2nd Day of UPM closure (earlier holiday)

Today is my second day staying at Kolej after the closure of UPM. Slept late and woke up late too today. Woke up feeling a little frog in the throat. My feelings of fear caught me immediately. I quickly grabbed my bottle of water and gulped down half of its content. Luckily the frog decided to die off. I was relieved. But then again, I got this irritating cough. Sh*t. But, I have no fever or any flu. Praise the God, Amen.

I went to MINES today. My second visit to that place in a month. Pathetic right? I didn’t have the chance to go out at all in these past weeks. Haha, busy with Kolej activities. Also, thank goodness the buses are still operating and also there is no quarantine for those who stayed back. Back to my day, I went to MINES to watch Harry Potter 6. Really disappointing really, must be because I lost my HP endorsement already. I went to Giant to get few dry foods, and bought an electric jug. I have decided to stop drinking water from the water cooler. It’s not healthy at all.

UPM are totally like deserted. Almost like ‘I am Legend’ one daytime. There is no shops opened, restaurants closed. Luckily there is still one that stays open.

Although the University is closed due to A(H1N1), but we who are left inside are free to do as we like. There are no masks and ‘DO NOT CROSS’ tapes all about. We are just like left here to do as we please and no one would bother. We can still do sports. But preventions are our own initiatives.

Thank God I am given a room with full bar hotspot. I can YouTube and Facebook as much as I want. If there is no internet connection, I would be rotting in my room. Hahah, reads books and study is not everything, I need to live too. And, today I finally got to use the washing machine! All these while, we juniors are not allowed to use it until we are declared to be a floor member. Although we are not declared yet, but since my floor is near empty, who would know if I used it right? Hahah.

At the end, I am going to move to my friend’s house at KL later this Saturday. Life these past few days are easy and smooth, but I would rather be away from the place where Swine Flu arrived. Our Kolej alone, 2 people were tested positive! A shocker. Now, by the sound of every coughs, I would gulp down water. Started to take lots of apples already. I hope the proverb is true. Am too starting to take orange juices and avoid cold drinks, started to drink herb drinks too; to cool the body. I hope my cough will cure tomorrow.

Wish me all the best.

UPM Life and Swine Flu; Sumary of my one month in UPM

I was greeted by a unexpected welcome when I first went into the campus. I was greeted ‘welcome’ warmly by university helpers (Pembantu Universiti) wearing a face-mask. They all directed me to the main hall to do my A(H1N1) screening. For the first time, I really felt the fear of a pandemic. SARS, and Bird Flu I felt nothing when I heard the news because I was not asked to go for screening. Thank God, I passed.

Anyway, my Kolej (hotels) is Kolej Tun Dr Ismail (previously known as THIRD) is the third Kolej built in UPM. My uncle sent me there that day. We were escorted to a bus right after we parked at the Marching Field. We got on a bus that drove us to my Kolej. Once there, I was given a very warm welcome by the Kolej’s Pembantu Univesiti. My registration process went on smoothly. During, my registration, I already found my roommate (or he found me).

At first, its the University Orientation Week, which they labelled ‘Minggu Perkasa Putra’. For that whole week, I really had less sleep. Haha. Really tired and worn out every night going to bed.

On my second week, our lectures and lab class already started. It was pretty havoc that week as I have to travel a lot between faculties and arrange time tables. That week, I am still not used to the way around the University. That week, I travelled a lot. And when I reached KTDI, I already have to do Kolej Orientation. This is kolej level orientation that wants us newbies to know our seniors and KTDI family. Our activities went into 2 to 3 am almost every night. And, in this orientation, we are ‘lectured’ a lot. Most of those ‘lectures’ are psychological that provoke us to unite. Really, that week was very emotional and tiring.

On my third week in UPM, the kolej orientation already ended. But, our floor orientation began. My floor, Rendezvous Bonggo held this orientation for us to get to know our seniors and among us newbies of the floor even better. We have to do this scrap book about seniors titled ‘Abang-Abangku Sayang’ and few small projects. We were requested to finish the book as soon as possible. That whole week, we newbies met our seniors one by one. Talk to them till 3 to am in the morning. I particularly enjoyed those sessions, but the downside is, I was getting very less sleep. Causing me to dooze off in lectures or have less time for assignments and academics. If there is no lectures, I would enjoyed it 10 folds.

On my fourth week, a month in UPM, the floor orientation is still going on. But, on that Monday, the principal called off the floor orientation because the cases of newbies being done something bad by seniors, that I would not like to give out here. Anyway, from Monday to Wednesday, our orientation halted. That time, I really had sufficient rest. Oh ya, that week, I officially got sick in UPM. I got down on fever, but managed to heal in just a day! Thank God. Amen. That week, I found and met my course seniors. And, there’s Course Night! We juniors are going to perform something in this course night and its on 9th August. I am a group leader and I rally had hard time getting all my members together as we are all from different Kolejs. Until now, we still have no proper practises.

This is the fifth week I am here in UPM. Last Saturday, the amount of people affected by coughs and fever and sickness climbed drastically. My floor, almost every seniors were sick. Juniors infecting their roommates and vice versa. I saw many of my friends sick. There are a lot of visits to the Pusat Kesihatan University. Its really nerve breaking in there as everyone’s wearing facemasks and coughing. On 28thJuly, while I was having my Public Speaking class, my facilitators told us that the University is going to be closed down; only waiting for the notice to be out. When I was having my Biology lab classes, there is official announcement that the University is closing on 29th July and reopen on 4th August. And, everyone was asked to evacuate their respective Kolejs before 12midnight to curb the spread. It seems, there are 4 people from UPM who are tested positive for A(H1N1). Everyone went home immediately. I decided not to return to Kuching because the air tickets are expensive and I feel like its a waste of time going home. Only a week. Yesterday (29th July), I found out that 2 of the 4 people who tested positive A(H1N1) were from my Kolej. Both girls. The statistic was 2 out of 3 people in my Kolej went to PKU for treatment before. I decided to go stay with my friend at KL this coming Saturday. I am currently trying to self quarantine myself in my room. Drinking lots of waters. The whole University is like deserted. Cafeterias are not opening. Thank God, there is one that opened yesterday. I don’t know how today would be like, but I will be drinking tons of waters and eat a lot of fruits. Do my homeworks, reports and assignments, and STUDY for the tests that are waiting for me as soon as classes start on the 5th of August.

Its really scary to be this close to a pandemic. I hope I do get through this well. Will really maintain my health and drink lots of water.

Wish me health and luck. I pray for the health of everyone and know, and hope that things will get better and healthier.