marlz. daughter. sister. friend. cousin. girl. 1988. born to die.
torstaina, maaliskuuta 16, 2006
kota tinggi
and so kota tinggi came and went. i was truly quite nervous abt what i had to face and whether it would daunt me in its wake, but (yet AGAIN) my worrying was proven to be absolutely unwarranted. as if thats ever surprising.
so. went to school at quite an unearthly hour. left for kota tinggi. the bus itself was ok, though the ride was a bit bumpy, and i got pins and needles cos lisa was asleep on my lap.
the resort, was well, a resort. definitely NOT hotel material, but it sufficed. the view and the aircon was good, and the overall look outside was appealing. the same could not be said for the lack of lighting at night, the unavailability of potable water, and the humongous lizards that invaded our room in the middle of the night. but, the night went pretty ok for me, and i slept like a log after i saw lisa come in. i think i sprouted a few white hairs just worrying that something terrible might happen to her should she REALLY spend the night out, which she really looked determined to do. if she were my child, i would die young because i'm over-anxious (which is already common now).
the trek up the river was fine, despite my fear (how many times have i used this word already?) that i would not be able to handle it. after the first scramble over a log, there wasn't really anything that i wasn't able to overcome. we had mr chen scouting ahead for us, and on the way back i was even confident enough to walk ahead of the rest and help them over anything that came in our way.
the data collection was fun! we saw braided river and the slipoff slope, measured the river velocity, had numerous disputes over the reading on the clinometer, and laughed at dumb pond skaters that tried frantically to go against the current. some parts were really slippery and some parts deep. at one point i was even up to my chest in water, and i got back really drenched and with loads of sediment deposited in my shoes. i found out isabelle is afraid of butterflies. haha. i saw what kaolin looked like, saw a number of granite structures. as if i have not had enough of them already.
i got scratched up quite badly though, and had a hard time showering after that cos the scratches stung frm lack of attention and a good wash after i got out of the river. otherwise i think the trip to the river was super worth it. its true that there is a difference from just learning about such things on paper, and then seeing it. it makes things real, and you appreciate that you study geography.
the night and promised bbq dinner wasn't all that great. i gave up on food halfway partly because i didn't feel hungry and then because the food wasn't making me feel hungry at all. quite unappetizing. playing games was fun! played that miniature soccer table thingamagummy with nallu, kenneth, shazana, sarah and well, a whole load of people, as well as mrs chua's children. was very funny until we realized that dianne, shazana, nallu and lisa had disappeared, so we hiked up to find them.
then onwards i just got freaked out. first, as we were climbing up, we had to walk down this really deserted path to get to the table tennis room where they were situated. i kept hearing this noise of footsteps behinds me, so i quickened my pace, and pressed against sarah and diana so that they walked faster. then i just couldn't take it anymore and i overtook them. so we finally reached the door (which was positively narrow) and stopped to look in. i heard a scream, panicked, thought that they saw something behind me, and i screamed. and then i realized that we were all screaming, but nothing had happened.
this is going to be such an anti climax. what we were screaming about was really because of the fact that they didn't hear us coming and were talking about something unnatural walking through the door through which we came. and then we appeared, gave lisa and nallu a huge shock, who gave shaz and the others a good shock, which gave me a shock cos i really thought there was something unnatural behind me. after that we were all paranoid. the room was old, the windows creaky, nallu was teasing, and even the fans were spoilt.
i was so scared to walk to my own room, which unfortunately, was right at the top of all the other rooms, which meant a long walk in darkness. thank goodness for mrs chua, was a darling and accompanied us to our room, and even put up with us coming to disturb her and her family for antiseptic spray in the middle of the night. bunking with diana and lisa was fun, and i dare say we got along quite well except for when we were trying to wake lisa up.
so the night passed (mozzies and all). a clear morning came, with which came the terrible task of waking lisa up. we eventually succeeded by setting mrs chua's two children on her, who petrify her so much, she jumped out of bed screaming. breakfast, which for me wasn't that great, except for coffee. and then the best part came, which was the waterfall.
the water was so nice and cold, and deep. i cut the sole of my foot on some sharp rock, which i've only discovered now. the waterfall itself was delightful, and, i felt, there was too little time to be there. i should have liked to play in the water for a much longer time.
and then it was pack up time, and the trip to mr chen's out of town development. seriously, mr chen is super corny. he's worse then mr collin. i to think i thought that was bad. he and heat capacity formula. bleah. we had lunch at some nice restaurant and the food was very nice. got myself and cap and then we came home.
can safely say that i came home all smiles, cuts, bruises, muscle aches and all.
marlz
3/16/2006 12:40:00 ip.