all strange & weird

I had a funny feeling this week. What is that actually? I’m trying to find out, trying to recall any familiar situation to this. Maybe it’s the feeling of a major exam approaching? Maybe it’s the excitement of going home and to finally relax a bit? Maybe it’s the calm feeling when you got used to your new surroundings. I thought it feels like Ramadhan because of the unusual tranquillity despite your growling stomach (because you’re broke). Or maybe it’s the feeling of failing (or almost) your papers. . I’m not sure. And I don’t know if it’s a good or a bad feeling – but it’s funny alright.

This is the story of one of the strangest things that ever happened to me in my whole life.

When I was 10, I lived in a school’s quarters somewhere in the edge of the city (also the edge of the village). I heard that this ‘edge’ place is worse than the city, even the village, in terms of their youngsters’ behaviours. Maybe I heard this from some teachers I can’t be certain who. One evening, I was taking a stroll in the back part of the school, near the corner of the back fields, towards the little back gate which leads outside the school compound and to a river nearby, with my 7-year old sister and 9-year old neighbour. The place was always quiet and sometimes it had the eerie feeling that someone is watching you. There’s no one in the area, except the nearest villagers who lived nearby the river. The school border on that particular side was always covered with bushes and shady, half-dead trees. Sometimes, we spotted a couple of guys or even girls or both behind the bushes. It’s scary to think what they were up to – we caught a pair one evening! – Sometimes, we spotted a flock of birds of unknown species (which I have never seen in books) scratching for food below the trees. I think they are those species which can’t fly – but they’re not chickens! They are at least as 3 times the size of a rooster. Some are more than four times as large. I drew nearer because I can’t be certain what exactly are those weird black shapes lurking under the trees. When I did, all of them turned their small heads to stare at me and gave that chilling feeling. They were quiet and it seemed that they didn’t feel threatened of people’s presence. I was the one who did.

Well, back to the story now. We were strolling and decided to visit the still river which means, that we had to go through the tiny exit gate. When we were just five metres from the gate, a group of children (five of them I supposed, four girls and a boy – all were little and of almost the same age as us) popped out from nowhere and stood in the middle of our path. They were at the mouth of the gate but still in the area outside the school. We stopped dead in our tracks and looked up at them (the gate was a bit elevated because it was leading to a higher ground outside where the river was located). We were surprised as they were acting weird. They laughed and giggled to us (in a teasing tone) as if we did anything at all. The momentary silence and awkwardness were soon broken when one of them called out a name – my sister’s.

I was relieved when at the thought that they were my sister’s friends and wanted to join us. I turned to my sister, “A friend of yours?” My sister shook her head, saying, “No, no. I’ve never seen them before.” Then the second girl called out the same name. My sister was trying hard to recall the faces that she might have known before. “Maybe your school friends?”, I suggested. “No. I’m sure they’re not anyone I know or even have seen before.” It was a logical answer even from a 7-year old as my sister just started her school in this new place and we lived nowhere near other villagers. “Who are you? What’s your name?”, my neighbour yelled out to them. There was no answer but instead, they kept on laughing and giggling and calling out my sister’s name. We repeated asking for their names and how did they know us. There were no answers, only laughs and titters.

I was a kind of a rebel back then and so I challenged them, saying, “What do you want from us, eh? Don’t try to scare us because we are not! Come and have a duel with me if you want a fight!” I moved forward, closer to them so that they felt threatened. Then, they stop laughing and looked to their right at something (which didn’t know what because our view was blocked by bushes). Then a boy appeared and came striding fast towards us with a parang.

Our eyes were big with fear but I stuck to my ego and moved nearer to the shirtless, slightly older and Chinese-like faced boy with the weapon. I was sure that he would not hurt me because.. that is the story which we can only found in news, not nearby. That was the thought I had. We continue to move forward, closer to one another and when he was close enough to be able to scratch me with the tip of the parang...

to be continued... (kinda too long don'tcha think?)

the Poenari

Blogging once a week makes me run out of ideas. I am not of any particular mood or feeling this week. What I am sure is that I was extremely tired last Thursday and this is week is the strangest week of all. Little unexpected things showed up recently and I was quite surprised and puzzled. Details are confidential of course.

