Monday, October 13, 2008
Day 42
It's the day that we will return home back to Singapore. Through this wonderful 42 days immersion trip, I have really truly enjoy and learnt alot!
Some things that I feel were really great is that some of the people were really friendly and earnest in making us feel comfortable. It is really heart-warming:) Even though there were many great people, there were still some con mans which infuriate me. Some taxi drivers purposely took a long detour cheating us of our taxi fare. =_=. Singapore once had this too but it has been made against the law to cheat passengers of their fare. Good to Singapore and I hope that China will impose the law to this as well.
One thing which I hope Singapore could learn from China is that, they are less selfish in the sense that on the bus, they will go all the way to the back to stand rather than blocking the passage way to walk up. I need to learn this too as sometimes I can be quite selfish=X.
If China's air would clear of the heavy pollution, I believe it would be 10 times more attractive to tourists. It would be a great place to tour around as you get to see the many marverlous places, rivers and sceneries!
It will be a really bonus if China could ban spitting and even ban littering!!! For starters, they could have more dustbins rather than dumping ground which stinks and is unhygenic! I believe China is improving rapidly in its economy and I hope that it will become more and more civilised.
It would not be very nice to see a pretty lady, all dressed up and spitting with an awful sound right?
I like china alot! The wonderful delicacy, lovely sceneries everywhere, great warm people and the prices of goods! HAH. I will miss China alot though probably I will not be returning to Wuhan again.
It is the end of my 42 days journey in Wuhan and I greatly recommend more students from NP to take up this exciting, fun and learning experience! It is like nothing you have ever experienced okay! Wuhanhuanyingni!!
Day 41
We rushed off the the Mac behind our school after the event ended just to walk the area once more. :(
Day 40
Time passed so quickly eh. We have made great friends and adapted to the life in Wuhan. We were familiar with the routes to Carrefour and once again, today, we will be going to step in there. It felt like just ytd that we were there on our 1st grocery trip. Sigghhh...
We ate ate ate and walk walk walk.....................
Day 39
Today, there was a tour agency catered for us for a day trip. In total, we visited 4 areas. A Buddhist temple, Jiang tan, the zoo and a place which was very random. Actually it was weird because for that particular place, the tourguide just told us to go down for 15 mins to take the exterior of the place which we could not enter=_=?
The zoo was pathetic!!! Poor animals locked in the tiny cage with little space to roam. They all look so sickly and sad. The people were truly bad. They threw food at the animals and in the course of it, I believe they hurt them. Sigh…. It is no wonder singapore’s zoo could flourish. Anyway, plenty of the cages were empty as we walked and they looked deserted. There was no zoo keeper in sight throughout the entire walk in the zoo. I suspect that the animals which were once in the deserted cage have already all die. The serious lack of the zookeeper makes the cages look filthy and the animals sickly. Sigh.. Poor things!
Day 38
It’s a fine day today! No rain yet the weather is not so hot.:) Just nice! Anyway, 2day, we went out with Shi Ding Le on a field trip excursion. We met her at our hostel’s gate at 8.30am. I went out without having breakfast and was grumbling all the way. HA! She brought us to see the huang he lo which was at the top of the snake mountain(she shan). Actually, it can only be considered as a hill. It is even smaller than bukit timah’s mountain. In Shi Ding Le’s lesson, she once mentioned about the snake and tortoise mountain story. It is called the snake mountain as the pathway uphill is long and narrow. What a morning walk!
We went to the 1911 revolution red house. Cool. Do you know that the 1911 revolution was sparked from WUHAN-wuchang(the place I reside in for this entire trip). Cool eh… There were so many stuffs which the red house tour guide said and I cannot really remember.
We went to the Taoist temple too. I have seen enough of the temples at wudang but I wondered why the status at wudang were not as big as the one I saw today. Some 1 replied to my question and said that it was because wudang mountain’s status were of the past. Hmmm…
After that, we went to the mei shi jie for lunch! The air had bad ventilation in the large enclosed area and I was gasping for clean air. Poor indoor air quality (tsk, tsk, tsk!!! – haha, what to do… I learnt before ma…). The place was fully packed with people squeezing everywhere. All kind of well-known food from tang paos, popiah, wanton, beggar chicken, zhu chang fen, seafood(lala, scallop..), dou pi(beancurd skin?)… can be found there. People tend to just throw their rubbish on the ground and the amount of rubbish collected by the sweeper was amazing! HAH!
