Reflection (Part 1)

Having participated in Biro Tatanegara (BTN) course that lasted for five days, I'm going to share what was going on throughout the camp. I had the urge to share my point of views while I was having the course, however it is not easy to recall every single incident that happened and come out with an overall review based on what I had been thinking.

BTN, in case you have not come across with this term, and if I'm not mistaken, was introduced at the early age to mould the youngsters who were thought to raise disciplinary problems in school. Recently it was further modified to fulfill the need to instill patriotism in the government servants and those government-servant-to-be. I guess this is also one of those preventive measures in reducing brain drain.

We didn't have enough sleep during the course, but we did not need to worry about hunger. They provided six meals including breakfast, lunch and dinner daily. Teatime would fill in every empty slot of schedule. You would never feel hungry. There would be almost at least a piece of chicken and a fish for every participant in every meal, which is quite costly. The accommodation was the best part of the camp. We were provided a clean dorm with eight bunk beds and new furniture. The campsite is relatively isolated from the city and near to a beach, thus we would feel the calm and windy weather.

On the first day, I was so surprised to find out the campsite actually has a wifi source, and managed to steal some time and stay connected to Facebook for a while before our mobile phones were confiscated throughout the next four days. However most Maxis users received poor signals from the base stations of mobile phones in this remote area. Despite the fact that even if we took control of our own mobile phones, we cannot connect to the outside world with no signal coverage, still, I guess 107 of us were all having a hard time without mobile phone in our pockets.

The whole course was just mainly about presentations and group trainings that involves some aspects to build a civil minded and patriotic soul. Every morning we had to wake up at 5.30am, slightly late comparing to Muslims. We had to take part in so called moral lessons when the Muslims were attending for their morning prayers. After that there would be morning training session. I did not have any experience in marching or foot drill, and it is embarrassing and insulting when the commanders were no happy for he expected everyone of us must have joined a uniformed unit or national service before.

In my opinion, it is just a personal matter whether anyone of us chose to join a uniformed unit, and don't take that as a compulsory when it seems that joining a uniformed unit would greatly help one to obtain extra co-curriculum merit and secure your university seat. Just allow me to speak a little out of topic, I just find it ridiculous when people were so surprised to find out the fact that I, as a PSD scholarship holder, do not hold any certificate of a uniformed team at all. My point is simple, everyone has his or her own liking, interest and time management. When the government is practicing a moderate way of encouraging youngsters to take part in uniformed unit, we can make up our mind to give a full commitment in other kind of co-curriculum activities and the outcomes are beneficial as well.

Back to the marching part in every morning, I truly enjoyed the session as I learn something new instead of listening to cliche that has been aggressively reiterated during speeches given by trainers and facilitators. However when I further analyse the speech content as well as activities curriculum, I notice they had unevenly distributed what they want us to learn and understand in the course by national civic bureau. We were exposed to the content of constitution of Malaysia in different ways. However they just focused on some important clauses. According to the syllabus stated in the official website of national civic bureau, we are supposed to learn about the latest issues, patriotism, the nation history, the government system, social contract, constitution of Malaysia and others. However what had been greatly emphasised was the social contract and some particular facts included in the constitution. I'm glad to learn all of these, and eventually I catch the main point and agenda of the course, which is to indoctrinate participants to understand the social contract based on constitution. Not to say we learn only a little about others but honestly I was a little annoyed by the way it had been emphasised.

Nevertheless, at some point I'm still holding on to my ideology. I would reflect on it and figure out more to share with you next time.

