It was nice...

Looking past through the sliding door, I saw it was raining slightly outside. "It's raining. I don't feel like going to school in this weather," I said, looking at Alia who was at her computer at the time.

It was one of those rare times we go to uni together. It reminded me of our first year in Perth... that was almost 4 years back.
"If we have a car next year, do you think we should track Doreen down?" I asked her in the bus.
Bill and Doreen were the ones taking care of me, Alia and Tini -our foster parents- when we first arrived here, being under 18 at that time. And suddenly, all these flashes of memory rushed into my mind as we talked about the past; our Foundation Year was one of the best times in our lives.
That, we both agreed on.

It was nice back then, having lunch together under a small tree, on the green grass that seemed to spread endlessly, under the wide-blue-almost-cloudless sky.

It was nice, having teachers that almost treated you like friends;
or having 2 English teachers at the same time, at times watching videos for English slot;
or hearing your Maths Aussie teacher trying to instill -lah at the end of every sentence;
or watching another Maths teacher getting excited on teaching you Maths- it was so contageous that you got excited to!

It was nice having a day out- the International Luncheon with your batch -the April intake- and with the teachers in one of the teachers' house in Rockingham, near the sea.
It was nice having your Chem/Physics teacher treated your batch a dinner at an Indian Restaurant, near end of the year, before you had your exam.

It was nice... to dropped by into Red Rooster and celebrated your friends birthday;
or occasionally buying their yummy-salty chips for lunch.
Or when you dropped by into Baskin Robbins nearby and treated some of your friends the famous ice-cream.
Or when sometimes you and your friends gathered at the halal Japanese restaurant in Kardinya Shopping Centre (not Gardenia, the bread ok?) for lunches.

And you can't forget the sweet memories of having breakfasts and dinners in your foster parents' place. And to learn of their cultures, the dos and the don'ts.
And to get to know of their children and grandchildren- and they were all so friendly and nice.
Or the times when you had dinners while watching Australian Current Affairs and Everybody Loves Raymond- being deprived of other television programme due to not having any tv of your own at the time (not that we watch a lot of tvs anyway now)
...and bittersweet experience of having the only internet connection at school.

It was also nice to be able to attend a wedding- one of the children got married during Ramadhan...
Not that it mattered afterwards, walking in the city bare-footed due to soreness of your feet.
(Hey, we were wearing high heels for the wedding in the morning, then was being dropped off in the city in the afternoon while the family had reception. No one at home to feed us so we had to be in the city to break our fast. Walking all day in those shoes kills your feet!)

Not that people will look at you oddly... it was sort of a norm during summer anyway...

It was nice... first Ramadhan, first winter, first sneak peak into UWA, walking to the nearby lakes in the evening before dinner, using spare classroom to pray Zuhur and Asr, joing the College Coucil and went to Princess Margeret Hospital's own Radio Lollipop, Veledictory Dinner at the end of the year...

And also the times when Alia, Tini and I used to walk to the bus stop and hopped onto a bus to school...
Like today

Yup, I missed those times
I think I grew up a lot during that year

... yeah.

Authoress note: Temporarily, my writing skill is being influenced -a lot- by a writer from a fan-fiction called Taes. Pls excuse the different style...