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Thursday, 7 August 2014

OELP DAILY REFLECTIONS - SHENICE



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.
Oil Paper Umbrellas sold at the shops
    

Lunch at Meinong Folk Village 
  














Kaoshiung Hakka Cultural Museum

Displays inside 


Interactive activities :)





























Kaoshiung Museum of History
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.


DAY 3 – 26/5/14
      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/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.

DAY 4- 27/5/14
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.


DAY 5- 28/5/14
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! 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...


DAY 7- 30/5/14
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~

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