Week 6

Day 7

The day of liftoff...

A sad day and a happy day too for many.For those that missed home they were really happy to finally be back in their own comfort zone, for those who did not like the feeling of going back were sad and unrelectant, but i guess the majority was of mixed feelings. They had finally gotten use to the lifestyle here in China and they were also missing home at the same time.

We got up early to get our things packed up and waited for the weighing of our luggages to begin. When my luggage was weighed, it read 29.5 kg!1.5kg more than when I arrived here.

During this time, Tom cme over and gave me a pendant with a real wolf tooth on it. It is a buddhist necklace of blessing that could protect the wearer as well as the people around it. We also gave Tom the pictures we took with his family and we wished him luck and vice versa.

We dragged all our oversized and overweight luggages to the awaiting bus where we gave out hugs and last wishes before leaving. The girls cried and we were sad. But this is the way of life, all good things will have to come to an end some day.

We slept through the bus ride and arrived at the airport 2 hours later. We waited approximately an hour before boarding the plane to Guang Zhou. There we quickly got our bags checked it.You know sometimes fate just love to drop by, and thats where we had a miscommunication with our teacher and alomost missed our flight. We mixed up the gates with the 1 outside and there we rushed nby the airport staff to the plane. We were told to pay 10 yuan each to take the car there, but we already apent all of it so we had to give 10 singapore dollars instead.

Thankfully we made it there on time and other than the stares we got, we had a safe flight back to Singapore where it was to many...HOME SWEET HOME!

This ended our misadventures, trip, journey whatever we call it.A meaningful trip I would say, but a misadventure likely I would conclude.

Goodbye China,at least for now...=D

Week 6

Day 6

The 2nd last day of our 42days here in Wuhan. We woke up later than usual this morning and left for our most expensive lunch of all...the buffet luch we talked about right at the start of our stay here in Wuhan!

The buffet was not much of a spread and having limitations like no beef and pork, there was so few choices and all of them had really small appetites, so I was left to finish many things. They had no Chicken too, so being a meat lover or carnivore as Hwee Ping would call me, I ordered loads of mutton and fish till the fish ran out.

We had our last minute shopping there at Luxiang before taking a taxi back to school fearing that we were gonna be late. We took 2 taxis, having 5 of us here. The really contradicting part of the people here in China is that almost every single rule here in China is broken, and here they are not breaking the rule that only 4 adults can sit in the taxi. after we boarded the taxi then we found out why. It seemed that there was a camera in all taxis viewing everything that happens in the taxi so I think thats the reason why they dared not break te rules.

We enjoyed a photo shoot with the whole group that left for Wuhan before laving for a reception at th language school. There 10 minutes before the event started, I was told I was going to be the MC along with Hwee Ping. I quickly drafted a little speech along with Hwee Ping and the reception soon got under way. We ahd a little speech by both the Dean and Mr Ma before a games session and interaction session. After which we enjoyed fireworks and sparklers next to the school. This caught the attention of the uninformed security guard and we had to wait for quite some time before we were allowed to play it.

We left for KFC after that and that ended our day.

I really hope I can 1 day be back here along with a really warm group of friends or even better family.The experience here has taught me much about friendship as well as kinship. The bonds forged between them is really so strong that I really get jealous sometimes thinking about my own family. I really hope I can foster this kind of bonds between my own family and live as happily as they do here.

Week 6

Day 5

Our last day in Tom's hometown.

Woke up early to have breakfast, our last country side breakfast with his family. After that, we gave them a little souvenir, our own currency while they bought for us bread, some local deicacies to bring back to Singapore.

We took the same route back to the bus station where we had to wait fo an hour for our bus back to Wuhan. During that time, we were constanly showered with stares, questions, beggars,etc.The toliet there was the worst I have ever seen. there was a long drain where u did your buisiness and after which it would be flushed by a powerful stream of water and there were also buckets not urinals for us to pee in. Fortunately we got on the bus soon enough and made our way back to Wuhan.

The guys were surprised by everyone's haircut except mine and we left forthe night market to get whatever things we still need to buy back home.

Time reall flies too fast,sometimes too fast indeed, the feeling of not wanting to go home became the strongest feeling of all, especially with the warm feeling of home from Tom's family.

Week 6

Day 4

2nd day in An qing.

