Day 29 - April 1

It's April Fool day today,
I fooled Hazel today,

It's finally 1st April, i have waited for 14Th April to come much earlier but it didn't. Time seems to slow down everyday and flies every night. It's my friends which make this boring China lifestyle exciting , all the excitement are left back in Singapore, but it's not soon before long I would be drinking water from tap and smelling the dust and pollutant free air and eating my mother "not-so-nice-but-better-than-the-rest-because-is-she-cook" cooking.

Lecture by the 院长 of the foreign language school. It's was the most interesting Chinese lecture I had here, it's about traditional Chinese believe, and he envy us as we live in a democratic country unlike China which have been in the federal system for more than 2000 years and till now he hadn't have the chance to vote for the government which govern him. He touched on topic which is quite sensitive to Chinese context and his English is better than the rest, his topics is the main reason which made his lecture interesting.<>

Jit Siong sleeping like a dead person every lunch break, he rather sleep late to photo shop all the pictures rather than waking up early. This lifestyle is bad as you would be drained, I rather that I wake up earlier so I could finish the works rather than burning pre-dawn oil, P.S I cannot say midnight oil because I've been burning it since young.

They are cleaning the sewage for out apartment block, Choking of the toilet are a common event here as China toilets have smaller sewage pipes as compared to Singapore. Or perhaps is because we use the toilet more rather than the roads and pavement like the rest of the people here.

The full of waste and you don't want to drop in hole.

Went for dinner at Canteen 2 again after their game of basketball. I stayed in the apartment to continue my mini project

Their soft drink is one fifth of what it cost in Singapore, it's always tempting to eat more as it's much cheaper here but we need to control our diets so we won't fall sick that easily in such a every changing weather.

The only halal food stall in Canteen2

Oily fried rice stall

Road side food stall was not really a good place to have meals as they don't have proper hygiene and the dust and dirt here is more than what I have under own bed.

Day 28 - March 31

Another rushing lab day,


Today was Lab7 some array stuff which is somehow like C programming, but it's much harder as Mr Chua and Mr Ma believe in learning it by ourselves as after understanding the programming knowledge it would with us forever. It bring me back the the phrase which my parents always says, people can steal our money but they can never steal our knowledge , experience breeds knowledge thus after this trip it's hard for me not to believe words from the older generation and only believe on what I experienced. Mr Chua does have some wise words for the class every time he saw us.




Went back and do Mini project did a few variety of projects but could know which one to choose, thus i'm still procrastinating here on which project is the most entertaining and interactive, finally chosen the "Ernest Photo Lab Printing" which is about e-printing photo. it's have a pop up browser box which I learn from the web. Live long learning is important and C# programming is not limited to the lecture notes.


Slept early cos tomorrow got Chinese Lecture, hope it isn't another read from slides session.

Day 27 - March 30

Lesson start at 10am as the interaction barbecue ends quite late.


Cleaning up was the norm for Chinese after their barbecue unlike in Singapore where the rubbish are clear by the cleaners, we are much more fortunate than the student here as it's they have to clear up the rubbish in the dark.


Another usual day which is ever boring and concentrate was at it's lowest as I didn't have a good night rest. Although it's easy to sleep anywhere when you are tired but it's hard to sleep in the same room with those you are not used to sharing the room with. And it's harder to wake up because Jit Siong normally won't wake up earlier to wake me up, even if he wake up he would only wake me up when it's about time or after he is done with his things in the computer.




Rush Lab 6 at my friends apartment downstairs as it's harder than usual, after finishing lab 6 i felt accomplished as we are going to complete this 1APPG module. I can't wait to get back it's about 16 days more before i could meet those I cherish, this trip make me understand who is important to me and who i'm important to.

Dave food poisoning came as a shock to us, he was looking fine this afternoon. It reminds me how Bing Hua went into hospital the night before my flight and how I spend the last day before i come to Singapore with my good friends. Friends are important but in China it's hard to make good friend which believe more in friendship than money, as 2000 years of Chinese history is riddled with the lust for power and greed thus the society here isn't as gracious and trusting as Singapore.




After that found out that every sickness here in China they give IV drop, which isn't a save way to do as needles are involved, and it's a reuseable needle thus there might be HIV or any other infection which might be spreaded. Thus is better to take care of our health than to treat it after we are sick.

Day 26 - March 29

Finally it's free and easy day,
Went to IT mall to buy my friend mp4 while i got myself a tripod, although everyone believe that in China things are cheap but this doesn't apply to electronics as there is import tax for foreign electronics. Thus only local brands are cheap thus got myself China made tripod to show Jit Siong light painting which I did with Mervyn and nick at east coast park a few months back. In China the way they bargain wasn't that friendly as we thought, as they like to raise their voice every time they talk and the mall was full of smoke as China peoples like to smoke which i abhor and dislike their sulphuric taste of the cigarette. They are the best at ignoring signs which state that smoking is prohibited and continue to smoke this show that Singapore fines are hard crack down is a better way to prevent peoples from lighting up in non-smoking places.

