Singapore In Pictures

Just last weekend, I was in Singapore to participate in the Singapore Debate Open, my first international tournament. Our bus left at 7.30 a.m. in the morning on Friday morning and we didn't arrive in Singapore 'til around 12.30 p.m. The tournament didn't start 'til Saturday, so we still had half a day to spend as tourists as opposed to debaters.

First things first, we gotta find a place that sells halal food for lunch after a strenuous Friday morning bus journey...

Brother Latiff (our head trainer - on the left) knows this place in Little India that sells Bangladeshi food.

They serve really good mutton.

It was pretty good. According to Brother Latiff, it's ALMOST like the food from back home. (He's from Bangladesh. Go figure.)

Afterwards, we got back to our hotel to refresh and prepare ourselves for our afternoon tour of the city. Camwhore!

That's me and Asyraf. He was my team captain for the Royal Intervarsity Debate Competition held the week before.

Me and Arinah, someone I consider as the big sister of the group. She was the one who took the picture of me and Asyraf.

Once we had enough of our break, it's time to hit the streets!

Some of them have really weird names. For instance:

Me, Habib, Khadijah & Arinah.

But the fun part was the bazaar on Bugis Street. Super crowded, hectic and chock full of knick knacks. Didn't buy anything though (not very surprising considering the exchange rate).

Asyraf with Tasneem, a senior debater. She'll be going to the World Debate Competition in Turkey at the end of this year. Rock on!

Super-cute T-shirts. Would probably find cheaper versions in KL. Anyone know where to find 'em here?

Notice how that sign is right above Habib's head.

Look! Something we'd never find in a Malaysian bazaar!!!

So we went inside. Us girls got freaked out by the *ahem* 'sizeable' expectations (interpret that however you will) they had on sale and quickly went out.

After scoping out Bugis Street, we decided to continue on with our journey.

This time, Arinah's cousin, Adila - in the middle - who was in S'pore too, decided to join us.

A view of the mosque at Arab Street. Arinah's the model, Asyraf's the photographer.

Me & Tasneem.

Really cool triangular building. Lily, do you know it's name?

The view from behind the Fullerton Hotel. Unfortunately, I didn't take any shots of the Fullerton Hotel, which is an absolutely beautiful building by the way.

Another view from behind the Fullerton Hotel.

We went to a bunch of other places after that - like the church where we had an old lady try to convert us to the way of Jesus; we wanted to go to a synagogue as well but ran out of time - but by then my camera got a bit schizophrenic so I temporarily stopped taking pictures for the day. When I get some more pictures, I'll be sure to share them here.

Come competition day, I was too preoccupied to keep taking pictures. But I did take this one. Lily? Are you reading this? You might find this one particularly interesting...

The one on the left is Kamal. The one on the right is Zuhri. Yes, I know Zuhri looks weird here. It ain't my fault that he decided to pull a face when I took this shot! He has better pics, I promise you. Those lucky ducks got selected for the international comptetition in Turkey. If only Kamal didn't rank higher than me, then I would be the one flying off to Turkey next week. Haih.

Needless to say, my partner, Shafiq and I didn't manage to break into the quarter-finals. We had a good run though. However, team Tasneem and Ervina (another trainer) managed to qualify. It was an open debate, so even trainers could participate. They even managed to get into the finals! Sadly in the end, they lost out to NUS's Ashok and Sathya (I hope I spelled his name right) even though many people thought Tasneem and Ervina should've won, I kid you not.

Here are the motions:

(Prelims)
Round 1: THW ban singles from becoming parents
Round 2: THW punish poachers and traders of endangered species in the same way as murderers
Round 3: THW cap executive compensation for all publicly listed companies
Round 4: THBT the United States should support and recognise a unilateral declaration of independence by the Palestinian Authority

Quarters: THW establish a quota for parliamentary elections for candidates under the age of 35
Semis: THBT the Western world should intervene in support of the student-led protests in Iran
Finals: THW ban parents from indoctrinating their children with their religion

THW = This House Would
THBT = This House Believes That

Anyway! I'm getting ahead of myself here. The quarters, semis and finals didn't happen 'til Sunday. On Saturday night, Ervina, Asyraf, Arinah and myself decided to celebrate Ervina's break in to quarters by feasting on chilli crabs! (We also wanted to make it up to her for not having dinner at Maxwell Street food court the night before - too much pork served there)

Introducing the Chilli Crabs from a restaurant at Geylang!