BTN

Finally the final examination is over and this definitely puts my A-Level course to an end. I have given my best shot in eight of the papers and hopefully I would be able to obtain the newly introduced and also the highest grade of the grading system, A* (A star, quite similar to the A+ in SPM). Before going home, all of us would need to attend BTN (National Civics Bureau), a course that is prepared by the government for those students heading oversea in the future and others. The aim of this course is mainly about instilling patriotism by exposing each of us to historical lessons. This should be interesting, however I'm a little worried as when I was digging some information regarding this course, I came across with a lot of negative feedback. One of my seniors who has already taken the course advised me not to take what would soon be exposed to myself personally. Some controversy arose, and issues were discussed as some news reported that BTN has been proven unfruitful to fulfill the aim, and including some sensitive and biased remarks. At that time, our Prime Minister had shown up and promised the syllabus of BTN would be further speculated and made vary to synchronise the aim when political parties were hotly debating about whether to abolish this controversial course or not. So it remains until now, and it is my turn to experience it. I'm sure I would have a lot of stories to share here after this. Hopefully it does change in a positive way after coming across with intense criticism.

p/s : I spent a number of money, just to buy the strictly designated costume, and everyone needs to do so.

IELTS result

Finally the IELTS result is released! Here is my result:

Listening: 8.5
Reading: 8.5
Writing: 7.5
Speaking: 6.0 =(

Total: 8.5 + 8.5 + 7.5 + 6.0 = 30.5
Overall band score = 30.5/4 = 7.625 ≈ 7.5

Here is the reference of band score:

9. Expert User - native speaker level of the language.

8. Very Good User - excellent command of the language, a few mistakes only

7. Good User - handles language well, some inaccuracies, communicates adequately

6. Competent User - reasonable control of the language, difficulties with unfamiliar

5. Modest User - adequate in own area, difficulties with complex structures

4. Limited User - adequate only in familiar areas, difficulty understanding expression

3. Very Limited User - problems communicating, limited communication abilities

2. Intermittent User - many difficulties, basic information only

1. Non User - understands a few isolated words only

I am quite satisfied with the overall performance despite the poor response rated for my speaking test. However I can't recall much regarding the experience during the tests.

I tried my best and stretched my ears to the max during listening test. However I couldn't catch up the fast conversation by some speakers with thick British accent in one of the parts. I have got some luck to score well in reading test.

Although 7.5 is lower than 8.5, it is still considered as a relatively high band in writing. I think I did pretty well in that paper as I applied a wide range of vocabulary and structures of sentences in appropriate ways. I wouldn't have achieved this band if I did not force myself to pick up the habit of blogging and intensive writing since I failed to score well in SPM.

The examiner who conducted my speaking test was very professional. She is a woman of more than 60 and has a perfect pronunciation. However, she looked very unfriendly, serious and strict. I tried my best to give my best answer for every question or task given, but I just couldn't escape from the fate of getting such an unacceptable band. In fact, if I obtained a band higher than 6.0 for speaking, even by only an addition of 0.5, the overall band score would be 8.0 or higher! =)

In conclusion, IELTS test is interesting and exciting. Every candidate needs to pay full attention to focus on every test after a certain period of training and preparation. Having boosted with confidence, a little luck is still desired.

Is it that hard to compromise?

Having only healthy vegetarian food in my college hasn't been as convenient as what I think it could potentially be. There are only two cafeterias inside the college compound, one is Mamak cafeteria providing mainly Indian orientated food and one is Malay cafeteria which is just situated one floor below my apartment unit. There are two other ways to get your stomach filled - from the food stalls at the roadside opposite KTT, or from the food catering aunty whom we call her Aunty Mira.

Under normal circumstances I have no problem at getting nutritious vegetarian food at a reasonable price for every breakfast and lunch. Mamak cafeteria provides trays of mixed vegetables in buffet style. By paying only RM2.50, it is quite a considerable saving for a happy meal. It would be a little expensive to cater my lunch by filling up my own container at the stall prepared by an old woman who has her secret recipe attracting a great number of loyal customers every afternoon. To my personal liking, I would rather pay RM3.50 for delicious bean-based vegetables and potatoes.

After having my dinner just now, I had a conversation with the senior person in charge at the counter, and I felt a little offended when I was trying to compromise the flawed way in charging the food price. To order vegetarian food without frying, I have only limited options, that is to order foods separately. It is very unreasonable to get charged RM5.00 for a plate of white rice with an egg and a plate of mixed vegetable considering the fact I could have eaten a plate of fried rice with almost equal or even greater quantity of mixed vegetable and rice by paying only RM3.00. When I asked if it is possible to charge less since it is imbalanced in comparison with other options in the menu, I was fairly surprised that at first he replied which price I prefer in a harsh way, and grumbled something like you shouldn't order if you don't like to, instead of have considerations compromised whereby it is easy to set a fixed reasonable price to the combination above, at least for vegetarian food.

