There goes my First Year. =)

After having a hardcore exam month, I'm finally enjoying the semester break that I had been longing for so long! Gonna be a successful potato for the next 2 months! =D

Well, the year of me being a freshie has just ended in a blink of eye. Again, it was the matter of accepting the reality. 

Throughout my first year, I met a lot of people, did a lot of activities and attended a lot of events. Of course, the "A Lot" I mentioned is not as a lot as other people, but it's definitely a lot to me compared to my involvement in activities back in high school.  I'm not sure if I have changed a lot during this whole year, but I'm sure I did gained something from the things that I have done. 

I had a really hard time last year before I entered UM, I cried a lot, I blamed myself for missing many opportunities that would allow me to pursue my studies in private uni. I doubted my choices for choosing business and not the science subjects that I was familiar with. But still, I let Time to decide for me. 

And I survived as a business student after all. And also became one of the residents of 3rd Residential College and a part of 比目鱼 family. =) 

I thought I was already busy in my first semester, but that was not the case. Indeed I realized how free I was back in sem 1 because my second semester was fully packed by assignments and events! 

So lets start with the activities I have done after the Monsthird event. 

Career Path 2015 was my first UMBC event which I was one of the committees from marketing department. It was a tiring yet great experience especially it came to the aspect of dealing with companies. It was super hard when we had to liaise with the companies' representatives, to entertain them and to make sure that they are satisfied with our event. And things got more challenging when I had 2 platinum sponsors in hand. Well, I have to say I was just lucky to have 2 platinum sponsors because the effort of me finding them to be sponsors was much less compared to the money I spent on calling other companies. LOL But that was not the end of the story, the real challenge was on the 3 event days and also to prepare career talk for the sponsors. I would not tell more about it because it would be a long story, but I must say this event has helped me gained useful knowledge on how to deal with companies. I might not performed the best of me, but I do learnt from the mistakes, I guess. HAHA.

The Marketing Department of CP 2015. 

Although the money spent on calling companies was such a pain, I actually enjoyed the moments when we were having workshop, complaining how troublesome some companies and HEP are and teasing each other. LOL

I'm really grateful for having such helpful members who backed me up during the event days when I didn't know how to handle the emergency situation, having the funniest Kepala who I thought he is

fierce at first, and having the most patient Boss who always gave us the help we needed though we all annoyed him with a lot of questions (and he still owes us Little Fat Duck!). =P

A group picture is always a Must. =)

Bonus: A picture of we were handling a career talk for one of our platinum sponsors.

(Macam Yes~ Haha)

Right after Career Path, I actually went for the interview to become Biz Night 2015 OCs. 

Biz Night is actually something like an annual dinner for all UM business students and lecturers. It was a really last minute decision and I think I was really out of mind to go for the interview. And I picked the department that I thought it has the easiest job scope among all departments, which is the Publicity Department and I even insisted to join the department only. But it was proven that I was wrong! LOL Not when you have a the UMBC's president as your HOD. My HOD is the type of person who has high self-discipline and she has high expectation on us. She definitely pushed me to my limits and taught me how to face the problems and not to run away from it. Sometimes she made me realized that I didn't really use my brain to think all the time even though my jobs for this publicity thing were only posting fb status, helping out with the registration and giving DK talks. I guess it's proven that I don't have any sense of art when they said the props I drew was terrible... T.T 

Biz Night Photo shoot at the field near the Faculty of Language and Linguistic.

Our theme for Biz Night 2015 was the Bohemian Night. 

Look at the flower band on my head! Haha (Another 5 am wake-up face) 

Tada! I even made myself a Dream Catcher! =DDD

The beautiful photobooth prepared by my talented buddy.

Biz Night 2015 Organizing Committee.

There were a lot of challenges we faced during the process of preparing this event and also the night itself. 

I hope it could be done better in the future.

But why on earth they picked me as the Marketing HOD of Biz Night 2016????? T.T

*No eyes see the goodies bag next year*

But nothing beats the craziness when I decided to join 24 festive drums performance for Kakeku.(Karnival Kebudayaan Kurshiah). I even filled in the participation form for thrice! I have no idea why I have the courage of joining the performance when I have no basic at all. On top of that, we only left one month plus before the performance day to practice our moves. There was actually a moment when I thought to quit before it's too late, but I decided to stay. Hmmm.... I must be crazy. Thanks god our coach has found some experienced seniors from other hostels to join us, which has made the whole practice a little bit less stressful for beginners like me. I need to learn the basic skills, to  jump on the drum, to carry the drums here and there, and to memorize the flow of the whole performances. Not to forget the blue blacks that I "earned" on my artistic legs during the practices.

Jeng jeng~ My full attire for the performance.

There were times when I felt like crying and giving up, especially when all the assignments and events clashes at the same time.

But I'm glad that I stayed until the end. I'm strong enough to endure all the pains I have been through. 

And then, it was the moment of satisfaction when we finished our performance successfully.

At least I looked not that bad in the videos they recorded.... =P

The best thing from being part of the drummers is that I got to know some funny seniors.

Though I did not master all the drum skills, but I did gained interesting experience from this whole process. And I have never regret of joining this performance.

And do you know why I said my schedule for sem 2 was really packed? Just right after 2 days of the drum performance, I participated the UM's Colour Run as a volunteer.

At first, I actually registered as one of the runners. But then, I registered to become a volunteer because it's free and I just need to throw the colours to the participants!

I'm glad that me and my roommate managed to find friends to replace us because I was really tired after the drum performance.

I can't show my face because I was too ugly.

