Day 5 !!!!!

Standing Infront of Taal Volcano (:

At the Children's museum (:

View of Taal Volcano (:

Today was the day we could relax after th hardowrk of th past few days !
We had a chance to wake up a little bit later before meeting at th lobby (:
We then headed off to Taal Volcano .
It was a long journey of around 2hrs ! Some of us even had a good sleep in the bus .
We stopped on th way, to grab a few pictures and fruits !
Once we reached th top of th mountain , from where we could have a panoramic view of th volcano , it was colder than normal temperature as we were really high up !
We all took LOTS OF PICTURES !
And then headed into a Restaurant which mostly served Seafood.
We had a good time there, enjoying the food and the view at the same time !
It was a once in a lifetime experience ;D

We then headed to the museum !
As it was a children's museum , we had the chance to have hand's on , on th artifacts there.
It was quite cool, learning abt out body , the culture and the modes of transportation of the philippines !
Although th museum was meant for kids, i think we actually had a really good time!

After that, we had a chance to shop at the MALL OF ASIA.
We had a limited time and also had to move around in groups to ensure our safety.
We also learnt that we had to be patient as someone else in th group shops fr what they want before we get our turn to go to th shop we want.
I think th group i was in managed our time pretty well and had a great time shopping !

Though we were all tired, we were still waiting for dinner.
We had a good time at th restaurant, bonding with each other as we ate .
We had indian food, and i think it was one of th best restaurants we had gone to (:

We then headed back to th hotel to pack our stuff and prepare fr th next day, which is going back home to Singapore.

FOOD IN PHILIPPINES.

This is at BABARA'S ! The chicken was SOO DELICOUS.

FRUITS ! the healthy side of philippines :P

ICE-KACANG ! Also common in Singapore (:

  The food they get during recess !~

Guess the filling :P

 FOOD IN HARD ROCK CAFE !

YUM YUM. INDIAN FOOD (:

day 4 in Philippines!!

Day 4

Yea!! Today is the day we went to the anteneo highschool! But it was a bad start in the morning:{ a few people were late for our morning meeting thus our driver had to drive one big round over the malina city because he is not allowed to park in front of the hotel!

Because of these commotion in the morning we arrived 1 hour later than scheduled:{ but life is like that there are ups and down>.< lets take it as a lesson for us>.< anyway after the commotion everything went well>.< compared to the 1^st day everyone improved quite a bit ! even the shy irwan of our group managed to specked out to some of the anteneo high school people! >.< its such a achievement for us!! We got a tour around  the anteneo high school>.< we were like WOW!!! THE HIGH SCHOOL WAS SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH BIGGERRRRR!!! THEIR BASKETBALL COURT,SOCCER, HALL AND EVERYTHING IS LIKE 3 TIMES BIGGER THAN OURS!!

Through the tour in their school we also found out that their religious believes for their god is very strong! They even had chapel in the school to pray or something. We also found out that their theme for this year is called selamat (it means thank you in phillipines) I remember there is such a phrase “god gave us 5184000 seconds in a day isn’t it wonderful that u can use 1 second of it to give your gratitude to someone or something by saying selamat?>.<On hearing this, it really touched me

Happiness always not last long:{ we had to part from them after lunch

During lunch, the anteneo teacher let us watch a video called the bell. It tells us the story of the poors in the phillipines.if I simplifies It, the video shows us how eager those people are to study they want to study but their environment failed to let them do so. I felt a sense of guiltiness when I heard this. I am given a chance to study so comfortably and so but I chose not to study..arent I a little too unfair to them?!

With this mindset, we set of to the village where people live off picking trash, the paranda. Sadly we cannot go down the bus and interact with them but we managed to give them some sweets>.<\

after that we went to the light and sound museum!! we learnt more about the philippines war hero there! like what happened during the time when spanish concur them and what made the people think more about themselves though this i found out that a person life can be amend by his or her own hands! it is whether he /she wants to make a difference in themselves or not! like if the war hero didn't stand up and write the story of how the spanish make use of them concur them and make normal philipinoes think more of themselves philippines will now probably still being concur by countless countries again.

sadly the light and sound museum do not allow us to take pictures or video of anything inside:{ 

After that we went for dinner of a nearby restaurant and that’s the end of the day>.<

day 3 in Philippines!!

Day 3.

OH YEAH! We went to Commonwealth Elementary School, pito(uncle) Ray commonwealth was the biggest highway in Philippines. Commonwealth is a public school, its free and has less facilities, unlike the Ateneo school which is private and has more facilities. Normally, students from the public school, don’t study as well as the students from Ateneo, because they are always hungry, so they get distracted easily during lessons, and also, after school, they normally help their family to earn money instead of studying, they have limited time for studies. This made most of us quite guity because we had the luxury to study and all like the ateneo school but we didn’t really appreciate it well. He also told us about the system in Commonwealth School, he said the school has no computers or laptops, so in order for them to do their research, they have to rent the computers at the shop for 20pesos, and if they want to print out their research, they have to pay extra pesos.

When we reached Commonwealth School, the students welcomed us warmly, they were so excited to see us, this shows that they do not have many visitors in their school.

Now each of our members in the group will share our thoughts and feeling when we first stepped in the school.

Rachel: When I first entered the school, I was quite shocked to see how bad the condition of the school is, they do not have many facilities like what our school in Singapore has. Not only I was shocked, I was also a little overwhelmed, because I thought my school, my life in Singapore, just by looking at their school, and how thin the students were makes my heart ached a little. Just look at Woodlands Sec, we have indoor sports hall, proper classrooms, chairs, table, and some of the rooms have air cons, we have smooth corridors, pavements, we have big toilets, clean toilet seats, etc. But, my friends including myself, often take these for granted and we kept asking for more facilities. We complained that our school is old, ugly, but look at theirs, their condition is much worse than us. We often complained that the toilets are smelly, unhygienic, they don’t even have more than 3 toilet seats in the ladies! I looked around, I realized, all this while, I was too blind to see that im fortunate enough. From young till now, all I cared was material things, all I cared was all the nice clothes, shoes, bags in the malls, when they don’t even have proper clothes.

