This morning we went to one of the region which was badly hit by the great earthquake that occurred two years ago. The whole place was a terrible scene, everything was wrecked and badly damaged. I really felt bad, to think of how the people must have suffered when the disaster stuck. Everything was left untouched ever since the incident, and the whole area is marked and preserved as a memorial. Even the time on the clock tower stopped at the time of the incident at 2.28pm sharp. This disaster is really serious and has left a deep scar in the hearts of 四川 people.
We headed back to the campus after the trip and we took a bus to 广汉 for lunch. We spent the entire remainder of the day in 广汉 as the ladies wanted to do pedicure and the guys wanted to go for a massage. When the sun went down, we heading to the karaoke district of 广汉 and we sang to our hearts content together with 云霞! who spent the whole day with us. We sang till about ten plus and we had to head back otherwise 云霞 will be locked out of her dormitory. This will be the last time I will be in 广汉, I am so gonna miss this town.
Tuesday, November 2, 2010
How I wish fun times never end!
The time has come! The common test that we have prepared for finally arrived, right on time in the morning. Well honestly, when I saw everyone's faces, I could see that none of them were in the mood for taking the test. Here is something you can trust me on, taking an academic test on an overseas trip like this is one thing you do not want to do. However, everyone was rejoicing when the test was over. Alas, we can finally let go of this heavy burden and our minds can relax.
After the test, everyone had a quick lunch before heading to the conference room. There, we met up with the directors and teacher for a closing and graduation ceremony. There were a few addresses and messages that were read out and all of them were very meaningful and I felt really thankful to all of them for what they have done for us. We also played our video that we made for all to see. Watching all those photos really flashes back all the times we spent and enjoyed here, it really touched me and made me feel very happy to see all that we have been through. The ceremony was concluded by a short presentation ceremony where we were given a graduation certificate, followed by a formal group photo taken outside the building. We all looked so awesome!
After taking a short break, we headed to this small little retreat venue called 农家乐 where they have loads of facilities there including card rooms, mahjong tables and table tennis! Everyone had fun playing while enjoying dinner and having beer. I wish the fun would continue but nothing lasts forever.... I'm so gonna miss 四川 ...
After the test, everyone had a quick lunch before heading to the conference room. There, we met up with the directors and teacher for a closing and graduation ceremony. There were a few addresses and messages that were read out and all of them were very meaningful and I felt really thankful to all of them for what they have done for us. We also played our video that we made for all to see. Watching all those photos really flashes back all the times we spent and enjoyed here, it really touched me and made me feel very happy to see all that we have been through. The ceremony was concluded by a short presentation ceremony where we were given a graduation certificate, followed by a formal group photo taken outside the building. We all looked so awesome!
After taking a short break, we headed to this small little retreat venue called 农家乐 where they have loads of facilities there including card rooms, mahjong tables and table tennis! Everyone had fun playing while enjoying dinner and having beer. I wish the fun would continue but nothing lasts forever.... I'm so gonna miss 四川 ...
Monday, November 1, 2010
The whole day to myself!
Today was a well utilized day, I managed to do many things and I enjoyed myself. I woke up early today as I got woken up by the others who were heading to 广汉. I chose to stay behind and finish up my outstanding issues. I spent the day finishing up my photo processing and doing up the last bit of my tutorial revision which prepared me for tomorrow's test.
I spent most of the morning till early afternoon doing up the photos and after reviewing all of them, they look awesome! When I was done, it was already mid-afternoon. My tummy was rumbling and I headed downstairs to grab a bite! When I was done, I did my revision and spent some time chatting with the girls who did not go to 广汉 because of Hidayah's injured leg. I realised that sometimes it is better to seek different views from the opposite gender on certain issues in life. They may have a different perspective and can offer a better advice as to always seek advice from the same gender all the time. I headed down to the saloon after that to officially hand over the photo to 天野 and everyone in the shop had a look at the photos. I received positive feedback from all of them which made me very impressed with myself. I also handed to them some new songs to update their music library in their shop's computer, we had so much fun chatting along.
After dinner, I went back to the saloon to have a chat with them as my friends were all busy doing their revision. I brought along the gift which I bought from 峨眉山 that was meant for one of the staff, and all of them persuaded me to wrapped up the present nicely and place a small note inside. I agreed and I went to buy wrapping paper to wrap it up. Surprisingly, the gift was wrapped up nicely and I am proud to say that I wrapped it myself. What an achievement! Haha ...
I spent most of the morning till early afternoon doing up the photos and after reviewing all of them, they look awesome! When I was done, it was already mid-afternoon. My tummy was rumbling and I headed downstairs to grab a bite! When I was done, I did my revision and spent some time chatting with the girls who did not go to 广汉 because of Hidayah's injured leg. I realised that sometimes it is better to seek different views from the opposite gender on certain issues in life. They may have a different perspective and can offer a better advice as to always seek advice from the same gender all the time. I headed down to the saloon after that to officially hand over the photo to 天野 and everyone in the shop had a look at the photos. I received positive feedback from all of them which made me very impressed with myself. I also handed to them some new songs to update their music library in their shop's computer, we had so much fun chatting along.
