First week of MusculoSkeletal System

I am writing this, while I am in Auditorium of CUCMS, after chatting with my mom on the phone and now I'm trying to revise for weekly assessment tomorrow... And everyone else (by every one, that means Aamir, Zahir, Hannan, my sis and Fizy) is sleeping... Amal and I are not the only one sleeping (because Amal can't sleep at school and I just need to revise the SCLs)

I guess it's a very tiring week for everyone, with one week full of anatomy and disecting project (which we have to finish by this week). Maybe it's the smell of formalyn... maybe it's the amount of information that we have to remember, or maybe it's the disecting till midnight itself, Amal and I don't know but what we know is every one is very tired, resulting in deep sleep...

That's all the report for this week (*gelak besar sat*)

8 days of Raya (Part 1)

For us 5 siblings, it started from the night of Raya- first and I hope won't be the last 'Siblings Conference' in our family...

Pagi raya:

We gathered at Nisa'a's place this year (and only reached there after a few phone calls asking where we were :D) When Mak Long slipped an angpau into my hand and I had this expression in which my cousin Nisa'a looked at me weirdly. "Sorry eh, kak… Rindu duit raya… And I'll be getting this for the next 3 years too!" and I flashed a big grin to her- she laughed.

By the time I was snapping photos, most had gone and we amused ourselves 'layan'-ing little cousin Afzal who was so fascinated with the fan.

We headed back to kampong (which by the way in Kuala Selangor only) that evening. Since we no longer have Fiat Ulysee with us, we had to take 2 cars- Syafiq, Zirah and me in one car. By the time we reached kampong, the rain fell so heavily. Soon as I saw Mak Lang, I said "Nak tuntut jemput-jemput ni!" with a big grin- and she did make them! Then I amused myself again with ‘layan’-ing small cousins with my camera while waiting for the jemput-jemput. Tired of playing with them, I ushered them to go downstairs to eat.

For your info, jemput-jemput Mak Lang is our family tradition on 2nd Raya breakfast in kampong back when everyone slept over in kampong. But I guessed we’d move it to tea instead now.

Day 2:

Our family, Mak Teh’s family, Achik's family and Pak Andak's family went to Pak Ngah's place for lunch. I snapped more photos and I realized I may need one with sharper focus in near future. Yesterday Ummi and I decided to have purple songket for us unmarried cousins of Kak Fiza to wear during her wedding in December and today we insisted on it again.

That evening we went to Tok Su's house in Kelana Jaya- literally behind Kompleks Tabung Haji. Zirah pointed the road to Amal's place.

Day 3:

Orang kampong supposedly came to our house for lunch but they ended up reaching our place around half past 3. Truthfully, I loved family gathering like this. It made me realized that we're quite close (with most of us living around Klang Valley anyway) and during gathering such as this, we're so riuh and bising.

After Maghrib, we went to Pak Andak's place- dinner with the same menu as years before.

Day 4:

Believe it or not, today’s our family spring cleaning session (yeah, smile all you want…) Got rid of unnecessary stuff (which a quarter of them were mine, I have to admit), re-arranged the white book rack into my brother’s room and re-arrange books on the shelves. I looked through my own ‘junk’ and my own eyebrow raised at the stack of magazines, pin-ups and posters I had back during the time when I was into this music stuff… God, I wasted my money on these?! *rolls eyes*

Also found my old diary entries, cards and mementos my friends gave me during raya, before I moved to Kerteh and before my departure to Perth- those I had to keep to be placed into my special scarp-book project (when I can find time to actually sit and do it in the future). Then I found the book where I placed paper cuttings about child abuse and such- things that I was into during the time I wanted to join KCFTC- maybe I could still go ahead with my old projects, this time around as part of Young Mercy’s projects (part of CUCMS’ syllabus)

Pak Long’s family came tonight. I joked with Aween- a cousin of mine who’s my age but has graduated from UTP and will soon be working- Next year it’s her turn to give angpau and equally she suggested for a new rule that cousins of same age (and that means me) won’t be receiving any angpau. Har har…

TBC...

Eid Mubarak!

A planned shopping trip; because Meera was going ‘balik kampung’ on Tuesday; unplanned childish act, though it was surprising to the rest, I wondered if it was something that’s really surprising...

Thinking about it again... NAH! I did that sort of thing in the past, and pretty sure that if we were given a chance to do it again, we’d go for it (us- the Perth batch that have now come home)

Note: Pictures were taken in OU

On that note, I’d like to apologize to you, who are reading this if there’s anything that I did (or did not do), that I said (or didn’t say) or that I wrote (or didn’t write) that has somehow hurt your feelings. I know there were things that I did a few days before Eid without thinking wisely that I now regret, and I’m really sorry about that.