We had a typical chinese breakfast in his house after our bathes in Tom aunt's home which supplied hot water for both drinking as well as bathing and it really tasted like home. I really hope to be able to have this feeling for a long time.

The breakfast consisted for many things like eggs, salted eggs, vegetables, peanuts. It looked almost the same as those in Wuhan, so i guess these must be the staple breakfast for people in China.

We headed for the Famous Buddhist Temple, Zhen Feng Da(Tower), Yingjiang Temple in Anhui Province right after breakfast in a van hired by his dad. The Tower which was created during the Ming Dynasty. It was once used to trap enemies as well, in times of war. This idea was thought of by Zhuge Liang. We also walked around the temple paying our respects to the deities as well as had our fortunes told.

After visitng the temple, we went to the shopping area in Anqing and shoppd around especially for the local specialties and sauce. after shoppinge went to Tom's aunt's hous to leave ou hoppin stuff there before leaving for the local zoo.

The animals were caged in a very inhumae way. In fact very badly housed. other than a roof over their heads and a little rocks here and there, most of the cages were just bare concrete for the animals to live in. Th sadness in their eyes could easily be seen. Really pitied them and wished I could free them. We also saw how bdly the zookeeper treated the horse, so we did not see why he not treat the other animals the same way.

We left soon after and went to see the laser show on the lake. we initially did not want to go to the area and to stay from the other bank to catch it, but we decided to go there in the end.

We took a taxi there and just as we settled down, the show ended, so we made our way back again and went back to Tom's house after collecting our stuff.

We had a wonderful dinner with his family where they whip up enough dishs to be served in a wedding!9 courses of good dishes!

After that we went next door to get our hair cut. the girls had perm and a reborn while Satish for a dye and a cut and myself a cut with a shanghai look to it. We went to sleep in Tom's house after that and here ends our day.

I really hope the animals can live in a better environment.the same animals the same objective, but a different environment.

Week 6

Day 3

The day for the trip to Tom's hometown.

We had breakfast with the whole group before leaving to take a bus to the bus station for the long trip bus to his hometown.

The stars seem to be smiling as us as throughout the whole journey to his hometown, we mange to get onto the buis without much waiting and everything was going on fine.

The bus trip to his hometown was 5 hours long where we had a little discomfort and the worst was just someone smoking in the bus.

Upon arrival, we took a taxi to the ferry terminal to cross the YangTze river to the other bank where we would continue of journey on bus to his house. The ferry was also used for transporting small vehicles like motorcycles. We learnt that there was another type of ferry that crosses the river and it transports mainly buses and cars.

The later on bus journey was filled with stares of the local people as they had even less foreign visitors as compared with Wuhan. His house was near the bus stop and we were welcomed warmly by Tom's mother who kept offering us tea and to be seated down. A warm welcome indeed. After settling down, we were brought on a tour around his house and we learnt and saw many things which cannot be found in Singapore anymore.

The house was really old and even around the area this was 1 of the oldest. They had a well which was very deep and the water was used as drinking water last time but now just for washing clothes and dishes. It was really clear and if I had the chance, would try it. They reared chickens, both the chicks and the grown up ones. Everyday they would collect the eggs from the chickens and they would feed them with the left overs of their meals mixed with chicken food. their house was 2 storeys high with roof excess so that makes 3. They had 2 rooms to themselves and the rest were rented out to a hairdresser and a cook. They had had a solar cells on their roof tops and we were told only well of families could afford it. Next we went to have a tour around their cotton factory which was just round the corner. It was quite big and since the season was over empty as well. They still had a few packages of the processed cotton left and it was really soft. We left for the viewing of their cotton fields was was now planted with other kinds of plants. Tom told us it was small, but when we got there...WOAH it was very wide with the size of many football fields on end!We left foe the last visit and that was the primary school that Tom and his dad hd attended when they were both young...imagine how old the school is! We took pictures of the classroon with the students in them and the condition that the tables and chair was in really looked like how it was back in Singapore when we were in primary school.

After all our visits, we went the best motel around the area which was also round the corner to have dinner there. this was wear we felt the hospitality of Chinese families. we were treated to nic spread of dishes where we also learnt the manners of the chinese. they loved toasting to each other not to mention their passion to drink! last but not least, the chefs came out to have a picture with us, saying that it was their honour to be able to cook for us. we were really treated liek kings and queens there.

