Jiangnan '04

Ok I am retyping this coz IE crashed on me at the last minute and my long long entry became no more. Great...





Its over. The 9 days of it just past in a blur. In a mad flurry. Like a winning hand in daidee. (Hmm... too much card games for me...)

It was fun. All the joy and laughter, nicknames and cards and cards and, well, cards... All the meals, the oversleeping, the missed breakfasts and late nights... All the bus travelling, people smoking in air-con areas and the nice black rainwater-now-on-the-road at shanghai. All the missing clothes, missing booklets and rushed worksheets... They'll be missed.

Gone... Past in a flash... 9 whole days... Gone.

As I walked down the street, I couldn't really believe that I walked down a similiar one 24 hours ago thousands of miles away. Just 1 day ago...
As I entered Cold Storage and walked down the aisles there, I couldn't helped but convert all their prices to yuan. Then I blanched, turned round and marched out emptyhanded. -.-" But hey! Ferrero Rocher is cheaper in S'pore! Woot! In fact as originals go, they are comparable to s'pore's stuff in price. Cept mebbe CDs...

Time just flies. Damn. I need to get it off that Concorde.

I remember the nights. Nights of cards, little fighter, and warcraft 3. Nights of flying daggers, instant noodles, and coffee-chocolate cookies. Nights of polar bears, talking nonsense and prank calls. Nights of bathing and freezing. The nights were always just as, if not much more, fun as the days.

The shopping. In Shanghai: The uber-cheap McDonald breakfast, the aimless walking, the cards. The photo-taking, the nice black groundwater, the cigarette smoke. The long walk back to the bus, the weird stuff on the floor and the amazing lack a of washroom. In Suzhou: The cheap 88 dollar nike/adidas jackets, the 10 yuan for 3 non-ankle socks, the weird train vehicle. Not forgetting the cheap-CDs-that-I-wanted-which-had-to-be-sold-out-before-I-got-there, the sneaky English/Chinese Warcraft 3 CDs, the uber expensive original clothes. And most memorably the sleazy shop, in its fine smokey splendour, and Patrick's uber pwnage haggling skills. And of course the lovely run-all-the-way-back-before-the-coach-leaves.

The journeys! Well with the great forbidding cliques there were there wasn't much, as Wei Zhong aptly puts it, diffusion. But with all the singing, card games, claustrophobia, sleeping, passing-of-water-bottle-games. The trip was half the fun, although sometimes took more than half the time. The singing was really fun though, I mean, the first thing I did when I came back was down... acquire Westlife's Fool Again and If I Let You Go from my K... old CDs.

The meals! With a great variety of topics ranging from the Chef Conspiracy to Wei Zhong's Chicken Poll. From the 12 people squeeze (which seriously added to the fun), to the mad rush for food using "We are men" as an excuse. From a beer bottle to a waiter's mole. From a hairy unbreakable tiny Da <--(Big) Zha Xie to a table of girls asking Wei Zhong to eat (their) tofu to find the answer to his poll. From the take-a-photo-at-each-restaurant to their fragrant toilets (though I must say public toilets have the best and strongest fragrance). From watching the fish's school stare down at us while we were eating one of its kind to the hearty YAM SENG of the last lunch. It was fun.

The tourist destinations! The large wood-from-well temples, the fragance of incense, the way you kai banged the bell (improperly). The sight of a bunch of tourist happily snapping away in an area with a "plz dun take photographs" sign, the overabundance-of-digital-memory-which-led-to-the-photographing-of-dustbins-and-bottoms, the large opaque money-eating supposedly-can-see-the-bottom lakes.

The hotels! The cute-slippers-which-appear-at-every-hotel, the way the stairs is faster than the lift, and how a supposedly creepy dark 7th floor was conquered by turning on the best invention in the world ----> lights. The TV Games, the TV Channels, the African American player who I thought was called guo guo [Fruit Fruit] (Thats his team's name). The dodging of teachers, the trip to the "supermarket" provision store, the 40 cent LAN shop. And of course the scolding of Jonathan and Sean for doing what their dance instructor asked them to do--> visiting girls rooms. (OK fine, to get their shoe size).

The performances! The way I slacked when I realize I was not performing, how everyone reacted when they heard they were going to perform in front of RI, RGS on Chinese New Years Day (i think), how my fingers were freezing off. The twin dance performances, the throwing of a stone over the roof, and the way I had to manuveur to take photos without getting blocked. And of course the way it ended, a macanera, a cheer contest (NO CONTEST), followed by a sweet auld lang syne (with english DROWNING out the chinese) and how we had to be reminded how everyone will go seperate ways when guo yong gege announced the bus allocation.

And last but not least the people. The teachers, the parents and the other students. All have, in their own way, contributed to the trip and made the best experiences I have ever had. (overseas. which was easy enough considering how I hated all the other trips prior to this one) It'll probably be the last time so many 2Mers still considered 2Mers are gathered at one place, considering how David wants to make his leaving of s'pore for canada a hush hush private affair. It'll be the swansong? Perhaps. I hope not though.

And I must apolgize to all for my antisocial behaviour during the trip, sticking to my clique (class+gabriel), not daring to move out. Playing cards nonstop.

I thank everyone, Ronald, my roommate, the other 2Mers, Gabriel, Sonic, the parents, the teachers, my fellow blue bus people, and everyone else on this trip for making it a great experience. I thank God for keeping everyone safe and sound. (See Wei Zhong! No crashes!)

All gone... All turn into just photographs and memories...









...but priceless and invaluable ones at that... Never to fade to dust. RI-RGS, Jiangnan Learning Journey 2004.

The Catalyst X signing off.