JENESYS 2.0 - Japan Day 2

Hello! I'm back (earlier than expected right?) for Day 2. I'll post all the addresses, links and other useful information at the end of the post so as not to break the flow.

We woke up at the crack of dawn to move into central Tokyo. Unfortunately, our bus and a whole bunch of other people were also trying to get into Tokyo in the morning so we were stuck in traffic for a while. However, on our way in, we drove on the Rainbow Bridge

This bridge is the Rainbow Bridge

and we even saw the Fuji Building

The building with the round ball is the Fuji TV building

and the Tokyo Tower!

Yep. The tall thing is Tokyo Tower

Apparently, we also saw the Sky Tree but like I said, we woke up at the crack of dawn. I was asleep in the bus when that happened.

They dropped us at the National Youth Olympic Memorial Buiding for a talk by the ASEAN-Japan Center and how our ties especially in terms of AEC works. 

We had some time to kill before that so luckily, I bought a pre-lunch snack in the form of a mentaiko onigiri. 

It was really really really delicious.

And my drink of choice: Green Tea Latte (better than Starbucks and at a fraction of the price)

It came with the option for hot or cold

 which I got from the infamous Japanese vending machines.

Universal vending machine rules: If the bar is red, your drink will be hot. Blue? Cold.

The talk was interesting. We learnt more about the economic ties between ASEAN and Japan and what the ASEAN-Japan Center does in Tokyo. They did open the floor to the participants so we got to grill the panelists (in English of course)

After that, they drove us back to Odaiba for lunch at The Oven in Aqua City Odaiba. To be honest, I wouldn't pick that restaurant because I didn't want to eat American food in Japan. But I satisfied my taco craving. I've not had taco in YEARS. (Hey Taco Bell! Can you please open an outlet in Singapore? I really love burritos too :3) Other than the food type, it was delicious and it was buffet style so...EAT EVERYTHING. 

The Aqua City Odaiba sign and The Oven (thanks to Lara for those pictures)

The view from the restaurant was pretty good as well! 

The Rainbow Bridge again

Hello replica of Statue of Liberty

(You can see these views from the restaurant terrace so if you want delicious fried chicken and great buffet while enjoying the view, go visit the Oven!)

We could shop around after lunch so I went exploring around Aqua City. I'm not a big shopper so I didn't buy anything. The mall had pretty much everything. They had a Disney store (CUTE!) and even a Capcom store (bought some Biohazard stuff for my sister). I spent the most time in the AEON Pet Store. The pet stores in Japan are beyond adorable. They have glass displays for you to look at the puppies/kittens and their "areas" were all extremely clean. How do I know? The floor was white. And none of that newspaper on the floor thing either. They had pee-pads and were all well-groomed and seemed bright and alert. 

Hilarious shirts that I didn't buy

After our shopping excursion in which some of my group mates bought half of Daiso (much better variety but hey, who needs household goods?), they moved us to our hotel at Hotel Metropolitan Tokyo. This was the best hotel that I've stayed in in my trip but...there's no wifi at all. I was rooming with Lara and Minsei (both from the Philippines) and they were really great roomies!

We could make our way to dinner (in the next building) any time we wanted but I decided that I had enough of Western food and I wanted a head start to see Tokyo again. So, the Singaporeans from the two groups heading to Nara headed out to explore Tokyo. Kai and Jason wanted to do their own otaku stuff (hahaha) so Sherrie, Evi, Nic(holas - not to be confused with my best friend Nicole) and I headed to central Tokyo. Our original plan was to hit Shibuya then travel upwards to Harajuku and then Shinjuku. However, by the time we reached Shibuya, we realised that we might not have enough time to cover everything so we decided to just focus on Shibuya.

Our first task was to find a place to eat dinner. This is after we left Shibuya Station via the Hachiko exit. Upon your exit, you will immediately see the famous Shibuya crossing. Please note that if you're going to meet somebody at Shibuya, please research which exit you're meeting at and specifically state which one. There are MANY exits and all of them as crowded as each other.

This is the view you get when you leave Shibuya by the Hachiko exit. (There's a dog statue there so you can check if you're at the right one) If you want to hit the famous shopping area, follow the signs and get out at the Hachiko exit.