I can be a picky eater when it comes to healthy food, or choosy in catering food. I haven't been taking any fried chicken in KTT since months ago. Besides, I would really feel guilty whenever I use a polystyrene box or plastic bag. I don't mind washing extra containers by myself and I think it is time for everyone to show some concern towards the current main global issue especially those who are highly selective like me, but in a different way - rather to dine in his own apartment which would in turn result in a used polystyrene box for each meal taken. I couldn't say it is indifference shown, but it is another ironical scene to look at because well educated people would have reflected on what they should do before getting it done, however in this case, it is clearly seen that because of the long term habit practiced so they don't feel like holding any obligation.

Untitled (You may suggest one.)

Perhaps I shouldn't have concerned too much. Perhaps I should respond to all unpleasant sight by just a smile, and stay happy because it actually favors us. No criticism, no so called "harsh comments" or "inappropriate action". Perhaps I shouldn't have placed my perspective of views in equal to those, which in turn would easily spark some misunderstandings. Perhaps I should be one of those saying: "Aiya, like that one la, why care so much?" Or perhaps I should just remain silent, be your obedient students and get focused in term of academic attention, score a string of As in examination, or try to secure the top in the world award to appease them before flying to India, then leave here and be happy ever after.

But I don't. To refrain myself from the urges to share something neglecting its fact as either positive or negative has been something more difficult than to keep my mouth shut. Some people don't understand the fascinating and intriguing part we could indulge ourselves in during arguing against a statement or topic by contributing constructive thoughts, and have a great assimilation of others' thoughts, so that things can eventually end up obtaining a valuable outcome. Curiosity and sense of accomplishment are playing a main role. People tend to lost the interest concerned in the sense that he doesn't prefer to share his very personal piece of two cents could be a result of flawed environment he was being brought up. For example, the repeating cliche during constructing an essay without really trying to inject some fresh ideas whenever possible, could curb his sharing ability.

When something has been done with a large margin of improvement, I speak. When I saw something flawed or wrong, I speak. Before I speak, I do something which most of the people don't, that is I reflect on whether I'm trying to contribute to, or encourage the flawed or to the wrong. At the same time, we can't dispute the fact if we don't stay in the flawed, we are the ones who face disadvantages. It can be a hard time to balance everything during this stage, but this is what prepares us to have equipped all of the traits needed in order to push ourselves to a further level of aptitude in the future.

We can choose to show indifference towards the flawed, because of "it is none of my business, as long as I happy, it doesn't matter." or "I can't do much to change that, don't let myself to get into trouble, so just let it be." Here is a question to think: Are we entitled to do so? And here comes a good lesson to learn - to be able to achieve the goal with minimum arousal of less significant circumstances which might in turn lead to a complication that may defeat the purpose of the initial intention. Expect the unexpected and accept the unacceptable. Which one do you choose?

FESKOTT

Finally the sports festival that lasted for a week in my college has ended. Here comes the time to review and analyze the event namely Festival Sukan Kolej Teknologi Timur (FESKOTT).

FESKOTT includes many games, for instance football, netball, volleyball, futsal and track events such as short distance sprinting. This festival didn't only confine its participants to A-Level students but also lecturers and students taking other diploma course. We were categorized into four main contingents having more than two hundreds of members each. Basketball match was introduced to meet our demand, but the organizer shouldn't have ignored some events, which could be carried out in a stadium, in this case, the stadium located 3km from my college. It was not a great deal to apply for the access of using those facilities in order to provide us the opportunity to take part in events other than sprinting. Personally I feel it was quite disappointing and a little unfair. Not all of us are sprinters, and those having strong arms and excellence hopping ability couldn't have their potentials utilized.

