Monday, September 20, 2010

Day 7 – A week in Wuhan – 在武汉一周

Day 7

Today is already my 7th day here in Wuhan. How time flies without me realizing! I am serious about it, you know. In Wuhan, time seems to pass by faster. Maybe it’s because I am preoccupied with stuff and had a busy week last week. I always seem to lost track of time. Anyway, today is quite a fun day as we spent time interacting with the local students at the other campus (the new one); we are staying at the old campus. Right now, Jas Min, Geena and I are discussing about the presentation due on Wednesday and blogging.

7.30am

I woke up and for the first time I felt that I am fully awake since I slept at 12am yesterday, which was very early for me as compared to the past few days when I only went to sleep at 1 or 2 am.

8.30am

OIE lecture started. Today’s lecture is on Contemporary Chinese Political System and Economic Environment. Another boring lecture again. After what seemed like hours, we finally had a break. As usual, almost every head was on the table and the classroom was super quiet. 10 to 15 minutes later, we resumed the lecture.

The boring lecture

Me eating oreo (shh!)

11am

At last, the lecture ended and we headed for lunch. We went to the small canteen first but it was very crowded. As the food there did not suit our taste buds, Jas Min, Hidayah, Dr Lau and I went to the big one. Again, we did not like the food so Jas Min, Hidayah and I decided to go out of the campus to the street to find food.

11.30am

We ended up in the muslim shop and we ordered. 15 minutes later, all our food arrived and we started eating. Mine was 鸡蛋炒饭 (egg fried rice) and it was okay except it was a bit salty.

鸡蛋炒饭 (egg fried rice)

12.15pm

We walked back to our dormitory room and while walking, Jas Min and I ate 小笼包 that we packet earlier. 5 minutes later, we reached our room and the air conditioning was what we wanted after being out in the hot sun just now.

12.45pm

We gathered at the entrance of our study block and waited for the bus. 10 minutes later, we set off to the new campus. It was an hour plus journey and most people were asleep. Hidayah and I chatted and it was at 1.50pm when I started feeling sleepy. I was woken up 20 minutes as we had reached the new campus.

Hidayah and I on the bus:)

The new WUST campus!

2.20pm

We visited the medical college of WUST first and were warmly welcomed by the students. We took a group photo at the entrance and then we were led to the specimen display hall. All the specimens are real and I am really fascinated by the deformed fetuses aborted in the womb. It really makes me wonder why and how these fetuses became deformed, etc. Here are some photos (if you find them gross, please scroll downwards till you see text again. To view more, please go to my photo album.)

Deformed fetus

Conjoined twins

Brainless fetus

3pm

We were then led to a classroom for interaction activities. Each representative from both side introduced themselves and their country and for us, Letty is our representative. After the presentation, we were split into 4 groups to come up with a short performance. We, including a few local students brainstormed for ideas. In the end, we did a short “Nobody” dance. It was like… hmm… so paiseh since I had no idea how to do the actions.

We were each given water, mooncake and banana:)

My group doing the "Nobody" dance and I was behind:)

An hour later…

We played game! Actually, only 10 local students and 10 of us played and of course I am not one of them, haha J But still, it was great to chill out and have some fun with them J

4.20pm

We were told to board the bus to go to the library but Hidayah and I wanted to walk with the local students so we walked and Dr. Lau joined us. I was so glad that I made this choice as it allowed me to interact with them and ask questions. Anne, the local student who I spoke to, answered my question on why there were people marching, etc. She told me that they are all year 1 students who just enrolled this September. Over here at China, as long as you are a year 1 university student and no matter which university you enroll to, you are required to undergo this military training (they called it: 军训). This is to help them become more perseverance and even girls are not spared. To us, it can be known as freshmen orientation but this one in China is more tedious and there is no fun element in it.

4.25pm

We reached the library 5 minutes later. It is super big! Much more bigger than most of the public libraries in Singapore! Again, we took a group photo at the entrance and then we were led to the 校史馆 (school history museum). The guide introduced us to how WUST was first started and how it had changed over the years (WUST has 100 + years of history!) At 5.15pm, we set off to the school canteen for dinner and I bought 香菇蟹柳盖饭 (mushroom crabstick over rice) and shared it with Hidayah as the serving was quite big and I could not finish it on my own. At 6.10pm, we departed for our dormitory and on the way, I slept. At last, we were back at the dormitory at 7.30pm J

The library

While waiting to depart for dinner

Reflections:

I really learnt a lot of things today. One thing that I learnt is their education system. Like Singapore’s, it starts with 6 years of primary school. After which, it is followed by 6 years of secondary (the first 3 years are secondary school and the next 3 years are high school). Next, it is the university. For the medical students here, they have to study for 5 years, if I remembered correctly. That’s like super long! Anne told me that she was surprised that my mandarin is quite good. I was flattened, haha J But she was not wrong. I couldn’t say that my mandarin is fantastic but at least I am quite good and comfortable at speaking it. Maybe that’s because I am used to speaking mandarin to my family members J

Photo of the day:

Military Training!

More exciting stories are yet to come:)

Get ready for Day 8 post:)

27 more days before I return home:)

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