Graduate

In 2011, after SPM, I got my very first handphone. In 2013, after STPM, I got my very first smartphone. Therefore prior to obtaining these phones, I used what I had at my disposal to record memories - my brain. This is why I am highly sentimental. My brain contains everything. I meticulously record every journey, every part of my life in my brain, with absolutely no reliance on any technology. I record by remembering and writing. That makes me particular exceptional - I openly confess my feelings without shame, and I could recall a lot of past events normal people could not, right from primary to....now.

And this too contributes to my particularly active senses. My senses are hyperactive, and right now even while I am typing this I can recall greatly and vividly those things that happened in the past. I could feel and remember how tired I was in the school. I could remember the feeling of my sweaty shirt sticking to my back. I could remember the hot steering wheel of my car after school. I could remember the scent of the food in my canteen et cetera.

And this is why I am easily triggered whenever I come across something pertaining to my past. How can I tell my brain, which is my camera and cam-recorder, not to replay an event when the play button is hit?

University life has its fun, but admit it - secondary school is still the best. The life is simple. Stressful, yes, but simple and fun. Adolescence is a nice period where you don't get too mature and enjoy fun like children, but then you are not too childish to naively just play - you invent games, you find partners, and you prank.

Secondary school too functions as a partial shield. It provides substantial shield to the students that protect them from certain unforgiving incidents. Students are well protected from the ugliness of the society, to the point they consider school as "oppressive" although a school merely provides temporary shelter. The school allows you to make all sorts of mistakes without the students bearing terrible consequences. The worst you could land yourself was meeting parents or getting expelled, it's still better than getting fired and losing all your financial support when you're working. 

University is different. It has its fun, but without a class, without classmates, without your own tables and chairs and without a fix classroom and a form teacher, everything is different. In high school, handphones are forbidden. Hence, you forge relationships with friends by emotional bonds. In university, when people have nothing to do, they don't take the initiative to talk, they get themselves buried in their phone.

So videos about graduation start circulating on facebook, I came across this video, which literally brought me to tears. Trust me when I say I would give everything back to go back to secondary school, because I really do.

What people say are true: a school is a cruel place that binds people with a robust bond, only to forcefully separate them when time is up.

For those graduating soon, appreciate the remaining days. No matter how much you hate it now, no matter how much fun you think you'll have in the next stage of your life, you'll miss it badly in the future. For those who still have years to go, enjoy your school life. It's awesome.

Happy graduation!

University

Hi guys, I have a very tight schedule here so I really don't have much time to post much here.

Anyway, I am currently studying in Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak Campus. The campus is very small, slightly bigger than my secondary school but the location is really strategic.

Opposite Swinburne campus, there's immigration centre. Whatever issues you have about your student visa or passport can be settled there. All you need to do is to exit the gate and cross the road, and there you are.

Beside immigration, there's a police station, and I think it's Kuching headquarters. Thus the security around the campus is considered acceptable, although I have heard of a number of robberies but I guess expecting an absolute absence of crime is not possible.

Beside the police station, there's The Spring Mall, a shopping mall as high class as KLCC. Things inside there are very expensive, but I have to say the shopping mall is very convenient for the students. Need to buy anything? Head there, you can basically buy everything.

Behind the campus, we have KWSP. The office that deals with EPF. Then beside the building, there's a hospital - Borneo Medical Centre. It's just like 5 minutes walk! It's damn convenient! Swinburne's location is just too strategic!

About 10 minutes walk, and crossing a very busy and ridiculously big roundabout, we'll reach King Centre which has a number of food courts that sell street food that is more affordable for students. If you do not mind walking, you may walk for an extra 20 minutes to CityOne Megamall.

About 25 minutes walk from Swinburne campus, you can also reach Kenyalang Park. There's a market in there and certain food and cheap goods can be found.

About 10-15 drive and you'll reach Waterfront, or Kuching Old Town.

Swinburne's campus is just way too convenient. The strategic location is what I like the university best. Haha

There's one downside though, there's no McDonald's around Swinburne. The only fast food I like. The nearest stall requires a 15 minutes drive. Too bad.

29/9/2014

I feel like writing something right now, but due to time constraints and lack of idea, I'll just write about what I'm taking at this semester.

