16th day - 23/03/11

Day 16. It a Wednesday today. So again, APPG lesson at 8.30am and then later we had IS lesson today. We learn about how to do business in China. So the guy who came to talk to us is the same guy as last time who talks to us about the economy of China. We learnt about how the company of other countries will greet each other and also how they entertainment each other while signing a contract. Also we learn some of the taboo that we shouldn’t do in front of them. Through this session, I learnt a lot and this will come to use in the future if I were to do business.

Then after the lesson, we continue with our APPG again. So that we can finish in time and have enough time to revise for the last test. I just hope that all the tests can get over and done soon so that we will be enjoy our time here going shopping and touring around.

Also it’s been a while since I last skype with my family members because my sister laptop sound system got problems and she cannot skype with me.Hopefully her laptop faster recovered and we can skype again.:D

15th day - 22/03/11

Day 15 today. The day where we had our APPG theory test 1. So how I find the test? I think the test was okay for me, but there one question I can’t do and the last question I am not sure whether I get correct or wrong. Then after the test we order KFC delivery for lunch. The KFC here is a bit different from Singapore. They have rice set meal in KFC. Then we went off for a tour to the Tianjin bin hai zhong xin, ECO-city. We took a 1hr plus ride all the way there, but we are not allowed to get down and visit. So then our bus took a U-turn and we headed back to the hotel.

When back to the hotel, we will be free all the way until it is time for row call, so we rest in the hotel for awhile and headed out for dinner at the place where we had our dinner for the first day. We order some very nice dishes, and the fish there is still the best and the freshest so far we had been in Tianjin.It just taste so wonderful. Hmm, guess I shall stop here. Remember to read my posts again.

14th day - 21/03/11

Day 14, Monday. It another new week. Left two more weeks and we will be back in Singapore. I will definitely miss everything that happened here when we go back. Okay, we had our APPG lesson in the morning which starts at 8.30am as usual. Then we had our lunch back at the hotel eating cup noodles. Then we headed back to the class for our IS class by the lecturer here. This time round I really think I learnt a lot from the IS class because we are learning about the Chinese philosophy.
Here are some of the things I learnt.

-Don’t compare or envy other people because everyone has their own strength and weakness. Everyone should have our own life and live it to the fullest.

-If you already have your own opinion and persistent about it. You are stopping others advice and point of view about you. Just like a tea cup and you kept pouring and it the tea will eventually flow out when it is full which the same is like you had our mind full of your own ideas.

-Don’t think about the past neither nor the future, treasure the moment that you experience now.

- When you start to state facts or say others, reflect on yourself first because your beliefs might be wrong in the first place.

-When the matter comes, face it with your heart. When the matter past, don’t think of it anymore. Don’t get affect by those matters that haven’t happened or already happened.

-Don’t waste resources: every little thing have their own uses and make full use of it.

-Human always expect returns in whatever effort put in and complains over every little thing, we should learn to be more appreciative.

So after the Chinese lesson I really feel that I learn a lot and all this will make be become a better person. :D And after the lesson, we went back to the hotel because the weather is too cold to do our self study on APPG so as to prepare ourselves for the theory test 1 tomorrow. Then we just had our role call at 10pm. Had a lot of laughter and fun in Mr Tan room everytime when we share about what we had learnt for the day and all this just make me recall what had happened over the day. So today was the day where we change our target to encourage. I don’t know if I mention before that each of us had a person we need to encourage to everyday. And so coincidentally the person whom I wrote to for the past few days, which is Jia Wei and he wrote to me too. HAHAH! That’s was really funny. But anyways we had a lot of fun today during the row call and I guess I shall just end here. Will post again!