When I turned behind, i saw this... T_T

SUMMER SONIC T_T

After wandering around, we found a standing sushi bar that was covered in Time Out! Japan.

Thanks to Nic for those pictures!

 From my experience, food covered by Time Out is generally good. This sushi restaurant has exclusive bidding rights at the famous Tsukiji Fish Market so you know you're getting your money's worth. The best thing about this? There's an English  menu! I'm able to order in Japanese but unfortunately, no amount of classes can teach you about what the fishes are called in Japanese. However, the English menu had MUCH less variety than what was offered in the shop. This is to be expected since the catch of the day varies with what the restaurant can get from the market in the morning. The sushi chef kindly offered us the items that weren't in the menu and told us the price as well.

(Thanks Nic! - although I swear if that's some form of abalone that I didn't eat I'll be really upset with myself right now)

 If you can't speak Japanese, no worries. You can always look at the chiller and see the fish that they have and just point at it. 

We ordered 

Egg (Tamago) & Cuttlefish (Ika)

Salmon (Thanks Nic)

I think this is Chutoro. It's a sashim from a tuna's belly. OH MY GOD. T_T It was so good

Tuna and Aji (Horse Mackerel)

Uni (Sea Urchin) - oh my god. This sushi was so good I teared up after eating it. I was just so happy to be able to eat it T_T

Scallop!! OH MY.

Sherri & I. We were ridiculously happy. 

Our super satisfied smiles. We'll definitely come back again!

Nic and Evi tried a few more but these were all I ate so that's all the pictures I have. 

Our bill per person only came up to about ¥ 1 000 per person. That's...really cheap for such good quality sushi. 

We headed to Shibuya 109 to shop after.

We had to split up since Shibuya 109 was an entire mall for women while the men's Shibuya 109 is on the opposite side of the road. If you don't see the word "MEN" in giant red glowing letters, the 109 is for women. It was quite daunting to try to cover 8 floors but we discovered that the space for each floor was really small! The mall was tall but small. After peeking into a few shops, we learnt to walk out once the items weren't on sales racks...because they were REALLY expensive. For me anyway. I don't want to spend so much of my money on clothes. I saw a ¥10,000 t-shirt. A T-SHIRT. Er...nope. Plus, there were quite a few shops that sold flowery/lacey stuff so...nope.

Since we were up at the crack of dawn, we were really tired and decided to indulge in our favourite past time: supper. On our wandering around Shibuya, we passed by this cheese tart store called Pablo. 

(Thanks Nic!)

If you're in Shibuya, you can't miss Pablo. Mostly because there's always a long queue. Before heading back to our hotel, we decided to pick up a tart. The tarts come in three different types of how baked you want it to be : raw, medium and well-done. Raw means that the tart will be like a molten chocolate cake. Seeing how we had no knives or spoons of any kind, we opted for medium to make it easier for us to enjoy. There's also a premium cheese tart but it was sold out by the time we got there (7+pm) and it's really really popular so go there early if you want to try it!

We queued and queued and when we finally got there, two things happened. 

1) The lady in front of me left but she barely got ten steps away from the store when the tart box she had fell to the floor aka destroying the cake. The staff immediately got a replacement for her and gave it to her. Just like that. I was really impressed.

2) I got an extra tart for free. I'm not sure why. Mostly because my Japanese isn't that great and I was really tired. I was so afraid he got my order wrong that I kept telling him that I only needed one tart but the staff put two in the bag. Obviously, I was told something but I couldn't understand it. To be careful, I backed away slowly from the store in case they called me back because I only paid for one. So yes, I got 2 tarts for the price of 1.

Before heading back, we also picked up some takoyaki from a nearby store. This is terrible, but I've forgotten the store name  T_T 

On the way back, I picked up…YEP. GREEN TEA LATTE

And we had supper in our hotel room. 

(Thanks Nic!)

We had a pretty big dinner and the cheese tarts are big. By the time I finished the first one, Sherri and Evi abandoned Nic and I to finish the second. 

You are my everest.

I wasn't doing so good but I fully understood Chandler and Rachel in this moment.

If I didn't finish it, I knew I'll regret it. Of course I finished it.

