Am I Proud to be IIUM Student?

I cannot stand and don’t understand when people say

“aku malu nak pakai baju yang ada lambang UIA kat luar.”

I don’t get it why must people not feel proud to be what he or she is a part of? In this case, as IIUM students, we must have the spirit and proud of it by showing in any ways. Or else, the 4 years of study is nothing but a pretending.

There is a case when I went out for a trip to a recreational place where we stayed in an inn. All of us were from IIUM. I wasn’t the one who ran the booking. Once there, the worker asked one of my friend; where we came from? He answered, “KDU!”

You fool!

Unfortunately, the worker didn’t ask the right person, which was me. Everywhere I go, if asked by such question, I will wholeheartedly answer, “UIA!”

Me bright!

What is the point of studying in an Islamic university while you are not proud of it? Is it only when you are from university abroad and only then you are proud to say the name of that university? Come on, what’s wrong to be proud of being International Islamic University Malaysia students?

Is this university not international that you are not proud of it?
Or is this university too international that you are afraid to admit you’re from it?

Is this university not Islamic that you are not proud of it?
Or is this university too radical that you are afraid other people will label you as terrorist?
Yes? Shame on you!

Is this university too Malaysian that you are not proud of it?
Or the values of the east have diminished that you are afraid to call yourselves as Malaysian IIUMian?

Think about it!

I AM PROUD TO SAY THAT I LOVE IIUM. Fullstop.

The Leech Farm Visit

I've never seen leech as big as that!

Doesn't that show how big the leech is? But don't worry it won't suck your blood for some reasons.

Now I feel like wanna eat it! But.. naaah...

That's a gathering of a family of leech we got there!
More pictures and entry will be posted later. sorry guys.. time is my biggest enemy now.

Sometimes the Unplanned Works Slightly Better

This is really a long story so I am not responsible for any time wasted for reading this text. But tell you, this is an interesting story to share! Have fun reading it. In the end of this entry, there is one quiz. The first person answering the questions correctly will get special prize from me.

It was last Chinese New Year holiday where we decided to go to Berkelah, I mean berkelah at Berkelah. Never mind the name though...

The plan was simple – we wanted to use the free-from-toll alternative way from Kuantan to KL but in the middle of the way to drop by at Berkelah and then go straight away to KL. That’s basically it.

It was our first time, my first time to be more particular, driving through the road. But, as it is already written in His Book, it didn’t happen. The driver you-know-who forgot to fill up the petrol causing them to look for the nearest gas station before moving up to the park as we’ve told it took further travel to the jungle before we can actually reach it.

But, as we moved further and further, there was none although it was already about 10km away from Berkelah. Then we decided to cancel the trip to Berkelah and just drive to KL and that’s it.

But wait.. That was not it!

We saw signboard to Air Terjun Teladas. This might be a good substitute to Berkelah, we thought. We drove to the waterfall park, following the signboards. Once we get there, we didn’t see any waterfall. Just a calm streaming river and of course trees (what do you expect? ;p). It was called Air Terjun Teladas, so where is the waterfall?! We got duped. *sigh

Don't come here... *whisper

For your information, a good and informative recreational park must show the way to the main attraction of it, but this does not happen in Air Terjun Teladas. I’m quite sure (although it’s the fact that I’ve already disappointed with it) there’s at least one waterfall but may be it needs extra energy and knowledge before you can find the waterfall. But can’t anyone put some effort to inform the visitors to where they should go to find the waterfall? Put signboards or direction la!

Next we moved not-so-straight away to KL. But wait. We saw another interesting signboard – Pusat Pemuliharaan Gajah! This is a chance to see the elephants! We haven’t seen elephants for quite some time. Was it when we were in childhood? Duh… Can’t recall.

Entering the center does not cost you anything but they do wish for sincere donation if you are generous and care enough for the wild life. If you wish to play around with the elephants; feeding them, riding and walking and of course getting wet in the river with them, you need to make prior reservation especially in holidays. In our case, as we didn’t plan earlier to go there, so we just got the chance to watch a video on how they transport the elephants from the jungle to the reservation center and keep them there. We could only see the real elephants from afar and one not-so-little but cute little baby elephant in the corral.

Eating the skull of an elephant won't change anything...

Identify how many elephants are there!

Wait, we thought we saw a signboard about Deerland next to the Pusat Pemuliharaan Gajah one. Why shouldn’t we go there also!

There, we got the chance to play (the day was all about playing with animals I suppose) with deer, rabbits, bears and few other tame animals. We really had fun like we have never met such playful-able animals and of course we being typical us, taking pictures is never out of our dictionary! I recommend you to take the chance to go there and see and play with the animals. The RM5 cost did worth it I tell you!

