December 2001

originally written on Sun, 9 Dec 2001. *sigh* i miss studying!

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hi everyone

i'm really bored now. i think i've finished my assignments. i just need todo the cover pages. can no longer stand the sight of them let alone spend any more time on them - reading, editing, checking etc. one more thing, if anyone knows who invented the harvard system for referencing, please let me know. the smart aleck is at the top of my 'to-kill' list.

someone commented that i may not be concentrating in class cos i am eyeing this one lecturer. guilty as charged on the account of eyeing people but not on not concentrating. i do try to concentrate. that's why i'm here right. but it sure is hard to concentrate when the lecturer is teaching sth that sounded like greek at 8.30 pm at night! anyway, tim, my econs lecturer is the only 'ok-looking' lecturer i hv. yes, there's an acute problem of shortage of goodlooking people here. maybe in london, there'll be a higher concentration of them...

just last week i was in a group meeting arguing [as usual] over our marketing project when tim passed by and i went without thinking, 'oh my God' and my groupmates went, 'what?! what?''. they first thought i was exclaiming over the project then they realised i was not referring to the project. fortunately tim had disappeared from sight then. phew. now that could have been very2 embarassing...

anyway, on friday morning we had this accounting lecture and this guy, vik, showed up drunk! at least that's what my friend said he was. we were in the midst of the confusion over management accounting [for some reason, there's only 1 session on management accounting] when the lecturer, ron, asked, 'any questions?' and vik said, 'i have a question. well, it's not actually a question.' 'ok'. 'i love you ron'. we were all taken aback and after a minute, everyone laughed - nervously at 1st then gradually louder. i thought vik was being sarcastic bcos it was not an easy concept to swallow at 10 sth in the morning on a friday [the mat salehs all looked like they wished they were anywhere but in the lecture theatre] and later that evening my friend said vik was actually drunk. i argued that he couldn't be drunk: i mean he was sober enough to attend the lecture! but i wouldn't know, would i?

in a way i'm glad it's winter bcos some of my coursemates are beginning to stink. i can't imagine what it'll be like in summer. the other day we passed by alex's room [a russian] and i almost died of suffocation. and i was standing outside the room in the corridor!!! i don't know why they can't even spare 5 minutes to shower. my friend said it's bcos of their irregular sleeping patterns. they prob wake up just in time for lectures. yup, we all look like a group of zombies now, all staying up to finish up our assignments on a diet of coffee. once one of my group members showed up for a meeting with red-blood eyes, i turned to him and said, 'wow you look like dracula.' he did!

i'm having a headache over trying to decide what modules to take next sem. next sem we'll only have 1 compulsory module and 5 electives. some people aim for all coursework-no exam modules. i don't know. some of the lecturers can be very patronising when they say 'we want people who can speak very good english on this module. everyone speaks english but not everyone speaks good english'. i think that just abt borders on racism if that's the right word. i've read essays written by local people and i tell you, they don't write very good either! some of the modules require group projects. in a way it's good cos you work in a group of people and you learn more. but my friends have been complaining abt their group members who have been less than cooperative. strangely enough, some of them are the local people who participate actively in class and who finished their individual assignments byweek 5 [when the majority had yet to start].

on the MA course, it's the people fr mainland china who don't participate in group projects bcos of the language barrier. it's so difficult trying to decide cos i don't know if i can find 5 other active participants who will take the same module with me for group projects next semester. i do have a list of people i don't want to be in groups with bcos they have this reputation of being'uncooperative'.

well, i've written enough.

ciao, selamat berpuasa to all muslims.