Wednesday, January 06, 2010
I have moved to : http://awakebynow.tumblr.com/ ... Please re-link ;)
Dreams ended @ --*7:30 PM*--
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
SRGCE SHANGHAI 2009
Dreams ended @ --*9:36 PM*--
Day 7 - Shanghai
We visited Fudan university and baosteel factory. At fudan university ,we attended a economic lecture by one of the professor there, the lecture was in english with regard to shanghai 's economic.
Fudan university
bicycle 's culture ;P
At night, it was our last shopping in shanghai @ nanjing road
Day 8 : Shanghai - SIngapore
We visited a bookshop in shanghai which was 6 levels high. The majority of the books sold there was in mandarin but the books were very cheap, compared to the price sold in Singapore. I mananged to get 3 books , 2 of which is by 'ji mi' one of my favourite literature author. The books cost around less than $10 over in shanghai, but in singaproe, one book can cost up till $20++= or $30 +++ .
HEaded for lunch and pudong airport. We took the 4.30pm flight and arrived in Singapore at around 9.50 pm plus.
Well, this trip was a good learning experience for me to see how fast china is changing,especially shanghai ( the financial hub of china) . I will miss the cold weather as well as all the fun that I had with SRGCE SHANGHAI people. The 6 months worth of effort and preparation was worth it.
Dreams ended @ --*10:05 AM*--
Day 6 - shanghai
Visit to shanghai museum and back to hotel for Internal presentation ;) And before i forget , on one of the days, we visited Shanghai urban planning centre too.
Shanghai museum ( 5 levels )
Shanghai urban planning centre
Dreams ended @ --*9:58 AM*--
DAy 5 ( suzhou - shanghai)
SRGCE shanghai group is officially out of Suzhou and back in Shanghai . In the morning, we went to Zhou Zhuang and visited two wealthy men s' house built years ago.
Zhou Zhuang was known as the 'western venice'. Houses were situated on opposite sites of a river. The scenary and the weather was great :) I learned a lot from what the guide of the day told us. Every single items in the house had a meaning to it. For example, the young mistress of the house cannot lean back against the chair and there is a hole through the chair. This means that the young mistress is not married and do not have a '靠山'. Whereas for the mistress of the house, she can lean against her chair and there is no hole through the chair. This indicates she is married and have found her '靠山' already.
Then there was this stone which could be used to forecast the weather. If you touch the stone, and feel it's a bit wet, it means today will rain. We touch the stone, and indeed it was a bit wet. At the same time, it was drizzling.
After viewing the house, we started our shopping. I must say we are good at bargining ;) Teachers included ;)
Thanks to the purchase of a scroll by some of us, we were delayed by 1 hr + and the tour guide and the bus driver was a bit piss off. Sorry about that, but on the scoll there was a poem writen based on one's name. Therefore the writer must think before crafting out the poem based on the name.
We got back on the bus and return to shanghai for lunch, before proceeding to the shanghai world financial centre (which was finished building in dec 2008) and the pearl tower ( most significant building in Shanghai). Next up was dinner on a boat. SOme people got giddy as the boat was slanted to the side. We were almost late in catching the cruise along huangpu river. The ride was great as we get to see the night view of shanghai ( pudong and puxi). There were a lot of photo taking as well ! Except for the fact that towards the end of the ride, it was raining and the weather was super cold with the wind blowing onto you.
Shanghai world financial centre
Waiting for the life and inside the lift...
Pearl tower
quening up to take the lift up the pearl tower...
Cruise along huangpu river
Dreams ended @ --*9:19 AM*--
Friday, January 01, 2010
1) Suzhou Industrial Park
- We visited the Cultural Centre and saw the milestone as well as models of buildings of the entire SIP. The flats in SIP were modeled after HDB flats from Singapore. But yet they looked more like a condo to me. Also only in SIP do you find simlar scenes from Singapore that you would never appreciate back home. There were trees on both sides of the roads and in the middle of the road, flowers were grown. This reminds me of the expressways in Singapore.
- NExt up, we visited a garment factory as we witnessed the process of making cotten and turning it into clothes/ cloth.
- Lunchtime was great as we tasted Singapore food such as fried rice, curry chicken and fried noodles for the first time in 4 days. I finally get to experience how it's like to miss food from home and how touched you would be when you get to taste food from home in foreign country. Everyone were happy during lunch that day :)
- Third stop was at zhuo zheng yuan ,a residence built by a rich man in the past.