We left for bathe and the girls stayed at Tom's parent's room while the boys stayed at the motel that we dined.

The chinese hospitality is something which cannot be matched with hotel services. it is really filled with warmth and they really gived their best to us...For the first time, i'm actaully pleased with the people in China.

Week 6

Day 2

The day of submission for our APPG miniproject.

I stayed up the whole night to complete this assignement adding features here and there. people ask me "why bother to do so much for a thing that only gives you just 10% of your grades of APPG?"

Well, this has been the mindset of many, and sad to say even myself as well for a few occasions. having been through so much from primary school to now, polytechnic, I have seen all the ups and downs of either my peers or myself. This has really made me want to be able to do the best that I can. Especially with my recent deproving of last semester's results, I have decided that doing my best in everything is the only option that I can have.

Interview went smooth and we all were glad that we had a big burden removed finally. We went to get a cake for Sasi's sister and we singed her a birthday song through the webcam as we not able to be there to celebrate her birthday with her. Sasi cried instead of her sister but her sister still cried later on an hour later. This really proved to me how kinship really mattered to anyone despite being so far from home. Treasure this family as much as you can for one does not know how long can one still treasure it.

We left for the shopping area half an hour away form school to purchase uor door gifts for Tom's family as we were leaving for his house the following morning. We ended up geting tea leaves and honey for him.

At night, we received a call from Tom saying that the trip to his hometown might have to be cancelled due to the Dean's concern for our safty as we were leaving the province. We did not mind having to waste money, just the experience of being to a country side was now so far away.

Week 6

Day 1

A free an easy day or maybe not so free. we had to finish up all our assignments on this day and be ready to hand up our assignments inn the next few days. the assignments were few but thorough so we had to really put in our efforts and get it properly done before we could really enjoy ourselves.

the day started out slow and we continued our assignments. lunch passed and we were still at it. at night we had dinner at the little food house near the school. Wuchang fish, vegetables,etc. this would be 1 of the last few times that we could savour the food from China so we put aside of our thoughts and enjoyed our meal.

We had briefing after our dinner where we had to return our meal cards. This in turn really gave us the feeling that we would be flying off real soon and the 42 days in Wuhan would be over.

Time really flies when you start to enjoy and have fun. I still can remember the first few days here in Wuhan where everyone wanted to go home because of the infamiliar and bad conditions that we were facing, and now...we all dont really want to go home as yet.

Week 5
Day 7
We had our military training at the place where we had our barbeque. The training started early and many people were late as a result. I noticed that ever since we came to China, the people here in China has a habit of coming early, but the people of Singapore have a habit of always coming late except for the minority that is. Is really depicts a bad image of us Singaporeans to be a not punctual people and something needs to be done about it.
We started with a little ice breakers before breaking into teams to do up our group name and flag. Activities were next and 1 of the nicest to play was the tank caterpillar track where we had to use newspapers as our caterpillar track and we are the wheels. The activity was fun with a lot of things to learn. In fact this is the first time I have seen this activity and I’m hoping to implement this activity to my juniors as well. It really trains up IQ and gets us thinking, it also helps to improve communication between the group members as everyone is needed to make this activity a success. Following that we did trust fall, a little high element and rock climbing. Although all these activities have been done in Singapore many times over, but doing it as 1 big group and as a mature adult is what makes it more worthwhile.

Week 5
Day 6

Monday! I’m into the 8th day before I return back to Singapore. I have a kind of “don’t want to leave kind of feeling”. O well, certain must end.

We woke at 10 today! The latest ever in the history of us being here in Wuhan. We did our stuff again till it was time to meet the girls. However, an hour before our meeting time, Hwee ping came down saying Sasi would not be joining us for lunch for certain reasons unknown to us.
We attended lessons after lunch where we went through the papers and did a small revision on the recent chapters. This was the time where was caught sleeping in class again! Really it was not on purpose. I have been sleeping really late, much later than 3a.m recently for 2 weeks already.

Went for dinner before heading back to the service apartment to carry on with our stuff before bed. An original day again but filled with a little different feeling.

Cherish the times we have with either our family or friends. Time is precious and passes really quickly. There are times where we have to be separated from our loved ones or comfort zones, so we must always cherish the times we have together.

