This time, 7 girls, and except for one, Nozomi, who was 16, the rest were all 17. Surprisingly though, Nozomi, though she was the youngest, was the loudest and the joker of the group.
This time, we were ferried to Orchard Road from their hotel (Riverview Hotel) and the minute they were dropped at DFS Galleria, they made it known to me that they wanted to go shopping.
And shopping is no problem. Better than wanting to go all those cultural and educational places which I have no idea whatsoever where they are. So I took them to Taka, where they got really excited over the bubble tea stall at Basement 2, and the accessories store nearby (Hushush, I think it's called; their stuff really is quite nice); Nozomi and one of the other girls got excited when they spotted a selection of Japanese comics in the window of Kinokuniya; when I brought them to Chinatown, they were just as excited (if not more, since this group were more "noisy" and friendly than the group from Aichi on Wednesday) at all the colours of the buildings and all the cheap stuff they could buy.
One thing different, however, was that when they entered one of the "3 for $10" shops and saw the large array of costume jewellery (the rings, specifically), Nozomi told me that back in Japan, they preferred things simple and that only the "aunties" in Osaka (their hometown) wore such gaudy stuff. In her words, she called them "Osaka obachiang". At least, that's how it sounds like it should be spelt. :P
We crossed the Garden Bridge for a light snack again (I know where to go now, haha), and when they saw the decorations still strung up over the main road left over from the Lantern Festival, they got excited all over again; all the cameras came out (all seven of them), and they asked one of their schoolmates who was walking past to help take the pictures. They insisted I join in too.
Oh, and one thing that really fascinates me to no end..? You know how when you were in secondary school and maybe you and all your good friends were obsessed with taking NeoPrints and doing the "V" sign with your fingers was seen as trying to be "like all those Jap girls and act cute"? Well, all the Japanese students do that sign when they take pictures. Really. ALL of them. Even the guys.
They bought ice cream from the shop just beside the Q Bread bakery; it was some kind of natural fruit, gelato ice cream, I think, and they were quite amused at how the ice cream sometimes "stretches", like warm pizza cheese. The guy at the stall even gave me a little extra when I ordered lemon flavour, "for bringing all of them around", he said. Haha. :D
In the end, we went back to Orchard, and they went back to DFS Galleria early; we were told that they had to be back there by 4.30, but after eating Mac's for lunch at Taka, they wanted to go back at 2.30. Really early, but it turns out that they wanted to shop around.
And the most shocking thing of all was that they bought me a bear!
Ta-da. Romance, the TY Bear that they bought me from DFS itself. Ian was saying on Wednesday that he'd been doing this for so long and the pair of Havaianas that he was given that day was the best gift that he'd ever received; so I guess I'm lucky that I received something on just my second try! Haha...
Another $94.50 for six and a half hours; it's good money, but I can't help feeling bad coz I can't really talk to them. Oh well. Tomorrow, Pam and I are gonna start doing the Soci dept surveys... gonna have to go to Commonwealth to give them out and everything; hopefully I'll be able to give out some so I can collect them back on Sunday and bring them back to school to hand in on Monday.
It's a survey on late marriage and low fertility, by the way. I'm not sure if the department still needs more student interviewers, but if you're interested, you could ask. They're paying $15 per completed survey, by the way; and all you have to do is leave the questionnaire with the randomly selected household (they give you a list of addresses) and collect it back the next day. :)
No comments:
Post a Comment