A new journey begins

I have to skip my update for the trip to Korea first because I do not have much time as I've entered IPG last week. So, I'm up for a new journey that will take a duration of five and a half years. As of a week ago, I am officially a student at a learning institution called Institut Pendidikan Guru Kampus Gaya located not far from Kota Kinabalu. I am majoring in Teaching English as Second Languange or its acronym -TESL. My minor subject is yet to be known tomorrow.

Us freshies had our orientation for four days after we registered. The orientation is known as Minggu Pengenalan Pelajar Baharu (MPPB). The seniors conducted it for us and we had activities according to the schedule given. Among them were talks by the lecturers, group presentations, recreational activities, games, learned the official songs, sharings and discussions on various topics, and we had Malam Kebudayaan during the last night of orientation where my group performed Dikir Barat, a traditional Malay dance and singing originated from Terengganu. It was indeed a tough week yet another experience that I am very much grateful of.

During my stay at the hostel, I became closely knit with two beautiful people, one whom I've already known and she's also a friend's big sister, Nicole Michael and a new friend, Tara Nicole Robert. We were together most of the time (shower is an exception) - eat, giggle, gossip etc...and we even slept next to each other in a room of ten people. The three of us decided that after the orientation we will not be staying at the hostel since our respective houses is not that far from the campus.

Back to my stay there, I encountered new surroundings as I was in an all girls school for exactly eleven years and that was since my primary days. Now there are male students everywhere as well and in some way I still feel a bit funny because now being decent does matter unlike before, my friends and I and all the girls in the school, we do almost everything very loudly..well, the Convent girls do. Ha..ha... Aside from that, I met people of various backgrounds and walks of life and again, tolerance is very crucial. There are people's nature that we just must get used to regardless you like it, or not.

By far, I am enjoying it at the institute as the lecturers and seniors are all very helpful and approachable, and I am anticipating lots of fun activities that are going to come up. Tomorrow I will assemble together with all the batches and I am a bit nervous though, that is why I hate first times! and will also be attending my first tutorial and classes.

To sum them all up, I just feel honoured to be part of this institution and I couldn't care less what everyone else had to say with me being a teacher in the future, that this job is boring and unglamourous. I feel these opinions are very shallow and old. I am making this clear not because I am trying to act out of annoyance, but there are those opinions that passed through my ears which I am not very pleased with but time will tell. I very much believe that this place will bring out the best of my potentials and to my fellow TESLians and future educators, let's contemplate on this quote - "A teacher affects eternity, he can never tell where his influence stops". God bless us all. Have a blessed Sunday!

South Korea Day 2

Hello South Korea! At Incheon International Airport.

After about 4 hours and 30 minutes in the plane, we have officially landed at the Incheon International Airport, South Korea! We then ride on a bus for another 3 hours to our destination, the Okcheon and Modan School. Doctor Yun and Mr. Kim were there to welcome our arrival. Mr. Kim presented a slide show on the activities and purposes of the school and he emphasized on "Sarangbang". Sarangbang is a project based on the concept of 'People Makes the City'. It involves public cultural activities with the villagers, having a closer contact with local community, and use of abandoned hair-shop for the project. Their main activities were reading, watching movie and program development for the multi-cultural community and their children. Amongst programmes for multi-cultural community that was held before were "Cook the Poem" in the year 2009 where they had chat about their culture through a cooking session followed by "Cook the Life" which was a combined cooking and counseling program in the year 2010.

Geng blakang bas -Michael, Michelle, Adam, Me & Serena. We were on our way to Okcheon and Modan School.

With darling Beny. I can't recall the name of this place. We stopped by a little while for some snacks where I had Dunkin Donuts

Behind the truck that transported us and our bags to the school. I was all hyped up!

The welcoming banner for the Sabahans. Thank you with love!


Attentively listening to Mr. Kim

After the brief explanation made by Doctor Yun and Mr. Kim, we proceeded to ceramic mug painting. We get to design our very own mug which was out of my expertise. *smirks* Towards afternoon, we had our very first meal in a foreign place, which also means foreign taste and the thought of "saaadaaap ka tu ah?" It turned out ok lah! He he heh.

With our mugs

All that I could think of to paint on my mug. Is that even painting?

My very 'artistic' side!

Lunch - white rice + bull's eye egg + kimchii (this was a torture to my starving tummy)

Dr. Yun brought us for BMW RIDING around the school. BMW - not the car. It meant sightseeing, sightseeing by feet. Done with sightseeing, we then watched the students of the school perform Salmonari in an open space stage area. Salmonari in Malaysia is similar to the Pancaragam, but using their very own traditional instruments. Despite the languange barrier, I appreciate all their efforts in teaching us to play and eventually we sounded right and cool yo! ;-P

Sherry and I. She's a sturdent there. Very helpful and can speak English!

