Activity Week, Langkawi and Language Week

**Sorry for the late upload I wrote this ages ago but due to a few technical difficulties it is only going up now!!**

At the beginning of March we participated in Activity week- 3 days of sports and 2 days of presentations and learning new skills. This was really fun to be involved in, especially the sports and it was a welcome break from lessons. I even took part in a few races and surprisingly came out with a couple of gold medals- in the 50 meters but I'll take it since I've never won a race in my life. Although I am pretty sure I only won because I'm in Asia and have legs double the length of theirs! All the students put their all into everything they participated in whether it be the 5000m or the cheer team. We even enjoyed playing traditional Malay games and also got a presentation from the local fire department- which meant a refreshing soak from the hose!



During sports days I was part of the red team, called Delima (Malay for ruby) and helped in all aspects of the competition from cheer leading to designing the flag. It was great to be part of a team again and show some team spirit and let my competitive side out. Cheer leading was very fun to watch and the three of us even got to judge the competition. Both girls and boys competed and I was very impressed with what they managed to come up with especially since it was their first time- they were both comical and skillful. It was even better that the red team boys won and the girls came a close second. Delima were powering through every competition and it was no surprise that we won in the end! This week was one of my best here at MRSM Mersing so far, even if we did get a bit sunburnt, everyone was in such high spirits and there was a great atmosphere filling the whole school.




Half term came in March but after a lack of planning on our part, everywhere we wanted to go was either sold out or it was rainy season so we couldn't get there, we ended up back in Langkawi- for my third time. However I do not regret this decision at all because it was an amazing holiday with great people. Langkawi was incredibly hot, the hottest temperatures we've been exposed to since we got here which left us all looking like tomatoes after a few small hours in the sun- with sun cream on!! However this did not dampen our spirits and we still went and did all the amazing activities we had planned. One day we ventured up the steepest cable car in the world and got some amazing views of Langkawi and beyond. This was such a cool experience, the curved skybridge was my favourite part, especially as we got there at just the right time to watch the sun setting across the water, magical.

Another day we decided to step out of our comfort zone a little and do the Langkawi Skytrex- an obstacle course in the trees- imagine Go Ape but in 40 degree heat! This was definitely a lot more difficult than we had originally thought but we still had a fab time climbing up ladders, crawling through tunnels and zip-lining through the jungle. However I was glad to get back to our air conned room and have a shower afterwards, I'm glad we did it but I won't be rushing back any time soon haha.







My favourite day in Langkawi was without a doubt when we went Island Hopping. There was 9 of us in total and we rented our own boat and driver Jonny for the day to show us all the small islands surrounding Langkawi. We saw lots of cool shaped islands, such as pregnant island and crocodile island. We got to swim in a freshwater lake in the center of one of the islands, got to see some wild eagles swooping through the skies, went to see the mangroves and even got to spend the afternoon on our own private beach. It was a perfect day with excellent company and I am so lucky to be able to have experiences like these!







All in all Langkawi was a brilliant holiday spent relaxing by the beach, sipping cocktails, watching night time fire shows and getting up to some crazy things. I absolutely love this little Island and would jump at any chance to go back for a fourth time!




Last week we went with 37 of our students to MRSM Alor Gaga in Malacca for Language week. We had been helping our participants prepare for this for weeks before the event so had some high hopes and we had seen how hard some of them had worked and how much effort they put into their events. Language week was for both English and Malay and had about 13 categories in total. The English categories were Public Speaking, Story Telling, Poetry Slam and Drama Fest. We attended the Southern Zone language week so there was 12 schools competing against each other. This also meant we got to see the other southern vols from JB and Muadzam Shah.

As soon as the competition started and I had watched only a few competitors I realised that we were just a lower class to many other schools. The level of talent there was mind blowing and I was not prepared for it. We were competing against smart schools and schools with the second best exam results in the country so found it very hard to stand our own. Nonetheless all of our students tried their very best and did us proud. The public speakers spoke with great confidence, just struggled with their impromptu, The story tellers were very imaginative and creative but were just pipped to the post by some other competitors, the Poetry slam performed their best performance I had ever seen them do but the Alor Gaga girls were just another level and performed with such passion and energy they deservedly won. However the drama was what upset the students most and so much work had been put into it by Nabil, Flora and the team but sadly on the day lots of technical issues, which weren't their fault, meant the performance suffered. However in Malay we did manage to come back with two second places in Syair and a third in the Quiz. It made me realise just how much we are needed at this school and the level of English which is possible from these students- some of them spoke better than me!