Interaction with China Students (Day 15 - 15th Sept)

PLUCK TANGERINES! YEA!!!

A special day off for all of us today! Each division lecturer actually gave us a day off today just to let us attend activities which were specially arranged by the China student leaders.

So the activity for today is…. PLUCK TANGERINES! School buses were specially catered for us and we set off at about 1.30pm. Weather was just nice for such activities =) We were transported to a tangerine farm which was located about 30minutes bus ride from our school.

Greennn Tangerines!

The farm didn’t really look like what I had expected. It was all green in colour instead of the usual orange oranges. Haha! I ate quite a number of it which were all freshly plucked from the tree.

Group Photo.

After having a big feast of tangerines, we headed back to our campus in anticipation of the BBQ at night!

Made our way to the place and we were all quite fascinated by how the pits actually looked so different from BBQ pits found in Singapore’s East Coast Park. It seemed more like those tribal style BBQ with people sitting around the fire and cooking their food.

Special BBQ Pits.

The guys had quite a hard time starting up the fire because there was no fire starters and our only alternative was to gather dry leaves & twigs to start a fire. The china students were quite NPCC, Scouts, Girl Guides etc. etc. started to pop out. Haha! Test of our outdoor survival skills.

Reflections:

For the previous 2 nights, I had been in touch with the China student leaders together with the other 2 divisions in charge to plan this event. They came over to our hostel to discuss with us on the timing, dates and what to bring etc.

This was quite a good exposure for me to try working with other people rather than just my usual group of society members or other Ngee Ann student leaders. It was a good opportunity to understand their organizational skills and how they displayed their leadership. Quite interesting to be able to learn how foreign students deal with things differently from us.

There were some language barriers which made our communication a little difficult. When we tried speaking to them in chinese, they found it hard to understand our type of chinese but when we tried conversing using english, we had to talk at a very slow pace so that they can catch each sentence. So it became that there was a mixture of both english and chinese so that both parties would understand what each other is talking about. Haha! Not bad that both parties are trying hard to accept each others lingo.

In Singapore, we are too used to conversing with each other through the virtual world eg. MSN, Skype etc. and the common sentence we normally say to each other “see you in msn tonight, we shall discuss and settle it there”. Most of our stuffs are discuss through all these internet widget which we cannot conveniently find it here in China.

Lets see for example the china student leaders would rather come straight to our hostel to discuss stuffs with us instead of taking our email and discuss through MSN.

The advantage is that face to face communication would reduce the chances of miscommunication. But the disadvantage about this would be that efficiency of work is not up to standard. I had to sms them one night before the actual event to enquire about the details once more & to reconfirm if the outing was still on because there was no news after our last meeting. And instead of telling me all these through the net or text messages, 2 Student leaders came down specially just to tell me a piece of information. Is it really necessary?

If I was in Singapore, I believe that we would have settled this on the night of the meeting and not drag till one day before the event to reconfirm again. Maybe many might say that Singapore students are very lazy, but I would see this as the convenience which internet has brought to us. And how much is the virtual world influencing our lifestyle.

Unknown:

Give a person a fish and you feed them for a day; teach that person to use the Internet and they won't bother you for weeks.

(True? YES! If the China student leaders were to be as frequent a user of internet widgets as Singapore students and understand the convenience of internet, I believe that they wouldn’t even bother coming down personally to our hostel just to relate a piece of information to us. Not that we are lazy, it is just the time saved can be better utilised in other areas of your life! Hmmph… think about it! )

xanier!

Day 14 – Happy Birthday BUNK MATE! (Shunnnn Qingggg)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SHUN QING!

HAHA! A ‘not very surprising’ surprise for bunk mate Shun Qing at 12AM last night. Tried to lure her out of our room while others rushed in to hide. Ok we were successful in luring her out but were caught in action while everyone was rushing into our room and she was already making her way back. So this means she saw everything. But never mind, we still sang her a birthday song before going off to sleep.

Lecture & quiz 4 today.

Now, having quizzes after every lecture is like a routine for us. It felt weird and stressful initially but it has now become like a daily homework to do after lectures. Good!

Proceeded to canteen 3 for lunch. It was the first time having lunch there. Not bad I would say. Had 鸡蛋面. It was a bowl of soup noodles with fried egg on top of it. Tasty! Had 1 hour break so we went back to our hostel for a quick nap before heading back to class for Flexsim mock test followed by the real test.