Salmonari session. The session where awkward sign languanges came in handy

Before we head for *shrugs* dinner, we did two rounds of rehearsals at the open stage. After dinner, we got back into the bus and headed to the village we were to perform. 6 of my friends involved in the Pinakang dance (lthank good...ness I wasn't in the dance, I was bad at Pinakang..real bad) had to perform in an unusual cold weather. The remaining of us watched from not so far, in a tahan sejuk air~~

Left to right - Serena, Eleena, Bosco, Jerry, Ira & Kathleen

Sharin, Beny & I at our seats

As soon as they finished performing, we were finally brought to the place where we were to stay for 2 nights. We the girls had our own house and the boys with the teachers in another house. There, we met Jaramier Joibi, a KDCA-ISCEP Alumni and currently pursuing his studies in one of the university in Korea. We had him to share with us his experience and oh boy, you should have listened to him talk Korean, super fluent! Soon after, we the girls got back to our house and goodnight, it was indeed a long day.

Oh wait!

My girls and I having our supper... Maggi (Malaysian Maggi!) before bed!
Now,Goodnight!

South Korea Day 1

I would like to share a once in a lifetime experience that was given to me last year in October. I was chosen to represent my school for the KDCA-International Students Exchange Program to South Korea 2010. Alongside with me from my school were two of my juniors Michelle Boyou and Freda Jane as well as a teacher which was Miss Jackelyn Robert (one of my favourite teacher!). Earlier in May, the KDCA-ISCEP Fundraising Concert was held and my involvement was being the emcee with Adam. All the 23 students chosen for this program were also those involved in the Fundraising Concert. To begin with, we were given a green covered note book as our journal during our 8 days stay. The following will be what I've penned down in that book..

Day 1 - 15th October 2010

I have arrived at Kota Kinabalu International Airport with my mother, my little sister Alisha and my cousin Gwen. Before I left for KKIA, I went to my grandparents' place to bid them goodbye. ( I know, 8days only). Many of my relatives were there to prepare for my aunt's wedding the next day. I was in tears because I've waited so long for the day she will be wedded. I wouldn't missed it for the world, but I eventually did. Anyhow, I gave a hug to everyone and left for KKIA. At KKIA, as soon as all the boarding procedures were completed, we took group pictures and had meal at McD's and departed for South Korea at 12.15 A.M.

Aunt Beryl and I. Yes this is my aunt who was about to get married the following day. Look at the background, wedding day chaos.

The entourage before leaving for South Korea

My plane mates, Adam and Jonathan


Bukan slalu naik Korean Air! Korean Air stewardess and I. This was upon arrival. We were observing her paitung-ed face all the time. Spot the difference

Now and then

I have been on and off on Blogger for quite some time. And each time I'm back writing I can't help the tendency to delete all the previous posts. I hope this time my intention to keep this blog alive will work out, regardless if this is even read! So to start off with, I'm going to share of what I've been up to since leaving high school for approximately 6 months already.

As soon as SPM was over in mid-November last year, I thought I could keep myself occupied with.. *excites!* super-exciting-things-I've-been-wanting-to-do-if-I-have-all-the-time-in-the-world. Wait, that was robotic mode speaking so yeah, you get what I meant. First few weeks off-school was pretty fine but went on worst cause I was already dying of the repetitions of my daily routines. Give me a break.

Mid January I signed up for a job at Beverly Hotel, KK through my aunt who is the Front Office Manager there. I did the clerking duties - picking up phone calls, arranging files etc etc etc.. This almost killed me too cause the job was not challenging any part of me at all. Few months passed I managed to do little bits of the Receptionist's job, which is to entertain guest at the Front Desk and it became pretty exciting then. The job paid decent wage but I love the people and affection back there. I quit mid May.

Towards the end of May, I was asked to partner with Adam again to host the KDCA-ISCEP Fundraising Concert 2011 in conjunction with the Harvest Festival (Kaamatan as the Sabahans call it) and also to raise funds to subsidise the fees for the Students Exchange Program to South Korea. It was a privilege and I am happy to have done it again this year as this was my actual interest, hosting events. The most valuable lesson I learned was of course I gained maturity in handling uncertain circumstances such as my partner's mic wasn't functioning when we were supposed to do the welcoming greetings together and I had to do it solely. For a moment was so upset, could have been grand-er but as told, the show must always go on.

Now it's June already, yes how time flies sweethearts. I am currently counting the days to enter the Teaching Institute, Gaya Campus on the 20th of June. I am taking the course Teaching English as a Second Language ( TESL ) for primary school education. Yes to tell you the truth, this wasn't my lifetime ambition, used to when i was a little kid but through the past years, everything kept on changing including not getting to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. The process wasn't easy, the after SPM process especially was a hectic one, dealing with submitting applications, attending interviews to get qualified or not, your own surroundings convincing what and what you should do - Mister Mind or Mister Heart will be more powerful this time?

Teaching, Law or Mass Communication? All with their pros and cons. Neither the heart nor the mind was more powerful, they had to be equal and that was what I totally did to yours truly and guess what, I am a future "Teacher Jane" and more than happy to know that.