An oblivion of choice

Today most of my batch plus a few others went on a walkabout trip of Kuala Lumpur. The purpose was…well, I’m not entirely sure. But by the end of it, we were supposed to have produced 24 quality sketches which formed a quarter of our midterm total. Yes, a quarter, of 20% which makes those 24 quality sketches worth only 5%. Sketching is not my forte especially when I’m not really in the mood and if the building is too complicated like Masjid Jame’. All I ended up doing was ruining the beautiful architecture by my extremely flawed sketches, all lopsided and out of perspective. Unlike some people who are really good at it. This semester looks doomed for me…

Of the three places we visited, namely Badan Warisan, Masjid Jame’, and the Chinese temple near Petaling Street whose name I *think* is Kuan Lew temple but I’m not so sure, the ones I liked most were the first and third.
At Badan Warisan, we toured around the Rumah Penghulu Abu Seman, and it was gorgeous and calm and beautiful made me sad to think I never had or will never have the experience of living in a wooden kampung house. But we spent so little time there, and a lot of the time we were busy sketching.

The third place was the temple, I liked it because it was a new environment and it was also quite peaceful. The hanging spiral incense made the place smoky and the sunlight filtered through the smoke in the courtyard. It was very interesting, and it was my first time inside a Chinese temple. i loved the big red wooden doors the most. I sketched inside most but after about an hour my eyes began to sting so I had to rush out for a breather. I don’t know if I would have survived in Sri Mahamariamman since they use strong incense and strong smells make my head spin. I was already having a headache from the heat and sun, added with the incense from the Chinese temple. Thank god the hindu temple was being renovated. Instead we were asked to draw shop houses, but I was too lazy and just stood around itching to walk back to the air-conditioned bus.

The only thing I think I gained from this trip besides being exposed to the interior of Chinese temple and the history of Rumah Penghulu Abu Seman was how small and interconnected KL is. I know many parts of KL, but today I actually connected those places in my head while walking. It was quite satisfying.

Today I was apologized to twice, both by guys, both by the ones who weren’t actually the ones who should be apologizing if I had even noticed that there was anything to apologise to me for. But thanks for the sorries anyways 🙂