good times fly

Dear all,

I really ♥ you guys and the time we had there. I procrastinated from doing my river cross-sections and did this for you all :)

Bestest wishes and luck to all of you for your final exams!

♥ and thank you,

SIFE World Cup 2009 DAY 3: Semi-Finals

6th October 2009

Today is an even more important day. And in fact, there was a whole load of goings-on as it was the official Last Day of the competition.

Let's begin off the top: SEMI-FINAL ROUNDS.

An even more critical point as we have to make it through this to take on the world stage. In all honesty, winning the World Cup is just a bonus, what we really wanted was to tell the world Our Story.

Semi-final round was even more nerve-wrecking. Bigger room, more judges. And I really didn't like the floor. The uncarpeted floor which caused my heels to make really loud noises when I walk -- and I had to go up in front to showcase one of our product of success. It was irritating and distracting.

Not too long after our presentation, we had the semi-final round results ceremony and immediately after that the four winners of each league will do their Final round presentations...on the World Stage. The announcement was even more nerve-wrecking than before.

Lest me being a drama queen and create suspense or whatever, let's just say it here:

SIFE UMS lost to Canada in the Semi-finals and thus we didn't get to compete in the Finals. It was quite disappointing actually because as I've said it before, we really truly wanted to tell our story to the world. What made it worse was that when we saw some of the final presentations, we truly believed that we did so much better. But that's the way competitions go, and I bet its a typical feeling in everybody who didn't make it too.

Whatever it was, I would say that we are still extremely proud of our achievements at our FIRST participation in the World Cup. We missed the one final step but as far as first-timers go, we've already had a very successful journey.

We'll be back next year :) See you in Los Angeles!

Oh yea, and congratulations to SIFE French University from Egypt, SIFE World Cup 2009 Champion.

SIFE World Cup 2009, another memorable event.

end note: The SIFE WC Post-Party was held in Spindler and Klatt, a restaurant-by-day, club-by-night, disguised as an abandoned warehouse kind of place.

And as I stupidly brought my camera out but left its battery in the charger back in the hotel, I don't have any photos to show (which is too bad as I could have made quite a bit with blackmail shots).

Breaking chains for change,

SIFE World Cup 2009 DAY 2: League Competition

5th October 2009

Critical morning. Today, we HAVE to make it into the Top 16.

Is 10.35am an auspicious time?

Superstition aside, this is our first attempt to wow them. This is what we are here for. And this banner confirms it.

The 7th flag from the top in the first column. The 19th country by alphabetical order.

It really gives one a sense of pride and achievement to see that not-so-big print.

Strategy-wise, our strongest opponent in League 7 is South Africa as African countries always have very strong community-humanitarian projects. We are confident of the strength of our projects too. Nevertheless, it's always a must to seek some divine assistance.

As usual, we have our multi-faith prayers session.

I actually like this part a lot because I usually feel this very strong bond among the team. And I love listening to the prayers of different faiths in different languages. And although I'm not a very spiritual person in nature, I always have this undescribable emotional wave thingie during these sessions.

Our turn came and we entered this small, long room for our presentation. Hearts thudding, still trying to smile. 24 minutes to show the judges why we were there and to convince them that we deserve to proceed to the next round.

Kinon even got his own seat!

That evening, the results were announced. League after league, they announced the two semi-finalists, the third-placer, and the recipient of the Spirit Award. Can you imagine? Having to sit through six league announcements, the suspense almost killed us. When they called us to go up on the stage we were partially relieved.

But did we manage to make it into the next round of competition?

SIFE Dr. Jose Matias Delgado University from El Salvador got the Spirit of SIFE Award.

SIFE Auckland University of Technology from New Zealand was awarded Third Place.

Which means SIFE University of KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa and

SIFE University of Malaysia Sabah, Malaysia made it into THE SEMI-FINALS!!!

For the Semi-Finals, teams are divided into four leagues with four teams each, competing for that one place in the Finals. League drawing time again and this time, we kinda lucked-out. We drew number 15 which made us the second last to choose our league and presentation time.

We had absolutely NO CHOICE at all. Hello toughest league. Hello league with last year's World Cup Champs. SIFE UMS will be competing in League 4 at 10.25am the next day with
SIFE University of Tirana, Albania;
SIFE Maseno University, Kenya and
SIFE Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.

Can we do another miraculous job?

Stay tuned,

SIFE World Cup 2009 DAY 1: Cultural Fair

4th October 2009

The first day of the event is the funnest one, where all 41 countries show off their national pride and traditional threads and bites. The hall became a cultural celebration.

