So, yeah, I was at a Foster The People show last Friday. I would have loved to brag and flaunt and say, “Be jealous!” But, quite frankly? It was the worst concert-going experience ever.

Ok, let’s start from the beginning. Shiv and I took the LRT from Asia Jaya to KLCC and when we got there at 3.30pm, there was already a line outside the hall, with 20+ people in front of us.

The wait outside was excruciating, because we had to listen to other people’s crappy conversations, so much so that by the end of the day, we knew how old they were, what their names are, what other bands they love, etc, without even speaking to them. This might sound normal and all, but trust me, the way they speak was just too darn annoying, it’s like a tie between bimbo and diva, and yeah, those are the right words to describe the boys there, too. We were cold, and our legs were numb, but we were still grateful that it was held indoors or else we would have been soaked by the rain. When the door opened at around 7pm, we ran and grabbed ourselves a good spot close to the stage.

Take a look at that. Our view was so good, right? While waiting, Shiv was telling me about all her tactics on how she usually manage to get to the most front at concerts, and it was really funny and scary at the same time, haha. To me, 2nd row was actually good enough, but of course, I am always curious how standing in front and holding on to the barrier feels like. But well, I was laughing at Shiv because the girl in front of her kept grinding on her as if she was in a night club. I took a video of it, but well, I would get murdered by Shiv if I were to post it up, and I don’t really want to mess with her after getting to know the fierce side of her that night.

When the show started, things turned into a total chaos. Shiv told me to grab on to her arms, and if I didn’t, I swear I would have been pushed to the back already. The crowd was so crazy, it was even worse than MTV World Stage, or the free concerts I have been to, and even worse compared to the K-pop concerts I have been to. And here I thought K-poppers are the craziest, oh how wrong was I! It was like there was an alien invasion, or a bomb blast or something, and everyone just ran to the front even when there was no more space. We were literally ass-to-crotch with the people in front and behind of us, there wasn’t enough breathing space, let alone space to dance! A few girls fainted in the first few minutes of the concert alone. My glasses turned foggy, too due to the heat even though the venue was air-conditioned. I swear, this was the first time in my life where I hope the concert would end much earlier, and that is saying a lot considering how much I love FTP. No, I am not dissing on them, the boys of FTP were amazing, Mark sounds wonderful live, and he was really close to us, walking to the edge of the stage and everything, and Cubbie, Pontius, Isom and Sean were all giving it their all, I could see that clearly. Their live performance was so full of energy, and I squealed on the inside when I saw Mark doing his infamous shoulder shrug dance and back-shuffle. Too bad that I didn’t enjoy it much because the crowd totally killed it for me. Mark told the fans to stop pushing but of course, no one listened. It was rather saddening, hearing those fan girls shouting things like, “You’re so hot!!” when Mark was telling us the touching back-story to the song, “Broken Jaw”, and when he sang the slow-paced, unreleased track, “Ruby”. I was so looking forward to hearing “Ruby” live, because all the other versions on Youtube were so crappy, but again, I didn’t get to enjoy it much unfortunately. ): Shiv wanted to leave the concert ground early, before they even played “Pumped Up Kicks”, and she was so dead serious about it that I felt bad for making her stay but I knew it was the right thing to do, because she would have wasted her money if we didn’t stay for their biggest hit song. She had been holding on to the barrier throughout the whole concert, and her hand was hurting because the girl in front of her had been dancing like a maniac as if she had a seizure or something. And she only did that just so other people would keep their distance from her. Shiv was so pissed that she even spat into her hair twice, and I know that was really mean of her, but I totally understood where that came from and I couldn’t stop laughing. I told her to let go of the barrier when “Pumped Up Kicks” came on because I knew things would get worse, and as we expected, the crowd went so wild and fanatic that we were pushed to the 6th row, and we almost fell a few times. FTP performed all the songs from their record, Torches, in their 1.30hour long set, and they also did a cover of Weezer’s “Say It Isn’t So”. When Mark hit the last note of “Pumped Up Kicks”, before the boys even left the stage, we had already turned our backs to them, pushing through the crowd to get to the exit because we just couldn’t stay there any longer. Our clothes were soaked wet, and I bet our clothes absorbed not just our own sweat, but other people’s, too. Ew.

Photos courtesy of Shiv. Heh

Shiv found out that the guys were staying at Parkroyal Hotel and suggested that we head there to wait for them outside the hotel, so I agreed. We got a bit lost and had to ask around random strangers for direction. Haha. We took the LRT to Dang Wangi, and then switched to a Monorail to Bukit Bintang, then, we finally found our way to the hotel, which was 3 minutes away from the station. But the epic failure moment was when we sat there waiting in front of a different hotel for a few minutes until I asked, “Wait a second…this says ‘Royal Hotel’, not ‘Park Royal Hotel’. Is it the same ah?” Then we realized our mistake and left embarrassingly and went to the right hotel. We waited outside because we saw a bunch of other people waiting at the hotel lobby, including the one girl I really dislike, and the girl who dry-humped Shiv at the concert. While sitting outside, I asked her, “Eh, you already met them at the airport what. How come you wanna meet them again ah?” Then it hit me that we were there not because of her, but because of me, because she knew that I missed out on the chance of meeting them due to my work, so she wanted to help me to meet them after the show. Ngawhhh, right? Haih. But I felt shitty because at that time, her birthday was less than an hour’s time, and we were waiting like fools outside of the hotel, and we were so tired and thirsty, and sore. I mean, could you imagine that we were so tired that we even sat on the escalator because standing up was too much a chore for us? But she was all like, “If I got back home also I would be sleeping, right?” But isn’t sleeping much better? But then, we saw a van stopped outside of the side building, and when we ran there, we saw Isom Innis getting out of the van, into the hotel. The others who waited in the lobby didn’t see him because he didn’t use the main entrance. I asked him if we could take a picture and this other guy said to us, “I’m sorry, he’s very sick right now, so he has to rest.” Isom looked at us apologetically and said, “I’m really sorry, I have an ear infection. Thanks for coming to our show, though.” He took a couple of steps forward, then turned around and said, “Alright, I can do one picture.” Ahhh, how sweet of him, right?? He has the softest voice ever, a little feminine, but he was just so friendly and sweet.

