Day 33 - SHOPPING + Red Hair!

With our lecture ending at chapter 10, we are officially free of lessons! And so today, me and some others went to grand ocean for some shopping and to get a new hairstyle =))

Grand Ocean!

Prepared and left at around noon time. Settled our lunch at a Steak House over at Grand Ocean. The price was very reasonable and the standard of the food was also not bad. Compared to Jack’s Place which cost about $30+ it cost only 42 RMB there which is $8++! Hehe!

My beef steak. Deliciousss =))

After lunch, we decided to do something to our hair. Went to the hair salon which our other group mates went to. I was ‘dared’ to straighten my hair, which I eventually did and I also dyed my hair for the very FIRST TIME IN 18 YEARS! =DD costed around $60 for both straightening and dying. The process took almost the whole day (3-4 hours).

And by the time I finished, it was already 5-6pm. Some of the others also permed, dyed and had a hair cut.

Went for some quick shopping before heading down to Pizza Hut to settle our dinner. It was another sumptous meal! I’m declaring bankrupt soon! Haha!

Pizza Hut

While waiting for our van to come, we took some beautiful night view of the city area.

Back at the hostel, everyone was SHOCKED by the colour of my hair. HAHAHAHAH!!! So after bathing, crapped with some of my group mates before turning in for the night. =)

Reflections:

For the very first time in 18 years, I did so much transformation to my hair. I fulfilled another personal dream which is to dye my hair red! Felt that through this trip, I had actually fulfilled quite a number of my own dreams which I didn’t expect. Living alone overseas allow us to really have the freedom of doing things which we like and complete some personal crazy dreams which we would not have done so back in Singapore due to the restrictions from our parents. But there is still a limit to our own freedom and it all speaks about self discipline. Some ‘dares’ can be accepted while some should be rejected. Don’t be affected by peer pressure. Have a mindset of your own and not get affected by what others tell you. And all in all, I was glad that I took up this ‘dare’ to straighten my hair! =D

xanier!

Day 32 - Final Written Test

Had our very last and final written test 2 for our BPE Module!!! YEAAA =DDD

Test Paper & Answer Booklet.

It took around 1 ½ hours and as usual, everyone was scribbling as quickly as possible because there was too much to write. Haha!

So after test, went back to our hostel to put our things down before some of us headed out to the fishball restaurant to give ourselves a hearty treat! =) a form of reward for our effort on the past few assignments and tests.

After lunch, we went back to our hostel to chill for the day~~~

And I went for my evening run alone at the river.

Reflection:

Sometimes a little quiet day off for myself allows me to think through and reflect on my recent happenings or to resolve some problems. Slowing down my own pace of living let me appreciate my surroundings. Having an evening run alone at the quiet river allows me to think through the objectives and purpose of coming for this trip, and also to understand some problems which occurred recently. Many a times when people meet with troubles, they tend to turn to their friends and family for advise. But sometimes, analyzing things personally first would put yourself at a better position to understand your own problem.

xanier!

Day 31 - HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHINA! 60 Years.

10/01/09

Today marks another age of China’s long history. And thanks to their national day, we had one off day too! For Singapore’s national day, we only have 1 day public holiday. Whereas for china, they have something called the ‘Golden Week’ whereby they have 8 days of public holidays. And this is the period where most of the students head back to their home sweet home.

And today was the day where most of us slept till late morning to replenish our long lost sleep due to assignments etc. Went for a morning jog after waking up and realised that the campus was 鸦雀无声 (not even a single sound). All the students were out of campus.

After my run, I went back to my room to watch a little of China’s national day performance on the net. It was magnificent and a MEGA huge event compared to Singapore’s national day performance. The number of performers in singapore was maybe only 1/3 or even lesser compared to those in China.

