First Week of Classes

Dear jumjum...

  So we had the first week of classes. And honestly I think I need to pick up some paying-attention-in-class skills cause I seem to have lost them. I seem to be yawning through my classes =S Had a three-hour LANG written test this morning, and I realised I was zoning out (late night last night) during the listening part and I MIGHT have missed out on some questions...

  Am very grateful that my timetable is organised pretty well, though- leaves me with no classes at all on Tuesdays! Yay! =D I've seen some people's timetables that are absolutely crazy...

 The class I enjoyed the most is, surprisingly, NOT Bio. I don't wanna complain too much...but maybe I've been spoilt by excellent Bio teachers in A Levels, and now it's back to almostPapaya! 

  Anyway I really, really enjoyed my computer 1001 class. I'm a super duper computer noob (Z once swapped the alphabets on the keyboard and I didn't realise at all), so all this computer information is very very exciting for me. Throughout the class I was just thoroughly impressed and surprised. Heh. Hoepfully I can get the hardware part though. The inside of a PC looks alien to me. I am also ashamed to admit that I still do not know how to fully operate Windows 8 on my laptop- even after the countless youtube tutorials I've watched. 

  Also, I've just found where my webcam application is on my laptop. Selfie timeeeee! xP

*atm*

LANG I Hate You

Dear jumjum...

  So classes have started...but every course is still mainly on introduction this week. Had an interesting time finding each classroom here! The academic building is one big place that seems to b connected but it's not. If you want to go to a specific room, you need to take a specific lift to get there, and there are 33 lifts in all. Even finding the rooms after taking the right lift is hard! Honestly the numbering system makes no sense, even the professors who have been here since the uni's establishment in '91 say they still get lost sometimes.

  Anyway I had to register for LANG 1020 which is English for University Studies I! ARGHHHH hate it hate it!! Wasting my time! After taking this course for Fall term, I have to take LANG 1030 in Spring. WTH! And there's guaranteed homework every week. Kill me now. The worst part is that none of my friends have to take it because they could do credit transfer =((( Should've taken IELTS or something back in Kuching. Arghhhhh!

  Gtg, have to do my LANG homework. GAH.

*atm*

Random Funny Thing

Dear jumjum...

  Every hall has a few 'aunties' who take care of and maintain the halls and are stationed at the front desks. They speak Cantonese but I try to smile or wave or say 'zhou san' because it just feels so impolite to walk out of the building without addressing them. 

 Anyway today one aunty came into our tiny private area (where our toilet and bathroom is) and told me she was looking for the girl in 319, my neighbour, who was in our room at the time. And my neighbour was very surprised so I asked the aunty, 'meh si ah?' and she was struggling to answer because I didn't understand her Cantonese answer...but finally she came up with an English word while pointing downstairs- 'policeman' !!! My neighbour totally freaked out and was like, oh no oh nooo what did I do?! I was pretty shocked too but the aunty was trying to calm her down and she was like, go down and you'll understand.

  And sitting in the lobby was.... a delivery man! With a courier package for her! LOL! All three of us started laughing like mad. And the aunty asked me how to call him and I was like, 'POSTMAN!' xD

*atm*

Of Utilising Our Free Time & Stuff Overload!!

Dear jumjum...

   It's a privilege to wake up to this every morning. That's all.

   I was super duper blur about choosing courses for my next four years and I really felt left behind by everyone else. There's like this requirement, that requirement, credit transfer options from A Levels and bla bla bla. So I chit za bek za woke up and when to the School of Science office for advise once it opened. The advisor is really really funny. Everytime she enters a room, she'll go "Hello!" in a very high pitched, cheerful voice. And she carries around this piece of paper with the details of all the new science students in the smallest print possible. Honestly she's like Santa! She knows everything we did before we came to UST! She's really good and kind though...cleared up all my questions under 5 minutes!

  My korean neighbour's friends in Year 2 advised her to enjoy the free time that we have now, because it'll disappear very very soon. So today we went shopping! Again. At Festival Walk, in Kowloon Tong. We had the first real taste of HK dining- finding no place to sit at the food court. I finally managed to grab a vacant table and this little kid just calmly sat down at the table, avoiding eye contact! I wasn't in the mood to cause a scene so I just walked away and went to wait by another family who looked like they were about to finish. Then this couple in their twenties came by and eyed the same table. I looked at them and in my mind I was like, don't you dare! And the !"£$%^&* woman saw me, went up to the man at the table and asked to have his table when he was done! Like WTH!!! She KNEW I was waiting there first! I very nearly yelled at her. The only thing stopping me was 1, I'm not fluent in Cantonese, 2, I'm a foreigner, 3, my korean neighbour came up to me right at that instant. Still, when I walked passed her later on I felt like spitting in her food. Very evil thought. But seriously. Didn't let her spoil my day though...told myself to let it go, get used to it and get ready to defend myself next time!

