My Journey @ Wuhan

Day 42: Home Sweet Home!

2009-10-12T12:22:00.012+08:00

Day number 42. Today is the day which all of us have been waiting for, the trip back home! Most of us stayed up late to celebrate CK's birthday and this time round, we celebrated it outside our hostel and here are some of the photos!

The birthday boy making a wish!

MDE Group Photo

After celebrating CK's birthday, we headed back to our rooms to rest and relax. Some of us engaged ourselves in playing games, while the rest engage ourselves in watching movies as well as chit-chatting sessions.

Soon it was morning and some of us headed out to play with fireworks before we head back to continue with our area cleaning and packing. It was definitely a wonderful experience as we don't get to set off fireworks back home in Singapore.

After area cleaning and packing, we are all ready to go! As usual, we have to carry our luggage and baggage down the stairs for 3 levels. The weight of our luggage now is definitely heavier than the day 1 when we reached with all the shopping and things which we are bringing back home for our loved ones! Thus, we helped one another carry the luggage down and we are all ready to go. We bid goodbye to the auntie who is in-charge of our hostel before we load up our luggage onto the bus and set off. Here are the group photo before we set off!

21 Guns!
All set and ready to go!

Before we leave, some of us felt rather reluctant as we had spent 6 weeks of our time over here. All of us got more or less attached and found ourselves adapted to the lives over here. Looking back at the wonderful memories which we had created and shared over here, we were all glad that we are in it together for we are the 21 guns!

The bus ride from WUST Campus to the airport will take approximately around 2hours and thus, all of us fell asleep on the bus as either we didn't sleep the night before or only have a few hours of sleep back at the hostel.

Once we reached the airport, we proceed to check in our luggage at the counter together before we went for our lunch together @ KFC for the last time in China. After having our lunch, we have to board the plane from Wuhan to Guangzhou which will take approximately around 2hours to reach there. Here are some of the photos!

Goodbye Wuhan, China!

Snacks on board!

After reaching Guangzhou International Airport, we have to wait for around 2hours for our transit from Guangzhou to Singapore. Thus, we went for a little walk and decided to sit down at a corner to relax as we were all getting tired. Here are some of the photos!

Relax one corner!

Soon, it was time for us to board the plane, CZ351 from Guangzhou back home to Singapore! We headed to the check in counters, passed the security checks and headed down the row to our gate, A16. Here are some of the photos!

Walking to Gate A16

A16 is further down!

A16!

Group photo before we board the plane!

Dinner on board!

The flight from Guangzhou to Singapore will take approximately around 4hours and thus, we indulge ourselves in our songs, sleep as well as some chit-chatting sessions to help pass time. Soon, an announcement was made that the plane will be making their landing soon and to our amaze, we landed in Singapore earlier as scheduled at around 10.40pm.

Hello Singapore!

Goodbye Wuhan, Hello Singapore!

After we disembark the plane, we headed off to clear the customs as well to buy some things we want and headed to collect our luggage and ready to go home!

Collecting our luggage!

Group photo with Mr. Loh

After checking out, we bid goodbye to one another of the 21 guns, separated and headed back home!

My Reflections:

Time flies. 6 weeks of Overseas Immersion Programme had just pass by. 42 days of us being away from our family and loved ones and all by ourselves, with only our friends as our companion.

Finding ourselves rather reluctant to leave as we had spent 6 weeks of our time over here. All of us got more or less attached together among ourselves and found ourselves adapted to the lives over here. Looking back at the wonderful memories which we had created and shared over here, we were all glad that we are in it together for we are the 21 guns! This is the group of people who made this trip and this journey a very special and extraordinary one, not forgetting our trip leader, Mr. Joseph Loh as well. At the same time, if me and my friends didn't sign up for this OIP, we won't be able to experience so much and also, meeting such great group of people whom we call friends and who will be remain close to us. No matter where we are, we will still be connected.

I would say confidently that I had certainly benefited alot from this Overseas Immersion Programme. For example, this OIP had broaden my perspective of the world around me, enhance my experience and knowledge and let me know more of the history and culture of China. At the same time, not forgetting, I had made a group of new and wonderful friends! The wonderful memories which we had shared and enjoyed together will forever be in our memories and 21 guns will never be forgotten.

Back in Singapore, our learning journey continues.

"A friend is someone who walks in when the rest of the world walks out"
- Walter Winchell

"Friends are the most important part of your life. Treasure the tears, treasure the laughter, but most importantly, treasure the memories"
- Dave Brenner

Day 41: Last Shopping!

2009-10-11T23:19:00.002+08:00

Day number 41. Today is the last day which we will be spending over here in WUST before we fly back home the following day. Thus, we decided to head down to Grand Ocean once again to do some last minute shopping as well as to enjoy ourselves for the last day!

After reaching Grand Ocean, we split up and some of the guys decided to head down to Ajisen Ramen Restaurant once again to have our lunch before we head off for our shopping. Had a wonderful lunch over there and had alittle chi-chatting session as well.

After having our lunch, we received a call and decided to head over to the haunted house to experience it before we head back home. We went to the second level first, 2 stars rating. Wasn't that scary as we thought it will be. After which, some of us decided to challenge the highest level, 5 stars rating. Here are some of the photos!

Descriptions of different levels

The haunted house

Entry Ticket

Those who went!

Customer's feelings

After visiting the haunted house, we headed off for our shopping and soon it was time for us to head back to our hostel to start packing our stuffs as Mr. Loh will be coming to weigh our luggages. We got to do area cleaning in our rooms too!

After that, some of us have some chit-chatting in our room till rather late and thus, we decided not to sleep for the night as we have to wake up rather early the following day for area cleaning as well!

My Reflections:

After today, with the last day over here, i realised that most of us are missing those wonderful things which we had experienced over here. I'm sure that all of us, the 21 guns, had definitely benefited alot from this trip and will be ready to face new challenges ahead of us after we are back home in Singapore.

"Accept the challenges so that you can feel the exhilaration of victory"
- George S. Patton

Day 40: Shopping @ Grand Ocean

2009-10-10T23:41:00.005+08:00

Day number 40. Nothing much happened today. MDE split into 2 groups for shopping today. Most of the people wanted to head down to the Yellow Crane tower for their shopping and the few of us who didn't want to go there headed down to Grand Ocean for our shopping.

Making our way there!
Roy, Me, Anyu, Edy, Jarold, Erwin

The Driver!

Reached!

Grand Ocean Shopping Centre

Going Up!
Erwin, Jarold, Me, Anyu, Roy, Edy

After reaching Grand Ocean, we headed over to Ajisen Ramen restaurant once again for our lunch! Here are some photos during our lunch!

Lunch!
Polim, Jarold, Erwin, Edy, Me, Anyu

Lunch!
Edy, Me, Anyu

After our lunch, we headed off for our shopping for a few hours before we got tired and decided to head back to our hostel earlier as we have to attend the Farewell Dinner organized for us.

Heading Back!

Dean of the Foreign Language School, China Lecturers, China Student Leaders attended the dinner as well. Here are some photos taken during the Farewell Dinner!

Roy, Me, Anyu, Gloria

MDE Group Photo with China Student Leaders

MDE Group Photo with Dean, China Lecturers & Ngee Ann Lecturers

My Reflections:

Day number 40. With only 2 more days left in Wuhan. As the Chinese saying goes, "天下没有不散之宴席" which means that everything does not last forever and will come to an end eventually. 6 weeks of Overseas Immersion Programme @ WUST had definitely broaden my perspective as at the same time it allowed me to understand more of the world around me. As this OIP comes to an end, I'm glad that i was there to experience all these wonderful things which will be in my memories.

Day 39: Assignment 3 Presentation

2009-10-09T23:22:00.002+08:00

Day number 39. Nothing much happened today. Most of us decided to tug ourselves in our lovely beds for alittle while more in the morning to get some rest. After we woke up, we went for wash up and prepared. Then, it was time for us to head over to the Foreign Language School for the last time today to have our Assignment 3 presentation in the afternoon.

After we reached the classroom, Mr. Loh had a short briefing session with us on the schedule for the next few days, things to take note of and to prepare ourselves for the last few days which we have over here in Wuhan.

Mr. Loh conducting the briefing

After the short briefing, we had our Assignment 3 presentation. The presentation compromises of Flexsim models as well as explaination and elaboration of the problems which we face and what are the solutions which we came up with to solve the problem.

Listening Attentively

After the presentation, we took some photos of the classroom before we left as it will be the very last time which we will be stepping in there. Our Business Process Engineering (BPE) module are hence officially over! Here are some of the photos!

B3 - My seat for the past few weeks

The classroom

After which, we headed back to our hostel rooms to rest before we head out for our dinner. After dinner, we head back to our rooms, washed up and continue with our own work such as preparation for our IS movie presentation.

Soon it was getting late and we decided to turn in early for the night as we will be heading out for shopping the next day!

My Relections:

After our presentation today, all of us felt rather relieve that we have 1 more completed module to our list which in turn means that we are 1 more step closer to completing all the required modules.

Day 38: Stay In

2009-10-08T23:12:00.002+08:00

Day number 38. Nothing much happened today. Most of the people decided to head down to another shopping centre for shopping while a few of us decided to stay in in the hostel to rest and at the same time, to get some assignments such as blogging and our reports done.

Headed out for lunch at the fishball restaurant nearby with those who stayed in and after having our lunch, we headed back to our hostels to take a short break before we immerse ourselves in work once again. Here are some photos of our lunch!

Fishballs

Tomato with Egg

Vegetables

After our break, we immerse ourselves in our work once again and soon it was dinner time and we headed out for our dinner at the street stalls near campus to have our dinner. After dinner, we headed back to our hostels to continue our work and to rest for the day.

Day 37: Assignment 3 & Shopping!

2009-10-07T23:44:00.006+08:00

Day number 37. Nothing much happened today. All of us stayed in the hostels as we had to get our assignment 3 completed in preparation of presentation the following day.

After we woke up in the morning, washed up and prepared, a few of us headed out to the bakery near our hostel to grab some food to eat to energize ourselves before we start the long day ahead with assignment 3.