- Fourth Stop was Suzhou Silk Factory where we saw how silk was collected and the uses for silk. Our teachers bought pillows and some other silk products while the students ( us ) did not buy much. It was considered quite expensive for us.
-After dinner we proceed on to our hotel ( zhouzhuang). On the way, we witness the beauty of Suzhou as it was lighted up. This scenary was different from the buildings and houses we saw in shanghai. Over here, it was more of lakes and bridges, reminding me of the chinese saying: ' 上有天堂,下有苏杭'.
On the way, our poor bus driver lost his way for three times as the roads were dark as we entered the '苏州古城' where houses were similar to those we usually saw in tv drama. Our hotel was horrible in the fact that it looks eerie and creppy. Almost all the girls were scared our of our wits when we entered the hallway to our rooms. At the two ends were corridors which was very dark and our rooms were just in the middle of the two ends.
Khairiyah and jeevita s' room was dark while chloe 's room was slightly dark too. So fast forward to the end of our story : All 6 of us sleep in my room , shared with hui yu. We even moved one mattress from chloe 's room and carried the chairs over. In the morning we shifted everything back to where it is. It was a fun and COLD NIGHT ! The hotel do not have heater and everyone was freezing cold. The gloves and socks and three layers do not help . Being scared, we even left the toilet door open when we bath and dared not looked into the mirror while bathing. One of the guys ' room had a blackout and they cam running in the hallway. Everyone can't wait to leave this place and we were grateful that the hotel in shanghai was way better.
Pictures ~
Dreams ended @ --*1:04 PM*--
Day 3
We visited Asia pAcific Breweries where we shown the ingredients of making beer , the machines as well as those above 18 years did have taste of beer.
There was a presentation by one of the Singaporean working there. I have learned that the beer industry is actually considered Perfect Competition. SIngapore's beer industry consists of mainly Calsberg and Heninekeen outdoing each other. I have also gained more knowledge of the beer industry in China and learned that although China 's demand for beer is increasing over the years, the profits made is still lower compared to european countries. The reason being the Chinese s' aim to keep the price of beer low. So it doesn't mean that as the consumption of a good increased , the profits will increase too.
Next up was Parkway Glegeagles Health centre, after lunch at Mcdonald. We learned more about the private healthcare service in China and how it caters to mostly expats. They even have an operation centre as well as wards for patients to stay in after their operation. The Q & A part was fun and it provides us with greater knowledge of the private healthcare industry in china. All the questions for internal presentation popped out as each speaker started to post their respective questions to our guide of the day. She used to be a dentist but switch to being an adminstrative manager.
The day ended with dinner with businessmen from Singapore working in Shanghai. Our group met up with a lady who was working for DBS in Shanghai and she filled us with her own encounters and experience living in Shanghai. Almost all the Singaporeans we met told us that if one do not go after a luxurious life , it is actually considered quite cheap to live in shanghai. After which our group went over to Team content 's table and had a chat with a Projects Manager working in Singapore-Shanghai international school. He turned out to be quite humormous and filled us with details of his own life experience. He is currently studying for a degree ( when we met him) and now he had gotten his degree.
I was thankful to our teachers for arranging for us to meet up Singaporeans working or studying in Shanghai. It feels good to see fellow Singaporeans in a foregin country. They told us that indeed they miss home, especially the local food such as 'Chay guay tiao', chicken rice and hokieen mee. They told us that if given a chance or opportunity, one should grab that chance given to go overseas to experience a different lifestyle and culture.
Dreams ended @ --*12:44 PM*--
Wednesday, December 16, 2009
Day 2
We visited Shanghai High School, an elite school on par with Singapore Raffles Insititution. However the students we interact with were humble and nice. One boy told us that he had visited Singapore in 2005 and like Singapore. The SHS students bombarded us with questions pertaining to our country and school. We were quite taken aback (I guess). They had obviously done research about Singapore and SRJC and prepared questions to ask us. The questions they asked shown that they had put in thought to be able to came up with the questions. We managed to answered their questions. Next we spilt up into 4 different groups and the interaction begins. We found out that to get into university, chinese students had to take an entry exam which will determine their future. University was divided into 3 levels. 1st level : Univeristy , 2nd: Something similar to Polytechnics in Singapore ,3rd: Something like ITE in Singapore. The 1st level was what the chinese students were striving for. Competition was intense as everyone work hard to achieve their goal. This was similar to us, SRJcians. Next year we would be striving hard, competing with top notch JCs in Singapore to get into the 3 universities in Singapore, especially NUS. At that point of time, I felt that SHS students and SRJcians were the same. We had to work hard to get into the university of our choice.
