Jarold's Life in Wuhan!

Day 42 - Time to say goodbye :(

2009-10-14T08:21:00.000-07:00

Day 42 is here! :( We started the day with fireworks at about 6am as we did not sleep at all the previous night! After lightning fireworks for our first and last time, we headed off for breakfast at a nearby store which sold Chee Cheong Fun. It was one of our favourite breakfast for the past 42 days. Unfortunately it has all come to an end. We had to leave Wuhan and go back to Singapore already :(
So below are some pictures!

MDE 21guns outside the hostel, waiting for the bus to bring us to the airport to return home to Singapore.

When we reached the airport, we had lunch at KFC and then we checked in and flew to Guangzhou. Where we had to wait 3 hours to transit to another flight back to Singapore.

Waiting for the flight from guangzhou to singapore!
Finally, it was time to check in and prepare to board the plane!
Some of us on the travelator moving to our gateway to board the plane.

Group B Photo! One of the last few photos, as the trip has come to an end!
Left to right: Edy, Yoke May, Me, Daniel.
Waiting to board the plane

After we boarded the plane! We took some pictures! Unfortunately i don't have them with me, so i've only uploaded this.
Yoke May and Me

Goodbye Guangzhou! Leaving the Guangzhou AirportWOOHOO! TOUCH DOWN @ Singapore!After we got off the plane, we could immediately feel the Singapore air. Most of us were very happy and excited as we are finally HOME! We all rushed to the nearby duty free store to purchase some Duty Free alcohol before collecting our luggages and meeting our loved ones at the arrival hall!

Group B:Daniel, YokeMay, Me, Edy.
Home sweet Home!

21 Guns + Mr. Loh @ Singapore Airport! Finally! Safe and Sound :)

Exiting the arrival gate to meet our loved ones!

So this marks the end of our OIP Batch 3 Trip to Wuhan, WUST!
And i must say that i will miss everyone of you on this trip! <3
Keep the friendship strong and keep it going! Love you all! :D

Reflections
From this trip, i have learnt a lot of new things.Firstly, i have learnt how to appreciate and be contented with what i have currently. Also, i have learnt how tolisten to other people's ideas first before weighing out which idea would be best. Furthermore, i have learnt how to acceptpeople for who they are and not to judge them based on their appearance.
In a blink of an eye, this fruitful and interesting trip has come to an end, sadly :(However the friendship and bonds we have made will remain forever and to all who went to the OIP trip, i will never forget you guys! :)You all have made this trip wonderful and very fun for me! Thank you all, 21 guns and Mr Joseph Loh our dearest trip leader :)As well as my parents who have supported me and provided for me to come on this trip!
This OIP trip was really an eye-opener for me and that i really enjoyed this trip. It really taught me a lot about China as well asteaching me many different important values in life. Whatever i have learnt will not finish here and that it will be brought along withme for the rest of my life. Also, all the friends i have made on this trip would remain in my heart forever and ever! :D
Overall, i give this trip 5stars out of 5 stars! Everyone should come to this trip and experience Wuhan! It was truly a tremendous and enjoyable experience for me!

Day 41 - Last day to Shop, and pack to Return home!

2009-10-14T07:43:00.000-07:00

Day 41 is here in a blink of an eye. We were about to go home really soon! :( However we lived day 41 to the fullest! We went out early in the morning to Grand Ocean once again. This time, i bought gifts for my family members and some friends in Singapore. Also, we visited the haunted house in the shopping centre! It was pretty cool. At first we went for the 2 star(scary level) of the haunted house. However we found it boring, so we decided to be extreme and went for the 5 stars one! HAHA. It was pretty fun and shocking inside, but not really scary.

Some of the ghost inside are real, some are machine operated using a sensor. Also, in 5 star, they will try to kidnap you and split you up from your group and off all the lights so that you have to find your way out alone. However we held on to each other and did not let them seperate us.

Here are the pictures!

Haunted House, description of the different levels Our entrance ticket!

The brave people who went! The others backed out! After we came out of the haunted house, we were given papers to write our feedbacks and pasted it on the walls.

The wall we pasted our feedback papers on
After visiting the haunted house, we headed off to get gifts for friends and family and had dinner and headed back to our hostels to pack and check our luggage to ensure it does not go over the weight limit which was 30kg. Below are the pictures of me packing!

Packing everything nicely into my luggage :)

Before i packed! It was so messy that i had to stop and think for awhile on how to pack.

After packing finish, i checked my luggage weight and it was 20kg on the dot! So i was relieved. Also, since it was the last night, all of us did not sleep. We stayed up through the night all the way till the next morning where we left the hostel :(

So thats all for today.
REFLECTIONS!
After 41 days in Wuhan, i started to be attached to the Wuhan lifestyle and all the friends there on the trip with me. Also, from packing, i realise that we have to organize our stuff well and pack them properly so that they can all fit into the luggage and not just dump it all in hoping it will fit.

Also, the haunted house was really a test of courage. It wasn't about how scary it is inside. It was more of whether you dare to bring yourself to pay and enter the haunted house. After entering it was actually quite fun and interesting and shocking too. However we all had fun on our very last day in Wuhan, China!

Day 40 - More shopping!

2009-10-14T04:33:00.000-07:00

We started day 40 by heading down to Grand Ocean once again for shopping! We left at about 12pm and took the private van down to Grand Ocean to take a look to see if we could find anything that we wanted or needed to buy. Pictures are below!

In the van, heading off to Grand Ocean! The Van driver :D At last, we reached Grand Ocean! When we reached, we suddenly had a craving for Ajisen Ramen once again! So off we went to Ajisen Ramen! :D

Going up the escalator!
Erwin, Me, Chong Sian, Anyu, Roy, Edy(left to right)
And Polim, the photographer!

Tadah! At Ajisen Ramen once again!
After we had lunch, we went to walk around to shop. However, i did not get anything as there wasn't anything i saw that interest me. So i just followed them and walked around as they shopped for stuff hoping that i find something i could buy :D But in the end i bought nothing.

After that we went back to the campus before 6pm as we had a farewell dinner organized by the China students. It was a fun farewell dinner whereby we all exchanged gifts and bid each other our last goodbyes as it was the last time we would see them.

MDE with some of the China students

MDE with all the China lecturers and students :)

After that, we all went back to our hostels and played cards and Counterstrike as usual and headed to bed! :D
So thats all for today!

REFLECTIONS!
After today, i have realise how much my appetite has increased by. Ever since i came to China, i did not really eat a lot, but the servings of the China food was so big that my appetite gradually increased and i find myself eating a lot more now.

Also, from the van driver, i learnt that if you want something, you have to go forward and ask and not wait for things to come to you. He saw us standing around and he came to ask us if we needed a ride to any place at the cost of money. So because of that he earned a bit of cash for sending us to Grand Ocean shopping centre.

Day 39 - Assignment 3 Presentation. The LAST!

2009-10-14T04:22:00.000-07:00

We started day 39 with presentation in the morning! Our last presentation ever, and also the last time that we will step into this classroom, which was where we studied for the past 6 weeks! :(
We were happy that all our work is over, but sad that we were leaving so soon. We were really starting to get attached and used to the place. The pictures are below!

Assignment 3 presentation. Roy and Me(Alvin's not in the picture somehow)

Mr Loh was also giving us a briefing before the presentation to inform us about what we have to take note of before leaving Wuhan, as well as other house keeping matters. After presentation, we took a final look at our classrooms before we left. Its the last time that we will ever step into here.

Our classroom for 6 weeks.
After presentation it was free for the rest of the day! So we headed back to our hostels, and started to gather and plan for our IS video on Wuhan. After finalizing our ideas, we headed off for dinner at a restaurant once again. It has been restaurants and restaurants because the food there is really cheap! :D
After dinner we headed back to our hostels and went to each other's room to play cards and called it a night and went to bed after that.

So that sums up today. The end!

REFLECTIONS!
After today, i realise that communication is very important in our lives. We have to communicate in projects especially or else there would be communication break downs and we might end up doing repeated work. Thus we have to communicate with each other and split the work properly
so we each know what we have to do.
Also i realise how cheap the standard of living in Wuhan is, whereby we get to eat at restaurants everyday and its about how much we spent at coffee shops in Singapore. Real good experience and i'm glad i came for this OIP trip!

Day 38 - Resting in the Hostel!

2009-10-14T04:14:00.000-07:00

When i woke up today, i felt really tired and exhausted due to all the late nights previously. So i decided to stay back in the hostel along with Roy and Chongsian instead of going out to Shop. At least i get to save some money and i finished my assignment 3 report. :P We had our lunch at the fishball restaurant once again!

Fishballs! With a fish below Vegetables Tomato with eggs as usual!

After lunch we headed back to our hostels to start on our work again, and later in the afternoon i went running again! By then the others came back and we had dinner together and finished up all our assignment 3 tasks.
So thats all for today! It passed pretty fast.

REFLECTIONS!
After today, i have learnt that time waits for no man. We have to make full use of our time as it passes real quickly. I found myself doing nothing much today and yet an entire day was gone just like that. Also, the trip is coming to an end really really soon! Something i'm not looking forward to as i have started to bond with all the friends on this trip with me and that we're like a family. I do miss Singapore, but somehow i feel a sense of belonging here in Wuhan already. Maybe i'm fully immersed already :P HAHA.

Day 37 - Doing up Assignment 3, and dinner at Ajisen Ramen

2009-10-14T03:53:00.000-07:00

Day 37 was used to finish up our Assignment 3 Flexsim presentation. We practically did it the whole day, both report and Flexsim model. In a blink of an eye, it was already time for dinner.
As we were bored of the food around campus, we took the private van down to Grand Ocean, where we ate at Ajisen Ramen. It has been ages since i last ate japanese food! YUM! pictures are below!

Ajisen Ramen entrance Me, Ck, MingYu, Roy, ChongSian, Edy(left to right)
At Ajisen Ramen! We ordered tons of food! Below are some pictures of some of the food we ordered :)

Salmon! More salmon. Sashimi! :D

After eating our food, we were all bloated and really full. However i saw Starbucks and i was craving for it. So i went to buy starbucks to drink while we waited for the private van to come and pick us up :D

Me! Outside Grand Ocean Shopping Centre. Drinking Green Tea Blended Cream :)

So thats all for today :)

REFLECTIONS!
China's taste and Singapore's taste is very different. The soy sauce and wasabi in singapore, is salty and gives a burning sensation respectively.
Whereas in China, their soy sauce is slightly sweet, and the Wasabi is sweet too! Which made the Salmon taste a little bit weird. But since we did not eat it for a long time, we enjoyed it none the less.
Also, spending time with friends to have meals together and outings really makes me happy and that i am really thankful for all the friends around me :)

Day 36 - Time to exercise!

2009-10-14T03:39:00.000-07:00

Day 36 was free and easy once again. I took the time off to try to catch up with blogging as i was quite behind time.However, i blogged 1 day and i ended up watching some of the 80gb of movies which i transferred from Chinkuang and Chong Sian.After that, it was around 6 and i felt fat, thus i went for a run at the track nearby. It was a good exercise :DAfter that i went for dinner at the roadside stall. I bought fried rice and ribena with lemon! Tasted really nice!As soon as i finished my dinner, the rest who went to town to shop came back and we ended up playing Counterstrikeinto the night once again! So thats all for today! Short and simple!

