One Dhamma Many Buddhist Traditions

Complied in memory of K. Sri Dhammananda (1919-2006), this book has two parts, first is recollections essays of people who had known him. Second is about the unity of many Buddhist traditions and various issues.

There's 35 essays in total, so I skipped around and marked a tick on the content page to keep track of which I had read before. The essays in the first part of the book really made me appreciate what can a monk do to propagate the Dhamma. It also outlined for me the history of the spread of English based Buddhism in Malaysia from before independence all the way to his death. It was around my father's generation and the generation before him that he was very much influential and helped the build the strong presence of Buddhism in Malaysia as it exist today. We get to see the founding of Buddhist Missionary Society, which has the parallel in Singapore called Singapore Buddhist Mission. And also Buddhist Gem Fellowship, parallel in Singapore is Buddhist Fellowship, both of them having youth groups in Singapore that I am in contact with.

The second part is really essential reading for anyone trapped in sectarian thinking. Monks, Nuns, Layperson from all traditions come together and affirm that there are more similarities between the traditions rather than differences. This really opens up a non-sectarian approach towards Buddhism, promoting harmony and peace amongst the traditions of Buddhism and it can unite Buddhist to rise up to the Modern Challenge of Buddhism meeting the modern age (or information age by now, Civ player would know). One of them is Buddhism and Science, which I am contributing in my other blog. http://physicsandbuddhism.blogspot.com/ Another is to appreciate what's culture in the various forms of Buddhism, and what's the common doctrine.

There are just too many articles to count there but I am amazed to see that I have been in contact with some of the authors via INCOVAR Dhamma Camp. It's quite a good book to balance one's view of the Dhamma, regardless of how deep you have learned in your particular tradition.

29/5/2014

Pali text translation.
Vinaya. Mahavagga. Chapter one, parts of...

This is one of the books in the basket of discipline. Chapter one is quite long, talking about the events after the awakening of the Buddha.

After enlightenment, the Buddha went from tree to tree, staying cross legged for 7 days at each place, enjoying the bliss of liberation. In the first week, he contemplated on dependent origination. In the second week, a brahmin whose practice is to say hum asked the Buddha on what is a Brahmin, and got an answer that the Brahmin. Is not one who says hum, but one who cast out evil.

The third week, there was a great storm that lasted for a week. The serpent king came out of his meditation, coiled around the Buddha 7 times, and spread its hood over Buddha's head, determined to shelter him from cold and heat.

The fourth week, two merchants were advised by their deva relatives to offer barley gruel and honey ball to the Buddha, for their blessing and happiness for a long time. When they offered, the Buddha says that the Tathagatha does not receive with hands. The 4 deva kjngs, having known this, send bowls to the Buddha. The Buddha received bowls made of rock crystals from 4 directions from the 4 deva kings. Thus the Buddha received the food and partook it. The two merchants then took refuge in the Buddha and Dhamma and became the first lay followers of the Buddha.

On the fifth week, the Buddha was reflecting that the Dhamma he had realised is subtle, hard to realise and understand. To teach it would be tiring to him, bringing vexation. To be continued....

I have read the chapter in Sylvia Bay's book in between the lines, an analytical appreciation of the Buddha's life that described the period after Buddha enlightenment and before the first sermon. She contrasted the popular Theravada account of the period with what is said in the Sutta and Vinaya. The Theravada account has 7 weeks, of which a lot of events like staring at the Bodhi tree for a week, walking on a jeweled bridge, contemplating on Abhidhamma, and the three Mara daughters were not found in the Canon. Thus, this remind us to look beyond what we were told and to not attach to even the words of Dhamma, but to practice non attachment in daily life.

Poh Ming Tse- Bodhicitta M.U.S.I.C programme batch 2 graduation ceremony

On 28th May 2014, Wednesday, a new batch of MUSICians has been born out of the collaboration between PMT and Bodhicitta.

PMT is a quite an old temple in Singapore, but has gotten a new modern looking building in 2009. Since then, Poh Ming Tse has been nonsectarian, allowing any Buddhist groups to rent their place for an event or class. Many classes are held there from all three traditions. Due to it's dedicated and super good committee members, staff and patron, PMT is open enough to make a collaboration with Bodhicitta.

Bodhicitta is a music band formed in 1997, inspired by the Dhamma, since then over 100,000 albums they as produced has been circulated. Their music style is smoothing, and they are nonsectarian, they sing songs based on any of the three traditions. They were looking for young talented Buddhist musicians to train and keep Buddhist music alive and has been in talks with many temples before PMT.

In 2012, the temple and the music band has formed their collaboration and decided to train a selected group of students with interviews to train every week, starting 2013.

Now it's 2014 and the second batch of their first of three modules has just graduated from 10 weeks of weekly Wednesday training. M.U.S.I.C. captures the aim of the MUSICians group. Motivate and Unite the practice of the Dhamma. Smooth the mind, Inspire and Care.

Personally, I know a lot of the batch one and not so many of the batch 2 people. I usually go to these music events as a karaoke session, singing with them. You see I have a large collection of Buddhist songs totalling almost 24 hours of playtime and I played them over and over again during my uni days. I believe I have two of the Bodhicitta albums. So I am quite familiar with their songs. These are nice stress out sessions for me.

Now for the structure, the songs are in many languages, with the session conducted in English, with Chinese translation. The opening puja song was in Pali, then there are English songs, Tibetan Matra songs, Chinese songs were featured too.

The programme trains them in using their musical skills to conduct a Buddhist activity using songs. There are also vocal trainings for the students. After graduation, they have a commitment to fulfill a certain hours of song presentations in PMT and their own Buddhist society. The batch one had presented in concerts, conferences and weddings in addition to the current monthly Sunday service with songs and Dhamma talk in PMT.

The style of their Buddhist music is to use music to allow the Dhamma to sink into people's heart. Thus it is very suitable to bring beginners or your free thinker friends to come and join in their performances. Some songs can even be a guide to relaxation and meditation. Some can lift the spirits up and motivate the listeners. It's also a very suitable place for those who can't learn Buddhism well from sutta readings to learn the Dhamma from the lyrics, tone of the songs, presentation, and the mind of the Buddhist songs leaders. Or if you just like Music, this can be the door for you to enter into the Dhamma.

Here's to greater heights and wider reach of the MUSICians!

Golden age of superheroes movies

For the purpose of this article, only marvel and DC superheroes are considered to make it simple and to avoid having to list down every superhero movie during this age.

The golden age began since the release of x-men in 2000. Superhero movies received a welcome back party. Previously, there was only the superman movie series (1978-1987), and the batman series (1989-1997), each lasted 4 movies wherein the last in their series has been disappointing to many.

