Wonderwall

The End

2009-04-11T21:38:00.008+08:00

After much deep thinking (and i mean really deep) after a cup of rose tea and some chewing gum (still chewing on it) i've come to realise. Nothing and I mean nothing can bring our hearts away from home. My trip here totally supports the phrase "home sweet home" but yet again, this trip makes me realise that truly and whole heartedly that "all good things have to come to and end".

My 6 weeks of stay here has had its ups and downs no doubt. Rough nights with diarrhoea and vomitting due to cup noodles gone bad, the temptation to buy certain food but no I couldn't cos it's not halal and home sickness on days when I see my family on webcam, just to name a few. But after much thought, i realised that this whole trip is an experience I'll never get again. Like lots and i mean loads of awesome moments, friendships (even with the biscuit aunty at the underground market), road trips and most importantly the day by day experience with the other 22 EE students here on this trip has been a blessing, i would say in short.

I'll definitely miss the 22 EE friends im glad to call family, especially since we're all from different classes and we'll definitely hardly bump into each other in school. But yeah, i wouldn't have asked for better friends who would have gone through this trip with me. There were squabbles, so on and so forth but all's good. We break up, we make up. We had many laughters And news just in, Peter's going to arrange a study group before we take our final EM3A exam and after that we'll have a chalet. haha. It has awesomeness written all over it. Nothing can buy the 39 days I've spent with them. No this is not corny. This is being very appreciative of the good people around you.

So yeah i'll definitely (I'm shocked to admit this) miss the cold. haha! Its been hot for the last 3 days and yes I'll miss the freezing 3 to 15 degrees of cold and the chances of blowing smoke from my mouth. It's starting to annoy me that im starting to sweat when I walk out to buy food. Bummer. Have to get back to the swealtering hot weather again. RAH!

I'll miss the ban mian here. The awesome bread from the bakery shop, the dumplings (I don't get halal dumplings in Singapore you see), and the list of food that I'll miss goes on. The only food i won't miss wen i get back would be plain rice with dishes and cup noodles. Had bad experiences with that one.

I'll miss eating ice cream in the cold! haha!

I'll miss the people here like:

The two friendly best friends from across the street

Abdul!

The friendly babies who are

so-chubby-and-round-they-look-like-balls-you-just-wanna-hug-them

The hard working old folks here cos they keep the campus clean and litter free and they say 'ni hao' back at you when you greet them

The international students here who are nice. Well, some of them.

The angry faced security guard who always isn't happy to see us.

Last but not least, the aunty and her daughter who sells me you tiao and boiled eggs every morning.

I've learnt from this trip that everything's not golden and that we're really blessed to be living in Singapore cos we have everything and that our parents can afford the lifestyle that we have back home. And that living independantly in a foreign country is not easy at all (hint: will not go for overseas uni. haha). And we're REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY REALLY blessed to have good food from all kinds of races and cultures back in Singapore cos I'm really getting sick of eating ban mian or rice almost everyday. Thank goodness to multi-racialism.

But most importantly, what i've learnt is that us Singaporeans do not hold on to our history and culture as strongly as the Chinese do here. Which i find, very commendable and interesting cos every city or province has its own history and historical monuments that they're very proud of and even tourists from other provinces in China would go on a weekend holiday just to see visit and learn about the history of that place. Which, strangely, impresses me.

So I cannot wait to get back and do some catching up with my friends and netball girls, spend more time with my dad since he's going to be leaving for China in like a week's time for maybe half a year or so and of course get my modules done and over with. I think what I really can't wait for is, absurdly, FOR MY SECOND YEAR IN SCHOOLS TO START. haha. But yeah, I'll admit to it, I'll miss this place for sure.

Cheers to the 6 weeks of awesome company and experience!

like all good stories with simple endings, ill end off my very last post for this blog with,

The End.

Day 39

2009-04-11T20:50:00.004+08:00

ok so this was what happened today.

woke up at 12 to find kit ming and kang qi packing. packed later in the afternoon and

IM ALL PACKED AND READY TO BACK HOME :D

only me and kang qi stayed in campus while amanda and kit went out shopping and do their nails again.spent the day packing and watching movies. and enjoying the solitary moments with the dorm which we will part from in less than 12 hours from now.

the rest went for steamboat with dr zhu while me and kang qi chose to go halal. had my last plate of gan ban mian and i must say i am shocked to say this but. I ATE IT VERY VERY SLOWLY. haha! embracing and enjoying every strand of the delicious concoction.

so im back in my dorm thinking. am i really that excited to leave this place?

ps. i spent quality time with amanda. haha! we laid out the notebooks in my luggage to fit in like jigsaw puzzle. haha :)

Day 38

2009-04-11T02:07:00.002+08:00

we received our certificates today.

shakkir gave a thank you speech

and had a lunch reception for the lecturers that taught us and helped us throughout this 6 weeks of stay here. it's supposed to be Good Friday but they dont celebrate it here so no public holiday.
u
after that we had free time so we went into town again. i wanted to buy a fedora hat but as promised kang qi refrained me by chanting 'money money money'. so i didn't buy any. bought my dad some nuts though.

i have one meal left at the halal stall before we leave here. ban mian will never be the same to me again. haha. packing day tmw. boo.

Day 37

2009-04-10T01:15:00.003+08:00

we had our last test today. YAY! finally its over. left with the exams :D
so after lunch, the rest of the class took the hired bus to hangkou for shopping.
kang qi and i stayed in campus. we went out to town to get her earpiece but in the end she got an iriver player instead for 699 yuan. haha. 4gb. i recon she should have gotten the coffee color. but oh well.

it has a loudspeaker!!! super cool

AND SOMEONE BECOME MAT ALR. he came to class wearing a snow cap beanie. haha. kept asking us to guess. in the end he gave up and showed us. looks like a meadow field on his head. haha

3 more days!!!!

Day 36

2009-04-08T13:32:00.013+08:00

check out the billboard. haha! fools.

our favourite breakfast shop

kit's sick today. sexy voice.

hamsters for sale!

we had paper cutting lessons today. with red paper and 5 yuan scissors.
sounds lame but it was REALLY fun. everyone admitted to it

our teacher

baldspot baldspot baldspot

step 1: tear your paper into half till it's this size

step 2: fold your paper into half vertically, as such

step 3: fold it again

step 4: cut your paper as such

we were supposed to cut these words. means happy

TADA! very happy :) nice not

everyone was happy

told you

check out my mini happy

jonathan did a half happy

check out dr zhu! woooh! pro already

we could buy this book on our own and start a paper cutting class too. easy job

he told us to be creative. so everyone started cutting nonsense

its spongebob and patrick. see them?
haha.

i cut this. haha. was aiming for doraemon. but failed. but then again its cuter than doraemon.

spongebob eyes

hukun and her happy hearts

kit and her spring

amanda cut this for me

i did a happy with hearts too

call it nom nom

looks like kang qi. haha!

and we ended class with jonathan showing us his heart. awwwwww

HERE ARE MY FLIGHT DETAILS SO STOP ASKING ME TYVM
will reach sg around 10 -11+ night

we will miss this little bugger!!!

he called me fatty today

then in the afternoon after lunch, we had industrial visit

we visited a company who does online e-learning for the china people, mainly students.
online learning was first started in 1998.
its well used in America, England and Australia.
this company has about 25, 000 students subscribing to their website for online learning
they offer diplomas, and uni certs, which has yet been approved by other countries but are approved in china. in time to come, their diplomas and certs will go global.
we didn't really see anything special here cos we're already using e-learning in school.

then we went back to our dorms, sleepy and all but we have to study for tmw's test D:

we dropped by the tea story shop and bought ourselves strawberry ice kachang for 4 yuan.
kit has sore throat so she bought dumplings for herself.

last test tmw!!! yay :)

Day 35

2009-04-08T13:12:00.007+08:00

we had steamboat for dinner yesterday. somewhere near our campus. we had 2 tables for the chinese and a table for the muslims (except jonathan. haha)

he puked twice and continued eating again. poor fella cant eat buffet for nuts.

we had a hearty meal. each person paid like 28 yuan. we missed fishball so much. but after yesterday's dinner, we're not going to touch fishballs in a long time. tofu and fish slices were awesome

one of the chi table

everyone was happy and full. oh and here's a picture of smth they ordered wrongly.