By the time we actually headed back to our own rooms, it was past midnight and we had to be up at the crack of dawn again (No, really) to catch the Shinkansen to Kyoto and from there, a bus to Nara. 

I was staying at Hotel Metropolital Edmont Tokyo. In terms of location, it was great. It's in Iidabashi so the JR station was a 5 minute walk away, but it wasn't stuck in the middle of a busy street so you were affected by the traffic. I had no worries about walking back to the hotel at 11+pm even though it was quiet. I didn't feel unsafe at all. In terms of location to central Tokyo (Shinjuku, Shibuya etc.) I got there via the subway in less than 45 minutes. I can't remember the exact time but we were held up buying tickets and trying to read the kanji. If you're really worried about not being able to read the map, I highly suggest you look up all the places you want to visit in Tokyo, write down the Kanji or take a picture of it and match it with the board. Even if you already know Japanese because I was struggling with the kanji. 

In terms of rooms, I shared a triple room with Minsei and Lara. The room wasn't THAT crammed and it was the best accommodation we had the entire trip. It was clean and modern. They had all the necessary toiletries, plus a TV. The only downside was that there was NO wifi in the room. Or in the lobby. They had a LAN cable if you had a laptop but we couldn't manage to use it for Wifi. All in all, it was a good stay and I'll definitely return there if I have a chance.

Aqua City Odaiba

website

Address: 1-7-1 Daiba, Minato-Ku, Tokyo

The Oven

(Same address 6F)

Tel: 03-3529-2093

Uogashi Nihonichi Standing Sushi Bar

Address: 2-9-1 Dogen, Shibuya, Tokyo

Tel: 03 5428 4851

Opening Hours: 11.30am - 11.30pm

TimeOut Article

Pablo

Address: 21-9 Udagawacho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo

Opening Hours: 10 am to 10pm

TimeOut Article

Official Website (Japanese)

Hotel Metropolitan Edmont

English Website

Japanese Website

Address: 3-10-8 Iidabashi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-8130
Phone: 81-3-3237-1111
Fax: 81-3-3234-4371
E-mail: front@edmont.co.jp

Useful links: 

A glossary of all sushi terms in English to help you in Japan. click

JENESYS 2.0 - Japan

I've been back from Japan for 3 weeks now. Where did the time go? It's really true. When you work, time flies by extremely fast. But I shall talk about work some other time. I'm usually very busy the entire day and I basically collapse when I get home after I get my dinner and shower. Anyway, seeing how today is Sunday, I decided to finally FINALLY talk about my experience in Japan thanks to the JENESYS programme. I think I owe it to the wonderful people in Japan to give them a really good few posts. Hopefully after you've read this, you will visit the places I visited in Japan as well and experience the wonderful country.

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Perhaps some information on me before I start. I've been slogging at Japanese for a while now and since I started, I've never been back to Japan. (Yes, went once when I was in my crazy-over-anime/manga-phase) I am mostly motivated by the food and then the culture. It's really not easy to learn a language from scratch and I'm still struggling.

The school sent out an email asking for applications to JENESYS 2.0. If you're in university, you should keep a lookout for such events! This isn't the first time I've seen something that lets you go to Japan in my mailbox. This caught my eye because I was really desperate to get out of this country for a short break. The past year has been hectic for me. I've overloaded for an entire academic year and I want to recommend people NOT to do this. It really affects your GPA and your general well-being. Please make sure you plan out how many modules you have to take before you start university!

Back to JENESYS, firstly...what is JENESYS 2.0?

JENESYS 2.0 is an initiative launched by the Japanese Government (it is endorsed by Shinzo Abe) in conjunction with AEC (ASEAN Economic Community) Youth Network and JICE (Japan International Cooperation Center). In the hopes of building good bonds between ASEAN and Japan, youths from ALL the ASEAN countries are selected and sent to Japan to experience Japanese culture, history and life.

All the travel costs (airfare, food, accommodation etc) are covered by the Japanese government so I really lucked out. Of course, it's not for free. At the end of the week in Japan, you will have to do an Action Plan Presentation. For my batch, it was "How to Preserve Your Country's Culture In The Face of Modernity" after learning from Japan (and boy, do we have a lot to learn!)