At that time, the box office mark of superhero movies are not expected to exceed half a billion USD. X-men did well but didn't broke that mark, not even for the next 5 movies (2000-2013) based on it. Following x-men was everybody's favourite, spider-man (2002-2007). The series was very well received and broke a lot of box office records for all three of its movies. The third spiderman became a bit disappointing, and even more so when Sony decided to reboot it barely 5 years after the last we saw of Spidey. The only other reboot that happened that soon was the hulk.

Released in 2003 with liberal imagination that Bruce banner's father is the main villain to the hulk, it was not as good as it's reboot. Anyway, hulk not getting a series on its own may have been because of the 2003 movie. Along with the avenger's version, we had seen enough of a different version of the hulk for now, thank you.

Another superhero series that is going to get rebooted is the fantastic four. At least it has been a long while since we saw those and they only lasted 2 movies (2005-2007). The upcoming 2015 movie would mark 8 years since we saw them last.

But all these reboot started with Batman Begins (2005). It was also 8 years since the bat nipple, and it was high time for Nolan to deliver the best Batman we have on the big screen so far. For the second installment in 2008, joker took the movie to great heights and it landed over the billion dollar mark and stopped at no. 3 globally. This was the first superhero movie to do so. It's a shame that heathe leager died and they can't have joker for the finale.

What's more shameful for DC is superman returns in 2006. This counts as the fifth installment of the earlier superman movies and it earned below the half billion dollar mark. Why is it shameful? It's because they missed the opportunity to reboot superman then. Man of Steel (2013) arrived 7 years later and now they had to use a different actor to play batman in it's sequel coming out in 2016. If this batman is not in the same continuity with Nolan's trilogy, then we have the shortest reboot yet (4 years). Say if they decided to plan coherently early on in the game, (but Warner brothers was busy with harry potter then) right when x-men came out, then superman return could had just been man of steel back in 2006, and they can have man of steel 2 somewhere before batman vs superman in 2012! Now that is a movie that could rival the Avengers. Well to be fair the dark knight rises did well too to earn slightly more than the dark knight and is about 2/3 of the avengers in earning terms.

In 2008, the year that marked the entry of superhero movie into the billion dollar club, also marked the coming of Iron man and the Incredible Hulk. Iron man became a very successful movie trilogy with maybe more on the way. The third in its series (2013) beat the dark knight rises in the box office. No doubt this is due to the avengers help, but it was amazing considering that he is a totally unknown superhero in the big screen before 2008, as compared to batman.

Marvel studios pushed on and linked their movies, Iron Man 2, Thor, Captain America, and generated so much hype that was part of the factors that made the Avengers the highest milestone so far in the golden age of superhero movies. My personal opinion is that it is unlikely that Captain America would receive much attention had it not been for the premise of a shared universe. It is set in world war 2 which most of the living people now did not personally experience. Now, in 2014, Thor the dark world and captain america winter soldier each earned more than its first movie, no doubt fuelled by the avengers hype.

And now for the biggest movie event in history, the Avengers (2012). The movie combines separate heroes with their own movies and pit them against a threat greater than what each of them is capable of defeating alone. Hulk, Iron man, Captain America, Thor, Hawkeye and black widow. The box office response to this is tremendous. More than 1.5 billion dollars has been earned, putting it at the third place behind the two Cameron movies. To Marvel studios, this is the end of phase 1. Now we are nearing the end of phase 2, with only guardians of the galaxy (2014) left before Avengers: Age of Ultron (2015).

This upcoming movie is expected by everyone to earn more than its predecessor, possibly even beating Titanic's record. Thus, a lot of other superhero movies avoid getting a 2015 release year. Only ant man, marvel studios own movie and fantastic four, a reboot that need not suck in too much money are the notable scheduled superhero movies then. Even Warner brothers wised up and pushed batman vs superman back to 2016. (They initially wanted to release justice league in 2015!)

However, the year of 2016 is now full packed with sequels. Batman v Superman, The Amazing Spiderman 3, captain America 3, X-men apocalypse, and an unnamed marvel movie. This year alone we are treated to 4 of them, last year too (Iron Man 3, Thor 2, the Wolverine, Man of Steel). By comparison, 2015 would feel a little empty.

Although this means that we might have to wait a long time before spiderman or wolverine joins the avengers, I am glad that there are 3 studios that produces marvel character movies. It makes the presence of marvel so much more stronger on the silver screen and gives us many different forms of enjoyment.

As with all ages, the golden age of superhero movie will not last forever. The end of the golden age might come when the superhero movies saturate cinema so much that the overall sales for them drops down to below half a billion and keeps on going lower. It might also come if marvel decided to reboot its cinematic universe. Or simply that the studios are so engrossed with money that they sacrificed the art element in the movies.

Regardless of how it ends, the superhero genre are here to stay, like the romance, western, horror, sci-fi etc...

X-men days of future past review

This is the best amongst the 3 superhero movie this year so far, the other 2 being captain america 2 and the amazing spiderman 2. Spoilers below.

X-men dofp just gives the right trailer yet still save the main course for us. There was bisharp travelling in time as in the comics, that was nice. Then they explained why it has to be wolverine who goes back to 1973.

The future sentinel is really deadly, convincing enough that they can even take out the future x-men + magneto. Blink's attack is really like playing portal. And there is the coupling of shadowcat with iceman. Good fan service.

Wolverine in 1973 has no adamantium. So when he meets up with young striker, he goes into shock at future pain. It was a nice reference to the origins movie. They (the producers) even hinted that quicksilver's father is the man he helped to break out. Magneto becomes lovingly predictable to become the bad guy again. But strangely enough, we don't mind. There is an amazing feeling of hopelessness of near or certain defeat at the climax, and a clever resolution to it that brings across the message of hope, the ultimate weapon of Charles, to the human population.

The most inspiring part of the movie is when Charles talks to himself. You are not afraid of others' pain, its yours that you fear. Face the pain, accept, see it because it would make you stronger. Our greatest gift is to bear all the pain and suffering of others and not break, and still have hope. Reminds me of the bodhisattva path. It's so awe inspiring! Its the compassion of the prof that ultimately changed raven's mind and saved the future.

I like how dangerous the young magneto can become too. Putting metals into sentinels to control them, lifting a stadium to cover the white house, effectively shutting out the police and outside help, and pulling the safe room from under the white house to above ground and rip it out. It's even funny that he managed to deal with wolverine the same way as in the first and third movie even when wolverine has no adamantium in him.

One of the fan screaming best part is when the future is saved and wolverine wakes up with 50 years of history to catch up and we see rogue (presumably a mutant again) with bobby, shadowcat with colossus, jean and Cyclops. All still alive.

End credit scene, which nowadays has about 70 or 80% of the audience sitting back for, is the hint of Sabah En nuh building the pyramids with his mutant power, and his 4 horsemen.

Apocalypse is coming! And we can have the full x-men again!

What I do with my free time

Since I had quit gaming yet again and reduced the amount of shows I am following, I had a lot of free time to finally catch up on my long term plans. I had just made a list of what I did and it's amazing!

