My magician

My friends may not notice this, but I always have strong preferences on things, people I first met, courses I'm taking.. etc. I always have hard time forcing myself to do things that I don't want to, especially when I have to study something I don't like at all.

This kind of strong preferences reflect on my phsycial health sometimes. Despite exteremly low speed of reading articles and texts related to those subjects I don't like, if I keep on forcing myself to study, I always vomit.

The only way I can solve this problem is to give my brother a call if possible. Let him laugh at me or scold me for awhile, then he will somehow make me relax and laugh again. I never know how he did that but it always works! He's my magician.

Dear brother, I'm in serious trouble now, where are you?

A nice view from my room today

Almost get caught by him when taking these pics.. =P

To Ms Mosquito

Dear Ms Mosquito,

I truly understand and respect the fact that you need my blood for supplemental protein for your development and laying your babies, I also understand that my blood type is the most delicious type amongst all, and I am more than happy to donate my blood when you need it.

However, as you may already knew, I've already fed more than 20 of your fellows in Pulau Ubin just a few days ago and I do need time to recover. Besides, since you are so kind to give me "painkiller" before biting me each time, all the bites now itch me so badly that I couldn't stop scratching them especially when I was unconscious under my sleeping pills. As you can see now, my arms and legs are all scratched and I'm in pain.

Please don't take me wrong, I'm not blaming you. I'm just asking you for a favor. Maybe you and your fellows can give me a break for two weeks or so and give me time to recover? It's also good for you since I don't think you can find any space to bite me at the moment.

One more thing if you don't mind, please come and have my blood when I'm awake. Sleeping is my precious time and I really need good sleep to have healthier blood for you.

Thanks for you time reading this letter.

Yours truly,
headless.

Culture day?

Today I got exposed to quite a numbers of different culture in just one afternoon. The Marketing S.E. Asia's Heritage lecture was held in the NUS Museum. The lecturer and a staff from the museum shown us some art works by local and S.E. Aisan artists, this is the first time I've heard of the Nanyang Style of paintings, quite interesting.

The most interesting thing to me is that I've got to see some Chinese ceramic. When I first saw them, I felt quite weird as they look a bit different to what I've seen before in other places. They are similar, but different in details like the things they draw on the ceramic and even the words they wrote on them. Just when I was wondering, the lecturer suddenly said that he and some other scholars suspects that there were actually some ceramic made only for export purpose and those in the museum today could be part of them. They think that the Chinese might have made different ceramic for export and for local use. But studies still have to be done to proof it. At that moment, all my wonders were gone! I truely think that those we saw today were made for export purpose and they were marketed to the S.E. Asians. You can really tell from the type of flowers and fish and even the chinese charaters they painted on the ceramics.

Although I don't really know what is the relationship between the visit to the museum and our course.. I did enjoy the trip and I will be visiting the museum again soon.

After the visit, my friend in the class asked me to go and watch a film together with other friends. It was a German movie called "Run Lola Run" (original German title Lola rennt). This is my first time watching a German movie. The 76-min movie was all about the 3 different scenrios happened when Lola needs to find 100,000 Deutsche Marks for his boyfriend Manni within 20 mins. All 3 scenrios have different endings and lead you to think about life. Oh, and the German friends we met at the movie are also very friendly.

Went to have burger king for dinner with 2 friends from HK after movie, finally I got to hear someone from my own place telling my about the uni life there! Yes, I know nothing about the life in university in my own place at all!! What a shame!!

Hopefully tomorrow's weather will be fine, coz I wanna go to the Army Open House to do some shooting!

And I really wish I didn't need to submit my essay next Monday, coz my friends are going to Bintan this weekend and I couldn't go with them!! =(

La Vie En Rose

La Vie En Rose - Edith Piaf
Lyrics

My brother Charles

I have some weird behaviours that almost none of my friends can understand. I sometimes tried to explain but I really don't know how to make them understand. All I can say is that those behaviours are caused by my depression, I have limited control to them. When I say limited control, it means that I do try to control them and I'm already doing very good compare to what I was maybe 2 years ago..

There is one person who can always understand my weird behaviours. He is my brother, although he's not my real brother, I really really treat him as a part of my family and I really love him from my heart. I still remembered when first he saw my "behaviours", he didn't fully understand. And in those days, my condition was very bad. But very soon he seems to know exactly how I feel and why I was doing those things. Sometimes I even think that he knows me better than I do.

Even I'm doing good these days, sometimes I still can't help doing those weird things. Usually I will give my brother a call as soon as I can, of course I always try to call him when he's not working. Most of the time, after calling him, I will be able to stop those weird behaviours..

And of course, I also call him to share my happiness and thoughts.... I share everything with him.

But.. dunno why I couldn't find him these days..

And.. today one of my weird behaviours has come out..

He always wants me to be independent.. he always fears that I won't be ok when he's not around.. I guess this time I really have to deal it by myself..

But my dear brother, where are you now? I can deal with my own pain, but I also worry about you, at least let me know you're fine, ok?

What did I do today..

I skipped 2 lectures in the morning. Two economics lectures.
Only managed to get myself to the intercultural communication lecture in the evening.
I've never skipped lectures unless I oversleep, but I didn't oversleep today.
Gosh... gonna do something...

Sweet Sweet Sweet

My friend took this lovely picture. I almost cry when I saw it. Soooo sweet!!

I wish I could get a hug like this!!

Breed determines life

I went to an island called Pulau Ubin with a group of local photographers last Saturdays. On the island, there are quite a number of dogs, almost all of them are local breed. The dogs are very friendly and generally in good health. They can walk around all places in the island freely, including the shops and restaurants. Sometimes visitors feed them with left with left over food. And according to one of my friends, who is a regular visitor to the island, there are people who bring food to feed the dogs everyday.

However, I was a bit shocked when another friend from the group came to me and commented about the dogs. He told me that he has a friend in Hong Kong that brings "this kind of dogs" home as pet, and he was surprised by that. Well, I didn't know how to react to his comment as it is very common to me that local breed can be a pet.. and I don't see any differences between local breed and pure breeds.. they are all dogs to me. They are all lovely!

But after I went to the welcome tea by the NUS Animal Welfare Club last night, I understand why this guy thinks it's weird to bring local breed home. I think it's because local breed dogs are not allowed to be kept in HDB flats (the public housing in Singapore) but other dogs are allowed!

Sometimes policies can really affect people's perception towards things. In this case, some Singaporeans now think that local breeds cannot be a pet and that's why the pet shelter I mentioned yesterday end up with hundreds of dogs and they are mainly local breed.

During the welcome tea last night, when the president was talking about the voluntary work in the pet shelter, a girl raised a question: "Is there any Golden Retriever?"