Stretching my thighs as it was feeling tight

ready, 1 2 3 go!

The sun has set! Night is coming!
Thats all for today :)

REFLECTIONS!
After today, i realise that my stamina has dropped a lot since i finish secondary school. My 2.4 timing was 9mins+ inSecondary school and now its 10minutes+. This really made me realise that i have to keep running every now and then in orderto keep my stamina up. So when i go back Singapore, i'll make sure i run every alternate days as NAPFA test in Year 3 is coming soon! Also, as the trip is coming to an end, i have learnt to treasure every single moment i have left with all my friends inWuhan with me. As well as treasure time i have with any of my friends in future! I will surely miss all of you who came to this OIP trip! :D

Day 35 - Mde day out!

2009-10-14T03:07:00.000-07:00

Day 35 started off early with us, MDE, going as a group to a Theme Park. We were all really tired but we still managed to drag ourselves out of our beds. The bus ride took about an hour before we reached our destination. Below are some pictures!

Mde on the bus!

When we got off the bus, we had to walk through a park first before we eventually arrived at the theme park. Along the way, we saw many locals sitting around and enjoying the morning breeze and doing their morning exercises or hobbies.

Chinese local doing chinese calligraphy on the floor We also passed by a hospital and to my horror i saw all the chemical wastes dumped right outside the hospital. No wonder sickness can spread so quickly in China.

After we reached the theme park, some of us went to sit the rides, while some didn't dare/want to ride. The rides were pretty fun, but its more of cheap thrill as it was not scary at all. But at least we did have some fun!

The few that went for the roller coaster Another ride we took :) Yet another cheap thrill. HAHA

(pictures not in order) But this is the completed chinese calligraphy done by the man earlier(above)

Map of the entire theme park! Not that big

The rollercoaster we sat :)

MDE GROUP PICTURE @ THE THEME PARK :)

After playing at the theme park, it was time to head to Hankou for lunch and shopping! As the walk was pretty long, we took a train there!

Buying the train ticket!

TADAH! Interesting train ticket. Just like a coin.

Here comes the train! We took it for 1 stop and arrived at Hankou

Hankou Shopping centre at last! We have arrived

After several hours of shopping, we went off for dinner. We took a boat at the jetty over to the other side where there was a lot of roadside stalls which sold delicious food!

Boarding the boat!

After we got off the boat, we had our dinner at the roadside stalls. Unhygienic, but very nice! After that we all took a bus back to our campus where we went to sleep early as we were all tired from a whole day of activities.

Thats all for today!

REFLECTIONS!
Today was a good and fun day! We took some time off studies to destress by having fun at the theme park followed by shopping! Also, the MDE students who went on this trip really bonded with each other once again, and its a good way to relax and take some time of our work load and hectic schedule which would come in when school reopens :(

Also, Singapore is really fortunate that we dispose chemical wastes properly so that no one catches any diseases in the process. Whereas in China, the just dump it in bins outside the hospital. This might cause disease such as SARS/H1n1 to spread very easily if it were to start in the area. Thank god for Singapore's good disposing of Chemical wastes :)

Day 34 - Free and Easy

2009-10-14T02:59:00.000-07:00

Day 34, Our trip is coming to an end soon! :( I miss Singapore, but i'm starting to like Wuhan too! Too bad i can't be at both places at once!
Anyway, as it was free and easy, we woke up really late. After we all got up, we went to the Fishball restaurant once again for lunch! We were pretty addicted to the fishball soup+fish and the egg with tomato. Simple yet delicious! :D

Tomato with egg! Yummy! Vegetables which we decided to try. Nice at first, but the ending taste was bitter. So i didn't eat much of it.

What we came for. Fishball Soup with Fish! :D After lunch, we went back to our hostels while some went town to shop once again. We played Counterstrike together and we watched some movies, and went for a run! After that we had dinner and night came, and we did the usual of watching movies/blogging/playing before we went to bed. Pretty wasted day.
THE END!

REFLECTIONS!
After today, i have learnt that we should make full use of the time we're given instead of wasting it. From the whole of today, i could have finished up a lot of assignments and work, but i ended up playing and getting 0 work done. This really woke me up and realise that i have to start prioritizing my priorities properly and exercise self control to finish it instead of wasting an entire day :D

Day 33 - Getting my hair Dyed cum a little bit of shopping

2009-10-14T02:38:00.000-07:00

Day 33 started with some of us going to Grand Ocean shopping centre early in the morning. We took a private van there as it was 30 yan for 8-10 people. Really cheap!
When we reached, we went for lunch as we haven't eaten anything since morning. So we went to fill our stomachs at a beef steak restaurant which served very nice food at a reasonable price :)
Some pictures are below!

Grand Ocean Shopping Centre! Delicious beef steak :)After that we went to a salon to get a haircut/dye/treatment for some of us. As for me, i only dyed my hair for 198yan. Pretty reasonable, counting it was a salon with superb service.

Me, getting hair dye applied on my hair

Some of us who went for dye/cut/treatment for the hair!
Me, Polim, Chong Sian, Anyu

Me, Roy, ChongSian(Left to right)
At Grand Ocean shopping centre. Nice night lightings :)

China pizza hut!

They have pork pizza! Totally new to us!

Night view of the shopping centre :) nice!

After a whole day of shopping, we were dead tired and we took the private van back to our campus and headed to bed after bathing and washing up! :D Well actually not really shopping. We spent most of our time in the hair salon and we didn't shop much. I saw quite a few things i wanted to buy but i didn't as i did not really need them. Save money! :D

Thats all for today! :D
REFLECTIONS!
From today, i have learnt how to exercise self control. Though i saw many many things that i wanted to buy for myself, i didn't as i did not really need them. But instead, i only wanted it because i thought it was nice/cool and all. I'm glad i did not buy it as i would not use it much. So i get to save some money to spend another day when i see something which i really need :D Also, the size of their shopping centres are so gigantic that it was really messy just to shop at their shopping centre. Its like you walk non stop, but yet you will never be able to cover the whole shopping centre. Pretty cool giant shopping centre i must say!
Also, i have experienced a lot of things out of my comfort zone such as looking after myself in another country and i am glad i came to this OIP trip.

Day 32 - Written test 2! End of Lectures!

2009-10-14T02:34:00.001-07:00

Oh no! Time for written test 2! Nothing much happened today once again. We had a 1.5 hour test in class today on BPE. This time, I almost completed the whole paper. I only left 1 part of a question blank. Not bad compared to written test 1! However, having written test 2 means that we have no more lectures! YIPPEEE!
The answer booklet!

Roughly how much each of us wrote for 1 questionAfter the test, we headed for lunch at the fishball restaurant nearby and after lunch, some of us headed to Grand Ocean shopping centre to shop, while some were tired and headed back to the hostel for some rest. At night, we went for dinner as usual and that is all for today!

Fish ball restaurant! THE END!

REFLECTIONS
Though lessons are over, it does not mean that we are not learning anything anymore! We learn something new every day! Our learning journey does not just stop on the last day of class. It will carry on until we grow old and eventually leave earth :) So I’ve learnt how to make use of any opportunities I am given to learn new stuff!

Day 31 - Happy Birthday China!

2009-10-14T02:29:00.000-07:00

Day 31!Happy Birthday China! My Home for 42 days! :DThe streets and everywhere was all empty today, including the school! The students were having holidays as it was China’s Birthday! Most shops were closed so it was a boring day for us. We woke up really late as we had nothing on, and we ate lunch at a wanton shop. After that, we went back to our hostels to play computer and wasted the day. Also, we watched the television in the canteen. It showed the National Day Celebration. Everyone in China was so patriotic and proud of their country.

Patriotic locals, carrying the china flag on a boat

When it was time for dinner, we were pretty hungry and went to a Chinese restaurant near our campus to eat! The food we ordered this time were pretty delicious, but a little bit oily and salty. But not too bad! So we enjoyed our dinner and went back to our hostels and finished up some blogging and headed to bed :D So that is all for today!

Edy enjoying his dinner!

The yummy food we ordered! Thats all for today, REFLECTIONS TIME!

REFLECTIONS!
From today, I learnt that being proud of one’s country is important. We ourselves must defend Singapore. We have been growing up in our country from the very first day we were born. So we should treasure and protect it as it is where we belong. Without Singapore, I wouldn’t know where we would be. So in future we should be more patriotic than we already are and that we should stand up for Singapore without any qualms! The china locals gave their best and celebrated their country’s birthday the entire day, not just at night like how It is done in Singapore.

Day 30 - Presentations!

2009-10-14T02:15:00.000-07:00

We did nothing today except for presentations for assignment 2! I did a presentation on Value analysis! It is a technique used to improve processes in an organization! Pretty useful tool in my opinion. After that it was just free and easy! But we stayed in our bunks and ended up watching movies on our laptops till dinner, whereby we went to a restaurant to eat. After that we headed back to our hostels and continued watching more movies! :D After that, we were all tired and headed to bed at about 12am!

Just settled down in class, getting ready for presentations!

Time to present! My group.
Roy, Me, Alvin(Left to right)

Presenting my part on value analysis :D

Thats pretty much all for today!
REFLECTIONS!
Learning is very important and that we should give in our best and be inquisitive when learning. That is when we learn the most. Thus in future when there is new things to learn, I would be inquisitive and attentive so that I learn and benefit more from classes no matter where I am!

Day 29 - Party with the China Students!

2009-10-14T01:55:00.000-07:00

Finally we were able to sleep in! Classes started at 2pm today! I woke up at about 1pm and prepared to head to class! We had a quiz on Chapter 10 which was our last quiz! YAY! However there were still assignments and presentations to come! After classes, we took a short rest before having an early dinner! This was because at night, the china students have prepared a party for us! Definitely a night we will all remember. Roy performed his dance, and Edy sang on behalf of MDE! We are all proud of you and Roy! Below are the pictures! We all had lots of fun and it was really a night to remember where we put all our worries aside and just had fun.

Where we gathered for the party! Pretty cosyRoy, after finishing his dance performance!

Edy, singing on behalf of MDE!

MDE with the China students!

After heading back to our hostels when the party was over, we celebrated Gloria’s birthday. The most dirty birthday ever! We played with the cake so much that all of us were basically covered in cream! But I must admit it was fun, and that bonded us even more together as a family :D Pictures are below! Enjoy!

Happy Birthday Gloria!

At the end of the day, the cake victims take a photo together :)

Thats all for today!
REFLECTIONS!
After today I started to realise how important we are to the China students. They really treated us with warmth and we were like their close friends even though we knew them for a short time only. This really taught me to accept people for what and who they are. Also, it has taught me that friendship is really important in life! Without friends, life would be a bore! No celebrations and playing with each other and stuff like that! Because we wouldn’t smash cakes on our parents face for sure! We only do that with our friends!

Day 28 - Industrial Visit!

2009-10-14T01:23:00.000-07:00

Day 28 started with us having lessons at 10am. Lessons were getting slacker as time goes by and as the trip is slowly coming to an end. We had lecture on Chapter 8 and had a quiz after lecture to ensure we know what Mr. Loh is teaching us.After that, we headed off for lunch at the canteen in campus. As usual the food is oily and salty, but we should be thankful that there is food for us to eat.

