the OIP experience

The OIP experience:
It was great to spend 2 weeks with 23 more RI friends at ChangChun. The things we experienced, the lessons we learnt, the obstacles we faced, the challenges we met. These were but some of the things we came together as a group to do. ChangChun OIP was a right decision. Somehow, this trip was not as enjoyable as the Taiwan one. Somehow, during the course of this trip, some of us, and sometimes even many of us wondered why we couldn't just be resting in good old Singapore. But somehow, we overcame all these. We may not be of the best quality. We may not all be friends. We may not always agree with each other. But we were indeed a team. A team which suffered in ChangChun. A team which huddled together in the cold in ChangChun. A team which benefited from this trip to ChangChun. Somehow, somewhere, deep in our hearts, we know that we have done the right thing.

Pre-Trip:
The pre-trip meetings indeed helped us to bond as a team. Although I had already known a few friends in the team, it was still important that we knew each other better so that less misunderstandings occur during the trip itself.


The picture we took 3 days before the trip. The best OIP group in my opinion! (:

DAY1:
The trip started well enough. Nothing much happened on the first day. Although we hadn't spent much time together as a team, most of us knew at least a few friends in the team. Somehow, the knowledge of these friends around us meant so much to us as we embarked on a journey we would never have thought of going on. As we checked in our luggages, said our last goodbyes to our parents, boarded the plane and said goodbye to our homeland, we knew not of what to expect. As we got off the plane in Changchun, we knew we were on our way on a journey we would never forget. Hmm.. a few photos taken at the airports...


The briefing at the airport by Mr. Au.


Group photo at changi airport.


The 2E group! Cytam, Eugene Gan, ZhuoYang, Samson, Ben Low!


Zhuoyang, Aaron Tiong, Ben Low.


THE RE GROUP! woohoo. Aaron Tang, Ying Jie, Patrick


Me with the pro ZhuoYang.


Cytam acting cool with Eugene. haha.


and now Cytam acting CUTE with Samson and Eugene. Haha. so cool.


The 2 group leaders. Aaron Tiong and Cytam.


Me and Conan. lol.


10yuan for guessing who this tall but timid guy is. OOPS. i just lost 10 yuan. But that's nothing compared to the 90+ (fake) yuan i gained in the poker games. haha.

We got a warm welcome in ChangChun. The teachers were there at the airport to see us. They even had a large banner. The most unfortunate thing was that they spelt "Raffles" as "Riffles". But who cares. At least we know that they care that we are here.


Here we are! IN CHANGCHUN AIRPORT!


Another angle!


How about another camera? Cytam's camera.

As the Cameraman for the trip, I was wondering what theme I would like to use for the trip. As we walked out of the airport and onto the bus which would be with us for the next two weeks, I decided that the bus would be our theme. Not really the most sophosticated of themes. But I felt that it was going to be the only thing that would really follow us for most of the journey. So I started to take photos on the bus of us. Here were the few we took right after we got on the bus for the first time.

all right. not very clear photo. Joel closes his eyes but...


HE OPENS HIS EYES (a little) THiS TIME! haha. look at graham and conan. wonder what they're trying to do. hahahahaha.

All right. So after we got to the school, we realised that there were even more people there to invite us.


The first time we were in their LT.

Yup. They are the people we would be living with for the next 3 days. Although I didn't really approve of the 1-to-1 homestay and the short span of each homestay, I think I did benefit from it in the end. At least I got to know more friends and I got to experience how different families lived differently. I guess I'll go through all my hosts later on. Shall go through the day events first.


so as i said first day was all right. the plane trip took around 9-10 hrs or even more including the transfer time at Beijing airport. When we reached the school, each one of us had to a short self-introduction before we got to know our hosts and straight away, without even knowing who he was or what character he had, we were off to stay in their homes. Indeed, it was a bit of a shock and all of us didn't know what to do. But I guess this is all for training our 应变能力。 I was really lucky to get a host who was quite nice. In the car, we chatted a bit, got to know each other a bit more and I guess I did fine.

DAY2:
The second day started with... A WALK TO SCHOOL. lol. not really a bad thing. The walk didn't take any longer than 20 minutes. But it was IN THE COLD. All right. So there I was, walking down the streets, feeling soooooo damn cold even after wearing 5 layers of clothing and looking like some fat snowman. But what was even worse was that when we got to school, we realised that we had to immediately give lessons to the sec 2s. I didn't know what to do. We weren't prepared at all. We did discuss some of our lesson plans before hand but we were neither physically nor mentally prepared. We only knew that we had to give English lessons. These students were in a top school and definitely had high expectations of us. Nothing we could do at that time. All we could do was 随机应变。So there we were, Eugene and I, in a classroom, in front of 70 over students, of whom we knew nothing of and there we were, ready to teach them English. Woah. I would never have thought I would be able to do that. But guess what? WE MADE IT! and we made it really great. We played pictionary and alphabet games with them and before we knew it, lesson was over! The students had fun and Eugene and I had much fun too! Immediately, our confidence rose.


Here, in this class, Eugene and I teach for the first time in our lives.


Me in front of a class of 70+.


Yeah. One of the best moments of my life. The sense of achievement. As we walked out of our first class, it was as if we had completed OBS once more. Everyone in the team had positive comments about the lessons. We were confident we could do it. And sure enough. For the second period, we once again pulled it off brilliantly. Yup. It was just fantastic. After that, we returned to the 会议室 where we had lunch. haha. here will be where our base would be for the next 2 weeks...

老师：现在咱们到会议室去一趟。。。

2 weeks later

Eugene: 现在咱们到会议室去一趟。。。

All right. haha. maybe you won't understand what this is. But Eugene was so proud that he learnt the 东北 slang. But what's more important to me is that we have learnt the importance of taking initiative. But that will be discussed later. Firstly, LUNCH.


