1. Bangsawan. After 21 days of four to six-hour rehearsals (every day of the week), KYUEM had its' 14th annual Bangsawan competition.
We got first place. Fourth year in a row, baby! It was so worth every sleepless night, every paint spatter on our clothes, every time we didn't go back to our apartments until 11 p.m., every time we skipped dinner, every time we got glitter all over our hands and faces, every time we stayed up 'til 3 a.m. to finish up our backlogged homework, every time we came back smelling like styrofoam and paint and old cloth, every time we yelled, every time we cried, every time we just put our hands in our heads and felt like giving up- but we never did.
Thank you to all the juniors who came on time, even though you guys were still disoriented from getting used to the insanely hectic KY lifestyle, for being one of the most productive labour force I have ever had the privilege of working with (you guys cut thousands of leaves in two hours, so amazing), for putting up with all my yelling and sarcastic barbs (you know I love you guys), for NOT GOING BACK FOR THREE WHOLE WEEKENDS, for coming up with amazing ideas and helping us into the late hours of the night even when you didn't really have to. Keep the Topazian spirit high okay! Five years in row for 2012! I'll come back, I swear. <3
Thank you to all the .5s & .0s who took time out of their busy schedules- even with writing personal statements, choosing universities, attending medical forums, reading scientific/economic journals, STUDYING- you guys still came most of the time and helped contribute A LOT. Thank you to the .5 dancers for still being UH-MAZING even when you guys had Statistics exams, aptitude tests and all that jazz to ace. Thank you so, so, so, so much to the beautiful actors & actresses who made our victory possible, for memorizing your lines and rehearsing them even while you were showering or doing your homework, for drinking that nasty asam drink so you could preserve your voices, for keeping away from all the food you liked to eat (longan!) just so you wouldn't get a sore throat. You guys are AMAZING.
Thank you Yasmin, Qhaleeda, Nurin, Lina, Keri, Fathin, Melor, Suria, Megat, Zehan, Syida, Qis, Zaf, Nasif, Nadim, Oji and everyone else who I saw for (on average) five hours every day, for making the preparation time for Bangsawan one of the most memorable experiences of my lifetime. You guys have taught me so much about everything, from how to sew a pillow slip to how to build a wooden bridge FROM SCRATCH to how to delegate tasks to how to balance studies and co-curricular life; without you guys, I truly would have become just an average KY student, studying holed up in my room every day of my stay in this beautiful college.
Thank you to the super seniors who descended upon us during that last back-breaking week, for driving all the way up to Lembah Beringin from WORK (YES WORK) to make sure that our Topazian spirits were high. Thank you for all the constructive criticism you guys gave at the rehearsals, and all the awesome pep-talks which really motivated us during that final exhausting stretch of the journey. A big thank you to Asri, my former choreographer during my first sem, for really keeping my spirits up on the day itself- you calmed my nerves with your ever-inspirational bright smile and sassy advice, plus your semangat Topaz will forevermore strike awe in my heart. Good luck for all your endeavors in life, and hopefully I'll see you guys in a year when (Insya'Allah) I make that huge leap to the land of United Kingdom.
Lastly, thank you to mama and Abang Riza and ayah and everyone else who called to wish me good luck for the show, especially to mama and Abang Riza for driving up to Lembah Beringin to give us the tepak sirih la, paintbrushes and glitter la, smoke machine la. I will never know what I'd do without such a supportive family, and I love all of you for it. <3
2. Oxbridge. I dropped it. Why? Because I decided that PPE is not my thing. It was, once upon a time, when I was more idealistic and thought that I would enjoy spending the rest of my life reading and reading and reading. But now, especially with Further Mathematics under my belt, I realize that I want more than that. I want more than what I deem to be my "safety" zone- I want numbers even if it doesn't come easily to me, I want formulae and applications and being in the more DYNAMIC, fluid MONEY-MONEY-MONEY part of Economics. Plus, a pure degree in Economics at LSE is slightly more marketable in terms of employability. According to certain teachers anyway.