12th day - 19/03/11

Day 12. It is Saturday today. We planned to go Beijing initially but because we worried of the time constraint, we decided to go 洋货市场 (yang huo shi chang) to have a look. So we took a bus to the main train station which I forgot what the name is, and we took the train all the way to Tang Gu. What I find this cute about the train ticket is that it is a chip kind and every station have different colours. When we reach there we are advice not to buy anything from the street stall because all the owners are ganged up and they might do things like murder and robbing. As we can see that they are not locals also. We then went around to shop but to all of us, that place doesn’t suits us as the things sell over there is like example torch lights, swiss knife and all kinds of knifes and etc. That why we all decided to go back to the hotel while some want to go滨江道 (bin jiang dao) to exchange something.
Yesterday night we already decided to go KTV to have some fun. So we went to the KTV which is like 3 or 2 bus stops away from our hotel. We had a lot of fun over there and it is very cheap over here. We had already decided to go again with Mr Tan and Mr Chua. After the KTV, we had our row call in the lobby to summaries what we learnt or experience through the day. So, what everyone knows is that one of our friends lost his wallet in the day, and what we had learnt is that we need to really keep a lookout for our belongings because another friend was almost pick pocketed when boarding the bus but lucky he managed to find out. This is what we need to be careful about. Also another matter is that one of our friends almost gets molested on the bus by some uncle who is sitting behind her. He was stretching his hand over the the front to try to touch her. Lucky she manages to realize fast and turn back to talk to the friend behind and that uncle just move off. So again, we must know how to protect ourselves and keep ourselves safe in a place when we are not familiar with. With this, I shall end my post here. :D

11th day - 18/03/11

It's day 11! Today is special because we got programs for us! So we had APPG lesson in the morning followed by lunch. Today lunch was great, we had the fried beehoon by the street and it taste real awesome! So after lunch we plan to meet at 12.45pm at one of the building in school and we took the public bus to a place called "天津紫砂会馆" (tianjing zi sha hui guan). We went there to learn more about the tea culture and there is a demo on how to make the tea and serve plus all the rules and stuff. Not just that, we get to try to make the tea ourselves also. It was my first time doing that and it was a really great experience. Through this session, it makes me love drinking tea even more so i bought another small pack of tie guan yin and a modern tea cup or pot where i can boil and make the tea.
It's day 11! Today is special because we got programs for us! So we had APPG lesson in the morning followed by lunch. Today lunch was great, we had the fried beehoon by the street and it taste real awesome! So after lunch we plan to meet at 12.45pm at one of the building in school and we took the public bus to a place called "天津紫砂会馆" (tianjing zi sha hui guan). We went there to learn more about the tea culture and there is a demo on how to make the tea and serve plus all the rules and stuff. Not just that, we get to try to make the tea ourselves also. It was my first time doing that and it was a really great experience. Through this session, it makes me love drinking tea even more so i bought another small pack of tie guan yin and a modern tea cup or pot where i can boil and make the tea.
Then after the tea session, we decided to go 滨江道 (bin jiang dao) again to shop. There has been the place that we had been going so often because they were a lot of things to shop there. On the way to the bus stop that can lead to滨江道, we coincidentally met a small group of Singaporeans! They heard us speaking English and came to talk to a group of us. They were also students from engineering courses but they were from Singapore Polytechnic to come here to study for 6 weeks. So we stayed there and chat with them for quite awhile and we took a lot of pictures with them. The feeling is just so nice when you met people from the same hometown as you, it just make you feel very heartwarming and I myself really enjoying the chatting with them. Plus it is hard to find Singaporeans in Tianjin here what is more, they are around the same age as us. Hopefully we might be able to find them on FaceBook. HAHAHAH!!
With then, we proceed to 滨江道. I also realize that Tianjin people are so friendly that they can just chat with the person next to them which they don’t know. I had a nice experience chatting with all the Tianjin people while taking the bus and going around shopping. And today, I did feel I buy quite a number of stuff and still we need to control our finance because we are still going to Beijing and I heard that the things that are also very cheap and nice. Then we went to have our light dinner at the food street in 滨江道 and we had a lot of fun laughing. Even on the way back by bus, we were having a lot fun with lots of laughter. I guess I will really miss all this memories when I go back to Singapore. So far, I am still not missing my bed and feel okay about not having my family members with me here. OK~ it’s quite late, and I shall end my post here. Memories do stays~

