Met the NS trainees

All right, the title of this entry may sound unbelievable, but it's the truth. This morning, I knew that Liew Kei Fai and his friends from his National Service camp in Lumut will be paying a visit to UTP today, although I didn't know what time was their arrival.

I was having my Physics lecture at 11.00 a.m. when I received a text message from Jared Ee saying that Kei Fai has arrived and is now at the Information Resource Centre. I was baffled, for I didn't expect him to be here at this time, and I didn't want to excuse myself from the lecture lest I wouldn't be able to catch up later. I asked Jared about the time that they would be leaving, and he replied that the NS trainees will be in UTP until 12.30 p.m. I realised that if I do not do something, I was bound to miss them.

Therefore, I sent back a message to Jared, saying that I shall try my best to complete my Engineering Mathematics quiz which will be held after the Physics lecture and try to be at Pocket D (located at the New Academic Complex) before 12.30 p.m. During Engineering Mathematics, my lecturer decided to have his lectures first, instead of the quiz. I took the opportunity to excuse myself and ran towards Pocket D, which was a five-minute run. I made it eventually, and from afar Jared and Kei Fai (whom I could tell because he is short) waved at me. I waved back and rushed to their side.

I was surprisingly welcomed by a few other NS trainees. Who could they be but ex-Michaelians! I was surprised to hear that there are seven Michaelians in the same National Service camp. All of us shook hands with each other and after that, Jared and I observed the whole group of trainees following the orders of the NS group leader, Kamaruzzaman, who is also an ex-Michaelian. They bid thank you and farewell in their own "National Service Style" (which is quite amusing) to the administrators of UTP for allowing them to have a tour around campus.

Jared and I were caught by surprise when the NS trainees turned around and shook hands with both of us, wishing us "Good luck" and so on before they left. Of course, the ex-Michaelians shook hands with us first, then followed by the others. We graciously took their hands and in return wished them goodbye and all the best, too. Such a gesture was unexpected. Kamaruzzaman even personally came and shook hands with us, expressing his pleasure of meeting us in school on the 13th of March to collect our results. Jared and I were surprised in the sense that the NS trainees treated us as if we were facilitators, thanking us and so on as a sign of gratitude. I don't know if it was just for the sake of formality or whatever, but they seemed sincere. Note: Jared was with the bunch of NS trainees since 11.00 a.m. when he first saw them at the Information Resource Centre. I arrived at around 12.10 p.m. and stayed until they left, which was about 12.20 p.m.

It was nice to be able to meet more people, especially those from National Service. It really opened my eyes to see so many people in just a single National Service camp. I pictured that it should be a nice experience to be able to mix around with other people from various places. By the way, they were surprised to see foreigners in campus. It so happened that one of our seniors, whose name is Pedro Heliodoro Sobesobo da Costa (just Pedro for short), passed by. We explained that UTP also takes in students from other countries such as Vietnam, Equatorial Guinea, Thailand, Myanmar, Indonesia and so on.

It has been quite an experience for both my friends in NS and myself. At least, I'd got the opportunity to meet them personally. Too bad, other NS camps don't get to visit our campus.