Saya Perkasa Putra

The killing orientation week has finally ended, as now I am already in the midst of Week 3. Looking back at all the text messages that I received from everybody, especially from my family and my friends, I owed everybody a deep thank you and I do not like to say this but I will have to say it out this time. The support and courage I got from everybody really mean a lot to me! Let me just put it in this way, I will barely survive without all of you, THANK YOU! That just showed how a dreadful and painful freshmen’s week I had to put up.

Probably my hardest time in life is my first week in university. Being away from home is not really a big concern for me. What really freaked me out is the idea of being alone in a total stranger place. Now that is what the whole thing is about. From the north to the south, what a transition. That was the first stumbling block to me as I do not really familiar with places in the south. All the while I am under the perception that places down south are just not that, you know, things at the bottom will simply never make the cut. It just never really interests me. I have been living up at the north since kid and I think things on the top are “good”. The feeling is like when Newcastle United had to travel all the way down south to match against Southampton, and worst of all if the Magpies lose… Ok let us stay on track. It will only be a geographical matter, perhaps I should start to learn seeing and accepting what is around me, who knows when the south of Kuala Lumpur might become a place as beautiful as Southern France? Before that, let me ask you what could you possibly do if given a time frame of 120 minutes? There is a word saying, “Tunggu keretapi bagai tunggu buah yang tidak gugur.” If you have not heard of it, tell the rest that I said this! A half an hour car journey could take up as long as two hours travelling by public transport. I suggest the first thing which should be improved in order for the south of K.L. to become a beautiful place like the Southern France is the public transport system. The next thing on agenda would be the toilets in most of the restaurants in town and followed by the litters and rubbish which can be found easily behind every “lorong” of the restaurants. Ok let us not stray too far away again. So I call this post “Saya Perkasa Putra” because of two reasons. Firstly I am going to share a bit of bits in university life up to this point, and secondly to proudly annonce that I had undergone every single moments (although I am not that certain if I really did) of the orientation week which was named the “Minggu Perkasa Putra”. Say I am great in naming.

Let us kick off with the place which I will be staying for the coming 12 months – the hostel. I can not really afford to say it is “my” hostel, I just can not do it! Terrible experience I had when cleaning the room on the first day. Guess what? There were ants making hell freaking lots of nests under the carpet when I pulled the whole piece of thing up! Seemed like I am the guest now and the ants are the master of the room before my arrival and these tiny creatures were crawling all over my body when I brutally demolish their homes but forgive me I had to. It took me like a month until today to finally call the hostel “my” hostel. After countless times of “home-improvement”, it is starting to give me the feeling of my own “home” (but still, nothing beats the real home). The best “home” feeling is expressed when I go back to my hostel in a worn-out condition, specifically after commuting with the frustrating and time-wasting public transports everytime, I would cool myself down for a moment and then smack my head onto the bed and slumber. I only have to study for four days in a week for the first semester, I managed to make myself free of classes on Friday, which allows me to go home on Thursday night and return to hostel only on Sunday. However after some consideration I decided to join the co-curicullum which falls on every Saturday morning, that means I have to return to hostel on the night before Saturday to attend the activity and go home again right after the activity ends. I am pretty much a frequent traveller now, who is sick of the system of the public transportation. Life outside home has been gradually getting better as time goes on and what I need now is only more and more exploration and experiences which will be beneficial to me and most importantly makes my life easier. There are fully air-conditioned with modern decal tinting campus buses which look like one of the express buses out there moving within the enormous campus areas which I think is five times the size of a TARC. Sounds like “best aje kan?” Anyhow due to the large population of the students, regardless local or international students, there will always be excessive demand for the services of the buses, which are relatively scarce, hence suggesting there is a problem in which we economically call it “shortage”. This problem become prevalent during “peak hours” like in the morning, during lunch and dinner and some other periods which might still be unknown to me yet. Sometimes I would think it is a big problem, but at times I would not. The library in the university is also known as one of the most comprehensive libraries it has to offer in the country. Apparently some RM10 million will be spent to maintain the library anually, although it does not look like a multi-million library to me. It would still be my frequent hangout spot as it is the only place I get connection onto the internet. Yeah I know what you are thinking right now. My hostel claimed there are wireless internet connection within the premise but to my disappointment the signal will be in all-time low and weak, which means I will never get to online from the inside and comfort of my room. Crap. The food is the final part I am going to share with all of you. Alright, I eat Chinese food outside everyday be it lunch or dinner ever since I discovered it and I will never eat Malay food again, unless under unavoidable circumstances. That is it.

A lengthy post this is really. I have been spending the last five days to come out with this post. It is just a co-incidence that this post would be probably be published today (if I can go online which I do not think it is likely going to be) which is my birthday. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all of you who turned up yesterday for my birthday bash. It would be meaningless had it not been your presence. Organizing a celebration is not an easy task, I would like to credit my gratitude to Ms Lim Yi Ning and others who were in part of the planning. I think I will attend Jia’s birthday next year. (Wicked. I got Jia’s text wishing me happy birthday right after I am done with the last sentence.)