Happiness and Poverty-Si Yan

In my opinion, being rich might not necessarily make you happy. Even with very little, we can still be contented and be thankful of what we have, and that can make us happy too. Although money can help with the purchase of necessities and others, it cannot buy everything in the world. I've been to few third world countries and one example is that, even though children in Nepal are not as rich as many others, they are still contented as they play around with whatever they have, and I think that it is more important than just being wealthy. 

RV60 Reflection-Si Yan

This year is River Valley's 60th anniversary, all of us worked hard for this celebration event. I was involved in the wushu mass display and I think that even though we were not the best, we had put in our best effort and that was the most important. During the 2 months of preparation, many people complained about the long hours of practice. However, when the big day came and we showcased our performance, we were proud as we had done it. I feel that it could have been done better as the preparation hours were quite long, and it also took up many days of our end of year holiday. Even so, this celebration has been a success, celebrating our school's achievements and our history. I'm proud that the school has come so far, and we had worked together as one, making this happen. 

The extra in the ordinary- Si Yan

This picture might just show a group of students drumming on our traditional Chinese drums. However, no one would know that it is a part of a huge performance to celebrate river valley's 60th anniversary, and no one would know how much effort is put in by all the students for this event. This shows that there is a story behind every picture and we should not just assume and think that our assumption is right. 

RV60 Reflections from Jingwei

   I mean, I'm only in the second year in my RV life, so I might not feel so much about RV 60.
When I look back in it in the future what would my mindset be again. I bet it would be a memory that I could cherish.
   It was a total of three months of preparation, it build from nothing, to something, something that is really complex. Like those autotrophic nutrients, you build it from a simple substance, to a complex, and meaningful substance that could benefit people.
   In these three months, we had sweat under the sun, staying there for hours each day. But we really bear with it. Even though there are weathers that are very bad causing the progress to slow down, we still bear with it and train by ourselves.
   I was in the mass performance group, in dance society. I got to know many of my senior dancers during the time. As well, we got 60 boys from other CCAs to help us with the dance. They could be from NCC, NPCC, Basketball, or even shooting. We got to know people, got to interact and learn as well as suffer together as one. I bet it is RV spirit.
   There were some murmurs about RV60 saying it in negative ways. But what I see was that the people were benefiting from it, they eventually stopped in the last one month. There were less, to none negative comments. Instead, I heard more and more encouraging words for each other.
    We did learn a lot in the whole three months. Like what MRS Teo said," It is the journey, the experience we had together, the learnings we got in the three months that is important. To the final celebration of RV60."
   Yes, RV60 wasn't a celebration, it was a memory for all of us, it was the relation that bound us together United as one, no matter who you are where you from.

The Extra in the Ordinary-Jingwei

What is this photo? This would be your first thought when you start looking at it. 

It looks fancy, some young people are wearing pink costume with a fan doing movements. Others are wearing blue and...Wait, are those actually tables? 

                Wow! Wow! The moon seems so BIG, but why is there "stains" on it? These may all be your questions for this photo.
                  In fact, it was a mass display held in River Valley High School to celebrate its 60th anniversary. Yes! It is even older than Singapore itself.
                  These students had used their November and December holidays to come back to school and rehearse on the performance. Which means while other high school students are enjoying in their  air-conditioned house playing video games or overseas traveling, or even playing with their friends. They are training very hard for it in school. But the truth is that the teachers actually also come back to help the students using their time willingly.
                    It was surely a hard time during the three months. But the process was memorable, an unforgettable experience to all. What is important was the learning in the three months together with their schoolmates instead of the performance itself. It was meaningful to the school, the teachers, and the students.

The Extra in the Ordinary -Pin Shin

The inserted photo is a photograph taken by the River Valley Photography Club. In the picture, the emcees of RV60 are being briefed by Ms Dawn Wong on their scripts. I choose this photo as it reminds me of the hard work and effort we emcees put in. After 3 months of preparation by not just the students, but also the teachers, the fact that we are able to present a grand performance makes me proud. The presence of Ms Wong in the photo reminds me that not just students, teachers put in a lot of work to to make sure RV60 is a success, too!

Pin Shin's RV60 Reflection

This year, we celebrate RV60 by having a series of performance in which all students are suppose to take part. I was chosen to be the Chinese emcee for it, together with 4 other seniors and one of my classmate Xin Yi.

