Thursday-

Training from 4-8 because competitions start on Monday. I went from 5 to 8. As it was raining, the entire hall was packed with people from track, basketball, volleyball and us table tennis. Every now and then we would see the hall illuminating because of random lightning bolts. The massive number of people (and the noise produced) and how everybody was really focused on their game influenced me, suddenly I felt really competitive too. Perhaps that is the long lost feeling of playing in a competition, which I haven’t experienced since sec 2.

Friday-

Rushed to NIE by taxi with nick right after electives ended at 3.10, the taxi driver was really chatty. He asked us how we wanted to reach there, by pie or aye or ecp, and obviously we (or just me) didnt know. When we finally reached there, Mr Tan brought us to see the giant freshwater prawns, Macrobrachium rosenbergii, we would be working with. The project is briefly about finding the chemical compositions of its moulted skeleton- calcium carbonate and calcium phosphate. But first, Mr Tan wanted us to change the water of 8 tanks. We then had a brief introduction on what the tanks contained and the conditions in which the prawns survive in. the oldest prawn, around 2 years old, was almost 50 cm long and we were really lucky as the female prawn had just moulted and they do so every month or so. as she had just lost her skeleton and was really vulnerable, the male had a claw over her body to protect it from enemies. These prawns have really long blue claws so that they can protect their territory, by moving their claws alone would draw out a huge area. Ended at around 7 and reached home at 8.30.

Saturday-
cashflow101. The game was really fun, although we didnt have much time to play as the facilitator kept talking. Very privileged to have Mr Bellum Tan speak to us as he is a close friend of Robert Kiyosaki, however I felt that his hour long introduction was really unnecessary. By being there, we were already a converted audience, and so there was no need for him to spend so much time talking about why we needed to be financially literate. The time could be spent on the game! The facilitator was good, but as we had too little time to play, I could not bring myself to concentrate on what he was saying and wanted to carry on with the game asap. In the end, I had the most cash in hand for my table - $ 282 520. The winner of the entire half of the cohort had 13 million so I really pale in comparison. The main idea of the game was to invest as much of your money as possible when the opportunity comes. Our group mainly bought stocks when the price was low and sold it when the price rose. However, the $1/ share card only came at the last 2 minutes or so and we had no chance to make use of that opportunity. Overall, my main take away was that we should invest our money, wisely but not overly cautiously. Maybe I should join Biz club and play the game every week. I certainly enjoy competitive games like that. =D