I'm going for SOW camp later, need to be at NUS at 8am. The purpose of me to sign up this camp is to make new friends, I hope I can do that.....successfully.....:(
I'm excited but at the same time worried......mixed feeling......be positive! Jiayou....
And I'll be back on the saturday......
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Happenings
22/06/2011:
I went for medical checkup at NUS for enrollment in university. I booked on the 21/06/2011, so only left with the earliest slot, 8.30am. No choice, I want to settle this before I fly to taiwan so have to wake up damm early for the checkup. I woke up at 6.30am! The checkup started at 8.30am ended at around 9.30am. The whole process was funny, haha. First, I registered and paid $30, then had a check on my eye sight, at the middle of the hall of the medical centre. They do not have a specific room for each check up. They just set up a station for eye check up and right beside was the taking of height and weight. Haha, I didnt shrink, still the same, 165cm but I lost 2 kg! So happy can! Haha. I think must be my job which help me lose 2kg because I tend to eat 2 meals per day when I work. And I did that job for almost half a year, so lose 2kg this way, reasonable right? :) After that, behind these 2 stations is the checkup on blood pressure. Then I go into a room which is the urine test. I don't want to update the details here, a bit.......*ahem*......haha. If you want to know, come ask me. I moved on to another space in that room for x-ray. Also, details are censored here. Haha. After that, I had a consultation with a doctor, same, details censored here. And that's the checkup I had at the NUS medical centre.
Then, I made my way down to bugis, since is still very early and I didn't eat anything since I came out that morning, I had my breakfast at MacDonald. Finally, I can have my breakfast deluxe after soooooooo loooooong! Love the HOTCAKES and SCRAMBLED EGGS!
I went for medical checkup at NUS for enrollment in university. I booked on the 21/06/2011, so only left with the earliest slot, 8.30am. No choice, I want to settle this before I fly to taiwan so have to wake up damm early for the checkup. I woke up at 6.30am! The checkup started at 8.30am ended at around 9.30am. The whole process was funny, haha. First, I registered and paid $30, then had a check on my eye sight, at the middle of the hall of the medical centre. They do not have a specific room for each check up. They just set up a station for eye check up and right beside was the taking of height and weight. Haha, I didnt shrink, still the same, 165cm but I lost 2 kg! So happy can! Haha. I think must be my job which help me lose 2kg because I tend to eat 2 meals per day when I work. And I did that job for almost half a year, so lose 2kg this way, reasonable right? :) After that, behind these 2 stations is the checkup on blood pressure. Then I go into a room which is the urine test. I don't want to update the details here, a bit.......*ahem*......haha. If you want to know, come ask me. I moved on to another space in that room for x-ray. Also, details are censored here. Haha. After that, I had a consultation with a doctor, same, details censored here. And that's the checkup I had at the NUS medical centre.
Then, I made my way down to bugis, since is still very early and I didn't eat anything since I came out that morning, I had my breakfast at MacDonald. Finally, I can have my breakfast deluxe after soooooooo loooooong! Love the HOTCAKES and SCRAMBLED EGGS!
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| Breakfast Deluxe |
 |
| See? Only hotcakes and scrambled eggs are coloured. |
Late post
Before I leave my company, Shunyu and I had dinner with michelle and evelyn at the Skinny Pizza. The pizzas there are really skinny and the flavours are really unique and nice! The desserts there are also VERY delicious. I forgot the name of the dessert, but I remember we had chocolate fudge cake and banana cake. Something like that. The chocolate cake is warmed up, it melts immediately when it's in your mouth, I love it! For the banana cake, it is special as it goes with salted popcorn. Cool right? It's my first time eating cake with popcorn. The taste is really unique. Skinny Pizza is definitely a place for good food but not a place to chat. The place is really crowded and noisy so is very difficult to hear and have a conversation. I didn't take photos of the food cause really busy eating.....oh and the restaurant is very cosy, maybe because of the small tables they used. The printings on the wall are of vintage style.....I like!
Michelle gave shunyu, tzumi and I each a present. I passed the present to tzumi since michelle cannot pass it to her in person. The present is really an expensive one. It's parker pen. I got mine in yellow, tzumi's in pink of course, shunyu's in purple I think. It's my first parker pen.
