Today is the 6th September whereby I bid farewell to my family members and friends. And this China overseas immersion programme to Wuhan, Hubei last for 35 days and it’s the longest time period away from them. As much as I would want to stay in Singapore, I must learn to be independent and live with my friends and depend on them to motivate me to study if I fail to. Because there’s a phrase saying “Friends in need are friends indeed. Chinese has a saying, when directly translated says “You depend on your family when you’re at home. You depend on friends when you’re out". Which I think it’s very true, and i got to practice it over here. But it’s a good experience whereby I had once thought of going overseas alone to relax and do anything I want, then I will definitely learn a lot of useful life skills which I will never ever get a chance. And here comes the chance, so I’m pretty excited about it!
Few days before the trip, I reminded my parents that the date to Wuhan is nearing and they helped me to change my Singapore dollars to China RMB, of course paying the OIP trip fees. I’m grateful for what they are willing to give me and would do my best and learn everything that is beneficial. I thank them for the love they gave me and I’m missing them.
Before coming for this trip, I know that the objectives is that it provide an opportunity for us to take this module in a rich cultural and historical setting, achieving interaction with foreign students and teachers from Wuhan Polytechnic as well as having exposure to industries and business practices through study and site visits. I find it rather interesting because I will complete my core modules over here in a month plus together with my friends and we’re going to study together. Which we once thought of booking the Loft but there’s a lot of administrative work to do, hence we did not book. And this gave us an opportunity for strong friendship bonding.
On 6th early morning, woke up at 5am. I took the last 2 sheets of Polaroid with my mum and aunt and I brought it along to China together with my close ones photos because I fear that I will miss them. They accompanied me to Changi Airport Terminal 1, and this is also the first time for me to drive there as I have tried driving back before. My breakfast was a small slice of Mango Moon cake that my boyfriend and I bought for my mum for autumn moon cake festival as a gift.
When I reached, I saw all my friends there except one; (Clinton Tan) and he is on the way. Soon later, our in-charged teacher called for us to check in our luggage at Row 8. And the weight of my luggage is 17.5kg as the maximum weight is 30kg to and forth. While I brought my side bag up to the airplane because inside there’s my personal belongings and laptop and the maximum weight is 7kg. After everyone is done checking in their luggage, we chatted at the counter because there’s still parents over there so I thought it will be nice to let my friends interact with their family more because there’s going to be much more time spent over here in China. While talking, there’s a incident that happened and made all of us laugh like mad, because I have this friend called (Daphne) who is very active and she went to touched one of my friend (Brandon)’s nipple and she didn’t know that his mother is actually just standing beside him. And Brandon’s mother was shocked and looked at Daphne and then everyone look at her too, and she was extremely embarrassed at the moment. About 7:20am, we went in to check-in because 7:30am we need to reach Gate C17 and board the plane. Before that, we went to some shops to get stuffs before going to Gate C17.
Daphne and I at Changi Airport
Clinton, Angela and Alicia
Meal they served! or chicken rice.
Once we reached, we checked in and go through the whole process and board the (CZ352) China Southern Airlines plane to Guangzhou at seat 54J, and it takes 4hr to reach. When we are on board, the air stewardess and air steward welcome everyone with warm smile while all of us were finding our seats which are all the way at the back. When we settled down and soon later they also served us with packet lunch food. I didn’t eat finish because I don’t think it’s nice therefore passing it to my friends as I don’t like to waste food. After that, I rested on the plane while my friends sitting both beside me (Klinton and Brandon) plays with poker cards. And I couldn’t manage to rest, so I woke up after awhile to play with them and were laughing like mad, had a great time playing with them. Soon, the air stewardess announces there’s turbulence and it caused shake to the whole plane for awhile and continue its flight till Guangzhou.
Once we reached, we checked in and go through the whole process and board the (CZ352) China Southern Airlines plane to Guangzhou at seat 54J, and it takes 4hr to reach. When we are on board, the air stewardess and air steward welcome everyone with warm smile while all of us were finding our seats which are all the way at the back. When we settled down and soon later they also served us with packet lunch food. I didn’t eat finish because I don’t think it’s nice therefore passing it to my friends as I don’t like to waste food. After that, I rested on the plane while my friends sitting both beside me (Klinton and Brandon) plays with poker cards. And I couldn’t manage to rest, so I woke up after awhile to play with them and were laughing like mad, had a great time playing with them. Soon, the air stewardess announces there’s turbulence and it caused shake to the whole plane for awhile and continue its flight till Guangzhou.
Belt 7, we reached Guang Zhou
When we once reached, we did the normal process of checking out. Queue up at the foreigner country line to get my passport stamp except one of my clique’s friend (Xuanru) who has a China resident citizenship. And there’s different with Singapore and China checking out, because in China, they installed this webcam at the counter which will detect the face and see if it matches to the picture in the passport. If yes, you may proceed if not you have to stay there for further clarification. Soon, everyone is done and we helped each other to take out our luggage from Belt and put it on the trolley and roll it to another counter. This time round is to check in our luggage because Guangzhou is just a airport for us to transferring to Wuhan by domestic airline. After checking in everyone’s luggage, we went for breakfast at Macdonald, it is not my first time that I saw Chinese version of Macdonald because I have went once when I’m small to Shanghai and different parts of China. Therefore it is not surprising to me but it is to some of my friends. I shared a meal with my friend (Daphne) and still we could not complete it.
