UTP! Part 1 – (ckit gmbr)

First of all, let me just apologize for the LONG wait for this post. How long has it been since I last posted something long and worth-reading? A month? Or longer than that? Sigh. I’m really sorry! It’s not my fault!! It’s this stupid wi-fi connection at this hostel. Sometimes, the connection is very good(very smooth and won’t disconnect) but more often, it will engage connection for about 5 minutes and disconnect again. Sedih sedih. I really have to blog better this time because for the first time ever, I’m gonna let my family members read my blog (ooh.. scary!). Haha. So, whoever you are dear readers, please give comment after reading okay? Wajib. 🙂

WARNING : THIS IS A REALLY LONG POST, WITH NO PICTURES (I’ve uploaded them but I can’t put them in this post somehow. Damn). I SUGGEST YOU TAKE A CUP OF COFFEE OR AIR SAJUK AND THEN PUT ON SOME MUSIC WHILE READING IF YOU WANT TO READ THE WHOLE POST LA. HEHE.

So, let me now start my ranting. It’s been so long since I blog properly, so please don’t expect this to be a good read. Haha. Just bear with me and please don’t hunt any misusage of grammars or spellings because as I said, the connection can be cut off anytime so, I’m trying to make good use of my time. So, let’s begin!

11/07/08 – The day I left home

posted this one before.. but still missing it!

After sleeping for just about 1 hour and a half, I woke up and got ready to head to the airport. All my stuffs in the luggage, all my money in my wallet, all my list checked. Seems like everything is ready. But am I ready yet? Sigh. After lodging the luggage into the Prado, I said my goodbyes and hugged my dear grandma (Love you Ma!) and my dear sister(Love you too sofie. nanti jeles pla.) and also my uncle Ikus. Then, we were on the road to the airport. When we arrived at the airport, I didn’t feel too burderned to leave KK. Strange. Ameline tried calling me but I missed her call. I told her when I sampai KL then I will message her. After checking in our luggage, we went into the boarding hall and met up with Jeremy and his parents(Aunty Jane and Uncle Mikoh). I didn’t talk much. I was really sleepy!(Ba, pa ko heran, 1 hour 1/2 ja sia tidur!). When it was time to board the plane, I switched off my phone and the flight began. MAS is getting more and more disappointing to me. They can only serve French Toast and Chicken Noodle. Nasib sedap ba. haha.

As the plane landed, I unbuckled my seat belt and awaited the plane to halt completely. In KLIA, the first stop I made was the loo. As expected, tandas dorang sangatlah berkualiti dan bersih. Tahniah. Haha. My family and Jeremy’s family took different route and transportation to go to Ipoh. J’s family took the KL express to KL sentral and then took the KTM to Ipoh. We, however, used a budget taxi to go all the way to Ipoh. At first, me and my dad went to check if there was any bus heading to Ipoh. Annoyingly, the person at the Information counter weren’t helpful at all. Budu2 ni. Anyway, we didn’t find any bus so we went on with the taxi. Mummy sempat lagi beli2 di sana KLIA.

The taxi ride was really boring. Well, unlike all of our former taxi drivers, this time, the driver is really boring. He didn’t talk much. So, pretty much all we did was sleep in the taxi and I played my PsP through out the ride. When I saw the signs pointing to Ipoh is about 5km left, I turned off my Psp and started looking left, right, and front. Meh. Ini lah Ipoh? haha. I was really disappointed. At this point, I felt homesick already but I kept it to myself. I see many Indians and Malays. When we’re in the city’s heart, the taxi driver apparently didn’t know the way to our hotel, so he stopped to ask some bus drivers while my Dad contacted the Hotel for Infos. Eventually, we made our way to the BIG Syuen Hotel.

