Squareface @ 31°North

(And why are you not?)

Some mornings, in the early seconds before wakefulness, I see in my mind a hot bowl of hei mee — prawn noodles. The bright yellow noodles in a pastel blue plastic bowl, swimming with shelled prawns, fried onions, and deep fried pork lard in steaming hot brown soup. And then I can almost smell it — the onions, the prawns and the lard in hei mee. But then I awake to find myself miles away from anything like it. In those moments, I really miss being in Singapore. It’s so cliche for an overseas Singaporean to talk about missing Singaporean food. I don’t even know why I think of hei mee, since it’s not anywhere on my list of favourite foods. But when I was still a kid with dorky glasses and a bowl-like haircut, my mother would wake me on Sunday mornings and take me to Whampoa to slurp up my Sundays’ hei mee. I guess that explains it. But why am I still here in Shanghai?

Opportunities

They’re here. They’re growing, and they’re here to stay. Eyes are on China, most are set on Shanghai.

Costs/Choices

Cost of living in Shanghai is not low, but choices are available to stretch your dollar, or your RMB, so to speak.

Clothes

Why buy clothes, shoes and accessories from the boutiques or department stores when you can get imported/to-be-exported clothes at the Qipu Lu Wholesale Market? Or get your shirt/pants/dress/suit tailor-made out of your own designs at Lujiabang Fabric Market?

Entertainment

Pirated DVDs: 5－9RMB depending on quality.

Pirated Wii Games: 5RMB

Pirated Software: 10 - ? RMB

Pirated Books: 10 - ? RMB depending on size, thickness, hardcover/paperback

Movies: Varies for different cinemas and titles. But generally, cheap in the mornings, half price on Tuesdays and after 10pm everyday

Bank

The minimum amount to have in your savings account before the bank starts to charge a fee is 500RMB. If you don’t have at least 500RMB, the bank will deduct 2RMB from your account every month you don’t hit the minimum.

In Singapore? It’s S$500 and S$2.

Transportation

Buses: 2-4RMB depending on distance

Metro: 3-6RMB depending on distance

Taxi: Starting fare at 12RMB, therafter 2.40RMB per km or equivalent waiting time. Midnight surcharge starts at 11pm, with the meter starting at 16RMB and the fare hikes by 30%. No surcharge for booking a taxi other than from dazhong company (charges 4RMB).

Very useful tip: You can haggle with taxi drivers after 11pm for a 20% discount if your journey is fairly long, and if taxis are in abundance where you are.

Everything

Accessories, clothes, shoes, books, software, computers, cameras, photo printing services, snacks, dog food, cat food, dog clothes, cat clothes, anything can be purchased on TAOBAO.COM and delivered to your doorstep! It is also currently my new past time.

Convenience

The months of winter are the hardest to leave the house. To gear myself for the almost unbearable Shanghai winter, I apply moisturizer to my face, slather it all over my body (it’s necessary for it to really be ALL over). I wear leggings, pants, a shirt, a woolen shirt, a jacket, a scarf, a beanie, earmuffs, gloves, and then strap on my pair of winter boots. What usually takes 15 minutes — getting dressed to go out — takes 30-45 minutes during winter. So of course being the bum that I am I’d much rather stay in, and the conveniences in Shanghai allow me to do so!

Food

Almost every eating establishment provides the service of waimai, which is to deliver your ordered food to where you are. In Singapore I’m only aware of food delivery restaurants like KFC, Macs, Pizza Hut, Sakae Sushi. In Shanghai, food delivery for any eating establishment is a given! To me, that’s a god-send! I realize I’ve become very attached to this convenience. When I lived in the wintry months in Vancouver, I had to get my ass out of the house if I wanted to eat decently, and I even had to tip them! I don’t know if I can ever get used to living without the convenience of waimai anymore.

Tickets

Other than the relatively lower costs of concert tickets, I can order tickets online and have them delivered to me at no charge!

There are several avenues of getting concert tickets:

1) Buy from the authorized dealer either at the ticketing office or online,

2) Buy from sellers on Taobao who are selling them at a cheaper price,

3) Haggle with scalpers lingering around the concert venue just before the concert.

To give you an example of how you can cut costs by buying concert tickets on Taobao, I just attended Zhang Hui Mei’s concert in the middle of last month. The listed prices for her concert tickets started from 280RMB (Jacky Cheung’s started from 180RMB). We bought tickets at 300RMB for 580RMB seats!

Airplane tickets can also be ordered through the phone or Internet and delivered to you at no charge.

Best thing is, you only need to pay after you receive the tickets!