I am very proud to be able to take part in such an important performance, although i accidentally injured my knee and was unfortunately unable to take part in the final performance on 16th of January... I still treasure this experience. Not only did I made new friends and learned new things about emceeing, such as the qualities needed to be an emcee.

However, there are things that I believe could be done better. For example, many students think that RV60 is something that is wasting time, energy... I think before the practice of performances, teachers should let them understand how important RV60 is and why they should give their best in it.  

Wan Jing's RV60 reflection

I think it is definitely an importance to celebrate RV60 . Celebrating an anniversary means that we have reached a milestone for us to look back and thank the seniors who were able to make RV into the school it is now . I know that alot of people feel that there are too many rehearsals and everyday , we have to go back at a later time . However , practice makes perfect and there is and will always be room for improvement . When we rehearse and those who did not came regularly came for the last few rehearsals , it was very obvious that they were lagging behind and they did not know the movements . I know that alot of us were tired after school and still had to go for RV60 , but I was sure that the end product will be worth it . Instead of complaining , we should have did better to perform an even better show .

The Extra in the Ordinary - Wan Jing

This photo was taken when I was waiting for my turn to perform during RV60 . It may seem like a simple picture of the RV60 balloon , but behind the scene , I could feel the excitement and how nervous , despite countless of rehearsals ,  were the rest of us . I could feel the RV spirit when we all performed together so I felt very happy to be a part of RV60 itself . 

Xin Qian's RV60 reflections

I think it is important to celebrate RV60 in order to unite the school as one, those who have graduated and those who are currently in the school as of now. Although this is the case, many people come to practice as and when they like, thinking that RV60 is something that the school has forced us to do. Because of this, it has resulted to many inconvenience during practice due to the lack of students turning up for practice. Even on the day itself, I could still see one or two empty spots that could mess up the whole entire choreography. If the performance for RV60 was not compulsory for students, but open for volunteering, I think there would still be many students who would love to volunteer, definitely not the entire school, but I'm sure quite an amount of students would be delighted to perform. The reason for this is that even though most of the students complain during the tough and long practices(including me), a lot of us tend to enjoy ourselves, as while practicing, we are surrounded by our own family, the RVians(also including me). Especially when we learn to do a part of the choreography in sync, we feel a huge sense of accomplishment and while giving ourselves a pat on our backs, I realized that RV60 was not just to celebrate a simple birthday, it had truly united us as one like we never have before. The most unexpected CCAs like the uniform groups, clubs and societies, sports CCAs came together as one to put up a simple Wushu performance. This RV60 celebration has made me feel proud to be a RVian.

The Extra in the Ordinary: Xin Qian

This picture might be seen as a failed/blurred one to many people but to me, it is one of the pictures I feel the best about. This is actually a screenshot of a video that a parent has taken during the RV60 preview. Even in the blurry state that it is in, you can see the straight lines we split into halfway during the performance. To be able to split 200 and more students without a flaw in seconds is truly amazing to me. Being part of this item, I know how much time we took practicing on the field, under the hot sun, to be able to achieve what we did. All of us had no experience in Wushu but came together as one to practice every session. I think that a lot of people might view our performance as one of the most "imperfect" ones, but I felt that we couldn't have done better. No one knows better about how much hard work we put in more than ourselves.

Self intro - Jingwei

My name is Jingwei, Li Jingwei.

Have quite a plenty of hobbies.

For example, running, reading, listening to albums, and playing computer games.

I'm in class 2D from River Valley High School.

In Singapore now, studying.

Not having a dream yet.

CID teacher: Mr Wong.

Race: Chinese

Religion: Christianity

Favorite subject since young: Math and Sciences, Languages and humanities😂😂

Favourite teacher: Secret.

Favourite food: Not sure myself

Favourite colour: Green the most, but the appropriately one at circumstances of course.

Dream occupation: Not considering.

Is my studies doing well: No, GPA got 2.8, did so bad in year one.

