Australian Discovery! ~Andre's

Day-1: 7/6/10 (Monday)

Sunshine in Aussie!!! WOOTS!

7 hours of flying and here we are, touching down on a land that promises endless excitement and enchantment… its Australia… !

 Setting my first footprint on Australian soil and not letting go of my first maiden shot .. I looked ‘exhaustedly excited’, didn’t I…?

From Brisbane International Airport, we were ushered to a waiting tour bus that took us for a short sightseeing tour of Gold Coast. A splendid city Gold Coast is indeed, fascinating landscapes comprehending a host of skyscrapers, historical buildings and unique local icons & attractions. Gold Coast City is known for its sunny subtropical climate, surfing beaches, waterways and canal systems, a skyline dominated by high-rise impressively designed apartment buildings, rich rainforest hinterland in the west of the city, bountiful nightlife, shopping paradise and its endless lifestyle and entertainment attractions.

Passing through one of the beautiful river… the blue river and the clear sky almost blends in harmony.  At the background, a familiar icon found in most big cities around the world.. the EYE!

An impressive colonial building, giving you a British flavour..?

Day-2: 8/6/10 (Tuesday)

ALCOL & Shopping at Southport

After breakfast, my foster dad sent me and my roommate-Shim to Australia International College of Language (ALCOL) for our first session of English class.  

Class photo.. picture perfect.  

From back-right: Andre(me), Chelsea,Teacher-Janice,Tharishini, Michael

From front-right: Wenyi, Iman, Victoria

In our first class assignment, we were told to do an open-response essay entitled:-

‘While some of the reasons for poor mental health are genetic, a lot has to do with the effects of the modern lifestyle. Discuss.’

Later in the afternoon, we were taken for a stroll on the streets, walk ways, parks and exploring the beauties of Southport area and its vicinity.

We were later brought to the Australia Fair for free and easy shopping. Well, being a non-shopaholic, I don’t really indulged with shopping much. Spent most of my allotted shopping time relaxing at a bench under the maples, nimbling my favourite chocolates as I watch life & people in Australia passing by. A wonderful experience, relaxing in cool nice weather and enjoying time like never before…!

Day-3: 9/6/10 (Wednesday)

More AICOL and of course, SURFERS PARADISE!

Janice gave us an assignment on Business English and we were supposed to answer the listed questions and putting our entrepreneurial thoughts into play. We spent 2 hours on the class assignment and happily handed up our worksheet on time.

By 1pm, we were huddled into our bus and headed straight for Surfers Paradise!!!

  

Welcome arch at the Surfers’ Paradise

  

No swimming, no surfing BUT yes for ‘jump-shooting’. Hey, that was my choreographic shot, directed my Andre Ng Incorporated. Saw the camera still in my hands..?

Day-4: 10/6/10 (Thursday)

Meet the Kangaroos and Koalas

Our day-4 outing In the afternoon was the Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary.  It is where two of OZ most prominent icons, the K&K (kangaroos and koalas) is breeded and showcased.  All of us are very excited and were looking forward to meet and experience.

Koala bears! Aren’t they cute?

         Kangaroos have got strong legs,fatal enough to kill.  I go for this little ‘boy ’to be safe.  It doesn’t seem very friendly…

This Currumbin experience is definitely one of my best as I finally get to see the koala bears, kangaroos an other wildlife that I don’t get to see back in Malaysia. We even had the opportunity to make close contacts with those lovely animals.  Being an animal lover, it is an unforgettable experience that I will cherish for many years.

Day-5: 11/6/10 (Friday)

Bye AICOL.. sob..sobs!

The last lesson was a rather interesting and thought-provoking one. We were told to give thoughts on newspaper articles, given by Janice. Everyone grabbed the opportunity to speak their mind on things they feel strongly about. I did a newspaper article on the recent Gaza Flotilla blockade and the whole class erupted into a heated discussion and fierce debates ensued. Interestingly to note that, despite the hectic and busy life styles we all engaged daily, people still do show care and concern about current affairs that is happening all around  us.

Certificate Presentation & Farewell Party

Me holding the certificate presented by Viviana, Director of Studies of AICOL

A group photo for the album..

35 participants of ‘Australia Discovery’ Group Batch 6

Organised by Hiroshima International Club

6^th to 14^th June 2010

  

Day-6: 12/6/10 (Saturday)

DREAMWORLD!.. the pinnacle of FUN!