We then gathered at 2pm again as we were going for another industrial visit to a pharmaceutical plant. It took us about 10minutes to get there by bus. However it was quite disappointing as they did not allow us to go in to look around. We were only allowed to stand outside and listen to them explain on the different areas of the factory. Without much further ado, the pictures are below!

on the way to the factory! An ox in a factory. Cool :)

China worker, transporting some black medicine i think

random photo!
Gloria, Rebecca, Mingyu, ChongSian, Me(Left to right)
Inside the factory gates, outside the building :P

Group photo as we were walking around!

Safety Hazards! Apparently, we went in with cameras and handphones :P

After awhile it was time to go back to campus. Disappointing trip to be honest! On the way back all of us suddenly got high and started to spam pictures and make a lot of noise in the bus! We were all starting to behave like one big family! :D We just took pictures after pictures, even when we got back to our hostels. So that sums up the whole of today! Night was as usual, dinner and back to hostel to blog/do assignments.

On the way back on the bus!

Some random giant spider we came across!

Back at our hostels, and still spamming photos!
WE ARE ONE BIG FAMILY :D

REFLECTIONS FOR TODAY!
I felt that today’s factory visit was quite redundant. The China locals were not willing to let us enter to look around and explore their factory. They were probably afraid that we might take note of their factory and end up copying them and stuff like that. Like how all the fake branded goods came out. But then again, it is their factory so we have to respect their decision. So from this, I have learnt how to respect other people’s decision.

Day 27 - Wudang Shan Day 2! The Climb begins!

2009-10-14T00:16:00.000-07:00

Wudang Shan day 2! It was time to start climbing! We had a choice of taking a cable car up, but we decided to walk up! We had to walk up 6560 steps. It was really tiring but none the less we managed to reached the top. The sense of satisfaction was good when we finally reached the summit. We were all happy and congratulating each other on reaching the top :D hahaha. Enjoy the pictures below! :D

Before we set off, group photo!
Edy, Yoke May, Me, Daniel(left to right) Group B!

Iron man! i wonder how these China Locals climb up with such a heavy load! But they do it for a living. They sell drinks and items to the shops high up in the mountains at a higher price. Hardwork, but they got no choice.
Along the way up, we stopped at a row of shops. We saw a lock, which our names could be engraved on it and that the person told us that if we locked it at the top of Wudang Shan, it would give us good luck with our friendships and social circle. So we decided to get it despite knowing whether is it true or not. But worth the try! We had nothing to lose anyway :D It was 15yan per lock, but we bargained and ended up paying 6-8yan per lock.

The shop keeper engraving our names on it Roy and me, and the never ending flight of stairs

Nearing the top, we saw some temples, and a Tai Chi master reading his book!

Group B photo near the summit!

This is how high up we climbed, by stairs!

Locking our locks near the summit! :D HUAT AH!

At last we’re at the top! It was really crowded up there, and what amazed me is that a very old lady could even climb up, though she did it really slowly. She was climbing using her hands and legs as she was old and her legs couldn’t support her entirely. She was one tough woman! The air was pretty cold and windy at the top! After awhile it was time for us to head down Wudang Shan. We took 1hour plus to reach the top! Very fast compared to other people, who usually took about 2hour 30minutes to get to the top. So we walked a short distance down, and switched to a cable car to head down the mountain. After that we took a bus to our lunch locations, where they returned us our bags from the hotels too. After lunch, it was time to leave to head back to campus! We all bid farewell to our tour guides and headed back to campus. Once again, another 6 hour bus ride! We sat till our butt cheeks went numb! HAHA. So overall, this Wudang Shan trip was really a very interesting journey for us!

This marks the summit of Wudang Shan

On the way down, in a cable car with roy!

On the way back, a pretty lady was playing some beautiful piece of music 6 hour bus ride back to campus!

So we're back at the campus! We had a late dinner and went to sleep as we were all tired!
thats all for today :D

REFLECTIONS!
After today, i have learnt how to work as a team, whereby if one lacks behind, we wait for them. When some of us were tired and slowing down, we encouraged them to push on and keep up with the group.
Also, after seeing the hardwork the China locals had to go through even at an old age, it really got me thinking how lucky i am. They have been doing that since young. One of the locals told me he did it since 18years old, which is how old i am now! I can't imagine myself doing that everyday. i would probably just die from fatigue. They are really tough people. I'm also thankful for my parents who are supporting me so well so that i would not have to resort to hard labour for a living.
Thank you mom and dad! :D

Day 26 - Off to Wudang Shan Day 1!

2009-10-13T22:54:00.000-07:00

Day 26 began really early! We gathered at 6:30am to head off to Wudang Shan by bus. It was a long tiring 6-hour ride from our campus to Wudang Shan. But since we got up really early, all of us ended up sleeping in the bus.When we arrived, it was still raining. So some of us went to purchase ponchos from a shop as we had to tour 3 sites on foot at the bottom of Wudang Shan, and climb up only the next day. So after we had lunch, we went to board the bus and headed to our first destination called 太子坡. Some pictures are below, with captions on top!

After buying the poncho!

Entrance of Wudang Shan!

On the bus to our first destination :) A small CD inside, all about Wudang Shan
At last, we finally reached! It was a short 15-20minutes bus ride. After walking for a bit, we were told to rest in a tea house whereby they served us tea to drink. After that if we liked the tea, we could purchase it from their shop. It was a new experience for me as I have never went for tea tasting before. Altogether, we tried 3 different types of teas. After drinking the 3 tea, we were told that if we drank water it would taste sweet, and true enough it did! Cool stuff there. The pictures are below! :)

Me, Junru, Xanier(left to right)
At the temple at the first destination.

Erwin, Me, Edy, Polim, Adrian(left to right) before we started touring!

Junru, Edy, Me, Roy(left to right) at the top of the first destination.
Pretty nice view. Tea tasting time!

After leaving the first destination, we took the bus again to the next 2 destinations which were called 紫霄宫 and 玄帝殿. As usual, we walked around and toured the place. After that we checked in at our hotel for the night. It was pretty good and comfortable! Had dinner and went back to our rooms for an early night as the next day would be tiring.

At the Second destination!
Polim, Yoke May, Me(left to right)
infront of a well!

Me, at the top of the 2nd destination!

Heading back down to the bus.
Junru, Roy, Taichi Master, Me(left to right)

Alvin, Eshlyn, Me(left to right)
Carrying eshlyn up the mountain! Hahaha just kidding.
This is how the china locals carry people up the mountain

Before we lifted eshlyn up.

At the base of Wudang Shan! But we were only going to climb the next day :)
Finally we've reached!

Thats all for Wudang Shan day 1! More to come! :D

REFLECTIONS!
After today, i have learnt that fitness is very important for us! We should all keep fit so that in times like these, whereby we have to climb and walk for long distances, we would not find it difficult! I learnt this as i saw many people walking up and feeling very exhausted. Also, comparing the hotel conditions in China and Singapore, it is really different. But i'm glad that we at least have a roof over our heads. This has made me realise that i have finally learnt how to appreciate and be contented with what i have and realise how lucky i am to have such a good home and living conditions back in Singapore.

Day 25 - IS lecture on Business Etiquette

2009-10-13T22:24:00.000-07:00

Day 25 started with us having a lecture taught by the China lecturer. The lecture was about Business Etiquettes, and i must admit that i learnt quite a few things about Business Etiquettes. Though some of it sounds quite weird and redundant to me, but it is still the etiquette. The China lecturer speaked to us in english and he sounded pretty alright and understandable.

Business Etiquette lecture by the China Lecturer

Random lost and found box outside the classroom After classes, we were all hungry already. So we went to some nearby beef steak restaurant to have Group lunch, along with some others.

on the way to lunch! Yoke May spamming photos

After eating, it was time for us to head back to our hostels for a short rest. After that we went back to classes to have BPE Chapter 7 Lecture and quiz.After that it was free and easy as we were given time to pack for our trip to Wudang Mountain. Can't wait!
Thats all for today! :D

REFLECTIONS
Half the duration of our trip has gone by, and i have made a lot of new friends from this trip. I have also realise how much i miss my family and friends back in Singapore as i keep thinking about them. So from today, i have learnt how to treasure every single friendship i have and relationship with my family too!

Day 24 - Lessons once again!

2009-10-13T10:22:00.000-07:00

Day 24 was pretty simple! We did not have any activities except for classes. But it was good, as everyone was tired from day 23 and we needed some rest. We started classes a little later than usual at about 10am, so we got to sleep in a bit. But since i'm such a pig, it was not enough for me, but better than nothing! :P hahahaha. After class, it was about 5. As it was too early for dinner, we went back to our hostels first to play counterstrike for a bit before heading out for dinner. We ate at the fishball restaurant again as it was nice! This time we ordered other different side dishes.

After dinner, there was a celebration going on in the school to commemorate China's national day which falls on 1st October. They were pretty hyped about it and there was a huge crowd watching the celebration and performance by the students. Below are some pictures! Not much pictures taken today, so only 3 pictures are up! Captions above pictures once again.

The dish i liked more than the other dishes.
Tomato+egg! Simple yet tummy!

The school at night. Nice lightings.
Giant crowd gathered to watch the performanceThis was the closest to the stage we could go as the place was totally packed with human beings :P
As we couldn't really get a nice view, we headed back to our hostels after awhile and started thinking of how we were going to do assignment 2. After that we headed to bed! Thats all for today :)

REFLECTIONS FOR THE DAY!
We ourselves must stand up for Singapore. The locals were so patriotic to their country that they even volunteered to take part in performing at the celebration. It really taught me that everyone should play their part for their nation and that we should be proud of Singapore even though it is a tiny red dot on the map. All the national anthems we sing, and pledge we take in secondary school was for a reason. But yet some people hate it and find it troublesome and redundant.
So after today, i'm much more appreciative of Singapore as well as the leaders who took Singapore to where it is now, and i am proud of Singapore and proud to be a Singaporean! :D

Day 23 - High element and Outward Bound activities!

2009-10-13T01:10:00.000-07:00

Day 23 started really early! We gathered below our hostels at 8am. We were then taken to an area just beside our campus where we had team-bonding games at first! We were required to create an identity for our group. So we decided on having Xanier as our tribe leader, and since she was from Dragonboat, we decided to name our Tribe the Dragon Tribe. We were given newspaper to design our tribe clothings(mainly for the tribe leader), and a flag to design for our tribe. Also, we were required to come up with a short skit to show the "history" of our tribe.

We were deciding on what to draw on our tribe flag
21 guns(21 of us). Before starting with designing the flag etc.

Me, playing with the stick While planning for our skit and all, Our dearest trip leader Mr Joseph Loh was looking and laughing at us!
Cool dustbin we saw!

The 3 china locals incharge of our activities

Xanier, our tribe leader all dressed up and ready!
[Yellow paper shows]: Long Tou(Dragon head)

After having done our first team-bonding activity, we went off to another activity called trust fall. Whereby one of us will be pushed off a platform back first. Below the platform would be the rest of us, prepared to catch the person being pushed off the platform. After that was rock climbing, followed by high element. Whereby we had to climb up high, and jump from a plank of wood to another plank of wood a short distance away.
(Pictures are not in order, captions above as usual).

Me, climbing up the rock wall

The wall was tough! No one reached the top :(

Dragon Tribe!(MDE)

After rock climbing, we had to clear the mats!

OIP 3rd Batch @ Wuhan, WUST
(MDE,LSCT,ICT)

MDE group picture!