Sedap. Sangat sedap.

Are you drooling yet?

(Pay no attention to my antics in this second video.)

Yes, the crab did not die in vain at all.

Oh, yes. It was fun.

Alas, our trip ended on Sunday evening with the announcement of the champions and promised Facebook invitations. As a closing to this short but memorable escapade, we took a stroll along Orchard Road - with our suitcases in tow. What to do?! We already checked out of the hotel in the morning!!!

Yes, I know it's blurry.

'Til my next post, bye all! :)

UiTM IV

During this past weekend, from the 10th to the 11th of October, I participated in the UiTM intervarsity debate competition. Using the British Parliamentary format (the gist: one debate consisted of four teams of two debaters each- two government teams vs. two opposition teams), we debated on hot topics such as the 1Malaysia F1 Team and the Taliban. For the debate, I partnered with my coursemate Zuhri, whereas my previous partner from the MMU Ramadhan IV, Shafiq, partnered with Kamal, a Med. student. I'd show you pics, but I didn't take any. xD

For the competition, all teams had to participate in the four preliminary rounds, after which team points would be added up and the top-16 teams would move on to the knockout rounds.

The motions for the preliminary rounds were:

This House Believes That Western Liberal Democracies should ban the use of face veils.
This House Would Arm Local Militias To Fight The Taliban
This House Would Not Support the 1Malaysia F1 Team
This House Would Legalize Porn That Depicts Rape

For the finals, the motion was:

This House Would Do Away With Vernacular Schools

(I can't remember the motions for the quarter-finals and the semi-finals. They had something to do with Israel and Iran's nuclear facility, and some other issue. :D)

I had an amazing time! Debate competitions are good avenues to develop your debating skills, network and socialise, as well as gain experience. All of which I feel I managed to do; especially since my input during the 15 minute prep has improved since my previous tournament and I finally don't feel like a social retard during tournaments. Hurrah!

The most memorable debate for me was definitely the 1Malaysia F1 debate. The reason it was so memorable was because we were totally beaten up and screwed by the other teams. Compared to them, our arguments were simplistic! The best parts were when our seniors from the main campus (Meor and Faiz), stood up to give their speeches. During their individual speeches, they were amazing and scathing to the point that we felt our intelligence level was super low.

Memorable, indeed.

In the end though, Zuhri and I didn't manage to pass through the preliminary rounds (sorry, Zuhri!). A UiTM team managed to come out as champions (although I thought the IIUM team should've won. I could be biased though. :D), which definitely pleased the home ground.

All in all, I had a good time. :) With one debate-filled weekend over, I'm now looking ahead to this coming weekend where the main campus will be holding selections for the Royal Malaysian Intervarsity Debating Championship. I'm hoping to at least qualify for the junior category.

Wish me luck! :D

Tripping Down Memory Lane

Two weeks in and I'm still struggling to keep up with the fast paced momentum of things here in Sri Hartamas. And by fast paced I'm not referring to the speeding Lexus that nearly ran me down as I crossed the road to college this morning, or how quickly the money in my wallet seems to evaporate these days.

I'm talking about work. Both the home- and house- variety. The tall piles of homework which I'm doing my best to enjoy and the immense amount of cleaning that I never even knew existed.

In the last two weeks, I've discovered that dirty dished don't magically do themselves, fried chicken rarely materialises on the dinner table, clothes almost never pick themselves up, and that after you withdraw money, viewing the diminishing balance in your bank account gets increasingly depressing.

Yes, life lessons all around for me.

But things aren't all bad. Today, I debated! And for those brief 6 minutes, the world was right again.

Unfortunately, feelings of nostalgia leave an aftertaste of longing. Post debate, I began to miss Lily and Atreyi (and Ken Ming and Zekey and Aiman!) more than ever. The 2008 debates were some of the most amazing experiences of my life.

But I have to live in the now; and my 'now' requires me to look forward and prosper. So I joined the TCSH (Taylor's College Sri Hartamas) debate club. Compared to Sunway's debate club, it's a relatively small family, but it's nice to be back in familiar territory again.

And so, with my mantra of clouds and lemonade, I'm soldiering on. =)