Mind-Blowing Experience
Here I am, writing this WHILE in accounts class. I guess I should write a proper post with feels (just cause Jane says she wants to see everybody’s cheesy side). I don’t know if I can, but I’ll try my best.
The main reason I applied for this is mainly because of Xueh Wei (BRATs Kuala Terrenganu, 2012), seeing how she got to interview and meet different people such as Ryan Higa really influenced me to make this decision. As I already said in my blog post, I thought my chances of getting accepted into this workshop was almost close to nil. I don’t even know what I wrote for the essay anymore. /.\ Little did I know that God, being so great, gave me the chance to attend this BRATs workshop. :) I was soooo happy when I got the email from Chin V Ming (whoever you are). That was until my dad said no. :( I was sad.. and emo. As much as I tried to convince him, he wouldn’t budge. I would like to say miracles (maybe that’s too much) do happen. The next day, somehow, he said yes! :D
So anyway, enough of me. It’s time to write my experience I got from this BRATs workshop. Saying this camp or workshop or whatever, was awesome is really an understatement. Before going to Ipoh, I really had my worries. What if it doesn’t live up to my expectations? What if I skip 3 days of precious classes to come for this but learn nothing?
Nevertheless, I tried to loosen up and tried to make this camp as enjoyable as possible. As some or most of you know, when I first reached the Pinnacle, I went hyper and started introducing myself to everyone at my table – Mira, Vinnie, Thurga, Bianca, Grace, Jane, Savun, and others I can’t remember. :P
On the first day, I was quite happy to have paired up with the people in my team (R.U.Z.) as I have already met/talked to some of them such as Madeline. Truth to be told, the first day was just fine. I wouldn’t rate it as crazy good. We had short workshops from Ian and Jason. “I did learn something, at least.”, I told myself.
That night, I met my roommates – Sara and Shan De – and properly talked to them for the first time. We talked and talked till late at night. We only managed to sleep at 2 something, nearing to 3am. That was when I knew, this camp was going to be FUN with crazy people like them to hang out with. As day two came and went, the stress we had to handle as a team really bonded us. I would say, our spirits were down when Ian scolded (?) us when we didn’t get enough information at Foh San. Our team did really badly for our first assignment. Even I would admit that. Sara and I tried to lighten the mood by creating stories from Mr Shum’s emotions in the many pictures of him and joked around. Only we, together with Lysandra and Mira who came to see what we were doing, laughed. The others were on serious mood, trying to finish everything before the dateline (but no one ever did, though).
Speaking of which, I think we went high on chicken and taugeh from Lou Wong. Our singing in the bus was not good. I wouldn’t want to say it was horrible because it wasn’t. It’s just that everyone including me, yes me, went hyper and shouted the lyrics instead of singing it. Thank you, Rachel, for initiating the singing. :)
Yes, although the first day was hectic as anything, I really enjoyed it. That night, the occupants of room 1601 went crazy as we tried to scare each other with scenes from Sinister and only slept at 2.30am. “Be careful when you look into the mirror. You might never know what’s behind you.”
On the third day, I think our group more or less made up for our mistakes from the first assignment. Our second field trip to Kuala Sepetang’s Charcoal Factory was awesome. Going in, I could feel everyone was not as hyped up as the day before. Everything changed when we met Mr Chuah, as he enthusiastically introduced himself. Our second assignment went well. :)
On the way back, our bus broke down. It was the first time something like that had happened in the 21 years of BRATs history. I would like to consider our batch special. ;) That night, we had some sort of a talent night. We had plenty of laughter to keep our minds off our assignments. Team Strypes did some dance with a yodel song. Idek what it was but it really made all of us laugh. Team Not Lembab were supposed to dance together as a team but we only made the guys do it. It was hysterical. Our team was… Okay, I guess. Haha, it was hard to follow up after so many crazy acts. We sang a Miley Cyrus song and dragged everyone else into dancing with us. Also, not forgetting, we danced and sang to the Hokkien CNY song which Sharm loved so much. ♪ Ho Li Hing Ong Huat Ah~ Huat ah Huah ah Huah ah~ Huat Ah! ♪
Time passed so fast as day four came and went. We were all so sad to go back home. In that four days, our friendship really blossomed. I really missed each and every one of you. I too hope that we will be able to meet up with each other again and that this will not be the end of our friendship. May this be the start of our incredible journey as young journalists together, and may we always keep in touch with each other no matter which part of the world we end up in. Once a BRAT, always a BRAT. I wait for the day to come when we can actually sing together in the bus, take selfies and most of all, go crazy with the Huat Ah song again.
I would like to again thank the mentors and seniors for putting up with us, crazy brats. This camp will always be at the top of all the other camps I’ve experienced. I will never exchange this experience for any other.
Thank you, Sara, for making me laugh all the time with your wacky personality which I enjoyed so much. Thank you, Shan De, for sharing your coffee and tea with us, as well as being such an awesome roommate and friend who never fail to sleep through all the alarms. Thank you, Nicole, for also making me laugh. I would always remember the panic and stress we had when we realised our article clashed with our group's video. Thank you, team R.U.Z. for the awesome memories. Thank you, everyone else, team Strypes and team Not Lembab, for the equally fond memories and finally, thank you, Star BRATs, for allowing me to participate in this.
The ever grateful, Rachel Wong. :)
Ps: I don’t know if this is long enough cause I seem to see everyone else posting really long posts but oh well. This basically sums up what I felt and how much I enjoyed this mind-blowing workshop.