Eid Mubarak everyone, may this Ramadhan was a good Madrasah Ramadhan for us all...

Awakened

Around zuhur time.
The mobile phone rang and she picked up the phone. It was a dear old friend, inviting her to Iftar Jamaie and she agreed. Sure enough, the iftar rekindled a lot of things in her- how she missed weekly gathering and discussion (or some people would refer to it as usrah), how she missed winter gathering and various activities in Australia and how she thirst for ongoing tarbiyyah...

On the other hand, her friend's almost 7 months pregnant! And she saw Miqdad the baby for the first time- such healthy baby, masyaAllah!

Unfortunately no picture was taken so you'd have to imagine it yourself, yeah?

Couple of Last Days

We have officially started our 2-weeks break last night.
But not without 2 memorable events:

• Thursday night: The Grand Iftar in College. They presented the video that Alin and Hannan had painstakingly did last week without even a wink of sleep that night. The result? It was really nice, especially the part where prof gave out raya speech. Have to admit that that was the first time M14 gathered for iftar in college (still, Sheena couldn't make it...)
  That night, instead of discussing like normally we did, we found online questions instead and projecting them in the hall, the group had fun answering the questions (including crossword puzzles, mind you)
  
• Friday night: I supposed this sort of batch outing was something that they had wanted to do before but never get a chance until Friday night. Sham counted and there were around 40 people who came and we did conquered a long section in sate kajang area. Pictures? will be uploaded I have them. We didn't actually take many pictures because we took video instead.

And now I'm kinda lost. For past almost-2-months I'm here, weekend is usually equally busy time and I'd be cracking my head for pre-discussion content. But then again, there's (are for some people) the essay(s) and perception to be sent.

Reproductive System Final? Don't ask. I made a big blunder (or careless mistakes if you'd like to call it) and now I don't even want to talk about it *sigh*

Thank You

Dearest Amaleena,

Thank you for being an ear this afternoon...
Now it feels like part of the heavy load had been lifted off.

-Along

Her Confession

She looked around. The house seemed empty despite the other people making noises. In front of her, the laptop was switched on; she stared at the screen as though her gaze could make a hole in the centre.

The she sighed.

At times like this, she loathed herself. At times like this, she felt like shouting and banging her head. Was it almost that time of the month? Or was it simply her pent-up frustration? She didn't know, and it didn't matter much anymore.

Nimble fingers moved. They double-clicked on the YM icon. Then she shook her head. No, she wouldn't do it. This time around, she felt like...

She sighed again.

It was as though the past was repeating itself; she cringed. Suddenly she felt like re-reading that piece; that piece that expressed everything. Oh well, it wasn't with her anymore, she shrugged it off.

It was mixed feelings actually- a bit of frustration, a bit of loneliness, a bit of anger, a bit of remorseness, a bit of blames, a bit of hatred... Why must people assume? Could they try and put themselves in her shoes for a moment? Then there was other issues... where she felt like it was all her fault...
This was when she felt like an intruder. Maybe she had made the wrong decision.
This was when she really need an ear to listen to... yet... yet... Maybe she had made the wrong decision again?

Maybe it was true... you absorb other people's concerns... and you have to let yours out. But to who? How? When? The only place she knew how was when she held a pen.

She sighed again.

She needed to run, just to get away for a while and clear her mind, see things differently for a moment...

But... how?

Once Upon A Time...

There was a little girl, who had just moved back to her own home land from a land quite a distance away.

It wasn't fully her wish to come home (yet), but life being life, she was given no choice but to surrender to the decision made for her. It was not as though she didn't love her home land, but she had so many memories and she was promised to stay at where she grew up for another couple of years initially and yet, the decision was revised and in the end she was ordered home instantly.

Having no say, she obidiently came home. Having spent a few years abroad, she was nervous and yet excited to come home. There were a lot of things in her mind and her biggest challange was adapting and blending in quickly to her new environment. There was a saying, she remembered, 'time is like a moving, speeding arrow, it will not wait for you, rather you have to run after it'. Holding to that particular philosophy, she tried her hardest.

This little girl had a younger sister; whom she could rely on very much though in the past the two weren't the best of friends. Though they promised to lean on each other's shoulder, the little girl knew her younger sister needed her own personal space at times. Under certain circumstances, they had to move on their own ways and walk independently.

Because of this, the parents of the girls were quite worried. Their main concern was if the little girl could cope fast enough or if she should be placed within arms-reach of her younger sister to ease her adaptation process.