I tweeted him, “Thanks for taking a photo with us last night. Hope u’re feeling better now. It was great meeting you!” And he actually tweeted back saying,

:’) Too sweet of him.

Anyways, Shiv and I decided that we wouldn’t wait for the others because we were sure they went out probably clubbing instead, and they wouldn’t be back until 2am or something. So, we took the Monorail straight to KL Sentral. We walked to some deserted place where the LRT Station was supposed to be, but decided to turn around and assume that it has closed since it was already midnight and all. So, I called my brother to pick us up from KL Sentral instead. KL at midnight is such a scary place, with so many drunkards and perverted man who Shiv described as, “Men who stares at anything with boobs.” Haha. Because of them, we couldn’t even wait at the bus stop like normal people, and instead, we had to sit at the curb side, but my brother got there pretty quickly and we left KL safe and sound. Haha.

And oh, Shiv opened the present I got her in the car, which is a limited edition Star Wars Moleskine notebook. Phew. I was so glad she liked it, I mean, I felt pretty bad cause I didn’t even have the time to write a note or anything and I only wrapped the gift in the morning. But yeah. It was so funny because she made my cousin, my brother, and his friend who were in the car with us to wish her a happy birthday. And they all did what they were told to do. LOL. I have such hilarious friends and relatives. But yeah, happy birthday, Shiv! (:

Oh, yeah, my cousin, Chuen came down to KL for a surprise visit with my uncle and aunt. And on Saturday, we went to have ice cream waffle at Rock Cafe, then we went to play an hour of Left4Dead 2 at the cyber cafe. Gosh, it was so good to just be able to chill and relax. And at night, all of us went to Restoran Haeun Khon at Amcorp Mall for dinner, including Wei Nee, my brother’s girlfriend! Then when we got back, we celebrated Ma’s birthday with a Secret Recipe cake Pa bought for her. And mom said that it was her happiest birthday ever. :’) And of course, I had so much fun torturing my brother and Wei Nee by taking pictures of them and making them feel shy in front of the family. Haha. All of us played Crash Bandicoot on PS1 at home, too. The whole atmosphere was great, like, it actually felt like things are finally all well again, and I really do hope it will stay that way. (: So, like I said. I am just gonna enjoy the moment for now, and not worry about a single thing about my life. So… Peace out!

The lyrics and melody are so beautiful. Thanks to Ryan from the band Runner Runner, I now expect my future husband to propose to me by playing this song acoustically. Heck, it’s even better if he doesn’t know how to play the guitar. My future husband will get his hands on one, and learn to play just this one song, and this will make it all the more special. And if my future husband can’t sing for his life, then it’s ok. On our wedding day, we will hire a band to play the song live while we take our first dance as a married couple. See? I can totally imagine it in my head already. Okay, before this goes way beyond the level of creepiness, I shall stop here. Heh. But on a more serious note, if anyone steals my idea, I swear I will find you wherever you are, and strangle you in your sleep.

Before I say bye. Just wanna wish everyone a Happy New Year!! (: 2011 has been great to me. The amazing people who have came into my life, the new-found friendships that I have forged, the old friendships that I have managed not to screw up, the memories that I have made, the obstacles that I have faced and managed to overcome, the discovery of things which weren’t within my grasps prior to that, and the many many little things which made up my whole year. I am grateful for all of that. And on that note, see you next year!! May 2012 be as wonderful as 2011 had been t0 me. Peace out! (:

Besides the fact that I’ve made the decision to enroll myself in the Bachelor of Communications (Media Studies) course at HELP University after taking a trip to Falcon’s Education Fair at PWTC on Sunday; and that together with HuiYi, I’ve helped Eelaine to bake cookies at her place for the first time in my life on Monday; and that I went for my first ever job interview on Wednesday and was hired as a personal assistant; and that Thursday was my first day of work of my entire life; the third week of December only truly became awesome on Friday… because I finally turned 18. (:

Ok, yes, 18 is just a number. I mean, even though I can legally drink now, it doesn’t matter to me because I don’t like the taste of alcohol anyways. I can finally watch those 18 rated movies, but I’ve already been watching them since forever. I still remember watching that awesomely violent movie, 300, when I was in Form 1. So… why is turning 18 so special?

If you know me, then you would know that if I could, I would love to remain 17 forever. I love using the, “Don’t blame me, I’m only 17, it’s okay if I don’t know how to do that!” excuse. Or taking a jab at people by saying, “Oh God, I’m not even 18 yet and I’m acting more mature than you already.” It’s kinda sad that I won’t be able to say those things any more!

A friend told me, “Adulthood? Not yet lah. Still got three more years.” True. We are only legally adults when we’re 21, cause that’s when we can finally vote in elections and things like that. But, 18 is still a milestone. I mean, there’s a reason why you can finally open a bank account of your own, right? And there’s also a reason why the parental consent form is no longer needed in college for those who are 18 and above. To me, turning 18 means leaving my teenage years behind, and saying hello to adulthood, it feels that way even more especially now that I am working.

