skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Mood: Groggy 
l Music: Lady Gaga- Telephone
Day 3 started off with the first University visit (中国科学技术大学 - University of Science and Technology of China), which the school appeared to have miscommunication. Even though the school did not appeared to be grand and new like NUS, their research facilities were great. We had some culture exchange with the local students, but there wasn't strong interaction since there was a time limitation. So the visit was pretty much just touring around the school compounds, took pictures, and bought some cheap story books. (many of our physic fanatics bought textbook(s)..TEXTBOOKS!!)
After school visitation, it's free and easy time again!!! This time we were released early and we were asked to settle our own dinner!!! Hence, we (me, xinjie, simin, youyou) went to 女人街 to eat the "楼上小龙包", yes the shop name is "楼上". It's 蟹黄小龙包 was delicious and cheap!! XD~ The soup noodles were average, but it's 炒面(粗冬粉) was nice.
女人街 was not the best place to shop, it's overpriced and fewer shops than 步行街. Hence, we went back to 步行街 and I managed to buy a necklace, 2 pairs of shoes, 1 dress!! XD So, if you ever go to 合肥, remember to shop half a day in 步行街 oh!!! (It's a pretty long stretch of street)
Mood: Sick 
l Music: Lady Gaga - Poker Face
Day 2, we left 苏州 early for 合肥. Youyou and I did not have time to have a proper breakfast so we hurriedly grabbed a meat bun and rushed to the bus. Fortunately, there were left over cheesecake and it became our breakfast and snacks.
After a long ride to 合肥, we went to 包公词 and were shocked by the toilet facilities. (A similar picture, I was too aghast to take a picture of the toilet.)
Other than that, the 包公词 was a pretty scenic place. 包公 was my childhood tv drama, so it was pretty interesting to take a look at his waxes and tomb. The tomb was cold and it made one wonders where did the cool air came from. (spooky~)
There were many engraving, pictures on the wall..I didn't have the time to read it though. When we finally reached the tomb chamber, heads up were the lotus-look-alike-ventilation, up ahead was a stone table and the coffin. The coffin was encased in a special-fine wood sponsored by 包公's descendants. After a tour, we headed out to the Pagoda and took photos. And that pretty much ended our guided tour for the day.
After dinner, the whole group of girls with the led of Youyou, 浩浩荡荡 went to 步行街 to shop. We didn't shop much since it was already late after dinner. I only managed to buy a hair clip for 5 Yuan but the rest of the girls managed to buy shoes and clothes!! *envious!!!*
With that, a late night shopping with the girls marked the end of Day 2.
Mood: Lethargic 
l Music: Immediate Music - Catch the falling sky
It's been awhile since I've blogged, ever since Professional Communication stopped I've stopped blogging to focus my attention towards my final semester. Now that the semester ended, I went to China for my graduation trip.
China Immersion Program 2010, initially, I was not anxious or excited about going to china, just feeling very mellow about it. Perhaps China was not my top choice of traveling destination. But when the day finally arrived to depart Singapore, I felt rather anxious as the plane started to take off.
It's been awhile since I last took an airplane..the last time I took a flight was for my poly graduation trip to Macau and I was tense like a taut bow. This airplane to Shanghai? Was worse, I could feel very tremble and rumble of the engines, the change in altitude and direction, etc. What could be worse than a constant tremor in the plane? There were too much tremor for me to handle, at least there was only 1 tremor warning from the Macau flight. The Shanghai flight was constantly on tremor that I felt like fainting so I grasped tightly onto Youyou's hand for support.
One super embarrassing in the flight was when I started talking to the passenger next to me thinking that he's one of our tour members. I didn't realized until youyou told me that he wasn't one of us. Damn..(=///=)
The services of the China Eastern Airline wasn't good, their attitudes towards passengers were rather rude as compared to Singapore Airline. For a 5 hours flight, their services were bearable.
When we finally arrived at Pu Dong Airport, our tour guide led us to 苏州. The temperature in Shanghai was cooling, a nice get away from a hot country like Singapore. We arrived 苏州定园宾馆 in the evening just shy of dinner time. Once we settled down into our beautiful, antique-ambient hotel we went to fill our stomach. The food was average, more of vegetables than meats. The fish was fresh even though the bones were terrifying lots.
After dinner, we headed out to the streets for a late stroll and shopping. Unfortunately, my buddy Youyou (aka 妩媚娘 in the latter days of the trip) couldn't go with us. The whole 33 of us went out together and somehow got separated from each other. I moved in a smaller group with Magdaline, Jovin, Xinjie and Simin through the night market. Took some pictures and bought a pair of len-less spectacle for 7yuan!! After that we went back to the hotel and almost got hit by a motorcycle!!! The people there are so ruthless, aren't afraid of knocking people or cars at all!!! It's really dangerous crossing the road in China if you don't have a Chinese friend leading you across.
After a bad scare from the road, we wandered our way back to the hotel and Youyou's cousins gave me a surprise. Well, not really a surprise..except that there were too many unknown people in my room and was calmed by a delicious cheese cake from 85 Degree~!
After eating cheese cake, we went to rest for the night until in the middle of night, a bunch of noisy Chinese people gathered in the corridors waking everyone up.
And, CHIP officially began.
