Go with the flow

Boredom. Well that word is pretty much synonymous with long school breaks. And I'm no exception. So I decided to follow my mum to her workplace. Not that it'll be a lot of fun but I need a breathe of fresh air and besides the internet connection here is sooo much faster than the one at home.

Personally, there's not much to do here but I always loved the learning environment that IIUM has. It's a picture of beauty, serenity and knowledge. You see students everywhere carrying their backpacks and books, getting ready for classes.

I could see myself in the few years to come being in that kind of environment. Well, perhaps not particularly in this university but definitely in a higher learning institution. I'm at a junction where I still don't know where to go after this. It's too early to tell anyway.

Just going with the flow. For now.

a lil bonding with the family

I draaaggeedd my parents to the Curve to watch High School Musical 3 since Nunu couldn't make it today. Call us kiddies but it's been a really long time since I spent some quality time with my parents and there's no age tag to family bonding. So what the heck!

Besides, where else can you see the scrumptiuosly hot Zac Efron belting out tunes on the basketball court at crunch time? Or him being so oh-overly-dramatic and sliding down walls to walls while singing? The movie was just okay, I guess. I prefer the previous ones actually.

My parents were like '.....uhh okaayy when is this gonna end?' But they still stayed and watched and perhaps enjoyed it at least a tiny bit. Kan? I sooooo love them-lah!

Anyway Nunu you owe me a movie date after this since you bailed out on me today ;)

Hola! Como estas?

Hola! Como estas? Trato de aprender español

Hello! How are you? I'm trying to learn Spanish. On my own, through the Internet. With Malay, English and Turkish languages under my belt, adding another foreign language would be an awesome addition. So for now, I have decided to learn Spanish as it is pretty easy to get the hang of it. But Mummy says she prefers me learning French because it's more 'cultured'. Umm okay. Maybe I'll do both! Who knows?

The prospect of learning a new language always excites me. After picking up Turkish as my '3rd' language, it opened up my world to a whole new one. A language is an insider's view of another culture and a new view of your own. It's like a journey filled with new experiences, sensations, traditions, surprises and more.

And I'm ready to travel down that road again.

Hasta pronto!

the journey

Exams were finally over for me. Whew! It went pretty well, I guess. Anyway holidays have started and I already have a few plans for it. Firstly, I need to do some catching up on my studies. Mhhm it's holidays but that doesn't mean you gotta close your books completely, does it?

I probably wanna learn a new language too. Perhaps German, Spanish or French. Oh and I need to go through an exercise regime, got lots of flabs to lose. And I need to pick up that violin and practice playing it again (it's beginning to collect dust).

This holidays would be a proactive one. No more lazying around like a big bump. Hehe. But you know there's so much I can do to plan but whether I'll follow it exactly, eh well that will be a different matter. We'll see how ;)

Anyway, here are some photos from our debating journey. I remember it like it was just yesterday that we battled against SMK Tropicana in our 1st round way back in February. I remember it like it was just yesterday when the team made its way to Kelantan with high hopes of achieving our dreams.

And I remember it like it was just yesterday when we all lifted the champions' trophy. Let us walk down this memory lane together. Enjoy!

Getting excited to board the plane for the 1st time as a team

Busy. VERY BUSY at work

Uh-huh. That's Daryl practicing his speech in a very 'unique' manner

Oh my, look at the mess we made!

A circle of love and family

7 legs are always better than a pair of one =)

The jokers of the team

Open your arms wide and feel the breeze of the sea

When debaters become cam-whores

GIRL POWER of the team

We're all in this together

When dreams come true

exams...oh exams

When the excitement of winning the prestigious Datuk Wira debate cup has died down a lil, it was time to get back to serious bussiness like....EXAMS! Since we foregone our end-year-exams earlier, we had to sit for them and cram all 21 papers into 1 week.

We had 8 hours of exams yesterday, from 7.30 am all the way 'till 4.30 pm. As loooooooooong as our debate discussions. And by the end of the day my brain felt like raisins. Dried and squeezed. Lol.

Oh well at least it was worth it.

You can't win national championships often but sitting for exams, well you could do that almost any other day.

I was reading a few blogs that had the post-Wira stories and I just felt so proud and lucky to have the chance to be part of the Wira team. We were defeated once but we came back and we came back stronger than ever.

I was talking to Keefe's parents the other day and we agreed that the most beautiful thing about the team was the TEAMWORK. Some of us may not have speaking roles but we worked just as hard and pitched in as much as we could.

No one can take that beauty away from us.

