A Whole Week of Fun and New Friends in Malacca~! Day 3 to 6

Due to midyear examinations, lagging school internet connections, and the lack of memory power, I forgot to post the continuation. XD Sorry for that. Here it is~ (The first part is here.)

Day 3: Wednesday

 We got to see the former Prime Minister in person today! Tun Dr. Mahathir gave a very nice and humorous speech about global unity. After that, while waiting for the bus to arrive, my friends and I chatted a bit with the Indian exchange students, and made friends with the SMS Sembrong people, whom, as I would find out later, will be with me throughout the rest of the week. (The two girls were taking part as presenter and copresentor. The other two, boys obviously, were useless people who got picked just to watch, like me.)

During the ice-breaking session with the international, I coincidentally met with a Portuguese who stayed at my school the day before, because of the number 8. (LOL, so lucky.) Fortunately, she said her stay there was very nice, and the tour guides very courteous. Phew.

At night, we were invited to go for dinner at the Malacca’s Chief Minister’s residence. It was BIG. MASSIVE. GIGANTUOUS. And it comes with its own separate gym. O.O Unfortunately, we weren’t able to enter and take a look around. But we were able to take pictures around the residence. :D I got to be in many people’s pics (I didn’t bring a camera, y’see. Had to be photobombing!) That also made up for the fixed seatings. Had loads of fun with the Italians, Giulia and whatshisname, and the STF girls. :)

Day 4: Thursday

 Today was the start of the two-day presentation of the international participants and fifteen local gold medalists. (Obviously my schoolmate and my old friend were included.) I felt very sorry for some of the international delegates, whose presentations were overshadowed by the locals’ experienced demonstration. After the three hour session, we had a workshop, in order to write our resolutions based on Tun’s keynote address. The captain was a Sabahan girl named Sahara (Who preferred to be called Sara) and a Lao girl, Susen was secretary. I became vice-captain reluctantly, due to my wrong timing to stand up and adjust my trousers while they were contemplating on their victim. In the end, I had to conduct everything (The leader used her veto power to force the whole leader work on me. XD) It was during this session that I realized people thought I was 16! (Technically, I still was, but coming to 17.) It was a very shocking compliment, to be called one year younger, but it was a compliment nonetheless. I think it was due to my cute boyish looks. (Though they pointed out that it was because of my immaturity. XD)

And finally, the most anticipated event of the day (And the whole week)… Sightseeing and shopping ‘round Malacca!!! It was the first time I  went sightseeing with a bunch of friends (And one with most, excluding me and another Form Fiver, being a year younger.) and teachers. We stopped at the Taming Sari Tower (The first gyrotower in Malaysia.) and went up 80m into the air, discovering a breathtaking 360-degree bird’s eye view of Malacca drenched in the evening sunlight.

Afterwards, we went off the beaten track (After listening to Madame Chin, a jolly Chinese teacher, and her lengthy explanation time constraints and the time-consuming schedule) and rode on the river cruise a half hour earlier than the others; that way we’d gain more shopping time. Alas, it was not meant to be; we ordered food at Chicken Rice Shop 15-20 minutes before departure, and the bus was far away. It was pretty ironic, because we had Madame Chin with us, who didn’t like people being late. Nevertheless, we had lotsa fun, and had plenty of laughs while eating.

Day 5: Friday

 Today was pretty uneventful compared to yesterday; it was like yesterday, sans the sightseeing. Once again, I had to commandeer the workshop, much to my leader’s glee. We learnt new games, one from Indonesia, and one from Malaysia (Yeah, I didn’t know. Awkward.) So many interesting things occurred (One of them being the international student’s fluency to say the word Buaya/Crocodile and Biawak/Lizard) And then came the gift exchange! I spent most the time yesterday night shopping for souvenirs (Only RM9) Then I saw some bringing in gifts from their schools. All of us went blur- headed, thinking whether what each other brought was wrong!

