Day 2 MingWei

Today is the day where we had a different tour guide, it wasn't our previous tour guide-- Jessie, but an unknown man. Tour guide Jessie said that she would want to make friends with her and enjoy the next three days with us. Well she's gone, at least not our tour guide for the next days. We were told that she was sick, but was she? This new tour guide for pretty good, he was informative and loaded us with tons of facts, etc. I didn't fall asleep today, at least that's what I can recall.

Tdy is also the day where we met our China buddies, I had a tall buddy called Liyuan. He is pretty nice and gave me a warm welcome. This guy was always speaking English yet I repeatedly requested him to speak Chinese as he was speaking far more slower than that of what I listen frequently. I wasn't used to it, however, I think my spoken Chinese was so horrible that he wasn't able to understand it thus using English all the time, or he was worried that my Chinese proficiency was not high enough to understand their Chinese. Well, I don't deny that. Firstly, my Chinese sucks(yes,it sucks). Secondly, I'm not used to their accent, which I can't be blamed for that as every country has their own different accents, slangs etc, where it goes our infamous 'Singlish'. But one thing, I don't understand is that why do the Chinese students think that we don't understand Chinese. Do we look non-chinese to them? Or did the school not inform them we are able to converse in mandarin lol. I guess the school wanted us to communicate, have fun with them ourselves. At 合肥45中, I did not dare to enter their toilet as it had an awful stench. I didn't want to even get close to the toilet, till Zehan asked me to accompany him. It was really horrible. Just standing at the staircase outside it, I wanted to puke. After my first step into the toilet, I almost puked, I ran out of the toilet straight away. It was unbearable, that was one of the worst toilets I ever seen, ever entered. I don't understand how the students there were able to survive in that toilet. This led me to a puzzling question--- Why do they not take proper care of toilet hygiene? We had several lessons there and the lesson that I understood best was Math. They were learning about average, mean, etc. After lessons, we were to visit our buddy's home. His mother was ready, outside of school prepared to send us to their home. They live on the 5th floor, his house was pretty simple like every HDB flat one can see in Singapore.  However, one thing about their floor is that they did not build floor panels on it, so it was pretty much like those in Rv corridors. At his home, I played Chinese Chess with him and amazingly, I BEAT HIM IN IT! Not sure if gave chance to me though, but the feeling to win a Chinese student in chess is great. (Not implementing that every Chinese/Chinese students are good in chess). His mother gave me many food like dumpling, yoghurt, etc. Later on, he introduced Ultraman to me lol. I totally have no understanding about Ultraman, and he told me his sister was an avid fan of Ultraman. I had a pleasant time there, however good things always seem not to last long, it was time for me to leave and return to their school to meet with our tourguide and teachers. Sadly, I had to part with him. Well, it was nice to meet him, and I hope that he will pay me a visit in Singapore , and I'll certainly give him  a warm welcome :D


5 things I like about RV
1. Clean Toilets (YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS)
learnt to be grateful to the cleaners in our schools for keeping our toilets so clean compared to 合肥45中.
2. Small Number of students as compared to their classes
They had like 50-65 students in their class and that is really a lot, really A LOT. It would be really hard for the teacher to take care of every single student and make sure all of them understands. OR perhaps I'm underestimating the teachers' power.
3.Shorter lesson time
Their schools end at around 5, and THATS CRAZY. I can die even when school ends at 2.30 usually, and idk how can they survive so long school hours.
4.School Canteen
We need a school canteen to have our meals, however at 合肥45中, there wasn't a school canteen and they were dismissed from school to eat outside and to enter school later on to have lessons. This would be pretty troublesome.
5. School Facilities
As compared to 合肥45 中, RV has much more facilities than them. We have a fitness corner, track , football field,etc. However they only have some basketball courts and a fitness corner that is not properly taken care of. The metal bars have gone rusty.

