What a day!

It was Monday 27th November 2006 and all JPA-sponsored students under AUSMAT program had to attend a briefing and psychology camp held by JPA. The function was supposed to start at 8.30am but the officers arrived one hour late, making us wasting time waiting. Initially they talked about some things that we had known – about TER and universities etc. The good news is that we can have a 50% discount when we do our passport with a letter from JPA which will be given to us. At about 10.30am the lady officer started to give us our reports on our psychology test which we had taken earlier in April. The report contained an analysis on our psychology, such as nervousness, depression, dominant (confidence), self-discipline etc and the score was based on a 100 mark basis, I think. I got 4 for nervousness, according to the explanation of the officer this meant that I am calm whenever I am handling things (quite true since when facing exams I seldom feel tension, haha =P). I couldn’t really remember what I got for other traits but I did remember I got a 98 for self-discipline, which shocked me a bit. Haha… maybe the report got some false points. Who knows right?

Well, what surprised most of us more was when the lady officer announced that she had called a tailor to take our body measurements to make blazer for us at 11am. She even told us that the cost to make a blazer is RM400, which includes a bag (I dunno what kind of bag, by the way). Most of us were rushing as many students had to be called for counseling based on the results of the psychology test. Imagine 300+ students waiting to take for measurement. What made matters worse was that there was only one man taking measurement! He was a Chinese in his 60s and there were only his wife and him. They distributed forms for us to fill in our names and soon there was a pile of sheets stacked up. Everybody wanted to be measured earlier coz each one did not want to go to school the next day (just to take measurement, for goodness sake).

I passed up mine and waited for my turn. That was already about 12pm, and I waited patiently together with my friends for our turns. ‘Lo and behold’, there were people who cut/jumped queue!! They put their forms on top of ours and they got to be measured first. The situation was really tense as everyone was rushing to prepare for the grand dinner which would be held at night and the bus would leave at 5.30pm, meaning that we had to get ready before that. Some of my friends had even made appointment with Thomas & Guys Salon at SACC Mall to set their hair and do make-up. We were quite angry when we heard that the people who jumped queue were boys who did not need much time to do make-up or set hair or wear high-heels or do anything that need extra time. We gave chance to those who had to take plane the next morning back home to measure theirs first, but for those who were not under this condition, it was really too much. One person took about 10 minutes to be measured, and as so many people were talking, checking forms, waiting…to sum it up in one word, it was so luan. I pitied the uncle who had to endure the heat (there was something wrong with the air cond) and had to take measurements, at the same time asking the students to wait and saying out the measurements to his wife who wrote them down on the forms.

Out of the blue a Sikh guy stood up and raised his voice with much anger saying that he could not bear any longer. As he was saying about people jumping queue, his eyes were looking at Conney and me who planned to check when would be our turn and also some guys behind us. He even scolded Chean Ying who was being measured that time, saying that she jumped queue by putting hers on top of the forms. It was really scary as he was a tall and quite big-sized guy, talking with such loudness which made me irritated. Poor Chean Ying got scolded for something she did not do. The guy said that he would slap and punch the next person who jumped queue if he saw anyone touching the stack of forms. Somehow the situation calmed down when uncle said he would make sure of that. It was already 2.20pm then, so Conney and I decided to go back to our hostel to get ready for grand dinner and take our measurements the next morning. We left the classroom and got on the bus while discussing about what happened just now. A few minutes later Chean Ying walked into the bus and took a seat beside us. We chatted a little, and then she said that Ryan’s car could still fit in two more people. As the sky was turning dark (sign of rain), Conney and I followed Chean Ying to find Ryan. It was then we realised Ryan had to fetch 6 people back to hostel – one guy and 5 gals including us. So the five of us squeezed behind in his car as the rain started pouring down heavily. We got back to our hostel safely, took our bath and started to prepare ourselves for grand dinner.

Well, the next post will be on grand dinner, some unexpected things which happened before we left our hostel and some funny things during dinner. I don’t want to make this post too long, hehe~