And I’m really glad that I got to celebrate my 18th birthday with people I care for. Ying Ying, Hui Yi, Pei She, Grace, Shean Yen, Yi He, Kyle, Daniel, Divo and Shivany. I distinctly told Ying Ying, Hui Yi, and Pei She that I didn’t want a surprise for my birthday, I just wanted to spend a nice and quiet time with them, but they just wouldn’t listen. Pfft. I was in a really pissy and grumpy mood for a birthday girl when the others surprised me at Starbucks after we had a picnic at the KLCC park. It wasn’t that I didn’t want them there. I do, I really do. It’s just that I wanted everyone, and I mean, EVERYONE to have a good time, and not just me.

When the college social circle and high school social circle collide, nothing good can come out of it. We were sitting at Chili’s, and I felt bad because if I were to talk to my college friends, I would have to ignore my high school friends, and vice versa. The fact that I was seated at the far end of the table makes it even harder for me to socialize with everyone. I wanted everyone to feel included, but that was impossible to happen. I felt even worse because Grace was alone among the 5s6 gang after Shean Yen left early; Daniel’s birthday was 2 days before mine and I didn’t get to celebrate with him; Shivany had, and still has high fever and yet she had to force herself out of bed for me; as much as I like Kyle, I didn’t really keep in touch with him much throughout the year, which made me really guilty that he still cared enough to come.

You can think of it in two different ways. One, the noble reason: I want to have time for all of my friends, like, spend a whole day with them, and not split myself into different parts and not giving my full attention to everyone. Or second, the selfish reason: Even though I really wanted to celebrate my birthday with everyone, I wanted to be happy on my birthday instead of feeling guilty about me being a really bad friend while my friends are so nice to me. Ohhh, puh-lease, don’t look at me that way, you know what I’m talking about. I’m sure you have had that feeling before, too.

But still, no matter what, it was one of the best birthday celebrations I’ve had. Really. And I appreciate what my friends have done for me. And on that note, I shall go back to work now. Bye bye.

Today, I filled in the Student Completion Form and handed my student ID card back to the people at the office. As much as I hated how terrible I looked in the student ID card photo, it was still hard for me to take it out of my purse for one last time. I should be saying, “Good riddance! I don’t have to see it any more!” But instead, I was thinking about how important the number 11028787 was to me for the past 9 months. I think I’ve probably typed out the number for a higher amount of times than I have of my IC number, and I’m not even exaggerating.

Then, I collected my finals results from Ms. Leezah. After signing all the paper works and completing all the forms, she handed the huge envelope which contained my results in it. I was supposed to have that “oh-my-god-my-whole-future-depends-on-this-piece-of-paper-in-this-envelope!” kind of moment, but it was ruined because one of the forms which I had to sign before getting the envelope stated that I graduated with honours and not distinction, which means my avearage was only 80% and above.

How disappointing. Ok, yeah, I did get 93% for both English and Communication Technology, 90% for Economics, and 78% for World Issues. The three 90s are already quite a tough feat, me thinks, so it was actually something worth celebrating. And I was also sad that I got a B for World Issues, but wasn’t too depressed about it because I kinda expected that since my mid term marks was already 81%. But I wasn’t glad at all. I immediately calculated my total average mark, including the 86% for Advanced Functions and 88% for Interdisciplinary Studies, and the calculation ended with a big fat 88% at the end.

I know I’m supposed to be grateful, and according to the course median, I am far above average, and I’m sure there are people who would be ecstatic with results like mine, but it still wasn’t good enough. There’s nothing for me with only 88%. Nothing. All the universities that I’ve checked out only offers scholarship at either >95% or >90%, and nothing below that. I’ve thought about what I could have done to get a higher score and nothing came to mind. But why do I feel so guilty and so shitty about myself right now?

Right. Because I can see the disappointment in my parents’s eyes. The way they looked at me is as if I’m nothing but the black sheep in the family. I know I’m not living up to their expectations. The bar that Douglas ko had set was far too high for me to reach. It was bad enough that their dissatisfaction could clearly be seen on their face, but my mom just had to use that soft, “I’m-too-sad-to-even-raise-my-voice-at-you” tone and say to me, “很失望”.  I snapped after hearing that. And I regretted it tremendously when I have cooled off a little bit. I shouldn’t have raised my voice at her. I don’t know what triggered that. But then again, maybe I do.

I guess I was more angry at myself then at them. I have failed myself. And that sucks.

YES. South Jordan is FINALLY going to release their debut album on the 20th of December. :B I have been in love with their music since October 10, 2010. Yes, I first heard of them on that very date, and the rest, they say, is history. Initially, they were supposed to drop their debut album in May this year, but there had been a change in the line-up of the band, so some of the songs had to be rerecorded, and yadda, yadda, all those problems. But, the main thing is, IT’S GONNA BE OUT SOON!!! Listening to the studio version of some of the songs from the album on their website made me even more excited for this! (CLICK) And they look so good in the photos, too!

South Jordan is (L to R) Jesse Feister, Michael David Hall, Bobby Campbell, Benton Kubicki

Look forward to a blog post in the future of me gushing about every single track on the record. (:

Thursday – After our finals exam, Daniel, Divo, Shiv, and I watched Breaking Dawn at Sunway Pyramid, on the day of it’s release itself! (: Kinda felt weird though, cause I usually watch the Twilight movies with Pei She, Hui Yi, and Ying Ying. But I didn’t really have a choice, because we seriously had nothing else to do after our paper, which ended at 10.30am, so there was no way we would just go home right away, and this was the only movie we all wanted to watch. The movie wasn’t that good in my opinion, compared to the book, I mean. Yes, people, I read the whole Twilight saga. Deal with it! I miss Edward’s hair back in the first movie ): Robert Pattinson looked hotter back then! *sigh* After I walked home from Sunway Pyramid, I watched another movie, One Day, starring Jim Sturgess (another yummy Brit) and Anne Hathaway, and I kept weeping and sobbing like a fool. GO WATCH IT IF YOU HAVEN’T YET! Anyways, yeah, I was in my emo phase at the thought of me being officially done with college now that finals is over, that was why I was watching depressing movies. Heh.

