27 March 2012

27 March 2012

Tuesday, 2 more days to Common Test! It was revision classes for both morning and afternoon. I was in class practicing two common test papers, not too difficult though. I did a total of 6 questions but 2 of them have to sketch diagrams, it took me a total of 4 hours, so tiring to my brain.

At 6pm, Hakim, Shakir and I went down to eat la mian and met two girls whom we saw at the cheerleading class. 

We exchange contacts like msn and yahoo; next they told us to join them later at the track & field where they practice nun- chucks. The class consists of an instructor and about 40 of them warming up and started swinging nun-chucks. 
After their lesson, Chee Seng joined us, we started to play around and learn a few moves but I was not that skilled and a fast learner unlike my friend Hakim. 
We started taking photos of each other post after post and taking photo with their instructor.

At night, we still followed the two of them to their cheerleading class. When Shakir and Chee Seng went to eat something, we 2 were with the girls. During their breaks, Hakim showed off his dropping dance skills together with a local male student who just happened to be passing by while I lent the loudspeaker from the dance instructor to play hip-hop songs. 
There was a sound of applause as Hakim danced great! Chee Seng and Shakir missed all the good moments and even when Hakim was learning to dance Waltz from me. Ha-ha!

26 March 2012

Monday, lessons as per normal but a little better. This was because of yesterday’s trip; Mr. Lim pushed the timing from 9am to 9.30am for the first lesson so we have more time to rest.

 This was so true that during lesson time, while he was teaching Chapter 5, some people were already sleeping throughout the lesson like I did but lesser.

 Luckily Chapter 5 was easy to understand and do when we did the tutorial questions after lunch during our second lesson.

After these lessons, there was nothing much to do so I decided to call my local China friends Quan Yong, Meng Ling and Feng Li for dinner.

However, this dinner was different from any dinner I took, you can say it was home cooked by the students. Only Yat Ming and I were available and met Meng Ling and Feng Li downstairs our dorm at 5.45pm. 

We walked just outside town where there was a narrow pathway to go to the dining place where they would be cooking, both of us made 3 new friends there but I forgot all three names, ha-ha. We two helped them plucked off the chili stems and cooked a dish which was fried eggs with tomato. By the time we were in the middle of cooking, Quan Yong arrived after he finished class at 6pm and joined in. At 7pm, dinner was ready and all of us dig in. 

There were 6 dishes including 1 big bowl of soup and none of us could finish all of it.

After dinner, Yat Ming went back to dorm while I hung out with Quan Yong to see arts. In fact, he skipped art class when his classmate caught him when we entered the classroom, now I know him better.

 They were decorating a poster by painting and writing a sign for the English Oral Competition soon to come. I shall not disturb them and went back to dorm to sleep.

25 March 2012 Trip to E’ Mei Mountain (24 &25 March 2012)

25 March 2012

In the morning, we were disturbed up by an irritating rooster at 5am but my roommate was still in his deep sleep. Therefore, I woke him up by rocking his body and must get down for breakfast at 5.30am.

In addition, he told me that he will bathe after me but by then he will be late.
 Indeed he was late but on time to catch the bus at 6am without taking his breakfast which I had. The bus ride to the mountain bus terminal was a few minutes away. We bought tickets and waited for our buses to fetch us up the mountain. The bus arrived and everyone got on the bus and off we go! The ride was unpleasant as we got motion sickness from the inertia of the bus cornering left and right for 2 hours long.

The environment was great and beautiful when we got there plus there was snow!! In fact, most of us have never seen or touched snow before, it’s our first time. We started throwing snowballs to each other but we must not forget that we have to climb up the mountain more to reach the peak. All of us bought straw shoes to tie on our current shoes to provide better grip on the snow.

First, our biggest obstacle was this steep slippery slope and glad we did use those straw shoes, it works!!! While walking on slopes and snow, we found snack shops along the way and I bought their corn, very tasteless, also spotted some monkeys about our torso size.

 The monkeys were harmless and friendly that people offered some food to feed them.
 We climbed till we reached the cable car station and queue for 1 and a half hour just so to travel 500 meters above sea level for just 3 minutes. When we got there to the other station, it was already 1pm and we took instant noodles there.
 Everything they sell is expensive at about $10 Yuan for a bottle of soft drink or a cup of noodles or a hot dog.

