INCREDIBLE INCREDIBLE INDIA!
i had a meaningfulmeaningfulmeaningful time there. It was really worth all the hussle. okay i'll do a summary about the whole experince which was really fruitful. I made new friends (leaders) who journeyed along! YONGTAT SENCAI SZEAN DINIE ZIXIANG DON BARRIE QINJIE(:
DAY ONE
It was mainly all the travelling from Singapopre to New Delhi, India. We took a transit plane to from some really ulu place to delhi. i tried some chicken crossaint which was yummy-licious! like there were some capsicum stuffed inside but i wasn't complaining for the fact that i dislike the green peppers very much. And, the dancers had to practise their dance movements at the airport. i tell you people were literally STARING. It was quite disturbing but hell, nine days in india and i'm used to it. I got plenty of attention that i'm so honoured to be given by dear mr sivalingam and qinjie for my BEAUTIFUL, STRIKING ORANGE LUGGAGE. thank you very much. reached delhi airport and please it was super squeezy. Some many porters were out there to "help" you carry luggages only to demand payment for it. So much for "zhu ren wei kuai le zhi ben". ( helping brings joy). and i realised that their zebra crossing doesn't really helps cos the taxis there will still threaten to run you down if you show any hesitant to cross. THE HONKS! they were prominent! In fact so prominent i don't have to say it's prominent. okay okay enough about the insults.
DAY TWO
We reached our accomodation last night and because it was dark we didn't really get to explore the place. It was eerie, in a way too quiet for me at first. We stayed in a yoga centre. Our room number was 164. YES! the irony, but at least it was better than 174. Ah heck! okay i don't know if i've siad this before, but i'm really sensitive towards toilets. So i wasn't very elated when i saw peesai( the sticky type) on the walls and please it was insect-infested. of course i pretty much kept all that disturbance of mind to myself. okay, there were pictures of two people in the room. i think they were respected people, oh what am i saying..like obviously! ASHRAM(:
We visited the Mount Carmel School after my first actual meal at the ashram. We were divided into 2 groups with a student leader from the local school to guide a pair of us. Their school is really cool. They have a junior and senior school compounds. My fellow leader who happens to be the brains in her class is SHEFALI! she's really welcoming, but i think she was a little pissed off with nijune and i cos we delayed most of the time. I like the junior school! the kids there were really adorable like chubby-cheeks and cheeky smiles and all. And a group of them even performed fro us a little song-and-dance. Nijune, zixiang and i couldn't resist the temptation to dance with them. It was unfortunately caught on video. Please oh please shanmugam sivalingam don't show it to the school! Zixiang was hilarious how he pulled people in ti take photo. And both of us really liked this girl!! haha in the end we didn't really had time for the senior compound. But pupeng told me that they saw this foetus in a jar. Man, i really wanted to see that. Anyway, the whole school system is very much different from ours. Everybody there were like so motivated to study. i felt like i wasted my whole life for nothing. But it was quite inspiring in a way. The teachers there especially the english teacher was FIERCE. My goodness, she sounded like it's the student's fault that she's teaching. And so the students are very disciplined there unlike here lol. They are in 8th grade and they raise their hands to answer or ask questions! I KNOW, AMAZING.
DAY THREE
The dancers perfromed for the Mount Carmel School. It was really an eye-opener. We left the school and went to the Shiksha Kendra school. We did t-shirt designs, wingmill-making, and paper boats with them. ALthough it might not seem very interesting to us, it was really satisfying and pleasing for them. It was quite heart-warming to see how easily they get contented. Although the food they offered us was not really to my likings, i was quite happy that they took all the trouble for small guests like us. They prepared this sweet brown ball thing with yellow fillings. it was really really sweet, and i guessed i wasn't quite used to the taste so i can't appreciate it. There was also this yellow spongey cake like thing, which was even more foreign. it had salty and strong taste. I liked the sandwich that they prepared, very familiar to what we have here. My lips were parched throughout the trip so obviously the lipice took no effect against the dry winds and not-so-humid air.
DAY FOUR
It was our last day at the Shiksha Kendra school. We were very much filled with emotions. We did a proper introduction of ourselves among the small group of students that we were in charge of. We taught them a little chinese:
Namaste(hello)- Nin hao ma
We taught them woodcraft which was totally not my touche. THANKYOU yongbang for helping me make the car at my most desperate situation. And nijune finished in time but lost her model so it was a pity. CHEER UP GIRL! at least i'm sure someone took it. We went to the slums where the kids from the school live. I had a lot of mixed feelings that time. To see the type of conditions that they live in gave me a really hard time trying to console myself for my ungratefulness. but at the same time when i saw that their joy was perhaps more than mine, I actually felt envious.
