Trip home....finally i'm home..

Today I decided to go home as soon as possible. After class, I went back and pack my stuff. I think I pack too much. I thought of going back tomorrow on Friday but it seems I can't wait. I'm so anxious to go home. Might as well go home today. Together with two friends i am travelling with....those two are a couple from Penang....so I tagged along being their third wheel and travel to Kangar by our UniMAP shuttle bus. Waited for the shuttle bus that arrived at 2.40p.m. and reaching Kangar at 3pm. When we reached there, the ticket counter said there was no bus. Do you know how troublesome this festive season is? First, we can't buy our tickets earlier to go home and have to buy on the spot to go home and now there were no buses home because of not enough of buses. I end up taking a bus to Alor Setar 1st and then taking a bus from Alor Setar to Butterworth. The bus to Alor Setar was so crowded and the ticket price has risen because of Raya....RM5.30. Luckily I got a place to seat courtesy of my friend reserving a place for me. I reach Alor Setar in 1 hour and a half....the bus was stopping in a few bus stops and well it was crowded. Then when we reached Alor Setar we have to buy another ticket and stand in queue. The price is RM 9.80. It's more expensive than going straight home but what to do....I wanted to go home badly....haha...actually not really. It's just that I felt why waste my time there when I can go home. Besides there might be no ticket tomorrow also due to more students going home also. If we had the chance to go home then we should haha...after all the classes have been canceled (I planned to skip a class...shhhh don't tell my mom..besides the teacher might have canceled it by the time I reached home...actually she did only after I reached home...it figures haha..luckily I took a risk)

The bus from Alor Setar to Butterworth was bad. I sat at the last seat at the back of the bus and it was humid there. For 1 and a half hours, I was sweating like in hell...haha. Couldn't even sleep as it was too hot. The price I pay to get home early. It was worth it though..haha. By the way, I took a big backpack home and a big traveling bag while my friend, she just took home a backpack and a laptop bag. Mine was heavy but I guess I kind of get use to it already. We were lucky we managed to catch a ferry waiting there. I practically carry my luggage and ran to the ferry. It was crazy but i was too excited to go home. My friend even said finally we are reaching home....haha...3 hours seems like forever. We reached Penang Island around 6.45p.m. It's so nice to be home. I LOVE Home!!! Home is the best...Penang I LOVE U!! Hahaha...

P.S: Sorry Ting, didn't mean to rub salt into your wounds....I know you miss home...hahaha

HaPPy BiRTHDay To ME!!!

To my dearest beloved self, Happy 20th Birthday. It really seems like it was just not long ago that we celebrated our 1st birthday or our 7th birthday and even the 16th birthday. Time flies by in a glimpse. Next thing I know I'll probably celebrating our 40th birthday. But we will never know until the time comes....do we?? Can we live till we are forty or seventy or even ninety perhaps??

This year's birthday makes me think a lot. Did all those years really past by already? Have I achieve anything in life yet? Age is just a number people say....maybe it is but did you celebrate your birthday every year and thought about what you want in life and how you want to spend it? The numbers keep going up and is never going back down. Time doesn't stop for anyone.

I was happy indeed this year when my best friends celebrated my birthday with me even if it's a day early...haha...(Will post that up soon) I'm happy too that new friends I meet in university also celebrated my birthday for me. I'm delighted too that there were many people wishing me Happy Birthday. I think this year is the year the most people wished me happy birthday. Whether it was a sms, an email, a FaceBook message, a call and face-to-face greeting, I thank all of you for making happy with all your wishes. But somehow, when I got into the bus back to Perlis after spending 2 days at home with friends and family, I felt melancholic. To think that I spend half of my actual birthday sitting on a bus back to Perlis. I sat on the bus feeling really lonely and when I reach Perlis I find myself thinking of Penang. I miss all of them so much suddenly....my family back at home and the Kiddies. Does getting older make you more emotional?? Hahaha.....I think I felt that way. I was seriously for a moment thinking I just want to go home and give my mom a big hug and say I don't want to go back to uni. Look at me....I'm 20 years old already and I'm behaving just like a kid. Sobbing away and missing my mama....haha.

