AYC, Day 4


30th July 2010


I was supposed to wake up early today. And as always, I didn't. 



But apparently, that didn't matter because neither did some other people. So after our morning preparations, all twenty of the Indonesia delegates and the other foreigners, climbed onto the AYC bus.

We headed to the Cedar Girls' Secondary School. Today was the day AYC would officially start. Today was the day for the opening ceremony.

Getting prepared for the ceremony, we sat in the plush auditorium (that's what they really call it!). The MCs for the occassion was a girl, who apparently never introduced herself and Uly (I'm a fan! I was practically jumping up and down in my seat everytime he came on stage) the public speaking trainer, who was sporting a sharp black tux. 



Speaking of looking sharp, our own Santa Laurensia uniforms were a bit modified. Instead of wearing those short green plaid pants, the boys were wearing long black pants. The look for everyone was also topped of with a nice black tie. 

Once I looked in the mirror, I could really see the difference. The elevated sense of style, the formality and maturity of the uniform. I wondered if the school would ever regulate this as the new school uniform. But it wasn't only the new look that startled me, but it was the person wearing it. It was me.

I couldn't exactly put my finger on it, but I looked different. Something about me had changed in the short span of 3 days. I felt different. I don't even remember when was the last time I saw that sparkle in my eyes that was shining brightly in the mirror that morning.

But if I had changed, would things stay this way once this was over? Would things really change? And for better or for worse?

The ceremony started with welcome adressed from Eileen Ng, the AYC chairperson; Mr Anselm Chu, the GYCi founder; and Mr Ong Keng Yong, the Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Then to commerate the start of the convention, us YDLs stood up and walked up to the front of the auditorium holding the flags of all 13 countries that make up the ASEAN+3.

This was followed by a Keynote Address by Mr Ong Keng Yong, who discussed more about ASEAN's development and issues. For us YDLs the presentation was, for the most part, similar to the presentation we received in the office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs building.

I was a bit sleepy, and most of the delegates fell asleep at some point (Even me! :P). But I learned more about the ASEAN Charter, the changes the Charter has brought and about ASEAN connectivity.

That presentation took up most of the morning, and was followed by a panel discussion with Mr Ong and Mr someone-who's-name-I'd-forgotten who was the Genderal Director of whatever-it-is.



After the discussion was closed and concluded, we had lunch in Cedar's cafeteria. Chicken, spring rolls, and noodles became a nice mix. But what happened or at least spun around in my thoughts, sort of set my mood off.

Well, I never tell personal stuff on this invisible blog, so I guess I'll leave you wondering. 

Let's skip to what happened after lunch. After changing into our sports clothes to be used later, everyone reassembled back into the auditorium. Now it was time for country presentations.

If you read my last post, you would know that we had very little time to prepare a presentation on the topic, "Can Asians Think?". I was the speaker and I was going in unarmed and improptu.

Luckily, they gave us 10 or so more minutes for us to prepare. I was going on stage with a guy named Adrian who was a delegate from Bandung. We sort of made a riot, cheering, "Indonesia" to drown out the sound of the numerous Singaporeans.

Dun dun dun (... hah?). Time was up, and Indonesia was going first. Hearing that made me think, "Yudhi is very bad at persuasion." and "WTF, I am so screwed!"

-___-

On the verge of freaking out, Yudhi said, "Maybe this means they think Indonesia is the most prepared." I could only hope that that was the case. Everyone else was very supportive, and wished me good luck before I went on stage. I felt a whole lot more confident as I climbed up the steps and on-stage.

Everyone clapped (a bit too vigorously for my ears) and though I laughed, the quickest response my brain comes up with to cope with nervousness, I finally dispelled all of my fear.

After a quick introduction of ourselves, me and Adrian said spontaneously, "And we are representing..."

"Indonesia!" went the upper left corner of the auditorium seats, filled with Indonesian delegates.

The crowd went wild again, and I started the presentation. I fumbled a bit in a few parts of the speech *sigh*. I finally trudged through the mess of words spilling out of my mouth, and though everyone said that I did a decent job, I emotistically kept critisizing myself.

I shouldn't have kept on mixing up saying, "Indonesia" and "Indonesian".

I shouldn't have been standing only on spot on the stage.

I shouldn't have made that long pause at the end of the speech. Then laughed as I hurriedly put it to a close.

Well, after the other presentations ended (they made mine look like an Epic Fail) we got into our personal groups to get to know each other with ice-breaking games. I was in the same group as Jeffry (si anak baik). And again it was a "wet day" all over again. Haha.

That was it for our day activities, and we changed into our "galavanting clothes" (as Yudhi kept on calling them) we started our night program, which for today was shopping at Suntec City.

We split up into a few groups and decided on a place to eat at. Then we had some free time to walk around at shop. I ended up hanging out with Evan, Edwin and Kenny. We went window-shopping, mostly comparing prices at electronics stores and Toys-R-Us. But their was one find from this shopping trip.



A Woody (not Woodpecker, but from Toy Story) doll.

Well, not the real, cloth rag-doll one. It had a weird stitched on face, and no beady, glassy eyes. But since it's hard to find any kind of Woody doll on the first place, it was worth buying.

I showed the doll to everyone. Well, the girls noticed and asked to see what it was. The boys looked at me like I was crazy, laughing while I shook the doll in their faces. 

Evan kept on asking to hold the doll. He said and I quote, "Lucu jg ya bonekanya, buat gw dong Kar."

Nyahaha. Yudhi: "Hey, a Woody doll. You wrote about that doll almost every time on your blog."

Suffice to say, I can die happy now. Singapore has given me a lot to be thankful about. A wonderul experience so far, 4 novels from Kinokuniya (Artemis Fowl 7, Hero.com book 3, Infinity and Peterpan and the Starcatchers), and a Woody Doll.

Let's hope there's more to come.

--Karin Novelia

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