To Shah Alam

Very early in the morning, I woke up and got myself prepared and cycled to KHAR. Dr Napisah, three TESLians and I were expecting the university van to ferry us to UiTM Shah Alam campus for a British Parliamentary style debate adjudication workshop. It's organised by the Malaysian Institute for Debate and Public Speaking (MIDP).

As usual, UPSI students are the earliest in any occasions like this. So we went for breakfast and it was on Dr Napisah. Felt touched by her hospitality and commitment for us debaters.

Actually today was really a long day. Little did we expect that we will be tested. Until yesterday, all we thought was that it's nothing more than a workshop, a seminar. The first part was on the general rules on adjudication, BP style. It was objective, but we could write some comments after the answer we chose.

Second part was to hear a full length debate on video and give our oral adjudication one by one. Not as easy as I thought. And I wonder why it took so long. We were supposed to leave at 5.30pm. But the organizers came in to the meeting hall again at almost 5.30pm and announced the next slot. Many participants were unhappy and wanted to leave. It wasn't our fault that the programme started late. It was clearly the organizers fault!

After leaving our emails, which they promised to email us the link to the debate that has to be adjudicated, we left for Tanjung Malim. Thank God that we arrived before dark.

Bad day

Daniel Powter sang Bad Day. It's one of my favourite songs until it really happened to me today.

I had to do my laundry as the bucket is almost full. After class, I saw that the sky is cloudy. I predicted that it will rain very soon. But just a moment later, the weather turned sunny. Immediately, I loaded my clothes into the washing machine.

Funny how things will turn against you, huh? There's this timer knob where you'll just turn and the machine will run automatically, while telling you which stage the washing is currently. The whole run is expected to be 20-30 minutes.

Unfortunately, this machine decided to play a prank on me. The process stopped without draining the water out. Probably it will take some time. So I continued my daily chores, hoping that by the time I come back home again, everything will be done. Too bad, it isn't. So I literally spent the whole day just to wash one batch of clothes. Worse still, it rained. So there's no chance I'm going to have dry, fluffy clothes tomorrow.

And I wonder why my friend is always so lucky to wash his clothes and dry them on sunny days while the weather is always against me. Whether or not it's sunny, whenever I dry my clothes, it will surely rain. C'est la vie!

What happens when you stand behind a car?

You'll be exhausted. Yea, this is just another lame joke I had been sharing with people. Today is really exhausting.

First, I had Inorganic Chemistry lab session at 8 am. It was a rather easy experiment where we dissolve a crystal compound to remove the impurities. I was the youngest in the class as others were from the 2008 intake. Still trying to mingle with the 'abang-abang' and 'kakak-kakak'.

Then I had EC 2 class. Little or no writing we done. We just practiced speaking in English. It's not an encouraging scene to behold as some of my friends are not speaking well. In fact, the comments given to them were that they did not speak English at all.

After lunch, it was Students' Learning and Development. I yawned for once and accidentally knocked my book down from the desk. The thump was so loud and my classmates were laughing at me. It was so so so embarrassing!

Debate training came after. We, the seniors, had to train the juniors. After not debating for more than four months, I found myself not doing well at it. Time to improve. Also, not to forget that we celebrated a senior's birthday at KFC after the training.

Result? I'm EXHAUSTED. And now I have to complete another assignment. C'est la vie!

All about the languages

Today, my Organic Chemistry class has been cancelled. It's almost like a jackpot! 2 hours of lecture and 3 hours of lab was cancelled! That gave me the passport to do some printing at a shop and to collect my newly bought printer.

The only lectures I had today are Japanese Language and Tamil Language. I had a great time during Japanese. The lecturer, Nooru sensei made us sing a childish song for 5 times! It was undoubtedly funny and.... silly, but her intentions were good. She said this method is one of the best ways to learn a language. A mundane way will not produce good results.

After dinner, it's time for Tamil. This time, Madam Manon taught us the human body parts in Tamil. It was a little difficult. Nevertheless, I had fun learning them.

