Day 27 and 28 (30th and 31st March)

Day 27:

Lesson was pushed back till 10A.M. However, still woke up early. Went back to the cultural village early in the morning with Jia He and Zhi Hui to look for Zhi Hui's glasses. Sad to say, he lost his glasses yesterday night during the BBQ.

After searching for around 10 minutes, we finally found his glasses. It was lying somewhere near the BBQ and it was weird that none of us spotted it even though we were pacing around that area. Luckily, no one stepped on the glasses.

Went to eat breakfast at canteen 1. Ate something like glutinous rice. I ate only 1 bowl and I felt so bloated up. After breakfast, went for lessons. The same old story continues...APPG lessons, getting stuck with programming codes blah blah blah..Then afternoon lesson again..same old story continues...

After lessons, went back to dorm. Chewy, Zhi Hui, Sebby and Satish went to play ping pong. I stayed behind as I had to do my laundry. While doing laundry, Dave was making frequent visits to the other toilet in our dorm. He sounded as if he was vomitting and he looked quite sick. I asked him whether he was alright, but no reply. Guess he was too sick to reply. Not long after that, Chewy and Zhi Hui came back. Dave's condition worsened, so we called Mr Chua and Mr Ma. Soon, they arrived at our dorm and we brought Dave to the hospital beside the school campus.

Poor Dave. He had to take a blood test and had an injection. The blood test revealed that he got food poisoning. We thought that after we could go back after the injection. However, that was not the end. Dave still got to be put on drip. FOUR BOTTLES glucose. We accompanied him until around 3 hours later then he was 'discharged' from the hospital. While waiting for him, we were talking to a Chinese man, who kept asking about Singapore. I guess this is called interaction as well ?

The standard of the hospital is quite different as compared to Singapore's hospital. For example, doctor consultation is conducted in a room where other patients and outsiders can enter freely. How can the patients have PRIVACY ?The staff there is not so friendly and polite. For example, when Dave was feeling cold, we asked the nurse whether she could help turn on the heater. She looked at us and said in Chinese, " What for ? The weather is not so cold. How can he feel cold when he's under a blanket." After that, she gave us a dull face and walked off.

Four bottles of glucose drip.

Dave feeling really sick.

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Day 28:

The usual day today. Had APPG lessons...... Was working on my project during lesson. Was so frustrated because my program cannot run smoothly. Got to delete my codes here and there and add different codes here and there.

Went to Hua Tai Street for dinner again with the usual peeps. Ate the Tang Yuan. Did I mention that the tang yuans are actually quite tasty that I had been eating them for 3 straight days!! I think the tang yuan taste gave me a feeling of home. I'm so missing Singapore now!

Oh. Something to talk about today. I don't know whether it's a culture for the Chinese drivers to keep honking as they drove down the road. While eating my dinner, cars and trucks that drove past were relentlessly using their horns. IT WAS SO NOISY.

Day 26! BBQ session

Today was another free-and-easy Sunday. Did not plan to go anywhere as we had a tiring shopping trip yesterday. Slept till around 10.30A.M. Went for lunch at around 12P.M. After that, return back to dorm to do my APPG. Awhile later, went to shoot hoops with Stefen and JiaHui.

As the time reached around 4.45P.M. Went to the Cultural Village, just beside WUST. It is actually used by the WUST students for activities such as camps and BBQs. Soon, everyone, including our Chinese friends arrived and off we go to our BBQ area.

Our BBQ area. Situated just beside the lake.
The BBQ session was quite funny. Guess what ? We got the charcoals and food. BUT the Chinese students did not prepare any fire starters! So, we went around plucking huge amount of dried long grass. We then set up a fire by burning the dried grasses. It took us quite a long time the charcoals start to burn. Too ill-prepared ?

Setting up the fire.

Our food. Pork on sticks!

Sunset at the horizon.

Let's start BBQ-ing.

Another funny thing about the way the Chinese barbeque. Unlike us, they do not use a wire gauze to BBQ. So initially when we started BBQ, we left our satay sticks hanging over the pit. To our surprise, our sticks got burnt and broke into 2 pieces. In the end, our pork meat fell into the pile of charcoal.

Say Cheese!

Yong Xin's Group

Hwee Ping and Sasi.

Our Chinese Friends.

Helping us prepare more food.

Let's add more charcoals.

Marinating the food.

Yummy yummy!