I can buy refill for this pen thus means that I can use this pen for a loooooooooong time......:)
It's been about 3 weeks since I last see michelle. I'm meeting her later for dinner with shunyu, definitely will have a fun time. Excited! :)
I'm going for orientation camp next wednesday, all the way till saturday. I'm excited but at the same time worried. I'm worried that I can't fit in and cannot mix well with my OG mates. I always have difficulties making friends. I need a longer time to make friends. By the time I am warmed up, the others already are much closer. Hais.....hope everything will be ok......Mixed feeling....shunyu just came back from camp and she had a lot of fun. For her camp, there is a section of girls and guys coming together for interaction. She warned me about it. I myself saw some photos of that kind of activity during the camp briefing yesterday.OH NO.....shihui, please be open and not be 'sua ku'. -.- yes, shihui, step out of your comfort zone and start to OPEN up. You can do it, yes you can.....*sigh* T.T JIAYOU!
Michelle gave shunyu, tzumi and I each a present. I passed the present to tzumi since michelle cannot pass it to her in person. The present is really an expensive one. It's parker pen. I got mine in yellow, tzumi's in pink of course, shunyu's in purple I think. It's my first parker pen.
 |
| Spot my name..... |
 |
| Can see now? |
 |
| It's YELLOW! |
 |
| This is the first thing I wrote with the pen. |
It's been about 3 weeks since I last see michelle. I'm meeting her later for dinner with shunyu, definitely will have a fun time. Excited! :)
I'm going for orientation camp next wednesday, all the way till saturday. I'm excited but at the same time worried. I'm worried that I can't fit in and cannot mix well with my OG mates. I always have difficulties making friends. I need a longer time to make friends. By the time I am warmed up, the others already are much closer. Hais.....hope everything will be ok......Mixed feeling....shunyu just came back from camp and she had a lot of fun. For her camp, there is a section of girls and guys coming together for interaction. She warned me about it. I myself saw some photos of that kind of activity during the camp briefing yesterday.OH NO.....shihui, please be open and not be 'sua ku'. -.- yes, shihui, step out of your comfort zone and start to OPEN up. You can do it, yes you can.....*sigh* T.T JIAYOU!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Back from Taiwan
I had a great time in Taiwan. This trip to Taiwan should be the best overseas trip in my entire 19 years of life up till now. Firstly, no restrictions as we got to plan where to go, what to eat, what time to go and leave. Next, I'm with my friends, no adults, so got to be independent and learn to look out for each other. Lastly, I made a new friend, shinfen, tzumi's primary school friend. I didn't expect we turned out quite well, became much closer after the trip. Because from past experience, I didn't become closer with my roommates when I go overseas but this time round is different, maybe is because of the activities we had. We can have much more fun, exciting and interesting activities as compared those planned during school trips, maybe that's why.
There's really a lot of differences between Singapore and Taiwan.
1) Use of toilet. In Singapore, we just throw used toilet papers into the toilet bowls and flushed it but in Taiwan, we cannot do that as it might clog up the pipes. There will definitely be a dustbin in the cubicle, so we will have to throw used toilet papers into it. But one good thing about their toilets, for those in shopping malls or places that are quite advanced, they still provide toilet seats covers in every cubicle for us to use. This is very thoughtful for them, at the same time, they can keep the seat clean too, though is a waste of paper.....
2) Use of escalator. In Singapore, we need to stand on the left and leave the right free, but in Taiwan, it's the opposite. We need to stand on the right and leave the left free. The first few days we kept standing on the left but after we got used to it. Now back in Singapore, I am too used to standing on the right and made that mistake about 4 times in just one day. I constantly remind myself to stand on the left and not the right. It's better now.
3) Public buses. In Taiwan, on buses, strictly NO STANDING, for those buses with one door. For those with two doors, like those seen in Singapore, standing is allowed. The bus driver will count the number of passengers and stop the next person from tapping their card when the bus is full. Hence, need to depend on your luck. There is no way we can cut the queue like in Singapore because no one do that in Taiwan. Everyone, yes I mean it, everyone line up orderly at the bus stop no matter how long is the queue. Also, each bus has a queue, so better ask double check with the people around you to make sure you are at the right queue for the bus you want to board.
The payment for bus ticket is also very different. You need to tap once when we board. If you go on highway, you need to tap another time when you alight, if not, there is no need to. So actually, they don't go by distance for the tickets. If you don't have ezlink card, can pay by cash and the bus driver will give you the ticket. The ticket is made of plastic, so can reuse it. So, you just need to pass the ticket back to the driver when you alight. Environment friendly!
The buses there are all very comfortable. Their public buses in taipei, especially those with just one door, they are just like traveling coaches. The air-con there are blasting away and the seats are very comfy. Btw, if you are wondering, those with just one door, yes, they board and alight with the same door, so need to wait till all alighting passengers to alight before you can board.
