2019 PENTAGON World Tour PRISM in Singapore
2 Nov 2019
6 pm
The Star Theatre
Pending post since diploma... my bad.
1. Start things early. You may procrastinate along the way and that's fine, but it never hurts to start when you are most excited about something rather than wait after the excitement dies off.
2. Pack and unpack lightly to college. The packing part, only you can decide how 'light' is to you. For me, a week worth of simple clothes plus some formal/semi-formal clothes are enough to last me a semester. But expect me re-wearing my clothes often as I usually do laundry once a week. But just because you bring 7 luggage doesn't mean you need to unpack them all. Some things you can even leave them in the bag as it is and only take the ones you need out once in awhile. You'll thank your own self when packing them back up. TRUST ME.
3. Go all out in the beginning of semesters on activities as well as your academics. To me, doing well early definitely helped my lazy ass towards the end of diploma. I could easily apply to stay in campus because I had a decent amount of activities handled/participated, I don't have to struggle so hard for a decent CGPA because I was doing good early on so me slacking in the middle of the course duration didn't impact me much.
4. Don't shut people out so often. I learn that spending time with people and being honest with them has helped me resolved some of the burdens I had, which was neither my fault nor it was anyone else's, so that really confused me myself.
5. Take time trying things out. I have yet to find the thing I am really good at or even be really proud of, but me grabbing some of the opportunities that came my way was probably my favourite part of this journey.
6. Life skills are crucial. Cleaning, cooking and organizing is something that needs to be like common sense to you in college. It's crucial for both of your survival and from embarrassment of not knowing how to do basic things. But then again, you can always learn cos better late than never.
7. Try your best to pay attention in class. Most students slack off here. You'd be surprised how many students are actually mentally present in class. My advice is to make note-taking a habit. Like even if you won't refer back to your notes, at least jot something down because at least, the laziest thing a student can do is passive studying.
8. Do your own work. Get your hands on all the participation that you can take and do it yourself. No matter how confusing it is, how difficult it is, there's no work as worthy as the one you work hardest on.
9. Depend lesser on your parents. Be it financially or time and effort, you should learn to let yourself away from your parents' radar. I know it can be hard, to try and live off on your own, but you would become a lot more mature once you do. You will only realise how terrible you are at self-management and budgeting then.
10. Show interest in everything and anything. Even if you are not an active person, by showing interest on those who are, will make you more aware of your surroundings. Take time and listen to their stories. You'd be surprise how different experiences takes people to different paths.
11. Have variety of friends. Don't always spend time with the same bunch, because you will miss out on a lot of things. It might seem pathetic to always have to leech off different people, but leeching off is always a fun way of exploring things.
12. Be proud of your own achievements. No one's acknowledgement is as valuable as your own's. Even when you think getting recognition from someone might mean differently to you, don't fool yourself. You might just get disappointed.
13. Be your own competitor. If you're not good enough to be competing with someone higher than you, compete with your past self. Aim higher and do better. Don't wait for a true competitor. The world is too fast for you to stop.
14. The best advice is from yourself. Sometimes, you just gotta take a step back and listen to your own train of thoughts. Try listing out your lesson learnt and read them again in the future. Give yourself credit too once in a while.
Dropping by,
Melynn.
People around me have proved how I can literally be disappointed in someone for as long as I live. I know now that I can't do anything about it. I'm disappointed by people's assumptions on me. Like my knowledge and experience are less worth. They would pretend to know me but at the end of the day, they're not able to admit to their mistakes. Often times, keeping silent meant being stronger.
This goes without saying but, nobody knows yourself best other than yourself. I wish people would respect uncertain boundaries. I can't tell people A to Z about me, especially as a reserved person, but it's always better to ask politely.
People fake their lives and boast about it when in reality, they don't do as they proclaimed. I don't have trust issues because they're bragging, I have trust issues because they're only doing it for the gram and sometimes it's mentally unhealthy - for both the viewers and the uploader.
