5 Things I love about RV

1) The equipment we have, such as the gym and the library (which we do have access to).

2) The toilets which are fairly clean.

3) Our classrooms which are much larger in comparison.

4) The canteen and hostel cafe.

5) The staircases which are fairly safe, at least with no one playing ball games there.

-Ong Gee Hun (14)

Day 2 26/05

26/05 Day 2 45 合肥高中

Today, we went to 45 合肥高中 for lessons. We reached there at 9am and left the school for a tour of our buddy's house at 5.30pm. How the lessons were conducted were drastically different from how they were held in Singapore. Each lesson lasted for 40 mins and had a 10 mins break in between lessons. There were a set number of lessons each day, which was 4 in the morning until 12 noon and another 4 in the afternoon after a long break from 12 noon to 2.30pm for lunch. Surprisingly, there was no canteen or such in the school, so all the students without fail went home for lunch. They have no other choice. In my opinion, the system in china of having a short break in between lessons is what I would like to have in school as well. Even of that means that we might be released later at the end of the day. Having such a break would give the students enough time to consolidate what exactly was taught in the previous lesson and sufficiently prepare themselves for the next. They would also be able  to leave their seats and rejuvenate themselves. Unlike in Singapore, with the lessons one after another, at times even 5 hours without a single break, I often find myself tired and restless. Like a worn-out battery, one would not be able to concentrate fully, even if one wants and needs to do so.  Another significant difference between the system in schools would be a time for eye exercises in between lessons. Such an exercise, with the soundtrack broadcasted through the PA system, does not take much time. However, I believe that it does have benefit the students' physical well being in the long term. Something I observed would be that the number of bespectacled students are in the minority. Which is clearly the opposite for the students in our class.

-Ong Gee Hun (14)

Day 1 25/05

25/05 Day 1 三合古镇

Today, l learnt valuable things about China's culture. In my opinion, the Citizens if China puts a great deal of pride in their heritage. Especially so, as compared to Singapore. Families are willing to live in old traditional houses. Which are ancient and might not have the facilities they may need in daily life. Instead of moving to a new, better one. The sole reason being that their ancestors have been living in that house for up to hundreds of years. How many people in Singapore really remember their roots? How many people are really aware of the struggles their ancestors went through? In addition, the extend at which the facilities were preserved amazed. From the traditional shops, to the ancient bridges. All of them reflect the rich history of each and every place. Moreover, with the people who were born and raised here, there are countless legends of certain places and the meaning behind certain names. For example, a traditional bridge being named 三线桥 due to it connecting 3 provinces.  Perhaps there is deep meaning behind the names of certain roads in Singapore. However, is this widely known among the people, especially the younger generation? I guess not. One would not be aware unless sufficient research was done. Such knowledge about one's roots would not known to everyone in Singapore like that on China, Anhui.

-Ong Gee Hun (14)

Day 7

Day 7

Yay we finally got to shop in china but it was a old street(老街). But at least we got to have free time shopping. So the first shop we went to was a shop selling some traditional biscuit and tea leaves. I bought a packet of the biscuit as it tasted really good. Then we went on walking down the street and bought even more food. Then we reached a shop selling fan.  It wasn't any ordinary fan with random pictures on it. We get to write something about us, e.g our name, then the guy will make a poem out of it and write in on the fan. It was really cool and I bought a couple of it. 

Actually there wasn't much to see and buy in the street as every store sells similar things, especially the food, even the price were all the same. So 30min of free time was enough for us to finish shopping and we went onto the bus and took a few hours of bus ride back to the airport. 

That was how our trip in china ended. I've learnt quite a lot about china in this trip and also got to bond as a class. Of course there's conflicts here and there and friendship were ruined in this trip. But I'm sure there's much more we gained from this trip. I felt that the trip was a really fun one even though there were bad times, like the circus, but looking on the bright side, I definitely learnt a real lot from the trip.

-yida :D

Day 6

Day 6

Today we went to some village which also show the life of past people. To be honest I found it kind of boring as we had been to similar place like this for the past few day, like 宏村. 

But something different today was we got to have a lecture. The lecturer was from a hefei university, and he gave us a talk on hefei. He pretty much summed up the whole of our journey these few days. He also went further telling us the life of china and things we didn't get to learn during the trip last few day. The thing is that it was a night lecturer at 9+ and I was abit tired so I couldn't really focus then. Nevertheless, I did learn something from the lecturer.

