DuckieDroplets

Before I forget everything, let me write everything that happened yesterday down.
It was THE day that I’ve been waiting for, for a very very long time. No, I’m not getting married. Geee…. It’s Christmas day! O-HOHOHOHOO! MERRY CHRISTMAS~ No… It’s not about Christmas. It’s my MID YEAR CONDUCTING EXAM DAY! AHHHHHHHH. (Finally to the point). I’m conducting Schuberts’ Unfinished Symphony, that lasts about 12 minutes. Scary eh?

I woke up at 6:45am to Josh Groban’s "Believe" playing on my desktop music alarm. It’s a nice way to wake up to a soft symphont intro and a cute guy with a GREAT SEXY voice singing to you. Then I headed to bath, had to wait approximately 5 minutes before the hot water was ready. Nice to bath early in the morning where you have the whole bathroom to yourself as long as you want.

Then I made breakfast, which consists of fried noodles, eggs, bacons… and everything nice. Lolx. I wore my lacey white short sleeve blouse and my crumpled white high collared shirt with black pants… and on top of it I had a somewhat shiny white scarf tied around my neck. In short, I look great. LOL! Ehehehe…

The conducting exam was held right beside my hostel. Just a turn round the corner and TADAAAA… It’s the pathway to your greatest nightmare and fear. (spooky music background). THIS time, I kept my wand… I mean, baton, at my side ALL the time. Just in case some freaky high school student would wander around and steal it. Lol. I was the fourth one to take the exam.

HuangYi was the second one, and I had a good chance to enter the room of hell (conducting room 01) before my name was called because I was playing the 1st piano for HuangYi. And I got to peek who was the examinors… lucky us, there wasn’t as many as expected. A lot of teachers didn’t turn up… INCLUDING my DARLING CONDUCTING teacher. Which, made me rather sad and dissapointed because I really really wish he was there for me. And, he promised to be there… I wonder what caught him up. (Later on I found out that he was suffering from some massive stomach ache)

I boarded the platform and started my piece, surprised that my hand wasn’t shaking. Yet I couldn’t quite bring Schubert into his piece. My mind was wandering too much around, worried about things I shouldn’t be worrying. It wasn’t my 100%… as I felt I could’ve gave more. Well, I’ll hope for a better performance next time.

In the afternoon, I sang beethoven 9th Symphony’s choir and solo parts for MaDing . It was very fun… hope I have the chance to conduct that in the future. Now it hass all ended, I can happily (yea right) concentrate on my other exams…

I just came back from a "…" (Can’t find the right adjective to fill in… haha) trip. Well, after piano exam this morning (read my previous post) and after some brief GaoZi//JiaoZi lunch in the canteen (Since it is Dong Zhi, so eat GaoZi)… I decided to head over to Zhu Shi Kou where there’s a LARGE factory distributing brand new manufactioring stuffs. CHEAP stuffs… Why? Oh, I bought my contact lens with this very nice lady near school, and her shop shifted there… and my left contact lens has been slightly torn in the middle, which I have no idea when it tore itself because I do not recall myself tearing it. And each time I wear it (wore for 3 to 4 times), there’s an itch somewhere. So I called her and told her that I dunno why it hurts my eye, and asked her if she could change it for me. She didn’t even think and said "Yes". Bring it to my shop in Zhu Shi Kou and I’ll see what I can do for you.

Conducting exam is on Monday, so I really have to hurry and get the contact lens fix. Because it’s impossible to wear glasses during exam, very nuisance if my glasses keep slipping off my nose. Lolx. And no contact lens = no life.

Now the problem is, I’ve NEVER been to Zhu Shi Kou… but it’s in Chong Wen Qu… and the only place I know that is located NEAR Chong Wen Qu is SOGO. Yea… I was clever enough to check the digital map before going out. There were 3 ways of transportation:
1) Taxi//Cab - Expensive but guarenteed arrival and saves time
2) Bus - CHEAP, may reach the stations located around that area BUT there are MANY stations in ONE area, and if you miss one station you might get lost.
3) Train - OK price. Located in the center of that area and no matter how far away you wander, you can always go back to the train station and head home.

