Love

This is one of my favourite quotes that I want to share with you guys this weekend! Don't you think that love is really a wonderful thing that we have in this world? Love from family and friends which is understanding, humble, forgiving and tough is all we need to keep us going in life. From the book 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verses 4 to 7, it states that how love should look like. Yes we said that we love someone, but do we love them in the correct way?

Omnomnomnomnom...

I am a picky eater, or not really? Actually what I am picky about is not the taste of food but the type. Celery? No thanks. Clams? No way. Organs? Stay away from me!!! So if I complain about the taste of the food, means it is very not tasty, haha. But that rarely happens.

How I miss the Orion cafe in Selangor Matriculation College that served breakfast by 7am which was so caring towards early birds like me and the gang. The earliest breakfast in Putra Food Court is at 8am, and we can only find nasi lemak and roti canai. Anyway, I seldom take breakfast in cafe to control my diet a bit strictly. Oat crunch with hot horlicks drinks are just nice and filling. Lunch is the most hearty meal I have in a day. Me and my coursemates will certainly rush back to Putra Food Court from our faculty, just to use up the credits in Meal Plan Card which is compulsory to be used for first year student. Although only Malay food is served, but I like Malay food which is hot and spicy. Too bad the portion is always too big for me, and my coursemates are not willing to share with me due to the 'excessive spiciness' to them. No worries for me regarding food. I survive well so far. After lunch, fruits such as pineapples, guavas, papayas, watermelon etc complete the meal and seal up my stomach until dinner. For dinner, as I don't want to regret for taking oily food at evening, I choose to stay in my room and have cereal with milk. It is light and can sustain my activities until night. On weekdays I will limit my diet but on weekends I will still give my tummy a chance to eat something better, haha.

Now I am thinking of adding coffee into my diet as brunch (of course breakfast and lunch are still on). Firstly it is because I love coffee and the effects it give me (*energetic*). Secondly, it brings back good old memories of me having a porcelain mug in my bag everywhere I went. There are render machines selling hot coffee served in paper cups and canned coffee but they are not good enough for me. Although what I have is merely Nescafe 3 in 1 regular coffee, still I think coffee in porcelain cup tastes better.

One day after I entered the university, I called my grandma. She advised me to study hard (just like what any other elders will do) and also eat more. At home she is always worried that I do not get enough food. I often hide my plate from her sight as she will complain that I eat too little, how am I going to grow healthily etc. She always say that I am not fat, this is what a girl should look like. During the phone call, what she said was touching. ''Ah Boon ah (my name in Teo Chew), jiak zoi tam pok lah, po po oi diok tia gai lu zai bo (eat a little bit more lah, grandma will feel pain in the heart you know)?'' She cares. She really cares about my health and well being more than my appearance.

No matter how desperate I feel to keep fit, I won't starve myself as eating is really a joyful thing to do in a day. That is also why I am writing about food. =P

Happy Belated Mid-autumn Festival!

I was wondering what should I write for my blog this week. Let's make it simple and random (I am not lazy, just out of inspiration, haha).

Yesterday was our Chinese Mid-autumn Festival or so called Mooncake Festival. There were some gathering out there and I did attend one of them. Unfortunately the sky was gloomy, all we could see was a small orange-ish full moon in the hazy sky. We played games and of course holding the tanglung (paper lantern) walking around chatting with friends. This was not the first time I had this supposed-to-be family reunion festival without my family in Penang, but I felt lonelier than last time. People said that don't be surprised if you are alone in the university, however I still don't know why this happens. I remember during my matriculation time, even a simple celebration among friends was heart-warming, but I felt something was missing in the university.

Sunset scene at lake side.

Can't believe there is such a wonderful scenery among the cities.

A Little Bit About The Beginning of University Life

For me, the best opportunity to change our daily habits is immediately after the orientation week of college or university. The moment we enter the new environment of university, our lifestyle will definitely change. No hot shower, no fluffy bed, no home-cooked dishes, no nagging of mum, and sometimes, no friend. We are like starting everything from zero, setting up our own daily schedule and life as a pre-graduated student. Orientation week gives us an opportunity to adapt to the new environment as we are excited, tired and at the same time being distracted by all the activities held.

This applied to my previous matriculation life, however, not university life. I wonder why this happened. As I recall, my early matriculation life was full of fun and excitement. I was neither homesick nor having any trouble adapting to packed schedule there. Perhaps it was because that I had a group of friends who met up every day and sticked together almost all the time except during bed time as we are having similar schedule. This made me feel that I belong to that place. The sense of belonging is important for us not to feel alienated. Now in the university, even course mates can have different schedule, so I will be alone in the dorm at night. Hopefully I can get used to that as soon as possible, boohoo...