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I left for Japan on a JAL flight to Narita on 26th May. To be honest, I signed up for this program without knowing anybody. We were divided according to our majors and if you can't already tell from my blog entries, I'm not fantastic at socialising. I'm an introvert and I really like my alone time. So, I checked-in alone and waited alone and took the flight alone (next to my group mates..who I didn't know were my group mates at that time). However, to my immense surprise, I came out of it with a whole bunch of international friends...and we still keep in touch till this day.

It was actually the first time I've traveled without a clear and concise plan on how things will turn out. I went to Narita Airport and the people I spoke to had no idea what was going on either. But, luckily for us, JENESYS 2.0 is a big thing. The moment we got off the plane (and I mean this, I literally stepped off the plane) we were ushered as a group to clear customs and pick up our baggage. If the fact that we got an entire row of check-in counters dedicated to us at Changi wasn't important enough, this sealed the deal. 

We were picked up at Narita and then ushered onto buses by country. The Singaporeans filled an entire bus comfortably and we were given further instructions as well as rooming arrangements. I did make friends with Sherrie who turned out to be heading to the same place that I was - Nara - although she was in a different group. I ended up rooming with Jocelyn, who was a business student going to Aichi (completely different region from Nara which is in the Kansai area). Since we were short on time, they gave us packed lunches to eat in our rooms before we had to assemble again in our specific groups. Each group consisted of 30 students, with 3 students from the 10 ASEAN countries each.

Seeing how this was Japan, I had high expectations for my lunch

Mamee Instant Noodles + Potato Salad Sandwich (good) + Sweet Potato snacks coated in Caramel (weird) + banana

...which failed me. I think because the organisers had to work around the Halal standards, they didn't have much offerings from the nearest possible packed food store (Lawsons in the hotel basement). That was my only complaint from Day 1. I barely touched my lunch. The potato salad sandwich was good but the instant noodles? Meh. 

After assembling, we got on the bus again to head to for a briefing. It was very basic on simple routine things. It was however, my first briefing on earthquake safety. As Japan is still suffering from aftershocks, they felt that it was important that we were well-prepared to handle any vibrations should we encounter it (We didn't.) We were then instructed to seat in our specific groups. My group was Group G and we were all heading to Nara. They grouped us by majors so all the arts majors were together and everybody in my group majored in something arts-related. I guess you can imagine the amount of noise/singing/dancing that went on whenever there was a free moment. There was never a dull moment in my group - even from the first day, which was really great. 

Our first meeting as a group was very simple. We were introduced to our coordinator - Yamashita Kumi. She insisted on all of us calling her Yama-san instead of Yamashita-san because her name basically means below the mountain. Apparently, she didn't like it as much and figured Yama (Mountain) would've been better. Our group also had a supervisor, June, a Thai from AEC to ensure the program ran smoothly but we never felt that she was a supervisor. She was always game to join us in our activities. We got a group leader, Singly (from Cambodia) and a co-group leader, Benny (from Malaysia) as well as a flag bearer (Stephen)

Here's our flag with our group colours (Grey)

That's Stephen! Hi! (Also photo taken by Karin)

The program took our well-being extremely seriously. We had a person in charge of the hand sanitizer (aptly from Kirei Kirei) and thermometers to take our temperature every single morning before we departed on our activities. 

At the venue, I saw this poster...

...which broke my heart because it was really so near yet so far. It would've been amazing to go for an exhibition about Natsume Soseki. 

Like I said, it was a short meeting and we headed back to the hotel after that for dinner. We were staggered by countries to eat in the restaurant downstairs. Because I am a bottomless pit, I had to get myself a pre-dinner snack with my favourite drink.

That's cuttlefish sashimi and Calpis. I love both *_*

Here's something special I had for my dinner on the first day. 

This is bonito. Yes, like bonito from the bonito flakes you find on top of your takoyaki.

We had a very early dinner because we needed to pack our luggage to send over to Nara the first thing in the morning. We were taking the bullet train (Shinkansen) which was not made to hold 120 people's giant luggages. Good thing I bought a backpack with me. I regretted bringing the smaller one though, it meant that I couldn't shop in Tokyo due to my lack of space. I didn't want to carry 6 bags on the Shinkansen and struggle with them throughout the journey. 

