MacTuch?

Day 29 4^th Oct 2009 Sun

Work on A Sabbath

Went back to company after three days of fun and rest. Continued to learn a lot about Flight Management Control System as it is a very big topic in aero electronics. Afternoon was more on like AEF, where we learn about the electromagnetic system and how it helped produce electricity in the aircraft.

MACTUCH’S

That’s the fast food name.. it’s logo look almost like Macdonald. If we are not aware, we might take it as macdonald by looking at it’s logo from afar.

The whole group of us decided to go to this fast food restaurant to have our dinner instead of eating at the same restaurant that the agent arranged for us.

The food there is really yummy and it didn’t sell exactly what I initially thought is some fake macdonald alike meal. They even sell rice there besides the burgers! I ordered a set of shrimp burger meal

price of the set meals there are rather expensive. For the set that I ordered, it cost RMB 48 dollars. Oh ya, a soft toy will be given with each set meal ordered.

almost everyone who ordered the set meal gave Dawn as she is a real hard core soft toy lover. Just see the number of soft toys we gave here!

there’s actually more than what you are actually seeing in this photo. Hahas. The restaurant is really crowded, and for most of the people dining there you can actually see them holding on to one soft toy at least. Think the soft toy may be the factor attracting so many people going to this restaurant to dine.

中秋节 =)

Day 28 3^rd Oct 2009 Sat

Moon cake Festival

Another off day for us! Today is really sleep till song! My oversleeping habit is getting worse! I’m actually bringing it out with me in this foreign land. Probably after staying here for almost a month, I’ve made this hotel like my own home. But not as comfy as my own SG home and there were actually times when I dreamt of my bedroom in SG.Anw, things are not that bad as I got to skype with my family members.

My room mate and I were being waken up by loud banging on the door by Terrence. We thought that something had happened sia! But they had actually ‘ta bao’ our breakfast to our door step. So yup, forgave them for waking us up (though I have to admit that we had overslept for an hour!). Morning was moon cake with egg!

I’m so in love with the moon cake. It is something that we can’t get in SG or it is rarely sell in SG bah. The mooncake’s filling was made up of berries, raisins, 莲蓉, 芝麻。

however, majority of my group actually don’t like it as they find it too sweet for them. Oh man, I certainly have sweet teeth. Hahas.

Where Can I Buy Kite?

As the four girls wanted to fly kite today at the lake side, the whole group agreed to go to the nearby market to buy kites. The whole group of us cab down to the market. I guess we really cab a lot here since the price here is very very cheap compared to SG. Usually it will take us less than sing dollar 1.50 to travel in this town. The market is actually a wholesale market so the prices of the goods they are selling are rather cheap. In the end, we shop for our own things instead of buying kite until one of them reminded us of our main objective here. The area was rather big but only one out of the two level market sells kites. What’s more, they only have two big kites left. In the end, we decided to call of the kite flying activity =( hopefully we’ll be able to buy kite and fly it at the lake side before we leave next week.

China’s Seoul Garden

As the local view moon cake festival as a very important event, we were informed that today’s dinner would be buffet style. The food taste great and the lady boss is very friendly, will try to go there again. They offer a great variety of meats and we were supposed to barbeque it with the spices offer to us. It was 20 RMB per person and there is actually a time limit which was 2 hours. However, the lady boss allowed us to stay longer than that, which is very kind of her =D

I shan’t say more, will let the photos do the talking here. Hehe.

Moon cakes

Thought of a year ago when chris, jon and I met up to celebrate moon cake festival in yishun park last year and jon was scammed by the vendor of the very high price lanterns and spoilt lighter. Miss eating moon cake in my small little cosy SG home with my family.

But, on the whole, it is still an unforgettable one celebrating in china and observing how the china people celebrate this festival. Saw the round moon at night, hope you guys saw it too =)

Our teachers were very kind enough to buy one moon cake for each of us. Took the strawberry flavor as my room mate doesn’t like strawberries. See the word “草莓” on the mooncake? Hahas.

Having see the hotel staff members still working instead of spending time with their loved ones, we decided to cab down to the supermarket and buy mooncakes for each of them. Goodness! We came at the right time! As today is their moon cake festival, the supermarket is trying to sell of all their moon cake at a very cheap price and also with the ‘buy one get one free’ promotion. Really saved a lot of money for us! Hahas. Bought this box of mooncake without egg yolk and we received one box of mooncake with yolk for free! Hahas.. plus the box of mooncake we bought is already at a discounted price! hahas… just look at their nice packaging! Hahas.

