OELP reflections - Toh Zhan Ting XD

  Day 1

    (25/05/14)

       Today, it was the first time taking China’s high speed rail and i’m rather looking forward to it and furthermore, we need to take three hours to reach HeFei ( 合肥 ). Before the ride, I was pretty excited, but during the ride, I started to get bored, feeling that “ hours wear on like years ”, I felt like spending these hours in hell. The only thing that interest me or rather fascinate me is the way how high speed rail travels. While riding it, I feel myself floating in the air, this is when i realised the rail is using the concept of “magnetic repulsion”. Time so slowly………………

 

        When we reached HeFei, I was pretty annoyed by the noise pollution by the “cars’ horning”. Not only that, beggars were all around on the streets begging for money. There was one beggar came towards me and snatched away my “cheeseballs” out of a sudden and I was shocked and baffled. This is a scenery which you would never expect to happen in Singapore. Furthermore, cars were everywhere and the way they travel is totally different from Singapore. In Singapore, cars were travelling in orderly manner, but here, they were in total mass, horning at one another as if they were fighting. In Singapore, its the people gets the priority to cross the road first, but here again, maybe it’s the car getting the priority. There was a heavy traffic before we reach our next destination.

          Next, we reached the restaurant for lunch. Since then, our stomach were already moaning in hunger and we thought that the food they had prepared would be delicious. I heard from my fellow classmates that their dishes were horrible, but i don’t think so actually. Maybe, I’m a vegetarian and only eat the vegetables served ?       

       Following that, we went to San He Gu Zhen (三河古镇), I feel that this place was boring and coming here was meaningless. But in order not to let this trip be a wasteful one, I forced myself to pay attention to what the tour guide was introducing. This place is a place where many outstanding people in china's history resides. I learnt about some historical facts about China in the war between the Communist and Rationalist when Sun Li Ren ( 孙立人 ) got shot thirteen bullets and he actually survive ! And to be exact, he had three wives. Yang Zhen Ning ( 杨振宁 ) was one of the few Chinese who had won the Nobel Prize in Physics, which had done the Chinese proud. And what I found out again was, he had two wives. His second wife was forty old younger than him and I was amused that she is willing to marry him. And lastly after this trip, order i didn’t really enjoy myself, but I’ve still had a question to ask: “ Why do these people have more than one wife ? ”

  

 

  

 Day 2

(26/05/14)

 Today, we went to No.45 middle school ( 合肥45)actually i was really afraid to meet my buddy. firstly, i’m afraid that awkwardness would occur. secondly, i heard that i’m going to visit his house after lesson. Once we were outside the school gate, teachers and students started warmly welcoming us. At that moment, all of us feel really really shy and didn’t know what to do like a lost child without teachers’ instructions.  

According to mr wong, the students are the top students in the school and to not to embarrass myself or tarnish our school reputation, i decided to behave myself and shut my “ big mouth “. we were told to find our buddies in their auditorium, and this is when i was lost. i didn’t know how my buddy looked like and only know the name of his. i just sat down there passively and waited for him. Oh no ! most of my friends had found their partner and  settled down except for me……..

     suddenly, a person ‘pop’ out in front my face out of nowhere looking for me. my reaction is like “finally ！after so long！” after that, he brought me to this class where i found it amazing. In singapore,  a class at most can fit thirty four pupils but in china, it can actually fit twice of us which is more than 60 pupils. there is something that i had learnt from them, they were really really proactive and enthusiastic in class, whenever teachers start to ask a question, they would start to chattering, competing with one another, trying to answer her question. Unlike us, when teacher asked a question we sat there like nothing happen as if a wind had just blown past, waiting teacher to call for us. they have the studying attitude, they want to learn more which i’m admire of, as for us, we just trying to slack, not wanting to learn and waiting to go home. i really hoped that our timetable can change like theirs which is to have a ten minute interval break after every lesson, moreover they had a two hours break at 12 o’clock. but this would end up ending school at five o’clock which i’m really glad that school release us at 2o’clock. and the greatest difference between their lesson and ours is their teacher used chinese to teach them while ours used english most of the time. furthermore, they started learning politics in china cat our age but in river valley, we could only learn that in year 4 economics. before class, they will exercise their facial features which would make them more energized.  they had specially prepared a performance for us which i  was very touched by their efforts made for us.  and it i’m very regretful that we had never prepared any stuff for the class.

