DAY 21

It seems that spring showers have started. Farewell warm weather, for now. Today yours truly and the group of 7 friends were supposed to sightsee around Xing Hai Square but it had to be postponed due to the wet weather. Hopefully the addition of 2 テルテルボーズ will help keep tomorrow dry.


31 more days until home sweet home. I have been getting pangs of homesickness recently.

DAY 20

Inspired by the vast clear sky that hangs above this city, Anglia and the group of 3 friends set out on a quest to find the ideal spot in the campus for stargazing. The quest brought forth trekking up hills and climbing over obstacles which proved to be dangerously thrilling.





Upon successfully reaching the peak of one hill, we were greeted by a family of agitated bees. Scared of getting stung, we trekked to the hill beside where we could see the runway of the airport. At some point, probably because we realized that it was not quite possible to climb up that hill in the dark evening to stargaze, we went off track and settled with waiting for planes to take off.



We felt satisfied after recording one plane take off and disappear into the hazy sky and decided to start on another quest that is finding a place to have lunch. The quest was not a long one for we found a minimart attached to a canteen almost immediately upon reaching the foot of the hill. I had chicken hotpot which came free with bits of pork ribs. In fact, I think there was more pork than chicken.







We stumbled upon The Garden of Eden a pavilion surrounded by lush greenery. Couldn’t help but bask in its beauty while thinking if I could stay there forever despite the number of creepers already residing there.






Having enough adventure for the day, we returned to the dorm to make use of the envelopes and writing pad bought earlier at the minimart. Just outside the school is the barest post office I have ever seen where we bought stamps for our letters. The place provided glue (for the stamp) which was disgustingly gooey but I ended up using it anyway. The man at the counter told us it would take 5 to 7 days for the letters to be delivered but I had my doubts. Will my once-in-a-blue-moon letter reach its destination soundly?

DAY 19

Today was interim review day and yours truly is glad it went pretty well, especially after periods of headache-worthy brainstorming. Massing models are in dire need because we just can’t decide on a form. Next week is to be production week, eep yay. AutoCAD is my good friend.


Had lunch at a Korean place where I ordered squid rice. I miss seafood; we’ve been having only chicken or beef or shrimp (which I don’t particularly like). Can I have sashimi, please?


As usual, my fascination for bottled soft drinks caused me to get one without further questions. Upon popping the cap, I found out that the bottle had to be returned. Oh the tyranny. We contemplated running away with the bottles but decided against it for the better of our conscience. I wish I checked first before buying.















Was brought to a sculpture exhibition in the campus after a design talk (in Chinese). Fine arts is pretty cool, but I think I will stick to design.



Part of the evening was spent exploring a newfound secret place on the second level of the dorm. It was a big (and dark) area with halls of meeting rooms. We should totally study the detailing done in each room.




Dinner was steamboat at a new place with new companions. We had rabbit meat and pork which hopefully is free of Influenza A (H1N1). The rabbit meat tasted like beef to the tongue which never tasted such a flavor before. I didn’t expect myself to be daring enough to try it let alone be able to appreciate the taste.


Epic fruit intake of the day: mango which is no bigger than half the palm of a hand.

DAY 18

This is Anglia who could finally catch up with the 3ds Max lecture after some weeks of being pretty lost. To think that the lecture was about the most troublesome aspect of 3D; lighting. 3D modelling is still not my forte but I hope I can catch up with future lectures.



Post-lunch schedule was supposed to be tutorial for Design Studio project, but our lecturer decided to share an inspirational project through a National Geographic video. It is the ScrapHouse project which sets out to build an exhibition house entirely out of scrap material in 28 days. The relevance to our Design Studio project is the use of scrap material which can be considered a green initiative. Yellow Pages for insulation wall, anyone?


Dinner was horrifyingly oily. Yes, that yellow gunk is none other than unhealthy oil which came from a single packet of fried rice. I am actually still not quite used to the excessive amount of oil used in cooking the dishes.

DAY 17

Another full day of being in class makes Anglia restless. After lecture was done I joined the posse who were once again attempting to capture moments of planes landing. The photo above is the catch of the day (can you spot the airliner?). There will be more and better ones to come, hopefully.


When the stomach signaled it was snack time, we responded by buying 烤饼夹肉 (kao bing jia rou/KBJR). It’s a Chinese burger with chicken, egg, lettuce and salt unevenly distributed that you find yourself biting into a chunk of the crystal at times. Still, it is quite tasty.

DAY 16

A full day of being in class makes Anglia sleepy, especially because there were only 4 hours of sleep last night. The day was used up learning lighting tricks on 3D software, attempting to capture moments of planes landing and conjuring up ideas for Design Studio project.


For dinner we went to a new place which is worthy of returning to since the food is absolutely not salty; cheers to that. Unfortunately it is still quite soaked in oil.


Post-dinner activity was inspired by the magnetic whiteboard-thingum a friend bought for the Design Studio project. We ended up playing reaction drawing where we had to draw whatever came to our mind first when an object is named. It was highly amusing to see how 7 people interpreted each object; some drew similar things while others were on a totally different wavelength.