Friday – Daniel picked me, Shiv, and Divo up from our house and we went to Batu Caves. Why? Well, because we were bored. It was actually my first time exploring Batu Caves, yes, yes, I know I failed as a Malaysian. Surprisingly, there were more Chinese there than Indians. The monkeys scared the crap outta me. One tried to grab Shiv’s leg, while another tried to snatch Daniel’s bottle of water away from him, while Divo and I just kept running away from them. Don’t look at me that way, okay! The monkeys were aggressive! They were hissing at us! ):

Saturday – Pei She, Hui Yi and I went to Methodist College in KL to watch Ying Ying’s musical, Ramu and Chu Lian. My mind was blown away when Ying Ying came on stage with a hip-hop star’s look and started rapping to Nicki Minaj’s “Super bass”. Hah! Ying Ying was such a scene stealer, as always, and never shy to make a fool out of herself on stage. :’) Glad to see that she hasn’t changed one bit at all! I actually enjoyed myself that night, and I was impressed that the students of MCKL actually came up with the whole play all by themselves, even the scripts! Kudos to them! (: And dayummm, they have quite a few really talented singers there at MCKL. When this one dude started belting out his rendition of The Script’s “The Man Who Can’t Be Moved”, I turned to HuiYi and said, “I wanna marry his voice!” Haha.

Sunday – I was actually having quite a pleasant one-on-one time with my beloved laptop when suddenly, I saw this post on Facebook.

Apparently, Shiv got me an early birthday present already. I didn’t know how to react to this, and still don’t , to be honest. Yeah, sure, it has always been a dream of mine to attend a Foster The People concert, since I’ve been a fan of theirs before I’ve even begin my college studies, so I should be super stoked about this gift… but I’m not? Okay, maybe I am, heck, no, scratch that, of course I am elated! Without realizing it, I have been replaying FTP’s record non-stop for a few days now. But it isn’t all 100% pure joy of happiness though. I’m also feeling frustrated, worried, guilty, and a tad bit mad. I’ve told her a billionth time before that I do not want her to spend so much money on me, and she didn’t listen to me. The ticket is worth RM169. Heck, I don’t think my parents have given me a gift worth that much before in my whole life. I’m the kind of person who would be grateful to receive an ang pau with a RM50 note in it from mom and dad. True story. I’m mad at my brother as well, because he knew that she was gonna buy the ticket, and he didn’t stop her. I mean, I had already planned to get the ticket myself, that was the whole point of me skipping the CIMP graduation ceremony, so I can save up the cash to get the ticket. He told me, “Just accept it, it’s a gift… You spent your time helping her and stuff, and now this is her way of repaying you back.” That got me a little more riled up because I felt as if I was a gold digger. Both of them had missed out on the whole point. I do not expect, and do not want her to get me a gift just because I’ve helped her a lot, or else that wouldn’t be called a gift, but a reward instead. But my brother read me like an open book as he said to me, “Bullshit. You’re not mad because of this. You’re just mad because you won’t be able get her a better birthday present than this.” Ugh. Which is partially true. Like, how is it possible to beat a gift like THAT?? But, all I gotta say to that is, I love a good challenge, so… Challenge Accepted!

Monday – The Big Bad Wolf Aftermath Sale was held in South City Plaza, Serdang, and all books were sold at the price of RM5 or below. Of course, the bibliophile in me wanted to take this opportunity to fill up the empty spaces on my book shelf (even though I still have plenty of unread books left), but I had no idea how to get to Serdang. So, on Monday morning, EeLaine picked me up from college in her car, rocking her sunglasses, looking so cool and all, and with me riding shotgun. Haha. We stopped by her place for a while, and I got to meet her adorable dog who just seemed to love to stay on my lap the whole time I was squatting down. :B

Then, we took the LRT to Sri Petaling. We almost got lost on the way there, because we had to take a transit train and everything, but it was all good though, it was still kind of a fun experience. Haha. I just wanna say that thank God Eelaine was there with me, because if I was alone at that time, I think I would have probably given up the whole idea of the trip and just take a cab home or something already. You know, I always thought that girls’s sense of direction is bad, but not EeLaine. Woah. She seems to know how to get to places and everything and she tried to explain to me where we were at and all, but I just gave up on listening because I know that it won’t stay in my head for long. I think I would probably be the kind of girl who heavily depends on a GPS to get to places in the future once I’ve gotten my driving licence. Haha. At Sri Petaling, EeLaine’s friend, Jason Lioh drove us to South City Plaza and then we spent about an hour there shopping for books. I got 5 titles, which are The Keepers of Truth by Michael Collins, The Cider House Rules by John Irving, Love is Strange by Joseph Connolly, Evening is the Whole Day by Preeta Samarasan, and Six Suspects by Vikas Swarup. I would have gotten more books, but I asked myself, “Do these books really seem interesting, or am I getting them just because it’s cheap?” So, I put a few books back. See? I don’t have to worry about being a shopaholic in the future, since I’m such a rational person. xD

 After that, Jason took us to Sri Nirvana Maju at Bangsar to have banana leaf rice for lunch. (Pic: http://twitpic.com/7kz04j) And we also went to the Star Wars Lego exhibition in Bangsar Village. (Pic: http://twitpic.com/7kz7rb) All in all, I had a really fun day, although I was dog-tired and had a really long nap afterwards. Hah! But November 28 was a historical day for both EeLaine and I, because it was the first time in our life that we had lunch with each other, after being friends for 5 whole months! :’) Lol.

