Overheard about "ASPIRE 2005" (ASIA PACIFIC STUDENT LEARDERSHIP [sic] WORKSHOP 2005), an international conference organised by the University of Malaya with participants and speakers from all over the Asia-Pacific:


"got e key to go to our room
that's where e shock came

e room sucked to e core
e whole hostel smelled like a zoo(due to stray cats' peeing in e hall...e cats could get to e 6th floor--where we stayed...to quote a hongkong fren...e smell was like elephants' poo)
e whole place was dirty(surprising since UM invited international students and it's pretty obvious that not much of cleaning has been done to e hall)

i had to share my room with someone (who was quite a nice person)
but we only had 1 key among ourselves

and upon opening the door
it was another big shock
e room was dirty
with no tiles(ie cemented floor)
e mattress was thin like a sheet of paper(ok la..not that thin...but it's thin enuf for me to feel e BED itself when i slept on it)
no blanket was given(later was given a bedsheet to be used as blanket---e v thin n rough kind)
there was no lan point or phone line in e room
there was no wireless internet access either

we left our room to go join some icebreakers conducted in e hall(and since we were already v late...we were quite extra)


started next day having quite a lousy breakfast(everyth was v sweet...this was e prelude to e rest of e meals provided by UM) On later days, they told us to come for breakfast at 7am and knocked on our doors at 7 in e morning cos they think we oversleep, but when we went to e canteen no one was there and e caterer only came at 8am.
had e 1st dialogue which was titled “China’s Economic Overheat & Its Impact on the Asia Pacific”.

e scheduled speakers were ppl like Dr. Mahathir Mohammad and Mr. Zhou Xiaochuan (Governor of People's Bank of China)
but e speakers that turned up was ASEAN secretary-general(not too bad) and manager of the central bank
this is quite a disappointment cos basically e panelist has been "downgraded" drastically...
i have looked forward to Mahathir and e governor of central bank speaking cos it's not like everyday u get to meet such bigshots and listen to them talk

this is followed by a screwed-up discussion(participants were split into grps to discuss e issues raised and to present our findings on e 3rd day) moderated by a student from malaysia(UPSI=teaching college)
he was dominating e whole discussion and making nonsensical deductions
in e end he got reprimanded by someone in e grp for his gibberish...which made him shut up and everyone else v happy

then we had second dialogue(Kyoto Protocal – It’s role and the Mechanism in Achieving it.) and again none of e scheduled speakers came
2 malaysian meteorologists came
e talk was pretty boring but not as bad as e 3rd one which was to come e next day

had opening dinner at night
reached e hotel at abt 7 plus but dinner only commenced at 9,30pm
their guest-of-honour(education minister of malaysia) was so late
and e whole dinner transformed into a pre-celebration of e national day of malaysia

e national anthem of malaysia and UM's anthem were played
numerous speeches were delivered before we could tuck in

and after e dinner
ppl started singing community songs of malaysia and e whole dinner turned into someth like a pseudo-pre-celebration of e national day
e malaysians felt very high after singing i think
but it was v weird for them to do such things since there were so many international students around
shouldn't e focus of e dinner be on students and e workshop(and not malaysia itself???)

reached hostel at abt 1am
went to shower
and e bathroom sucked to e core again
there was no showerhead(jus a pipe sticking out from e wall)
no heater
no toilet roll(on e 1st day of e workshop...was provided later)
and e toilets did not smell too nice

u can imagine bathing at 1am without heater
it was freezing cold and e water jus gushed onto ppl who are showering cos there was no showerhead
we showered everyday at 1-2 am cos we ended like that everyday
it's mad


next day had e 3rd dialogue(The Significance of Cooperation Amongst Asia Pacific Universities in Moulding Quality Graduates for a Globalize World)which was crappy to e limit
2 deans from UM spoke cos none of e scheduled speakers came again
e speakers were unprepared and sounded more like promoting ppl to go n study in UM than to assert any opinion for e topic matter

then we had to prepare for presentation
which happened to be e time in which ppl from my grp found out wad we have done thus far was pretty much nonsense
i got shoved/forced/coerced to presenting e 1st qn
and someone else was forced to present e 2nd qn
e moderator guy volunteered to present e 3rd qn


presentation started at 9pm and ended at 12,30pm
this was e 1st time in my life i did a presentation at 12 midnight
had to greet my audience good morning

i think there's someth drastically/awfully/totally wrong with e way e programs have been scheduled
we shldn't end every day at 1 am plus
it's crazy considering we r supposed to wake up and have breakfast by 8am


e next day i went to kampong lonek(a kampong in negeri smebilan)
spent e whole morning on e bus..reached e destination at 12 plus in e afternoon and we were again shoved/forced/coerced to walk under e sun to take a walk ard e village

e trip turned out to be pretty ok except that it was v hot and e food wasn't v gd
but e non-muslims had to wait for e muslims twice cos they had to pray and we sat ard doing nothing much

i dun think muslims from other countries pray that much,do they?