It was havoc at night! Nijune, Audrey, liyew, yongbang, jinzhi, roymond, szean, and i played poker cards into the night. Funny how i always lose and make my partner lose in the game haha. Nevermind, like some fart machine that said( quoted from liyu's blog):" You need to have OBSERVATION SKILLS" all bridge's glory to you fat fart roymond!
DAY FIVE
We travelled on the bus from around 6 plus to 3 plus in the noon to reach Taj Mahal, MY FIRST WONDER! it's really beautiful. Like apart from all the disorganised system, i really saw another part of india at the taj mahal. We were all so fascinated by it that we even touched the floor that we're standing on to ensure it's all real marble. Took many memorable photos there especially with zixiang! haha he's damn hilarious i tell you. The way he actually talks to ms chan makes me roll on the floor with laughter. (kampong zaboh, feipo) A great friend to be with(:
Top left: Dinie Barrie Zixiang Yong Tat Nadzeef SIVALINGAM Jinzhi Don Sencai Roymond Nickman Szean Qinjie MSCHAN
Bottom Left: Yong Bang Qianhui Edna Yifang Pupeng Pyu Nijune Audrey MEEEEE Liyew
YAY! INDIA!
DAY SIX
We have to get to Nanital which is the campsite on the mountains in another state. We had to travel around 10 hours of bus journey. Up the winding roads on the mountains, we were all speechless when we saw the sunset and the outlines of the different mountains. It was really..."whooaaaaaa" when i saw the blending of the colours in the sky. It was really freezing cold up there. When we washed our cups and bowls, our fingers were so cold that we couldn't feel them at all. The first night there was colder than the rest.
DAY SEVEN
Today i got rid of the disturbing layers of fats!!! YESSS! We did loads of trekking and although it was exhausting the view we saw right the top was all worth it. It wasn't easy to trek, we had to balance on slabs of rocks which was on an almost undefined gradient slope, at the same time we had to avoid stepping on horse shit. It was inevitable by the way. But at last we saw the snow-capped mountains which look almost like a wall paper plastered on the sky. Upload pictures another time.
We sat on the cable car! And it was severly unbalanced because dear-siva-sir didn't want to stand in the middle. We took the challenge and sat on the vertical drop! I tell you it looks less intimidating from below than on top! It was the going up part that was scary. I kept reminding myself that my legs were dangling in mid-air, and all around me are mountains and mountains. But the part when it rushes down wasn't that scary, we just screamed for the sake of screaming.
The boat rides that we went on was really interesting. I enjoy running my hands in the water as the boat moves, although it was freezing cold. We sang songs while paddling too. I had my first taste of Chow Mein there! It was super goood! Very singapore(:
Nijune fell ill that night. at first she just had stitches, then she started to feel very cold despite the layers and layers of warmth we gave her. Her head was burning, and she was muttering to us: I don't want to be sick, I don't want to be sick. But anyway, thanks to ms chan we nursed her back to health the next day! Sorry about the bao ji wan incident!:D
DAY EIGHT
As we were heading back to Delhi, i vomited while the bus was on the winding and bumpy roads of the mountains. Lost appetite after that. Thank you all that showed concern especially nijune audrey and liyu. Did reflections back at the ashram, i realised that many people especially the guys were really quite mature through what they shared with us. Mr siva treated us to dinner at this really posh restaurant. He ordered a chicken dish, fried rice and my favourite broccoli!
DAY NINE
Did a lot of shopping today, since it was the last day, bought gifts for teachers, amanda, shaokie, isabel, seniors, sister, sixuan. i bought this really beautiful phto album to keep all the memories of india in it. It was a bit wasted because i wasn't really in a perfect mood that day, so i missed out quite some stuff that was going on. Sorry if i caused a lot of trouble to everyone, don't know what's gotten over me. HOME SWEET HOME!(:
Now that the whole trip is over, i really wished that all of us who went were in one class altogether. I'm very glad to make so many new friends, and it's really wonderful to greet each other in school because we had the same memory for nine days together. If there was another trip with the same people, i would definitely be up to it! MR SIVA PLEASE ORGANISE ONE AFTER OLEVELS!!!!
