*~ Never Give Up ~*

Thank you, Donovan and James (for helping me with this blog)
Jess, my sister (for beta-reading)
Thanks Donovan for showing me how to upload pictures
Thanks James for asking from a friend how to upload videos

Saturday, June 27, 2009

Yo Im back 11:21 PM

YO yo people, its been a utterly long time since I blog due to countless probs and the trip to

China

. Before I start, its gonna be a very very long post, the longest post ever (sry De yuan, having to make u read so much, u can choose not to). So just to warn u, read it on your free time :)
1^st day – Wednesday

We arrived at the airport at 8.30pm. my grandpa fetched us there. We were waiting for Han and Nancy (another family). They were the only family coming along including our cousins (another other family, lol!) yes, I have many cousins, haha. Saw Han’s children. One of them, Bryan… very ‘sun bian(anyhow)’ one say. He just comes and whack my shoulder, wth and ask my name. well seems like he’s very sociable then. My and cousins and my family went to Macs. The breakfast was awesome, but small. We didn’t actually wait long for the plane. The flight was 4.5 hrs. I only slept for an hour and I couldn’t sleep anymore, sian* :( so I had to toss and turn, turn and look around for 3 plus hours. Talk a lot of crap with zack until we land. The temp was about 26C and we reached Chengdu at 3.10pm. cos the announcement says so.

Now comes the troubling part, we were suppose to get to Garden City Hotel. Then the lady told me there were 2 Garden City Hotels, what the crap. Whos the lady I don’t care but which hotel to go to. Omg. so my uncle, Tony and Han gotta ask a lot of people, even the taxi drivers, haha. But down there, its no laughing issue. Joshua (my baby cousin, the young one) is super energetic. He runs around us and as u know, children are normally very hyper and attention seekers. But im ok with that… for the moment. So uncle tony help us get a cab to one Garden City Hotel, when we got there, we faster check the counter to comfirm if we were at the right place or not, haha.

Great-ness! We were all different levels. Han and Nancy got the 20^th storey. Tony and his family were on the 13 lvl and we were on the 21th lvl. I was guessing it was a 3-star hotel. The room was okay except for the TV, I was hoping for more channels, haha. After a while, we explore around the around and had dinner at a Japanese restaurant. Dam forgotten the name. the food didn’t exactly taste as good, I only liked the deep fried stuff. Then we shop for a while.

When we came back, we were all tired. We got word that we gotta wake up very early the next day. Did devotion time and tug ourselves. The moment I lie on bed, I slept. Its only the beginning…

at the airport

in the plane

outside the plane

finding the hotel

at the hotel

what we had for dinner, some japanese food.

2^nd day – Thursday

Today is a very tiring day. Firstly, we had to wake up at 5am. Bathe, change, do whatever things then leave the room by 6am. I slept like 11plus cos I was watching ‘‘Are you smarter than a 5^th grader?’’ whoa, that show looked pretty retarded man. Anyway, we took a cab to the airport. We were heading for Xining. When we got there, it was superbly packed, omg. I think we Q for the tickets for about 30 min.

When we went through the scanner, my mum and Tony was called out. It appears that my mum got brandy and Tony had a pocket knife. Omg! when mum scan the brandy in Singapore, it was okay. The china people had to take knife away. Gosh, that was Tony Swiss knife, dam sad man. Then the brandy had to go through a lot of scans. Finally, they say it was approved. What a waste of time! The flight was also delayed. I didn’t know cos I was a asleep before the plane took off. Only my mum told me. We had a vegetarian burger. The lettuce tasted awful but the rest tasted okay.

We arrived at Xining at 10am. The temp was 20C and its 2500 feet above sea level. So chance are, we may have heavy breathing. The first thing is to find for the hotel. Its Minority Hotel. Luckily, its only one of a kind, if u know what I mean, haha. U guess which hotel is better? This one is… NOT. The good news is han and we all were on the same floor. The bad news is, the TV cant work. There are no hangers in the toilets. the air cons are not even installed. Crap man. This hotel so sucked!