I have to admit I don't want to grow up. Kids wants to grow older and adults want to grow back into kids....haha. I miss those primary school times or high school where we seems to live life so carefree....I guess I have to understand growing up is a phase in life that everyone have to go through. I just want to say I love all of you back at home and the Kiddies wherever you all are.
I don't want to be someone in the future who suddenly think back and regret not saying I LOVE YOU to all my love ones. So Happy Birthday to me and may everyone be happy as the all should be....

More photos of Pesta tanglung aka Mooncake Festival

Mamma Mia....

Movie Review
Must watch. Really nice. If you are an ABBA fan then you will surely like this. I'm not going to ruin anything for you so I'm just going to say there is a lot of ABBA's hits in it and well the characters sure portray each song real well. The songs makes you want to stand up and dance and sing along. Songs like Mamma Mia, Dancing Queen, Take A Chance, Chiquitita, Winner Takes It All, and lots more. The story is about a girl who wants to know who her real father really is before she gets married. So she send wedding invitations to three potential dads. Her mom didn't know about it and well this creates a lots of problems. This story is about the journey to find true self and what you want the most in life. To share your life with your family and to live freely. The song are sang with emotions. You will surely laugh, smile and cry your way through the movie. The scenery and the cast will make you smile and laugh. Mamma Mia....bye bye doesn't mean forever....

PS: Happy Birthday To Me!!!! haha....
I'm so happy this year....a lot of people wished me Happy Birthday......
Thank you everyone.....

(Disclaimer: Pictures from Universal)

Mid-Autumn Festival

I have so much to write about lately but I’m just too lazy… (Gosh, that rhymes haha) I think I’ll separate all of this into a few posts. First is the pesta tanglung. The pre-night and the pesta tanglung. The pre-night was held at the Wang Ulu tent. There were quizzes….you know like riddles on the lantern and you have to guess the answers. Then you’ll get a prize. For 10 questions you solve you get a pack of sweets. I solve like 40…sadly they only give 1 pack to those who solved whether it is 10 or 40 unless you guess a lot of them correctly and win the 10 big prizes which are hampers. Then there were stall games. This is some sort like a fun fair. It was kind of fun although I didn’t go and join in any games except the riddles one. I took a few photos of the night.The actual night was held at Dewan Kapitol on 14 September 2008 at (pm. I had to go at 6pm when the thing is actually starting at 9. I handed out sweets to little kids that came to watch the Mooncake Festival thing held by UniMAP. The show was not bad. Some of the performances were actually pretty good. There was the drama about Chang Er and Wu kang which I thought was super hilarious. The hand-sign song performance was good. It was something special I felt. The Chinese dance was okay but I think I’ve seen much better ones that I didn’t like it much. Hip-hop dances and modern dance was okay only. I’m not saying they are bad because they actually are pretty good in moves…very smooth and all but some are uncoordinated and messy so it turn out quite weird. Indian dance wasn’t traditional but people had a great time clapping to the song. I’m critical I know. I mean you would be thinking…”What does this girl know about perfoming…she isn’t even performing or anything” But believe me when I say I have seen much better ones I can’t help myself to critise this. The song singing was okay. One thing I strongly dislike about is the emcees on that day. Frankly speaking, they really were bad at the jobs. Especially the female ones. There were 4 of them; two male and 2 female. They converse in Chinese and English. Their English I must say was bad. Especially the female ones. There were 4 of them; two male and 2 female. They conversed in Chinese and English. Their English I must say was bad. The female emcees’ English was horrible. There was a part when they were explaining about mooncakes and it was really bad. Their English was not only broken English it was also pronounce very badly. Not that my English is very good but seriously I find myself very annoyed and ashamed of the standard of English my fellow Chinese people have here in UniMAP. I mean I’m maybe being a hypocrite and criticising the standard the level of English here. Didn’t we all go through the MUET? Why is the level of English still so low? I guess I’m lucky to used to be in an English school in Penang. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m underestimating those in Chinese schools….some of them have seriously better English than me sometimes. I’m not proud of not being able to write or speak my own mother tongue fluently but I wouldn’t exchange my so-called English roots (by saying this meaning I'm not fluent or good in Chinese) for anything else. I’m always proud to be a Georgian despite all the misgivings I find the school sometimes did. I find myself wondering what would have happen to me if I didn’t study in SGGS. SGGS is the best school ever. Georgians ROCK!!!! They should have seen what our school emcees can do. Thus saying that, I shall say, they should have find a better emcee next time. (This author would refrain herself from saying more about the emcees because she don’t think she has the guts to stand up stage and speak to the audiences so she will shut up for now) Overall, I’ll give the show a 7 because I simply believe it can be done better. The PT thingy end at 12 something in the morning I have classes in the morning. Makes me so tired the next day although I did nothing much that day. Haha…thus end the PT and I took home some souvenirs courtesy of the souvenir department head Ken. The souvenir were handmade by us. It was just a token of gift to the VIPs that came. So that all this time. I shall write another post and update you on my experiences in UNIMAP.

