Monday, December 31, 2007

The End of a Year and A Chapter of My Life...

It's the last day of 2007 and what a year it's been, in more ways than one. But most importantly, this year is the last of my student years. If you count from Kindy till now, I have been studying for about 18 years and that's a long time. So every year, I'd just wait for the new school year to begin and the only major decisions would be, what subjects to take, or Science or Art stream and at most, what uni to study at and what course to take. But now, it's a whole new ball game.

The decisions to be made now would affect me for quite a number of years and possibly for a major part of my future. Sure, ppl could say that we could easily quit the job if we didn't like it, but how would that look on our resumes? And yeah, many ppl would say, don't be too picky about my first job, but I think the first job kinda sets the standard for the rest of the years/jobs. As an engineering grad (sorta!) there are many options to choose from, whether to be in the production side, design, programming, etc. Most jobs have the requirement of either Electronics or Electrical and also things such as Linux, Java, Unix etc...which wasn't covered in our Electronics & Computer Systems degree. It's really rare to find a job that exactly suits the degree, but I guess it's up to us to choose which part we want to cover. So yea, I guess we have a wide scope to choose from. Unfortunately for me, that's part of the problem. I'm ok at programming but I don't really like it, I'm not that strong in electronics, and I don't have a lot of technical skills. My strongest subject is management...so my ideal job would be events management...ahah...crud. Anyway, I need some time to think over this properly and decide. :P So in the meantime, here's my review of the year 2007 for me:

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January:
I finally got to go to Taiwan! Though it was only one night, I managed to walk through Xi Men Ding, which is pretty much the hip place for ppl my age. Lots of clothes and food stores and you could see teens in school uniform or trendy end-of-winter wear. I tried the sausages, tea and oyster omelette. Unfortunately didn't have enough room for my favourite dumplings :(. Also visited one of the night markets nearby and it was pretty interesting, with shops selling snakes to be cooked or for their blood/venom (?), even sex toy shops -_-||. Next day we were off to to San Diego for a Rotary International function with my dad to help him sell Rotary products. I've never been to San Diego before so it was quite ok. Majority of my shopping was manga-related as I'd just gotten addicted to Fruits Basket and Ouran High. The weather was pretty cooling and the food was as usual, American, which I quite like. Somehow for the first time, I missed Chinese food so did ask for it for one dinner but it was incredibly salty. Unfortunately, on our last day there, we got news that my grandfather on my dad's side had passed away. So we skipped our planned one day stopover in Taipei to rush back to Kuching.

February:
The first few days of Chinese New Year was mostly spent in KL but I did have something of the usual open house for friends when I got back. And it was in this month that I learnt how to play mahjong at Chime's house. SO this was the start of our mahjong addiction.

March:
I think this is the month we started our Mahjong Club. Hahha...we started going to Sheng Hock & Dom's house to play mahjong probably a few times a week. Despite the fact that most of us were either final sem or final year students -_-||. But yeah, it was incredibly addictive and some of us got quite competitive. *ahem*

April:
We had a mid-sem break here but it sure didn't feel like one. There were assignments n projects due around then and 2 of Rotaract's biggest projects were carried out then. 14th April was the 3rd Amazing Race organized by Michael FV and gang. Most of the Mahjong Club were involved in helping out. Unfortunately it rained on the morning and afternoon so several things had to be changed. BUt i'm glad to say they managed to work it out. I spent most of the race sitting around the 'pit-stop' and taking photos from the limited view I had. Surprisingly that day I ended up with about 200 pics in my new baby, the Canon IXUS 850. We adjourned to the beach to relax after the Race but most of us were simply too exhausted. There's even this pic of us sitting on the grass eating our very late 'lunch' of KFC at 5pm, looking worn out. However, we managed to sustain till the night where we gathered for another session of mahjong before some of us fell asleep right there and then. Haha!

Then on the 16th, we went up to SK Batu Kitang to do the final handover of books from my year's Books COllecting project. YEs, I know, one year late. BUt better late than never right? It was quite a trip, with my mixed feelings that it was the end of the project, but it was definitely worth it to see the kids' faces. HOpefully they'll take good care of the books and benefit from them. And that night was our Mahjong Club Installation!! Hahaha...basically an excuse for us to get together, have a bbq dinner at club HQ and play mahjong! Sadly, I ended up with lots of gas in my tummy after that night, probably from soft drinks and too many potatoes :P The World School Debate competition hosted by Swinburne Debaters Club was also in that very busy week, so I ended up as one of the adjudicators. BUsy busy month huh?

