..:: 572. The One With Shanghai So Far ::..

been so busy at work, if not it will be travelling around china. got no internet at home so i cant blog like in the past.

my birthday celebration was great. must thank all my friends who took time to plan the surprise. on the stroke of midnight when i came back, they had one candle on each of the 22 ferrero rochers..

then when i thought it was going to be a boring usual wednesday, they had a surprise dinner for me at a brazillian meat buffet. got a nice cake and a clinque eye cream treatment for my present cos i have been ogling at eye products since i was in korea.

work has been very satisfying though my director can be intimidating and demanding at times. i got used to his style as he was also an ex-saf scholar so i can understand where he is coming from. i get to interact with executives that have like 10-20 years of working experience. it is a challenge for me to behave and talk like a professional and not an intern.

i guess the only limiting factor would be the search techniques and database. i guess it would be something that i would do in the future but perhaps with a larger company. in my stint, i am also dealing with Fortune 500 companies and more importantly i am researching and understanding different industries. not all internship can achieve that... i am lucky to be 'slave-driven' rather than doing mundane data entry. not really that bad actually but my frenz prefer to see it that way.

hangzhou was a scenic place and i love the west lake. the food there was great. i found that putting pictures on the blog would make it lag so i guess i should include the link to my pictures.

went korea for my cny holidays. i am glad i made the right choice. shanghaieses ate damn fast! we were the only singaporeans and as usual we were always the last to board the bus. we love the food and have many servings. the shanghaieses found the food there too bland so they did not eat much.

then we went wuxi, it was a one day trip so did not really get to enjoy the place. the trip had the most number of ntu gip students. one of the organiser slept in the train and missed the stop. he and his friends went all the way to nanjing. i learnt something from that too... u can pay for a wuxi ticket and sit your way through to nanjing. save $$$!

this week i will be going to luoyang with my close friends and mostly nus people. cannot wait to see the shaolin temple and 18 bronzemen. the justice bao and whatever that comes. FOOD!

this gip is more fruitful having to know the NUS people. they have stronger connection here in shanghai - Shanghai Singapore Business Association. they also have SHEN - shanghai entrepreneurs from NUS which organises in-convo where they invite senior management from different companies to give a talk on the Chinese market every month. Isnt that fun? I hope we can get to do that... they studied in fudan university and get to mix with the local students. unlike us, we are confined to our own people during classes. no choice i guess, especially since our modules are fixed and designed specially for us.

been having so much overnight ktv! 5SGD to sing from 12mn to 6am. gotta run for dinner now. ciao.

..:: 571. The One With Suzhou 苏州 ::..

forgive me for the very late entry. went suzhou on the 12th. it was super fun cos we were with our colleagues. it was much colder than in shanghai...loading pictures takes forever =(



they washed clothes and bathed using the water... and we thought how come the vegetables tasted so nice. lol.



at the museum, they had this wonderful backdrop.



the pagoda looks great but too cold to climb up



visited a few of their gardens and this well was built so that the water inside acts as a mirror



nice scenery...



cam-whoring again...



tea appreciation...



went to silk factory and i bought RMB1k plus worth of silk goods.



2nd day at the museum, cant help but take a picture with the kid. so cute.

also, i got pickpocketed for the first time. =( lost my camera but will be getting a new one soon... hopefully in time for my korea trip. oh, i will be going to korea for chinese new year! isnt it exciting? ski and hot spring. hopefully can go 大长今 shooting scenes.

..:: 570. The One With China ::..

5 things that sucked in China.

1. Boss asked us to start work on wed when our official start date was 14th.

2. Cant flush toilet paper down the toilet bowl (will choke the pipe) and it contributes to the amount of biohazard we have in the dustbin.

3. It is freaking cold. getting colder though not as cold as finland but still... i want to wear my berms and slippers.

4. No access to blogs. Dunno why they block them? scared of propaganda?

5. Bathing is not enjoyable. shivering to get myself dried.

When we first arrived, we were stunned to know that our company had arranged accomodation for us. There goes our deposit of 400SGD. Our boss was kind (with strings attached) to offset our losses by half. our accomodation was initially RMB6500 per month and now it is RMB4000.

