Category: A Bigger Life

I tried combining “technicolour” and “Instagram” to sound witty but it just sounds terrible.

One. My expression does not do my excitement for the release of the One Direction movie justice but please do understand that there were a lot of people around and I don’t think Malaysians in particular fathom the needs of a rabid fangirl very well. Anyway, we went to watch City of Bones and it was fantastic and did the book justice, despite the many negative reviews I’ve heard. 10/10 would recommend.

Two. The next day, a Saturday, Yi Jing, Rumin, Pei Ying and I joined the Teach For Malaysia Summit 2013 at Sunway International School as a Sunway volunteer and even though it was more tedious than I’d expected, it was still pretty cool and fun and it was an experience like no other, particularly since I was joining a teachers’ conference for teachers from a student’s perspective, and everyone was basically discussing about students aka me.

Three. Ken Fui suggested a clothing theme for our class on Monday, which is Emo Day (the theme I mean, not the day) and basically it was just getting everyone to wear black except for Janesh who was to wear white because he is the President of ALSCO. (Speaking of ALSCO, I didn’t get in.) It was mighty fun and I even got Zi Tian to draw a fake sailor tattoo for me so I could be Harry Styles for the day, complete with the Ramones shirt and all.

Four. This badge is one of the many goodies I got from the first day of Recruitment Drive which is today. Nothing much to say about the badge, but I’m using it as a photo to talk about A Levels in general and I have three upcoming tests continuously this week and oh myyyy goddddddd

Yesterday was a Friday and that meant we had a three hour break in between classes. So the day before, after many exclaims of “BOJIO!” everyone decided to jio everyone in the class on a mini road trip to Crayon Burger at SS15 in three cars. I was in the same car as Bellyn, Taliza, Irfan, Rynn and Ken Fui and the best part of being in that car was when Fall Out Boy came on the radio and we went into full-fledged jamming mode.

And then we got lost a bit when we were heading back to college but we succeeded to do so in the end so that was another story to tell the grandchildren someday.

Overall, the food was good, the company better, and the day best.

Nothing much to announce, just felt the urge to write.

I’ve been back at college for four days now, and it pleases me to no end that tomorrow is Friday. Things have been getting quite hectic ever since I came back, and perhaps that’s a good thing. I’m slowly starting to slip in easily into this routine, and already it feels like I’ve been doing this forever. Okay maybe not, because let’s be real, we all know how much I like to exaggerate things sometimes.

I’ve also had two assessments on Physics and Maths so far. They were okay, I guess.

I’ve also been listening to a lot of The 1975 lately, evident from the lyric title above. You can blame that on Sakina.

I think I’ve found my favourite spot to hang out within the vicinity of my residence now. The Monash University cafeteria makes me feel strangely calm. Maybe it was all the laughing sessions we had had there.

I need to stop starting my sentences with “I”.

There’s something strangely therapeutic about listening to the light pitter-patter of raindrops as they beat against the nylon fabric of an umbrella which you’re holding over yourself.

Besides walking my dog in the rain late at night with an umbrella, this week, I’ve joined the school choir for a day, dressed up on Friday for college and sat on a plane alone. Again.

Last Thursday, since I had nothing else to do after classes, I decided to follow Yi Jing and Hannah (Yi Jing’s classmate and an ex-ALSTAR teammate of mine) to their choir practice from 5 to 7 because what the hell. It was free and who knows, maybe I have some kind of hidden talent for singing showcases. (Spoiler: that wasn’t the case.) The vocal trainer tested my vocal range for the first time and sorted me into soprano 2. Soprano. Oh. Hannah was a sop 2 as well and since I fail terribly at sight singing, I depended mostly (if not wholly) on Hannah when we practised. I don’t think I’ll be returning for the second practice, though.

The next day was a Friday, and previously, our econs teacher had instructed us to “dress up” on that day as we would be having an informal class photo taken. So after class on Thursday, the remaining people of my class had a brief meeting and we came to a consensus to dress formally the next day. So on Friday, majority of the boys were in collared shirts and slacks (Irfan went the distance and even had a bowtie on) (like Harry Styles) while Bellyn, Zi Tian and I dressed up in, well, dresses.

