Thoughts About Work

Here are some of the quotations that I like, by my friends:
- The present does not matter, but it’s the person who gives the present that matters.
- We need courage in our life for making every single step

After working, I realize several things:
- We earn enough money to spend, but we often do not have enough money to give to our parents.
- Even if there is no work for the day, we still feel tired after getting home from work.
- By following the rules strictly, we will not be able to achieve our goals. Think of the box!
- Distance is not an issue. Even though I have friends working in the same company, we only see each other for a chat during gatherings. The company is too big and we often do not have the time to catch up with each other.
- People often give up a good job opportunity because of transport and location. As the saying goes, “no pain no gain”. Short term suffering is better than losing a good opportunity. I will definitely go for it, unless there are some other factors that I may need to consider at that time (eg: parents’ health).
- Many people let problems to make their life tough, instead of solving them. Problems are meant to be solved. If no actions are taken, a problem will forever remain as a problem.
- We were striving hard to get a “nice certificate” during our studies. But these certificates are merely the key to get for an interview. There are much more skills that we need to learn other than the facts from the books, and these skills have proved to be much more useful in the future.
- The worst part of a wedding is the wedding dinner. If you invite guests A, then you must invite guest B as they both know you. Then, if you invite guest B, then you must invite guest C. In the end, you will need to invite many people. However, can you afford to invite so many people? If yes, go ahead. If no, you will have a headache selecting the people to invite. Wedding is no longer economical. The wedding photos itself need more than RM3K.
- As we earn more money, we have less time to spend them.
- We like Friday and hate Monday.

My Birthday

December 6 is my birthday, it is also Huwi Yin’s birthday. Birthday means that I have grown older. Does that mean that I am wiser now? I think it’s still the same. This year I didn’t get to eat any birthday cakes. Does that mean that I unable to make wishes and thus, my wishes won’t come true? I had dinners on the 5th and on my birthday. I feel that I am starting to hate food… I don’t want to eat anymore… Since it is a festive season, it is impossible to reduce “food load”. I received some presents from my friends and colleagues. Special thanks to Christine, Kim Sheng, Khim Foong, Kelly, Hui Shan, Khai, Pei Ling, Siew Ean, Yen Ching, Cheah Jing, Lay Leng, Yean Hong, Cheah Chee, Huey Sze, Queena, Jin and those names not mentioned. After living on Mother Earth for more than 22 years, I have many pleasant and unpleasant memories. There are so many things that I can recall now. When I reach the age of 30, there will be even more! Wonder if my internal memory will get overloaded by then.

December~

December is here! It is the month that I am looking forward the most throughout the year due to several reasons. December is a holiday season and sales is available everywhere, one of the best seasons to shop other than the Shopping carnival around September. As Christmas is approaching, there are beautiful decorations in all the major shopping complex. I am always looking forward to see those cute artificial snowmen and well decorated Christmas trees. They always make me feel excited even though I have being seeing them every year around this season.

December 1, Friday – I rushed to the PC fair at PISA immediately after my work. A heavy traffic jam was expected to occur as there were many events occurring during the weekends. This includes the opening of the new shopping complex, Queensbay Mall. It was raining heavily as soon as I departed from my company. The traffic jam is not as bad as I thought. I met several high school friends there, working as part-time workers for the fair. It is their semester break now. In addition, I managed to get some goodies. It was a satisfying purchase. I spent around RM130 for a webcam, card reader, headset and 25 pieces of DVD+R. I was having a nice time playing with my new 1.3 Megapixel webcam on that night. The video is clear and there is not much lagging from my side.

December 3, Sunday - Last Sunday I took my Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) Level 2. I met some ex-classmates there, Lee Wei and (I cannot remember her name). They were attempting the Level 4 exam. The exam didn’t go well, especially Paper 2, the listening test. There maybe something wrong with the CD as there is a serious vibration for many questions in Part I. Perhaps they are trying to test our listening skills in various situations as well? Overall, I feel that I am going to fail for another time this year, even though I am able to answer more questions this time. God please bless me… After my exam, I went to the steamboat shop at Sg. Dua for a primary school gathering. It was a sudden gathering. Lay Fen message me the night before thru MSN messenger and I was a bit surprise. A total of 12 people attended the gathering. It is good to meet so many people again, after such a long time. Some I haven’t see them for around 10 years. They sure have change (appearance). We finished dining at around 10pm. It feels so weird after the exam, with nothing much to do. It is like losing a direction.

November Events

Festive season is around the corner. It is also a season of food, food and more food. A week ago, I completed my second pot of clay flowers, Hyacinth Heaven. It is a plant that grows during the winter, a perfect tree for this season. The office now is filled with Christmas trees, snowman, penguins and other Christmas decorations. Holiday mood is in the air. I still remember last year, around this period of time, Christoph showed me snowing scene outside of his room using his videocam. The scenery out there is very bright. The whole are was covered up by snow. I felt like as if I had just seen Heaven.

As year end is approaching, there are many dinners. November 22, Wednesday - There was a dinner organized by an extended team as an appreciation of the support we provide throughout the year. It was a luxurious dinner at Prawn Village, a restaurant very near to my company. My favorite dish of the night is cheese and prawns. The first runner up would be the fish dish. The fish slices were “smooth” and delicious.

November 24, Friday - I attended the Waseda Brass Concert jointly organized by Japan Embassy and University Science Malaysia (USM) in Dewan Budaya, USM. Admission was free. The hall was almost full. I was not particularly interested in brass. Since the concert was free and I have not attended any concerts for more than a year, I decided to give it a try. It was raining heavily on that night and traffic jam was extremely heavy around the island, as a lot of places were slightly flooded and many people were rushing to go home on this last day of work for the week. I almost gave up attending concert, but luckily I didn’t. It was a wonderful concert and changed my perceptions towards brass. With only brass instruments, it is possible to perform very wonderful music. My favorite member would be the conductor. Besides being the youngest member of the band, he is a very spirited and funny conductor. I felt like dancing while watching him conducting the band.

November 26, Sunday – I went to Gurney Plaza with Queena. The main event of the day was watching the movie “Step Up”. It was a very inspiring and wonderful movie. It was all dancing, classical + modern. The opening of the movie is well down, showing the contrast between ballet and modern dance. It is movie worth watching! In addition, the soundtrack is nice. Before the movie, I had lunch at Food Loaf. We called it as the “high-class food court”. It is like a food court, there are many types of delicacies to choose from – Italian, Japanese, Korean, Western and local cuisines, everything under one hub. The atmosphere is very nice. The view from the glass is very nice. The price there is of KL standard and the servings are a lot. The waiters and waitresses there are very friendly. I am satisfied with my Manhantten Market Platter, with a big piece of fish and chips, mashed potatoes, 3 fried prawns, BBQ squids and some salad. It is a place worth visiting once in a while (unless you are rich enough to visit there for meals everyday).

Last but not least, I would like thank Yushu for wonderful pictures of Korea, especially the fireworks one ^^

Thought of the Month

It’s been around 3 weeks since I last blogged. I am not very busy but getting lazy to update my blog. Many things happened since then and I have being doing some thinking. There are a number of farewells to attend to, including my ex-director and extended team member, Jessie Lim.

Several pregnant ladies around me are going to give birth soon or had already given birth. They shared some of their experience with me, such as their back pain when they try to stretch out when tired, their legs becomes swollen, their babies kicking them in their tummy, food that they cannot eat when they are pregnant, change in their eating habits while pregnant and things to take care of after giving birth. Pregnant can actually be so troublesome. I never think of that at all. The most I could think of is only morning sickness and food to take care of.

On the other hand, I am hearing news on people who passed away due to cancer. Cancer has become so common nowadays. I wonder if my friends or relatives will be leaving me suddenly.

After working, I begin to cherish my school days and the precious moments that I once had with my friends. There are many things that we had always taken for granted and only appreciate it when we lose it. I really miss some of the moments that I had during my university life. Working life can never be the same as university life, no matter how I think of it. I always wish that I could further my studies again so that I can enjoy the life being a student again. However, this doesn’t mean that I will be taking a course that I have no interest in. Perhaps, sometimes, memories are meant to be treasured. That’s what that makes them valuable. We must learn to move forward and enjoy the future, as how we cherish our memories.

I seem to be meeting people who remind me of some other people I know. Not because of their looks, but the way they talk and expressing themselves. It makes me feel warm because I feel like I have known them before that.

There are times that I feel that my “battery” is running low. After recharging, I feel full of energy again and move forward. Even for rechargeable batteries, they will be spoilt one day. But, I hope that all my dreams are fulfilled before it is not rechargeable anymore.

Deeparaya

When Deepavali + Hari Raya, it becomes Deeparaya. Deepavali fell on October 21 whereas Hari Raya fell on October 24 and 25 this year. I wasn’t really celebrating the festival but did visit a friend’s house. Most of my friends who are from other states rushed back to their hometowns. The atmosphere was in the air. I wonder how the celebration is over in Korea. Is there any party? Suddenly I miss the “bah kuh teh”, with a minimum amount of pork and a lot of potatoes. I did not miss the taste, but the fun when cooking the dish. It is like a tradition to have “bah kuh teh” whenever we are celebrating something over in Korea. This tradition seems to remain even after I leave.

The haze here is on and off. The situation is not so terrible in Penang due to the frequent down pour. It does not affect our view sight at least. Some people were still barbecuing despite the hazy weather. Some buses, motorcycles and trucks are emitting black smoke and I wonder why they are still on the streets, polluting the environment. The authority should really take some actions to improve on the current situation. At least, they should educate the public on their responsibilities to keep the environment free from more pollutants.

I watched “The Prestige” on the first day of Hari Raya with my brother in Prangin Mall.

The synopsis from Golden Screen Cinema is:
In 1878 two young stage magicians clash in a darkened saloon during the course of a fraudulent seance. From this moment on, their lives become webs of deceit and exposure, secrets and revelations, as they feud to outwit and destroy one another. Their rivalry takes them both to the peak of their careers, but with terrible consequences.

There is a lot of suspense in the movie and a lot of flashbacks. Even though it is a bit confusing mixing flashbacks and current happenings together, we managed to get the whole picture of the storyline. The story is somewhat unique, about the life of 2 magicians, the sacrifices that they made for their careers and the ending is unexpected. This is a non-action movie. I cannot tell for sure if the ending is a good one. But, the morale of the story is, it is better to forgive than to revenge.

