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I still have a few more days until I leave Mauritius for Shanghai. I’m taking the plane next Sunday (4th Sept) and will reach Shanghai on Monday. I’m really enjoying my holidays here. Some of my friends who are studying abroad are also on hols and are back to Mauritius. It felt great seeing them again and catching up on the good old times. I got to meet new people too. There are a few friends with whom I still haven’t met up yet but hopefully, I’ll be able to do so by next week. As much as I’m enjoying myself here, I have to admit that I’m looking forward to going back to Shanghai.

I’ve been sick since two weeks now but still going out almost everyday. Anything up to a few hours is fine with me.
I went to the beach with a few friends earlier this week. I had forgotten all about that plan to go to the beach and was reminded of it the night before. I almost said no because I wasn’t feeling well but one of my friends is going back to Canada soon and I was thinking that it would be our last outing together. I sure don’t regret going. I have some new pics but I’ll be posting them after getting the go-ahead from my friends first. Should be before the end of next week.
I’ve been to Caudan so many times last week; lunch, dinner, shopping for gifts, sitting at Sunset Café drinking ice tea and talking… I’m getting a bit sick of that place now.
I didn’t go stay at CY’s place these last two weekends. I don’t want her to fall sick too. Also no camping for me. I was waiting to see if I got any better but in the end, the plan was cancelled. The last thing I’d want is make all my friends sick too.

The thing is, I’m not sure what’s the matter with me. I had a runny nose the first few days only and now, the only problem is that I’m coughing a lot.
Whenever I have my coughing fits (which is very often), all I need to do is pop a sweet into my mouth. If I don’t do that, I keep on coughing until I get a stomach ache, cannot breathe,or even worse,throw up. Yesterday, my dad was threatening to make me go see the doctor. My room is next to his and he can’t sleep well at night because I keep coughing. I hate medicine. I can’t even swallow pills. I’ve never been able to. I always have to break the pill into pieces or crush it to powder first. If I break the pills into small pieces, I still need like one litre of water to be able to swallow the small pieces, not to mention having to go to the toilet afterwards. How do people manage to swallow those pills? argh.. Anyway, I will go see the doctor today. yeah finally..
How not to? .. after being lectured for 40mins on MSN yesterday.. until I cried. A few exclamation marks when chatting on msn and it seemed to me that the person was yelling at me. I’m so weak… Somehow, he can reduce me to tears so easily. :weeping: Well now, I feel ashamed for not taking good care of myself.
Still, lecturing me like that must mean that he cares so I don’t feel that bad now.

–edited after seeing the doctor–
The doctor said that my throat is all red and bla bla bla.. I didn’t catch the rest. He threw in a few medical terms here and there. He said something about a throat infection. Anyway, he told me that I should have gone to see a doctor earlier.

He said that I can continue drinking the cough medicine I already have at home and prescribed some antibiotics. The antibiotics are in capsule form.
OMG. How to swallow that thing? Each capsule is like 1.5 cm long. Since I cannot swallow it, all I can do is open the capsule , put the powder on a spoon, add some water and drink. It tastes awful so I drink more water afterwards to wash away that taste. I need to take one capsule three times a day for 5 days. Apparently, I need some vitamins too. I haven’t been eating enough fruits lately.
My mum was with me and she told the doctor that I was dieting and not eating rice,etc. All I did was stop eating rice. I still occasionally eat things like pizza. It seems that for the Chinese people, rice is important. The doctor then proceeded to tell me that I need to have a healthy diet and that there’s nothing wrong with eating some rice. He talked to me like I was some naughty kid. He also made a comment about my navel piercing which he saw when doing the examination. (I had to lift my t-shirt up a little bit.) He said something about how dangerous it was to have a piercing done and that there are risks of infections. Well I told him that I have my piercing since years already and that there have been no problems at all. The old doctor ignored what I said and just talked to my mum. bah..
Anyway I’ll be taking my cough medicines (a Chinese & a Western one), the antibiotics and also drink more water. The last part is going to be the hardest. I don’t usually drink a lot of water.
ah..I nearly forgot. I also ‘have’ to drink this orange+ginger tea at night. It is a very concentrated tea and tastes bad.
I think I’ve done too many things this hols, gone out too much. Friends are important but I shouldn’t neglect my health too. No going out for a day or two I guess. I need rest more.

