ok
today i shall blog about the whole trip in details.
Day 1met at Changi at 6.30am to check-in, departed at 8.30. arrived at hong kong at 12.15pm, queued for quite some time at the immigration, then met the microsoft person and boarded a bus heading towards the place where we're staying at- HK institute of education (hostel). 1 hour journey. after putting our luggages and the 5 t-shirts and cap and umbrealla they gave us in our rooms, we headed to the meeting room to meet the taiwan and hk people. then had a briefing and introduction and separated into groups. i was in group 4. (during this whole trip, the language used would be mandarin) then, it was the ice breaking activities. after that we had a welcome dinner at some restaurant, and it was a buffet. then they had some games, which was simon says. the unlucky me got chosen to represent my group to play as i lost when we played scissors paper stone. haha(: at last i tied with another person for the winner. :D
back to hostel, bathe, sleep(:
Day 2visited some of the famous places in the new territories, including their primary and secondary schools. got to use pocket PCs to do some quizzes and use the net. so cool! the pocket PC is so damn nice okaayyyyy. haha. then in the afternoon we went to the wet land parks and had a tour. went up to the bird watching tower too. haha, i love the scenery. for dinner we went to eat what was called 盘菜, and then had a culture night performance by those from hong kong. wheeee.
back to hostel, bathe, sleep(:
Day 3went to the hong kong observatory, where we learnt all about meterology and had a lecture on global climate change and global warming. toured different places in the observatory, including a studio where TV weather reports are being shot. omg it was so cool. haha (: then we went for lunch which was shanghai cuisine. it was damm nice but also damm full. haha they didn't want us to grow hungry after that. after lunch we went to ocean park! haha, that was what i was looking forward to. but it wasn't that enjoyable, although it was very enjoyable too. too crowded, that is, and it was scorching hot. so i had to buy a portable fan in order to save myself, and we went around looking for places with air-con like the shark aquarium. hehehe. there i bought some little keychains for my clique. then we headed for a restaurant that serves thai cuisine for dinner. taiwan's culture night performance was next.
then back to hostel again, bathe, sleep(:
Day 4went to the stock exchange market in the morning, then stayed there to tour around for a while. then we headed to the pier to take a ferry across the river. walked on the avenue of stars too, where the names and even some handprints of hong kong celebrities are found. then we went to the hk university of science and technology. had a lecture on renewable energy sources, but frankly speaking, i slept during the lecture. but i really cannot take it anymore! haha (: then we toured the school again, and after that we went for dinner. at a rather grand restaurant, and that night was our turn to do the culture night performance. before having dinner each group was suppose to send someone up to sing and the suay suay me got selected again. but since i could only croak, my leader decided to go up and help do a magic trick instead. which turn out to be very... lame. haha(: after that we spent the whole dinner time saying super lame jokes and asking each other quizzes and riddles. haha, it was damm fun. this microsoft guy also came and he just came back from US. after dinner he had a presentation about windows vista tablet PC edition, which was just released. and omg it was so cool okkaaaayyyyy. he also showed us videos of the newest and coolest PC games that were just released. i want to play!!!!! hehe. after his presentation, it was our turn to perform, and suddenly all of us were very very nervous. plus, the restaurant was so cold!!! until i was shivering and had to get a glass of hot water to drink. haha. but after that, it turned out quite well, and it was quite successful. all that rehearsals and preparation didn't go to waste (:
back to hostel, had to prepare for the next day's presentation. prepared until 12+ with my group. back at my room, i continued until 3am +. haha, but thanks to Ms Ho and Jia Ling who came to my room to accompany me.
Day 5the big day. morning after breakfast, we started on preparing our presentation. intensive. then when my leader told me they were going to sing 朋友, i was like, hooray. since they didn't have the music, i could accompany them on the piano since i know how to play it. so after doing my task i spent the next hour trying to find a piano and practiscing it. during the last hour, we had rehearsals. i was very busy, had to do the powerpoint, the video clip, the animations, the props and practice the piano accompainment. whoooooooo. but our efforts didn't go to waste, as we recieved great comments from the judges (and one of them was Ms Ho, of course). btw, Ms Ho group 1's teacher. my group's teacher was the teacher from hong kong. well, the judges commented us because of our singing performance, as no other group has, and also because i played the piano to accompany them. but i had some wrong notes because i was too nervous, and with those photographers suddenly rushing beside me when i started playing. haha. after the presentation part we got our certificates and had the presentation of prizes. my group, however, got 4th for the overall (which was last). it's ok, i believe we have tried out best. zhong jie's group got first, and they got a 1GB thumbdrive each! and zomg the thumbdrive is damm nice. my group got a bag from microsoft, which is nice too(: after everything, we headed to The Peak, where we had buffet for dinner. looking down from the top is the night view of hong kong and the view is damm nice. there were laser effects too, in fact. we also got to take the cable car, or train down the hill. it was also time where the hong kong people are leaving us as they are going home. :(
back to hostel again, play games, bathe, sleep.
Day 6Microsoft Job Shadowing day. went to cyberport today, where Microsoft Hong Kong is. the lifts there are so cool! no buttons in the lift itself. you press which floor you are going to go outside, then the system will tell you which lift to go. at Microsoft, we had a introduction about what we were going to do. then we were assigned each to our mentors. i had to share a mentor with zhong jie because my mentor, which was the senior director, was ill or something like that. then after our mentor picked us up, we went for a meeting. there they showed us a demo on the new office communicator. then our mentor treated us to starbucks where we had a little chat. then we headed for lunch, and rushed off for a meeting with a partner at Pacific Place, which was where the 2nd Microsoft Office is. after the meeting we came back to Cyberport again. We had a tour of Microsoft, and David, which was the guy whom presented vista TPC to us, demo-ed the windows media center to us. our mentor, Gary, also gave us many freebies. a bag, vista stickers, vista badges, office 2007 trial version and a vista lanyard from David. whoo. i also recieved another bag because i answered a question correctly during the introduction. the question was: ____ will be the no.1 english speaking country in the world one day. i mumbled out China and i was heard. that was the correct answer! woohoo. so at the end of the day, we had a debrief, then said goodbye to our mentor.
at night, we went for shopping. i didn't buy much and didn't enjoy much because there were too much walking. but in anyway, i still enjoy la, haha(:
back to hostel, this time after bathing, we gathered at somebody's room and played cards and murderer. Ms Ho was there too. Ms Ho always become the murderer one! haha. and guess what, we played until 5+am. :D
Day 7woke up later today, which was a privilege as for the past few days we had to wake up at 6+. packed up, went for breakfast, then it was time to head to the airport. it was sad that Kenny, out trip leader, couldn't send us off as he has to go for work. at the airport, we took many pictures, said our goodbyes and some of us cried. i almost cried. you know, it's like we don't know when we're seeing each other again! taiwan... hong kong... those are far places, you know. so the only way to keep in touch was by MSN.
after that, boarded the plane, headed back to Singapore. oh i so don't want to leave hong kong can. grandma came back already! she and mum when to fetch me. yay!
ah.. i miss my taiwan and hong kong buddies!
朋友一生一起走
那些日子不再有
一句话 一辈子 一生情 一杯酒
朋友不曾孤单过
一声朋友你会懂
还有伤 还有痛 还要走 还有我
ok, sorry for making this post so damm long :/
will upload pictures soon.
