What an interesting week it was. It's 6 pm of Week 2 Day 1.
This entry will be about the first week of attachment with MinDef. The attachment itself is taking up lots of time, and I had only spent one day at home and then I had to go off to Miri, reason shall be revealed later.
I wrote a virtual diary on Notebook after each day, so the following entry is written on four different days.
Day 1
THANK GOD THERE IS INTERNET CONNECTION HERE!
Today was not too bad, a little slow though. We had two lectures by Dr Hamzah and Dr Fields, both giving us an introduction to the Ministry. But more interestingly, we got to move to our accomodation today!
We are living in a three different hotel rooms, two people, two people and three people in each room. I am staying with two other roommates. Good thing about that is we get the bigger suite with a living room, with the others just get plain rooms that are adjoined together. We all have TVs in our room with a few Astro channels, there weak wireless, but nonetheless, still connection. The hotel is in Seri, so we basically get to go walk around to restaurants, shops, department stores, supermarkets, a bowling alley, an (don't know when it will be open) arcade. Basically we have everything, including room service! Haha.
Anyway, it turns out that everyone of us HAVE to buy a new laptop. MinDef gives us money to buy a new laptop, but they don't hand us cash, we have to get reimbursement for the, within a budget, of course. So despite having a practically new laptop which I got early last year, I have to get another laptop. I am dreaming about a tablet, it's calling out to me in my sleep. It'll be easier for me since I'll be dealing with non-English characters.
Here are some pictures.
First lecture with Dr Hamzah on the role of MinDef.
Taking a break. We take lots of breaks in MinDef, and we eat a LOT!
Mabel and Shao Mei.
Husnul.
Me, Shao Mei, Azimah, Mabel, Zaidah, Husnul and Fatinah.
Us at our hotel, oh so excited.
Our bedroom in the suite, my bed is on the right, the other two share the double.
The living room.
Other side of the living room.
The other rooms, it was suppose to be our room until we moved into the bigger suite. I was taking a picture of the room and then Shao Mei jumped in a RUINED the shot, haha.
Day 2
First night of sleeping in the hotel and I slept like a baby! We were suppore to wake up at 5.30 am, but my roommates and I woke up at 5 am instead. Being bored and awake, we decided to run over to the other rooms and wake the others. All of the were fast asleep before we knocked at their door and made a lot of din. I guess we were excited about the attachment.
In the morning we went to visit the MinDef library. The library is very well stocked, bein considerably big and small. It's bigger than school libraries, but way smaller than the public libraries. Everything is so neat and orderly, I almost had an O moment, haha. Unfortunately, the books are not for leisure reading, most of them are journals, articles, books relating to serious issues, and no fiction and novels. So the books are mainly on politics, weaponry, warfare, medical issues, etc. Fortunately for me, there are two sections that I can go to, the Travel section and the Technology section. And there is also a Sports section, so that's a plus for some people.
What's great about the MinDef library is that the lending period is four weeks! And we can borrow up to five books. That a whole lot more than any schools. Oh so cool (for me, that is).
During lunchtime we had a great talk with Ms Susie (the person-in-charge of scholars). She talkes passionately about her cats, they sound oh so god damn adorable, with funny names like Chengmong, Orang Minyak and Ah Beng. We also found out that she's a single mother as she adopted an adorarable Thai baby! Very unlike typical Bruneian Malays.
In the afternoon we had sports with Captain Erwan. We went hiking at Tasek Lama. It was a struggle, and only my second time there.
We returned back to the hotel at about 4.30 pm, which is considerably early, in fact. We decided (or Shao Mei did) to head over to the nearby Indian restaurant for murtabak. After that we went shopping in Soon Lee. Grocery shopping for household items can be entertaining. We were on a tight money budget so we were having a hard time trying to decide what item to get and what to sacrifice. Grocery shopping can be entertaining, until it gets stressful.
The object of the attachment is to make us self-reliant. After only the second day of attachment, I can say that it is working. This is the first time I voluntarily did the laundry. Actually, we did a roster of different tasks each person was to do. Five of the girls are to collect our dinner at the end of each day for five days of the week. One girl had to job of being the wake up call, waking up every day at 5.45 am, and then waking everyone up. I had the task of doing laundry which I volunteered to do. Not something I would do everyday. The only time I ever did laundry was when my maid went back to Indonesia and my mom went to Korea for two weeks last year. Not fun. But at least I have a tiny degree of experience. So just now was the first load of laundry I did. Hopefully I won't ruin anyone's clothes. I did spend a lot of time looking for the perfect detergent, hehe.
Anyway, noone's clothes got ruined. And the dryer makes the clothes feel so warm and clean, so much fun!
Pictures of Day 2
Our first breakfast. Yes, we eat breakfast everyday at Charcoal!!! Haha. But it's not Charcoal food, just some small breakfast buffet.
A secret picture I took of the library while we were doing the quiz. Secret because no picture taking were allowed.
At Tasek Lama. *Grins at Shao Mei*
Our officers, Captain Erwan, Captain (?) Jayden (sp?) and Colonel (?) Radin.
Day 3
Today was all about lectures. In the morning, we had a lecture by Isma (sp?) about the different directorates of the Ministry. This was continued by Dr Hamzah who briefed us about the qualities of a leader. There was one quality in particular which I didn't have. Teamwork!!! Ugh, I can't stand working with other idiots.
