Back to Usual

Today I'm returning to my campus to resume my second half of the first semester.

This means:

-Lots of things need to complete.

-More quizzes.

-Need to excel in subjects such as General Physics and Mathematics 1 (final exam and the second test is around the corner).

-More serious action, less jokes.

-Lesser food supplies.(Need to save money to buy a newer laptop to replace my two year old buddy)

-Less tasty food.

-No more Physics Lab.

That's the journey of an average student.

J.Z.Wong

Trip to Sandakan, The City of Nature

It's been a quarter of a year that I did not step myself to the Land Below the Wind.

I went there to fill my mid-semester break as a vacation.

I departed LCCT at 0715 hours by a boarding Flight AK 5160 and reached the airport of Sandakan at 1000hours.

After getting my luggage and the immigration procedure to settle, I took a mini van @ mini bus to the town.

I reached to about an hour before noon.

At there, I checked into a hotel before going for my lunch.

I had some grilled fish as my lunch before heading to the house of our cousins, the Orang Utans at the Sepilok Rehabilitation Centre for Orang Utan.

The centre is situated a mile from the Sandakan branch campus of University of Malaysia Sabah (UMS).

At there, I get to get myself close to our cousins which has about 96% of our genetic informations.

Then, I had a can of 100 PLUS to quench my thirst after having an hour of walking in the forest of Sepilok.

Right before dawn, I went to the Rotary Club Observatory Pavilion situated on top of the hill where the site of house of a well known author, Agnes Keith. At the pavilion, you can have an awesome panorama of Elopura.

From the pavilion, you can also see that the traffic is not as worse as the want we face in Cheras though, the population of the city is approximately equal to Cheras.

It is more common for you to find roundabouts compare to traffic lights.

I had steamboat as my dinner at a restaurant in the central market.

I'm served with seafood such as shell fish that include oysters, lala and abalone, crab, prawns and tuna with an interesting price that is not available in Kuala Lumpur, RM18.00 only!!!

That night, I had a walk along the coastal area and had a cup of bubble milk shake. For your information, North Borneo Chinese is highly influenced by the culture of Hong Kong Islanders and Taiwanese because most of the Chinese community of that state have very long and established trading activities with Hong Kong and Taiwan. Thus, it is not a shock to see certain food and drinks of those countries can be found fondly at Sandakan such as the bubble milk shake and Taiwanese pancakes.

Before I go for sleep after a day long of traveling about a thousand miles, I checked my e-mail using the WiFi connection of the hotel.

The next morning, I had 'Roti Kahwin' and a glass of hot chocolate as my breakfast before starting my journey to explore the city with plenty of 'Timber Tycoons'.

I went to a incredible temple built in 1987 that is funded by most of the 'Timber Tycoons'.

It is located on the peak of a hill facing the harbour of Sandakan where timbers are collected and exported to several East Asian countries.

Then, I had Nasi Minyak as my lunch to gain some energy to continue my trip.

My next checkpoint is the infamous site of the camp of the Prisoners of War (P.O.W.) during the occupation of the Land of the Rising Sun where now stands the War Memorial of the Death March. There were only six survivors of the brutal Death March.

A structure aged more than a century is my last stop of the day. On the way to the mentioned structure, I passed by an ancient Chinese cemetery site and it is said to be existed in the late 1790s. The mentioned monument is the St. Michael Church that took 20 years to be completed and it survived the bombing of Elopura by the Allied during the Japanese Occupation.

That evening, I had Gado-gado(Similiar to Mamak Rojak) and Bakso(noodle dish with meatballs) to fill my roaring stomach. Honeydew with sago drink as the dessert.

The next morning, I took an express bus to Lahad Datu to meet some of my NS mates.

My trip to the City of Nature is an enjoyable moment and I hope that I am able to have a night stay at Pulau Penyu of Sandakan to observe turtles laying eggs when I come to visit this lovely city.

J.Z.Wong

The Project Manager

It's been a while that I did not update my blog because the internet connection in my campus is not at it's best performance because some upgrading work is done. I hope that it will not take a long period because slow internet means no life. To add insult to injury, I'm having several tests and it is done during my normal leisure time, thus no time to update this blog.

I'm the project manager for my Islamic and Asian Civilization Studies subject a.k.a. TITAS. When my lecturer, En. Fazullah appointed me as the project manager,I asked him why am I chosen instead my lecture group monitor and if I were to screw-up this project, I'll cause everyone to kiss goodbye to their 15% of the total credits. Guess what he replied, every one will have his or her chance. Then, I told myself why don't you take the chance as chances don't roll like a ball to you.

In conjunction of Civilisation Week, our lecture group will be organising some events like talks and interviews. Our topic is to educate so called adults to be punctual as most of the undergraduates especially the elder ones are not being punctual for lecture class, tutorial , etc. As you know it's difficult to educate adults to be punctual in university because there are no parents to nag them to wake up early. To make thing worst, most of us go to bed when it's almost 3 o' clock in the morning and the next class is at 8.00am. If you were in their shoes, will you be able to wake up to get yourself to the class?
J.Z.Wong

Enjoying the view of Kuantan from a Different Perspective

On a rainy Sunday, I woke up early to prepare myself before going for an event organized by the Ministry of Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development in conjuction of the National Consumer Day.

