Letters from Beijing

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An email I sent back home today. I try to send emails every week to make up for my lack of presence on Skype - sometimes, it's really hard to bring myself in front of the computer at night after staring at it the entire day at work. Chinese for my parents, English for my brother. I sure hope this is not a sign of occupational hazard showing up, i.e. translating every single thing I get in touch with.

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Hello! How was your trip to Genting? And Kevin, how's field camp? Let me "report" about my past week at work.
让我来“汇报”一下上周做了些什么！

Extremely happy to have attended 2 press conferences last Wed and Thu. One was for TripAdvisor and the other was a Slovenia/Croatia tourism promotion press conference. Got to interview hotshots like the ambassador and ministers! Getting out in the field and seeing the whole works of it definitely beats (HANDS DOWN!) sitting in front of the computer all-day.
上周三、四参加了2个记者招待会。有机会出去采访当然很高兴，要不然一整天做着 对着电脑 屁股都变大 眼睛都变瞎啦，哈哈！可以到http://travel.cri.cn/69/2010/06/01/42s12223.htm 还有 http://travel.cri.cn/69/2010/05/31/42s12166.htm 读我的采访稿子！

We had 3 new interns this week, 2 from the States (but 1 one of them is a Chinese girl) and 1 from Singapore (my friend!). We worked on a special weekly feature that I had previously proposed for. The boys don't seem be able to adapt to work here though, partly because one of them is an American and is totally not of much help with Chinese articles; and the other one (my friend) can't really do translation. But still, I can't wait for it to be published on Friday~ should have quite an immense sense of satisfaction, haha.
这个星期一多来了 3个实习生，其中一个也是我的新加坡朋友。主编让我领他们做我策划的“夏日野营”大专题，这个周五即将刊登。到时候我把网业给你们，一定要参观参观。哈哈。

We're going to Laiyuan in Hebei province this weekend - this place is oft-cited "Cool City" and is a very popular getaway during summer. Apart from website maintenance, our unit actually organizes travel/gathering activities targeted especially at foreigners in Beijing (like myself), as a form of "promoting" China to them and also just for people to get-together and socialize. Should be quite fun, though it also means my weekend is gone, hahaha.
这个周末我们的单位组织避暑活动（这个也是工作项目之一，公司除了网站，另一方面从事像外国人宣传中国的工作），到河北省的涞源。我负责帮忙策划还有向在北京的外国人宣传，希望会受欢迎。不过也代表我们的周末没了。哈哈

Plus we're working 7.5 days next week! Beijing stipulates 3 days public holiday due to "Dragon Boat Festival" but we have to work the previous weekend in lieu of that "holiday". Typical Chinese mentality... they are really really crazy workaholics by blood. My friends in Tsinghua/Peking universities says the students take about 13 modules every semester (when back in Singapore the average is about 5, so that's almost triple our workload! GAWSH)
而且，下个星期要工作七天半！因为端午节北京这里放3天假，不过是骗人的啦，要我们补在周末工作，唉。

The past weekend was quite interesting. On Saturday I went to a relatively less well-to-do area in Beijing to play with the little kids. It's a project put together by some international students here, they go there weekly to teach the kids English. I think I'll try to participate in them when I have time (e.g. when I do not have to work weekends, hahaha).
上星期六我随一群自愿者到上地（北京比较荒凉的地方）跟小孩子玩，呵呵。自愿团体是在北京读书的一群国际学生组成的，大多都是美国，加拿大的华裔。他们每周六就会到那里一间简陋的托儿所教小孩英语，我觉得蛮有意思的，我打算一有机会就跟他们一起去。只是那里离我们住的地方比较远 －－其实什么都离我家很远，我家有点像新加坡的Joo Koon，哈哈

Then on Monday, some of my university friends came over and wanted to meet up before they returned to Singapore. So I had dinner with them (and their friends) after which we made an impromptu decision (I LIKE) to go for KTV. We ended up taking the overnight package, and I got home at 4AM! The guys cabbed back with me of course - I really wouldn't dare to come back alone considering how ulu my place is (think: Joo Koon in Singapore). AND I still made it for work on Tuesday (oh, which was yesterday). Haha livin' it up in Beijing while I can!
前天，有几个大学同学（就是参加新中交流计划的那几个，跟欣颖一样）到北京找我。我与他们，还有他们的朋友一起吃饭，然后突然想唱歌。这里包夜的配套很便宜，最后我们唱到凌晨3点钟！周二我还准时上班，不错吧，哈哈

Oh yeah, try not to call me next time if possible, otherwise I have to keep topping up money. Just email/skype/MSN, and please reply to my emails!
以后你们尽量不要打给我，好像接听也要附钱。可以的话，就email或Skype吧，我一般在周日早上会登录Skype！还有，你们可不可以也给我写email？中英or Singlish都可以!

Kelly

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