Targets in year two, improvement in Physical self, mentally, and spiritually👍🏼.
Oh! Almost forgot, I was born in 18 July 2001.(零零后）
Chinese no problems right👍🏼

Si yan's self intro 🐳

My name is Chan Si Yan and I'm from 2D. I have a variety of hobbies ranging from sports to arts and crafts. Many people recognize me as the "whale-lover", basically because I really like whales. I would describe myself as an adventurous and active person because I love trying out new things. An example would be when my family and I went to shangrila in China, we visited a Tibetan house and we were offered their traditional butter tea. I still remembered it was brown in colour and the smell was really strong. I was hesitant but still gulped it down.



Surprisingly, it tasted quite nice and then I realised that there was no harm trying out different things, and till now, I still travel with my family at least once a year, going to places like Nepal, Vietnam, Indonesia and so on. All these experiences are what makes up my personality and I'm really grateful to my parents for bringing me to these countries to experience other lifestyles.

Pin Shin's Self intro

Hello! My name is Pin Shin, number 21 from class 2D.

Even though my English name is Pin Shin, I prefer to be called as Pin Chen. Maybe because my first language is Chinese? 

I used to study in China and moved to Singapore at the age of 11. Although I have been back to China a lot, I would not mind to go one more time. China is such big country, and every district has its own culture and view. For example, in the southern parts of it, like my home town Xiamen, we have all the Min Nan (闽南) food and the architect style which is uniquely Min Nan. I found it very interesting to observe how the difference in location affects the style, taste of the food. Comparing Xiamen and Beijing, Xiamen is located very near Taiwan, thus it would have some "Taiwan taste" in the local food. For Beijing, as it is not as near the sea, so unlike Xiamen, there is not much seafood. Beijing being located near Mongolia also means that there is quite a lot of milk products, The low temperature in Beijing also means that it is not possible to have food such as ice kachang, instead, they have hot pots.

I would love to visit a different place in China, like Su Zhou! Su Zhou has been know for providing the emperor with the food they eat, so I would love to visit Su Zhou!

Wan Jing's Self Introduction .

Hello . 
It's me . 

I am Ng Wan Jing from class 2D and my register number is 15 . I like Kpop alot , especially EXO and BTS .

I do not think I am so special and is boring like black colour cause I really like the colour black . I think the colour black can represent my soul because I can be suddenly very serious and ignore my friends when I am not thinking about anything at all . However , I like to think myself as a very amusing person to be with , although all my friends describe me as lame ( I'm sad ) .

I think theres not alot of people in 2D that likes kpop and I am definitely saddened by that fact . );

Why am I always so sad ? 

I live to eat food and not eat food to live cause food is just so amazing . ( I'm hungry . )

I feel that I definitely need to improve on my studies because there is always room for improvement for everything .

Xin Qian's self introduction

Hello, my name is Ho Xin Qian, the register number 9 of Class 2D. I am turning 14 on the 27th of April which also makes me a Taurus. I am widely known as "turtle" in class and I am not very sure why and how that nickname came about. One of my favorite teachers is Miss Dawn Wong so I am sorry to say that I was extremely upset when I saw Mr Wong instead for my CID teacher. I'm a Korean pop fanatic, however, I enjoy listening to Chinese and English songs as well. Watching Korean dramas takes a huge part of my life and I am currently waiting for my life to transform into a roller coaster ride. (I don't think it's going to happen.) I am a supporter of the LGBT Community and a extreme supporter of Tyler Oakley and Troye Sivan, otherwise known as "troyler". Thank you for reading :D

Group blog post

The picture shows a Sudanese girl lying on the ground. Meanwhile, a vulture is eyeing her, waiting for her to die so it could feast on her. The photographer, Kevin Carter, took this photo for a photography competition. Many people criticized him for not helping the little girl and due to this, he regretted not helping the girl and committed suicide. From this exercise, I feel that people judge too quickly. I wonder if they knew that he actually had wanted to help, but was stopped at he was told that the child might have carried certain contagious diseases. If he had helped the child and gotten ill, I am sure people would then have commented that he should have known better. In my opinion, the starving child might have died sooner or later, with or without the photographer's help. However, that was not the case for Kevin Carter. He was a photographer that might have even had a bright future but thousands of people called him cruel and heartless. At that point of time, he couldn't take it any longer and his guilty conscience forced him to end his life. The child's life might be lost partly due to the photographer's fault but I wonder if the haters realize that they themselves are the cause of what happened to the Kevin Carter. We should never judge by what things seem to be. Unless we have seen the situation with our very own eyes, we shouldn't be too quick to judge.