Still alive

Salam people!:) Yes, I am still alive. Sorry for not updating for so long: to whosoever even reads my blogs anymore (if there are even any). There's so much to say yet it's so difficult to start somewhere... U people know how this feel.

My week has been full. Lol. This morning I had Biology mid sem exam. Only 3 weeks and we have exam. Next month I'll be doing my finals for the semester (because I'm doing short sem). I never imagined myself running against time and doing double of what i've been able to do. In secondary 5, i thought it was such a big deal and IGCSE was soo difficult and tiring. Lol. If i knew i can do this, I would have done so and really aim to scored straight A*'s. and even take BM for SPM so that I would not have to take an extra subject in the evening while everyone has already gone home (but thanks to my unnamed roomate for always waiting for me:)). Here it's like a nonstop studying streak. You study when you wake up, at the bus stop, in the bus, before class, during break, after class, when you reach home, after prayers, before sleep (if you even sleep). Be it facing books, doing questions, revision, prestudy-- everything. And I guess it's my fault for not focusing sincerely during my Sec 5. Thus I have to reread everything from my form4 and form 5 books and refer to them. We study 1 chapter every two days or so and it is super thick. And the book has soo much text and paragraphs, its so overwhelming you feel like you can't get head or tail of what the book is talking about when all it's saying is just a simple concept. I'm trying to imagine how would i handle housemanship (aka the worst years of your life).

Throughout my stay at CUCMS, my roomate and I have been doing a few experiments. Not just the bio lab one. But experimenting the best way to study, the best time to sleep, wake up and just sorta rearrange our personal timetable to achieve the best results.

Foundation at CUCMS is like a combination of ADNI and PDO school. There's the english element and also the college is tiny (ie cute) and there aren't that many students. You know everyone and everyone knows you (sorta). Of course there are a number of people who are way older than me and a few younger ones. But we get along fine:) My house is always so loud and full of warmth; which is the way we like it:) It's what we need.

For Professional Communication and Presentation, I'm soo happy that Dr Sharifah awarded me with full marks!XD I really thought I was blabbering and losing my words when I stood up front but when she gave our assessment, she said "Alia, you did fine. I have nothing much to say for you. You spoke clearly--(and can't remember the rest)."

This afternoon we had lunch together with Ms Shazanah (our reflection session lecturer) and her other reflection session group (which is Aki's housemates). She is a lot of fun:) and we can't help but keep laughing and laughing during her sessions. It's very much easy-going and destressing. I like ms shazanah:)

I've been looking for someone who is supposed to be in CUCMS but she doesn't seem to exist because whenever ask people, they say like they've never heard of her... Wierd.. -_-"

6 things i learnt at cucms:

1-always have a sweater at hand because the main campus is super freezing.

2-know your bus stops because instead of reaching campus in 5 mins, it would be in 40 mins

3-come to exam 15 minutes earlier (i came about 10 minutes earlier and everyone was already seated in. Mr Eric asked, "do you want to take this exam or not?" Ouch.)

4-if at terminal, order from "G"!:) not only is the taste to my liking, the cook is soleh (says my housemate) because a few times when we ordered there, the akak said they can't cook it because the cook is out for prayer.

5-qailulah at the musolla during break; because then at night you won't feel that tired and sleepy and you'd be more refreshed.

6-have mentos or those mouth burning sweets during lectures incase you feel sleepy- which is all the time. and especially if you sit at the frontmost.

~nadhirah
ten thirty four post meridiem
twenty fifth july two thousand eight

Overdue

To my Noble Great master. You know who you are.

Please may I receive my gift which is already 2 years overdue?

Thank you:)

~Young Padawan

See you see me as...?

8 days in cucms and I'm enjoying it:) The classes are very small; like around 25 people in my class. A lot like adni and PDO school. We know everyone and the seniors (who I've met) are super amiable and approachable and amazingly awesome. They approach US and make it feel like we're part of the family. Besides, there are not many students anyways. And the university is 3 years old or more...

It's a bit like living overseas. We have to take a bus to our accomodation place; Cyberia Smarthomes. It's quite nice over there, a lot of facilities. As far as I know, I've seen about 3 swimming pools and 3 playgrounds. Dunno if there are more... The only think i'm uncomfortable with is the loud music played like at a disco. The other night, the music started at 8pm. there were guys speaking on the loudspeaker and girls screaming... and when I woke up, it was still on. Only around 6am did the music die down... Part and parcel of the package. Lol. Our unit has 8 people staying there and alhamdulillah I'm so happy that they're all good great housemates:) On last sunday, we did an ultimate spring cleaning and really scrubbed everywhere clean (i found out that the previous tenants were guys). So it's really important that we have a good household relationship lol because we are gonna work together for the next 6 years. Housemates, classmates, workmates, teammates. Everything together. Lol.