Day 37
Day 37-1st oct 08
HAPPY CHINESE NATIONAL DAY!
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JUN WEI-DEY!
Today is the official start of the 1 week holiday for the Chinese people as it is their national day. Many students from our school has already left the hostel for home during this long break. Our Chinese friend, Shao lin left even earlier, Saturday afternoon! Me, Dina and Mak decided to meet up with Ya Ping for a photo-taking session at Carrefour. It was a different experience compared to Sg though.
Ate lunch which was treated by Ya Ping. We told her that we will be treating her the next time as she insisted on treating us this time. :) I will miss my Chinese friends. It may be the last time that I will step into wu han ever again. Treasure this moments.
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Day 34-36 28-30th Sept 2008
WUDANG SHAN
Day 34
Pre-trip morning
In the mornings, we went to have breakfast with our Chinese friends from China at 7.30am as their lessons(taking note that it is a Sunday) at 8am! Wah! Even though our trip meeting time was to be at 10am, we wanted to take this few rare opportunities left to meet thus we woke up a little earlier to have breakfast from 7.30-8am.
We went to their canteen to eat. It is only the 2nd time that I have ever been to their canteen for meals. Their breakfast served are as I have heard, quite standard. Everyday it is the same. They use a system like the ezlink card for payment to save time. I did not have the card so Ya Ping paid for me.
Xiao Yan Zi chatting away with Mak
We went back to prepare to set off to WUDANG. I brought minimum clothes and stuffs despite hearing that it would be cold up there=X
OFF TO WUDANG!
We set off at 10am and I slept throughout the ride until the point where we were about to reach the pit stop. The scenery was nice, it was of huge lands with many many acres of farms, rivers and ponds. It goes to show that Agriculture is quite a huge part of the economy in China.
We finally reached the Wudang’s ban shan yao at 4pm+!
After checking into the cool motel( we were quite shocked at the accomodation. For starters, we felt it was quite unsafe as the rooms had lousy window grills and it was worse as a few of us stayed on the ground floor.) It is my 1st time sleeping at a motel. Woa...
After placing down our stuffs which and taking our valuables, we went to explore around the area. There were loads of street hawkers and nice food.
At the left, you can see me practicising my QINGGONG. See how I can balance on the roof soo well while striking a pose at the camera:) COOL right! HA! Nah.. Just joking, the roof is actually at the level of the pathway! HA!
One interesting thing happened, the gate to our motel could not be opened after shutting it!
WHAT! The door was stuck!
For the rest of the night, it was super cold! Imagine the room to be soo cold even without the air condition! Too cold to bath and so I din't! HAHA! I wore jeans to slp dint bath.
Day 35- To Wudang's peak!
External outlook of Wudang Shan at the ban shan yao.
Wudang Shan- the land of Taoism
Look at the beautiful clouds. It is freezing okay! HA
They call the buses huan bao ce, environmental friendly buses. Why?
ARHHH! I HATE THE CABLE CAR RIDE. Not only do we have to pay 95rmb, I am also scared of heights:( Was not prepared for this!
See the red streamers from the tree? Those are wishes from the many superstitious people who have believed that the tree is magical. It is like a wishing tree.
Set off 7am to the peak, tour guide said it would be a 1min walk ended up walking for bout 10-15mins
The weather was freezing! We decided to take the cable car up!:(
I’m scared of heights! Have to pay money-50rmb up- We weren’t informed before that.
We went up to the peak of wudang and we were promised to be brought to see the wudang sect but it wasn’t fulfilled.
The peak was seriously painfully cold. Bought tea eggs to warm up.
Ronald hans and wei heng did a divination- bad luck, normal and good luck
Really tempted to try.
Took the photo of the Taoist priest. I was told b4 that we should not take photos of the priests as they believe that their health or years of cultivation to become immortals will be sucked into the camera or smth like that.
Opps I forgot=X
The weather was really great even though it was biting cold at the peak. It did not rain like it did the previous days.