  After Festival Walk I went to my aunt and uncle's place for dinner again. They are way too nice. They always feed me like a cow as if  to fatten me up! My cousin's grandmother is always forcing me to finish the soup ever since she knew I like soup. (I learned that the Cantonese are big on soups) and everytime I come back from my aunt and uncle's they WILL give me stuff. And my dorm is so small!!! I have a large bag of just the randomest stuff on the floor next to my bed and it annoys the heck out of me. I like everything organized on the shelves but there honestly isn't any more space! I have THREE sets of bed sheets. 500 raincoats and about 1000 shower caps. Let's just focus on the food I have in my dorm currently (some of it I bought myself and added to my troubles):

-Four maxi packs of Jacob's-like biscuits but thinner.
-3 apples
-Instant coffee mix x48 sachets (it was buy one box free one box! And I need coffee)
-2 bars of chocolate
-2 packs of chocolate-covered biscuits
-3 packs of instant noodles (between my mum and aunt)
-1 large pack of oats
-1 loaf of bread (I'll force my roommates to finish it with me)
-3 cans of tuna spread
-Butter
-Leftovers from cousin's grandmother
-9 packs of roasted seaweed (it was on promotion)
-Almonds
-3 mini buns (I intended to eat for breakfast tomorrow)
-Raw mushroom, cabbage and tofu (I wanna cook tomorrow- no more eating out!)
-1 pack of rice !!!
-2 packs of Japanese curry paste
-1 bottle Japanese salad dressing
-1 big bag of asssorted tea packets
-1 bottle of honey

Bought myself, Mum, Aunt

  And that's not counting the cutlery and utensils I have here =S Just remember that whatever happens and for whatever reasons I'm stuck in the dorm with no supplies, I'm good. For at least a month. Haha! In all seriousness, I know that I'm very very lucky to have caring relatives here with me. and it trains my muscles lugging plastic bags full of stuff up and down buses and all the way to the dorm... 

*atm*

Frustrated but Grateful

Dear jumjum...

  I asked about scholarship condition for the undergraduate students who took A Levels today, because I really do feel that I should try my hardest to try and ease my family's financial burden. And to cut a long story short,  it was very unfruitful and annoying. Haiz. Wished I could've gotten at least a 10% scholarship? It would still be something =( 

 Anyway, I am very grateful for the three friends I made here, with whom I can talk to and hang out with and have meals with and ask for help from (course registration preparation today, I was totally blur) I really don't know how I would get by these first few days without them. Oh and we realised the weirdest thing today when we all took out our laptops to research course options- my roommate and our neighbour use the same Samsung laptop, and the European girl and I use the same HP Ultrabook model! But different versions so similar but different sizes. LOL!

*atm*

New Rommate

Dear jumjum...

  So I do have a roomate! A korean girl also. She arrived two nights ago at 1am! Alone! And her first time to HK! Man I salute her. Luckily I wasn't asleep yet because although she had the key card, I locked the door from inside too. Heh. She's into makeup too so we have that in common. 

  So yesterday the four of us- european, korean roommate, korean neighbour and I went for lunch together and did some more campus exploring...And they were talking about the rumour that four people at our uni committed suicide last year (rest their souls if it is indeed true) and we concluded that we would never do that cause we all laugh too much lol!

  The counsellors organised a talk? program? for us yesterday and it was all about dealing with homesickness and stress. To be honest, hearing her talk about being homesick homesick homesick made me homesick! I wasn't even THAT homesick before but after that talk I went back to my dorm and started crying once my roommate went out. And later that night she told me that she felt the same too! It was like, induced homesickness! Even our neighbour came over to our room at night cause she was feeling lonely.

*atm*

Dorm Move-in

Dear jumjum...

  Moved in on Wednesday. Double room but until now tak ada roommate. Hoping that I'm alone for privacy and more space! 

  Two double rooms share a toilet and bathroom, so today when I heard the next door open I rushed to open mine to say hi. She's a pretty, shy Korean girl. Met her again when we went to apply for student ID...and we ended up sticking to each other for the whole day =)

  Since we're both so shy, we sat really far away from everyone during the UG dinner. And a European girl came and asked if she could take a seat so we started talking to her too. Then I saw this Chinese girl eating alone, standing in the corner. So the European girl invited her to sit with us too. Then the four of us went down to the beach! Unfortunately it was closed. Probably because of the high tide at night?

  Oh yes, on Wednesday night our Malaysian seniors arranged to meet us in the atrium and bring us out. We took the bus and went for a chinese dinner. They were really nice and funny and caring. Most of them are from around KL, and I highly suspect that I am the only one who doesn't speak Cantonese... (trying!) They also brought us to buy an octopus card and bedding stuff, both of which I didn't need thanks to my aunt and uncle who keep giving me stuff! Speaking of which, I think I'm running out of storage space =S

  Mummy went back today =(((( I finally cried since coming to HK. Good that I made new friends today, otherwise tonight will be emo night! The Korean girl's mum went back today too, and I told her to come knock on my door if she can't sleep.

  Busy busy week ahead! No photos of my dorm because I'm not satisfied with the arrangement yet. Oh and I'll try to wake up early tomorrow to see the sunrise- sea view from my window! Also, my neighbour, the European girl and I plan to go running on the track in the morning IF we can wake up. xD

  Oh almost forgot- am currently blogging on my SPANKING NEW LAPTOP. It's a 15 inch HP. I like big screens and I cannot lie =D

StudentID, Dorm Key Card and Octopus!

*atm*