• Science Fiction Novel- Editing "Problems, Try this!" I had the first draft for a long time now.
• Physics and Buddhism blog entry.
• Temple Explorers Singapore book writing.
• Physics Textbook reading and learning.
• Dhamma books reading and learning.
• Science Fiction story books for inspiration, learning and style setting for my own story.
• Physics and Buddhism books written by others so that I can be more informed of what has been explored on this subject.
• Popular Physics books reading
• Buddhist presentations for Medical Dhamma Circle.
• Awaken Challenge organizing
• Degree in Buddhism
• Other Buddhist events and volunteering (this plus the degree takes up 6 or 7 days per week)

The readings and writing were mostly done in the train, smartphones or individual book. There are some more stuffs that can more comfortably be done on the computer. Like this blog. 

The Amazing Spiderman 2 review (Spoiler alert)

Hi guys, today I'm going to review a movie I've waited quite long to watch: The Amazing Spiderman 2 (ASM2). Let me said first that this is a positive review.

Granted that the reboot series comes quite fast after the Raimi series and thus has some disadvantage, either they had to portray the same story (like Uncle Ben's death and Goblin dropping Parker's girlfriend), or entirely avoid what has been shown on the last trilogy (like not having J. Jonah Jameson or Mary Jane on screen for two movies now).

After this movie, I feel like ASM 2 has earn the right to retell the same story we already know just to make the universe a bit more fair. The main reason I said that is because Norman Osborn died without having become the Green goblin first. It's obvious why the direction of the story had went this way, it's been told and done with. In this sense, it's clever for the writers to modify and yet stick to the comic books, that a goblin (Harry Osborn) killed Gwen Stacy. However, after the death of Gwen Stacy, it's about time to introduce Mary Jane on screen. Jameson got an email cameo now, but it's getting harder to avoid showing him as the series goes on. One most notable villain I want to see coming back is Doc Ock. He is simply indispensable in the Sinister Six team as well as having the tentacles on display in Oscorp secret lab helps a lot.

The plotting wise, it's very tight, with many subplots jumbled up together, jumping here and there. To me it's clear where and how it jumps, and it makes sense. Spiderman is about Peter Parker managing his normal life with crime fighting. In normal life, we tend not to focus on only one ongoing process at a time, but several of them. Peter has to deal with his strong feelings towards Gwen, his responsibility as Spiderman, his promise and knowledge that being close to Gwen would put her in danger, also his parent's mystery and Harry Osborn. Other than that, the film also juggles on how Max became Electro, how Harry hate Spiderman, and the backstory for Rhino.

It's a good jumble, mixed in just the right way for us to ride with Peter's complicated life. Now, let me go into a bit more detail about how the subplots make sense to each other. The subplot of Peter wanting to know more about his parents and Gwen Stacy leaving is that he felt that the people he loved keeps dumping him. He had lost his parents, so he doesn't want to lose Gwen too. This is why he feels so much empathy towards Harry, who just lost his father. Later, Harry had discovered the research that Peter's father had done on Spider and human hybrid (Spiders with Human DNA in it) and asked Peter for Spiderman's blood to cure his disease. Having seen what Dr. Conners had become because he rushed the testing phase, both Peter and Spiderman doesn't want to give the blood. Yet, Spiderman could not tell Harry that he is trying to find out more about Peter's father's research without revealing who he is, and also he had not yet discovered the secret train hideout yet. This lead to Harry hating Spiderman. Later, when Peter found out that the spiders hybrid contained his father's DNA, he didn't have the time nor the urgency to inform Harry about it.

First off, it is because of Richard Parker putting his DNA inside the spiders that Peter turns into Spiderman instead of some undesirable side effects, or being killed. So anyone else knowing about the research of Richard Parker and the truth would easily suspect that Peter Parker is Spiderman. Thus, Peter would still need more time to reverse engineer and make new Spiders that is suitable for Harry before being able to give Harry his cure.

Second, the timing. Harry was very impatient, resorting to freeing Electro after getting kicked out of his company just to get to the spider serum instead of waiting for Peter Parker to help him. To be fair, Peter didn't know that he could help Osborn or how before the train, thus he didn't make a commitment to do so. Spiderman's promise to find another way is empty to Harry after his refusal to give the blood. Thus, by the time Peter had discovered the train, Harry was already at the point of being injected with the serum. So even if Peter had the sense to call Harry up (what would he say without revealing that he is Spiderman anyway?) he could not had stand a chance to persuade Harry to wait for a bit longer for more research as Harry is already seeing his salvation just minutes away.

Third, the reason Peter didn't call is not just the need to protect his identity, he might conceivably give it up to save Harry, but there's a stronger reason. He was reminded about Gwen Stacy. He picked up his phone (maybe he was going to call Harry then), and there was the message. Gwen Stacy is leaving for UK now. Having been through the pain of being left behind because his father had placed responsibility over parenthood, he temporarily forgotten the lesson of "With Great Power, comes Great Responsibility" and choose to follow his emotions for Gwen instead. He doesn't want the pain of being left behind to happen again, no matter what, he could have a love life and being Spiderman at the same time, right?

No, it was a fast paced series of events during the night that ended up with Gwen Stacy dying due to Harry's involvement. Peter had webbed Gwen's hand onto a police car, but that wasn't enough to stop her from helping him. It could be said that Gwen ran into her own death, but also, Gwen would not had the chance to do so had Peter not pick her up from the bridge and say he wants to move to England with her. Yet, if he hadn't done that, Peter stand little chance in his fight against Electro. So in the end, it can be said that Gwen saved Spiderman, and sacrificed herself (even when it was unintentional). In the end, Gwen died. Peter who had a last look at Captain Stacy in the Electro fight must had felt triple guilt. First off, he broke the promise and eventually led to Gwen's death. Second, the love of his life died because of him. (In retrospection, she died to saved him during the fight with Electro). Third, he had abandoned the calling of "With Great Responsibility comes Great Power". He went a different direction that his father didn't took. His father did the right thing in the end, at least Peter was still alive. Peter's choice had killed Gwen.

Due to these triple guilt, he could not forgive himself for 5 months, no Spiderman during those 5 months. Only when he found hope again, did he come back as Spiderman, fighting Rhino, whom we had seen in the first action sequence to the movie at the end. So it was a nice wrap.

I like that despite having 3 villains, Spiderman took them on one by one. It doesn't distract from the villain he was fighting at the time and there would be enough time for simultaneous attack on Spiderman later on in Sinister Six.

There's another thing I would like to touch on. Peter's relationship struggle with Gwen Stacy is complicated, and it can be compared with a person who wants to be a celibate having to struggle with his or her hormones. I would feel that Peter's suffering is greater. The girl actually faces death and danger, not just emotional complication.

Weird people analysis 2

There are certain conventions of social interactions which nobody has taken a complete rulebook and taught us before. It also changes with different culture, nation, organisations, religion, as well as time. Those who do not follow the rule book are viewed as weirdos.

