New years eve 2012

well today is new years eve, it's been a pretty hectic and busy year, but i have to say definitely one of the most memorable high school years. Not having a big outing like last year since people are overseas and all, just a small gathering of friends for dinner and fireworks at the city. Followed by some wandering out and about into the early hours of the morning. Modest but meaningful to mark an EVEN bigger year ahead :)

an interesting experience.

Few days ago i went to a park with the parents known as the 'matchmaking park'. What's so special about this park? well i kid you not it's where parents go on weekends to meet other parents to find dates for their sons/daughters. LOLONLY IN CHINA. It was like this massive section in the park with middle aged men and women. This is how it works you walk around and along the side there are parents kneeling down with a profile of their daughter/son including age, height, background, a picture of them and their weight LOOOOLLLL. THen theres the less privatised version, where there are stands put up inside are clotheslines and pegged on them are profiles of singles. If a parent is interested (note i said parent) they'll ask the other parents for the daughter/son's phone number/ contact details to give to their kid. Okay it's pretty sad if you have to get your parents to find you a girlfriend/boyfriend but i guess it's normal here :L

 ^It's like a festivallol

^anyone need a chinese fob girlfriend? Bahahah

^closeup of those umbrellas, free advertising on my blog wooo.

Gday welcome home

ngawww how cute is sydney airport. Great weather, blue skies, great beef, clean air im home babyyyyyy. This feels nice, just chillin in a shirt and shorts in 25 degree australian weather hah sure feels like home, ive been away for way too long. First thing i realised: there arent any people walking on streets, in asia people are jsut everrrywhere. Now that i'm home, what do i do now, i dont even know where to begin my life hahaa guess after new years, i'll be turning over a new leaf! (inb4 gets rejected by unsw in main round offers). I still have all my HSC memorabilia just floating around my room but really can't be bothered cleaning it up and i still have frankenstein, hiroshima and various assortment of hsc books in all the nooks and crannies in my room. AND OH MY GOD HOWI HAVE MISSED THIS FREE MEDIA, freely able to traverse the wonderful word of social networking sites i.e. blogger and facebook omg.

So yesterday when i was still in china i saw a beggar but she was young like a 20 year old female, broke my heart, i gave her 10 yuan :CC Also talking to my grandparents these last 2 months have really come to make me realise how much i respect old people. Grandma was telling me about her experiences in world war 2 and the japanese invasion, how she had to hide under desks when japanese planes bombed the city (i mean can you imagine that). SHe told me how afraid she was since she was just a little primary school girl. Me being a modern history student even more so appreciates listening to the knowledge of my elders, those who actually LIVED through the war and saw the world in a different light really interests me. Also I was looking at wedding photos of my grandparents and wow wtf happened to me my grandpas eyes were massive LOL

So yeah screw boxing day sales, ive bought everything i need for uni now :) now to stock up my wardrobe, i still have yet to unpack my suitcase haha. Oh and you see the pink bag and black backpack, yeah they're full of souvenirs so plz take them LOL they were so heavy T_T

 Travel cards from hk,taiwan,china. SO EFFICIENT just one swipe of the card wherever you go and that octopus card you can even use at 7/11 and supermarkets to buy food from. Then theres sydney... we dont even haev a metro LOL. Overseas the trains come every minute you dont even need to bother worrying about a timetable or having tripview. But you can instantly tell which one is communist china's LOL. dat lack of style aesthetic.

 Gotta say the taiwanese are vibrant with their colours, cant believe i just got off from a pink train, also got off a hello kitty one. Strangely demasculating but have to say still better than shittyrail LOL.

ahah everyone's busy now days looking for jobs, volunteering out and about ready for adult uni life! I know someone who's going to switzerland for a year shes having a going away beach party in january, it's nice how everyones becoming independent and stepping out into the real world, but also kindof sad how everyone's going their separate ways, doing their own things. I'm beginning to feel like it's time to be independent, to step it up, time to get out there and experience life! Major changes to come in my new 2013 new years resolutions (8 speaking of which im going to see my 2012 resolutions and see if i fulfulled any of them LOL.

It's been a long time- merry christmas!

Okay dont get me wrong i had SO MUCH TO BLOG, but because of my dodgy vpn Im only able to blog now and if i was to blog everything that has happened in the last 17 days i'd be here for days LOL

so i was pretty much scared for a month and as the uac page was loading for that split second it felt as though the butterflies would explode from my stomach LOL but i guess i did okay, good isn't really about what atar you get because not EVERYONE can get 98,99 or even 90+ for that matter but as long as you can get into the course you like it's all good :) my friend got 97.4 but his course is 92 so props to him! better to be safe than sorry right? haha as for me including bonus points i have a fairly good chance of getting into economics/arts at unsw next year, seeing as the cutoff was 94.3 last year and with bonus points my ranking is 94.85 for the course this year, if all goes well i'll hopefully get in /crossing all fingers and praying to all gods. BUt my course was 91.3 three years so demand is getting higher aiishhhhhh. Really sucks because my hsc exam marks were all quite a bit higher than my school mark, reallyyyyy should've worked harder at my ranks, oh well whats done is done and at least i managed to scrape a band 6 and into the distinguished achievers LOOOOOOL. Kindofsad how jsut like that everything high school is over, now just have to wait for the offers in the main round on 16th jan!