After checking in, we went up the elevator and headed up to our room which is 627 I think. The room was frikkin huge! The only sad part about it is there was no scenery. at all. Sigh. But the room was nice. Hehe. After settling in, we went to Ipoh Parade to scavenge for food since everybody except for Tondu(my little sis) was hungry. Ipoh Parade was nice! It wiped off some of the prejudice disappointment that I put upon Ipoh when I first arrived. The food court was in front of the cinema and the bowling alley was just a minute walk from the food court. But, of course, we didn’t watch any movies or played bowling. Haha. After eating, we shopped for some necessities at Parkson and Cold Storage. My mum even bought me an iron and an electric kettle for me to utilize in UTP. Then, we went back to the hotel, with many bags in our hands, and rested for a good 2 hours I think. Next, we went down and walked to this food outlet. I forgot lah the name. The tauke was really annoying but funny and her waitress is equally funny too. Why funny? Because they were blurred with us. Orang order ini, dorang buat muka lain2. Haha. Buli2 dorang lupa antar teh tarik Daddy. Haha. The food was so-so. Banyak lagi yang sedap sia pernah makan di KK. After that, me and mummy went to Secret Recipe(just next to our hotel) to tapau 2 slices of cake. Emmm.

12/07/08 – UTP registration day

Wahhh. . ahaha..

Argh! it’s finally here! The day I dreaded so much in the past is here! After bathing, I wore my formal outfit and we went down to have some breakfast at the cafe below. The food here is really spicy la. But still, it was nice. hehe. At the cafe, I saw 3 other guys that wore white formal shirts and long black slack pants. Ketara budak2 UTP jua ni. Hehe. After everyone was done, we fetched my luggages( yes, there’s an eS there. I’m bringing 2 luggage and 3 other small bags) and met our taxi driver below, En. Hamzah. Ah, this guy was really talkative (I love talkative people!) and the 40 minutes journey to Tronoh was not that bad since he covered many miles with his stories. Ahaha. As the taxi moved nearer and nearer to the University, I was really anticipating. Hey, first impression is important okay? And boy was I suprised!

cantik kan? ahaha..

PUNYA BASAR! It was really nice to see that the university is really beautiful. The sight of the lake, the mosque, the fields and the Chancelor Hall were breathtaking! I was left speechless. After Mr. Hamzah left us, I could see many other people were already flocking the Chancellor Hall. Mummy and Sandy waited for us at a spot which I thought was the dorm (It was actually the old academic blocks) while Daddy and me go register at the Hall. Stepping into the Chancellor complex, I felt the air con in my face. Ahhh. Cooling. But the warm sight of nervous parents and students quickly brought the heat up again. I searched for Jeremy but he was not there yet. Haih. As Daddy advised, I went on the stand in line to register without Jeremy. The girl in front of me was a total stranger, so is the person behind me. Damn. I can see some of them socializing. Whatever la for now I said to myself.

The lines moved closer and closer from the lobby to the Hall and inside the hall, I saw a longer line but I waited just like the others for my turn. Jeremy was already behind me(but not behind me, he was at the back of the line) but he don’t want to cut queue, so I was alone there. After completing all the registration processes, I moved on to the final counter and took my Minggu Aluan Siswa(MAS) bag and took the UTP neck tie and L-sized T-shirt. It was done! Finally! I met my Daddy again outside and we bumped into uncle Mikoh who was waiting for Jeremy outside. After a brief talk, My dad and I regrouped with Mummy and Sandy and we carried the luggages back to the Chancellor Hall and luckily, we managed to hold off a bus heading to the Old Village(my future home). When I boarded the bus, I saw two familiar faces from Educamp. One is Mark and the other I have yet to know his name. It was a relief to finally see Sabahans(other than JJ la) here. I remembered saying “Wah! Kamu pun dapat! Lawalah, ada jua orang Sabah!”. Little did I know, these two person would soon be two of my best friends here. Haha. The bus stopped at the hostel-like buildings (hahaha. padahal memang hostel pun) and all passengers went down. After finding a spot to put down the luggages, Mummy went to buy some things from the RCSU unit while Daddy bought some watermelons. I just stood beside the luggages and waited for Jeremy. I saw Mark and his friend bringing their luggages(which were really big as well) upstairs to the 2nd floor. Mummy called Aunty Jane and asked if Jeremy want to be my roomate since we can freely choose our roomates. The answer was yes, so when they arrived at the old Village, we went straight to the registration booth and got ourselves a room!

E01-24

katilku..

ada bun lagi tu.. ahaha..