There were great scenic view everywhere. The winding roads and dangerous curves of the road paved along the mountain side made the environmental bus rides scary!!! The lanes are narrow and it is hard to see the other side of the curve when you are turning. I feel that we are fortunate to not have met up with any accidents. 3 huge dangers. 1. There is a open drain at the inner side of the road and the bus may fall in when turning. 2. The outer side of the roads is the cliff and if the bus happens to swerve, we may all say hello to the 1way roller coaster ride to hell. Lastly, if the bus in the opp direction happens to not stop in time and both buses collide(highly likely), it may go down in the above 2 cases.
The food were considerably expensive! At least 20rmb per meal.
I tried Wudang’s tea. There was a lady pouring the tea for us:) It was refreshing and I witness the basics of tea pouring and learnt a little of tea tasting.:) The aftertaste leaves a sweet feeling. Xian ku hou tian. :)
Dina took a video of the tea pouring session. See below:)
We slept at a better hotel! 3stars worth according to china tourism plague on the wall.
Din’t bath. Even colder!! The hot water actually has a time frame from 7.30pm-9pm. Sigh. It seems as though it makes no difference.
The tourguide was wonderful!
Day 36- 30th sept 08
We decided to return back to our hostel as early as possible. 8am we gathered and headed home. Reached at 4pm. In between we slept on the bus which was quite small. Missed the food nearby the hostel. Cheap and good.:)
Rested in the hostel the rest of the day! Took a nice warm bath!!!
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Day 33- Sat 27th sept 2008
Day 33- Sat 27th sept 2008
Weee… Today was really relaxing. All the tests and lessons are over but we are still learning in an amazing way. Immersing in the culture way :). The weather has already turned cool and I have decided to wear my only pair of jeans wherever from this day forth. HA! Bo bian lei… I have altered my other pair of jeans to become shorts=X. Din’t anticipate the change in weather all of a sudden.
My day started from me lazily waking up at 12noon feeling soooo energetic. My first time in Wuhan that I slept soo long! Anyway, the actual day only begun at 5pm where I finally got to eat my lunch! WHAT! Dey-Jun Wei, cook of the day, cooked creamy pasta for all of us today! Greatly appreciate it and I wished there were more of this cooking from him. Haha. Thanks Man! (we all paid for the ingredients, no free lunch in the world okay!)
The 2 chinese girls(xiao yan zi, Ya ping), whom me, dina and mak got more close too during the discussion day were invited as guest to our mini party. Following them came Shao Lin( whose name was given by his brother who was six at the time!- Like SMART!, btw, he do not know how any martial arts. HA!) and a few other girls. The atmosphere was really great. We spoke and one of them said that my Chinese was quite good, my accent was similar to theirs. WAHA! See, in china, speaking Chinese is not enough, you have to learn their accent too. (Apparently, their accent varies from different parts of China due to their dialect ba.) It was an enjoyable group chatter:)
After awhile, we all went down to play some “yan huo”, the sticks burn out very quickly and we switched to playing the “bomb cracker”(When you light the stick, you have to throw it further away and after 3 secs, it will explode and create a loud BOOM.) It was really fun but the sound was really very loud and I was always startled by it. I tried lighting one and it was both scary but exciting. Travis was super playful; he lighted one and threw at the ground, in the middle of our crowd of ppl. Everyone ran like startled chickens! HAHA!
We then went out to the “Wu hui” (Dance meet?). Wah! It’s awesome! It is at the big courtyard where there were a lot of ppl gathering around an area (a stage?) where there were some dancing performances. All the dances were spontaneous and it was like a clubbing area except that it was in the open and the main dancer was on the so-called mini stage. The rest of the people down stage was quite high and they jumped up and down:) The dancers danced very freely and there was blinking man-held spot lights on them. HA:) I have only seen this on TV though.
After the performances, the DJ, changed the mood of the atmosphere. He played ballroom dancing songs and slowly, couples went up to dance. Wah! In Sg, ppl always act shy when it comes to such slow song dancing. Sigh… Its kinda romantic and I kinda like this kind of dancing.
After that song, he played line dancing songs where individuals followed a set of dance steps. (It is similar to what I learnt in secondary, where ours are folk dance songs which is a must to learn for the folkdance night-LOADS OF FUN). Imagine they have this every thurs and sat during school term. Sooo fun. It is also because they can’t travel out far and they have curfews to be back by 10.30pm in the hostel. They spend their time with friends only. I tried my best to learn the dance steps but failed quite badly. HAHA! It was really really fun and when we parted our ways as it was nearing 10.30pm, I had a moment that I felt like crying. What! Felt quite “bu she de”. The fun had to end. All fun have to end.
