My class and I gathered in Changi Airport at 5 o'clock. Almost everyone had their parents with them, which gave us all an opportunity to know more about how our classmate's parents looked like. Of course, that wasn't the main point of this gathering. We were here for our 7 o'clock flight to Kaohsiung, Taiwan. The atmosphere was tense as we prepared mentally to leave our parents for a full week to embark on this journey with our classmates. After much goodbye kisses, hugs or even mere hand waves, we left our parents and got ready to get on the flight.
Upon reaching the airport in Kaohsiung at midnight, we were greeted by the principal and a few staff members of Sacred Hearts High School, our sister school and also the school we would be visiting in a fews day time for an immersion programme. I was extremely touched by this gesture. The airport was nowhere near where the school was, therefore they must have travelled long distances just to meet us. It was also the wee hours then. Everyone else would be enjoying the comfort of being under their covers, fast asleep while they came to give us a warm welcome. We then made our way to 十鼓文化村， literally translated to be Ten Drums Cultural Village. It would be providing us the accommodation we needed for two nights to come.
Getting off the coach, the first thing I noticed was the number of mosquitos there was. It was no surprise i had itches all over soon enough. We were handed our room keys and along with my roommate, Clinton, we made our way to our room. The place was well made, much to everyones pleasure. It was already 2 o’clock in the morning then. We quickly washed up and settled down for the little sleep we had left for us.
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| Room in Ten Drums Cultural Village |
Day 2
The next day, I woke with the sun shining bright into our room through the windowpanes. I got up only to realise it was only 5 o’clock in the morning. I then returned to sleep, only to be woken up by Clinton soon enough. We took our own sweet time for our morning routines. By the time we were done, we were already late for the morning gathering at 7 o’clock. Being late sure wasn’t the best thing that could happen, especially when the vice- principal was one of the teachers in charge. We then made our way to a dining hall for our breakfast. The breakfast was unlike what we normally had. This gave us an idea of what we might eat in Taiwan.
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| First breakfast |
After breakfast, we made our way to a few museums in Taiwan. Of course, they weren’t the most interesting, but they indeed enlightened me. We then went to Meinong Folk Village for a tour of the place and also for lunch. There, i bought a bag of lightning tea (擂茶) powder to bring home. We then had in a restaurant there, where the meal consisted of many
traditional taiwanese dishes.
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| Taiwanese Lightning Tea |
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| Meinong Folk Village |
After lunch we made our way to another museum and then to the Former British Consulate. Unfortunately, due to the lack of time, we were unable to tour the entire British consulate. We then went to Liuhe night market. It was a disappointment. My imagination was far too vivid and the food there wasnt’t to my expectations. Furthermore, we were having dinner afterwards so I avoided buying much. I left the night market an hour later, more or less empty handed. We then had dinner and went back to the hotel. We had a presentation on some of the places we went to that day, then settled in for the night.
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| Liuhe Night Market |
Day 3
The next day, I woke up with a shock. Once again i was shaken awake by Clinton. We only had twenty minutes to get ready. What made matters worse was that we had to have our luggage packed since we would be leaving the hotel for another that day. Fortunately, even though we didn’t make it in time, we weren’t the latest. After a tongue lashing, we went for breakfast, hearts filled with guilt.
After breakfast, we proceeded to Tainan. The first place we went to was Anping Fort. We then went for lunch at Anping Old Street. We were served traditional Taiwanese street food, such as coffin toast and fried oyster egg. Of course, it was a delectable meal.
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| Soft toy from Anping Old Street |
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| Lunch at Anping Old Street |
After lunch, we toured Anping Old Street. The many shops there sold many goods, with bubblegum being the best among them. There were cheap goods such as soft toys which I bought. We then made our way to Eternal Golden Castle and then to Chihkan Tower. Afterwards, we made our way to the Tainan Confucius Temple, the first school in Taiwan. Unfortunately, I had a nosebleed here and was unable to check out what there was there. My few of my closer classmates were nice enough to stay with me throughout. All these places were built long before and were preserved for decades and gave us a deep insight into Taiwan’s history. We then made our way for dinner.
