Take a Hop into Flapbunny's Burrow

第11集

Poor 斯斯 is entangled in a love triangle with 品萱 who appears to be suffering from multiple personality disorder.  Either that or the original 品萱, who is quite fierce, is really possessed by a gentle alien from outer space, as the story claims...   

温柔的品萱：那我问你，你还喜欢我吗？
斯斯：嗯！！！
凶悍的品萱：你这个负心汉！
斯斯：是你？怎么可能？你一直都在骗我的！你一直都是她！
凶悍的品萱：错了！我们只想试试你，看你是不是想要脚踏两条船！
温柔的品萱：斯斯，我没想到你是这种人。
斯斯：等一下，我没有脚踏两条船！
凶悍的品萱：你还说没有！你刚刚说你喜欢我是假的是不是！
斯斯：当然不是假的！
温柔的品萱：可是你刚刚说你喜欢我啊？
斯斯：我当然喜欢你！
凶悍的品萱：那你不是脚踏两条船是什么！
斯斯：啊啊啊！！！你们搞清楚，我没有脚踏两条船，是船自己裂开的！怎么可以怪我呢？莫名其妙！哼！

I bought a skirt in dark navy (only available in this colour) from Giordano Ladies.  It's a very simple A-line skirt, slightly below knee, 70% rayon and 30% polyester, the kind of fabric which is easy to maintain - handwash and no need to iron :)

Best of all, it was on 50% off, so I only paid $40 for it!  That's really cheap for Giordano Ladies.   I think the skirt must not be very popular, perhaps because it was very over-priced originally.  The top sticker over the original price tag read $80 (that's before discount), but when I peeled it off at home, the sticker below indicated $100, and when I peeled that second sticker off, the original price was $230!!!   Needless to say, I love the skirt even more now gwahahahahahahah!

Am in a bit of a dilemma here.  I already have a Master's Degree in Applied Linguistics (TESOL), but have no practical teaching experience.  Should I just go for small private schools to build up experience or should I try taking CELTA?  

My attempt to make a lunch reservation at Akashi today:

Me: Hi, can I make a reservation for three?
Akashi: Sure.  What time will you be coming?
Me: 12.50.
Akashi: Ok, 12.15.
Me: It's 12.50.  Five zero.
Akashi: Oh ok.  And the reservation is under?
Me: Miss Goh.
Akashi: Ok, Nicole.
Me: Er no, it's Miss Goh.
Akashi: Huh??
Me: Miss Goh??  As in the surname "Goh", G O H? 
Akashi: Me-goh??
Me: No no, it's Miss Goh.  MISS !
Akashi: Oh!  Mr Goh.
Me: (speechless and holding onto receiver in disbelief at bizarreness of situation)
Akashi: Oh!  Am so sorry, Miss Goh...

FINALLY!

Number of brain cells that died in the painful exchange above: Possibly a million...

Lingyin Temple (灵隐寺)

Today we spent a large part of the day at Lingyin Temple, which is a very famous tourist attraction in Hangzhou.  I was very keen on visiting the temple after watching a programme on tv that ranked it as one of the top ten places to visit in Hangzhou. 

But before we begin the tour, lunch!!!

The Fei Lai Feng grottos (飞来峰)
 

We climbed all the way to the peak, but there wasn't much there...

Err...ok...

Day trip to Qian Dao Hu (千岛湖)

We went on a day trip to Qian Dao Hu (literally translated as Thousand Island Lake) today.   This tourist attraction covers an area of 575 sq km and has 1,000 over islands of varying sizes.  We visited 五龙岛 (Five Dragon Island) which is made up of 4 islands including 锁岛 (Lock Island), 鸟岛 (Bird Island), 真趣园 (Fun Island) and 奇石岛 (Rare Rock Island) (Note: These are the official translations).  The islands are connected by 3 bridges, Happy Fish Bridge, Good Luck Bridge and Zhuangyuan Bridge. 

Unfortunately, we didn't really enjoy ourselves as the whole place just felt like a big theme park and was too commercialised.  To make things worse, lunch had to be held on the cruise ship and was not cheap, but it was either that or starve, so we had to order something.  It was also not very tasty.  Sigh...

Today we visited a shopping area that was fairly near our hostel.  I can't remember the name of the place but it was very crowded.

Welcome to Hangzhou!

We arrived at Hangzhou early in the morning and took a bus to the West Lake Youth House.

Even though West Lake Youth House is a hostel, it felt like a hotel!  I'm not exaggerating, look at this!

Not surprisingly, this place was more expensive than our Beijing hostel and cost about RMB830 for 4 nights.  However, that's only about S$10 more per night.  Plus the location of the hostel is excellent, right next to the West Lake and very near Lei Feng Pagoda.

My first impression of Hangzhou is that the people are so nice and friendly!  There were at least 2 occasions where people came up to us and asked where we were going and if they could help.  We managed to get directions to the places we wanted to visit with the help of these friendly locals.  I know Hangzhou is probably more used to tourists than the other Chinese cities, but even then, it was nice of them to approach us and offer their assistance.  One elderly lady even thought up an itinerary for us and gave us directions from one place to the other.

Visiting Longjing Village (龙井村)

Longjing (Dragon Well) Village is a small village perched on a hill and surrounded by lush trees, springs and streams.  There was a legend that a dragon dwelled here.   In the Qing Dynasty, Emperor Qian Long visited Longjing Village and was so pleased with the tea he tasted and the scenery there that he gave poetic names to 8 scenic spots around the village.  This greatly boosted the reputation of the Longjing tea, which has been popular in China since then.

Given that J is a tea drinker, we decided to visit Longjing Village.  On our way there, one of the residents who was pushing her bicycle back home stopped and asked if we were going to the village.  We chatted a bit and she then invited us to her house for a rest and to sample the Longjing tea grown by her family.  If we liked the tea, we could buy some from her.

She helped us to order some dishes from the village restaurant and we had our lunch with the tea.

As our train to Hangzhou was in the evening, we checked out of the hostel and left our bags with them.  In the meantime, we took a walk around the vicinity, doing some last-minute shopping and also had 家常菜 for lunch.