My daily retreat!

For those curious about my lodging here in Beijing, here's where I go home to everyday! It's a little untidy but I haven't had the time or energy to tidy up. Thank goodness I have a room to myself!

Fav photo!

This is my favourite Beijing photo thus far! Everything is right: pose, angle, lighting, proportion (in comparison to the huge ones!), tone!
Taken at Beijing's 798 Art District.

Chinese Pub in Sanlitun

And so I went out drinking with the whole bunch one night (now this is a very rare occasion coz this is the only time I joined them!). After loitering around the stretch of pubs along Sanlitun just to look for the Brits, we finally settled down for a beer at one of the overly crowded pubs. A couple of us got really bored and so headed off to this Chinese pub. The live band was really cool and the guy actually did a pretty convincing cover of Bon Jovi's "It's My Life".

Volunteer Ceremony

It's the swearing-in ceremony for the volunteers at the baseball and basketball venue. For the first time, we were all dressed in full Olympics gear! Doesn't this remind you of the National Day Parade in Singapore? Amidst the sobriety of the ceremony, the 3 of us still managed to sneak in a cheery shot. (That's Viola, Me, Vivian)

Tickets on sale!

As like any other day, I made my way to the Basketball stadium this afternoon!
Apparently the tickets for the basketball games go on sale this Saturday and check out who's been queuing already 3 days in advance! I heard black market tickets are going for 1000 yuan (originally 50yuan)!!!

A taste of home :P

And so, I have been away for nearly a month now. While I appreciate the opportunity to live the local Beijing life, I miss home.

After fighting through the aggressive crowd at the subway, I treated myself to a bowl of Chicken Laksa at our very own Prima Taste, Oriental Plaza, WangFuJing. It came with tender chicken slices and even the juicy taupok (which is a challenge to find in Brisbane).
I am happy now!

Latest fashion in work gear!

Look look! Here's what I am gonna be wearing for the next 5 weeks! Courtesy of Adidas: Super comfy dri-fit shirts, convertible trackpants, windbreaker, bumbag, water bottle and jogging shoes!

Us in Beijing!

There is just sooooo much happening every single day! I don't know where and how to start but here's us at a dinner place at Houhai, Beijing just today! So it's almost the whole lot of us in this photo (except for poor Joshie who's down with the sniffs!). Not a very coordinated shot coz we were supposed to NOT look into the camera??!!

Yummy in Shanghai!

And so we decided to have dinner in one Friday night, and look at this feast fit for 3 kings and a queen! For the record, we didn't finish up the whole lot... oh... I miss Shanghai!

More from Wukesong... coming to u live from Beijing!

And here's a look about my new workplace for the next 6 weeks - the Wukesong stadium. It's a huge site. It takes about 40 mins on the subway from my dormitory and another 15-20 minutes to walk from the entrance of the premises to the stadium itself. Good for shedding some pounds I suppose!
I really like the exterior of the stadium. It had an edgy touch to it, and the bronze look of the stadium looks gorgeous set against the clear blue skies (though it can be tough to see clear skies here!). This is the media entrance where we are supposed to enter from... looks kind of cool, doesn't it? It's all nice and clean now, but it's probably not going to stay that way once the games begin.

Labels

*Like I said earlier, it's gonna be random blogging*
Just when I thought 18 months in Brisbane has cleansed and detoxed me from the designer world, this trip in Hong Kong tugged a little at my old self.

I cannot imagine how impossible it was not to be consumed by this couture-clad city.
Even the 50something “auntie” (who curiously looked like the hair salon auntie in Toa Payoh) in the washroom wore a pair of Giorgio Armani frames as staple wear.

The Landmark at Central Station was oozing with multi-leveled designer boutiques namely Celine, Dior, Harvey Nichols, the newly overhauled Louis Vuitton, Jimmy Choo which I daringly tried on a pair of SGD800 slip-ons and possibly any other obscure labels you can/cannot think of!

I suddenly felt like I needed to spend my next paycheck (which will sadly be another 2 months later) on a pink Bottega Veneta phone purse and a pair of Ferragamo shoes. Even the usually auntie-looking Chanel bag looked so funky and classy when young hip working adults carried them.

Alrighty! Let's start slow... maybe start with a basic Coach handbag first?

Hello from Beijing!

Hello from Beijing!
I am so behind in blogging that I will just have to talk about things randomly.

It's been almost a week in this huge massive city... it's filled with billions of people and probably millions of cars! Preparations for the upcoming Olympics are in the final stages and the international volunteers are all undergoing training for their respective events.

I was allocated to basketball, which is so so cool! It turned out that I was the only international volunteer at the basketball venue, the Wukesong stadium (which also houses the baseball events on the outdoor wing). The stadium looks spectacular... and incidentally the Chinese team were training. I caught a glimpse of Yao Ming, but wasn't quick enough to snap a photo!

That's a photo with my supervisor. She actually handpainted the dragons on our T-shirts with our names on it. There are 2 other Americans with me (from Emerson). They are allocated to baseball... (I still prefer basketball! :D)


Being an international volunteer at the basketball venue, I do get treated really nicely. It feels strange though because the training materials was all in Mandarin. I am not all that competent in Mandarin and so I can't say I understood every single thing they said. Thank goodness there were a few girls who were really friendly and patient enough to take me under their guidance!

Here's a generic shot of the entire group in training today!

A month later

Gosh! Looking at my previous entry, I must have been mega-depressed!
I can't quite remember how that felt now coz time really does heal all wounds. I am back to my home and surrounded by all things familiar. That's comforting.

The past month went by in a whizz.
After 3 massive weeks of meeting up old friends and getting back into Singaporean rhythm, I set off again for Hong Kong and China, this time for slightly over 2 months.

The 5 days in Hong Kong was interesting mainly because I was on a study trip and so, I don't have time and money to go shopping. This is certainly very disturbing coz a trip to HK should never be without some indulgence in shopping and food. I didn't even get to eat wanton mee!

Wanton mee or not, I am at least happy for now! :D