t@keUtoMyhe@rt: Philippines Trip

28^th November 2007 (Wednesday)

Although the activities started yesterday, but the opening ceremony was held today. At first it was expected that the president of Philippines, Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would attend this opening ceremony, but at the end she sent her representative to represent her. The opening ceremony was filled of country report by each ASEAN country and a conference with a theme of “Engineering, Energy and the Environment: Ensuring Survival For Future Generations.” The objective of the theme is to urge all engineers to use its engineering skills to tackle the burgeoning issues of the environment in ASEAN region or even in the world. From the conference, I learnt different perspective from different country to address this arising issue in their country.

At night Philippines Young Engineers (YEP) organized a fellowship for all the young delegates at a restaurant. All the young delegates attended this event until we needed to combine all the tables together to form one long table. Frankly, that was the longest ever table I had ever seen in my life. It looked like a global village there where everybody shared their views from different point of view from their country. I even knew two engineering students, one from Philippines and one from Cambodia. The fun part of it was every country needed to sing a song after our dinner. What was truly unforgettable was the song we sang together during the dinner. I think that was the most memorable moment of my trip in Cebu. This was how our friendship was fostered through these activities and relationship between us was getting better and better.