Jianing's Holiday Reflection

I think that some of the best ways to spend holidays are reading, drawing, playing musical instruments, listening to music, cooking, watching movies, etc. basically, those are what I did during my end of year holidays.

Other than those activities, I also took walks in the open both in the morning and at night, since I enjoy the scenes and sights of nature quite a lot. 

Secondly, I had a great time with my friends at our class gathering at West Coast Park. But because I had lesson earlier and I also got a little lost on the way there, I didn’t get the privilege to play with them earlier in the day. By the time I reached there, it was already at night.  It was a pity, but I hope I can seize the opportunity the next time.

Thirdly, I celebrated a lot of birthdays during the end of year holidays. My father, older sister, cousin and his wife had their birthdays all during that holidays. I couldn’t really remember the details, but I know that we all had a great time celebrating.

Fourthly, I went to the pets quarantine centre. My cousin’s male dog boarded the plane from China and came to Singapore. It thought that my cousin had abandoned him and he went for days with eating. But, by the end of January, it will be back home! I can’t wait to spend time with him. 

Lastly, I also went to talks by some teenagers about how they make use of their time. I especially took note of how they spent their holidays.

They talked about how traveling is the best way of spending holidays, saying that it not only widens our geographical knowledge but also, has the ability to soothe our strained minds. They also said that how the beautiful scenery, overflowing rivers, vast green fields, enchanting hills, touching landscape, sandy beaches, historical buildings, etc., fill them with lots of joy and delight. But in my opinion, that is of no use to me, since I seldom travel during holidays in the recent years.

In conclusion, this holiday was really a meaningful one. I must thank the class committees for planning the outing. My past holidays are always so unlucky that I always couldn’t make it for the outings. So, I am really happy that I am able to attend this first secondary outing. I am looking forward to the year 2014 to spend more time and make many more wonderful memories with them again.

Ming How’s Holiday Reflection

Ming How’s Holiday Reflection

On 7^th November, my squad had our squad outing at Jurong Central Park and Jurong Safra. Since this squad outing was personally planned by me (and some of my squadmates), I was quite excited to see how the squad outing will turn out. Originally, the plan was to spend some time at the Jurong Central Park first before going to Jurong Safra for a barbeque party.

Since I was part of the organizing committee, I went to Jurong Central park slightly earlier to set up the games and settle some stuff. My squadmates and I settled down at the Macdonalds there to eat out lunch first before we started with the setting up of the games. Our first game was running man so we had to prepare some wristbands and mission cards. After that at approximately 1pm, the rest of my squad came and we officially started our squad outing. 

After my squadmates have settled down, I started briefing my squadmates about the rules of the game. The rules are quite simple, and it was to rip off the opponent team mates’ wristbands and there would be power cards around. When the game started, everyone was quite excited and surprisingly, everyone was playing the game very enthusiastically! However, there were a lot of problems (like wristbands started peeling off since it was not sticky enough) and thus the game ended much earlier than expected. 

I was at a loss, since things were not going according to schedule and I did not know how to deal with the situation. In the end, my squad just decided to play at the playground. However, I was quite disappointed with myself since I have not planned the squad outing very well. From this, I have learnt that it takes immense effort and time to plan an enjoyable and smooth squad outing. I was still quite glad that my squadmates were still enjoying themselves so things were not as bad as I thought.

At around 3pm, we made our way to Jurong Safra. Since it was a very hot afternoon and the distance was quite long, we started playing with the ice supposedly for the drinks later during the barbeque party. That was precisely how we did not have ice for the party later.  .__.

When we reached Jurong Safra, we rested in the main lounge since there was air conditioning there before making our way to the barbeque pits. It was our first barbeque party so everyone was quite excited in helping out with the starting of the barbeque. The girls were busy setting up the food while the boys were helping out with starting the fire.