Day 32- Fri- 26th sept 2008
SPORTS MEET+ HANKOU TRIP
In the morning at around 8.30am, we gathered to go down to the track field where the guys were supposed to be participating in the sports meet. I wore shorts and had on a jacket. It was super cold! Man, our supposed timing for even the earliest run was at 10plus but we went down to have a look. Travis was our 1st runner:) Our runners included: Travis, Maurice(grew fat here le!, dunno can run ma. Hah!), Mak and Hans.
At around 9am+, Frederick finally persuaded Dina to see the doc. Her ankle had been twisted real badly and it was swollen=_=. Ouch! I accompanied her to the medical centre where she paid for the medical fees 1st. She went through 2 rooms, one for just to look at the prob and the 2nd one where she was treated by a Chinese Sensei.:) woa! I took photos of her squirming. She screamed a lot. LOL! =X. The room was quite packed with Chinese basketball girl players who represented WIT. LOL! All with different injuries to be treated!(hand sprained & leg twisted) Their girls basketball team is like fierce man! The Chinese doc was named “hua tuo”(a well known legendary Chinese doc) on a award hanged on the wall. Tsk tsk tsk. Pro female doc!
Her sprain was treated with 4 needles and a suction cup. She enjoyed the suction cup part but totally went crazy with the 4 needles. HA! It seemed loads better after the treatment and she was told to come again 2mrw.
Travis ran during the time when I accompanied dina to see the doc. He did well clinching 2nd placing in the heats. Apparently, there were no finals for the run and they clock the placing by the timings of all the runners.
kua kua kua.... see the flags all up already? It is the closing ceremony...=_=
A screw up was made as we were told to head down for the final relay run at 12.30pm. The entire sports meet had ended when we reached the track. What?! Like how come we weren’t informed. We were quite disappointed and Mak was worried for nothing. HA!
Went for a final trip down to HanKou!
Everywhere the stuffs has already changed season. Especially clothes. Oh man. Intended on doing some shopping but in the end, it was just looking through the many coats.
We tasted the renowned Si Zi Mei Tang Bao:) I really loveee tang baos! The juice just squirts out as u take a bite. Waa… Sigh, I’m gonna miss the tang baos!!!
The trip back to the hostel was a long journey. Heavy jam again and it will probably be the last time that I will experience the jam from Han Kou back to Wu Chang ba. I will miss Han Kou too.
Day 31
Weather: Chilly!
Oh no! It’s the day of our final test for International Business. I really have to do well for this as my SUDD paper really sucked. Just hope that I will at least get a B. Today we have gotten a tight schedule. Early in the mornings about 8.30am, we gathered to watch the military training of the freshies in WIT. They have trained for 15days and today is where they display the fruits of their training. It was quite spectacular except that they were a bit “nua”(jellyish). Ha!
Most of us had our study notes for the test at 10am with us while watching the military marching. HAHA!
After the test (what a relief!), we(me and dina), walked to the back of our school where the Tang Bao laid as Dina has sprained her ankle(long story) and would prefer walking less. I craved for tang bao for a few days already and I’m sure I am gonna miss it when I’m back in Sg. Sigh.. Quite loving the freedom in China and with the many friends I made, it is all made up of FUN.
We had 2hrs break before our final lesson of this entire Immersion program. Oh! How I will miss climbing up the 7 storey to school every day. (nah, maybe not! HA!). On our way back to our classroom building, we decided to take some photos for remembrance sake. Only after dina said that it struck me that it would be our last time walking the path to school! WAH. Time passes so quickly eh.
Lessons were on the history of China(yawn)… and it was finally time to go Carrefour:). We met up the 2 chinese girls from ytd’s discussion meeting (they got along very well with us, the guy could not make it as he had matches) for dinner and treated them. They treated us ytd and we felt bad about it. They weather has really turned chilly and I’m enjoying the entire cooling feeling, it gives me the romantic feeling. Anyway, we changed our plans from going to “HU QUAN” to staying at the Carrefour area as the 2 girls had curfews of having to be back at 10.30pm and it was already quite late when we were done with dinner.
