Wednesday, December 1, 2010

2nd semester is over :)

Now that the results are finally out via sms (it's a trial run..), I can now officially say, my second semester is OVER. I have one semester left and I hope that I will do well for that too.. My results are similar as last semester. To be precise, the exact same grades. LOL. I'm glad that the course that I was worried the most - Quantitative Business Research Methods (statistics) got the highest out of the two courses that I enjoyed learning throughout the semester. Which is very weird.. but nevermind! Woohoo! I mean.. Alhamduillah :)

My cousin is coming over for 10 days starting this Saturday now I can't wait to plan great things with her! It's going to be fantastic! And of course, can't wait to go back home, have the Thailand getaway with Farhana ;), show Malaysia to my two Chilean friends and of course, head back here for the final semester..

I was supposed to sleep awhile ago but the text 'shocked' me.. Not in a bad way actually.. I expected it to be sent at 6am but thrilled that they sent it early cause now I can doze off like a baby :)

Goodnight people!

Sunday, November 28, 2010

Trying to kill time

It's the time of the month again where your heart beats rapidly, you get anxious and sweaty palms and that time moves extremely slowly despite keeping your schedule as full as possible. Yes, it's the time that you're on a holiday after the exams (for students that is) and that as much as you want to enjoy it, you just can't due to the 'judgment day' which is creeping up on you very closely...

I couldn't sleep well for the past two nights. I kept waking up every hour.. 2am.. 3am.. then 4am.. while in Islam, normally people would get up and perform their prayers (sunat) but, I couldn't do so cause you know, it's the time of the month for us women. Sometimes I wish that I hadn't become a student.. cause of this constant feeling drives me insane. But at the same time, I love being a student. Learning new things that I probably won't gain when I work.. I remembered someone telling me that "you don't need to have a background in journalism education if you want to become a journalist. It's all about the passion in writing." Yes I admit that is true but at the same time, one of my great lecturers in UQ mentioned that the education/knowledge comes from practice. For instance, how does one discover the 5Ws and 1H (who, what, where, when, why and how) in news reporting? Practice of course! From that, whoever that discovered it turned it into knowledge where future journalism students can learn and put it in good use in their career. Well of course it's not just in the journalism field.

Anyhoo, yesterday I did a bunch of things that I would not normally do (in one day that is). Woke up, did two washings, ironed them, cooked, went to the gym then went swimming (10 laps), went back to my place then watched Babar, Arthur and Thomas & Friends (it was the only thing that was good on telly), surfed the internet, cooked again, borrowed How I Met Your Mother (the whole season 5) and it was still early! And today, I woke up, went to the Direct Factory Outlet and despite the huge sign of 'SALE's, I went out of the outlet an hour-ish later without any shopping bags! Then I went to the city, and ended up buying two bubble teas, sushi and butter chicken+rice (take away). By the time I arrived home, it was about 5pm. Tomorrow I haven't got a clue what I want to do.. the judgment day is Wednesday by the way.. so I have two more days to kill.. Maybe I'll go to the halal butcher and stock up some chicken and sausages cause my cousin is coming here for 10 days. I'm out of supplies.. She's coming over this Saturday. I want to be excited about it but right now I need to mellow the excitement down until my result comes out.. it determines what I would and can do next. Well actually it determines everything.. whether I can go back home.. whether I can go for a bestfriend getaway in Thailand (I repeat, getaway not runaway.. she's a girl and I'm engaged.. lol).. whether I can show my Chilean friends how beautiful Malaysia is.. whether I can discuss my future step with my fiance.. whether I can do my thesis next semester... EVERYTHING!

To end this rather boring entry, I would like to say...

Bismillahirrahmanirrahim..

Monday, November 15, 2010

The summer vacay officially begins!

Just as the clock struck 10am this morning, it marked my long summer vacation! Alhamdulillah the last paper which I assumed to be the toughest and wasn't looking forward to it the whole semester (Quantitative Business Research Methods), it turned out to be alright :) Well I wouldn't say that I managed to answer the whole questions cause some were tough but again it wasn't as tough as I had pictured during the first class of learning the course. I remembered how every Thursday morning after my class I would text my fiance saying "Surviveee!!" And I would yawn every now in the class and even check my watch every half past! Yes, I was struggling to comprehend what the lecturer was teaching.. And felt a huge pressure when a large percentage of the students enrolled in the course have a statistics (or equivalent) background. So imagine them bombarding questions to the lecturer while I silently nodded pretending that I understood but in reality, I was day dreaming. The lecture notes for the course were very thick and it was extremely painful when I had to print them out. I used up a lot of paper and ink to print those. Ok I admit they were helpful for the exam however, I feel guilty of killing the trees.

