Can't sleep

My eyes are tired, but my body isn't. I know I should sleep, but it's the last thing I feel like doing because I have a stomachache now. I've been waiting for the feeling to go away for an hour now!

On a happier note, we've finished up all 13 graphs for our ENL101 group project! Microsoft Excel 2007 is awesome, what with its many different graphs, especially the quirky-looking cones and donuts graphs! The colours are really cool too. :)

Today went well, except for a minor bit of panic that got me all flustered. I got good comments for the SAT "mock test" essay which I wrote last week. It was such a relief. :) After SAT prep class, I headed over to the bakery and met the two Yiings there. I rummaged around my bag for my purse and then realized that I'd left it in the toilet in the Academic Block! ARGH! I was so frustrated and felt like kicking myself. I rushed back to the Academic Block (I even went to the wrong floor in my anxiety) and ran the last 10 metres to the toilet. Fortunately it was still there because I think that no one else had entered the toilet as it's quite isolated, near the Finance Office. FUH. I was so relieved! I was so scared that I won't find it there. My heart was racing and all I could say was, "Please, please, pleaseeeeeee be there.." and it was there! :D

There is still a war raging in my stomach. Oh, is this the repercussion of indulging in a plate of nasi pattaya and an ice-cream for dinner? :( Good thing my class starts at 9 am tomorrow, so I can sleep in a little longer than usual. I guess I'll just read something useful and try to lull myself to sleep.

Goodnight! :)

33 days

I'd just come to realize the fact that I've been here, in INTI-UC, in Nilai, for 33 days. And the fact that I'd completely forgotten about it, if not for someone who mentioned it, surprised me. So, what have I done and learnt in my 33 days here?

Let's see. I managed to fall backwards vertically with the faith that my group members would catch me - which they did, without any injuries, thankfully. Phew. I learnt that even when things seem completely gloomy and not fun at all, you just gotta lighten up and try to get into the mood. Or you can just pretend, and soon enough it'd be real. Because, trust me, it took me a lot to have fun in my first few days here. My moving here was not a very hard task physically and I wasn't feeling homesick, but I was feeling rather detached. Anyway, I got over that and got into the mood of things and enjoyed the orientation, especially the last night when we got to perform our group cheer and our own version of the INTI song. :)

In my first week here, I learnt to sleep as early as 10 pm again (but that didn't last for long, apparently). I learnt to adjust to a new roommate who only gave in to her curiosity and asked me if I'm a Chinese a couple of days after we'd moved in here. I adjusted to having so much more space to myself. I learnt to use a common bathroom (okay, so I had to share with 4 other people, but when there are at least 10 other people waiting, it's a completely different story..) and to live without a microwave (now this is no easy feat) and fridge (another thing I thought I'd NEVER get used to!). I went to the pasar malam by bus for the first time. I boarded the KTM for the first time and alighted frustrated. I learnt that being at KL Sentral can be a scary thing because everyone pushes around like there's a riot. SCARY.

I watched the farewell videos my former hostelmates made for me more times than I can count. And I am still missing them. I learnt to make new friends. I learnt not to be envious when other people get to go home EVERY weekend and make me feel so lonely over the weekend (my neighbor went home yesterday and her dad was waiting for her in the pantry.. aih, wish that was me) but I managed to come to terms with it and realized that hey, staying here isn't too bad. I get some privacy, some me-time, and just time to chill.

I also managed to live without a washing machine and dryer. This is another challenge for me, especially in the beginning, because I'd already gotten so accustomed to doing my laundry every two to three days. I also learnt to live with the fact that I have to pay for every meal that I take. I have met interesting people, made some good friends, hung out with many people, for lunch, dinner, whatever. I've also had more banana moments that I'd had in the past half a year.

Well. What else can I say about my 33 days here? There hasn't been a day that I don't realize how lucky I am to be here. But there hasn't been a day that I haven't thought of home, that I haven't thought of McNair. Sometimes I wish so badly that I'm either in my own comfy bed at home or lying on the lumpy bed in Room 103 because I miss that sense of familiarity. Many a times, I catch a glimpse of a big bunch of people hanging out together, and I feel a twinge of yearning for that. Many a times, I look at my books and remind myself that I have to keep my fighting spirit strong. Sometimes I have to tell myself not to doubt, but to trust. Trust that it will all work out. Trust that I will get where I want to be.

