Hey guys! I'm back from Beijing trip. I shld say that it is one of the most memorable trip ever! I've been there for around 10 days and I've encountered weird stuff, met new friends as well as gain new experience that I felt would help me somewhere,someday in the future :))

Day 1 - 18.nov.07 Happy birthday GLADYS!

I was apprehensive at first as I've to sit in the plane with schoolmates who I do not really know and are grouped with. But was a tad bit relieved as they seems nice and easy to get along with later on :)

On the plane, I was captivated by the scene that I saw when I looked out of the window! Althought it is not the first time, but I feel really good when I saw clouds, tonnes of them like lumps of soft cotton below me! So, i did what i think u guys would have done which is to take out my camera and start taking photos of it!hahas...:))

I sort of start to have this good feeling about this trip as we are about to land and I saw the vast land of china from the side window of the plane. Once we stepped out of the airport, I was like,’ Woo… It’s so cold! This is Beijing air, smell it! Haha…’ Really excited.

Then, we crossed the road to get to the carpark for the bus. This is when I realized that people in Beijing do not emphasize on road safety. Cars tend to horn or drive forward when we are walking across the zebra crossing or even during green lights. They seriously need improvements!

After that we went to the hotel (Communication Hotel). The lobby smells like cigarette. They probably do not have a non-smoking area there. After unloading our luggage at the hotel room, we proceed to the World City Complex for our grocery shopping. I realized that there are a lot of staffs in green apron stationing at each section, but none of them are promoting the goods to customer. ‘X-inefficiency’like what we learn in Econs :) The cashiers check big notes like 100 yuan or 50 yuan notes by touching it, like feeling for something. I wonder how they differentiate real and fake notes…hahas



Day 2 - 19.nov.07

Today’s temperature is less than 11c

I suddenly felt very nervous when i first stepped into the school. I wondered what kind of person my buddy is and who will be in the same class as me?! Then, we hastily went to a meeting room to meet our supposed buddy. After this match and meet session, my buddy and I hurried to the assembly ground. Along the way, we chatted for a little while. Her name is 王洁玮。She’s friendly and smiles a lot. I consider myself much more fortunate than the others as my buddy seems really nice to me as compared to the other’s buddy. We communicate well and its kind of fun to be able to attend lessons with her.

• Chemistry lesson
As expected, all information given on chemistry is in Chinese. That includes their assignments and homework. The teacher was teaching the students about the effects of length of tubes on the types of reactions resulted. All was already taught in Secondary 4.rmb? :))

I read my buddy’s textbook and saw a few foreign words which I asked my buddy for its meaning, these are the words:
铵盐 ( ammonium salt)
氨气 (ammonia gas)
硝酸 ( nitric acid )

• Politics (政治)
This sounds very government rite? :) Apparently, this is also one of the subjects which the students dislike the most. Just like how we used to dislike certain subjects hahas =) My buddy was telling me that ‘this is boring’ most of the time! I asked her, what is the mark range for ‘A grade’ their ‘优’, when the teacher mentioned something about them having the need to score well. She told me that their A requires a score of (85-100), 良 (70-84), etc…. Guess we shld count ourselves fortunate since ours only need a score of 70. :S

They have a test this coming Thursday. Once they heard this from the teacher, WA! they have real big reactions; they bang tables and give out loud sounds of unhappiness… Subsequently, when the teacher is distracted by the student’s murmurings, she sort of chastises the student. But after that, it seems like nothing had happen and she smile and laugh with the students.I was quite surprised that she's able to break this stiff atmosphere just with a smile or a joke! She also tries to keep eye contact with them by making the lessons more interactive just by asking questions after she explained certain terms. She also tries to give real life examples to ensure that students understand what she taught.


• English lesson
The teacher is a Chinese-Canadian. He talks about rock and roll music. The past 50’s to 60’s oldies that used to be very popular then by the blacks. He let the students watch some videos abt rock n roll in the past. He also told the students that the blacks are still being discriminated even up til today. He further discussed about the women rights protest. Women regard bra as men. Hence, since they don’t need men for support, they burn their bras to show their unhappiness.This is rather interesting.. I felt.. hahhas.. cause i did not know that women in the past actually did such brave things!

