Oct 31

Cynthia Jutras -- 4Z (14)

Today was a very busy day.  In the morning I had math lesson, and even though I had already learnt trigonometry it was nice to have a revison on what I've learnt before. 
Then we went to the All Saints Old Age Home for a visit with HelpAge India.  HelpAge India is an organisation which is trying to provide services for people in need especially the elderly who are often neglected nowadays.  We all said a pledge that said that we promised to have care and love for the people, especially to those around us.  Then we played this game call Housie with the old women which is kind of like bingo and the women had lots of fun. Before we left, the JB girls and us sang a few songs as a sort of miniature performance. Then we had to say goodbye to the lovely old ladies who were very friendly and sweet.
After that we went back to JB and had classes and we had lunch, and guess what was on todays menue -- Chinese Food!
We had a film appreciation workshop after lunch, and it was very intresting because we explored the usage of music in a film.

Oct 31

Happy Halloween everyone !!! But in india, people don't celebrate halloween or go to haunted houses.
Today is my school buddy, Shriya's birthday and in JB Petit, the birthday girl can wear casual clothes and distribute candy to the whole school. I followed her around the school and she knows almost everyone in the whole school, including the primary section. This is one of the advantages of having a school with less students, so students are more familiar with each other and everyone seems so close to each other.
Afterwards, we went to the old age home to visit the elderly in india. The elderly were all very nice and they showed a lot of care for us. I enjoyed interacting with the seniors very much as they were very friendly. It was a very memorable experience.
After we returned to school, we had a film appreciation session where we learnt the characteristics of indian film- having quite a lot of music. We learnt that a film are languages of pictures. We saw some clips from movies to compare how good films have a story line that develops and moves on. It was very enriching.
After school, I went to a art lesson with Parmangana and Yan. we curled strips of quilling paper into circles and pressed it into different shapes and stuck it on a card. It was fun !
For dinner, I went out with a few of my friends, Muskaan, Parmangana, Yan, Yashna ,Ashumiand Asavari. We had a really great time !
Looking forward to dodgeball practice tomorrow at 6 !

Gessy Li

Oct 30

The second day in JB Petit High School was just as magical and eventful as the first. We enjoyed a very packed yet exciting schedule today and gained a further understanding of the Indian culture.

In the morning, I took the school bus to school with my host buddy, Deena. Taking the school bus to school in India is surely a one- of- a -kind experience. There's a bus guy that stands at the door of the bus with half his body hanging out of it and just scooping up kids into the bus every time it stops; there's loud chatter and traffic, irritated Indians honking non stop, the smell of breakfast and all kinds of eccentric scenes that we pass by in the streets- there's never a boring moment. I guess that already describes India acutely on itself.

This morning we took two classes before going to the special activities. I had biology and double chemistry. The teachers are all extremely accommodating and nice. It seems to me that the Indian syllabus puts quite a heavy emphasis on science subjects- they have science lessons almost everyday. The teachers teaching in JB are all very experienced- their explanations were clear and concise and the students were all so actively involved in learning and aAfter the classes, we attended the yoga workshop. I think the workshop had been the enriching experience by far in India. The teacher taught us a few basics of indian yoga. First, the art of breathing. Indians believe that controlling and paying attention to breathing is the key to achieving health and peace.We had breathing practices and practiced various poses while paying attention to our breathing. It turns out that when you focus on how you breathe, your thoughts really do kind of drain away from your brain; it also makes you more aware of how your body is feeling, focused and makes you feel relaxed too. After that we tried some animal poses- the cat pose and the dog pose- which allows us to stretch our spine and relieve back pain. Then we also tried  the corpse pose where the teacher explained was a pose that allows gravity to relax and release the tension from our bodies- though most of us fell asleep during that pose, it was simply too comfortable just lying there on the mat. There was also the fetus pose, which is an imitation of a baby in it's mother's womb. According to our yoga teacher, Indian culture believed that everyone is protected by an invisible womb in life, which provides us with all our needs. Finally the most interesting part- the teacher told us to pair up with a girl similar to our size. We didn't know what we were doing until we were lying face down on the ground and the other girl was just walking and stepping around on our backs and spines. The intention of this activity is to release the tension from our back and spinal muscles. Though it hurted quite a bit at first, it felt amazing after a while. I think it's kind of like the sort of things that you have to endure some pain before you actually enjoy it.
sking- once the teacher asks a question, almost everyone raises their hands and yells the answer. If they don't understand something, they voice it to the class and they won't rest until they get the answer. I think us Hong Kong students definitely have something to learn from their attitude.