So.. that's my 33 days, encapsulated in whatever I think stood out in those days. I've got 16 more days before stepping into my own home, and frankly, I'm anticipating it as much as I'd anticipated my first trip home from Singapore. I just wish that Kuching is as near to Nilai as KL is. But, well, sometimes we just gotta suck it up and live with it, huh? At least I get to fly back home for the breaks. I don't feel very homesick; I just want to be somewhere familiar.

I guess sometimes we just have to pep-talk ourselves through until we clear the hurdles ahead.

I'd been trying to remember the Bible verse on the wall of the CC in SA for quite a while now, and while I was flipping through the Bible just now, it suddenly struck me - Isaiah 40:31 - But those who trust in the Lord for help will find their strength renewed. They will rise on wings like eagles; they will run and not get weary; they will walk and not grow weak.

16 days. I shall wait patiently.

Alive and kickin'

I am so glad that I can finally eat normal food! No more porridge for me! :D It was fun having dinner in the bakery with the girls again after my miserable one-week hiatus during which I ate in my own company only. Haha.. how pathetic is that. :p I celebrated my freedom to revert back to my normal menu by eating nasi pattaya. I loveeee. And then I lau sai-ed. Alamak. It's that conditioning response again. *sigh* Feeling a lot better now, though, so no biggie. :)

Had Econs class first thing in the morning. It wasn't freezing cold in the classroom for the first time - yay! Went to print out 24 sets of our ENL101 questionnaire after that and then bought wantan mee for lunch. I ate my lunch at 10.30 am. :p Had to have some bread with peanut butter before my SAT (Verbal) class at 4 pm. We had an essay test. We were given 25 minutes, the standard time frame to write an SAT essay, to write on complaining. I was a little dumbfounded when I first read the essay prompt, but then began working on my introduction after a little thinking. I managed to finish my essay, complete with two elaborated examples. I just hope that I hit the right things and did well for a first draft. *cross fingers*

I got 8 persons to complete my share of the questionnaire already! So relieved to get it over and done with - now I just have to wait for the two guys to complete their share and then we can begin analyzing the results to write up our report. Soon I have to start working on the Psychology questionnaire too because our lecturer accepted our proposal and gave us the green light to proceed. I was worried that he might disagree with our proposal or ask us to make major amendments, but he replied my e-mail saying that it is good and he said to proceed with the project. :)

Wednesday is a public holiday, which means NO CLASSES! There are plans of going to KL to catch The Dark Knight. Oh, boy. I was planning on a one-day mugging session because I've got my first Psychology test on Friday. Scary wei. :/ In case we are really going to KL on Wednesday, I'd better make full use of tonight and whatever free time I have tomorrow to mug for the test. Fuh.

In case you miss me too much, here is a photo I took with Wendy on the night before I fell sick. I was wearing my pink Stickman Saints shirt! :)

I was looking forward to meeting up with Denise and Ji Ding this weekend as I'll be free from 12 pm on Friday. I thought maybe I could take the INTI bus with Wei Yiing to Subang Jaya on Friday evening, but apparently luck isn't on our side this time. I'll have to wait another day to meet them. :( Oh, well.

Back to my SAT and Psychology books. Have a wonderful evening, y'all. :)

Quite a day

It is now 2.17 am. I just went to the toilet a minute ago to find that there are two other rooms on this floor which have the lights on. And there are a few girls on the third floor who are outside of the rooms. A quick check of the neighboring blocks revealed more lit rooms. Great. More nocturnal creatures - I suppose another reason why some people say that college life rocks. Does it? Go figure.

I'd had a long day. Wendy and I boarded the bus only to wind up at the KTM station when we actually intended to go to Giant. We missed the stop because we didn't know which one it was. We managed to alight at the correct stop the second time around, though. We almost got lost again - on foot. We walked in the direction which the Giant signboard indicated, only to stop halfway, because we realized that we were walking towards nothing but some trees. We turned back to the roundabout and decided to head towards the direction which pointed to INTI International UC. We saw a couple carrying Giant plastic bags walking towards us. Wendy asked for directions and we were happy to discover that we were on the right track. About a few hundred metres into it, I saw Allson Klana Hotel looming ahead and my heart immediately lifted because then I knew that we were approaching Giant. Anyway, we spent a long time in Giant after we had lunch at Uncle John. I had sizzling plate Cantonese yee mee for RM 5.80, my first real meal in 5 days! It wasn't very filling, though. (I got hungry at 7 pm when I ate my lunch at approximately 2.40 pm!)

