Shijiazhuang.

It’s been a few days since I last updated my little journal. So perhaps I’ll start updating from the day that my world started to spin around crazily.

16 December (Friday)
The official last day of the internship wasn’t a very pleasant one because of someone in the office making a scene out of some small issue, as well as someone in the office not doing the work being assigned and thus incur much inconvenience to everyone in the office. I almost wanted to slap that someone, but then again, my temper was supposed to have improved since coming to Shanghai.

The NOC graduation dinner was a crazy occasion. The dinner was OK, but it was the drinking that made the entire evening as crazy as it was. I think I must have drunk about 7 or 8 bottles of Heineken, and still I wasn’t the most drunk person among everyone (I was high, but not drunk like someone else…). At the end of a crazy drinking evening, the whole lot of us conjured up more determination and energy and headed for an overnight karaoke session. The session was pretty good, as I sobered myself up a lot with the singing and chatting. But after the last overnight karaoke session I was never going to last through another one, and I went off with Edwin, who was dead drunk and Min Chuan, at about 4. Leaving from Pudong back to Zhongshan Park was never the most exciting thought, but that was what happened after we were being ferried from the karaoke in People’s Square to the one in Pudong because the one in PS was just way too crowded. Somehow the entire Shanghai decided that Friday night would be a good night to go for karaoke.

17 December (Saturday)
The highlight of the day was definitely the dinner and the subsequent chillout session at South Beauty in Yan’an Road. The food was great and we paid about 130 RMB per person for the dinner, which in my opinion was a great deal, considering we would not have the chance to indulge in such a feast paying that kind of ridiculously small amount. Subsequently the chillout session at the South Beauty lounge was great too. The desserts were highly sinful but wonderful, the jazz singer was cute and sang very well, but the most important thing has to be the turnout. I was very happy to see most of us coming for this last gathering before we go for our tours and what not. In fact, for some of us it would be the last time to see one another in Shanghai and the next time would be back home in Singapore.

18 December (Sunday)
Woke up at 9 to do some last-minute packing for my trip to Shijiazhuang. Left home at 10 and headed straight to the train station. I chose to leave early so that I would have ample time for an early lunch and not having to rush. In the end everything was great and I settled into the train with 20 minutes to spare. An 18-hour train journey was never the best to begin in the morning, but it did allowed me to see some scenery and talk to some of the other passengers. It turned out that the lady who was below me actually lived in Singapore for 8 years and she claimed to have seen me working part-time in McDonald’s. I was quite amused.

Such a long train ride was never fun to be taken alone, and even with Hilary Clinton’s autobiography with me, I was still very bored. I stared at the ceiling for a long while after getting my dinner when the train pulled over in Xuzhou. Did some pondering about life before going into sleep. The sleep was pretty OK, though I could feel that the train was rushing to be on time because the speed was noticeably much quicker than it was in the day.

19 December (Monday)
Arrived in Shijiazhuang at about 6 in the morning and was told that the temperature out there was -8 degrees! The difference between the coldness in Shanghai and in Shijiazhuang was that it’s not as windy, so it actually did not make for a totally unbearable time. After arriving at my auntie’s place, I tried to sleep again, only to be waken up by my Hangzhou client. Shortly after this Hangzhou client put down the phone, office called me with regards to the same issue, and then after my colleague put down the phone, that guy from Hangzhou called again! Having my phone on domestic roaming certaily didn’t seem like a good idea – at least not with these people.

Went to Zhengding after lunch, which was a 30 minute drive from downtown Shijiazhuang. Visited a Buddhist temple, as well as the memorial temple of Zhao Yun, the famous general in the Three Kingdoms period. The feeling that these places gave me were definitely not very impressive. But since I’m here and it isn’t exactly far away, I would just make my way there. It helped when my uncle was doing the driving.

Might be going to the bookshop with my cousin tomorrow. She seemed to have changed quite a bit compared to the last time I was here in April, and I think that’s a good thing. After all, this cousin in Shijiazhuang has always been my favourite cousin – I guess I have always wanted to have an older sister.

Got my return ticket to Shanghai sorted out and I’ll be flying back on Friday from Shijiazhuang in the morning, and arrive back in Hongqiao Airport at about lunch time. Dinner on Friday, anyone?

I think I need a bit of sleep. After all, 18 hours on the train isn’t exactly the coolest thing to do, especially when you are travelling alone.