Looking Back at Campus Life

It still seems like yesterday when I was caught in between Form Six and university admission, unclear and unsure of my future course. In this post, let's take a look back at those days.

The day when university results were supposed to be out...

woke up early this morning with sleep in my eye, cause this is 'the day', when our uni-varsity results would be out. checked the net, hmm still nothing, it says results will only be out 22 June [2005], but hey wait a minute, it is 22 June, is it not? in fact i stayed up late until 12am yesterday, hoping that they'd somehow do as they say, to release the results on 22 June. hardly surprisingly, they didn't. [...]

that was until around 9 o'clock when i was still clicking, that i got a different site. at least, something different caught my eye, but it was still the same site. some smart alec IT guy in the elmo has conveniently changed the date to 24 June. - Uni-inefficiency

The joy of university admission...

it is a dream come true for my dad. every week as he drives past this university on his way to work in Ipoh, he would stare longingly and hope that someday i would be an undergraduate here. nowadays, he just drives past, smiles and exclaims, "my son will be studying here!"

i think also, more than anyone, my grandpa is the proud owner of bragging rights. and i recall since i was very young, he would encourage me to work hard and enter this university in future. the day i told him my results, he and grandma spent the night awake with wide grins on their faces. - Universe City

The end of orientation week, and my initial apprehension of signing up for Public Speaking...

besides being far, my hostel is possibly also the warmest, in that the fans are all located very far away from our bunkers and tables to really cool down anything. but the food is delicious and has a reputation of being the cheapest in the campus, so i guess win some, lose some. [...]

my schoolmates still remember me as the proofreader. my new friends know me as the English expert. but i'm not. in fact i'm very apprehensive about Public Speaking, but the initial other course i wanted had too little people to open, so it's not offered this semester.

doesn't Public Speaking sound terrifying? i guess i should never forget that i'm [fallible], and never be proud enough to refuse help, and to offer mine. - Apprehensive Aspirant

One week after that, some funny stories...

let me share with you a story. in the first tutorial for my abovementioned Malay class, i was speaking to my coursemate in English, a very nice girl, and the lecturer overheard. She then said, "Please speak Malay in class; don't speak Chinese". Muahaha.

i have another funnier anecdote. for each of our Student Villages (hostels), we have an R.O. filter which will dispense 1 liter of water for 20sen. in the week after our orientation, we were still new to the place and were passing by the filter when we got curious as to how it worked. so me and two friends walked up to the machine and noticed that it said "0.10". so my friend pressed the green "Start" button and we were surprised that water came out of the machine. after that, we decided to leave and as we did so, only then did we notice a girl standing behind us, blushing shyly.

so that's where the money came from. we still tease him about that, even now. - Campus Tales

Undergoing the compulsory medical check-up...

i went for my medical checkup at the university health centre just a few hours ago. and i was amazed at how little privacy and prudence they provided members of different genders. at the x-ray room, guys and gals were barely separated by a makeshift panel, and the officers make no efforts to offer any personal time. for guys, go in and "turn" right. for girls, go in and "turn" left - which were basically the same place separated by this aforesaid wooden panel.

"take your bras off", the nurse said to the girls. the gals hesitated and started noticing us guys. "those with underwires, take them off. for those normal ones, you don't have to", the nurse continued without skipping a beat. a girl in a white tee walked up, pinched at her cleavage area and asked "must take it off?" to which she said "ya". then we heard another officer saying, "or can you pull it up? boleh, kan?"

seconds later, the shy malay girls were walking around with palms on their chests while most others were busy staring into a small glass pane at us guys while we partially undressed.

yup, with eyes open wide... - Undressing Room

A glorified account of achieving the Dean's List...

Taking a few steps back, my eyes glare at the bar. My feet begin their harmonic rhythm, I hold my breath. Six months later, I am given a second chance...

I lift myself wearily off the soft mattress. Instinctively, I glance back.

As I type this, I can still recall the first time I set my eyes on it:

CGPA - 3.63

I have achieved the Dean's List! - Conquering the Pole

On different lecturing styles and the Asian students' "passive culture"...

Me: Sir, regarding my question just now. The... The textbook just states the equations, but without any proof.
Lecturer#2: Yes, you can read them from the Smith book.
Me: But can we understand the equations, rather than memorize them? Are the equations provable?
Lecturer#2: Oh, if you want to know the proof, you should be taking other courses, like Physical Electronics *waves hand around as if to say "etc... etc"* or... Electronical Physics. [...]

I stopped asking questions during his lectures. - Most Influential Lecturers

My first attempt at MC-ing, meeting Nicol David in person and then getting photographed in a newspaper...

- I got Nicol David's Autograph!

A funny happening during lecture, involving a projector malfunction...

So what was my lecturer to do than to stand guard at the door, grabbing hold of everyone that entered, in the hope that one of them might be the fated technician. [...]

"Are you the technician?"
"Oh no, Doctor. I'm a student..."

"Are you the technician?"
"Err... bukan... student..."

"Are you the technician?!"
"Er, uh. Ah? Nope sorry..."

"Are you..."
"Student"
"...the..."
"Student!"
"...technician?"
"Makcik sapu lantai kat sini aje, cik..." - Projected Drama

My second attempt at MC-ing, and meeting Puan Sri Ampikaipakan...

- Two Honoured

Postnote: To be honest, I won her over by remembering her first name: Thamayanti. You should have seen her face as she walked toward the stage and I pronounced her name correctly, which according to her, was a big deal as her name "gets murdered on a daily basis"!

And to top it all, no one noticed that I had the shortest script ever that day.

I now take a small step back to look at the roads I've travelled and say, "Boy, what a long way I've come!"

Sigh :)