of camps and orientations

finally man.. all the camps and orientations are done.. and yes. well into the 3rd week =(.. tired man..

first bout the camp i said i would talk bout in the previous post..

held at Kem D'Puncak Bris, Sik, Kedah, on the 17th to 19th of july..

on the first day, reached bout 12 noon, briefing started at 230pm.. and cont till 530pm.. man.. under the hot sun for 3 hrs.. torture.. =( then we started to set up our tents and were divided into groups..

p.s they took away our phones and expensive stuff (watches etc. only the leaders were allowed to keep watches) nyways.. there was no line haha..

at night, we had ice breaking session.. which consisted of quite a lot of games and dancing.. haha.. yea.. after tat around 10pm, we were entrusted with a group flag,an individual flag, a plate and cup each of which we had the responsibility of "taking care" of the 3 items entrusted to us.. mafan la. have to drag here and there during activities.. in fact, our group flag got "stolen" by the facilitator before and we got punished for it.. lol.. after the entrustment session, we were asked to go to sleep at 12am..

(super kind of them.. as the schedule only said that we were allowed to sleep at 2. started to get suspicious...)

true enough.. at 1am, the hailer went off.. we had to drag ourselves to the meeting area.. and were told that we had to jungle trek in the middle of the night.. all of us had to take a boat over to an isolated island in the middle of the lake and start the trek without a torchlight.. kind of a new experience for some of them.. and a new adventure for me.. cos i had never sat on a boat in the middle of the night.. =O

we had to line up and cling on to each other so that no one falls behind and loses their way.. the gurl who held my hand held on so tight tat my entire palm went numb LOL.. super scared la.. some of them.. even though it was actually really safe.. but as understood, some of us really fear the dark.. it was kinda beautiful trekking at 2am.. cos we could observe a lot of colourful glow in the dark plants.. =) and sense the cool night air + peaceful sound of the crickets.. =)

by the time we went back it was already 430am.. slept for 1 hr before waking up at 6am..

for the 2nd day, was pretty much games bla bla. the highlight of the day was something tat i had done before..

SURVIVAL!

pretty much a cooking session over a fire.. and other than the vegetables, salt and some seasoning powder + 3 matches.. there was the highlight dish..
FRESH CHICKEN.. DEJA VU

had to catch one of the live chickens around the camp area (purposely released by the facilitators).. slaughter it (this had to be done by a muslim to make it halal), clean it then finally cook it..

during the slaughter process i had to hold the chicken as no one dared to do it in my team. =( while a muslim faci helped us slit the throat.. (our team had only 2 muslim gurls who din know the proper technique).. shall not go into details.. but we produced nice dishes though =) curry powder chicken deep fried =)

night time we had performances etc.. entertaining and all.. and luckily they let us sleep for 4 hrs that night.. and finally the last day was pretty much bout breaking camp, prize giving and debriefing.. left camp bout 3pm and reached bout 430pm in uni...

p.s 1. they din let us have cold water throughout the camp. hot orange juice, hot tea, hot everything.. teruk la.. especially after hot days and strenous activities..

p.s 2. shower area was a common area.. and the water was green.. =(.. rather take fresh from the pipe..

p.s 3 after they gave us back our phones.. managed to take a few pics of the campsite b4 leaving =)





as u can see. really a nice place by the lake =)

*its cooling at night..

some other random pics =) during jazz band orientation.. its a game actually..
1. get a partner. advisable same sex
2. form 2 circles one outside and one inside
3. outside spin anticlockwise, inside spin clockwise
4. when gm says hand to hand! find your partner and touch each other hand to hand.
5. as game goes further the contact parts get gross.. as u can see..

nose to mouth =O

tats bout it for orientation though.. =).. next i found this burger at a mamak shop nearby. i won't reveal the price.. i want u visitors to guess the price of this burger and chips.. and its seriously nice.. the burger is the size of my hand.. =o

leave your answers in my cbox =)


tats all for now..


agape..

