day 28

Today lesson started in the afternoon. Ms Neo went through with us practical test revision which we had done yesterday. Still unable to use my laptop, I am not able to check if I did the questions correctly or not! I had just revised from what my friend had. ): After that we watched this movie (which is about our lecture topic) on leadership. The movie is about Queen Elizabeth and how she ruled her kingdom. We were only shown certain parts of the movie to do our report on leadership. But I’m quite interested to watch the whole movie as it seems pretty interesting.

Later at night, around 11pm, we heard screams from downstairs. We were so curious and so we went to check out what was the commotion all about. There was a fight between this middle age man and woman outside our school compound. We had a clear view from our hostel balcony and saw that the man was swinging and grabbing the woman around and all she could do is scream and scream. They both seemed to know each other as the woman did not ran away when the man let go of her, but instead she kept on shouting at the man. My conclusion was that they may be breaking up or something as it looks like those typical couple fight, just that they are more violent.

Reflection:

Leadership is very important if you want to lead a group well. It can affect the attitude and behaviour of your group members and also the results of your objective. I’m truly inspired by how Queen Elizabeth led her army and her planning as a Queen.

I was very annoyed with the fight among those two couples because if they want to fight or argue, they should do it in a private place. We can hear them from our balcony which is like only separated by a road and a pavement. That shows how loud they were screaming in the middle of the night. Not only that, there were passer-by walking past them and not even helping the woman when she was being thrown around by that man. Overall I feel that this sort of behaviour should never happen in public.

LAPTOP CRASH!

MY LAPTOP CRASH!
Since my laptop crashed and all my journal for the past 6 days are in my laptop word documents, I can’t access it. Even my projects reports are inside and I have no backup at all I guess the only way out is to redo! L I’m very annoyed right now and I feel very bad borrowing my friend’s laptop to do all these WORK, when she also has to do hers. And guess what?! I have PRACTICAL TEST on Thursday! How on earth am I going to practice and do the test? ): SO SAD & ANNOYED!

P.S. I can't post too many photos as I'm using my friend's laptop and the internet connection is very poor here. ):

day 26 & 27

Day 26- Mon 29
LESSONS CANCELLED! WOOHOO! Because of the 武当山 trip which we reached hostel late, Ms Neo cancelled class! Thank You Ms Neo! I was dead tired after the trip and my legs are like jelly now.
We slept till late afternoon and when for lunch at a Korean BBQ restaurant at Jian Han Lu. And after that we went to catch a movie “Alice in wonderland”. Thanks to our china friends, we get student prices for the movie tickets.

our Korean lunch

cinema

Reflection:
Half way through eating our lunch in the Korean restaurant, suddenly a group of the staff of this restaurant came out with lunch boxes and headed towards the kitchen counter to collect their lunch. Upon collecting their lunch (plain rice and some vegetables), they went to sit on the empty seats in the restaurant and started eating. We don't usually see such a site in Singapore, as it is rude to eat in front of the customers. I remembered last time when I work in G2000, my manager told all the workers to eat in the storeroom and ensure that you finish your food and clean up before serving the customers. But it is totally different in China, once it's their meal time, they just eat anywhere. I guess this is a normal scenario here.

Day 27- Tue 30
Getting back out PM test today! Thank God I Passed! I could have done better if I had read the questions carefully. Sign* It is too late to cry over spilt milk. );
Later during lessons, Ms Neo is going to let us practice for our practical test on Thursday. She said that our practical will be tougher than the one she giving us later: S Goodness! I hope i can do well for the practical test if not it’s going to pull my grades down too!