we had dinner at some R&R station(e pitstops for ppl driving along north-south highway..and obviously good food was impossible to get there)
in e end i skipped dinner and jus drank ice blended chocolate at this pirated starbucks called Shalala cafe
apparently they had nothing to sell except nasi lemak and ice blended chocolate
dunno how ppl do business like that
it was at this time when 4 of us from e same bus got together and started complaining v loudly in e cafe(all 4 of us found nothing that was palatable and jus kept ourselves occupied by complaining non-stop)
ppl from UM heard us
e crew in e cafe were staring at us
but who cares
haha
this was when we formed this grp to rebel against e UM ppl
e working attitude of e crew at Shalala was exactly e same as e ppl from UM(specifically e malays in UM...e chineses in UM were quite kind to us...i dun understand this racist behavior of e UM ppl...if they wan to organise an event like this...no point thinking along racial lines...it shows how narrow-minded you are and it reflects badly on e uni,e country and everyth else)


anyways we then carried on with e bus journey at abt 7 plus and reached putrajaya at 12 midnight(amazing...this is e time ppl visit night safari i think..not for phototaking at e administrative capital)

on e way we were busy complaining loudly on e "ill-treatment" of participants
throughout e whole journey we were treated to Siti Nurhaliza's(famous malaysian singer) MTV
not that many of e ppl on e bus could understand
only e 2 or 3 malays sitting in front wanted to watch that lousy vcd(which had prob playing after being played continuously for many times throughout out journey..started skipping and in e end was turned off--good riddance)

reached putrajaya and had a super-unbelievable experience
was shoved from places to places for photo-taking but there was nothing much to take actually
cos it was too dark and we were too far away from e buildings(roads were sealed for their national day celebration)

in e end we left putrajaya at 1 plus and arrived at UM at 2am(fell asleep on e way)

had KLCC tour on tues
it was better than previous days although it was also v rush
got to have 1.5 pathetic hours to shop at petronas towers
in e end grabbed a top and a jacket without half an hr cos e 1st hr was spent on eating(i had to buy clothes for e closing dinner--din bring enuf clothes cos i though there would be enuf time for me to shop around..according to e original schedule...but by now everyone reading this shld have realised nothing went according to e original plan...i wished i could sue them for deceiving the participants...we were drastically misled)

went to some handicraft centre which no one showed much interest(and we spent more time there then KLCC...we were complaining loudly abt lack of shopping time)
and went to KL tower after that(someth i dreaded cos i have been there twice before just recently)
my 3rd visit was spent on oogling at ppl in swimming pools near e KL tower using e binoculars in e tower..anyways i din start this oogling..forgot who it was but many ppl were doing e same thing... i guess e 5 days of torture so far had turned everyone more pervertic..haha


then returned to UM for closing dinner
e food sucked
i took one mouthful of veg and puked cos it was strong in pesticides smell
din continue eating

anyways i found myself feeling full all e time when i was in KL
i think e food couldn't whet my appetite

took many pics with e other participants cos most ppl were in traditional costumes


and then went out for supper at chinatown area
watched fireworks(released to celebrate national day)
and then returned to UM

e last day in KL was spent shopping
but i could only get a wallet cos we were stuck in e jam for a very long(traffic jam due to high traffic in KL...as it was a public holiday)

then rushed our way back to UM
got out luggage and took a limo back to KLIA

... hereby i conclude my report on my KL tour
all in all it sucked
to quote my fellow participants
"you get what u pay..paying 20USD for 5 nights of accommodation and food means u get 20USD worth of treatrment"
"aspire is totally bullshit"
"aspire sucks"

but someth good came out of it as well
made friends with many ppl cos we bonded together as we braved e bardship

... i felt like i was a POW when i was in KL
no words can describe how glad i am to be back"


Ma-laysia boleh!