Again.. she's only concerned about pure breed.

I can understand why people love pure breeds more, they are indeed more attractive in their outlook. But local breed is far more easy to take care of and they have less behaviourial problems. They are more cute in their hearts.

I guess since I'm an ugly girl, I tend to protect the no-so-attractive animals. But to me, they are all beautiful.

By the way, you can check out the photos I took from Pulau Ubin here from my album.

"Misfortunes never come singly"

This is happening to me again!! Why??
Whenever I'm in trouble with my relationships, someone will come to me with his/her problem and ask me for advice... and those "problems" are something that you will never want to help..

I don't usually tell others when I have problems, especially problems related to relationships. The only people that I'd talk to are my brother (who is a friend of mine but not my real brother) and my sister (who is my real sister). I didn't use to talk to my sister until very recently. She's a very nice person to talk to. One other person I'd share my problems with is my very best friend in Hong Kong, but she's not someone I will contact for emergercy help. We usually contact each other once or twice a year, but yet she is my best friend in my life now and she will always be.

Since I don't tell people that I'm in trouble or I'm feeling sad.. they don't know about it and they just come to me with their own problems. Funny thing is they only come when I'm in a very bad mood, and they always come with a wrong kind of problem.. let me give u some examples.

Last year, I had time that I was in serious depression because I finally had to accept the fact that I've to seperate with my ex, although that was already one year after our break up. Suddenly a girl talked to me, she said she's so worried that she's not going to have any marriage in her life. She's worrying about not able to get any bf. Then she asked me how to choose among the several guys who were approaching her at that time! She told me about how much those guys' earning, she told me about the plans of different guys for marriage... etc.. and her problem was: don't know whom she should choose. Those days I cried when I was alone thinking of my ex and I had to share her "worries" almost every night after she went dating with different guys!

Recently, I'm also in a little trouble with my relationships. I'm coping well so far as I'm seriously planning for a single life actually. But I'm still sad. And here comes the same girl again! She didn't talk about her "problems" for quite awhile already since she is quite stable with one of the guys now. But today.. she suddenly told me that she met a new guy and asked me if she should give him her phone number..

....

Again.. a rich guy.. and now she has already got a bf.. and wonder if she should give herself more chances before getting married.

....

well..

what should I say?

Honestly, I don't mind discussing these things when my mood is ok.. but why do these always come to me when I am in my own trouble and when I feel so lonely?

sigh..

but I'm fine. Lucky that I've made myself quite clear about what I should do in my life these few days.. and I'm not in pain now.

maybe I've to mentally train up myself some more for these kind of "challenges" in my life.. I know they will come more often as I become older..

this world is still not so opened-minded yet to fully accept single woman..

I'll work hard.

sorry that this post is a bit messy as I'm already very tired now..

Back to voluntary work!!

I was a member of the Hong Kong Red Cross during my 7-year secondary school studies. I was involved in lots of voluntary projects and I was totally into it. After secondary school, I joined the Adult Unit of HK Red Cross, but since I was always overseas and the nature of Adult Unit was to provide assistance to the Youth Units rather than to be involved in voluntary work, I'm now no longer a member of them. Since then, I've never joined any regular voluntary work.

But I'm back to the voluntary team finally!! This time I'm not helping people.. I'm helping animals, mainly pets now.. I just joined the NUS Animal Welfare Club this semester, and I've signed up for regular voluntary work, which I'll be going to MettaCats Shelter and Animal Lovers League every weekend to help cleaning and feeding etc.

This is going to be a bit tough for me since I will be seeing lots of abandon cats and dogs. There are 100+ cats and 20+ dogs in MettaCats now and 700+ cats and 100+ dogs in Animal Lovers League!! Unlike SPCA, these two organisations keep animals until their last breath rather than putting them down. And thus they end up with so many animals!

Somehow I feel like this is a path for me to go, as a regular volunteer, no matter I'm helping human or animals.. I just love to help. I always want to go to third world countries to help people build up villages, find clean water etc. However, since my parents have 'invested' so much on me, I know I cant do this now. Maybe later in my life I will do this.

Deep in my heart I always think that I will not have my own family, I will be single all my life. But I always try to change it, cos I love family. I really want to have one. However, if I had my own family, I won't be able to do all sorts of voluntary work I want to do.. cos I have to work very hard for my family.

Maybe this is a hint for me to give up my dream of having my own family and work on my other dream of being a life time volunteer... gonna be a tough road.. but happy. =)

sick or not?

Feeling so sick today since I woke up at 7am tried to go to the library to finish up my econ tutorial before it starts at 10.

I dunno what happened but I just feel very sick.. managed to stay until the end of the tutorial, went back to my room.. I slept for a few hours until 3pm.

I felt so bad for sleeping in the afternoon today since I have lots of readings to do and I also wanted to read up some extra stuffs.

I did think about going to the school clinic but I dun really know how to tell the doctor about how I feel.. cos I'm not really sure why I feel sick and what exactly is wrong with me.. I just feel something wrong...

and except for that dunno-what-it-is illness, my back pain has been with me for almost 2 months already.. and seems that it's getting worse.. I've tried may ways to deal with it: swimming, running, yoga, stretching.. but nothing help.. it's really killing me..

i wish my health wont get any worse as i dun really have money to spend on medication.. i dun even have money to have proper meal now.. hahaha.. but I can't work since my visa doesn't allow me to do so and I dun really want to take the risk in my last semester...

wish me luck please...

Almost settled

There have been lots of uncertainties in my life in the past few months.. my studies, my love, my future.. it keep changing everyday.. I wasn't quite sure where I was heading to.

I'm a bit surprised that I am still fine up to today, providing that I'm all by myself physically in a foreign country. Nevertheless, I did went out with a group of people I never met before yesterday for a trip to an island for photo shooting. If you know me well, this is a great improvement ever since what happened to me two and a half years ago. During these 2.5 years, whenever I encountered serious problems, I would just hide myself. I didn't even go to work, not to say going out to have fun and meet new people.

Of course I wasn't that bad many years ago.. but I was indeed in a very worse condition in recent years.

Anyway.. I have to say that I am really fine now, even with all these troubles with me.

And.. the good news is.. I've almost sorted out all the uncertainties, I pretty much know what to do in the near future. Although some of the choices are not what I wanted, at least I know and I can plan for it.

In the past, when I was upset or lost, I always rely on my close friends, physically. I needed my bf's hugs, I needed my brother's shoulders.. I relied on whatever I could get. But this time, though I had so many troubles coming all together, I didn't have anyone physically besides me. I have to say this was my biggest challenge. Silly me, right? yes, but this is me.

