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Cambridge Junior Programme 2017: Closure

8/13/2017

Participants ready to depart for the airport

12 Aug. Day 13. Closure.

The 2-week learning programme at Cambridge concludes today on 12 Aug. The time is short, but the unparalleled learning experience endures for a life-time.

From Oscar Chan:

People always say: "time flies so much", and now, I really did experience this for the very first time.

This is our last day of the Cambridge programme. We packed our stuff, bade our room of thirteen nights goodbye, and hauled our luggage to the auditorium for the last time. Then we went for a bit of shopping. A few souvenirs and clothes I've bought, and straight to lunch we go. It was such a splendid and filling lunch. I had a delicious wild mushroom risotto and a coke. That's not all that's special in this lunch. We had to also pay for our mentors' lunches, to repay their kindness and efforts to us these days.

Then we all went back to Fitzwilliam. People around me were all chatting and laughing, but to me, the Fitzwilliam College was more silent than ever. Let me quote a few lines of Xu Zhimo, a Cambridge student: "Quietly I leave, as quietly I came; I cast my sleeves a little, not taking even a strand of cloud away." It was extremely poetic, but that's what I felt. The mentors, teachers, we all said goodbye, and I was close to tears.

And now here we stand at the Heathrow airport once more. It has been a totally brilliant learning experience, and it has been a great pleasure being a particpant in this wonderful programme.

Thank you all mentors, teachers, the matron, Mr and Mrs Clarke for this terrific experience! Goodbye, Cambridge!

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Cambridge Junior Programme 2017: Day 12

8/12/2017

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11 Aug. Day 12.

Second last day. The boys enjoy a concert as part of the tradition of this programme when it approaches its closure.

From Anson Ng:

Today was the second last day before getting back to Hong Kong, I really enjoyed this programme. Today we also got a concert, I really like it!

We had actually got a concert this afternoon. The most enjoying part was actually our classmates playing different kinds of instruments. Including horn, piano, violin and so on. This is the best day ever for me to listen to music.

One of my favourite performances was by Blues and Luca plus Thomas. They had a combo so good that I almost thought that I was in the music, like I was playing the music with them. I really hope if I could be as good as them. I will train myself to be as good as them, hope so.

They are so wonderful that people clapped for a minute! Best day ever!

From Oscar Chong:

As this is the last full day of the trip. We really cherish this chance to play learn and enjoy.

Firstly, we had morning lessons as normal. We caught the time to take different photos, using different angles to have the best memory.

Then, we had a concert. There were around twelve peformances and five of the performers were from Ying Wa Primary School. They all tried their best to show their music skills to the audience and we really appericated their effort because they did a lot of practice for this concert.

I hope that there will be a chance to let me to come here again to have more fun and learn more.

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Cambridge Junior Programme 2017: Day 11

8/11/2017

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10 Aug. Day 11.

Great sunlight, great food, great gathering, great conclusion. Towards the end of the 2-week adventure, our boys have their final presentation session and formal dinner.

From Oscar Chan:

What a wonderful day once more! Today we even had the chance to meet our very own Dr. Lee and Mrs. Lee (his wife) in the College garden! Shall I tell you all the details?

Today was one of the last days with lessons. For art: we had our "crazy bugs" finished; in English, we had to make a poster to advertise about this programme; and lastly, in History, we had a talk about different periods of history and a documentary to watch.

Then after lunch, we had a rehearsal of our drama presentations, and then the final one. Our group was imitating a few animal interviews for human jobs like spies and architects. I think I enjoyed the performance a lot and it was my first time being an ant!

Then came the great part - drinks and photos in the Fitzwilliam College garden (with Dr. Lee appearing with a "poof!"). The scenery was absolutely lovely there and the drink was actually apple juice with orange juice and lemonade! I can't believe I drank that (after I drank it)! It tasted good!

When we were all dressed up like Harry Potters, we went to the "great hall" of the College and had the most amazing Harry Potter themed formal dinner. The candles were lit up and the decorations were fantastic. The food was probably the best in the two weeks! I loved the chicken dish. What's more, the menu was extremely creative. We had some tomato worms, witches' hats...all made up dishes. It was fun guessing though!

I am swaggering under the weight of my tummy now, so straight off to bed with me! That's it for today!

From Isaac Chan King Hang:

Heading towards the end of the tour, I have felt that things really do flash away in quite a speed...

Today was the second last day of lessons and everything was coming to a conclusion. For instance, we put in final artistic elements for our crafts in Arts, we looked at the entire timeline in History and we even practised skills which were useful in the future in our final drama session. I felt extremely impressed by how interactively and considerately the teachers gave us lessons in order to pass their precious knowledge to us. Even though I still have lessons tomorrow, I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the teachers who dedicated so much for us.