It was a Colour War indeed!

Some of the participants asked to have some colour powders from us and some of them even threw the colours back to us!

Anyway, it was fun after all! Except the fact that I need to use days to clean up my shoes and remove all the colours from myself. HAHA

Well, besides non-academic events, there were compulsory trips that we had to go to fulfill the assignments requirement. For example, TITAS assignments required us to pay a visit and introduce places that are meaningful, historical or just simply a place that has adequate information and history for us to make a video. At first, I thought we must go to somewhere that is historical such as Muzium Negara, but that was not the case when our we realized that there were groups who went PetroScience in KLCC. So, I suggested to go Planeterium Negara instead, a museum-like place which is all about astronomy and the life of the astronauts in outer space. At least it sounds more interesting compared to Museum Negara for us. LOL 

This is the Planeterium Negara building with the super long staircases! 

It looks cool but it's definitely not cool for us to walk up there under the hot sun in the afternoon.

So, we used the "shortcut" at the side of building to reach the top instead. =D

I didn't dare to lie down on the chair because I was afraid that I would be stuck in there... Haha

The place was actually small in size for a museum as we only took almost an hour to walk around the whole Planeterium Negara. I must say this place definitely suits the little kids because the museum provided interactive exhibitions that allow the visitors to try on the gadgets, experience the life in outer space and to know more about astronomy by doing simple tests and experiments. To be honest, I wouldn't even know there is a place like this in KL if it wasn't for TITAS assignment. Anyway, new experience gained! =)

Another trips that we have done is for the university compulsory course, so called Social Engagement. Well, I have mixed feelings towards this subject, it's actually a good thing as it exposed us to the society by involving ourselves in volunteering work, but when it comes to grading, it's stressful. My group had a lot of chaos during the whole process of social engagement compared to the other group which we are under the same supervisor. But I believe every volunteering work has its own benefits, including becoming zoo volunteers. I just hope that our supervisor could give us a better grade for our effort. At least we tried to work together in the end. 

So, back to the topic, the volunteering works that I have done with my group members are becoming the zoo volunteers and helping out at Tadika UM. We even have a blog for it as it was one of the requirement for this course. To know what I have done, you can kindly visit: http://group2se2.blogspot.com/  and find my "inordinary experience" posts in there because it would be endless if I repeated the whole story here. Haha

My favourite animal in the zoo, Capybara!

Too much of cuteness that I couldn't handle.

Oh I have another favourite! I finally got to see real pandas! *SCREAMS*

Can you feel my excitement?? THEY ARE SO CUTEEEEEE~~~~

(Don't laugh at me yeah, I have never been to China to see the pandas okay~ T.T)

Thanks to the volunteering job, I got to see the pandas by just paying the ticket for the panda museum and not the full entrance fee.

But I still couldn't differentiate which is Feng Yi and Fu Wa.

Anyway, I was a lucky kid because other visitors can only spend 20 minutes in there, but I spent almost an hour in there because it was a weekday and not much people in there.

It has been years since my last visit to the zoo, when I was 8 years old I guess. Some of the areas in the zoo remains the same and it brought some memory flashback of my childhood. But it was totally a different kind of feeling when you are a volunteer instead of a visitor. It was still fun when you could interact with the animals in such close distances and feed them. Have you ever put honey on your palm and let the honey bears to lick it with their super warm tongues? OMG I could still remember how it feels until now.

A day at Tadika UM reminded me of the kids I met during my first part time job as a homework teacher.

The girl hugging me has a cute name, Dua. Yes, her name is Dua. I was so tempted to ask if she has an older sibling named Satu...... (My god I feel so bad for this..)

I couldn't stop laughing when I saw the little kids having their Taekwando class. 

Cuteness overloads with their sleepy faces while stretching. (They just woke up from nap.)

Well, even though the volunteering at Zoo Negara and Tadika UM was tiring, I enjoyed spending time with the animals (though I had to clean up their shits) and the little children. 

First year life wouldn't be complete if we missed out the gatherings and university performance, such as CC dinner, CC Night, CP appreciation night, Feseni and 大摇.

As for CC Night, it is a big family kind of gathering for all 3rd College seniors and juniors before the semester ends. We had it at the favourite supper place for UM students, Piccadilly. 

The night was joyful as there were performances, games, some funny awards-giving session and bonding session.

Yet, I regretted for joining the cup song performance because I did very badly with obvious mistakes.

It was a very last-minute thing. At first, I was just offering help to teach them the basic tempo. But ended up the director put me in the the performer list.

The practice time was very short and I insisted to finalize the moves because most of the performers are beginners. Yet, the leader kept on changing the moves before the day itself just to make the performance looks interesting.

And I practiced the so-called Climax move just an hour before the performance! And Jeng jeng, I forgot the move during the performance. 

The moral of the story: Never be so busybody when you are not even a professional. LOL 

Next, Feseni and Dayao. The first one is a traditional dance competition and the latter is a music performance. I wasn't involved in both of the events, but I attended them to support my friends and buddy.

I was more interested to Dayao as it is about music.

I went to audition once and I regretted for not attending the interview to become one of the programmers after being rejected by the audition. LOL 

It's okay, I will try again next year! *Fighting*

The theme for DaYao this year is LOST. All the songs the singers performed were composed originally by UM students. Some of the songs were really good, especially the blues. Blues is always my favourite genre! 

Well, I guess I have summed up most of the activities that I have participated during the second semester of my first year. Looking forward for a better second year ahead! Can't wait to have small buddy and extend our buddy line! =)

Good Bye First Year! =)