Singapore 2015 (again????) Part 2 - FRIENDS....!

We reached Mustafa Centre slightly tired. (Little did we know what was ahead of us...)

I bought souvenirs for my schoolmates and teachers (24 pieces of chocolate and 18 keychains), a box of blueberry tea ( THAT WAS JUST BECAUSE IT'S IN A WOODEN BOX OKAY HAHAHAHAHA HELP ME), and 4 bottles of these interesting-looking milky drinks that I saw on Twitter, and a small bag which I use to keep my wallet and passport ( It has A LOT of compartments. The largest one could fit a dictionary inside of it...! Worth the 24 dollars, IMHO)

My aunt bought 3 boxes of tea, a pack of cinnamon sticks, some chocolates (as per usual), some Indian snacks and some pastry puffs.

After we were done shopping, we decided to head to Masjid Sultan so that my aunt could pray- and I could rest for a while.

We reached the Masjid Sultan- Bussorah St. area. My aunt decided to have a drink first before praying, so we did so at the shop closest to the mosque. I didn't finish mine, so we tapao-ed it. And I snuck it into the mosque and back out again after I'm finished. It's a wonder that I didn't caught.(Although I believe I was on the mosque's CCTV...)

I sat down, stood up and walked around the women's prayer area as my aunt prayed. I started taking a couple of pictures. I checked the time - It was around 1:40.

After she was done, I told her that I was going back to Madrasah Aljunied to take a photo; she was mad for a while, but eventually relented.(I didn't take a photo earlier because there's a million students during my first arrival) .I took the photo and decided to go to Joo Chiat Complex to buy... something. Yeah, something.

I went to Bugis MRT and disembarked at Paya Lebar; my aunt stayed up on the platform since she was still tired.I started heading off when I realised that it IS actually quite the distance from the MRT station...! I wonder why didn't I notice this the first time I went there last year.

I reached my destination, but unfortunately, I didn't find the thing that I came for. I left and started heading back; it was almost 3 o'clock... I was supposed to meet up with my friend at 3:30...!

I went back to Paya Lebar MRT via a cab - when I first got in and told my destination, the taxi uncle told me, "Huh? So near one, can walk...!" Well, if I could I wouldn't take a cab, would I?

I reached the station and boarded the train. We got off at City Hall in order to get to National Library.When we got off the train and went out on the street, we took yet another cab because my aunt was tired. We got the library and I tweeted my friend in order to inform her that I have arrived.

I waited for her to arrive at the main lobby while my aunt went to the toilet. I saw her arrive and stood up. I smiled from ear to ear- I haven't met her for a year... and haven't talked to her much since I was deployed at a boarding school since March. There's a lot of things to catch up to...

We hugged and shook hands, then we sat at the lobby to wait for my aunt. When my aunt arrived, she beckoned to go downstairs so that my aunt could rest. We found a place and my aunt put our stuff down near a chair while we went off to chat. We went off to the children's area to look around there. She started cracking jokes. I was laughing and looking around when I realized my aunt was following me. I raised my eyebrows. "Hmmmm?"

We exited the children's area; my aunt apparently wanted to read a novel. My friend pointed out the novel section. We then headed off to do our own thing. We took the lift to the highest floor. From there, we explored the entire library while chatting about a lot of stuff, our studies, our schools, student comparisons (I was curious).

I found out about that she once stayed in Melaka for a month or so after Primary 6, and that if I were to go to Egypt, I have to go earlier than normal... (nope not going ever nope)I talked about my studies, my crammed 6-month course, and my enlistment delay. (I've lost count of how many times I've told her I'm going to go NEXT YEAR I'M SO SORRY DUDE)

Sometime while we were going back down, she beckoned me to take a few selfies and do some of sort of a skit for her Snapchat. It was a heck of lot of fun to see someone actually having fun interacting with me.

By the time it was 4:55, we started to head back to my aunt, who we found to have dozed off. We woke her up, checked our stuff, then the three of started heading off towards Bugis MRT so that I could meet another friend of mine. We bid each other farewell at Bugis Junction while she headed off to Masjid Sultan to pray.

