JPA was so “kind” to call all 1st yr and 2nd yr scholars to attend Seminar Pembangunan Pelajar. When I first saw the email, I get so frustrated. What I know is that I will gonna sacrifice my wkend slp and entertainment. It is a Must - go Seminar, as a scholar, all of us need to be present. Though I know it will gonna be super boring, I have no other choice but to attend it from 9am to 6pm for consecutive 2 days. It gonna eaten up my lovely wkend! Sigh~ hate it! What get me irritated is that Mr. Abdullah Hassan even sent all of us another email with attached his presentation slide bout dasar-dasar kerajaan. In the email, he told us that he gonna have a quiz before his talk, so he expect all of us to study the attached slides and prepare before we attend the seminar.
I went through the slides, wow….it was like studying sejarah le…with all those YDPA, majlis raja-raja, parlimen and all the rancangan-rancangan & dasar-dasar. You can imagine how hard is this. I almost forgot most of the terms…hehe I have not see malay words for quite some time though, feel bit weird when I am reading the Vision 2020 and Ninth Malaysia Plan which is written in BM..=p Could not admit that I was quite anxious for the quiz, hoping that the quiz will not be that difficult on the next day….
14.07.07 ~ alarm clock went off at 6.30 am sharp. Woke up from my comfy duvet…After dressing up & taken my b’fast, pui ting,wyne & I started to walked down at 7.45am. We wanna accompany Wyne to her campus to drop off her assignment in her locker. We reached about 8am, but later wyne found out that she 4got to bring her student id. We cant went in, waiting in front of te aro for Firdaus to help us. Sat at the staircase, freezing cold,waiting for her appearance…I wonder what took her so long to reach te aro as mc kenzis is jz not far away. 3 of us get so restless as we don’t wanna miss the only bus to Brooklyn. Waited …waited…8.15am she finally appeared… yet, her student id couldn’t open the door as well…dunno wat to do at the moment…without further delay, we rushed ourselves to the nearest bus stop at Victoria St bus stop to get bus no.7. Luckily we were able to get into the 8.30am bus. We were fortunate that the bus arrived on time as we are trembling cold at the bus stop..I wonder why there is no heater at the bus stop…HAHAHA! Popped into the bus, relieved, met almost all the malays and Wan ling.. Reached high comm. at about 9am. Did some registration stuff, signed up, get a file and pasted a sticker of my name of my top. Went to the 2nd lvl of the seminar hall, many were already there…there is no more seats at the back, we are asked to sit in the front…we sat on the 2nd row…Franz, Li Hui and Chin Keat were the “lucky” ones to be called upon to sit in the first row coz they were bout 30mins late. Sorry for them as they were alwiz be the target for every speaker of the day…hehe =p After taking attendance, Mr Abdullah Hassan gave us a brief introduction what the seminar is about & the purpose of dis seminar. He also get annoyed coz mostly all of us are late. Well, after giving us warning, he started his ceramah titled “Dasar & Kenegaraan”. Well, from the title itself, I think its gonna be very sien…To keep us constantly awake, Mr Abdullah has make its presentation not by purely one way communication alone. He did it like a Q&A session where he instantly popped up with question and asked us to evaluate & explain. So I think this is wat he called the quiz he gonna give us..This way is prove effective as I think everyone of us stay awake & alert all time for his whole ceramah. I was asked what is the Treaty of Waitangi and I think I got it wrong. Aihz~ others were asked bout the political system in Malaysia, the role of executive,legislative & judiciary, the national policy, Vision 2020 & the current Ninth M’sia Plan. After the 1st talk, we were served sandwiches & cucuk udang + milk tea for our morning tea break. At 10.30am, we continued our seminar with another interesting presentation entitled Critical, Creative and Innovatif thinking by Aunty Rose. Though this topic is quite perplexing where we need to squeeze our brain to think deeply about it, the talk was still fine for me coz of the way Aunty Rose present it…She is humorous…though she was not feeling well for that day, she still managed to present her ideas well and supplement it with her own jokes…listen to her was equivalent as light entertainment…=) Next our seminar was followed by a self-image & self-esteem talk presented by Pn Satinah. At first glance, I feel that Pn Satinah is quite fierce & serious, yet she has the image of a powerful woman…haha I think she was really suitable for giving us a talk on this particular issue coz she has the fullest self-confident when she talks and her suit wear portrayed her as a successful working lady. It was good I will say and I think she has played an important role in boosting our self-confidence and instilling in us the interest of potraying ourselves in the best way as we could. Bout 