Dinner with UIU Delegates 2009

With Mr. Chris Sanders after dinner, outside Fayette House.

Let's end my series of blog updates with the final day of UIU visit in SEGi College Subang Jaya. On last Tuesday, the members of Fayette House were invited to a dinner with a small number of the delegates. The first, second and third term members of Fayette House gathered in college as the dinner was held in the college. We called for pizza delivery and around 7pm, the delegates arrived with the pizzas.

It was an informal and friendly dinner with supposedly one lecturer attending but since he had an important appointment to attend to, so the students and the delegates went all out. We were crazy that night. Even though we were nations apart and we rarely meet the delegates - and some, like yours truly, have never even met them before - but we mingled around like old friends. The Americans were really friendly and I guessed because of that, we felt free to express ourselves.

We talked. We joked. We laughed. We sang. We danced and threw sweets at each other too! Mr. Chris Sanders was a great catcher. We challenged him by throwing sweets at him and he almost all of them, precisely! Then, the highlight of the night was break dance by Dr. Frazier. He was the bomb! At first I thought he was just trying to make Se dance while he pretended he would join him. However, after Se performed, he did some stunts too and they were remarkable! No doubt it was hilarious. When the son from US saw the video recording through Facebook, he said to the mom, "Dad did that? I'm embarrassed".

I think all attendees would not hesitate to respect him for the frankness. How many Senior Vice President at a university would perform "The Worm" on the floor during a dinner with his students? I don't think I would have the chance to witness such sportiveness in Malaysia if he and the team were not Americans.

It was a very memorable night. I can't help but anticipate for the next meeting with them. They were an awesome bunch of people.

Create the Change Through Culture

After Fayette House Installation Ceremony, the second day of UIU visit was ADP-UIU Commencement Ceremony at Prince Hotel so I was with Fayette House, helping out with the ceremony. It was a new experience for me as I was unfamiliar with all the ceremonies and traditions so I was exposed to all that last Sunday; it will surely help me when my team and I are in charge next year. After the event, all students helpers were treated for buffet at the hotel with the VIPs. Without the VIP pass, I was supposed to squeeze with other guests downstairs because I paid to receive my Academic Excellence Award's (AEA) certificate on the same day.

I reached home in the evening and I was way too tired to start my work so I decided to take a nap. However, I guessed I was too anxious to take a rest. The following day was a very important day. I had four assignments to hand in; Macroeconomics individual assignment and group assignment, Photography group assignment and Intercultural Communication group assignment (Create the Change Through Culture). I couldn't fall asleep so I started to burn my midnight oil. I didn't sleep throughout the night to complete all the leftovers of my assignments.

The mess I created at my living room throughout the sleepless night.

My Photography group assignment for exhibition, that I was preparing.

Morning finally arrived and I had to drag my exhausted body to college. ST agreed to accompany and help me out in college that day so I owed him big time. We started to put up my stuffs at my group's booth. Then I had to prepare for the arrival of UIU delegates so I was running up and down the college, to check on my Photography exhibition and Fayette House preparation. However, not only I missed ushering the delegates, I missed the booth visiting prime time too! No wonder I was so unhappy and stressed up that morning.

At about 11.30am, my group was called up to Theater Hall to get ready for our performance. We were the fourth to perform and it was surely nerve-wracking. I started to ask myself if I still remembered the steps after all the hassles that I went through in those few days. In the end, there were some mess-up here and there during the performance, such as problems with lightings and other unexpected issues on stage.

Me outside Treater Hall, right after performance.

All in all, the performance was fine. At least I didn't screw up my dance steps. Phew. After the performance, I was finally relaxed to enjoy the day. I didn't have my watch with my that day so I didn't keep track of time but I was so overjoyed that the performance was over that I thought everything was over so it should be late noon already. But to my surprise, it was only 12.30pm. I had four and a half hours more to go before I could pack and head for home. So for the hours before I could rush for my bed, I brought people to my booth to play the games that I have prepared. I was in charge of the games for my Hawaiian booth. I gave out free bookmarks that I made myself too!

In conclusion, it was a memorable project as I was made to dance with my fellow group mates. It was fun. It was funny. But of course, there were a lot of challenges too; which project doesn't have any obstacle? Now that the event is over, I can only hope for the best, for the evaluation part. My only regret is that I was not at my booth during the visit of all the VIPs.

