Reminiscing...

Hey blogger! Welcome me back to this blogging world... XD

MIA for almost an entire year, and here I am, back here, updating this tiny space of mine in the World Wide Web, jotting down all the sweetness and bitterness that I had been through, indirectly serving as a reminder to myself as well as to those who are following my blog... (hehe... wondering if there's even any)

This lil post of mine will touch on bits and pieces of memories collected when I was back in Anderson Junior College, Singapore earlier this year as well as from my current college in Shah Alam, INTEC (International Education College).

Sit back, relax and watch the links that relate these two totally unrelated entities together, be it directly or indirectly (well of course besides the fact that I studied in both colleges this year). I would also like to take this opportunity to express my endless gratitude to both scholarship bodies, the Singapore Government for the ASEAN Pre-U scholarship as well as to the Malaysian Government for the equally prestigious Public Service Department scholarship.

At this time, last year, I was in a position whereby I was full of doubt and was terribly unsure of my decision in accepting the ASEAN scholarship.

"Am I doing the right thing?"

"What if I flop my exams? My scholarship will be terminated..."

"How about hostel life? Can I manage staying alone abroad after sticking to my family for the past seventeen years?"

All these questions haunted me almost every single day despite the increasing excitement that grew within me. When I stepped into the hostel room for the first time, the thought of having to sleep on the upper deck of the double-decker bed and the fact that I'm not going to have roommates for the first night in Parry really hit me hard and my tears began to roll down my cheeks... Imagine that on the first day you're leaving home!! What a bad experience!!

Anderson Junior College is a wonderful JC... "Though we're not the best JC, but neither are we the worst in Singapore". I still remember Ms Leong, the Principal, telling us, JC1s, this during our orientation. The orientation was wonderful, with its theme "Arcadias", and the ever-enthusiastic Councillors really brought me joy and I began to love my college.

Things got really tough for me when I found it difficult to get close friends, seeing all my classmates in PDG22/11, which comprise of China scholars and Singaporeans, getting into their own cliques from their previous secondary schools. Despite being able to mingle well with everyone in class, but the loneliness would be painfully felt when they started setting off in groups to the "Ohana" and canteen for lunch breaks and intervals.

However, not long after that, I got closer to three sweet Singaporean girls, Wan Qin, Hui Ping and Hui Ling and eventually felt very much comforted and accepted into the community. Being appointed as the GP (General Paper) Representative gave me even more confidence and my relationship with my fellow classmates got very much better. Having gone through AJ PE training stint, NAPFA, AJ Family Day and AJ Track & Field together, we got very much closer, just like a happy family. We had many experienced and knowledgeable lecturers and I'm truly elated and grateful, having learned so much from them (Mr Bell, Ms Chua, Mr Lim, Ms Eng, Cikgu Raudah) within such a short period of time.

I'd been given loads of opportunities in AJ. I was selected to represent the college in SMO, given the chance to be part of the enriching Alpha Programme and also got the chance of landing my hands on Wushu "nangun", my latest passion in sports. I made many new friends (especially seniors) from my CCA, Wushu, thanks to Kim who encouraged me to join this martial art that is in a completely different dimension from Taekwondo. Miss my wushu buddies and coach (Ser Lin, Tu Linh, Kim, Ying Feng +++)!

My stay in Parry had also allowed me to make new buddies, not only from Malaysia, but also from other parts of Asia such as from India, China (I had a pretty China roommie), Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines etc. We even had our very own "breakfast clique" and we would sit down together in a group of approximately ten people every morning enjoying our breakfast in the canteen. Miss em' so much! And my bus partner, Chien Wen, miss you loads! :(

When I was faced with the fact that I had to leave this place that I first disliked, but had eventually became a place I adored most, I was truly vexed and the feeling of unwillingness to leave my pals became rather intense. I managed to score strings of A+ in my SPM and thus was awarded the PSD scholarship from the Malaysian Government. These events were supposed to be happy ones but they had instead turned out to be torturing as I had to make a choice between my future and my close-knit buddies in Singapore. I wavered between choices and I even thought of giving up the PSD scholarship for the sake of Wushu and my buddies in AJC!!!

But of course, I had chosen the former instead of the latter for the sake of my future. I had chosen this path because the Malaysian Government had offered me a scholarship that is very much sought after by many, a scholarship that allows me to further my studies overseas in Medicine via a Twinning Programme in IMU. I'm clearly aware that it would be very tough for me to get into NUS Medical Faculty if I were to stay put in Singapore. The places available are very limited and I'll have to be the creme de la creme among the scholars in order to secure a place in NUS Medical Faculty, under the ASEAN scholarship. That's tough and very competitive. It's not safe. No guarantee. If I really want to realise my ambition of becoming a forensic pathologist, I'll have to accept the PSD offer and leave AJC.

On my last day in AJ, my classmates actually planned a surprise farewell party for me... All the wonderful wishes they wrote for me really touched my heart. I promise I'll remember them always. My three Singaporean friends and I also went out for a farewell lunch before bidding each other goodbye for the last time. My three dearest roommates had also planned a similar mini farewell party in our room 03-05 the night before. The gifts that my roommates and my "breakfast clique" gave me, along with their sweet messages on them as well as the cards written by the entire AJ Wushu Team left me with the most precious memories of AJC. The warmth that I felt on my final days in AJC left me feeling truly heavy-hearted to leave AJ forever...

