Day 33, today is the 3^rd of April, journal is going to end, I think I will miss writing journal when this trip is over. My roommates and I have decided not to go to for today and tomorrow’s outing as we were too tired. We have decided to start early on our presentation so that we will have more time in editing the slides and making it look better. I started on doing the individual report first before starting our presentation, I spent the whole day doing the report as I have quite a number of difficulties in doing the report. We spent the whole day in our room other than going out to get lunch and dinner, suddenly felt that the whole corridor was very quiet, as most people went for the trip. I felt that time here flies very fast, we are left with almost 1 week back to Singapore. I think I will be missing the weather here, so cooling and windy.

Day 32, today is the 2^nd April 2010. We went out early in the morning for shopping at 光谷步行街 again! Instead of taking bus there, we took a type vehicle called the 面包车. It is like a small van, capable of sitting about 7 or more passengers if we squeeze, it is like a taxi, but able to sit more people. It cost about 35 RMB there. We split the price among ourselves. We went shopping for clothes, souvenirs and other stuffs too. I realized that we are becoming more to girls, spent more time on shopping and we are better in shopping too. After shopping for like 3 hours in 光谷, we went to the mall beside for IT gadgets, I bought 4 speakers for myself and 3 other friends. I did quite a number of shopping today, I still have things to buy for myself and my friends, perhaps some for my family members. I love Wuhan! It is a shopping paradise!

Day 31, today is the starting of the new month April, and today is the day where most people will play one thing, that is April fool’s Day! Like many others out there, I got tricked by few of my friends too, that was kind of funny. In the morning we finished up on our virtual lab 3, finally everything is over. I felt kind of relief when everything ends, now I am only left with the IS final report and the presentation. In the afternoon we went to explore the road behind our school and we found a few shop houses thus we played few hours of pool with some students from other courses as well as few of my friends, some of them went to play roller skating. Some of the China local students went with us too, we had interaction with them and we learnt from each other.

In the evening, we went for steamboat with the local students at the nearby shop houses. I realized one thing, people in Wuhan like to take spicy food, perhaps that is one of the reasons to keep themselves warm during winter or cold season. We had 麻辣 steamboat with them, it was very spicy and at the same time, it keeps us warm in our body. We ate dinner and talk at the same time, thus our table was very lively at that time. The local students taught us how to bargain for better price when we go shopping. After dinner, we took a photo with them at the steamboat entrance, they are very cute and friendly people, I think I will be missing them when I am back in Singapore. Now then I know that we are very fortunate, we are staying in the best hostel compared to the other local students. There is no limit to our electricity supply where the others are only limited to only 300 Watts of electricity supply, thus they have to sleep without heater or air-con at night. I am so fortunate!

Day 30, today is the last day for the month March 2010. We had IS in the morning and today’s lesson is on the places of interest and historical site of Wuhan, Hubei and parts of China. She went through the history of Yellow Crane tower and also the Wudang mountains as well as other places of interest. She went through with us the local delicacy, some of them I have personally tasted before but some of them, not yet. I think if I have the free time, I must try every single dish out, so that when I leave Wuhan, I will not have any regrets. I find today’s lesson quite interesting and our lecturer is a lady, I can tell that most of the guys are focusing better on today’s lesson.

In the afternoon, we stayed in our room and did tutorial 6, finally we have completed it! Now we are left with only virtual lab, I can understand why Dr Tan gave us so much work to do, he is trying to give us more practice for our final examination. We spent the whole afternoon in our room doing our work and did some skipping at the corridor. These few days I didn’t really went out, only stayed in room, feels like time in my room is faster than outside. Today shall be the start of a new month, I am here for you April!

Day 29, today is the 30^th of March, we have come to the end of March 2010, time flies when I am in Wuhan. I am starting to count down to the time I am going back to Singapore. Today we are supposed to have BBQ with the local students as well as interaction. But due to the bad weather, all these events are cancelled. What a waste, but it’s alright, some of our students will be making some of our local food, Laksa and Rojak for our mini party. They started preparing around in the afternoon, cutting the carrots, peeling the prawn shells, boiling the eggs and other ingredients too.

Around 7pm, we had our dinner at room 304, the place where Laksa is made! Everyone took a bowl of Laksa and a bowl of Rojak, most of the people said that both the food tasted great, I didn’t taste the food as I was feeling not well, but I couldn’t stop the aroma from flowing into my room. They have spent so much time and effort on the food, thank you guys!

Tomorrow we are going to have our last IS lecture. Today we have finished chapter 6, finally, everything is over. We have got homework to do, tutorial 6, luckily we have plenty of time to do, and we have to submit the tutorial together with virtual lab 3. This weekend we are going to have outing again! I feel kind of excited again but not sure if I will be going as we have got presentation to do on Wednesday. I feel that I will miss Wuhan when I leave here, I will miss the people here, the people I have made friends with, the places for shopping and also the local delicacy. I love Singapore and I miss Wuhan!

Day 28, today happens to be on the 29^th March 2010. We had IS today, the lesson for today was on wedding culture and traditions, like what do people give as gifts to the other party and we watched some videos, short clips on how people go along with their weddings, the process, the different challenges and how they go about overcoming the challenges given. I think this is rather interesting so that they can prove that how much that guy loves the girl. I feel that the new generations of people are neglecting the tradition for marriage. I hope that the generation will be there forever and will not be forgotten.

Before the IS class, we went to a local student’s class, she was the MC for the first performance night we had, her name is Icy Zhang. We went to her class to experience the way of teaching they practiced, at that time, their lesson was on English language. Similarly to us, they have a textbook each and I managed to flip through one of the student’s book and found out that what they are studying is actually more similar to what we used to studying in Secondary school, like comprehension. I went through a 45 minutes lesson with the locals and found out that they are very hardworking, everyone was concentrating, all willing to learn, the whole lesson was very quiet. Unlike what we normally have back in Singapore, our students are sure to make noise, talk among themselves and teachers will have problem continuing with the classes. One thing I realized good about their teacher is that she speaks good English, I can understand it clearly without having any difficulties. After taking a photo with their teacher, we left the class room and proceed to our IS class.

We had Strength of Materials lesson in the afternoon, we started on chapter 6, more Mohr’s circle and more stresses! Basically it is almost the same for both chapter 5 and chapter 6, Chapter 6 is a very short chapter compared to other chapters. We only managed to cover half of the chapter and we will continue tomorrow I think. I just feel that the time in Wuhan is really fast, in a blink of an eye, we are just like 2 weeks away from going back, and we are finishing this module soon.