At night, we had the closing ceremony. Everyone used this time to talk with everyone else, since it was the last day, and the international delegates had to go back. You could see everyone bringing and exchanging books, jotting down contact infos, ensuring future contact with each other, even though they are states and countries apart. Stayed up late to mingle with people, learning new and interesting things ‘bout different languages and cultures. It was pretty sad though, as my 16 year-old mates had to leave that night too. But I shrugged it off, and had a fitful slumber.

Day 6: Saturday

 The morning started with a light drizzle, voicing the sadness and reluctance to let go of this moment. But nothing lasts forever, right? I just hope I could see them again, in the near future, if God wills it.

 So that’s it from me ‘bout this seemingly awesome weeklong adventure. J Will be uploading pics (If I have the time. And if I find some. I need to scour at friend’s FB accounts.)

It Was My BDay... And Nobody Remembered...

The Reading Room

I was in the reading room on the ground floor of my dormitory block, when I received a call from my mother. It struck me as weird, as I had only sent her a text asking her to check whether the deadline of the KFC Star Create competition falls on the 15^th, and she, being the typical cheapskate when it comes to words, would reply one word; ‘yes’ or ‘no’. I picked up the call, and surprise, surprise, my sister’s voice rang into one ear and out the other, screaming ‘Happy 17^th birthday, Abang!’ Utterly surprised, I was, and glancing at my watch, I realised that indeed, the long hand struck 12. Now, now, before you say it’s impossible to forget one’s birthday, I did know it’d be my birthday, but as I’d been complete absorbed in checking my essay during the whole hour prior that, I’d completely forgotten. After chatting with my family underneath the coffee table (The school rules states in black and white that phones are forbidden.), I took out my parents’ gift given to me a few days earlier, on a Wednesday, since they couldn’t be with me on my special day (A solid reason why I shouldn’t be able to forget my birthday.) – a brand new, glossy red camera!  

Busy with work, even on my BDay...

 I spent the day unlike my previous birthdays before this; busy being undetected and low profile. There’s a good reason for this. There’s a tradition at my school regarding birthdays. The said tradition involves a large group of people (Preferably 15+) beating up the birthday boy, if possible in a dark classroom, at night, during preparation class. And I don’t want the same happen to me. So obviously, I made sure all sources that hint at my birthday, however miniscule it were, halts before the precious information gets into the wrong hands. Unfortunately, my dorm mate teased me, telling me he knew my birthday.

 And that was why I wiped off my birth date from my Facebook account temporarily. That, and another reason; to find out whether anyone would care enough to remember my birthdate. It was a regrettable action, seeing as none of my friends bothered to wish me a happy birthday. Well, one did, a close friend and a sensei of mine, but it was a tad late, but I don’t mind. All the wishes I received were from family members. Well, serves me right for being curious. But at least I knew how dependant people are for Facebook.

 At the end of the day, no one dangerous knew it was my birthday. Yeah, my close schoolmates knew my birthday, but they 

weren't the type to get all excited over an ambush. What was surprising was that my knowing dorm mate didn’t wish me. Turned out he forgot it. Then he tells me that a Korean star’s birthday falls on Wednesday. Guess I’m less important than his idols.

A Whole Week of Fun and New Friends in Malacca~! Day 1 and 2

 Two weeks ago, on a fine Sunday night, in the reading room, I was given a difficult choice; either to go to Muzaffar Shah School (MOZAC) for the Fully Residential School’s International Symposium (FRSIS) for a WHOLE WEEK… Or stay in school, due to drama practice. I initially declined, but after talking ‘bout it with a close friend, and much, much consideration, I changed my mind and packed my bags.

 It was the best decision of my entire life.

