Turning 18 and a Malay Wedding!

After returning from Chinese New Year Holidays the school welcomed new students in both form 1 and form 4. Registration was a busy day with lots of emotions and nerves filling the air. It has been good getting to know the new students and see some fresh faces around the school, I'm sure they'll be settled in here in no time and love it just as much as we do.

Registration Day

On the 19th February we went along to a debate competition in MRSM Muar. We had been helping the debate team out a little prior to their competition so it was good to actually get to see them in action. They performed really well, winning two out of three debates and getting to the semi final. Considering it was a relatively new team of debaters they were very good, especially against some tough competitors. Overall I was really impressed with the standard of debaters from all schools, especially since English is their second language. 

Debate Competiton 

With the debaters 

On Sunday the 21st of February I celebrated my 18th birthday here in Malaysia. It was a fab day filled with cake, laughs and pranks!! I woke up bright and early in the morning to Skype all my friends and family back home who were having a party on my behalf haha! Although I was only half awake it was lovely to see all their faces and hear from them on my special day, I can't wait to see them all again in 6 months! My two partners then surprised me with a delicious homemade chocolate cake and candles and even blessed me with their beautiful singing voices! It was actually 'marathon' day on my birthday so all the students had to run an 8Km around Mersing and our job was to hand them water halfway through. Hollie, Sophie and I had our tiara's on, dressed up as princesses in aid of my b day and all the kids were having a fab time running in the sun. However of course with so much water left over once all the kids had passed my lovely partners took the opportunity to soak me, head to toe! And I thought that's where the pranks ended haha! 

Birthday Princess 

After a quick shower we headed to the whole school assembly. This then turned into 600 students singing me happy birthday- not embarrassing at all! We then headed to our favourite little cafe in Mersing and I had a big banana split- Sedap! For dinner we used the party decorations my mum sent me and had a pizza party! I couldn't think of a better birthday dinner than a Pizza Hut chicken supreme. In the evening I could tell some of our favourite female students were up to something when I was forced to do a lap of the hostel while they skeemed in our apartment. When I returned I was pushed into the bathroom and covered- again- in gunk made from everything from shampoo to biscuit, yayyyy!!! Although they did make up for it by giving me beautiful handmade cards and gifts. All in all I did have a fab birthday, even if I had to shower 3 times from all the pranks, and I can't thank my partners and students enough for making it so fun. Also a huge thank you to all the beautiful people who sent me cards and gifts from back home, my wall is now beautifully decorated with them. I am now finally 18 as well woooo, no longer a baby!

Just been pranked- not happy!!

My bedroom wall

This weekend we went with Uncle Naz back to his home town in Selangor as we had been invited to a Malay wedding. We made a weekend out of it as it was such a long way to go, I'm getting used to 7 hour car journeys now! On the Friday he took us to a waterfall, where we thought we would just go for a nice swim. However what he failed to mention was that it was an hours trek, crossing multiple rivers, to get to the waterfall and we were all wearing sandals! Nonetheless we grabbed the experience with both hands and had an amazing time. It was so fun to cross the rivers and swim with the fishes. We had a fab time being at one with nature. 

We stayed with Nizar and his family, including his two children Anas and Anis. They were so warm and welcoming it was nice to be in a family setting again. On the Saturday we got our Baju Kurung's on and headed to the wedding. On our way we stopped at a paddy field for a little photo shoot as it was so beautiful and couldn't have been more Malaysian, almost 40 degrees, in traditional dress next to a field of rice! The wedding was so beautiful and had up to 1000 guests. It was such a family affair, being held in the Grandmothers garden in a big gazebo which was beautifully decorated. The food was to die for, the people were all so welcoming and the newly weds looked gorgeous. It was such a nice experience to be a part of, I'm so glad we got the opportunity to go along. 

Only some of the family

Photo booth at the wedding

The happy couple

Next to a paddy field

The journey back was extremely long, took us about 9 hours and we didn't get back to Mersing until about 2am and had school at 8am the next morning! However we did break up our journey a bit with a visit to Malawati Hill in selangor. This had beautiful views stretching across Malaysia however the main attraction were the hundreds of Monkeys jumping about everywhere. I have not got the best past with monkeys and to say the least they scare the crap out of me! But when a little baby was abandoned by its mother in the middle of the road and started screaming its head off, it was so upsetting, thankfully another monkey came and picked it up out of the way eventually. 

Chillin' with the monkeys 

The other day we also took a trip to the local orphanage in Mersing. The school and MARA have a connection to the orphanage so a ceremony was being held there. Most of the kids there come from broken homes where the parents have either died or abandoned them. However they are being extremely well looked after and have a new family of each other now. They were all so intrigued by us and we chatted away, as best we could, for ages. It was so nice to see the help that place was doing for the kids and how happy they seemed even after such a harrowing life. I would definitely like to go back there regularly to spend time with the kids. 

Smiles all round

Burns Night, Singapore and Don't Stop Believing!