Back in the hostel rooms, all of us were working on assignment 3 and somehow, all of us got stuck at one part of the assignment and thus, we have to seek help from Mr. Loh who said he will be coming over to our rooms to assist us soon. Thanks Mr. Loh!

After Mr. Loh assisted us in our Flexsim models for assignment 3, we headed out for our lunch and have a small little break to rest before we head back to start working on our assignment 3 once again. Had our lunch at the yun tun stall again as there isn't much choices for us to choose from as shops are either still closed from their Golden Week break or we don't feel like eating the food.

Drinks @ 8 + 8

Back in our hostel rooms, we were all working on our assignment 3, working on the original and modified flexsim models and reports. It wasn't that easy as we thought it will be and quite some time was spent thinking on the solution for the flexsim models and at the same time, meeting the requirements and constraints on the problem.

Time really flies. Soon, it was already evening time, around 6pm. Thus, a few of us decided to head down to Grand Ocean once again to have our dinner and to do some shopping. This also serves as a little treat and break for us as we were all doing assignment 3 for the whole day.

Headed down to Grand Ocean, had our dinner at Ajisen Ramen Restaurant where we really enjoyed our meal. Here are some of the photos taken during our dinner!

Ajisen Ramen!

The few of us
Jarold, Chin Kuang, Ming Yu, Roy, Me, Edy & Polim [taking photo]

My Dinner!
Spicy Meat Noodles

Side Dish
Fried Dumplings

After dinner, we headed for our shopping and soon, it was time for us to head back to our hostel as it was getting late. Back at the hostel, we went for our showers and after which, we touched on our assignment 3. Then, had a little chit-chat session with some of our friends and decided to rest for the night.

Night View @ Grand Ocean

Alrights! That's all for today!

My Reflection:

After today, i realised that besides working hard for our studies and academic side, we should take some time off and go out to have a breather and relax ourselves. This helps us balance the academic side as well as the fun side of us. Thus, adequate breaks are definitely helpful to us!

Day 36: Shopping!

2009-10-06T23:35:00.004+08:00

Day number 36. Nothing much happened today. There are no lessons and thus, most of us decided to tug ourselves in our lovely beds for a little while more to get some good rest. It was definitely a good time for all of us to get a little more sleep before we are back to our hectic schedules.

After we woke up in the morning and washed up, some of us headed out for our breakfast / lunch at the yun tun store which is near campus to grab some food to eat. The streets are still rather empty as most of the students were not back from their 8 days holiday of the Golden Week.

After which, some of us decided to head down to the town to do some shopping as we do not have much things to do back in the hostels. Thus, we hailed a cab and headed down to Grand Ocean to do some shopping. Stayed there for quite some time and had our dinner at MacDonalds before we headed back to our hostels. Here are some of the photos!

Grand Ocean

Having a break

Shopping Bags

Back in our hostels, we were back to our daily blogging as well as starting to work on our assignment 3 which presentation will take place in a few days time!

My Reflections:

36 days had passed, 6 more days to go. I would say that time really flies. In a blink of an eye, 5 weeks had passed by us and we will be back in Singapore in another week's time. Thus, I feel that all of us should treasure each day and each minute to do what we desire and to accomplished what we had started on initially as it will became another page of our history once it passes by.

"Time and tide wait for none"
- Unknown

Day 35: MDE Day Out!

2009-10-05T22:50:00.006+08:00

Day number 35. Woke up very early today as it was MDE Day Out today at the Theme Park and shopping! Most of us didn't manage to wake up at our desired time as we were all very tired with all the late night sleep which we had previously. However, we dragged ourselves out of the bed, prepared and meet up with the rest at the campus gate to board the bus and ready to set off!

The bus journey from campus to our destination, the theme park is around 1hour or so and almost all of us fell asleep on the bus almost immediately as we were far too tired. Here are some photos taken during the bus journey!

MDE!

Local Court House

After reaching our destination, we alighted and we saw that KFC delivery over here in China uses bicycles instead of motorcycles. Thus, this shows that their delivery area are rather limited and therefore, delivery time is definitely faster and more efficient! Here are some photos!

The Street

KFC Delivery

It was a 10 minutes walk from the location which we alight to the theme park. We passed by the local hospital along the way as well as a park before we reach the theme park. As we were in the park, we saw some rather interesting activities. One of it is a man doing Chinese calligraphy on the floor of the park with a huge brush and water. Here are some of the photos!

The Park

A Man doing Chinese Calligraphy

Boats

After the walk, we finally reached the theme park. Upon reaching, we headed off to see any rides interest us. The theme park over here in China is rather different from what we had seen in Singapore. The theme park here requires no admission tickets. The tickets are charged by ticket for each ride. For example, the rollercoaster ticket cost around RMB$25 per ticket per person. We stayed in the theme park for the whole morning and some of them tried some of the rides. Here are some of the photos!

Map of Theme Park

Rollercoaster

Group Photo
Erwin, Xanier, Mingyu, Jarold, Me, Roy, Edy
(from left to right)

MDE Group Photo @ Theme Park

After leaving the theme park, our next destination is shopping! Thus, we walked down the streets and eventually decided to try out the local train service or our MRT service which we had back in Singapore. The tickets for the train service here is China is payable by how many stations or stops you are traveling. As we are only traveling for 1 stop, the ticket cost is RMB$1.50 per person. The ticket issued wasn't in card form or in paper form but in a coin form whereby we have to scan them at the scanner to pass through the gantry. Here are some of the photos of our experience!

The ticketing machine

The Ticket

The Train

After reaching our destination, we split up and headed for lunch and headed off for our shopping. Spend a few hours on the streets doing our shopping. Here are some of the photos!

Some of the shopping centres

After shopping, we met up at around evening time and set off to take a boat to another location for our dinner at the food street before we headed back to campus via bus! Here are some of the photos!

Jetty

Boarding the boat

Reached campus at around 9.30pm in the night and some of us decided to head down the streets to get some food while the rest of us decided to head back to our rooms to have a refreshing shower and to continue with our assignments and of course, some card games together before we call it a day.

Alrights. Thats all for today!

My Reflections:

After a day out of fun with MDE today, it was rather good to have some time and fun out together as a group. Its definitely a good bonding session among us as we were on this overseas immersion programme together. Its also a time for us to relax and enjoy ourselves before we are back to our hectic schedules once the next semester starts when we are back in Singapore!

Day 34: Rest Day

2009-10-04T22:47:00.002+08:00

Day number 34. Nothing much happened today. Decided to sleep in awhile more in the morning and stay in to rest. Woke up in the morning, washed up and start off our day by doing up some of our work and some relaxation games as well as some movies!

Headed out for lunch at some local restaurant near our campus with some of the guys. Here are some of the photos of our lunch!

Tomato with Egg

Vegetables

Fishball

After lunch, some of us decided to stay in for the rest as we were all rather tired while some of the rest decided to head down to town for some shopping!

Thus, those who decided to stay in went back to our rooms to do our stuffs and have some time to rest. Headed out for dinner at dinner time and back to continue with our assignments and rest.

Alrights! Thats all for today!

My Reflections:

Having a rest day today and staying in was rather a good day for me as besides completing some assignments as well as to watch some movies, I also did some thinking. Whereby some conclusions and answers were drawn from it. Sometimes, its good to take some time off, sit down quietly and think through about various issues and at the end of it, we will find that it is worthwhile to spend the time.

"Thoughts lead on to purpose, purpose leads on to actions, actions form habits, habits decide character, and character fixes our destiny"
- Tryon Edwards

Day 33: Day Off & Shopping!

2009-10-03T23:41:00.000+08:00

Day number 33. As our lessons are over officially and it means holiday! Thus, some of us spend our day shopping at the city area.

Woke up in the morning, prepared and set off for Grand Ocean Shopping Centre at around noon time. After we reached, we headed for our lunch at the Steak House. The food there was rather nice and not bad. And at the same time, its rather cheap as well! Here are some of the photos of my lunch which I had!

Grand Ocean Shopping Centre

French Style Steak with Red Wine

After our lunch, we headed off for our shopping time! However, before that, we decided to get our hair all styled up and stuffs. Therefore, we headed to the hair salon, Yes I Do, to have our haircut and some hair styling. Some of us decided to dye our hair, while some of us decided to have a hair cut. As for me, I decided to get some hair cut! At first, it was a simple hair cut which I wanted. However, it ended up with a little bit of perm on my hair. Total cost of the hair cut is RMB$108 which is around SGD$25. Personally, I'm not used to the new hair style which I got. Here are some of the photos of my hair cut!

Before haircut

In Progress

In Progress

In Progress

After haircut

Some of us who got a new style
Jarold, Polim, Me, Anyu

We spent quite some time in the salon doing up our hair. After which, we decided to do some simple shopping as there isn't much time left. Here are some photos!

Nice background!
Jarold, Roy, Me

Nice!

After the simple shopping, we headed for our dinner at Pizza Hut! Had quite a feast in Pizza Hut. Here are some photos of our dinner!

Pizza Hut!

Mango Smoothie

Seafood Pizza

Minced Meat Pizza

Mango Cake

Me

On our way back, we saw some nice night view of the city area. Here are some photos!

Grand Ocean @ Night

We headed back to our hostel, bathed and had a little chit-chatting session with some of the people and rested for the day!

Alrights! That's all for today!

My Reflections:

Day number 33. I have around 9 days left over here in Wuhan. I had experienced alot of things which I don't have the chance to back at home. Out of my comfort zone, I had to be dependent on myself to get things such as laundry and other stuffs done up on my own rather than having my mother doing my laundry back at home. Through this Overseas Immersion Programme, I had learnt alot of valuable lessons and at the same time gain useful experience. Thus, I am glad that I am here for this OIP @ Wuhan.

"The only source of knowledge is experience"
- Albert Einstein

Day 32: Written Test & Day Off

2009-10-02T21:59:00.000+08:00

Day number 32. Nothing much happened today. Woke up early in the morning, washed up and prepared to go out for our 2nd and last written test on BPE today, ranging from chapters 6 to 10. Before going to class, meet up with some of the people and headed down to the canteen for breakfast!

Written Test no. 2 today. Still manageable but yet, didn't manage to complete the whole paper on time as there were too much to write. Here are some photos of my written test today!