Canteen 3.

Test.

Thank god the test was still manageable because I seriously knew nuts about it till last night. After the test, Mr Loh gave us assignment 2. =.= We cannot seem to finish our assignments. Workload is overwhelming!

Finally, 1 test down and so to reward myself, I’m off to the track for a run! Running helps to release stress =))

Proven by: Xanier & My Father! Haha!

Reflection:

Time management is the key to success! For the previous few days, I was so overloaded with work that I know I was too stressed out. Was quite agitated when I couldn’t complete my work or when I didn’t catch enough sleep. Due to the lack of sleep, my mental wasn’t at its best. Just had to tell myself that the week is coming to an end and everything would be over very soon. Give your best and no regrets after that.

Knowing that this is just the first test & presentation since the day we arrived in Wuhan, I have learnt much through this lesson that time management is really very crucial. 2 more assignments & test to go before we can really enjoy ourselves.

Studying overseas on your own is really a matter of self discipline. If you are not able to convince yourself to study, then no one would be able to do so. Self discipline. Self independence.

Peter F. Drucker:

“Until we can manage time, we can manage nothing else.”

(Everyone is learning about time management. It isn’t about the hard skills but the soft skills of how good you can fully manage your time. STUDY HARD. PLAY HARD. TRAIN HARD.)

xanier!

Han Kou (Day 13 - Sept 13th)

OUTING!

8.30 am we gathered and made out way to 汉口江滩.

汉口江滩

A total resemblance of Marina Barrage, just that Marina Barrage is so much nicer and cleaner compared to this. We were given about 30-45 minutes to tour around.

Group Photo.

Saw many people selling kites there and we discovered this uncle who was releasing a SUPER DUPER LONG KITE. Which you see no end to it! Interesting eh! =)

So LONGGGG!

After this short tour, we were given quite long hours to shop around 江汉路步行商业街.

江汉路步行商业街

Had lunch at 永和豆浆. Ate 鲁肉饭 and drank a cup of 黑豆浆.

鲁肉饭

After which, we went to shop around and released that the prices were not much different from Singapore and there was nothing much for us to stay on.

Thus, I and An Yu decided to head for the wholesale centre which sells a large variety of stuffs. No one expect us walked such a long distance just to catch a view of how their wholesale centre looks like. But it was a good experience because we actually caught a glimpse of their lifestyle and how different the wholesale centre looks like compared to those in Thailand.

Their Houses.

Rather disappointed actually, because there was nothing much that suits us. Most of it was necessities and clothing which were not of very good quality.

Ladies out there: those online shops which states that their clothes are all imported from korea, DO NOT BELIEVE IT. I saw plenty of those clothing here in Wuhan’s wholesale centre.

After a long long walk back to our meeting place, we saw the THICK layer of dust which was covering our feet.

DUST.

Rested our tired legs for a while before heading back to our meeting place where we boarded our bus back and bid our sweet tour guide, Ms Lei Jing farewell. She was really sweet because before she left, she gave us her number and told us if we needed her help to find our way around Wuhan, we can just give her a call. HOW NICEEE!

And our day ended with most of us visiting poor Jun Ru in the school’s hospital due to her high fever and bad stomach. Most of us actually wanted to visit her but were told to go back to our hostel as the hospital room is too small to accommodate too many people. And all I heard about her condition was that she was put on drip.

Reflection:

Thanks to having a nice company today who is none other than An Yu! I somewhat felt that I had fulfilled a small portion of my backpack travelling dream (although today I was using a sling bag). Both of us separated ourselves from the group and went on to venture for the wholesale centre. Navigating our way around the place which we were totally unfamiliar with, thus resulting in us walking up and down the same road twice after we realize we were walking in the wrong direction.

And on the way, we bought food from road side stalls, looking at how they bargain with each other etc. made us really immense into the life of Wuhan citizens. Oh and we were trying to act as if we were one of the locals there so that people will not con us, but by not knowing how to cross their crazy roads with cars coming straight to you although it was green man had totally disclosed our identity as “TOURIST”. HAHA!

One important point: if you want to act like a local, never run when you cross the road. Stroll across even though you know there are cars coming directly into you because that is what the locals do! O.O and never trust their green man as it is represents nothing to the drivers.