drowning

hi all.. its long since i've updated.. i just can't find the time to do so..

oh my goodness.. nvr been so stressed out over assignments and involvement in my life before man.. =(.. since this is the only place where i can rant and let it all out, i am seriously not gonna care if u can't bear with it.. no offense.

jus came back from a training camp. compulsory for all first year students..first time it was compulsory... from 17th to 19th july.. super tired man.. after coming back. it was all activities and we slept only 6 hrs in 48 hrs.. =( enuff bout the camp for now.. i will post bout it later.. its a super nice place.. apparently we had the best campsite amongst the 5..

next.. i joined jazz band.. we play jazz duh.. and yea.. got all the sax, trumpet, etc etc la.. and now i found out that as a pianist they required me to read notes.. OHOH.. =(. not my thing.. but thank God that there was another pianist that knew how to read.. but also not so efficient cause she quit for 3 years.. but still better than my 7 years of no trainin lol.. and yea.. we are gonna play for convocation in august... so for my situation the professor who is our conductor + trainer purposely put in a song.. yes.. "my heart will go on" from titanic.. cause it suits my style more.. now i feel double the pressure. cos i will be soloing a lot of parts.. and we finished practice yesterday at midnite.. from 8pm.. grilling man.. cos convocation is mid august and we don have much time.

p.s practices are on monday and thursday..8-11 and 5-7 plus respectively.. but for the love of music and the will to wanna relearn my theory i found this quite enjoyable. though really tiring..

then comes my course's assignments..

so far we have been bombarded with 3 assignments.. 1 due this friday and the prof gave it last wednesday! the assignment was to evaluate a whole journal on the given topic.. and we must "critically appraise" the literature. are u as confused? without a actual guideline we must complete it. and according to the schedule, we are supposed to be given this assignment beginning of this month and we have 1 month to complete it. but now it seems not. and i am the leader for this project for my group and we haven't even started! i am in a bizarre mood right now..

then comes the stupid research project..must really search journals, evaluate literature again.. must come out with questionaire.. zzz.. must go update the prof in charge every wednesday till we finish our research at the end of the 14th week.. that is around october time la..crazy la..=.=

then we have our nursing home project to do every weekend for 4 weeks.. tat luckily i am not the leader for my group la.. so i don have much of a role there..

orientation week for our respective faculties pulak.. i am also my group's leader.. meeting tomo night for a one time practice for a cheer, a sketch from a given topic.. in 2 hrs must complete leh =.=.. cos we can't actually fork out the time for these side stuffs.. closing ceremony this sat.. along with a race.. haih. don know whether i will even survive the week

then also comes the lab reports.. sian.. 2 reports.. submission this friday.. yikes! and these are not like the reports we do in school leh.. its quite complex and we must detail every single result..

there are a lot more things i wish i could put into words. but seems like i don have the time.. i will end my post here. hope i will come back soon to my blogging word.. till then..


agape..

meeting up with some old buddies

heh. first week of lecture and we already feel sleepy.. =P

this will be a picture post of an interesting restaurant the whole bunch of us were at in queensbay mall.. the whole bunch referring to KMPh buddies from the main campus (all of us were there.. like only 5 =.=) AND some "delegates" ( 2 only D: sob sob) from the engineering campus across the bridge =)

this is a chair =O

me modelling the chair =P

i don't understand wats this for.. =(

lol... the menu

and finally the food.. it tastes good.. thank goodness.. haha =)

the food bowl.. haha.. your mind must be strong while eating.. =P.. my other frens who ordered
normal plates (in fact they were toilet covers haha) were trying to get my imagination running =(

nyways.. thats the restaurant we found.. its called "T-bowl". go figure why. LOL.


then yesterday night.. i walked to youth in EPCC and it was POURING.. oh my goodness.. it takes 15-20 mins to walk, and i was wet from waistdown by the time i got there.. and my shoes were totally "banjir"ted.. even with an umbrella.. cos the winds were crazy strong man.. it was my 4th time getting caught in the rain here adi.. really wish at these moments tat i had a car =(

some of the pics of EPCC..