The past month has been extremely busy as the students go into their new forms and we await the arrival of new students from other MRSMs and also government schools. After arriving back from our Christmas holidays we were given the extra responsibility of taking some of the night classes for form 4s who were awaiting to hear whether they were being transferred to a better school or not. These were from 9pm to 10.30pm once or twice a week. We also took over the grammar slots for form 4s during the day where we carried out a range of activities to advance their grammar skills. The most memorable of these was a huge grammar treasure hunt where 200 students were split into 10 groups and each given a grammar question to solve. Once they had solved this they were then given a riddle which, when answered, took you to the location of a letter. By the end of the hunt the teams had 10 letters which then made an anagram of the final winning location. This was a fun activity which helped reasses their grammar skills they had learnt the previous day and it was interesting to see how quickly they could solve the riddles! We did many activities throughout the form 4 programme- I enjoy these programmes a lot more as they are less formal than a classroom setting and you can be a lot more creative with the activities you give the students. 

The winning treasure hunt team

Fun activities- Sentence twister!

In the middle of Januray we had a long weekend to celebrate the Hindu festival thaipusam. We took this opportunity to follow our Vice Principal, Uncle Naz, to his home in Kuala Kubu Bahru (KKB). This is also where two other volunteers teach so we got the chance to visit them in their setting. This was interesting to see the differences between the schools and also the students. As KKB is much closer to KL (about 40mins) most of the students live in the big city. The difference bewtween the quiet, rural kids of Mersing and the more confident, city kids from KL was definitely noticeable. We had a fun time playing games with a very energetic class with a lot more rowdy boys than Mersing!

Road Trip to KKB

MRSM KKB students

After our short trip to KKB we headed to spend the rest of our long weekend in KL with most of the other volunteers. It was fun to see them all again, it was so strange being back at our school with just the three of us, we were definitely having travelling withdrawal symptoms so this reunion was needed! We even managed to get our hands on a cheeky Nandos which was certainly the highlight of my weekend!

KL Nights

On the 25th January we decided to celebrate Burns Night during our form 4 slot. We taught the students all about Robert Burns- Scotland's national poet- got them to analyse 'My Love is like a Red Red Rose' and some of them even had a go at reciting 'Tae a Moose'! Their Scottish accents were questionable I have to say haha! Nonetheless we still had a fun time teaching them a little bit more about our culture and Scottish heritage and the Shortbread went down a treat!

Group Shot- Burns Night celebrations

'I love Scotland'

It then became the time for 52 of the Form 4s to leave Mersing to go to a better school. We wanted to do something special for their closing ceremony so decided to teach them a song they could sing and surprise all the teachers. We had 4 days to teach them all the lyrics, work out how they would get the mics and arrange some sort of choreography! Don't stop believing was the song we decided on as it is easy and has lots of harmonies for them all to join in on and has a cute message to go along with. After the first practice session I wasn't the most confident they could pull it off but they decided they wanted to carry on so we practiced again and by the night before it was starting to come together. When the time came and the music started playing I think the nerves kicked in and everyone was out of time so after a few laughs from the unsuspecting teachers we pretended that never happened and started again. The second time was perfect and they were up dancing like stars! It was a fab end to a fab programme and I wish all the form 4s who left Mersing the best of luck for the future. 

Closing Ceremony

Saying goodbye to form 4s

February was also the time our desk officer from Project Trust, Laura, came to visit Malaysia. She was supposed to come and visit our school and see how we were getting on but after a few complications she couldn't get to us so we had to go to MRSM JB to visit her along with some of the other vols. it was fun to catch up with her and was also nice to meet the JB girls who have just started their 8 month placement. 

Chinese New Year is obviously a huge celebration in Asia which called for yet more holidays. This time we took the opportunity to take a trip to Singapore, as there is a large Chinese population there. We spent 3 nights in a hostel, not the best but it's all we could afford- Singapore is EXPENSIVE, especially compared to Malaysia. We went to Universal Studios one day which was very fun, it's been a long time since I got the thrill of being on a roller coaster, my favourites were Cylon and Revenge of the Mummy. The next day we spent exploring Singapore including the Marina Bay and Chinatown. We had planned to watch the New Year's Eve fireworks at the marina bay but as we are 3 idiots we got the date wrong for Chinese New Year and it turned out to be New Year's Eve on the 7th not 8th of feb!! However we still managed to see some fireworks from Clarke Quay where we had a nice dinner. 

Universal Studios

Princess Fiona and her pals

Chinatown- Singapore

Out for dinner

One of the best parts about Singapore was going to the Gardens by the Bay which is a beautiful park with lots of plants and trees. But the best part is the huge 'Supertrees' made out of metal, looking like something from avatar! We even got to go on this tall curved walkway connecting two trees and even though it was a pretty dull day we still had some amazing views of the Island. Singapore was great fun, it is much more modern and western compared to Malaysia, but it was nice to experience a different side of Asia for a change, the transport system is almost that of London, it was fab!

Gardens by the Bay

It was windy up there!