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It seems like only yesterday that my brother-in-law, Donald, told me that my sis was pregnant. Of course I wouldn't believe him at first since he has been teasing me about that eversince he and my sis got married a few years ago. They had to show me the picture of the sonogram and there really was a small fetus! That was almost eight months ago, a day before I left for Beijing. Now here I am, still in China, and my sis finally had the baby early this morning. I haven’t even been home to see my sis with her big tummy yet! It’s a girl and I’m finally an AUNT! 
I’ve been waiting for this day since I found out my sis had a boyfriend and that was almost 6 years ago! So now I’m thinking, what am I still doing here in Shanghai??!! 
Her name is Mikaiah Dayne Zoe O. Tan or it was last time I checked anyways since my sis has been deciding on her name for a few months now 
or Mikah for short and I can’t wait to see her! I’m an AUNT! Yippee!! Anyone wants to go shopping for more baby stuff? I can’t wait to spoil her! 
Let's go celebrate!
Work in Shanghai was just to visit some companies that my co-worker and I called the previous weeks to set appointmentsto meet with them with my uncle so that he can present our products to them (yup, my uncle, not me! I'm just an observer!
). It wasn't that much of a work since all we did was ride a taxi from one part of Shanghai to the other part which usually takes up most of our time because it was always traffic in Shanghai. I've been going out everyday in Shanghai that I actually see car accidents everyday! Taxi against other taxis and buses with buses and I wonder why they are all in a hurry. There's a shortage of taxis in Shanghai and they would never run out of people to ride the bus in China! Then I even saw a private car against a motorcycle. I hope whoever was riding the motorcycle was fine. I was starting to think that Shanghai has the worst drivers in China coz I've never seen that much accidents in Beijing or maybe I just wasn't out that much, but when I arrived back to Tianjin, it occurred to me that it's not only in Shanghai because on the way home, I saw a car accident! Are they really that bad a driver here in China??
My cousin wanted to go to the bank this afternoon and he was bugging everyone in the office if one of them might go with him because his dad won't let him take a taxi by himself and the company car wasn't available at that time. So since I didn't have anything better to do and he said it was near anyways, I decided to go with him using the only transportation available, their bikes. So off we went riding the bike. It was actually a nice day to go out because it was a bit cloudy and the wind was cool. It took us 15 minutes to get to the bank using a shortcut which was to cross a not so busy intersection but to my cousin it was dangerous coz there were no traffic lights. Well, since we were in a hurry to go to the bank before it closes, we crossed the road anyway. On the way back, we took the longer way, which was to use the side of the highway. For my cousin, it was less dangerous and took us around 40 minutes to get back which is fine since I needed the exercise! It actually wasn't so bad except that all the vehicles that passed us were big trucks and we were inhaling smog! Yuck! Then when we got back, I had to carry the bike back up to the house, and let me remind you, I'm living on the 3 rd floor
!! Oh well, at least I got my exercise for the day and got to see sides of Tianjin I've never seen before when riding a car!
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View From The Bicycle! |
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My cousin's school that we passed along the way! |
For the last two months, I actually felt like a nomad. Waiting in 
. It seems my uncle finally said GO to The people are actually nice, the ones that I've met along the way anyways, the people I asked for directions, the taxi drivers, and some sales people. One guy even offered to take me to the place I wanted to get to by giving me a ride on his bike, but I didn't want to embarrass him when he won't be able to peddle with a heavy me riding with him! Either I just got lucky with these people or I just haven't lived there for long coz people always say that
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View From The Bus |
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This is where Elaine was working for the week I was there in |
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Sept 18 is mid autumn festival in China. Last Saturday, they had a celebration at Debs apartment where I spent my last two nights at, with her Aunt and her friends. After dinner, they lit up the lanterns that you can see in the picture and walked around holding them. It was very interesting since I’ve never seen or heard of this before. I wonder if anyone has ever done this in the Philippines! See if you can find me in the picture! |
It’s Elaine’s birthday today!!! I’ll always remember her birthday because it’s the reason of our first meeting. There were six of us from 
). Anyways, who cared about getting to know her then? She was to be my roommate for the next three months and the five months after that! So now here we are, a year later, actually becoming friends, without our parents' help!
So Laine, too bad Nars and I can’t be there for your birthday, we’ll party when I get there whenever that is! After being with you for a year, through good times, getting lost everywhere, pigging out all the time and competing on who's fatter now, doing “yoga” or other exercises that didn’t really help, traveling around China, lots and lots of bloopers, and through bad times, not finding jobs, weird guys stalking you, or whatever else, I’m just happy to say that you’re finally a year older than me again!!!! Even if it’s just for a few months I’ll enjoy it fully while I still can! But seriously, Happy Birthday, my dear big, OLDER twin sister, my achi Babs and my Queen! 
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The Bacolod Girls |