Ben Yong smiles before eating his lunch. ><
Lunch!~


Lunch again...


Cytam, Zhuoyang, Douglas, Samson, Eugene.


A closer look at what we eat....


Or at another angle?


Have a look at how sad Zhuoyang is before eating his lunch. (or maybe cytam)...


and compare it with how happy Zhuoyang is after eating his lunch. from this, we can conclude that lunch was delicious.


or maybe this picture? haha. Zhuoyang still looks hungry though...


After lunch, YingJie fiddles with his cube.


random photo.

In the afternoon, we set off to 吉林大学 to visit their museum.


Aaron and me on our way there....


Ben Yap and me on our way there....


ZhuoYang and Douglas with their classic smiles.


I don't know whose hand is that but he loses. Zhuoyang's head which resembles a stone wins your scissors. (:


On our way...


Ben Low and whoever that is. lol. Looks wrong.


Boon Tiong. Wonder what he's looking at...


ZhuoYang, Aaron Tiong, Conan braving the cold streets.


Us walking and Ying Jie flying...


walking again...


random scuplture on the way there.


another photo.


and another one. this time an old man.


WOAH. ok. so we finally reach this place.


Another one...


This is how the university looks from the outside.


All right. So this is the museum...


who wants some skulls for dinner?


or maybe some dinosaur?

But we got bored after some time and decided to take group photos!


random.


Oops. Zhongren. Looks like you're tall no more....


Ben Yong and Conan with their typical smiles.


Chen Chen, Marcus and Ben Yong.


Me, Marcus, Ben Yong.


DINOSAUR HEAD! ewww...


The kawaii pose in front of the dinosaur.


All right. taupok time.


The 2 Bens of 3B.


THE RE GROUP! haha.


Another mass taupok.


How about another one?


And when we get bored... lol. too bad Aaron used flash so his face looks ultra white. haha.


Group photo taken right outside the university. woohoo!


Some random sculpture.


Another one.

So we went back school after this visit. Then, it was time for a 读书报告会。 It was quite a good experience as we got to hear how the China people did their presentations. The general impression I got was that the people over there didn't really use computer much and thus didn't really know how to use them. So their presentations were all not very good but their speech was excellent. All of them memorised their speech and it was totally flawless. No awkward pauses anywhere. It was really amazing. haha. rarh. okok... only took one photo though...


mm... another really brilliant thing about the people there is their ability to control chalk. To control a whiteboard marker itself took me quite some time to master. Chalk is to say the leaast 100x harder than that of the marker... firstly, you have to prevent it from breaking... secondly, you have to hear that screaching noise that it produces... rarh. haha...

And dinner followed with my first host.


Here I am. lol.


It was 火锅 time. haha. fantastic. oh my gosh. love!


Delicious!


Vegetables! Behind that is the hotpot.

So that was DAY2! haha. wonderful day!

DAY3:
Day 3 was around the same as day 2. It started with a walk to school once again. And then, it was time to teach MATH! haha. i think eugene and i did a great job... for our inexperience, we still managed to go through the lesson rather well and taught the class sudoku! haha. after the 1st lesson, we decided to teach the next class even more... so we started on logic and paradoxes! woah. ahha. it's cool stuff... i still remember the first thing i learnt in MATH RA! haha. russell's paradoxx! woohoo! (: After that, it was lunch before BASKETBALL! woohoo. first time we were gonna sweat in ChangChun.


Hmm. Can see Marcus, Chen Chen Jun Xiang and Douglas.


Training.


Shooting practice.


And a match.


while others play table tennis instead. yeah.

all right. so after that, we were all wet. drenched. luckily, the next activitiy was a session of presentations so we proceeded to the LT. This time it wasn't a book review session but rather a speech competition. It was once again really amazing to see how everyone memorised their speech and stuff... haha...


one of the presentations.

so anyway, that was that. didn't take much photos that day, but here is dinner!


This is what they call 春饼。It's really nice!


YUMMY! lol.


ok last one. haha.

DAY4:
I guess this was the best day of the trip. Though it was just like day 3 and 4, it was somehow different. We were going to teach a group of students who were underprivileged. These students came from 龙子心希望中学. They were just like any of us. They were studying just like anyone of us. They were having fun during breaks like anyone of us. But somehow, they seemed different. They seemed too good to be true. They were as clever as the students in 吉大附中，but they were nicer in personality. They studied as hard as the students in 吉大附中，but they always had smiles on their faces. They were almost like the perfect beings. It was almost impossible that these were underprivileged students. From the moment we stepped into their classes, we felt a sense of warmth from within. We saw them smiling at us. Somehow, this school was very very special. For one, this school has been graced by 成龙 himself. This school has only been set up for 10 years or maybe only a bit more. But this school has been achieving fantastic results. This very school which holds students who are so unprivileged that their pocket money per week can be as little as 2 yuan. These students are the ones whose parents live so far away that they have no choice but to live in the hostel. Somehow, these situations do not seem to affect these students. Or even if they do, they seem to affect them in a positive way. All these seem to make them know how to value their belongings and to be satisfied with what they have. Maybe that's why they all seem to be so happy when they saw us. Maybe cause we are too blessed and therefore, we never feel anything when other students from other countries come to visit us in RI. Maybe we take all these for granted. Somehow, the welcome that we got in 希望中学 meant so much more than that of 吉大附中 and maybe even much more than that of RI's. When we reached 希望中学，I felt that these underprivileged students were so much better than that of 吉大附中。 Not until I thought about RI ourselves, 3B when the vietnamese students or whoever (i can't even remember what country they are from), that I started to realise that we were no better and actually much worse than those of 吉大附中。Hmm... enough of emo-ing. Bottom-line is must improve! haha. all right, pictures...


On the bus on our way there... Hmm excited faces?


