ANNOUNCEMENT

Dear readers,

Please be informed that orange-wasabi.blogspot.com will be made private and viewing is restricted to only readers I choose, effective 3rd August 2008 (Sunday).

Blog authors under the "Blogs of Note" section of my blog and close friends of mine will automatically gain permission to read my blog. However, you are required to log in (type "orange-wasabi.blogspot.com" in the address bar, then you will be directed to a page in which you are required to key in your email address and password of your msn or yahoo account) before reading my blog, adding an extra step.

Readers who do not belong to any of the two groups of people mentioned in paragraph two but still would like to gain permission to view my blog are welcome to leave a message (comment) stating your email address.

However, if you disagree with the idea of setting my blog private, please leave a message in my blog or cast your vote in the survey section. Final decision will be made based on majority of votes.

Thousand apologies for any inconvenience caused. Thanks for your unswerving support in my blog.

Sincerely,
Lim
from orange-wasabi.blogspot.com

“惊喜”

今早五点半，我和骅由学院的第二出口溜出外（学院的宵禁是由凌晨十二点开始至早上六点）。为什么当别人还在沉睡梦乡时偷跑出去？嘿嘿，是因为我们要看日出（无聊leh，不知为什么，我们就是想要看）。今天的课下午一点才开始，就算看了日出，过后回到宿舍后可以再饱睡一顿。

周围黑漆漆的，在街灯的微弱照耀下并以手机的辅助灯开路，我们走了好长一断路，偶尔会有一、二辆车经过，但周围的环境仍一片死寂（我们一定是疯了，也不知是哪来的胆子，不顾危险，一大清早在外游荡）。

后来我们来到了一道直而向上斜的马路，那里一辆车也没有。宽阔的马路上，街灯浪漫的灯光照耀下，就只有我俩拖着缓慢的步伐往山顶走去，陪伴我们的是林宇中的“干物女”一歌。

除了我们，四周半个人影也没有。冷风轻拂我们的肌肤，一股接着一股的寒意贯穿脊椎，直攻入心。当时所能听见的只有虫鸣声和我们的脚步声，骅更发现有只猫头鹰飞过。

突然，一股与之前不同的气流由后向我们逼近，背后传来了一些声音，那东西离我们越来越近。。。

回头一看。。。！

是警察车。

我俩被警方interview了一番，我的身份证号码更被抄了下来，骅因为忘记带身份证而逃过此劫，不过我们的心情都很平稳，因为没做亏心事嘛（除了逃出学院那part）。我们被告知山顶劫案和kes pecah rumah一箩筐，已有一些警员在山顶驻守着。后来？我们被人劝回去宿舍咯。。。(但是，今天中午，我、骅和Christine跑步到山顶上去，那里只有一所国小，何来kes pecah rumah？！炸到！！)

真扫兴，什么mood都没有了。为了看日出而白起床（我在半夜十二点半后才上床睡觉，五点钟就醒了），现在又被迫打道回府，真不是滋味。咳。。。

我们也是以偷偷摸摸的方式回宿舍。过后就补眠咯。

这个经历是本人的生平第一次。明明自己很清楚了解各种危险的可能性，但仍一意孤行。本人当然也不是“学坏”，只是学会体验“生活”。我不想几年后回想起这一年半的生活时只想得起“读书”二字。

当然我也感到很庆幸，原因有二：

一，骅竟然愿意陪我一起癫，真够朋友！
二，我们一路平安，真是上天保佑。

End of 2nd Week at KTT

I went home this afternoon because there was a replacement class for Hari Raya holidays in the morning.

Glad to be home! (Sorry to those who can't go home, I don't mean to stimulate your homesickness.) After 5 stressful days without TV, finally I can enjoy few hours of comfort in front of the TV (no need to squeeze and share the pity & mini TV airing dull shows at student lounge with people of whatever type you can imagine).

I had my first lesson on Monday. The subjects I'm taking are Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Mathematics, IELTS, Pengajian Malaysia and Moral Studies. Classes have started for all the mentioned subjects except Moral Studies.

Different subjects, different lecturers, different personalities & different ways of teaching.