4) MRT. They have a lot of priority seats and normally are empty as not much people will dare to sit that seat. Other than queuing orderly for buses, they do that for MRT and trains too. It's quite impressive to see the queues to be so orderly and most people won't squeeze like we did in Singapore. This should be encouraged, so we don't depend on luck to be on the train or bus, instead should be on first-come-first-serve basis. Better right? But of course, the pace in Singapore maybe faster than in Taiwan so singaporeans need to squeeze? Or maybe, Taiwan is really big, most people travel by cars or scooters, so not much of public transport.
5) Scooters. On the road in Taiwan, I hardly see those motorcycles I seen in Singapore. Instead, the opposite again. The hardly seen scooters in Singapore is well-liked by Taiwanese. Almost every household has one scooter. Throughout the 12 days in Taiwan, I only saw 2 motorcycles, one in taipei and one in taizhong.
6) Everything is upsized in Taiwan! There are some things commonly found in Taiwan and Singapore. Same thing but different size, Taiwan's will SO MUCH BIGGER than in Singapore.
-McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks in Taiwan a lot are 2 or 3 levels high.
-Taiwanese love dogs. They have really small and cute dogs, at the same time, have really BIG and ferocious looking dogs. Btw, their love for dogs is till the extend that they bring them on the street for shopping, together with them at work for the stall owner be it food or clothing stalls. How they keep their dogs? For small ones, they just them in their hand carry bags, with their head popping out. For those much bigger ones, if they go on street, most owners also won't chain them, just let them move freely. This also impressed me as their dogs are really obedient and don't really bark, even when strangers are near them.
-Bottled drinks sold in supermarkets. The standard packaging for coke etc are either 500ml/600ml or 1litre/1.5litre right? They have those 2litres packaging. Not a few brands, but for most?
-Drinks sold in night market. Such takeaway drinks in Singapore are of standard cup too, but in Taiwan, a lot of stalls do sell them in 900ml and even in 1 litre. The price? CHEAP! So since we travel in group of 4, we normally buy one 1 litre cup and share. CHEAP AND NICE! The 1 litre cup is as big as a head, I have a photo at my facebook as evidence.
7) Direction of traffic on road. Again, is opposite. So whenever you cross the road in Taiwan, must be very careful. Look LEFT instead of RIGHT first. For me, first time crossing their road, I looked right and thought no car, once I looked at my left, suddenly cars and scooters are zooming right in front of me. Scary!
8) Zebra crossing is redundant. Do not be surprised if motorists don't stop in front of zebra crossing for you to cross in Taiwan. They have another purpose for the zebra crossing-liked pavement. Their purpose is to highlight the pave on the road which the pedestrian should be on when crossing the road. -.-
9) Supermarkets. Maybe is their way of life or the place I stayed in was not in the city, the supermarket I went is so EMPTY. Be it in the day or night. Not much people, really. To what extend? The staffs there are so few that the cashiers can leave the cashiering area and go stock up the stocks. They just leave the cashiering machine there like that! When people wants to pay they then make their way there. This proves how empty the supermarket is. Furthermore, the place is big, don't know how they manage like that. Worst still, is open 24 hours.
When you go buy groceries at supermarkets in Taiwan, remember to bring recycling bag, plastic bags, empty backpacks or anything that you can use to put your groceries. The reason is because everyday in Taiwan, it's 'Bring your own bag day'. If you need them to provide you with plastic bags, you will have to pay. I'm not quite sure how they charge and how much they charge for the plastic bags though.
10) Garbage van. In Taiwan, they do not have a personal garbage chute like in Singapore to throw their garbage. They will have to accumulate their garbage and at around 6-7pm, the garbage van will come by the neighbourhood to collect the garbage from each household. A song will be played loudly, so that each household knows that the garbage van is coming. They will have to come down to pass their garbage. If they miss it, I think will have to wait till tomorrow.
Also, in Taiwan, they sort their rubbish into recyclable and non-recycable. Sometimes, even to specific materials they are made of like glass, paper and plastic. At home, each household also sort their rubbish. This act is really good and I think should be encouraged. This makes the recycling process much easier, don't you think?
11) Salesman and Saleswomen. Whenever I stepped into a shop in Taiwan, be it retail, food or boutique the sales person will definitely greet me when a bright voice loudly with a smile. This makes me feel very welcome. They are also very friendly. They won't mind you trying their food or clothes even if you don't have the intention to buy. They won't show face if you didn't buy their products in the end. They will still thank you in return. I really like the way they treat customers, so friendly! Over there, I am more daring to take samples from them as compared when I am in Singapore.
