Cheering on for the Nott Games!

31st August was the Malaysian Nottingham games, here in the UK's. Well, before going off to the games, the Malaysian Society had a small gathering and free food for the players. Of course, it's traditional to cheer on the players right? (They said cheer on our players like Football, Badminton and tennis, but i signed up for Scrabble, so how ah? HAHA)

Pic taken on that night. Credits to Ryan!

Well. the Nott games went on fairly well. Had to wake up at 4.30 in the morning to catch the 6 o'clock bus. Registration for the event was supposed to start at 7, so that was the best timing. As one would conclude, the equation below came true man! =="

Malaysian Event + Loads of Malaysians + Malaysian Timing = Malaysian Styled Lateness

Haha, no offense for my fellow country mates, but it was true! The whole thing got postponed for 45 mins. (Deng, didn't need to wake up so early la =D ). Anyways, after a short Negaraku Anthem, speech by the Chancellor of Nottingham University, and another speech by the Minister of Sports, the games BEGAN!

(Bet'cha you didn't know that our current Prime Minister was from Nottingham!)

Morning Crowd. Had about 700 ppl wor...

The Hall that fitted us all

Row of chancellor, minister and Malaysian Athletes who came to support

Rachel and Amanda

(2 of the 6 ppl from KBU who came to Nottingham. Who knew? ^^)

We were kinda give Malaysian Flags, but never used them =)

(Our China Friend on the left looks like she never seen one before, haha)

So, I went off to my Scrabble Competition, which was a total loss. They planned it such as the first round would be a 4 way elimination on each table. That way, they could cut the amount of players down to just 1 quarter! SO, my first set of opponents were a student from Oxford (Scary!), a Scrabble State Player from Penang Medical College, PMC (he got 2nd runner up in the day's competition), and an ENGLISH TEACHER!!!! What a nice way to start off the competition =="

After an wonderful round (Seriously!), I went back to help the society with the food stall at the Malaysian Food Fair. Wasn't much of a help actually, coz I was selling Sushi. (Why sell Japanese food in a Malaysian Food Fair? I still can't get it >.< )

Me 'helping' out

Anyways, the best highlight of the evening would be badminton. Get to watch Xiong Ling, who not only represents our Malaysian Society, but also the NTU Badminton Club in the regional competitions lately ^^. She's really good, as she didn't need to take off her jacket to play until the semi-finals. Did I mentioned that she barely even sweated on each round? Too bad she lost to Mancester U in the finals~ Good game!

Talking about badminton, I totally HATE MACU SWANSEA!!!! (hope none of them reads this~) So, the thing is, It's a MALAYSIAN game, so why on earth did you send team(s) with all NON-MALAYSIANS? Even one of the best team, which has our Malaysia Junior Player in it lost badly to them. I seriously felt like foul-thrashing them on the spot! Worst part of all, there was this middle aged man sitting right next to me, he kept cheering the NM team on! Until when he realized that EVERYONE ELSE is rooting for their own home team, he 'curi-curi' support back Malaysia. Where's the pride in that?!? Guess Sportmanship's gone this year =(

On a bright note, got to meet an ol' fren of mine who's studying in Imperial College London (Best Engineering Uni!) Too bad he was the only one. Was expecting to meet another 4 friends of mine who are here in the UK's, but too bad~

31st of October was so happened to be the Halloween Night as well! So everyone dressed up in their spookiest or cutest costumes to celebrate the night. Well, all but not me! Didn't find time to go buy myself a costume, so just wore something that I don't usually wear. Pai seh with my look for the night......

Anyways, we just celebrated the night at Oceana Club, which is also the biggest club in Nottingham City! Didn't drink much, but sure partied all night long~ I think we were there till like 3 a.m. Although I actually got gastric and felt tired by 1, still enjoyed myself! It's been a long while since I went anywhere to club, and I sure missed the atmosphere of it!

Halloween Look. (I don't normally wear like that kay!)

Oceana's Main Dance Floor

(one of the 4 dance floors they have)

English classes

Who would have expected that I would need to take English classes again! Well, since I entered Uni without taking TOEFL, IELTS or wateva exams they have out there, guess I can't complain much, can I? Seems like getting A1 in both 1119 and SPM English wasn't good enough for them =P (Don't kill me for that yet! ^^ )

Almost forgot to mention. The REAL reason in taking up the class is because it's compulsory! Yup, you've heard me right. They made us take up the lesson due to 3 easy reasons

1) We need to write our Master's Thesis (okay, acceptable la)

2) English is not our first language (say what?!!??!)

3) and...... we MSc students have too mush free time wor =="

So, first classes were at late evenings last Monday. Classes ended at 12 pm, and I had to wait for another 3 hours for the next class, which was English with Miss Lezli. Thankfully someone lent me some bed at her home to rest for a few hours, HAHA! Rolled about, and slept till 3 before going back to Uni. Finally met her her for the first time (ok was second time actually, if I counted the 5 mins induction talk with her on 1st week of uni =D)

Surprisingly, during a minor chit chat with her, I got commented on my English, which was -->

"I can't believe how insanely good your English is!"

Haha, felt like flying at that time. LOL! There was a second of such encounter, when I visited the International Supports Office to complain about my scholarship. It happened just a few days before. My scholarship which has been approved on my visa letter, apparently has not been registered in the system! After a 20 min complaining to them, the 'kind' ladies finally asked back....

"Are you a local student to begin with?"

WTH!!! If i was, I wouldn't be here right?!?! (Luckily I didn't say that, after all she DID made me wait for like 2 weeks for this mmess to be solved!) Surprisingly she remarked that she only said that cause I spoke flawlessly wor... HAHA!!! AHEM.... Back to my point, really felt happy and dancing on Cloud 9, but in a wrong way =P (Not the candy Cloud 9, KAY!)

