Singapore like the name suggests “THE LION CITY ” was much more than I had been imagining it to be like. The trip took off on our hearts with tons of excitement, gallons of smiles and pleasing eagerness in each one of our eyes. The very moment we all got together upon boarding the plane, all of our madness peaked up to the highest. Our minds filled up with hundreds of questions, our hearts sunk in excitement and our eyes cuddling upon eagerness were awaiting to reach out dream destination !!
The moment we entered our eyes caught fire by the amazing ambience that Singapore welcomed us with. “OUR ACCOMMODATION”, yet another fascinating place to be in pleased us with its architecture. Swept with tiredness and a sleepless journey, we were forced to catch up our beds for a while, maybe a POWER NAP, haha,was pretty enduring to have a fresh start later on though.
The alluring night atmosphere of the city had elements one would die for, it’s cool breeze embracing the cheek, it’s fresh fragrance all over soothing our hearts and our will to explore the city brought us to Mustafa mall “LITTLE INDIA” like it’s called otherwise. The mall, the roads, the ambience all around us, the products available there, all of them stole our hearts that evening. Yes, we ended up shopping and we also ended up on a lavish dinner that night !
I was amazed at every moment of experience I was having …
There was a lot more to come in the upcoming days and I couldn’t wait to see what the trip would bring along !!
We visited the hosting college, “CATHOLIC JUNIOR COLLEGE” the very next day where we were briefed about the dream city we were in. This was essential before we headed further in the trip. The students were very friendly. Four students, Kevin, Mark, Rachael and Sam along with two teacher coordinators, Mrs. Faan and Mr.Peter took us on a guided tour all over the campus telling us about the education system. We also got an opportunity to be a part of the teaching sessions. I’ve never enjoyed MATHS , PHYSICS AND ENGLISH so much ever before like I did in Singapore.
We visited THE HOUSING DEVELOPMENT DEPARTMENT where we came across several models of the constructed houses in Singapore. It gave us a clear picture of how the houses had evolved from the 1970’s until now.
We visited the URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY, which is is the national urban planning authority of Singapore, and a statutory board under the Ministry of National Development of the Singapore Government. This authority was established because Singapore is an extremely dense country where land usage is required to be efficient and maximised in order to reduce land wastage in the face of land shortage.
And we also visited the MONETARY AUTHORITY OF SINGAPORE, which is Singapore’s central bank and financial regulatory authority. It administers the various statutes pertaining to money, banking, insurance, securities and the financial sector in general, as well as currency issuance.
We also visited FUSIONOPOLIS and the NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SINGAPORE which portrayed the advancing technologies that Singapore has had past these years and as to how it has been evolving. Both the places fascinated us with all of its equipment, appearance and infrastructure. We enjoyed the scenery and lush greenery of GARDENS BY THE BAY. It’s flora and fauna left us astonished, it’s beauty and eye pleasing appearance rejuvenated our souls .
Marina Barrage is a dam in Singapore built at the confluence of five rivers, across the Marina Channel Between Marina East and Marina South. It was officially opened on 1 November 2008. It was Singapore’s fifteenth reservoir. It provides water storage, flood control and recreation.
We also visited the SINGAPORE ZOO along with the principal of Catholic Junior College accompanied us. The Singapore Zoo, formerly known as the Singapore Zoological Gardens and commonly known locally as the Mandai Zoo, occupies 28 hectares (69 acres) on the margins of Upper Seletar Reservoir within Singapore’s heavily forested central catchment area. We came across a lot of species of animals and birds that we hadn’t even seen. Yes Singapore is indeed the best place for having all of the species of birds and animals in a naturalistic habitat .
[3:22 PM, 4/10/2016] Gollu Mollu: Oh Heavens !! I just forgot about the most thrilling experience of our trip , THE UNIVERSAL STUDIO, Singapore. Every bit of this amusing theme park was fascinating and bizarre. The rides we most rode on, ‘ TRANSFORMER , CYLON, AND EGYPTIAN MUMMY ‘ kept us astonished and bloated up in laughter all throughout the entire ride. The technology and animations along with its effects over whelmed us. It was truly a dream come true to be a part such an amusing wonder built in the city. We also got the opportunity to meet Mr. Chris Hemsworth, the star celebrity. His presence burst us out into a bubble of joy and happiness and gave all of us a beautiful end to our trip. Before departing from this magical city, we were given a farewell party, more like an opportunity to mingle with the entire connected college crowd. We made friends, clicked gallons of pictures (CAPTURING AS MANY MEMORIES AS WE ALL COULD), enjoyed the lavish food and the groovy music prior to our departure. FINALLY, It was time to step out to our own world of reality, time to get back home. We weren’t upset, instead we were still very happy as we just had the chance of living in a world of luxury, a world that we usually dreamt of. Yes, our trip was a DREAM DESTINATION. Truly, an eye pleasing and over whelming experience that we could ever get. SINGAPORE has given us a big could of love, memories, happiness and most importantly a huge family that we would never ever depart from.
This trip has not only given us an experience of a lifetime but it has taught us or rather being precise, it has evolved emotions like love, care, selflessness, bonding, attachment and respect for every person that we come across .
YES, It has been a matter of honour and endeavour for each one of us to be a part of this programme. I’d thank our college for giving us this opportunity to live our dream .
I’d be glad to get a lot more opportunities like this in future.
Gaurav S Palgota, Student Member of Singapore Immersion Programme
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