Back =)

And... I'm back=) I've actually been back since the 1st, but knowing me, I've been lazing around, hence the late update. People keep asking me how's the trip been, and I've been avoiding the question by saying read my blog =P so I guess I shall answer the question now.

As I've told some of you, it was seriously fun, and it was also seriously cold. So cold that it hurt. All the people in the Transform Us camp, you guys know how it felt to have your feet in that icy cold pool filled with ice right? How it felt like a gazillion needles biting at your feet and you wonder whether your toes have fallen off without your knowledge? Now imagine that's how your feet are feeling, CONSTANTLY, even though you are wearing THREE layers of woolen socks AND thick fur-lined snow boots. That's how cold it was. Li Hong complained that my whole blog is composed of WORDS and WORDS, which in retrospect, I have to admit sheepishly that it's true. So thanks to my new-found hobby CAMWHORING and to please him, hopefully the ratio of photos to paragraphs in this post will be at least 2:1 (Hey I'm sorry! I love to talk!! =P )

Okay, I'll stop the advertisements. Let's start from the 22nd of December:
-I FINALLY sent off my US applications after much hassle. I made a complete fool of myself at the post office though. Gave my dad an utter shock to find out his daughter was so ignorant. LOL. I was carefully and slowly sticking on stamps one by one using glue in the PO because I didn't want to use my saliva. My dad finally couldn't take it and pointed at this disgusting black mass put in a container. Silence. I think there were questions marks all around my head. My dad took a stamp and pressed it on the black mass. WATER oozed out. "Ooooo..." Turns out the black mass was a SPONGE. No wonder the PO people were staring at me. My dad was muttering about the failures of our education system by the time we left.

- Li Hong came and fetched me from my house to 1U as we had a 5S1 gathering. Turns out he wouldn't need to drive if it wasn't to pick me up. Which was so sweet of him. Especially since we were in his dad's BMW. My first time in one =) =) There was NO parking to be found. We circled around for 45 minutes(? or was it an hour?) until he finally gave up. We parked in some neighbourhood and walked to 1U instead. We were very very very very late. Catching up was great. Though maybe next time we ought to have a more efficient system. Raising your voice to talk to someone across a big table really isn't that fun. And you can't really speak to the person who sits, say, 2 seats away from you because you would talking over people's heads. Sitting there, it just struck me though. Everyone there had a path to follow. Only the fine thread of friendship connected us all. What would it take for that thread to snap? Would it even matter to us if it did snap? Just how deep does our friendship go? Gotta stop talking. This isn't even about the trip!!

Group photo:

-FINALLY, the trip itself. There was basically nothing much to do at the airport, so...
-Aunt doesn't really like taking photos all that much, so that's why she's not here. Anyway, I basically slept during the whole flight after drinking some wine, so don't ask me what happened. Except that Air China reminds me of Air Asia. But I have to say the pilot rocks!! His landing was the smoothest experience ever!

Okay, the 23rd. The trip officially begins. We transited at Beijing, where while luggage collection we got bored again, so my bro decided to try posing instead. ...and there's my Grandma beside him trying to get out of the camera's view.

-We flew to Dalian from there. Never heard of it? You've missed a lot, but no worries, go there for your honeymoon. Dalian is also known as 浪漫之城, which means the City of Romance. It's one of the most southern cities of the north-east region of China. It's basically a beautiful seaside city where many couples come here to get married or generally just paktoh.
-There's this 爱情路, or rather Pathway of Love, which is the longest road in Dalian (If I remember the tour guide correctly) and is 10km long. Couples with problems to argue over or fights to settle often go walking on this road. Apparently the road is so long that by the time they finish walking on this pathway, their arguments have ended as well. Not a bad idea actually. After all, communication is one of the main keys to a healthy relationship right? Besides, this road has the view of the sea on one side, and the other side is lined with never-ending trees. How could anyone feel like picking a fight with such scenery surrounding you??
-There's also this 爱情桥- Bridge of Love, where it's a tradition for all Dalian newly-weds come to walk through together because it signifies that they'll be together forever. "执子之手，与子偕老” which runs along the lines of Robert Browning- "Grow old along with me". Imagine walking together on the bridge, hands tightly clasped with the person you love, with the sea rolling beneath you, a cool breeze whipping through your hair, and the sun in the far horizon. The romance just takes my breath away... I'm sorry if I'm gushing XD

- We also visited the Golden Sea Park where we actually saw the sea itself, the first sea I've seen in winter. Obviously, the sea isn't frozen but I can tell you that air has never smelt so sweet before. With the sea breezes, I have to admit it was rather chilly but that just adds to the romance doesn't it? I saw this couple embracing each other tightly though they were both dressed in winter clothing (which makes it rather hard to be really physically close for those of you who don't know)-as I watched, the guy kissed the top of the girl's head and the girl leaned her head on his shoulder and they hugged even tighter. It was sooo... I don't know what words to use. Once again, I tasted loneliness, but this time it was different- it wasn't bitter like before, it was... argh.. I can't describe it- if that feeling was a colour, I think it would be metallic silver-not shiny, not dull. Get me? Anyyywayy, we also saw this adorable dog and for the rest of time, it was just plain photo-snapping and appreciation of the bee-yoo-ti-ful view!

