Project Taiyang Part I

Foreword

I have been on a hiatus from nasi le-mak because of finals and some bad stuff happening after it. Things didn't go the way I thought it would go. But such is life, you just learn from whatever you did wrongly and move on, hoping that the next time you won't make the same mistake. All I have to say is that I gave my best, and I do not habour any regrets on my actions. This is going to be a long post, so bear with me as I seek to make it clear to everybody the efforts of our team what we had done in the past few weeks. This post is going to be split into three parts, the first focusing on the days before the trip up till day 7 of the trip which would consist of Hu Shan cultural exchange, while the second would compromise of the home visit and finale night. The last part would be our Hong Kong adventures.

Meeting

It was just after finals that we had our final meeting prior to the trip. So on wednesday Jenn messaged me and informed me that we had to compile the stuff for our Primary 3 team. And guys being highly efficient procrastinators like me and Jeremy had to rush our asses off for the final product. During the meeting, our worksheets and lesson plan was fired left right center as if we had committed a federal crime whereby we did not include sufficient vocabulary. Thus, we decided to spam tons of them and the final product which came out had the comment of "Oh, isn't these amount of words too much?" We thought so too, but what you want is what you get. We came to regret these words during the Taiyang trip though. The seniors had pooled their money and treated us to pizza for lunch which I thought was a nice touch given that we were just a bunch of ungrateful pesky kids. The main highlight of the day was the choosing of buddies. Chee Ming exhausted all his options and I was like let's buddy up. How much could go wrong with two idiots buddying up?

Chee Ming - Han Ren

Zong Wei - Pin Yi

Jeremy - Jing Yang

Eugene - Wen Ge

Yu Jie - Kenneth

Jing Ci - Jermaine

Angela - Jenn

Yue Qi - Yi Jun

Rachel - Sara

Day 1

This was a long day as we had met up at Changi Airport at like 3am, which was literally in the middle of the night. I didn't sleep much as I was playing DotA all the way with Marc, Bryan and Swee Yang as a last hurrah before spending 3 weeks overseas. I was one of the last few to reach the airport, it wasn't because I didn't have a sense of timing or what sorts, but the others were way too early. We were already meeting early and the rest are really up there as they made early seem to be an understatement for Yijun and Yueqi went to the airport overnight and stayed there. Zong Wei even had an early breakfast cum supper before the flight.

Taken at Changi Airport and I became the banner boy

As we checked in our luggage I found out that I was going to be sitting next to Jeremy and on the same role was the crazy Zong Wei. But three of us had the same idea in mind. Let's just sleep. Even when Jing Ci came around to take photos of the three of us sleeping, we came to realise than sleep was way more important than our pride so we slept on as she snapped on.

We reached the airport around 11am and boy, was it cold. Apparently Yue Qi didn't fill her bottle with water at Changi before boarding the train so she ran out of water. Me being the oh-so-generous and kind person I am offered her my bottle of water and Chee Ming went to pour the whole bottle of water into her tumbler. Of course I wasn't amused by it one bit. But oh well, he's going to be my buddy so let him start round 1 of retardedness.

Meet Rudolph

 The bus ride came and I was sent to sit in the front of the bus since I was one of the last few up in the bus. And thus started our turmoil of a 9 hours bus ride from the airport to the top of the mountain. The only funny thing that happened was luggage flying around in the bus and me and Jeremy's effort in trying to purchase a toy car under the team allowance.

Our home for the next 2 weeks

We reached the house we were staying in and we were allowed to choose our room and my smartass buddy decided we should choose a room that is closest to the door. Oh did we choose wrong. When we first walked into the room we noticed a poster of a female smiling pasted on the side of the cupboard. Next there was multiple pictures pasted on the table with even more pictures dangling on the walls. To make matters worse, as we were unpacking we heard a THUD sound coming from the locked cupboard. Oh did we freak the hell out. We ran out of the room as the other memberse were laughing at us thinking we were just being retarded. Luckily, that wasn't the worse room we could have chosen but I shall come back to that on a later date.

China KFC

 We proceeded down to the fake KFC shop and had a feast down there. Never have I seen so many chicken, fries, burgers, chicken fingers and coke being downed in our meal. The rest proceeded to the supermarket to buy stuff while Chee Ming, Pin Yi and I looked after the bags. We employed Angela as our resident shopper as she helped us buy instant noodles and cups. That was the end of day one as we drove back to the house and went to sleep.

Remnants of the meal

Day 2

Chee Ming shook me out of bed at 8.30 as our alarm had sounded at 8am. The bugger had already made hot water and we made a breakfast out of instant noodles and Milo. As we sat down there chilling, an old uncle which was our neighbour came in and enjoyed tea with us. Eugene, Chee Ming and I entertained him as he tried explaining to us the surroundings and the nature of our house. Me being bilingual didn't understand a thing as they conversed in Cantonese or Hakka. The morning soon became noisy as more and more people woke up and we started working on our first English lesson tomorrow.