Anyway, 7 papers down, 14 more to go. ERRRKKK!!

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when.....

I asked myself 'Am I dreaming or is this for real?' whenever I thought about SMKDJ's victory in bringing back the prestigious Datuk Wira for the 3rd time today. This post will not go on full details (check Calvin's blog for precise, accurate details of the debates) but rather it will encapsulate the essence and the core of our journey to victory.

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when the Selangor champion forfeited and we came in to replace them

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we did in 10 days what others did in 6 months

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we have extremely dedicated coaches like Puan Mag and Puan Koh

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we have 7 young, committed debaters who were willing to skip exams and stay back until 4.30 pm everyday to prepare for the debates

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we worked as a team and helped each other in the best way possible

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we worked so hard in Kelantan that we even forgot about dinner

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when the best compliment we received was that we were well-mannered and knew how to carry ourselves well

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we waited for 9 months before we reached the finals

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we listen to the painful post mortem from our coaches after each debate and try our best to improve the next time around

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we have the whole school rooting for us to go all the way to the top

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we have such supportive ex-DJians who helped us tremendously along the way and always wish the best for us

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we won a lot of hearts at the national level by just being humble and humourous

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we (hopefully) will become a better debater, a better teammate and a better person with the experience we got from this victory

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we proved our doubters wrong when they initially thought we couldn't make it

You know we are the CHAMPIONS when we created history by being the only school in the whole of Malaysia who has won the Wira cup thrice

This had been a really exhausting yet invaluable journey all together. We, the WIRA NATIONAL CHAMPIONS '08 would like to dedicate our victory to those who have played a vital role in our success. Those who made the impossible possible. Those who urged us to reach our dreams and supported us all the way 'till the end.

Puan Koh, Puan Mag, Kevin, John, Marc, Andrew, the form 3s, our parents and of course the debaters (Keefe, Daryl, Sophia, Jay, Calvin and Rachel) themselves. I could not have asked for a better support system than this.

No man's an island. No man's a debate team and certainly not DJ's debate team.

This is a story of success. And it is OUR story.

*pics will come later

Off to Kelantan

GO TEAM!

I'm off to Kelantan tomorrow for 4 days with the rest of the debate team including Puan Mag and Puan Koh. We have worked very hard for the last 12 days and did our best. Whatever happens in Kelantan for the next few days will be beyond our control.

Win or lose, trophy or no trophy it won't matter much because at the end of it all we got more than what a debater could ask for. Experiences, friendships and a good addition to our CV ;)

It's nationals and please oh please let us be in your prayers. We'll try our best to make you proud.

So wish us all the best!

happy deepavali!

HAPPY DEEPAVALI!!! I celebrated today by going to an open house of my dad's friend Datuk M. Good food but the people who were there was even more interesting. I met Teresa Kok, the woman who was detained under ISA with 'security measures' as the excuse (pfftt!).

We were enjoying our food when a DAP politician came and sat down at our table. My dad sort of pulled his leg when he started questioning DAP's policies and then the guy started talking loudly, to the point of shouting, like what our 'dear' Malaysian politicians normally do at the parliament house.

Ughh so uncool. People want to celebrate unity and multiculturalism on this festive day, they opened up the politics issue at the table pulak. As if we don't hear about politics enough -_-

But anyway HAPPY DEEPAVALI again to all who celebrates it. May the lights bring you the joy =)

The ambience of the open house

Teresa Kok and I

This is what we do, this is US

DJ's debate team has less than a week left before the national competitions start and we have been working our butts off. Discussions start from 7.30 am and last all the way till 4.30 pm, speeches are being written and re-written everyday to ensure our caselines are watertight. Mock debates are held every 2 days so we could find out the flaws of our arguments and patch up the gaping holes.

Things are getting intense now as we are running against time. But our discussions are not intense all the time. We're a bunch of crazy debaters who know how to work and have fun at the same time.

We would have to have sweets and lozenges and whatever stuff that is edible to keep our 'hyperness' in check so we can last all the way till late evening. We even have keychains with our names on it as our 'good luck charms'. Except that for my 'good luck charm', it says 'NICK' instead of Zafirah because there isn't any with my name on it. So the closest is 'Nick' because my first name is 'Nik'.

And we couldn't find Jay's name either on the keychains so the closest to his name is 'Karen' which was the last syllable of his last name 'jay karunaKAREN'. Lol

My beloved teammates is one of the reason why I love debating. It's more than just a competiton to us. It's a way of living.

This is what we do, this is US.

