Reflections Day 6 29/5/14 -Jing Xue

Ugh...a new day in TaiPei begins. I woke up ,forgetting that today will be the last day we will spend in Taiwan, until I brushed my teeth.

After breakfast, we headed to the Confucius Temple. The sky depicts our mood: it was raining. We were all saddened that today will be the last day. 

Unfortunately, I forgot to bring my umbrella, but luckily, Mrs Tan lend me her spare one. Thanks Mrs Tan!

The Confucius Temple was a rather meaningful place. Every architecture in the temple has a meaning. Here are some examples:

This drawing of a dragon, isn't just any dragon a 3-year-old kid could draw. It actually stores a value. The items the dragon is holding on each limbs each symbolizes a specific value. For instance, the Calabash Gourd symbolizes good fortune because it sounds nearly like 福禄（葫芦）.

The carves here also carries a meaning. This carving symbolizes longevity, because there is a carving of an old man, a crane and an oak tree, all which also represents longevity.

Also, this drawing represents safety （平安). Because the vase in chinese is 瓶 （平).

We were brought to the main temple. On top the temple were carvings that also carry meaning. The green dragons are carved to protect the temple in case of fire accidents because green dragons are believed to carry water elements. Evil birds are also carved to show that Confucius's wisdom could turn the evil into good.

After learning enough about Confucius, we headed UP TO THE MOUNTAINS! It was a long journey up the mountain (actually hills), but the scenery was ABSOLUTELY BREATHTAKING! Ö We can see clouds below us, amongst the mountains! Too bad for those who were sleeping! :P

Finally we reached our destination. We are here in Jinguashi, where we learnt about the past--this mountain used to be a gold mine, where people dug for gold. Maybe if you dig to the bottom of the mountain you can find gold there hehehe! 

Here, I can touch, I can see real gold! It's a rare experience for me! 

I learnt that the processing of gold is an extremely tired job. It was also a very risky job. I really admire the people that worked in there--to bring up a family, they sacrifice their lives to feed hungry mouths. Look at today, or maybe look at Singapore. We can just take a 30 minutes car ride to Orchard Road and go to some jewelry shop to buy some gold jewelry. Just give the money and take it. However, we did not ever though about how much hardship the miners took just to mine one gram of gold, considering that gold is rather rare. It may take them hours or even days to get that amount of gold. We ought to appreciate the miner's hardship and their sweat. Without them, we can't be living in such luxurious lives. Thank You!

Our next stop is everybody's favourite--JiuFen! A shopping street for everyone to enjoy! It was our last day, so let's be YOLO and buy everything we see! I got into my clique again (Owen,Yi Meng and me) and start our shopping adventure!! JiuFen is a rather big place, bigger than ShiFen I supposed. There sells a very wide range of souvenirs (what I want) and food! We were glad that they sell souvenirs! But first, our tour guide brought our clique to a tea shop that sells tea. There, I tasted ginger tea. It was extremely 'spicy'! But it has a great effect to remove heat from our body!

We strolled around the street and bought whatever we found interesting. The most memorable shop is the shop that sells calligraphy brushes. Yi Meng was planning to buy a brush, considering he is from Calligraphy. The shopkeeper was very patient and very friendly towards us. She demonstrated some of her workpiece and even have the time to teach us some calligraphy skills! Taiwan people are such affectionate...Yi Meng picked his brush and even had his name carved on it. It was a memorable shop...

I bought a wristband for my grandmother and a keychain for my grandfather. I bought myself a cap and some other souvenirs for myself and my family. By 6pm, we gathered back and headed for dinner. I miss JiuFen a lot.

Dinner was rather simple, at a rather simple restaurant...

We headed back to RF Pretty Hotel and packed our stuffs. As I packed, I think back of the happy times we had as a class together...

Today was indeed a very memorable day...I learnt about the hardships of gold  miners and the wisdom of Confucius, what made him so famous? It was his wisdom, not being smart in Mathematics of Science, but wise in moral values. He believes that learning in the correct attitude can let you learn for efficiently. Which is right, of course. A person who is always lazy and doesn't like to study will not get good grades. A person who is always hardworking (in the right way) will have a bright future ahead.

Sigh~I'm going back to Singapore tomorrow...Bye Taiwan!

OELP day 7 - Daven (27)

We woke up at 4.30am so that we can make it for our flight. YAWN... 😫 I had to wear a mask to the airport because I was still coughing... 

However, in the plane, I suffered. I vomited thrice and threw up whatever I ate. Thankfully, Shi Wen helped me out and when we landed in Singapore, I felt much better... Thanks Shi Wen haha! 

This was the end of my long-awaited OELP trip. It was tiring, torturing (for me haha), and fun. We took care of each other, especially room mates, and had chats with people overseas! Thanks for everything, 2H! 

Reflections Day 5 28/5/14 -Jing Xue

After breakfast, we went to Wulai Elementary School.

It was a one hour trip where we need to drive up the hills to reach the school, so I take a short nap in the bus. When we arrived the school, the children there welcomed us heart-warmingly. I noticed that their uniforms were yellow in colour and they wore blue shorts. We were ushered into the sharing room. It was a rather normal room with enough space to accommodate my friends, teachers and our buddies. We were grouped into groups of 3-4 and each group was assigned 2-3 buddies. The buddies of my group were all boys, and my group members were Yi Meng, Owen and me. First, the school presented us their traditional drum and singing performance. They did so confidently and the performance was AWESOME! I've never seen that jind of special performance before. Then, it was our turn to perform. We received applause from the audience and we went back to our seats.

