Individual reflection for OELP- Yifei

Day 1

We all gathered at Changi Airport and were excited about the OELP trip in TaiWan. This is the first time for most of us to go on a trip with the whole class. I was really looking forward to the trip and prepared to have fun in TaiWan. Before boarding the plane, I suddenly thought about the fact that we have to treasure this kind of experiences because it would probably never happen again with the same group of people. Finally, we waved goodbye to Singapore and board the plane.

We reached Kaohsiung Airport at about 11.30 PM. All of us felt extremely exhausted. We were extremely surprised when we saw the banner that had 'RVHS' written on it. It was the teachers and students from Sacred Heart High School. We were touched by the fact that they had gone so far from the School to Kaohsiung to welcome us. 

After waving goodbye to the teachers and students from SHHS, we took the bus to the place where we were going to stay in. We were given breads on the bus. We were told by the tour guide that it was the award winning bread in the international bread competition. It was good in all ways, be its taste or nutrition level. When we reached The Ten Drums Culture Village, we were given keys and all headed to our rooms for a nice sleep.

Day 2

It was a long day. We visited Meinong Hakka Cultural Museum, Kaohsiung Museum Of History, Kaohsiung Hakka Culture Museum, Meinong Folk Village, Former British Consulate and Liuhe Night Market.

I'm personally not very interested in museums and was a bit bored when the guide was talking. It was really educational and we were surprised that TaiWan had actually preserved so much Hakka culture. Before leaving for TaiWan, we knew both Singapore and TaiWan have Hakka Culture, but we didn't expect that the difference between them is so ridiculously distinct.

TaiWan kept the making of Leicha, oil paper umbrella, traditional puppet and a lot more. We don't usually see these in Singapore. We did research on Hakka puppet shows last year and found out that only 1 person in SG can master the skill of controlling the puppets.

In the end we went to LiuHe night market. It was the highlight of the day. We all ate and tried a lot of new food which we had been craving for it before the OELP trip. I had diarrhea immediately after we got back to the hotel... It was definitely an 'unforgettable' experience.

Day 3

On Day 3, we went to Tainan Confucius Temple, Anping Fort And Old Street, Chihkan Tower, Eternal Golden Castle and Douliu City(Yunlin County).

This places have amazing sceneries and historical background. On the day itself, we even learnt about a famous general called 'Zheng ChengGong'. Both AnPing fort and Eternal Golden Castle are related to him. We saw a cannon about 5m tall and 4m in width, we were told that it had never been fired before.

After visiting the other places, we headed to Douliu city where our sister school SHHS is located. We checked into a hotel after arrival. (To be honest, it's condition is much worse than the one we lived in previously.

Day 4

We finally get to see Sacred Heart High School! We had been contacting our buddies assigned to us since The start of May. 

We had classes with some of the classmates before meeting our buddies. I had Geography class. It was interesting because it was a completely different experience as compared to our Geography lessons. They enjoyed a movie that helped them to know certain places better than reading from text books.

Our bodies had lunch with us at SHHS and we shared about our hobbies and interests. My buddy's name is Antony and he is a musically talented student. He plays the trumpet and was really good at it. After the lunch, they went for their classes and we would see them again the next day.

After we left Sacred Heat School, we went to Hwa Shan Primary school. We were really shocked to see all of the students being able to play violin so well. They welcomed us with many music pieces and were really warm to introduce us about the school.

Day 5 

We went to Xing Long Towel Factory iicake, Yun Lin puppet show museum，Sacred Hearts High School, TaiWan Story museum

When we entered the door of iicake, all of us have this question in mind, 'is this a cake shop?' Of course later we found out that the answer was 'NO'!!! This is a Towel factory. We were told that it was the place that produces the towels in best quality in the whole of TaiWan. After enjoying the beautiful exhibitions, we even got the chance to make a towel puppy. The venue was a 'classroom' with small chairs that look simply adorable. We were taught the steps of making the towel puppies.It was not as difficult as what we thought It would be. Before leaving, we were given free time to walk around the shop and buy some souvenirs. I was the only one who bought real cake, hahaha.

We went to Yun Lin puppet show museum after visiting iicake. We had learnt about Hakka puppet shows in CID 1 last year, but this one in TaiWan was a completely different experience! Puppet shows have already improved and evolved to an extremely high level. With the high technology and special effects, the puppets can do almost anything the controller perform. These include tears, perspiration,blood and even movement eyes. After viewing the exhibitions, we went to watch the performance and got to experiencing hand-controlling those puppets ourselves. We were really amazed by the skills of the puppet controllers.

We went there after visiting the Puppet Show Museum. It was raining heavily and we were waiting outside of the place for about half an hour. Only then we got to know that it was being used by another group of people and we were only able to visit it after a few hours. In the end our tour guide had to call the driver to fetch us back to the hotel.

Day 6

 

We stashed in Sacred Heart High School for half a day. We had 3 lessons with the classmates. We had Chinese, Chemistry and home economics. Well, I could only say that the Chinese lesson was really rally hart to understand, even for me.

After the lessons, our buddies' families brought us to another tourist attraction. I forgot the name of the town but it was filled with cultural presence. We visited Soya spouse factories, old houses and old shops. After visiting these places, my buddy's mother brought us back to their house and we played games and watched movies together.

I got really emotional that day when we left our buddies. That was the last day we see them. I hope that this friendship will be treasured by both Antony and me forever.

Day 7

We visited the 921 Earthquake educational park before heading for airport.

921 park was a really fun and special place because it had all the wreck places kept and included in the park. We got to see a scene of a half cracked track and a almost destroyed school.

Finally We left for the airport and had to say good bye to our TaiWan OELP journey.  I bought a lot of chocolates with the remaining money. That was the last activity i did I'm TaiWan.  This will always be our memorable experience in our lives and I will visit TaiWan again.