ひヵる from ダウト
My sexy little darling.
I want to cuddle you, but most of all I just want to see you smile everyday.
When your happy, so am I.
Your smile is my greatest gift.
(Credits to shiko_ro.livejournal.com for the scan)
I haven't blogged in a very long time and I'm really sorry about that. Its been really hectic and I feel unusually stressed. Too many things on my mind I want to clear out but my schedule is not allowing it. I'm really not too confident for my results this semester. Not expecting much but hopefully I can maintain my GPA. Need to work harder next semester. Well, right now, I'm in Beijing, China for my ITP. I'm attached to Pratt & Whitney and so far, its been a real eye opener for myself. This is a list of my likes and dislikes of the place so far.
Likes:
-Cheap Food
-Cheap Fake Goods
-Historical Places
-Shopping Districts
-Touching Real Turbofan Engines
-Lamb Skewers
-Fanta
-The Weather
-Duck De Chine(EXPENSIVE)
Dislikes:
-People Spitting Everywhere(Literally everywhere, even in shopping malls)
-Oily Food
-Low Humidity
-Log Book(To hell with it)
-Weird Creepy Crawlies
-Stuffy Classroom
-Smog(ruins photos)
At this point, I would like to give highlights of my trip so far.
On the first day, I took an airplane for the first time in MANY years. Yes, I consider that a highlight. When we arrived, Beijing Capital Airport impressed me. The place is huge and beautiful. However, they have to improve on their immigration. Imagine only having ten immigration gates. Four of those for Chinese Nationals and six for foreigners. It was truly a long and gruelling process. The immigration card was funny though. Its referred to foreigners as 'Aliens'. I laughed for quite abit. After exiting immigration, we walked around before boarding the internal train service to the arrival hall. As you go through the building, you realized the shear magnitude of the building and the effort gone into decorating the place. Giant carved walls, giant ornate vases, just beautiful. I'm staying in this hotel called the CITIC Hotel Beijing Airport(formerly the Sino-Swiss Hotel). Its not a bad place just that its abit old. We had dinner with the principal on the 1st night at a nearby restaurant. Its really a very eye-opening meal, really local. Second day, we went over to the Pratt & Whitney Customer Training Centre. Its not really a huge facility but its really nice. Its clean, its spacious and its organized. Truly an American company by the way. Lunch was another spectacle. Buffet lunch, Western or Eastern, purely up to you to decide. The food is pretty good and I've really been enjoying myself. The lessons are good but the classroom is really stuffy and I wish the lessons could be outside in the shade. The weather is really THE BEST weather to study in.
On our first night out to town, we visited Dong Zhi Men, one of the main shopping district. However, its really like visiting City Hall in Singapore. I visited Raffles City. Yes, RAFFLES CITY. Exactly the same as in Singapore. I am disappointed. Really did expect more China than Singapore.Eventually the next few nights we ventured further and further out to the Silk Market area.One of the dinner, I had my first taste of an insect. I ate a silkworm pupae, it tasted pretty okay so I had two. One thing you notice when you travel around China is the contrasting images of poverty and wealth everywhere in the city. It could be a dirty, smelly street but by the next corner, it could be lined with flowers and absolutely clean. This is what you will see in China, the wealthy areas are filled with flora and fauna and cleaned constantly but when you walk into the real streets of China, you see old brick roads, people spitting and squatting in corners, and generally showing the real Beijing. I really enjoy the flowers planted around Beijing. They are all EXTREMELY beautiful and I wished that Singapore had those kinds of flowers. On our first weekend out, we visited the Temple of Heaven in Beijing. What can I saw about it except its the most amazing park ever. When you first enter the place, you see many locals engaging in different forms of recreation. The older people were practising calligraphy on the floor with larger brushes and small pots of water. The younger people engaged in more strenuous activities such as playing with the chapteh or Chinese yo-yo. There were also groups of people singing, line dancing and engaging in other more leisurely activities. Then, you enter the site itself, the place is just massive. I cannot imagine how much was needed to build the Temple of Heaven. The different buildings housed different relics which were used in the Temple, however, I feel that the artifacts were placed poorly and there wasn't sufficient lighting to properly display them. Still, i visited one of the most historic site in the world and it felt magnificent. We then headed off for lunch. We visited a interesting street near Tian'anmen Square. It just a modern take on a old shopping district with rows of modern shops in old shop houses. We ate in a corner restaurant which was actually not bad.We then left for Tian'anmen square and the Forbidden City. The place is HUGE. Walking from end-to-end of the palace took us two-and-a-half hours. The decor is so elaborate and intricate, especially in the gardens of the palace. There were all species of tress from pine to cedar, rock formations of all sorts and seas of flowers. I felt that the time spent there was insufficient to really see the full magnificence and epic-ness of the place. In the evening we went to Wang Fu Jing, the Orchard road of China. I think it was really meant for tourists and the things there are overpriced. We did eat scorpions, cicadas and silkworm pupaes. They were all nice(seriously) and was an interesting experience.
Other places we visited include the Summer Palace(Damn awesome for photo shoot), Olympic Bird Nest and Water Cube, all the major attractions. I need to go there again to shoot the places again. I also climbed to the top of the Great Wall. One of the my achievements of my life. I overcame my fear of heights to scale the massive structure. The view from 888m according to the marker and 600m from my watch was priceless. And although the winds were chilling, it was the best part of my trip. On the 15th, we had our graduation from the course and had a very nice graduation lunch provided by Pratt and Whitney. Part of me feels sad to have left China but on the other hand, I miss Singapore in so many aspects and thus am glad to be back. Well, I'm going to end this post here for now but as soon as I can think of more to say, I will blog again.
ひヵる from ダウト
Dinesh having a meal.
Tze Huan the monkey.
Spinning drill and spraying coolant.