10th day - 17/03/11

Day 10 today. Nothing special actually happened today. In the morning, we had our APPG lesson until lunch time. For lunch, I and Ai jing went to a halal dumpling stall at the back alley just opposite our hotel. We heard from our classmates who went to try it before that it was nice that why we went to buy and try. We bought 250g of mutton fillings and another 250g of vegetables one. They really taste nice but I prefer the mutton fillings one because I am not a person who like vegetables. I then took a short nap with my roommates in our room and then headed back to school to continue our lesson on APPG.
As for dinner, I and my roommates ate cup noodles in the room because we feel it was too cold to go out and after that we just relax in the room until we had the tutorial session down here at the lobby where I am now. The lobby was seriously a nice place to study and we even got to enjoy free classical musics while studying. I guess I shall end here since we are heading up to the room soon. :D

9th day - 16/03/11

It’s Wednesday (day 9). Again, the weather was very cold. So as usual, we had APPG lesson in the morning but today was special cause the whole day of lesson end at 12pm which is we only had APPG lesson plus there is no tutorial session. Only had role call at 10pm. So after the APPG lesson at 12pm, we decided to go out and have some fun. We wanted to go the 洋货市场(yang huo shi chang) in the first place, but after asking around, it will took us around 2 hours to go there and due to the time limit, we changed the venue to 步行街(bu xing jie) which is somewhere very near 滨江道(bin jiang dao). When we reach there, I manage to buy one formal shirt and we saw the tram that we wanted to take that time. So this time round, there was not much people over there because it is a weekday, we took the tram all the way to the ending point. It is a fun and cold experience as in Singapore you won’t get to find this. The shopping street in Singapore wasn’t that long either.

Then we reach the end point, we saw one steamboat stall and we had our lunch there. It was kind of cute that they don’t put their ingredients on our table, but on other shelves that was given to us. That was a really nice and cheap meal (comparing the price we had in Singapore). And after lunch, that was when the shopping starts again, but I did not buy anymore things other than the formal shirt. We then took cab back from there back to the hotel due to the crowd.

This time round, the experience wasn’t that nice. The driver seems to be quite rude and made us quite unhappy with him. When we ask him to keep left as we need to make a turn later ahead and he told us off saying “when need to turn then tell me, don’t later tell me and then no need to turn” and when my friend was waiting for the rest of the change which is 40 cents because he wasn’t happy with the driver attitude, the uncle actually said “40 cents you also want”. My friend was unhappy, so when he got down he slams the door. And during our role call just now, we were told that we should just let it off and don’t hold against them even though we are right because this is not our country. So this is one of the lessons learnt today. And with this, I shall end the post! SEE YA!

8th day - 15/03/11

It’s Tuesday and it is the day 8. We have been here for around 1 week already. Wake up in the morning and it was 3 degrees! Very very cold! The wind was very strong that I can feel my scarf is like flying off~ Today was a bit special cause there is no IS class and we were having APPG the whole day. So for lunch, again we had Mac delivery in the hotel while watching movie (DU LA LA). Then later went back to the school for lesson all the way till 5pm and then we went back to the hotel and then decided to go to the Vanguard Supermarket which we never been before and it is a 2 storey supermarket which is quite big.

Over at the supermarket I realize, though is does not only happen in the supermarket only but also in the pharmacy that whenever you want to buy something, they would write a receipt for you and ask you to pay first before they pass you the things that you want to buy. From this what I think is they don’t really trust their own people. This is what I had learnt today. So after the shopping is done, we went back to the BBQ food stall by the side of an alley and the food there is just so awesome. All of us love it and what I think is that the food by the street is somehow nicer that the food in restaurants. Then again, went back to the hotel lobby for some tutorial session of APPG and follow by the role call and again I am in my room blogging ~ :D will post again tomorrow!

7th day - 14/03/11

It is Monday! Almost a week has passed since we reach Tianjin. The temperature also dropped and it was very cold as the wind is strong also. Today, the routine is back again~ APPG lesson at 8.30 am in the morning and then lunch break den have the Chinese lesson from 1.30 to 3 plus and today we had a economy lesson on the economics of Tianjin where we had a speaker from outside to tell us more about the economics. To be frank, I think that lesson wasn’t interesting. It was too dry for me and I don’t really like it. After the lesson, Gary and his group stayed back to interview him for the IS project while the rest of us went back first.

