bitter-sweet

its a bitter sweet memory.
feels the pain and smile at the same time, when remembering.

all things happened for a reason, and this is just for the best.

when I smile more than the bitterness when I remember about it,
then I know that its all right,
and I'm being graceful,
and I don't want to change anything about it.

let the memory live as a resemblance of living.

everything is ok.

 life must go on....

Friday night....

This Friday....
I got nothing to do after work.
My landlord canceled the dinner which he planned 2 days ago, because he got to work overtime.
That means.....EMPTY !!!
and with less than 30 days left in Shanghai, means I don't want to go home !!!

So I asked Silva what her plan is (which is nothing), and we end up spend our friday night together.

We ate at Tasty, a steak restaurant.
It's some kind of a fine dining restaurant, since they have everything from appetizer-main course-dessert, in a set menu, with various of prices, ranged from 38-128RMB.
Silva treat me, and we both get the RMB 68 set.
and it was great !
She got salad, and I got soup.
Both of us got special steak (medium) --> taste good !
and for dessert, she get a green tea ice cream thing, and I get the french black coffee jelly
She drank english tea, i got american coffee.

And we talked for hours, and I was so happy.
I really wish that she joined us 2 years ago instead of 2 months ago.

She is so nice, and smart and funny.
I know she is worried to be working on her own after I leave, but I believe she can do it.
She will get scolded, for sure, but she surely will be able to get through it, being smart like that.

I wish her all the best, and I'm so thankful to know her.

Silva, if u read this, I want u to know that U're great !

Happy friday !

Love for Bolster

Ever since I was a kid, I always sleep with a bolster.
When I live near college, I always bring my bolster every time.
When I study in Beijing, and looking for blanket, I find a place sell bolster and I bought one right away.
When I move to Shanghai, my bolster come together with me.
I need them to sleep, they're essential in my sleeping habit.
And I'm not planning to stop this habit :)

Me as a nurse ??

I am thinking to go back to school and study as a nurse.
Yesterday I saw on University of Washington, they have a program to study to become a nurse in 2 years !
It's called Accelerated Bachelor School of Nursing program.
Well, u have to take the pre-requisite program and so on, but still, learn to be a nurse in 2 years ?!?
That's so cool.
Being a nurse means I'm closer to the world of Medical Health.
The world I'm interested on.

So, I'm doing some research about it and thinking about it quite a lot lately.

And what's so cool about it is that once you are a registered nurse, u can get a Master of Nursing and one of the specialties is : Nurse Practitioner & Nurse Midwifery (Aaaa.....!! Yaya !)

So we'll see which path I will take....
We'll see...

Pictures of us

I brought my external hard drive to the office today.
And think that I could upload some photos...of me and my fiancee

Here are some photos from the old days which you might never see before :

Girls in the Office

The first time I came to this office, back in March 2008, there was only 1 person, Thomas.
And it stays like that till June 2008, Chase come to the office and start to work here.
Soon we became good friend, being the 2 girls in the office.

Our exclusive friendship-colleague relationship stay for almost 2 years, and ended when on the beginning of this year, Michelle (王佳乐） come and join us as the cashier,
followed by Silvaria on March 2010 to replace my job.

Since then my day became much more fun and interesting.
More people to talk to, and most importantly, a girl from my own country.

The four of us get along together very well.
We are almost in the same age.

So far we have bought the same converse shoes (different color) and went to KTV together.
All the time, we're having fun.
And only now I feel a little bit sad to leave the office.
To leave these people behind.

Some pictures of the girls (and their shoes)

Blue (Silva), Yellow-Black (Chase), Black (Michelle), Purple-Red (Me)

 KTV night

Me-Michelle-Chase-Silva

They are so lovely :)

This weekend

Weekend normally starts on Friday for me...
I always feel happy when Friday is around.

On Friday night I went out with colleagues to Bali Bistro, and Indonesian Restaurant in Shanghai.
Silva, Thomas, Huang Zhi Min (黄志敏）, Chase, and Michelle (王佳乐),together we took subway to the restaurant, and Bill arrive a little bit later to meet us there.
The point is to introduce delicious Indonesian food to these Chinese people :)
Thomas been to Indonesia twice, but he always said that "I can't handle Indonesian food, terrible"
Well, we'll see.

