are you still reading...?
I picked up my brother and cousin at the airport yesterday and the first thing that they did when we arrived at the apartment was for my brother to turn on his laptop while my cousin looked at our DVD collection. I thought to myself, yes, we are definitely related!
My brother would've loved to just stay home and have food delivered so he can play his online games but since I don't have any delivery menus here and since he couldn’t log on to his game because the server was down, we decided to just go out and have dinner. The weather was very cold that we just went back home afterwards, although even if it wasn't cold, we might still have came back home to watch DVD and fight over whom can use the Internet first since I don't have wireless connection here. So now here we are, it’s almost lunch, and we're still at the apartment watching DVD while my brother sleeps. I was planning on taking them to the zoo but it seems a bit late for that now. I don't know what we will be doing today or for the whole week of their stay here for that matter. In our family we don't really make plans but decide what to do on the day itself coz something usually happens that would change our plans. At least I get to hang out with them again!
My friend was asking me the other day which books to recommend and are enticing to read. Since I’ve been here in China, it’s been hard to find English books because they are either not that interesting or everything about the book is very interesting except for the price that I'm willing to wait and buy them when I get back home.
Since I’m not doing anything right now, I figured I’ll just list down some of my favorite books, books that I can read over and over again and will never get tired of. There are still more books I’ve read that are good but I can’t seem to remember their titles or the authors at the moment so for now, these are it.
This Present Darkness and Piercing the Darkness by Frank Peretti and all his other books!
Left Behind Series by Tim LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins and other books by them both!
Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis
The Screwtape Letters and The Great Divorce by C.S. Lewis
To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
The Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons by Dan Brown
Harry Potter by J.K Rowlings
Angela’s Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Bonesetter’s Daughter by Amy Tan and all her other books!
The Belgariad and Malloreon Series by David Eddings
The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares
Tuesdays with Morrie and Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Memoirs of a Geisha by Arthur Golden
A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks and his other books
The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho
Archie Comics and Calvin and Hobbes
On DVD: Monk
I’ve always thought that I can live alone by myself when given the opportunity. But after a few days of being left alone the whole day in our apartment doing nothing except watching DVDs or cleaning the apartment (only if I’m really bored), I have to say, I actually miss Nars chatting and the sound of Elaine eating *or munching*! I’ve been in Shanghai for almost three weeks now, and for the first week, Elaine and I mostly went from apartment to apartment looking for the nicest one that is within our budget to rent. We finally decided to rent an apartment that a friend from Beijing helped us with coz not only was it the best one that we’ve seen, the building is also full of Filipinos, my friend included, although I haven’t met all of them yet, just a few and they’re really nice.
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Then the second week was mostly spent shopping for the stuff that we need and cleaning the apartment. Yes. I do clean now, cook a bit and do the laundry if anyone would believe it. Though I wouldn’t recommend to anyone to actually eat the food I cook coz it’s made specifically for my taste bud and stomach alone! Besides that, we have to clean coz not only are we walking barefoot around the apartment, we’re also sleeping on the floor! Well, actually I slept on the couch until a couple of days ago when I decided to sleep on the floor too coz I can’t stretch my legs on the couch without it hanging on the side which makes sleeping uncomfortable. I don’t know why we are sleeping on the floor when there’s one queen size bed on each room but here we are in the living room sleeping on the floor and believe it or not, it’s actually more comfortable than the couch! Crazy! 
We also went to a carnival with a few friends of Elaine from Oishi. It wasn’t that nice especially when we found out that the entrance fee doesn’t include free rides but we can have 10 tokens each instead and each ride cost like 4-8 tokens! So we only got to ride the roller coaster which was for 8 tokens and it was a short ride too! Elaine and I were both feeling a bit down because we’ve been looking forward to it and it didn’t turn out to be that much fun. Before going home, I decided to use my last two tokens and Elaine gave me her two tokens too so I can play one of the games which requires 4 tokens. The game was to hit 4 or more of the masks lined up in the wall using the 6 tennis balls they gave me. I actually couldn’t believe it when I actually hit 4 of them but it brightened up our visit to the carnival. It was exciting since I’ve only played carnival games once or twice and to actually win a prize is so cool! Manol!
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The Carnival and the toy I won! |
But it’s not so bad coz I now have internet access in the apartment which was just installed today and DVDs, although I am starting to run out of DVDs to watch! Ah, feels like home!
I really should find something to do here in Shanghai.
Currently Reading: Angry Housewives Eating Bon Bons by Lorna Landvik
On DVD: Everybody Loves Raymond
This is my niece, Mikaiah Dayne Zoe O. Tan, Mikah for short. I couldn’t resist posting her pictures. Isn’t she just so ugly? She's like a mini me! She weighs only 5 lbs 3 oz!!!!
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This is my niece's new friend! My friend's sister had a baby boy on the same day my sister did! His name is Hudson Kaleb Kalaw Dy. Don't they both look cute together?
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