Day 28- Chap 8 + Industrial Visit.

As usual woke up early to have my breakfast before heading off for lessons at 10am. Today is our LAST SECOND CHAPTER! YEAAA!! HEHEH! Had lecture on chapter 8 followed by the usual quiz. After lesson, went back to the hostel to put our things down before going for lunch.

Afterwhich, we met up with the LSCT students and headed off for our industrial visit. Todays visit was to a pharmaceutical company. It was quite a short tour around the perimeters of the company.

Entrance of the company.

In order to protect the confidentiality of the company, photos could only be taken at limited areas and we were also not allowed into many sections of their company.

Precaution Labels.

Rushed back to hostel after the visit to start on our assignment 2 which will be due 2 days later.

Haish~

Reflections:

Every country have their own main sectors of industry to sustain the economy of their own nation. Emphasis would definitely be given to that sector in order to have an edge over other countries. Without giving the right emphasis or identifying the potential sector, the country would not be able to prosper so quickly and to accelerate the growth of their economy.

xanier!

Day 26-27: 武当山

武当山 would be the final weekend excursion trip for us before we officially end our OIP trip. And this was also the longest ride. A total of 7 HOURS!!! All of us were looking forward to our lunch as throughout the whole 7 hours, all we had were just biscuits. Reached at around 1 pm, had our lunch before heading out for some historic site visits.

Yin Yang.

Most of the places that we went to were temples which portrays the past and history of Wudang. It is a Taoist holy ground thus temples are everywhere.

Adriannnn!

Visit to the temple.

Tea Appreciation session.

1st Try.

2nd Try.

The visits ended around 6 pm and we checked into our hotel. The weather was also extremely cold compared to our hostel. We were already shivering without the hotel room air con on.

Our Room for the next 2 nights.

Took a night stroll with some of them before heading back to our hotel room to watch our long lost Television =D Had a nice sleep due to the super cold weather. Slept early to make sure I had enough energy for the physically challenging Wudang mountain climb tomorrow!

Day 27 – Huff & Puff

Had breakfast at 6 in the morning. Tried to fill my tummy so I have sufficient energy to conquer the mountain later. Everyone gathered at the starting point of Wudang mountain trekking area. Initially, everyone were all walking close to one another, but at the middle part of the climbing session, space started to form in between each person. And slowly, some were walking in front, in the middle and some right at the back. I was walking at the front! =X hehe!

They do this for a living. And looking at their tired faces, it was really heartaching.

The steps seemed never ending.

It was really physically demanding because we were climbing flight of steps one after another. By the time I reached the peak of the mountain, my legs were numbed. Slowly, people started coming in groups and you could see the wide smile on their faces. The sense of accomplishment!

The time I completed this challenge.

Stayed on for awhile before we head back down the mountain using cable cars.

Cable Cars.

And our weekend trip ended with us taking the long bus ride back to hostel again. Arrived in school at around 9.30pm.

SLEEPY!

Reflection:

Strangers turn to friends in times of hardship. Initially I was walking with my group of MDE people. But slowly when things gets tougher and gaps start to form between people, I was walking alone. For quite a distance I was self motivating myself to endure and to just continue walking. And at one point I met 3 other students from the other divisons. Initially we didn’t communicate but after walking for awhile, all of us opened up. Waited for each other before conquering another flight of steps and we also motivated each other along the way. Finally, we reached the peak together. That’s how friendships are formed. There is always a fine line between stranger and friend. Sometimes such things just require a small action for it to happen. Teenagers nowadays are too soft spoken and hesitant when it comes to opening up to strangers. In my future work life, I have learnt not to hold back when forming interrelationships with new colleagues or customers as friends do help to bring you further in life be it in a negative or positive way.

xanier!

Day 25 – 3rd IS Lesson (Business Etiquette)

I shall proclaim that this IS lesson was the most useful and interesting one compared to the previous 2 that was EXTREMELY informative but uninteresting. I was looking forward to this IS which taught us some global business etiquette and mainly their China method of business dealings. All this knowledge and interpersonal skills would really pose as a great help to us if we ever had to work in China.

Computer Lab.

Nice one! haha! Straightforward way to get students to pay attention.

Lecturer for the day.

The teaching method was also more interactive than the other 2 which uses more of the 2 senses, our eyes & ears.

Lecture Slides.

We were each sitting in front of a monitor which is controlled by the lecturer and thus we each had a copy of the powerpoint slides. This eased the trouble of students having to stick our heads out to look at the screen in front of the classroom (which is what we had always been doing).

So after IS lesson, we headed to the canteen for lunch and back to our hostel for a short rest and back to lessons at 2pm with Mr Loh. Evening run followed by dinner and I’m back to the hostel again~

So here we are packing our bags for 2 day 1 night Wudang Mountain trip tomorrow!

Reflections:

Different teaching methods certainly affects the learning ability of a student. By using active teaching techniques, it helped me maintain my attention to the lesson that was going on. I was able to absorb most of the contents that was taught due to having the powerpoint slides right in front of me, thus allowing me to follow through the class smoothly.