My four bags worth of groceries cost me RM112.04. According to my receipt, I bought a total of 17 items - Oral-B toothbrush (my old one was all out of shape already), some round plastic hanger with clips, two tubes (for the Padini sweater which got a little out of shape and formed its own plunging neckline while it was drying.. Ish!), some toiletries, some packet tissues, a plastic container (for storing biscuits), Dynamo detergent, toilet paper rolls (ohhhhhh, I despise the fact that I must buy my own TP rolls! They're costly la wei..), Skippy peanut butter (finally, something other than my Smuckers sugar-free jam! Don't get me wrong - I still love Smuckers!), a bottle of honey (to soothe the throat and to follow Mummy's advice la.. hehe), Jacob's Crak's crackers (it's been soooooo long since I had this wonderful thing!), a pack of 20 sticks of Milo Fuze 3-in-1, a loaf of bread, Julie's peanut butter biscuits (packed ones for me to bring to classes), and Ping Pong Flying Fish biscuits. Okay, so the Crak's and the Flying Fish biscuits are treats for myself. I miss eating the fish biscuit! It reminds me so much of my childhood days. :) Although I'm pretty sure they were not called Flying Fish years ago, and the packaging was a whole lot different. :P Anyway, how can all those total up to RM112.04?! Heh. Trust me to go mad at Giant. *sigh* I'm such a supermarket junkie. (Ji Ding can testify to that.. Now Wendy can too.. Haha!) We took a cab back because there was no way we could have lugged all our buys onto the bus and off it AND walk all the way to the top floor of Block S. :P

Before dinner, I made a list of things to do tonight, okay, last night. I had 13 things on the list. So far, I've only managed to cross out two things - washing and ironing my clothes. I was about to cross out another one - edit ENL101 questionnaire layout - when I was distracted by the McNairians who congregated in the canteen and were sending me weird messages (Chan, I hold true to what I said.. haha! AND WHY DIDN'T ANYONE HELP ME WITH MY CALCULUS QUESTION?! SCHOLARS!! Hahaha!) while I was talking to Wendy who was in my room to study. There went all my mugging intentions.

After our short chat, I SMS-ed Shing Yee. She called me after that and we ended up talking for a total of 1 hour and 15 minutes. This was the first time that we had spoken on the phone to each other only, and already we took up so much time! She called me at around 12.20 pm, so you can figure out what time we hung up. Anyway, it was so great to be able to chat with her again after so long. *sigh* I know, I've left McNair for only a month now, but sometimes it feels like I'd never left the place. When they chat with me while they're all in the canteen, I can envision myself sitting there with them, my things strewn across the whole table and my legs crossed on the chair.

Shing Yee, I'm so glad we could talk. I needed to talk to someone familiar to let things off my chest. Although I'm not there anymore, I feel as if we are still roommates. I guess it'll take time for me to adjust to not having you all as my roommates anymore. It still feels funny sometimes how I say goodnight and there is only one person responding, not a scatter of goodnights. It was really nice to hear a voice which I'd been used to hearing every day and night. When you told me that you were at the pond, it reminded me so much of the times by the pool. I wish I can do the same here too, but I can't. I wish I can hang out in the canteen and mug with the aid of hot Milo and sinful potato crackers, but I have to make do with my own company and some music when I mug. It's almost as if Room 103 has created an ideal for me. It wasn't everything I'd hoped for facility-wise, but the company was more than I could ask for. Now that I'm not part of Room 103 anymore and I've moved on, I have to learn to adapt to the new environment and appreciate the fact that I got to enjoy my ideal and how it was awesome while it lasted. I'm really looking forward to the day we can meet up. :)

I aim to cross off at least 5 more items off my to-do list before I sleep. I think I'm going to tackle my ENL101 assignment and questionnaire first. At the rate I'm going, I think I'll be sleeping at 4 am or so. I'm gonna need biscuits to sustain me - my stomach is grumbling already.. Hehe..

It is now 2.54 am. Have an awesome Sunday! :)

Brain freeze

I think the picture is self-explanatory.

