Life in the country is SO exciting. No I mean it.

Just last sunday, a student almost flew off a bus when the emergency door right next to him burst open. He wasn't injured, thankfully, but all his shopping goodies flew out.

This happened right after the bus driver got slightly lost on the way back to college from MidValley.

Its really these little gems that make life in Lembah Beringing that much more interesting.
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The OxBridge applicants had a little session with the principal some time last week. There are 30+ students applying for Cambridge as opposed to 5 for Oxford. All the best guys!

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Topaz had their house BBQ last Friday, Diamond's and Garnet's was tonight while Sapphire's having theirs this Sunday. These events are aimed at promoting a closer relationship between the housemembers etc. etc. yada yada. you know, the usual.

Also this Sunday, the Physics Department will be organizing an Educational Trip to Sunway Lagoon. Around 50 A2 students will be participating. Fysics = Phun. :D

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Last wednesday saw the start of the new inter-house basketball season with the first three matches: For the guys, Garnet vs Diamond and Sapphire vs Topaz. Diamond and Topaz won their respective matches. For the girls, there was only one match which Diamond won against Sapphire.

Here's more bball news. The INTEC team came over today for a friendly match. It was a good one. We put up a good fight. We always do. And we also always lose. Heh. Sorry guys!

On a positive note, there are lots of promising new talents among the juniors. This will ensure that we will always lose by only a small margin to any relatively decent team.

Another tradition to be upheld. Yeah.

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And the other notable news:
 
The Roteract Club of Bernam Valley will hold their installation high-tea tomorrow. At Melia Hotel, Jalan Imbi. 2.30 pm.

Last Monday the KYUEM Film Club had a screening of Priscillia, Queen of the Desert. The previous week; Trainspotting. Mr Cranwell's in charge so that explains the colourful choice of movies. :D  

Lastly, the juniors are busy day and night with their Cultural Performance. As we don't have Bangsawan(the inter-house malay drama competition) this semester, their CP better be a good one since they now have a WHOLE MONTH to plan and execute it. Good Luck.

And here's where I reiterate that life in the country is indeed exciting. Cheerio.  

Report on the Induction Week 2004 :

Batch of 2004/6

Total number of students : 217
Girls : 132
Boys : 85

JPA : 61
MARA : 50
Petronas : 28
KPM : 22
Private : 16
PNB : 13 
YTN : 9
Telekom : 7
BNM : 6
RGSTF : 5

This figures are correct as of 23rd July 2004. (Well, NOW they are. Sorry about the earlier mistake.)
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Yeah. There's a lot of them. Medics amount to about 120-ish. But they're not all going to UK. Some medics are bound for IMU. Others Australia. And its not just the medics. The RGSTF (Renong Group Something Trust Fund?) scholars are all heading to Australia. 

Which leads me to today's rant : Why the heck did the wonderful sponsors send their students here? Perhaps we can understand Renong doing it, since they sort of own the place, but IMU-bound JPA students? What with all the university talks, IELTS, UK-alumni coming back (mid-August) these kids will definitely feel left out. The place is filled to the brim as it is. We don't need anything else that could harm batch unity.

Oh, and so far one student quit. I guess he prefered form 6 to this place.

Bugger.

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The World's Greatest - a reference to one of the songs used for the artistic appreciation activity. Its the one by R. Kelly. The other two were Bukan Kerna Nama by Ramli Sarip and the stalewart Standing in the Eyes of the World by Ella. The last one was specifically chosen by Mr Zaidi since he said it was one of the more meaningful songs last year. It certainly is.

To elaborate more on the induction week since my last post, I must say the juniors are really a handful. There's close to 50 more of them than the current senior batch. That means more groups and more members per group. But with greater numbers come greater variety. Which in their case is a good thing. A lot of students shone (read: hogged the mic) and we were quite impressed. But I'm sure there are a lot more in that 217-odd whom have yet to show their mettle.

The culmination of the whole program, Samurai was an unrivaled success (despite some trouble with the speaker early on). This time around, Mr. Zaidi merely assisted in the handling and handed the rite of story-telling to Aaron, my very good friend. No one else could've pulled it off as he had. That's right, Aaron, you did great. Lets hope that continues as another tradition. :)

Oh and some seniors, super-duper seniors and the mighty first batch (whom according to Pn Rog are already married and working.) came to witness the ceremony.