Throughout the years, our government has been trying to come up with new learning & teaching methods in order to bring up the education level in Singapore and to remain competitive in the education sector. From the past rigid way to the present flexible way of learning (learner-centred-learning).

Our government has indeed done a great job in maintaining the education level of Singapore and I believe there would be more to come with the new generation of younger teachers slowly taking over the responsibility of maintaining Singapore’s education system.

xanier!

Day 24 - Lessons

Nothing special happened today. As usual went for my morning run at 11pm. And went for lecture on chapter 5 and had quiz 5. 5 more chapters to go! Should be able to finish BPE by next week =))

After lessons went for my second run of the day at 5.30pm. Not sure if was it due to the drop in my fitness level or the bad weather, I had a little difficulty in breathing for both runs. Hmm… Was quite hazy. But never mind shall push harder tomorrow!

Dinner after run was Canteen 2 馄饨! Never get tired of eating this and today my dear bunk mate, shun qing praise the auntie that her soup base was tasty and… she got more 馄饨 than me! -.- shall praise her tomorrow to get more too heheh! =X

We were told that there was a freshmen performance at the admin block and we are cordially invited to attend. So after our dinner, we decided to take a look. The staging, back drop, size of the event was so grand that I think our ngee ann stage is not even half of it. This event actually shows how much they recognise and welcome their freshmen into the school. The number of audience was so much that from far, they look like an army of ants. It was almost impossible for us to squeeze all the way in. Thus, we only manage to catch a small glimpse of the performance before heading out of school to get my daily ‘dosage’ of bananas!

Night view of WUST Admin block.

Huge group of spectators.

Reflection:

Due to their large population of students, performance and events are greatly supported by other school mates. Unlike Ngee Ann Poly or other schools in Singapore, it is quite difficult to even get your friend to purchase your performance ticket and take the time off to see your final performance. Support is hard to get. Is it due to the high standard of living in singapore that parents are telling their children not to spend money unneccesarily on such stuffs?

Was quite shocked to see the huge number of audience that turned up for just a freshmen performance. I think you would only see this number of audience only for music concert by big super stars. Is it a culture difference whereby our pace of living is different? R

easons that Singapore students will not attend such performance: “I rather spend time playing my computer games”, “no, I have too much work to complete”. A few of my peers over here said the same thing when I asked them if they wanted to watch the performance. And they told me they would have not enough time to finish their assignment if they went for the performance. I think it all voice down to our pace of living that has etched the mindset of “don’t spend time unnecessarily on such stuffs”.

I personally will just purchase the ticket from my friend as a form of support but would only turn up for the performance if I really had the time or had nothing to do. Many of such mindsets that teenagers now possess is mainly due to influence from our parents and the society. ‘Studies is the most important’.

xanier!

Day 23 – Outward Bound.

Gathered early at 8am for our Outward Bound activities. Everyone was quite excited about the activities which we will be doing. Some were don in track pants others in shorts. It has been some time since we did such activities. Since the day we graduated from secondary school, we had not been in touch with such activities.

Our first activity was to create our group theme/flag/costume! Followed by a short skit and finally our 1st activity: ROCK CLIMBING! They gave us 2 of the more difficult ones and sadly none was able to reach the top! But it’s ok because we tried our best!

Clan Flag!

Group Discussion

Master Piece of our hardwork!

Group Photo with Mr Loh.

After 2 hours break: we went back again this time for a simple game of ‘trust fall’ & high elements.

Trust fall really tested our teamwork and the level of trust we had in them. It was quite a pity that not all of us had a chance to try it. Even though I had played this for several times, but each time when I fell backwards, that ‘feeling’ never fails to come. Indescribable. Apologise to those who got injured while supporting me!

Trust Fall.

High element: Another challenge to me. Actually it was just a simple one which requires us to jump from one plank to another. The distance looked so far from below but when I was up there, it looked even further!!! Hesitated for a moment before I decided to take the leap. Was telling myself: you are already up here and you can’t possibly turn back or just stand here forever, so just jump. Wasn’t as difficult as I thought it would be.

High Element.

And this marks the end of our OBS activities.

Group Photo.

Strangely, although today was not as vigorous as I thought it would be, but I was mentally drained. My body was telling me to continue working but my mental was shutting me off. Thus, decided to go with my mind and lights off at 10.45pm (the earliest I slept since day 1).

Reflection:

Such activities never fail to bond people together. If the activities that we participated were even more vigorous and taxing, I believe the level of bonding would be even stronger. When one is thrown into a situation where your fear is tested, the true character of an individual would show. For example some of my teammates backed out even before giving it a try while some others knew they had fear of heights but with the support of other teammates they decided to give it a try to conquer their fear. And I’m proud of those who accomplished something by the end of this student activity.

Once again, I successfully challenged myself but mentally drained. Got to train up my mental!

Mind over body.

xanier!