 To tell you guys my awesome and fun weeklong adventure, I shall tell the tale day by day (Mind you, it’s a tad long. This is personally for my own reference, and sharing it with you guys seems more exciting.):

Day 1: Monday

 After arriving at MOZAC at ‘round 11 and checked ourselves in, we did ABSOLUTELY NOTHING (Other than eating and sleeping.) The reason for the lack of activity is to let all 63 residential schools’ representatives reach the destination.

 63!? I hear you scream in terror. Yup. That would make the number of participants, let’s see… 4 per school… Times 63… Ah, 252. Excluding the twenty-something Indian exchange students staying at the girl’s dormitories (The symposium is part of their two week stay in Malaysia.) How is it that they’re able to fit all the guests into the dorms, already packed full of MOZAC students? Simple: Give the MOZAC students a week’s holiday. Lucky them.

The boys' dormitory. The open shower's behind the stairs.

 During my exploration of the school grounds (Which usually occurs whenever I’m bored.), I find one of many shocking discoveries; their showers have NO DOORS! And there’s a roofless shower on the ground floor, for all to see~ How was I supposed to shower without people watching me?

This is MOZAC. Did I mention it was on a hill? :3

Day 2: Tuesday

 Today was the day of the competition. I left for the hall at ‘round 7.45… After taking a shower in the toilet (Hey, I ain’t weird. Half of the participants did the same thing.). It’s basically a public speaking kind, where all 63 presenters present their presentations (Duh), based on the theme ‘Global Culture Generates World Unity’, and what better place to have it but at MOZAC, one of few multi-racial boarding schools in Malaysia? Most were common, like how food can start unity of races, and only a few managed to catch my attention (Like the Kenyah tribe in Sarawak, and the miniscule, yet fascinating fact that Fijians love fat people.) I didn’t managed to see all of the presentations presented (What, you expect me to be able to be present at all ten sessions simultaneously?) and unfortunately, I didn’t get to see my friend’s one, as his session was held in a small classroom, and there were limited spaces.

This is Hazeem. :)

 The ice-breaking session, for me, was the best activity of the day. Not only did it give me a chance to mingle with other people, I also bumped into my old friend (Hazeem’s his name.)! Such a funny coincidence, to meet because of the colour red (We were grouped into four teams based on the piece of coloured paper behind our tags.) We were then grouped by the numbers on the coloured paper, and would stay in the same group during the ice-breaking session with the international students the next day.

 Later that night, I, my schoolmate and an acquaintance we got to know with this wicked British accent auditioned for Master of Ceremony. Unfortunately and surprisingly, all of us failed. And the weird thing is, the boys they chose were not that good compared to my friends. The girls were marvelous, though. And that made me a bit green with envy.

 I shall continue this tale on a later date, as it is too long. :) Ciao. :D

My Embarrassing Speech and What I Learned From It~!

I remember my first speech as if it was yesterday. Ah... Oh wait, it WAS yesterday. And it was disastrous, I can tell you that. I had it all planned in my head, what I was gonna do, what I was gonna say. And when I steeped on the stage and grasped the mike in my hands, it all went POOF. When I looked back, I realised I made too many mistakes, and gave the audience (The students.) too little info. And as soon as I stepped off the stage, I sank to the ground. Funny how my legs knew when to lose their strength at just the right moment.

 Simply put, it was a failure. I lost all my confidence back there. Being the emotional me, I finally broke down when I unexpectedly bumped into my English teacher, whom I avoided on purpose out of guilt for not doing better. It's okay now, though. I'll just have to... Find a dark corner... A-and weep my heart out quietly. *sniff*

 Still, I learned many things from the embarrassing incident:

•          i.            Never trust the timetable
    This was the main factor of the failure of my speech. Initially, as it was written on paper, my speech was due a week later. My teacher, however, had a sudden change of heart, and decided to bring it earlier as ‘there would be many future events , and there would be no time  during the coming weeks’.
  
