Wednesday 23 April 2008

after all, it's supposedly the eighth wonder of the world
shangren's got more stamina than i thought, haha!




acting as zombies in the tomb of 武则天 (wu3 ze2 tian1)'s son,
paul's Very Lame idea which i took to immediately.
and i believe shangren's surprised that we haven't been struck dead by lightning yet


this is the place you see in those documentaries about terracotta warriors
i popped into the photo at the last moment to save myself (and shangren) the trouble of posing again, and do check out paul's Very Cool faux leather jacket


from our very first trip to chengde, that's me blowing freshly fried chou doufu, that's kuek foo stealing a piece, and that's jinni and xiaoyun debating whether a box of it is worth enduring the smell for (it is)

***
i had an Utterly Miserable Homesick Like Anything Can Die day. it started out with me talking to adele on skype, which i thought would make my day, but it grew progressively worse - just because. i was walking along, alone, listening to faye wong and a*mei, on my way to the public security bureau to settle problems which my visa decided to give me when i wanted to just squat down by the side of the pavement and cry.

but i shook myself and collected my passport with my renewed visa, only to find out that they only gave me until july 1 in china when the school administration had requested for july 10.

earphones plugged in, i managed to make it back to the subway station and thankfully got a seat on the train.

i got off the train and held my hands to my face and blinked back the tears and tried to stop feeling like my heart was going to break any moment because i wasn't back in singapore; i suddenly felt sick and tired and exhausted by the sheer number of people and cars on the streets everyday, everywhere. went to my favourite supermarket only to be stopped from entering by the security guard because i was holding a box of olympic mascots which i'd purchased for cherissa, and i had no idea why he stopped me from going in, no idea at all. and then i got stopped on the way out by the lady manning the olympic goods counter and was accused of not paying because she didn't tell me to go back and give her the receipt after paying so of course i didn't.

i ended up going to another nearby supermarket in a capitaland mall, which still didn't make me feel like i was in singapore, and then i walked home with my purchases and sat down on a bench on the way because i was so overcome by sadness that i couldn't breathe. and i looked at the sunshine coming down through the trees and thought about how kuek foo had (very grudgingly) let me ride his bicycle down that street and how thrilled i'd felt once i'd overcome my fear of being part of the noisy mess, the mass of traffic that is that street leading to 五道口.

i felt vaguely better, and came home to xiaoyun placidly eating potato chips in front of the television and a four-stick pack of dark chocolate kit kat which she'd bought to replace the one she'd accidentally squashed on our trip to xi'an.

now i'm sitting on my bed telling you about my day and i'm going to curl up under my quilt and hopefully i'll go on feeling better.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go." (Joshua 1:9)

- CY :)