Final finals.

It's been ages since I ever liven up this site. At least after three months.
Four months ago, the feeling of being in college the first time, and out of the country was nervewrecking. I was always thinking what college would be like and how I would adapt in a new country. The thoughts that the family would not be near around me haunted me awhile before I came, but these four months did make me realize that I was mature enough to manage myself. Everything was done by myself; no more mommy doing the delicious home-cooked food, no more spoonfeeding by professors, no more mommy doing those terrible laundry, no more nagging to take those medications, no more close-knitted friends to talk about old times, and no more time to laze around.
The first semester here at KSU was good indeed.
I managed myself and my schedule pretty well here that I'm all by my own. I was really impressed with that. Kudos to me. =)
Made new friends and met new people here. It was a great pleasure to meet all of you. Anthony, Kaylee, Richard, James, Peter, Megan, Meagan, Jon, Mark,etc. You people make me laugh and smile. =)
My professors were all awesome people. I did not have a bad one. They were all nice people and they were like friends.
The weather at Kent is known to be crazy. It was snowing one whole week. And then, it rained. And now, it is pretty warm outside. Crazy Ohio weather, that's what people say. And apparently, Ohio is located at the snow belt. That's to say when I come back in Spring 09, it's going to be a killer for me.
The food here's not that bad either. It's of course American, but they do have good stuff too. They have really good salsa.
The people that live in my residence hall were all nice and friendly people. Thanks Marie, Liz, Sharla, Hannah, Josee, and Beth. All you girls helped me loads. loads. hugs.

Tomorrow's the optional final for MPC. I'm going for it. Just because I'll still be in Kent till Sunday. Will be vacating my dorm tomorrow after vacate time to Irene's apartment. I'm excited for the weekend. Sunday, New York, here I come!
=)

"Hurricane Ike"

Week three of college: Piling up.

The amount of assignments, journals, presentations, & tests keeps on adding.

& I had two tests today; Music Theory and Mus of Western Cultures, adding one presentation assignment for Honors Colloquium English.

All done at the first half of the day. whoosh.

Running back and forth from the MSP and the Honors Coll is the best way to burn those calories. However, when it's drizzling rain non-stop and the winds of "Hurricane Ike" swooshing past my face and hair, it's not really a good idea to do so, with only 15 minutes in between those classes.

I so don't know how I'm going to survive with this when it comes to winter.

The layers of snow, the 'smoke' out from my mouth, the 4-5 layers of clothing, and the ever heavy bookload(tho I have got my own locker) just makes the situation harder.

-I shall not foresee the future right now. It's still end-summer, early-fall.-

Music Theory ear-training quiz was alright. But there's 120 minutes of MacGamut(Corey calls it MaDGamut. LOL) due on Monday in Mr. Kulma's email mailbox. Yes folks, there is even a section for music theory that it computerized and www-lized. Interesting, isn't it?

As for the HONR colloquium, the group presentation was awesome. Lindsay, Katie, Brittany and I were the first group to start off for today's lesson. I don't really call it a presentation like what we used to do in high school back home, but, it's more like conducting the whole lesson in the class. It was really fun. We splitted them into two groups to match the quotes from Uncle Tom's Cabin(the book) to the person who said it. & they need to assemble Uncle Tom's Cabin when they're done. The winner gets candy. Over here, candy really does make people happy. I don't know about in Malaysia, because I'm not a fanatic over candy. =) Eventually, both teams got candy. Then, the second part was the summary of the chapters we did. The interesting part was that we made puppets to represent the cast in the story. They were so cute. Ms. Todd simply loved them to the max. Not forgetting, the class too. The final section was where we asked the class some questions. Seriously, those questions are way different from how we put things back home. Because this is an honors class, we got to come up with questions of certain depth and analyzing. The four of us prepared our own questions, and the response we got from the class was great! You guys were superb! Thanks.

Right after the presentation was Music of Western cultures. There was a test for it. I didn't really expect the test to turn out that way, but it should be okay, I think.

And for that, third week being a college student ended.

But, there's still applied class tomorrow afternoon.

Liberalism

Being in "soda-land", that's what I call Americana,
& the fact that I am already in college,
is a matter of fact about reading, reading and reading heaps of stuff.

I would dare say that my schedule for classes this first semester is HECTIC!
I've got 18 credit hours under my back, which is the maximum amount freshies can take.
& the schedule I'm having right now is practically quite similar to high school.
Folks, my everyday starts at 8.50am - Monday till Friday. Without fail, the constant waking up at 7am has became a consistent routine, even for weekends.

Monday,
is my most busy day. Try possibly not to call me on this day, because there is a big possibility that I might not pick up the cell.
5 fat classes the whole day.
The irony is that I prefer to wake up early in the morning and start my day ahead early. The tendency to learn is much better they say(survey datas shown). =)

In my POV,
every single day in college is a new day. You decide what you want, and it's really up to you.
In high school back home, there's always a standard analogy that all of us must follow. Here in "liberal-land", you can choose whether you want to come for class, set your own "Skip-Day", eat in class, ask questions etc. without any barriers. I'm of course not saying that I skip any classes or either eat in class, because I realize that I'm trained since young that you must respect and enjoy what education brings to you. Either way, I am also not saying that I'm totally against of the idea that students here do whatever in class, but I just won't do it with myself.

I believe that there are always Pros and Cons of things.
I also know that I am a person with strong understanding and beliefs of culture and traditions of my people. & I can understand the differences in culture between these two worlds apart.
As Thomas L. Friedman stresses on his world bestseller book "The World is Flat", that there is no boundaries among each other on Mother Earth, I strongly feel that the point of understanding among each other must be promoted especially on the international stage.
Why?
Folks, it's because we are all global citizens of the world.

Transitions.

It seems that I have abandoned this blogspot blog for more than a year. Even for my xanga.
But, I presume I am back in this blog of mine. So that you people can get hold of what I'm up to when I am 837403823740 miles away from home, family, friends, and food.

No doubt, I've been in Americana land for a month or so.
Transitioning from high school to college/university(that's what you call it in Malaysia) is always a big leap, a big route to take.
Say goodbye to spoonfeeding, now, it is the time to be independent, not only academically, but also physically, mentally, and spiritually.

Being a gazillion miles apart from the country definitely made me think about home constantly.
I mean, it is an undeniable fact that I miss my family, my friends, my teachers, and my food like a mad woman. However, I totally understand that I must adapt in this new environment, not to accept but to understand the culture of another foreign land.
Living here in Kent is pleasant, a great place for studies.

I shall not elaborate more now. Will be seeing the advisor later at 3pm.
Anyhow, take care all of you, and I will too.