Last Day of Orientation

Hooray, the last day of orientation. I could finally catch up on my sleep, wash my super duper filthy clothes and this is the end of mind-numbing talks.

Yahoooo…. No more moral sessions. But, why do the seniors keep on grinning? I don’t like that feeling. We are asked to wear dark clothes. I knew they weren’t so kind.

What? Soak in the gigantic tank, fully filled with filthy (who knows what they put – the colour of the water looks horrible), cold (added with tons of ice), smelly water? And we aren’t allowed to take off our shoes? YUCKS….. Thank goodness I am the second person to go in. It’s COLD and SMELLY. What have you done to the water, my dearest seniors? Can I just throw away my clothes, socks and shoes? But I am broke. Argh…

Station games in the field, the last torture? Aren’t we dirty enough? We had to crawl at the puddle of mud, being socked with fresh water (thank goodness) and we get to ‘mask’ our face (how come the flour’s colour looks different?) The seniors finally put on their smiling face and fool around with us. Hey, they weren’t scary at all… Time for revenge. We chase after the seniors to ‘mask’ them and wet them up. Gosh… That was fun.

After bathing, everyone had to move into their new room (Seniors failed to mention that our orientation room is temporary – thank goodness I haven’t unpack). My new roommates, Cheryl Khoo Hui Wern, Hoi Sei Fong and Tan Hui Yun. Biohealth students. Who are they, I wonder. Not my coursemate. Did I see them before? Thank goodness I am too tired to think much.

When I first enter my room, two beds are made. Only the two upper bunk beds are available. What? They are letting a 70kg girl to sleep there? The girl in the lower bunk should buy some personal accident insurances, I joked to myself. By the way, where are my roommates? They can’t be far, they haven’t unpacked. Suddenly, a girl came in and starts up a conversation. (Sorry Cheryl, I am too tired to talk) I guess she felt like, gosh… I am going to live with someone that unfriendly for the whole year. What a luck.

Both of us silently unpack (She give up – I am too scary). After that, she went back (her parents are waiting downstairs – the advantage to be a local). Then, where are my other two roommates? I wait and wait and wait. The clock struck ten and my eyelids can’t take the torture much longer. I slept.

Ping... Ping… Pang… Pang…. My roommates are preparing to go to class. I am just too tired to look up. ZZZZ…. My alarm beeps at 9 (my class at 10). By then, my roommates are long gone and I still haven’t got to see what my other two roommates looks like.

During lecture, I got to know some of my course mates. Life in university wasn’t that hard after all, I thought. My classes are over but my roommates had yet to come back. It’s ten again, I am sleepy and I still don’t get to see my other two roommates. ZZZ….

They must be wondering who am I. Zzz….

Orientation

Why do the seniors felt the need to make life hard for the juniors? Seniors, the sadists.

Well, some need to pray, I understand. Why do I have to wake up early in the morning even though I do not need to pray? That is bad enough. Why introduce a moral session? I don’t see anything morally about those sessions. And I just want to SLEEP…..

What is that small guy doing up there? Split us into groups and ask us to get to know each other while everyone just wanted to sleep? Everyone’s faces say it all. Leave us alone, all you shall die (exaggeration). Just let us sleep. Who in the right mind had the energy to socialize apart from some energetic fellow (Hey, will you all stop shouting, I am going deaf)

Talk after talk. Cheer after cheer. What is the purpose? To instill the so-called ‘semangat’ but you had to hurt your throat in the process? You are loud, so what? Wow. The small, polite guy (Donovan Lee) is possessed? Why he shouts and shakes like a madman? Too stressed out? For god’s sake, who invented cheers? STOP SHOUTING….

