Yuan Lin's Reflection and CNY

  For the past 3 weeks, i learnt a lot from the CID lessons about the life of people around the world. Not many people are as fortunate as us. People are suffering poverty and we should help out. I also learnt how to create a blog and how to manage it. I believe these skills i picked up in CID are important for the future.

  The lesson which gave me the biggest impression is poverty. The teacher showed us a picture about poverty which made my heart melt. A poor boy starving while a vulture is waiting to feed on him. Many other people are suffering from poverty and starving to death every minute. I began to feel grateful about how lucky i am.

The colour i choose is red.The color of Red in chinese culture usually means good luck. So like the red packet which is given every Chinese New Year, is just a symbol of good luck in the coming Year. So it is not wise for you to wear red color shirts when you attend a funeral.

   The symbol i choose is a red coloured horse. This year is the year of the horse.

   I choose this image because i hope that this year will be a good year. This picture depicts about the exact amount of time this year is. This picture also shows a lot of positive feelings and thoughts.

Thaddeus's reflection and CNY!!

  For the past 3 weeks, I have gained a lot from CID lessons as they were both meaningful and enriching at the same time. As a group, I learnt how to be a leader and control the group. I learnt many new things such as interacting with the group and learning how to use and create a blog. I believe all this skills I have picked up now will be useful in time to come and I look forward to creating more blogs.

  One of the lesson that I found most enriching was the lesson about poverty. Our teacher showed us a picture that painted a thousand words:

  It depicts a child who is starving and a vulture was a few metres away from him, waiting for the child to die so it could scavenge the child. I really wonder why the photographer did not try to chase the bird away but instead he took this photograph.

  

  Red is the colour that describes my feeling for the new year. It means the year is going to be vibrant and full of enthusiasm and prosperity is on the way. Red is a symbolic colour for Chinese New Year, because traditional Chinese believed that red is a colour that can scare away evil spirits that will haunt you. Although I do not really believe in this saying, I find it meaningful because the history and story of "Red" is very interesting.

  Just recently I went to Chinatown and I saw a popular shop selling sausages and duck for the Chinese New Year. I found it really interesting that there was actually this type of shop selling Chinese sausage.

Yixuan's reflection

After these 3 week of CID, I have learnt a lot. I've learnt how to create and post stuff on a blog, I have learnt that I should know thw whole story or story behind stuff before deciding or judging. Most importantly, I have learnt to be more observant. In life, we need to observe a lot of things. Observe someone's mood, someone's action, the environment, and many many more. A picture can mean a lot more than just the picture itself, studying the background, the main focus and the what caught ur eyes. If there is a living thing in the picture, we could study the facial expression and the physical action. In conclusion, through this CID, I have learnt a lot.  

Eunice's Reflection and CNY (:

For the past 3 weeks, I have got to know more about poverty, and it make me realize the harsh reality of the world. I realize that I'm really fortunate to be living in Singapore and being able to have a house to live in and 3 meals a day and even able to be able to have such good education. Basically I do not have to worry about how to live through each day at all. Unlike some parts of the world, especially Africa and India... Every day, every minute, every second, millions of people are dying of starvation just that I did not realize it at all...

The lesson on which we talk about this picture left the biggest impact on me. This picture clearly conveyed to me what cruelty the poor has been and are going through... I really felt sad and wish I could be there to save the child in this picture. At the same time, i learnt to always be appreciative and grateful of what I have because they are people out there in the world who has worse than me. Whenever I'm unhappy and complaining about something that I have, I'll think of this picture and reminds myself how fortunate and lucky I am...

Color : RED!! 

When we are talking about Chinese New Year, of course it will be the color red! Thanks to the creature "年” (; haha! Also, red is my second favourite color. *pink is the first by the way XD* Somehow, when I see red every where, I'll immediately link it to CNY! And that's why I chose as the color red (: 

Symbol:

I chose this symbol because... *drumrolls* it's the year of the horse! Haha. (Quite obvious right?XD) Anyway, I cannot believe how fast time flies!! It was just the year of dragon two years ago and boom! It's already horse! Actually I personally feels that not much people are born in the year of horse but I don't know why though. It's just that none of my family members or relatives are born in the year of horse... 

