Barbeque day! (updated)

We had IS class this morning… the lecture is one of the longest I’ve ever had. It was three hours long, though there were two breaks in between. It was cold today too. We had a light drizzle in the morning. The dean of the university was the one giving us the lecture and he said there is another class this Thursday. Today’s lecture is on the history of China and Thurday’s will be on Buddhism and Taoism.

Today’s lecture was actually pretty interesting. I like the history of ancient China, during all the different dynasties. But the lecture was really dry, and the dean was talking so slowly, I slowly slowly drifted off. I know that isn’t good, but I was tired, and still sick, so I was really drowsy. But I did pay attention to most of the lecture. We talked about the different dynasties in the ancient feudal China, and the greatest achievements and era in that period. At first when we saw the number of slides on the dean’s lecture, we were pretty sure we will not last throughout the whole lecture. His PowerPoint presentation has 189 slides! When I saw the amount of slides he had, I was like O.O And when he started the lecture, I just wanted to do this à OTL because his slides were just full of words and no pictures. I’m not kidding. Then after he did an introduction of the different dynasties, he went into the details of those dynasties. Even though whatever he told us was probably already heavily summarized, it was still a lot to take in when you factor in the dozens of dynasties that he had to go through. T.T as interesting as it is, I still dozed off. T.T but I am looking forward to Thurday’s lecture. I think it would be even more interesting for me.

Today is Sports Day. It was supposed to be some bonding thing so I thought some of the Chinese students would be joining us, but it turned out to be bonding among ourselves. The first thing we did was split ourselves into two teams. Since we had forty people in total here for the trip, we have equal numbers in each team. So in the end me, Jovin and Clarissa were in the same team and Xenia, Jun Li and Kristine were in the other team. But because we were so awesome, we won the 150 seconds competition against the other team. :D heheheh

But before we did the 150 seconds challenge, our first task as a team was to challenge the rock wall. I don’t like rock climbing, because I can’t climb much before I have to drop down again. So I was already dreading the moment, and then when it started raining again, I was totally depressed. I mean, even when it is dry, my grip on the stone hand holds was precarious, with my foot size being so big and all, but add in the rain? I can’t even think about how embarrassing it would be. But thank goodness, I didn’t have to climb because the rain was heavier then. So we moved on to another station.

But I think I had most fun with is at the 150 seconds challenge. This one really needed teamwork, and it was challenging and fun at the same time. We had to complete three tasks within 150 seconds, and one of the tasks includes sixteen of us holding on to a drum from the ends of the ropes attached to the drum, then bounce a volleyball on the drum eight times. This wasn’t as easy as it seems, what with sixteen people and differing heights. I keep pulling on the rope with too much force. But in the end, we found a way to keep the drum balanced, and thus the ball’s trajectory while bouncing. We did a trial run during the practice time and we finished everything in a minute and two seconds, but when we are doing the actual run, we clocked a minute and thirty one seconds. We dropped the ball once and had to redo it, but at the end, we managed to finish all the tasks within the time and we won the challenge because the other team overshot the time.

In a team, we will, of course, have a team name, but I will not introduce it to you, because it is seriously funny(read:weird) and a little retarded. >.> LOL

Then after the bonding session, we have a barbeque. As much as I like barbecues  I didn’t touch any of the food they cooked. Partly because I was busy trying to get the fire going, and partly because I saw the way they cooked the food. Because the charcoal we used takes incredibly long to catch fire, they had to use lots and lots of twigs, newspaper and even petroleum. And even after all the effort we put in the charcoal still didn’t burn red-hot yet. I was fanning the fire all the while and rejecting offers of food from the students. I don’t have anything against them, but because we didn’t wait for the charcoal to fully catch fire, the China students just used the fire from the burning newspapers and twigs to cook. The worst part is, they used to burning pertroleum to cook. Because someone drizzled petroleum onto the charcoal, the fire was blazing. But because it was late and some of the students didn't had their dinner yet, they just started cooking with the fire from the burning petroleum. And when the fire suddenly flared up, the meat is all scorched. As much as I like eating the burnt bits, it wasn’t healthy, and not to say, with me still sick, I don’t think that was a good idea.

Actually we got a little worked up aver the fire thing. Because in Singapore, we do organize barbecues pretty often, so some of us are quite well versed in the art of barbecuing. So we did get a little peeved when the China staff were trying to make the fire their way even though it clearly wasn't working. I know maybe some of the fault lies with the charcoal itself(it behaves just like old charcoal) so it doesn't catch fire as easily as the charcoal we are used to in Singapore, but the way the China staff set up the fire wasn't that effective either. because they don't use fire starters like we normally do in Singapore, they use newspapers and twigs as the starters. but because they place the twigs and newspapers on top of the charcoal pile, the charcoal doesn't catch fire because once the newspaper and twigs finish burning, the fire also stops, so the charcoal doesn't have enough time to heat up, much less catch fire. and then they add petroleum, and that worked a little, but as I said, it is pretty dangerous using petroleum. but eventually, we did get some food cooked. But I think I did pretty well with the fanning. I didn’t inhale much of the smoke in front but at the end, when other people also were fanning the fire, I inhaled some of the smoke. But I did well avoiding the smoke, I think. Teehee.

I left a little earlier but it was okay. I really need to come back into the apartment and shower and study. Common test is tomorrow. T.T hope I do well for it…

Lol Nicholas just entered our apartment just like that. That was really scary. Out of nowhere, a deep male voice just popped out. Everyone else freaked out because they thought it was Asaph. LOL but in the end, it was Nicholas. Whew.

Hehehe tired and my nose is still blocked(on both sides too)… hurhur T.T Shall go study some now. Peace Out~ ^ ^