Merry Christmas Guys! Can't believe it was christmas eve today! doesn't feel very christmassy for me though, probably because it's not 35+ degrees here it's like -2 LOL. I know i know christmas is meant to be cold but i've grown accustomed to christmas time occurring during the searing heat of 40 degree days in Australia. ALso no decorated houses, no lights, no santa clauses only some shitty christmas tree in peoples square and shopping centre employees wearing very UNcute reindeer ears and santa hats AHHA. Off to my uncles house with the large extended family for christmas diner tonight! should be good :)

WELL GUYS GUESS WHO'S COMING BACK TO THE MOTHERLAND SOON, YEAHHHHH BOOYYYYY (yes thats right me- 9am 28th december (Y)). Can't wait to rip off the heavy coats and jackets for singlet shorts and thongs HEH havent actually experienced summer yet. Okay THis'll probably be my last post overseas, i've had a pretty great 2months in china/taiwan/hk it's felt long and short at the same time, but it does feel like it's time to go haha (mainly because it's a bitch to blog properly in china LOL) this has been the longest time ive ever been overseas in my life 1/6th of a year! see all of you guys realllllll soon (8
I'm excited, A NEW LIFE WAITS FOR ME BACK HOME, things to do:
- obtain license
- obtain job
- clean up everything hsc related
- seriously pick up table tennis/ badminton
- volunteering

So im kindof still signed into girraween high school, what happens if i never come back to school to sign out LOL. /foreverahighschoolstudent

Hualien

Isn't it weird how other people think in a language other than English... I just tried thinking to myself in shanghainese weird man hah. I have never seen this many block fringes and short shorts in my life, and it's like winter here. Heh my kindof place ;D I'm in hualien right now only 100k population yet it feels a lot more populated and frenzied than Sydney. And also Taipei has a smaller population than Sydney but everywhere is packed whereas we only reall have like George street... Every street is a George street here in Asia haha l. Going to the gorge and river trekking tomorrow should be funnn, there are so many cute Asian accessories everywhere here, the stores are like morning glory x10 so much variety and one every like 100m, fob Asian girls would go crazy here hhahha. Less than 2 weeks till atars omfgomfgomfg

Greetings from Taiwan!

Arrived in Taiwan today land of jay chou, show luo, elva hsiao, ruby Lin, ariel lin, joe Chen, Kimberley Chen and many many great dramas hehehe. Everything looks like the set of a Taiwanese drama it's cool yeaaaaah. Have only been here for a few hours but I'm liking it, A ALOT less packed than in hong kong. Everything is so cheap here as usual, street fashion is amazing here fuarrr just shopping in the night markets soooo many things to eat. I had oyster pancakes, stinky tofu, fried egg pancake, seafood soup for dinner today wehfuwfhwrfwrgv.i have pictures but can't upload from iPad :/ Weather isn't great and also a gay man tried to pick me up in his store and kept recommending pants that he thought 'would look good on me' ended up buying a belt and he said I love you as I left the store, tad scared after he kept checking out my pants shoes and talking in chinglish to me. Mmmm Daniel aren't you great at attracting either gay men or old grandmas lolllolol.

Everyone is so skinny here, seriously. And the cake faces are abundant hereabouts so are short shorts and macros...

But in other news, recently had a dream involving modern history hsc results, when I received the paper (yes I know there is no hard copy, but hey it's a dream)  opened the first page and bam 13/20 and I remember the comments being something like "failed to answer the question and show adequate knowledge" and for my strongest subject aswell. Then in the same night I got my atar and it turned out to be 70, if I legit get 70 atar i think i'll hang myself. I woke up in a cold sweat lolll, okay what have I become getting nightmares about hsc results >.> Anyone else? Lol nah guess its just me rofl. But iguess it is playing on my subconscious... Arghhh I'm on holidays == fml, but pressure and expectations from family and relatives aiigoooooo it's getting to me...

Hot summer! except not.

So i googled the weather for sydney and blacktown today just for the kicks and saw that it was 42 degrees... wasnt sure if srs or typo, but then mulitple friends confirmed it on msn. 42 degrees... are you guys like melting back at home ahha 42 degrees is like too hot for the beach, too hot for anything... Imagine if we had to do our exams in 42 degree heat (don't know about oyur school but girra has no aircon in the exam hall). Well between sydney and here there a 32 degree difference, I HAVENT EXPERIENCED HOT SUMMER DAYS YET GODAMNIT it's 10 degrees and raining here....

My grandpa got admitted to hospital, his high bloodpressure has gone out of control lately so that a major low, but i've been trying to visit him as much as possible when i have time, on another note the hospital looks exactly like a shot from scrubs LOLL. But in my various walks in china i've noticed many many useless jobs, probably because labour is cheap here. These include (names appropriated):
- elevator button presser (it involves staying in an elevator the entire day pressing level buttons for visitors, found mostly in high end hotels and hospitals)
- supermarket welcomer (a woman has a microphone attached to her and repeats "huang yi guang ling" meaning 'welcome' to every single person who enters the supermarket)
- most retail jobs where the number of employees exceeds the number of customers within the shopping centre.

GUYS i am thinning due to the lack of good red meat here in china. FML my arms are legit like sticks now i have lost all the (little) muscle tone from work outs and tennis. i'm going to look like a toothpick in a singlet when i come back to australia :(((

Isn't it weird to think that people still have school at this very moment.... feels like my high school education has ended LOOOOOONG ago