Then, in the early afternoon, we did some final rehearsals for what was going to happen next: the drama presentations. My academic group called Goodall was doing a play on a debate (we learnt it in the third lesson of English) on whether to execute the Jabberwocky (a fictional character from Alice in Wonderland which we learnt in our second lesson of English). I had a great experience acting as a political head who was one of the judges. We didn't have much rehearsal time and some parts were even improvised on spot, but in the end we managed to get the title of "Best Presentation Performance". My group also won two other prizes and were very grateful for them.

Afterwards, it was one thing that all of us had been longing for: the formal dinner! But what made it even better was that Dr Lee and Mrs Lee suddenly popped in from the front door of Fitzwilliam College! After we greeted our guests, we had some drinks, some conversations between friends and there began our formal dinner. We had Hogwarts soup, wizard's hat, newts' eyes- oh, hang on, those were just creative names for the dinner food we were having. We had a very tasty and befuddling feast and that sent us back to our rooms as the sky went dark.

It was a very fulfilling day (a little exhausting, but it still turned out to be wonderful). Off to bed for me and that's the fantastic activities for today!

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Cambridge Junior Programme 2017: Day 10

8/10/2017

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9 Aug. Day 10.

Raining day it is. But it doesn't really affect our boys' mood for today's exciting outing!

Anson in his dream car

From Anson Ng:

It is such a rainy day today but I really enjoyed today's tour. It was really lovely and I am impressed by the wind turbine's operation. Best day ever!

Today we went to see a wind turbine. My favourite part was looking at the eco-cars. My favourite car was a car that was called GreenBird, made by ecotricity. It was the fastest car in the whole world. I am actually a car fan so I really like this car. Beside this, there were two more cars.

I also like the experience of getting up the wind turbine. It was pretty shaky up on the very top. But I really enjoyed these funny and interesting experiences.

I really hope that we could have more time to enjoy these interesting things.

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Cambridge Junior Programme 2017: Day 9

8/9/2017

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At the theatre before the show

8 Aug. Day 9.

The ninth day of the programme is easily highlighted by a London day-trip for a musical. And our boys love it!

Oscar (left) & Anson before the show

From Oscar Chong:

Today is such an outing day. We travelled a long way from Cambridge to London. It was such a wonderful day.

Firstly, the visit to the Natural History Museum changed into watching a film in the theatre which is located in Fitzwillam College. It was such a fun movie because the movie even used computer effect to turn the fossils into real creatures. We could feel that we were in the world a few millions years ago.

After watching the movie, we all headed to London to watch the show "Wind and the Willows". Actually it is a musical. There were even live music during the show. I think that it was really worth the ticket price (£32.5).

There were lots and lots of dangerous actions such as standing on a snowy beveled rooftop and dance on it without a wire. The actor was so brave which everyone really appreciated.

Today was such a wonderful day and I wish I can go there again. There will be a talk about the wind turbine tomorrow. I am looking forward to it. Hope it will be fun!

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Cambridge Junior Programme 2017: Day 8

8/8/2017

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Our boys showing off their "winning" items

7 Aug. Day 8.

The eighth day proves to be a lucky and yummy day for our boys!

From Oscar Chan:

Today, of course, still remains as a brilliant day. Or might I say, a rather yummy one.

We've had our lessons once more today, and I think the most exciting lesson for today was History. We played a game called "Scavender Hunt". We had to obviously HUNT for different cards about different body parts or special features of human bodies. Then we take a picture of the cards you find and rush back, to complete a worksheet which without the pictures you cannot complete. The questions were asked into deep detail and you must understand the text in the cards fully. We've had great fun while learning such difficult knowledge.

Then the next special thing was the charity talk, along with the dinner. The talk was about a particular charity group which helps the people in Africa. We bought raffle tickets to show our help to the poor people and ate our delicious hog roast charity dinner. Although it was a bit cold, it was excellent and the best meal in all these days in Cambridge. Then using the raffle tickets, we had a small lottery for a few prizes. It was all fun to be participating.

So what a yummy day, and I can't wait to go to London tomorrow!

From Isaac Chan King Hang:

Today was another ordinary day in our programme. Yet, there was an experience I had seldom tried before.

Everything went as normal in the morning as we attained our lessons and had lunch. But as our group discussion and activities ended, there came one thing most of us were looking forward to: the charity talk and special dinner!

During the talk made by a volunteer who helped with the poverty and hunger issues in Ethiopia, I learnt more about how desperate the children in those areas needed help and with just little donations we can help the people who are in need with high efficiency. Did you know that 100 pounds could send one child to receive good education for one whole year? I didn't. Even more surprisingly, just 5 pounds could feed almost 150 people for one whole week!

Then, we had our befuddling meal of charity hog roast. The food was extremely delicious and we instantly felt like having dinner at home.