Day 30
Today, we had an early day. Not studying but it was supposedly a discussion regarding building and environment btw the Chinese students and us. Oh dear, that sounded already so awful. I was thinking that if we were allowed to speak in English, which would have been an easier task than to try and translate the terms in Chinese and think of things that should be said.
As we walked to their built environment building, I dreaded and hoped that it would be over soon as it was an arduous task. When we entered the classroom, it was awkward. They clapped for us and sat at a row at the back of the “meeting table”. It was like a conference meeting. Die. The tone of it was so serious and brave dina did the most speaking on behalf of our NP group. Ha! They were surprised with our “good” Chinese but there was 1 Chinese female student whom I felt was very condescending towards us, Singaporeans. Probably she was curious but she spoke in a rude manner? She gave comments that made me feel that we are a rude bunch of people who do not have any manners. Thanks ar.=_=. Towards her, we remained quite polite and the teacher from them explained clearly that we are not like what she thought. Anyway, I believe there was some sort of language barrier which still existed as our Chinese were not as fluent and if we were able to communicate with them in English, there will not be such misunderstandings and we could fend for ourselves better.
One of them asked a dumb question, “Is the Chang e(mid-autumn folk legend character) of Singapore’s legend a male or female?” – Supposedly, in this story, the maiden (chang e) after eating some elixir, she flew to the sky and away from a man. Like duh, how can the chang e be a man. =_=.
We finally ended up having our own chatter groups which has a good mix of both the Chinese students and us. My group has 2 girls and a guy who stays at Hei Long Jiang (he says the journey back home takes 30 hrs by train=_=). Poor thing. Anyway, it was such a waste that we had not met with them earlier as they knew the place better. We ate together for lunch and visited each other’s hostels. It was a far cry comparing our hostels and theirs. WAH! We are fortunate man!
Tuesday, September 23, 2008
Day 26
Day 26- 19th Sept 2008, Friday
Yay! We are finally free from exams. Today, we decided to go Si Men Kou as recommended by Shi Ding Le. She said the place was renowned for having the tailor street and the big chinese medical centre where all kinds of herbs can be found there. I am bent on buying the Pearl Powder which you can't find it in Sg. I have always heard about the effects of Pearl powder and I will like to try it:)
When we first reached, the place looked awfully familiar to Dina. After walking a little, we realised it was near Hu Bu Xiang. A place that we went before already! It was just given a different name. Chay.... Anyway, we walked a little and the group of them went for the "Haunted house". It is something similar to the one at KL where they have people scaring you as you walked through. (They do all sorts of things like touching u on the shoulder, grabbing ur foot and stuff). Me and Dina met them late and it was a good thing. Phew~! Kai Xin came out earlier then them and she cried. I guess it was really scary. It scared us too, I mean scared us from wanting to have a go. HA!
Jia Min, Chai Kee, Yvonne and Rebecca was conned!
They went into a so-called FREE facial treatment. It was not free after all. They paid a small price for it as it was not that expensive.
After that, we headed for HU BU XIANG- FOODIES HEAVEN!
Lots of tantalising gourmet. wahhh. I want to try all except the seafood. HA! Me and dina tried the wanton which was filled to the brim of the bowl with miny wanton. It was small yet was tasty! We even tried the Black Smelly beancurd. It looked gross seriously but it tasted the same as the white ones. Some other food I tried included Dou Pi, chewy fried tang yuan, their zhu chang fen etc. Aww.. I like the place:)
DOU PI- one of wuhan's specialty(fried nou mi fan)
Day 25
Monday, September 22, 2008
day 24
Economics! Sigh... It seems a little overlapping with our International Buisness module at China. *yawn*. Its the last of Andy Xi's lesson today! To be honest, if Shi Ding Le were to taught this instead of Andy, I believe I will be attentive 100% times more=X.
After econs, the entire group of us (me, dina, maurice, hans, wee heng, ronald) went to the salon for the China haircut experience. *faint!* Initially mine only costed 15Rmb(3sgd) for the hair cut and wash but........... they psychoed me=_=. I ended up dyeing my hair and the total cost amounted to 100RMB(20Sgd). Even though it was cheap, I quite regretted it. Was budgetting okay~!