P.S. My laptop is still not working and therefore I can’t practice at all because my friends have to practice on their laptops too! ):

day 24 & 25 (武当山)

Day 24- 武当山 sat 27
We had to assemble at 7am at the back gate to start our journey to 武当山, a 2 days 1 night trip.Before leaving we ordered McDelivery for our breakfast since we won’t be able to eat McDonald’s for like the next two days. The journey to 武当山 takes about 5 hours according to the tour guide and she told us to make good use of this time to rest on the bus. Well, the only thing which I’m looking forward to is the hotel there. We heard that the hotel conditions there are better than the cruise and the hostel.
We stopped by a local restaurant somewhere near the mountain to have our lunch. And that was my very first time eating DONKEY’s meat! After trying and can’t make up what type of meat it was and decided to ask the waitress. Knowing what it was, we dare not eat another piece.I had never imagined that I will ever try donkey meat in my life! When the dish was served, we were curious about it as it doesn’t look like any of the meat we had eaten before. The dish was presented in a very simple “ordinary” look and fried peanuts were sprinkle all over it with a little green garnish. The meat was dark red/brown (red meat texture) which looks a bit like beef and when we tried it, it was soft and 40% taste like pork and 60% taste like chicken. In other words, simple DONKEY’s MEAT! (I don’t know how to describe the taste.)

Our first stop for 武当山 was Tai Zi Bo. We visited the temple there and learn about the history of how it was being built and the founder. There are different teachings for different temples, some teach about Buddhist, while others about Taoist and Confucius.
Next stop was another temple. We took the “green” bus which is a tour bus around the mountain. To me both the temples look the same. And it was at this second temple where I dropped my CAMERA! Well first camera and then laptop! What else could be next?! I’ve no idea on how the camera can slipped out of my hand when I had the strap secured to my wrist. Now two electronic devices down! And I hope there won’t be anymore! ):
The restuarant which we had our dinner in:

Finally, after the second temple visit, we get to check in to our hotel. I had to admit, the hotel’s conditions were better than our hostel’s. However, I was not very satisfied with their service.

view outside our hotel
We were only given half an hour to settle down in our hotel and then we need to get back out to visit the third site, which is another temple.

Reflection:

I had never expected donkey to be eaten here! I always thought that dog meat is the most common bazaar food that can be found in China, but I had never expected them to eat donkey too! And my friend told me it is a norm here.

Although the three-star hotel was quite presentable, the services there were not as good as I thought it will be. My heater and the television can’t be on when we go in and so my friend and I went down to the receptionist to request for help. But they seems reluctant to go up with us to our room just to take a look, instead they kept on telling us that we did not switch on the electricity or something. After about 5 minutes wasted trying to convince them that the appliances really can’t work, they finally called a staff near our room to go check it out. After find out the fault for the connections of the plugs, then the television and heater was turned on. I believe if we were in Singapore, the hotel staff will immediately get someone to check our room without much hassles.

Day 25-武当山 sun 28
Last day on 武当山! We have to meet up at 7am to have a quick breakfast before climbing to the peak of the mountain. Our final destination is to reach the “Golden Summit” by 10am. The climb was tougher than expected! If I did not estimate wrongly, I should have climbed around 2000 steps of stairs.
Finally we reached the Golden Summit! It was a splendid site up there. We were above the clouds and as if we were flying in the sky. But our aim is to see this particular building which the bronze roof will turn golden under sunlight and so we wandered further in to the monastery to look for it.

on the way up the mountain

finally reached the summit! very tired!the golden summit everyone was talking about( bronze roof turn GOLD under the sun)

Reflection:
During the climb, we were given a chance to turn back if we think we cannot make it to the top but we continued to walk on. If we had turned back, we will not be able to admire the splendid view and the “Golden” roof. From this I have learnt that we shouldn’t give up easily in life. There are many challenges in life and if we give up just because of these small challenges, we won’t get to see the bigger rewards after these challenges.

day 23

Finally, our very last IS lesson for this trip. We were taught on History of Chinese philosophy. We learnt about the differences between Chinese and Singaporeans. One example is that you must leave some food on the plate after eating so as to show respect to the host. The reason behind this is because if all the food from that plate is finished, it shows that the host is not providing enough food for the guests. Therefore, it is not a very pleasant sign. However, in Singapore, we will try not to waste food and clear whatever is left on the plate if not it is a sign showing that the food is not nice or wasting food. Another interesting thing I had learnt was that if you go to a Chinese house for dinner, they will prepare a lot of food for you. However they will still say that they prepare very little and hope it is enough for all. They try to show their modesty by being humble to their guests.