Week 5
Day 5

Sunday…9 more days till we go back to Singapore. Time really flies when you are doing something else that you prefer doing. It has been 30+ days ever since we touched down at the Wuhan Tianhe airport. It really feels kind of different when you are out there by yourself with no one to take care of you.

We woke up late this morning and did out stuff before meeting the girls for lunch. We had maggi noodles for lunch and it tasted quite bland but still all right.

We left for lu xinag guan chang to see if we could find a bank to get our money changed. We went to many banks but they all did not offer this service on weekends or that such a small amount of request for changes of money caused them not to have such services for Singapore currency. We were informed that the biggest china back had our currency but we had to wait till Tuesday before we could change money. We had the much missed mutton sticks which could not beat the taste of that of the man who made it outside the school.

We went back to school to do our stuff again before going for dinner and that ends our day.

Week 5
Day 4

Finally a Saturday that we are not going out of school for a trip! However it comes with a price and that is we have got to study and settle all our projects within this few days!

We woke up at around 9 plus this morning and began doing our work till about lunch time where we met up with Tom to go book the train tickets for the trip to his hometown. When we got there, we were told that the trains were cancelled ever since March; it looks like the trains to his hometown have been cancelled for quite some time already with no news of it. We decided to take bus there instead. It takes the same amount of time which is 5 hours.

We had lunch at the fake KFC. The food there was tasted quite alright and in fact it looked really identical to the ones in KFC! Even the packaging of the food looked alike. I found out that the chicken supplier of KFC and the fake KFC is the same, only the taste tasted a little different.
We left to buy Sasi’s umbrella and our breakfast for tomorrow. We went back with Tom following us there. He played C.S with us throughout the time after checking the games that we had. We had dinner at canteen 2 after that.

Different countries have different methods of working. In Singapore every single actions or happenings will be reported and most people will know about it, but in China, not everything will be reported, if not just a small portion of information will be revealed.

Week 5
Day 3

It’s Friday, which means the weekends! It was supposed to mean free time or excursion time, but due to the fact that next week is the week where all our assignments are due and the last test is on, this weekend would not a wonderful one.

Started out with revision of the APPG papers today. We also got back our results for the first theory test. I got 81! Actually its 82 but teacher counted wrongly. Guess what? There were around 5 to people who got the same results.

There were quite a number of people that were not happy with their results due to their carelessness. Bless them that they may be more careful next time and get better grades.
We did our I.S assignment till 6 p.m where we made our way in the drizzle to the fish ball restaurant where we will be meeting Tom for dinner.

Initially we thought he was late as we waited close to half an hour, but it turned out that he arrived and when he reached, he could not find us and went to our service apartment instead and then he went back again. We had a good laugh about it before sitting to order our food. Our dinner consisted of wenchang fish, fishballs and egg, a simple but filling meal.

After dinner it was raining even more heavily and we went back to the motel beside the school to meet Mr. Chua to discuss about the 3D2N trip to Tom’s hometown in Anhui. He agreed soon and we thanked both of them as this was a rare chance for us to explore the lives of China people.

We will b e going on the Friday after this week and this would be a really valuable trip for us as we are going to learn the difference between the lives of Singaporeans and people in china. This would allow us to understand the sufferings or advantages that the people in china have.

INTERCULTURAL READINESS SELF ASSESSMENT

Open-mindedness

Current self estimate:90
Target after the trip: 95
Comment/ strategy: I have always been open-minded but not the fullest extent. Mixing with the people in China has made been more open-minded.

Respect for other beliefs

Current self estimate:95
Target after the trip: 95
Comment/ strategy: My respect for other beliefs has always been there a I believe every individual has their own ideas and beliefs. We should respect them as we don't want others to question of beliefs too.

Trust in other people

Current self estimate:85
Target after the trip: 90
Comment/ strategy: Trust in other people back in Singapore has always been there and after hearing about the people in China. how dishonest some of the people are, i increased my guard and lowered my trust in people, but i trusted the peopl here

Tolerance for discomfort

Current self estimate:90
Target after the trip: 95
Comment/ strategy: Discomfort can be overcomed by facing more of it. Only by facing it can we overcome it.

Tolerance fo ambiguity

Current self estimate:70
Target after the trip: 85
Comment/ strategy: There were any doubts, doubts for the people, food, etc, but it all can be settled by experiencing

Patience

Current self estimate:85
Target after the trip: 85
Comment/ strategy: Patience remains the same as things like he transportation is really fast but the wait for food is slow so its equal.