Technology ruling over human

We proceeded to have lunch at a house down the mountain and boy was their meat fresh. They slayed the chicken on the spot and I could hear Jing Ci screaming her ass off as they plucked the feathers out of the chicken's lifeless body. We had a feast and headed further into the city to purchase SIM card for our phone. We were so quiet that a pin drop could have broken the peaceful silence like a gunshot. Internet oh internet, making us stop taking like a dictator. We proceeded to have dinner around the area and had a Hu Shan Cultural exchange briefing back at the house. The slides were really beautiful and I was worried we would not be able to hold the attention of the china JC kids. Furthermore, my buddy for the cultural exchange was Jing Ci and both of us was socially awkward. Oh well, let's just wing it!

Day 3

This was going to be the first day and as usual Chee Ming woke me up and we had our usual breakfast. This time, Jeremy proceeded downstairs and so did Zong Wei and there begins our usual breakfast party as the four of us would enjoy breakfast together daily for the days to come. At around 10 we had our meeting for the english lessons. Jenn was going to be the teacher for the first three days and then it would be my turn. Bascially she got the lesson plan done well but she was not really confident in teaching. That's whereby Sara step in and boosted our morale as she practically knows how to handle the kids well.

Our first day at Ming De primary school

As we reached the class, disaster struck. Jeremy had forgotten to bring the red plastic bag which contained all the writing materials required to make the name tent. We had to pester and beg the driver to drive back to the house to get the materials required. Luckily the driver was very nice and agreed to do so but before that he gave us a stern warning to not forget our stuff again as he would not do it again. When we reached the school, I had already missed the recce for finale team as we sat down in the principal's office and drank tea.

The first lesson came and Jenn took the reins of being the main teacher. We gave the kids materials to make their own name tent so we could recognise their names. We introduced ourselves to the kids with nicknames Jeremy as 亮亮, Jenn as 崎崎, Sara as 沙拉, and finally me as 小瀚. During the course of the lesson Jeremy was labelled at stupid by one of the kids. Other than that, the kids were bewildered and were mostly quiet during the lesson as they were not familiar with us. We should have appreciated this moment of silence as in the near future, they would start an event that is known through the history of Project Taiyang which is the Primary Three Riots.

We took Jing Ci's phone and no chance was given

We went back for dinner and Yi Jun requested the finale team to sit together so as to discuss about the pot situation. Yup, that's right the pot situation. So the school doesn't have enough pots for us to cook our chicken curry and bah ku teh. So Wen Ge suggested we do our cooking in the wok instead, which made sense, since we were going to be catering to such a huge amount of people. It had rose from the estimated 40 people to aroudn 70 or 80. They doubled our number without us knowing and we were afraid that we would not be able to handle it. And thus began our daily discussion of losing weight between Jing Yang and Grace as they argue daily during dinner on her no eating rice.

There wasn't much rest time as we proceeded towards Hu Shan for the cultural exchange. I was still busy memorising the notes on information about Singapore on the journey there. Basically I was going to freak out but Jing Ci was also freaking out at the prospect of having to entertain strangers so I had to maintain my composure and told her all will be fine. Before all of this happening, we went to the local mini mart to grab some sweets for ourselves. So between the volleyball court and the mini mart was a gap which housed the drain. Everybody saw it except.. Yes, you guessed it my buddy Jing Ci. She dropped into the hole and I was shocked. She was busy checking if her camera was damaged instead of her own body. I knew she had scrapped her leg but she was being stubborn and didn't want any first aid attention. I thought this was pretty cool as I thought most girls would whine and complain when they hurt themselves. In her own words, she was an independent girl.

Thus began the cultural exchange as we introduced ourselves to the kids. They were genuinely interested in what we were sharing despite their exams being held next week. They wanted to know more about the world outside of China and want to know that there is more to life than just studying. We were shocked at their studying schedule for they have to work from 8am in the morning to 10pm at night and the cycle repeats daily until sunday whereby they have a rest day. This is really different from our Singapore way of studying as we complain that we have to work hard. Look at them, they are what we call working their asses off. Yue Qi commanded the most attention as they all called her chio in their own china language as they all wanted to be in her group. Halfway through the discussion, Chee Ming called me over to his group and we talked about our rubbish before Jing Ci started hollering at me for abandoning her. Oh well, there begins the journey of our Taiyang trip!

Day 4

This was the second day that we would be teaching and we were determined to do a better job that the previous day. Sara lectured us on how to maintain a conversation with the kids and not just laze around the room. So she ordered me and Jeremy to go around the class to talk to the kids. Jeremy took the left of the class while i took the right side of the class. So I tried to talk to this one kid, but he kept talking to me in Hakka. His friend beside him have to translate for him some of the things I was saying and he told me that the kids speaking in Hakka didn't know mandarin well and could not speak confidently. Thus began my journey on trying to convert him into a Chinese speaking kid in an English lesson. Today was fairly uneventful as there was no Hu Shan cultural exchange. But as the chinese idiom goes,"山雨欲来风满楼"