I'm currently studying in INTEC Shah Alam. The vast differences between AJ and INTEC truly left me in awe. First of all is the dress code. From wearing tiny, super-short shorts in AJC to super long baju kurungs, covering almost every single part of my body in INTEC almost drove me crazy in the first few weeks. The scorching hot weather here never fail to leave us all perspiring profusely after walking for less than ten minutes under the sun.

However, the plus point to my new hostel (Kolej Akasia) is that I'll have more personal space, with only two in a room, instead of four back in Parry. We have our own mini kitchen, mini bathroom and a mini laundry area. More space for us to move around, I should say. I'm also very lucky to have found three very friendly housemates and it took us almost no effort at all to clique and very quickly, we started teasing each other as though we had known each other for years.

Maybe it's because of my experience of staying in Parry earlier this year, I don't feel homesick like my other housemates (not that I feel homesick back in Singapore). I guess I'm more accepting in terms of the living conditions and the fact that I have to do everything on my own now (including laundry!! Before this, we had a laundry shop in Parry, whereby we just leave our stinky clothes in laundry bags and collect them back periodically every Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday). The training I had in Singapore made me more independent and more mature in handling matters when it comes to staying with new housemates. I also got used to moving around alone on foot, without supervision of parents, and became more aware of my surroundings.

In INTEC, we had our very own Minggu Destini Siswa (MDS) equivalent to our orientation week in AJC. It was very fun, in a different way from AJ's Orientation. We had to set off from hostel as early as 6.45 am and will only be back by 11++ pm... It was seriously tiring, yet fun... Our Fa-Cs are really nice and sociable. They willingly shared their experiences with us and gave us priceless advices on how to juggle our school work and activities well. We had loads of fun learning all kinds of "tepukan" (tepuk Ahmad Albab, tepuk kura-kura, tepuk sotong dll...).

And yes, as you would have probably guessed, the main language here in INTEC is Bahasa Malaysia (although all classes are conducted in English). I consider myself rather lucky as I'm still able to converse quite fluently in BM, having lived in an almost all-English and Chinese environment for four whole months in Singapore. Maybe I should attribute this to my choice of subject back in AJ. I chose H2 Malay Literature and Language (MLL) instead of the more celebrated Economics as I believed that I'll have an upper hand in that subject, having mastered this language since young, as it is my country's national language.

Things were easier for me in INTEC. Perhaps I've learned how to make friends effectively through my experience in AJC. I got into 12M1 and very quickly got into friendly chatters with my fellow neighbours in class. Our class is by far the most close-knitted class in our batch. Many classes envied the closeness that existed among all of us, even our class photos are said to be the best among all! Yay!

Here, I've met people from different parts of Malaysia. The differences in accent spoken by all of us always make us giggle endlessly, especially when misinterpretations of words arise or when we try to mimic each other's accent during our conversations. All thanks to my roommate, Ting Ling, I've picked up some "utara" accent with "kot" and "gor", but at the same time also not losing touch of my origins (the "selatan" accent), with the help of my other two housemates, Chiu Ling and Winnie.

In terms of studies, my life is easier here since I've covered some of the topics in AS Mathematics and AS Chemistry, having completed an entire semester back in AJC. Hence, I'm able to focus more on Biology, which is more memory-demanding, a subject that I had chosen to drop earlier this year in AJ because I was keener in Physics as compared to Biology. But here in INTEC, I'm forced to drop my pet subject in favour of Bio which apparently is a pre-requisite for me to enter a medical university.

The competition here is definitely much stiffer than it was back in my secondary school days as INTEC is the place where all top students from all over Malaysia gather together under several scholarship programmes. Despite the hectic schedule from 8 am to 4 pm every day due to the trial "fast-track" programme offered to ALM-IMU students, I had a lot of fun learning in class and hence hardly ever felt tired after long hours of studying. Our class is also very fortunate in comparison with other classes to have senior and experienced teachers teaching us all subjects, giving us ample information and knowledge to ace in all our tests and examinations. And once again, 12M1 has become the dream class of many in INTEC, not because of our academic performance, but it is because of the top-notch teachers we get and also the strong bond within our class of 24 students.

I had a lot of fun throughout the whole Semester 1 in INTEC. It has become a commonplace for us to go out in large groups, heading to places like Subang Parade and Sunway Pyramid whenever we have the time, especially after one whole week of gruelling topic tests. Joining activities and trainings organised by "Dhamma On Campus" and Intec Taekwondo Club (ITC) as well as the INTEC Charity Run and Ko-PLN choir performance added much spice to my life as an INTEC-ian. Now, I truly hope that our annual ITC Taekwondo Championship and my proposal to set up the very first INTEC Wushu Club (can't seem to let go of wushu after learning my "nangun taolu" in AJC) will be approved by HEP next year so that all our effort will not go to waste.

Whether it's AJC or INTEC, I've gained a lot of knowledge and invaluable experiences from these two colleges. I've also learned to grab as many opportunities as I can in INTEC after missing out on several NUS and NTU Science Research Programmes and also the AJC Nano Science Research Programme.

I'll miss AJC but I'll also learn to treasure my life journey as a student in INTEC.

Ex-AJCian, Current INTEC-ian,

Hazel.