When I made a reservation for the transport, the person in charge told me that we would leave at 2pm. At 2.20pm only, some of my students came from their lunch and we were still waiting for the bus. At first, I thought it was our "Malaysian culture". Another fifteen minutes were over and there was still no sign of the bus at the departure point. One of them kindly found out the driver's contact number from the administration office and called him on my behalf. The driver had overlooked the schedule! At about 2.45pm, the bus appeared at last to bring us to the event which would start at 3pm and the venue was 35 minutes' driving distance away with all the traffic lights!
I had been told that the French team would perform at 4pm. Moreover, thinking of our "Malaysian culture" again, I was not really worried about not being punctual. My colleagues in Alor Gajah were more anxious about my late arrival, for they needed to coordinate with us who had not been there in the morning for the rehearsal.
We were the only degree group from the city campus. I was wearing a black shirt and grey slacks. When I saw that most of my colleagues were gorgeously dressed up in kebaya or baju kurung, I felt myself like a "gangster intruder" leading a group of 14 followers...
The programme started with readers' theatre in English,
news reading in English
and dikir barat in Arabic.
We had been allocated 10 minutes for performance. So I decided to send all my singing winner groups. The group which had won the third prize could not come. I had the pleasure to listen again to my runners-up's songs "ABC", "Exception" and "De Toi A Moi".
It was a pity that the sound system in that hall was quite bad. The girls' voices were less clear than last time without the microphones in the classroom.
This time, the boys did not exchange their guitars.
The champion group also attracted a lot of attention with their song "One, Deux, Trois, Quatre", choreography and guitar.
These were not only active as students in my French class. They were charismatic artists on the stage as well. Had I been holding a bouquet of flower, I would have run to them like an excited fan!
After their performance, there was another news reading in English and Arabic, and dikir barat in BM.
I had been instructed last minute to appoint a student as an emcee to make some announcements in French. The best candidate who had the "package" was the first-prize winner for the quiz who was also one of the top scorers in my subject last semester. I wrote a few sentences to pass to her and guided her in the pronunciation.
After seeing others receiving the prizes, it was finally her turn.
The Mandarin group all in red presented a Chinese New Year song. Mandarin oranges were given to us at the same time.
When I submitted the proposal two months ago, I followed my colleague's example to put cash as the prizes. The organisers bought hampers instead. I was glad that my students were allowed to join us for refreshments. So both their hands and stomachs were full when they left the campus.
My dear students, thank you for your willingness to participate in this event. Enjoy your feast with egg rolls and chocolate during the Chinese New Year semester break!
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