It was a really fun Friday. There’s always a certain…lightness to Fridays that Thursdays over here never had. It already feels like a day off even though it technically isn’t. Lecturers dress down while students dress up on Fridays, and it really is, in all its essence, TGIF.

On that Friday itself, I was to fly back to Alor Setar on an 8PM flight. Daniel, who was also staying at SMR offered me a lift to the Subang airport and when he dropped me there, it felt like Heathrow all over again, albeit a way smaller Heathrow because all I needed to do was walk straight and turn right to reach the waiting area. I didn’t even have to look for my terminal.

The gate of my flight opened at 1930 hours so at 7PM, I decided to call Beneh just for the heck of it and also to while away the time. The phone call lasted for 38 minutes and I didn’t even realise I’d missed my high school accomplice so much until then. And then it was boarding time and I spent the one hour on the plane silently laughing at Dan and Phil’s radio show video that I had pre-downloaded at school as a preparatory method to elude boredom on the plane. As a result, the hour literally flew by (see what I did there) and in no time at all, I was back at Alor Setar. My parents were already waiting for me and after hugging them, I was on the way home. Truly home. And damn, did that feel really frickin’ good. There really is no place like home.

Dish I: Pasta

Dish II: Mushroom soup and butter bread pieces

As I am writing this, there are only two minutes left until the rice in the rice cooker can be dished out and eaten with the pre-cooked baked beans plus egg dish waiting in my multi-purpose cooker. So that would be Dish III of my College Cooking Endeavours Menu. Please be proud of me. I put in half of the effort to make these stuff edible.

For someone who’s had zilch interest in cooking prior to coming to college (I detest being in the kitchen for any reason other than eating I’m sorry this is real this is me) so I would say this is a pretty magnificent feat for someone like me. And I have to admit, there is a huge satisfaction in preparing something that I would later enjoy eating, and double the bonus when I share it with my housemates as well. Unfortunately, the Sunway Monash Residence faculty bans cooking (with a stove) so our choices are pretty limited. Even my multi-purpose cooker (that I like to call magic cooker because it can work magic I kid you not) was smuggled in on our first day here. And unfortunately for us (who are too lazy to actually make an effort to go outside and eat everyday) this means that we have to find for options other than eating instant noodles in the apartment everyday…but we fared pretty fairly, I would say. If all fails, there’s always the choice to eat an apple.

College Life Chose Me, I Retaliated.

College life also chose me to study A-Levels and I realise that’s what I hardly talk about on here: my studies. What’s there to say, honestly? Physics, Chemistry and Math are 50 million degrees harder than the SPM syllabus and despite the fact that I enjoyed Econs immensely during the first few weeks, now it’s upgraded to being one of the sources of my headaches. But that’s A-Levels for you, I guess. Imagine how startled I was when Sunway students of A-Levels course and other courses exclaimed how stressful AL would be. An A-Level student posted on the Sunway confessions facebook page that he/she wished to join a society and asked for opinions and a Sunway student from CIMP commented, “You’re taking A-Levels, you sure you got time or not?”

Whoaaaaa there. I won’t even have time to join societies? One of the things I anticipated the most before stepping into college was joining clubs and cool activities because that’s what college is all about right? And now I wouldn’t have time to do so? Like????? What have I signed myself up for

And now I am counting down the days until I go home for Raya. I’m overjoyed to go home, but then I remember that I have to come back here eventually and that makes me quite sad.

I didn’t retaliate on that one.

A week has passed by, a week filled with many events of the exciting sort.

Last Wednesday, housemates and I attended the movie night screening of Wreck-It Ralph at Lecture Theatre 6, an event organised by ALSTAR Group 4. Honestly, I only attended it because it was Wreck-It Ralph, aka the best movie in my books so far. It was already about 8 something by the time we went home so we decided to take the free shuttle bus service back to the apartment and by shuttle bus, I mean a dodgy van driven by an unknown person. Thankfully, the driver was outnumbered about a dozen to one so that was fine.

