DAY 1- 24/5/14
The long-awaited day of flying to Taiwan
has finally arrived! We assemble at Changi Airport at 16:45,
all excited and ready to embark on our first ever overseas trip as a class.
After saying our final goodbyes to our
parents, we were off. We got some time to ourselves for duty-free shopping,
before leaving for our flight to Kaoshiung, Taiwan. TAIWAN HERE WE COME~ (^o^)
We finally arrive at Kaoshiung
International Airport at 23:55, where we were warmly welcomed by teachers from
Sacred Hearts High School!
Having come all the way to the airport in Kaoshiung
at such a late hour just to greet us, I was in awe and deeply admired them for
their hospitality. We boarded the bus to our hotel, ten drums culture village,
and by 11:30 we had checked into our hotel rooms, which were clean and comfy to
our delight.
DAY 2- 25/5/14
The weather was extremely hot, perhaps
even hotter than Singapore. We gathered at the lobby by 07:30 and headed for
breakfast at the nearby breakfast area at the next building.
Our buffet-style breakfast, with a wide
array of food ^^
Today was a packed day, where we visited
MANY museums around Kaoshiung, which included Kaoshiung Musuem of History,
Kaoshiung Hakka Cultural Museum, Former British Consulate and the Meinong Hakka
Culture Museum.
We learnt a lot of the culture of the Hakka people through the many museums we visited. We learnt about their food, clothing, traditions, etc. Like how the Hakka women wore blue, and had to help their families earn a livelihood, often working in the fields, going out at the wee hours in the morning, and coming back late at night. Consequently, they all wore pants with wide pant legs, the kind men wore, for convenience and practicality.
Meinong Hakka Culture Museum
We also visited the Meinong Folk Village
where we were given time to SHOP!! We also got to taste the famous 擂茶 they had ^^ They sold things from oil paper umbrellas to keychains...
We also had our first ever lunch at Taiwan at one of the restaurants there,
which served DELICIOUS food.
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| Oil Paper Umbrellas sold at the shops |
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| Lunch at Meinong Folk Village |
Kaoshiung Hakka Cultural Museum
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Interactive activities :)
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Kaoshiung Museum of History
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| Entrance of Kaoshiung Museum of History |
Originally, it was named the Kaoshiung
City Hall, which was built in 1938 by Shimizu Section under the Japanese
government. The architectural features of the building were Japanese Imperial
Crown Style. It was built with reinforced concrete to cope with enemy bombing
during WWII. I was personally really impressed with the decorations inside which symbolized the ruling power of japan and the architectural mixture of the east and the west.
After visiting the many tourist sites,
night had come and arrived at the much anticipated LIUHE NIGHTMARKET!!
Though it was considerably much smaller
than i had imagined i still had a great time there and quite possibly one of
the highlights of my trip. They sold a wide variety of food, which we all went
around trying, and also had multiple game stations set up where we got to win
soft toys as prizes. Their goods on sale varied from fresh food to electronic
goods and clothing. I got to try several snack over there including the fried
chicken fillet, oyster omelet, etc. It constituted a great end to the day which
was filled with loads of heavy content such as the culture of the ancient Hakka
people, as we got to relax there and tour the place on our own.
All in all though it was a heavy and
dull with all the museums we visited, all packed in one day, it was all
valuable information. Some parts were indeed interesting as well with the
exhibitions and a few interactive activities they had at the museums.
It was sunny as usual that day. I woke
up to feel really hot and slightly light-headed... I went to take my
temperature and true enough - i was down with fever
It was all so sudden. Thankfully i had
brought along fever medication with me just in case. It was going to be a test
of endurance for me the next two days until I recovered as I couldn't eat a
whole lot of things :(
After breakfast, we had DRUM LESSONS!!
We were taught several different rhythms and although I didn't really have much
strength to hit that hard, I had great fun and it was an interesting
experience.
After that, our tour guide, Aunty
Janice, had brought me to her room to take a quick little nap, which I was
really grateful for. I did feel better after my nap and my temperature had
dropped temporarily. I then joined the class for the MESMERIZING drum
performance put up by the people there.
After that we were off to Tainan~
Anping Fort and Old street
Firstly, we visited Anping Fort, which
was the first fort built in Anping, Taiwan, and was built by the Dutch in 1624.
