i got a request from Emily Pang to blog about the trip properly, so i shall.
so anyways, my parents were rather reluctant to wake up early to send me to the airport at 5 am, so i got a lift from Liyan. thanks man 
got to Shanghai at about 2 pm and drove down to Hangzhou. had dinner at about 5 or 6 cos of the darn traffic jam. we were supposed to watch the 宋城千古情 but because of the jam we couldn’t. i was starving kay -.-
shan’t elaborate about the restaurant. let’s just say they had a diverse range of life forms there, and their food made my tummy feel… funny. -shudder-
but honestly, the Ramada Hotel ROCKS okay. nice, spacious room which gave me plenty of space to throw my stuff around, the soap and shampoo they provided was LUX which smelt superbly good, and the room’s phone didn’t sound too bad. hardly woke us up in the morning, but who cares man. nice hotel, only there were too many guests during our first breakfast and we were pushed to the second floor. and the food didn’t quite appeal to me. ate crossiants every morning.
we went to the farm the next day. darn the rain. it was so cold with the rain kay. grr. leeweis don’t like cold. and the rain got into the bowl for pounding 年糕, which made it quite unappetising. well, pounding 年糕 was quite an experience, with the big big heavy hammer. and i can’t say that i didn’t enjoy it when it was dipped in sugar. ate three pieces, but there was still a large amount of 年糕 left when we left. very very sticky
then, we went to play traditional games, like tug-of-war and the stilts thing. for tug-of-war, it was groups 1, 2 and 3 VS groups 4, 5 and 6. groups 1, 2 and 3 lost horribly
lunch was so much better than the dinner, but i almost choked on a fish bone. as in, it was really stuck there in my throat and refused to go down. i could speak but i couldn’t swallow. nightmare.
couldn’t decide on what to do after that. we first went to watch this show by village people, but we later went on to pick mandarin oranges. even the green ones were sweet, so good kay! and we ended up buying a lot of oranges. i bought 750g worth and it was only 3RMB. that’s about say… $0.70. so cheap mans. and i was one of the few who bought less than 1kg. ha
the ancient art of paper making! it looks so boring to me! i really pity the people who work there. they have to do the same thing the whole day. urgh. and the toilets, OHMAN the toilets. after that one, i never stepped into another public toilet except for the ones in restaurants or the hotel room. tramautising.
went to 宋城 after that. we were being briefed by our tour guide when some ‘generals’ riding horses came right through us. SO COOL KAY. we saw them again later on. got about 30 minutes to look through the place. bought this real cool painting thingy for my family. it’s says “刘家”in the shape of a dragon and a tropical rainforest respectively. very nice. should have made one for “竖笛”. ah, regret 
watched the 宋城千古情 before dinner. oh mans, that show is AWESOME okay. they had this river thingy at the front of the stage which seems to be concealable. and the acrobats were awesome, jumping over people and grabbing poles, and and the lanterns which came down from the ceiling, and the MASSIVE waterfall which came in halfway through the show. the cool part is that when the next scene came the stage was dry. seriously, it was a real waterfall. and when they re-enacted a battle scene, we saw the horses and the ‘generals’ again! it was so cute okay, while the people were battling at the front of the stage the horses and the ‘generals’ rode across at the back of the stage. so cute kay! and the lightings and the sound effects, OHMYGOSH man. so awesome. go and watch it for yourself someday, it’s SO worth it
only, darn the rain. it was about 5 or 6 when we stepped out but the sky resembled the 9 o’clock sky we see in Singapore, and it was already cold enough at night. but with the rain… ohmygosh it might as well have been winter. -cold-
dinner wasn’t bad either, and it was one of the 老师’s birthday! celebrated with a pretty pink cake which was quite good. went back to the hotel and we went to sleep. haha, Jac Fong and i were totally guai that whole week, we just did homework every night before sleeping. still, there was a lot to do so we slept quite late that night. conked out mans.
went to 西湖 the next day. it’s nothing brilliant in the day, seriously. just very pretty. and it was raining again. grr
a bunch of African-Americans (i think) were there too, and it was quite nice to see people who spoke fluent English. i bet they thought we were China Chinese, but 老师 quickly told them that we’re not. haha
walked up the slope to 雷峰塔，you know, the one that 白蛇 was trapped under in the 水浒传？yeah, i think that’s it. the original tower toppled in the 1900s, can’t remember the exact year, and the one we went to was rebuilt in 2002. Jac Fong and i climbed stairs all the way up to the top. exhausting, really. but the view was cool
and i realised while climbing up to the tower that i am useless with folding umbrellas
lunched at the real nice restaurant. food was AWESOME, the best we had the whole trip. pity, people kept smoking. i hate how China has such a high tolerance for smokers. grr >:[
went to 灵隐庙 after lunch and walked through the huge cave full of carved buddhas. their faces were all destroyed because of the cultural revolution. man i HATE that cultural revolution. those silly people not only destroyed the faces of the carved buddhas but they also burnt the tomb of one DAMN famous ancient emperor, along with his body. heartbreak mans, with technology now the face of the emperor could be recreated. but they burnt his tomb. grr :/
well, nothing much in 灵隐庙, but i’d HATE to be there at night. scary place.
