Pembantangan

Pembantangan means presentation.
We have just finished with level three of our language classes and tomorrow and Wednesday we have a series of exams and then a presentation. This presentation is supposed to be 15 minutes long, entirely in Bahasa Melayu, and has to describe a process. This presentation is causing Casey a lot of undue stress. I, however, am not experiencing any stress. This is because "saya tak peduli" translation "I don't care". I am completely ok with using only the vocabulary I know, using incorrect pronunciation, and sounding like a foreign speaker. Casey though is tortured by a desire to speak using only a sophisticated vocabulary with impeccable pronunciation. There in lies the difference.
Despite our contradictory attitudes we are both having fun with our presentation topics. This is because our only goal is to cause our Asian classmates to have a stroke. I will try an articulate this. There are several Asian students in the language class. A few students from Korea and a few from Japan. We have noticed that these students are extremely fond of using expressions like Ahhhhh and Ohhhhh. They seem to use these exclamations at what I consider very odd times - by very odd I mean almost every situation possible. For example, the other day a student turned on his laptop in class. We are all familiar with the standard start up sound that a computer makes when it is turned on. Well this noise caused an extreme outbreak of Uhhhs and Ahhhs and Ohhhs from our classmates. If you sit down to lunch with one girl and she sees your plate of food she will almost pass out from Ahhhing and Ohhhing. When I explained to our roommates that I had bought Casey tennis rackets for her birthday they started clapping like crazy and Ohhhing and Ahhhing so frantically that I had to run away. I am not exaggerating at all. Every action is met with and Ohhh or an Ahhh. When we decided on our topics we wanted as many Ohhhs and Ahhhs as possible. Just standing in front of the class will most likely cause a 2 minute interruption but we wanted more. Casey has decided to do her presentation on yoga. This presentation has to include a process so she must explain what yoga is and how to do a few poses. She or I will have to demonstrate 2 or 3 poses. This should cause a minor aneurysm for our fellow students. I have decided to do my presentation on how to set up a tent. I will set the tent up in class and I am hoping to hospitalize the remaining students. We will let you know how it goes.
We may not blog for about a week as we are off to Borneo on Thursday. We are planning on backpacking for a few days so we will be quite removed from a computer. When we do post, we promise pictures.