So we had lunch. It was marvelous. We had this Hor Fun. I tell u, this owns every Hor Fun noodles in Singapore. We even order a second round. Then we walked to the
Centre. It’s the ETC International Learning Centre. Its there when we direct our play. We were supposed to teach eng as well as make the lesson interesting. We move tables and chairs to suit the play. Really tiring. We also plan on what to buy and etc. since there is an Open House on Sat, we must plan even more games. Had a long discussion with the adults. I always see teachers doing the work and carrying out the lessons. Now, its our turn to ‘become’ the teachers. I was right. Seeing and doing are two very different things. Afterwards, we head for dinner. We wanted to eat some Western food but it was under construction. Awww… dam sad. So we ate Chinese food again. My mum and one of my cousins went to the hotel cos my mum wasn’t feeling well. The fried rice was super salty la! I know Ive been exposed to salty food but that was wayyy too much :(

Then something unexpected happened. It started raining. Omg! I thought it was only a drizzle but then it rained like Xiao! Crap! How we go back to the hotel? We stayed in the restaurant for the rain to lessen. I think the temp was about 15-16C. when we got back, there was a blackout. The lift couldn’t work so we took the stairs instead. Whoa, freaking scary. The lights even turn on and off. After devotion time, we got to bed early, well not so early. But I must admit, it’s a very tiring day.

at the airport

getting the cab

cool scenery

i should have said cheese when i took this

at the hotel

in the hotel

out in the streets

heading to the Centre

lovely flowers

in the Centre

blackout

blackout!!

3^rd day – Friday

Today is the day. A very big yet small day. At evening, we are gonna start our show to the children. The problem is we cant talk fast and we have to translate English to Chinese if they don’t understand. The children are 8-14 years old. My bro never talked to a class before and my sis never led a class before. So in simple terms, its one heck of a challenge. We woke up slight later, around 9. apparently, Tony bought breakfast for us. Very kind of him. After eating, we head out to the Centre. Now, we gotta set up the things required. Before that, we played Monopoly with Joshua. Then we went to the Mosque. It is said that once it reaches 1 o clock. Many people are gonna gather at the Mosque to pray. Some can even kneel down wherever they are and pray. We saw a child about 9 also going there. He told us it starts at 1.30pm. if no space, the people will pray outside the Mosque. When we arrived there, wooo. I tell u, I was stone to my feet. Outside the mosque, there was a long stretch of people just kneeling down, praying. The whole pathway was occupied by them. I can even see people kneeling at the road cos there was no space on the pathway. Its crazy. Ive never seen anything like it. they just bend down and pray and nothing is gonna stop them. I got a video on it. we went for lunch.

After lunch, we went to the Centre to prepare the final plan. My sis, zack and I were just confirming the issue on the show. Then a Qn struck me. If my sis ask the children to sit in a group, where do they sit? The floor or the chairs? So we quickly arrange the tables and chairs and moved some out. It was rushing here and there. At 7pm, it was the moment we had all been waiting for. One of the most crucial moments of my life. I thought we were handling 15 children but the numbers rose to above 20. my sis took one group. Zack the other group and me the last. Apparently, Joshua is also in my group. So he will keep on disturbing me. The good thing is out of all the groups, my group is the only group with 14 year olds and they are girls. There are no boys that are 14. my team was supposedly the best but was not.

Then we played Imitation game aka Copycat. The game is very simple. Just imitate the other. tried to pull my team up but we lost. The other teams were a draw. Aww. But no worries, we still got Sunday’s class, haha! Then class end, we gotta arrnge the tables and chairs again to prepare for the Carnival. The Open House Carnival. Normally, im the person playing the games and eating the food. But now, im the person organizing the games and preparing the food. Its havoc man. Gotta carry this, carry that. Move this and that.

We slept pretty late cos we prepare until 11 plus. We gotta wake up at 8 tmr and rushed to the Centre. Its gonna be another tiring day. But look on the bright side, at least I got a chance to lead a team. Yay!

outside the Mosque

see this?

Video at the Mosque

4^th day – Saturday

Alright now! Today is the most important day of this week. Today is Open House Carnival. I got plenty of things to say. Actually, we woke up by 7. we reached the Centre at 8 plus. I only had Milo for breakfast. We quickly set up everything. By 9, people start to come in and shit! I haven’t finish writing the scores for my game, the food is not finished and tickets for the food and games were not ready. WTC man. More people are asking ,’are the games ready?’ gosh, what to tell them?

Dam pai say la. When the people are ready and they waited for us, the organizers. I gotta rush here, rush there. 10 am… and the people are waiting. Freak! We are alr late. But around 10.10am. the announcement was made, the tickets were given out and we were ready to start.