We're all in this together, even when it comes to sweets =)

Our stash of sweets

After long hours of discussion, we can't help falling asleep

Good luck charms!

At the end of the day, posers will always be posers. LOL =D

when the heart cries

Sometimes I think you're expectations for me are too high that I may not be able to reach them. Sometimes when I come back home I want to share with you my daily debate stories from school but I'm afraid I'll get your look of disinterested and disapproval. The thought of disappointing you scares the soul out of me.

And there's no absolute guarantee that I would live up to your expectations. But at least let me fail now rather than later. Let me fail now so I would know how painful is failure. Let me learn from the pain so it'll make me better in every aspects so I could attain the dreams that you wanted me to.

I'm exhausted of all these too. But at least I'm exhausted from something that I actually enjoy doing and at the end of the day I hope I can prove to you that I am capable of reaching the biggest dreams possible.

And things would be a lot sweeter and easier knowing that you will always be behind my back, supporting me through this challenging but hopefully soon-to-be-valuable moments of my life.

Because there is nothing more I need right now other than the support from the person I care and love the most in life.

A 2nd chance to relive the dreams

Daryl called the other day with news that I wouldn't have expected to hear. NOT in a million years. Selangor Wira debate champ, USJ 12 just backed out of the competition and since DJ was the 1st runner up, automatically we would be replacing them as the Selangor representatives at Wira national levels.

How freaking cool is that??? A rare, golden opportunity like this hardly comes by everyday. Heck, it hardly comes by anyday! And that's why we're going all out, all the way this time around because this is our only chance in bringing back the prestigious trophy back to DJ.

But of course now the debaters will have double workloads. We gotta prepare for the motions (4 of them all together) and on top of that we still have to prepare for the upcoming final exams. Whew! The debates will be held in Kelantan where we will be competing with states all over Malaysia.

DJ's Wira debate team is back and wish us all the best, people!

WE'RE BACK!!

My Raya open house

I had a small Raya gathering at my house today. Invited a few friends over, my classmates, close friends and half of my debate team (only Daryl and Keefe could make it) and we ate nasi briyani, nasi impit and tiramisu cake and ice cream as desserts.

I don't believe in big, crowded gatherings and instead I prefer to have a small, intimate one so none of my guests would feel left out. And even with the small number of guests we had plenty of fun. Ashiqin suggested we played some Saidina (copycat version of Monopoly) and then we walked around the neighbourhood, making convos and jokes all day.

Here are some of the pics

My honourable guests

Girls + Syamir gone smiley

Ready to play some serious Saidina bussiness

Concentrating hard on the game

Money crazy!

Yummy!

You know who's that =D

a night of german youth orchestra

Last night was a night filled with classical, beautiful music for some of us. Alia, Nunu, Ellya, Faiz, my parents and I went to a classical music orchestra performed by the eminent Westphalian Chamber Youth Orchestra at IIUM, specially flown from Germany.

Young, hot German youth played classical pieces from Mozart to Bach to Bartholdy beautifully and the crowd was lured by their performance. One of the orchestra members on violin was actually a Turkish. He's living in Germany and I tested my Turkish skills on him and he was like "Oh your pronounciation is very good. Very nice". *blush blush*

Last night was more than listening to classical music but it was also about exposure. Exposure to the music world that made today's music what it was. Music had always been an evolution but it all started from music like Beethoven's and Mozart's.

And living in today's plural society this kind of exposure is very much needed so that when others talk about these classical composers at least we know what they sound like and not stare back blankly when we hear names like Tchaikovsky, Baron Britten etc.

Now I really know how good-looking Germans can be but the Turkish guys are still the best. Tee-hee!

The orchestra at their best

On Violoncello

The girls on violin (if only I could play as good as them)

German musicians with me and Ellya

The very sweet, pretty, talented German girls

And this is the Turkish guy I was talking bout earlier. Burak and I

A joyous Eid

This Hari Raya/Eid Mubarak was by far the most memorable and joyous one for my whole family. Mainly because we shared it with strangers that at the end of the day turned to be a part of our family.

Eid was celebrated along with my mum's foreign students, Adnan (Bosnia), Mahmoud (Palestine), Sabri (Kenya) and Ali (Central Africa) and boy, was it mirthful. We showed them how to make 'lemang', brought them around the kampung, ate the local delicacies and treated them like they were one of us.

All 4 guys were the talk of the small town in Raub because each and every one of them were skilled in their own ways. For instance, Ali was one heck of a talented guy who knew how to recite the Quran beautifully, danced his cool African dances, kung-fu and on top of that he's very pious. One of the most talented persons I've ever met.