Answer Script

Essay / Answers

Took around 1.5hours for the test and after the test, it means that we have no more lectures! However, there are still assignments, presentations and blogging to be done! After the test, headed back to our rooms to rest for awhile before we head out for lunch

Lunch

After having our lunch, some of us went off to town to shop while the rest chose to stay in the hostel rooms to rest for the day and to head off to town the next day. Rested in the room for quite some time in the afternoon before we head out for dinner again!

Alrights! That's all for today!

My Reflections:

Though we are almost completed with the modules over here, our learning journey doesn't stop here. Learning takes place every single day, every single hour, every single minute. Only through education and learning, we will be able to find out answers to the questions which we have as well as to clarify any doubts.

"Education is not the answer to the question. Education is the means to the answer to all questions"
- William Allin

Day 31: Happy 60th Birthday China!

2009-10-01T22:27:00.000+08:00

Day number 31, 1st October 2009. Today is China's 60th National Day thus, it means day off for us! The campus was rather quiet now as most of the students are back home on a 8 days national day holiday. How I wish Singapore will have 8 days of holiday during National Day too! :D

People's Republic of China

As it was a day off for us, most of us slept in and tried to get more sleep to replenish those days which we had insufficient sleep. After waking up, washed up, prepared and meet up with some of the rest and headed out for breakfast cum lunch!

After having our meals, we headed back to our hostel rooms to relax and enjoy the day off which we have. We play games, chit-chatted and hang around and time really flies. Soon it was dinner time and we headed out for dinner! Here are some of the photos taken during dinner!

The dishes

Edy enjoying the food!

My Reflections:

Having a day off during the PRC National Day was certainly a "treat" for all of us as we were all busy with assignments and presentations. Besides, it also give us an opportunity to experience National Day celebration in a foreign land. By comparing the National Day celebrations in Singapore and over here, I would say that, certainly, the parade and events over here will be more grand and majestic as compared to what we have back home.

Being here for 31 days, experiencing different sorts of things over here is certainly an eye-opener for me, with the totally different environment and things which we see back home. 11 more days for me to experience more things which will be thrown at me and these 11 days will definitely be insufficient for me as well as my mates to experience everything over here.

"Singapore is our homeland; this is where we belong.
We treasure our heritage and take pride in shaping our own unique way of life."
- Singapore NE Message

Day 30: Lessons

2009-09-30T22:22:00.004+08:00

Day number 30. Nothing much happened today. Woke up very early this morning as we have our IS lessons at 9am in the morning. Woke up, prepared and meet up with some of the people and headed down for breakfast before we go to class.

Had our IS lesson on Taoism and Buddhism today with Mr. Philip An. Here are some of the photos taken during the lesson!

Taoism

Buddhism
Sakyamuni

After our IS lesson, we headed back to our rooms to rest and to touch up on our assignment 2 presentation. Had packed lunch in our rooms and had our lunch at the same time while we are touching up our assignment presentations.

After that, it is time for us to head off for our BPE lesson at 2pm with Mr. Joseph Loh which we will be having our assignment 2 presentation. Here are some of the photos taken during the presentation!

My group

Presenting

After presentation, we head back to our rooms to rest before we head out for dinner. After dinner, here we are blogging and taking some rest while we can before we get busy with assignment 3!

My Reflections:

After the second part of the lecture today on Taoism and Buddhism, I realised that religion also teaches us valuable lessons in life. These are lessons where teaches us how to be a person with values.

"True religion is real living; living with all one's soul, with all one's goodness and righteousness"
- Albert Einstein

Day 29: Lesson, Interaction Night, Birthday

2009-09-29T21:47:00.000+08:00

Day number 29. Nothing much happened today. Woke up alittle later this morning. Woke up, washed up and headed down to get some breakfast with some of our friends and once we are back, we start on our assignment 2 which we had to get it ready for presentation tomorrow.

After some time, it was lunch time! We headed out for our lunch before we head off for our BPE lesson with Mr. Loh at 2pm at the Foreign Language School. Had our lecture on chapter 10 and after completing the chapter, we had our quiz on chapter 10 as well!

Concentrating!

After our lesson, we headed back to our rooms to rest for awhile before we head out for early dinner as we had to gather and meet up for a gathering with the chinese students over here for some activities at around 6.30pm in the evening.

At the gathering, we had some games as well as some performances put up by our very own Ngee Ann Polytechnic students. Here are some of the photos of the night!

Roy
with his dance

Edy
with his song

Location of Interaction Night

MDE with Organizing Committee

The whole interaction night took around 2 hours or so and ended at around 9pm in the night. We had some group photo taking sessions before we left and head back for our hostel rooms. At the same time, we will be celebrating another September baby which we had over here on this OIP @ Wuhan, Gloria. Here are some photos taken during the birthday celebration!

Birthday Cake

Birthday Girl

Surprise with cakes!

After the celebration, did some area cleaning before we went back to our rooms to bathe and to continue on our assignment 2 which we had to present the following day. Thus, almost all of us had a very late night that day and had to wake up rather early the following day for lessons!

My Reflections:

After what we had so far, I realised that through this interaction night with the chinese students, not only did we had lots of fun and enjoyed ourselves, we will learn that having international friendship bonds and friends are always better as we will have more friends and to expand our circle of friends as well as our knowledge.

"I'll lean on you and you lean on me and we'll be okay"
- Dave Mathews Band

Day 28: Lesson & Industrial Visit

2009-09-28T23:47:00.005+08:00

Day number 28. This means that I'm officially here in Wuhan, China for 4 weeks which in turn means that I'm here for a month! I'm left with 2 weeks over here, with lots of things to complete. Things such as assignments, blogging, as well as shopping for things! :D

Today, woke up at around 7plus 8 in the morning, prepared and meet up with some of the rest of the people for breakfast before heading for our BPE class at 10am. Had our BPE lesson on chapter 8 as well as the quiz on chapter 8 today.

After lessons, we head back to our hostel rooms to put down our stuffs before we head out for our lunch outside campus. After lunch, we headed back to our rooms to rest for alittle moment before we have to head out to meet up with the rest of the people at the admin block for our industrial visit.

The industrial visit today was to some pharmaceutical industry which is rather near campus. Had tour around the industry by one of the staff over there. Here are some of the photos taken at the industry!

Main View

Facade of the building

Machinery

My Reflections:

After today's industrial visit, with combination of the other industry which we had visited, I realised that industry is very crucial to the growth of the country. Without these industries or manufacturing plants, the country would not be able to grow as fast as it was supposed to be.

"Without industry and frugality, nothing will do, and with them everything"
- Benjamin Franklin

Day 27: Weekend Trip (Mount Wudang)

2009-09-27T23:19:00.014+08:00

Day number 27. Today is the second day of our 2D1N Mount Wudang Trip. Today is the day where we will be conquering Mount Wudang which stands at an altitude of 1612.10 meters, having more than 4500 steps vertically up!

Woke up very early in the morning once again at around 5 plus, prepared and meet up with the rest of the people in the dining area for our breakfast at around 6.30am in the morning! Had porridge, noodles and some buns for our breakfast before we head off to trek up Mount Wudang.

At around 7 plus in the morning, most of us started the trek up Mount Wudang while the rest of the people chose to take the cable car up. The start was gradual downhill and we thought it was still rather easy. However, as time goes by, the fact and the things in front of us proved us wrong. With more and more steps in front of us, with the gradual or steep increase in the altitude, this certainly demoralized some of our people. However, we still tell ourselves we can do it and move on. Here are some of the photos at the start of the journey up Mount Wudang!

Stone Slab at the start

One of the place we pass by

Stone Slab about the path

Wordings on the Cliff
"World Famous Mountain"

Climbing and climbing up!

One of the Pavilion

As time goes by and as we gradually climb up Mount Wudang, fatigue caught up with us. We were all getting tired and even start to sweat up the mountain which is supposedly to be cold! Those who were wearing windbreakers or jackets as well as 2 layers of shirt start taking one layer by 1 layer off as we climb up as we were all feeling hot and warm with all the climbing.

After some time, we came to a point where by we thought we are reaching the peak of Mount Wudang but it wasn't so! Its still a long long way up with steep stairs. Here are some of the photos!

武当山
"yes! we are reaching!"

Steep Stairs
"NOO! Still have more steps to go!"

Another steep stairs
"Oh No! There's more to come!"

After the long and tiring journey up, we finally reached the peak of the mountain, the Golden Top, 金顶. It took us around 2 hours or so to reach the peak of the mountain. Here are some of the photos!

The signboard

Making our way up!

Peak of the mountain, 金顶!

After the long and tiring way up, we took the cable car down! Here are some of the photos!

Entrance

Cable Car

After which, we headed off down the mountain for our lunch at some local restaurant and the long bus journey back to campus! The journey from Wudang back to campus took us around 7 hours or so and by the time we reached campus, its around 9pm in the night and we headed back to our hostel rooms to put our stuffs and headed out to get our dinner and stomach filled!

My Reflections:

After the long and tiring journey up Mount Wudang today, I realised that this is somewhat similar to what we are experiencing in our life. Life is never smooth sailing. There are bound to be ups and downs as we move on in life. At the same time, it was never easy for us to accomplish things which we want to. Through this experience, I realised that obstacles in our lives are just like the steps and ups and downs which we went through while climbing Mount Wudang today. Obstacles are there to test us but not to stop us. Every obstacle and difficulty which we experience is an learning experience for all of us. Thus, when we are met with an obstacle, we should never give up. Instead, we should figure how are we going to overcome these obstacles into our own benefits!

"Life's up and downs provide windows of opportunity to determine your values and goals - Think of using all obstacles as stepping stones to build the life you want"
- Marsha Sinetar

Day 26: Weekend Trip (Mount Wudang)

2009-09-27T23:19:00.012+08:00

Day number 26. Woke up very early in the morning as we will be going for a 2D1N Mount Wudang trip. Woke up at around 5am in the morning, prepared, packed our stuffs and off we go to meet up with the rest. There was a blackout in the campus at around 3 plus in the morning and thus, we have to do our stuffs in total darkness!