PIG'S BRAIN. how bout that. haha. they left with this untouched.
then we headed to the pool tables where mainly the guys played.

same hat. sisters. haha

action pro only

fariz thought kit how to play. sucked. haha!

i had a whack at it. not bad not bad.

the master himself.

kang qi and i got bored waiting for kit and amanda to finish their round of pool so we left earlier with agnes, hu kun and li hong.

how ya like my headphones :D audio technica. waha.

ps. can't wait for sunday!!!

Day 34

2009-04-07T01:22:00.002+08:00

we went to the new building today. loved the new classroom. and the building was all to us. toilets were super clean cos we were the first to use. had test too. was quite hard.

had the whole afternoon to ourselves. so we went shopping! shopping spree for everyone. i got new headphones. awesomeness. another class test on wed again. after that we're free for the rest of the week! yayness :)

Day 33

2009-04-05T22:30:00.028+08:00

we had a wake up call at 7, breakfast at 7.30 and boarded the bus at 8. we loved the buns that morning. the porridge was tasteless but the mee suah was full of awesomeness. again, we had our very own muslim table.

i realised every city that we go to they LOVE to have a mini great wall. but we NEVER will make it to the real one. sad. the chinese studies students are alr there. lucky buggers.

then we visited a mini yellow crane tower. boring.

the city's taxi. so cute.

this is very normal here.

we reached lushang mountain around 9.30

check it out! dr zhu and his sneakers trekking. so fit!

base of the mountain

it says tea

its a game. super cool.

they'll put in tennis balls in these and itll shoot out the balls and the aim is to hit the balls. the thing is, there's no prizes or whatever. just for the thrill of it

name keychains. kang qi got one for her grandma

the water's really crystal clear

SAFE

you have like 5 seconds to get 2 people into the cable car
oh and we had to pay 62 yuan for a two way ride

guess who's my cable car partner

yeap. siao ah lian.she kept reassuring me everything will be alright

amanda and kang qi in front of us

li hong and hu kun behind us

some famous poet forgot his name.

STEEP STEEP! and the wind was super strong. kept swaying our cable car.

forever love. i love to see old couples on holiday. haha.

our intern tour guide. ram has been trying to get to talk to her. but he's such a wuss. finally i gave him an opputunity. haha

we visited the inverted temple. haha not really.

WE HAD TO CLIMB SO MANY SMALL STAIRS
never considered people with big shoes like mine. i had to go up sideways. pfft.

its 9 metres tall and it was built in 1999, Jan 18

the monk would hit that pot thing everytime a person enters the space

the number of jos sticks are the number of tourists who've been there over the years

im on top of the world. haha i wish.
my jacket has been through war with me these weeks :)

what only ram. his hair like ah beng. that's china haircut for you

these three kept asking me to take a photo every like 5 metres on the way back down

we reached the peak, finally! :D

old temple

box for donation to rebuilt the temple. kang qi said there's like no notes inside. only coins. and very few, she said angrily.

public toilet. so natural.

there were so many of these around. we concluded its where the workers working there lived.

we finally reached the water source after a long trek from the peak

little boy brought something home for remembrance. prolly going to throw it away when he reaches base.

women were knitting. they should have a kntting club up in the mountains since i saw so many women doing so around

oh and

going back down. shakkir and jonathan were behind us. made so many noises and shakkir said hello practically to every cable car that passed by them. but only to pretty ladies in them. those with old ladies he kept quiet. pfft

blow wind blow

lunch delivery! haha

when we reached base we were really wanting the toilet. and this was what we were forced to be in.

sink

cubicles

we took turns guarding the entrance. amanda was unlucky cos an old lady walked in and i couldn't stop the poor old lady. so yeah i warned her not to look at her when she walks out. haha! there were like shit piles in that drain and god knows what else. an experience worth missing i would say.

we had lunch soon after, nearby. we had our muslim table again and we had vegetables, tofu, fish and soup. the chicken soup none of us touched cos they practically put the whole chicken in the broth and i mean WHOLE chicken cos they din bother to chop off the head. i look at chicken soup in a whole new way now. the other two chinese tables ahd wierd food apparently. one of them was frog meat, with hands and legs still attached i might add. some of them didnt know it was frog meat and ate the dish and said it tasted like chicken. ew. i told them. it pays to be halal. haha! kidding.

so we had like 7 hours bus ride back to wuhan city. we all slept throughout. i didnt bother getting off the bus for toilet pitstops after the bad experience with the previous one.

we reached our dorms around 6. we were so glad to be back in our dorms we had ban mian for dinner. after dinner we did laundry and we had to extend like 3 more raffia strings to accommodate for the laundry. so unglam i know.

spot fatpants and amanda. haha. amanda enjoys pinching fatpant's butt.

my fatpants and kit's fatfat. haha :)

its less cold today.

ps. 7 DAYS TILL WE RETURN!!! YAYNESS!!!

Day 32

2009-04-05T21:28:00.008+08:00

the bus left at 7.30 and we had a long, and i mean VERY long ride to our first destination. it took like about 5 hours to get us to our first destination. we visited an ancient school which taught students confucius.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
is all i can say

they pray to conficius. he's like THE MAN

their classroom

the white deer is something really symbolic to them.

hu kun is adorable :D

wah wah some people showing off their new jackets

we hopped on the bus for lunch. this time round we had like a special table for the muslim students. the food was ok only. then we headed for the hot springs. everyone had to wear swimming costumes in order to get in. so guys bought their briefs and girls bought their long bikinis?

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA again

the whole class queued up for the hot spring
except:

amanda

tian zhe

we spent like 2 hours waiting for the rest to come out from their hot springs. fruitful 2 hours i must say :)
when everyone came out they told us about their experience inside. apparently there weren't any changing rooms so the chinese people there changed naked in front of everyone. it was the same for the guys. ONECE IN A LIFETIME EXPERIENCE. there were old and young. so yeah. you get the idea. the girls who went in asked for a toilet cos they didnt want to do the same. i am so lucky :D

so we took the bus again to a restaurant for dinner. us muslims had our special table again but we were angry cos we had the SAME food as lunch. the only different thing was thie mee goreng which was horrible cos it was like eating fried rubber bands with oil. yeah. EW. and were still hungry after.

we went to our hotel after dinner. its 2 stars btw. not bad for 2 stars huh. impressed us. the only sucky thing about the room was the smell of it. oh and i must mention the beds were as hard as our dorm beds. like sleeping on wooden planks. but i had an awesome sleep so i wouldn't complain much. all of us were still hungry so we went to the super market nearby and bought loads of junk food and biscuits. us girls had a food party in our room before the guys came in for the taiti game and snatched our food away. since kit and i were kicked out of our own rooms for the guy's game of taiti, i slept with kang qi in her room while our room mates played cards with the guys. oh and kang qi loves my singing. hahaha.