High element activity!
(The 2 planks are shown there)

Getting ready to receive the person falling!Group B: Daniel, Yoke May, Edy, Me(Left to right)
with the Dragon Tribe flag(drawn by adrian)
at the bottom of the rock wall!

After a long tiring day, all our arms were sore from climbing and catching people. But none the less, we all had lots of fun! We packed up and left the place for dinner! We crossed the road to a famous fishball restaurant(No pictures unfortunately). After that we headed back to our hostels. When we reached our hostels, we went to each others room to play for a bit before we got tired and headed to bed.
So thats all for day 23, day 24 coming right up!

REFLECTIONS FOR THE DAY!
From today, i have learnt that encouragement and cheering for someone really pushes them to their limits and makes them not want to give up. When i was climbing the rockwall, my friends were cheering me on, and it really made me not want to let go. However, my arms couldn't take my weight anymore and eventually i did. But before i let go, i did push myself as much as i could. Thus in future if i see anyone feeling stressed or struggling with anything, i would probably try my best to encourage them! :)

Also, from the trust fall actiity, i really placed my all my trust in my friends who were preparing to receive me when i fall. I'm glad they caught me and i did not hit the ground. Thus I have learnt how to trust people around me more!

Day 22, Visiting Coca Cola Factory

2009-10-08T01:26:00.000-07:00

We started the day by visiting China's Coca Cola factory around 12:50pm. We gathered and took a bus which took roughly an hour or so to get there.

Along the way, i saw a truck transporting some goods. Pretty messy and seemed rather dangerous. As though the items on the truck was about to fall off anytime.

After about an hour, we finally reached the factory! We had to line up before going in. Reminds me of primary school :P

Group B: Edy, Yoke May, Daniel and Me(Left to right)
We were brought around inside the factory to take a look at all the equipments and processes that were going on. Below are some of the pictures!

Coca Cola Drink mixer

The counter at the entrance, just as you enter the factory. Showing the Vision of the company and etc.

Coca Cola's Motto!

Part of Coca Cola factory. All the bottle drinks on the conveyor belt.

A worker operating the machines. Doesn't look that hard! But who knows? :P

Roy and me, at the Coca Cola display room.

Our tour guide for the factory visit

Yoke May and me, at the Coca Cola display room

Free drinks given to us!

Eshlyn and me. With a random statue :P

After touring for an hour plus, it was time to leave! Group picture before we go! :)

MDE, LSCT and ICT.

After that, we headed back to our campus and finished up our assignment 1 report which was due. After submitting it, we all felt a whole lot better and we headed to bed early as we had outward bound activities and high element activities the next day at 8am!
So thats all for today! Hope you all enjoyed the post.

REFLECTIONS TIME :)
After today, i have learnt that trust is very important. Coca Cola factory had to trust all their employees to ensure that the drinks are made to a certain standard/quality in order to be sold world-wide. If they do not make the drinks properly or check the bottles properly and all, Coca Cola company might get into trouble if the consumers fall ill due to their drinks. So the company has to trust their employees, and trusting others is important.

Day 21 - IS class taught by the Dean!

2009-10-06T08:19:00.000-07:00

Day 21 was pretty slack. We had IS class in the morning on Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. Basically about the history and religions. It was pretty alright, only thing is that the number of slides were way too much. like 160 slides at least, and each slide was so lengthy. Below are the pictures! IS class was taught by the Dean of the school.

Just before IS class started! the dean was infront of the class, all prepared for class.Lesson on Analects Now hes on to the Five Cardinal virtues of confucius After IS class, we all headed for lunch at the school canteen and went back to our dorms for some rest. After resting for a bit, i went for a run, followed by dinner. After dinner, i came back to the hostel and turned in early as i was really tired for some reason.

REFLECTIONS!
From today, after the IS class, i have learnt how to respect other people's religion. Though sometimes the things they have to follow due to their religion may seem redundant to others, but then again, we have to put ourselves in their shoes and understand that it is part of their religion. So thus i have learnt how to respect people's religion.

Day 18, 19 and 20! To Three Gorges we go!

2009-10-01T06:27:00.000-07:00

Day 18
At last, it was time for us to visit the Three Gorges at Yangtze River! We had to meet at 620am at the bus pick up point. Results were out in the morning too! So most of us were checking results for our semester before heading out. Some were disappointed, some were happy/sad. But that didn't stop us from having fun at Three gorges none the less :) After meeting up, we boarded the bus and headed down to the Three Gorges dam, which took us about 4hours or so to get there. We had lunch first before having a tour around the three gorges dam. Enjoy the pictures below! They are not in order though!

Listening to music on the boring 4hour bus ride

When i got hungry on the bus :P Roy looks jealous of my yummy biscuits. HAHA

Our sumptious lunch!When we reached the Three Gorges Dam, we had a tour around the whole place. It was a pretty nice visit as we saw many interesting sights and nice sceneries. They even have a park there for people to walk around and enjoy nature. Below are some of the pictures(not really in order)

KFC wanna be!

Random photo. Rock climbing at three gorges. HAHAInteresting signboard at the entrance of the park

When we entered the park, we saw many tourist walking around and looking at the scenery. It was pretty interesting. So we walked around and explored the place ourselves too!

Another random shot. Roy and me jumping

Matrix in the making

After that, we went to a room where they showed us the overview of the whole dam. It was really huge in terms of the land area it occupied

After enjoying ourselves at the park and all, we headed off for our dinner at a nearby restaurant. The food was average, but better than nothing!

Restaurant that we ate our dinner at.

After having dinner, it was time for us to board the cruise! So we all gathered at the entrance and waited for the cruise to arrive. We were all pretty hyped up and excited to take a look at our "home" for the next 2nights!

Just for Laughs!
This was seen at the entrance, just before we boarded the ship.
"Please Shou your ferry tickets". HAHA.
After we entered, we were shown to our rooms. It was a little uncomfortable as the aircons were either spoilt or blowing out smelly air, and the cruise was quite dirty and all. So the rooms were really stuffy and for some, smelly. But that did not really affect us. We took the cupboard panel and sticked it out of the window so that when the wind outside hit the panel, it will come into our room :D So our room was not so hot after all! After unloading all our stuff in the room, we walked around and went to the top deck to take a look. The shop in the cruise were a little overpriced too! After exploring, we were all tired and we went to sleep! :)

Our rooms

Day 19!
We got up really early at about 5:30am for breakfast on board. After that, we were already at a city out of Hubei province. We visited Haidi Cheng.rrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr2.r1 It was like an imitation of the Great Wall of China. The scenery was really nice as well! There was a museum which showed a replica of the suspended coffins too. Really interesting. Below are some pictures!

Toilet :)

Edy, Roy, Mingyu, Me, ChongSian(Left to right). Just before we crossed the bridge

Group B photo! Daniel, Me, YokeMay, Edy(left to right)

Taking a rest before walking further up

Our entrance tickets to haidi cheng!

Group photo!

More group photos

Roy, Eshlyn, Alvin, Edy, Me, Mingyu, ChongSian (Left to right)
Nice scenery!:D

Our cruise

Some china locals using machines to manufacture combs

After walking for about 1hour plus. It was time to leave! So before leaving, we took a group MDE photo! :)

MDE OIP Batch 3(Some missing unfortunately). Before leaving Baidi Cheng.

Random sceneries on the way back

more sceneries

It got really hot when we were back on the cruise for some reason. So most of us climbed out of the windows, sitting on the ledge at the side of the cruise. It was super cooling as the wind was blowing nonstop as the cruise was moving :)

At the side ledge of the cruiseAfter a 2hour rest or so, it was time for us to head to 神农溪. So we switched to another boat, which took us to the stream. Along the way, the scenery that we saw was super nice. Below are some pictures. enjoy!

scenery1
Along the way, something caught my eye. Just when i thought that no one would be living on the side of these streams, i saw some locals burning dried tree branches.
An old man rowing his sampan

Some of us at the top of the boat!

More random photos on the boat :)

Me, ChongSian, Roy(left to right)
Chongsian, why so serious! HAHA. kidding. we were supposed to give a serious face for fun but roy and i ended up giving a retarded face for fun

More sceneries!

Last group photo before we reached.After about 40minutes or so, we reached our destination! We saw many boatmen and their boats. They were all prepared and ready to take us down the river stream.

The many boats for taking us down the streamThe boat i took!

After the boatmen rowed for about 20minutes down the river stream, they jumped off and started to use ropes to pull our boats. Some real hard work going on here! 4 man pulling about 17people on a boat. It looked really tough!

4boatmens pulling the boat

The boatmens rowing the boat

Roy, Me, Xanier(left to right). At the back of the boat.

4boatmen pulling another boat

Along the way, the river had some mist floating on the surfaceAfter getting off the boat, we took a group-boat picture. Together with our tour guide for the short river trip. On the way back to the cruise. More sceneries

Picture taken of us on the boat. The china locals printed it and sold it to us. Standing at the side of the boat, enjoying the scenery

After we got back to the cruise, we were all tired. Polim fell asleep while taking photos :) and we put a potato at his mouth jus for fun. HAHA. that clown.
As night came, we were told we were going to pass 5 gates, which takes about 1hour per gate. So to kill time while waiting for us to reach the Dam gates,we played cards! Xanier did not want to play so she played tap-of-war on my itouch.

Our gambling den. hahaha kidding. The room we played cards in!

Suspended coffin in one of the holes at the side of the cliffs. You start to wonder how did it get there.

After awhile, we finally reached the Dam gates(sounds wrong, but yea) :P.Entrance of the dam gates

Many boats gathering as well, waiting for the next gate to open. This is the level we drop after each gate that we pass.

After that, we all went to sleep, and woke up early at about 530am for breakfast. After that we had to pack and leave the cruise and head back to our hostels! After we got back, it was free and easy for the rest of the day.
Thats all for day 18/19/20! Hope you readers enjoy the post :)

REFLECTIONS!
This trip was really an eye-opener for me. I really enjoyed it and i've learnt that in life, so long as you're happy thats all that matters. The boatmen did not earn much, but they were happy just pulling people up and down the streams. This really taught me that being happy is most important and that by being happy we will be able to get through our daily life.
Also, many people are not as fortunate as most of us, thus we should appreciate and be happy with what we have currently. Though the cruise was not really comfortable, we still enjoyed the trip. This really taught me that things do not always have to be of good quality and class in order for it to be enjoyable. The cruise was not that good but we still enjoyed it!

Day 17, Our FIRST common test in China!

2009-09-29T20:02:00.000-07:00

Day 17 was pretty alright. We were all able to sleep in as class was at 2pm. We did not have any lessons that day. We only had the last group to present their assignment 1 presentation. After that, we had common test(written). Below are the pictures!

Last group to present:
Mingyu, Polim, ChongSian(left to right)

After they had presented finish, it was time for what we dreaded the most. Common test! HAHA.

Me, Roy (left to right). Common test made us retarded
After receiving the answer booklet

poor Polim, using Mr.Loh's laptop as his was sent for repair.HAHAHEveryone concentrating and doing the test :P

After 1h 30mins, the test was over! However i only did 3 questions out of 4. But there was nothing i can do, except work harder for the next test. So after the test, we headed back to our hostels and had some rest. After resting, it was dinner time and we all headed to the wanton shop to eat. After that we did some shopping for daily neccesities and headed back to our hostels and called it a day. So thats all for today.

