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