The Heart

What else can I say, the heart is getting very comfortable in this adopted city.

Even though I’d still have to wait till I return to Singapore to have the hei mee I’ve been strangely fantasizing about, living with someone who can whip up a bowl of Laksa at will definitely helps a great deal. *big wide grin*

In very bad taste, here’s a Christmas E-card from MCYS.

Not too long ago I’d always been excited about the growing number of my age. Sweet 16, forever 18, golden key 21. Then it stopped. I’m not excited about growing up anymore. It’s just not funny saying I’m forever 18 any longer. Before people start to classify me as belonging to the mid-twenties, here’s a reflection on my turning 24 (mostly thinking back of silly-but-poignant random incidents, or little little achievements):

1. This is my 5th birthday spent abroad. That’s more than one fifth of my lifetime. Whoa.

2. I’m still very much wide-eyed (even though my eyes are small).

3. People no longer find it funny when you attempt to make lame jokes like the above.

4. Money, career and maybe even love is of secondary importance. What’s most important is extremely fundamental, and is my father’s most asked question to me: do you move your bowels everyday?

5. Don’t underestimate the power of healthy bowel movements. I had to provide a stool sample recently after getting stomach flu and let’s say I’d rather take 10 injections instead!

6. Having seen 7 colleagues being laid off barely into my first year of work, I have started seeing the workplace as incredibly cruel.

7. During my first 7 months in Shanghai, I mistook the softener for liquid detergent. Yup, so for the entire 7 months my clothes smelled good and was incredibly soft, but never cleaned.

8. Some construction worker stole my wallet and I ran after him. I managed to get my wallet back but on hindsight it was so dangerous.

9. I followed a stranger from near the Space needle in Seattle to the Museum of Flight, and took a bi-plane ride with him.

10. I followed 2 strangers from Wreck Beach in Vancouver to downtown and was treated to Poutine.

11. I dropped out of Singapore Institute of Management after 2 or 3 months.

12. I very nearly went to University of Queensland in Brisbane instead of Fudan University in Shanghai.

13. I peed in my skirt in Primary 1 because I didn’t dare tell the teacher I needed to go.

14. I’ve made several big purchases this year that amounts to 16,000RMB (Nikon D80 and Macbook), some other settlements for 10,000RMB, and 2640RMB on my teeth.

15. I have 2 crowned teeth i.e. fake teeth above real molar stumps. Now toothpicks and floss are part of my daily routine after some meat delight, and I think twice before biting on crab pincers. I swear never to use my teeth to open beer bottles again.

16. I’m a university graduate now.

17. I’ve learnt to cook, although my chopping/slicing is nowhere near experienced.

18. My first official job is a (Content) Editor.

19. After 23 years of being fearful of pets bigger than fish and terrapins, I now live with 2 adorable dogs. I feed them, play with them, sleep with them. walk them (or they walk me), and keep a close watch on dilating anuses to lead them into the bushes, but I’ve never picked up their poo (and hope I never have to!).

20. I own 3 websites, 3 computers, and too many cameras. Next up is a handycam.

21. I now fit (mainly) XL clothes, which coincides with my initials.

22. I’ve gone without showering, changing my clothes, nor brushed my teeth for 3 days.

23. My Chinese still sucks. But my bargaining tactics still work.

24. I’ve started shopping on Taobao.com (like Ebay but far far better) and I’m hooked. Never thought I’d be a sucker for internet shopping but here I am, keying in figures out of my bank account to buy things based on pictures on words.

I am very thankful to Frankie at Frankie’s Place, the homeliest Singaporean restaurant in Shanghai, for being so generous on my birthday. We were served birthday mee sua, ang ku kway, and Tiger beer on the house! I haven’t even had a bowl of birthday mee sua for the longest time, ever since my mother got angry with me back when I celebrated my birthday with my friends back when I was 16.

I’m just glad I’ve found a home away from home, and found family in this adopted city.

This is a long overdue post, but at least I made it in time for the new year.

Happy 2010 folks!

The first fall.

Waiting to see if it’ll blanket.

Pepper was playing around on the sofa with Bailey (the other dog that I haven’t blogged about) when he suddenly leaped onto my Macbook and ripped 2 keys while jumping off.

So I thought it was about time that Pepper should be locked up in the kitchen with his namesake, next to the salt shaker.

But of course his “mom” softened with his constant whining and let him out shortly after. -_-

Well, what’s the point of naming your dog a condiment if he can’t spice things up as his name promises, right?

So I present to you, Pepper and his masterpieces:

“You went out without leaving me a snack”

“I don’t like it when you watch DVDs and ignore me”

“Did you think I was joking the last time?”