I guess it goes to show what a lasting impression this college has made on their hearts. May it do the same to us and the juniors to come.

uhm, yeah. :)

Saturdays are the best.

If I could choose any day of the week (during a stay in weekend), it would be Saturday. After the 12.30 pm imaginary last bell rings, we're practically free for the rest 1 and a half days. Eventhough arguably we have a whole 24-hours of freedom on Sundays, Saturdays are nicer because you don't feel rushed to do anything. It's the ultimate lazy day (or half day, if you must). Got that assignment to finish? Oh, we can do it on Sunday. Clothes need washing? Push it to Sunday. Clean up the room? Sunday.

There's that safety cushion you can rely on which makes Saturdays the coolest whereas when Sunday comes, you can't procastinate anymore since Monday is lurking around the corner. In fact, Sundays seem to be the day that time runs extra fast.

Especially if you're one of those Midvalley Mallrats. By the time you come back, it will already be 7.00 pm. Then you'd wish you hadn't gone. But, oh too late.

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Heh, anyway, there'll be three buses to Midvalley later today. According to our Welfare Exco, Capek, "Never in my entire career have I handled this many students. Those juniors. Tsk."

Can't blame them. Its their first weekend out. Well, enjoy yourselves. :)

Yesterday, 22nd July, was the first anniversary of the KYUEM batch of 2003/05. But for some reason, nobody really remembered except jia yi who put up a self-made note on the board. Then again, we are only going to have two anniversaries here anyway (if we're lucky.)

Three cheers for Jia Yi! :) To celebrate the occasion, the senior batch is organizing a get-together dinner for ourselves in the dining hall at 7.45 pm. We'll have cakes and a special treat by the dining hall staff. The only thing that will hopefully be missing is the juniors. heh.

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The juniors are probably going to celebrate their own milestone, that of surviving one week of classes in this college. After the induction, it has been quite a busy week, I must say. The juniors (official figures state that the current number is 217) can be found EVERYWHERE. They're at your favourite bench in the Saad Square, stalling the line in the dining hall, making the loud noises YOU should be making at night and taking all the attention of Mr B away from you (Well, that's actually a good thing). I know we're supposed to be one big happy family, but this is sibling rivalry to the nth degree. :)

Now I wonder whether our seniors (that's super-seniors to you brats. hehe) felt the same way about us? Can someone say K-A-R-M-A? hum.

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Today's Garnet assembly had two video presentations (and two performing musicians in the form of Grace Sr. and Beng2). Video one was by the Student Council summarising the events during the induction week, while Video two was the long-awaited forestalled KYSM Computer Club job attachment footage.    

Personally I think Video 1 is nicer. (thank you, thank you.) Because it involves all the juniors, the accompanying song (Ella - Standing in the Eyes of the World) is more meaningful and it brings back memories to us seniors of our own induction program exactly a year ago.

*sigh* 

So how was induction week? Well, it was fine. Actually it consisted mostly the same activites last year (and probably the year before that, and the year before that .. ). I guess the college held firm to the maxim "If it ain't broken, don't fix it." Heh.

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Tuan, Maz, Azizul and a couple of other seniors (again, super-seniors to the juniors.) came last night. It was nice seeing them again. Tuan gave a very inspirational speech in the Mussolla and it brought back memories of the junior years (or the good ol' days, as some have come to call it.)

Heh.

Having reached this far in the blog, you must be thinking that the seniors hate (too strong a word?) the juniors or something. On the contrary, we love them, we really do. Most of us just wished that we were in Diamond house, that's all. So that we can show the juniors just how much we love them. Hehe.

Didn't get that? You probably shouldn't. :)  

 

Juniors came.

An estimate of their numbers are as follows :

Total students > 200
of that Girls = 120++ and Boys = 90++

This is by far the highest number of students ever taken in at one time. And because of that, some of the boys have to stay in block F (The staff apartments) due to unsufficient chalets.

The last time students stayed in block F was a couple of years back when the student body consisted of the Seniors, the January Juniors and the June Juniors, all at the same time. This system of two intakes per year was scrapped soon after.

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The juniors had a briefing after their registration, the introduction of houseparents and heads of departments. Then a briefing at the MPH.

The night activity was ice-breaking, handled by the facilitators. Lasted 'till 11.30 pm. *Yawn*.

Nik Nazmi and his fellow SC president of a different batch (whose name escapes me at the moment. heh.), came over last night and gave the juniors some pretty good advice about life in the college.

