I was away officially from 16 October to 17 December to participate in the Ship for Southeast Asian Youth Program. The objective of this program is mainly to promote cultural understanding amongst the ASEAN and Japan youths. I was the Assistant Youth Leader (equivalent to assistant team leader) for the contingent of 28 members. Although we are all youth participants, we still have a guardian: National Leader. One of the responsibilities of National Leader is to make sure all participants return to our room by 10.59 pm! Yes, we do have curfew every night. =(

During this program, we visited Japan, Philippines, Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam. The main transportation for this program is a ship. Yes, I have been travelling on a ship for the past two months. Cool right? On board, there were a various of activities for the participants, who are commonly referred as participant youths aka PYs. Activities are usually the discussion group, cultural activities and team building activities (which is known as Solidarity Group). The activity that we all look forward to (I think) every night is the Cultural Performance night performed by each contingent. We called this event the National Presentation Day or NDP in abbreviation. This night is where PYs introduce their culture to other PYs.

To cut the story short, here's my daily (almost) diary on the ship for 2 months! (Advance apology because the entries date ares not in order).

22 October 2011
We called the rain?!

25 October 2011
Jalan-jalan (goofing)

26 October 2011
The audience

27 October 2011
Hakodate Ikuzo! (Hakodate, here I come!)

28 October 2011
tu tu tu tu ru ~ tu tu tu tu ru ~
Just begun
Hakodate Homestay!

30 October 2011
Last bloom

31 October
In the name of love!

3 November 2011
Yokohama Tower
Mailbox

4 November 2011
Cabin mates

5 November 2011
A little crazy thing called Love

6 November 2011
It's a squid! It's a ika! It's AYL!

10 November 2011
Someone like you~

11 November 2011
Fashion statement
Wrong side, darling!
Hey!

12 November 2011
Stomach's call

13 November 2011
Awesome!
Love and Party

14 November 2011
It's a NEED.
ZzzZZzz

15 November 2011
Can we?

16 November 2011
Information counter

17 November 2011
beach of memories
Black.Out

18 November 2011
Breakfast at peak

19 November 2011
leaving without u
me ain't pet!

23 November 2011
Waiting for you

24 November 2011
Mini Bali
Oxygen pls!!

25 November 2011
Sweet dreams~

28 November 2011
ring ring~
Lovely~
Fire job

29 November 2011
Balik rumah!! (Going home!)
My home
Dinner list

30 November 2011
Kaimono Ikimasu! (Shopping!)

1 December 2011
Tadaima~ (I'm home~)

2 December 2011
Message!

3 December 2011
My sweet valentine

4 December 2011
Reward!
The last laughter

7 December 2011
Fireworks

8 December 2011
Smiles Always

9 December 2011
Just for u~

10 December 2011>
Kicking A**
tembak!

11 December 2011
I want it la~

12 December 2011
I got talent!

14 December 2011
Room 5XX
1... 2... 3...

16 December 2011
Bye!
Feeling lucky!
Where's ur mama?!

17 December 2011
Back!

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In the SSEAYP program, the participants were allocated to 12 teams with a mixture of participants from other contingents. I was assigned to the I team. These teams are called Solidarity Group, SG, in short. My team is called the SG-I. What a coincidence that SG-I is also the abbreviation of my international organisation.

Anyways, back to my entry.

There were a lot of activities on board for the participants, and everyone needed to participate. But you know what? There were always ways not to participate in them. Aha. But being a role model to my team members, I participated in every thing except ... Ok ... not sharing on that ...

One of the activities organised for the SG members was SSEAYP Got Talent. It sounded interesting indeed except it has a twist. The requirements were ... sigh ... every member needs to participate and the members have to create a dance that has modern and traditional dance moves of a particular country (according to draw). And guess what? My team got Thailand.

Our team had three Thai members, and two of them choreographed the dance for SG-I. Our dance had two categories: first part is contemporary and second part is modern. We learnt the first part in 30 minutes - 3 days before the competition. And then the second day we learnt the rest. We kept telling each other not to dance well because we do not want to win. If we won, then we would have to dance again on the following day. And that's exactly we do NOT want!