The moment that we have been waiting for… yeah,Yeah,YEAH..!

 Dream-DREAM WORLD…! Here we come!!!  Photo with Isaac, my fellow schoolmate in SSI… Cheers!

Dreamworld is an undisputedly the world’s renowned theme park situated at the Gold Coast in Queensland. It is currently Australia's largest theme park with over 27 rides including 4 roller coasters. The park is made up of several themed lands: Ocean Parade, Nick Central, Wiggles World, Gold Rush Country, Rocky Hollow, Tiger Island and the Australian Wildlife Experience. These lands feature a collection of rides, animal exhibits, shows, food outlets and merchandise shops.

Day-7: 13/6/10 (Sunday)

Au revoir Australia and hello again, Malaysia

Final day in Australia with my home stay adopted family, couldn’t bear to leave them. On one hand, I am feeling sad as I was about to leave Aussie, a country where I enjoyed a host of fun in the learning process; on the other, being able to return to home-sweet-home Malaysia is a wonderful feeling.

Presenting to you my Host Family.. The Rafael Family !!

Mr Rafael and family, thank you so much for the wonderful reception, generous care & support, above all your warm hospitality rendered to me during my stay in Australia.  It was a great, valuable and memorable experience

Appreciated it really a lot. Love and missed you all!

BIG THANKS!

Tanjong Katong Secondary School, a place of a million memories.

On the 29^th of April, a trip to Singapore was conducted by our school. It was as a student exchange program with the prestigious Tanjong Katong Secondary School. The program was mainly organized by the English department of our school. Early in the morning, all participants assembled at the school car park and were soon in the bus headed off to the CIQ complex. Upon immigration clearance, we were off to the school which was situated in the southeast of the island. We were received with open arms by the Principal of the school and several other teachers.

The i-studio was our next destination where we were all given a brief introduction to their school by their principal himself. Did you know that the school is a technical school and also an elite school in Singapore? During this introduction I learned that there is many difference in the education system when you compare theirs with ours. In Malaysia, the cluster system is a standard board for schools but in Singapore the cluster system is nothing but to split the schools according to their location. For your information, Tanjong Katong Secondary School is an autonomous school. They are not only able to make up their own rules but also are able to administrate the school the way they want. Not only that, in Singapore they only have four years of secondary education which consists of two years in the lower secondary and two years in the upper secondary which differs from our education system because we have five years of secondary education.

When looking at the co curricular activities, they have to join at least one uniformed body which is also found in Malaysia. I also learnt that every year, the students are brought on trips to various place depending on which form are you in. For example, in secondary one trips to Serimbun Camping Area and in secondary two, they will all be brought to Kota Tinggi Malaysia. Finally for the secondary three students, they will be brought to Bentan and Bintan in Indonesia for their activity. The fundings for this activities are mainly supported by the government and aided by the school funds and the parents.After their interesting introduction came to an end, it was our turn to deliver a speech to them about our school, The Majestic SSI. The speech followed by a question and answer session between both parties. From this entire session we learned a lot of useful information about their school and in return they got to know our school better. Next, we were all then put into classes to experience for ourselves how the schooling environment in Singapore really is. Did you all know that some subjects such as Additional Mathematics was actually thought in a auditorium! Concentration is the key to understanding in schools in Singapore i guess. We had a great time in all the classes and not forgetting the warm welcome we received from the students of the school.

What was next? Well, we had our lunch in their school cafeteria and then we were taken to their i-studio workshop. Here we were all given a chance to enjoy making flower vases with acrylic which was heated and shaped while it was still hot. We got firsthand experience in making the vases and not to mention all the fun we had making it. According to the responses received, all the participants were greatly surprised to be actually given the chance to make the vases but were still happy because they were given such a golden opportunity to make them. To sum up the whole activity, we were brought to the i-studio again. Here the two schools exchanged souvenirs that belong to the school. Before our trip back to Malaysia, we all made a quick stop at some shopping centers. What would a trip to Singapore be if we did not do some shopping? With that the trip to Tanjong Katong Secondary School was brought to an end. Although we had to return with a heavy heart, our faces were bright with a smile thanks to the great experience we had in Singapore. I personally would not mind returning there again. Thank you SSI for such a great opportunity!

