ABP

So I was really excited before and with good reason I think. My awesome BEL lecturer told the class about the Asian British Parliamentary Debate Championship (ABPs) at UPM this weekend (which her husband was handling) and she basically informed us so if anyone wanted to go and watch they could.

I've chosen not to be involved in the varsity debating club during foundation, but I hope to be when I do my degree InsyaAllah, so I told her I wanted to go watch the finals. Nak tengok how the pros do it kan.

The next day, she told me that there were a couple of spots open for volunteers and she asked me if I was interested to go check everything out and be a committee member, so I was like hell yes! No hesitation required there haha.

So I asked my friend Farhan, short for Nurfarhan, if she wanted to go. Knowing that she's a keen debater and all kan, I knew she'd be excited, so I was happy when I was proven correct haha. She was ecstatic! It was so cool. Masing-masing excited macam orang gila.

After some drama with timing, college court trials and moving of dates, which I honestly can't be bothered to rant about, everything fell into place. We went to UPM after Friday lectures and that in itself, with all the cab rides and commuter shifts, was an experience.

Sampai sana we met with the coordinator Mr Saiful who was really friendly, and we met with the other volunteers who were all UPM students. Some were taking Foundation in Biological Agriculture, TESL, Engineering and apatah lagi tak ingat. Mereka semua sangat welcoming. Like seriously. Awal-awal lagi pun they treated us like one of them, not outsiders. And they were so much fun to be around, but we'll get to that later. Ceh.

So yeah, volunteering basically meant keeping tabs on the debaters, the food, the rooms, being the runners for the tabbing system, making sure everything ran smoothly. I got to watch the debates too and that's when I realised that these debaters are good, like scary good. Give them 15 minutes and most of them can convince you that morbidly obese children should be taken from their parents or sex offenders should not be chemically castrated.

There were debaters from Malaysia, Singapore, China, India, Indonesia, Thailand and Japan. Some of them were cocky, they had an air of "I'M BETTER THAN YOU" surrounding them. Macam kelakar jugak. The nice ones were really nice though. Like the Japanese debaters Taka and Ayumi sangat baik.

But this was probably the most "lepak" debate competition I've ever seen. I'm so used to seeing competitions where everyone dresses formal with the blazers and ties and what not. The debaters in this competition relax je pakai skirt pendek, shorts, biker boots and ada yang masa debate tak pakai kasut pun. Tapi debate macam sial tere gila ah.

Throughout the debate I feel that the volunteers really bonded, which was unexpected. Lepak sama-sama, chit-chatting and doing work was so fun with them. We ended up hanging out as if we'd been friends for years, padahal baru a couple of days. They were the bomb. Buat lawak bodoh, cerita merepek pasal hantu pocong kat highway la tahape and the issue of whether Sheikh Muszaphar deserves the Datukship. That was funny. Seronok gila ah. Rindu.

Anywayy, the finals are on Tuesday, but I have lectures on Monday so I'm not sure if I'll be able to make it. Bukan senang nak manage transport to and from Serdang to UiTM, what with the schedule and all. Kelam kabut gila nanti. So tak tahu lah.

Sebenarnya banyak lagi nak tulis, tapi I'm kinda having a minor brain freeze right now so malas ah.

I'll post the pictures later OK.

BTW HI AMMAR HAKIM ;)