whee...back from a super duper long blogging hiatus... firstly, PW is over!!! ;D so yippee... but lots of yucky hols HW to start and finish!!! so boo... so quick update on my life: 1) went for Apollo fac event Reverse 2) went for 79 class bbq 3) had lots of soccer prac during the hols 4) and the main highlight of the blogpost today is... myOCIP trip to NANJING, FUJIAN!!! anyway the trip was from 14 to 24 Nov... and the main aim was to assist in some construction in a pri sch in nanjing, fujian (NOT the rape of nanjing-nanjing...) plus teaching of simple english and selected sports basics to the kids in the school... so since i cant go into the full details in this post (details of the full 11 days would take a few hours to type? ;D), i will just mention some highlights and some of my thoughts...
1) the kids in the school, Chang Jiao Primary School, were super enthusiastic and welcoming, both in mixing with a whole group of strangers who descended en masse on their school and into their lives, as well as learning new stuff... 2) their stamina and energy were boundless and are far more than ours...seriously, just seeing them running and jumping and just plain moving is tiring enough...the amount of food they eat though is not enough to fuel that energy... 3) the construction work was not as tough as i expected...it was quite an experience, in that, i found out that, if you work with a group of good friends, chatting, gossiping and singing (yes, singing...) while you work, it'll make the work seem more fun ;D so yep, i kinda enjoyed the construction... 4) the food there is quite ok, life-substaining :p i didnt mind the veggies coz there were fresh and nicely cooked...oh i love the fried fish we had for two of all the meals we had in the school! ;D and the dou jiang in the morning for breakfast 5) the toilet there required getting used to...the saying ignorance is bliss really applies there, coz it's better not to know what's there... :P 6) bathing at night is freezing so you had to bathe super quick...better to bathe in the noon if possible... 7) we slept on wooden bunks, but thought they were hard, being physically tired helps you go to sleep quickly ;D 8) i love the chatting and snacking and playing of cards at night with my roomies and neighbours...seriously, one of the special moments there ;) 9) i really really really love the kids there 10) i love the experience at the hot springs in xiamen ;) there was a curry pool, a coffee one, pineapple, ginger tea, milk, lemon and wine...sadly didnt managed to try the wine one, but the curry one was an experience coz it wasnt really the type of curry we ate but curry leaves soaked in the pool ;) i personally loved the lemon, milk and pineapple one...really felt like a queen soaking in all those pools ;) 11) shopping in xiamen is considerably cheap, though it's a prosperous town... 12) food in nanjing is super duper cheap...love all the goodies i had there ;) especially the jelly or guo dong ;) 13) the tuluos ( it's a special architechtural structure, which is unique to the houses in that part of china and it's a UN acknowledged heritage site) were special coz they are totally...special...you cant get to see round houses anywhere else... plus the people who loved there are super proud of their homes despite the somewhat squalid conditions in the tuluos... or interesting fact: people who lived in the same tuluos, who may not be related to each other, all have the same surnames...cool right ;)
14) this is special coz i TOTALLY LOVED THE SHOOTING STAR AND FIREWORKS THAT I SAW THERE...THEY WERE BEAUTIFUL! the shooting star was seen on the day the school had a blackout and the whole group of us went stargazing...the fireworks were bought and set off by us and more were set off by the villagers to celebrate some temple event, all on the night before our departure from the school...beautiful... ;)
ok, so that's kinda all...i had this aching feeling for a few days after i got back here, coz i really missed the kind of life i had there with the kids and the people in OCIP Nanjing...sigh...but i'm really really REALLY glad i went for this trip ;)
6:06 AM, Lotsa of lots
RHYTHM OF THE SHOE
Rules:
CHOCOLATE
my fellow shoe-wearers ;p
SHOE-INFO
Owner of THE shoes
Name: QY
B.O.D: 02/09/91
School: dun mention it
Mail: U NOE IT