Ooohhhhh NOooooooo!!

Time really flies… I am already back in Sunderland for 10 days!! TEN days already!!

Gosh~

Anyway, nothing happens much.

We have a new lecture hall this year. The hall- THE hall is like sooooooooo red and orange and bright! I love it! And can you believe we have to swipe our student cards now when we attend lectures? You know, like when you see in movies when they enter a security locked room, they have to swipe their ID cards and let the eye scanning thing to scan their iris for ID purposes? Like that lah, just that ours exclude the eye scanning thing, and ours the doors are not locked. Soooo high tech de..

.

Our first lecture in there was Pharmacy Practice by AW. Gosh~ I love this guy to bits. He is like soooooo funny. He refers the middle part of the lecture hall as economy class, and the side seats as business class. But to me, the side seats are more like couple seats in the cinema than anything because they are two by two. Great for dating during class purposes. Down side to it of course, if you make too much noise, you’ll be spotted easily.

Seriously, this lecture hall is now like a cinema. The stairs are lighted. Yesh, lighted! So GSC like. The sound system is also superb. The walls, oh gosh, the walls. Orange, bright orange! With holes, either for the sound projection or the heater, I do not know yet. Beneath every seat there’s a white thing which I don’t know what they are. But I think they should be the ventilation thing.

Anyhoooooo.. univ aside, you know what I did when I just arrived here?

YESH~ mahjong.

WE went to the casino in Newcastle for that. I didn’t have any ID on me that night, and you know how young I look. Muahahaha. I sneaked in. shhhhh….

It’s not that I am underage or anything, it’s just that I do not have any ID to show that I’m actually already 21!! 18 is the legal age lah. But you know just like how you buy alcohol here, 18 is legal, but if you look under 21, you have to show positive ID. Our university ID is also like crap, because all there is on the card is the name of the course you are doing. No birth of date or anything else that can actually show your age. Dooooooooh~. The univ should redo the whole student card thing. That way, we can only show our student ID everywhere, and not bring different cards on you to show everything. Like, on a simple day down to the town, if you need to show your student status for student discount, show your student ID will do. Then, if you decided to grab some alcohol from Tesco, just show your student ID to prove that you are over 18. Would not that be soooooooo convenient? Now, on a normal day out, I show my student ID at Dorothy Perkins for student discount. Walk pass Tesco and some fruity alcohol which I absolutely love are on offer like buy one get one free or 3-for-2. If I want to grab some of them, I have to show my passport because I do not even look like I’m 18. SOOOOOOoooOO mafan. Where do people bring passport out everywhere or just to a place like Tesco? Siao. But of course, some guy friends are here for disposal when it comes to alcohol.

I signed up for the gym membership today, for £25 and the membership doesn’t even last a year! The place is sooooo tiny. They have upgraded everything. Like the library, and lecture halls and some other places. Why wouldn’t they redo the gym??!! Sad place. But yea, they are upgrading it soon, just not now. It will be in the new multimillion pounds building. Read this..

http://ablogus.sunderland.ac.uk/2008/05/building_our_future.html.

And you know what, they did a survey last spring about the membership fee for the new gym, the number is close to £100 annual? Damn. Compare to the £25 now, and £20 last year, it’s a huge increment. But of course, what you pay is what you get. The new one is gonna be soooooo so huge, unlike the current one.. geezz.

Just hope I’ll still be around to see it and use it. Future kids here are so lucky.

The people here love my new hair. When they see me first time in the library, ‘I love you hair!!’ Haha. Thanks, people, I love my new hair too. And from my own Malaysian gang, the most extreme comment I hear about my hair is, I quote Robert, “成功女士的发型” Isn’t that cute or what? Lolx.

I really love all my kawans. You know what, before I even open up my luggage, I was already receiving things. I have a pair of original Sunderland FC shorts now. Not that I’m a fan, I don’t even watch football, mind you, but it’s good to own stuff from Sunderland FC because I am staying in Sunderland and the home for the FC is just like few minutes away. Be part of this city. Yay! Next target, the black and white strips ones. Well, you know, they are only 40 minutes away by metro.

After being here for 2 years, the only thing that I am soooo expert now, well, except cutting hair *ahem*, is stocking up things. And that’s like £150 worth of Tesco online. Should really stay away from Tesco for the time being, but that like really impossible.

What else…. Hmmmm..

I guess not.

I’m off. Tata~ till next time.

… and I do not know when that next time would be.

Time just flies…

… and here I am back here where it is hardly ever sunny 24/7. I beg your pardon, Malaysia is not sunny 24/7 either. Now, how should I describe here the weather here? Cold? Depressing?

Never mind…

This summer has been rewarding and I shall say, full of time for self-discovery and reflections.

Being spoilt and being un-spoilt, being pampered and being un-pampered, this summer were really something.

Started off with a placement somewhere, really kicked start the holiday with although-it was-16-days-but-seems-like-it-had-only-been-2 days-so-it-was-too-short trip discovering the “US”, West Malaysia and at the same time meeting friends again, and ended with low key days spending time at home doing nothing but doing loads at the same time.

The placement probed me to think about the reasons I am studying what I am studying. Seeing the old ones doing their jobs, in just a handful of them, I saw the passion, the fire, the drive, and the one factor that made them having those three- the patients. So what if they cannot tell you the difference between a tablet and a capsule? So what if they cannot read what is written on the pack of their medicines? So what if they have trouble seeing the needle of their insulin pen? So what if they need more time to understand? Old or young, literate or uneducated, bright or dim. There are all sort of people, and believe it that this line of career will always face the worst of them. Educate them when they are not. The toughest one? Have more patience. Be passionate is the one thing that I feel will keep people in this line, especially in the G sector. It is easy for me to say all these now being just an observer, watching people. Laugh at me when I really am let out to the wild to fend myself in two years time. Maybe this post will remind me why I chose this path then, and I will just smirk at you who laugh.

Went off to peninsular Malaysia had been the highlight of this summer holiday, seeing Penang, Langkawi and Kuala Lumpur. It was good to see these people who I have gotten to know and been cliqued in a foreign land since two years ago, in our own country, in our own home. It was good to meet people who I have not met since I left to study too.

In the 16-day trip, other than looking at myself at the presence, I looked at myself in the future, looked at myself till the day I am called to leave the worldly world. How two completed sets of jigsaw puzzle have to be taken apart and be put into one complete piece, how give and take plays a gigantic part when we are looking for Forever, and what The Big Picture really means. Being away for two years, not seeing each other for two years, this relationship has gone really far and it is meant to be carried through life. Call yourself my true friend if you have known that I am surviving a long-distant relationship.

This summer, I looked at the two people that have made a lot of sacrifices for me- the parents. I watched the dad driving, I watched the mom cooking, I watched them living everyday of their lives just so that the young ones will be equipped to bring bread to the table by themselves when both of them are no longer able to do it. I looked at the siblings too. I watched them bringing life to the family. The family, each and every one of the members, is the one who built me up. We have not much in monetary, we have a lot in love. Although they are left unsaid, they are left done.

This summer is really one of those times that fly. Not only did it fly, it speeded too.

Tang Lung...

Two years being abroad, it feels good to be back at a place where we, the 20-odd-year olds are not the only people playing lanterns.