INTRODUCTION!

HELLO!
Welcome to my RSP blog! RSP is the Regional Studies Programme and we are the pioneer batch. In RSP, we learn more about South-East Asia(SEA). It's really fun and exciting because we get to learn alot of cool and interesting things about the culture and traditions of other countries(: We get to go on field trips too! Talking about field-trips, I remember the time when we went on the RSP field trip. We went to a Burmese temple, Lucky Plaza, Peninsula Plaza and Golden Mile Complex

Burmese Temple:

This is one of the statues in the Temple!(courtesy of http://www.moeyyo.com/MM/archives/IMG_1024.JPG). The temple had alot of teak wood, because the Burmese are famous for that:D

The Burmese Buddha is different from the Buddhas of other countries. Some differences include:-

1. Burmese Buddhas have a rounder face than other Buddhas, and have a potruded skull or a bun on their head their head to signify their wisdom.

2.Burmese Buddhas' ears are dragged to signify his nobility, unlike the Thai Buddha

3.The Burmese does not have a birthmark unlike the Thai and Cinese Buddha

4. The Burmese Buddhas' toes are mostly of the same length

Some Burmese words I found at the temple:

Agga Maha-->the valuable one

U-->used to address older men(like Mr.)

Ma-->used to address girls

GOLDEN MILE:

This was the Thai Super Market we went to. It was full of Thai food and the packaging was all in Thai too! Haha and we bought some Thai Instant noodles, and all of them were like Tom Yum flavour, typical of Thai food!

Golden Mile looks like Thailand don't you think? Maybe that was why this place was used to film a Channel 8 Drama scene that was supposed to be in Thailand! All the stalls have Thai names, so when I went inside i really felt like I was in a Thailand Shopping Mall!

Peninsula Plaza:

This shop is called GOLDEN PRINCESS PTE. LTD(: At first, the shop keeper, who is a Burmese, was rather wary of us, as we asked her questions about where her goods were from. According to what the tour guide told us, some spies are sent by the Burmese government to spy on these Burmese immigrants, so she might have suspected that we were spies at first. However, after we told her that we were from RGS, she started showing her true self, and was nice and friendly to us. She answered the questions we asked her! She even showed us how to..
Make this! I'm not too sure what it actually is, all I know is that it has alot of spices and is eaten by pregnant women(if i remembered correctly).
Group Photo outside Peninsula Plaza:D

We bought these 2 packets of Maggi Mee from Golden Princess Pte Ltd.(: Left, me. Right, Symone!

Lucky Plaza:

Lucky Plaza was full of Filipinos! Most of them are domestic workers. Some Filipino words:

Tuloy Kay o-->welcome

Mabilis-->requirement

Mataas ang palit-->work permit

In conclusion, this field trip was really an eye-opener for me, and I learnt more information about other countries, that I could have never experienced from a book. It also allowed me to learn about the cultures of other countries that I have not visited, like Burma, the Philippines and Indonesia. I also learnt more about Buddhism, and how it can come in different forms(i.e. different kinds of Buddha statues). I really enjoyed this trip!