Talking about TA duty in the lab, I begin to enjoy it more as I understand HK students' mentality more and more. They are not as unfriendly to non-cantonese speaking TAs as I thought and as the guys here didn't go through the Army, they tend to be a little immature at times (not to say that all Singapore guys are mature of course). In fact, 2 groups of students thanked me for being such a wonderful TA; was kinda touched when I heard that.
Nothing very significant happened for the past 2 weeks except Ivan's bunking into my hostel. He came on Friday 16th Mar and departed on 25th Mar. It's a good 10 days but how time flies - he seems to be here for less than 3 days. We did some "crazy" things together and the first part of his time here was describe to him more as In-Camp Training than holiday. Lol.
For the first weekend, I wanted to bring him Shenzhen in my initial plan. However, after he heard of my description of the wondering dim sum (especially the durian puff) that Da Tong Restaurant in Guangzhou offers (he saw the video of Jia Hao and Liling eating it as well, courtesy of the Canadians), he asked if we could make a trip to Guangzhou as well. I said why not and off we went over to Guangzhou on Sunday morning and there he tasted the most wonderful dim sum in his life. Following that, we checked into a nearby hotel and brought him to Haizhu Square. He bought a lava lamp and I bought a Titanium series Columbia jacket for only RMB$300 after bargaining! That's really cheap and I have checked its quality - 99% authentic after my inspection.
I went for my haircut and he continued his shopping in Haizhu Square. Following that, we met up and went over to the Book Center and then to Sun Yat Sen Memorial Hall. That is when we realized that we don't have enough RMB$! Apparently, Guangzhou don't accept HK$ and we are in deep shit as we won't be able to go back. And, I have group meeting on Monday afternoon! We rushed to a bank on time and queued for 1 hour to exchange currency, only to realize that they don't exchange currency on Sunday! Out of desperation, I rang up my Guangzhou friend and changed RMB$500 with her. So the moral of the story is, keep enough local currency for your whole trip; it doesn't matter how much US$ or S$ or Eu$ you have since if the local don't accept them, you are reduce to nothing. We were even thinking of buying a bowl and carpet to beg on the street (just kidding). Lol.
Due to the lack of sleep, Ivan was sick for the next 3 days and he rested in my room half the time. I was busy for most of the week and he was on his own most of the time, with Wed and Thu spent at his aunt's place. I met him on Friday in TST to get the ferry ticket to Macau the next day. In addiiton, he went to buy cosmetics for his colleagues (heard that it's cheap as it's tax-free) and then to Temple street to buy the green laser pointer for Yuan-Ting. We had Hui Lai Shan's Mango dessert again, for the 3rd time! I guess he really like it for if not, he wouldn't keep asking me to go there and eat.
The following day, we went to Macau and a mainland friend of mine tagged along. It was a so-so trip, probably because I have been there before and so don't feel much. The new Lisboa is up and it doesn't give me a nice feeling upon witnessing its extravagant artchitecture.
Ok that's about it I guess. His trip ended with a dim sum with me in Commonwealth restaurant in Jordan. At the end of the day, his verdict was that the dim sum in Da Tong in Guangzhou is the best among the one he has tasted in the 3 cities. These 2 are unforgetable:
健康榄仁卷
泰国榴莲酥
And, I don't eat the durian puff, of course! But thus far, no one who likes durian fail to praise the durian puff in Da Tong.
Off to TA duty and I've a mid-term on Thu. In the meantime, still need to look for a research direction to venture into. Cyclic peptide is trashy and hydrosilylation is kinda saturated. What's next?
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