Btw, the haircut was... regretfully cheena. LOL! =_=. Wee heng said I looked like a ball when I was done with blowing my hair. Thanks man. I bet he said it to spike me. Ha! Cause I laughed at him the moment they took the curlers off him. (He was the only daring one who dared to perm his hair here- respect man). I did not expected such curls either and it was shocking. Sorry man!
Anyway, I even did manicure today. I like did a total makeover can. From head to fingers. I feel that it all doesn't suit my character. Black nails, blackish red hair? Whatever man. I'm gonna have my nails re-manicured b4 going back sg. It is like freaking CHEAP! (25rmb with studs can!-5sgd)
I'm hoping my hair would grow longer in this remaining 2 weeks before i head back to sg. Luckily, I did not cut my hair during the last week. Phew. Btw, the hairstylist who did my hair had stayed in Wuhan all his life w/o going overseas at all. He is only 23? with a 6years of hairstyling experience. How fortunate am I...
Wee heng
Maurice and wee heng.
My manicure( my 1st time having my nails set black! OMGosh~)
Friday, September 19, 2008
Day 22
There was no class today as it was a public holiday:)
We decided to take a walk to HanKou's vibrant "orchard road"- Min Zhong le yuan. So far, we had taken the bus and taxi to that area. The bus ride was definitely not enjoyable especially if the windows were opened and it was worse that it took at least 1 and half hours to reach. It was out of the question that we would take the bus to hankou again.
In the end, the van ride was priced at 105rmb as we did not bargain much. It was worth the price though as he was a very hospitable and friendly guy. He told us stories of his family, answer our questions on wuhan and even acted as a tour guide by telling us the landmarks around and pointing it to us. He told us that time has changed and comparing to the past, famous places that has once attracted a long queue of customers, was now like any other stalls due to the technology change that took place. An example would be the tang bao near by my school.
On our way to the night market in the evening, we witnessed a few youths who looked around 15-16 quarreling with a stall owner. It was really fierce and the girl and lady involved were shouting at each other with a slang I could not catch. Anyway, it gave me the impression that the people in wuhan were fierce and straightforward. HA. Sometimes I get irritated by their occasional rudeness such as the feeling that you owe them when you enter a shop without buying stuff and other times when they elbow their way through you without any courtesy.
Day 23
Lesson schedule for today is with Shi Ding Le.
I find that her lessons are really interesting and the fact that she speaks good english is very admirable even though there are occasional spelling errors.
Today, we learnt about the symbols of auspiciousness. There are 4 main things which are really important to the chinese. They are always found in many of their items and they 4 things are as follows:
- Longevity
Symbols: Crane & Pine tree
In China, there is a religion that is very wide spread and that is Taoism. It's main aim is to achieve longevity and thus since that is being treated as important to the Chinese, Taoism continues to flourish and is one of the more accepted religion in China.
The symbols of longevity can be usually found in the interior rooms of elderly and it is advised that the symbols are not placed in the kids room as it is said that they are not able to withstand the symbols.
- Happines
Symbols:
- Harvest
Symbol: Fish
Usually in large festivals/ocassions, there should be fishes in dishes. Harvest is mostly celebrated by the people farming. It is just like a thanks giving celebration.
There is a superstition involving the eating of fish in such ocassions that the fish should only be eaten on one side and it should not be overturned so that there is always more than you need in every harvest. 年年有余 as the chinese says it.
- Noble Character
TBC.......
Monday, September 15, 2008
Day 21
Woa!
Happy Mid Autumn Festival! The moon is soooooo round today:) So romantic. It is also the chinese valentine's day. IT's 'THE DAY'. The performance day! We chose to dance to the tune of Lian Ai ING and all the steps were quite babyish-simple. HA! (but i messed it up majorly during the actual). Anyway, we started off practicing early in the mornings at around 10am and we had a rehearsal at the school hall's stage at 2pm.
The rehearsal at the stage was badly done and though there were only a few onlookers, I was somewhat mentally unprepared and had a little stage fright.
At 6pm: we proceeded to the field track where the stage was set up only today. It was not really as huge as i expected but the crowd was in THOUSANDS. Parents, teachers and students in their army attire(they had army training for this entire 2 weeks). Woaa.. I felt my legs going wobbly and it felt that my energy was drained~! OH NO!