That's the closest i could get. See the finger nails?

Feeding the deer was fun! Try it and only then you'll know what fun means here!


Don't worry. This one is not poisonous and small of course.

Then it was already 3pm but we were still in Pahang. Haha... Ok guys, time to drive to KL! Enough is enough! We got family to show our faces off!

Pojan! This guy kirim-ed salam to you! With Bro. Black.

Drive... drive… drive…

Signboards... Maran… Mentakab… Raub… Bukit…

Ha? Bukit Fraser? *you know what everyone thought right?

Yey! Driving to Bukit Fraser took us quite long journey before we could find the next signboard to turn to the real place. We thought we’ve lost already. Once there, there were so many people waiting to go up to the hill. For your information, Bukit Fraser has a specific and unique schedule for vehicles to move up and down the hill because the road is small. Basically odd o’clock are to go up to the hill while even o’clock are for going down.

You see how small the road is?

In our case, we had to wait for 40 minutes for the time to reach 5pm. This is the not-all-time-you-can-get chance to see Bukit Fraser so waiting for that long wasn’t really a matter for us.

5pm! Time to go up to the hill! Yey!

The first thing we did was performing Solat Jama’ for Zuhr and Asr. Then a matter of concern crossed out our mind – is there any vacant room during this holiday while there are many people visiting this place? Ow ow...

But alhamdulillah, after few times asking here and there, we found a room which cost RM130 for a two-bed room and breakfast for two in Shazan Inn. Note, there were 5 of us and that’s what “two” means here. haha…


In the night, we didn’t do anything exciting because everyone was tired already especially the driver you-know-who. There’s one interesting story happened that night but let me save it from this blog. But the statement “call office kang” was the jargon for that night and the next few days! Thinking of it, laughter exaggerates it more...

The next day, after having a breakfast for two-and-half-hour (don’t worry, we paid for the rest 3 people’s fee for the breakfast – refer to the quiz), we went to Air Terjun Jeriau, located around 5-10km from the main city of Bukit Fraser. At last we found the real waterfall after getting duped with Air Terjun Teladas the day before. Nothing much there except the wrongly-spelled “Do Not Liter” signboard.

Jeriau Waterfall.


We departed from the top of Bukit Fraser on 30-past 12 noon to KL. On the way, we dropped by at Darul Quran for Jumaat and jama’-ed with Asr prayer. Observing the nature created by The Almighty Allah Subhanahu Wata’ala from Darul Quran explains why the people in there can memorize Al-Quran so easily since breathtaking environment surrounds them each and everyday. Subhanallah...

That’s the end of the unplanned trip. From the planned-but-not-working plan, we ended in Bukit Fraser and stayed for a night. I myself reached my home in Banting 24 hours late from the initial plan. Sorry mak and abah… This is what bujang is all about... ;p

Quiz

Zubir, Safwan, Asmawi, Farid and Zaki look for a place to sleep in Bukit Fraser and they found an inn. The fee for the inn is RM130 for a night stay including breakfast for two. But it requires another RM20 for the deposit which will be returned upon checking out. Zubir, Safwan and Asmawi give out RM50 each for the payment. The next day, for the breakfast, they don’t want to be bias about who will be going for the breakfast so they decide that all will go for it although extra fees will be charged. The fee is RM20.70 for each of the three. Farid pays RM30, and each RM10 from Zubir, Safwan and Asmawi. Safwan adds some more RM2 while Zaki can only afford to add 10 cents to make the payment even. In the end they make the calculation and everyone is satisfied with how their money goes because it is an even distribution. Upon checking out, Zubir takes his RM20 deposit.

Questions:

1. How much each of them spends for the stay and breakfast?
2. Who spend(s) more and who spend(s) less?
3. How much the spender(s) have spent and how much the rest need(s) to pay?

I'm Modelling? Naaah..

First Time to Conference

The conference named Alumni International Conference 2008 - Community Development: Challenges and Solutions.

The students from KOS and KOP (i mean Kulliyyah of Pharmacy) representing their respective kulliyyah.

The guys from SCIENCESS.

These people include students from Kulliyyah of Nursing. The great and talented photographer is the one sitting, left most. Thank you Azri for the great pictures!

Suddenly we got stuck at IIUM Gombak because the bus broke, resulting us to sleep at the mosque for a night before moving back to Kuantan by ourselves (poor Transportation Unit i suppose). But life must go on! Haha~

Credit to Azri for the pictures. TQ!

*didn't I say I'm busy? Yes, I am. I wish I could write more than just captions for the pictures.

Complete Craziness...

Entry: Later when I am out of the busy atmosphere (which I myself do not know when it'll be)...

