the shops in the late afternoon.

Anyway, guess who I found in Perugia?

The mascot of the Singapore Courtesy Campaign!! Nah, I was just kidding. Just his twin brother on the cereal box. Haha. They look alike, don’t they?

That concludes Perugia. Short entry, I know. But we spent only spent less than a day in Perugia before leaving for Florence. And yes, it was in Florence that I got kissed by a fantastically ugly dude. More about that on the next entry.

Italy Trip: Rome!

There is only one word to describe Italy. Hot. The scorching sun was an unfriendly reminder of the humidity and burning sensation that one would get when they walk along the streets of Singapore. Not that the battalion of tourists to Italy seemed to mind. They seemed to be enjoying the sunshine that the last of the summer would provide.

Despite the extremely favorable comments that my dear sister gave me about Rome, it was thoroughly disappointing for me. The only people who would love Rome would be those who are huge fans of the Flintstones. The sole pictorial that comes to my mind when I reminisce about Rome would be rocks, stones and cobbles. Haha.

The two-day Rome Pass that we bought from Termini Train Station came in handy during our first stop to the Colosseum. The Colosseum was exactly just rocks, stones and cobbles. Somehow, I did not feel impressed at all by the ancient and magnificent structure. The thought of the Colosseum being a place of death and merciless battles between gladiators and wild beasts just made me feel nauseas. After all, how could one endorse such pseudo glorification of brutality and bloody gladiatorial deaths that resulted in thousands of human and animal deaths?

Outside of the Colosseum, we saw these men dressed as gladiators trying to con dumb tourists into taking pictures with them. The price of each picture? 5 Euros.

Again, we saw couples getting married. The poor bride’s wedding gown was extremely dirty, thanks to the dust and dirt of the stone Colosseum. I am actually having great fun seeing people taking their wedding photos at these tourist attraction areas. It is always a joy seeing their reactions when they realized that people are more interested in taking pictures of them than the structure itself.

Night view of the Tiber River was magnificent. There were men and women basking on the bridges and the melodious sound from their violins were enough to make me forget about the dizziness I had from the heat of the day.

We passed by Julius Casear’s statue on the second day of Rome.

One of my favorite attractions was the Vittorio Emanvele II. Or better known as the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

The entire of the third day was reserved for the Vatican City. The queue to the entrance of the Vatican was snaking horrendously. It circled around the entire of the Vatican City. It was only after finishing two Stefanie Sun’s album on my iPod Nano that I finally stepped through to the famed and much-hyped about building.

Unwilling to waste the two hours spent queuing under the horrible burning sun, I spent another six euros on a personal audio guide. It was money well spent because I had great fun navigating around the different galleries. The one that I loved most was the Egyptian Museum. Gasp! I see dead people!

AGAIN, unwilling to leave Rome empty handed without any shopping, I decided to venture to Spagna on my own for some serious retail therapy session. The Spanish Steps were the major attraction at Spagna. Legend has it that in the 18th century, beautiful men and women would congregate at these steps for people to notice them. My first impression when I read about this was that Italian people from the 18th century probably has too much free time on their hands.

Besides the famed Spanish Steps, there were many buildings around that got me extremely breathless. This time, it was from sheer exhilaration! After days of being trapped in the Stone Age, I finally see familiar signs.

Shopping in Italy is an incredibly expensive affair. I have proof of that.

The police cars in Italy are so cool. Look!

That’s enough for today. More about Perugia, Florence and Venice coming up!

Backk!

This is my third attempt at blogging about what happened in Italy. Travelled to Rome, Perugia, Florence and Venice during the nine days. To the amazement (and amusement) of my friends, I did not really enjoy Italy. The Italian city that I loved the most was Venice. That was like one of the most romantic cities that I have ever travelled to, albeit not as enchanting as Paris. Haha.

After a freak kiss by none-other-than-a-freak and countless love proposals thrown at me along the streets of Italy, I finally came up with the conclusion that Italian men are far from hot. So stay away from those Italian dudes! A very wise Vanessa once said,

Italian guys are soooo hot! Even their road sweepers and bus drivers are hot!

I beg to differ. The only thing piping hot about Italy was the freaking weather and their pizzas! The weather was even worse than Singapore. I actually felt cranky and snappish for most of the time in Italy. The humidity of the air was already unbearable. Add to that the glaring sun beating down on Miss-At-Least-Sun-Protection-Factor-50 and you get the monster waiting to rear out of me.

Aside from the weather, the fact that I did not get to indulge in alot of shopping made me feel worse. It turned out that my travelling buddies' definition of shopping involves only Italian keychains and souvenir mugs. It was only during my third day in Rome that I ditch my travelling partners and went on a major shopping session alone in Spagna which made my happiness level rise considerably by several notches.

I have like more than 800 pictures from a mere nine day trip. So hang on there while I sort out and edit the photos! What with school starting and many parties going on, I finally gain new appreciation of the phrase "time is essence".

Anyway, that's it for now. Pictures will be up soon.