~Mingwei

Day 1 Mingwei

The first thing i can rmb was that The food was horrible. It was disgusting especially for the first 2 meals of the day. Breakfast had food that were not cooked, corns look pale in color, food look revolting to an extent that I had no choice but to only eat toasts and a drink of orange juice. Lunch was even horrible, they did not serve plates but only a bowl for us to eat around 10 dishes, rice and soup. Best still, only 2 spoons were given for 9 people to drink soup. Their service attitude was bad when our teacher asked for plates and one of the waitress simply asked, "what for"(in Chinese). It was one of the most tormenting eating experiences i ever had. Fortunately, dishes for dinner were slightly better and I was able to eat more. You guys may be thinking that im eating very less, all I can say is I have no appetite to eat them, thus I ate what I think is adequate for myself.I hope this would clarify why im eating much lesser compared to the others.Hopefully, these dishes would change for the better. Not for the dinner, I believe I would be all dead, having no mood to write the reflection now.

We also took the high speed railway train to Hefei in Anhui which was around 3 hours. I've no idea what happened on the train as i was deep asleep as I was exhausted from yesterday getting little sleep.

We also visited the sanheguzhen today, we had to walk for a little over 3 hours which was unbearable due to the glaring sunlight and the warm temperature. My back was totally wet. There were several attractions at the sanheguzhen, for example sunliren residence. There was also the yangzhenning former residence, he is the first  Chinese who got the Nobel award thats related to physics. In the preserved residence, there were also information boards which introduces the renowned people of Anhui.  The preserved buildings dates up to 600years back which is really surprising as they have not been demolished but kept as a tourist attraction.

In a nutshell, it was a terrible day for me and my friends, I guess.

~MingWei

day seven china(last day)

written by jeslyn(6)2E:
we went shopping at the laojie, something that everyone(i think) was excited about. however, as we did not have much time left, we only shopped for forty minutes, just enough time for me to buy some items for my friends and family.

next, we took the boat to another place. we learnt that the river we were on was actually man-made. although the scenery did not seem rather fascinating to me, we still took photos together.

we went to a place that has a statue of yuefei, a general who loved his country, and it also has yuefei's tomb along with his son's.

today, we did not go to alot of places as it was the last day and we mainly travelled a long journey on the bus to the airport. and as we arrived at the airport, i could not help but feel rather sad about the fact that this OELP trip was coming to an end.

throughout the entire OELP trip, i have truly learnt alot, from cultural history to knowing more about the people around me. i made new friends, i gained more knowledge of the history of a part of china, i bonded more with the class. during dinners, my dining table will always be playing games, to eat finish the food, and we are the table that always seem to get about two-three plates of the same dish. but through the many dinners, we know more about each other, we laugh together.

through this seven days of OELP trip, we as a class, we became more bonded as we climbed huangshan together, watched the sunrise together, ate dinner together, took photos together, and most of all, spent quality time laughing along with each other. perhaps, even after this OELP trip has ended, my friends and i will look back to these memories and ask each other," did we really do that?" and the think back to how much fun we had together, as a class.

and i am certainly glad i have been on this educational trip with my class, afterall it made me widen my knowledge of what is around me and the people around me.

PICTURES!:D

day six in china

written by jeslyn(6) 2E:
today, we mainly went to the different villages and went on a cultural visit to shexian. the different villages have different cultural histories in them, with a lot of artifacts and information about the ancestors. one of the villages gave me a deep impression whereby it has seven memorial archways, each of them with different meanings. one of them was about how filial a son was, whereby he was willing to sacrifice for his father and his father was also willing to do so for him, in the end the traitors who saw this let them go. each of this memorial archways with a different story behind them actually made me learn alot.afterwards, we went to a beautiful place nearby with alot of flowers and butterflies with bees.

we also saw the court with bao gong the official who literally represented justice who used to work there.

next, we went to shexian and went to the huishang big house,tangyue, etc. we continued to learn more about the cultural history of shexian and took pictures too.

finally, at night we went for a talk about huizhou and its past and success. i learnt that all these famous people who came from huizhou must have worked really hard to gain success. we also learnt about the spirit of the huizhou people: to be determined in whatever they do. and i feel that we should be as persistent as them to, to not be afraid of all the hardwork we have to do.

for the entire day, we just went on a cultural visit and a talk, although it did not seem very exciting but i felt that i have learnt alot along the way about being determined and how rich in cultural history huizhou was. however, i am starting to feel rather sad about the fact that this OELP trip is about to come to an end.


