Gosh, I wish I could tell back the things I had experienced on Friday in full details. So many things to do, and no, I am not saying this because I was involved in Thaipusam celebration, but it was because there were too many things - which has nothing to do at all with Thaipusam - cramped on this one day. By the way, I wanna wish a belated Thaipusam to those who were celebrating it.. :D
Friday started with a morning class at 8 am. I woke up around 6.50 am, and I slept around 1.30 am the night before (or precisely that morning). I walked to the lecture hall with my hostel mate/friend - Amirah who happened to have the sleepy morning sindrom like me. The lecture was on one of my minor subjects - Public Relation- and I was yawning the whole hours of the class. After the class, I went back to hostel with Amirah, took my shower (yes, I haven't shower before class, guilty...) and went to buy some kuih with her. After that, I had to prepare myself for the CUS weekly gathering that was going to happen at 12.30 pm. The time was 11.00 am and I was already on my way to the venue for the gathering, which was held at one of the tutorial classes in USM.
Friday started with a morning class at 8 am. I woke up around 6.50 am, and I slept around 1.30 am the night before (or precisely that morning). I walked to the lecture hall with my hostel mate/friend - Amirah who happened to have the sleepy morning sindrom like me. The lecture was on one of my minor subjects - Public Relation- and I was yawning the whole hours of the class. After the class, I went back to hostel with Amirah, took my shower (yes, I haven't shower before class, guilty...) and went to buy some kuih with her. After that, I had to prepare myself for the CUS weekly gathering that was going to happen at 12.30 pm. The time was 11.00 am and I was already on my way to the venue for the gathering, which was held at one of the tutorial classes in USM.
Imagine me carrying the plastic full of t-shirts, a guitar, and my own bag. Lol. I looked like one of the overload backpackers. The only difference was that I was wearing a sling bag instead of a backpack. I arrived around 11.15 am at the gathering venue but nobody has arrived yet. So I prepared the attendant list, and after that, trying to read the novel that my lecturer had assigned us to read. I was restless. It was already 11.35 am - I had to go to USM Sungai Dua gate
to escort the priest (Fr Dominic) who was going to be the speaker of the day. So I left my things at the room and messaged my friend to let her know that I left the things at the room without attendance, because I had to go to escort Fr.So I finally arrived at USM Sungai Dua Gate before 12 pm. I was relieved. So I sat on the bench and continued with my novel.
A few minutes later, Fr Dominic arrived in his proton Gen 2, with two students, or precisely, two high school leavers. Actually, (thanks to my blurness) I thought I was looking at the wrong car - I thought it was a family driving the same car like Fr Dominic's. Lol. And when I finally seated myself at the backseat of Fr Dominic's car, just beside the female student, whom I later learned that her name was Faith (bukan nama sebenar) and the boy seated in front was Edward (bukan nama sebenar), I became comfortable. They were nice friendly people. Faith was very matured in thinking for her age, Edward was cynical and like to tease Fr Dominic. I showed the way to the venue (with a few errors at first, lol, for not informing Fr earlier about which road to turn to), then we finally arrived at the venue (BT150).
Then while preparing for the gathering, suddenly, I got an unfamiliar number calling me. Surprisingly, it was from Kavitha (bukan nama sebenar), one of my coursemates. She told me that she needed a favour from me - which was to take the novels from Dr R's room to distribute to the students who ordered the books because she was going back to her home for Thaipusam, and Dr R was going to have an important meeting at around 2.30 pm later. So, I was torn because I needed to be there for the gathering's preparation but yet I had to be at somewhere else. So I walked fast to the C11 building from bt150, and on the way, a girl said 'Hi' and waved at me, but I couldn't recall who she was, because I never met her before, so in return, I smiled at back at her. Finally, I met Dr R at this room. Dr R passed to me 10 novels, and told me he had an important meeting at around 2.30 later, so that was why he would not be available. He thanked me, and I flew off with 10 novels (in a paperbag) with me.