Being one of the rare species who is studying degree here post-STPM, Energy and Motion and Engineering Mathematics are nothing new to us. In fact, engineering Maths is much easier than STPM Maths.

Energy and Motion is somewhat similar to STPM Dynamics and Kinematics, and so far there's nothing new except slightly different style of questions.

Mechanics of Structure, however, is an entirely new subject to us. This is where STPM students are disadvantaged. Majority who come up by foundation seem to cope better due to early study.

MPU subject "Hubungan Etnik" is ridiculous and doesn't worth my time to write about it.

Civil Engineering Project is a group project I am supposed to complete this semester. With completely no foundation, idea, knowledge and concepts regarding the course, we are asked to build a school and take water and waste, geotechnical, environmental, structural engineering and project management into account.

First year students appear to be doing a final-year project, with the exception of visiting sites.

Nice. High standard ya?

Revival

My blog is dying. Lol I've been away due to tight schedule.

But fear not, I'll never let my blog dies.

I'll come back, and one day my blog will be active again.

Nostalgia

The greatest thing that has happened in my life is none other than studying form 6.

I miss form 6 life.

Waking up early in the morning, drive lazily to gate 5, and then drag myself into my class and then fall asleep on my table.

Watch my friends come in one by one, then wait for the bell to ring and the teacher to enter the class or go to DK.

Normally, for the first few periods, my lethargy triumphs. I would just fall asleep until the sun is shining enough or the aroma of fried chicken from the chicken permeates to my class.

I too once in charge of the attendance book. It was a burden and troublesome too.

Then normally after recess time, I would be more lively.

But the humid and hot weather make almost all of us listless. We can't concentrate in class so we just play around and ignore our teacher.

Sometimes when teacher does not enter the class, we'll just go out lepak. Form 6 is quite free, they aren't strict with discipline.

I remember we once played boardless chess in class. We had the pieces only, so we used a ruler as the river and played boardless chess.

Then we play with syilings.

Then we poked people around.

When assignments are due and we couldn't do them, we just go search around for plausible answers and copy one entirely because we have no better choice to take.

When STPM result is released, we'll quickly contact everyone and ask about their result.

Then the next day after school, we'll all move to BSN to buy PIN number for retake, turning BSN into Jit Sin.

When we see too many people lining up, we'll just shove all PIN number to one who arrives first and gets to be served first.

I miss the moment, after school, we all go play badminton together.

I miss the moment, after school, we go around BM to look for famous hawker food. Sentosa yam rice, Jalan Kulim laksa etc...

I miss the moment, on Thursday, we go to now closed AEON Jusco to watch movies.

I miss the moment, every semesters, we wait for new publications to be on sale.

I miss the moment, every week, we have to stay back in school to study or attend co-curriculum activities.

I miss the moment, every day, after school we'll stay back and have lunch.

I miss the moment, sometimes, it rains and we wet ourselves on our way to our car.

I miss the moment, every day, whole throng of people walk out of the gates together in the hot sun.

I miss the moment, after every class, we'll go to toilet together and enter the class slightly late.

I miss the moment, for almost every week, we have a time to mingle around and play sports at our favourite place.

I miss the moment, every day, we play like children in the class.

I miss the moment, weirdly though, that we cooperate and clean the class during gotong-royong.

Form 6 life is awesome, and I never once regret taking STPM.

I would give everything I could if there's an opportunity to study form 6 again.

It is the best thing that has happened in my life. The most beautiful and memorable.

I miss it so much I refuse to write this post in past tense.

Nostalgia.

Sarawak

Hi guys, l am now in Sarawak for the eighth day and have adapted much better than I did when I first reached here. First day was extremely lonely and torturing actually as I was totally alone and in a place extremely unfamiliar.

Totally alone in a foreign place is relatively unpleasant, especially when I first checked in hostel and realised that the hostel internet actually block almost all video sharing website - there goes my entertainment.

Swinburne University is a small university, only slightly bigger than Jit Sin. But surprisingly comfortable. At least when I walk from one office to finance department I don't have to walk like a kilometre.