Image: 

This picture is some of my CNY family picturess collage together. I chose to collage them together because it can shows my excitement for this year CNY! I am really excited about it because it is the only time whereby I can see all my family members except for my 2nd auntie though... Because she is married to Australia and they just had a child so cannot come back. I was really upset when I got to know about it because I am really close to her and I really miss her..However, at least she will be coming back during April! Which is my birthday month ^^ Also, I'll be going Australia during June holidays to visit her! On the other hand, I'm also elated to be able to see my other family members who live in Malaysia. I hardly get to see them all together because majority of them now has their own family... On the side note, although they all lived in Malaysia, I'm still very close to them because they were the ones who took care of me until I came to Singapore which was at the age of 9... And so yeah, I'm really looking forward to CNY! (: 

Yixuan's CNY reflection

CNY reflection 

The colour I have chosen is the auspicious color gold and the symbol to represent Chinese New Year is a horse. As next year is the year of the horse, the symbol I choose would of course be a horse. What can be more symbolic than the horse when it is the year of horse? I haven chosen the colour gold is because CNY is an very happy event and the colour should be an auspicious colour. Golden is shiny and normally shiny colours brighten up my day. Golden also represents gold, which meant money. Everyone would want to start the year right, having enough money to spend for the rest of the year. If you decorate your house with golden items, it symbolize gold which is money, it meant that u would have a lot of money in your house the rest of the year.

The image I have chosen is this, it was taken during last years Chinese New Year. I feel that nothing beats the feeling of a gathering with cousins and relatives. It is a rare chance that all of us can meet up, maybe it's only once in a year which is then, on CNY. On CNY we get to catch up with each other, sharing how you have spent your year, or any achievements of the year. This is also why I like CNY so much, It makes me feel the warmth of a family. 

Yixuan(17)

Chloe's Reflection and CNY

Reflections

For the past 3 weeks, we did and learnt many things through CID which we can apply to our daily life in the future. So far for every lesson, we would learn about the living conditions of workers in Singapore and the poverty situation in both Singapore and the world outside. Adding on to that, we also got to learnt how to observe our surroundings and adapt different situations at appropriate times. For the homework, we were supposed to edit the blog we personalized (per group) and touch it up with different blogs per individuals. This module created many learning opportunities for me and I am glad to be able to take on this module.

One important lesson I have learnt from this module is to be observant at all times. I should understand different types of situations before behaving a certain way. Being observant allows us to have a sense of what's happening without even questioning anybody, and that's a good thing! This module have taught me much more, however this lesson is one of the memorable ones that we, as students, could apply in our life to equip for the future. 

Chinese New Year (2014)

The colour I selected is Pink. Although many people think of the colour red during Chinese New Year, I am slightly different this year. Apparently, my dress for the first day is pink in colour hence, the first thought of a colour that I feel for the upcoming Chinese New Year, the colour will definitely be pink! 

The symbol I selected is the horse. According to the lunar calender, the year 2014 is actually the year of the horse! Hence the symbol I am choosing is none other than the horse to represent the upcoming Chinese New Year. 

One image that I thought would be the best, was the picture me and my family members took during the Chinese New Year in 2013. It was a memorable experience as that was my first year of celebrating Chinese New Year as a teenager. I would like to have an equally enjoyable Chinese New Year as I had last year. 

Overall, I hope that this Chinese New Year would turn out to be a good one. To keep a side note, Chinese New Year only comes annually. If I do not appreciate this Chinese New Year, I would have to wait for another year to be able to experience it all over again, so why not try to put Oma big smile on my face and enjoy while I can! :) 

Chloe Sim (5)

Charmaine's CNY reflection

From this past three weeks, I think I have learnt a lot throught this CID module. I have learnt that things may not be what they seem. Singapore may look rich, but actually, in parts of Singapore, there are people starving and homeless on the streets of Singapore. 

The colour I have chosen to represent Chinese New Year is red because it is an auspicious colour to the Chinese. Red, corresponds with fire and it symbolizes good fortune and joy. Red is found everywhere during Chinese New Year and other holidays and family gatherings. Hence, the "ang bao", Chinese decorations are mostly red or gold.

      

According to tales and legends, the beginning of Chinese New Year started with the fight against a mythical beast called the Nian. Nian would come on the first day of New Year to eat livestock, crops, and even villagers, especially children. To protect themselves, the villagers would put food in front of their doors at the beginning of every year. It was believed that after the Nian ate the food they prepared, it wouldn’t attack any more people. One day people saw that the Nian was scared away by a little child wearing red. The villagers then understood that the Nian was afraid of the color red. Time when the New Year was about to come, the villagers would hang red lanterns and red spring scrolls on windows and doors. People also used firecrackers to frighten away the Nian. From then on, Nian never came to the village again.

    

        The symbol that I have chosen for CNY is Pegesus

    

I chose this symbol because it's the year of the horse and I think that a normal horse would be too mainstream. Pegasus is one of the best known mystical creatures in Greek mythology and it is a winged divine stallion. Pegasus symbolizes wisdom and has profound symbolic esoteric in relation to the spiritual energy that allows to access to the realm of the god on mount Olympus. Thus is a better symbol than a regular horse for the year 2014.