After some time of waiting, off we go, heading for Mount Wudang, 武当山! The journey from campus to Wudang is approximately around 6 hours. As usual, most of us fell asleep on the bus almost immediately after we set off. Took a rest as we head off for Mount Wudang. After some rest, we went on with some games such as cards and finger guessing games as we were all getting bored from the long bus journey.

After the long journey, we finally reach our destination, Wudang. Upon reaching Wudang, we headed to one of the hotels which we had our lunch there before we head off to our first place of attraction, the Prince Temple and the Prince's Study. Here are some of the photos taken at the first place of attraction!

Entrance

Climbing up the Stairs to Reach the Prince Temple

The Prince Temple

The Prince's Study

Academic Roll of Honour
can you find my name there? =X

The thick mist and fog

After visiting the Prince Temple and the Prince's Study, we headed to the second place of attraction. Here are some of the photos taken there!

Entrance

The Attraction

Long way up the stairs!

After visiting the second place of attraction, we headed to our hotels first as we were running out of time. Thus, we headed to the hotel, put our stuffs down and hurriedly headed off to our third attraction. Here are some of the photos of our hotel rooms and the attraction!

One of the Stone slab

The beds

The beds and tables

The washroom

Here is one of the interesting photo taken near our hotel!

Fire Prevention Sign

My Reflection:

After visiting the few places of interest which we had today, I realised that we should appreciate and treasure the nature as well as the national heritage more. This is because these are the places where we can learn and experience something which we could not have in our everyday lives. By understanding the history and culture behind these places, we will understand better the heritage of the place as well as the country as a whole. This certainly enhance our knowledge and exposure to the world around us.

"We treasure our heritage and take pride in shaping our own unique way of life."
- Singapore NE Message

Day 25: Lessons

2009-09-25T23:32:00.001+08:00

Day number 25. Nothing much happened today. Had our IS lesson on Business Etiquette today at 9am in the morning. Woke up at around 7am in the morning, prepared and meet up with some of the people to have breakfast before heading for class.

Our IS lesson today was on Business Etiquette which touches on the do's and don'ts at a table, in a conversation and many many more. For our IS lesson today, the computers which we are using are controlled by the lecturer at the front. Thus, we can only view the powerpoint slides from our screen, zoom in and out and nothing else. Here are some photos of our IS lesson!

Our Lecturer for today's IS Lesson

One of the powerpoint slides

Break time!

After our IS Lesson, we headed to the canteen for our lunch before we head back to our rooms to rest for awhile before heading for our BPE lesson with our trip leader, Mr. Loh, which is at 2pm in the afternoon.

After our BPE lesson, similarly, we head back to our rooms for a rest before heading out for dinner with some of the people. After dinner, here we are!

Alrights! That's all for today! Will be away early tomorrow morning for a trip to Wudang Mountain! Will only be back on Sunday. So till then, enjoy yourself! :D

My Reflection:

After having our IS Lesson on Business Etiquette today, i realised that etiquette and basic manners are very essential in our daily lives. Otherwise, it will leave a bad impression of ourselves on the minds of others.

"Good manners will open doors that the best education cannot"
- Clarence Thomas

Day 24: Lessons

2009-09-24T23:41:00.000+08:00

Day number 24. Nothing much happened today. There's no morning lessons today thus most of us slept in alittle more in the morning before waking up to do our stuffs. Rested in our rooms for quite some time before we head out for lunch.

After lunch, we went back to our rooms, prepared, get changed and off we go for our BPE lesson with our trip leader, Mr. Loh at 2pm. Had chapter 6 lecture today and also, we had our quiz as well after the whole lecture.

After lessons, we headed back to our rooms to relax and find some entertainment for ourselves as it is still rather early for us to head out for dinner. Here are some of the photos of our dinner!

Rice

Egg with Tomatos

Some of the other dishes

Alrights! That's all for today! Will be having lessons early tomorrow, starting at 9am in the morning!

My Reflections:

After all these days over here, I realised that thinking is a part and parcel of our life. We think about alot of things everyday. Transforming our thoughts into action is something which may seem to be difficult for some people.

"Take time to deliberate; but when the time for action arrives, stop thinking and go in"
- Andrew Jackson

Day 23: Leadership / Bonding Activities

2009-09-23T23:33:00.000+08:00

Day number 23. Had a whole day of leadership / bonding activities today near campus today. Woke up at around 6plus in the morning, prepared and went off to meet up with the rest at around 8am in the morning before proceeding to the place where we will be having our activities.

Upon reaching the place which we will be having our activities, we were brought to place where we had our first activity of the day, coming with up group name, flag as well as our "tribe clothes". We had this activity in our own respective division and MDE gathered together for this activity. After some discussions, we decided to have our "tribe name" as dragon or 龙 in traditional Chinese characters as Xanier was from dragon boat. We also decided that Xanier will be our "tribe leader" for our MDE division. Here are some of the photos!

MDE Group Photo

Brainstorming

After deciding on these, we started working on our tribe flag as well as our tribe names. As the tribe leader has to choose 4 people to be his / her closest husband / wife. Thus, we have one Dragon Tribe Leader, 4 Dragon and the rest of the MDE are the commoners. Put up a short skit and proceed on with our next activity, Rock Climbing! Here are some of the photos!

Tribe Leader and 4 of us
Polim, Edy, Xanier, Me, Jarold

Rock Climbing

Our Rock Climbing Belayer Instructor & Us
Roy, Junru, Xanier, Jarold, Me, Ming Yu

Stayed with Rock Climbing till around lunch time before we headed out for our breaks and lunch before heading back for the second half of today's leadership / bonding activities such as the trust fall and the leap of faith or sort of. Here are some of the photos!

Little games to perk us up!

Trust Fall

Trust Fall

Making my way up

Making the jump!

After having all the activities, we had mass group photo taking sessions with all the divisions as well as our own divisions and our own sub groups at the rock climbing wall before we headed out for dinner. Here are some of the photos!

Mass Group Photo

MDE Group Photo

Group Photo

BPQE K01 & K02
Siti, Anyu, Me, Junru, Gloria, Mingyu, Jarold, Polim

BPQE K & J Classes
Siti, Jarold, Chin Kuang, Adrian, Polim, Mingyu, Erwin, Me,
Junru, Edy, Gloria, Zhong Rong, Anyu

After dinner, we headed back to our rooms to rest as we were all rather tired after a long day. That's all for today!

My Reflections:

After today's leadership / bonding activities, I realised that trust and the bonds which we have in our peers are rather important. Usually, it is this group of people whom we turn to for help when in need. This is the group of people whom we rely upon to give us support, show us care and concern in times of need, other than our families. By building up strong bonds among one another, it shows that and let us know that there is always a group of people at our back and beside us, supporting us, assisting us and helping us as we move on in life. This is usually the motivation whereby is strong and kept us going.

"What is a friend? A single soul dwelling in two bodies."
- Aristotle

Day 22: Coca-Cola Factory Visit

2009-09-22T22:59:00.000+08:00

Day number 22. Nothing much happened today. There's no lessons in the morning thus most of us slept in alittle bit more in the morning before we wake up to complete our assignments.

Rested in our rooms till around lunch time before we headed out for our lunch out of school and head back to meet up with the rest at the admin block for our Coca-Cola Factory visit. The bus journey from WUST to the Coca-Cola Factory took approximately around 1.5 hours. Thus, some of us slept on the bus while the others relaxed for that bus journey there.

Upon reaching the factory, we waited outside for quite sometime before we were brought into the factory. In the factory, we went to see a video on the Coca-Cola enterprise since it was started. After the video, we were brought to the production line to see how the various beverages was manufactured. After visiting the production line, we went on to the exhibition hall where we see the various types of products or designs which was being produced for various events or functions. Here are some of the photos!

Coca-Cola Factory in Hubei

Free Coca-Cola Drink!

Coca-Cola Bears

Ornaments

After the visit, headed back to school, which is approximately another 1.5 hours of bus journey back. Upon reaching school, most of us headed back to our rooms to rest for awhile before we head out for our dinner.

After dinner, me and my room mates are fortunate to see a street acrobatic show put up by some acrobatic school in China. It is definitely an eye-opener for us. The show was interesting and it includes juggling, fire juggling, acrobatic stunts and more. After watching, we head back to our rooms and here we are! Here are some of the photos of the show!

Juggling fire torches

Spinning Fire Torches

Alrights! That's all for today! Will be having leadership activities for the whole of tomorrow starting from 8am in the morning!

My Reflections:

After today, I realised that life isn't that smooth sailing for all of us everyday. There are bound to be some obstacles and problems along the way which we will encounter. Instead of escaping from all these obstacles or problems which we are facing, we should face it with confidence and to deal with it. These obstacles and problems which we face provides us with a learning experience and we will definitely learn something out of it. Thus, when we are facing a problem in the near future, we should face it confidently and not give up that easily.

"Obstacles don't have to stop you. If you run into a wall, don't turn around and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it, or work around it"
- Michael Jordan

Day 21: Lesson & Free Time

2009-09-21T21:14:00.002+08:00

Day number 21. This means that I'm officially here in Wuhan, China, WUST for 3 weeks. Time just flew pass. We are only left with 3 weeks over here! 21 more days to go!

Nothing much happened today. Woke up at around 7am in the morning, prepared and off we go for our IS Lesson by the Dean of the Foreign Language School, Mr. Philip An. Had lesson on Chinese Traditional Thoughts, Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism. However, for today's lesson, we touched on some history of China and Confucianism. The rest of the topics will be covered in the next lecture. Here are some photos of our lessons!

Introduction

Mr. Philip An
Dean of Foreign Language School

Touching on History of China

Confucius

Mencius

After lessons, some of us headed out for lunch at the Yun Tun stall and headed back to our rooms for our rest time as well as time to complete our assignments such as reports, assignment 2 as well as blogging! It was time for dinner soon and we headed out for dinner. Had take-away and ate in the hostel.