Other than that, I stayed at Hotel Nikko Narita for the first day and the hotel room was good! I say this from somebody whose last travel included slumming it out in hostel rooms that had shower doors that were shorter than me and/or extremely budget hotels that had no attached toilets/no fans of any sort. The room was clean and it had all the necessary toiletries (shampoo, toothbrush etc) Their face wash that they provided was Shisedo too! :O The best thing about it was that there was a direct bus to Narita City Centre and the AEON Mall to fulfill your last minute shopping needs. There's also a direct shuttle bus to the airport too so it's definitely much easier for you to head there instead of traveling all the way from central Tokyo.

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Hotel Nikko Narita

Address: ５００ Tokko, Narita, Chiba Prefecture 286-0106, Japan

Phone:+81 476-32-0032

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I'll be back for day 2 and so on (yes, I've already started writing Day 2 as a draft so I won't disappear again for THAT long). Day 1 was a little boring but I'll definitely add more pictures as it goes along. Please note that I am NOT PAID to write this blog entry and whatever entries I write about Japan is based on my own personal experience and I do not get any form of compensation for doing so. However, if you are a sponsor and would like to sponsor me to return to Japan, feel free to drop me an email ;)

where did the party go?

After watching the last episode of The Office in which Phyllis said that she worked at Dunder Mifflin for so many years and didn't even record anything about her time there, I decided to return to blog.  I used to be a conscientious blogger a few years back, detailing everything from what I ate for my meals to the amount of homework I had to do. Hopefully, I'll be able to replicate that again!

Since March, my life has changed. I've fulfilled a dream of mine (met one of my favourite bands), finished the third year of university studies (damn), had my phone die on me even though I took perfect care of it (got a brand new replacement) and as of a week ago, I've started interning at a company that shall henceforth be known as X company.

X company is a PR company so I've really had to step out of my comfort zone in the past week. Other than the fact that I have to wake up at some ungodly hour (goodbye my 4am bedtimes) to get to work, I have to somehow squeeze my way into packed trains. PR work also involves talking to A LOT of people. I will admit here (and in case you haven't noticed) that I'm an introvert. Please note that an introvert is very different from an anti-social person. I do enjoy the company of people I approve of but having to socialise too much is very tiring for me and I need a lot of alone time to recharge. I've really had to step out of my comfort zone to talk to strangers...on the phone. Both of which I'm terrible at. But, I've done it and I'm proud of myself. Work is hard and tiring, but I'm glad I'm at X company because I actually get to do work and not things like making coffee for the others or photocopying things.

How does this compare with giving tuition? Well for one, the hours are longer and it's definitely more stressful. Giving tuition is definitely much easier. I do have to crack my brain sometimes but I'm mostly teaching things I'm already very familiar with/use on a daily basis/know like the back of my hand so it's definitely less challenging than interning. Would I go into either field full time? No idea. I'm still figuring out what I want to do with my life and we'll see how things go. I mean, the other day one of my kids told me he did really well for his composition exam (nearly full marks!) and I really felt appreciated. So glad all my nagging/yelling paid off.

Although, I'll like to make a point here about my experience so far in teaching kids. Tuition is not the instant solution to your kids getting As or whatever in school. A lot of people think that they can throw their kids in a tuition class and then miraculously expect their grades to improve. As a teacher, I can only point your kid to the right direction to do well. My effort only accounts for 10% of a kid doing well. The rest lies with the school teachers (who obviously have more contact hours with the kid) and the parents pushing the kid. We all know, as adults or at least, as people who have experience in taking exams that the only way to do well is to put in consistent hard work and to continuously revise. Kids don't know this. The only way they can improve is if they revise and learn from their mistakes. If they get their work back and just chuck it into their files without looking at it, they will find it very hard to do well. There is definitely a marked difference in the grades of a kid with parents who ensure they revise their work and the grades of a kid who is left to his/her own devices. I'm not saying tuition is useless. Not at all. Sometimes, you just don't know how to teach your kid in a certain subject. That's fine. But I think if you want your kid to do well, you have to make sure he/she is making the best use of the money you spend on his/her tuition by ensuring that he/she revises the work she does there as well as his/her schoolwork.