There is a session to teach us to fill out the forms. Can you read? Again and again, the poor senior had to repeat the correct way to fill up the form. Will those deaf students truly listen? It’s just a simple form and you all had to fill for 2 hours? It’s just the basic stuff (name, address, bla bla bla…)

Argh…. The documents. I admit I failed to prepare all documents (please read my previous post) but once the seniors ask those who don’t have all the needed documents, I pass the whole stack of documents. Though the senior’s eyes nearly popped out, she is great, she didn’t scold or scream (Sorry Cindy….. I guess I am hopeless) (By the way, who give me the wrong information that I pleaded my principal to sign all my activities certificate? She is going to kill me later on if she found out all is in vain.)Why do you need to pass up piece by a piece? Even after numerous failed urging by the seniors. Don’t you understand English or Malay? I want my SLEEP…..

PTPTN… Not again. I was reprimanded for sleeping, but I ain’t borrowing. You ask me to be fair, others want to sleep to. But they want to borrow but not me. Fair? I need to suffer the torture for nothing. What? You say I will influence others (who is borrowing) to sleep too? Let them sleep and don’t entertain their complaints. Let them take responsibility at their choice and action. I am selfish, I admit but what do you expect from an irritated teenager? I pity your situation but what can I do? I just wasn’t able to knock some sense to those incurable, deaf students.

For future juniors, please fill in the form and be well-prepared beforehand. Please do not piss your fellow batch mate off. A sleepy man is an angry man.

DTC…. What a grand place. Talk after talk, and I hear none of those. I slept the moment my butt hits the chair. Seniors had given up the quest to keep me awake. Hey, they sleep too. And will the camera man stop focusing on Fifth College? We want to sleep. The seniors are so considerate. A cap for all the juniors to cover our shut eyes.

Seniors’ signature. The worse activity. The main point is to create an opportunity for seniors and juniors to interact. You expect the 40 tired seniors to remember around 167 juniors? And how do you suppose the juniors to get to know the seniors when more than 20 angry faces (juniors that are waiting for their turn) are looking at you while you are trying to ask the seniors any single question? We just want to get our job done and will the unruly, desperate students stop PUSHING? Be civilized, be prepare to be punished (that is what they think I guess).

We are given fifteen minutes to bath and eat. To eat or to bath? To bath or to eat? Difficult choice. Since we had to wear the filthy clothes for the whole week, who cares. Eat....

Though I do complain a lot, it is an interesting experience. Kudos to the seniors....

First Day in Universiti Malaya

When I first enter UM, I was surprised. I had long heard about the premier university of Malaysia but I never expected it to be so huge. The map has done injustice to the size of UM (or maybe I am just not talented in geography). From what written in the letter, I was to report to my resident college, Fifth Residential College.

To reach 5th, we had to drive past 12th College. Wow….. What a tall building. UM’s hostel looks great. I guess 12th had raised my expectation. If not for the PM’s, I am sure to miss the gate of Fifth 5th (maybe I am looking at another building similar to 12th). My first thought, how on earth a road can make such a differences? Though disappointed, I just shrugged it off. (5th will be great if 12th wasn’t close by)

I went to DM to settle my registration and I am give room B413. The fourth floor. Oh my goodness. My brother had a great laugh. He even say I got the ‘luckiest’ room number. (Number four is bad for the Chinese and number 13 isn’t a favorable number either) Despite that, my room looks great. It’s large enough with basic facility to ensure comfort. It’s a two person in a room. I wonder why some of the freshie get a three person in a room. But I am too tired to dwell on that thought. Cleaning up wasn’t as easy as it seems. The dust was an inch thick. The hardest part was hauling my stuff to my room. I shouldn’t have brought so much stuff. Halfway of my cleaning, my roommate came in. She is Malay and she had been a good sport.

All freshie had to gather at 5 pm at Dataran Kolej and parents had to leave the ground. Everyone bid farewell to their parents and started to look forward to the first day of orientation. Some social butterflies are going around to get know of new friends but I hide at a corner to grab some sleep (Hey, I only manage to get 3 hours sleep beforehand).

