I'm one of them now!

My achievement for this week:

It was after rush hour and I was waiting for the subway train. I noticed a girl approach another local and asked for directions. I only saw her in my peripheral so I was taken aback when she approached me afterwards to ask for directions...in Mandarin. My thoughts were like D'oh, do I look Chinese? Do I look like I speak Chinese? Well, turns out I was able to understand her question. Or at least I heard the subway station she mentioned AND I WAS ABLE TO ANSWER HER! I bloody did! Well, all I said was "dui-a" (dwey-yah) which is yes in Chinese.

After living here for one year and so months, and after countless times a local approached me and asked for directions, it was this incident yesterday that made me feel so proud of myself. Haha! I was able to understand the girl's question! But I still can't accept the fact that some locals mistake me for a Chinese..just because I can make up some barok-barok Mandarin when we go shopping.

That local girl thanking me meant a lot..considering that I'm a foreigner here. I mean, it's okay if you don't get why I'm so happy about what happened..let's just say I'm just a sucker for these things and leave it at that.

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I just handed of my 3mos worth of rent to my landlord yesterday. I also asked him how much I'll be paying for July-August since it's the Olympic period and my contract w/ him stated that he will be increasing the rent during that time.

Well, I just wish he won't double my monthly rent, otherwise I might be forced to move out and look for a new apartment. Considering that it might just happen with the Olympics almost upon us, I can only imagine how stressful it's going to be. In case you didn't know, with the Olympics coming in August, greedy landlords choose to rent theirs for exorbitant prices:

For example, a usual one bedroom apartment rents for 4000 RMB (P22k) a month. Some landlords hoping to cash in on some poor stupid foreigners, makes the one bedroom apartment rent for 4000RMB (22k) per day.

I just wish my landlord won't be like that. He's cute pa naman. Otherwise, I'll be sleeping in the streets..or maybe I can just squat in our office. There's a spare meeting room inside our Vertu area..Hmmm..

Happy na Valentine's Day pa

Finally, after two years and 11 mos (to be exact)..I finally got my wish.. Mejo pilit ba as I've been requesting it ever since we started dating. Now I feel like a girl! Akala ko lalake ako..

Meet Jurou (Chinese for pig), my first and only stuffed toy. I never had one when I was a kid because of my asthma. Thanks to smoking and the polluted streets of Beijing, I'm now immune to dust, thus, I can now have my very own stuffed toy. Yey!

Happy Valentine's day everyone! To be honest, having someone special doesn't change my opinion of this day..it's still so overrated. I still cringe whenever I see couples dating and being extra sweet whenever it's VDay. THe only difference now is that I'm cringing while holding my flowers and thankful for the guy who sent them to me.

Next year ulet, ah! Or perahin mo na lang, ok lang! =)