Day 19; 22032013, Friday.

* Today we had our first morning forensic science lecture by Mr Lee! It suddenly reminded me of my organic chemistry lecture with Mr Lee again!

After our lecture and tutorial, we went for lunch!

Our dinner for the day! 三鲜豆皮 (It is a type of glutinous rice with various ingredients in it!)!

Delicious monmilk yogurt ice cream~! It taste so superb! 

After dinner, we went to the supermarket to purchase some food and drinks because our food stash are almost depleted..

I found the fake brand for the sweet brand: Sugus!

I also brought this yogurt drink to try! Hope it is tasty!

After our purchase, we headed back to our hostel to sleep!

End!

Day 18; 21032013, Thursday.

* Today we had our usual morning lecture! By for today, we will be having our first lecture on forensic science by Dr. Tan! Dr Tan taught us on some microbiology background information for forensic science so we can better understand the future lectures. I'm glad to have microbiology lectures again because it has been half a year since I last have it. It refreshes all my rusty microbiology concepts!

After our lecture, we went to eat our lunch at the canteen near the school library. It was our first time eating there and we kind of hope that the food there will satisfy our hunger!

Nevertheless, this canteen did not disappoint us! The food here is as good as the two previous canteen that we have been to before.

I ate 西红柿鸡蛋面 (Tomato egg noodles). The noodles here are even better then the ones I have tried in the other two canteens! The noodle was very chewy and the noodle have taste in it! The other noodles I have tried taste bland and soft so I guess I have just found my newest favourite noodle store yet!

Feeling adventurous, I decided to buy a wrap to try after finishing my noodles!

The wrap have potato strips and Taiwan flavoured hot dog as its fillings! It tastes not bad but there are too many potato strips inside the wrap. The potato strips killed off the wrap's taste.

Pictures of my lunch!

They also sell this pastry below! It is called 消化饼干 (Digestive biscuit). It is a deep fried dough which is very tough to chew and bite. I wonder why did they even decide to name it "Digestive Biscuit". I doubt whether this biscuit can be digested or not..

On the bright side, this pastry taste delicious!

After our  lunch, we headed back to our lesson venue and had our forensic science tutorial/lecture.

After lesson have ended, I followed Dr Tan and Miss Mikia to the local pharmacy store to purchase medicine! 

For no apparent reason, my right foot's left sole was swollen! It hurts when I press hard on it so I decided to go and get some anti-swollen medicine. However when I reached the pharmacy and asked for the medicine I wanted, the shop assistant there told me that it is not necessary for me to buy those medicine. All I need to do is to soak my foot in slightly hot water and rest my on top of two pillows. Not sure whether will this method will work.. I shall try later on!

Many of OIP students does not dare to eat the medicine here because they heard that the medicine here are poisonous. Personally, I also do not dare to eat their medicine. However, it is not due to the rumours that the medicine are poisonous but their ingredients present in those tablets. I am afraid that the medicine they sell might contain some active compounds that my body are allergic to and cause allergy reactions to occur after consuming those tablets. Their pharmacy here can easily obtain antibiotic medicine without the permission or recommendation from the local doctors (more than half of their medicines are all antibiotics). Sure, the easy access to antibiotics might enable the citizens in Wuhan to purchase all these antibiotics freely; however, have they ever wondered what if one day they purchase a type of antibiotic which are not suitable for them? Severe allergy reaction might occur and endanger their life! This is why Singapore's polyclinic or clinics medicine are all sold under the guidance of trained pharmacist or doctors.

Well, in the end I brought some 枇杷膏 (A kind of sore throat reliever) to soothe my throat! I tried this reliever back in Singapore so I guess I can trust it.

After purchasing, I went to the hostel to start on my IS module project!

End!

Day 17; 20032013, Wednesday.

* Today we took our first forensic science test for the first time! This test actually serve as a gauge as of whether or not did I understand all of Dr Sujit and Miss Mikia's teaching for the past 2 weeks! Fortunately, I completed the test smoothly and finished the entire paper within 40 minutes even though the time limit was 90 minutes!

Taking my first test overseas also excites me a little! It was a fresh experience instead of the normal ones back in Singapore. We get to sit in the classroom in a China university! 

We went to a biopharm in the afternoon for industrial visit! It was really an intriguing experience for me!

For safety precautions,  we are required to wear this!

It is a shoe cover so that our shoe will not dirty the floor inside of the compound!

We are also required to wear this lab coat and hat (which is located in the pocket)!

Group photo!

We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the facilities so  I won't have any of them posted here. So we were all led around the facilities and we tour the manufacturing compounds and the packaging compounds. When we were on the way to the packaging area, we passed a laboratory whereby the employees there are working with the fume hood and testing the chemicals. It reminded me of our practical lessons back in Ngee Ann Polytechnic! I'm quite glad to see the practicals we are doing weekly being applied in the workforce! It gives me more motivation and a more positive outlook of my future prospects of my future senior years in Ngee Ann.

