Rule #19: Mathematics doesn’t teach us how to love or live, but it gives us every reason to believe that there’s a way around every problem.

My mood changes with the weather. Thanks to the rain, I’ve been rather happy. Pretty poignant, but still happy. However weather is really turning out to be unpredictable. All thanks to global warming. One minute it’s all gloomy for days and the next it’s scorching hot. School, on the other hand, has been alright. I was glad that I had As & Bs for my first week. I am hoping I can maintain my grades. But who am I kidding anyway? I had an abominable rough start of the week. For the last few days I’ve been in a bit of a brain slump, just unable to concentrate properly and generally being a bit slow when it comes to general problem solving abilities. My body clock is pretty messed up and that affects my body alot.. Physically and mentally. Have you seen my eye bags?

Maths module was supposed to be easy for me since we’re only doing the basic which was Indices. It turned out I was struggling to catch up when I noticed there are lot of Albert Einstein in my class. While they only took like 3 seconds to answer a tough maths equation, I was still working it out on a piece of paper and counting with my fingers. I had been using the calculator to solve maths for the past four years of my life. Can you imagine, all the powers, square root, they can do it mentally? Note to self: BUY A NEW CALCULATOR. Database module is like hypnotising sessions, I just automatically feel like drifting off to sleep. I’m always in awe of how people can understand the Java really quickly. I told my facilitator straightforwardly today when he came up to my table during the last meeting and asked how I was coping with the problem statement. “I’m not doing anything related to java. I scanned the whole worksheet and I don’t feel like doing already when I only read the first question!“ I was expecting him to nag but instead, he was like, “I know, when you see the worksheet you feel very sian already rrrrright... It’s okay. Never mind. Let me think of a solution to help you okay…” A minute of pure guilt trip. Why is he so understanding towards students like me? I don’t deserve his kindness when I chose to be stubborn-headed. I mean, facilitators don’t usually help if you yourself choose not to try. But this faci does, no matter what. Damn I should stop behaving like a spoilt brat since I’m blessed with a sincere facilitator who is willing to guide anyone who needs help. I will never take him for granted, ever. Besides, my classmates were encouraging me to give it a try and they would just explain everything even without me asking. So thoughtful of them. I’m touched :’)

Speaking of which, I can honestly say so far I love my class, though I have yet to know all of them personally. I feel this burning class spirit. Well sort of. Nonetheless, it still digs me how quiet yet queer the malay guys in my class are. Unlike last semester, I actually put in the effort to have a conversation with every malay students (My class only have 2 girls 2 boys). The girls are perfectly fine. In fact I’m getting closer to them day by day! I’m just not sure if the malay guys are socially awkward or they just don’t enjoy talking? They look fine by the way they dress..you know what they say, looks can be deceiving. But I’m sure they’re nice. Hopefully.

One of my ex-colleagues who studies in RP too, texted me asking where I was & I told her that I’m lunching with my class and asked her why didn’t she. She told me that her class was super segregated. I have got to start counting my blessings and going out of the way to do nice things to ensure that my “luck” doesn’t run out Haha! I don’t sound like a pessimist, do I ?

Tonight’s just another one of those dark, chilly nights, the air balmy & significantly cooler; perfect for the fact that I'm planning to turn in earlier to reset my ever messed up biological clock. Have a good night's sleep, everybody! xx

Rule #15: It always rains the hardest on the people who deserve the sun.

This morning marked my first day of school. As cliché as this may sound, time really flies. There goes my 5 weeks of vacation and it’s back to school for me all over again. I was emotional last night and I kept telling my boyfriend how scared I was. I had everything I wanted to wear laid out perfectly on my bed, even though I intended to dress down. Just a pair of good ol' jeans and a tank top complete with my vans. I even got up on time when I only had 3 hours of sleep.

I persuaded my sister to send me to school because my little princess fat ass didn’t want to take the public transport early in the morning. I didn’t want to be late even a minute. I was having those usual beginning term jitters I always get. Am I going to ace my classes? Am I going to have a good time with this class? Will the workload overwhelm me? I've already spent the morning going through each of my classes online individually and extensively to see what’s expected of me. I was just very afraid how I would do.

With anxiety on one hand and fear on the other, I reached for the door knob, opening it slowly. “Expect the worst and hope for the best,” I told myself. As I entered the room, everyone’s eyes were on me. I took a quick glanced at these unfamiliar faces and my instincts led me to one of the tables next to a young lady who had a painted smile on her face. She’s actually my classmate last semester. A very hardworking one, indeed. The facilitator shook my hand as she introduced herself as Jasmine and I really like her the second she said "Nice to meet you,Nadiah!" She definitely have a very cheerful personality which I truly adore!

