Experiencing Taiwan 2010 - Day 8

Day 8 - Main activity area: Chung Li

I went to help out the same group of people to complete their design - it is the final year final semester student design. They called this helping out as "帮抢" in Chinese. I helped them out with the model cutting and wood-saw at midnight. They are comprised of different semester students. I helped them until 8am in the morning. Quite tiring~

Mr.Teoh taking photo of the student's work

Then I made an excuse for me to got back to meet my fellow coursemates and Mr. Teoh. During the process of helping them out, I learned to use some machineries, they are some simple ones like wood plank cutter, a machine with belt to polish some hard n unfinished corner of timberwork. All of them are just some basic machinery. It is better if UCSI could bring in these machineries since we have paid for lab fee. I strongly believed that basic amenities do really enhance students' performance hence enabling the University to soar at a greater height. It is indeed a win-win situation.

Student work is displayed on the floor

Ya, after went back to hostel, I took a quick bath and went back so that I'm on time for their final crit. Their crit was held in a space with both of the walls acted as the viewing panels. It is quite spacious. Hence, 2 students can present simultaneously to the their crit panels.They presented their drawings, site model, close-up model, some of them even design a simple timber rack to house their models in a very organized manner. The model they did is not less than A0 size. It took them the whole final semester to do that. Also, with the help of the juniors they could and able to complete it on time. The presentation part is for their own to prepare. I was there to listen to the crit session. The crit panels they invited contributed really great feedbacks. Some really screwed up their graduation design by doing it without furhter thoughts put into the programme. On the other way round, others received compliments.

One of the student that utilized the projector screen to his advantage

For each side, they are about 7 to 8 panels of crit. There's one more thing UCSI can copy is that the inclusion of a projector screen for students that needed to show some presentation slides. In conclusion, they are indeed many of things to learn throughout the crit session. It could be enhanced further if they allowed the public to voice up their opinion. :)

Hard to imagine how many effort has been put into this model

The crit panel is listening carefully as the student is presenting

Look at how big is the group of crit panel. Quite scary...

The whole band of drawing is to be crit on the D-Day

After the crit, It was time for Lunch, Mr.Teoh kindly treated us a full and satisfying lunch at CYCU canteen area. The food is nice: Each of us ordered a main course (I ate stew lamb with lots of potatoes) haha... It's a buffet style lunch, I took myself few small plates of "猪杂"! I love the taste, though it's just small dishes yet it's cooked with Taiwanese home cuisine style, 超道地的！The taste is unforgettable! After the main course, there were some local fresh fruits: Guava - Juicy enough... :)  We had a moment of chit-chat session before leaving back to our dormitory.

Mr. Teoh said we would have a sharing session at night after dinner. We slept through the afternoon soundly in our dorm while the others were busy composing the power point slides. LOL! I think one of the reason was that we were not fully equipped with information of Damshui due to the bad weather. We planned to go by tommorrow.

In the evening, around 1715hours, Mr. Teoh: "Bring the last souvenir to the dinner later." We walked to the dinner spot. It's a large steel-structred space catering for people who holds big function - Family gathering dinner, wedding dinner, etc. Once arrived, we were asked to divide amongst ourselves to sit at different tables. Obj: to mix around and blend with the students of CYCU + Tianjin U. Due to CYCU students came late, argh~ So majority of students at our table are of Tianjin U. Is ok~ We had a quick self-introducing session. LOL! They are very friendly. We have a great moment there.

I found out that the culture of the Chinese students (Tianjin U) quite different in a way that they like to cheers for beer always no matter what~ haha... Quite funny, sometimes saying nothing, looking at each others, "来吧，干吧!" I was like "Sweat~" haha... Then, Mr. Teoh approached said: "Later go and cheers with the lecturers' table"~ LOL! oh my gosh~ How should I?  Yet, I braved myself after 4 glasses of beers. I summoned UCSI dudes and there we went for the cheers session. But this Song really terrible, he cheated by mixing Grain-stuff drink with the beer. Being cheated, those CYCU and Tianjin lecturers punished him with a new bottle of beer. haha...

After that, we chit-chatted and walked back to CYCU which is around 10mins walk. Then we started to set up our sharing session at CYCU Landscape Architecture building. Then Leong Wei + Joshua and I were busy composing our presentation. Still, quite nervous prior presenting. Our spoken chinese language is really sucks~ Hope they could really grab the meaning. :P

We talked about what we learnt from Day1 at Taiwan. Even some of the CYCU students dont really familiar with their own history. So do we I think. Mr. Teoh explained and corrected the wrong information we presented. This sharing session was a great and truly inspiring session especially for us and the CYCU landscape architecture students. We let them know that their effort of bringing us around throughout the journey is not wasted even one single one. We felt truly appreciated with the hospitality they had provided. It is indeed grateful to having them throughout the whole journey. They made sure that there is at least 1 CYCU student to accompany us thoughout a day trip. I myself did really touched with their kindness and patience.

The session finished around 2230hours, I had something to say to the CYCU students. Yet, I didnt voice out, seeing all of us rather wanting to go back dormitory earlier. Ok, So I'll say it here: "Dear CYCU students: Xiao Yu + Juan Juan + Xiao Mi + 王彦 + 豆花 + Da Rui + Ah Zhi, we UCSI U students are indeed very grateful to have you guys to join us with our study + leisure trip at Taiwan. I could sense that some of you like Xiao Yu even felt stressful where to bring us to and around, feeling of anxiety whether we like it or not. Xiao Yu, you shouldnt feel so. We are happy with what you guys had prepared and arranged for us. This words of gratitude are indeed come  from the inner soul of us. :)"

I said: "Though this marks the end of our trip at Taiwan, on the other hand, it is a beginning of solidified friendship and the understanding of cultures of both sides, learning from each other the GOODs and expel the BADs, let's learn from each other heart to heart, let's begin a dialogue of human revolution."