AYC, Day 5

31st July 2010


Another day started on our AYC journey. There was a slight delay to our wake-up time (everyone went back to sleep!). And I was just not in a proper mood this morning. I looked back on the previous night. I reminded myself why I was here, what I wanted to acheive. And that was enough to get me out of bed.

But one really strange thing about this morning was the severely cold temperature. I knew the hotel's air-conditioning was very cold, but what I felt this morning was something unexpected.

I took a shower, and it seemed the heater hadn't kicked in yet. I fought through the cold, but I was shivering, so hard that I couldn't move out of the shower. 

Even after I had gone downstairs to YMCA's dining hall, my hands felt terribly cold. Even when I wore Gori's insulated ski-jacket over my black cotton one, my arms felt warmer but my hands were freezing. There was one point where they went really numb, and I was afraid something was wrong. 

Luckily, when I got outside, my being 'hot-blooded' trait kicked in and I gradually thawed out.

We rode the bus over to the SMa institute-place-thingy. All of the delegates got together in a lecture room. Then well, the lecture started. Then first lecture was from Wilson Ang, the founder of the Environmental Challenge Organization.

Feeling sleepy, as usual, I tried to focus on what was being presentated. This lecture was about Economics and Environment, the connections between change in the environtment and the rise and fall of economics. Though I had a hard time finding the connections and info regarding ASEAN's economy, I got it, mostly, in the end.

We had a discussion about what life would be like in 2050 (yeah, like the writing club thing) and did like little, impromptu and funny skits about them.

We had lunch, which was practically the same chicken thingy I've been eating for the past few days. -___-


Then we played our new favorite game: THE WORLD TRADE GAME. Basically we were given papers, pencils, rulers and stuff, and we had to cut out shapes from the paper to trade/sell. It was a lot of fun, negotiating with the other groups and stuff, and finding out that THE WORLD TRADE BANK WAS CORRUPT! Nyahaha. Kidding aside it was super fun, and my group, J3 playing as Singapore came in 3rd Place.

This was followed by another leture by me Lee Yoong Yoong on ASEAN economics. Then had a World Café Style discussion, in which we had to play a role in a certain scenario, then discuss our consessus on what decision to make in an informal debate.

We had great discussion since it was really intriguing though a bit irrelevant. The country-based session that followed went well, if not a bit bumpy.

The night program for tonight, was shopping at Bugis. I was going a bit over budget on my shopping money, and even had to borrow some money. Thanks Evan!

Now, I can die happier now, because I bought a new pair of green sneakers. Haha!

--Karin Novelia