Tripod's in the background

Day 5 Primary Three Riots

Today was the first day the leader of the day was being implemented, so Chee Ming and Jenn were going to be the leader for the day. As an added benefit, the leader had the opportunity to walk around during the lesson time to look at how different levels handled the kids. So even though Jenn was going to be the main teacher today, she would be leaving us halfway to take a tour around the place. She was teaching the kids well and she left halfway together with Sara to walk around. Jeremy and I were left in charge as we played the pictionary game with the kids. However, in the middle of the games the kids got bored and complained to us that they couldn't pee because the toilet was dirty. So I told them to just not breathe through their nose which doing their business. This was a wrong move as the kids proceeded to pack their bags and wanted to go home to urinate. I thought they were joking but they really wanted to leave the classroom. Jeremy looked at me and I looked back at him, we knew that the shit had hit the ceiling. Jeremy and I told them to keep quiet and go back to their seats but they were already riled up and were not paying attention. I didn't know why they wanted to go home to pee, and till this day did not find out why they wanted to riot on our asses but I do hope it was the first time and last time they pulled this stunt for I would 硬碰硬.

Second time at Hu Shan and we weren't disappointed

So the topic of the day was the primary three riots as we couldn't figure out the legit reason as to why they wanted to go home. Was it due to our incompetence? Was it due to the toilet being so disgusting that you couldn't pee in it? They should have taken a look at the Hu Shan toilet. They would then appreciate any toilet they were given. The Hu Shan toilet had no doors, was only high till your waist level and smelled like a rubbish dump with stuff rotting inside. It was that bad. And so began the second time we were sharing things with the Hu Shan kids. This time, Jing Ci wanted me to take the lead as she said I pangseh her the last time so I have to put in more effort to maintain their attention. So I talk cock and chit chat with the bunch of people and I realised that they were really quite cool as they were interested in Singapore and knew their local community well. They had like more thatn 60 students in a class in JC and had to choose between arts and science stream in J2 down there. They had 3 years of secondary school and 3 years of JC in china so it was basically very tiring for them as they have to work their asses off for college. I was glad I was in SMU myself.

Day 6 Limpeh first day teaching

It was finally going to be my turn to have a go at teaching the kids. Given what had happened the previous day, I was not really looking forward to it. Jenn and Sara were still laughing at what happened with me and Jeremy in charge so i told them we would not be giving them any reward today as they rioted their ass on us yesterday. To our surprise the kids were quite attentive today and followed the lesson closely. I don't really think my teaching is good as I make the kids repeat a word for more than 10 times. To extend the duration of the lesson, I had to ask the kids random questions like whats their favourite color, the color of their walls and even the color of their gate. Jeremy and the rest were laughing at me at the back of the class, but oh well, anything to drag the lesson! We told the kids that if they were going to behave well, we would go outside to play the next day for it was going to be outdoor lesson. I was already excited for it for I had to re-do and re-do the outdoor activity for tomorrow. But disaster struck again the next day.

Our kids and the primary three team!

Moving on, we proceeded to Hu Shan for cultural exchange again. This time, the kids were unfriendly and disinterested in what we were sharing. Halfway, we got really bored of them. Jing Ci just stopped talking and went to play with her phone. I had to entertain the kids and ask them random questions. I picked up a new word that day which is “蒙”. It meant cute as the girls use it to describe me. At the end of the day, we still felt like superstars as the kids would then ask us for our names and signature. Some of them even wanted to take selfies with us. One of the kids was so funny that he just asked Jing Ci to take a selfie of herself for him. God knows what he's going to do with it HAHAHAHAHA.

Day 7

This was the day of outdoor lesson and alas, we did not have a plan for what to do during outdoor lesson because playing ABC at the basketball court was not allowed as we could not leave the school. Luckily Jing Ci bailed us out as we recycled their game of pasting sticky notes on objects around the school. This game was simple as we proceeded to create 3 sets of these notes and ran through how we were going to play the game. Things have been going smoothly for the past few days and things have to go wrong one way or another. This time I did not bring the red plastic bag which contained the post-it notes. And I was legit panicking. Luckily, Jenn and Jeremy was still composed as we were again bailed out by Jing Yang and his primary 5 team as they lend us their extra construction paper to make the game on the spot. I had the role of taking the attention of the kids as Jenn and Jeremy made the notes at the back of the class. I was really glad I had the both of them in my teaching team as we really balance each other out. Jenn being the teacher, Jeremy being the disciplinarian and me being the retard to mingle with them. This would prove useful in the next week as we destroy their riot before it even begins.

My doppelganger!

It was the last day of Hushan cultural exchange and it just got more and more boring. The group of kids attached to us were quite rude as they corrected Jing Ci's chinese when she said some words wrongly. She was then pissed off and I had to do most of the talking again. However, the funny thing was that there was this guy that looked like me so I told them he was my brother from another mother. Also, the kids from day 1 came back and gave me and Jing Ci food and a note. She even brought a friend to meet me as she said that I was cute. I never knew that me shaking the friend of a girl would make her blush so much. Looks like I got the charms in China!

This was the end of an eventful week and I was already looking forward to the weekends as they told me that we would be having some R&R and home visit. And that trek up the mountain :X

Cheers
Han Ren