Hohohos, it took me so long to post about my China trip because my mum was banning me from the comp. o_O I spent my precious holidays after China trip completing the stupid homework, but oh well... I feel quite relaxed now. If it weren't for the NCO camp I would have 5 days to party...and now it's reduced to 2 to watch 60 episodes of my VCDs. *faints*

CHINA TRIP

Day 1
Note that I haven't been overseas in ages, so when i got to the airport I got kind of lost and it took me quite some time to find everyone (apart from the fact that I was late). And so we boarded the biggy plane and I didn't know how to secure my seatbelt for like... 15 minutes. I was trying to get it on the other way round, by opening up the flap and slotting it through the hole. I had to read the pamphlet in the seat pocket.

And then we flew for 5 hours. We had breakfast - Mee Fun - on the plane and then refreshment was the MOUTH-WATERING, SUPER DELICIOUS open face tuna sandwich. I watched Aquamarine for the second time (because I was so bored and the other movies either hadn't begun yet or I wasn't exactly interested) and played many rounds of the Mario Tetris. There was also a Kirby game where I could draw out my name with the joystick (or whatever the remote was called), which was super cool.

Then we went down the bus, up the plane and to the 4-star Jin Bi Hui Huang Hotel. Fatmah and I were roomates in Room 606, with Louise and Weiting in 602, Joy and Jingting in 601 and Rasyiqah and Renuka in 608. We also befriended Deborah and Eileen from 610 (Sec 3/P).

Then we had to rush to the Qinghuai River boat ride. The scenery was superb, but I was constantly blocked by a pillar, Mrs Lim and Ms Angelina Tan (who had the perfect spot to take all the nice pics) so many of my pics weren't that nice. But who cares about taking piccies when soon after was SHOPPING!

The Qinghuai River was near the Confucius Temple and the Confucius Temple was near WHOLE STREETS OF STORES! And everything was so cheap... Shopping Heaven. I bought mostly small stuff like keychains, pins and snowglobes while some of the other sec 3s got clothes, etc.

We went to eat dinner at a restaurant far, far away from the meeting place and consumed 2 x 2.5 litres bottles of Sprite and Pepsi (Fatmah stuck to Sprite as Pepsi was too sweet). The funny thing there was that they served like, 7 dishes or so before the whole big tub of rice. All of us were UBER FULL by then so we returned the rice. Hohos. Being the clumsy me, I also split water on Jingting (so sorry, JT) and for the next few days I was more careful but similiar incidents nearly occured. -_-"

Oh, and then after more shopping, we went to the Suguo Supermarket near our hotel. They had like, FOUR SHELVES FULL OF THE SAME PRODUCT! o_O And there were many levels, but we didn't have time. We shopped for mainly snacks, and it was really super cheap (food is something easier to compare because the brands and type of product is similiar to Singapore's).

I bought a whole bag of stuff including 2 bars of Cadbury's Chocolate, 1 White Rabbit Sweet Packet, 1 Hi-Chew Candy, 2 large packets of Hershey's Kisses and 3 packets of Coffee and Milk Pocky for only S$10. The first day when I came back to Singapore, I found our stuff so ex! Hahas. xD

Day 2

The morning was rather tiring, but for all the nice scenery it was worth it. We went to the Sun Yat Sen memorial and climbed up 200+ steps all the way to the top. There wasn't really any nice scenery, but the sense of satisfaction was pretty sweet.

We then visited this garden-y thingy, at which we saw some Chinese little boys (with ____ed pants - it's better not for you to know) and girls (who looked and dressed fine, thank you) and some Sec 3s were busy taking pics of them. Hohohos, models at such a young age!

After lunch, it was a visit to the local school, where we presented the principal with our very own Cedar bear. We then explored their school (which is like approx 4-5 times our size, but it is a junior college).

Day 2 wasn't really a happy day... we skipped shopping, but the teachers promised us a big reward on Day 4, so we just kept quiet and hoped it was good...and they announced A WHOLE FREE AND EASY SHOPPING DAY FOR DAY 4 INSTEAD OF THE TRIP TO SUZHOU AS PLANNED EARLIER! WOOTS! It was mainly because the bus trip itself will take 6 hours and it would be uber tiring.