On the way out of the lecturer's office building, I saw a familiar face at the SK bus stop, Jasper! Jasper was one of the members in my CUS club, but he rarely shows up these days. I heard that he was busy, I waved at him, had no time to talk with him since he was on the phone and I was on the rush. Inside my heart, I was quite disappointed, why were there just a few people present for our weekly gathering though we had promoted it half dead. We had printed, photostated, and pasted the posters around campus, we had sms-ed each of the members, but just a few of them turned up. I knew and was aware that most of them were busy (most of the seniors had practical and lab, but what about the juniors?), but I was more disappointed for those who chose to hang out at other places than to gather there with us. And yes, I really felt it because I used to be that person, who purposely came late for CUS gathering and trying hard to find great excuse to be absent for the gathering just because I didn't feel the sense of belonging. The only thing that tied me down to CUS during my first year was my sister and her friends. They were really supportive of CUS activities, and I will feel great guilt if I didn't join the gathering because I know that was the time I could spend some quality time with them. Though I felt reluctant to join the gathering at first, I finally got over it and the sense of belonging gradually grew. So that was why I tried my best to entertain most of the newcomers just to motivate them to come to the gathering once I joined the exco team. I threw away my used-to-be-shy attitude, my ego, and my insecurities and try to speak to all of them, though I might humiliate myself at the end. It's worth to be humiliated to make somebody else be comfortable. Okay, I guess I had digressed from my actual purpose to tell my story briefly on this day.
After that, I arrived at bt 150 with ten novels with me. Fr Dominic was going to teach us the right way to read the bible. He taught us that we had to consider the context, the underlying messages and not to take the all the words in the bible literally, some of them had contextual meaning. We had to consider the era of the writers and so on in reading the bible. After the gathering, I joined Fr Dominic, Faith and Edward to eat our lunch, and Fr Dominic, as usual, was the one who was going sponsor us. I was quite guilty to let Fr sponsor my lunch when it was his birthday last week (we didn't do anything for him, ahem) and I wasn't his assistant. At least, Faith and Edward did something for him, but me, what had I done other than asking for Fr's favour? Hmm... But since Fr was always generous and all that, the sense of guilty lessen. Lol.
We ate at Bali Bali since Red House had run out of food, and there, we met Juslin, Arthur, Helen, Elizabeth and Peter. We joined their table and had conversation. Suddenly, my phone rang and it was from a classmate of Dr R's class. It was Yeon Yoo (bukan nama sebenar), looking for me to take the novels. I told her I was not at USM at the moment, I was at Bali Bali, so we will meet at USM gate. So when we finally finished our lunch (I noticed Fr Dom didn't finish his vegetables, heheh), I asked Fr Dom to send me to the USM Sg Dua gate instead of my hostel since I will meet someone there, I told them. So Edward and Fr Dom teased me saying that "Wow, meet someone," Edward teased and Fr Dominic said "Wow, Maureen, got so much connections huh?" I just smiled helplessly and said "No lah." I took the books and guitar from Fr Dom's car and sat at the bench where I waited for Fr earlier. If they only knew I meet these people out of business and not personal meeting. Hehehe. Then, Yeon Yoo (bukan nama sebenar), who happened to be a Korean girl, arrived with two helpful Malay girls, who also shared the same class with me. Yeon Yoo happened to be the girl William (bukan nama sebenar) told me earlier, a Catholic Korean girl who was looking for the way to the church. So I invited her to join me with the other CUS members to go to church together on the upcoming Saturdays.
