7 things Madrasah-Polytechnic students can relate to

Madrasah (مدرسة‎): It means 'school' in Arabic. A term used in many countries for Islamic religious schools. In Singapore, madrasahs are considered as private schools. Male students wear long pants, collared shirt and songkok (cap). Female students wear long dress/baju kurung/pant suit and tudung (headgear).

1. Culture Shock
   This is the most common of all. 
   Most of us madrasah students will surely experience this if they choose to go 'academic' afterwards. The worst is usually during the orientation days; the kind of games they host, the level of entertainment, the deafening audios, and such. The atmosphere is just too unusual and..... Odd?
   
   Just FYI, in madrasah, males and females are segregated when playing games. We do not have body or skin contact with the opposite gender. The amount of entertainment is kept to a minimal and no, we do not blast loud music during events. Only soothing songs, instrumentals or nasyids/qasidahs (spiritual songs) will be played.

2. Sneak out of lecture to pray
   This is challenging. We used to be connected to the masjid (mosque) or musolla (a space to pray) 24/7. We could even hear the adzan (call to prayer) and will proceed for prayers immediately. Its a routine that has been practiced for years, since the age of 7 (yes we study in madrasah for 10 - 11 years since primary 1).
   Fun Facts: Madrasah used to have kindergartens as well back in the 90's.
   
   In polytechnic, we need to find our own space and time to pray. If our schedule collides with the prayer time, we have no choice but to sneak out of lecture and rush for prayers. BUT YAAAY most of the schools now are musolla-ready. They even provide us with the necessities. Many thanks to the people/management who initiated this - you guys have made our lives a lot easier!
   
   
3. Not sports-inclined
   Well, this does not really apply to the guys unless they too, got asked questions like
   "Do you have CCA/sports in madrasah?"
   
   As for the ladies, we often get questions about headgear and long pants.
   "Don't you feel hot?" "Isn't it uncomfortable to run around in those?" "How do you go for a swim then?" Alright chill, let me give some enlightenment.
   
   Firstly, yes we do have sports and CCAs in madrasah.
   Regarding the hot issue, we feel hot at times but we are used to it so yeah no worries we are cool.
   Comfort? Frankly speaking, we do not see any huge difference between wearing shorts and pants.
   How do we swim? Have you ever heard of 'muslimah swimming gear'? Yeah, we rock that thing in the pool. Its pretty vogue y'know? Maybe you should get one too. ;)
   
   
4. The urge to converse in Malay
   Madrasah is flooded with Malay students, so we converse in Malay 99% of the time. Honestly, it does feels a bit weird to have a mixture of races in class (polytechnic). In madrasah, we tend to speak Malay even during English lessons hahaha. It became a habit. Our teacher then jokingly came up with this cute punishment - pay 10 cents for every Malay word uttered. Lol.
   
   But wait, we do enjoy picking up Mandarin words from our Chinese friends and trade them with Malay words. Win-win situation! That's the beauty of being in a multi-racial country yes? Definitely.
   
   
5. Being labelled as malaikat (angel)
   The way you introduce yourself to a new friend is important in this context. They will surely have another impression of you the moment you mention 'madrasah'.
   
   We are getting used to people labeling us 'angels'. Yes apparently we madrasah students do not sin at all. Thank you but you are being too nice we can't handle. (please sense the big sarcasm here)
   
   
6. Education stream confusion (express, normal academic or normal technical)
   During freshmen year, one of the frequently asked questions is "are you 17 or 18 years old?" And when you say 18, BAAAM they will confirm plus chop thought that you took N levels & had to go to secondary 5.
   
   Okay understood cos that's how the system works. But not for us though. It is actually compulsory for some madrasahs to do an extra year of curriculum (hence sec 5) as we have to sit for STE (a big exam by MUIS in Arabic/religious subjects) in secondary 4. It might be too taxing for us to do both STE and O levels in the same year. We do not practice education streams.
   
   
7. We do not have friends of the opposite gender
   This is the funniest of all. Come on. Living in this cosmopolitan era, how could one not have any friend from the opposite gender? With the presence of social networks and all............
   You get me right?!
   