After dinner, I went back to the saloon to have a chat with them as my friends were all busy doing their revision. I brought along the gift which I bought from 峨眉山 that was meant for one of the staff, and all of them persuaded me to wrapped up the present nicely and place a small note inside. I agreed and I went to buy wrapping paper to wrap it up. Surprisingly, the gift was wrapped up nicely and I am proud to say that I wrapped it myself. What an achievement! Haha ...
Completion of lessons!
Today marks the last lesson of IS and with that we can finally focus on studying for our common test coming up on Friday morning! The lesson was held during the afternoon, therefore I made use of the morning to catch up some sleep. Today's lesson was about Business Etiquette which includes table manners as one of the main sections.
This lesson turned out to be the most boring for me, this is because my family strictly instils a heavy sense of Chinese table manners in me. In the end, it felt as though 李老师 was just taking over my grandpa's place and yabbing the same old stuff to me. Perhaps it would benefit the others who do not know of all these, as this can be useful in the future when we ever do business in China. I spent the remainder of the time processing the photos from yesterday's shoot. Though it promised to hand over the photos today, I told them I would be submitting later as I really wanted to do a good job.
This lesson turned out to be the most boring for me, this is because my family strictly instils a heavy sense of Chinese table manners in me. In the end, it felt as though 李老师 was just taking over my grandpa's place and yabbing the same old stuff to me. Perhaps it would benefit the others who do not know of all these, as this can be useful in the future when we ever do business in China. I spent the remainder of the time processing the photos from yesterday's shoot. Though it promised to hand over the photos today, I told them I would be submitting later as I really wanted to do a good job.
Photoshoot: The China way ...
Today is free and easy!!! Finally, we can do what we want! Okay well, by right we are supposed to stay in our rooms and study, but I doubt any of us actually did. Haha ... Why waste the free time? Well, today was awesome! I did a photoshoot for 天野, one of the hair stylist from the saloon downstairs. On top of that, we took part in a friendly soccer match with the local students.
The photoshoot was a first for the hair stylist as he was keen on making a series with regards to hair styles, but to be done outdoor and not 100% focused on the hair. This is something interesting as most of the time, hair stylist require most if not all of the attention to be on the hair. Seeing this good opportunity, I agreed and offered my assistance. Shooting in a different environment with different people really offer different results. Personally, this is the best shoot I have ever done. The models were amateur but they were very co-operative and very serious about being a model. They had no problems understanding what was required of the shoot, they managed to bring out the pose and the expression which suited the environment very well. I am very impressed with the results. It is the most productive shoot I have done, despite only shooting not many shots. This is because most of the shots were well-taken and few re-takes were needed. I guess this is what we mean but quality over quantity.
After the shoot, we headed back to the campus where I participated in the second half of the football match. I would say we performed fairly well, losing to them only by 1 goal. I enjoyed the short match and I believe everyone played well! Way to go, guys!
After the match, we headed to 小区 to have dinner with 天野 which he invited as a form of gratitude and celebration for the success of the shoot. We had hotpot again, but at a different stall. The food was much better than the previous one we had the other time. Dinner was celebrated over beer and everyone was happy. After dinner, we headed back to our dormitory to process our photos. What an enjoyable day!
The photoshoot was a first for the hair stylist as he was keen on making a series with regards to hair styles, but to be done outdoor and not 100% focused on the hair. This is something interesting as most of the time, hair stylist require most if not all of the attention to be on the hair. Seeing this good opportunity, I agreed and offered my assistance. Shooting in a different environment with different people really offer different results. Personally, this is the best shoot I have ever done. The models were amateur but they were very co-operative and very serious about being a model. They had no problems understanding what was required of the shoot, they managed to bring out the pose and the expression which suited the environment very well. I am very impressed with the results. It is the most productive shoot I have done, despite only shooting not many shots. This is because most of the shots were well-taken and few re-takes were needed. I guess this is what we mean but quality over quantity.
After the shoot, we headed back to the campus where I participated in the second half of the football match. I would say we performed fairly well, losing to them only by 1 goal. I enjoyed the short match and I believe everyone played well! Way to go, guys!
After the match, we headed to 小区 to have dinner with 天野 which he invited as a form of gratitude and celebration for the success of the shoot. We had hotpot again, but at a different stall. The food was much better than the previous one we had the other time. Dinner was celebrated over beer and everyone was happy. After dinner, we headed back to our dormitory to process our photos. What an enjoyable day!
Sunday, October 31, 2010
Who's gonna do your clothes?
What a trip to 乐山 and 峨眉山. Now to look at the current situation, we've got a whole pile of laundry take which has accumulated from the whole of last week and the weekend getaway! So we had to spend some of the time to do up our laundry, with most of the time taken up by hanging up the clothes. Eventually the whole rooftop was filled with our clothes! What a sight! Haha~
Another thing to be happy about is that Hidayah is back! Her leg has recovered enough for her to walk around and attend class, but I am still concerned that the wound is still not 100% healed. Apart from these activities, we spent our time preparing for our common test and our presentation which would be coming up at the end of the week.