It was first called ‘Fort Zeelandia’, however was renamed in 1661 as ‘Anping
Fort’, after the Restoration of Taiwan.
Displays inside ^^
Climbing the tower at Anping Fort, we were greeted with the amazing view of the city~
We later had lunch at the Old street not
far from Anping Fort, where we got to eat the many different Taiwanese snacks.
The coffin toast was definitely my favourite, although I didn't get to eat the
fried stuffs
:(
We later got some time to shop along the street after our lunch
before finally returning to the coach…
Tainan Confucius Temple
Also known as ‘The Highest Institute’,
built in 1666. We got to tour the temple ourselves, however most of us didn't
really bother to go look at all the displays inside and learn about them as
they weren’t any guides. We got to hang our wishes on this board they had near
the entrance of the temple which was interesting.
Eternal Golden Castle
The place was really peaceful I felt.
Although there wasn't really much there except for a few cannons they had
displayed, the greenery there was nice and relaxing to look at. We learnt that
the castle was built in 1874 by the famous Shen Baozhen, a Qing official to
safeguard the coast and defend the island from the Japanese.
Chihkan Tower
Our last tourist site for the day!! I
was really tired by this point. Originally named Fort Provintia, meaning
‘eternity’ in Dutch, the fort was surrendered to Koxinga/郑成功 when he freed Taiwan from the Dutch and later renamed it ‘Chihkan
Tower’.
Woman preparing her offerings before praying...
People's wishes hung on a board in the temple~
We then had dinner at a Chinese
restaurant where we were served delicious dumplings, etc. I got to eat my
porridge which was specially requested for me, however it was still delicious.
Still sunny as usual, we got earlier
today as we were going to school – Sacred Hearts High School! I however was
still slightly down with fever. Upon reaching there, we were warmly welcomed by
them, even having a grand welcoming ceremony for us, where they had many
performances prepared for us. I was really shocked at how hospitable they were.
Compared to us, for whenever we had foreign guests, we wouldn't even know of
their arrival until the day itself, at most just acknowledging them during
Morning Assembly as they stood at the side of the field. Our attitudes were
completely different from the Taiwanese!
What really touched me as well was their
kindness. Knowing of my situation, a teacher there had brought me to the
nearest clinic which was a two minutes walk away from the school.
We then got to meet our buddies for a
short while before attending our first lessons at the school. I joined the
Japanese class along with five others. Attending lessons with them for the
first time, we got a glimpse of their lesson style, and I realized the
difference between the Taiwanese school culture and our school culture. While
their lessons were less serious, where the teacher knew of every student’s
name, and the students were allowed to joke around with the teacher, our
lessons however are much more serious. Their teacher-student bond was really
close unlike in Singapore, which I really envied. As we interacted with the
students there, we really learnt a lot more about Taiwan’s culture, and just
how different it was from Singapore. They had ten minute breaks after every
lesson and also had specific sleeping times which was GREAT.
After that we went to a pineapple
factory where we had our very first D.I.Y activity there – making PINEAPPLE
TARTSS J
We were taught how to roll the dough
over the filling and shaped them into the containers we were given. I struggled
midway as my pineapple dough started crumbling when I tried to wrap it around
the filling! However the guide immediately came over and aided me. Although it
was a shame that we didn't get to bake the pineapple tarts ourselves.
We then got a tour around the area and
learnt more about the pineapples in Taiwan, and also visited the pineapple
plantation. It was an interesting experience for me as Singapore doesn't have
such plantations. The pineapples were all covered with cloths at the top, which
we learnt was so that they don't get too burnt under the strong sunlight, this
applied to all the other fruits Taiwan grows, which I felt was really smart.
We then made our way to Hua Shan
Elementary School for an art exhibition. We were welcomed with a violin
performance put up by the cute and talented children there. We then proceeded
onto the art exhibition where the children were our guides! Each one explaining
to us the meaning and significance behind each painting, having memorized
scripts weeks before which impressed me.
After that, it was dinner-time. We had a
BIG dinner, where we ate together with our buddies and their families, and
teachers from Sacred Hearts, and I felt was definitely one of the best dinners
of the trip J We got to interact more with our buddies and their families over
the dinner, which was great.