REFLECTIONS
After today, i have learnt how to prioritise and manage my time well. This was because after doing the test, i realise that i did not manage my time well, thus i did not finish the paper. So in future i would manage my time properly be it during exams, or in my daily life.

Day 16, IS classes and Assignment Presentation!

2009-09-29T19:03:00.000-07:00

We started off day 16 by waking up early for IS classes. We were being taught about the different chinese cultures in China in the past years. It was really interesting as we were being told stories of what the different cultures did in the past before having a marriage and stuff like that. Also, during the lessons, we were told to wear the microphones for class. It was pretty cool as all the teacher had to do was talk into a microphone that was built in together with his headphones and we could all hear him. It was the first time i experienced a lesson this way. Below are some of the pictures.

Our IS teacher

Listening attentively in class :P

Just as we all got bored, we were given a 5minutes break. So we started to take random photos. Below are some of it!

Me, Chong Sian, Mingyu(Left to right)

Me, Eshlyn(Left to right)

Rebecca, Zhong Rong, Me, CK, Yokemay, ChongSian(left to right)

After the break, the China lecturer continued to talk about many interesting stuff and showed us a video of what a Chinese couple had to go through before getting married in the past. After that, he ended the lecture.

End of lecture!

After lecture we headed back to the hostel to finish touching up our group assignment as we were going to have presentation later in the afternoon at about 2pm. As it was the first presentation, some were pretty nervous about it.

Walking back to the hostel after IS class

I got hungry along the way :P

In a blink of an eye, it was time for class! So we all headed back to the classroom from our hostel. We started off having a lecture on Business Process Engineering by our trip leader, Mr Joseph Loh. After that, it was time for presentation. My group was the first to present, followed by many other groups. Below are the pictures!

Mr Loh teaching us BPE

Mr Loh listening to the different various groups present

First Group: Roy, Alvin, Me

Me, talking about PDCA

Group 2: Erwin, Edy, Adrian

Group 3: Yoke May and Rebecca

Group 4: CK, Zhong Rong, Daniel

Group 5: Eshlyn, Shun Qing, Xanier

Unfortunately, we were short on time, so some groups did not manage to present and were being told to present the following day. They were pretty happy about it as they had one extra day to prepare. So after presentation, we all headed back to our hostels for a short rest, followed by dinner. After dinner, we all did our blogging and went to bed to rest :)
Thats all for today!

REFLECTIONS!
After today i have learnt how to respect others more. Whereby when they are presenting, I should keep quiet and pay attention to whatever they are talking so that it would be easier for them as there would be no noise to distract them from presenting properly.
Also, i have learnt that we should listen to other people's opinions too as they may think differently from us, and that sometimes we may leave out some points about the topics. Thus if we listen, we will learn more as we will also learn on the things that we ourselves have missed out.

END!

Day 15, Activities arranged by the China students

2009-09-23T04:33:00.000-07:00

Day 15. We started off our day by gathering below our hostel at 1:30pm as we were going to be taken by the China students to a nearby farm to pluck oranges. As soon as we gathered, we did a head count to make sure everyone was around and off we went! We boarded the bus and took a short trip down to the farm.

After we boarded the bus

After about 30minutes or so, we reached the Orange Farm! The first thing we saw when we entered was a small pond. It looked pretty nice and calm. Below is the picture of the guys, infront of the pond.

The pond :)

After taking pictures at the pond, the China students brought us further in, which was where we were allowed to walk around freely and pluck any oranges that we see. The China students told us that the oranges with thin and soft skin were the sweet ones. So we went around plucking and eating the oranges on the spot. However there were some pretty sour ones, and we faked each other that it was sweet and made each other end up eating sour oranges. Also, the oranges were pretty interesting as it was green in colour, unlike Singapore's usual orange coloured orange.
So here are some of the pictures of us at the orange farm!

Erwin, Edy, ChongSian, Mingyu, Me(left to right)

Green oranges! So many around too!After peeling the orange. Green on the outside, orange on the inside :)

More oranges!

As we kept walking, we somehow ended up near the side of a lake. At the lake, we even found a few mussels. However, one really caught our attention as it was REALLY huge. Just like in the picture below :)

Giant Mussel

Group photo! Edy, Daniel, Me, Yoke May(left to right)The giant Orange Farm!

A pumpkin we came across as we walked down the lane

Also, we found some sweet potato around, and the China students started a fire and cooked the sweet potato! The pictures are below.

The fire used to cook the sweet potatoAfter cooking the sweet potato! Yum!

Also, along the way, we found some small Chilis!

After we got tired of plucking oranges(not for edy, he's still happily eating away), we decided to take more pictures at the farm!

Random photos :)

Group photo with the guys at the pond

After visiting the farm, we took the bus back to the hostel. When we reached, the China students told us that for dinner, we were going to barbecue our own food. So we were pretty excited about it! Some of us were asked to help to carry drinks over to the barbecue pit.

Me, carrying a thousand bottles of drinks

One of the China Students that brought us around

After a 10minutes walk, we finally reached the barbecue pit. Nothing like what i expected. It looked more like a campfire to me where everyone would gather around it and have fun chit chatting and all. But it was pretty interesting and new to us. Below are pictures of the barbecue event!

Gathering around the barbecue pitSome of the guys trying to get the charcoal to start burning.

Sitting on the wall at the side of the barbecue pit!

Our chefs for the night :)

The food and drinks that were given to us!(Not all the food though)

Spicy cucumber. hahaha

Into the fire it goes! We had to keep the fire up by tossing dried twigs into the fire every once in awhile

After barbecueing, some students from another course went to purchase fire works and started playing with it. It was very nice! After playing/watching the fireworks, we all headed back to our rooms and took a bath and went to sleep as we were all tired as we were out the entire day. So thats all for today! Hope you readers enjoyed the post :)

REFLECTIONS!
After today, i have learnt how to be easily contented with simple things in life. After seeing how the China students were so happy from a simple get together at an orange farm to pluck oranges, followed by a barbecue. All their faces looked really happy just from this 2 simple events, so it really taught me how to be contented with simple things.
Also, i have learnt how to put others first before me. After seeing how the China students cook the sweet potato at the farm, and helped us whenever we needed help, it really taught me how to put others before myself.

THE END! :)

Day 14, Happy Birthday Shun Qing :)

2009-09-22T05:46:00.000-07:00

Day 14 started with us having lessons at 9am. We went to class, and we did our Flexsim assignments, followed by lecture and then class quiz! Actually we have a quiz at the end of every class. Just to make sure we know what we are learning :) Other than classes, nothing much for today except Shun Qing's birthday. So happy birthday Shun Qing! :)

Flexsim assignment!

After classes, we went to the nearby canteen for lunch as we have never tried the food there before. When i entered the canteen, there was a large crowd of people queuing for food. I looked around and i saw dumplings which looked pretty nice. So i went to buy it. However, the dumplings was not as nice as it looked. Quite disappointing infact! But its still food after all, so i finished what i ordered none the less!

Xiao Long Bao, without any soup inside. It was more like char siew bao

Dumplings! Not too bad, but it wasn't very properly cookedAfter eating our lunch, i bought insecticide for our room as there was quite a lot of mosquitos and funny insects, as well as spiders all around. So Roy spent quite some time spraying all the insects to death!

Dead spider :)

The thing that killed the spiders :)

After killing the spiders and weird insects, we headed out for lunch at the canteen downstairs. Cheap and good! After that, we were told that it was Shun Qing's birthday and we were going to give her a surprise. So when ShunQing left her room to go downstairs with Alvin, we all went into her room to wait for her return. But apparently we failed! Cause some clowns were standing at the corridor! hahahaha. Oh well. But none the less she was still happy!

Everyone waiting for Shun Qing

We failed! But we still sang happy birthday for her and all and celebrated!

Shun Qing's happy/embarassed face after everything! haha.

Thats all for today! Reflections time!
After today, i learnt that in life, its the thought that counts. Though Shun Qing's surprise failed, and we did not give her anything, she was happy just knowing that we knew it was her birthday and wanted to give her a surprise. So i should be contented with what i have and be happy with whatever i receive as it is the thought that counts :) thats all for today!

Day 13, To a park and then to shopping we go!

2009-09-22T03:31:00.000-07:00

Day 13! We all woke up in the morning and gathered at about 8:20 to head down to Hankou. It is a pretty big park with many people, and most of them usually go there to fly kites as it is pretty windy over there. Also, along the way, we saw a lot of interesting shop names :) Below are the pictures. Enjoy!

Some random shop we came across

Entrance of Hankou Park. Looks more like a stadium!
Chongsian, Me, Roy, Mingyu(bottom to top) at the entrance

After we entered, we had some free time to walk around and explore the park. I came across some random chunk of chinese words on the floor! My chinese sucks though. So i don't know what is it saying :P HAHA. Me, yokemay, edy (left to right) in the picture
Group photo! Edy, me, Daniel, Yoke May(left to right)

As we walked on, we saw many people flying kites all over the park. However, 1 special kite caught everybody's attention. His kite was so long and so high up in the air that it amazed and caught the attention of everyone. The man below is an old man who was flying the kite. Real pro!
His super duper long string of flying lantern looking kites

After the visit to the park, we gathered back at the entrance and we were brought to the nearby shopping street. We walked for about 15minutes before we reached. It was really cool as there were so many interesting and funny shops around. Also, it was very big. There were practically shopping centres all over the place, side by side. Any direction you look at, you'll find a shopping centre :)

Saw the China flag along the way to the shopping street. So Patriotic!

The streets and building conditions

At last we're at the shopping street! There were many interesting statues around as well! This is one of them, and we took a group picture, along with a small girl who wanted to be in the picture. hahaha

As we walked further down the street, we saw even more shops which were pretty funny. Well at least to me :)

Nike? :D

How are you! hahaha. Xanier thought it was how-ru

Opposite of Impossible is nothing=Anything is Possible! HAHA

In China without a Yan. HAHA. Unionpay card on the go!

Group picture before we split up for shopping!

Along the way, we felt hungry so we bought some food from the side stalls! Pretty delicious!

Eggtarts! yummy. It had a lot of filling, unlike those eggtarts where it is mostly pastry and very little filling on top.

China's Octopus Balls! Pretty nice, except that you can hardly find the octopus inside as it is too small!

After buying food from the side stalls, we decided that it was not enough to make us full! So we went to walk by the restaurants. The competition was so great that staffs from every stall would advertise their stalls by shouting the special dishes that they have to offer if we ate there. Also, a lot of them kept asking us to sit down and eat at their restaurant. After much thinking, we sat down at a Teppanyaki restaurant.

Roy and Me in the restaurant.

Our chef that cooked for us! Pretty skillfull :)

Teppanyaki Fish! Thats what i ate.

Teppanyaki Chicken! Ordered by roy and a few others

After drinking 2 bottles of coke i got bored and stacked it up. The restaurant gave all their customers 1 free drink each. But somehow i ended up getting 2 for free :)

After eating, we started walking around to find stalls to shop at. However, when we came across the arcade, most of them could not resist and ran on to the arcade to play the games. I must admit its pretty addictive as they made a lot of gambling-like machines. Only thing is that you are using arcade chips instead of real money. Pretty good idea for making people spend. However most of us played the stuff toy machine and tried to grab out some stuff toys. But the hook did not have enough power to lift up most of the stuff toys and some machines ate our money without showing any credits. So after awhile, Edy, Chong Sian and me went to walk around to shop instead. I bought a shirt for myself and a present for my friend who's in Singapore. After that, it was almost time for us to return to the bus, so we met up with some others and walked back to the bus.