Of course, I don’t feel as sad compared to high school’s graduation where I have to say goodbye to people who I have known for 5 years, the teachers, the classmates, the friends, the cliques, and even the Indian security guard who was always so friendly to everyone. I’ve only known my college mates for a few months, that’s why I find it even more surprising that I’m actually feeling all depressed and emotional today.

First of all, I’m going to miss Pink House. That crappy restaurant across of the college compound. The food there isn’t impressive. The ambiance is terrible. Everyone there smokes, so I can hardly feel the air conditioner at all because it’s like an oven most of the time. And I have breathed in so much second-hand smoke there that I think I will probably get lung cancer a year from now. But, as much as I hated that place, I know I will miss it a lot, because as much as I hate to admit it, it’s like a third home to me right after my real home, and college, of course. Pink House was our hang out spot for the whole of second semester in CIMP. We went there for lunch almost every single day, and we would torture ourselves by watching the crappy reality TV show playing on MTV channel. Heck, one day from now, I’m sure I would even miss Harun, the pervy waiter with that weird accent who would call my friends, “seksi gal”, because, sometimes, he’ just plain hilarious. But most of the time, he’s just really creepy.

And of course, I would also miss my lecturers. Miss Vanessa Persaud, Miss Nancy Sutter, Mr. Robert Murphy, and Mr. Jean de Villiers. Seriously, I can’t imagine what the semester would be like without them as my lecturers. They are just the coolest bunch ever.

Even though it was only Miss Vanessa‘s first semester here in CIMP, she does not lack in skills or experience or anything like that. She tried her best to make lessons fun, and she managed to do just that, because communication technology is the one subject I have never dreaded to go to class to before.

And Miss Nancy, our hippie teacher. We knew she was different from the other lecturers since the very first day of class. She has this really unique way of teaching, and thanks to her, I actually learned how to think differently from various perspectives of things. World issues is actually a boring subject, but just being there in class, listening to her worldviews is fascinating enough. It still amazes me how open minded she is, and how she treats her students as peers. She didn’t even flinch when my classmate used the ‘F’ word when he was answering her question. She could still ask, “Do you mean sex, or like, messing with someone? I don’t really know which definition of the word you’re trying to convey to us.” See how cool she is???

And Mr. Murphy, my English lecturer. Ah, he probably doesn’t remember this, but I had spoken to him a week before I enrolled myself in CIMP, during Sunway University’s Open Day. My parents and I sat in front of the CIMP booth, listening to him prattling about some story about a boy who thought he was going for July intake, but his dad enrolled him immediately, and he was laughing heartily and saying, “That poor kid.” My parents confessed to me that they didn’t actually understand what he was saying half the time because he was speaking too fast for them, and his words were harder to comprehend for them because of his Canadian accent. But maybe because I’ve watched too many American movies, that’s why I could understand every single word he was saying, and I was the only one laughing along to his story. I kind of knew that I wanted him as my English lecturer right then, because I knew he would have plenty of stories to tell in class, and trust me, there were PLENTY. Mr. Murphy is a true story-teller. Heck, there’s no doubt in my mind that if he was to write an autobiography, it would be as thick as an encyclopedia, and I’m sure I would still take my time to read it because his stories are just so full of life. I would definitely miss the times when we were supposed to have a free period, and attendance in class wasn’t even required, but I still went to class, and listened to him talk, and we would discuss about various novels and authors and academic writing. But if there was one thing I regretted though, it was that I dozed off in class a few times before when he was reading King Lear (see? I learnt in his class that if it’s a title of a play, then we have to underline it, not put it in a quotation marks. :B) in class. I would like to apologize for that, it wasn’t you who was boring, Mr. Murphy! It was Shakespeare! Blame it on him!

And of course, there is Mr. D. I had to stay up late for the subject registration to open at midnight so I could register myself for his class immediately. He is the best economics teacher in CIMP, and everyone knows that. His period 5 class was full 30 minutes after the online registration opened. See how popular he is? Well, I was from science stream, so I was totally clueless when it comes to economics. I thought that I would hate this subject a lot, but instead, I fell in love with it, and I am quite positive that it’s all thanks to Mr. De. This was the one class I gave my full attention to, no matter how tired I am. And most of the time, I would be feeling really sleepy already because his period 6 class only starts at 2.45pm. He made this semester a great one, there’s no doubt about that. Most of all, he is just so full of positive energy and heck, sometimes wish I have more friends who are like him, because it’s just so good to surround yourself with people like Mr. De. If I become rich one day, it would be all thanks to Mr. De.

Ok, now that I have covered my lecturers, I shall mention a little about the friends I have made in CIMP. I have to admit that I was am quite of a loner, and I am socially awkward, and I suck at striking up conversations with people. So, to be honest, I didn’t really make a lot of close friends throughout this past 9 months. But it doesn’t matter if we weren’t exactly close, but these people have been part of my life, so they all deserve a mention!

First, the Chinese gang. Yup, I call them the Chinese gang. Back in first semester, they always huddle around at the back of the class, forming their own little clique consisting of…. well, Chinese. Alicia, Carmen, Charis, Leng, KC, Edwin, Kah Kit, Sherlyn… and who else did I miss? Ah, forgive me if I’ve missed out on anyone, but yeah. The main point is, I’m glad that I got to know you people no matter what. And also, I’m glad that I joined you guys to play futsal along with Daniel, Chuben, Tommy, and the others, no matter how badly bruised my toe is now. I mean, heck, even after a week, my toe is still leaking some pus stuff. It looks so darn gross! Well, yeah, basically, all of the people from IDC class back in first semester, you guys rock!

