happy news

After much persuasion and coaxing, my mum has finally decided she will not wait till my sisters finish their O and A levels, brave the winter cold, and instead make the smarter choice of coming to visit me here in Shanghai as early as in 3 weeks' time!! To make things better, she's bringing my maid along, and before all you guys wonder why my mum's so generous, my maid ain't any normal maid, but the longest serving, mutli-talented, one-in-a-million maid we have had the good fortune of hiring! She's been with my family for more than half my life, I rank her as the second most important woman in my life, and this trip is just like a small reward for all she's given to me and my family!

After confirming their tickets over here, I quickly set off to book air tickets to Inner Mongolia (which is part of China, and that means super cheap domestic flights. all part of the protectionism that china secretly practices and deters locals or pesudo-locals like myself to travel out of china... okay don't even get me started on the economics in this big country i could churn a thesis out of it) and managed to get some really good tickets!

That means my mum, my maid, myself, my good friend I met in amsterdam (who is now studying the chinese language in shanghai for a year), my flatmates and fellow NTU friends on the same programme are going to spend our first ever mid autumn holiday in Inner Mongolia! Yep China celebrates mid autumn festival with a 3 day holiday, and the week after they celebrate national day for a week! I'm very inclined on going to Tibet in that week, but there's also a high possibility I might just go to Beijing!

However, as of now, the thought of bringing my mum and maid around, showing them how well I've been coping, and ensuring they have a great week here is a top priority. And the Mongolia pictures are really quite promising!

Grasslands...



Great wall of China, yes it stretches from Beijing to Mongolia. i could theoretically walk from mongolia to beijing just by following this wall... hmm food for thought.



And of course the largest draw of the tour would be...



The Gobi desert!! Heard about it as a primary school kid but it really seems like we're going there to see it in person! There are many deserts in China and in Mongolia too, but if we could come to this one it'll be awesome!

I don't know if its the anticipation of the holidays, or if I'm really starting to feel more alive with things to look forward to, time seems to be passing faster and hopefully will be able to enjoy a great September and October! Might also be going to the Expo too, but we'll have to be up at 5 in the morning to stand any chance of going into those big pavilions. 5AM!! ON A SUNDAY!! opportunity cost doesn't get more applicable than this!

Yes to last working day of the week tomorrow! Man I've been sleeping quite little for the past week. Alright will update again soon!