Our last shopping day! Planned to set out by 10AM, but we ended up waking up late and dilly dallying, so we only managed to set out by around 12PM.
First stop was to 户部巷 for some street food and lunch with Eliza, Sheila, Dee, Jo, Houngsheng, Yuhaw, Yuchuan, Zhenzhao, Haoteng, and some of the local students.
I thought these were bugs at first sight, but they're actually mini lobsters, barbecued and eaten on the spot.
Lots of sinful street food. Was tempted to try them, but they were mostly horrendously spicy so I just went with an ice lemon tea from that area.
Decided to buy some 玉带糕 back for my mother, since she likes sweet things.
The railway train over the 长江.
Shopped for a whole afternoon after that, and despite attempting to try out new places, we didn't manage to get much and decided to go back to one of the shopping malls we'd been to before.
Apparently the others must've read some rumour about Singapore having a shortage of food, because they basically cleared out Walmart's supply of snacks.
I kid, I kid. But they really all did buy back lots of food, especially Pejoys, which is yummier version of Pocky not available in Singapore.
Headed to Ajisen Ramen nearby to settle dinner after we were done in Walmart. Most of them were pretty much starving by then.
Curious enough, Diyanah got a red heart-shaped bowl for her beef curry ramen.
My Ajisen Ramen and potato croquettes, shared with Michelle.
Oh and on the way to catch a cab, we saw this:
How rare was that, a Singaporean invention, in Wuhan!
They served some Singapore Chocolate bun that we wanted to try, but it was late and they had already ran out of stock. ): Could always have it after we go back, though, haha.
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Personal Reflection
One of the local students who's slated to come over to Ngee Ann Poly to study next year asked me if I had any advice on what to bring over from China for their year here. I had to take some time to think, especially since things that may be cheap to us, is expensive to them. Similarly, when we were at the supermarket, I wonder if the local students must've been surprised at our crazy grocery shopping. To them, things like Pejoy and Lays are things so common that they overlook all the time, while there we were, buying them like there's no tomorrow.
I ended up telling him that daily necessities like toothbrush and toothpaste are actually expensive here. When they asked how much, I had to tell them a toothbrush can be around SGD8, which is RMB40 for them. Their were shocked, since apparently you could get toothbrushes for sometimes less than RMB4 there.
It makes me think of all the students and foreign workers that most Singaporeans can't stand. The standards of living in Singapore must be horrific to them, with all the extra taxes, laws and fines, and that's before the exchange of currency. I think instead of being cold and unwelcoming towards them, Singaporeans should start accepting them, and be more understanding towards them. It is, after all, definitely not easy for them to leave so much behind in search of a better life.
