KK-ness

Hmm…haven’t got time to post anything since the beginning of the fourth semester…I’ve been so occupied with so many things…at a blink, the whole semester is over…*ahem* except the EoS exam…haha..

Time flies la…the Charity Run-Carnival that we had been planning for the past 9 months is over…all the ups & downs…all the fun & frustrations…hmm…gonna miss the friday meetings too…haha…learnt alot from being a treasurer…the money claiming processes…how to manage money…& how to use Microsoft Excel…haha…Oh..btw, i think we’ve made a net profit of RM70k for Charity…for the 3 orphanages & Kampung Org Asli Serendah…that’s according to my account tho…just submitted it to Finance Office last Friday for double-checking & verification…hopefully my maths pass…hahaha…

Back to the topic…i had been very stressful in the past few months…especially the period near our Carnival…had never been under such a immense pressure before…which made me emotional at times…& i feel i might have said something that sound offensive…Sorry to all my frens…& Thank you all to those around me who understands & has given support throughout…I’m really really grateful:>

Well…life is turning back to normal slowly…now in study break…2 weeks…at least now i can concentrate on study alone…after exam, i’m gonna pick up all i’ve neglected or put aside in the past months…some elements that have been missing or lacking in my life:>

Thanks again to all friends…To all P106ers…Have a fruitful study break & see u all in 2 weeks time…Cheers, everyone:>

16 is a good number…:P

This year’s AUDC drew participants from
many countries, mostly South-East Asia, for example,Singapore, Indonesia, Philippines,Malaysia. There are even people coming from Bangladesh and Kazathstan!! So overall it was really an eye-opening
experience. At least I could see meet many foreigners, although not much
chances to interact with many of them. It was great to see so many people with
diverse backgrounds united with one language under one tournament.

The Host
This year is the third year of AUDC, the
first was hosted by NUS, second by Antenio De Manila University (ADMU). This
year it was organised by Institut Teknologi Bandung (ITB). A small campus as
they called it, it actually had quite a big compound and it was one of the
oldest universities in Indonesia. Believe me, many buildings in the university campus are made of
lots of woods. They are not just bricks!! Look at the picture. On the left is
the entrance of ITB. The picture on the right was taken at one of the walkway.

& another seem unbelievable fact –
almost no building in the campus has got an air-conditioner!!! (I said almost
coz I didn’t go into each classroom to check…hehe) You know why?? Because Bandung itself is
situated in the uplands of West Jawa, and I heard the area we were staying was about 1km above sea
level. So the weather was always cool and not humid. Even day time, you wont sweat
much even if you walk under the sun, unlike in Malaysia. Meanwhile at night, the temperature could reach about 18-21 degree Celcius,
comparable to that in our Genting Highlands. With that, I had no need to switch
on the air-cond in my hotel room at all at night, although I still
did…haha…

The Adjudication Test
In AUDC, IMU sent two teams and two
adjudicators. Prasad, Hai Liang, Yih Seong, Ben, Deborah, Jesse
made up two
teams whereas Yu Jeat and I went as adjudicators. Different from many other
debate competitions, in AUDC the adjudicators need to go through a test to
gauge their competencies. We had to observe a live debate staged by selected
debaters and adjudicate the debate, ie give the win and explain the reasons for
your decision, in paper. In most other debate competitions, adjudicators were
registered according to their seniority instead of going through a test. (Left: My Adjudicator Tag..Haven’t written my name yet..hehe)

Being a newbie in debate with less than
one-year experience, I actually didn’t expect much, yet I was rather confident.
When the result was released, guess what, my test score was only 1….haha..*sob*…The
highest was 5, which made the person eligible to become a single chair in
debate. Getting a test score of 1 means I could only be a trainee and my
decision would not affect the decision made by the rest of the panels. Duh, of
course I was disappointed.

Nevertheless, the system was such that all
adjudicators in one round can have discussions and then evaluate each other
(evaluation form provided) and the scores will be accumulated as s/he went
through each debate round. Hence, a trainee who obtained a score of 1 in the
Adjudication Test could get an accumulated score of 2 or 3 and hence be
promoted after several rounds of debate. On the contrary, an adjudicator with a
test score of 5 could have a lesser accumulated score after several rounds and
hence be “down-graded”.