Team Building at Traders Hotel

Finally, the annual team building is here. This year, we had seafood buffet in Traders Hotel, which is formerly known as Shangri-La Hotel. This buffet cost more than RM90 per person and was sponsored by the company. There are around 40 people in our department. We occupied a small area in the restaurant so that it will be easier for the games section later. The seats were decided by drawing lots. I was sharing the same table with Lay Leng, Ewe Chong, Ismah, Jacqueline and Chai. There were a few sections, such as the dessert corner with cakes, custard and ice-cream, sushi, fruits, barbeque food, “lok lok”, normal dishes and salad. Everyone was excited on the guessing game. Someone will read out the description of a person and the person with the paper of that person’s name must say out the name. Else, there will be a penalty of eating wasabi. The dinner met its objective to bring everyone together. Here are some of the photos taken during the dinner:

Photos

Quarter 3 Birthday Lunch Photos

Here are some of the photos taken during the Q3 Birthday Lunch at Cherry Blossom Thai Food Restaurant on October 9, 2006 (Monday). There are around 11 dishes, including the dessert. Too lazy to upload all of them. Thus, here are some of the selected yummies of the restaurant. Enjoy!:

Photos

Lantern Fest Photos

Here are some of the photos taken during the lantern fest in Penang:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/LanternFest/

Pig Mooncake!

Mooncakes can be quite dull with the same old design and shape. However, this little pig mooncake is irresistable! Check out the pictures below, courtesy of Lay Leng sis:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/PigMooncake/

September Weekends

September 23, Saturday – It was Japanese Film Festival. Kelly managed to get 2 free movie tickets for the film, “Heaven’s Bookstore” at Gurney Plaza. The movie is quite interesting. I like the piano pieces in the movie. It’s wonderful. I feel like as if I am attending a real concert.

September 30, Saturday – I had dinner with Kelly, Hui Shan, Khai and Xiao Chan in the seafood shop at Paya Terubong. Khai likes the barbeque fish there. He even plans to pay a second visit there next week. The steam fish here is not so nice though. Then, we went to the lantern festival in PISA, in the open air. There’s a lot of people and nice lanterns. The fountains were on. It’s a really great view. There’s stage performance was great. We managed to see the “change face” show. It was amazing. We couldn’t even notice when she changed the mask.

My Colleagues’ Birthday

Cheah Chee and Chuen Kar’s birthday is next to each other. We had a joined celebration with the transactional team last week. Chuen Kar is also an ex-MMU student, a telecommunication student in Cyberjaya campus. For Cheah Chee’s birthday, we had lunch at Ichiyo, which is near BJ Complex. As for CK’s birthday which was on a Friday, we had dinner at E-gate’s Sushi King.

Here are some of the photos taken:
http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/Colleagues/

Busy Week!

This week is a very busy week as it is month end again. Whenever month end is approaching, all of us will be extremely busy. Our eyes will be glued to the screen and hands on the mouse, continuously clicking. Endless request keep on flowing into our mailbox. OT is not something unusual during this period of the month. I am basically working from day to night for these few days. My highest record now is going back at 11pm. Once in a blue moon, I will receive some lunch box from somebody or food from other team as a token of appreciation for our hard work. Even though the food doesn’t cost much, but at least, they are able to fill our empty stomachs while on OT. Thank you very much!

Today I attended a 2 hours training in the data center. It was my first IT related training. It’s great to see the real product (servers) that I am maintaining (data) for my daily tasks. I love those black racks with doors for servers. It looks cool. There’s a few tables and chairs in the room as well. It must be nice working in this room, with so much space and privacy. But, maybe it will be too quiet as well. I like the glass board in the room. It looks really stylish! Finally weekend is approaching again! Back to the good old days :)

Cameron Highland Photos

Here are some of the photos of my short trip to Cameron Highlands:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/Cameron/

Enjoy!

Honey and Clover 2 Review

Honey and Clover season 2 has come to an end last week. Contrast to the every crazy comedy for the first season, the second season focuses more on moral, values and philosophies. The ever crazy Morita Shinobu shows his serious part of character. His thoughts for his brother are greater than what we imagine, from the illustrations of the first season. They also give a very good explanation on why Morita is always trying to earn money thru part-time jobs. I would say that it’s a good storyline. Hagumi’s comfortable life faces a dilemma when she was about to graduate, wondering where she will be heading in her life. Her desire to draw comes to a stop. While she is at her crossroads of life, unexpected things unfold. Seeing little Hagu-chan in the hospital makes me feel really upset. Yet, she has a strong spirit to stand up again. During these hardships, she had made a firm decision. She wanted to draw again as she loves drawing more than anything. The story did not end like any other anime, with a lovey-dovey nor a cry-to-tears ending. But, it is a meaningful ending. It shows us that love is not the only thing in our life, we have ambitions and things that we want to achieve. Loving someone and not getting our love returned is not something to be upset about. We learn something in this process. How things turn out to be, depends on how we perceive it.

August/September Updates

1 month had passed by. Many things happened within this short period. I met with a Yan Min a week after my convocation. I haven’t see her since form 5. She was back in Malaysia for her internship. She still likes to talk as usual, which is a good sign. Some people change so much that you cannot recognize them anymore. I do not mean appearance here, but the bond and character.

For weekends, sometimes I hang out with Kelly and sometimes together with Berry, her housemate. This world is so small. Berry is Wei Chung’s girlfriend. I went to Cameron Highlands for a short trip 2 weeks ago. I am so glad to see so many flowers again. 24 stalks of roses for only RM5! You will never get that price elsewhere. I like the night market there. The best place to get cheap vegetables and flowers. There is a new local product which I find it rather tasty – the dry strawberries. It tasted better than fresh strawberries and definitely much cheaper.

During month end, my job becomes rather hectic. Many things have deadlines to be met. But, it is getting rather interesting. My team members are quite helpful. I like the canteen there, looks a bit like restaurant in a 5 star hotel. I like the toilets with endless toilet paper supplies. All in all, I like the environment.

My primary school teacher passed away recently at 44 years old due to cancer. I was shocked and depressed. I even thought of visiting her during this coming Chinese New Year. Life is short. Humans are so fragile. Then, I begin think of the ideal way of dying, dying at where and when.

Yushu is now back in Korea for his Masters. Hoo Mun is there for his Masters as well. Yushu is so bad. He purposely showed me photos my favourite food and snacks and places that I went before in Korea. Staying in Korea with limited budget was a pain at that time but now it has become wonderful memories. The poorly planned Jeju Island trip turned out to be the most memorable one. I do not like soju while I was in Korea. But, I miss it now!

My desire to go backpack is triggered by a talk on trip to Yunnan. Yunnan is located at the far South of China, sharing borders with several other countries. I like the uniqueness of the landscape, weather and culture there. I know I have a bad stamina. Yet, I have this desire to conquer those mountains in Yunnan, just to get a better view of those snow mountains. “I want to get there! I want to see the water vessels. The mist makes the whole place looks so mysterious, so ancient.”

Huwi Yin is here for her training this week. I brought her to Gurney Drive to enjoy some Penang’s popular delicacies at the hawker stalls. Then, we headed to Gurney Plaza for the Japanese Cultural Performance. We were there late and unable to enjoy the event. We spent most of our time in the gift shops, admiring the art of designing. It is so hard to find someone sharing the same birthday as you. I am really glad to meet Huwi Yin who shares so many interests as I. It was a nice night out. Senpai, come to Penang more often next time!

Last but last least, I would like to congratulate my friends for getting a job already; Kelly for getting a place in Tokyo University and Makoto for getting a place in Yokoshima University; Sau Heung, Foo Chuan and Ms Tee for winning in the Malaysia around for Imagine Cup; and thanks to Sau Heung for sharing his wonderful photos in India (and extra photos) with us!

Convocation!

Convocation is not just a ceremony, but an event to meet all your friends again. It is not something cheap. Robe rental, traveling expenses, accommodation fees, flowers etc can actually cost you a huge sum of money. In addition, there are several processes that you need to follow such as smartcard testing, robe collection and return etc.

It was so nice to meet my friends again during the rehearsal. Months is like years. We chatted as if we have not seen each other for years. The feeling is overwhelming. The campus was packed with people and we were like sardines in the tin, squeezing here and there to get our smart cards validate, collect our robes and invitation cards. If you want to see your friends easily during convocation, then you make a plan, telling your friends where to wait after the convocation. There will be a huge crowd, consisting of family members and friends, occupying whatever space there is near the hall.

The ceremony ended 1.5 hours later than the schedule. Everyone was hungry. Many people departed back shortly after the ceremony because they were too hungry. I was hungry too, but taking photos with my friends, perhaps for the last time, is more important.

Special thanks for the following people:
- Travis kor kor: Thanks for the sunflowers and the dog in the mug. The dog is currently sitting in the office already.
- Huwi Yin senpai: Thanks for the daisy and roses. I was about to buy that combination. Luckily I chose the all roses combo in the end.
- Sylvia: Thanks for the mug. Just nice for office use. All the best for the future! You will be fine.
- Jin: Thanks for the head rest. Will use it in the office.
- Bro: Thanks for holding the flowers for me.

Last but not least, I would like to say thanks to Gek Suan, Ee Ling, Ah Wei and many other people who attended my convocation. I am really touch! I miss you all very much now!

Sarawak Trip's Photos

Here are some of the photos taken during my trip to Sarawak:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/Sarawak/

My Convocation Photos

Below are some of my convocation photos. For the first time, the convocation is held at the new Convocation Hall in MMU Cyberjaya.

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/Convo01/

The 2nd Day of My First Job

The first day of my first job does have much to mention as it is an Orientation Day. We do not play games during this day. Instead, we have many talks and the only interesting activity is the factory visit. Surprisingly, I met a lot of my high school friends there.