"Dearest mommy and daddy,

This path set for me is not an easy one. Though I've accepted it fully, there are times in which I wonder where I did wrong that resulted in me being here earlier than planned. There are also times where I miss Perth very much that I long to return there.

But what's done is done. There's no more time to look back and reminisce on 'what if'. I am happy at where I am and in the group and in the house that I'm in. There's no more need to be worried on if I could adapt fast enough or well enough; you've raised someone who's willing to meet the world head's on if needed to. It's enough to know that I have you both on my back, as my pillar of strength and as reminders... You've raised someone who'd always remember that even if there's no one else, there'll always be Allah by her side..."

Baqarah (2): 214: Apakah kamu mengira bahawa kamu akan masuk syurga, padahal belum datang kepadamu (cubaan) sebagai mana halnya orang-orang terdahulu sebelum kamu?

Baqarah (2): 216: ...Boleh jadi kamu membenci sesuatu, padahal ia amat baik bagimu, dan boleh jadi (pula) kamu menyukai sesuatu, padahal ia amat buruk bagimu; Allah mengetahui sedang kamu tidak mengetahui.

Baqarah (2): 286: Allah tidak membebani seseorang melainkan sesuai dengan kesanggupannya...

Out of Control

First of all, Ramadhan Mubarak to every muslim. May we benefit most this holy month and take the opportunity to reflect on ourselves and our iman. May this be a blessed madrasah Ramadhan for us.

The first week of Reproductive System... nothing more could explain it better than the given entry topic. By the end of the week, my laptop was gone, my phone was gone too, my marks dropped and I fell sick. Don't get me wrong, the laptop and phone weren't stolen- they were sent for service; overheating and speaker problem respectively. I wasn't that frustrated but it did (or rather still does) make my life a lot harder, especially with the abscence of my laptop because I need it for my daily assignments. The stress level was quite high, I have to say, especially when it's hard to find time to revise for Friday's exam and doing the allocated activities. That might be one of the many factors that contributed to my fever at the end of the week...

On the other hand, we went to MERCY 8th birthday dinner in Legend Hotel. Unfortunately none of us brought camera because funnily each and everyone of us thought the other people brought one. The talk was inspirational and the food was reeeaaally good.

Everything's moving back to the normal phase now; oh, except for that usual lack of sleep, but it's ok, we can catch on the lack of sleep on the weekend, especially when this weekend my sister and I have no plan (yet) to go back to KL...

Oh wait... I need to pick the laptop from Acer.... Bummer...

A Month After

Believe it or not, it has been a month since I started 2nd year in CUCMS. There was feeling of nervousness, homesick (yeah, after 9 months staying at home, it could do that to you) and excited. I have to admit the first week was the hardest, especially moving into a new place (and not sharing a place with my sis), finishing up assignments daily when you really have to adapt quickly to the format and style and blending in and make new friends while everyone else have known each other for at least a year.

It would have been easier to say 'I quit' rather than 'I'll endure this no matter what'.

But I made a pledge to myself; promises to hold to and duties I placed on myself. And somehow, there's this strength in me that came out of no where and kept on whispering 'you can do this'. So with though face and blank expression, I weaded through the first week bravely; though I did break down on the last day during Reflection (for reasons I wouldn't disclose, okay?)
But that seemed to be the stopcock that was finally lifted to let everything out and after that everything went quite smoothly.

I thoroughly enjoyed second week, especially when I joined some of them in the group study. Alhamdulillah since I've learned Urinary System before, things were not as hard as when I learned it the first time. And the way they teach it here, it was even easier to understand.

By the end of week three, I suddenly had this feeling... that I'm happier here compared to where I was before. It's not to say that I'm not happy while I was in Perth, I did, of course I did; and I still love it the way I did while I was there. It's just that here, perhaps it's the fact that I'm with my sis, or that everyone around is doing the same thing so they understand how challenging it could be at times and everyone's in the same boat...

Our timetable is packed on weekdays. My new routine is staying at college till late at night to finish up works and sleeping at 1-2 a.m. is considered normal. Nevertheless, I enjoy it.

The last week of Urinary System was closed with Final Assessment in the morning and Sports Carnival in the afternoon on Friday (yesterday). It was really a tiring day but it was fun (yes, including the assessment I might add) so who am I to complain?

On the other note, I went for both sides walimah of Gundat and Shila. I could still smile recalling the beautiful events. Alia has got the liberty to upload the wedding pictures and if you're interested to view them (Warning: there're LOTS and LOTS of pictures!), plase click here: http://picasaweb.google.com/GundatShila

Next walimah I believe will be in December (and I'm still honored to be the bride's maid!)