DuckieDroplets

A lot of people has been asking me the same question: What do you study? Well, I understand your doubts and curiousity. What does one study when their chosen course is "Music". So here are the list of classes I take in university:

1) Conducting (divided into 3 different classes)
          a) Class of 2 (me and Huang Yi + Teacher)
          b) Class of 4 (me, Huang Yi, Chen Ke and Zhao Hao Ting + Teacher)
          c) Accompaniment Practices (the four + teacher + 2 piano accompanist)
2) Full-Score Reading
3) Piano - Individual Classes
4) Sight Singing/Reading/Playing and Hearing
5) Harmonization
6) China Folklore Genaral Discussion
7) Philosophies on Art (General Discussion)
P.E.
9) English

Yeap. That’s the total amount of subjects I study… don’t get me wrong. There’s MORE to come… these are only those compulsory subjects. Since we’re freshmans’… first years… (which ever you prefer), we cannot have extra classes to gain extra points. Elective subjects are only available starting next semester. Can’t wait. Not that I have a lot of time to spare, in fact, I’m kinda running low on time.

P.E. classes are the nothing-to-do-mark-attendance-play-on-your-own classes that lasts only about 20-30 minutes out of the supposedly 2 hour lesson.  The REAL torture among all these subjects is … guess what … ENGLISH! Not only the standard is low, the one teaching is even lower.

This is what they teach you:
1) There is a squirril on the tree (they can’t spell squirrel)
2) She has bright white tits (WAKAKAKA… they can’t pronounce teeth… WAKAKAKA)
3) He’s got a good sense of Rhyme (According to what I heard, it was pronounced rhythm… but somehow she couldn’t spell it)
4) I cheating on exam (OH MY GAWD)
5) Sentence : "I will tell him when he comes"
    Sentence in past tense: "I would tell him when he came" (Wuah-lao)
6) All "th" are pronounced as "s" …"Somesing" (Who sing? WHAT samseng? You CALLED ME samseng? WANNA FIGht?) …. "Sank you" (OHH… I’m sinking… I’m sinking…"
7) Page sex (WAKAKA… she was trying to say page six)
Proprotion (Proportion)
9) Never trouble trouble if trouble trouble you (WAKAKAKAKA… where’s all you s??)
10) If you say : "I am busy." you have very bad english. But if you say : "I am busy as a bee." You have very good english. (Note: You can’t say I am as busy as a bee, that is incorrect… lolx)

FUIYOH. So this is WHAT they teach ahh… Even my Manglish sounds better! LOL.

I couldn’t decide what to blog because there’s been a LOT happening around me these days. But I guess the greatest fun of all was having MPO (Malaysia Philharmonic Orchestra) to visit Beijing. I’ve got to know about their visits when I was in KL actually, visiting Miss Beh Kah Peh in the MPO. Then I saw the notice on the board outside the conducting department saying that Mr. Matthew Batthies will be giving out masterclasses on the 23rd of September, a day after their performance in Beijing’s Concert Hall.

22nd September was a Friday night. I didn’t expect myself to be turning up for their concert, because well, I had no tickets. And the complimentary tickets that MPO had gave out to the school was grabbed by most of our seniors. Yea…. this is the low part on being juniors. Good things always end up the last when it’s your turn. LUCKY me, Miss Beh Kah Peh linked me up with Puan Juniwati, the CEO of MPO. And asked me to contact her myself… personally. WALAO! CEO of MPO… and Gan Jia Ying, err… who? Lolx.

I called her, using A LOT of my hp credit, considering that I’m calling a M’sia hp number from a Beijing phone… even though she’s got international roaming and is currently in Beijing. I’m sure it’s still gonna cost me a bomb. BUT it’s worth it because hehee, not only did I get 5 complimentary tickets (just for ME), now the CEO of MPO knows my existance. WAKAKAKA…. which is a very good thing.

MPO’s concert in Beijings’ Concert Hall was not bad, according to my seniors, they say that MPO sounds very good and even in China it’s hard to find an orchestra that makes such beautiful sounds. Hehe… I answer: "Of course lar! They are all world-class musicians! How many Malaysians you see in there worx?" Lolx. OUch. But true. Their repertoire was rather boring though (Romeo and Juliet extracts) and Rachmaninoffs’ Piano Concerto No.2’s solo was sometimes overpowered by the orchestra. But overall, it was a good concert. Hehe… at the entrance where there were banners of MPO’s programs hanging about, I saw MYSELF playing the cello printed on one of the encounter’s banner. WAAAAA…. MY FACE!!! Haha… I took a picture of me and me on the banner… ME! Probably upload it some time later on because it’s in my friends’ camera. I met Mr. Kevin Fields as well, he probably doesn’t remember me, though he’s trying very hard to pretend he does… okay lar, let’s believe he does.

