Me, as an Emcee?!

Who thought that I can't be an emcee? Well, myself!

So yesterday afternoon (28^th November) I was chilling, waiting for the bus nak keluar from UM. ‘Til I received a call from Dr Asmadi, the Head Department of East Asian Studies.

He called, asked me to come to his office. When I came, Dr Asmadi said,

“Saya nak awak jadi emcee untuk JACTIM Foundation Support 2016 Award Giving Ceremony esok, Dr Rohayati yang recommend awak.”

I was really hesitant to be the emcee as I really, REALLY had no experience as an emcee. Buat report presentation pun suara dah terketaq, let alone be the emcee of a formal ceremony! So, I accepted the challenge. Then I got the text for the ceremony, Dr Rohayati prepare dah siap siap. Oh boi let me tell you, mata gua terbeliak masa tengok the guests.

Among the VIP guests were:

1. Yang Berhormat Datuk Dr. Mary Yap Kain Ching, Timbalan Menteri Pendidikan Tinggi Malaysia.
2. Yang Berbahagia Prof. Datuk Dr. Rohana Yusuf, Timbalan Naib Canselor Hal Ehwal Pelajar Universiti Malaya.
3. Hajime Tokuda, Chairman of JACTIM International Culture Exchange, JACTIM Foundation.
4. Hiroyuki Orikasa, Counsellor of The Embassy of Japan in Malaysia.
5. Koichi Horikawa, Director of the Japan Foundation Kuala Lumpur.

and more.

Bila tengok name list of the VIP guests, I was like,

“Yo Faiz, you can’t f this up! Seriously, don’t you even dare!”

Then on that day supposed to ada rehearsal but I couldn’t make it due to personal reasons. So, when nak rehearse nya? Tomorrow lah (29^th November), on the day of the event itself. Memang so last minute I tell you. So, the night before event, memang practice baca text betul betul. I even asked some tips from my senpai yang since dulu memang helpful, Farhan Layali. Thanks Paang!

Also dah lah pagi tu ada English Oral Test. So memang juggle lah, kejap read text, kejap read English notes for the test. I slept late of course. Pagi tu pergi test, after that terus pergi rehearsal kejap then came the moment I was afraid the most, the ceremony.

I was shaking, nervous, and kept thinking,

“Faiz, is this the right thing for you to do? Kau memang saje cari maut kan?”

Habis ceremony, I received positive feedbacks which made me very happy.

嬉しい！

Yang Berhormat Datuk complimented me, saying that I was ‘an eloquent MC’. Yang Berbahagia Prof. Datuk also said that, I was ‘fluent with the English’. Then, lastly, the Chairman of JACTIM Foundation said, while giving his business card to me,

「グッド エム・シー です。」(Guddo emushii desu!)

Thank you very much! Memang rasa motivated sangat. To some people, benda camni maybe nampak macam cikai je but hey, I tak pernah jadi emcee okay, bagi ah chance nak rasa bangga of my own achievement haha. I deserved to be proud of myself, I rarely feel this, as I, always feel hesitant of my own ability. I always think that I’m bad at almost everything. But this time, I challenged myself and I got through, successfully… I think(?) Definitely slowly getting out of my comfort zone.

I couldn’t be happier. Thank you. Alhamdulillah.

KinaRhinos and RAFF8

Hey,

So I joined Softball for SUKMUM (Sukan Mahasiswa Universiti Malaya) and sekaligus jadi wakil for my KK, Kolej Kediaman Kinabalu aka Kolej Kediaman Kelapan. I don't really do sports tau, so why Faiz, kau join softball? Well, I don't know if everyone ever heard of this game, but it's called rounders. It's basically a kampung version of baseball lah. This was my favourite game masa kecik kecik dulu, along with baling selipar. I would play these, every petang, during my primary school and early high school era. So, that's why I join softball sebab it's similar to my favourite childgood game. 

Softball pula, as far as I know lah, difference dia dengan baseball is the way pitcher throws the ball. Softball baling bawah, baseball baling atas. Softball pitch dia dekat sikit, compared to baseball. Haa stuff like that lah, ada je more than that. Okay, our KK punya softball training actually tak banyak pun in a week, Wednesday and Thursday from 9.30pm to 11pm. Even though dua hari je, still rasa busy sangat sebab I have other things to do too like assignments, meeting project, training Feseni etc. so schedule jadi pack. I can't imagine those yang join sampai more than 10 projects, how lah korang can give commitment eh?

Alright, four days ago (26th November) was the tournament day. Now, this is where the story gets interesting. First game kitorang fight dengan 5th College (Dayasari), they are known for having superb athletes. Macam kilang proses athlete jugak lah that KK. Second game, fight dengan 9th College (Hornets). If I'm not mistaken, this KK terer with kesenian stuff sebab most of the students kat situ is from Pusat Kebudayaan. Third game pulak, with 6th College (Avicenna). This KK is exclusively for medic students only. So kat sini semuanya future doctor, pharmacist, surgeon, dentist etc. haha.

Now let me tell you about the first game, it was terrible. The Dayasari's pitcher memang no joke weh. Dia pitcher for MASUM (Majlis Sukan Universiti Malaya), so, ball dia memang laju nak mati. I think dalam sorang je kot dapat hit ball dia, the rest tu out sebab it was too fast. First game, we spend more time on fielding rather than batting/hitting. Even budak Dayasari pun made fun of us sebab kitorang memang terrible sangat bila lawan dengan diorang. Diorang naik bosan duduk dekat field sampai ada sorang purposely buka topi just so that dia di-out kan by Umpire and takyah duduk dekat field lol.

