Day 37 April 9
This morning, as usual I woke up at 7.15am to continue doing on my homework. However there wasn’t any lesson since yesterday as most of the work had completed according to the schedule planned. As I did my homework until 10.50am plus, I went down together with my roommate, Shaoming to have our early lunch at Canteen 2. After we left from the hostel room, we saw our group member, Jeremy was standing outside the hostel together with the local student. Then, we asked them whether would like to accompany us for buying fireworks at the school outside. After that, Shaoming and I went to the classroom and looked for our classmate, Arvind. By the time when we reached there, Mr Ma told us that he had already made a move not long. So we immediately found him at the ground level and asked him whether he could join us to buy fireworks together. After that, Shaoming and I went to Canteen 2 for our lunch. At the same time, we saw number of group of students was queuing up for their food. I believed those students were not from this campus as their age seemed to be younger. Then, we found that they were from secondary school. And they came here for adventure training. After we had taken our lunch, we crossed the road and went to shop for fireworks. Later, we passed by a shop that was selling different type of fireworks. So we went to approach the shop seller and recommended us within our budget of $200 RMB below at least. Then, we decided to buy a box of 100 shoot fireworks and the shop seller gave us some discount since we came from Singapore for studies. Originally this kind of fireworks she sold about $220 RMB but she sold us especially at $170 RMB. And I was shocked that the discount was given to us. So before we left, we decided to buy some handheld fireworks for the local students, so totally we bought a box of fireworks and 5 handheld fireworks at the cost of $200RMB. When we were leaving, we had given our thanks sincerely to the shop seller. After we had bought the fireworks, we walked back to the hostel and continued on doing our homework. As we were on the way back, I found that the campus school bus had taken out its “coat”. It was normally attached with the coat during cold temperature however it has taken out during hot or normal temperature. I believed that attached with the coat was to keep the passengers warm inside during cold temperature. Later, when we reached the hostel room, we continued on doing our homework. Until 8pm plus, Siew bo, Shaoming and I went out to have dinner at the usual place. After that, Siew bo wanted to buy some medical stuffs at the medical shop nearby. Later, we went back to the hostel after buying medical stuffs. As for today, it wasn’t much to be observed. One of the things that I found was the fireworks. Although fireworks were seemed to be normal for us in Singapore but in China, those fireworks were used to set during leisure time, ceremonies and other events. However, in Singapore, we wouldn’t allow playing them on the streets outside or any places, else we would be fined if we did this. But in China, there were some people playing it as their wish during evening time. It was quite worth to play them in China rather than in Singapore.
Day 38 April 10
Today I woke up at 7.45am to do my homework and as usual there was no lesson went on for whole day. And the temperature was seemed to get better, warmer and warmer. At about 9am plus, I went to get myself prepared for meeting my classmates, Shu gen and the rest. Then, we went to Canteen 2 for our light breakfast before we went out. After had our breakfast, at 10.25am, we went to take a bus, bus no 901 to Guang Bu Tun and bought some MP3 devices over there. However, my classmates were managed to bargain the price of each device from $240 to $230 RMB. After we had bought, about 12.30pm plus, I decided to go to Hankou on my own and left Shu gen and the rest first. In the beginning, I was afraid I might lose my way during the journey. Fortunately I approached on some help from the local people there. With the information given, so I ended up taking a bus, bus no 581 on my own. When I was boarding the bus, there was a guy approached me for some money and I thought that he was the person who supposed to collect the bus fares. Later, I found that he was not after he dropped off from the bus. About 15-20 minutes passed, I had managed to reach the destination on my own finally. Then, I immediately dropped off from the bus and walked different side of the area. As I was walking along, I was passed by a small area. And that area I thought that it was a place where selling guys’ accessories and clothes. However after passed by most of the shops, I found that it was the place where selling ladies’ accessories and clothes. And I seen a lot of ladies shopped around that place as well. Next, I walked out of that area and continued on walking around the area in Hankou. Until 2pm plus, I went to one of the shopping malls that I went with my classmates before during the tour trip, and I had bought some souvenirs for local students and my friends in Singapore. I bought them as my small token for local students as they brought us most of the places during our free & easy period. When I was deciding what to buy, the shop owner had given a discount of $5 for 10 different choices of the items since I was come from Singapore. After had done buying them at the cost of $35 RMB, I crossed on the road to the opposite side and walked inside the street area. Then I found that there were many roadside stalls selling food and accessories. Later, I also walked passed another ladies’ shopping area, called Nu Ren Jie, Women’s Street. There were many stalls selling ladies’ clothes, accessories and etc. Other than those, there were some stalls selling local foods as well. At about 6.30pm, I went to take a bus back to the place where I came from, Wuchang. So I took a bus, bus no 608 back to Guang Bu Tun. About 10-20 minutes passed, I dropped off the area and transferred to other bus, bus no 907 back to the campus. At about 8.45pm, I reached the campus and went to have my late dinner at the usual place, Hua Tai Street. After had taken my dinner, I walked back to the hostel and continued on doing my homework. As for today, there was quite much to be observed. Firstly, when I was boarding the bus, I found that the passengers could board at the back door if there were many passengers filled in the front. Unlike in Singapore, back door wouldn’t allow to be entered as it was meant for exit. Secondly, in Hankou, there were some places which meant to shop for ladies’ clothes and accessories, like Women’s Street. In Singapore, there was a small portion of the area for it while most of the places meant for unisex. Thirdly, people in China especially in term of driving, they were just not bothered the road lines, they would just crossed from one side to another without being considered about others. This would easily to cause accidents and internal conflicts on the drivers if happened in Singapore.