Now comes the tiring part, for my game. Its called ‘Hit the Cans’. Basically, you get 2 balls and u knock down the cans. Very simple and easy. The more u knock, the more points u get. But whos gonna pick up the fallen cans? ME LA OF COURSE! The carnival suppose to end by 5. now imagine this… u gotta collect game tickets from the people, give them the balls, see them knock down the cans, give them the ticket points, then pick up the fallen cans and the cycle repeats itself. Do that from 10 to 5. you’ll will die man!

You’ll feel like dying after 2 hrs. not la, just kidding, haha. But seriously, its really tiring. I thought it was gonna end, actually, only 2 hrs have past. Fortunately, some young teenagers, both girl and boy, came to help me pick up the cans. They were really kind :) Appreciated it tons. I only have a half hour break to eat lunch. After that, I gotta continue. Zack help me out when I was eating. So nice to see many kind souls in that place even though, there were some irritants that anyhow knock cans out and just laugh. didn’t wanna scold them. Luckily, some adults helped me. Saw many friends form the Friday class. Apparently, they liked my game too. When the carnival end, I was alr dead tired. So I kinda gave up managing my game and went to play Swap with some teenagers. It was very fun! I think I won about 3 times. Woohoo! Another friends, luke was also helping out at the carnival. He was a nice person. He followed us for dinner along with his roommate, Abral. We went to a place like KFC. Down there, we ordered some burgers. They tasted awesome! Then I teasted some freaking nice soup but when I wanna order again, I ordered wrongly. But wth, the another soups still tasted good. We went to the hotel and went to bed. Today was an extremely tiring day. Im gonna have cramps tmr.

this is my game, Hit the Cans

look at the crowd

i got a Queue, cool!

awesome tasteful soup, yay!

5^th day - Sunday

Another important day. Woke up at 9, got ready by 9.45. it’s the last lesson at the Centre. We ate porridge for breakfast. It tasted so blend, omg. gotta add a lot of sugar and other ingredients too. After breakfast, we’re going up the mountains for sight-seeing. We took an electric trishaw up. It was very bumby but nonetheless, still exciting, haha.

When we reached the hill top, I noticed one thing. Im smoking! When we breathe out, we see ‘smoke’. Haha. Means to say, the place is super cold. I was really shivering. I couldn’t even feel my hands when I was taking photos. At the top, we gotta climb more stairs, omg. my legs were all cramped alr. But we saw many cool things up there. The scenery is breath-taking. And the flowers were colourful and beautiful.

We stayed for a while, enjoying this once in lifetime view. We saw the ground cracked, like an earthquake struck the place. took a trishaw down again. Its not that bumby cos the driver didn’t wanna hit the humps.we went for steamboat restaurant. Woohoo!! I never had one since the start of the year. I love the beef there, tasted very nice. Then we had some sticky noodles which looked like Hor Fun. Its nice cos it tasted sweet unlike plain Kway Teow. We went for shopping. Felt happy and sad at the same time. Cos I didn’t like shooping but I love to shop when I need something. It’s hard to explain. We were supposed to shop for 1 hr but we surpassed it. so we had to rush to the centre.

When we got there, we alr saw some of our friends there. But we wont late. There were some new people too. One of my friends, Linda, brought her bro along. Didn’t wanna break them up so I let him join our group. More strangers came and crap! Everything is all mixed up. Some people form my group go to the other groups and people from the other groups came to me.

Luckily, I got the 14 year old girls, haha. The smarty ones are with me, lol! I can tell u one thing overall. It was a freaking miracle! Its when u can dwell on the phrase, ‘‘the first will be the last and the last first’’. Cos that really happen to me. Whaaaaa! I felt freaking happy ah! The first game is complicated so I wont say it. the second game was Whispers. Means we whisper a message to the first person, the message is then passed down and the last person have to tell us what the message was. A very simple game which requires cooperation. We swap groups at first. This is what made my day so fun and funny.

I told the first boy, ‘ the boy is handsome and the girl is pretty’ he scratches his head. I giggled and told him again. He still scratches his head again. The 2rd time also the same. I laugh. Then a girl took over his position. I told the girl. The girl told the boy. The boy still scratch his head. By then, I alr start laughing my head off. I didn’t allow them to cheat and wait for the results. Then the last boy told me, ‘ the boy is very blur blur blur-blur’. I laughed dam loud. Then Abral came to me. I told him everything. He also burst out laughing. Told zack too. He also laugh like mad. Then my team stared at me. I look at them then laugh again. Whoa, cant stop laughing man, hahaha.