Apparently, people just won't listen. They only choose to listen to themselves more than others. I know that you may think you know more, but sometimes it shows when you've always been the kind to win over others. It's okay to have a stand, but always think lowly of yourself. Be stupid at times. Listen even if you know everything already, because sometimes there might be some input you probably would've forgotten otherwise.
I guess friends are always for the fun times. Giving off depressing thoughts equivalent to being a pain in the ass. If you're having a good mood, those depressiveness are just gonna spoil things. Lying to yourself sucks, but it's better than explaining a concern to somebody who doesn't even bother to listen.
So lesson time!
Depend on no one else other than yourself, for your own happiness. Have a positive outlook - on people and on life. And pray. Pray before bed. Pray in the car/bus/train. Pray for all your well-beings any time you thought of the Almighty. I've been guilty of forgetting about Him all the time. Yesterday was Raya Haji and I actually paid attention to the Khutbah. The ustaz (predictably) shared the story of Nabi Ibrahim and his son - Ismail. How the whole history of Qurban happened.
But one thing that caught my attention was the fact Nabi Ibrahim does not hesitate to put his love for Allah, rather than his love on beings. And that made me realise... what is happening to my generation?? We're all guilty of focusing most of our times on beings rather than on our sole Creator.
I personally am guilty doing mostly world-related things. The more I think about it, the lesser my deeds for the Hereafter happen to be.
So at the end of the day, your attention isn't really meant for others. It is only for yourself and Allah. Everything else is either a lesson or a challenge. Have faith in Him and you shall be guided well, insyaAllah.
Dropping by,
Melynn.
Does going for a summer camp counts?? Lol.
So recently, I just got back from South Korea for a summer camp in Changwon. It was a fully sponsored program by the Korean university - Changwon National University, or CWNU for short. Being a public university, CWNU had invited my university - UTeM (which is also a public university in Malaysia, in case you didn't know) to send some students as one of their sister-to-be universities. This program is a program conducted for their partner universities only, so it was a kinda private program.
A little introduction about the camp...
This camp is officially known as "CWNU International Summer Camp 2019" and is a 3-weeks program during the summer in Korea. The main purpose of this program (I believe) is to promote Changwon and the Korean culture to people internationally. This year is the first time they are organising this camp. There are about 15 universities who participated in this program and each university are required to send only 2 participants. There are people from the U.S, New Zealand, Spain, Italy, Indonesia, Vietnam, Russia, Taiwan, China and of course, Malaysia. Some countries include 2 invited universities so there are pairs of people with the same nationalities in this camp as well. Each participant is assigned with a Korean buddy and shares with one other participant.
Ok, that's basically the gist of it. On to my experiences!
Disclaimer as a Muslim: The food that were purchased by me in Korea are based on the ingredients that I can read, whereby I try to avoid food with meat that is being stated in their allergen section (닭고기 [chicken], 쉬고기 [beef], 소고기 [beef], 돼지고기 [pork], 햄 [ham], 베이콘 [bacon]). In restaurants however, I try not to be too picky and just go with my instincts and what I see. Ask if there's meat and just avoid them if possible. Also, I don't eat chicken and beef in Korea mainly because it is not slaughtered the Islamic way and from what I understand, that makes it not permissible to be consumed.
It's how I survived on food there. My mostly asked question to Koreans, "고기 안에 있어요?" which literally means "Is there any meat inside?". I just made that up using the words that I know. I didn't even know if it was normal to ask like that lmao.
Also, knowing the Korean culture and food definitely helps me in every way. For instance, normally if in Malaysia it's more common that they serve us beef if they don't mention what type of meat, but then in Korea (or any other non-Muslim countries) it's usually pork. Like pepperoni pizza... You'd be surprise to know, there's people who are not aware of this.
Besides that, Korean has a dish called 순대 (soondae) which is actually pig intestines and 삼겹살 (samgyeopsal) which is pork belly and 족발 (jokbal) which is pig's feet. Which to let you know are some of the famous local food with unfamiliar names that if I were to not know, the foreigner in me would wanna try. Overall I can say, I'm pretty proud of my Korean knowledge prior to this trip.
