Glass

I am watching at this man with such sickening intensity. We walk towards one another in a perfect unison. He is all made of bones, scars, and suicidal thoughts. The man’s not beautiful, he is nothing special. People abhor him. Indeed, me too. I stop walking. He stops at the exact moment, as if mocking me.  “You…” he sounds just like me. I close my ears for the voice is repulsing, but the man behind the mirror laughs at me. He is the exact replica as me. I hear him says, “I know you wish you were just a reflection.”

Semester Eight

Hi there!

It’s like every year I write less and less in this blog. Well, I try not to do that, but then again, that means I need to reinvigorate my brain. Anyway, the new semester has started and assignments have already piled in.

Did I tell you that this semester is my eighth and final semester as a TESLian? My five-and-a-half-year journey is almost over. I can’t believe it really. I mean, I am now 23 years old, I still think that is weird, and then next year, IPG Gaya will just be a memory. A lovable memory, yes, but still just a memory. Well, that is a sad way to describe it haha. Anyhow, we have six courses this semester. They are:

Professional Development – I am still trying to understand what the heck the subject is about… although it is related to how we develop our careers towards higher levels (?)

Computer Assisted Language Learning – We like to call this as CALL. Self-explanatory isn’t it? This course deals with how we use technology in the teaching of language.

Current Issues in Education – This is where we will analyse and discuss about the current or contemporary issues that affect the country’s education system.

Women in Literature – For this subject, we will learn all about women and their roles in English literature, the characteristics of women in literature, well everything that involves women and literature.

Contemporary Literature – Another literature subject and this one deals with short stories and poems published after WW2, you know, literature that are still relevant with the current climate and reality?

Academic Exercise – This one… this one… this one… *runs away from responsibility, changes personal name, takes a flight to Ushuaia, and hides forever in a cave while the heart is filled with regrets*

Okay, that’s all!

Thank You TTF

The last three months have been what I define as a life-changer. I went to a school known as Sekolah Menengah Kebangsaan Taman Tun Fuad or SMKTTF for my practicum. Three months might seem like a short period for a teaching stint, but what I received from teaching in that school is priceless.

I learnt a lot about what it means to be a teacher. A teacher doesn’t just write stuff on the whiteboard, say things related to the topic, and finally give homework to the students. A teacher’s work involves a lot more than that. A teacher is everything. Well, besides teaching, a teacher is also an MC (I did that), a teacher is also a painter (I painted mural), simply said, being a teacher is not simple.

Those three months have shown to me how hard it is to be a teacher. A teacher needs to give his best to his students. Sometimes, when my students got so naughty and mischievous, I felt like throwing the whiteboard eraser to them, but that was the challenge right? When I think about it again, well, I did the same thing to my former teachers… karma much? Haha. But frankly, now I have higher respect for all those who are known as teachers.

I won’t deny the fact that I was (and I still am) so happy each time the boys and girls called me as ‘Cikgu’. The feeling was different, the kind that warms you from the inside, so to speak. Well, only that sometimes, when there were too many students who called me to guide them at the same time, then I got confused haha.

The students of 2C, 2D, and 1D were my first group of students. I learnt a lot from them. Maybe I was not perfect since it was my first time teaching anyway, but I tried my best to be a good teacher for them. I just hope that what I’ve taught them will always be in their minds.

I really love my students, every single one of them. I love the school. Thank you TTF for accepting me even if it was for only three months. Thank you.

TESL Night 2014

One of the highlights of being a TESL student here in IPG Gaya is of course the annual TESL Night. This year, our TESL Night was held at Sabah Oriental Hotel and I say it was quite great. It was organised by the juniors of Semester One with the theme of Masquerade (which I admittedly didn’t wear a lot haha). I had fun with my friends and oh boy, the dishes were nice! My class also performed this medley of The Climb, Titanium, Don’t Stop Believin’, and Firework. How was the performance? I hope everyone else found it to be at least, nice. Haha~

Here are some photos from the night!

 

LBN

So, I went to Labuan for the first time a few days ago, and it was awesome… I mean beside the fact that it took three hours by a ferry to get there from KK, but yeah, Labuan was awesome.

Went to a number of places in Labuan, although I must say, we actually took a historic tour of the island, which I rather like because I am a bit history-freak. I also tasted satak and siput tarik for the first time here. Satak is a type of seafood that resembles lobster, and all those satak that I ate were yummy. The same can be applied with siput tarik [I mean, they were yummy too, not that they’re related to a lobster.]

I love my all-Malaysian trips!

Surrender Point, where the Japanese and Australian troops signed the peace agreement to end the war

Labuan War Memorial, where almost 1800 people, ranging from Commonwealth army to prisoners of war are buried

The monument of Peace Park, the park is a gift by the Japanese government

The monument located at Labuan War Memorial 

The famous and still mysterious Chimney

2013's Written Words

Hi there!

It has been a great couple of days because I got to eat delicious food in one of my favourite places in Kuala Terengganu, Tappers Caffé on the Block in Little Chinatown, and just now, I made [well, I helped more like it] a delicious apple crumble with custard sauce… but this post is not about food… or my appetite… or the fact that I will never reach the 50kg threshold even if I glut myself.