Silva do the order, and it consist of :

1. Gado-gado
2. Bakwan Jagung
3. Satay Ayam
4. Ikan gurame bakar
5. Ayam penyet
6. Emping & Kerupuk
7. Terong Balado
8. Tahu goreng
9. Nasi Uduk
10. Nasi Kuning
11. Es Cincau
12. Juice Markisa
13. Kolak Pisang
14. Juice Guava (jambu biji ?)

Food starts to come, and we serve them.

And believe it or not, they like it !
Thomas, Huang, Michelle ate a lot,
Chase doesn't seem to really enjoy it, and she is busy talking with Bill about the Android phone (she bought Bill's phone)
Silva, me and Bill, we LOVE it :)

And that night totally change Thomas's mind about Indonesian food. HA !

Saturday was mellow, went to office to do some work,
Took Muffin to the pet hospital (you can read the story on sicky pup)
Stayed at home for the rest of the day.
I got a little bit cranky because of that.

Today, we went out ! Finally !!
First we went to Marks and Spencer.
I bought a flat shoes, a cardigan, and a set of baby clothes (set of 7, size 9-12mos) for my big bro's baby.

We don't know about the sex of the baby, yet.
The clothes that I get is the one with white color, and it has the pictures of helicopter, submarine, aeroplane, etc.
Bill said it's a little bit boyish, but hey, it's cool.
And since when only boys can take those vehicles into their matters ??
Girls can do too...!

If I have a baby, they will wear all sorts of different color.
I won't stop with only pink or red or purple or yellow with baby girl.
They will wear any color available.
Same with the boys.

Then we went to the underground market of People Square and get into the purikura booth (Purikura (プリクラ, Purikura^?) refers to a photo sticker booth or the product of such a photo booth) and have some fun !
The pictures was pretty funny,here is the picture :

Sicky Pup

Yesterday morning, I woke up by Muffin's noise.
His stomach is contracting, and I knew right away that he is going to barf.
And he did. Once, then I clean it and go back to bed.
In the end, he did it 3 times in 10 mins, and when I was done with cleaning the 3rd round, I saw him squatting near the washing machine, and soon after there's a big pile of poop there. Strangely he continue to squat, and soon after, there's another poop on the floor, it's just not a good shaped poop.
And it has some blood on it.

This is not Muffin's normal behavior, because he is house broken already.
Barfing is pretty normal, because sometimes his stomach is uncomfortable, so it's ok with us.
But pooping inside the house ?? and bloody too ???
That's problem.


We got dressed right away, and arrive in the pet hospital near our house in 20 mins.
Doctor Xu (徐医生） was there, a small lady, but you can feel that she is capable on what she is doing.
She weigh Muffin (5,85kg), and check on his temperature (It was 39,5C)
The temperature is pretty high, and the blood in the poop is also a concern.
So she stick a needle on Muffin's right front foot (which Muffin of course fight!), and draw some blood from him.
2 of the results are higher than it supposed to be, and it is related with his liver.
The doctor give him a shot of medicine, and another capsules to be put on his food.
And she advice us to come back again the day after.

We came back to the hospital this afternoon, and it was Doctor Wang (王医生） there.
He is pretty concern about our pup's liver condition, and he wants to pay close attention to it.
He put Muffin into an IV treatment, and give another prescription of medicine to protect his liver.

It was pretty sad to see our pup getting his IV treatment.
I hate to see his eyes, which like saying "Hey, why do you leave me alone in here, with needle sticking on my foot !?"
But we do what we have to do, to ensure that he will be having a nice and healthy liver. If he needs to get an IV, then he will get it.