12.30, we stopped for lunch. It was so nice to have those spicy m’sian foods again. Lunch was rice+ curry beef+ tomyam vege + corn pudding. After lunch and prayers, we were divided into six groups. Each group was given a current issue and we are supposed to discuss the various aspect of that issue and give a presentation tmr afternoon. I was in the 1st group with Franz, Ahmad Refae, Faruqi and Fazuin. I wonder why there is only 5 of us in a group as other groups has about 6 to 7 members. My group topic was a boring one, the future of agriculture industry in Malaysia. We began by brainstorming all the ideas for the issue, the challenges, the effects as well as the solutions for the topic given. We then decided to search for more info thru the net after the seminar ends and discussed it further again via YM! At 9pm. Our discussion ends at 4pm. By that time, I was really tired. We are supposed to have another meeting together with those super-seniors(3rd yr and 4th yr scholars). However, this time we are granted to sit at the back while all the seniors were asked to fill up the front rows…kekeke The meeting touched on a few issues, such as the new rule bout the extension to stay at NZ after we graduate, the jobs available in current m’sia market, a few sad incidents that occur at NZ…..The 1st yr n the 2nd yr were almost aslp when this is going on…I think it doesn’t directly relate to me now, in future prob…I just don’t understand why the JPA want us- the juniors to stay for this talk. We were tired and we feel like goin home. Bout 6pm, finally it was dinner time. Luckily dinner was delicious. We were served nasi kunyit + butter chicken, the desert was curry puff + kek batik (Its SO NICE!!!!!!) + bandung.
After dinner, we took the bus bck home. We stopped at Lambton Quay to change to another bus. The bus was supposed to come at 7.20pm. since it was only 6.45pm, pt,wyne & I went to new world Metro 1st. We shopped awhile,get bck to the bus stop again…waited for the bus to come…It was really torturing to wait a bus during winter…bout 7.30pm, the bus didn’t appear. We began to lose our patience…7.45pm… 8pm…8.15pm bus no.23 is still missing…we were frust, hav no idea how to walk back home…We walked further up to the next bus stop up opposite Esprit. Not long after, the bus finally appeared… We were glad but deep in our heart, wanna gv the driver a punch for being late…hahaha…Bck to home was ady late,going to be 9pm…exhausted…but still need to continue the work…I was in charge of doing the presentation slides, so even worst now as I need to wait for evy1 to give me their ideas and points... I did the slides till bout 1.30am, sent it to every member of my group…Almost evy1 of them fall aslp dy,left fazuin who are the only one who responded me a few lines….at least better than none…I got no mood to move on further thus I went to slp bout 2am…hopefully tmr I m not the lucky one to be chosen to present….
15.07.07~ Got up about 7.30am. Sleepy mode. After drinking a cup of milo, pt,wyne & I walked down to the bus stop at Victoria St.. We reached the bus stop bout 9am, tot we might be late again. Chin Kiat & Li Hui were also there, so we were quite relieved, at least there will not be only 3 of us… The bus reached quite on time, fortunately…haha we hoped onto the bus, wan ling and all were in the bus…hehe this means that we are not the only one who are going to be late…there is the whole batch of us in the same bus…. Reached High comm.. at 9.30am, luckily mr Abdullah dint say anythg…I discovered that there is lesser people present 2day,maybe many ponteng dy… We started the seminar with the most boring talk by Cik Harisah. It was about nilai dan etika…aiyo like attending moral claz only…she keep on talking bout the positive values like those bersopan santun, amanah, peramah,adil, bertanggungjawab….sien… sien…sien… summore the speaker was so soft-spoken and she is too kind to us that he dint ask us any questions…So we are not that nervous and tend to fall into our dreamland again… hehe
After the talk, we were awake for bfast break…haha 2day we were served sardine & tuna sandwiches and 2 small banana muffins. Yummy yummy….2day they put our bfast on a plate for each of us, haha I think evy1 of us took a big portion yday where it was served in buffet style. 11am sharp, we continued with our final ceramah which was about Effective Communication. It was presented by Mr Rudy, young potential man. He is really good at giving ceramah. He was so confident in himself by the way he talk, he just love to talk. I guess he was born to be such eloquent speaker. He oso well versed in both languages, malays and English, as he can easily switch from one language to another. Brilliant indeed! He did some demonstration about the right way of approaching and speaking to people, verbal and non-verbally. Also, he did share with us some tips that we can used for our job interview later in life. He was really an effective communicator! Of coz the loundest applause from all of us.
