Day 4

We booked out of YMCA hostel this morning. For the next 4 days, we would be checking into a hotel due to unavailability of chalets. We are looking forward to it.

No more common toilets .... ya!

Every Thursday, the Form 4 students would gather at the hall at 8.10 am for assembly. The rest of the students would be in their respective classes doing silent reading. The assembly started with a morning prayer led by a teacher. This was followed by a sharing session on a particular value (similiar to our VIP). This morning the teacher shared about "staying focus to reach our target". The students have to stand throughout the entire assembly. Compared to them, we are indeed more fortunate as we are allowed to sit in the school hall.

Have you taken a lift with grilled door

that you have to close youreslf ?

In this school, the lift is meant for teachers,

injured or handicapped students.

Classroom experience: Economics Lesson

The Econs lesson is about trends in economy, like its growth and its decline. This morning, we learnt about the different types of business enterprises and how they contribute to the growth of the economy and the taxes. The class was so quiet you could hear a pin dropped. The class was very attentive and enthusiastic about the lesson. Unlike our school, there was no visualizer in class and the teacher had to depend on blackboard and textbook to conduct lesson. I felt ashamed as I witnessed this, as back home we have better facilities, but the students here have more passion to learn. I would cherish HIHS more when i go back.

Classroom experience: P.E

The PE lesson which I attended was quite different from those that we had in Singapore. The boys and the girls were separated. The PE was not held in the school compound but at the nearby Kowloon park. I heard from my buddy that the boys went to play soccer. We (girls) did some streching exercises followed by a run around the park. The park was stunning , very much like the Botanical Garden in Singapore.

Visit to Wetland Reserve

The trip to the Wetland Reserve left the deepest impression on me. The wetland reserve provides a safe and natural habitat for the birds. I was glad to know that the birds are protected from extinction. We were able to see the birds clearly through catascopes. From the information display board, I have gathered knowledge on the many species of birds as well as their habitat.

We were lucky to visit the reserve during the low tide as we were able to see many small crabs crawling along the muddy river bed. There were also many mudskippers happily skipping as they moved from place to place. This is the first time I saw a mudskipper, hence it is very memorable for me.

Visit to Lau Fu Shan

This was our next and last place of visit for the day... Lau Fu Shan.

Uncle Lam (tour guide) explaining to Mr Lau in mixture of Cantonese and Chinese about the oyster farm in this area. As most of us could not understand what the tour guide was saying, Mr Lau would translate what he could understand in English.



The skyline in the background is Shen Zheng, China

Plenty of dried food stuff to buy here.

You could buy seafood from the many fresh seafood stalls here and bring them to the many restaurants nearby to cook for you.

But be warned .... it is not cheap! (Uncle Lam shared this with us)

Seafood Dinner .... yummy.

Best dinner so far.

For the first time, all the dishes were cleared out!

Check out our new hotel room.

The facilities were much better as compared to those at the YMCA hostel. We finally get to watch TV since arriving in Hong Kong 4 days ago. Unfortunately, light out was at 1030 pm. Sigh!

But still ... we wish we could stay here for the rest of the trip as it was much cleaner and comfortable here.

We will not have access to internet for the next 3 days ... but remember to tune in next Tuesday. Cheers!

Hong Kong Twinning Programme 2009 blogger team

Day 3

Temperature taking .... an important morning routine before we set off from the YMCA hostel to the school for the day programme.



We arrived at school at about 8 am. every morning. We would gather the canteen area or at the holding area (5th floor) to chat with our buddies while waiting for the lesson to start.


Classroom Experience: English Lesson

Today English lesson was a continuation of yesterday's topic. It was conducted differently. The students were being grouped according to their level of competencies. They were seated in groups of 4. For today lesson, they have to do a PowerPoint Presentation on the theme "Faith". It was something like the oral lesson that we usually did back home but theirs was in written form together with the pictures that they have taken.

