37th SSEAYP 2010 - Dreaming of You on Thailand Night

Day 23 - 16 November 2010

Slept early the night before so that I could wake in time for a morning jog with Mortal. When I popped my head out to the deck at 7am, Mortal had already started jogging.

It was free day for the first half of the day. Actually the title "Free Day" in our schedule is an anomaly, since people would be busy doing their laundry, or having project meetings. Today, we had our Solidarity Group (SG) photo shoot. SG-A being the first SG, had our photo shoot at 10.25am, right after the National Leaders took theirs.

Japanese are very particular with timing, so our SG photo was taken on time, despite us not having the complete attendance.

SG-A Photo

Ship Captain & Crew

After the photo shoot, SG-A gathered at the Lounge and discussed ideas on our night call. Our Group Leader (GL) Thao remembered me suggesting to her that we could sing the song "Dreaming of you" by Selena, and she brought up for discussion. The song went down well with most members and was adopted to be our night call song.

Thailand PYs publicising their National Presentation in the evening

After lunch, the Discussion Programme (Group Discussion VI) resumed.

DG Youth Development Facilitator Jay

Each contingent presented their Post-programme project ideas. For the Singapore Participating Youths (SPYs) in Youth Development DG, our idea was called the "Y-infect". Y-infect was a platform to bridge youth to NGOs & VWOs by marketing volunteering opportunities to the youth via social media.

In the evening, we had the Thailand National Presentation.

The dress code was BLACK.

The theme was "Alice in Wonderland", with Alice (casted by Bow) exploring the wonderful and amazing Thailand. It made me think of the "Alice in Wonderland" Graduation Concert for the PCF Kindergarten, of which I was the Adviser, back in Singapore which would take place on 20 November.

SG mate Bow as Alice

Alice goes into her Dream...

Discussion Programme Facilitators from Thailand also join in the performance

The Thailand PYs awed us with the luminous light performance.

With Jeane & Sin Yan (SPYs)

SG A members

♥

At 11pm, SG A members gathered around the Administration Counter for the Night Call. Bas-chan (Philippine) was the Deejay. Sonny (Indonesia) & Note (Thailand) did the guitar. The rest of us lent our voice.

Late at night when all the world is sleeping,

I stay up and think of you.

And I wish on a star
That somewhere you are thinking of me too.

Cuz' I'm dreaming of you tonight
Till tomorrow I'll be holding you tight.
And there's nowhere in the world I rather be
than here in my room dreaming about you and me.

Wonder if you'll ever see me
and I wonder if you know I'm there.
If you looked in my eyes
when you see what's inside
would you even care?

I just wanna hold you close
but so far all I have are dreams of you.
So I wait for the day
and the courage to say how much I Love You, Yes I do!

Now I'm dreaming of with you tonight
Till tomorrow and for all of my life.
And there's nowhere in the world I rather be
than here in my room, dreaming with you endlessly.

37th SSEAYP 2010 - See you again Malaysia!

Day 22 - 15 November 2010

Packed our luggage in the morning. Abang went to work. Kakak went to work in the morning. Amalia and Aida went to school and would join us later.

Our bedroom

Toilet

The Living Room

Kakak prepared a heavy breakfast for us.

We took 2 taxis to ferry the 6 of us to the West Port. As the place was quite remote, the taxis took several detours and I had to call my National Leader to ask for directions.

Once we reached the Port, Hung and I rushed back to Fuji Maru. Each of the Participating Youths (PYs) would be given a boarding pass each time we exit the ship. Once we returned, we had to deposit the pass back to the rack. And not forgetting the helpful Administrative Staff who would ensure we sanitise our hands. Our National Leaders were all ready to welcome us back and we signed our names before returning to our cabins to have a change of clothes to Attire A2.

We had buffet lunch at the Port before bringing our host family for a tour on board the ship.

At the Dining Hall

At the Pacific Hall

At the Deck

After the ship tour, we sent our host family out and then returned to get ready for the Send-off Ceremony.

The band played the music of the respective countries as the contingents disembarked.

The Administrator, Ms Kaori Shiojima

Captain Bandome

According to Port-of-Call order, all the contingents did their gangway cheers before forming up for the Send-off Ceremony.

Thailand Contingent

Lao Contingent

Indonesia Contingent

Singapore Contingent

Vietnam Contingent

Brunei Contingent

Cambodia Contingent

Myanmar Contingent

Philippine Contingent

Japan Contingent

Malaysia Contingent

Discussion Programme Facilitators

Administrative Staff, led by Deputy Administrator

Youth Leader of the Japan Contingent represented the PYs in delivering a speech.

And then we returned to the Pacific Hall, where we were issued ribbons for us to throw to our host family. 

The ribbon-throwing ceremony is such that parties of both ends of the ribbons would hold onto the ribbons as the ship leaves the port. At one point, the ribbon would tear, symbolising farewell.

Amalia was creative enough to grab hold of my white paper ribbon and wrote a message, so I retracted it and kept it with me till this day. It was a very sweet message and I guessed I would miss her calling me Kor Kor. Will always remember her telling me on the first day that she wanted to feel what it was like to have a Brother.

Was chatting with Thao until her National Leader came and said she needed to take Thao away for Contingent Meeting.

♥

After we returned from homestay, there would be a Contingent Meeting for us to evaluate the local country programme and the homestay experience. After dinner, the Administrator and National Leaders would address any issues during the Cruise Operating Committee (COC) meeting.  

The Discussion Programme Steering Committee had our meeting after dinner. The agenda was the planning for the Discussion Programme (Presentation of Discussion Results) on 23 November. Dayanaa chaired the project, with Sijie assisting with the Technical team and myself as the Master of Ceremony for the event.

DPSC meeting at the Saloon

Solidarity Group Whiskey (SG-W) after lights-off timing