~Housemates~

I have been staying for more than a year in KDU Hall hostel... Ok, from the beginning I managed to adjust myself to hostel life there. The 1st 4 housemates were Rita, Jana, Candy, Emily. All of them had left that unit except me. Now I have new housemates. All international students.. 2 fr China, 2 fr Thailand. Formerly, I was given a shared room (room 3) and I had to study outside, the living room. After Emily ( jpa senior) finished her course, I immediately request for her single room, that was another difficult task as single room was a sought after room by jpa and petronas students. I had to negotiate with another senior who had just completed her Alevels recently( who also wanted that particular room) at that time.
Now...my new housemates, I will start with the 2 Thailand girls... they share the same name, same nationality, same religion and they are roommates... :) What a coincident! The 2 China girls, erm....or should I call them ladies because they are in early 30 s, ;) hardly talk to them...maybe due to language barrier(even my mum who is Chinese educated can't really understand their native slang...esp those fr shanghai, beijing etc). But the main reason is I dun actually see them at hostel, that's true.. They are out at 5.10 pm and back at I dare say early hours of the morning when everyone is zzzzzz....
To the unhappy side of life here.... before (and even after) the sink was repaired, the sink was always jammed wt foodstuffs, causing stagnant dirty water.. ok, told them properly and guess what, some of them threw foodstuffs into the toilet bowl instead. Can you see the picture rite now? And whenever I enter the toilet, I will smell.... cigarette s.m.o.k.e. The stench!! :(
To top up wt that, you might think we are super producers of waste....no sooner the rubbish bin is emptied, it will be full again in just a day.. and in the kitchen itself, 3 big bins will be overloaded wt RUBBISH. Smells horrible too.I do not contribute much to the rubbish, cos I do not cook. Neither do I eat at hostel. Food consumption always takes place outside the hostel in my case. :) Except for breakfast which I only eat bread with milk! Maybe I complained too much, but I have to accept it. This is LIFE...real facts of life.
Not related to this post, recently 2 unis Otago nz and UNSW aus offered me a place,but sadly enough....I had to forego UNSW, simply because the closing date for acceptance of the offer will due on 4 August...which is next week. We are not even given time to think about it, is like an "accept NOW or you kissed goodbye" offer. So is either you dive and accept rightaway or...you see it running away fr u. Most unis ' closing date for confirmation is in Oct. Since we are doing their foundation studies, I think they should give us more time instead of leaving us so little time to make a decision. My decision is...sadly forego UNSW , accept otago for the time being without registering the accommodation. Auck and Melb uni under processing period.
Talking about that, from what I heard, there's a national "bargaining " going on in nz for higher pay among uni lecturers n academic staff, it's an on and off issue but recently it has heated up. This incident(narrated) is a case in point. Affecting not just a uni, but a few ranging to 7-8 unis. I hope it will be sorted out soon before I leave next year. Pray,pray,pray....

Ever wonder? :)

This post will be about.....SHOES !! But first let me clarify something, it is not about the normal kind of shoes you wear everyday..... :) Ready? haha..
Have you ever wonder how ballet dancers dance on the tip of the toe? It's actually not a "miracle" as most of us would think. Here's the secret, if you carefully observe the ballet slippers below, there is a tiny box forming at the tip of the shoe. Made of metal, covered wt pink satin material. The sole is supported with a thin material of metal too ie for beginners who started learning pointe work. Looks helpful,but there will be other problems arising from that.
F.r.i.c.t.i.o.n causing ~b.l.i.s.t.e.r.s~ even though ur toes are wrapped wt many layers of cloth(cheap method) or by wearing toepads which is very expensive! For any girl who wants to be a ballet instructor, examiner and professional dancer, pointework is the essence for classical ballet. Unfair, isn't it?
Personally, it is a painful process going through all this. Blisters will be there all the time, it takes maybe 5 days at least to heal but you will be getting new blisters when you attend another lesson,especially on your big toe where your whole body weight 39 kg relies on that toe. Toe nails must be trimmed properly, else it would result acute pain. There was once my friend's toenail snapped ( maybe she didn't keep it short) while doing pointe work. You can conclude that ballet dancers' feet are not as "nice" as it seems.
To avoid slipping off, we usually rub the tip of the shoes wt "frosin" powder, the coarse kind of powder for strong grip before starting off. To prevent the tip of the shoe from tearing to pieces ( the material) we protect it by glueing a "crochet" cap on it. New shoes come in dark pink colour and usually, to make it look faded, we apply powder. I hate this idea because this will make the shoes very powdery and slippery.
Tap shoes on the other hand can be polished to make it shine. Notice that underneath the shoe there are 2 tiny slabs of moderately thick metal nailed to the shoe to create the tapping sound when you dance. Erm...looks tiny cos that was the shoes I wore when I was nine. =)
Pointework is not compulsory for grade syllabus(ideally as a hobby) but it is for major
syllabus. Think that's all for this post.*No connection wt this post: For the past whole week, I am troubled with this incident narrated in this blog. Got to be extra careful in future.

tap shoes 

ballet shoes 

Fr left: Tim, Shir, Munir, Ain, Sakin 

Not a techno kind of person...

