Our Chinese students went on a holiday to Indonesia together. And we have great fun experience the local food and local culture and activities.

The monkey forest is the sight that I loved most, the monkeys are really cute!

The Cloud Forest, a mysterious world veiled in mist. Can take in breath-taking mountain views surrounded by diverse vegetation and hidden floral gems. And learn about rare plants and their fast-disappearing environment. I like the building and its digital designed facade. And the vertical winding corridors inside creates a fantastic wandering experience for the tourists. Although the wonderful design makes this man-made natural world amazing and spectacular, but I prefer the real nature, mountains and rivers.

It’s quite interesting to be a mentor to play sport with kids and help them with their assignment. And at the first time to the community club, the coach there gave us a simple training and told us some rules and skills. When we started working, we found that there were many mentors like us. Kids get together after school and follow a schedule of exercise, study and snacks. Our task was to help them with their homework and then play badminton or floor ball with them. Of course there were awkward moments, because sometimes it was difficult for me to catch what those boys were saying.

On the last day of our service there, the coach talked with us about the children. She said that children in different schools were actually in different environments which makes it difficult for them to communicate with each other, because they are used to different ways of talking. Although differences are inevitable, I still think such an institution is a good way to enrich kids’ life. I would imagine that if I had joined in a similar club when I was a child, I would have loved sports more.

 

Flag Day is a public fundraising day, so our volunteer task is to help the handicapped welfare association to raise money. Of course, this is the first time for us to participate in this kind of activity, because it is not common in China. At first, I thought it would be very difficult, but on our way to find a place to stay, several warmhearted people hold us down to donate money, which made us very surprised and happy. The fundraising process went much more smoothly than expected because so many people came forward to donate. Some elderly people also told us to go up to ask people if they were willing to donate. Although I did not be that active, I still gained a lot at the end of the day. Holding the heavy jar, I felt that my day was meaningful and helpful.

    The train to Sapa Town departs at 10 o’clock and arrives at Laojie Town at 6 o’clock the next morning. Then you have to take a 40-minute drive up the mountain to get to Sapa Village. This is a French-style town, next to the terraced fields. It is so beautiful to take a long cable car to the top of the mountain to see the wonders.
I always think that taking clouds and the sea is the most beautiful picture that can’t go wrong, but it is beautiful but boring. When I got to the mountain, I felt like I should blame myself. At that moment, I felt like I was above the clouds. In the view of the sky, there was a temple wrapped in fog. Looking up is the big Buddha. Looking down is all the blue mountains. I feel that my dirty ventricle is thoroughly cleaned by strong detergent. Rejuvenate, leaving a bunch of happiness bubbles.

The forum was a meaningful ending for this series of learning activities. During the forum, students shared their special and unforgettable exchange experiences. The students present were all dressed in formal or ethnic costumes. This was a rare opportunity to see diverse traditional costumes. A Japanese girl I knew during the learning journey quite impressed me. On the forum day, she wore a kimono and a headdress. Many Chinese students wore cheongsam, which looks very elegant. I seemed to be more interested in costumes than the content of the forum.

During the recess week, we went to Bali, Indonesia, for a vacation. Bali is famous for its beautiful scenery with some volcanoes, temples, beaches and so on. As a tourist heaven, there are more and more tourists in recent years, especially Chinese tourists. And it’s also a dream destination for wedding.

We explored much and experienced things and activities that we never did in a different culture. We had a candlelight dinner on the beach on the sunset. We flied high above the sea and had a walk under the sea. We wear the tradition clothing having interaction with little monkeys. We had a local massage and buy a spicy chocolate.

It was a wonderful and best trip for me to rest and explore these things!

 

I always have an obsession when I travel, that when I go to a city, I must experience its various modes of transportation. I think a city’s character can be expressed in these small places. So this Friday five our exchange students from ZJU and one local student go together to sing karaoke.

The local student recommends us a shop. The price is about the same as regular Chinese karaoke and he says although the level of this shop is not the best, it is certainly up to Singapore’s average.

However, when I go into the karaoke, I am shocked. This is the worst karaoke I’ve ever seen. The middle room is even smaller than the small room in China. The wall is simply white, no flush light, no desk, no toys like dice. The decoration is not as good as the public toilets in the shopping mall outside. Although the decoration disappoints us, we still sing the song carefully for three hours.

And after that we go to see the movie. By compare the karaoke shop and cinema between Singapore and China, I just want to say, Singaporeans are still inferior to Chinese when it comes to entertainment.

During the mid-term week, we had nearly one week to rest. We made a plan to travel around Batam and Vietnam.

Because Batam is very close to singapore, we bought tickets to get there by ferry. With only one hour, we arrived Batam which is a small island. The facilities on this island is a bit out of date. But the island is famous for its beaches and seas. The seas here looked pure and so blue!

After three days in Batam, we took flights from singapore to Vietnam. The first city we came to is Honoi. While sitting on the taxi in Honoi, we felt familiar with the city. Because the sytle of architecture here is similar to the style of Shanghai, the small city has a retro charm for us. What surprised us a lot is the amount of Europeans. There are large amount of European travellers on the streets.

After two days in Honoi, we took a train to Sapa, a small town in Vietnam. The town is filled with fog and we could even not see the views clearly when we arrived here. At noon, the fog disappeared and the town showed its beauty to us.

The views of sea and mountain are all seen by us. The culture of southeast countries also left us with deep impressions. We came to realize that people’s life mode is so relavant to their living environment.

 

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2018/10/22-2018/10/28