I had to move over to another table which I was assigned to and I was glad that I could communicate well with my team members. To begin her lesson, the facilitator made us introduced ourselves. I thanked god there was no ice breakers! I spoke with utter confidence as I introduced myself to the whole class. I was really amazed with myself for being very responsive to everything she asked and volunteering whenever there’s an opportunity. Ah, I sure as hell managed to convince myself that everything will be okay, and all I had in mind were happy thoughts.

“Ohh? You’re a malay...” a girl of the same race whispered next to me as she was looking at the class roster page on her screen.
“Umm, yes. What do you think?” I raised one of my eyebrows and assumed she was going to say that I look like a Chinese, like most people thought I was.
“I thought you’re Eurasian,” she giggled shyly.

I laughed. No doubt it was not my face features that make me look like one, that’s for sure. When asked, she said it was the way I talk. Don’t get me wrong readers; I don’t speak with an American slang. (Well maybe a little bit of the attitude if you get to know me well enough) But I do avoid using Singlish as best as i can when talking to a large group of people especially when the facilitator is around. Perhaps she was just comparing my language with hers because she mentioned about how bad her English is. But you know, it’s just very nice to know somebody thinks that your spoken English is great (even though I hate reading books!) My boyfriend’s a really smart guy, especially his languages. They are perfection to my ears. Definitely, he’s the biggest influence on me.

“Ah, what a good start of the new beginning!” I heard them uttered.
Damn right, it is. And it’s time to step up my game.
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I just created a LOOKBOOK account for myself to post all my looks in there. It's only two days old that's the reason why i don't have any fans/likes/karma/hypes yet! This is actually my first time promoting my lookbook so, do check it out ya!;) Just click on this kitty cat and you will be directed to my profile straightawaaaaaaay!

Rule No.13: Learning is a treasure that will follow its owner everywhere.

11 reasons why I think schooling in Republic Poly sucks.

1) Everything you learn requires laptop. 8am to 3pm! That’s 7 hours every day in school staring at Microsoft worksheets, presentation point, google and everything else online. If someday your laptop breaks down, you won’t be able to learn and there goes your daily grade! (daily grades take up 50% of your GPA, that’s a lot ok!) Even though for some modules, “sharing” is allowed but seriously, do you think anyone would want to share with you their laptop (obviously, there are a lot of private and confidential stuffs in it) the whole 7 hours? Unless your friend is very close to you, you must be kidding me if you answered my question ‘Yes’.

2) Every student has to earn 40 CE points by the end of third year. If you don’t, you will not be able to graduate and you have to repeat another year just to complete -.- And each lecture, which is like 2-3 hours long, is equivalent to only 1 damn point-.- Any other activities with more than 1 point are usually too complicated/uninteresting/too draggy etc.

3) No hotpants/mini skirts/slippers. Like what the hell? It’s a freaking polytechnic for god’s sake and it’s the only one that has that kind of rule. If I’m not wrong, they made it that way because the residents (or whoever) complained that rp students look too sloppy? If your facilitator is strict about attire, you will be sent home. If you’re caught wearing slippers by the guard (or whoever), you’re fine 50bucks -__-“ That’s what they told me during my orientation. But come on… If the students are not taking any course that requires formal clothes, it IS OKAY to wear sloppily-.-“ Its only school, after all. Let the students wear what they are comfortable with! -__-

4) There is only one damn bus that goes to woodlands from my place HOWEVER the bus stop is quite far and it's usually packed in the morning. Of course the journey’s damn long too. So I have no choice but to take the train. The ‘special’ bus that goes to RP straight from woodlands has an overwhelming queue! It’s so long that it goes all around the interchange. Even though the bus comes often, it takes approx. 25minutes till I actually reach school! (Daily classes start at 8.30, I usually reached the interchange at 7.40 to board the bus. I would reach school at 8.20 or even later-__-)

5)There is no straight bus from republic poly back to Choa chu kang. They have buses that go to woodlands interchange but the interval time is extremely long. Usually I have to wait about 20-30 min for the bus to reach, and its only just 2 stops? If you don’t want to waste your time waiting for the bus, you will have to walk back to the mrt station.Do you know how frustrating it is to walk that far distance under the hot sun after a long day in school?

6) I hate the shelters from woodlands to rp. I usually can’t stand the morning temperature when it is sunny and hot, but the shelters are so ineffectual! It does not block the sun at all. Even if it’s raining, the shelters are quite small! They are not enough to cover up the distance from mrt all the way to school. Wait, they actually cover but the longer route where students need to cross the overhead bridge not just one, BUT TWO BRIDGES (they are not connected directly! That means, going up and down the stairs then you have to walk another few metres and climb the stairs again!!!) Who does that anyway? I HATE TO SWEAT!