The first lesson of the day is 泰雅族 language. The teacher, who was part if the 泰雅族, taught us basic greetings such as "How are you?" and "Thank You". "How are you" is "Lokah su-ga'" and to reply I'm fine is "Lokah saku", meaning "I'm fine".

Teacher also taught us numbers in their language and their animals' names which are boar, flying bat, and monkey. Then, the teacher conducted a small activity! (YAY!). There are cards hidden around the first floor of the school, and the cards have pictures of the animals (above) on it. We are supposed to find as many cards as possible and the cards are placed where the animals usually go or live. Then, we will present our findings to the class. My group only found two cards: one boar and one flying bat. Hm...I love this lesson! I've learnt a new language! ^^

After that is art lesson, where we design are card with insect drawings on it. We coloured and decorate the card beautifully, and after that we put strings through the holes in the paper into a diamond shape. Why must it be a diamond shape? Because, due to traditional believes, diamond shapes represent the eyes of the Sun, and the people from the Wulai respected the Sun. We use colourful strings to do this task. I made a card for Owen! 

After the hands on, we proceed to lunch. Because I cannot eat beef, I eat curry noodles! Ummmmm...I'm serious, it's YUMMY! :P The curry is not as hot as I expected and the noodle isn't that tough to bite either.

After our lunch, we proceed to Physical Education, where we play a mini basketball game. We must dribble around hula hoops and net the ball into the basketball net. Unfortunately, it started raining rather heavily, but we still continued the game...until something happened to me...:(

It was my turn. Frankly, I've no idea how to dribble a basketball. So when I tried dribbling around a hoop, the ball rolled off course on to the running track. I ran after the ball, but later slip and fell on the slippery track. I glide across the rough surface and scratched my skin. OUCH! It was painful, but bearable. I stood up and continued the game...

My first aider treated my wound. Thank you Ming Han!

After the painful lesson, we went back into the sharing room, changed from our drenched clothings. We had a debrief and gifts exchanging session. I gave my gift to my buddies. Oh yeah, I haven't introduce them yet. I'm not sure about their names because they always joke about it in Atayal language. They were rather rowdy and loud, which made me dislike tgem a bit. However, everyone has their own good habits too. My buddies were diligent and they respect their work very much. They did their artwork so diligently their eyes never left their artwork. Their resulting piece was fantastic!

We bid our last farewell and left Wulai Elementary School.

Next stop is the Atayal Museum. Inside showcased the traditions of the Atayal tribe, such as their clothings, instruments, weapons and how they hunt. It was a very interesting museum, and the tour guide of the museum was very heart warming, as she guide us through the museum with grest service. She even presented us a performance of her playing the traditional Atayal instrument and sang a traditional song. It was splendid! :)

From here, I've discovered that boys at my age were already about to get married, and they have already start to hunt for animals and build houses. Girls at my age would have already mastered threading skills at home. Compared to thus modern world now, the men from Atayal are considered to be real brave men, unlike today. Our best skills now was to only type fast on the handphones and computers, that's all. I really respect the Atayal tribal people...

After that we took half an hour to shop around Wulai Old Street.

Now, we went to Raohe Night Market. Wow! We had so much fun there. I followed Owen and Yi Meng once again. We explored the whole market and frequently stopped at houses to look and buy some food or souvenirs. We bought a phone keychain, and fried squid and milk tea for our dinner. We even went into the subway station. Here, I see that the Taiwanese will lean to the right while walking up or down the escalators or staircases, unlike Singapore, where we leaned left. On top the station is a shopping mall. We found a Mcdonalds and sat down to rest our tired feet. Me and Owen bought ice cream (鸡蛋卷冰淇淋🍦) while Yi Meng bought French fries. Coincidentally, we met the other group of boys!

It was raining heavily when we decided to walk back. We arrived at the meeting place on time. We left Raohe Night Market back to our hotel with contented minds...but sad that tomorrow will be the last day in Taipei... :'(

Today, I've seen yet another different learning culture in Taipei. There is profound differences between RVHS, Jian Guo and Wulai. RV and JianGuo are more advanced in education, just that there are more freedom in Jian Guo. The major difference is in Wulai. The people there are more traditional and their school system are more different. They use their language to communicate and they really stick to their tradition a lot, e.g. They would chant their music when someone received a prize. It was a warming school to lift in...Their school is also located high up in the hills, which shows that the people in that school were relatively poorer than us.

I really admire the students there. They do not have great technology unlike we Singaporeans (asked my buddy. He said Iphone 5 hadn't came out yet...). But, they seemed to be more friendly and carefree in their lives. Their main source of entertainment is drumming and playing basketball, while most of us face the phone screen every single day. Happiness isn't expensive. Happiness doesn't come crawling towards you when we are rich and have all the technology. Happiness is when we are we have friends to play basketball together...

We are already fortunate to be already living in Singapore, in a very highly educated school with maximum facilities, however, we take them for granted. Wulai School doesn't have all the facilities like RV has, and their school is almost half the size of ours ( they don't even have a field, their track is like 150 long only). We should appreciate that we are well educated  and that the school has money to provide us with facilities...