Zhuo Yang and Samson on the bus. looks like Zhuo Yang gives way this time and sits in the inside... haha. Samson looks like some arrogant businessman...


Me, Eugene and Cytam!


Ying Jie looking chao happy.


The guys at the back. From left, Ben Yong, Ben Low, Boon Tiong, Chen Chen with Marcus below.


The class Eugene and I taught! woohoo.


The guy I sat beside for class (chinese lesson). lol. if not for him i almost would have fallen asleep... ALMOST... (:


One of the lessons was some exchange lesson where we all performed something. So here is a song... (forgot what they sang though...)


another performance! (:


another one!


Eugene and I performing HOME and BATCH SONG!


Another photo! haha.


Another photo of the class...


Eye exercises.


our blackboard during lesson time.


And this is Douglas, Zhongren and Marcus's class. Hmm... looks cool!


Hmm.. another photo!


The students!


Another performance.


And another one...


Aaron Tiong and Ernie smiles while Graham eats.


Ying Jie the new giraffe of our team.


People discuss the day's events...


The cute boy who sat beside Eugene in class. This is also their field where they have assembly and basketball and soccer and whatever...


We have lunch there with the students. Yup, so this is what they eat everyday.


Ying Jie's proud moment on stage. (: omgosh man. his chinese rocks.


The school badge printed big like that in our atrium!


A group photo taken right outside xi wang zhong xue. (: This place has indeed taught me loads.

All right so that was for the morning. In the afternoon, we went to visit some meat-producing place and a mosque. Hmm here they are...


The bus photo that we took right after we left 希望中学。


Another one!


SEE! i never bluff you! Here's the meat... lol.


Eugene Gan and Samson looking good in front of the meat.


Looks like the meat-producing company produces rice too! lol. itchy fingers...


Douglas buys 3 sausages from the meat-producing company...

but takes more time opening the sausage than eating it...


and here's the mosque. really unbelievable that 1/5 of muslims reign from China. Hmm... but i guess China also boasts the world's largest population...


Here's where they pray. Oh and one more thing. This is actually the meat company's mosque. Cause most of their employees are muslim. So the company decided to build this for the employees. Hmm...


A group photo taken outside the mosque. The guy in red on the right was our tour guide for the mosque.

oh yes. After that, we went to the hostel to see Aaron who had fallen sick on Thursday (Day 3). He had had drips taken in a hospital which was described to be super run-down. woah. i'm lucky I didn't fall sick. Anyway, here are a few photos we took at the hostel.


We found this really dark corridor which would have been even more dark had I not use flash. haha. Guess who the man in black is...


Here, we sit down on chairs.

haha. so after that, we went back to school. Dinner was at the host's house this time as we ate 火锅again！Although it didn't look very appetizing, it was actually very nice! haha. love! too bad i didn't take photos. haix.

Day5:
This was sightseeing day. So we set off in the morning to 松花湖。Hmm... breakfast first... haha...


egg! haha.


and porridge...

ok so next comes photos of our trip to 松花湖!


On our way there... Hmm... This reminds me of the vanishing point that our art teacher taught us in sec 2.


Ying Jie and Aaron Tiong smile on the bus...


lol. conan and zhongren. omgosh... so sweet... haha!


Graham and Joel...


Jun Xiang and Guodong...


Eugene Gan and Cytam...


Ben YAP!


And a group one...


And a group one sleeping. haha.


ok. And finally, here we are... So first, there is this explanation about how this great dam which can provide 1.25 times 10^x where x is any number higher than 7 (i think) megawatts of electricity per second if all the dams were opened at once and how it was once captured by the japanese... Hmm..


Listening attentively...


And here is where the Japanese capture the dams... The chinese is on the left and the japanese is on the right. I didn't really listen to the elaborations by the tour-guide but the chinese seem to be standing straight and the japanese seem to be bowing down a bit... Hmm... a bit prejudice? lol... not sure myself...


Here are some of the awards that the dam has received. Me and Zhongren posing with them. haha... would feel proud to win all these...


Zhuoyang posing with some people.


Samson's turn.


And Eugene.


And finally... me.


A train moving on solar energy... wonder what it has to do with the dam though.... but solar energy seems like something big in china.... I've been to two hosts house who use solar energy for their heaters... so if there's no sun, too bad... no chance of bathing for you as I found out for one of the days staying with my host...


haha guess what is this... im not telling you...


So this is the lake...


and right there is the dam... wonder what it'll look like when water actually comes rushing down...


Another photo of the lake...


And another photo of the dam.


Graham posing with the dams...


From left: Ying Jie, Samson, Eugene, Graham...


Random group photo that we took...


And here is the inside where all the machines are... Hmm...


Another one...


Me with the dams...


Ernie, me and Ying Jie with the dams...


the 2E team!


Towards the foreground or rather behind the foreground is the dams... so this is basically what is in front of the dams....


Us viewing the lake...


Aaron Tiong, Marcus and Chen Chen... Marcus really looks like some professional construction worker...


Here's what's beside the dam...


Samson, with Eugene and Cytam as his bodyguards, walking round the dam.


Cytam, Eugene, Samson, ZhuoYang, Eugene, Ben Low and me. LOL. I look totally weird...


Group photo in front of the dam... (:

so after that, it was time for lunch. This was going to be our first and last time eating at a restaurant in Chanchun... Hmm...


douglas being funny again! haha.


Group table photo...


Chicken! roar! lol.


Veggie. Conan's favourite (Conan,"ya rite!"). haha.


The table filled with food...


Here's Zhongren trying out some red hot chilli...


to disastrous consequences... and to make it even worse, ying jie says,"Zhongren, quick drink some water!". and Zhongren drinks water, only for the spicyness too spread even further and spell even more disaster...


Zhongren looks as if lightning had struck him! haha...


