International Cultural Fiesta @ USMKK

Surprises work best at times of least expectation.

*coughs*

Okay I admit that I have been a lil philosophical nowadays haha.

Have seen posters about this "International Cultural Fiesta" event for quite some time in the campus

but for a moment or two I thought the posters were "misplaced" because it sounded too good to be true.

"International" is a so cool word to attract my eyeballs.

Anyhow, my heart leaped a beat with a full surge of adrenaline, 

so eggcited that I forgot to jot the date down.

A week ago, I became a committee member for a random say-no-to-tobacco-event along with Zhe Xin, 

were called to buy extra mineral water midway,

passed by the hall and spotted banners hanging around and people calling us to join along.

OHMAIGAWD I could've missed this awesome thing you know!

I guess this is fate 

#actingphilosophicalagain 

I know this post comes abita late but it's better late than never, right? :D

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So there were booths set up to different countries accordingly,

whereby international students would share their own cultures through food, 

costumes and some traditional games.

These amazing people came all the way from USM Main Campus, Penang, for this event.

According to the people there, it's an annual activity at the main campus 

but it surely is the first time that they came!

I was so happy, so goddamn happy and eggcited to be talking in high volume with pitchy bitchy squeaks.

It's really unusual to see so many new faces in this health campus, 

try imagining meeting people from 

Korea, Japan, Netherlands, Africa, Australia, China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, 

Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Jordan, India, Brunei, Thailand and Indonesia!    

Without further ado, lets catch up with the interesting stuffs there!

Usually if we were to try out traditional costumes and take photos, we were usually charged, right?

But no this time!

Felt shameful when I practically asked how much we should pay.

Korean people are so gentle and sweet despite the language.

I was kinda surprised to know that in a student exchange program you can actually change your course for a semester.

Lets say, if you're studying Finance in your own country, when you enroll in the student exchange program, you can continue with Business Management as long as the credit transfer is accepted :D

Love conversing with them as they were so enthusiastic about their own culture.

Tried out their rice biscuits and sweets!

With this girl who insisted on her cactus profile picture when she has this totally profilepicable picture to change .___.

Funny it is, we have different personalities, 

like we're from two different worlds but lately we seem to fit in shockingly well.

Most of the times I'm the one who talk non-stop in our conversation and yea, she's really one good listener.

Glad to have her for the day!

In fact, the photos here were from her HTC, that she selflessly borrowed me for the event

as my Samsung W wasn't in a good condition that day haha. 

So sadly true that the food was only for display ngawwww.

Saw the Japan students demonstrating the methods to roll a sushi on the stage.

Tried making a complicated flower origami, too :D

Tried on their wedding outfit and I was in the male's hahahaha.

Second wedding in two months time I'm kinda cool (If you remember about CCN hahahaha)

Was a lil disappointed with Australia's booth, not much to know about,

that Tim Tam is originally from Australia 

(Never tried before and the packet was sealed I couldn't reach my paws);

That boomerang was used to kill animals

(I picked it up and tried to throw before the demonstrator said it could kill living things).

Nothing much.

Probably because the girl was busy with the Afghanistan booth.

She's born in Afghanistan but moved to Australia then currently in USM Penang for a semester in degree.

She's so pwetty, big eyes, ohhhh and especially with the Aussie slanggg!

She invited me to come again tonight for the Cultural Night and told me that she would be dancing!

Amazing chick.

Was absolutely amazed with the beauty of this place.

Absolutely in love with the colors of its historical landmarks and ancient history.

The land of Alexander the Great, Romans, Crusades and Muslim conquest.

Got a few travel guides and enthusiastic explanation from this guy, felt appreciated :D

Wish to pay a visit to Petra one day.

Now that I remember this place appeared in the Indiana Jones movie, one of my all time fave adventure movies.

Literally carved from the sandstone cliffs, just too beautiful.

Tried Jordan's traditional food.

Looked like Chinese Lotus Leaf Wrapped Rice（荷叶饭）

but Karen warned me earlier about this booth's food so I took just a very small bite.

LUCKILY I DIDN'T STUFF THE WHOLE THING INTO MY MOUTH.

Sour to the core and it tasted like fermented rice or something, 

couldn't really describe it as the taste was so new to my taste buds.

The guy was like, ooh I can tell you like it so much.

*bitter smile and nod head*

I swear my forehead crumpled like don't-know-what as I swiftly moved away from that booth.

#collagedbyzhexin

Apple symbolizes love in their culture and will be displayed at every houses
during their new year according to custom. 

Hope I didn't remember this wrong la heh.

Iran won the best booth award for the event. 

So much food to try on!
Was shocked when I saw the Chinese popular CNY food pistachios （开心果）is one of their traditional new year food too.

And walnut-pie-like cakes? Groundnut puffs? Hmmm very tasty indeed.

Find the tastes quite similar with Malaysian's though :)

Couldn't find photos of Iraq ngaww.

Well, me, Zhe Xin, Karen, Jia Wei, Winnie and Lee Teng played a traditional game
which was pretty simple but I found it quite fun actually.