We then went to the bakery HAO LI LAI again to buy some bread and we take a walk in the back alley. There were many foods selling down there. I went to one stall and tried the BBQ squid and it was very nice but too spicy for me to finish up everything. And next to that stall, there is a BBQ stall where u choose your own food that u want to be cooked and let them cook for you. I tried the mutton so-called satay, sassage and the chicken wings. The chicken wing is super tasty and I really love it. We had a very good chat with the owner, chatting about Singapore and Tianjin. I really think that Tianjin people are very friendly people because they can chat with you even though you don’t know them and I think it is good, a not bad interaction. Then we went back to the hotel after buying our stuff from the smaller supermarket. And again, after working on APPG for awhile, we had a meeting and then here I am again, in my room and blogging here. See you guys in my next post! :D

6th day - 13/03/11

Day 6 today, a free and easy day today. So before hand, we already inform our china buddies and there is like 5 of them bringing us to go the 滨江道 (Bin Jiang Dao) to shop and have a tour around over there. So we took bus and it’s a double-decker bus. Again, the bus ride is crowded and bumpy. Some of us get to sit at the top deck but I was down at the bottom deck with one of the china buddy named 陆洋 (LuYang) and I had a good chat with her about her life in Tianjin and of course our lifestyle in Singapore. Once we reach the stop, there a lot of people alighting with us too, so from this u will know that the people here like to go滨江道 a lot because the whole place is full of people! We went to the Catholic Church over there to take a look inside. It was very nice inside just like those shown on TV. Then we split into groups to do our shopping. I realize a new thing over there which is they have a tiny tram to take you from one end to the other end of the street and is like only 3 RMB for one trip.

Throughout the whole shopping trip I had been trying to find a boots or nice shoes that I can buy and I realize that out of so many shoes I tried, I still can’t get any shoes that I am able to wear comfortably, which means my feet size is too big. I am so sad!! Hahaha!! So after shopping the whole day, all of us decided to take cab back to the hotel because the place there is seriously too crowded le. It was the first time we took a cab here and it was cool! There is like rows of bars between the driver and the back seat passengers. From what I heard, it is to protect the driver from getting attacked from the passengers. Then we had a meeting at night and then we went back to our room. Guess I shall end here and go to sleep.

5th day - 12/03/11

HELLO EVERYONE!!! It’s day 5 and it is a Saturday!! As the teacher had already mentioned the day before, it will be a free and easy day today. A day for us to explore around Tianjin. Me and my roommate Rachel was sleeping in Ai jing and Kristabel’s room yesterday and today when we wake up, we had a lot of laughter cause I went to prank call the rest and end up make a mistake and called Mr Tan. We were all laughing like crazy in the room and when it was 10.10 me and Rachel went up to our room to prepare ourselves to go out and we meet the rest 10.30 in the lobby.

After much discussion, we decided to make 南市食品街 (nan shi shi ping jie) our first stop. So the whole group of 19 of us makes our way to the bus stop nearby and took bus number 829 to go there. It was the first time we took the bus transport here in Tianjin and somemore it’s on our own! The bus was crowded and all of us just squeeze up the bus and I was feeling warm in the bus cause too crowded. Plus the weather today not say very cold either. When we reach the南市食品街 we took some photos and went in. There were so many foods down there and all look very delicious. We went to buy and try some of the foods there and it was nice! I also then buy a box of Tie Guai Yin (a kind of tea) from there also. Took many pictures from there.

Then after all the eating and looking around, we move on to 古文化街 (gu wen hua jie). I must seriously say I love the building and atmosphere there! It is super super nice!! Buy quite some stuff there also. Chopsticks souvenirs, a nice looking bag for my mum and sunglasses for me. Really enjoy shopping and looking around the place. I even had my portrait drawn by a guy but it does not look totally alike like me~ but it is a nice experience because in Singapore it is quite expensive but here is okay~ can afford it. Really hope to have a chance to go there again and take even more pictures.