PTPTN Craze....

(The queue....)

(See the time....I only manage to get things done at 9pm)

This happened weeks ago....on 15th August 2008. The PTPTN officers came to my uni to collect the PTPTN forms. It was on a Friday and it being the day before the semester breaks starts worsen the whole situation. Everyone was anxious to get this PTPTN stuff done and go home. There was like almost 1000 UniMAP students passing up the form....Of course everyone wants to pass up their form as this means we will get our student loan from the government and have money to spend. (By the way, PTPTN means Perbadanan Tabung Pendidikan Tinggi Nasional or National Education Loan scheme) The PTPTN officers had to give up numbers just to keep us in order. The collection started at 9a.m. but I had a class till 11a.m. so I went there around 11.30. By then, the numbers were already given all out...it was only like 300 something numbers so we had to wait for the next 300. There were still like super many people there. I had to wait till 6 something for the next numbers. Can you imagine sitting under a tent built for this occasion under the bloody hot hot sun. I went for lunch sat around in my friend's house in Kampung Wai (Loo Wen's house) and went back to sit in the tent went she leave for Penang. She got to go home like around 4p.m. and me still stuck there waiting for the PTPTN thingy.

It was finally around 5 something. The numbers were soon to be out.....everyone was like anxiously waiting for the numbers when suddenly........SNAP!!! Students were rushing in front, pushing around and pushing. The officers were shocked and very angry at our behaviour. They almost didn't want to give the numbers out. No one wants to give way including me of course....I mean who would if you have already like spend hours waiting for this thing to be done and then ask to leave because you didn't get a bloody number. The officers finally announced that today they will attend to the students living in Wang Ulu first which was where I live. There was a huge uproar among the students living in Kampung Wai...the officer said we live further away and tomorrow there won't be much buses for us to ride as the convocation is tomorrow and the buses will be busy fetching students to convo which was reasonable enough. Some student even tried to pretend they are living in Wang Ulu just to get a number. Can I blame them??? After all, I myself think it is not fair for those who were earlier than me and didn't get a number. Do you think it was fair?? The world isn't fair after all....:-P

Even after all the announcement of students from Wang Ulu getting to go first, there were still a bit of pushing around but I manage to stand like really in front of the queue. Some students went to say that they have already bought tickets back this night and if they didn't get a number how are they going back? The way they said it makes the officers really mad. The officers scolded them but he eventually gave them the numbers first even before mine. I was at the front okay....My opinion is you already know you're doing this PTPTN loan stuff so don't buy today's ticket. I myself bought the tickets to go home the next day because I know this will take time. I understand why the officers gave them the numbers though. The tickets do cost a lot of money and these officers are not inhuman after all, they understand. They were also working hard to get this done. They want to go home too.