We came back 4 hours later, to find that he is not done yet, there is still another IV treatment that he should get.
And in 30 mins its all done, and he is ready to go home.
He seems to be very relieved to leave the hospital, and peed right away.
We walk till the Maotai Rd (茅台路-威宁路）near our house, then we put him on the bicycle basket, and ride home.
We stop at a little park near our house, just at FuRongJiang Rd （芙蓉江路）, and sit there and talk for a little bit, we're sick of sitting down inside our little house all day long.

On the walk back home, Muffin peed again (2nd time in 1 hour), and was very happy to be in the house again.

The pup is ok, he is still his normal self, happy, and cheerful dog, very energetic, but something must be wrong on his liver, and we hope that he will be completely healthy soon.

We will know in 1 week, as we need to go back and get his blood checked again.

Get well soon, pup !

ZhouZhuang 周庄

Bill, Tarcy and Lloyd and I went to Zhouzhuang, an old city nearby Shanghai, during the May Labor Day Holiday, on May 1, 2010.
We gather in front of the Radisson hotel, at People Square (人民广场）to register with the tour group (yeah, we join the Chinese tour group...lame !) and head straight to the bus.
Here are some pictures on the bus :

Tarsi and Lloyd, her BF.

Me, got a little bit stuck between seats ;)

The bus ride to destination place took 1,5 hours, and it was pretty pleasant.
We arrived at around 9.30ish and starts to wonder around.
Even though it was early, but since we're in China and during the National holiday, there are already lots of people there.
The place is actually pretty nice, but as another place in China, once people find it interesting, then everything is pretty much is too touristy.

 A glimpse of Zhouzhuang 

Tarcy bought a sticky candy which you can play around with, she said that's the only toy that she have when she was a little girl.

I got to play around with it for a little bit too 

And make a smiley face out of it 

Pic by Tarcy

We have to do some camwhoring as well. These are the camwhore couples :

Pic by Tarcy

We peek here and there, looking into this and that, then we decide to go to restaurant and just grab our lunch.
Turns out that our decision to get food before everybody is feeling hungry is a good decision.
We got a good spot, and we use our time to eat and just chat around.
The food wasn't great at all, and it's pricey (tourist destination, lame !)
But somehow we enjoy it, and that's all that matters :D

View from the restaurant                                    Pic by Tarcy

Done with food and quite a lot of beer, we walk around again, it was around noon, and it's prettttyyyyy HOT.

We walked down to the bridge on the lake, and take some pictures

Everybody looks really happy !                            Pic by Tarcy

We saw some people on a speed boat, so we want to get a ride too !

We go to get our ticket, it was 80RMB (around $15), for 1 boat or 6 people.

We asked the ticket counter how long the ride will take, and they said about 30 mins, then down to 20 mins, and then goes down to even 15 mins.

However, we bought the ticket, and ready for the ride !

Happy face on the boat ride

What we didn't know that after 5 mins, the boat already back to the place where we departure, so we ask the driver if that's all. And he said "Yes"

We were pretty upset, because that's practically robbing our money and lied to us !

We scolded that guy, but he doesn't seem to care.

Sucks !

When we get off the boat, we saw some people are queueing on the ticket booth, so we told them not to buy, because it's simply a ripped off "不要买票 ！ 他们是骗人的。开始说是半个小时， 然后说20分钟， 15分钟， 但是其实就5分钟。真骗人“

And it was a great feeling that those people believe what we said and just didn't buy their tickets ! HA !

We're pretty tired and bored with that place after short 3 hours after we arrived, so we are looking for some place to seat.

We passed a some kind of arcade game place, and we tried to do the archery game, here are the pictures of the boys doing it :

pic by Tarcy

I did it too, but Tarcy didn't took any pic of me. And actually, between the 4 of us, I made the closest approach to the bull's eye ^__^

But, Tarcy took a good pictures of us 

The Luo's 罗姐妹

Tarcy and I have the same family name in Chinese, its Luo (罗）

We passed a cafe and I wanted a gelato, so we end up hang out in the cafe, till it's the time to go back to the bus (around 2pm), and start our long journey back to Shanghai.

It was long, because on the way back we stopped on 2 places, ones is a really crappy silk store, and the other is some kind of park.

