Day 1:
Today we took the plane from Singapore to Taipei. After our arrival in Taipei, we immediately travelled to the Tao Yuan (桃园）speed train station to take the Taiwan speed train to Hsinchu (新竹) where we will be spending the next 3 days of our exciting trip! The train moves at a top speed of 300 km/h and I was amazed by the breathtaking scenery along the way, not to mention I also managed to experience first-hand the friendliness of the Taiwanese as a baby waved and smiled at me throughout the trip. I feel that while we did not go to any tourist attractions today, we still have learnt more about Taiwan by going on their public transport and interacting with the locals. I also observed that there are differences between the trains in Taiwan and the mrt in Singapore. Firstly, food is allowed on the speed train in Taiwan while food and drinks are not allowed on mrts in Singapore. I saw that even though food is allowed, all of the people clean up after themselves and did not litter which showed that they are responsible citizens as they cared after the public transport and cleaned up after themselves. Therefore, I was impressed by the Taiwanese and had a good impression on my first day.
Day 2:
Day 2 of the trip is an exciting day that I looked forward to as it will be the day we visit the National Experiment High School at Hsinchu Science Park (NEHS) where we joined the grade 8 students in their classes for half a day. I was assigned to class M201, as my group was assigned to different classes, I felt lost and awkward with the students. However, they quickly broke the ice and soon, thanks to their friendliness, we were chatting along and laughing. I feel that their lessons are interesting and fun and they have more freedom than the students in Singapore. Their lessons are interesting to me as there was a lot of interaction between the students and teachers during class and while they joked around, the students knew when to keep quiet and to stop before the line so as to give their teachers respect. The lesson that left me with a deep impression was the English class where the teacher taught the students English using personal experience, thoughts as well as amusing examples through such ways, the teacher also teaches them morals which is enriching. The class is also very bonded and no one is left out, including us! The students in class joke around and takes care of each other, seeing past each other's flaws and getting along well. Some differences between the schools in Taiwan and Singapore is how there is a 10 minute break in between lessons where students stretch and freshen up for the next class. This allows them to prepare mentally and physically for the next lesson which is a good way of making students learn and absorb more knowledge during class as the brain will be allowed to take a break. My buddy, Rose, is also lively and caring as she explained to me what they did the last lesson to prevent me from getting lost during the lesson. She also shares the same interest as me: kpop and we got along really well. After lesson, we went to Hsinchu Science Industrial Park where we were introduced to many eye catching technology. The guide there explained every product with detail, informing us of the uses of the products and how it functions well. A product that is unforgettable is the teddy bear of the character in Toy Story. It speaks and yet is still cuddly and cute, plus it's purple! The scanner also impressed me greatly as I had never imagined that information on a paper can be transferred to our iPads so easily. Today is really heartwarming as I saw how the people in the class helped me to adapt and I saw how modernized Taiwan's technology is as I saw, for the first time, many cutting edge technology.
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| Brochures on NEHS and my tag (with my awesome name in bold ^^) |
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| My class timetable |
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| Presents from my buddy, Rose🌹❤️ |
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| Rose and I~ |
Day 3:
Today we continued to join the students in the school, but with a different class instead. I am assigned to class 9b where the students are a year older than me. However, they are also still friendly and accosting and gets along well with the teacher. We also went to a biology class where we learnt about corals. The lessons are interactive and the teachers are clear and straight to the point allowing clear understanding. As today will be our last day in school, we out up a performance to thank the students and teachers. However, the performance was a bit disappointing as we were not coordinated however, I was touched that the students and teachers still cheered for us with all their heart. After school, we went to the glass museum where we admired pieces of art made from the glass. The exhibitions are amazing as I had never thought that glass can be made into such magnificent pieces of art. Today, I felt how friendship can affect a person as the actions of the students and teachers made me really welcomed and happy. I also learnt how art is limitless and nothing is impossible as I had never thought that glass can be made into such pretty artworks.
Art Museum ticket and brochure
A fishing cat souvenir from the Glass Museum
Day 4:
Today we visited the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Formosa Aboriginal Cultural Village and the Feng Jia night market. The National Museum is interesting and intriguing as many of the art pieces made me curious and understand how the artist feels. An art piece that caught my attention is the art piece: 第一个夏天1969年 this art piece may seem like just a few boxes on a white canvas with no meaning behind it. However, after the introduction for the guide, I understood why the artist had painted such an image. The guide is also funny and manages to help us understand the complex thinking of artists and the history of paintings by using simple terms. I enjoyed the museum as I felt that it is relaxing to appreciate the art pieces and learn about their interesting history. Next, we went to the Cultural Village where we watched the amazing performance by the many aboriginal people. However, there was many people there whom had went straight to the rides. I feel that it is disappointing that people do not visit the various places where they can learn more about the aboriginal people and instead goes to the park just for the rides. The park is interesting as the displays have detailed explanations and we can still learn a lot without a guide. Lastly, we went to Feng Jia night market where I experienced again, the friendliness of the people that was part of their culture as everyone will take initiative and go the extra mile to help us while in Singapore, people would keep more to themselves and lesser would take another step to help someone. Therefore, I feel that today has showed me the artistic side of Taiwan, the educational value of the country, as it has rich culture, and the character of the entire community.