I thought I had brain freeze in Econs class - and that was around 12 to 2 pm! The right side of my nose hurt every time I breathed in the extremely cold air. Maybe the class wasn't that cold because most of those who sat directly under the air-con vents did not even wear jackets, but I was practically trying not to tear my jacket pockets by not jamming my hands too far in. I ended up slouching in my seat trying to will myself to forget the cold and concentrate. Once in a while, I had to press my fingers against my nose so that the pain would stop. Applying pressure on it then made the tap start leaking a bit. Aiyooooooooo! Frust betul!

Anyway, I was glad that my classes ended at 2 pm today because I had a ton of clothes to wash. The washing machine and dryer have been installed in my block - on the first floor! - but I think I'll just keep on hand washing my clothes whenever I can. It costs RM2.50 for 45 minutes of drying. Back in McNair, I used to dry my clothes for at least 1.5 hours - that would cost me RM5 here! I think I'd rather wash my clothes by hand and let them dry the good old-fashioned way.

I just bought a new bottle of Woods'. Today is officially my fourth day of pumping medicine into my system. Oh, and I had chicken porridge again for lunch! Yay. I'm gonna head to the dining hall to buy it again later for dinner. It's like I'm on an involuntary crash diet. Oh, I MUST say here - I NEED AT LEAST ONE NEW PAIR OF JEANS. I can't live in just one pair almost every day (skirts are out of the question when my body temperature is still crazy like it is right now)!

I just took my body temperature and the thermometer read 37.1 degrees Celcius which is just perfectly normal body temperature. (Yes, I even have a thermometer with me. We were all given one in McNair as part of the scholars' welcome package or something.. Anyway, it comes in handy!) But my hands and feet are constantly cold. Usually I start feeling warm after walking outside for a while, but now even when I'm walking under the sun, my fingers still feel cold and I don't feel like taking off my jacket. Plus, all the mucus won't come out. This bug is evil la. =____________="

I missed yesterday's Golden Lecturer Award because I was too tired to care about anything but my sleep. I haven't been eating lunch OR dinner with anyone since Monday night AND I'm gonna miss another dinner outside tonight. *sigh* Must get over this very irritating and troublesome bout of illness. :(

Time to hit the books now!

Err.. what's that again?

These big words are driving me nuts. No, scratch that, not the big words themselves. It's the way people use them. I've never been a big fan of bombastic words because I am oh-so-afraid that I might use them in a completely inappropriate context, which will only lead to very unnecessary mortification (oh, is that a big word?). Sure, sometimes I look up a word that I think might be a little "big" and "deep" but can be used in my writing, but I very rarely dare to throw in a flowery word without knowing very well how to use it.

Ever since we discovered that we would now have to eat, live and breathe the SAT (reminds me of footie fever), we've been gobbling and digesting words like there's no tomorrow (hehe.. I'm just exaggerating la, okay?). But I seriously do not use them in my writing - yet, maybe. Maybe over time when I'm more familiar with the words and usage, I will. But for now, how can I incorporate words like sagacity, munificence, harangue, morass, - and the list goes on and on - in my daily writing? I think I'd go nuts.

But what really makes me feel like banging my head on the wall is seeing the unnecessary use of these words when they're completely out of context - in just about every other sentence at that!

I know that I am not in a position to pass judgment. I'm not a walking dictionary and I rely on a very funny method to check my work when it comes to the language aspect of it. What I do is read out the sentences in my mind and try to pick up on anything that 'sounds' or just feels wrong. I know it is not an error-free technique. I know that it is not 100% reliable because.. well, it's just my instinct! But how can I explain that to someone who asks me how to use past participles or perfect present tense properly? I don't even know what are past participles, present perfect tense and all that jazz!

Sometimes I feel so inadequate when someone asks me about all these things because when they do, all I can do is scrunch my forehead, wait for them to finish their so very urgent question and then I'd deliver my anticlimatic line: "Can you just read the sentence itself? I'm clueless about [insert cheem word here - participles and all that]" But that's just me. Is it wrong for me not to know all those things? Maybe, because I've been told that to master the language, you need to know them. But sometimes I feel frustrated because I do know how to use them, but I don't know exactly what they are.

So there, my two cents on the super cheem, the super bombastic, and the random things in language that I am ignorant of.

