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| think it's worth documenting this short part of my life when i deal with kids 2 to 3 times a week... 5 hrs everytime! yes yes, u heard me right, PEIXUAN is dealing with KIDS! *faint!* nah, just helping relieve kuanlei's classes cos she had to go through an op. n before i talk abt the kids, here's wishing her speedy recovery! party also cos she might have no kids left in her class if she doesn't go back soon. cos i drove all of them away! hahaha... i don't think so, kids r resilient lil beings! anyways, when u teach 50 kids or more, you will feel like you have seen every being on earth. from the stubborn ones to the quiet till they don't ans you kind to those who monkey ard to those who need constant chanllenges kind. KIDS! So every class feels like war to me. n i think i've grown 5 yrs more naggy over the past wk. why do i need to remind them to pointe their fet n turn out their legs evey single lesson? grrr!!!! let's see what's memorable thus far..... well, the highlight has to be that i scolded till a girl cried in class.. well, some kids these days.. let's just say they like to test your patience by doing exactly what you didn't ask for and not doing exactly what you asked for. even after i stared at her. n she dared to give me the "i dun wanna do leh, what can you do with me?" face. KIDDO! my patience is not the one you really wanna test! so i threatened to make her hold her position at the side for the rest of the class. then came the tears!!! KIDDO! i'm not the one who ill soften at the side of your tears! cry also must do!so cried, kenna more scolding. i hope she realise that crying in my class doesn't help by now! well, though i make kids cried, i also got bullied byt he idiotic kids. n this i realise on my second week. first wk, i see why 7 out of 10 pple do tendu with bent knees. but after insisting they straighten their legs n repeating the exercise numerous times, they realise this teacher is not abt to be v. lenient, n the legs straightened on their own on the second week! muahahaa. told you not to test my principle also what! i also have 2 v. special classes. first class is the grade 1 at ciyuan. a real war every wk cos they are so noisy! aiyo! KIDS! this teacher canot stand noise ok, stand properly, stop talking to your friends n stop fidgitting ard! grrrrr! the second special class is grad 4 at ciyuan... which interestingly comes b4 the grad 1 class. they are sooooooo quiet, they don't even answe you when you ask a qn! MY GOODNESS! oh, then there's this grade 5 class with 1 girl n 2 mamas! feels weird teaching pple 1.5 times your own age... hmmm.. but the girl... aiya, i don't know if she realised she's in a dance class... zzzzz then there's this grade 6 class with 4 pple... n you thought 4 pple v. easy to teach. but the 4 each has their own character. 1 is pretty good, she listens n tried to change all her errors, 1 obviously has't been doing her stretching for a v. long time, 1 has v. weak legs.. n the last one is pure lazy. n they r at the age when it's hard to teach. cannot shout at them or scold them, but like no other ways. haiz haiz haiz.. why isnt eveyrone like me last time when i learnt ballet? hahaha ok lar, overall, it's a v. enriching experience eventhough i will not teach for life. but i feel dead tired after the nite.. more tiring than my own ballet class when i'm dancing 3 to 4 hrs straight. zzz | | |
| And then Pfingsten quickly came by and we escaped to the expensive land where they use pounds :S But anyway... 
