the whole gang bang of us arrived at airport at approximately 6 to 7 in the morning. everyone was pretty much excited and some still with their sleepy face on. after checking in our passports, and bidding our goodbyes to our families, everyone opened up and started talking to one another. kit ming was the first to own up that she would miss her parents and later on some others too said so. our plane was scheduled to leave at 8 that morning.


we were the last group to board the plane thus we had to rush in. everyone hoped to sit by the window and true enough, everyone got to sit beside the window. when to plane took off, cameras started coming out from everyone's bags and they started snapping pictures of everything.





the weather was awesome and the ride was quite smooth except for some turbulence here and there. muslim students had our own set of Muslim food which comprised of rice, curry chicken and stir fried cabbage. it was ok I guess for aeroplane food. or maybe I as just too hungry. kit complained that the normal chinese food they served was horrible. We arrived at Guanzhou airport at around 11.20am. us four girls, Kit, Amanda, Kang Qi and I almost got lost as we went out of the baggage point after collecting our bags. so in the end Dr Zhu saved us and we checked in our luggage at another baggage area on the 3rd floor of the airport. the airport was clean and nice and quite recommendable as compared to Changi Airport's standard.



we all headed for lunch where the chinese students and Dr Zhu headed for chinese food at the food street while us Muslim students went in search for McDolanlds with Edward, Chau Liang, and Wilfred as well. they were nice enough to follow is and look for a Halal place to eat. in the end we found 7-11 which we were really releaved to find. we survived on biscuits, bread and potato chips. Fariz bought a bottle of Sprite and he asked us to try it. i tasted it and it was horrible. tasted like medicine. not those pleasant sweet cough medicine kind of taste. but more of those unpleasant fever medicine kind of taste. Jonathan even commented that their bag of lays tasted different. I survived on Chips Ahoy, a piece of baguette bread and a bottle of mineral water.






after lunch all of us met up again and we headed for the next plane due to leave at 3.20 I realised that before the plane leaves, there will be two police officers saluting the plane or the pilot, whichever. a mark of respect maybe or for a safe trip. I dont know. most of us practically slept all the way in the plane to Wuhan airport. most of us didn't wake up to even eat the biscuits that air stewardess gave us. Instead we kept them for later.




when our aeroplane was due to land, we looked down and saw many rice fields and wet land cultivation. we too saw many small rivers which branced out from a major river. there weren't any farmers around in the fields. we arrived at the airport approximately at 5.


then we took a 2 hour bus ride to Wuhan City. i must emphasize the temperature is like freezing o to 3 degrees. it wasn't a pleasent one as it was bumpy and really unpleasent at times cos Kit, Jonathan, Shakkir and I sat right at the back. so we practially had to hold on to each other from falling off our seats.




we arrived at Huazhong University campus around 7.20 where the boys headed to their dorm first and we had to take another mini van to our dorms. we had to pay up 300 yuan in deposit for the dorms. we were horrified to know that we have to pay for our eletricity bills, and use of internet. the electricity usage is 0.86 yuan per kilowatthour. the internet on the other hand is 25 yuan a month. they're sucking our money. daylight robbery i tell you! my cousin living in Wuhan University doesn't have to pay a thing! GRR.

so then we headed for dinner at a chinese restaurant at the school canteen. the canteen was closed as it was quite late already so we had no choice but to eat at the chinese restaurant. they had rice, some vegetable dishes, tofu and 2 soup dishes. the only turn off to me was the pork bun which sat in the middle of the table. it kind of like spoilt my appetite cos like the meat was red and it looked super raw but apparently it was cooked already. so in the end my dinner was plain rice, vegetable which was super salty and the tofu. I was contented with the dinner though. as long as i didn't go to bed starving. so our china friend, whom i dont know his name, brought us to the market which is located underground and has like almost everything there like from daily needs to all kinds of biscuits and normal stuff youcan find in a market, except seafood and chicken that is. the prices for the stuff there are super cheap like a bag of 50g of biscuits only cost you 1 yuan and a bag of it can last you more than 3 days for 4 people.


so later we went to a street side shop which sold sim cards to us. so we had to pay 150 yuan each for international and local calls. after that we went back to our dorms, feeling hungry again and we slept quite early after calling home. some of us were already home sick but I guess its a phase we all have to go through as not everyone's used to this whole experience yet. we should really learn to stop complaining and start appreciating what we have.

End of Day 1 :D