Seems like learning a new language is a brilliant way for me to de-stress. People choose sports, games, hobbies or shopping for that purpose. But for me, to be able to say bonjour, konnichiwa and vanakkam just make me feel good. Why do I even major in science? Should have taken some language related course, shouldn't I?

Study blues

Can you imagine doing an experiment following the procedures religiously, but there's no result at all? It's frustrating, isn't it? This happened today!

It was a chemistry experiment this morning. There were three sub experiments to do. Initially, they looked easy, I thought. But as the saying goes, easier said than done. As my partner and I carried out the experiments, we found out that the concoctions we prepared did not show any visible results for more than 15 minutes.

At the end of the class, we consulted the lecturer, who in turn discussed this matter with the lab assistant to change the amount of the chemicals in future. Well, looks like we were treated like lab mice, aren't we? Using the trial-and-error method, we were suppose to test whether the experiment works? Fantastic! C'est la vie!

Biology lecture was much later. We had a quiz today on cell division. The first part was rather easy, asking for the significance of the types of division rather than the process. However, the second part was crazy. We were told to draw the cell cycle, which is still not too hard, but we were also told to explain how the two proteins listed play their roles in cell division. All I could ask was, "What the hell are they?". That part remained blank. Never have I came across those names.

Got to study harder...

Mood was... not as high as the past few days. Skepticism and loneliness kind of got the better of me today. The more I try to mix in a conversation, the more I felt stupid. Fine. Will keep my mouth shut.

Eat, Shop, Learn

Today, I woke up early for the 8am Chemistry class. I had not had my breakfast and I thought I could eat something at 10, after the class ends. I was wrong.

When the class was going on, my stomach growled a little and I cannot pay my full attention to the lesson. Worse still, the lecturer herself did not speak audibly and we were not clear with what she was trying to deliver. Should I ask, or shouldn't I, I thought. But I'd decided not to, since I won't understand her explanation anyway. And that will worsen my hunger pangs.

Later in the afternoon, I had my first Biology lab session. We were required to prepare some onion root cell slides and to observe some other slides on cell division. I didn't have a good time as the onion cells were not healthy. They didn't seem to want to undergo division. Our lecturer said forget about seeing the things we expected to see. Then the other slides which were readily prepared did not give me a good moment either. They were so hard to observe, and lecturer said she expected us to draw the chromosomes (a.k.a genes) in a certain way. Unfortunately, what I saw under the microscopic lenses are just not the same as what she drew on the whiteboard. No way I'm going to forge the observations!

Ordered a printer today. Felt happy. I love transactions. No. I think I love shopping.
I wonder which female gene for shopping dominated that male part of me. Haha.

To Port Klang

Today is the third meeting of the Fire Brigade. I supposed the instructors didn't prepare the lesson, that is why they made us drill for the entire two hours. Haiz... C'est la vie!

Fortunately, the drill session was not at all fruitless. Besides sharpening our skills, we learnt new moves as well, like marching and 45 degrees turn. When we had a 5 minute break, I took the opportunity to consult one of the instructor on giving commands to a squad as I don't have a loud voice. It's either too soft or something like shrieking that hurts my throat. He told me that one of the ways to practice my voice is to practise the commands with my head facing a basin. I don't know how it works, but I guess it is a good method.

After the drill, my friends and I went to Port Klang together to visit Logos Hope which had stopped at Pulau Indah since two days ago and will be open for visitation for the next three weeks. We hired two cars for 13 of us.

When we were about to go on board, we saw the Starcruise Virgo stopped not far away from Logos. Logos seemed much, much more smaller compared to the luxurious ship, but with her aim to bring hope and knowledge to the world, people flocked to her rather than Virgo.

The book exhibit was obviously packed. We could barely inch ourselves forward. It's a good sign, I thought. The books were priced in units rather than currency. 100 units is equivalent to RM 8. There were lots of good deals around and I bought four books which totaled up to RM 60. My friends, too, bought lots of titles.

Before we departed from the ship, we had some refreshments at the International Cafe. We get to interact with some international staffs. They are really great people. Imagine working with 400 staffs from 40 nationalities and diverse backgrounds. And they are doing a great job bringing hope and knowledge and help to the world!