A personal recount of a travel adventure.

Exams were over and the students, who had registered for a trip, felt excited and delighted as the day, 18 May 2008, drew nearer. It was an exchange programme or maybe an educational trip to China, ShanXi Province, Xi'An. Alot of my friends went and through this 11 days trip, we had alot of fun, learnt alot of stuff and even make our friendships stronger and firmer. Although there were times we were unhappy about some things, or the food was not suitable for me,but it was really the best trip ever!

The day in the airport, I was extremely excited as it was the first time I took a flight since 7 years ago. Our parents came, and even classmates of those who were not going also came and said goodbye. My tears dropped as it was the longest trip i had ever went, without having parents along. One of my friends bought me lollipops as my farewell gift.

When we arrived at Shanghai Pudong International Airport, we went there to have our dinner. We waited for around two hours and thirty minutes for another flight. It took about 5 hours to travel from Shanghai to Xi'An. It was quite a tiring day and we went to the hotel straight after we reached.

The next few days, we went to many historical sites including Bing Ma Yong, which had appeared in the coverpage of the history textbook for secondary one, Huang Di Ling, Da Yan Ta (Big goose pagoda), Qing Zhen Si (Muslim Mosque), The Muslim Street, Fa Men Si ( Buddhist Temple), Li Shan Mountain to watch a musical called Chang Hen Ge, and we had even climbed a mountain called Hua Shan.
There was one accident happened to me on the night we went to the Big goose pagoda to watch the musical fountain. I was so excited that my friend agreed to buy me a big soft toy. I followed another friend to the shop and found out that there were not many soft toys left, so she ran to another shop. I ran with her too. In the end, i trip and fell onto the ground. I had a deep cut on my left palm, which i called it " The best souvenier from China". The cut had recovered, but there is still a scar on my left palm.

After having enough shopping and playing, we went to the local school there to see how they carry out their lessons and how different are they from those in Singapore. It was totally different from what we had in Singapore. There were two students wearing their formal uniforms for the flag-rising ceremony, and they sang their national anthem loudly and i felt that they love their own country very much. Because of the earthquake in Sichuan, our teachers had removed the part where we had to go to the local student's house to stayfor a few nights. It was quite sad and wasted but at least, we had make friends with them there. I went to one of the students' house. His house was big and cosy.

Just a blink of an eye, these things happened one month ago. It was really a very fun trip. We had learnt alot of new things. After a few days in China, i started to get use to the food and back to Singapore, i can't find it anywhere anymore. I really miss the food there. I have been keeping in contact with my friend in China, and they might be coming to Singapore soon. Hope to see them again and hope that I can go to the same place.