When we once reached, we did the normal process of checking out. Queue up at the foreigner country line to get my passport stamp except one of my clique’s friend (Xuanru) who has a China resident citizenship. And there’s different with Singapore and China checking out, because in China, they installed this webcam at the counter which will detect the face and see if it matches to the picture in the passport. If yes, you may proceed if not you have to stay there for further clarification. Soon, everyone is done and we helped each other to take out our luggage from Belt and put it on the trolley and roll it to another counter. This time round is to check in our luggage because Guangzhou is just a airport for us to transferring to Wuhan by domestic airline. After checking in everyone’s luggage, we went for breakfast at Macdonald, it is not my first time that I saw Chinese version of Macdonald because I have went once when I’m small to Shanghai and different parts of China. Therefore it is not surprising to me but it is to some of my friends. I shared a meal with my friend (Daphne) and still we could not complete it.
About 6:45pm, as soon as we landed at Wuhan Airport, we met Wuhan Polytechnic student leaders and one of the teachers. When we are about to move off, the student leaders helped us with our luggage and move to the bus which we took to travel to Wuhan Polytechnic. Everyone was excited and wondered how the hostel would look like. And we chatted happily on the bus till everyone got a nickname. Eg: mine is 小霞. After awhile, everyone stop chatting and sleep till we reach. And Mr. Wee instruct us which rooms we belong to and took the keys, and also the schedule for the whole study trip. My roommates are (Angie Lee and Daphne Chan), staying at Room 301 at Block 1.
Once we settled down, my clique of friends together we went to the minimart which is only 3 minutes away from school to get necessities. When we’re inside getting our necessities, most of the students are looking at us because of our wearing I guess because some of us wore shorts and slippers. And normally they do not wear like this to go out and perhaps they look at us because we look like foreigners. I find it weird when people have that kind of expression looking at me. It is just because in China, normally they wore long jeans and not shorts as there is difference between both foreign countries. It was also my first time to get things like undergarments hanger, washing machine powder, bucket, toilet roll together with my friends. Because normally, these necessities are bought together with the family, thus this gives us an idea how our parents get these stuffs by considering the price and material used. After getting our items, we queued and paid 100RMB, which is $20 and divided by three people and each paid $7. It is rather cheap comparing to the price in Singapore and I guess I would be around $30+ if it were to be in Singapore. In China, the items sold is cheaper than Singapore because I guess the rental is cheaper and mostly the production of goods are made at China as the population is one of the world largest population therefore the pay is rather low, which cause Singaporeans to have a higher purchasing power at China. That’s why some of the Singaporeans or well to do people comes to China and spend their holidays here, especially the Chinese because it has a common communication language.
After that, we went back to our rooms and split work to mop and clean the whole place, because I felt that my nose is feeling uncomfortable to the air. In order for us to have a comfortable place to stay, we need to do something to our so called “home”. At this point of time, three of us were really very tired already and we had problem connecting our laptop to internet because there’s something wrong with the connection and cables. And three of us were trying to plug and unplug and check where the problem is, even our teacher came in and helped us. The troublesome thing is, in order to have connection to internet, we need to connect cables from our laptop to the modem and to plug which is laid on the floor and make the whole place looks messy. Whereas in Singapore and also in Ngee Ann Polytechnic, we use wireless connection access which will be more convenient. Anyway I felt that friends should help each other whenever one needs help and yes, my friends did helped.
About 2am, we settled everything except logging unto Facebook, because I couldn’t find the NP Student VPN icon and had problem so I gave up and continue tomorrow.
Goodnight Diary! (:
Tomorrow need to meet 10am for Campus & Surrounding Orientation.
After eating, we went to walk around the airport and soon we split up and I’m in the girls group, so we walked and took pictures of the airport, after awhile, we rested on chairs. And while I’m resting, I looked up and see where the ventilation comes from because it was stuffy there and still doesn’t know where it is from. About 3pm, we checked in at Gate B, 222. And we had to go through a thorough check, the personnel checked our body and bag seriously which is good that they did it in this way. This makes me think that China security is good and safe; in addition we also have to take our shoes too. After checking in, we board the plane (CZ3346) at 4:25pm, while waiting the guys played guessing game with the teacher (Mr. Wee) and whoever scored 3 points had to do forfeit by running the travolator. And the first to do forfeit is our teacher, followed by Xuanru then Vincent. Then we start to went in, and found my seat which is situated at the corner, nearest to the window. At the point of time, I’m already tired so I slept all the way till my friend (Klinton) beside me was already eating his dinner.
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