After dinner, we proceeded to Douliu City in Yunlin County to check into Tai Shinu Hotel. Admittedly, this hotel was less well maintained and didn’t match up to the other. However, after a debrief, everyone was tired and rushed to get ready for the big day tomorrow or to sleep.
Day 4
The next day, we woke earlier than we were supposed to. We were heading to visit our sister school that day. After breakfast, we made our way to the school. The first thing i noticed was that their school was massive, at least double the size of ours. We were ushered to the library’s study room where we waited in suspense to meet the students. We were then warmly welcomed by the applause of everyone as we stood before their assembly. We made our way to their school hall to get ready for our performance that was taking place next. After our performance which I don’t think I did well in, we were treated to performances that the students there had put up. I was certainly impressed by the effort they had put in into welcoming us.
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| Flag performance by Sacred Hearts High School |
After speeches by their principal and our vice- principal, we made our way back into the study room to meet our buddies.My classmate, Haolin, and I shared a buddy. My buddy was a boy, taller than me, with shorter hair. He had a pleasant personality and was easy to interact with. We took some of the refreshments provided and settled down at the tables there to talk with out buddies. In our conversation, I learnt a lot about the Taiwanese’s way of life and details of their school and education, such as the fact that in their school, male and female students studied in separate classes. Afterwards, we formed a few groups, each going to different classrooms for certain informal lessons. I went to the "English" lesson. We were seating in a lecture room in front of a group of students. We then took turns to ask each other questions in English about anything in general. Of course it was easy for us but it was certainly a challenge for the Taiwanese students to understand what we mean. We then played a game whereby a we had to match pairs of words in Traditional Chinese and English together. This was much harder since we studied in Simplified Chinese.
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| Meeting our buddies |
Afterwards, we had lunch. We were treated to an assortment of spring rolls and dishes. Everything looked and tasted so good, to the point that I didn't realises I took my food from the vegetarian section until I was told so. We then enjoyed a Taiwanese dessert/drink, milk tea with pearls. It was obvious that much preparation had gone into all these. I felt that the school really treated us very well, in fact, far too well. There were a lot of leftover food since we were not that accustomed to the taste of Taiwanese food.
After lunch, we followed our buddies for a tour of the school. Their classrooms were all air conditioned, something everyone wishes for here. I was surprised when i found out that their school had swimming pools for the students. Their school also had a massive field, a running track and several courts intended for the playing of sports. Compared to ours however, even though our school had much less, ours was much better maintained. Here, in my opinion, it would be quantity against quality. After that, we parted with our buddy to visit some places that their school had organised for us.
We first went to a pineapple tart factory. We had the rare opportunity of making our own pineapple tarts. The process wasn't hard but it sure was greasy. Everyone spent a good long time at the sinks washing our hands afterwards. We then visited the pineapple farm, where i learnt that pineapples actually grew on the ground. It was certainly enlightening to see what don't. After all, where in Singapore would I see pineapples other than the harvested or even prepared ones at fruit stalls? We then went to an elementary school where we were greeted by the performance of children aged not more than 7. The put up an amazing performance of playing the violin. Having seen what the children were capable of, I felt extremely inadequate as I was at least double their age, yet I had no experience with music at all, let alone playing the violin. To make matters worse, we went to see the children's artwork. Of course, it was as good as their violin performance. Right then, I felt as if I was "nothing" and that i was useless. We then went for dinner. Dinner was at a restaurant with our buddies and their parents. At first, it was awkward but after a while, we got comfortable with each other and even spoke to the buddies' parents.
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| Making pineapple tarts |
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| Children playing the violin |
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| Children with their works of art |
After dinner, we returned to the hotel. During our debrief, our teacher-in-charge brought out a box of bananas, explaining that they were given to us by the school. I felt that the school was being far too generous, giving us so many things. After the debrief ended, we made our way to our rooms and settled in for the night.
Day 5
Once again, we woke up early. However, we didn't go to our sister school. We went to a towel making factory instead. I suppose it was due to a change of plans or a breakdown in communication. Of course, we were excited when we went to the towel factory. Taiwan was known for having beautifully crafted towels that resembled animals or food. What was great was the we had an DIY session whereby we were taught to fold a towel into a cute little panda. The process was difficult but everyone ultimately managed to make one. Of course, they didn't as good as those that the workers there had made but it was fine since we put our hearts into it. We then went to the souvenir shop there were we bought many more towels. I would say each individual towel was a work of art since everything looked so good. From far, one wouldn't notice that what appeared to be a piece of cake was deceptively a folded towel. In fact, when we were given a towel folded to be like a pudding during a meal later, we mistook it to be an actual pudding, until we opened the cover.
