there was no lessons on this day
as it was interaction with the local students
we gathered at 1.30pm to meet the local students to take the bus to orange plantation to pluck oranges
at first when me and wenliang plus other two schools' student leaders met the students, we got a choice of plucking oranges and BBQ vs theme park and shopping. All three schools at the end chose the first option as it is something different that never tried before for most of us I would say.
The bus brought us to
the orange plantation (:
see the oranges? They are green in colour, not orange like the common ones we usually eat. If they are oranges, most probably they are too ripe or spoilt already.
nice view seen in the plantation itself. There are shelters along this lake where we can take shelter and enjoy the scenery.
Hajar and me
Siti and me (my new-made friend from MDE)
one orange-coloured orange, which cannot be eaten already as it fell to the ground
orange grown on the plant
To be able to choose an orange which tastes sweeter, not too sour, the orange should have abit of orange colour, should be bigger in size and felt softer, not too hard.
We are allowed to peel the orange to eat.
Oranges (: tasted abit sweet, quite sour, but better than those not ripe enough oranges.
Besides oranges, which is the main fruit in this planatation, there are other fruits or vegetations being grown.
PUMPKINS and
ONIONS
me between orange plants, which are grown in rows, giving people like us to walk through, i.e. 'pavements' for us to walk.
a nice looking orange, not surprisingly if it tastes quite sweet
lake view
me and Dr Tan
a flower seen in the plantation; ants are seen in it, maybe they are trying their best to survive in such a place that they rely on this flower for survival.
rubbish can be seen around, if they degradeable, at least can help the soil. Other than that, it only makes the plantation dirty and may attract unwanted attention from unwanted creatures such as insects and birds.
Chicken are reared by the owner, the people who are staying in the plantation
this most probably is their house that they have to stay in. Such house can stay in? It just heartbreaking knowing that they stay in such house, making me realise once more how fortunate we are.
Fire made using natural resources such as branches to cook Di Gua
Tony & me
This is opposite from where I was resting. Nice view plus people (my friends) who enjoying it. Sitting by the lake is nice as the lake is truely a place to relax, destress and calm oneself down.
Around 4.30pm, it was time to gather to go back to Wuhan University. We were to meet again at 5.30pm (i think) so to go to the place where we would be doing our BBQ at.
This is one item we saw along the way to the place we were going to BBQ at.
When reached, some of us discovered that over the wall there were more to explore. Hence, me and Tony went walking and exploring.
we two saw this and Tony said this is used for miltary training use.
There were dogs around too.
More pictures taken as we explored:
Afterwards, two of us went back to the BBQ area.
This is our Pharmacy Science area and they were trying to set up the fire to BBQ the food for our dinner.
Night falls.
and there was fireworks going on.
Then we had our own sparklers "performance", taken in above picture and our own fireworks show too as ICT went to buy sparklers and fireworks. The fireworks were nice (: though I saw two to three colours at most when the fireworks shot up into the sky and explored.
For the BBQ food, I did not try much but only abit of lamb meat and a Huang Gua. Hence, after clearing up and leaving the place, wenliang, me, yingli and chen wei went to this Western Restaurant and ate our dinner. It has a set of spiral metal stairs (shown below) which led us up to seats to be seated.
This was my dinner, Black Pepper Chicken Chop. It was one of the most satisfying meals ever as it is delicious and not TOO oily, salty or spicy unlike for other China food which I am not used to.
Reflections:
It was cool being able to go and explore an orange plantation, which I never able to do so in Singapore since she is a small country with little land. Plus, I learnt that oranges do not have to be orange in colour to consider ripe especially in China which is shown in this plantation we went to. Green is the colour in this case. It is hard knowing which is ripe or unripe, depending on the texture, the looks and the hardness. The oranges seem to tell us that we should not judge things or people by its cover or looks only. There are more into knowing and learning what and how is this thing or this person like. Having to live in such plantation to grow and sell oranges is never easy and the income may not be good, depending on the seasons of the oranges and the preferences of the market. Hence we are so fortunate to be living in an urban country with our parents having stable job with income to support the family. Please appreciate your parents and their hard work to bring all of us up (:
Adding to my "first time" experiences list, is having BBQ. The way they made the fire is different from Singapore's, plus there isnt similar kind of place to have BBQ. In China, using natural resources such as leaf and branches seem to be the technique to make fire whereas in Singapore, the fire-making is using of firestarters. In addition, the food to be barbequed is different too. In China, lamb, mutton are the common meats, there is vegetables too while in Singapore, common meats are chicken, pork plus hotdogs and satays and so on. Hence, I did not eat much though is a good experience, at least had stayed throughout to see for myself how is the BBQ like in China. The nice part of it is that I get to see FIREWORKS! It is not banned in China to put fireworks, hence we students tried them and the whole play of fireworks is spectacular! However safety must be taken note of, maybe that is why Singapore banned us from playing fireworks there.
The interaction with the local students is quite fun overall, being able to experience new things in this native country plus getting to know them themselves, making this study trip to Wuhan more fulfilling. Dont you think so? =)
JEHANNE :))