I wrote about the fish tank some time ago. Well , the fish are my sister’s. Still, since I’m the one who wakes up early, I feed the fish if I’m at home. ( I go stay at my friend’s place sometimes. )
Recently, one of the fish started swimming upside down. It’s still like this now.
See the pic:

ah.. poor little fish.
I have no idea why it is like this now. Maybe it got injured? Still, one thing I’m sure of is that the fish is still alive. It can swim to the top or anywhere it wants and it can still eat.

-edited on 15th August-
Interesting links about this:
01
02

-edited on 24th August-
The fish was still upside down. It just stayed at the bottom of the tank without moving much during the last few days, seemed to have stopped eating and died today.

Ever since I’ve come back to Mauritius, I’ve met up with many of my ‘old’ friends and got to know many new people too. Some of my old friends now seem to be mere acquaintances. It feels so strange. Once so close or quite close friends, now we don’t really have anything to say to each other. We’ve moved on in our lives, made new friends, got new interests. Still, with many others, despite the fact that we have not seen each other for years and not emailing often , our friendship is still as strong as ever and it’s like we are ‘ continuing where we once stopped’.

With some of my gal friends, we were like squealing with excitement when we saw each other again. Hugging each other, looking at each other and saying things like “your hair is so long too” , ” wah.. you are so white now”, “you are wearing pink??” (I said this to a friend who was somewhat tomboyish before. ), etc .
hmmm..I wonder what guys say to each other after not seeing each other since a long time.

I feel like I’m learning new things everyday; friends who got married, who are in a serious relationship, those playboys who have finally settled down…
Some people have really changed a lot, not in a bad way though… Like I remember saying in my About page, I like to give people chances and I don’t regret doing that. Why hold on to grudges you had when you were still a teenager? It’s not easy to forget about the past but people do change. You can’t expect someone to be exactly the same after so many years. Everyone goes through the ‘teenager phase’ and you don’t know what might have triggered certain past actions. Don’t judge people too quickly.

By the way, see my darling’s drawings : Click here
Click on the drawings’ thumbnails at the end of his blog entry. A larger version will pop up. He’ll appreciate all comments and criticism.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is finally out in the bookstores!!:razz: I just bought mine a few hours ago. I’ve always been a ‘quick reader’ and I’m on the 135th page already. There are 607 pages in all. I have to go help my parents in the store in a few minutes but I plan to finish the book today.

Some webcam pics:

ahh.. and a new pic in the sidebar.. My new hairstyle… + darker hair color… reddish brown when there’s sunlight but a very dark brown in that pic

-edited almost 5 hrs later-
I just finished the book! All I can say is “OMG!” . I didn’t expect things to turn out this way. :worried: :no: argh.. I dare not even think about what will happen in the next book.

I just love checking the letter box in my floor to find envelopes addressed to me. :love: :laugh:

Today, I got :
my internet bill,
a returned Xmas card,
a package from Mauritius.

There’s nothing exciting about internet bills but I’ve been waiting impatiently for this one because I want to pay before leaving Shanghai. I sure don’t want to pay an extra amount when I come back. I wonder how much they make people pay if it’s a late payment.

The Xmas card .
I don’t know why they sent it back to me. Was it the address? I was so sure i wrote it right.
Sorry J. My card made it to HK but got sent back to SH. I’ll give you the card in person when I go back to MU in 6 months. I don’t want to go back to MU so soon but I need to renew my passport.

The package from Sab.
I got a lovely 2005 calendar with pics of Mauritius on each page.
Thanks girl! :cloud9:

I’ve been having fun with those webcam captures. In a weird mood today. hmm.. my hair looks so different. Maybe it’s the light? It’s a bit dark in my room. I had to turn on my desk lamp as well as the main light.

I’m so tired. I had my first end of the semester exam today. It was from 10:00 to 12:00 but I finished my paper at 10:35 . There was no essay writing this time. I was very disappointed. (The teacher seemed amused upon seeing the look on my face. )
Moreover I didn’t know what to do until 12:00. I went through my paper 3 more times and by 10:45, I had enough.
She corrected my paper within a few minutes. I got 99 marks. Arghh… Lost that one mark stupidly. I always lose marks in the easiest part of the paper. So careless.
I was worried about this paper because I hadn’t revised properly. Surprisingly, the last minute cramming worked. I was so worried that I wouldn’t be able to wake up early this morning. My mum called me from Mauritius to make sure I don’t miss my exam. Thanks mum!:wink:

I’ve been going out too much lately.
Still, it’s only my first year here. I’d better enjoy while I still can. My second year will be tough.