Me, Roy, Edy, Chong Sian, Mingyu(left to right) infront of some random cool looking statue.

On the way back, Edy saw this Water Chestnut-like tasting fruit and wanted to try it. We told him to get it as it was pretty nice as we have already tried it the day before. So in the end, Edy bought and tried and he liked it quite a lot.

An old lady selling some cool fruit that taste like Water Chestnut

Close up shot of the fruit!

Just as we almost reached the bus, Polim saw this candy and he wanted to try it. So he bought it. Its actually the San-Cha fruit, covered in a layer of sugar coating. It was quite nice.

Thats all the pictures for today!
REFLECTION time!

For today, after seeing how the old man flew his long kite, it has really taught me the meaning of "You Reap What you Sow". He has put in a lot of effort in making the kite 1 by 1, and tying it securely on an extremely long piece of string. By doing so, he was able to enjoy by flying his entire kite up in the air. This really gave him a sense of satisfaction as he looked quite happy after letting all the kites up into the air. Without the hard work that was put into making the kite, he would not have such a long kite to fly. Also, by doing so, he was able to catch a lot of people's attention and quite a few people bought kites from his stall instead of other stalls just beside his. Thus his hard work gave him more business and a great sense of satisfaction. So thus i must work hard from now on! :) So thats all for today!

Day 12, To the Lake, Museum and Yellow Crane Tower!

2009-09-17T06:16:00.000-07:00

Day 12 is here! We all woke up early as we had to gather at about 7:15am! After we boarded the bus, majority of us practically fell asleep while the poor tour guide was talking to us. After awhile, we reached a Lake which was known for its awesome scenery. So we were given time to look around. Below are some of the pictures we took at the lake!

Entrance of the Lake

Saw an old man using a long stick to push the lake bed to make his boat move. Looked like some real hardwork going on! He did not have a proper paddle to row his boat.

Roy, Mingyu, Me(Left to right) Roy, Mingyu, Me, Chongsian(Left to right). Taken by Polim at a bridge we saw at the lake. Pretty nice bridge!
Some cool piece of rock that we saw. Mingyu, Me, Chongsian(Left to right)

Edy, Chongsian, Me, Mingyu(Left to right) below some statue.

I'm a statue too!

Squatting on a tree just by the lake

After taking pictures at the lake for an hour plus, we gathered back on the bus and headed to a museum! It was a short ride from the lake to the museum, but everyone was so tired, so once again, a lot of us slept on the way there. After awhile, we reached the museum! Below are some of the pictures :) A lot of cool stuff in there such as the weapons used last time in China as well as artifacts from last time.

Entrance of the museum

Mingyu, Roy, Me, Chongsian(left to right) just outside the museum. It was pretty big.

The entrance of the second part of the museum!

I'm a soldier without armor or weapon!

After awhile, it was free and easy for us to explore the museum. However, some of us(including me) were so tired, that we went to the chairs placed outside the museum and ended up dozing off :P

Chongsian(left) and Me(right).

After the museum, we headed for lunch at some street which looked like China Town Street! The food there was pretty delicious, but we only had about 45minutes to eat, therefore we couldn't enjoy much and ended up eating just a little bit.

Roy and me on the bus, heading to our lunch area.

When we got off the bus, we took a 5minute walk to the street! Along the way, i saw a woman trying to sell some mini watermelons, using her bicycle as a stall.

At last, Shou Garden Snack Street!

When i got there, i bought the card in order to purchase food. As soon as i got my card, i headed to the first stall to buy some Xiao Long Bao as i haven't eaten it in ages!

Here comes our Xiao Long Bao :)

More food we ordered!

Even more food! :D

After eating, we were not very full. But we were happy as the food was pretty delicious. So we headed back to the gathering area. Then we saw our tour guide eating some interesting fruit that looked like grapes. She ended up giving us some to try and it tasted like water chestnut.

What our tour guide gave us
After peeling off the green skin!

So after gathering, we started walking towards the Yellow Crane tower!

After a 10minutes walk, we reached the entrance of Yellow Crane Tower! So we started to walk in bit by bit as the tour guide talked and explained to us about the many different things seen along the way. When we reached the tower, we climbed up level by level to take a look at what they had. The tower was pretty cool as it gave u a bird's eye view to the area around the Yellow Crane Tower, and also, it was very windy! Shiok!

Me, at the top of the yellow crane tower!

Group picture with the guys inside the top of the tower

Another group picture :) Inside the yellow crane tower, next to some pillar.

After awhile, we started to head down the Yellow Crane Tower to take some pictures.

Jump shot at the bottom of the Yellow Crane tower

Chong sian, Me, Roy, Edy, Mingyu(Left to right)! Not too far away from the yellow crane tower.

After walking opposite the Yellow Crane tower, We saw a giant bell which was there for people to pay to hit the bell, believing it would give them good luck or something like that. Also, below the big bell, is a small container. It was meant for people to try to throw coins into the container after making a wish or something.

Apparently, a lot of people missed the container :PEdy and me, Beside the giant bell!

Me, on top of some wall of words!

Group picture with the guys, just infront of the bell

They look more like they want to push me down! :P More group pictures!

We came across a mini bridge and decided to take a picture on it :)

Right infront of Mao Zedong's statue. i think. HAHA.

A cool name for a bank :P

Some painting inside the yellow crane tower

Some random porcelain at the corner inside the tower The view from the yellow crane tower

Me, and the wonderful view :)

This was how high the tower was. Cannot really see the bottom!

After the yellow crane tower visit, we headed back to the hostel! As we were too tired, most of us had dinner and headed to bed early as we were going out early to a park, followed by a giant shopping district in Wuhan the next day.

REFLECTION!
After today, i've learnt that though life gets hard sometimes, as long as we hang in there we will be able to pull through. After seeing the lady trying to hard to sell her watermelons on the bicycle, as well as the old man rowing his boat, it really taught me that. Though her life of going around selling watermelons was not easy, she was able to get through it day after day. Also, for the old man using a stick to push his boat, he was able to get it moving even without a proper paddle. Just that it was a little bit harder than usual. So i myself must press on when the going gets tough!

Day 11, Happy Birthday Mingyu!

2009-09-16T05:53:00.000-07:00

Day 11 started off with us having our first ever IS class. It was about the history of Hubei. It was pretty interesting. Though the lecturer was from China, her english was pretty good! We did not have any trouble trying to catch what she said. The IS class really taught me quite a lot about china's history and it was pretty interesting. Without much further ado, its pictures time!

Morning classes

The day before, at 12am, we prepared to give mingyu a surprise as it was his birthday! But instead of a cake this time, we decided to give mingyu a special "cake". hahaha. We collected rubbish from every room, and put it in Rebecca's birthday cake box. So this is what it looked like as seen below.
Our wonderful "present" for mingyu

So when the clock struck 12am, we went over to mingyu's room! He was shocked, and he was a bit scared as he did not know what was our surprise :P SO, in other to get him out of his room, we had to force it as seen below

Trying to get mingyu out of his room for some birthday bash! :P

After getting him out of his room, we brought him to the nearby staircase, where we ask him to stand and wait. After awhile, xanier came and threw the box of rubbish at him. :)

Rubbish we threw at the birthday boyOf course it wasn't enough! So we wanted to taupok him. But when he went down onto the floor, i threw a banana skin on him and i started to smack him with the dusty broom for fun :P

hehehe. Punishment for the birthday boy, Mingyu :P

After that, we took a Group photo with the guys

Ok, back to the day. After having classes, the girls decided that it what happened to Mingyu was not enough! So they decided to get everyone to the track to play some games, while they went to buy a cake for mingyu, and shunqing. Who's birthday was in a few days time.

Mr Loh joining us with frisbee

After they came back with the cake, we celebrated their birthday for them and sang the birthday song! But it was pretty funny as we had to squeeze 2 names into the song. Below are the pictures!

Birthday celebration for Shunqing in advance, and Mingyu

All of us, trying to use some eye power to blow the candles out

After cutting the cake etc. They all started to smash cake into each other's faces. But eventually they also smashed it all over their shirts and etc.

Dirty people, after playing with cake :P

The cake used for playing!

Our birthday boy, mingyu, at the end of the day :)

So thats all for today! REFLECTION TIME!
From today, i realise that we really do learn something new everyday! As seen today, i have learnt quite a lot about the history of Hubei, and it was pretty interesting. So thats pretty much all for today :)

Day 10, Someone's laptop died! HAHAHA! RIP laptop! :P

2009-09-13T06:14:00.000-07:00

Day 10 started off with me laughing like mad early in the morning at 845am! Just as i was about to leave the room and head to the classroom for lessons, polim told me that his laptop died. HAHAHAHAH. its so funny because the day before or so, i told him that his laptop sure die soon. and i said "skali your laptop spoil in china". True enough it did! hahahaha. So he ended up being bored the whole day as he had nothing to do :P and he had to borrow a laptop to blog etc. hahahaha.
Ok anyway, we took a stroll to the classroom, up the usual long flight of stairs, and by the time we reached the top, we were a little sweaty! So as usual, we had classes and then it was back to free and easy. So we went for lunch first. Along the way I saw the China army having training, as well as a pretty giant water chestnut cake. It was really heavy even for a small slice that a lady was holding as seen in the picture below. However, I did not buy it as i was afraid of losing my appetite for lunch. After stumbling upon the water chestnut cake, we headed to the nearby western food restaurant! I ordered a black pepper beef steak w/ pasta. It was pretty delicious! So delicious that i only remembered to take a photo of it after i finished it. HAHA. After eating, we headed back to our hostel to blog as we were behind time. After half a day of blogging, it was time for dinner. But I was too lazy go head out to get food so i ended up eating cup noodles. After eating, i continued to blog and slept early. So this pretty much sums up my day. Below are the pictures!

The giant Water Chestnut Cake

My 3/4 finished beef steak with pasta :P China army! i'm part of it too! Our IS classroom. A whole lot bigger than the other!

This is the sad boy, Polim. His laptop died in China. HAHAH. No place to repair some more! REFLECTION
From today, after seeing how Polim's laptop suddenly crashed for no reason, it really taught me that in life, we really have to be prepared for the unexpected. Things can really happen randomly at anytime. So we must be well prepared and ready to face it!

Day 9, Happy Birthday Rebecca!

2009-09-12T09:55:00.000-07:00

Day 9 started with all of us waking up early for classes from 9 to 12! We were so tired and yet we had to walk up a long flight of stairs. Luckily we made it without rolling down! :P Anyway, today wasn't much of an interesting day. After class, we went for steamboat at a nearby roadside restaurant. After that we were all worn out, so we headed back to our hostel for a nap. By the time most of us woke up, it was time for dinner. So we went to eat some dumplings at the nearby restaurant. Also, it is rebecca's birthday! However we celebrated at 12am. Some of us secretly went to buy a cake, while some others went to walk around with rebecca for a bit. After that, those that bought the cake hurried back to the hostel to hide it. At 12am, we surprised her with the cake and below are the pictures! We all celebrated her birthday and we all enjoyed ourselves smashing cake into each other's faces. Some were unlucky and had much more cake on their faces compared to others. Especially gloria. She got cake smashed into her face at least twice. First by Roy, followed by edy, and she ended up chasing them all over the hostel. :P So without much futher ado, i'll let the pictures do the talking. Enjoy!

