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Day 1 , Day 2 and 1/2 of Day 3 @ 6.6.10
30052010 and 31052010 
MC:(reading my ez-link) Nur Farhana...ahh..you're a Muslim. Asalamualaikum.
ME:(returned his smile) Waalaikumsalam.
MC:So are you here permanently or for a visit?
ME:A visit.
MC:How long?
ME:About 5 days.
MC:Oh. That's a really short trip. So where will you be staying?
ME:Canberra.
MC:Oh, interesting.. Usually tourists who come here would go to Brisbane.
ME:Well, I'm not on a holiday. This is an educational trip with my school. So, is there a lot of halal food that is available here?
MC:Well that depends on where you're going. Canberra...Canberra...I'm not sure but I'm sure you'll find halal food. I actually migrated from Bangladesh. The area I'm currently staying in have a lot of halal food. There's many Muslims living there.
ME:You migrated here? But isn't the standard of living here so much higher?
MC:Well you know Bangladesh. It's a very poor country and it's very hard to earn a living there.
ME:Right. I guess it's better here for you and you also have a job here.
Since Mr Low said that today's reflection theme is on Globalisation, I thought that this personal experience of mine is really relevant.
Mr Rob, our bus driver cum tour guide also mentioned that the three most used language in Australia is English, Chinese and Arabic. I find this piece of information very interesting because I previously thought that English would be the dominant language. From observation, Sydney has quite a strong Chinese influence. The fact that they have their very own Chinatown illustrates just that.
My shopping experience in the Australian Chinatown was in stark contrast to the ones I had at Cambodia and Indonesia. The place that we went to was called Paddy's Market. I thought that I would be able to practice my bargaining skills but I was wrong. The prices are fixed and there was no way to bargain.
We learnt about the history of Australia when Mr Rob drove us to The Rocks. It was amazing that Australia's civilisation actually started with convicts from foreign lands such as Finland, Ireland and mostly from Britain. They were brought there because there was an issue of land constraint. The buildings in that historic area are very beautiful and I salute the government for putting in major efforts to preserve the historical buildings. According to Mr Rob, if the buildings there are to be demolished, it is only if the buildings are structurally unstable and poses a threat to the inhabitants. Even then, if new buildings are to be erected at the same spot, it has to follow a certain style of architecture. There are also buildings that were extended from the old buildings and the result were very unique buildings with a fusion of both new and old.
This made me think about Singapore and honestly, I think Singapore can do much better that what she is doing now.
31052010
a)Science and Technology
Today we got the chance to visit and have a tour around the Australian National University. Professor John gave us an introductory talk on Lasers and Optical Fibres and it was to give us some basic concepts that was relevant during the proceeding laboratory tours. The talk illustrates how optical fibres came about and how they have radically changed our lives. the concept first came about when a scientist discovered that water could guide light. Hence now, with optical fibres that function the same way as water, information can be transmitted much faster and over vast distances. According to Professor John, he used to pay US$ 3 per minute when he made calls to his parents in United Kingdom while he was studying abroad. In contrast to that, international calls can cost as low as 1 cent per minute now.
He also said that students in ANU usually limit the power of the lasers while they are working in the lab to only 50 mili Watt because high laser beams are dangerous. We then proceeded to have a look at the ongoing researches that are being done by students with phD and masters. Although the last time I took Physics was in Secondary 2, I tried my best to understand what was being said.
On of the labs i visited was on lasers. In the lab, they had special equiptments that can point with great accuracy at the bonds between polymers. Since these bonds contain atoms with ions and particles, the laser beam can excite them and make them vibrate hence, causing the bonds to break. Thus with this technology,scientists can break up molecules neatly without destroying them.
We went for many more visits to other labs but unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a clear understanding of what was going on. I"m such a handicap at Physics. After lunch at CSIRO,we proceeded for the science programme 'DNA on The MOVE'. I can really relate to this part of the programme and have a clear understanding because of my strong bio background. We did Electrophoresis which is a procedure regularly done in Forensic Science and also in Research and Development. The activity helped us to determine the culprit of a murder incident by matching the DNA on the crime scene.