So… I thought, Hrm, since it’s in Chong Wen Qu, why not I take the train first and walk around. Since my next lesson was at 4pm, and it was barely 12:30pm, I had plenty of time to spare. I reached Chong Wen’s Station and started walking around… there were lots of huge shopping malls around with HUGE christmas trees and all, so even though I was getting quite frustrated when I realize that it was going to be a LONG walk from the station to my destination. Hrm, actually I don’t really quite know the EXACT location of my destination, I just know the direction which I acquired by asking around.

Then after approximately 30 minutes of walking. I started worrying that it may be a LITTLE further than I expected. So with a heavy heart, I caught a cab, boarded and went. My eyes kept a good lookout for the place. AND WAS IN TOTAL LOST OF WORDS when after 3 minutes, the taxi driver stopped and say: "Oh, here we are"…. EEEEEKKKKK. I could’ve WALKED. And now I have to pay a bloody 10 yuan. (once you board the taxi it’s 10 yuan already.)

FINE. Well, finding the lady’s stall was a piece of cake, because she told me the exact location. Row 15 stall No.59. Now that I’ve passed my contact lens to her for changing, she said she could pass it back to my hostel around Sunday. How nice of her… It was a HUGE place, and I was here for the first time… so why not take a look around. Then I ended up buying birthday presents for Jia Jia (her birthday is tomorrow)… 2 Christmas gifts for Yuki and Celine (we promised to exchange gifts)
and a gift for Zhao Xing Hua who’s birthday is 3 days before mine. Lolx. Li Ying Jiao’s birthday is next wednesday, I’m probably gonna get him a small piece of cake. WAKAKAKAKA. Shen Hao’s (my orchestration score reading teacher) birthday is NEXT Thursday, and my birthday present for him is to do well for my orchestration score reading exam. WAKAKAKA…. since MY birthday is coming as well, he’s BEST birthday gift for me would be a GOOD SCORE. WAKAKAKAKAKA.

Anyway. After shopping for two rounds, it was time to head back to the hostel. I was in a okay mood… and was ready to venture back on my own. Oohh, I forgot to mention, yea, I came out ALONE. WAKAKAKA. (What’s so funny?) As I was walking along the pathway, heading towards the bridge to cross the road… When suddenly I felt some slippery thing below my shoes, and just when I was to take a larger step to avoid stepping onto more slippery "thing"s, "THONG"…… I "SLIPPEd" "SWOOSHED" and fell. Landing on my left buttock with my right leg kicking up in the air (Actually the pose quite YENG). And humiliating enough, it was in public. Just as I was hoping that nobody saw, or saw but pretended not to see… this guy standing nearby (who saw me fell) yelled as I landed: "AHHH! BEAUTIFUL LANDING! WAKAKAKKAKAKA!"

=_="""

Thank you very much for helping attract everyone’s attention. AND BOY my buttock hurts. Lolx. But it was actually quite funny, and even I myself can’t stop laughing at the thought of it. After I stood up, I turned to look at what I’ve slipped upon. And it was SNOW. Well, not exactly snow… more like "ICE"… from puddles of water. It’s at a negative 5 degrees now, so it’s no surprise if puddles of water turns to ice… But who would expect that in the middle of some bloody pathway???

Then I walked down the street, looking out for the bus 743 and found that the bus station was actually located VERY NEAR my destination. Sigh, I could’ve saved SO much money…. that BLOODY 10 yuan. Lolx. And after a 20 minutes ride, I was back.

Hahaha…
Actually I had quite a bad hair day (I woke up with my hair twisted in different angles because I slept when it was only 85% dry), then my piano exam also didn’t go very well (not as well as I expected), and after all that had happened above… I’m quite surprised that I’m actually still feeling very happy. HAHAHAHAHA. I wonder why. And boy my buttock hurts… wonder if I have black and blue… (gonna go check).