After presents were given out for lucky-drawn raffle tickets which we bought earlier then, there was one last activity awaiting us. It was another session of improvised drama, but we were given a genre, a location and a prop to follow on. It was a challenging job, but we performed very well and had a great time cooperating.

So, another wonderful day comes to a close. I really am looking forward to the activities tomorrow!

From Isaac Chan Long Kiu:

The coach was late today, hence there were only 40 minutes left for the art lesson. That was sad, wasn't it? We had to make crazy bugs today in the art lesson!

The second lesson was English. We were asked to design a poster for the Cambridge Programmes. For the content of the poster, we had to draw some pictures and provide information about the Cambridge programmes.

During the history lesson, we continued to study about Charles Darwin. We studied about Charles Darwin's diary and Charles Darwin's letter 158. We had to imagine that ourselves were Darwin and write a letter to our best friend describing a day in the sea.

Lastly, we all did sports. Of course, I played soccer because I am a footballer and love playing football so much. However, I was a little bit upset because my soccer teammates didn't even win a game! Sad! Hopefully we could make it next time! (Oops, I just checked the schedule and we are not going to have sports activities anymore. What a pity!)

Afterwards, we had a dinner. We had roast hog and ice lolly. The roast hog was so delicious that most of us wanted to refill it! It's great that we had ice lolly as dessert. What a yummy dinner!

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Cambridge Junior Programme 2017: Day 7

8/7/2017

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6 Aug. Day 7.

Half way through the tour now...Today our boys experience a calm, peaceful and musical day of learning...

Ho Tak in front of the church

From Chan Ho Tak:

I had an exciting day. I was chosen by my kind mentor, Katie, to help out in the Sunday church service. And guess what? She chose me to be a Bible reader! Although I have been through a lot of different public speaking occasions in school, I was still very nervous due to the fact that a lot of the people from the audience are from other schools. Luckily, my mentor informed me that I have a partner. I was so relieved!

We were bought to a nearby church. Then I found out that my partner was a girl. And in fact, I am the only boy in the Bible Reading Group. Anyway, the girls and I tried to pretend to welcome guests. A mentor saw us doing that and asked us nicely if we could do a flavour for her. We willingly accepted and guess what? It was... distributing Coral Booklets! Well, Mrs Clarke came over and chatted with us. But to my surprise, in the end we didn't need to distribute the booklets as a mentor took care of the problem.

We were seated. After some songs and procedures, it was my turn to go on stage. I walked, a step and another, up to the little stage. I fixed my microphone and started talking. I heard my sound projecting in a strange way. It was kind of unclear. But I was speaking very clearly (what I heard). I would like to look at the audience’ faces. Sadly, I am way too short and could not see anyone I recognized except Ms Kwok and Mr Kwong. There was a lady who was sitting at the side and she noticed my difficulties. So she walked up the stairs and told me to leave a small distance from the microphone. And I realized that was the problem every time I use a microphone. I almost licked it, or even kissed it. Embarrassing, wasn't it? I finished the rest of my part and my partner and I walked back to our seats.

Well, at the end, I thought I did a horrible job. But it turned out that my mentors praised me. Next time, I will absolutely not lick the microphone again!

This is one of my best learning experiences. I am looking forward to learning more in the last 6 days of the tour!

From Anson Ng:

Today was pretty good as I could play football today, yep we had sports day again!

We had history, arts and drama lessons. I like these lessons a lot as we didn't have many lessons that looked like this. These lessons were very very fun. I had enjoyed them a lot!

And about the sports day, I played soccer again! I am really addicted to football! Although I didn't even got a score, I really enjoyed the process!

Last but not least, the gathering in the St. Giles's church. I really liked the choir as their songs were really good. I was melted into the songs for a long time and I really like this period.

Time flew, it was already the middle of our programme, I really wanted time to go slower...

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Cambridge Junior Programme 2017: Day 6

8/6/2017

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5 Aug. Day 6.

The excitement continues as our explorative boys march into their sixth day here in the UK. Today, they have a safari-like experience!

From Oscar Chan:

Today was a truly brilliant day. It was a whole day to a magnificent zoo.

The day started when we arrived at the zoo after a whole hour on the stuffy coach. We were relieved to breathe in the fresh air and immediately headed off to the Europe side to see, for instance, the bears and lynxes first. Then we got to the base camp side. But before that, we were eating our pack lunches. That shouldn't be special at all, but when it was raining cats and dogs and freezing like mad at the same time, it became the most special thing in the whole day!

We arrived at the butterfly house, not only for sheltering, but also giving a bit more feeling to our tingling fingers and toes. The butterflies actually, loved to be toasty and warm, and now, so do us! We were both dried and warmed up while we admired the gorgeous butterflies flying above our steaming heads. (The water was evaporating😅)

Then we just charged to the souvenir shop, and it was already late afternoon. We got back for the dinner, and it was drama performances. We had half an hour to prepare, and we had a competition of the best play. We didn't win, but it was hillarious looking at all the play!