12) Changing rooms in shopping areas. Normally, once we thought of changing rooms in shopping areas, we will imagine a cubicle with a door which at most has an opening at the top and inside there will be a mirror right? But in Taiwan, don't expect that, especially those 'THIS FASHION'-liked shops. Why? Their changing room is quite different. Yes, they have cubicle too, but the door has 2 openings, on the top and bottom. So when you are changing, people outside can see your legs moving at the bottom and even hands at the top when you remove a top. Worst thing, they DON'T have a mirror IN the cubicle. So where is it? How are you going to see if you look okay in the outfit? You will have to COME OUT of the cubicle, yes, OUT, and stand in front of the door of the cubicle. Yes, you maybe have guessed correctly, the mirror is OUTSIDE, ON THE DOOR. So people queuing can look at you in your outfit and see you looking into the mirror. Stupid right? Whenever you change one outift, you will need to open the door and close it again when you need to change. I think their reason is to make sure no one takes photos. But I am sure most are not like that, only those 'THIS FASHION'-liked shops.
Though this trip is more of an adventure than vacation/holiday, I still think is worth it! I tried lots of new stuff be it food, activities etc. This is my first time going overseas without my parents and fully pay all the expenses, hope there are more to come in the future.
There's really a lot of differences between Singapore and Taiwan.
1) Use of toilet. In Singapore, we just throw used toilet papers into the toilet bowls and flushed it but in Taiwan, we cannot do that as it might clog up the pipes. There will definitely be a dustbin in the cubicle, so we will have to throw used toilet papers into it. But one good thing about their toilets, for those in shopping malls or places that are quite advanced, they still provide toilet seats covers in every cubicle for us to use. This is very thoughtful for them, at the same time, they can keep the seat clean too, though is a waste of paper.....
2) Use of escalator. In Singapore, we need to stand on the left and leave the right free, but in Taiwan, it's the opposite. We need to stand on the right and leave the left free. The first few days we kept standing on the left but after we got used to it. Now back in Singapore, I am too used to standing on the right and made that mistake about 4 times in just one day. I constantly remind myself to stand on the left and not the right. It's better now.
3) Public buses. In Taiwan, on buses, strictly NO STANDING, for those buses with one door. For those with two doors, like those seen in Singapore, standing is allowed. The bus driver will count the number of passengers and stop the next person from tapping their card when the bus is full. Hence, need to depend on your luck. There is no way we can cut the queue like in Singapore because no one do that in Taiwan. Everyone, yes I mean it, everyone line up orderly at the bus stop no matter how long is the queue. Also, each bus has a queue, so better ask double check with the people around you to make sure you are at the right queue for the bus you want to board.
The payment for bus ticket is also very different. You need to tap once when we board. If you go on highway, you need to tap another time when you alight, if not, there is no need to. So actually, they don't go by distance for the tickets. If you don't have ezlink card, can pay by cash and the bus driver will give you the ticket. The ticket is made of plastic, so can reuse it. So, you just need to pass the ticket back to the driver when you alight. Environment friendly!
The buses there are all very comfortable. Their public buses in taipei, especially those with just one door, they are just like traveling coaches. The air-con there are blasting away and the seats are very comfy. Btw, if you are wondering, those with just one door, yes, they board and alight with the same door, so need to wait till all alighting passengers to alight before you can board.
4) MRT. They have a lot of priority seats and normally are empty as not much people will dare to sit that seat. Other than queuing orderly for buses, they do that for MRT and trains too. It's quite impressive to see the queues to be so orderly and most people won't squeeze like we did in Singapore. This should be encouraged, so we don't depend on luck to be on the train or bus, instead should be on first-come-first-serve basis. Better right? But of course, the pace in Singapore maybe faster than in Taiwan so singaporeans need to squeeze? Or maybe, Taiwan is really big, most people travel by cars or scooters, so not much of public transport.
5) Scooters. On the road in Taiwan, I hardly see those motorcycles I seen in Singapore. Instead, the opposite again. The hardly seen scooters in Singapore is well-liked by Taiwanese. Almost every household has one scooter. Throughout the 12 days in Taiwan, I only saw 2 motorcycles, one in taipei and one in taizhong.
6) Everything is upsized in Taiwan! There are some things commonly found in Taiwan and Singapore. Same thing but different size, Taiwan's will SO MUCH BIGGER than in Singapore.
-McDonalds, KFC, Starbucks in Taiwan a lot are 2 or 3 levels high.