The 7 hour flight to Australia was unncomfortable and I mean that in terms of both body and mind. I was seated in the middle of 2 big-sized men. I know that the one seated on my left was a New Zealander because I caught a glimpse of his passport cover. The row that I was seated in did not have a window seat so the New Zealander was seated next to the wall. Due to this, my viewing options were limited. The dude was really kind and helpful. He woke me up from my sleep to ask if I took muslim food. He then explained that while I was sleeping, a stewardess approached him and asked if he wanted the muslim food and ofcourse, being a non-muslim, he refused. I thought that it was very considerate of him to ask me when he guessed that the food was probably mine. Mind you, he needed to repeat himself several times before I understood what he was saying cause he had an accent. When the male stewardess returned to our row, he gave me the food tray and I asked if it was halal. He looked at me like I was talking nonsense. Dude, do you live under a rock? Don't you know that muslims exist and we eat halal food? Damn. And you call yourself a stewardess which is someone that supposedly is exposed to foreigners. Tsk tsk tsk.
This stewardess guy also had an accent and I was struggling to catch what he was saying. Fortunately, the New Zealander intervened and explained the prior incident. What happened next really ticked me off. It's obvious that the crew made a mistake by asking the wrong passenger. Why can't you just apologise and give me the damn food? Instead you tried to push the blame to us by accusing us that we switched places which led to the crew asking the wrong passenger. Again, the kind soul reiterated to the male stewardess that we are correctly seated. I had forgotten whether he apologised in end or not but regardless, the service sucked balls. I'll never ride Qantas ever.
The first thing I did when I cleared the customs was to change my singaporean dollars to Australian currency. The rate was damn high. It was S$1.32 for AU$1. According to my friends, they changed it at a rate of S$1.24. To make things worse, the service charge was $8. I got ripped off by the money changer. Okay, back to the story.
So the money changer was an indian guy named Abdul Khan and he was friendly enough. We made small talk and then he asked for my identification. the following conversation went like this.
Money Changer: Abdul Khan>> MC
Me: Fana>> ME
MC:(reading my ez-link) Nur Farhana...ahh..you're a Muslim. Asalamualaikum.
ME:(returned his smile) Waalaikumsalam.
MC:So are you here permanently or for a visit?
ME:A visit.
MC:How long?
ME:About 5 days.
MC:Oh. That's a really short trip. So where will you be staying?
ME:Canberra.
MC:Oh, interesting.. Usually tourists who come here would go to Brisbane.
ME:Well, I'm not on a holiday. This is an educational trip with my school. So, is there a lot of halal food that is available here?
MC:Well that depends on where you're going. Canberra...Canberra...I'm not sure but I'm sure you'll find halal food. I actually migrated from Bangladesh. The area I'm currently staying in have a lot of halal food. There's many Muslims living there.
ME:You migrated here? But isn't the standard of living here so much higher?
MC:Well you know Bangladesh. It's a very poor country and it's very hard to earn a living there.
ME:Right. I guess it's better here for you and you also have a job here.
Since Mr Low said that today's reflection theme is on Globalisation, I thought that this personal experience of mine is really relevant.
Mr Rob, our bus driver cum tour guide also mentioned that the three most used language in Australia is English, Chinese and Arabic. I find this piece of information very interesting because I previously thought that English would be the dominant language. From observation, Sydney has quite a strong Chinese influence. The fact that they have their very own Chinatown illustrates just that.
My shopping experience in the Australian Chinatown was in stark contrast to the ones I had at Cambodia and Indonesia. The place that we went to was called Paddy's Market. I thought that I would be able to practice my bargaining skills but I was wrong. The prices are fixed and there was no way to bargain.
We learnt about the history of Australia when Mr Rob drove us to The Rocks. It was amazing that Australia's civilisation actually started with convicts from foreign lands such as Finland, Ireland and mostly from Britain. They were brought there because there was an issue of land constraint. The buildings in that historic area are very beautiful and I salute the government for putting in major efforts to preserve the historical buildings. According to Mr Rob, if the buildings there are to be demolished, it is only if the buildings are structurally unstable and poses a threat to the inhabitants. Even then, if new buildings are to be erected at the same spot, it has to follow a certain style of architecture. There are also buildings that were extended from the old buildings and the result were very unique buildings with a fusion of both new and old.