  
         ii.            Never confide in your joker friend
   This is very much a must if you have doubts on your choice of topic. I had chosen my topic a week earlier (What was my topic, you ask. Wait for it. Read on.) had it all planned out. Then two days before my turn, I made the mistake of asking for my joker friend’s opinion. ‘Boring.’ Was his reply, which panicked me. As a result, I spent the final day trying  to think of other fascinating topics instead of focusing on my choice.
  
  
        iii.            Write your points down...
  ... Uness you’re sure your memory won’t fail, you however strong it might be, when you face the audience. Trust me, you do not want to hem and haw while you talk in front of them. If you think it’s annoying when other people do that, it’s annoying to them when YOU do that.
  
  
       iv.            Choose a suitable, tease-proof topic to talk about when you talk to a audience that's prone to teasing
   If you don’t mind being the centre of attention, don’t mind me, just carry on reading the next point. My topic was something you wouldn’t hear usually/ awkward at my school... It’s entitled... Ugh... ‘Puppy Love’. My audience was obviously the type who likes to tease their mates at every, and I mean EVERY chance they could get. Put the two together, and BAM! You get called Puppy for the rest of the day... And most probably the rest of the year.
  
  
   Heck, when I stepped into the library, the trainee teacher took one look at me and yelled, ‘It’s Puppy Love!’ Yes, even teachers called me that for the whole day.
  
  
         v.            Don't be too hard on yourself
   This is the most valuabe thing I learnt that day. All I thought after the speech was:
  
  
   OMG, IT WAS SO BAD. I’M DOOMED. IT WAS TERRIBLE, I COULD SEE IT IN THEIR EYES. THEY’RE DISAPPOINTED. I’M A FAILURE. I’M SO DUMB. WHAT A COWARD... ETC.
  
  
   Yeah, it’s true. I felt that negative the whole day. But, throughout the day, friends and teachers came up to me and said, ‘Hey, nice speech! It was funny! Even the headmaster lauged!’ (What, really? Achievement unlocked! :D), ‘You were very calm, despite the fact that you were panicking.’, ‘You had very nice points!’, ‘It’s okay, it was good enough. Your friends were like “Go, you can do it!” when you paused and cried.’(I didn’t realise they were cheering me on. I didn’t know I was CRYING ONSTAGE. My life is RUINED. D:) One even told me to stop being too hard on myself, and not to give up. It’s a relief knowing that they were feeling the opposite of what I thought. :)
  
  
  That’s all the lessons I could think of from that speech. It wasn’t all that bad in the end. At least it inspired me to write a short story. Have a nice day~! :D

Teens, is Becoming Pregnant the Norm Now?

Boy picks girl up at house ---> They eat ---> They talk ---> They walk ---> They do the 'thing' (If you know what I mean.)

 That's my friend's concept of what he thinks teenage couples usually do whenever they go out. I then asked him why he thought teenagers were shameless enough to do it in public, right after they finished walking. He revised his concept:

                                                                                                           They open door                

Boy picks girl up at house ---> They eat ---> They talk ---> They walk ^---> They do the 'thing'

I then replied by asking him why there was suddenly a door in the middle of the sidewalk? Did it fall out from the sky, or does Doraemon really exist? He answered by punching my arm.

 But he does have a point. As you all may or may not know, we live in the era where teen pregnancy and drunks are the norm, and virgins and sober are considered socially awkward. I remember a few years back, when the news of a 13 year old who became a father shocked me and my family.Go to Facebook. You'd find loads of pregnant teens in a certain country, whose name I shall not divulge *coughcoughUSAcoughcough*. I did see one going by the lines of 'Hooray, I'm finally 13! I can get pregnant and go on MTV and get drunk and wild now! :D' Well, it probably didn't go like that, but she was implying it in that sense.

 It's kind of sad to see them act like dumb bimbos, hating smart and goodhearted people. I hate to admit it (Since I'm also a teen), but though the present's technology has advanced, our moral values have been dying slowly. The way things are now, I'd hate to see what the future generations would do in their adolescence...

