green leaf.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

oh gosh had LOTS of problems trying to sign in, and now FINALLY I CAN! :D

ok i have lotsandlotsandlots of things that i want to say and blog about so i guess this will be like a compo instead haha (:

4 days 3 nights West Malaysia Educational Tour
Negeri Sembilan
26th to 29th May 2007

day 1: 26 May 2007

its e second day of school holidays already! had a school holiday on friday (: woke up at 5am! got ready and stuff and then went to e bus stop outside e masjid next to moelc to meet the others. took a cab with mum and dad :D i had like a big bag, a day pack and a plastic bag full of food! anyway the bus finally departed at around 7 and yes, we were finally leaving for kampung lonek! :D (the bus was SUPER-cold. brrr.)

reached singapore customs rather shortly and had to wait quite long. there were lots of other buses and cikgu patimah said that they were also students going to malaysia, just that they are going to other places. went down with all our luggage and jing yi, su ing and me went to a different queue from the others because it LOOKED shorter. looked only. but then we realised that the personnel at the counter was so super slow! :/ even some of the others in front of us moved away to other queues la. then was finally our turn and we realised why he tooked so slow. he was actually quite nice la, like said good morning, have a nice trip and tried to make conversation unlike perhaps the other personnels, who might just look at you, your passport and then you again, some even without smiling. waited for jing yi at the other end and then i thought i saw someone who looked like ivan but i wasnt sure haha. the whole customs was like full of cat high boys and perhaps that was the reason it was rather noisy :P

and ya, blah blah reached e malaysian customs and this time the three of us were the fastest (yay!) cos we are malaysians and can use the autogate :D then waited for the others at the bench with cikgu bahri and saw ivan. realised that it was him after all haha. then after all the others were done we boarded the bus and were on our way!

along the way was fun, eating and laughing and doing funny stuff. (i missed ndp training today! :/ ) stopped at yong peng and saw this super cute and big SPONGEBOB cushion! ohh it was very cute but then didnt buy it cos i wouldnt have enough hands to carry it all back home haha. then we moved on and the driver played a scary-and-gross-and-probably-a-m18 show called 'the hills have eyes II'. ohmy it was so eugh that i dont want to describe it. i understand that the driver wants to make us not feel so bored but could he please played something else not so gory ):

reached kampung lonek at around 3.30pm, which was waaaaay late because we were supposed to have reached there at 12pm. we then ate our lunch with our HANDS (yes, our right hands (: ), and then we were told who were our foster parents. i was in a group together with cheng mun, jing yi, su ing and li ling and our foster mother was puan khamsiah. she was very nice la, and it was very fun trying to communicate with them, like frantically flipping the kamus and things like that. our room was very nice! the camera is not with me now so i shall upload them next time (:

the house has 4 sheep! :D

day 2: 27 May 2007

woke up rather late at 6.30am because we stayed up until around 11 plus last night. had an agricultural visit to the dragon fruits garden, paddy fields and a demo of rubber tapping. it was fun la, but the sun was quite hot. but i didnt get tanned! ): saw many cute children in the kampung and i felt that living in a kampung is actually very lucky; they are all very united and also very friendly. like whenever you drive past a house, the people there will be waving to you and saying hello or bye, its really very heartwarming.

in the afternoon we had a handicraft session which we weaved baskets out of rattan. it was very fun but my basket wasnt very nice ): after that had a tea break and then i played congkak with najual, my neighbour's foster sister! :D she is only 11 years old but the looked small for her age! her younger sister akirah is 10 and her brother ikbal is like very young and cute! ah wait, they ALL are young and cute! :D

at night after dinner we went to the balai raya for a cultural performance. yun qi, jia'en and rosanna got to wear baju kurung! its like different when you wear it over there and when you wear it like maybe, in school for racial harmony day. to me its like a totally different atmosphere and meaning la. anyway they sang songs and there was this girl who was only 13 years old and she sang very well! like, wow. (:

day 3: 28 May 2007

today woke up at 6am as we planned to watch the sunrise this morning. told makcik and then we went for a morning walk around the kampung. the air was really fresh, the sky was really beautiful, and its like so refreshing, so different from singapore. it was also very different from my grandma's house even though its also in negeri sembilan. i was glad i came along on this trip!

went back for breakfast and after that had a demo of cooking dodol and lemang. and i also learnt how to make keupat! :D after that we went to this mini museum, the Teratak Za'ba, which had such low roofs that chengmun kok-ed her head once and li ling twice!