This morning at 9 plus, I walked over to the conducting classroom and saw that they were there already, Mr. Matthew… Pn. Juniwati… and some of my seniors. I quickly ran back to grab my stuffs before going up to meet and greet them. =p HR (one of the rare cute second year) told me later on that I have different personalities with the different languages I spoke. Haha… because I think I was the one with the most fluent spoken english around the others, although my fellow senior AK is M’sian as well. But then… aiyar… lemme get the glory can or not? Lolx.

I introduced myself to Mr. Matthew, with some help from Pn. Juniwati and all… The masterclass was very fun, I was part-time translator. Lolx. With some help here and there from people around. Gosh, I really need to brush up on my beijing-speaking-chinese… haha, I found myself lost at words some times. I’m sure I was much brighter and confident when I was seen speaking in english to HR, because I don’t quite talk much around them. The reason is 1) They speak really fast and I dunno much about what they talk about so I can’t join them … 2 ) I’m generally quiet lar.. Lolx.

And thus ends my experience with MPO in Beijing. My university days has been very well spent and packed with vary action-packed dramas and adventures. I’m sure I’m gonna love it here!

The alarm went off at sharp 6:15am, exactly the time that I’ve tuned the night before I slept. My eyes shot opened, my hand grabbed the phone and without even looking at it I pressed the "turn off" button… second down below on the left. And I continued sleeping. I woke up again, grabbed my phone and got a glimpse of the time, 6:25am… and I told myself. Okay… 5 more minutes. I closed my eyes.

The next time I opened my eyes, something in me tells me that something is WAY wrong. "Oh shoot!" I exclaimed as the time on my phone shows: "8:00am". BUGGER! I have HARMONIZATION at 8AM and I am SO doomed! I jumped out of my pyjamas and into my jeans and pink shirt which happend to there, rushed to splatter water on my face, got my books, pencil case and bag before dumping everything into it, grabbed my wallet and handphone AND ran!

THANK GOD the classroom was one floor down and but a few metres away. I turned a sharp corner at the corridor that led to a longer one where the classroom was and caught the sight of my classmate at the door. "PHEW! I’m not the only one late!" I thought, and grinned whilst I continued running towards the sign that marked "Classroom 410". I flipped my wallet opened, fished out my attendance card and swiped it across the attendance machine.

I imagined laying eyes on another pair of angry ones, where his hair was almost bald in the middle, his hands clicking onto the mouse and keyboard in his swinging chair. But when I turned, my eyes darting from the students to his desk, I grinned broadly. "Don’t worry, he’s not here yet." "You’re earlier than he is." the class chimed. I inhaled deeply and heaved a sigh of relieve. So much for all the worries. I shook my head slightly before taking a sit at the second row, left, beside Gao Xing, the harmonization class monitor.

He was on the phone, and the conversation was with our teacher. He was stucked in a traffic jam because some accident occured (bus turned over under the bridge). 20 mintues later, approximately 8:34, our harmonization teacher arrived, breathing heavily.

Wakaka. So much for being "late".

————————————————————————————————

Haven’t blogged for the while, things has been going pretty fast lately. Here’s some new stuffs:

1) I went shopping on Sunday and bought myself a denim skirt which costs ONLY RMB50, which is approximately RM25… WAKAKAKA. Must resist the temptation to buy more…

2) Finished conducting//learning Beethoven’s Symphony No.2, 3rd Movement. My teacher was pretty happy with my improvements during the lesson on Thursday, which makes me happier.

3) Am learning Peer Gynts’ "Anitra’s Dance", "In the Hall of the Mountain King" and "Arabian Dance". Had some very very very bad time before Monday because I had no idea what to do with it. But my nice 师兄 gathered all four of us for a brief practice on Monday, so hehe, relieved my pre-individual-lesson stress. Went for class yesterday, it was oo-kay… need to memorize Anitra Dance and Mountain King by today… (memorized already.. hoho)

4) First semester’s Holidays are coming! Hehehehe… starting on the 30th of September to around 9th of October if I’m not mistaken. But no doubt we’ll be loaded with homework. Kinda looking forward to the 30th of September cuz the conducting department might be organizing activities (PARTY!)