On my first day reporting to work, I was welcomed by my team leader, Cheah Chee at new employee entrance. She is very friendly but I still feel a bit nervous. My team is the smallest in the whole department. I am responsible for updating the data about Servers for different countries. My other team members are Cheah Jing (CJ), Lay Leng (LL) and Yean Hong (YH). Normally I have lunch with CJ, LL and Chris. Chris is previously a member of the team. He had just move to another department. All of us are around the same age. I am sharing the same cubicle with LL, who has work in Dell for 5 years. The first few days are rather bored as I am doing nothing. Then, CC teaches me on the system that we are using. I am the only newbie there, so there will not be any formal training sessions.

Trip to Sarawak

Let’s keep things brief. I took an Air Asia flight to Sarawak from LCCT, which is terminal just beside KLIA. However, you need to take a bus and make a small trip before reaching there. The terminal is better than I expected, despite all the bad comments I found online. Unlike KLIA, it is single storey. Shops such as McDonalds, Asian Kitchen and Coffee Bean are available there.

My host for this trip is Pei Jiuan. She was my “tour guide” around Kuching as well. Pei Jiuan has 3 younger siblings and they are cute. They have 2 dogs in their house, Jimmy and Bell Bell.

Kuching is a bigger city than I imagined. There are lots of cars. Some of the imported cars here are not found in West Malaysia. Sarawak car plates starts with Q. Kuching car plates starts with QK or QA. For Sibu, it starts with QS.

The most common dialect there is Hokkien. However, it is somehow different from the Hokkien use in Penang. Many of the local ethics here attended Chinese schools and can speak Mandarin. There are not many tall buildings around the city, but there are a lot of shop lots. There are nice handicrafts here. In fact, there are too many nice things that I was having a tough time deciding what to buy as souvenirs. I especially like the cravings and local patterns. There are many interesting and unique furniture, influence by the local designs. You can find many of those shops near Sarawak Waterfront. Sarawak Waterfront is a place that you must visit at night. It looks very nice when the lights along the Waterfront are lightening up. The clay pots there are very nice, comes in a number of designs and for different functions. Nonetheless, they are cheap!

There are several old buildings here which are built since the Brookes era, such as Astana, the General Post Office, Sarawak Museum, Texttile Museum and the old court. Most of museums are located near to each other. There are a number of old temples in Kuching, more than 100 years old. Sarawak Museum is place that you must go if you want to know more about the local ethics. Entrance is free. The temples are well maintained and you can still see the beautiful cravings on the ceilings and on the roof. Most of the ethics here are Christian. Wild boar is their favorite meat. As for new places, you can visit the new China-Malaysia Friendship Garden. It is a very nice garden with statues, a lake and a tea house just beside the lake.

Kuching is famous for its Kok Lo Mee, which is almost similar to Wanton Mee, without the wanton. There is a stall selling Kok Lo Mee with own made noodle. I like the vege noodle. It is delicious! The laksa there is different from Penang and is more to Curry Mee. In addition, there are many weird cooking materials which cannot found in West Malaysia. It is interesting to see them in the Sunday Market. Sunny Market is held weekly and ethics living in villages far away will come and sell their goods. They will leave only after finish selling them. Of course, the locals will also sell their goods and products. There are many stalls and the whole area is crowded. Getting a parking lot is extremely difficult.

The political structure and culture in Kuching is very different from in West Malaysia. The city is divided into North and South and there are 2 mayors in the city. The Malays normally stay in the North part and the Chinese normally stay in the South part. Thus, normally the North part mayor is a Malay and the South part mayor is a Chinese. The City Hall is another place that you should visit.

There are many illegal immigrants from Indonesia in Kuching and the safety there is not very good. Gas cylinders are being stolen from houses, but there are no serious crimes so far.

There are many caves and national parks in Sarawak, but they cannot be reached easily and normally the trip is expensive. Unlike the caves in Ipoh and Perlis where they have lights over the place, there are no lights around the area and you will need to bring along torchlight.

I will upload the pictures on my trip later. So, stay tune.

July Happenings

I started attending classes on making fake flowers using Japanese clay several weeks ago. The clay is not as sticky as I think. A lot of materials for the class are relatively expensive. A number of tools are needed just to make a type of flower. But, the product is really nice. After the clay is dry, it is not totally hard, which makes it unique.

After sending in my results and graduation letter to Dell, I received news from them a week later. My boarding date is August 7. I need to do an X-ray and body checkup at the company before getting the offer letter and signing the contract. The X-ray must be done in the company’s panel clinic in e-Gate. It is a new and expensive clinic - its waiting hall is like a hotel, with the nice sofa, plasma TV and Astro channels installed. The medical equipments there are advance. I was a bit surprised.

Since I will only start working next month, I bought some flight tickets for my trip to Sarawak. AirAsia is currently offering promotions for several flights. I will be staying in Pei Juan’s home during my 1 week visit there. Sarawak… here I come!

Summary of Events

June 21, Wednesday – I went for my first interview in Dell, for the Database Analyst position. They called me up early in the morning and scheduled the interview to be held in the afternoon. I was not feeling well on that day, having a sore throat, running nose and a slight fever. I was not prepared and did not hold much hope for that reason.

June 22, Thursday – I went to Informatics at around 12pm for my Microsoft 72-228 paper on Microsoft SQL Server 2000. I did not pass on the first attempt. Luckily the second exam is free due to the promotion.

June 23, Friday – I received a call from Dell. I got the position! It was a surprise! I did not expect to hear such news from them so soon. Christine, Kim Sheng, Khim Foong, Wei Yau and I departed to Chia Chia’s birthday party in Alor Setar, Kedah at around 6pm. The party was not held at her house as expected, but in a restaurant called Swiss Garden. It was a buffet dinner with karaoke. She only invited several friends and relatives. The INTI gang were enjoying themselves with the karaoke. We reached Penang at around 1+pm.

June 28, Wednesday – I went for my second exam on Microsoft SQL Server 2000. I passed this time!

June 30, Friday – Hui Shan arrived in Penang in the morning. She will be working in Penang starting next month. She stayed in my place for 2 days before Ah Khai arrive. Jin and Thai Sin came to Penang on the same day. Jin was here for his Microsoft SQL Server 2000 exam. Thai Sin and he departed back on the same day.

July 1, Saturday – Hui Shan and I went to MATTA Fair, a traveling fair held in PISA. There was a huge crowd and there are many booths. Some of the offers are really cheap. I wish that I have more holidays now. Looks like I can just write down several destinations of my interest and aim for those packages next year.

Photos - Homestay in Japan - Batch 2

Here is the last batch of photos taken in Japan:
http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/Homestay02/

Photos - MMU Malacca, ISE

Here are some of the photos taken with other ISE students:
http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/MMU/

Photos - Homestay in Japan - Batch 1

Here are some of the photos taken during my homestay in Japan:
http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/Homestay01/

Bye bye Japan!

June 10, Saturday –It was my last day in Japan. My host father and Satoe sent me to the airport. Most of the parking lots were full. It was hard finding parking space. As I arrived, all the other host families were there already. All of us took some group photos before going to the departure hall. All the host families waved to us as we entered. It was a touching scene… I hope that I can see them again in the future.

Day 7 in Japan

June 9, Friday – At around 8am, we departed to “Miwa Anjo” to take the bullet train to Nagoya. The train is really fast. We were all very excited to see the train. The trip to Nagoya took about 10 minutes. It will take about 45 minutes if we take the normal train. We bought a whole day subway ticket as we arrived in Nagoya. The subway system is very much like the one in Korea. They have a few special carriages for ladies only during peak hours. I think that it’s a good idea, to avoid being molested by guys. We took the subway to City Hall and walked for about 5 minutes before reaching the entrance of Nagoya Castle. Nagoya is famous for its castles. The castle is the same height as a 14 storey building. It was drizzling at that time. It was tough sightseeing with an umbrella.

At around 11.40pm, we departed to another place. We were able to see Nagoya Tower as we got out from the subway station. There is an amazing underground shopping complex near the tower. The architecture is simply fantastic! We had our lunch at one of the restaurants there. Nagoya is famous for “kisimen”, a type of noodle almost similar to “koay teow”. I ordered Salmon kisimen, it is very tasty. It cost 900 Yen.

After lunch, Pei Jiuan’s host mother brought us to some anime shops. It is like a heaven for an anime fan like me. I was excited to see all sorts of anime products, not sellable in Malaysia. I saw many “My neighbor Totoro” products in one of the shops, but the products are very expensive. The modeling shops are selling a variety of models, from the normal figuring to “Gundam” models.

At around 2.30pm, we headed to Osu shopping area. It is a very huge shopping area with many shops and the prices are reasonable. I did not shop much there. I came across a very nice shop selling much cute merchandise but the shop is not on business as they are renovating. There several small temples and a big temple near the shopping area. The Buddhist statues in Japan sure are nice. Malaysia’s one is much simpler.

At around 4.30pm, we departed back to Hekinan by train. We need to change train for a few stations before reaching Hekinan. My host father’s youngest daughter, Satoe, just came back from Kyoto. She is a business student studying in Kobe University. She had just graduated recently. It is nice talking to her. My host father brought me to a “yukata” shop to buy a set of yukata before dinner. The whole set, including bag and shoes, cost 3,900 Yen, slightly more than RM100. We also went to the supermarket to buy some souvenirs (food). My host father paid for them.

My host family sure likes Western food. Satoe likes spaghetti a lot. The restaurant that we went to for dinner have a variety of spaghetti, such as spaghetti fried with olive oil. It was tasty. They ordered some other popular dishes there. I like the one with the fried bread and cheese on top and rice in the bottom. It is really tasty!

My host mother helped me to dress up for my “yukata”. She even gave me a set of her old “yukata” as a present for my mum. That “yukata” itself cost RM600, it is handmade and the quality is good.

Day 6 in Japan

June 8, Thursday – We were told that we were unable to get a bath in the morning as it was too early. Normally the Japanese do not bath in the morning. Around 6.40am, the bathing side was available. Zi Qi and I faster rushed down to take our bath. The whole hot spring was empty. We had breakfast at around 7.45am. They have a culture of mixing the raw egg and eat with the rice, which we Malaysians find it unusual. At around 8pm, we departed.

Our next destination is “Sanzen-in”, a temple near our hotel. This temple has a very nice garden, it is cooling and quiet. The monk there explained to us the cultures of Japanese Buddhism. At 10.25am, we departed to Nara. The trip took more than 2 hours.

