Wednesday, September 29, 2010

I'm BACK!

Heh. Yes, I'm back! After a year and some months off from my blog, I'm finally writing again. Feels a lot longer than that though. =/ Reading some of my old posts again, especially the last few ones made me think, "wow, I'm sooo emo!" Lols. I wonder if anyone else felt that. =P

Anyway, why am I back? Good question... I just felt like writing again, especially after yesterday. That said, I probably won't be updating regularly, though hopefully, I won't abandon this poor blog again. ;(

So, what has changed after that long hiatus? Tons! But those are topics for another, when I feel like them. Right now, it's all about the trip we made to SK Tropicana yesterday.

My Group Members~ Cathreena and Alicia

While the first semester of our degree program seemed to just breeze by, it seems the second one is not going to be as easy. 4 weeks into the semester (the first 2 being a mess due to the move) and already, 3 out of 5 of our classes require us to go to schools for interviews and surveys. The first being Sociology class and get this, the topic was sekolah rendah kebangsaan. My first thought? - "Aaw, Maaann!!"

A few reasons why I didn't like it was that firstly, how long has it been since we set foot into a sekolah rendah? It was unfamiliar terrain. Second, I would very much prefer to go to a secondary school where I know the teachers, I know which ones will respond, which ones are capable of responding and which ones won't even look at you. Thirdly, and I know this is bad, but my perception of a primary school teacher in kebangsaan schools are that they're mostly Malays, lazy, and unwilling. What's worse is that I was right.

For those who know me, I think it's safe to say, you know I'm so definitely not racist. Maybe I am a little biased towards my own race sometimes, but I have nothing against others. The things is that my BM sucks. Big time. So I knew it would be tough trying to communicate with some of the Malay teachers who can't speak english. On the other part, I've always felt that primary school teachers have a sort of "I'm just a primary school teacher, I'm not important, therefore please pleeaaase leave me alone and don't ask for my input even if your lives depended on it" feeling, which is so not true. (Feel free to correct me if you think I'm wrong)

The day started well enough. Though after getting caught in a jam, getting rained on, and being ill-prepared (my fault!), we were kind of wary and nervous. Like, "OMG! I can't believe I'm doing this!", "How laaah, I don't even understand the questions myself!", and "Pleaaase, stop raaaiining! How to record like this?!" Yeah, we're all a bunch'a wimps.

However, we were pleasantly surprised when our first interview went by without a hitch. Heh, lucky me got to go first, and got the best respondant. =P Ms. Farhani (I think I spelled it right, right?) was so cute and lively and fun and pretty (added bonus), I think we were kind of spellbound by her. She enthusiastically gave us permission to video record the interview, answered our questions without going off topic (another added bonus), and even asked us to explain the questions she didn't understand (seriously added bonus).

After leaving her, we wandered off downstairs to find us some fresh meat (kidding!), where I found my friend's momma who teaches there. Kind Aunty introduced us to some of her colleague for us to torture, err... I mean interview, and then *left us to finish up some work. (*Read: ran away because she doesn't want a piece of that naaasty interview either =_=;)

This is where the disappointment came. This bunch of Malay ladies + 1 Indian, ohmygaaah...! I had already seen one of them leaving the children in the middle of their sports practice to SPIT ONTO THE GRASS! Urgh! And now, they wouldn't even give us a second glance, their half-assed answers left me no doubt that their work was probably half-assed too. Their look on one of them was so arrogant, I wanted to stop wasting my time on them and go look for some other teachers. Alas, being polite and civilized people, we had to stay since we had asked in the first place.

Leaving them, we thought might as well ask some other teachers sitting around the canteen as well. Bad decision! Thinking they could give us a different perspective, we decided to ask some male teachers. By the end of which, I was asking myself, "What in the world were you THINKING?!"

So yeah. That didn't go very well, never mind. Failure is all a part of life. Let's go back upstairs to the staff room, maybe we'll get some fresher meat (just kiddiing!). There, we were surprised by the cutest thing ever. This little Malay boy with curly hair and a baby face came up to us, "Apa saya boleh bantu?". Lols, basic response from all three of us? - "HUH?!" XD It was so unexpected we were all so blur. =P Poor boy... (He ran away after we asked if we could interview him instead. Cuuuuute!)

Which brings us to the best part of the day - The kids. They were absolutely, positively adorable. These 2 boys watching us started whispering about which one of us was the prettiest, teehee (Cathreena won). They hid from the camera behind doors, called us auntie (much to Cathreena's chagrin, hee), called out "Assalamualaikum" at us, and this group of Indian girls even asked us to take pictures of them. >.< style="text-align: left;">

Interior of the school
Canteen
Classroom

The Group of Indian Girls who requested a photo (sorry, rumah hijau!)

They just keep on comin' , don't they.

And just because we were bored, and I'm on a roll...
Gets!!


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