After the lecture left, the teacher decided that we should have a circle time since it was the last night in china. In the circle time, many of us talk about the trip; what we enjoyed, what we gained etc. it was kind of awkward actually but I didn't really care because I was falling asleep. Then we just went back to our room and I finally get to sleep in peace. 

-yida :)

Day 5

Day 5

We woke up super early at like 5am today to go and watch the sunrise. The tour guide say it's only a 50% chance to see sunrise in this season. Luckily, we got to see it! It was really beautiful, just imagine seeing the sun rise from the angle of a tall mountain. It was really a unforgettable experience. 

We then pack our stuff and left huang Shan. We took the cable car again down the mountain. This time I wasn't that scared as compared to yesterday. I managed to see the awesome scenery when taking the cable car.

After we left huang Shan, we went to a village called 宏村. It was just another village which the people in the past used to live in. We once again learn their lifestyle and nothing much.

Lastly we returned to our hotel and as usual, did our reflection. It was a boring day and I only enjoyed the sunrise and nothing else :(

-yida :)

Day 4

Day 4

Today we went to 黄山. It's a very tall mountain with beautiful scenery. We took the bus and went up the mountain halfway. We stopped halfway to take the cable car. Taking the cable car is a very exciting, and also scary experience for me. In the cable car, we can see very awesome scenery which we don't get to see in our daily life in singapore.  But Why scary? Well, it's because I have height phobia. I've always avoided cable car, and other things like roller coaster, as I was afraid of the height. However, today I finally took the first step to take the cable car. At the very start, I was scared, I didn't dared to look outside at the scenery. However, after the encouragement from the teachers, I tried to peek outside the window, and it was actually really beautiful. I couldn't help but to keep seeing it, and my phobia for height was gone naturally. 

After that we went to climb to the peak of the mountain and we enjoyed the scenery from there. Sad thing is there's lots of weird and disgusting bugs there so I was bothered by it the whole time.

It was a really great day as I learned that phobia is just an imaginary fear, which can be conquered easily as long as we think of it in another way.

-yida :D

Day 3

Day 3

Today is definitely one of the most awful day. We first went to the museum. It a pretty big museum with thousand of valuable bronze stuff left from the past. The museum wasn't that interesting to me so there isn't much to talk about.

After the museum, we went to the China Intangible Cultural Heritage Park. It was a outdoor park featuring the life of people in the past, like their houses and their form of entertainment. I saw many different stone wall with unique design/picture on it. Many of them were the picture of sun wukong. We then reach a stadium-like place. There were many animals there, chickens, horse, dogs etc. I didn't know why they were there until the show start. The first show was the chicken fight. Chickens were let out free and left there to fight until the time run out. Blood were everywhere on them but yet they still must fight to protect themselves. It was so cruel but it was the first time I watch such things so I was surprised instead. It wasn't until some of my classmate walk away feeling angry, or sad maybe, that I realize it was so cruel. However it does stop here, after visiting more places in the park, we came to our last stop, which was a circus. It wasn't any normal modern circus, it was a traditional real circus. At first, it look cool, the performers were doing awesome tricks and we were all enjoying the show. Then they brought out lions, real lions. They ordered them around, making them to do different actions.They roar when they refuse to, but still did it in the end. After awhile, the lions started to not obey them, and simply just sat there not doing anything despite several orders from the performer. Then they use the long wooden stick and hit them, hard. They literally hit it so hard. I was too shocked to do anything and I didn't want to continue watching it so I just went chatting with my classmates. It was really saddening to see this kind of animal abuse. We left halfway through the show. The class was very depressed after the circus show. Some were even so mad at it and I felt that their reaction were really too...... overboard. 

From this trip, I've learnt a lot. This is the first time I've seen animal being abused so badly, I didn't know animal abuse still exists. Imagine them being hit everyday, and forced to do things they don't want. Also I learnt that we should really control our emotion sometimes as it doesn't always happens that everyone will give in to you when you're angry/mad/sad.

