~Wonderfully Blessed~

Second Day of Pre-Departure Orientation!

6th of January, '07

Today started with a wake up call. It was freezing cold in the room but I forced myself to take a shower anyways. Then, we went down to take our breakfast. I forgot what I ate but it was not bad I think. After that, we started our sessions and played a few games. Oh yea, we played "Blow Wind Blow" yesterday and today we played that again. We had lots of group discussions today and Iifah was in my group. It was fun learning from her and I felt happy to able to learn a little sign language to communicate with her. I was able to communicate a little with Iifah and Shannen. We had tea and more sessions and later on we ate dinner. Dinner was great because we had a great laugh and conversation while eating. I was almost late for the next session because I was busy talking..lol..After the session, we had time to discuss about our cultural performance. We elected Nick as our event manager and he did really well in controlling all of us. My group was the Dikir Barat group which consists of me, Nick, Lisa, Shannen, Timothy, Burn, E-day, Iifah, Huda, Azreen, Liza, Faisal, Trisha, Wei Liem, Jonathan, and Jilian. We had fun and we left the conference room at 12:45 a.m. I went back to my room and took out my lenses successfully. Then, I went to Room 311 again. This time, we had a FANTABULOUS time because we saw pictures of the volunteers in America and we had a great chat. We played Truth or Dare and I was dared propose marriage to Divan! I was rejected twice and her rejected my proposal! Buhuhuhu.. so embarassing..hehe.. Timothy caught me on video and if he post it in YouTube, I'll kill him.. I even have a "doggy style" picture of me in the bathroom captured by Trisha. I had to dry my wet buttocks because I sat on the floor which was wet. I stood on a chair and faced my butt to the dryer in the bathroom. I looked exactly like a dog peeing. What an embarassing day..lol.. It was actually a good memorable day and I appreciate everything that happened. I wouldn't mind repeating everything that happened. When we got back to our rooms, it was already 4:45 a.m. I brushed my teeth and changed my clothes AND had to write my Dear Me letter and complete the survey in the bathroom because Azreen and Vanessa were already sleeping. Poor me, but I can think better in the bathroom. Those who know me will know how attached I am to the bathroom..lol.. I'm a weirdo! Anways, I got to pack my luggage bags for America now. I'll write about the next day when I'm free! See you journal..wait for my update! Ciaoz...

January 8th, '07
1:54 p.m. (delayed journal)

First Day of Pre-Departure Orientation!!

5th of January '07

I reached Hotel Singgahsan hotel in Petaling Jaya at around 2:30 p.m. Once I entered the hotel, I was looking for someone that I recognized. While I was at the same time looking for a bathroom, I met my first familiar faced person^^. She's Lisa Khoo whom I've met at the US embassy during the Visa interview. I also met her parents whom were pleasantly friendly. Next, I was practically rushing to the bathroom for my nature call ><. After relieving myself, I went upstairs to register myself. I met Kak Gee and Wendell. At first, I thought that Wendell was a facilitator as well but her turned out to be one of my program buddies. After taking my name-tag which I wrote SUE ANN (duh..), I went downstairs to dabble around with the other YES program students. I saw a few friends and quickly went to greet them (Sim, Lisa, Wei Liem, Burn, Joyce). Then, we started introducing ourselves. Finally, we roughly knew each other and we asked each other where in America they'll be. Lol.. we're all so anxious for our exchange journey. I found out that Sim will be at Maryland as well. She'll be living in Baltimore and I'll be at Williamsport. After all the introductions, it was time for us to carry our luggages up to the conference room. We put our bags at the back of the room and started our Q&A session for the parents.  We sat down and listened while giggling like mad kids because Lisa was making fun of the background music that was playing in the room. After the session, we had another session with two American ambassadors. They were both really funny and they showed us pictures of America and the high schools over there. Then, we had tea and a session with all the AFS volunterrs. We punished all late comers by making them spell "MISSISSIPPI" with their buttocks. Lol.. nice butts though. We had a couple of serious sessions after that till my neck and butt hurt after the sessions. We learnt a lot and made lots of friends. Then, they gave us our room keys and I was in charge of Room 206. My roommates were Azreen and Vanessa. When we got into the room, we rested for a while. We went down again later for another session. After the session, we went back to our respective rooms. I went into the bathroom to take my lenses out. I was so noob at it that I dropped it into the sink. I didn't know it was in the sink, so I almost cried because I thought my lenses went behind my eyeballs. However, I found it in the sink later on. That was a big relief and shock for me. I said a billion thank you's to God for helping me find my lenses. Then, Arthi, Jilian and a few others came into our room to discuss our cultural performance for our American trip. After the discussion, we went to room 311 to have a nice chat with the volunteers. I was so happy that the day ended so nicely^^. Well, our first day was mainly filled with sessions. Continue reading to find out about my very personal experience in the U.S! Nights.. Muax^^

January 8th, '07
12:45 p.m. (delayed journal)