Our boss requested us to work early to be 'fair' as he offset our losses...

anyway, the job i must say is interesting and challenging. at first i thought it is some kind of telemarketing job. being headhunter is not easy. got lots of research to be done and i like the fact that behind the phone we sound like professional, knowing the business of the industry and talking to people who are so much senior than us.

next entry... suzhou trip =)

..:: 569. The One With Pre-Flight ::..

so excited. luggage done. still a part of me not ready to leave singapore.

will be at the airport around 10pm. flight SQ816 7 jan 1am to shanghai.

See you guys in 6 mths

..:: 568. The One With Dr Bailey ::..

ya. my fever for grey's anatomy has not yet gone down. i so love dr bailey and her no-nonsense attitude, yet showing signs of humanity at times. she is mean with her interns and dare to stand up against attendings (more experienced than the residents).

this video shows the first time the interns met dr bailey, she was known as the 'nazi':



this is when she was pregnant and came back, she's demanding but i like it.



must-watch: who's damn panties are on my bulletin board?



inspirational! she's the only one that did not sleep ard. haha. this is where she stood up for herself to set up a free clinic against the attendings.



oh well. a recap of events in 2007.

-surf sweat 2007
-had the best birthday cake
-went to finland, endured -20 degrees
-stayed in glass igloo, visited santa claus village and tried ice-ski
-tried reindeer meat
-went to mindef for vacation attachment and what an experience!
-went hongkong, macau
-started my specialisation, HR Consulting
-won 1st runner up (Singapore) for Capitaland Retail Marketing Award
-participated in Singapore Fashion Week and met models
-won best volunteer and got a ipod nano 3rd gen
-participated in BRANDS new product development
-participated in the Tata Crucible International Business Quiz 2007
-participated in Singapore HR Challenge 2008
-selected to participate in Global Immersion Programme to China
-got into Singapore Search and Investment Capital w phone interview
-stayed in ritz carlton for xmas
-got great results

hope 2008 will be even a better year for me =) Of cos all these would not have happen without my dearest, my frenz and friends whom I may not have known as well but 2008 i will forge closer friendships.

..:: 567. The One With 2008 ::..

time flies. it has been 4 years since i started blogging. every new year i would change my blog template and so fast the chocolate one is over and now my new-found affection.

yup as yash mentioned, their dialogues and narrations are so quotable and i think the writers for grey are witty.

well for 2007 resolutions, i still cannot drive a car which pretty much sucked. getting 2 hours out of my schedule and out of my school (more impt) needs discipline and among my many plans, forking out money to learn really stretches my budget. Most of my budget went into travelling which i guess i can cut in 2008 considering that i am spending half of the year in china.

the horoscope mentioned 2008 i would face some problems on my family side and challenges in relationships but able to soar in my career. shall be more aware...

my 2008 resolution would be to:
- stay in love
- continue maintaining GPA above 4.0
- concentrate on FYP, Studies, Red Cross
- get gold for IPPT

but of course i hope to get a medical checkup for my recurring sinus. after i watched grey's, one of the patients who had non-stop runny nose, they found something pressing on the brain or something (forgot the exact details)... better be safe than sorry.

for new year's eve, i had dinner with my red cross friends. didnt eat much though cos seeing so much food makes me full. then went over to ys house watch horror movie which was not scary at all. then the group of us played citadel which was so much fun. managed to win haha, would recommend to more of my friends to play.

countdown just felt something missing. but i had fun anyway.

heard alien v predator is like resident evil. hope to watch before i fly.

anyway my SIA flight is on 7th Jan, 1am ... will be at the airport about 10pm plus on the 6th. excited but when you have to be away for so long, it doesnt feel like a holiday...