List of exams:
1) Sight Reading/ Hearing/ Singing (Theory)
2) Sight Reading/ Hearing/ Singing (Aural/Practical)
3) Harmonization
4) Piano
5) CONDUCTING
6) Orchestration + Score Reading
7) Art and Philosophy
Chinese Folklore History
9) English (Oral)
10) English (Test)

1) Sight Reading/Hearing/Singing (Theory) - taken 18/12
– It was A-O-Kay… what I would say after sitting for most of the exams. We were given 3 pieces of paper, and was totally un-informed about having exams on this particular day because it was during class.  The first piece of paper is where we have to listen to a 3-part  work (Oboe, Viola, Cello) and write every note down after 6 times of listening (approximately 32 bars). Then the second piece of paper we had to correct the mistakes to a 4-part work after listening to it for 4 times. The third piece of paper was quite tough because all of us nearly fainted after merely looking at the first question:
i) What is this piece entitled
We had to listen to this piece and determine WHAT the title is. Wuahlao~~~~ hahaha! All of us had funny funny answers: Mine was "Mozart’s Symphony in C Major" then there was something like "Strauss Symphony No.XXX" but the funniest was Gao Xin’s "Haydn’s BIG Symphony in C Major". HAHAHA. I nearly fainted laughing when he told me what he wrote. Lolx.

2) P.E. Exams - taken 14/12
– We had to do 27 sit ups in 1 minute, run 10 rounds, throw the what ever ball you call it further than 5.9meters. And I nearly died. Lolx. I didn’t manage to do the 27 sit ups, I only did 25 and died. Lolx. Then I revive again for running and ball throwing. Lolx. But the teacher was nice enough to let me pass everything…

3) Piano Exam - taken today 22/12
– I played a Beethoven’s Sonata first movement… the Waldsdein (how ever you spell it) and a Chopin Mazurka (Opus 31 No.2). Exam starts at 9am and I’m the third one to go in and play… supposingly. But due to some funny circumstances, some guy (not from my department) went in before me… I played half of the Sonata and barely half of the Mazurka. Yea, they won’t listen to you play everything. It wasn’t very bad, but it wasn’t very good either. So… it’s A-O-Kay lar.

4) English Oral - taken 13/12
– We had to either do an interview among your partner or memorize a 500 word essay. I chose the 2nd one because I was lazy to co-operate with the chinese people. Lolx. BERLAGAKnyA. Lolx. Nah, because it wasn’t too hard to memorize and it’s a guarenteed full marks if you memorize. So, yea. It was A-O-Kay.

and to be continued….

"My Song In Beijing Singing Competition 2006"
Main Organizer: The Union of Malaysia Students in Beijing
Organizing Commitee: Me, Pei Qi, Wan Ying, Qiao Yi, Xi Xiang
Premilinary Round: 10th December 10:30am
Venue: Chinese Academy, Beijing China
Secondary Round: 10th December 2:00pm
Venue: Chinese Academy, Beijing China
Final Round: 16th December 6:30pm
Venue: The Malaysian Embassy

1) Why organized this? Well, it started with a basic "gathering" idea for all Malaysians to get to know each other better through "singing". And I believe it still is… This is the second time UMSIB organized this competition.

2) Why am I in the commitee? Let’s see… there’s not a lot of us (Malaysians) that’s involved in the music industry here in Beijing. And who would want to do something with so much to give and not much to get in return? Someone stupid right?

3) How was it? It’s pretty good. Considering that it ended nice and well with everyone happy… I think.

4) What was my job? I’m actually in charge of finding the judges. WHICH is a tough job because I know VERY little people around, considering that I’ve only been here for 4 months AND there’s no PAY for being judge. I’m also in charge of counting all the marks. If you’re worried about my maths… don’t. There’s this thing call "calculator."

5) Why am I posting this? Well, just thought I’d blog about why I was out all day… Yea. I went out early in the morning to our Malaysia’s Embassy to prepare for the nights’ competition… there was the hall decorating in the morning, the hectic CD (minus one) burning in the afternoon, the horrible rehearsal rundown with all the mics going haywire, and of course there’s the part where "Oh, we didn’t buy enough dinner. So you’ll have to go without dinner." =_=""" It’s not exactly a HAPPY experience, but it’s an experience.

Yea, post end.