5) Met my piano teacher on Friday, she’s very very sweet looking… not only looking, she’s very very sweet in person as well. Need to prepare Debussy’s Arabesque No.2 and C major/A minor 4 octave scales and 2 octaves chord arpegios. (kinda easy… wakaka)

6) NECK ACHE. I can’t turn my neck to the left for 3 days already. Today’s the fourth…. it’s getting better lar. Now can turn to the left, but to a certain extend. Hope it’ll heal by tomorrow… Sigh.

Conclusion: Must work hard! What you do today determines where you want to be tomorrow! GAMBATTE~!

Today was also very exciting for me…

The morning started very slowly as I woke up at 9am, had breakfast and started practicing for my conducting lesson later in the afternoon.

I was half way eating lunch…1:55pm when I recieved my orchestration teachers’ sms, "JiaYing. We’re having lesson at 2pm on the Conducting floo, room 501. Be a few minutes early."I nearly spit everything I was munching out, "BE A FEW MINTUES EARLY???" It was 1:55pm!!! And I was still in my shorts and tee shirt…

Because all the conducting-related classes: orchestration, conducting, conduct-accompanist practices, group classes and piano are all VERY flexible accordingly to the teachers’ time. Other classes are fix.. thankfully…so you have to be 200% ready at ALL time.

So Orchestration was with Shen Hao. If you guys have read my previous posts in Feb and March, you’ll know who he is. Hehe… he’s a nice fellow lar.. and we learnt about transposing instruments, transposing clefs and bla bla bla today. I had to leave early because I had my major class fixed at 3:30pm.

Went for my conducting lesson with YangLi at 3:30pm. Again, I was the first to reach… this time, HuangYi came first instead of my teacher and both of us started chatting. Only then I found out that he was the son to Patricks’ YangQin teacher. Wuahsai… small world. Because I think my mom knows HuangHe (the dad)… lolx.

Conducting lesson was very tiring, because there’s so much to change and so much to learn and so much to remember. Ended approximately 6:00pm… it was almost a 3 hour class… man. Phew…

Went practicing at night… my first time as a qualified student, a freshman in this practice room. Hehe… get to swap my practice room card. Hehe… very nice. Went along with WenYao… he was in 808 whilst I went to 913. Met co-incidently with Zhao Hao Ting, my 师兄… he was with this pretty girl… hehe. He looked at me and back to his friend, and smiled proudly, "This is my 小师妹!" And I was like "sweat." Lolx… but it’s really fun to have your seniors looking after you. It’s nice to be young, small and innocent. Wakakka… I really do enjoy being freshman. Hehehehe!

It’s my first day of school! I remember smiling to bed, excited to start school. Then waking up even before the alarm clock rings with Lee Hom singing "Forever Love"… But I slept back for another half an hour… lolx. In no time, I was ready to go for class! Man, I haven’t been to class for like… 8, 9 months? Ever since SPM ended, that’s the end to my secondary school life, the end to uniforms, white ribbons, white socks and white school shoes. Now it’s hello to UNIVERSITY life~! Woohoo~! I went to my first day of school in my greenish-yellow shirt, JEANS and SPORT SHOES plus COLORED contact lenses! Haha… boy it feels good.

My first lesson was ENGLISH. (Whuat-the…) Well, I was told by my seniors that I wasn’t to expect too much of university english because this is CHINA. So… maybe something like form one Malaysia English. *raises eyebrow* We (Note we: MingYan, JunYi & Me) walked to class together, me and Jun Yi was in class 302 whilst MingYan went to class 301. They devided Composing, Conducting and Electronical Composing into one class that consists of 29 people. Hence, I had to attend the same class with JunYi. Sigh… Not that I despise him, no. He’s a well…err… a little blur. Okay, maybe a LOT. And he doesn’t really thinks outside the box, basically he can only see things in front of him lar. So… hehe. Nothing too bad also. As I expected, I was his deskmate. My conducting friend, the other girl in my year — Hao Yu, sat behind me.

Our English teacher, Miss Wong came in approximately 10:05am. 5 minutes late eh. She started speaking in english, and I started laughing inside me. It was as though a ball of feather was tickling me from the inside. WAKAKAKAKAKAKA. I couldn’t UNDERSTAND her english. She spelled "hobby" "hoppy" and "squirrel" "squirril"… and it was "town and county" instead of "town and country". LOL. We were supposed to have this brief conversation with our deskmate (SAD) in front of the class. And when it was our turn, I basically freak the class out. C’mon lar… I speak ENGLISH half my life okay~? Jun Yi dear was SHAKING from head to toe and he couldn’t stand up straight, he was practically rocking to and fro whilst he tried to conduct the conversation with me. WAKAKAKAKA. Kinda memalukan lar. But sigh, get use to it lor. His ears was practically red when we sat down. The teacher was obviously impressed. (grins)

Then it HIT me when she announced and said that we cannot skip levels. THAT means, I have to come for this BORING and LAME english lesson for FOUR years! (Suicides) Well, I’m gonna find a way to sit for my level 6th english test, which is equivalent to their master degree english standard (sad right?). THEN, I won’t have to attend english lessons ever again.