-yida 

Day 2

Day 2

So today we went to hefei 45中学, and I met my adorable buddy, lefan. He started introducing me to the school by taking me to a walk around the school. There's classroom, obviously, and a few activities room such as history room, economic room and English room. These room are used for special lesson to allow the students to learn better. The first thing I noticed in the school is their classroom. The classroom is as big as our classroom in rv. However, they have a total of 60+people at least in one class, while we only have half of theirs, 34. Their tables are also much smaller compared to ours in rv. This shocked me as it is unbelievable to have so much students in a small classroom, and yet they still can happily learn new things in class. Not only the classroom, but also the toilets, it gives out a super unpleasant smell and the cleanliness of it was not that good, but in rv, our toilet are clean. This lead me to a thought, we are much fortunate than the student in china. We have cleaners to clean the toilet for us, and a big and clean classroom to provide us with such a good environment to study. On the other side, these china students have to share a classroom with 60 other people, and they don't have anyone to help them to clean their toilets, thus leaving it dirty. So from this, I can learn that we are much more lucky than them, and we shouldn't take these things for granted, instead we should learn to cherish and appreciate them.

After the lessons are over, I went to my buddy's house. It was a really great experience as his house is different from us. He lived with his parents and grandmother in a apartment. The living room was just as big as the rooms, so it's like a house with several rooms. After staying in the house chatting awkwardly with family, my buddy decided to bring me back to the school to visit his cca room. His cca is robotic, so I just went there watching robots walking around randomly and he taught me how to create a robot program, which I totally don't understand. It was really a great experience going through the typical lifestyle of china student. 

5 things I like about rv:

1) the facilities of course. We have many different courts for specific sports and rooms like the history room, computer rooms and the auditorium.

2) cleanliness, especially the toilets as compared to those in hefei 45

3) canteen. So much delicious food

4) only one and unique RV spirit

5) classrooms. We have a spacious and clean classroom, and even a small project room behind, which I felt really useful for after-school discussion.

-yida :)

Day 1

Day 1

Today, we took the high speed rail to hefei. after alighting the train, an incident happened and it had affected my views of china. An old lady came to us and begged for money or food. All of us tried to ignore her but she was so desperate and kept begging us. Luckily, she backed off after several failed attempt. From this incident, I can learn that people often look for those who are helpless against them, example from this incident is that the old lady saw us as children, and thinks that it will be much easier to get money or food from us.

The tour guide then fetch us from the train station. On the way to the restaurant for lunch, the tour guide explained a lot about china, but sadly I couldn't quite get what she was talking about because she was speaking way too fast. When we are on the bus, the first thing I noticed was that the road was super noisy. People weds jaywalking and one thing I found annoying was that all the cars were honking. I didn't know why they did that but it was really bugging me. 

When we reach the restaurant, we started eating the real chinese food. There were a lot of dishes but to me, non of it tasted good. It was really disappointing as that was my first meal in china and yet it wasn't up to expectation.

After that, we went to 三河古镇. 三河古镇 includes 扬振宁旧居, 刘同兴隆庄, 鹤庐，仙古楼，古娱坊and 国碎楼. It was a really fun experience visiting these places as they have many posters and things used in the past. All the posters are about important people who has contributed to the country greatly. One of them is 孙一人. He has helped the country by defending the country from japan during the ww2.  

When we finished visiting these places we went for our dinner, it was much better compared to lunch. Lastly we went back to our hotel, did our reflection and lights off.

My first day in china wasn't that good, the food and environment was kind of bad, or maybe it's just me not used to china. but at least i get to learn a lot about china history.

-yida :)

Day 7
  Today was the best day among all the days in China as we got to shop! We woke up early and went to Tunxi Anxient Street. We went to a tea shop first and then got to shop freely for 40 minutes. Not much but more than enough.
 We then took the west lake cruise. After that we went to a mansion. After the mansion we took a long ride to the airport. We got free time again! My friends and I went to eat ajisen ramen for dinner. It was super cheap. As our flight was delayed, we got free coupons. We bought ice cream and gave it out to people we saw at the airport. Yay!
  In conclusion of this whole trip, I felt that I had learnt alot, grown alot as a person. I learnt to be mindful of I said. I learnt to appreciate what I have and posses. I learnt to never be greedy. I really felt that through this trip we bonded as a class. Many came out of out comfort zones, talked to people in the class that we hardly talked to.Learn more about them. And I also learnt to be much more responsible as a chairperson. This trip was really fruitful and I really hope that we can go overseas as a class again.

