부산 Day 5 - 31/10/13

For today, we had a very exciting and fun day, as we went to many different and educational places like the Busan Institute of Science Education and the Maths Science Park. We also went to many shopping sites at the end of the day. It was truly a memorable and enriching experience for all of us. 

Reflection

We found that the journey was enriching as we got to learn different things like the smart class and the disection skill. We found that the groups were organized and enthusiastic about the programmes.

Description

-Enriching. I got to learn about how to disect a shark and learnt about it’s organs and their positions.

- Awesome as I got to see different spiders at the exhibition. They were in differnet sizes and had different patterns on their bodies.

-Delicious, as the food I ate was scrumptious and I enjoyed all of them, especially the Jajangmeon.

What We Learnt About Korea in BSS

-The buddies in BSS are kind and helpful. For example, our buddies gave us several small gifts as tokens of appreciation and were extremely grateful and kind to us.

 Korean Culture

-We found out that most of the Korean food has some degree of spicyness. For example, they have kimchi, in their every meal everyday. Kimchi is served as a condiment and its is slightly spicy and sour.

- The Koreans have a fascination about math and science. They are also a very advanced country as they have wifi almost everywhere. Some of the train stations even use QR codes to buy grocery items

Highlights in Korea

Today we dissected a fish and two sharks. The sharks which we disected were the smallest species in Korea. We could identify the various parts inside the shark. And could identify their gender.

From Singapore to Korea
As today was our last day in Busan Science High School, we shared some local snacks with the Korean students and teachers. We let them sample several traditional treats from the 4 major races in Singapore. The scrumptious spread included Pineapple Tarts, Kueh Bangkit, Kaya, Murukku, Gem Biscuits and Shrimp Rolls. 

(Video done by: Meredith Teo)

Sharing Traditional Singaporean Games
In addition to the mouth-watering local spread, we also brought some of our traditional games to Busan such as Five Stones, Chapteh and Kuti-Kuti. The BSHS students had a great time with the SST students and it was a fantastic bonding time for all of us. 

Done by:

Kai Cheng

Wei Xuan

Walter Koh

Eunice Koo

Alicia Lim

부산 Day 4- 30/10/13

Today, we had a great time visiting some Korean stores, the shipyard of Samsung Heavy Industries and the Gyeongju tombs. We were able to try out various Korean dishes and snacks while touring these interesting sites.

Reflection
During reflection time, we found out that most of our friends feel that today has been a very enriching experience which we could all learn from. We also figured out that we could have been less noisy, and more attentive.

Description
- Experiencing: We got to see the golden crown of Silla and various Buddhist artifacts. This allowed us to learn about Korea’s rich history.

- Engaging: We got to learn about ship construction and giant Korean tombs through seeing those sights with our very eyes.

- Variety: We ate different kinds of food from mini-melt nitrogen ice cream to corn dogs to Korean popcorn (extra healthy).

What we learn about Korea Today

Korea had one of the poorest economy in the mid 1950s but the development of irts ship-building industry was able to turn its economy around.

Samsung Heavy Industries in Korea is one of the largest ship building companies in the world. South Korea builds about 43% of the world’s ships.

There is a total of ten ancient gold crowns in the world. Five of which were excavated in Korea.

Gyeongju itself holds 23 large tombs.

We visited the Cheongmachong Tomb which was excavated because they feared they would collapse the giant tomb during excavation, so they test-excavated a smaller tomb. When they found the treasures hidden in the tomb, so they left the other tombs un-excavated so that future generations can use improved technology to excavate the tombs safely without harming or damaging the artifacts.

Highlights of Today

We tried various Korean snacks such as Korean popcorn which was much healthier (no salt , no sugar, less oil).

We visited the Samsung Shipyard and watched the ship building process. We also saw the Goliath crane, which was massive.

We tried some Bibimbap, and we ate it with assorted side dishes. It was fantastic!

We visited the Geongju Tombs and the museums. We saw the various artifacts that taught us about Korea’s history.

We had Tteokgalbi for dinner, which is pan grilled pork ribs. We were told to wrap it in leafy vegetables and eat it.

Today was coincidentally Mr Goh's Birthday! We threw a surprise birthday party for Mr Goh and bought him a Birthday Cake from Paris Baguette. Everyone crammed into one room and turned off the lights in anticipation of his arrival. When he came in, we jumped out and sang him a birthday song.