I took part in volleyball, the game that I have been deeply indulged in since my first exposure towards this teamwork requiring sport. With great skills we had made our way into the final but stumbled, and ended up getting my first silver trophy of volleyball competition. Apart from that, as one of those who urged the organizing of basketball competition, I grouped a team of five players and won the champion with perspiration and luck, and I was quite surprised to be awarded the best player.

During the closing ceremony.

Despite some unpleasant sight or inconvenience, FESKOTT can still be considered a memorable and joyful event. It greatly depends on how you treat it. Effort would normally and eventually pay off. It is also time to keep my pace on the "academic track" for that pre AS Level examination is just around the corner.

I'm officially 19 years old =)

Notifications of Facebook and text messages started to pile up within my laptop and handphone to the extent that although my fingers were working frantically, I couldn't manage to reply the all birthday wishes on time, all of these happened when it was near 12am of 22nd March.

I remember whenever it was my birthday, my family wouldn't fail to celebrate it, either inviting my friends to my birthday party or having a special dinner together. But this time it is fairly different.

I felt so warm, mainly because of that I was greatly surprised by my family. I sensed something fishy at 9pm yesterday as my sister suddenly asked me the song I like the most. Out of my expectation, they made a four-minute-video including the compilation of photos since my childhood moment running in slide show mode, to wish me a happy birthday which had been previously done for 18 consecutive years in my own house. Thank you Papa Mama, Jin Sheng, Jin Yao, Mei Mei and Ngen Ngen =) It is the best present I have ever received!

Lovely written cards from my friends.

At the same time I received a handmade birthday card from her! =) It was agonizing to have the envelope in my hands but I had to wait for 4 days until I was valid to open the envelope. Those words in the card tug deeply at my heartstrings, but I would like to apologize for not revealing them for the-reason-you-should-know =)


A mixture of old friends, relatives as well as my teacher and even my favourite lecturer left their wishes on the wall of my Facebook profile. I appreciate that very much =)

Things turned crazier when my friends planned to trick me in a cafe outside my college.

Ouch >.<"

I finally know how a face bumps into a cake feels. I know whose idea this is!

Here is the second vanilla cake. I like vanilla so much!

Thank you for enlightening my birthday =)

Birthday, in another perspective which is often emphasized by saints, is actually exactly what we can call it as a "disastrous day" of our mother. So instead of just having a blast with friends, we should actually spend some time on that day to reflect on how those days passed by when we were being ignorance but gradually raised and educated by our parents with great care and love after giving birth to us. 19 years has just gone in just a glimpse, what is left is what has remained in my memory, and I shall cherish every moment I had, which I only had.

No, I don't prefer this one.

This question can be interesting, how does your seat in your current college or university look like? Do you feel comfortable with the designated lecture hall or classroom you enter every weekday and spend hours of time dealing with the new syllabus or enduring the sleep-inducing tone by your lecturers? I guess everyone of you have no problem recognising the "tuition chair" ( I couldn't find any suitable word to name it. ) with the small flipping board. Yes, it is small, and brings a lot of unpleasant moment whenever I am to sit on it, which in turn urges me to voice out my personal opinion regarding this popular facility provided throughout the Malaysia.

Honestly, when I was a primary school kid, I was sick of sticking myself on the old wooden table with drawer and chair whole day long. At the same time, I used to have a funny thought that sitting on the tuition chair must be very comfortable, cool-looking or any adjective that describes something good.

Now I realise the chair doesn't bring as much joy as I expected. The main aspect that fails to withdraw my affinity towards the chair is the small flipping board, or perhaps I should call it the small pad. All of us bring our pencil box during lesson, and thanks to the small area that cannot even accommodate a normal textbook, our pencil box would always end up laying on the floor beneath the chair.

It drives me mad whenever I'm trying to solve any question with the aid of a calculator. There is no sufficient space to get calculator a good spot, but to place it above the paper. I come out with a good solution to avoid the calculator blocking the text in paper, that is to place it on my thighs. And at this time you can pay attention using your ears. Trust me, occasionally there will be sound of calculator hitting the ground as a result of falling down, and after that I know how strong our calculator is to withstand the impact and remain intact after collision, nice quality control, Casio.