Alrights! That's all for today! Will be going to Coca-Cola Factory Visit tomorrow! Here are some interesting photos of the day! Enjoy! :D

Problem of Humans

Four books & Five Classics

The 3 rules of Confucius

Five Cardinal Values

Interesting Quote
"已所不欲，勿施于人"

My Reflections:

After attending the lessons with the Dean of Foreign Language School today, I realised that religion and philosophical thinking and quotes teaches us important values in life which are essential in our lives. It teaches us how to look at things at different angles and thus, we will be able to find our answers in a more simple way.

"Sometimes the questions are complicated and the answers are simple"
- Dr. Seuss

Here is one of the quotes whom I personally feel that we should have in us, so that the world and society which we are living in will be a better and self-less one.

"Less for self, more for others, enough for all"
- C.S. Lim

Day 20: Weekend Trip (Journey back)

2009-09-20T23:51:00.001+08:00

Day number 20. Today was the last day of our weekend trip this week. Once again, woke up at around 5plus in the morning, prepared, packed our stuffs and headed downstairs to the restaurant for our breakfast!

After breakfast, all of us headed back to our rooms, do some last min packing of our stuffs and rested for awhile before we disembark the cruise and head back to our hostel. Its another 5hours long of bus journey back to our hostel at WUST.

Here are some photos of the dams the previous night which the cruise have to cross. At around 11pm in the night, we reached the first dam. The cruise was enclosed in the dam with several other cruises and they are lowered to a lower water level! Here are some of the photos!

The dam gates

Gates closed

Draining the water

Sunrise

On a side note, I think the weather here is changing for the better! Its getting cooler now, with rain and wind today. Hopefully it will stay this way! :D

My Reflections:

While watching the sunrise today, I realised that all of us should be optimistic towards our lives and things around us. The sun sets everyday and still rises the other day. This shows that every day is a brand new day. Thus, we should look forward and don't let things hold us back in the past.

"What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise"
- Oscar Wilde

Day 19: Weekend Trip (Baidi Cheng / Shen Nong Stream)

2009-09-20T23:05:00.000+08:00

Day number 19, day 2 of our 3D2N 3 gorges weekend trip. Woke up very early in the morning at around 5 plus in the morning as we have to meet up with the rest for breakfast on board. All of us struggled to wake up that early as we were still trying to get more rest after sleeping late for so many days!

After breakfast was back to our rooms to rest for a little moment before we were called out again for our first activity for the day, the visit to Bai Di Cheng, 白帝城. It was a place where it shows some interesting historical images and objects. Here are some of the photos taken!

白帝城

Group Photo
Edy, Junru, Jarold, Me, Mingyu, Gloria, Roy

Nice View

Some of the Guys
Roy, Mingyu, Me, Jarold, Edy

Group Photo
with the White Swan

Group Photo
with the white dragon

Group Photo
at the Pavilion

白帝城 and me!

MDE Group Photo

After the visit to Bai Di Cheng, 白帝城, we went back on board the cruise to have some rest as well as our lunch before we head out to our 2nd visit of the day. Had around 2 hours of rest in our rooms, with lots of fun of course and headed down to the restaurant on board for our lunch.

After our lunch, we headed back to our rooms to rest for awhile more before we boarded another cruise and headed down the stream which is the Shen Nong Stream, which has excellent scenery that is good for alot of photographs to be taken. The cruise down the stream took approximately around 1 hour or so.

Bridge

Photo
Anyu, Junru, Me, Mingyu, Roy, Edy

Group Photo

When we docked at the bay, we changed to the traditional boats which has 6 men rowing the boat. It was definitely a very difficult and tiring task for them as they have to row the boat with approximately 21 people on board, excluding the 6 crew men. The crew rowed us down the stream which took approximately 40mins before they disembarked and manually pulled the boat, with all of us still on board, with just some ropes or rattan. It is certainly not an easy feat.

The boats

Ready to go!

Rowing hard!

Pulling hard!
*applause!*

Enduring!

My boat with the tour guide

After the exciting and interesting trip, we headed back to the cruise and headed back down stream and back to our original cruise. Back on board, we went for our dinner and went back to our rooms to bathe and of course, have some fun and interesting games such as cards in our friend's room.

Our source of entertainment!

After the games, we all got tired and decided to head back to our rooms to rest for the night as we will have to wake up very early again in the morning the following day!

My Reflections:

After visiting the places today, the trip down the Shen Nong Stream has the most impact to me. Looking at how different the environment is, the men and women over here are all still determined to survive despite their difficulties. For example, the 6 crew men rowing the boat for us on our boat. It is definitely a task which none of us can accomplish overnight.

These men are living in poor living conditions with low income such that they have to come out to row these boats which is only around RMB$30 per trip. This is definitely insufficient for them to get their necessities as they took shifts to come work. This means that they only work around 2 or 3 days per week. When they ain't working, they had to gather herbs or other things which they can do, just to earn an additional income for them as well as their families. Despite their various difficulties, they are still all determined to live well, to enjoy your lives as much as they can, and to make use and treasure of all the things which they have.

By comparing our living conditions as well as their living conditions, I believe that we should all feel very fortunate that with what we have and what we are experiencing now. At the same time, we should treasure all these and not take them for granted.

"No man can tell whether he is rich or poor by turning to his ledger. It is the heart that makes a man rich. He is rich or poor according to what he is, not according to what he has"
- Henry Ward Beecher

Day 18: Weekend Trip (3 Gorges)

2009-09-20T21:54:00.009+08:00

Day number 18. Some of us woke up very early in the morning while some of us didn't sleep at all during the night as we have to gather at the admin block at around 6.30am in the morning. Prepared, packed our bags, and off we go for our 3D2N 3 gorges tour.

Set off at around 7am in the morning till so some delays along the way and here comes our 5 hours bus journey down the road to our destination, Yichang, 宜昌. It was a very long bus journey down with a washroom break in between.

Bus Journey

After we reached Yichang, 宜昌, we went for our lunch at a local restaurant and the food there was rather nice. Here is the photo of our lunch!

Lunch

After lunch, its roughly another bus journey to our destination, the 3 gorges dam. The place there was huge and rather nice. Collected our tickets and prepared to proceed on with our tour.

At the entrance

Sign at the Entrance

After passing the security clearance, we boarded the bus in the place of interest to proceed to our first destination, the dams.

Me & Entrance Ticket

MDE Group Photo

MDE Group Photo with Mr. Loh

Group Photo

Gigantic & Enormous Book!

Random Shot

Had quite a number of photos taken there before we proceed on to our next destination, the 185. The photos taken wasn't very nice as the weather was not very good as there was fog around.

MDE Group Photo with Mr. Loh

The Dams

Me & the Dams

Similarly, at the 185, we had quite a number of photos taken there before we proceed on to our next destination, the memorial park. Photos was not very nice as well due to the poor weather and fog.

MDE Group Photo!

Some of the guys
Mingyu, Roy, Jarold, Edy, Me

Me

After visiting the memorial park, we headed to a local restaurant for our dinner before we go to the sea port to board our cruise. There was some delays over there and we had to wait rather long outside the centre before we boarded the cruise.

After we boarded the cruise, we went to our rooms, put down our belongings and bathed. Here are some photos of my room!

Room 329

The beds

The toilet

The cruise wasn't as good as what we thought it was. There isn't much facilities on board for us to enjoy. Thus, most of us hanged around and toured around the cruise before we turn in for the night as everyone of us were all very tired after waking up very early in the morning today and after the long bus journey which is rather tiring.

My Reflections:

After the long bus journey as well as the visit to the 3 gorges dams today, i realise that the natural resources is very important. For example, from the 3 gorges dam visit today, we realise that water can be used to transform into electricity to power up several places instead of burning coals or other stuffs. Thus, we should not exploit too much from the environment.

"We never know the worth of water till the well is dry"
- Thomas Fuller

Day 17: Presentation & Written Test

2009-09-17T23:40:00.001+08:00

Day number 17. Nothing much happened today. It was supposed to be a factory visit early this morning but it was cancelled. Thus, all of us stayed in during the morning to rest and and some of us studied for our Written Test which we will be having in the afternoon today.

Thus, we headed for our breakfast cum lunch brunch at around 11 at the Yun Tun stall which we usually patronize. After which, we headed back to our rooms, carried on with our stuffs before we headed out for our lessons. Had our BPE Lesson with Mr. Loh today which includes my group's assignment 1 presentation as well as the first Written Test on Chapter 1 to Chapter 5.

Doing my presentation

Doing my presentation on Pareto Analysis

After my group's presentation, was the Written Test. Surprisingly, we have to do it in our Examinations style which we usually do in Ngee Ann.

After our lessons, we headed back our rooms to put down our bags and rest for awhile before we head out again for our dinner. We had our dinner, headed back to our rooms and here we are!

Alrights. That's all for today. On a side note, we will be away early morning tomorrow! From 6.20am in the morning till around Sunday whereby we will only be back in the evening. Will be away for 3 Gorges tour and cruise! So till I back, see you and enjoy your weekend! :D

My Reflections:

After doing my presentation on Assignment 1 today, I realised that it is not easy to present in front of a group of people. My brain just went blank during the presentation suddenly today as i totally forget what I wanted to say for my presentation. Thus, I believe that it is not easy for us to remember all the points and information in the presentation slides.

"It takes one hour of preparation for each minute of presentation time"
- Wayne Burgraff

Day 16: Lessons!

2009-09-16T23:20:00.002+08:00

Day number 16. Nothing much happened today. We had lessons for the whole of today. Woke up at around 7 in the morning today, prepared, packed and off we go for our IS module lesson at 9am. We had a lecture on Chinese culture and customs, such as wedding customs and some feng shui lessons. The lecture was rather long and we had lessons till around 12 noon before we go off for our lunch.

Lecture

Lesson - Wedding Customs

Lecturer for our IS Lesson

Listening Attentively

After our IS Lessons, we headed out for some stores beside our hostel to get ourselves some hamburgers, drinks and bread before we headed back to our hostel rooms to rest and to complete the rest of the assignment which we will be having our presentation later.

Soon, it was time for us to head back to our classroom for our BPE Lecture with Mr. Loh as well as Assignment 1 presentation. The lesson started at 2pm with chapter 5 of the BPE followed by the chapter by chapter quiz after we completed chapter 5.