Adjudicators is the term used for judges in
debate. In a round of debate, there will normally be a panel of adjudicators,
made up of a Chair, and 2 or 4 panellists (note the odd numbers). Some debate
rounds can have only a single Chair with no panellists. Trainees would be
assigned to any of the panels in any debate. Their decisions will not be taken
into account but they will be evaluated just like all other adjudicators. 

The Very First Day in Bandung

The organizer called a
taxi for us to ferry us to the Hotel…Hotel Jayakarta…about 20-minute car ride
from the airport…After checking in, we went out to hunt for our first meal…we
walked down the street called Jalan Dago…oh yea…my delicious fried chicken
rice (left)…all restaurants we found along the street were very small compared to those found in M’sia…they were not even the size of my Vista apartment!! About
half the size in fact…Can u imagine?? Regardless, the chicken rice at the
restaurant we went in was really really nice…I can say it was the best fried
chicken I’d ever tasted…maybe it was because they used special kind of ‘rempah’
to fry it…OMG…feel like eating it again…& another plus point…IT’S CHEAP!!
Only RP5500 or about RM2.50…look at the picture!! This kind of serving in a
local mamak stall would cost you about RM4 or RM5 with a less tasty fried
chicken…oh…one more thing if u eat Indonesian food there…they don provide spoon
and fork…instead they’d give u a bowl of cold water to wash ur hand…another
thing…their sambal is much more spicier than those found local…don believe it
if they tell u it’s not spicy…

Nothing much happened
when we went back hotel…since one room can only fit 3 people…two of us, Deborah
& I, we assigned different room from the others…Hai Liang, Yih Seong and
Prasad shared one…Ben, Jesse and Yu Jeat took another one…Deborah stayed with
another girl from IIU…whereas I stayed in another room with a Philippino guy…Do
you know that Philippines has got lots of Chinese too?? & they too know
Mandarin and other dialects like we do…My roommate for example, he’s a
Philippino Chinese and he speaks Hokkien!!!!!!!!!!! & he goes back to Hokkien Province in China every year with his family… “We’ve got 3 common languages” I still
remembered he said…ie English, Chinese, Hokkien…Just for ur information,
Philippinos hv got much better English than we do…their classes are in
English…although they also have got own language called Tagalog (if not
mistaken)…& it’s always a Phillipino team who won AUDC…no exception…

At night, due to fear
of getting traveller’s diarrhea even before the tournament started, we opted
for McDonald’s at the junction of Jalan Dago, called Simpang Dago. We took a
kind of transport unique to Indonesia called Angkutan Kota or Angkut in short. I
don noe about other part of Indonesia, but in Bandung…there was no bus…the only public transport
available were the Angkuts and taxis…and taxis are normally for longer journey
and more expensive…Angkuts are like vans with a bus-like door, which can slide
open…

In Malaysia, before u take a taxi, it’s always better if u
ask the price first. But that’ll not be the case if u take Angkuts in Indonesia. & because of that mentality, we got
“slashed”. The first Angkut we boarded from the hotel to Simpang Dago, the
driver told us RP30000 for all 8 people…which was about RM11 or RM1.50 per
person. In Malaysian context for taxi, the price was just reasonable. & we
paid that amount. But we realized something amiss when the driver waived the
money to another Angkut driver at the traffic light, which looked like he was
showing off. Only when we asked a convenient shop cashier that we knew we got
conned…the price was actually only RP1000 per person for that long a
journey…& we paid more than triple the amount…& after several days, we
learnt that there was no need to ask actually…just go down wherever u want to
and pay him the amount u think appropriate…RP1000 or RP1500…lesson 1 learnt…

Arghh…thought to write about my
indonesian trip a long long long time ago…but the fact that I was
lazy…coupled with the fact that I constantly forgot to get the pictures from
Yih Seong…made it delay till today. Yeah…i definitely have to write about
it today…otherwise when new sem starts next Monday
, I doubt I’d have time for
this. & the most important is, I want to share how fun it was with everyone!!!!!!!