Anyway, after the exam, one of my classmates invited me to take a picture with her and the other classmates. I think this morning was the only time that all of us spoke to each other outside of the class. We chatted about the exams, course, the lecturer, thesis, summer vacation plans.. it was nice :) After that I went back home to perform my prayers and went out to cut my hair. I've been hopping from one salon to another and seeking for different hair stylists' help in cutting my hair into this specific hairstyle. None seemed to get it right up till today.. I was and still am ecstatic with my current hairdo! Ok ok I know that without picturing it, you wouldn't know what it looks like but before I give some brief descriptions, mind you, this is solely for self-satisfaction. Nothing more, nothing less. :) Ok about the hairdo.. I shaved my hair.. on the side like a lot and parted it sideways so you can see very much the shaved area on the right side of my hair. I've always wanted to have the same hairdo as Rihanna (but I wanted it long before she cut it that way) and finally I'm satisfied with the outcome! :D

Right after, I did a bit of grocery shopping.. bought a tray of sliced mushrooms, smoked salmon, teddy bear pastas (yeah they are shaped bear!) and cheesy cream. I'm making carbonara tonight but with bears! Teehee! Then I bought some sushi - tamago and raw salmon for lunch. Yum! That was practically it! On my way home, popped into the video store (Video Ezy) and rented Desperate Housewives. :D I'll be watching the whole season 6 (I missed a lot) tonight.. or ok.. maybe some tomorrow but, just wanted to announce that movie marathon is ON!

What other plans will I be doing during this holiday?

Tomorrow - Movie marathon? 

Wednesday - City or Direct Factory Outlet (DFO)
May be following Aaina to the City or DFO. She wants to accompany one of her classmates to buy a gift for his girlfriend.

Thursday - Climb Brisbane's Story Bridge 
Me and two of my friends will be climbing up the bridge (which is said to take us 2 1/2 hours) during twilight where we will be experiencing "the transition between day and night and be able to admire the city skyline as the sun sets and the city lights up."


Friday - Celebrate Eid at the Dreamworld Themepark. (Yes themepark!)
One of the Muslim clubs/organisation in Australia organised for all of the Muslims in Queensland to celebrate Eid at the themepark from 6pm to 10pm at a price of $15 where we will be able to enter the themepark at that low price (Dreamworld would cost you about $69 per entry), eat free halal food and of course, perform our prayers! Hoorahh!


Saturday - Dinner at Ahmet's restaurant (Lebanese I think)
Two of my bestfriends will be leaving for Malaysia for good - Aaina and Rurry. This semester are their final semester.. so in conjunction to that, all of us have decided to have a nice dinner at the restaurant with the people that we are close with here and at the same time, every Saturday nights are - Belly Dancing night! Haha! Well obviously I won't be shaking my belly.. My whole body is stiff! :-P

Sunday - Rurry's Birthday Celebration at the University of Queensland
Rurry decided to organise a birthday party for herself at one of the mini gardens in the Uni. Well actually it's called something amphitheater.. open amphitheater I think.. Her theme is "hat and tie". So everyone has to dress up with a hat and/or tie. I haven't bought a hat nor a tie yet so will hunt for it soon! :)

The following whole week will involve me tidying up my room, probably go skating, eat, sleep, watch tv, watch DVDs, drink bubble tea... hmm... that's practically it.

But 4th until 14th I'll be having a special guest at my home! :) My dear cousin Liyana! Can't wait! :D


Ok that's it for now.. it's already Maghrib. Going to pray, cook my carbonara and watch DVD. Oh I forgot.. the West Side Story Broadway was really nice!

They set up this stage outside QPAC. This isn't the stage that I watched the show.

Did I mentioned that I actually watched it alone? Hehehe! It was fun though!

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Exams

I decided to delete the previous post cause it sounded ridiculous. I shouldn't be thinking about anything other than my final assignment and two exams which starts next week. At the moment, I'm studying Chapter 5 of my Cross Cultural Management text book which means that I have 7 more chapters to read. But of course, I have this big book of journals that compliments with the text book. 1 chapter, 1 journal. My mission for today is to study till Chapter 6. One day, 2 chapters.. Monday - Chapter 1 & 2, Tuesday - Chapter 3 & 4.. and so forth. It'll take me six days altogether so after, I'll still have time to go through it very briefly again. Just to refresh what I had studied in the previous days.

I genuinely like this course cause it teaches you the different cultures across the world, how to measure the differences e.g. through Hofstede's cultural dimensions (small vs. large power distance, masculinity vs. femininity, uncertainty avoidance and so forth) and Hall's communication theory (low context vs. high context communication) as well as it teaches you how to interact with them. The dos and don'ts..

My following exam would be Quantitative Business Research Methods.. it's probably the most mind boggling course I've ever encountered. It's a combination of advanced statistics and quantitative research. While I did previously studied statistics in my local uni back in Malaysia and did get a good result however, right after, I completely erased my memory on that particular course due to my lack of interest in it. Now....... I have to do it again except that it's more of an advanced level. Out of all of the classes (12 or 13 I think), I think I only managed to understand what the lecturer was talking about probably - 35%? Yeah.. I'm basically doomed..
But I promised myself that I'll study for the course starting this weekend just to get a head start.

Wish me luck!

Tuesday, November 2, 2010

West Side Story (musical)

Ok I looooove musicals. My late mum exposed me to theaters (hence my short debut in Teater Kanak-Kanak: Lagenda) and such since I was little so I grew up being fond of these kind of things. So far I've watched:

1. FAME
2. Chicago
3. P. Ramlee the musical
4. Puteri Gunung Ledang
5. Mahsuri
6. Impak Maksima
7. Cuci the musical
8. The Merchants of Bollywood

Ok I think there's another one.. can't remember..

Anyway, on Thursday night I'll be watching West Side Story. I missed Mamma Mia! not too long ago. :-/ I know that my exam is coming up but taking a break for a couple of hours wouldn't be a harm right? Wicked is coming to Brisbane as well but in January. I'll be in Malaysia for the holidays during the time. Hurmpphh.. :(