Fly Baby Fly!

The Whitaker Art and Science Center has so much to offer to stimulate one's mind and appreciation towards Art and Crafts. The "Fly It" device was so simple to operate and it made the paper plane flying so impressive and fun. This will be a great attraction in Science Fair if only I could bring one back to my school.

American Red Cross

Zack and I had a great time at the American Red Cross where we got back a lot of great goodies - very much like kids in a candy store. We will definitely look forward to visit the next Red Cross Chapters.

Catholic High School

I was fortunate to be bale to attend a class in Catholic High School and observe a mathematics class. The teacher utilise the use of technology to teach the class. I attended an honours geometry class and soon realised that I was in the presence of intelligent and hardworking young adults.



The smart board also captured my attention and after the class I did not hesitate to ask the nake of the programme. I will definitely share this technology of smart board to my principal and hope it will be installed in my school soon.

I also had the opportunity to meet up with the school's president Paul. I had learned about the challengers of running an independent school. It is a difficult job but I know Paul is the right man for the job.


In the evening, Howe and I followed Catholic High School for the Quiz Bowl Competition at the Withaker Art and SCience Center. It was interesting to see how a live TV programme is telecast. The competition was a close one but in the end, the Catholic High School emerged Champions. CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Beautiful Lancaster

I would like to share some beautiful and interesting sights of Lancaster. Thank you for the wonderful weather....

Thank you Pattersons

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my second host family, Stephen and Kathy Patterson for their warm hospitality for the past week. I had a lot of fun learning and discussing current affairs issues with them. I also had Easter Sunday dinner with their family and ate a alot of delicious food. The menu includes Turkey, Smoke Lamb, Corn, Sweet Potato, Mashed Potato and many more.



I wish you and your family well and hope we will keep in touch with one another in the future. Good Bye my Hi Tech host family.:)

Singapore School versus American School

On my tour to many Rotary Clubs presentations, the most frequent questions asked to me is " How is your education system in Singapore different from the US?" Well I would like to share them in this blog as to provide a better perspective on this issue.



Singapore being a tropical climate do not have 4 seasons thus we do not have long winter or summer breaks. In fact, our cirriculum in break down into 4 terms and each term consists of 10 weeks. The structure of our school year is as follows:

Term 1: 10 weeks
Holiday for 1 week in Mid March
Term 2: 10 weeks
Holiday for 4 weeks in June
Term 3: 10 weeks
Holiday for 1 week in Mid September
Term 4 : 10 weeks
Holday for six weeks from mid Nov to end Dec.

The cycle continues again every year.

In addition, what is interesting is that in Singapore and Malaysia, we celebrate teacher's day and children's day in . It is a school holiday and teachers and pupils are given a day to rest. We will have parties and students will bring gifts for teachers. Cool rite.

I think we must do the same in the STATES. Students should show appreciation to their teachers :) It is long time overdue.



On a seperate note, we teachers in Singapore and Malaysia will move from one class to another and the pupils will stay in the classrooms waiting for the teacher. In the States however, it is the other way around. They teachers will stay while the pupils move to the other classroom. We, Singapore and Malaysian teachers love this ideas as we have our own classroom and are able to decorate and "personalise" the classroom to meet our pupils' needs.

My Darling Vincent

Just want to show you guys, how "cute" my team leader Vincent is?

We love you "Tai Ko" or Big Brother.

Amish Culture

We had a chance to be up close and personal with the Amish Culture today. We visited farm, carpentry, school and store ran by the Amish. In the afternoon, we visited the Auto Auction. Thank you Jim and Carolyn for accompanying us the whole day!

trash and limo!

Here we are, on John's Lincoln Limo, going around town, visiting to the waste management company. (limo and trash, doesnt really sound well together, right?)

we had a wonderful time learning about waste disposal and waste energy is processed and of course, we got a really good smell what the american trash smells like.









p/s: riding on a limo is a whole new experience to us, the momentum and leather seats contribute a lot of sliding! but we did have a great time in the limo.

My Easter weekend in Lancaster!

I had a wonderful Easter Friday celebration in my host family Chip and Irene Kirchner house. Look here that's my Easter basket! Chip had a family dinner with his daughter and sons and 7 grand children and i am indeed honored to be invited to the eggs painting by the grand children and adults before fest started.. we painted closed to 2 dozens of eggs and it was fun it was like back to my childhood days..

American ways of living...