-Charmaine Soh

Day 6
  Today we went to many villages and mini museums. It was like super boring and today is the most boring day of all. I didn't really learn much at all.
  Then we had a talk about huangshan which was boring too to be honest. We then had a class reflection where we reflected on our actions for the past one and a half year with the class.
  In conclusion today was like the worst day. It was the last night where we get to sleep with our friends but are given a curfew and are not allowed to go to each other's room. Other classes seem to be allowed to do so which caused me to be quite disappointed.

-Charmaine Soh

Day 5
  Today we woke up super early to watch the sunrise which the tour guide said that the chances are 50% as it was spring. We managed to see it! After climbing for like another 10 minutes we reached the part to see the sunrise.
  After watching the sunrise, I went back to the hotel room to get more rest before meeting the class downstairs to go down the mountain. Halfway down, the tour guide said that the bus could not take that much people so three students and a teacher had to take a car down. I took the car and the ride was much faster and fun!
 We then went to another village and learnt alot of history there again. One point that I took note of was that if one house there caught fire, the rest would not. Interesting right? The architect must be extremely smart to have thought of this idea. We took many pictures and jumpshots too.
  In conclusion, I quite enjoyed this day as it was enriching and I learnt alot.

-Charmaine Soh

Day 4
  Today we woke up exceptionally early to go to huangshan. We packed a set of clothing before heading to the cable car. The cable car only brought us halfway up the mountain and we had to climb the rest if we wanted to reach the peak of the mountain.
  When we came down of the cable car, the air there was much fresher, the air was cooler. I instantly became happier as it was super cooling there. A cold weather equals a happy me. We climbed for about 20 minutes before reaching our hotel to put down our stuff. That 20 minutes climb was already killing me. I could not imagine myself climbing to the peak later. On the way to the hotels, there were many workers, carrying our rubbish down huangshan. Our tour guide reminded us to give way to them as the things that they were carrying was super heavy and they had to climb up and down the mountain daily just to bring our rubbish down. Our tour guide also reminded us that we should try not to throw rubbish up in huangshan and that whatever we brought up, we should bring it down with us too. I really pity them, doing such labour for probably a small amount of money. I saw one of these workers trying to pick up a bottle a tourist threw on the ground. He was shaking while bending down. I really regretted not helping him that day. I guess the best we can do is to not throw rubbish at huangshan and treasure the food that we are given for dinner as the workers worked hard bringing the ingredients up the mountain. We then met at the hotel lobby before climbing to the peak. The climb up was about one and a half hour long. It was like a never ending road up. Luckily the weather was good and I was totally in the mood the climb. When we reached the peak i felt a sense of accomplishment. The view was just unbelievable. It was magnificent and undescribable.
  On the route down, my legs were shivering. I really wondered how I climbed up so many decks of stairs. But still the view at the peak was totally worth my effort.
  After that we had dinner and slept early as we would be waking up early to watch the sunrise tomorrow.
  In conclusion, today was a fruitful day as I managed to train my stamina and leg muscles even during the holidays! I would also be proud to tell everyone else that I had climbed huangshan! I really hope that we can see the sunrise tomorrow!

-Charmaine Soh

Day 3
 Today we went to Anhui Museum and a theme park. I learnt the most today, after witnessing animal abuse.
  First we went to Anhui museum. I learnt alot about the history of Anhui.
  Then we went to the theme park which we first saw two chicken fighting to their deaths. Many of my classmates could not take the cruelty done to these animals and thus walked away and some even cried. We then witnessed dogs and horse racing. We then went to a circus. Although it was my first time in a circus, I could not enjoy it at all. I could not stand seeing the animals performing getting hit by their trainers just because they did not do what they were supposed to do. Again, many cried and even the teachers and the tour guide was puzzled and heartened by the strong reactions that our class was showing towards the animal abuse. Our teacher had to to bring us all out of the circus. I felt that some of my classmates were extremely insensitive that day, even ones that are close to me. When my teacher insisted that we should leave the circus, some of them gave sarcastic remarks like ''can we stay to watch, it's quite interesting" 
  In conclusion, I learnt alot today and I know that we can never stop animal abuse around the world but we can make it lesser. As long as no one goes to watch the circus show, the performers would not need to perform and hurt the animals.