Tomorrow it’s Oral chinese exam. We didn’t have an Oral exam for mid-term so I’m kinda worried about this one. 阅读(yuedu) on Wednesday, 听力(tingli) on Thursday and then hols!!! I can’t wait.

It seems like many people have caught the wedding bug. :love: Far the past two months, I’ve been hearing about weddings in Ste Croix (where I live) every week. My mum told me about this girl who’s getting married. That girl is around my age,maybe 1 year older than me. When I first learned about it, I thought “But she’s still so young!” Someone then remarked that young people rush into marriage nowadays and that rushing into marriage will lead to divorce for many couples.
I can’t imagine tying the knot at 20. :faint: That’s far too young for me.

I was talking about marriage to a male friend the other day. He told me that the ideal age for him to get married is 27 to 30 years old. As for me, it’s after 26 or 27. I plan to get my B.A in Chinese language first. That will require 4 years. After that, maybe I’ll do my Masters and then find a job. I guess I just want stability in my life before even thinking about settling down. I have to admit that I can’t even imagine myself getting married one day. Marriage is a big step. Right now, I’m almost convinced that I’m incapable of falling in love but maybe time will prove me that I’m wrong.
I remember my mum telling me back when I was still in primary school that when it comes to marriage, parents choose partners for their children. Maybe it had been a common thing to do when my parents were still living in China more than 20 years ago but I was born in Mauritius and have been living here all my life. If I ever plan to get married, I want to choose my life partner myself.

An uncommon sight in Ste Croix:

I was upstairs and my sister told me that someone living near me was getting married that day. She kept looking out of the window and then she called out: “hey there’s a horse!!”
I thought she was kidding but still, I grabbed my camera and went to see.

For the couples out there, maybe it’s too early to think about marriage but wanna walk down the virtual wedding aisle and get hitched in cyberspace? Go there.

I went to the Chinese Cultural Centre (CCC) today at about 3pm. There was a special gathering for those who got the scholarships under the People’s Republic of China 2004-2005 scheme. The director of CCC made a speech and there was a photo projection. They showed all the universities that the 14 scholarship students will be attending and even some photos of the scenery. China looks lovely.
I’m not sure but I think that out of the 14 , 9 are undergraduates and the remaining are postgraduates. I will have to check in the newspaper when the list gets published. This year, I’m the only undergraduate who will be doing a degree in Chinese language. It’s a pity that there are not more. About half of them will be studying medicine. Still, whatever course they have opted for, they have to study Mandarin for one year first. They need to know some basic Mandarin to be able to live in China for 4 to 6 years.

A photo taken today at CCC :

~the director of CCC and some of the scholarship students. ~
I’m the first from the right. I didn’t have time to smile. :faint:
This photo is a bit too dark(i look very tanned in it. ) and is of poor quality. I know. I had asked my friend to take this photo for me but forgot to adjust some of the settings in my digital camera. Oops.

I haven’t dyed my hair back to dark brown but it just looks that color when I’m indoors and when there’s little light. It seems like my hair only looks reddish when I’m outdoors.

I’ve spent hours and hours online last night as well as this morning, looking for laptops. I still don’t know which one to buy. :confusion: It will be my first time buying a laptop. So far, all I know is that I don’t want an IBM. I’m one of those girls who don’t find those black IBM laptops appealing. Too bad IBM don’t have laptops in other colors.

My friend Sky said that I’d make his dream come true if I agreed to meet his friend today and have my pic taken with her. :confusion:
Sky thinks that his friend, Daphne and I have many things in common and that’s why he wanted us to meet. Anyway to please Sky, the pic was taken.

Daphne and me.

Someone told me that when he looks at this pic, he wants to pinch my cheeks. Hands off. Do not touch my cheeks. :laugh:
I’m going through ‘My Pictures’ folder. I get the feeling that I look different in all my photos. :confusion: Strange. ah well..

Btw, I’ve fixed the coding for this layout. It should now look the same in the different browsers. I won’t be keeping this layout for long anyway. It’s just a simple one I threw together. The domain had just propagated to the host servers and I wanted to blog . For me, blog entries are more important than the layout. -shrugs-