Wonderful weekend with the H-Factor crew!

For the first time of my life, I went off to another state without teling my mum (though I tentatively 'asked' my dad without him knowing I was asking). Went to Penang during the weekend to help out with the H-Factor Workshop.

I was really excited the whole time. As a result, I was brimming with energy and I couldn't settle down. Maybe I annoyed some of the crew with my 'hyper'-ness. Whoops if I did. But that aside, it was a total blast! Woke up really early to prepare for departure (and I went for church musical last night too....tired gila...). Together with the rest of the crew, we departed in vans.

Journey was....fairly uneventful *crosses fingers*. Couldn't sleep much, coz van was pretty bumpy. Then at around 11 something 12, we arrived at the prestigious G Hotel. This hotel is really awesome, everything is just so up to par! So basically we were assigned to our rooms. I roomed with Manda...then we went to lunch. Buffet was good too...while eating, Hannah came to brief us about what we were to do on that day.

So we went about the schedule for that day, with the main event being the promotion of H-Factor at Queensbay Mall. It was an absolutely new experience for me. I might be able to give an impromptu presentation in class, but hey! Talking to total strangers was really unnerving even for me. I mean, you have to walk up to these people and prepare yourself to get blasted and possibly rejected. But the hardest is always only the first step, so after I warmed up on a couple of students who already heard of the event (I didn't really started off at the right footing, but never mind, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger) I moved on to other shoppers. Basically just did what I normally would do with these situations...grit my teeth and just do it! It gradually got easier after a few times, and though I didn't sell no tickets, I 'sold' a lot of flyers, and those whom I aproached looked mainly interested but unable to decide.

Then Hannah and soem of the oher VIP speakers came to help promote H-Factor too. We had Reymee, Fellest (or is it Fellast?) (KM, you'd know him...the P24 Urban Groove dancer), David Lai the mentalist and Joey Khor, graphic designer and animator of HUE. Basically, they played some games and talked a little about the workshop. Gave away loads of freebies...Fellest pulled off a cool routine with his crew member, Eddie, while David wowed (and freaked) the audience with his tricks. I mean, this man can bend spoons just by looking at them!

After the whole thing, we wrapped up, head back to the hotel and walked over to Gurney Drive and ate at the hawker stalls there. Had a really great time being surprised by Isabelle's amazing appetite. The guys went totally crazy....after 6 plates of 'oo jian' they just got high or something. Started laughing like crazy and playing around. Guess boys will be boys...while we girls can only either laugh, cringe or both at them. Oh Regina, me finally tasted 'oo jian', but it wasn't really my thing la. After we makan kenyang-kenyang, we head back and straightaway went to the ballroom to get briefed. Then we just helped out setting the place up and stuff....went back to our rooms at like 1+. By the time I bathed and prepared the stuff for the next day...when I hit the pillows it was alredy 2-ish.

Woke up at like, 5.45 am to get ready. The bed was so comfy I didn't want to get up, but hey, there's a long day ahead. Went down to breakfast with the rest of the peeps, then started a super long day of work. We were literally just running around doing whatever we can to help. Let me tell you...putting pencils into 386 bags 1 by 1 is crazy...I nearly went nuts doing it. Kept checking to see if I accidentally slipped in 2 pencils instead of 1 or even worse, no pencils at all! OCDnya aku! Then went straight into ushering. I think I spent the first half of the workshop escorting people to the restrooms.

But my duties aside, the workshop was awesome!! It's nothing like I've seen before, you know, celebs coming to teach you how to do their jobs. It's really something to see Serena C and Pietro live, or listen to Harith Iskander, or seeing Hans Isaac in person. And they're all really nice too! The Penang crowd was simply amazing. They were so responsive and interactive; they're not shy to ask questions or make comments.

Throughout the day, I went on doing my stuff without really remembering how tired I am or if I was hungry. the only thing that distracted me was my aching feet...coz I had to usher in heels so yeah...if you rarely wear heels, try walking about and standing in it for 12 hours straight. But when people came over, you can really forget about pain in an effort to be of service to others.

When it ended, we had a short photo op, and wow! The sheer amout of people (of course la, 300+ participants wor...) As I expected, all the girls flocked towards Fellest, and the guys towards Hannah. Then the crew took some pics as well and those who had exams/classes/presentation tomorrow all rushed back to KL right after that. Was really hectic but hey! It was cool!

Although I was really tired, but it was a super enjoyable experience. I learned a lot over the weekend and I'm really thankful that Leonard gave me this opportunity. I'm looking forward to more for the future! And if you're curious about H-Factor, just log on to this website: http://www.h-factor.info/