one week in beijing...

so the first week has passed and i'm still alive :) i've been trying to upload photos but it's horrendously slow, so i only have a few so far...

ok my first impression on arrival was... WOW. beijing's airport is amazing. imagine singapore's terminal 3, just much, much larger. so large that you need to take a train to the baggage collection.



and the city and people are very nice. the city is sprawling, and in a nice way :) it's very spacious and the architecture is really eye-catching. i came expecting something like manhattan, but it turned out to be a lot more pretty.

the people are very nice too! a lot more courteous than the average singaporean. i mean, people actually give way on trains haha... and i think people are a lot more relaxed. even in the office areas you see people strolling along casually and not rushing everywhere...




candice's dad has been bringing us out for dinner :) we've been frequenting this place that's famous for xiao long baos! super nice lah! they are super juicy and the skin *never* breaks when you pick it up. they even have red bean xiao long bao :):):) and many places have this amazing ice kachang dessert that's super super super tall and covered with red or green beans or grass jelly :D




there's this mall near our place that we explored today... they two important things: groceries, and ice cream. hehe




as for work... work has been extremely "exciting" in that it has ranged from utter, total, mind-numbing boredom (i think they had trouble finding work for me to do since my chinese isn't too good), to having so much work to do that they want me to work OT!

i'm now working with a small team that handles IPOs. have been doing random tasks like printing (lol...), and also helping to correct the english for the report their working on. it's been challenging because beijing residents don't have good english at all, and the chinese language doesn't have some features of english - like different ways of righting the plural and the singular. and this team is really hardworking. apparently they work OT every night till 11-12 all year round... the only reason the manager is ok with me not doing OT is that i'm an intern heh



to end off... two funny things happened to me today :D

first, i learned for the first time in my life that whole saba is served without the fish being gutted. it was an utterly gross experience. i was so stunned that candice thought something was wrong with me.



second, it was really dim at the swimming pool so i mistook a little tunisian girl for candice while i was relaxing in the corner, and waved at her. apparently i gave her a fright. so when i finally found candice (who was happily splashing me with water), that girl said something like "i can do better!" and suddenly splashed a tsunami in my face.

so my day more or less ended with a little tunisian girl making it rain on my face, and candice laughing in the corner...

and did i mention that the swimming pool is gorgeous?



okie that's all folks :)

China experience: day 7 of 70