Last but not least…

中秋节快乐！

Poor Doggie =(

Day 27 2^nd Oct 2009 Fri

Wet Market

Woke up at 6am today as a few of us have arranged to meet up with our employer at 7am to go to the local wet market to look at some local products. The china’s wet market format is about the same as Cambodia’s, just that there are fewer houseflies buzzing around the China’s stalls that sell raw meats as the weather in the morning is simply too cold. We aroused the curious eyes of the local stall owners and some china wet market shoppers as we travelled in Big group with our employer. Some even start to join in our group when our employer stops by to introduce to us the local products. Okie, so what are some of their local products as you might start wondering now. Hahas.. basically they are Jew’s Ears aka黑木耳, honey, ginseng and鹿茸. Actually he was showing to some of us these local products and we are suppose to share it with the whole group and collate the number of people who want to buy back these products to SG, then he’ll kindly help us purchase at one go.

I was horrified when we pass by one stall that sells raw dog meats with its different parts. I’ll never ever think of eating it after seeing that scene, especially the dog head though I’m not really a fan of dog. It is just so cruel! Probably I’ve never seen raw dog meat but yes, don’t ever think of trying to ask me to eat dog meat anymore. My stand is very clear after seeing that scene. Poor doggie.

What A Day =)

Day 26 1^st Oct 2009 Thursday

Classic.. Unforgettable..

Knowing that today is a public holiday in China, which also mean no work for us so most of us stayed up late yesterday night. Actually we heard of having dumplings as breakfast today but everyone is so tired that actually none of us are up at even 8am. 8 am is the time we are suppose to go down for breakfast everyday. Actually among our group, I was one of those who slept early as I want to wake up for the breakfast. But then as the three alarm rang consecutively, I snooze all three. Hahas.. rang at 7am but when I manage to look at the time again, it was eight already. This was then I decided to go back sleep as it was too late to go down for the dumpling breakfast. Just as my head hit the pillow, the hotel phone in our room rang, this time waking up my room mate too. so I picked up the call.. I thought it was one of our group member giving morning call sia. It was actually from the reception, calling everyone’s room to inform us of the dumplings and to come down asap as they are afraid it might get cold and becomes very hard to be edible. This call really woke me up and I went round knocking to inform them. So we just simply brushed our teeth, wearing our ‘pyjamas’ suit and went down to have our breakfast. Little did we know that the hotel staff all lined up at the restaurant welcoming us. Was feeling rather bad as we were all late and all were dressed up sloppily. Supposed to be a very special day for them as it is their country national day, but they are very willing to share this joyous occasion with us. The next thing shocked all of us again. On the table, are eight plates of dumplings, each plate has about 20 dumplings, all having the same fillings inside. We don’t know to laugh or cry. Laugh is because the whole table is so filled with dumplings, cry is we have to finish them all. Later we were told the eight dishes of dumplings is something to do with their national day. The table only has dumplings and dumpling and nothing else, not even any drinks on the table. We wanna take a picture of it but none of us brought down camera as everyone was rushing to come down after receiving the call.

Now my stomach is so filled with dumplings! Hahas.

Happy Birthday China!

China turns 60 today! was watching the parade live on TV and I really like their parade march past! Their manpower as you know is really a lot but their drills are all very smart and neat! I’m sure they must have spent a lot of effort to practice it. Their contingent is really a lot! An hour before I leave my hotel for lunch, they were still marching and I believe there were many other contingents coming up behind. So you can imagine how many contingents they actually have! By the way, their parade march past starts in the morning.

Did I mention that today actually marks the first day of the one week holiday in china? Yes, one week off for the local people due to china’s birthday. Shiok right? Hahas… so for today and tomorrow we were given ‘off’ days but it will all be make-up by the company by going back to work on Sundays.

Spent the whole day in the shopping malls and many of us are resisting the temptation on splurging. Shopped from 1pm to 5pm straight! Hahas.

After dinner we decided to take a stroll at the lakeside again. When we reached the parade square, we heard loud music and saw big human circle doing simple exercises. Very cute though and we decided to join in the fun. Light exercises after dinner! Hahas..