Then, there is the comm tech group people. Ok, I confess, I didn’t really mix around with everybody in the class because our assignments usually require us to sit in front of our computers and work on our projects. But I will miss Mohanad Bajunaid, the adorable 22 year old from Yemen who always thinks so highly of himself, and always thinks that his presence itself is worthy of a celebration. At first, I kinda thought that he kinda looks like a terrorist, but it’s all cool because after I got to know him better, he’s just such a comedian. Also, Raian Mahmud, my so-called secret buddy (he came up with this lame term, not me), because apparently our friendship is like one of between a psychiatrist and a patient of some sort. He would always come to be with his troubles and I would try to act like Dr. Phil and throw out some sound advice. He shall be remembered as the nice guy who would always help me out with computer related stuff without asking anything back in return, so thank you for that. As long as I still use the fake Adobe programmes such as Photoshop and Illustrator on my laptop, then I would still have you to thank! And next, we have Anthony Paul. He shall be remembered as the British-Tanzanian dude who would always disturb me on Facebook and the future-rap-star-to-be. I will miss insulting his British roots every time I see him. He has me to thank for telling him that not all Malaysians are Malay, and not all Chinese comes from China. Heck, I’m sure he would get beaten up one day if he kept saying, “I love China!” to every single Chinese he sees. And of course, I would miss Tan EeLaine. ♥ It’s funny how I’ve seen her in Catholic High School so often, and heard of her name before, but we never became friends up until we found out that we were in the same comm tech class. She is just a bundle of joy, and it’s amazing how she could always be so active in class so early in the morning. Sometimes, I just feel like dropping dead on the keyboard but she would always keep me awake with her stories. There’s just something about the way she speaks, like, she can make even the most banal story sound interesting because she would be so hyped up about it, and you would just feel excited about the story as well, even though it has nothing to do with you at all. It’s really sad that we had never had lunch before throughout the whole semester. Her break  was in period 3, mine was in period 4. ): And if one day, we ever get the Starbucks vouchers which we won from Miss. Vanessa, EeLaine promised that we would go get a cup of coffee together, because for some reason, I make the worst choices ever when it comes to ordering Starbucks coffee. The two friendship bracelets you made for me will always be around my wrist 24/7 until the day my left hand gets chopped off or something. And even if that ever happens, I would still always have my right hand, right? Well, yeah, that’s a promise I hope to keep! (:

The English class gang. Ah, to be honest, we weren’t really a gang – gang, but there’s just a sense of togetherness when we were all under Mr. Murphy’s teaching…does that even make sense? Well, no, I’m just lying to myself. Actually, the Iranian gang tend to stick to themselves, and the Malaysian gang stick to themselves as well, besides a few rare occasions, of course. Nelisa, Fatin, Iman, Adrian, Ewen, Charity, Alex and Charis, I will miss you guys a lot! Charis, who I can actually relate to the most, because we both are just so kiasu, and  we always want to ace our tests, assignments, and everything else, that’s the main reason why we picked each other as our presentation partner. Heh. And Charity, the girl who’s always laughing at everything, it’s a pleasure to gush about Kpop with you and Charis! (: And of course, Alex, my friendly rival who is always so mean to me. The 16 year old KID would call me old, and lame, and a loser, and he would point the middle finger at me as well. He’s so lovable, right? Haha. But yeah, I would definitely miss him a lot, too, because he makes the class more interesting. And the rest of the class who I don’t really talk to often, (well, mostly because it’s difficult to talk during Mr. Murphy’s class), thank you, for playing even a small part in my college life. (:

Well, of course, I can’t possibly categorize all of my friends into groups. So, to the little individuals, like Vincy, the adorable Chinese girl in class who always make me laugh whenever she tells me stories of this certain classmate of ours. :’) I will actually kinda miss that certain classmate, too, since his Facebook page brought so much laughter to us all. And Jo, ah, you might not know it, but I am so gonna miss you when you leave for Australia next year! You are just one of a kind! I mean, I seriously, and literally do not have any other friend who is as obsessed with fan fiction as much as you do. We bonded through K-pop ever since the first day of college, and then through the TV shows we watched, and then through the books we read. Heck, you’re the only person I know in college who loves books as much as (and I think, probably even more than) I do! And you’re a twitter whore, too! Like, sometimes I wonder, why aren’t we closer friends??? And Gladys, the self-proclaimed retard! Oh, how she made me laugh so hard from her retardedness. Her weird antics and wrong responses makes her the joker of the class, and for some reason, she’s happy playing that role. I will forever remember some of the epic things she said and did. :’) And Audrey, although we don’t talk much, but still, there’s no doubt that you’re a fun person to be around with. It was great being able to volunteer with you and Gladys at the Terry Fox Run, because you guys are the perfect duo who never fail to crack me up.

And Daniel, one of the nicest guys on planet earth who is just so weird sometimes! The way he thinks, the way he acts, the way he speaks, and ESPECIALLY the way he types. He looks so mature, and he acts mature, but deep down, he is so childish, like, he loves pulling pranks on people and I became his victim once or twice before. And Hevin, my mankatha ninja! I think that I am probably an embarrassment to him, with me being so Indian and all. Heh. And Chuben, who is just so adorable and he looks like a mini, harmless teddy bear. I shall remember the times when I sang “Evan di Unan Pethan” in his car and lost my voice, good times… good times.