Pastor Sam, senior pastor of EPCC

the youth


the stage, with all the music equipment. -drool-

hehe.. had an awesome time in both services, yesterday night and today's service.. =)

the adults in the morning service even jumped along to songs like evermore, so in love with u, king of majesty.. (yes they do those songs in the Sunday worship)... even my friends whom i brought today said they never experienced such a vibrant church so far.. and the good news is... they are planning to come back!! =D

tats bout all now. class tomo in the afternoon. hehe. more sleep time =D


agape..

The best uni ever..an awesome weekend

The title says it all.. i am super proud to be a student of USM! its really a privilege to be able to come here and enjoy life as a uni student here.. apparently this uni is the most open uni in the whole of Malaysia.. haha.. i shall brag bout the uni in this post. so bear with me all those who have been through a horrid orientation week in other universities around Malaysia =P

lets get on with point no 1~!

ok.. first and foremost i would like to express my utmost gratitude to the Chinese seniors during the orientation week and as well as after who helped me settle down in this place.. u guys were the most friendliest ppl and u've made me feel at home hehe =)..

p.s these seniors were not the facilitators or PPSL as we would call them.. they were just random ppl willing to give us advice and help us settle. =)

point no. 2

this place hor. theres food everywhere man.. outside my desasiswa (hostel).. they have 2 24 hr mamak stalls complete with wifi. as well as a kopitiam with wifi too.. and the wifi is not streamyx. (apparently streamyx not popular here.. lol). its penangfon again.. and its crazy fast.. xD..

p.s.. just a side note, my hostel is outside the main campus. its like opposite the road.. where they have 6 blocks and 3 desasiswa. if u get my point, 1 desasiswa has 2 blocks each for both male and female, and we are on the top of a hill, overlooking the main campus.. nice view eh x)

so imagine this, in our hostel area, u can walk out at any hour (yes including the wee hours of the night) if u are hungry and go grab a bite at one of the mamaks as well as get really decent internet access.. hehe =)

point no 3. this is related to the awesome weekend i had.. hehe

on saturday night, we had a bunch of seniors from a church nearby (century church or stg. my fren introed them to me..) who volunteered to bring students out to makan and tour around the area outside the campus a bit..

so we were a bunch of 30 something excited freshman heading towards Sg Dua.. (one of the gates of the main campus is situated there.. so we can pretty much walk there ourselves in the future..) but this time we went by van.. used a few rounds to get us all there.. haha

and guess wat.. there were like 2 gigantic hawker food courts there.. with all kinds of food.. char koey teow la, asam laksa la.. western la. name it u got it man.. =) this will take sometime to sample all the stuff they have there.. =P

after the dinner, we went to the pasar malam (open every sat nite) that was situated jus across the street in the same place.. so we took a walk there. when we started walking through the pasar malam, we tot that it was jus one stretch of the road and that was it.. then when we reached the end we were like OH MY GOODNESS!~ turn left there were more stalls, then finish tat stretch another right and more stalls! LOL. it was the biggest pasar malam i've ever seen in my whole life. in fact bigger than the ones in KL.. woot!~

p.s there was a Chinese stall section and Malay and Indian stall section.. tats why it was so big.. not being racist but they have halal issues to abide to so we do understand.. =)

after the long walk in the pasar malam, we walked across the street to Tesco. yes there was a tesco and quite a big one too.. bought all our supplies and stuff and finally headed back to the hostel.. man, a super enjoyable nite.. =)

Its an awesome uni life here really. with such an incredible environment to live in, wat is there to complain about? hehe..

point no. 4

ok this was about sunday.. =).