I am getting cranky too because I was tired, hungry and it was really hot (I know I've been living in Indo where the weather is 30 something daily, and that day it was only 20something degrees, I think, but the weather changed too fast from only 10 something into 20 something, and I feel hot and sticky)

I think I mention that I'm hungry to Bill at least 100 times

It was a relieved to arrive in Shanghai again.

We headed directly to the subway station, get off at Zhongshan park and eat Vietnamese food.

Delicious and full, I'm happy :)

We go back home, shower and have a good night sleep.

Not a bad trip :)

She Shan trip and dog's playdate

Today we arranged a play date between our dog, Muffin with with John and Song Shen (Bill's colleague and his wife)'s dog, Newton.

We went to their apartment around noon, and then Song Shen drove us to She Shan's park in Pudong Area.

It's a big park where you can have fun, and you can bring your dog to have fun together (unlike most other parks in China)
We pay the ticket, 80 RMB/adult, and 30RMB/dog. And starts our fun time.

It was sunny and hot (summer !), and we walk around to find a spot to sit.
The park was is so nice and big.
It has lots of grass, and they have a lake, and sandy beach !!

We start to walk the dog on the sand, off leash.
And I was walking near the water to lure Muffin to get closer and check the water.
Muffin came over, and start to drink from the lake...
then he walk closer closer and closer, and then his feet are on the water.
Newton came over and did the same thing too.
Muffin walk further away from the beach, and suddenly half of his body is in the water !!!
And Newton did the same thing too !
Both dogs look so happy and proud of themselves, and I was surprised too
I thought wimpy muffin won't be able to get himself to the water, but he did !!!

Here are some pictures :

Muffin stand in the water so his feet got all wet, then he came back to the beach to run in circle and head straight away to the water and got his body all wet :D

Muffin and Newton (on the left) swimming back to the beach

Wet, Skinny and Happy Muffin

Wet Dog

Wet Newton, before he dug his face in the sand 

 Newton and John

Then Bill and John took off their shoes and walk into the water as well, to play with the dogs.
And they also throw the dogs into the water.
We have 2 wet dogs, and it was so funny to see them swimming back to the beach.

Muffin got really wet and looks really skinny like a rat... hahaha....

 Then we ate some bbq, and we got into this bouncy dome and of course we have to try it !!

Muffin under the bbq table. He looks handsome with the scarf 

Bill jumping very high on the dome

Jumping Bill and John, before they got their blisters !

Then we walk down to find some place to lay down in the shade, and we need to pass some obstacle, like the one we find if we're hiking, and Muffin did it very very very well !!!

It's really great, we are very proud of him.

He's so active and he is so great in the nature !!!

We are very positive that he will do good in the nature or wilderness or during hiking

Great job, Muffin !

It was a really good day for everybody (and the dogs too!)

And this is how the day ended :

The boys fall asleep

(Muffin has showered and as clean as snow)

Friend in GZ

My passport with visa attached on it already arrived in the office on Last Wednesday.
It was cool to see it :D
It has Bill's name as the petitioner, and my old multiple entry 5 years tourist visa got stamped "canceled without prejudice"

So,it's real, we have the visa !!!
Everything confirmed ! :D

I haven't tell the story that when I went to Guangzhou, I met a friend and her family.
I know her from a forum, back in 2007.
We chat quite a lot, then we sorta lost contact after she quits from the forum, we only email each other every 1-2 months, and we got back in touch since last October, when she told me that right now she is living in Guangzhou !
She is a married lady, she inspired me to be an independent woman. It's because of her (and another lady in the forum) who makes me feel like I still have to have my own job even after I'm married and have kids.
Eventhough the money is not a lot, but the pride of still making money, the continuation to make myself useful for others, and the constant working experience,and of course it is important that since I'm working, we will have things to talk about all the time.
She have a wonderful family, a smart, well mannered and handsome son, and a kind and loving husband.
Bill and I hung out with her for 2 days. While bill playing with little Tom, I talked with my friend.

 Bill and Tom playing Wii

the boys seems to have to much fun together :)

us and littleTom

It was nice :)