During my secondary school days, I was quite illiterate in technology....be it ICT skills, anything. The 1st time I ever know how to sms was in Form 5. Horrible, isn't it?
Been an active mobile phone user since I went for my ns training, away fr home. Then continued in college( new colored screen but simple) until TODAY. :) Sms-ing friends, calling home or as an alternative alarm clock during exam period.
The only time I really took the initiative to "learn properly" during Computing lessons was when I first entered KDU college for UNSW Foundation studies. Computing was tested in both theory and practical as a subject in my foundation studies exam.Exposed to Adobe Photoshop 7.0, HTML, Dreamweaver and MS Powerpoint for coursework. MS Excel, MS Word and MS Access (Database) for practical exam. Quite stressful...esp when u have to complete 10-12 long tasks in 60 minutes' time for MS Access plus the mail merge involving MS Excel and MS Word.
Took 2 hours to complete the 1st sample exam paper given by Ms Shirley as a practice last time. For trial, lost 12 marks because my last task was incomplete. Was given 1 mark for the footer. :p Luckily, managed to complete it in 55 minutes' time during my finals. A narrow escape..
Theory was demanding too....so much new things to learn and remember..
Blogging....was introduced to it aggresively when I came to study here. Not that keen to blog due to a few reasons: 1st: no time; 2nd: don't know how to blog and many more. Until my friends kept on telling me this phrase " Just register, choose a template n blog! Simple as that."
Personally, I enjoy using blogspot bcos users are being facilitated with useful tips on how to create a more interactive blog. The basic template can be modified for add-on features. Unlike Fxxxxxxxxr= rigid. I salute those who create their own template.
Digicam, webcam, audio/video conversation.....well....to start wt, I am an active borrower and user of digital camera. :p Hope to get one a.s.a.p. Tried my webcam wt my sis recently...but oh....quite terrible it turned out to be. Due to the superslow (standard dial up phone line) internet connection which is inconsistent to the DSL (digital subscriber line) my sis used. Worse still.....the audio conversation was bad too. "hello" sounded like "oh ooo" to me. haha. Jie, u sounded like cartoon. ;p
It's good to think positively and be flexible to keep up wt these rapid changes. Got a long way to go. Luckily, I am not as rigid as before. Thanks Ms Shirley(lecturer) and shirli (coursemate).....luckily I am no longer a computer phobia. :)

Normal Rhythm of Life...

Back to KDU, Kota Damansara.....the same routine again after I had long abandoned it after my finals. There are a few important events coming which strain me fr relaxing. :)

1st event
Bowling competition event. I was allocated for the "ticket" job. Is not as easy as I thought it would, cos as a leader I have to make sure everything goes well....and I am relieved luckily Shirli will be wt me. Thanks alot, shir. U r the most helpful person I have ever met. This event will be around in Aug.

2nd event
Jpa officers are coming,....invited to a tea party by KDU staff. Guess is more of "persuading" them to send more stu to study in KDU. But I was wrong. Heard that there were complains that the sponsored stu were not taken care enough by Cpus... which is a TOTAL misleading statement. In my view, the lecturers are very dedicated. And I disagree that we should be given special treatment. Come on... everyone is the SAME be it private and sponsored stu. These ppl who complain had nothing else to do.This event will be held together wt Petronas. We have to do dikir barat while Petronas stu will recite a few songs for them. Means there will be lots of meetings coming up. sigh...

3rd
Attend Mlysian n Moral studies. This will be in Aug but.....we still hav to go for discussion classes every Thurs fr 2-4 pm. :( Now we r having once a week classes. Supposed to end in nov my pre-U studies.

Monash n Adelaide juz sent me an offer. Well....the others( hoping for) no news yet. Hoping for the best. :-)

Fishes swimming ( 1 U ) 

Fun at Ulu Tiram~

I have attended a camp organised by the Birotatanegara Board for gov servants, local scholars inc Petronas n Tenaga n of course JPA stu at Ulu Tiram fr 5-9 July. 5 long hours of journey fr Masjid Negara KL to Johor.

1st day
Pretty bored at 1st . The "ceramah" started at night. The condition of the living quarters are relatively better than ns camps back in 2004. Except that the toilets can't be flushed ! But it's located in the "house" itself. All roommates were Kdu stu. Met Shi Ying....new friend staying wt us.

2nd day
Whole day of ceramahs. 1st session was on Tanahair, 2nd session was on Rakyat, 3rd session was on Kerajaan n lastly Kedaulatan. The same 4 elements we learn in ns but....this time we are exposed to more current issues, gov policies n statistics. Presentors were doing pretty well wt the jobs.

3rd- 4th day
Whole day we have to attend "latihan dalam kumpulan". We have to speak, argue, present our views regarding to any issue given. Was the only Kdu stu in Group 5. The only acc stu too. The only nz bound stu too. haha . Very unique. The rest are uk bound seniors (future doctors) fr KYUEM, Taylors stu doing pharmacy n engineering(aus bound).

Evening-- ujian kecergasan was ok but something went wrong after that. I passed my form to the wrong group leader. :) And the prob is that my "negligent" group leader din realise that 2 ppl fr that group din pass the form to him. Anyway, this prob was resolved. We hav to run for 2 km and do other light tests in the rubber plantation n at the field . I couldn't do the fireman lift. But I pass the other tests.

Lost my umbrella too that day cos it was raining. Found it back during dinner time when the jurulatih tried to lelong the umbrella in front of all of us. So pai seh. :)

5th day
Last day. Morning we had to take a written objective test. This test is all about what we heard n learn fr the presentations n activities. Like sejarah test but the only diff is that we hav to know more ab gov new policies n current issues. 60 ques then MERDEKA! Reached KL Sentral late at night. It was fun !

Learn to be more patriotic....erm....more of being grateful and thankful that I was offered the scholarship in the 1st place. I shall not complain alot n instead should work hard to achieve my goals. N serve the nation well. :)