 I had barbeque experience and thus I was quite confident of being able to start the fire but…. Just when everyone was so ecstatic, it started raining. Haiz…. Yet another setback…. In fact a very big one. Thanks to the big rain, there goes over barbeque party. During that time I really felt like crying since i have really put in a lot of effort  in planning this squad outing. Out of desperation, my squadmate and I even kneeled down to beg that the rain would stop. We even started singing “我问天”…

Meanwhile, the girls were busy covering the food from the rain with umbrellas and so in the end, the food was quite well protected from the rain while on the other we are totally drenched. In the end, one of my squadmates brought back all the food and as a squad we ate all the food in school the next day.

 

In the end, we just spend our time playing at Jurong Safra, doing drills and playing in the rain. Even though the barbeque party had failed very terribly, i was very glad to hear my squadmates saying that they have enjoyed themselves a lot and had a great time. Personally, I was not quite happy with myself since this squad outing had a lot of mistakes but my squadmates enjoying themselves was a really great comfort. 

In a nutshell, from this squad outing, I have understood the difficulties of planning a very smooth and successful event. It was very hard for me to plan this squad outing (even though it was quite successful) and thus I should learn to appreciate those who have planned any events since it is very hard on them too. Being flexible in my plans is also very important since many unexpected situations can happen. I can be better next time but I believe my squad have also enjoyed this outing.

Winnie's Holiday Reflection

During the holidays, I did not travel abroad as there are pets at home and no one was available to take care of them. However, I did go to Universal Studios twice, on the 27 November 2013 as well as on the 19 December 2013.  Universal Studios Singapore is the second Universal Studios Theme Park  to open in Asia (Japan being the first), and the first in Southeast Asia. There are a total of 24 attractions, of which 18 are original or specially adapted for the park.  The park is divided into seven areas, each beautifully designed to conform to its corresponding movie theme. The seven areas are Hollywood, New York, Sci-Fi City, Ancient Egypt, Lost World, Far Far Away and Madagascar and they surround a lagoon.

For the 27 November trip, I went to Universal studios with 3 of my friends. One of my friends that went to Universal Studios with me was currently my best friend named Kah Ghee while the other person is my primary school best friend whose name is Cheryl. I allowed her to bring her current best friend whose name is Gwendalyn so that my two best friends would not be awkward around each other. Another reason that I wanted to bring 3 friends is that most of the rides in Universal Studios is usually 2 by 2 or 4 by 4.So if there was an odd number of people, they would have to sit with strangers or by themselves, which would cause the rides to be not as enjoyable.

It was the second time that I was going to Universal Studios. The day started out quite awkward but my friends slowly got to know each other and we were able to communicate better with each other. I personally felt that it was a great idea for Cheryl to bring Gwendalyn as I got to make a new friend and know more about her, widening my social circle.

To get to Sentosa Island, we first took the MRT to HarbourFront Station.  From there, we walked to the 3^rd floor of VivoCity shopping mall where we purchased a ticket to board the Sentosa Express – a monorail that provides access to and unlimited rides on the island with a single fare.  This mini monorail will basically transport you to four stations that visitors can choose to get on and off.  A single-day pass costs $4.00. 

When we entered the theme park, I began to wonder why Universal Studios is referred to as “ride the movies”. I realized that each zone is based on a blockbuster movie, featuring their own unique attractions, character appearances, dining and shopping areas.”Hollywood” is the at the main entrance area of the park, hence we passed by there first. It is themed after the real Hollywood Boulevard of the 1970s, dynamic architecture and palm trees are also found there. It also features a replica of the famous Hollywood Walk of Fame. Complete with elaborate streets and a convincing replica of the famous Chinese Theater, “Hollywood” is a perfect place for taking your first snapshots inside the park.

