the•truth•shall•set•you•free

i haven been bloggin' for a long time. well, there are a couple of reasons for this. firstly, i blog only when i have the inspiration to write (i dun really like the idea of blabbering abt mundane daily stuff), and there's been a drought in my creative department recently. the reason, i suspect, is the ever-increasing workload that zaps away all my brain and creative juices. secondly, i have been rather lazy. i actually came to this page a week ago, but after typing in a few lines, i realized i dinno what i wanted to say with that entry, and that i was too lazy to complete the post. in the end, i deleted it all away. but i realized my blog does have readers - not that im writing for others though, as you shall see in later posts. (i hope)

however, this lack of entries does not mean my life has been all blank and boring since the last entry. in fact, many things have transpired in the course of the past few weeks, and perhaps, i just need more time to defragment my thoughts and churn them out into words here.

anyhow, i went to china recently - brought a group of 41 students there. it was fun overall, and i enjoyed myself playing and laughing with my students. china has always held a special place in my heart. ive been there twice, and i still have fond memories of the places i visited and i was looking forward to revisiting them again this time round. i first stepped foot on it in 1996, when i was in jc, and its kinda amazing that 10 years later, im going back again. i remembered all the fun i had when i was there, and i had a great time with my friends then. similarly, this time round, i think the memories shall stay with me for quite some time, and i sincerely hope my students enjoyed themselves as much as, if not more than, i did.

the photos are arranged not in any order of merit or chronology, coz i cant really remember when we did what - i can only remember we did certain things, as you shall see below..

at the airport - ready to go!..













up the plane!..













to eat the delicious airplane food!.. hahah.













a great start - as with all students, they are naturally careless sometimes - as with these 2 on the left. they brilliantly left their passport and wallet (respectively) on the plane the moment we got off. we haven even got past the immigration. it was only after much waiting and worrying before they BOTH got back what they had misplaced. super duper thank God lor.. i was like praying they find back their stuff.



i shant disclose who these 2 kids are.



BUT.. if you cant see clearly the person on the left up there, he happens to be my sitting partner on the coach, and he's in this pic. hahah.











we went to the great wall - of coz! - and here's a magnificent view of the valley from the wall.












many, if not all, of the students chose to commemorate their visit to the great wall by buying those certificates which says they are a 好汉 by climbing up the great wall. still others decided to engrave their names on mini plaques to show that they've been up this monument. i, on the other hand, still believe in the staying power of memories - both captured in my mind and in a photograph like this one here.







as with most big cities (bangkok, new york, etc..) jams (traffic, that is) are a common sight. no less in beijing. thankfully, we had a really skilful driver, whom we called 师傅 (seen here at the bottom left-hand corner of the pic) affectionately. he could really manoeuvre those sharp corners while turning into narrow lanes - sometimes, he was literally cms away from the vehicle parked illegally along the road. zai! most rides were smooth and safe, thank God.











dats why the students never failed to sleep ever so soundly WHENEVER they are on the bus..












especially when the tour guide starts to speak.. hahah. super diu lian lah - pple talk, we (even i slept, and was caught by the guide!) sleep, make pple think she is boring, when she is super not! it was our blessing to get such a kind-hearted, patient, cheerful, sporting, understanding guide. she's called betty. the kids absolutely adored her. they even made cards for her and the driver at the end of the tour. sweet.












we also went to the temple of heaven (天坛), where we learnt abt the emperor's no. of 9. see the circle we are standing on? the first round of tiles around it have 9 of them, the 2nd round 18, and so on.. there were also (if i remember correctly) 9 steps leading up to each level on our way up here. apparently, if you stand on where we are standing on and shout out your wish to heaven, it will hear you and answer your prayers. (coz emperor is the son of heaven - 天子) we shouted, "SYF GOLD 2007!"