..:: 566. The One With Grey's Anatomy ::..

gosh, got hooked on the series. loved the characters there. each with their style and character. the show is adrenaline pumping. when you start to find the live stories or drama of the characters too boring, there come the casualties. some of which are freak accident like a pencil in the eye... arteries from the neck burst, you see blood gushing everywhere.

it taught me to be calm during such stressful situations and look at things from different perspective to solve what seems impossible. There are organisation and management issues to learn from especially from the chief resident (the one in charge of all the resident doctors)

there are difficult choices to make in life. For them, being a doctor, surgeon is to save lives. It is hard not to be emotionally involved and also to balance between caring too much for the patient (like a social worker) and do what a doctor should do. Their personal life and love life almost always in conflict and you can see in the show there are some who really stuck by their vows as a doctor and ended up in bad relationship, divorces and stuff. There are also issues of colour, races and religion brought to attention which made the show even more interesting and realistic.

now i know why one of the show on tv was called 'scrubs' cos for anyone who want to be involved in an operation, they would request to 'scrub it in'... and it was interesting to see how the resident doctors torture their interns...

also learnt that to fear is that you have something to lose. that is why some patients kept on fighting even though they are afraid, they dun want to lose something they hold dear.

The ER situations when the doctors wait outside the hospital are the most exciting.

"We go into medicine because we want to save lives

We go into medicine because we want to do good

We go into medicine for the rush, for the high, for the ride

But what we remember at the end of most days are the losses

What we lay awake at night we replaying is

The pain we caused, or the failure to cure, or the lives we ruined and failed to save

So the experience and practice in medicine rarely resemble the goal

Experience too often is ass backwards, and upside down"

love the narration and how a central idea and the events relate to the idea. that's why i love sex and the city too except with less moaning :X

..:: 565. The One With Results ::..

My best results ever! i got 4As =0
gpa - 4.73.

so happy cant sleep tonight. all the bird nest worked! and this sem i didnt study and confine myself in hostel. someone was my lucky star. lol.

tomorrow self declared off day!

..:: 564. The One With Ritz ::..

yea. most exciting thing happened was the stay at ritz carlton over the weekend and xmas. ironically, spent the first day rushing for HR challenge.



with my mates, kahyan and yash. plus jiayi who became our foreign correspondent in taiwan. haha.

we didnt sleep the whole night. took turns to take power naps while my friends' friends were playing card games, we were cramming our brains. lucky for me i dun have to go work on monday morning. i was rather knocked out... jiayi slept at 330 and woke up at 530 to join us with the battle and managed to edit and come up with executive summary before she joined her tour at 930...

friday went for red cross anniversary dinner. donated MAC lip gloss that i got from fashion week. sadly, it wasnt highly sought after. had fun during lucky draw where our table kept chanting 'capsules' as there were many boxes as prizes. we were hoping others will clear the capsules and leave the vouchers and grand prize for our table...

me with joan.



oh. me with my designer shirt.

caught 2 movies. i am legend during xmas eve. think i am old already... cant take that kind of thriller. maybe i just have a weak heart lol. a rip-off of resident evil and 28 days later.

then was national treasure: the book of secret. think it is more enjoyable than i am legend. comedy + action + romance... maybe a bit far fetched but still nice to watch.

it was nice staying in town area and up in shopping centres in the morning for breakfast. marina square was just 5 mins away and the view from the hotel was great. the hotel had a fire drill and after which the water supply was affected. no cold water for quite some time =( not very pleased with the housekeeping service. i called and when they came, one of them asked, 'what do you need?'

'eh, housekeeping?'

'which part?'

i was like, you know better than me right? why not you give me your trolley and i top up the stuff and change the towels myself?

then was a bad rush for dinner at kallang. due to the fire alarm, the lifts were not working so we had no access to the basement. until a janitor showed us another way through the 'staff-only' staircase. lol. all we got from the staff was asking us to wait patiently -_-

back to my GIP stuff. my fren flew my aeroplane :( now i am the only one out of my flatmates to go fudan university.

