The first day i returned to beijing i was greeted by a very hazy airport and chilly weather that made me miss Singapore's bright and sunny skies immediately. I'm usually very excited about flying to another country, but this time is just sian. I didn't want to leave home haii. People in China were still celebrating CNY, and were setting off fireworks everywhere. I bet that's why the air is so bad during the CNY period. It was still interesting to watch though, since we only get to see fireworks once a year during NDP. The variety of fireworks were really impressive! We were like, no need wait for NDP liao. Hahaha. 元宵 was the last day for legal setting off of fireworks, so throughout the night i could hear them going off everywhere. Uncle bought us a box of firework each so even though we were very much afraid we set them off so they don't someday blow up our house. It was an amazing experience hearing and seeing fireworks so close! It was more like fireballs shooting straight up and making scary exploding sounds. On 元宵 night minru and sharyl made 汤圆 and cookies and we watched the newest journey to the west movie while fireworks flashed across the night sky. It was awesome :)
We also went strawberry picking with a bunch of classmates. Exactly how to get there wasn't clear, so when we reached the bus stop i called the owner and the owner gave directions that seemed to go a great distance but seeing that he didn't discourage us from going probably meant it was a walkable distance. I was wrong. It turned out to be a 3-hour hike along very deserted roads and finally the owner called me asking why we were taking so long. Then i realised he thought we were driving! I told him we were walking, and he made a funny sound in disbelief. ZOMG. Had I known it wasn't walking distance I would have taken the bus in the opposite direction back home. He was really nice though, once he knew we were walking he drove and picked us up in batches so we all got there safely. Once I got there I immediately forgot how tired I was. The place was filled with strawberry aroma and they were all fresh and red and! The owner gave us a discount! He said its because we were students but I think he was also impressed by the amount of time we spent walking to his farm. Hahaha. I picked one and popped it straight into my mouth, and omg I've never tasted such sweet and soft strawberries my entire life. I was hooked immediately and proceeded to pick two full boxes of strawberries and left the farm 100 yuan poorer and with a happy tummy. It turns out that there was a bus right outside the entrance to the farm and it was but a few mrt stations down from where we live -.- Now we know.
School just started and I can already see it's gonna be a tough sem ahead. But now that I've gotten used to living and studying in beijing, things should be easier than before. Will blog if anything interesting happens!