After english, I went back to the hostel… had lunch and waited for a while before heading to the practice-room building and into its working office to ask for my practice room card! Hehe. YAHOO~! I got it! Now I have my canteen/attendance card, practice-room card and all’s left is my student-pass. Hoohoohoo.

2:00pm arrived and we had to gather at the school’s hall for the school-opening ceremony. I was kinda looking forward to it because it’s my first year here and I do think even though how much our seniors say that it isn’t worth going to, we should at least attend it during our first year. I walked into the hall, the chairs were labeled. "Oh great," We had to sit accordingly to our profession. And the conducting row was EMPTY. How nice. I waited for while sitting as an imposter along with my friends, the chinese-classical musicians… lolx. Then I spotted Xia Xiao Tang. Eeeeee… long time no see and he was still very fair. I got up and went and greet him, taking a sit beside him at the conducting-row.

The ceremony started with a lot of people giving speaches then it continued with more people giving speaches… including one of OUR representatives. He’s a piano-major student with huge round glasses, a stick figure and really short hair… and his trouses were very well belt and pulled high into the middle of his waist. And his speech was REALLY komunis. Brain wash meh? Somore so long… wanna die of boredom just by listening to him. And memalukan gila, he’s OUR representative, the freshman representative… he represents US! P@(#*#^%$#@%34… could they had chose somebody better looking? Lolx. After all the speaches, there was prize-giving to best teachers, staffs and students… then our school president stepped upon the stage and said: "Ceremony ends here." CULTURE SHOcK man… LOL. The whole thing didn’t even last 45 minutes… what the???

Anyway. The afternoon was spend like that lor. I thought. Just as I

I practiced my work back in the hostel then had dinner with everybody… we ordered food from yong chang and yong soon offered his share of bak gua. Yummy. Make me miss M’sia. Although it’s from Singapore lar. Lolx. Around 8:05 when I was about to get ready for bath, my handphone rang. The number looked rather familiar, I pressed "answer"…
Me: Hello?
Voice: Gan Jia Ying?
Me: Eh… Teacher?
YangLi: Yea! Where are you?
Me: Err… in school.
YangLi: Oh Very good. Come down to the white building around 8:30pm!
Me: *Shoots a glance at the clock, it was already 8:10pm and I’m dressed in just tee shirt and wrapped in towel and hadn’t taken my bath.* Errr… okay. 8:30pm??? *panic mode*
YangLi: Yeap. I’ve asked Huang Yi they all to come as well.
Me: Ohh….Okay. *still panicking*
YangLi: Well, see you then!
Me: *throws cupboard open* Ok! Bye bye… *Throws phone onto bed and starts changing*

I walked to the white building alone… it was pretty dark and well, scary. The lights from the residents’ house shining from inside wasn’t enough to light my path… and there wasn’t any streets light. But the good thing is there are people walking as well. Not a lot… maybe just two or three, but it’s better than none. I reached sharp 8:30pm and rang the doorbell. Nobody. I rang again… still nobody. Okay. Maybe he’s not here yet… So I sat down at the little bench and waited. 5 minutes passed… still nobody. And it was getting even scarier. Okay okay, I admit it…I’m afraid of the dark. What to do? Can’t help having a very wild imagination and watching a lot of scary movies. Lolx. I decided to ring him. He said he was on his way… goody goody..

