Dorm mayhem!

7 september 2010

  "Should I pack, do you think we will move?" It was the first question I asked Jin Wei at 7 in the morning. Jin Wei was already packing her luggage and motioned for me to do the same , it seemed that there was still a possibility. The day started with another full schedule of lessons of TCC. Jin Wei and I arrived at the lobby with Ms Anita at around 9 as we wait for the rest of the trip members. Light talk was exchanged between us and we learned that we had to buy the stool for our outdoor painting.

( which I still have not bought!)

We made the arduous trip up the school and as I trudged past the sports complex, it came to my realization that the walk no longer seemed so daunting and long. On foot the trip takes roughly about a 15-20 walk from the hotel, back in Singapore a 10 min walk is considered “walkable” but I realize that here in Wuhan a “quick” trip or walk, may be at least 30 minutes. Yet, I enjoy walking to the university as it gives an insight about the lifestyle of the people here.  Life in Wuhan is definitely not all roses and glamour, far from the term of  "The Chicago of China" yet it does have its touching moments; a mom breast-feeding her child, a father sending his daughter to school on a bicycle and a  old man pushing his grandson in a tram.

The lesson began by practicing the washes that we learnt in class, than comes wet on wet  and finally tonal values. Tonal values was rather hard for me  as it required consistent strokes and control of  the amount of water in the brush. After many failures my tonal values was finally adequate, it seems I have poor control of the water in my brush and hopefully more practices will refine my strokes.

Lunch was in the lunch cafeteria  and I ate Jia Jiao mien which was a tad oily but had a refreshing pear juice. The next lesson for TCC was outdoor painting near our lunch area and we stopped to take thumbnails and take pictures. I remember feeling relaxed and content as I found a corner to draw a quick sketch and subsequently I started to relax more and more and took a quick stroll around the place hoping to find anything interesting to draw. It was than when Jin Wei informed me that Ms Anita was going to check our sketchbook did I then realize I did only 2 thumbnails. Scribbling down my last sketch and hastily toning the the rest I presented the my "work". It seems that I should have better time management. It was not long later when I learnt that we had to move into the hostel and it would be tonight!  Hostel mayhem! why do I say so? Everyone rushed back to the hotel had a quick dinner and dove into packing their luggages. I remember the shouts and cursing spewing from my mouth as I tripped and ran around my little room, gathering clothes and bruising myself in fear that I would not be able to pack in time. An hour later , we were off to the hostel!

It was late around 9 30 pm when we arrived, mowing down a red banner tied to the tree that read" welcome international students" in the process. Unloading the luggage and dragging it to the hostel door was very hectic as luggages were kicked, pushed and some thrown up the steps. The ground level was filled with sweaty,wide-eyed students as we waited for Mr Tan to brief us and assign us to our levels. After a short 15 mins my group headed toward level 11 in which Jin Wei and I proceeded to room 1136 . Room 1136  had a front door decorated in pink butterflies the size of my palm, with bated breaths, we scanned the card and swung open the door to our dorm.  I had expected it to be small, and it was very small but it had chairs and desks which did look comfortable and a bed so I was rather content. The room was a bit dusty but that was fine so I checked around to see if there were any broken or damaged items in the room. All in all the room just needed a good thorough clean.  Taking a much needed bath, I went to unpack my luggage when I heard a knock from my door. It was the other OIP members that were on the same level apparently it turned out that we were the lucky ones. It seemed that many on this level has met the uninvited guests in their rooms and has set about in purging them with pesticide. There were talks on leaving the hostel but we made an agreement with the university to use their dorms so it will stay as that. My roommate and I thus started to jot down the items we needed to clean up the room and prepared to rest for the night.  We quickly cleaned the floor and prepared for our trip to the Yellow Crane Tower the following day after that we hastily through some of the bed sheets on the floor and slept. My last thought before I fell into a deep sleep was that I wondered if I should  ask the cleaning lady for new sheets and whether if the laundry room machines were working. Altogether it was a tiring day but it did make me realize that having lived the pampered life back in Singapore I have taken the luxury of a clean room for granted.