For one day, we took a break from taiqi and chinese lessons to visit the city of Beijing. We got up early in the morning and headed to the Forbidden city.

Apparently, the forbidden city is the biggest and most well preserved imperial palace in the world. I was like isn't it the only imperial palace in the world? Anyway a tour guide was bringing us around and he was speaking in mandarin so we obviously didnt bother about the tour. Instead, we whipped out our cameras and started photowhoring. We took pictures of different poses and positions at every building we went to, which in my opinion, all look the same. Here are some fun shots we did.






We then head over to the Urban Planning Museum or whatever you call it, where they showed us how beijing city was structured and how they built up really cool buildings and the new airport for the olympics. Which brings me to the topic of how on earth are they going to clear the polution?! You guys should see the situation in Beijing... the place look so foggy, but its not fog! Its POLUTION! The air is so bad, i don't see how athletes are going to survive. I think if i run about 400 metres, i will start gacking. Another round and i will suffocate to death. And the photos they took to advertise the olympics like the new stadium? Blue skies? omg.. the power of photoshop... I won't be surprised if more people pull out from the games.

After dinner, we watched a kungfu show which was good in terms of the kungfu performance but horrible in terms of storyline. It was about a boy who joined the temple to learn kungfu. He became really strong and then took over the temple as the new abbot. End of story. I was like omg... you gota be kidding me... They should have skipped the story line and just show us the kungfu moves. I was trying really hard to stay awake because they kept playing this really soothing music which was really hypnotic. Not to mention we were beat from walking around the palace and the museum.

On our way back to the school, i was making fun of nikki(my new best friend) because she fell asleep during the show.

This was how the conversation went.
Nikki: The show was really good but i was just too tired... but i enjoyed it though. Just wish i could have stayed awake. Anyway, did the main character turn good again

Me: umm since when did the main character turn bad?

Nikki: He did! That's why the back drop was all red and stuff.

Rex(some guy from SMU): No he didn't...

(silence for 2 seconds)

And we all burst into laughter. We laughed so hard, the entire bus was staring at us. Nikki... Fact number one about her: She is pretty blur... she is a blonde stuck in an asean body...

So anyway, the centre of Beijing City is really boring... Its just that palace and a few restaurants... like a FEW. I thought it would be like filled with restaurants and cafes and starbucks. It was sooo boring. So disappointed with Beijing.
Signing out - 7/03/2008 10:51:00 PM

I know many of you have been praying for me. Like "Oh God, please prevent derrick from killing himself in Beijing." or "May he be able to survive in the land of chinese." Thank you so much for your prayers, but guess what? Im doing really really well here.

You heard me right. I am totally enjoying my time here. Ever since i got to the school on sunday, i have made about 20 new friends from all over the world. There are people from the states, Hongkong, Indonesia, France and even Singapore. And we are having a great time together, whether it is exploring to the place to find good food to eat or enduring the chinese classes together. And these people are smart people... like real smart...

For example, im rooming with a korean guy from PRINCETON. In case you don't know, princeton is just the best university in the world. No big deal. And he is pretty cool.




And there is another girl heading to Columbia University this fall. oh well... at least they know about nyu stern...

Oh and i made a new best friend. Her name is Nikki and she is from Georgia, USA. We totally click since day one.



The course has been really fun so far. On day one, we were given a test to determine how good we were in chinese. We had to say out loud the chinese alphabet thingy, whatever its called, and read some words and sentences. Obviously i didn't do too well with my chinese garnish with a lil american accent. You see, i cant really speak chinese well, but my vocab and writing is pretty good, if i may say so myself.

Chinese lessons were not very fun though... The first lesson was about the history and culture of China. For 3 hours, the professor droned on about the dynasties that existed in china for the last 4000 years, and giving a little detail for each dynasty. He then went on about the culture and the literature and stuff. Honestly, i wasn't really listening. I was trying to fight the Z monster the entire time. I have zero interest in History, let alone CHINA history. Not to mention he was speaking in english so he pronounced words like "darn-nasty" and i couldn't really understand him half the time.