Lunch time began at 12. Lunch for 2day was curry sambal chic + acar. Not bad though. After lunch, it was the time for our presentation session. I were quite nervous. Though I have do some preparation, I wasn’t that confident though and I think I have not prepare well enough. But there will be no marks given, so I guess its still ok. The first to be presented was Group No.6. Who are supposed to give the presentation will be randomly picked by Mr. Abdullah Hassan. Safuan was chosen to be the 1st presenter. From past experience, I know he is a fun type speaker. He is good at giving jokes. He was stable although he was totally not prepared at all. I respect him for that. The topic of Gothic & Black Metal doesn’t seem difficult to him, he was able to make the whole presentation lively and we, as the audience could not stop laughing. Next, it Jia Yin’s group to present. At 1st, Mr Abdullah pick a malay guy. Yet, after halfway thru the presentation, he didn’t know how to continue to explain it. So, he asked Jia Yin for help, at the end, Jia Yin was the one to continue the whole presentation. I think she presents her ideas bout Brain Drain pretty well in BM. I think I couldn’t talk such fluently in BM anymore although I took malay study in intec…hehehe
Next, third group goes to Wan Ling’s group. Their topic is about Petroleum. This time Jack was chosen. Well, basically he could manage to present the points well and I think he has some basic knowledge on that topic as well. Interesting though….I guess after this presentation, wan ling feel so relieved that her group was over and she is not chosen to present nor answer questions…Wyne was lucky though as she went off with Fara to do her architecture assignment. Two Lucky ones…Then, its Pui Ting’s group turn. Their topic was about ICT and stuff like that. Fatinn was the lucky one to be chosen. She was the soft spoken type. So her presentation also goes the same style like her – Soft. I wasn’t that understand what she has presented. I was still blur after she finished her last sentence..So I didn’t like it that much. Next, its my group turn to present. Franz, me , Fazuin, Refae sat in the front row, crossed finger ,hoping that “I am not the one” to be called. Ha…and in sudden I heard Mr Abdullah saying “yi chin”…oh gosh! I was puzzled at the moment. Braved my feet towards the front, prepared to give the presentation. How “LUCKY” I was….aihz! I though mr Abdullah wont pick Chinese, doink la…he even asked me to present it in English before I start my presentation. Before I presented, I looked at Wan Ling & she was smiling back to me…haha I return her smile by a ‘sweat’ look..(Its jz both of us who know what is happening here…hahahaha) Luckily the presentation run smoothly though there is some flaw in between. Well, at least I am satisfied with it, I hav tried my best to make it the best. Thanks to Franz in helping me answer all the questions after my presentation. I am glad that my group members and some of my frenz did compliment on my good presentation. => The last group was Faiz group. As predicted, Faiz, the popular scholar among all of us was chosen to present on the topic of gejala negatif on the net…stg like that…For the whole presentation, he was so funny and I think he doesn’t really prepare well, so he doesn’t take it seriously when he presented. But he managed to finish up his presentation with lots of peribahasa.. Mr Abdullah commented that it was like making pantun…haha..
Here comes the end for our seminar. Penutup session. Mr Abdullah commented on some of the presentations. He hoped that we could get the feel of how the working life is in future through this seminar. Before heading for our dinner, he asked for our comment and feedbacks. For me, I feel that this 2 days seminar was beneficial – it make me feels like its like a self-improvement workshop. I did feel that I was better equipped with those useful knowledge, tips and group work experience. Friendship bond was tighten as well… Though it was tiring, I think its satisfactory.=)
Dinner was fried spicy mee hoon + keropok + donut + black glutinous rice ( a kind of yummy yummy those black sesame kind of Chinese desert…)
What is funny is after my dinner, I wanna make myself a cup of Milo. There is 2 pots of brown powders on the table. I tot it must be milo powders for tht 2 pots. Assuming this, I put in3 scoops into my tea cup, add in hot water and add in condensed milk …Yet the colour wasn’t seem right for milo…it didn’t turn whiter. I thought mayb its like dat, but after my first slip, oh gosh! it was so bitter… To make it sweeter, I add into 2 more tea spoon of sugars. As I was tasted it, Refae walked to me n asking me whether is this milo or coffee? I paused,pondered a while b4 giving any reaction, just realized he was right, It’s a coffee….n gosh! I make that cup of coffee like making a cup of milo…its so bitter n thick! Yuks…. U hav to praise me brave for drinking the whole cup of such bitter bitter yukssky “milo”…hahaha
---> with the seniors....
---> With Mr Abdullah Hassan...(Oh god!I look so fat in this pic...face so round now... oh gosh, I need to start diet now...)