Keeping Secrets

What makes information a secret? What turns something that you know to be kept as secret? Is there really such a thing called “secret”?

Up to an extent, there is. But it is no more a secret when more than an adequate number of people know that so-called secret. So, what is exactly that adequate? There is no clear boundary depending on the context and trustfulness of the people involved.

What if when someone starts his secretly conversation with, “Don’t tell anyone this, it’s a secret.”

What if when someone starts his furtive conversation with “This is actually a secret but don’t tell anyone ya?”

What if when someone starts his surreptitious conversation with, “I know you’ve known this already so that I just want a confirmation…”

Keeping secret and telling secret are two definite different things. But they could precede each other according to situation. When someone sees or observes by himself a secret, he has responsibility to either to keep it or to spread it. When someone has had a secret already, like about himself, he can either keep it to himself or tell others.

But the question now is how good we are in keeping secret? For some reasons, something is considered a secret and that needs a full responsibility for the people or person who knows it to keep it from other’s knowledge.

So when we have secret, either about ourselves or about other than ourselves, to whom should we tell the secret? Why must tell anybody when it is obviously a secret? Keep it!

In my case, I have been dealing with so many types of people that have different ways of “keeping” secret. And I have identified few people whom I could not trust their liability in keeping secrets just simply because they told me so many secrets about other people. Hence, I make an inference; what if they hold secret about me? Questionable.

People with so many secrets in their mind should play this integral responsibility – keep it! You have to know the edge and the limit to which other people should know about something you consider a secret. I tell you, it’s not easy.

So if you can’t do it, simply don’t get to know about the secret. Or simply forget it and ignore it like you never heard about it. If still you cannot, you should be really careful with the words from your mouth. Never initiate or stimulate yourselves to talk about the secret. If you do, you won’t realize you’ve opened a channel for a secret to be revealed. And most people are really excited when the channel is directing to the whole story of the secret and they want to know more and more!

In short, secret must remain a secret. We hold a huge responsibility once we get involve in a secret. Keep it!

...

++busy mode++

Management Course for Student Leaders (MCLead)

Forget about the 17-hour travel from Kuantan to Perlok. Forget about the late information to come to our knowledge about this programme. Forget about the rain and floods of being obstacles for that day. Forget about the lack of sleep and rest. Forget all those because despite the difficulties, they worth the end results!

The Vice President II and I, as the Secretary General represented SCIENCESS to Management Course for Student Leaders (MCLead) held at Perlok Recreational Camp of Sungkai, Perak from 14 to 16 December 2007. From the course, we were exposed by the works behind the scene for programmes held by university students, particularly in IIUM, from A to Z. Although most of the procedures are meant for the Gombak campus, they are actually the best ones that should be applied in Kuantan campus as well. Besides that, our thoughts were open for a wider horizon about our duties as students of IIUM who hold the responsibilities for the Ummah.

What made my days there more cheerful was my group – Group 1! The group members were all cheerful and lively. Most importantly, they all contributed for the energy of the group and that yielded us the best group of the course! Now I’m looking forward to beginning link with them more via forum and virtual discussion room through the internet. Sharing information and knowledge are crucial for intersociety and interclub leaders because in the end we are all IIUM students who are responsible for ourselves, the university and the Ummah as whole.

Activity in the river. To fight the river stream isn't that easy I tell you!

You know... guys...

During presentation for the proposal paper.

We got to go to the middle of the river and sang Malaysian Negaraku.

Went home...

Suddenly the bus...


The fabulous Group 1!

What an honour to have the Rector to officiate the course for the first time ever!

Lunch with the Dean

Read also:

Mewakili UIA ke USM
Kemenangan di USM - Dean, Prof Torla Belanja Makan!


So far I’ve represented my kulliyyah two times in competitions. And alhamdulillah I won in both. The first time was when I was in first year in National Level of Science Quiz organized in USM, Penang and the current one was in the National Level Internship Challenge organized by Jobmarket.com.my. Since we brought the name of Kulliyyah of Science to pride, it made the kulliyyah glad and this was where they belanja us makan-makan! Yey!

Last time, for the win in USM, it was in Tarbush of Ampang, a restaurant serving foods basically come from the Arab lands. This time it’s time for the Thai foods! The kulliyyah brought us to Sara Thai Kitchen, located in Jalan Gambut, Kuantan last Monday.

Nothing much to say since it was really simple lunch where the Dean, Deputy Dean and few other staffs joined and also it was attended by 2 other students who fragranced the name of the Kulliyyah. The Dean gave a short speech congratulating us for the win and advised us to participate in more competitions.

Tips: Whenever you join any competitions, let the kulliyyah know even if it has nothing to do with academic matters. You can even ask for some budget! Whether you win or not, that’s another story.