We had a lot to teach and show each other and it had been a truly joyous Raya that you could hear constant howls of laughters of us enjoying ourselves in my grandma's house.

Again, HaPpY eId MuBaRak and MaAf ZaHiR dan BaTiN!

In the Kampung on the morning of Eid

My aunty's deer, Benny

the 'Fantistic Four' (from left: Mahmoud, Adnan, Sabri and Ali)

Adnan the 'orang putih' preparing a lemang

Yay! Raya's coming!

Say goodbye with tears to Ramadhan and let's welcome Syawal with a sense of victory as well as gratification of having to complete a battle of your inner self and desires for one whole month. Whether we did it successfully or otherwise, that's between us and God.

Yay! Raya's almost here! This year, my family and I are travelling back to Raub, Pahang with an additional of 4 'family members'. We're bringing back home with us 4 foreign boys from Bosnia, Palestine and 2 boys from Africa (my mum's students) so they could have a taste of Malay culture and how the Eid Mubarak is celebrated in the community.

I can't wait to savour on the Raya delicacies, you know the usual stuff. Lemang, ketupat, rendang daging etc. Yummy!

To all my Muslims friends, an early 'SELAMAT HARI RAYA' for you and to others, have an enjoyable week.

Datanglah ke rumah nanti =)

Nostalgia's out!

Finally, after months and months of writing, photography, editing and re-editing, Nostalgia '08 has finally been printed and distributed to the whole school. The magazine might look thin this year, (due to lack of financial support) but the quality of the articles and the layouts are definitely better this time around.

And all thanks to the fabulous Editorial Board Members who have worked very hard this year. Too much sweat, blood and tears have been poured towards the making of this magazine and it's just so satisfying to see 'our baby' in prints and it being read by everyone in school.

Nostalgia Ed Board '08

a cross cultural Ramadhan

Ramadhan had always been a month that was anticipated by many Muslims. It's the time of the month where we spend the most time with people that were dear and near to us. With God, family, friends and fellow Muslims.

My mum invited her foreign students on Saturday and Sunday for iftar (buka puasa/breaking fast in Arabic) at our home and students from all over came. Turkey, Gambia, Afghanistan, Mauritius, Uzbekistan, India, you name it, they were there.

And yesterday the Turkish community in KL invited my family over for iftar at the Legend Hotel where they had this programme about Ramadhan and stuff. It made me realize that fasting was just more than depriving oneself from food, drinks and carnal desires. It was also about learning the meaning of hardship and starvation that the less fortunate went through everyday.

The iftars that I had had been pleasant. It showed that Islam was all about brotherhood and meeting each other's needs too. We might have different skin colours, traditional beliefs and nationalities but deep inside we're all the same.

We're like one big family who stands on the same common ground and being the servants of Allah.

It's me, the tutor....again!

I used to tutor my 7 year old cousin, Ahmad how to read and count. And this time I'm tutoring my other cousin to prepare her for PMR in a few weeks time. She had epilepsy since she was a kid and it had killed many of brain cells so that's why she needs all the help she can to get through this exams.

Too many times, too many of us take for granted for the things that we have in life. With a perfectly healthy brain we could do so many wonders compared to the less fortunate but we choose not to.

We just finished watching Phantom of the Opera so she could get a clearer picture of what the novel is all about. And she's taking a rest now. After all she can't be pushed too hard or her seizure will attack her.

I hope with the little help I'm offering her, she would be able to do relatively well in her exams.

Sketching a glimpse of me

4 ANGSANA is filled with people from different walks of life. From debaters to book authors to band singers to Sukma cyclist to artists, we have it all here. And today Chong Wei unleashed his artistic skills by sketching a portrait of me during Biology class.

And here is his artwork:



I wouldn't say that the sketching looks exactly like me but I do see a glimpse of myself in it. I look pretty hard and fierce, though. Some of my friends said the sketching reminded them of some kind of female politician. Heh!

I'm here

Giri has referred me as the consultant/wingwoman. He said Zafirah is the person to go to when you have issues and need answers and solutions to them because apparently he thinks I have answers to everything. Yeah, riigghhhhtttt!!


I am not a consultant who has answers to anything and everything, not at all. I'm just a friend who is willing to sit down and listen to you and if there is any problem that needs solutions, than we will figure it out together as friends, not as 'consultant and client' like what Giri says.

So, dear peeps, need a pair of good ears that can listen to you no matter what the circumstances are? I'm here =)