Since the teenage girls cooperate very well, we got full marks twice. This really pulled up our overall. So we got first!! Wow! First, we were last. Now we were first. This so rocks man! At the end, we got 63 points. Second was zack with 51 points and third my sis with 49 points. I love my team.

For my guy friends who are so interested in girls, I got something to say. Not all of them are pretty, only 1 or 2. I never ask for their number cos duh, im in China. And no, I didn’t take a pic with them.

Played monopoly with my sis, zack and Joshua. After playing, we were suppose to put the tables and chairs back to the original place. while packing half-way, I remembered… this was the last day at the Centre. I took some quiet time to myself. I recalled the things I have done at the Centre. The truth is, im really gonna miss all of them, the place, the people. What are they to me? They are just memories in my mind, flashbacks in my life. But these flashback are the ones that I wont forget for a long long time. I know no one could give me a chance to lead a class except God alone. He was the only one who can give me miracles. This is one day I wont forget… dam, I type a lot on this.

on the electric trishaw

empty road

cool view

i see the city

beautiful flowers

at the top

the ground cracked

we had steamboat!!

im gonna miss this place

miss this one too...

6^th day – Monday

Today is sight-seeing day. We are going high up to the mountains. We were gonna see wonderful nature and learn to love them. Woke up early and took a cab. Zack and me are always late, omg. why? Cos im always writing this journal of mine. Good news is that, we didn’t miss the cab. The ride was 1.5 hrs. Joshua is beside me. Means to say, I’ll never get peace. Joshua always ask me Qns and ask me why. Its never ending. Thankfully, his parents are beside him too. What to do? He’s my baby cousin with no other siblings. So to say, me and zack are his favourite fans.

First we head up the mountains side. The scenery is magnificent man! U can practically see the whole landscape of the mountains. I saw Yaks. Then Han was calling them Yucks. Haha. So mean. The china people were telling us if we wanna take a pic of the Yaks, we gotta pay. WTC. But im very good at candid shots so I managed to get pic of them without paying. We didn’t stay long cos it was cold.

Back in the cab, ate some food and Joshua asked me more random Qns. Then we visited Yak Meat Centre. Down there, there were a lot of Yaks meat. Some tasted okay while other were Yucks. Still, nothing compared to Singapore. We got a lot of samples so we just take and eat, haha. Then we head for the Lake Side.

However, one person costs like 100 bucks. Means one person cost S$20 plus. So its not worth it and we went to another place to take a pic of the lake. At that place, we had a expensive lunch cos the place was meant for tourists. Saw amny animals fur too. Dam shocking. They really skin the animal. To look at the fur, I cant imagine how hurtful the animal will feel. So I didn’t buy any. The last destination is the Sand.

Down there, we saw camels and lotta sand. My sis and zack played in the Sand slide. It looked super fun. It was super fun but I didn’t go cos I was taking a video of them but not on my handphone. We went to a petrol station toilet. Whoa, the best! We never expected that toilet to be so clean. It beats every toilet places that we went to, lol!! For dinner, we had Dim Sum. Yippee! I love it! but the food aint as good as Singapore ones but its stil good. Its still the best dinner yet. We diudnt do devotion time and zack I went for a haircut. Omg! I was planning a haircut by end of june. Well, my hair looked so stupid after the cutl. The only thing good is… at least its real cheap, about $2.

on the way there

see the landscape, whoa.... haha

a Yak

animal fur

more furs

the lake

lake side

at the Sand place

camels!!

the petrol station, thats Han with my bro

cool eh?

im only gonna say this once and only once... i look good in black and blue, lol!

cool style locker

in a unique cab

see the cab?

we're all set

awesome locker scene

7^th day – Tuesday

Ohhh… the last day in Xining. Zack and I packed our luggage and got ready. This time, we weren’t late. Im really gonna miss this place. I even hug one of the staff at the Centre. Abral told me I will never know who I have impacted back at the Centre. It really touches me. Words are just words but they hold countless meanings in them. He told me that the children will also miss us all. As what Han said, All ends well. We all never thought things can actually turn out so great. Thousand thanks to God.

We took the same cab from yesterday to the airport. When we got there, the place looked so empty. Very unexpected. we went to a coffee store. The coffee cost 47 bucks, S$10. freaking expensive! We got word that out flight was delayed from 10.30am to 11. when we got to the Departure hall, it was only 10. Han was telling us about his life.

