Of Field Trips and Kengchows

State of mind: ...decidedly emo. o_O

This year's first Exploration Week has come and gone - much of it spent in the trusty arms of Morpheus (read: Zzzzz...). I had some personal victories when it came to work—second Motion Graphics idea approved without too much sweat, similarly for Multimedia Production—but am still soul-searching over a few other things (Online Media 3 being one of them...).

Anyway, this is not the place for pure unbridled emo - yet. The foundations will hold a little while longer, be they shaken—and I bring news of Islamic art and Jason Grove's visit to our college!

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Islamic Art Museum outing, or We Drive All Over KL: 15/3/07

Make no mistake: the Islamic Art Museum of Malaysia is PRETTY. The art is pretty. The fountains are pretty. The whole second floor, with its high ceiling, glass walls and tall pillars, is sheer beauty. I wanted to lie on the floor in that space of light and air and just stare at the ceiling and its inverted dome.

We were, however, on a tight schedule, and no pictures were allowed. (You can see a small part of the second floor on the website's main page, though.)

Let's go back a bit. There were six of us: me, JL, Cons, YM, James and WY. The plan for the day was quite simple, and had two steps:
- everyone meets up between 9-9.30
- hitch a ride from James' mum to museum and back

The plan instead morphed into THIS:
- 9.30 comes, and WY's missing
- long discussion on whether to keep waiting, or sod it for a lark and just go
- James' mum can't take us all to KL
- JL decides to drive, following James' mum from behind
- James' mum ninja-speeds off and we lose her
- decide to go to KL on own
- become hopelessly lost between streets
- arrive at museum in various stages of pissiness, sweatiness and relief, swearing the museum had better be worth the trip.

There's actually quite a bit to see in here: little (and large) models of famous mosques, matchlock rifles longer than we were tall, the most fantastic traditional robes, Chinese Muslim calligraphy, little books illuminated with gold leaf and beard combs that you could fill with rosewater so your wonderful chin tresses would smell sweet AND look spiffy. They had a special exhibition connected with spices around that time, and JL and Cons were VERY interested in the coffee section. >_>;

There's also one thing and one thing only you can take pictures of in the IAMM: the domes. They're very proud of their lovely lovely domes.

The museum has a little open courtyard with some fountains, so I would strongly recommend packing a lunch and taking a day trip. The food's EXPENSIVE, and if you don't like Middle Eastern cuisine, you may be pretty much screwed. The day we went, a la carte was not available and we had to have the RM38++ set lunch. All the appetizer and dessert you can eat (and they had some GOOD desserts, milk pudding yum), but see the comment about Middle Eastern cuisine. I'm still wondering how my baked chicken tasted like tandoori chicken. Good tandoori chicken, but still...

Souvenir shop has a lot of selection. I ended up buying a canvas bag and a postcard to send to Delilah. :D They have books for the kiddies, too, and I read through one. Somehow it amuses me to think of Moses/Musa flying into a rage and grabbing Aaron/Harun by the hair. By the hair. *giggles*

One thing that threw me for a bit of a loop was how nobody could seem to realise I was Malaysian. Some snack seller outside the museum thought me to be Korean; a guard inside was genuinely surprised to find I was a local. @_@ I wasn't even dressed that outlandishly - just a bit of layered T-shirts is all. I wonder what would have happened had I wore my cheongsam out...:D

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UK Antenna: Shynola's Jason Groves does TOA 16/3/07

Thank you, British Council, and thank you, o Multimedia Lecturers of Awe, for getting this guy to come in. The talk wasn't superbly formal, but it was quite funny. Jason Groves presents a lot like me—runs on for a bit and sputters to a stop. ;) He did have a lot of stuff to show, much of it incredible levels of pretty. And there was a 'documentary' about one of the first live action music videos they shot, which was amusing beyond all compare. I would love to be the King of Siam...

He even had fangirls. Quite a few of them. One of them me. *flees*

Kengchows all in a row: Mr. Groves, BC lady #1, our MMD head and BC Lady #2. Thanks for coming, guys!

In other news, I'm still learning how to drive.