Actually every invention would come in handful in particular aspect. The tuition chair can serve better, but not in KTT. I prefer sitting on an ordinary chair, having ample space to have my work done comfortably on an ordinary table. Hah, just a personal rambling, do tell me if you have the same feeling :p

Flawed?

It has been more than 8 months since 6th July of year 2009 when I registered myself as one of the students in Kolej Teknologi Timur to enroll on Cambridge A-Level program under the scholarship awarded by JPA. Here is the schedule of the 18 months (1.5 years) I would like to share.

The A-Level program comprises two main examinations we have to go through. The syllabus is divided into half, which in short namely AS and A2. Both of them account for 50% of the total marks that would in turn determine the grade (A, B and so on) each. Theoretically I could have 9 months to deal with AS syllabus and another identical duration for A2. However I have to wait until the May and June to take AS papers, and there starts the A2 syllabus before the examination. When is the A2 examination? 4 months after AS examination.

So, I am wondering why the schedule is fixed in this way. I do not have any intention to bring about my own dissatisfaction towards the imbalanced schedule, as I would have decided to take STPM that includes all the syllabus in only one final examination, if my SPM result failed to attract any scholarship. Moreover, some friends of mine here are actually enduring a tough stage - they have no other choice but are forced to complete the same syllabus within one year, not to mention the entrance exam to pass as one of the prerequisites to grab a seat in any prestigious universities abroad. While some of them might be proud of that only Malaysia can provide the insanely shortened duration of A-Level program in this way, it seems that none of us are actually aware of the improper management to plan the foundation course provided to scholarship holders based on the dates of intakes stated by particular universities.

In my opinion, A-Level is not as tough as STPM in term of the academic coverage, but it does take time to fully prepare ourselves before stepping in the examination hall to apply what we have learned. This is just my little concern as a Malaysian blogger, who welcomes anyone to clarify anything I might have missed or pointed out wrongly, or justify the need to change, for a positive outcome.

The Chinese New Year Celebration

It was two days ago when we had a blast in my college presenting the Chinese New Year celebration after weeks of preparation in hurry. The main aspects of this activity such as program, food and decorations were well done in the sense that we have got a very positive feedback from those VIPs as well as from our college mates. I was mainly in charge of decorative procedures and exhibition, that means I was no doubt one of the busiest men, so it is a kind of relief accompanied by satisfaction and joy to have this project done, not perfectly, but I'm certain that at least it has thrilled everyone in my college by which they could actually sense the Chinese New Year ambiance and explore more about our culture and tradition under such an exposure.

This backdrop is 100% handmade using "raw materials" such as mahjong papers, red papers black ink, glue etc. It is superb isn't it? =)

We invited a lion dance troupe to invite the VIPs and perform during the opening ceremony.

The spring couplet in the form of scroll rolling down after pulled by VIPs at the main entrance of the hall.
We normally read the couplet starting from the right one, from top to bottom. To translate, it simply brings the meaning of "Golden ox embarks on a new journey and there comes the tiger indicating the arrival of spring."

She is the head of our college, we call her "Datin". Her expression tells me that she might be wondering what those Chinese characters mean, perhaps?

Our very first show was traditional dance including eight of us dancing using Chinese fan and lanterns. I am the one holding the red lantern at a lower level.

This is another meaningful scene. They are taking part in "laosheng", using chopsticks to toss the raw fish salad high in the air. Fish is a homophone of "abundance" in Chinese, therefore it symbolises prosperity and auspiciousness.

The VIPs showing their calligraphy of a single word namely "tiger". This word is relatively complicated, so I guess they wouldn't have written such an readable masterpiece if I didn't use a pencil to provide a draft of the strokes on those pink papers :p

I did take part in the choir too. It was a wonderful experience to perform Chinese New Year song in full traditional attire with a group of friends!

The martial arts known as wushu in Chinese. Can you notice there is a Malay guy? :D

This lovely lady has a great voice! She sang folk song in the way opera singers sing, how wonderful!

'This guy is proficient in playing Chinese yo-yo.

Ribbon dance.

Mandarin oranges eating competition.

The middle guy is transformed into the God of Wealth and Fortune. The costume is handmade too!