        After that, i went to my buddy house.  At first, i thought that he is very rich but from what i see, his house was utterly destitute, and from that, i can conclude that “he’s facing poverty”. he shared with me that he do not have any pocket money. even if he does, and it is also from the school. every semester, those students for scored top 400 will get 30RMb from the school as a reward. upon hearing this, i felt ashamed because back in singapore, i would not like to save money, instead spending them carelessly and recklessly without second thought. he kept on sharing his experience with me, some of it were rather interesting while some were really broken-heart. After a long period of time, we walked back to school, although we did not spent much time with each other but when i’m back in hotel, i already started missing him and really regretted never talk to him earlier, but no choice, time cannot be reversed, the only thing now to do is to email him once we were back in singapore.

                5 things i love about RV

1) noise level- sometimes we need peaceful environment to study. Compared to no. 45 middle school, i feel that our school noise level is rather low. during break time or recess, we will not be as rowdy as them making noise disturbing others.

2) Timetable- in Rv we were supposed to be released at 2.45 p.m. but in this school, their timetable are throughout the whole day.

3) Auditorium- Rv auditorium has air-conditioner while in this school they used fan to operate. furthermore, our chair has a much smoother surface cushion compared to theirs.

4) Toilet- RV toilet is much cleaner and smell more “fragrant” than theirs.

5) canteen - Rv has a big canteen while this school does not seems to be having one. they have to return home or have their lunch outside school which is not very convenient.

Day3

(27/05)

       Today, we went to AnHui museum and honestly, I do not really like to visit historical places, learning the past facts. But luckily, there is air-conditioner in this museum, if not i believe i would be dead under the glaring sunlight as if we were in a barbecue pit being barbecued like a roasted pig. Many ancient things like weapons used in the Song dynasty or even earlier were found in this museum and learning more about 文房四宝. Actually, I pitied the bus driver when I saw him wandering around, nothing to do other than waiting for us patiently. However, after visiting the museum, my WORST nightmare were to emerge. We went to the 中国非物质园......        Firstly, we encountered a few chickens struggling and were locked up in a cage individually and we were told not to either get close to them or touched them because we never knows what bacteria the chicken feather might be carrying or what disease they might have been infected. Hence, safety comes first. The first performance held up was 斗鸡 ( Chicken Fight ). There were four chickens were about to fight each other two at a time. They were fighting each other brutally, aggressively, fighting for survival, furthermore, this was a “ bloody war ” which blood was “erupted” whenever they bite or scratch each other. To be honest, my friends and I were very excited and betting with one another which chicken would be knocked down first. Next, there was a horse racing which everybody knew but dog racing, we had never encountered these before, not even on television. And of course, these match were suitable for us to place a bet whether which would come in first. According to one of my friend, he saw one of the horse were being forced to eat a bamboo before the match. Furthermore, the dogs were chasing after or rather baited by a meat controlled by a machine in order for them to complete the race. You never know what is behind the scenes, maybe, these small animals were being tortured by manpower in terms of physical or mental health. For example, the chicken could only rest once the time is up, if not they have to keep on fighting with each other for survival. There was a badly injured chicken were also forced to fight, and his feathers were all gone and only traces of blood can be spotted. To the trainers, if one of the chickens had died, it would not be a big deal to them because they can replace them any time. The only thing they cares about is the standard of the performance. I I had no rights to say anything about them being cruel because i was even more inhuman for thinking it was exciting at the start. Next, we went to the circus. It was animal abuse AGAIN……
          Four tiger had enter a cage together with two men holding metal staff on their hands, making sure that the tigers were performing well. I believe that the tigers had tasted the pain of these iron staff before, if not they were actually known for the kings of the forest, they would not be obeying their trainers’ words at all if they had not been tortured before in the past. Once they stop cooperating with the trainers, they will be badly beaten up by them with the metal staff. I felt so helpless after seeing all these. Such ferocious animals had actually been “controlled” by humans. I could not take it anymore, hence, my friends and I proposed to leave that circus until the end of the show. To be honest, I cried after that. I knew that it’s their culture and the way they earn money by risking their lives trying to torture such animals even if they would be eaten up one day. I learnt that everything had at least two perspectives and we should always learn to view it in different ways. In my opinion, money is the greatest temptation to the trainers. For the sake of money, they even “Yolo-ed” with their lives without considering any consequences. Furthermore, we, as the audience had also given them a chance to perform. Actually without these audience, they would eventually cancel this event because they knew that it will be meaningless performing to “air”. Although today is a bad day,but I had learnt several things.

