Aiesec winter explore day 27

Today for morning assembly we had to lead the school's mass dance for Singapore town! Due to multitude of cameras that were pointed at us, Josephina and I had to spastic smile the whole way through. Haha 

After the dance, the principal asked Josephina to do a farewell speech impromptu!! Haha smu girl also will cuah tio one, she said her mind went blank for awhile. Somehow the speech was still very good. Hmph! lol. (I need to start preparing for my speech already TT)

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Today we went to class 102 to help bake cookies. The class was super excited and phenomenally loud :0 the teacher had asked for 3 parents and me and josephina's help but we couldn't seem to control the class... Then again even at my sec 3 home econs it was quite the pandemonium what more primary 1 haha. 

This boy insisted on sitting like a mermaid the whole class lol

All of a sudden the kids became very affectionate and kept hugging us!! Josephina and I, being cleanliness freaks (though she's a lot more severe than me), could only focus on how they are unintentionally wiping their buttery fingers on us... We kept smelling our hands and clothes like weirdos. 

After the class we wiped ourselves using Johnson baby wet wipes ^_^

Some of the cookies that the kids rolled suddenly became grey... From a yellow dough. We only took 3 cookies each because we didn't want to laosai.

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Josephina spotted an emo looking girl in class 102 today. So she asked if she was alright. Suddenly the girl pointed her middle finger at us!!! We looked at each other with our eyes wide open in shock lol! How did this primary one kid learn to point her middle finger?!! Being ever so motherly and strict, Josephina went to talk to her after class. And we solved the mystery. The girl cut her middle finger's nail with her metal ruler so she was feeling depressed... I see.

During class it was do noisy as usual. My throat finally gave in after 17 teaching days TT so hoarse now.

Bought my companion.

Henna- josephina's artwork. Bracelet- from a nice student. Blue nail sticker- stall owner of raohe night market 

Saw sunset at school!

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Jocelyn came over to my place because Huijang is bringing us to taipei 101 to enjoy the performances!

Reached the area at 9pm but there were already many people! We were around 100 meters away from the stage!

Taipei 101 building where the fireworks will be shooting out from!

Suddenly arashi came out on screen, streaming live from japan to wish the people at Taipei happy new year. This Jocelyn squealed and embarrassed all of us LOL

After many more performances, our legs were aching badly so we sat down on the ground waiting for it to hit midnight. Boy, what a long wait.

When rainie yang and taoze came out, everyone stood up again but the mood was still kinda cold. When they told us to scream there was no reaction lol.

Finally it was 12 midnight and the fireworks shot out!

Pictures can't do justice to the beautiful fireworks!

It's different from what we see in Singapore because this fireworks spiral around the building whereas in Singapore it shoots up into the sky and is more circular.

All in all, I think that watching the new year countdown on TV is better HAHA. Not worth all the waiting and squeezing. We drove home and it took 2 hours when normally it should only take 30 min!!

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End of 2013!

May 2014 be awesome! :)

Aiesec winter explore day 26

Start of another new week and josephina's last week! Sobs time flies!

Went through 4 tough classes teaching about the traditional costumes of Chinese, Malay and Indians (that I just learnt about 1 week ago while preparing for the lesson) and was terribly afraid that the kids will ask questions that I can't answer. 

At least it went pretty smoothly and we ended each class playing games :)

The teacher of class 202 is super sweet, she got the class to write letters and make straw flowers for Josephina to bid her farewell. 

At lunch time I practiced using henna and I think I'm pretty good! Lol

Started with the more traditional peacock but did some modern stuff at the end hehe. Spy rilakuma and Pikachu!

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After school, Josephina invited me to her host family's place again because she was going to cook onion soup and aglio olio!

(I did more cooking in this winter explore compared to the whole of 2013...)

Large pan of onions that we chopped!

I could only chop one onion before my eyes couldn't take it and had to stand outside the kitchen weeping... 

I was in charge of flipping the onions and have faith that they were going to turn brown in 45 minutes.

After 45 min, the onions were still white =.= Josephina was quite shocked and we turned the fire up, causing the onions to get burnt in 15 min.. Lol fail.

But after adding the beef stock and lots of pepper, the soup actually tasted not bad!

As for the aglio olio, it was total pandemonium. Cooking halfway, we realized that we didn't have the most important ingredient, chilli padi!!

Contemplated putting tomato paste in and changing the recipe to tomato sauce pasta but thankfully the neighbor had chilli so we grabbed 3 and put them in! (when cooking was almost completed lol)

The result!

Soup was not bad but aglio olio tasted quite bad haha. Tasted like flour mixed with pepper... It made be lose faith that aglio olio is an easy dish, like many people say. TT 

Aiesec winter explore day 25

Yay, went to church today and was very blessed by the message again!

