I've been back for exactly 2 weeks and things have just been a mad rush since we touched down. Internship is draining away all my energy. Even as I'm typing this out now, my eyes are slowly shutting, ha-ha. However, I'm trying not to procrastinate; haven't updated in over a month. This is the first in a series of entries regarding my recent OCSP trip. Can't believe the whole experience is coming to an end (with post OCSP in August, after which we'll officially close the accounts). Before you know it, we'll be interviewing the next bunch of people for next year's trip.

Contents in this post documents our first day in China. Basically, we had zero time for R&R given the scheduling of our OCSP. However, due to an error caused by the travel agency, we had a day in 广州 before we started our trip proper in 新疆. Arrived in China in the afternoon after a really early flight (checked in at 0600H). Rested up a bit, changed and we took a cab to some shopping district that's probably the Orchard Road or Bugis equivalent in 广州.


Shopping in China is more or less what I expected it to be like, hence I didn't buy a single thing. There was probably maybe only ONE thing that caught my attention, but the quality of the shirt was poor and I felt it to be over priced.


We've all heard many horror stories about the different kinds of fake food they sell in China, from using cupboard to make their char siew, to finding poisonous contents in their milk powder. However, we still have to eat sometime. In the end, we decided to try their street stall delicacies. Here's my verdict, order food items that have to resemble their original forms. Meaning to say, order things like squid or mushrooms, as opposed to hot dogs or chicken. The "chicken" skewer that we supposedly ordered didn't taste like chicken at all. We threw it in the bin, which was then promptly fished out by a homeless person. The milk tea tasted average and it pains me to report this, but the latte I ordered from Starbucks, tasted like the milk tea I bought from the streets as well. Sighs* China...


After the mystery meat encounter with the skewer stall, a few of us decided to continue being brave and adventurous and give street seafood a shot. I guess one of the reasons I wasn't as hesitant was because the stall looked quite clean? As compared to some of the other tenants who seemed to lack basic hygiene decorum. Happy to report that no one got food poisoning, and the oysters and clams were actually rather tasty :)

It started raining like a bitch as the day progressed and we spent the rest of the day hiding indoors, looking for alcohol, ha-ha. Ended the night back at the hotel with a few rounds of drinking games. Nothing too wild, just to loosen up and get to know one another better. Alright, stay tune for more entries regarding my virgin trip to China. Let's hope the entries won't be too far apart.

Labels: china, food, friends, OCSP, travel

written at 21:14