So this program was held in July. Technically, summer was just warming up. The first day I arrived at the airport, you have no idea how much I loved the weather. There were sunshine and cool breeze (the latter is something Msia lacks of). However, that only lasted a week before the heat started kicking in.
In case you didn't know, Korea is a land of hills and mountains. Also people here tend to walk a lot. Two reasons why I suffered in UTeM - the hills and the walk on it. Guess what? UTeM's campus doesn't even come close to their university's campus. CWNU campus is massive and so hilly. Going to classes ended up giving me more exercise than I ever did to myself!
The greenery of Korea is truly a pleasing sight. The buildings and streets are also very pretty.
Shopping. Around my university area, there's only one place we were told to shop. It was in Sangnam-dong. Everything is here. Except for one. They don't have street food other than tteokbokki here.
To me, Koreans start their day late even if their sun rises way earlier than Msia. Subuh is at 3.30am in Changwon for God's sake. But their stalls and shops all open at least at 10am. In Malaysia, only our malls open at that time, not the entire neighbourhood. So most of the time, convenient store is the only breakfast available. On top of opening the shops late, the business usually ends by 10pm or earlier. Like everywhere... there wasn't an option for late night shopping. At least that's how it is in Changwon. Seoul might be a different story though.
Korea's nightlife. Despite shopping being dead by 10pm, the BBQ and bars were most alive then. I had an experience sitting by the orange tent with my international friends sipping their soju away. That was the Korean life as the drama portrays, you see.
You know how Malaysia has literally only like 2 seasons - hot and rainy? Korea's summer is the same. But they are more overreacting - both the weather and the people. Prior to coming to Korea, I know that weather forecasting is a big thing there. They always check their weather and their weather forecast is fairly accurate. So every single time, the weather is gonna be rainy, I kid you not when I say people bring around this kind of umbrella everywhere in the street. Not even the foldable ones... it had to be the long ones with a candy cane handle. It's like a fashion item in Korea.
Regarding the weather, Korean typhoons are pretty bad. Some of my friends literally were woken up by the emergency alerts on their phones sent by the Korean government at like 4am. Emergency alert tho!! That's how bad it was.
My best food discovery in Korea goes to... Honey Butter Chips. Especially the lavender and blueberry flavour! It's so unique and addictively good. I bought that chip for 1000 won in Daiso, where the price in convenient stores would otherwise be 1500 won. And also, Mom's Touch. It's a famous food chain in Korea. Apparently more famous than Lotteria. Way nicer too. I had it thrice while I was there. I can only eat shrimp burgers but those were the best burgers I've ever tried and the best fries as well.
From all the paid activities...
To all the fancy food and buffets...
I have satisfyingly had the best introduction to Korea both in terms of their culture and food. Also, with the best hospitality! What more shocking was... I didn't spent a single penny on it!
This summer camp is honestly a dream come true. It's weird being able to fulfill few things off my bucket list this summer. I can't believe I was chosen to be part of such a great program with such amazing people.
I enjoyed my time so much mainly because of the people. My geng bawangs was truly the icing on a cake during this trip. I'm thankful to every single one I came across during my time there. Including the 2 cafeteria workers who had to deal with my fussy 'no meat' requests and always letting me know on what I can and can't eat. And all the red stickers pasted to indicate the dishes containing pork at our buffet places. The buddies who went out of their way to bring us to the bank, to Busan, to the museum and even gathering us to take a group picture together. I love everyone of you!! And also to Ms. Kang and the staffs who planned this trip. I'm forever thanking you for making this once in a lifetime experience an AWESOME ONE!!
Dearest geng bawangs.
Dearest yellow team.
Dearest Mingyeong.
Dearest Ms Kang.
Thank you CWNU! Thank you Changwon! Thank you Korea!
Thank you UTeM <3
Dropping by,
에밀린.