One quote which I had learnt about Confucius:
子曰：“敏而好学，不耻下问” 孔子说：“聪明又好学，向地位比自己低，学问比自己差的人请教时，不觉得没面子”Fools learn nothing from wise men, but wise men learn much from fools. An intelligent man wouldn’t feel shameful when he seeks advice from other people who are inferior to him.

day 22

Written test day! Made one mistake which will caused me 5 marks! And I’m not even sure if I’ll lose more marks in other parts of the paper. : S Well, there’s no point crying over spilled milk, I shall do better for my exams!
After the test, we went to Yu Guan Guang Chang to give ourselves a treat. Settled our lunch in a Japanese restaurant, and I think compared to Singapore, the Japanese food here is more expensive. In the past, during World War 2, the Chinese hated the Japanese and they totally reject anything that is from Japan. I guess now they are able to accept Japanese culture. However the standard of the Japanese food here cannot be compared to Singapore’s, and not even to Ngee Ann’s. I totally miss Ngee Ann’s Makan place Kaki Fuyong. Gosh! Wait till I go back Singapore I’ve one whole list of MISSED food to eat! Starting with Chili Crab, Char Siew rice, dim sum, chicken rice, western and more!
Reflection:
It is easy to find nice Chinese food in China but not easy to look for nice meals for western, Japanese or even Thai. In Singapore, we can easily find food of different culture and of quality taste. I guess that’s the advantage of a multi culture country. You can find all types of country food! :)

day 21

The day before our written test! & the weather suddenly gets colder!After we finish our practical lessons, Ms Neo let us off early to revise for tomorrow written test. We made use of the whole afternoon studying and decide to have a NICE dinner to reward and motivate ourselves. And so there we go to the backstreet western restaurant which Ms Neo told us that the teacher went frequent to eat the western there. With the rain still refuse to stop, we carried our umbrellas and walk against the cold chilling rain. It was really cold that we were all shivering, but still we wanted to try that restaurant.
The restaurant was neatly decorated but instead of seeing people eating western food we saw people eating Chinese food. We were wondering if we went to the wrong shop. Indeed it is “Lin Mon Le” which in English is “Happy Lemon restaurant”? Well, I find out that no matter what the local there still prefer Chinese food compared to western food. Anyways, we ordered chicken chop and pork chops. The service there was still OK. The lady who served us seems quite friendly. I noticed that in China people hardly say “sorry” and “thank you”. So when she served us and we said”thank you” to her, she says in a very grateful voice “no problem” (in Chinese). And when she saw us looking for hot water, she said she’ll boil for us. It is long since I saw a waitress in china which treats us with such good service.

day 20

We learnt about PERT during Project management lessons which it is totally different from what I had learnt in year 1 QLA. About 5 formulas to remember and hopefully I can remember all by the time my exams come and not get mix up.
Not much of going out today as it rained the whole day. The temperature dropped to around 7 degrees and mist was coming out of our mouth as we speak. It is so true that the temperature here is really unpredictable.
I guess that’s the reason why when we wore shorts or t-shirt out (the shops just next to our hostel) when the temperature is around 15-20 degrees people start to stare at us. My friends and I had been asked by the locals quite a number of times “Won’t you feel cold wearing only these?” But of course we wear t-shirt or shorts when the weather is around 15-20 degrees which is like switching on air-con in Singapore. Well, I had to say that their way of lifestyle is totally different from ours.