Day 31

2009-04-04T01:29:00.003+08:00

we had industrial visit today

the place looked more of like a science hub. there were condominiums were surrounding the place. condominiums so much like those in bukit timah.

the yhad a swanky meeting room. nice furniture and really posh. they showed us their work. 3d filming of cartoon characters. china's very own pixar company. haha! this is a movie they made in english. its called 7 celsius. some ppl were sleeping throughout the presentation. and some snoring, not saying who. cough*chee kit*cough

after that we went back to our dorms then we went into town again. bought an army cap for myself and a shirt for my sister.

we're off mountain trekking tmw. will be back on sun. till then! :D

Day 30

2009-04-03T10:40:00.007+08:00

yesterday's cultural exchange was the bomb.
it started at 7 and ended at 9. our skit went well. it was about our lives as singaporeans.
our singing was a disappointment to us cos we weren't really into it somehow.
the chinese studies students had an acoustic unplugged of 3 chinese songs and 2 english songs dedicated to those non chinese. haha. they too led 2 games which wasqyite a favourite with the china students.
the china students had flute sessions, electric keyboard solo by this wicked skills guy, a singing duet by two chinese lecturers and calligraphy which the pieces were later presented to us.

for the record, its 9 days till we return back to singapore! :D :D :D

Day 29

2009-04-02T10:25:00.007+08:00

we had our common test. it was quite easy i would say. very similar to our revision common test paper.

many were doing last minute recaps. as you can see shakkir was more interested in seizing the chance of asking me to take a photo of him studying

this is photo has FAKE written all over it. but the next few photos aren't.

why so serious?

and some people didn't feel the pressure, like kit for example enjoying her breakfast like every other morning in class.

but no one was as prepared compared to wilfred. he had everything laid out in front of him.

as soon as everyone left the room, everyone compared answers as usual. some were sad and worried till didn't go for lunch while others went to fill their bellies cos all the thinking made them hungry, like me :)

their lemon honey

ok seriously this is a condom vending machine. you slot yi yuan (one dollar) into this box and a condom will just come out of it. just like a candy machine for kids. i really dont know if they're encouraging sex or encouraging the one child policy with this machine. kang qi noticed this btw.

this reminded of our school's cheerleading magnum force! hahaha. but with no enthusiasm at all. the only person who was enthusiastic about the whole routine was the insructor.
so she pranced about her little spot with such enthusiast while the rest of the cheerleaders were zilch filled with life.
they were more of like "uhhhh, this is so embarassing. can we please go back now cos it's freezing out here and i really don't like this routine cos it looks so rediculous".
yeap. totally explains their bored expressions.

yay we're going to the guys' dorm

after lunch we went to the guys' dorm for a meeting. we had to come up with ideas for our cultural exchange which will be held the next day in the evening, which is today (OMG). we'll be doing it with the chinese studies students (they're staying here to complete their whole sem till july). we came up with a skit, singing and 2 games. we were supposed to do a mass dance which (shockingly!) chee kit was the choreographer. he showed us the moves and we were all dumbfounded and soon enough broke out in guffaws. his moves were so gay and really. i dont know why the song '4 mintues' (justin timberlake feat. madonna) had to be the song for that dance. it was such a shame. after realising that the skit was too long, we decided to cancel the dance (thank god for saving us from humiliation!) poor fellas who practised 4 hours on that dance. haha. oh and the song we're gonna sing together is 'take me to your heart' by michael learns to rock. i have no idea why that song but all i know is there's a chinese version of this song.

it all started with amanda's pissed face

oh and since it was april fool's amanda decided to play a prank on the guys. agnes and her pretended to be in cold war with each other due to a fight they had the previous night. they actually practised their whole girl fight scene in our dorm the previous night to make sure it'll be very convincing. true enough amada's attitude made fariz ask me about the whole problem. so later at meeting, amanda and agnes picked a fight at each other and things got really nasty. agnes is such a bad actress cos she kept wanting to laugh but she covered it by almost crying. amanda stayed cool all the way. so they said they'll talk things out outside. but really it was more of yelling things out. so everyone was convinced that they were really having a cat fight. so when they came back they had to keep the ball rolling so they still fought and fariz (OMG) was such a fatherly figure the whole time and said "agnes can you dont act like this. very childish you know. go sit there now. you wanna talk, talk in front of us. so everyone can hear". soon after agnes couldnt take it anymore cos she controlled her laughs too much already so in the end us girls broke out in laughters and the two actresses wished the guys happy april fools. the guys were shocked and speechless of course but really it was more of fariz being punk'ed that day.

ps. have a little faith in me

Day 28

2009-03-31T22:33:00.003+08:00

my name at the back of the bus! teehee :D

really happy today. finished exercise 3 like finally! and the shop near the nuggets stall were selling rabbits. small baby ones. so adorable! looking at them makes me happy. reminds me of the pet shop back in singapore which i always go to. ct paper tmw at 11. oh man.

Day 27

2009-03-30T21:42:00.006+08:00

strawberry milkshake for 5 yuan

our haji lane. haha!

metallica

this is very expensive i assure you

kang qi too did her nails

kit got herself a mango milkshake

we had some free time today after math. we were supposed to go to town to buy some stuff for our dorm but in the end we spent the whole day at haji lane. and bought some stuff for ourselves as well. finally got something for grandmother. yay :)

ct in 2 days. oh man.

Day 25

2009-03-29T00:13:00.003+08:00

spent the whole day in the dorm since it's been raining from yesterday. it stopped raining in the evening so we decided to go for dinner with the 4 usual guys.

after dinner of dan chao fan, we went to bugis street. it really reminded us of bugis street, except that THE CLOTHES ARE HORRIBLE. i only bought like 4 socks for 10 yuan. super awesome socks :) the only nice things there were the leather belts. so while walking shakkir noticed this:

FLAT TO THE GROUND

we got bored so we decided to KARAOKE. haha. 20 yuan for an hour. cheap no? in the end we booked for 2 hours. convert to singapore dollars its like 5 dollars an hour. think it's ex? think again. its 5 dollars an hour for 8 people. so like each person is like 40 cents an hour. yeahhhhh

we practically sang from westlife to backstreet boys to avril lavinge, disney and blue. not that backdated actually considering the state of the place. haha. ok i confess. first time karaoke-ing. not that bad. but wont do it again cos ive lost my voice. ill get it back tmw. no worries :D

Day 24

2009-03-27T14:19:00.010+08:00

today's fuss all started with:

a brush

a 3 yuan pallet

and some paper

we had chinese calligraphy this morning. i expected a long white bearded man to come teach us. but instead,

a man in adidas jacket and track pants, who looks more like a coach to me taught us calligraphy.

this is the correct way to hold your brush you buffoons.
this is no pen

his handwriting with a brush is so much nicer than with a chalk, no?

no one could make out what he wrote on the board
looked like math equations to us for some. hah

teacher's pet

he represents everyone

shi fu boncet

aqilah

kang qi

kit ming

to really understand the true essence of chinese calligraphy you have to get your shoes dirty :)

what only amanda

we ended off he lesson with me writing

ps. quiz was a killer D:

Day 23

2009-03-26T22:00:00.003+08:00

my fav breakfast besides you tiao

yes. im sick. with flu and sore throat.

this morning i couldn't talk at all. lost my voice. i have no more honey lemon!!! how sad is that. someone DHL me one now. suffered the whole lesson. my head was so heavy i had to tilt my head sideways sometimes. I TELL YOU ITS THE POLLUTION HERE, seriously. everything i eat has no taste. my tastebuds are dead today. so anw, in the aft, shakkir cheered me up with his asthma get up. he asked me whether i was sick. i was like duh. then he took out stuff from his bag. first he took out panadol and i shook my head. then lozenges, i shook my head again then axe oil, which i gladly took cos it was really what i needed. then he took out his athma inhaler and asked me if i needed it. all i have him was this -___- then he took it and inhaled it then held his breath and counted to 5 with his fingers then breath out. it cracked me and kang qi up. funny fella made my day. and it so happens shakkir loves girls who cook. good luck boncet :)

ps. im getting sick of the food here. RAH!