On a totally unrelated note, I am still sick. I am sitting in front of my laptop with my face tilted up so that the cold towel on my forehead will not slip off. I woke up this morning feeling cold. I felt a little better after my hot shower, and I took Nurofen and Woods' but things didn't seem so good while I was walking to class. I think what made me feel so terrible was the mucus that was all jammed up in my nasal cavity. My first lesson today was TOEFL. I forgot to bring my jacket and spent the last 30 minutes jamming my hands into my pockets to stop myself from freezing. Plus, I just had to have a leaking tap! It all started last night during my Psychology group meeting in the Newton block's common room. There were so many people there and it wasn't even a cold night, but somehow I felt so cold there and started sniffling after the first hour there. And as always, with the leaking tap came a dull ache in my temples. *sigh*

After my TOEFL class, I headed down to the AUP office to confirm the holiday period. Seems like I'm looking at a very late night flight on 18 August back to Kuching or an early flight on the next day. I swung by the dining hall to buy my daily pack of chicken porridge, got back to the room, got cleaned up, turned on my laptop, poured the porridge into my microwavable Tupperware, and proceeded to eat my lunch (yes, before 10.30 am) while watching Episode 4 of Grey's Anatomy Season 4. *happy sigh* Hehe.. After that I took a power nap and then did my Calculus assignment on the bed. My Calculus class began at 2 pm, and my condition was only slightly better at the beginning. My throat is healing now but my voice is still hoarse and tends to go really off-pitch after a while. Malu eh. :P But now I've got to handle my sometimes-leaking, sometimes-blocked tap and my fluctuating body temperature.

*sigh*

It's times like these that I wish I'm back home where I can mope around in the living room all day and have hot chicken soup for lunch and dinner instead of chicken porridge for every meal for 3 consecutive days. But it's okay. I'm dealing with it all the same. I got through that horrible shingles period before, I'll get through this bout of illness now, chicken porridge or not. I can feel the weight melting away already! :P But it isn't fun at all having to go through this just to lose a kilo or two. :(

Time to read some more BIG WORDS and do some revision, and then I'll turn in for the night. Ah, my precious sleep.. I can sleep in up to 8 am tomorrow because my Calculus class starts at 10 am! :D I'm hoping to sleep after my Econs class which ends at 2 pm too. I managed to snooze soundly for about 2 hours just now and it helped refresh me a bit, so I guess sleeping really does help. :)

G'night, everyone. :)

Survey

This has to be one of the best self-surveys I've ever taken! =p You can try it too, here.

I'm going through various websites in hopes of finding inspiration for our Psychology project. I'm meeting up with my group tonight for a discussion. So far we have a few topics to choose from, but maybe it is better to bring a few other new topics to the table for us to talk through them. I happened to stumble upon that website up there and couldn't resist taking the test. =p

Craving a little something..

I've been craving chocolates for a couple of days now. I've never craved for chocolates to the extent that I can practically taste the chocolate melting in my mouth! Aiyo.. I think I just miss eating proper, home-cooked food, so I guess that's why I'm craving some sort of comfort food. So what did I do? After having a scrumptious meal of a plate of nasi goreng ayam and a basket of fries at the mamak outside the college, I stopped by the convenience store to grab a bar of chocolate. I got Cadbury's Hazelnut chocolate. *drools*

On a totally unrelated note, I had a terrible ache on my right temple not even an hour into my TOEFL lesson today. The more the lecturer spoke, the more it hurt. I was afraid that I was getting a nose block, because sometimes when my nose becomes blocked, I get headaches. After a lot of frustration and trying not to doze off (found myself cross-eyed several times because the pain was getting so bad I couldn't help but feel like closing my eyes), I gave in and took Panadeine when we were given a short break after the first hour. I thought I'd better go back to my room at 10 am after my TOEFL class ended so that I could sleep for another hour or two because my next class, Calculus I, would only start at 2 pm. But feeling slightly better after the lesson ended, I made my way to the library which is just one flight of stairs down from my classroom this morning and it POURED. That made me decide to just keep myself holed up in the library. I didn't want to walk back to the room when it was pouring so heavily. I stayed in the library for 2 hours until my fingernails turned a sickening bluish-purple. I was so freaked out when I examined my nails because the last time they looked like that was when I was a couple of hours away from being operated on the operation table in Normah in 2005. *shudders*

I've got work waiting to be done. Won't be turning in too early tonight because my first class only starts at 10 am tomorrow. Hehe.. Okay la. Toodles.