Following that we had  a visit to the Prince of Wales Museum near the school. It's one of the most famous an museums in India; it stores vast collections of  Indian, Western and Far East artwork, weapons and historical artifacts. I was lucky to have a really knowledgeable JB girl, Priyansahi accompanying me during the visit- she told me about all kinds of Indian mythology involving elephant headed gods, ancient Indian saints and sages, and various heroes and villains. We also took a look at some Indian weapons and ivory. It was a truly fascinating experience. The museum itself is a magnificent ancient work of architecture with a dome shaped top and a huge lawn. We certainly enjoyed the visit a lot.

After that we got back to school just in time for the hot lunch- it was a chickpea stew and jasmine rice today. It tasted super good and sophiscated with all the spices! Indian cuisine is just plain awesome. We also had an art workshop. We tried to create our own Indian folk paintings. The characteristics of these paintings is that they use double lines for all outlines, because they believe that one line represents the male gender while the other represents the female gender, and using double lines strikes a balance between both. They also use extremely bright colors for their artwork. It was really nice learning about their culture.

India is just such an exotic, lovely and friendly place and it keeps presenting all sorts of surprises. I can't wait for tomorrow :))

Oct 30

     Today's the third day of our stay in India, and also the second day of school at J.B. Petit High School for Girls.

     The day started off very much like yesterday, where I woke up at six thirty, ate my breakfast in haste and set off to school. On the way to the school bus stop, my host, Divina and I encountered a lot of people--and animals. I spotted a goat following its owner like a dog would do--and it's not on a lead, which is a pretty amazing feat. Divina told me that there's a cow living in the streets nearby, and today I see somebody taking the cow for a walk. Indians consider cows as holy and sacred animals so no one would bother the cow; in fact, the cow's quite well fed and even has its own personalized collar, so I guess they do play a pretty important role in Indian culture. Dogs, crows and pigeons are all over the place, and so are the people. I have came to a conclusion that Bombay is a city that never sleeps because there are quite a number of people and traffic around 24/7. At 7 in the morning there's already a lot of cars on the roads and there's a lot of commotion and noise, which makes the best wake up call ever. 

    The school bus has to be one of the most memorable activities in this stay, because even early at the morning students in the bus were chatting with each other non-stop (instead of dozing off or listening to music on the iPod like the majority of Hong Kong students). It amazed me that everyone seem to know each other--even if they are in different grades. Add in the bumpiness of the ride and all the hilarious conversations going on, the bus ride is quite fun. 

   The brief bus ride was replaced by the Geography lesson at class 9B. I sat with my school buddy Anuschka and she was revising for her Hindi test before the lesson. She taught me a few Hindi greetings but unfortunately, I can't remember much of them. In return, I translated her name back to Chinese and I wrote her translated name on a post-it and gave it to her, and I did that for some of her other friends. We had so much fun. 

After Geography, we had a yoga workshop. Now, we Hong Kong people are so fast-paced that we basically don't do much sports, but in India, almost everyone knows how to do yoga. Yoga is not just simply all about meditating and doing some seemingly impossible stances, but it's about calming your mind and finding your inner peace. Sounds abstract, no? But really, it's not complicated; all you have to do is focus on your breathing and empty your mind. We did some moves to stretch our back, and there's the yoga move where a person will walk on your back. That pretty much scared us all but after our friends from JB walked on us, our backs actually felt more relaxed. However, my favourite move is the 'dead man' yoga move, where you basically just lie down--and relax. It was so effective that I fell asleep. After the ultimate experience on yoga, I have decided to do the 'dead man' move every night to improve the quality of my sleep because I'm quite sleep-deprived. 

