Good's and Not Good's

It’s Friday again today. I reached here at Kuantan last week on Friday, which means I’m in the early of the second week staying in this new campus. New things? A lot! It’s just a matter of whether good or not good (not to say they are bad) the things are. Comparing them with what I used to have in Gombak is unavoidable. Let’s list them out and let’s see which overweighs which.

Good things.
1. The mahallah provides condusive accommodation which to me is better than mahallah at Gombak. The building is still virgin and we are among the first to destruct the virginity. Haha... Although there are still few problems on some facilities, but we can cope with them. But here it’s quite weird that they pronounce mahallah as ‘mahallat’.

2. Mak cik cleaner named Kak Som working in my block is soooo friendly. Although someone has stolen her broom, she kept smiling and still in her friendly mood. Actually I’m the last person who borrowed it and I’ve returned it to the place she asked to put but the next day it wasn’t there. Poor makcik... Besides her, makcik cleaners at the kulliyyah are also friendly. Orang-orang Kuantan ni memang peramah agaknya.

3. The café in the kulliyyah is as good as er... don’t know who to compare with, but the price is affordable, the meals are delicious and the workers are friendly. As starting, they only open 2 stalls out of 4 available but to us that’s enough to provide us breakfast, lunch and perhaps dinner.

4. The location from this campus to the Kuantan city is actually closer than Gombak campus to KL, thus time spent to drive from the campus to the city is actually shorter. This also means that the campus wasn’t as remote as rumored before. Giant supermarket is the most popular shopping place among UIA Kuantan students since it’s the most reach-able compared to others.

5. Now I see that there’s no reason for all Kulliyyah of Science students not to get closed to each other because we share the same road to- and from the kulliyyah. So whenever we go to- and back from class we’ll see each other more frequently. Besides that, the rooms are divided by batch and courses, meaning to say everyone get classmates as roommates. It’s all up to everyone to build and to strengthen relationship and ukhuwah each other then.

6. As far as I’m concerned, there’s no prejudice shown directly or obviously by Kuantan campus students towards KOS students. To me, they treat like I’m not stranger, maybe because we were in the same course during matriculation time so we already know each other. I don’t know how about others, but at least I experience this. Thank you guys for accepting us as your university-mate open-handedly!

7. There are quite few numbers of old friends who talk about this blog just right when they see me. They confessed that they read this blog and some asked me further on activities that I joined at Gombak. Even there’s a friend of mine telling that his father read this blog. Ahaha... Being a blogger is sometimes unexpectable!

Not-good things.
1. Pedestrians have to bring umbrella or else their skin will be burnt by the sunlight during day-time. This is because there’s no susur gajah (don’t know the term in English and I still wonder why the word ‘gajah’ is there although the susur cannot be walked through by elephant!). But there are buses provided every 15 minutes as alternative to transport students to- and from the kulliyyah especially when it’s rainy day.

2. Although the environment here is calm, but in the same it’s also dull. Maybe I haven’t got into it yet, maybe later but the quietness here sometimes made me sick! That’s why I put my sub-woofer to the maximum volume and sing out loud like I’m in karaoke box. Haha...

3. The statement made by the Principal of the mahallah during briefing session last Sunday is somehow unacceptable to me. It’s like he wanted to say that KOS students will increase social and disciplinary problems in this campus. Try us! Let’s see ustaz...

4. Still about the Principal, he has to learn to give speech in English more fluently, not only during briefing, but during kuliah also. Now that KOS has quite a number of international students who don’t understand Bahasa Melayu, so he has to get out of the box and entertain all students evenly no matter where they from. As information, previously this campus has only few numbers of international students, but when KOS moves to this campus, the number increases rapidly.

5. Poor to international students who do not or cannot eat Malaysian food. The only choice left is roti canai, because of its bread-based recipe. Now that they have to learn to eat local foods or else they will face lack of nutrients later. Hehe...

6. The café in the mahallah (or mahallat) does not satisfy most of the students. Besides the forgetful worker (short-term memory deficiency perhaps), the meals like nasi goreng (for example) are relatively insufficient to suit the RM2.50 price. Now I miss nasi goreng Farouk. Argh!

7. The administration! For your information, we haven’t started any classes this week. Plus we actually just did course registration (with few problems) this morning after 2 times being postponed. Looking at the schedule gave us hint next week we’ll have no class because in the schedule it does not state any time and venue for the subject. There is also rumor saying that no lab session for this few weeks ahead. Hm... We come here to study la, not to wait and wait. Kalau camtu baik dok rumah je, budget saved!

Ok, it’s even – 7 good things and 7 not-good things. However this does not mean that I’m not happy here because when there’s problem, there must be solution and not all affect me directly. Being patient is the key here. So far, I still can stand it and I hope this ends not. Amin...