Half asleep, I barely hear the introduction that the senior made. Suddenly, I was woken up by a loud noise. The seniors are demonstrating cheers. What a shock, I thought how on earth does an earthquake occurs in Malaysia (a bit of exaggeration).

I could only briefly remember that we got our freshie goodies bag containing 2 shirts and a bag. For the rest of the day, my memory had failed me. I was in zombie-like mode. Pardon me (especially those PM’s)

The Mad Rush To Enter University (Be Prepared, Or You Shall Cry)

Woohooo... I am finally free. It’s the first time I will be able to take charge of my life... I am free to do what I wish...

Opps... What a great fall from the paradise.

To be honest, I wasn’t excited at all in entering university. Not that I am cold-hearted, I am just simply too tired in dealing the impending disaster.

My fateful day started off with a half day work in the office. (My boss had been gracious in letting me go even I failed to serve my one month notice – all thanks to the efficiency of our centralize system). I had to squeeze through the mad rush back home at the custom checkpoint and had to endure traffic jam on my way back to my hometown. When I finally reached my hometown at 5, not a moment to lose, I rush to grab my precious letter of admittance to UM. Hey, I am a step closer to the ‘square hat’ (graduation hat). I am the last one to enter university.

I am rudely awakened from my dream at the instant I take a look at the second document. It is the checklist on stuff to bring to the campus. Erm… am I seeing things or my memory had failed me? How come the checklist looks different from the internet version? Well… No time to entertain that thought. It’s 6 pm and I am suppose to register at 8 am the next day with all the listed stuff. It means from nothing, I had to prepare every single thing in 14 hours including my meal time, sleeping time and traveling time. Only then, I finally understand my father’s quote, “Do not rely ultimately on the technology, the more complex a thing became, it has the higher chance to fumble.” I should have asked my parents to send me hard copy rather than relying on the simplified internet version. My parents only receive the mail on the last week of June and I just missed the mail by a day. What a horrible consequences. Who should I blame apart from my naivety?

At that point, I really wish to sleep and forget about UM. Well... I just couldn’t let my parents down.

Argh... I don’t have a single thing. No medical report, no signed photocopy of my IC, no signed photocopy of certain certificates, and I wonder why I need to ask my previous principal to sign my admittance letter send from UM during registration. Eh, you send me the letter for god’s sake. It’s 6, and how am I going to find my principal now? Think positively, I assure myself. At most I will get a lot of scolding, right? They can’t be so heartless to kick me out, right? Well, I don’t have a choice. Whatever shall happen, will happen anyway. It’s assuring to remember this quote, “Everything will be ok in the end, whenever it’s not ok, it’s not the end” (couldn’t remember where I see this quote)

Finally, the checklist of documents to bring to UM is done (despite some documents that I am not able to produce). Yahoo.... Ok now where is the checklist of stuff I need to bring to UM. What??? There is no such checklist. Argh... I never live away from home, how the hell am I suppose to know what to bring (living with sister in Singapore do not consider living away from home). Well... I guess I could just stuff in whatever in front of my eyes until the car is full. I am praying that please have a grocery shop nearby UM. Finally, the car is full. Now I wonder how those who are traveling by bus be able to bring all their stuffs. Buy there? I shrugged the thought. Eh, I am suppose to have 20++ passport size pictures and formal clothing? May God bless me.

How about the fees? I flip and flip at all the documents. I am only asked to pay the fees but I wasn't inform on how to. Should I bring cash, cheque or I don't have to pay immediately? In the end, I just make my own conclusion, I can always ask my parents to transfer the money to my account if need arise. A few days late should be alright, I hope so.

I am finally allowed to sleep at 2 am. (I was asked to double, triple and don’t know how many times to re-check my belonging). Apart from that, I wasn’t spared from the lecture about life away from home despite the time constrain. Looking at my parents’ proud face, all frustration was gone. I slept like a log.

Oppss... The nightmare has just begun...