Interact District Conference 2006

When? 8-10 December 2006
Where? Universiti Malaya
Who? Keegan and Amanda (Jia Min who was supposed to go had high fever)
How? Taxi

I have a post about this somewhere in my personal blog so since I have already forgotten some bits and pieces about that event, I shall repost it and edit it for this blog: *found it! XP

District 3300 Interact Conference 2006

And so, I attended the conference along with my oh-so-faithful secretary, the sn00b, Keegan Lee Guan Ru. Jia Min was having a fever so she couldn't make it.

Initially, I expected the conference to be terribly boring thx to the awful-looking programme (so many speeches) but I was proven wrong. It was 100x better than expected.

Day 1

Registration was open from 12 to 2 but as usual, I thought that the registration closed at 12 so as usual, I came about half an hour earlier than expected with Keegan. Keegan and I met up in Mid Valley initially and we took a cab there.

We played chess while waiting for the other KL Diraja ppl because we couldn't collect our room keys until they arrived. Those ppl, who live in KL btw, unlike the many other interactors from many other states who could make it early/in time, only arrived at abt one. GAH! >.<

After they arrived, we became engrossed in erm... talking. And talking. And more talking.

Then, we got into groups of 3 for our rooms. There were 2 colleges, college 1 and college 2. Lucky for us, all of us KL diraja ppl where in the same college: college 1. The guys were in one building and the girls in another.

My roommates were SBU's Wong Hui Yat and a Switzerland exchange student named Tina (which she pronounced as Cina). After settling down, we had our ice-breaking session. All of us (about 700 interactors ++ mind you) were divided into 20 groups. Keegan was in the same group as me: Group 1. So we got into our groups for the icebreaking session where we introduced ourselves and did a banana dance and mooned the word MISSISSIPPI with our bottoms. -______-

Then, we had tea in the cafeteria where we all got to chat, talk, chat, talk, meet someone new, eat, chat and talk. We were given a briefing in which few ppl paid attention to due to the noise pollution.

Then we had dinner. And after that, we had our rest time, well spent with card games (mainly Bluff/Bullshit/Cheat/Nonsense/You *censored liar) and more talking. We also played police and killer. :)

At about one (despite saying that our curfew's at 11, rotaractors themselves joined us till 1 a.m. in the cafeteria), we went to our rooms. Marcia and Evon (CBN) as well as Angeline (SAB) crashed into our room.

We chatted till 3.00a.m.++ about a lot of things so needless to say, we didn't get much sleep.

Day 2

We woke up at abt 7.00a.m., in my case, 6.45a.m. T-T

Had breakfast and left to Perdanasiswa, all dressed in our respective BOD uniforms. Perdanasiswa is an auditorium. With a stage. And seats. =.="

There, there was the opening ceremony (flags, national anthems, interact songs, mexican waves, victory clap, roll calls...) and then, we listened to 2 talks (first one: interesting, 2nd: sleepworthy). There were so many of us! O.o

The exchange students under the name of rotary were introduced. In total, there were: 2 japanese girls, 2 brazilian girls, 1 brazilian ronaldhino lookalike (who can bloody sing and play the guitar damn well), 1 mexican guy, 2 german guys (elizabeth! just to let you know, one guy was said to be very hot ;)) and Tina. I think thats abt it.

They introduced themselves and told us 'bout their respective countries. The brazilian girl speaks Portugese! She taught us a phrase: Chia Mu (meaning: I love you) ;) Mexican: Ola' meaning hello though most ppl probably know already.

After our teabreak (or was it lunch?), we had a group discussion session. Basically, we had to rank 15 items given from being the most important to the least important whilst lost at sea. The situation was:
1. Our ship caught fire and was sinking.
2. We have an inflatable raft with paddles.
3. We have 15 items to rank (were not destroyed in fire in ship)

After ranking them (quite funny), we compared our answers to the experts' answers given and we only had one correct. HAHAHA. nobody expected the actual answers to be the answers. Fyi, the most important item when you are lost at sea is a mirror for signaling and the least important is a compass. wahaha. We are never going to survive if we ever do get lost at sea.

Then, we had preparations for our presentation. Each group has to come up with a 1 minute advertisement for a product picked through a lucky draw using a prop given. Our product: socks. Prop: A stuffed duck. Haha. Hence, the advert: Duck Socks. We had a good leader in this guy from VI named Lylia whom we call Lydia who's very experienced (this was his 3rd conference apparently)

Anyways, we had a special dinner that night in our cafeteria. After that, we were back to Perdanasiswa for the presentations. It was really grand, like those concerts you watch on TV. There were 2 judges for the advertisement competition and they were quite direct and critical. They had to give their comments after each performance while the leader had to stand on stg.