Then we had our actual lesson. Our teacher is creepy... It's this old dude who has PERFECT pitch and tone for every word. He is so perfect, he sounds like the guy who reads to us the text for our listening comprehension in national exams. And he is so strict... he demands we all pronounce our words perfectly and he will keep making us say the word until we get it right. Not to mention we had to do TONGUE TWISTERS... omg... si shi si shi bu shi si ma...

On some mornings, we have shadow boxing lessons aka taiqi. When i first saw the programme of the course and saw shadow boxing, i was like omg... you got to be kidding me... I knew i was just going to burst out laughing the moment we start. And i was not wrong... i couldn't help myself... i had to try really hard to suppress my laughter. And after 5 minutes, i got myself together and decided to get into it. And you know what, it wasn't that bad. It was actually pretty interesting if you visualise yourself doing some kungfu moves. In the end, we all really had fun.

Just thinking about the last few days, i realised something. China/Beijing isn't exactly a great place. Singapore is much more fun... and Tsinghua university isn't that impressive looking. It look somewhat like NUS. But the company i have has made the time really really fun. And i am truly enjoying myself. This is kinda like a sneak preview into college life, and im loving it. I can't wait to get to NYU Stern in end August. I am so going to have a great time in New York City.
Signing out - 7/02/2008 10:08:00 PM

ok its pretty late and i have to wake up at an insane time of 730am tomorrow so we can go for some city tour at 8am so im going to just give you guys a quick update before updating tomorrow when i get more time.

I reached Tsing Hua University in Beijing safely. ITS BEIJING. That's to Calyn who has got it wrong for the 100th time. I think she is trying to get back at me for purposely calling her name wrongly all the time.

Chinese lessons have started and they aren't exactly fun at all... I had my first Taiqi lesson this morning... TAIQI... will talk more abt it on the next post. The food is terrible compared to Singapore. Everything is like flooded in oil and they don't exactly taste good even with that much oil.

Oh well but overall, im seriously having a great time here. The people im studying chinese with are so much fun to be around sooooo... will tell you guys more tmr!
Signing out - 7/02/2008 12:42:00 AM

For one day, we took a break from taiqi and chinese lessons to visit the city of Beijing. We got up early in the morning and headed to the Forbidden city.

Apparently, the forbidden city is the biggest and most well preserved imperial palace in the world. I was like isn't it the only imperial palace in the world? Anyway a tour guide was bringing us around and he was speaking in mandarin so we obviously didnt bother about the tour. Instead, we whipped out our cameras and started photowhoring. We took pictures of different poses and positions at every building we went to, which in my opinion, all look the same. Here are some fun shots we did.






We then head over to the Urban Planning Museum or whatever you call it, where they showed us how beijing city was structured and how they built up really cool buildings and the new airport for the olympics. Which brings me to the topic of how on earth are they going to clear the polution?! You guys should see the situation in Beijing... the place look so foggy, but its not fog! Its POLUTION! The air is so bad, i don't see how athletes are going to survive. I think if i run about 400 metres, i will start gacking. Another round and i will suffocate to death. And the photos they took to advertise the olympics like the new stadium? Blue skies? omg.. the power of photoshop... I won't be surprised if more people pull out from the games.

After dinner, we watched a kungfu show which was good in terms of the kungfu performance but horrible in terms of storyline. It was about a boy who joined the temple to learn kungfu. He became really strong and then took over the temple as the new abbot. End of story. I was like omg... you gota be kidding me... They should have skipped the story line and just show us the kungfu moves. I was trying really hard to stay awake because they kept playing this really soothing music which was really hypnotic. Not to mention we were beat from walking around the palace and the museum.

On our way back to the school, i was making fun of nikki(my new best friend) because she fell asleep during the show.

This was how the conversation went.
Nikki: The show was really good but i was just too tired... but i enjoyed it though. Just wish i could have stayed awake. Anyway, did the main character turn good again

Me: umm since when did the main character turn bad?

Nikki: He did! That's why the back drop was all red and stuff.

Rex(some guy from SMU): No he didn't...