May:
PRobably the biggest event in this month was my 2nd year anniversary with Mike. Yea, my first relationship that lasted this long. We had dinner at Casa Davide followed by a movie. I would say the most interesting thing about this was our presents to each other. I got him the Ultimate GUidebook of Spiderman while he got me the Visual Guide to the Pirates of the Caribbean. Basically, both of us went shopping for them with Henry and/or CY and the Captain kind of engineered the whole thing -_-||. But it was a nice surprise. We also went for a trip to Santubong Resort with Mike's friends. CY, Mike and Henry all ended up 'modeling' for me to take pics at the beach, ahah. And that night we all stayed up playing Risk or Mahjong from 9.30pm to about 3.30am. It took us THAT long just to finish one whole round of Mahjong -_-|| coz the dealer never changed and Mike's friend playing with us never won, so kolien.

June:
My best birthday ever (but I think that's what I always say) not just because of the great presents I got, but of coz, the people. Despite the fact that I got sick after the party (this seems to be recurring a lot this year!). Two of my most memorable presents was the pre-order of the 7th Harry Potter book from the debaters and of coz, the Captain Jack Sparrow motion-activated figurine. That really shocked me coz I knew it was very expensive, so yea I was very touched. Part of the motive of the present was so that they could play with it too but still...Captain Jack! It's still in its place of honour in the living room. Hahah. Unfortunately, it was also the month of exams. :(

July:
The release of the final Harry Potter book! I dragged Mike out early to collect the book from Popular and spent pretty much the whole day and most of the next reading it eagerly. I was pretty disappointed with JK Rowling's proclamation that 3 of the main characters had died. Don't think they really count as main characters lo. But yeah, it was a deserving ending, though I would have liked to know more about what they were/did when they were all grown up at the end. HOpefully the movie comes out as how I imagined from reading it.

I also went for a 1-week holiday with Mike to KL. Stayed at my uncle's place and basically spent every day at a shopping center. Lol. What else is there to do at KL rite? CY also ended up in KL then for a short holiday so the Captain was pretty irritated to be the only one stuck in KUching. Hehe. Oh, during this trip, we went to watch Harry POtter 5 at GSC One Utama on Friday the 13th. Sadly, we tempted luck as we experienced for the first time, the film getting burnt. :P This is probably the month we got addicted to Monopoly. Well, I think it mostly came down to me and the Captain being overly competitive and dragging the others into it.

August:
Swinburne's graduation! On the 14th of August, we saw Captain Henry, Serena, BUrger and more graduating at the Dewan Undangan Sarawak. It was a strange feeling because we knew that next year, it'll be us, so we paid extra close attention to things. Haha. THe 4 of us; me, CY, Mike and Henry went for one of those studio photography sessions since Henry was taking his graduation pics. So we decided to try a group shot and I think it turned out pretty nicely. Quite like Alvin Leong's style. We also went for a post-graduation trip to Damai with Siaw Hui and her sis. Lol, it was 4 of us girls and 2 guys, who both were kinda sick during the trip -_-|| so we had to take care of them. Hahah.

MIke and I attended the APRRC 2007 in Malacca, where about 600 Rotaractors from all over Asia turned up. It was pretty fun, meeting people from Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Philippines and more. There was a cultural exhibition with each country displaying their local foods and products so we went around trying stuff. There was a Cultural Night where we all dressed up in traditional costume, Cowboy Night in Cowboy Town which ended in a dance party. The final night was a Wet Party at the Water Park's pool so yeah, it was pretty interesting. Sadly for Mike, he got sick on the last night so he missed out on bikini babes. Hahah. Oh, and I celebrated Merdeka Eve with CY, Siaw Hui, CHyi Yeou and Henry at MC3 (Mike was once again sick). Something I'd never done but it was quite fun, tho we left pretty soon after 12. :P

September:
What a month it was for me personally. I did some stuff I never expected I would do, and knowingly hurt someone. It was a new experience but I don't regret it. I'm like that, I will do stuff as long as I know I won't regret about it. Quite a turbulent month and I'm not getting into details here. CY, MIke and I went up to Permai to help the PHotomedia Club with their telematch and trip. We just helped with the telematch as I had been assigned as games master again -_- This was the month that I started going clubbing pretty much almost every week. I started going with Esther and the other cousins and after she left, I'd go with CY, Hui and Henry. We started with Soho and Xanadu, and sometimes other places coz we're more into karaoke.