YangLi came approximately another 5 minutes later and we went up to his office, he sat down straight at the computer and started typing this very very long list. Huang Yi and Zhao Hao Ting came next, then lalalala… teacher printed out three copies of the piece of paper he was busy typing and handed it to us. "List of conducting work to-learn" OH GREAT. There’s TWELVE of them! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA! (Slays self and dies) He then discussed about the pieces one by one, about the scores, about the styles, how it is all related and why did he choose that particular list. I thought, "Wow, how very very nice of him to actually bother to plan down everything for us." Actually I’m having lessons with him tomorrow along with huang yi… why didn’t he just tell us tomorrow?? Now it feels like I’m having conducting lessons almost EVERYDAY!
Monday night: Pieces Discussion
Tuesday 3:00pm: Small Class (Me and Huang Yi)
Wednesday 3:00pm: Accompanist Practice (Me, Huang Yi, Zhao Hao Ting, Chen Ke)
Thursday 2:00pm: Big Class (The gang)

Walao… like that ahh, I can die of exhaustion just from conducting. My arms and shoulders are starting to ache a little… but I suppose those muscles would hurt in the beginning and once I get use to the massive exercise I do everyday it’d be fine. The night ended there then…

My first conducting lesson was TODAY! Oh GAWD~! I was in such a shock-state when my 师兄 called me approximately 11am where I was busy preparing myself to go out shopping with WenYao and KhaiYing. I was already dressed for the occasion, bath with very nicely done hair and all when my phone rang… "You are my superwoman…" I picked up the phone almost immediately and sounded just a little TOO happy…
Me: Hewo!
CK (His name is Chen Ke): Oh. Yan Jia Ying (my name in chinese pin yin). I arranged class for you today!
Me: Eh? Today? (Shock, jaw drop)
CK: Yeap! The class is 2pm, meet me at the conducting departments’ office around 1:45pm.
Me: Oh… okay… (Stunt, wordless)
CK: Yeap. See you.
Me: Eh… what do I have to bring?
CK: Err… nothing. Oh, maybe just your baton…
Me: Oh, okay.
CK: K, see you!
ME: ok…See you. (Expression: Totally disasterous)
As I woke up from my fear-attack, I went and told my friends that I couldn’t be accompanying them because I"LL BE

HAVING MY CONDUCTING LESSON TODAY! With a NEW teacher! OH NO~~~~~~!!!! (Shivers, goes deaf, black-outs, faints to

the ground)

So I well, suddenly didn’t know exactly what to do. So I quickly glanced back to Beethoven’s Symphony No.1, the one

I learnt and practiced for my intake examination in February this year. Then I went out with the whole bunch of people from 5th floor to the canteen for lunch. Boy was the canteen packed! After lunch, Yong Soon came into my room and we started chatting before we shifted into his room… haha.. the fellow learning to speak cantonese with Leo Ku’s 10 minute Medley… LOL.

1:45pm came quickly as I hurry to the conducting departments’ office and waited outside the door. SMSed Chen Ke to tell him I was there before the door behind me opened and I found him standing behind me. "Why didn’t you come in?" He asked… well, I didn’t know marr. We walked around 5-7 minutes before reaching this white building that has "合唱研究所" printed on a little plate at its door. We pressed the door bell and waited. Around 5 seconds later, a loud "THUD" was sound before the door threw itself opened, freaking both me and Chen Ke out. Lolx. Somebody controlled it from upstairs.

Well, we waited… soon they came one by one. Huang Yi… cute and VERY GENG fellow, my year… the number three guy. Then came Zhao Hao Ting, the one with his little teeny weeny pieces of beard-hair hanging on his chin making him look horrible on an okay-looking face. Then came the two teachers… piano accompanist teachers, teacher Han and teacher Liu before the star of the day "teacher Yang" came.

So there’s four students… 2 first years and 2 second years. Teacher Yang and super GOOD to me because thanks to Aik Khai who has been err.. yea… just, Thank Aik Khai. Gosh, I so have to work extra harder…. All of us have to prepare Beethoven’s 2nd Symphony, 3rd Movement. We need to practice our own accompaniments for the symphonies and will be playing for our mates whilst they conduct.

My next lesson will be on next Wednesday, 3:30pm and Thursday 2:00pm. I can’t wait for my next lesson to come… but of course, I’ll have to finish off all of this weeks’ homework.
Homework:
1) Practice the 4-beat QiGong… (LOL) in 4 different
counting ways.

2) Learn Beethoven’s Symphony No.2’s 3rd movement by heart
3) Analyse the score
4) Learn to play the piano part
5) Practice staccato
6) Practice my first starting beat…

Well, due to the change of teachers, there’s quite a major change of style. (GOSH, Huang Yi is SO good.. we were called to conduct 8 bars of Bee2 No.3 and he looked so pro… yeng lar! I like… lolx. canot… I also must be yeng!)

At night the bunch of us, 留学生… cooked our own dinner together. 12 of us in total… and had this buffet-style dinner. Lolx. Fun. Then just now sharp 12am,
we celebrated Cheryl’s 21st birthday… Hehe.

