Possibly the only visible certainty…

In the garbage bag there is a pillow, pillow case, blanket, quilt, quilt cover.
Along with the flask, I wish it came in a friendlier way.

There was once I tried to take up the job of being a mystery shopper. All I had to do was to be a customer in a shop, but in the way of a secret agent, conduct a survey of the customer experience and report it to the mystery shopping solutions company.

Easy, huh? Rather easy money, and that’s why I never got the job.

Through the use of its unique mystery shopping and customer survey programs, BestMark allows you not only to gather incident-specific performance at the moment of truth when a customer comes in contact with your organization, but also to track and trend attributes and behaviors that can impact long-term guest value, satisfaction and advocacy.

Back at UBC I was learning Beginners’ German from a German PhD student whose lessons were quite fun and engaging. Even though he was unsure of certain grammatic rules, we always forgave him because beads of perspiration would form on his head even in the midst of winter. Our German textbook introduces grammar step by step and we were just getting into past tense. Learning was in short sentences. I was already struggling with so many rules to remember and vocabulary to memorize, but I managed to get by with pastel colours.

Here in Fudan my classmates are done with grammar rules and usages. My current textbook is filled with PASSAGES and during today’s lesson I was completely lost when the teacher read the passage and the class started analyzing sentence structures. Usages and grammatical rules are briefly reviewed in Chinese and I can’t really follow. There’s way too much I need to catch up with, and I’m not sure if I can handle learning a 3rd language with my 2nd language in such a short time. What is 第1-4格respectively? And then there’s 强变化动词，不规则变化动词 (irregular verbs?)，不定式 (indefinite?)，现在时(present tense?)，过去时(past tense?)，完成时…

I am so dead.

A long read, but rather comprehensive:

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/chinese-firewall 

It’s the first time I’m on a one-way ticket to Shanghai, and it’s painful because I don’t know when I’ll be home. Previously I knew I’d be home within the coming 6 months because I held a 6-month ticket.

The views I long to see:

It’s home greeting me from the plane!

Or does having a one-way ticket entitle me to go back anytime in between 6 months?

Hahahahahahahaha.

I want to get the remaining 1.5 years over and done with quick, but maybe I’ll take that back when I’m finally graduating and hunting for a job. And I might miss the little things here. Might.

CG, I finished my mom’s pappadum already.

I usually snooze my mobile phone alarm for an hour before I finally get out of bed. Seems like it’s a chronic problem for most people since something as irritating as a flying alarm clock is around.

The Flying Alarm Clock consists of a base and a propeller. When the alarm sounds, it releases the propeller into the air, and the alarm won’t stop until the propeller returns to the base. This is a great way to wake up a stubborn sleeper.

See here for more unique gifts.

Watch the clock in action at: http://www.youtube.com/v/XbPJ3cipucY&rel=1

This is a sponsored post.

(picture taken at Singapore’s Chingay Preview)

Yesterday marked the 15th day of the lunar new year, and fire crackers were being set off by many locals all over. They really had a blast since the blasting of fire crackers were heard from 6 in the evening till 10+ at night. It’s my 2nd time being here on 元宵节 and the feeling is the same: annoyance. Imagine how many households or businesses are setting off fire crackers for the blasting to last for 4 hours. It’s not the kind of pyrotechnics that we view in awe during rare occasions in Singapore, but the anyhow-anywhere-set-don’t-care-if-the-popper-lands-on-someone’s-head kind. It’s a joyous occasion and maybe I’m envious of their accessibility to fire crackers and their family time, but the way they celebrate is simply hazardous and rather irritating.

I was watching a celebratory show on 湖南卫视 that feature famous artistes lip-syncing to their songs while the show slowly but surely turned into a drama thanking rescue workers for their efforts during the weather disaster. Suddenly instead of watching 快男超女 (”happy boys & super girls”) (various artistes from competitions akin to American Idol) bouncing around on stage forgetting their lyrics with their mouth wide open, I was watching a soldier proposing to his fiancee on national tv because his marriage was postponed twice due to his obligation to fulfil assignments during the disaster, as well as several other tearful stories of separation for the soldiers and their family during spring festival.

Anyway, hope you guys had a fabulous 元宵节, and let me try wishing you the Chinese way:

恭祝大家在新的一年里：

一帆风顺、二龙腾飞、三羊开泰、四季平安、五福临门、六六大顺、七星高照、八方来财、九九同心、十全十美、百事亨通、千事吉祥、万事如意 ！

Thanks to CG’s help, I managed to get the bulk of my belongings in my little dormitory room, but there’s more to come. There are still several big items I haven’t moved over which will hopefully happen next week.

The unpacking can almost kill me (referring to both the hassle and the dust) but it’s keeping me pretty occupied and I hope to settle down with most belongings in place before school starts on Monday.

At MovingOrbit.com, you can get multiple estimates for local and interstate moving companies. You can select the mover that gives you the best price and protection for your valuables. truck rental is also available.

I’m back here and logged on to what CG calls China’s intranet. Also known as the GFC, I cannot access blogspot, wordpress, wikipedia, etc.

One way to access blogspot is by using pkblogs.com, or any anonymous proxy servers.

But if you’re using Firefox, which you should be instead of the annoying IE, you can use a script to do a quick fix and be able to access blogspot, wordpress, wikipedia, and livejournal.

Check it out here: How To Spot A Blogspot Blog (A Quick Fix)

Flickr images are also blocked. See here to gain access (limited to Firefox).

I dread the whole hassle of moving. The packing, and then the menial chore of moving the myriad of items from one location to another, and then what may be the worst — unpacking.

If I had more things, I may have called a moving company to do the menial labour, but since my things are all just a student’s belongings, I’ll be troubling friends to do me this big favour.

At Vanlines.com, they can help you each step of the way, including advice on how to pack items like the air conditioner, china & crystals etc. They also provide information on Real Estate, Mortgage, Moving, Apartment Hunting, Insurance, Careers, and Home Improvement. You can even relocate your car with their auto transport services.