I sat down at the MRT station's Guardian store and tweeted her that I have arrived. I sat down and waited.

I didn't have to wait long; I heard a voice, looked up, and...lo and behold, she was there...! I stood up to see that she had bought another two friends with her. I greeted them and shook their hands. My aunt did so as well, and she asked us where do we want to eat for dinner (it's was 5:30 ok I used to have dinner at 6 at my school so there's that). We told them it's better for them to decide since we have no idea where to go.

She brought us to Kampong Glam Cafe, which a place that I've heard many times but never got to go due to time constraints, so it was quite a nice place. In fact, I couldn't think of a better choice...

Anyways... we started chatting on our way there, talking about our studies, she is currently studying at Madrasah al-Maarif; she recommended to me to take A-Levels. I also learned that like me, she also plans to take language studies; the only difference is that she's going to study Malay, while I'm going to study Arabic. I also learnt that both of her friends were former Aljuniedians, with one being transferred to a secular school after primary school.

We sat down at a table at the outdoor area and I ordered a roti john and a blue cola drink (it tasted like cola - and I forgot the names of the things I ordered, so yeah...!). We ate while talking about comparing madrasah students (again, yup), life in Malaysia and Singapore, some more stuff about our studies, our futures, and her time at Madrasah Aljunied.

One story from her time was about some sort of guardians that are there at each floor of the school. (I forgot the origins/backstory, but I think it has something to with the earliest people who ran the school). You can see them but they won't do crap to you.

Unless you're a jerk.

Apparently there was this stuck-up kid who slept in the classes during qiam (school camp [they usually sleep in the hall or in the prayer room]); he was sleeping on a table when that floor's guardian gave him a rude awakening and shouted at him... he then ran scurrying off back to the others.

I also learnt that even the pre-u Aljuniedians are pretty chill for the most part. Which makes me want to go there even more... because I (almost) heavily disliked the uptightness of my batchmates, which indirectly hampered my learning experiences there.

My friend's current school is quite the unique one : Madrasah al-Maarif is ironically located in one of the seediest areas in Singapore, Geylang - infamous for for being an area for drinking and prostitution(IRONIC RIGHT??). and due to that they have a unique ( is it?) rule- no student is allowed to be in the school area after 4:30 pm (school finishes at 3:30 for Singaporean madrasahs), so no after school project completion staybacks for them...!

According to my friend, people can be seen drinking as early as 5 p.m - and as such, no one is allowed to stay back for extended periods of time to avoid students from being in the general area around during such dangerous times. She remarked how odd it is that how in all Geylang's lanes, which is full of seedy establishments, there can be a religious school propped up in one of them.

One story she told me of her teacher is that once this teacher once took a cab to school, and the driver, unaware of her identity, started badmouthing the school. ( I forgot why).

(Madrasah al-Maarif is pretty unknown compared to Madrasah Aljunied; even a local might not be aware of it's existence unless he or she is well versed about the madrasahs there, or have a friend, relative or acquaintance there. I myself wasn't even aware of its existence until about 2 months of befriending the madrasah students almost 4 years ago.)

So when the cab arrived at the school, she revealed her identity and stormed out of the cab in anger.

We later then finished our food, paid up and left; we started heading towards Masjid Sultan before going to Bugis MRT. We stopped at Sultan for a while;  I didn't remember why.

We waited outside the ablution/bathroom area while my aunt went in and my friend and I talked about getting a license and driving vehicles. After she  was done, we headed straight to Bugis MRT. I found out that she was going to accompany us all the way to the airport around this time. I was surprised.. "Wait... you sure??" "It's OK."

We almost passed the station gantries when I remembered that my brother told us to buy some Yellow Submarines subs. I told my aunt, they overheard it- and bought us there. I followed , feeling a bit guilty that we've probably made their journey a whole lot more tiring.