Museum of Fine Arts
Day 5:
First, we visited the 921 Earthquake Centre,which has many interesting and interactive displays to educate us on earthquakes. For example we learnt how the earthquake was formed and why does Taiwan always experience earthquakes. We had also viewed the remains of the buildings after the earthquake and many were destroyed, displaying the damage an earthquake can cause. At the Earthquake Centre, we also went to an interactive earthquake theater, where we felt and saw the shaking of the earthquake and what it did to objects around us. I feel that the earthquake centre and enjoyable and educating as we had gained a lot of knowledge through the centre. The centre also showed the spirit of the Taiwanese as they did not just forget about the disaster but kept part of it to educate younger generations about earthquakes. Following that, we had toured the 921 Lu Gang Old Town where I was fascinated by the many well thought out ideas of the design of the houses that aim to benefit not only themselves but also others and to teach people morals such that they cannot just care about themselves. An example is a design of a well where half of the well is outside so as to allow thirsty passer-bys have a drink to quench their thirst. This shows the kindness of people as they are willing to help everyone, even absolute strangers, and not be calculative about the cost of the well and water, instead, focusing more on how they can benefit each other to work better together. The houses at the Old Town is also interesting as the houses are long and narrow instead of wide as in the past the amount of taxes a household had to pay was measured by the width of their front door. Therefore, many of the houses are long and narrow to reduce the taxes they had to pay. Next, we moved on to tour around Xi Men Ding, a shopping district with the latest fashion items for teenagers. The things sold at Xi Men Ding are definitely of more variety than compared to items at the night market. However, the prices at Xi Men Ding is higher than the night market but that is expected as Xi Men Ding is a shopping district. The time spent there was definitely enjoying for me as we shopped around the district discovering a lot of cute items that we fawned over. Today was interesting as we had toured the old town and learnt the culture from the past and also experienced the modern Taiwan through Xi Men Ding.
One of the preserved earthquake sites at the Earthquake Centre
Half of the well is outside of the house (at Lu Gang Old Town)
Day 6:
Today we went to 十分老街 where we released sky lanterns on a train track, that still has a train passing through it everyday. The old street is attractive as all the shops have traditional designs and the train track adds to the traditional feeling of the town. It is interesting to walk on the tracks and move to the side when a train is passing through as the train itself is also of a older design and is a nice finishing touch to the town. The town also sells many interesting items as I had purchased a few mini lanterns that are adorable. I had also tried a drink with Regina, the 弹珠汽水, which Is basically a soda bottle with a marble in it and the person drinking would have to drink the soda and try not to tilt the bottle so much to the point the marble would block the opening of the bottle. It is fun to try this drink as the marble is indeed entertaining, blocking the opening until we found a way to solve that problem. Next we went to release sky lanterns.This is my second time releasing a sky lantern and I liked it a lot more than my first experience as this time, we released it at a old street, reminding me of movie scenes in old chinese movies which made the experience more special. We had released a purple lantern, which is for academics, and I do hope that the wishes written on the lantern will come true. Next, we proceeded to Dr Sun Yet Sen's Memorial Hall where we watched the formal changing of guards that had been standing at the same place for more than an hour. The changing of guards also attracts many tourists as it is special and the tourist can observe the marching of the soldiers up close. At the memorial hall, we toured the many historical artifacts that showed Dr Sun's contribution to his country. Later, we moved on to the National Palace Museum, where there is a permanent collection of over 650,000 pieces of ancient Chinese art pieces. The pieces of art are created by hand and yet is so detailed that it seems unbelievable that the artist created that without machines of any sort. This made me learnt that things in the past may be better than now and new is not always good. Many of the art pieces also contains the story of many characters in China's history and this shows that we can always learn something from objects that were from the past.
At 十分老街
Sun Yet Sen's Memorial
Bookmark from Sun Yet Sen's Memorial
Day 7:
Today is the last day of OELP and the day with the attraction a lot of us are looking forward to: the Eslite Bookstore! However, we had first visited the Chiang Kai-Shek memorial hall which is built to look like a palace.mInside the hall is an artifact museum with Chiang's two Cadillacs, various documents and articles from daily life. The artifacts are interesting and all had an detailed explanation on what it meant to Chiang Kai-Shek. Next, we moved on to the Eslite Bookstore. The bookstore is big, with the top level selling books and levels below selling gifts and accessories.The bookstore mainly sells books in Chinese languages, however they also have plenty of illustration books, magazines, comics. The bookstore makes people feel serene there and the staff are also helpful as they helped a tourist locate her book efficiently and politely. I had purchased a Big Bang CD at the music store, which sells a variety of music related items. Next, we travelled to the airport to catch our flight home. This trip has been fun, educational and unforgettable. I believe that this trip will always be remembered as this is our first trip overseas as a class, and may be the last. Even though, we got scolded along the way and had unhappy incidents but as a whole, this trip is awesome and the bad memories I had seem funny to me now. :)
Chiang Kai Shek Memorial
OVERALL REFLECTION:
This OELP trip has been enriching and the class had bond together through this time as it had created various opportunities for us to work together and know each other better. It is a memorable trip, a learning experience and a great time as the class had laughed together, cry together and got scolded together. This trip has left me with memories of everyone in the class that would always be with me even if we are no longer together as a class next year. Through this trip, I have also experienced a lot that made me think and understand, gaining more knowledge on not just history but also life. I still remembered how the one thing that I was un-used to was the traffic in Taiwan as the traffic seems complicated and crossing a road seemed to be terrifying for me, however, I adapted to it soon as it is after all a part of their way of life and we cannot possibly want them to change for us. While this trip may have ended, the journey of our lives has not and 2L will move forward to achieve great success in our future, even though we may not be together physically but we will be 2L forever in our hearts.
The happy times with awesome 2L through this
7D6N OELP trip in Taiwan where we shared
tears and laughter.
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