Wonder What It's Like To Be Famous

When I logged on to Facebook like I usually do when there's nothing else on the library's to-do list (I'm a librarian, in case you have guessed.), I was greeted with a fascinating post on my news feed. It instructed people to tune in to tune in to a radio station, as there was an hour long interview of someone we know. That meant I had less than 40 minutes to find a radio, plus a good place to hear the interview static-free. After barging into a third floor dorm (Apparently, the higher you are, the clearer the signal, and cursing to myself as I frantically flipped through the frequency countless times (Don't get me wrong. I knew the frequency. It's just that my school is in another state. Can you blame moi for not knowing it was the same frequency over here too?), I finally got through just in time to hear her cheery voice, seconds before a song came on.

 As I listened to the interview, a memory struck me. I reminisced the first time I heard her sing for a Hannah Montana competition at school a few years back. I thought, wow, cool, she's famous now. I'm listening to someone I know on radio. Then a question popped up in my mind; what is it like to be famous? I'm pretty sure famous people were always happy, right? I know if I could gain as much popularity as my friend's getting right now, I'd probably be able to snap my fingers while I'm writing this and a fan would somehow manage to break into my house and come rushing to me with a cuppa tea for me to sip on. I'd be able to ask for things that I couldn't ask for now because I'm rich. 'Hey, that's kinda true.', you people might say. 'I'm gonna try to be famous! Where can I sign up?'

 But have we actually wondered the other side of the coin? I never did. All I saw their pretty plasticlike faces, smiling as they greet fans. But then they'd have a lot of work to do in order to maintain their huge fanbase, right? Tight schedules, making music, acting in videos, trying to please other people. That's pretty stressful stuff for teenagers. With all the things I needa study, I suddenly lost my appetite of popularity. Probably gonna think 'bout it in the future, when I'm bored and there's nothing else to do. As of now, whether I'm popular or not, I'm content with my baby brother getting me a cuppa tea whenever I click my fingers. :)

Random vid!!!:

(Okay, maybe not so random. :D)

Of Annoying Siblings and Meaningless Arguments!

 I'm sure most of you reading this have siblings, whether they're older and younger than you. I'm the eldest, so I'd know what lil kids are made of. Sugar and spice and everything nice... NOT. It's more towards eye of newt, tongue of dog, wings of bat. The ingredients pretty much sums them kids up: NASTY. Yet I still love those lil impish children, no matter how much they try to break my eardrums with their repulsive screams.

 I was talking 'bout my bros. They're way too easy to read compared to my sis. Then again, it's probably because she's a girl, and girls are ALWAYS complicated, right? :) And most girls can't read boys very well too, that's a fact.
 We've fought over lil things all the times, (Like who controls the remote, whose turn is it to use the laptop, etc.), but it was always short. And she'd go very extreme at trying to annoy me, using many weird methods of hers. It kinda made me feel like she hates me. Which is pretty obvious, duh. :D

 But what I came to realise is, (With the help of my parents, of course.) it's that little sisters have their own ways of showing they're affection. My sister's way is to constantly bug me all the time. I still find the 'bickering equals care' quite hard to grasp, but at least I know that she cares, in a way. And to those of you who thinks fussy little fights are not good, think again. They bring kids closer, sort of. Which is better: 1) You hate and fight each other when you're young, and became stuck like glue in the end, or 2) You lead a non-fight-your-siblings life, and end up giving the cold shoulders to them in the near future?

 So, moral of this suddenly turned up piece of writing (In case you haven't noticed.): They (Annoying lil bros and sis, and arguments all year round) spice up people's childhood. It certainly did for me. I don't like my siblings to be goody two shoes all the time, because that's like having your fave meals daily: It's nice at first, but get dull and predictable after a while. And it's fun to bicker and argue... Especially when you know you're gonna win most of the time. ;)

 That's it from me. Now, go ahead and pick a meaningless fight with your siblings over the remote control! :D