20110314 Vocational Day for Jessie-MemberFirst Credit Union

Today I visit a Financial Institution name “MemberFirst Credit Union” which is a small bank focus on individuals, especially on the people who live in communities. Shareholders of Credit Union are their members, so if you want to be their customers, then you must apply to become a member first. But why people want to be their members? Because the “interest rate”, members could get lower mortgage rate and higher saving interest rate instead of the annual dividends from the Credit Union.

      What’s the different between commercial bank and credit union in Australia? The product lines of Credit Union is smaller than commercial banks. For example “Foreign Exchange” and “Credit cards” are not provided by Credit union. Although they are restricted in some product lines but they provide better rates and services for members especially they are familiar with local people. And they are also one of the funding resources for companies such as Quantas. That’s why they are so popular here and your savings are 100% be guaranteed.   

     First Credit Union” in Merryland has over 5,000 members. And the manager is one of the Rotarians in Holroyd Club. When we talk about the closing daily balance, she said they usually leave one person to close account because all records are been inputted in the systems, why should we need to spend more manpower? In Taiwan, bank must to balance their account everyday and also usually off their duty around 7:00pm with all the coworkers. Quite late and inefficiency!! [Image] David, Me, Chistine in MemberFirst credit union.

David, Jessie, Christine in MemberFirst credit union

     Thanks Christine and David caring me to visit the “MemberFirst Credit Union" and I learn much here.
By Jessie

2011/03/14 1st Heartbroken changeover and vet vocational day

After saying goodbye to my first host family with tears, I was going to meet the next host family. When I saw Warwick and then I realized immediately, ha! Everything will be very ok; he looks so nice, so kind!



Say goodbye to hostfamily of Strathfield Rotary Club
Dear Trevor, Nanette and Jonathan~~~I will miss you!

 

Kiss bye with lovely Lacie



Next day was my vocational day. I had a short internship in Holroyd Vet Clinic. Jim showed me lots of professional works, including how to cure itching (a golden retriever), how to remove the tumor under skin from a cat, how to do castration surgery for a cat……etc. There was a 15 year-old cat that was very sick for a long time and his belly is getting swollen. After checking again and again, vets just knew there was something wrong with his kidney functions. In order to make sure what happened to this cat, they decided to open it. As a result, one side of his kidneys got stock, so urine could not drain out. That’s why his kidney became so big. Vets thought it was very difficult case because only kidney transplantation can save him. However, it’s too hard and risky for such an old cat, so they phoned his owner to decide to wait for surgery or euthanasia…It’s a difficult decision, isn’t it?

Then, Alan took me to the Central Garden where keeps several Australia native animals, such as wallabies, kangaroos, emus and cockatiels. Alan is the vet in the Central Garden to check animals’ healthy condition. There were many people had picnic there, but I still can feel animals look very relax and happy. Australians respect animals and share environment with animals, there is no doubt about people always say that Australia is the paradise for animals.

Friendly Holroyd Vet Clinic

Cockatiels behind me

Happy kangaroo at Central Garden

by Herbie

0312 SES visiting & lovely night at Trevor and Nan’s house

SES _ state emergency service

Saturday morning, all of us went to SES to do training. What is SES? “ Ordinary people doing extraordinary things. ” Volunteers are the most valuable assets of the SES. The NSW SES has over 10,000 dedicated and committed people across NSW who volunteer to help their local community in times of floods, storms and other emergencies.

As a volunteer with the NSW SES they will have the opportunity to:

l          Help their community

l          Learn new skills

l          Form lifelong friendships

Information from SES

It is a very great experience for me and I have never been to SES or any other institution like this in Taiwan.

This is Darrin who is the controller of SES in STRATHFIELD with more than 15 years experience introducing history and equipments of SES.

Compared to SES in Australia, emergency service in Taiwan is known as 119 taking care of not only damages of natural disaster but also everything emergent like car accident, animals in danger…etc, phoned by people.