Classroom Experience: Design & Technology Lesson

I was bought to the D&T room for the Design and technology lesson. Although the room has limited space and was rather crammed, it was well equipped and furnished. As usual, the students were eager to introduce themselves and help in whatever way they could. I learned geometrical and symmetrical drawing in today lesson. As I was doing this for the first, I could hardly understand what was going on. Seeing how confused and forlorn I was, my buddy painstakingly explained to me what i was supposed to do until i finally understood the concept. I have learnt a valuable lesson in this trip, how to draw a symmetrical ....egg!

Classroom Experience: Music Lesson

The students wasted no time in queueing up and walked orderly to the music room. It was totally silent inside the room. The only noise I could hear was the sound of teacher typing on the computer. A moment later, a video of a famous orchestra performing appeared on a large screen. Every one's eyes were fixed on the screen. The teacher was using IT (films, videos, cds etc) to make the lesson much more appealing to the students. The responses from the students were dynamic and spontaneous.

HK Space Museum
At the space museum, we watched a movie about dinosaurs at the Stanley Ho Space Theatre. It was a new experience for me as we have to seat on the almost horizontal reclined seats to view the video projected onto the 23-metre hemisphere screen at roof of the theatre.

From the exhibits, we could get an idea of the setbacks and triumphs that man has achieved so far in space exploration.

HK History Museum

For me, the best part of the trip so far was the visit to the HK History Museum. This place is amazing! It is filled with lot of stuff that i have never seen before in my life, for example the stone arrow, prawn shop, 'boat people', opera, etc .

Science Museum

The Science Museum has really intriguing exhibits. I learnt about energy consumption for household appliances. For example, water heater would consume 1 KW in half an hour!

I have an interesting lesson on enzymes and what are they used for. I subsequently found out that pig fat was used to make explosives, a shocking discovery for me.

Avenue of Stars

We arrived at the Avenue of Stars at around 7.30pm. While waiting for the “Symphony of Lights” to begin at 8pm we browsed through the famous Hong Kong stars hand imprints on the walkway. The atmosphere was vibrant and the place was crowded with many tourists. The weather was cooling with the wind slapping on our faces. We thoroughly enjoyed the moment.

The symphony of Lights began at 8 pm sharp and we could see the outlines of the commercial buildings in front of us being lighted up. Occasionally, laser lights at the top of the building would shoot out showing a spectacular display of different coloured lightings against the skyline. Most of us were in awe as we soaked in the almost festive atmosphere. The beautiful sight would be forever etched in my mind for many years to come.

Day 2

The moment we arrived at Lai Chack Middle School (see picture), we could feel the sense of warmth and hospitality as the teachers and students greeted us as we entered the school compound.

The students were very enthusiastic about our arrival as we went up the stage during the assembly to be introduced by the MC. The immediate impression we have of the school is that students are all very friendly and spontaneous in a sense that they were very easy to talk to.

The principal presented a school gift to Mrs Tan. In return, Mrs Tan presented our school souvenir to the principal.

After school assembly, we were led to a science lab at the fifth floor. The lab would serve as the holding area for the rest of our stay in Lai Chack Middle School.

After a quick introduction by the teacher on the day programme, we were treated to a sumptuous breakfast meal consisting of eggtarts, beehons, fishballs, congees, stewed chicken wings etc. The food was fabulous especially the eggtarts. We found out that the outer part of the eggtart was made of oat, and the taste was just nice.



It was interaction time with our buddies after breakfast. Some of us met our buddies for the first time as they could not be present at the airport to meet us. The interaction was tad awkward at first but after the ice breaking games, the atmosphere lightened considerably and all of us got along pretty ok. Even though there was some language barrier, we somehow managed to understand each other and all went well.

Classroom Experience: Science & Social studies

When I first entered the class, my classmates warmly welcomed us. They were so opened, unlike our Singapore students who tend to be shy and keep to themselves. I did not really enjoy the Science lesson as I could not understand the teacher who spoke throughout in Cantonese. The social studies lesson was totally different. The teacher was very kind as she made very attempt to explain in Chinese so that I could follow the lesson. She even invited us to share our experiences with the class. We felt involved in the lesson and enjoyed every moment.