The aftermath of the catastrophe...


and byap breaks his cup after pouring sprite into a cup that was previously filled with hot water... lol...


Grp table photo with me looking stupid! haha.

So after the dams and lunch, we went to this museum. There were lots of exhibits there. The first one was this one about how an asteroid hit the earth in Changchun. So here it is...


Here are pieces of the asteroids that landed from space...


And this is the biggest one lol... there were actually 3 (i think... lol...) that came down. so this is the biggest one...


Underneath this asteroid, there's lots of money cuz it's believed that this would bring luck to the people... this is because the asteroid landed so near a village yet it did not kill or harm anyone. so this is supposedly very 灵。


And since we are so 吝啬 and do not wish to waste any money on this rock, we merely try to touch it... Hmm... wonder whether it has the same effects...


And this is the asteroid that you need to pay 10yuan to go in to touch. I didn't think it was worth it but these people thought so. haha. so here they are. aaron tiong, aaron tang, cytam, ben low, samson, eugene, zhuoyang, ernie, conan....


another photo...


A closer look at the asteroid...


Aaron Tiong with the asteroid...


Aaron Tiong and Zhuoyang..


Conan...

After that, we went to another exhibition which was something on art sculptures...


Hmm... so here they are... lol...


This silver dragon looks damn cool...


Cytam posing with some cans...

The next exhibit is about this super rich guy who lived in some apartment with 180+ rooms... But as rich guys find out later in their lives, they don't really get too good a treatment...


like when zhuoyang, ben low and chen chen play staring competition with him...


or maybe even me... xD


All right jokes aside... anyway, this is his house... really big... like some palace...


and here are some of his musical instruments... BL played this before and I TRIED learning this before (to no avail)...


More... can see 小钹 and 小锣 here...


This white tree here shows how trees look like when it snows... lol...


Outside, we find this cool statue. So we start posing with him. Mao Zedong.


Another one.


And at the end of the day, we start to emo...

All right that's all for today!

Day6:
Day 6 was an off day so I was supposed to spend my day with the host. Somehow, although we didn't go anywhere except for tuition, I can't seem to forget this day. Anyway, this was also the day I sat their public bus. I must say that it's a war inside the bus. It's like you must be brave enough to protect your own territory or you'll definitely get squashed... Anyway, I went for double English classes. So here's the first one...


This is the teacher... Juliet's her name... Some pro teacher who can speak chinese too... haha.


Here's the second English class. This time, I decide to take photos with the students instead... Hmm...


This is the tuition centre where I had double english classes in...

Anyway, the English classes were ok. It was quite ego-boosting cause everyone was amazed how "great" my English was and that I could actually speak "rather fluent" Chinese. haha. But anyway, between the classes I had to stone for 2 hours in this coffeeshop cause my host had to do his homework. Somehow, stoning didn't seem boring... We had a seat facing this very busy street... So there I was looking at the street and there he was doing his homework... Well... One of the very few times where I could actually sit down and do nothing for so long...


This is what it looks like outside the coffeeshop...

Hmm... and dinner on sunday was nice! yumm... wait... i have one pic of that...


Yumm... haha. i love the gan dou fu (top right) that they make. it's totally delicious!

Yup. so that's all that happened on Sunday...

Day 7:
Day 7 was the day where we would go visit the elderly in some place near the school... So we first set off to the headquarters....


yup. here it is. 长春社区. cool.


inside the headquarters. The meeting room. Quite a small place actually.


The elderly here do lots of creative stuff from making small sculptures...


To dancing... And they actually have a CO too! too bad i didn't take a photo of that. So after visiting the headquarters, it was time for us to proceed to the elderlies' home.


On our way there...


Wondering how to cross the road...


Cytam doing a random pose again. lol. cool.


Anyway, we finally reached the house... Here lived an elderly woman who had so much to share about her experiences during the WW2. The thing I realise about her, though, is that she really looks down on youths. She starts of by asking 你们可知道今天的平安生活得来不易吧？All right. maybe rhetorical question. I'm not sure. But I did feel a bit errmmm... insulted? haha nevermind. learnt a bit there although I couldn't really understand much cause it was all in Chinese...

Later on, we went off to clean up some park which was already sooooo clean that there was no rubbish for us to pick up except leaves... so we set off picking up leaves...


These stuff are actually plants. But they are wrapped by some stuff cause these plants would not be able to stand the upcoming winter... mmm...


Here we started sweeping the leaves....


Eugene sweeping up some leaves...


Our rubbish bag... It would be full of countless leaves and 1 brick in no time...


So this is the park where we did the clean-up...


And this lake of which top layer was already frozen was in the park...


cool pic.


aaron, conan and ben yong acting as if they are REALLY hardworking.


THE LAKE AGAIN!


Zhuoyang trying to become the new harry potter.


Anyway, we got bored half-way so I started taking pictures with friends I made on the way...


Another of my friend... haha. he looks sooooo cute!

After a short period of sweeping, we walked to this place where apparently the japanese buried the chinese during WW2. It was quite scary. no one dared to go near the building. but anyway, group photo...


yup. the building in the bg is the building i'm talking about.


on the right side of the grp photo..


and on the left side!

All right, so after that, we were back to school, eating... Hmm... In the afternoon, we went to visit a library. omgosh. their library is humongous... they have so many books and magazines arranged in so many different rooms and so many self-study areas... woah. how i wish there were so much self-study areas in our libraries... All right, photos...


The roads in ChangChun... Here began a long walk to the library...


The road we jay-walked on. Hmm... quite a looooooong road?


All right so here we are. CHANGCHUN LIBRARY!


Group Photo in front of the ChangChun Library...


After the long walk, everyone starts sleeping in the library....



woah. what's this!


Inside the library. It looks much more spacious than the Singapore ones cuz they have lots of rooms for differnt types of books and magazines and newspapers of stuff. Much better than Singapore's if you ask me.