Nadira suggested me to write something about my favourite books or anything I have read. I have yet to finish my #1 favourite book and the #2 is too complicated to be described even the overall story. Both books captivated me and they still do. The writers have excellent ideas and skills to describe them. They create a virtual seemingly real world in this actual real world. Amazing events are ingeniously expressed and illustrated in words. I was there, witnessing the events and the beauty of the places and their people, every time I read those books. For me, the skill is an intense, extreme gift to be bestowed upon. Why don’t I have such brilliant creativity? It’s quite true that I do not really enjoy writing stories but it would help a lot to have the knack in my studies of architecture.

Try browsing for castles through the internet. I would suggest anyone interested to look for ‘Castle of Dracula’. It is my favourite among all the buildings I know – excluding the Colosseum (because that one is also my favourite). Actually.. Dracula is the main question and mystery in my #1 book. It’s not anything childish or fancily exaggerated that you might think it is. The reason is that Dracula did exist as ‘Vlad the Impaler’ and for further enquiries due to sceptical curiosity, please refer to the net. In my so-far-#1 film, ‘The Gladiator’ (starring Rusell Crowe, not the one outdated and not about heroes), two of the settings are the majestic Colosseum and the Roman Forum.

I discovered that Vlad Tepes is an important part of the Romanian history. Even so, his real castle (the Poenari Castle) which sets in the Romanian mountains, in the middle of the Romanians, is rarely being crowded with people. And the Romanians are actually quite surprised why foreign travellers love and eager to visit the castle. What would be the reason if you are the one eager to see the ‘Real Castle of Dracula’? Mine would be..because I want to see for myself the residence and the torture location of the legendary evil blood-sucking vampire. That’s why the Romanians don’t bother much about the castle and why the entrance fee to the castle is only 2 lei (75 cents in US$). They never heard the story about the blood thirsty monster! This character was only created by the writer Bram Stoker. See how he has changed the ideas and perception of people all over the world? That is called ‘The Power of Magic Words’ which only the expert writers have.

The Poenari Castle is also one of the most haunted places on Earth. Why it is the only place where the Discovery Team fled from which they were supposed to do research and investigation on. Among the reasons is that, from the video they took of the castle from afar, there were a couple of red lights going up the hills and mountains, towards the castle, one night. Various techniques have been done to the clip in order to ascertain what those lights were. Their efforts were fruitless. What they discovered was that the red lights were going through routes which were impossible for a human, even a mountain goat to climb. And if somebody was only playing a trick on them, it was a really good one. ..

I just thought to make the visit to the Poenari Castle to be one of my dreams..I think I’ll think again.

slowly lifted spirits

At the hall, I didn’t see any excited or overjoyed faces and so my soul dropped even lower. ‘What do you have here, eh? Bring it on. I’m not scared. I bet you can never make me like anything here.’ After a simple briefing, we went to our respective rooms. I was quite surprised to see how the rooms were constructed and placed. The boys were given four rooms to share and so were the girls. Our rooms were the only ones at that corner where the view to the other rooms was blocked by zinc walls. The rooms were cosy for me because there were six double-decker beds with three being lined up alongside one wall and three on the other. It was stuffy but cute and I was delighted. Oh, how we pushed ourselves amongst each other to get to our beds or to fetch our things. It was hot and sticky in the morning and the evening, when we usually only had the activities done. I was late into the room so I was unable to book one of the upper beds. I wanted one so badly because I would always want the high-located fans to blow into me all the time. I don’t want to swelter and soak my shirts smelly. I sulked silently.

When it was time for our showers..WOW!!! It was truly amazing! As a start, I was glad that they had enough bathrooms and toilets for us to share. What was the real pleasure was the water... I gasped the moment it touched me cold and pleasantly on the head. I lifted up my head to see nothing but cool green woods beyond the bathroom low wall. Yes, this is also like camp I went for my National Service. But that other woods was scary that high zinc walls were being constructed around the place so that people can’t see it clear enough to get nightmares for the night.