Day 23

2009-03-25T22:57:00.004+08:00

today's class was horrible cos i couldn't solve 2 questions. yeah it was that bad. haha. have to study for quiz on friday and omg. common test is on next wednesday.
so we went to the market after school to buy mushrooms for our pasta for dinner. i needed more foolscap paper and correction tape so i went to the stationary store. which brought me to an awesome notebook that i bought for my sister and a planner for myself. no it's not cheena. its like those korean kinda books with like drawings on the pages. each page a different drawing. very cheap also. mine was 9 yuan and my sister's 4 yuan.

we told the guys we would be playing badminton today so they came over to join us. we got really lousy rackets at their worst condition which was one with snapped strings, one the whole head fell off the handle and another the whole thing was shaking from its handle. but we managed to get by. some other guys played soccer or basketball. abdul was down at the yard with his friend and everyone kept calling him. he's famous around here. he chased kit around the yard with a rubber whip and guess who saved her. SHAKKIR. he just put his hand out to abdul and said stop and the poor fella stopped and walked away. who knew. shakkir the hero. haha!

kang qi and i cooked dinner. pasta for 4 of us girls and mee suah for the guys and the three other girls. not all of the guys were here. just 6 of them if i remembered correctly. im dead beat.

this was what i received in my email today:

aww man thank you very much anna for the really sweet email. i miss you netball girls alot too. i love the jersey! :D hang in there. every good thing takes time and patience.

ps. 2 more weeks till we return!!! yay!!!

Day 22

2009-03-24T23:57:00.008+08:00

my hair has grown as you can see. got thicker but still short.
it seems my hair grows really slow here. maybe its the cold.
so like my scalp has less heat to allow my hair to grow?
ok whatever.

i'm really happy today. did some editing of the photos in the morning and then after kang qi woke up, we did laundry and hung them out to dry cos the sun was on our side today.
bought nuggets for breakfast cos we missed nuggets so much over the weekends (no ma, don't look at me like that) i needed it, really.
we had math tutorial and we dragged till 1+ cos our class was canceled to let us have more time for ourselves. had lunch at the usual place and had a new plate of ban mian today which tasted like kway teow and looked like kway teow also.
we headed back to our dorms and i started editing the pictures again while kit and amanda went out. kang qi stayed in our dorm with me. she went to sleep and i started my cleaning frenzy cos the room is getting too dirty alr. feels good. cleaned the toilet too. ugh yucks. (no mother, i'm not going to wash the house toilet. haha)
so we had kong gi and mee suah and oyster sauce vegetables for dinner. tasted so awesome to have home cooked food.
so while all of us were using the internet after dinner, the wind outside started howling. and it's still howling right now. then it hit me. WE FORGOT TO COLLECT OUR CLOTHES HANGING OUTSIDE ON THE LINES. and the worst part was, WE DIDN'T HAVE CLOTH PEGS. so kang qi and i hurried down, armed with a torchlight i identify our clothes. before we left the lift i said, "kangqi, let's go for war". cos we had to brave through the cold wind and freezing weather in search of our clothes on the ground. and true enough, our clothes flew to the ground. thank god the ground is dry and not muddy. so yeah after collecting our clothes, we ran back to the lift lobby and the security guard lazy who hrdly smiles, was laughing at us. i was like "omg she smiles!". haha. i miss singapore food so bad! D:

ps. thanks kenneth for uploading my aweosme picture. haha

Day 21

2009-03-24T22:48:00.012+08:00

our final dam before we reah land!

goodbye super small toilet good bye awesome bed that went through war with me! yay!

our last lunch. had loads of tofu. im sick of tofu now

looks like mushroom eh?
haha it's not! its bread and the white sauce is actually condensed milk
YUMMY

kit's obsessed with bulls. she says they make her feel happy and remind her of her grandma's house in hk.

we reached Huazhong university at around 7. went back to our dorms to put our bags then we went out for dinner at the halal stall. had gan ban mian. oh how much i miss my ban mian. then we went to buy kit's arab pita and some cream puffs for a treat. i don't believe i'm saying this but. oh man. I WAS DORM SICK. there i said it. it's good to be back. the only bad thing about our dorm is the bed isn't as soft as the one in the cruise boat.

and the four of us still have the boat movement thing in our system where we feel like we are sailing and thus we can't walk straight.

Day 20

2009-03-24T18:12:00.027+08:00

we got off the boat at around 7 and boarded another boat to the 3 gorges. we took a sampan around the valleys of the 3 gorges.

shakkir is obsessed about chee kit

girl power

bff

chau liang extra. throughout our cruise

dragon boaters here are way much better than our school dragon boaters. really. haha

greece oh greece

chee kit bought a panda for 40 yuan.
he claimed he didn't want it and was forced to buy.
this photo is such a lie then.

hor hor dr zhu sleeping on the job

we climbed 300 stairs

FOR THIS

huga huga

this is how they get the coffins into the mountains

they say if you put a coin in, you'll be lucky. uhuh.

we were in japan. really.

eh amanda like in korean drama. hahaha. sakuras flying

muscle boncet man. hahahahahaha

the three adidas jacket people. they really bought the same adidas jacket.

told you so
nice pose amanda. hahahah

the woman in pink is super cute

she insisted on taking a photo with jonathan. shakkir and ram like extra only

we had a small party for our tour guides to thank them for everything they did for us. they were really friendly and helped us loads. they even bought us oranges with their own money.

aziz gave the appreciation speech in chinese

amanda and i thought everyone peace by the river. like campfire. haha

and a toast to our last night in the boat. YAY!

Day 19

2009-03-24T16:23:00.004+08:00

kang qi and I were really sick and we stayed in bed pretty much the whole day till after lunch where i was forced out of bed to eat something.
everyone thought i was sea sick but no it was the maggi i ate. ill never eat maggi again.
there was news that we were supposed to get off the boat and change boats cos apparently the police station was wrecked cos there was a fist fight in the police station between the govt and the company. the plan was for us to board another boat then take a bus ride to our destinations. a bus tour just made me wanna puke more. thank god, the fog cleared and the problem was solved so we didn't have to get off the boat.

finally the fog cleared and we could cross the dam.

after medication kang qi and I were better and so we played bluff and taiti with the guys in amanda's room the whole day. and managed to take a few shots though didn't have the mood to and i was pretty much sleeping the sea sickness away.