       The picture I have chosen for CNY is this picture      

   

In my opinion, I feel that Chinese New Year is about reunion and spending quality time with your family. This is one of the occasion that all my family members will get together and hence, I have chosen as it represents reunion for my family.  

School Spirit

It's RV 58th Anniversary! Where can we find more school spirit than during the school's anniversary? ^^ During the ceremony, everyone becomes united as one. We are proud that we are Rvians (:

Life

Want to know what's the life in 2G is like in the morning? Well here's the picture to depicts that! Heads down facing their iPads. That what's we do every morning haha XD 

Fear

It's the track again!! The worst fear of a student. Running around under the mercy of the hot sun, drenched in sweat. And what do we do after we run? We continue with our lessons in our stinking uniform.... Gross ><

Happiness

Ian is happy because it's TGIF!! And he's hugging his file as he won't be touching it for the next 2 days.

Poverty in Singapore

Although there is very little poverty in Singapore, the fact that we see some poor people on the streets begging for money or trying to sell various items for a living cannot be changed. One example is the picture below, it depicts an elderly woman selling vegetables on the pavement.

An old woman sitting at a corner with vegetables

  Another example is this picture, of the homeless sleeping in the void deck below some HDB flats. Some of these homeless people do not even have their own homes either because they were abandoned by their children, or that they do not have enough money to rent a flat.

A few people sleeping on the chairs or tables in the void decks below some HDB blocks.

Living conditions of some of the underprivileged

Even though Singapore may be one of the most developed countries in the world, with a strong economy, there are still some people hidden in the shadows who are living in very bad conditions and they hardly get noticed.

   

CID GROUP 2

Yixuan's Reflection

During the Decembers school holidays, my family and I went to Bali. It was a 6days 5night trip. 

We went to many different attractions in Bali. We went snorkeling, turtle island, temples, their zoo and many more others. 

Over there before we enter the temples, we were supposed to put on a 'sarong'. It was to show respect to the gods as wearing shorts is very informal. 

We also went to see a waterfall. It was a natural waterfall. Although the view was very beautiful and the water is very cooling, the water was quite murky. 

We went to a monkey forest too. There were many monkeys and we had to be very careful there as there was a lot of banana skins on the floor. We were warned not to bring small items n carry it on our hand because the monkey might snatched it away anytime. I saw a monkey snatching away a mineral water bottle from a lady who was holding it on her hand. I was shocked at that time and i was more aware of my phone that I was holding it in my hand. 

We went to the Bali Zoo also. It was very different from our Singapore Zoo. We were supposed to be seated in a truck and it would bring us around, to see different animals. The animals there were set free   , not in an enclosed space like in Singapore's. 

During this trip we also tried lots of Bali traditional food. They like food that are more salty. Hence I had to go with lots of rice when eating. They also tend to put some beans in their rice. 

Yuan Lin's Reflection

During the December holidays, my family went to Genting Highlands, Malaysia to play. Of course, the adults went to Genting de Casino while we children went to the arcade. It was very crowded with tourists from all over the world. The food there are simply delicious. I tried their KFCs and their menu was totally different from Singapore's. There I also went to watch movies. They are '47 Ronins' , 'Feng Bao' and more. My favourite is '47 Ronins'. Its a action movie which i liked. I learn to appreciate the Japanese culture and would like to travel to Japan one day.

Chloe's Reflection

During the school holidays, I went to the beautiful country of Thailand! On the first day, my family of four made our way to Swiss Valley. Somewhere on the outskirts of Bankok. We had alot of fun there with the theme of Switzerland. 

The next day, i went to Bankok's so called 'Chinatown'. We wanted to go to the temples, however, it was evening by the time we reached. Hence we made our way to dinner.

We rode on elephants on the 3rd day. Although I have rode on elephants in Singapore, it was surely a treat to ride on Thailand elephants! We ate dinner with my father's Thailand friend later that day too.

On the 4th day, we went to dream world and rode on many different sorts of rides, ranging from scary all the way to thrilling. Later that day, we went to Asiatique which was a shopping mall near our hotel. And instead of eating Thai food, we ate steamboat for our dinner! 

On the 5th day, we went to a resort which was located in the country side, with my father's good friend family. It was awkward with their children at first as we do not recognise each other's language. However as hours ticked by, me and my brother gradually became really close to them. Just like siblings, without much vocal communication.

The 6th day was spent with them too and I still reminisence how we parted. It was so hard and i cried. I really did.

On the last day of my vacation, our family just went shopping and rested in the hotel. Furthermore, by celebrating the success of our vacation, my father bought a beautifully decorated cake!

I will never forget Thailand. The place that brought me memories that will never ever be forgotten. 

Chloe Sim