Being an Education Counsellor
While most of the other flights parked along the tarmac of Penang International Airport are delayed for technical reasons (China Airlines flight 674) or non-avaliability of aircraft (Malaysia Airlines flight 1147), my AirAsia flight 6315 touched down and pulled back surprisingly punctual at Gate 7. A fraction of a second after the last passengers disembarked, we were all hushed into the sterile-looking Airbus and departed right to the minute. The seats were nice, and they can even recline! However, the masses of people swarming around on a full flight in the 29-inch seat is quite a torture if you were to be stuck in it on your way to Moscow (dubbed soon by Tony Fernendez). Several minutes before landing an Indian boy seemed restless and soon started to stand and trying to attempt a bungee jump from his seat. Without hesitation, the AirAsia girl picked up the loudspeakers microphone and started ‘little boy, sit down hah!’ Half the cabin turned their heads as another ‘SIT DOWN!!’ rang through the cabin. Nevertheless, the embarrassment was soon forgotten when we landed at the LCCT.
The next day I woke up eerily early at 5.38am. At 6.05am my aunt’s brother’s wife drove me to Sri Petaling LRT station and I officially joined the other Kuala Lumpur workforce heading to the city center to their jobs. I arrived at Hotel Istana at 7.02am to be greeted by my schoolmate, and we sat there looking into the ceilings until approximately 7.30 before our school registrars Mr. Lai and Ms. Shih arrived. We quickly set up the place and made our booth looked like home. Fuelled by sources of the Kuala Lumpur Tzu Chi Branch, we got a table and half a dozen of chairs for a ‘counselling corner’ as well as tea, tit-bids and a huge LCD monitor to run our school introductory clip. Crowds started pouring in at 9am, and armed with my saccharine smile I started on every curious crowd "Tzu Chi University was founded as Tzu Chi College of Medicine in 1994. The school then expanded rapidly to include Schools of Life Science, Communication, Education and Humanities. Currently our medical and mass communication are among the best in Taiwan…yadda-yadda". However, after several ‘oh, thank you, bye’ from the crowd, I soon cut it short to "What courses you interested in? Fashion design? Go try Providence University, ok? Bye-bye" My day ended at 5.38pm and I arrived at Sri Petaling at approximately 6.
And so was it for the following days - people come, I asked my 14,529th repetition of ‘What courses are you interested in?’ and I will have 34% of people just smiling emptily into my face (I’m good-looking perhaps?), 23% frowned and said "you don’t have engineering?", another 23% for "no business or commerce meh?" and 20% of them either wanted me to explain more about medicine, mass comm. or other related courses, among which, 45% of them having no response after my explanation, 23% of them ended up not knowing what to ask next, 22% of them asking whether students need to be Buddhists to enter the university, and 10 % of them chatting amicably with me.
On Sunday we packed up at 4 and headed straight to Muar at 6pm. The three girls following us were curled up behind the van watching a TVB drama while I punched SMSes to Seong Ling, Jieyang and Ping Hui. Due to extreme fatigue I couldn’t really recall the following particulars, but I was extremely clear that I did not sleep very well that night because the Mr. Lai in the same room was snoring with such symphonic variations I found it entertaining.
Monday was a day off for us. We went sightseeing around Muar and I was soon captivated by the town’s old-time feel and traditional air. Coffee shops in Muar still uses carcoal to heat water for coffee, and opposite the eatery was a mini-market reminiscent of one my aunt’s Mum owned several years back. I think the lasts of these became extinct in Penang when Tesco, Giant and Cold Storage started blasting Penang consumers. We ended up watching 7 episodes of the TVB drama the girls were so crazy about yesterday. At 9 that night I MSNed my classmate in Taiwan to ask for my junior’s name. He gave me this name I felt I heard somewhere before, and I instantly asked Ms. Shih. "Oh, he’s that guy from Chung Hwa lah. He’s Khai Jing (my classmate’s) aunt’s husband’s brother’s son."
Tuesday sees us back to our job, this time at Muar’s Chung Hwa High School. Students flooded the hall from 10am onwards, and soon I find it discouraging to explain the difference between medicine, life science and biotechnology to little Form Ones. The organizer, out of their enthusiasm for crowding the fair, had also invited Form Ones, Twos and Threes. While it is a positive act to get to know about universities and tertiary education early, it is senseless to have us determine their future paths for them (’in your opinion what should I study leh?’)
At around 4.20pm the booth was crowded with another flock of schoolchildren. I was standing on the outer ring of the booth, battling my way into the sanctuary when this young guy greeted me. He said "hi, I’m whoever, and I’m going to TCU for medicine soon," flashing a cheeky smile at me. I returned his cheeky smile and said "H’m, I’m your direct senior…"
Seated, we chatted pleasantly on registration, fees, and the school environment before I reached this very sensitive topic:
"What year are you from?"
"1988" (SimRadar: danger!)
"Month?"
"December" (damn it!)
"Oh dear, day?"
"16" (NO!)
"Gosh, I’m born on December 16th 1988 too. Oh dear, what time were you born?"
(His Mum) "At early morning" (SimRadar: For the love of God, NO)
"I was born at 2.30pm"
"So your junior is actually older than you?" Khai Jing asked.
"(sigh) yeah."
"So you take good care of your younger senior yah?"
Anyway, the 6 episods of drama we watched later wiped my memory about the elder junior away completely.
Wednesday sees another mundane day of ‘Tzu-Chi-University-is-famed-for-medicine-and-mass-comm.’-ing. We started disassembling at 4pm, and literally flew home to watch the last episodes of our beloved drama.
The idea of an elder junior is beyond description of words…
August 16th, 2007 at 4:40 am
ha ha does it really matter? having skipped std four, it took some getting used to the fact that while i was in the board of xxx club in high school, the whole vice committee was at least 2 months older than me. it was awkward nonetheless.lol. but i dont think age shud come between anythin at all =)