On the 15th of July, I went to Kuala Nerang to cover a cluster school expo of some sort for Free School. Seeing that I was the only one to volunteer to go on that day, I'd expect the journey to be pretty tiring and boring. I waited for the bus at 8am while I chatted with my juniors, John and Bennic who were also going to the event as first-aiders. At 8.30, we had to lug some stuff into the bus while the rest of the expedition were getting ready, wasn't really my job, but I just went with the flow. On the bus, it was a rather tiring and bumpy 2 and a half hours ride to Kuala Nerang, Kedah. I sat next to Khartik and watched Gulliver's Travels on the display monitor on the bus. I was cleaning my camera kit and double checking that everything was in order, as I always do. we reached our destination by 12.15pm and we started unloading. I vividly remembered what my teacher said to me: 'It's a God forsaken place'. Well, personally it wasn't all that bad, kinda reminded me of my old boarding school back when I was in Form 1. Nostalgic to say the least.
We went to our assigned tent and started putting up our signs and billboards. Ironically, I had to help with the deco and shifting of items when I should really be snapping pics for the school, but I just kept it to myself and helped as much as I could. By 1pm, the muslims in my expedition had to go for Friday prayers, which meant the working force has reduced in size. Only me, Khartik and Kavin were actually doing something, along with some of my juniors. I was appalled to see the scouts seniors that WAS supposed to be doing all these setting up wandering off to some other place when they still hadn't finish setting up our school banner. I believe in teamwork and fairness, and these group of people crushed my naivety. Those still in tent consists of our co-curriculum teacher, Pn. Norbaini and some other teachers, and a few of us students. To make matters even tiring for us, me, kavin, khartik and the juniors had to help a bunch of primary schoolers to carry their malay wooden musical instruments, which I have to add was a hell of a load. At 3pm, After sweating like a water buffalo under the hot sun, we finally sat down to take a breather. I walked around and snapped some pictures and noticed that most of the other school have awesome exhibition and deco, while ours were quite stale. I snapped some of their deco and walked around with a sense of deja vu. The architecture really brought me back to my boarding school days. Sad and happy moments there. Even the hall had the same air and design to it.
When I returned to the tent, the 'Big Shots' scouts were finally back, and still talking whereas the 'diva' Stephanie that followed us and Teik Min was fraternizing with a female from the tent beside us. I could care less due since I've developed such irrational hatred towards these bunch of 'Frees' that left us rotting in the sun when they sat down in the cafeteria and chatted. I kept it to myself and resumed helping out with whatever I can. I even heard Pn. Norbaini complaining about the scouts, guess there's justice in this world after all. I sat down with Kharthik, Ben and John while they were talking to Steph, Teik Min and that mysterious girl from the tent next door. I soon learned that her name was Clarrisa and she is a national debater. Next thing I know, she was spewing out Shakespearean lines to Steph and both me and khartik's jaw were hanging from where they should be. Never had I met a girl like that, odd, but in a good way.
I spent some time learning about this odd girl, and cocking about with John and Bennic along the way, and realized that she ain't bad at all. Guess first impressions are not everything. It was fun talking to her, and obviously more fun to make fun of John, who went emo after she asked him to 'Por', how I laughed.
About 8pm, we had the green light to get our presentation ready for the LPM, and I set about preparing my equipment. In the presentation room, there was a few top guns from the ministry waiting to hear us talk. Steph was the first batter up, and she striked like a blind bat, so did Elaine with her half-assed speech. I was in such agonizing shame that these two girls are actually giving a presentation about the history and affiliations of Free School. Deep inside, I was screaming 'What the fuck are you doing??!!'. Thank god Khartik came to the rescue, as expected of my form's top boy, he swept the blood on the floor. Naqib, the hockey captain ended it with a cocky statement, but that sure did put a smile on the faces of the guys from LPM. I was relieved.
8.45pm, we packed our stuff up and got ready to head home. Before that, Clarissa came over our tent and bid adieu to us and snapped a few picture for memories. At that point we were so exhausted that our expression was practically a mix of happiness, agony, and high-off-jamaican-grass look.
In the bus I recount what I did for the day, it wasn't bad, it was actually fun. New relationships fostered, and old friendship strengthen, that's all that matters right? I chatted with Khartik for awhile until the pleasant feeling of sleep took over and took us back all the way to Penang.