Anyways, the tour led us to know that the factory we are currently visiting produces different types of medical fluid drips and injections for humans. From there, we get to know more about the environment and procedures of the manufacturing processes. Employees are required to wear full body protection so as to avoid contamination of the manufactured fluid and allow it to remain sterile.

After the tour, we were led out of the facililties and are asked to wait ourside of the factory as our other OIP mates are exploring the biopharm factory. Most of the people in our tour group wanted to use the washroom and upon arrival we are quite shocked by what we see.

This must be the first literal open air toilet!

Look at the toliet! It does not have any doors and there are no proper toliet facilities in it. All you need to do is to do your business by aiming your "stuffs" into that white drain below. I was utterly disgusted by this and all the girls went in 1 by 1 because we are not used to have people in the same toilet as us!

We acted as the toilet guardsman when each of us entered the toilet! The sight was both amusing and foolish! There are none of these toilets back in Singapore (I think)! I think even until now, I can never get use to the toilets in China. Singapore's toilet are much cleaner and much more developed then the toilets in China! Guess we cannot take things for granted and I dare say all of us appreciates the Singapore's toilet now!

After the trip to the horrifying toilet, we went to tour around the area outside of the biopharm facilities! They have a pretty nice view around unlike Singapore's usual HDB and rigid structures. I guess one of the few things I like about China is their natural environment all around. They have plenty of trees and flowers being planted almost everywhere and anywhere! It beautifies the environment so much and I hope Singapore will follow suit and plant much more trees and flowers along the roadway instead of the usual grass patches.

Some of the few nice views I have taken!

We headed back for an early dinner after the biopharm tour!

Brought these 3 skewers of godliness! As expected, most of the Wuhan's street food never disappoint me! Their food always tastes so good and their ingredients are all fresh unlike Singapore's usual frozen food.

Ate all this delicious food for dinner! My life is now complete!

End!

Day 16; 19032013, Tuesday.

* Today we had our lecture for our IS module: Chinese Culture. Today, the focus of the lecture is on the different prominent figures such as Confucius and Mencius. 

The lecture was a long and tiring one. It is very lengthy and mundane. However, I now have a much better understanding on the different figures and how their teachings and thoughts impacted the thinking the people in many ways.

Well, after our long lecture, we went to eat lunch!

I brought 香菇肉丝刀削面 (Mushroom with meat slices hand made noodles). As expected, the canteen food never fail to disappoint me! It is really tasty and the noodles taste so chewy and the ingredients goes so well with the noodles! I can even taste the mushroom and meat essence in the soup!

I will definitely miss all the noodles in Wuhan! They are so different from Singapore's noodles stores in many ways! In just one store, they have at least 15 different types of noodles as compared to Singapore's 3 to 5 types of noodle dishes! Wuhan's ingredients also tastes much better then Singapore's ingredient. Wuhan's noodles comes with all sorts of ingredients! They range from preserved vegetables to beef and meatballs in just a single store! Whereas Singapore's stores only have the usual fishballs (Which is just made of flour. It does not have any fish taste AT ALL.) , sliced fish cakes (flour again) and minced meat. I bet I will get sick of Singapore's noodles store quick and miss Wuhan's noodles store within 1 week of return!

I also brought this fried rice to share with Pei Pei, Hui Ting, Li Si, Karize and Jodie!

It tastes quick decent! Though the shop employees can avoid placing the plastic spoon in the paper bowl full of steaming hot fried rice. I swear, the plastic spoon melted into the rice because on several occasions, whenever there are plastic spoons present in food, the food will taste like plastic. It is horribly disgusting and I hope that will change their way of serving the food. They can try to place the plastic spoon into the plastic bag or hold it up for the customers to take the spoon and the food separately. Consuming melted plastic will certainly cause harm to your health at some point in time.

In the afternoon, the entire OIP group went to a venue which is located in the vicinity of our hostel to play some games! All of us were split into 2 groups and we took turns in rock climbing and plank cards guessing and arranging.

For the rock climbing part, I didn't participate at all because I am not really a sports person. I am also afraid of heights so yeah, I took a pass on that one.

For the plank cards guessing part, we are suppose to arrange the cards from the smallest to the biggest in 10 rounds. Each round, you are only given 30 seconds to find the number you required. You might think that this is a very simple game! but you are very wrong! the plank cards have pictures and you have to guess or link what number does the picture stands for! We have to arrange from 1 to 30 with the exception for number 24.

I guessed number 5 and 6. Number 5 shows a picture of a guy fishing for fishes. The reason why it is number 5 is because of   端午(五; 5) 節 or Dragon Boat festival in English.

