OK, so maybe I took a little bit more than 24 hours (try 48), but this is quite a long one so I hope this makes up for it..
[ KLIA, 29 September, 2005 ]
I didn't know being sent off at the airport would be so stressful.. LOL.. I had family members - both immediate and extended - and collegemates there with me so I had to whizz by from group to group.. Not that I didn't appreciate their presence, but, phew.. After my final serving of halal McDonald's, I waved goodbye to everyone.. I was so sad and I really wanted to cry my eyeballs out, but since no one else in my group did, I sort of held back my tears.. Jaga imej la kan.. Onboard, I had my first taste of in-flight entertainment which is awesome.. Unfortunately, throughout the 12-hour flight, my stomach ached like mad :S From time to time, I'd ask for some sweets from the cabin crew and by the 4th request, instead of a small cup of sweets, they gave me a whole plastic bag.. Aii, perli nampak :P
[ Heathrow, 30 September, 2005 ]
On arrival at the immigration checkpoints, all of us were redirected to the airport health service to check our X-rays.. Luckily, since we've already done them back home, all they did was check the reports, stamp some forms and we were discharged.. We went to retrieve our mishandled luggages.. Someone's tough hard-case bag had a hole cut through and my rice cooker's metal pot got dented..
Afterwards, we took our first breath of (freezing) London air.. After paying 10 quid (common name for British pounds), we were sent by coach to Holiday Villa.. Apparently, Malaysia Hall was full so all Petronas students had to pay 30 quid each to share hotel rooms instead.. We had nasi lemak for breakfast at the MSD's canteen and attended a briefing where we were introduced to our UK advisor.. He's a pretty strict man.. F and I even got quite an earful about how there's no hope for us Computer Science students, but oh well, tell me something I don't know.. Or haven't heard :P
We had the rest of the day off, so R and I went for a short walk to Queensway.. Saw 3 small Tescos on the same road.. We both bought calling cards and called home, but since we were new, we didn't know that using them at payphones were so much more expensive..
[ Holiday Villa, 1 October, 2005 ]
Hitched a ride with JPA students to Southampton.. We were picked up by a Kelab UMNO Soton representative.. After a 2-hour ride, we were greeted by a 'Welcome to Southampton' road sign.. We checked into our halls and my first impression of St Margaret's House wasn't really that good.. I've been put in a postgraduate flat where I'm the only Malaysian there, whereas my colllegemate M has another 2 Malay girls staying in her flat downstairs to mine..
Went to Asda, the UK version of US's Wal-Mart, and bought a truckload of stuff.. Apparently, people here actually buy these hypermarkets' in-store brands, which are similar to the ones we have back in Malaysia, like in Giant.. The difference is that you can find almost anything, from bread to paracetamol to toilet cleaners, under the Asda brand..
[ Southampton, 2 October, 2005 ]
Went to my first carboot sale :) Dirt cheap goods, at the expense of having some dirt on them.. LOL.. Bought an oversized leather jacket and a pair of gloves for 1 quid each.. Got laughed at by the glove seller for buying them at such a "warm" time of year.. Are you nuts? I can't feel my fingers already!
Attended an open house hosted by the families in the Malaysian Students Association (MSA).. Yummy food, lots of friendly faces.. Even met a PhD student called Hidayah.. She's married, has a kid, and guess what course is she doing? Computer Science! :D
Today's the official hall move-in day so I met with the rest of my flatmates.. Luckily they're all female.. There's a British Pakistani called S, 2 Chinese postgrads, one white British, one black British and one Scot.. How's that for an international flat? :)
[ Southampton, 3 October, 2005 ]
Registered for my Smart ID card.. Today's the beginning of my School's Jumpstart program for freshers.. My group had a German Kiefer Sutherland lookalike as a helper.. He's a 2nd year IT in Organizations student.. We later merged with another group to form our Jumpstart team.. Well, for the whole story on what we did, just go to our team's blog and photo pages here :
http://jumpstart.ecs.soton.ac.uk/fresher.php - Click on Team Blogs or Team Photos and look for my team's name, Gpower :)
Oh, BTW, did I tell you we all went into a pub for a breather? My first day at uni and I've been into a pub.. What a way to start my UK experience, eh? :P
On this day, I also found out that Muslims in Southampton will start fasting on Wednesday the 5th, following Morocco.. Which is odd, because the rest of the UK is fasting tomorrow :P
[ Southampton, 5 October, 2005 ]
Attempted to cook sahur, but I cut my finger instead with an opened baked beans can.. I bled like mad throughout sahur.. S, my Muslim flatmate, insisted that I never ever touch a cooking utensil ever as long as she could help it :P
Went to the Bunfight, an interesting name for the uni's clubs and societies registration day.. The Asian society brought in a banghra player who provided most of the racket in the small Jubilee Sports Centre.. I joined the Islamic Society, MSA, Wessex Scene (uni paper), Union Films (uni cinema) and chess :)
Did you know that here, you get free iftar from Monday to Saturday? Now you do :)
[ Southampton, 6 October, 2005 ]
S began her voluntary service of cooking sahur for me today.. I basically just sit and watch her cook and then we eat together..
