OELP Daily Reflections

Day 1,
24th May, Sunday
We finally reached China,the start to our long awaited OELP trip finally began. We had dinner and was fast on our way to the first location. Obviously we were all very excited. The first location was the Song Dynasty City. It was a theme park meant to replicate what was life like in Song  dynasty. We went for the performance, it was truely unlike anything we have seen before, amazing. As the Chinese saying goes  “台上一分鈡，台下十年功” this was their “一分鈡” that they have practice so much for, and it definiely didn't disappoint. But as for learning about Song dynasty, I felt that we needed a lot of explaning from the teachers to understand it, thus a little homework on this subject is definietly needed for someone planning to really learn about this place. With that we went to our first hotel and ended the night.

Day 2,
25th May, Monday
We started off the first day with a visit to Wahaha factory, we read up on it first to have basic knowledge on Wahaha. An employee took us around and told us about the various obstacles the company had and the successes it had achieved. Those successes was definitely because they had smart leaders who knew how to attract buyers like studying the market and also lots of research plus advertising. Despite having already started selling products in South-East Asia, I have never heard of Wahaha in Singapore before, does those stradegies that brought them successes in China, failed here?

Later on we went to Xie Yuda tea plantation and  tea musuem, something I fell in love with in China was definitely... tea.( What/who were you thinking I would say?) I actually didnt like going to the tea plantation cause it was pretty hot and there was not much there other than tea plants and we learnt what kinds of leaf is ready for picking , but i enjoyed the tea musuem a lot more. We got to drink tea which I really enjoyed, we learnt about the different types of tea and where it is from. We ended the day at our second hotel.

Day 3,
26th May, Tuesday
We started the day at the Tunxi Ink Factory, we got to see how ink is made and went through, I learn that ink was not always a hard stick instead it was like play dough before being harden. After that we wen to Cheng Dawei's residence and the abacus musuem. The tour guide at the musuem told us about the life of Cheng Dawei and how we invented calculating using the abacus. There was also a lot of different type of abacus from big one to small ones. We went to his residence also and we saw the living conditions of olden time people.Next we went to Tunxi Ancient Street ,it was interesting to see how much a street from the past have evolved. Although the main structure of the building have not changed, the people and their business have definitely changed to keep up with modern times, like how they are selling more modern things to continue attracting customers to keep them in business, like tradidtional caramel candy with modern desgins. From there we move on to Xidi and Hongcun ancient villages. Both villages were really beautiful which has been preserve. We can see how people lived there and how was their house like. I also remebered seeing the school which people used to go to but now has been preserved. Then we went into a building, it waWhat seems like just a word was a piece of art with deep meaning behind it as explained by out tour guide. If we look closer to the word one half was a human and the other was a fighting monekey, meaning if we are not filial we are just like the monkey. It really reminded me how beautiful chinese caharcters are. We went to ou third hotel and ended the night.

Day 4
27th May, Wednesday
It was day Huang Shan, today was all about Huang Shan. We started with ascent from the  
cable car, it was very misty and we could not see much througout the trip ,but it was cold and I prefer colder temperatures as it was very comfortable. We learnt about the different plants there and after a while we had to go down. We ended the day by going to the last hotel of our trip.

Day 5
28th May, Thursday
I was really excited for today as we could finally see our buddys. First was a visit to Meiling and we saw  how they produces their refrigerators. We were surpised that they told us many other companies buy refridgerators from Meiling and put their name on it. I thought that Meiling was a small brand and have not heard of it in Singapore before, but we realised that well known brands like Panasonic buys from meiling and what we are use to seeing are actually from meiling. Next we went to Shou Chun Middle School, they welcomed us warmly and after that we went to see performances by them, we also saw how patriotic they are through theier performances. We alos performed for them. Then we went to classes with them, it was really stressful as everything was in chinese and it was diffucult understanding, espcially chinese lesson it was really tough.

Our second day in China. 25/5

On our second day in China, we were lucky enough to be able to experience what it's like to be a worker in the Wahaha company. We visited the Wahaha headquarters and a worker from the Wahaha company took us on a tour around the company, giving us insights on how Wahaha came about and its past. Wahaha started out as a very small store which later on continually grew to become one of China's leading production company. Wahaha's history certainly is a good way to teach everyone lessons on dreaming big and working hard for your dreams, because dreams do come true. And this trip to Wahaha has certainly given me both inpiration and motivation to study hard and try to make a difference in my own life.

The workers were really generous and they let us have a taste of what Wahaha's produce tasted like! 

Now we know one reason why it's so popular!

Afterwards we went to the Tea Plantation. We had the chance to get hands on and pluck some tea leaves directly from the Tea Plantation as well! A great souvenir. The workers told us about the history of how this Tea Plantation came about and why it tastes so good compared to others which gave us more insight. We were once again very lucky to be able to get a free taste of how their famous tea tasted like!

Our 2nd day in China ended and I went to sleep motivated to learn more for the rest of the trip and in hopes of having more fun experiences!

Our first day in China. 24/5

Our journey begins as we board the plane towards China on the morning of the 24th of May. We board the plane in high spirits in hopes of a fun and fruitful trip. 

(Picture taken on the plane trip towards China)

After we have arrived in China, we were brought to a theme park called Song Cheng. Where it showcases the ancient living of China many years ago. We were lucky enough to be able to watch the show put up by many actors and through this adventure in the theme park, it has taught me many things about how Chinese lived in the past and our tour guide has also shared many ancient stories. 

Our first day ended with a great trip to the theme park, marking a great start to our adventure in China!

