Greeting etiquette 101

You’re walking along the corridors of your dorm room and you see someone you know…

Hey [insert name], how are you?

I’m good! How are you?

Good!

or…

Hey how’s it going?

It’s going good! How about you?

It’s going good!

 

You call someone you’re friends with (for whatever reasons)…

Hey, what’s up?

Oh I’m just [insert activity]. What are you up to?

[start real conversation]

You’re in the dining hall and you’re picking out food from the desert station and someone you know comes along…

Dinner

Hey! [insert name].

Hey! [insert other name].

So how was your day?

Oh it was great! I had like two classes. Well actually I had three but the first was like at 9am.

(nods) Yeah early classes suck.

I know. How was your day?

It was ok. I had a chemistry quiz. It sucked.

Aww, that’s too bad…(nods emphatically)

 

Breakfast

Hey.

Hey.

Note: Make sure you sound happy or interested

SNOW

It gets you psyched. Really psyched. For a moment (that is for two or three hours or so), time stopped and all the work that I had in my hands simply disappeared.

The whiteness covering the ground illuminates the night as it calls innocent revelers out to indulge themselves with pure fun 🙂

I’ll have some pictures up soon before it gets warm again on Sunday (12C). Never in my life have I thought that I would consider 12C, warm.

From the other side of the world.

Me: Look at this hilarious video.
Zohar: I don’t understand him.
Me: (laughs)
Zohar: Why are you laughing? You should be sad.
Me: (laughs somewhat more self-consciously)
*silence*

Needless to say, I felt depressed and even more frustrated several minutes after the conversation above. To Malaysians, we have had to tolerate with so much crap from the ruling elite that what was on the video was simply hilarious. Not only was his English indecipherable to non-Malaysians, he did not answer any of the questions and he sounded like a flustered school boy who was caught red handed

My friends here are bemused if not bewildered when I tell them about Malaysia. They find it hard to believe that everything is so racial that even the main political parties are polarized by skin color. They can’t fathom the fact that our skin color can determine where we go to college. And I don’t even want to get started with the ambiguity of the law when it comes to religion and the very existence of faith rehabilitation centers.

Going to the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis taught me one thing. Change takes time. A lot of time. Laws may be passed and rights may be recognized but people are stubborn. Despite our revolutionary technological progress, attitudes and prejudices can be difficult to change especially after years of molding and hardening.

Clearly Malaysia has a long way to go from even changing it’s racial laws and policies. What we need now is a stronger political voice. I’m glad that these rallies happened. It’s a sign that many Malaysians are unhappy and they want things to change so bad that threats and acts of violence against them won’t deter their spirits. But I do not want to see bloodied riots and mass arrests. The government needs to see that suppressing other views and opinions will no longer work. The rakyats are becoming restless.

If it weren’t for the wonderful young Malaysians on the internet writing for a better country, inspiring others, I would have already made my decision to leave. I want to live a life of sincerity and prosperity, not of hypocrisy and fear.

I’m torn.

Back on campus

I’m back with everything piling up on top of me. Exams, assignments, readings, laundry, flight bookings, facebook-ing and news. So much has happened I’m still digesting them. ANOTHER “riot” and Howard’s gone from down under. I have yet to even update myself with the aftermath of the Bersih rally.

Back to work.

Less than three weeks from 90 (American style) degree weather and mouth watering roti canai.

Photo taken from here

Plans, plans and plans.

Long term

I have finally registered for all my classes with minimal complications. And being a pseudo-analytical freak, I decided to draft exactly what classes I will take till Spring 2009 (Summers included). However, after a few minutes of staring thoughtfully at my in depth scribbles, I became slightly annoyed. I’m not getting ahead fast enough even though I’ve planned to take classes for two summers. Thoughts of how am I supposed to become an RA, study abroad at Sweden for a semester and still live off campus in senior year flashed through my mind. I want to apply for RA in junior year, which means I have to study abroad during sophomore year, so that I have a year free to live off-campus and host parties. I don’t know if the last two sentences made any sense, but to put this shortly, my plans are important. Honestly, I’ve almost always had what I wanted, especially if I think about it long enough but unfortunately I have doubts about my plans this time.