The SHS students also shared with us that Chemisty, English and Chinese were compulsory subjects to be taken. The rest of the subjects were sometimes not what they want but had no choice but to take it, for the sake of the entrance exam to univeristy.
we sit in for 2 lessons namely math and english lesson. FOr maths lessons, functions were taught. We observe that the SHS students do not have lecture noted but a notebook instead for them to take down notes. Moreover the teacher explain to them how the formula was derived. In Singapore, we were lucky to have good and passionate teachers who were willing to go the extra mile for our sake. LEcture notes were well prepared with solutions. IN SHS, the scene was different. The students were fully enganged as they do not want to miss important points the lecturer had said. No one was sleeping, chatting nor looking out of the window.
This was something that Singapore Students could learned from them. Subjects were taught not with the aim of achieving good results but also the aim of deveoping interest and passion for the subject itself. In singapore, we were brought up to view academinc to be extremely important than all other factors such as our interest in the subject. All we know was to do well in the subject. Who cares whether you like it or not.
SHS has a conducive environment for the sutdents to sutdy with the huge garden they had. Imagine studying there as each season changes.
( taken from yahoo )
For dinner, we had interaction with NUS students who were studying and working at the same time in shanghai. For my table, we had joyce. She was a 3rd year student from NUS who is working and studying at Fudan University.She told us her experience and what she had learned in Shanghai. We also displayed the 'HABITS'valuse which is to ask questions.
Dreams ended @ --*11:23 AM*--
Well, I am officially back from SRGCE SHANGHAI 2009 ;)
The trip was trully an eye-opener which allowed me to gain experience and learned about China's culture.
DAY 1
I woke up at 3.45am and arrived at the airport at around 4.55am. Next we waited for everyone to arrive before we check in. This is my second time taking a plane after so many years. I was nervous but at the same time filled with excitment. SO 30 hunks and babes, together with literally 6 teachers ( 1 from Xinmin Secondary VP and 1 teacher from North Vista Primary school joined us for this trip ).
First thing I was greeted with was a strong smell coming from people smoking right in the airport. This was something that you couldn't find in Singapore Changi Airport. Well, this is just the start of the 8 days journey surrounding the 'Smoking culture of China' (Barry's theory ).
We were greeted by our tour guide for the next 8 days. She was really a nice peron and is from Hangzhou. She bought us to put our luggage in the bus as we proceed to the airport for our lunch. The weather in Shanghai when we touch down was cold for me. Lunch was great and cheap ;). We proceed on to take the Maglev Train which was pushed forward from the last day to the first day.
Maglev train was super fast, able to travel up to 430km. It was a good experience for all of us as we would never be able to find it in singapore due to limited land capacity.
(taken from yahoo. Pictures taken by me to be uploaded on facebook)
NExt we arrived at XIN TIAN DI. A palce which was home to poor people, renovated in the 1920s ( If don't remember wrongly)and turned into houses known as SHIKUMEN with the merger of western and eastern culture. We tour around the place and learned from our tour guide that XIN TIAN DI was a place where westerners living in Shanghai like to come at night to have a drink at the bar. Locals do not usually visit XIN TIAN DI. The weather was then Super cold and night falls in at 4.30pm.
( taken from yahoo)
Dinner that night was horrible as team publicity found out food filled with some strains of hair and the food did not taste good. We headed to our hotel ( EXPRESS BY HOILDAY INN ) at PuXi ( Old shanghai), greeted by a heavy traffic jam. Many fall asleep, while i look out of the window. Roads in shanghai were now undergoing renovation, preparing for EXPO 2010. Every corner in Shanghai was taken over by the EXPO 2010 mascot ' Haibao' as well as the banners telling people to be gracious and the theme for EXPO 2010 : Better City Better Life.
