Writing this just after I woke up (am having breakfast while typing this post). I can’t believe it, the first dream that I can recall in Wuhan is about me attending Aoi’s (the GazettE) wedding…?
DAV lesson in the morning, covering types of microphones used in videography and steps to prepare an interview and (hopefully) make it a successful one, including much pressing of our assignments. Suddenly, the trip seems like it’s going to end in two weeks’ time.
Shizuka wanted to go visit the local bookstore, so Christina volunteered to accompany her there since she thought that no one wanted to go along. I happened to overhear snippets of the conversation, so I told them two that I’ll be following, not without asking whether anyone else from 1M04 wants to tag along too. Managed to get a bunch of them and off we went at past 12:30pm.
We stopped by Teddy’s Kitchen for lunch, the twelve of us (including both teachers). The theme is basically around teddy bears, which accompany every table while the patrons have their meals. Cute…? I ordered a mushroom personal pizza and a cup of cappuccino, which was horrendous (the beverage, not the food). Sorry, I forgot to take a picture of the pizza in its teddy-shaped pan due to my hunger.
These two (plus another couple behind) were placed by the window seats. A tad too tight.
I haven't found a good cup of cappuccino with pretty foam in Wuhan yet.
So we apparently overshot on our way to the bookstore by more than 200 metres. It’s spans four stories and I only explored two of them, but I heard that one of the floors is entirely dedicated to school materials. There certainly are a lot of people who love to read, as they litter the place with a book in hand (sitting in between the aisles) or browsing the shelves. We found their stash of manga-related items and most of them are guide books on how to draw. Not that I’m scoffing at the thought since I also bought a couple of helpful titles… Total cost: SGD12, give or take SGD0.50.
Left to right: Perspective and model drawing
To prepare for our 3 days 2 nights trip to the Three Gorges Dam, we popped by a local supermarket to get some ‘groceries’ as suggested by the tour leader himself. Huh. One interesting item I bought to try was tea-flavoured Sprite, and it actually tastes better than it seems! Imagine Sprite with a hint of Yeo’s jasmine green tea and there you have it, Sprite + tea.
Better than it seems! *Chugs*
On the way out, I spotted this:
Tupperware store!
My first time laying eyes on one. I just couldn’t resist the urge. Back in Singapore, you have to have connections with the dealers to purchase them!
Till the next post.
The temperature plummeted and I woke up to a chilly corridor when I went over to my classmates’ room to have breakfast. According to my room mate, the total difference in temperature is around ten degrees. Today also happened to be the Mid-Autumn Festival, which in China is a public holiday. This means no lessons and a trip downtown being arranged. However, I went against the idea of heading out due to the winds, hence became one of the only few (I think) to stay back at the dorm.
They left around 10.30 am, which left me roughly ten hours of solitude. Basically, I spent this time gaming and catching up on my TV shows. Lunch was… non-existent (thanks to the rain) while dinner was settled with instant rice.
One of the interesting things of being overseas: walking around their local supermarkets and seeing what they have on sale. Their selection of instant food is a lot more than Singapore’s, and one that caught my eye was this! I bought this days back and only had it just now. It does not smell like rice, yet tastes like it, and the side dish (beef curry) is pretty good. I might consider getting one back to Singapore, including some of the exotic potato chips flavours that I spot in the market.
Without more nonsense, photo dump!
How to prepare:
I want to try their other flavours too. Till the next post!
This day was mostly spent traveling by air, and boy was it tiring in the end! I don’t think I got jet lag though. Here’s what happened after I said my good-byes and passed through the gates: Strolled through the stores selling duty-free items and ended up at BK with the rest of the group. They had their takeouts, then we made our way to the departure halls. Upon locating the correct gate, we checked-in, which involved removing jacket, waist pouch, taking my laptop out of my carry-on and putting all these in plastic bins and sending them all through the machine. Then putting them all back on with people behind you getting their stuff too. (HURK. Gotta-Be-Quick!) Followed the people ahead of me to the aircraft, stuffed my bag in the overhead compartment and took my seat (I got a window seat thanks to Isaac!).
Take-off can be summarised in one word: surreal. Pushed into your seat by inertia then this ‘lifting’ feeling you get from taking a lift to a very high storey follows, and you’re in the air! Pressure differences set in and I hastily start to get rid of the blockage in my ear canals. The scenery is likened to a geography textbook to me. Sleepiness decided to invade me then and I took a fitful nap on the plane.
Airline meals arrive halfway into the 4-hour flight. Some simple fare to fill your stomach, but due to my blocked nose I could barely taste a thing… Managed to finish almost everything, then continued on my nap, until the announcement came around informing us that the plane will be landing soon. It was just a little while after this that my body decided to make me feel queasy, causing to make a conscious effort to force my meal in while looking out to see how landing is like. I missed it completely though, save for the bump when the plane touched down. Got my luggage then proceeded to China customs, which took a long time… then went to the baggage carousel to collect my checked-in bag. We then went on to transfer to a domestic flight and checked in our bags before going around for lunch.
I had something really simple to appease my stomach and not upset it at the same time – tuna sandwiches. They’re warm! Took a look around their local version of Guardians (which I think, according to Jim, is under the same company) and noticed that they sell Pocari Sweat at 3.9 RMB *rage*.
However, our flight got delayed by 2 and a half hours, which resulted in us waiting outside the gate for at least 3 hours since we went in early. Dinner was provided by the airline, followed by boarding, but even then, we still had to wait for the air control to clear our plane for take off. Slept well into the one hour plus flight and managed to keep myself awake during the landing.
Got off the plane in one of those staircases to a waiting bus to take us to the airport. Collected our luggage then moved towards where our ride was parked at. So the trip took one and half hour to reach our dorm, which was fine by me since it gave me time to have a look around the night life of Wuhan.
It’s a dusty place alright, and the pedestrian crossing offers no protection to walking civilians. Imagine a zebra crossing in the middle of the highway at peak hours, and the motorists really love to blare their horns and basically don’t give much regards to not bang into a civilian crossing a small road.
Our dorms are really more than I expected, albeit basic. Hey, at least our modern amenities are accounted for. Shifted my clothes around the room (should have brought the clothes hangers), bathed (should have brought toilet paper, thank goodness Nicole had some) then crashed. I was that tired…
And that concludes the recap. Look out for the next post!