The room looks small, but I think I can live in the room. There was 1 double-deckered bed and one single bed. Jeremy took the single bed so I took the double decker one. We did a little cleaning and then we were off to eat. There were food prepared outside but it was meant for only the students. Our parents had to go to the cafe while we ate the food outside. Sedap juga la. After eating, we walked all the way back to the Chancellor Hall, it was really a long walk oh but I soon find out, you’ll get use to it soon. At the Chancellor hall, I saw many more Sabahans and finally got to know Mark’s friend : Yves(pronounced as Ives). At 2.o0 pm, the talk started for the Petronas Scholars and after that, we had to hand in our Agreement to the counter. After that, it was announced that the next activity will be held at the Main Hall, Jeremy said goodbyes to his parents, and I said, and hugged my family goodbye too. Then we walked all the way to the Main Hall. It was tiring la. Mummy, Daddy, tondu took a different route as they were to take the taxi near the bank I think, and I followed my new friends to the Main Hall. It was sad but life has to go on!

This was the beginning of many things. New friendship, new way of life, newly acquired freedom and new environment. It was a really tough situation but settling in was the only solution. Accept changes so that everything would be better. Anyway, Mark and Yves showed me their true colours. We were inside the Main hall for a talk. It was raining outside, so the University offered bus ride to the Old village. The bus can only carry about 50 people per trip. The people who sit at the front would get to go back first. Since us four was sitting wayyyy behind in the hall, Mark and Yves stood up and went to the “toilet”. After that, Jeremy went to the toilet and said he saw Mark and Yves waiting for the bus outside. Hahaha. So, me and Jeremy stood up and went outsde to join them. Funny lah dorang ni. Now I know my life here will be easier with those two.

old village 5.. my hostel..

tandas bida.. ahaha..

13-19/07/08 Minggu Aluan Siswa

So, the Minggu Aluan Siswa began. The talk, the activities and the tour were all informative and boring – just like any other orientation. The only fun part of the orientation was getting to know new friends and bonding with them all. I got to know many more people from my state. For the MAS, I was placed in Platun B, group 2. The ice breaking part was fun, we had to make these trademark and animal sounds. Mine was, “Lo, Lo, Lo, tsk, tsk, tsk” The Lo,Lo,Lo part was done by obviously pronouncing Lo,Lo,Lo while making the letter L using the right hand and the letter O using the Left hand. Haha.

Moral Activities was by far the best activity in the whole MAS. It was only fun and games. We had this one game called angels and Mortals, where you were randomly given a name of a person and through out the MAS, everytime there’s a Moral activity, you can secretly send a gift to your mortal. I sent a bookmark to my mortal but sadly, my angel didn’t give me anything. Budu ni. Haha. I was seriously waiting for it. Damn.

Anyway, one of the routines we did every night was practising the UTP and Petronas song, the songs are easy to sing and nice but our facilitators were mean and annoying when they know we were all exhausted but still wanted us to sing the songs. When we did sing it, they say sumbang la, no spirit la. Well, they eventually said that we were the worst batch in the history of UTP. It angered many students. During a Moral session, we asked one seniors how was their orientation week. They said just like yours but of course now the worst batch title belongs to u guys. Haha. Rupa2nya skrip saja tu facilitators guna. Its so funny actually.

Anyway, during the Sports activity, I participated in the Tarik Tali for my Platoon and we won 1 round and lost another one. I only played two times since I was tired. The third match resulted in a loss but it was fun! hehe. The last day of MAS, we all had to wear Batik shirts and pledge our vows for the University. The last day was really relaxing. No more shoutings and no more stress from the Facis. That night, we had our Freshies’ Talent Nite. It was fun to see the performances. Some were boring but still, I didn’t fell asleep so I guess it was okay after all. But one thing captured my attention at the end of the night. The Facis prepared a video of them for us and it was like a remake of the video clip of the song “Here in my home” by the Malaysian Artistes For Unity. All the Facis were in it. It was really inspiring to see the videos and how they conveyed the message to us : Utp – Our new home. Ahh. I hope I can be in a similar video soon. Haha.

The next day, since the MAS is now officially over, we were free to do whatever we want but 95% of the students went to the sports complex to play some sports. I chose to play futsal. I formed a team with Flee, Jai, Jimmy, J, Fadz, and Nuzul(all are Sabahans.. haha) but it took some time before we got to play so J went to play rugby while waiting. When it was our turn to play, I had to replace J to play as a goal keeper. Haih. I NEVER played as a goal keeper before and of course, ada goal tembus, specifically, 2 goals. Damn. Tula ba si JJ tu. For the second half, he replaced me and Flee scored a goal for us. He’s a very good player. Ringan ni dia lari. haha. In the end, we lost 3-1. Adui. Haha. But it was fun to be playing with the guys. Semua pun sporting kan.