SiewBo, me and ShaoMing with Chinese students

After BBQ, went to eat supper with Dave, Jeremy, Ben and Alex at Hua Tai Street. Alex is one of the Chinese students. He is actually quite sociable. He treated us to a type of desert which I found to be quite nice. Then, we chatted about each other's life. He was telling us that Wuhan is actually so big that he himself had not been to all the places in Wuhan yet. It made me feel that Singapore is really just a SMALL RED DOT on the globe. I think the chatting session brought our relationship with our Chinese friends closer.

After eating and chatting, we got to rush back to school. This is because Alex would get scolded by his hostel management if he return to his student hostel after 11 P.M. He was telling us how envious he was of us as our lives are not as restricted as theirs. That's all folks. Got to sleep already.

Day 25! Shopping Trip!

It was raining early in the morning as we waited for our bus to arrive. We were supposed to visit the Han Kou Jiang Tan Park.

Seeking shelter from the merciless rain. It was freezing cold.
But it's okay. As long as we are together, there will be WARMTH.The visit to Han Kou Jiang Tan Park was cancelled due to the wet and cold weather. In the end, we went to the supposedly 2nd destination of the day, Han Kou Shopping District. We ran and ran under the rain towards the shopping district. We were all drenced wet and were feeling damn cold.

Nevertheless, we were still in the mood to take photos.

'Eating' in the rain.

The Macdonalds in China have a very interesting menu. As the majority of the China people are Chinese, it doesn't matter whether their food food is halal or not. Back in Singapore, our Macdonalds is selling halal food and we will definitely not see any pork-related food on the menu.

China Macdonalds outlets sell PORK BURGER. Quite tasty actually.

While walking along the streets, there were litter everywhere. Piles of rubbish can be found just outside some stalls. I wonder whether the Chinese ever heard of the word 'Hygiene'. Logically, the pile of rubbish outside your own shop would 'deter' potential customers from entering your shop. Do THEY ever thought of that ?

One pile of rubbish just at the entrance of a shop.

After about 2 hours of shopping. We went to Macdonalds again for tea-time snacks. My snack, Grilled Chicken Sandwich.

This is quite interesting yet cruel. Was walking past a shop and something caught our attention. That shop was selling small bottles with 2 fishes in each bottle. It may seem cute to some people. However, I thought it was quite cruel as the fishes will definitely die in a matter of days. In addition, they can't swim around.

Poor little fishes! Set them free!

After shopping for around 3 hours plus, we began to make our way back to our meeting place. The rain had already stopped. Yet, the weather was still freezing cold. Nonetheless, we were pumping with adrenaline to take more pictures!

Hmmm. Which move should I take ?

DAVE! NO CHEATING!!

CHIONG AR!!

From brave soldiers, we became...ULTRAMAN TIGA!Didn't manage to visit the beach park. But at least we were once at the entrance of the park =.=

After shopping at Han Kou. We were supposed to return back to WUST. However, a few of us decided to go to Wu Chang Qu to continue shopping. We thus seek permission from our lecturers. Since there was nothing else on today's schedule, we were given the green light to carry on with our plan. More than of the class went while the remainder went back to WUST to rest. Was shivering all the way as we walked on the busy streets of Wu Chang Qu. The weather was just too cold.

After our shopping trip, we went to Hu Bu Alley for dinner. Mentioned about the Hu Bu Alley in my previous post. But still, I got to say something. The food there are just so cheap. Ate so many things until I felt so bloated.

Today was quite a successful shopping trip for me. The Han Kou Jiang Han Shopping District is so big that it would take a person a lot of time to finish shopping. I bought some stuffs from the shopping district and WuChang. However, the famous brands products are MUCH more expensive that those in Singapore. For example, a pair of shoes that cost 169SGD can cost around 1130RMB here in China

Hu Bu Alley during night time.

Despite the cold night, there were still many Chinese people at Hu Bu Alley. Maybe the food are too cheap to resist.

After eating at Hu Bu Alley, we took taxi back to WUST. Along the way, we were chatting with our taxi driver. Learnt abit of the history of Wuhan. He told us that around 10 years ago, the security of Wuhan is very slack. Robberies and murders were very common. Actually, I think that most of the Chinese people had a good impression of Singapore. For example, the taxi driver told us how modern and advanced Singapore is as cmpared to China. Another interesting thing is that, almost all the Chinese we talked to, thought that we are from GuangDong because our accent sounded like them.