Two rings were being hidden in two random fists
and one person would be the one who stood in front to guess where the rings were by giving orders like:

Open your fist

or You're the one!

The phD Iraq student let his family members join along the game too,
was very fun with the lil kids laughing along :D  

At Brunei's booth to try out their food.

Sago paste with fish essence, garlic and chilli.

The mixture of fish essence, garlic and chilli tasted okay, acceptable 

BUT THE SAGO PASTE WASSSSSSSSSSS

Not a prob with the texture but the funny taste though I'm an ultimate sago lover (sago in tongshui).

Basically nothing to much about Thailand to share since the food that we tried like the flower one above,

is like egg rolls that we usually eat in Malaysia.

And some that taste like kuih kapek.

Neighbour countries I guess.

Syria's exhibitor was apologetic about the limited displayed items, due to the war in his country.

Somewhat heard about it before and there were consistent fund collecting during lectures.

I wonder how bad it feels knowing that your country is at war and 

disruption that goes on not knowing when's the end.

Anyway, the one on right is some sort of natural chewing gum which is 

naturally extracted from a special tree.

According to the guy, women will chew it everyday for fresh breath 

*whispers*

though I don't find it refreshing personally la haha :P

Africa booth was just photos, about the city and the safari.

Was amazed by the exhibitor's fluent English, asked him if he usually speaks English in Africa.

Lol no, he's from Chicago and the last time he was in Africa was like, 8 years ago?

Hohohoho.  Busted.

Am sorry that I missed out a few booths, Zhe Xin left early with her phone and mine was out of battery.

Didn't bring my camera along either, wasn't prepared :(

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Cultural night was extremely interesting,

 especially when it came to the part when they danced to their own songs, 

and there was a Malay song singing competition.

There was this astonishing spinning dance in which the woman spin and spin herself for 7 minutes non-stop!

Was busy clapping my hands so the photos I have in hands are these from Ming's Ipad,

after the performances.

Typical Asians that go crazy when we see hot, tall, white guys!

I asked them if their people are all generally tall, they pointed at me joked that we're only cuter in size.

Isssh :P

Learnt that Netherlands is the first country in the world to allow homosexual marriage,

and that they have no mountains/hills in the country.

Edith with this very popular Korean guy, who was a contestant for the malay song singing competition.

Ming with this America-African guy, who was standing at the red carpet, looked upset coz he was alone?

Us with Jia Tian, who danced for Malaysian cultural dance performance,

and bumped into Suat Ting, our former college mate from KMK,
who performed Chinese traditional dance performance.

(All of the girls from the Chinese traditional dance are Malaysians actually lol). 

Super lovely day!




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Student exchange program, hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

CCN 2014: The Wedding

Disclaimer:

Most of the photos posted below are not owned by me,

I apologize if I've used them without informing sowie :O

Have been blabbering about Chinese Cultural Night (CCN) since quite some time ago,

just in case you're not clear what it's about - 

It's one huge annual event which holds the breath of all of the Chinese students in USMKK 

(Whole Kelantan too, perhaps?).

It's a grand event which attracts up to 1000 and more audiences,

and this isn't made possible without a strong and dedicated production team.

In Dewan Utama, USMKK.

To make things short and sweet, according to the custom here,

1st year students are required to go on stage as performers,

whereas 2nd year seniors will be planning and directing the whole flow of the night,

which includes finding sponsorships, decorations, from top to toe.

Publicity department was so strong that as I passed by a nearby area from my uni, 

I could see my face (poster) being hung on big buildings, 

even on an ice box in the hawker center lol.

Sponsorship which helped to cover our T-shirts, meals and tickets.

Not forgetting super impressive Deco team after months of hard work!

And the theme for this year is called 『喜喜』, which means The Wedding.

There're so many things to write about, but to prevent you from dozing off,

I'm gonna try my very best to summarize and wrap up everything wokay :D

From the very beginning when I first knew about being selected to join the sketch team,

playing a major character named Mei, I was like,

DAHECK WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO MEEEEEEE

Was so shocked at the moment I knew about this as I have no experience at all in acting,

nonetheless on a big stage as such.

During audition I ranked sketch as my 5th/6th choice out of 9 if not mistaken and 

it never crossed my mind that I was so luckily being entrusted on this role.

"I'm so gonna screw myself.  Screw everything."

*smacks forehead*

Gave my so many first times, like:

Putting on fake eyelashes.

Wearing traditional costumes.

HAHA BIG FACE ON ACTION

#whychoosebigfacemeasactresslol #stillaquestion #hahadoubtful

Poster shooting.

Promo video shooting.

I could still remember the awkwardness on this very day when I gotta shoot a video with this fella named Derrick.

Gotta act as thou we were destinied lovers when it was the second time we two talked, 

and that we barely knew each other at all to have lovey dovey acts together.

LOL SO FUNNAY LA WE TWO.

As a typical Capricorn, I struggled my way to accept the fact that I would really need to jump out from my comfort zone,

even if it meant that I would have to leave my original circle of friends.