Learning point: Singapore Youth Olympic Ganes is going to be held next year but yet we seldom see any banners nor advertisements showing the spirit of YOG 2010. The atmposphere in Singapore shown nothing of passion and excitment for YOG 2010. Unlike Shanghai, you would find shops selling sourveniers for EXPO 2010 and signs of EXPO 2010 was seen everyone. I find that Singapore could actually learned from the Shnaghainese,to shown more passion and excitement for YOG 2010. It was not easy for Singapore, a small country with no natural resources and limited land capacity, to be able to win the bid. So I urge all SIngaporeans to shown concern and to be proud of Singapore. The Chinese authorities are trying their best to change the bad habits of the people by putting banners everyone telling people to be more gracios. This coincide with the goal : BEtter City Better life.
Dreams ended @ --*11:00 AM*--
Friday, December 04, 2009
Hoilday is finally here , after a month + of hard work and anxiety.
1) A-level H1 chinese exam
2) Project work Oral presentation + Q & A ( Op = My best presentation in 17 years of my life )
3) Re-exam
4) 2 weeks of supplementary lessons (In fact is a full school day)
5) NExt year our whole class will upgrade to 2A07 :p except Emma who is going to 2A04 due to different in subject combination. I guess the class will miss her together with shafiqah, glenda, nila & annissa.
Hoilday Hw [ lots and lots of them ;( ]
- Maths tutorial chapter 17 & Intergration
- GP articles
- H2 Chi Lit hw : I got to read through the entire book on '雪山飞狐'. Why don't they choose something nicer . I rather read '射雕英雄传', '神雕侠侣' than '雪山飞狐'whose storyline seems boring to me. Mom study it before and she claims that '雪山飞狐'is boring to her too. Well, in order to complete my homework, I guess I have to read throguh the entire book.
- H1 geography : GOt to revise through 3 lecture books and completing the Graphic Organiser.
- Econ : Revise through 3 lecture books and complete the entire tutoril in Market failure and prepare for test when sch re-opens
YEAR 2009 last chapter
- Shanghai and Suzhou trip
-meet up with besties
-Going out for a movie with yi ting
-Meet up with altos ;O
-meet up with primary sch besties
-Christmas
YEAR 2010 : A-level exam
When Sch reopen, it is going to be a hetic year just like the whole of last year . Filled with TESTS TESTS and MORE TESTS + NAGGING and Reminder from teachers constanly + REVISION DAILY 24/7 if possible.
PAST
PSLE = most important exam to me back in P5
O-level = the one exam which determine where you end up in for the next 2-3 years and most likely affecting your future too
PRESENT
A-level = Most difficult and hardest exam on EARTH for the past 17 years, and it is going to be the one exam which really determine your future .
So anyway people, happy hoildays !!! Stay cheers
Dreams ended @ --*9:58 AM*--
Sunday, November 22, 2009
PART I
Came across this at article asiaone/health matters today.
According to some researchers in Australia - A small bar of dark chocolate a day can keep stress at bay .
Well, that may signals a good sign for chocolate lovers, especially those who adores dark chocolates like me to eat it, without a sense of feeling guilty.
Dark chocolate, which is rich in a variety of bioactive compounds, also partially corrected other imbalances in the body related to stress, making it a natural way to ease stress.
But a gentle reminder: Choclates are high in fat and too much can lead to weight problems. Well, all food should be consumed at a suitable pace and limit, too much will definetely lead to health problems.
Humans know it but well, sometimes we have the urge to try food that we know that might cause harm to our body like KFC fried chicken. We 'll just have to try to control the temptation :)
PART II
I went to Bras Basah, Suntec City and Marina Square with ying xuan yesterday. We managed to meet Beverly, wan tian , sally and Yi hong ( secondary school friends) For me, I met one of my jc friend too. I was joking with ying xuan, 'if only i get to meet my primary school friends' then my day would be completed. Anyway, the reveal of the 2010 youth olympic mascot took place at Suntec City where the camera man caught a glimpse of me. Yeah , I was on TV for 10pm news on channel 8 for a split second. Well, at least they caught a glimpse of me.
We had some Q & A session where we managed to answer 3 questions pertaining to youth olympic and won some prizes. There were free balloons too. Ying xuan got a purple one while I got a blue & red one for my 6 year old cousin . He was so happy when I gave him the balloons.