Then we walked further down and see how people set up the fireworks. Rare opportunity that we can get so near to the fireworks. However, after one of our group member kana the sparks from the firework that drop down from the sky, all of us shunned for safety. Can’t afford to have more casualties after what has happened. Wanted to buy 孔明灯de, but then the place was so crowded so majority of the group decided against it. Took some photos of the 孔明灯in the sky. The small orange spots are the lanterns floating in the sky.

And not forgetting to take some group photos taken at the lake side! Hahas!

Unforgettable day! =D

More Work =(

Day 25 30^th Sept 2009 Wed

Work

This morning we learnt about flight management computer system (FMCS). It is a very important system in the aircrafts, especially in commercial plane. This system is like our GPS system which many of us fix it inside the car, but it is a very advanced and complicated system for the aircraft. There are many benefits for the airline industry with regards to this system (casting aside the high cost of installing this system first), it actually is able to map out the shortest route for pilots to fly from one destination to another. This not only makes the flight journey shorter but also cut down on 燃油。These are only just a few out of the many benefits that brought to the airline industry.

Noon time, after lunch we learnt about starter system. It also involves a lot of electromagnetism and the clutching in of gears that brought about the motion of propeller through this starter engine.

During lunch time, the canteen staff workers were hurrying for all of us to come down and eat so that they can actually go back once they wash our plates. This is due to the upcoming China’s 60^th birthday which is tomorrow and today was sort of their half day for them (but not for us *boos* =P hahas)

Can You Feel It?

I don’t know if it just me or it is due to the atmosphere around, I kept finding myself looking forward to tomorrow China’s national day. So in that public holiday mood with the china people. Hahas.. probably no work for us that’s why bah. Anyway, tomorrow is their national day; I suppose it is going to be a very grand one as it is their 60^th birthday.

Decided to tell the bus uncle to drop the group of us at the supermarket along the way back to the hotel from the workplace, because some of them their food supply is running low. Along the way, in the supermarket, almost everywhere you can see people selling mooncakes. This is due to the upcoming mooncake festival on Saturday.

Chinese All The Way

Day 24 29^th Sept 2009 Tuesday

Analyzing Circuits after Circuits…

We spent the whole day in the classroom at the workplace learning to analyze the components of M18-PZL. Remembered that I mention about we analyzing the overall electric circuit of this aircraft in the previous post? It’s in day 23. So we learnt two of the components inside. One is the current preventive backflow circuit and another one is solenoid ignition system. I hada difficult time trying to understand as the systems involved a lot on electro magnetism and those magnetically Chinese terms were so unfamiliar to me. Basically they involved Fleming’s right hand grip rule.

This is the solenoid ignition system. Photos taken with permission from the employer. If you are interested, you can go on to read lol!

The Arrival Of...

Day 23 28^th Sept 2009 Mon

Circuit analysis

Spent the whole day in work analyzing an electrical aircraft circuit of M18-PZL aircraft. Maybe the circuit itself was hard to analyze and in addition, all the mechanical terms are all in Chinese. I saw stars after analyzing it for a while. Hahas. Our leader was called up to explain to the class about this circuit after our lecturer. It seems that no one really understood this circuit. Luckily he was allowed to use English to explain to the class. As our employer knows only mandarin, the class was very co-operative by suggesting him to speak in English and they respond to him for whatever he said. Hahas.. it was a very hilarious moment. Then the next thing I knew, I was sa-boed to go up and explain once more after my leader. Oh gosh! Hahas… did the same thing as my leader and the class is simply too co-operative!

My ‘Saviour’ Package

Thanks to Jon, finally, my much awaited parcel arrived from Singapore to Jiamusi via plane. It all started with me forgetting to bring my medicine first. Then along the way, I got him to get some souvenirs and snake powder. Was really panicky when I find that he sent out the parcel rather late as my snake powder is running low.. very very low. People who know me well usually know that I carry powder with me in camps, in chalet, overseas. I simply cannot do without powder… one of my 怪癖. In fact, I think the worry of insufficient powder, triumphs over the medicine that I forget to bring along. Hahas.

Was very relief to hear from the reception that the parcel arrived today as Jon has informed that the parcel will be arriving Jiamusi on the 28^th. In fact, I was prepared not to receive it should it didn’t arrive today. hahas.. but as the parcel arrived at the hotel while I was working.. the honest reception staff dare not help me to accept this international parcel and sent it back to the post office. So the moment when I return from work, she told me of the arrived package and showed me the way to the post office. Grabbed Edward and Haziq to accompany me to walk to the train station, which is just next to the post office. Turns out that the walk to the post office is rather far.