Bringing the cake to Rebecca's room!

Gathering outside Rebecca's room, trying to tahan the camera's flash :P Rebecca's birthday cakeRebecca cutting the birthday cake

Punishment for the birthday girl! Nice facial :)

Junru, me, edy. Enjoying the cake of course!

Gloria, the one who got cake smashed on her face the most :P i think.

MDE OIP 2009! Happy bday Rebecca!

REFLECTIONS
After today, i realise how important friendship is after seeing how everyone celebrated Rebecca's birthday happily. Even though she is a long way away from home, she has friends who will celebrate her birthday for her. Friends will be with you for your entire lifetime. So we must treasure our friends around us, as well as our social circle.

Day 8, Study Study Study!

2009-09-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

Day 8 is here! Nothing much happened today except for us having class at 2pm! So we managed to catch up on some sleep as we've been having quite little amount of sleep for the past few days. After class, we went for some exercise by running around the school, followed by dinner at about 7pm and we headed back to our rooms after dinner and finished up some blogging and headed to bed early. So that pretty much sums up our day. I'll let the pictures do some talking now :)

Mr Joseph Loh teaching us Flexsim! Roy and me, happy face after finishing our class test! My classroom table! Pretty squeezy Class over! hooray! On the way back to the hostel to get ready for some exercise! REFLECTION!
From today, i have learnt that if you pay attention in class, you can learn a lot as most information is absorbed in class, and self-learning does not teach much as compared to listening to lecturers. So thus i will listen attentively in class in future!
Also, keeping fit is a good thing! Therefore there must be a balance of studying and exercise!:D
Nothing else to reflect as we only had classes!

Day 7, Exploring the campus

2009-09-09T20:34:00.000-07:00

At last its day 7! After having so much fun and play for the first 6 days, its finally time to start studying! We woke up early in the morning and headed to our classroom for classes. It was a whole new experience studying in China and it felt rather fun and interesting. The schools were pretty interesting and rather big, however it was pretty run down as it is very old. However, it was good enough as we had a classroom to study in at least. After class, we were all starting to feel hungry so we went to eat some dumplings at the roadside restaurant. After lunch, we went back to take a short rest and gathered below the hostel where the china locals working at the university started showing us around to the many different blocks such as business, engineering and so on. After showing us around to the school, it was free and easy. We all went back to our rooms to get some rest as we were all worn out. So below are the pictures. Enjoy!

Me, infront of the flagpole in the university

Our classroom!

Mr Joseph Loh teaching us! Information Engineering School!

This was one of the classroom. Pretty cramp eh?

Spoilt chairs were just thrown all over the place. ( I wasn't really sitting on it!)

Hi, i'm your new teacher!

Random shots at the school! The words on the walls were pretty huge

Poor designing? You can see toilet cubicals from outside the toilet through the windowThis was how dirty the chairs in classrooms were!

Pretty dirty eh!

Group picture in one of the classrooms!

The crowded walkpath to the school!

More group pictures! At the school gate.

Our shadows, on the never ending road to the school

Yet another canteen in the campus

Jump shot! Hooray, classes over!

Spot the mistake on the campus signboard! :P

Rock climbing in slippers! hahaha. jk

Polim and Me, at one of the school.

The weather was so hot! We were trying to get some cool air from the aircon behind us :D

MDE OIP 2009! Jumpshot!

And now, its time for some Reflections!

REFLECTIONS
After today, i realise that though studying conditions might be bad for you to study in, it does not really matter. As long as you're willing to pay attention and learn, you will be able to pay attention and learn a lot in class. Also, i learnt that we are really very fortunate to have fully air-conditioned classes in ngee ann. So i should be happy and appreciative.
Also, from touring around the schools, i got to see many students studying. This really taught me that studying is very important in life. As many of them wanted a good life in future, they were really paying full concentration to their teacher and treasuring whatever time they have in class with their teacher to learn new stuff. So i should start to appreciate and make use of my time in classes properly as of today.

Day 6, Trekking up a historical mountain of China!

2009-09-09T06:22:00.000-07:00

I don't have the pictures yet! Will update day 6 soon! ill update day 7/8/9 first :) and ill announce when my day 6 is updated! Sorry!

Day 5, To Lulinshan we go! White water Rafting+waterfall!

2009-09-09T00:28:00.000-07:00

So, day 5 has arrived! Started off the day taking a 4hour bus ride at 730am to LulinShan! As most of us slept very little, we ended up falling asleep in the bus as seen below! The bus ride was pretty insane. There was 2 lanes, but the bus just went to whichever lane they wanted to as though it was a one way road. At first i was quite sleepy, but after awhile i started to look at the way the driver was driving and it really kept me awake as it was really amazing how they drive so recklessly but yet there's no accidents seen. Along the way, we saw some farmers walking at the side of the road. This was a pretty interesting sight as in singapore, you don't see any farmers around anymore. Also, these farmers harvest their wheat grains and dry it in the middle of the road, occupying one entire lane on a 2lane road. This really caused inconvenience to motorists, but yet it did not affect them much. It was really amazing. Also, the distance they walk from one place to another is extremely far and the sun was really burning that day. But yet they seem pretty happy with their lifestyle even though most of them did not have any mode of transport under the hot sun except for their pair of legs.

This was our tour guide for the day who brought us from our hostel to Lu Lin Shan.

This was another farmer seen by the road side pulling his heavy stuff along on a pull cart with his back all sweaty. So u can imagine how hot the weather was!

A poor lady picking up rubbish from the side bins. "One man's thrash is another man's treasure"

Mini motor-lorry? hahahha. pretty interesting vehicle

After we got off the bus, we had our lunch and we went for white water rafting! Sadly, we weren't allowed to bring our cameras as it would get wet. So thus there is no pictures on white water rafting. But it was pretty interesting and fun! And also, the shoes they sold us for white water rafting was pretty cool. It was made of straw and tied nicely to form a sandals specially used for white water rafting as it provided good grip even when one is stepping on algae. Simple creation but yet very good. A picture of the sandals is just below!
After that, we washed up and headed to the waterfall!

hahaha this got me cracking up. I will not break any plants i swear!
A sign board seen on the way to the waterfall. :P

This is a self-made boat, made entirely from bamboo. It can transport quite a number of people down the river! The power of bamboo :P

Our wonderful lunch when we just got off the bus at lu lin shan!

Roy and me on the walkway to the waterfall

A pretty nice scenery. We did not have proper walk paths all the way to the waterfall. Instead, we had to walk on natural rocks around to get to the waterfall. This was one of the rock, and in the picture is roy, eshlyn and me(left to right)

A well used by the Lu Lin villagers long time ago. But since theres water pipes now, who needs a well? :D

(left to right) Me, Roy. On the way to the waterfall!

This is one of the waterfall. Pretty nice sight eh? It was very cooling as the water hit the bottom rocks and small tiny droplets of water splashed all over us.

Thats me, standing on a rock with the waterfall behind me.

This is the full view of one of the waterfall. Such an eye opener!

Roy and Me, and a lake behind us

The path we walked to get to the waterfall.

Maid for hire! I can carry your stuff for you!hahaha. kidding. Was helping people hold their valuables while they took pictures at the waterfall.

Thats me! at the bottom of yet another waterfall

After seeing a few waterfalls, the tour guide told us that there was a few more up ahead! So we were pretty hyped to take a peek at it. But we took pictures along the way! This was one of them.

At last! we'vereached the waterfall! TA DA!

After viewing the waterfall, we headed back to Lu Lin Shan resort and we had our dinner. After dinner, we were showed to our hotel rooms for the night. It was very comfortable there! After we checked in and settled down, we headed to a nearby area where they had special performances from chinese locals to entertain the people around. After that there was a campfire where many of them danced around. It was really simple, but yet it put a smile on everyone's faces including ours!
After the performance, we headed back to our rooms and had a good night's rest and prepared for day 6! So thats about all for today!

REFLECTIONS!
From today, i have learnt that what matters in life is that you're happy. No matter how fortunate or unfortunate you are, as long as you're happy, thats all that matters. I learnt this when i saw the farmers at the road sides. Though they were slogging all day to provide for their families, they wore a smile on their faces and were pretty happy with the life they led.

Next, after seeing the waterfall, i have learnt how to appreciate nature as it is really a beautiful sight and its so amazing how things like waterfall form naturally. The best part is that it really looks so amazing and it feels very relaxing to be there. So as of today i will try my best to protect nature! :P hahahahaha.

thanks for reading and feel free to comment! hope you've enjoyed the post :)

Day 4, School Orientation+ Free and Easy

2009-09-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

Our 4th day started off with us waking up and gathering at 10am at the lobby of our hostel. After everyone gathered, off we went to take a look at our school and classrooms which we would be studying in for the next 6 weeks! We were all pretty excited to take a good look at our studying location for the next 6 weeks.

So after walking for several minutes up a slope, we were all sweaty and tired. But we did not bother about how tired we were as we were too curious about taking a look at our classrooms. Though the conditions weren't that great, but hey, at least we have a shelter over our heads when studying. So after having a look at the school, it was free and easy for the rest of the day!

Some of us took our time to walk down the slope and took a lot of group pictures along the way down and had a lot of fun. We even saw some local delivery at work! It was pretty amazing how he carried 3 boxes behind him, with one being balanced on his neck. Pretty awesome sight there. After that, we were starting to get hungry and decided to have our lunch at a restaurant just outside our campus called "Gil Wanton". The food was extremely delicious and the dumplings were fat and juicy. YUM! The fried rice was pretty normal, and very oily as usual!

After our sumptious meal, we decided to walk around to take a look and we came across a cute dog. Its fur was completely shaved off except for the head area and it made the dog look exactly like a lion. Pretty creative and interesting and its the first time i’ve seen such hair cuts on a dog.So after that we headed back to our rooms to catch up on some blogging, and we did some laundry. As we did not have enough space to hang all our clothes, we decided to lie more strings across our room so that we can have more space to hang clothes. After that, we were all worn out from a day of walking and went to bed. So here are the pictures! Enjoy! Feel free to leave comments at the end of post :)

Here are the pictures with captions above!

Chong Sian, Me, Polim, Mingyu(left to right)

Random scenery on the way to the school

Exterior look of our School!Motivational phrases for the local students posted up on walls around the school
What you looking at? Stomachache right! Cubical doesn't have doors!
Classrooms the Local students use for studying

I totally agree with this sign, cause my chinese is pretty fail!

The school field at the bottom of the slope!Loaded truck seen at the roadside just outside campus

A place just outside the school that our classrooms were located at. Pretty nice ambience

I wonder if the items inside are broken! China local sitting on them!

Jumpshot right outside our school!

random picture of alvin and me(left)"From here, we go to the world".... But dead end! Which way to go!

Delivery man at work! Check out his awesome neck balancing skills

YUMMY. fat juicy dumplings!

Curry fried rice with egg! thumbs up! except for the oil

Lion King? HAHA. LionDog more like it!Charcoals used to cook food at the canteen below our hostel!

Time to tie more strings to hang more laundry!So thats all for day 4! Time for Reflections.

Reflections!
From today, after seeing the charcoals supplied to the campus canteen, it really made me realise how fortunate Singapore and i am. Whereby we get proper stoves and easy fire access to cook out food without waiting for such a long time for charcoals to heat up and burn before cooking. We are so priveledged as we have better technology and cooking gadgets back in Singapore compared to the locals here. So i should really realise how priveledged i am and learn to appreciate and be happy about it.