I'm very desperate to express my thoughts & feelings. I've waited the opportunity to share & complain with people outside the college for so many days. The urge to pour out the goods & bads (if any) is so strong that I can't resist. For safety's sake, I won't reveal the names of the lecturers that I'm going to analyse and the subjects he/she teaches (but you can ask me personally). Pls note that the characteristics & personalities of individuals listed below are of random pick.

Ok lets start.

Lecturer A's teaching speed is quite slow (precisely very slow), hope things change next week but not too much. A is very proud (or obsessed) with the word "CIE" (Cambridge International Examination) and recognises no books other than those endorsed by CIE. A kept asking questions where students are reluctant to respond to, but A still "encourages" the students to answer, to react positively, to not follow the definitions of terms in the book A trusts most.

Lecturer B is superb. Attending B's lessons is like taking part in marathon or Olympic games or any sports that require speed & accuracy & the ability to stay calm & hold your composure when your hand sores due to the amounts of notes you copied, not to mention the homeworks are taking you days to finish (some students drop that particular subject because of the killing & intimidating amount of homeworks, causing them unable to study or do revision for other subjects).

Lecturer C is the 1 I dislike most (after much consideration, I decided to refrain myself from using the word that starts with "h"). C gave "entertainment" a new meaning: smirching innocent souls. C enjoys telling useless jokes & giving brainless opinions with a hell disgusting look & annoying tone.

Lecturer D is quite a dedicated person because I saw the notes that D prepared for lessons & I felt like "Finally! A good lecturer.". But when D started displaying signs of I'm-your-lecturer-&-no-way-I-will-act-stupid-&-get-bullied, I realised that I must'nt hope for anything or anyone except myself.

There are so much more that I would like to express here, but to avoid troubles, just to name a few, "You're so disrespectful towards your lecturers", "you thought you know a lot", "you have no rights to judge" and etc, I think that it is time to put a stop after lecturer D.

As a student (or perhaps 'future leader' that will stop racial polarisation or whatever that sounds heroic), I demand nothing other than freedom of speech (or blogging). Swallowing dissatisfaction blindly does more harm than good. I'm totally & obviously not a mutt that remains indifferent despite being treated not the way I expect.

I'm sure many of you out there will say: "Same case here at my school / college, but what to do?" Lets just pray that we can end our studies safely & excel in our field of choice.

Hope for a better tomorrow!

Back with stories about KTT

Attention. This is de longest post I have ever posted. Please be patient while reading and I hope u enjoy de information I provide below. Thanks.

Okay, it had been 5 days since I arrived at Kolej Teknologi Timur (KTT) in Sepang, Selangor. I arrived at de college on Monday morning (30 June 2008) but I visited de college 1 day earlier. My first impression of de college was “OMG! Is this where JPA medic / dentistry scholars study n stay?!”. As I had previously seen a photograph of de front view of de college, I wasn’t that surprised compared to my friends. De college is quite secluded, some even said it is away from civilization. It is actually 2 blocks of shop lots built up an inclining hill, so there are lots of staircases. It offers A levels programmes for JPA n MARA students n other diploma programmes for non-sponsored students. I’m taking A levels and I’m a full-time India-bound dentistry students.

Just an introduction about de college. It comprises 2 blocks of shop lots, de first 2 floors from de ground consist of lecture halls (got very funny “scent” inside), main hall (gosh, u can never ever imagine how de MH looks like), cafeterias selling malay food (can SMS to order food ), staff room, minimarket, student lounge etc... De floors above are apartments where de students or non-student residence stay (as I mentioned earlier, the place is actually shop lots, just that de college rented most of de place for own use). Each apartment has a big living room, 2 bedrooms, 1 bathroom, 1 kitchen, 1 balcony n other stuffs like tables, chairs, beds, wardrobes n much more. Each rooms is to be shared by 2 person, so each apartment has 4 students.

I’m staying at apartment 11-2-A3 (tangga 11, 2nd floor, apartment 3), but there’s only 3 person staying there including me. I share a room with a senior, Jesse (he’s a male, not female, a part-time india-bound medic student twinning with Melaka Manipal College. He has done his AS level, now taking A2 and will be leaving de college at de end of this year. He’s very kind and helpful, his hospitality made me feel comfortable when I first arrived at de college.). Another housemate of mine is Vincent, he’s a full time Czech-bound medic student. My apartment is facing de back (mountains n jungle) while some are facing de front (street n empty shop lots).