Half way while buying the mp4 I had stomachache and have no choice but to challenge the toilets to a smell endurance show down. found the toilet after climbing up 5 floors and got a shock of a life time, I had seen people spitting, peeing, shitting in public since the day i step into China, and saw how horrible their toilets are when it was choked with decomposing shit, but nothing prepare me for what I saw on why way to the toilet, i couldn't even believe my eyes it's nothing good to write it here but the China peoples just walk past her like it's a daily event here in China.

Next up would be the toilet, let me introduce the humble little toilet to you.
5 cubicles, ZERO doors, But I was too urgent to bother about the smell or what ever, is totally desperation thus I have no choice but to use it. A new experience which could never be experienced in Singapore, a new experience of shitting and looking at the next person peeing, maybe I say hi to him. I learn that in China always use the toilets in your apartment first before going out because you never know if the next toilet you see is clean or allow you to have privacy or not.

squeeze on the 901 bus again, this time with my tripod thus it isn't really that hard to discover the way out and people would give way because they are afraid of what you are holding. In China it's better to talk softly and hold a big stick rather than talk loudly like the common China Chinese because is normally those who have power in China that have better manners.

Went back for the barbecue night which is organised by the Chinese students,

Didn't really trust the food by looking at he way they prepare at my apartment,

They use the pail which we used to wash clothes to wash and store the vegetable.

In China isn't not uncommon to see people using pail or containers which is used to store chemicals to store food nor it's uncommon to see food that are exposed to air for a extended period of time.

Tired to start the fire the Chinese way, the Singapore way of starting a barbecue is to use fire starters while they use grass as tinder. It's easier to start a campfire going rather than charcoal burning, the weather was wet and morning it just rained thus we have extremely hard time to get the charcoal burning.

It get dark quite early in China as we are in the northern hemisphere thus some of us rush back and get out torch as China people barbecues normally ends when sun down as in China almost everything in the village stops when the sun is down because there is a absent of electricity lights thus we should always bring a torch light around with us to prevent ourselves from getting lost in the dark.

Day 25 - March 28

Today was a bad day for outing, it's drizzling for the whole day.

it's suppose to be a shopping outing but way they sell thing in China makes me doesn't want to let go of my Yuans that easily. Went to the front gates to board the tour bus but only to find out that when it rains in China the traffic condition would get worst thus the bus driver was late.

Driving in China is just like playing Need For Speed, the drivers seldom use their signal lights to indicate where they want to go and road dividers are nonexistence in China, late filtering and tailgating is the norm. China Drivers makes Singapore Road Rages look like small boys playing with toy cars. It's rare to find driver using signal lamps but it's rarer to find driver who don't play horning concerto where ever they drives. It's normal to see cars with dents marks as driving here isn't as easy as Singapore. Drivers like my father used to complain about the road being bumpy in Singapore but here the roads are literally filled with shell scrapes.
Today I learned that the temperature changes in inland countries is faster than coastal countries like Singapore, when it rains the temperature drops from 18 degree to 8 degree within 15min. Therefore next time i'm able to gauge what kind of clothing I should wear.

Gortex Jacket prove to be a good thing in such wet weather, it's a pity i didn't get Performance Shell

But China Yellow Plastic Rain Coats works as well
Those who didn't have any protection from the rain are all shivering from the cold as their jackets are drenched

In China they don't give plastic bags out for free unlike Singapore. As it's their culture that they use thin plastic bag or don't use at all if can. In Singapore only on certain days that retail shops don't give out plastic bags

Went to their road side toilets as the urge to pee was reaching overflowing point

Only to found out that it a place where you pee into a bucket and they collect and clear it when the bucket is full
冰糖葫芦 is a sweet treat in China, it's fruits coated with melted sugar, it's one of our favourite Chinese food

Had lunch at Dicos which is overprice and they staff could take orders from us as efficiently as Singapore fast food thus there is a delay in getting our food.

It was still raining when we left to go back to Wuhan University of Science and Technology

You all could never see me in any group photos which look reasonably nice framed

It's the last time we would be seeing our tour guide

He dropp a few of us at Yellow Crane Tower to shop for Fake branded stuff. The whole building was praticall filled with Fake stuff like Porter, Agnes'B, LV, Stage, SubCrew and tons of branded stuff which is popular with the youngster here in China.

Fake converse which look real to the untrained eyes

Went into a backstree for dinner, the food there was good until we found a resturant that sells soup baos.

It's awsome as comapred to the one I eaten a few days ago

The road side kebab men selling different kind of meat from mutton to cutterfish

A kind of Chinese sushi which taste something like sushi dipped in oil

Yellow crane tower in the distance

and a truckload of rubbish not far away from us

Taking the Taxi back was a risk, It's no different from playing Crazy Taxi. The taxi driver beat 4 red light, travel 3 time above the speed limit, got into 2 near collision and went into the wrong side of the road 1 time.

Went back to bath,

Was bathing happily when I heared my phone ring,

pick up the wrong receiver, "Hello , Hello" but no one is on the line

Only to find out that it's the shower head that i'm taking into.

And the end result was a broken shower hear. This show how corrosive their water is by seeing the rust on the inside of the shower head