第八天。五月三十一日。海底捞（文化、传统）

哈哈哈，八天的时间已即将结束了。我们今天会回到新加坡了，回到我们熟悉的家、床、家人。但在那儿之前呢，我们会搭3个小时的高铁往杭州去。我们在杭州吃了海底捞，而我发现海底捞的服务态度和质量就和大家所说的一样棒！他们热情地为我们服务，没有一丝地埋怨和不满，这让我对海底捞留下深刻的印象。是时候向中国说再见了。

八天的学习之旅，就这样迅速地结束了，我很庆幸自己有这个机会到中国，合肥市学习，同时也有难得的机会到本地著名的寿春中学做客。这八天的学习之旅，会成为我人生中难为的一次旅程。和同学、朋友们出国学习，的确和家人出国游玩有很大的差别。这八天，因为有了2F全体师生的合作和大家互相照应的精神，这次的旅程才会如此成功。谢谢2F，谢谢老师们热情地照顾、包容与耐心。因为有了大家，我们才能够享受这次的学习之旅。我很高兴，我有参加这次的旅程。

 我们对OELP的感受

第七天。五月三十号。朋友们的住家、合肥最大的书局、黄梅艺术学院 (教育、文化、生活方式、)

我们今天到了寿春朋友的住家拜访。一大清早，伙伴的母亲就到学校把我、盈意、宜轩、景文接到他们家拜访。我们学会如何包饺子，也多了解了中国文化、习俗、沟通方式等。过后，差不多下午两点钟的时候，我们就地回到寿春中学，准备到下一个行程了。

谈天说地的过程

包饺子耐心和准住的眼神

今天的收获！

不好意思，主人。

我们于伙伴们和家人说再见后，巴士就开往了合肥市最大的书局，在那儿我们逛了一个钟头后就离开书局到航煤艺术学院了。在黄梅艺术学院，我被舞蹈者们的热情所感动了。他们每天得从早晨6 点钟排练到晚上8点钟，才能休息。这些舞蹈者对舞蹈的热忱远远超出我所预料到的。他们从小就把所有的精力投入在舞蹈中，可说人生的道路也都铺好了，他们没有回头的余地，只能很努力地向前进，如果中途跌倒而无法继续，他们会有很少的选择。只能说，这条路是他们自己选择的，他们没有人能怪，只能很拼命地向前迈进，没有回头的余地了。

在黄梅艺术学院

好朋友结交了^^

第六天。五月二十九日。寿春中学 (教育)

今天我们花了一整的时间在寿春中学，从早上进班听课到下午学会包种子、学画脸谱、学写书法到傍晚的运动会。寿春的学生们上课的场景让我非常难忘，而且是今天我们才真正的体会到了寿春的热情。在课堂上，同学们会因为我们没有课本和笔记而把自己的课本和笔记借给我们，还为我们讲解难懂的部分。他们对待学习的态度认真，老师在上面讲课，他们每个人都会在下面抄笔记，很少有窃窃私语的情况。与我们新加坡的学生很不一样。我坦白说，我们上课的时候都会窃窃私语，在老师不知情的情况下发自条、玩耍之类的，我认为这一点，我们应该向寿春中学的学生学习，上课时尽量不要自己谈话或玩耍，这样一来，我们的学习态度次能有所改进。

学习如何准确地包种子

第五天。五月二十八号。合肥美菱电器工厂和寿春中学 (经济、教育)

在往寿春中学去之前，我们现实到了合肥美玲电器工厂。由工厂的导游带领，我们参观了美玲电器工厂，了解到他们的制作工程。美玲电器制作工厂采用了不少商业战术来增加自己的销售产业。例如：采用通过和 Electrolux 和 Panasonic 等国外知名品牌合作，在国内外打下了很大的市场；和知名的外国品牌合作，利用他们的知名度去宣传自己的产品；发明别家电器公司未发明的科技、颜色、材料等。

 集体照的时间又到了！

接下老的半天，我们到了我们等待已久的寿春中学。我们会在这个中学呆上两天的时间，我们会在寿春中学进班听课、制作脸谱、学书法、包种子、表演等活动。第一天就包括了进班听课、表演、朗诵比赛。那天，我的组上了他们的华文课。感觉上他们学的东西不会很复杂，但我就是听不懂他们所上的课。他们的学生和我们的不同点就是他们上课时的坐姿都很端正，不会趴在桌上上课或用手敷着脸，而且他们朗诵时都会很大声，和我们还真不同。

进班听课后，我们接下来到操场观赏寿春中学的经典朗诵比赛。表演的同学们都是来自七等班，他们年纪比我们还要小，但表演的品质确实如此的高。面对着每一般的诵读表演，我很佩服这些学生。他们上学的时间比我们长很多，但能挪出时间来为表演准备和排练，表演出如此高水准的表演。这代表他们多么重视这场比赛，为它付出多少努力。我被他们坚持的心理深深感动了。他们站在台上，丝毫没有任何畏惧，能够很顺利地完成表演。可是，对他们最残忍的现实是，这个表演，只能有一个赢者，只有一班能够胜出。为表演努力了这么久，但最终没能拿到冠军，我没能想象他们此刻失望的心情。他们是我在这次旅行中，使我学到了我在班上学不到的事。

说实话，我承认我们的表演没有比他们的好，比他们的专业。但我很高兴，我可以说我努力过了。能彩排的时间有限，而且在表演的最后两天前，我也能感受得到大家想把最好的呈现给大家。所以，或许我们的表演没有达到老师们的期待，也没能带出我们最好的表现，但我对我们的表演很满意，因为我知道，大家都努力一番了。