Pn Halimah offering a basket of fruits as a sign of gratitude

A gift to TK as a remembrance of our visit

A token of appreciation

Gifts from TK

Gifts from TK

Mr Nordin and Miss Fatin Haya in the i-studio

Pn Adila, Miss Sheela and Pn Halimah in the i-studio

Vases made in TK

Other vases from the i-studio workshop

Bird Aviary

Basketball court

Court

TK School Field

Pathway Behind The Cafeteria

TK School Cafeteria

TK Auditorium

Assembly Area

i-studio building

Prepared by,

Lingeswaran Ampalayan

The 2nd APEC Future Scientist Conference at the National Science Museum, Tecnopolis, Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani, Thailand.

From the 1^st of February till the 6^th of February 2010,we were chosen to attend attend the 2^nd  APEC Future Scientist Conference at the National Science Museum(NSM), Tecnopolis, Khlong Luang, Pathum Thani, Thailand.




The following is a short review of what we did throughout our stay in Thailand….

DAY 1

We arrived at the Suvarnabhumi Airport around lunchtime on the 1^st of February, a Monday.

We were greeted by a museum official and were brought to the museum. It was a rather tiring journey but we were quickly put to work without any lunch-having to prepare the presentation of our posters- so, by the end of the day, we were practically dozing off during the Welcome Dinner at Function Room of the IT Museum. We had an icebreaking session in which we met people from all over the world including students from Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan, and Brunei Darussalam. We then retired gladly to our dorms where we would be staying throughout our stay there.

DAY 2

After breakfast, at 8 in the morning we were required to register ourselves at the ground floor of the NSM Ofiice Building. We then headed to the conference room for a short conference. The Permanent Secretary of Ministry of Science and Technology, Dr.Suchhinda Chotipanich did an opening remark before a special lecture by the President of the National Science Museum, Thailand, Dr.Pitchai Sonchaeng. After a filling lunch, it was time for the much awaited poster presentation. We did a short presentation on green energy and sustainable methods to save our earth. All in all, though our presentation was not on par with some of the students who did experiments on protein molecules and so on, we were happy and contented that we did our best during a 1 week duration in which we prepared the poster. We were then broken up into groups of 5 students each for our next task which is to build our very own eco-friendly house with zero carbon emission. We then toured the Science museum before being treated to an official Reception Party. We had a dose of some beautiful cultural dances from the different parts of Thailand. Our stomachs were also filled to the extreme with scrumptious Thailand food.

DAY 3

The next day, our schedules were packed with the team implementation project. We had to find lots of information with which we had to built a miniature house with the materials provided such as pieces of wood, colour papers, straws, balloons and other materials to bring up a decent miniature house… 

That night, we had a science show that was pretty much enjoyed by all participants. We also had a cultural show in which we got to learn about other countries.

DAY 4 

The race again time heated up as were rushed to get our project completed. The rooms were filled with the noises of hammers beating against wood as the houses began to take shape.  We were also required to do a short power point presentation on our project.

DAY5

The morning was a tense one as the groups got ready to present their projects in front of all the mentors and a few other guests. We were given 2o minutes to do our presentation in which we had 10 minutes to answer questions asked by the audience. It cannot be denied however that we had a great time doing this as some of us came up with witty comments that had all of us laughing. After a carefree lunch, we had a closing ceremony in which awards were given out. We, the representatives of Malaysia were proud that we managed to get 2 medals-a silver medal by Mustaqiim and a gold medal by Deeviya. That evening we finally got to travel out of the museum compound. We were brought to a shopping centre where we had our dinner before going shopping at the night bazaar. By the time we reached the museum at about midnight, we were laden down by bags and bags of souvenirs. However, since it was the last night that we had together, we were reluctant to sleep and ended up having a noisy party in the boys dormitory.

It was a wonderful time we had-something that we would never forget for the rest of our lives.

We retired to bed at about 3.30 in the morning and had an hours sleep before getting up to catch our flight. It was sad to leave our new friends but we were also happy to be once again going back home.

Though our trip to Thailand was so packed with activities that we hardly got more than 5 hours of sleep each night, it was an experience of a lifetime. We still do keep in touch with our friends overseas. We thank the school for giving us a chance and hope that many activities similar to this will be held in years to come.

By:

DEEVIYA MUNIANDY

MUHAMMAD MUSTAQIIM BIN MUHAR