Autumn's arrival

liquid amber is dripping from the IV drip. Drip drip drip. Drop by drop, dripping into the veins of the afflicted leaves.

Someone tampered with the IV drip. Poor leaves. Poisoned in such a glorious fashion.

How autum came

Autumn came swift, startling, sudden,

and sent our meager metal constructs topsy turvey twirling.

I want to be a meandering river of magenta tipped leaves, endlessly flowing alongside a rigid brick wall.

Can you hear it? The ceaseless sigh of the leaves as they lap at each other.

That particular feeling

Have you ever experienced that particular feeling?

The sheer ecstasy of whizzing past old chinese buildings, on a street lined with wutongs. The wind in your hair, the sore muscles in your legs protesting their sacrifice for the little person in your head that just wants to go FASTER! FASTER! FASTER! The smug feeling as you fly past shocked chinese people, weave round clusters of koreans with leather backpacks swaying gently in the teeny tiny breeze their apalling speed generates...

ITS AWESOME! Especially on Fridays... after your last class at 3.15 in the afternoon. You SPEED back to your wonderful fake wood air-conditioned room, shower off all the sweat generated by the awful chinese summer and JUMP into your unfortunately... too hard bed. Hahaha! BLISSSSSSS

TRY IT!

Why do Asians group together?

Why do Asians group together:

-We have the same moral standards. (Higher)
-We don't strip and grind atop stages in porn-like fashion...inducing fascinated Chinese passer-bys to peep in and stare enthusiastically.
-We have good clean fun.
-Our priorities are not dominated by that of the flesh.
-We understand each other. (Think its a culture thing)

How did i derive that? Our very own Fudan international student party. Highly amusing really. I will not go into the details for fear of stereotyping.

Life here is getting overly dry. Monday looms with gloom and doom.

I know him by heart-Vonda Shepard

There's a secret path I follow
To a place no one can find
Where I meet my perfect someone
I've kept hidden in my mind
Where my heart makes my decisions
'Till my dream becomes a vision
And the love I feel
Makes him real someday

'Cause I know he's out there somewhere
Just beyond my reach
Though I've never really touched him
Or ever heard him speak
Though we've never been together
We've never been apart
No we've never met
Haven't found him yet
But I know him by heart

Am I living in an illusion?
Wanting something I can't see
If I compromise, I'd be living lies
Pretending love's not meant to be
'Cause I know my heart's worth saving
And I know that he'll be waiting
So I'll hold on and I'll stay strong 'till then

'Cause I know he's out there somewhere
Just beyond my reach
Though I've never really touched him
Or ever heard him speak
Though we've never been together
We've never been apart

No we've never met
Haven't found him yet
But I know him by heart
No we've never met
Haven't found him yet
But I know him by heart

I know someone who survived on this... Amazingly delusional yet so helplessly charmingly.

昨日的回忆

人生如梦，昨日恍如隔世，却近在眼前。
回顾自己的过去，命运的安排真是个迷。

不断地在昨日的回忆中往返是多愁善感的做法。
我不愿意，
却身不由己，无可奈何的陷入过去的污泥中。

命运的拨弄。
人生的离离和和。

几时才能从我的脑海里革除？

Attention Flyer Distributers

Come to China! :)

Instead of standing for hours under the burning sun, trying to get disgruntled, work weary, uninterested passerbys to take those feeble pieces of paper from your hands, just COME TO CHINA!

Dump your pieces of paper in the basket of every cyclist that passes you by! Fast, quick and efficient. Soon, you'll be enjoying a delicious cup of milk tea with your fellow flyer distributors at a quaint little chinese cafe.

*Warning! Good aim and a fast pair of hands needed!

Shanghai

Blogger is not blocked in Shanghai. Apparently, the great firewall of China is thicker in some areas and much thinner in the others. Its brilliant. Live journal is blocked though... and so is watchtvsitcoms.com... So grace, i can't read your blog. :(

This entry will mark the end of my first 2 weeks in Shanghai. Honestly, it feels as if I've been living here forever. My amateur-ly sore butt and aching leg muscles when i ride, remind me otherwise. Perhaps the people here develop calluses on their nether regions to protect themselves from the onslaught of ridiculously hard bicycle seats, classroom chairs, study chairs... well anything that was built for its comfort anyway... Awfully ironic.

Life here is really different. The culture, the people... the way things are done. In Singapore, you request and expect that things will be done for you. Here you cajole, smile, beg, and when all things fail, throw some form of authority over them (think embassy, professors etc...) Thats why what the chinese term as 关系 is so terribly important. I'm obviously not adept at it yet as my requests have not been met. :(

Culture differences aside, living here, studying here is like entering a whole new world, never before seen and experienced. Insanely narrow long wooden tables with attached wooden chairs (So narrow that if someone in the row wants to get out, everyone has to exit the row before the person can disgracefully squeeze his/her way out), Chalk boards... yep they still use them! Even in the top universities of China! Glass windows with green frames, better yet! Studying in old chinese buildings-toilets... Long indentation in the ground separated by cubicle walls, the pee of your fellow classmate behind the cubicle will flow towards "your" part of the indentation. OH! and with chinese people around, singaporeans don't deserve the "KIASU" title. The mad rush to get from teaching building to teaching building in the enormous campus ignites a mad whoosh! of crazed bicyclists, pedestrians and bottle necks! (This phenomenon must be explained... If you don't get to class 30mins before it starts, you are stuck with the last row... far far far away from the source of vital information, doomed to be forgotten, lost forever from the heater in winter and your brilliant As). Eating in the school canteen... :):):) Prisoner metal trays, with extremely oily and salty lumps gracefully dumped in its respective partitions. (5 rmb meal) Chinese students left right centre, wolfing their food down voraciously and speedily... TO GET TO CLASS BEFORE YOU! hahahaha! Studying in China rocks! I mean it. Its an experience that has brought me much pain (Chinese administration) yet so much delight. The charms of China are unique.

I'll post some photos up soon. Such delights must be seen and not only read.

I have material possessions to my name now. A fridge, a water dispenser, an iron, many chinese textbooks, and my electronic equipment. :) The first three were scavenged! YAY!

I will end this immensely erratic post, for how can you describe your life?... and go cut my hair at a KOREAN hair dresser.