The VIPs are trying to write 恭喜发财 (Gong Xi Fa Cai).

They are my favourite lecturers =)

VIPs visiting the displaying boards during exhibition.

You wouldn't have managed to come out with a correct estimation if you didn't know how much Chinese likes the number 8!

I particularly like these two photos.

I notice that although there are not many Chinese in my college, there are still a number of talented people interspersed in the nerd-looking scholarship holders. I have received some compliments regarding the decoration that worked under my mastermind, but I still need to declare that without the helping hands, I could not make it. I really enjoyed these hectic weeks which severely replaced my revision schedule, despite the fact that I am now slightly lagged behind in term of academic syllabus.

The hectic and memorable holidays

I have been relatively busy throughout these weeks as well as holidays. Make it short, my friends and I in Kolej Teknologi Timur are having a hard time preparing the first activity under the name of newly formed Chinese Cultural Education Society (CCES), which is the Chinese New Year celebration. Even when I'm now approximately 700km away from my college, I still have to compete with fast-running time to have my "homework" done and bring it back to Sepang.

I am the one leading the work related to decoration. I couldn't help scratching my forehead while trying to figure out a full plan concerning how the main hall which doesn't look like a hall at all, should be decorated. Certain artworks cannot fit to the framework of my initial planning due to limitations such as those pillars obstructing the vision towards the stage (actually there is no stage) and the extremely low ceiling. As I mentioned, my college is actually further modified and equipped from shops on an incline plane, so you can imagine the main hall consists of four lots of different height interconnected by staircases of three to four levels. I can even knock my head on the ceiling if I jump forcefully, no kidding.

We are going to get ourselves a formal exhibition displaying Chinese culture as well as Chinese New Year tradition. I searched and gathered the information needed using days and it took me another week to complete thirty slides of PowerPoint and those A3 size papers would be printed in full colour. At the same time I had to complete more than 20 pairs of spring couplets. It was overwhelming tired.

When there is motion, there is also friction. Thing doesn't come as smooth as we wish. 24th is the day of CNY celebration, however those inconsiderate allocate some candidates to take their internal examination until one day before 24th, that means we don't really own enough time to put on our decorative stuff in the main hall. It is even saddening and disastrous to receive the order calling us to take off our red tassels which had been set on ceiling before holidays. I am fairly annoyed and irritated, but what can I do?

Besides, I need to spare some time to manage my another private blog written in Chinese. Not to mention it is now the time I have to cope with the A2 syllabus. Much effort should be invested. Nevertheless, I still enjoy keeping myself busy with this activity. It somehow brings reminiscence of days I was busy with willingly committed activities during my secondary school life.

Honestly, I am starting a new relationship, my first relationship. I guess my family wouldn't even know that until they reach this line in my blog. Yes, we had a great time despite the fact I could hardly choose a time to hang out with her as I needed to respond to some gathering invitations. People were intrigued as I changed my relationship status on my Facebook profile. I would have revealed her identity if I wished to and I just hope everything can behave and go naturally =)

After this I would upload certain photos of this, or perhaps photos of my girlfriend and I =)

IELTS

In case you don't know what IELTS stands for, it is actually the abbreviation of International English Testing Language Testing System.

First of all I would like to critic my previous IELTS lecturer once again.

Disclaimer: If you have been following my blog for a certain period you could notice how intensely I have been criticising many aspects of my current college, but that doesn't mean I was showing my sheer hatred towards KTT. In fact, I'm concerning the issues that annoyed me, and having an urge to share it with my nearest people. I could have ignored all the flawed, the preposterous one happening around me. But after all I felt it might be better to voice my dissatisfaction and disappointment in order to let myself out.

I had never seen such an irresponsible lecturer in the sense that she had cancelled 90% of her classes since I enrolled in A-Level program 6 months ago. Just imagine I was supposed to attend 2 lectures per week, but I ended up by having less than 5 lectures during the six months. If this doesn't sound shocking, listen to this one: she had fled away all in a sudden with some money that students paid to purchase IELTS reference books! Seriously it can be considered a crime. Consequently, a new IELTS lecturer is taking her place now, bringing both great news and bad news, where there is a resurgence of IELTS teachings but we have to pay for another IELTS reference book of a different version.