Another photo of the library.


Tour guide brings us through the library...

All right. so here we are in the library activities room where a Q&A competition was taking place for the elderly.


Since Ying Jie and I don't really understand what's going on because 1. It's all in chinese and 2. It's issues regarding changchun, we decide to take a photo.


The stage...

After that, we went back to school... had dinner at my host's house... no pics though... sigh...

Day 8:
Today was a slack day. Firstly, we went to visit the school compounds of 吉林大学。oh my gosh. it's humongous. To go from one end of the university to the other, one must take at least 20 mins or even more by car. Anyway, we went to visit the chemistry and physics labs and got to eat in one of the university's cafetaria.


The chemistry labs are located in this building.


yup. Here we are, in the labs. Really reminds me of IBN, except that the lights here are a lot dimmer. Hmm...


and who can forget these... Aaron, Ying Jie and me once used all these to clean the insides of the cartridges... (:


Once again, we got bored after a while... Mr. Au too gets a little bored...


Or maybe Ernie and me get bored....


Or maybe Zhongren and Conan?


Zhuoyang tries mixing 2 chemicals together...


Hmm... this chemical tastes nice!


As messy as IBN? haha...


Hmm... saw this in class before... displacement reaction if I'm not wrong... some metal displaces Ag in AgNO3... correct me if im wrong, JERALD HAN! haha....


Some balancing machine...

So, next was the Physics Labs... There wasn't much to see there except this...


SEM machine... Hmm... so the first SEM machine that I actually see is in Changchun...


Since there was nothing much there, I decided to take a photo with the tour guide who happened to be a physics researcher in that physics lab... Hmm...


Slacking time...


Ying Jie acting smart.

So after that, we had lunch in the cafetaria... mmm...


Food 1.


Food 2.

Well, the food wasn't really the most important part.... Why? Cause that day was Eugene's birthday. So, PARTY TIME!



All right. Eugene here with the cake.


haha. Eugene looking a little too overjoyed....


The 2E group photo...


Ben Yong and Eugene...


The 3B group.


Group photo!


Eugene cuts his cake!

So after lunch, we set off for a walk in the university campus... The campus is really nice! haha. if only RI were like that.


Group photo in the university campus...


The road.


A building!


Another one.


Some really nice empty space. WOAH. i just love this kind of places.


Some school song carved on this large thing.


Us walking along.

So after that short walk in the campus, we got ourselves back on the bus and traversed to the emperor's palace.


Saw this right after we entered the palace. lol.


This clock shows the time at which the emperor then escaped this place when he heard that the japanese were coming. 910pm.


nice stairs.


meeting with the japanese after he was brought back to become a 傀儡 emperor.


Where he used to cut his hair. Apparently, the emperor's hair was so important that it would be a sin to drop it on the floor. The barber must have had a hard time.


Bed. where he slept i guess. ><
another bed. ok i forgot who sleeps here. haha.


seats.


the emperor's seat.


the Gods that he worshiped. It was said that he didn't come here to pray often, so the Gods punished him.


errr... dining table (i think). haha.


baby emperor.


meetings with the japanese. it was said that this emperor was heavily influenced by the west and thus, always wore blazers of stuff like that.


random barbie doll.


pool table.


nice pic.


Group photo in front of an ancient car.


The emperor there was sort of tricked by Japanese and was forced to stay inside the palace and become their 傀儡. So, the people planted this tree. reason? the box around the tree looks like a 口 and wood in a mouth means 困! i found this really interesting... Hmm...


This was one of the pics in the museum. On the right is the emperor and on the left is one of his 4 (or was it 5?) wives. Took this pic cuz I thought the lady on the left had some form of resemblance of Mrs. Low. Hmm... haha. what do you think?


Joel looks really excited. ><
On our way back to the bus, Chen Chen gets cold.

all right. so after the visit to the palace, it was time for dinner again. It was totally delicious this time. and guess what? it's 火锅 again! lol...


washing our hands at this basin... so cool! haha...


YAY! FOOD!


and to show you how grand that place is... woah...

all right, so that was day 8!

