Monday 23rd June 12:00pm

Ok ignore the previous rant and let me start from the beginning ^^




My host family consists of Lora the mother and Georgina and Anastasia the daughters and George the dad who was staying with a sick friend for the week... We're being hosted together with two other Thai girls who are also here for the conference..They really are quite cute ^^

We basically live in a district next to the beach, so it's colder here due to the sea breeze..

Most shops close at 5/6pm which is like totally wrong! haha that's so early, they close before our school program ends! The house has a little deli near it where we usually go to buy snacks..

Dinner on the first day was quite yummy.. After dinner was spent mostly socializing with the family.. One of the Thai girls played a little of the piano and Eugenie attempted to play a Delta Goodrem song..



I think the first half of the day was quite miserable because we didn't really get much sleep the night before and we were worn out by the trip.. toward the end of the day we all got a bit more rested and had a good game of cards with the girls in the evening..

Today the program started..
We had to take the bus to the school by ourselves.. I really couldn't believe it when we were told but yeah.. we basically fend for ourselves the entire trip...


The day was filled with talks and keynote speeches on research in Australia in the bio-related field..

One of the talks was basically like one of our bio lectures back in school so it was like deja vu for most of us.. haha


The school itself is really small.. The "hall" in which the talks were conducted made up most of the first floor and the rest of the school was just a second floor above of roughly the same size.. it seemed like the university just donated an old faculty for the school to renovate and use or something..
Their classroom all have and open concept, I actually thought they were just lounges at first but that's basically what their classrooms are..



The labs are a little better but there was only one lab!.. I guess they don't seem to be concentrating on much experimentation..



The Sciences, Maths and Languages are combined into what they term the "Central Studies" and the peripheral subjects are all linked by a central question that tie into the central studies.. The teacher was spewing out really complicated module titles but things like "Variety of Life" turns out to be a toned down version of BioD, and their Year 11 Maths is our Year 3 Maths.. ^^" Not really what I expected of the Math and Science school of Adelaide I much admit.. I wonder what the public schools are like then.. o.0
The students all have something funky on them one way or another.. be it hair.. or an odd piercing here and there ^^



Whats more interesting is their concept of "lunch" which basically consist of junk food, fried food and more junk food.. The section with stew and rice was mostly untouched..


I never really thought that Jamie Oliver really had much reason to want to change the concept of school lunches till now..
Their canteen is basically outside the school building, so if you buy hot dog to eat... by the time you walk back into the building, you're munching on a cold dog ^^

We had the workshop presentations first, where one of our teams presented.. the project were all rather representative of the countries actually ^^
Like Singapore's was mostly theoretical and dealt with numbers, the Japanese project dealt with technology and the Thai project dealt with HIV..


Next came the poster presentation. It all went pretty smoothly and quite a few people were actually genuinely interested in the project, which is good! I really had no idea I could come up with so many variations of the same presentation of our project each time we explained it to someone hahaha



We wore the school skirt in the morning but having to walk to and from the canteen outside was pure murder so eventually we were given permission to wear pants for the remainder of the day..
We had the cultural sharing session where Eugenie and I did a presentation on Singapore..

After that we hung around and took some more shots..



This is my new darling! That's one sexy bag of bones XD



Tuesday 24th June 9:30pm

Shot in the morning at the bus stop..


Today was spent doing lab experiments..
The first was steam distillation to obtain Eucalyptus oil.. The labs have such primitive apparatus! Kinda like when I was practicing for O levels at IOS.. and the procedures are so simple.. also no one sterilizes anything!



In any case, the rubber tubing kept splitting and releasing all the steam so we basically ended up with Eucalyptus tea instead of oil.. haha


I think if all our labs are conducted in this manner, I'd just die.. The terminology they use is very simplified and the syllabus is really very basic..
In the next lab we went on to make sparklers..


The teacher spent 15 minutes explaining how to use a bunsen burner and why we should wear safety goggles (and aprons..)


A few explosives demonstrations later, we went on to a module that dealt with fitness and the calculation of our BMI and V02max..



At the end of the day we had this sport program where we split up into groups to learn a few games.. I learnt how to play Australian football and I was shocked at how some students could wear singlets and bermudas in 7 degree weather to play!!






After that it all ended pretty late so we took a few more shots and headed back to our home stay family..


