Last Day @ NGTHS & Cu Chi tunnel

WE ARE BACK FOR MORE!

Today is the last day for visiting NGTHS. Tears drops. T_T
It's the saddest episode for both NVSS pupils and NGTHS pupils.

Buddies of NVSS students got settled in the hall and wait patiently for the rest of the pupils to arrive. Soon the classes of the buddies came down from their classes and join the rest in the hall. The principal of NGTHS gave a speech and there were a performance put up by the Vietnamese student of grade Nine Fifthteen. Then came a reflection presentation by NVSS students and a speech by Mr How on behalf of Mr Yeo, our principal. There was a combine performance put up by 27 NVSS students with the participating buddies, singing four songs that was being practiced yesterday, 6 November 2008. After the performance, it was time to exchange gifts and/ or souvenirs between the Vietnamese and Singaporeans pupils. Everyone was enjoying the last few moments being together. There was a short video, taken during the five days of school we have attended, being played. And finally, after the video, the Singaporeans have to leave the school.
A group photo, taken with the participating buddies and NVSS pupils, was being taken before we left the school.

We went for lunch and headed back to the hotel to get changed for our next destination for the day, the Cu Chi Tunnel. We've gotten knowledge of Vietnam's War History. We walked through the jungle and the tunnel too. We've also seen how traps are being hidden so well that we could not see it. Pupils also did try going into some hidden places and crawling through a long narrow tunnel.

That was the end of day 6's journey.
On behalf of NVSS students, I'll like to thank NGTHS and the participating pupils for their warmest welcome and the host's family for making us feels at home during the home stay.

Agnes

Hotel room details

We're staying at Tan My Dinh II Hotel since yesterday till Sun morning (2 more nights). The hotel is located in District I HCMC, and can be contacted at (848) 39253291.

Our room allocation are as follows:
Mr How/Mr Akmal - 806
Mrs Ong/Ms Danz Tan - 805
Jing Hui/Wei Le - 606
Agnes/Liat Zhen - 604
Nathalie/Atikah - 603
Angela/Zi Kun/Cherlele - 607
Reuben/Samuel - 703
Desvin/Asyraf - 704
Wei Liang/Jia Quan - 705
Bryan/Robin - 706
Harish/Lemuel - 803
Danish/Shemuel - 905
Syimir/De Kai - 904
Vino/Jin Hui - 903

Day 5 photos

Photo updates on Day 5.

Learning songs together for our combined performance tomorrow.



Pictures from our visit to the orphanage/school:






That's all for tonight. Sleep tight.

Singing Session with the Vietnamese Buddies

Hellos people out there!

It's the second last day in NGTHS.
All pupils procceeded to school from buddy's home. We had music lesson for the first period. The pupils were taught how to sing the two song that North View Secondary School students have prepared for the performance tomorrow, 7 Novemeber 2008.

NVSS pupils are told to sit together with the NGTHS pupils and guide them along with the two song, Xiao Ren Wu De Xin Sheng and Chan Mali Chan. The pupils had fun singing along with the guidance for the pianist for the day, Samuel Lee and the people leading for the sing-along - Nathaniel Leong for leading the Chinese song (Xiao Ren Wu De Xin Sheng) and both Asyraf and Syimir for leading the Malay song (Chan Mali Chan). After the pupils had familairise both songs, we had another two extra song which will be performed tomorrow. They are, The Barney Song (I Love You) and The Goodbye song.
The Vietnamese students lead us in singing The Goodbye song. And finally we had a rehearsal for tomorrow's performance. Some pupils cried while singing The Goodbye song. After a few times for rehearsing, NVSS pupils have to leave the school.

Now, we are in our second hotel - Tan My Dinh 2 Hotel. Pupils are resting and getting changed for our next destination, The Orphanage.
Updates on room numbers will be posted up once the rooms have been updated. So do look out for the next post later on =)

Agnes

Photo closeups... together with our buddies

Day 4 photos

Spent the night in our buddies' homes. Agnes took some photos in her buddy's home:




In the school early the next morning, we had a tug-of-war game. It was NVSS vs NGTHS. We lost but we didn't care because we had so much fun.





After lunch, we celebrated Asyraf's birthday!

And we played some games right after that too. Our Vietnamese friends played some version of "chapteh" which is played ubiquitously in this country. We also played on a giant skipping rope.





After our games, we sat in a Game Maker lesson taught by Mr How and Mr Akmal. We already learned Game Maker last year in school, so we helped our Vietnamese friends pick up the same skills.


Ending around 4pm, we left with our friends to visit Ho Chi Minh City. This is going to be our second and last night sleeping in our buddies' homes.

Day 3 photos

Got the photos from the third day on the computer. Here they are:


Lesson in the morning conducted by Mrs Ong


In class with our Vietnamese buddies.


Creating art together.


At Suoi Tien Theme Park


Still at the Suoi Tien Theme Park. Also pictured is the school's Vice Principal who brought us there and was with us most of the time in the school.


Taking the roller coaster. It was not so scary but we were really noisy about it, and had lots of fun.



Another group photo at Suoi Tien.


The traffic back home was incredibly crowded. This is rush hour in Ho Chi Minh City. It's crawling with motorcycles.