    Our next destination is the Prince of Wales museum, a beautiful building with tall domes and arches. Inside, it exhibits various historical objects and we had a good look at the paintings of India and the weapons.  I have learnt so much about the various religions and cultures in India, and I have also known a lot more legends and more historical background of India from the paintings. The weapons are downright intricate and violent at the same time, so this makes an impressive trip. 

    The art workshop sums up our day at school. After lunch, we started doing Madhubani paintings, which originated from the time when an ancient India king decided to commission some artists to draw the marriage scene of his daughter Sita to the god Lord Ram. Madhubani painting is practised in Bihar, and is traditionally done by women around the town of Madhubani. The paintings are usually done with natural dyes and pigments, and they use low dimensional imagery. We had a nice time drawing and painting the picture in those bright colours.  

   The enjoyable day passed by pretty quickly, and I'm anticipating what's in store for me tomorrow. 

                                                                                                             Gladys Yeung 3U (37)

  

                                                                                                                          

    

Oct 30

Today is our third day in India. Waking up at 6:30, we attend school at J.B. Petit High School for Girls as usual. As this is the second day of school, we get to know more about the school and the students there better. We get along well with the students there.

My school buddy, Yashina is in the 9th grade and we had our Chemistry lesson this morning. Although we have not learn the content yet in Hong Kong, it is quite interesting. We learnt about the properties of Acid and Bases, and the chemical formulas of them.

After Chemistry lesson, we had a Yoga lesson with other students whom had chosen Yoga as their elective. This is my first time experiencing yoga, and it turns out to be fun and relaxing. The teacher taught us some basic stretches in Yoga, but I couldn't do it really well. The special thing about Yoga is that they don't hold the posture for a certain time. Instead, they count the time in the number of breathes. The teacher taught us about the dog posture, which we bend our bodies while keeping a dip in our spine. That posture can allow the blood to flow to our brain more easily and we get a much clearer mind after that. The  another posture is the corpse posture. We get to lie down on the floor as if we are sleeping. With the teacher's words, we get to relax every part of our body and let it sinks to the earth. It is really relaxing that I even fell asleep during the lesson. Another interesting move is that we get to step on each other's spine. It is said in yoga that if we are stressed or we have back pains, our spine get tied in knots. By stepping on one's back, we get to untie the knots. It sounds a bit uncomfortable for someone actually stepping on you, but I found it fun and a bit ticklish.

We went to the Prince of Wales museum after the yoga. The Prince of Wales museum is located in an old building. There is different part inside the museum. I enjoyed the Natural History most. In that part, we get to see different kinds of animals in different period of time. It was said that most of the animals specimens are from real animals. In the exhibition, we get to see animals like Tiger, Lion, Leopards, Sharks, Turtles, Rabbit etc. Besides the Natural History, we get to see some prehistoric tools such as stone cutter, pottery etc. Unlike museum in Hong Kong, you can actually touch the exhibits. We took a close look on the tools used a few thousand years ago. Outside the museum, there is a bazaar where some Indian style products were sold.

After lunch, we had an Art workshop. In the workshop, we get to do Madhubani style painting. The style of the painting is that there is double lines for the outline of an object and the colour used in the painting is bright. I drew an elephant and a fish for my painting.

After school, my host buddy, Anshika, some other Indian friends and I went to shopping for some traditional Indian goods. We shopped for some bangles, scarfs, keychains, and pen for souvenirs. We all had a good time shopping. 

We all had a wonderful time today, and I really look forward to tomorrow's events~ :)

Good Night ~ <3

Michelle Ng

Oct 30

  It was a very long and interesting day today.
  In the morning, I enjoyed a Commercial Studies lesson with my school buddy, and we had to design a leaflet to promote certain products. It was really fun, although we had to leave early in the middle of the lesson to go to the Prince of Wales musuem.

  As said above, we went to the museum mid-morning. My host and school buddy took the school bus with I to go there, and it was ever so noisy in the bus! We had a fun time talking together with my friends.
  Once we arrived at the museum, we went to visit different exibits. There was an animal exibit where preserved animals were shown, including a white tiger.It was so cute! Ufortunately we didn't pay for taking photos in the museum, so I couldn't take any photos. :/
  After the visit, we went back to school for an art workshop. We had to draw in a style with bright colours and double lines, and everyone had a fun time doing that. It was a bit tiring at the end though where we all had to rush to colour our pictures in a very limited time!

