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.

How economic growth affects the society

Whether the economic growth affects the society positively or negatively depends on the governing and inequalities itself. In some countries, economic growth would reduce poverty. However, in some other countries, there are a lot of inequalities and hence poverty would not be reduced much. To me, I feel that an economic rise would benefit the society in one way or another, such as a higher exchange rate of 1SGD to RM ($_$). Economic growth also improves and modernises the country, and the society can benefit from this. Also, economic rises means that there is a rise in productivity in industrials. With more productivity, the income of workers may increase since the company earns more. Also, there will be a higher employment rate. Therefore, I think that economic growth affects and benefits the society.

-Bei Xuan (8)

How to start a movement

After watching Derek Siver explaining how to start a movement,it got to me that to start a movement, there has to be a leader and followers. Who can be the leader? Anyone. As long as you take the initiative, you can be the leader. I feel that to be a successful leader, one has to take the initiative, and motivate the rest, and this is how followers come by. Being followers, I think they should follow after the leader but of course as what was mentioned in the video, the leader has to be fair and equal. Afterall, who likes an unfair person? In my opinion, followers are not only followers. They are leaders too. For example, the first follower in the video is crucial, for he has to follow the leader, and also be a leader himself, to get other people to join him. Once the second follower appeared in the video, he has shown that followers are also a leader, as he gets his friends to join him, and the video focuses on him, instead of the first leader. That is why, I feel that followers also have the role of a leader. To me, to start a movement, is to be a leader yourself and lead the others.

-Bei Xuan (8)

How economics growth affects the society

Economics growth can affects people both positively and negatively. As a country's economics gets better and better, many things change in the people life as technology are improved and the people will have to adapt to the changes so they can catch up with the modern ways of life.

Economics growth will cause a distinct difference between the rich and poor. This is because economics growth provide more job opportunity to the people. However, more people will also not be able to get a job, causing a big difference between the employed and unemployed. 

As the number of unemployed gets more, poverty will starts to appear in the society as there is an inequality in terms of social status and income.

So far, it may seem that economic growth has a huge negative impact. However, you may think that doesn't economic growth benefits the country? Of course, having more unemployed is just one down side of economic growth. There are many positive impact of economic growth. 

Many people will take up course to improve on their skill that are used in their jobs as they doesn't want to be disqualified. This will make the people to improve themselves, and the country's economy will become better.

All in all, economic growth can affect different people differently, both negatively and positively. 

-yida :)

In-trends in Youth

Taobao is a well-known online shopping website. You can get things there at a very cheap price and it's easier to search for designs there and hence is very popular and in-trend with the youths in China. Youku is a replacement of Youtube as China has blocked the usage of Youtube in China. 非常勿扰 is considered the number 1 entertainment show in China where single males come to the show and promote themselves to the girls to get a girlfriend.

EXO and Girls' Generation (SNSD) are two of the popular KPOP groups among youths in Singapore. Any teen would know who are they! Meme is another in-trend in the youths where they use picture of other people to show their emotions in a humorous manner, adding in the captions themselves. The meme is very closely linked to SGAG an online social page where Singaporeans post funny photos that they capture. STOMP is an online web where you might get 'STOMPED' for doing something bad or good. These platforms are popular among Youths in Singapore and provides teens with entertainment.