Oh, and the layout of the Specially-For-Juniors-VERITAS looks awesome. As always. Way to go, Fez! :)

The juniors are coming.

Later today. And boy, have we got things lined up for them :D

Click here to read about what what some of the juniors are thinking about the college. How some of them are so excited to get here.

It's cute, it really is. I just hope they won't be disappointed.

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A special edition VERITAS will be published to coincide with the induction week. The printing hit a snag earlier today when the Bursar halted it. He wasn't happy about a few articles where the author used delicate sarcasm and humour which he was afraid "some people who aren't as opened mined cannot take". Whereas he was supposedly the epitome of open-mindedness. Yeah, sure.

Thanks to the presence of Mr Fellender, all things were solved in no time. Three cheers.

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The SC, the HouseCapts and the MUSCOM (now collectively known as the Facilitators) are all busy with the induction week preperations. Let's hope it meets the objectives set (you know, the one about building a foundation for well-rounded students.. that old nutshell).

During the meeting yesterday, Mr Zaidi gave a very (very, very) touching speech about how this induction program is as much about us the facilitators as it is about welcoming the juniors. We as seniors should guide them for we have a hand in the formation of their batch almost as much as they themselves.

So yeah, good luck to all. And if you're a junior reading this, congratulations for making it here.

P/S : I know I should have a report up for the Student Dinner et al. It's coming. It's coming. :D

I am writing this after witnessing arguably one of the more amazing (for the greeks at least) games of EURO 2004.

Amazing because it goes to show that in life, anything goes.

I remember the EURO fever in college towards the end of last semester. Thanks to the fully air-conditioned TV room that we have, students had the opportunity to stay awake until the early hours of the morning to catch their favourite team play and subsequently miss the morning classes.

Even if they were able to wake up, staying awake would've been another great struggle. The seniors didn't have a problem since they were practically just bumming around biding their time. Occasionaly coming out of their rooms
for meals, sports and the odd club farewell party.

For the juniors, well, having just finished their AS exams, they weren't in any particular mood to study. Who studies during the final week of the semester anyway?

Apparently, the teachers think we should, evident when Mr J (probably under strict orders from you-know-who) raided the boys' TV room and demanded that everyone go back to their chalets and get some sleep. His concern is really touching. Really.

Heh.

He said that we actually have a curfew in college. That's news to me.

In any case, at least there aren't any curfews during the hols.

One week to go till the New Semester.

I think I should apologise for this late entry. Yes, I should.

Sorry. heh.

Okay.

Nearing the end of the second week of a three-week semester holiday. And what should've been posted a long long time ago was the report on the (really-really packed) final week of the Semester.

Let's begin.

Friday, June 11th.
Final A-levels paper: Economics A2. Seniors came out of great hall, some emotionless, some dazed (and thankfully) most just chattering away. Exams may have been over, but there's still loads of packing to do. Some seniors were even going back that day, returning only for the Student Dinner or Awards Day. Weekend saw a very dead college. The SC were mostly decorating the hall for the College Dinner, some of the girls were busy preparing the cute seniors' gifts for the Student Dinner. (Yes, the were handmade my dearest seniors. Shows how much we love you. Future juniors take note!) Two buses left for midvalley on sunday.

Monday, June 14th.
College Dinner. Great Hall. 8.00 pm. Theme : Euro 2004. The hall was decorated into what could pass as a football field, with an authentic goal-post to boot (carried it all the way from the field, we did. Notice that there was only one goal post. Do you know how heavy the thing is?) Started with a unique, if not captivating footie skill display. Food was great. It was all balls that night. From the commentator style MC-ing (shelby and abu bakar attan respectively. only half-convincing though. the real abu apparently speaks mainly in BM.) to the dresscode (strictly informal. if there ever was one.) The highlights were games galore (dribbling, juggling, scoring-blindfolded-against-three-goalies, an interhouse FIFA computer competition). The prizes? Original football merchandise including the Official Replica Euro 2004 ball, the Roterio. Despite starting with a bang (or should we say a goal, compliments of the once-England international super-sub Mr Richard Small), it ended prematurely as there was hardly anyone left in the hall come prize-giving time. They were probably still hung-over by England's defeat to France that morning. Whatever the reason, that didn't stop the college from celebrating Student Dinner the next day.

Which will be covered in the next post along with the Play, Awards Day and whatever else that comes to mind.

Right now, I'm off to attempt those holiday assignments. (Unbelievable? Believe it.)