On a sad note, we have come to our last week of our stay here. That is making me feel very sad as I really enjoy the place here and I wish that we could at least stay a week longer here. But that unfortunately, is not going to happen. Sigh ...
Another thing to be happy about is that Hidayah is back! Her leg has recovered enough for her to walk around and attend class, but I am still concerned that the wound is still not 100% healed. Apart from these activities, we spent our time preparing for our common test and our presentation which would be coming up at the end of the week.
On a sad note, we have come to our last week of our stay here. That is making me feel very sad as I really enjoy the place here and I wish that we could at least stay a week longer here. But that unfortunately, is not going to happen. Sigh ...
Friday, October 22, 2010
A close encounter with god
Our weekends were burnt by heading out to visit two famous peaks in 四川, 乐山 and 峨眉山. These two peaks are famous for their significance to Buddhism and many people actually visit them to offer prayers.
The first day was spent heading to 乐山. The main attraction for this mountain was a giant Buddha that is craved out of the mountain face, 乐山大佛. The statue is really huge! I mean huge! huge! I have no idea how did man even crave such out such an enormous mountain face, what an amazing feat! However, apart from the giant Buddha, the place had relatively nothing fancy to visit and it was quite a boring trip.
After that, we headed for dinner which was located at the foot of 峨眉山. The meals that day have been terrible, they all taste weird and I totally lost my appetite to eat the whole day. Dinner was settled quickly since no one really enjoyed the food, and we went to catch another Sichuan performance. This performance was similar to the one we caught at Chengdu previously, but some said the performance here was much better, though I do not really see any difference. Checking in to the hotel after the performance brought as to a very weird place. The hotel rooms looked very sleazy and the location of the hotel felt as though that we were in the "red light" district. The bathroom was separated from the beds by a mere piece of frosted glass, how comfortable would our bath be? Anyway, I felt that the day was really boring and we could have better spent the time elsewhere. Perhaps even interacting with the students in school would be more enjoyable than this.
The next morning was totally waking up from the wrong side of bed. The breakfast was very plain and simple with not much of taste in the food. However, when we headed up 峨眉山 after breakfast, it totally brought as a different feel. The journey up to the peak was quite troublesome, having to switch between bus and cable car and having to go on foot. The fun part was when we reached the peak. Up on the peak was a giant gold Buddha statue, shimmering and shining in the sunlight. This presented a very good photo opportunity and it really made the climb up worth it. However, the weather was not very cooperative and the clouds kept rolling in and obscure our view of the statue, making photo taking very difficult. At the peak, I said a few wishes for someone, as I promised to do so and after that we headed down to half-peak for lunch.
Lunch at half-peak was awesome, we had for the first time, FRESH FISH! All previous meals with fish turned out to be not fresh, many of us took the opportunity and clear the dish. After lunch, I picked up a stuff toy for one of the staff at the saloon and we proceeded to take cable car to visit another temple. After that, we headed down 峨眉山 and we went to Chengdu for dinner before returning back to the campus.
The first day was spent heading to 乐山. The main attraction for this mountain was a giant Buddha that is craved out of the mountain face, 乐山大佛. The statue is really huge! I mean huge! huge! I have no idea how did man even crave such out such an enormous mountain face, what an amazing feat! However, apart from the giant Buddha, the place had relatively nothing fancy to visit and it was quite a boring trip.
After that, we headed for dinner which was located at the foot of 峨眉山. The meals that day have been terrible, they all taste weird and I totally lost my appetite to eat the whole day. Dinner was settled quickly since no one really enjoyed the food, and we went to catch another Sichuan performance. This performance was similar to the one we caught at Chengdu previously, but some said the performance here was much better, though I do not really see any difference. Checking in to the hotel after the performance brought as to a very weird place. The hotel rooms looked very sleazy and the location of the hotel felt as though that we were in the "red light" district. The bathroom was separated from the beds by a mere piece of frosted glass, how comfortable would our bath be? Anyway, I felt that the day was really boring and we could have better spent the time elsewhere. Perhaps even interacting with the students in school would be more enjoyable than this.
The next morning was totally waking up from the wrong side of bed. The breakfast was very plain and simple with not much of taste in the food. However, when we headed up 峨眉山 after breakfast, it totally brought as a different feel. The journey up to the peak was quite troublesome, having to switch between bus and cable car and having to go on foot. The fun part was when we reached the peak. Up on the peak was a giant gold Buddha statue, shimmering and shining in the sunlight. This presented a very good photo opportunity and it really made the climb up worth it. However, the weather was not very cooperative and the clouds kept rolling in and obscure our view of the statue, making photo taking very difficult. At the peak, I said a few wishes for someone, as I promised to do so and after that we headed down to half-peak for lunch.
Lunch at half-peak was awesome, we had for the first time, FRESH FISH! All previous meals with fish turned out to be not fresh, many of us took the opportunity and clear the dish. After lunch, I picked up a stuff toy for one of the staff at the saloon and we proceeded to take cable car to visit another temple. After that, we headed down 峨眉山 and we went to Chengdu for dinner before returning back to the campus.
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