Shanghai Winter Camp 16th-30th December 2014

 What a way to end 2014!

It had been a really fascinating two-week-camp! I have just done moving photos from my camera to iPad and quickly start making a new post.

On December 16, 2014, we had to arrive at Soekarno Hatta International Airport early in the morning. From Pekanbaru to Shanghai, we had to make a transit in Jakarta. The flight from Jakarta to Shanghai took up to six and a half hours. It wasn't very pleasant to sit for so long. I felt like standing up all the time. Haha, humans.... When you get the chance the sit, you want to stand. But when you have to stand, you wish you could sit :/ 

On the plane with Ellen

We stayed the night on the plane. And the next morning, we got to see the sunrise. I asked a brother of my friend to take the picture of it, but my camera was not willing to cooperate with him :(

Finally, we arrived at Shang Hai! Xin Zhuang High School had sent its representatives to fetch us at the airport.

On the bus to Xin Zhuang

This was how Shanghai looked like in most parts of the city. The roads were clean and the sideways were planted with lots of trees.

Xin Zhuang is such an enormous school! I must say that I was impressed :) The students there also said that Xin Zhuang is the school with the cleanest toilets in Shanghai hahaha :))

 

Robot class

Look! They even have Air Quality Monitoring Station.

The Sports Centre. It has a big basketball court, dancing room, as well as ping-pong room.

On some days, we were allowed to play badminton here too :)

We did a lot of studying there.
Some of them are:

Calligraphy class

Chinese traditions class

Clay making class

All of ours

Dumpling making class

Bad try!

Chinese Face Mask painting class

My mask :)

Simple robot making class

Mao bi painting

Choir

Fencing

Cheerleading

Stamp making

My stamp with 卓 character. It is my family name.

One of the best thing about this camp is that we were given the opportunity to stay one night with a host family there.We got to live Shanghainese way of living for a day. My host family were very nice to me. 

I almost felt like one of their family members too :")

I was brought to the Shanghai Film Park.

It is the location where many Hollywood movies were filmed.

Shanghai Film Park is one of the largest film studio complexes in China.

The whole park is built to resemble an old miniature Shanghai. There are old-styled buildings with period furniture and wax figures of departed movie stars, Chinese traditional dresses, railroad cars, old streets and classic movie scenes. Hours of operation are from 8:30AM to 4:30PM. Admission fee is CNY80.00 for an adult and CNY40.00 for a child.

 

生煎 (sheng jian)

 The buildings inside the Film Park are beautiful and maintained well. You can find churches, medieval winery, and different styles of European buildings there.

Occasionally, actual shooting of movies or TV programs may be in progress and visitors may be able to spot some movie stars. I guess we were in luck!

When the car went past through us, we got to see the actor inside the car.
Honestly, he was very handsome hahaha

Spot me inside!

We also watched a theatre about "上海滩"

This is our only picture together.
I heard that she didn't really like taking a lot of photos. So I only asked her once.

We went home, aka her home.
I was given another lesson on how to make dumplings.
This time, my dumplings looked much better than those I made at school.

Tada~ I learnt a new variation in shape

Thick and full with bak (Y)

She likes small plants that doesn't grow too big. Err, I forget. What was that kind of plant called?
These plants were sold in a more rural area of the town.
She bought me there and also bought one for me as a souvenir.

Inside it: Some were very expensive, while some were still reasonable

A photo taken with her family before I went back to the school dorm.

Beside learning new things in class, we also travelled a lot inside and outside the city that our legs hurt.

 

We were shown the process of making silk

Seahorses

Jelly fish

Shanghai TV Tower

The breathtaking view from the tower

上海外滩

Still 上海外滩

Flowers

Bamboos are everywhere

Beautiful scenery

We bought A LOT of snacks.

Unfortunately, most of the time, I forgot to take pictures of them.

FROYOO

Takoyaki
Not that we don't have it in Pekanbaru...we were just craving for food, do you understand? :")

Eggtarts

Jumbo size chicken chop!

BBQ Twist Potato

Unique flavors of pocky and oreo.

Celebrating the birthdays of some of our friends.

 Everything has to end eventually.

I am really thankful to get this opportunity to join this program, especially when it was my first winter camp ever..and my first time stepping my feet in Shanghai, to be more specific, in Xin Zhuang High School in Min Hang district. I have never experienced winter before, so I really hoped that it would snow. It didn't, but the weather was super cold. Xin Zhuang has given me another pleasant memory to be remembered. All members of the school staff and the students were very kind and helpful. Some of members of our group can't really understand Mandarin, while some of the students there can't really understand English. So, it was actually very difficult for some to communicate with each other. But we made it anyway. That's why I really appreciate the effort they had made.

In the other hand, I had learnt to do a lot of new things and gained new knowledge there. The process of improving my verbal ability in Mandarin was a lot faster there by practising it with the native Chinese speakers.

These two weeks had been super exciting and tiring that even the slightest thought of missing home had never came up to my mind. It was worth it. I personally think that our childhood isn't complete without at least a this-camp-alike experience. Through this camp, I can learn about Chinese culture and lifestyle, family values, and also intercultural skills.

Thanks to all of the members of Xin Zhuang High School.

Without you, I wouldn't have gone through the days with a smile on my face everyday.

Till next time buddies :")

Winter Camp Closing Ceremony