  In the late afternoon, we went to the street stalls in the city for souvenir shopping. There was just so many shops there, all selling different items! We all had a fun time choosing our favourites and bargaining for a cheaper price. :)
  After a few hours of walking, carrying our heavy bags and lighter wallets, we all went to an Italian restaurant for dinner. There were many kinds of pasta. and we all had a great time trying them. During dinner, we also talked a lot and got ourselves really hyper, singing songs and whatnot! It was a very enjoyable experience.

  Although it was a very long day, I felt that I have learnt and got a lot from it. I hope the coming days will also be such fun!
Lydia Chiu 4X (8)

Oct 29

   My first day at JB Petit was kicked off by the ear-piercing school bell. We met our kind school buddies and made a lot of new friends. All of the JB girls were very nice and offered to show us around the school. We sat for English for the first lesson after our presentation about Hong Kong and DGS and the teacher seemed really curious about the Chinese language, so we taught them how to talk in Chinese and we wrote them our names in Chinese. They were fascinated by the simplicity of the language. We had a cookery workshop at noon and we made chilly onion potatoes accompanied by adorable little cheese tarts, yum!
   Later on in the evening, I went with my host to "bharat natyam" which is a classical dance from Tamil Nadu. (a little region in India) One of the students demonstrated the well-known belly dance originated from India for me, it was amazing and I was attracted by it and learnt the steps together with them.
    When we came back from dance class, we headed to "Colaba Causeway", which is as busy as the Causeway Bay in Hong Kong. I bought different Indian accessories from the numerous stalls on the bustling streets and had a better understanding of the different cultures of this fascinating city of Mumbai.
    For dinner, I ate a traditional Indian dish called Dal, which is a pulse that is very nutritious for the well-being of your body. The day ended perfectly with my host family singing traditional Indian songs just for me!
-Dana Tsoi

Oct 29

It was the first day that we attended school in J.B. Petit High School for Girls. Waking up at 6am, we arrived school at around 7:30 as school starts at 7:45. At first, it seemed quite weird as we do not know any of the other students, but as we chatted and get along with each other during the day, all went great.

First of all, 14 of us made a presentation to J.B. students of Stds 7, 8 and 9 on DGS and Hong Kong. We introduced the history, education system, cultures, festivals, food of Hong Kong as well as a brief history of our school. Also, we have taught the students some simple Cantonese phrases such as 早晨 (Hello), 再見 (Goodbye) and 多謝 (Thank you), and they learned the phrases really quick! At last, we performed the song 茉莉花 (Jasmine Flower) with Yan performing a Chinese dance.

After that, we followed our school buddies to classes. Some of us were following buddies from Std 9 while the others followed Std 8. I had math class with my school buddy Srishti, and the lesson topic was about circles, which was quite interesting although I’ve learnt it in S1 already. The students in the class are very enthusiastic in answering questions. As the class had an English test afterwards, I went to the computer room for the Internet.

Lunch was only 30 minutes. As my host Yamini prepared lunch for me, I did not try the hot lunch served at school. Some friends in my class taught me some Hindi like “Alvida” (Goodbye), and we had a great time.

After lunch, we had a cookery workshop where we made traditional Indian food – Kalakand (a traditional Indian sweet) and fritters (friend potatoes and onions). It is very simple to make and tasted nice.

School ended at 2:15pm. It was a nice start at school in Mumbai. I am looking forward to lessons and activities coming up in the week!

- Cynthia Ho

   29/10/2012

Oct 29

Today is the first day going to J.B. Petit. At first it felt a little awkward when stepping
into the school, everything is new and unfamiliar. However, after seeing friendly
faces of J.B. Petit students, the awkwardness completely vanished.

After school starts, we began to our presentation about our school and Hong Kong
and also a performance on chinese dances and traditional songs. We also taught the
students how to say simple Cantonese phrases such as 'Hello' and 'Goodbye'. They
then listened to us attentively and responded actively during the session. Some of
the students even greeted me 'hello' and 'good morning' in Cantonese!

