Felda Semenchu, Johor

Before you read on, load the video at the end of this post first. If you wanna see la that is.

10th OctoberScheduled to leave on Friday night around 9pm & meeting point was at Komtar Maybank.
As planned, picked Nana at 8ish. We were both so reluctant to go!
Seriously felt so sad thinking bout how will the place be like, what if we're staying at different places and all that usual stuff.
Before you read on, upload the video at the end of this post first.

Check out Nana's cool bag!

Got chair wan okay?

Pat, May Ling & Sara came later on.
Started the 12hour plus bus ride!

Everyone headed to dreamland soon. Except Nana and I cause the well disciplined Nana thought we should at least revise a chapter of Sejarah first. So we were both making lots of noise and were being rather inconsiderate.
Till, the guy sitting behind us (Ray) told us this :
'Excuse me girls, can you please lower down your volume?'
Of course we said okay, but we were like doing our faces after he went away (ordinary girls reaction)
And of course, we weren't friends with any of them yet that time.

The bus stopped several times and I was awake every time it stopped.
So I'm not sure if I slept at all. But got lah I think.

3AM at one of the stops.

5AM at another one.

Bought ourselves HOTCUP.

6AM in the bus.
We were given shirts to change.
And soon we were at Yong Peng for breakfast.

11th October

Continued journey to the suburb of Johor, I guess.
Felda Semenchu.

Arrived at bout 11 something. I have a vid of us, mainly complaining bout this place.
Registered ourselves as the Penang Contingent and then we were brought to meet our foster parents.
We were so damn panicky cause they started reading out names of people in the same house.
As expected, Nana and I were in different houses. She was with Pat and 2 others and I was with May Ling, Saranya and Amy.
We almost criedddd! I know, it sounds silly.
But really okay, if you were us looking at the place and stuff, you'll be upset too.
Luckily, our houses were near each other's.

Met up for awhile, and they went back to their houses again.
Oh btw, that day was free activity.
Depends where your foster parents wanted to bring or do with you.

Mine thought us how to make karipap.

Learning HARD..

FIRST ATTEMPT :

The left side was done by the mak cik and I did the rest.
Yes, I know it looks retarded!

IMPROVED VERSION :
On the phone with Pat & Nana.
If I'm not wrong, that conversation was bout them asking me to pay them a visit.
Which I did.
..and ended up on their bed.

Pat asked the uncle to bring us out,
so he brought us with his old red car.
Pleasant ride; wind was strong.
In the car :


Those eyes, they KILL..

Those hair, they I don't know what..
So the uncle brought us to this place called Tanjung Belau or Balau I'm not too sure.
He told us that if we were to ride to boat from there, can go till Singapore.

Nana & I

Pat, Nana, their Pak Cik & I.

The wind was seriously damn syok!

Went home, and it was dinner time!
First meal with my new family.
Malay style = Sit on the floor + Usage of hands required.
But I requested for fork and spoon cause I had an extremely hard time eating the last time I tried using hands.

At night, no more activities! So kuai kuai sat on the bed and studied with my roommate, May Ling. Off to bed about 11 plus.

12th October

Had to assemble at this hall early bout 7.30.
They would send shutters to all the houses to bring us here and send us back when we were supposed to go back.

Woke up bout 6.30 and had breakfast the Mak Cik prepared for us.
Knowing the water is gonna be freezing cold and assuming others will think the same way and not bathe, I didn't bathe.
But I was wrong.. Nana, Pat and all did!

May Ling & I.

Majlis Perasmian of this whole thing.
Later, we were supposed to listen to some ceramah.
Then return home for lunch and then another ceramah.
That was basically what they planned.
I know it sounds so boring (it was anyway)!

At the same time, they were having some pameran outside.

This thing is made from lorry's tyres.
And they made a chair out of it too.
Damn comfortable, even better than Osim's like what Nana said.

Baskets made from newspaper.
We kept looking, the uncle in charged gave the us the small ones.
Home for lunch!
My Pak Cik.
Really nice wan. Always asking us to eat 24/7.
A lil protective though. He doesn't really like it when we go out by ourselves.

After lunch, continued listening to more talks.
Then this penceramah guy organised a tiny comp between the states.
We were supposed to promote our own states.
And this was when we started talking to the group of guys whom we thought were unfriendly people. Who knew they'd turn out to be such good people!

Nick, Joshua, Nana & Darren on stage.
Darren sang after that. And seriously, he has a good voice!
(Nana & Darren were singing on our last day when we were in the bus,
wonder if anyone heard it besides me.)