This post is about those blended corpses of trees with written tattoos on them, a.k.a. novels, my [other] favourite things to have. I’ve read a number of novels last year, and frankly, I still have a lot that I have not finished. Well, that’s what certain book addicts do, read old books and buy new ones in the same time. Why can’t books be cheap?! Why?!

Anyway, here are the novels:

Jhumpa Lahiri’s The Namesake

Okay, this is not a new novel, and honestly, I am not into Asian [or Asian-American] literature that much, but this is a novel that makes us think about what it means to be who we are in a fast-modernising world. Are we defined by our names, our background, or what we think of ourselves? Identity is more than a name.

John Green’s Looking for Alaska

I am an avid fan of Green. He’s an amazing storyteller, and Looking for Alaska proves that. An amalgam of Green’s great penchant of tingling humour and heart-wrenching prose, Looking for Alaska brings us honesty, joy, and at the end, teaches us that the ones we love do not always last long, but the love can. The last words we say mean a lot to everyone else.

G. Willow Wilson’s Alif the Unseen

This novel is just pure magic, a blend of modern computer science and Arabian myths. Alif the Unseen is a view into the tumultuous life in the Middle East, but at the same time, it’s also a window to the unknown, a world beyond our very senses. Sometimes, even the things that we have seen all this while can have more than one thousand and one meanings.

Tom Clempson’s One Seriously Messed-Up Weekend in the Otherwise Un-Messed-Up Life of Jack Samsonite

How’s that for a title? Fortunately, the hilarious and true-to-real-life anecdotes of the crude, crazy, and heroic (or so he thinks) Jack lives to the novel’s title. Really, the book is funny, and somehow, I think what Jack Samsonite does or thinks is reflective of many other inner workings of teenage boys.

Robyn Schneider’s The Beginning of Everything

Ezra, golden boy-turned-wreckage, what’s more symbolic of the teenager-y life that that? OK, this book is funny even if the plot’s a bit whimsical, but it shows that a glimmering past can be a detriment if you hold on to it when it cannot be gained anymore, but a tragedy that ends the past may not be the end of your life. Letting go is the best thing to do.

David Levithan’s Every Day

A resides in a human body for 24 hours and then moves on to another person, but A cannot control that. So, what’s A to do? And what’s A gonna go when A loves a girl? A is like us, we don’t know where our lives will take us, and oftentimes, we are even searching for the real meaning of our existence.

Okay, actually, I still have a few more books, but let's just stop here now. That's all folks!

2wentythre3

I don't know about you, but I'm feeling twenty-three~!

The Time

If all these stuffs from UiTM do not make me realise who I’m going to be soon, I don’t know what will. The time for me to be a teacher [okay, a trainee teacher] is coming fast. Three months in school practicing what a real teacher should do - all those admin work, teaching the students, becoming a supervisor for events or co-curricular activities - it is a challenge that I should take seriously, I will do my best to be a good teacher to all my students. English is an important subject in the Malaysian curriculum.

But hey, I must not forget to have fun with it right? Teaching is what makes me feel fun and accomplished. As a student before, I feel happy when I could comprehend and perform a task or an activity taught by my teacher. Now, I am pretty sure I will feel the same when I watch my students do the same. I know becoming a teacher is not an easy task, but I know I can do this. I’m going to do this!

Macbeth a la Mafiosi

So my class has finished our two years in Shah Alam, but not without a ‘bang’ – a bang in the form of a Shakespearian theatre that is. The theatre was a part of the assessments for Introduction to Shakespeare, but I’ll say, we had fun doing it. I really did. We did a Mafiosi version of Macbeth, interspersed with references to Thor. We even made Mjolnir for Heaven’s sake. Haha~If there is one thing that I did not expect, it was that I exaggerated the way I said “my Padrinooooo~”. It made the audience laughed.

Anyway, I will always remember this. Besides, I have the video, so I can watch it again and again haha~

I made the poster~ Wheee

Told ya~

I was Angus

As a bonus I edited this photo

The Chapter

These past two years in Shah Alam have been a roller coaster ride for me. I’ve learnt a lot of new things, academically and non-academically, made a lot of new friends, read a huge number of books, studied more Shakespeare than I’ve ever did before, known more about myself, but most importantly, getting ready for the most vital upcoming chapter of my life.

It’s the last day of 2013, and I have come to a realisation that separation is a bittersweet event. Why? Because I may not see all my IPG Kota Bharu friends for a long time. We’ve Gayarians have been with them for such a long time, and even though all of us might have made each other mad, or or crazy, or annoyed, one thing that is certain, in the end it’s the friendship and love among us that matter the most. I’m going to miss them all, but now, it’s time for me to lunge myself forward.

2014 will be the year where one thing will be imminent: the prospect of being a teacher. I have a fear of letting down myself and my students, but I don’t want to be pessimistic. This is a challenge that I must accept with open heart and mind and soul. I know I can do it, and I will prove it. Like what I’ve thought before, all things are coming to their rightful places and the reality starts to kick in. It’s going to be a ride of my lifetime.

But in the superior words of everyone who’s amazing on this Earth: Challenge Accepted!