-Charmaine Soh

Day 2
  Today we went to a school in Anhui, Hefei 45 Middle School. I was extremely disappointed even before stepping into the school as i still had not received any email from my China buddy. All my classmates had already received theirs but me. When I met my buddy, she kept telling me that my chinese was much better than what she expected. My buddy was an extremely jovial person and we never felt awkward with each other at all. Their classroom was much smaller than ours but there were much more people studying in a class. Their tables and chairs were much smaller than ours and I realised that none of their fans were on.  It was still quite cooling as the air from outside the classroom was cool. The students there warmly welcomed us to their classrooms. first lesson was physics and every term was in Chinese making it hard for me to understand. In between two lessons there will be a 10 minutes break. I did not really like this system as the students would be released very late in the evening. During one of the break, i walked passed their toilet and there was this terrible stench of rotting animals. I guess there was no cleaners to clean the toilet and the toilet has be left uncleaned for quite a long time. The toilet had no doors and there was just this long hole for you to pee in.
  After a few lessons, we went for lunch while the students also went home for lunch. We went back to the school to meet our buddies again after lunch and continued lessons. Lessons were quite boring. After the last lesson, which was history, we went to our buddies house. My buddy house was small but has everything you needed. Her mother was very hospitable and offered me alot of food.
  After that we went to a shopping mall to shop and then back to the school to gather to go back to the hotel.
  In conclusion, today was quite a fun day and i learnt to appreciate the toilets we have back in Singapore.

-Charmaine Soh

Day 1
  Today we took the high speed rail. It was my first time taking the fast speed rail in China and I really enjoyed the ride. The scenery of China was great and the view from the fast speed rail was unblocked and beautiful. I wondered why was this called the fast speed rail when to me, the speed is almost the same as other normal trains. I noticed the types of trees planted in China is different from Singapore. I came to a conclusion that this was because of the weather difference. 
  After the train ride, we went for lunch and there were at least 10 different types of food served. The food was totally not up to my expectations and I did not have the appetite to eat at all. Maybe it was also caused by jetlag. i am sure that many of my classmates felt the same way as I did and thus, the amount of food left uneaten was alot. I felt that it was a waste of food but I knew i could not do anything about it. I just promised myself to eat more for the next meal.
  After lunch we went to San he Gu Zhen. During the journey there, I thought alot. Everyone was honking each other on the road, not willing to give in. I wondered why do they have to do that and felt that this was extremely different from Singapore. It was like a small village with quite a few museums and a small number of people living there. The people there lead a simple but peaceful life with nothing luxurious but all that they needed. We walked around for at least 3 hours going in and out of various museums. The tour guide was speaking in chinese thus, it was quite hard for me to understand what was she saying. No matter what, I still learnt alot of histories of China from that place.
  In conclusion, today was quite an eye opener for me. It was my first time in China, experiencing their toilets which are terribly described on social medias(which was not as bad as I thought it would be), experiencing the food here, experiencing the way the people here drive and much more. I have not much expectations for tomorrow but I hope that it will be better as we are going to the school in China. 

-Charmaine Soh

Jordan's reflection on OELP

Today we took a 3hr ride on the High-speed rail from Shanghai to hefei.From the station,we travelled to Sanhe guzhen.Many things had an affect of my perception of the world and it's society.Just after alighting from the train,an old grandma patted me on my lower back and extended both her hands towards me,with palms faced upwards.She was begging for money!

Even though,I waved my hand telling her that I am not willing,she continued pestering me and I was really scared as I did not know what to do to get her to stop.In the end,I got her off my back when she saw that I was with a group of adults.From this incident,I understand that people prey on those who seem to be more helpless and defenseless against them.I also understand from this incident that not everybody can have the luxury we have in terms of food,water,and other necessities.

During our lunch,I was afraid to even touch the food on the table because of my past experience 

With friends from china and the rumours I heard about the strong taste they have.But actually,it was not that bad after all. The food may taste different but once I got kind of accustomed to the taste and I grew to like some of the dishes like the chicken for example.Being adventurous can help us discover new hobbies,interests or favourite food.Being overly precautious,will prevent us from experiencing these things.

When we went to Sanhe guzhen,I was very adamant about touring the place and the trip really did prove my gut feeling was rite.