By then, it was around evening already, so we decided to have PizzaHut for dinner and then to Carrefour to buy some necessary items and then head back to hotel. Thus I am now in my room after having the role call in Mr Tan’s room~

4th day - 11/03/11

It’s day 4 today that we are in China! As usual, wake up in the morning and reach school at 8.30am for our APPG lesson and then lunch break. We order MAC delivery for the first time in China and they deliver all the way up to our hotel door. The food was like the only food that only taste exactly the same as Singapore one. And follow by having a Chinese lesson with a new china teacher whom we met for the first time. Some of us were late for his lesson and I think this should not happen again because we don’t want to be disrespectful. So for his lesson, he show us a movie named Go LALA GO. By showing this movie, he make the whole lesson so interesting that those who don’t like Chinese also enjoy the movie. I had learnt that a Chinese lesson can be so interesting instead of just kept studying and studying.

Then after the Chinese lesson, we had a very very interesting and skillful lesson. PAPER CUTTING!! The teacher is famous as he appeared on CCTV before. We not just get to learn about how to do paper cutting, we also get to see how they do the Chinese knots and also the Chinese character painting with the drawing of the birds, fish and others. The whole thing is really interesting and we all love it. Took a lot of photos of the things that we learnt and I am much appreciated that he came to our school to teach us all this along with two student who are deaf but one of them can talk and hear due to the hearing aid. If time allows, I would hope to learn more from them.

After that we went back to the hotel for dinner. We decided to go down to the café just below our hotel. The last time we went there it was not open but this time it is! So we went to order and had our meal and guess who I saw! I SAW MY CHINA BUDDY FU FENG!!! She came over to say hi and what’s best is that she is working over there!! So had a good chat with her and we decided to go out with her on Sunday asking her to bring us out for shopping!!! Hahahah!! Love her man! She is just such a sweet and nice girl. Just like a big sister to me!

So after dinner, we went back to the school for our night class for APPG tutorial. Had a lot of fun during the lesson and also before the class. There are so many jokes that make me laugh until my stomach cramp. I am just so happy that I am able to come all the way here with this bunch of funny and nice friends. It would be so memorable for me! Also we got our assignment for IS so we got to start working on it. Seriously, I am being to love more and more being in Tianjin even though it is cold so I experience a lot and I really do have a lot of fun! Okay tomorrow will be a free and easy day~ so we decided to go explore around. I shall end here for now then. :D shall post again!

3rd day - 10/03/11

HELLO everyone!!! It's me again!!! Hahaha!! Okay it's the third day that we are in Tianjin, the weather is still very very cold here especially when there is wind. Today we had our first lesson of APPG in the university taught by Mr Chua. So we did our lab and we finished Chapter 1 of APPG. Then we went for lunch break at 11.30 a.m and had our lunch at the halal restaurant in the campus, the food there is nice that it was the second time we went back for the food there.

So after our lunch we went back to the classroom to have our first IS lesson with the china lecturer over here. We are taught the cultures in Tianjin, some of the most famous places of interest like the Tianta (television tower), the food of Tianjin and dinning etiquette. We also get to know some of the Chinese terms that they use here which is different from the one we normally speak. So as we learn, we take note of all the things and like for the places of interest we asked her how to go and where they are so that when we have free time, we can go take a look. She also show us a lot of their food in Tianjin examples like you tiao with soya drink. And I think the most important and the most useful is the time where she talks about the dinning etiquette. I really learn a lot from this topic cause before I came to China, I didn’t know that they have the seat of order and dish order when having a meal with guest as a host or being the guest attending a dinner. We are also taught the way of being polite in front of people. I think this is important because all this might be useful if we were needed to attend a business dinner next time in the future when we come China for work.

So after the powerpoint slides, we were shown a video of a guy who make a speech on his story and the dreams of China. I find the video interesting because it was summarize in 5 years, which is the 1968 – the year he was born, 1978 – the year he was 10, 1988 – when he was 20 years old, 1998 – he was 30 years old and lastly 2008 – when he was 40 years old and the year where Beijing Olympics was held. From the video of his, I learnt a lot. It helps me with the learning of the history of China and what happened during the past 40 years and the guy is also humorous. I think it is very good that the teacher show us the video.

