Hazia’s Reflections

I had a surprise visitor at the hotel that I worked a few years ago. I knew Anthony from my undergraduates’ days when we were both in AIESEC. We had not seen each other for 10 years and were both puzzled on why we had waited so long to meet up. Oh, he was the picture of success. At 31, he had already made quite a big name in Asia with several feathers in his cap.

We first met at the Asia Pacific Exchange Meeting 1994 in Perth. Our days as AIESECers were lots of fun. We’ve all seen how the ‘contagious’ AIESEC Rock evolved over the years:p.

It was those little things that you remembered the most…like being squeezed like sardin in a car of 7 on a night out in traffic-congested Manila (no policemen, hehe)…or having the Australian team ‘rudely’ waking you up by loudly banging pots and pans…or sitting through hours of Chinese tea ceremony class in Taiwan with 2 students per teacher…patience, ha?:p

Each delegation would delight us with a ’signature performance’. I loved the Japanese karate dance. Once, in Waterloo, the Japanese delegates actually rounded everybody up in the legendary pyramid shape and taught us the whole routine in only 1 hour, pretty impressive.

The Indonesians were famous for their high-pitched Segeh..segeh..segeh.. classic song. Their voices were very sweet and distinct, I could still hear them now. The New Zealanders faced their enemies with the Hakka ‘growl’, haha! Not to forget, the Philippinos’ ‘tragic’ bamboo dance…pap, pap, pap…ouch!

Before parting, we would exchange gifts. My favourite treasures were a miniature German luxury car, a pretty Korean doll on a swing and a delicate Japanese painted hand fan. There was a time when the Malaysians gave beautiful bouquets of dry bunga padi (rice plant flowers) as gifts, the other delegates loved the lingering fragrant.

To top it all, nothing beat the thrill of rushing back to UUM just on time for the mid-semester or final exams after a week of fun overseas;) Talk about being the master of planning, hehe…

Hey AIESEC! What’s up?