That's my aunt in the middle =)

The view at Golden Sea Park
Isn't this castle wonderful? All my dreams of being a princess come rushing back~ Dalian was once conquered by Russians I think, hence the castle; not very sure actually, too busy looking around to listen to the tour guide =P
More posing =)

-Only half a day and the post is already so long. Anyway, Dalian is a seaside city, so what do we have for lunch and dinner?? SEAFOOD!!!! YUMMY!! I had crabs, LOTS of different types of clams (since I don't really know what they're called- one clam is as big as my palm k!!), SNAILS with their shells still intact, barbequed lamb, beef, chicken, squid... I better stop. I'm starting to salivate. It started getting dark around 4pm, by 5pm it was pitch black. Everyone turns in early here, so we checked into our hotels after dinner and called it a day.

Now, the 24th-Christmas Eve. We had a great Manchu lunch- about 12 dishes I think. Then we travelled up north to Shenyang. Trip took around 6.5 hours so we were bored stiff. The temperature on the road to Shenyang progressively dropped- thank God for heaters on the bus! As we got nearer and nearer to Shenyang, the trees got more barren and snow lined the sides of the roads. The whole bus was quiet as everyone was either asleep or appreciating the view. Looking at the scenery passing me by, I felt a dull ache inside me. It wasn't loneliness I felt, it was a kind of lonesomeness instead. It was as though the cold had numbed my heart so that all the feelings I felt were coated with a layer of ice, just like the branches of the trees outside. Here's a sample of the view:

This barrenness can't help but depict loneliness, yet somehow I don't feel so lonely when I look at it. Perhaps it is the stark beauty that takes away pain. Seriously, God must have excellent taste in everything- how else could even trees without leaves look awkward yet elegant at the same time? Haha.. if you don't understand what I'm saying it's okay, I'm just being me =)

-When we finally reached Shenyang it was night. Our first impression of Shenyang was WOW. It made KL look like a kampung. The lights! Every building was decorated with flashing lights, even the bushes and trees were! All of us on the bus were acting as though we came from some super ulu country by the way we were pressing our noses against the bus windows and goggling at the colourful lights. And the people!! You know the chinese proverb- people mountain people sea? This really describes the people in that city as I think practically everyone was out on the streets celebrating Christmas Eve. Our dinner was in some famous dumpling shop, I think altogether we had 15 dishes, with 10 different types of dumplings! SO MUCH food! And only 9 of us at a table! When we were all done, you couldn't tell that the dishes had been touched at all! Here's a very bad example of the lights we saw:

That was dinner so you know what happens after that. Thus endeth Christmas Eve.

Next, the 25th- CHRISTMAS!! Unfortunately, it did not begin well. At around 5am in the morning, I woke up suddenly and ran for the toilet and started vomiting. Guess I couldn't take the seafood and the oily northern China style of cooking. Still, it was Jesus' birthday and what day could really be bad when Jesus was born 2000+ years ago on that very day? We visited this really cool and pretty museum which was built by Russians as yes, Shenyang was also conquered by Russians for a few hundred years I think. Here's the museum:

And here's what's inside the museum
WAX figures!! Posing time!!

Photos aren't very clear here, I'm not very sure why- I was spending most of my time in the public toilet. I know there was much more to the museum than the wax figures, but I didn't get to visit it >.<

-And, if you'd noticed, we were wearing considerably more layers than the day before.
-We also visited the imperial palace in Shenyang, where only three of the Manchu emperors stayed in, so it was rather small.

Don't you love the effect of the trees? I do =)

-After lunch, we travelled to Snow Wonderland where there was tons of snow. We were practically wading through it. Thank God for snow boots. Here's mum and I on the dog sleigh:

We also sat on the horse sleigh, but you can't see the horse... haha!

Bro and I also sat on the snow motorbike- twice!! He drove once and I drove once. We were going so fast! Seriously you have no idea how cold that was, with the wind blowing hard against your face! Even with ear muffs on, you soon forget that you still have ears! People said they could hear my screams all over the snow field, paiseh! And I'm proud to say we drifted during my turn!! Though I DID scream the place down while holding the steering =)
My mum and dad also had a turn at the bike! So sweet to look at the two of them!
After this, most of the older people retired for some hot coffee as it really was very cold!! The rest of us went to ski! Although bro and I have skied before, we never managed to really learn how to ski properly so mum engaged an instructor for us. After 2 solid hours, I went down the steep slope by myself without falling down!! So did my bro! Call me cocky, I just have to announce it here- On the day of my 19th birthday, I LEARNT TO SKI! =D
Here's my bro and I with our ski instructor:

-After that, dinner =) Another Manchu dinner with 18 dishes this time!! Honestly the Manchurians must've ate a lot last time! The dishes came so fast that our table didn't have time to even finish the food, especially since all the food we tasted so far wasn't great, so you know what those waitresses did? They just stacked dish upon dish!! Here's how our table looked like AFTER we were done eating(many unfinished dishes were removed due to lack of space):

Then, surprise surprise... tour guide brought in a birthday cake. Haha... I know I don't sound surprised- I just understand my mum. And this has happened before XD 24 people plus tour guide sang the birthday song to me, which is really embarrassing... hehe..
Family photo:


The mandatory single photo every year(check out the stick-thin candles!):

Group photo:

-Finally, the end of a long day. Despite my frequent visits to the toilet the whole day, it was a happy birthday. Especially since after dinner we were allowed to go shopping for an hour and I saw this!!

*swoons and faints* XD

I have covered 4 days and 2 cities in this post! *congratulates self*

More to come in the next post, I don't want to bore you to death with such a long post, though it already is very long now =) Happy reading!