I do not understand why I always have stage fright even no matter how many times I have been up. I have been on stages for SOOOOO many times. :S Man, I would like to curb it! I talked myself into concentrating on enjoying rather than worry( fel u can do this, you know the dance steps and dont worry!). I went up stage an enthu little girl. Our entire group was hyped up and I felt the enjoyment in the dance even though at a point, my brain perhaps was slightly entangled, I stood and dance and stun while I was supposed to squat. =_=. Sigh.
That segment ended with everyone feeling relieved and pleased. We watched on at the performances lined up. There was even a drama sh
The snow-skinned however, erm, doesnt taste like the normal snow-skin in sg but... heck! as long as it is snow-skin, who cares:)
Saturday, September 13, 2008
20
Today, we went Hua Zhong Uni to look at the building structures and history. OMG! Their one building alone beat Ngee Ann Poly's entire capacity hands down!! 18,000 capacity for the 1st building we went. Btw, its the 3rd largest schooling building in the world and the 1st in the world also came from that school. Tsk Tsk Tsk. Actually their sch facilities are not that at all bad. (Even though they still used chalk boards), they had a electronic board which flashes the time table of all the classes at the main entrance of the school.
There was even a lecturer who came down to bring us around the school. He told us the history of the buildings and he was very welcoming. He wanted to bring us to many of the places in the school but as the weather was terrible, we declined politely.
In the evenings at 4, Me, Dina and Hans went to the place our IS lecturer brought us too. Dina did not had a look at that place and we decided to go there for a walk. It is a place similar to the Far East Plaza of Sg yet the mall is only 2 storeys high yet it took us around 2 and a half hours to comb the entire area. 1 Floor was for clothes and the other was for accessories and bags. The difference btw Sg and China is that you get to bargain even in shops.:):)
After leaving the place, we were greeted by an old fashion big screen movie playing machine. It was as if we were back in the 60s? Cool!
We had to cross the night market area to get back to our hostel. It was really crowded and lively and there were more roadside stalls during the weekends. We saw people selling off mini crabs which were reddish, hamsters, fishes and even puppies! Poor puppies, 3 of them were enclosed in one tiny cage. It all seems normal to the people there though.
Me and Dina decided to eat by the roadside. We had soup noodles. Me with the tomato and egg combination while dina with the seaweed and meat combi. Our wok had lots of vege and it was tasty. That particular stall had lots of customers and the "dine-in" sits were really awkward. Many of the customers ordered take-aways instead.
YAWNN! I'm tired already.. tommorow will be the day of performance! Happy mid-autumn festival! Nighty night~!
Friday, September 12, 2008
Today, we went for industrial visits. It means that we did not had classes today! Yeppy:) Firstly, it was the laser industry which had a lady rep who went through all the products that the company came up with. (chay, i thought they would bring us into the work area.) Anyway, the lady demostrated one of the beauty series machine. Look at the video below. Btw, its taken side ways, =X dint realise that it could not be rotated. Opps=X. Btw, this industry was just a stone throw away from WIT's back gate.
The next site was at the telecommunication and electronics industry which had us changing into PJs and cook hats. DUMB! We had to go through a room which was meant to dust the dirt off us and after which we proceeded to the work area. Many of those workers looked my age. I guess that they are doing part time. Anyway, I would love to try it for a day but any more than that and I will condemn it. HA! We saw the people putting chips and doing quality check...
Lastly, we went to the numerical industry. It was really boring as all we did was to hear the rep talk about what awards they won, what some of the machines did and went to a seriously dusty empty workplace which I had no interest in at all.
After these trips, we went eat! I was already hungry from the start of the trip (8.30am). Btw, we took a bus which dropped us off at 2 bus stops away. We happened to always past by but not go there to eat. It had always looked nice but as it always goes, do not judge a book by its cover. The exterior was classy yet the service, food and hygiene was all in the drain! SERIOUSLY! We waited for 1hr near 2 hrs for our course. (I ordered beef steak-28rmb). I got a little mixed up with saying how I want the steak to be done in CHINESE. I thought it had a link with the discounts which when u say 七折,it means 30% off.
Even the soup they serve was wierd! It was sweet and milky. YUCK! One thing to add. The waitress who serve it, had her curly hair dipped in it=_=. OMG!!! sigh.
It was a lesson learnt and remembered for life. Poor Hans did not even get to start on it while everyone had ended their meal. In the end we all went to a claypot restaurant which was 10000 better in comparison=_=.