Second game, fought against Hornets. Okay, Hornets, diorang mediocre lah. We scored a point tho but once dah out and kena jaga fielding, our pitcher (which was different than the first game) did awful. Hornets daripada tak score apa apa, terus naik to 5 points sebab our pitcher kept giving 'ball' and buat Hornets dapat banyak free walk. Ni paling disappointed sekali sebab I think diorang punya level dengan kitorang, lebih kurang sama je except that our pitcher memang tak bagus compared to them.

Last game, againts the Avicenna. Masa ni semua orang dah koyak sangat. Dah dua game kalah and it was starting to rain masa tu. Dengan Avicenna, kitorang pernah friendly dengan dia tapi... lost 11-0 lol. So bila jumpa balik dengan diorang, we were like,

"So we meet again huh?"

Haha, now, Avicenna punya pitcher quite skilled jugak. Dia punya ball quite fast and the way dia pitch tu agak psycho and dramatic gitu. I was mesmerized jugak lah honestly. Tapi masa fight dengan diorang, hujan turun dengan lebat so we had to stop. Us, the KinaRhinos takde motivation dah nak continue playing. Ada yang suggest give up je lah, sebab memang nampak tak kemana. Tapi Umpire cakap if give up or tarik diri, kena barred from playing for two years. No way man, so we didn't. We waited for the rain to stop, and once dah stop, sambung main. Masa ni best haha, dengan berlumpur semua, duk slide slide sana sini tho I didn't have the chance to do so actually as I, well, tak sempat nak batting sebab kitorang cepat sangat out lol.

In the end, we lost all the game. Among all the opponents, I like Avicenna the most. Sebab diorang sangat humble. Eventho diorang powerful, diorang still kata,

"Eh no kitorang still got a lot to improve."

Good attitude! Hornets pulak gave us some advice regarding pitching. They said, pitcher ni macam jantung of the team. So kena ada pitcher mantap. As for the Dayasari, I have no comments other than I really envy the pitcher sebab the way dia pitch sangat relax and macam cikai cikai je, but still ball dia laju nak mati.

So, from the game, I can conclude that we lost because we lack of training. Lack of practice. Lack of experience. Both our pitcher also tak berapa skilled. As for batting, we were too eager to swing the bat even though the ball was too fast (should have bunt instead) or luar daripada range yang boleh hit. Fielding pulak, we were still clueless at to whom nak pass the ball. Tak alert sangat lagi satu. Catching pun tak sharp, still selalu miss, especially golden chance like flyball. Basically, we weren't ready to compete with anyone yet lol.

Anyway, I enjoyed the game. Kulit gua sunburn teruk. Do I wanna join again next year? Who knows. Maybe.

P/S: RAFF8 is the official name for 8th College's softball team whereas KinaRhinos is the official name for the athletes under 8th College.

二十一歳。

As it rains heavily outside with loud thunders, I'm typing this while eating my Roti Butterscotch as my breakfast and lunch, at my Kolej Kediaman, alone in the room with no lights on. It's quite dark.

I just want to say to myself, Happy 21st Birthday.

Hahaha time sure went by so fast, right? I still remember, 5 years ago, I wrote a post on this blog, saying how dull my birthday was. How lonely I felt as no one celebrated my birthday, and now here I am again. Except, the amount of wish that I got, keep decreasing, year by year. This is why I hate this day so much.

If you ask me,

"What's the day that you hate the most in a year?

I would say,

"25th of November."

It's not that I want thousands of birthday wishes from everyone. It's just that... when your own bestfriends pun tak ingat your birthday, of course it feels a bit sad, kan?
Anyway, I guess it's my fault kot... idk maybe I should have been that one loud person yang keep reminding all his friends,

"Hey hey it's my birthday!"
"Hey birthday aku dah dekat jangan lupa wish eh!"
"Hey birthday aku nanti jangan tak bagi hadiah eh!"

Not just senyap je. Kan? I don't know. I mean, I ain't mean shit. Engko sape nak harap everyone ingat birthday kau, eventhough you ingat most of your bestfriends' birthday lol. It's okay.

Alright, kat luar still hujan lebat ni. If past years I would go out on my own, tengok wayang sengsorang as my birthday celebration. This year... I don't feel like it.

"But Faiz, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them baru keluar okay! It's from the Harry Potter franchise, you love Harry Potter series kan? Rugi nya tak tengok harini, as your birthday celebration."

Haha, actually tengah penat sangat ni. Dalam satu minggu ni I had lots of assignments plus softball training. Satu minggu ni total sleep hours only less than 10 hours tau, haa. So harini macam day off lah to stay in my room and just rest. Oh, malam ni ada selection untuk Tarian Tradisional pula. Plus, mesti ada meeting softball untuk discuss strategy for tournament for SUKMUM esok. Takpe lah, kita sambut birthday kat dalam bilik je lah. Pretend je lah Roti Butterscotch ni some sort of kek Secret Recipe ke apa ke. Hahaha, speaking of Secret Recipe, I still remember, back in the day I would pronounce it wrong. Instead of pronouncing it as "see-krit res-uh-pee", I'd pronounce it as "see-krit rih-saip". Oh my, apa lah.

Alright enough with your hambar stories, Faiz. I'm just gonna... nak keluar pun tak actually. I'm gonna log off lah lol and idk maybe tidur since it's the perfect weather for me to do so. Bye.




P/S: Thanks Farah, Helmi, Nina, Jaja, Ikhwan, and my dearest Mom for the birthday wish. Love you. Also Aimi, thanks bitch for that HB Pencil pic lol.