7) The lobby is usually packed with students. It takes roughly 10minutes for me to take the elevator to get to my class even though there are four of them! I detest waiting! If you reach at 8.20 or 8.25, and you don’t want to be late, gotta climb the stairs man! My class last semester was located at the 6th floor okay -__-

8) When you’re late for a minute or more, you won’t be able to get an A for your daily grade. if your module for the day allows you to pick your own group, and you’re unlucky, you won’t get to be in the group you want. Then you have to deal with those whom you hardly communicate with especially the china people.

9) Probably this is stereotyping, but what I have experienced and what most people I know did too; Your classmates are backstabbers. They are nice to you, try to win your heart and stuffs, but when it comes to presenting, they will purposely embarrass you. Asking questions related to the topic of the day is fine, but when they start asking too much stupid and unrelated questions, you just NEED to answer, no matter what, THAT'S ANNOYING. They would even fight back if you didn’t give good answers that satisfy them. Because in RP, the more you ask questions during your classmates’ presentations, the higher the chance you will be upgraded. The more you can’t answer them, you will probably get downgraded. Unless you're lucky, your classmates will take advantage of this.

10) Classmates can never be trusted. If they don’t like you, they will talk shits about you in their reflection journal that will be sent to the facilitator. They might even “plan” together to do that kind of mean thing to a particular person they dislike so that she/he will be downgraded. They are willing to do anything. I've seen, heard and witnessed it before.

11) Group presentations, every single day. I know union is strength, but there will always be one or two students from your group who will be very lazy to do things. If you really want a good grade for the day, you just gotta do what they are supposed to do for the group presentation. So, that’s an extra job for yourself. Suay,much? Like I said, working with people you don’t like especially those you can’t communicate with, will make the situation even worse.
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Call me a spoilt brat or anything but please don’t get me wrong- I love education. However, the environment is the biggest factor for me when it comes to studying. I really don’t think RP is my kind of school. I don't like the fact that my daily grades depend on the people i have to work with. I know its good for my future career but it takes up 50% of my GPA? HELL NO!:( I like text books. I like writing and making notes. (HARD COPY OF COURSE!!-__-) I am more focused when i do worksheets on paper than on laptop where I get distracted easily with itunes/twitter/fb/blog.

My apologies for putting you through this agony. I just had to type everything out. I feel much better now. Please God let me survive my second semester!

Rule No.10: Don't ask God to guide your footsteps if you're not willing to move your feet.

Greetings, my friends. As I’m gathering pieces of thoughts together and trying to put them down in words, I can’t help but to sigh at myself for being so naive thinking that this whole week was going to be amazing. My mom just grounded me from going out with my friends. Yes you heard that right. I am not allowed to meet my friends till I don’t know when. Blame it on my sister for not coming home yesterday. For once I actually wish school would start next week because of this shit, but deep down I really don’t want this holiday to end so quickly. I hope I’ll really have the time of my life within this short span of time. Oh who am I kidding……………………

This morning when I woke up, I found out on twitter that our exam results were released at noon. See how twitter can be a very effective reporting tool? The process of getting my exam results is such a story by itself. But I am pleased to say that I passed all the modules that I have taken, although I can do better. I was expecting my boyfriend to congratulate me or something when I told him that my GPA’s good enough for me, but all he could say was, “2.4 is okay right since your efforts macam kosong.” Kosong means empty in malay. And I was like, “Am I supposed to say thanks?” Hahaha, boyfriend’s such a sweetheart, eh? Well I wouldn’t say I didn’t put any effort although I did slack off during my first semester especially when my vacation was arriving… However, I still put in effort to make sure I would pass all my understanding tests. Surprisingly I did! Alhamdullilah. So, how did ya'll do? Great? I hope so!:)

That's my sec3 photo! Hehehe:)

The reason why I have only three pathetic CE points is because I chose not to go for lectures. I’d gotten attached to Style Groovaz Crew that I spent almost every day practising. I actually depended on my future dance performances to earn my points. Unfortunately, I decided to quit my passion for some personal reasons. Me just being me, knowing I had nothing interesting to look forward to, I didn’t have the mood at all to sign up for those boring talks/lectures. Furthermore, I don’t have many friends. I’m just sort of reluctant to socialise much. Besides the dancers, my classmates were pretty boring and I couldn’t really click with them. In fact, I can count on one hand the number of call-up-anytime-friends I’ve made!

I’ve been pondering whether I should change school. Well, I can’t say I did not enjoy my time here at all. It was refreshing and fun while it lasted, but it got tiring in the long run. I know that’s part and parcel of life but I really dislike RP’s education system! I’m just going to go through my second semester and if I really don’t like it, i will consider pursuing another business course in a private school (most probably raffles?<:) and I already talked about it with my father ;)

God is good, all the time. Don’t blame the Almighty when things don’t go your way. Do remember- What seems to us as bitter trials are often blessings in disguise. Have a happy weekend guys. xx

P.S: I have actually forgotten that today is our 16th monthsary until my boyfriend wished me few hours ago. Oops! Cheers to our sixteenth, darling :-*