Today we went to 45 anhui sch. My buddy is a lively guy but shy,totally like me.Stepping in to the classroom was a total shock to me their tables and chairs had parts chipped off  and the chair was very uncomfortable.Sitting on that seat made me appreciate the tables and chairs we had at school.Before coming to the school I had always believed that relieving oneself is a private matter and our reproductive organs shld be hidden from the view of others.However,the toilets in the school had no cubicles and the urinals had no partition between them to hide our sexual organs.At first,I tried to hide mine by standing closer to the urinal and using the bottom of my shirt to cover the showing parts.When two guys saw this they laughed.Initially,I was ashamed and shifted my body closer to the urinal,but after reflecting on the incident for a few seconds,I thought,well it they find no shame in exposing themselves in this way why should I?After coming to that conclusion,I stood back and finished my business.

After visiting this school I have also come to appreciate the facilities we have in our sch.

Looking at the sch compound,I I was appalled.The basketball courts had concrete floor and all the baskets had no net.There were 4 courts and a miniature fitness corner at the side in between the only 2 sch buildings in the compound.

5 things I love about RV 

Condensed class size and few classes

In china there r 61 students in a class and there r 12 classes for each level

Big sch compound

More space for amenities

Good and advanced facilities

The tables and chairs r more comfortable and more conducive than the ones in China

Toilets wif partitions and cubicles

Privacy is not given at all in the sch in China

Lesser homework

In china the homework can only be finished at 11pm,and sch starts at 7:20 (not enuf slp)

Symbol

Colour grey

Ancient artifacts so all very old like old fols wif grey hair

Image

Norm reflection

First we visited the museum.We saw miniature versions of ancient cities and artifacts

And even learnt the process of Xuan zhi making.The first thing that came to my attention was that a person's name could tell us of accomplishments he or his family attained.With names such as John,Luke and Nigel these days,nothing on their status in society can be inferred.

The second thing that was intriguing was the fact that betrothal was a way to get more power and wealth.These days,we marry solely for love in a mordern society like Singapore.Even if parents do match make they do it for their child's happiness or for the greedy ones,the dowry.The king of wu betrothed his daughter to the king of cai to attain power thru their father-in-law and son-in-law relationship.This is something eye-opening as it is a creative yet brilliant tactic.

After the visit to the museum we went to Baogongci park.We learnt that Baogong wasn't actually the tall,tan and fierce dude you would see in Chinese dramas.He was actually only abt 156/7 cm on height which was quite short even by ancient standards.He was very fair too and had a gentle,introvert side of him.Another lesson I took away from this part of the trip is the amount of respect they gave him.They even built a masouleum for him and touring around his burial site I understand how important justice is to the people.I am inspired from visiting this site to help those in the world that are abused and ignored,whose voices seem to never be heard because I can empathize with their helplessness now.

On the fifth and sixth day of the trip it was mainly spending time exploring huangshan and traveling to and fro.Only in the late afternoon did we visit 3 places.Trekking Huangshan did not seem as easy as I thought it would be.I was fortunate to have my classmates to accompany me otherwise I could have given up very early.I have gained a much more confidence after accomplishing the challenge of climbing to the peak.Now I can proudly said I have conquered a mountain not a hill.Traversing this area opened my eyes to hard blue collar labour.There were many men in their fifties and sixties,even seventies carrying big,heavy packages of things up and down the mountain.The tour guide told us the average weight of the packages each man carried was about a 100kg

!They all looked very defined in terms of muscles too!I was very envious of their definition and muscle mass but then I took a different perspective,these people seemed very tired and strained,if it was me I would hate to do this kind of work for such a meager sum of money.Looking at these people I start to appreciate what the late Mr Lee has done for us.

The sixth day of our trip was not a very good day for me because I was quite sick.As a result I couldn't follow the group on some occasions.Luckily my teachers wanted to go for another round of photography in one of the attractions that day.I learnt on that day that my classmates do not hate me as much as I thought they did because they supported me when my stomach was acting up so that I could see the place .

During the seminar I learnt about some of the signature dishes of anhui and the outstanding people they recognize and pride themselves with.The thing that impressed upon was that they had a tradition of putting utmost importance on education.This was present since hundreds of years ago.This is a trait which makes it more outstanding than many other provinces.

From this trip I have come to have a better understanding of China and anhui in terms of their education system,economy and culture.