We sat according to our groups so we interacted a lot and exchanged numbers.

My group's performance was quite diff. than the others cuz we did our cheer at the beginning (banana dance) cuz we didn't know we were supposed to go straight to commercial and it was part of our commercial anyways. Everyone was over semangat-ed thx to our hyper leader and I think we did ok. XP At least we didn't feel too awkward or embarrassed and didn't care anyway.

The other groups were good. There were products like tissue paper, shampoo, detergent, pepper spray... I dun think anyone had a stg fright!! haha! all so extreme :P. A lot of ah kuas. One of them won best actor. hahaha! My god! He really did well and his legs... so smooth. XP

In the end, Group 8 got champ (Marcia's group. Her one-liner: Yeah, man) Haha!

After 10 performances, the brazilian played on his guitar and sang brazilian songs.

THAT WAS FANTABULOUSLY MARVELOUSLY GOOOOOD!

That guy can really sing. Everyone shouted till they were hoarse. More mexican waves. A few I love yous. XP I like the 3rd song which was Spanish. La Mamba i think. Quite famous. His first song was very nice too though i dunno the title T-T

After all 20 performances, there was a band. Name: Japanz i think. Or something which sounds like that. Initially, Kevin (SJI) and I thought that they would be terrible cuz before we went in the auditorium, we heard some awful-sounding singing. We were dead wrong. They were FANTASTICALLY BRILLIANTLY AMAZINGLY SURPRISINGLY MAGNIFICENTLY ASTOUNDINGLY WONDERFUL!

They sang: Kau Ilhamku, a Faye Wong song, Mungkin Nanti <3, and Can't Take My Eyes Off You. A lot of us sang along with them for all songs (except maybe the Faye Wong one). Kau Ilhamku had a rocky edge starting from the middle. The guitarist was good. After they finished, we all demanded for more and we got more! 4 Non Blonde's What's Going On!!!! haha! Keegan and I sang along to this one for it brings 'special' memories. ;)

After that, winners were announced and we headed back to our dorms. So sleepy. During supper, we chatted a bit. Then, headed to bathe and sleep.

Day 3

Farewell day.

At Perdanasiswa, we had 2 talks (not very boring... but Keegan and I now despise the word: nationbuilding). There's one guy which sounds a lot like Willy Wonka!!!!!!!! That's just freaky! O.o

We had a business game as well (involving some maths). We got into groups of 6-10 for this and KL Diraja was one of the 3 winners!! XP they made me go on stg for the 'final rd' where I had to (along with 2 other reps) trace the figure '6' with my right finger while rotating my right leg in clockwise direction. Haha. So weird. You try :P

In the end, everyone was a winner. =.="

Then, we had the closing ceremony. Speeches, sad songs (When will I see you again? (sappy lyrics)) We had plenty of hugs. handshakes. goodbyes. take cares. see you i hopes... So nice. More mexican waves. Shouts. Cheers. Claps.

It was very nice.

There were party streamers (Those cylinder stuff. you press something and streamers go pop) and all that. some were crying. They formed a long chain (like a train) and marched around the auditorium. They had weird dances. Sang random songs. Haha! VI even did a hakka dance at the exit.

Made a lot a lot of new friends all over Malaysia. Penang, Perak, Kedah, Selangor, Seremban/N9, Kuantan and Kuala Terengganu.

Overall, it was a brilliantly great experience. The only regret I had was not bringing a camera. :/ but am going to go hunt for pics from the other interactors. XP

Memorable bits: (mainly for those who went. sorry.)

1. Keegan scared his roommates (Joseph Cheong (SHS) and Alex Cheah (SBU)) with his erm.. horny side.
2. Alex looked cute as a girl XP
3. Kevin (SJI) to Marcia the Martian (CBN): I want to make your babies! <=dialog copyrighted to Keegan Lee.
4. See Jing Hang? Use pepper spray!
5. Keegan to Joseph(SHS): These days have been simply MAGICAL. ;) *shudders
6. Jun Ian, the tap-dancing penguin!
7. Angeline's new record in 'the number of hours chatting with a stranger within 24 hrs': 7 hours. XP try beating that!
8. So anyways, for the conference, KL Diraja consisted of:
Keegan, me (SSG), Marcia, Adina, Evon (CBN), Angeline, Win Nie, Mun Fong (SAB), Chihuahua, Kevin, Peng Mun (SJI), Alex, Hui Yat (SBU), Jing Hang, Jun Ian (WMS) and Joseph (SHS).

Service above self. XP

-Amanda Mun