It had been a great week in Harrisburg and Lancaster, Pennsylvania, USA. Americans Rotarians were friendly and the GSE team had enjoyed themselves thus far and the programme planned were so educational and informative. Well, another 3 weeks to go and we indeed enjoyed every second of it...

Saturday with the Thibaults

"BEEEP! BEEEP! BEEEP!"

I woke on Saturday morning to the blaring of a fire alarm. As acrid smoke filled the air in my third floor bedroom, I hurriedly dressed and stumbled downstairs.

"We wake up like this every Saturday morning," Sarah, my Rotarian host, said sarcastically. She stood on a chair fanning the fumes from the smoke detector on the ceiling.

"Just in case you were wondering, we thought you were sleeping in too long. So we decided to set the house on fire!" Paul, Sarah's witty husband, quipped as he wiped the tears from his eyes.

Smoke billowed from the fireplace in the library, filling the kitchen and library on the ground floor with greasy, brown smoke. We spent the good part of the morning arranging portable fans, opening windows and doors and trying to keep the fire alarm from wailing constantly. Finally, Paul and Sarah removed the offending logs from the fireplace and the smoke cleared up. Crisis averted, I sat down to have one of Paul's famously delicious omelettes for breakfast. Over breakfast, I asked Paul and Sarah what had led to the mishap.

It turned out that Paul had thought that it would be a good idea to start a fire to combat the chilly Saturday morning. Even though he had left all doors open to create a draft, the cold, still air prevented the smoke from rising up the chimney and instead it was sucked back into the room. With nowhere to go, the smoke accumulated and set off the fire alarm.

What can I say? Never a dull moment with the Thibaults.

With that incident behind us, we went to Lancaster's Central Market to shop for some lunch. Then we rested for the big event at sundown - Easter Vigil. More on that later.

Just Believe !!!!

Tour of Lancaster on SEGWAY.

This is no typical tour of the city. We travelled on SEGWAY. It was cool... in fact in was COLD!!! Haha. The weather was cold and most of the time I cannot feel my fingers. We enjoyed this unique experience and enjoyed ourselves tremendously.

Live !! @ WLBR

We were on the Radio.. Yes we were! Rtn Nigel Foundling managed to get us on the local Radio. We had a blast of a time and manage to have a feel to work in a Radio Station. After the recording, we were given a tour of the station and learned a thing or two about running a radio station. I was told that we sound good on radio. Hmmmm.. maybe is time to change profession?

A Day of an Elementary/Middle School Teacher

It was our first day of our Vocation and I was very excited about it. Our team break up and make our way to our respective areas of interest. My day started with a class with Mary Napoli, Assistant Professor of Reading and Children's Literature from the School of Behavioral Sciences and Education in Penn State Harrisburg. I was honored to have met her students, who were teacher in training and shared many of our pedagogies and experience as teachers in both countries. I would like to thank Prof. Mary and her students in allowing me to enter the classroom and share our experiences.



Next I headed to meet Dr Jason Petula who is an Asst. Prof of Math Education and Dr. Robert Coffman who is a Asst. Prof of Education. Our discussion was fruitful and I had learned many insights to the syllabus of Mathematics and Science in the State. There were similarities in our approach to teaching but of course our differences were also present. I was surprised to learn that they had a similar modular approach to science but they had a study of Earth and Space. We exchanged contacts and will continue to share our experiences in the future via email.



My last stop was to Hersey Middle school. I observed a Grade 9 English class. The main difference is that the pupils move from one class to another while the teacher stays in the same classroom. We, Lau and myself, shared about our country and how the pupils in our countries carry out their daily lives.

It was a long exhausting day but it was a great one as I had learned a lot from today's vocation. :)

Lunch @ Molly Brannigan's

Like they said, "A picture speaks a Thousand Words". This is a picture of what I had lunch on 19 April. It was a potato pancake and it was GOOD!!!!

Thanks to the Nelsons

I write to thank my host family for the first week, the Nelsons. Rtn Jim Nelson and Rtn Carol Nelson of the Harrisburg Keystone Club (Carol is the current president of the club) took very good care of me the whole time I was in Susquehanna Township. In no particular order, thanks for:

-my first taste of Pennsylvanian Dutch cuisine
-educating me on the difference between the Plain Dutch and Gay Dutch
-the really tender grilled steak for lunch (the other meals were really good too)
-the awesome basement endless pool singlehandedly built by Jim
-travel stories about Harrisburg's GSE in India
-showing me the pretty birds in Wildwood Park
-Wild deer in the yard
-Episode 2 of Upstairs/Downstairs
-Ginger beer at the Appalachian Brewing Company
-the discussion at the monthly meeting of Jim's investment club
-introducing me to Peeps! (The quintessential American snack for Easter - soft yellow ones are the best)

-and who could forget the wine vending machine in the mall complete with CCTV and breathalyzer test

While this list is by no means exhaustive, these were special moments that I really enjoyed. I am glad that I was a part of your lives for a week.