But what can I do? I have no choice now. I have to go on by myself. I have to learn to rely on nobody. I have to learn to rely on myself, which I've been doing for quite a while already.. just that I have to learn to be happy with it. I have to learn to be a happy single woman.

I'm considering staying in Singapore for a few years at least because of a better working and living condition here than Hong Kong. However, according to my observation, I won't be able to find any romantic relationships here, at least I'm not going to do so. So, I guess I will be all by myself for at least a few more years.

What will happen after a few years? I don't know. But I'm tuning myself to get ready for a life of single woman. I never want this but I've to prepare for this and one day I'll be happy for this.

I can do that.

P.S. One of my close friends once said that I'm too dramatic. Yes, I am, and that makes me a good writer. =)

Something about me, the stupid me..

I am a single lonely woman

When you become older, you know it's really hard for you to find three things: 1. true love, 2. true friendships, 3. true life.

I am never a person who can easily make friends with people. I've only got a few very close friends, because I'm very picky and people don't generally like to be close friend with me.

I am also not a person who can fell in love with strangers easily. But once I love, I just don't know how to stop.

I never have a life of my own. All these years, I've been living for people around me. I tried to do everything people wanted me to do. My purpose is to make everyone I love happy.

In the past few months, I was very lucky that someone came into my life and offered me a very valuable friendship. It was one of the greatest gifts I've ever got in my life. But I was too greedy, I expected something else. Although this dearest friend is still willing to offer me his friendship, I feel great shame at taking it already.

I was very stupid, as I always do for my past years. True friendship is such a rare thing to find these days and I just gave it up. What was I thinking?

When will I grow up and learn how to just treasure whatever I've got and never expect for more? When will I learn how to hold me feelings and emotions and make the life of the people around me easiler?

When will I stop upsetting people, especially those I care?

When...

End

Tonight is the end of this story.

Tomorrow, another story will start.

Just like last time.

I will be fine. I MUST be fine.

How can I not love you?

How Can I Not Love You Lyrics - Joy Enriquez

Cannot touch, cannot hold
Cannot be together
Cannot love, cannot kiss
Cannot have each other

Must be strong, and we must let go
Cannot say what our hearts must know
How can I not love you?
What do I tell my heart?
When do I not want you here in my arms?
How does one waltz away from all of the memories?
How do I not miss you when you are gone?

Cannot dream, Cannot share
Sweet and tender moments
Cannot feel how we feel
Must pretend it's over

Must be brave, and we must go on
Must not say what we've known all along
How can I not love you?
What do I tell my heart?
When do I not want you here in my arms?
How does one waltz away from all of the memories?
How do I not miss you when you are gone?
How can I not love you?

Must be brave, and we must be strong
Cannot say what we've known all along
How can I not love you?
What do I tell my heart?
When do I not want you here in my arms?
How does one waltz away from all of the memories?
How do I not miss you when you are gone?

How can I not love you when you are gone?

Anak

Heard this old song at a pub on Wednesday night. This is a very touching tagalog song written in the 70s.

The song was written by Freddie Aguilar to express apology to his parents 5 years after he left school at the age of 18 and got into gambling.

The song first starts out on how a boy's parents took very good care of him when he was a baby. It says that they stayed up late because he was crying for milk. Then, when the baby grows up, he doesn't respect his parents. They wonder what caused him or her to be like that.

And thus the title of the song is Anak (Filipino for Child, a son or a daughter)

The song was a great hit in the 70s and was translated to 26 different languages.

Here's the original Tagalog version

English version

The singer at the pub that night performed the Tagalog version of Anak, although I didn't understand a word of the song and I didn't know the story behind the song at that time, I was still very touched.

I want to dedicate this song to my parents, especially my dad. I really really love him so much. And he's the only person in the world who can forgive whatever I did and still love me unconditionally.

It's over

22 August 2007. It's over.

Low morale

Only had one lecture today - Government and Polictics of Singapore.

For the whole 2 hours.. I didn't understand a thing..
sigh..

very tired...

Lovely Chinese old men

Please note that everything I'm going to talk about in this entry DOES NOT apply to the new generation Chinese guys. It only applies to Chinese men aged 50 or above.

Today (Tuesday) I've got a break from 12nn to 6pm, so I decided to go out of campus to have some sunbath. I took a bus and I saw an old Chinese man get on the bus with his wife.

I saw the man got on the bus first and quickly walked to the seats next to the exit door, he stood right next to the seat of the front row and looked back to his wife. His wife walked very slowly and she needed an umbrella to help her walk. When she almost reached seat, the old man pointed at the seat, (a human gesture telling her to sit there), waited until she sat down, then he sat down at the seat right behind her.

Here's the seatings of the bus.

Exit
1st row: 　A
2nd row: BC
3rd row: DE

so his wife was sitting at Seat A while the old man sat at Seat C. Seat B was occupied.

A while later, the person at Seat B got off the bus. The old man waited a while longer, used his hand to feel if Seat B was still "hot", then he moved himself to Seat B.

Then, he asked his wife to move and sit with him (i.e. Seat C)
How he did that?

He just ordered "Sit here", without a smile. The old lady gave him a big smile and went to sit with him.

You must be wondering why would I say this old man "lovely" while he is so rude to his wife..

But if you were there watching him, you will also love him. And in face, this is a common charaterisitc of the Chinese men in that generation.

I watched every movement of the old man. I would say he's shy rather then rude. I clearly remember that just after he ordered his wife "sit here", he gave all of us a quick look, and he looked a bit embarrassed. That one second, he was SUPER lovely!!

Old Chinese men are all like this! No matter how much he loves his wife, he will never show it in the public. On the other hand, he always wants to show his power over his wife. But to me, some of them don't really want to do so.. they just don't know what to do, they just think it's not right to show tenderness.. but in fact they love their wife very much and they care about their wife! If you look at the details, you will surely see what they did!

And I think they are much better than those guys who say "I love you" every five minutes, who will brust in tears for you when you just get hurt by a piece of paper. To me, these guys are just acting. Disgusting.

Of course, you will also hear Western men say "I love you" to their lovers all the time, but this is their culture. They say it when they mean it. And they are not acting! However, white guys are not my cup of tea.. hehe

I love Chinese old men. but I also wish my husband will still hold my hand when we are 90 years old!

sigh.. I wish I were 20-30 years older...

Who am I?

This is probably the question that I've been wondering all these years. But it bothers me much more by the time I went overseas.

It was not so serious when I was in Australia. When I had to introduce myself, I simply said "I'm from Hong Kong." But it gets more complicated now when I'm coming here to Singapore for exchange from Australia as an international student from Hong Kong.