Singing the songs in mandarin in tunes I've never heard before actually helps me to focus on the meaning of the lyrics because it's all new. At Singapore when we sing the familiar songs in English it can be easy to just go through the motions when singing.

Today's message was about the parable in Matthew 20:1-16 where the vineyard owner was looking for workers promising to give them a standard wage for the day. The workers who worked from morning were very unhappy with those who started working late since they received the same wages.

This is an analogy for those who came to believe in Christ early and late. Having to "suffer" persecution and "difficulty" in living their lives for God, we are resentful for those who come to believe in Christ late but receive the same blessings as well.

The pastor brought the focus back to the thankfulness of being able to believe in Christ early. We receive more grace from God this way. :) it's just human nature to compare and look at how others are better off.

He made us say to the people around us "你的薪水比我高，真的没关系！” Lol so cute. When God seemed to have blessed others more, be it in terms of wealth, intellect, looks, thank God for the blessings on them and count your own blessings. God is fair and great!

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After church I was supposed to go on Jocelyn's school trip to dadaocheng but due to the Romeo and Juliet-ness of our situation, I couldn't make it in time to join them.

But I travelled all the way to Taipei so I decided to go hike Xiangshan (elephant mountain myself!)

Worked with trusty google maps and found my way easily from Xiangshan mrt station. 

When I reached, all I saw were stairs.

More stairs

Looking pale already haha.

By the second flight of stairs, I was already asking myself "what am I doing here?" Lol. I think I made up for my 3 weeks of no exercise.

Felt like giving up but all the uncles and aunties were climbing well so I just gritted my teeth and climbed on.

Doggie climbs well too lol

Stopped to take pics and rest at every opportunity haha

Finally I reached the summit!! So tired but worth it.

Got a good view of the skyline and Taipei 101 building.

Jocelyn was there with me in spirit though. Spot the iconic necklace haha.

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After that I went to Shilin by myself!

(Big mistake right, 好不容易exercised but going to gain back all the weight)

Had ah Zhong meesua, 鸡蛋糕 and awesome bananachoc prata!! Recommended by Josephina haha.

Quite nice, tastes like the one we have in sg

From this shop

Flips it well!

Going back early to slack. Weekend sure flew by fast!

Aiesec winter explore day 24

Day of adventure Saturday!

We slept in till 10 and set off to zhongxiao fuxing to take the railway to jiufen. Wasn't expecting much because the last time we went, the tour guide introduced us to many of the "famous" food that we had to try but it was terrible. :0

When we arrived it was raining (cold!) and there were people with umbrellas everywhere.

If the view is clear, our face is dark and if our face is clear, the background is white =.= guess face shots are more important then haha :)

I was pleasantly surprised because any random food we picked this time was so much better than what I had last time! Totally Yums.

This is a popiah thingy with ice cream and peanuts (that tastes like those that usually goes with muahchee). Totally an awesome combination.

This shop sells super pretty flutes!

Look at the crowd!!

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After that we took many scenery shots! All in Jocelyn's phone (stay tuned to her blog ^_^). We kept comparing who was the better photographer and Jocelyn would keep saying it's her and I would say it's me lol. I focus on the person in the picture but she focuses in the scenery. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder I guess? Haha.

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Next we took the railway to luodong! 

Before that we had to take a bus to the railway station. Somehow the bus didn't have the "all passengers should be seated" rule like the other buses I took. We thought it was 4 stops so should be okay. No!!! It was 4 uber long stops :(

Excruciatingly rocky ride down the mountains. Both of us grabbed on for our dear lives.. I was rocking a lot more than Jocelyn.

High center of gravity.... #tallpeopleproblems

Reached luodong feeling half dead.

Bored while waiting for railway~~

My crazy shoes are leaking blue dye!!! It leaks everytime it gets drenched in rainwater. The worse part is that my feet becomes blue too...

Our first stop at luodong night market was this desert shop which had a crazy long queue. Quite okay only.

Next we had sharks fin and crabmeat soup and prawn balls. This little boy is helping his grandpa, so cute!

Jocelyn waits in anticipation of her chocolate crepe.

This, is the highlight of our night! Egg and cheese prata with some special chilli sauce. 40 nt but sooo fabulous!

From this shop!