After PM lessons, we went back to our hostel, rest and tidy up some paperwork (such as our assignments and settle our blogs). During dinner we went to the backstreet to the same shop which the China students had brought us on the first day. We order the fried tofu and shredded potato with meat and rice. The total bill is $20 Yuan for 3 people! So means each one around $6.80 Yuan which convert to sing dollars is only less than S$2! In the backstreet you can find cheap deals for food! If you eat this amount in Singapore it will cost you at least S$3. We were so bloated at the end of the meal that we can hardly even walk properly.
Before:
After: (we really had big appetite!)

day 19

IS lesson was at 1pm today and we learnt about how to do business in CHINA! Common reason is because China is big and gaining more competitive advantage in the world of business. And according to our IS teacher, Ms Hong, she mentioned that China may even be taking over US in the future years to come and therefore knowing how to do business in China is important.
Around 4.30pm, our deputy principle of Ngee Ann Polytechnic, Mr Foo came to give us a visit. Our IS lesson is paused for him to talk to us.

After all the school activities are over, my friends and I hurried to do some last minute shopping for certain things we need. I bought a bag pack from Kappa for the Wudang mountain trip, a small bag for daily use, and a t-shrit. Total cost was 209元 and if convert to Sing dollars is around S$43.
Reflection:
I personally prefer Ms Grace to teach us IS instead of Ms Hong. Majority of the time, Ms Hong is practically reading everything from the slides. It tends to make the lesson boring. I hope IS lesson can be more interesting and interactive. Maybe the teachers can tell us some interesting places in Wuhan which we can find food or shop. And also more pictures in slides to show us the different culture activities and places of Wuhan.

day 18 (21 march 2010)

Last day on board and we were to pack and leave after breakfast.
Yesterday we went under the dam and we will be going on top of the dam to view the scenery today. It is really cool to be part of this “dam visiting” since in Singapore we don’t get to experience such things. The place was more beautiful than I thought it could be. Colorful flowers were decorated everywhere and sculptures were placed at every corner.

the model of the whole area
This little girl is so cute! her mum wanted her to take photo against some scenery but instead she insisted on taking next to a caucasian old man. We met her again on our tour bus and decided to take a photo with her since she sits next to us. (:

This piece of rock is known to be found over 8000000 years ago!

We think this is the fake KFC! LOL! HFC?! HAPPY FRIED CHICKEN?

Reflection:
Truly impressed with what I had seen and learnt today. Never get to experience such things in Singapore and also in other countries which I had been to so far. I'm really curious how humans can build these huge walls (I'm refering to the dam). If I have the chance to come again I will linger a while longer instead of rushing to fight with the crowds to take group photos. They just simply push you away or just come into your photos! :S

day 17 (20 march 2010)

Our very first morning on the cruise
We were supposed to assemble in the dining area by 6.30am for our breakfast. Over the PA system, they keep on repeating “早上好所有旅客, 请到2楼让您吃早点.” Knowing what to expect, we didn’t have our hopes high. This is our breakfast:

After breakfast we were to get ready to pack and go to Bai Di Miao. It is on top of some mountain and we had to climb up a total of 325(we counted) steps of stairs in order to reach the place. A lot of work in order to get there! There are services for people who are willing pay to be carried up the mountain.

For lunch, we went back the cruise and had this for lunch:

the soup taste like Oil and water ): so far the restuarant food is the best!And around 1pm, we went for another trip to another part of the river to experience another type of water transport service that is in that area(part of yangtze river)

At about 11pm, we were told that we were reaching the dam and we going to pass under it. I was very excited to experience what I had learnt during my International Freight forwarding lessons in year 1. I’ve learnt about how the ships are being transported from upstream to downstream by pumping out water at each stage of the station and I am going to experience it right that very moment. (: It took more than 5 hours for the whole process( which means the ship reach the other side of the river). And we stayed till late night just to watch this once in a life time activity as it is not a common site.

Reflection:
It is interesting to know how the 土家庭 live. The tour guide explain how simple their lives are and if one family’s daughter is going to get married, they will chop down the tree which they had planted for their daughter since she’s born and use it as a dowry. I also truly admired the people who provide the carrying service up the mountain. For me, my legs were already tired when I’m not even half way through up the top and those people can actually carry a full human load up the 325 steps of stairs. 佩服!佩服!