my holiday

Time flies. Soon I'll be in JC 1. I cannot expect life in RJC to be less stressful than in RI, but I do hope that we will be given more chances and liberty to do what we want (than was given to us in RI). How did I spend my two months of vacation? Not much, but it was rather enriching...

November:

Guitar. My classmate told me that it is not too difficult to be a self-taught guitarist if you already have musical background. He was right. It took me two days to learn the basic chords E, G, A, C and D. For a while, I wondered how to play other chords - until I realized there was a term called 'bar chords'. These were a bit more challenging. Initially, my index finger would hurt because it was not used to pressing 5 or 6 strings simultaneously - but eventually, the skin on one side became calloused and it would no longer hurt. The same goes for violin and viola, only that the skin becomes calloused at the fingertips. Later on, I discovered a useful alternative finger position for the A-major chord, which is 2-1-3 (all on the 2nd fret) instead of 1-2-3. This is especially useful when having to switch between the chords E, A and D, and you can even play A-major 7.

Graduation ceremony on the 6th. Graduation dinner on the 23rd.

December:

Family trip to Shanghai from 4th to 11th. Departure time at 1.45 am. I was unable to sleep during the flight, and this was worsened by breakfast served at 4 am. When we checked into our accomodation, I was so tired that I immediately lay on the bed and fell asleep. If you come from a country with strong currency, you'll realize that food in China is highly affordable but delicious. A bowl of 'la mian' (home-made noodle) costs 4 yuan (S$0.80), while steamboat dinner in a restaurant for 4 people costs 120 yuan (S$24). Sounds good... but now comes the bad news.

When buying merchandise from flea markets or shops along the street, take note: no matter how much you like the item, do not let the shopkeeper notice it from your body language - otherwise you might find it more difficult to drive a good bargain. What is a good bargain? Friends and relatives tell me it is 30% or LESS of the sale price, but personally I think 20% would be ideal. It is possible to drop as low as 10% - but in order to successfully do that you need to be daring enough and of course, some luck. I guess few shopkeepers are willing to make a deal at such a low price, so reaching 20% would already be a hard bargain. Believe it or not, even at 10% there would still be a profit to be made! All you have to do is talk to the shopkeeper and wait for them to ask you to name a price. The best strategy would be to ask for 20% of the sale price (10% if you dare; name the price and not the percentage!). Obviously, the shopkeeper will claim that he or she cannot offer it to you at that price. Just look as though you are not keen to purchase the item and be prepared to leave the shop. Don't worry too much about leaving empty-handed, because the shopkeeper will probably call you back and offer to sell the item to you at 25% of the sale price. It's now up to you whether to take it or haggle some more until you get your 20%, BUT avoid trying to go below what you originally offered as that would be unreasonable on your part!

People who tout are seen as pests and should be ignored completely - don't even respond to them because it will only make them more desperate to get you to buy their products. The same goes for transportation. We had a nasty experience with such people. On the 3rd day of our trip we took a train to Suzhou, a neighbouring town. Immediately when we left the train station which was as usual packed with people, they somehow recognized us as tourists and pestered us to take their transport van, claiming that they would bring you to any place you want. We asked the driver to take us to a particular shopping district (I forgot the name). To our surprise he told us that there was no such place, so we asked for an alternative. On the way he asked us if we were keen to follow him on a day tour to various tourist attractions for a price of 100 yuan, but we told him we were not interested. We ended up alighting at a place which looked like a wet market, so we asked them if this was really an ideal place for shopping. The driver sounded so damn excited about this place being such a popular shopping centre for tourists that we believed him. In the end it turned out to be a small-scale silk farm which had a miserable shop selling overpriced silk products. Fortunately the fare was only 10 yuan. We later flagged down a proper taxi and asked the driver to take us to the shopping district we had originally planned to go to. We got there.

Ok, enough of the trip. Overall we enjoyed it very much and brought home plenty of clothing and other merchandise, all 'Made in China'. Then there was an overnight class chalet from 14th to 15th. Less than half of the class came. Most of the time was spent on playing cards and BBQ - and the Xbox which I never lay a finger on despite being invited to play.

One more week to school - no, it's a college! RJC. New classmates. Orientation. Chamber ensemble? You bet.