..:: 563. The One With No Work ::..

This week was a long break. took leave to attend red cross camp and flight and accomodation for my exchange were settled. Flying on the 7th of Jan but kinda late so dun think any of my frenz will see me off... sobs... only consolation perhaps would be taking a SIA flight.

red cross camp was fulfilling especially since i am taking up mentor role again. but sadly there are also things i cannot do much about like discipline and the major exercises. felt quite restricted controlling my own group. being safety officer, i also had to be 'on call' 24/7. was quite mad when a trainee told me she needs warm water and i was like wth? do i look like babysitter? i felt that if the juniors are not trained to be disciplined and take initiative in the beginning, they will take things for granted and always have to be reminded.

Talking about mentors, the term often appears in the HR context. As a mentor, i felt 'under-utilised'. in my case, we had to be careful not to 'spoonfeed' the trainees with information and feedback was definitely lacking. Are the trainees satisfied with their performance? or did they come with a mentality that they will pass as long as they go through the programme? or are they simply afraid to approach the mentors? Are we supposed to be in the pro-active role?

anyway back to wednesday, i went back to work and realised my battalion was on cohesion event and not in camp. i dunno whether to be happy or sad. had a gathering with the red cross peeps. as usual we hogged vil'age and starbucks, had gift exchange which was hilarious and lots of cam-whoring. then i felt like i was rushing for getai, went over to dbl o for clubbing. not exactly clubbing though. my fren's sis's frenz (quite a mouthful) were stoning most of the time... anyway the music was not that good =( saw kahyan my uni fren and the pic we took she looked like she wasnt wearing anything =X

slept throughout the public holiday and woke up for dinner... wonderful chicken rice and it was MC for friday. haha. had to overcome my MC to collect my visa as there is not much time left. Went to school to settle my exchange stuff. rushed over vivo to catch alvin and the chipmunks... hooked to the song and they are my official wallpaper for the month. had red cross anniversary dinner and it was so much fun. had a wonderful time shouting capsules during the lucky draw hoping others will take up the capsules leaving the grand prize for our table. funny thing was there was a tag 'reserved' for VIP table and the greyer population thought they should be the highlight of the day by putting a 'P' in front of the tag and truly being the 'preserved' lot of red cross volunteers.

caught finale for survivor and america's next top model... happy for todd, played the game well and was tactful during the Q&A by the jury. amanda should have been more careful and her honesty has caused her the prize. courtney... haha. think she played the game too innocently and the most harmless fly but she's damn funny with her witty one-liners throughout the season.

saleisha totally ruled chantel on the runway for the finale. Heard lots of unhappy comments made over the forums about how saleisha had already appeared and modelled for tyra, attended her camp and stuff. then it was about the colour and race when jenah, who took the most gorgeous photos did not go into final 2 as they would not want 2 blondes to be in the final 2. felt tyra kinda fake. kept saying bad things about saleisha being too commercial and not high fashion... in the end, kept choosing saleisha, its like slapping herself and trying too hard not to be bias.

mediacorp's 9pm show, 黄金路 golden path is another show that is in my mobtv play list. i like how the younger actors and actresses played the characters. their attitudes still lingered when the characters grew up to be played by tay ping hui, joanne peh, chor ming, etc. the essence was still there and li nanxing was the best playing a rogue. the theme song was damn nice.

ok enough of tv, i guess many of you dun watch much tv also.

busy with hr challenge as the deadline is on mon and poor yash fell ill. i owed kahyan a big time =( tml ritz carlton dunno if my frenz still can meet. haha just realised we have not utilised our mentor. how ironic.