At around 1pm, we reached Nara. As we were approaching “Todaiji”, a temple in Nara, we saw many deer along the way. They were running in the wild, almost everywhere in the park. As we approached the temple, we saw even more of them. The crowd was feeding them with special biscuits (only for deer). Many stalls outside of the temple were selling deer soft toys. Before touring in the temple, we had our lunch outside, in one of the stalls. The food there is more expensive than in Kyoto. I ordered a dish with a mixture of fried pork, half-cooked egg and rice. It was delicious. The meal cost 900 Yen. The place was packed with school children and high school students. The primary school students are very cute with their yellow caps on. Everything in “Todaiji” is huge, from the gates, statues to the building. It is amazing! I wonder how they built this temple in the ancient times.

About 3pm, we departed to Igaryu Ninja Museum. It was drizzling as we reached. They demonstrated some of the Ninja skills and techniques. It was interesting. Then, we explored the museum on our own. Ninja is like a special squad. Normally they work as farmers to hide their true identities. They worked in the dark, and not as bodyguards. Ninjas have 6 disguise to hide their identity when they are on a mission. Those special techniques in the animation, “Naruto” are merely a fiction.

At around 5pm, we departed back to Hekinan. On our way there, we stopped by a 100 Yen shop in a shopping mall. The gaming center there is really nice. The toys and prizes are fabulous. There is a lot of machines in which you can put in some coins, normally about 100-200 Yen and draw out an item. I bought quite a number of stuff in the 100 Yen shop.

My host parents brought me to a new Western café for supper. They ordered a tiny pizza for me. The decorations of the restaurant is very nice, it is based on the Disneyland theme.

Day 5 in Japan

June 7, Wednesday – At 8am, we gathered at City Hall. With 2 cars, Ogasawara’s and my host father’s rented car, we departed to Kyoto. My host mother and her friend, and Janice’s host sister also joined the trip. We had our lunch at around 12pm, in one of the restaurants found on our way to Kyoto. The restaurant was relatively cheap and each of us can order anything within 1,000 yen. The girls’ table ordered a set meal each and several side dishes while the guys’ side was over budget.

At around 1.10pm, we arrived at “sanjuusangendo”, a temple famous for its 1001 Buddhist statues. At around 2pm, we departed to the gold temple, “kinkakuji”. Visitors are not allowed to enter the building. The building was made up of pure gold. Then, we visited Heianji. We saw 2 girls dressing up in “kimono” and dragged them for some photos. I made a draw for foretelling my luck and it is “good”. My host mother and her friend went for some shopping and took a train back to Hekinan after that.

Then, we headed to a hotspring called “Oharo no Sato”, which means inside the great valley. It is located deep in the mountains as the name indicates. But, I like it there. It is very peaceful. Our plan to go for shopping at night was spoilt as the place is very deserted and impossible to get public transport around there. It is not a natural hotspring and it is much smaller than I thought. Around 4 of us stayed in a room. There were uniforms in the form of “yukata” prepared for us. All of us were shy as we need to get undress before entering the pool. The male and female pools were separated. The guys seemed to be very excited.

We had steamboat for dinner. After dinner, we had a scroll nearby. It was spooky as it was not well lightened around there. We headed back to the hotel and gathered at Boon Kiat’s room, transferring photos, chit-chatting, eating some snacks and taking photos. I think we were quite noisy. Even from other rooms on the same level, I could hear the noise coming from Boon Kiat’s room. On that night, we all slept with our “yukata” on.

Day 4 in Japan

June 6, Tuesday – At around 9am, we gathered at City Hall and visited Hekinan Aquarium by bus. I was delighted to see the sea angels from Hokkaido. It looks like a demon with angel wings. I lost my camera on my way to the aquarium. Luckily someone found it and handed it to the reception at City Hall. Then, we visited a small park with full of Japanese Iris flowers. It is really beautiful. Then, we headed to a primary school in Hekinan.

As we arrived, we need to take off our shoes and wore the slippers in the lockers. 2 of us were assigned to the same classroom and attend the class together with other primary school children. Jian Rong and I were assigned to the international classroom, designed specially for foreign students who are poor in Japanese language and following the normal classes. We were like stars of the day, distributing bookmarks, coins and stamps. Some students even asked us for signatures. We had our lunch at the meeting room of the school. Lunch set was served. I don’t like the milk there. It was terrible.

Then, we headed to Mizkan for a demonstration on the tea ceremony. We all had problems sitting on our knees. It was tiring and I felt that my legs were going to be broken. There are many things more than just a cup of tea. There are manners and procedures to be followed, such as the way we sit and greet as the tea is served.

After the tea ceremony, we visited a new primary school built less than 6 months ago. This new school sure is very advance. There is an elevator and other advance facilities. Then, we headed to a Toyata factoring, doing on engine parts. It is nice seeing the inside of a car factory but I don’t understand their explanation. Then, we visited a wide parking lot with different models of Toyata cars, ready for export.

At around 5pm, we shopped for groceries for our dinner of the night, “sukiyaki”. The main ingredient of this dish is beef. It is a bit like steamboat with less water. We prepared the ingredients before going for the Judo and Kendo session at 7pm. I could not stay there for long without having a nice meal and departed early. I only managed to witness the Judo session. Jian Rong, Masao, Patrick and Audrey joined the practice.

Day 3 in Japan

June 5, Monday – I have breakfast with my host father at a coffee shop at 8.30am. He ordered sandwich sets for both of us. At 9.15am, we went to my host mother’s shop as it was still early for the next gathering at City Hall. It was a lovely shop with a small garden. I like the atmosphere there. At 9.45am, we arrived at the City Hall for the meeting with the Mayor. It was a very formal occassion. We were on TV and interviewed by newspapers! We even get to visit some of the meeting rooms for EXCOs. At around 12pm, we had lunch at the City Hall’s restaurant. I ordered a small bowl of “tori udon” (chicken noodle).

At 1pm, we visited a vinegar factory. The factory is located beside a river bank. We watched a video clip introducing vinegar and the factory. We had a small tour around the factory after that. It was hard understanding all the explanations in Japanese. At around 3pm, we visited a “sake” (rice wine) factory located nearby. These 2 factories are like brothers, related to each other. I bought a small bottle of unknown “sake” at 390 yen, approximately RM12. At around 3.50pm, we departed to the workplace of the clay dolls by using the Kinuura undersea tunnel. Currently, he is the only person doing it. He will only work when there are orders. Normally there are a lot of orders as festivals are approaching. The dolls are not cheap. After the visit, we had a small visit to Mr Ogasawara’s house before visiting a Japanese dolls shop. The cheapest doll cost 6,000 yen. Normally the dolls come in a pair.

At around 6pm, my host father brought me to an electronic shop to get a pair of batteries before going for our grocery shopping. We had “omuraisu” (egg rice) for dinner. It is very much like “nasi pataya” in Malaysia. I helped out in the preparation as well.

Monbugakusho Interview

June 20, Tuesday – I went to KL with the 10.30am bus yesterday. At around 7.30pm, I headed to Japan Embassy for my Monbugakusho scholarship. I departed from Aunty Good Cam’s house to Taman Bahagia station. It was raining and the traffic was heavy. From there, I took the LRT to Ampang Park. Almost every train was packed like sardines in the tin. I was unable to squeeze in for the first train and need to wait for more than 5 minutes for the next train. It sure was scary. Most of the passengers went down at the Masjid Jamek station. I took around 20 minutes to reach the Japan Embassy from Ampang Park by foot. My luggage was getting more and more heavy. As I reached, I need to fill in a form before entering the embassy. Japan Information Center is located on the upper floor of the building. I arrived slightly before the appointment time. Another candidate was already there as I arrived. Another lady from the embassy was arranging her documents and performing checking on them. 9am stated in the letter is actually the registration time and not the interview time.

My interview started at 9.30am and it took around 20 minutes. There were 5 panels – 3 Japanese and 2 Malaysians. One of the Japanese can speak fluent English despite his age. The questions were relatively general, regarding to the scholarship application, such as “why choose Japan?”, “explain about your thesis”, “any university that you want to go to?” and so on. I was very anxious before that. Then, I headed to Ampang Park with the help of another candidate and stayed at McDonald’s for about an hour before going to Puduraya. I arrived at Penang at around 5.45pm.

"You are beautiful"

Here is something interesting from my senior, Tie.

It is a modified lyrics based on the song, "You are beautiful" by James Blunt (found somewhere in the internet):

My job is stupid,
My day's a bore,
Inside this office,
From 8 to 4.

Nothing ever happens,
My life is pretty blank,
Pretending that I am working,
Pray that I don't get canned.

My cubicle, my cubicle,
It's 1 of 62,
It's my small space,
In a crowded place,
Just a six by six board booth,
And I hate it, that's the truth.

When I give a sigh,
As the boss walks by,
No one ever talks to me,
Or looks at me in the eye,
And I really should work,
But instead I just sit here,
And surf the internet.

And my cubicle, my cubicle,
It doesn't have a view,
It's my small space,
In a crowded place,
I sit inside there too,
And sometimes I sit here nude.

Busy!

For visitors who are expecting my remaining posts on my trip to Japan, I would like to apologize for the delay. I think that I will only complete them by next weekend. This week is a busy one, busy filling in my scholarship applications. There are many unusual requirements for the applications and they are giving me a big headache. I have to write 4 essays in total for my ASJA application - 2 essays with 400 words and another 2 essays with 800 words. Today I spend my whole day on the road, going here and there to do a last minute medical checkup. From morning to afternoon, there is traffic jam almost everywhere. There are many examinations to it and it costs RM155 in total, you can see a big hole in my pocket now.

My mum is very anxious on the application. At 5.30pm, I rushed down to Victoria Road near the Ferry terminal from my house in Sg. Ara with my dad, just to send the application by post laju. We were 10 minutes late as we arrived. After much negotiation and begging with the officer in-charged, she let us send the letter by today. Phew~ The heavy traffic is still the same when I headed back to my home. It is a tiring day indeed.