During the PE lesson, we learnt an Indian sports game which requires dodging and
running and cooperation skills. It was called "Kho-Kho". It was tiring but fun at the
same time.

We did cooking after lunch. The cooking methods are simple, and we enjoyed it very
much. I found the ingredients of the Indian traditional food, as well as their taste and
smell very different. The seasonings are special too. There are even some spices in
the ketchup.

It was a nice and interesting experience with friendly and cheerful welcomes from
the students. I am looking forward to the next few days of school in J.B Petit.

- By Sharon Ho

Oct 29

This is our first day for school in India. I took the school bus in the morning for school, which was a really special experience because all the students could meet together and enjoy their time chatting during their journey to school. 

During assembly, we had done a presentation about Hong Kong's culture and our school. We had taught the Cantonese dialects to the girls, and they learnt really quickly! I was so glad about that. Afterwards, we had done a performance. Yan was dancing the middle while the rest of us were singing "The Jasmine Flower" in three parts. 

When we moved around the school, I could feel the cohesion and close relationships between the students- my buddy was introducing all her classmates to me as her "best friends". Also, I enjoyed studying in this building because this is a very beautifully built heritage monument with elegant pillars.

Among all the lessons I had today, my favorite lessons are commerce and cookery lessons. 

For commerce lessons in India, it was similar to that we do in BAFS course at schools in Hong Kong. Everyone in the class were very enthusiastic in sharing their ideas about the pros and cons of different types of advertisements. I especially liked the way that the teacher explained how the samsung galaxy note's advertisement was specially designed for their target audiences.

For cookery lesson, all of the DGS girls join together and cook some Indian traditional food. The savory food. The process was so fun and we all enjoyed our time. The food was tasty and my favorite food is bhajia, which is like onion ring.

What I enjoyed most in India until now is that there are lots of different kinds of food for me to try out, especially the vegetarian food. There are crispy dosas, yummy lassi etc.

I am looking forward to tomorrow's classes!! :)

These dosas are really tasty!! <3 <3

These are what we had made during cookery lessons, do they look tasty? :P

We look really cool, aren't we? xp

We are all liked the school life here very much :P

I am also studying like the others do!

      - By Hazel Chan :P

Oct 28

           Today was the first day of our exchange trip to Mumbai. Although we arrived Mumbai at 1:00am and we didn't go to bed until 3:00am, I woke up early at 7:30am...which means I only had 5 hours of sleep. Still, I was really excited to get to know my host Parmangana's family and India. I had breakfast with my host family, and chatted with them about Mumbai, Indian food and their culture. I've learnt that Mumbai is actually similar to Hong Kong in some ways, for example the crowdedness, the lack of land, the British influence, etc. The religion, however, is completely different; Parmangana told me very interesting stories about their Gods.
           
           Then we went to a lunch meeting with all the host families and teachers. The restaurant-"The Village"-was a traditional Indian restaurant decorated to resemble an Indian Village with stands offering different cuisine from different parts of India. Although the flavour was very different from what we usually eat and some of them are a bit too spicy to our tastes, we all enjoyed the food very much. Four of us left early for Parmangana and Muskaan's football match-they won the semi-finals and had to compete with another J.B. Petit team for the champion. The game was very exciting and the other team won in the end. Throughout the day, I have seen the poverty of India and the rich British culture brought to the country during the colonial period. The architectures were very special and interesting as they were infused with both British and Indian cultures.
           
            After the match we went to the mall in High Street Phoenix for some (window-)shopping. The mall was very nice, and we went home after getting ice cream.
           
            We had theplas(thin pieces of pastry) and some other traditional Indian dishes for dinner. They were very delicious and tasty.
           
            After dinner we watched some tv(football, Manchester vs Chelsea) and then rested. This was surely a great day and I can't wait to see more of India.

--Yan Chan
28th October, 2012

Oct 28

Arriving at the Mumbai Airport at 1am, it was overwhelming for us to see our hosts eagerly waiting for us at the exit, some even holding up beautifully decorate cardboards with our names written on it. All of us were pretty sleepy, considering the fact that it was midnight for them, and almost 3 in my morning for us. Nevertheless, we were warmly welcomed and a lady even came up to us and put a red dot on our foreheads, a Hindi symbol for luck and peace.