For number 6, it shows a picture of a tree. After much thinking, it is a willow tree. 柳 (六; 6) 树.

SMART RIGHT (thick skinned). Anyways, the games was fun and enjoyable. After the games, we have to participate in a group activity whereby we complete three segments under 150 seconds. The three segments are :

1. 16 strings are tied at the rims of the drum. Everyone is supposed to hold 1 end. A ball will be placed in the middle of the drum and you are suppose to make sure the ball hits the drum continuous for 8 times without falling!

2. 10 poles are placed vertically on the ground. 10 people are required to play this game. We are suppose to hold onto the pole and when we say move, we are suppose to move to the next pole in front of you and catch the top of the poles using your palms only; and at the same time letting go of your pole. This segment will end once we have walked 1 round around the 10 vertically placed poles.

3. The third segment is to use a plastic thing (similar shape to landed property's roof tiles) and form a "road" by overlapping the tiles and directing a ball to flow through the tiles into a bucket. There are only 10 tiles and thus the moment the ball passes your tile, you are suppose to run in front to continue forming the"road" to allow the ball to flow through smoothly. 

Our team lost cause some of us got overly confident on our timing and thus, all of us miscalculated and lost. But it is okay! What matters most is the experience and not whether you win or lose.

After the 150 seconds segment game, all of us went to the streets to eat some food.  

Brought this delicious skewer of lamb because Karize kept eating and complimenting how delicious this skewer is. I tried it and I completely fell in love with this! I want to bring this back to Singapore to eat! HAHA.

P.S: brought this 3 times today due to its deliciousness.

After our street food spree, we went for our barbecue session to interact and mingle with the students there! 

Picture with Priscilla! 

The picture below is the evidence of the most amazing thing I have every seen in my entire life. However, the meaning of Amazing differ from the usual meaning you use.

I say it is amazing because I just witness the most weird and improper way of trying to start the fire.

back in Singapore, we use a fire starter and charcoal to BBQ our food isn't it?

However in China, guess what did they use? The BBQ organizer went to get dried grass and newspaper and set these 2 material into the grilling pit and set fire to them! Next off, they top the fire up with gasoline as well.  I was so shocked by what they did and I didn't try their food at all cause I didn't have the guts to try it. According to Jodie, the vegetables they roasted (Yes, they BBQ vegetables) tasted like food soaked completely in gasoline.

Horrible isn't it? It might poison us if we consume it!

On the bright side, they manage to set fire when strong winds are blowing.

 We headed back to the dorm early because we did not find the food appealing. We did some revision for our test for tomorrow and headed off to sleep.

End!

Day 15; 18032013, Monday.

 * Today is our free day! We spend our entire morning and afternoon doing our blogs! I was getting pissed off because the internet here in China is very very slow! It is so slow that the speed is literally the dial up internet 10 years ago! It is that slow! Horrible isn't it? I uploaded same set of photos at least 3 times over and over again because the uploading kept on failing. But it's okay in the mid afternoon. Patience is a virtue! 

Afternoon the long and internet killing afternoon, we went to the streets for dinner! 

Below is fermented bean curd again! We brought this bean curd from another store. I am proud to say that this fermented bean curd tastes good! The bean curd have absorbed the sauce's taste perfectly and the bean curd's texture is soft on the inside and a bit crispy on the outside! 

I brought this noodles and it tastes SO DARN GOOD! Well in short, all the food I tried today tastes good! Just that it is slightly more salty!

After eating all the salty food, I've decided to buy Lipton Red tea to quench my thirst! I brought this cause this is the cheapest drink in the store (BANKRUPT).

After our sumptuous dinner, we went back to the dorm !

End!

Day 14; 17032013, Sunday.

* Our day started at around 0700! All of us are required to assembly at the hotel lobby at 0700 for breakfast! We went to the Imperial dining court (The ancient name for dining place) for breakfast! 

We had all these for breakfast!

To be honest, the only food I enjoyed was the porridge and the fried banana! The steamed bun was tasteless and the bun beside the porridge tastes kind of weird though.

After our breakfast, all of us took a bus to 陆水湖!

It is a lake and we are all going to take a ferry and tour a few islands in the lake!

All of us walked towards the ferry dock to proceed to board the ferry.

We then board the ferry to the islands!

We have finally reached our first destination!  The island is named 好运岛  (Lucky Island)!

We entered this shop which sells papers which explains the origin of our surnames! However, as my surname is 陈 (Chen), there are no longer papers with my surname origin left! This is because my surname is very common!

There is also this basin in the centre of the store! According to the tour guide, if you manage to manifest water ripple on the water surface, you will have good luck!

Wash your hands using the water in the basin and then you rub the handles located at the side of the basin!

I tried but it didn't work! Technically, water ripples should not be formed because it is not possible in Science!

