New Year. New Beginning. New Life..... New.... school?!

Alright. To all those people out there, Happy New Year! I know this is late but I'm really sorry. I don't really have time recently as there's too many things to do. As stated in the title above, it's a new year, new beginning and seriously, a new life. A lot of things are new this year. Some are really good things that happen.... some... you can't even believe it's happening. Whatever it is, it certainly has been a strange 2008 for me.

What I wrote in this particular post isn't much, just a bit of an introduction to college life and how was the start of my year 2008.... in college.

To start things off for the year 2008, let's go for what we usually would do at the start of the year. Well, I would say that we would already start school at the start of the year. Though, I have graduated from CLHS. So, you might think that it is the end of the school years and the start of a big break! All was nice until................. BAM! COLLEGE!

A long break was expected to be honest. I didn't really think that college was going to be so fast. The SPM was hard and all of us Form 5 students really needed a long break. But before you know it, you'd start "school" in January the 2nd. Isn't that just great?

Let's skip to the main point, shall we?

COLLEGE

All I can say that this is a completely new world for me. Being in an all-boys school for 5 years really does take its toll when it comes to college. Totally different scenario? That's obvious. The gender mix was one of the most obvious change after so many years. Though, that's not really hard to cope with after a few weeks. Made many new friends from many schools, from Jit Sin to Chung Hwa, from Penangites to Malacca newcomer. It's really a new environment for most of us here. As for us former CLHS students...... well, it's kind of odd this time around. It was really a surprise to me as about 30+ of CLHS students actually joined the college. "Wow!", I thought. Really a surprise. Yep, and it was out of a whole 200 students (including those who are older doing other courses, but that's unrelated) So, to be accurate, it's about 30+ out of a large 130-140 students possibly. We had the highest percentage of students there from what I saw, incredible! Some of my old friends were there. Let me make a list of my ex-schoolmates who are now my "coursemates"

Jia Rong (Talon), SZ Lim, Wei Yang, Brian Yap, Sheng Di, Joshua, Chung Ren, Bing Yuan, Huah Chiang, Kai Sheng, Kai Zheong, Yun Xiu, Pin Khiam...... and many more I guess... too lazy to list them all

It was like a large gang invading the college, so it still felt more comfortable knowing that many of those I know are there. Oh and by the way, I'm taking Cambridge GCE A-Levels in DISTED College. Interesting choice. A-Levels was because I have no idea where to go so there was no point taking SAM/Australian Matriculation/HSE. DISTED was because I don't really want to go out of Penang to study.

Enough of that. Let's get back to the topic. Oh ya. New college life. Next change was the freedom. We're finally free from wearing those white shirts and short green pants! Now, we can wear anything we want! (preferably more appropriate clothing of course). No more teachers using ultimatum to stop us from talking etc. It's really one heck of a change. No sitting plans, no restrictions on what we can bring to school...... The list goes on and on. It's pretty much like tuition except that it's more like a school's size. The timetable is pretty flexible as you can swap classes with another person if you have problems such as personal issues or clashes with other classes. It's pretty much like an all-you-can-eat buffet with an extra few rules in it, but the rules aren't strict at all. It is a fun learning experience if you compare it to high school life. High school life, though, DOES have its many advantages as well.

Here's a picture on our recent orientation day :

Orientation Day Pic. Was kinda spontaneous. TRY TO SPOT US!

Big group I must say. Though, it consists of all the new students from each course, so it ain't that bad. Well, we did a lot of stuff that day. The morning session was more of a "get-to-know" the college session, so the activities had a lot to do with it. Activities such as treasure hunts were held. Even though it is smaller when compared to CLHS, boy was the running tiring as they made us go back and forth the whole time. It was a really torturing way of showing how small the place is. It was fun though. Here's another picture from the day :

Note : Anyone from CLHS recognise the two guys in the middle...........???

Much was different from last time. Now, most students spend their time in the library, usually studying or using the computer for various reasons. We seldom see people lying or lazing around on tables anymore. Somehow, everyone got serious. Strange eh? Just shows how fast we grow up lolx.... Next, we have a cafeteria that sells pretty much a little bit of everything. Economy rice is what we usually buy. Though, we sometimes go out to other places to have our lunch. The cafeteria food is much more expensive when compared to the food we had in our CLHS canteen. But there are a lot of things there, even western food (but no one would dare to try >_>). I still miss my old canteen food though. Oh well... life goes on....

Here, it is a new start. From 8 to 6 almost every day, boy is it tiring. The work takes out a lot of your time during weekdays. That's a reminder for those of you planning to continue your studies to colleges around the world. It's not that simple any more. More work, more tiring, more challenges...... more friends, more freedom, more activities etc. It's more of everything to be honest. It's a whole new experience that I would like to share to you guys out there who are still planning their way to their future careers. College would be a good way. A twist in your life that really opens your mind and makes you think out of box for once. It isn't hard, but it would be interesting and once you have done it, you have done it. But words can only tell so much. All the excitement and experience still lies in the mind. For those of you out there who still do not know where they want to go, college is one of the answers I would give immediately. As for those of you with me in the college, I wish you all a Happy New Year and a prosperous one as well. Hope you all enjoy the college life and achieve success in this new territory!

Signing off,
Kal