After our break, we continued climbing and finally reached the peak. We made it, at last!! The scenery was just so beautiful, all temples, gold statues and mostly all you see was clouds and sky. My friends and I went for sight-seeing and paid respect to the Buddha and the magnificent multi million dollars huge golden statue.
 It has been 7 hours long from the bottom to the peak, what an effort!!

Time was running out and we have to climb down the mountain but before we go, we had our last round of snow ball fight for 10 minutes long. We took our proper lunch at 3.30pm and went down some more and reached the hotel at 5.30pm.

By the time we got back on our main bus, the teachers ordered chicken burgers, Pepsi and fries. I was not really that hungry and gave my food to my bus mate, Praashant. 3 hours back to school but my bladder was full and along the way we had a toilet break and we slept throughout the journey.

At night 9.30pm, we were finally dorm sweet dorm. We reached the dorm all sluggish looking and I washed my muddy shoes and clothes from the hiking and end it with writing my blog halfway as I was too exhausted. What a day!!!!

24 March 2012 Trip to E’ Mei Mountain (24 &25 March 2012)

24 March 2012

Trip to E’ Mei Mountain (24 &25 March 2012)

In the morning at around 7.45am, all of us gathered downstairs to get ready for our 2-day trip; we were all well prepared and packed for the icy cold temperature up the mountain. We first met our tour leader-in-charge, Tina, and got up the bus and left school at 8am. I slept along the way with the others as it was a 6 hour journey to Le Shan.

Le Shan, a mountain that is famous for the Giant Great Buddha that was constructed for over 90 years back in ancient times.
 We took a boat down to the shores of the tourist attraction where we saw the Great Giant Buddha along with two big statues on both sides guarding it at the cliffs. 
We were standing at the boat’s deck and were awed and amazed at the size and greatness of this statue. 
When the boat slowed down, we quickly fished out our cameras and took as many shots as possible with the Buddha and with our friends in the photos.

Late afternoon, we checked in a local hotel not far from Le Shan and boy was it more comfortable and spacious than our dorm in school. Chee Seng and I stayed on the top floor (very high), we then decided to take a stroll along the street. Not much to buy or see as nothing was eye catching and boring.

At night, a group of us went to see a play not far from our hotel. The play is about the people of Sichuan, we each paid $160 Yuan to watch it. When we got there, we were just in time to get the last few rows of seats. The show was great, there was Wushu, men with monkey-like abilities, a historic town play and the world famous one was the mask changing experts. To end the show, the finale was about 10 beautiful female dancers dressed with flowers and an elephant with Buddha sitting on top and the roof has pink flowers falling. Everyone gave a round of applause and enjoyed ourselves, a great experience and money well spent!

23 March 2012

Today, Mr. Lim taught us the last section of chapter 4 and gave us a break. He then started Chapter 5 which is more tedious. I have to use so much brain power just to answer the questions. We the tutorial question about 3 of them, not easy though. I took an hour to complete them before going off for lunch.

For lunch I went back to the same stall where I had La Mian. However, this time I had fried rice but the beef was too hard to chew, corn was hard like a peanut. I spent the entire afternoon doing my work and sleeping in bed. Nothing much to do around here, really!

In the evening, I do not know what I wanted to eat because I am the only one eating. Therefore, I called two girls, Feng Li (wearing glasses) and Meng Ling (red sweater), down to eat together at a nearby town. We ate fish steamboat and we talked all night long until 10pm. The meal was cheap, 3 of us only about $55 Yuan (S$11), then we took photos.

I took them to my dorm to have a look around and seeing my roommate Chong Chee Seng. My teacher, Mr. Nick was spying on us then I chased him out of our dorm. Now I am spending time doing my blog while the two girls are trying to read. Unfortunately, only Feng Li can read my words while Meng Ling has to depend on her to translate, ha-ha.

22 March 2012

22 March 2012

OH SNAP! I have not gotten enough sleep through the night. In class, when Mr. Lim was teaching, I felt sleepy and my eyelids were feeling heavy. Never mind that, the next lesson was where the whole class would be making tea.

After my lunch, we went back to the same classroom at 1pm and the teacher was there to start his presentation. He taught us how making tea is as beautiful as writing a poem. The history of making tea and especially the different types of tea leaves.
 After a 30 minutes presentation, we got out of the class and crossed over to the opposite building (CCA Block). 