“I’m from China. I cannot live without firecrackers.”

(Pepper tore a cork placemat into smithereens, making the remnants look like that of used firecrackers that residents in China incorporate into their national pastime.)

Left: My 2nd pair of spectacles chewed by Pepper. The 1st one (no pic) barely resembles anything like a pair of reading aid. Post-Pepper’s chewing, it looked more like a twisted piece of plastic and wire from an industrial dumpsite.

Right: My DBS IB token that is no longer functional after being punctured by his teeth. Woohoo.

It’s time to get him toy spectacles so he can vent his terminator prowess (or sexual frustration) on something unimportant. After seeing the state of my spectacles, I tried to show him I was pissed off for having to wear my contact lenses at home as well, so I shot him a dirty look…

…but…

he looks back at me with his doe eyes so… I just couldn’t help it…

…I held him in my arms.

Come on, you wouldn’t have been able to help it too!

Left: Pepper in his Stitch outfit

Right: BeePee snuggling against my legs.

Awwwwww.

Okay. It’s been a long hiatus.

I remember not too long ago I was nagging friends to continue blogging even after they started working and didn’t buy into the excuse of “no time”, “too tired”, “don’t wanna face another computer after a day’s work”. Little did I know I would mutter these excuses to concerned online friends (all one of you) myself.

Hey come on, I spend 8 hours every weekday doing web stuff so at the end of the day, I’d really like some time away from the bad glares of computer screens.

But now I just might be needing the time at home to work on my own project which I’ve been procrastinating for far too long.

Haven’t chronicled my life in such a long while, I’ve forgotten how to. These days I’m writing stuff for the web primarily for robots, so.

Okay, here’s trying to provide updates on my life. Since I’ve become geekier, let the tech speak begin.

If I was a search engine, the search result for “love” has had a new top entry for the past 2 months, and is staying strong at the top of the index. Searching for key phrases, “amazing woman”, “most challenging lover” and “love of my life” would indisputably display the same first result. Pardon the tacky tech speak, call it an occupation hazard if you wish. She’ll be remaining anonymous though, and I haven’t yet thought of a good alias for her, but something should come up soon.

On what I do on weekdays, I’m training to be an SEO with an increasing focus on landing page optimization. Let’s hope it’s going to be as promising as it sounds.

I did say the woman in my life now will remain a Jane Doe, but her lovely Schnauzer, Pepper, is here to tug at your heart. *Cue awwwww*

There are so many people to thank for helping me keep my sanity intact through these trying college years. Don’t know if you all think this is too sappy of me though. Haha. Bear with me, for this is probably the first and the last.

First and foremost, I would like to extend my eternal gratitude to my parents. This goes without being said: without them, I wouldn’t be here.

To the teachers who have inspired me and pushed me to achieve my potential these four years, I thank thee, all two of you. To the rest of the teachers, thank you for giving me a pass grade. To some of them, you might want to consider a career change, teaching is not just a job.

As an emotionally dependent idiot, I owe the woman I spent 4 unforgettable years with for being there through my foul tempers and for being a lasting punching bag. She saw me through my transition from a feisty youth to a resigned chinese university student, and stayed. When my temper called for it, she flew to Hong Kong at my whim, and even to Shanghai just to help me with my unpacking when I moved to a one-bedroom apartment. She has been relentless in giving all she can to me, even when I long stopped deserving it. You know who you are — thank you.

To MissY who’s somewhat grudgingly still by my side, I know your patience with me reaches your limit many a time, and I thank you for bearing with my bitchiness, nagging, and laziness with household chores. Let’s hope this year of pseudo married life will bring much laughter to our new home. Thank you also for being my pillar of support, and more importantly, school administration informant these four years in college. Haha. Thank you for staying by me when I was at my lowest, and for forgiving me when I couldn’t even forgive myself. 

To CG who is currently in lovely London finishing up his Master’s, thank you so much for all your encouragement and advice through the trials and tribulations these 4 years. Also grateful for your help when I had to move one too many times, and for our many reasons to celebrate with treats! Your wisdom and academic talent have also been of great help to my little academic pursuits. Thanks mostly for keeping it real when the rest of the world seemed to sway the other side. Much credit has to be given to you for the sanity I have today. 

To other FUSSA-ians, although your recollection of times with me is probably of yesteryears, I do sincerely appreciate the help and support available from FUSSA these years. I wish all of you success in your endeavors.

To Vanessa, my closest Chinese friend, thanks for daring to be different from the herd, and looking out for me when most didn’t. I appreciate your honesty and cherish our years of friendship in Shanghai.

