Tuesday, June 30, 2009

College Daze

I seem to know lots of people who were fortunate enough to go overseas for their education but for me, not wanting to burden my parents, I opted for a local college. I studied in Han Chiang College from 2003-2006. At that point of time, we were one of the first batches to study in English I think (I might be mistaken) When my father told me to enroll in Han Chiang, my first thoughts were, "Han Chiang? Where on earth is Han Chiang?"

I live on the northwest part of Penang nearer to Gurney Plaza along with Kern and Elisa. All our houses are about 5 minutes drive from one another and Han Chiang College was a good 15 minutes drive from our area to Han Chiang which is near to the State Mosque aka Big Onion. We live on an very small island where to get to one end to another probably takes about an hour so to us a 15 minutes drive is far away indeed. LOL, this is our mentality.

While places are close by the traffic jams are real killers. The roads are smaller and narrower and although we Penangites, have the title of being the worst drivers in Malaysia. I feel that this is undeserved. Other people from other states come to Penang and is unable to maneuver and adept to our smaller roads and therefore cause a traffic jam of some sorts. We are used to the condition of our roads, no roads are complete without portholes and bumps by the way and we are expert drivers in our own roads. A gentle reminder to others that people who live on the mainland where the roads are WIDE also carries the same P number plate.

*Our number plates all starts with an alphabet that lets others know where we're from. P is from Penang, A for Perak, W for Selangor, B for Kuala Lumpur and so forth.

If you've watch Initial D and watch them racing up and down Mt. Akina, well Elisa does it better. Our very own Elisa who's able to drive down Batu Feringgi at the speed of 90kilometres an hour with NO brakes. If you think "Oh what's the big deal? It's only 90 km/h." Wait till you see the traffic and the road structure. It's like a roller coaster ride minus all safety equipment. How do I know? I was in it.

In other words, we are in fact EXCELLENT drivers thank you very much. *puffs out chest and swagger around*

ARGH, I've digress yet again! Anyway back to my college days, would you believe it if I say that I was the only English educated fool in the entire college? It's like going into another planet where you don't understand anyone at all. I had only a handful of hands (EDIT: AHAHAHAHHAAA.. handful of hands?!?! Sorry but I meant to say handful of friends) as everyone stayed away from me mostly cause there was a communication breakdown and that I looked arrogant.

Instead with hanging out with the cool, pretty kids, I hung out with the smartest kids in our semester. I never regretted my decision. The smarter ones pushes me to push myself to work harder so that I won't be a burden to the group. I was usually in charge of editing and did most of the reports. The easy jobs :D

I remember on the third semester, we had graphic design and had to 'create' our own CD. Given that half of us were a bunch of computer illiterates that only knew how to switch 'on' the computer for MIRC or Friendster and the other half (me included) has knowldge of the computer but has never even touched Photoshop before, it was a mess. I was a stupid one. I drew everything with a paper and pen, scanned it and noobly coloured it with Photoshop and lost alot of hair and sleep while my friends took snapshots of themselves and paste it on the cover. I should have bloody hell done that. Okay so I gotten a slightly better grade but the amount of effort was...tremendously taxing on me.


Some of the sketches I did for the 'album', I took some of my favourite songs and paste on the lyrics.


Looking back at it, I wish I done better.

If I knew JeanJean then, I would have paid her to do it for me or bribe Kern or something. Of course Kern was then also busy with her graphic design course. I sit here and wonder, if I miss college, in the end, I'm happy it was over and done with. I could well say that it was lonely to study in a place where people judge you solely by the language you spoke and the way you look. I pat myself in the back for gritting my teeth and getting through all this without killing anyone.

10 comments:

ericyoong said...

wow .. look like your friend Elisa is really good in driving.

Jeanjean said...

My girl, I truly understand how you feel for being alienated in your college. I was transferred to a Chinese school in Form 5 and all the while, I was studying everything in English.