Day 9:
Somehow, I felt that that day was meant for me. We weren't exactly a group of good singers. No one ever had the experience of performing on stage in front of an audience. And given a morning worth's of prac only? It was near impossible. The karaoke competition wasn't exactly big or anything, but it was new to everyone in the team. The choosing of songs was in itself a difficult task. Everyone had differing opinions on what songs we should sing. I myself wanted to sing 翅膀. After all, it was really the only song which I knew most of the lyrics... However, I decided that making such a decision would be doing unjust to the others... So, I decided, with Cytam, Aaron Tiong and Graham's advice, to split the 21 of us into three groups first. However, I knew that this too would be a hard task. The problem lied in how some of us were the "in" type while others were the "out" type. I'm not sure whether u all understand but i really wanted everyone to go on stage and have a try, at least experience what it is like to perform in front of such a large audience... In the end, I decided, once again with advice from my 3 co-leaders, that we would allow the group to divide itself, meaning that we would appoint leaders and the others would just join the group that they wanted to join... The 1st group which was supposed to be the musicians was more or less settled. The problem lay in the other 2 singing groups. So the leaders were to be "Zhongren, Conan and me" and "Boon Tiong, Ben Yong, Chen Chen". In the end, we split up into our groups and although we weren't really evenly spread, it was the combination I knew we would arrive at although I also believed that this was the best combination. Anyway, with the groups settled, the leaders of the groups started selecting the songs to perform. I left this task to Zhongren and Conan. The songs they chose were songs I had not heard before and neither had our group members. "约定" and "High" were the song names and I spent the entire of tue evening trying to get used to the songs. I had no idea what we were going to do even on the morning of wed and even had the urge to change songs. But given that my co-leaders had chosen them and Graham insisted on our ability to perform the pieces, I decided to go on with it, hoping that it would all turn out fine. So there we were, on wednesday, in the 会议室, with 7 hours left in front of us and with so many things to complete. There, we practiced Home, our group piece, first. With the help of Graham, our music director and Eugene, our co music director, we managed to work out the piece rather well. It was a good start. Then, we made our way to the sports complex. A wrong decision. We thought that all the instruments would be there for us so we could prac singing with the musicians to work out some coordination but it wasn't so. The instruments weren't there. The only things that were there were basketballs and table tennis. We couldn't resist the temptation and started playing. Knowing that it was useless to start prac without the instruments, I joint in the fun. It was not until a whole half an hour later did the instruments come. Precious time gone. It took us another long period to get the instruments up and running. After that, we broke up into our groups to practice our songs. The musicians worked out the chords, while the other 2 groups worked out the singing. I was at a loss of where to start. Sitting in a small circle, Zhongren suggested playing the song once through. I thought it was a good excuse to let me have some time think through what we needed to go through while refreshing our memories of this song. And yup. It was truly amazing as I pulled off what I would never have thought I could have done. In just a short period of time, we settled the singing parts, our line-up during our performance, some simple dynamics and we went through the song with few errors. Happy with our performance, I decided to let the group rest for 5 minutes. Wrong decision once again as the basketballs and table tennis rackets came into play and it was not until a whole long while later that we got started on our second piece, "约定". Using the same technique, we went through the song and got the stuff up. And before long, we were ready to prac with the musicians. Starting with a group sing along beside the keyboard, we started to learn how to coordinate with the musicians and it was truly amazing how we improved by leaps and bounds. Before long, we were up and ready to perform. Although we weren't really that prepared and there was still much room for error, I believed that with the short span of time and lack of quality singers in the whole group (except maybe boon tiong), we had done an amazing job. It was all down to the performance itself. So there we were, the emcees (which also included samson and boon tiong) kicked us off and the songs came up and running. The first few groups set really high standards for us and before long, it was our turn. Getting the microphones ready and lining up in our positions, we were ready to give "约定" our best shot. We started off shakily, not really knowing when to come in and stuff but we gradually got confident and though it wasn't the best of performances, it was still above expectations. After a couple more songs, it was time for the other group, Boon Tiong's group, to perform. They were performing "安静". It was a really great performance with good 台风 and great singing by Boon Tiong. It was simply fantastic. A few songs later, it was our turn again for "High". We started of better this time and it was a rather good performance. Though we couldn't really get our voices high, we could see that the audience were all getting high. And so, it was all down to our group performance. Ernie and I were leading this piece. And guess what? I screwed up big time. Starting the song which we all know of from the chorus, we sang verse 1 twice and the chorus thrice, completely missing out verse 2. It was really nerve-wrecking as I forgot all the lyrics. Somehow, though, we pulled it off and there was great applause from the audience. It was down to the batch song next. It started off bad once again with us springing into the soprano voices and most of us strained our voices to reach the high notes. I really ahve to thank Ernie for being next to me because it was he who pulled it all off and once again, somehow, we pulled it off, ending the karaoke competition on a high note. Although I must say I made lots of mistakes here and there, especially during the performance itself, I was satisfied with how I led the team in such circumstances. However, it was all down to the team once again. It's hard to know how we did it. But somehow, like always, we managed to pull it all off. It was simply fantastic.


Aaron Tiong, me and Graham, the I.C.s for karaoke.


setting up of the instruments.


YAY! we feel confident we can succeed!


Samson and Boon Tiong confirming their scripts with 叶子. haha. ok i'm reminded of all the jokes regarding this. LOL.


Practice time! Graham and Joel looking good on their instruments.


Joel looking good on the drum set.


We practice 约定, crowding around Graham.


The guitarists trying out the pieces.


The 安静 team prac-ing their piece with the pro Graham.


Graham and Eugene prac-ing together.

And it starts at last! So here we were, after one day of practice, ready to show what we really can do.


The emcees kick us off with their powerful lines.


The first few performances set rather high standards for us. Here's 王心凌's 爱你.


another one with candles.


And another one. They seem to take costumes really seriously.


And another one! This one was really good.

And so now it was our turn! WOAH!


约定!


约定 again!


erm and again...


the 安静 team doing what they do best!


And again!


OH NO! ENVY! The 安静 team gets flowers! RARH! haha. ok nvm.

and so that was that. Not an important day, but an opportunity for me to try out some leadership skills. At the end of the day, the applause and the awards (got 特等奖 for home and 一等奖 for the rest) that we got were all well-deserved given our efforts.

ok so dinner for that night.... only 1 photo to show...


饺子！nice stuff!

Day 10:
Day 10 was an all shopping day. Starting the day off was a trip to the famous 重庆路. I wanted to shop for some books, CDs and a jacket. However, the road was something similar to that of the Orchard Road of Singapore and the stuff there were as expensive as that of Singapore's. Therefore, I decided that it would be quite useless to shop here and instead, we just walked around and tadaa. We found ourselves a 4D theatre. LOL! so we got ourselves tics and there we were watching a 4D theatre show. Hmm... pics.


Douglas, Ying Jie and me at the shopping centre.


the theatre!


Douglas, Ying Jie and me outside the theatre.


This time it's Douglas, Aaron and me.


oh yes. saw this along the road. Thought it would be the thing closest to snow that i would see. not true as i would find out soon enough...


Spinning door of a shopping mall...


Me, Douglas and Aaron in front of the mall...


Me with some random statue.


Ying Jie acting strong.


Tall building.


Hmm... yes. so during out trip to 重庆路，I bought a CD and THIS! HAHA! so cute right! yay!

