Until now.

Righto! Not a whole lot has happened so far (I mean, it is still January), but a whole lot actually has. Now, that might not make a tonne of sense to you, so let me rephrase: in terms of events and seeing people, I haven't been super busy. But in terms of how much these few meetups and activities mean to me, well, I'd say they're priceless. Last weekend, a few Tassie mates and I signed up as volunteers for a pre-departure camp organised by MASCA. This camp, also known as Down Under Camp 2014, was the first of its kind as it catered not only to sponsored students, but also privately funded students. It was held at UKM Bangi, which is about a 45 minute drive from where I live in Seremban. The night before leaving home for the camp, I doubted my choice in volunteering for the camp, mostly because I wouldn't know anyone except a handful of people. I actually said "Mummmmmmmm why did I even sign up for this I WILL BE SURROUNDED BY STRANGERS AND THAT MAKES ME NERVOUS AND I HAVEN'T EVEN LEFT HOME YET. IS IT TOO LATE TO CANCEL ON THEM!??!?!?!!" And of course, my mum replied with, "Who asked you to be so kepoh and sign up?" Kepoh means nosy in Hokkien. -__- Thanks for the support, mum! Anyway, I packed up my things for camp and arrived at UKM on Friday evening, along with other volunteers who had traveled interstate. Checking into my room, which I shared with a lovely girl called Syafiqah, was a bit of a shock because my standards for on-campus accommodation were warped (if you will) as a result of staying at one of UTAS's residential colleges. That being said, it was cosy and quite cooling - and my roommate was great!

Dinner with the Tassie boys on Friday at the UKM cafeteria! I couldn't stop giggling when they arrived because it felt like I hadn't seen them in ages. Amir even told me that I'd been cooped up in my house for too long with insufficient social interaction... Thanks ah. -_-

Honestly, getting to know the other volunteers wasn't as tough as I thought it would be. I'm not saying it wasn't terrifying at first, especially when most of the other volunteers' response to my "Hi, I'm Rae from Tassie!" was "Oh, so you're Rae!" I mean, seriously. My brain went into overdrive and I was dying to ask them what they knew about me and where they got their information from. Ack. On the plus side, I got to see a few familiar faces from MASA2013. 

On Saturday, the camp was officiated by Dato' Seri Idris Jusoh. It was a slightly fancy event and most, if not all of the volunteers were pretty tuckered out by the end of the day. The camp participants had the opportunity to ask questions about life in Australia, and Mathu and Ridhuan (part of the organising committee) briefed the participants on important steps to take before leaving Malaysia and upon arriving in Australia. Personally, I wish I'd known all that info before I first left home for Tassie back in 2010. I was so lost when I arrived in Australia! :\

So. One more day of camp to go! The last and final event for DUC was the DUC open day, during which the DUC volunteers and participants organised a carnival of sorts for kids from charity organisations. Among the booths that we set up were a photo booth (which my friend, Jason, and I handled), a tie-dye booth, a bouncing castle (we all laughed when it deflated), a sand art booth, and a refreshments booth. Oh, and there was free ice cream, too! The kiddies were all SO small! Jason and I were a bit overwhelmed by the little ones tugging at our elbows demanding for photos. All we heard for those few hours was, "Akak/abang... Nak amik gambar!!" Most importantly, though, the kiddies were happy. They were slightly unruly as all kids at that age are, but I got the warm and fuzzies from seeing them laugh and run around. :)

Besh fwennnnn konon! :) Akif Rezal, who's like a cheerful little brother to me.

New friends!! Yuh-Lin and Alice.

Now, this girl, Rehanna, is something special. Visit her blog to find out more :)

Grabbed this shot from Anas! Unfortunately, most of the participants had left by the time this photo was taken. Camp ended on a bittersweet note - I experienced withdrawal symptoms shortly after coming home, and it felt a little weird not being surrounded by a group of people. I'm so glad I went, though. I made a bunch of new friends and I did not isolate myself from the masses!

Shortly after DUC, I met up with two of my favourite guys in the world. Seriously. I love them to bits. I hadn't seen Darsh since the last time he was in Hobart, which was after a frisbee match or something. And I hadn't seen Haziem since he came down to Hobart for the Hari Raya meet and greet with EMA! Man. We had chili pan mee for lunch and ended up with our butts on fire (sorry, TMI), and the few hours we spent together were laughter-filled. I don't mean just "hee hee" coquettish giggling but actual "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA" unglam laughing, with seal-like clapping. But isn't the latter the best sort of laughter? :D 

These guys. <3

Aaaaaaaaand today, I met up with someone I've known for more than half of my life: May Qin! We started hanging out when we were 9 or 10, I think, and we've been friends ever since - even throughout high school and uni! However, the two of us did not make up the complete trio as our dear Vivien was down with the flu. :( Nevertheless, we had fun fangirling over BigBang and Sherlock and pushing our way through the crowd at the IT fair at Mid Valley. Hahah!

This was a sushi shot for Vien because the three of us always eat Japanese food when we meet up, but because MQ and I had Korean food, we took this photo to make up for it. Hee! This would have been a nice photo if it weren't for my badly-timed blink. =_=

Much better. :)

So I've written about 3 events in this one post. Not heaps, like I said. But hopefully you can see why I'm so happy. :)

Anyhoo, I'm going for a medical checkup tomorrow for my new student visa, so yay, chest x-rays and urine tests! Not. :P I'm heading back to Tassie in exactly 3 weeks. It's slightly daunting, really. Final year of undergrad and all that. Plus 'work' commitments with MASCA Tas, but the whole team just feels like one big family and I'm sure we'll accomplish many things this year!