Okay. Time for some random stuffs. Have been here for weeks so I thought I would like to show you guys a glimpse of my room.

Our table. Duno whose pile of stinky clothes on the table! LOL

WANG WANG! Have been eating this for days. Can never get enough of it.

Pile of food on our table. Our table is so 'neat'. So proud of it.

After eating so much oily food, we need some WANG LAO JI Herbal Tea.

DAY 24!

Day 24 began with us visting an optical fibre manufacturing plant. Woke up quite late as we were supposed to meet at 9.50 A.M. only. The plant was actually quite near to WUST and the ride only took around 15 minutes.


Boarding the bus.
The entrance to the plant.

The company which we visited. Yangtze Optical Fibre and Cable Company LTD.

Statistics of the major shareholders of the company.

Mr Qian explaining the process of producing optical fibre.

Yangtze's milestone.

Mr Qian doing further explanations.

These glass tubes are used to make optical fibres. An amzing fact...One single glass tube like this can actually make optical fibres as long as 2000km.

Mr Chua doing translation for the benefit of the non-Chinese students.

Looking at the samples displayed at the main hall. Coloured optical fibres.

WHOLE Ngee Ann Group photo.

This trip was quite enriching. Learnt many things regarding the manufacturing of optical fibres. For example, I finally know that optical fibres are made of glass instead of wires =.= Also, a single glass tube can be made into optical fibres of length 2000km. That's right! 2000KM !! The glass tubes are first washed with distilled water. Then they would be heated until the semi-molten state. Next, they would be spin into many rolls. A single roll of optical fibre can actually hold 200km of optical fibre.

There were actually many more complicated steps and processes regarding the manufacture. However, the company did its best to share all the procedures they could with us. The rest had to be kept confidential due to commercial reasons. Hence, we were not allowed to take photos when we were walking through the production lines.

Had APPG theory test in the late afternoon. Surprisingly, it was quite okay. I think that I can at least pass this paper.

This video was taken when me and my friends were waiting for our food to be cooked. Obviously, the Chinese people here can play fireworks as and when they like. They were playing in a built-up area!! It could be really fun to play fireworks, BUT I think it could be dangerous at the same time. Do you know how many people were on the streets just now and there were so many buildings around! Well, at least the Chinese can enjoy themselves, unlike us Singaporeans..who can never play fireworks IN Singapore.

Day 23 (26th March)

Nothing interesting happened today. After lessons, the sky was overcast. There was a slight drizzle. We were walking towards our hostel. Many Chinese students were making their way to the canteens for dinner. All of them were walking slowly despite the rain. All of a sudden, there was a clap of thunder and ALL of them ran as quickly as they could. I was laughing out loud as it was a really funny sight.

I soon realize that : Hey! This is not Singapore where there are tall buildings everywhere with lighting conducting rods. I’m in China, WUST, and I was walking on a small hill that thunder could strike anytime. We soon began running back to the hostel, fearing we would get struck by thunder.

Day 20, 21 and 22

Day 20:
Lesson started at 10 instead of 9. Give us time to sleep more. Had trial lab test. After doing the test, I only have one word to say: DIE! Was really disappointed in myself. How long ago, did I tell myself to buck up and study. Yet, what have I done ? NOTHING

Tomorrow’s lab test confirm sure fail.

Day 21:
Had lab test. Surprisingly, it was quite okay. At least I managed to run my program. Though there were some errors here and there. Had a very long break from 10 to 2. Played basketball. After that, had afternoon lessons.

During afternoon lesson, went out of class to eat lunch. Noticed that the school canteen was very empty by around 2:30P.M. Many stalls were also closed already by that time. However, still managed to have lunch.Afternoon lesson, went to play basketball again. Played till nightfall and went out to buy food.

Day 22:
I’m so LOST in APPG. Seriously, I think I’m just not cut out for programming… Theory test this Friday, final test next Friday and there’s still my mini project. HOW ?? Confirm die liao lor..

Ate Maggie mee for dinner, didn’t really feel like going out for dinner. Realized that the Chinese shows here are actually quite nice. They broadcast really old shows such as those old Jackie Chan’s shows and Stephen Chow’s shows.

Just to make some changes, was talking about the stalls closing early. I was wrong. They were actually taking a break before they reopen their stall during the evening for the hundreds of Chinese students to buy dinner.

We didn't go back to dorm today afternoon. Instead we...JUMPED.

and jumped..and jumped..Failed attempt at making a C shape.