Meet Kinon, our orangutan mascot

Getting Kinon was a story in itself. I'm going to risk sounding philosophical for a bit here, but you know how sometimes things in general just keep going wrong and there are a lot of frustrating factors overwhelming you...then suddenly you find out that there really are genuinely nice people out there. People who will just help although they have absolutely nothing to gain, and don't even know you to begin with.

We got Kinon from Kadaiku, Sabah Tourism's Souvenir Shop, located opposite the central market in Kota Kinabalu. As with all orangutan plush sold there, RM10 of the price is given to Sepilok Orangutan Rehabilitation Centre, so they do get pretty pricey. Kinon, the second smallest plush, originally costs RM150. The really nice lady working there actually gave us a special discount on all our purchases after we told her why we needed them. We bought Kinon for RM85.

Amazing, is it not? I was saying that it's not the time to give up on mankind just yet...

Back to the cultural fair. In a way, I would say that Malaysia's booth was represented a little differently this year as we portrayed a lot of East Malaysia, especially Sabah (duh). We handed out traditional Rungus bead necklaces, fed the crowd amplang and kuih cincin, and of course, Kinon the Orangutan was there to greet the world.

We were all dressed up in a myriad of traditional costumes. In this picture taken with Zul Saadon, SIFE Malaysia Country Director, we are (from l-r) Indian saree, Punjabi kurta, Sabah's Dusun Tindal (yours truly) and Iranun costumes (male and female).

Françoise was in a Murut costume, and Valentino put on the Kadazandusun one, as seen here setting up the Malaysia Booth.

I've realised two things this year:
1) being on the competing team and responsible for 'sticking close to homebase' when the fair starts deprived me a lot of photo ops and souvenir collecting from all the other 40 booths.
2) Wearing a not only eye-catching, but also attention-grabbing costume (every step I take in the Dusun Tindal costume produces a jangle of bells) attracts a lot of photo requests. People don't even bother what country I'm representing. They'll first say "Can I take a picture with you?" and after a whole load of flash-snap-flash (it lasts a while as the crowd tend to grow as more people jump into the shot) somebody might remember to ask "So which country are you from?".

When countries meet, it's a feast of colours

I met the Krygyzstan guys from last year again :)

After a couple of hours in the hall with much dancing and fiesta-ing, we were hyped for the opening ceremony, where each country gets their 30 seconds of fame on stage when they announce all competing countries.

It's a sensational feeling.

The Leagues for the Opening Round competition the next day were determined that night. This is done by a random program so we were placing our fate solely in Lady Luck's hands. Malaysia was in League 7 with Ukraine, El Salvador, South Africa, and New Zealand.

Who will go to the semi-finals?

Stay tuned for SIFE WC '09 Day 2!

Pre- SIFE World Cup

Where we had to get A LOT done before leaving the country.

I like to say "leaving the country" although I could just simply use "our departure" or something similar to that. It just makes it sound more heinous.

Five days to:
- shop for a complete monkeysuit get-up for the 6 who were going up on stage

- do courtesy calls and presentations to Ministries and people in high places

- practice, practice, practice!

We stayed in the Heritage Station Hotel, opposite the KTM office, and I guess where the old Railway Station used to be.

On the up side, you could say it's very vintage, classic even. On the downside, apparently it's extremely haunted.

Hauntings may have occured.

On Monday, the 28th of Sept, we had a presentation to some big shots of Khazanah Nasional, right at the top floor of Mercu UEM.

Tuesday, we had to make a courtesy call to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs at Wisma Putra.

Wednesday, another presentation in the Ministry of Higher Education with Datuk Saifuddin Abdullah, Deputy Minister of Higher Education.

It's funny though, I didn't feel any extreme pressurised excitement in me although there's so much to be hyped about. Maybe I'm getting old...

Next entry, in Germany!

back from wonderland

Hey y'all.

I don't usually start my entries like this but it's 1:36am and I've been travelling for half of today. Haven't been updating not because I have nothing to write (on the contrary) but I just haven't had the time. Practically been away for more than three weeks so expect some backdated entries soon. I promise. Some teasers:

- Kuala Lumpur ~ our stay at one of the most historical, and apparently haunted hotel; and what we had to do prior to leaving the country
- SIFE World Cup 2009 ~ The Main Agenda, the laughter and the tears
- Berlin ~ The little sightseeing we did amidst our hectic and packed schedule
- Amsterdam ~ The vacation after the sweat, blood, and tears

Was back home in Ipoh for a week after that due to some unforseen circumstances which I shall reveal in my final entry. Even that 24 hours was a tale in itself.

So yea, I promise I will write soon, and spin my tale of a thousand nights (actually it was only 17 nights, give or take).


Good internet is always good,