When I introduce myself here, I always have problems.

If I say "I'm from Hong Kong." People think I'm a exchange student from one of the universities in Hong Kong. If I say "I'm from Australia", then they think I am an emigrant.

So I've to tell people a "story" everytime I introduce myself. Actually it's ok, I just have to say a few more words to explain and just have to get used to the gaze and weird comments since most of them think I've made the stupidest decision in the world. haha.. (I don't think so though, if I have to choose again, I will also come to SG)

Sometimes I wanted to say "I'm a Chinese" but no one will agree with me, not the people in Australia, and not the people in Singapore. I understand that people take "Chinese" as the mainlanders, but we never have a word for the people in HK, we can't use Hong Kongers, we can't use Hong Kong people. So if I'm not a Chinese, who am I?

This problem only occurs when I speak in English, since in Chinese, we simply add "people" after the name of the place/country to describe the people there. So literately "Japan people" (日本人 ri ben ren)= Japanese, "China people" (中國人 zhong guo ren) = Chinese. By the way, this is one of the reasons why Chinese-speaking people have difficulties in learning some languages like English, Chinese is an isolating language (almost every words consists of a morpheme) while English is a polysynthetic language (words tend to have several morpheme).

Back to the topic... who am I? I never know how to answer this. Hong Kong was a British colony until 1997. Before 1997, many of us always struggled when we were asked to fill in forms with a fill called "Nationality". Since we didn't know what we were. People filled in so many different answers in that particular field: Hong Kong (which is NEVER a country), Britain, England, British, Chinese, China, Guangdong, Shanghai (place of their origins).. etc.. I think people in other countries/places will never understand this kind of confusion!!

Now, China has already taken over HK for 10 years. We are still struggling with that "Nationality" field. Of course it's much better than 10 years ago, people nowadays would just fill in either Hong Kong (again, NOT a country..), China, Hong Kong China, or HKSAR.

Till now, I've just talked about the confusion on my "nationality".. there are so many other things that I DON'T KNOW about myself. E.g. traditions, culture... etc. Should I take Chinese traditions as my own traditions? Should I take Chinese culture as my own culture? Or should I separate Hong Kong as an individual place?

I'm even more confused after the Intercultural Communication lecture this evening. The lecturer asked us to do a little exercise during the class. I strongly recommend you try to do it too as it will definitely makes you think about yourself and understand yourself more.

1. Think of a title (a few words) of your culture. (i.e. If you are asked to introduce yourself, what would you say if you are not allowed to say your name?) (To my understanding, "your culture" can be the culture you think you belong to, or just yourself)

Example from my lecturer: South Africa
(Since she is from South Africa, and that's what she wants people know)

2. Think of 3 different words to describe your culture.

Example from my lecturer: Sunday, music, lunch (not sure about if the last one is the one she said)
Why these 3 words? She told us about something happens every Sunday in her family back in South Africa which is related to music and lunch. A very unique story/behaviour that you seldom heard of from other people/culture.

So how did you go?
Me? I didn't even write my title!!
I was so lost.

Later tonight the lecturer sent an email to all international students in the class and asked if we are willing to help for a demonstration or something in the coming lecture. She asked us to tell her "your country and your culture" and she will try to select people from different culture.

ok.. my country.. China?.. HK??.. my culture... do I have one???
so.. I replied her will my "story" and told her that I know nothing about my culture and myself..

Later on I got her reply, she said I'm one of those people who have been exposed to many different culture that I'm used to different cultural settings. And this is "an interesting phenomenon that we see occurring in the world today where people do not have very specific characteristics that they feel they can identify with"

This is very true to me.. and I guess this can be used to "describe" myself...

But this is not the end of my struggles though..
even when I think of the culture of Hong Kong, the Chinese culture, the Indian culture.. etc.. I also have many doubts.. mainly related to the diffusion by American culture.

Will talk about this later.

Must watch!! but...

but... gonna read her books again first!! =P

If you're not Austened out, Austen up for Becoming Jane

Romantic in lecture

Finally back home after lots and lots of things happened today. I have so many things that I want to share but let me just tell you something I saw this evening during the Intercultural Communication lecture.

This lecture is scheduled at 6-8pm, so I was a bit tired and easily distracted by others in the lecture. Lucky that I've already done the reading so I didn't need full effort to listen to the lecture..

A young little guy was sitting on the next seat but one row in front of me, there was nobody sitting right in front of me, so I could clearly see the things on his table, even his writings!

I noticed this guy busy playing with his cellphone during the first 10-15 minutes of the lecture, but I didn't pay much attention to him because students here LOVE to send SMS during classes!! But suddenly he put away his cellphone and took out his laptop and turned it on.

I first thought he was going to take notes directly to the ppt file instead of writing them down since people nowadays don't WRITE anymore! But I was wrong..

Soon after he logged on his computer, he connected to the Internet, a big banner "Internet SMS Chat" grabbed my attention!

I don't usually do this, but I did watch him typing his messages because I really wanna know WHAT the hell is so urgent that he had to connect to the Internet and message someone during the class.

and here were the messages: (maybe not the exact wordings, but same meaning)
note that there were no responses from the other side during his "conversation"

msg1: Darling, are you there?
msg2: My phone batt is gone. I wonder if you are there.
msg3: I'm having lecture. The batt suddenly gone. I'm afraid that you think I'm ignoring you so I connect to the Internet immediately and tell you I care about you and I LOVE YOU.
msg4: guess you are not there.

something like this.. and then he turned off the laptop.

later I found out he's a Singaporean.
How?
We were told to write down a title of ourself (cannot use our name) and three words to describe our culture. (I will talk probably about this interesting exercise later).
The lecturer use South Africa as the title since she is an South African
And his title was Singapore.
And one of his three words describing his own culture was "intelligence"

What I wanna say is... IF I've got a boyfriend like him, I'll kill him for sure!!
Just because of the messages he sent!!

Where are the men??

Overloaded

It's only 5:30pm now. There has been lots of things happening today.. I wanna write all them down.. I wanna keep every single thought of mine today.. but.. I've to rush for another class now.. and won't be finished until 8pm.. then hopefully I will have appetite to have dinner.. and by the time I'm free, I should be exhausted.. I dunno if I can still remember any of my thoughts.. and if I will have the energy to write anymore.. sigh..

and I'm also sure that the coming lecture will also make me think a lot more and there will be more thoughts coming to my head..

but I've got super bad memory.....

hmm.. my mind is a bit dizzy now.. better go to lecture room first and grab a few mins nap..

PK

sigh..
haven't taken sleeping pills for so long, not very used to it anymore..
feel so dizzy after taking just half of it..

just now i wanna get up from the bed and drink some water..
i was so dizzy that i felt down on the floor...

stupid me...