BPE Lesson with Mr. Loh

After the chapter 5 quiz, its presentation time for Assignment 1. As there were insufficient time for all the groups to complete the presentation, my group is scheduled to have our presentation the following day. Lessons ended at around 5plus 6 in the evening and after which, we headed back to our rooms to rest for awhile before heading out for dinner.

After dinner, was once again assignment time such as blogging.

Alrights. That's all for today! Will be having a factory visit in the early morning tomorrow, and will be having BPE Test from Chapters 1 to 5 as well as my group's presentation in the afternoon!

My Reflections:

After today's IS Lesson on the Chinese wedding customs as well as feng shui, i realised that different races and different religion has their own ways of celebrating or commemorating these festive occations. Thus, I believe that by respecting each other and understanding the differences in the cultures which we adopt is very crucial. At the same time, we should show our care and concern for the rest despite the various differences or gaps which we have. This is the only way that we will all live in harmony together.

"A fully functional multiracial society cannot be achieved without a sense of history and open, honest dialogue"
- Cornel West

Day 15: Day Off!

2009-09-15T11:55:00.007+08:00

Day number 15. Its a day off of school for us today as we will be having activities out with the China Students over here. Since it was a day off, most of us made full use of it by getting more sleep and rest! However, we all woke up at around 9 plus 10 in the morning, had our breakfast and started doing our Assignment 1 which we will be having our presentations tomorrow.

Then, some of us headed out for lunch at the canteen which is beside our hostel before we head back, get changed and meet up with the rest of the people as well as the China Students at around 1.30pm in the afternoon. After which, we headed out for an activity, whereby we will be going to a farm or sort of, to start our activity. We are in the farm whereby we can pluck any orange and peel it off to eat. We can eat as much as we could. All of us stayed there for quite some time till around 4.30pm in the afternoon before we head back to the hostel.

The bus trip there.
Mingyu, Roy, Me, Polim & Jarold.

At the farm
Erwin, Jarold, Mingyu, Me, Roy, Edy, Polim

Oranges

Jump Shot
Me, Edy, Roy, Jarold

After we reach back the hostel we rest for quite awhile before we meet up with the rest again at around 5.30pm in the evening and headed out for our BBQ Session. Helped them with carrying some food and drinks for the BBQ.

Carrying the drinks

Group Photo

Starting the fire

Cooking in Action!

Had our BBQ for quite sometime till around 8plus 9 in the night before we all headed back to our rooms to shower, blog, assignments and rest for the day.

Alrights! That's all for today! Having lessons for almost the whole day tomorrow! IS Lesson in the morning and presentation in the afternoon. It will be a long day tomorrow!

My Reflections:

After the activities today, I feel that we should treasure and appreciate nature more. Everything that is in this world has a process and these processes are inter-linked and connected to the other. Any disconnection in any process will result in the disruption in the other. It is from the nature that we will be able to understand and learn more and to gain more experience.

"Life is a process. We are a process. The universe is a process."
- Anne Wilson Schaef

Day 14: Lesson & Lab Test

2009-09-14T20:46:00.003+08:00

Day number 14. Nothing much happened today. So this will be rather a short post. Woke up at around 7am in the morning, get ready, prepared and off we go for our Business Process Engineering (BPE) lessons at 9am in the morning.

Went for lessons in the morning of chapter 4, had our chapter 4 quiz after that and had our mock lab test using flexsim simulation software. The mock test was rather okay and after the mock test, we went for our lunch at canteen 1. Here is what I had for lunch today!

Steamed buns

After lunch, we went back to our rooms to rest awhile before heading back to the Foreign Language School for our 2nd half of our lessons. While we were resting in our rooms, we noticed that there are alot of spiders outside our rooms. Here is a photo of a spider!

Spider!

We had our lab test using flexsim simulation software today. The test was rather manageable and we manage to complete the lab test during the given time. After lesson, we went back to our rooms to rest once again while some others complete some assignments. After which, some of us went out for dinner with Mr. Loh and it was rather nice dinner today!

Me @ Dinner!

Alrights! That's all for today! We will be out tomorrow from noon onwards for some activities such as plucking of oranges and BBQ & Bonding Session with the China students over here. So till then, enjoy! :D

My Reflections:

After today, i realised that education is very important for us. Without any certification, we will not go far. And at the same time, without any exposure and experience, we wont be able to go far as well. Thus, I feel that this Overseas Immersion Programme is a very good experience for all of us and I felt happy and excited that I had chosen to come for this Overseas Immersion Programme @ WUST, Wuhan, China.

"Wisdom is not a product of schooling but of the lifelong attempt to acquire it."
- Albert Einsten

Day 13: City Tour - Shopping

2009-09-13T21:20:00.008+08:00

Today is the 2nd day of our weekend activities to a shopping street for shopping. Woke up at around 7am in the morning, prepared and got ready to meet up with the rest of the people at the WUST administrative block at around 8.30am in the morning. After which, we set off and the bus journey from WUST to our destination is approximately around 2hours. Thus, the same routine happens, all of us fell asleep on the bus.

After some time, we finally reached our destination. We were brought to some park which shows the intersection of the 2 rivers. Over there, there were many vendors selling kites. We were given around 30mins free time to go around touring and taking some photos. There was this particular vendor who releases a very long kite into the air. Here are some of the photos taken at the park!

Entrance at the park

The super long kite!

The beach

After the park, we walked quite some distance down the street before we reach the place which we will have around 4 hours of free time to tour and shop around. All of us walked around, had our lunch and continue to shop. We came across several interesting shop names along the way. Here are some photos of our shopping time!

Hopeshow

how are you?

Time flies. Soon it was time for all of us to gather back to take the bus back to campus. The bus journey was around 2 hours as well and we fell asleep on the bus. Rested in our rooms for awhile before heading out for dinner.

On a side note, one of our members, jun ru was down with food poisoning and had been in the hospital for several hours on a drip. Get well soon!

Alrights! That’s all for today! Here are some interesting photos taken along the way! Enjoy! :D

Warning sign by the beach

Remember to hold hands while on the streets!

Group Photo

My Reflections:

Based on the past 13 days which I had been here in Wuhan, China, I realised that any place, any area, any corner is a smoking area for everyone. As we walk anywhere, we are able to smell the smoke of a lit cigarette somewhere near us. This was rather a disturbing sight as we are all used to smoke-free conditions and environments which we are all experiencing back home in Singapore. This is due to the several measures such as restricting the places for smoking as well as fine. This is a good measure as we will not inhale in 2nd hand smoke which is harmful for our health. At the same time, it also improves the air conditions.

"Smoking kills. If you're killed, you've lost a very important part of your life"
- Brooke Shields

Day 12: City Tour

2009-09-12T18:51:00.015+08:00

Woke up very early this morning at around 5plus 6 in the morning to get ourselves ready for the city tour today. Washed up, prepared and off we go to the meeting location to meet up with the rest of the people before setting off for our first destination, the Hubei Provincial Museum.

However, upon reaching the Museum, it’s not opened yet. It will only be opened at around 9am in the morning. Thus, we headed further down to our second destination first, the East Lake. After reaching the East Lake, it was free and easy for us to walk around the tourist attraction for around 1 hour or so before we meet back up and proceed back to the Hubei Provincial Museum.

Stayed at the East Lake and took quite a number of photos as the view and environment over there are so beautiful. Here are some of the photos taken at the East Lake!

The entrance of East Lake

Brief Introduction

屈原

After visiting East Lake, we headed back to the Hubei Provincial Museum, our next destination. In the Museum, we are introduced to various objects and weapons which were used by the warriors or the people in the past. We visited the objects and weapons in the past used by people from the Chu State and after which, we proceed to the next one, the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng. Similarly, we were introduced to objects and weapons which were extracted or unearthed from the Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng as well as some other objects used during that period of time. Here are some of the photos taken at the Hubei Provincial Museum.

One of the Exhibitions

Exhibition of the Chu State

A Map

The entrance to Tomb of Marquis Yi of Zeng

After visiting these two places of attraction, we headed for our lunch at a snack street before we headed for our third and last attraction of the day, the Yellow Crane Tower. At the snacks street, they uses a card whereby which we have to get in order for us to purchase our food. Any unused money in the card will be refunded before we leave the snacks street, provided we proceed to the counter for the refund. We ate some dumplings or “汤包” at the snacks street. It has 10 dumplings per basket and it is rather filling. It cost around RMB$10 or around SGD$3.

The Snacks Street

The dumplings

After lunch was to our next destination, the Yellow Crane Tower. Visited the place of attraction and took quite a number of photos are the place was rather nice. Here are some of the photos taken at the Yellow Crane Tower!

The Yellow Crane Tower

The Giant Bell

Top View

After the city tour, was the trip back to campus and to our hostel. As we were all very tired, most of us fell asleep on the trip back and after reaching, we headed back to our rooms for a rest before heading out for dinner.

Alrights! That’s all for today! Tomorrow will be another day of city tour. Here are some interesting photos of the day! Enjoy! :D

My Reflections:

After visiting the various places of attractions and understanding the stories behind them, I realized that it is rather meaningful and interesting to have this kind of exposure as it broaden and widen our knowledge. At the same time, we will be able to understand what actually happened in the past that resulted in what we are doing or living in today.

“History is a guide to navigation in perilous times. History is who we are and why we are the way we are.”
- David C. Mccullough

Day 11: Birthdays & Lessons

2009-09-11T22:30:00.008+08:00

Day number 11, 11th September 2009. Its Ming Yu's birthday today! HAPPY 19TH BIRTHDAY DUDE!

The birthday boy!

All of us stayed up till midnight to give him a surprise. We had our plans to celebrate his birthday later that evening so nothing much really happened. All of us came to the room, sang birthday song and presented him with our own created "birthday cake". Both english and chinese versions of birthday song was sang. We had some fun and laughters over there and soon it was time to get some photos taken and back to our rooms to complete our assignments or rest for the day.

As we have to wake up very early, most of us tried to complete our assignments fast so that we can rest early. Woke up at around 7 in the morning, prepared, packed our stuffs and off we go for our lessons! Today, we had our first IS module lesson which we were introduced to the customs, food and history of Hubei and Wuhan. The lesson was rather interesting and we had our lessons till around 12 noon before we head back to our rooms to put down our stuffs and headed out for our lunch.