It’s almost 3 in the morning now… and I’ve just listened to Maybe and Birthday after mixing progression. Not bad lar… but still got improvements needed to be made. Missed everybody a lot suddenly, especially after listening to their voices…sarangheyo~! Heheehe…

Daddy went home… ~wails~ (yea right). Hrm, he took bus to the airport because it’s only RMB17 (excluding the ride from school to xidan where the airport bus are) compared to the cab fare which would be like errr RMB109 … of course lar take bus, right?

How am I today? TIRED. How’s the weather? GREAT, It’s sunny and windy and the sky is CLEAR and BLUE! WooooooooooHOOOooo~! Dad left yesterday, he managed to eat my RMB110 to buy tea leaves for mom just before he left. *raises eyebrow*… clebber fellow.

It was a busy day on Monday and I was quite irritated by the school’s system and admin. Well, we (me, wen yao and jun yi) went to pay our school fees : RMB33000 to the school’s funding department. Everything went rather smoothly, transaction and all. After paying, we were supposed to go to the students-affair department… show them our paid receipt and get our student card. Then everything was done. BUT. When it was my turn to get my student card, the woman at the counter said,"Eh… your card doesn’t have a photo.
" I explained that I took the photo during the school’s intake examination and already paid for the photo, then she happily said, "Oh, the schools lost it. You have to go to the North Tower Classroom 109 where you can take a photo, then we’ll copy the photo and print it on your student card."

Oh well, what to do? Do exactly as she says lor… So I called up Cheryl because I remembered she said something about the school loosing her photo as well. Both of us decided to go together and get the thing done with quickly. Patrick and WenYao came along to accompany us. (Patrick had promised to accompany Cheryl whilst WenYao had nothing to do, so he tagged along). The trip from our hostel to the North Tower was approximately a 5-7 minutes walk. We found room 109 almost immediately and asked if we could take our photo. The man who was in-charge had no idea what to do. oh, GREAT. He wanted to check our receipts, I didn’t bring mine because well, the woman at the students affairs’ office didn’t said we need to bring. Cheryl had hers in the back pocket of her jeans, so I had to walk back to the hostel to get my receipt. WenYao accompanied me on my way back…

Just when I got my receipt and went down the lift out of the hostel to head back towards the North Tower, my phone rang. It was Cheryl.
C: Hey JiaYing
Me: Yea?
C: Do you think you can get a CDR?
Me: Now??
C: Yea. Because the fellow can’t transfer the file directly to the students’ affairs’ office.
Me: Huh? Why is the system SO lousy?
C: Sigh, Dunno lar… do you think you can get like a CDR or thumbdrive?
Me: (Looks at WenYao when he nodded holding his MP4) Okay okay.

Finally after one hour, we got our photo taken and handed it back to the students’ affairs’ office. THEN. The dearest woman at the counter told Cheryl that they had found her photo. Walao~! After everything we did… then you say you found her photo? (Luckily they didn’t find mine, our I would’ve slayed their heads off) Her attitude was HORRIBLE, she was like: "Hey look, it’s not my fault k?" Then we’re like, hey… it’s not OUR faults as well. The school WAS supposed to prepare everything beforehand what. Wei, we paid so much to get this kinda service eh? And so, that day ended with our seniors snickering "Welcome to China."

Tuesday came, daddy went. Aik Khai brought me some bad news… he said that I AM studying under Yang Li instead of Xia Xiao Tang. *Goes Mad* WHY~!!!! Okay so here’s it: The Conducting department is currently in a havoc because Xu Xin just passed away and Yu Feng quit his job, leaving a headless body to run its own. Logically, you’ll need to get a new head. And with his strong influence and good CV, Yang Li was the top running selections. So, he’s probably gonna be the new head of the conducting department. Why am I under him? The reason is really simple: He wanted a foreign student. So he happily tucked me out of Xia’s and chucked me under him. And if Aik Khai is right, I am probably not gonna get a say-no chance. ARGHHHHHHH!!!!! )!(*@&534&@*#@^%! …But anything lar… since he’s gonna be the head of the department, it’s not gonna be too bad saying: "Oh, I study under the head of the conducting department." PLUS, he does look a little bit like Leo Ku, excluding his bombarded curly fries on his head. He’s not very young though, 39 this year… hehe. Checked his profile already.

