One Day Trip to Parliament & Royal Mint

First of all, I want to say Happy Birthday to May Jing (my classmate) whose birthday is on 24th of April, which was yesterday. As the 'tradition', we celebrated her birthday in the laboratory after school with a big and delicious cheese cake.
Then, another birthday wish for my best friend, Kar May who has her birthday today. We gave her a very simple birthday present (about 6 of us shared to buy the present) yesterday just to make her to think that we wouldn't give her other presents besides that. Then, we gave her a big birthday present, it's a Pig doll in medium size(the one in Korean drama, My Name is Kim Sam Soon), which she likes so much. It's quite a big surprise to her! ^^
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Oops... back to the main topic... haha...
Today is the day of Lawatan Sambil Belajar to Parliament and Royal Mint Malaysia which was organised by our form six society, and I was the AJK in charged of this 'project', although most of the jobs were done by En.Abdul Rahman while paper works were done by Hoon.
All of the 83 upper six students and 6 of the teachers (our PA teachers -- En.Zaili, En.Suhaimi, En.Abdul Rahman; Cik Rosnah, Pn.Norzaini, Pn.Wan Napsiah) were going together in two buses. We all looked so smart in our very tidy school uniform with the tie put on too ... haha
Before we departed, our headmistress was invited to give some speech...
oh ya, did I say ... we were going for these visits during schooltime! It is the first time the headmistress allow students to do so! haha
By the way, to visit these two places, we have to do many paperworks and to type many letters to get approval from those authorities and also school authority.

We reached parliament at about 9.30am. We were welcomed with open arms and were given a short briefing before entering the parliament. After 'throwing' our handphones and digital cameras into plastic bag which was securely kept, we were required to pass through the scanner to be censored, then we put our bags in the locker. Another briefing about the rules and 'protocol' was given, then we entered the parliament hall quietly. wow... the hall is indeed big with so many chairs... and we could see ministers and also the reporters of different newspapers too. By the way, there were quite less ministers presented today, many of the ministers were absent, included the prime minister too.
The cabinet meeting started at 10.00am, and we were allowed to be there for only one hour as there were too many schools wanting to visit here, so every school is arranged to take turn to stay inside for such a short time. In fact, at one time, there would be two schools inside the hall; when we were inside, there were another school's form six students sitting there.

This is indeed a good experience, to see and to know the exact situation inside the parliament during the cabinet meeting. At first, we felt quite boring and sleepy, but then there were some arguments! haha.. Besides, when there was something funny, the ministers were laughing out loud (a.k.a LOL), you know, it's so funny to listen to their laughing!

After being asked to leave the hall, we were all feeling relax... because we were trying to 'behave' and control ourselves inside, to be so quiet, and didn't move here and there, and to give others good image of our beloved SMKTE too. I think we did it? hehe...

Then, we went out from the building, so... it's time to take photo! yeah... we took more than half hour to take photo there... lolz... It was quite hot but we had stayed under the hot sun for so long time just to take photo...

The next destination was PKNS Shah Alam. We went there to have our lunch. Some had lunch at KFC some at McDonald. At first, I wanted to eat at KFC, but it was too crowded and the place was quite small. Then I went to McDonald alone to find another group of friends. erm.. McDonald here has bigger space than KFC, it was of two floors. And, for the first time I tried McFlurry (oreo)(RM4.19 included tax)... it is delicious but a bit over sweet lar...

Then, when we went back to the place where the buses parked, we saw something else... which is funny... but it's such a shame to our country!

the words in the photo: pemeriksaan polis di hadapan; bersedia untuk berbogel dan ketuk ketampi

aiyoyo... I think it was done by somebody who is not responsible at all!

After that, we went to the next and also the last destination -- Royal Mint Malaysia at 2pm.
http://royalmintmalaysia.com/
It's part of Bank Negara Malaysia which makes Malaysian coins and some special educational collectibles featuring coins and medallions.
We had wasted much of our time on waiting here because each time, only 25 people were allowed to go inside the factory while there were 83 persons excluding teachers and the drivers ... Totally, there were 4 turns, Hoon and I went at the 3rd turn.

So while waiting for our turn, we went to visit its surrounding. There were many big fishes (written Ikan Ganas on the notice board there) in the ponds oh... We didn't take photos using camera but only handphone. It's because as told by teachers, we were not allowed to bring camera inside, and hence we had even left our bags in the bus... sigh.. We then got to know that actually we could bring those things inside the compound, and only not allowed to bring inside the factory lar... Besides, we went to the shop selling souvenirs. I had bought a pewter (a rabbit shape chain).

Finally, it's our turn... we had waited for more than 1 hour ... so tiring lar... After entering inside the factory, we had to put everything into the locker. Then, once again just like what we did in parliament, we were required to be scanned. But if compared to that one, the facility (the scanner I mean) here was not as advanced as parliament's because the scanning process was done by human, one by one in a room.
The staff in charged guided us and gave us some explanations. Maybe because of few times she had done the same thing, she seemed to be impatient with her job. She scolded us for not paying attention to what she said. I wondered how did she discover it. Well, we did try to listen to what she said, but in fact we were unable to hear it because of the noise made by the machines. Her voice was quite loud but it was not enough to overcome the noise. Therefore, we did pay attention lar..

The process of minting Malaysian coins by using the blanks (blanks are the coins which are not yet been minted, so they are blank!) are all done by machines. This was the first time I visited a factory... hehe... and able to watch the whole process of minting Malaysian coins.
After finish visiting, we had to be scanned again before leaving the factory. All of us went to have a break at the 'restaurant' which is just located beside the factory. Then, .... ahah... photo session again lor.

They said, U6S1 are animal killer / animal wor... because we are biology class students; U6S2 are robots because they are physics class students; while U6A are Manusia (human) because they are students of "Kelas Kemanusiaan" (art class)..... from these statements, yes, you can know that the one saying these are from the Kelas Kemanusiaan... ha!

We were given a special 'coin' (the 2005 Merdeka special edition) each person. By the way, we had actually paid for it as we had to pay RM5 for the visit to its factory, but in return, we received one coin with the same price.
*when I showed it to my dad after returning home, he said I should buy some more for him.. aiya... I had forgotten that he likes to collect these coins! He always buy those special edition coins or any memorable gold/whatever coins.

We went back to our school at about 5.20pm. Many people were rushing for their tuitions afterwards! Pity them... because we all were feeling quite tired already. Some of the students had actually skipped their tuitions today because they were forced to follow along the whole trip.
Overall, the trip today was not bad and we had gained much knowledge, I'm satisfied as everything run smooth. Normally, we are unable to enter these places easily oh!

*on the way go and back, we were watching Shaolin Soccer 少林足球 in the bus... although I had watched it before few years ago, but I was still able to laugh out loud when I watched it again today!