Lastly for JunRu’s incident, a lecturer had told me before to never fall sick in China because whatever illness you have, you will be put on drip. Never really thought that the medical sector in China would be so backdated. They didn’t diagnose on what was the main cause of her illness and no oral medicine was even given before she was placed on drip. So they think that drip is the medicine to all sickness luh?

Was quite pissed off when I kept hearing that Junru was given packets and packets of drip one after the other after her condition became worse. They know that the glucose drip wasn’t helping, so what for you keep poking needles into her body and trying to flood her with glucose. Seriously, china should put 101% of their emphasis in future on their medical sector so as to save their citizens from glucose over dosage.

I just think that, if they do not have the ability to diagnose a patient’s condition, just say it honestly so that we still have time to search for better alternatives and not put a patient’s life at risk. There are still plenty of improvements to be made to the infrastructure and facilities here in China.



Hippocrates, father of western medicine:

“I will prescribe regimens for the good of my patients according to my ability and my judgment and never do harm to anyone.”


(Wonder if doctors in China really took their doctor’s oath seriously or just pledge against it for the sake of becoming a doctor. They should take their work more seriously, treating each and every patient with passion and the right attitude. Much more needs to be done before the medical sector of China would thrive.)

xanier!

Day 12 – East Lake/Hubei Museum/ Yellow Crane Tower.

BREAKKKK!!! =D

Finally a weekend break for us to have a little tour around and to take a breather off the hectic workload.

Gathered at the admin block at 7.15am and set off after that. Our new tour guide is called Lei Jing.

After approx 1 hour bus ride, we arrived at the Hubei Provincial Museum but only to get the news that it only opens at 9am daily and so we were way to early.

Our tour guide decided to change the itinery a little by bringing us to a nearby park called East Lake (东湖). Walked around the park for around 2 hours or so. Didn’t think that it was much of a tourist attraction as it felt like our Bedok Reservoir to me, with the only difference that there is PLENTY of humongous lotus leafs floating on the lake.

Entrance.

Nice Lake.

Oh anyway we saw this elderly man playing one player tennis! At first when we didn’t notice that the tennis ball was attached to a string, we all thought he had some super power to bring the ball back to himself. He was counted as very strong and fit for an elderly of his age.

Keep up the good work uncle! =D

After leaving the park, we headed for the Museum. Huge. Due to some really priceless 国宝 in the museum, the security was very tight. We even had to go through a security check and scan before we can get into the place.

Museum.

Big Bells.

Finally after waiting for so long…. LUNCH TIME!!! I was starving ok! We went to 首义园小吃街 for lunch. It is known as a snack street thus there was PLENTY of food there =) But the troublesome thing is that we need to use a lunch card for our purchases. Had beef meat wrap, pancake, 汤包 and Mango Ice blended. DELICIOUS! Finally felt that I really tasted the food here, rather than those oily ones outside our hostel.

首义园

Yellow Crane Tower.

In the Tower!

After lunch we went to the Yellow Crane Tower (黄鹤楼). Actually I didn’t even think that in my whole life time I would be able to step into this place which I had only read about it in Secondary School Chinese textbook. Was quite excited about walking up this tower! Climbed this tower which has 9 floors with An Yu! =) On every level, there was a small section that gives us a little more understanding of what the tower was about.

After the tower, we went to grab some nice souvenirs for our family and friends! The gifts which I bought were reasonably priced and very nice too! =D

Reflections:

After the trip to the museum, I was actually quite disappointed as there was no attractive factor in it compared to Singapore’s Museum. The artifacts were quite attractive at first but as we went round the museum, we realized that the pictures which we were taking were almost similar and there was no further description of the item besides the name of it. We were thinking that they were just trying to fill up the empty space and trying to make their museum look huge. But they should take into consideration that after the first stretch of looking, viewers get bored out and lose interest in what they are looking.

In a positive manner I would say that they were trying to show us all the artifacts which they have discovered. They want the world to know how great these artifacts are, but they didn’t know that we learn through our eyes when visiting a museum. Thus, showing us everything which has similar appearance and description would only let us leave the museum with tons of questions. I would say it did not bring out the culture of the olden days and I still do not understand the history.

Singapore museum would try their very best to make us understand whatever they want to bring out to us. And of course more consideration and effort will be placed in selection of the artifacts for display etc.


Bernard Grasset:
“To love is to stop comparing.”