This weekend has been great for me. I went to watch The Used (WOOHOO!) and went to the zoo yesterday. Will blog more about it this week, hopefully, since I'm heading to Japan on Saturday! YAY! I'll be participating in JENESYS 2.0 and I'm really excited to finally put my Japanese to good use. I'll definitely blog about it because I want to be able to come back and look at how great the trip was years down the road.

And of course, to finally post my review of All Time Low's concert...from March. It's more or less written already but I still want to edit it some more.

Ellie Goulding - Anything Could Happen

I just came back from All Time Low's concert yesterday. (AMAZING) I would write about it but I have to get out Ellie Goulding's review from last week. I can't believe it's last week. Time flies! (And yes, I go to more concerts than I probably should but I've definitely cut down a lot this year in my bid to save for grad trip. You guys can keep me in check) I'll update All Time Low's one next week I hope. If school isn't too ridiculous.

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The first time I've ever heard of Ellie Goulding came from this advertisement.

I felt that it was a wonderful cover of Your Song (which is actually my favourite Elton John song. That's how good her cover was to me) and I needed to find out who sang it. Three years later, I saw her live!

To be honest, Ellie was one of the artists I really tried my best to get tickets to when I was in the UK. Unfortunately, due to clash of dates/the sheer danger of making my way back alone/lack of tickets I failed to do so. I felt that she was one of the artists who would never come here. Thankfully, Lights is really popular here so Now/Live brought her in. I am thus, happy.

I got really good seats thanks to Lisa's friend, Khai! He got it for us on the very first day the ticket sales started so we had 0 problems with the sold out show. (Yes! It was sold out! Proud of you Ellie!) 

I will willingly admit that I'm not a very big fan of Halcyon. It's one of those albums that really need time to grow on me. Or a good gig for me to like it. Ellie certainly delivered. I went in there not really liking Halcyon to listening to it almost daily. I think that's how you know an artist is really good live - if he/she/they can make you like their music in less than 2 hours.

My highlight of the show was definitely her singing Your Song. I was so happy since it was the song that got me into Ellie in the first place. She also attempted Guns and Horses acoustically (!!!) and showed off her wonderful dance moves. Other than the usual crowd favourites of Lights and Starry Eyed, Anything Could Happen definitely stood out for me. The entire concert hall sang together as one and I got goosebumps. 

The only downside I felt was that sometimes her voice was drowned out by the other instruments. Irregardless, everybody had such a great time that it didn't bother us that much. 

After the show, we managed to get autograph passes! Ellie was such a sweetheart. Sadly, we couldn't take any pictures with her  but she gamely posed for a few photos for our cameras. I really appreciate it when artistes do this. It's nice of them to take some time out of their post-gig plans and come out and sign for the fans. This doesn't happen a lot in Singapore so when it does, I get really excited.

Enjoy your weekend! This week has been one of the most fantastic week of my life and I don't want it to end. C'est la vie~

boomerang my head in

I have been neglecting this space terribly. I must apologise but I've been caught up with life and work. Oh the work. Once the work piles up, I tend to hermit myself at home to finish it...which just leads to an uninteresting blog entry.

But since I'm 22 going on 30, I have time to kill while waiting for some giveaway on a certain radio station. While it might be aimed at people my "age" or younger, I find it really hard to stomach such programs. If you''ve ever watched Parks and Recreation (YEAH!), it's like listening to the Douches. That bad.  (Edit: Did not get it. I am old and can't do things as fast)

Since I last updated, I've turned 22! Oh no. Nothing can top my 21st birthday. I celebrated it with Nic for the first time in ages. We wandered around London and fought the winter winds. I also managed to go to the Doctor Who exhibition (SCREAMINGGG) and caught Wicked after that. Yes, we really love Wicked. We had front row seats and you have no idea how amazing it was. T_T We also met the cast after that! I was particularly excited about meeting Matt Willis. He was the bassist in Busted. I love them. (STILL DO! NO SHAME!) Meeting him was one of my childhood dreams so it was really fantastic. :') This year was much more mellow. I had a good lunch and dinner and that was it.