A woman with pain

Oh my God!!! When I saw this lady with blood and though she got really hurt. SES person tried to ask her some questions and confirm if she was OK. She really cried loudly and seemed very painful. I think she could get the best actress award ^^

posters with cartoon to promote SES which educate people to know about SES easily

lunch_BBQ with everyone

Chris from GSE team Philippine _ haha so cute to be the volunteer

After visiting in SES, Penny and Nan drove us around. Look!!! 5 very beautiful and young girls jumped excited in Olympic park.

 Believing in your eyes. Yes!! We were travelling in a cemetery which is the biggest in the south hemisphere with so many different countries people pasted away.

It was the last day we stayed with our host families from Strathfield Rotary Club and we wanted to make some Taiwanese dishes in appreciation for their great treatment.

#528 Our chief “Delphine” was choosing best mushroom for dinner.

#560 Five flower Taiwanese restaurant

#599 Trevor prepared so yummy lamb for us

#620 with all of our host families

Thank Trevor and Nan prepared so wonderful dinner for us and we really enjoyed sooooo much and hoped you would like Taiwanese dishes from Five Flowers Restaurant.

#656 Tasty deserts from Sue

Thank Sue for your lovely sweets to be the perfect ending for this lovely night. We would always remember this day. Love you all…

By Yu Ting

2011/03/11 Wanna be animals in Tarongo Zoo

I was so excited about going to have the vocational day in Taronga Zoo this morning, which made me lose my sleep till 2 last night. It was a really early morning for me and my alarm was ringing on time at 6. When I opened my eyes, unbelievable, the sky was still dark. However, we had to go to Sydney Olympic park wharf on time to catch the ferry (Nanette, Penny and Sue, these three beautiful and thoughtful ladies arranged for us, they wanted us experience different view from train system. Thanks, ladies!)

What a beautiful Zoo! Inside the zoo, you can see the Opera House, Harbor Bridge, and the entire city and harbor views. It makes me feel jealous of animals live there. In the first 2 hours, there was a lovely guide, Ben, explained the native Australia mammals for us. Ben is so professional and friendly, we do learn a lot of knowledge we never learn from books from him. Let me show you something interesting:

Cassowary  They look friendly but not really. In the zoo, they belong to dangerous group as lions and leopards.

Platypus  They are mammals but they lay eggs.

Wombat  They are relatives of koala, and they use rock butt for self-defense.

Koala  Joeys eat their moms’ poo poo for developing their digestive system.

Roos  When they suffer harsh environment (drought), the fertilized eggs always store inside the reproductive tract. Eggs will start to develop when the environment recover to good condition.

More…(too much to write!)

Furthermore, we patted wallabies and fed them with corns. We visited the animal accommodation part to see how they prepare diets for zoo animals.

Be jealous of us?

I would like to say “Thank you” to D9690. They organized such a wonderful vocational day for us. Actually, this is my second time to be in Torango Zoo. First time, I went there by myself, I just walked around and took some photos with animals. This time, we are just like VIP to visit somewhere not open to public, and we do learn lots of things about animals. Thanks again!



Lovely Ben and Taiwan GSE

by Herbie

2011/3/10 Vocational visit – De Lorenzo

Vocational visit – De Lorenzo www.delorenzo.com.au

A private owned professional hair product company .. established in 1986 by brother Vincent and Anton De Lorenzo. Emphasizing “local”, originate from Australia/ key ingredients from Australia/ from conceptive to actual product R&D in Australia/ manufacturing in Australia.

Here we are, fresh ladies in the morning ^^

GSE team Philippines and Taiwan arrived at De Lorenzo at 10:30, signed in and greeted by general manager Mr. Greg Long. (Mr. Long used to be one of the Rotarian years ago). The short greeting from Greg is warm and welcoming. Joe from R&D explain more on the company history/ back ground and competitive edge comparing with some multi national company – such as P&G/ Loreal… also, how R&D dept work closely with professional hairdresser to test and confirm new products. Jason took over Joe’s role for touring us in production department. He has explained areas designated for finish product/ bulk and accessories (1^st/ secondary packaging) in warehouse; showed us the production order form (which I think is designed brilliantly) the formulation tank (the smallest formulating tank is 120kg and the biggest capacity is 4.5MT); semi auto and complete auto filling machines for color products. Tour completed at loose order packing area (area where they pack small order from individual salon). 