McDonald's: Sales in Europe are ahead of those in the US

Gonna talk about this, but I've already taken some pills, need to go to bed now..will write another entry tomorrow when I have time.. come back again later if you are interested.

For McDonald's, a European redesign starts to pay off
By Julia Werdigier August 17, 2007
International Herald Tribune

LONDON: Taking a respite from an afternoon of shopping, Ita Clift sipped a cappuccino at a McDonald's on Edgeware Road, in northwest London. Though she said she rarely set foot in one of the many branches of the fast-food chain in London, Clift said she dropped in to this one for a quick boost of energy because the restaurant "looked so nice and sophisticated."
Sophisticated? McDonald's?

The Golden Arches are going upscale in Europe - and if you haven't seen a refurbished McDonald's yet, chances are you will see one by the end of this year. Aiming to create a more relaxed, restaurantlike experience in a sophisticated atmosphere, McDonald's is replacing bolted-down, plastic, yellow and white "furniture" with lime-green designer chairs and dark leather upholstery. It is the restaurant chain's biggest revamp in more than 20 years, and, together with its franchisees, it plans to spend more than €600 million, or $806.6 million, remodeling 1,280 of its European restaurants by the end of this year.

McDonald's is also introducing more healthful foods and items that cater to regional tastes, like café lattes. Hoping to attract young adults and professionals, in addition to its core customer base of moms and kids, the chain is also adding amenities like Internet access and rental iPods.

So far, the changes appear to be paying off. Sales in Europe are ahead of those in the United States. In the first half of this year, combined sales at Europe's 6,400 restaurants rose 15 percent to $4.1 billion, compared to a 6 percent increase in America, where McDonald's has 13,800 restaurants and sales were $3.9 billion. The strength of European currencies helped, but even without the lagging U.S. dollar, European revenue is rising faster in real terms than revenue in the United States.

"McDonald's is doing a great job in Europe, which has become an enormously important market for them," said Larry Miller, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets in New York.

The chain now serves over 10 million customers a day in Europe, which contributes 36 percent to the company's operating income, making it the chain's second most profitable region after the United States.

The remodeling is also catching on in America, where McDonald's renovated about 6,000 of its restaurants. For now, the revamp is not spreading to Asia, where business is growing fast - sales are up 11 percent in the second quarter - but revenues are still a fraction of those in Europe and America ($852 million for the quarter that ended June 30).

In some ways the changes are moderate; in others, dramatic. McDonald's kept its trademark golden arches logo in Europe but got rid of the red accompanying it. Instead, restaurants feature a warm burgundy color. The pointy roofs are being phased out and replaced by simple olive green facades, and the bright neon lights in the restaurants were dimmed. French fries and cheeseburgers remain the best-selling items.

The original impetus for the makeover was a European sales slump in the late 1990s, brought on by concerns about obesity and European annoyance at unappealing décor and grumpy McDonald's staff. But the ideas for how to change came from Denis Hennequin, president of McDonald's Europe, the first non-American in that role.

As head of McDonald's restaurants in his native France in the late 1990s, Hennequin had searched for ways to make fast food more appealing to a nation that preferred slow-simmered cassoulets and likes to savor a meal.

"To make McDonald's and a Big Mac work in the country of slow food, we felt we had to pay more attention to space and showcasing," he said, seated in front of zebra print wallpaper in one of the remodeled London restaurants.

He was right. After refurbishment, on average, sales increased 4.5 percent at the upgraded restaurants in France. The new outlets were so successful that two years ago Hennequin was asked to do the same for the rest of Europe.

Some analysts say the new design works better in Europe than in the United States, where a majority of McDonald's customers prefer to eat in their cars or take their food home. "And they won't change their habits," said David Kolpak, an investment manager at Victory Capital Management in Cleveland, Ohio, who owns McDonald's shares in his portfolio.

But now the success of Hennequin's Europewide makeover comes with challenges of its own: How much can you upgrade its image before McDonald's isn't McDonald's?

"If you stretch the brand too much, it can snap," said Dean Crutchfield, director of marketing at Wolff Olins, a brand consultancy in New York.

Hennequin said he did not have a choice. "Re-imaging is essential in the competitive world of retail," he said. "We need to avoid aging faster than our customers." To do that he instructed the design studio he had set up in Paris to come up with nine different formats. Franchised restaurants, which account for about 64 percent of all European outlets, can then choose the design most appropriate for their location and clientele. The designs range from "purely simple," with minimalist decors in neutral colors, to "Qualité," featuring large pictures of lettuce and tomatoes and gleaming stainless steel kitchen utensils like meat grinders.

"The new ones are much more comfortable, less crammed and we love those chairs," said Shane Bogela, 16, referring to the redesigned stores and the "egg" chairs, designed by the Danish architect Arne Jacobsen, at a McDonald's in London.

A separate food factory in Munich is trying to come up with new menus for the different tastes in the 41 European countries, including Russia, in which McDonald's operates - a continuation of a process started in the 1980s, when the company started to offer beer in its German restaurants. In England, McDonald's has started to serve porridge for breakfast; in Portugal it offers soup; and in France, "cheese saga" - burgers with French cheeses.

Paying attention to local tastes has also helped McDonald's overcome some of the cultural hurdles it faced in Europe as a large American fast-food chain. "The problem in Europe," said Kolpak, of Victory Capital, "was the perception that any large U.S. brand has, which is bringing the American way of eating and marketing and invading the local culture."

While head of France, Hennequin experienced opposition to American corporations firsthand in 1999 when Jose Bové, the outspoken leader of a French farmer's union, organized a bulldozing of a McDonald's restaurant to protest the spread of American "hegemony." Hennequin reacted with a large advertising campaign promoting the American chain's use of local produce and its creation of local jobs.

While palates differ from country to country, design is more universal, Hennequin said. He admires strong brands that reinvent themselves to become more fashionable and appealing, like the Mini Cooper. In France he hired the same advertising agency as Apple.

"We would like to stay true to our roots," Hennequin said, "while moving forward."

情人的眼淚

Found this old song from the latest album by Jay Chou

情人的眼淚 - 姚蘇蓉
曲︰姚敏 詞︰陳蝶衣

為什麼要對你掉眼淚
你難道不明白為了愛
只有那有情人眼淚最珍貴
一顆顆眼淚都是愛都是愛

＊為什麼要對你掉眼淚
你難道不明白為了愛
要不是有情郎跟我要分開
我眼淚不會掉下來掉下來

好春才來　春花正開
你怎捨得說再會
我在深閨　望穿秋水
你不要忘了我情深深如海

重唱　＊

我眼淚不會掉下來掉下來

Lonely bed

Sooooo sweet....

