Singapore ASEAN Plus Summit

When I arrived at Singapore, I had this weird feeling that was made up of nostalgia and wonder. I saw my old home, and other places that I had commonly visited. However, I also saw modern buildings and new places, like the casino and universal studios. On the first day, we went on universal studios, and I had a great time. Although I lost track of my team members, I had this great roller-coaster ride. It went up and down at great wavelengths.

There was 12 people from our school, and we were divided into two teams. One time represented South Korea, and the other represented Australia. Each member was responsible for a council. I was part of the group that represented Australia, and I was responsible for the transnational security council. We discussed combating terrorism and human trafficking, and our council wrote resolution papers addressing each problem. For me, I did enjoy talking about these topics, however, I did not like sitting on the same spot for 6 to 9 hours on end. The crisis session on the last day was fun. The Chair simulated a problem that a Chinese ship carrying nuclear wastes crashed into a Burmese oil tanker. As delegates of different countries, we had to formulate our own opinions to address to this problem. As the problem is simulated, and we did not have any time to prepare for this topic beforehand, a lot of the discussion was improvised. Soon, different alliances formed. Some alliances wanted China to pay for the damage, and others maintained absolute neutrality. In the end, the resolution paper did not pass, due to too many differing opinions on the issue.

In conclusion, I am sure that my teammates and I gained a lot of experience after attending this summit. We saw how other people made speeches, and how they talked formally during this conference. Also, I stayed up late and night and played a really enjoyable card game with my classmates, and I thought this was the best part of the trip.

Reflection: Last Quarter of Curious Incident

After finishing the last quarter of the book, I have a few thoughts to share. I think the ending of the book was a little abrupt. At the end, Christopher's mother takes Christopher back to Swindon and lives in a seperate apartment. When Christopher's mother goes to work, however, Christopher would need to stay with his father. Near the end of the book, Christopher's father and Christopher agreed to start trusting and start spending more time with each other. Personally, I thought that there will be a greater revelation or conflict that Christopher or his parents will experience in the process of their deepening trust and friendship. The book also does not seem to go into detail about the relationship between Christopher's mother and Mr. Shears. However, I think the author, Mark Haddon, has a great mastery over the portrayal of autistic traits. Christopher thoughts on different subjects like religion and god, Christopher's dreams, and his actions expertly convey a possible perspective from an autistic person. Many of Christopher's thoughts seem reasonable on the surface, but when more thought is spend deliberating on many of Christopher's views on differing subjects, sometimes, I feel that Christopher's opinions on things are incorrect or oversimplified (like the thought that showed similarities between a human mind and a computer). Also, I really love the way Mark Haddon conveys Christopher's thinking in a vivid manner. On page 198~199, for example, talks about Christopher's dream that people that are not autistic all die out, leaving people like Christopher living in the world. He expresses how carefree he could be. He could go anywhere, knowing no one will talk to him or ask him a question. He could take anything from the dead and make their possessions his. He could be alone. This dream clearly shows that Christopher still long to live in his own world of isolation. Overall, I think I had an interesting read. This book goes deep into the mind of an autistic person, and it think that it particularly helps our understanding of how autistic people percieve things. This is practical, since it gives you another perspective of how other people look at things.

Reflection: 3rd Quarter of Curious Incident

In the 3rd quarter of the book, Christopher's dad told Christopher that he had killed Wellington after Christopher found out that his dad had been hiding his mother's letters. Christopher decides that his father was too dangerous. He finds his way to the train station to go live with his mother in London. In the third part of the book, readers can see that Christopher's father's sudden emotional release that caused the murder for his neighbor's dog, Wellington, caused even his son, Christopher, the closest person to him, to leave him. From this, I think that emotions really influence a person's life. As any person is responsible for the consequences of their actions, any extreme or violent emotion that is released could possibly cause damage to someone or something else, and that release has a potential to drastically affect someone's life. Just like Christopher's father, for example, if he had not killed Wellington, his son probably would not have left him.  Eventually, Christopher's father even had to approach the police station and seek for help from the policeman to stop his son from leaving him. Although Christopher's reason and way of thinking that lead him to leave his father might be even humorous for the reader, the book narrates about a sad reality of a disunited family.