Day 2 in Japan

June 14, Sunday – Today is family day. There was no specific schedule for the day. It was up to our host families on where they are going to bring us to. Early in the morning, I had breakfast with my host father. He prepared the dishes. At 8.30am, Ogasawa-san and his wife arrived. As my host father was busy, I spent the day with the Ogasawa family instead. It was about 24 Celcius. We went to several places in Mie-ken. It took us around 2 hours to reach there. Mrs. Ogasawa was very talkative. Both of them can speak a bit of English, broken but understandable. I was riding on a new Nissan car which can take up to a maximum of 8 passengers. I like its automatic doors and navigation system. When the driver uses the reverse gear, the screen will change to the scene at the back of the car. It is very convenient for the driver. On the way, we went thru the Triton Bridge - 3 different bridges, with the same design but different colors (blue, white and red). They have ETC (Electronic Toll System) which is similar to SmartTag in Malaysia.

First, we went to Meiwachuu. There was a festival there called “Saioh Matsuri”. It was a traditional celebration. “Saioh” is a title given the princess chosen by the king. She will lead the other princesses and supports in the country’s administration. There were many stalls there selling food, goods and games. There was traditional musical instrument performance. Then, we headed to the Saioh Museum. There was a performance on “kamishibai” there. “kamishibai” is paper drama. As the narrators narrate about the story of Saioh, the pictures change to show different scenes of the story. The famous food for this city is dried Udon (dried noodle). I do not find it tasty. I still prefer the one with soup.

After lunch, we headed to “Saioh no Mori” (Saioh’s Forest). There was a demonstration on the Saioh ceremony there. The ceremony started at 1pm. It was a long wait under the sun. There was a huge crowd over there. The ceremony lasted for about 2 hours. We visited the Japanese Iris plantation after that. It was a small pond with some Iris flowers. Saioh is somehow related to Iris, which is once a commonly found flower in the area.

Then, we headed to Isejin. Isejin is the biggest temple in Japan. On occasions, the Emperor visited the temple. The compound of the temple is huge, covering rivers and mountains surrounding it. The river there is called Isuzukawa. They believe that the God that guards the jungle lives there and worship it. The architecture of the temple is also interesting. There is a tradition for this temple. Every 20 years, they will tear it off and build it at another location located almost beside it. There are 2 locations and the temple will be build alternating between them. This tradition is in order to preserve the knowledge of building temples so that it will not be lost. However, they have recently changed the tradition to 25 years instead. There has been more than 60 times since they destroy and rebuilt this temple. There will be another 7 more years to go before they rebuild the temple on a new location.

Then, we visited the small shopping area beside Isejin. There are many shops with old architecture there. I love it! There are many interesting things to be seen there, such as handicrafts, food etc. There is a very famous shop there for Akago, a sort of rice cake with red bean sauce inside. It is extremely tasty. It was wonderful enjoying the delicacy beside the river bank, with a cup of green tea. 3 Akago cost 280 Yen.

There was a traffic jam on the way back. The petrol stations in Japan use automatic payment machines to sell petrol and hiring minimum workers. A liter of petrol cost around 115 Yen in Japan, almost double the price of petrol in Malaysia.

Then, we headed to Sugiura Kazuhiko’s house for a party. It was Patrik’s host family. There were many people there and the place was crowded. Most of them were friends. As I arrived, most of the food had been clear off. At around 9pm, I headed back with the Ogasawa family.

Day 1 in Japan

June 3, Saturday – We arrived at Chubu Airport, Nagoya at around 7am. Our host families should be waiting for our arrival. I was worried when almost all the host families had arrived and my host father was nowhere to be seen. He was a bit late. Ogasawa-san, the head organizer of this year’s home stay greeted us. Then, we introduced ourselves according to our numbering. Then, we departed with our host families. My host father, Shigeyuki Kurauchi is very friendly. Chubu Airport is something like KL Central, a center for several transportations. It is a station for train, ship and flight. We headed to Hekinan City, where I am going to stay with his Toyota Crown, Royal Saloon. It is huge and wide. I love the car boot. I sure can put a lot of things inside. There is a navigation system in his car too!

My host father is a politician. My host mother is the owner of a nurse care center, a sort of service center for disabled senior citizens. I heard that her business is very good. My host father has 4 children – 1 son and 3 daughters. His youngest daughter is the same age as I, a management student in a university in Nagoya. Hekinan City reminded me of Busan, Korea. There are a lot of small shops, the road is not spacious and the electric wires are messy.

It took us around 40 minutes to reach my host father’s house. It is located just beside a road junction. He parked his car at the parking space opposite his house. It is sort of weird for a Malaysian. His house is a traditional wooden Japanese house with a small garden. We quickly unloaded my luggage and headed to a nearby supermarket. All the host families are supposed to gather there and shop for the materials for food of the night. There was a welcome party at night at 2nd floor, Hekinan City Hall. We will be making some Malaysian food for the Japanese to test out. After that I went home with my host father, took a nap and then prepared for my dish, “tang yuan”. My host father helped me out with rolling some of them.

Some of the foods prepared were such as “bak kuh teh”, black rice, “tomyam” and some other desserts. We performed a Chinese dance, 3 songs (namely Negaraku, Permata Dunia and My Neighbour Totoro theme song), demonstration on a bamboo game and introduction to Malay language.

The weather was cooling at night. I should have brought along my jacket.

Depart to Japan

Almost every meal was like a feast for my 3 days stay in Banting.

June 2, Friday – At 8.30pm, all the members of this year’s home stay gathered in front of KLIA’s McDonald. The trip consisted of 10 members, excluding sensei. 6 girls and 4 guys from MMU Malacca campus. We will be staying in different host families in Hekinan City as we arrive. Like any other flight that we took before, we check-in our luggage and headed to the immigration, before heading to the departure hall. We took the 11.45pm flight to Nagoya, Japan by Malaysia Airlines (MAS), collaboration with ANAI. It was an air bus, A330. We had a mini hamburger and an omelet breakfast set. Before departing, sensei told me that my host mother is not friendly, making me a bit worry. I was unable to have a nice sleep for the night, not because of the previous matter. Nagoya’s time is 1 hour faster than Malaysia’s.

End of Exam!

There were a number of gatherings to attend to after my last paper.

June 25, Thursday – ISE students had a small photo session after our TRQ paper. It was nice. I had dinner with Jin, my FYP supervisor, Ms. Tee Connie and Mr. Michael Goh at TC Spring, around 6.30pm.

June 26, Friday - I went to Security and Finance department to complete my Clearance Form. I wonder why we need to do it manually. They should be able to do them automatically since everything is online. Ai Chin, Hui Shan, Mei Shin and I went to TC Spring for lunch and then headed to Mahkota Parade (MP). We watched “Da Vinci Code” at around 2.30pm. The movie is quite okay but too much information to be absorbed, much about Christianity. Then, we headed to Capitol Satay Celup for dinner. It cost RM0.50 per stick. Our last destination is Jongker Walk. As it was drizzling before that, there were not as many people as usual.

June 27, Saturday - We had a small gathering of 9 people among our gang at 12pm, TC Spring. We ordered 6 dishes. It was like a feast. I sent Soon Jin and Xiao Wan off to Melaka Sentral after that.

I went for a gathering at UA (University Apartment) at 8pm. There was not much food. The barbeque fire was up quite late. There were more than 20 people, fewer than I expected. Melvin invited me to Pure Bar after the barbeque. Ai Chin and I headed there with a few other friends at around 11.30pm. It was a 2 storey shop lot. The place was very crowded, barely able to find a place to stand and breadth. The disco lights were making me dizzy. Most of the girls who went there were dressing up sexily. Many drank liquor. I did not like the place at all. I reached home at around 3am after a long wait. It was raining heavily. I was soaking wet as I reached.

June 28, Sunday – I sold one of my 3 layer bookshelf to Ai Chin while Poh Kim sold off his computer table. We moved our stuff there at around 12pm. I last saw her at around 4.30pm with Danny. It was a busy day for packing my stuff.

June 29, Monday – I had dedicated my whole day to house moving. House moving sure was very tiring. It was hard to decide what to throw away and what to keep. There were way too many things! The whole house was extremely dusty and the living room was packed with things. I had use up much of my energy and was extremely exhausted.

June 30, Tuesday – My parents arrived in Malacca at 5am. I packed up the remaining stuff in the morning. My landlord came at 12pm to settle with us about the house deposit. He was very picky. He even brought along a checklist and deducted RM50 for our house’s cleanliness and RM2.50 for each missing keys. I had lunch with Cindy and my family at Family Heritage. The fried taufu with sweet and sour sauce there was nice. My father and brother headed to Cyberjaya first to get the house keys from his landlord. We departed to there after the lorry came and had all the stuff loaded. The lorry only arrived at Cyberjaya at 9pm, one hour after we arrived. Then, we headed to my grandaunt’s house at Banting.

One more paper to go!

2 subjects down, 1 more subject to go tomorrow. I wonder why I still feel tension after 2 papers. Perhaps I am worrying about unnecessary things. Hmm… perhaps all these are the “unnecessary scenes” according to Tie’s description.

It is almost a year since I last went to Busan, Korea for my training. Time flies. I miss my friends and life there. I did learn a lot of things and gained much experience. I miss the flowers there. They were so beautiful even though it was the end of spring. A list of gatherings and things-to-do are waiting for me after my last paper. I wonder if I will feel relieve after that. House moving is terrible. Ah… I have “collected” many things over these 4 years.

Good luck to all my beloved coursemates and final year students! Don’t give up, only a few more papers to go (at most). To all the people I know, I will definitely miss you all.

Last Final Exam is Approaching!

Busy, busy, busy! It is the final semester and the last examination is approaching. Tension is in the air. Many people have started revising already. Early preparation is not a usual phenomenon for the previous semesters. I guess the last semester is special.

Here is something interesting written by my senior, Tie, about his point of view of the end of the final semester:

For the past 4 long years you have done what had to be done. For the next couple of days, your fate will be sealed. I will be virtually standing at the other bank of the river to welcome you to a whole new chapter of your life - your career life.

Thus there will only be five possible endings to you for this 'saga':

Quiet satisfying ending (No matter how hard you struggle, your fate is sealed. You're at 2nd lower and no way you can go to 2nd upper. Or you are 1st class and there is not sane way you can drop to 2nd upper. You are done! The climax is over. You are just dragging your story to make it end at 120min!)