Today is also the one year anniversary of SHHIB-IDSS, short for Sultan Haji Hassanal Bolkiah Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies, pronounced as Shi-Bits. The institute is actually the one dealing with the scholarship. So hurray for them, we had a little celebration with a cake, and MORE food. I'm telling you, at MinDef, we will never go hungry. That should be like their motto or something. We have breaks all the time!! But good news for me since I'm trying to gain weight.
PLEASE LET ME GAIN WEIGHT!
I am going to weigh myself the minute I get home.
In the afternoon we had another lecture by Ms Susie (anti-Johnny Bravo, pro-Tom and Jerry, haha) about MIB. I'm sure lots of people will look away once they hear the three letters of M-I-B. I was like that at first. But after I decided to pursue Oriental Studies, I am now more interested in Brunei's culture and language more than ever. And not to any disappointment, the lecture was interesting. MIB itself, despite having a rigid name base, is applicable to every single Bruneian, be them Chinese, Indians or Caucasians. MIB is basically just living harmoniously with the Malays, tolerating their beliefs and culture and even adapting them as our own.
Something else I learnt is that you don't have to be Muslim or Malay to get to a high rank, example, a Minister. Part of the clause says that you can be Malay or Islam, OR BRUNEIAN. So as long as you are Bruneian, no matter what race, you can reach the top. I am hopeful.
Talking about MIB, we started to sing the National Anthem, or tried to, haha. We were a little shaky at first, when we sung individually, but eventually got round to it. And then it was suggested that we said the lines sentence by sentence rather than sing the lines. THAT was the cruncher, haha. Try it.
Celebrating one year.
Our MIB talk.
Chocolate and bluberry cake. Fat fat fat!
Thin thin FAT thin!
Ms Susie herself trying out the challenge.
Day 4
Today's attachment included the juniors as well, so the office was cramped but lots fun still.
This morning we had a session on public speaking, i.e. oral presentation. For my practice speech I chose 'Health Awareness for Women of Brunei'. MinDef isn't all fun and games, we were given homework, next week we have to present on our course of choice, so that means a whole lot of research. Boring, yet character building, HAHA.
Noon time we went off to the Mall for the IT expo to shop around for new laptops. I saw a really pretty HP tablet, which I liked a lot, but then suddenly everyone was getting the same tablet. So, I changed my mind. Therefore I'm heading off to Miri tomorrow to look for more models. Hopefully I can find one I can fall in love with and dream about at night for a week.
Afternoon was sports, so we went off to Berakas Forest Reserve for a hike trip and then we played balloon by the beach. I never played balloon before (no, it doesn't involve any actual balloons, I don't even know why the game is called balloons). Then a tiny picnic.
We all get to go home today, and it's a prety good feeling to be back home in bed. Before we left, Shao Mei played a stupid prank on Mabel and Zaidah. First I went to Shao Mei's room to say that I was going home and call a bell boy to get my luggage. Suddenly Shao Mei grabbed the phone from me to call next door, Mabel's room. We actually requested for a basin a few days ago, which we haven't gotten, so Shao Mei said, 'Ma'am, your basin is ready, please collect it from the reception now.' And Mabel fell for it. Huge laughs, and it took her quite a while to figure it out.
I thought that it was such a waste that I didn't record it on my camcorder, so I told Shao Mei to pull the trick again to my roomies. So she did. And Zaidah picked up. We ran over to the outside to wait for her, but no show. Husnul went in to inspect and told us that Zaidah was eating, not going there till she finish.
So plan B. Shao Mei was to call Zaidah and 'force' her to go to the reception immediately. I was inside recording Zaidah picking the phone up, pretending to be recording the room. So funny, Zaidah took some time to get the prank as well.
And I recorded it all.
Oh, worst thing I found out, I will actually be celebrating my birthday in the JUNGLE!
God smacked in the middle of OBBD week (the week we go into the jungle without comforts we can't carry in a big ass backpack) is my birthday.
Oh my god.
Oral presentation practice with Dr Fields.
Getting ready to hike.
Hiking in the forest.
Berakaas Beach I think.
Playing balloon.
Me helping Shao Mei draw the line for the game.
Free Weekend
When I got home I really did weigh myself.
Hurray! That's almost 1 kg gained in a week!
Can't wait to weigh myself again after the end of Week 2. I'm going to EAT EAT EAT until I reach a perfect BMI.
And I went to Miri on Saturday and came back on Sunday. The trip was mainly to shop for a laptop, I was hoping that there would be more variety in Miri than then ones in Brunei. I didn't really go shop for a laptop (I shopped for a whole lot of other stuffs, hehe) since Miri sister's hubby said he'll look into a tablet from someone.
Apart from that I got to see Emma-dora and Elmo-den. In case you are wondering, Emma-dora is not my niece's real name, nor is Elmo-den for my nephew. Who the hell names their son Elmo?
Elmo-den is ever so cute. But since he's only a few weeks old, he doesn't do much. Once in a while he will open is eyes wide and then look around. Emma-dora on the other hand is ever so restless. Running around singing and dancing, making me burn my valuable, hard-eared carbs.
So, I'm thinking whether I should blog every week like this. It's so tiring! Compiling and editing the entries and photos for four days took me about four nights. Sigh.
Maybe I should just skip telling readers what happened and just skip straight to the complaints.
What do you say?
P.S. I'm to lazy to read the entry again, so please ignore grammatical and spelling errors.
