Gene Kwok

I had an awesome time in Hong Kong getting to know some of the youth leaders over there during the Singapore-Hong Kong International Youth Exchange Programme. Every single day was packed to the brim with activities! It was exhausting but very fulfilling!  

There’s really too much to write about, there’s even a whole blog about our journey! http://shinkyep.wordpress.com (We even had a social media team that took care of all the blogging during the trip.)

I was very honored to have been among the 25 Singapore Delegates selected. It was an amazing experience and I learnt so much! It was actually very cold over in Hong Kong (about 10 degrees), but the warmth of the Hong Kong delegates that hosted us made it very comfortable.

I’ll just post a few selective photos, since there are so many!

This is one of my favorite parts of the entire trip. We took a boat ride for about 2 hours to an Island called Tung Ping Chau. It was a gorgeous island, completely preserved, the waters were crystal clear. There was a bit of marine life, sea urchins, little fishes etc.

Me and some of the Hong Kong Youth Delegates! =D

The waves were HUGEEEE, the boat was tilting from side to side, like some amusement park pirate ship ride. But it was fun! And we played games on the deck!

I had a lot of fun with Jieying, all kinds of weird kung fu poses along the way. We had to climb these big rocky structures against the sea. This part you see is the easy part. After this we literally had to climb upwards with our bare hands!

This photo was taken by my friend on our trip back from Tung Ping Chau to Hong Kong Island. I was just admiring the beautiful sunset. =)

We pulled a special performance during our farewell dinner. =) It was hilarious!

As you can see, we do goof around a lot. =p

It was a beautiful trip, and I’m glad to have made so many wonderful new friends. =)

I went to see the F1 race today. The cars were so loud! Even with the ear plugs they were still quite deafening. But nonetheless, it was a thrill seeing the cars zoom by up-close. At one point suddenly everyone stood up. I thought to myself, “Wow, a standing ovation?”. As it turns out, a car crashed somewhere near us.

Everyone whipped out their cameras and started snapping. It’s interesting how people react to accidents these days. Is it a sad thing, that most people are more excited about getting a photo of a wrecked racing car and potentially an injured driver, instead of being genuinely concerned and worried? But I guess that’s F1.

No photos today!

(PS. Thanks for the tickets, LD) 

I was given a pair of tickets for the opening ceremony of the first ever Youth Olympic Games at the Marina Bay Floating Platform. The organizers did a great job, as did the performers. It was an awesome show! More importantly, I was so thrilled to have been able to be there to witness such a historical moment for Singapore and a new chapter in Olympic history.

Over the past couple of months, these two adorable mascots for the YOG (Lyo and Merly) have been popping up all over Singapore. They’re on billboards, posters and banners everywhere. They’ve also become increasingly popular with keychains, lanyards, bags, umbrellas, teeshirts. But I was still quite surprised to see…

Lyo and Merly themed public toilets! =p

Is it just me or does my Aunt’s outfit seem a little Merly-inspired as well? =D

Our tickets were for the yellow sector, which was actually the most premium zone among the five as it directly faces the stage, offering a better view. But because we arrived rather late, we conveniently took the seats at the corner of the yellow zone. Still, the view was wonderful, I had the opportunity to take quite a lot of photos, but I’ll just post a few here.

One thing I really like about the opening ceremony: The crowd was extremely diverse! I was in close proximity by people from countries like Turkey, Sweden, Korea, Italy, USA and a couple just a few seats from us actually came all the way from South Africa! And you can actually see so many people waving their own flags and rooting for their own athletes throughout the ceremony.

The atmosphere was just amazing, to have people from all over the world gathered here in Singapore, cheering and celebrating. And to say the least, the show itself was spectacular; the colourful costumes, the props, the performers, the music. And the way they integrated elements of water with pyrotechnics and successfully used the skyline of the city as the backdrop for the show was very creative. It was so beautiful!

There were quite a number of goodies in the “Audience Participation Kit” we received, but I like this ‘dove torch’ the most. It’s kinda eccentric looking. Just my kind of thing. =p

An Olympic tradition, an athlete from each of the 204 participating countries represented their nation in a mass flag bearing ceremony to tremendous applause. As each country was announced, pockets of supporters waved their national flags and cheered for their athletes. Singapore was the last of the 204 nations to be announced. I was eagerly awaiting that moment. And when it came, it was overwhelming! There was an immediate standing ovation and everyone was cheering as loudly as they could, including the foreigners!  It’s difficult to describe, but the sense of pride that came over me was so powerful. I was so proud of my country, it nearly brought me to tears.

Finally, the ceremony came to an end with the symbolic lighting of a giant Olympic torch and another spectacular display of fireworks! The spiraling effect of the torch was like none other before it and I read some newspaper reports saying that so many people were impressed by the effect that they’re now planning to use the same torch for all future Olympic ceremonies.

If you’ve missed the live telecast of the opening ceremony, you can still watch it for free online here: http://www.youtholympicgames.org. Go to “Video on Demand”. The Youth Olympic Games will continue until the 26th of August, when a closing ceremony will be held. Do show your support! =D

P.S: We took a rather unusual looking cab home, I even took some photos, but I’ll save that for the next post. It’s not YOG-themed!