The Japanese vs The Malaysians

this post is kinda outdated, and couldn't have come at a later time...sorry for the delay...haha..i was feeling lazy past few days...but here i am to tell u the story of once upon a time when students of KITASENRI HIGH SCHOOL visited SEKOLAH SERI SURIA~

The Beginning

Looking like a bunch of bright-eyed juniors who couldn't wait to meet their superior seniors, we queued up obediently in the Hall of Character while excitedly awaiting the arrival of our guests...
Once the buses chartering the Japanese students arrived, there was a sudden air of silence and anticipation as the Kitasenri students trodded up the stairs of the hall...

I was in the third row of the line that we had made to welcome the japs, and I raised my head curiously to see which "lucky" Japanese girl will i be "buddying" for the day. It was Misaki Tatsumi, a typical Jap girl, shorter than me, but nevertheless looking more mature than me ==
she seemed very shy and afraid to follow me at first, than i escorted her to the seats and then i asked set wern silently, what do we do now? Seriously, I was as scared as Misaki, who was in foreign territory, although this is the not the 1st time i have been a "buddy" to a Jap student. So i just remained silent, hurriedly thinking of what to speak to Misaki, finally I introduced myself and asked for her name. She whispered "misaki" and then i asked her to fill in the form that i've been handed, the "ice-breaking" form..and I filled up hers. Then, I just smiled awkwardly at her, dont know what to say, and then I saw Rose speaking fluently and enthusiastically with her buddy, felt so ashamed. My buddy was really shy, so we didn't speak much. Just once in a while,she would excitedly tell me something in Japanese, which obviously I do not understand. *sighs* but i think we did okay, compared to swee pheng's one who is unable to utter a single word of English. Poor Swee Pheng.

Took few pictures with her. The pics are with Steph, her modem struck by lightning or something, tsk tsk, so unable to post the pics now. i am so obviously not photogenic, while the Japs are well-known for their photogenic-ness. i also took pics with Yeng Ze's buddy, she's a really cute and sweet girl. looks a little like sher yi. She's really friendly, keep smiling at me. Wanted to take pics with Rose's buddy, so leng lui, but dont know it just didn't happen.

Before the official ice-breaking session, Mrs Olive and The Kitasenri's Principal (forgot his name) delivered their opening speeches. By that time , my form was almost filled up already(and they told us to leave the forms for the ice-breaking session).At 1st nobody asked my buddy Misaki to fill up their form or vice-versa, so I quickly made the move and asked Kar Lin who was sittin in front of me whether she wants Misaki to fill up her form.


The Activities

Misaki was chosen to be in "kompang". So i walked with her to Block B, where the kompang activity was held. En. Khalid and the school's Kompang group were there to teach the Japs how to play a kompang. A few form fives were in my group also, Wei Yi, Swee Pheng, Wai Weng and Chun Yew. They taught the Japs simple rhythmic beats and then let them practised awhile. That time me, Swee Pheng and Wei Yi were feeling very bored and we were afraid that our buddies would be thinking, what a boring school! So then we tried in vain to teach them Rasa Sayang, one girl said she heard it before, but they couldn't sing it, so nevermind. Then the teacher asked if they wanted to play sepak takraw, the girls said no, perhaps afraid of the blistering sun, the boys said okay. I spotted a L-lookalike (L from Death Note) playing sepak takraw outside. I assumed that those were the japanese equivalents of American jocks , you could see that most of the gang were good-looking, in a boyish kind of way, not macho, cos they were all too skinny. The L-lookalike was skinny ,but cute nevertheless. And we just kept looking at them playing sepak takraw while we stood there like assistants to our buddies ( we are holding their bags and stuff for them) .

before lunch, me , Swee Pheng and Wei Yi took our buddies on a classroom tour, cos there was just few mins left, and we wanted to kill time, so we just took a short trip to the third floor and then blah some facts about Malaysian education system to them, they just nod nod, dont really know they understand or not or just being polite.

Finally, Lunch

Took our buddies down to canteen.A buffet has been prepared for this occasion ,and unsurprisingly, consisted most of Malaysia's most common delicacies, like karipap. seriously, i've never liked the karipap, but Misaki was keen on it, she shunned the colourful layered kuihs. There was a lonnnnnnnggg queue at the main course section, and then me and Misaki just lined up silently, again, I don't know what to say to her. No connection of heart gua (xin lin xiang tong).
Just took the food and then went to the tables. She immediately spotted her friends and since there were no more places left, so I told her i would be sitting at another table, and asked her to wait for me there. So I went and sat with Min Yee and Michelle. Min Yee's buddy was cute, she was real tall and short hair, but she politely obliged to try every food that we suggested. She even asked why my tie(which is black) is different from Min Yee 's and Michelle's. How dare u Michelle, suggest that I'm 'special student" ? lol, i told her im a prefect, and she huh? then i said i help the teachers to jaga the students , she huh-ed even more. Luckily later, Rose came along with her bulky Jap dictionary, and we checked the Jap word for prefect and told her, and then she went"ohhhhh...."

Got away with chatting with Min Yee's buddy, I somehow lost Misaki, she must've gone up with her friends to the hall. So I searched high and low for her, found her sitting quietly in the hall. So ke lian, haha felt so guilty. The performance started soon after that, starting with the Japs 1st.guest 1st huh? A few jap girls (maybe from their school's dance club) performed to Gimme More, and then there were two jap girls who did hip-hop, and their "cromping" (a hip-hop term for shaking your body -dunno correct or not) was nice. Then the karate people did their kicks and punches, and u could hear the sound of air being hit, like whoosh! We just stared in awe. All black belts wehh. Then they did a traditional dance from Hokkaido or something, if im not mistaken. And asked us to chant along with them. "dokosyo dokosyo! sura sura!"
After that a Jap guy sang the Jap version of "if-ur-happy-and-u-know-it-clap-ur-hand".
Then their Kitasenri Idol, or so ppl say, sang a Japanese version of a familiar song. (dunno what title again). I think that is Seki.

Surians turn now, the Dance Club performing to PCD's When I Grow Up, its a raunchy song, so naturally the performance involved alot of booty-shaking, lol. Then a fashion show, where the students paraded the traditional costumes of Malaysia, seriously, it bored me a lil' they kept parading the same clothes over again. Then Salwa, the emcee announced that there would be one last surprise performance that was not listed in the schedule. Out came Penny and her crew. I think if not mistaken,they performed the same dance as the one they did during Teachers Day.
After the performances, it was time to say sayonara, I half-thought that my buddy was relieved to escape my presence, she left very quickly, just said a brief goodbye, but I saw some and their buddies, close to tears aww how touching. So i just took some pics with Kah yerng's buddy (who's real pretty-the guys were practically fighting over themselves to take a pic with her), Set's buddy and dunno who else. And i managed to get Misaki's email and home address before she left, promised that I would send a letter, but she tak ada response *sighs*. hmm, see la, if i have the time to write a letter to her. xP

and all the Surians came out to the terrace of the hall and bade goodbye to the Japanese as they were leaving in their buses.. Some looked like they were going to miss us, others just didn't bother to look our way. ish.

and so the story ends here. This is our (form fives) last yr of high school, so no more jap students exchange program to take part in..how sad..but still, this gave us an experience that we would cherish forever...