OELP Daily Reflections Day 6 & 7 (Wan Yun)

Day 6 29-05-14

Today was the highlight of the entire trip as we got to go out on a family outing with our buddies and their family members. Before that, we attended several lessons in Sacred Hearts High School. The first two lessons’ subjects were rather ordinary lessons: Geography and English. For the Geography lesson, the teacher did not really teach much on Geography. In fact, I found that the lesson seemed to be a casual discussion and introduction of Taiwan between the students and the teacher. This was most likely due to our participation in their lesson. After this lesson, I learnt more about Taiwan, such as the 7-Eleven which was commonly in sight everywhere in Taiwan. Next was the English Lesson, where the students read out several fables. I find that as compared to the students in Sacred Hearts High School, our English standard was much higher.

The third lesson: Home Economics lesson! During this lesson, each group of students prepared a certain dish. Although this lesson was just like the FCE lesson we have in RV, it was not really the same. The teacher gave us more freedom, and we could prepare the dishes without being “inspected”. During the lesson, I practiced teamwork with several classmates as well as some students from Sacred Hearts High School. It was a good experience as I had not worked with someone I did not know before. The dish that we prepared turned out not bad.

Picture of a fruit tart we made

Afterwards, it was time for the family outing. At first, I thought it would be rather awkward between my buddy and me as we had not interacted much with each other. However, during the outing, we overcame the initial awkwardness we had between us, and became good friends. Although our original plan for the outing was ruined as we did not managed to take a cable car ride or tour the whole of Sun Moon Lake, I still found the outing rather enjoyable as the parents of my friend’s buddy were very hospitable and treated us like their own children. They didn’t hesitate before giving us presents or souvenirs. This is rather different from typical Singaporeans as we are rather stingy and not so generous. It would be nice if Singaporeans are as generous as Taiwanese. J

 

My buddy and me at the entrance of Sun Moon Lake

 

The dinner they treated us to

A group photo :)



Day 7 30-05-14

Today was the last day of the trip.

Firstly, we went to the 921 Earthquake Educational Park in Taichung. This was a fun learning experience for me. I got to understand better about earthquakes which almost do not strike Singapore at all. Apart from the physical impacts that the earthquake brought to Taiwan, the earthquake also broke up families as they robbed the victims of their lives. Many Taiwanese were left miserable and grieved. This made me realized how fortunate we were to have our loved ones by our side. It made me treasure my loved ones, including my family members and friends, and cherish every single moment I spend with them.

A collapsed building we saw at the educational park

One of the displays

After visiting the educational park, we then headed to Taoyuan Airport where we left Taiwan. I was happy to go back to Singapore, but sad to leave Taiwan where my new friends were. In conclusion, this Taiwan trip had definitely been a fulfilling one! I would definitely go back to Taiwan for another visit if possible! Bye Taiwan!