So after that, we went back to school, ate our lunch and started our reflections about the past few events, karaoke, the visit to the elderlies and the visit to 希望中学。 it was really good to be reflecting on such things as it allowed me to really try and sift out the salient points of each event and really learn from it... yup. so that was that. after that, we got off to another famous street in changchun. This time, it was even more exciting that a mere 4D show. while everyone else were busy shopping, the RE team of 2007 was busying themselves with the trip of the century. We ventured where no one else did. It was, to be honest, the most exhilarating moment of the trip... so what was it?


caught sight of this building from the bus... This, according to my second host, was the tallest building in ChangChun... and yup... you guessed it... Aaron, Ying Jie and I just had to get to the top of it...

It took us a rather long walk to get there from where the bus had alighted us. Actually it wasn't really far away, but we took a big detour... But given the brilliant geographical skills of Aaron's (top scorer in Geog 2006 and 2007), and of course the literature skills of Ying Jie's (lit RA 2007) and of course the most brilliant historical skills of mine (3.6 for sec 1-3... lol... ><), we made it! And we made it to the top (after paying 18yuan...). But it was worth it. From up there, we had a great view of the city below us. Unfortunately, no photos could be taken... So we could only take it from below.... so here it is...
The buttons on the lift. there's a 48 there.

yup here it is. 吉塔 is her name!


Me!


Aaron!


Ying Jie!

Yup so that was it for day 10!

Day 11:
Day 11 was D-day for many of us. It was the trip to the villages. 九台 was where it was and 九台五中 was the school name. It was a rather scary thought. i really wondered how it would look like. Many had said that the conditions there would be horrible. Well, it certainly wasn't good...


the school!


pic of samson and the door to a classroom.


The class that Eugene and I taught in jiutai.


Classroom!


The classroom where 九台，吉大 and raffles had combined activities, in which raffles suffered a heavy loss..


Mr. Au acting cool. lol.


The 安静 team doing their stuff again for the 九台 people.


Some balloon game we played. Same as Singapore. Tie balloons around ankles and try to step on other people's.


Douglas with his cute pose... ><
Mr. Au conducting philo lessons for the students.


ok i know this is disgusting but yup. this is what their toilets look like. No flushing system and no place to wash your hands after you do your business. And be careful not to let your pee freeze before they end up in this drain like thing cuz it's REALLY cold. You are sortta peeing in mid air.


me and my 吉大 host in 九台。


some vehicle which carries hay... blocked the bus a few times...


these people ride motorbikes home. looks like there isn't much that you can't do in the villages.


The road home...


Some people take motorcycles home...


Some people walk home...


Goats in the village...


Night in the village...


Another really cool picture.


WOAH! this is super cool.


And this is Aaron's host's house. A lot different from mine though. This looks more urbanized.


The kitchen.


And finally the bed. Mine was a lot different. Too bad I didn't take photos cuz i forgot to bring it to 九台. SIGH.


The toilets. This is actually one of the better ones already...


oh and they were REALLY fascinated by rubik's cubes. as this pic shows. haha. Aaron gave his.


Eugene with random cow.


and in the morning. we set off on the long road to school once again.





some of the scenery on the way there.

So that was basically it. After I returned to my host's house, we went for lanning where i played some bomberman car game. haha. quite fun luh, but kept losing. >< Day 12:
Day 12 was used for MOUNTAIN CLIMBING. woah. 800m mountain for us to climb. ok. 800m may seem short but when you're going uphill, it's not really so short after all. So here we go!


Scenary we took on our way there.


another one.

ok so we reach the foot of the mountain and began our climb up! YEAH! ok no more descriptions here cuz there's really a lot.












AND REST TIME!







Before we continue!


lol. this looks like queueing up.



me getting tired.



AND WE FINALLY MADE IT TO THE TOP! WOOHOO!






nice scenary!


Joel and Graham look down on ChangChun below.
























All right. STOP SPAM! haha. ok so next up, we went downhill.


and out next stop was to the old folk's home! so there we went. It wasn't much. We just went to see their living environment and also met them for a few minutes. So ya. here they are...


Samson and Blow posing in front of the old folk's home.


Group photo!


Ben Yong, Marcus, Chen Chen and Boon Tiong in the meeting room.


An elderly in the old folk's home.


Not knowing what to say, we just look on.


All right. i forgot what this was. doesn't look too good though.


A very enthusiastic elderly who was cheering us on! woohoo!

After that, it was lunch time. We had lunch in the cafetaria of the old folk's home.



All right. So with that ended our saturday. we took the bus back to 吉大 and we went back to our host's house for a well-deserved rest. We have all done it. And we've all done a great job. YEAH!

oh and on our way back, took this pic.


Day 13:
Day 13 was day off again. Once again I followed my host. This time for SHOPPING! haha. we went to these underground places very similar to bugis street. It was HUGE, we got lost quite a few times and kept walking in circles. HAIX. but anyway, it was fun. bought some cheap stuff. haha so hope that one of the things i bought is a gift for you! (: Anyway, no pics that day. It was a slack day so ya...


only pic! some really spicy noodles. 麻辣面. Gosh. I sweated in the cold weather while eating this.

Day 14:
Day 14 was our last day at changchun, supposedly. Well, we'll get to that later. Anyway, it was going to be the day which we would enjoy the most. Reason 1: We could sit in for lessons! YAY! woohoo! it was super fun. It reminded me of the 周星驰 show, 逃学威龙. omg. it was totally cool. haha. i was supposed to be in 2.4 but since i was super nice to eugene and chen chen, i switched class with them for 2.2. Good choice too! My first host was in 2.2! So it was damn fun cuz i was sitting two seats away from him. The girl I was sitting beside was very nice too! haha. WOOHOO! anyway, had english lesson first so it was quite boring. They were memorising some lesson so I just wrote with them. Then, it was philo or something like philo lesson and we were doing something on being 宽容. So anyway, the lesson was rather boring but there was this notorious guy in this class sitting near me who kept talking and stuff (most of the times to me or the girl beside me). but anyway, my host asked me whether I wanted to bash him up, and I, without thinking, and without even knowing what i was saying said, "不可以啦，我要宽容！" haha. and my host started laughing. lol. ok anyway after that, it was geography which was once again boring. They were doing something on the water supply in the world and how limited it was. After that, we had lunch at some posh restaurant!


the "big 4" doing their "gay love" lol.