He was right. There are many things in life that we’ve missed. We can never stop learning, we can never stop. Even when we die, we learnt about feeling of death. But examination, competitions and hw… it destroys the joy of learning. Thye joy comes with interest and a want to learn. If competition and exams are made, then whats point of learning. It only makes us selfish. Unknowingly and unconditionally, we will become selfish, especially in a competition. With a want to win, people cannot accept a losing place. people normally go their own way. I mean if u wanna go ur own way, its fine. But u don’t have to rebuke the other right? I say my opinion, u say yours. There’s no need to compare who has a better ans. Becos people are so caught up in thinking theyre right, no one listens to the other and thus, we become selfish unknowingly. Men create society, men blames society. So the hardest thing to say is still… sorry. U get a leader to say that, it’s a miracle. We waited till 10.30. then the announcement said that we gotta till 12. WTH. So gotta wait longer. Cant even sleep cos Joshua kept disturbing me by whacking the chairs. Was feeling increasingly restless. It was gonna be 12 and we still couldn’t go in. it appears that there is some technical prob. The people are also getting restless. Minutes felt like hrs, hence the phrase, ‘time has Stopped’. The announcement said we would received lunch at 1 o clock. Tony went to but cup noodles. Soon, the rest followed. Never knew our luck is so bad. We received lunch at 1. after 5 min, the plane was ready to fly off. WTC man! At first, we got so much time. Now, we got no time. Gotta rushed through lunch. We arrived at Chengdu at about 3. due to the delay, we miss many things. We want to see the panda zoo but couldn’t. gotta see it tmr. Went to Garden City Hotel. Got interested in Final Destination 2 cos it was uncensored, haha. So they showed all the gore. We ate at KFC. Han, Nancy, zack and I wento to shop for videos but didn’t find much. Back in the hotel, I was quite sad cos the good movies shown on TV was after midnight. Awww…

at the airport

we were so restless. the flight was 10.30. now look at the time...

the people are restless too

at Chengdu

KFC

Mosquito

Last day – Wednesday

Last day in China. Im coming back to Singapore. We had breakfast at the hotel. Wha! Best breakfast throughout this trip. Maybe becos we’re in a hotel, haha. I ate a lot. Went to packed luggage. We went to the Panda zoo. So cool man! Cant wait. We took an hr to get there.

When we got there, we saw the map of the place. shit! We need 5 hrs to walk around the whole place. we only got 1.5 hrs. the shortcut is 3 hrs. we are lacking time. So we took tram up and made our way down. The pandas cant stay outdoor cos of high temp so they are kept inside. Plus, pandas have thick fur. When I saw them, I was like, 'SO CUTE!’ seriously, they looked real adorable. Theyre like black-white furs moving around. Took many pic and some videos. I even bought stuff toys of pandas.

Saw spiders but I took them with another camera. Half-way we got lost. I check the map. We were close to the entrance but I don’t know where to go. I walked down then saw a road leading up. I thought I was lost. So we took a tram out. When the tram reach up, we saw the entrance. What the… I should have just gone up. Now we paid the tram 100 bucks, so its about $20 plus. We were early by 20 min so we bought some panda t-shirts. Then we went for lunch.

We ate lunch about 1km form the airport. Can u believe that? Anyway, lunch was pretty good. The vegetables tasted like Singapore, perhaps better. At the airport, at the departure hall, my mum and sis get to go to the business class lounge. There they brought back chocolates and coke. Omg, I wanna go too, haha. In the plane, we got the business class, the priority class. Means we got special entrance, lol! As the plane leave, I could see flashbacks coming to my mind. Its like in the movies. Im gonna miss the whole trip. I told Tony if I can still come back to help out at the Centre. He’s still considering.

I miss all my friends too. I miss them all loads. I wanna go out with them when I get back. Hope they are free, haha.

two colours. oil and blue water. looks cool man!

panda

oh so cute!!

pandas eating

going home

all set. good bye China.

panda scene 1

panda scene 2

PS: Fun Facts

No. of words = 4500 words and counting. 6 pages of Microsoft word (omg)

Time taken to complete the post = 8 hrs

Days to complete the post = 1_ morning, whole afternoon and night

Time to read finish this post = about 40 min, seriously.

Current mood = happy and tired

Pic and video = about 83 pictures and 5 videos

Memorable moments = move round the panda zoo, Open House carnival, Sunday class with the youngsters, at the Sand place.

If u wanna know how I remember all this, simple, I wrote them down in a journal. Trust me, it was 12 pages long. Well, hope u enjoyed your stay in this post, haha, Cya!

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Name: Samuel lee
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