Colloquium: the nightmarish dream
my bed never looked more interesting and inviting ever before.
yesterday was the colloquium that my classmates and i held as a class project. there would be a colloquium every semester and it is the fifth semester's students' turn to organize the event. this time, my classmates and i (we are in the 5th semester) had to collaborate with a class of 6th semester students (they are from diploma whereas we are from STPM, an exam which is equivalent to a diploma, but instead of three years of study like a diploma, STPM requires only two).
honestly, they were annoying but helpful. yes, they got more experience from their diploma years. i think that they are showing us that fact a little bit too much that it got to a point where they are just doing so to annoy the rest of us! initially we had distributed the work equally. there are the publicity committee, sponsorship committee, etc. so, in each committee, there are semester 5 students and also semester6. we tried hard to work together. some are alright; they were willing to cooperate, while others just think that they are too good to be doing such work. argh! insufferable gits.
luckily, we managed to pull ourselves together and did an amazing job. well, the whole thing was okay, in my opinion. unlike other colloquiums, ours had two boring panels. the colloquium before, they had this amazingly funny TV guy and he had everyone laughing their asses off. this time, however, the title itself was boring. it's self-explanatory: news coverage, political power and profit. so, you could imagine how the panel speakers were like. all serious and intellectual. honestly, i've never been as bored in my life. ok, maybe i had, but that's beside the point.
we had to wear formal clothing: blazer, shirt and slacks. we had agreed to make the theme color red, black and white. so you could imagine how cool we looked. my girlfriends and i were flaunting ourselves with our high-heels and make-up faces, while the boys showed up in their suits. it was surprising to see some of them because prior to this, we had never gone out of our houses looking like that. it was a nice change. when else can you act like you belong to a corporate world? well, ok, maybe once you actually enter the corporate world when you're older, but once again, that's beside the point.
i was the assistant treasurer. so i was in charge of collecting money from the juniors. they are such a pain in patella because they are too slow to pay. too many excuses were given. it was actually compulsory for them to come and supposedly they'd get a punishment or some sort for not going. i thought it was the sure thing to make them scared but heh. they are such bigheads. i don't really blame those who had made prior engagements.
anywho, we were supposed to invite four speakers, anybody who could speak about the theme of the colloquium. they have to be credible, of course. yeah, previous colloquiums, we had many interesting personalities and jokers as our speakers. so this time, we thought we could be having the same kind of speakers. God knows what happened to the people who was supposed to find such people. we ended up getting a political science lecturer, and a local tv station news editor. two people. they could be funnier but they chose not to. the lecturer couldnt tell a joke to save his life. however, he could really whip up an impressive lecture about politics. he knew a lot about it. the news editor was... heh, sometimes funny. and he could never stop promoting his tv station. annoying.
so, all in all, the content of the colloquium was okay. it really brought people to sleep but, who knows. maybe it was interesting to them but not to me. i found the information about the country's politics interesting because it was full of scandal. hehe!
everybody who came had to pay rm10 as an entrance fee. the food that we catered cost rm8 each. it consisted of breakfast (fried noodle, some kuih and tea) and lunch (tomato rice, chicken and vege). much attention was given to the food during the preparation period. the food committee was very concerned about what people would want to eat, so they were very serious in planning the menu. since it cost rm8, i thought it would be a grand meal. heh. it was not. one word: small. 'nuff said.
every colloquium, those who attended would get free goodie bags, usually filled with mags, merchandize from the local tourism ministry, drinks etc. so, in order to get those free stuff, you'd have to go look for sponsors. there's a committee in charge of that and i was surprised that we got so many free stuff. instead of one bag, they'll get two. so it was awesome. one of my friends who attended even told me to invite her to events like this if she's gonna get this much free stuff.
i think we could have done better. we could have better food. we could have better speakers. we could have better... seniors. seriously. after cleaning up the place for a bit, we had a photo-taking session, which was to me the highlight of the day. everyone gathered in the hall, all smooshed together to be in the picture. it was full of laughter and everyone was being themselves, plus the occasional act-sultry-and-cute-for-the-camera. everyone forgot the dissimilarities between us that were so obvious before. we all had the same mission: to look good.
there were loads of goodie bags left (since not many people came). so they had to be transferred back to our faculty. my friend and i took the liberty to run off from the scene to avoid anymore backaches. luckily, as we reached home, it started to rain cats and dogs, plus the thunder and lightning. if we had helped, we'd be stranded at the faculty. so, i considered myself lucky.
yeah. even though i had babbled on about doing the colloquium better, i was pretty satisfied with the whole thing. i was pretty satisfied that it was over.