And Stephen James Morrison, (I chose to highlight his name in purple, because that’s the official colour for twats) 17 year old from Saltcoats, Scotland. (That’s how he assured me that it was him when he was chatting with me on Facebook when he was drunk) He is probably the only 6 foot tall guy in this world who is afraid of me…well, only because I’ve slapped him twice in the face on two different occasions. Well, it’s not my fault for being so violent! He truly deserved it! And he calls me names and he insults my music taste. Pfft. Well, at least we’re planning to go to Foster The People’s concert together with Shiv though. And even after months of having lunch with him every single day, I still can’t understand half the things he’s trying to say because his accent is so bloody thick. I tried mimicking his accent before, trust me, but it’s just too hard! But I’ve been practicing hard to say “I hate you” in his Scottish accent though, it’s like, “Aye haide yer!” If anyone of you are curious how it’s pronounced, if you ever see me in person, ask me about it, and I will gladly say it to you!

OK. the next two people, who I will probably miss the most. Heck, I can probably write two whole posts just about you guys and it still wouldn’t be enough. There are just waaaay too many memories when it comes to these two.

Divoshini aka, my Hoot! aka my pune! aka my snakedy snake. Gosh, there are just too many nicknames when it comes to her. Haha. Divo, she has got a face for a smile. She seems to be laughing at everything and that’s what everyone loves about her. She’s like a mom AND a child to me both at once if that’s even possible. There she is, always baking cupcakes for everyone and making sure that everyone is well fed. And she felt especially like a mom to me when she taught me all those Tamil words. Hah! And she and Vin have turned me into an Indian by giving me my Indian name, Trishini Nyalapalasamy. And I gave her a Chinese name as well,  迪微寺尼, Heh. We are kind of like sisters sometimes, because we both feel like we have the same parents, and our families are like the Indian and Chinese version of each other. Haha. When we tell each other stories regarding our family, we could totally relate to each other, and sometimes, that was what I needed. So, thank you for that. I would miss the times we had our Nasi Goreng Pattaya Special and bubble tea together at the cafeteria. That was like a first world problem to us, pondering what to eat for lunch and walking round and round the cafeteria. And I would always remember her as the girl who gets high on ribena. :’) Oh, some of the epic things she texted me when she had too much ribena in her system were all saved. Even when my inbox is full, those messages were some of the ones I would keep forever. Hah! Take care during next semester, aite? Things will all turn for the better, for sure. (:

Shivany SenthilNathan. Phew. I thought it was gonna be easy typing her part out, since there are just way too many things I can write about her. But this is actually quite tough… since she’s like the one person I talk the most with this semester. In fact, we talked so much in person AND online, I wonder how is it possible that I’m not sick of her yet, or vice versa. Weird thing is, I don’t believe that we were ever this close back in first semester, because we only hung out in a group and chatting with her on Facebook was so awkward that I would sometimes just find an excuse to go offline to avoid the awkward silences. Yeah, I’m sure she didn’t know that I lied to her when I said, “Hey, so…I have to go offline now.” when actually I didn’t really have to but I just appeared offline on Facebook. Oops. Sorry bout that. Heh. My baaad. Oh, you wanna know a funny story? Back on her first day in college, she actually sat next to me in our English workshop class. She finished her essay so fast that I was thinking in my head, “Dayummm, this girl can really write.” And in her head, I’m sure she was probably thinking, “Why is this girl so slow ah? Must be because she’s Chinese, and her English is bad.” Yeah, racism is her thing. But anyway yeah, I don’t know what happened, but we’ve gotten much closer in the second semester. Sometimes, I think, even TOO close. I think I probably know more about her than I know about my own family members. Something just isn’t right with that girl, you know? She just tells me things that I don’t think she’s supposed to tell anyone at all. Like, her facebook, youtube, email, and ATM passwords? Like, who in their right mind would just let someone who they’ve only known for a few months know about details like that? Heck, I am so secretive about my own password that I would give anyone the death stare if they were to look at the keyboard when I’m keying in my passwords. And that’s one thing I find really peculiar about our friendship. We are just so different that I don’t even know how our friendship worked out. She’s from this gangster school (that’s what I called SMK Subang Jaya) while I’m from this holy, lesbian school (that’s what she called Catholic High School). She was*cough* the popular girl in school who bullies people, while I was the nerd who practically lived in the school library. Our worlds aren’t supposed to meet. If I were in her high school, I would probably have been one of her bully victims. If she were in my high school, she would probably have been kicked out already.  But for some reason, our friendship did work out, and I can’t seem to figure out why. As much as I hate to admit it, she has influenced me a LOT in my life, and she probably doesn’t even realize that. The way I type, the way I speak, the way I react to certain things, I don’t do that back when I was in high school. I mean, c’mon, would high school Trecia really use this stupid emoticon, ^_^ and use the word “shit” so many times? I doubt it. Because of her, I have lost my sense of identity. Haih. And SEE. Another example. I used to type “*sigh*” instead of “haih”. Even the way I sigh online has changed! It’s just that, I don’t know why, she just seems to have an identity of her own which is so unique, it could only be hers and no one else’s. She always say that it’s freaky how I could read her mind, but it’s actually not because I have mastered the skill in figuring her out. Does that even make sense? Like, I actually noticed her different facial expressions and I could give them names like, the “Motherchud face”, the “Mutton face”, the “Jackie Chan” face, and so on. And I guess, she finally got used to the fact that I could read her better than she can, then we started this brain wave thing where we just had to glance at each other to know what the other is thinking about. Hence, we start sending brain signals to each other whenever there’s something too epic not to be mentioned. This is like how Lily and Robin did it in How I Met Your Mother, you know? Just that when they did it, it was an epic failure. Hah. But yeah, that was a great episode. (: Anyway, yeah, back to topic. Yeah, her influencing me. I seriously do not know what kind of sorcery she is using on me, but she can make me do the stupidest things ever and make me go to events I don’t even want to go. About the stupid things, I can’t really mention them because then I would be too embarrassed to look at anyone in the eye any more. We have this routine, every single night, I would leave her a long message on Facebook consisting of bullshit, crap stories, 9gag posts and Tumblr gifs. And in the morning, she would wake up at 5am, take a 30 minute long, cold shower, come online, read my message, check her other notifications, then reply to my message an hour later, and she’ll watch Powerpuff Girls on TV or something, and go to college. And then the whole cycle goes on and on, and so far, it has not been broken since the cycle started out in late August during the Raya holidays. How awesomely lifeless is that, huh? I mean, right now, our chat history is gonna reach 16,000 messages soon. Woah. And when we come home from college, we would also chat on Facebook about nonsense, every single day. Whenever my brother comes into my room and if he sees me on Facebook, her chat would most probably be there. Then my brother would shake his head and say, “You guys are like boyfriend and girlfriend ah? Just saw each other 30 minutes ago also must chat already.” And even this random mutual friend of ours called us robots once, because he said he always sees both of us online 24/7. I knew things were bad when the one time I went offline to do my studies and came back online at 11pm, I got scolding from her, and she asked if I was dead, because unless that happens, then I am not allowed to pull this stunt on her anymore. Hmm… and now here I am wondering. When next year comes, and we no longer have the same classmates and topics to talk about, would we still be able to chat like that? Or would we drift apart and just go back to those days back in first semester where I have to pretend to be offline to avoid any awkwardness between us? Ok, now it’s getting way too depressing. And I can’t believe this paragraph alone is already more than a thousand words, I could have gone longer if I wasn’t too tired of typing. She would probably slap the shit outta me, figuratively, for even thinking that way. But, you know, life happens. And I just happen to always over think stuff. It’s like how I’m worried that now that I’m graduating from CIMP, there won’t be anyone there to help her out next semester when she needs help with her work? And now that I’m graduating, who is there to tell her whether or not what she’s about to do is the stupidest decision in the world, or an acceptable one. But putting aside my worries, what I’ll miss though, is all of our moments. Like, I don’t think I can ever listen to a Bruno Mars song without thinking of her because apparently that’s our jam. And I would miss reading her journals of course, because her writing and thoughts always makes me smile. I would miss blackmailing her like all the time. I would miss giving her the side-glance in class whenever the word “India” is mentioned in class. I would miss the times we spent at Pink House. And most of all I would miss all the times where we would sit on the bench in front of the information centre, waiting for our parents to pick us up every single day after class ends. That was our bench. And today, after class ended, we sat there as usual. Her on her side of the bench, and me on my side of the bench….It’s funny how I was the first person she sat next to on her first day in CIMP, and she was the last person I sat with on my last day in college, huh? Damn. I’m gonna miss her so damn much. Can’t believe we have to begin our long distance relationship on our 99^th day anniversary. Promise me that our friendship has to be tighter than that brown pants which makes Mr. De’s ass so mantap, ok? Then 15 years from now, you’ll get to see my sepet generation. And I can finally see for myself if Krishna is a labour kid or not. Xoxo – Your Juju Woof Pondati.