Above is my assumption about the definition of weirdos. Here is my theory of how and why weirdos come to be.

It can be that sometime people pay less attention in observing the unwritten social rulebook and thus doesn't know the rules. Therefore it is unsurprising that they would break the rules now and then. Sometimes they learn the rules from the stares of people around them, often they didn't even know which rule they broke because nobody told them.

There can be two possible reasons for the initial ignorance of the rule. First is that they might not have the intellectual capacity to understand the rules. In this case, the rest of the society should not unfairly discriminate against them, as they cannot help it, just like a physically disabled person.

The second reason is that they didn't think that social conformity is as important as whatever else they put their mental attention to. It's like playing a game, in the initial character design, one can choose various statistics and skills to put in their points. And they can choose which skill to increase as they level up with the relevant experience.

Take the example of Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory comedy. He concentrated his attention to Physics and Geek culture so much so that even in his 30s, he still had very poor social skills that constantly annoy his friends. Sheldon only learns the social rules when he discovers that it makes his companions happier which in turn makes his life easier. Raj has better social skills in terms of friendship with males but worse in terms of female communication which explains why he is the only one without a girlfriend currently. Amy has almost the same social skills as Sheldon, but it is only due to the lack of opportunities to practise them. Right now, she has successfully integrated herself into the gang and has even better social skills than Sheldon.

So far it is a social archetype that scientists and geniuses tend to be socially awkward. However, it is not true in general. Most of the scientist I know does know and follow the social rules quite well. Of course, due to the archetype, there are quite a few people who are weirdos. These include people who knows the rules and yet break them anyway.

There are a few motivations for these group of people. First off, they might have forgotten some rules. Sometimes, when a new situation or a rarely met situation comes up. Things such as meeting your first crush at her wedding with another man and letting your emotions cloud your mind when you give the toast speech or going to so many countries that you forgot that in Singapore it is not acceptable to jaywalk. These are sort of acceptable and more understandable by the public.

The next one is temporary drop of cautions when a person gets drunk. A lot of social rules gets twisted when drunk people are involved. It is generally unwise to go to bed with a stranger you just meet at a bar, but because it is a bar, drunk people has a way of dropping their wisdom and guard. As shown in How I Met Your Mother, in U.S.A. it has become so common a practice that the world see this as their culture instead of a weird way to behave. The walk of shame shows the female half at least regretting that they had exposed themselves to sexually transmitted disease, unwanted pregnancy, kidnapping, violence, getting their hearts broken, destroying other families, exposed to serial killers or rapists, and exposed to stalkers. This is true for the male half too. It should be noted that drinking alcohol is not the only way to be drunk, some people may go into their high mode by just eating too much. This is to direct attention away from the pain of overeating to the temporary joy of getting high.

The third possible reason is habit. Some may had learn about the rules later on in their lives but by then some actions had become a habit. Things like constant nodding of your head as a greeting to everyone you meet, talking to yourself out loud in public, moving your lips but not saying a thing.... Some people also has the habit of saying "actually" when there is actually no need to say that word. All these in a minor sense are quirks, add them together and it becomes weird.

Next is knowing the rules, yet don't have the need to keep to it. So there are some people who knows that they are weird, but could not be bothered to change their behaviour. This is because it might not have an effect on their life, or at least as far as they can see, they are ok with being the oddity. Super genius who do not need to worry about presentability to get hired are amongst these category.

Then there are those who live in their own world. As kids, we had the experience of playing using our imagination. For some people, the imaginary world becomes so important and wide that they keep on engaging in it even in adulthood. When climbing down the stairs in low speed, carrying something heavy, we might imagine that we are Iron man and use our free hands as repulsor blast to stabilise ourselves. Or coming down in high speed, we become Iceman, freezing a slide before us to slide down. When running up the stairs we become Azula from Avatar, the legend of Aang, using fist to spew out flame behind our backs as thrusters.

The other reasons of avoiding girls and wanting to becomes infamous had been covered in the first analysis.

All in all, anyone can be weird sometimes, so do be more compassionate and considerate the next time you meet one. So long!

Ambition

I've just learned from Big Bang theory that if you want to achieve something, you put a hundred percent of your energy into it.

The thing is, what if you're constrained from doing so? What if the only thing you want to achieve, to do in your life is not open to you until a certain time limit? What do you do then? Find another thing to do while waiting? Keep on engaging in things that contribute to your dream in almost all your free time? I was doing that for some time now. It's really tiring.

Tzu Chi has opened up a nice gradual path for me, but then my worldly ambitions seems to threaten to lengthen my stay here. Confusion, conflicts, contentment? Ah, suffering, I see you again. How wonderfully undesirable you are.

IPhO 2008 Full Experience

I wrote this a couple of years back, as the second chapter of an fictional autobiography of my first semester of University life. Now I decide to share it as I don't think I would complete the book anyway. Sorry for the grammar and spelling problems, it's fresh from first draft. And it's very long. Like 10+ pages long. So maybe only those who had gone/will go to IPhO will read it fully. Thanks anyway if you're reading. I might update this with a picture version or maybe not it's long enough. Oh and for my Uni mates, the last few paragraphs solves the mystery of why I show off my medal in my first few months\years in Uni.

18th July: The Malaysian team

I was at the UKM residence. And nothing was planned on the 18th July. I was eating with the others in the Malaysian team. Saw Siong Keat, from Penang, tall and thin. He wears spectacles too. Muhd. Khairul Azri, the only Bumiputera in our team was eating halal food elsewhere. And the two schoolmates from Klang, Phan Chow Fu and Kee Wee Siong. We were provided with some allowances for food. And I was internally lamenting of the fact that, if I had just gone for QET today and came here tomorrow instead...

We were all studying on the night, doing past year papers at the last few days before the competition. It was not easy, for if we want to do it fairly, we needed to devote 5 hours for each past year papers. Five hours straight of total concentration and thinking about difficult physics problems, guessing which equations to use, stepping forward in the dark, feeling like a blind man, not knowing if the 30 minutes spend in calculating a hunch would pay off or not. That was the difficult part of the preparations.

After a while, I went back to my Rubik's cube. My cube now cost forty ringgit, it is a DIY cube. And my timing then was just under one minute. It was addictive to just time yourself using your watch and aim for under a minute. And since it just took one minute per round, plus a few seconds of scrambling, one can do it 30 times, and one hour passes by.

All five of us were not a talkative bunch. The situation was starkly different compared to Singapore, where I was just about 24 hours ago. I still felt a bit unreal for this sudden change of location and situation in so short a time. I could be considered as the most outgoing of the team. Surprising if you know my secondary or primary school background.

I brought out a bunch of name cards from my bag. It was our name-cards, containing our names and emails. And I distributed it to the rest.

“Waa, you produced these cards?”

“Ya, my dad helped me, it was printed when I was in Singapore. Here’s 400 of them, we can distribute it to everyone we meet there.”