Not 100% agree to the caption of the 1st pic. But they are just so sweet!! What a man!

Another pic of the man.

You will never know

You will never know
You can never tell
How I am feeling
While I am so lost
but my tears cannot drop.

Ok, they don't need advertising agencies anymore..

Well, I shouldn't say that.. but at least they don't need those traditional ad agencies anymore..

Check out the SuperVirals website launched recently. What they are doing is simply provide an online platform for their sponsors (i.e. clients) to gather creative ideas from the Internet (i.e. anyone). Of course the clients will have to pay, but just to the ultimate "winner" of all the creative ideas submitted, and they pay them with prizes. E.g. If a person got a brillian idea for Krispy Kreme, he/she will win free Krispy Kreme Donuts for one whole year!

Not sure about the effectiveness of this new platform for providing good ads as it's still in it's very early stage. But one thing for sure is it can definitely lower the budget for the brands to get heaps of new ideas. They put online their Creator Brief, people follow it and create lots of ideas and put it online for them for free.

And also check out their FAQs page to see how they works. Actually each person can upload unlimited number of ideas for each competition and then in order for them to win, they have to tell as many people as possible to go to the website, log in and browse or comment on their ideas, since the "winner" is chosen by logged in users.

Can't wait to see when the first winning idea is out....

Now, the Clicking Is to Watch the Ads, Not Skip Them

Now, the Clicking Is to Watch the Ads, Not Skip Them
By STUART ELLIOTT
The New York Times 17 August 2007

FOR generations, advertising interrupted the entertainment that Americans wanted to read, hear or watch. Now, in a turnabout, advertising is increasingly being presented as entertainment -- and surprisingly, the idea of all ads, all the time, is gaining some favor.

One reason is the proliferation of broadband Internet connections, which make it easier for computer users to watch or download video clips. That is enabling media companies, agencies and advertisers to create Web sites devoted to commercials and other forms of advertising for amusement, rather than hard-core huckstering.

Oddly, the trend runs counter to another powerful impulse among consumers: the growing desire to avoid advertising. TV viewers, for instance, are spending billions of dollars a year for TiVo and other digital video recorders that help them zip through or zap commercials, and click-through rates for banner Web ads are declining.

The difference between ''watching a commercial on a Web site and in your living room,'' said Michael Jacobs, executive vice president and executive creative director at MRM Worldwide in New York, is that online is ''an opt-in audience; you're choosing to be there.''

''It's the nature of the Web to offer a destination you know you can go to and know what you're going to see,'' said Mr. Jacobs, whose agency is part of the McCann Worldgroup division of the Interpublic Group of Companies.

''There's certainly an audience for entertainment as part of the offering,'' he added. ''The numbers seem to support it.''

For example, veryfunnyads.com, a broadband Web site operated by the TBS cable network, has delivered more than 63 million video clip views since its introduction last August.

''It's a very straightforward premise: You're going to have a funny experience, and you're going to have it every 30 seconds,'' said Ken Schwab, senior vice president for programming at the TBS and TNT networks, parts of the Turner Broadcasting System division of Time Warner.

The funny-ad Web site is part of a rebranding campaign for the TBS network, which carries the theme ''Very funny.'' The goal is to cultivate an identity for TBS as a home for sitcoms and humorous movies.

''A lot of people talk about zipping through commercials because the average break doesn't hold the promise of being entertaining,'' Mr. Schwab said. By contrast, he said, ''we have a very clear consumer proposition, on the site and in our shows.''

The concept of veryfunnyads.com has been expanded onto TBS, Mr. Schwab said, as the network will ''call out'' some commercials as ''very funny ads'' in hopes of keeping viewers from changing channels.

''I'm in the industry, and I'll fast-forward through the ads most of the time,'' said David Droga, creative chairman at the Droga5 agency in New York. ''But I'll stop for the good ones.''

''You put choice on the table, you change the whole game,'' Mr. Droga said, adding: ''Everything is about control. If an ad is interesting to you, you'll have the conversation with the brand. If it's not, it's a waste of time.''

In about a month, Mr. Droga plans to test his theory with the trial introduction by Droga5 and its partner, the Publicis Groupe, of a Web site named honeyshed.com.

Mr. Droga described the concept as ''MTV meets QVC,'' offering consumers in the intended audience of ages 18 to 30 product information in the form of entertaining video clips rather than traditional commercials. The clips are to run two to three minutes apiece, he added, and be presented by hosts considered authorities in categories like cars, clothing or computers.

''The only reason we have any chance of being successful is transparency,'' Mr. Droga said -- that is, ''if people know they're being sold to, you can celebrate the sell.''

The USA Network unit of NBC Universal, part of General Electric, also intends to climb aboard the pitch wagon celebrating advertising as entertainment with an online effort centered on brand-centric content.

Plans call for a Web site next year that would include commercials and movie trailers as well as features like social networking and tools that would let visitors make ads of their own. The site is tentatively named didja.com, as in ''Didja see that?''

''It's all about relevance,'' said Chris McCumber, senior vice president for marketing and brand strategy at USA Network. ''Consumers want to be entertained on their own time, on their own terms.''

''If a spot is not relevant, you're going to want to tune it out,'' he added. ''This will be a platform for consumers to experience their favorite commercials or find out more information about a product.''

The proliferation of portals dedicated to advertising as entertainment could mean the trend is already peaking, just as cover articles in magazines about a stock market boom are often followed by plunging indexes.

''I don't think it is so much about putting entertaining commercials on the Web as it is about brands providing immersive experiences for consumers of which entertainment is a component,'' said Mr. Jacobs of MRM, whose agency recently won praise for musical Webisodes for Intel, directed by the humorist Christopher Guest, which are appearing on Web sites like youtube.com and itgetseasier.com.

The responses to a survey this week on the Adweek Web site (adweek.com) suggest that advertising as entertainment is still a work in progress.

As of yesterday afternoon, 13 percent of respondents agreed the portals were ''great fits for the current pop culture,'' while 43 percent called them ''too limited and doomed to fail.'' The remaining respondents, 44 percent, agreed with a statement that they are ''complete wild cards; let's wait and see.''

zi lang zi bua - again!!

Two days ago I mentioned about the film <881> and the theme song <一人一半>. I said that I prefer the original Hokkien version rather than the new Mandarin version, so I asked my 'brother', the man who treats me the best in the world (except my dad), to translate the lyrics into Chinese for me. I didn't expect he will really do so when I emailed and asked him.. coz he never teach me any Hokkien when I heard him talking Hokkien to others and asked him to explain to me. But once again he did something so sweet to me and lightened my day from heavy readings, bad weather and bad mood..