Nick feeling stressed after the presentation.
Told him this wasn't important, still he couldn't chill.

Night, when home and had dinner.
And this was our daily companion; Stacks.
Pat called me later on and told me they were all in front of my house.
So scared to ask the Mak Cik permission to go out cause it was quite late already.
But of course she allowed and cause the Pak Cik wasn't home yet.

Went to Josh, Jon,Nick,Darren, Hakim and Soon's house for the first time..
Pat entered first and told us not to go in.
Whyyyy?
Because it was too nice! Compared to ours la I mean.
Nice rightttt?

Their Mak Cik & Pak Cik were really nice.
Welcomed us so nicely, brought us drinks and all that.
Got home bout 1130 and the Pak Cik came home few minutes after us.
Don't get me wrong, he isn't that scary!

13th October

Today was called Hari Kuiz.
There was this quiz on tourism and all the states were competing against each other.

There were 16 states (including Labuan & Putrajaya) competing.
Penang got 9th I think, just one spot away from the finals.

While the quiz was taking place,
some listened attentively, some studied, Jon slept.

Some took pictures..
Ended around 3ish and it was free time till night.
Night was for finals of the quiz.

In the shutter, on the way home to Blok 6 & 7.
That was where Penangites were located.
Other states were at other blocks I haven't seen.
So I'm guessing this whole place is really huge..
Washed up and everything, then walked around our neighbourhood.

Ray Diagram in pajamas.
The guy who asked us to lower our volume.
The guy who woke up after Nana lowered her sit.
The guy who happens to be my kindergarten friend!

Went home to our respective houses for dinner.
Met all these people again at the hall for the finals.

Guess what we found on Ray's wallpaper?
HAHA. That was only what he thought at THE START la I'm sure!


FINAL RESULTS :
The people from those states were really supportive.
Kept cheering 24/7 whenever their states got the right answer.

On the way home..
At night, went to the guys' house again.
Asked the Mak Cik a little braver this time and she just told us not to come home late.

Jon thought us some simple games which were rather fun.
Kept us laughing all night!
I guess that's kampung life, gotta find your own entertainment to stay entertained!

14th October

Forgot to mention, last night they separated everyone present into 16 groups.
As in everybody from all the states.
Which means every group has at least one member from one state and every group has members from ALL the states.
I was in group 11, Nana in Group 16, Pat I'm not sure but May Ling was with Ray in Group 10.
Jon was with Aisyah. Joshua alone, Nick alone, Darren too.
Today was all about Sukan Rakyat among 16 groups.

Soon representing his group in 'Anyam Ketupat'.
I was in Kembar Bersiam.

Nana with Hanani & Alan from S'wak.

With Aisyah and Jon behind.
There was no one in my group I could talk to.
So most of the time kept looking for Penang people.

When we were tired, sweaty and thirsty..

..came Alan with quenching orange juice.
Thank you!
The event ended bout 12 something and we had to go home for lunch.
At 2.30 was the finals of this sports thing. My team qualified, so did May Ling's and Pat's.

My team eventually lost the finals, as expected cause I didn't participate what.
Haha, nahh but yeah we lost.
Not sure which team won, we weren't keeping track on the games.

Joshua won two events for his team!
Musical Chair(by pushing down girls) and some Blind Fold game (he was so Mr.Bean).
But congrats! He was so happy he treated us ice cream.
Got home around evening and went cycling with Nana.
Darren & Ray came out of their houses claiming they could here our voices. (Ya right)

Nana repairing the pedal Darren spoiled!
But she failed, Darren repaired it at last.

At night, was the same usual routine.

15th October

Today was about visiting places.
Unfortunately, it was according to the groups and not states!
At least, I found a friend from my group.
Sara Soraya from KL.
Our group got Culture Trail which was quite boring.
Pat's group got City Trail, they got to go Johor Bahru, sat on boat rides, and she told me she touched a tiger I think.

Back to my trail.
First destination was Usman Awang's house.
Yeah, that writer who wrote one of the novels I've studied before.
I can't remember which.

There, we were thought how to transform..
the ugly thing(behind) into a flower.
The person's one was much nicer lah, this is mine, the uglier version.
Anyway, this whole thing was really boring.
I was only waiting for 4pm cause that's when we can go back to our homes!

Group 11.

Lunch time..
Made some friends from Sabah, but it was so challenging to even get what they're trying to say.
Cause they have this accent which is so uncommon (to me, at least).

Next was some Kraf Tangan daripada Siput place.
These people have plenty of creations made from sea shells which were for sold.
Photo frame, poster with all those jiwang words, mirror and etc.

