B-A-R-B-E-C-U-E - Day 24

Due to unforeseen circumstances, these few pictures were from the previous post. 

My noodles from the Muslim Food Stall

Diyanah's ramen soup!

The fresh raw corn right behind my hostel.

It's Wuhan local food and healthy yet crunchy!

Dee being creative. Trying to suck the raw corn with her milk tea.

5th batch of OIP 2010!

Itinerary for today: Interaction with the local students! Barbecue!!!

We had lesson in the morning. As usual, 9am. Ms Hock finished one topic on Team and Diversity so that we will be on scheduled for our practical test as well our final examination. Class was dismissed early due to the interaction with the local students. Met up with the local students at 11.30am at our hostel gate as we were unsure of the route.

They bought lots of foods to barbecue and each one of helped to bring the foods to lighten up their burden. It was the route where some of us went to jog previously. But the barbecue area was further down. It was around half an hour journey and some of us were still lagging behind.

A few of the local students were already at the barbecue pits. Some of them were busy making the fire with charcoal and woods while the others were cutting the vegetables and meats. After looking around the place, without dawdling, we offered help to the local students so that we can interact more with them.  The boys tried to make fire with the charcoal. Apparently the local students used woods to make the fire. Impressive! I barbecued the vegetables and meats after the boys tried to make the fire. My friends and I tried to put the spices as well it was an enjoyable thing to do.

I tried to roam around the place to see what can be found in the woods. There were abandoned tennis court, skate park, basketball and badminton courts, table tennis and billiards. Went over to the abandoned tennis court and was greeted with an old, run down lavatory. I did not even want to try going in but my group leader, Yu Chuan was having a bad stomach ache and he had no other choice but to use the toilet. No water, no flush.

After the gratifying foods that were consumed earlier on, some of us decided to play basketball. We were practically cheering and clapping from which secondary schools they used to attend to.  Basically, almost everyone managed to score in one goal. Played two rounds of basketballs and ended up with Eliza and I changing to another sport. Played my favourite sport of all time with Eliza followed by Nicholas, Momo, Liang Xun, and Weilin. I could not stop playing badminton once I got back the momentum.

As it was already almost dinner, I requested to go back home first as it’s going to be very late. Thus, Diyanah, Joanna, Momo, Michelle, Weilin and I went off first to have our dinner. Even though it was only 6.15 pm, it seemed to be very late at night. Ultimately, the rest want to have a taste of Chinese Muslim foods, thus, Diyanah and I brought them to our usual food stall. We took photos with the lady boss it was remarkable to see the way she made the flour.

Went out to buy 10 satay from the cute satay boy. And according to the grapevine, he repudiated to take the money from us. The total price of the satay cost RMB 10. He tried to run away so that he would not accept the money. Strange! We tried doing many ways, but to no avail. Every one of us, were smiling from ear to ear after taking pictures with the satay boy. Sadly, we did not ask for his name.

Personal Reflection: I realized that the local students really tried their very best to get closer and interact with the whole lot us. Even though we may be strangers, they dare to come up to us and strike a conversation. The route to barbecue was quite a distant but the fun that we shared together forgot everything.

I was inspired with awe when I saw the venue. Barbecuing in the woods? Where can you get that in Singapore? The reason is, Singapore has limited spaces available and the only places that we can barbecue outdoor is usually in the park.

Another factor that I became conscious ever since I came to Wuhan, the locals love to exercise any forms of sports.  It can be in the morning or evening, both the older and younger generations love to exercise. Even though they have a heavy breakfast every single day, they balance up their diet well. The locals lead a healthy lifestyle I presumed.

Back in Singapore, we cannot expect the same thing like how the Chinese behaved, but as what I’ve seen with my two eyes, some Singaporeans have trouble sparing their spare times to lead a healthy lifestyle.  I reckoned they are busy working during weekdays and busy shopping during the weekends. We can only see that the older generation took an extra mile to exercise early morning. Maybe because that’s when the younger generations off to school or work. If during the weekends, the younger generations chose to sleep in till the late morning or afternoon.

Being in their country for four weeks has opened up my eyes. Maybe due to Singapore being a busy metropolitan city that we chose to consider ourselves always being busy. Back in China, they lead a slow and happy life.