The next day, in the afternoon, I attended a blind speed dating event organised by Bellyn’s group. Yes, that’s right, ladies and gents. A blind speed dating event. Don’t get me wrong though, I didn’t sign up for this expecting anything. It was more of a “what a brilliant story to tell my children and grandchildren when I’m older and reminiscing my youthful college years” initiative than anything else. It was definitely the strangest and weirdest thing I’ve ever done, but I survived, made it out of the hall in one piece. My comfort zone was a little bit breached but it was fun, if fun meant leaning towards an unknown stranger talking about your personal interests while both parties are being blindfolded. There was a rave party after that but I decided I had no more energy left to rave so we went back.

Friday was a public holiday and since all our other housemates were either away or busy (Rumin and Pei Ying flew home to Alor Setar, jealous; Megan, Qiu Jing and Zi Tian all went out with their families) Yi Jing and I, and also Ching Ju and Ah Low and a bunch of other ex-Keat Hwa students from Taylor’s, Inti etc went on a field trip to KLCC, Pavilion and H&M at Lot 10. Again, such adventures! Of roaming the streets of KL by foot and also public transport. I ended up buying a skirt I really, really like at a discounted price from H&M and that was it. It was already about 10 PM when we reached the apartment and needless to say, we were exhausted, but it was a well-spent day indeed.

Saturday and Sunday were days spent at college because of the ALSTAR Leadership Camp. On Saturday, by lunchtime, I was starting to feel a little ill, with inflamed tonsils and a running nose. I frantically downed about a dozen litres of water within that time span alone but by the end of the programme, I was already feeling dizzy and just very hot (there’s no other way to put this without making me sound like I’m trying to describe myself as a magazine cover model). So, Qiu Jing, Zi Tian and Megan (Yi Jing didn’t join ALSTAR) accompanied me to a clinic opposite Sunway Pyramid where I got charged a whopping 70 bucks for the meds. Biggest sigh of sighs.

Instead of spending my Sunday at college for the second day of camp, I spent my Sunway mostly sleeping in a delirious stupor, squeezing in several minutes of gulping down a few pieces of bread prior to swallowing huge-ass pills that I was prescribed. When I got tired of lying around, I decided to go down to do laundry only to find that the laundrette had already closed 40 minutes before I’d went down. So that was a day of things going well for me. And the lesson that I learned from this is to never fall sick when you’re at college because 1) expensive medical bills that you have to fork out yourself, 2) nothing to do while you lie around at home (because of no TV and wifi), 3) no one to fuss over you and remind you to eat and bring you your meds when the time was right, 4) no parent to consult whether one could eat this or that or do this or that. Everything had to be done by my own, and that sucks, but like what I’d tweeted last night, I am growing up and learning and I’m a powerful and independent woman, yo

So that was my week.

I decided to do this thing, taking inspiration from Sakina blogging about her uni room.

So let’s start with the bed, because that’s the most crucial thing to have in a room. If you’re wondering whether I specifically made my bed for the occasion then you are correct. Also, fun fact, the green turtle was an “accidental” luggage as my mum had grabbed it from the living room back at home right before my parents fetched me here. Also, yes, I brought my smelly bolster I’ve had since I was very young. No regrets.

Small shelf at the foot of the bed with three compartments, two currently being occupied.

Toiletries and hair stuff and face stuff and stuff that makes me look beautiful.*

*Beauty not guaranteed

First compartment: A Song of Ice and Fire series I brought from home, Ender’s Game I bought just last week (there is a movie coming out starring Hailee Steinfeld and Asa Butterfield I am excited), lab coat for Chemistry practical classes and small umbrella.

Second compartment: Economics notes I got from my cousin, Joshua, which makes me kind of scared of the subject, Physics books we were required to buy, files.

Work space. Where I go on the laptop and keep stuff and place racks and organizers at because they make me look important while a One Direction poster stares at me. I never study in my room because it’s much nicer to study in the commons with the rest of my housemates.

Laundry basket, yellow box of “mystery” (no seriously, it’s just normal routine stuff), shower gels, toothbrush, toothpaste, retainer case.

Wardrobe (exterior) with a full-length mirror I’ve always wanted.