Anyways, today was the first offical class and we were just given a small workshop on how to deal with the academic faculty and staffs during times of need. One particullar exercise was to write an e-mail. The question given to us was...

You are sending an e-mail to your tutor to tell them that you will not be attending classes because you had an argument with your boyfriend/girlfriend and you do not want to go out. You've been crying and your eyes are puffy. Write your e-mail.

Since guys don't get puffy eyes, we got a new question instead ^^

You are sending an e-mail to your tutor to tell them that you will not be attending classes because you had an argument with your girlfriend and you do not want to go out. You've been crying and your girlfriend had hit your eye with a frying pan. Write your e-mail.

So, mine went as follows:

Dear E*****, (My course coordinator)

I am Shi Min, LEE (student number N02*****) from the Msc. Cybernetics and Communications program. I am writing this uneventfull email to notify that I will not be able to attend your classes for the next few days. This is due to an argument I had with my spouse. During the unforgetfull clash, I was unluckily hit in the face by a stray-flying frying pan! Due to my subsequent injuries, I've decided not to attend any classes for the time being to recuperate at home.

I deeply apologize for the inconvenience caused. Thank you.

Regards,

*********

Great, it was my 1st class, and I've already got hit by a frying pan! =D Putting that aside, trying to your professor that you fought with your girlfriend, AND got hit by a frying pan AND got a black-eye from it, AND making it sound FORMAL, is FREAKING HARD!!!!! Try doing that one day, and you'll see what I mean! (You'll die from laughter!) Of cause that I could have PURPOSELY changed a few words here and there to make it more 'flavourful', but I think I would get kicked out from the class ^^

Well, off back to the city now, Ciaoz!

P/S : If you thought this was stupid and a bit funny, wait till you see my ranking list on "rank the following sessions in order, according to how much YOU are expected to contribute(to talk!) ^^

2 Weeks in Nottingham

Wow, 3 whole weeks has actually passed. Life in the UK's is quite entertaining. Less traffic, convenient transportation services, extremely kind folks (Sometimes TOOO kind!) and too much fast food! There's a Starbucks and Subway on every subsequent streets! So, you can practically get it anytime and anywhere!

Enjoying my Double Choc Mocha at Old Market Square

As you've noticed from my first statement, it is totally contradictory with the blog post title right? Well, thanks to my unstable 20 Mb/s line by Virgin Media, Totally can't upload photos at all. Try uploading the same 5 photos every 15 mins to just find out that all of them has been corrupted. What a piss off man! I would go to campus and do it though, if it's not but the 45 mins public transportation time to reach there...... (Nvm la.... Must pre-se-vere....)

Cam W-ing in my toilet =P

So activities for the 1st 2 weeks were quite fun. Instead of too much words (like i usually do) lets sum it up in a nutshell using a visual post shall we? =)

1) Settled in my Accomodations in the city

(will upload later, after i clean up the mess from unpacking =.="" )

2) Got My Smart Card and settled my fees

My Student Card (after some editting of coz ^^)

3) Cooked for the first time in ages ^^

1st hand made dinner, Tossed Maggee Mee with salte'd mushroom & potatoes and bit of steamed vegies ~

Penne with chicken Meatballs, Chicken Ham and Brussel Sprouts

(It's quite healthy kay! =P)

Spaghetti Goreng~

(by Yee En and Elaine)

Indo Mee with chicken and beef curry & meatballs~

Penne with white cream sauce and Basil

~I actually still have some pics of my mashed potato, garden salad, Rendang chicken and all ~

~ but I rather not show them ~

~Don't wanna make people jealous =P ~

4) Got to visit my Clifton Campus and visited my School of Science and Technology.

Not much things to show. Just wait for the pics of the modified X-Box and PS3's!

5) Went for Saturday Antics

Many people were here to celebrate a sort of mini sports day

Seems like a lost kid ventured into the place ^^

Me trying out the surf machine. Only can last till magnitude 10 =(

Mini Rock-Climbing (Haven't tried that in AGES!!!)

In the end, got myself a face painting of a Croc

(and for those who've been asking, it's NOT a GREEN SH*T ON MY FACE!!! JEEZ!!!)

6) Went for Nottingham Trent Malaysian Society Welcome Dinner at Bonzai

I'm somewhere there, buried in the background T-T

Let's see, we had nasi lemak, curry chiken, fried chicken, sushi, mee goreng, ............ ^^

Haha, barely escaped from someone smacking my face for the camera ^^

So, that's a wrap for my first 2 weeks here. It's been good so far, and I'm hoping for more things to class. Maybe i'll blog about my classes next time ^^. It's sure an interesting class though. No locals, and have to relearn C++ for the first 3 months.

Newayz, I think i got the flu! Been sniveling with headaches accompanying it for a few days di. Thankfully I'm getting better by the minute ^^

P.S: Maybe the sudden outbreak with a flu have something to do with my graduation that I'm missing tomorrow? Just a feeling though ^^

The leaves of autumn

~Yay! Winter is coming! ~

Ciaoz,

1st Meal

After a long tiring 13 hours flight on MAS Airlines, finally arrived in the UK's at 6 a.m. local time. Immediately took a 3 hours coach ride to campus, waited for landlord for 2 hours and finally REACH my house at 2 in the afternoon. An immediate venture into the city campus was in order! After some tiresome walk around the city centre area, we were hungry by 5. So, my first meal in the UK's, has included my breakfast, lunch and dinner alltogether! And it is...... ( drum rolls ) ......

BURGER KING!!!! Only 2 Pounds!