Sunday 19^th April 2009

I have decided to blog down this day because it was a day worth remembering.

My mother woke up early in the morning and made me breakfast for the last time before I flew. My family members did not send me to the airport as my father was overseas for business too, in China, so there was no one to fetch me to the airport. I remember the last time I was supposed to fly to Yunnan for an immersion with my secondary school, my father merely dropped me off at the stand and drove off. It was not that they did not care, (and neither am I consoling myself), my parents are just too used to family members traveling around.

I reached the airport and saw many friends with their families. It was nevertheless a heart-warming sight. About two hours or so later, everyone bid farewell to their family, relatives and friends, and we were about to embark on our journey to China, Dalian.

The flight was horrid, the food was no better. Almost everyone slept throughout the flight, because there was not much entertainment. Half the time when I was on the plane, I was so afraid I might just die. I know I am being paranoid, but the flight was really scary.

Six hours later, we landed safely at the Beijing Airport. It was another few hours of wait before the next transfer of flight. We had our dinner at Ajisen, The prices were much cheaper as compared to Singapore’s Ajisen. All of us were amazed and could not understand the huge difference in prices. KFC was just next to Ajisen and we went over to look at the prices. Surprisingly the rates were similar to Singapore’s KFC. After having stayed at Dalian for sometime, we realized that fast food restaurants charge more than the rest. For what reason, we are still thinking.

Then after idling for hours, it was once again time to board the plane. We were all very worn out by then. The flight was a short one. Duration? Two hours. You can imagine how big China is. In order to travel from one city to another, one has to take a plane. It is unlike Singapore, whereby from one end to another it will only take a maximum of one hour plus of traveling, whether by car or train.

It was night time when we touched down. We have reached Dalian, the city of romance. It was raining quite heavily and we had to brave the rain in order to board the bus. Nevertheless students from Dalian Polytechnic University were kind enough to come pick us up with umbrellas. They were drenched as they walked us to and fro from the shelter to the bus stop. I was thinking to myself, if it was me, I would not even take time out to pick foreign students up, not to say brave the rain and bring them one by one safely up to the bus and load their luggage up the bus. It was once again a very heart-warming sight. The first impression the students gave me was, they were willingly to go all the way out to help others.

Fifteen minutes bus ride and we saw ourselves at a very grand lobby. It totally threw us off our feet, because it was far too unbelievable. We were told to collect our room keys. It came in a form of card, like those hotel kind. We were astonished and could not figure out why it was like a hotel room key. When the lift door opened, everyone immediately looked for their rooms and tapped the card. You could hear screams from all corners, not because they were shocked, everyone just could not believe their eyes, and what was in front of them. I was too, very excited and extremely pleased and happy to have such a comfortable room to stay in. We could tell it was new, and totally like a hotel. It was very different from the one we saw in our email earlier on which was very run down, like a typical school hostel. I would say we are really and extremely fortunate to be able to stay in this hotel kind of hostel. For that, I am thankful.

That pretty much sums up the first day, or rather night in Dalian, a pleasant stay in the hostel.