3. Duke of Edinburgh. For the past two weeks, we've only been learning navigational skills- how to read maps and compasses, etc. These skills were put to the test today, for our first trial expedition. Today. I walked 3.75 kilometers in roughly 53 minutes. Was I fasting? Yes. Did I eat sahur today? No. Was the path muddy, and filled with lalang and shallow rivers (with no bridges, which meant YES we had to walk through it) and mosquitoes? Yes! But did I have fun? Yes as well! Good company makes for good journeys; and Noel and I managed to talk about everything under the sun. From Rupert Murdoch's scandal to relationship insecurities. He's one in a million, that fellow. :)
4. Ramadhan in general! This is my first fasting month away from home (obviously), so there were definitely some things I had to adjust to. For one, WAKING UP TO EAT SAHUR BY MY OWN EFFORT. You people staying at home, do you realize how lucky you are to have someone that wakes you up? Don't take it for granted! During the last week alone, I have missed sahur four to five times. Yeesh. Another thing is, buka-ing with roughly 300 other people every day. The sense of community is only strengthened, and the best thing is that the non-Muslims always wait for us to start eating before they themselves eat. :)
Last Thursday, about a dozen of students from my 13.5 family went out to the Ramadhan bazaar in Tanjung Malim and Lembah Beringin (I didn't go as I had DoE, not to mention there were very limited spaces on the bus!). I felt like I was imposing a bit, but I managed to get a spot at their table in the cafe, where we proceeded to have an absolute FEAST. It felt.. dare I say it.. it felt just like we were at home, eating with our families. :) Interesting trivia: food from the bazaar here is a) yummy and b) cheap! It's because it's a kampung bazaar, and most of the hawkers aren't in it for the profit but are instead just showcasing their great grandmother's traditional recipes or something. I felt so bloated, I couldn't sleep until 2 a.m. :/ LOL. *tamak*
Then, on Tuesday, my tutorial group with Puan Ju (consisting of Megat, Yasmin, Sally, Waida, Nisa, Suria, Amir, Zieman, Wan and myself) had our own buka puasa too! Puan Ju bought us nasi tomato with the most DELICIOUS ayam masak merah plus sambal udang. Vital bonding time was had. :) And Syafiq gave us more of his Sarawakian mango, which was AWESOMESAUCE.
Yesterday, we had our very own KY Ramadhan Bazaar! It was amazing! All houses, a few clubs & societies, some teachers & individual students and even the famous Burger Ninja (aka Abang Hafiz) was there to sell their wares. I bought chocolate pudding from Garnet, red velvet cupcakes from Dylan's stall, strawberry dadih from MUSCOM, and RM10 worth of barbecued chicken from Topaz. Yes, BBQ chicken. That was cooked on the spot! Good job to Farah Ain, Iqmal, Kuzai, Amin (you are the coolest Sabahan I have ever met bro) and everyone who helped out with the Topaz stall! My turn for fundraising has long passed, but I still managed to help out a bit by handling their cash flow for half of the time (they were understaffed, as most people were assigned to actually cook the chickens). To end the day, it was a Wednesday which means WESTERN DAY 8D which means spaghetti for dinner, and it wasn't tasteless, YAY! Plus, beverages were sirap bandung, which happens to be my little weakness. ;)
HAHAH, I just read through the entire Ramadhan section and it sounds like I have been eating more food instead of fasting! Repercussions of being in boarding school. :p
6. Results Day! Which was today! The entire day was filled with remarks such as "Did you know that so-and-so got 4A*s! What the hell man! How to compete! I mean, seriously. One of my idols from Sem 1, got 4A*s for English Literature, History, Mathematics & Economics! She's going to Stamford yo! (KY peeps, you know who this is. LOL.) Then my classmate's sister finally solidified her offer into Cambridge (2A* and 2A)! So many medic students got 100% for Biology and Chemistry! WTH! And so many people got into the top 1% in the bloody world! WORLD! NOT MALAYSIA, WORLD! HOW TO MATCH STANDARD LIKE THIS OMAIGOD I FEEL LIKE DYING [INSERT INSECURE RANT HERE]"
okay yeah that was basically what we were doing the entire day in class. To sum it up?