If water ripples are formed, it is probably because you rub the handles and cause the entire basin to shake  to and fro. So yeah.

There are also some bank notes and coins of different countries on display!

Immediately after this, all of us went to a temple to pray! The name of the temple is 關帝寺! All of us are handed with joss sticks to pray for ourselves or our loved ones!

After placing our joss sticks, we are required to sign our name. I was almost scammed by the monks there! He told me to write 99 RMB to pray for the safety of my parents and for my studies. I wrote then the more I think of it, the more uneasy I get. Why did they ask me to write this? Until suddenly he told me to pass him money for the fees. Then I finally got what he mean. He was trying to rip all of us off! I insisted that I do not have any money to give him. He told me to just give at least 100 RMB. I insisted that I didn't bring any money out with me. He had no choice but just walk away. No wonder when we placed the joss sticks, the priest there told us to put at 10 RMB before he will give us the safety red stash thing! Scamming temple! I walked away from the temple feeling glad and proud at myself for being witty and smart HAHAHAH. (Shameless). Anyways, at least in the end I didn't get scam by them! I heard from the others saying 1 of the student gave 100 RMB to the priest as he believed him! After we left the temple, I heard the tour guide saying that you shouldn't give any money to them as they are fake! Oh my god! Luckily I didn't believed him! Imagine if I've believed him? 200 RMB will be gone! Thank god! 

That aside, after this, we proceeded to see the legendary 同根树! 

There is an origin behind this tree! There is this famous poem called The Quatrain of Seven Steps.  "Cao Pi's suspicious of his brother Cao Zhi trying to usurp his rule (Cao Pi was also jealous of his brother's talents, particularly his masterful command of imagery). Consequently, Cao Zhi is summoned to the court and is issued an ultimatum in which he must produce a poem within seven strides such that Cao Pi is convinced of his innocence. Cao Zhi does so, and Cao Pi becomes so flustered with emotion that he spares his brother, although he later exacts punishment upon Cao Zhi in the form of demotion." 

The Quatrain of Seven Steps: 

煮豆燃豆萁, 

豆在釜中泣,

本是同根生,

相煎何太急?

People burn the beanstalk to boil beans,
The beans in the pot cry out.
We are born of the selfsame root,
Why should you torment me so much?

Quoted from Wikipedia.

This poem sure brings back memories! Reminds me of the days when I am still back in primary school where my chinese teacher forces the entire class to memorise this entire poem! I can still remember this classical poem till now!

Well, after passing by the tree, we passed by this thrilling space ride! It is called: Time Traveler!

Do not let the appearance of this ride to fool you! This ride will actually turn 360 degree all round! It is just like a ball being rolled and spin in all direction! It seems like a thrilling ride! However, as much as I like thrilling rides, I do not have the guts to sit on all this rides! I don't think I have seen rides exactly like this in Singapore! However, just by viewing the demonstration the station master performed, my knees have already gone weak!  

After passing the ride, we went back to the jetty to take the ferry to another island! The next island we are going is called 神龙岛 (Mystical Dragon Island??).

Our first attraction is the gigantic python which is resting in a room!

I have never seen a Python resting beneath a blanket! It was quite an amusing sight to see a fierce-some creature keeping itself warm under the kiddie pattern blanket!

We then headed to the theater to watch the exotic performance on the island! 

All the performance were intriguing and weird and the same time. Guess I am not used to seeing these kind of tribe performance. I think the segment which gave me the most prominent impression was the segment whereby the trans-sexual was performing. Let's just say I have never seen a trans sexual in my whole entire life and I was shocked watching a guy with curves and all dancing sexily in front of me. I was just stunned and shocked while watching her, or should I say him, perform. That aside, the most prominent impression segment was the parts whereby the emcee was address us. To be honest, I still have no idea whether is the emcee a male or female. Though, the way the emcee behave and claimed was similar to a female. The emcee even claimed that one of our OIP mates resembles like "her" first love! "She" then proceeded to sit on the guy's legs to take a picture! That scene was so... amusing and disturbing at the same time! In conclusion, the entire performance is still entertaining nevertheless.

After this, we headed back to the Red Cliff venue there to take a bus to our lunch venue!

Our lunch tastes as good as our previous 2 meals! They have some Singapore dishes' taste!

After the filling lunch, we took a 2 hour bus ride back to our hostel to unpack our stuff!

Headed back down  to the streets after packing for street food! Tasty!

Lamb skewers! Very tasty! Even more delicious then Singapore's satay!

Red bean milk!

I brought tomato beef hand made noodles!

It taste even better then Singapore's hand made noodles! The noodles are so chewy and the beef and tomato taste are absorbed into the noodles! DELICIOUS!

Beef dumplings shared among us! It doesn't taste as nice as expected though. It taste so... beefy. 

After our dinner, we headed back to the dorm to rest and wash up!

End!