And they thought us how to make these. (below)
Actually, it was all about making use of an invention called hot glue gun, pressing it and gluing the parts together.
So there wasn't really anything to learn.
Since it was still early, they brought us to some mall.
Which obviously has nothing nice.
Then it was time to go home! Yay!
Anyway, Nana's group went for Culture trail too.
But a different one and she bought me a hairband. Hehe.

Everyone(including our foster parents) got ready for the night.
It was like a Farewell Dinner sort of thing.
So quick, last night already!
Nana & I were so sad, now we're reluctant to go back to Penang!

Thanks for everything my one week parents!
For the food, love, care and everything else! You both rock!
They asked me to post them the pictures, which I'll after exams.

Went over to Nana's cause we all wanted to go to the hall in the same shutter.
We were early so there was time for pictures.

I love you, you love me;
We're best friends like friends should be!

Nana & Nadia.

Nana, Pat & I.

Sara, Nana, May Ling & I.

The table was supposed to fit only 8 but we managed to squeeze.
Ahh.. Good times!

Nick, nick, nick.
You're just too funny to be true! Haha.

Nana, Hanani & I.

Josh turned quiet suddenly..
Then we found out, he was having stomach ache!
Dinner was served late, after eating everyone started to disperse.
That night was the last night for us to meet friends from other states cause we had to leave early next morning.

Ain & Aisyah.

Soon, Nana, Hakim and I.

Teeqah from Sabah.

Jon,
the most normal among the five of them.
Remember, PRS is always ready to help!

Darren & Nana.

Alan & I.

Darren,
You should really think about joining some singing contest,
or duet with Nana to make album perhaps? Haha.

Nana, Pat and their family.

Joshua & Nana.

Nana, Joshua and I.

Jon.

Alan & Joshua (after his stomach recovered).

Patty & I.

Joshua,
the first time I saw you I felt you look like Dexter (the cartoon).
Then, I changed my mind, Mr.Bean was the better option. Hehe.
All the best in pursuing your dreams!

Alan & Jon.

Pat, Nana and I.

& lastly,
PENANG!

Got home, took a bath and then we were going out again.
This time it was 11.30 and Mak Cik & Pak Cik were already sleeping.
Being nice, May Ling and I didn't wanna wake them up la.
So, we sneaked out of the house. Lol.
Seriously damn scary, especially when opening the door!
Really loud wan, they really need to put grease or something.

The guys and their Mak Cik.

Jon, Mak Cik and I.

And this was drawn by Jon.
They were gonna give it to their foster parents the next day.

My favourite out of the lot.

16th October

Slept really late last night and got up early, before the alarm rang.

Had this sudden urge to write the essay/report we were supposed to hand in when in the bus bout this whole trip.

Wrote everything I felt, was so inspired that time.
And sad of course.
Cause I know we'll all still keep in contact and all that, but it will never feel like when we were there anymore.

With Amy..
She's definitely the most helpful in the house.
Always the one helping Mak Cik the most.
And thanks for always pouring water for me.

Goodbye houseeeee!!
Sad, sad moment.

Their family was the best.
The Pak Cik cried till non stop and so did each and every of them.
Got up the bus, waved goodbye to our foster parents and everyone started crying!
Except Pat (she cried when everyone stopped).

Then, each school were to send a representative to share bout their experience.
And when it comes to this, who else none other than,
Nana for CPT of course!
Nana with her meaningful speech.
Hmm, everyone was so moody then.
None of us wanted to leave.



So everyone calmed down and got over it.
Nana and Joshua in Soon and Hakim's shades.

Stopped for lunch.
Minutes before spilling his drink.
And while we were eating, Nana asked Nick which kindi he attended,
and he was like 'I forgot'.
So I just randomly asked, who went Sri Inai?
That was how I found out Ray was from there, too!

Joshua, wasn't emo..
Just observing the mini fountain.

Jon & Nana.

Jon & I.

Nana & Nick.

We were supposed to do the eyebrow thing..
..and mine obviously failed.

Thanks Ray for the cute lil thing.
And Nick for the other lil thing.




I don't know how this pic turned out like that.
Err.. Welcome to Genting Highlands?

Listen to what he has to say!

All in all, this was a truly great experience! No regrets going at all.

It'll definitely be something I will remember for life!
Staying in a kampung for one week, without aircond, waking up at 6 every morning, bathing with cold water, seeing chickens once I step out of the house, eating on the floor and cycling in the middle of the road!
Didn't expect myself to enjoy it so much but I'm glad I did.
Love you people and thanks for everything!