A cycling tour from the Municipal Hall's field to the well-known Bay of Chempedak aka Teluk Chempedak.

It's an eight kilometres journey to there.

We were escorted by the traffic personel on duty to prevent any accidents from occurring during the event.

At the beach, we were asked to teamed-up to clean the lovely beach.

After an hour of cleaning the beach, I went to the Mc.Donald Drive-Thru Restaurant to get a Sundae Cone to treat myself.

Then our lunch were served. It was chicken rice cooked by the Red Crescent First Aid Member.

We left Teluk Chempedak a quater to one in the afternoon.

At the Municipal Hall Field we were presented certificates of participation and a lucky draw event was done. It was not my day, so no prizes for me.

Hope that I will be able to join such adventerous activity in the future.

J.Z.Wong

Back to Then...

Last week, I saw the news about reverting the language of teaching for Science and Mathematics back to our national language, Bahasa Malaysia at Petronas Petrol Station of KM26 Gambang.

Honestly I felt that the step of reverting back to Bahasa Malaysia is not a wise decission done by the cabinet and the minister of education himself.

I'm not in a state of opposing the decission of our governmernt but to express my feelings on the action done as a student of the second batch that undergoes the transition plan done by Dr. M or known as Che Det.

In year 2002 when the government announced that all the teaching of Science and Mathematics will be done in English, I felt reluctant about it since I'm from a non-eglish-speaking-school(Sekolah Kebangsaan Yacob Latif) before entering a Sekolah Kebangsaan Seri Bintang Utara where most of the students uses English as their second language after their mother tounge.

After undergoing the plan for five years, I felt that I'm lucky to be born in a right year since Science and Mathematics were taught in English because it has improved my command in English tremendously.

Besides it also transformed me from an introvert to an extrovert and more outspoken person.

When I entered university, I found it to be easier for me to learn compare to my seniors that studied their 'Sains dan Matematik' in Bahasa Malaysia.

I had even discussed this with my fellow friends from the rural areas of Sabah during my national service in Tawau, they supported the idea of Che Det because they said that this enable them to improve their ability to converse in that particular language and set a platform for them to prepare themselves before entering tertiary studies where most of the references are bountily in the language once became our lingua franca before independance.

If the natives of Sabah like Kadazan-Dusun, Suluk and Bajau where they are away from the norm of using the language felt the importance of the language as an instruction language for these two subjects, why citizens of Penisular Malaysia need to complain about when we are living at a region blessed with plenty of resources of knowing the language better.

If the government wants to revert it back to our national lingua franca, I think that we should wait for a few years to see the effectiveness of PPSMI. At least see the product of the first batch graduating from university and secured their jobs. In conclusion, politicians should not use education as a tool to please the RAKYAT to gain their votes.

Listen to the opinion of individuals that are professionals in the field of Science and Mathematics not the professionals in linguistic.

I hope that the decission done by our government is right and it will not ruined the future of our nation.

J.Z.Wong

My Resting Zone in University

'Home Sweet Home', that's a phrase that is always in my mind wherever I travel.
I'm not a person with home-sick disorder like most person has although I share some of the symptoms of home-sick.
By using the phrase above, I try my effort to make my room as sweet as possible.
A person normally spend the most time in his/her room.
Therefore, room is the best place for us to reminisce our home when we are away from it.
It is important for every individual to have a lovely and comfort room.
It is very subjective to define a person's comfort towards his room.
That's why I'm using my effort to transform Room 4 of House 3 of Row K into a place I call comfort zone.

J.Z.Wong

The Next Level of My Journey

On the 27th of June 2009, I went to Kuantan along with my parents. It took me, two and a half hours to travel from my house to the house of a friend of my family at Kuantan.
We overnight at his place since it is not easy for us to find accommodation in the heart of the largest city in the east coast of Peninsular Malaysia after dusk.
The next morning, I woke up as early as half past six to finish up my final preparation before entering the gate of the institute that that I'm going to reside for three years.
At the guard house we were ushered by a few seniors to the registration center for new students.
Before entering the building to register, students were screened to ensure that there are no one infected by the swine flu a.k.a. H1N1 so that the university ground is free from that fatal influenza.
The registration took about three hours because there was a black-out occurring at the campus. For your information, all the registration are done via online thus none of the registration can be done till the electrical supply is restored.
At noon, I checked into my room and placed all my belongings accordingly.
In the evening, we had our first activity for our induction week for the new students(MIND'S @Minggu Induksi Siswa).
We were told about the vast difference in between the life of an undergraduate with a high school student.
Our MIND'S runs well for the whole week.
Yesterday I had my first lecture class at UNiversiti Malaysia Pahang and it's English for Communication.
I hope that the next level of my life will be smooth.
Lastly I would like to wish good luck for all my readers.
J.Z.Wong