Day 41 (13th April) Bye China! Hi singapore!

Today’s the day that everyone is awaiting for. We are going back to Singapore today! Yes! Today! Our journey in wuhan ends today. Luckily I was awakened by some noise in the morning today, as I have forgotten to set the alarm clock yesterday. Did some last minute packing and carried my luggage downstairs to assemble. Some local students and teachers were there to send us off. Wudi and ziwei did not manage to come as they have lesson at 8am. Lucky they did not come or else I don’t think I can control my emotions. Everyone was so down and some of them cried while bidding farewell. Had a last look at the campus and the backstreet which sells our favorite food before we left. While passing by the familiar places on the bus, all the flashbacks from the past 6 weeks filled my mind.

We reached Guangzhou at about 4pm and the flight from Guangzhou to Singapore is 4.30pm! There’s no way we can get onto the plane by 4.30pm as we need to collect our luggage and we need to walk quite a distance before we reach the check in point for the flight to Singapore. Therefore, the flight was delayed to 5.45pm. This is the first time that a plane will wait for people! Aren’t we lucky?

Sunset. Beautiful isn't it?

Finally, we reached Singapore at 10 plus. No words can describe the feeling the moment I saw my family members through the glass!

WE'RE BACK!

Reflection:
Firstly, I must thanks all those who psycho-ed me to go for this trip. In the beginning, I was very reluctant to go and I was that time can pass faster. This feeling faded away as days pass by. I started to get use to the life in china and enjoyed myself very much. All the fun I had with my friends and shopping made me forget about going back. Even though the living condition isn’t as good as what we have in Singapore, I have managed to make do with it for the past 6 weeks and even developed feelings for it. However, I still miss my family besides all the fun I had. I’ll surely miss the food at the backstreet, all the cheap deals when shopping, excellent service at a very cheap price at the salon, the weather, and last but not least, the friends we made!



Over the past 41 days, I have stepped out of my comfort zone and have become more independent as well. Alone without any family members with me, I have to do everything by myself including laundry. This also made me realize the importance of having family members by my side and not taking everything for granted. Also, our friendship grew over the past friendship grew.



Overall, it was a fruitful trip and I have gained valuable knowledge from the textbook and the various experiences. If given a second chance, I will still go again without hesitation. The memories of the 41 days spent in Wuhan will be deeply etched in my heart.

Day 40 (12th April) 2nd last day!

Can’t imagine today’s our last day in Wuhan and we will be leaving tomorrow! Was rather down and having mixed feelings the past few days as the number of days left in wuhan is nearing. Time flies and it seems like everything that happened during the past 6 weeks just happened yesterday. I will definitely miss everything in Wuhan. I only managed to catch a few hours of sleep as I packed my luggage till about 4am in the morning! Met up with my group mates in the morning to do our IS video. We went back to the hostel at about 11am as we have to get everything packed in our luggage by 12.30pm to get ready for the weighing of luggage later on. The maximum weight for our luggage is 30kg and mine exceeded by 5kg. Ms Neo wanted to meet up the few of us as our luggage exceeded by 2 kg or more. She wanted us to think of ways to solve the weight problem as we will delay the whole group at the airport if our luggage is overweight. After the weighing of luggage, we went to 光谷to do our last shopping. We took a bread car there and it is totally a new experience. The drive took a very rocky and muddy route and we were afraid that anything will go wrong. Questions started to filled our minds as he drove into a route which is secluded and the surroundings is only trees. Had a sigh of relief only when we saw the main road.


After we have purchased all the things we wanted, we went back to Yes, I do. Teeli and me had our free hair treatment, while Amanda had a haircut, yanting had her treatment and Jean washed her hair.

The deserted route.

My hairdresser wasn't there, so another hairdresser helped to style my hair.

Teeli's hairdresser. Looks like a korean right?

We went back to the hostel to meet the local students for the last time. We gave them a photo with written messages at the back. I couldn’t control my emotions at that point of time. I’m so gonna miss them when I return to Singapore. Hopefully they will remember us too.

Reflection:
Today marks the end of our stay in Wuhan. I will definitely miss everything in wuhan especially our local friends, food, shopping. I will remember the friends I made here. Without them, the 6 weeks in wuhan wouldn’t be so colourful. I do hope we will stay in contact even though we are separated by distance.

Day 39 (11th April) 江汉路/Kbox

Weather today is not to our favour as it was raining when we went out. We went to 江汉路for the last time today. Teeli wanted to buy a mouse so we went to the computer city there. However, most of the shops are closed. Due to weight constraint, we couldn’t buy anymore things. Therefore, we only did some window shopping. We headed to the K box at 销品茂later in the night. We called Wu di and Ziwei along as we do not know If the k box here is safe and there isn’t any guy among our clique. It just feel safer with locals around.


We waited outside the K box as Wudi and Ziwei have night classes. FYI, today is a Sunday and yet, they still need to attend night classes! In Singapore, we do not have classes on Sunday and what’s more the lesson is conducted at night. The charge is 66rmb per hour and is considered very cheap. The interior is nicely furnished and there’s a touch screen to choose our songs. That’s all for today! I’ve got to crack my brain to think of how to organize my things as my luggage is severely overweight!

Our room！

Touch screen system for choosing songs. Cool!

Reflection:
In Singapore, the government implemented a 5 day week and we don’t need to go to school on Saturdays and Sundays. in china, the attend classes even on Sunday. The students in china are very hardworking and they do not have any complaints. However, it is a different case for the students in china. If there were to be lesson on weekends, we will complain and be reluctant to go. Worse still, some will not even turn up for it. That’s the difference between Singapore and China students. I think that’s the reason why most of the china students can excel in their studies. We should learn from them and have positive attitude towards our studies.