After that we went to “Madagascar”.”Madagascar” features  zoo animals, Alex, Gloria, Marty and Melman,
 as well as others escaping from the Central Park Zoo and unfortunately crashing onto the island of Madagascar . We went to the Crate adventure ride first, which was a water boat ride. I felt that the animatronics and digital projection is good as in one instance where the crates were “dropping down “the person sitting in front of me actually thought that it was real and “prepared “himself by lifting both hands up so that the crate would not drop on him. I was scared of the “explosion “that was part of the story plot as a very loud sound and heat was emitted, making it seems very real. The next ride is the King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round, which is a carousel. It is actually a merry-go round ride that is decorated with the characters found in the movie “Madagascar”.

Next we went to”Far Far away”. Cheryl felt thirsty as she did not bring along her water bottle. However, the merchandise sold there are all quite expensive as a mineral water which u can get outside for $0.80 is sold at $2.00 there. She bought a slush at $4.50 as well as a Nachos with Japaleno Cheese which cost her S$5.50.She complained that the cheese was given was very less and that additional top-up of cheese needs an additional $1.00.So, a tip for anyone who would not like to spend unnecessary money on food should bring their own as it is a cheaper choice. There are two attractions found in ”Far Far Away”, the enchanted airways and the 4D movie. The enchanted airways was a kiddy roller coaster (modeled after Dragon) ride that whizzes about the zone of Far Far Away. The 4D Shriek movie was a show on how Shriek,Donkey and Dragon saved Fiona from the evil lord Lord Farquaad who wanted Fiona to be his ghost queen so that they could rule the underword together. The show was complete with jumps, bumps, bounces, air blasts and water spray that brought the action to life for each guest- with an extra dimension of special effects through the use of OgreVision (3D) glasses.

At the lost world, we went to the “Jurassic Park”. At the Jurassic Park Rapids Adventure, you can choose whether you would want to buy a raincoat. If you drop from the Hydroelectric Generator Compound facing backwards, be prepared for a complete soaking. Otherwise, you will just have a splash. This ride features a water raft system where riders on circular yellow rafts are tossed along the waterways within the compound where it is home to dinosaurs that have broken free from their cages. We took this ride about 3 times so as to not waste the raincoats which cost us $4.00 and that because the ride is thrilling. We went to the canopy flyer, which allows us to have a feel of the prehistoric bird’s-eye view of “Jurassic Park” and the Dino-Soarin’ which allows us to control the height of the pterodactyl that we are riding on after that.

Next, is my favourite zone, the “Ancient Egypt”! “Ancient Egypt” is based on the historical adaptation, rich Egyptian architecture and artifacts found during of Ancient Egypt during the 1930s Golden Age of Egyptian Exploration. Pharaohs' tombs were discovered - and their terrible curses unleashed. The place also features obelisks and pyramids which are typical of Ancient Egypt.

There are highly detailed statues inside The Revenge of the Mummy rollercoaster ride which follows a storyline about high priest Imhotep in the popular film franchise, The Mummy. Also, the ride has reverse motion which I think makes this ride scarier than others. What I liked the most was the part where in you enter a chamber full of gold being engulfed in flames and the part where high priest Imhotep swallows the passengers into oblivion after saying “your souls would be mine for all eternity “if we could not find the book of living .Plagued on all sides by huge fireballs, swarms of scarab beetles and an army of warrior mummies, all in total darkness, this rollercoaster is a must try as its digital effects are superb. We took this ride for about 4 times. There is also a “Treasure Hunters” ride. I personally feel that this ride is not worth the time as it is very boring and only drives around an abandoned Egyptian excavation site.

Next we went to the “Sci-Fi City”, which is themed after what cities and metropolis may look like in the future, equipped with space-age technologies and the ultimate modern conveniences. The park features the world's tallest pair of duelling roller coasters  that are based on the popular television series, Battlestar Galatica . Unfortunately, both rollercoaster are closed. The difference between the two coasters is that the Human is a traditional sit-down coaster while Cylon is a suspender-type rollercoaster. I had not taken this ride before as it seems a little too scary for my liking. We went to the Transformers 3D ride after that. It has giant wrap-around screens that sport photo-realistic 3D-HD video imagery at various points throughout the ride, and has additional 4-D effects such as water spray, wind, hot air, fog that further enhances the ride experience. The fate of humanity hangs in the balance as villainous Decepticon invade NEST Headquarters to steal the “ALLSPARK”. While queuing, you will see interesting decoration inside such as a decapitated hand of an enemy Decepticon and even a replica of the “ALLSPARK” can be found. It’s a good way to distract visitors from the huge line with the LCD screens which shows what has happened before the ride. We took this ride about 3 times as it allows us to have a feel and the thrill of being in an adventure. We also went to sit on the accelerator which is known as the teacup.