So when the competition day arrived ... we all danced without thinking of winning. We in fact had a lot of mistakes, but nevertheless we had fun on the stage amidst of the rocky waves. I lose my balance while dancing not to mention my partner kept on stepping on my foot!

We knew some SGs practiced very hard and even dressed up for the competition, and my SG was the most laid back. So we knew indefinitely we are NOT gonna win... so we were fooling around and joking and even sleeping at the hall. I was ... running back and forth from my room to the hall to do my laundry and to prepare some xmas gifts until I heard the emcee announced ....

the Winner is SG-I!!!

I think my SG was dumbfounded. Seriously. I was like 'WHAT???!! What went wrong?? We did everything not to win! Not to dress up and not to dance perfectly!" And yet we won. SG-I is just amazing I guess. We won after just practicing for 3 days, while other groups had been practicing day and night.

I guess my SG happened to have wonderful dance teachers.



You can try spotting me. =)

Yes ... SG-I did dance again the following night, but three of my team members including myself didn't because we were involved in some activities that prevented us from performing. I actually regretted for not being able to perform that night, because that would be my last performance to date.

Actually, in retrospect, I found joy dancing with my team members in this program. All this while, I performed not because I want to but I was expected to. Maybe if I were asked to perform next time, I might say yes? But that would be from my choir group when they don't have enough members. BWAHAHAAH. Who knows...

But you know what? I don't think I have stage fright anymore. Oh well, we shall see. I would definitely say NO again to my boss to emcee my annual event.

I will tell you why I didn't get to dance my last dance if I could find a relevant picture. Hope you guys like the video. SG-I got talent!

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This picture is taken during my flight from Tokyo to Malaysia with MAS on 16 December 2011 (after the completion of my program). The guy beside me was one of my team members who was in charge of choreographing all the dances we had in every port of call throughout the SSEAYP program.

Just wanna ask you guys a question: How old do you think I am by looking at this picture?

That is because something very funny happened during my trip either before or after this photo was taken. The plane was freaking cold so I requested the stewardess for a glass of white wine. She looked at me with a pause. I thought she could not hear me because my voice was hoarse due to my sore throat. So I repeated for a glass of Chardonnay. Then she asked me with wide eyes if I'm underage. I replied with a blank look. And she repeated the question for the second time. I heard the question just fine, but I was weighing the risks of shooting a sarcastic reply (of course, I cannot shoot since I was still a youth delegate representing Malaysia). The guy beside me also went gag, and I think he could sense me somewhat boiling tactfully replied that I'm not underage.

After getting my drink, we both just laughed at the stewardess conduct. What kind of question was that?! I really wanted to shoot "Do you want to see my passport?". If I were not wearing my formal attire, trust me, I would have done that.

Later, I heard another team member also received the same question. Ugh. With dumber explanation: If he gets the white/red wine, then she has to serve everyone. What?! The stewardess didn't make sense at all when they have a list of passengers on board.

Oh well, I will just enjoy the compliment of looking like an underage while I still can!

PS: Oh ... I didn't realise I can draw my eyebrow that well. No wonder my cabin mate didn't want to draw for me whenever I requested!

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For the fun of it, I got Artemis!

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A friend who organised a party for all assistant team leaders during my journey threw me a question: what is the craziest thing you have done for love/ you would do for love?

I don't have an answer because I have never done anything like that before. So I just said "Nothing."

But now I feel like asking him that question. I don't know why him, but I'm just curious.

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This photo is taken on the 8 December 2011 at 3 pm-ish. This picture will be very memorable to me because mostly everyone on board was having sea sick and I were on the ship deck enjoying my cup of Milo in solitary until my friends joined me. The waves on that day were so rough, and coincidentally I was so irritated that I could just scratch anyone near me. That's simply because I have not had spent time with myself. And when the organiser had a free day (no activities day) for all the participants on board, I was looking forward to enjoy the sea breeze and the rocky waves, but responsibilities kept me on my toes. Whatever, as usual, renaye did her own way, which is to enjoy her day, and suffer later. BWAHAHA.

By the way, renaye did get sea sick on that date because she was busy typing some letters and preparing some Xmas gift on the computer. Luckily, I recovered from my seasick within 30 mins after taking the seasick medicine.

Lesson learnt: Never ever try reading or typing when you are riding on the rough waves.

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