Itinerary

Breakfast: rice ,seaweed, kimchi and apple pie	0700 to 0730
Samsung Heavy Industries: 20min tour	0910 to 1200
Lunch: Bibimbap	1200 to 1300
Gyeongju: Museum and Cheongmachong	1300 to 1800
Dinner: Tteokgalbi	1800 to 1900
E-mart	1900 to 2000
Reflections	2000 to 2300

부산 Day 3- 29/10/13

Today, we had a great and exciting time as we tried out many different activities like immersion classes in Busan Science High School, going out to experience Korean Culture and playing Singapore traditional games with our buddies.

Reflection

During reflection time, most of our friends said that they had learnt not to judge activities without trying it out themselves. Our seniors said that they had learnt to get out of their comfort zones and to take advantage of the opportunities given to them and to stay calm under pressure.

Description

• Exciting: There were many activities which made us feel excited, for example, robots which danced and getting to observe the sunspots on the surface of the Sun directly.
• Educational: We got to sit in different lessons which taught us many new things which will benefit us in many ways and change our way of seeing the world.
• Enjoyable: After dinner, we spent some time playing Singapore traditional games with our buddies and friends. We realised that in the past, people did not have the luxury of advanced technology like we do today and spent their time creating and playing these games.
• Fun-filled: We played the chapteh, a Singapore traditional game, which was very intense, with our buddies. It was a great way of bonding with our friends as well as our buddies.
• Engaging: We got to experience hands-on activities during lessons which make the lessons fun and interesting.

What we learnt about Koreans in BSS

• The students here are very patient when teaching us and are always very willing to help us.
• The teachers put in a lot of effort to prepare slides, experiments and lesson materials for us to  have a fruitful and meaningful time.
• The staff and students take pride in whatever they do.
• The lunch ladies were really friendly and made sure we were okay with our food.
• Everyone puts in their best at everything they do, no matter how big or small.

Korean Culture

• We tried on the Korean traditional costumes and learnt more about them (i.e. how to wear them, what it looks like) and learnt how to sing a traditional song ("Arirang").
• We pounded the rice cake ("Dok") with a mallet and cut it into pieces to eat. 
• We tried many different traditional Korean games, one of which was throwing arrows into five sections of a container with different scoring zones.

Highlights about Korea

• Smart Class: We learnt how to create a comic using an Apple app named "Comic Life". We learnt to make full use of the technology around us and use them in different situations.
• Robot Class: The teacher told us how robots function with the help of programming. We also saw programmed robots dance.

Robots dancing to Gangnam Style
(Video filmed by: Metta Ni)

• Invention Class:  Using a machine, we learnt to cut wood into shapes and keychains.   This was a very meaningful class because we do not have this subject ("Design and Technology") in school and we could bring back the wooden key chains as souvenirs.

• Observatory Class: We observed the Sun through a telescope with a solar filter. We also learned that the sun is made up of 3 layers and has surface features termed 'filament' and 'prominence'.

• Club Activities: For our group, it was fun learning a new musical instrument with the help of the members in the club and our friends.

BSHS student performing with the Nanta Drum

(Video filmed by: Meredith)

• Buddy Time: Our seniors brought some well-known local snacks (shrimp rolls, muruku, sugar biscuit, kueh bangkit, kaya, pineapple tarts) for the buddies to try before playing games. To us, this was the best time of the day because we had the most fun. The games let us grow closer with our friends and buddies and we also realised how some of traditional games between our countries are similar.

Done by: 

Chelsea

Myat Noe

Rachel Tan

Chester See

Hong Yi

Jer En 

Ivan Gan

부산 Day 2 - 28/10/13

Today, we had a lot of fun activities with the Korean students such as playing soccer and badminton. Through these activities, we broke the ice between us and now, we have become more bonded.

Reflection

Today was definitely exciting for all of us.

We had interesting activities in the Phyics Lab making our own earphones,  just by using simple materials, such as bottle caps, wires, tape and magnets. We thought that it was very exciting as the earphones we created actually worked and it was fully functional. One of our friends, who was interested in the music industry, thought that it was an amazing idea. We can even teach our friends how to make those earphones, or even our families! For our Chemistry experiment, we made liquid carbon dioxide. It was very interesting as most of us assumed that carbon dioxide could only exist in the form of solid and gas. That was definitely eye-opening.

Descriptions of our day

Exciting - Able to create headphones with limited resources.

Enriching - Saw cell division using a x1000 microscope that was new to the person. Mitosis is one topic that you can only learn in High School but got to experience during this  in trip.

Eye Opening - They used water to clean their chalkboards. Was the first time playing Badminton for some people.