Day 18

2009-03-24T08:31:00.023+08:00

we woke up at 5.30 since we had to get on the bus at 7. logged into npal at 6.30 and the results were already out. earlier than the stated 9am. i did ok i guess. though expected better. maintained my gpa. its all that matters. we had a 7 hour bus ride which pretty much consisted of sleeping and a few pit stops.

we crossed part of the great wall

hahaha no. kidding. we went to a fort which was once used for warfare

there were kids there. from childcare i suppose

the guys had trouble getting up this. haha. so not man.

we had toilet break and yeah. this was their toilet. awesome.

spells adorable

they think direct translation is cool

so then we went for lunch which was part of the whole package so we didn't have to pay for it. after lunch, the guys decided to pay mahjong cos there was a table in our dining room.

kit says "that's for calling me bimbo"
wrong thing to say chee kit

i asked shakkir to pose for the camera.
boncet dyed his hair btw. together with jonathan and ram.

advert

went to a local museum which was about their king and methods on how they bury the dead

they had a showcase of the body of their king inside and omg. it was still in flesh and they showcased his guts and intestines and all. even his brain. all was well preserved such that everything is still intact except for the skin. i had a picture of it but it was to gross to keep. they bury the body like 10 feet deep into the ground and preserve the body with alkaline solution.

their letter back then. this was about the desription about the deceased.

shakkir forced me to take a photo of him and our tour guide. like proof to the guys he was man enough. whatever.

we went for dinner and it wasn't nice at all. because of it. I HATE RICE. for now. i miss my mother's rice D:

we reached the dock at around 6.30 and was about to board the boat, that's named The Golden Sun, WHEN:

some govt officials in uniform and some workers from the boat company were blocking the dock to prevent us and other Beijing tourists from boarding the boat.
its because they wanted tips and interest. so they blocked everyone from going up the boat and so we had to wait in the drizzle with our bags on the ground. so pathetic.
it got too pathetic till the guys and agnes started playing taiti right there and then just to let time pass. the police came and tried to break up the childishness that was going on.
with both parties still airheaded and wanting to save face, we still couldn't go up he boat at 7.30 so in the end our tour guide asked us to wait in the coach till they settled their problems.
our coach apparently parked in front of the govt building which was across the dock and kit said "they block us, now's our turn to block them". HILARIOUS. but later we were chased away and we parked near the dock in the end.
we waited and slept and finally the police got them to the polices station and we could board the boat. like FINALLY! we were all so hungry.

we had to wait by the dock and out boat couldn't move cos of the heavy fog.

my roommates and i were so hungry we ate the cup noodles we brought for the trip. and guess what. ALL OF US HAD DIARRHOEA the next day. how lucky is that. i puked the whole night and refused to go down for breakfast. the thought of food alr made me sick in the stomach. the sight of rice itself was such a turnoff. bad bad night i tell you. missed home really badly that night.

Day 17

2009-03-19T22:02:00.003+08:00

this was what we suffered from today. NO LIGHT. there wasn't any electricity and no water when we woke up in the morning. we had to survive on the remaining water in our water bottles and the kettle. it was so pathetic that we couldn't even flush. yeah. exactly. ewwww. so i had to rush to the school toilet eventhough i really didn't like to use it cos its really really dirty. and since we used like all our water bottle and kettle water, i bought 1.5 litres of water.

after math, we waited like 2 hours for our tour guides to reach our school to give us a talk on the safety requirements on the cruise ship which is 4 stars by the way. which to us might be 2? we'll see tmw. what was most important to us was whether we had toilets and whether we could shower in the ship. and YES! YAYNESS! there's showers in each room. and everyone cheered. we're not happy about the trip, we're happy we have toilets, our very own toilets! haha! and luckily there are sockets. and the food in the ship will be provided for so we dont need to pay for anything we eat :) but i heard it's tasteless so yeah us 4 girls are well prepared with our own food.

ok then we went back to our dorms, STILL WITHOUT WATER AND ELECTRICITY. i decided to go to sleep but couldn't sleep so in the end me and kang qi decided to go down and play badminton since like everyone else in our dorm building decided to play either socer, basketball or badminton at the front of our dorm since the whole building is in civil defense mode. then later kit decided to join us but she couldn't play badminton for nuts. then later this african man named mustaffa played badminton with me then later a russian guy then later kit's russian guy then another arab guy named azhar and then an american woman who doesn't like to get her hands dirty. she was like ewww when i picked up the shuttle cock from the ground. rightttttt. but nah, none were a match for me. haha! kidding. so yeah after that we went to get ice cream since amanda was still sleeping. on our way back, an african man randomly stopped and asked kit what she was eating. it was such a shocking thing really. kit said vanilla and he din know what vanilla is so kang qi had to translate it for her. kit's chinese cannot make it really. we reached back to our dorms and the electricity and water still haven't revived yet. so we were in total darkness. so amanda shared with us her st theresa's ghost stories which were freakishly scary. and at around 7+ the lights came back! and i had the shock of my life and i screamed and ran. yeah. my true girly side. it was. embarassing.

we headed for dinner at this new arab place and we ate some fried ban mian. it was nice but it costs 10 yuan. abdul's family, who lives at our dorm building, popped by the same restaurant for dinner. they ordered mutton satay and mutton bread. which looked really good but i don't like mutton cos of the smell. abdul's elder brother is so much friendlier and funnier than abdul. he's around 5? he offered us satay sticks and talked ALOT. his comments were hilarious too. like he jokingly said i was fat and i probably ate alot of rice and when he offered kit another satay stick, he said i needed to lose weight. i wasn't offended really. i think it was clever of him though cos like in singapore the kids are never this straightforward and they don't dare like talk to strangers. so yeah it made my day. the kids here are really not scared of strangers and they're the sweetest things. then later he said he was just kidding with me. awwww. or maybe he said that os his dad asked him to apologise when he warned him with a slap hand gesture. haha. oh well. then after that kit and kang qi had their usual tea while i had a bottle of orange juice. fariz and i had street stall fried tofu. yum. on the way back, fariz brought us to this super market which kind of like reminded us of Sheng Shiong supermarket back in singapore. i bought bubble gum while kit and kang qi bought milk sweet. later we found out that the sweet is the same brand of milk that first found out that their milk contained melamine. so yeah. their risk. fariz bought biscuits and i realised the biscuit auntie recognised me since i buy my biscuits and nuts from there. she and i are already friends man. my homie. haha!

today has been an awesome day. made friends with the people in our dorm building and finally perspired and exercised a little! if it weren't for the loss of electricity and water, i don't think we would have played badminton in the first place. the secuirity guard woman is still unfriendly to us. but she's nice to the other residents here. i think we complain alot that's why. no this electricity, no water, no internet. pfft whatever.

off for the cruise tmw! will be back on sunday evening. good to hear my grandma misses me! :D

ps. results day tmw. too bad i won't be able to see my npal D:

end of day 17!

Day 16

2009-03-18T23:13:00.004+08:00

Today was the normal. Class at 10, lunch and quiz. Then went to town to get stuff for the cruise which we'll be leaving for on Friday morning and we'll return on Sunday. Oh and kang qi fixed the internet today! Our heroine! wait for the China people to fix, we'll probably die of boredom already.
Oh and i can proudly say that us 4 girls crossed the zebra crossing safely and bravely today cos it really isn't a zebra crossing here to the drivers. We Lived!
Packing day tmw :) Can't wait!

Day 15

2009-03-18T22:19:00.002+08:00

Woke up yesterday super early cos we had to be in class by 8.15 for history class. End up kit, kang qi, amanda and i were the earliest even though we reached at like 8.25. Class only started at like 8.55 when everyone arrived. The lecturer's english was super good but instead she chose to speak in chinese all the way. so i didn't know what she was talking about except for certain parts which was translated to english about confuciunism. After that we had math again. Super headache. So we ended class at 12 and we were free for the afternoon. So we went to the gate near the halal stall to find dumplings. But sadly, there weren't mushroom dumplings. So we decided to cook congee with carrots with vegetables and oyster sauce. And it was a success! yay :)

So all four of us mugged for the quiz and as usual kang qi slept the earliest and kit had trouble sleeping. later that morning around 4+? kit woke up and told me she was scared to go back to sleep cos she dreamt that drunk men were chasing her. hilarious!

