Krithika- Confessions of an Outdoor Person

My actual Malaysia Week experience was really fun and awesome. Even though I did things that I had never done before, I adapted to these challenges, environment and situation well because my group and I helped each other so if one of us were in a horrible situation (like overcoming the fear of crabs and mudskippers in the mud), we could always depend on each other for help.

Anne Schmidt- five words...

Hi I’m Anne, five words that describe me are rambunctious, creative, random, funny, and lost.
I’m really excited for Malaysia week and I can’t wait for the bon-fire… not to mention I lose everything.

Challenges of an Outdoor Person- Rachel

Malaysia Week was fantastic. I loved the Orang-Asli village. It was fun and interesting. I was concerned that I might have offended the local villagers, to make sure that I didn’t offend the locals I watched how people were around them and what they avoided doing. I managed to spent a few hours with them without offending them. During those short hours the locals showed us how to use the blow darts and we got to teach them to use the stationary we brought them. One of the other challenges that we faced that day was the long walk to the village; the sun was baking us to death, but then we got picked up by a pickup truck. Malaysia Week was so fun!

Nikhil - Challenges of an Outdoor Person

My actual experience of Malaysia Week turned out to be really, really good. I think it was the best site ever. The best thing was that we got open-air rainforest toilets at our site, The Roots. We also got to live in tree houses, but really special ones, we had beds, cool air, comfy pillows, and an amazing bathroom where I could see stars. One fun thing was that I got to snorkel for the first time. This was a challenge for me because I didn't know how to snorkel so I went slowly at first and I held on to my life jacket until I felt better. Another challenge for me was planting a sapling in the mangroves. We went on a boat, had a great lunch and then we stepped off the boat and slurped into the mud - it felt squishy and made lots of 'windy' noises! We had to fight the big crabs and the mudskippers for space to walk in. At first this was really scary but after a while I got used to it and I enjoyed the mudfight with my friends.

Nikhil - Challenges of an Outdoor Person

My actual experience of Malaysia Week turned out to be really, really good. I think it was the best site ever. The best thing was that we got open-air rainforest toilets at our site, The Roots. We also got to live in tree houses, but really special ones, we had beds, cool air, comfy pillows, and an amazing bathroom where I could see stars. One fun thing was that I got to snorkel for the first time. This was a challenge for me because I didn't know how to snorkel so I went slowly at first and I held on to my life jacket until I felt better. Another challenge for me was planting a sapling in the mangroves. We went on a boat, had a great lunch and then we stepped off the boat and slurped into the mud - it felt squishy and made lots of 'windy' noises! We had to fight the big crabs and the mudskippers for space to walk in. At first this was really scary but after a while I got used to it and I enjoyed the mudfight with my friends.

Challanges of an Outdoor Person - Gita

My actual experience of Malaysia Week turned out to be really awesome. Everyone was really friendly, the food was really good, but the challenge for me was snorkeling. I was a little bit seasick and my head ached so I floated and took a rest when I felt ill. When I felt really ill, I stayed closer to Joey (my ‘buddy’) and Ligia. Roots Idol was very awesome!

Gita

Anne schmidt- challenges of an outdoor person

My experience in Malaysia week turned out to be AWESOME! I didn’t want to go back home! I really had nothing to worry about unless it was the huge red ants. At the beach there were red ants that would bite, and it drove me crazy! So instead of staying ob the sand I went to the water to hang out were the ants couldn't get to me. But I had so much more fun that I’d expected. I really had no need to be scared. And as for the ants, I forgot about those during Malaysia week.

Some advice for the people next year that go to this sight is that Tanjung Rambutan is really a pampering Malaysia week sight so there is not much to worry about. And mangroves aren’t scary either! They’re really nothing to fuss about because there’s absolutely nothing that can hurt you (including leeches!). So there’s nothing to be anxious about… unless you dislike crabs!

Niqui: Challenges of an Outdoor Person

I am really anxious about the activities we are going to do because I always like going through something challenging and having a chance to overcome it. I’m also looking forward to the performance at the end of the party. The last thing I really want to do is to have an entire week of nothing but giving the Earth back what we had taken.

My actual experience turned out to be better than I imagined. Trudging through the muddy mangrove was one of the best events of Malaysia Week, as was the bus ride that included massages and massaging. The final night performance was harder to accomplish than I thought (WHAT SONG!?!) but altogether, MW was fantastic.