I ordered our subs - my friend recommended that we chose beef over chicken as the meat choice. We waited for about 20 minutes before I took our orders. We then went back into the MRT station. We waited for the train, and when it arrived, I remarked : "It's like a bloody sardine can...!" "Welcome to Singapore", my friend said.

Ah nein. If there's one thing I'm going to hate about studying here, it's the daily morning and evening sardine can, errrrr, I mean.. train!!!... commute.

We boarded the train and headed towards the airport. We continued to chat some more, but unfortunately I forgot what were our conversations here... (SORRY...!)

We got off the train at the airport, boarded the skytrain towards Terminal 1, and headed towards the departure area. Before we parted ways, her friends and I took some photos together. We shook hands and bid each other farewell before we started heading off towards the departure area. After clearing immigration, my aunt needed to go to the toilet, so I waited.

We headed towards the boarding gate after that; when I saw the line at the boarding gate, I realised why it is so important to be really early for the flight. When we passed through customs, the customs officer asked us to dump all bottles with any liquid on them. The result? I have to finish all four bottles of those water I bought at Mustafa Centre that afternoon. I finished half out of each bottle. I think my bladder grew 25 percent because of that.

And I wasted about 20 ringgit on that too... man...

We boarded the plane, which took off at 9:45. I slept throughout the flight. When we got off the flight at around 10:55, we rode the buggy towards the customs and immigration area. That was a blessing; we've been walking for almost 18 hours, almost all of it non-stop. We reached home at around 12.



This trip was a wild one. I did so much in one day, which made me realise, that maybe, there ARE enough hours in a day after all. I also realised that each trip made me want to enlist overseas even more, which means there's no time to waste if I wanted to do so. And apparently, I COULD hold a half-decent conversation after all, despite the boring topics that I bought up.

I just CAN'T WAIT to go again.

Singapore 2015 (again????) Part 1 - HAR. HAR.

October 28th, 2015 was probably the most tiring day of my life.

It all started when I woke up later than intended at 4 A.M. And we were supposed to go at 5.

I hurried to get myself ready, and set off for the airport with my aunt at around 5:20.  While we were trying to exit Subang Jaya and enter the highway, we accidentally entered the wrong lane and almost ended up at Kajang instead of KLIA.Thankfully, we went back into SJ shortly thereafter and went back into the right lane.

We arrived at KLIA2 at around 5:50, I believe. (I didn't record the time before going on the flight)

My aunt went to pray, but since I couldn't, I decided to go buy some breakfast at KFC while waiting.

The time passed by.

6:00.

6:10.

By the time it was 6:15, I started to panic - the boarding gates have opened...!

At around 6:25 my aunt came and we started to head towards the departure area.

But before we went in, my aunt decided to buy a bottle of water before going on the flight, and she went to a nearby convenience store.

And so I waited.

6:30

6:40

What the heck is taking her so long? It's just a bottle of water...!

6:45

Ten minutes before the gate closes...!

6:50

I said "Screw her, I have my essentials anyways...!" and went into the departure area.After clearing immigration, my pant hook came loose while lining up for customs checks.I let everyone bypass me while trying to fix everything as quickly and discreetly as possible. Bloody hell...Thankfully everything was fixed in a jiffy, and off I ran to the plane once again...

...before it came loose again halfway to the boarding gate. Thankfully, there's a private place in the hall in which I could fix it, and I did. I scurried to the gate just as it was closing ( AND IT'S ALL THE WAY AT THE END AS WEL KXBJDFSKDABN)

I stepped into the plane to see my aunt standing in the aisle.

I sighed and sat at my seat, during which I got an earful from my aunt. (Really, how could she NOT see my standing like an idiot in front of the departure area???)

The plane started moving off towards the runway. When the plane started to speed up during take off, I didn't experience a massive headache like I did during my first flight (to Langkawi) last year.

The plane started flying towards Singapore at around 7:20. I got bored during the flight, so I decided to alleviate my boredom by doing a 5 over 4 polyrhythm exercise (shoutout to Matt Gartska for this...!).