The night turned so unexpectedly icy that I thanked God for giving me no place nicer to sleep in except that lower bed I managed to get. I was so exhausted that I could feel my muscle cells snapping one by one in all places. When the days turned frozen, the aches killed me. I limped around like a 100-year old great-great grandma dragging herself all over the place in an outfit too heavy and too difficult to walk in. I recalled the first time I had this kind of pain. It was during the most dreadful camp I ever had. I was worn out that night looking for an empty room for me and my sister to spend the cold night. We finally rested when we found vacancy in the teachers’ room. The next morning, we woke up early for the aerobic exercise. I took my bath before that. When I poured the freezing water onto my body, a lightning of pain went racing up my spine to my neck which was so excruciating that I mind went blank for a while. Later, the pain deteriorated. I couldn’t move all my four limbs or my main body with ease. Every single twitch of movement was agonizing.

God helped me a lot. When the camp was getting more and more exciting, the pain in my legs eased and I move freely once again. The pain was gone for a short while at the exact right time, when the explorace was held. I don’t know what to do if I can’t walk, leave alone to run. After the camp, the ache came back but it went away gradually. Timing has always been right and exact and that’s why I always know God is behind everything.

camping in droopiness

This one is for the week which we had the ‘summer’ camp. So this week, I’m posting 2 blogs to make up for last week.

“This is absolutely not some sort of National Service,” was what Mr Al told us before we went for the camp. I was truly relieved. I was apathetic with the whole idea, the activities..everything. I went for it without any much hesitation because I had nothing better to do except studying economics which I truly doubted I would do. When the day for the camp arrived, I was a bit excited because I saw all my friends rushing up and down the stairs, in and out of the house, even to and fro from OU, looking for stuffs we would be needing. One day before the camp, we had just finished our maths test so we went to OU to release our tension, to watch some movies and also to look for things for the camp. Our main aim of shopping was to buy some tracksuits, then go to the movies. Instead, we got ourselves diverted from the real objective so we had to go back shopping the next day.

The journey to our destination was a rough one, at least for me. I hate buses because I’ve had more than enough of them. I take the bus every time I go back to my hometown and it takes at least five hours to reach the place. Buses give bumpy rides so I feel sick each time I take it. Now, this one which I took for the camp, was worse. I’m not complaining here, just pouring out what I can’t at the time. This bus jumped while it wheeled down the road. I thought I could take it until...I realized I had one of the worst views I wouldn’t want to have in all my life. I don’t want to describe it...To make it even worse, when it came for the bus to climb up the hills on the way to the resort, it was literally crawling up and down those hills. I stayed very quietly not trying to make my nerves snapped till my little sister called. She complained because I didn’t tell her that I was going for some ‘days off’. ‘Why should I bother when I don’t even want to go?!’ The line was not clear so I had to press my ear closer to the phone and having my ear grilled. I was exasperated but I did nothing to show it because I did not want to upset my sister, by brain and my patience.

The first thing that I enjoyed at the camp was the truck ride up the hill to the very resort. It was thrilling than a roller coaster and I think theme parks should all have one. Along the way, I saw a weird-looking pool which I didn’t know what purpose it has being there. When we reached the resort, there was one more unusual pool which I later found out that it’s for people swimming. ‘what a weird thing to do to be wading in such a pool’ was the thought I had. It was ironic because I later enjoyed losing myself in the pool.

When all of us arrived, we were given a briefing about our meals, and accommodation. We were not allowed to dine without having everybody present too, and we were to wash our own dishes and to fetch the pillow cases and bed sheets on our own. I had the feeling that this is all very familiar and I finally got it when I carried my luggage up the hill to the hall. The National Service! Oh no... To think that I bought Mr Al’s words, I was naive to do so. But that was only the beginning and my perception changed eventually... –to be continued-