After that, we returned to our classes for interaction! PICS!




YAY! 2.2 rock on! (:

OH! and it was snowing on Day 14. COOL! We were in class when my host suddenly told me that it was snowing. I was like OMGOSH! On the last day, it snows! YES! And we immediately rush out to play snow. lol.


Zhuoyang and Samson in the snow!


Aaron Tang in the snow!


Ernie in the snow!


Graham and Joel in the snow!


Eugene in the snow!


Graham and me in the snow!


Zhuoyang and Samson in the snow!


Zhuoyang, me, Boon Tiong and Zhongren in the snow!


Ms. Chew in the snow!


Aaron Tiong in the snow!


and again! this time with the tree!


Zhongren in the snow!


Eugene Gan in the snow!


Ying Jie in the snow!


Eugene and Ben Low in the snow!


Aaron Tiong and me in the snow!


Aaron Tang, Eugene Gan, Cytam, Samson and Zhuoyang in the snow!










And finally we embarked on our journey to the airport. Our final GROUP BUS PHOTO! YEAH!



Me with random pose.


Graham and Aaron Tiong looking cool.


Group photo in ChangChun airport!


And again!

However, just as we thought that we were going to go back to Singapore finally, there was a sudden turn in events...

FLIGHT DELAYED.

gosh. so we waited in the airport for a long long time...


playing cards...


stretching...

and guess what. we waited till the airport was to close shop (it was a small airport so no planes flew after 12) so flight was cancelled and we had to board the flight on the next day. Well, we went to a university hostel to stay so I guess it was all right.

Day 15:
The Final Day came at last. We woke up, had breakfast, before having some time to play some fun games like...


SNOW FIGHT!


Too bad Byap. YJ strikes first!


or playing cards?

Well, so that was it. We took the bus to the airport and this time there was no delay whatsoever. Before we knew it, we were in Beijing airport. More photos!


YAY! C for Cytam and O for errr... dunno. but anyway, combine them to get CO! YEAH!


and samson and chunyin. samson acting as if he's sooooo tall...

anyway, there was yet another turn of events! We were stoning in Beijing airport, wondering which plane we were supposed to take back to Singapore when Mr. Au suddenly comes rushing in, saying, "QUICK! THE PLANE IS AT 4. IF WE RUSH WE MAY BE ABLE TO TAKE THIS PLANE. THE NEXT FLIGHT IS AT 12!". oh my. It was 3 already and we hadn't even check in. Luckily, Singapore airlines was kind enough to wait for us.


Singapore airlines back home! YAY! OIP was totally cool. anyway, more pics before a short reflection.

Random pictures taken during the trip:


Eugene and I with class 2.4!


Me with YJ's cute host!


Ben Yong's turn!


another one! forgot whose host this is... ><
some girl who does broadcasting in school.


me with some coolio pose by Marcus, Ben Yong, Boon Tiong and Chen Chen.


Me feeling bored in 希望中学.


YAY! CHEN CHEN! ok lame... ><
Let's play a game! Spot Barry or Vincent!


Me, Samson and Ben Low.


Me and Eugene with his long tongue.


Cytam looking cool.


Some child riding a police motorcycle while we were doing park clean up.


The road we jaywalked on...


Random notice we saw in a blackboard in 吉大. The first two lines were there and the last line was added by us. Seemed really special to me cuz im in jiang tuition centre. haha. and i love jiang.


The weather was so cold the water froze. lol.


Me eating some random food.

My hosts!:

Host1:
He was a really nice guy. Quite rich, a bit spoilt but overall very very nice. haha. i thought that he was one of the best hosts. so yay for him and for me. lol. anyway, pics.








he forced me to do it... ><
he forced me once again!


pillow fight?


haha u lose...


Go6P will be familiar with this. haha. brought it to changchun with me.


Cute piggy.

Host2:
Very nice host once again. He's not that rich, lives on the 7th floor with no lifts but he's really really nice to his parents and practically everyone. So yay to him and me once again!



his words are fantastic.


YAY!


That's where he lives...

Host 3:
Much quieter but still all right I guess. Really rich. haha i got a room to myself! Privacy finally!



His cousin.


haha he looks so fierce.

Host 4:
Took a pic with him but it's with ying jie and since he hasn't sent me his photos yet...

Host 5:
Even quieter. haha. but well, he went shopping with me so i guess i can't complain.




Cute baby! haha.

All right. So here ends OIP 2007. It's been a great experience. I'd love to go for one again. We walked through these tortorous days together as a team and I say we've succeeded. It all ends here but the lessons we've learnt are countless.

ChangChun OIP Team '07:
1. Aaron Tiong
2. Cytam
3. Zhongren
4. Conan
5. Graham
6. Joel
7. Ying Jie
8. Aaron Tang
9. Marcus
10. Boon Tiong
11. Ben Yong
12. Chen Chen
13. Ben Low
14. Eugene Gan
15. Samson
16. Zhuoyang
17. Guodong
18. Jun Xiang
19. Douglas
20. Ernie
21. Ben Yap
22. Patrick
23. Mr Dennis Au
24. Ms. Elsa Chew

we've rocked ChangChun with our spirit! we've rocked ChangChun with our bravery! we've rocked ChangChun with our High-ness!

AND THIS IS OUR OIP EXPERIENCE!

Patrick