Day 38 (10th April) Golden Hans buffet/Themepark

Today’s another free day and we met up with Wu di and Wu shu to the theme park! It’s a pity that ziwei and liying did not come. We have wanted to go to the theme park since week 1 and finally we got to go there today. Before we go to the theme park, we went to have a buffet style lunch nearby 销品茂. The restaurant is called Golden Hans. The interior is just like Marche in Singapore. There are Japanese, Brazil, Western, Chinese, and many more variety of food there. What’s special is that they will come to your table and slice the meat in front of you. Most importantly, it only cost 38rmb per person! We treated Wu di and Wu shu to show our gratitude to them for taking care of us during our stay in china. After the sumptuous lunch, we took a bus 中山公园Themepark. We have to walk quite a distance before we reach the theme park. We only played 2 rides as the rest of the rides didn’t seem exciting. As it was still early, we decided to go Jiang han lu AGAIN. That’s all for today!

There's so many sauces for us to choose from!

Interesting! They sell tortise in a container keychain.

Reflection:
At the theme park here, we only pay for the rides we want to play. While in Singapore, we pay a certain amount and we can enjoy all the rides in the theme park. I find it quite troublesome to be paying for each ride that we play and it is waste of time. Also, it is cheaper if we purchase as a package rather than paying for individual rides.

Day 37 (9th April) Farewell dinner

Today, teeli and me went to Yes, I do to dye our hair while jean, Amanda, and yanting went to 销品茂do their nails and buy local products from Wal-mart. After we had our hair done, it was about 4pm. not wanting to be late for the farewell dinner with the local students, we decided to take a cab back. Usually, the journey will take about 30 minutes. Due to traffic jam, the journey took an hour plus and we’re late. We went to a hotel to have our dinner and it is only 10 minutes walk from the campus. This is the best dinner that I had since the day I came Wuhan! After dinner, Wudi and Ziwei came to our room to have chat.

Token of appreciation for the local lecturers

Reflection:
It is a pleasure to get to know the local students and I’m thankful for all the care and company they gave us through the 6 weeks. During the dinner, we followed the traditional Chinese culture. The elders, which are our teachers, were served the food first and we only started eating after they have started. I remember when we first reached China , I wish time can pass faster and that I can return to Singapore soon. Today, we are here having our last dinner with the local students and now, we’re only left with 4 in wuhan.

Day 36 (8th April) Free & Easy

Today’s our free day which means we can go shopping again! We went to the Bank of China at江汉路 again as we didn’t manage to change yesterday. This time round, I brought my original copy of passport along. Saw some of our classmates in the bank too. As usual, there were annoying people pestering us to change money with them as they offer better rates. They are totally irritating! We went to walk around in the shopping centre as the stalls at 步行街 are not open yet. Spent a 4 digit sum today due to the NIKE shoe I bought. I shall survive with just bread the next few days!



My NIKE shoe! :D

Reflection:
Changing money in china is not easy in china. Firstly, we have to find a bank which accepts Sing dollar. Secondly, we have to bring along our original copy of passport. Thirdly, there are a lot of irritating people pestering and bugging you to change money with them! They just keep buzzing non-stop by your ear even when you have already rejected them several times. The security guards in the bank do not really care either. Luckily the law in Singapore is stricter and there are no such people in the bank pestering you for illegal exchange of money. Or else, changing money can be such a chore.

Day 35 (7th April) WUST new campus

Today we visited the new campus of WUST, HuangJiaHu Campus(黄家湖校区). located at Wuchang District(武昌区). it took about 1.5 hours to reach and the campus. the new campus is located at some secluded area. In front of the school is highway and there isn’t any shopping mall nearby. When we reached, we received a warm welcome from a large group of students. There is also a signboard flashing welcoming words. The new campus is way cleaner and bigger! We were assigned a partner based on the number we picked. My partner’s name is called durian if I’m not wrong. She’s currently year 1 and from foreign language sector. We were first led to a room where we had an exchange of performances. Firstly, there was a welcome speech from the local students followed by a speech by a representative each from MDE and ECE. The speech by them is conducted in English and it is considered better considered to a lot in china. They put up a dance and a song item for us. As, we’re all unprepared, we performed the NDP song that we had performed before previously during interaction night.

See! There were so many students welcoming us!

My partner and me

Next, we were brought around to explore the campus. We visited their school museum, which tells us more about the history of the school. I find it interesting as we never had a museum in our school.

Gift from NP!





Model of the campus

After that, we went for lunch with our buddy. The canteen in the new campus is a lot bigger too. There are 3 floors in total and there is even an escalator! Also, there are cleaners to clear the dishes while we have to do it ourselves in the old campus. They even had a PA system to inform people that their food is ready for collection.

Escalator in their canteen, Cool right?

There was still some time before we need to assemble for the interaction games. Therefore, my buddy brought me to her hostel to take a look. as you can see, the buildings are newer and cleaner than the ones we stay in. Not only that, they have 4 to a room rather than 6 in a room in the old campus. They have proper study table each under their bed and it is definitely better than the wooden table we use. I bet the students in the old campus must be very jealous when they see the hostel here. Then, we assembled at sports field for some games.

They decorated their hostel so nicely!

Lastly, we visited the medical school. We were brought to the showroom to see all the specimens. According to the professor, all the specimens are real! However, some still looked artificial to me.

Reflection:
The students in the old campus are friendly and warm people. I really appreciate what they had planned for us and their good hospitality. I am grateful to my partner for bringing me around the campus and taking care of me. However, I find them over friendly and that they will hook your hands throughout the time with them and it made me feel a bit uncomfortable as we only knew each other for less than a day. I don’t know whether is it only me who feel this way, but this may be the culture difference. While in Singapore, we will often start with hand shaking and will not act so intimately until we know each other more.