I don't feel 22. "I feel old, but not very wise" applies to me wonderfully.

ANYWAY, these three weeks are fantastic for me. I have three wonderful concerts lined up. Well, now two. I went to one on Friday.

Which one? Don't laugh. I went for Kim Joong Kook's fanmeet. My only objective was to see him dance. It was really disappointing though. I've only been to "western" concerts so I get 1~1.5hours of good music. If I'm lucky I get more than 2. This one however, will be my first and only fanmeet. Joong Kook only sang what must be 6 songs. That's it. Everything else was him playing games. And I felt so bad for him because they made him play games that were really physical...like tug of war. I'm serious. It's bad when he himself could ask the host, "Why am I doing this?" halfway through.

It was not worth the money I paid. I was bored out of my mind and my pity for him only increased with every minute. Good thing I went with an equally bored person. Don't get us wrong, we like him as a singer and a host, but we really can't be bothered to scream whenever he flexes his muscles or something. I think we're a little too old for that. However, the other 2998 people in Kallang Theatre enjoyed themselves thoroughly.

I think the point of this entry can be summed up as, "I am 22 going on 30"

PEACE OUT YOZXZXZ (Hey! I can use young lingo too!)

2013

Hello 2013! It's the New Year and I don't feel any different from 2012. Except older.

I haven't been up to much in the new year. School is starting soon and I'm spending all my time alternating between work and indulging in my favourite activity. What's that? Oh, just staying at home as long as possible without coming into contact with the outside world. To quote Sheldon Cooper, "I'm a fan of anything that tries to replace human contact" I think half a year spent in a quiet town that people felt was "boring" has made a severe impact on me. I knew I disliked the city when I picked my exchange university, but my choice just cemented it. You don't know peace until you can spend the entire night without hearing a single car or motorcycle pass by. All I need is a supermarket, a movie theatre and McDonalds and I'm set. I can stay in that town and do my shopping online.

Sometimes I really wonder why I'm blogging when I don't do much other than stay at home and read. I'm happily making a dent in the pile I bought earlier this year. I usually don't lose my cool at clothes or shoes and I really baulk when I have to spend money on them. But I usually lose all sense of rationality when I see cheap books. I cannot and will not resist. Is this how other women feel when they see beautiful shoes and have a need to get it even if it's not in their size or it's too expensive? Because I feel you sister! By "pile I bought earlier this year", I would like to add that it's not my coursework. In late 2012, I went to Somerset to buy concert tickets from HMV (SPECTOR WOOHOO!) and passed by Harris having a closing down sale. Before Harris was Harris, it used to be Planerds (really) and sold comic books and merchandise. I really like comic books and I like books aka everything Harris sells. Their closing down sale was basically every book going for $5. I walked away with one stack of trade paperbacks that day (They usually go for more than $20+ LOOK AT HOW MUCH I SAVED!) and a couple of paperbacks I found. I think it was one of the happiest shopping experiences of my life. I've always been disappointed with warehouse sales so this was an amazing surprise.

Back to 2013. On the second day of the new year, I had an amazing supper experience at Swee Choon. Sad to say, I can't drive and I stay in a pretty secluded area (somewhat) and have a severe lack of supper buddies. I like food and I tend to get hungry really quickly. So on that wonderful day, Peng got a car and she picked all of us up. (Four of us) I'm going to say that Peng lives in the East..ish area and the three of us are scattered in the West..after she picked us up, we went back to Swee Choon (Central area). She almost drove around the whole of Singapore that night. Hence this,

"ROADTRIP"

On the way back home, I was really happy that I had such wonderful friends. Honestly, who would want to drive for nearly 45 minutes just to pick up people to have supper? That's pretty inconvenient with McDonalds' Delivery (You Singaporeans have no idea how lucky we are to have this service btw)

Because we got back pretty late, the roads were really empty so I got a wonderful look of the city lights on the drive back. There are many things I don't enjoy about this country, but I've got to admit, the city looks wonderful at night.

