Bike Trip in Pengerang
Today I went for the SMUX bike trip in Pengerang, Johor. I signed up for it 2 weeks ago with Ken and was supposedly to be in the same team as him. However we got split up and I thought that I would be in the same team as Guangjun aka Weibo. In the end both of us were assigned to different groups and I knew none of the people in my group.
It's not that bad since you don't really need to talk much while you are cycling. My group consisted of 2 year 4 gls (group leaders), another 2 year 4 girls and 7 freshies including myself. On the boat trip there I managed to strike a conversation with the female gl (happened to sit beside me). She told me about her CIP at Cambodia, biking trip in Tibet as well as her exchange at Belgium. While listening to her colourful university life, I realized that she is exactly the kind of student every school hopes to produce. It's obvious that her time in SMU has been fulfilling and she has accomplished a lot of things.
For a moment, I am wondering what kind of university life I wish to lead. Is it either only just studying or doing the minimum required? Is it about having fun or achieving the goals you set? It will be good if at the end of the 4 years I'm able to look back and be proud of what I have accomplished during my university days. However not everyone can be like the gl. Passion, an important factor, is something which I sorely lack (according to Kok Wai and I agree that it's rather true). I have to admit that my desire or rather the lack of it hampers the realization of my full potential. All it takes may be just putting in a little more commitment but the step seems too big for me most of the time.
Well I have digressed enough. The cycling trip was pretty straight forward. We would cycle to the restaurant where we would have our lunch and then cycle back to the jetty to catch the bumboat back to Singapore. The one-way distance was only about 16km but my group actually took more than one and a half hours to complete that. Lunch was alright and the others were saying that they had better food when they last went there for recce. We managed to squeeze in a round of dessert after lunch before setting off for the return ride back to the jetty.
I took roughly 1 hr 10 minutes to complete the return trip. I couldn't really keep up with the fast cyclists which I think was probably due to the quality of the bike as well as my lack of fitness. On the whole, I feel that the trip was not bad. If there wasn't the haze it would be so much better. I reached Singapore at 6pm with my face, arms and legs sun-burnt. Now I can still feel heat emitting from my body.
Among one of my group members, there was this guy who was too ya-ya to my liking. Since I don't know him well, I won't want to judge him too quickly but some of his actions really turned me off. I could see that he was very knowledgeable but unfortunately not everyone was interested. He was too eager to share his knowledge in my opinion. Furthermore I still couldn't figure out the reason why he needed to bring his GPS along when the route was so straight forward and so many people had cycled on it before. Whatever good intentions he might have, I could only feel that he was showing off. I also got this feeling that I'm not the only person feeling this way.
Of course I didn't show any displeasure to his actions because there is a chance that he isn't what he seems to be and is possibly the most helpful guy around in reality. However my little advice for him will be a little subtlety when dealing with unfamiliar people doesn't hurt. Since not everyone can understand your true intentions, it's best not to have the in-your-face attitude to prevent misunderstandings. Well if he's really the sort of person that my first impression makes him out to be, hopefully our paths won't cross again in the future.
It's not that bad since you don't really need to talk much while you are cycling. My group consisted of 2 year 4 gls (group leaders), another 2 year 4 girls and 7 freshies including myself. On the boat trip there I managed to strike a conversation with the female gl (happened to sit beside me). She told me about her CIP at Cambodia, biking trip in Tibet as well as her exchange at Belgium. While listening to her colourful university life, I realized that she is exactly the kind of student every school hopes to produce. It's obvious that her time in SMU has been fulfilling and she has accomplished a lot of things.
For a moment, I am wondering what kind of university life I wish to lead. Is it either only just studying or doing the minimum required? Is it about having fun or achieving the goals you set? It will be good if at the end of the 4 years I'm able to look back and be proud of what I have accomplished during my university days. However not everyone can be like the gl. Passion, an important factor, is something which I sorely lack (according to Kok Wai and I agree that it's rather true). I have to admit that my desire or rather the lack of it hampers the realization of my full potential. All it takes may be just putting in a little more commitment but the step seems too big for me most of the time.
Well I have digressed enough. The cycling trip was pretty straight forward. We would cycle to the restaurant where we would have our lunch and then cycle back to the jetty to catch the bumboat back to Singapore. The one-way distance was only about 16km but my group actually took more than one and a half hours to complete that. Lunch was alright and the others were saying that they had better food when they last went there for recce. We managed to squeeze in a round of dessert after lunch before setting off for the return ride back to the jetty.
I took roughly 1 hr 10 minutes to complete the return trip. I couldn't really keep up with the fast cyclists which I think was probably due to the quality of the bike as well as my lack of fitness. On the whole, I feel that the trip was not bad. If there wasn't the haze it would be so much better. I reached Singapore at 6pm with my face, arms and legs sun-burnt. Now I can still feel heat emitting from my body.
Among one of my group members, there was this guy who was too ya-ya to my liking. Since I don't know him well, I won't want to judge him too quickly but some of his actions really turned me off. I could see that he was very knowledgeable but unfortunately not everyone was interested. He was too eager to share his knowledge in my opinion. Furthermore I still couldn't figure out the reason why he needed to bring his GPS along when the route was so straight forward and so many people had cycled on it before. Whatever good intentions he might have, I could only feel that he was showing off. I also got this feeling that I'm not the only person feeling this way.
Of course I didn't show any displeasure to his actions because there is a chance that he isn't what he seems to be and is possibly the most helpful guy around in reality. However my little advice for him will be a little subtlety when dealing with unfamiliar people doesn't hurt. Since not everyone can understand your true intentions, it's best not to have the in-your-face attitude to prevent misunderstandings. Well if he's really the sort of person that my first impression makes him out to be, hopefully our paths won't cross again in the future.
posted by shyh jie at 10:28 PM
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