What I meant by Tangga is staircases which bring people up to their apartment. There are more than 10 Tanggas, n I’m using de 11th Tangga to reach my apartment. At Tangga 10, dunno which floor, there is an apartment owned by a non-student residence. Everyone calls him Pak Cik Parang. He hates noises especially during midnight. There were incidences where my seniors made loud noises during midnight n de Pak Cik Parang was damn furious that he brought his parang and arrived at de outside of de seniors’ apartment. De uncle shouted, roared, cursed n hit de apartment door hard n even hacked de door with his parang.

So, those staying at Tangga 10 must be extra precautious especially in de night. They must not be noisy or else they will invite de uncle for a terrifying nightmare. I’m staying at Tangga 11 (luckily) but also need to be careful. Sounds scarying leh?

All de students sponsored by JPA are divided into 8 groups: 2 groups for full-time (FT) India-bound medic students, 2 groups of FT India-bound dentistry students while de other groups consist of Indonesia / Poland / Czech Republic-bound medic students. There are also students sponsored by MARA who arrived 1 day later than JPA’s, but I’m not sure where will de students go after their A levels. What I observed is that de number of female students is more than de male students. Take my group as an example, there are about 30 female students but only 8 male students, if I’m not mistaken. However, de conditions of other groups are different, or better.

There are hundreds of future medic / dentistry students or perhaps future doctors at KTT. So, can u imagine how competitive it is at KTT despite de awful condition?

De students came from all over Malaysia. I have a few friends from Sarawak, they are very excited to tour around Selangor because they heard there are lots of shopping malls in Selangor. There are also people from Selangor, like me, so we can go home very weekends. De college offers transport service (bus or van) to take students to Giant, LCCT, KTM Nilai or pasar malam, but de students have 2 pay for de tickets which range from RM0.50 to RM10.00.

I arrived at KTT on 30 June 2008. There were soooooo many people there. De registration process took me hours to finish where I have to submit my documents to JPA officers, admins of KTT, take souvenirs, after that I was brought to my apartment by a senior. Thanks to her. Upnext was de opening ceremony of de orientation week (5 days) followed by hours n hours of briefing about A Levels, orientation week n also briefing by JPA officers alternating with break times. I ate my dinner which was maggi mee at 12am++. I wore my formal shirt n pants (all students there must wear formal attire for formal events n tutorial / lectures everyday) for more than 14 hours (I took my shower at 12am++ because de day was packed with activities).

All of us were given overwhelming pressure although it was our first day at KTT. According to de JPA officers, all of us have to meet de cut-off points (12 points) in order to be continuously sponsored by JPA. Let me explain de so-called “cut-off points”. All of us have to take 3 subjects in A Levels, namely Physics, Biology and Chemistry (it’s a different case for de india-bounds, I’ll explain later). Getting an A (90-100%, where 89.8 is considered B) for a subject will contribute 5 points, B contributes 4 points, C is 3 points n so on. If one managed to obtain 3 A’s for de 3 subjects, he gets 15 points. If de accumulated points of a person is less than 12, his / her JPA scholarship (precisely sponsorship) will be forfeited, meaning he / she has to pay for de degree programme.

For india-bound students, no matter medic or dentistry, we must take at least 3 subjects where mathematics is optional. In order to fly to India, we have to get an A for de 3 science subjects each, however, de result of maths is not taken into consideration. Maths is just an extra subject for us to meet de cut-off points. For instance, if a person gets A for physics, B for biology, B for chemistry n A for maths, his accumulated points will be 14 (take de highest 3). He still can receive sponsorship from JPA, but he can’t fly to India, instead, he will be sent to countries of lower cost such as Indonesia or finish his degree locally.

It is even harder for de Czech-bound students. Their A Levels takes only 1 year (really express) while mine is 1.5 years. Not only do they need to score above de cut-off points, they also need to take de entrance exam of Czech’s universities. If they pass, they still need to go through an interview. If they are successful in de mentioned steps, then only they can set foot into de universities.