Then I gave the novel to Joana (bukan nama sebenar) and finally to a guy from China. I need much more effort to give the novels to the China guy since he didn't know where is Sungai Dua, and when I told him it's near the mosque, he didn't know what a mosque is through the phone. Did I pronounced "mosque" wrongly, I wondered."Urm, what is mosque?" He asked me and I answered "It's a place where the Muslims pray. Green colour. Urm, how about we meet at the library, you know where it is right?" Imagine me walking under the hot sun to the library as fast as I could. When I arrived there, I met Pink (bukan nama sebenar) who just came back from her bible study gathering. Then when I finally arrived in front of the library, I was asked to describe my appearance by the China guy. I told him I am the girl with black shirt, with curly2 hair, and a green bag. To make it easier, he asked me through the phone "Are you Malay or Chinese?" Then I was hesitant to answer this question. It's because yes, I am a Chinese but I don't look like one. So to be safe, I told him "I am Chinese, but I look like Malay," half laughing. Then he answered, " I think I know who you are already."Then I just shrugged and waited for him to come. I asked him to help his other four China friends to take their novels too, which left me with only one novel. So I made my move to go back to my hostel. Along the DK foyer, I heard someone called me.
"Mau!" I turned and it was Mike (bukan nama sebenar) my Sarawakian junior from CUS. I replied by giving him a scare tone "Hah, sik pergi CUS gathering tadi!!" which mean, "Hoh, you didn't go for CUS gathering." He smiled hesitantly and said there was no bus, so he couldn't make it, and furthermore, he had discussion. So I let him off the hook. Just a few steps away, my friend Pizal (nama sebenar ni, malas la nak reka nama lagi) was at the stall, promoting the "Lu Fikirlah Sendiri" movie premiere. She asked me to help spread the words, and we kept talking about our assignments for our script-writing paper. I hadn't even start, and my group hadn't even start our first meeting. Haiz.. After a few minutes of conversation, I made my way to the top floor of Fajar and landed on my bed.
When I awoke, it was already 7 something in the evening. I've had lunch, so I guess I would skip dinner that night.
(Total of words: More than a 1000 words)
Then while preparing for the gathering, suddenly, I got an unfamiliar number calling me. Surprisingly, it was from Kavitha (bukan nama sebenar), one of my coursemates. She told me that she needed a favour from me - which was to take the novels from Dr R's room to distribute to the students who ordered the books because she was going back to her home for Thaipusam, and Dr R was going to have an important meeting at around 2.30 pm later. So, I was torn because I needed to be there for the gathering's preparation but yet I had to be at somewhere else. So I walked fast to the C11 building from bt150, and on the way, a girl said 'Hi' and waved at me, but I couldn't recall who she was, because I never met her before, so in return, I smiled at back at her. Finally, I met Dr R at this room. Dr R passed to me 10 novels, and told me he had an important meeting at around 2.30 later, so that was why he would not be available. He thanked me, and I flew off with 10 novels (in a paperbag) with me.
On the way out of the lecturer's office building, I saw a familiar face at the SK bus stop, Jasper! Jasper was one of the members in my CUS club, but he rarely shows up these days. I heard that he was busy, I waved at him, had no time to talk with him since he was on the phone and I was on the rush. Inside my heart, I was quite disappointed, why were there just a few people present for our weekly gathering though we had promoted it half dead. We had printed, photostated, and pasted the posters around campus, we had sms-ed each of the members, but just a few of them turned up. I knew and was aware that most of them were busy (most of the seniors had practical and lab, but what about the juniors?), but I was more disappointed for those who chose to hang out at other places than to gather there with us. And yes, I really felt it because I used to be that person, who purposely came late for CUS gathering and trying hard to find great excuse to be absent for the gathering just because I didn't feel the sense of belonging. The only thing that tied me down to CUS during my first year was my sister and her friends. They were really supportive of CUS activities, and I will feel great guilt if I didn't join the gathering because I know that was the time I could spend some quality time with them. Though I felt reluctant to join the gathering at first, I finally got over it and the sense of belonging gradually grew. So that was why I tried my best to entertain most of the newcomers just to motivate them to come to the gathering once I joined the exco team. I threw away my used-to-be-shy attitude, my ego, and my insecurities and try to speak to all of them, though I might humiliate myself at the end. It's worth to be humiliated to make somebody else be comfortable. Okay, I guess I had digressed from my actual purpose to tell my story briefly on this day.