Thank God you made it through and your impeccable English makes you who you are. If it wasn't because of your English, I wouldn't have bump into your fantastic blog!

Er? You want to pay to do what?

To play makeup with you? Hahaha.
( Although I would love to ..)Thank God, you are English- educated.

hevn said...

@eric
one of the very best! :D

@JeanJean dear
You serious?!? How on earth did you manage to cope with the sudden change?!

Hell, I'm just as glad as you having to bump into yours! I neeeeeed a few doses of your blog daily! Trust me on this

Muahahahahahhahaa, pay you to do my homework! I can't photoshop to save my life. I don't remember anything!

You tempt me. If i ever get to KL one day, I'll make sure we play make up together and with Elyn too. <-- my current dream XD

DreamFusion said...

haha.. initialD's such a good anime. We should race at the arcades if we ever get the chance. I'm sure I could take Elisa on. =p

So where's the color version of your CD? Did you do it in photoshop? I want to see!

Dana Yoshimizu said...

I think I'd be a bad driveer in your area! >_< I don't like too much traffic. Though being in LA you get a lot of traffic, but the roads are not very narrow at all comapred to your roads are.

Booby said...

wei B = Selangor, W = KL leah... hehehe...anyway i learnt more about you here...!

More pls....:0

fr0stie f0n said...

lol i was on the other end of spectrum... well sort'off

i'm a chinese ed in chinese skool but somehow got better in english lol~ got alienated coz my english was better than rest of the class as i could speak & write fluently (ok maybe not as fluent, but way more logical & less painful to read)

so me being bilingual on a rank of 1-10, chinese/mandarin being 6 while english being 8.5

my situation only improved in college whereby i'm usually the intermediate between the two groups, basically info-trading-middle-man LOL

but then again i got lazy & drop out on my last year and proceeded to write in less than up to par standard.

coz i can haz lazinez to type properies~~~

TJ Lubrano said...

haha that was very fun to read! I wish I also could go to a school abroad, I have friends who are attending abroad stuff like all the time...and I'm like 1) how do they do that and 2) when are they done studying....

Wait! I went to Lithuania for a school project and there were students from several countries involved and it's true that when you speak a certain language better (in my case also english) the others try avoid you

Oh I really like your sketching! Do you have more? Or was it a one time thing ^_^?

Haha reading about Elisa driving reminded me when I drove in Ireland for a few hours and man :|...that was annoying...first of all you had to drive on the left! So I was disoriented to begin with and secondly everyone drove 100 where they should drive 50 or something...so I felt like a turtle sometimes...third: the roads were really small with traffic coming from both ways, so I had to pull over all the time and fourth I got lost and that's when I decided to bring back my car haha

And I do like roller coasters! So I would love to sit in the car with Elisa...but as a passenger please ^_^, because I think weird could happen if I was the one to drive there...

Oh dear, it has become a looong comment. Well hope you (and all the others ofcourse!) like it! Cyaa!!

hevn said...

@Dream
OMG Jay, I missed youuuuuuuuu!
It's too big of an embarrassment to be shown. Seeing how well you guys use the photoshop, I rather burn the CD than show it to you guys. T.T

@Dana
Good, if you ever come over, I'll be your personal driver :D so u don't have to worry about driving

@Booby
Hey there Fun! Oops, i messed up, :P Thanks!

@Fons
WTF!!!! You were actually from a chinese school?!?!? Okay, i didn't expect that hearing how good your english is. You put some of us english eds to shameee

@Hey ya TJ!!
Lithuania? T.T I wanna go there for a school project too. I'm envious..
Seeing all these comments made me realize that people do indeed avoid people that don't speak their language. That's sad.

Lol, I do sketch sometimes when I'm free but I'm usually too lazy to scan them or anything. Wish I was good in drawings chibis and all like you. Love your drawings!! <3

Muahahah, looking back at your driving experience bet it was kinda fun too right?

Take care sweets!

Anonymous said...

What da...!! Did I really drove that fast? @_____@

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