after we came back it was the fun part! the KAMPUNG TELEMATCH! played the tarikh daun upih, which is very exciting and fun! and the bowling kelapa, which is bowling using coconuts, and also the semakin jauh semakin sayang! then at night had a talk about adat perpatih, which i learnt more about the kampung.

that night we stayed up until 2am as its our last night there already! ): one of the sons of mak cik came back with his wife and son alif, which was cute but naughty too haha. then we rushed our homework in the booklet and then the son alang and his wife kak nanie wrote autographs in our booklets too. it was very sweet (:

day 4: 29 May 2007

that day woke up at 5 plus and went for another morning walk around the kampung. this time ventured further and took some photos too. didnt really want to go back to singapore actually, as i will miss the way of life in the kampung and all the fun time that i had there. i remember there was once where all of us forgot what was stars in malay, as we wanted to ask mak cik whether we can see stars from here or not. then we said like, api di langit, which translates to lights in the sky, and the mak cik was confused, but finally figured out that we were talking about stars, bintang! actually we learnt that word before but then dont know why we all forgot (:

we left kampung lonek at aroung 8.30am, and mak cik cried la. ohnoo it made us all cry too ): very she3 bu4 de2 the whole place. ):

on our way back we visited the Seri Menanti Royal Musuem, which seemed very royal but also dusty. :/ the staircases were all very narow, and some of them were really steep! cikgu masturi was like saying what if the raja was big-sized, then how to go up and down the staircases haha. there were bats too! all the way at the top level (:

after that we went to giant to shop. had only 45 mins so we were hurrying here and there la. then had lunch and then departed for singapore! the driver played shrek 3! yay at least it wasnt a gory show like the above-mentioned. (: but we didnt finish the whole thing, left a bit more only, but then we reached the moelc already, so too bad la. :/ reached at 8 plus, then on the bus we called mak cik and kak nanie and told them that we reach singapore already. :D

now all that is left, are pleasant memories. (:

24 may: last day of school!

received ppr today. though i have improved from last term, im still not very satisfied with my L1R5 of 9 points. ): its like i can only make it to sajc or ajc. did okay for bio, hcl and chem, it was stupid maths which pulled me down. my target was 5 and below. ):

went for this energy talk thing, then lokyin went for gateway for a while before going for german with kim. lucky kim got to go to germany! though she is having mixed feelings about it now. :/ anyway i went to help out at kitchen dresser for north d day with bessy, rachel, jiahua and sarah ong. it was fun, trying to mallet in a 72" pole which was much taller than all of us haha (: after that went to the canteen with bessy and rachel looking forward to orange bowl but to all our disappointment, the uncle was closing the stall already! ): i skipped lunch for it, waited until 5 plus, then the stall is closed. ): bought toasts instead and sat at the canteen and talked about nothing until 7 plus, when all the people having cca came out. sarah t became the band major and grace the drum major! CONGRATULATIONS TO YOU BOTH! :D lugged all my files home that day. heavy ah!

17 may: visit tvps

went back to visit mrs leong and huang lao shi, who will be retiring really soon sometime this year. there were quite little people, only peiwen, steph, amanda, lorraine, jiamin, pris, ivan, wanhua and 2 people that i dont know. :/ its like everytime its only these few people who come back and visit ah, quite sad. ):

anyway, there is a new look to the parade square, and many new changes too la. they repainted our classroom! ): and the school is very quiet too. it was like a different atmosphere already ah.

11 may: jubilate IV

went there for vip reception duty. this year juilate was held at some NUS university cultural hall, and security was tight, so we couldnt sneak in and watch the performance when we are free ): could only go backstage. anyway ms molly leong was my comm's teacher ic, and it was both fun and tiring decorating and arranging all the things in the room, but in the end there was this great sense of satisfaction! :D

5 may: flag day for Special Olympics Singapore!

lokyin helped me sign up for the one in causeway point (so far away! but then the choices were only northpoint causeway point) and did the afternoon shift. stationed at this overhead bridge and at the end of my shift i collected at least half a tin! though quite little, the tin was heavy. met some really generous people who donated quite a lot or many times, but also, there were some rude and selfish people who either rolled their eyes at me, or just hurried past. the most common excuse given: sorry ah, i have no coins. who said that you can only donate in coins? >:( but anyway at the end of the day, i was tired la duh, standing for like 5 hours straight, but also very happy :D

ok this is all that i wanted to cover, have a nice day! :D

green leaf ;