MCN 2012 :)

Assalamualaikum! :)

So we are already half way through our Spring semester! Oh God how time fliesss :) Soon we will be graduating and working in like just a few months time. Have started job hunting just recently too! :)

Well putting the graduation days aside, my friends and I Alhamdulillah managed to host Malaysian Cultural Night 2012!!! :D :D

I might be one of the most excited people to join this event because it was certainly devastating that we didn't have one last year! Alhamdulillah, the MCN 2012 crew this year is the BEST AND MOST COMMITTED crew I have ever seenn!!! :') *terharu2 sob3*

*MCN 2012 crew+Malaysians! XD*

Our night was held on a Saturday, February 18th :) Alhamdulillah we managed to have the room from 12pm; so managed to do rehearsals, set up our booths and decorate the tables and halls (plenty of time to spare! :D)

Our booth this year were very very interactive too!! :D Our strategy was to open the booth before and after the 'official' event started (the meal and the performances); so the booths were closed during the performances and meal time. This gave those who were involved in serving the food or performances (or both) time to actually take care of the booths and perform in their other tasks :P tricky yes, but we managed to pull it off Alhamdulillah! :)

*despite having some audience REFUSING to leave the booths when we said the booths are closed :P even after the whole night was over!*

*Chinese Booth! :)*

-taught audience how to write their name in Chinese Caligraphy!

*Photo Booth*

-description says all :P

*Indian Booth!*

-aaahhhh I like the rice art!!!! XD Make your own peacock rice art! :)

*Caricature Booth! :D*

-Me and Izmer initially planned to work on the same 'postcards' for each guest; I will draw the head n then Izmer will draw the body. But somehow we became to busy with so many guests that we had to do our work individually XD But I know the guests loved it Alhamdulillah!! :) :)

*Mua yg gedik haha :P*

*this girl came twice! XD*

*an example of our 'postcards', credits to pemilik gamba ni :P*

*Poster for MCN 2012! :D*

-I accidentally drew all girls in the poster, and got labeled as a 'sexist' :P NOOOoooo I didn't do it on purposeee!! XD

Our MCN this time also included tickets to purchase; $10 for PSU students and $15 for alumni and non-students! Alhamdulillah the tickets were sold out!!!! :D :D

*The elegant and beautiful decorations!! LOVE LOVE :D*

So this time around I performed Lion Dance and also the Shadow Puppet show aka Wayang Kulit! :)

During the wayang kulit performance we did get a few laughs (which is a good thing! XD) and if only they knew how chaotic we were behind there!! XD love love love wayang kulit crew!! miss our time practicing n kantoi2 together :) ; Raihan, Fiqah, Izzah, Izmer! :) n also the two guys who helped us hold the cloth XD

*LOVE THIS SHOT! thank you photographer(s)! :D*

Lion Dance was also a hit Alhamdulillah!! :D We did have some small improvisations on the instruments movements (so that we are no longer like kayu2 in the back :P) and do watch the video until the end as one of our Lions accidentally got 'left behind' :P

Here are the video links to all the performance of the night! :)

Chinese Fan and Wushu dance! :) definitely awesomee!! :)

Fashion Show! wohooo XD with a very special twist!! :D

Malay Contemporary Dance + Wayang Kulit! :)

Indian Dance! :) wohoooo

Lion Dance! :)

All in all, thank you very much to everyone who was involved in Malaysian Cultural Night 2012!! All our hard work paid off Alhamdulillah, and I am very happy and blessed that my last semester at Pennstate is filled with this MCN for me to remember :) :)

*Best performance award: Lion Dance! :D*

But All the performances were AWESOMEEE!!! :D

I will miss all of you dearly, till we meet again next time!

We are... Pennstate! :)

CNY 2012

*One Malaysia? :P*

*LOADS OF DELICIOUS FOOD!! :D*

-rakan2 Chinese all made halal food for us to enjoy! THANK YOU soooo much guysss!! We ate until we could eat no moreee XD

*desserts: YUMMY :D*

*Our first outdoor performance! XD*

*hoyeahhh XD*

Last CNY in Pennstate :) Will miss the environment here! But also can't wait to go back Malacca and finally celebrate with mama's family! :) *angpaus also hahaha XD*

Gong Xi Fa Cai!! :)

Assalamualaikum ;)

Finally Snow!

Perhaps my last snow in the States before graduation, insya-Allah :)

*first time playing snow-tubing, was SO MUCH FUN! XD*

*credits to Deelah! :)*

Assalamualaikum :)

Muktamar 2012 + West Coast :)

Assalamualaikum! :)

Sorry for the very2 late update! :D

Alhamdulillah, my friends and I have safely returned from our trip in Vegas, Muktamar, and the West Coast; California! :D I had a super duper awesome n splendid time!! Many interesting events happened, many interesting strangers we have met, and I truly enjoyed witnessing the greatness of Allah's creations, SubhanAllah! :D

So here are the manyyy manyyy picturessss I've taken with my phone! XD

*And I'll be doing something different this time; the pictures are in reversed order!! XD (mainly because I'm very lazy to rearrange them ALL :P)

Enjoy! ;)

*Statue of Liberty Replica in Vegas! XD*

*At Fremont street :)*

*Eiffel Tower replica in Vegas! :P*

*The Fountain show at Bellagio Hotel in Vegas*

*banana split at Sugar Pine Diner I think? SGT SEDAP N CHEAP :D*

- This diner was in Mariposa, where we spent the night after visiting Yosemite, which was soooososososo beautiful!! :D