It's back to school next week for me D: I'm going to really miss bumming around. Also, I really miss learning French. Unfortunately, due to timetable conflicts, I can't take French again for the third sem in a row. I'm up to the last level of French that's offered in school and because of the low demand, there's only one class. Somehow, every sem, I have core mods that clash with the French class. Sigh. I hope an avenue of opportunity opens up before I graduate. Yes, I know, it's GPA suicide etc but I really love languages. It's so fun! I'm also really proud of how I managed to sustain my language ability and bring three different people to France on different occasions and managed to bring them around. I think the feeling you get when you spend so much time learning a language and you finally get to speak to the locals/they compliment you on your ability/they understand you(!!) is a feeling that's really hard to beat. Meanwhile, my language adventures will continue in the form of Japanese yay!

Ho ho ho hopefully

Merry Christmas everybody! Okay, fine. It's past Boxing Day already but who cares! I'm not somebody that's really big on Christmas. I've never really gotten into the Christmas spirit or what not, even as a kid. And now, Christmas to me means Christmas Specials! (YAY BRITISH TELEVISION!) Except the Christmas specials this year weren't up to mark. My favourite television show, Doctor Who, was slightly predictable. It's not because I need to warm up to a new companion but I think the plots, lines and characters are getting a little boring. Hopefully the season will pick up.

 This is unlike Downton Abbey which has disappointed me so greatly that I no longer see any point in continuing with the show. My ship has sunk beyond repair and has now become Charon's boat in the Underworld. It has been a good few years Downton. Thanks for teaching me how to feel but this episode was the last straw. Unless you're George R. R. Martin, you don't go around killing off main characters that quickly. The only reason he can do that is because he has a solid plot to fall back on, Downton, however, doesn't.

Anyway, back to Christmas. It's always a little hard to get into the Christmas spirit for me. The weather is as warm as always. There's no snow and there's not much joy in drinking hot beverages. Where is the joy in mulled wine and hot spiced apple juice in this warm weather? We do have frightful weather but there's no way anybody will say that the fire is cosy. Unless the air-condition unit is named "Fire". Then it would be cosy.

I always watch a couple of movies during Christmas. Whether by myself or with my friends in a Christmas movie marathon, I'll always do it. I've watched a few of them since I was a kid thanks to holiday movies showing on the television and I continue to do so to this day.

Nightmare Before Christmas
What's not to like about this film? I think more than 10 years ago, this film was always shown on Channel 5 or Central (now Okto) past 10pm near Christmas. They seem to have stopped now which is a pity because it's one of those really enjoyable classics. I can see why some kids would be creeped out by it (Hey! Santa came and gave you gifts that would bite you!) but the idea of Sandy Claws and the festivals having their own land always tickled me. I've also heard that on Halloween, they'll celebrate Christmas at Disneyland (with the Nightmare Before Christmas attraction) and they'll celebrate Halloween on Christmas. NEED. WANT. MUST. GO.

Home Alone 1 & 2
This was a holiday staple for me as a kid. It came out around the time I was a kid and I really enjoyed it. I think for a few years all I thought of was how to booby trap my house in case intruders came in. My friends and I all wanted to be Kevin. It plays with the ultimate kid fantasy of being alone without family and yet appeals to the adults with the knowledge that kids can't be left alone. I usually stop with Home Alone 2 : New York. I know they made a new one that's straight to DVD but if it isn't Kevin, it's not what I'll watch. Also the house they used to film Home Alone and the church is still around in Chicago and I really want to visit it someday!

Love Actually

I love this movie! What's not to like? Rowan Atkinson? Colin Firth? Hugh Grant? Emma Thompson? Alan Rickman? EVERYTHING IS AWESOME. I know a lot of people think that the best scene in the movie is this

Okay, it's kinda bittersweet but this.. THIS IS THE BEST SCENE

Unfortunately, this clip didn't show the "Ant or Dec" moment which had me in stitches. Not that the scene above isn't funny. When I first discovered Ant and Dec (Yay Saturday Night Takeover) it took me a really long time to differentiate them...which is really weird seeing how they don't look alike at all. You might've recognised them as the hosts of Britain's Got Talent. They also host a few other shows but I don't think anybody really knows them so..yeah.

So..Merry Christmas ya filthy animals! Enjoy the holidays even if you don't celebrate Christmas and don't drink and drive, drink responsibly etc.