(Indeed I should stop comparing China with Singapore. I should try to accept China with a positive mindset and to accept what they offer. Continuous comparing brings me nowhere. But isn’t this what humans always do? To compare and contrast.)

xanier!

12 AM – Day 10 / First IS lesson – 9AM – Day 11

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MINGYUUUU!!!

One of the many September babies in our trip. Our dear Mingyu was so worried that we would do something to him at 12 AM and so he did not even bathe! We was planning to give him a surprise only on the evening of his birthday. But since he was HIGHLY SUSPICIOUS of us, we have decided to present him with our custom made ‘cake’.

So at 12 AM, we went to knock on his room door. Some guys even had to pull him out of his bed so that we can start our celebration. We sang him birthday song followed by the ‘presenting’ of his cake.

Everyone went back to sleep after that. Thanks all who helped in cleaning up =))

First IS lesson – 9AM – Day 11

Everyone got up early for our first IS lesson since we got to Wuhan. We had combined lecture with another division due to our small group size. After settling down, our female lecturer introduced herself. She spoke quite fluent English with slangs like the Americans.

Before starting the lesson, she showed us an introduction video for Olympics 2009. Purpose was to welcome us to Wuhan. After the entire introduction, she went through with us the history, food specialties and nice tourist attractions. A lot of storytelling was done to make us understand the history of China and the famous people among all this stories.

I had such a hard time keeping myself awake for this IS lesson. Many were either falling asleep or are already asleep. Her lesson had to much information inflow till we couldn’t catch much more after 1 1/2 hours. Lesson was from 9am-12pm! Trying to keep ourselves awake, people starts camwhoring. Half way through the lecture, she was teaching about the famous events in China, and one of them includes DRAGON BOAT FESTIVAL! =D

History of dragon boat: Qu Yuan committed suicide due to wrong accusation. To save Qu Yuan from fishes from eating his body and evil spirits by beating the drums and splashing water with their paddles. Searching for his body using boats became a traditional event called ‘dragon boat festival’. It is seen as a form of commemoration of Qu Yuan’s sacrifice.

After the IS lesson, we took a group picture with her as this is her first and final lesson with us.
At around 5.30pm, all of us went to the track to prepare Mingyu & Shun qing’s birthday celebration. We told them that we are going there to play some ball games. Mr Loh joined us for the celebration too! Some of the guys went out to get the 2 birthday cakes and when they reached, we tried to distract the 2 of them while we prepare the cakes.

After which, we sang birthday song for them. They were stunned for a moment but still smiled after knowing that this celebration was specially made for them. =) And as usual, we played the same game after every celebration. CAKE FIGHT!

Singing Song.

21 Guns.

Cake Fight!

So, the day ended off with everyone cleaning themselves up and headed out for dinner.

Reflection:

Planning for a birthday celebration isn’t easy nor would I say it is extremely difficult. But without the help of others, I believe the birthday celebration wouldn’t turn out as nice and fun. For 1 person to plan events would be possible, but with discussion and sharing sessions with others would provide you with a wide variety of ideas to choose from. Different people have different thinking which is what could help to bring out the best of the event. I personally prefer doing everything by myself, but from past experiences, being able to delegate work well is what helps bring the event to an even higher stage. No one person is able to handle everything by him/herself. We all need assistance from people around you in order to get you further in life.

Henry Ford:

"Coming together is the Beginning, Keeping together is Progress, Working together is Success."

(We once started out as strangers, next to acquaintances, progressing on to buddies and now taking one big step out as consultants. I’m waiting for that day when I can proudly say that YOU have become my dearest friend, someone who has been through all with me.)

xanier!

Birthday Bash. Reb! (Day 9 – Sept 9th)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY REBECCAAAAA!!!

Ok so today is Miss Rebecca’s birthday! And we had a BIGGGG BIRTHDAY BASH for her yesterday night in the hostel. We bought her a MEGA HUGE cake. (Reasons for being mega huge: it is mainly coated with 90% of cream and 10% of sponge cake). Oh we witnessed the whole process of the cake making by the pastry master. He was super skillful with his designing of the cake with the cream and colour gel. It was quite an eye opener because you seldom see the whole process of cake making in Singapore.


So at around 12.15am, we knocked on her room door. After she was out, we sang her a birthday song! All OIP mates were involved. Awwww…. How sweet~~~

Touched face.