We went back to the hostel and went straight for dance practice. (Mid Autumn Fest we were asked to come up with an item =_=). It ended off well as everyone could do it in a way or another! Mark was super hilarious! He did his actions awkwardly when especially it came to lifting his hands up. He said he wore a singlet so he was shy... =X
I am feeling really tired now! 2mrw is another day of outing. :) Gtg sleep now. I miss everyone at home! i miss chewy too:(
18
Today, we had lessons with SHI DING LE regarding the culture of China. Dina was ill and stayed in bed. Probably, the weather and the heatiness got to her.
In class, we learnt that the Pre-Qin era(770BC-221BC) was the golden period for China as ppl had freedom of speech. Just as long as people would lend you their ears, you will be able to say what you feel. That time, China was divided into many small countries and people wanted to expand their trade to other country so it resulted in many wars. That period was also called the Zhan Guo Period. With such wars came chinese philosophers who question that existence. Cool..
Another thing that was taught was the difference in culture between the europeans who supports individualism and Chinese who supports group identities varied in a survey conducted by my teacher. She drew a picture of a group of fishes with 1 stray fish. She then asked her chinese class what do they feel. Out of 38 students, only 3 felt that the stray fish was happy being independent while the rest said the fish was an outcast.
The test was done on her other group of european students and their responses were all about the fish being happy. This goes to show that chinese believe that if you are alone, you are an outcast which means that you are bad.
She also says that the culture in WuHan is restricted and there is no religion in Wuhan as strictly speaking, the Hans clan does not hold up for any religion due to the worship of the king and the ancestors in the past. Taoism is barely counted as a religion as it is accepted as the main aim for it is to achieve longevity.
After class, she then brought a group of us to somewhere near which usually sells the unique works of students. On the way, she told us about why there had to be soldiers training for all schools at the start of the semesters, irregardless of female or male. It was linked to the strike which happened in China by the students around. They were very involve in politics and they tried to overthrow the government at that time(1989). It ended up in a bloody mess of students and to prevent this. "brainwashing" training were carried out since.
Thursday, September 11, 2008
17
Once again we have presentation!! Its a 4 person to a group presentation regarding culture and Business Etiquette:) Me, Dina, Maurice and Ivy chose USA and it was quite fun with this presentation. Btw, Dina lost her voice!! Even teddy bear says that she is more wen rou. HA!
Actually USA's business etiquette is closer to Sg's business etiquette so its quite ez.
During lunch break, I ate the so called "zinger burger". Im getting hooked on it! Really nice, its less spicy with a little butter smell, you can get it at 3 burgers for 12 RMB( 2.40SGD?!). WHAT! its super worth it.
See my burger! Xiang Cui Ji Tui Han Bao!! (theres even prawn burger, drumsticks, wraps...)
This is the view of from my 7 storey high class room, See the badly polluted air? Btw, it also seemed like it was about to rain heavily as the wind howled...
You see the rubbish dump which is in the open! Utterly gross. When the litters piles up, they would burn them (incineration), that happened on my way to school and it is really bad for the health.
Btw, see this poor dead squirrel... (R.I.P).
Maurice and Wei Heng bought it last sunday while on the overhead bridge. The squirrel when I last saw it alive was struggling and trying its best to bite free from the cage. I even heard that the squirrel tried to run up the pipes but was caught again. Poor little thing. It was meant for the wild and it was illegal for the man who sold it without a license. Anyway, what do you expect. Its not like Sg.
In the evenings, i accompanied Dina to the night market. WOA! The wind was super strong. We wore jackets but our legs were still exposed. My hair was blown back like in those kind of Shampoo Ad. HA! Many stallowners were packing their stuffs probably due to the wind. Anyway, the waft of the foodstalls by the sideways were making us drip saliva. There were paos, tang baos(soup buns), fried vege cake, french fries, fried chicken, burgers, ma la noodles etc. we bought a kind of bao that they call qi shui bao(soft drink bun) and a burger which had a crispy outerlayer which stores the egg, ham and meat in it.
After that, we quickly went home as it was freezing. I predicted that the next day would rain. HAH! Btw, we saw a very antique kind of cotton candy trolley. It was manually operated by an old man and the cotton candy was delicious unlike sg's kind.