I arrived in London half a day b4 zr and bummed ard on my own. and accidentally bumped into ATAS street. check out the Rolex vintage shop (top left)! and then I found Royal Society of Chemistry and couldn't resist taking a picure of it (top middle) since I spent so much time reading their journals. And then I foudn my was to Royal Opera House (top right) where they house The Royal Ballet. I was half hoping Tamara Rojo or Alina Cajucaru would bum into me. half only cos they are not my idols... yet... my princess idol there retired just some months ago. *pout* We went to the famous duck place at Bayswater and paid almost the same price we paid at lawry's for the roast duck. But roast duck lehhhhhhhhh!!! v. long havne't eaten it alreayd you know? (luckily my dad's not reading this :S) The next day, after waking up lazily and having breakfast on the bed... well, the room was so small, u can't have breakfast anywhere else.. and breakfast was served int he room anyway. yea, so after breakfast, we walked through hyde park and saw 2 girls riding horses (middle left). and we went to buckingham palace to see the last of the guard marching away (rem, lazy to wake up early mar!). So we saw the nice gates of the palace (middle middle) and learnt that the traffic police has a new and novel job (ahem!). They pose with tourist for pictures. hurhur... and of course, we walked the along some touristy monuments like the big ben (middle right) and the london eye (bottm left), and of course, which city is complete without a trip to the train station? so we were at waterloo station (bottom middle) before I got to FREED for my pointe shoes. the girl there really good hor. she saw my feet and told me exactly what size i need. after which we escaped to the free british museum (bottom right) cos the sun was burning a sunglass mark on my face! after diner, we caught a bus to Harry Potter Land. That's Oxford :) 
Oxford was really like Harry Potter in terms of the buldings (top row). The only thing missing was the broomsticks. haha... and DO YOU KNOW? they have to wear a gown to take their exams? and DO YOU KNOW? they get stopped by tourists who want to take a picture of/with them? As if studying in Oxford is not stress enough, got extra duty to pose with tourists somemore. LOL! The thing about meeting a long time no see friend is that you start talking about all the past glories you have together. no matter how tired you were from walking around london all day, and no matter how tired she is from writing her dissertation. For me, that was the most fun part of Oxford I think, meeting Yippee (Middle right)! Though I do feel a bit bad she has to lose quite a bit of her precious sleep time. And of course, ZR's friend, Shyam was nice enough to bring us for punting. That's rowing a boat with a long sticking (Middle middle & Bottom right). As you can see from the pictures, it was really Shyam punting and the rest of us lazing around! Haha! But I have to commend him on his skills. we never capsized (highly impt cos yippee was on the boat! ha! but ok, i dun wanna fall into the stinky water either) and we never collided with anything. My bf was also v. good at it, ok? Minus the time he dripped himself wet with the pole. hurhur. and the tak glam parking of the boat... got to grab at other boats to pull ours in... but actually we were still better than the group who had to pull the other boat in and he was like half on one boat, and the other half on the other boat. hahaha. oh yar, we stopped by a a small ulu pub to drink coffee also (bottom left). and on our way back, we saw mama ducks and papa ducks and a line of baby duckings going home. duckings also so discipline u know!!! but i can't capture a picture of them cos it was getting dark. after punting, we went to a pretty posh restaurant (bottom middle)..oppps. hehe Next day back in london, we caught Les Miserables at queens theatre. I'm still amazed at the children who could sing and at so well... and the actors of course... singing well is one thing. singing well whilst having to move around is another thing. and the sing with such apt voices... like the gossipy "end of the day" song, and the prostitute song. and of corse, the hilarious innkeeper and his wife who lighten up the otherwise v. heavy story line. Go London must catch a musical eventhough the tickets are a bit pricey, ok? and then dinner with weixiong who just got back from sweden and talking and chilling till he catch his bus home. and then that pretty much sums up our UK trip :) | | |
| Ok, finally, I've sorted out my spain pictures, so here goes..... Madrid 
The first day was spent looking at the palm garden in the train station (top left). Can someone tell me why we need a palm garden in a train station pls??!!! no wondered get bombed... cos palm garden can play guerilla tactics u know? anyway, security is v. tight there. it's almost like an airport complete with baggage hecks and all. and guess who was busking? a string quartet (top right)! the buskers v. talented hor? they played really nice songs, so much so that we went back the following night :) next day we did a walking tour and saw the oldest restaurant (bottom left) in the world. and a big square where they used to have bull fighting. but what remains today are tourist traps. hehe... and of course we tasted our first paella (seafood rice, a speciality in spain) Barcelona 
