The week commenced with a ceaseless torrential downpour. Out of necessity, I had to leave my dry cozy room and battle the rain with my trusty umbrella to run some errand. Times like this made me treasure the sheltered walkways that we have back home which I always take for granted.
Sheltered taxi stands which are a standard feature of shopping malls back home are not synonymous with shopping malls here; to board a taxi, you need to walk out to the main road some distance away from the mall; this is a hassle especially when it is pouring. I suppose in different regions the required features that malls must have are also different.
Thankfully the weather was friendly the next day when we proceeded to climb 北高峰. It was an exhausting 2-hour vertical hike but the beautiful view at each checkpoint more than compensated for the fatigue. One interesting thing that happened was that we bypassed 北高峰 without even realising it.
As part of cultural exchange, we visited Zhejiang University’s (ZJU) History and Science Museums. The main takeaway I got from the visit was that the university has lived up to its motto 求是创新, which means seeking the truth and pioneering new trails. This can be seen from the sizeable pool of notable alumni groomed in their 120 years of rich history and the numerous advanced technology that the university has developed in the Science Museum.
Everyone was getting bored and so we decided to explore 河坊街. We realised we were spending too much on DiDi (taxi); a more economical mode of transport was required. This led us to board the metro. Compared to Singapore, security here is tighter in metro stations; commuters must undergo a mandatory bag scan before proceeding to the train platform. The layout of the train platform is almost identical to what we have in Singapore; the only thing missing are the ground markings that indicate where one should queue. Unlike in Singapore, commuters here are rather disorderly at the train platform, no observable queue was formed to board the train despite the large crowd; I guess queuing to board the train is not a thing here.
Moving on, we had buddy day on Saturday. My buddy LZ, is a 2nd year industrial design student from Guangzhou. From our conversation, I discovered that some things remain the same be it for students here or back home: we all have busy schedules and we all burn midnight oil to rush our submissions. From the campus tour to mall hopping, I thoroughly enjoyed the activities planned in buddy day.
That’s all for now, looking forward to what next week has to offer.