Back to the title, all of the scholars in preparation to travel aboard to India, Polland, Czech Republic etc. for tertiary study in medicine or dentistry have to pass certain cut-off points depending on the university we apply. IELTS includes four main tests - reading, listening, speaking and writing, with the achievement of each represented in band form ranging from band 1 to band 9.

I had a listening test in this afternoon and I find it challenging to recognise and read the British accent. I take IELTS more important than any other subjects I'm taking now.

Revealing unpleasent sight

It was a lovely afternoon when my roommate was enjoying the breeze in the balcony. Suddenly he smelt something. To his surprise, he saw a guy holding a lighted cigarrete above him in another balcony.

"What are you looking at? Strange? I'm not going to die because of this lah!"

It is quite an unexpected as well as unpleasant sight to me, considering the fact he is a JPA scholar, the educated one who is going to traverse into medical field, and has the responsibility to advise people to stop smoking. However he is not the only person practising something ironic and contradicting to his prospect in my present college. They are a lot including seniors. Moreover, it has been stated smoking inside the college compound is prohibited and penalty of RM100 would be charged towards violator. Well, I haven't come across any news that any kind of penalty had been charged on them since I was here six months ago. The guards ignore that too, so do some lecturers and wardens. I can't tolerate indifference shown by the administrators. Honestly I have no prejudice towards smokers, but in my point of view, smokers are not qualified to contribute himself in health care related career seriously. Even if they are, don't you think that their patients would surely doubt their credibility in diagnosing ailments or prescribing medicine?

Put this aside, I would like to share another thing that was annoying. It happened for days continuously in the last month. When I was in my mood of revising and there came a deafening bang inside the hostel. Apparently someone was trying to get into our nerves by lighting firecrackers. My instinct told me that was another immatured scholar, but I could never identify the nuisance maker. In my previous secondary school, if you tried to challenge the school rules by having such explosives, you would be expelled without any tolerance or consideration.

Please return me the serenity of my lovely tiny college :(

Another incident

It was an afternoon when my housemate wondered what's happening to our newly bought washing machine. The water clogged inside the wash tub instead of draining out. The clothes were still soaked after procedures of washing, rinsing and spinning. He was soon able to check out something bizarre - which you won't expect to happen.

There was a blockage in the end of the drain hose.

Imagine how you would feel knowing someone had the intention to spoil your washing machine. They are peels, egg shells and candy wrappers which are classified as rubbish.

This is the compartment which has been occupied as the "secret base", or the workshop of some resident kids aged ranging from 8 to 12 years old. They are creative to modify their bikes to a scooter-like vehicle and have fun at the inclined road in front of my college. That's why I have to tolerate the hammer tapping sounds almost everyday. You might be wondering why they are residents in my college, well, it will be a long story which I'm not going to share at this instant.

They did it mostly because of the intruding discharged water. We had informed them about that, and they have spacious compartment regardless of that corner we need, so I have no idea about why it led to the revengeful and ignorant act.

So they thought we would never notice the blockage? Hah, they are kids.

For KTTians : Pak Cik Parang definitely didn't tell them about that.

Consequence of exam-orientated culture.

I'm currently tackling Cambridge International A-Level program. So far the syllabus of text books doesn't really pose much trouble to me but I had soon found out what I have to surmount - laboratory sessions. I'm utterly clueless in handling the apparatus in appropriate way. I'm puzzled to select the suitable one before proceeding to the next procedure if the list of apparatus required isn't provided. Well, I attribute it as a part of consequence of practising an exam-orientated culture in my previous school life.

Honestly I've forgotten how many experiments I had conducted during my high-school period, but I can tell you experiment wasn't something significant to us at that time, just because there wouldn't be any practical test in SPM. We could memorise everything written in black and white in order to tackle the question concerning experiment planning, without having the urge to grasp more. Every class of my secondary school comprised of more than 45 students which in turns results in an insufficient capacity of science laboratory. We had been going through almost every experiment by our imagination, or sometime we were lucky enough to observe the demonstration by our teachers in front of us only.