walked over to 岳王庙, that’s the place dedicated to 岳飞. silly emperor, he was so faithful to the emperor and the country and yet the emperor actually gave him poison wine. silly silly silly. that place USED to house his body, but not anymore. his body was dug out during the Cultural Revolution (GRRRRR) and now, the exact whereabouts of his body are unknown.
went to take a nice long stroll along 西湖 at about 4.30-ish. the sun was setting, yes, setting and gosh it was SO GORGEOUS! took really nice pictures there, and i saw a heart in the sky! shall post pictures on my blogger
the restaurant in their botanical gardens was GOOD! enclosed place with a not-so-bad toilet. had fun over dinner playing number games. great place. we just saw green light and all, but, no problem mans
did homework, wrote in my dairy and went to sleep
went to school the next day! couldn’t eat much, again, and went to school. i was listening to music on my way there and all and someone shouted,” 到学校了！” man my heart started beating furiously kay. they welcome us with a banner, yes a BANNER across the gate and they had this cool board thingy that kept flashing out welcome messages. we joined them for flag-raising, and it was so cool when they ran in. like, ran, synchronised, left right-ish. and they SANG their national anthem. so cool eh
they dedicated their WHOLE announcement time to welcoming us, and they presented each of us with a 红领巾, as in they got students to come up and tie it around our necks for EACH AND EVERYONE OF US. oh mans, so cool kay! only, i wasn’t very comfortable with the whole school staring at us. -twitches-
our buddies came to claim us after that and we ran back to class. met my lovely buddy 黄丽涵 and we started with lessons. lessons were okay, but their English teacher kept calling on Jac Fong and i to read out English. there is something wrong with their teaching materials kay, the English in them isn’t even fluent. grr. and their Moral Ed teacher thought that we didn’t understand Chinese -.-
it was quite fun to watch them do their second period exercises as a school. they looked like they were dancing man, and it seemed so fun! and their eyecare exercises really worked, only i didn’t quite know how to do it
still, my buddy and the two people in front amused me a lot. and they really were very nice to us
lunch was sickening, Jac Fong and i couldn’t sit with the rest of the group cos the conference room wasn’t big enough, and it was just the two of us. oh mans, horrible feeling
after practicing our item we went to another school to learn how to make flowers with wires and stuff. was dosing off while the teacher went through the theoratical stuff, but woke up when we started making flowers. 陈亚妮 is damn nice and looks like Lin Chuch, only shorter. we still e-mail each other
went to 河坊街 for some quick shopping. bought all my presents there as well as a cap and 三国演义. the book was only 12RMB, so affordable
dinner after that, again, restaurant wasn’t bad, went back, debrief, did some homework and went to bed, completely conked out, but looking forward to school the next day
ran to class in the morning cos we were slightly late, and i couldn’t find my buddy when we walked in, cos they had moved one row down and since my buddy’s row was on the most left side, they had been moved to the most right side of the classroom, and me, being blind, couldn’t see them. but i later did lah, haha
once again, lessons were okay. i swear, their Math lessons can kill. can’t understand a word of Math in Chinese man
did their exercises with them. man it was so funny and embarrassing lah. they have lots of space between each student and i was the second girl in the row, with Jac Fong behind me. and cos they run in, i didn’t know when to stop, so when the boy’s row stopped i just kept running. the second boy in the row (宣剑明！) shouted to us “跑过头了！” haha, so embarrassing kay
anyways, when exercising they have sandbags around their feet which they move to their hands halfway through. we didn’t have the sandbags, so when the student body squatted down to change their sandbags Jac Fong and i were still standing so cluelessly. standing amidst a sea of squatting people. me, being the slower one of the two of us was still looking around when Jac had already squat down. ohmans, so embarrassing kay! hahahaa
even my buddy said that she was laughing to herself while watching us
they were assigned English homework and they kept asking Jac Fong and i for help. haha. and and the class really warmed up to us
Jac Fong could answer some of the questions regarding the passage on the Forbidden City during CHINESE period. (ahem, smart) and when the teacher asked who had went there, i raised my hand and she asked me to talk about what i remembered from the place. i gave four words
“故宫… 很大。”
hee, so fun
had lunch in class. 懿真 and 陈雨 commented that my chopstick skills were better than theirs’, which they totally didn’t expect
went to this boring animation lesson afterwards. kept dozing off during the theoratical stuff and dropping my pencil. drew a 孙悟空 and left. whoo
went to drink tea, bought some for my grandparents and went for dinner. again, nothing memorable, not bad either, went back to the hotel, debrief, homework and we went to sleep
ran for lessons again the next day, laughed my way through a few of the lessons, and if i remember correctly, we had an English paper that day. haha, 93.5%, could have gotten 96.5% if it wasn’t for the first letter thing. ohwells, it was a rather funny paper. tons of grammatical errors. tsk.