Sense of personal control

Current self estimate:75
Target after the trip: 80
Comment/ strategy: Being alone without family or guardians to help you with things creates an envirobment where we have to be independant and have self-control.

Interpersonal skills

Current self estimate:80
Target after the trip: 90
Comment/ strategy: Communication between people is very important, it helps to link people together and get things done. Try to listen more and do more actions rather than talk more.

Willingness to take initiative

Current self estimate:75
Target after the trip: 80
Comment/ strategy: In a foreign place, independence is needed and that is where we also have not much of a choice but to take initiative, but willing to take it is also important, as it helps in the working life.

Willingness to take risks

Current self estimate:90
Target after the trip: 95
Comment/ strategy: Risks are everywhere, it happens every second. It is unavoidable and that leaves us to take what kind of risks, when and where to take it. Coming to China is a a greater risks tahn being in Singapore. Eating and drinking in China is also a risk.

Sense of humour

Current self estimate:90
Target after the trip: 90

Curiousity about other cultures

Current self estimate:80
Target after the trip: 85
Comment/ strategy: I am a chinese but the cultures of chinese in Singapore and the chinese in China is quite different. I like to know the history and the culture of my background.

Comfort level with strangers

Current self estimate:90
Target after the trip: 95
Comment/ strategy: Being in a foreign country with less than 10 familiar faces makes interaction with strangers very common, and because of that,I'm comfortable with them now.

Week 5
Day 2

The weather is as it always is, unpredictable. The temperature dropped down to 9 degrees again! Whenever the temperature starts to rises, the temperature would drop again.
We had I.S in the morning where the director taught us Taoism and Buddhism. As I am a Taoist, I was very interested to learn more about my religion. It seemed that my religion ran away from problems instead of solving them, it had a very different method to achieve the goal.
After lunch the venue of the lesson was changed to a special classroom with headphones and a little control panel. This was the venue for the I.S lesson on Feng Shui and traditional and modern weddings. I fell asleep in class for the first 10 minutes along with many others. It was unintentional but I had already tried my best to keep awake. The topic slowly turned away to the videos on traditional, modern weddings as well as Feng Shui. The main attraction was not all these information, but the way we learnt this. We were listening through the headsets on what the lecturer said as well as what the program was saying. It also allowed the individual to ask the lecturer a question like calling them. I find really well for learning.

After lesson, we discussed with Mr. Chua and came up with the conclusion that the excursion to beauty valley so that we may use this time to study for the theory test. The day camp may be postponed to Monday leaving Tuesday for revising for the test.

We went for dinner after lessons, and I got a packed sausage from the grocery shop next to the canteen and found it to really taste bad. I wonder how the people of China eat it.
Time is really precious, and every single second is equally important. The amount of time spent here in Wuhan is really short and all our assignments are squeezed together. We really need to learn how to control and plan our time well so that we can cope.

Week 5
Day 1

I.S day for us, so we woke up at around 6.30 and got ready for the lesson. Met the girls slightly later, so we walked faster for class, after all we are having a guest lecturer today.

The director of the foreign language school was our guest lecturer today. He even sent us a message to remind us the lesson today at 8am, early in the morning. That was nice of him to remind us of our lesson. We touched on much of the culture and history of China. It was a really enriching experience as China’s history was really vast and interesting as well. The cultural knowledge that the guest lecturer imparted was really inspiring as it brought back all the past teachings that got and made me realise how off the path of the teachings in the cultural ways I was in, really can’t wait for the continuous of the slides.

We went for lunch after lessons and then back to lessons again to complete our assignments. Satish was stuck with his lab 7, it seemed like a very small but hard to spot mistake because it took him so long just to spot the error, around 1 hour?

Inner was supposedly at the restaurant that sells almost identical food as the KFC. We tried looking for it but with no avail. We decided to dine in KFC where we tried the ice-cream there. It tasted like the white rabbit sweet! Despite the taste, it was still quite all right.

We headed back after dinner and guess what? We found the palace we were looking for! It just a stone’s throw from KFC! We really regretted not looking carefully and decided to come here after some time.

The culture lessons that we went today really very good and enriching. The antics taught by Confucius and Mencius really inspired me to become a better person.