Wardrobe (interior) where I keep my clothes, obviously. Hangers to hang dresses and cardigans and clothes that get crumpled easily, feast your eyes on this interesting view

Back of the door where there are hooks to hang my bags and towel.

That’s it, really. It’s pretty cool, I agree. Have a great weekend ahead, folks.

 

I FINALLY HAVE THE TIME AND INTERNET TO BLOG!!! [cues cheering and confetti]

If any of you follow me on Twitter or are friends with me on Facebook, then you might know that it’s hard to get Internet here. My hostel (or, as I like to call it, apartment) has no wifi and even though we’ve been given a broadband USB thingy each, we’ve had to wait for quite some time for it to be activated so so far, I’ve been depending on daily data plans and campus wifi, both on my phone only. Needless to say, blogging on my phone is a terrible idea and would lead to many typos and JUST ISN’T THE RIGHT BLOGGING PLATFORM but finally. Today. After a week here, I have access to a proper computer and the Internet simultaneously.

So where am I? You might ask. I’m currently sat in the Multimedia Zone of the college library spending the one-hour break between classes. It kind of is too late to give a day by day recap of my life since moving here so I will just give a summary of it, and I think that would more than suffice.

The first day of my life here officially started when I checked into the Sunway Monash Residence about 15 minutes from the Sunway campus. I am roommates with six other girls: Yi Jing, Rumin and Pei Ying, all from Keat Hwa, Alor Setar; Zi Tian and Qiu Jing, from Ipoh and Megan, from Sepang. It’s funny because Megan emailed me before I went to KL after she found out from my blog that I was going to Sunway too. And now we’re roommates. The world is weird.

Anyway, the first few days were pretty emotional because of being separated from my parents and home and not being able to adapt that quickly yet, but the starting of orientation managed to help get my mind off those problems, at the very least. I’d expected orientation to be a huge bore but I was pleasantly surprised. The faculty and students here are proving to be okay and some even sporting so far, and that’s good. My orientation lasted for three days and during the weekend, I woke up in the afternoon and did my laundry. And frequented Sunway Pyramid which was about 25 minutes from our residence. All time-distance mentioned here will be referring to walking distance, in case you didn’t know that, because who would want to drive in KL, that is the question.

Classes officially started yesterday, and I’m taking the A Level combination of Math, Physics, Chemistry and Econs. As a result, me and Zi Tian were sorted into Group 3 and it’s pretty evident this combination isn’t exactly a popular combination as there is only 24 people in my group. No matter. Not complaining at all. It’s been alright so far, save for the few times when I despised my timetable for making me wake up so early (my classes are from 8.15 to 3.10 daily) and I despised myself for forgetting so many things I’d learned during Form 5.

But otherwise, life in Sunway College is pretty cool. No, I’m not being paid to write that, although that would be pretty awesome. The facilities and events here induce a cultural shock in me once in a while, but that’s okay. As I’d told Yi Jing, we went from having nothing in our old school to having everything in our new school. It’s pretty exciting and sometimes I wish to JOIN ALL THE THINGS!!! But I fear for my grades as well so currently I’m just planning to join ALSTAR (A Level Student Ambassadors) and Explore (a programme that exposes you to various talks and extra-curricular activities). I’m also putting joining the Film Society and Performing Arts Society on hold but you know, the arty side of me constantly calls for my attention.

Living on my own in KL is also a pain in the arse in the sense that I have to constantly worry about what I’m going to eat for lunch and dinner. It’s terrible because there aren’t many choices and the closest choices are the most expensive choices and going to Sunway Pyramid daily has almost made me nauseous of the place. It’s like a wrathful creature that constantly absorbs your moolah from you. And you walk right into its mouth. Willingly.

Other than that, nothing much has changed. I can’t think of much to write about at the moment but in a nutshell, this is a wholly new chapter in my life and I have never experienced anything of the sort before. Not even England was remotely anything like this. In a way, it’s good to step out of my comfort zone even if I don’t want to, most of the time. Life is a constant battle between being comfortable and trying new things, and I’m currently right in the middle of it.

PS. I have also created a new category to file all my posts concerning my new life under, because it indeed, is a bigger life for me.