Our IS Lesson

One of the Slides

After lunch, all of us stayed in the room to complete Exercise 2 for Flexsim as we were all tired and Mr. Joseph Loh is kind enough for us to rest in our rooms and he will come to our hostel to see if we needed any help. Thanks Mr. Loh!

We did the assignment and rested in the room till around 5pm in the evening before all of us headed out to the tracks or the stadium in the campus, which was meant for a surprise for our birthday boy, Ming Yu! We celebrated Shun Qing's birthday early as well. So it was a surprise for both of them today! Some of the guys brought in the cakes, sing birthday song again and we did the usual stuff which was done on a birthday! And our trip leader, Mr. Loh joined us for the celebrations today! :D

The birthday boy and birthday girl

Group celebrations - Singing birthday song!

After celebrating, all of us headed back to our rooms to wash up and had our dinner and here we are blogging! Tomorrow will be out for city tour. Have to wake up very early in the morning and will only be back in the evening. So till then, enjoy! :D

Alrights! That’s all for today!

My Reflections:

Based on today, i realised that it is very important for all of us to forge strong friendship bonds among one another and our friends. this is essential when we are out alone, with only our friends as our companions and our family away. It is this group of people who we usually depend on for help, for assistance as well for any other things such as fun and entertainment. It is this group of people whom we can trust and depend upon if we needed an listening ear or any form of help.

"Don't walk in front of me; I may not follow. Don't walk behind me; I may not lead. Just walk beside me and be my friend."
- Albert Camus

Day 10: Assignments & Lesson

2009-09-10T21:07:00.006+08:00

Nothing much happened today. On a lighter note, weather today wasn't as good as previous 2 days. Weather today turned abit hotter and warmer. However, it is not the hottest which we experienced the other day!

Woke up early at around 9am in the morning to do up part of Assignment 1 which was given to us. Stayed in the room to do up some research and to do up the document before heading out to get breakfast at around 11 in the morning. Headed down to the canteen beside the hostel and got myself a 老婆饼 or the wife’s biscuit from the canteen.

老婆饼 (wife's biscuit)

When I came back, the rest told us that we will be heading out for lunch soon at around 12plus. Thus, packed our stuffs, got ready and met up with the rest of the people before we head out for lunch. We headed over and had lunch at some western shop or sort. For me, I ordered myself a bowl of roasted duck rice. It was still alright.

Duck Rice

After lunch, headed back to our hostel, took our bags and off we go to the Foreign Language School again for our BPE lesson with Mr. Joseph Loh at 2pm. Had our lesson all the way till around 4plus 5 in the evening before we head back to our rooms to rest and to get some things done. Some of the things which have to be done include report for assignment one, powerpoint presentation as well as blogging. Rested awhile before we head out once again for dinner. Had our dinner, bought some stuffs and back to the room. Then, here we are blogging and completing our assignments! Tomorrow is a long long day. Lessons start at 9am in the morning all the way till about 5pm in the evening.

Quiz #3 on Chapter 3

Having lessons!

Alrights! That’s all for today!

Some snacks we bought today

My Reflections:

Based on what happened today, I realized that it is essential for us to prepare for the worst. Let’s say for example on what happened today. My friend’s laptop failed on him today. It was not so bad if we were home in Singapore. In contrary, we were here in Wuhan, China whereby laptop is essential for studies and work and one of the sources of communication between our friends and family members. Thus, I believe that in a blink of an eye, anything is possible. Anything can happen in the split second.

“Forewarned, forearmed; to be prepared is half the victory.”
- Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra

Day 9: Birthday & Lesson

2009-09-09T21:09:00.005+08:00

9th September 2009. It was Rebecca’s birthday today! Happy birthday Rebecca!

The birthday girl, Rebecca!

All of us stayed awake till midnight to give her a surprise. A huge cake with 7 layers was bought and a video was made especially for her on her special day. Though all of us was tired and wanted to sleep, we managed to stay wide awake. As the clock strikes midnight, preparations were started. We got the cake and candles ready, prepared the camera and gathered everyone around before we go over to her room. As we set off, we lighted the candles and once she opens the door, it goes HAPPY BIRTHDAY! All of us sang the English, Chinese and Malay version of birthday song for her. Everyone was very high and enthusiastic.

The birthday cake!

Cutting the cake..

After that, was the wish making and blowing of candle and some photo taking sessions before we all go into the room for the video which everyone contributed by being one of the actor or actress, including our trip leader, Mr. Joseph Loh. And of course, some funny actions were done by some of us in the video to spice up the atmosphere and to make it interesting and funny.

Group Photo

After watching the video, was distributing the cake to everyone. We ate the cake and of course things were fun and interesting over here! Everything was settled at around 1am in the morning where all of us start cleaning up and return to our own rooms. It was definitely a memorable birthday for her this year. All of us slept very late today or rather this morning. The bad news is that we have to wake up early for a lesson which starts at 9am in the morning! All of us were very tired. Thus, we finished up our things and off we go to our dearest dreamlands.

Lesson at 9am this morning with Mr. Joseph Loh again. Done with chapter 2 today and of course, we had our 2nd quiz on chapter 2 today as well after completing the chapter. After the quiz were some time using and familiarizing with Flexsim as well as doing up our Lab Exercise 1.

After lessons was lunch time with some of the guys! We went to the steamboat for our lunch today. It was rather cheap. The food there was nice and it was counted based on the number of sticks we ordered. Each stick cost RMB$0.30. We spent only RMB$68 for our lunch for 5 persons. So each person will only have to pay around RMB$14 with is only around SGD$4 or so.

After lunch, was back in room time for most of us to rest and to complete some work. Stayed in the room till around 7 in the evening before we headed out for dinner and after that, here we are blogging! And also, weather today was very good! Cooling and nice weather. Hope it stays this way!

Alrights! That’s all for today!

My Reflections:

After celebrating Rebecca’s birthday today, I realized that on this very special day in our lives, we should be all be grateful to our parents for they are the ones who brought us to this world. Without them, we will not be able to enjoy all these comforts and entertainment and life which we are experiencing right now.

“Our birthdays are feathers in the broad wing of time”
- Jean Paul Richter

Day 8: Lesson & Free Time

2009-09-08T22:30:00.001+08:00

Nothing much happened today. Not much photos were taken today as well. Most of us stayed in our rooms to do our own stuffs still around lunch time or before we set off for class. We had lesson with Mr. Joseph Loh today at around 2pm in the afternoon all the way till around 4 plus in the afternoon. Completed chapter 1 today and we took a quiz on chapter 1 today as well. There will be 10 quizes for 10 chapters and all these quizes will make up 30% of our overall grade.

The corridor outside our classroom

The slogan for us to protect the facilities and to keep the environment clean

Outside our classroom

After lessons, some of us went to get some snacks to eat before we head back for our dinner out of campus. Had our dinner out, shopped and walked around before we headed back to our rooms to get our blogging and assignments done. And here we are blogging! Having lessons early morning tomorrow!

On the other hand, weather today was good! Unlike the blazing hot weather yesterday, today's weather was windy and cooling! Shiok!

Alrights! That’s all for today! Here are some interesting photos taken yesterday. Enjoy! :D

Me and some of the guys

Shadows

My Reflections:

For the past few days, it makes me wonder and often asking myself this same question.

"Did i made the right choice to come for this Overseas Immersion Programme?"

However, after experiencing life over here in Wuhan for the past 8 days, i realised that through this Overseas Immersion Programme, i had learnt alot of things which i didn't have the chance to back in Singapore. This trip had taught me alot of valuable lessons of life so far and i believe that i will benefit and gain more from this trip.

On the other hand, I would say that we should appreciate and treasure what we have back in Singapore before it was gone. All of us were definitely fortunate with that we have as compared with the rest of the people around the world. Education and studying in different country with different culture is definitely not an easy task. However, education is very important in the society in which we live today whereby everything requires a certification. In order to catch up with the trend, all of us need to be educated at a higher level or certification.

“Education’s purpose is to replace an empty mind with an open one”
- Malcolm Forbes

Day 7: Lesson & Orientation!

2009-09-07T20:44:00.011+08:00

Day number 7. This means I’ve been here in Wuhan, China for officially 1 week. 5 more weeks to go over here! Today is also the official start of our lesson and curriculum over here. Woke up at 8 plus in the morning today, prepared, packed our stuffs and off we go to the Foreign Language School for our first official lesson. On a side note, weather today was crazily blazing hot! I think the temperature today was around 36 degrees! The weather got most of us tanned or rather, burned! This is definitely hotter and warmer from what we were experiencing back home in Singapore whereby a temperature of around 32 degrees is already unbearable for most of us.

Back to lessons, the classroom which we are using over here in Wuhan is definitely different from what we have back home in Singapore. The classroom over here looks rather old and they are still using blackboard and chalk for teaching purpose. This is definitely something which most of us have yet to see till now. It is definitely something new and enriching for us. The photos below shows the classroom which we will be using for our lessons!

Here is our lecturer, Mr. Joseph Loh trying to explain to us some facts and shortcuts using the blackboard and chalk!

The lesson which we are having today is Business Process Engineering or BPE in short. Mr. Joseph Loh, our lecturer for this module over here, gave us an overview of what the module is about and after which, he moved on with Flexsim, the software which we will be using for this module. After which, all of us tried using Flexsim to build up a process model or structure. It is rather fun and interesting which we have yet to experience it before. Here are some photos of the process model which I had built using Flexsim!

After lessons was lunch time! Most of us headed out of campus for lunch. We headed to the dumplings shop for our lunch. I would say it is rather nice and at the same time, 10 dumplings alone, without any rice or noodles, made us very full. I ordered meat dumplings which costs RMB$6 which is only approximately SGD$2!

After lunch was campus orientation again. All of us gathered outside our hostel while waiting for the rest to come. Then, we proceed on with the campus orientation. We headed out to the Information Engineering School which we were brought to several classrooms and the staffs over there explained to us the uses and functions of the various equipments, how does it work and how is it operated.