In all, its quite a pleasant trip so far. ^o^ The students just automatically stood up when the teachers asked them questions as we what have heard from our teachers. Only that I realised that they will keep on trying till they have answered correctly; the never-give-up spirit ;) Oh, I made another friend today! She's called 陈娴晶, 洁玮’s buddy.<3



Day 3 - 20.nov.07

As usual, it was freezing cold in the morning. We departed from the Hotel at around 6plus 7 am. Then, we proceed to my buddy’s class for lessons.
We had mathematics as our first lesson of the day. Before that, they had a small test; English listening comprehension. The lesson was on the whole fine. I could comprehend it a little since I had already learnt things about trigonometry. I found out that 求= find as I was looking at their assignment.

After tat, they have a mini-English test on vocabulary. They totally freaked out and panicked a lot. But still, they complete the test quickly. I could see that doing well for English means alot to them even thought they could not understand most of the words and terms.

After English, they have this physical workout at the field where all students and teachers stop lesson to gather at the field for the workout. This is similar to the Singapore’s ester day workout.I took a few videos of it! hahas from the back of course :) Different from Singapore students, the Beijing students do really do these workouts. And from what I saw, they seem to find this normal and familiar with, not something ridiculous to do.And, out of curiosity, I tried doing the workouts too! But, different from them, i think I is 天生同手同脚 :(

Anyway, after the workouts, they have this inter-class tug-of-war competition. The students were really bonded. They showed strong team spirit as they cheered out loud for their fellow classmates. Perhaps we should also include a mini0workout during out school time where all can gather to exercise since we have long school hours. How about that? hahas.. :p

The content of Biology is somewhat similar to what we had learnt in secondary school. Except that they focus on some details which we don’t. Like the details of minerals effect on plant. Their textbook is also much thinner than ours!

As compared to Biology, I guess the students are more interested in physics. They seems to be ore awake and attentive during physics lesson and they are thinking more, As compared to them, we only take 2H2 Science and 1h2 Math. If they were in Singapore, they would be taking 4h2 subjects! can You imagine the whole school filled with 4H2 students?! They have to study real hard and do not have enough sleep during the weekdays, I asked my buddy if they have time to do some window shopping. She gave me a ‘bitter smile plus no’ She told me that during weekdays, they have too many homework to be completed and they could only wait till weekends to shop for items.

I felt so relieve that I'm a Singaporean studying in Singapore!



Day 4 - 21.nov.07

Guys here in China like to hug each other and don’t feel embarrassed touching one another’s butt! To us, this act is a gay-ish or harassment rite?! But here, it’s totally normal! Omg, I can onlt say this our cultural difference.

And today, when the mathematics teacher 'zao-xia', the students, surprisingly, did not laugh at him or make fun of it unlike us. They would have long make a laugh out of it, resulting in the teacher feeling embarrassed. This kind of shows the great amount of respect that the students there gave their teachers. I'm impressed :) hahas..

English lesson was conducted by a Chinese China teacher. To differentiate the choice B and D in the MCQ, she used ‘Bob for choice B and ‘David’ for choice D. At first i was so lost! I was asking around which choice is that since I could not find it on the assignment papaer that the teacher gave us. -_-!!!... ya, I know...Zzz..
But, they spoke English with a slang different from us, they sound more like Americans. And they tend to skip linking words.So, u can't blame me for that... hahas..:))

During PE, we played Taiji Ball game, we learnt Taiji and Taiji with Taiji sword. Even thought I couldn’t coordinate my hands ad legs that well, but I had fun trying to do them and its something enriching and new that I have not tried before in Singapore.I was abit retarded at first hahas!

After that, we went to the pottery factory where we saw how vases are made and the collections of beautiful vases, pottery made. I took some photos there too! hahas.

We then proceed on to dinner at a restaurant that specializes in Beijing packing duck. At first, I thought that the course would include duck skin wrap with cucumber with sauce in circular flour-made pasta like what we had in Singapore. But this Packing duck comes with the meat as well! Still, it’s very delicious.hmmm...yummy!:p

On the way back, during the bus ride back to the Hotel, I saw a few buses passing by. I took a glance at them. cause the journey was real long and slow.. I realised that they have a structure similar to that in Singapore. For example, they have an electronic board on the ceiling that shows the address of the next stop as well as some greetings, of course, all are in Chinese. The passenger seats have mostly one seat. And so far, I have not seen as double-deck bus or long buses there in Beijing! =S

That's all for the first 4 dyas in Beijing :) I'll continue to post more for the rest of the 6 days perhaps a few days later? hahas.. tata :)))

Labels: beijing, lots, love