Day 14

2009-03-16T22:09:00.014+08:00

after history class about the Yellow Crane Tower, we headed off to the Crane Tower. the bus driver didnt turn on the air con so it was really stuffy in the bus. instead he opened the hood on the top of the bus which made it worse cos all the dust from the road got into the bus. now everyone's suffering from a bad throat.

check out the spelling. hahah!

i have no idea what i says but i think it's cool that visitors carve on the bamboos

shakkir act shy only

the mao shop. wanted to buy a mao badge but it costs 50 yuan for a small one.

forget it. but i really wanted to. am quite a fan of mao.

our tour guide. she was really patient with us cos everyone seemed to go their own way

dr zhu's daughter. sophia.

happy family. awwww

told you dr zhu's wife was pretty

dikir barat

bought my mother a fan. its hand painted and eah has its unique design.
oh plus he painted names on the fan

38 yuan for the small ones. 120 yuan for the bigger ones

awesomeness

kit's for her mom

buddy

pork and frog meat. ugh.
the table opposite us had a plate of turtle.
lunch was horrible. all i had was brocolli, rice and shrimp.
and i still had to pay 24.30 yuan. RAH! angry

and the guy sitting behind me kept spitting on the floor

and people were smoking in the restaurants. the streets are already polluted enough thought the air would better in the restaurant. apparently not. i might die of pollution. pfft.

we were bored. haha

gaying

hulk

we couldnt go in cos its under renovations. sad.
it's the 1911 revolution museum

and so we headed back to our dorms

this is glitter boy jonathan btw

no more flex man cos he doesnt wear his flex man jacket anymore cos it's hot here

instead he wore his glitter nike shirt yesterday :)

btw i lost my fave umbrella D: i am very upset about it.

end of day 14!

Day 13

2009-03-15T21:37:00.004+08:00

kit stepped on dog shit today

the two best friend! so adorable these two. they remembered us.
the one in hot pink jacket action model only all her poses

shakkir LOVES wasabe.

2 blind men and a handicap, street busking

this is how cheap labour can be for the old folks here just to earn a living

nope they aren't soft toys
they're puppies sold on the streets.
all of them are adorable but i find its kinda cruel to sell them like that

bought small knick knacks at a street which reminds me of haji lane. kit got manicure again for 10 yuan this time.

i realised that the salons here, the stylists are men. unlike in singapore where most of the stylists are women. plus very few drivers here pay any attention to the red lights. was very frustrated today with all the honking. the people here and honk till the day ends. the love to HONK. felt so wasted today paying 25 yuan for fried rice which was super spicy. such a waste of money. to compensate for that guilt, had tuna with bread with kang qi in the dorm while kit and amanda went halal again. believe it or not, i miss school D:

Day 12

2009-03-14T21:06:00.011+08:00

people here can study in the cold. anywhere and everywhere. pfft.

we were supposed to be studying here from this week onwards. but no! the construction works aren't finished yet. grr.

i took a plane to japan and took photos of these flowers.
believe me? haha. its spring ppl! :)

woke up this morning with an angry stomach. saw dr zhu carrying his daughter. she was really shy. ok more of anted to sleep. haha. his wife is like omg pretty.
went around campus while kang qi stayed in the dorm and kit and amanda went shopping. it was nice to have me-time. later played soccer with the guys and then we went out for dinner at the halal stall. i miss home food D:

end of day 12!

Day 11

2009-03-13T23:19:00.005+08:00

hao ping sleeping

we were supposed to go for industrial visit today but instead we had math classes again cos of the weather. it was freezing old today. till people started chattering after they left the building. kand qi and i ran to perspire a little. but it failed. we have halal food every time at the halal stall. we went back to class and there were a few girls playing chapteh outside our classroom. so fariz, ram shakkir jonathan decided to join them. i joined later on. the little girls were pretty and they knew how to play the chapteh well.

went back to our dorms after class ended and i slept till it was time to leave for dinner. it was cod there was internet problems and my body was super weak. felt like hybernating. im so hoping i feel better tomorrow. so that i dont haveto go to thr clinic or pharmacy.

supposed to go to the theme park tomorrow but dr zhu said leave that for another weak cos saturday there'll be alot of people taking the public bus and the system here is push to get onto the bus. its survival of the fittest here. to get on a bus. haha! and for us to hire a bus to get te whole class to the theme park requires 600 yuan. so forget it. we'll be going on one of the weekdays. so the rest decided to go to town again tmw. which im obliging to go cos its so boring there. so ill probably hybernate till late afternoon then walk around campus and find my photography inspiration again. since my photos have been lacking concept these days. there's nothing much to take these days cos we're in and out of class and back to dorms after that. thats all. so i promise. good photos tmw! :)

check this out. we have this back in sg. those exercising areas.

end of day 11

Day 10

2009-03-12T22:03:00.004+08:00

had history class this morning about china's educational system. omg there's over a thousand universities in china. the educational system here is similar to that in singapore. just that they choose to go for national service here. haha.
got back my quiz. did pretty well. haha. scored.
it felt like a black and white day today. for me. boring and dull. spent the afternoon watching movies. oh and it rained today. i'd rather it snow. thus with such a horrible weather, it was freezing cold. my nose was about to drop off.

end of day 10!

Day 9

2009-03-11T20:47:00.007+08:00

we had math classes today again. quiz in the afternoon. integration was never a headache for me. RAH! quiz was ok i guess

chee ket, the monk

peter pan!

the anti-socials

so after class we went to town for some shopping. most of us waited at the arcade for the rest to finish their shopping. and this was what happened. shakkir nonsense only lah.

its frise here. cool. theyre cool like that.

kang qi's dinner. crispy pork burger

the most annoying person around

classic.

eh that's kit's finger. really. 60 yuan manicure.

and this is for dorothy! :) HAPPY BIRTHDAY DOT LOVE!

Day 8

2009-03-10T22:14:00.004+08:00

kit action only

aziz caught red handed. haha. he slept for like uh half an hour?

brother shakkir kept laughing to himself during class cos he didn't understand at all.

the woman at the stall nearby reserved for me you tiao cos yesterday i wanted to buy but they sold out. i feel so honoured!
we had class today at 10. ended at 12 and we had class again from 1 to 3 in the afternoon again. it feels good to do math again :)
it's super windy today. and the classroom was freezing cold. the wierd thing is when we get out of the building, the weather is hot as in like when we reah our dorms, we actually perspire! spring is coming people!
so we had halal food again for lunch. i told kit, the chinese people in my class can become muslims already. haha. cos everyday eat halal food. and gues what people, kit is eating rice! omg! the fried rice from the halal stall everyday. REVELATION! cos she doesnt eat rice at all.

kit and i went back to out dorms while kang qi and amana went to help us print our huazhong campus student cards. and we decided to buy ice cream. mine was strawberry ripples and hers was chocolate with vanilla inside. ice cream in the cold is COOL.

i cannot stand kang qi. she's the most hilarious person on earth. kit, your position as funniest person is taken away already. haha! :) watched like 3 movies since ive done all the tutorials already. aqilah the speedy math gonzalez. woohoo! and kit keeps wasting her money on milk tea. pfft.
i was telling kit just now when we went to buy tmw's breakfast that i miss the singapore food D: especially my mother's tofu soup and ramli burger!!! waaaahhhhhh.

ok better go study for math quiz tmw. jen oh jen. my math partner.

end of day 8. it was boringggggggg. rah! tmw's a better day, hopefully.

