Continuing.

Day 3

Well, the morning isn't exactly the best one in all my trips to China. Woke up with a throbbing headache. Here's what I felt then, that my brain actually had it's own inertia, and is pretty heavy. No, not that I'm smart, it's just an imagination thing. When I sat upright, my brain seemed to bump onto the back of my skull, the first ouch. It happened again and again when I moved my head left and right, and then I decided that I'm not in the right place to wake up just yet, so I slump back down into my bed.

Luckily, I woke up almost half an hour before the wake up call, still have time to coax myself up, telling myself that it's just another bad morning. With a heavy head and a painful headache, I got myself up and washed up, preparing to go down for breakfast with ShengPeng. When we got down, we reported and being honest with myself, I raised my hand when the teachers asked who is not feeling well. I felt just a bit better when I saw that I wasn't alone, about 10 other people seemed to know what I went through.

Then it was breakfast. I really lost my entire appetite to eat. That headache throbs my entire appetite down the hill, and that feeling that I'm going to throw up increases that effect. Well, in the end, thanks to ChianLim. I was forced to eat tasteless and plain porridge, and a bowl of soya bean milk. Guess I really needed that for the 3 and a half hour bus ride to Bai Shui Tai later that morning after breakfast. Thanks ChianLim.

Anyway, after breakfast, I still feel the same, if not worse. But all the while, I pushed myself to do the logistics tasks. Well, plainly because I felt that I belong to the team, that's why I began to shift the luggage behind the counters, and help Weiming(since his arm is fractured) stack up the luggage to conserve space. Halfway through my work, someone from log comm pushed me aside, asking me to go rest. I've forgotten who that person is, but I think I could've swore and curse at the person then, but afterwards, guess it's really nice of that person to do that all in the spirit of teamwork.

Throughout the bus ride, with a good sleep, I recovered quite significantly from the headache, and became talkative again. Well, throughout the bus ride, some are sleeping since they've taken motion sickness pills or just plain resting, some are looking out the windows, and admiring the scenery. It's gorgeous and breathtaking. Mountains with snow caps, endless ranges and snow covered roadsides isn't what you would see in the sunny island of Singapore. I would've posted some photos, if I could get my hands on some, that is. Well, about 3 hours into the ride, bus 2 punctured a tyre, and we stopped for a while. Together with MingHor, ZiLiang and some others, we took our first nature call at a bend out of view of the others, and voila, relieved ourselves of that load within us.

Okay, back to the trip. We did not met with much obstacles coming after that puncture, and arrived at the hotel soon. Well, I got down the bus and found out I'm rooming with ZiLiang and ShengPeng, in a wooden room, with 3 beds and electric blankets, but no toilets. Once we stepped out of our rooms, we saw Mr Ng, and he told us that our toilet is right outside the front door, in nature itself. That's darn cool. Another fascinating thing is that tissue papers aren't allowed to be thrown into the toilet bowls of room units which have toilets. Totally awed.

Soon, we had our lunch, and then we proceeded to SiZhong to interact with the students. I was grouped together in the twelveth and last group, together with Clara, SiYun, ZhongRu, Aishah, Farhana and Diana. After meeting my fellow groupmates, we walked together to SiZhong. When we're walking towards the school, about 200metres from the gate, we saw the students on both the left and right side of the road, in single file and looking at us with curious eyes. They're clapping and shouting, "HuanYin HuanYin, ReLeiHuanYin!!" Which means, "Welcome Welcome, Joyous Welcomes!!" We're stunned, and I personally is shocked at their spontaneous reactions towards us. The lines of students go all the way into their compound, leading us to a newly built canteen area which is to be officially opened together with Mr Owyong. The place is called "YuChuTing", translated to be "Jurong Junior College Hall". I think it's to commemorate the past students who actually visited the students there.

After the opening, we headed up to the classroom we're designated to, and interacted with he bubbly students. I was not very much involved in the front, but I was helping this girl communicate with a particular student named YangChunLan at the back. Well, all in all, we taught them some songs and cheers, and then, we gathered downstairs for a picture and cheered somemore before we left to rest at the hotel, and to have our dinner. I didn't rest wrote much of the interaction, plainly because it's an experience you can't possibly describe to another using words or pictures. It's an experience which can't be shared even through a person who witnessed it first hand.

After dinner, we headed back to the school, and we danced with them, and for them as well. We performed "Oh my Darling", and I danced with Ashley. After that, we had their traditional dances around the campfire. It seemed neverending, and at times, tiring and restless. The steps keep repeating, me and ZhongRu were with a group of male students from our class, who's following a faster tempo than the girls. We had a fun time trying to figure out thr rhythm and dance steps of the different dances. But after it ended, we really can't bear to part even though it's a boring dance. We can't bear to part with the students, not the dances. I spoke up for the first time in Mandarin, and I actually addressed the class as a whole in Mandarin!! My god, I felt like it's the only thing I could do since I can't sing, dancing then would be meaningless. So I told them some stuff, and then we sang some songs and parted, we sang songs like "PengYou" and their songs "BieZaiJinQiu", ending the night at an emotional high.

We then headed back to the hotel, with my handphone torchlights armed and activated. Some of us actually have night-blindness and I can't imagine how serious it is till I saw ZiLiang being led by ChengXun in the dark. He's practically.... BLIND!!

Anyway, we headed for a debrief in the canteen area, where we got a sort of scolding from Mr Chua, which is about the timing to meet and some people taking photos after the time we're supposed to meet. Well, we had a log comm meeting with Mr Chua, and then a GenX informal meeting with Mr Ng, before I actually go to sleep. It's very cold at night there, due to the lack of cloud cover basically, and I was locked out of my own room since ZiLiang and ShengPeng hasn't returned, so I went over to XinYun and Sameema's room for a short conversation before I actually headed back to my room. That night, the stars are very very bright, but not as nice as the time I went to Riau Islands for the Geography trip in 2005. Anyway, I saw the constellation Scorpio again, though I'm a Piscean.

Blog again soon, but Sunburst tomorrow!!