Short term

There’s less than 3 days left to the coveted Thanksgiving break! I’ll be volunteering on an ASB trip to Memphis for the first half of the break helping out at the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center, doing good things in the day and being a good ol’ tourist at night. And a week from now, I’ll be in Chicago where the real fun begins. I’m definitely looking forward to Thanksgiving week especially after a very mediocre birthday weekend. Yes, I’m an unsatisfied reveler.

Before the fun begins, I am obligated to decide in a couple of hours if I would want to apply to become a site facilitator on another ASB trip in Spring. Applications are due in 3 days and six essay type questions await me if I decide to do it. It sounds oh so tempting but I suck at writing and there’ll even be an interview! Decisions, decisions…

And another wave of midterms and FINALS are waiting for me after the break.

Then, home 🙂

November Fall

Beautiful yellow tree on campus. It was almost golden.

I was feeling antsy in my room on a Sunday afternoon so I decided to get a smoothie from Smoothie King. To feel a sense of purpose for my journey there (Smoothie King was pretty far), I brought my camera along.

Summer:

Fall:

You can just feel the overall difference in the atmosphere by just comparing these two photos. I’m definitely loving changing seasons.

P/S: Other photos will eventually be posted on my flickr account

Signs that you’re an official college freshman in the US of A

1. Freshman 15 -You gained 15 pounds (around 7 kg) or so
2. You have a stack of unwashed dishes hidden at a corner of your dorm room
3. As November sets in you start to stop showering everyday
4. You can’t imagine a life without Facebook
5. You look forward to weekends when you can get high on life (and other things)
6. Sunday is your homework day
7. You have breakfast at 12 pm on weekends
8. You gasp when you hear someone says that he or she has an 8 am class
9. Your life is dictated by the dining hall’s meal times
10. You do laundry only when you run out of clean underwear or socks

Rebels at heart.

Busy week ahead?

Monday

Larissa’s birthday dinner – 6.30 pm

CHEM102 review session – 7.00 to 9.00pm

Heroes Season 2 – 8.00 to 9.00pm

“Happy Birthday October!” party – 8.00 to 10.00pm

(Notice how everything overlaps)

Tuesday

MATH221 quiz – 3.00 to 4.00pm

PHIL101! (lol.)

GE101 written test – 7.00 to 8.15pm

Wednesday

GE101 Modeling Lab (Inventor tutorials)

CHEM102 hour exam – 5.50 to 6.45pm

Alternative Spring Break Orientation – 7.00 to 9.00pm

Thursday

PHIL101 again! (double lol.)

GE101 – scrambling for extra credits and writing an interim report on the reverse engineering design project (super cool eh)

CHEM103 – laboring on the lab report and pre-lab quiz due tomorrow

Friday

Day starts at 6.50am

CHEM103 – Finding molar mass of but-something (Lab)

Cycling to the Transportation Building to handover homework

Laboring in the gym -ahhhh yess…

Laundry

The weekend better be good.

Regulated doors

Apparently you can’t pull the door open to exit a building in America. Did not know that. Today it took me one attempt to pull one side, another on the other side and a look from my classmate that explains it all to get it. Something to do with safety in an event of an emergency. It makes a hell lot of sense now.

To think that was the gazillionth time I tried pulling a door open (without success).

Oh well.

T.G.I. Friday?

Friday = gym and laundry day lepak day.

This is what happens when you have to wake up at 6.50 am to go for an 8.00 am lab session. Not to mention a chemistry quiz at 12.00 pm.

I’ve taken a nap, read my emails and I’m itching to do something else. I’ve knocked on doors, no one was home (or awake). Well one was but whatever. I went to the front porch, nothing was happening. I even checked “the bench”. Not a soul. I wanted to reply my dear friend’s email but I’m too spaced out to think.

I should be at gym, or doing my laundry. But nah.

So here I am back in my room.

Nasib baik lab is every other week.