BAD thing : All the kids were staring at me when I walked around with the 2 balloons ;)
On the other hand, at Bugis there was a SEA games'booth. People would give their well wishes to TEAM SINGAPORE, which ying xuan and I did. There was a lucky draw and she gotten a notebook, while I a fan with the words ' I love TEam singapore'.
This leads us to thought of Liping who was a devoted fan to Singapore and loves everything about Singapore. SHe was indeed a true singaporean. We joked that she would do anything but to rush down to Bugis immediately just to sent well wishes to TEAM SINGAPORE for SEA games 09.
After that , both of us went to visit the christmas and electronics fair where we met sally, wan tian and yi hong. They were there for the ANIMA ASIA thing. It's been a few months since we last saw each other.
AT marina square, ying xuan & I watched the Winx club stage performance. The fairies look well, emm, a bit bimbo according to YX. But the trix looked much better than them though.
Reference
: http://sg.images.search.yahoo.com/search/images?p=dark+chocolates&ei=UTF-8&fr=yfp-t-101&fr2=tab-web&xargs=0&pstart=1&b=19&ni=18 ( for chocolate picture)
: http://health.asiaone.com ( for the article)
Dreams ended @ --*10:39 AM*--
Monday, August 17, 2009
PArt I
Time flies and soon, Promotional exam would be starting from 23rd sept with GP in the lead.
Very worried about many things. First time in my life I am worried about being retain. I wouldn't allow that to happen but things doesn't go your way some times.
CHoir practice would resume this week on wednesday and friday after our 'break' from the SLO performance.
The combined performance with SLO and 2 other secondary schools was a blast. Went through many first time and last time.
1) FIrst time entering the backstage of ESPLANADE, which would be the last time.
2) First time performing at Recital Studio and last time as well
3) First time singing with the whole SRJChorale outside school, without wearing the SYF costume ;p
4) First time performing for our seniors.
Photos are up on Facebook. So i wouldn't upload here ;) The backstage of esplanade is a maize. You would be lost if you were exploring it alone. It does resemble a hospital look but well, never mind.
So after SYF was this performance which took away my saturdays for 2 months. Now I do hope we could take a rest and concentrate on our studies again .
PArt II
I was at the floating platform viewing the NDP 2009 for the first time. I managed to get 4 tickets, so went there with my parents and yan ting. It was fantastic, the atmosphere was brillant. Every year on this day, somehow when i recall the years singapore had been through to what we achieve today, tears would well up in my eyes as I sang the songs.
Once again, HAppy birthday singapore and may everyone live in peace and harmony ;P
The national day rally was good and I take my hats off PM lee. He managed to talk from 6.45pm , if i am not wrong till 9.45pm, with short intervals in between. He sort of memorise the script I think. He shows us that a good presentation need not consist of only the talkings but also the showing, which he did. I love the video showing the future in which the whole marina would be transform into. It will be a nice hangout for many singaporeans in years to come.
I salute MM LEE for what he had done for SIngapore.Without him , singapore wouldn't be what it was today. Even though I am not born in that era, I am grateful to him and all others who lend a helping hand in the MAKING OF SINGAPORE.
Dreams ended @ --*12:18 PM*--
PART III
Currently at home. Gotten a 1 day MC. HA hA whenever i have any MC in the past few months, i still came to school for lessons and skips CCA only.
My stomach hurts from last night till this morning all because of something silly which i did.
I had thai bee hoon for dinner yesterday. Mum instruct the lady not to add in chili into the bee hoon. SHe knew I can't take the spicyness. Well, the lady didn't but she place chilli looking flakes similar to the ones u put in for spagehetti. I thought it was and never dream that those little flakes would make the food so spicy. Not even drinking 3 cups of cold drink would help.
I didn't want to waste food so I finished up the entire plate of bee hoon.
Then my stomach started to pain.
This morning i thought everything was fine and I went off to school. When I reached school, the pain returns. HAd no choice but to call mum and she wants me home to go and see a doctor. SO end up I went home when people are walking into the school.
So went to see the doctor and gotten 1 day MC. I don't know why, whichever doctor i see would only gave me one day MC. Anyway i miss one lecture and 3 tutorials today. Got to go for counsultation tomorrow.
Dreams ended @ --*12:12 PM*--
