Journey to USM

Hello, everyone. I’m back from a week orientation in Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) main campus in Penang. For this blog, I’ll share with all of you about my experience in USM during orientation and I hope it wouldn’t bore you. My orientation started on 28^th June which falls on Saturday. A day before, at night around 8 something, suddenly my house phone ring and I went to pick up the call. Guess who call me that night? It’s my grandfather! He called me and asks me what time I’ll depart with my parents to Penang.

Grandpa : Tomorrow what time you going to Penang with your parents?

Me : Around 6 or 7 something

Grandpa : So early?

Me : Yes because want to go a bit earlier to find the place. Got anything, grandpa?

Grandpa : I thought want to follow you all together go to Penang. Never mind. Continue with your journey plan. I don’t want to go anymore because I scared I‘ll delay you all due to the unpunctuality bus schedule.

Me : Want to follow us to Penang??

Suddenly, my dad asked who is on the phone. I said it’s grandpa and he wanted to follow us to Penang but he said he don’t want to go anymore because he don’t know what time he might reach Taiping. Then, my dad asked me to ask grandpa around what time he can reach.

Me : Grandpa, what time you might reach here?

Grandpa : Around 8 something

Then, I tell my dad that grandpa can reach here around 8 something. After that, he asked me to tell grandpa that we’ll wait for him and call us when he reach here. My dad added that we’re not in a hurry and we still make it in time.

Me : Grandpa, you can come with us. We’ll wait for you. When you reach, you call us and we will fetch you. I’ll wait for you, grandpa!

The next morning, around 7 something, he called and told us that he already arrived. Then, we went to pick up my grandpa and go for breakfast. Along the journey to Penang, I have a chit chat with my grandpa in the car. When we reached at the campus and drove in, we looked around through the car windows. As we drove in for a few minutes and deep in, but my hostel is still not in sight and all of us wondering where my hostel is. At last, we could find my hostel which located at the end side of the USM. There are so many cars parking there and we circled around to find a parking place. Luckily, we manage to find one. Some parents taking bags by bags out of their car booth and helped their children to carry things. Some parents are in tears hugging their children and waving goodbye to them. Some parents uttered some prayers to bless their children’s safety and well-being. I really could see the parent’s love and care for their children. HEART-WRENCHING MOMENTS! Anyway, I make my way to the registration centre and get my room keys. Then, all of us went to look for my room with our things still inside the car. When we walked around the hostel to look for my room, the surrounding and the facilities are not really good in condition. At last, standing in front of my room, facing at a wooden door, I placed my key into the knob and….CLICK!CLACK!CLICK!CLACK! The door can’t be open. We try again and ..TACK! The door opened. Eventually, the door knob worked another way round and quite bad. As we pushed the door, SURPRISE! My roommate checked in as we could see his things in the room but he‘s not in. All of us are wondering who my roommate is. My room is the type of the room for two. What you expect from a hostel room with a cheap rent? I have a cupboard which slant sideway and needed to slit in some paper to make it stand straight, a cracked surface of a small drawer, a study table with a bed on top and cobwebs underneath. Not so surprising but I still surprised. Anyway, we went down to take our things and start cleaning up the room while my grandpa looked around the area. After finish cleaning, my roommate came back and greets us. He’s a Chinese and from Butterworth. We have some talk for a while. Then, my parents took their leave as I got a ’taklimat’ later on. Before my grandpa leave with my parents, grandpa asked him to take care of me and help out each other during our 1 year stay inside.

Actually, I was quite surprised and touched that my grandfather want to follow us to Penang and want to look around the study environment in USM. SO TOUCHING! My heart really moved and don’t know what to say. Ever since I finish my STPM examination, he always asked my parents about my whereabouts and what I‘m currently up to. When I worked at Genting after my STPM examination, my parents tell me that grandpa ask about me. During CNY where I can’t come back to celebrate with them, I planned a surprise for them by calling them on that day. In the morning before I go to work, I called and wished Happy Chinese New Year to my grandparents, my parents, uncles and aunties. I know my grandpa would be happy to hear my voice and telling him that I’m fine at there. After that, when I got my STPM results on March and waiting for my university admission for around 3 months, my grandpa called me a few times asking me where am I going to study. I really care for my grandpa and I hope I can make him proud in the future. At the same time, I really hope my grandpa will live long and could see me graduate in 4 years time and even further success that I can make in my life. I really wanted to tell him that I want to make him proud and won’t bring shame to my family’s name. For now, I’m the flag carrier for my family’s name. Not only for my grandparents, have I also wanted to repay my parents with success for their everlasting support and sacrifices to me. For your info, my grandpa is a great cook. Since I was small, I always like to eat his cooking and my grandpa’s cooking is my favourite food. I don’t think my cooking skills could even match his. My grandpa is not only good in cooking, also very creative. He could make some things out with a few materials provided to him. I really feel fortunate to be born in this family!