Surprised - Had a chat with sports teacher in Chinese , and was amazed and surprised that he learned Chinese all by himself in 6 months

Amazed - What his buddy does during weekends. Amazed at the commitment and strive to study hard. Person was inspired to to be committed to study hard.

Communication - With Korean Buddy. Try their best to understand their language. Appreciate the effort that the teachers and students put into communication in English with the students. 

Engaging - Able to talk to Koreans as that is not common or usual in SG. We should try to get to know people, know their history before prying to deep into their life as each person has a very different background and story and know the PACC before prying.

Inspired - Students saw how the Korean Buddies studied very hard to achieve their goals. They said that the drive to study hard and work hard is their passion and love or enjoyment of the subject, which inspired them to work hard to achieve their goal to get into the top Korean Universities.

What we have learnt about Koreans in BSS

• Korean students are very polite and respectful
• The Korean students give their teachers a lot of respect
• The Korean students have a personal cubicle for self-study from 7pm-11pm at night
• Koreans are generaly quite fit and exercise regularly

Korea Education System

• Students in Korea start out in their classroom which they call "homeroom", a room where their day starts every morning before dispersing into various classes like the Biology Labs, Physics lab...etc for their actual subject classes.
• As BSHS is a boarding school, they have a study hall for males and females to study alone in marked out cubicles for students to study alone in so that they can focus.

• Lessons are conducted in Korean most of the time, with exceptions of English Class
• The facilities in BSHS are state of the art as they are a prestigious science school. Their many labs have lots of science equipment and machines that aid the students in the learning process /experimentation process of their school learning.

Conclusion

After experiencing what it is like in BSS we feel that we should learn from the Korean sudents and develop the passion for studying as hard work is not the only factor that affects your grades, but the passion and love for the subject too. We think that it is very meaningful to share our views and thoughts with our Korean buddies.

Done by:
Bryan Goh
Bryan Chang
Colin Tan
Sean Chiu
Shirley Low
Beverly Heng
Jordan Lim (Editor)

부산 Day 1 - 26/10/13

안녕하세요 부산! Hello Busan!

We said goodbye to our parents today and boarded the plane to Seoul today at midnight. We were all bubbling with excitement at Changi Airport while we were waiting for our flight. It was a 6 hour flight from Singapore to Incheon Airport and we were all eager to see what awaited us in South Korea. 

When we arrived at Incheon Airport, our first impression was that it was modern, just like Singapore. We boarded the bus and set off for Seoul KTX Station. During the journey, we observed the different kinds of bridges such as the suspension bridge. Ms Doreen Tan pointed out the structure of one of the bridges - It was triangular so that it could provide more support. It's indeed an engineering feat. 

Soon after we arrived at Busan Station. The KTX Train ride from Seoul to Busan was indeed an Eye-Opening experience. The KTX Train in Korea differs from the local MRT in many ways, from its design to its services, so were extremely eager to board the KTX Train. Despite an unforeseen power failure, the KTX Train staff efficiently handled the issue and we departed on time.

We noticed the gradual change in landscape from urban to rural and back to urban again. Along the way, we also saw how land reclamation is used in Korea to increase land space, just like Singapore. The view from the top of the Busan Tower was magnificent. Although we were tired and worn out due to the lack of sleep in the airplane, going up the tower was worth while. We saw many skyscrapers and an ongoing project of land reclamation near the tower. It seems like Korea is very advanced in Science and Technology and they have used them strategically to make full use of their land space within the South Korean boundary. 

The famous Jagachil Market in Korea sold a diverse variety of seafood. It was pretty similar to our wet market in Singapore, but it specialized all types of seafood. Many of the fish species sold there can't be found in Singapore so it was indeed an eye-opener for us. There were fish that were as long as an arm’s length and spider crabs that were bigger than our heads. Today’s buffet dinner (at a Korean restaurant located on the 6th floor of the Jagachil Market) was an interesting experience. There was a wide selection of meat and fresh seafood that came from the market below. In addition, there was also a huge spread of Korean and International dishes, from traditional Kimchi to Sweet & Sour pork. The SST students also had the opportunity to barbecue raw meat on a hotplate. We had loads of fun barbecuing fish, pork, beef and even baby octopuses. It was an enriching and fun experience for all of us. Through today’s dinner, we learnt more about traditional Korean food and the Korean dining etiquette. Furthermore, today’s dinner gave us the opportunity to bond with one another.



Done by:

Meredith Teo & Metta Ni