Also, the delivery man who carried the box and balanced it on his neck really amazed me. It was such a spectacular sight, one that we would never or rarely encounter in Singapore. Also, looking at the "lion dog", it shows how creative China locals can be actually and that it really made me stop having the impression
that the locals copy a lot of products and sell it as fakes.

Also, after looking at their school, i finally realise how fortunate how lucky i am to be in Ngee Ann whereby we get good tables and chairs and good technologies such as aircons and not just fans. So basically for today i've learnt how to be more appreciative and know how priveledged i am actually.

So thats all for day 4! Hope this post was interesting to you readers :)

Day 3, Giant shopping centre here we come!

2009-09-06T06:47:00.000-07:00

In a blink of an eye, day 3 was here! today was pretty much free and easy the whole day, and we were brought to a giant shopping centre in the city of wuhan, called "Grand Ocean Shopping Centre".
So with that, we went to the campus bus stop to wait for the public bus to come, and we all managed to baord the bus even though it was very crowded. practically everyone was standing within reach of each other. That was how squeezy the ride was. Also the bus had no bells to signal the driver to stop and let passengers alight. There was an assistant who kept shouting to ask if anyone wanted to alight, and if you wanted to alight, you would have to shout to inform the assistant that you want to alight and he/she will inform the driver. So after a 30minutes bus ride or so, we finally reached the city/town area! When we got off the bus, i saw a few locals having some stalls set up at the road side trying to sell items/food to make a living. So we crossed an overhead bridge to get to the shopping centre!

The shopping centre was really really huge and we spent the whole day walking around the shopping centre going from shops to shops to take a look to see if there was anything we needed to buy. As we had 6 hours, we started off by heading to Macdonalds for lunch! The menu in china is a lot different from Singapore. They even had a burger which had a pork fillet inside. Something we probably won't see in a multi-racial country like singapore. Initially after eating, we wanted to catch a movie! But sadly, there wasn't any movie that we wanted to watch. So in the end, we went to the arcade for the last 2hours or so and played the machines they had there. Quite a number of us won some stuff toys from the arcade after several tries. It was pretty challenging to get the hook to grab a toy out!

In a blink of an eye, it was almost 6pm. So we went back to the gathering point and headed back to hostel. As usual, the bus was extremely crowded(much more crowded than the trip from the hostel to town). When we got back, everyone was really worn out from a whole day of walking around non stop and we went to get some dinner from the road side stall as we were too tired to walk further to the restaurants. After eating, we headed back to the hostel for a good rest and prepared for the next day! So this pretty much sums up the whole of day 3.

Ok enough of boring text, its time for pictures! enjoy! captions will be above the pictures as usual

Early in the morning just before leaving our "tidy" bunk
On the bus from the hostel to the city! Pretty crowded! Impossible is nothing! We managed to take pictures on the crowded bus :P A chinese local trying to sell fruits at the road side At last! The giant shopping centre named "Grand Ocean". Mango pie at Macdonalds! Super fantastic! Singapore should sell these!
For the first time, im trying chou tou fu(smelly toufu). Not as bad as i imagined! Infact i got addicted to it and ate it like each time i saw a stall selling it.

Macdonalds! i'm lovin it! Mc-Oily-Wings :)

Pickpocketing in progress while Erwin was trying to propose!

At last, it was time to gather and head back to the hostel!

Longest pedestrain street in the world

The locals trying to rush for the bus before it gets full!

Clubbing on the bus! hahaha kidding. This is how full the bus gets.

We finally decided to try the fried noodles at the road side stall! Very oily though!

The fried noodles with beef that i bought! Can you see the oil! But it was not too bad.

Picture of our messy hostels!
Its ok, Jarold to the rescue! Time to clean up the room and floor! Welcome to our clothes obstacle course! We just finished did some laundry! So we hung the clothes up for it to dry.

and once again, its time for some
REFLECTIONS
From taking the public bus today in China, it really made me realise that Singapore's public bus is actually very good compared to the public bus in China. Whereby we get proper bells to signal the driver that we are alighting without shouting at the top of our voices to let them know that we are alighting. Also, the handles are stable in Singapore, but in China, some public buses does not even have the top handles for people to hold, and some have but it is either very worn out, or half broken.

Also, after seeing the man trying to sell fruits at the road side, it has really made me realise that education is really important and that i have to study hard so that i can get a proper job in the future and not suffer and slog all day just to make ends meet.
So thats all for day 3!

Day 2, Exploring our Hostel's Surroundings

2009-09-03T10:00:00.000-07:00

Day 2 started off with most of us waking up near lunch time as pretty much everyone was unpacking and getting used to the room that we all slept pretty late. When i woke up, i went to meet Chong Sian, Mingyu and Polim as well as some others and off we went to explore our surroundings! Below are the pictures we took along the way. We went from campus canteens to rundowned roadside stalls, to restaurants and even to various shopping centres! Enjoy the pictures! (captions will be above the pictures)

Canteen entrance located just beside our hostel Picture of some of us taking pictures of the surroundings
Who said humans can't lay eggs :P

Bank of china, A restaurant, and a driving centre just infront of it with a car learning how to park

A lady's stall which sells fried rice/noodles and many other dishes! Simple yet delicious!

After walking around for a bit, we decided to settle down and have our lunch at this particular stall! It was pretty crowded so they opened a table for us just right outside their stall.

They had so much dishes! But eventually we decided with Beef Fried Rice! Their portion is so big that the dish looked like a mountain of rice! It was pretty oily though, but it was nice overall! Also, Polim brought a few bottles of Garlic Chili and we ended up eating it with the fried rice. YUM!

After our sumptious and filling lunch, we headed to a nearby supermart. They had almost all our daily neccesities sold there, as well as a very wide spread of instant noodles! So we decided to buy some for ourselves incase we get hungry in the hostel. We even bought a kettle so that we could boil water for our noodles

A pretty nice building! Hope our classes would be there! But most likely not :P

After heading back to the hostel, i went over to Polim's room. As we had a few hours before dinner, we decided to play Poker cards to kill time! This pack of cards were bought from the supermart too. After awhile, we felt hungry, so thats where our instant noodles come in handy :P

However, the noodles did not fill our stomachs and we were still hungry! So we went around looking for food and saw.... Many many many many many road side stalls selling food! However it wasn't what we felt like eating. So we continued down the road. Along the way, we saw litter almost everywhere thrown by people after they have finished eating their food they ordered.

Picture of some of the roadside shops

After a few minutes of walking, we saw a familiar sight... KFC! :D
So we decided that we would eat there for today. However it was so crowded. So we ordered takeaway and went back to the room to eat.

China's KFC menu. Pretty different from Singapore's KFC menu

We ordered a family meal which came with 6pieces of chicken, some bread, some fried chicken wings and headed back to our hostel. Below is the picture! Tadah!

After a long day, we washed our own clothes and hung them across our room! We didn't have a proper hanging area as the string to hang our clothes in our room was missing. So we got some Rafia string and tied it from one end of the room to the other and we hung all our clothes up on it.

Laundry after 1 day!

And now, its time for...

REFLECTIONS!
After today, i have learnt how to not take things for granted whereby back in Singapore, my maid or mother would always buy or cook food for me when i'm hungry. Whereas over here, no one is going to do that. If i am hungry, i have to go and get my own food for myself if not i'll just starve.

Also, after seeing China's driving school, i feel really proud to be a Singaporean as we have such nice driving schools around and not rundowned ones as seen above. Also, looking at how hard the china people work just to make a living has really taught me how to be contented with what i have and not take everything, including my parents for granted as they are working so hard just to support my family, and me. Seeing how the China people seem happy with what they have really puts me to shame as i have so much back in Singapore yet i still get disappointed when i cannot get something i want. When infact i already have so much. So in short, i have really really learnt how to appreciate and be contented with what i have.
So thats all for day 2 once again, and sorry about the late post! Feel free to comment if u readers have any :)

Day 1, Trip to Wuhan

2009-09-02T08:53:00.000-07:00

At last! the trip to wuhan has begun. I started my day waking up really early to get to the airport before 530am as that was the time set to gather. After awhile, everyone arrived and we checked in as a group. Before checking in, i felt sad, excited and sian. As to why i felt sad, it was because i had to leave my family and friends for 6weeks. As for excited, it is because i'll be away from home for 6 weeks. and as to why i felt sian, its because a long travel journey awaited me!
Below are some pictures of the trip
(Captions are above the pictures)

OIP-Wuhan Batch 2009

Pictures w/ my friends at the airport before checking in more pictures w/ my friends before boarding the plane!

Changi airport can welcome us 6 weeks later :P Goodbye Changi Airport!
Our breakfast cum lunch on the aeroplane!

We've finally reached Guangzhou! time to transit to another flight which is in 4-5 hours.

Finally! we got off the plane at Guangzhou

We were waiting for our next plane ticket from Guangzhou to Wuhan

Some cool signboard at Guangzhou airport :P read it for a random laugh:) enjoy!

So, 4 hours, what to do? What else but EAT! yummmmm. We went to a nearby chinese restaurant for a good delicious meal! below are the pictures of the restaurant!
(captions above picture)

The restaurant's lightings. Pretty nice aye?

Eddy and i shared a plate of dumplings! it was superb!

This is the tea that costed us 150yan! Good thing its free flow.

The entrance of the restaurant that we ate at.

After eating, we went to check in again and waited for our next flight from guangzhou to wuhan. All of course were so tired, including our dear trip leader, Mr Joseph Loh :D HAHA

After a short aeroplane ride of about 1hour or so, we finally touched down at Wuhan Airport! No more plane rides for the next 6 weeks. YES!

So after we collected our luggage, we headed to the bus for yet another long ride to the hostel!

Picture of Polim and Me just as we boarded the bus

Polim and me again! But this time we were bored as the ride was so long!

Finally! we're at the hostel! this is the entrance! They say looks can be deceiving, but i guess not! (you will see why later) :P

After putting down our luggages at the lobby of the hostel, we went to a restaurant 3minutes away to have our dinner!

The people thought we were sumo wrestlers! such a gigantic feast.
heading back to the hostel after our dinner. we were so full so we had to take the lift :P
Welcome to our humble home for the next 6 weeks =)Our tiny toilet!

After we settled down in our room we unpacked our stuffs, and got ourselves comfortable and tried to use the internet but there wasn't any available connections and we were all so bored as we could not go online to chat with our families and loved ones! So we ended up having an early night and prepared for a great day ahead the following nday!

REFLECTION:
From today, i have learnt a lot of things while travelling from Singapore to Wuhan. The culture in china and in singapore is really different. So are the standards of living. i have learnt how to appreciate what i have back in Singapore such as comfortable beds, spacious toilets and having life easy as well as good and comfortable transports. But over here, its totally different, as the living conditions is not as good compared to Singapore. Looking at the public buses that the China citizens take, it has really got me thinking that what i have back in Singapore is very good already and that i should be appreciative. This trip has also taught me to accept things the way they are, as well as accepting other new friends the way they are as i have just got to know a lot more new people through this trip.
As the saying goes, "you can't change the way things are, but you can change the way you react to it". By doing this, i have found this trip a whole lot more interesting and exciting than when i first arrived in Wuhan.
So thats all for day 1!