OELP reflection---Hong Yang(:

LDay 1:

It was an exciting day, because it was the first time I went to taiwan. All that filled my mind was the rich modernized society, top notch fashion, a rare learning opportunity and it was about time we kept up with the Jonas's. The plane ride was a pleasant one, there were comfortable seats in china airlines, however there were many technical problems faced when we used the entertainment system. We took the high speed railway and as we did i observed Taiwan was a crossbreed of china and singapore, with some parts like china and high rise buildings like singapore. We bought food from the mini marts there and especially enjoyed the meatballs which stood up a lot in taste. We took the high speed railway to tsinchu and that evening we ate at a prestaurant serving the best of tsinchu signature dishes, noodles and pork meat balls. After the scrumptious meal we headed to our hotel, it was very grand and was unlike any I've seen before. The rooms are spacious and for the first time i actually complimented the hotel service for having good washroom facilities. It was a fruitful eye-opener and makes me look forward to 5 more days here.

Day 2: 

I was woke up by the screeching alarm clock at 6 in the morning and it annoyed me that my roommates were still in comatose. Today, was the first day in the Taiwanese school. I cannot help but feel nervous but at the same time excited. The school was old and dull in colour, lacking vibrancy aesthetically. We were received by a staff, she was very friendly and made us feel welcomed. We were lead to a conference room, the room was occupied by a small stage and well carved wooden tables and chairs, this school was not short of finance. We were given timetables and headed to our assigned classes. We went to the Chinese side, where the students spoke Chinese fluently. I entered the class, looking around the class was in a mess, students ran about and laughed aloud all the while the teacher stood there giving instructions to them. However, they complied and carried out the instructions without flaw. I was puzzled and I sat at the closest table I could find. A boy came up to me, he was around my height and seemed to have a tint of red in his hair. We introduced ourselves and became acquainted quickly. I could now tick off my bucket list for the trip as I made a friend. After school we went to the science industrial park and saw many new modern technological devices. I was intrigued by how new they were and got to learn more about Taiwan's economy as those were products produced abundantly there. We commenced the day with the traditional hsinchu food and we were satisfied from our day.

Day 3: 

I fell asleep instantly when I entered my room instead of rehearsing my speech, I owe an apology to miss Swee as I was foreign to the speech but I'll familiarize it on the bus no worries. It was our second day in the huge school but this time we went to the bilingual classes. I looked forward to that more as I could converse with the students in English instead of Chinese, which eased the barrier between cultural connection. However, we were assigned to a class of 15 year olds, who dwarfed us and secondly the first lesson was math. I face palmed myself repeatedly as the day was not filled with the exciting lessons. Math lesson was queer and awkward in a way, first of all we were surrounded by anxious 15 year olds whose chatters are louder than the teachers, secondly the teacher had a weird personality and seemed feminine, basically it's math. The lesson was hell, not that it wasn't interesting but because we had no clue what the teacher was saying, half of the time I was beckoning to my classmates asking them what was going on. We moved on the world geography which was in my opinion a lot more interesting as the teacher was extremely interactive with the students and used flexible learning to teach them, by giving projects which I would enjoy very much to do. Such learning methods can recycle what we learned and we could use the knowledge practically. At lunch we did our performance and I got to say my speech with Minhui, it was a tense moment . Physical education after a hearty meal was very well scheduled as it gave us enough energy to run about the basketball court. Biology was my favorite as the 15 year olds presented about their biology tank and even let us place our hands in, if only lessons were this fun for us. We said our good byes to our buddies and we hugged with them, took pictures and even left addresses. In the afternoon, we went to the glass museum and I bought a gift for my mother and she must be ecstatic right now. It thought us how taiwan treasures it's glass and thought us about Taiwan's flourishing economy. That evening we had the most scrumptious bowl of beef noodles at a restaurant called iNoodle, so modernized, but yet so cultural. I enjoy it very much so far and would especially look forward to an exciting day tomorrow.