Woke up at 6am today,
got everything prepared to go to HePingLi Hospital for my medical check-up where we have to pay this large sum of RMB346.00 just to run four bloody test on our body.
1) Check our heart
2) Check our weight/height/preasure
3)
Check our blood type
4) X-ray

The blood taking process was a nightmare for me. I held out my right hand for the doctor and she immediately said, "Tsk tsk… what a small arm… and i don’t see any blood reins." And it took her 3 bloody times to get the blood running into the small bottle.
First try: Poke needle into me skin. "E? No blood?"
Second try: Poke needle a little to the left. "Eh? Why so little?
Third try: *I was dying* Move needle to the right. "Ahh, finally." Not a lot of blood as well…only managed to fill half a bottle. If she was gonna poke the fourth time, I’m running out of there. MAN~!

My blood pressure had improved slightly compared to the last time, although it was still low: 58/90… COnsidered good already. Lolx… the last time I measured it was about 54/90 only.

Just had lunch at this new place opposite school which is REALLY salty, really really salty. We swore never to visit it again because not only was it salty… the price was not reasonable as well. So, bubye.

Gonna go visit the Conducting Departments’ Office later. Recieved a call from Teacher Wang, the departments’ secretary. Wonder why am I wanted there… supposedly to tell me that they’ve changed my conducting teacher. *WAILS*

And so, I’m in Beijing. How is it? Beijing is HOT, DUSTY and DRY! The air is just HORRIBLE… it’s like KL during the haze season, maybe even worst. Gosh, it feels like breathin dusts for the past two days… but it rained a little this morning and it cleared out the haze a little, so it’s much better now. I was expecting to experience the end of summer and start of fall, but errr. it’s 31 degrees almost everyday. It’s like KL! Except maybe even WORST because it’s really dry and dusty. Gah.

Arrived at the airport approximately 3:30pm, earlier than expected… but the luggage-taking process took around 45 minutes plus the checking through visa passport thingy. The traffic wasn’t too bad lar, the time I reach Beijing Conservatory of Music was already 5pm sharp. I stood outside the building and look up at where my hostel stood, smiling. I can’t wait to get up there, say hie to all my friends and well, jz get everything going.

Dad came with me this time, to Beijing. The first time I came to this strange chinese place where everybody spits … lolx… and the cars doesn’t follow the trafic lights’ instruction was in form 4. That time I came with my sister, just to get to know the place better… then the second time I came was the starting of this year during January, to prepare for the university undergraduate students’ intake examination, that time, I came alone. Now, due to the overweight luggages and a lot of cash in hand, daddy dearest came along.

Settled down pretty quickly, stayed in the same room with Jean. She’s a fourth-year composition-major undergraduate student. I thought I was going to stay with Ines, but the situation turned out pretty funny. On the teacher’s list, there was two "me"… My name in English "Gan Jia Ying" was written with Jean’s name in the room 513 whilst my chinese name "颜嘉莹" was written with Ines’ name in room 524. Haha. It was a pretty funny scene. The teacher chucked me with Jean first because Ines wasn’t here yet and they’d like to keep the room empty. So, here I am, staying in the same room with Jeanie deary, which is also a good thing because she’s a composition-major (composition and conducting majors take mostly the same courses), so if I have any problems with my homework I can ask her straight away. HOHOHO.

I unpacked pretty quickly as I didn’t really have much with me. The first thing I did was to connect online. LOL. The connection here is at an amazing speed, it only took me 7-10 seconds to download a 8MB song. CRAZY right? Lol… I have a LOT of new downloaded songs right now. Well, I got pretty almost everything organized by now. Went to YiWu and ShouHang to buy everything with dad… just now went with Ines.

Went to the registration at 2pm today, nothing much… basically just to show your face and tell the school that you’re "alive" and "in-school". Oooh… I met with Zhou Ji yesterday when I was on my way back from the bank. He lost weight, looks even better now. Hehehe… cannot cannot.

Met some new friends… Korean, Japanese, Norwegian. Lolx. It’s nice staying here, but mostly Malaysian and Singaporean lar. Hahaa. I like it here. Although this morning, Aik Khai told me that there’s a BIG possibility that I won’t be learning under my Xia Xiao Tang… boohoo… because the system is really really really messy at the moment. Especially the conducting one because Xu Lao Shi just passed away, and rumors say that Yu Feng quit his job as the principal of the conducting faculty. OH NO! That means there’s no head… and basically everything is in a mess lar. No wonder when I called Xia yesterday (he isn’t in Beijing, sadnya) he told me that my 主科老师 ain’t confirmed yet. YERRRRR… =( Why of all people it had to happen to me? LOL…

I can’t wait for the mixing to be done and settle everything. I miss all of you… two days, yet I feel as though it’s been very very very long. and OH GOSH, I’m eating like a PIG. Every time also go out go out go out eat eat eat eat. I’m so gonna turn fat… I think I’ve already managed to gain 1 fat kg already. CANNOT! Tonight I’m so gonna starve myself. Lolx. (Say first)

Oooh.. I’m starting school very soon, sooner than I know… 11th September. Walao… 911. Lolx.  Cheers to all my new friends in Beijing! You’ll probably hear//see a lot from me these few days as I have no practice rooms to practice piano, and seriously nothing much to do… except eat. Wakakaka… That’s it for now. Love all of you!