(silence for 2 seconds)

And we all burst into laughter. We laughed so hard, the entire bus was staring at us. Nikki... Fact number one about her: She is pretty blur... she is a blonde stuck in an asean body...

So anyway, the centre of Beijing City is really boring... Its just that palace and a few restaurants... like a FEW. I thought it would be like filled with restaurants and cafes and starbucks. It was sooo boring. So disappointed with Beijing.

I know many of you have been praying for me. Like "Oh God, please prevent derrick from killing himself in Beijing." or "May he be able to survive in the land of chinese." Thank you so much for your prayers, but guess what? Im doing really really well here.

You heard me right. I am totally enjoying my time here. Ever since i got to the school on sunday, i have made about 20 new friends from all over the world. There are people from the states, Hongkong, Indonesia, France and even Singapore. And we are having a great time together, whether it is exploring to the place to find good food to eat or enduring the chinese classes together. And these people are smart people... like real smart...

For example, im rooming with a korean guy from PRINCETON. In case you don't know, princeton is just the best university in the world. No big deal. And he is pretty cool.




And there is another girl heading to Columbia University this fall. oh well... at least they know about nyu stern...

Oh and i made a new best friend. Her name is Nikki and she is from Georgia, USA. We totally click since day one.



The course has been really fun so far. On day one, we were given a test to determine how good we were in chinese. We had to say out loud the chinese alphabet thingy, whatever its called, and read some words and sentences. Obviously i didn't do too well with my chinese garnish with a lil american accent. You see, i cant really speak chinese well, but my vocab and writing is pretty good, if i may say so myself.

Chinese lessons were not very fun though... The first lesson was about the history and culture of China. For 3 hours, the professor droned on about the dynasties that existed in china for the last 4000 years, and giving a little detail for each dynasty. He then went on about the culture and the literature and stuff. Honestly, i wasn't really listening. I was trying to fight the Z monster the entire time. I have zero interest in History, let alone CHINA history. Not to mention he was speaking in english so he pronounced words like "darn-nasty" and i couldn't really understand him half the time.

Then we had our actual lesson. Our teacher is creepy... It's this old dude who has PERFECT pitch and tone for every word. He is so perfect, he sounds like the guy who reads to us the text for our listening comprehension in national exams. And he is so strict... he demands we all pronounce our words perfectly and he will keep making us say the word until we get it right. Not to mention we had to do TONGUE TWISTERS... omg... si shi si shi bu shi si ma...

On some mornings, we have shadow boxing lessons aka taiqi. When i first saw the programme of the course and saw shadow boxing, i was like omg... you got to be kidding me... I knew i was just going to burst out laughing the moment we start. And i was not wrong... i couldn't help myself... i had to try really hard to suppress my laughter. And after 5 minutes, i got myself together and decided to get into it. And you know what, it wasn't that bad. It was actually pretty interesting if you visualise yourself doing some kungfu moves. In the end, we all really had fun.

Just thinking about the last few days, i realised something. China/Beijing isn't exactly a great place. Singapore is much more fun... and Tsinghua university isn't that impressive looking. It look somewhat like NUS. But the company i have has made the time really really fun. And i am truly enjoying myself. This is kinda like a sneak preview into college life, and im loving it. I can't wait to get to NYU Stern in end August. I am so going to have a great time in New York City.

ok its pretty late and i have to wake up at an insane time of 730am tomorrow so we can go for some city tour at 8am so im going to just give you guys a quick update before updating tomorrow when i get more time.

I reached Tsing Hua University in Beijing safely. ITS BEIJING. That's to Calyn who has got it wrong for the 100th time. I think she is trying to get back at me for purposely calling her name wrongly all the time.

Chinese lessons have started and they aren't exactly fun at all... I had my first Taiqi lesson this morning... TAIQI... will talk more abt it on the next post. The food is terrible compared to Singapore. Everything is like flooded in oil and they don't exactly taste good even with that much oil.

Oh well but overall, im seriously having a great time here. The people im studying chinese with are so much fun to be around sooooo... will tell you guys more tmr!