[ Southampton, 8 October, 2005 ]
MSA organized a photo shoot for Hari Raya, with the hopes of getting our mugshots into Utusan.. Met with soooo many college seniors whom I haven't met yet for the past 1 week.. Later, I went to town with F, but got lost and had to walk a mile before reaching the correct bus stop :P
Afterwards, my hallmates and I waited for the bus to go for iftar and prayers but we missed a bus an ended up walking another mile to get there.. We ended up late anyhow :P
[ Southampton, 9 October, 2005 ]
MSA Meet and Greet session.. We had games, talks and an impromptu Shadow Committee nomination session, and lo and behold, I got chosen! So from 15 boys and girls, 5 each would be inducted into the actual Shadow Comm so all of us had to introduce ourselves in front of the audience.. Later, there was iftar and when I got back to my room, only then did I find out that all 15 of us nominees were supposed to stay back and help around.. Oops :P
[ Southampton, 10 October, 2005 ]
My first official lecture: Professional Issues :P This is the only class where I can see familiar faces because it combines all Electrical and Electronics students together before we separate for our respective classes.. I got lost a few times before reaching mine.. There's this one class where it says Building 7 and on the map, there's this small block that had a '7' next to it but when I went there, it turned out to be a quaint house! Building 7 was actually the Lanchester building at the upper side of the campus :P.. Later at night, I went for a chess club meeting at 7.30pm.. Played with an English guy where I won once and drew once.. hehehe.. Then I took a safety bus - basically a minivan cum taxi - for 1 quid and it sent me straight to my hall doorstep.. It's kind of scary to walk alone from the nearest bus stop to my hall :|
[ Southampton, 12 October, 2005 ]
My classes are really spaced out.. I'd be having a 9am lecture in the morning, then a 2-3 hour break then another lecture in the last period of the day.. Gets pretty annoying but I'm OK with it.. Bought 3 books from a senior for 30 quid which is great :)
[ Southampton, 13 October, 2005 ]
My first computer lab session.. I met with my cool postgrad supervisor and tried out the Java programming language for the first time.. Can't say I understand it, but it's pretty fun, nonetheless :)
[ Southampton, 14 October, 2005 ]
Survived a maths double lecture today.. After class finished at 3, I went back to my room, totally forgetting I had an appointment at the clinic!
[ Southampton, 15 October, 2005 ]
Went for a talk on survival in which I saw a Caesarian section on video.. It almost made me cry! Played a Who Wants To Be A Millionaire kind of quiz, in which our team won :) Then we were divided into groups according to courses, which I was duly left out of because there's nobody else from Computer Science so I joined the Electronics people.. Waited for a bus for iftar but after 3 full busses passed through our bus stop in 1 hour, we walked back to halls and cooked iftar ourselves :P
[ Southampton, 16 October, 2005 ]
Went shopping to carboot and Asda in one day.. Enough said.
[ Southampton, 17 October, 2005 ]
Almost dozed off my second lecture of the day.. Things didn't really turn out as I had hoped for.. I missed an early bus but while waiting for 30 minutes, I met another elusive senior who's doing the same course as I am.. Then for iftar, I went straight back to hall because I thought there was a meeting, but apparently it was postponed to tomorrow.. Nonetheless, I had fish and chips for iftar which was a refreshing change from the usual rice and curry I get everyday :)
How's that for an update? If there's a typo, do tell because I'm too lazy to re-read this post.
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NHA at 11:37 PM ::
1 comments ::
