finally, a proper entry.
today's the final day of January. time really does fly at an exceptional speed. unlike others, i still feel that i'm very much stuck in 2008...and no one has dared to pull me out and push me forward. i'll eventually catch up, no worries.
i have finally completed my studies (back when the exam result came out in December) and i can't wait to sport my graduation gown and mortarboard come 2009's second quarter. i have finally struck gold after my 3rd attempt, i guess. i sometimes wish that i'd work hard enough to get THE LLB (Hons.) or at least give a shot at Business Studies. still, God has His plans laid for me. pre-Law was fun, though i have forgotten whatever i had learnt back then, except friendship. i still keep in-touch with my ex-coursemates. fine, some may have completely erased even an iota of memory of me from their super intelligent heads. who wants to be friends with a dropout, who had thought of himself as THE fashion icon and all he had gotten was stares full of disgust instead of ardent followers?
no one.
and "too occupied with work" excuses chimed like heavenly melodies. close, but not quite.
you want to know one of my fashion (mis)adventures? i had made kaffiyeh (i had two, in black+white and red+white) cool during the 1st half of 2002, giving it similar treatment like a pashmina. i wasn't effeminate, just trying to be chic. a former lecturer (now running her own law firm) used to jokingly referred to me as a member of the Intifada. i doubt the folks at Intifada would accept me with open arms for i had always been open about my sexuality. yeah, i did manage to stand out from the crowd, with "fashion disaster" delusively inscribed on my not-so-smooth complexion. thank God my head was still full of hair back then.
Law school was an institution where i had crash courses concerning the five senses. the basics. attentively listening while smiling was a must, to project that knowingly "i'm-giving-you-my-full-attention" look, though oftentimes my mind was elsewhere. moonlighting after lectures as the Agony Aunt (or Dear Thelma, Big Bro, Cik Sri Siantan...you get the idea) was a task i initially reluctant to perform. i did learn Psychology but trust me, it didn't come in handy at all. so, i listened, mostly...and imparted wisdom whenever i felt necessary. i was neither a problem-solver nor medical practitioner so to provide my peers with solutions and remedies they wanted would never be my forte. of course, what they were seeking were actually within themselves (chewah!). i was there to lend an ear, and to offer a shoulder to cry on, not as the loading bay to leave residues of nasal mucus.
having above average listening skills had helped a lot in scoring As for my BEL papers. it kept me up-to-date with the latest scandals. yep, Law school was full of drama, folks! if you did not listen well, you'd miss a helluva lot of stuff - including who's screwing who under the dim lights at the basketball court at 3 a.m. on Thursday night (malam Jumaat).
eye contact is the most essential of all forms of body language. mine was convincingly commanding. enough said. :-)
you had to have a good nose - literally and metaphorically - to smell the odours emitted by backstabbers, scheming wannabes, smart alecs, charlatans and all sort of characters you'd least expect to read Law. i was thankful that i seldom catch a flu (like it had got anything to do with those type of people mentioned above anyway) so i always did watch my back. i did admit a few had successfully made my life miserable but they were all but losers.
always pray that the receptors under your skin function their best at all times. Law school wasn't just Law school. It could be whatever you wanted it to be. a warzone, an enchanted garden, a court, a carnival - you name it, even Dewan Sri Budiman could be beaten anytime. most would swear to God how ridiculously chilly the lecture halls were although the temperature was easily 30 plus degrees Celsius outside. however, the classes were polar opposites, especially the ones which hadn't been renovated. you'd be greeted by old celing fans that had that "gedekgedekgeek" sound when switched on. of course, we always had to be on our toes for fear of getting our heads being guillotined by the old but "vengeful" creations of science.
when in Rome, do what the Romans do. the newly-built Section 2 food court should have been completed years before. i don't know and i don't want to know the reasons why. before the old food court was demolished and left deserted to enable the mozzies calling it their breeding grounds, it had welcomed perhaps millions of students from Section 1 as well as outsiders. be it for morning tea, lunch, afternoon tea, dinner and supper, these undergrads would have at least dined at the food court once a week.
it was not at all air-conditioned, neither it was substantially hygenic. mice would run merrily under your feet without you even noticing them. cadavers of roaches that had died of extreme cold for they were trapped in huge containers storing drinking ice cubes would find their way in plastic tumblers, floating in whatever drink that had been ordered. who needs thin slices of citrus and cherries or those cute little cocktail umbrellas for presentation anyway when you could have these insects for free? let's not start about the congregation of flies shall we?
i would say i had frequented the food court on a daily basis. despite feeling yucky at first (oh, trust me - who wouldn't?), i had managed to fight all the negative thoughts and just ate myself silly. my tastebuds had been trained to focus on the taste of the food instead of the environment and how it was prepared. i did cringe during the first few weeks when i dined there but somehow i had to adapt myself to the surroundings. besides, i am not the sort of person who'd happily call KFC and McDonald's (there's no Burger King in Shah Alam back then) my home and religiously had my lunch and dinner by forking out extra bucks for cab fares.
i had developed a liking for nasi goreng daging merah when i dined the Section 2 food court. i usually started my day with a few pieces of roti canai with a hot mug of Nescafe. lunch would be from the nasi campur spread where i would pick dishes which would not require me to dirty my fingers that much. i was often called "orang putih" when i opted to use the cutleries. though the food court had sinks for the convenience of the patrons to wash their hands and occasionally teeny weeny bars of weirdly-scented hand soaps...you would still leave the food court wishing they'd put dispensers filled with L'Occitane liquid soap next to every sink.
what else did i pick up in Law school? hhmm...
