heaven knows

And then R.AGE is over!

Yesterday, a whole bunch of us UTARians went to Ipoh to participate in R.AGE organized by The Star. It was hot!! Like blazing hot. All of us got at least a certain degree of burn. Well, we thought of just going there for fun. Most importantly is the fun part...don't want to worry bout the rest 1st. The games reflected the things people in Ipoh do in the olden days for a living. There was making the soy milk, cleaning bean sprouts, calculating using abacus, home building, pulling some carts, getting water the old fashioned way and mining for tin. You would think that all those would be easy...but it wasn't.

My group started off with the soy milk extracting. We had to pound the soy beans to get them juice out. Which was....so little and crazy. Plus, we spilled the water that we were supposed to add in to get more "juice". So yeah...we had a hard time. Then, we cleaned bean sprouts. Goodness, now I pity those people who clean bean sprouts everyday. It's not complicated but its very very time consuming.

After that, we went on to calculating with abacus (Back To Basics). Ok...the concept of the game differed slightly from the original way of using abacus. But, it was easy to master for those who remembers how to use the abacus...like me. Haha. And...to my surprise...some people's maths are even worse than mine although I'm rusty after so long of not using maths. How much is 13-6?? Do you get 4?? Swt big time.

And then, we mined for tin using some super huge plates a.k.a. "dulang". Obviously, mining it would be from the sand, and the sand would be filled with water as well. Sigh...We had to hold up the huge plate which wasn't light and find for the awfully small tins. And so, because I was standing on the end where the water flows down into the bucket, my pants was filled with mud water >< Yeah, I was incharged of pushing down excessive water and sand.

Hmm....building the house was ok. My group was the only group that managed to build finish the houses in the time given. Wootz~!! Pulling the carts wasn't that easy as the name sounds. All the girls were sitted in the cart n the guys had to pull them across a given distance and the wheels of the cart can not touch the groud. It had to go on planks. So, I was the only girl whose role was to shift the planks and not sit in the cart. And, there was a time, one of the wheel almost ran over my finger. Swt...It would have been gone if it really ran over my finger. Trust me.

Ok. So the preliminary round was over and we had lunch and waited for the results as to who's group goes into the finals which will be in Papan, Ipoh. My initial thinking was that we might not be the ones going. And then, they announced that my group was one of the top 3. Woah...happy d. And then, we were put in comparison to the beige team. Suspense.....and we got to go to the finals!!! It was crazy!!

I was hoping all the way that we won't have to enter or even pass by house No. 2. Go find out online why I said so.. When the bus was driving near the cemetary, me and my friends were saying, "don't tell me we're stopping in front of the cemetary". And we really did....right opposite of it. Omg...swt.

In Papan, we were split again into smaller groups of 10 people. Our task was to create a presentation out of the things that we learn with the task given to us then. And so, we split up into pairs to go handle the tasks given and gathered back at around 5.30pm to do a compilation of everything and prepare for the presentation. We went back to the Casuarina hotel where there was dinner waiting for us. It was good...hehe. I enjoyed the tiger prawns the most =D Anyways, so each group had to do their presentation. My group did a lot of impromptu stuff which I helped incorporate in between. Looking at all the otehr groups, we decided that it was ok if we didn't win. The experience was good. Then, they announced that my group was top 3. Whoa!! I went from a non-responding brain to a fully operational brain...for like few minutes. Then it malfunctioned again due to fatigue. Lol.. And then, the 3rd place was announced. It wasn't us!!! And so...we got 2nd place out of the whole race!! Wootz~!! Unfortunately, we missed the 1st prize which had free handphones for all the group members. But nevermind, 2nd place is good as well.

It was truly great although we came back seriously, awesomely tired. I can still feel its effects till now. Yeah, I was in hibernation till about like 5pm just now. Am grateful that my teammates were very nice and fun people. Got to mix well with all the girls although I was the oldest there. Sad that we had to leave cause we can't joke around the dinner table anymore but grateful we left cause I really had no energy anymore. All in all, the experience was awesome. Never would have gotten to know so much about Ipoh and also the town Papan if it wasn't for R.AGE. Plus, we came back winners with money...of course happy what =p