Ok..hmm…it was
Wednesday morning…early in the morning…about 4.30am…8 of us, Prasad, Hai Liang, Yih Seong, Jesse,
Deborah, Ben Luke, Yu Jeat and I took taxi from Vista to Subang LCCT for our 7.30am flight. Yea…it was my first time flying…if my
experience when I was five didn’t count…haha…The weather was really bad when
the plane took off…it rained heavily…and the whole plane was like shaking
constantly during the first few minutes…& couldn’t see anything outside the
window…I’d say it was kinda scary… but luckily, it didn’t last long…Anyway, the
flight was really not a comfortable one, I couldn’t sleep at all…. AirAsia
plane was really small and not much space for my legs…but no choice, it’s
cheap…only about RM450 per person from LCCT to Bandung…hehe…

Oh…I still haven’t
told u what was the trip about…we went the
re for AUDC…Asian Universities Debating
Championship…one of the biggest debating tournaments in the world~!! This year
it was hosted by Bandung Institute of Technology, or in Malay, Institut
Teknologi Bandung. We officially became the latest people to enter the list of
Indonesian Millionaire when we checked out from the Hussein
Airport. Bear in mind the exchange rate is RM1.00 to about Rupiah RP2600!!
Imagine if u bring about RM400…Maybe that’s why “Who Wants to Be A Millionaire”
game show never worked in Indonesia. Haha…Bandung is in Jawa Island…same island as
Jakarta…but four hours away from Jakarta. It was in a different time zone…we arrived at
about 9am local time..although in KL..it was supposed to be 10.00am…

The tournament was supposed to start at 9am that
morning…yeah…we were late. Luckily we had Ben to lead us the way. He
studied A-levels for two years in Singapore We managed to reach SMU at about 9.30am,
and the tournament started about half an hour later after our registration.
& yeah…we didn’t get to brush our teeth…hehe…

It was IMU’s first tournament in Singapore and everybody was excited. So the first round began. A debate competition goes
like this. There will be several preliminary rounds, depends on the number of
teams participated. The first preliminary round is random, which means teams
are randomly matched to debate against each other. The winning team will get
one point and losing team 0. Individual debater will also get their individual
speaker score. With the team score and speaker score, each subsequent rounds
are now power-matching, which means a strong team will meet another equally strong
team with similar if not the same team score and speaker score. The points are
accumulated over all the preliminary rounds. After the last prelim round,
points are added up and top 8 teams will BREAK into the quarter finals. The
quarter finals, semi-finals and finals will then involve elimination of the
losing team, no more power matching. Sometimes there are octo-finals, if the
number of teams participating is high.

I’m not gonna describe how all the rounds went as I was only present
in the room I was adjudicating (duh!). Overall, I was quite lucky to be able to
watch several good teams debating. Singaporean debaters were all very well
versed in English, as expected. It was my first time adjudicating in a
tournament and due to my lack of experience and confidence, I didn’t really
speak much at the first two rounds. Adjudicating is really much challenging
than debating as you need to really follow each speech and make notes so that
you can review it and use it as a guide to make decision on who should win the
debate based on the arguments offered. For a person who seldom make notes
during lecture like me, it was pretty hard. I think I managed to do it fairly
well.

Saturday night we had dinner in a hawker centre right opposite the
hotel we stayed. Tried a $6 claypot chicken rice. Expensive huh?? Realised
there weren’t much difference with food variety offered in any Malaysian hawker
centre. Hmm…the only difference might just be the price…haha…

There were four rounds of prelim, three on Saturday and one on
Sunday. We had a good night sleep in Hotel Penang (yeah..Hotel Penang in Singapore)
that night. The next morning, we reached SMU at about 9am for
the last prelim round. Disappointed to see some teams coming only an hour
later. Haih~!! The round ended
before lunch time and the breaks were released at about 3pm. IMU didn’t break.
But anyway, we had to leave early so that we will not miss the bus back to KL,
at 7pm, because the medic sem4s have got hospital
posting the next morning. Took an MRT ride to the bus station for the bus to
Johor Bahru. From there, we took another bus to KL. Managed to reach Vista 11.30pm.

It was my first trip to Singapore since primary six. A beautiful city with lots
to offer, but we had no time at all to travel around. *sad* Nevertheless, the
trip wasn’t a very much anticipated one compared to the one coming two days
after that – Asian University Debating Championship (AUDC) in Bandung~!!

