Well, after a rather long break i suppose i had better get back back to blogging. There is so much to tell from the last month and a half that it will be in several gripping instalments, inspiration being taken from all worldwide best selling book series.
When i left you last, we had returned from our wet week on Langkawi and were preparing for our last weeks of school. I will say that they were rather hectic with teachers running around attempting to prepare the form 3 for THE MOST IMPORTANT EXAMS OF THERE LIVES as our principal put it. The PMR exams went very smoothly, however there was one more hurdle to overcome before we were set free on our holidays, my singing! By some strange series of events I still don't understand, the school had decided i was good at singing. Now I am aware I enjoy singing, often slightly too much and too louder however i am under no illusion that I totally suck. I would get 3 buzzes on x factor faster than a dying cat, however the school were determined. James was to play the guitar and I would sing. We practised hard, James provided slightly forced encouragement and the day finally arrived. After a typically amazing Malay dinner, we were called t the stage. We performed Under The Bridge (Red Hot Chilli Peppers) and The Scientist (Coldplay). I will admit it was probably the most nervous i have ever been, having never actually having been asked to sing before, usually people ask me to stop. To my pleasant surprise, the kids and teachers really seemed to enjoy it. We received great applause, I was even given a rose mid performance. The pictures that followed seemed to be endless, however once the event was over that was goodbye to the Form 3 students. We had had some amazing laugh and memories even in the 3 months I had known them and we were both sad to see them go.
After the end of PMR came the annual inter school sport competition for teachers, North West Malaysia Sumur. It took place at MRSM Jeli and every MARA school from Kelantan and Terengganu was represented. There were many sports to compete in from Football to Table Tennis and even Chess. Being from such a small school James and I were drafted in too bulk up the team. We would compete in Chess, Volleyball and Futsal. Chess was supposed to be our signature 'sport' as James had been abruptly only 2 weeks earlier that he was school chess captain and so was responsible for all the organisation. Now James is one of the cool kids, pretty laid back and notoriously un-organised (lucky he is partners with me). If someone had told him he was school chess captain in high school, well that would have been 'gay'. Never the less he asked around for a partner and having little luck he turned to the one person he didn't want to ask, me. My chess are are truly awful, i am sure even my Granny could beat me, never the less I stood by my friend. After being totally destroyed in the first round I decided my chess career wasn't going to work out. James was up against Dale, who cleverly outsmarted him by failing to mention the time constraint rule. James called it cheating. We didn't do so well in the volleyball being quickly substituted halfway through the first game.For the futsal (indoor Malay football) we actually did OK. James scored a wonder goal to win us a game in the dying seconds and I used my advantage of being the tallest person in the entire country to defend quite effectively. We still lost however. To our pleasant surprise however at the final award ceremony we found our other colleagues had performed very well and we came third, missing second by only 1 point. Kuala Terengganu were the overall champions and the school even gave us free Canterbury tracksuits for tacking part. All in all a good weekend, apart from the bus breaking down on the way home, in the rain.
We had one last treat in store, the school had planned a trip to the Malaysian Cup Final at Shah Alam stadium in Kuala Lumpur. The was because the local team, Kelantan Red Warriors had narrowly made to to the final only a week before. The excitement was incredible, we travelled by night bus down to KL and after a quick snooze we headed for the stadium. You haven't experienced football fans until you have experienced Malay football fans. The atmosphere was incredible, I cant describe it. It was a sea of red, however the great thing was there were no police, very little security. The fans weren't separated, there was no violence at all. Not all football fans are animals, it just seems British ones are, it was very nice to see. It soon became apparent however that we were attracting alot of attention. Two young white men wearing Kelantan football jersey is not a common sight, so uncommon in fact we were the only white people, the only other was the Kelantan team manager. The photos were endless, the cheers and shouting never stopped. This was an 80 000 person capacity stadium and in true Malay style there were at least another 30 000 standing. I didn't think my actions through when i on my chair stood up to get to the bathroom and someone shouted MAT SALLEH! Within 30 seconds and entire were cheering and taking our picture, must have been 20 000 people. Very strange experience. Unfortunately Kelantan lost the game 1-0 after a pretty poor performance so our teachers were a little grumpy on the way home.
We couldn't be sad for long however for after a long packing session (thanks for the tips mum, i managed to get it too all fit) we had to board the bus again. This was the ride to English camp and the start of our 7 weeks leave from Pasir Tumboh. It was very sad to say goodbye to the place which now felt like home, but we knew amazing adventures lay ahead. We arrived at English Camp in the state of Perak. This was 4 days of English based games and activities using newspapers as the source material. We assisted the various groups of kids throughout the day, including giving out various coloured stickers to signify achievements. I had so much power! The main enjoyment was catching up with all the other MARA volunteers from across Malaysia. There are 12 of us all together, James and myself, of course Tom and Danny (Kota Putra), Dale (Besut), Holly and Emily (Kuala Lipis), Helena and Alex (Kuala Krai), Imogen (Kota Kinabalu) and Elisa and Ruyana (Gemenche). Hearing their various stories from their projects was really good fun and also let us boast a little about our project, but we all tried to do that a little.
Once english camp was finished we heading for Kuala Lumpur, and after several rather expensive and uneventful days we caught our flight to Phnom Penh in Cambodia to begin our adventures.
To be continued....
No comments:
Post a Comment