It was like 8 something at night when I FINALLY get the PTPTN loan done. I waited and waited and eventually it was my turn and everything turn out well. Okay maybe the journey towards getting a loan there wasn't well. Do you know something.....I found out I lost a piece of the PTPTN paper and I couldn't find a place to print a new one....I freaked out really...after waiting for so long I have to lose a bloody piece of paper. Luckily with help from my friend's cousin and his friends, I manage to get everything done. That took like 2 hours and that was in between the time before they call out the numbers. I didn't even had dinner that day because I was so caught up with the whole thing. It was suffering if you must know. When everything was finally finish I had to let out a long long sighhhhhh......such red tape situation (Hui Ping you know what I mean right...haha)

I can't believe how human beings can change when the situation gets to that point. Eventually, I think you'll realise everyone is selfish in a way....we want to get what is best for us and will stop at nothing to get this things done. Maybe not everyone will do that but sometimes you don't realise that you are acting selfishly and that's where your friends and family come in, to help you bcome more humane and behave as morally as possible. Without them, I guess everyone wouldn't have emotion and will only listen to your brain and not the heart. Sometimes, listen to your heart as it will show you what is really right and what is really wrong.....

I'm getting philosphical here so I'm going to lighten the mood by saying...I GOT IT!!!! I got the loan and now I finally have money to spend on my education and of course have some fun....haha
Guten Tag everyone and hope I will be back to see you Kiddies soon....

How I spend my holidays in Penang.

(Elora, Mei Ling and Hui Ping)
(Jolyn and Me)

One week.....7 days.....168 hours....Well it is actually a bit more than that...

Do you know what I did all that time....I spend it sleeping, eating, shopping, watching TV, playing computer games and surfing the net....All of the things I did wasn't at all benefiting to my studies. I didn't even revise or do my assignments. I even have a test after the holidays...don't know when though the teacher didn't say when. I feel guilty but I don't have regrets....can you blame me???? It's been so long since I have a chance to have such a break.....I had fun this week....I felt it has passed by too fast.....

(Juin's laptop...nice right)

(Scruffy.....Ju's cute dog)

(He doesn't want me to take a nice pic)
(A candid shot)
Well, I spend most of the time watching Olympics 2008....it was fun....I really admire those athletes doing their best to win. It was a pretty exciting OlympicsThen the rest of the time is divide to sleeping, eating and shopping. I think in this past week, I went to Gurney twice, Queensbay twice. Mostly is I went to eat. Watched two movies; The Mummy and 21. I ate lots of food. I went to Sakae Sushi, 1901, Secret Recipe, Dave's Deli, Tai Tong Dim Sum, and Mc D. Not to mention homecooking....I miss homecooking....it was yummy.....I wish I could drink soup everyday in Perlis...I spend so much time doing nothing, I wish I did more stuff....
(Yummy sushi)

(Stacks of plates of sushi we ate)

(I didn't finish this...I was too full)

Still, considering the amount of food I have eaten, that was a lot of stuff. From popcorn to pasembur to cheesecake to sushi to roasted chicken to french fries to radish soup to Singapore bihun to dim sum to burgers and hotdogs to mashed potatoes to char hor fun. I ate it all......Yes, my stomach can hold all the food. It was satisfyingly delicious. I shall miss Penang when I go back to Perlis. I'm bringing so much stuff home from Penang, I don't know if all of it will fit in my bags or will I be able to carry them back. Penang.....is still the BEST to me....my hometown, my beloved island and forever my home....PENANG I LOVE YOU!!!!!!!!Hehehehehehe......

(Cheesecakes!!!!)

(Expresso cheesecake)

(Dave's Deli)
Kind of sad that Elora has left for India though...Soon when she comes back, she will probably be Dr Elora Ong....haha....some friends from Unimap came to Penang....so sorry I didn't go out with you because Kiddies are important....they are 2nd only after my family...hehe

Hopefully the next break I will get to meet more of the kiddies.....thanks again for the pressie.

PS This isn't actually a long blog...Just have more photos that's all...