Five of my Diet Cantiks all went for the 24 Seasons Drums.

Their practice schedules were super hectic, 

4.30 - 7.00 p.m. then 8.00 - 11.00 p.m. since last year's November.

The bond became so strong as the time spent together was so long though there were hectic moments as well, 

physically or mentally.

But sometimes, losing is gaining, right?

Here I met these lovely peepo,

who I spend so much time with, reciting the same lines over and over again,

cycling and yelling at each other at midnight as we ended our sketch practices.

Behind the scenes :P

There were mistakes, knitted eyebrows;

Sudden changes and edits on scripts even until the very last moment before we go upstage;

But always, kind advices were the most we had - 

Never an emotional outburst shout-out-loud-pekcek-session by our very dedicated sketch director Christine :')

Throughout the whole process of learning on how to act,

there were times when I got really depressed with myself that I couldn't depict the character well in anyway,

no matter how hard I tried.

And the fear of disappointing our CCN's president Jonathan, 

my lovely senior plus stage director Angela,

and another sweet patient stage director Siau Fen;

Seniors like Ah Do, Ah Kam, Noelle and Wendy.

They'd given so much encouragement, time and hope on us,

but I was afraid if I wasn't the right person for this role after all.

And sometimes, I felt like there was no one I could tell.

During rehearsals.

Hairdo and makeup sessions were kinda torturing for me coz I was instructed to sit still -____-

Wasn't in an air-conditioned room lagi.

#hotweatherpffft

Pattern pattern before we were being quaranteed - 

No electronic devices were allowed to be switched on from back stage to avoid disturbances to the flow.

Couldn't talk summore.

Moments of ganjiongness and sampatness before serious thing took place!

Opening ceremony of "The Wedding".

VIPs of the night.

Chopsticks as doorgifts.

Which brings the meaning of 成双成对 in mandarin, 

symbolizing the union of a pair of love birds.

Performances *Not according to sequence*

Modern Dance Crew

Wushu.

Traditional Dancers

24 Seasons Drummers.

Musical Team and USMKK Idol Dion (Bottom right girl)

Chinese Yoyo performers.

Backstage Crew.

Sketch family.

-Referring to the photo on bottom right-

(left to right sequence)

With Ke Jia as Mei's aunty;

Philip as General Zhao;

Boon How as the Emperor;

Huan Lee as Wife of General Zhao;

Chun Oon as Messenger / Army of enemy.

Derrick as Shang (the groom);

Me as Mei (the bride).

 Before marriage.

Just married.

Felt like a cosplayer that night when everyone was asking if I can take a photo with you.

A movie star or what lolololol

Was being joked by the others that I'm a one-day-old-bride.

 WOAH you know what, I JUST DIVORCED hahahahaha.

And all of us couldn't have made it through the night if it wasn't for these awesome people:

Ah Do, Noelle, Ah Kam, Christine, Angela, Janet, Andrew, Tong Seng etc etc.

Thank you, from the bottom of my heart.

Not forgetting this lovely director of mine, Christine.

I'm sorry if we made silly mistakes and probably weren't serious enough during late night/ early morning practices.

Though the progress didn't go as smooth as you expected at first,

hopefully the outcome that night will give you a smile on your face whenever you think about us.

Thanks for being so nice to us, bearing with our naughty craps :')

After the finale, I couldn't breathe when I saw this person standing before me.

One of my best buddies from KMK.

He joked that he would come but I never took him real anyway.

Talked through the night and I love spending time speaking nonsense and old days with this fella.

Thank you for coming all the way from Penang Ah Choo :')

And the hand-made bouquet of flowers by my dearest Wan Pei.

I cried like a baby on the spot and on my way back to university after sending Ah Choo back to Penang.

I gotta say, I really do miss you, much.

Thank you for being here, with me.

Met Stephen who's from KMK too, had a small small reunion here at Kelantan :D

Sin Chew Daily had been very supportive all the way long by publishing relative articles 

to help us publisize the event, 

and thanks to their effort, we hit 1400++ tickets!

OHMAIGAWD.

Click to read more about the article written by Sin Chew Daily on "The Wedding".

On the papers.

 

 HAHA AND MY SELFIE ON NEWSPAPER HAHA.

I doubted myself along way if I could do it,

I didn't want to screw this big thing,

I felt timid and the courage just went off when it was so near to the big day.

Still, when the right time comes,

I'm grateful that hard work do pay off  :')

Nahh, me in makeup.

Terrifyingly not me, so ladylike lol.

#fugly #ohmaigawd

Wanted to eat off all my lipstick so I could at least sip some water while waiting for my turn to go on stage.

Wanted to take off all the pins and hair sprays so I could feel air draining through my hair.

I think I still prefer big Ts, shorts and slippers like a kampung girl lol.

- Missed out a photo of me in another pink outfit haih -

HAHA BIG FACE STILL.

Now that CCN's over, I don't have a strong reason to keep myself thin anymore lol 

#badass.

Thank you for those who clapped and stayed till the end.

I'm a better and mightier person now bwahahahaha :)

#achievementunlockedyo