GSE team Philippines,Taiwan and Joe

It’s a great visit .. while we all back in the employee cafeteria for sandwich/ fruit and coffee .. comments like “I never know it’s o complicate to produce a hair product”/ it’s amaze to see manufacturing theme/ it’s great to know De Lorenzo’s hot selling item is “REJUVEN8” tell how this group of people appreciate the visit. As for me, I am glad to learn how this local company survives and the format of production order and of course the local ingredients – native plant extracts, Kakadu Plum/ Rooibos/ Birch & Willowbark. Full range shades of hair coloring (120) products also impress me a lot.

Hyde Park Barracks Museum www.hht.net.au

Built between 1817 and 1819 to provide secure night lodging for government assigned male convicts, the central building served as an dormitory for an average of 600 men sleeping in hammocks in 12 rooms .. (the hammocks lay very closely .. don’t think it’s comfortable .. hoho). In 1848 Hyde Park Barracks became the Immigration Depot for single females .. the original hammock room was altered and hammock being replaced by iron beds.

4 of the interesting learning for the visit .. 

1.  Rats – lots of rats – in show case (dry remains)/ rat sign for Q&A and for room identifications; the only live one is in the demo box right at the admission office.

2. One of the convicts “Thomas Harvey” carried his “ Certificate of Freedom” around to prove he is a free man – please refer to picture.

     
  3.  Convicts were sent from France/ Spain/ Portugal/ Netherlands/ Russia/ Argentina .. British alone has sent 166,000 convict men, women and children to Australia between 1788 and 1868. The distance between Britain and Australia is about 24,500 kilometre, it takes 4-8 months to reach Australia from Britain via boat. Ship Eden as the last official boat to land convicts in Sydney on Dec. 1840 .. other cities – Van Diemen’s (Tasmania) landed till 1853 and the very final convict vessel landed in Western Australia in 1868.  

4. Creative idea to make a dull museum becoming an interesting and worth to visit one. 

Ending the day at Queen Victoria Building – dinner and window shopping for Jean/ Yu-Ting and me (unbelievable!!!) .. Herbie and Jessie bought gifts from a Italy made leather product store. We’ve enjoyed the day very much with our host moms – Penny/ Sue and Nan. 

by Delphine

2011/03/10 G'day!! Transportation in Syndey!

The first Day in Sydney, we experienced all transportations here including train, ferry, and bus. We took a train to Circular Quay station to visit the beautiful Sydney Harbor and Opera House, then transferred to Manly Beach by ferry. On the way home by train, someone jump to train to suicide (we were shocked when we heard the broadcast), so we gave up taking a train then transfer to take a bus to make sure that we could catch up the welcome party with District Governor in the meeting of Strathfield Rotary Club. The partners of Rotarian said its special experience for them too. In the meetings, we did a brief introduction and sing a song named “Lovely Roses” to around 80 people came from four clubs around the Strathfield. Although we were nervous but our first presentation had a great feedback, so we still need to practice more. After the meetings, we were tired especially experienced the "Train Surprise" so host families took us home quickly to have a nice sleep. They are kind and thoughtful. Really appreciate.

Opera House

Manly Beach

by Jessie

2011/03/08 Good bye xoxoxo (kiss)! My dear country

Leaving time is coming. I felt that I was not ready at all, but I have got the flight ticket in my hand, so it seemed that I didn’t have any other choice.

Move on! Move on! Move on…… This voice keeps going from my mind and pushes me forward! Then, I took my backpack bravely, and said good bye loudly to my lovely country, and I will see you one month later!

G’ Day! Australia~ here we are!!!

P.s. Thanks PP Bill came to KHS airport to say good bye to us xoxoxo!

Blessing from dear PP Bill



Dinner at HK airport to celebate Jessie's secrete year-old birthday

by Herbie