Lastly, we went to “New York “.In the “Lights, Camera, Action!”hosted by Steven Spielberg which shows a story plot of New York City has being hit with a major hurricane. The damage escalates slowly but painfully as debris is being blown off by the raging wind. Even more convincing were the various effects such as strong wind, intense fire, signboards crashing through the roof, the boathouse windows blowing away, movement of the platform we are standing on, and a huge cargo ship slamming through the boathouse entrance. Calm soon returns and the damaged boathouse restores itself, all thanks to movie magic. Among the replicas you can find inside New York is the Rockefeller Center and the New York Public Library, with two lion statues at its entrance. There is the new Sesame Street Spaghetti's Space Street,  which shows Sesame Street super heroes stopping Macaroni the Merciless in his plot to steal all the spaghetti from Earth. I would say that we had a fruitful day together and enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

On the 19 December trip, it was actually a “class outing “trip but only 7 people turned up which says that it is actually not a successful class outing .We also went on our separate ways for the rides. I feel that this trip can be improved if more people were to join and that we could go as a class and not on our own,making it a chance to bond as a class.

Taking a picture with the World-Famous Universal Studios globe during the first visit during the holidays.

At the "Hollywood"section with Kung Fu Panda-Po with Kah Ghee.

Some pictures taken during the boat ride.

Me at the 

King Julien's Beach Party-Go-Round during the second trip.

The palace that the princess in every girl wish to live in.

Kah Ghee,Zhang Yue and I with a dinosaur and its trainer during the second trip.

Kah Ghee and I at the lagoon during the first trip.

Kah Ghee and I with two"Pharaohs"at the"Ancient Eygpt"during the first trip.

Kah Ghee and I at the Sci-Fi City with two "aliens"during the first trip.

Kah Ghee and I with Transformer replica statue during the first trip.

Qi Ting's holiday reflections

During the holidays, I travelled to Italy and stayed there for  9-10 days. It was the first time for me traveling to an European country, as all the other times I went overseas I mostly went to Asian countries only, so this was a new experience. My family and I travelled to Italy from 21st-30th November and so it was very cold in Italy at the time when we went there. We went in a tour group and before the trip, the tour guide had briefed us on what to do in Italy and what to look out for.
One thing which I remembered about Italy is the pickpockets. During the trip, quite a bit of money was stolen from my mother by the pickpockets, about 1000€+  was stolen. Some people blocked my mother while she was trying to enter a restaurant and while she was distracted they just stole her money. The tour guide had reminded us before that there were many pick pockets in some parts of Italy as the economy is quite bad there and to always keep our belongings properly. In fact, my mother did not even notice that her money was missing until the next morning.
Another thing was the snow at some areas of Italy. Italy was very cold at that time, and when we visited some areas which were higher up on mountains, we even experienced snow which was the first time for me seeing snow. I had always wanted to see and feel snow since young. It snowed rather heavily in those areas, there was quite a thick layer of snow on the floor, so much that some of the snow got on shoes and melted, making my shoes and feet very cold and wet.
During the tour, we mostly went to museums and historical places where the local guide there would tell us about the history, and also to admire the art there by famous artist such as Leonardo Da Vinci and Michelangelo. We went to churches, museums, the leaning tower of Pisa, the coliseum and more. Some times we would also be given our own free time to shop and eat at certain places, though I'm not really into shopping. Our tour guide told us that the branded goods and bags were cheaper in Italy and of better quality. As for food, Italy was known for spaghetti and pizza, though there were a few Chinese restaurants which we ate at some days. I always liked Italian food but after eating Italian food for 9 days, I think I still prefer Singaporean food.
We also visited wine cellars and had wine tasting, although I don't think I was old enough, and I'm not much of a wine taster either. We were given 3 different glass of wine for tasting and some cheese and meat to go with the wine.
In conclusion, I quite enjoyed the trip, and learnt more about Italy and it's history. I also experienced what's it like in Italy, at this time of the year, for example the scenery, or the buildings. If I could in the future, I would like to travel to more European countries.