My hostel internet is only available for one server. That means if I use laptop to serve the internet, I can't use my smartphone and vice versa. That prompted me to, for the first time in my life, purchase mobile data.

People here are friendly but they come from totally different cultural and societal background from me. People here strictly speak English, only a small number of Chinese speak Mandarin. That makes me an odd one out.

There are lots of Australians, Koreans, Indonesians, Europeans (some Swedish I heard), Africans, Sri Lankans and people of other countries. It is truly an international university.

However, so far, I've only come across three Peninsular Malaysia people - one from Penang, one from KL and another from Johor. Others are Sarawakians and Sabahans.

People in Sarawak are different. Lots of bumiputeras here and I have yet to be able to distinguish them from Chinese.

Certain things here are more expensive than Penang, while certain things are much cheaper. Food, for one, is much more expensive. However, some bottled drinks are cheaper. Penang White Curry Mee is only RM6 here compared to RM6.50 in BM, which is ironic since it's made in Bukit Tengah.

I've not been able to find any shops that sell Gardenia.

Time here seems to be one hour faster than Penang. 7pm is already very dark here.

McDonald is not found plenty here. I've yet to see one, but there's a franchise here that's called 'Sugar Bun' that is something like a hybrid of KFC and The Chicken Rice Shop. It's also the only fast food franchise I've seen that serve both fast food and Asian cuisine (claypot).


Fly Fm and Red Fm are not available here.

There are a number of local newspapers like 'The Borneo Post' and local radio stations which are in Malay or Iban language.

Nobody speaks Hokkien here, and the Chinese spoken here is slightly different from Penang. Even the accent is different - so you can tell, from the way the person speaks, whether he's from Borneo or out of Borneo.
Economy rice is virtually non-existent here. Rice here is incredibly expensive but normally comes in extremely big serving, almost twice the size of that in Penang.

Living cost in Sarawak is way much higher than Penang, but from what I've heard it's still lower than Sabah.

Oddly, most of the hawker centres are close by noon. It appears that do business only in the morning. Which means I've great trouble finding food for lunch and dinner except school cafeteria and The Spring Mall.

Saturday is not a working day in Sarawak. Not even half day.

On Saturday and Sunday, The Star Newspaper costs RM1.50 in Peninsular Malaysia, RM2.00 in Sabah but only RM1.20 in Sarawak.

Drivers here are less reckless and much more understanding than drivers in Penang. At least when I'm crossing the road, the car will stop and let me through. Unlike in Penang, even if the traffic light allows me to go there'll still be motorcycles that will break the light, and annoyingly even appears to think you are the one who wish to die.

Roads here are also much well-paved than roads in Penang. There are significantly less bumps and potholes.

Throughout six days of my life here, I've yet to hear a single honk by a car driver.

And I too haven't seen a single public bus on the road.

According to wikipedia, Kuching is the wettest town in Malaysia. I do not know when it triumphs Taiping, but Kuching is indeed wet.

Bumiputera here closely resemble Chinese, and to say the truth whenever I approach someone, I do not whether to speak Malay or Chinese.

Taxi ride here is incredibly expensive. 3km ride could possibly cost RM15.

I do not know why people say you'll get fat when you go university. I walk a lot everyday in the sun to the nearest food stalls outside, and I feel like everything I've eaten were burnt away on my way back to my room. I hardly see how I could get fat.

Classes start next Monday and I hate my time table. It's the worst time table I've seen ever since I was born.

Just to leave a message to let those who care about me to know that I'm fine, and I'm glad to hear everyone I care is also doing well.  

I still miss home, my family, Penang, Penang food, all my friends especially form 6 pals. I wish to say that despite I'll get a life here soon, you guys still have a place in my life. You won't get removed, replaced or substituted because you all mean a lot to me. 

See you guys. Miss you all. =)

Swinburne University of Technology

Hi guys, it has been a long time since I last updated my blog.

I'm now in Swinburne University of Technology, Sarawak Campus, and am quite busy dealing with lots of stuffs and struggling emotionally.

I miss Jit Sin, I miss Penang, and I miss my families and friends.

Years ago I've told myself, if circumstances allow, I would spend the rest of my life in Jit Sin, and in Penang.

Bye, I'll update whenever possible.