Ceriteraku

Good morning upper east siders (Lol!)

I’m currently on holidays. I have plenty of time though I got many things to do, mostly relating to my study biz but I guess I do no harm by writing something on my long-abandoned blog. For this entry I just wanna share something about the early year abroad. When I met some of the juniors (1^st year students), they remind me of my junior year. I just want to say some of the syndromes that I noticed own by the students abroad:

1. The excitement:  We were extremely excited when the plane landed. Very thrilled to see the country and all the things there. Duduk dalam plane pun tak senang. Mixed emotion of excitement n sadness was too difficult to describe. Teringat kat family but at the same time, couldn’t wait to land in a new place which is far away from our beloved country.
2. The ‘ control’ behaviour – I’m not sure about this one but for me, since it was my first time in a new land, so I tried so hard to cover my ‘jakun’ness. Everything is new and different. For example, although the weather is cold outside but sometimes I refused to wear multiple layers. Nak tunjuk macho la, padahal badan menggigil kuat. However no matter how hard I hide my ‘jakun’ness, apparently orang nampak jugak. For example, it was summer when I landed here, tapi kadang2 pakai jugak jacket sebab kat

   Malaysia

   jarang pakai jaket, so nak rase la cam mane pakai jaket. So mat salleh cam tengok semacam je. May be diorg cakap ‘wassup with that asian dude wearing jacket, its summer, duh?’

3. The ‘not so-control’ behaviour -  when the weather changes and getting colder and out mouthes start to exhale ‘smoke’, time ni la baru rase betul2 duk oversea. We were like “asap kuar la dari mulut, sejuk siot pagi tadi”. We talked about it with each other. We also called people in

   malaysia

   telling them about that. Pastu, during winter, start la nak pakai gloves, nak pakai winter clothes yg mungkin dibeli di

   Malaysia

   . So some of us having the same jacket or of a similar brand. Jenama yang popular dibeli di

   Malaysia

   ialah Universal Traveller. Some of us, letak status kat ym pasal mulut berasap, or kat status mane2 je macam dekat facebook or friendster. (suka hati kitorang lah, it was the first time, we are allowed to be damn exited). Then we start uploading new picture, preferably pictures taken during a ski trip, into our web pages or sending to our family n friends in

   Malaysia

   .

4. Our face syndrome – kalau tengah jalan2 kat mane-mane and terserempak dengan orang berwajah melayu, mesti rase seronok and nak tegur je. Yang tak best nye bile tersalah tegur orang Maori, mistaken them as Malays. Tak pasal2 kene panggil idiot. Lol! Tapi yang sangat tak best nya, bila nampak orang berwajah Melayu, some of us close one eye, buat2 tak Nampak je. Why not at least smile at them.
5. Image make over -  For guys, living in oversea somehow makes us want to keep our hair long. May be want to save some penny or just want to try a new thing. So we can see some of us adapting to a new image – the long hair image. Some of them look really cool and very few of them…??? For ladies, most of their hair is already long (may be) but they do have some kind of image changes. For example, awal2 datang ramai yang berkurung, tapi lama kelamaan, masih berkurung tapi dengan accessories yang menarik. Nampak makin cantik. Overall, the sense of image/fashion is getting better, becoming more presentable. About the inner image, I can’t say anything-lah except that we have to improve ourselves and always remind each other.
6. Homesick syndrome – this is the most severe and all of us have this at some point in our life. Rindu dekat family and friends in

   Malaysia

   and rindu masakan

   malaysia

   , rindu cuaca panas and lotsa things. Kalau bulan puasa and raya, aduh! Sangat rindu. Selalu call orang tercinta di

   Malaysia

   . Lucky for us, we are not alone in this alienated land. We have each other!

7. The fusion syndrome – after a while (or quite a while), some of the foreign cultures infuse into our life. Kalau dekat

   Malaysia

   jarang je lepak2 minum kopi tp kat sini dah pandai minum kopi sampai dah tau bezakan flavour ape. Pastu cara bercakap pun dah berubah, aye! I think we do not change who we are if we assimilate some of their cultures into our life, as long as our conscience is clear. We know who we are and we know who they are. Living in a foreign place does not make us less “us” (God willing). Sweet as!

P/S: more syndromes but will update some other time (if ever).

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 1st, 2008 at 3:44 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.