11:35am and 4 hours more to go before I get off the plane, I’m bored. Lolx. Dad’s fast asleep beside me as the plane MH037 continues flying towards its destination: Beijing, China. This is my first time sitting in MAS, Lolx… The staffs are great, great smile, great attitude, warmth and all.

It had been a great last two days for me in KL, and here I am ready to start my first year of university life. HOHO… I’m a UNIVERSITY student, no more school life, no more uniform, no more stupid restrictions, no more CURFEWS! Wakaka… But of course, I’m ready for the extra bit of homework, late night studies (yea right), not-very-friendly mates around because the competition’s tough.

It’ll be 5 to 6 months later before I return to KL. Everyone’s betting I’ll gain weight again, hehe, so I have to keep it up, resist all the yummy temptations (Don’t really like Beijing food, considering that it’s really salty and oily most of the time) and go on dieting. Hehe. Some of them must think I’m mad, but my target is 40… which is around 7 kgs to go. Won’t loose them all at a time lar, slowly lar. There’s a park nearby school, so jogging won’t be much of a problem. I’ll need to get an MP4 or MP3 though, I can’t jog without music in my ears. Checked the weather in Beijing, it’s gonna be sunny and HOT. Well, it’s still summer in the mean time (Gosh, dad’s snoring).

Ooh, I can’t wait till I land. But 4 hours isn’t going to be very easy to pass, unless of course, I continue sleeping. But I can’t sleep very much because I’ll probably end up with migraine. Funny though, if I don’t sleep enough, I’ll end up with migraine too. Haven’t been sleeping well these days, last night was the best. Fell upon my bed and right into deep sleep, Forever Love rang twice this morning at 5am before I actually hear it ring and got up to slam the alarm down.

Travelled by cab to KLIA, left the house around 6:15am. Mom didn’t follow because it would be inconvenient for her to go back, since she’d be taking cab alone if she comes. Hrm, should’ve flew yesterday (31st August) since it’s a public holiday and everyone’s free… then can get free transport, hehe… right YeeIee? PLUS I can get more teddy-bear hugs from my fellow choir-mates.

Wakakaka. I love hugs… but if I go on about hugging people for no reason, they’ll probably freak out. Lolx. Especially here in Asia. Wonder when’s the next time I’m going to be getting teddy-bear hugs, aside Snoopy lar (which I’m gonna be hugging every night). Poor fellow (Snoopy), he’s stuck inside my yellow bag up in the cabin above my head. Haahaha, suffering from lack of air. I noticed something though, even though I’m short, and no matter who I’m hugging or what ever their height is, I tend to wrap my arms over their shoulders… I wonder why don’t I wrap around their waist? Because it would be so much easier for me (dun have to tip toe). Every time I remind myself after hugging somebody, I’ll repeat the same dumb mistake again. WHY? Do you throw your arms around their shoulders or waist? I even wonder whether the relationship between the two person affects the hug as well, I mean maybe if you’re lovers the gurl would wrap her arms round his waist then if you’re friends both of you throw your arms round each other’s shoulders? Okay lar okay lar, I’m suffering from boredom so I think lame stuffs.

When I reach Beijing, I’ll be needing to go to the nearest China Bank (which is around 10-15 minutes walk from my school) and open an account immediately. Then of course I’ll settle my stuffs into my room… wonder what room I’ll be staying in. Hrm? I hope it’s 517 because it’ll be directly opposite the kitchen. Wakaka. My roommate Khai Ying from Au-men is arriving around tommorow if I’m not mistaken.

Here’s some stuff I need to buy:
1) Hangers for the closet
2) Hangers for hanging dirty clothes
3) Containers - Milo Container, tupperwares for food
4) Body Shampoo
5) Hair Shampoo
6) Xi Yi Fen
7) Book rack

Ooh, their showing ice age. I’ll continue blogging later, updating myself. BUBYE~! Off for ice-age. The weather outside is now sunny and bright and it’s 12:01pm precisely.