   So anyways, 4 out of 6 madrasahs take in both male and female students. We behave like normal kids, study the same subjects (with additional religious subjects) and are friends with everyone! I am not sure about secular schools but we were trained to be well-mannered and dress modestly.
   But apart from those, we are no aliens. Just normal human beings. 

Disclaimer: All the points above are purely based on my own experiences/opinions, supported by a number of friends who have mutual thoughts regarding this. 

Guangzhou & Hongkong Trip Part II

It's sad to see vacation go, it's back to school tomorrow! 

Yeah new semester's starting tomorrow and I'm least prepared for school this time round. Still in a holiday mood, distancing myself from books and stuffs related to them hahaha. But I guess it's gonna be a pretty good start to the new semester tomorrow 'cos lesson is only for 2 hours! And the next day is a holiday (hari raya haji) hip hip hoooray! Shall start off the week with a positive mind :)

Alright, like what the title states, this post shall continue ranting on my 2 weeks trip to Guangzhou and Hongkong! Well actually there are just too many things to tell... and obviously this post is not adequate, but I'll just highlight the prominent ones la okay. And top it off with a set of vlogs which I've done editing with! *pats self*

My thoughts on Guangzhou:

I've always imagined Guangzhou to be one of those upper-end states, which more or less looks like Singapore, with skyscrapers and stuff, but guess I was wrong. The most shocking part is that, it was so effin' hard to converse with them 'cos most of them only know their national language. Everything was in Mandarin and to be frank, I felt lost for a moment. It's like you're clueless at everything 'cos you can't read the signs... nor can you understand what they speak. Yup that feeling.
When we were brought to the hostel of Panyu Polytechnic (the place we stayed for 11 days), I was greeted with a..... COCKROACH. And I swear I was feeling uneasy all the way through... till Raddiah swept it down to the ground floor using a broom (oh we stayed at the 5th floor).
Good thing is that, the goods there are cheap. And I went crazy at their apparels asdfghjkl! Well yup you can find them in Singapore too but you can't get them this cheap! We didn't shop that much la, only went to 3 shopping areas... and the rest were spared for Hong Kong. Another interesting stuff I got there is 'Hui Lau Shan'. It's so popular there we actually spotted quite a few stalls selling it. Oh ya, it's actually a drink stall (something like Sweet Talk here) selling fruit juice. But the unique thing is, they'll put different layers of fruits with some sago or jelly and top it off with fruit toppings. IT IS HEAVENLY REFRESHING I TELL YOU. I hope they'll expand (lol) and come to Singapore soon, like REALLY.
Other than that, we visited a number of museums and those ancient places. Visited a mosque there too at their Muslim Street, and the architecture is similar to Chinese temples too. Went to 2 factories (piano factory/beer factory) and thats when I see their workers manufacturing the stuff from scratch, in milestones, with the complicated machines... which is really tedious but skillful.
Oh and we covered two modules there! One is on conserving the environment and another one is on culture. We got the chance to actually craft our own bags/wallets/etc using leather from scratch. From sketching out our design, cutting out the leathers, colouring and varnishing, hammering holes on it for sewing before finally hand-sewing the leather. IT WAS OVERALL AN EXPERIENCE LAH BUT AGAIN, A TEDIOUS PROCESS. I'll appreciate leather stuff more now.

Well, it was an enjoyable trip to Guangzhou, all because of the great company, coursemates, schoolmates and lecturers! But of course, everyone was eager to leave Guangzhou for Hong Kong lol! And let's see what amazed me there.

My thoughts on Hong Kong: 

Hong Kong on the other hand, was expected to be totally different from China lah. Ok in case if you're unaware, HK isn't part of China anymore. Even the currency is different. Even though the distance is quite near, the atmosphere between both countries is DIFFERENT. Period.