Reflection:

Through today’s national day parade, I believe all of us can see how proud the China Citizens are of their own nation. National day holds great significance to their nation as compared to how teenagers in singapore view national day as. While watching their parade, I started missing my homeland. I thought of how Singapore provided us with clean environment, always ready to drink tap water, the food which I always eat, the high security of singapore which does not require me to carry my bag in front when I out shopping in town, etc. I really miss home. Had flash backs of our life in Singapore before we headed for wuhan. I am more than happy and proud to be a Singaporean. Cherish that my fellow people. =)

We, the citizens of Singaporepledge ourselves as one united people,regardless of race, language or religion,to build a democratic society,based on justice and equality,so as to achieve happiness, prosperity andprogress for our nation.

xanier!

Day 30 - IS Lesson + Assignment 2 Presentation

Woke up for IS lesson at 9am by Mr Dean again. Today’s lesson was on Taoism & Buddhism. As I listened, I multi tasked to perfect our assignment 2 powerpoint slides which we will be having presentation on it later on.

Buddhism.

After lessons, we had lunch and continued with our assignment 2 back at the hostel.

Presentation Time!

Another assignment down! Now we are left with one last assignment to go. So we headed back to our room to chill for awhile before I changed into my running attire. And off I went to run at my usual river again~

Headed out for dinner after that! Went out for a short walk to relax before we get our brains filled with our final assignment 3.

Reflections:

The contribution of an individual be it big or small makes a great difference in any group work. without proper communication and sharing of information within the group itself, nothing turns out perfect. Everyone will be doing and trying to perfect their own parts which does not benefit the entire team. This is called the SILO EFFECT in BPE terms. So we have to have synergy in order for the project to be successful!

xanier!

Day 29 - Final lecture + Interaction Night + HAPPY BIRTHYDAY MISS GLORIAAAAAA :)

BLACK OUT!!! Slept till 4am + and it was too hot so I woke up. Only to realise that there was another black out again.

Picture taken in my room.

Wanted to return to sleep but the mosquitos was attacking me mercilessly. So woke my room mates up and went downstairs to ask the auntie to help us recharge our electricity. But this time was not only our room, it was the ENTIRE UNIVERSITY. Ridiculous eh? Imagine Ngee Ann Poly having a total black out.

Hmmph~

So went to lecture at 2pm with my laptop without battery forgetting that the black out occurred throughtout the whole campus. So we had lecture and test using pen and paper.

This was the LAST LECTURE FOR THIS TRIPPPPPP!!! And we will be officially free of lectures after todayyyy heheheeh!!!

Electricity was back at 3pm! =)

After lessons, went back to the hostel before heading out for early dinner today as we would be having an interaction night with the China student leaders at 6.30pm.

At our table.

We played games and had some performances by our very own Ngee Ann students! CLAPS TO ALL PERFORMERS! GOOD JOB! =)

Balloon bursting game!

Pass the water game.

Ended around 9pm and had a group photo taking.

MDE group photo with the china SLs.

After that, we went back to our hostel to prepare the celebration for another september baby. GLORIAAA!!!

As usual, had some cake smearing craze after singing her birthday song. Some played while me and some others went back to our room to continue on our assignment 2.

Reflections:

Supposedly the interaction night was the highlight for today. But for me, the black out was the main highlight of my day. Who in the world would even think that the WHOLE CAMPUS would black out all at one time. And the worst thing was, there was no back up electricity. Did the campus really black out or were they trying to save electricity?

In the middle of the night when I went downstairs to find the auntie, she told me ‘oh, the whole school black out so just go back to sleep.’Being in a country with a ‘not so advanced technology’, meeting with such situation was common.

Our bunk had also blacked out several times due to insufficient electricity. So it also means that our computer always shuts off while in the midst of doing our work. So we people in Singapore should appreciate that our government is providing us with stable eletricity which does not cut off as and when they like it.