       The Leaning tower of Pisa

   Photo of the Coliseum

Valerie's holiday reflections

The main highlight of my December holidays was my trip to New York, USA. The temperature there was cold and we had to be wrapped in layers and layers of clothes in order to prevent frostbite, even though, my toes had suffered frostbite several times when we went out for a walk. The temperature when we were there ranged from -10 degrees to 4 degrees. It was even colder when the wind blows... In New York, we went to the Times Square to shop and also went to the Rockefeller Park to see the skating rink before Christmas. It was amazing to see the contrast between the atmosphere in Singapore and in the states. In Singapore, few of us celebrate Christmas, but in New York, everybody celebrates it. The streets were full of people and there were Christmas carols being sung around you. Even as we stepped into shops, we were wished Merry Christmas by the shop holders. It was a very special feeling. During my time spent there, my aunt taught me to bake. I learnt to bake different types of goodies which I can now make on my own, but that will wait until my mum buys me my own oven. 

Out of the entire trip in New York, I enjoyed going to 'FAO Schwartz' in New York City as it is the biggest toy shop there and everything inside seemed to be double the size of things we see in Singapore. The gummy bears there were as long as my thumb and the largest gummy bear there weighed like about 1 kilograms. It was amazing and definitely a good experience. The toys there were considerably quite expansive but the size of them  made up for it. Other than the sweets, there were different types of types sold there, ranging from styrofoam airplanes which could fly like a boomerang to soft toys taller than adults themselves. 

I liked going to the M&M store at Times Square too. The chocolates inside were much different for ours. In Singapore, most of our M&Ms come in packets, in colours we can't really choose from. But over there, the chocolate were of a variety of colours and a variety of flavours. You could even costomize your own chocolates like having your own name, birthday, wishes etc, written on the chocolate itself. There was another point that I felt was quite surprising, the salesmen and sales ladies in the shop came from different parts of the world, I remembered seeing one from Arizona, another from Florida and so on. It's quite unique how they have so many different people from different countries working together in one shop to serve different kinds of tourists. 

Being much of a book lover, I enjoyed going to 'Barnes and Nobles' and 'The Strand' too. The first bookshop I mentioned is very popular in the states as there is a cafe there for people to eat and rad the books they selected. You do not even have to buy it, all you have to do is to keep the book neat and not damages and you could spend your time reading away over there. I felt that it was quite special in a way that the customers would not have to buy them but could also enjoy the books in the same shop. The second shop, The Strand, is more of a secondhand bookshop. It takes in secondhand books from the public and sells them to others at a very low rate, about 1USD. They also have new books, but the price would be slightly higher, yet cheaper than other bookstores. It's a very special bookstore as it has a variety of books which could hardly be seen in other stores.

The cost of food in US is definitely much higher but of a larger portion. However, I prefer it's street side food more than those sold at restaurants. Perhaps it's just me but I like the chicken kebab, the chicken joe, pretzels etc, all from the road side street stalls. I didn't really like the food that was sold at the malls and the stores as most of the time, the food tasted just okay due to our different food cultures. Most of the time, I just missed the food back in Singapore. 

As much as I love Singapore, I would very much like to migrate over there when I grow up. It's a beautiful country, even though the cost of living might be very high. I hope that I'll be able to visit US again one day as I grow older.

--Valerie(16)

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