Day 7, 1st Week

2009-03-09T22:42:00.009+08:00

amanda da jie
hahahahahahahahhaahhahahahahaahahahhahahahahahahahahaha

look at the focus. not the subject. haha!

history class. we learnt about Confucius and Tao.

our principal and his important right hand man came by today in a tinted window-ed van to pay us a visit. he gave us an encouraging speech and left for another meet up i guess. we felt like important figures. oh yes we are. :)

climbing the great wall of china

i think we're becoming obsessed with the kids here. tsk.

math class. sad and frustrated forgot how to do one math qn.
i miss jen D:

the turtle and the hare. true story happen to us today. the turtle won.
(looks at kit and kang qi, cough*the most patient people around *cough)

check out the snow!
hahahahahahhaha. kidding.
its the dust in the air. yeap its that filthy here.

we went to southeast gate today where the place was pretty much like 'pasar malam' or so we name it that. it reminded me of chinatown back in Singapore.

my dinner

the baby's butt was not covered man. scared he suddenly poop on my hand
so heavy. face like mine. so round. dont be jealous.

we took the bus back to our dorms. paid by jonathan the flex man :)

oh i bought a jacket today. the zip broke but still can zip up. so im hoping i can exchange for another tmw. pray for me ppl! oh and i scalded my hand today but luckily no blister or whatever. just red and painful.

and fariz says peace out homies!

end of 1 week in wuhan! omg!

Day 6

2009-03-08T23:55:00.013+08:00

OMG IT'S ALREADY BEEN 6 DAYS HERE. almost a week. i think it's cos time flies when youre having fun. :)
we had free day today. so us girls stayed in the dorm till 4. washed my clothes with the freezing tap water and got arm muscles from wringing my clothes dry. i salute my grandma i tell you. she used to hand wash her clothes. i couldn't take it already after wringing 3 clothes. like should ask my netball girls to wring clothes to get hand muscles. haha! ok set! shall do it when i get back. hah! my arm super hard now. don't jealous. didn't even have to lift weights. and i wrung her clothes dry unlike amanda and kit where water was dripping on the floor. and sophia had to do her job again. ok won't remind you who sophia is. she will kill me when she reads this. haha. hello amanda's parents who are reading this! (that's a hint ok ppl).

the two best friends. awwww.
this photo makes me miss my sister D:

the cute naughty boy the two bestfriends were talking to yesterday :)
he's so cute. he made faces with me today. it's with and not at. haha!

my wuhan covergirl

saw alot of bouquet of flowers today. it's not valentine's is it?

lao ah pek has no teeth

lots of skater dudes in campus
dorothy! you sure you don't want their numbers? haha! joke.

friendly old couple
say hello so all the stall vendors

the local milk tea
kang qi says she's addicted to it alr. hor hor.

they munch and suck on sugar cane like as if its a sweet.
they dont squeeze it out with a machine here

our SBS bus in campus

the wuhan people LOVE to eat pineapples.
it's everywhere on the streets and in the markets as well.
freshly cut ones

muslims selling mutton satay

the inside of this place looks so like TANGS back in Singapore.
we only go in here to use their toilet cos its really clean. haha!

shocked to see mini cooper in this city

the guys were like 'omg the salesgirl in this shop super pretty' and shakkir was the first to ask her to snap a photo with him. no shame lah shakkir. jonathan and ram took photos with her too. shakkir said "eh im the closest to her lah dont jealous" pfft. desperados.

the gang bang who went shopping today
thats the shopping centre thats like far east :)
btw check out ram's fedora's hat

kenneth's leather fedora hat! kit and i bought this for him
kenneth awak suka? for 70 yuan only. waha.
ken you can look like a mafia now. in campus.

my dinner :) yum.
zha jiang mian. minced meat handmade noodles

ram brother don't know how to wear a fedora properly
its worn the wrong way

beef dumplings. awesomeness
5 yuan for so many dumplings

and finally i bought hani this.
HANI WHY NEVER PICK UP YOUR PHONE AGAIN!
do you love it? :)

we'll end today with a salute from kit ming. so st john ah she. cannot stand her. everytime salute here and there. irritating sisterhood. haha.

end of day 6! :)

Day 5

2009-03-08T02:34:00.025+08:00

we were supposed to meet up with the chinese studies students at 8.10 in the morning. and guess what. we woke up at 8.09. haha! with only 1 minute to spare, we hurried like rats around the dorm and kit and kang qi even forgot to change their slippers to shoes. super funny. and we were in such a rush such that amanda forgot her wallet and her watch. and i had to wash my face with my waterbottle. we're cool like that. don't laugh.

and so we went to Hubei Province Museum for a history and culture tour about the past people living in Hubei. It took about 2 hours? apporximately that long. it was in chinese but i had help here and there with translations from kang qi, kit and our china friend who majors in english. the tour was really fast and i didnt get much time to read the boards up on the walls.

on the left is the main museum building and on the right is where we watched the performance after the museum tour.

aziz no more a snowman. like me. haha!

i dont know what pose you were aiming for ha kun

ngee ann students dominated the whole place. ok not totally.

this is cool. its where you place your wet umbrellas. you have to unlock the slots with keys to open it up so like it kind of like secures your umbrella so others don't take them away.

this tomb right here was their casket

and later put into this primary tomb. protection against? unnecessary much?

they were obsessed with the phoenix

these big bronze barrels are used to keep wine. apparently the emporers loved wine so much, they had like many different kinds of pots and barrels just for wine.

instrumetns in olden times

used to store their clothes

pure gold! just to eat. pfft.

this is freaky, put this small jade things in the corpes' skull? er...

goldgoldgold

all hail the king

empress accesories

our china friend from the university we're living in

she majors in english. she practically speaks like an american
she's a helpful friend who helps me translate

the village life

amanda knows how to camwhore only
covergirl number 2.
kit! you have competition already, you better watch out

edward the gentleman!

the woman in red is our tour guide

COLD and BORED

agnes the video woman

COLD and BORED WAITING

our china friend who tagged along with us today
she's super nice. she's in the media club and reporting for their school's newspaper about us :)

then we went for a short performance which involved many old instruments from the history in olden times. what surprised me was they played a western piece at the end to prove that not only can the chinese instruments play traditional tunes but western ones as well

this is really cool, no?

lots of kite-flying
ill come back here to fly a kite before i return home to Singapore

lots of old men passing their time fishing
dr zhu said the fish from this lake is fresh and nice
we'll see about that soon

we had a bus take us on a tour around the lake where i practically slept throughout the journey cos i was too tired and i entrusted kang qi with my camera. it came back in one piece :)

my lunch. halal burger, and fries

the chinese girls' lunch

abdul, the hyperactive boy from 2 days earlier, kicked the boy on the left. abdul was called back in for a scolding.

kamsahamida! our korean neighbours enjoying their homemade kimchi and mixed rice

we had seafood maggi for dinner which had mushroom, eggs and cabbage
awesomeness :)

the halal burger stall

the two puffy girls from 2 days earlier talking to a boy
can't stand them. they way they communicate with each other is too adorable

kit has problems wearing her socks properly
her socks keeps slipping off

the beginning:
kit action pro air hockey player
shakkir scared alreeady

2 all

shakkir let go of his defence and kit still can't put the chip in. haha!
final score: kit 2, shakkir 4

this is super funny
shakkir and ram tried to play para-para for the first time
and they even failed level one of easy. haha!

so we went to the arcade in town where we spent like 2 hours there trying to finish our games. we collected a total of 164 coupons, all of us combined and we're gonna keep it to get something in exchange since we have 6 weeks still. i'm not going to spend money on tokens anymore. waste of money only.

