First Week

Well, first week, first week of what? It was the first week of my new semester. As foreseen, I went back to school on Monday itself, arrived there just in time for the 2pm class and luckily I wasn't late. It was International Economics (IE) class and we were dismissed early when the lecturer has done the introduction on the course structure. Then, I went back to my room and unpacked my luggage. I'll talk in brief about the subjects I'm currently taking as well as the respective lecturers.

For IE, the lecturer is a part time lecturer. The funny part is, he didn't even know he has an office arranged for him by the faculty until previous semester in two months back. He didn't even know where his office was until one of his students from previous semester located it for him. Haha. Then, it was Global Issues in International Business (GI). We aren't using any text books in specific as we are supposed to discuss and cover contemporary issues happening around the globe. As for the lecturer, he is an Iranian from Kashan. I like him a lot particularly because of his accent. Well, I made a friend from Pakistan when I was having my internship and found his accent somehow unique. This lecturer, too, has that kind of accent which I found myself paying full attention to what he said throughout the class! Besides, he is good looking, relatively more muscular than most of the male lecturers in our school. LOL. But one important thing I like about him, is the way he teaches us, the way he presents his "slides" to us, the way he talks and moves around, his body gestures. To sum it up, his presentation skills are awesome, and he taught us the proper way to present as well (which most, if not every, of the lecturers have been trying to).

For Cross-cultural Management (CCM), she is a lecturer with a doctorate. Somehow or rather, I still don't find myself getting the hang of it calling lecturers by the salutation of Dr. There was a lecturer with doctorate too who taught me two semesters ago, but I'm still calling him "sir" each time I see him around. I think next time I should probably ask if she'd get offended when I called her "miss" instead of Dr. Anyway, she is a very friendly person and tends to make jokes to keep us awake, though most of the time, we hardly get her jokes and she ended up laughing at her own jokes. LOL. But I really appreciate her effort in doing her best to implant interest of the subject on us, and sharing her experience as well as knowledge across different culture. Then, there is this subject called Strategic Management (SM), by a part time lecturer too. On the first day of class, we are expected to finish reading a total number of 100 pages of PDF files within one week, on introduction and the nature of strategic management, which includes a number of case studies comprises of various industries. According to him, he was a CEO before. Though we aren't sure about the reason(s) for him to teach part time, he does sound like a BOSS when sharing his experience.

Next, it was International Management (IM), by a part time lecturer, TOO. Of all days and all time, his class HAS TO BE on FRIDAY 2-6pm! Some of my friends who aren't taking this subjects, had already gotten back home way before I even began my class! Grrrrrr... We received an email from him urging us to attend his first class as he would be telling us the guidelines to score. Well, at least, I felt better when thinking that, I would have some extra information against those who absent. However, it wasn't quite as what I thought the "guidelines" would be. According to him, no matter what we want to achieve in life, which including to score, the foundation is extremely important. With that principle in mind, he shared with us the techniques to effective study, including active listening and power napping, the correct posture to yield maximum concentration, some free online tools to make our own notes, and many more. 

Wait, speaking of notes, this lecturer is slightly different. Though there are lecturers who encourage us to make our own notes, at least they still upload the ppt slides/docx for the students. THIS lecturer, he doesn't want us to be spoon-fed and thus, insists that, no notes will be given throughout the semester. He will only guide us on which text books to refer for the particular chapters and expect us to make our own notes. There is another reason he doesn't want to give us notes though. In contrast with other lectures, we would usually download the notes, print it out and bring it to the class. When the lecturer is lecturing, at least we have a slight idea on the outline of the day, and be able to add on whatever the lecturer has said. THIS lecturer, however, expects us to attend the class without any notes, which is totally opposite to the usual practice whereby, students are expected to prepare before coming for class. According to his notion, he wants us to attend the class with an empty-cup, to be able to fill whatever he is going to share with us, instead of partially-full, half-full, or totally-full cup and make absorption of new knowledge relatively difficult, if not nearly impossible.

He asked us about our intended/desired career path and life goals. I was shocked to see some of them who had not started thinking of it. And there, I heard a tiny voice speaking in my head, "Well, I think I'm still slightly better than them. I've started thinking of it since long time ago." The lecturer then went on and said, "If you didn't know what you wanna do or who you wanna be in the future, its still not too late to start figure that out now. Y'all are still in the early 20s, still have a lot of time but please remember, procrastination kills." And there, the voice in my head spoke again, "I though I was a weirdo! It seems as if I was the only one thinking about life questions when most of my peers are still playing around, hanging out with friends for most of the time! Well, I think I'm merely a step ahead of them in growing up then." Ah, I felt so much better after struggling for such a long time figuring out who I am and wholly accept myself for who I really am. Mind you, its not easy to accept you for who you are without giving a damn on what others think of you, okay? Some of my friends tend to change their behaviour or personality just to please others, and I find it amusing. LOL, no offense!

Okay, done with the monotonous "lecturer-talk", its time for some leisure moments. On Saturday, I visited my friend, A's house. It was supposed to be a house-warming invitation, but I couldn't be able to make it at night and thus, I rescheduled it to afternoon. She was a friend whom I made during my internship and is currently my BIG sister. We always talk about life, about our desired career, and even marriage! Haha, not that I'm planning to get married, but on her "ideal-prince" whom she hopes to meet one day. Hehe. I bought a tin of Famous A'mos cookies for her but forget to take a picture of it! Aiks...

I'm honoured to be one of her guests because she didn't even invite a lot of her school (which include elementary and high school as well as university) friends! At first, I was kind of lonely because she only invited immediate relative and some close friends and thus I practically had no one to talk to. However, one of her friends, Dila arrived and we started chatting non-stop (she is even more talkative than me. hehe). I know her when I attended A's convocation a few months back. Well, anyway, let's cut this through to the FOOD! XD

Top left: Chinese Fried Rice; Top right: Curry Chicken;
Bottom left: some appetizer?; Bottom right: Malay traditional glutinous rice
P/S I forget to take a photo of the Biryani rice.. Aiks...

Top left: Rendang Mutton; Top right: Rendang Chicken;
Bottom left: Spaghetti sauce; Bottom right: Spaghetti!!

Top left: Asian style salad; Top right: Grilled Fish;
Bottom left: Watermelon, cookies and Curry Puff; Bottom right: My food.. hehe..
P/S I forget to take a photo of Grilled Chicken.. Aiks too...

Friends I made during my internship.
Finally, we met up again after one year :)

Two of my regrets:
1. I forget to take a photo of the cookies I brought over! The packaging is lovely, okay?
2. I didn't get to take a photo with Dila :(

On Sunday, my dad brought me and my little brother to attend one of his friend's open house in Country Heights. The residence area is even more superior than Damansara Heights or Mont Kiara. Instead of describing my experience at the open house, which is more or less the same for all the other open houses, I rather talk about the houses in Country Heights. All the rich purchased a piece of land and build their houses there, which of course, most of the bungalows there are magnificent! I think I could even use the word "breath-taking" to describe one or two of the houses there! Some of which are four-storey, lol... According to my dad, the price of the land as well as the house itself could cost more than 10 millions! They have to hire architects, contractors, interior designers and all to build the one and only house. And it could take up to 2 years just to build one. Not to mention, most of the houses there have swimming pool. hehe.. So now, you know what happened next? I added this into my To-Do-List! I want to own a piece of land and build my own house there! XD

'Till next post, cheers :)