“It even has the word Malaysia and IPhO on it! Nice. How are we going to meet so many people in 10 days?”

“40 or more per day is possible, last year I collected over two or three hundred emails from almost every country. This year I am going to do it the smart way, let them add us. Distributing it would be much easier compared to asking them to write down their emails.”

“Ok, so that’s why there is the words: Add us in friendster, facebook and msn. We wish all a happy trip. So you are going to distribute most of it lah. We’ll each just take about 50, the rest you can give out.”

“Ok, haha, 200 is no problemo!”

19th July: Predeparture

The next day, we boarded a bus that carried only the five of us towards UKM. The trip even by bus takes about half an hour or more. And it only stops at the bus stop outside of the campus. We had to walk all the way inside UKM, towards the physics department. It took about another 30-40 minutes walk.

I appreciated NUS’s internal buses more right then, even through I was used to walking along UKM. I like travelling, especially by walking, but there are times where I realised how this makes the difference of attitude between Singapore and Malaysia. Malaysia is much more laid back compared to the hustle and bustle of Singapore.

In UKM, we were given our last briefing on what to do, what not to do, what not to say as representative of Malaysia. We also received our suit, black and tailored according to our body’s measurement from a previous camp. It came in a suit cover and fits comfortably. We were also given our batik clothing, the official Malaysian traditional wear that we were to wear on the opening ceremony. We also practised some moves for the opening ceremony, just lining up and bowing simultaneously.

There was some motivational talk, and the Professors who were supervising us officially came with us together. They also promised some monetary incentive in the form of USD for the winning of either gold, silver, bronze, or honourable mention. It would be straight from their pockets, so it obviously meant something to them. For me, after getting so many free stuffs from the government of Malaysia, (I paid nothing for the whole IPhO preparation and trip) that I was kind of desensitised by more monetary incentives, especially since I was to live in Singapore later on, where the cost of living is much higher compared to my secondary school life in Malacca.

Finally, we were send back to our residence, to pack up and prepare for an early morning trip to KLIA (Kuala Lumpur International Airport) on the Professors’ cars.

20th July: To Vietnam!

At KLIA about 7am in the morning of 20th July 2008, I was surprised to see William, Michelle, my sister Ching Siang, mother, father and grandmother coming to send me off. William and Michelle are my cousins who lives in Puchong, Selangor.

William is the same age as me, Ching Siang is one year younger than us, and Michelle is one year younger than Ching Siang. We all grew up together, even through we lived about 2 hours away from each other, we meet almost every school holiday. That was a few times a year from the time when we were five or younger. This made us super appreciative of our cousinly bond.

After the usual procedure at the airport, I finally got on the plane departing from  KLIA at 10:45am and arriving at Noibai Hanoi 1:10pm, local time. Hanoi is 1 hour behind Malaysia, so the whole plane journey was about 3 hours, 4 plus if you count all the waiting at the gates, and getting off at the other airport. The journey there was mostly uneventful, there was no entertainment screen behind the seats and I was quite bored on the plane.

After we got off at Vietnam, almost immediately after we step down the ground, we were cheered and welcomed by a group of pretty Vietnamese girls. They also greeted the another two teams who were on the same plane as us.

One of the girls who held a Malaysian sign board asked me in English, “What is your name?”

“Xin Zhao.”

She looked surprised and had to shove me to another girl while greeting the ones behind me. That other girl asked me the same question and I gave the same answer. She had the same expression and then asked again,

“What is your name?”

“Xin Zhao.”

“Name? Nama?”

“Xin Zhao.”

“Xin Chao to you too, what is your name?”

Now I was perplexed, didn’t she just got my name?

“My name is Xin Zhao.”

Then we had to move to board a bus that will bring us to the hotel that we will live.

On the bus, I took a few pictures and started to walk around to talk to the previous girl who asked my name.

After someone from another country’s team asked me my name and I answered, she took a while for this to sink in to her. And then she asked,

“Your name is really Xin Chao?”

“Xin Zhao, yes.”

Then she suddenly laughed.

I must have had a frown on my face and then she finally explained to me that my name sounds similar to “Hello” in Vietnamese.

I was amazed.

“Really?”

The first girl who asked my name now turn back and joined our talk. After some explaining, I got another source verifying this amazing coincidence. I can safely say that when my father gave me my name, it was not in the intention of making me famous in Vietnam. Well, coincidence do happen anyway, and I became famous amongst the girls who were guides to the countries (every team has one) as Mr. Hello.

At the hotel, Thong Loi hotel, the adults who accompanied us are to live in another hotel, to start preparing to oversee our theoretical and experimental exams, and to mark our papers after we finished them. The separation also ensures a fair play for all teams, so from now on, we were on our own.

We were each given a bag which contains invitations to the opening and closing ceremony, the timeline for these official nine days in Vietnam, some information of Vietnam, our name tags that we were to wear, and bottles of water. The bag is black, with gray alternating pattern, and a red strip on the front. It contains the word 39th International Physics Olympiad Vietnam 2008. Overall, a very nice backpack for school kids. I am still using it now as one of my two main bags in NUS, the other being the bag I gotten from Iran.

Next, we were shown to our rooms. The hotel was super nice, with a swimming pool and a room for Internet. We got free access to them. I shared room with Azri and Jay Keat, the other two having their own double room. And the hotel room is much much better than what I had in Iran. At least that’s what I said in my blog post on that night. I was busy going out to give the name-cards to pretty much everyone I meet. And according to my blog, I had met the China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Macau team by 9.06pm. Instead of doing last minute studying like the other four in my team, I did not brought much of any study materials with me anyway, I chose to go out and socialize! Even through that just meant introducing myself, asking for their names and country, sometimes age (some of them really look young and some are really big) and giving them my cards, and then moving on to the next group of people.

This was a bit of a mental strain on me too, I was given the opportunity to stay in at UKM for 2 months and a second chance at winning big at the most important event so far in my life, an event that is international, and where almost everyone treated you like a king. And I choose to socialise instead of grabbing every minute to study. I rationalised, well, last minute study is useless, might as well enjoy myself to the fullest and go in with a relaxed calmed mind.

I was calm, and trying to cool off, although I do feel like being a Super Saiyan 1 level all the time, with shoulders tense and a serious expression on me. Before I slept, I popped in some vitamins that my parents insisted me to bring and swallowed them. It felt a bit better. At least I would not fall sick before the competition. I smiled and slept.

21st July:  Opening Ceremony

The next day, we were to wear our batik, grab our opening ceremony invitation, the bag and go board on buses (there were a lot of buses) towards a very grand place housing a very big theater where the opening ceremony was to be held. In grandeur.

One thing that struck me of the Vietnam streets, on the way, was the abundance of motorcycles on the road and the very thick and low-lying wires that hangs between each utility pole.