went to play with the kids after that. working there definitely wasn’t easy, the kids were somewhat hyper, somewhat anti-social. supposed to go shop after that, but we went to a supermarket instead. didn’t buy much, had dinner at Macs, went back for a debrief and bed.
second last day of school, performance day, visiting day. ATTEMPTED their math and science test. grr, couldn’t do a thing. horrible horrible. couldn’t understand it. didn’t want to hand either in, but they were taken away. horrible
they had Crafts first lesson though. it was quite fun watching them make the octopus, especially the stuffing part. DAMN funny. the guy in the group kept trying to stuff more but my buddy didn’t allow him to, and despite many more attempts by others to continue stuffing, my buddy stopped the stuffing. when the teacher came by, she was like ” 放多一点。” oh my gosh, watching them stuff the octopus was so funny kay! in the end it looked more like an alien than an octopus
performance was so-so, didn’t know when it was our turn to go up, so i ran up. haha. went visiting, the food was quite good! i just ate real slowly
went to the park, darn the rain again. the view was breathtaking. simply breathtaking. took pictures and went back to school to go back to the hotel. debrief, homework, bed.
last day of school. went for class a lesson late, sadly. it was raining again so we had to do exercises indoors. darn the rain
played badminton. soo funny, trying to play badminton in China. playing against their class rep was fun! she’s so cute kay! and and they had a Singapore vs China match. haha, what were the odds of winning man? well, we were trailing by two points when lesson ended. ohwells
and the last lesson we spent with them was a Chinese paper. annoying much
couldn’t take a class picture cos they had to do self-study during lunch. so, took a few candid shots, said bye and left. gah, i miss them
i still can’t believe i just called him ceng2 小东！no wonder people were laughing when i called him that. mans so embarrassing! haha
周庄 wasn’t bad, bought kettles there and had dinner. man the number game that night was terrifying, with that horrible dish of veggie. hate the taste of it. argh. -shudder-
kept telling ghost stories on the bus to Shanghai. Luo Shuang tells good ghost stories. her eyes are so freaky, man. she’ll make a good ghost. -shudder-
SHANGHAI! only had one hour and very little money when we went to their shopping district, so i didn’t buy much. only a cup of hot chocolate which burnt my tongue. got to the Redisson hotel, lovely place, but it’s kinda freaky being alone there.
next day, went sightsee-ing in the morning, took tons of pictures, bought stuff including a LOVELY panda bag. that place was OVERRUN with pandas kay! oh mans! -swoons-
BUT, they were overpriced, totally got ripped off there
ooh yeah, breakfast there was quite good. their chocolate pastry was GOOD.
think we went for lunch after that. not bad either, they kept sabo-ing me with the number game
went to the museum after lunch. nothing much to see there, but everyone was waiting for Liyan, Justine, Jac Fong and i cos we walked around the most. went to buy books after that. oh man, the books! 红楼梦 was only 60RMB there, and it’s THICK. like, as thick as Harry Potter. and two VERY DETAILED music dictionaries cost 40RMB in total. soo affordable, i spent the most money there than anywhere else. loved it
dinner on a boat. so cool kay! it was also Jac’s birthday, so they got a cake for her
went to the Oriental Pearl Tower after that, the tallest building in China. lovely view from up there, real lovely. it was about 200++ levels, and it took approximately 48 seconds to get to the top. more group pictures, and then to the wax museum. the wax figurines are FREAKY okay, so we rushed through. we got scared by BOOS. haha.
there was a cake in the hotel room too, and i kept smearing cream on Jac. haha
played cards till 1, slept at 2 after writing my diary and stuff.
we were supposed to wake up at 7 in the morning, have breakfast at 7.30 and assemble with our luggage and all in the lobby at 8.50. i got woken up at 8.55 by housekeeping who was chasing us out of the room so she could pack up. rushed all over to get ready and rushed down with all our stuff. missed breakfast, ate Collon on the bus to the sightseeing place. gorgeous view again.
took the Maglev train. man it was fast! went to like 400++ km/h. awesome man
so… checked in, got our luggage in, ate KFC, said bye to our tour guide and went on back to Singapore! watched Mamma Mia and Wall-E on the plane.
i think it’s the food on the plane. i got hives on the plane and it lasted till the next day. went to the doctor’s and man, i’ve never had allergies before! now i do. but funny, i’ve been eating the same food all this time and nothing has ever happened to me. now this
haiz. i do miss 初二一班. i really miss having class with them
well, gotta get ready for band now. pictures on my blogger!
