During the September holidays a group of students and I went to Wuhan China on a scholarship from the Wuhan University of Technology.

The group of students who went on the trip included students from Villa Maria, Boys High, Kirkwood and Cobham. Our trip started off with some plumbing issues as hostels went in the best condition. It was a great way to get to know each other. Despite that we all settled into life in China quickly and adapted to our surroundings. That was until the culture shock of the laws. Here in New Zealand, it is illegal to take a photo of a minor. Although some people may not be aware of this law, no one would ever come up to you and start taking photos of you. That is a whole different story when you are in China.

Our first experience happens to be in front of a Mcdonalds. We were ending a shopping trip and a former Cobham student with photography skills Jack Prebble decided we should take a long exposure photo. This required us to stand still for six seconds. It took a few tries to get it just right but when it finally did we had gathered a crowd of between 50-70 people. In the approximately 18 seconds they were all taking pictures of us. If you think this is disrespectful think again, we were in China, it is a very homogeneous place.

During the entirety of the first week we had chinese class where we learnt how to speak chinese. Then in the afternoons we would go sightseeing. We went to places such as Han Street, a very long street with shops selling cheap merchandise. Guiyuan Temple where we meet a monk who showed us some of his daily practices. We also visited The famous Yellow Crane tower where we walked up and down more stairs because China loves stairs.

After the first week was finished we went on a bullet train to go Yi Chang. There we spent two nights with a homestay. However, on the second day, everyone went with the host school to Three Gorges Dam, the world's largest dam. That was cool and all with outdoor escalators, but now going into the interesting part. Everyone's experience was different but my host family just happen to take me on a cruise down the Yangtze river. It was on a vessel not nearly as big as a normal ten-day cruise ship. It was about a fifth of the size of the P&O Pacific Jewel ship, but come on, It is on a river for two hours, It doesn't need to be that big. That night on the cruise there was a magician performing a show. About halfway through the show, he says he needs another volunteer. I put my hand up and as he looks around he says kids, don’t try this yourself. I look around and quite a few young children had put their hand up. He then picks on me and says you’re a bit older, you can come help me. Lucky for me I am bilingual so I can understand what he says. Then I was told to put a needle in his mouth, then the number of needles went a bit higher. I wasn’t keeping track of how many needles I was putting in his mouth, but that was a wrong move. He asked me how many needles I just put in his mouth. Doing a rough estimate I said ten. Then he asked me what 1+1+2+2+3=. Starting to panic I froze. If you didn’t know from the stereotypes, chinese people are good at maths, and I look chinese. Any intermediate aged china would be able to give you the answer in a snap, but not me. Then some kind

(or frustrated) person called out 9, my dignity was saved. Long story short I had an amazing time in Yi Chang with my homestay. Then we went on a bullet train to go back to Wuhan. At the train station is where I realised I had left the gifts my homestay gave me on the bus. Feeling bad I had an anxiety attack for the first time, it was terrifying to not have control over my body. Then we got on the train and I actually calmed down. After calming down I found out they found the gift and were getting it sent back.

Settling into my seat I realised there was a screen showing how fast we were going. We were only going 200k/ph, 198k/ph to be exact. How isn’t the Hyperloop still not out, it’s 2018? Trains need to be going faster. I have now finished with my rant, let's continue. When we got of the bullet train it was about 6:00 pm. That is also the time when the canteen closes. We were told that food was getting prepared for us so there was nothing to worry about. There was a canteen right outside where we were staying so we assumed the food was ready there, it wasn’t. It was at the canteen 20 minutes away. Most of us ate at the bakery that night (they had better food).

The following days we had fun classes where there was pottery making, Robot classes and a lesson where we learnt how to play a traditional Chinese instrument called Guzheng. Later we went to a primary school where the children would scream every time they saw a picture, I wanted to get out of there fast.

I would say the highlight of my trip was the very last day, we received our diplomas. We all graduated from 'summer school'.

Victoria Ding

Student Reporter