On the bus, I sat beside our guide. She was the first girl that we met from the airport, and she is jaw-dropping-beautiful. Taking this news in and being happy for a wish came true (last year, the Malaysian team had a male guide, in Iran, male guides are assigned for the male candidates and female guides for the teams which has females, and all females has to cover their hair, I wished then that we could had a girl as our guide the next time), I asked the person who sat in front of us to help us take some photos.

Amazingly, she was not so shy, in fact, she was not shy at all, and posed close to me and smiled all the way, allowing me lots of chances of taking good beautiful photos!

Her name is Phan Thuy Linh.

Realizing that there Chow Fu’s surname is the same as hers, she warmed up towards us even more and said that Chow Fu is her cousin or little brother.

“You are studying in a University?” We asked her.

“Yes, I am a year four student now.” She replied.

“Why did you chose to be the guide of Malaysia?” Chow Fu asked.

“I learned some Malay and I really like the people of Malaysia, terima kasih.” She smile while saying “Thank You” in Malay.

We were all smiling from ear to ear, and really grateful for a nice start.

The opening ceremony started off, with many pictures flashing and me getting to know some more teams, then we were ushered to our seats inside the grand theater. The seats were blue and I estimated that the whole place can fit up to a thousand people. It even has a second storey.

The stage was set with the 3D-words “IPhO 2008” on the left and “Hanoi Vietnam” on the right. There was a yellow IPhO logo at the middle of the stage, and the backdrop shows the beautiful Ha Long Bay of Vietnam. There was the Vietnam flag on top of the stage and two big screens on the top sides beside the stage.

The ceremony started off with dancing by young and pretty girls, the first dance features them wearing cheer leading costumes as if cheering us on. The second dance sees them in more traditional costumes, dancing a traditional dance.

Then the teams started to come on stage, one by one in alphabetical order. Each time a team step up, I hear my name being mentioned. It brought a smile to me and my team. We prepared ourselves and had to line up for about half of the time, to prepare to go on stage. Each team spend about 30 seconds on stage and it was all over in about one hour. I managed to take some photo of the teams that started with “S”, including the Singaporean team.

That was the first time I saw them and I was determined to make friends with them, just like last year, Malaysia and Singapore teams being close together!

At the end of it two singers were singing a special song composed just for us and a beautiful dance was performed behind them. The song was “IPhO Vietnam”, with the lyrics about the coming of different nationality and races, and striving together. Mixing English and Vietnamese, the song is really beautiful and touched a chord with me.

At the end of the opening ceremony, we took photos with the acting President of IPhO, the previous president having died in the middle of the last IPhO. She was happy to have photos with us. Whereas Jerome Isaac Friedman, jointly awarded the 1990 Nobel Prize in Physics with two others for their pioneering investigations concerning deep inelastic scattering of electrons on protons and bound neutrons, which have been of essential importance for the development of the quark model in particle physics, was having some hard time to accommodate a lot of people who wants autographs and photos with him.

Then we were offered a choice of either going back to the hotel to study for the exam tomorrow, or to discover and explore Hanoi. I was again faced with a choice. And I smiled, of course I was going for being a tourist! I forgot if my teammates chose to go back or to explore with me. A heavy weight once again was thrown on my shoulders. I was so worked up that I may had entered Super Saiyan 2 stage without realizing it.

The rest of the day was spend in visiting various parts of Vietnam and our guides gave us some information of the history of Vietnam and the monuments that we visited.

22nd July:  Theoretical Examination

The theoretical examination started at 8 am. We were at a very very huge examination hall that accommodated about 400 contestants. Each of us was provided a table, chair, pencil, writing materials, the examination paper, envelopes to put it in, calculator, and snacks as food for the 5 hour long examination. The tables were like school desks, all separated and arranged in the large examination hall.

I was in Super Saiyan 4 mode now. Extremely calm. It seemed that my brain cannot operate in its most optimal form and yet I cannot seem to cool down anymore. The questions did not seem incredibly difficult, but nonetheless, one has to be in tip top condition in order to tackle them straight on.

This time there was no way of anyone in the examination hall can influence anyone else, unlike last year where the table opposite me was knocked a lot by a Mongolian boy who was 14 years old. He was small and therefore has difficulty getting used to the large tables back then. The design for the tables was like a study table design, with walls on both sides. Two tables facing each other with a divider wall blocking the view too, so one is completely alone and has no way of knowing who was opposite one’s desk. So you could imagine that I was startled when there was a kick opposite my desk back in Iran. I thought it was some personal attack, due to my precarious mental state back then. I only found out that it was the Mongolian boy after the 5 hours of doubt and uncertainty.

It was a part of the reason I lost my mental balance back then. It was no excuse, I was supposed to be good at mental training. But I failed. That was one of the things that I regretted in my life. One of the few, of getting only Honourable Mention back then. I consoled myself my promising a gold the next time I come.

This was it. There was nothing that could go wrong this time. As I fondly tell others, examination results is dependent on 50% mental state at the time, 25% familiarity with examination format, and 25% knowledge. My knowledge is good, I did more than 10 past years papers of IPhO (should had done more), and now all I got to do was to calm the heaven down. Ok I can do this. I still did not got any inspiration into completely solving any of the 3 questions involved fully. However, one can still make headway by just brute force thinking about a problem.

Ah ha, that was it! And I wrote down the solutions for one tenth of a question. Then I was imagining the glory and fame of getting gold and what would I say to the press who interviews me. No, got to concentrate! Concentrate on the task at hand. I was almost despairing at 3 hours in and still stuck at maximum five marks that I was assured of getting. Five out of thirty.

I went for a toilet break and came back, and told myself, that’s it I am done with gold medal, I can see it flying away out of a window, and silver too, and even bronze, and I had got no one to blame but me, I am lucky if I even get to have a Honourable Mention this time. And it was all my fault for playing the fool and not studying hard every single moment I had after STPM finished on December 2007. I accept this fate. I deserve everything I got in for.

Still I remain at my best thinking cap to try out and to answer whatever of the examination question left that I can do. Dead-ends and wasted time no longer held fear for my thoughts from roaming far and wide and exploring the solution.

I emerged thinking that I did at most 15 marks. So this was what it felt like being bad at something. Something that I kept hearing some of my classmates and friends keep on saying and complaining about their abilities. Not that I had not experienced this before, almost the same experience as last year. Just that this time, there was no redo. There was no way I could say “life was unfair to me”. This was what I deserved. And I was mentally prepared to face the music too, not that there would be any, after all, what could anyone do to me now? I had no more chance to redeem myself. Except for the Experimental exam. That I will definitely still do my best in it! Because there was nothing else to lose here. Nothing.

23rd July: Mongolian boy

We were brought to visit a silk village, to witness how the traditional silk making process works. Including seeing a silk worm. I enjoyed myself there, forgetting all about this morning’s trial and tribulations. I even brought a cool looking Chinese shirt that was sold to me in USD (United States Dollar).  