..:: 562. The One With Hectic Week ::..

been a long week since i last blogged. forgot what i did from 3rd-5th... should be sleeping to my heart's content and laze around. 6th attended GIP send off ceremony organised by the GIP office. listened to almost the same group who shared their GIP experiences and how fun was it. it was weird though especially when your target audience are all going to GIP, should tell us more about the survival tips or places to visit rather than share their own experience. of course we know its good cos we chose to go -_-"

then the usual phototaking with the profs and some executives but strangely it seems that we will never get to see the group pic we took? got to know the people whom i will be working with and another 2 who will be working in OCBC situated at 浦东 east of shanghai. wah must start typing in chinese soon.

then had some accomodation talk. one of which, sens service, was set up by ntu gip alumni to provide one-stop service for gip from booking air ticket and visa to securing accomodation. marketing kept talking about providing one-stop service and finally i get to see a real entreprenuer.

started work on 7th. waited for my boss the whole day and got to see him around 3+. briefed me on a project that i have to work on and his expectations. got a stack of scary notes to read but i was glad i got to do something about training system which was relevant to my course.

then saturday spent on red cross. managed to catch golden compass at PS. GV really know how to suck blood. each 'booked' ticket costs 50cents more, instead of having just a booking fee for 50cents. but the show was worth it at least, nicole kidman, my all-time fave actress. her eyes sparkled whenever she talked.

sunday was spent shifting my stuff out of my hostel. did it in 1.5 hours and rushed down to woodlands library for hr challenge meeting. had a simple meal at banquet at causeway point plus pasar malam munchies with yash and jiayi.

and so fast work again on mon. today rained the whole day... had to go to the mess and AOP (approval of plan) with my boss and i had to focus on leadership stuff. wanted to do research but so lazy. haiz.

so much things to settle.

flight, visa, insurance, medical checkup
meeting with singtel
red x camp

..:: 561. The One With 30 Days of Night ::..

after exams, this was the first show as part of my post-exam activities. great way to stress myself up again.



i was so tense throughout the movie and the first few seconds of the preview were the reasons to keep me on the edge of my seat. i swear it's the first time i felt like leaving the theatre cos i thought my heart would stop. lol.

The movie is based on a novel and in the town of barrow, Alaska, to the north of the arctic circle where during winter, the sun never rises for 30 days. this would mean vampires can feed without fear of sunlight.

Having said all that, i still think it's the best vampire movie to date that i have watched. the vampires moved fast enough and cleaned up after their 'meals'. Of course other worth-to-watch factors would be josh hartnett and melissa george. josh became the rugged sheriff while melissa kicked ass. if you like both of them and all that sucking (of blood), this show is not for the faint hearted cos the sun certainly didnt rise fast enough.

America's Next Top Model
Originally uploaded by jnjco

..:: 560. The One With Heather ::..

so happy my last paper is done! now finally can sit in front of computer and not feel guilty.

so sad was watching antm and heather was eliminated =( but i believe she is able to make it big, hope one day i get to bump into her. haha. maybe next year singapore fashion week? jade of season 6 came to asia to model so she should try.

the remaining four all have been in the bottom two. all except chantal can be quite a bitch.

this week they went for go-see (meet designers) and heather could not read map and got lost in translation. Her amusing quote: ''The map's completely in Chinese — it's all Greek to me''

..:: 559. The One With Back to School ::..

was surfing some HR websites and i got to know an article that was written by my prof and went to school to get a copy today. just a 4 page report and i willingly travel from home to school. haha how crazy is that?

yea got Singtel as our company for the competition case study. luckily it is not some ulu company.

anyway got Google online marketing challenge and the Mastercard-Wiley marketing challenge coming up... i think my dec will be hectic till the day i fly to china.

30 NOV - apply visa and open account from bank of china
1 DEC - Red Cross Volunteer Instructor Prog Contact Session
3/4 DEC - Interview with Singtel
5 DEC - Endnote Workshop
6 DEC - Send-Off ceremony for GIP
7 DEC - Work. work.
15-18 DEC - Red Cross Camp
19 DEC - Outing
23-25 DEC - Ritz Carlton

..:: 558. The One With Last Burst ::..

yes i'm on my last burst of fire for my highly anticipated paper. no pun intended. had the most extensive reading for this module and i am hoping to impress in my paper.

was looking at my tissue box cos i always have flu when i lack of sleep... KCA - think of tissue, think of us... that's the quote or tagline for the brand.

then i thought, if i were to come up with a tagline, i would go for...