it was exhausting but it was worth every pain i had felt.
yesterday was the colloquium that my classmates and i held as a class project. there would be a colloquium every semester and it is the fifth semester's students' turn to organize the event. this time, my classmates and i (we are in the 5th semester) had to collaborate with a class of 6th semester students (they are from diploma whereas we are from STPM, an exam which is equivalent to a diploma, but instead of three years of study like a diploma, STPM requires only two).
honestly, they were annoying but helpful. yes, they got more experience from their diploma years. i think that they are showing us that fact a little bit too much that it got to a point where they are just doing so to annoy the rest of us! initially we had distributed the work equally. there are the publicity committee, sponsorship committee, etc. so, in each committee, there are semester 5 students and also semester6. we tried hard to work together. some are alright; they were willing to cooperate, while others just think that they are too good to be doing such work. argh! insufferable gits.
luckily, we managed to pull ourselves together and did an amazing job. well, the whole thing was okay, in my opinion. unlike other colloquiums, ours had two boring panels. the colloquium before, they had this amazingly funny TV guy and he had everyone laughing their asses off. this time, however, the title itself was boring. it's self-explanatory: news coverage, political power and profit. so, you could imagine how the panel speakers were like. all serious and intellectual. honestly, i've never been as bored in my life. ok, maybe i had, but that's beside the point.
we had to wear formal clothing: blazer, shirt and slacks. we had agreed to make the theme color red, black and white. so you could imagine how cool we looked. my girlfriends and i were flaunting ourselves with our high-heels and make-up faces, while the boys showed up in their suits. it was surprising to see some of them because prior to this, we had never gone out of our houses looking like that. it was a nice change. when else can you act like you belong to a corporate world? well, ok, maybe once you actually enter the corporate world when you're older, but once again, that's beside the point.
i was the assistant treasurer. so i was in charge of collecting money from the juniors. they are such a pain in patella because they are too slow to pay. too many excuses were given. it was actually compulsory for them to come and supposedly they'd get a punishment or some sort for not going. i thought it was the sure thing to make them scared but heh. they are such bigheads. i don't really blame those who had made prior engagements.
anywho, we were supposed to invite four speakers, anybody who could speak about the theme of the colloquium. they have to be credible, of course. yeah, previous colloquiums, we had many interesting personalities and jokers as our speakers. so this time, we thought we could be having the same kind of speakers. God knows what happened to the people who was supposed to find such people. we ended up getting a political science lecturer, and a local tv station news editor. two people. they could be funnier but they chose not to. the lecturer couldnt tell a joke to save his life. however, he could really whip up an impressive lecture about politics. he knew a lot about it. the news editor was... heh, sometimes funny. and he could never stop promoting his tv station. annoying.
so, all in all, the content of the colloquium was okay. it really brought people to sleep but, who knows. maybe it was interesting to them but not to me. i found the information about the country's politics interesting because it was full of scandal. hehe!
everybody who came had to pay rm10 as an entrance fee. the food that we catered cost rm8 each. it consisted of breakfast (fried noodle, some kuih and tea) and lunch (tomato rice, chicken and vege). much attention was given to the food during the preparation period. the food committee was very concerned about what people would want to eat, so they were very serious in planning the menu. since it cost rm8, i thought it would be a grand meal. heh. it was not. one word: small. 'nuff said.
every colloquium, those who attended would get free goodie bags, usually filled with mags, merchandize from the local tourism ministry, drinks etc. so, in order to get those free stuff, you'd have to go look for sponsors. there's a committee in charge of that and i was surprised that we got so many free stuff. instead of one bag, they'll get two. so it was awesome. one of my friends who attended even told me to invite her to events like this if she's gonna get this much free stuff.
i think we could have done better. we could have better food. we could have better speakers. we could have better... seniors. seriously. after cleaning up the place for a bit, we had a photo-taking session, which was to me the highlight of the day. everyone gathered in the hall, all smooshed together to be in the picture. it was full of laughter and everyone was being themselves, plus the occasional act-sultry-and-cute-for-the-camera. everyone forgot the dissimilarities between us that were so obvious before. we all had the same mission: to look good.
there were loads of goodie bags left (since not many people came). so they had to be transferred back to our faculty. my friend and i took the liberty to run off from the scene to avoid anymore backaches. luckily, as we reached home, it started to rain cats and dogs, plus the thunder and lightning. if we had helped, we'd be stranded at the faculty. so, i considered myself lucky.
yeah. even though i had babbled on about doing the colloquium better, i was pretty satisfied with the whole thing. i was pretty satisfied that it was over.
it was exhausting but it was worth every pain i had felt.