Photo Challenge

(C) Fear

The fear of the dark, being isolated alone, afraid of your surroundings. 

Terry:

We all might've previously fallen into the fear of being alone. It is only natural that we are afraid of ridicule and insults being hurled at us for having no friends. Fortunately, this fear is rarely seen in RV. The strong bonds between students have for the most part eradicated this worry from the lives of RV students. 

Grace:

Firstly,the colour of the picture - black and white, symbolizes the dull and fear in the girl's life. She feels that there isn't any colorful and happy and cheerful things in life, and she is only scared. Secondly, she is sitting alone, she doesn't have any friends to be with her, which contributes to the reason why she is scared. She is stressed yet no one is helping her. She feels hopeless and insecure which leads to fear. Finally, she is hiding her head in her knees, she is afraid to face the reality of things, she wants to escape her harsh world.

Gerald:

She is being isolated and ostracized from the rest of the students.We are fearful of being alone and left out. I hope more students would step out of their comfort zone to attempt to expand their social circle and have more friends.

Xin Yi:

She's in a pathetic state, being isolated at the lockers where no one would notice or find her, embracing herself in fear. Everything around her is in black and white which is also monotonous and mean nothing to her. Life doesn't have any colours anymore. Trying to escape from the evil world alone won't help. She's still waiting for that one person who will come and add colours to her beautiful life, making it even more meaningful.

Poverty In Singapore

An elderly lady collecting used items to recycle. This will seem shocking to other people in the world who thinks that Singapore is a rich, safe and first world country so nothing like this will happen. However, this scenes can be quite common to a fellow Singaporean. We often see the poor going around to collect garbage and sell them to earn themselves a next meal - or do they even have the amount of money for their next meal?







In Singapore which is a first world country, it is highly unlikely that we can find poverty. However, there is still a group of people who are suffering from poverty. This is due to the fact that Singapore has a high cost of living. Those Singaporeans that have an unstable income, will then struggle to pay for the living expenses. Then, there will be this vicious poverty cycle that will continue to keep the poor in poverty. 




The children of the poor will have to quit school at a small age to work and help to support the family income. This will then also affect the children because they are often not able to do better than their parents due to lack of access to knowledge and educational support. This vicious cycle will then continue which causes them to be unable to get out of poverty.




There are a few factors on how we can help the poor with little effort.




- When we see the poor elderly or disabled selling tissue packets on the streets, we can help them out by being more generous and just give the the money but not take the tissue. 




-To help the poor cleaners who make Singapore a clean and green place, we can cooperate by not littering and encourage them when we see them. 




- For those poor begging on the streets, we can do a part by giving them some money spare change as doing a donation.




- We can do monthly donations to those charity organisations which help the poor and disabled. We can do commitment work and join organisations which give out food to the poor. This way, we can do community work and also give out a helping hand for those in need. 

GXTG

Our Group - GXTG ( which is also our initials ) (:

Gerald Teo Jin Wei, Terry Ng Tian Yu, Thoe Xin Yi, Grace Guan Yaxin (From the left)

Holidays

During the December holidays, I did not go overseas for a holiday trip. Instead, I stayed in Singapore during the entire 2 months of our December holidays. It may sound boring but I actually felt very productive after the 2 months! Firstly, I went to school 4 times every week to train. It was really tiring after every training session. Besides doing court work, we had to do lots of physical training. Besides running 2.4km, we need to do agility exercises and splits. Well, it was definitely tremendously exhausting. But after every training, I would feel happy, relaxed and fit! Secondly, although I stayed in Singapore, there were lots of places waiting for me discover! I went to the universal studios with my friend during the holiday! It was my first time there! We reached there very early, before the place was even opened! We enjoyed every single ride there. It was super fun! The buildings there were very pretty. There are lots of rides and it was really thrilling! My favourite ones were the mummy ride and the 3D Transformers ride. Yes, it was scary but the screaming and shouting were also part of the enjoyment! :) Lastly, during the holidays, I also read quite a lot of books! Those books were amazing! I had learnt quite a lot of lessons from those books! I certainly feel this December holiday was happily and fruitfully spent! :)

Grace

I spent my holidays quite fruitfully. I went to Bali for a short trip with my family and my grandparents. It was a special trip because I really got to understand and experience the daily life of a Balinese. I was immersed In their culture and practices. It was a real eye opener for me! I stayed in a resort which was really close to the villages. Hence, we got to experience the more rural and "forested" parts of Bali, hidden away from most tourists. Our itinerary proved to be special as we didn't plan much ahead on where to go. Although we didn't stay for long, I really enjoyed my short stay there! The most memorable part of this trip has got to be when we visited the Monkey Temple. This forest is filled with many monkeys that are probably wild. Before entering this place, we were told that the monkeys could be savage and may bite or steal the food stored away in our backpacks, if given the chance. Needless to say, our vigilance was greatly increased after hearing these accounts of tourists losing their belongings after coming out of the forested temple. We also went speedboating to watch dolphins and whales. Unfortunately, this activity had to be cut short because I threw up in the speedboat. The waves were literally very choppy and the speedboat seemed that it was going to capsize within seconds. I felt sorry that I had deprived my family members of a chance to watch the sea creatures. If I could, I would definitely go back to Bali, Indonesia again!

Terry

I went to Hong Kong with my family and had a whale of a time there. We ate many local delicacies and had a lot of fun.I got to learn the peoples way of living. I also learnt about their rich history and culture. It was a real eye-opener as we went to many places of attraction and saw the breathtaking scenery there. BEAUTY IS IN THE EYE OF THE BEHOLDER. We experienced the night life there. It was very interesting and I was fascinated by all the products they sell there. One of my favorite experiences there was when I went to Hong Kong Disneyland with my family. We reminisced about our childhood memories and had a great time there. I also felt that our family grew closer together.

Gerald

I went to Malacca during the December school holidays and had a fun time there! It wasn't the first time I went to Malacca so my family and I had planned to go to some busy tourist shopping areas to have some fun. We headed to Jonker Walk first. Jonker walk has a variety of traditional food like Nyonya Kuih, candies, local delights and many cheap stuffs! One of the unique food we like there is the Chicken Rice that is shaped in a ball. The rice balls were tasty and full of the fragrance of chicken, truly a delight to tuck in, unlike the normal chicken rice which we see in Singapore. The ball-shaped chicken rice cannot be found in Singapore so I think it is really special and that also explains the long queues outside the eateries. We ordered the chicken rice with a few extra rice balls and tasted the really delicious aroma of the chicken rice. Writing about it now makes me salivate for some to savour. The clothes and accessories there were really cheap too! I bought a few pairs of unique earrings and a top. Jonker Walk is a very old street with rows of traditionally designed shophouses that are narrow and long in their architectural design. The design added an interesting element to the shopping experience as one will always discover more things as one ventures deep into the shops, unlike the normal skyscrapers shopping malls with 'clone shopping experience' we see in Singapore. The shophouses at Jonker Walk were really an architectural wonder and the street is really worth a visit. Even though I only spent my holidays in a neighbouring country, I had a really wonderful time rediscovering a familiar place in Malaysia and strengthening our family bonds.

Xin Yi