Epic ending (With sheer hope and luck perhaps you can change your grade. This is the time of great expectation. If you are 0.04 to the next CGPA group, you are in for a heck of a time. No guarantee a satisfactory ending though)

Unnecessary scenes (You are in 2nd upper and somehow you want get a better 2nd upper...or perhaps you're in 1st class and you just wanna get 3.93. This is the type of sequence where usually never make it to the final release in cinema version. You will find this in 'deleted scenes' in DVD releases)

Evil-never-die ending (Somehow you have a dead serious feeling that you are going to fail a paper or so and get an extension. This is like you watch a horror movie where the evil dude just never dies. Imagine Freddy Vs Jason...those two goons can never die. Freddy spawns 7 episodes while Jason spawns 10 episodes)

Tear jerker ending (You slipped one CGPA grade...you finish your 'saga' but you drop a grade. Stuff just happens! This is like one of those movie where the lead character died...like that in the overly budgeted, over-earned, over-hyped Titanic)

So...life is a movie. I will be welcoming you to your new chapter of your life. Life where there is not definite 'final episode'.

Week #13

Currently, I am still jobless. I am tired of looking for jobs now. Let me enjoy the rest of my university life.

3 more weeks to go and it is going to be the end of my university life. This week is another busy one.

May 1, Monday - 1st of May is Labor Day and it is a public holiday. For the first time, I went to Tesco this trimester. They are currently doing some extension renovation, meaning there are fewer car parks. I went there at around 10am in the morning with Pei Juan and my brother. The place was full of cars and there were traffic jams everywhere. It was terrible and the sale was disappointing. Shopping in Penang is still the best! After getting all the ingredients that we want for ABC soup and “tang yuan”, we headed to my house for cooking. Pei Juan taught me how to make “tang yuan” and it was nice when it was freshly served. Pei Juan’s ABC soup was a bit too sour because there were too many tomatoes. It was a nice day cooking together. My stomach was full of water.

May 2, Tuesday - After my class, Ai Chin, Hui Shan, Mei Shin and I headed to Malacca Sentral to fetch Wan Chiew before going to Mahkota Parade (MP). It had been a long time since all of us go out together. Finally, the girl’s gang was on the move! We had our lunch at Shibaraku’s Teppanyaki restaurant. The shop’s design is nice, but inconvenient. There are no toilets in the restaurant and customers need to walk over to the original shop next door for that. We ordered the set meals. The chef will prepare the ingredients and cook in front of us. The salmon set is the most worthy one, despite being a bit more expensive. I still prefer the original Shibaraku restaurant. We bought tickets to a movie called “Fragile” as there are no other interesting movies listed. It is a horror movie by Calista Flockhart, starring as Ally in the series “Ally McBeal”. I did not expect her to perform in such a serious movie. Hui Shan and I were so scared that we hold on to our bags tightly as we watched. The movie is better than I thought. I got a call from my mum later in the evening. She received a letter from the Japan Embassy, about an exam for the postgraduate scholarship this Sunday. I was a bit reluctant to go to KL for that as I have being going to KL quite frequently recently, for various reasons.

May 3, Wednesday - Pei Juan, Jian Rong, Boon Kiat and I departed to KL with the 8am bus. We were going there to collect our passports and visa from the Japan Embassy. It was my first visit there. As we reached, we took Putra from Pasar Seni to Ampang Park. Then, we headed there by foot. Due to some mistakes, we were walking in round before reaching the embassy, which is located just beside the road. Along the way, we came across the Singapore Embassy, Vietnam Embassy and Pakistan Embassy. Some other embassies that we came across were such as America Embassy and British Embassy. It is indeed a day’s tour of embassies. The weather was too good, 33 Celcius. We had been walking under the sun for a few kilometers and around 30 minutes before reaching Japan Embassy. After collecting our documents, we went to Pizza Hut at Ampang Park for lunch. The lunch in the air-con room was simply delicious (I think everything is nice when you are hungry and dehydrating). I ordered a set of Express Combo for RM9.10, including tax. It comes with a personal pan pizza, breadstick, soup-of-the-day and a glass of soft drinks. The soup was too watery but the other dishes were okay. After our lunch, we took a taxi to Low Yat and then to PWTC. There was an exhibition there for machineries. Pei Juan was very excited about it. Each of us got some paper bags, pamphlets and “metals” back as souvenirs.

May 4, Thursday – I attended the “supposing” last class for Software Reliability and Quality Assurance and Human Machine Interface lecture. I think I am running out of mood to attend classes now, was not paying much attention to the lectures. I want holiday! I want vacation!

May 5, Friday – There was a dancing practice for all the participants of the homestay. I have not being dancing for the past 4 years. It was good to dance again in a sense. Suddenly, I miss my seniors in Rangers. They are very nice and one of them passed away already. She was the main instructor for the traditional dance which I first performed. She is always so kind and patient. Dancing is a good exercise and it a good activity for knowing each other better. It was a tiring day indeed.

May 6, Saturday – My brother and I went to the tyre shop to get his car 2 new tyres. Then, I began packing for my trip to KL. Jian Rong and Gan joined me for the trip. We were going to stay a night at Aunty Good Cam’s place in PJ. We took a bus there after reaching Puduraya. We had problem finding the right bus as there were too many buses and too many people. We took bus no. 6 there at RM2 each. An aunty from Australia welcomed us as we reached. We put our bags at aunty’s house before going out for dinner at the nearby shop lots. We explored ourselves around the area after we had our dinner. As we reached home, we had a rest and did some chatting with aunty’s youngest son, Yeh Ern. Uncle seemed to be very busy on that day. Yeh Ern lends us his room for the night while Jian Rong slept downstairs, in the reading room. It was raining heavily. I had problems sleeping nicely due to the coldness.

May 7, Sunday – Around 6.15am, we woke up and prepared ourselves for the exam. We called a taxi and headed to Puduraya. The taxi cost RM12, with RM1 as service charge. We walked to Confucian Private High School, which is very near to Puduraya bus station. As we arrived, it was quite early and only a few students were there. There were more than 200 students applying for the scholarship but at least more than 10 people were absent for the exam. According to the examinee, they will select 50 candidates for interview, based on the exam. From these 50 candidates, they will select 20-30 people for the postgraduate scholarship. The exam hall was freezing cold. I was silvering even with the jacket on. I was surprised to see some of my other MMU friends there, such as Chin Nee and BJun. The English for the English paper is weird. It is the Japanese-style of English. There are 3 Japanese papers, each with different levels of difficulties. A is the easiest and C is the toughest. Each paper takes an hour. Candidates with no Japanese language proficiency need not take the Japanese papers. Only around 50% of the candidates took the Japanese papers. The exam ended at 1.20pm. I met with Travis kor kor for a very short lunch at a beef noodle restaurant before heading back to Malacca at 2.30pm. The noodles were nice, recommended. The shop is just beside the street, on the same side as McDonalds and Nandos.

Review on Honey and Clover

It is a 2005 anime by J.C.Staff based on comedy, drama and romance. The main characters are Takemoto, Morita, Mayama, Yamada, Hagumi (or known as Hagu) and Shuji (or known as “Shuu-chan” by Hagu). Takemoto, Shinobu and Mayama are housemates and arts students of a university in Tokyo.

Characters:

Takemoto is the main character and narrator of the story. He is a nice and considerate person and always takes care of others. He cherishes his friends a lot and easily gets troubled by things happening around him. He is always in doubts when it comes to trouble but find ways to solve it.

Morita is Takemoto, Mayama and Yamada’s senior. He is always skipping class, missing for weeks to do his part-time job mysteriously coming back with dozens of yen notes. He hasn’t been able to graduate due to his poor attendance and late submission of final year project. He is a funny and interesting character. Despite his care-free appearance, he cares for his friends and always in deep thoughts. He is not an expressive person, but has a sharp thinking when problems arise. He has amazing talents in arts and always performs the unexpected.

Mayama is Takemoto’s senior and Morita’s junior. He is a normal art student and taking a part-time job at Harada Design. He always feels pity towards Takemoto for what Morita did to him. But, touch when Takemoto did not give up on helping Morita.

Yamada is an arts student and at the same grade as Mayama. She is good and talented in making pottery. She has feelings for Mayama but she never confessed it. However, Mayama knows about it all along. She actually admires Mayama’s strength to move forward in his career path. She feels lost about it and easily give up when she fails her interviews.

Shuji is lectuer in the university. He is mature and funny. He is protective towards his niece, Hagu, whom he is fond of. He is once an arts student in the university as well.

Hagumi or known as Hagu is a Shuji’s niece from the countryside. Despite her age, the way she look, talk and act is much like a primary school children. She is a new arts student of the university. Her thinking is very straightforward and do not understand the complications of the reality world. Sometimes, she is unable to comprehend her own feelings.

Storyline:

The anime started off with the introduction of the main characters, Takemoto, Morita and Mayama who are housemates. The Hagu’s appearance triggers the love triangle between Takemoto, Morita and Hagu. It is love at first sight for Takemoto and Morita. Hagu is afraid of Morita at first, but her feelings changes for him after that. Takemoto notices Morita and Hagu’s feelings towards each other and is in dilemma on how to face it. Despite his anxiousness, he did not feel hostile towards Morita. Hagu is unable understand her own feelings for Morita but wanted to be with him. Morita’s actions are rather incomprehensible. He is always running away and do not face his feelings for Hagu.

On the other hand, we have another even more complicated love story between Yamada, Mayama and Rika. Yamada has feelings for Mayama. Yamada’s presence is precious for Mayama, but not as a lover. Instead, Mayama is in love with his boss, Rika.

Rika is Shuji’s coursemate in the university. She is fair and timid. Rika, Harada and Shuji are good friends and housemates back then. Rika and Harada are very talented. Shuji has always admired them. Rika and Harada got married and open their own company called Harada Design. However, Harada passed away in a car accident and Rika is unable to forgive herself for causing the accident. From a scene in the anime, we can see that Shuji has feelings towards Rika but he decided to hide them forever and he did it well.

Despite knowing Mayama’s feelings for Rika, Yamada did not let go of her feelings for Mayama. She is in the dilemma of giving up or not and always changes her mind. She is always upset and cries whenever Mayama mention about Rika.