Yohooo~! Back from two “holiday trips”
yesterday…Was really tired…slept for 11 hours before waking up this morning…haha…

This is probably one of the most meaningful
holidays I’ve ever had and the holiday during which I travel the most and the
furthest, forget the fact that I missed the class trip to Malacca. Arghhh~!

The night right after the last paper of my EoS
exam, I went Singapore, not for holidays, but for a debate
competition, with other Debate Club members. There were 12 of us, who made up 3
debate teams. IMU A, Prasad, Yih Seong, Hai Liang. IMU B, Deborah, Jesse, Ben
Luke. IMU C, Siva, Mian Li, Diana. Meanwhile, Yu Jeat, Michelle & I were
the junior adjudicators. The word “adjudicators” means “judges” in debate
tournaments. The role of adjudicator is to determine the winner of each round
of debate. In each debate, there will be a panel of adjudicators, consisting of
a Chair and 2 or 4 panelists. The chair is normally a very experienced debater or
a coach who is able to follow and judge the debate well whereas the panelists
are normally less experienced debaters or junior debaters, like us.

We traveled to Singapore by the night train and the journey took about
10 hours. We took off from KL Sentral at 10pm and reached Woodland at about 8.00am the next
morning. Didn’t really get a good sleep on the train, although we bought a
middle class ticket which came with a bed each. Not only did the train make
lots of noise when it moved through its track, we were so unfortunate we were
in the same compartment with a baby who cried almost every hour the whole
night. Oh ya, had a supper on the train café with Yu Jeat…its fried rice is one
of the worst I’ve ever tasted. My first fried rice was much better.

Singapore Management University (SMU) organized
this debate tournament and it was known as SMU-Hammers. Never heard of this uni
before. But was surprised to see that it was actually quite an established one.
It was a city-integrated university, with 5 or 6 campus buildings built near
each other separated by roads. For a university which was much younger than
IMU, SMU was very impressive. It had automatic gateways like those seen at KTM
and LRT stations at the ground floor. Inside, there were automatic doors which
led to lecture halls and seminar rooms. Wireless was available too. Its lecture
hall was much bigger than IMU’s and had two projectors for convenience of
students sitting at both sides of lecture hall. & guess what, each seat had
its own power point for laptop~!! A big contrast with IMU….

If u notice, i always complain about time…ARGHH~!! It’s now Week 12 of Semester 3…why does time have to pass so fast??

Before i write further, thanks to frens who have given me support through the tough week. A lot of unexpected things happened and i was really stressed up…couldn’t sleep well…& to some extend, i was depressed…& somehow, i got sick…After being involved in so many organising commitees, that was the first time such major ‘havoc’ happened…Imagine u put so much hard work in something expecting it to run well but at the end being "ruined"…I’d been trying hard to overcome the problems we had last year but new problems arised…There are really some lessons to learn…& it’s valuable…Luckily i still manage to concentrate for the two tests being held this week…

Anyway…Orientation was really fun…Glad that most juniors enjoyed it…had a fun time during the week oso…Dress Codes prepared by juniors were really cool…i can say overall it was better than ours last year…It would be much more better if……

Have been idle in all society work & responsibilities in the past week…Was the only time in the whole 3rd sem that i can focus on study alone…thanks for being understanding…

Two more tests to go…have to spend the weekend studying…ahh…Sem 5 seniors will be having their last exam in IMU soon…haha..wish them good luck~! & to my batchmates, njoy the weekend with Microbio & Physical Pharmacy~!! hahaha…

Hey people~! Happy Chinese New Year~! It’s the
year of Boar…haha…while the rest of the world are enjoying the holidays…i’ve
to do my lab report pulak…arghh…it’s ady the fourth day of the Lunar
calendar…why so fast one huh?? I don have enough yet!!!!!!!!