20/07/08 – 04/08/08 Lecture starts!

Ahh!! After the grueling week of orientation, the day of lecture finally commenced. I was with Yves, Flee and Syahmi all the time during class. Wait. Before you start shaking your head and before you say “Napa ba si Lorenzo ni xda mau bergaul sma orang lain. Sabah ja dia mau kawan”. Well, It’s not that. I’m a really friendly guy okay. I can make friends easily given the right circumstances. I find it kinda difficult to fit in here mainly because of the language and the people. There are various slangs here. Sometimes I get what they say, and sometimes I don’t have a single clue on what they’re saying. Sometimes, when I converse with other Sabahan, the people over here question us this and that, but of course, we, being friendly Sabahans, will explain to them. Looking at their blur face is so funny. The people here tend to stick with their kinds. Chinese with Chinese, Indians with Indians, and of course Malays with Malays. I don’t mean all of them are like that. In fact, I find it hard to be around the Indians because sometimes when I smile at them, they give me this stern look that emits an unfriendly vibe. Haih. Maybe it will take time though.

Let me just summarize my lectures so far :

Thinking Skill Class – Dr. Ong is our lecturer. He’s the one who talked about religion in the class. He seems really passionate about his teachings. Although sometimes I find his lecture to be boring, I think I kinda like this subject!

Intro to Comp and Info System (ICIS) – I LOVE this Class! Ms. Penny is a very good and young lecturer. She can teach. Her voice is not boring and her jokes are so funny at times. Besides, this subject is about computers. So, I definitely name this one of my favourite subjects!

Maths 1 – Mr. Jale is my lecturer for this one. I really love maths but upon entering the lecture hall for the first time, I was really blurred of the teachings. Mr. Jale refreshed all our memories back but I realized that some terms from the secondary curicullar has been changed into something else.

English 1 – Haven’t had a lecture yet with Mr. Razol. Mr. Razol is really funny. He has a commanding presence and again, i must say he is a funny guy.

Moral – Woo hoo! It was fun to mingle with the Moral students(about 200 of us). Our first lecture was breaking the Ice with the girls. It was really fuN!! I got to know a lot of girls from my course and other courses. I finally met Daphne and Rani from Sabah. Haha.

Business Management – I LOVE this class! My favourite class. I’m never bored in this class because it’s so interesting and easy to understand. Mr. Zulkipli is really a good lecturer.

Okay, well that’s it for the lecture. Actually, I’m running out of ideas already on what to type. Haha. I’m sorry.
04/08/08 – Time to move on!

Argh! let me just clear my mind now. FYI, this post wasn’t typed on one go, I’m typing drafts and save it and then continue to type it again at some other time. I’m now at the IRC my hostel, where I just finished typing my Business Management assignment(With big props and thanks to Flee, one of my groupmate). That was my first assignment here and already I’ve learnt valuable lessons. Teamwork is essential in UTP. I surely couldn’t have done the assignment without the mind of Flee, and of course my other groupmates (Uyun, MissaH, MifraH). One more thing I’ve learnt is Time Management. Dividing times in between lectures, sports and assignment is hard and really need discipline! Adui!! Ni la akibat time sekolah menengah tidak bagus2. Sabak.

Since I’m making this a LONG post, I think I should post a special message here.

Happy Belated Birthday Ray!
Happy Belated Birthday Mummy!
Happy Belated Anniversary Mummy & Daddy!

Yes! Happy Birthday and Anniversary!. This post is getting too long. I don’t think I’ll be able to upload it if it’s too long. Maklumlah, connection here is very poor. Sigh. I will make a second part soon or maybe right after this! Please comment okay!

Before that, let me just preview what’s in the second part :
-> CSS prayer meeting , church
-> DoTa
-> The many cafes in UTP
-> Ipoh
-> Sabahans

Ish!! I hope I can put some pictures in for the second part. I really hate this. I want to post pictures! Sigh.. So anyway,

Thanks for reading! I know how hard it is to read such long post. Ahaha. Til Then.

Oya, P/s: Allowance blum masuk, I’m running out of biskut. haha.