Nomiya is Mayama’s colleague in Fujiwara Design. He is cool and steady. He is interested in Yamada and always observed her from afar. Mayama thinks that he is a playboy and tries to protect Yamada from him. Despite knowing Yamada’s strong feelings for Mayama, he stays by her side and supports her whenever she is upset. He is also a considerate person and view things from different aspects before taking any further actions. Yamada slightly changes her perception about him after that. There is some possibility that Yamada will pair up with Nomiya.

The story is not incomplete and there will be a second season. The story ended with Takemoto confessed his feelings for Hagu.

Week #12

Finally! The first submission for FYP was over. I am feeling a bit more relaxing now. I was hardly taking any nice sleep last week and my eyes are a bit swollen, not very obvious though. I rushed to Digital Image Lab at 9am on Friday for my report printing and a girl was already there, printing. The HP laser printer there sure is fast. I finished printing more than 150 pages in less than 15 minutes.

I was invited as a speaker for the Technopreneur seminar last Saturday. There were far more attendees than I expected and they all dressed up very formally. This made me a bit nervous. Ryan and I shared the presentation session. Our presentation is not quite relevant to the seminar on that day and one of the attendees pinpointed us about this. It was Justin whom I know about 2 years ago. His attitude is still the same as always, going around looking for trouble. He could have asked the question in a better way, instead of being so harsh.

Last Sunday, all the homestay students and sensei went to JJ for shopping at 10.30am. There were 6 people in total for my car. We were like squeezing ourselves in a sardine can on our trip there. It actually took 3 hours to get all the “uniforms”. The scenario is really weird. A whole bunch of people, going there, and buy the same design of shirt/slack. Everyone’s taste and preference are different and it is really difficult to compensate for each other. Another problem face would be the size for the same shirt/slack. They are always running out of stock.

On Wednesday, I attended a BBQ party at sensei’s house to welcome the visit of Sugiura-san, one of the host families for last year’s homestay and perhaps for this year as well. Before the party, Gan, Pei Juan and I went to the children’s playground in the condominium. It is a very nice place as it is windy and there are no mosquitoes. I enjoyed myself playing the swing. I felt like flying in the air as the wind blew. Everyone was hungry before the party started. They aimed for the instantly available food such as “onigiri”, potato salad, “oden” and Japanese-style pizza rather than the BBQ food. Andy was busy indulging himself with the food. They arrived quite late and most of the food was already finished. Luckily we reserved some food for them. This meeting session turned out to be a mini autograph session. We got home quite late as we were lost after sending Gan home at Malim.

Week #11

Less than 2 weeks to go before FYP (Final Year Project) submission and around 1.5 months to go before graduating. My final test ended more than a week ago. Thus, last week was quite relaxing, no test and assignment submission. However, it was going to be a very busy for these 2 weeks as FYP and 2 assignments submission is due on next week. Tomorrow I will be attending an interview for the position of analyst programmer at Datascan, an outsourcing company in KL. It was my last job application so far. I am a bit regretting about my application now, not because of the job position, but because of the company. Working in an outsourcing company is not of my preference. I am kind of hoping, not to get selected for this job. Well, if I get the job, at least, I am not jobless and able to secure a job before graduating. Things may have turn out better than I expected, who knows.

The hottest issue around now is about Unite. It is a prom night jointly organized by the 3 main faculties in MMU Cyberjaya. The ticket cost RM85 each. The former Prime Minister of Malaysia, Tun Dr Mahathir was invited as the VVIP of the event while several other ambassadors was invited as VIPs. I heard that last year’s was well organized but this year’s was poorly done. There are complains by attendees over several forums and forwarded message are circulating around. Complains include almost all the aspects, except the venue. There are only 4 dish of food served – bread, soup (similar to the Campbell’s one), chicken rice and fruits. The bread was expired and one of the tables has flies inside their fruits. The service was terrible. Drinks were served upon request, even after 1 hour. Food was not served until 11pm. There was a magician show during the night and many find the show lame, including the former PM, according to the observations of the attendees. There are still many comments and complains. Apparently, the head organizer was a foreign student, according to some source. Perhaps he/she does not understand how a prom should be conducted in the Malaysians point of view.

Photos - Trinite '06

Here are some of the photos taken during Trinite 2006 in Equatorial Hotel, Malacca:

http://s10.photobucket.com/albums/a146/dellachew06/Trinite06/

Week #9 - Memories Recall

Time flies. It is Week 9 of the trimester already. This week, the event “Around the World in 3 Days” was held in CLC concourse. Even though they do not have booths on all the existing countries in the world, it is quite interesting. Most of the booths are on countries from the Middle East, such as Iran and Syria. There are people dressing up in their traditional clothes as well. All the projects and assignments have been released. Delta IT students are getting tension now, with all the due dates to be met.

It feels like everything is just like yesterday. Memories of my university days appear on my mind recently. Everyone is growing and changing within these 4 years. Around 4 years ago, I came to this unfamiliar place and stayed in an apartment with more than 10 other new students. Things did not go at first. But, we sure get along after that. It seems that Alpha is a separate phase in my university life. My classmates are quite close to each other. Sylvia, Yuya and Madhu - I miss you all! We are the multiracial front seaters!

Beta and onwards is like a series of war. Everyone is fighting to get thru every trimester. Everyone is getting eye bags at least a few times in a trimester, especially the last 2. I always wonder if it is due to the poor time management. Well, though it is not enjoyable as during Alpha, we have something to rejoice about.

My industrial training is like another phase. I went to a foreign country without any close to me. I do not know the other trainees before the trip. We are strangers who only know each others’ faces. Yet, we worked things out together, which is the best part. When in Korea, for the first time, I planned my own trip. I think, I am quite pro in it now. Holding a map and explore the city on my own is not something new to me anymore. These experiences can be useful when planning for trips in the future. I did not regret going to Korea for my training, although there are some opportunities that I must let go at the same time. This training has given me much, which include helping me to decide my path in the future.

I am really grateful for those who went thru all these together with me. Thanks for your companion and being a chapter in my life. Hopefully it is not the end.

Trinite '06

Trinite is a prom night jointly organized by the 3 main faculties in MMU Malacca – FIST, FET and FBL. This year, it was held on April Fool, at the largest ballroom in Equatorial Hotel Malacca. We have Amber Chia as the VIP guest, 2 Malaysia Idols – Daniel and Jacklyn as the performers and another local singer as performers. I was not very fascinated with Amber Chia but taken a photo with this celebrity. Everyone look gorgeous on that night. The food was served in buffet style. It tasted better than the previous year’s. Surprisingly, Huwi Yin came down to Malacca for a visit on that day as well.

Yushu: Happy birthday to you!
Wan Chiew: You look gorgeous on that day! Thanks to Siew Woan for the makeup.
Hui Shan: You look very sexy on that dress!
Ryan: Finally, you show us your partner! You should have done it more often.
Ee Ling: I like your dress very much, nice design.
Huay Peng: You look different and better on that night.
Gan-san and Chee Keong: Congrats on getting a permanent in Agilent before graduating!
To all final year students: Good to see you guys in your best outfit before graduating.

I will upload some of the photos later, within this week.

Phone Interview with Shell

I had a 20 minutes phone interview with Shell at 2pm, today. I was very nervous before the interview. A lady from the Human Resource (HR) called me slightly after 2pm. Unlike other interviews, she did not ask any technical questions. Instead, she asked questions on leadership, achievements, problem solving and challenges. The weirdest part is the last one, about general knowledge. She asked me about National Park, its purpose, advantages and disadvantages. Even though it is not a face-to-face interview, I feel even nervous, maybe because I could not see her reactions on my answers. I will be notified if I manage to get into the last phase of interview in another 5 working days. According to the lady, there would not be any technical questions for the last phase as well. It will be a whole day session in Shell.

Interview for Programmer at Intel

I departed for my interview in Intel at PG12. It was drizzling again before I departed. It was easier to find the place compared to Agilent. I do not need to register myself at the guard house and headed directly to the lobby. The security checking only starts from there. They have a body scanner there, like the one in the airport. I called the interviewer, SM before registering myself at the counter. I would prefer this kind of security, at least everyone do not need to get stuck at the small entrance at the guard house. SM approached me shortly after that. He is a middle age man in his 30s and quite friendly. We went into one of the small meeting rooms for the interview. The interview is not very formal but there are some technical questions. He gave me a problem solving question but I think I took a bit too long to solve it. There are 2 branches for this application tool development team – one in US and another one in Malaysia. There are currently 6 members in the team. This department is currently expanding. Thus, they need to hire a few more programmers. He will inform me in another 2 or 3 weeks time about my status of application. FAQ: “Are you confidence in getting this job?”. My answer is no. I will just have to wait for the result in another 2 or 3 weeks time.

Interview for Customer Service at Agilent Penang

It was raining again this morning! I departed to Agilent at 8 am. The company is quite near to my house but it took me 25 minutes to reach there due to the light traffic jam. I entered thru the back entrance. The security check there is quite tight and the guards are doing their job well. I need to give them my IC, fill in a form and get a pass before entering the compound. I met with another interviewee as I entered. Both of us took the entrance and ended up taking a small walk around the factory before entering the lobby. We were required to fill in a form at the reception.

A staff from the HR department guided us to the Learning Center soon after that. We were then seated and took our tests before going for the interview. The Korean language test seems to be easier than I thought. Yet, I was unable to understand the meaning of it, even though I was able to read it. I spent the hour writing out each of its pronunciations, which is the best I can do. The interview was conducted by the HR manager, Ms Tan. It was a one-to-one interview. They were looking for someone who can speak Korean language to deal with their customers. The tasks of this position include giving out quotations and invoice, which I am not particularly interested in. After that, she invited a Korean staff to talk to me in Korean. I hardly understand what she said. I only understand a word or two in her sentence. Before the end of the interview, she asked me if there are any positions that I am interested in. Ah… finally she asks! The interview ended slightly before 11am.

I am thinking, “Am I wasting my time for this interview?”. Well, at least, I get a chance to see the inside of Agilent Penang.

Back in Penang!

Yes! I am back in Penang already. It was raining heavily on the way back and it was freezing cold in the bus. I hardly have any sleep on the bus. I reached Penang at around 5am and it was raining as well. My parents were there to fetch me as I reached.