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| Folding our own towels |
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| Worker at towel factory |
Afterwards, we went to a puppet museum, where I learnt a lot about this tradition. What appeared to be a boring practice turned out to be really interesting when the puppet master demonstrated the moving of the puppets to us. From this I learnt not to assume, to not judge a book by its cover. Should I not have had this experience, I wouldn't have a very good idea of puppet shows in my mind. We then made our way to a museum that was conveniently beside the puppet museum. We could not tour the indoor part of it since another tour group was inside then so we remained outside as the tour guide explained things to us. Right then, it started drizzling. We hurried to get under shelter but unfortunately there wasn't enough for everyone. Then, what i saw moved me greatly. Classmates that weren't even that close began sharing umbrellas with each other. Of course this may have sparked off some jealousy but it doesn't change the fact that it was a considerate gesture. We then went for lunch. It was at a fancy restaurant. In fact, almost every meal we had was at a fancy restaurant of some sort. We were served seafood. Lots of it. By then, we were getting used to having seafood since everywhere we went, seafood was present.
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| Holding a hand puppet |
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| Couple sharing an umbrella |
After lunch, we returned to the school for some activities. Our class was split into two groups, with one attending a "magic" lesson and the other attending a balloon sculpting lesson. I was in the group which went for the "magic" lesson first. The teacher there was very entertaining, with many jokes of his own and tricks to show us, such as regurgitating of many cards from his mouth. However, I still am not sure of how he does it. The lesson was certainly enjoyable. We were also able to bring back with us the props used for some of the magic tricks which I still keep to this day. Next, we went for the balloon sculpting lesson. To me, this lesson was a little more enjoyable, reason being we did everything in fear of the balloon exploding in our face. Furthermore, we made innuendos of the many things the teacher said. Afterwards, we went to tour the school's CCAs to see if there were any differences between theirs and ours. We all learnt that their CCAs were much more unique compared to ours but most of them are less strict. Then, we went back to the hotel where we had an hour to rest and eat our dinner which was contained in a bento.
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| "Magic" class |
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| Balloon sculpting class |
The hour flew by quickly and we had to be ready to attend a concert that our sister school was holding. We went to a performance hall in the area where we settled down into the front row seats which were kindly reserved for us. Looking at the flyer given to us, I conclude that this concert was similar to our school's ArtFest. This was welcome change. Instead of a feast for our mouths and stomach, this was one for our eyes and ears. Many delightful, creative performances were put up. However, halfway through, many of us began to feel sleepy, probably due to the lack of sleep and rest. How unfortunate that we could not fully enjoy the performance. I do indeed appreciate the effort of the students for putting up such an amazing performance. The performance wouldn't have been this great without countless hours put into practice. Everyone was dead tired after the performance ended so we hurried back to the hotel. Without a debrief, we were allowed to return to our rooms to rest.
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| Drumming performance |
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| Orchestra playing |
Day 6
The next day, we woke up early again, to go to the school for the last time. Upon arriving in the school, we were brought to have formal lessons with students. Through the lessons, we gained knowledge about how they study and the difference in their timetables. I noticed how simple their English lessons were but I assume that is what they would think too of our Chinese lessons. After an English lesson and a Geography lesson, we made our way to the school kitchen where we had an cooking lesson. We made savoury spring onion pancakes, braised tofu and seaweed, puff pastry and also milk tea with pearls, most of which are Taiwanese snacks. I noticed that in their kitchen, there were far less safety regulations and rules to follow as compared to ours. I feel that that could be improved upon since it would be nasty should anything unfortunate happen.