Video recording of the dance performance.

My group's Hawaiian booth for Intercultural Communication project.

My group members (one member missing) at our Aloha Booth after performance.

The girls (one member missing) at our Aloha Booth.

My "Cheer Up Lilo" game at booth before Lilo was dressed up.

Myself with the dressed-up Lilo!

Myself and Lolo of "Lolo's Lu'au" game above the volcano!

With Pete-the-Peacock, mascot of UIU, at Aloha Booth!

Fayette House Installation 2009

Committee members of the 3rd Term of Fayette House.

I mentioned that there was a stretch of important events in college that would last for three days and the three days of events were finally histories. One of the events that happened in that three days was actually 3rd Installation Ceremony of Fayette House. Fayette House is an independent student council of American Degree Program (ADP) in SEGi College Subang Jaya (SCSJ), which is recognized in Upper Iowa University. In conjunction with the visit of UIU delegates to Malaysia, the installation ceremony was held at Prince Hotel, Kuala Lumpur on last Saturday.

I was installed as the incoming President of Fayette House 2010, along with nine other committee members. My personal highlight of the ceremony was my speech as the incoming President. I was informed about the agenda in advance so I prepared my speech. However, on that afternoon, I found out that the outgoing President did not prepare a single thing for a speech while I was having with me a 2-page speech! During the ceremony, nobody prepared any speech except me so in the end, I ignored my pre-written speech and gave an impromptu speech like everyone else. That was memorable. And I wondered if it could be considered a cultural shock that nobody prepared speech, except yours truly.

Besides speeches, the outgoing and incoming committees exchanged blazers and caps as symbol of handing over power and responsibility. Then the new committee performed choir. We sang Alma Mater, UIU's anthem. The delegates were all chuckling during the performance, probably because we sang a version which was completely different from the one they sing in Fayette, Iowa; ours was much faster than theirs and they liked ours. It was a short and simple event but it carried great significance to Fayette House. Way to go Peacocks!

I was laughing while giving my impromptu speech. God knows what I was laughing at.

The outgoing and incoming committee of Fayette House.

I'm always strangled in candid shot when I'm the President; the same thing happened in band last year. I have no idea why.

Completion of All Assignments

My submission for Landscape Photography.

Finally, all assignments for this semester were submitted. The final assignment submitted was my Photography assignment, which I just submitted in the morning. I went to college for half an hour or less, just to submit the photos for my individual assignment. It was a nerve-wracking morning as I did not allow lecturer to look at my choices before I printed the photos for submission. It turned out that he didn't like my model shot. Haiz. I was really really worried about this assignment because I knew I flunked my assignments this week. I was not happy with my Hawaiian booth and then, I had so many doubts about my Photography assignment. Haiz.

Anyway, the submission of Photography assignment marked the completion of all my assignments for this semester. It simply meant that it's time to study for final examination! I have four papers to sit for on two different days; Monday and Thursday. Right after my final paper at 6.30pm, I'm leaving to Singapore by train at 9.35pm. It will be hectic. Wish me luck. Thanks!

At the Peak of Fall Semester 2009

Tropical-themed poster for Hawaiian culture.

I'm still awake at 1.23am because I just completed the poster for my Intercultural Communication project: Hawaiian booth and performance. Oh God. It has been way too many months since I last touched my scrapbooks. I took so long to complete the poster because most of the time, I was just browsing through my resources or staring blankly at my photo editing program. In the end, the poster looked weird but I could not be bothered because I was informed about it on Monday only.

Besides the poster, I was rushing to complete part of my bookmarks for the same subject too. I wonder when I can touch on other subjects because I'm seriously running out of time and energy to cope with all the overlapping deadlines. My events and deadlines are all lined up from Thursday to Monday; choir practice, Fayette House meeting, spring cleaning, Christmas decoration, dance practice, Installation Ceremony, Graduation Ceremony, Launching of International Business, Photography Exhibition, Cultural Booth and Performance and hosting of Upper Iowa University (UIU) delegates. When I was free, I was really free and when I'm busy, I'm really busy. Now, I'm chanting for Monday to come faster, provided I can complete all my work.