By the time the video ended, it time to end class too. We had Thir and aliff to share about their Malay culture first before we head out for dinner in the campus. After dinner, some of us wanted to buy stuff from the supermarket and ended up we saw a lot of people walking ahead and we realize there is a night market. All of us were really happy that we are able to shop because all of us are girls. AHAHAHAH!! We bought the same sweater and decided to wear it together.Then we proceed to the supermarket and pharmacy to buy our stuff and head back. On the way back, we decided to walk the alley as there are some streets food. We bought some fruits and went to another stall, Both the stall owners asked if we are KOREANS! Hahaha!! And this is not the first time that we are mistaken as Koreans. And after sharing this with Mr Tan, I then realize it is because we are near a place where there are many Chinese Koreans.

Hmmm, I guess I shall end here and hope that all of you enjoy reading my posts! Will post again!

2nd day - 09/03/11

HELLO!!! It's the second day today~ Wake up early in the morning, and went to explore around and had mac for breakfast. Then went to Tianjin University of Technology for the first time. After introduction from the local teachers, we had a lunch break and then back to the university again~ That was when we met our buddies from china!!! Had a fun interaction with them. My buddy is a female and her name is Wang Fu Feng. She is one of the friendliest people that i had ever met. I had an interaction time with her for about 5 minutes and we chat about a lot of stuff. I asked her about the studies here and she said that in Singapore we called it polytechnic, but here they called it Zhong Zuan. She also asked me what i am interested in knowing about Tianjin and i told her i want to know more about their culture, tradition, student life, nice food, shopping areas and places of interest. She gave me a lot of information and she even initiate of bringing me and the rest to shop during weekends. I don't find any age gap or communication problem with her even though she is like a few years older than me because we two can really hit it off. Then after the interaction, we had a tour around the school. We even bought the sweet food here known as the bing tang hu lu to try but we prefer the strawberry one. Hahaha!!
Of course, not just her, i met many of the students also who is buddies to my friends. They are really nice people too~ We even follow a few of them to go for lunch and they helped us to order the food and we really enjoyed it! The food suit our taste. I also chat with them about a lot of stuff about Singapore cause they are really interested too~ And i did make a mistake by telling them that Singapore fuel is 1litre - $40 plus dollars~ i will have to clear up with them someday~ HAHAH!!
We then went back to the hotel and we got our phone card for us to call one another if needed. Then we had some meeting and here i am blogging. So what i feel that it was a wonderful day that we get to know a lot of new friends but also at the same time, i think we need to have a sense of responsibility, in a way that we need to inform our teachers where we are going or where are we cause it is important. So hope that everyone will take note and we can make life easier for the teachers and at the same time have a lot of fun!! :D

1st day - 08/03/11

Hello everyone!! Today is the first day that we set off from Singapore to Tianjin which includes a transfer flight from Guangzhou to Tianjin.

All of us wake up early and met at Changi Airport around 5.30am with an excited mind and heart. So starting from the flight to Guangzhou, everything was fine just that we don't get the luxury of the small screen that we always get in Singapore airline. We took the China airline this time round but overall were okay. When we touch down at Guangzhou, we went for a meal and that when we notice the food difference from Singapore and there. To me the food has the taste but they are just too oily for us. A lot of us cannot take it and we can't manage to finish the food. Of course that a incident that i must post!

We waited at the wrong place to transfer our flight from Guangzhou to Tianjin. We are suppose to board the plane by 3.30pm ended up we have to run all the way from the wrong waiting place to the correct boarding gate. By then it was already 4pm. I think we have just run almost throughout the whole airport. All of us were panting like crazy but lucky, the plane waited for us. Thanks to us, the flight got delayed by 30 mins.

After that, we reach Tianjin safety. The temperature was 6 degree Celsius when we touchdown and all of us were freezing, but we did enjoy the whole climate cause we don't get to experience all this in Singapore. So we went straight to the hotel before heading for dinner at some restaurant near our hotel. The food was great! And it was cheap also. Also, there one thing from here that is different from Singapore! Which is the way of traffic, so when we cross, we have to look to our left and then right when we are here.

I think that is all i shall post today~ hope to have a better day tomorrow!!

First post!

Hello!!! First post on this blog. Had already created a QQ account and this blog for this trip~Hope everything goes well :) And of course! The weather over there wont be so cold~