Once we reached HK, everyone was like "OMG THIS IS TOTALLY SINGAPORE-ISH. EVERYTHING LOOKS LIKE SG." True enough, the buildings there are similar to SG's. When the tour guide brought us to one of their attractions i.e the 'avenue of stars', I swear it looks like our Raffles Place area. For once, I thought I was back in my country and I'm not even exaggerating.
Obviously, HK is much more adaptable. We managed to tour around a few attractions in less than a day 'cos HK's size is like SG. Therefore, traveling from one place to another is not time-consuming at all! We also went to victoria peak and Hong Kong University on the first day before checking in our hotel (mongkok metropark) at night. The hotel's place is strategic, me likeyyy! 'Cos its located by the streets (which is lighted up super brightly you can't even tell it's already midnight) and its just a walking distance to the malls & the famous ladies' street market which sells cheap goods. Well, besides H&M, ladies' street was the place we shopped at for all the 3 days of our stay in HK.
Second day was free and easy and we couldn't decide between Disneyland and Ocean Park. In the end, to avoid the huge crowd, we chose the Ocean Park and IT'S BY FAR THE BEST THEME PARK I'VE BEEN TO. No, not talking about the rides but the PLACE ITSELF. The whole design and concept are just unique and interesting. Firstly, it's very huge. Secondly, the park is kinda divided into 2 sections. One is on the land where they have those kids' rides, shops, eateries and show theatres. Another one is located at the mountain which is accessible via cable car or monorail. There, they have those thrilling rides such as roller coasters, 360 viking and others. AHHHMAYYYZIINGGG ISN'T IT? And it's about SGD50 ($HK320) only. (Y)

Our last day there was nothing much. We decided to wake up later than usual. We've been waking up at 7am for the past 13 days so..... guess what? We actually woke up around 10am before packing up our luggage and finally...checked out. Headed to a mediterranean restaurant for brunch (the best food ever mannnn) before roaming around the streets for the last time. At 4pm, bus-ed to HK airport and again, their airport is similar to our's! HAHAHA.

My PERSONAL vlogs on the 2 weeks trip:

I repeat, these are my PERSONAL vlogs which were created just for memories sake. Sorry for the bad quality/shakiness etc. And eheheheh my voice/face fills most parts of the video... so just bear with it lor! :P








The trip was a memorable one, filled with experiences and lessons to be learnt. I realised that being a Singaporean kid is one of the pleasures I'm granted with and I wish to travel around the world and gain more knowledge about other countries' lifestyles. :')

Tawakkal.

Assalamualaikum! :D

My last post was back in December. Which means that, I've yet to update on my O level result! Haha. So, the results came out last January on the ninth. And I think.. I did quite fairly there. As planned, I applied for polytechnic via JAE. And.... the JAE results had just came out yesterday morning! I got posted to Ngee Ann Polytechnic under the school of InfoComm Technology (ICT). The course I got into is "Information Technology" which is IT for short.

But then, I'm encountering a problem. Suddenly, the fickle-minded disease of mine is attacking me again, and I feel like not going into that course. Last 3 weeks, when I applied for this, yes, I was quite keen. But lately, after revising the modules and all... I feel that this course is too IT based. :(

Now then I realise that I actually wanted a course which gives me 60% IT and 40% Business. Yes, the course that I got into has business in it but that will be during our second year. And only 1 out of the 5 specialisations they offer is on business. Plus, it will only go by vote (as told by the lecturer). I want it to be ongoing.

Another factor is the location. I know that it's a bit lame but yes, small things distract me. I am a very precised kind of person till the extend that every single thing will come up to my mind and I'll start evaluating the pros & cons out of them. That makes it even harder for me to choose on a suitable course. Other than modules and location, the CCAs offered and the eating place are also another issue. Haiyoooo why can't I just look straight and don't bother all thaaat!!! But I just can't. T.T

So, after having a very long thought, I've decided to appeal for a course in Nanyang Polytechnic. Still under the School of Information Technology (SIT). Course: Business Enterprise IT. This course offers me quite a number of web designing modules (which I'm interested in). Actually I did include this course in my JAE but it was my.... seventh choice I think? Because of people's influences saying that choosing a well-ranked school does matter, I've chosen NP and put NYP slightly lower in the list.

But now I think.... all that does not matter.

BUT THE COURSE I'M TAKING DOES MATTER!

Whatever it is, I'm just hoping for the best. I'll submit my appeal form tonight and then... TAWAKKALTU 'ALALLAH. I'll follow whatever Allah decides for my future. Insya Allah kheyr! :)))

If I'm accepted to NYP, Alhamdulillah. If my appeal gets rejected, its okay, Alhamdulillah also.

Allah knows best for me.

Wassalam.