Finally, I made the decision to accept the offer to read science in UM.
Where should I begin with? The first day was much akin a nightmare for me. Upon arrival at the college (hostel), I was stunned or rather upset by its condition- old, dirty, gloomy.Totally an uncomfortable and not condusive environment for studying. I didn't like it at all and how I wished that I could leave immediately. Which freshie didn't?
Another thing was the stern-looking seniors or pembantu mahasiswa (PM) to be precise. None of them looked friendly or as Calvin said, they purposely put up a cool face?
After cleaning the room and unpacking my things, Shenyang came over. Then, we had our very first lunch together in the dewan makan. Fried ricwe with chicken, not bad, I thought. FYI, we are charged RM10 per day, a difference of RM3.50 compared to other hostels as meals are provided, 3 times a day. So this should give u an impression of how the food is.
The haluansiswa (orientation) kicked off with the PMs introducing themselves and reminding us how great it was to enter UM (that was before its #1 uni in Malaysia status took over by UKM). We were given a polo tee and a tee which we wore for the whole week, without being washed!
On average I only slept for less than 3 hours everyday. Our timetables were packed with activities. No free time for suka-suka or tak buat apa-apa. Some ended as late as 12.00 a.m. Plus the time to gather everyone and walked back to hostel, together,then, waited for everyone to settle down took at least 1 hour. After that, the PM will either nag or scold us. That took away another 1 hour. Cheer practices took another 1-2 hours. What's left for us? And we needed to wake up and gathered as early as 6 am after that for senaman pagi.
During meal time, we were ordered to eat with our hands, no fork and spoon! Big trouble for me since I'm not used to that. I have no choice but to skip the first few meals and ate biscuits instead. Besides, sardin and kubis masak ikan bilis (yg tak masak) werent that appetizing anyway.
We had to attend numerous talk, speeches, sesi bersama tetamu khas, from the one by our own pengetua kolej kediaman till by some ministers, with their pidato-s. Well, imagine that you was so sleepy and it was so comfortable inside the DTC, yet you can't do so, either risking the fact that you might be on air and watched by everyone scolded by the PMs. The rest were chit chatting or sms-ing, some wondering "bila lah dia nak berhenti ni?".
Filling PTPTN form session was the worse amongst the activities conducted. It was pathetic. Thanks to the few PMs who themselves are confused and bad tempered, as well as those with incomplete documents and asked stupid questions. It was totally a mess.
One interesting part was the tradition of sub/sorak (cheer) other colleges. I must said we were lucky as we weren't tortured i.e. practice till late at night and our cheers were kinda short. Thus, not impressive at all and we really takut kena boo lah. Thank god we didn't end up at the last place. Who would forget "lu shin chan" or "wuak terlentang"? <-- what's that by the way? (which Calvin commented was pretty disgusting)
For all the formal functions that took place in DTC or sports event at the field, we walked down together. Walking under the blazzing sun is not enough, we must wore the cap to show uniformity<-- crap lah. Once while waiting for everyone to get ready, I took off my cap for a while because of the poor ventilation in dewan makan and my cell-leader ( you-know-who) was quick to notice and teased me "I tau la rambut u tu cantik, but tolong lah pakai topi, nanti kena marah". Speechless.
In UM, we need to register the courses by ourself which means that we can arrange own timetable. However, it was based on first come first serve basis. The day when we rushed down to the computer lab in library was unforgettable. The PM afraid that we might late and did not get what we want. Luckily most of us got what we wanted.
Throughout the whole week, I made alot new friends from all over Malaysia and coincidently we were "connected" to one another. I would have ended up in the same hostel with my ex-best friend from primary school if he accepted the offer. Chee Beng, Wai Chung's best friend whom I met before, once, was there too, though it took me few conversations to realise he's the one. Wei Lun from neighbouring Dato Lokman was Muh Tyng's primary school friends and he knew Shin Yie from NS. What a small world we live in~!!
The best-of-all was the closing ceremony. I was glad that it will finally end. Thanks to Adam, the kaki clubbing who became so excited, I was pulled into the water, cheering, singing and shouting with them, along with Tze Kui, while others were sleeping! A sign of relief when my college didn't get the last place for overall performances throughout the haluansiswa week.
No doubt, it was tiring. Personally, it was bittersweet. Some might think that was the worst week of their life but I believed all of us would agree it was memorable. Like what out PMs said, once a lifetime experience. Nevertheless, we learnt alot from this gruelling, unforgettable yet enjoyable one week.
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