It’s been about 2 weeks since I last updated. In that time…
Stuff happened.
The last week especially was so exhausting. Everyday of the week was pure torture. First I’d wake up in the morning, 6am to get ready for school. In school, it’s nonstop studying as usual. But it felt more… tiring after the holidays somehow. It’s as if during the holidays, I turned off the studying mode, but didn’t turn in back on for school. So go to school, learn, and come home. That’s when the trouble really starts. Homework of course is the major one… if you read other 5M blogs, you’d notice how much complaining of homework we do. Well, they’re not wrong to whine. This week particularly there was a huge bunch we had to finish. Worst of it was the moral PEKA which has taken us about 3 months (and hours of actual work) to finish, only for teacher to add on more things to do and finish. Then there’s BM Lisan for SPM. I happened to have done most of the work… T.T Seriously I hope some other people pull their weight in future projects. Essays, mind maps and just plain homework rounds up the rest. And all these in just 5 days. It really was mind-boggling.
So I come home after a tough day in school, and I feel sleepy. The sleep I had was just not enough to last a full drowsy school day. At home, I invariably fall asleep. That last about 1-2 hours. Then I wake up, sometimes I have tuition. Otherwise I’d be working on the graphics for lisan (I’m proud of my work on that one) or doing &*^@#%(&! Moral. Essays also take up so much of my time… my perfectionist attitude means I take about 2 hours for one karangan at home, and maybe about 1.5 hours for English essays. Always there’s some work I don’t do, but not because I’m lazy, it’s because it’s about midnight and I hate coffee. So I sleep.
Repeat from “First I’d wake up in the morning,…” for the next 3 days. For Friday, I don’t do homework… play time :D
It was indeed a tough week, but the blame can be spread around. Part of it was my fault, for not completing Moral during the holidays. Part of it is my classmates fault, for such half-hearted work on the projects. Part of it is the teachers’ fault (isn’t it always?) for giving so much to do. Especially Moral. Stop giving last minute work!
Ahhhhhhhhhhhhh. It’s now the weekend, but part of it is over. I’m typing this at about 2am on my sister’s computer. My computer is probably broken. It turns on sometimes, it stays off other times. Hopefully it’d be fixed soon, but at least I’ve had time to work on other homework for the coming week. Although it shouldn’t be as tiring as this one (again, because of Moral).
What else? Ah yes, Earth Hour. The one event which everyone has been abuzz about. The one hour where everyone turns off their lights. They then promptly turn it back on after the hour, thinking to themselves, “Well we did our part, time to return to our normal lives.” To be fair, the organizers do plan for people to change their views on global warming and energy wastage. They encourage people to change. I do think however that this campaign is not going to be effective in Malaysia because of… Malaysians. Enough said.
But anyways we celebrated EH. Lights off, we went outside into the streets to enjoy the night air. That’s about it. Not as dull as it sounds though. I have video of this event, I’ll upload once my computer returns.
One more thing, River Rangers. A much better campaign, it had a much bigger impact on people. Here’s a rough idea of what happened:
Day 1. We went to school for our training. I endured a 2 hour briefing which I will now summarize in its entirety:
The rivers in Malaysia are dirty! Clean water is imporatant! Don’t pollute! Here’s what we will do: test using chemicals, rate rivers from 1-10 and look for animals!
That it took 2 hours to say that really amazed me.
Then we went to Sungai Penchala. Or rather, the source of the river. Turns out it was ridiculously near my house, up Kiara Park. At the source, we drank some actual river water. I still am not dead yet, so I presume the water was clean enough. We walked down a small path following the river and soon we ended up at a area big enough to fit the 40+ students split into 3 groups. Then we did the tests, blah blah blah. Verdict: Pretty good!
Then we went back. Originally we were to go to some other river (I think Sungai Way) but it was late already. Went back to school to do a presentation on our findings. Roughly, I sat back and let someone else draw (colourfully) then sit back and watch someone else (same person actually) present (colourfully). And the other groups too. Of course, take pictures. Finally, time to go home.
Day 2 (one week later): Go straight to river. Do not pass go. Do not collect gloves and boots.
Gragh. I cleaned up Sungai Penchala without gloves. I don’t think I have cancer, but I might get some soon.
If you see the pictures, the river is black. Not black as in, “Oh it’s so dirty”, but black as in “BLACK. THE COLOUR BLACK. THE COLOUR OF NOTHING, COLOUR OF SPACE, COLOUR OF EVIL.” Testing reveals: BLEGH.
Not good. At all. It’s acidic. Although it is less acidic than that pH 5.5 shampoo or something which people use. We clean as much rubbish as humanly possible, and free up the waterway so that water can actually flow properly.
Lunch.
Bus to Sungai Way.
One more river, not quite as bad. Chemicals say it is cleaner than Penchala, so that’s good. I had to borrow boots and glove (note singular, my other hand was holding the camera) the go in and clean. I think the only exciting part was then they used a rope to try to pull a stuck rock. Using a van.
The rope broke.
Anyhow, once it was all over, we went back home. Such a fun day. And my clothes… they were ruined. Partially.
Need more pictures? Here you go:
http://www.budurl.com/riverrangers1
Well that’s it for this edition. Come back next time for more!