Then we went for a temple visit, and I met the Mongolian boy there. He looks a bit bigger now, along with another Mongolian girl. They were young, about 15-16 years old. Therefore, they can repeatedly come back for IPhO, so that they would eventually improve to a gold medal level. As according to the IPhO statues, students who have finished their school examinations in the year of the competition can be members of the team as long as they have not commenced their university studies. The age of the contestants should not exceed twenty years on June 30th of the year of the competition.

I smiled at him, and he smiled back. I had already settled my difficulty with him one year ago. On the Experimental day of IPhO 2007, I shook his hand before the exam. And I went in feeling a job well done in forgiving and letting go of my own fears and not allowing a chance for any possible hatred to arise.

We were at the Museum of Ethnology now, with a river, and authentic village lifestyle surrounding us.

“What!?” one of the contestants exclaimed, “we just had an exam on this!” Many started to take out their cameras in tribute to one of the simplest yet killer theoretical question.

Introducing the simple deadly:

WATER-POWERED RICE-POUNDING MORTAR

I found out from String, the daily IPhO newsletter, that a lot of the contestants think that the theoretical examination was difficult. Hmm... maybe I was not alone in feeling like an incompetent idiot here.

24th July:  Experimental Examination

This time, our desk has divider walls, so no one can see what the others were doing. It seems easier than last year’s one. That was a glimpse of hope for me. I casted away all worries and hopes about the future, about the consequences of winning or losing whatever medal I will get, and just put my mind to the present, doing my best in finishing up the experiment.

Even with five hours to do it, I missed out 3 points out of 20. However at least I have something to tell the people who pour their hopes and dreams of the first Malaysian gold on me. That I’ll at least get bronze, or Honourable Mention, so that I would not be worst off compared to last year. My heavy heart felt much relieved at the end of one of the best five hours of my life.

In fact, I got so relieved that I felt some back-reaction of all the stress accumulated on my body, especially on my shoulders to make me miss one of the most scenic features of Vietnam.

Fortunately I was still able to hang on, feeling hot and a bit under the weather until the water puppet show, with dragons, water, fire and smoke, it was well worth it!

25th July:  Hoa Lu ancient capital & the Nobel Laurette Lecture

I was forcing myself to go for the ancient capital. Taking photos and flirting with my beautiful guide. By the time we were at the Trang An eco-tourism Centre, we were to go on a boat ride and my face was getting visibly paler. I gave up all the burden, and tried to forget the pressure. With no more IPhO examination in these few days, I finally can let go of the study pressure burden I carried with me since I started studying for STPM back in 2006.  

Most of my friends can just scream out all they want to after STPM and thus were eager to resume studies in Universities by now, after a few months.

For me, I had a great “guilty” time joining in for UKM Buddhist Fellowship and procrastinating, having a preview into what University life is like and the constant pressure to study. Until now.

Phan Thuy Linh asked me if I was ok to continue on for the boat ride. It would last about one to two hours. I was insistent that I was good enough to continue on. The boat ride was on a scenic river, going under multiple bridges and caves. Chow Fu, Thuy Linh and me were in a boat, steered by the captain. I was feeling more more unwell, especially when the wind blows, but still, I managed to keep a straight face. The only indication that I was under the weather was that I flirted less, and was quiet most of the time, being amazed by the darkness of the caves, at the light at the end of the tunnel, by the water level of the river being just nice so that the ceiling of the caves are not too low for us to go through.

By the end of the ride, I was concentrating on directing energy on healing myself, and could hardly enjoy anything that the beautiful scenery can offer me.

“Are you ok? You should just sleep in the bus.” Thuy Linh was very concerned for me.

I could not muster enough energy to protest, with a weak gait, I hopped on to the bus at the end of the boat ride and almost immediately fell asleep.

Two hours later, the bus reached the hotel, and I was back in my hotel room, in the comfortable bed, catching up on a much needed sleep for my body and mind.

“Don’t let him go for the lecture and Ha Long Bay later on.” Thuy Linh instructed Azri and Jay Keat. “He needs all the rest he can get.”

At hearing that I was not to go for the lecture by Jerome Isaac Friedman, a rare opportunity to hear a Nobel Laurette giving a lecture, I sat up and bargained, “No, let me go for the lecture, I’ll sleep until the lecture and if I cannot behave myself and got too sick, then I’ll stay in bed.” I was always wandering off on the visits, giving out cards, making our guide ask, “Where is Xin Zhao?” more than once.

Looking not persuaded, she cautioned that if I cannot take it during the lecture, I was to indeed forgo Ha Long Bay as my health comes first.

During the lecture, the seats were so comfortable, and the introduction so long that I could not help but to doze off for the whole hour and a half of it. And so on the

26th July: Missing Ha Long Bay

I was in bed all day, physically ill after the exam, down with a fever and cold, no less.

It was a Saturday, with nothing else planned but for a whole day trip to Ha Long Bay, taking the morning to reach there and then back again. From the pictures on our programme sheets, I may had just missed the most amazing part of Vietnam sight-seeing. Almost every single picture, every single picture taken at Ha Long Bay is so scenic, it looks like it came straight out of a fairy tale.

I slept in bed all day, getting up just for lunch and practising some Tai Chi to make me sweat off the accumulated toxic in my body and make me heal faster.

By the afternoon, I was almost healed. And I wandered and walked around the hotel grounds. It was unusually quiet now that most of the people are gone for sight-seeing.

Even the Singaporean teams, (this was when I first met Kia Boon), were not there. They were at Ha Long Bay, along with the rest of the Malaysian team. Too bad, or else I could had played bridge with them again. Just like last year.

Letting out a slight sigh, I noticed that there were some of the guides who were still there.

“Xin Chao, why are you guys here?”

“Xin Chao, Xin Zhao, the teams we were guiding did not want to go for the sight seeing. How is your body now?” One of the Vietnamese guide asked.

“I am much better, thank you. A good long sleep was the key. Say could you guys teach me how to say ‘You are pretty’ in Vietnamese?”

“Bạn rất đẹp, why?”

Looking towards one of the pretty girls, I said, “Bạn rất đẹp.”

Giggling, they all were eager to teach me more.

“How about ‘I love you’?” I asked.

“Anh yêu em, are you saying this to your guide? Phan Thuy Linh?”

“He he,” I chukled, “Maybe...”

“Say ‘tôi thích bạn’, this is better, say Anh yêu em only if you really love her, but you had just meet her for a few days, don’t say ‘I love you’ to her!”

“Why not?”

“Are you serious in liking her then?”

I was a bit taken aback, does translating “I love you” to Vietnamese brings about another deeper meaning? Or do they hold the love word sacred?

I nodded my head, thinking about it, was I too casual? I did feel a bit of a liking towards her, and I didn’t think of anything further ahead, including how would I date her after IPhO? Shrugging, I just decided to be flirtatious. Just for the fun of it. Just because I am at the top of the world, and everything was going perfectly fine.