When the plane started approaching the southern Johor area, it started to rain. Thank God, because that means that there's no haze, and no flights will be delayed. We landed safely and started making our way out of the airport. We made our way to Terminal 2 via the airport's skytrain in order to get to the MRT station (I thought the MRT station was accessible from there...!) .

But when we got there to clear the immigration counters, the officer told us to clear it from Terminal 1 instead. We reluctantly turned back to Terminal 1. After we cleared immigration, we stepped out only to find out the MRT station is at Terminal 3 instead.

HAR HAR. Stupid me.

We took the Skytrain to Terminal 3 and boarded the MRT to the city there.

I looked out to see Eastern Singapore being drizzled with rain.

We exited at Bugis MRT and my aunt decided to eat before we set off for Madrasah Aljunied. I decided to have breakfast at Burger King, because... I have no idea.

I ate the Ham and Cheese Omelette Platter. It was very underwhelming. I finished the omelette after the croissant so that I didn't have to leave the restaurant with a bad taste in my mouth. Maybe it's because I don't like nearly liquified eggs. The sausage and the hashbrowns were awesome,though...!

We packed the one drink that we didn't finish and started making our way to Victoria Lane. The guy at the Burger King counter told us it's going to take us 15 minutes to go from there, so he recommended us to take the bus.

We took bus number 12 there and disembarked at the Stamford Primary bus stop.

I walked down Victoria Lane and saw that the students were having their recess.

I went in and walked up to the receptionist's office.

I asked for the enlistment forms and told them I wanted to go into their pre-university program.

"Umur berapa? (How old are you?)"

"18... Ada had umur ke nak masuk pre-u??? ( Is there an age limit for enlistment for the pre-university level???)" She gave me the forms.

"Ada... (Got/Yes...)" My skin prickled and all of my hairs stood up. My heart started beating 16ths at 250 bpm. I'm surprised I didn't get a heart attack right there and then.

"Untuk pre-university... had umurnya... 21..." I calmed down. That scared me...! I thought I'm not going to ever enlist until the end of time...! (Although I'm not sure whether that meant that 21 is the age during enlistment or age during the first year of the program)

I told them I will possibly enlist next year if I had to repeat the year at my school. (Actually there are no repeats- I just asked to see what they're going to say) They asked which school am I from, and I told them I'm currently studying at Shah Alam.

I stayed around the front area and looked around. A lot of the students were sitting on the floor near the mess hall, studying.  I started to ask them whether the Secondary Five students are at school or not (One of the people that I'm most close to at Madrasah Aljunied is a Sec. 5 student).

Most of them said no or either "don't know". But there is one slightly interesting incident.

I asked a couple of female students who were sitting at the front area like we were.

"Menengah Lima sekolah tak?" (Are the Sec 5s in school right now?)

"I'm not sure... Kenapa?" (Why?)

"I... nak jumpa... seseorang." (I... want to see... someone)"

"Siapa?" (Who?)

I mentioned her name.

I saw their facial expressions change, but I couldn't read it- did they knew her?

I found out that they were her brother's classmates.

"Oh, I see."

I excused myself and started to exit the school. (I've been there 3 times. I've never went past the receptionist's office on all three. Hahahahah.)


We both started making our to Mustafa Centre when I realized I forgot to ask them another question.

I ran back and asked them :

"My school's final exam doesn't have marks, just grades, so...........what is the minimum grade for enlistment??"

The receptionist and one of the teachers (whom I suspect is a very high ranking one) looked at each other. I asked, "Jayyid (Good) ke... atau... Jayyid Jiddan (Very Good). They looked at each other for another moment before the teacher said "Jayyid". I audibly sighed in relief.

"Thank you."

I went off on my way once again.

I walked near the school fence; I saw some two groups of students playing at the back area : male and female ( they're not playing together, though). I was slightly shocked when I saw the girls being all hyperactive in the presence of boys; such behaviour was basically non-existent in my school - I couldn't even run without my classmates telling me off.

And once I caught up to my aunt, we headed off for Syed Alwi Rd.