-Taiwanese love dogs. They have really small and cute dogs, at the same time, have really BIG and ferocious looking dogs. Btw, their love for dogs is till the extend that they bring them on the street for shopping, together with them at work for the stall owner be it food or clothing stalls. How they keep their dogs? For small ones, they just them in their hand carry bags, with their head popping out. For those much bigger ones, if they go on street, most owners also won't chain them, just let them move freely. This also impressed me as their dogs are really obedient and don't really bark, even when strangers are near them.
-Bottled drinks sold in supermarkets. The standard packaging for coke etc are either 500ml/600ml or 1litre/1.5litre right? They have those 2litres packaging. Not a few brands, but for most?
-Drinks sold in night market. Such takeaway drinks in Singapore are of standard cup too, but in Taiwan, a lot of stalls do sell them in 900ml and even in 1 litre. The price? CHEAP! So since we travel in group of 4, we normally buy one 1 litre cup and share. CHEAP AND NICE! The 1 litre cup is as big as a head, I have a photo at my facebook as evidence.
7) Direction of traffic on road. Again, is opposite. So whenever you cross the road in Taiwan, must be very careful. Look LEFT instead of RIGHT first. For me, first time crossing their road, I looked right and thought no car, once I looked at my left, suddenly cars and scooters are zooming right in front of me. Scary!
8) Zebra crossing is redundant. Do not be surprised if motorists don't stop in front of zebra crossing for you to cross in Taiwan. They have another purpose for the zebra crossing-liked pavement. Their purpose is to highlight the pave on the road which the pedestrian should be on when crossing the road. -.-
9) Supermarkets. Maybe is their way of life or the place I stayed in was not in the city, the supermarket I went is so EMPTY. Be it in the day or night. Not much people, really. To what extend? The staffs there are so few that the cashiers can leave the cashiering area and go stock up the stocks. They just leave the cashiering machine there like that! When people wants to pay they then make their way there. This proves how empty the supermarket is. Furthermore, the place is big, don't know how they manage like that. Worst still, is open 24 hours.
When you go buy groceries at supermarkets in Taiwan, remember to bring recycling bag, plastic bags, empty backpacks or anything that you can use to put your groceries. The reason is because everyday in Taiwan, it's 'Bring your own bag day'. If you need them to provide you with plastic bags, you will have to pay. I'm not quite sure how they charge and how much they charge for the plastic bags though.
10) Garbage van. In Taiwan, they do not have a personal garbage chute like in Singapore to throw their garbage. They will have to accumulate their garbage and at around 6-7pm, the garbage van will come by the neighbourhood to collect the garbage from each household. A song will be played loudly, so that each household knows that the garbage van is coming. They will have to come down to pass their garbage. If they miss it, I think will have to wait till tomorrow.
Also, in Taiwan, they sort their rubbish into recyclable and non-recycable. Sometimes, even to specific materials they are made of like glass, paper and plastic. At home, each household also sort their rubbish. This act is really good and I think should be encouraged. This makes the recycling process much easier, don't you think?
11) Salesman and Saleswomen. Whenever I stepped into a shop in Taiwan, be it retail, food or boutique the sales person will definitely greet me when a bright voice loudly with a smile. This makes me feel very welcome. They are also very friendly. They won't mind you trying their food or clothes even if you don't have the intention to buy. They won't show face if you didn't buy their products in the end. They will still thank you in return. I really like the way they treat customers, so friendly! Over there, I am more daring to take samples from them as compared when I am in Singapore.
12) Changing rooms in shopping areas. Normally, once we thought of changing rooms in shopping areas, we will imagine a cubicle with a door which at most has an opening at the top and inside there will be a mirror right? But in Taiwan, don't expect that, especially those 'THIS FASHION'-liked shops. Why? Their changing room is quite different. Yes, they have cubicle too, but the door has 2 openings, on the top and bottom. So when you are changing, people outside can see your legs moving at the bottom and even hands at the top when you remove a top. Worst thing, they DON'T have a mirror IN the cubicle. So where is it? How are you going to see if you look okay in the outfit? You will have to COME OUT of the cubicle, yes, OUT, and stand in front of the door of the cubicle. Yes, you maybe have guessed correctly, the mirror is OUTSIDE, ON THE DOOR. So people queuing can look at you in your outfit and see you looking into the mirror. Stupid right? Whenever you change one outift, you will need to open the door and close it again when you need to change. I think their reason is to make sure no one takes photos. But I am sure most are not like that, only those 'THIS FASHION'-liked shops.
Though this trip is more of an adventure than vacation/holiday, I still think is worth it! I tried lots of new stuff be it food, activities etc. This is my first time going overseas without my parents and fully pay all the expenses, hope there are more to come in the future.
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