*Me n The Lower Falls of Yosemite yg kurus XD*

- Apparently the water falls shrink in size during winter because of lesser water available which is not frozen I guess? XD But it was still beautiful!! :D

*TALL Pine trees in Yosemite :)*

*Papan tanda :P*

*Bridal Fall in Yosemite :) OH SO beautiful, SubhanAllah! :D the rocks are just really really talllllll n not as short as you think it is when you see this picture!*

*the views in Yosemite were all soooo breath-taking :))*

*We visited Alcatraz prison just off of San Francisco :)*

*The cell*

*many2 cells*

*Our tickets heee :D*

*The ship to Alcatraz :)*

*We found a THAI HALAL Restauranttt!! The food were delicioussss!! :D*

*Golden Gate of San Francisco :)*

-it's actually red in color in the day XD

*Flying books that lights up wohoo :D*

*At Ghiradelli Square; The Ice Creams were oohhh so sweettt XD*

*yes, those are BREADS! :O*

*The Most Crooked Roadd in San Francisco! OMGG XD*

- and there were people's HOUSES and apartments at the edges of the crooked road. aduhai :P

*Strange street performer at Pier 39 in San Fran :P*

*this guy is talented! :D*

*Clam chowder with no bacon yay! DELICIOUSS :9*

*Redwoods in Muir Woods :)*

*The trees are very TALL and beautiful! SubhanAllah :D*

- The trees are like the trees in the museums, so beautiful and they are REAL! :D

*The air was also sooooo fresh in the woods! :)*

*Monterey Beach; Awesome Sunset :)*

*Stanford University! SO very beautiful with great architectural buildings :D*

*Went whale watching!!! :D :D :D*

*saw wild DOLPHINS TOO! AAAAAA :D*

- the whale watch was about 2 and a half hours. After spotting a few whales, I started feeling dizzy and went inside to take a nap. When the speakers suddenly announced that they spotted a few dolphins, I IMMEDIATELY woke up and got outside hahah :P Then when there were no more dolphins to be seen, I went back inside and went back to sleep haha :P

*Oh ya, did this at Monterey beach XD*

*earlier sunset at Monterey :)*

*Beautiful view of the sea along Highway 1 :)*

*:D*

*Sea urchins that you can eat it's insidess!! :O*

- My friends tried it, but I didn't because I don't like oysters or kerang2 :P

*Randy's Donuts! :D Delicious and cheap!! :D*

*At Hollywood Walk! XD*

*We found Ironman! :D*

*^^*

*View from the top of the hill close to the Hollywood sign! Just beautiful :)*

*Hollywood sign :D :D*

*Los Angeles :)*

*Halal Pizza from Tandoori! DELICIOUS :D*

*HALal hotwings!!! OMG :D*

*Yachts at Long beach, in San Diego :)*

*posing koff2 :P*

- we rented a bike that allowed four people to cycle together and we made LOADS OF NOISE at the beginning because we were all afraid that we might veer off into the sea :P

*Ice Cream and Funnel Cake at Long Beach :D yummyyyy*

*another halal pizza in San Diego! :D*

- we found a small Muslim-Somalian community in San Diego. And it was a little bit scary as I think we accidentally went into three restaurants that maybe only the men go to; so all of the men were staring at us when we entered their restaurants XD But they really did still took care of us; one guy told us that we could not enter their shop because there were a lot of brothers inside and it was inappropriate :') Kind hearted brothers they are! But the staring part really freaked us out XD

*Somewhere in San Diego XD*

*more yachts! :)*

* La Jolla beach in San Diego! BEAUTIFUL :D*

*The waters are sooooososossooo clear!! :D*

*:)*

*there were wild sealions!! :D Just relaxing on the beach under the sun. Lazy sealions :P*

*Old Town in San Diego! Very lively :)*

*birds bathing in the fountain! XD*

*I forgot where this was :P*

*Outdoor heater! Awesomeness :P*

*Muktamar nametag that I never did wear ;p*

*Found it's twin! XD*

*This is just awesome! Traffic lights for cars to enter the highway; when it turns green only one car of that lane goes into the hightway. Efficient way to reduce accidents and traffic jam! Take note Malaysia! :)*

*Philly Cheesteak of Korner Kebab in Vegas! DELICCSS :D*

*This Stratosphere in Vegas looks like the KL tower a LOT!*

*Hoover Dam! :)*

*Bridge close to Hoover Dam!*

*GRand CANYON! BEAUTIFUL and magnificent! :D*

*Snow. Oh so beautifulll :')*

*Found wild Deers at grand canyon!!! Jakun sekejap XD*

*managed to catch the Sunrise. :) :)*

*Rounding Vegas in our car the first night we arrived :)*

*lighted up christmas tree! :D*

*The first thing you see when you get off of the plane at Vegas airport :P*

*Otw to Vegas. SubanAllah! :D*

*Nothing beats the creations of Allah :)*

*Frontier Airlines gives out cookies! Yay! XD*

Well I guess that's it from my phone's camera! :D This trip is definitely one of my favorites because we went more on sight-seeing and witnessing the great creations of Allah on this planet, and they are magnificent and jaw-dropping :) I personally loved the waterfalls, the beaches and sea, grand canyon, Yosemite, Muir... Oh they were all so beautifulllll and you do become speechless when witnessing such greatness :)

Till next time! :)

And hello, 2012, the year to anticipate many exciting events, insya-Allah :)

Assalamualaikum <3 :)