Colour : Red

This colour represent animal abuse.

Symbol

                                              I believe it is time to stop animal abuse

   

Image

 

Animals did nothing wrong so why humans are abusing them.

     Day 4   (28/05)

    Today, it is finally a meaningful day to me. We finally climbed up to HuangShan after so long. We took at least two hours to climb up that mountain and another two climbing down. Although it was very very tiring and I almost felt like giving up, but everything was worth after all.  Firstly, before we even climb, we took a cable car up to the foot of the path where we climbed up. It was the first time i took cable car and I kind of felt insecure when the cable car was travelling. Firstly, it was really really squeezy inside where I almost suffocated. Furthermore, I do not believe such cable car can actually carry thirty people weight which would add up to almost 2000 kilograms. But luckily, no accidents, I thought that the cable car would actually dropped down. Climbing steps were the most tiring stuff, and we have to climb 30 minutes to our hotel. After settling all our belongings in the hotel, we headed to the highest peak of Huangshan, GuangMingDing which is 1840m tall. MingWei, Yida, Zhiyang and me, four of us wanted to “ act cool” or rather “ act pro ”, we decided to run up, competing with one another whether who would reach first. But during this journey, we decided to play truth or dare in order to distract ourselves because it was too exhausting. After 20 minutes, we cannot make it any further, hence, we sat down, resting our feets. Sense of accomplishment, and everything  was not in vain after admiring at the beautiful scenery of HuangShan. Although today was tiring but every hard efforts had been paid off.

                                                                           

Day 5 (29/05)

Today is the day we woke up much earlier than usually for the "Legend Sunrise". It is a 50% chance to see the sunrise in summer and we just "yolo" and go for it. Besides that, we woke up at 4.30a.m. and the temperature was really really low and my body was out of control and started trembling tremendously.  I was really very excited to see the sunrise for          the first time and everybody was very anxious (kiasu), fighting for the best view. We had no        choice to stand behind because we came later than the other tourist. Waited for 15                      minutes and nothing came out, furthermore, I'm FREEZING!!!!!

    

       I was disheartened and started loitering around. Finally, after so long......... the sun had risen and we              saw the Legend Sunrise. Beautiful is just not powerful enough to describe this scenario, suddenly I felt            that everything is worth because seeing this sunrise is like once in a blue moon to me.After that,                      everybody went back to hotel. From this incident, I realized that sometimes you would have to sacrifice        to reach that goal. You must try before you even give up although it might be less than 50%.

 After breakfast, we left HuangShan. This mountain is a place where all of us bonded together, get closed with one another, knowing one another better. This place had lots of wonderful and precious memory, and I believe I would never forget such wonderful and beautiful MOUNTAIN !!! Last but not least, before we leave, we had a class photo.

  We headed to the HongChun after on. Actually everything there is constructed by the 汪 family, for example, the school. In the past they constructed a school for the poors to study. Jordan was sick during that time, and he was quite weak and cannot walk too much. Hence, for the first round he did not follow us, but for the second round, Mr Wong wants him to walk around if not this would be a wasteful trip to him. MingWei and I decided to escort him in case he "break down" anytime. We actually had COMPASSION like the 汪 family.