Day 10 - Make a DIFFERENCE!

Hurray! We finally got a day without any classes! However, it was an off day not for us to relax and play in WUST; it was actually to allow us to have more time to prepare for our first stage of project presentation! 

Each group has to prepare a Statement of Work (SOW) and the Work Structure Breakdown (WBS) about the video project that all groups have to submit at the end of our OIP trip. So, preparing the SOW and WBS is in a way, making us start on our final project! Let the stress flows within us!

In preparation!

Verdict time!

Finally after our presentation and sumptuous dinner, it was the time to fly the wishing lanterns!  Most of us gathered at a badminton court just outside our hostel to attempt flying it. It was pretty cool seeing how the wishing lantern flew into the big dark sky, somewhat like the only light in a dark enclosed room. Anyway, we had FUN! =D

Having FUN!

The end of Mid-Autumn Festival 10'!

Reflections:

Seeing how the small little wishing lantern flew into the dark sky and lighted up the surrounding, it triggered to me that no matter how small any contribution is to any event, it does make a different! 

For example, sometimes people feel that just donating a few cents to any charity is not going to make much difference, but imagine if all of us donates a few cents together, it does accumulate to become something big! If you want influence others to be nice or kind-hearted, you can start being nice or kind-hearted first to make the difference! Who knows? You may be able to change someone for the better and most importantly, you changed yourself for the better! Be the light that shines in people! 

"It is the greatest of all mistakes to do nothing 

because you can only do little do what you can. "

Sydney Smith

Day 9 - Together-ness!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival! Looks like this time round for all of us here in WUST, we will not be with our beloved family and friends..

But it’s okay! Because this time round we have got each other by our sides to celebrate with, in this special journey of our life that we may not encounter in the future in a foreign land!

SMILE! =D

This day first started waking all of us up with a rather pretty cold attitude. Turning the weather from a totally warm and hot sunny day, to a cold yet rather cooling rainy day! I am definitely not one of those that were complaining about the changed weather because it really felt better living in a cooling environment as compared to the hot and stuffy weather we all went through!

Having to experience such drastic change in the weather here was rather interesting, because most of us are excited in a way or another. Some of us were even having fun under the rain! =)

Rainnnnnnnnn!

Some of us cuddling together!

Our dirty shoes!

 

So our night celebration for the Mid-Autumn Festival finally begun, with our group (D) in-charge of the bonding games! I would like to thank my group for the time they spent and also making effort and commitment to fulfill the tasks we were asked to handle! Hopefully, everyone had lots of fun and laughter for this specially celebrated Mid-Autumn Festival in WUST! 

Mini-Mooncakes!

The guys, with one of the local student leaders!

Girls' special performance! (Y)!

Group D!

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival!

 Reflections:

 Despite not being able to celebrate this special festival with our beloved family and friends back in Singapore, but this year, we had a different kind of celebration! This is something that you may not experience especially when you're with 21 other friends in a foreign land! 

Also, although we may not have celebrated with the traditional way back in Singapore whereby all of us will carry a lantern and walk around, (because the people here does not do that and we do not really want to be mocked at) some of us brought a wishing lantern that will in fact float into the big cloudy sky! This shows that sometimes, the traditional way that we Singaporeans thought we had been doing all along, may in fact, not be the authentic tranditional way! 

Nevertheless, it does not matter who's way of celebrating a festival is the traditional way, but its the matter of you celebrating it and who you are celebrating with!

This gives me the feeling that no matter where you are, as long as you have friends around you, everywhere seems like HOME! 

"I will, from this day strive to forge togetherness out of our differences. "

Josefa Iloilo

Day 8 - Be Appreciative!

Just another normal day you may wonder, with OIE class in the morning & PM class in the afternoon, nothing special or interesting event can happen. Definitely not going to allow such thing to happen, when I was given a chance to have a dinner with the local student leaders, I went along with it!

To be honest, it was a decision with some hesitation, because apparently one of the local student leaders only asked one of my classmates out for a dinner. But of course, they didn't mind him bringing along some friends as well! So this friend of mine, in fear of the awkwardness he may face if he goes alone, asked another classmate and me to join him.

Thank God, this decision of joining the dinner with the local student leaders did not disappoint me at all! We literally got to know a few unfamiliar local student leaders that were actually in-charge of the previous batch of OIP students! We were brought to an international buffet restaurant to have our sumptuous dinner!

the dining place!

all the differnt cuisines!

Fun, Joy and Laughter filled the air at the dining place after the ice was broken by one very sociable friend of the local student leaders! She is definitely someone you would not want to miss being friend with because her character is something you may not encounter before in your life! She is so friendly that she can literally chat with anyone she does not know for at least 20 minutes. I am not bragging about this, after witnessing that she managed to have a great chat with the taxi-driver that we tried to bargain with, from the start of the ride till we drop off!

Reflections:

Although these newly-made friendships we all made during this OIP trip with the local student leaders may not last forever, but I believe that this journey of our life in Wuhan will always be part of our wonderful memory. No matter how our friendship with them may evolve in the future as time goes by, I will surely remember the effort they put in for us, the friendliness they showed us, the nice smiles on their faces and lastly, the impact they made in me in terms of relationships such as friendship wise and definitely my cultural intelligence as well.

"Friendship is like a violin; the music may stop now and then, 

but the strings will last forever." 

- Unknown