Yes random shot of me ^^

Unfortunately, this being the first time we were taking the bus BACK to the house (the first day we got picked up) we couldn't find the bus stop that had the bus going back because the signboard on the bus stop didn't list it!! >.< We spent almost an hour wandering around in worry while trying to get directions from locals equally clueless.. -.-"" In the end Lora came to fetch us again and we found out from our roommates that the 681 isn't listed even though it stops at the stop! Like we're supposed to know?? Really retarded that was.. >.<

In any case, these Australians seem to have a knack for stating the obvious.. o.0



Wednesday 25th June 12:12am
Today was centred around genetics and gene ethics.. Basically group discussion around the different scenarios that incorporate gene ethics. The paper we were supposed to do felt like a refresher in AP Bio ^^ Didn't manage to take any pics that day because my cam ran out of battery..
Pretty uneventful day except that we all headed down to Westfield after school to do a spot of shopping. Apparently, our flight leaves in the morning of the last day so we don't get to go on the cultural tour or do any shopping.. ugh! What is the school thinking not even letting us stay till the last day!?! In any case, today ZM, Eugenie and I spent about Aus$60 in total on chocolates! Don't ask hahaha we even managed to chalk up enough points on a rewards card to claim more chocolates! XD
Today was extraordinarily cold because it was so darn blustery >.< I think we're all more or less getting used to the weather.. too bad we'll have to get used to Singapore weather again just as we get used to it here..

Thursday 26th June 11:26pm
Today we woke up early to explore the pieces of land near the neighbourhood.. There was one field with sheep but they ran off every time we tried to approach, so sad! =(

Sheep! from afar >.<

So we ended up trekking back to the bus stop and took pictures of the flora and fauna around..



I'm not sure which one is lavender.. but I'm pretty sure its the one below..




Random pic of me in JX's overcoat ^^

For the day, the activities were conducted in the university itself which was just across the road..
The walk to the faculty was mostly beautiful forested area with hundreds and hundreds of PINE CONES! haha we all went crazy collecting them along the way..


This one's sitting in my room at home XD





At the university, we had forensic activities where we had to try and solve the "murder" of one of the professors from the evidence collected from the "crime scene".







On the walk back, we took the long way back to take more pics and CONES =P



After that was the cultural sharing and the semi official closing...
Japan's presentation-


Cert presentation


We finally get to light up the sparklers we made ^^


And lots more group pics! <3




That's ZM's "buddy" ^^

And the Principal! Take a good look at his tie XD

In any case, the semi official ceremony was for use because we were the ONLY ones flying back early >.< it's seriously retarded that we're not even allowed to stay the final day when all the tours and sightseeing happens.. We barely had time for anything else because the days were all so full of activities and night falls pretty fast in the winter..
Well at least Westfield closed late at 9pm on Thursdays which is pretty much as late as it gets in winter..
Apparently some major end of season sale is going on and there were huge markdowns everywhere.. too bad I couldn't really find anything that I really wanted to get.
We had dinner at Spargo's where we ate kangaroo meat!



I must say that it tastes excellent! Like beef only lighter and a little more tangy =P After that we all shared the Tappas platter that was equally yummy because it had all sorts of cheese and dips with vinegar and oil for the bread!

All in all after we split it all up, we had a really good dinner at a good dinner at a pretty decent price! ^^
Here, table water comes in bottle that has a really funky way of opening the top ^^



Unfortunately, by 9 the last bus had already gone which we didn't realise.. So after much waiting and we eventually had to take a cab..
It's funny how at night when everything is dark and you're in a foreign cold country, suddenly every cab driver looks like a suspicious character ^^
In any case travelling by public transport at night is not at all funny.. All your senses are on alert the entire time and you have to be very careful where you walk. Somehow Singapore seems so safe at night as compared to Adelaide.. the cab fare eventually came up to Aus$20, which was really quite a shocker!

Friday 27th June 12:20am
Our flight just took off about an hour ago.. We have a stopover in Perth before we switch flight and head up to Singapore.

This morning we did more picture taking before we headed off to the airport.






I'm really going to miss the weather but I'm definitely not going to miss the house.. they wear shoes into the house and even into the toilet! Imagine how dirty the floor in the toilet gets >.< I think the worst part of each day was waking up because once you flip open the blanket, you can feel all your warmth just getting sucked out of you =S

During this trip I think I've drawn a few conclusions
-Highschool is really slack but then they chiong everything in University
-Even though their curriculum is not as advanced as ours, they seem to possess a sense of creativity and inquisitiveness which we lack.. I guess we're either too complacent or too afraid to question anything..
-When comics make fun of teenagers and their utterly messy rooms, I never really believed that it was that bad but apparently its possible! Their room is strewn with books and clothes and shoes all over the floor that there isn't an inch of floor space to be seen! The door can't even open fully because of the junk obstructing the doorway o.0
-We got to eat kangaroo but we never got to see them hahaha..
-ZM is a very good person to go shopping with.. talks you out of buying everything!! really good for saving money haha ^^

Well I really did enjoy this trip, mostly because the nice company throughout and the COLD and the fact that I got to present a project overseas that most people consider finished but we're only just starting ^^

Hello!
Navi to the right!
=D


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