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23.4.04
Another inter schools girls' basketball tournament had been organised by my school. It was held at the school from the 20th to the 22nd of April. Frankly, I couldn't care less about the tournament, I played for the team solely because it'd look good in my final school report from the school.
Before the tournament, the boys had incessantly doubted that we would even get to the semi finals. They said the girls are too soft and were mocking girls in general and the way we play. Obviously they're a bunch of male chauvinist pigs. For the note, they didn't get to the finals during the football tournament, no matter that some of them were away during the tournament.
On Tuesday, we started out quite limp. I only slept for about 4 hours the night before so I was very tired indeed. Eventually we were the winner for Pool A and got to the semi finals so that proved the boys absolutely wrong.
Thursday was for the semi finals and finals. Somehow I developed a tummy ache during the morning. I don't know what it was but whenever I turned to the side or stretch, my tummy felt absolutely strained. It was so painful that I couldn't play during the first half of the semi finals.
After a while, the pain had ceased a little so I told the coach that I could play already. He subbed me in, the team we played during the semi finals were rough, they pushed a lot. Given that, I either pushed them back or get a hold of their shirts. You wanna play rough, I'll play rough as well.
The audience from that school were constantly putting us down. Midway through the second half somebody rudely pushed me and I fell down. To top it all off some boys from the other team's audience laughed at the incident, what a bunch of assholes. I got up immediately anyway and they stopped laughing.
Jackasses, I'm not the average girl, you guys are a bunch of sissies that all you can do is laugh at people who fell down because one of your schoolmates pushed me. You ought to laugh at yourselves even. Anyway we beat the team and got to the finals. Shove those sissies who laughed at me.
The other team were flipping mad because they lost. They went into the bathroom and broke a toilet door. No sense of sportsmanship at all. Anyway, one of the girls reported about the door to the principal (our coach) and he said he will send a compensation bill to the school. He also mentioned that during the football tournament, one of the teams broke a toilet door as well and they got a compensation bill from the school.
We had it rather easy during the finals. The opposing team weren't rough, they followed the rules. We had an advantage over them; our players were taller than them. They were nonetheless good. Small but they made it to the finals, we came second last among all the teams in terms of players heights.
Basically we won the tournament. All the girls were hugging, lifting the player who shot the most and all. It was not at all a big deal to me, I only needed it for my school report. Screw the team, they hardly passed the ball to me and I was left to do all the dirty work to include defending, backing up and holding up, always have.
Posted at 8:24 pm by antqueen
Injuries and incompetence
In light of the upcoming interschool girls' basketball tournament next week, organised by my school, the team has to prepare and practise for it. So on Friday during PE we played basketball, girls against boys. 4 games, each went on for 7 minutes.
I played the second game and initially didn't participate in the fourth game. Since the girls' team was short of one player, I joined in the middle of the game. Several minutes later somebody bounced the ball on the floor and it hit part of my lower lip.
There's a cut on the inside of the lip. Damn it was painful, very sore indeed. My teacher gave me a cold can of Diet Coke to compress the swell. There was a bit of blood and when I drank water I could taste the blood.
News: My school principal has just married. He hasn't been to school since Thursday as he's getting ready for his wedding reception on Saturday night. So we didn't practise basketball with him during cocurricular time today. He is our coach, he even said himself that he would take us for basketball practice today. He hasn't even lined up the team!
As of late, I have noticed a lazy and unreliable staff in the school. My school technician takes bloody long to install a software. He was supposed to install this software for TI-83 Thursday because we needed it to finish up our Maths assignment but he had not done it when I asked him Friday morning.
Frustrated as I was, I complained to my English teacher. I mean, how long does it even take to install a freaking software, you have the CD already. I just went, "The school needs a reliable technician. I bet you that if you hire me, I'd get the job done straight away." My teacher had to go to him and asked him for the CD; he installed the software on his notebooks.
The school technician had once put off installing a software for me before and damn right I wasn't happy at all about it. I asked a day in advance and the next day when I needed it he still hadn't isntall it. It absolutely ruined the acitivity I was running for some primary school kids. To top it all off, he said this when I asked him whether he had installed it, "You think I'm a machine?"
I hate it when people get paid big money to do something that they are incompetent in. It makes them bloody lazy because they know they get paid anyway. In front of the boss, they act like they're doing something.
The school network is infested with spywares/bots, worms, bugs and viruses. There's always problems with the network. That should be enough for anybody to tell how incompetent and unreliable he is but no, the school principal is just too blind. Actually, I remember the school technician getting rebuked by the previous school principal. Back then I thought our former principal was being too tough on him but looking at it now, he should have sacked him then.
