So on the 13th of August 2008, I checked into the girls' dormitory of Columbia Int. College, which is called the Linden Hall. My roommate, who has already been here for quite some time, is back in Malaysia for holiday and has not yet arrived, so it's pretty lonely in there. It's nothing special, but it has a homey feel and I like it.
The next day, aha- is the orientation. Truthfully speaking, someone from CIC (wink wink, you!) told me that orientations are so boring you numb your butts off, so I was a little skeptical. Much to my surprise, it was pretty great. The teachers are cute, the school is exactly what I hoped it would be, and most importantly - oh the diversity! In this school, you can see every shades of skin, hear every different language, catch the different accents.
During orientation, the teachers/guides let us play games to get everyone to know each other. There were many groups, like one for Spanish, Chinese, English and all that. At first I wasn't sure if there would be an English group, so when they announced for the Mandarin speakers, I wanted to join in - but my parents were waving like mad, practically screaming NO!! WAIT FOR ENGLISH! ( I know my chinese ain't that good, blueks!)
They made us play games that required us to communicate without talking. Like the first one - they made a circle with a rope and wanted us to move and stand in order of our birthdays WHILE HAVING THE ROPE BETWEEN YOUR LEGS AT ALL TIMES. Everyone were hmmpph-ing and ahh-ing, pointing fingers at each other, and trying to move around in line. Someone actually did a leapfrog too!
I learned pretty much about respecting other cultures and stuff as well on that day. In our last activity of the first day, Mr Freddy made us all find someone and introduce ourselves, then exchange our similarities and differences. Then he set us in groups like Weight, Height, Religious belives, Hometown, Language and all these. After that, he had us go to a group which we'd been made fun of before and talk about it. I'm so surprised that many of these cool, confident kids talked about facing racism, shunned, worried about the way they are and being poked fun of.
Apart from that, it's pretty funny that many people would ask me (there are two malaysians this term) "Ah! Malay can speak Chinese?!" Then I'd go like "HAHA! No, i'm just a Malaysian Chinese, and yes- we can speak Chinese.", and alot of Africans and some of the Westerners would ask, "Huh! You are a chinese but you can speak English!"
One thing fantastic about being a Malaysian, is that you can speak many languages and it's a plus to be able to understand what many people are saying.
Today's the second day of orientation and we had to take an English and Math placement test. The thing that frustrates me the most is, the maths test which is supposedly super-easy has defeated me. Not because I don't know it,BUT because I have finished my SPM a long time ago and i've donated every single academic book away. I hope they won't place me with the lower forms! GRR!!!
They brought us on a tour to a few nice tourist spots in Hamilton and we had loads of fun. I'm glad I came to Canada, it's certainly a lovely place.
Currently I have friends of Singapore, Indonesia, China, Africa, Nigeria and Canada. Everyone is nice! Will any Russians, Mexicans and HongKong peoplel step in please? Wakakaka!
I'll post some photos later, keep reading!
No comments:
Post a Comment