My host Sanaya was really nice, and both her parents and her chatted eagerly with me during the long car ride back to their home. My first impression of India was that it's always beautifully lit up, even in the middle of the night. It was almost 3am when we finally arrived at her home, and after a brief tour around her house, everyone gladly went to catch up on their sleep.

Waking up at 8am in the morning (due to the freezing air-conditioning), I enjoyed a simple Indian breakfast of noodles with Sanaya's family. It was soon 1 o'clock, and Sanaya's mom drove us to a restaurant called The Village where we had lunch together as a whole. To my surprise, Indian food wasn't as spicy as I'd imagined. In fact, they were delicious, especially an orange spiral dessert named Jalebi.

Soon, we got tired of eating and most of us were pretty full. We had a crazy dancing session, involving dances that require us to hold 2 bamboo sticks in our hands called Dandiya, and even a dance where we had to wear a special horse costume to do it! We all got really sweaty after the dances, but no one seemed to mind since we were all having so much fun :)

After chilling at Sanaya's home for a while, watching movies and her brother teaching me to skateboard, her family took me around for sightseeing around the neighbourhood, showing me heritage buildings such as the Old Taj Mahal Hotel and interesting tourist activities such as riding in an open-roof chariot.

It was a pretty amazing experience for me, since I have never seen anything like that before. All in all, I think my host and I had a great time bonding, and I am really looking forward to tomorrow for our first day of school in Mumbai.

June Ho 3U (12)

Oct 28

We arrived at Mumbai at around one o'clock in the morning. Even though it was this early, our host buddies were holding cardboards with our name on it, waiting for us. They all welcomed us to Mumbai. A woman came and put a red dot on our foreheads has greetings and good luck. Then we followed our respective host buddies home and have some sleep.

At around one o'clock in the afternoon, we all met at "The Village" to have lunch. The whole place is of Indian decoration and it is where people eat Indian food and have a taste of  Indian culture. I tried some of the Indian food and they taste delicious, though some are really spicy. I went and have a '"tattoo art" being drawn on my arm. It is very beautiful. Then we did some Indian traditional dances. One of them involved the use of sticks, but the moves are quite hard to grasp. For another dance, everyone formed a circle and dance, Mrs Wong and Mrs Lau joined in too. Afterwards, we watched a puppet show, and it is funny and different from others that I have seen before.

All of this is a very nice experience and we all had a very nice time.  I am sure tomorrow will be another exciting and fruitful day.

jalebi

dosa

painting tattoo art

puppet play

Oct 28

First Day In India

Arrival at the airport

       We arrived in the Chhatrapti Shivaji Terminus Airport at 1 am. The five-hour flight was tiring yet we were all very excited and eager to meet our host families since we have been chatting through the Internet for the past few weeks. When I first saw my buddy Deeksha, she was holding a name tag writing my name. We greeted each other and did a lot of talking in the car. It was amazing how we felt like a family once we saw each other. By the time we reached home, it was already very late.

       We did a brief room tour and some unpacking. Deeksha  and I did even more talking on the bed and we retired for the day.

"The Village"

"pav-bhaji"-- a typical Indian food that tastes like heaven

        The next day, we got up early at about 8 am. Deeksha had to attend an MUN conference so she left soon after she had her breakfast. I stayed in the house for the morning and I revised a bit so that I can catch up with my other classmates because I will be skipping school for more a week. Then auntie took me to the restaurant called "The Village" where all the girls will meet. The restaurant , which resembles an Indian village, was really fascinating. There were a lot of delicious food and we all had our tummies full. After that, we watched the process of making those beautiful clay bracelets. Some of us even bought a few. There is also a booth for tattoo art.

the booth for tattoo art

all of us dancing "Dandiya"

bracelet-making 

        We also had a "dancing section" and I loved it so much. We learnt some Indian dance moves and danced as a large group. That was a lot of fun. There is also one dance called Dandiya that involves the use of wooden sticks. We were all sweating like a pig after "exercising".
        It was such a fun experience and a good start. There is nothing like this in Hong Kong where people gather together to relax and enjoy themselves. I am starting to love this place even more.