After that, I arrived at bt 150 with ten novels with me. Fr Dominic was going to teach us the right way to read the bible. He taught us that we had to consider the context, the underlying messages and not to take the all the words in the bible literally, some of them had contextual meaning. We had to consider the era of the writers and so on in reading the bible. After the gathering, I joined Fr Dominic, Faith and Edward to eat our lunch, and Fr Dominic, as usual, was the one who was going sponsor us. I was quite guilty to let Fr sponsor my lunch when it was his birthday last week (we didn't do anything for him, ahem) and I wasn't his assistant. At least, Faith and Edward did something for him, but me, what had I done other than asking for Fr's favour? Hmm... But since Fr was always generous and all that, the sense of guilty lessen. Lol.
We ate at Bali Bali since Red House had run out of food, and there, we met Juslin, Arthur, Helen, Elizabeth and Peter. We joined their table and had conversation. Suddenly, my phone rang and it was from a classmate of Dr R's class. It was Yeon Yoo (bukan nama sebenar), looking for me to take the novels. I told her I was not at USM at the moment, I was at Bali Bali, so we will meet at USM gate. So when we finally finished our lunch (I noticed Fr Dom didn't finish his vegetables, heheh), I asked Fr Dom to send me to the USM Sg Dua gate instead of my hostel since I will meet someone there, I told them. So Edward and Fr Dom teased me saying that "Wow, meet someone," Edward teased and Fr Dominic said "Wow, Maureen, got so much connections huh?" I just smiled helplessly and said "No lah." I took the books and guitar from Fr Dom's car and sat at the bench where I waited for Fr earlier. If they only knew I meet these people out of business and not personal meeting. Hehehe. Then, Yeon Yoo (bukan nama sebenar), who happened to be a Korean girl, arrived with two helpful Malay girls, who also shared the same class with me. Yeon Yoo happened to be the girl William (bukan nama sebenar) told me earlier, a Catholic Korean girl who was looking for the way to the church. So I invited her to join me with the other CUS members to go to church together on the upcoming Saturdays.
Then I gave the novel to Joana (bukan nama sebenar) and finally to a guy from China. I need much more effort to give the novels to the China guy since he didn't know where is Sungai Dua, and when I told him it's near the mosque, he didn't know what a mosque is through the phone. Did I pronounced "mosque" wrongly, I wondered."Urm, what is mosque?" He asked me and I answered "It's a place where the Muslims pray. Green colour. Urm, how about we meet at the library, you know where it is right?" Imagine me walking under the hot sun to the library as fast as I could. When I arrived there, I met Pink (bukan nama sebenar) who just came back from her bible study gathering. Then when I finally arrived in front of the library, I was asked to describe my appearance by the China guy. I told him I am the girl with black shirt, with curly2 hair, and a green bag. To make it easier, he asked me through the phone "Are you Malay or Chinese?" Then I was hesitant to answer this question. It's because yes, I am a Chinese but I don't look like one. So to be safe, I told him "I am Chinese, but I look like Malay," half laughing. Then he answered, " I think I know who you are already."Then I just shrugged and waited for him to come. I asked him to help his other four China friends to take their novels too, which left me with only one novel. So I made my move to go back to my hostel. Along the DK foyer, I heard someone called me.
"Mau!" I turned and it was Mike (bukan nama sebenar) my Sarawakian junior from CUS. I replied by giving him a scare tone "Hah, sik pergi CUS gathering tadi!!" which mean, "Hoh, you didn't go for CUS gathering." He smiled hesitantly and said there was no bus, so he couldn't make it, and furthermore, he had discussion. So I let him off the hook. Just a few steps away, my friend Pizal (nama sebenar ni, malas la nak reka nama lagi) was at the stall, promoting the "Lu Fikirlah Sendiri" movie premiere. She asked me to help spread the words, and we kept talking about our assignments for our script-writing paper. I hadn't even start, and my group hadn't even start our first meeting. Haiz.. After a few minutes of conversation, I made my way to the top floor of Fajar and landed on my bed.
When I awoke, it was already 7 something in the evening. I've had lunch, so I guess I would skip dinner that night.
(Total of words: More than a 1000 words)
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