After reading the lyrics, I love this song more, a lot more than the Mandarin one.. the lyrics is actually far more better than the Mandarin one. It's more plaintive, more romantic, more touching. With Liu Ling Ling's voice and emotions.. I do cry when hearing this wonderful song!

Here's the song again:


The translations by my brother, Charles.

一人一半 感情不會散
一人一素故 感情才會久
一款一邊 感情哪會痺
一人一嘴 永遠不會分開

一款的人 一款的夢
為怎樣傷得阮這麼重
為你思念 為你惆悵
你才會狠心放阮一人

越想越亂 越想越夢
為著你心茫茫心沉重
你有所想 你有所夢
你可會當阮是你的人

一人一半 感情不會散
一人一嘴 永遠不會分開

*阮=我

PS: Bro Charles, thanks for the translations, I LOVE U SOOOOO MUCH!!!! *muack

Oh My God

I lost my self-disciplined... sigh... I need to do something... not now.. maybe tomorrow..

Mr. Cinema 老港正傳

Watched one of the movies that was up during the 10th anniversary of China's takeover of Hong Kong, "Mr. Cinema" (老港正傳). This is a movie about a left-winger's life in Hong Kong from the 60's to 2007. Most of the major history happened during that period in Hong Kong were mentioned in the film... well... except for the demostration by 500 hundred thousand people on 1 July 2005.. haha..

Anyway, I'm not talking about the political side of the movie today. What I wanna talk about is the love between the left-winger, 老左 (黃秋生 Anthony Wong) and his wife (毛舜筠 Teresa Mo). 老左 is such a believer in communism that he always helps others as much as possible. He cooks for his colleagues but he never cook for his wife. He gave all their savings to his friend's son so that he can go overseas to study but he got no money to help his own son later on. Since he always helps others, he never had a chance to fulfil his own dream - to go to Beijing Tian An Mun to take a picture there.

His wife and his son were the only two people who suffered. The family has to live in a broken house and his son was discriminiated against by others of being a left-winger's son. His wife has to work so hard for the family that later on she got heart attack and passed away.

Just before she passed away, she wrote him a letter, which I think is very touching. She said she understands why 老左 always treats others better than his own family. It doesn't mean that he loves other people more, it simply means that he trusts his family. He trusts that his wife will understand what he did and understand that he loves her the most.

I think this is very true to many of us. We always ignore the one we love/care most because we "think" they know we love them. We always forget to tell them how much we love them. We are too busy showing others how kind we are, but always assume that the most important ones will "understand".

I'm not sure if it always work like this. Is everyone so understanding like 老左's wife? I guess most of the cases, people will feel ignored and confused.

Me? Of course I always try to be understanding, but I guess the first issue is, I've to find someone to say he loves me first...then I'll think of being understanding hahaa..

Today's lecture (edited)

Somehow I'm a bit hyper today even I only had 3-hour sleep last night.. I dunno why...

I had a nice talk with my psychologist this morning, I realized some changes on myself. And I'm quite happy with that.

So let's talk about my lecture today, Marketing Southeast Asia's Heritage.
It was a 2-hour lecture, and indeed it last exactly 2 hours!! The class is super small, there were not more than 20 of us in the room today!!

So what is it about? Generally it's about tourism marketing, but it's not about how to make profit. It's about how to sustain the culture. But if you can sustain the culture, it actually brings u more profits!

The lecturer is a PhD of Anthropology. I like his style and I LOVE his flexibility of doing things (compared to what I've seen in Singapore so far).. Initially there will be two tutorial groups to choose from, both are on Tuesdays. (ok, don't be surprised, last semester I'd got one courses that had all 5 or 6 tutorial groups that were all held on same day!!) One student went to him and said she couldn't make it for both tutorials then he asked all of us for our schedules and he did the most funny thing I've heard...... we are still going to have two tutorial groups, one is on Tuedays with 1x students and the other one will be on Wednesdays morning, with only the 4 students who are not free on Tues!! And they are going to have the tutorials in the lecturer's office!! hahaha!! I really love him!!

And we don't need to purchase any textbook for this course because we are using the lecturer's book and he uploaded the whole book to the intranet for us for free!!! Can you imagine that??

We will have 5 tutorials throughout the semester only, and 3 of them will be held outside the campus!! so nice!!

Two things that the lecturer mentioned today about Singapore surprised me very much! First, Singapore doesn't have proper tourism management education institutions, even universities here do not offer programs on tourism management. But tourism is playing such a major role to the economics in Singapore!! Second, Singapore doesn't have an official department of Archaeology! So everyone can go and dig the land and you can get what you've found!! He actually dug something and donated to the museums before! I hope he's going to show us later on.

Anyway.. I think I'm going to learn so much from this course although I've already got a diploma of tourism management before. =P This will be a totally different experience! However, there will be a lot of readings to do throughout the course which will really kills me because I'm so unfamiliar with the vocabulraries even for famous heritage names, coz I only know them in Chinese/Cantonese... >.<

Oh.. one more thing! Finally I'm going to have a take-home exam, in my very last semester!! hahaha.. I always wanna have one.. now I will have one during the mid-sem exam!!

haha.. i'm a bit crazy tonight..
maybe I should stop here now until someone thinks I am on drugs!!

by the way, I really love being in school!! really!!

Tears

Haven't heard this song for ages.. I used to hear it to make myself cry sometime when I wanted to cry but couldn't do so..

sadly, it doesn't work this time.. i'm exhausted...

眼淚 - 范曉萱
詞:黃國倫　曲:黃國倫

青春若有張不老的臉
但願它永遠不被改變
許多夢想總編織太美
跟著迎接幻滅

愛上你是最快樂的事
卻又換來最痛苦的悲
苦澀交錯愛的甜美
我怎樣都學不會　ha～～～～

oh～～眼淚
眼淚都是我的體會 成長的滋味
oh～～眼淚
忍住眼淚不讓你看見 我在改變

孤單的感覺
你從不曾發現
我笑中還有淚

oh～～眼淚
眼淚流過無言的夜　心痛的滋味
oh～～眼淚
擦乾眼淚忘掉一切　曾有的眷戀

眼淚是苦　眼淚是傷悲眼淚都是你
眼淚是甜　眼淚是昨天眼淚不流淚

Outdoor interactive advertising?

It's creative and kinda effective, but I wonder how much it costs..

zi lang zi bua.. gum qing buay shua

I went to see my first Singapore local movie <881> last night. It was an amazing experience.