27th July: A night to remember

The day was spent in a pottery village, I was feeling so fine now that I could make a plate painting, documenting the date, event, my name, made in Hanoi, and various physics equations.

The flirting with Thuy Linh was not successful at all, she just asked me to not say that again, and ignored my earlier proclamation, still, treating me as always: like a spoiled VIP child. I did had to drop it all off and just treat her as another friend and nothing more, meanwhile enjoying the fact that I had finished all my 200 cards and was now helping to distribute the leftover cards that my teammates hold.

I was pleasantly surprised when the Macau, Hong Kong and China group asked the Malaysians Chinese to join in for their singing of “Beijing Welcomes You”. We had a short practise session just before the cultural night that lasted from 8pm from 11pm. The song was aptly chosen in conjunction with the Olympic Games in Beijing in August! I enjoyed myself although my voice was still a bit too weak, and I needed to wear a bit more to protect myself against the chill of the air conditioner.

There were a lot of solo performances, from beat rapping, to strange musical instruments. There were even a fashion show, showcasing the traditional clothing of various nations. For singing, there were the beautiful “Hallelujah”; unheard of songs that was just unique; the famous, crazy Spanish-initiated “Macarena” in which they invited everyone to dance along! The stage was full of craziness that night. There was even a human train singing along the tune of a Chinese song, “I don’t have money”! In the end, the dance floor was opened to all, playing various songs like “Macarena” (again), “It’s my life”, etc.

What made it an unforgettable night was the news that I had received all the way back from Malaysia, from Professor Roslan, one of the main Professors who were training us to prepare for this event of a lifetime. Back in my room, room 521, I was surprised by my teammates on the results of our competition.

28th July: Closing Ceremony, the Finale Night

Just before leaving for the closing ceremony, I managed to finally get some time to post on my blog.

Hello again, sorry for taking so long to post another topic about the Ipho, but I've been having lots of fun here. After the last post, I went to The Opening.... oh well I'll tell yo this later, I got some important things to tell you before I go to the closing ceremony. I was sick 3 days ago but now I'm feeling a lot better now, just a bit of running nose left.

And I got Silver medal! See it here. Oh and to impress you on how big a surprise it is to me and how important this medal is to Malaysia, I'll give you some background.

First, to me, I thought I'm doomed to no medal or honourable mention after the Theoretical exam, it was so hard(everyone says so) , I think I hardly got 15 marks for it (turns out I got 11.6). And so doing my best in the Experimental one, I only left 3 marks undone there (I got 16.3). Everyone says that it's easy. So, I was hoping for a HM or Bronze, but decided to just keep my hopes to HM, to avoid disappointment. I thought I got less that what I had last year( 27 marks) turns out I'm almost correct. Rumors has it that 35 marks for gold (it's 33 actually), 20 for bronze(19) and 13 for HM(14or 15), and nothing about silver(don't remember) .But I'm really am glad to got to know that I got silver from Prof. Roslan.

Second, this is the first time malaysia has an medal more than bronze and it means a lot to the IFM, and to me it means Malaysia does produces genius. Go future Olympians, go and make your country proud! Update: By 2011, Malaysia has a gold medal!

The total was over 50 points. By the time I was in the closing ceremony, I was in full formal wear, and we were seated according to the medals we won. Phan Chow Fu got a Honourable Mention, and that’s all Malaysia has. I was busy taking note of the various medals that the various countries obtain.

The whole ceremony was grand and really produces a feeling of awe. I almost can’t believe I was here, complete with Star Wars theme music, the atmosphere is just legend- wait for it- ary. Legendary. This was who I was. An Olympian, A Silver Medallist, no less. Nothing from the past can make me less happy now. Nothing can rock this feeling of security, self-assurance, and confidence.

I shiver as I bathed in the sheer immensity of this acknowledgement. As I stepped up to the stage, and received my Silver Medal from them, I say to myself: “what a wonderful world”. And smiled. This international acknowledgement of the highest order of magnitude for young students was unsurpassable. Nothing else of equivalent significance can beat this. Nothing but the Nobel Prize, which is harder to get and so far away. So for all practical purposes, I was whole. All of us Olympians were!

We all took a photo together later on, and my solo picture with my medal would be one of my favourite photos for some time.

The farewell banquet at Melia Hotel was one of the best experiences of my life so far. Lots of people from the previous Olympiads were there and I met and had fun with them. Maksim, the Mongolian boy, and Rui Hu, an American who got into MIT.

“Hey, how did you do man?” the American team greeted me when I met them.

I hold up my silver medal and smiled. Rui Hu had also gotten a Silver Medal.

“Congrats man!” They said. “We have something for you.” Then they took out a red T-shirt, and gave it to me. I was beyond surprised and very honoured to see that the T-shirt contains the logo and wording of “American Institute of Physics”.

It might have been the fact that I entered their room and watched some TV with them, or that I was super active and friendly towards everyone. Whatever reason it was, I was glad to receive the gift.

“Wow, thanks man!”

“Nah, don’t mention it.”

I then went to the toilet and changed. I was sweating in my formal wear and was glad to be able to have a change of cloths. Especially considering that I was still recovering from being sick. The American team was really happy to see me afterwards, wearing the red T-shirt and still having the silver medal hanging around my neck. We took lots of photos then.

On the way out, finally, all official programming are finished, I met Kwek Leong Chuan, a Principal Investigator in the Centre for Quantum Technologies (CQT) at NUS. We might had met before and he asked which University I was going to. I replied NUS, Physics and smiled, maybe I’ll see him there again.

We stayed for the whole of next day packing was a hassle with so many souvenirs to take back, and flew back on the afternoon of the 30th July. Just before we left, I took a photo of Sam Hang Tran, one of the Vietnam girls, posing with the hotel name, Thang Loi. We would meet again someday.

Somehow I wasn’t very looking forward to coming back. Last year, even when I just won a Honourable Mention, I got admiring gazes from my classmates (although they did not appreciate my over-expression of being an Olympiad by wearing my name tag all around the place).

The state of Malacca presented medals to me, even Malaysia presented a prize called Anugerah Belia Remaja Pendidikan (Young adolescent educational award) along with a (more deserving) person who got 21As in SPM (Sijil Pendidikan Malaysia, Malaysian Certificate of Education). The Institute of Physics even presented me another medal for representing Malaysia, the others in the IPhO team then could not make it for they (Cavan and Kent Loong) were studying in NUS.

This time, it would be me studying in NUS and not get all these recognition when I go back. Even the interview I had in KLIA airport was by a Chinese newspaper published in Malaysia. What’s the point when I’m no longer staying there most of the time?

I’ll be starting out as a nobody in University, just like everyone else, what University award recognises any universal achievements anyway? Everyone will be in different majors, doing different things, and there will not be anything else that can make the whole University look up to you and say congratulations (turns out I would be very wrong in this respect).

If I do not promote myself over at NUS, no one will. At least I wanted the fame and recognition.