AYC, Day 6

1st August 2010

Good (slightly-later-than-scheduled-wake-up-time) morning! Reporting in from Singapore, it's me! So on our next big day here at the lovely ASEAN Youth Convention. We headed back to the overly-freezing SMa institute, for more lectures! YAY!

Feeling a bit to comfortable in that scrawny plastic chair, I kept my eyes open long enough to get through most of the first lessons. Our lecture was on the Economy in ASEAN, and it was given by Doctor Charles Adam, a professor at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Policy. In short, he's a pretty well-educated guy, and has a doctorate from the Monash University in Australia. We learned a lot on the different Economy situations in each ASEAN country, and economic situations and agreements such as the APEC, EMEAP, and SEACEN, etc. I think I fell asleep around the end of the lecture, but yeah, I still learned something.

After that was lunch, and again we had chicken. But since had a few extra minutes of break time, we headed down to 7 Eleven right next to the SMa building. I had a SLURPIE, something I didn't have in awhile and even shared it with Evan. Coca Cola and Grape is a great mix. XD

After that, we had another country-based discussion, perfecting and polishing our post-AYC plans to hopefully change Indonesia. This was followed by a panel discussion back in room 03-08 of SMa, by Dr Yeo Lay Hwee, who elaborated more on the multi-lateral connections between ASEAN and other countries/organizations like the EU.

This was followed by one of the funniest activities. The Mock ASEAN Regional Forum. All of the Junior/Senior Groups that partook played the role of a certain country to discuss a scenario. The scenario was that a bombing had occurred at the US Embassy in Singapore. Both countries have been highly-affected and the suspected terrorists are believed to be from Myanmar. 

The comments and opinions were getting a bit out of hand, but it was still a great activity to practice discussion and show the difficulty of reaching a consensus, on of the fundamental principles ASEAN has adopted.

Tonight's night program after that thought-provoking day was a trip around Chinatown. When we got there, all hungry and longing for a dinner meal. In front of the street we were on, was like an empty square, and on it many Singaporeans, some young and happy, most elderly but still kickin', were dancing to songs and showing huge Singaporean spirit!

Seeing that only reminded me that it was August, and soon it would be August 17 when I came back to lovely Indonesia, the day of her Independence. 

We all separated for a bit, walking down the stalls that decorated the streets of Chinatown, with cute little trinkets, fans, clothes and ornaments, all at bargained prices. I was walking around with Natasha, Odi, Edwin, Zoya, Kay, Erico, Kenny, Jeffry and Evan, and we found a little Chinese place to dine at. 

I ate something called Fragrant Chicken Rice, while the others ate porridge, and dumplings and stuff. Another bonus, most of bought I <3 SG shirts which were going for 3 for $10, and kept on bargaining with a vendor who could speak Bahasa Indonesia! It was pretty fun to watch, Haha! At the same restaurant though, the rest of the gang soon piled in for dinner, making the night pretty much complete.

With nothing else to do we gathered back the front square, waiting for the bus. We filled up our time taking pictures, singing along to the songs, and cutting a rug on the dance floor. *Baby, baby, baby ooohhhh* *Remembers Eric and Evan dancing waltz (sort of) and laughs*

We got to the hotel at 10 (Singapore time) and so we were pretty wiped. That night, I slept in my room, for like the only time for the rest of the week, and rested up for tomorrow.

--Karin Novelia