OK. And now, to end this depressing blog post. I will miss CIMP, definitely. I will miss college life. I will miss Sunway University College. I will miss every single thing and every single person who I’ve met throughout the past 9 months. Sorry if I’ve missed out on anyone, it wasn’t intentional or anything. And sorry if my English is rather crappy, I know I switched between the past and the present tense too many times already, I’m letting Mr. Murphy down. And lastly, I feel sorry for anyone who has to read through all this crap that I have written. Like, you deserve a candy for reading all these 4,700+ words. This is the longest post I have ever written in my whole life before. And now, I am officially signing off. Peace out.

My grandma had lived a pretty long life, but she didn’t really live life to the fullest. Even when my parents wanted to bring her to Genting Highlands for a vacation, when we finally reached there, she claimed that it was too cold for her, and so we had to go back home just 30 minutes after my dad had parked the car.

To be honest, my grandma didn’t like me. In fact, she didn’t like every single one of her granddaughters. She liked her grandsons more. Once, when I was sitting on the sofa watching TV, she deliberately turned the fan which was blowing at me to another direction where no one else was sitting. I didn’t really speak much to her when she was still alive because the only language she knew was Hainanese, and that is one language I know nothing of. So, it was hard for her to pronounce my name, and she would usually just call me “Cicak”, or lizard, in Bahasa Malaysia. For some reason, “Cicak” sounds a lot like “Trecia” to her.

But despite not being really close to her, I would still miss her. I would miss her calling me Cicak, I would miss her toothless smile and that eccentric laughter, and I would even miss all the profanities she threw at me even though I have no idea what most of them meant. I was amazed that at her age, she could still swear like a sailor.
We had went back to Johor to visit her just 4 days before she took her last breath, so I’m glad that we got to see her one last time. My grandma passed away at the age of 94. She would be turning 95 this Thursday. I don’t know if I have the time to blog on that day. So, I would just like to take the opportunity to say here, Happy Birthday, Popo. You will truly be missed.

21 October: Class field trip to KLCC. Took the LRT to Pasar Seni as well. Heh. Good times with good people. (:

Photos credited to Raian and Eelaine.

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I have a week of holiday thanks to Deepavali celebration. I told myself I’m gonna make good use of this last holiday before I graduate from CIMP, but so far, I haven’t done anything really productive. Well, I’ve caught the latest Hugh Jackman film, Real Steel, and that’s about it, if you can count that as productive at all. But, nyeh, whatever. I’ve still got time.

PS: I am super excited for Hot Chelle Rae’s sophomore album, to be released on November 29. ♥