19th sigh

It was a blast: Olympiarch!

Tiring but totally inspiring. To interact with architecture students of different school of arch. It was a blast. Olympiarch was held at UTM Johor and was organized by UTM and LimKokWing and the whole idea of this workshop is to bring out the real warrior in archi students. They had a paint war, a serious war with mounds, guns, barricades, cannons, you name it but unfortunately, afiq (me lah) and some other 50 students can't be involve in the WAR. We were observers. As in people who observes.

Olympiarch slogan: This is serious fun
Translation: This is serious shit

So I did what I can (what I do best) selling things! I sold a record number of souvenirs and can drinks by introducing the 'walking booth'. As in the booth that walks. As in I do not have to tell you this but I did. As in... so be it.

I was applauded several times.. wait,, *counts fingers* 3 times for making big money during our post motem meetings. Satisfaction personafied.

Abu accompanied me for the whole 6 days trip.

Masjid Negeri (Johor) It's very colonial; I fancy the corinthian columns. It's very classical here.. Hazwan thinks its gothic. Not a very inviting and receptive mosque if you ask me. In short: intimidating.

3 in one magical box: speaker, clock and erm,, and ... a box

Afiq, Haikal and Hazwan: the only male (going to be) 2nd year archi student who joined this year Olympiarch. There were several complications during this trip and me trippin' is one of them. I was literally left out by Haikal and Hazwan which was no surprise by far. I mean who wants to bring a -a boy-who-just-turned-nineteen- who has a history of overdose sarcasm and detailed outlook of everything anywhere. In short, I was too much of a fuss to bring along and plus I'm not much of a follower.

It's only natural lah. When something is over and everybody dispersed, you tend to get along with your related companions. Like many, I did that too but seeing that the two guys were much more contented to go anywhere without a look at their backs (they will eventually find me chasing after them) . I felt pathetic to the point that I say to myself: you need to change, Afiq. You seriously need to brush up on something. Something is not there.

Another bummer was when I went to the toilet and asked Haikal to look over my bag. Well, knowing most readers are gifted with psychic powers... try and guess..

He left my things there, called someone to look over it and ride out from UTM, went to meet up with his girlfriend at a stall and by the time I got back, my things were all over the place; my wallet, handphone berkecai and so on and so forth. As in many other thing followed the sequent of thrashing. As in I was pissed for the night.

Went back to the hostel with a confused sense of belonging and when i got back to the workshop, I caught a glimpse of them. Being me, 2 nights ago me, without warning, I flushed and tried to tell him what he did in the nicest way possible and seeing that it was impossible, I gave him the finger. Thank you middle finger.

Well he told me that he went to the toilet. Well he lied. Well enough, he went to see his gf. Well thought of. Well planned. Well, I'm not stupid. Does he have to lie? Well, well, well..

I pondered. I did a long deal of pondering. Am I not wanted? Am I just.. just a bother to people. People noticed this and kept asking me why I didn't put up my usual cheeky grin. I grinned at them and said, "I'm thinking of something important." They grinned back, probably thinking. A good deal of thinking.

It kind of hurts and at the same time, liberating. Caged liberation. It just set me thinking and it ended well when Syahiran (a studiomate) came that day and he tagged along with the likes of us. He didn't tell me anything that inspired me, just a sense of comradeship, a hint of long lived friendship, I was contented by just that, reducing Haikal's behaviour to mere childish action-reaction. I then understood that he, unlike me, have no concern of his friends. He unlike me, doesn't give a darn. He unlike most people, do not have real friends. And so I wept for his weaknesses, knowing it'll be heartbreaking loss to me. I wept in my actions. I secluded myself from being expressive when I'm with him, knowing that he's not even -really- listening to begin with.

A senior student and his friends gave me an inspiring talk on architecture and from that point on, I secretly idolized his life's outlook. He made loads of money in a few businesses, traveled to europe for a whole year and learned and learned and kept on learning. Architecturewise, he content himself with exploration, without boundaries, breaking laws and restrictions. Draining off typical expectations. In short.. he's so bloody cool... I wanna be like him...

Met a lot of senior students and we talked and in a way -clicked- It was fun. The process of introduction of friendship. I'm learning new things. Things I made mental note of. My seniors even noticed my -detailed- outlook of everything, they were appreciative of it and sometimes annoyed. (well, noticing real smiles and fake smiles didn't help)..

Olympiarch stage. It was made out of bamboo branches and unwanted wooden platform taken from the docks. Architectural discussion. That is what Olympiarch is all about.Those white webs are actually factory rubbish. Shoe pads.
A few conceptual models that bugged me


Actually kan.. I have more pictures to post... but blogger only allowed this much.

Till next time~