ILYG 08 Day 0

For me, the International Lasallian Youth Gathering 2008 started when Mdm. Stella, our teacher advisor of the LaSallian Society (LSS) for our alma mater contacted me last April and informed me that I have been selected as one of the delegates to represent Malaysia at the Gathering. Needless to say, I was thrilled, and was already counting down the days till I would be at Melbourne, getting to know people, and sharing our unique lasallian culture with delegates from all over the world.

All throughout the months leading up to the time when we’ll be departing for Melbourne, the time was spent looking for sponsors to finance our trip. This was because the Brothers have kindly consented to sponsor us half the amount needed for the event, so then we would be in charge of finding the other half.

After months of preparation, the day finally came when we would depart for Melbourne. On 7^th July, Norman and I boarded the plane which would take us to Singapore, where we would meet Varun and Isaac, and would fly together to Melbourne, after transiting at Darwin.

Our first night at Melbourne, and we were already drinking Starbucks Coffee =p
Clockwise from bottom left: Varun, Creski, Norman, Me

Flight was uneventful, so wouldn’t bore you all too much with that. But when we touched down at Melbourne, the air was biting cold, and just minutes after exposure to the weather, I was absolutely freezing, never mind the fact that I absolutely do not like cold weather..I mean, I even use a blanket to sleep on hot sunny days.. -_-“ My first thought was, “how am I gonna survive one whole week in this weather? I’ll need to use five layers of clothing to sleep at night.”

I would like to think that my body fat would be enough to insulate me, but I was quickly proven wrong. Seems the cold weather in Melbourne can easily penetrate through your skin, and straight to the bones…hence, I was freezing within five minutes from alighting from the plane.

We were greeted by Brother Dennis, who then brought us to the hotel (Hotel Discovery) and let us get settled down. We had one full day to recover before starting the actual commencement of the event. The Malaysia delegation were given three rooms, and since I was the only girl, I had one room for myself ^^ and happily, the room I got, was one with a heater. So I was super grateful for that =) no need to freeze to death already at night..

This was taken during the flight, and as I was sleeping peacefully, Varun decided to act all manja and complain that he couldn't sleep..

So then, I woke up, and proceeded to write in my journal...

When we were all settled, we went over to the designated café for our breakfast, but were told that we were too late, therefore had to have our own breakfast. However, I didn’t join the rest of the delegation as my cousin came over to pick me up and bring me around town (since we lived quite close to the city. So I missed the chance of going over to De La Salle (DLS) College early to register and get my things -_-“ but I had a great time with my cousin, so I’m happy =)

De La Salle College, Malvern, where the bulk of the program was held, and is an awesome college =)

St John Baptist De La Salle

Basically, that was my first day at Melbourne, and yes, even with the heat from the heater, I STILL had to wear three layers of clothing to sleep…there was a knob on the heater, ranging from 1-9, with 9 being full blast of heat. I wished they had number 50 instead….