Back from UTP

OK, I know that I have disappeared for a very long time (in fact, for two weeks!) and some of you might be wondering where have I gone. Well, if you'd read my previous posts, you would have known that I've left Ipoh to study in Petronas Technological University (or Universiti Teknologi Petronas, UTP) which is located in Tronoh, about 40 minutes' drive from Ipoh.

I would dearly love to tell you what have I done for the past two weeks, but thinking that this might take a very, very long page, I've decided to just tell you the important parts. On the 14th of January 2006, this was the day when I first stepped into UTP as a university student. My friends and I had to undergo the registration process which was carried out systematically and then in the afternoon we had to attend some briefing.

Oh, I forgot to mention this. We were supposed to attend a week of orientation for new students, a programme that is called Minggu Aluan Siswa, or translated into English would mean New Scholars Welcoming Week. During this week, we had some fun and some "torment" as well. I'll explain later.

The fun part is during the Moral Activities session for the non-Muslim students. This session was held daily at night after dinner. Initially, most of us, if not all, thought that it was going to be a boring session. But we couldn't be any wrong. It was by far the most enjoying session that we'd ever had! Every night there will be games that somehow encouraged us to mix with people of different races, different beliefs and of the opposite gender. These activities enabled us to get to know people even more.

One thing we didn't like was that we were required to sing the UTP and Petronas songs. Let me get this thing straight. I don't mean that we hate the song, we just didn't like about HOW we were suppose to sing them. We were asked to memorise the lyrics (fine with us), sing them with great spirit (that was OK) and sing them loudly (that was not OK!). We were asked to sing till our voices became hoarse; some ended with sore throats. We felt tortured to repeat the songs again and again. Everytime we sang as loud as we could, the facilitators would say, "No! Not loud enough! Louder! Again!" *Groan* Those were some of the worst moments. Nevertheless, we bore them with great patience.

There were plenty of talks, some were plain and humdrum whereas the others were immensely interesting! Also, we had some games for the last few days of orientation. So, generally, it wasn't that bad after all.

On the last day of orientation, which was a Saturday, some of us students, together with some of our close facilitators, planned a trip to Ipoh privately or secretly without the other facilitators knowing. Naturally, I was inclined to follow them, for I wanted to go home and take some extra clothes with me. This I did, and at 6.30 pm, we left Ipoh for Tronoh again and arrived at UTP about two hours later. Then, our facilitators got to know that there will be a closing ceremony at 9 pm so we hurried back to our hostels to put our things down and went to the main hall, just in time for the ceremony. Nobody noticed our absence, which was a great relief.

The next day, be it a Sunday, we had to go for our medical check-up and had our matric cards done. After that, I join a friend to search for our lecture rooms at different blocks. We didn't want to look for our lecture rooms when our term starts! We wouldn't have time to do the searching then.

The first day of lecture was very relaxing. We got to know our lecturers. Some are from Iran, Pakistan, Sudan, Vietnam or even elsewhere while others are of course from Malaysia. Having lectures in UTP aren't the same as having classes in secondary or high school. In high school, you will be given a school timetable which you'll have to follow strictly, but in university, you'll be given a master timetable, whereby you're given the liberty to choose whatever time you like for your classes. The time for lectures are fixed and cannot be changed, but you can set your own time for labs and tutorials. So, there are days when I'll have night classes, and there are also days when my first lecture will only start at 12 noon! On Friday, I've got only ONE lecture from 9.00 to 10.00 am. And then, I'm free to do anything! Marvellous, huh?

Ah, it feels great to be at home again. I've bought myself a new laptop. The brand is Toshiba. I don't know if it is a great laptop or otherwise, but so far I'm satisfied with its performance. I'm currently using this laptop to write this blog entry! Hehe...

I've got a lot of things to do nowadays. Therefore, don't be surprise if my future blog entries are short. Time is gold now. It's time to be extremely serious; no more fooling around!

Here, I'd like to take the opportunity to wish all of you a Happy and Prosperous Chinese New Year!