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| Making spring onion pancakes |
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Packing braised tofu
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| Attending a formal lesson |
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After we were done with the cooking lesson, we made our way to the study room with our hands loaded with packets containing tofu, paper bags filled with pastry and spring onion pancakes, and cups filled with milk tea. We were then served desserts. However, by then, everyone was already full from eating while we were cooking. To avoid wasting food, we had competed with each other to finish the desserts. We were then supposed to go out with our buddies family. To avoid carrying unnecessary things in our hands, Haolin and I disposed of what we could no longer finish or gave it to our friends.
Haolin and I then proceeded to the parking lot where my buddy and his parents were waiting in their car, ready to bring us out. They first brought us to a soya sauce factory where we learnt about how it is actually made. We also tasted unprocessed soya sauce, straight from the massive jar for fermenting the beans. It certainly tastes better than what we usually use here in Singapore. We also got to try soya sauce ice cream, which had a hint of saltiness and had many black beans in it and also braised quail eggs which were braised for a long time to the point the egg white was black throughout and the yolk was noticeably darker. Afterwards, we went to a few museums, then to my buddy's house. Since they were in the coffee trade, we were treated to cups of cappuccino. We learnt about coffee beans and also feasted on watermelon. Afterwards, we had the opportunity to make our own coffee bags to take home with us. The activity was enjoyable and we had a good laugh over many things. I feel that these activities strengthened the bond between my buddy, Haolin and I. My buddy's parents then took us out for dinner. It was a change since we could finally decide what we want to eat instead of being served seafood all the time. Dinner was the last meal we had with our buddy, until maybe we meet again someday. We were then taken back to the hotel. Since we had a little extra time, we went to a convenience store nearby to buy snacks. I returned with my wallet rid of Taiwanese coins and my hands full of bubblegum. My buddy then sent us up to our hotel rooms. Then, I had to bid him goodbye. It wasn't the best way to end off such a fun-filled day. As tears welled up in my eyes, I cringed as I closed the door. I certainly hope that one day, my buddy, Haolin and I can meet each other once again.
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| Soya sauce fermenting jar |
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| Coffee Beans |
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| Making coffee bags |
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| Meal with buddy's parents |
We all then went for our debrief but our teachers- in- charge were extremely late and didn't arrive till almost an hour later. The room for debriefing was filled with restless people, with the occasional complaint of the teachers not coming back in time. Fortunately, when they were finally back, they ended off with a short debrief and let us return to our rooms. This night was certainly the most emotional of all. I began packing my luggage since we would be leaving the hotel and subsequently Taiwan the next day.
Day 7
The next day, Clinton and I woke up late. In fact, we only woke at the time we had to gather. I suppose experience made us able to get ready in a mere 15 minutes. We hurried to the dining area, and gobbled up our breakfast. We had to finish food items we bought there too. We then brought our luggage onto the coach and prepared for a 1 hour journey to Taichung where we would be visiting the 921 Earthquake Educational Park, the last place we would be visiting before leaving Taiwan.
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| Aftermath of 921 Earthquake |
Visiting the 921 Earthquake Educational Park led me to realise how fortunate I am to be living in Singapore, where earthquakes don't occur. Since earthquakes cannot be predicted, residents have no warning of one, even if they do, it would be almost useless. Residents in earthquake prone areas live daily in fear of an earthquake occurring and destroying everything they have. Yet I have no worries at all. We got to see for ourselves the damage an earthquake can leave behind since the place was built by an area which had an earthquake on the 21st of September 15 years ago. Afterwards, we went for lunch at a restaurant not far from Taoyuan Airport. This was the last meal we had together as a class.
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| Sign at last restaurant we went to |
After lunch, we proceeded to the Airport to return to Singapore. Normally one would be angry when the plane was delayed thrice for almost an hour and a half, but to me, i appreciated it. I didn't want to leave Taiwan just yet. However, the moment came ultimately, I unwillingly boarded the plane as I though to myself, "So this is how it all ends...".
Soon as we settled down in the plane, I began to feel sleepy and the next thing I remember was that I was fast asleep on my friend's shoulder. After we arrived in Singapore, we met our parents and we bid each of our classmates goodbye as we finally split up after a week together.
This OELP certainly holds many good memories for my class. I hope that through this, my class bond has grown stronger. Since we will be changing our class next year, we won't have much more chances to interact each other. I most definitely will treasure this experience and have it in my mind forever.
-Yang Hui