My home is even messy before I went back; things on the sofa, books and some other stuff piled up on the table etc. It seems that my parents have been lenient in teaching my little sister on the basic tidiness and cleanliness. Perhaps, it is because she is the only child at home now and my parents are quite busy. I seemed to be the one always doing the nagging part. Some of you maybe wondering, “since when you have a little sister?”. My parents adopted my cousin’s daughter who is having some family problems since last December. It is a long story. She will be staying with us for the next 3 years if nothing goes wrong.

Holiday mood is in the air whenever I am in Penang. Perhaps that it is too “comfortable” here or because my parents are around, I want to talk to them and do not feel like working on my tasks.

Job Interviews

I will be going back to Penang on Wednesday night for my 2 interviews on Friday. Everything comes in a sudden. My more relaxing schedule this week becomes a packing one.

The first company is Agilent for a position in Customer Service. I seriously hope that I do not become a telephone operator if I get the job. One of their HR employees called me several times regarding the schedule for the interview. It seems that they are keen on finding someone who knows Korean language well. Unfortunately, my level is not even up to the Beginners standard yet. Worse, they want to give me a written test before the interview, even after telling them that my proficiency in Korean language is very poor.

Another company is Intel for the position as a contract software developer in Kulim. It is a software tool development company. They are using C++ and my skills in that language is not good. I wonder if I can perform well during the interview when it comes to technical questions. Actually, I am more worry about my performance if I did get confirm for that position. Anyway, I will try my best! t(''t)

p/s: Thanks to Huwi Yin senpai for her support and Dr Andrew for his advice ^^

Trip to Cyberjaya

Everyone is quite keen on finding a job before they graduate. I also hope that I can secure a job before I graduate. Some of my friends are getting interviews from companies already. I only attended an interview at the end of the February and that’s it. All these jobs finding stuff has being getting on my head and taking much of my time. I guess I should have concentrate more on my studies now. With so many assignments, tests and classes lining up, I could not afford slacking off.

Today I went to MMU, Cyberjaya to attend the Career Fair there. Since they were providing us with free transport, I might as well take this opportunity to visit some old friends there. The bus departed at 8.45am from MMU, Malacca and reached the destination at around 10.30am. I went looking around the fair as I reached. The venue is smaller than the one in Malacca but there are more participating companies. I submitted some resumes but did not attend any of the walk-in interviews.

I met with Ryan, Bee Jun and Yushu at 11am. Yushu just finished an interview with Motorola. He dressed like as if he is a businessman, very formal and smart. It is the first time I saw him wearing like that. He had attended 7 interviews so far. Wow… that is a lot! Then, we headed to the fair together. We did a small chatting. I saw Corine and Chun Cheat passing by. Yushu went off earlier before we have a group photo together. Then, we visited the FIT building before heading to the cafeteria in the FOE building. I saw Sasi, Danny, Chai Hoang, Ai Chin and Mei Shin there. Chai Hoang was too hungry to wait for our reunion lunch at 1pm. Ryan and his friends seem to think that Cyberjaya campus has more beautiful girls, which I think that is not really true.

At 12.50pm, we departed to Street Mall to have our dinner. Sasi offered to meet the other guys in front of library and asked us to depart first as Jin Boone (JB) was waiting in the car already. I did not know that Jin Boone has a car. I must be too outdated. We had our lunch at a restaurant called Penang House. According to our Penangite, JB, none of the dishes there tasted like from Penang. The business is good because the shop is air-conditioned. The cheapest dish cost RM6, excluding of tax and service charge. Chai Hoang arrived with Sasi later, while Chee Keong (CK) arrived with Alex and Alvin at the very last. There are a total of 10 of us – Mei Shin, Chai Hoang, JB, CK, Alvin, Alex, Danny, Ai Chin, Sylvia and I. Sasi visited Malacca a few weeks ago and he looks more skinny and energetic now. Chai Hoang and JB is the same as ever. CK has gained some weight since Alpha but he looks better now. Alvin has changed his hair style. I think that the little pony tail looks weird on him. The previous hairstyle is nicer. Alex is slimmer than I last met him. Danny has changed his hairstyle; it looks stylish with the yellow highlight. Mei Shin and Chai Hoang are having fun playing with his hair. Sylvia is slimmer than I last met her. It is nice to see everyone again before graduating! Due to some mistake in ordering, CK actually have Nasi Lemak for both his breakfast and lunch! Luckily he have Alvin the Cat (because he is from Kuching) to help him out with the dish. Danny refused to help CK with his dish but helped Ai Chin instead. What a lovely couple... We took some photos outside before heading back to the campus. It was around 2.30pm already.

I quickly rushed to the front of the library to meet Madhu. I have not seen her since Alpha. Yuya was not able to make it because she is having a meeting. Madhu said that she was really busy with CCIP recently, looking for people to become the Culture Pageant. Madhu is much slimmer compared to in Alpha. It seems that she is having a heavy workload, taking 7 subjects this trimester. She is not following the schedule and the subjects are getting tougher, with more assignments and things to learn. It is always better to take them as soon as possible. I met Eileen and her sister shortly after that. She looks nice in her dress.

While heading to the STAD building at 2.55pm, I met Wei Chung and greeted him for a while. Then, I met Gin Bey, my ex-schoolmate. I have not seen her for years. Sylvia and Alex sent Mei Shin and I off at around 3.20pm.

Even though it was a short trip, it is nice to see everyone again. It reminded me of the good old Alpha time. We were the noisy and active Group 25! Sasi, Danny and JB are a whole bunch of humorous people. I guess I will next meet them during the coming convocation in Cyberjaya campus in August.

Education and Career Fair

Last week, there was an Education and Career Fair in MMU, Exam Hall for 3 days. I was a bit disappointed about the fair. There were very few booths and companies. The participating companies were such as Shell, Intel, Avago, Robert Bosch and Jobstreet. It seems to be more of a career fair than education fair, with only 1 booth on education by IDP. IDP is a body promoting about education in Australia. It is owned by all of the universities in Australia. They also provide consultation to students who wish to study in Australia. I did send in my resume before the fair but did not receive any news from the event organizer or company. Only a few students were short listed for interview by some companies. I am starting to doubt my skills or knowledge in the field. I managed to get an interview for Robert Bosch for the embedded system programmer. But, I think my performance is not good enough to convince the interviewee. I attended a career talk by Shell, an interesting one. I get to know more about the company and the job positions available.

My final year project is on the track now, which is something good. My class for Java started this week, which means I will have to attend more classes and have less free time. Microsoft SQL 2000 admin class will start on next Saturday. Though the schedule is a bit pack, it’s always good to be able to learn something extra. For those who do not know, there is an Education Fair in Century Mahkota Hotel, Malacca on this Saturday, 12-6pm. There is an IDP fair on the same day in Subang Jaya.

NOC IV

The second week of the last trimester is coming to an end soon. Holiday mood is slowly decreasing and everything is getting back on track. It was quite boring for the first week and things are getting very hectic this week.

I attended the Night of Celebration (NOC) IV on Thursday night in Main Hall. This is an annual event held by SPARC. It is a musical drama and the admission is free. It was my second and last time attending this event. My first visit was on last academic year. The entrance was crowded by people once it was opened. I was supposed to enter with Mei Shin and Soon Jin but they were not there yet when I arrived. I made a right choice entering the hall first as the front and middle seats were filled up very fast. I managed to get a seat on the right front. It was quite a nice view as I was not block. Beside me is my neighbor, Jason and Foo was sitting nearby. It was not as nice as last year’s performance but the door gift was nice, sponsored by Tupperware and some samples from a cosmetic company. The commercial section was a bit too lengthy and the emcee for the opening was not doing a great job.

The title for NOC IV was Chapters of Life. The story surrounded Abigail, a kind hearted girl who suffered from leukemia. When she was given hope to recover from her sickness, an accident happened and she passed away. Her friends and brother a lot suffered from her death. My favorite character is Chris, played by Justin Lee. His singing is the best and doing a good job for his role as Abigail’s brother. Even though Violet, Abigail’s best friend (played by Renee Tiun) is not a goody type of character, she played her role well. Sean, played by Aaron Liu’s performance is not bad. I had a hard time listening to his singing as it was unclear. Abigail’s performance is lack of emotion. Overall, the music, dance and props for this year are a bit disappointing. However, the flash show before the start of the event is something worth mentioning. It was about the training of the actors before the event, more to a comedy. Despite all the flaws, the event was a bit hit. The venue was packed with people and there were many spectators standing at the back.

Chinese New Year 2006

This year’s Chinese New Year is a very busy one. We were busy decorating the house and spring cleaning. Not forgetting, teaching my niece on performing some of the housework. We had our reunion dinner at my grandmother and uncle’s house. On the first day of Chinese New Year, we visited the “open house” at Fort Cornwallis for free food. There was still a lot of food available despite our late visit, specially the non-Chinese stalls. There were quite a number of Indians there other than Chinese. On the first 2 days of Chinese New Year, we had steamboat at my uncle and aunt’s house. 2 days of steamboat is more than enough to give me a freak about food.

My uncle’s house was robbed on the third day of Chinese New Year. The estimated lost is around RM 1K. It is a lesson for everyone. Do not put too many valuable things such as cash and jewelries at home during festive seasons. Do remember to keep your door lock as well!

On February 1(Wednesday), we had a small gathering at Coffee Bean, Gurney Plaza at 2pm. This is the first gathering after more than 3 years, since Siew Hoon’s birthday party in 2002. 14 people attended the gathering – Siew Hoon, Hui Ping, Yoke Pei, Hui Wen, Yoke Yen, Siew Ean, Yee Loo, Chiew May, Kae Wen, Siew Eng, Tian Tian, Ee Pheng and I. Yi Wen came quite late and Tuan Fern was unable to attend the gathering as promise. There was a kind of weird feeling when we saw each for the first time after a long time. Many of us stayed quiet for some time. Some of us are still quite close as we still keep in touch. Everything became heated up after the photo session. There were around 4 cameras. Many of us flipped through our graduation magazines before attended the gathering as there are some names which we had forgotten. The class gathering turned out to be another small gathering of friends when we saw some of our ex-schoolmates. Even though we do not know each other and have never talk to each other before during high school, it feels good to see them again.

Even though I did not reach my goal of seeing all my friends, at least I met some of them ^^