So good night now, and what a wonderful day it was!

From Isaac Chan King Hang:

Another day to make my journey magnificent. Today was a truly remarkable day to do something which could seldom be done in Hong Kong.

After a late wake-up and a befuddling breakfast, we all headed for the place we had all be longing for: the Whipsnade Zoo! Although it took quite a long ride there, we were all amazed at first sight as we saw the endless grasslands in front of us.

But that was just the beginning. There were lots more awaiting us. As we walked into the areas where animals lived, we came in sight of boars, lemars, reindeer and much more! However, the animals that fascinated me the most were definitely the penguins. I was first shocked to see them trotting out of their shelters to welcome us in such a broad daylight! I learnt that some species of penguins were used to surviving in hot and sunny areas. Then, it started raining cats and dogs in all of a sudden and the temperature descended frantically. Still, the penguins showed no signs of panic and continued to stand right there. It wasn't until now that I realized penguins were so strong and "indestructible" animals.

Time flew and it was such a short time before we had to leave the zoo. And after dinner, there was another exciting activity.

We were split into our groups and started preparing for our drama plays to prepare half an hour for a five-minute drama act. (Yep, it's improvised drama.) We had fun collaborating with ideas and interpreting lines with humorous attitudes. Although my group lost out slightly on the grand prize, we still had a nice laugh before bedtime.

So that's it today and I bet there's more to come!

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Cambridge Junior Programme 2017: Day 5

8/5/2017

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At Warner Bros. Studio, London

4 Aug. Day 5.

Today is one of those days our boys highly anticipate. Why? It's the day for Harry Potter Studio (Warner Bros. Studio, London)!

From Reagan Chan:

Today was a delightful day, we first had lessons in morning and we then went to the Harry Potter Studio. We had a great time there!

When we first arrived at the studio, I was shocked. As one of the Harry Potter Fans, I was delighted to see the costumes that the actors wore, the place that the film was shot, and videos of them. They made me almost shout out in the studio! 😅

We also went to many different scenes in the movie like the Gryffindor Common Room and the Diagon Alley. But the place that impressed me the most was the 9 3/4 platform. A Hogwarts Express train stopped there and we could get onto it. There were things that Harry Potter used inside. The train was also very beautiful.😍

Tomorrow we will go to the zoo, I'm looking forward to that and I believe there are more exciting activities waiting for us!

From Anson Ng:

Today I had a great time hanging around in the Harry Potter studio! Let me tell you about it...

Although I wasn't a fan of Harry Potter, I was definitely surprised at the studio today. I was already amazed while I entered the studio. There was actually a cinema in there introducing the production! And the curtains actually lifted up! O My God! Not even that, There were a lot of famous props in the studio! Like the broom sticks of the characters, the talking hat (Sorting Hat) and so on! There was even a souvenir shop that had tons and tons of souvenirs available!

Thinking about my family, I bought a magic wand and a bag for my mum and the Weasley twins to my sister!

I was so excited to have such a wonderful day! Hope I could come to this studio a lot more times!

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Cambridge Junior Programme 2017: Day 4

8/4/2017

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Participants going for sports

3 Aug. Day 4.

A day packed with lessons and sport activities in Cambridge. Seems like a normal learning day, yet our reporters today Oscar Chong, and Oscar Chan find new knowledge in their unique perspectives.

Oscar in the Laundry

From Oscar Chong:

Today, I have experienced so much in the lessons and my laundry experience. But I will just mainly talk about the latter.

Firstly, I never had an experience of washing clothes by myself. I needed to run around the college to find where I could buy the token. I just ran around the college and it took me nearly fifteen minutes to find the office and then I put clothes to the washing machine.

After I finished my learning activities, I went back to my washing machine and checked. "Where were my clothes? These are not mine. Where are they?" It turned out that my clothes were put on top of the machine! May be I was too late.

After washing them, I dried them. It was not so complicated because there were clear instructions.

At last, I finally finished the procedure of washing clothes. I sighed and I hope I can remember this experience firmly and not to make mistakes so often!

Onion cells under microscope

From Oscar Chan:

Today was another day with flying colours. I can just choose the main courses out!

Lessons, of course, started the day. The most interesting lesson today was the science lesson. We had to take an onion and also the cells in it to examine. Then, to our astonishment, we had to take our own cells! We were all thinking about slicing ourselves to draw blood when the teacher told us just to take a bit of saliva from the wall of our mouths. I have a photo of what the onion cells looked like.

Then, it's the sports, and finally, the debating workshop. It was practically arguing all the time! Our motion was about making Mandarin a universal language. Although, in my opinion, we lost, I still think it was a new experience of debating.

That's it for today! And it's the Harry Potter Studio tomorrow!!!