The best advice that I can offer to someone who will go to Tanjung Rambutan next year is don’t worry. The only problems you might have are snorkeling without getting dizzy (this can be solved if you drink plenty of water before going snorkeling because you will get very thirsty then get a headache) and panicking in the mangrove. The crabs can barely hurt you, so just ignore then. Don’t try to run from them because doing that will destroy their homes and you could kill a lot of crabs. They can only pinch you with all they have and still not do any damage while you can crush them without noticing.

ARI∑ - Challenges of an Outdoor Person

My actual experience turned out to be awesome! We went to a mangrove, snorkeling and exploring Old Town Ipoh. We went snorkeling at the coast of Pulau Pankor. This was my first time snorkeling. I felt very sick after the snorkeling trip. I think the most challenging day was planting a sapling tree. Also we planted the tree in the mud. I helped two people through the mud. At the last day we went to Ipoh and we walked around Old Town. The people from Roots treated us for lunch. It was an exciting trip. Also there were no leeches.

Surbhit - Challenges of an Outdoor Person

My actual experience turned out to be great! It was a lot of fun in the mangroves and in the swimming pool at Roots. We had no leeches and great food on our site. We had a lot of fun. The best part about Malaysia Week was the mangroves and where we lived (in tree houses). I also liked the sapling planting in the mangroves where we had a huge mud fight. It was so great to pick up the mud in our hand and see all the small crabs in the mud. After the mud fight we all washed off in the mangrove water and then jumped back on the boat. I will always remember that day. The challenge was that I was a bit scared of all the crabs but I tried not to think about them and followed where my team mates had already stepped because the crabs had run away from those places.

Surbhit

Daniel- Challenges of an out-door person

My actual experience turned out to be AMAZING!!!

The only challenge was the fact that I needed to learn some Malay in order to communicate and be able to do activities with the children at the Orang Asli village, as nearly none of them could speak English. The way I overcame this was by asking Qistina and Richard questions on how to say some words in Malay. Some of the sentences that I managed to learn were: Siapa nama kamu?(What is your name?), Apa ini dalam Bahasa Malayu?(What is this in Malay?).

Maria- Challenges of and outdoor person

My actual experience turned out to be great and awesome. There was nothing that was imperfect. The food was great, our tree houses was a very nice place to stay at, very clean and we were able to sleep very comfortably. My challenge was to communicate in Bahasa Malay and also being able to drink enough water to stay healthy. The use of Bahasa Malay was to be able to speak to the Orang Asli people and get to know them, since they didn't speak English. Even though I didn't know that much Malay, I had lots of fun anyways. It was a really great trip.

Gloria- Challenges of an Outdoor Person

My actual experience on Malaysia Week turned out to be... awesome! I got to experience things that I had never done before in my life. One of the biggest challenges I had during the week was going to plant the saplings in mangroves. This was because we had to plant them in crab infested mud. This mud went up to my knees! When I stepped off of the safety of the boat, and tried to step into the mud, my feet felt gross. When I saw all the crabs - I screamed! I squelched back to the boat and tried to get into that mud again, and again, and again.... but I was useless! I shook with fear. I sweated. My eyes bulged. I stayed on the boat until Mrs Psillides came and gently coaxed me in. (She actually told me there were no crabs....hmmmm). She put her feet into the mud and as she took her foot out she told me to step into her footprint. However, as I moved my feet into the footprint, crabs came running into the hole. I was disgusted! So I quickly squelched in, planted my sapling and when I was ready to go back to the boat- a huge mud fight had started! I had to wait there, stranded in the mud, until everyone was done playing with the mud, so that they could help me get out of there! I had to stay there for about a minute, but it seemed like hours to me. When they finished playing, Mrs Psillides came to help me and we sank our feet into the mud again, deeply, and we washed in the muddy waters of the mangroves. I had to clutch onto her back and she gave me a piggy back because I was scared to death! I ran to reach the boat. As we left in the boat, I looked at my small tree and decided to call it 'James Bond'. I called 'Bye!' to my tree, gave him a wave, and I realized what a great thing I had done for the environment. The gross feeling was definitively worth it.