This made me think about Singapore and honestly, I think Singapore can do much better that what she is doing now.
31052010
a)Science and Technology
Today we got the chance to visit and have a tour around the Australian National University. Professor John gave us an introductory talk on Lasers and Optical Fibres and it was to give us some basic concepts that was relevant during the proceeding laboratory tours. The talk illustrates how optical fibres came about and how they have radically changed our lives. the concept first came about when a scientist discovered that water could guide light. Hence now, with optical fibres that function the same way as water, information can be transmitted much faster and over vast distances. According to Professor John, he used to pay US$ 3 per minute when he made calls to his parents in United Kingdom while he was studying abroad. In contrast to that, international calls can cost as low as 1 cent per minute now.
He also said that students in ANU usually limit the power of the lasers while they are working in the lab to only 50 mili Watt because high laser beams are dangerous. We then proceeded to have a look at the ongoing researches that are being done by students with phD and masters. Although the last time I took Physics was in Secondary 2, I tried my best to understand what was being said.
On of the labs i visited was on lasers. In the lab, they had special equiptments that can point with great accuracy at the bonds between polymers. Since these bonds contain atoms with ions and particles, the laser beam can excite them and make them vibrate hence, causing the bonds to break. Thus with this technology,scientists can break up molecules neatly without destroying them.
We went for many more visits to other labs but unfortunately, I didn't manage to get a clear understanding of what was going on. I"m such a handicap at Physics. After lunch at CSIRO,we proceeded for the science programme 'DNA on The MOVE'. I can really relate to this part of the programme and have a clear understanding because of my strong bio background. We did Electrophoresis which is a procedure regularly done in Forensic Science and also in Research and Development. The activity helped us to determine the culprit of a murder incident by matching the DNA on the crime scene.
After the programme, we headed to the Deep Space Tracking Station where we were able to see many satellites and also learn more about astronauts. So far, throughout the programmes, I find this visit to be the most engaging. I found out that the star isn't the biggest star as I had previously thought since primary school. The biggest star is so huge that the Sun is just a tiny speck in comparison to its size. The biggest also doesn't burn yellow like the Sun. Instead, it burns RED. There is also 2 space shuttles that are roaming the universe in 2 opposite directions at amazing speeds. For example, at that speed, I can reach Singapore from Australia in 8 minutes flat. They have been roaming the universe for 33 years will will continue to do so for many years to come. The universe is infinite.Furthermore, I also thought that an Astronaut can fly back to Earth as soon as their mission has been completed but this proved to be wrong because in Mars, they have to wait for Mars and Earth to be in alignment before they can fly home because then, their journey would be the shortest.
b)Student Interaction
There was two Singaporean students that spent some time to talk and interact with us. They are both on a scholarship and they are in their third semester of their University course. They will be returning to Singapore to do their honours. One is studying Chemistry while the other is studying Physics. From what they shared, they first had to learn the basic and theory of the ongoing research so that they have a better understanding before being involved in the project. Even though they missed home, they said that the experience is worthwhile.
01062010
a)Jenolan Caves
Basically, this trip was really breath-taking and it was really relevant to my H1 geography subject. We were learning about the weathering of limestone and the resulting landforms. Thus this trip helped me to better understand about stalagtites and stalacmites.
At the end of the day, besides relating the breath-taking views to my knowledge of geography, I realised one issue that was prominent during the past eras. In the past, men had more rights and priveleges over women and this posed many obstacles for women to have the opportunity to be explorers.However, a nineteen-year-old girl defied the status quo and went on to discover on of the caves which makes up the Jenolan Caves. The cave was later on named as Katie's Cave and her name was written in pencil on the cave's wall. What made the story significant was that during that era, women wore corsets and dresses with huge bottoms and they looked blown up. Hence Katie most probably wore the same style of dress when she went to search for the cave and this probably made her expedition even mkre challenging. As time progressed, women started to test the lomit further by inventing clothes for women explorers to wear while they go on expeditions.
They also discovered that even though some caves were named after men, innitials of women who had previously discovered the cave is found written on the walls. Tgis illustrates how much prejudice there was in the olden days and I am glad that I am fortunate enough to attend school and get an education without any biasness.
Labels: Australia Reflection Log Book
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