Haih…i’m worried about orientation…worried
that it won turn out good…after all the hard work & planning…Btw, this noon when I was in a fren’s house…a junior
called me and asked me about orientation…he said he heard something from
somebody…must be from his frens who are already in IMU la…haha…Orientation…i thought that’s what we experience oso when we attend youth camp or similar activities?? Orientation is really fun..the week of most fun in IMU…although it can be the most dirty…hehe…i’m grateful that there is such thing as orientation in IMU…the week when i knew most frens…it’s really a good ice-breaker and team-building activity for freshies…so, juniors, just enjoy it la…don be shy…u can know many pretty girls and leng chais without the need to give lame reasons…hahaha…

We really spent much time planning & organising everything…poor Yeu Lou have to bring the banner back and draw at home…just plz…plz pray for us that we’ll get sporting juniors…otherwise the whole thing will be so so boring…

Btw, Yieng…my younger cousin sister said u r pretty…asked me to go after u…she saw ur pic in my pc (don perasan k? i’ve got other girl’s pic oso) Woahaha…i told her he would kill me…hehe…

Njoy the holidays yea…oh…to ALL P106 seniors…please wear red-coloured shirt/skirt/cloths on Tuesday during the meeting…it’s Chinese New Year…hehe..

Happy Chinese New Year everyone~! Gong Xi Fa Cai~!!

First of all, thank you to Ho Wai and Ben Luke for their little souvenir from Taiwan. Thanks alot~! & Congrats to u guys too for making IMU proud in Taiwan…it must be a great experience there…the first word that came out from Ben’s mouth when i asked him on I-MEC was "Awesome~~"…haha…

Hmm..it’s really been a tired week…’countless’ meetings & discussions…& almost everyone i talked to was  either regarding orientation or the September carnival…didn’t really spend time studying in the past week…& i’ve been missing Wushu lessons for 6 weeks…sorry Esther…too tired everyday when i reached my vista home from campus…i had been longing for this weekend since Monday…but sad it’s already saturday night & i’ll have to return Vista tmr…

Just another week before CNY…didn’t really feel the atmosphere in IMU…i wonder if the Chinese Cultural Society is planning anything…the street back home here has got lots of lanterns…can’t wait for CNY~!! hehe…

Orientation…hmm…everything has been going rather smooth…but rather slow…we are bout a week slow by schedule…but we are rushing to end all preparations now before the CNY break starts…somehow i feel we are doing more than our seniors did last year…mayb i hv a higher expectations..or mayb it’s just my feeling..haha…err…but this year we do have something extra….an event we name Freshie Interaction Night…for both pharmacy and medic juniors combined…coz this year they are going to register on the same day…think it’d be a nice platform for them to mingle around with each other…thanks to Jason & Jane for being the co-ordinator for the event~!

hmm..it’s getting late…i better go to bed now…good nite everyone~! happy belated birthday to Leeky & happy Birthday to dear Chia Hong…Happy birthday to Ryan in advanced~!! Hey, Ryan~! Reply my msg la…Woahaha…

Walau-eh…why do u have to pass so fast?? Aiyo…i just felt like i had just came in IMU for 3rd sem few days ago…but when i look at the timetable…it’s already Week 5~!! Arghh…Am i the only one having this feeling?? it’s way too fast…ARGHHHHH…

Anyway…back to reality…haven’t posted any blog in the past week…i didn’t know what to post recently…lost my inspiration…too many things had happened…but too little things to write…haha…perhaps i was just too busy with stuffs. Orientation…then the IMU anniversary carnival…

Orientation is not easy to organise…really…too many things to do…When i just came in, i had the thought that seniors organise this type of orientation to make fun of the freshies, but now…i can tell u…it’s all ALTRUISM work…really…seniors gain next to nothing from orientation…if u minus the fun…but even with the fun, the work is too much a trouble to have the fun…now i start to appreciate all the hard work by the seniors…it’s for the fun of the juniors really…hope the coming P1/07 will appreciate what we have done for them…after 2 semesters in IMU, no fun can actually match the fun i had during orientation week…*nostalgic*…hehe…

Luckily we’ve got lots of helpful batchmates in the committee…that really lessens lots of burden and work…thanks a billion to everyone~!!

Today is a Sunday…but it’s reaching 5pm soon…haih~!! Tmr will back to the hectic life in IMU again…although i’ve no lecture tmr…P1/07 has got lots to owe me & i’ll get back at them…wohahahahahahahahahaha….oh no…i am a really nice orientation president…& i’ll be a better one when P1/07 comes in…*grin*