The room was filled with tea table sets when we entered, our class split into groups of 6 and ready for the set of instructions the teacher has prepared for us. 
The teacher gave each of us about 2 grams of green tea leaves and jasmine flower into a funnel bowl. 
He told us that we first have to boil water and use it to moisturized the dried leaves and warm the tea cups and tea pot. The first brewed tea was said to be dirty and we have to pour it away, but we never heed his advice and tested it, SO BITTER.

After some time, we go for a second serving and the teacher warned us about consuming a lot will make a person drunk. I felt a little dizzy after drink ten cups and more.

At night, I brought Hakim and Shakir to the CCA Block where the first storey was hip hop dancing. We were impressed with the moves they perform like hand stand and head spin. We three went to the third floor where there were girls practicing cheerleading. The girls were the same group yesterday and were happy to see us, we joined in and had fun! Lastly, we took group photos before we left as we have homework to do. 

21 March 2012

21 March 2012

Wednesday, Mr. Lim taught us a new chapter, Chapter 4 in SOM. It was easy to follow but sometimes confusing when I have to find the centroid of equilibrium and did 2 tutorial questions. He eventually released us at 11am to get an early lunch before our trip to the San Xing Dui museum later at 1.20pm. It was my first time to take my lunch at the canteen together with my roommate, Chee Seng. The food there is worth it and it does taste good. The meal consists of a bowl of rice and you can get to choose up to three different dishes to put on your plate.

After lunch, I went back to my dorm to take a nap but I woke up late and everyone was waiting for me. It was so embarrassing because I was hardly late in my life. We took a public bus and quite a short journey (a few miles from school).

When we got there, the teachers paid for our tickets to enter the museum and each were given a recorder and an earpiece.
 The earpiece was so low quality that my teacher’s one is spoilt, I ended up giving mine and use my headphones to listen. 
We saw old treasures dating back 3000 to 4000 years ago and listen to the recorder while moving and glancing around. Most of the treasures were gold foil, bronze that rusted and a lot of jade tools. We went to their gift shop but everything was so expensive and I never spend a single cent. 
We spent the whole afternoon there until 6pm, we then took another public bus back to school but this time the bus never travel much on the road, the driver travelled off road which was bumpy and the ride was atrocious.

Dinner time is coming and I called my China friends, one of them was Liu Jiao, to take dinner with Yat Ming and me. We ate at the dim sum place, cheap and good. 

At night, Yat Ming went back to the dorm to work and I simply followed Liu Jiao to her English Conversation class.

 The class was quiet but they hardly spoke English, this class is to improve their speech and confidence when going on stage to present.

At 8pm, I still followed her to her cheer leading class where I had fun practicing with her and her friends. I danced very enthusiastically that my legs hurt bad.  

20 March 2012

20 March 2012

YYAAAAAYYY!!!! Today is my special day, it is my BIRTHDAY!!!

At midnight, Hakim, Shakir and Chee Seng woke me from my sleep by adding toothpaste on my face. I went straight to the bathroom and wash my face to get rid of it. I got out with a surprise from them, they wished me “Happy Birthday!” and Chee Seng got me a present, a 2004 Porsche GT3 RS die-cast car for display. It was quite late and all went back to sleep till 7am. I just couldn’t sleep, expecting better things to come.

In the morning, I got tons of Facebook posts from my friends wishing me “Happy Birthday!” It took me some time to reply to them all and just enough time to go to school for lessons. Mr. Lim taught us the last part of Chapter 3 and I did some questions from Tutorial 3.

 My afternoon lesson was better, the IS teacher taught us how to play Chinese chess but sadly I just watched them play. It is interesting to see some non-Chinese playing this game.

For dinner, Xiao Jie and Lu Lu invited our group to eat at a restaurant outside the school campus. It’s a steamboat but dry one and its salty chicken with vegetables and it costs $65 Yuan for 8 of us which was really affordable and it was my treat to them.

 





It gets even better, the biggest surprise of my life.
 After dinner, the two of them brought us to a dark and quiet corner in school where our other China friends are waiting for us to arrive!!

 
 The table has a big cake, two lit candles and two presents for me! We sang the birthday song together and ate the cake!

Once that was done, we went out the school gate to the river bank and start a fireworks display to end my day! Birthday and making the right friends are the best parts of my life!! Life is good when you make the right choice!!!