Monday, June 19, 2006
HandWritten on; 1:52 PM
Although it is all over, we have left China with countless unforgettable memories, which most of us will always keep it in our hearts. Unlike, Tessa, I shall blog about the full 9 days in China , trying to keep it short and sweet (hopefully).
Day 1
I remember being so hyped and excited about the trip. I couldn't wait to sit on the plane and quickly get to China. After getting everything done, we boarded the plane and took off to a place we probably couldn't wait to go.
The plane ride was smooth for me, ate ALOT (and i do mean alot) including aeroplane food. Slept soundly for a while before we landed.When we landed in Shanghai Pudong Airport, we went to this restaurant where we had dinner.
After dinner we went sightseeing around Shanghai and saw really really beautiful architectural buildings. There's this place of interest, its the Pearl Building or something, and its really pretty.
Then we took the train to Huangshan. I liked the train ride! We had so much fun, and that's where we met Eehui & Chengmun. Had a great night on the train.
Day 2
We reached Huangshan in the morning then took a bus to the Huangshan school. Boy am I shocked to see this big banner welcoming us.
The environment and facilities there are really different from Singapore. What can I say? Its China. Classroom, canteen, toilet, everything. Anyway one class has around 50 people and the classroom is really small compared to Singapore. And I thought Singapore was small? Oh and I must really comment about their tables. They carry it from P1 to the end of JC! Its a really unique table. And they have a track too! Plus a basketball court.
I must say, I was not at all impressed with the dormitories! I don't like it! From the moment I saw it I knew I wanted to go home. But, I guess its a good experience, and I have been exposed to a lot of new things. And the dormitory toilets are full of cockroaches all the time. HOWEVER we would never use the common toilet please! Its so eeky yucky sucky eew! Its so common that dozens cockroaches come to share it, and there's no door to the toilets just a drain in the ground. Argh.
Anyway my dormitory had 8 people; Simin, Jiaying, Jingwen, Eehui, Chengmun, Felicia, Wanting and of course, yours truly. Beside us were the sec ones.
We finally got to know our buddies! My buddy is Zhang Huiting,she's a really nice person. The one who carried my luggage previously is Chen Chen, I like her alot, she's damn cute! :) Anyway we received flowers!
In the afternoon we had some cultural talk then we went to some abacus school and some rich man's house. Went to the supermarket too. :) It was our favourite place!
Then after dinner we went to their class. Received lots of weird stares from the class students! Felt so weird. Anyway my buddy is in 8/2, so that's the class I went. The form teacher of the class is a English teacher who is kind of fierce. But she's nice :D And yes, the classroom is small for a big country.
Day 3
We went for morning assembly in the track. Their assembly is almost the same as ours too. Then there was morning reading before breakfast.
Breakfast was okay, I finished eveything. We had lessons the entire morning then had lunch, before setting off for a museum along an "Old Street" in an old city of Huangshan.
Then we went to see tea plantations, and ate at a Farmers Restaurant nearby.
Day4
Got a picture of my breakfast for that morning!
My buddy brought me to see little kids practising their workout! So cute!
We had lessons again the entire morning. Physics was so boring that I was scribbling crap during lessons. Chinese lessons I was made to do some worksheet. Geography was like dead boring.
After lunch Mrs Cheong introduced Singapore to everyone. Our presentation was shit! Argh so embarrassing.
After dinner (which was cup noodles) we had our performance. Our first performance, the Fashion show was quite unsuccessful. Family dance was super screwed! The music just went off halfway! In the end we ended up singing and dancing. The last was the line dance. These are some shots my buddy took us on stage!
Anyway after the concert we were taken by our buddies to see the beautiful scenes of Huangshan! Here are some shots of the beautiful scenes near the school. Some were taken in the day while some were taken in the night.
Day5
This day was my last day in the Huangshan School. I couldn't be more happy to leave! Undoubtedly, I can't bear to leave my buddies and new found friends. However, our relationship would not just end there. We promised to keep in contact, and we will. Huangshan School has brought me many new experiences. Such unforgettable memories will always remain with me :)
What awaits us is one tremendously tiring climb up the Yellow Mountain (Huangshan)! I have never in my life did such a climb. Climbing up & down flights of steps non-stop. We first sat a cable car up to a certain height then we walked with our two legs and climbed all the way to this place where our hotel was. Halfway we had lunch, and Mrs Tan treated everyone to a hotdog! It came at the right time. Thanks to Mrs Tan (=
Along our way up I took many shots of the suroundings and views. Here are some pictures, that I took on that really LETHARGIC and CHILLY path up the mountain.
This climb was definitely a once in a lifetime experience for me:) I'm pretty sure Bukit Timah Nature Reserve is a piece of cake :D
So anyway dinner was a feast for me:] Ate like a real glutton pig. Go a little tipsy over the beer we drank. And had a great night's sleep too =D The hotel room was nice !