Classroom Experience: Sec 4’s Math Lesson
The class has a Math test today. While the class was taking the test, the teacher gave me the test paper to try out. Initially, I have difficulty understanding the questions as they were written in non-simplified Chinese. I have to read the same question several times to guess its meaning. I managed to solve a few questions based on math concept learnt in Holy Innocents High. After the test, the math lesson was conducted in Cantonese which I could hardly understand. Overall, it was still an enriching classroom experience for me.

Lunch was a simple affair with steamed egg, rice, vegetables and ham. It tasted great but there was not much meat.

In the afternoon, our travel guide brought us for a day tour around Hong Kong Island. For the first time, we got to experience what it was like to travel on a tram ride (see the white bus in the picture). It was a unique experience. Although the tram was not air-conditioned, it was quite cooling with natural wind blowing at us.

At one point on the ride when the tram was very packed, an old man boarded the tram. One of our students gave up her seat to the old man. He was thankful and asked us about our school and where did we come from. He praised us. After that, many people started to give up their seats for the elderly. That was a beautiful sight.

Before heading to the hostel, we made a stop at a restaurant in Kowloon for dinner. This is what we ate for dinner (see picture). The portion was as usual very big and we could hardly finish all of them.

Day 1

Changi Airport

After weeks of waiting, the day have finally arrived! You could tell from our happy faces that we were both excited and full of anticipation for Hong Kong trip. We were divided into 4 groups of 5 students. Each group had a leader and one of the key responsibilities of the leader was to ensure that all members within the group were accounted for before we move from one place to another. We were also reminded of the importance of team spirit and to watch out for each other well being.

Hong Kong International Airport

Upon arrival at the Hong Kong International Airport, we were swarmed and greeted by a group of students from Lai Chack Middle school eagerly waiting for us. Each one of us was given a stalk of flower and a round fan by our respective Hong Kong buddies. Their warm and friendly behaviours have left deep impression in all of us.

We were also impressed with the efficient and friendly service of the Cathay Pacific baggage handling crew. The handle of Jie Ying’s baggage was found to be broken upon retrieval from the baggage conveyor belt. When this was reported to the ground crew, they immediately offered to replace the damaged baggage with a new one. It even came a warranty card! All of us were so envious of Jie Ying’s brand new baggage.

One for the memories … group photograph with students from Lai Chack Middle School at the airport.

Check In at YMCA Hostel
We would be staying at Wu Kwai Sha Youth Village for the next 10 days. There were many facilities available like tennis courts, badmintion courts, running track, swimming pools etc.

We were assigned 2 chalets for our accomodation. Each chalet has 4 bedrooms and 3 common toilets. Each room has 2 double-decker beds. So 4 of us were squeezed into each bedroom like "sardines".

Using the toilets was a hassle as at any one time only 3 students could use them. It would take up to 1 hour for all of us take showers before we could retire for the night. To solve the problem of students fighting for toilets, a timetable was drawn up to prevent conflicts.

Dinner time

This is where we have our first decent meal since leaving Singapore. It was a simple but sumptuous meal with 8 dishes plus 1 soup. There were so much food that we could not finish all the dishes.

Shopping at Supermarket

After dinner, we visited the Sunshine Plaza which is about 5 minutes walk from our hostel. A lot of us bought phone card to call home. The talktime is about 100 minutes for HK$100. We also visited Wellcome Supermarket (similiar to our NTUC) to buy daily groceries like fruit and mineral water.

Before we say good night

We were back to the hostel at around 2100 hrs. The teachers have bought apples for each of us. We were forced to finish eating an apple before we were allow back into our chalet to do our "end of day" reflection and personal administration. It was a tiring day but it was also a lot of fun.