We were told that we had to put up a performance for the old folks the following day and we spent Night 2 planning for the skit at Louise's and Weiting's room. We were digressing a lot, but we managed to come up with a script on how Singapore was born with Raffles and Sang Nila Utama...

Roles
Narrator - Louise
Raffles - Joy
Village Chief - Fatmah
Lion cum Fisherman - Rasyiqah
Sang Nila Utama - Moi
Assistant cum Fisherman - Weiting
Fishermen - Deborah, Eileen, Jingting, Renuka

Day 3

On Day 3 morning, if I'm not mistaken, we had breakfast at a 5-star hotel! There was sushi and lots of other really nice food. It was complimentary from our Tour Guide (which we thanked him by buying tea leaves later on). Yum Yum!

- forgot about what happened after breakfast -
I think we visited this island (oh yes, the island)! We went on this large ship that could store like, 10 cars and us together (which was really a big metal plank that could be steered around) to JiangXin Island. Then we went to the grape vineyard were other than looking at grapes there were obstacle courses.

There was a rocking bridge (lots of people screaming) and a string attached to a plank (where you can put both feet on) followed by a string attached to a wooden cylinder (only enough for one feet) and another one where it was just the string itself (more screaming xD). Then we ate lunch on the island itself.

We proceeded to the old folks home, which was waayyy inside the area (between it and the main door were lots of construction stuff that could have easily caused us to sprain our legs, but luckily we didn't).

Performances
Sec 2 - Singing "Lao Shu Ai Da Mi" a.k.a "Mice Like Rice"
Sec 3 - Founding of Singapore Skit
Sec 4 - Singing many songs (including "Yue Liang Dai Biao Wo De Xin" a.k.a "The Moon Represents My Heart")

After that we went back to the mainland (or maybe we didn't, short-term memory) and visited a car factory. It was both boring and cool to see how a car was pieced up and we went through a short presentation before leaving for... SHOPPING!

This time, it was at a pasam malam cum market sort of place, except it was indoors, with little stores selling jewellery, stationery, ornaments, etc. At first I didn't have the heart to bargain (the stuff were so cheap already) but then everyone nearly fainted when they heard about it and I tried to bargain. The most I went that day was - 6 yuan. *sigh*

THE FIFA WORLD CUP STARTED THAT NIGHT! We all gathered in Rasyiqah's room, watching the match between Germany and Costa Rica and playing Old Maid at the same time. This must be like, the first time I've actually sat down to watch a football match.

Day 4 - SHOPPING DAY!

We went back to the same market-y area as many had said they couldn't get what they wanted. I just bought more random, small stuff. Weiting and Fatmah discovered S$60+ BUCKS GAMEBOYS! *is envious* But then again, even if I bought it, I wouldn't play it that often...but still, WHAT A GREAT BARGAIN!

Then we went to another market-y area (but bigger) and I felt lucky I stayed on the third level (with all the small stuff and paintings and stuffed toys. My favourite purchase was a set of Korean Dolls at 50 yuan each (so Daejanggeum)! Then we went downstairs at 5:30 (meeting time) but Mrs Lim was still manicuring. Hahas.

That night, we watched the match of England and Paraguay in seperate rooms (I watched it alone as Fatmah went to Rasyiqah and Renuka's room) and I CANNOT BELIEVE THE ONLY GOAL WAS A "Wu Long Qiu" (meaning the team hit the ball into their own goal)! So sad for Paraguay!

Day 5

Day 5 wasn't much... we went back to the airport, where I bought a panda on free duty (50 yuan) and nearly wanted to buy a small box of chocolates for 76.50 yuan (I mistook it for 16.50). Then we boarded the plane back to Singapore, with Mrs Lim and Mrs Tan taking the RAFFLES CLASS. This time SIA scattered us all over the place, so many of us were made to sit with different levels and it was so chaotic it was hard to change seats. A poor Sec 2 had to sit with two STRANGERS (guys, at that) and it was the window seat.

I watched Failure to Launch (really nice) and half of Ultraviolet, which wasn't as bad as the reviews stated. There was a storyline and feelings included, not only fighting throughout the entire show though that was what mainly happened.

Arrived at Singapore -- Home Sweet Home.