13.5 KY[A*]SU MODE: ON!!!!!!!!
7. Pet Family! So, there's this system in KY where you are assigned a few pet siblings from each batch. The purpose of this system is so that you are closer to the people in your house, you always have someone to talk to about your problems (as if we didn't have enough of those already in this place), and, ultimately, when you arrive in United Kingdom, you will have "siblings" there already, looking out for you and hopefully taking care of you during your first few baby months as an overseas student.
This is how it works. There are boxes outside the Dining Hall for each house, and inside each box there are letters addressed to all the juniors (and the 13.5s for Topaz, since we didn't have one last semester). Anonymous letters. Our jobs? To reply those letters, and receive more letters, and finally guess who the letters are from, because it's the senders of those letters who are our pet brothers & sisters. :D We get little clues, and sometimes they're kind of mean :p and ask for chocolates as a bribe to give us more hints. But it's a fun process, checking the box on your way to class to see if you got a letter or not. xD
My clue was 'HANGER'. Like, this guy/girl drew a picture of a hanger. LOL. I mean, they wrote some other stuff lah, asking me how my Ramadhan was and all that. But. Yeah. A hanger. Hmm... Still haven't figured it out. And I need to do it soon too! Why? Because Revelation Day is our deadline! And what happens on Revelation Day if we can't figure out correctly who our siblings are?
IF YOU SAID 'A BASHING!' YOU ARE CORRECT. And I'm not talking water and flour here. I'm talking WATER, FLOUR, STALE NOODLES, EGGS... shall I continue? No? I thought not. Sigh. Whatever. I'll just run. :p
7. So my average day, now that Bangsawan is over, kind of looks like this
5.00 Wake up for sahur, shower, flip-through study.
8.15 Class.
4.10 Class finishes, go to RC, social study.
6.00 Back to apartment, shower, nap.
7.30 Buka.
8.15 RC, homework/hardcore study time.
10.00 Cafe, lepak time.
11.00 Back to room, more lepak time, or gossip time, or dancing to clubbing music time. /KY is random like this
12.00 Flop onto bed, flip-through study or read National Geographic (I iz srs)
HEHEHEHEHEH.
Gotta go now. Tired as f*ck. I have macaroons! Marr bought some for me when she went with her tutorial group to The Curve for dinner. Yay Marr! Oh, and Marr got straight A's! Yay Marr again! And another yay Marr because now during lunch I don't have to bother walking back to the apartment to sleep, I just sleep at her chalet! xD
p/s Just noticed, non-KY people might not know the difference between all the different types of 'study'-ing there is that goes on here.
Social Study - The kind of "study" where you sit around with your friends. Your books are in front of you, and every five minutes or so you get some information into your head but most of the time you're just talking about what you're studying. This is also the opportune time to ask/tutor your peers about a topic that you/they have difficulties with. Basically, it's studying via INTERACTION.
Hardcore Study - This is [headphones: ON, outside life: OFF] mode. It's just you, your music, and your books. People stay away from hardcore studying people. It's only common courtesy. This is studying via CONCENTRATION.
Flip-Through Study - The type of study you do when you're lazy to do the above types of studying. Involves opening a book and going through weak links in your syllabus. Maths cannot become a flip-through study subject. :/ Because. You know. Studying is a constant process. There's no such thing as stopping studying. Even at this point, I have three other windows open which are telling me the details of the American debt ceiling. But you learn to make it an enjoyable lifestyle in the end. :) This is studying via REPETITION (you read the words so many times you end up memorizing it in the end).
Haih. It's time for my hardcore study time now. :( My legs are killing me (there was a 500m hike uphill!) so I didn't bother to shower in time for me to get to the RC. Waiting for Melor to bring back my Milo ice. In the meantime, Imma get my shiz together :).
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