Of we flew to our final destination - Barcelona. Our most expensive hostel here. 22euros for a 12 bed room! who said spain was cheap?! Anyway, there's lots of busker along the main street (can't rem what it's called). and they like to be shi tou ren (top left) and scare u when u put money in their hat. but there were also the most cultured buskers (top middle) near the cathedral (top right) who played lizst n mozart. The quay is a pretty nice and happening area at night (middle left) with lots of private (?) boats (middle middle) and good restaurants with good lunch deals (middle right). We paid 12 euros for a 3 course. Starters was a full plate of mussels, Main was paella and then either an icecream of cheese cake for dessert. And of course, there was the beach which they had to bring in sand from egypt (bottom left and middle). and yea, the column to commemorate columbus who was suppose to point towards the new world, but the new world was mistakenly built towards africa, so now they say he points towards the sea. anyway, i heard spain was really cheap. but when we went, i think i can safely say that it's more expensive than germany. ah well... oh yar, and sine i was at spain.. one might ask "where's the zara???" well.... i actually asked my bf to bring me to one. but being us... well, we nv really shop, do we? there's no retail therapy in my dictionary. there's only BING QI LIN therapy! :) Yup, so that pretty much concludes my journey to the west. | | |
| Yea, long overdue post.... after my exams, i started straight away at my internship at Argillon GmbH where they produce catalysts for cars n powerplants. The 6 weeks was a tad too short to get any real work done.. well, actually it was not too short, just that the set up was not ready till 3 weeks into my internship. anyway... 6 weeks is sufficient;y long to be travelling up and down 4 hrs a day. and not to mention, the weather kicked my ass... one thing i must say, the lunch was always good, so i was always happy during lunch break. wahahah... n the last day... there was this one my table: 
sweet eh? yea, so right after my internship, i went on a portugal-spain trip... yea yea, i know everyone must be thinking why i'm so free travelling around so much these days... just for the record, london is on my schedule in 2 week's time. well, this is kind of break for me b4 i start my thesis in june, and at that time, i will be travelling in the lab... from 1 bench to another... no, the point was that this is kind of my last chance to run arond a bit since i'm heading straight back to sg after thesis. oh, i mean after the trip with my dad after thesis... yar, so Portugal and Spain... I only have the Portugal photos so far actually, so i'll only blog on portugal this time round yea, so Portugal... I landed in Porto and got half deaf cos my ears were blocked during landing... the result of my flu. but i was v. impressed with the airport. new, spacious, clean! checked into our hostel and roamed around porto a bit... Porto is like msia. u know i was told malacca belonged to portugal once upon a time and there's portugese influence in the architecture in malacca? but never in my mind would i have ever thought that it's soooo alike. the metal draw gates. haha... 
One thing i liked was the tiled decor like that one in the Sao Bento train station (top left) n the one b4 entering some tunnel (bottom right). and then there r the msia look alike shop houses (top right) and the clark quay area (bottom left) where there's a bridge which was designed by a student of eiffel. and then there's egg tarts.. porugese egg tarts which we ate quite a lot in our stay in portugal. yumyum! We trained 4 hrs to Lisbon the next afternoon. Being the capital, and having been terribly hit by earthquakes in the 1700s, Lisbon is a v. much more modern place compared to Porto. and in Lisbon, we get to eat FISH! fresh FISH!!! hehe... nv ate so much fish in europe b4. 
We stayed really near on Placio de Commercio (top left & middle) or commercial centre or in other words shopping street. There is this one part of Lisbon called Alfama which was not destroyed during the earthquake and therefore was preserved (Middle left). and it sooooo looked liked my gu po's plc in ipoh. i thoguht my gu po was goign to pop out anytime! and the neighbours shout across to each other from their balcony. haha... the next day we signed up for a day tour to sintra (middle, middle & right). I don't relly know the history behind sintra, but it's a nice plesant busttling village with some castle on the top of the hill. then we drove to the coastal area which reminds me a lot of Cannes in France not that I have been there actually, but u know the coast with rich pple ard. can more or less picture it. the waters were of course v. blue, so was the sky (lucky us!) n the sea breeze was amazing! so amazing that someone forgot to come back in time n had us thinkig he dropped into the sea. zzz. and that night, we went for a nice dinner to celeb 2 yrs. but alas, 2 bright lightbulbs appeared half an hr into our dinner :S... lesson of the day: either 1. announce ur plans to ur friends or 2. don't go to the restaurant that was highly recommended by the hostel guy. HA! ok, will post Spain when i get the pictures. | | |
| Today at ballet... "...and u pique into ur attitude devant and developpe and then foutte!" *meanwhile little pigglet struggle to balance and do the required stuff* my ballet teacher saw n came over to hold her leg in front... "... and then u are in cambre" me, "why am I in cambre? (cos nv say just now mar!)" " cos u are not in Singapore! Now, go into ur cambre!" LAME! hurhur.... anyway, my back hurts after having meg leg held there so long :S | | |
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