I have to accept the fact that regurgitating the particular reference books would in turn ensure us to score well in papers but it seemingly doesn't benefit us in the same way whenever it is the time to put it into practice. To traverse into medical field, we should have acquired the proficiency in this part. So I come to here, my new college, equipped with merely the scarce experience in this part, hoping that I would be able to polish my practical skill other than struggling for an improvement in linguistic skill during the short period I'm going to stay here :)

Buddhism, my religion.

Having mixed with peers who are mostly comprised of Buddhist along the period I was raised in my hometown, I was surprised by the fact that majority of the Chinese in my college, especially those eastern friends embrace Christian values. Well, I'm a Buddhist, but not the devoted one. Religion is something profoundly abstract to me. I didn't visit temple as regularly as Muslim to mosque, or Christian to church. The incident that motivated me to touch something religious at this time is that there is now a freshly formed association namely Buddhist Society in my college. Although I don't own a great depth of knowledge regarding Buddhism, it doesn't simply mean I'm not interested to explore more about it.

For now I advocate the saying “多个香炉多个鬼，没有香炉没有鬼” which means "to have more censers will result in attracting more ghosts" in direct translation. (Sorry for the not-very-precise-translation as it could be done better) I would like to stress on how sceptic I'm towards some aspects of the religion despite of the actual underlying message of the proverb. Normally Buddhist worships Buddha statues to attain spiritual comfort, hoping he will get rid of disasters or ailments. Some of the believers would make wishes to bring themselves about wealth, and this is the group of people that is prone to superstition.

I'm now going to review several religious acts here, whether it is significant or not. Is burning joss sticks, paper money and incense significant? In my humble opinion it creates pollution rather than achieving what the believers intended. It consumes multitude amount of one of the most essential elements on our planet - paper and it would end up turning into greenhouse gases as well as other harmful byproducts. I'm not going to comment more about the disadvantage of "open burning", yet I often found it ridiculous to see the people burning some high-tech oblations to their ancestors. If they are to burn a paper handphone, I would recommend them to burn an extra Digi simcard too, since it provides the widest coverage :)

I'm not sure if ancestor worship is related to Buddhism since religion would have undergone diverse variation before spreading to every corner of the world. Buddhism I've been following may not share the same aspects with that from the place it originates. It could only come into contact with me when it was festive season such as Wesak Day or it came the traditional funeral. So I might have digressed in some points I've raised here to the extent where it sounds ignorant for me to be a Buddhist.

*This post did occupy a long time of mine, thanks for reading it and it is always welcoming for you to share your two cents about this :)

When I was not at home

My homesickness ceased after staying for a week "in the middle of nowhere" (that's how people locate my college) but not when it came to a couple of days before departure to home. Thanks to my first examination week that has been postponed to a week after this holiday, I would have to reschedule my activities during this holiday. However I have squandered half of it before realizing I have only 5 more days to deal with the books (more than 15 kg) I brought back, but not now. I'm going to use this moment to share something I haven't updated right at here :)

This is how my college looks like.

As you can see the smart-looking guys are my housemates. The first person starting from left is Alee from Sabah, the diligent Malay. The guy in white is John from Sarawak. His greatest interest is Internet business, the field where most of us are not familiar with. The guy standing on my left hand side is called Maegyvear, a Kadazan hailed from Sabah also. Being active in Christian Fellowship and crowned to be "The Prince" during the orientation week, he is undoubtedly the most renowned person in the college.

Thanks to the seniors from the same secondary school of mine :)

I bought a new table for comfort after getting frustrated by the books jumbled up on my small desk, yet the books still jumble up easily. You guys know why.

"Learning is like sailing against the current, you would lag behind if stop moving."

These words are creative indeed.

This is one of the myriad types of bugs I have to confront every night. Somehow the mosquito here appears to be more furious. There was a spider hiding in my sport shoe too, luckily it escaped by the time I grabbed the shoe.

Time to get home :)

My little sister collected these while I was not at home!