Sharifah Amani, Jasmin Hassan, Jamal Raslan, and Anwar Hadi. 4 big names gathered together in one place in one day with one purpose; to share and learn together.
Our Saturday morning at the campsite started off with a big breakfast. When I was a kid, my dad always reminded me how "breakfast is the most important meal of the day". And boy, he was right. It truly is. At breakfast, I had a quick chat with this one guy who came to the same campsite but for another camp. He was so excited when he found out that we're the team from Englishjer. I swear his face kind of like lighted up, something like that. One thing I'll never forget was his one tiny question, "Oh, is the camp for real? Ingatkan EJ main-main.". Sorry EJ. Lol. Dee, Puteri and myself accompanied a few campers right after to have a quick splishy splashy at the nearby river.
Our Saturday morning at the campsite started off with a big breakfast. When I was a kid, my dad always reminded me how "breakfast is the most important meal of the day". And boy, he was right. It truly is. At breakfast, I had a quick chat with this one guy who came to the same campsite but for another camp. He was so excited when he found out that we're the team from Englishjer. I swear his face kind of like lighted up, something like that. One thing I'll never forget was his one tiny question, "Oh, is the camp for real? Ingatkan EJ main-main.". Sorry EJ. Lol. Dee, Puteri and myself accompanied a few campers right after to have a quick splishy splashy at the nearby river.
At around 10 plus, one of our most awaited speaker came, Kak Sharifah Amani! I was starstruck. It was beyond my imagination to have Kak Sharifah Amani right in front of me. She was adorable! I mean I've met her a few times here and there but the vibe was definitely different at EJCamp. You know, because she's THE Sharifah Amani. Sharifah Amani was at our camp. With the big picture of Building Confidence, Kak Sharifah Amani went totally honest sharing some of her biggest life experiences. From how she got her opportunity working with the late Yasmin Ahmad to how she got dissed by the public for just being herself. Have I mentioned how she was really adorable?
"Do you always speak perfect Malay to your friends? No? So why do you have to speak perfect English then?" - Jasmin Hassan
Right after lunch, we had Madam Jasmin Hassan on stage to talk about Communicate! Great combination I would say. Learning on how to improve your confidence in the morning and how to release it at right after. Frankly speaking, I only got to know about Madam Jasmin Hassan after a few tweets from EJ about her. My first thought when I saw her was, "eh, Nurul Izzah!". That's reminds me of something, I wish I had the chance to learn on how she wears her scarf. Urgh, so pretty! So Madam Jasmin Hassan gave a full length talk on how to speak English.
English isn't about grammar, I mean, we all know that grammar is important, but grammar isn't everything. It never was, and I don't see grammar as a big issue, so it never will. Speaking English starts from deep within, it starts from having the confidence to do so. I know I don't speak perfect Malay, although I try to from time to time because Malay is a beautiful language. Hence, I never stressed myself to speak perfect English. I just do. And we all learn along the way because as the saying goes, "practice makes perfect". So you know, just do, never be scared to make a few mistakes along the way. You'll get the hang of it darling.
Flying fox in the evening was so fun! We got ourselves pumping our adrenalin by climbing a few steps up the hill heading to the flying fox place and then went swoshing down. You know, some kapal terbang terbang tak ada pilot cause I'm so fly. (Although we do have our very own pilot up there with us, Abam Wan Arief Imran awh *insert big red heart emoticon*) I've been eyeing on the river since the first day we arrived so when the kids invited me over to join them for a quick dip, YES PLEASE. Have you guys ever tried floating yourself and just let your body flows down the river? Best thing ever! It was so calming, I swear all my problems floated away in a flick.
Aih. Now I miss swimming.
After dinner was Expression Night with Jamal Raslan.
I had a lot of fun during this one too. It was one the scariest because I had to use my brain to think and speak up a few times just cause "You look very familiar, you reminded me of someone I knew that's why I suka panggil you a few times". I am glad though because I learnt a lot from that session! Jamal Raslan is a poet, a spoken one. He speaks word, as compared to writing them. And he speaks beautifully. Please go check out his SoundCloud or something to listen, he is amazing! Wait I should probably link it down below, here:
Go listen!
We ended the night with some campfire session at the campsite.
Have you ever tried this amazing creation called s'moreos? Marshmallows squished in between an oreo and melts when you pop it in your mouth? I swear my heart probably skipped 24 beats as I pop each s'moreos in. Everyone were very creative in ensuring their food were well cooked. Sausages wrapped in aluminium foils, mini campfire oven by the side, you just name it. We had a great time singing along to the songs blasted through the mini speaker while Aika quarreled with Keren taking turns who gets to pick the next song on the playlist. We had Anwar Hadi to lead us a few songs too while he danced in the background. Definitely a whole lot of good times.
So that was my Day 2 experience guys! I know I took atleast 20 days after the first post to have this one up, but I'll try to summarise Day 3 in a jiffy! Till the next post, darling.