For every place there is also back up electricity which activates once the main power has been cut off. Stable electricity is crucial to sustain the economy of a nation. Once there is any threats of electric power shortfalls, no countries would invest in that nation as they are uncertain when there would be one day that their manufacturing line would stop thus incurring large losses.

xanier!

Day 28- Chap 8 + Industrial Visit.

As usual woke up early to have my breakfast before heading off for lessons at 10am. Today is our LAST SECOND CHAPTER! YEAAA!! HEHEH! Had lecture on chapter 8 followed by the usual quiz. After lesson, went back to the hostel to put our things down before going for lunch.

Afterwhich, we met up with the LSCT students and headed off for our industrial visit. Todays visit was to a pharmaceutical company. It was quite a short tour around the perimeters of the company.

Entrance of the company.

In order to protect the confidentiality of the company, photos could only be taken at limited areas and we were also not allowed into many sections of their company.

Precaution Labels.

Rushed back to hostel after the visit to start on our assignment 2 which will be due 2 days later.

Haish~

Reflections:

Every country have their own main sectors of industry to sustain the economy of their own nation. Emphasis would definitely be given to that sector in order to have an edge over other countries. Without giving the right emphasis or identifying the potential sector, the country would not be able to prosper so quickly and to accelerate the growth of their economy.

xanier!

Day 26-27: 武当山

武当山 would be the final weekend excursion trip for us before we officially end our OIP trip. And this was also the longest ride. A total of 7 HOURS!!! All of us were looking forward to our lunch as throughout the whole 7 hours, all we had were just biscuits. Reached at around 1 pm, had our lunch before heading out for some historic site visits.

Yin Yang.

Most of the places that we went to were temples which portrays the past and history of Wudang. It is a Taoist holy ground thus temples are everywhere.

Adriannnn!

Visit to the temple.

Tea Appreciation session.

1st Try.

2nd Try.

The visits ended around 6 pm and we checked into our hotel. The weather was also extremely cold compared to our hostel. We were already shivering without the hotel room air con on.

Our Room for the next 2 nights.

Took a night stroll with some of them before heading back to our hotel room to watch our long lost Television =D Had a nice sleep due to the super cold weather. Slept early to make sure I had enough energy for the physically challenging Wudang mountain climb tomorrow!

Day 27 – Huff & Puff

Had breakfast at 6 in the morning. Tried to fill my tummy so I have sufficient energy to conquer the mountain later. Everyone gathered at the starting point of Wudang mountain trekking area. Initially, everyone were all walking close to one another, but at the middle part of the climbing session, space started to form in between each person. And slowly, some were walking in front, in the middle and some right at the back. I was walking at the front! =X hehe!

They do this for a living. And looking at their tired faces, it was really heartaching.

The steps seemed never ending.

It was really physically demanding because we were climbing flight of steps one after another. By the time I reached the peak of the mountain, my legs were numbed. Slowly, people started coming in groups and you could see the wide smile on their faces. The sense of accomplishment!

The time I completed this challenge.

Stayed on for awhile before we head back down the mountain using cable cars.

Cable Cars.

And our weekend trip ended with us taking the long bus ride back to hostel again. Arrived in school at around 9.30pm.

SLEEPY!

Reflection:

Strangers turn to friends in times of hardship. Initially I was walking with my group of MDE people. But slowly when things gets tougher and gaps start to form between people, I was walking alone. For quite a distance I was self motivating myself to endure and to just continue walking. And at one point I met 3 other students from the other divisons. Initially we didn’t communicate but after walking for awhile, all of us opened up. Waited for each other before conquering another flight of steps and we also motivated each other along the way. Finally, we reached the peak together. That’s how friendships are formed. There is always a fine line between stranger and friend. Sometimes such things just require a small action for it to happen. Teenagers nowadays are too soft spoken and hesitant when it comes to opening up to strangers. In my future work life, I have learnt not to hold back when forming interrelationships with new colleagues or customers as friends do help to bring you further in life be it in a negative or positive way.

xanier!