To my other Chinese classmates, thanks for being patient with my Chinese and Mandarin, and listening to my presentations with accented English even when the teacher was not in the classroom. As we embark on our different paths after this, I hope we remember the good times when we acted out “Cupid and Psyche” and other fun skits in English class.

To my one and only Italian friend Marta, your independence and courage have been of great motivation to me, and I thank you for our heart-to-heart talks, and all your encouragement that would not have been possible without your open mind.

To Birte, hailing from Hamburg, thank you for imparting some of your mature wisdom on to me. Meeting you at that fateful Irish talk was a lucky day. =)

To Yuka, thanks for sharing your interesting china experiences recently, and I do hope you achieve your goals in the near future.

Connie, thanks firstly for feeding me with great food and letting me introduce you to unhealthy snacking and life-saving instant noodles. My stomach is grateful for your occasional treats of banana bread, Reese’s and your bag of half-eaten chips. Thanks for being so cozy with me so quick at Gage, and helping me make my stint in UBC a very memorable one. 

Thanks also to my other roommates at Gage, who made 6 pax living extremely comfortable, even though we only had one toilet cubicle! Thanks loads for sharing your utensils, but mostly for giving me intimate insights into Canadian culture.

To Grace, Elena, and Madeline, thanks for the great times in UBC! The meals, the drinks, the skipping class to climb Grouse Mountain (not once but twice!), and the talking cock before and after MLT class.

To my beloved supportive friends back home: Winni, Reina, Celine, Joanne, Lay Shan, Shufen, Shuh Tien, Shaina, Dino, Yiling, Yunling, Wz, Js, etc. Thanks for all the support and encouragement! I’m also grateful to some of you for calling/webcaming/skyping/msning once in a while to share intimate details of our lives. It’s absolutely gratifying to know that friends back home still care despite the distance, and it’s life’s great luxury to be able to chat over roti prata etc with pals whenever I’m back in Singapore.

Thanks dot for always showing concern and offering medical advice at critical moments! 

Nicole, we seem to only meet long after the sun sets, but, good times.

Joice, thanks for the inspiration to take the road less taken.

To anyone else I may have missed mentioning here, you are missed and thanked too!

Starting full-time work tomorrow (1 July), and I guess it’s farewell to academia. 

Although I’ve had many misgivings in the past with Fudan University, I sang the school song on the day of commencement. Not so much because I felt proud or whatever, but ‘coz it’s quite a good piece:

Fudan School Song:

Goodbye bouts of nostalgia, hello full-blown adulthood.

Does it mean I speak impeccable English, can be referred to as an English grammar handbook, spout bombastic English vocabulary, or authorized to correct your English? Barely. If I’m qualified to do anything, it is to show you how ugly my graduation photo and certificates are (name and id numbers have been unskillfully removed by me):

Thanks to CG for sharing this song with me, What do you do with a BA in English?

What do you do with a B.A. in English,
What is my life going to be?
Four years of college and plenty of knowledge,
Have earned me this useless degree.

I can’t pay the bills yet,
‘Cause I have no skills yet,
The world is a big scary place.

But somehow I can’t shake,
The feeling I might make,
A difference,
To the human race.

I just sat for my final paper in university, possibly the very last one of my life. It was for my Shakespeare elective. Everyone left the exam room complaining about it, because the final mini-essay question was not in the text at all, nor did he give us any clue that he’d drop such a bomb. We studied excerpts from 9 plays: The Twelfth Night, Measure for Measure, Henry IV, Richard III, Julius Caesar, Macbeth, Hamlet, The Tempest, and The Two Noble Kinsmen. But the critical exam question was on The Merchant of Venice! O, judge o you Gods, what fools he makes of us.

In spite of that, I’m very pleased. This university life is over. OVER! 

Since nostalgia hasn’t kicked in, let me say all this now. I’m so glad I don’t have to sit in those toilet-stenched classrooms with creaky fold-down wooden chairs paired with completely vandalized wooden chipped off tables anymore letting voices of boredom weave in and out of my semi-wakefulness, resting on my one too many photocopied copyright breached textbooks distributed at almost no cost. I’m even more elated at the fact that I don’t have to write on A3 brown thinner-than-toilet-paper exam answer sheets while witnessing how students are referring to small pieces of paper in their pencilcases, underneath skirts, or under caps. Or more recently, students leaving the classroom for the bathroom and miraculously filling up their papers with the right answers after they return.

I wish I could say I’m also done with the administration people in my university, but alas, I still need them in order to graduate.

Peace, ho! Studies and exams, I bid thee farewell.