Posted at 12:52 am by antqueen
Emotional and physical wounds
Today is not my day. About halfway during the day at school, I was hit with a pang.
It started with this swollen headed former classmate of mine. He was at school visiting as he's on holiday. He came into OUR English class and yet again he shamelessly revealed his swollen head. Again he was being a smarty pants with words, his knowledge and his so-called wisdom about life.
Then that teacher who thinks he is oh so righteous tried to make me feel guilty about some school activities. Frankly, I couldn't care less about the activities.
Bastards. They must have felt good for ruining my day. I hadn't had enough sleep the night before and they just had to kill me today. What great people I have around me.
In the afternoon at home I was looking for something to drink or eat. I opened the bottom part of the fridge and then the top part when I was closing the bottom part. Then wham! My right hand was almost stuck in beetween the two doors but still the hand is a bit injured.
Posted at 9:26 pm by antqueen
Since yesterday's event, it has been increasingly evident that my dad is paranoid about me. Just now I was bringing a bowl of salad into my room and my parents were just going to the kitchen. Dad saw me and instantly said, "Where are you going? You've even surpassed the whites now, you're eating SALAD IN YOUR ROOM."
Many, if not most, Malays have this thing against everything Caucasian in particular everything British. Whenever my dad sees me eating non-Malay food, he'd remark on how I'm becoming <insert ethnic>. Say when I eat a pasta dish, he'd remark that I'm becoming "white". Truth be told, unthinking and discriminative remarks like that hurt. They imply that if you eat/do something "foreign", you're automatically "foreign".
Where's the logic in that? It's not like I see everything foreign as things that I should try/have. Take food for example, there's an equal share of Malay, Chinese, Indian, Western, Italian, Thai etc. dish as my favourite food. Food is just that, I may be picky when it comes to food but eating a certain culture's dish absolutely has nothing to do with imitating that culture, not that I am anyway.
Ever since I moved to Medan and attend an international school, my family feels the need to make those remarks on almost everything I do. There I'll be eating salad and someone comes along and say, "Macam orang putih sehh!" - "Just like the whites!" Next I'll be saying something in English and someone jumps in to say, "Wahhh, speaking!". "Speaking" is a Malaysian derogatory slang that means something like "talking in English".
Why is it that the prejudice is so prevalent in my family? Perhaps my parents don't wanna lose their children to foreign culture and they use reverse psychology and intimidation to make us stick to our roots. What they should know is that this attitude of not accepting diversity that they have is gradually driving me away to the point that even I realise that they are losing me.
I like the Malay culture, really I do but as I see it, the kindness, acceptance, gentleness and politeness always associated with the culture can hardly be found in my family. Who is losing touch with their roots now?
P/S: I invited my best friend to blog here. Hopefully she joins soon :)
Posted at 10:26 pm by antqueen
So there I was sitting in the TV room eating pizza and watching this TV programme on computer virus on a Saturday afternoon. Dad came out of his bedroom and asked me to switch to video mode, said I should watch this VCD. He said it's about the Christian practice of converting Muslims into Christianity and that I should watch it because, "Your next school wouldn't have any Muslim in its community and you'll be mixing with Christians. If you don't watch this you'll be following their lifestyle."
All I had in mind was "Everybody knows about it, Dad and the practice is not only limited on Muslims. Just so you know some Christian churches don't practise it at all."
Then Mum said, "You'd better tell the teachers about your daily prayers and the fasting month. Would there be any Malays in the school?" Dad said no, gee, how does he even know.
I wish people would just stop treating me like I'm a 10 year old girl who knows and understands nothing. I am 16 and I jolly well can take care of myself. Nobody's gonna brainwash me, they can try but I know better about how I want to lead my life.
It's really frustrating when your family thinks they know you best when they actually do not know you at all. Yes, thank you very much for bringing me into this life but it is now MY life. It's always the girls that have all these restrictions. I'm not surprised why many girls, including me, wish they were boys instead.
Be informed that my next school is an international school, secular and internationally-driven. There'd be people of different faiths and ethnic groups, from Muslims to Hindus and Caucasians to Malay. Obviously there are Malays in Thailand although they're mostly in southern Thailand. The school nurtures their students as global citizens which is one of the reasons why I chose it in the first place.
I suppose my parents do not understand what being a global citizen is all about. They fear that I would lose my roots and become completely "Westernised". Their idea of Westernisation is only based on what they see on TV which is completely different from the true Western culture itself. From my interaction with Westerners so far, they are all nice people who accept me as I am.
I have mixed with people from many different countries and I enjoy the cross-cultural interaction. We are all humans, no matter what our ethnics and beliefs. Set the prejudice aside, celebrate and accept diversity. Let's all get along.
Posted at 2:16 am by antqueen
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