chapter seven, page forty nine:

He went to sleep at 3.30AM, all dressed up ready to leave, and woke up 2 hours later and finished up the packing. The bus left Dalian Polytechnic University at 6.30 for the airport and then he was ready to leave for Beijing.

The morning was wet. Just like how he had arrived in Dalian. Welcomed and sent off the same way. The weather dropped too, she cried for us.

Upon arrival at Beijing, he immediately headed to the Forbidden Palace and walked the whole stretch. It was a breath-taking site, a place he had always longed to go. The breath-taking site, unfortunately, slowly turned into a sigh-taking sight. Every section slowly looked the same, and there was nothing much left to snap for the camera.





As soon as he headed out of the Forbidden Palace, the big iconic photo of China hung proudly at the top of the wall. It was the portrait of Chairman Mao. Frantically he took out his camera and snapped furiously, an image he got excited over.

After which, he headed over to Tiananmen Square which really had nothing, and ended the day at the hotel.

chapter seven, page forty eight:

The days after submission have been spent enjoying himself in China. He headed off to the Dalian Zoo today, in anticipation to see the black-eyed pandas.

Upon arrival at the zoo after an hour plus journey, it was a completely disgusting scene to his eyes. Dead ducks, dead rabbits and ill looking baby-animals filled the animal farm, while ponies, zebras and other animals were looking dirty and ill-kept.





It was a terrible scene indeed. The animals looking sad, crying out for mercy but no one understands them, they just think it is entertaining them.

After a long day taking in gruesome images, he travelled by cable car to the long awaited panda, only to be disappointed with one, dirty panda, in an environment of faked bamboos made out of plastic, lying in its own waste, and without a doubt looking dead. China’s pride, this is China’s pride.


Having such a bad experience, he knew he needed a break from such obscene things. He headed off to XingHai area, where there was a castle turned into a seashell museum. Time was spent there snapping pictures, then heading home for rest.

chapter seven, page forty six:

Second submission rushed through, and completed. During the night, he went up the hill with his friends for the last time to see the night scene of the airport.

chapter seven, page forty five:

Final critique happened today for Jonathan and his partner. He believes it went pretty well, and the effort and hard work has paid off. No sleep is good.



In the evening, he attended a cultural performance organized by the school; it involved the local and international students. The whole performance was moving really fast and almost smooth, it felt as though it went perfect, but it also felt like it was not whole heartedly presented because of its quickness. Perhaps this is their way of life, to have everything fast paced.

The performances ranged from singing to dancing, magic shows to cultural performances like the wushu. The wushu was a scene of energy and bursting lights that gave double effects to the performer’s fast movements.

chapter seven, page forty four

He slept at the unknown hour again. He gave in once again at 5.30AM until 6.30AM and continued with work.

He could feel time ticking just in his face. Submission was to happen at 5PM at Room 505. There was still so much left to do, but as he usually is, he shall never have an incomplete submission.

Breakfast was skipped. Lunch was skipped. Finally he finished his work. He headed up to the room, Room 505 was the code, the disc passed on. He slumped into bed. He still had to prepare for critique the next day.

chapter six, page forty three:

Sunday, the day he said he would not do anything, but it was simply mission impossible.

It is his birthday today, a happy new year to him. He turns nineteen, his last year to have a “teen” at the back.

(Flashback) Work had been rushed for the past many days. Sleeping time from 3AM and getting later to 5AM was his life this week. He slept at 5AM yesterday.

He slept at zero hour yesterday, and managed to witness his birthday coming. He went back to his room at 12AM.

(Diary) I was up since Saturday, working through until 12AM on Sunday, my birthday. What a way to celebrate its entry. My friend called me to have some green bean soup at my room, which I suspected was something fishy. When I opened the door, it was pitch black. The whole of the ID group was there, screaming Happy Birthday and jumping out from no where trying to scare me, one of the best ones was from behind the curtain. They wrote wishes on balloons which they wanted me to eventually burst, and had some terrible after-effects on the bed. Black stains that is. They even wrote on the mirror, hopefully with washable art paint. It was really a surprise for me! Or at least I never had expected everyone to be there. Cake, as traditionally always there, was there. It was chocolate cake, or was it cream cake. The cake was ten percent sponge with the remaining as cream in different colors, with an additional topping of cream in a shape of two fat flowers. Truly disturbing when I tried to cut through it.







After the whole celebration, we had the real green bean soup.

Thank you everyone who was present at the birthday surprise!

After the surprise, he had no time to waste but continue on with work until 7AM in the morning when he gave in to sleep until 8.30AM, and continuing with work again.

In the night, just before the day came to an end, he treated himself to his favorite snack brought from Singapore. Unfortunately it was spent eating with work.