As I know, we will get lazier and lazier as time goes, just like what happened during the second semester of matriculation (feeling regretted for that). So I decide to start my day early, for every single day in the university consistently (unless I go home during weekend, hehe). The reason? Faster access to wifi in the morning! And I don't have to queue up for the bathroom (ugh the water is super cold), plus the surrounding is quiet and peaceful. Of course I will sleep before midnight so that my biological clock is balanced. Self-discipline is crucial in having a healthy lifestyle as there are plenty of freedom and influences. One of my aims is to keep on updating my blog and I am working on it!

(credit to Kai)

My Fellow Coursemates (dedicated to Liew and Kai)

So this is the fifth day after the orientation week of my university. After all these days finally I am quite adapted to life here, thanks to my two course mates, Liew and Kai. Yeah, as expected, there are only three Chinese first year students taking the course of Environmental Science and Technology, so we tend to stick together wherever we go.

Due to the launch of Green Campus Programme, students are encouraged to cycle to class instead of taking the university bus. The amount of buses is decreased and only a few collages have access to buses. As I stay in Tun Perak College which is very far away from my faculty, there is bus service there. However, as there are too many students and too few buses, sometimes we fail to board the bus or have to cramp like sardines. The solution we take to avoid this is to walk to the bus stop in front of the Faculty of Science which is some hundreds metres away instead of waiting for the bus in front of our faculty. We will at least get a place to stand if we board the bus there (although some people think that we are crazy). We once walked back from our faculty to our college 'unintentionally' as we wandered around and 'coincidentally' reached the front gate of residential area. The walking journey took us about half an hour and we were not walking on flat ground. There is a hill before we can reach our college. Anyway, we reached and it was not very tiring but Kai insisted he wants to ride the bicycle next time. So far we have explored the main campus on feet. Every important buildings are within walking distance, so it should not be a problem for us even if there is no bus available (unless we are too lazy to walk).

UPM is a very comfortable campus where there is no heavy traffic and lots of lush greenery. There are huge trees and green fields everywhere (I have never been to the Faculty and Agriculture but I heard that the scenes there are awesome and people love to take wedding photos there). My faculty is located between the Faculty of Food Technology and the gate towards old flat. Although it is quite far from my college, I still consider the location as strategic. Old flat is a place with many photocopy shops (their services for university students amazed me as we can complete our assignments and projects there) and eateries. We can get almost all the things we need there. One of the things I like the most is, I can easily get a variety of fresh fruits there, unlike during matriculation time, I had to munch on only apple and oranges.

Here are some beautiful scenes and students of the Faculty of Environmental Studies. =P

Liew, former matriculation student from Melaka.

Kai, former STPM student from Kepong,

This is me! XD

Well-decorated garden of Block A. (credit to Kai)

Rain water storage system, I believe.

View from first floor.

I love this scene!

The only Chinese first year students of BEST (Bachelor of Environmental Science and Technology).

I really love this place especially the sceneries. More photos will be uploaded after I get my Nokia Lumia 920 back! Stay tune!

4-Day Freedom! Yay!

This is such a lovely morning, for me and some of my friends who have no class on Friday!!! As usual I woke up as 6am this morning and did whatever I want, cleaning up my room. 8am I was out to Putra Food Court to have breakfast with my friend who was going to take the commuter with me. We took the university bus to out faculty then waited for another bus to go to the Serdang commuter station. Honestly this was the first time I travelled this way, where I have to take bus, then commuter, then walk.

Now I am sitting in Coffee Bean in Midvalley (alone, because my friend continued his journey to Kepong) having hot chocolate with marshmallow and spending time. So here is a brief report of where I am and what am I doing as I am boring, haha. I am not shopping as I carry a luggage and it is inconvenient to walk around like this.

Anyway, gonna enjoy these short holidays before I plunge into lots of works of university students. I wonder what are others doing at this time?

I look blurred, haha...

P/S: The hot chocolate here tastes exactly like mum's one, haha...

First Day in UPM

1/9/2013

I am sitting in front of the laptop which is placed on a double-sized writing table under a bright study lamp. To my right, there is a single bed with yellow-grey-white-striped mattress and a tall wooden cupboard. To my left is a huge window facing the south which made my room caged and safe from sun, rain, wind and human beings. There is a notice board with lots of tiny holes on it and the wall is full of the remaining tore plasters. The similarity of everything in this twin room is, old. This is the first day I stay in Tun Perak College of University Putra Malaysia. I moved into the hostel one day early before the registration, so it is still quite empty (especially the space opposite my territory, which belongs to my future (tomorrow) roommate. Coincidently I got the exactly same room number as the hostel that I stayed during matriculation time!

So this is the very simple report of my room, I guess I can survive well here, thanks to the experiences in Selangor Matriculation College. (The reason I am writing about just inside the room is because I am too timid to go outside and explore more, I better wait until the orientation starts.) Aww… I’m so lonely without the internet…

P/S: My roommate who is a final year student came after the orientation, haha…