Qistina - Challenges of an Outdoor Person

My heart was thumping, threatening to jump out of my chest. My mind was racing, making half of my brain throb with fear. I stared out at the ocean, wondering whether the tiny little creatures underneath the surface were waiting for me to jump into the big waves. My mask was fogging up, and I took it as a sign that maybe I shouldn't go snorkeling. I glanced at my partner Krithika, and she gave me a thumbs up, a huge smile on her face. At least someone was excited. I gave her a tiny grin back, and closed my eyes. I tugged at my lifejacket, making sure it wasn't loose. I loosened my mask a little, allowing oxygen to enter. I needed to calm down. It was the only way to get this over with. I could hear Richard, our guide, announcing to the whole group that it was time to walk down to the shores, preparing for our snorkeling. I looked around at Daniel and Maria, the looks on their faces jubilant. Great, I'm one of the only people to be worried. I placed the plastic part of the mask into my mouth, biting the edges of it with my side braces. It hurt, but as long as water didn't enter my mask, I'd be fine. Our group waded into the water, looking down at the sea creatures. They looked so tiny! I smiled slightly at the sight. We swam deeper into the ocean, observing corals and sea cucumbers and certain fish. My ribs had started to hurt by the time we were done snorkeling, but I felt refreshed! The whole time, I was scared of going snorkeling, and I couldn't believe how worried I was! I thought about everything we did in the past four days, and I was almost jumping out of my own skin; everything was so much fun! From the tree houses to the snorkeling, there was not a day that I missed home. Realizing it was the second last day before we had to leave, I was quite sad; being away from my parents never affected me so much that I wanted to stay away! Going back to the city seemed boring, but I knew if I kept thinking about it, it would be worse the next day, when we actually had to leave. On the bus back to KL, I remembered all the silly and goofy moments that seemed to take play in our whole Malaysia Week, and I decided, that out of all the temporary homes I've had, this, Tanjung Rambutan, was my favorite one.

Rachel M - Challenges of an Outdoor Person

My actual experience on Malaysia Week turned out to be really fun. Sometimes I just felt like “Ugh, I just can’t wait to go home” and then I began to feel really discouraged and impatient. But my friends were there to support me and most of the time, I was ready and prepared to go into the next activity. The activities were fun and they taught me a lot.

I thought that the biggest challenge on the trip was staying away from my closest friends. I mean I made some new friends it’s just I couldn’t wait to hear about my friends Malaysia Week, and I wanted to talk to them about the things that were we mostly talked about. The second hardest thing for me was paying attention to the instructions. It was hard because I didn’t want to hear about the plantations and the plants. I really wanted to just hurry up. I also wanted to just move forward and talk to my friends while we walked because it was so hot and I couldn’t wait. The last challenge for me was to keep smiling while we did things that were out of my comfort zone. The snorkelling was the most uncomfortable thing I have been through. There was salt getting into my eyes and than there was water that chapped my lips, it also made me very thirsty, I couldn’t see anything at the bottom of the reef and I couldn’t wait to go back to shore. I kept on smiling about it though and I managed to make it to the reef and back without any complaints. These were all the challenges I faced, but for others on my site, they may have been different from what my challenges, getting along with other people, teamwork, not used to camping, too hot and sweaty. But some people also may have had the same challenges as me. But in the end, we all managed to survive and get over the problems we had. I enjoyed Malaysia Week and it’s an experience I will never forget. I had some challenges, but then I had some easy hurdles to jump over. I can’t wait for next year’s Malaysia Week, and I have some friends that I never knew before but now we’re waving to each other when pass by in the hallways.

-Rachel McKinley, (American) Grade 6

Malaysia Week post

Hi. Krithika here. The five words that describe me are funny, lovable, culmsy, adrenalized and hardworking.

What I am excited about for Malaysia Week is meeting new friends, getting to know the people that lives there, doing things I have never done before and having fun!!!

MW Blogpost

Hello, my name is Veronica Dizon, or just Niqui (pronounced as Nikki) for short. If there was a small dictionary describing me that only consists of 5 words, those 5 words would be: Sporty, talkative, optimistic, clumsy and a procrastinator. Oops!

The events I am most eager towards during MW are hiking, socializing and exploring the cave. Although we probably won't be doing this, I'd also look forward to biking. My perfect Malaysia week site wouldn't involve swimming, plenty of hiking and a very clean bathroom.