Labels: move on
June hasn't end yet I have thoughts flowing out extensively. Where should I start? During my Youth Expedition Project (YEP) in Huairou Beijing, I didn't have any personal time to think of my personal learning. This project took more than 3 months for pre-trip preparation yet we only stayed there for 2 weeks. We went to a kindergarten in a suburb that is about an hour driving distance from Beijing, this place is call Chawu village which is mainly under supervision of the Railroad Authorities. Our objectives for going there consist of two parts, group and personal development. It's basically a service-learning journey. For service, we hope to transfer our IT knowledge to equip their teaching and to interact with the children there. For learning, its quite far-fetch as its too hard to measure but we hope there's some personal growth somewhat somehow. Alright.. I should just make this entry my mini journal for what I did in the past 14days in Beijing and Chawu village.
Our team aka Project Dream Builder 2 is an open team. Group members come from different backgrounds but mostly are undergraduates. We have different nationality.. most of them are Singaporean, there's an Indonesian, Malaysian and People of Republic China. Surprisingly, through out the days spent in China there wasn't any bitching and conflicts. All of us clicked so well! For an open team, I find this remarkable.
Basically, we spent first 3 days observing and making changes to our plan accordingly to the needs of the Chawu kindergarten. It was quite slack and relaxing for the first 3 days. We had our breakfast at 0800, lunch at 1100 and dinner at 1730. In between the time for lunch and dinner, we took nap in our dorm, had our ice cream treat at a nearby mini mart which is damn cheap and do some planning too. A 200ml cup ice cream only cost 30 cents in SGD. N I can only get it at abt SGD1.00 in Singapore. Our favorite past time is to play chapteh, and through chapteh our group get to bond even closer together. 
After the observing days have passed, its time to get started. It was tough initially as the sub-group I was in deals with teacher. In other words, we are interacting with teacher such as exchanging our cultural, education system and to evoke their potential in teaching. We did some sharing on different education system and it went quite okay. We also carried out a short workshop to stimulate their creativity and through the games we played, I can see that we really mix well with the teachers.
For other sub-groups, which are IT and children team. IT handles the IT based stuff like how to use different software. As for children team.. they really had a hard time planning and executing the activities. Nonetheless, the whole team joined forces and make it possible for all children activities to be conducted successfully. To me, interacting with the kids is a very enjoyable thing to do. They make me feel happier and more optimistic. Nothing complicated, playing with them is all you need to do.
Our first recreational activity was to climb great wall. We went to an entrance which is not open for tourist. So it's..Climb at your own risk hahaha I overcame my height phobia there.. coz the walls are either too low or broken. I could see the whole mountain range. So it's pretty scary to me. 
We climbed for 4 hours at least, I had a heart to heart talk with the kindergarten principal. In fact she is the one who does the talking.. I listened but she shared many personal experiences with me which broaden my views abt life. She is one of my sign post in life, indicates and directs me to the path meant for me.
We also went to pluck apricot. Tasted some..some were very sour and finally I found a tree that has sweet apricot hahaha Not long after our arrival, it started to rain. The rain wasn't very heavy but the wind is very strong and the drastic drop in temperature made me shiver. Roughly about 30 minutes later, the dark clouds are gone and the sun appeared.. the temperature rises again.. and its freaking warm. This kind of weather, change as fast as flipping a book lol. 
The only issue I have is the air-con in my dorm! It's full of character. It will go on strike every two days or so and then I have to unplug it and connect the power back again. The universal remote that caters to all the air-con for all the rooms is a big headache. As I have to syn it with my air-con again once the other use it. We did a spring cleaning before we move into our room. In fact, we just sweep everything under the bed and take it as we have clean our room. As I can't stand dust, I ended up customizing my bed hahah by bringing my own bed sheet. That's all for my beijing trip.
On 20th June, I touched down at Singapore Changi airport terminal 1. It was 0600, my university course interview was at 1450. As I've already booked my flight to Bali on the same day at 1845, my 20th June became a rather thrilling and exciting day. The Bali trip is a secret trip with a girlfriend. I didn't inform my parents as they have already showed their disapproval. I was grateful enough to receive help from my ex teacher. He lent his room out for my friend and I to rest. Basically, a place to bath and sleep. He then send me down to my interview venue, also he sent my friend and I to the airport. He's been very supportive. I'm grateful that whenever I'm at the nadir of life.. there's always ppl there to help me out.
Bali in short is really a good place to NUA which means to rot. Sat at the beach to read book, drink coffee or tea, or simply just lie there and enjoy the sun bath. Food there is nice, spa is relaxing and the ppl there are very friendly. Water games are expensive but ooh well, I won't get to experience it in Singapore. 
Both trips are consecutive. I spent 19days aboard and had my short non-lasting independent day. My take away for these two trips is that as a city dweller, I should find my own pace and make necessary stops in life. I wouldn't want to move on for the sake of moving on when I have no idea where I am heading to. Sometimes, I don't understand why is it so hard for others to understand. People are often shallow, so I choose to take pauses whenever needed to reflect on what's needed to be reflected about. Finally, I realized that I do have a passion for voluntary work and I hope that my passion for this will last. That's all. Nite world 
(sat at kuta beach just to take the sun set)