The shopping here is not bad! Bought 4 tops and 1 bag (despite depleting cash)

We haven't shopped the whole area yet but had to leave to take our bus back to Taipei. >< wanted to use the toilet so we went back to the train station first... As expected of the unfortunate duo Angela and Jocelyn, we exited from the opposite side and walked further and further from the bus station. It's actually Jocelyn's fault cause I was going to exit from the correct side but she said it was the other one. But admittedly I'm not very trustworthy when it comes to directions so we went the other way... When we realized our mistake, we sprinted the opposite direction at full speed (while my blue feet became bluer by the second) and... We missed the bus by 2 min. OTL

We had to sit in the (loser) people-who-missed-bus line and wait for the next bus to pick us up. Thankfully it came in 10 min...

Overall it had been an awesome day out! Church tmr :)

Aiesec winter explore day 23

Aww this post on day 23 is one day late. Spoilt my clean record.

Yesterday I finally understood the joy of TGIF. Really THANK GOD IT'S FRIDAY. Tough week of me leading the lesson while Josephina painted henna. I grabbed the microphones from whichever classes that had them, can't possibly fall sick now :/ But finally, a well deserved weekend to slack!

After Jocelyn's own project, she came over to play pool and use the hot springs at where I was staying. Having these facilities are so awesome. 

Played pool for an hour with host kid, and suddenly the parent teacher association kids (aka my students) who were having a party in the apartment I was staying, came over!! Suddenly super stressed with all the kids watching. And all 3 of us kept missing lols.

While the kids were picking their presents, we quickly ended our game and chiong to hot springs before the kids came back haha.

And as usual, hot springs are the bomb. :)

Ended the day playing monopoly with host kid. 

Maria gave Jocelyn her own bed!! (Pardon the mess) So nice of them. I thot we would have to squeeze in my small single bed and sleep like stickmanz.

Aiesec winter explore day 22

Wah, taught 3 lower primary classes today and it was exasperating... Younger kids are super restless. But because my throat felt so painful today I didnt bother asking them to be quiet, I just stood there and stared. Josephina said I looked pissed. 0.0 next week we are doing more games and less content so the kids will pay more attention. (Hopefully)

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After school another one of the huijangs, Jennifer, invited us 2 for dinner with suhao laoshi. We didn't know why she invited us out of the blue but went anyways. 

Suhao laoshi brought us to a Sichuan food place called kaifun (开饭）at zhongxiao fuxing because he knows Singaporeans like spicy food which is rare in Taiwan!

True enough, it was fabulous. Chilli makes everything tastier. But I very laokui, Huijang who was supposed to have a low tolerance for spicy food, did not find the tofu dish spicy but my nose involuntarily started running ._. Noob me.

Overall, great meal. Miss singapore's food even more now. 

Aiesec winter explore day 21

Blessed Christmas to everyone!

Today at school we didn't have to teach but it's D-day for cooking chicken rice for all the teachers!

Wasn't very concerned because the main star was Josephina so the pressure's on her haha. She lugged the seasonings she bought from SG to nanshi!

We started cooking at 10 and ended at 12 noon. Was real tired!

The cooking auntie did the hard stuff like handling and chopping the chicken. Josephina and I did the easier stuff like washing veggie and rice, cutting the veggie as well as taste testing (yums).

When we were done, I carried the soup from the kitchen to the third floor staff room! Arms were shaking when I tried to drink soup later. Sobs

Looking good!

Haha comparison of josephina's cute small rice balls and my huge ones.

Principal looks on in interest as Josephina explains.

Everyone really liked the food!

At first to ensure everyone had enough we said each teacher can only take 2 rice balls. But because there're were leftovers, the "ban" was removed and a lot of teachers came to take seconds (or rather, thirds)! Woo! Success!

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After that me and Josephina went to Taipei main station underground mall to shop. Shoes were quite cheap but I didn't buy anything.

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Next up, went to houshanpi mrt to meet le BFF. Plan was to go wufenpu then raohe night market.

Wufenpu was so-so. Most stuff inside the shops were 390nt and the outside racks had 100nt (but not so pretty stuff). You really needa dig every rack if you wanna buy cheap, good stuff. 

One thing's for sure- there're clothes everywhere. Both Jocelyn and I felt super 眼花缭乱 and dizzy. Spent 200nt buying 2 100nt clothes haha.

After that was raohe night market because we researched and it was famous for good food! 

Sadly, first thing we did was to go KFC and eat the egg tarts and a piece of chicken =.= so much for going on a food trail at raohe. Can't be helped that KFC at Taiwan is pretty awesome!

Had cheese quail eggs at raohe!

Pretty good! (iPhone takes ugly pics in the dark!)

And the main star was the strawberry brownies crepe. 130nt. Highly recommended! Brownie and strawberry combo is a killer (for my throat as well).

Pic will be blogged by Jocelyn haha. I didn't take one.

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Received Christmas presents from 2 students today! So nice!

Handwritten card with drawing :)

Origami present with lollipop :)

Ahh kids are so innocent.