I'm trying to cope with the classes. First day after orientation, class begun. First class, we dove right into the topic. Went really fast. Especially since this is short sem too because we have to catch up with the may intake (i am july intake)... So it was very much a shock to me... But alhamdulillah, i have an excellent roommate who supported me and soothed my pain away. Lol. But really, i'm really grateful and happy.

Lecturers are really nice; although I've only met about 5 or so.. The punctuality here is super strict. The lecturers will lock the door on the spot at 8am sharp so u can't enter if u are late....

Once I was having lunch and this man asked me if I'm a student and I said yeah. And he said "from MMU?" I said "no, from CUCMS." the place was really crowded and noisy so he went,

"What? C U C me as....?"

Withdrawal Day

On the day I withdrew from CFS UIA, I had planned to meet a few people and settle the withdrawal.

First thing first was to check out the A&R (admission and records) department and find out what was to be done for the withdrawal. The only thing was to go to 5 different departments (ie Library, Security, Discipline and Residential, Mahallah, and Finance) to get their signatures and chop just to verify that I don't have any disciplinary records or misconduct or unpaid fees or unreturned library books. All I had to do was show the pink paper and they signed it without saying a word; so the whole process was pretty quick actually:)

I had a lot of comments throughout the whole day though. When I went to the security department, the guy asked me "Adik merajuk je?" lol. I had to explain the whole pursuing-of-the-medical-field thing and he said, "wait til semester one. Get good results. Orang muda ni tak sabar. Slalu gopoh." All I did was smile... and laughed once I got outside. It's not that I thought he was being ridiculous or anything. I just didn't know what else to do. Just to destress I guess...

I coincidentally met Suhaimi twice. Kinda funny to get to know someone and then say goodbye on the same day. Called up kak Naurah (this senior who I met only once to play netball with) and met her infront of the library. When I told her that I was leaving, she started crying and her eyes were super red which was just soo sweet of her eventhough I was really surprised! She had class in 5 minutes so she wished me all the best and hurried to her class while dabbing her tears away. Said goodbye to some other people; followed Maryam to Bio class and met up with basma there. Met up with Sharaf just before reaching my Mahallah. Said goodbye; again.

Went back to my room and packed my things. Hugged Teha and Ikin before they went off to class because they would finish their class late. My dad called and I hugged Ida and said goodbye:) In the car I was just quiet when I got a message from Ida. She said that she didn't want to cry when I left because she didn't want to make me cry too because she said she wanted to see my cute face laughing and smiling instead of crying. Which was soo touching that I cried in the car right there and then. She slipped in a present for me into my bag and I cried even more when I found it.

I've met so many amazing and unforgettable people just for two weeks and I'm so grateful they were in my life. I can't imagine how difficult it would be if I had to say goodbye after knowing them for years or so...

When I told 'someone' about my withdrawal because I didn't get medic, she said: They should have given it to you. They don't know what they're missing.

Which was the really nicest thing i've ever heard:)

Easy Brownies

Iman: The making was funner that the eating.

Last night I had an unplanned sleepover at Iman's. I guess my mom doesn't really mind because we know Iman's family for soo long and I guess Auntie Ilaine doesn't mind because she knows I won't create a ruckus or wreak havoc. Haha. I'm such a regular over there:)

Aki was meant to come over too and she said we have to bake a cake to commemorate her grand entrance or something. So later on when Iman asked "what should we do?"; the most obvious was "Let's bake something!"
Flipping through Cooky Book for a suitable recipe

Searched through Iman's recipies and found "United Sisters International Cuisine." Looked through some more and found Auntie Fatimah's Easy Brownies!XD
Ingredients and utensils for Easy Brownies
I don't have the recipe with me so I can't remember the exact amount for the ingredients. But we took a picture at every step!:) So here's the procedure (more or less):

Step 1: Preheat oven at 180C
Step 2: Grease the baking tray with butter

Step 3: Melt 250g of butter and dark chocolate in a pan.
As you can see, we used powder chocolate instead of the slab chocolate (because we didn't have it). Not so sure if that really made a difference as to how the real outcome was supposed to be...And this is how it turned out after a bit of mixing. You can see there are some cocoa powder spilt on the stove. Ni salah aki tak pandai tuang betul2!!! Wahahaha.

Step 4: Beat 4 eggs and add 2 tsp of vanilla essenceWell, you can't really see it then but I have the expertise of one-handedly cracking an egg!:PIman the mixer. She didn't want to use an electronic mixer because we should use our own strength and energy. Lol.