October:
Mike and Burger left for KL and Belgium to start training. A big deal for everyone as none of our school's grads/trainees had gone so far before. Things would never be the same for our group too with one of us gone. BUt next, we were distracted by Hari Raya where I got sick again. (You see?) Despite that, I did manage to hold up long enough to visit a few houses and eat lots of yummy goodies. Swinburne's Prom was also held then, but I didn't go and on the night itself, went clubbing with my brother and some other guys. Lol. What a change from previous years huh? Sadly, this month saw me getting into disagreements/fights with quite a few ppl so :P On a happier note, there were also many birthdays throughout the whole month. A notable one would be Alex's, at Bla Bla Bla, where I accidentally caused him to step into the water feature in the middle of the place -_-|| So embarrassing but it was an accident!

November:
More birthdays to go! CY, Henry, CHyi Yeou and my own brother celebrated their birthdays. Something memorable was that both me and my brother both got pretty wasted on the same night. Both he and Henry were celebrating on the same night so yes, lots of alcohol. I ended up having to drag him from outside our house to his room, with his shirt totally wet with sweat and ugh, partly vomit :P. So from that night onwards, I pretty much made sure that I won't go back too drunk or tipsy, coz I'd been like that almost every week when I went clubbing.

We also finished our FYP at last! THough a lot of it was very last minute, especially in the last week. CY and I were even more anxious as someone had broken into CY's car and stole her bag and the project module. So had to rush-order it from the US again. LUckily, with the help of many kind individuals throughout the whole project, the project was completed and worked. Despite the stress, we had a lot of good/funny/interesting/crazy times in lab 4.02 for the past few months cooped inside with all the projects. Some of us got so stressed that we'd let it out by saying/doing all sorts of crazy stuff and cracking up each other. Lol. Shortly after FYP, it was time to cram for exams, as we had no study break at all!

The final exam of my uni life (most probably!) was on the 29th of Nov, for Design for DSP Architectures. We celebrated the end of exams by going bowling and for supper afterwards at BDC. And yes, I won for the 2nd time.

December:
Sadly, all good things must come to an end. Mike and I broke up due to some issues and decided that it would be better to just remain friends. But I would say that it was my best relationship yet and that I had a lot of great times during the 2 and 1/2 years. I think we both learnt and gained a lot from it.

I ended up going for a lot of job interviews in this month. I got the call for my 1st interview directly after my final paper -_-||. So, went to KL 3 times and Johor once. I had interviews with Sony, Maxis, Alcatel and Industronics in KL and GES in Johor. Some interviews required me to take some IQ, maths, reading comprehension tests and even coding or group dynamics. So yea, interesting month, but incredibly hectic with all the flying around. Spent a lot on air tickets and also new work clothes.

THanks to my uncle, I got to go watch Leo Ku in concert at Stadium Merdeka on the 23rd of Dec. I had a great seat, front row and center of the VVIP section so only the press were in front of me. I did get to shake his hand too, so a very cool experience. This year's Christmas was pretty quiet as I spent it with another uncle in KL, since I couldn't go back to Kuching, due to another interview :P. To make it up, I did get to celebrate New Year's Eve with CY and the others at Soho, despite the heavy rain. THings only started perking up around 11, so it was pretty ok :D

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In conclusion, I would say that I did and learnt a lot of new things this year. I started getting interested in photography, mahjong and back into monopoly and clubbing. I learnt more about my FYP and also job interviews. I experienced my first drunk-stayover-at-friends'-house, a big concert, international Rotaract event and many other things which I can't recall or mention here. Oh, and I get along better with my brother now. I think all of this has made or kind of changed me too. Some may say that I've become more wild because of the clubbing, openness etc. But I say that may be better than the controlled, serious person that I was before.

Yet, I can control my temper better, I'm more open to trying new things, I'm more keen on loosening up and having fun. BUt at the same time, I think I've become more mature, now that I've been through certain things and seen both sides of the story, as in the good and bad side. I suppose that this is fitting, since it is the last year of my uni life. Who says you don't learn anything from uni? Sometimes it's the life and people experiences in these years that make a difference down the road. And yeah, I've really been through a lot in Swinburne, with the various people. I've made a lot of good friends there, both students and lecturers. And the memories will always be with me.

So the people who really made a difference in my life this year are: Mike, Ching Yi, Henry, Siaw Hui, Chyi Yeou and last but not least, my brother. Of course, the family and friends that aren't mentioned, it doesn't mean that you didn't make a difference, but you probably have always been important throughout the years, not just starting this year. Thank you all for everything you've taught and given me, the good and bad memories, all the times, laughter and tears we've shared together. I hope we'll all always keep in touch and remain friends :D