It's already been like 3 days since I got back from BRATs and yeah it was totally awesome! The people were quirky, seniors rocked, experiences were amazing and the bond formed in 4 days, WOW!
First Day (14th March 2009)Mum drove me all the way to Malacca, The Straits Meridian Hotel to be precise.
Pic of the hotel.
Registered and got into the room. Saw Pei coming and we sat down at a table. More people showed up at our table and we started mingling. It was really Jasmine who got us all going =D. Min min! Haha, like during the 2nd or 3rd day we started calling each other min min.
Our seniors Dhinesh(Monk/Sultan/Divo), Kah Mun and Kah Yan (the 2 butterflies) came into the room and we started on 2 ice-breaking games: blow wind blow and If I were... I got Hei==, who knew it was the Hei from Darker than Black. At least, that started me talking with Chris, who wrote Hei. Anime/Manga lovers!
Editors from the Star Youth Desk, Ivy Soon and Niki Cheong, Journalist Phui Yee and Ian plus Ong the photographer arrived while we were playing.
From here on, it was mostly theory work on Journalism, how to write, interviewing skills and photography. We were tested on our general knowledge when they asked us 20 questions on the recent happenings and one more bonus: What do you think is the greatest invention of your lifetime?
During interviewing skills, we were given 4 different scenarios and 4 groups went and tried to interview them. During the last scenario, which was acted by Niki, the guys tried interviewing but Niki kept rejecting. They pushed on and he yelled very loudly(and very convincingly too) at them, resulting in a "WOW...".
For photography, we were all assigned to go around the hotel and take a picture of something which fits the theme "Green". Later, they were gonna present our photos, only one per person by the way. Hahaha, my photo was the best among them. At least, Mr Ong liked it =D.
Yesss, this photo. It's my hand by the way.^^
These are quotes I saw in the hotel.
Seniors played another gave with us that involved signs. I couldn't get to play though as Ivy wanted our assignment, which was to find out the full name of the Chief Minister of Melaka, and what Ivy wants , Ivy gets. So went to ask people in the hotel who that guy was.
We were assigned our roommates according to alphabetical order. My room had 4 people, others had three. My roommates are all in Form 5 ==. Tze Ni, from Penang, Lye Yee who is a Malaccan and Sze Hsuen from SMK DJ. (Damansara Jaya).
Hmm... we were assigned into our groups. Print, Video and Photography. Guess which one I'm in =D. We were briefed on what we had to do tomorrow which was to go on a tour of Jonker Walk and Heeren Street. We wil be having two guides so a group of print, video and photo follow one, the other half follows the other guide.
That's probably about it for the first day. Doesn't seem so exciting? It gets better day by day. Think of the plot graph thing instead of a parabola, it goes up up, pass the climax and goes even higher!
Too be continued