Hershey Trust Co. (Private Wealth Management)

My first vocational experience was at the Hershey Trust Company. First some background on the Trust: Created in 1905 by Milton Hershey himself, it is responsible for financing entirely the expenses of the Milton S. Hershey school for disadvantaged children. The Trust has USD 7B under management, of which USD 3B are in the stock of Hershey Foods (the chocolate factory), USD 3B are for discretionary investments and USD 1B are under private wealth management (for unrelated wealthy individuals). Recently, the trust has decided to sell its Private Wealth Management business in order to focus exclusively on managing the finances of the school.

I was greeted by Rtn Ray Cameron, an elderly but sprightly man who serves as a Trust Officer in the Private Wealth Management (PWM's) segment.

The Trust's offices are located in the handsome High Point mansion, the former home of Milton Hershey himself. As we passed the gilded gates, I was slightly disappointed to learn that PWM's offices were not located in the mansion. In the end, I settled for a picture.

We then proceeded to the offices where Ray introduced me to Rusty, one of five investment officers in PWM. Rusty is a sharp looking man with a wiry frame and close cropped hair. We sat down for a good 2-hour chat.

I was pleased to discover that PWM and the Hershey Trust had a conservative, small-cap and mid-cap, value-based, bottom-up and equity-heavy focus refreshingly different from the current diversified asset allocation approach followed by many endowments nowadays. The emphasis for their stock portfolio is on finding smaller undervalued companies with good free cash flow, solid balance sheets and strong business models, hopefully before bank analysts discovered them, then holding for the long-term while their stock price appreciated to intrinsic value. Their bond portfolio is invested in safe municipal bonds with very low risk. This approach allowed them to cushion their losses (in a market decline, they incurred smaller losses than average) and recover faster from the 2008 financial crisis, earning a 10.5% annual return over a fifteen year period when the S&P 500 returned a mere 4%.

At the end of the chat, I realised that though our companies are on opposite ends of the world, there were many similarities between the strategies we employed. I guess that while it is not the only way to invest, old-school value investing is definitely a reliable way of generating market beating returns over the long term.

Many thanks Ray for arranging the enlightening visit with Rusty at Hershey Trust Co. PWM!

Rtn Ray Cameron and I in the boardroom of Hershey Trust Co's PWM offices.

What a day !!! From animals to drama to beer

A glance of what we did today... The weather was unkind to us today as it rained almost everywhere we went. To make matter worst, the main water pipe/sewage broke thus most of the government building had to close down. So our first trip to the State Library was cancelled.

However we managed to visit an exhibition center that was popular among the locals when it came to exhibiting livestocks. Luckily for us, there were not any shows or exhibition at that moment.

We then proceeded for lunch and had a wonderful time chatting with the other team members and our host families. Next stop is the whitaker art and science center. I got a feel of the stage and it was great!!!

Lastly we went to see the Brewery followed by a Rotary Meeting. Dinner was AWESOME so was the company. Thank you for a great day.

Mindball?

Zak and Vincent at the Mindball station in Whitaker Arts and Science Centre. Locked in a mental tug-of-war, they aim to push the ball to their opponent using nothing but sheer force of will. Who will prevail in this contest of wills?

P.S. Someone edit this post if you have a better picture to add.

Penn State University Hospital

The first stop on Monday (18 April) was Penn State University Hospital. It is such a huge and modern hospital. Our team got a chance to visit the Stimulation Department and Howe, Zack and I worked on the CPR stimulator that is attached to an AED. We tried it twice and on both occasions, the patients survived.

Having Gumball @ Dr.Gilpin's Humble Home

I am getting ready for dinner and will be having seafood gumball, a famous local dish. Had a short tour of middle town and headed back home for a short nap. The place is cosy and my host family or person is very hospitable, loves cooking and loves to share his stories. He is a retired professor who stills lectures once a while at the University. He had travelled many places and had also hosted many people from various countries.

I am very excited to start the vocation activities tomorrow and meet teachers and pupils. Ok got to help Dr. Gilpin in the kitchen now. See ya!!!

Zack

say hello to Forture!

Isn't he adorable?