Day 4:

Today was a day I looked forward to, the day we presented on during CID lesson. We packed our bags and headed off to Taichung and we visited the national museum of fine arts. The museum was the largest of Asia for displaying fine arts and it fascinated me as the whole building had a very artistic design. The whole museum housed a few thousands pieces of fine arts by Taiwanese and international artists. As the tour guide introduced us to the art pieces I could not help but admire the energy that lived with every stroke wishing the paintings. It really showed how taiwan prides on it's fine arts and appreciates it very much. We took off again, to the Formosa aboriginal culture village, where 9 of Taiwan's aboriginal tribes reside. It was a thriller as there was a huge them park with exciting rides. However, it dawned on me that they would use such means to get people to learn about their culture, it is disappointing to know that nobody seems interested in the culture and resulting to these means to educate them about it. It provides job opportunities for the less educated aboriginals and preserves their culture. I enjoyed thoroughly the dizzying rides, making our adrenaline levels soar. To be honest, i focused more on the rides, so it made me feel really guilty. In the evening, Feng jia night market was bustling with activity. We visited many stalls and bought famous foods which tasted heavenly and shopped for clothing. The services there were very good, stall owners were friendly and shop owners provided many discounts, it was worth the money to experience a night market and I definitely look forward to going to such night markets not found in singapore. In my opinion, today was my favorite day as I had never learned culture in such a fun way and tasted the stars within a plastic packet. This is a fantastic way for Taiwanese to make cash and maybe singapore should adopt similar ideas to give another burst to the economy.

Day 5:

It was sad that we stayed in Taichung for only a day but we were going to Taipei so it was not that bad. We began our day by going to the 921 earthquake site, there were many interesting ways they thought us to be prepared for earthquakes, by watching shows and looking at the collateral damage caused in the museum which was once a school. Right after lunch we went to lugang old street, the tour guide explained to us it's historical significance and showed us around what used to be a port. The old street houses were taxed by the width of its door, thus many houses were built long and narrow, it was an interesting way to reduce taxes and surely made the houses look strange. By preserving this old street, Taiwanese would have an identity and be different in a way as their ancestors lived in a unique way. We caught the 3.30 train from Taichung to Taipei and just like day 1 it was fascinating. But this time we also took the public transport to ximending where we shopped again. It was raining but I relished the shopping and culture aspects there. It was a day filled with humanities, geography ,history and economics were all involved and hopefully the skills and knowledge I gained can bring me far. 

Day 6:

We were given extra time to sleep so we treasured and as savoured that time by hiding under thick layers of bed covers. We went to shifen up in the mountains to release lanterns with well wishes. I could not help but feel it should have been at night but it was still a very heart warming moment to watch our wishes drift off into the sky. Lunch was decent and afterwards we went to the sun yat sen memorial museum, housing all important things of the founding father of the Kuomintang, it was history lessons coming to live in front of our eyes. The national palace museum made my eyes pop, it was gargantuan and there was so many pieces of precious findings depicting the past and fine pieces of arts. 2 hours was not enough for us to finish walking around the museum as it was a sea of tourists and we even had to wear earphones to listen to the tour guide in all the commotion. Admiring art requires time and patience, not rushing consistently and briefly looking at them, we cannot appreciate it's value if we do not stop and stare long and hard enough.

Day 7:

Today was our last day in taiwan, I cannot help but feel sad that we are leaving the country, it's culture and people whom we have forged bonds with but we did our last few sightseeings before leaving. We were cheered up a little as we visited the Eslite book store and were bewildered at the choices of books there were. It was another aspect of morderm taiwan which was appealing to tourists and definitely had us intrigued. However, the visit was short and we proceeded to the chiang Kai shek memorial which we got to witness first hand many artifacts we only thought were part of history text books. I enjoyed it there immensely as history being my favorite subject evoked a sense of interest in me this trip.