Rebbb!

Group Shot.

Yesterday night, many of us were totally exhausted but we persevered till 12.15am just for the birthday bash! Are you touched Miss Rebecca? =D


Right after the cutting of the cake, a CAKE FIGHT occurred!


Finally after everyone was sparkling clean, we took a group shot.

--------------After 5 Hours of Sleep--------------

COLD & ICY.


2nd BPE lesson – 9am


Dragging myself out of the bed was such a difficult task. =X Had too many late nights and I have been in ‘deadly’ mode since the last few days. I need to find time to replenish my sleep! Ok so as usual, got ourselves ready and left for lessons.


The weather today was much colder than yesterday. Wind was very strong and some of us were don with windbreakers etc. This was what made us seemed alien to the China students because all of them were dressed in just T-shirt & Jeans. But never mind about that as long as the weather remains cold and windy for the next few weeks =))


All of us were wearing ‘break-the-wind’ jackets even in the classroom because the window was WIDE open. (& we closed it after a few hours).


Today, Mr Loh went through chapter 2 of BPE followed by quiz 2.

Quiz Paper.

After lessons, lunch in campus Canteen 2.


We went to the 2nd level canteen today and due to the enclosed area, the canteen was filled with oily smog. The oil stench was also terrible. As usual students were all crowding in front of the stalls with no queues.


Settled at a beef noodle stall.


PISSED OFF SESSION.


I actually waited for >20 minutes for just a bowl of noodles while others who ordered later than me had already taken their food and were eating happily. Started to lose my cool when I actually asked the lady who took my order where was my noodle and she just return my question with “ errr… 你刚才叫什么?’ I repeated my order and waited again. Waiting…waiting...waiting… a lot of food were served but none was mine. I seriously flared up. You know china people likes to talk super loudly and the loudest one would always get the order first, thus I walked up to the woman who was cooking and raised my voice. “我的好了没有？！我等很久了你知道吗？！”



None of us understand what she was talking about because of her strong accent. And at last my food came, I somewhat scolded her and walked away. And behind she was scolding me too. So whatever! (*Personal experience, thus some emotional factor was placed in it to express my anger.)



Shun qing met with the same experience as me but because she was too soft spoken, she got scolded instead. (observation: in china, never be soft-spoken. The loudest one will always be the one who win the quarrel. Trust me.)


Going back to our hostel, we suddenly decided to do some ‘room makeover’. Eshlyn mopped the floor, I tidied up the wires and labelled it to prevent tangling and shun qing helped around and took care of our luggages which was placed outside our room. Didn’t know that our room would feel really like our home after it was tidied and clean up. :))) it was really very cosy and warm. Previously, we had to wear our slippers to move around in the room. But now we can walk barefooted even to the cement floor toilet! =D It was our combined effort! Thanks esh and shun for making me feel like home.

A final trio photo in our sparking clean room!

Reflection:

After the birthday bash which was specially created for Rebecca, I realized that friends do matter a lot in our lives. If no one were to take the initiative to plan her birthday, she would be just celebrating her birthday overseas alone. Many a times, things only require some initiative to be taken to make it happen.

For the incident which happened in the school canteen, I really hope that they change this culture of not having a systematic queuing system and not adopt the ‘the loudest one win’ culture. Comparing Singapore’s service and service over here in Wuhan, there is really nothing to complain about service provided in Singapore. We even have campaigns such as GEMS or organizations such as CASE to deal with bad service issue. But over here, there is no such thing as ‘customer is always the biggest’. They wouldn’t mind losing you as a customer which I don’t know why also. And because they don’t have organizations such as CASE to deal with bad service issue, thus this explains why service in China is so bad. So Singaporeans out there: stop complaining about bad service issues or post images or videos on STOMP for bad service. I bet your expectation of a good service will drop drastically after you have experienced it here and returned to Singapore. In the mean time, before they decide to turn systematic and learn the meaning of queuing up, I shall blend in and absorb their culture by talking loudly, not queuing up and talk LOUDER to the people here.

Victor Frankl:
“When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves.”

(Thus, I as an individual alone would not be able to influence the culture of China. By acknowledging this fact, I have no choice but to challenge myself to change to compromise the situation and habits of China citizens. Your level of adaption when you are alone overseas plays a very important part in how fast you are able to accept the culture of the country, be it positive or negative.)

xanier!