Is getting to me fast!
Dang, it's only been 3 days of orientation and I feel so tired already. What did I miss out?? Hmm...
Oh, okay. Gotta recap what happened from Wednesday till Friday first.
Wednesday
First day of orientation!! I was a little nervous (when was I never??) as it was my first step into adulthood... ish. So I just grabbed the most comfortable collared T-shirt I could find, and got my loose hand-me-down jeans and took off to Sunway. I took the bus as Sunway has a shuttle service that goes from Kepong to the university, passing Uptown along the way.
So I left the house with my mom and siblings as they have school in the morning and reached the bus station outside 7 Eleven right at the corner of Uptown. It was 7.00 a.m. but the bus hasn't arrived yet. He said he would be there. Then it was 7.11 a.m. and I called the bus driver as I got jumpy (notice the sheer coincidence of me calling him outside 7 Eleven). He said that he was nearby and true enough, he reached some 40 seconds after he hung up.
I got on board and took out my wallet to pay the driver as I assumed that I have to pay him for the ticket. He just looked sharply at me and pointed his finger while saying in Malay: "You're the one who called right?!". I just nod my head and approached him to pay. He ordered me to take a seat before my fingers could reach for the Ringgit notes. So like an innocent young kid, I quietly took my seat.
After a few stops, we had reached the Kelana Jaya LRT station. Then the driver- Oh! Which I forgot to mention is Mr. Azmi- received another call from a new student at the station. She said that she was INSIDE the building. So Mr. Azmi got a little ticked and raised his voice when on the phone, asking her to exit the place right away. So he had no choice but to hog one of the two lanes. The other drivers weren't happy. Neither was Mr. Azmi.
So we finally reached Sunway some 40 minutes later. I realised that Ai Vee takes the bus as well. It's good to see a familiar face, since I'm so far from most of my old acquaintances. So I went to the registry first to get my offer letter after my transfer. Then I met up with Chris, Azrai and Ai Vee as they take MUFY next door at Monash University. I then asked Ai Vee how she got her bus ticket, as I didn't pay the driver at all. She told me that we had to purchase the ticket BEFOREHAND. So in a sense, I accidentally free-loaded the bus driver. Not a good way to start the day...
Orientation commenced around 9.00 a.m. Danny pulled out as he had a bad fever going on. Well, only the last 40 minutes of the day was fun. Seriously!! The early parts were all boring talks on how we were wise on "investing your future with Sunway". We had a group activity which required lots of teamwork with some 10 people I met in a span of 2 minutes (some hot people though, hormones talking here. Ignore ignore). Well, in the end us Group 2 "Johan"s won. Yea man.
After orientation, I made ammends by buying my first bus ticket for the next day. Then my mom fetched Kevin and I back to Studio 46 and we played some football before Chin brought us to dinner with Henry and a few friends at Fish & Co. in One Utama. Turns out otherwise as there was a large group of friends to celebrate Zee, Sijie, Kai Sheng and my birthday all at one go that night. It was very nice of them, especially the organisers, you know who you are. Thanks so much!! Now if only Ben uploads the photo quickly so that I can post it.
Thursday
IT'S MAH BURFDAE!! I felt no different though... Received a call from Beng exactly at midnight congratulating me. Unfortunately, my brain was on autopilot and I answered almost in a total robotic fashion. Also got a nice hug early in the morning from a dear friend, which cheered me up a lot.
Danny made an effort to come although he had the flu bug going on. He also had some nasty nosebleeds here and there as he sneezed too hard. Very nasty.
Well, the day went by quickly as we had some more activities than talks. We were split into 6 groups and I quickly made friends with Derwinn, Hannah (which were local students), Jane (a student of Korean nationality and the youngest of our program as she's 17), Joanne (a Belgium-Asian mix) and Manjit and his cousin, whose name just escaped me (both who are from Iran, I believe) and Stella, one of the members of the Student Council for ADTP. Then there was a contest. Each group had to build the tallest tower with only the equipment in their bags. We had an umbrella, so we kinda won. And the loser group gets to be punished by us. So Jane made the 6 of them couple up and slow dance. It was hilarious.
Then we had to plan our study schedule as the lecturers distributed the time tables. It was quite nerve racking for me to decide. But eventually, I made my decision. 5 subjects out of the recommended 4, and 15 credit hours to the advised 12. I like a challenge.
Aedes mosquitoes. Kevin had to mutter: "You know, snakes, tigers, lions... etc..." We convinced her shortly after that that Kevin was kidding. And when we had to snap our photos, she had about 8 takes just to get it right as she kept closing her eyes as the flash came. Then we had a long and tiring talk on Thinking Skills. Most of the people left before the talk finished. But they later revealed that we had to sign our names at the end of the session and if we didn't, we had to sit through it AGAIN. So we reluctantly stayed on.
At night, my whole family went to The Curve to celebrate. Me love Sakae Sushi. Mmm. I also happened to bump into Sabr and Atia, the latter who I've never seen in 2 months. We chatted for a while. Then it hit me that I DO speak with an accent when I use proper English. It's freaking me out! Later messaged Beng back on the birthday wish.
Friday
Last day of orientation. Had to study kao kao for the Maths proficiency test early that morning at 9. Then I saw the paper. "Damn! It's like Mrs. Chuah's Add. Maths standard!" I thought. But I did my best and handed the paper in. We later learned that only 10 people had passed and I joined the remaining 20 something people who failed. I passed the English one though, but almost everyone passed it too.
We also had a field trip (FINALLY!!) to the computer lab, CLC 1, and the library. We actually used the Internet for Facebook as we waited for the lecturer. I quickly did so to reply the birthday wishes.
After that, Jane, Derwind, Kevin and I kinda just stoned at the ADTP office, skipping part of the talk We eventually returned to the Multipurpose Hall for the rest of the talk. Then Kevin and I took the bus home. It was raining super-heavily when on the way back. And the worst part was that I spaced out when on the bus so Mr. Azmi skipped my stop and continued all the way till the last stop at Taman Manjalara. He was soooo mad when he saw me still on the bus. And he so kindly sent me home after that. So I owe him BIG TIME. I managed to reach home some 3 hours after leaving Sunway.
Yeap. I guess that's all that I wanted to blog about. Hopefully I can continue doing this when college starts. And I learnt that I'll eventually be so busy, I can't watch football matches and play Fantasy Football next season. Crappo...
Pass The Buck - Stereophonics