After touring around the Information Engineering School, we headed on to the School of Life Science which was very far! We had to walk a long distance under the blazing hot sun to reach the School of Life Science. After reaching the School of Life Science, we were once again brought to several lecture halls or classrooms to see the various facilities which they have.

The nursing lab!

Medical Care lab!

After the campus orientation, its free and easy time. Thus, most of us headed back to our rooms to rest, do some work and most importantly, avoid the blazing hot weather today! We rested in our rooms for quite some time till around 6plus in the evening where most of us decided to head out for physical training! We did some running, sprinting and some exercises around the campus. Here are some photos after our PT session!

After physical training, was dinner time! Some of us headed out to get dinner back while the rest stayed in the rooms to bathe. And here I am blogging after my shower and dinner! Morning lesson tomorrow will be cancelled as the lecturer is sick, but lessons will be as per normal in the afternoon tomorrow. Thus, this means that we will have more time to rest and to do our stuffs.

Alrights! That’s all for today! Here are some interesting photos which I took along the way. Click to enlarge. Enjoy! :D

My Reflections:

Based on what I had gathered today, I realized that changes are inevitable. Let’s say for example, the classroom which we have over here in WUST first. The environment here is definitely poorer as compared with what we have back home in Ngee Ann or other institutions which we had went to so far. Different places have different façade, different structure. Though most of us are not used to it, I believed that every one of us over here had not regretted coming over here to WUST for our Overseas Immersion Programme. We enjoyed ourselves though it is something which is not we expect it to be.

Another example would be the weather over here. I would say that the weather over here is definitely worse than what we have back in Singapore. We experience much hotter and warmer weather over here. Thus, I believe that we must leave our comfort zone in order to gain new insights, new experience and new knowledge. That’s the only way which we will learn and to know more about the world outside and around us.

“Any change, even a change for the better, is always accompanied by drawbacks and discomforts.”
- Arnold Bennett

Day 6: Weekend Trip (Trekking)

2009-09-06T19:44:00.012+08:00

Wooo! Its the second day of the weekend trip! Woke up at around 6plus 7 in the morning today, washed up and packed our stuffs. After that, meet up with the rest at the dining area for breakfast. Most of us felt rather tired too!

After breakfast, we set off for today's activity, trekking! We boarded the bus and headed down to the "Lulin Gu Bing Zai" which is an ancient stronghold which holds the army and the warriors. We had some photo-taking sessions outside at the gate before we boarded the bus at the place of interest. We boarded the bus and we were driven up the mountain to one side of the stronghold.

We had to walked up to the gate of the stronghold and we saw alot of interesting things in the stronghold such as the stables, shooting range, training grounds, etc. Alot of photos were taken in the place and it was a meaningful visit. We stayed there for quite some time before we proceed to the next place of interest.

The next visit was to the Camel Peak or the "luo tuo feng". Some of us prayed at the temple there before we proceed on with the tour around the Camel Peak. According to the tour guide, we have to pass 3 different stages in the cliff in order to reach and see the God of Fortune. We climbed and pass through the cliff and finally reached the peak of the Camel Peak. Took quite some photos up there before we proceed down back to our buses.

Next up was lunch time! After lunch was another long journey back to hostel. As usual, all of us fell asleep on the bus as we were too tired. Back in hostel, we went back to the rooms to put down our stuffs and went to the canteen downstairs for our dinner! And after which, here I am blogging about things that happened today. On a side note, lessons will be starting tomorrow!

Alrights! That's all for today! Here are some interesting photos which I took along the way. Click to enlarge! Enjoy! :D

My Reflections:

Based on what i had observed and gathered today, i realised that actions speaks louder than words. From the visit to the "lulin gu bing shan zai" today, it may be a different China today if its not for the warriors then who raised their flags and launch a revolt. Things will never be the same today. For everything which we see and hear now, its not all on words. It was actions done by the forefathers of many. Thus, all of us should cultivate this culture. Actions. Not only should we talk and say. We should do some actions to make these words become reality and make it happen.

"Thinking is easy, acting is difficult, and to put one's thoughts into action is the most difficult thing in the world"
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

Day 5: Weekend Trip (Drifting / Waterfall)

2009-09-06T18:46:00.009+08:00

Woohoo! Woke up rather early today at around 6 plus in the morning, packed our stuffs and went off to meet up with the rest of the group at the administrative block. While waiting for the rest to come, it was some photo taking sessions and resting time.

We set off at around 8plus in the morning for our destination. The bus ride from WUST to Lu Lin was rather long. It took us approximately 4hours or so to get to our destination. Thus, almost of all of slept during the journey as we were all very tired. Along the way, the scenery was rather nice, with all the agriculture and faming activities. It was definitely something which we will never see back home in Singapore. After quite some time, we were going up a mountain which is rather steep with several turns. The ride here was bumpy yet fun.

As we are having our final approach to our destination, we were getting excited and looking forward to the activities which we will be having following that day. Before that, we went down to the dining hall at the lower part of the place to have our lunch of the day.

After having our lunch, all of us changed into our gears to prepare for the next activity, water drifting. After which, we went to collect our life vests, waited awhile and off we go! Water drifting was very fun and exciting, with all the rapids and currents. The whole journey for water drifting is approximately 7km as we were told by the tour guides. It took us approximately around 2hours or so to complete the whole water drifting activity.

After we reached the ending point of the water drifting activity, we went on to have our showers and changed into clean and dry clothes. Then, some of us went to buy some of the candid photos which were taken by the staff over there, while the rest either rest on the bus or went down to get some food to eat.

It was time to set off again! This time, we went to the “mei ren gu” at the other side of the town. The scenery there was very beautiful with waterfalls, rapids, rocks and plants. It took us approximately 1 or 2 hours to walk throughout the whole place of interest, and for sure, there is a lot of photo taking sessions in between! The place was very nice and cooling as well, with all the waterfalls to cool the place. I shall let the photos do the talking!

After we let the “mei ren gu”, we boarded the bus and off we go for dinner! After dinner, all of us checked into the resort or hotel which I will say it’s better than our hostel. Soon after we checked in, we have to leave the room to proceed to watch some local performance whereby there will be dances, songs performances as well as skit. It was rather interesting to see something different. For the finale of the performance, there were these few guys who performed with fire torches and then light up the campfire. Then, those who were there gathered around the campfire to have some sort of singing and dancing before the whole event comes to an end.

Here are some of the photos of the room!

After watching the performance, all of us went back to our rooms and bathe. Most of us turned in early tonight as we were all very tired and there aren’t a lot of things for us to do other than watching TV. Thus, we decided to turn in early for the night.

Alrights! That’s all for today! Here are some interesting photos which I took along the way. Click to enlarge. More photos will be uploaded on my facebook! Enjoy! :D

My Reflections:

Based on what I had observed and gathered today, after experiencing these activities, I realized that the natural environment is of such great beauty and thus, we should not exploit too much from the nature. We should in turn, protect and preserve the environment. From the natural environment, we will be able to understand a lot of things such as the processes and patterns of nature.

“The richness I achieve comes from the Nature, the source of my inspiration”
- Claude Monet

Day 4: Orientation, Free & Easy

2009-09-04T19:54:00.016+08:00

Here goes another day over here in Wuhan. Slept rather late last night as was doing work and assignments. Woke up at around 8plus 9 this morning, get prepared and headed down to meet up with Mr Joseph Loh as well as the rest of the group. After all of us gathered, we headed out for our campus orientation whereby we have to walk rather long distance and at the same time, walk up a rather steep slope along the way to reach the block which our classroom are located for our lessons, which will begin officially next week, on Monday.

This is the block which we will be having our lessons for the next few weeks, starting this coming Monday, the Foreign Language School block.

After we reached the block, we were shown around to the classroom which we will be having our lessons and at the same time, we also went around the block and explore the other areas of the block such as the washrooms, corridors, posters, etc. To our surprise, the washroom over here was totally different from what we have back home. The washrooms here has an "open fashion" whereby there are no doors to the cubicles in the washroom. It was 100% open to the eyes of the rest of the people who was in the washroom.

At the same time, I also noticed some interesting quotes from some famous people around the world along the corridors. Here are some of the examples!

After the short orientation, its free & easy time for us again! Some of us headed back to our hostel rooms to rest and at the same time, to do up and complete the assignments which we have to complete such as the Individual Learning Plan.

Slacked around in the room for quite some time before my friends and I decided to head out to the streets to get some stuffs like detergent and of course, the most important of all, mineral water! Thus, after we send our clothes downstairs to the laundry, we headed out to get the stuffs that we want to buy and headed back to our hostel room to start our massive cleaning of our room, including the toilet. During the process, we realised that the room was very dirty and full of dust. It was very messy too!

After some time, we finally managed to clean up the whole room, tidy up or stuffs in the room.

Then, we headed downstairs to collect our laundry and to the canteen to get our dinner. After dinner was slacking time again till we had to head downstairs for a briefing at around 9pm regarding the weekend trip and activities which we will be having this weekend. After the briefing, we headed back to our rooms and here I am blogging about things that happened today! We are going for water rafting tmr and trekking the day after! It seems so fun! Can't wait for tomorrow to come faster. I believe all of us are going to enjoy ourselves totally and have lots of fun during this weekend trip and activities before our lessons officially begins next week and before we starts to get busy with school work and assignments!

Alrights. That's all for today! Got to start packing my stuffs for this weekend trip. Will blog about it when I'm back on Sunday! So till then, see you and enjoy! Here are some interesting photos which I took along the way. Click to enlarge. More photos will be uploaded on my facebook. Enjoy! :D

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment

My Reflections:

Based on my observations from what i gathered today, I realised that time is important to us. especially during the time we have during this Overseas Immersion Programme. I realised that I had wasted quite alot of time on slacking around. There are limited amount of time which we have during this OIP over here in Wuhan. There are alot of things which can be done during the time we have over here. There are also alot of things waiting for us to explore and discover. If time was wasted, we are unable to learn as much as we are supposed to learn and we are unable to experience as much as we are supposed to experience. Thus, it is important that we make full use of the time to learn as much as we could over here as we are all responsible for our own learning.

"Time is the school in which we learn, time is the fire in which we burn"
- Delmore Schwartz