Day6
After a cold night in White Cloud Motel (and comfy too), we had a filling breakfast, followed by a long long climb up to the second highest peak of Huangshan. What a great way to start of the morning. It was tiring, no doubt, but reaching the peak of GuangMingDing was definitely worthy. The view and scenery from the top is really ineffable. Although pictures cannot really bring to you the immense feeling of heaven, I'll still show them anyway (:
After the climb to the peak, we walked a while more before taking a cable car down back to the bottom. Its quite a relief all the climbs are over.
Lunch was at a restaurant along the streets. Mrs Cheong came over to our table cos our table had more food than hers!
Following lunch was paying 100 yuan to visit some crap place of interest known as the Fei3 Cui4 Gu3. Then we went to Hong2 Cun1 too. Didn't like those places! Thought it was boring :/ But still we had fun !
After dinner, we checked in at a hotel and messed up the place :)
Day7
We sat a 4 hours ride to Qian1 Dao3 Hu2, so it was damn boring on the bus. When we reached we took a ferry and ate on the ferry.
At Qian1 Dao3 hu2 we went visiting the different islands . There was Lock island, Bird Island, Stone Island and Snake Island. Simin didn't go to the last one, only I and Jiaying, cos Jingwen wanted to write finish her essay. It was at Snake Island where Eehui lost her phone! It must have been really devastating:/
So here are some shots anyway. At Qian1 Dao3 Hu2 :) (No pictures of snakes!)
After dinner we checked in at a resort near that area. There's no shopping places there at all! So it was really boring. We could only buy things from the hotel shop. We played table tennis and sang at the KTV the whole night. (That was definitely the source of our sore throats and cough) The rooms were really nice! Ours had a seaview, and it was really beautiful :D
Day8
Took a bus to Hang2 Zhou1. Once again its another long ride. I'm sick of long rides. They're so boring! Anyway we ate lunch at a restaurant where the toilet was translucent. Then we made our way to west lake on a ferry.
Later we went to this place of interest where legend has it that the tiger digged water for men to drink. We also went to a place where there was a temple, alot of temples in fact. Sight-seeing is a very common thing in China. But I still took photos anyway.
Then we went to see Silk Factory. And bought things from there for our section. (: There was also a Silk Fashion Show!
Our sweet tour guide left the best for the last :D After dinner, we went to watch a brilliant, excellent and awesome cultural performance. We didn't want to watch it at first! Of course, after we've seen the show, we're glad we didn't miss it! I guess we would never know how to appreciate such things would we?
Our hotel on the last day is really the best one in the entire trip :) Our room had a beautiful scene out of the window. I had a great night :D
Day9
Had breakfast in the hotel, it was great, then we left for Shanghai. It was another 4 hour ride. When we reached Shanghai, we went to restaurant. At first we all thought we were only going to go into the largely grand ship but we ended up eating at another place.
After lunch, we took a maglev tain to the airport! Yes, that super fast train, that uses magnetic waves to move. Only Cheng mun and Eehui didn't go! It was real fun. The fastest speed it could go was 470km/hr, but that day we went it only went up to 430km/hr. It was still speedy though :)
We reached the airport in no time! We had quite some time before the flight so we went shopping, but in the end Simin, Eehui and I were late. Bid a final farewell to China and we boarded the plane. Goodbye China :)
We reached Singapore in 5 hours! SO HERE I AM, BACK AT HOME!
(By the way sorry this post came a little bit late, I had a hard time uploading the photos!)
The trip to China really left me beautiful memories. The money was really worth it. Such a different experience. Such indescribable feelings. Somethings I have gained there can never be gotten here in Singapore. The most important thing was I had loads of fun :D
On the other hand, that one week in China totally left me lost! I'm so off track, and there's so much homework left undone. Furthermore, this trip made me gain over 3kg! WTF. I went back to Singapore and my parents bought me to Burger King, then I went to take away a bit of macs, KFC and pizza. See how much I actually miss fastfood!
In Singapore, I felt like I haven't eaten for years! I miss Singapore food so much! Everyday, I eat almost thrice of my normal diet. Haha, I'm going to gain another 3kg.
So yes, right now, school's already reopened, and surprise surprise, JUBILATE III is already over! I think you can consider it a success, although I felt the turnout wasn't very good. And I screwed! I played so bad. I hate it. I hate playing the piccolo.
Today is wednesday, a school holiday! I remember last night, I ate 5.5 packets of hello panda and fell asleep on the bed, my parents were like MAD.
I continued eating 5 packets today, and I didn't dare to step on the weighing scale! AHHHH must have hit 50kg already.
Chinese Os oral is next tuesday! Poor Jingwen and Kahyee have to take it on Friday. I am so nervous for it.
Okay, I gotta go eat and sleep now, I hope you enjoyed my ultra LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONG post :DD