went to EPCC (excel point community church) for service this morning.. and man, it was a wonderful service! i enjoyed every part of it, and i am looking forward to serve in the music ministry there soon.. =) they have such a vibrant congregation, a passionate pastor (pastor sam) who preached today.. there was no problem in being attentive.. he was so filled with energy ready to channel God's word and the message was enthralling and captivating.. i found myself nodding and saying "amens" to the points he presented. truly he is a talented and anointed speaker of The Word.. =) i am not going to have a prob making this my regular church here as it has surpassed my expectation.. awesome. =D

after the church service, my bro in law and sister took as to queensbay mall and dropped us there.. man the mall was as big as midvalley.. maybe not as big but something identical. we walked around, watched a movie (ice age 3) which was totally hilarious and fun to watch.. its a must watch..

rating 8/10

p.s i don wanna spoil anything. so no reviews =D

after the movie we went back to the hostel and that ended my Sunday.. =)

as a concluding point, words cannot describe how great life here is, and how i really look forward to my years here.. its really a blessing to be here.. amongst friendly ppl.. amongst a familiar culture (in USM, there are more Chinese students than Malay surprisingly =O ).. during my last orientation in matriculation, i so wanted to go home after orientation. but this time, i don have tat feeling anymore.. i had the feeling of adventure, to explore and to appreciate every moment tat i am going to have here.. have positive vibes. and this is where i am now, living life here to the fullest and having tons of fun! =)

i will halt for now.. if i cont i will be long winded haha.. =).. to all my frens in other unis like UPM, UKM, UM.. u guys enjoy the privilege of going home every weekend k.. (most of u guys). and its in KL, and u all gonna have a uber fun time too..hehe. so i wish u guys all the best and take care.. =)


agape..

a great week and a great start

hey all! its been quite some time since i last updated this blog.. cause i could not get any internet access..

p.s the wireless internet here is security enabled.. so i have to register in order to get access to it.. Had to walk all the way to the pusat komputer.. so far..=(.. no bus service yet till friday!

Hola! i bring greetings from USM, Penang.. =D

Orientation week was not as hectic as matriculation la.. in fact its very relaxed.. =P.. pity to all my frens who are in UKM and UPM.. all the best and i hope u guys survive =P..

Quite like it here.. hehe.. =).. its a nice place.. aside from the walking from the hostel to the dewan for major activities and also for your information, my hostel is across the road outside the campus.. so its a pretty long walk to the faculties inside the campus..

next week when the seniors come back, its gonna be a rush for the bus service.. everyone will have ta squeeze and squash.. but since i'm from KL, there shud be no prob.. kinda used to rush hour madness.. x)

looking really forward to going to EPCC this weekend.. hehe.. =) wondering how the new church will be like and the environment of the church.. looking forward to start serving again and be an encouragement to the young people in USM and around in Penang.. but the Penang one will have to wait till i am used to this place of course..

the system in the university is a whole lot diff from wat i used to experience.. in the beginning its really kinda hard to grasp the minimum requirement of the units needed to graduate.. the pharmacy course alone is already super busy.. but we still have to take stuff like BM, english, islam and asian civilisations, keusahawanan, koko, skill courses and other stuffs to fulfill the units.. it was kinda hard to understand.. but now i kinda get it.. all the same.. its gonna be super busy but fun.. hehe

looking forward to blogging more in this place.. since i really cannot do much here..haha..
p.s the isp provider in USM is "penangfon" which uses fibre optics for their cables.. not like the copper wires "erhem" used by "erhem" company.. so it can actually house a massive amount of data transfer.. i checked the download speed and it is 4.69mbps o.o..

oh before i end.. i have a few testimonies to share

1. the day i registered, i got a chinese/kadazan roommate who speaks mandarin (it was arranged beforehand by the uni)

2. he is a Christian and so is my neighbour who is also Chinese and both are my coursemates..

3. managed to know another friend from Sarawak who is also a Christian.. haha.. and also not forgetting the friend i mentioned about in the earlier post..

Overall i thank God for granting me awesome friends whom share the same faith as mine.. we can openly talk bout our faith with each other.. hehe. which is kinda cool =D


thats all for now la..

agape..