I was glad that we planned games for them and all, all I wanted from the starting is for them to feel happy and loved. When I went through all the games with them, they were really happy, and excited, I was thankful that im able to make them smile, really. This is like the best gift on earth, it feels like nothing can beat this kind of happiness I have there. After the games I have them the notebooks, pens, and the dragon flies I made, and I was really touched when they hugged the stuffs I gave, its like a treasure to them. They asked for my Facebook and email address, I was willing to give them, because I don’t want to end the friendship between us. I want to watch them grow, I also hope that they study hard and realize their dreams. Not only that, as for myself, I wish that I could cherish the things around me more, and not taking things for granted.  

Choojing: actually the school size is comparable to our school’s size whats different is that their school population was way bigger!! Imagine ,our school tarmac area is like already too small for us the whole population of 1000+ students to sit on but their school have like 9000+students that need to squeeze in!! luckily their school aren’t like Singapore which need morning assembly for the whole school! Their assembly only need individual class chairperson to attend>.<

At the commentweath school we had conducted games in order to interact with the student leaders there and my role at this time slot in to be a group ic>.< I am in charge of a few 12 years old kids>.< at first I thought that the students there will look like normal 12 years old student in singapore but when I reached there, I was dumbfounded! The size of their 12 years old student were as big as my 8 year old size!!! They are so skinny and small!!! I was SO SHOCKED!

day 2 in Philippines!!

DAY 2.

Today, we woke up at 5.30AM ! the wake up call , RANG 3 TIMES . which irritated a lot of us:@
we went down to the 4^th floor to have our breakfast and then took off to ATENEO GRADE SCHOOL.

They showed us more about their history and the things that the school does.

We then went to the theatre to play some team bonding games.

After playing these games, we got to know the boys from the Ateneo grade school better and we understood more about their school and the activities they did.

We also found out that they were all leaders and they were elected by their OWN CLASSMATES . they called themselves the student government!!

We also got a tour of the school grounds and realized that it was way bigger than our school!!!

We communicated with them and understood their lifestyles and more about the Philippines. We had time to take photo’s with them, and then said our goodbyes.

Parting is such sweet sorrowL

After that we went for the city tour. At Ateneo they told us about Jose Rizal, who is a war hero that got assassinated at a place 150 years ago , AND WE WENT TO THAT PLACE.

It was REALLY hot. There was two soldier who was standing there, and we found out that they had to stand there for TWO HOURS be it rain or shine! Many people went to the to place opposite the statue the day before to celebrate independence day . WHICH IS ON HUILIN’S BIRTHDAY.

We then went back to the bus, and went for dinner. It was near a church, before and after entering the restaurant there was a lady begging for money and we all ran away from her. SO BAD .

We ate at BARBARA’S , which is where most rich people ate, the food was AWESOME. The banana Sesame was VERY VERY NICE.

There was a cultural show and some of us were chosen to do the bamboo dance. Including JASVEENA.

After that we went back to the hotel for a debrief , and we listened to our positive and negative comments and reflected our mistakes. We prepared our booths for the next day and then went to sleeeep . YAY , goodbye .

 >.<

DAY 1 IN PHILLIPINES

Today is the long awaited day!>.< Finally today we are taking the flight to the phillipines!!

at first we waited outside the school cause Mr Quek who was suppose to open the gate at 8am was late. Some of the parents waited at airport or stayed at school until the bus arrived. When the bus arrived, we were all so excited to go to the airport. When we reached the airport, we were like superstars cause we were in pink! And many people are looking at us. We checked in our luggage and walk around the airport while some other students said goodbye to their parents. Suddenly our flight was delayed!!! So we went to burger king and celebrated Huilin's birthday! After that, we walked around, we also drew abit, and also took alot of picturesssssss, not only that we realise that the computers there are free, and also the wifi! So most of us used Facebook for the last time to say goodbye to our beloved friends! When the time is up we all went to gate 31, terminal 1, we checked in our hand luggages, Junhao got caught for having staplers in his bag! And Sharwin's deoderant got thrown away by the security!! sadlife.com. :( We waited for the others and then board the plane! The plane was awesome. It was Rachel's first time taking a plane, she was excited like this = NRUGBRUIGBREIGVBREGIPBERUIPVBERB! BUT, she has motion sickness badlife.com :( When we were in the plane, everyone was so excited about the sky and all, then the people sitting in the middle was so jealous of the people sitting at the side, cause they cant get to see the sky and all. HAHAH TOO BADD! Rachel was crazy, cause her motion sickness was taking action! HAISH. She was groaning and all, she crazy! Jasveena sat beside the window and discribe everything to Shahril, then he just kept quiet and laugh -_____________- lolz. Choo Jing irritated Pito(uncle in Philippine) Marcus by keep asking him what was outside. Irwan was so insane, cause he wanted to take photos of the sky but he was sitting in the middle, he then secretly change place w Sharwin! When we reached Philippines airport, we were so excited! BOO. We filled up the immgration and declaration forms. Those who are under 15 will have to stand aside and wait for a longer time. After that we were brought to our tour bus and tour guide. And then they brought us to the hotel! WOW. NICE. We were so impressed by the hotel, we were given our hotel cards, and we went to our rooms, then we went for dinner and then after that we went to the hotel and sleepzzzzzzzzzzzz! Goodbye, luv you <3

Henna designs (:

this one the first one nice !