Lost In Translation

Ah, I'm finally home again after spending a week in KL, catching up with classmates. It was truly exhausting, I must say. There was pretty much always something to do; the longest day being one starting at 11:30, sending Yvonne off to work, then spending 4 hours in a CC with Jia Wei as he taught me for the first time how to play DotA, another 2 hours or so spent walking around Sunway Pyramid and playing in the arcades, followed by a buffet dinner once Yvonne's knocked off at 8:00p.m coupled with a karaoke session at the same time (my first time, and hilarious it was) till 11:00p.m., heading off to Hartamas then for some pubbing till about 2:00a.m, headed back to Subang for some foosball and pool, only to watch the first half of Germany v Portugal, then being tired, headed home to watch the remaining half, ending the night at approximately 5:30a.m.

Oh it was fun, alright.
To tell of all the tales there, I'd have to write my longest entry ever. So for now, I'll just settle for one simple night when 5 of us (Yvonne, Leanna, Jia Wei, Mervin and I) simply stayed home and played Sahibba (Malay Scrabble).

I must say, our attempt to brush up our Malay was pathetic. Coming up with words like 'api' and 'tol', with our longest word being 'mayang' per Yvonne's contribution, we were literally illiterate. It's even funnier when you have people who have been here all the while and saying that certain words like 'skema' don't exist when they do. All in all, we knew we were at a point of desperation when Jia Wei was simply making words up like 'butam'.

"WTH is butam?!?"
"I don't know. But I think I've heard that word before somewhere. There, just add the 'm' after the 'buta'."
"Yea right! There's no such word lah!!!"

It was shamefully impossible for us to come up with words. Not having to be examined on it since school (let alone speak it), we were unbelievably rusty. But I guess it doesn't help either when we were just plain unlucky most the time when we get letters like these lined up:

Bodehea?? What on earth is that?!
Stress started to build up as our words were only taking up one corner of the board, and we could hardly expand it any further across the other sections. We were getting frustrated.

And when we really couldn't take it anymore and everyone was accusing everyone for coming up with words that didn't exist, out came the dictionaries to save the day.

As bad as it was, it was definitely fun(ny). Sure we could've gone out and did more interesting stuff that night. Recalling an online conversation with Airene:

rene: so wat u doing tonight?
me: playing sahibba
rene: hahahahahaha!! seriously...
me: no... seriously.
rene: wat?!

But the experience was definitely worth it. It just goes to show how unqualified we are to call ourselves Malaysians. And yet, due to the food, shopping, and amazing pirated products, we are proud.

More stories of KL soon.

Visited Aunty Sze's school yesterday.

It really was a pleasant surprise. I was actually expecting a strict schooltype environment, seeing that I've never actually seen how mass homeschooling works before. But what I saw instead was a very relaxed, independent environment where kids of all ages and grades can study together as well as by themselves, without having to be supervised much at all. Every now and then, when they need help, they'd find one of the dedicated teachers who are always available. Otherwise, they'd be sitting at their booths doing their work like obedient, mature students.

Whoa.

Oh, and they're really easy going as well, as in they get to take breaks whenever they want as well. For example, Mun could take a short break after 'reading' all morning and head over to help one of the younger kids if she wants. It's a very free-flowing, self-supporting environment, which is really impressive!

And boy, are the kids there all so adorable (as you can probably see for yourself now). And to be so obedient and mature students at that age too. Whoa. I remember when I was in primary 3, I was nowhere as 'nice' a student to my teachers then, much unlike these ones (Though Aunty Sze herself might beg to differ...).

Well, maybe I could rant a lil about the pre-schoolers though. This kid down here for one ought to be slapped at the back of his head.

"OoOoOoOo... so cute." you may say.
The kid came about and slapped my camera, shouting "Uh oh!! Camera's broken now! Camera's broken now!!" in Chinese.
Siao. I'd break that kid in half, man. But oh well. It was all play. And no, the kid didn't really slap my camera in a dangerous sorta way. Just thought he was pretty annoying. Crazy kid. But I guess kids (that young) will be kids. I'd be freaked out if they were gonna be as obedient and quiet like the older kids. Ryan told me that when he first me this kid, he asked him what his name was. And to that, the kid replied, 'motorcar'.

Huh?

Hmmm. Was meant to blog summore about life in Subang for that one week. But unfortunately I've been beaten by Gary and Yvonne. Especially Yvonne, who took the liberty to summarize the entire week into one post. Well, it's a pretty good summary I must say, which really takes the kick out of blogging about it all for me now.