Sounds tough n stressful leh? Awaiting us are cabaran demi cabaran.

Okay, enough of the academic stuff. De days that followed are full of activities like games, ice-breaking, college tour, varieties of briefings, do’s n don’t at KTT, telematch, aerobic exercise, performance training n much more. We have our performance training (for de closing ceremony on Friday) every night (until midnight) starting Tuesday n we have to wake up very early de next morning. We were very tired even in de morning. Some of my friends have big eye bags hanging below de eyes while I kept fishing during de briefings.

My group’s performance was a drama, which is a compilation of Disney’s fairy tales with KTT as de physical setting n Pak Cik Parang as de ending. I’m involved in de drama (but not de main character la of course) and we are de 1st runner-up among de 8 groups of JPA scholars n a few from MARA! After all, our hard work was not in vain. My group members held a celebration yesterday night but I didn’t join because I went home.

The above is a rough introduction about KTT n what I did few days ago. On my previous post dated 28 June 2008, I mentioned that I look forward to how I feel after de orientation week. Now I can say that I feel quite “light”, no longer nervous n tensed like last time. I adapt to de new environment quite well n I gained new friends who are very funny and crazy. Who says JPA scholars are bookworms and nerdy? You can never imagine how crazy we went during de orientation week.

Classes start next week. It’s time to get serious, again. And yes, thanks for your patience (if you read this post from top to bottom). BEST OF LUCK to you.

A New "TAG" Game

Being tagged again :D Here goes:

1. the last person to tag you is?
Veronica Chuah .. long time no see ooo... wonder how is she now?

2.what is your relationship with him/her?
We were classmate, now she’s one of my best friends.

3.your 5 impressions of him/her?
Versatile (she can draw, dance, sing n much more), energetic (she can chat n laugh for de whooole day), pretty (yes she is), friendly and crazy (she gets very excited and produce exaggerated moves when dealing with an interesting topic. Don’t get angry ah.).

4.the most memorable thing he/she has done for you?
Hmm... de comment she left in the “voice out” section of my blog lo, de sentence “i know u can” is very powerful, it raises my confidence. I appreciate it very much.

5.the most memorable word he/she has say to you?
“I know u can”!

6.if he/she becomes your lover, you will...
Impossible.. I’m not her cup of tea, or coffee, whatever la, and vice versa. HAHA.

7.if he/she becomes your enemy, you will...
In which way she becomes my enemy? De possibility is super duper hyper low u know?

8.if he/she becomes your lover, things he/she has to improve on...
Better don’t comment here... -.-!!

9.if he/she becomes your enemy, the reason will be...
Give me 2 months to think ah...

10.the most desired thing to do for her now is?
Finish her tag questions...XD.

11.the overall impressions of him/her now is?
Pretty n smart lo (sure she’ll like this).

12.how do you think people around you will feel about you?
Err... weird?

13. the character you for yourself is?
Don’t really understand this question...

14.on contrary, the character you hate of yourself is?
Procrastination.

15.the most ideal person you wanna be is?
A very optimistic person.

16.for the person who cares and likes you, say something about them...
To all my friends, thanks for all your support, advice n concern, they make me stronger. I treasure everything u said n did. Really THANK YOU. And BEST OF LUCK. Let’s be de BEST n MOST OUSTANDING person in our school / college. Yea!!

17. ten people to the quiz.
Most people I know has already answered de quiz. Just to name a person here: Andrew.

18.who is de person having relationship with?
Andrew ah? I don’t really know who exactly is he having relationship with. Too many people related to him. Ahaha~

19.is the person a female or male?
Male. No doubt.

22.what is number he/she studying about?
Currently studying in form 6 in batu 8.

23.when was the last time you had a chat with?
If face-to-face, when I karaoke-d with him before I went to college; If via SMS, few days ago.

24.is number he/she single?
I think so, but most probably not available (heaheahea, don’t scold me ah).

25.talk something abt the person u named above.
Andrew is very intelligent, used to be n going to be de top student in Batu 8 again.
He’s also very capable... u can count on him.
Also, de most special thing about him is his sense of humour. Although sometimes very lame, but de jokes really tickle people.