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It's amazing how things change so quickly in two months, especially when you're not there when they do.

Take our house, for example. When we left for the study tour, the whole place was barely done with some redecorating my parents planned. But now, just a few tweaks here and there, and it's done. My whole family; we all shared the same bed when we sleep; but now, my parents have their own room, my brother has his own room (though he barely uses it since he's a bit scared of sleeping on his own) and I and my sister now share the same bedroom.

I, too, could feel that I changed. I just do not know what has changed, though. But something did, without me noticing it.

Today was the end of the first week of class, and I've noticed that my classmates changed as well... OK, they just changed physically. That is, to say, that they have grown taller. They're still the same fun, "angelic" bunch I've been with since my elementary years.

They're just added by a new student in class, and we're so thankful that we were finally added with one more classmate. It's just too boring if there were no new classmates.

New classmates... my classmates; reminds me of the study tour.

I can't believe it. It's already almost a month since I came back to the Philippines, but I'm still talking about "Xiamen" this and "Xiamen" that. I thought it would last for only one week, but I guess making friends in just 2 months and then leaving them when you're about to get to know more of each other made me feel like that.

Heh, I remember my first day in Xiamen, the day wherein everyone barely knew anyone; they just knew the people from their own school.

We arrived at the airport in Xiamen at approx. 6 o'clock in the evening. The chill the night air gave us came to me as a surprise, for I thought it wouldn't be this cold; but it was.

Thank God I had worn a jacket underneath the uniform jacket all of us were asked to wear. It still felt a little cold though.

I wrestled my way on the baggage claiming area, and once I had found my luggage, I hurried over to help my friends get their luggage. Once we had completed the task, I slung the smaller of my two bags on my shoulder and dragged the other luggage with my other hand; and it was like that for how many hours until we were out of the airport.

The bus I was about to get into was full, so I and a new friend (yes, I made a new friend the day before this happened) rode on another bus to the place we where going to (that is, Xiamen Foreign Language School, but at that time I had no idea whatsoever that we were going to live in that school for two months.) We had chatted a little, until we saw the views the city (or was it a province?) showed us.

It was breathtaking, the nightlife here. Even in the darkness, I could see that everything was well maintained, and clean.

"Cleaner than anything back home," I heard one comment from the back. I shrugged and just admired the view.

When the bus turned at one point, I thought we were just going to pass by a hotel. But as we neared the gate, I instantly knew that it wasn't a hotel. It was a school.

I had turned on my "ignorant mode," commenting at everything and anything, about how magnificent, wonderful and big everything was compared to my school back home.

After I had collected my bags, all of us started to hike the long hike towards the dorm and it was definitely far away from the gate. My muscles hurt when I got to our room, since our room was on the second floor and I had to carry a 20 kg bag with another 3-5 kg bag all the way there... and I am not that muscled or atletically inclined at all, though I do seldom play sports.

I stayed at the dorm, unpacking my things, while the others went to the convenience store inside the school. There was eerie silence all the way, until a scary-looking teacher came to the room and told me instructions about the keys and the remote for the air conditioner.

When my roommates came back, I told them what the teacher told me, and I kept the remote on top of my table, then proceeded on unpacking the rest of my things.

We all fell asleep sometime later.

-

Okay, well, I guess that was just the arrival. I'm sorry, but I felt like typing that down first before going to the official first day of Xiamen. =D

-yawn- I'm going to sleep now. Maybe I'll write down the first day on the next entry. wink