boo ya!!
i had a title for this post last night. i even thought about what i was going to say, but now all that's running through my head are the lyrics to ben folds' still fighting it. in particular, the bit which goes and everybody knows, it sucks to grow up.

the title of this post, therefore, is taken from words i saw printed on the shirt of the tiny boy i met in the lift on my way back home from buying fruits at the mini-mart downstairs. they were encased in a speech bubble, the words seemingly issuing from the mouth of multi-coloured giraffes and zebras.

okay, i'm not very sure what animals they were, but that's what they looked like.

it's been very pleasant the past few days in beijing, especially with jon being back in singapore and able to buy calling cards which give him 340 minutes to talk to me, for $10. two of our girlfriends from the university are also staying over for the weekend - and with that, i suddenly remember what i wanted to call this post!

happy dumpling festival! 粽子节快乐 （zong4 zi3 jie2 kuai4 le4)!

that's what our china friends have been referring to 端午节 (duan1 wu3 jie2) as, and that's also why our friends are staying over, because for one it's too far for her to travel home and everyone else in her hostel has gone home, for another, her parents have gone travelling so although she stays in beijing she's been locked out of her house.

it's been pleasant with them here, with jolie coming over too, and we've been sitting with our laptops on our laps, typing away at assignments and the like, sprawled over the sofas in the living room. chatting idly from time to time, napping, ordering take-away at mealtimes. the sun has been gracing us with his presence, and shines in a nice way through the wall-length living room windows.

i'll miss being an exchange student. i won't miss the whole being away from singapore thing, but just being a student elsewhere. is there a difference?

i decided to go for the international christian fellowship's serivce today, even though i'd dismissed it as being Annoying and Too Americanised sometime during the beginning of my stay in beijing. i'm really glad i did, actually, and although i'm slightly ashamed to admit it i think i'm going to be going back there for my last 3 sundays here. it was almost like being back home, somehow, and i felt terribly lonely as i walked out back into dusty beijing and a wall of spoken chinese.

delays

my parents and brother are stuck at the hong kong international airport because their flight from beijing got delayed; i came online to check out why but didn't get any answers. seems the flights coming in and out of beijing recently have been delayed, anyhow. they've been using the weather as an excuse, so i've heard - maybe it's foggy and cloudy way up there, although the actual rainfall in beijing has been apologetic, a token amount to make up for the lack of sun and the resulting chill.

and although my mother is still Rather Naggy, my father still Rather Dogmatic and my brother Rather Lame, i miss them already, and couldn't help but tear as their taxi pulled away from their hotel.

i can only imagine the earful she must be giving the airport staff in hong kong now. haha! oh mummy, what will i do with or without you.

i chanced across this picture though:


for a moment i couldn't for the life of me remember which year this was. and actually, i still can't. i think it was quentin's 19th birthday, or it might have been his 20th.

on that note, we met the man who made my brother's 中软 (zhong1 ruan3) so he could purchase another one. this man smoked like a chimney, as do so many of the mainland chinese men, and when my mother asked him why he would, he held out the hand where two fingers grasped his cigarette. making his hand go all wobbly and trembly, he said very matter of factly that people who smoked weren't as prone to alzheimer's, and did we ever see people who smoked with trembling hands (and by that extension, being forgetful?)?

she came up with the perfect retort later that night.

you never see smokers with alzheimer's because a great many of them don't live that long!

alright, not funny, and not necessarily true. but i'm 22 this year and i can't remember when it was that we celebrated quents' birthday at the food court in the botanic gardens. i do remember that amanda made a white chocolate cheesecake and there were strawberries on it. and in it. see, that's not so bad, right?

interesting fact of the day
if you brush your teeth - i use the tri-coloured colgate - and drink milo right after, you'll get a taste in your mouth that's exactly like warm mint-chocolate chip ice-cream or one of those fancy starbucks drinks with a name beginning with the words peppermint and chocolate. it works best with milo made from pure milo powder, not milo 3-in-1.

today i am going to attempt to overcome my fear of travelling in china by taking a bus with my parents to the nearby city of tianjin.

of tv

my parents and brother are in beijing until friday morning, which explains the dearth of posts. well, i stayed in today but that just means that i have Very Sadly finished watching seasons one and two of 30 rock. i started on gossip girl, and after 3 episodes and some wikipedia-ing of plot synopses, have decided that it is Not Worth My Time.

and dudes, chace crawford is awful. nevermind that he looks vaguely like zac efron and is therefore "good-looking," he can't act to save his life. though i must say he looks exactly like his character. weak-minded with no opinion of his own, poor-little-rich-boy trapped in a bubble and fighting to get out.

give me a break. also, the clothes aren't as nice as i thought they'd be.

i'm going to start the office tomorrow, as planned. i shouldn't have listened to those xoxo's floating around at the back of my mind, along with various exhortations that i watch it. it reminds me a little of popular, too. does anyone remember popular? whoever produces these shows/writes books of that ilk seems to like giving the poor-little-rich-miss-perfects one syllable names starting with b: there was brooke, now, blair.

anyhow, the office should keep me occupied in the breaks between my assignments - which i really must continue - until i get back to singapore. i can smell the extra vinegar in my bak chor mee already.

yay for steve carrell and shows which don't have Absolutely Preposterous Premises.