A Whole New Rut
I'm typing this from my school's computer lab, where I just signed in as the latest user so far. Considering the incredible prices I've paid up so far for my tuition fees and school books (did you know some of my textbooks cost up to 150 each?), it's a bit of a consolation that I've got 500 hours of free time here per year. It's not too bad, and I don't really mind it, except that I don't think I'll be able to use it all up with exams constantly hounding me.
I've settled into my own comfortable routine; I wake at 6.30 every morning (my handphone has turned out to be a most efficient alarm clock stand-in) and sleep at about 11 (my parents phone every other day or so to make sure). I drink Milo every morning and eat some crisps (I know, I know, not healthy, but I've not much choice here) and occasionally vary the routine with oats and buns. (The first time I tried the oats, I made a resoluton to buy a few kilos of sugar. So far I haven't carried it out yet.)
I've gotten to know most of my lecturers and teachers, and most of them are very much likeable, except for one thing. They are all very sarcastic in demeanor, and when one asks a question, one feels like one just asked Einstein what one plus one is. My Physics lecturer especially has this quirky twitch in his face that makes the person he's facing feel like some two-year-old.
I wish I could do that.
Anyway, I've made some new friends and acquaintances, none of whom are anything like the people I used to know in Sabah. (Thank God for that, otherwise I might have experienced repeated deja vu.) Best of all, one of them is a banana boy (which means his English is nearly on a par with mine and we can communicate without me explaining myself every two sentences or so), and he was here in January until the Torture Camps pulled him out. So he's back in the May intake, and he already knows every nook and cranny of the place.
I'm using him as a kind of walking road map at the moment until I get familiar enough with the campus layout to go on my own. With the kind of sense of direction that I have (on a scale of one to ten it's minus three), I'd never get to any classes on time otherwise.
They just fumigated the hostel area, and I was there to see it. One lesson I have learned is that mosquito fumes rise upwards, and as my room is on the top floor (five storeys up), it was very thoroughly fumigated indeed. The windows haven't been closed since then and the scent still lingers on!
It turns out that the life of a student away from home is a very expensive one. So far I've had to spend nearly 200 on books, food, a reload card, and washing. Mostly on food and books; I've been trying to save as much as possible by hunting up all the places where one can eat more and pay less, but my food bill is still my longest one. I suppose maybe I'm still growing and thus my appetite is great, but all the same my (parents') finances are limited, whereas my appetite doesn't seem to be!
At least now that I can use the school lab, I don't need to spend any more on the hostel cybercafe. Except that the school lab doesn't allow chatting, so I'll still need to fork out a little dough to chat with my old contacts. But then I don't even see them that often anymore...
So that's that for now. I'm off to surf!
I've settled into my own comfortable routine; I wake at 6.30 every morning (my handphone has turned out to be a most efficient alarm clock stand-in) and sleep at about 11 (my parents phone every other day or so to make sure). I drink Milo every morning and eat some crisps (I know, I know, not healthy, but I've not much choice here) and occasionally vary the routine with oats and buns. (The first time I tried the oats, I made a resoluton to buy a few kilos of sugar. So far I haven't carried it out yet.)
I've gotten to know most of my lecturers and teachers, and most of them are very much likeable, except for one thing. They are all very sarcastic in demeanor, and when one asks a question, one feels like one just asked Einstein what one plus one is. My Physics lecturer especially has this quirky twitch in his face that makes the person he's facing feel like some two-year-old.
I wish I could do that.
Anyway, I've made some new friends and acquaintances, none of whom are anything like the people I used to know in Sabah. (Thank God for that, otherwise I might have experienced repeated deja vu.) Best of all, one of them is a banana boy (which means his English is nearly on a par with mine and we can communicate without me explaining myself every two sentences or so), and he was here in January until the Torture Camps pulled him out. So he's back in the May intake, and he already knows every nook and cranny of the place.
I'm using him as a kind of walking road map at the moment until I get familiar enough with the campus layout to go on my own. With the kind of sense of direction that I have (on a scale of one to ten it's minus three), I'd never get to any classes on time otherwise.
They just fumigated the hostel area, and I was there to see it. One lesson I have learned is that mosquito fumes rise upwards, and as my room is on the top floor (five storeys up), it was very thoroughly fumigated indeed. The windows haven't been closed since then and the scent still lingers on!
It turns out that the life of a student away from home is a very expensive one. So far I've had to spend nearly 200 on books, food, a reload card, and washing. Mostly on food and books; I've been trying to save as much as possible by hunting up all the places where one can eat more and pay less, but my food bill is still my longest one. I suppose maybe I'm still growing and thus my appetite is great, but all the same my (parents') finances are limited, whereas my appetite doesn't seem to be!
At least now that I can use the school lab, I don't need to spend any more on the hostel cybercafe. Except that the school lab doesn't allow chatting, so I'll still need to fork out a little dough to chat with my old contacts. But then I don't even see them that often anymore...
So that's that for now. I'm off to surf!
Comments
You just need to stump them with a few good ones; that'll put them in their place. ;)
It's always a turn-off when faculty somehow find it beneath them to have to actually *teach* someone something. Shows they've probably stopped asking questions themselves.