Razaele

Day 1

This is our group before we left on flight SQ600 to Incheon Int'l AIrport in South Korea. The flight was quite comfortable and food and entertainment was provided. Once we arrived, we took a bus to the dinner location. The weather is so nice and cold, it is nothing we will ever experience in Singapore.

When we arrived at the dinner location, we were given 15 minutes to walk around the theme park by the sea, where we found local products such as sweet Pringles and passed by some street food stalls selling foodstuffs such as twist potato and waffles. We passed by a monument that showed the point which US forces finally liberated South Korea and ended the Korean War in a stalemate.



Finally, dinner which was a really awkward experience as it was strictly seafood and I have never eaten much shellfish/crustacean. However, I managed to eat some shellfish and prawn/shrimp with the rice, and it was surprisingly nice. The highlight of the dinner (and the day) was seeing a live, moving octopus thrown into the hot pot and cut into pieces.

Day 2

Photo of amazing instrument players performing 3 songs, including Super Mario theme as part of the welcome ceremony. Not Shown: "You Raise Me Up" by choir, another amazing performance.

Photo of the visible light spectrum seen through phone camera in a spectroscope.

Photo of the Moon taken through one of the telescopes on the rooftop observatory of IASA.

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• At IASA (Incheon Academy of Science  & Arts), I experienced hospitality unlike what we expected. It is very significant to us as it exceeded far beyond our expectations. 

Process 

• Despite not having any physical reaction, I felt welcomed BUT also quite ashamed as we did not provide such hospitality to our friends in Singapore.

• No, the feelings I experienced were quite shared among the group.

• Since my buddy is the same person I was paired with in SST, I was looking forward to meeting him again and I assumed that they would provide similar standard of hospitality as SST. I was wrong apparently.

Generalize 

• This experience is reinforcing the need to have the initiative to provide better hospitality to our buddies, and letting us reflect on how we treated them in SG compared to how they are treating us at the moment in Korea.

• Reinforce ^^^^

Day 3

I'm in my m0m's car @Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang

Boat ride, sightseeing and taking photos of photographers @IFEZ Boathouse

Dinner, dessert, and brawling with buddies! <3

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• At Hyundai Motorstudio Goyang, I experienced a multitude of activities or demonstrations which showed us how cars are designed, from design to building. One of the highlights of the guided tour would be the ride which was literally a rollercoaster in the motorstudio, it was honestly quite overwhelming for a facility relatively small compared to a theme park have a ride which felt like a rollercoaster for people to experience the path of iron ore after being extracted, from melting to performing in rallies as a competitive racecar.

Process 

• I was very overwhelmed and excited for the tour although the tour guide felt like he was not doing enough, he actually showed us the entire facility and made our day by showing us the simulators which were super fun to play/race my friends with. I feel like the tour guide has done an excellent job for the guided tour as well.

• I assumed the experience would not be so interactive, and I have never been more happy to be wrong about it.

Generalize 

• The experience enhances my knowledge of how cars are made FOR people and not just built as a car body with seats and let people drive around. There are complicated processes of design especially of the safety equipment so that the car is usable and safe for the user. 
• The experience reinforces the concept of design as a whole, as taught by the school, design includes form and FUNCTION, which is shown through the building of the car body (form) and the designing of safety equipment and smaller parts which play a big part in the driving of a car.(function)

Day 4

Final photo with our buddies, our host teachers, Principal Lee and Vice Principal Kim from IASA. <3

Debate: Should SK and SG ban the use of plastic bags? Final Round by Teams 4/6

Me playing "La plus que lente" on the piano in front of everyone (really stressful skskskks) P.S. thanks joshua for being the page turner

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• At IASA, I was asked to play the piano in front of everyone (SST, IASA). Just before that, Damien's Korean buddy had just flexed his piano skill to me so honestly I was not really that confident, however I pushed through with the piece I saved for last and managed to play the whole piece in front of everyone. The Korean pianist then proceeded to play his piece. It was significant to me as I am quite self-taught in practical (stopped at grade 8, self-prac for diploma) so I can showcase my home-grown talent and prove that there is no need for music class (in IASA, there are music classes - mainly for pianists, the music room has so many pianos with private headsets) to develop talent in musical instruments. At the same time, it showed our appreciation to the IASA for having us during the past 3 days

Process 

• I assumed that the Korean pianists are around as skilled as me at least. Quite wrong but I felt so bad when the pianist perfectly recalled my piece from memory heheheheh
• The playing of the piano made me feel good after feeling abit humiliated. No hard feelings to the IASA pianist, he is really good though and I appreciate him showing his talent (although the people around already know he is so-called the best pianist in IASA). 

Day 5

Gwacheon National Science Museum group photo. O.o

Another Science museum picture O.o

Another Science museum picture O.o

Publish: What happened today was at the Gwacheon National Science Museum where we were allowed to visit many different exhibits and take a look at how the field of science has expanded and how it will expand in the future and it is a significant experience because we got to look at the insides of many working parts of machinery to understand the scientific concepts behind them (eg making of fibers - chain polymerisation), and the next time, we can understand these scientific concepts better and apply them to our studies in the future.

Process: Honestly, at first I was very excited when I received the brochure for the hands-on exhibits at the science museum, however it changed very fast when we were allowed into the museum and realised that the hands-on exhibits had a fixed timing which was out of the timing we are allowed to explore the museum. I believe that people who were excited to experience hands-on activities also were quite disappointed after we realised we could not. We assumed that everything was paid for and we just needed to queue and ride just like in an amusement park. (personal skills qn skipped, will update ltr when thought of more deeply

Generalise: This experience has reinforced certain scientific concepts which we have already learned, as well as showed us new concepts which we have not heard of yet but seen in action today. It challenges my prior understanding of such concepts because they are applied in different ways which may not have been explained to us in detail at school so it challenges us to find out.

Apply: I learned that countries can learn from other countries to develop. This is evident in how Korea (kind of like Japan) developed very quickly into the technologically advanced city it now is, now that they have entire museums to prove it.

This learning matters because it is important that Singapore, being the small city it is, must advance technologically at a good rate just like Korea to stay relevant in the market and to maintain a stable economy. The younger generation should continue coming up with new ideas to contribute to Singapore’s advancement after taking inspiration from other countries’ successes.

Day 6 pictures & Final Trip Summary

Samsung Digital City guide @Samsung Innovation Museum!

Traditional Korean Porridge + beef/kimchi/kimchipaste?

Final Summary paragraph: The trip has provided me with many amazing experiences. Compared to my trip in Kaga/Osaka in Secondary 1, 3 whole days of interaction with IASA has taught me a lot about Korean culture, and the school culture. Furthermore, the trips to various places to do sightseeing, shopping and viewing (samsung, hyundai) have showed me a variety of things to do in Korea, and the Samsung & Hyundai museums have shown me complicated processes of production/manufacturing. In all, the whole trip has allowed me to form priceless friendships, explore countless places and has provided me with one of my best experiences overseas. <3