06 September 2012 (Day 1):

It was an exciting day today! Although we spent quite a long while waiting from 10.30 pm at Changi Airport Terminal 2 on the 5^th of September, we Aerospace Technology students knew that by 1.30 am, 6^th September, we would take-off from the airport on Scoot Airways, Flight TZ88, to Tianjin, China.

Waiting in the waiting area are (from left) Vannessa, Marilyn and me!

I had never been on a plane before but when I went in, I can tell you quite frankly that I felt cheated. It looked like those scenes involving aircraft interiors in the movies (except that it was not brightly lit)  and if not for the wing which I can see from my window seat, I could have sworn it was a bus- A bus that lurches up and down from time to time when cruising, making my head and stomach spin.

 

A view of the aircraft wing from my window seat

The seats were not very comfortable and as such, it was hard for me to get some shut-eye. Fortunately, my lack of sleep was made up for by the beauty of the sky. When we left Singapore, the sky outside was darker than a wolf’s mouth. The only light I could see was the one located at the tip of the wing (which makes for a very dull sight out of the window).

 

Around 5.20 am or so, the sky began to lighten and I could see colour in the distance. Appended below is the gradual change in colour of the sky that encouraged many passengers to get out of their seats, push their cameras to the window and snap as many photos of the beautiful moments as possible.

 

Picture 1 taken at 5.35 am, Picture 2 taken at 5:49am,

Picture 3 taken at 5:56am, Picture 4 taken at 7:06 am

 

After we had touched down in Tianjin, got past the customs and collected our baggage, we saw a woman holding a sign saying “Ngee Ann Polytechnic.” She led us to a carpark where 2 buses waiting for us. After driving us through several roads and impresssive expressways, the buses reached the Fu Bing Bin Yue Hotel where we could relieve ourselves of our heavy luggage.

The sign of the hotel that we are staying at until the end of this trip

 

After we had safely kept our luggage in our rooms, we went to the Tianjin University, just opposite the road for lunch. One curious thing I noticed when we reached the canteen was that ALL the stalls followed the same style as our Economic Rice stall back home in Singapore. Even though the portions here are extremely generous and at such a low cost (of 7.50 RMB), I feel thankful that in Singapore, we have a wide range of food to choose from (and not just Economic Rice).
 

Observe the generous portions of meat and vegetables!

 

 For dinner, we had a special treat. We went over to a restaurant called the Red Candle and ordered the food we wanted from the plasticised replicas that were laid out on the table in a corner of the restaurant.

A plasticised replica of Roast Peking Duck

Several mouth-watering and well presented dishes are laid out on the tables

Fellow students deciding which dishes they wish to eat

Let the feast begin!

 

 After tucking into such an excellent dinner, we retired to the hotel for the night, ready to “hit the bed” so that we would wake up fresh and alert for the next day.