For those who are not in Singapore, 881 is the first musical movie from Singapore which tells a story about the Papaya Sisters, two childhood friends who grew up mesmerised by the glitter and glamour of getai (歌台).

What's getai then? It's like what we called 孟蘭盛會 in Hong Kong, where people set up song stages in public areas during the Hungry Ghost Festival in the 7th lunar month. The performance is both for the human and the spirits. But unlike Hong Kong, Singaporeans perform in a more modern way while they wear very loud and glittery clothings. While in HK, da xi (大戲) is the main type of performance. Oh.. one more special thing is that in Hong Kong, during the performance, the first row of seats will be 'reserved' for the spirits so no human is allowed to sit there. Check out here for more information on getai.

I had some hard times watching the movie since a major part of the conversations were in Hokkien. So I had to read the subtitle but even if you don't speak Hokkien, you should know how fast can one speak in Hokkien!! Basically sometimes I couldn't follow the subtitle!!

There were lots of beautiful songs in the movie! And again they were in Hokkien as well! I think I heard most of them before (at least the melody). I LOVE those songs! But this time I got the chances to read the lyrics and understand the meaning behind the songs. I noticed that most of the songs are about sad stories, sad love stories, sad family stories... etc. I guess it has something to do with the Chinese culture.

You may wonder what are those Hokkien pingyin stand for in the title of this blog entry, put them in Chinese charaters, they will be "一人一半.. 感情不散". Which is one of the theme songs of the movie. It is actually an old Hokkien song, during the movie, you can hear Auntie Ling (Liu Ling Ling, who is actually a getai singer before) sings beautifully and you will be deeply touched by her voice. I actually like her the most in this movie.

This is Liu Ling Ling's version in the movie:




And there is also another version in Mandarin, performed by 伍家輝. I think more people prefer this version because they can understand the lyrics and the lyrics are sooo nice! To me, this song isn't just talk about love between a couple, it also talks about love between everyone. But I guess I'll leave it for you to taste it in your own way.

《一人一半》演唱：伍家輝
改編詞:小寒 曲:伍家輝

一人一半 感情不散
一人一素故 感情才會久
時光累積 安靜的淚滴
一心去追 愛那麼可貴

這樣的人 這樣地等
無非是等個回應眼神
為愛翻滾 不計傷痕
甘心為你一生都浮沉

這樣的人 別笑我蠢
傻傻的 心痛也不覺疼
就算天冷 就算殘忍
等你想起這沒用的人

一人一半 感情不散
已經找到愛 為何要離開

時光累計 安靜的淚滴
一心去追 愛那麼可貴

一人一半 感情不散
已經找到愛 為何要離開
已經找到愛 為何先離開

Third day of school

I went to bed at around 3am and was woken up by a mosquito at 5:30am just now!! Couldn't sleep anymore and I have to get ready to go out by 8:30.. so here I am, writing another blog entry...

Yesterday I went to the first lecture of Government and Politics in Singapore. It was far much better than I expected. The lecturer is so humorous and enthusiastic. Although it was a long lecture yesterday, I didn't feel very tired after that.

This is a kind of challenge to me to take this course because I have no knowledge about the Singapore history. All I know is Sir Raffles found this place! And the lecturer was so right that it seems that this piece of land was never exist until Raffles 'found' it!! And of course it wasn't the truth!!

So what I have to do now is to roughly memorize the history of Singapore, the key personalities in Singpore except for Lee Kuan Yew and Lee Hsien Loong, 3 pages of abbreviations from ACB, AMP, BS.... to NEC (not the brand name), NSS, NTUS... all the way to WP, WSC and YEC..

One of the major problems for me to study these fundamental things is that I can't pronounce the name of the person, or the name of the place.. it makes me very hard to memorize it. For example the previous PM of Singapore Goh Chok Tong. I know this name for a long time, but in Chinese 吳作棟. The word 吳 pronounces as "Wu" in Mandarin or "Ng" in Cantonese.. to me, I will never relate it to "Goh"... Same problems happen when people with surname "Teo" which is 張 in Chinese, pronounces as "Zhang" in Mandarin and "Cheung" in Cantonese. I guess the "Goh" and "Teo" etc are the Hokkien way of saying the surname and so I have to memorize them all over again and relate them to the previous knowledge of the same person..

Besides for Chinese names, I also have problems with names like Dhanabalan, Jayakumar, Rajaratnam and Shanmugaratnam.. these are some names that I wonder if I can spell them correctly during exams!!

And then when it comes to terminologies, I also have to learn all of them. Firstly, I come from a place that there is no PM and no President. We have a different system because HK is not a nation but we have our own government. Secondly, all the terminologies I've been using for so many years when reading the news in HK or discussing with friends, I used Chinese. Now I have to match up those terms in the 2 languages.. I guess it takes some time!!

But apart from all these difficulties, I still love this course! No, I don't like politics, I hate politics. And that's why I have to learn more about it. The lecturer said that "Politics is the power of deciding who gets what at when and how." Every new stories we read on paper nowadays has some purposes behind it, especially those news by the governments. This is how those big guys play the game.. I'm not very familiar with the Singapore situation yet. But if you think deeply about things that the US government did in recent years.. most of them were trying to attack China, directly or indirectly. And their current aim is the Beijing Olympics 2008. Of course Chinese Government did things to attack US as well..

okie... going to far already...

Back to the courses I'm taking this semester..
Yesterday I received a call from the Econ Department for the courses that I applied earlier on.. and interestly I've got 6 courses registered now! So I've got a choice!! I have to decide which one to drop.

Let's see what I have now..
1. NM2201 Intercultural Communication
2. NM2216 Introduction to Interactive Media
3. EC3332 Money and Banking I
4. SE3214 Marketing Southeast Asia's Heritage
5. GEK2003/PS2249/SSA2209 Government and Politics in Singapore
6. EC3341 International Economics I

Firstly, I will never drop Intercultural Communication as I really love it... and I don't think I will drop Govt and Politics in SG after yesterday's lecture. SE3214 is also my flavourite, cos there will be several fieldtrips to NUS museum, Malay Heritage Centre and Fort Canning. =P

So I have to choose one from Money and Banking, International Economics or Interactive Media. I'm not so sure about this. I'm never good at econs.. maybe I should drop one of them.. but it's really bad for me to tell others that I'm a Bachelor of Commerce that doesn't know about economics!! For interactive media.. after the first lecture, I didn't feel as good as other lectures.. but this is also something useful as a marketing student.. but there is a group project in this course which worth 25%, then another 25% is just participation.. the remaining 50% are all for the final exam!!

well.. it's too early to make the decision though, I only had 3 hour sleep... maybe I should think about it later.. =P

If you have any suggestions, please tell me!!