So instead, I'll blog a little about what I've learnt from KL life so far, hanging out with the posse.

Of my vocabulary
I've picked up a few 'KL slangs' during my stay. Apparently if we don't use it, we don't quite fit in. So, Jia Wei, being the most 'happening' one among us all in KL, decided to give us a short lesson on getting down with the local lingo. Among the few memorable ones include:

1) 'Ons'.
Def: Down. Happening. Cool. Awesome. Anything to describe coolness or impressiveness in regards to just about anything.
eg: "Whoa! That song is ons, man!" or "Apparently karaoke-ing is the ons thing to do these days, dude."

2) 'Chilax'
Def: A combination of 'Chill' and 'Relax'. Who on earth but KL-ians could come up with such words?
eg: "Hey, hey, chilax, dude. Don't stress." or "I'm so chilaxed right now, I can't be bothered getting up."

3) 'Jeng'
Def: Ahbeng or Ahlian; usually related to a fashion trend. Apparently 'Jeng' originates from a place in Selangor called Jinjang. Or something like that. And apparently, in this place, there are a lot of 'ahbengs' and 'ahlians', as us Southerners would more commonly call them. Hence, the labeling of their 'kind'. Not that there's anything wrong with them at all.
eg: "Whoa! That body-hugging shirt makes you look damn jeng, man!" or "Those jengs are really noisy with their Chinese ringtones, man! So annoying!"

Of the pop culture
Lots of people are becoming more and more attracted to the pop culture, especially the Chinese one. Asian acts like Lee Hom and Jay Chou had always been giants in this arena, but only to be recently shadowed by Jolin's boobs. Which I can totally relate to. I mean, the girl is like the Asian answer to Kylie Minogue. Labelled the Dancing Diva, she is apparently known for her steamy performances and salivating dance moves. Well, salivating for the audience, that is. It'd be creepy to have an artist salivating while dancing...

Apparently there is some fuss about her boobs too. Rumours tell of a boobjob she underwent, and according to Yvonne, she had a transformation from a C-cup to a G-cup.
I didn't know a G-cup existed till last week.

[edit] oh, and the pussycat dolls are all over the mtv as well. which suits me just fine.

Of food
It's expensive. And it's not as good as Kluang.
There are also lots of ciplak coffee shops and 'Uncle Lim's' being opened all around KL right now like poison mushrooms. They look pretty, but they taste like crap. Fake Uncle Lim's are everywhere now across the capital city, offering a nostalgic coffee shop feel with kaya toasts and fragrant local coffee. None authentic, of course. They are fake, pirated, and should seriously be ashamed of themselves for offering 'authenticity' without authenticity.
As far as I know, there is only one true shop like that in the entire Wilayah Persekutuan/Selangor area and that's at Kluang Station in One Utama. Others can just rot.

Of shopping
It is always wise to be vary of when the sales dates are. Like when they begin and when they end. It'd be silly to have spent a bomb on clothing, thinking that you've made a great investment in an awesome piece of clothing, only to find out that the price has been slashed to half 2 days later.
As I did.

And lastly,
Of the public transportation
Don't take the bus. Ever.
Unless it's one of those luxury coaches where you get your own tv-per-seat with food and drinks served by pretty young stewardesses, don't take the bus.
I found out the hard way by taking a normal coach (which by the way, is priced the same as deluxe coach) to KL with Merv and Leanna, carrying up to almost 10kilos worth of luggage only to be stopped in Pudu, walk all the way to the nearest train station, take a train to a station one stop away, get out of the train and station, cross the road to another train station with another line, catch a train there to KL Sentral which is about 2 stops away, get off, and then get on board another train to get to Subang (our final destination) which is about a 20 minutes ride from there, during rush hour.
Altogether, taking about an hour and enough energy to power a lighthouse, I've never sweated so much since Hari Sukan.

So there you have it. A couple of new things I've learnt from spending a week in KL. I've definitely grown streetsmarter in KL, especially since I'm now armed with those slangs and all. Hopefully my next trip down will not be as disastrous. And perhaps I could catch a Jolin concert or something...

kaya & butter toast dipped in half boiled eggs, seasoned with soy sauce and pepper

Mmmmmmmm...

I've been really busy since I got back to Melbourne, and hence, the lack of time to blog at all. But the real gist of what's been going on is that I'm currently moving apartments. And due to crappy planning, I forsee myself without internet for the following week or so. So, even less blogging then. So till then, I'll let you boring people amuse yourselves with my archives or this picture I took down here.

Happy back-to-school days!