With you through wet and dirty times...

didnt i tell you i work best at late nights! haha. hope that is a good testimony for that.

i know some of you may disagree my tagline is of good substance. boo.

finally i'm done with all my external readings. later shall continue with my 1000 pages storybook.

did you know that civil servants are getting 2 month bonus in december? that pretty much explains my cranky entry. woohoo~

America's Next Top Model
Originally uploaded by jnjco

..:: 557. The One With Last Paper ::..

oh well. hp 102 is wasted. let's hope the bell curve can work some miracles. i saw a few around me did not write much though... that is during collection of the papers, dun say i cheat!

say goodbye to ANOVA, bonferroni correction, tukey's HSD, Scheffe test, dunnett's test,... bloody hell. they had totally ruined my love for examinations.

i finally found someone who has a biological clock that is as screwed up! yash! haha. we msged each other at around 3am where many are happily snoring away. in the words of yash, 'they should make exams at this hour'. ya they should. i'm like most alert at this time.

been taking daily dosage of bird nest with ginseng and someone said i look younger :X

but i still have time to catch up on antm. look at heather's covergirl shot. gorgeous. rooting for her to win. hope she does well in the go-see next episode.

prison break series suspended? wth.

..:: 556. The One With Prayers ::..

Haiz the news of the missing dragonboat guys are so depressing... hang on guys. hope they are ok. one of them is my fren... =(

*prays*

..:: 555. The One With I Will Be Shot ::..

yup. i think i'll be shot if i caught writing this but wth...

something's been missing cos life has been smooth sailing during the exams. so now must stir some shit.

recently received an email from a prof. 3 teams joining a competition and each team is mentored by a professor. The other 2 teams are known as 'A' and 'B'. it started off when Group B, 'kiasu-ly' asked their prof for some training and amazingly they told their prof they were 'selected'. i almost flipped off the chair. to qualify for the first round, you just need to hand in the form and pay 50 bucks. neh neh. what is 'selected'?

then we were asked whether we made it to the next round to engage a client... EXCUSE ME, we have the money and the form, of course we made it. i dun blame the prof cos they really dunno what is going on, but i am more amused by the students who attended the briefing but yet related incorrectly.

our group was then asked whether we want to join in the 'training'... of cos we want to. first, why not. second, if we dun go, they might feel that we think highly of ourselves.

the next thing was we are currently waiting for the reply from the client so we can prepare interview and stuff. somehow, THE prof thought we didnt go through the organising committee, i.e. did not go for the briefing...

HELLO! the other team members were so late, they have to guard the doors while we were comfortably seated. but i was giggling at one corner cos one of the clients they wanted they could not get cos it was reserved for random lists. at first i wondered why they wanted that client so strongly, then i realised they did a research on that client for one of our modules.

haha i was so mean. but they must be quite a loser to use back the same client. i wouldnt do that, even though i can.

waw book
Originally uploaded by jnjco

..:: 554. The One With My New Book ::..

check out my new storybook! haha. It is 1000 pages.

nice.

..:: 553. The One With Review ::..

subject registration starting soon... need to plan what i have to take in the last 2 sem of my uni life, especially since i will be spending one sem not taking any core in china. =(

Yr 3 Sem 1: 16AU
AA102 - Accounting 2 (4AU)
BH325 - Learning and Performance Management (4AU)
HP204 - Personality and Individual Differences (4AU)
HP207 - Abnormal Psychology (4AU)

Yr 3 Sem 2: 19AU
BH225 - HR Research (3AU)
BH227 - Selection and Assessment (4AU)
BH326 - HR Metrics (4AU)
AB311 - Strategic Management (4AU)
HP324 - Human Motivation (4AU)

Going school to get external readings from prof. yay.