pictures!:D

day five in china

written by jeslyn(6) 2E:
we had to wake up really early(literally 4am+) to watch something new:sunrise. i have never really seen the sun rise before so i was really excited to see it for the first time in my life.
we had to climb up the stairs, dragging our tired bodies up in the darkness and when we finally reached there, the place was already very crowded as everyone was waiting for the sunrise. i felt rather tired and when i could not see the sunrise, i was so frustrated i actually wanted to sit down and not bother about it but after awhile, i felt that by doing so, isnt it a waste of effort?
hence, i stayed up there with some of my classmates and teachers waiting for the sunrise and when it happened, i felt rather happy that i did not step down and that i had patiently waited for the sunrise. everyone was staring at the sunrise in awe and so was i.

and obviously, i took a lot of pictures of something beautiful i have never seen before.

we continued climbing around after breakfast, looking at the scenery at huangshan and taking pictures before we went back to the tour bus.

next, we went to the 南湖书院and a village with cultural history in them. at the 南湖书院, we learnt that it has 200 years of history, with a lexu hall, and the classrooms that do not have lamps or lanterns as they study by using the natural light. we also learnt that in the past, when the hat is in, the owner is in; when the hat is not there, the owner is also not there.

apparently, the place was built based on people who either donated or put in effort and time to help.

when we went to the village, i saw alot of signs regarding about caring for one another's safety for example, "常念防火经，家家都安宁“ it means that as long as there are precautions taken for sudden fire outbreaks, everyone will be safe.

hence, from today's trip, i learnt that as long as i put in effort in whatever i do, i can learn in the process and i will be able to reap what i sow just like the people who built the place that we visited.

pictures!:D

day four china

written by jeslyn (6) 2E:
we spent most of our day climbing up huangshan and admiring the beautiful scenery. first, we took the cable car up and we climbed up to the hotel for the rest of the journey.
the scenery was literally breathtaking, with all the mountains and the nice setting. we took alot of pictures and my legs were shaking from the phobia of heights and also from climbing too much.

as the we saw the amount of flights of stairs we had to climb, everyone mentally groaned as we climbed up. along the way as i graudally felt rather unwell, i felt the kindness of my classmates, one of them even willing to help to carry my bag.

we also went to see the sunset and at that moment, i felt that i had been missing out alot and i kept taking pictures with my teachers and friends, along the way i made new friends.and of course, monkeys climbing up and blocking us from climbing down from the top.

we did not go to any museums whatsoever, but i felt like ive gained alot and learnt that we should reach out more to nature, go out more often with friends or family and that although this trip was very tiring, ive actually felt quite happy about it.

now for the pictures!:D

day three china

written by jeslyn tan(6) 2E:
firstly, we went to the anhui museum and we saw alot of relics from many years ago. one example was the splendid bronze culture that was used for sacrifices, weddings, banquets and meetings. we also learnt about the memorial archways that were used for landmark, achieving high office, exemplary behaviour and longevity; the different plaques of archways made from the family itself, from the place itself and from the country itself. i learnt alot from this trip to the anhui museum, also learning about the different paintbrushes and things related to it. i learnt that the relics were unique with different meanings, and that it must have been an honour to have a memorial archway for oneself if one were to do something good.

the next place we went to was the theme park that left a huge impact on us. one example was the circus. i felt that it was ok for me to handle as a tiger was made to jump onto a wheel with another tiger in it. however, some of my friends had started crying as they saw the sight before them and it hurts to see them cry hence i brought them out to comfort them. some people came out too, crying about how this was animal abuse. after comforting them, we went back in to watch the performance but we watched silently until the part when a small bear came out did some of my friends start to lose themselves again.

as we went to the playground to play, i felt that i saw a different side of my friends. i saw that they actually cared about what has happening around them and i learnt that although the people in the circus needed to earn money and risked their life by doing so, it was utterly wrong to use the animals for their benefit. i felt disgusted at the same time and was glad to see my friends having such reactions to such actions and if everyone were to stand up and state their opinions, i believe that such a thing would not happen again.

hence, i feel that it is wrong to use animals for their benefit. Do animals not have feelings too? perhaps these people needed money to survive thus they resort to such means.

i also felt that the class had became more bonded, however, this day has been so eventful i did not really take alot of pictures.