It was a very unpleasant encounter with the post office staff. Their service simply is very horrible. As I don’t know anything about the procedure of collecting the parcel, I went to the counter staff and ask. Yup, it was natural when we don’t know such procedure and then we go up and ask right. But the next thing really scare me.. the counter staff that I approach was practically yelling at me and was very impatient. So rude! I was scare, but I pretended to be fierce.. anyway, my face looks fierce originally =P. so I called the hotel reception and they were very helpful and even talk to another counter staff via phone to help me. I was very appreciative of them doing this. Finally, after some time, they finally found the parcel, I signed a piece of paper and gave an RMB 10 for service charge. The three of us faster leave the place asap as all of us were very unhappy.. hahas..having working as Changi Youth Amdassadors for a year, all three of us have a very high standard on customer service. So yup, the three of us were fuming.

Oh ya, did I tell you that when the hotel explained to the counter staff that we were from Singapore, it is only then her attitude turned better. 真现实! >(

I was pretty unhappy with the unpleasant incident but the joy of receiving this savior package triumps all the lousy feelings. =D

Is this A 'Sunday'?

Day 22 27^th Sept 2009 Sun

Make-Up Day

As the coming week on 1^st Oct and 2^nd Oct will be China’s 60^th Birthday, we need not work as the whole company will be off for a week. Yes, a week! Their national day is on the 1^st Oct, but they can rest for a week after that. Hopefully, the shopping malls will still be opened during this period of time. Hahas. But this explains why we are back, working in the Company on a Sunday.

Learnt about this very cool and also complicated system in the aircraft, the Inertial Reference System (IRS). Guess I’m gonna get a proper reference book when I return from this trip. Really boil up my passion and finally gave me a much more clearer understanding of my course of study and the type of environment we will be working in should we want to be aircraft engineers in the future. cannot deny the fact that the risk in this nature of work is rather hard, so our employer kept reminding us to always be alert and awake in the workplace. One careless mistake may cost ur hand or even worse, your life. Hahas..but then every job has its own risk. CAREFUL is the word! Hahas.

Noon, we went to this old military aircraft and yup, our lesson was conducted using this aircraft.

Reflect

Too many things were left unsaid.

What A 'Resort'?!

Day 21 26^th Sept 2009 Sat

Resort that isn’t Exactly Resort

Two days ago, the group was inform of this trip to this resort in the mountain area (yeah, mountain area but this time is a one hour journey). We were told that we can have many fun activities over there like KTV, table tennis, pool, soccer, basketball, badminton, kite flying and fishing etc for the whole day.

But when we arrived at the resort, it wasn’t totally what we expected. As we girls want to fly kites, we went to approach our in charge to ask for the location to buy the kite. We were told that no one sell kites here and the back-up plan was to go fishing. Again, this time the resort does not have fishing poles. So in the end, we played at the swing, played pool and table tennis.

Thanks to the few pool sessions that I have with simon in the past, I got to play a few round and brush up my skills a little. Took me quite a while to recall the suitable method for holding my cue stick =P

Food there was yummy. Just look at our table!

There are like 10 dishes there for us. Very delicious. However, many of us could not stand the ‘boredness’ in the resort, hence we decided not to wait till dinner time to have our dinner there, although the dishes are superb nice plus the owner and staff of the resort displayed hospitality to us. This is unlike the usual restaurant we go for dinner.

Just 30 minutes before we leave the resort, the few of us went around having some snaps. It’s very convenient especially we got one voluntary photographer around =P Below is some of the photos we took at the resort.

Oh ya, not forgetting the bus we took this morning as well as returning from the resort. The bus actually break down on the way, but the uncle managed to fix it in 15 mins times. I managed to check out with uncle, seems like the rubber for the motor came out. Actually it was quite eerie when we saw the Chinese character printed on the bus body. Hahas.

Lectures and Lectures...

Day20 25^th Sept 2009 Fri

It’s Friday!

Attended a one hr lecture on Ground Proximity Warning System (GPWS) and then we went down to the hangar to learn the methods of tracking the faulty aircraft wires and the correct steps. In the noon, there is a 30 minutes talk on using the correct manuals when maintaining the different component of the aircraft, after which we went to an old military aircraft and the lesson was conducted there, using the aircraft. This is because our lecturer sees that the whole class was falling asleep during the lesson in classroom, so he decided to bring us out field and lecture us on this military aircraft.