Step 5: Add the egg mixture to the choccy butter mixture.
Step 6: Add flour and castor sugar to that mixture. Also 1 tsp of salt.
Mix mix and mix. The recipe said to use walnut but we didn't have that so we added chocolate chips instead:)
Transfer the batter to the baking tray


Here's a bit of our extra personal touch. We added jelly beans (specifically coconut because that was what was left) to make a heart shape at the top:)

Only thing left was just to put it in the oven^^


While waiting for the brownies to bake, we had hot chocolate (me and aki) and Iman had orange juice. It was meant to take only 25 minutes but it turned into a whole hour because when we checked the brownies, it didn't seem like it was cooked inside- properly.

Nawal came and poked a fork inside and it was still not cooked! So we made some analysis and thought that maybe we should have used a slab of chocolate. Or maybe we put too much batter so it was super thick!


Aki's mom and Eiman was there too! So we had Eiman have the honour of cutting the cake:)
Even though we thought that it wasn't properly baked, we took it out anyway because the top was already so crusty. Lol. Well, it was edible and tasted quite okay. Even nicer was eating the brownies with ice cream!:)


I quote again from Iman Azman: The making was funner than the eating.

Thanks u guys; I had lotsa fun^^

Back at square one

I met a crazy woman today. I'm not saying that because I'm mean or anything but because she admitted it herself. She says she is a majnun lady. Lol.

She is the first person ever to personally challenge me on my ambition of becoming a doctor. She is a nutritionist and at first she was okay when I told her I am/was taking Allied Health Science. But when I 'casually' mentioned that I'm switching Universities to pursue the medical field, we had a heated conversation about modern medicine vs alternative medicine (actually it wasn't really heated. It was her who was was more enthusiastic about it.. I listened more throughout).

She says that I need to look more into this medical field before actually delving deeper and driving towards my dream (whhooo Alliteration:P). She is a nutritionist herself and views that medicine does not cure people; rather they only sustain the pain at just a lower level. Thus the pharmaceutical companies are just making more and more money since people aren't really getting 'better'. Take a look at cancer patients. Their 'cure' is the (and I quote from her) slash, burn and poison. Slash being the taking out the tumor, burn being the radiation and poison being the chemotherapy where the person actually gets worse. So how can that be compared to alternative medicine such as the coconut oil miracle?

I mean plus the fact that I'm about to change universities and now 'someone' is asking (more like influencing and persuading) me to go to Alexandria, Egypt (my first choice after finishing Form 5); I feel like I am back at square one. Like; should I even take medicine in the first place?

My mom says I am such a fickle person. Can't seem to settle on anything. Lol.

Well, I talked to my mom about it and had another heated conversation (though again, it's just her elaborating on it. Me; I just listen). She says both modern medicine and alternative medicine compliments each other. Both has their pros and cons. What about her friend who is a doctor who fashioned an artificial ear for people who do not have an ear? Or how about babies who are born with a cleft? They require surgery to make it 'un-deformed'. How can alternative medicine actually help un-deform clefts?
So even if some of the high people in pharmeceutical companies might be into the money-making business, a lot of people under them are working as doctors only for the sole good intention of treating symptoms.

In conclusion, we shouldn't degrade modern medicine merely because of some pharmecautical companies who might be thinking of the big money but rather the profession itself where you cannot deny that it has helped a lot of people.

A wedding!

fuddy me and iman at the wedding

Attended Syarifah and Harris's wedding on Saturday. I would have to say it is quite a grand wedding. Lotsa people. It's the first time I've attended a wedding where I know quite a number of people AND the bride and groom too (apart from attending my cousins' weddings)!. Abundant in merriment and joy- that's what a wedding is meant to be like right? In the afternoon, they had their 15 minute (or is it one hour?) honeymoon on a helicopter and came back. We were awed. I've never heard people going for a honeymoon that short or have a helicopter land at their wedding place...

Munirah -my new found friend- and I

Made friends with Munirah Zulkifli (sort of an alumni) lol. I've seen her a few times with Iman when I was in Sec 1 and never again after that until the wedding... It's like we hardly know each other but had a lot to catch up on. She knows a lot about me and I maybe...sorta... quite... know a but about her too. Lol. Which is kinda strange to me... Anyways, she's fun:) and she rocks because she takes geology. Though she still rocks even if she doesn't take geology. Lol.

That was the afternoon ceremony and at night, we had Alumni dinner... So that's the basic tentative. Alumni dinner had food (obviously), multimedia presentation, a few speeches and Taboo game! Which was quite interesting to see everyone so fired up and it was super fun:) Girls won hands down. lol.

Iman Azman aka The Taboo Master

Sadly, I don't have any pictures of the bride and groom:( Because then I'd have to go right up to them and take their photos... (malu X|) Besides, other people have plenty and most likely they'll put them up too so you can see them:D