LANGUAGE CAMP: PART1- FLOOD IN THE CHALET!!

The language camp this time was held in HOsba Valley in Kedah. The place was nice with a beautiful view and a lot of climbing to do. Phew!!! Remember those flight of stairs in the jungle people?? How i hated climbing up. for that reason and that reason alone, i kind of sighed when there are activites as all activites were held at the rooms which is high up in the jungle..hahaha..my description makes it sound weird, right. weird descriptions works well with weird people.


I was among the lucky ones who got to stay in the chalet. And my roommates were Faiza and Qistina. When i first entered it, i was in fact, rather impressed. After all Mr Earnest's empty threats about the place not being 'to our liking', i felt it was not bad. I still remember sending him an sms to inform him that my chalet was like a 4 star hotel. What a waste of my 15cents!!!


That night, we learned the true characteristics of the chalet. and we realised it only when we were sleeping. The ceiling was leaking! And the leak was bad. In no time at all, half the room was wet. To worsen matters, the room was carpetted, so even till the camp ended, the floor was still wet. Could you imagine the stink? we could smell it even from outside.

The lucky thing was, the management got it fixed fast. When they took of a part of the ceiling, we got a shock- the pipe was actually broken and the water was running down in top speed!

Despite the repairs, the three of us, along with our roommates form Batu Lintang lived in the stinking chalet for four days...

THAT IS LAST SECOND!!

"Sir, we are ppl who work best at the last minute."


"That is not last minute, that is last second!"


That was Mr Yusni's response to our many claims that last minute work is always the best.


With 3 assignments due on the same day, we had no choice but to work at the ';ast second'. I still remember working with Jamie, Yasmin and Alya. We took the topic of 'Deforestation'. A day before the exhibition, we started our major preparations like looking for the materials to present.


we started our online search at about 11pm the night before. till this day, i thank my lucky fortune that we could access the internet that night. otherwise, we might have jolly well failed the assignment. we worked till morning. we prited and cut out pieces of paper to be pasted on manila cards. we also read thorugh our notes and forced what we could into our brains. with no sleep and limited time, nothing much went through. thus, we took parts and divided the info between us.

That same night, Mr Yusni got us permission to enter Room 7, the venue of our exhibition. He expected us to actually set uo the exhibition as in utting up our presentations etc. But what did we actually do?? We merely arranged the table and other furnture at our respective booths. All around teslians were sitting and only just starting to prepare the materials for presentation. As for me, i was cutting out the bookmarks to be given out the next day. Mr Yus spotted me at work. If he had only seen me doing the same thing earlier, i would have been very pleased with myself, but spotting me at that moment just proved how unprepared i was for th efollowing day. Later that night, all four of us walked around to look for 'ranting kayu' to be put at our booth. Mr Yus was not oblivious to our last minute work.

"Are all of you really going to do the exhibition tomorrow morning?"

"Yes, sir.'

"But I don't see any of you being ready for it."

"NO worries, sir. We will finish up everything tomorrow. We will come at 6.30 am to finish our work."

The next morning, i had my bath at 7am. I still had things to do so it was well after 7 by the time i reached my class. So much for our assurance of 'being there at 6.30'. Hah!! I managed to escape Sir but some other friends did not share my luck as Mr Yus saw them walking in at 7.30 and even later. Immediately, he knew there was trouble. Thus, he came to Room 7 to check things out for himself and.....WALAAAA!!! THE CLASS WAS IN TOTAL CHAOS!!!

We were only just putting up our materials for exhibition and as for my own booth, MIn and I were having a nice time decorating our title. We were literally colouring the alphabets which spelled 'DEFORESTATION'. Time was ticking, and our exhibition was due open in less than 30 minutes. Of all people to pay us an early visit, our main guest, the timebalan pengarah, decided to pop in early to check our progress. Till this moment, I can still see Mr Yus's look of panic. None of us were ready. There were 8 booths there with 52 people at work, yet not a single one of us were ready. However, with some unknown luck and a lot of cooperation, the exhibition started in time.

Alya blasted of the speakers at our booth with Michael Jackson's 'Save The World' and the exhibition was brought to live. We also had a powerpoint presentation at the front of the class. As people kept filing in to the room, we had to constatnly entertain our visiors by explaining about our topics. We were all very tired actually, but none of us let it show. As mentioned earlier, my group segregated our info and memorised only parts of our topic. So there were times when i couldn't actually answer the questions asked by visitors, but i rambled on nevertheless. As the day came to end, we knew our exhibition was a success. Everyone was happy and relieved, especially Mr Yus.

Looking back at this event after a year, I still smile and laugh at the crazy things we went thorugh to put up our Environmental Exhibition. We did everything at the last second, that's for sure, but working together made it a success, and made it one of my best memories in IPIP. special thanks to Jamie, Alya and Yasmin for being a fantastic team.

THE CLOCK IS TICKING

THE CLOCK IS TICKING...
And thank God that it is.

My four-month holiday is finally down with only one month left, and then I will be leaving the country to embark on a new life in a whole new world. With only a month left to finish up all my final preparations, I’m once again wondering if I am truly prepared. Despite my ambitious plan to do the cooking for at least a month, I have spent my holidays by hardly even doing ANY cooking at all. I’m just not comfortable doing the cooking here, not when I can find so many better ways to spend my time. Anyway, I know I’m a survivor, and it’s not like I don’t know any cooking at all. I’ve learnt a few simple dishes and I will learn a few more in the few weeks I have left here. Then, I will surely be able to cook for my own survival in UK.

Tick-tock.

The days are passing and that moment of take-off is drawing closer and I actually can’t wait for it. This would be it. The moment. After spending 21 years of my life at home (even when I left for college I still felt rather un-independent since my colleges had always been so close to home), I will finally be free to set out on my own. And I am finally ready. Mentally at least. As I take my first step in UK, it is my hope that I will be able to start a new life altogether. I hope to be happy this time. And I hope to make the most of the time I have in UK.

There are things I wish to leave behind forever and even more than that there are changes I wish to make – in myself especially. And once I’m convinced that I have changed for the better, I will see to it that I do all I can and all that it takes to change certain aspects of my life. I’m a lady with a mission. And with God’s grace, I have confidence that this will be an accomplished mission.

I’m sure looking forward to embarking on a new life altogether. Though I am grateful for being close to home for the past 3 years, I have to say, it gets a little tiring at times. I mean, I’m bored. All my life i've been stuck in Ipoh! how can i not be bored and tired??


So, University of Warwick, I AM READY FOR YOU.

The clock is still ticking and before I know it, my one month will be up. =)