fariz says he's an all Adidas man.
true enough. he has nothing else but Adidas

i don't like guys who are petty with their food choices
which the guys were where they were choosing between Macs and KFC
it was already so late and all the shops closed already still so petty

the guys were starving so us girls accompanied them to KFC as we needed them to send us off to our dorms as it was already 11 at night and the streets in town were already quite abandoned.
the night life in Wuhan City isn't really night life at all. the streets are quiet unlike Singapore on a Saturday night at 11.

so after that we had a long walk back to our dorms where the guys accompanied us back and for being such gentlemen, we spread bread for them with nutella and peanut butter. since some of them didn't eat at KFC cos it was ex. kang qi, kit and i bought ice cream which was really nice. i think it tastes better than island creamery in Singapore. haha!

then later on kang qi's lock couldn't open her drawer lock so kit and i helped her and kit succeeded, SHOCKINGLY! the princess knows how to break the problem combination man. all hail princess kit. haha you know i love you kit :D kang qi you can always turn to us if you have problems. dont keep em to yourself cos it can't be solved like that. like what kit says, ONE FOR FOUR, FOUR FOR ONE (its supposed to be all for one and one for four, but kit's smart that way).

day 5 has been quite an experience with the guys around :)

Day 4

2009-03-07T01:56:00.011+08:00

kit yawning away. and she was like the latest to wake up pls!

everyone wants to sleep

told you so :)

yiren, reebok bag dude i forgot his name and waffle wilfred!

the woman is our Chinese Culture lecturer :) she's a scholar

we had to wake up at 7 to go for class which was supposed to start at 8.15 as we girls have to walk super far to the classroom which is like just beside the guy's dorms. we waited so long for the com to start but in the end it didn't work so we had to walk back to the history department building for our Chinese Culture class which is like a few stones throw away from the girls' dorms.

in the end there was another technical fault so our class was postponed to afternoon at 2.30pm
so we were free for the day. so we went to the market to buy some stuff again. i think we're like a common face there already. can like become a member there already. together with all the other china students. haha!

while on our way to the underground market this grandma was sitting outside in the cold alone. i promised myself i would take a photo with an senior citizen here so here it is! :) she hugged me and i was like woah! ok! so cute ah this aunty. then kit kang qi and amanda took a photo with her too. amanda said she tap heoulder really solid hard. maybe it's cos i had my fluffy jacket on so i didn't feel a thing. haha! i will remember her for life :D

on the way back to our dorms kit and kang qi bought bubble tea milk tea which i didn't like at all cos it tasted wierd but they liked it and they bought it again later in the evening.

and this was when we saw the cute little baby girl at the bubble tea shop. dont you just wanna hug her. she knows how to bow as in like to say thank you.

one thing i've learnt about amanda. she hates cats too. haha. but at least i dare to go near it. ok not really near, this is a zoom-ed picture.

the rest were eating road side food which they claimed is nice. ah well. and aziz found out that the bubble tea shop sells halal fast food. MY SUFFERING DAYS ARE OVER! HAHAHA! how to lose weight you tell me.

our bag of biscuits for 1 yuan!

the public male toilet which is like. ummmm im speechless.

so we went back to our dorms in the end we blogged and updated our blogs since we havent been doing so for the past few days.

so we went for lunch with the guys at a halal restaurant in campus which fariz found. we had beef banmian which is like really different from what they have back in Singapore. as in taste wise. nevertheless. NICE!

some performance by some local aunties. which involved red yellow and orange cloth and small drums. i think it was an exercise kind of thing as well?

the girls line up to shoot hoops

amanda i love to bully you

copy cats only

irritating sisterhood. haha!

we bought our gloves together :D

my little sister! :) she's super fierce.

in sickness and in health till death do us part

the guys came over to our dorm an used our internet since they dont have ny at their dorms. while enjoying the priviledge, we went to cook dinner. we had pasta which we bought from the wallmart and pasta tomato sauce which i brought from Singapore. it was a really awesome dinner :) no burnt smell whatsoever. (looks at amanda, haha!)

and we have a really nice view our our window.

and ill end day 4 with a picture of our hardworking maid, Sophia

end of day 4 :)

Day 3

2009-03-07T00:59:00.016+08:00

the weather was better. it was 5 to 12 degrees. its a sign spring is coming :)
unfortunately it means, there's no more snow D:

some ladies chilling at the park playing cards. there were also woman knitting in the cold. i think they were waiting for their children to finish primary school which is like just opposite the park.

muslim man
look at his songkok

so many beggers along the streets, very sad for them D:
there was a begger who persistantly asked people to donate to her and like she'll follow you all the way whereever you go eventhough you refuse so many times. only shakeh and jonathan donated once and like she still followed them after that to ask for more. btw they spent 140 yuan on chocolates. and there were only 7 pieces? they were cheated. haha

we woke up at 1 in the afternoon and went to town. we're ool people like that. i think we were the latest to wake up. we went to buy our groceries and daily necessities like wang wang biscuits, loads of food for cooking, our cooking pot and etc.

ok this is kind of a bad picture but her cheeks were super pink just like many other kids' cheeks here.

this is our underground market where we buy our groceries :)

told you there were fluffy dogs around. adorable ones!

the woman in the black jacket is their nanny

the two best friends! omg so cute. i love them. they were super friendly and very smart. i like the way the one with the ponytail draws on the concrete pillar.

chau liang aiseh
the yellow shirt guy is edward the gentleman :)

aziz and flexman jonathan!

ram was the star player as he scored practically every goal in and shakkir can't play soccer for nuts.

the guys played street soccer in the freezing cold with some of the foreign syudents staying at our dorm building. they actually jogged like half of the campus to come to our dorm building as their dorm is like way on the other side of the campus.
shakkir was the only guy who wore slippers in the cold weather just to pay soccer as his vans isn't suitable for soccer. a russian guy played soccer with the guys and another group of african guys played basketball with chau liang and edward.i played basketball later on too for awhile which kinda like made me sweat in the icy cold weather.

the boy you see here speaks fluent mandarin and speaks like those china kids.

chau liang was the only one who could hold him down. oh and kang qi too, SHOCKINGLY!
kang qi was the only one who could talk to him and like really entertain him. VERY SHOCKING really!

abdul has so much energy in that small body

kit cannot handle children for sure. haha.

this cute adorable boy is abdul
he's a russian and he lives in our dorm building. he has so much energy you feel old just playing with him. he loves Kang Qi alot and kicks kit ming. so i guess he doesnt really like her lah huh. haha! kidding kit! :D amanda is an old fart thats why she can't catch up with him. haha. ok im going to get bombarded in their posts :p

from this to

THIS

amanda cooked this for dinner. does it look like a success? you decide. haha.
ok i've got to ive her credit for taking up the challenged of cooking eventhough the bottom of the pot was burnt and it stinked up the whole floor of dorms. but its ok. we still love you amanda :) so the rest of the girls ate peanut conggi while me and kit ate our mee suah with soup. it was an awesome success cos aqilah cooked it. haha! kidding. nah it was cos of the chicken stock and soup is like real easy to cook. so yeah. oh and we had chicken dumplings as well which the agnes gang bought for us to share.

the kitchen wasn't what we expected as in it had wierd smells cometimes cos of the many foreign food stored in the fridge and whatever in the world they cook in there but still, it is pretty much decent and clean at times. we're contented as long as we can cook dinner ourselves and save on spending on outside food.

maybe they're pretendingto enjoy the food, i don't know.
haha but it was nice to a certain extent, really.