Our second day of the school immersion
programme! It was all about getting to know the different CCAs at Sacred
Hearts. We had balloon sculpting and magic lessons before touring around the
school as they had their various CCAs going on. They had a wide variety of
CCAs, such as the marching band, balloon-sculpting and several other clubs that
we didn't have at River Valley. Their Uniform Groups were definitely very
different from ours as well. They were much less strict compared to our UGs.
They did their drills and everything under shade, and even when falling in,
they ran really slowly, unlike the UGs in our school, where even the slightest
mistake would be pointed out and training is intense and fierce.
We also visited the towel factory, where
we did our D.I.Y towel activity. They taught us things to look out for in good
towels, such as the smell, colour, etc, and also explained to us the long
process of making a towel, which takes about 30-40 days. They sold towels all
in the shapes of various objects, such as cakes, dogs, cats, cars, flowers,
etc, which were really cute. They had ‘workers’ in a room where they would
constantly fold towels, each day folding hundreds, which I found fascinating.
We went to the second level where we got to fold our own towels into the shape
of a dog. The experience was fun and interesting.
We then went to the Yunlin Puppet
Theatre Museum, where we were introduced to the many different types of puppets
used in their puppet shows. Every puppet has their unique trait and they have
different colours to indicate the personality of the puppet and its type. It
was rather interesting though a little creepy with all the puppets that
surrounded the place O~O
We then attended Sacred Hearts’ annual
Musical Festival, which was really similar to our school’s Arts’ Festival as
well, where they had several performances put up by the Performance Arts’ CCAs.
DAY 6- 29/5/14
The BEST DAY of the entire trip!
It was the last day we were spending in
Sacred Hearts, and definitely was the most memorable one. We had lessons in the
morning at the school, where I joined the boys’ class for Geography and English
lessons, their students, girls and guys, being separated into different classes
as the teachers feel that they would concentrate better. As we went to their
classrooms I realized that ALL their classrooms were air-conditioned, which
made lessons more comfortable and enjoyable. If only our school could adopt
that as well, though our school fees would shoot up…
Then came the really fun part where we
had cooking lessons!! The students there gave us all sorts of
gifts, chocolates, food, letters, etc, even though we just met! It was really
heart-warming...
After that we got to spend the day with
our buddies and their families. We took the one-hour train ride to 台中, which was an exciting oexperience for me, as it was a first for me
actual train, unlike the MRTs in Singapore. We had planned to visit the CMP
Block Museum of Arts, however upon arriving there, we discovered that it was
closed that day! However, we still shopped around the area and the shopping
malls there. We got a taste of life in Taiwan as we walked around the streets and
shopping malls there, immensely enjoying ourselves.
Night had come and they brought us to a
Chinese restaurant near the hotel, which served hot pots. Being the hospitable
and generous people they were, they ordered us LOTS of food. We were split into
three tables, where our table ordered two hot pots, one that had a miso broth
and another a milk one. It was rather interesting to taste the milk broth as
I've never had anything like it before and it tasted DELICIOUS. After the
dinner, we headed back to the hotel where we had to say our final goodbyes. As
if the huge dinner wasn't enough, they gave us each a whole box of 太阳饼! By then, gifts i had received filled three whole bags! It really
proved to me just how generous the Taiwanese people were. We were all reluctant
to part ways after bonding together so much during the trip :( after taking our
last group shot together, we finally heading back to our hotel rooms and parted
ways...
Our LAST DAY of the OELP trip~
We didn't visit much tourist sites today
as we had our flight to board back to Singapore at 16:05. We proceeded to 台中 first thing in the morning which took about one hour.
After that, we visited the 921
Earthquake Educational Park, where we got a glimpse of the damages of the 921
earthquake disaster, as the government had decided to preserve some of the
phenomena related to the earthquake, such as slips in the fault line and
collapsed school structures. We got to learn more about earthquakes and the
dangers of it which was really interesting. It definitely instilled in me a
sense of appreciation of being in such a safe country such as Singapore where
natural disasters do not occur.
We also got to see a short 3D show about
the horrors of earthquakes. Their 3D glasses were really interesting as it was
made out of paper.
We had lunch and then drove to Taoyuan
Airport and boarded our flight back to Singapore.
GOODBYE TAIWAN~
